Arkansas Blog

CTA does not seem to be as aggressive in its approach as the LRSD. CTA should counter each lie that is espoused by the board and Brooks. Reggie Weaver, president of NEA, was a guest on Washington Journal(C-Span) the other morning ;and he, too, appeared to be a talking head, without focus and direction. CTA is like one of the democrats when challenging a republican: confused and lost. I choose to believe more teachers will eventually leave the organization. This current board needs to be dismantled, and the leader and his entourage need to be on their way out of the city.

My mother has been well represented by the CTA and each time LRSD was found to have vioted her rights. If not for the CTA the teachers of the LRSD are left to take was is dealt to them.

Look at the record of the LRSD.....it speaks for itself. How many Super's in the last tenyears? Student scores?

Ongoing racial tension at the admin level, poor pay, lack of support from the board....who needs it! Teachers are better off somewhere else.

Ask a graduating education major from UALR if they would like to stay here or go ANYWHERE else to teach. The response is consistant. Those who are not tied to LR with family/money obligations leave as soon as they can for greener pastures in every direction.

Son of a Teacher, I am truly just curious. You refer to poor pay. What is the average teacher salary for LRSD? What about surrounding school districts? Thanks in advance for the info.

I don't think money has ANYTHING to do with the poor state that our schools are in today. Washington DC has the highest per capita expenditure and their schools are in hideous shape.

This is totally off thread but I wanted to call Real Bussinessman's attention to the archived thread for a couple of websites. Thanks. Sorry for the interruption.

My interest in this is that of a concerned citizen. I'm not a teacher, and our kids made it through the Little Rock school system years ago. From what I have observed, I am prone to give the LRCTA the benefit of the doubt in any difference of opinion with the LRSD board and administration. The LRCTA should continue to exist and function as the bargaining agent for Little Rock teachers, and the board and administration should figure out how to work with the CTA. The current board may succeed in destroying the CTA, but this board and this administration will not create a better school district, and when and if a better school district is ever developed, it will be with a new board, a new administration, and a revived LRCTA.

Gotta love it.

The motto of Superintendent Roy Brooks, courtesy of Pink Floyd:

"We don't need no education..."

(unless it's privately subsidized by rich guys who sent their kids to private schools and whose ultimate agenda is to discredit public schools through cockamamie testing theories and thus siphon taxpayer money into private schools).

Trust me, I do not trust the board or Dr. Brooks, son of teacher. I am glad CTA was there for your mother; however, CTA needs to be visible, vocal, and assertive with this superintendent and board. At this juncture, CTA is probably more concerned with not being recognized by the board than anything else. I support the leadership of CTA but just want them to meet the board's rhetoric with a superior voice and to dismantle Brooks' misinformation with the strong hand of truth. I choose to believe there is strength is silence, but this is not the time to be passive and silent.

When I received the summer newsletter, I was not surprised at all by the blatant attempt to encourage teachers to drop their membership. Brooks is hopping mad that Rockefeller's TAPP program didn't survive the vote. It is interesting that they tried to make it look like the CTA's fault that the vote was last minute. It is their own fault because, like everything else, they messed around until somebody brought it to their attention, again. The admin doesn't know enough to stay on top of their game, so they have to be reminded constantly that things are pending. It is ridiculous that a district the size and stature of Little Rock has to put up with this leadership.
By the way, did you notice that there are three seats up for LRSD board this September? Tom Brock, Tony Rose and Bryan Day's seats are all up for grabs. That means that Southwest and Midtown, which just happens to be where all of the school closings have happened, could possibly be represented by new school board members. That should be interesting to watch. Will the tables turn? What will Brooks do if the new board members actually like and respect the teachers? How about if they have enough sense to recognize that he and his entourage don't have a clue and that is the reason for all of the chaos? If you keep things stirred up enough, the attention remains focused away from your incompetencies. Hhhmmmmm. Do we know who the boss is yet? Or are we just horse's behinds who don't know when to shut up?

School Board Elections:
A+ is so right. That could mean change is in the air. I read the other day that there is no opposition to Rose or Brock. I sincerely hope that someone is out there waiting for the right moment to file. I am certain that the incumbents can be defeated if someone runs against them. Southwest and Midtown--Beat those bushes and find someone to run!!!

Should not the membership of CTA try to locate someone to challenge Brock and Rose? I am confident Day's seat will be occupied by someone from the ed. foundation. Brooks and the board probably have a plan to replace Day, someone who has similar beliefs as the current administration----and that ain't good.

Yes, LRSD has problems - but I just left PCSSD after twenty years to go to work for LRSD. Little Rock's problems are nothing compared to the problems of Pulaski County Special. And, yes, I am getting a raise out of the deal.

I want to know how many teachers have inquired about leaving LRCTA versus how many have now signed up. I suspect that stat won't be available until school starts.

To Anonymous 07:02.
You haven't been around long enough and if the only thing you care about is $$$ (which obviously you do) then you need to move to NWA or out of state.

With that said, now, we have a superintendent who has no clue about the whole deseg process, the court requirements, or the ramifications thereof. His, and his lackies, lack of knowledge is evidenced in the last School Board meeting when Dr. Katherine Mitchell asked about the current status of information needed for the upcoming court date. He couldn't provide it and we are still under Federal supervision long after Dr. Brooks took control. Why? By his own admission, he is the savior of LRSD. How???
Test scores are plummeting, more schools than ever will be on school improvement and the State has been admonished for its lack of rigourous evaluations. Dr. Ken James was the prior super to Brooks. When are the ACTAAP scores going to be published in the Demo-gaz? When are we going to think about kids? When is the curricula for the State going to match what each district chooses to have teachers teach? Teachers teach what is required by each distict, whether they agree or not. They are evaluated on the implementation of the curricula. There are "good" teachers and "bad" teachers just like "good" employees and "bad" employees.
One would think that if the Federal Court was involved with one's business, then one would know what was expected to discontinue the Federal oversight and quit paying lawyers' fees and their portion of the Office of Desegration Management. Not in LRSD! Let's attack the teachers. Let's cloud the real issue - kids. Children. They deserve the very best each of us, parents and teachers, can offer.

The amount of dues shown was for the unified 3 organizations - NEA, AEA and LRCTA. What a bargain! The only groups that lobby, provide group benefits and represent ALL groups of pubiic education professionals. The children are the REAL winners if the employees choose to be members. They get opportunities for great public schools for ALL students!

The amount of dues shown was for the unified 3 organizations - NEA, AEA and LRCTA. What a bargain! The only groups that lobby, provide group benefits and represent ALL groups of pubiic education professionals. The children are the REAL winners if the employees choose to be members. They get opportunities for great public schools for ALL students!

I just love how they put that in the newsletter. If the teachers are truly members and want to know how to get out, all they had to do was look in their P.N. agreement. It's all there in black and white, except of course the amount of dues paid. I thought it interesting that they pointedly published that, almost as if to encourage teachers to think about how much they pay in dues. Given the current admin's tactics, I would gladly pay that and more to ensure that I have a contract. Believe me, you don't know the half of what goes on in the LRSD that is poorly thought out and mismanaged and the only thing that stands in the way of most of it is that contract. Why do you think the powers that be want it gone so badly? I shudder to think what it could be like if the contract is gone.

Frankly, I don't think that the leadership of the CTA has a prayer of succeeding in the hostile climate they find themselves in. They are little leaguers. It is unfortunate for the teachers that they represent.

Public education is lost. Between the lawyers, the unions, the inept LRSD leadership and the federal government there really is no hope. If anyone is going to get a good education they are either going to home school or attend private school. Get out now while you can.

I have read all of these posts and I don't see how anyone is going to get a good education under these conditions. There is too much politics. Kids can't get an education in this kind of mess.

Anons:
Perhaps you should read the lists of awards public school graduates and their teachers receive before making statements such as these. Public school students are able to get a good education despite the admin's and board's shortcomings. The teachers work hard to ensure that the kids learn and many become burned out in the process because of all of the hoop jumping that goes on. You are correct in that the politics and red tape are in the way. The only way to get rid of these problems is for the voters and the public to stand up and be counted. In case you haven't noticed, teachers' voices are neither heard nor given any credence. The only time they care about what the teachers want is when it happens to coincide with what they want. The Rockefeller teachers would do well to remember that.
I'm not even going to go there on the homeschooling issue. Let's just say that not everyone is qualified to teach.
Any word on the number of teachers who have sent those certified letters? You know, several just means more than two.

The quantitative results of homeschooling is undeniable. It is overwhelming superior to public education.

The reality of public education is that the 'movers and shakers' don't have their kids in the public schools for the most part. Consequently, they are not going to fix the problem and the children of public schools will pay the price.

Anonymous:
I don't believe that it is the homeschooling that provokes the outstanding results so much as it is the kids who are being homeschooled. Those kids are generally the ones who do well in school, period. Give them one on one instruction, no distractions and a curriculum and you can't help but achieve outstanding results. I don't deny that. There are, however, other aspects of homeschooling that result in citizens who can't work cooperatively in the marketplace, interact with colleagues, or work to overcome social challenges. I'm not saying that these obstacles can't be overcome when homeschooling. I am just saying that everyone is not meant to teach and sometimes homeschooling does more harm than good. There is a lot more to teaching than just opening a book and saying, "Here it is, kids."
The other part of your statement is, sadly, so true.

This is yet another ploy by Brooks, his Florida crew, and the school board (Mitchell and Daugherty excluded) to try and "scare" the teachers away from CTA. When this group doesn't like what is going on, they use underhanded tactics to try and get their way. They prefer to threaten teachers wtih "apporpriate disciplinary action" if anyone dares to disagree with them and say so. It's obvious from test scores that Brooks and his Florida crew are not the answer to all our problems and they are not doing anything to improve morale among teachers. They have no desire to work in a collaborative manner with the teachers--the ones who actually know what's going on with our kids. Instead, they constantly harp on teachers, saying that "bad" teachers are the ones who are in the union and "good" teachers are the ones who want merit pay. If you disagree with anything this group says, you are labeled as "bad" and ignored or threatened. This is no way to run a school district and it certainly shows that they have no real desire to make things better for our kids.

Brock and Rose should not be re-elected. Surely someone out there can run against them. It's time for changes in this district, but not the kind that Brooks and his crew want. Things have gotten worse since they came to town, not better.

I concur with the previous statement: the schools have not improved since Brooks and his posse invaded Dodge. I had an opportunity to speak with a few teachers today and I did not hear one positive comment about Brooks or his team; however, they were excited about returning to school in August. The LRSD does not deserve the caliber of teachers it has; the teachers do an outstanding job despite the negative energy generated by Brooks and his cronies.

Unfortunately, the comments about homeschooling are typical and totally out of ignorance. I have personally interacted with home schoolers and they are unbelieveably socially interactive and very mature. The stats just don't bear out your prejudice. They represent a cross section of IQ and economic groups yet they are in the highest quartile in terms of standardized test scores.

Anonymous 7:08:
First of all, my comments are not made out of ignorance. Like you, I have first-hand experience with home-schoolers. I am also not prejudiced. I said I wasn't going to go there. Perhaps you should check the rules for homeschooling and think about who can homeschool their child under these guidelines. You can find them on the Dept. of Ed's website. I'd also be interested to see your "stats". Perhaps you would share.
Meanwhile, is there any information on numbers from CTA?

For the skeptical about home schooling in comparison with public schooling:

http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp

Thanks for the stats. I'm not going to comment more on my original reasoning, as my point seems to have been lost in the mist. I should have done as I originally said and not have gone there.
Back to the subject:
Any numbers yet? Probably because there aren't any. Another public relations ploy to suggest that teachers don't like CTA. Are they ever going to get the fact that TEACHERS ARE THE CTA???? Check the membership numbers. More teachers are members than are not.

I'm not advocating that teachers leave the CTA. I don't trust the administrators any more than you do. I have had some experience in that department. The CTA should know how many teachers are members. They should be on this blog providing that info.

Even though I support belonging to the CTA I find the NEA a blot on our society. They are disgusting and I would not want to be in any way affiliated with them.

Perhaps a few teachers will inquire how to arrange dues deduction for membership in the American Federation of Teachers, and then the LRSD can publish this helpful information as well?