Part One
After nearly a year of negotiating and lots of posturing and pressure from various community groups calling for significant reform, the Cincinnati Board of Education and the members of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers approved a new contract last week. The contract will be implemented January 1st and remains in effect through December 31, 2013.
A great deal rides on every teacher contract in every district in the region. But the negotiations around the contract for teachers in the Cincinnati Public Schools which stretched out over all of 2010, took on special significance. Against the background of federal government's "race to the top," a great deal of national research and popular opinion shaped by films like waiting for superman, a view has developed that the key to a student's success no matter what their socio-economic background or challenges is a good teacher. That led to pressure here in Cincinnati, led by Stand Up For Kids, that the new contract should not just be about salaries and benefits, but about changing the way teachers are evaluated and compensated as a tool to improve the quality of education.
To discuss the new contract, I am joined this morning by Julie Sellers, the President of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Mary Ronan, the Superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools and Eve Bolton, a member of the Cincinnati Board of Education.
Part Two
"Where one community decides to change, the city decides to change. And when one city decides to change, the state decides to change. And when the state decides to change, the nation will change."
On November 17th, the Springdale Police stopped 18-year old Bernard Pastor for a minor traffic violation. Because the Reading High School graduate was brought to the United States from Guatemala as a young child, he is undocumented and does not have a driver's license. The police turned him over to the Butler County Sheriff, who turned him over to the United States Immigration and Customs Service, ICE.
After a lot of pressure and legal maneuvering, Bernard was granted a year's delay and released from detention. He was whisked to Washington D.C. to help lobby the Senate to pass the American Dream Act. That failed, but Bernard returned home to Cincinnati and is with us this morning. He is joined by Leo Pierson, the Ohio Director of Civil Rights for the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC.
