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:
(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.
(10/14/13) Our state affiliate, CFT, the California Federation of Teachers, issued a press announcement after Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 955 into law. This misguided law is designed to help increase access for California citizens to community college classes, but instead creates a two-tiered system where the wealthy can more quickly achieve their educational goals while the middle class and poor are left behind. This legislation was opposed by nearly all faculty groups throughout the state as well as the State Chancellor’s Office.
The law provides that during summer and winter intersession, classes may be provided that charge the full-cost of offering the class section. No state apportionment will be granted to the college for providing such courses. The goal is that such classes be self-sufficient but not money-makers for the college.
The good news is that lobbying by CFT and other educational groups, reduced this law to an experiment that is likely to only happen at Long Beach City College, so the pros and cons of this idea can be evaluated before spreading it to all of our colleges.
Download the attached press release from CFT. CFT Press Release - AB 955
(Baton Rouge – October 14, 2013) The teacher evaluation system known as the Value Added Model is dangerously flawed, and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should seriously consider three items on its Educator Effectiveness Committee meeting Tuesday afternoon, according to the Louisiana Federation of Teachers.
