Ed Notes Online: Williamsburg/Greenpt Parents Fight Citizens of the World (Eva's Hubbie)

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Williamsburg/Greenpt Parents Fight Citizens of the World (Eva's Hubbie)

The Hearing to co-locate "Citizens of the World Charter Schools" in JHS126 is Wed., December 5 at 6pm (5:30 to speak).

PLEASE COME!!!! Enclosed is a version in English and a version in Spanish. PLEASE distribute! Send this to your friends and colleagues and urge them to attend. If there's one event in this district to come to that will help ALL of our schools, this is it.

The sustainability and health of all of our neighborhood public schools are at risk. The only reason the NYC DOE wants to co-locate this school in our district is because we have space in our schools, and the only reason we have space is because we don't have enough children to fill up our schools. NYC is 5% charterized, yet our district already has 29% of our Kindergartners enrolled in charter schools. "Citizens of the World Charter School" will raise that to well over 30% and will severely impact enrollment throughout our schools. "Citizens of the World Charter School" in our district is horrible city planning.

The NYC DOE isn't listening to data, reason, or democracy, so we need to get MORE people to help them hear us.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: WILLIAMSBURG & GREENPOINT PARENTS:
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!
STAND UP FOR YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND SAY NO TO THE COLOCATION
OF CITIZENS OF THE WORLD CHARTER SCHOOL AT JHS 126.
Co-Location Hearing for “Citizens of the World”
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
From 6pm - 8pm (5:30 to sign up to speak)
JHS 126 auditorium (424 Leonard Street)
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS?
• “Citizens of the World” plans to be as large as most of our existing neighborhood elementary
schools. All of our neighborhood schools are under-enrolled. We can not afford any more
elementary schools without severely impacting enrollment and funding at: PS110 Monitor
School, PS84 Jose de Diego, PS414 Brooklyn Arbor, PS34 Oliver Perry, PS31 Samuel
Dupont, PS132 The Conselyea School."
• “Citizens of the World” has enrollment targets of 55% white middle class families which will
reinforce segregation in our neighborhood public schools.
• The proposal for "Citizens of the World" was riddled with false information and manipulated
data to try discredit our schools and manufacture a desire for these schools in parents who
have no public school experience. “Citizens of the World” is a poor copy of our public schools.
• Co-location with another school will cause JHS 126 to lose vital art rooms, science rooms,
computer rooms, music rooms, and rooms used for special education. JHS126 is the only
middle school in Greenpoint. The new principal has been reaching out to the community to
increase enrollment. Co-locating with another school will stifle JHS126.
• Our school district has been far more saturated with charter schools than other NYC districts.
The percentage of public school students enrolled in privatized charter schools is 5% citywide,
but our district is 29% for elementary schools this 2012-2013 year.
• US Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, NY State Assemblyman Joe Lentol, City
Councilmember Stephen Levin, City Councilmember Diana Reyna, NY State Senator Martin
Dilan, Community Board 1, and the Community Education Council all say no to bringing this
charter into our district.
For more; Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 5:08:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...: Here is the flier in Spanish:

Aviso sobre la co-locación “Citizens of the World”
miércoles, 5 de diciembre, del 2012
De 6pm - 8pm (5:30 firmar para hablar)
Auditorio de la escuela JHS 126 (424 Leonard Street)
¿Cómo “Citizens of the World” afectará las escuelas en nuestra
comunidad?
• Nuestras escuelas de nivel elemental de Williamsburg y Greenpoint están reflejando una matrícula
baja. no tenemos el lujo de abrir más escuelas elementales sin impactar la matrícula y los fondos de
las escuelas existentes: PS110 Monitor School, PS84 Jose de Diego, PS414 Brooklyn Arbor, PS34
Oliver Perry, PS31 Samuel Dupont, PS132 Conselyea.
• “Citizens of the World” están planificando abrir y obtener una matrícula igual de las que existen en
nuestra comunidad.
• El objetivo de “Citizens of the World” es obtener una matrícula para las nuevas familias integrantes
de Greenpoint y Williamsburg, sobre todo, las familias blanca y de media clase. El porcentaje de
éstas son 55%, esto intensificará la segregación en nuestras escuelas de la comunidad, dejando
poco espacio para la diversidad en las aulas.
• La propuesta para "Citizens of the World" posee falsa información con datos manipulados. Ésta
información le causa una imagen falsa y negativa a las escuelas. Su objetivo es desprestigiar
nuestras escuelas y fabricar deseos para nuevas escuelas.
• "Citizens of the World" obtendrán fondos que les pertenece a nuestras escuelas. En adición a éstas
pérdidas de fondos, JHS 126 perderá salones de arte, ciencia, computadora, música, y salones
disponibles para educación especial. JHS126, es la única escuela intermedia en Greenpoint, su
nuevo director ha hecho mucho esfuerzo para reclutar más estudiantes, con el propósito de
incrementar la matrícula. Si ubican una escuela privada “Charter” la 126 seguirá perdiendo
estudiantes, por lo tanto, perdemos una escuela pública.
• En comparación con otros distritos en NYC, el nuestro está saturado con “Charter Schools”. El
porcentaje de estudiantes matriculados en escuelas privatizadas es de 5% (en toda la ciudad), sin
embargo, en lo que lleva el año 2012-2013, las escuelas elementales de nuestro distrito tiene 29%.
Todos los siguientes representantes le dicen NO a las escuelas Charter en
nuestro distrito: Congresista Nydia Velazquez, Asambleista del Estado Joe
Lentol, Concejal del Estado Stephen Levin, Concejal Diana Reyna, Senador
Martin Dilan, Junta de la Comunidad 1, La Junta de Educación.; Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 5:10:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...: Here is the flier in Spanish:

Aviso sobre la co-locación “Citizens of the World”
miércoles, 5 de diciembre, del 2012
De 6pm - 8pm (5:30 firmar para hablar)
Auditorio de la escuela JHS 126 (424 Leonard Street)
¿Cómo “Citizens of the World” afectará las escuelas en nuestra
comunidad?
• Nuestras escuelas de nivel elemental de Williamsburg y Greenpoint están reflejando una matrícula
baja. no tenemos el lujo de abrir más escuelas elementales sin impactar la matrícula y los fondos de
las escuelas existentes: PS110 Monitor School, PS84 Jose de Diego, PS414 Brooklyn Arbor, PS34
Oliver Perry, PS31 Samuel Dupont, PS132 Conselyea.
• “Citizens of the World” están planificando abrir y obtener una matrícula igual de las que existen en
nuestra comunidad.
• El objetivo de “Citizens of the World” es obtener una matrícula para las nuevas familias integrantes
de Greenpoint y Williamsburg, sobre todo, las familias blanca y de media clase. El porcentaje de
éstas son 55%, esto intensificará la segregación en nuestras escuelas de la comunidad, dejando
poco espacio para la diversidad en las aulas.
• La propuesta para "Citizens of the World" posee falsa información con datos manipulados. Ésta
información le causa una imagen falsa y negativa a las escuelas. Su objetivo es desprestigiar
nuestras escuelas y fabricar deseos para nuevas escuelas.
• "Citizens of the World" obtendrán fondos que les pertenece a nuestras escuelas. En adición a éstas
pérdidas de fondos, JHS 126 perderá salones de arte, ciencia, computadora, música, y salones
disponibles para educación especial. JHS126, es la única escuela intermedia en Greenpoint, su
nuevo director ha hecho mucho esfuerzo para reclutar más estudiantes, con el propósito de
incrementar la matrícula. Si ubican una escuela privada “Charter” la 126 seguirá perdiendo
estudiantes, por lo tanto, perdemos una escuela pública.
• En comparación con otros distritos en NYC, el nuestro está saturado con “Charter Schools”. El
porcentaje de estudiantes matriculados en escuelas privatizadas es de 5% (en toda la ciudad), sin
embargo, en lo que lleva el año 2012-2013, las escuelas elementales de nuestro distrito tiene 29%.
Todos los siguientes representantes le dicen NO a las escuelas Charter en
nuestro distrito: Congresista Nydia Velazquez, Asambleista del Estado Joe
Lentol, Concejal del Estado Stephen Levin, Concejal Diana Reyna, Senador
Martin Dilan, Junta de la Comunidad 1, La Junta de Educación.; Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 5:15:00 PM EST

"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, November 25, 2012

Williamsburg/Greenpt Parents Fight Citizens of the World (Eva's Hubbie)

3 comments: