1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.
2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.
4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,
5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.
6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. (more…)
(H/T Schroeder) Yesterday was the 240th anniversary of the birth of the great and revolutionary musical genius Ludwig von Beethoven. Because it fits my mood for today, here’s the triumphant finale to the legendary Fifth Symphony:
Colorado is an interesting place for education reform, for many reasons. Among them are issues related to teacher professional membership and representation:
In Colorado, public school teachers have a right to join or not join (and not pay fees to) a union or other professional membership organization.
In Colorado, elected school boards are not obligated to enter a collective bargaining relationship with teachers or other employees.
In Colorado, no state laws define collective bargaining for government workers, nor any of the related procedures and guidelines.
In Colorado, school districts with active collective bargaining agreements are required to post them online (and have them available in the school office) for transparency and easy public access.
The first three on the list could apply to very few other states. (I think Utah may be the only other state with all four.) But what they together reflect is a strong basis for local control of education. Local control for school boards to decide — in some cases restricted by the parameters of existing agreements — whether and how to bargain. Even more local control for individual teachers to decide whether and how they want to be represented.
Some of the boundaries of this local control are being tested right now in northern Weld County — Gilcrest, to be exact. The Valley Re-1 school district has an acting “Professional Organizations” policy that appears to grant some sort of representative status to the local Valley Education Association, but looks nothing like a traditional collective bargaining agreement and isn’t recognized as such by the Colorado Department of Education’s online collection. (more…)
