I remember how it was -- JR
Thousands of Houston ISD students have lost a teacher already this school year as the district experiences a spike in educator resignations.
About twice as many teachers left HISD in the first six weeks of school this year than has been typical in recent years, according to data obtained by the Houston Landing through a public records request.
The records show 170 teachers resigned during the first six weeks this school year, while an average of 84 left during the same time span from 2019 to 2022. As Texas’ largest district, HISD employs roughly 13,000 teachers, meaning the early-year resignations account for about 1 percent of HISD’s classroom instructors.
The new data confirm the number of teachers who have resigned so far this year is a stark outlier from recent precedent. A late October analysis from the Houston Chronicle suggested a similar jump, but only compared this year’s figures to one previous year of resignation data.
Including all staff, 559 employees resigned from HISD in the first six weeks of school this year, compared to an average of 346 during the same period from 2019 to 2022.
The numbers come as HISD begins its third month of classes under Superintendent Mike Miles, who was installed in early June by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath amid sanctions against the district. For months, teachers unions and some outspoken educators have characterized the new environment in HISD as toxic, but until the resignation numbers came into focus, few concrete data points existed to back up those claims.
Of the 170 voluntary teacher departures, 93 came from schools Miles is overhauling this year under his “New Education System.”
In a written statement, HISD did not address a question over whether the resignations might signal higher levels of teacher frustration this year.
“HISD has adopted a culture of high expectations and accountability,” spokesperson Jose Irizarry said. “All across the district, there are teachers, principals, and other staff who know this is true and understand the urgency.”
Though the departures represent just a small share of educators in the district, they still could be an indicator of increased discontent among the ranks of HISD’s teachers and staff. Mid-year resignation is one of the most extreme actions a staff member can take, and teachers who do so can be barred from teaching in a Texas public school district for a year. HISD declined to specify whether it will pursue penalties against teachers who do so.
Long considered a polarizing leader, Miles has a history of angering educators. Before becoming HISD superintendent, he served as superintendent of Dallas Independent School District from 2012 to 2015, and his reforms prompted many teachers to leave.
Over his time at the helm of Dallas ISD, the rate of teacher turnover nearly doubled, jumping from 12 percent in 2011-12, the school year before he assumed his role, to 21 percent in 2014-15, the year he left, according to state data. The statewide average rate of educator churn in that span hovered around 16 percent.
Meanwhile, the results of a survey posted on a prominent HISD Facebook page suggest many teachers still in the district may already have one foot out the door. About half of the roughly 860 respondents who self-identified as HISD teachers said they are planning to leave at the end of the school year or earlier. Another third said they are unsure, while only 14 percent said they plan to stay in the district next year.
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Private University Bans Pro-Palestine Organization
Last week, Townhall reported that many students at Columbia University staged a walkout from one of former first lady Hillary Clinton’s classes to “shame” the school for how they believe it allowed its students who signed a statement against Israel to be “publicly shamed.” Since Hamas launched its attack on Israel last month, Columbia University students had been vocal in how they do not support Israel.
Brandeis University, a private school based in Massachusetts, banned a student chapter of the National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on its campus. According to The Hill, Brandeis is the first U.S. university to ban this group.
A university spokesperson confirmed to The Hill this week that the school banned the student chapter for the national organization. The reason behind this move was SJP’s support of the terrorist organization Hamas.
“SJP has called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the elimination of the only Jewish state in the world and its people,” the school’s spokesperson said in its statement to The Hill. “Such expression is not protected by Brandeis’ principles of free speech.”
“Students are welcome to express their support for Palestinians in a manner that complies with our rights and responsibilities,” the spokesperson concluded.
Brandeis was founded as a nonsectarian Jewish university in 1948. Following its decision, the school sent a letter to SJP, which was obtained by The Jewish Insider:
“This decision was not made lightly, as Brandeis is dedicated to upholding free speech principles, which have been codified in Brandeis’ Principles of Free Speech and Free Expression,” the letter said. “However, those Principles note that ‘The freedom to debate and discuss ideas does not mean that individuals may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish, or however they wish,’ and that, ‘…the university may restrict expression…that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment…or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of the university.’”
The letter continued, “The National SJP has called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people. These tactics are not protected by the University’s Principles. As a result, the University made the decision that the Brandeis chapter of the National SJP must be unrecognized and will no longer be eligible to receive funding, be permitted to conduct activities on campus, or use the Brandeis name and logo in promoting itself or its activities, including through social media channels.”
The letter further states that students who choose to participate in conduct that supports Hamas “will be considered to be in violation of the University’s student code of conduct.”
“Students who wish to express their support for the rights of Palestinian civilians may form another student organization, through established procedures, that complies with University policies,” the document continues.
Last month, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Louis D. Brandeis Center sent a letter to 200 colleges and universities asking them to investigate students organizations of SJP for “for potential violations of 18 USC 2339A and B, and its state equivalents, that is, for potential violations of the prohibition against materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization,” The Hill reported.
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A Third Try in Texas for School Choice
Gov. Gregg Abbott has called a third special legislative session in an attempt to push through three priorities that previous sessions have defeated, surprisingly with some Republicans joining with most Democrats in opposition.
School choice is one of those priorities. The last session bowed to scare tactics by the powerful teachers unions and Democrats who promoted claims that allowing parents to send their children to private schools or use tax dollars to underwrite the costs of educating their children at home would force some public schools, especially in rural areas, to close.
That's looking at the issue the wrong way. The real issue is what is being taught in many public schools which minimize fundamental subjects like reading, math, science and history in favor of a progressive worldview.
Examples abound. Rachel Hale is a self-described parent advocate for Texas Education 911, an affiliate of Parents United for Freedom (PUFF). Full disclosure: I spoke at a PUFF fundraising dinner, organized by my granddaughter.
Hale delivered remarks loaded with examples of the introduction of subjects - and worse - that has outraged growing numbers of parents in Texas and increasingly throughout the country.
She mentioned a bill that passed with the objective of removing "pervasively vulgar books out of school libraries." Opponents have sued to keep the law from taking effect. See how this works? One side gets to introduce anything it wants under the cloak of "academic freedom," while objecting parents are denounced as censors and inexperienced when it comes to education.
Hale offers another example of the condescending attitude some public educators and activists have for parents: "... in the summer of 2021 the Texas House Public Education Committee held two days' worth of hearings on 'parent empowerment,' yet parents were not able to testify until the end of each day after Amazon, the Texas Education Agency, school superintendents and vendors - all of whom had unlimited time to speak and begged for more money ... and were only allowed two minutes.
"Right after this most recent regular session ended, a 'special commission' was formed. ... They spent two days hearing invited testimony only and guess who didn't make the list - parents!!!"
Still another example from Hale about where too many public schools are headed: "Child Protective Services were called on a parent in Lewisville ISD (when) her elementary age son responded a certain way after using the Rhitim App for three days in a row. Rhitim is an emoji-based survey that asks questions where the students respond with happy or sad faces. The survey was given right before lunch and asked the students if they were hungry. He of course answered with a sad face. After the third day of the same answer to the same question, it triggered CPS intervention."
In the Tioga Independent School District, parents complained of an "inappropriate relationship" between a teacher and their daughter. The school, the parents said, did nothing and renewed the teacher's contract for another year. Two days after graduating, their daughter left home and moved in with the teacher and his wife.
There's much more and parents must continually educate themselves if they want to avoid further indoctrination and potential danger to their children. Electing new school board members will help and this pro-parent group is focusing on local school board elections next May in hopes of flipping four seats now held by liberals.
Perhaps, if they can manage to get some of these horror stories before the special legislative session it might convince fence straddlers to allow parents the same opportunities they and other well-off parents have when it comes to choosing where to send their children to school and what is being taught in them.
https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2023/11/07/a-third-try-in-texas-for-school-choice-n2630856
******************************************************My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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