Outrageous NYC Education Pensions

If you were wondering why teachers trend so overwhelmingly left-wing, consider the education pensions paid out in New York City:

Six-figure pensions paid to retired city education professionals [have] more than quadrupled since 2008, according to recent data from Empire Center’s SeeThroughNY, a fiscally conservative think tank.

Encroaching socialism may bleed the rest of us dry, but it works great for some employed by Big Government.

Last year, some 3,416 New York City Teachers’ Retirement System retirees received pensions of $100,000 or more compared to 3,029 in 2019 and 856 in 2008, according to the data.

This also helps explain why taxes are so high.

This year, the top educator to receive a city pension was a retired Queens College professor who earned $561,754.

It used to be that you had to produce wealth to make that kind of money. But those were the bad old days of the capitalist robber barons. Now you can make a fortune spouting moonbattery and stuffing young skulls with corrosive rot.

It isn’t just New York. Education pensions may sink the entire state of Illinois into bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, teachers around the country continue to strike, confident that their increasingly outrageous demands will be met.

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Education in W.Va. swings Left

Less than 24 hours following the public hearings Monday, more changes have been made to the West Virginia education bill.

The House Finance Committee has removed the controversial Education Savings Accounts from the bill, and only two charter schools will be allowed in the state.

"I persuaded them that I thought that this would probably be the best decision that we could make right now," said Del. Eric Householder, Chairman, (R) Berkeley - Education Committee. "And the bill advances and it lives another day."

The maximum number of charter schools has become a main focus for educators who are against the bill. One Delegate is hearing similar rumbles back home.

"I'm here to represent the folks that voted for me," said Del. Lisa Zukoff, (D) Marshall. "I'm hearing from home that they don't want charter schools."

More potential changes can arise once the House of Delegates have been introduced the bill. A final House vote should happen towards the end of the week.

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These are the new reforms set for French schools

France's much-debated new education reform bill was presented to parliament this week.

Dubbed the law for bringing 'trust back into schools' (in French l'école de confiance'), the bill was presented by France's education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer in the hope it will lead to greater social justice and improve the overall academic level of students.

The proposed reforms are part of a much wider set of changes to the French education driven by Emmanuel Macron who made improving education one of his top campaign promises. 

Some measures have already been been rolled out including smaller classroom sizes in the first year of primary school, a shake-up in university admissions and a ban of mobile phones in most classes.
 
Here are the key elements of the new education reforms being debated this week.

Compulsory school from age 3

The government wants to make school obligatory for all children from the age of three. Currently in France, children only have to attend school from the age of six, when primary school (École élémentaire) begins. In reality most children however (98.9 percent) also attend nursery (maternelle) for three years beforehand, leading critics to say this reform is merely a symbolic one.

Teachers to have a duty to be 'exemplary'

The bill wants to enshrine the notion that teachers have a duty to be exemplary models for their pupils.

Critics fear this could curtail freedom of expression however the government responded to this critique by adding that this duty would apply in the context of a current law that guarantees civil servants freedom of opinion.

A new body to rate the school system

The government wants to create a new body to rate the French education system.

The new 'Conseil d'évaluation de l'école' would take over some of the tasks currently undertaken by an independent council called Cnesco, which was set up by Macron's predecessor, Francois Hollande.

The new body would be made up of 14 members mostly appointed by the government. Unions and others have voiced worries that this means the council won't be independent.

More room for experimenting

The French school system is sometimes criticised for being rigid and centralised. The government wants to give more independence to schools by allowing individual establishments to decide on certain aspects of education, such as school hours.

Extra training for teaching staff

The government wants to boost training for teachers and intends to create a new institute to do this. To bridge current regional disparities in the quality of teacher training, the heads of these establishments would be appointed by the government and not locally.

The bill also aims to increase the number of international state schools and allowing assistants who are training to be teachers to teach some classes.

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