Penelope M

Recent Activity

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  Penelope commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Memo to press: Think before you buy into the teachers' union bashing

  As always, this debate frustrates me because it ignores the fact that there are plenty of places in the US where teachers' unions have no real power or influence and their schools are generally no better off than those in areas with strong unions.
  
  Virginia, where I currently work, is a "right to work" state, which means that all those union protections and supposed obstructions don't exist. Also, we don't have real tenure. I see no evidence in the teachers and students around me that this has made the school system any better than in other states. If people are going to argue about the usefulness and validity of teachers unions, they should at least be aware in the huge variation between those unions and between what they can even do. We've a federal system, and every state has different laws on this.

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  Penelope commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Open Thread: How is the Economy Affecting Your School?

  Virginia, yes. Rural, sort of. The county was thoroughly rural 15-20 years ago, but most of it has suburbanized since with growth spreading from the nearby historical city. (You can't develop in town much, between the historical district and the surrounding river, so all the new developments and stores went up to the west in our county and the one above us.) The southwestern chunk is still more rural, at least in the density of population.

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  Penelope commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Open Thread: How is the Economy Affecting Your School?

  Hiring was frozen in November--there will be no new teacher hires even to replace people who leave, and most schools in the county are losing 4-10 positions. Supposedly this will only increase our class sizes by 1 student, but they failed to take into account that by getting rid of someone who only teaches geography it will hit all the other geography teachers and not the world history or US history teachers. (This is happening my department, but I know the same problem is going to affect all the other high school deparments that are losing people.)
  
  Pay scales? Frozen. No step increase or even COLA for next  year, plus all health care increases are being passed straight to employees.
  
  We're being warned now to hoard the paper that we were given for this year because "no one knows how much money there will be for supplies next year".
  
  Next year there will be no after school activity buses. We're pretty sure that it's going to destroy a couple of the sports teams, and at the high schools in the more rural areas of the county we're wondering if they'll have anyone on the sports teams at all.
  
  Every week it seems, we get a new email from the superintendent about the budget crisis.