Ed Notes Online: Progressives Celebrate Walz, Pushback on Shapiro Who Was a Corp and anti-pub ed fave

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Progressives Celebrate Walz, Pushback on Shapiro Who Was a Corp and anti-pub ed fave

The Dem Party Centrists did not win this one for a change. Harris shows a willingness to defend progressive policies instead of running away from them. Feeding kids and better healthcare are good things.

While his background was tailor-made for moderate voters, his policies as governor have been firmly liberal, reflecting what his allies call “prairie populism.” He signed into law a Democratic wish list of bills on marijuana, paid family leave, abortion rights and gun control, something Ms. Harris highlighted in her announcement of him as the pick. Republicans call him a left-winger in homespun clothing....nyt

Just as the broad-based Dems and associates have engaged in wild enthusiasm over the Harris ascendancy, today the progressive wing of the party, relieved it was Shapiro, seemed overjoyed at Walz.

I'm tired of Dems playing it safe. Go for the gusto. Here is recent NYT take:

From obscure governor to Kamala Harris’s V.P. pick: Here’s how Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota broke through to Democratic stardom.

Dive deeper with The Ezra Klein Show: Is Walz a safe choice, or a bold choice? And who is he, really — besides a Midwestern dad who made “weird” a powerful political critique?

The Ezra Klein Show

Kamala Harris Isn’t Playing It Safe

In picking Tim Walz, Harris is after more than just Pennsylvania.

30 MIN LISTEN

Courtesy of Governor Tim Walz

The Ezra Klein Show

Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?

The governor of Minnesota wants Democrats to own the normie center.

59 MIN LISTEN

I watched the corp dem center right gnash its teeth over their loss of Shapiro as a candidate. Oh my, Pennsylvania is lost. Actually, if Shapiro is so popular (49% is not so popular) picking him as Veep would actually have hurt because he would be expected to campaign in multiple states while now he can stay home and focus on his state.

Shapiro was a risky choice for Harris on a number of grounds which I will leave readers to research on their own. Walz and Beshear were my choices, so I am happy.

Today, Sam Seder laid it all out so succinctly -- the advantages of Walz and the disadvantages of Shapiro. You hear that Shapiro would bring Jewish votes. Did you hear Trump lament that he only got 25% of the Jewish vote in 2016 and after all he did for Israel as president he only got 26% in 2020. Watch the Jewish vote this election cycle be over 70% for Dems. It's in our blood because we know from history where the heavies and most vicious anti-semitism comes from and has always come from for thousands of years -- the right.

He points to Walz being unashamed or defensive about his progressive politics -- let Republicans attack, he will mock.

Note the Republican so-called Joy and almost pleading to have Josh Shapiro because they know how that would have divided the party.

https://www.youtube.com/live/PQcvvmgC9g0?si=42SQ9lTD9LXoERza

Watch this segment until the 39th minute for Part 1.

And here is part 2:

In Joe Scarboro world, these ed groups below are anti-semites:

In a letter, grassroots education groups urge VP Harris not to pick Gov. Shapiro as running mate

July 24, 2024

The White House
Office of the Vice President
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500

Dear Madam Vice President,

A broad coalition of public education advocacy organizations from across the US write to you today urging you to select a running mate for Vice President of the United States who fully supports public education. It is our fervent hope that your running mate will reflect your strong history of supporting educators and students, and commitment to building the middle class which will require strong public schools across our nation. For this reason, we respectfully ask you not to select Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who has supported education policies mirroring Project 2025.

The Heritage Foundation and other radical extremists organizations have declared war on public schools in America — and by doing so, they’ve set their sights on the end of democracy itself. Through Project 2025, they have made it abundantly clear the end goal of gutting public education and privatizing what is left via irresponsible voucher systems like those in Florida and Arizona.

For those of us across America fighting on the ground for public education, this playbook is not new. It has been enacted state by state through massive voucher programs that are decimating our local public schools and exacerbating school closures, teacher layoffs, and loss of resources — all by design. This playbook has been pushed by Betsy DeVos’ American Federation for Children, the Kochs, the Heritage Foundation, and a wide range of well-funded billionaires who do not have the interests of our children or a multi-racial, thriving democracy at heart.

The battle lines have been drawn. We urge you to select a nominee for Vice President who unabashedly supports and defends public education. For example, nominees such as Governors Roy Cooper (North Carolina), Andy Beshear (Kentucky), and Tim Walz (Minnesota) have been vocal champions for public education in their states. We find it incumbent upon us to note that Governor Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania) has not, and instead has supported voucher schemes pushed by well-funded billionaires from Pennsylvania like Jeffrey Yass.

As education advocacy groups, we are fighting not only for 50 million students and millions of educators, but also for the future of our democracy. The stakes could not be higher, and as we fight the battle against authoritarians who would dismantle public education across our great nation, we believe it is essential that our President and Vice President be wholly committed to our nation’s public education system and willing to fight against school privatization in all its forms.

We hope you will take our urgent request into consideration as you make this critical decision.

Respectfully,

Network for Public Education Action

412 Justice (Pennsylvania)
Alliance for Educational Justice
Boston Education Justice Alliance
Center for Popular Democracy Action
Colorado Fiscal Institute
Columbus Education Justice Coalition
Community Voices for Public Education - Houston Connecticut for All
Education Rights Network (Pennsylvania)
The Education and Economic Justice Coalition (Georgia) Families for Strong Public Schools (Florida)
Game on for Kansas Schools
Grassroots Arkansas
HEAL To Win / Race Forward Action
Illinois Families for Public Schools
Indiana Coalition for Public Education
Journey for Justice Alliance
Michigan Education Justice Coalition
Ohio Public Education Partners
Parents for Public Schools of Milwaukee
Pastors for Children
Save Our Schools Arizona
Support Forest Hills Public Schools Action (Michigan) Voters for Strong Public Schools (Florida)
Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools
Wisconsin Public Education Action
Wisconsin Public Education Network

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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

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Progressives Celebrate Walz, Pushback on Shapiro Who Was a Corp and anti-pub ed fave

Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?

In a letter, grassroots education groups urge VP Harris not to pick Gov. Shapiro as running mate

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