Princess Sydney Morris Blessses Us All With Her Knowledge

Princess Sydney Morris is at it again. She is a big girl of 24 and thinks she knows it all. She is such gosh diddly darn smart for her age. She is poster child why one should stay clear of JAPS.

For those that need a reminder, we here at SBSB dissected the greatness in their own minds of Whitney Tilson's Arischen Jugend Princess Sydney and Little Evan Stone a few weeks ago.

Today in the New York Post Princess Sydney shared her thoughts. Praise be the lord. How is it that a second, or third year teacher is able to get the connections to have an op-ed in the Post? In fact who financially backs educators4excellence, the Arischen Jugend's website? I wonder if it is someone who spends way too much time cruising the interstate highway system looking for appropriate rest stops?


So let's have a looksee at Princess Sydney's writing. I can assure those that it will be a wee bit harsher than what Queens Teacher wrote today.

The proposed $1.4 billion cut in the state education budget could mean 8,500 teachers would be laid off and taken out of their classrooms in New York City, punishing 1.1 million students.

Why not kvetch about all the wasteful spending done by Tweed over the years of Klein's autocracy? The vastly overpaid consultants? The no bid contracts? The closing of school after school which surely costs money? What about the monster Klein created with the ATR's? The money can be saved. Oh I forgot. What about Klein's SUV with the flashing lights? There is money to be saved at Tweed. They should start saving it.

As a third grade teacher at a Bronx public school, those numbers terrify me. How will this impact the academic futures of the 31 students in my class?

Oh boo hoo. Guess what Princess Sydney? If you get laid off, and I truly hope you don't, your students lives will go on. But you have 31 students in your 3rd grade class? That seems over the class size limit. So, you are either lying with that number, or a fool. You are a fool because you should have filed a class size grievance a long time ago. But, you have no tenure. So you feel intimidated. Bet you can't wait for that tenure to kick in?

However, a new bill in the Legislature would change the law to give schools the power to take into account factors besides seniority, such as a teacher's performance, when making layoff decisions. The bill was introduced by Sen Ruben Diaz and Assemblyman Jonathan Bing -- who represent two of the districts that would be hardest hit by teacher layoffs.

Do you know a publicity stunt when you see one? Do you know that Sen Ruben Diaz is one of the biggest sleazebags in the New York State Senate? That State Sen. George Onorato pulled out of co-sponsoring the bill because of constitutional issues (more on that at the end of this post)? That layoffs are done in license areas? Probably the first to go will be all the music and art teachers. Oh and librarians as well. Come one Princess Sydney, get your facts straight.

An ever-growing and largely undisputed body of research indicates that the single most important factor impacting student achievement is teacher quality.

I call BULLOCKS! Prove it. Cite facts. You are just parroting Whitney Tilson. It is all about the home. Maybe when you reproduce you will understand it. Oh and class size.

Seniority-based layoffs punish our students by taking good teachers out of the classroom.

So every teacher that is new, or last in is good? Prove that.


The perfect evaluation system doesn't exist yet,

It doesn't. It can't exist. Education is so subjective, there are countless variables that can affect a student's outcome.

but we do have access to measures of teacher performance that are far better than seniority: teacher ratings, classroom management, teacher attendance, specific licensure, peer or principal review, value-added student data.

Ok teacher ratings? So if you get an S you stay right? How do you measure classroom management? Attendance? Care to elaborate? Peer review? Who are the peers? Principal review? That is done every day. And you know what you can do with your student data.

Furthermore, teachers themselves overwhelmingly reject the concept of seniority-based layoffs.

Sez who? You have empirical evidence to support this? Are is this what you are told at your Hitler-Jugend rally on Friday nights?

A recent study by The New Teacher Project found that more than 70 percent of teachers believe that factors other than length of service should be considered in layoff decisions.

Yes, keep on quoting that bastion of objectivity. You are so freaking funny Princess Sydney.


But those losses are all the more reason why we need our best teachers left standing in front of our kids.

Translation: "I am the best, my daddy always told me that I am the best. You hear that? ME! I am the best!"


So back to what I promised. As I mentioned, State Sen. George Onorato mentioned that there might be constitutional issues. Princess Sydney, ever hear of the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution? Accountable Talk turned me onto it. Article I, section 10, states:

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

What's that Princess Sydney? You say you don't believe in the contract clause? What about the sanity clause? You and Little Evan really need to shut your mouths and open your ears.