Ravitch: Why teachers across the country are enraged [CNN, 2/21/11]: Attacks on the teaching profession have escalated over the past two years, says author and education historian Diane Ravitch. She writes that the protests in Wisconsin are the result "of a simmering rage among the nation's teachers," brought on by attempts to tie teacher evaluations to test scores, threats to collective bargaining, widespread teacher firings and other issues. She predicts an increasing number of teacher protests, as such attacks and impending teacher layoffs continue.

Labor faces a moment of truth [Politico, 2/21/11]: Some strategists and labor officials watching the protest conflagration from the outside are beginning to fret that a large-scale defeat in Wisconsin will have a devastating ripple effect, weakening labor state by state throughout the rest of the country.

Legislation may bring pay cuts for substitute teachers [San Bernardino Sun, 2/21/11]: Substitute teachers may start to feel the effects of dwindling school budgets if legislation recently proposed by state Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, becomes law. Under the law, S.B. 266, school districts could pay all substitutes the same wage, regardless of tenure, thus saving school districts millions of dollars per year, according to Dutton. Read SB 266.

Want to fix the Oakland schools? Ask a teacher [Oakland Tribune, 2/20/11]: The Oakland teachers union and the school district administration do not have an easy relationship. And yet, in the midst of budget cuts, an unsettled contract and threat of a strike, an unlikely -- though delicate -- partnership has arisen.

9th Circuit probes anti-Christian ruling against teacher [Orange County Register, 2/12/11]: A panel of three federal appellate judges Friday probed whether a Mission Viejo high school teacher who violated his student's First Amendment rights should be held financially liable for his actions, even as the judges reconsidered the merits of the case itself. During a 45-minute morning hearing, judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena grilled the two parties about whether Capistrano Valley High School history teacher James Corbett should be forced to pay attorney fees and damages, and whether he could have reasonably known he was being hostile toward religion in the classroom, as alleged. [See other posts on this case, in particular the one dated 2/17/11 below entitled "Student a 'whiny little boy,' teacher in anti-Christian case says."