Tag Archives: children

British Report Says Career Teaching Music Is Becoming Unviable

A new report shows that British music teachers are suffering from low play and less job security than ever before. The British Musicians’ Union (MU), the authors of the report, warns that job dissatisfaction and stress are on the rise due to widespread lack of financial support.

The current music education provision in England provides for “peripatetic” music teachers in schools, who travel from location to location to teach children to play instruments. They are frequently either self-employed or have contracts that provide no regular work and sometimes clauses that restrict them from working elsewhere. They may even be charged for the use of teaching rooms. The MU recommends protecting the future of music in Britain by providing the teachers with fit-for-purpose template contracts.

Dolly Parton Launches Album to Benefit Imagination Library

On September 29, Dolly Parton of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) releases her first children’s album, I Believe in You. Proceeds from the album will go to the Imagination Library, which provides monthly, new, age-appropriate books to children in four countries. Founded 20 years ago in Parton’s hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, the organization has served more than one million kids. The most honored female country performer of all time, Parton has been a member of the union for 50 years this December.

No Resolution in Sight for Detroit Schools in Need

 

Pressure is mounting for Michigan lawmakers to find more funding for Detroit Public Schools, after the teachers union called for another day of sickouts over possible “payless paydays” for employees this summer. Emergency Manager Steven Rhodes urged state lawmakers to pass a $715 million package to rescue the debt-ridden district. A union-sponsored protest last May 2 closed 94 of the district’s 97 schools.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers organized the sickout after the system’s chief manager said, without more money from the state, he would be unable to pay teachers the salaries owed in July and August, and summer school would be canceled. The union reports that almost two-thirds of teachers spread the payments over the full year, from September through August. Other teachers rely on additional earnings from summer school. The district’s year-end budget deficit ballooned to a projected $320 million this year, and to avoid a complete shutdown in April, the Legislature approved $48.7 million in emergency aid. The school district, which was not included in the city’s 2013-2014 bankruptcy, saw a sharp decline in enrollment. According to city data, more than half the students going to publicly funded schools in the city attend charter schools, which leaves Detroit Public Schools with just 46,000 students, down from 167,000 in 2000.