Idaho keeping its teachers in line. Will lose certification if they engage in "political activities"

[madfloridian]

at school or on school grounds.

In the case of Idaho teachers it would be considered "political activity" if they work or speak against the reforms of Tom Luna, the superintendent.

I guess since they will only lose certification if they participate in any activities on school grounds...they will have to do it other places or just toe the administrative reformer line.

Just think about it though. Anytime the "reformers" want to appear before students, they are free to do so. They can speak freely of their reforms and whatever they wish to cover. The reformers can make movies and documentaries using students as props, as in Waiting for Superman. The head reformer, Arne Duncan, and his boss the president can appear for any student populations and speak freely about what they believe.

Just not teachers. They are not allowed to speak of their views on public education on public school grounds in Idaho...and I suspect not in many other states either.

Idaho teachers warned about political activities

BOISE, Idaho -- Teachers are being warned they could lose their certification if they participate in efforts to recall Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, repeal his new education reforms or engage in other political activities on school grounds.

In a memo Friday, Luna said his office had received numerous inquiries and reports of teachers using their school email to coordinate political activities: proselytizing to students in the classroom and using pupils as couriers for political materials.

In a note to school superintendents and charter school administrators, Luna cautioned that these types of political activities were ethical violations punishable by a letter of reprimand, or suspension or revocation of a teacher's certification. He also warned that educators who are aware of such political activities and fail to report them face similar consequences.

"Those whose certificates are suspended or revoked can no longer be employed by an Idaho public school," said Luna, a Republican who has been targeted in recent months by education activists who are seeking his ouster over a package of new education reforms.

Here are some of those changes...they are becoming familiar now. Just like Florida and many other states.

The sweeping changes phase out tenure for teachers, limit collective bargaining and shifts money from salaries for technology upgrades in the classrooms such as laptops for high school teachers and students. The three-part plan was signed into law earlier this year and has landed in the crosshairs of a referendum campaign.

The online education companies are making their moves now as well. Shifting money quickly now to online education and away from actual physical classrooms with real teachers.

Luna has close ties to the Bush administration guys like Rod Paige and William Bennett. Bennett's K12 online school has close ties to many states now. And Rod Paige, whose Texas Miracle never was real...is one of his main donors.

How Tom Luna’s co-workers from the Bush administration — and the private education companies they now help run — positioned Idaho’s schools chief to make changes that the for-profit education industry may cash in on

In October 2009, Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna held a re-election fundraiser in the Capitol Hill offices of Dutko Worldwide, one of America’s top lobbying firms. Sponsors included two leading voices in the Republican education re-form movement: former U.S. Education secretaries William Bennett and Rod Paige. The event marked an important moment in Luna’s re-election bid, as he won support from education technology companies interested in changing state policy to boost their business.

Among Luna’s contributors in October 2009:

- K12 Inc. of Virginia, an online company with 81,000 students and operator of the Idaho Virtual Academy. In Idaho, IVA enrolls 2,930 students and received $12.8 million from the state in fiscal 2010. K12, its employees and major stockholders spent about $44,000 supporting Luna; $25,000 of that was funneled to an Idaho interest group for independent advertising on Luna’s behalf.

- Apollo Group of Phoenix, the parent company of the University of Phoenix, an online university with more than 400,000 students. Luna’s plan would allow high school students to earn college credits at state expense once they complete high school requirements. Apollo Group gave Luna $5,500.

- Executives of Scantron Corp., a Minnesota-based leader in testing technology that is aggressively expanding into online education. Scantron employees and family contributed $7,450.

The Idaho Statesman at the link has an additional amount of info about who else will be profiting from Luna's superintendentcy. in the right hand column:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
WHO STANDS TO GAIN?

ROD PAIGE: The former U.S. Education secretary — Luna’s former boss — is a “senior adviser” to two education technology companies.

MICHAEL MILKEN: A financier and philanthropist who served a two-year prison sentence for securities fraud, Milken controls 24 percent of K12 Inc.

BILL HANSEN: The Scantron CEO and Luna confidant offers education technology “that will enable students and educators to achieve the highest level of excellence.”

RUPERT MURDOCH: The News Corp. chairman is investing hundreds of millions in the education technology business.

JOE SCOTT: Another large K12 Inc. investor, the Albertson grocery heir is a key backer of Luna’s plan.

NINA REES: VP at Milken’s Knowledge Universe Education met Luna when both worked for Bush’s Education Department.

Politicians have taken over the field of education with the money from billionaires. Now they must make it hard for teachers to have a platform for their opposition.

This kind of stance effectively keeps teachers from having a way to communicate to students on the fast and furious reforms coming to education. Since the media is on the side of the reformers, then students will be uninformed on one of the most important issues to them...their education.

[Drale]

1. Its easy to get around that,

just stand across the street. You are not on school grounds, and people can still see and here you.

[madfloridian]

2. Good idea.

:hi:

[Drale]

3. Republicans are not nearly as smart as they pretend to be

[msanthrope]

33. The students should be free from political rallying by their teachers. And while Luna may be

an SOB, he's perfectly correct in that teachers cannot use their students, school materials, and school grounds for their politicking...

Shame on anyone who thinks they have a right to inflict their personal politics on their students.

[Starry Messenger]

4. k&r

[randr]

5. They need to apply this rule to clergy

[madfloridian]

6. That will never happen.

Never. It's easy to denigrate and establish punitive methods against teachers, though, because no one is standing up for them but a few bloggers.

:hi:

[gadjitfreek]

7. As a 23-year veteran teacher, I can say

that you would have to be out of your mind to become a teacher in this climate. If I could get out, I would...and I am an award-winning teacher whose class kids and parents clamor to get enrolled in. I love teaching but the climate right now...you'd have to be out of your mind to become a new teacher now.

[madfloridian]

11. Amen to that.

I taught over 30 years, and I was so proud of what I did. They are not allowing pride anymore with all the attacks. It's a shame.

[upi402]

13. Is it the fundies pushing their agenda?

Or is it more the economic climate now?

[iemitsu]

16. its corporations and the charter school movement.

or the wider privatization movement that is sponsoring all the malice toward teachers.
it is truly demoralizing.

[defendandprotect]

10. +1--

[Pacifist Patriot]

21. If I understand you correctly...

The government should be able to revoke my certificate of ordination if I speak out against the wars, corporate personhood, or the anti-immigration law in Arizona from the pulpit? All of which I've done in the last few months.

[cstanleytech]

26. You mean a way at discouraging the clergy from engaging in politics from the pulpit?

If so then there already a way I thought called the IRS and that it involved a revocation of tax exempt status for a church whos clergy decide to engage in politics from the pulpit?

[Capitalocracy]

29. The rule exists

but while I've heard of it being broken, I've never heard of it being enforced.

[cstanleytech]

30. Did you try google?

I did and found a few hits such as http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=12462

[msanthrope]

34. The clergy aren't licensed by the state to teach children in public schools--the teachers are.

And that's why the state gets to tell teachers not to do political rallying at their schools.

[4dsc]

8. What ever happened to freedom?

I have to wonder why republicans hate our freedoms?

[msanthrope]

35. What about the student's freedom? There's no First Amendment right to

rally one's student's to one's political cause--

In fact, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the idea of a teacher having the power to come into a classroom with a "Palin 2012" poster and start rallying the students under the guise of 'current events.'

[defendandprotect]

9. Arne/Obama in WH moving politically against teachers ... but, teachers can't respond?

[madfloridian]

18. Exactly.

There are many punitive measures being taken against teachers who criticize. Marking them down on evaluations is the most frequent.

[msanthrope]

37. Teachers can respond, but they can't use their students, or workplace to

do so--

And I find it curious, that some teachers would defend the 'right' to use students in such a manner.

[chervilant]

12. What a load of hooey!

I came in to rec you, madfloridian, and I don't have to remind you that you are one of my sheroes. Given what's happening in Idaho and across our nation, I strongly suspect that my letter to Arne will come back to haunt me, in this vile anti-teacher climate. I've also posted on other threads my opposition to Obama, predicated by his role in the ongoing assault on teachers and unions:

Obama's assault on our system of public education is reason enough for me to question his intent and his integrity. That is not only my RIGHT, it is my RESPONSIBILITY as a citizen of this nation. And, as a teacher, I can guarantee you that I possess the cognitive and deductive reasoning skills to ascertain when I'm being offered a plate full of red herrings.

Yes, we activist teachers embody the critical thinking skills the corporate megalomaniacs and their politicians du jour just don't want to succor in the hoi polloi. No surprise, really, that they will attack us. They'll bury us if they can.

[saras]

14. They're not finished...

The purpose of this isn't to keep teachers from complaining about the theft of their salaries.

The purposes is to stop them from complaining when they are ordered to teach only the corporate agenda, and for that matter, to stop them from telling us what that agenda is.

Never mind the whole layer of stupid involved with spending huge amounts of valuable education money on disposable technology.

[IDemo]

15. The petition to recall Tom Luna ->

http://www.recalltomluna.org/

We signed this a couple of weekends ago at a farmers market in Boise. The two volunteers manning the table were being harangued by a shop owner for "embarrassing" her and "making her look bad", so they politely picked up and moved thirty feet down the sidewalk.

[madfloridian]

19. The storekeeper thought it made her "look bad"? That's sad.

I say good for them for the petition. I hope there are a lot of signatures.

It breaks my heart how teachers are being treated.

[bertman]

17. Thank you for the ongoing truth-telling, madflo. REC. nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

20. Self-delete

wrong place

[Pacifist Patriot]

22. More insanity. When will it end?

[Shireling]

23. And yet another slap to Democracy!!

I doubt if very many people know what Democracy is any more, especially the kids.

Freedom of speech. Hmmmmm. I guess that superintendent really likes his power.

[Bake]

24. Why in the hell would anyone want to be a public school teacher these days?

Got to be the least appreciated, most-abused profession on the planet.

Bake

[madfloridian]

27. It is fast becoming an abused profession. You are right.

[Bandit]

25. Fascism creeps ever so surely into American mindset..

The America I currently live in is not the America I grew up in..It is more closely related to the land of Mordor IMO.

[Canuckistanian]

28. Violation ot the First Amendment. Big Time.

If corporations can claim "free speech" by influencing elections, unions can do it too.

[cstanleytech]

31. Depends though

if they did or tried to do it when they should be working the school could argue that they are being fired for not doing their jobs thus it would probably not be considered a violation of the first amendment, its kind of how when you join the military you in essence voluntarily give up the right to say anything against the president while you are in the service.

[msanthrope]

36. No. There's no First Amendment right to engage in political activities in your workplace. n/t

[msanthrope]

32. Are you asserting that teachers have the right to politically proselytize students?

Because I read what Luna's administration is claiming violates the school ethics code, and you haven't stated where it is overbroad--

1) Teachers can't use the school email to push a particular political agenda--but can send info about union elections.

2) Teachers' can't rally or proselytize to students in the classroom and,

3) Can't use pupils as couriers for political materials.

I fail to see where any of these violates the First Amendment rights of single teacher--

I'd be pissed as hell is any public employee used my kid for their political purposes...

I find it curious that your OP fails to address the rights of the students in this situation. Don't they have a right to be free from politicking by their teachers? Free from the subtle threat of retaliation if they do not agree with the teacher?