tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post5364039879043535826..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: E4E Member Resigns in Protest Over Their Support for King/Tisched notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-67369479802489711382013-12-10T09:27:20.131-05:002013-12-10T09:27:20.131-05:00CONTINUED --- Part 3
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The...CONTINUED --- Part 3<br /><br />- - - - - - - - - - - -<br /><br />The conference call Lisa described<br />was originally supposed to be a<br />discussion about Local<br />Control Funding, but instead<br />was about "Saving Dr. Deasy:<br /><br />- - - - - - - - - -<br />LISA ALVA WOOD:<br /><br />"When I called in, I heard a roll call<br />of 51 educational, community or<br />political groups whose sole<br />purpose on the call was to support<br />John Deasy in his fight to keep his<br />job. <br /><br />"The news that Deasy was<br />threatening to quit had changed<br />the topic and galvanized the group. <br />These good people were planning<br />to skip school to show support at<br />the October 29 Board meeting. <br />They were bringing students and<br /> teachers to testify in his favor.<br /><br />"I was… flabbergasted. I didn’t<br />have the heart to even make the<br />roll call. By the time they got to<br />'anyone else?' I was too intimidated<br />and overwhelmed to say, 'Here.' <br />I didn’t know what affiliation to claim.<br /><br />"Long story short, these folks made<br />a huge showing outside the morning<br />Board meeting, while 35,000 union<br />members were busy serving the<br />needs of our youth. <br /><br />"It was a much needed wake-up call. <br /><br />"I began to realize the extent of the<br />ignorance and hubris that fuels many<br />ed-reform decisions, as well as the<br />extent of my own ignorance. The<br />addition of businessmen and<br />socialites to a board I sat on made<br />sense suddenly, as did their<br />posturing and pronouncements.<br /><br />"If you’ve ever heard people mis-<br />speaking about things you know<br />intimately, or talking about you when<br />they thought you weren’t listening,<br />you know how pained I was and still<br />am. I couldn’t speak then and have<br />just found the words, now.<br /><br />"Some of the groups in the pro-Deasy<br />rally - Students First, Green Dot,<br />KIPP LA – were to be expected,<br />although they have no business in<br />LAUSD’s superintendent evaluation. <br /><br />"Others made me gag in wonder –<br />Goodwill of Southern California? <br />Inner-City Struggle? LA Education<br />Partnership? I thought we were<br />friends!<br />------------------------------------<br />One of the key things that turned <br />off Lisa is that this astroturfers <br />were engaging in wholesale slander <br />against UTLA, whose teachers are <br />contractually forbidden from <br />attending this rally during school <br />hours. <br />------------------------------------<br />LISA ALVA WOOD:<br /><br />"They weren’t talking about me,<br />personally, but they clearly saw<br />themselves as supporting their<br />hero, a hero whose arch-enemy<br />is my union, UTLA. It was, and<br />is, very difficult to understand<br />why they need to draw a<br />protective circle in the sand<br />around John Deasy. (Speculation<br />is rampant, but facts are hard to<br />come by). <br /><br />"The bottom line for me personally<br />is that there are too many good<br />people distracted by too many<br />superfluous groups. The best<br />place for an educator to protect<br />and promote public education is<br />the teachers’ union. Over time,<br />for better or for worse, the union<br />is the educators’ bastion and it<br />is set up via a democratic<br />process in which any member<br />can participate. If UTLA needs<br />to be more positive and<br />professional, we need to make<br />it that way ourselves, but that’s<br />another story."<br /><br />and on it goes...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-2434814756588363122013-12-10T09:26:15.232-05:002013-12-10T09:26:15.232-05:00CONTINUED--- PART 2
Here's Lisa describing th...CONTINUED--- PART 2<br /><br />Here's Lisa describing the call<br />as a reason for her quitting:<br /><br />- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<br />LISA ALVA WOOD:<br /><br />"I QUIT. I had to.<br /><br />"Hopefully, you’ve never picked up<br />the telephone and felt the hair<br />stand up on the back of your neck<br />as you realized who was on the<br />phone and what they were talking<br />about, felt your heart empty out<br />and felt dread and despair flooding<br />in. <br /><br />"I have, twice. <br /><br />"The first time, it was my ex-husband. <br /><br />"The second time, it was the United<br />Way of Los Angeles. I phoned into<br />a conference call that wasn’t what I<br />expected, and it ended my<br />relationships with the Partnership for<br />Los Angeles Schools, Teachers for<br />a New Unionism and Educators for<br />Excellence, and put some others<br />in the doghouse. <br /><br />" ... "<br /><br />"All of this (the Ipad fiasco) is<br />chronicled in the press, but I mention<br />it to set the stage for a little feint that<br />John Deasy pulled on October 24,<br />2013, right after the iPad scandal and<br />right before he was going to be called<br />in for his own job evaluation.<br /><br />"It was the last straw. Although I<br />had publicly stuck up for him after<br />a UTLA poll of 16,000 educators<br />rendered a 91% 'no confidence'<br />vote, I lost all faith in him with the<br />iPad situation, and had to face<br />some very hard realities about<br />reform groups in LA.<br /><br />"The call confirmed some of the<br />most discouraging talk I’d heard<br />or read, and some of my most d<br />isappointing experiences. After what<br />I heard, I couldn’t stay any longer."<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-84792372133546686562013-12-10T09:25:09.186-05:002013-12-10T09:25:09.186-05:00Last week, a Los Angeles teacher wrote an
article...Last week, a Los Angeles teacher wrote an <br />article about how she defected from<br />Educators for Excellence, and a bunch<br />of other such groups. Her name is <br />Lisa Alva Wood:<br /><br />http://accomplishedcaliforniateachers.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/la-edreform-coalition/<br /><br />For the last couple years or so,<br />Lisa, a teacher activist, has been<br />one of the handful---and I can truly<br />count them on one hand---who<br />allied herself with corporate reform.<br />She's been a member of Educators<br />for Excellence, Teach Plus, the<br />United Way, Teachers for New<br />Unionism, etc. . <br /><br />She's also been quoted in articles for<br />the corporate reform propaganda<br />org L.A. SCHOOL REPORT.<br /><br />At the same time, she's also<br />maintained her to ties to UTLA,<br />her local teachers' union.<br /><br />Well, that contradiction just<br />came to a head, and she's<br />cutting all her ties with corporate<br />reform (except for her participation<br />in a holiday educator-recognition<br />event sponsored by United Way,<br />which will be the last thing<br />she will do with this group.)<br /><br />Lisa goes into detail about<br />"Road to Damascus" conversion<br />experience, and how it<br />happened during the "corporate<br />reform" astroturfers' conference<br />call that planned the<br />demonstrations to save Deasy<br />that are described by Ellen Lubic<br />in another blog post:<br /><br />Here Ellen describes the astroturf<br />rally that this conference call led to:<br /><br />dianeravitch.net/2013/12/06/ellen-lubic-corrects-ben-austin/<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com