Randi/AFT/Mulgrew/UFT/E4E Join Deformers in Supporting ESEA (ECAA -Escalating Charter Assistance Act)

Weingarten works tirelessly to advance the agendas of billionaire pseudo philanthropists at the expense of union members who pay her salary. The teachers of my acquaintance have no use for standardized testing and the unending test preparation it engenders. They do not require national comparisons of student achievement. Every week contradictory mandates are handed down to the lowly teaching serfs.... Abigail Shure, Newark Teacher

Schools Matter

ECAA "would set the country back more than a half century" -

The requirement that a state “annually measure the achievement of not less than 95 percent of all students… who are enrolled in public schools” (page 88) on the annual assessments is still in place. The federal government is trying to force the testing without taking responsibility for forcing the testing. Now, there is the creative option for parents (or districts) to un-enroll their children during testing and re-enroll once testing is over.
With the continued testing mandate in this ESSA, the federal government should anticipate an opt-out showdown... Mercedes Schneider

More from Jim Horn at Schools Matter:

Say NO to ECAA (Escalating Charter Assistance Act)

Now that NPE, Fairtest, NEA, and AFT have bought the ESEA bag of radioactive rocks with the liar's promise of gold inside, it is best for them to pretend this deadly gift is going to make us all well. 
Don't be fooled.  Billions are guaranteed for segregated charter privatization to expand exponentially (see pp. 518-575), with charter authorization taken out of the hands of LEAs.
Call Congress and remind them that this bill will unleash an era of resistance and civil disobedience they have never seen.

Help NPE Action STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill

Now let's hear from the ed deform peanut gallery 

Educators4Excellence ‏@Ed4Excellence 12h12 hours ago

We support the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reflects many teacher priorities: http://www.educators4excellence.org/news/2015-12-educators-4-excellence-supports-passage-of-the-every-student-succeeds-act … #ESEA

UFT ‏@UFT 7h7 hours ago

Support real change in education. Tell Congress to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act - https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-to-support-the-every-student-succeeds-act-of-2015 …

  

 Michael Mulgrew:

Congress is now set to vote on a new education bill that will get the federal government out of the business of teacher evaluations and offers real relief from the testing fixation that has increasingly narrowed the curriculum and done little to close the achievement gap.
Please ask your House representative to vote "YES" to support the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015.
 

So which side is Mulgrew/Randi/AFT/UFT on? Naturally she lines up with the ed deform slugs of E4E.

Funny, but NPE keeps asking her to play a role at their yearly conference. Isn't it time to dis-invite Randi?

Here is a message from our Ed Notes' Newark stringer:

AFT President Randi Weingarten cordially invites her union members to contact their representatives and senators to voice their support of ESEA. I regret to inform Her Majesty that she will not have the honor of my presence at the festivities. In the spirit of full disclosure; I am not a general. I am not an attorney. I am not a labor organizer. I am a teacher member of the NTU/AFT and I am not an advocate of the reauthorization of ESEA. Whereas, Weingarten claims that turning over authority to states is a "sea change in education policy," I fail to see the advantage of the strategy of fighting a fifty front war (fifty one with the inclusion of Puerto Rico) when we have failed to energize our troops to combat education reform on a federal level.

The two states I observe most closely are New Jersey and New York. There is no evidence of any encouraging news for advocates of public education emanating from either Trenton, or Albany. Governor Christie has succeeded in gutting the one hundred year old tenure law aided and abetted by Democrat State Senator Ruiz. My own position has been jeopardized by this development as I labor under a CAP. Governor Cuomo is battling the public school monopoly with the assistance of Democrat and Republican state legislators alike.

Weingarten works tirelessly to advance the agendas of billionaire pseudo philanthropists at the expense of union members who pay her salary. The teachers of my acquaintance have no use for standardized testing and the unending test preparation it engenders. They do not require national comparisons of student achievement. Every week contradictory mandates are handed down to the lowly teaching serfs.

In the local arena, Weingarten has implemented every possible method to screw Newark public school teachers. Hurricane Katrina has hit Newark full force as charter schools spring up in a vacant parking lot and a Teacher Village. Innovations of merit pay and frozen steps arrive with Weingarten's blessing.

An early endorsement of corporatist Hillary Clinton for president is Weingarten's most glaring misstep thus far. I, for one, wish to file for a divorce from Weingarten and her misguided policies. If Weingarten is for it, I am against it. Contact your Congressmen and Congresswomen to voice your opposition to ESEA. It is too early to sing Kumbaya.

Abigail Shure

Mercedes Schneider: Here is the Proposed Federal Law

By dianeravitch

December 1, 2015 

Mercedes Schneider here offers the latest version of the new federal law that will replace No Child Left Behind. Prepare yourself. It is over 1,000 pages. Look for the titles that interest you. Any law that is so long has all sorts of political compromises tucked into it, and all sorts of favors to lobbyists and special interests. It is a Christmas tree, just in time for Christmas.

In this post, Mercedes analyzes the latest draft, the one that came out of the House-Senate conference committee and will likely be made law.