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"The jabs Erin Parker has heard about her job have stunned her. Oh you pathetic teachers, read the online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators. You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage. Related * Ohio Senate Approves Union Bill (March 3, 2011) * Leader of Teachers' Union Urges Dismissal Overhaul (February 25, 2011) Related in Opinion Room For Debate Why Blame the Teachers? Across America, teachers have become the targets of criticism and budget cuts. Do they deserve it? Enlarge This Image Narayan Mahon for The New York Times Erin Parker teaches high school science in Wisconsin. Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. * Read All Comments (675) » "You feel punched in the stomach," said Ms. Parker, a high school science teacher in Madison, Wis., where public employees' two-week occupation of the State Capitol has stalled but not deterred the governor's plan to try to strip them of bargaining rights. "

"The Education of Jose Pedraza: Why Fixing Schools Isn't Simple Math Jose Pedraza (center) stands with his parents in the front yard of their East L.A. home. All photos by Jorge Rivas by Julianne Hing ShareThis | Print | Comment (6) Tuesday, May 10 2011, 10:02 AM EST Tags: education reform, los angeles 248Share video_thumb_education_50911.jpg infographic_thumb_education_50911.jpg Watch Julianne Hing's reporter's notebook video of her time with Jose Pedraza's family. Last year in East LA, Jose Pedraza was struggling mightily in his classes and drifting listlessly through his days. It was worrying enough to his teachers at Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter School, where he was then a junior, that the principal called his mother Pascuala Jaramillo and asked for an urgent meeting. Jaramillo, a seasoned education activist who had organized other parents and made it a point to get to know her kids' teachers, grabbed what she calls her "bible" and ran straight to the school. It's actually not a holy book, but rather a binder of her kids' education documents and information about her own parental rights-"everything I need to defend myself," she explains. Her years of organizing other parents taught her that teachers and administrators are often too burdened by their work to be effective advocates for their students. She went ready to fight, if she had to. "When I got to the school, I got notes telling me that my son wasn't really working," Jaramillo says. "The principal said, 'His body is here, but his brain is not in the room.' " Jaramillo immediately understood what was going on. She told the principal what their family had been dealing with at home. Her husband, Guadalupe Pedraza, had been abruptly laid off from his maintenance job recently. After 12 years working there, he was told on a Wednesday that his last day would be that Friday. Jose took it hard. He had always been a quiet kid, but he started pulling away from his par

ducation Panel to start the program at 6PM on the issues ahead for this coming school year for parents/teachers/children - preserving and enhancing public education. * Yelena Siwinski (GEM/Grassroots Education Movement) * Mark Torres (PPM/Peoples Power Movement) * Brenda Walker (CPE/Coalition of Public Education) * Clarence Talyor (Recently released book - "Reds At The Blackboard") WBAI's Radio Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report

As millions of students prepare to go back to school, budget cuts are resulting in teacher layoffs and larger classes across the country. This comes as the drive toward more standardized testing increases despite a string of cheating scandals in New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and other cities. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also recently unveiled a controversial plan to use waivers to rewrite parts of the nation's signature federal education law, No Child Left Behind. We speak to New York City public school teacher Brian Jones and Diane Ravitch, the former assistant secretary of education and counselor to Education Secretary Lamar Alexander under President George H. W. Bush, who has since this post dramatically changed her position on education policy. She is the author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education."

video footage of over 250,000 out in London to protest cuts to pubic services

Education The State budget reduced education funding to the City for FY 2012 by $1.2 billion. This was the largest single-year reduction in education funding to New York City and came at the same time as the City lost $850 million in Federal stimulus dollars used to support teacher salaries. To prevent catastrophic personnel losses in the City's school system, the Executive Budget provides a major increase in City funds dedicated to education, with an increase of $2 billion of City funds compared to the prior year. The State continues to disinvest in education in New York City. In FY 2002, State and City funding comprised a nearly equal portion of non-Federal spending on education. In FY 2012, City funding will comprise 61 percent of non-Federal spending and State funding will only comprise 39 percent of non-Federal spending. If the State had continued to share education costs equally with the City, the State would be providing $2.2 billion more in education funding for FY 2012. City-funded spending on education has increased from $5.9 billion in FY 2002 to $13.6 billion in FY 2012. Description of Bloomberg's Budget Proposal from News From the Blue Room NYC.gov "Despite the City's continued, strong financial commitment to education, historic State education cuts and the need to balance the budget mean that reductions in the size of the City's teaching force are still required. More than 6,000 teaching positions will be eliminated through attrition and layoffs.