Hi, I just saw "Waiting for Superman" and I wanted to check out the other side of the story before I made any judgements". I have to say that your website is full of fluff. Every response to the myths speaks in broad terms and show absolutely 0 accountability. The response to how to deal with bad teachers was also pathetic, you are suggesting that more money be spent on making bad teachers better instead of firing them. Not to mention saying that you want to ensure fair dismissal when the process is designed to be extremely expensive ($100,000 +)as a deterant. Also, your criticism of charter schools is also telling of your motives. The union wants a monopoly on the system, and charter schools threaten that, it isn't about the students. The public sees no compormise on the part of the union to put students first. Here are my questions? Why do you think teachers deserve raises in this economy? What is the teacher's union doing to help the budget situation? Why do people who work for the union make more than teachers? Why can't teachers not be a part of the union and not pay any fees towards it? Until your website contains some responsibility and stops simply blaming people who state with no hesitation their only priority is to help students, why would anyone side with you?

Your articles during the summer were so heart warming and supportive to all of the unemployed teachers and other school employees. I really felt that you had our backs, so to speak. However, after reading the "Convention Program 2010" magazine I just received in the mail, and reading on-line info. about it, I feel as though you've just stabbed us in our backs, so to speak, because I could not find any mention of us anywhere in the book! Personal feelings of a void from missing teaching the children in my calsses,being connected to the school staff, and the educational environment in genereal were particularly intensified after the first day that school started at the school where I taught. Now, more than ever, being granted admisssion to the convention would be especially appreciated. Having such a huge number of unemployed school employees is uncharted territory this year, as should be allowing them to use their NJEA membership cards from last year for registration (&,or) entrance to all of the NJEA's convention events. Please express your acknowledgment, appreciation, and respect of all our hard work and devotion to the NJ education system and the NJEA, before we became unfair victims of the recent buget cuts, by not adding insult to injury by discluding our attendance at the convention. I know we have the option of paying the non-member daily fees, which I personally can't afford, living penny to penny on unemployment. I am a single parent with a son who just started attending college this year! We, just as much as, or even more than present NJEA members need to be given this wonderful oportunity at the convention to network, keep current with educational skills/knowledge, etc., or just be given an opportunity to get out of our homes and smile at a familiar face.
Sincerely,
Bewildered Unemployed Teacher