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in Media
As Teachers Salaries Rise, So Do Their Benefit Costs
TeacherPensions.org touches on a subject rarely covered by traditional media: While teacher salaries have risen nearly 20 percent over the last decade (outpacing inflation, barely), their health care costs rose 27.6 percent and retirement costs exploded by 126.4 percent. Dubbed the “Pension Pac-Man” by researcher Chad Aldeman, benefit costs for teachers eat up nearly all […] More
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in Unions
Teacher Unions Hold School Districts —And Families—Hostage Over School Reopening
by
Erika Sanzi
This post originally appeared here. There is no easy answer when it comes to what should happen with our schools — on the contrary, it is one of the most complex, multi-layered and now grotesquely politicized crises we have faced in a very long time. Within the educational context, it is likely the greatest challenge […] More
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in Unions
UTLA Cares About All Kids (Except Those They Don’t Get Paid For)
As Retort has documented over and over, UTLA is the tip of the spear for outlandish and opportunistic COVID-related demands. Making the rounds today is this visual outlining UTLA’s demands for schools re-opening: Alarmed that their crisis capitalization would go viral and make them look bad, UTLA leadership scrambled to push out a response via […] More
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in Media
Unions And Affiliates Take In At Least $26 Million From Paycheck Protection Program
Well, well, well. As reported by Mike Antonucci at The 74: Unions and their subsidiaries on the government’s list received a minimum of $26 million [in PPP funds] and may have gotten as much as $51 million. Though the The New York Times and The Washington Post gleefully reported on charter schools receiving funds (after months of […] More
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in Media
Private School Parent Calls For Defunding Of Private Schools
Even by Hechinger Report standards, this week’s piece by Andre Perry (the site’s lone opinion columnist) is a particularly vile example of Ravitchian misinformation. Titled “Defund the private schools“, Perry makes a meandering, pandering case to eschew vouchers, close charters, and reinvest in school districts which largely assign students based on zip code; in other […] More
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New Mexico’s Governor Loses Dismissal Of Lawsuit She Promised Not To Appeal
On the campaign trail in fall 2018, then-candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham proudly declared that she would not appeal New Mexico’s landmark educationlawsuit, Yazzie v. Martinez, which called foul on decades of inequitable distribution of education resources, particularly in Native communities. Lujan Grisham went so far as to demand a promise from sitting Gov. Susanna Martinez […] More
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in Miscellany
Ravitch Trashes Teacher, Feigns Disbelief
This post originally appeared here. It is increasingly vital that we stand up to the people who lie about and defame our allies and friends. As libel (and slander) increasingly permeate the media ecosystem by those for whom truth takes a back seat to a preferred ideology, it is incumbent upon the rest of us […] More
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in Media
NYTimes Takes Bait From Ravitch’s Network For Public Education
As Retort covered more than two months ago, the union-backed antics of NPE this spring are focused squarely on defunding charter schools and eschewing teacher accountability. After sending dozens of emails and near nonstop tweeting about a fabricated scandal involving some charter schools accepting Federal PPP funds aimed at buoying companies through COVID-related lock downs, […] More