75 Reasons Betsy DeVos is Wrong for Public Education

Still don't know who Betsy DeVos is or why she would be the worst Secretary of Education in this modern era? Look no further. Compiled by eduator/activist/blogger, Jonathan Pelto, the following is only a partial list of posts written by members of the Education Bloggers Network about her since Donald Trump announced her nomination.  

Granted, I'm sure you have better things to do on a Sunday afternoon than read through every single one of these, but even if you pick a few, you will find that she is about as swampy a swamp creature as an alligator—and just as dangerous. 

Unless the US Senate blocks her nomination, this pro-voucher, pro-charter, pro-religious-education-on-the-taxpayer-dime, billionaire, Washington insider who has no degree in education, no teaching experience, nor any experience working in a public K-12 environment, who never attended pubic school (nor have any of her children) will make Arne Duncan look like Fred Rogers.

I could go on, but far too many great minds have already written a boatload. So, sit back, grap a cup of coffee (or a bottle of Xanax), and browse. Then call your US Senators and demand they vote No on her nomination.

From Alan Singer

Charter School Failure (The Schools, Not The Kids)

From A View From the Edge
Redefining Our Definitions

From A View From the Edge

Educational “Entitlement” Accounts

From A View From the Edge

Our New Education Secretary, Mr$. Bet$y DeVo$

From Badass Teachers Association
The DeVostater: Public School Advocates Unite! by Dr. Michael Flanagan

From Badass Teachers Assocation

A BATS Reading List to Learn About Betsy DeVos

From Badass Teachers Association
BATs Board of Directors Statement on Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education

From Bob Braun's Ledger
These Democrats "Applaud" Trump's Billionaire Education Secretary

From Bust•ED pencils
What you should know about Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary pick — and what her choice might tell us about his plans

From Curmudgucation
How Bad Is DeVos? So Bad...

From Curmudgucation
Opposing DeVos

From Curmudgucation
DeVos, the Acton Institute. and Child Labor

From Daniel Katz, Ph.D.
Secretary of Privatization

From deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's EduBlog
Why DFER’s Shavar Jeffries Must Support Ed Sec Betsy DeVos

From deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's EduBlog
Trump Ed-Sec Pick Betsy DeVos: Poised to Promote Vouchers above All Else

From Diane Ravitch

Julie Vassilatos: Betsy DeVos and the Zombie Apocalypse

From Diane Ravitch

Democracy Now! A Discussion of Betsy DeVos

From Diane Ravitch

John Thompson on the Reformers’ Dilemma: To Trump or Not to Trump

From Diane Ravitch

Campbell Brown, Reformer, Recuses Herself from Covering Her Friend, Betsy DeVos

From Diane Ravitch

Post-Election Report: Betsy DeVos’ Organization Counts Its Victories Over Public Schools

From Diane Ravitch

DeVos Fought to Keep Michigan Charters Unregulated and Unaccountable

From Diane Ravitch

In Michigan, under GOP (DeVos) Rule, Teachers’ Pensions are on the Table

From Diane Ravitch

California Charter School Association Congratulates Betsy DeVos

From Diane Ravitch

Jane Mayer: Who Is Betsy DeVos?

From Diane Ravitch

Detroit Free Press: How the DeVos Family Bought the Michigan GOP and Stiffed the Children of Detroit

From Diane Ravitch
DFER Congratulates DeVos, Enemy of Public Schools

From Diane Ravitch
In DeVos’ Michigan: Literacy is not a “Fundamental Right”

From Diane Ravitch
Betsy DeVos and Campbell Brown: Good Friends

From Diane Ravitch

Yes, Betsy DeVos Can Privatize Large Numbers of Public Schools, with the Help of Red States

From Diane Ravitch

Will Bunch: DeVos Will Be a Disaster for Philly

From Diane Ravitch

DeVos Family Values: Money, Power, and Rightwing Politics

From Diane Ravitch

ACLU of Michigan Warns About Dangers of DeVos Nomination

From Diane Ravitch

New York Times on DeVos: A Champion for Privatization of Education

From Diane Ravitch

Betsy DeVos: A Disastrous Choice for the Nation and Public Schools

From Diane Ravitch

Stephen Dyer: Betsy DeVos PAC was Fined $5.2 Million in Ohio for Violating Campaign Finance Laws

From Diane Ravitch

Mitchell Robinson: From Michigan, This is the Real Betsy DeVos

From Diane Ravitch

Washington Post: Meet Betsy DeVos

From Diane Ravitch

Trump Picks DeVos for Secretary of Education

From Ed in the Apple
Trump Nominates Betsy DeVos and Declares War on Public Education: Vouchers, Charters and School Choice on Steroids

From Ed in the Apple
Why do Trump, Pence, DeVos and Republicans Support Charter Schools, Education Vouchers, “privatizing” Social Security and Medicare/caid? What Does Supporting “Small Government” Mean? And, Will Trump Build a Statute of Ayn Rand on the Washington Mall?

From educationdc

Meet Our New Public Education Personnel: Just Like the Old Ones (Only More So)

From Edushyster
The Long Game of Betsy DeVos

From Exceptional Delaware
America Is Getting Bamboozled With Betsy Devos! She Is All In On The True Agenda: Cradle To Grave Workforces Of Tomorrow

From Fred Klonsky

Corporate reformers are phony agnostics about Trump’s choice of DeVos.

From Gary Rubinstein

TFA Makes A Statement On DeVos

From GFBrandenburg's Blog
Amway is an illegal pyramid scheme.

From GFBrandenburg's Blog
The Only Worse Possible Candidate for U.S. EdSec than Michelle Rhee was Betsy Devos. So, Devos it is.

From janresseger
Betsy DeVos Nominated as Secretary of Education

From janresseger
President-elect Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos Push Increasingly Discredited School Policy

From janresseger
Important Reading on Betsy DeVos

From Jan Resseger

DeVos Family Contributes Lavishly to Legislators Who Defeated Detroit Charter School Oversight

From Jeff Bryant

Betsy DeVos May Complete The Big Money Takeover Of Our Nation’s Schools

From Jersey Jazzman
What Can We Learn About Betsy DeVos From Her Husband's Charter School?

From Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup Nov 24: Thanksgiving Special Edition - Trump Flips the Bird at American Public Education

From Fred Klonsky
Corporate reformers are phony agnostics about Trump’s choice of DeVos.

From Live Long and Prosper
Betsy DeVos on Live Long and Prosper

From Live Long and Prosper
Amateur Hour in the Cabinet

From Mother Crusader

Betsy DeVos: Conflict of Interest Concerns Arise on Future Secretary's Twitter Account

From Mother Crusader
DeVos Removes Controversial Twitter Photo But Conflict Of Interest Concerns Continue

From Mother Crusader
Betsy DeVos: Conflict of Interest Concerns Arise on Future Secretary's Twitter Account

From Nancy Bailey's Education Website
Privatization and School Buses? Thoughts, Please, Betsy DeVos?

From Nakhil Goyal

Public schools may not survive Trump's billionaire wrecking crew

From Russ on Reading
Heavens to Betsy (DeVos)!

From School Matters
DeVos money big in Indiana politics

From The Educator's Room
Meet Betty DeVos, Our New Secretary of Education

From The Progressive
Betsy DeVos’s War on Public Schools

From Russ on Reading
Heavens to Betsy (DeVos)!

From 10th Period
Ohio's Largest Campaign Finance Violator named Trump's Education Secretary

Posts by Diane Ravitch of other blogger’s commentary pieces:

From Diane Ravitch
Nancy Flanagan: DeVos and the Hoax of Charter Schools in Michigan

From Diane Ravitch

Nikhil Goyal: Can Public Schools Survive Trump’s Billionaire Wrecking Crew?

From Diane Ravitch

Gary Rubinstein: What TFA Said about the DeVos Appointment

From Diane Ravitch

Peter Greene: Betsy DeVos and the Value of Child Labor

From Diane Ravitch

Jersey Jazzman: What Can We Learn About Betsy DeVos from Her Husband’s Charter School

From Diane Ravitch

Mother Crusader Discovers Betsy DeVos Using Product Placement to Sell Her Stuff

From Diane Ravitch

G. F. Brandenburg: The Only Worse Candidate Than Betsy DeVos Would Have Been Rhee

Defend Public Ed: Take Action NOW!

In President Elect Trump's continuous effort to "drain the swamp", he has nominated Betsy DeVos as our next Secretary of Education. Who is she? Well, if we're talking "swamp-draining", let's just say that DeVos is about as swampy a swamp monster as you can get. Not only does she have zero public education experience, she and her husband are big donors to the GOP as well as organizations supporting vouchers, right-to-work laws, anti-gay marriage and school choice. With connections to Blackwater, The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, and the Alliance for School Choice to name a few, she's a Washington insider of considerable pedigree.

Mother Crusader posted an in-depth piece on her yesterday. Here's just one image from the post showing how deeply DeVos is sewn into the fabric of DC:

The possibility of having her as Secretary of Education makes me long for the days of (dare I say it?) Arne Duncan. 

So, what can you do besides reading and sharing Mother Crusader's post? Here are a few more things:

1. Join the Thunderclap started by the Badass Teachers Association by clicking on this link:
2. Read and share the BATs press release on DeVos
3. Sign and share this letter to your US Senator started by Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education
4. Call your US Senator and tell him or her to vote No on DeVos's nomination. It's not enough just to write. You need to follow up with a phone call.
   - Sen. Cory Booker (NJ): (973) 639-8700
   - Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ): (973) 645-3030
   - Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (PA): (202) 224-6324
   - Sen. Pat Toomey (PA): (202) 224-4254 
5. Follow the Network for Public Education (NPE) on Facebook and Twitter and participate in the actions they organize.
6. And of course, continue educating your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers on the dangers of privatization. 

Hope to see many of you in Washington on January 21st!

My open letter to @campbell_brown

Dear Campbell,

I hear you have filed another lawsuit seeking to do away with seniority rights for teachers. You've already got a suit going in New York, and your case in Minnesota was thrown out, and now you're coming after us in New Jersey. 

Why?

Are you aware that Gov. Christie signed a bipartisan tenure reform law that puts the responsibility of helping underperforming teachers squarely on the shoulders of administrators? Do you know that attaining tenure in New Jersey now takes four years instead of three? That there is a definite process and timeline that must be followed? That the evaluation process is now far more detailed and rigorous than before? So, exactly what do you hope to attain with your lawsuit? 

If you're trying to get rid of veteran educators, you're doing a good job. The power and money (and the influence they buy) behind the education 'reform' movement have seen to it that more veteran educators are leaving the profession now than ever before because it's becoming almost impossible to effectively do our jobs. And in urban districts—the very same ones you and your lawsuit avatars claim to want to 'fix'—new teachers are fleeing the profession within the first five years. 

As far back as 2003, education experts were sounding the alarm bells about the increasing teacher shortage. It has only gotten worse, and efforts such as yours, and the education 'reform' movement in general, have only added to the brain drain.

It continues to amaze me that those who seek to improve my profession and student achievement, but who lack any real knowledge of my day-to-day classroom existence, simply refuse to acknowledge the scholarly and vetted research showing the real causes of student and school underachievement, and best practices to help them succeed. Instead, you construct your agenda based on the fast food model: cheap, fast, loaded with unhealthy CCRAP (read it backwards) delivered by underpaid employees while the corporations selling this swill rake in billions.

But then, this does seem to be the American way, doesn't it? 

The education 'reform' movement's refusal to accept the facts and research puts you in the same category as climate deniers and birthers. 

And speaking of facts, here are a few from  a 2014 New York Daily News article authored by Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, with additional research by Raymond Pryke, Professor of First Amendment Law at the university. They analyzed the case made by the Vergara plaitiffs' attorneys. Chemerinsky writes (all emphasis mine):

American public education desperately needs to be improved, especially for the most disadvantaged children. But eliminating teachers’ job security and due-process rights is not going to attract better educators — or do much to improve school quality.

In recent months, several respected progressive scholars and politicians have endorsed litigation, like a successful case in California, to weaken the protections afforded public school teachers. Former CNN anchor Campbell Brown is spearheading a suit in New York. Their goals are laudable, but their means are misguided.

The problem of inner-city schools is not that the dedicated teachers who work in them have too many rights, but that the students who go to them are disadvantaged in many ways, the schools have inadequate resources and the schools are surrounded by communities that are dangerous, lack essential services and are largely segregated both by race and class.

Taking the modest job security accorded by tenure away from teachers will address none of these problems.

The causal relationship alleged by the plaintiffs in these lawsuits — that teachers’ rights cause minority students to receive substandard educations — is belied by readily available empirical evidence.

If the plaintiffs were correct, similarly situated students in states with weak protection of teachers — such as Texas, Alabama and Mississippi — would have higher levels of achievement and the racial achievement gap would be smaller in those states. But there is no evidence that minority students in Houston, Birmingham or Jackson outperform those in Los Angeles or New York.

In fact, a study published in the Harvard Educational Review found a significant positive relationship between rates of unionization (and accompanying job security) and student scores on the SAT and ACT.

Every year, the states with the highest student performance are those with robust protections for teachers — places like Maryland and Massachusetts.

(... and, may I add, New Jersey) 

One of the key reasons they are successful is that these states do a better job at getting resources to the neediest students and creating a climate where teachers have the support needed to succeed and therefore stay in the profession.

Similarly, though there are some outstanding charter schools where teachers lack union protections, the lack of union protections never guarantees quality. New York State has plenty of schools where principals can hire and fire teachers at will. Many do not excel.

In the California anti-tenure litigation, the judge found that between 1% and 3% of teachers in the state are grossly ineffective. They, of course, should be replaced. But the evidence also showed that it is possible to do so while respecting basic protections teachers have under law.

The reality is that job security and protection against arbitrary treatment are terms and conditions of employment that, like higher wages, attract good people into teaching and keep them in the classroom.

And if that is our objective, it should be noted that teachers in the United States work more hours and are paid less than their counterparts in almost every other developed country — and their salaries have fallen dramatically relative to pay for comparable jobs in our economy since 1940...

We need to find better ways to attract talented people to become teachers. Every study, and common sense, supports the conclusion that teacher effectiveness improves with experience. I hope and believe that I am a far better teacher than when I began as a law professor 35 years ago. Thus, the lawsuits’ attack on consideration of seniority in assignments and layoffs is misguided.

One of the biggest challenges in education today is teacher retention... Getting rid of tenure and due process will not encourage more teachers to stay in the profession. It will drive them out and discourage other qualified people from entering the profession in the first place...

Cloaking the attack on teachers’ rights in the rhetoric of the civil rights movement is misleading. Lessening the legal protections for teachers will not advance civil rights or improve education.

So, the research (and this piece is only one in a large body of evidence) says that your lawsuits hurt—not strengthen—the teaching profession. And if teachers are hurting, how can they effectively teach? So, again I ask, What is your point? Other than trying to break the unions, what exactly are you trying to accomplish? The only thing you are doing is sucking the life out of us and driving highly qualified people from the profession—and that hurts students. 

Public school teacher Susan DuFresne sums up the crush of corporate 'reform':

What corporate reform is asking of teachers today is impossible for one human being to accomplish – even in a 24 hour period. With the start of each day at 5:30 am... I carry the burdens of exhaustion, the unfinished workload, the guilt of what reform does to young children... and the build-up of prior weeks of stress. 

I am not alone.  Other teachers in my district are ready to quit. At one school in my district 11 out of 14 teachers said they have thought about quitting – leaving their profession.  Our local union president notes we are at our tipping point. What will it be like when the uninhabitable death zone is the only place left in our public schools and all the creative passionate teachers have gone? 

In addition, our paychecks have shrunk. We're doing more test prep and data collection than actual teaching. We are held accountable for all the ills of society that plague our students. We are vilified in the press. Our pensions are disappearing. Heck, even our 403(b) plans suck. Enrollment in schools of education is down nationwide in part because young people simply don't want to go into a profession where they are attacked on an almost daily basis. There is absolutely nothing attractive about the teaching profession right now, and you want to make it worse—and that is supposed to somehow magically make it... better. 

Look, no one wants to work with an ineffective colleague. But whose fault is it that an ineffective teacher has been allowed to languish in the classroom for years? Not the teacher. The responsibility rests solely with the administrators. And yet, other than New Jersey's new tenure law, I have not seen one 'reform' that addresses administrators who turn a blind eye to ineffective teaching. 

If you win your case (and this is your case—not the avatar plaintiffs'), do you know what will happen to all the highly effective teachers who have 15, 20, 30 years of experience who lose their job? They will either never teach again or, if they do, they will have to take a drastic pay cut because, when push comes to shove, school districts simply can no longer afford to hire experienced, veteran educators. And that is a damned shame. But the blame for that rests squarely on the shoulders of the education 'reform' movement of which you are a large part, because your movement's efforts have resulted in billions of dollars being cut from public education all across this country. 

Don't believe me? Consider this scenario:

Teacher A has 25 years experience and a masters degree. During that time she has received outstanding observations and been considered an excellent teacher. Last year her summative score was 3.70—highly effective. She is at the top of the salary guide earning about $80,000.

Teacher B has 4 years experience. During that time she too has received outstanding observations for her excellent work. Last year her summative score was 3.72, also highly effective. She is toward the bottom of the salary guide earning about $48,000.

Due to a charter school opening in town, the district has to send 90% of its per pupil funding over to it with every student who enrolls, so the district is forced to lay off staff to fill the hole in the budget. 

If seniority rights are removed, Teacher A will lose her job. And she will never work again because no district can afford to hire her. If she were to be offered a job, it would be at a drastically reduced salary. This would be financially devastating—not to mention demoralizing.

If seniority rights are in place, the district would lay off Teacher B, who would have no trouble securing another job because because of her effectiveness and comparatively lower salary. She's a good investment for another district and has decades to earn more money.

Are you prepared for this? Do you even care that your actions could result in many excellent, veteran teachers losing even more take home pay than they already have? Have you thought about how effective a school with little to no teaching experience can truly be? Have you considered that all the 'innovation' you all love to demand from us first requires experience in what works and what doesn't? And that experience takes years to acquire? 

Teaching—the most important profession there is—is the only profession nowadays where experience doesn't matter.

And how do you justify nepotism and discrimination as educational best practices? I mean, they will no doubt play a huge role in many hiring and firing decisions if seniority is removed. I'm very serious. How will you combat that?

My guess is you won't because you seem to only care about ridding our schools of all those 'bad teachers'. Well, no teacher wants to work with an ineffective colleague. But, there are procedures for improving or removing them, and here in New Jersey that process has been greatly strengthened. But it's up to the administrators to make that happen. Teachers don't work in a vacuum.

Despite some of the snark in this letter, I truly, seriously welcome a response. After being beaten up by the press, elected officials, billionaires and education 'reformers' for the past six or seven years, I've grown weary of being polite to people who simply have no knowledge of what I do, how I do it and what my students are going through. 

The great irony of the education 'reform' movement is that, in your zealous demand for data, you refuse to acknowledge the data that is staring you right in the face: it's the poverty.

.@realDonaldTrump: the RNCs monster

As much as I despise Donald Trump's lies, misogyny, racism and xenophobia; as much as his vile words and actions make my skin crawl; as much as I think, if elected, he would go down as the worst president in US history, possibly lead us into a civil war (not to mention wars with other countries), I don't think the RNC should force him to drop out.

No, that would be too easy. That would let those who created him off the hook, and they need to be held accountable.

By the very nature of human imperfection, fear lives in every one of us. It's up to us—individually and collectively—to decide how much it controls our lives. If left unchecked, it can evolve into racism, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny and other forms of hatred. But, no matter if we are persons of faith or none, mankind survives, thrives and moves forward in direct proportion to how much we uplift and include each other, not beat down and marginalize.

So, when your number one mission is to bring down the first African American President in US history; when you refuse to work with that president—who just inherited the worst economy since the great depression—simply because of the color of his skin; when you care more about what is going on inside a woman's body than whether she can keep a roof over her head and food on the table; when you waste more time trying to repeal an imperfect law that has provided millions of Americans with health care instead of trying to fix that law; when you would rather see innocent people continually gunned down because you are more loyal to the NRA than the American people; when you preach "all lives matter" when some clearly don't; when you continually take your sandbox toys and go home simply because someone from your party isn't the line leader; when you sit back and do absolutely nothing (Sen. John McCain excluded) while Donald Trump fans the flames of racism by challenging President Obama's citizenship; when you refuse to stand a moral ground and reject Donald Trump's message of fear and hatred from the get-go, you need to take a good, hard look in the mirror and own it! Donald Trump is your monster. You created him, now you have to live with him. 

Whether or not any of us on either side of the aisle likes it, he is the choice of the majority of GOP voters. He is who they want for president. What gives you the right to deny the will of the people? They elected him—not you. Removing Donald Trump from the ballot sets a dangerous precedent, and lets you off the hook. With all the havoc you've wreaked on this country in the past seven and a half years, do you want that hanging over your heads, too? 

So, cut off his funding, un-endorse him, publicly support Hillary Clinton, do whatever you have to do, but don't you dare try to force him off the ticket to save what little is left of your reputation. Because if you do, those angry pitchfork and torches mobs will be coming for you, and he will be leading the way.

Time for a "reality" check. Time for the GOP to have its Dr. Frankenstein moment. Your party is going down in flames, and you have only yourselves to blame.

RNC Headquarters

After this election, you need to take a good hard look in the mirror, admit your role in creating him and figure out how you are going to be a more inclusive party. Then get out from behind your healthy, wealthy and white gated communities and start really connecting to the American people before it's too late. 

There are many good, decent Republicans in this country, but their voices have been largely silenced by those in the GOP who just can't stand the fact that America is changing—some would say for the better.

Pensions Politics & Those Pesky Public Employees Pt.2

Back to School & The #RightToWork For Less

Note: This post is long overdue, but sometimes I just gotta take a break and re-charge my batteries.

You can read Part 1 of this series here.

On Labor Day we honored the American middle class. Once the backbone of this country, labor unions helped lift vast numbers of American workers out of poverty, gave them safe, well-paying jobs, allowed them to live their American Dream while building the American landscape, and set our economy firing on all cylinders.

But the backbone of this nation is now bent and weak. Many unions are no more, and wages are down in direct correlation. The US is now a majority 'right-to-work' nation. The American middle class is shrinking. And despite a report released last month showing we had our "best year of economic improvement" in decades, it "did not fully repair the damage inflicted by the Great Recession." Some of us will never fully recover. 

Makes me all giddy inside.

****

September is always rough on education professionals. Contrary to 'reformy' rhetoric, I was not sunning myself on the beaches in the South of France all summer. No, I was on unpaid furlough. Granted, I did work this summer at an amazing job (more on that in another post). But, while many people are enjoying barbecues with family and friends over Labor Day weekend, many of us are digging through sofa cushions and raiding our kids' piggy banks to make September's mortgage payment.

This is my 15th year in the teaching profession and 14th as a proud NJEA member. I have a masters degree and graduated summa cum laude from college, and I have finally reached point in my salary guide where I feel like I'm earning a respectable wage for the work I do. I'm not complaining. I knew going in that I would never be a millionaire, but when I looked at that pay stub, I must admit that I was disappointed once again. 

Despite a decent raise, I'm only taking home about $44 more a week. I guess I shouldn't complain. There are many public employees still stuck in the mire of Chapter 78 and are still seeing their paychecks decrease every year—a phenomenon we call "net negative" return. And there are education professionals in other states who fare far, far worse (more on that below). My local is one of the lucky ones. We bargained out of Chapter 78, but that doesn't mean we're rolling in dough. Soon, $44 a week won't even buy me a tank of gas.

So, where does all my money go? The biggest deductions outside of the standard state and federal taxes are—contrary to what 'reformies' would have you believe— not for union dues. No, they're for pension and health benefits—those 'Cadillac' benefits Gov. Christie loves to accuse us of lolling in while he lolls here:

Chez Christie

... or scopes out pricey real estate at the Jersey shore for life aprés politics.

Those vital health care benefits and deferred compensation that—thanks to Ch. 78—I now pay more for, work longer to receive, and get less of in retirement. But my dues deduction for that big, bad 'ole union that is sucking the life out of me and preventing me from taking home oodles of dough is less than 1/7 of what I contribute for pension and benefits combined. 

But, 'right-to-work' (for less) 'reformies' like the National Right to Work Committee, funded by the likes of the Koch Brothers and molded by countless hours in ALEC meetings, would have the general public believe that, if it wasn't for those damned greedy unions and the outrageous dues they fleece from their members, business would flourish! Workers would do fantastically, wonderfully well on the open market! We would suddenly command 6-figure salaries! Our careers and lives would be magically transformed for the better!

We know that the only entities right-to-work laws benefit are corporations. According to the IBEW:

"Right-to-work is part of a national anti-worker agenda that won't bring one job to the state or help a single family put food on the table," said Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. 

Right-to-work laws weaken workers' ability to collectively bargain by making it harder for unions to collect dues, driving down wages and benefits. The average worker in a right-to-work state makes $1,500 less a year than his counterpart in union-friendly states. 

Employees in pro-worker states are also more likely to have job-based health benefits. (emphasis mine)

How bad is it in right-to-work states? Consider Wisconsin. WEA members now face this every day:

• No due process protections
• No right to collectively bargain anything
• Teachers resigning in droves
• Schools of education enrollments plummeting
• Gender-discriminating dress codes that force female teachers to wear longer skirts and closed-toe shoes

And in right-to-work-for-even-less, North Carolina, lawmakers have taken it a step further, eliminating salary increases for post bachelors degrees. How would you like to go to bed at night with these stats invading your dreams?

So, what do I get in return for those dues which Gov. Christie—in his $4,000 Cartier gold cufflinks—and some of his GOP cronies in the New Jersey state legislature call outrageous and outlandish? Well, for less than what I pay for my cell phone bill every month I get this:

• Due process protection. The reassurance that, if a whistle needs to be blown, a student needs to be protected, a wrong needs to be made right, or an administrator just doesn't like me, there is a legal process through which I can state my case. Contrary to 'reformy' spin, it won't provide me with a job for life.
• Professional development. The NJEA Convention is one of the largest and most comprehensive professional development conferences in the country. And yes, I do attend, and if you're an NJEA member, you should, too.
• Equal pay for equal work. Union salary guides guarantee that I won't make 70¢ on the dollar simply because of my gender or my age; and my credentials and experience—not my cronyism—drive my compensation.
• Support. Like any family, my union brothers and sisters and I don't always see eye-to-eye, but when push comes to shove, we are all on the same page when it comes to providing our students with one of the best public education systems in the country. And no, that system didn't come from Christie, Cerf, Hespe and Company. It came from us—200,000 strong—doing our jobs every single day, despite sometimes overwhelming odds and under tremendous pressure to solve all the ills of the world.
• Help. Education professionals know there are no 'failing' districts in this state. We know
  
  the issues some schools face go far deeper than a 'pass/fail' label. We know that the solution isn't to close schools and disrupt communities. And we know that our union provides help that is SMART—not some rhetoric-filled, pie-in-the-sky mumbo-jumbo devised by people who've never set foot in a classroom.
• Political Power to endorse candidates and affect election outcomes. And, more than anything else, that's something 'reformy' folk desperately want to take away from us, because once they control the vote, they control everything.

There ain't no 'reformy' organization that will ever provide any of this (and more) to people who work in right-to-work-for-less states. The only things you are guaranteed are job insecurity and less take home pay.

So, when Gov. Christie and Co. make stupid comments like this:

"What we know now is, more money alone does not translate into a better education," Christie said. "Better teaching methods, more instruction time and improved educational programs make the difference."  

Allowing the status quo to continue would be "criminal," Christie said. 

... I can say true, more money alone—without an evidence-based plan—won't make a difference. And neither will less. And neither will the 'status quo' which is not what Christie accuses us of perpetrating. Quite the opposite. These days the 'status quo' is the cockamamie schemes he and his puppets at the DOE come up with to cut that money from school budgets—especially those most in need. The 'status quo' is drill and kill, punish students, punish teachers, close schools, flip 'em to charters, and hold us all accountable for their failures.

The status quo is not professional educators being given the resources and support to do great things in the classroom. No, the status quo is Gov. Christie telling the world how horrible our poorest and neediest schools and students are, how "greedy and selfish" their educators are, and us fighting him tooth and nail.

The only things standing between Gov. Christie and the complete annihilation of public education in New Jersey are the unions— NJEA and AFT—and the sensible and reasonable elected officials in Trenton who know that he is nothing more than a shill for the corporate 'reform' movement.

So, when I look at my paycheck and see that dues deduction, I know it's a small price to pay for the continued welfare of our students and our state's future.

402 more days until Gov. Christie's reign of terror comes to an end. We can do this.

Wishing you all a successful and fulfilling 2016-2017 school year.