Joel Klein's Perfomance: Leonie and I on WBAI this Morning

UPDATE: David B. extracted just the portion of the program with Leonie and I.



The WBAI full program segment:
http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/081113_070001wuc.MP3

Our segment starts at 40:43 after Miriam Makeba sings.

I think I said that Klein persecuted (instead of prosecuted) Bill Gates during the anti-trust case. The host made the interesting point that Klein did not enforce anti-trust laws much beyond Microsoft. He went for the one case that would make him look good. Why are we not surprised?

WBAI may be doing something tonight around 7:30 or 8 on the same subject. I don't know who the guests are.

It's pretty interesting the ride this is being given.

At yesterday's UFT delegate assembly there was also a discussion and a resolution. The ICE attempt to amend it to expand things beyond Klein to the genre he represents was turned down.

Good work Lisa North and Michael Fiorillo in making some important points. While we focus on Klein, the idea that Michelle Rhee would also not be objectionable should also be raised. How long before Washington parents and teachers start their own petitions? I guess she has to be there longer than a year to alienate everyone, but she's doing even better than Klein at that.

Here is the text of what we handed out.

No Klein Or His Ilk In Obama Ed Dept.

ICE congratulates everyone who worked so hard to have Barack Obama elected US President. The multitudes of teachers who donated and worked for Obama expect that we will be respected by an Obama administration. We have suffered through a quarter century of teacher bashing in this country since the infamous A Nation at Risk was published. First, there was competency testing of teachers (supported by Hillary Clinton incidentally). Then, the one-way accountability system was introduced that blamed teachers for all of the social ills of the country. This led to the high-stakes testing movement which combined with Mayoral dictatorships over schools in many of our large cities. Blaming teachers became an acceptable form of discrimination. ICE states emphatically: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF TEACHING BASHING IS ENOUGH! We must send real educators to Washington who will support an education policy that respects our work. ICE would like to see the following motion added to the agenda today:

Resolved, that the UFT will work to see that the Secretary and Under-secretary of Education share our values and we will toil to defeat any nominee such as Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Paul Vallas or any other potential Secretary of Education who supports corporate style, top-down, high stakes test crazed, teacher bashing accountability.