Unionized teachers: The heroes of Sandy Hook

No further comment necessary:

There will be a lot of lip service paid to the courage of Sandy Hook's staff. But the real measure of who's not just paying lip service will come when we see which of the politicians and so-called reformers who've been waging political attacks on teachers look at how teachers responded to a deadly physical attack, check themselves, and stop trying to demonize teachers in the push for corporate education policy.

Teachers, so often vilified by politicians, are the heroes of Sandy Hook

By Laura Clawson

December 18, 2012 | Daily Kos 

URL: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/18/1170357/-Teachers-so-often-vilified-by-politicians-are-the-heroes-of-Sandy-Hook

Chicago charter schools not even in top 40

So this is what Obama's faux liberal buddy Rahm Emanuel has been fighting teachers' unions for, total mediocrity?

UPDATE: (HT to The Exiled for both of these) It looks like South Carolina's public schools also outperform the state's charter schools.  I'll keep an eye out for more states, and/or national figures....

Today's lesson: charters do not outperform unionized schools 

By Ben Joravsky 

October 3, 2012 | Chicago Reader

URL: http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/chicagos-unionized-public-schools-outperform-charter-schools/Content?oid=7559748&showFullText=true

Chicago teachers strike 'hurting the kids'?

Hurting the Kids

By Corey Robin | September 18, 2012

Though the final contract has not yet been hammered out, here are just some of the things the Chicago Teachers Union have won with their seven-day strike [pdf]:

• Almost 600 new art, music, and gym teachers
• Guaranteed textbooks in the first day of class
• $1.5 million for new special education teachers
• $.5 million for reductions in class size
• More than twice as much money for classroom supplies

No question: they’re hurting the kids.

Public-sector employment has shrunk under Obama

For those of you who think Obama has inflated the public sector during his presidency, here's the truth:

Since February 2010, the nation's private employers have added more than 3.9 million jobs, or roughly 164,000 per month.  Over the same period, however, some 485,000 government jobs were lost.

But Obama is still throwing bones to the teachers' unions, right?  Wrong:  "The per-capita employment rate in public education, by far the largest sector of government hiring, is at the lowest level since 1999."  In fact: 

... the recession caused 41 states to raise state-college tuition and lay off university staff; 30 cut funding for local school districts; 25 cut funding for seniors and people with disabilities; and 30 states cut the availability of health care services.  Teachers have been one of the hardest-hit professions in the public sector.  Seventy-one percent of school districts reported cuts in state and local funding from last year's budget, 68 percent eliminated positions this year, and 65 percent expect to do so again next year, according to a new survey by the American Association of School Administrators.

And in California, in particular, poorer and majority-minority schools are losing teachers 30 and 60 percent faster than richer and majority-white schools, respectively.  As usual, in hard times it's the poor and minorities who suffer more.

Across America, public-sector job cuts take a heavy toll

By Tony Pugh

April 4, 2012 | McClatchy Newspapers

URL: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/04/144134/across-america-public-sector-job.html#storylink=cpy