Teachers vs. Government – Co-Chair of United Teachers L.A.

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The original 8/15/2021 proposal of “Charter Schools and Their Enemies” (which is posted in the second-preceding section of this website) closed with an explanation of what would ordinarily posted in this “Resources Materials” section – and the five items that are actually posted in this section – by saying –

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In the investigation before making this recommendation, the following items were consulted which merit the attention of our readers –

(1) “Thomas Sowell Goes To Bat for Charter Schools. Whiffs.” – a book review https://www.realclearpolitics.com/artic ... hiffs.html.

[No reaction to Thomas Sowell’s “Charter Schools and Their Enemies” could be found by either of the major teachers’ unions. However, this book review was written by Glenn Sacks who teaches social studies and is co-chairman of United Teachers Los Angeles at James Monroe High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District; he was recently recognized by LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner for "exceptional levels of performance."]

(2) “If Government Won’t Protect Students, Teachers Unions Will” – another essay by Glenn Sacks at https://www.realclearpolitics.com/artic ... 43711.html.

(3) “Thomas Sowell Has Been Right From the Start - His latest book on charter schools continues his research on minority success in education.” – WSJ book review of “Charter Schools and Their Enemies” by Jason Riley, member of the WSJ editorial board – at https://www.wsj.com/articles/thomas-sow ... 1595372217.

(4) “The Collapsing Case against Charter Schools” – National Review book review at https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine ... r-schools/.

(5) A contemporaneous (3 days before book release) OpEd by Thomas Sowell entitled “Charter schools are the best way to wipe out educational disparity” at https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/charter-s ... disparity/.

NB: Traditionally, after a book has been selected as our focus, we post in the “Reference Materials” section for that meeting, book reviews by –

The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Washington Post

The WSJ book review is Item No. 3 above.

No book reviews by the NY Times and Washington Post could be found.

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johnkarls
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Teachers vs. Government – Co-Chair of United Teachers L.A.

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https://www.realclearpolitics.com/artic ... 43711.html


Glenn Sacks: Coronavirus and schools reopening -- if government won’t protect students, teachers unions will

Efforts by teachers unions to protect students, families, and ourselves are being spun as either teacher greed or laziness

By Glenn Sacks
July 15, 2020

Glenn Sacks teaches social studies and is co-chairman of United Teachers Los Angeles at James Monroe High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He was recently recognized by LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner for "exceptional levels of performance." Follow him on Twitter @Glenn Sacks.


They acted like they had no idea the school year was coming.

Earthquakes, fires, floods, and hurricanes can be difficult to plan for -- an event everybody knows begins in mid-August is not. Instead of the federal government implementing a responsible, science-based plan to reopen schools, President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and numerous conservative commentators have instead focused their ire on one of their favorite bugaboos – teachers unions.

“We're very much going to put pressure on governors and everyone else to open the schools,” vowed the president, while citing successful school reopening in four European countries.

Yet while the United States has 10,312 coronavirus cases per million population, all four countries he cited have significantly fewer cases, including Germany (only 2,386 cases per million), Denmark (2,235), and Norway (1,656). Moreover, the United States now leads the world in new cases, and has over 400 times as many as Germany, which has one-fourth our population.

Yet, efforts by teachers unions to protect our students, their families, and yes, ourselves are being spun as either teacher greed or laziness.

McConnell has pledged to refuse federal emergency pandemic aid to cash-short states such as California, New York, Illinois, and others. Instead, he floated the idea of having those states reduce their public employee pension costs and even suggested Detroit-style bankruptcy as an alternative.

Manhattan Institute senior fellow Daniel DiSalvo urged “elected officials [to] drive a harder bargain with teachers unions,” warning against our “attempt to hold the economy hostage.”

Leaving aside that our pensions are modest, we pay a significant amount for them, and we very much earn what we get, what does one have to do with the other? What kind of society preconditions disaster relief based on the afflicted area’s fiscal policies?

Broadcaster and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Rush Limbaugh claims teachers “have been doing nothing since March.” Jeffrey I. Barke, cofounder of the Orange County Classical Academy charter school, alleges dereliction of duty, claiming, “[W]hen the pandemic struck, union leaders simply directed teachers to abandon their classrooms.”

We did not stop working in March -- we worked through the end of the school year -- and we did not “abandon” our students, but rather converted to a different teaching model.

Some set up a whiteboard at home and taught a full class schedule the rest of the semester, without missing a day. Others relied on textbooks, assignments, and projects.

Our union negotiated so teachers weren’t locked into a one-size-fits-all model in distance learning, just as academic freedom provides us the right to approach teaching in different ways within our classrooms.

Soon after we began distance learning, our union negotiated limits on hours – obviously, teachers with children at home could not be expected to teach a full school today, do lesson planning and grading, and also care for their children and supervise their schooling.

Teaching from March to June was challenging, for numerous reasons:

• We had to retool our lessons to make them online compatible.
• Paper and clerical work -- already a major problem in our field -- were made far worse, as we were cut off from accessing even the modest assistance we get with such tasks at school.
• We had to make constant, time-consuming exceptions and adjustments for students who did not have the computer equipment, online access, or quiet workspace they needed, or who faced numerous other issues.
• The enjoyable part of the job -- being with the students and teaching the subjects -- was greatly reduced, and the chores of the job, such as grading tests and assignments, reading essays, etc., were magnified.

This summer many of us are retooling the first six months of course content so it will be distance-learning compatible.

The teacher strikes of 2018-2019 were launched to give our students and schools the resources they need.

In the face of the federal government’s threats and callousness, a regional or even a nationwide teachers’ job action before or during the upcoming school year is possible.

If federal government leaders won’t act to protect children’s safety, our unions will.

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