Saturday, March 12, 2011

Kerchner: Why the politics we’ve got won’t produce the schools we need [Thoughts on Public Education, 3/11/11]: Why, one might ask, should California, the headwaters of the digital revolution, be stuck in the eddies of an early 20th Century school design? The answer lies partly in culture and partly in politics. Almost all the politics of education concerns rearranging adult power and privilege. Relatively little political energy is spent consciously designing a contemporary system of public education that addresses the needs of today’s students. That should change.

5th Circuit Backs Student-Hacker Suspect's Discipline, Mother's Firing [School Law Blog, 3/10/11]: A federal appeals court has upheld the discipline of a Mississippi student who was accused of hacking into the computer system of his middle school and initiating a brief "denial of service" attack. The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, also ruled against the boy's mother, who was fired from her job as a school secretary after protesting the action taken against her son and threatening to sue the school district. Read the decision in Harris v. Ponotoc County School District.

Teachers union wants Supreme Court to overturn layoff ban [California Watch, 3/10/11]: The biggest teachers union in Los Angeles will likely ask the state Supreme Court to overturn a recent appellate court decision blocking teacher layoffs at 45 struggling schools. Read the ACLU press release on the legal settlement.

Isolated Reference to Union Activity During Termination Not Enough To Establish Retaliation (Fallbrook Union Elementary School District (2011) 2171-E) [PERB Blog, 3/8/11]: This case involved an allegation that the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District (District) decided not to reemploy a teacher because of her activities as a union site representative. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found in favor of the teacher. However, on exceptions by the District the Board (PERB) rejected the ALJ’s proposed decision and dismissed the charge. The Board’s decision focused on whether the union had established the required “nexus” between the adverse action and the protected activity. The Board acknowledged that it could indicate anti-union animus if coupled with other facts. But here, the Board found no other facts supporting anti-union animus. Accordingly, the Board rejected the ALJ’s proposed decision and dismissed the complaint. There was a dissent in this interesting case. Read the Fallbrook decision at:

Appellate court allows teacher layoffs to go forward under new rules [Los Angeles Times, 3/8/11]: A state appellate court refused Monday to delay a settlement that would alter traditional seniority protections in Los Angeles schools, opting instead to let stand a new process that would protect 45 “vulnerable” campuses entirely from layoffs. Read Festerwald’s post at Educated Guess [3/8/11]:

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