(10/19/13)  San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and leaders of four other California cities struggling with soaring retirement costs announced Tuesday they will seek to get a pension reform initiative on the November 2014 state ballot.

San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait and Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Kampe joined Reed in submitting the ballot initiative to the state Attorney General.

“It will allow public employers to unilaterally cut the retirement benefits promised to current teachers, firefighters, police officers and school bus drivers," said Dave Low, chairman of Californians for Retirement Security, which represents some 1.6 million current and retired public employees.

Once the Attorney General provides the official title and summary, proponents would have 150 days to collect at least 807,615 valid signatures, representing eight percent of the votes cast in last gubernatorial election.

STRS and other organizations are exploring the legality of changing the retirement promises made to current public employees.

Creative Writing Pedagogy in the Two Year College: Lessons Learned and Literature Reviewed, Findings by a 35-year Teacher Abstract: A literature and best practice review and retrospective from 35 years of  applied community college teaching pedagogy looks at the heuristics of  the whole creative writing student as an eager learner and suggests the most efficient practices; prerequisites and classroom universal policies necessary to growth in creative writing ability.  Positive growth in creative writi

EMUFT is hosting a Conference on Teaching on Saturday, October 26, 2013 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  The conference is free and is open to anyone interested in teaching.   Find more information and the link to register at: http://emuft.mi.aft.org/events/teaching-conference

Please help reclaim the promise for Sodexo workers at VSC and UVM by clicking here.

Sodexo, the company with the contract to provide food for students, staff and faculty at the Vermont State Colleges and at UVM, has slashed employees benefits purportedly because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)--and then told employees that they are not allowed to talk about the reductions. 

Wednesday Lunch Meeting – October 9, 2013

Quotes from Carl Friedlander’s Presentation

 “There is nowhere in else in this country where there is as much conflict in accreditation as there is in California.”

“This is the only region in the US where there is a separate accrediting body for community colleges.”

“There are more sanctions issued by ACCJC to the California community colleges than the total sanctions for all types of institutions across the entire country.”

“The required pre-funding of GASB 45, which consumes millions of district dollars each year, comes from ACCJC.  No other accrediting agency requires this.  Some ACCJC commissioners are or were on the Board of the JPA Savings account for GASB 45 dollars that the CCLC (Community College League of California) set up.”

OCTOBER-DECEMBER PRESIDENT’S REPORT

MARILYN WARNER

An anecdote is told that Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a short story in six words.  He won the bet by writing, “For sale:  baby shoes.  Never worn.” 

Florida Education Association Delegate Assembly

October 11-12, 2013

The theme of the DA was TAKE BACK OUR SCHOOLS, OUR FLORIDA, OUR FUTURE and we heard this reverberated throughout  the DA.

Click on the link below:

Superintendent's Employment Contract -  2015

A Parents Guide to Student Assessments

(10/16/13)  Today, the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education (CFHE) released a report that exposes the false promises online education providers are making about costs savings for students and higher education institutions.  Click here for a summary and a link to the full article.

The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education was launched to guarantee that affordable quality higher education is accessible to all sectors of our society in the coming decades; and to include the voices of the faculty, staff, students and our communities—not just administrators, politicians, foundations and think tanks—in the process of making change. The campaign seeks to ensure that the emphasis, curriculum, pricing, and structure of our nation’s higher education systems are good for our students and the quality of education they receive.