from Education Minnesota

[spedtr90]

Republicans love bad ideas, especially from Pawlenty and Florida. Even with Pawlenty gone Q comp gets forced on us???

"These are some of the proposals that have been heard or passed so far this session and could be included in the E-12 education bills voted on next week: Both the Republican held House and Senate have set E-12 budget targets that would reduce education spending compared with current law by $11.2 million in the House and an estimated $10 million in the Senate. By contrast, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton’s education budget increases school funding."

Teacher/educator pay freeze or severe limit on pay increases (qualified economic offer)
Employee pension contributions increased by 3 percentage points
Elimination of teachers’ right to strike
Bargaining limited to summer months
Educators forbidden to use school facilities to contact their legislators
Private school vouchers or hefty tax credits for contributions to voucher programs
Elimination of tenure, replaced by five-year contracts based on teacher “effectiveness”
State-mandated teacher evaluation system tied at least 50 percent to student test results
Order of teacher layoffs determined by test-based “effectiveness” ratings
Mandatory merit pay (Q Comp) for all districts, tied to test results and state-mandated
evaluations (which, under the evaluation bill, would already be tied 50 percent to test
results)
Florida accountability system rating schools A-F entirely according to test results
Elimination of 2 percent set-aside for educator professional development
Elimination of $3 per pupil set-aside to maintain student support staffing levels
Elimination of key sources of revenue for inner-city schools (integration and compensatory education revenue); funding would be redirected to all schools or voucher programs
Two other measures could be included in a different omnibus bill:
Severe restrictions on unions’ ability to elect the lower-cost Public Employee Insurance Program
for their members
Reduction of insurance options under PEIP to one: a $5,000-deductible plan with $10,000
out-of-pocket maximum

[Zoeisright]

1. I. HATE. REPUKES.

Every god damned last one of them.