Newark Public Schools (NPS) and the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) have reached a tentative agreement for a contract that prioritizes student achievement, promotes teachers’ professional growth and financially rewards teachers based on experience and performance, the two groups announced in a joint press release. The current contract expired July 1, 2010, and the new agreement will be in effect until June 30, 2015.

International Labor Organization (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder says the world economic crisis has seriously affected teachers and students around the globe, causing teacher layoffs, cuts in funding, resulting in larger class sizes with fewer resources and reduced teacher salaries. In his World Teachers' Day message last week, Ryder said:

All this has resulted in a decline in the status of teachers. Sadly, it is a profession under siege. 

Berry Craig, recording secretary for the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and a professor of history at West Kentucky Community and Technical College, is a former daily newspaper and Associated Press columnist and currently a member of AFT Local 1360. Craig sends us this.

Gerald Watkins grinned knowingly when he saw the Florida pizza guy on TV the other day bear-hugging President Obama and hoisting him off the floor.

Gerald said he felt like embracing Obama when he met him half a dozen years ago. “He was Sen. Obama then,” added Gerald, who settled for a wink and a handshake.

"10 Reasons Not to See 'Won't Back Down'" is a cross-post from Working America's Main Street blog. 

The Walden Media film "Won’t Back Down," starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis, opens in theaters today. The film dramatizes a parent fighting to improve her child’s school, but it’s actually a dishonest Hollywood portrayal of the problems in our educational system—funded by the very people who want to privatize and profit from our schools. Here are 10 reasons to skip it:

If you were building a bridge, would you hire a work crew with a few hours of metal shop on their résumés, or trained and certified Ironworkers? Would you go into surgery with someone who only has a CPR certificate, or a real doctor with a medical degree?

If you’re NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, or one of the 32 NFL team owners, you'd go with the newbie—at least it seems that way, given their decision to lock out professional NFL officials and instead use untrained, unprepared and in-over-their-heads replacement referees.

When it comes to voter registration and education, there is no place more critical in 2012 than the key swing state of Pennsylvania. Members of the AFT Pennsylvania (AFT-PA) are playing a big role in making sure voters are ready and able to cast ballots in the Keystone State.

In addition to a long list of their own activities, AFT-PA is participating in a “My Vote, My Right” event on Sept. 18, where the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) will join AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and members of unions, community and voting rights groups outside the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) office in downtown Pittsburgh to help people obtain voter ID cards and register to vote. Another "My Vote, My Right" event will be held in Philadelphia on Sept. 22 at the Department of Motor Vehicle office in the Oxford Levick Shopping Center at 919-B Levick St.

While newspaper editorial boards, right-wing pundits and school privateers are criticizing Chicago’s 29,000 public school teachers and educational professionals who were forced out on strike, Chicagoans—especially parents—are backing the teachers. 

While contract talks between the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the city continue today, the 29,000 teachers and education professionals who were forced out on strike to gain a contract that provides students with the education they deserve were on the picket lines early this morning and then gathered for three large rallies across the Windy City.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, in the same breath as praising the “greatest generation” who built factories, farms and taught our nation's children, attacked those workers’ right to join together to improve their workplaces and those they serve, during his Republican National Convention (RNC) speech last night.

Christie decided to bash teachers’ unions and public sector workers, instead of offering positive solutions to strengthen the U.S. economy.

Parents and educators share a "sense of urgency" when it comes to improving schools and providing the best education possible for children, says AFT President Randi Weingarten. But teachers and their unions are part of the solution, not the problem, despite what the soon-to-be-released film, “Won’t Back Down,” says.

Weingarten rebutted the portrayal of teachers and teachers’ unions in “Won’t Back Down.” She writes:

Many people who see this film will be moved by the story and will feel this same sense of urgency. But the film uses blatant stereotypes and caricatures to blame teachers and their unions for all of the problems facing our schools. These stereotypes and caricatures are even worse than those in “Waiting for ‘Superman.’”