Archive for the 'Education' Category

R.I. GOP Candidate Training School Begins on Saturday

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Dave Talan

To:
Definite Candidates For 2010
People Who Might Be Candidates, But Have Not Decided Yet
Key Volunteers Who Will Help Out In Campaigns

Subject:
R.I. GOP Candidate Training School Begins
THIS SATURDAY, MAY 1
9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.
At Avedisian Headquarters, 1800 POST ROAD in WARWICK
(Airport Plaza, corner of Post Rd. & Airport Rd., just below and to the left of Staples)

RHODE ISLAND REPUBLICAN PARTY TO
BEGIN 2010 CANDIDATE TRAINING PROGRAM

Warwick – On Saturday, May 1, 2010, the Rhode Island Republican Party will begin its 2010 Candidate Training Program. The first session of this program will be held at the Campaign Headquarters of Mayor Scott Avedisian, located at 1800 Post Road in Warwick, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

While the content of the Candidate Training Program will be directed primarily to candidates for the RI House and Senate, Republican candidates for all state and local offices, as well as their key campaign staff, will be welcome to attend.

The Candidate Training Program will begin with a one-day training session focused on practical requirements for success including: Declaration of Candidacy and signature requirements; Financial Disclosures and the RI Board of Elections; campaign fundraising; media; and issues. Republican Party officers, past candidates and political consultants will be among the presenters at this portion of Training Program.

The RI GOP 2010 Candidate Training Program will resume with an intensive, two-day training session on May 22 and 23 to provide an in-depth look at successful campaign strategies. Additional details regarding the two-day portion of the Training Program will be released at a later date.

Anyone with questions or wishing to attend the 2010 Candidate Training Program must respond by email to: contact [at] rigop [dot] org. (Let us know you are coming, so that we can prepare for the number of people who show up).

Speakers in order:

Signatures, Deadlines Legal Requirements:
Rob Coupe/Dave Talan

Working the Board of canvassers CD / Effective walking lists / Voter Vault:
Sean Gately / Ryan Lund

Effective Campaigning / Issues:
Brian Newberry

Palm Cards, Logo’s Yard Signs, Mailings:
Chuck Mc Gee

Opposition Research:
Bill Felkner

Fundraising:
Heather Philpot

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Filed Under: 2010 Elections, Alerts, Education and Republican Party Closed

Alert: Binding Arbitration Bill in the RI Senate!

Posted on March 8, 2010 by The Ocean State Republican

BINDING ARBITRATION ALERT!
BINDING ARBITRATION BILL IN SENATE!
Take Action!

You told the House, Now Tell the Senate: NO BINDING ARB!

Thank you for your recent messages to the RI House of Representatives in objection to the new Binding Arbitration bill. Now, however, it is time to address Bill S2603 in the Senate. This bill is the Senate version of the House Binding Arbitration bill, and it has been introduced by Senator Michael J. McCaffrey.

Like the bill in the House, S2603 provides that if a new collective bargaining agreement cannot be agreed to by the parties, the terms and conditions of the old three-year agreement remain in full force until a new contract agreement is reached. The result: public-sector unions would have no motivation to negotiate new contracts that bring their salaries and benefits into line with those of the average taxpayer.

Furthermore, senators who are themselves state workers or related to state workers will vote on this bill when they should recuse themselves, despite their obvious conflicts of interest.

Please notify your senator that you expect him/her to oppose this Binding Arbitration Bill and that your vote in November will be based upon his/her actions during this legislative session.

News Release: Rhode Island Statewide Coalition

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Filed Under: Alerts, Big Labor and Education Closed Tags: .

Trustees Vote to Axe Central Falls High School Teachers

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Will Ricci

Big Labor Predictably Not Happy About it…

Last night, the Board of Trustees which oversees the grossly under-performing Central Falls High School voted 5-2 to terminate every teacher, as well as the principal and his 3 assistants (including my state senator). 93 total.

As you might imagine, those who’ve been riding the gravy train are none too pleased. RI state law requires layoff notices be issued by March 1st. Under the reorganization plan, up to half will be rehired for the fall and half will be new. Special thanks to DOE Secretary Arne Duncan for making this all possible. Yes we can!

…state and local education officials received some high-powered support of their own, when U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan weighed in, saying he “applauded” them for “showing courage and doing the right thing for kids.”

Busloads of teachers from across the state turned out.

“I think the real goal is to bust the unions,” said Julie Boyle, an English teacher at Coventry High School. “Sometimes a teacher is the only touchstone in a student’s life. I’m sad for the students who will lose their touchstones.”

Just an hour after the rally, the Central Falls school Board of Trustees, in a brief but intense meeting, voted 5-2 to fire every teacher at the school. In all, 93 names were read aloud in the high school auditorium — 74 classroom teachers, plus reading specialists, guidance counselors, physical education teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals…

Read and Comment: The Providence Journal

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Filed Under: Big Labor, Education, Reformers and Rhode Island Closed

American Thinker: The Liberal Plot against American Education

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Rhode Island Red

Sounds familiar…

With troublemakers enjoying near-diplomatic immunity from punishment, schools have no choice but to hire armies of workers to mitigate their impact…and as in any well-formulated, government-financed, make-work scheme, everyone receives a turn at the trough. There will be more social workers, mental health counselors, anti-violence program supervisors and coordinators, role models, and mentors for at-risk students, right on down to more janitors skilled in graffiti removal, school safety officers, technicians to repair vandalized surveillance equipment, classroom assistants to keep an eye on the mischief-makers, and whatever else it takes to staff these prison-like schools…

These extra bodies necessary for maintain dangerous schools are also a windfall for the Democratic Party and its expand-the-state policies. Bloated school payrolls guarantee more dues-paying members to education unions like the NEA and AFT, both central to Democratic fundraising and voting drives. (These unions also supply many delegates to the party’s presidential nominating convention.) They are also a ready-made voter base for erstwhile “education” mayors and governors “committed to helping the children” who all the while push government farther into fiscal insolvency…

Read More: The American Thinker

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Filed Under: Commentary, Democrats, Education and Liberals and Leftists Closed

American Spectator: Labor Unions and the News Media

Posted on December 17, 2009 by The Ocean State Republican

mediocrityThe issue that has sparked a lot of interest lately, however, has involved schoolteachers, not industrial unions. Their two main unions are the National Education Association (with 3.2 million members, dedicated to themselves first, the Democratic Party second, and the children third) and the American Federation of Teachers (1.4 million members; same priorities).

These unions have played a major role in the decline of public education with go-slow work rules and by making it almost impossible to fire teachers, no matter how incompetent.

Today, however, in both Washington and New York, the collapse of inner-city schools has reached a point where the newspapers can no longer avoid addressing the role of unions…

Read More: The American Spectator

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Filed Under: Big Labor, Democrats, Education and Media Closed

Young Special-needs Child Suspended for Drawing Jesus

Posted on December 15, 2009 by The Ocean State Republican

cross-christmasT’is the Season. Not quite Rhode Island, but certainly close enough to us to hit home…

An 8-year-old special-needs child was suspended from school and forced to undergo psychiatric counseling over a picture he drew of Jesus Christ dead on the cross for a Christmas assignment.

School officials in Taunton, Mass., said the picture “violated the code of violence in the school handbook,” said Toni Saunders, an educational consultant on special-needs children with the Associated Advocacy Center who is working with the boy’s family.

“I couldn’t believe what they were telling me,” the boy’s father, Chester Johnson, who also works for the school system as a substitute custodian, told The Washington Times on Tuesday. “I asked her, ‘Are you fooling around?’”

Mr. Johnson said his son, who is a slow reader and has “a little speech problem,” now wants to transfer schools. Mr. Johnson requested that his son not be named.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Ms. Saunders added, referring to the suspension. “This is a very religious family. They felt violated because of this.”

The fracas began Thanksgiving night, when the boy was taken to see a Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro, Mass. The next week, on Dec. 2, the boy’s teacher at Lowell M. Maxham Elementary School asked all the students to draw something that reminded them of Christmas, and the pupil drew a crucifix like the one he had seen at the display.

The boy then was taken to the principal’s office and asked why he drew this image.

Read More: The Washington Times

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Filed Under: Education, Holidays and Liberals and Leftists Closed

News From Our NEARI Mole Regarding Binding Arbitration

Posted on October 16, 2009 by The Ocean State Republican

apple“After over two decades of lobbying for binding arbitration, our time has come.”

Not if we have anything to do about it. The following e-mail was sent out this afternoon to teachers by NEARI President Larry Purtill regarding the Binding Arbitration bill which will have a hearing next Wednesday. Interesting set of “talking points” attached. Whatever he said, just do the opposite, and you should be okay. We’ve highlighted some of the more interesting points.

Subject: URGENT Message from NEARI president
A message from NEARI President Larry Purtill:

URGENT!!!! The RI House Labor Committee will hear legislation on binding arbitration for teachers Wednesday, October 21, 2 PM at the State House, and the full General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene October 28-29.

After over two decades of lobbying for binding arbitration, our time has come. It is imperative that NEARI members call, email, or write their representatives and senators urging their support for binding arbitration. Our opponents have been contacting members of the legislature – now it is time they hear from us. Binding arbitration will provide a closure mechanism to the collective bargaining process that we have needed for a long time. We cannot allow another East Providence situation to occur in Rhode Island!

You can find contact information for your legislators here:

<http://capwiz.com/nea/ri/state/main/?state=RI> .

Below are talking points to help you craft your message.

Binding Arbitration Talking Points Continue reading ‘News From Our NEARI Mole Regarding Binding Arbitration’

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Filed Under: Breaking News, Education and RI General Assembly Closed

And So It Begins… Binding Arbitration

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Phil Hirons

From the ProJo http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/10/ri-legislative-committee-to-ho.html

Scheduled for the week before the full General Assembly returns for the first time since June, the House Labor Committee hearing has been scheduled for 2 p.m. in Room 313 of the State House.

The focus of the hearing will be a bill, introduced by Rep. Alfred A. Gemma, D-Warwick, on January 22.

Among the key provisions: “If no agreement is reached by midnight of the expiration of the existing contract … the parties shall submit a list of their respective unresolved issues to the mediator. If an agreement is not reached prior to the opening of school, teachers shall continue to work under the terms of the existing contract and…the parties shall then proceed to arbitration …

“The arbitration panel shall resolve separately each individual disputed issue by accepting the last best offer thereon of either of the parties…The decision shall be rendered within thirty (30) days of the conclusion of the arbitration hearings.”

The House’s Democratic leaders have not said they are committed to passing a binding arbitration bill before the year is out. But given the strong push for the legislation by the teacher unions, they have evidently agreed to use the Gemma bill as a vehicle for a public discussion of the pros and cons.

I guess the revolution in East Providence was too successful for the NEA / AFT.  They have cried havoc and relased the legislators of war.

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Filed Under: 2010 Elections, Big Labor, Coming Events, Democrats, Education and RI General Assembly Closed

2009 Student Handbook

Posted on September 26, 2009 by The Ocean State Republican

Student_Handbook

Source: TobyToons

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Filed Under: Education, Humor and The Obamessiah Closed Tags: .

Obama Loves The Little Children, All the Children of the World…

Posted on September 24, 2009 by The Ocean State Republican

the-light-workerIn the video below, young and impressionable public school students at New Jersey’s B. Bernice Young Elementary School are shown singing songs about President Obama, in one case to the tune of “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” and in another to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” No blasphemy intended, of course.

…He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama…

This video was apparently taken in February during Black History Month, but is just seeing the light of day now. Better late, than never. No word yet from the ACLU about the forced singing of songs by young public school students to the tune of “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrsl8o4ZPo[/youtube]

If you would like to sing along to praise our Dear Leader, the song lyrics are below: Continue reading ‘Obama Loves The Little Children, All the Children of the World…’

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Filed Under: Breaking News, Education and The Obamessiah Closed Tags: , .