Ed Notes Online: Activists Turn the Tables at Chicago Closing School Hearing

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Activists Turn the Tables at Chicago Closing School Hearing

Below is a great report via Mike Klonsky of how Mayor Rahmbo "hired" 200 people to control a closing school hearing. But they turned around and began to support the 200 activists opposing the closing of the school.

Report from hearing on the closing of Crane High School

Hearing on Chicago school closing. (M. Ritter)

Unreal event tonight.

Donald Fraynd was the MC and Jesse Ruiz of the Board was present. Around 200 rental protesters were bused in [by the mayor's people]. They didn't know why they were there but all said they got paid. Around 200 Crane supporters: community allies, students, alums, staff, etc.

Crane Coalition prepared a Power Point presentation -- but were told we could not present it... so after the initial Board presentation 10-15 Crane presenters engaged in civil disobedience and stood at the mike, made a statement about presenting the power point and stood silent. This was extremely effective as our crew and even the rental protesters began to shout together: Show the power point!!! This went speaker after speaker for 20-30 minutes. Jesse Ruiz and CPS didn't know what to do. Finally they relented and let us show our stuff that refuted tons of CPS data. The place erupted as we began to win the hearts and minds of the bused in folks. CPS looked confused and worried.

It gets better: At that point the public officials walk in together. Sen. Annazette Collins, Alderman Burnett, Congressman Davis, Fmr Alderman Ed Smith, and Alderman Fioretti (wearing a Crane Varsity Letterman's Jacket - the place goes nuts for this). They speak one by one stating their position supporting Crane staying open and opposed to phase out!

They tell CPS - listen to the people. Congressman Davis was more on the neutral side but he said his job was to listen to the people and he said the people were demanding Crane to stay open. The bussed in people are either silent or on our side. A good number of current and former students, parents and community reps speak.

After that person after person tell CPS - "Don't phase out Crane." 8 p.m.comes and CPS high tails it outta there. Round 1 victory.

Martin (Marty) L. Ritter

That is why we need increasing bodies of people to create a force of opposition (I'm about to head over to 60 Wall St. for the Occupy DOE meeting at 2PM). ODOE is one of our hopes here in NYC because unlike Chicago, we have to do it with tenuous and hesitant support from the UFT leadership, which will dip its toe in the water -- get buses, etc.- but put in little political capital and boots on the ground.

Note this comment I cut from an email -

The militancy this year is at a much higher level and there is a powerful partnership between the Chicago Teachers Union and parent groups not seen elsewhere in the US (or in Chicago). ---anonymous report from Chicago

The action in Chicago after 16 years of ed deform/mayoral control has excited people here in NYC. Could it happen here? Maybe. But the crucial difference between Chicago and here is the approach of the teachers union. Chicago has a reform/progressive/social justice oriented recently elected group (CORE) running the union. In NYC we have a 50 year-old one party (Unity Caucus) dominated union which controls every single seat on the UFT Executive Board and has the power to pack every Delegate Assembly to control the vote - and will do so again at the Jan. 18 DA to push through a constitutional amendment that will increase the power of retirees to control the fate of the union.

Think: could we see a day where the UFT/Unity leadership would support an occupation of Bloomberg's office? (Chicago Parents Hold Day 2 of Sit-in at Mayor Emanuel's Office)

So for those hoping for a Chicago hope, I say "Nope" - not until there is a significant movement for democratization and change in the UFT.

Substance reports:

We Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools is a new YouTube video produced by Labor Beat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY

This video begins with Professor of Education Pauline Lipman (University of Illinois-Chicago) briefly recapping the plans hatched a decade ago in Chicago to replace public schools with private charter schools. Then Chicago Public Schools head Arne Duncan implemented those plans (Renaissance 2010) so obediently that President Obama picked him to do the same thing to every school system in the country.

So Chicago's growing uprising against these deepening attacks against public education has national importance. Here is a battalion of voices from the communities and the teachers union, all exposing the constantly changing, Kafkaesque rules for evaluating school turn-arounds and closings. The counter-attack from the working people in the city is energized and spreading, and is on a collision course with the 1% who want to take away their children's futures. Includes comments from Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, teachers and parents from targeted school communities. Length - 24:40.

Check out this article by one of my Chicago pals who is working for the union:
Where is the debate? Kenzo Shibata challenges corporate schools reformers on Huffington Post

A more general report on Chicago from an email:

Chicago education struggles are back in the news -- on a higher level. CPS proposes to close or hand over to a corporate turnaround group 19 neighborhood schools in African American and Latino communities. The struggle against school closings this year is more fierce and more political and is invoking the spirit of the civil rights movement. At this moment parents and teachers and community members from the Bronzeville area are in their 3rd day of a sit-in/occupation at the mayor's office.

In Dec. teachers, members of the CTU, parents, and supporters including occupy Chicago slept out in front of the school bd all nite (it was raining and cold) and then packed the school bd meeting, took it over with a mic check, and shut down the meeting. Videos of that meeting went viral nationally. See below.

This is a big story because Chicago is the model for Duncan's national agenda of closing neighborhood schools and opening charters or turning neighborhood schools over to private operator "turn-around specialists." The militancy this year is at a much higher level and there is a powerful partnership between the Chicago Teachers Union and parent groups not seen elsewhere in the US (or in Chicago).

The most organized group is the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization which has brought a real civil rights flavor to this movement. they are leading the occupation at the mayor's office. Their community has born the effects of school closings and disinvestment since 2004. They developed a plan with teachers and parents and academic experts over the last 18 months to transform their schools. Instead of considering this plan, CPS announced that they would close 3 of the schools. KOCO has requested multiple meetings with the mayor to discuss their plan but has been totally ignored.

I also want to remind you that the mayor appoints Chicago's BD of Ed which is dominated by corporate CEOs and finance capitalists (the President was the CEO of the Chicago BD of Trade) -- summary of BD attached.

Below are links to video's and media accounts to give you a sense of what is happening. There is going to be a showdown around this and I hope DM can cover it. It will make a difference not only in Chicago but to the education movement nationally.

labor beat 24 minute video Shut Down at Board Meeting Dec. 14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAiDwPf7G8E

Dec. 13 Save our Schools Rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbRKZk-yYw0&feature=youtu.be

Mic check shuts down School Bd. Mtg Dec. 14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoIsdXkVzVg

Stop the Hit list! Teach in at King HS, Dec. 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyiW-XQfQc

Checkout good print media, and there is much TV footage on the web:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/9440216-418/protesters-take-over-chicago-school-board-meeting.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-crowds-gather-to-protest-cps-school-closures-and-turnaround-projects-20111214,0,10496.story

Protesters disrupt Chicago Board of Education meeting
http://www.wbez.org/story/protesters-disrupt-chicago-board-education-meeting-94896

For more info: contact Jitu Brown or Jay Travis at the Kenwood Oakland
Community Organization jitubrown@yahoo.com jhatayn@yahoo.com

And one more from NYC based activist/videomaker Jaisal Noor on a piece he did for Democracy Now in Chicago in the fall 2010 http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/21/chicago_parents_occupy_elementary_school_building

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"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Activists Turn the Tables at Chicago Closing School Hearing

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