Comments on: Out of work and willing to cross a picket line? Oakland Unified is hiring.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:55:22 +0000

Anon, I’m sorry for your tough situation.

I suggest you enter an internship program like OTF and you can be teaching by this Fall in a grateful Oakland school.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:51:42 +0000

Katy, I must admit, I heard that from a union official I trust. I don’t have proof.

The statement was that the local principal was going to shorten hours to 4 p.m. to decrease teacher burnout.

By: del

del — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:34:17 +0000

But there is something wrong with school choice! What is the average turnout for elections in the USA? How informed is the average voter? What does the research show? Nobody votes unless there’s a wedge issue (immigration, gay marriage, terrorism), and then they vote based on emotions and what they heard instead of facts and research. Well, the same is true in schools! So here we are, doing amazing things with amazing kids, and people make their decisions based on… on what?
Just using examples from this week, I had a parent ask me “so, since there are so many black kids, are there behavior problems?” and another say “Wow, you work there! I would never send a kid there! I heard my uncle’s stories about that place when he was there in the ’60s…” and certain parents send their kids somewhere else. And the entire population of school changes, and sudden changes not healthy. Meanwhile, a new school springs up, run by a corporation. They spend money on public relations and advertising, and they get more kids. Based on what? And public school employees face a choice: either spend less time on curriculum and more on PR, or lose jobs and students to schools that statistics prove are not serving students as well as we are!
I understand the whole “business model” but that doesn’t work (even on wall street, as we learned last year)—there’s a reason public schools have existed for 500 years and the competition model in education has not.

By: Katy Murphy

Katy Murphy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:26:49 +0000

Cranky Teacher – Do you have more details about the KIPP hours?

I checked with the network’s national spokesman, Steve Mancini, who said KIPP Bridge has had the same schedule for years: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday.

Mancini said the only change this year is that class lets out early three days a year for parent-teacher conferences, which used to be held after school.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:34:18 +0000

Just so you all know: I will be one of those scabs. I did not see the ad on Craig’s List, but in last Sunday’s Chronicle. FYI, the only requirements that are waived are the CBest test, which I took and passed 12 years ago ,but no longer have the score report for and the emergency credential. We still need a degree, a TB test,and a background check. Having said this, although I am for the teachers and what they want, I am also “for” saving my home, which I am about to be foreclosed on. Having children who attended OUSD schools who are now in college, I have to say that the day or days that someone’s class gets me for a sub will be a day that they will learn perhaps more than in a regular day. For the first 3 years of my daughter’s school years in Crocker Highlands (one of the “good” schools) she never learned to read or do math. I always had to pay for outside tutors. I also know “regular” OUSD subs who never got credentialed and never took an education course in their life. 30 years ago when I was a “regular sub” one didn’t even need a degree! Only a certain amount of units! So before you go assuming the level of the people who are being recruited to KEEP THE KIDS OFF THE STREET and to give peace of mind to their parents who have no place for their kids to go during a strike (I had kids in school in 1996 during a VERY long strike…been there, done that)get your facts straight, especially you, Cranky Teacher…many of you can and SHOULD be replaced!

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:08:11 +0000

TheTruthHurts:

I wasn’t saying anything about school choice. Was getting at the argument on here that unions are responsible for bad schools.

Point was to question the Conventional Wisdom that unions protecting bad teachers is the key problem in underperforming schools.

By: TheTruthHurts

TheTruthHurts — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:59:01 +0000

@Cranky. I don’t think anyone has said a charter is a silver bullet for anything. In fact, I don’t understand your point. My question would be why bar a parent from a good school period? Some charters are great, some not. Same with district schools. What’s wrong with parent choice? What could be a more important choice for a parent than her/his child’s school.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:33:48 +0000

Is it my imagination or do charter schools get to use public money AND get to choose which teachers to employ, exempt from union rules?

And they, as a whole, don’t have better results than public schools?

Am I missing something?

KIPP in Oakland just announced they’re cutting back teacher hours because its turnover was too high…

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:27:20 +0000

Responding as an actual OUSD substitute who will support the strike,Parent Sub doesn’t have a clue about what it takes to be a sub. His/her school must be an elementary school in a “good” neighborhood. I don’t think these emergency subs have a clue as to what it will take to go into a classroom of kids whose teachers are on strike. In a lot of schools it will be a free-for-all and they will just have to make sure kids aren’t leaving – try barring the door with your body and see what happens. I don’t think they realize they will be responsible for these children. I can’t imagine the teachers will be pleased at all – in fact they will probably never talk to you again, seeing how little you value their jobs. And if you ever become a REAL sub, no teacher will ever call you to sub their class.

By: parent sub

parent sub — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:02:04 +0000

I’m an OUSD parent, graduate, and wannabe substitute.

I wouldn’t be a strikebreaker if it was a truck drivers strike or a fruit picking strike, because I would never say, “Hey comrades, let’s remember, at the end of the day it’s all about the FRUIT!”

The effect of forcing the district to pay “emergency subs” $300 a day would be plenty enough for a strike. It is not necessary to force thousands of single working parents to scramble for daycare.

I hope to get the chance to substitute should the situation require it. And if I could do it at my children’s school, the parents, teachers, and principal would be very pleased.