In a brilliant new video, Angel Gonzalez of ICE and the Grassroots Education Movement exposes the hypocrisy of mayoral control and the phony mantra that their critics are all about adults and they are all about children. And yes, that's Michael Fiorillo with the sign at the end. A must see.
Angel sent this along as an intro:
4-3-09 Sharpton-Klein NAN / EEP Forum with pro-mayoral control and pro-charter school panelists from across the US. Councilman Barron condemns their privatization of public schools agenda. After protests from the NO Mayoral Control Coalition, Sharpton conceded Barron's address prior to the speeches of the panelists. Barron condemns the profiteering & the educational devastation promulgated by the BloomKein Dictatorial Control of public education in NYC.Angel Gonzalez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2PW2iN_Yvw
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ReplyDeleteRight on- sounds just like DC Public Schools. I wish the powers that be would have listened to the experiences of NY parents when they came down here and warned us against mayoral control. Thanks Norm as always for this video.
ReplyDeleteA BROOKLYN HS TEACHER SAID...
ReplyDeleteI agree. Grades are changed and graduation rates are falsified. Not only in my HS but schools all over the city. The HS I am in now has no text books for any subjects and there is no library. This is what happens when the principals get total control.
The students are told the lie that they will all go to college. Lets look at statistics of how many students who actually graduate HS make it through college. Most of our students have to take remedial courses for two years in college and then drop out.
Norm: This is so powerful that I have copied it on my blog, The Washington Teacher. I gave credit to you and your blog and Angel Gonzalez. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteSay Amen!! Charles Barron was spot on in his comments! Never in the seven years of mayoral control has someone, other than Diane Ravitch spoken so eloquently against mayoral control of the schools!
ReplyDeleteBoy, Margaret Spellings sure looks great doesn't she! Maybe she can get on with Jenny Craig, start a new career of 'before' and 'after'.
ReplyDeleteUgh..I usually hate putting women (or men) down based on appearances but for Margaret Spellings I make exception. Gosh, she's annoying.
One of KIPP's drooling mouth-breathing fans who blogs under the heading "Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog" recently posted on an event which apparently occurred subsequent to Mr. Barron's brilliant dissection of mayoral control and the promotion of charter schools.
ReplyDeleteIt points up that a sociopath is loose and running charters in the Oakland, CA area. Keep in mind that Ben Chavis would be in jail in a healthy society but wealthy people in this society have put him in charge of poor and working people's children.
Here's Tilson's blog entry:
"I owe NY City Council member Robert Jackson an apology for a case of mistaken identity. After I heard he spoke out against mayoral control during the morning panel of the Eq Equality Day on Friday, when I saw a City Council member go off on a rant on the same topic during the lunch panel, I naturally assumed it was Jackson. In fact, it was another City Council member, Charles Barron (I've never seen or met either of them).
Barron, by all accounts, is a true jackass -- he actually said during his rant that inner-city kids should be focusing on home ec and woodworking (this article by Elizabeth Green of GothamSchools.org on the idiotic things he had to say: http://gothamschools.org/2009/04/03/sharpton-cedes-time-to-barron-who-calls-for-klein-to-be-fired).
Barron is also a bully and, like most bullies, a coward. Here's more on the confrontation between he and Ben Chavis that I mentioned in yesterday's email, as recounted to me by Chavis and multiple witnesses:
Chavis observed Barron berating one of the conference organizers, bringing that person to tears, and didn't like it one bit -- he thought Barron was being a bully, so and went up to him and, face only inches from Barron's, started RIPPING him, saying (I'm not making this up): "You're a mother f-ing black pimp, you're f-ing our kids. Come to the reservation and I'll beat your ass. You want our kids to take Home Ec? YOU should wear a dress!"
Barron replied, "Well we're here, so let's do it right now." Chavis said OK and started heading for the exit. Barron, seeing Chavis was dead serious about fighting him, quickly wimped out and instead threatened to having Chavis kicked out of the hotel. They shouted obscenities at each other, with Chavis getting the last words as they separated, saying "You're a pimp! You're a pimp!"
I LIKE this guy!
Here's another story I heard about Chavis: when he became principal of the first American Indian Charter School, he went down to the street corner where the drug dealers were hanging out. They said, "What the hell are you doing here, white man." To which he replied, "I'm not white, I'm Indian -- and I'll pay you $5 if you bring back any of my students who should be in school." They said, "Hell, for $5, we'll not only bring them back, we'll beat them up for you!" "No need for that," Chavis replied. "Just bring them back."
As I said, I LIKE this guy! I'm not sure I'd recommend all of his methods, but they seem to work for him -- and, most importantly, his students!"