Charter School Teachers Rally Against For-Profit Ed Company

[proud2BlibKansan]

Teachers at New York's Merrick Academy charter school are ticked off. The charter school, operated by the for-profit Victory Schools, Inc, is sending over a million per year to the profiteers at Victory, which obviously cuts into their salaries and robs children of educational opportunities (in this case, that means heating systems, a gym, and certainly other necessities). Sure - Victory uses some of this million-dollar slush fund to pay the bills, etc, but they also keep a hefty chunk for themselves. Here are a few quotes from an article from the Queens Chronicle:

1) But according to James Stovall, chief administrative officer for Victory, the teachers have received their full salaries plus an annual 3 to 5 percent raise for the last seven years. It was only when they decided to join the United Federation of Teachers that their pay became stagnant, which he said the law allows while union members are in the process of negotiating a contract. Once the negotiations are completed, raises can resume and may even be retroactive.

2) “If you look at the results of Merrick students, you will see why they hired us and why they retain us,” Stovall said. “They have the highest test scores in the state.”

3) The teachers also claim that they consistently receive threats to their days off, job security and paychecks and that the children must go without essential services and supplies —classrooms do not have heat, there is no gymnasium and teachers are forced to Xerox existing textbooks, rather than order additional copies.

4) The management firm provides instructional support services that include: helping teachers understand and convey state curriculum requirements through their lesson plans, providing professional development and classroom management, ensuring that the student test assessments are aligned with state standards and helping teachers interpret the results of the exams and alter their curriculum accordingly.

As Stovall makes quite clear, all Victory cares about is test scores (and profits, of course). It's the outcome that matters - not the process (and, unfortunately, I see some parallels between Stovall's statement and the philosophy of Duncan and pals). The Victory teachers, at least in Stovall's world, can either have union representation or higher salaries - but, even with their union representation, teachers are threatened while kids get screwed over.

more . . . http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2009/12/teachers-rally-against-for-profit-ed.html

[tonysam]

1. Cross-posted over at Education forum

with the original article from the Queens Chronicle.

[ixion]

2. Education should be free. Or at least affordable...

Education is the cornerstone of any healthy society.

[JDPriestly]

3. Teacher pay: private, public and charter

eacher Salary Schedules

Public school districts were most likely to use a salary schedule to determine base salaries for teachers, compared to private and public charter schools. An estimated 96.3 percent of public school districts used a salary schedule. This contrasts with 65.9 percent of private schools and 62.2 percent of public charter schools.

Of those schools or districts using a salary schedule, public charter schools offered the highest base salary for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and no experience. The average starting salary for teachers with no experience in public charter schools that used a salary schedule was $26,977, compared with $25,888 for public school districts. Private schools offered the lowest base salary, with teachers with a bachelor’s degree and no experience earning $20,302 annually.

Professional Development

Across all sectors, more than 40 percent of full-time teachers reported participating in professional development activities that focused on in-depth study of content in their main teaching field in the last 12 months. Among full-time traditional public school teachers, 59.3 percent participated in such professional development activities, compared with 55.2 percent of full-time public charter school teachers and 43.1 percent of full-time private school teachers.

Full-time traditional public school teachers were more likely than full-time teachers in other sectors to participate in professional development activities on the uses of computers for instruction. An estimated 70.7 percent of full-time teachers in traditional public schools participated in such professional development activities. This contrasts with 56.9 percent of full-time teachers in public charter schools and 52.1 percent of full-time teachers in private schools.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2002). Schools and Staffing Survey, 1999-2000: Overview of the Data for Public, Private, Public Charter, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Elementary and Secondary Schools (NCES 2002-313).

http://nces.ed.gov/FastFacts/display.asp?id=55

[LWolf]

4. For-profit education is no more defensible than for-profit health care.

Our public schools are cutting programs, cutting jobs, cutting school days, enduring pay cuts, while for-profit schools profiting off of public funds are sending profits off somewhere that does not benefit schools or children.

:grr: