U.S. Secretary of Education Lauds Decision to Fire Entire School Staff

It is the mindless that lay all of the blame on the Unions. Gallo wants the teachers to put in what sounds like an extra 10 to 12 hours a week (20 min extra class day, an hour before and after school to tutor, and twice weekly meetings), and an additional 2 weeks a year of training, for no additional money. I am SURE that you would jump at the chance to work an addition 12 hours a week for no pay!. Once again, you can't lay all of the blame and responsibility on teachers. Why not require Parents and Administrators to put in 2 hours a week at the school, to help educate their children? No, because it is easier to just blame the teachers and the union.

The tax payers need to have a coup d'etat and take back their power. Get rid of the incompetent, illiterate self serving do nothing administrators...People need to rally their influence with the state legislature immediately so their voice and interests wont be overlooked. This is Unconstitutional and an ABSOLUTE disgrace.

MTM i agree with you 100% I hope you noticed where all the money went to. Teachers (union) firman(union) and Police(union) This was done to get the votes in 2012. The bad part is they will have to layoff when this expires.

Without unions, if a principal doesn't like a teacher, even a very good teacher, they can (and have been) fired. Come spend a day in the classroom and watch what teachers - most of whom work a 70 hour a week anyway - do. It isn't a job for the faint hearted.

While I agree that there are some bad teachers in the system, firing the teachers alone will not solve the problem. It was mentioned that this is one of the poorest areas in the state. With poverty comes a whole lot of other problems, gang violence, teen-aged pregnancy, one parent families. I know for a fact that teaching in this type of environment is impossible without the proper support. Most of the children not only don't have the basic necessities to learn, but they have not been taught proper discipline or basic manners which comes from the home. Teachers in this environment spend most of the day disciplining kids and the parents will not do the simple task of making certain their homework is complete or sitting down with them to help them with reading or math problems or will not even dialog with the teacher to see how their children are doing. Some parents have not even met their children's teachers. Unfortunately, you don't see the parents until they find out that their child has failed or will not graduate. Let them fire all of the teachers, but if they don't address all the other social ills, then the school will still be a failure. And I don't me running the poor people out of the community and building high-end homes and condos through gentrification.

Without unions teachers would be making minimum wage --- that would make you happy too --- lower taxes

It appears the school is in a slum district... that results in unmotivated, disconnected, beligerant students. Instead of firing the staff, I suggest ending welefare payments to families of low test scoring students... I suspect when the beer & cig money runs out a parent may actually become involved in supporting the education of their own children. I hope the actions of the superientendent result in her being fired and being unable to collect a bloated salary in any position in education. Let her "Ivory Tower Ass" get dirty and work in the cesspool that is public education. Teachers are not responsible for every damned problem in the world.

are you a teacher in an area that is socially, economically and non-English speaking? unless you are don't comment.

Totally support this decision. If we all performed this poorly in our jobs and were not willing to address the issues, we would be fired, too. Unions do not belong in schools, and do NOTHING to help students or the school.

How is it possible that every teacher in the school is bad? If you have ever worked in a school, you wold know there are poor teacher sand behind them are poor administrators that don't have a clue what is going on. Many teachers have to have second jobs to support their families. Asking teachers to work and extra 10-12 hours a week for free is terrible.

I agree. Unions once protected the common people - now they protect themselves, and more often than not, at the expence of the business to the point of bringing ruination to it.
I not only agree with this decison - but I would vote to do the same for all of Congress as well. if people cant facilitate foward momentum, then they are a roadblock and need to be removed.

Without the teachers union ridiculous administrators would bog teachers down with extra work. How about we hold the parents more accountable in their childs education.

The US Supreme Court has already ruled on overtime requirements, and teachers are not mandated to receive overtime pay. It is a "learned" occupation (like lawyers & accountants) thus they are exempt from the overtime requirements.

The teachers union negotiate working conditions and salary. It is managements jobs to supervise teachers. The blame should belong on the Administrations shoulders.

You are absolutely right, get rid of the teachers union. Thats right, because without a union, workers rights wouldn't exist, employers could force teachers to work for unlimited hours on a miniscule salary, not offer healthcare, pensions. That would really make teachers WANT to work with these kids. All problems solved.

Is it true that these teachers were getting paid $75,000 a year??? I would love a job like that! And the teachers did not want to take the necessary steps to make their school better; albiet some of the ideas were not for extra pay but to make the school a place of learning. Sad how money is what it boils down too and not teaching.

You are a f-in idiot. You have obviously never taught. It is a HARD job. Harder than most. You must be everything to the kids, mother, father, nutritionist, psychologist, nurse, and that's before you start teaching! Unions are there to help protect workers rights. Shouldn't our rights be protected? If our higher ups are abusing their power and asking us to do things outside of our teaching day without compensation, should we have the right to be protected? Teachers are already disrespected by the general public because its often considered 'womens' work'. "You get paid vacation". No we get deferred pay. We can not take holidays whenever we want. We are expected to be at school to teach. That is our job. Honestly, we make the biggest difference in a child's life because we spend the most time with the children. I, and every other teacher who takes their job seriously, deserves compensation for services rendered. Most teachers I know work HOURS after the school day WITHOUT pay. Your comments are a slap in the face and show your general ignorance.

You are wrong. Unions are essential to fair labor practices. ALL union labor should walk out in support of these teachers. Shut the whole damned country down! This kind of thing reeks of the union busting of the early twentieth century (and, later, under Reagan). Unionized labor needs to stand together or it will cease to esist.

Ponder on this....I'm an urban city teacher. I would be happy to perform my job for much less than general baby sitting fees. Let me do the basic math. If I could get paid $1.00 an hour per student (which is a heck of a lot less than most babysitters make) for my students' 6.5 hour day that would earn me about $525 per day. Multiply that by 5 days, then by four weeks and of course by 8 months( because everyone knows that teachers only work about 8 months out of the year) WOW.....if I could only get that buck per hour, per kid (approximately 85 students) I'd be making a cool 85,000.00 per year. I would love to get that. I'm not even going to go into the long work hours, or the violent, rude and ill mannered students who have a difficult time focusing on any thing that isn't plugged into a television or monitor. What a slap in the face to those teachers. Good luck finding someone to fill those shoes. It's quite often a thankless job!!!