Newman: What's up with the Speaker's attack on teachers?

To answer the question posed by Rep. Stacey Newman, D-St. Louis, in the headline for this post- what choice does the speaker have?

When you have accepted $100,000 from public education's top enemy, retired billionaire Rex Sinquefield and another $5,000 from Michelle Rhee's Students First organization as Speaker of the House Tim Jones has done, you know he has to do something to earn that money In Jones' case, he has to ignore the message that is being sent by Missourians and by the House itself that we are tired of so-called reform which is nothing more than an effort to destroy public education. Here is the part of Rep. Newman's column that addresses education:

Just when you thought the anti-teacher bill had met it's demise with HB631 solidly defeated April 10 by a vote 55-102...think again.

 Speaker Jones punished four disssenting GOP members by removing them from committees and replacing them with his supporters.  Read the St. Louis Post Dispatch account HERE.  And then found a new bill, SB125, that he is shepherding quickly in these last few days - we expect to debate it with amendments early next week.

 I checked out the amendments that may be offered on the House floor and found....you guessed it.  Another NRA gun amendment.  This time, the Speaker is attempting to FORCE his members to vote in favor of punishing teachers by adding a provision that would REQUIRE public schools to teach the NRA Eddie Eagle gun training program to 1st graders.  Stay tuned to see if his plan works.