tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post1252518703869226574..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: Bill Ayres Follow-uped notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-13309931640569560602008-10-26T01:33:00.000-04:002008-10-26T01:33:00.000-04:00Hello All,My original comment about Bill Ayers wa...Hello All,<BR/><BR/>My original comment about Bill Ayers was not intended to address whether he has anti-union sentiments. I assume he would declare he does not, and I would believe him.<BR/><BR/>But that was not really the purpose of my posting, though I perhaps could have expressed it more clearly.<BR/><BR/>The point to be made about Weatherman was less its arrogance - which was ample - but rather its self-delusion, and there continues to be much self-delusion among so-called political progressives who've signed on to various ed reform programs, only to have them highjacked by the corporate drive to control and privative public education, with its beach head being urban school systems. From what I've read, that drive has been underway longest and has achieved its greatest influence in Chicago, with DC quickly gaining ground. <BR/><BR/>Mr. Klonsky, please point out what Mr. Ayers has done to resist these attacks against public education, teachers unions and democracy, by Messrs. Daley, Duncan and others, and I will stand corrected. <BR/><BR/>Small schools, and charters as well, have often been pushed by well-meaning people who were then overwhelmed by the tsunami of corporate and foundation money that used the force if its investments to put in place policies that are anti-student and anti-teacher. Anything short of open and active opposition to this is political log-rolling.<BR/><BR/>Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think that activism that results in the neutralization and weakening of unions - even ones as incompetent and misguided as most AFT Locals - constitutes progressive politics. <BR/><BR/>And it's self-delusion to claim otherwise.<BR/><BR/>Michael FiorilloAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-71772629708012471162008-10-25T13:58:00.000-04:002008-10-25T13:58:00.000-04:00Sad to see leftists and progressive educators pili...Sad to see leftists and progressive educators piling on Bill Ayers right at this opportune moment and pronouncing various educators at "anti-union." The Weatherman faction of SDS is pretty easy pickens from the right or the left. I ought to know, having led the fight against them in 1968. Problem is, that was 40 years ago and the Weather faction is not really the problem facing New York's teachers or their union at this moment. <BR/><BR/>And the charge that Ayers is "anti-union" today, or that he supports the current Chicago school reform initiative, Renaissance 2010, is pure bullshit and the people feeding you that crap know it. So if you are really interested in this question, read Bill and my Kappan (Feb. 2006) articles, "Renaissance 2010 Meets the Ownership Society" and <BR/>"Private Management of Chicago Schools is a Long Way from Mecca," and then go back and tell my brother Fred that he was right all along, and send Bill a note of apology.<BR/><BR/>Mike KlonskyMike Klonskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02017021676773731024noreply@blogger.com