Sometimes when you see a large protest, it’s hard to believe that it is not going to change things.

Recently, I have been thinking of the very loud and well-populated protests that NJEA, as well as other public employee unions, staged last June over the pension and health benefit reform measures passed by the Legislature. It was an impressive sight. Thousands of people were standing and shouting in brutally hot weather to make their opinion known. I thought about them, not so much when the November legislative election results came in, but during the Legislature’s internal elections to determine who would fill each party’s leadership spots.

If you remember back in June when thousands of union members filled the street, their anger was not aimed solely at Gov. Christie. Much of it was focused on the Democrats who supported the pension and health benefit reforms–most notably Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. The unions held signs that assured the legislators that come November the workers would remember their support for the reforms. The Democratic Party seemed split and, in fact, I wrote an article, called Governor Christie and the Democrats – Divide and Conquer, which outlined this event and the divide it created among the Democrats in the Legislature. Many observers wondered if Sweeney and Oliver would survive this discord and retain their leadership positions. Others wondered if it would affect the legislative races also.

In the November elections, the NJEA withheld support for the two Democratic leaders, as well as others who had supported the reforms.  Since most Democrats in the Legislature had not supported the bills and the public employee unions were upset, it was plausible that their leadership might be challenged, especially in the Assembly where it was reported that some lawmakers were seriously pursuing the possibility of changing leadership.  After all, doing that might placate the unions which are a core base of the Democratic Party.

So what happened – less than six months later? (more…)

There is a debate beginning quietly about whether we can best improve student achievement through strategies at the district level or the school level..  While we all want to increase student achievement, we find that when theory is put into practice, it gets messy. When we devise proposals, it also reveals who we believe is the key to education.

Some recent proposals by both the legislators and the state seem to indicate that, from their perspective, the most important person is the school principal. They think reform needs to happen at the building level and not the district level. For example, the tenure reform proposal most likely to gain traction in the lame duck legislative session (and beyond) is Sen. Teresa Ruiz’s TEACH NJ legislation. Among that bill’s key provisions is a proposal to give the building principal exclusive authority in the hiring of, and removal of, employees, making personnel decisions a building-level decision.

This proposal, in conjunction with the recent Education Transformation Task Force recommendation to monitor schools and not districts, would focus the reform effort on the school, disregarding the district-level perspective.

I think these two proposals are a bit misguided on several levels. But before I proceed, (more…)

First they came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Rev. Martin Neimoller

I had almost finished writing my latest blog entry when I flipped on the television after coming home from a very informative meeting on the Anti-Bullying law.  I was thinking about something one of the speakers said: In most instances even when people (not just kids) see something wrong, they don’t speak up.  I flipped the channel to ESPN to see if there was a college basketball game on when I saw the press conference announcing the firing of the legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.  It was then that it hit me how much our society is changing and that silence is no longer an option, not even for legends.

While school administrators, board members, and teachers are all fretting over the implementation of the anti-bullying law, it should not be lost on us that silence is considered an offense in itself, especially when it involves not reporting incidents that victimize children.

That thought brought to mind the Rev. Neimoller’s quote, which I opened with.  It was written about Nazi Germany, but its lessons are timeless. It was a quote that my father had hung prominently in our house as a reminder to not be afraid to speak up when others are silent in the face of injustice. (more…)

There I was on Halloween night, tapping away on my laptop, but using candles to see the keyboard.  I felt like a cross between Bill Gates and a pilgrim at Plymouth Rock.  It struck me once again that we often take things for granted because they are always there, things like running water, heat, light and a working refrigerator and stove. I have been without power at home since last weekend’s snowstorm. In my case that means no running water since my well is powered by an electric pump. Power went out on Saturday and as I write this blog it’s Thursday. I guess I shouldn’t let the fact that I am cold and dirty affect my disposition, but I guess I am not that big a person. (The funny thing is that even though I know I have no power, I still automatically turn the light switch on or off as I enter or leave a room.)

In the same way I take the basic comforts of home for granted, I believe that some state leaders take NJSBA’s support for tenure reform for granted. Yes, I am a strong supporter of tenure reform and NJSBA has been one for decades, but that does not mean we can automatically support any proposal that changes tenure.

The tenure reform proposal most likely to gain traction in the lame duck legislative session, Senator Teresa Ruiz’s TEACH NJ legislation is a case in point. (more…)