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The Record--Educators demand action to keep schools safe, support students' efforts to spark change
As a generation of young people rises up and calls for action from the country’s leaders after yet another deadly school shooting in the United States, Bergen County school administrators want students to know: They hear them and support their efforts.
The Bergen County Association of School Administrators, an organization charged with educating and protecting more than 133,000 students in the county, released a letter Monday calling for legislative bodies to “follow the ethical and moral mandate to keep our children and teachers safe” and take action after a Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17.
Sarah Nolan, Staff Writer, @sarnolan Published 7:17 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2018 | Updated 9:39 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2018
Associated Press (via Philadelphia Inquirer)-- Q&A: West Virginia sees rare statewide teacher walkout
West Virginia's teachers are refusing to go to school for a fourth day Tuesday in protest of pay that is among the lowest in the nation.
Such statewide strikes are unusual but not unprecedented - West Virginia teachers last walked out in 1990. Most teacher labor disputes start and end at the district level, where teacher salaries are more typically set. The strike in West Virginia has closed schools in all 55 counties.
As the state's labor unions and lawmakers hash out their differences, here is a look at how teacher pay is decided, what it looks like across states, the legal dilemma teachers face in walking out and why it all matters, especially amid teacher shortages felt by schools around the country:
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/20180227_ap_95b2080475dc4a14821176bfff7d4b08.html
CAROLYN THOMPSON, The Associated Press| Updated: February 27, 2018 — 3:01 AM EST
Education Week--Justice Gorsuch Silent as Supreme Court Weighs Public-Employee Union Fees
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a major case about public-employee unions, with four justices appearing to support upholding agency fees for nonunion members and four other justices giving every indication that they are inclined to overrule a 40-year-old precedent that authorized such fees.
That leaves the tie-breaking vote in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31 (Case No. 16-1466) to the court's newest member, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who listened intently during the 60-minute argument but did not ask any questions and thus did not tip his hand.
Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Anthony M. Kennedy aggressively questioned lawyers for the state of Illinois and for AFSCME, who were defending the 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that authorizes teachers' unions and other public-employee groups to charge fees for collective bargaining-related services to those workers who decline to join the union.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2018/02/gorsuch_holds_his_cards_as_sup.html
Mark Walsh on February 26, 2018 11:33 AM [UPDATED: Monday at 2:08 p.m.]
