Safety’s Core Issue in N.Y.C. School Bus Strike
Some 8,000 school bus drivers are on strike today to convince New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that only experienced and trained drivers should be behind the wheel.
Watch the video below.
Some 8,000 school bus drivers are on strike today to convince New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that only experienced and trained drivers should be behind the wheel.
Watch the video below.
New York City may be putting the safety of public and private school students who ride the city’s “Yellow” bus fleet at risk. In sending out a request for competitive bids on certain routes—the current contracts expire June 30—the Department of Education is dropping a long-standing requirement that proven, experienced and trained drivers and bus monitors retain their jobs.
The school bus drivers and monitors in Burleson and Weatherford, Texas, take their jobs of transporting “precious cargo” seriously—especially when it comes to safety. After recently voting (see video) to join the Transport Workers ( TWU ), they say their voice about safety can’t be ignored any longer. Says driver Amy Lytle:
We want safe buses to transport these children in. If you’re driving a bus with a bungee-corded door, they‘re OK with that. I’m not OK with that.
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.
A fired up workforce in New Mexico is fighting a Summertime battle against a “reform” scheme by Gov. Susana Martinez (R) that would hurt, not help, the state’s public school students. Martinez refused to consult with educators in drafting the plan and is pushing it through by an administrative rule change after the legislature rejected her proposals this spring.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka put Mitt Romney's recent statements on public employees into perspective Sunday. Speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," Trumka said:
Mitt Romney says he wants fewer teachers—that means larger classrooms. He says he wants fewer firefighters—that means less safety. I mean, rich people will probably still have good protection; working-class people won’t. He wants fewer police officers—that means we’re in danger.
Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest , a national resource center on privatization and responsible contracting, sends us this.
It seems there’s no public service or piece of property that private companies are not eyeing as potential revenue streams. While funding anti-government think tanks like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), companies like Corrections Corporation of America, Waste Management, Maximus, Intuit, Laidlaw, Northrup Grumman, Koch Companies, Macquarie Capital Advisers, Pinnacle West, and UnitedHealthcare are hoping to use government as their candy store.
Here’s a letter to the editor in The Hill by Diann Woodard, president of the School Administrators ( AFSA ), the only national education union representing principals, assistant principals and school administrators.
Want a job? Want Medicare when you retire? How about good public schools? Then look out: Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) is joining with his tea party allies to hold a vote today that would guarantee deep, radical cuts—and make those cuts part of the U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land.
Yesterday, President Obama was in Colorado highlighting his plan to put Americans back to work modernizing the nation’s aging schools and to make sure there are plenty of teachers to fill those schools. The plan involves $30 billion to put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work modernizing at least 35,000 schools across the country, and $35 billion to save the jobs of 280,000 teachers, police, firefighters and other first responders. American Progress puts the Republican opposition to the president’s plan in perspective.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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