Education
Andrew’s call in to the Matt Allen show, last night, turned into a longer form interview about the East Providence School Committee meeting. Stream by clicking here, or download it. To the conversation about Anthony Carcieri’s microphone volume (or lack thereof), I’d add my impression that Carcieri fully anticipated a disruptive atmosphere and was focused…
Jim Hummel made the point, while filling in for Dan Yorke today, that teacher union contracts are the product of years — decades — of cumulative negotiations. Compromise on X for reason A, one year, and expect to make it up a few years down the road. Consequently, a rollback (his point goes), as appears…
Let’s recap the events that helped bring last night’s East Providence school committee meeting to an abrupt end. The third speaker of the public comment period was East Providence teacher Mary Texeria. As Justin alluded to in the previous post, Ms. Texeria made a tough but fair statement saying that she would be willing to…
Via Jay Nordlinger comes what we can only hope is not a vision of Rhode Island’s future: French teachers hurled shoes and other objects at police Monday to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s high school reforms, prompting police to respond with tear gas. France’s leading teachers’ unions demonstrated in the western city of Saint-Lo at a…
The following are some audio clips from the East Providence School Committee meeting. Keep in mind, while listening, that the sound isn’t entirely representative. For one thing, I was sitting near the taxpayer group, so they might be overrepresented in the general sound level (although still greatly outnumbered). School Committee Chairman Anthony Carcieri makes his…
So parking has already spilled over to the supermarket parking lot across the street, and it was clear from conversation that the women standing at the crosswalk with me were teachers from another district. As we crossed, the policeman directing traffic told them to “be loud — my wife is a teacher.” (There’s a six-figure…
Ever have an educator explain to you that it is important to hear all sides of an argument and to engage the opposition in dialogue? Well, for many humanities professors, that may be a lesson preached more than practiced: Anyone who needed evidence that the culture wars are far from over could find it here…
Many Rhode Islanders surely share the sentiments that Sharon West expresses from East Providence: Recently, a consultant hired by the committee reported that the average teacher makes $69,000 a year and receives benefits costing $26,000 annually. Yes, $95,000, and many make even more. The consultant stated that this amounts to an hourly wage of $93.…
URI economics professor Len Lardaro had a very disappointing piece in the Providence Journal on Saturday, advising a tax increase in order — curiously enough — to benefit schools and universities. Professor Lardaro states that “investment-related activities… by their nature entail sacrifice” and suggests the following: I propose raising the state’s sales-tax rate to 8…
I just heard on WPRO that the judge won’t decide whether to stop the East Providence School Committee’s unilateral employment change until the 23rd. It looks like union members will start to feel the pinch of not giving concessions. That’s a huge change for the better from an environment in which they expect to get…