Bill Gates and Michael Dell, along with other technology gurus, founded the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). It's a program aimed at improving the performance of students in our schools in - surprisingly - math and science! This initiative focuses specifically on increasing the number of students taking advanced placement courses in these subjects, but not if you live in Washington State, ironically the home of Microsoft. In May, NMSI announced that a 13.2 million grant that was to be given to the public schools in Washington was being scrapped. Why? Well, it seems there was a conflict between how the grant money was to be used and the collective bargaining agreement of the teacher's union.You see, the grant money was to be used to compensate teachers directly and include extra pay based on how well students performed on AP exams. Gee, pay based on performance? We can't have that in the public schools now, can we?! Under the teacher contracts, the union is the exclusive agent for negotiating teacher pay, not public-private entities like NMSI. In other words, union officials were willing to turn away free money - a lot of it - for their teacher members rather than abide this kind of merit pay.
The odd thing is that ther heavily unionized states, Massachusetts and
Connecticut for example, did manage to reach agreements and will receive the math and science money even though they have similar bargaining agreements. Even more ironic? The Washington union has a pending lawsuit against the state for alleged inadequate funding of public schools. Sure, decline $13.2 million in free money, but spend millions suing the state for inadequate funding. Makes you wonder if union officials care more about protecting their union monopoly than they do about about actual student performance.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Part 2 of Talisman/ChemGeek's "What the hell is that?" SEM image contest is in full swing. Even if you missed Part 1 of the contest, you still have a chance to win, and she's given hints this time making it a bit easier. Click HERE for all of the details and click HERE for the images!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Part 2 of Talisman/ChemGeek's "What the hell is that?" SEM image contest is in full swing. Even if you missed Part 1 of the contest, you still have a chance to win, and she's given hints this time making it a bit easier. Click HERE for all of the details and click HERE for the images!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
