Two Generations Say No to Equality in American Education -

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Arne Duncan Gets Push-Back on Closing Schools

JAISAL NOOR: PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS AND STUDENTS FROM 18 CITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY GATHERED IN WASHINGTON, DC THIS WEEK TO DEMAND A NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS.

FEDERAL PROGRAMS LIKE RACE TO THE TOP OFFERED FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO CITIES AND STATES FOR RADICALLY CHANGING THEIR SCHOOLS, INCLUDING FIRING STAFF AND SHUTTING SCHOOLS DOWN. WHILE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TOUTED THE COMPETITIVE MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR PROGRAM AS A WAY TO IMPROVE EDUCATION AND BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE AND THE WORKFORCE, MANY PARENTS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SAY THE CHANGES ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTING LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.

The counter revolution is getting up steam. MORE is also gearing up to push the UFT into more action at the closing schools hearings coming up this month. We ought to have a leaflet unveiled in the next day or two.

Here are some reports, video and print.

Jaisal Noor video report (See below the break for text of his report).

Parents and Students Demand Nationwide Moratorium on Schools Closings

//"Journey for Justice" activists rally in DC to DOE investigate alleged Civil Rights violations in school closings

 link: http://youtu.be/pCGrkb1qc7o

Chicago Parent and Activist Jitu Brown at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 

//Part 2 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings

link: http://youtu.be/1PX7y9-GWzI

 

New Orleans Parent and Activist Karran Harper Royal at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 

//Part 3 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings

link: http://youtu.be/c00PWQl8wLk

James Ceronsky in The American Prospect:

Pushing Arne Duncan to Fast-Forward

At a March 15, 2011, sit-down at the Children’s Defense Fund, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent an unequivocal message to black community and faith leaders. “What we’re desperately missing in this country is parents who will demand better for their children,” he said. “I wish to God I had parents knocking on my door every single day saying, go faster, you’re not moving fast enough.”

On Tuesday, community activists from across the country did exactly that. Some 400 students and parents from as far as California descended on Department of Education headquarters to testify on the racialized impact of school closings, turnarounds, and other measures stipulated by federal education funding mandates. Statistically, actions like these tend to affect students of color more than their white counterparts in the same districts. Students displaced by school turnover are forced to cross myriad social boundaries, including gang lines, with little to no precedent of greater academic success in their new environments.

All told, 18 cities—from the East Coast to the West—were represented at the hearing. Activists from roughly 15 of these cities have filed, or are in the process of filing, Title VI civil-rights complaints with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights. These groups are part of the Journey for Justice, a national movement to retake community control of schools.

“This is our Occupy, this is our DREAMers, our LGBT equality, this is all of this wrapped into one,” says Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director for New York’s Alliance for Quality Education. “We want this conversation about closures and communities of color to be raised up.”

MORE:
http://prospect.org/article/pushing-arne-duncan-fast-forward

 Bruce Dixon reports on school closings at the Black Agenda Report:

A nationwide epidemic of school closings and teacher firings has been underway for some time. It's concentrated chiefly in poor and minority communities, and the teachers let go are often experienced and committed classroom instructors, and likely to live in and near the communities they serve, and disproportionately black.

It's not an accident, or a reflection of changing demographics, or more educational choices suddenly becoming available to families in those areas. It's not due to greedy unionized teachers or the invisible hand of the marketplace or well-intentioned educational policies somehow gone awry.

The current wave of school closings is latest result of bipartisan educational policies which began with No Child Left Behind in 2001, and have kicked into overdrive under the Obama administration's Race To The Top. In Chicago, the home town of the president and his Secretary of Education, the percentage of black teachers has dropped from 45% in 1995 to 19% today. After winning a couple skirmishes in federal court over discriminatory firings in a few schools, teachers have now filed a citywide class action lawsuit alleging that the city's policy of school “turnarounds” and “transformations” is racially discriminatory because it's carried out mainly in black neighborhoods and the fired teachers are disproportionately black.

How did this happen? Where did those policies come from, and exactly what are they?

More at
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obamas-race-top-drives-nationwide-wave-school-closings-teacher-firings

Note: Compare Bruce's piece with MSNBC"s coverage on Sunday, where they looked at school closings but  didn't mention "Democratic party" or
Barack Obama or Arne Duncan. Besides Zakiyah, none of the guests
demonstrated any knowledgeable of the topic
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46979745/#50606348. And they call that
"mainstream". ---- Jaisal Noor

Hearing at the U.S. Dept of Education for the Journey for Justice civil rights complaint about school closings.  Apparently the testimony from the parents was very powerful.  Eventually the entire hearing will be posted on the internet.  A lot of it is available at the Save Our Schools you tube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarchToSaveSchools. --- Rosalie Friend


Jaisal Noor text below

Ending LIFO Another Form of Racism?

Last Update: Friday, Feb. 26, 2011, 3pm

 Under BloomKlein the percentage of Black teacher new hires has dropped each year from 28% to 14% (as of 2008). 

Ending LIFO will make the teaching staff whiter.

What has a greater impact on kids? Having a sign on your classroom that says your teacher went to Duke, or having a teacher who comes from your neighborhood and had similar experiences growing up?

You just have to take a look around many schools to notice something painfully obvious: the number of senior black teachers and the numbers of younger white teachers.

A few weeks ago I was invited to speak at chapter meetings in a Harlem elementary school, a school that has been invaded by a charter school. I was somewhat surprised to see that of the 25+ staff members that attended the meetings only one was white and only a few were in their twenties. It could be that there is a different demographic that didn't attend the meetings but the overall staff seemed to be people of color.

In contrast, just about every teacher I saw at the charter school was white and young. But the teachers did have signs on their doors advertising the fancy colleges they went to. I didn't notice one CUNY college, a place where you might actually recruit teachers of color. Does Teach for America even consider them colleges? Racism? You judge.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago: The Racial School Divide in Harlem

Almost the entire staff of the public school is black or Latino/a and senior while almost the entire staff of the co-located charter is white and young. And this is Harlem where all the kids are the same color of the public school teachers. What has a greater impact on kids? Having a sign on your classroom that says your teacher went to Duke, or having a teacher who comes from your neighborhood and had similar experiences growing up?

So what has this to do with Last in First Out? It should be obvious - that there is a higher percentage of older teachers of color than there is of younger teachers and an end to LIFO will make the staff younger and whiter.

A POINT OF IRONY

At yesterday's ICE meeting one of my long time colleagues from the 70's reminded me that in the massive layoffs of the mid-70's LIFO was attacked as being racist because many Black teachers had been hired since community control came into effect in 1968/9 and were the younger teachers being laid off. Our group, which consisted of many progressive members who had gone in to work during the UFT 1968 strike because they considered it a racist attack on the community, went through a difficult decision making process but ultimately came down on the side of preserving LIFO because it was such a lynchpin of protection for all teachers, arguing that in the long run it would protect even these Black teachers. And so it has come to pass.

I want to point out that I had this very same discussion with a young 4th year Black teacher at the school 2 weeks ago. She supported LIFO but was concerned about layoffs. I pointed to the fact that LIFO gave her rights over all the teachers who came before her - what would stop her principal from choosing a first year teacher over her without LIFO? I also pointed out that if she were laid off under LIFO she retained rights of return in the same order she was laid off, something that would probably disappear if LIFO ended.

Racist Hiring policies at Tweed?
Look at the hiring policies since BloomKlein took over. I wrote about it a few times based on the work of Sean Ahern, a founder of ICE.

 Racial Policies at Tweed: Disappearing Black Teachers

 Joel Klein calls the achievement gap "The Shame of the Nation" as he races to black churches to sell his program of change in the NYC schools. But the real shame just may be the drastic drop in the number of black teacher hires in the BloomKlein years from 27.2% in 2001/02 to 14.1% in 2006/7 according to a report from the black educator blog.

From 1990 - 2002 it rose steadily from 16% - 27%.
Also the % of Hispanic teachers has dropped from a high of 18% in the mid-90's to 11% today, though the numbers are fairly consistent under BloomKlein and the drop began before they took over. At the height, Hispanic an African Americans mader up over 40% of new recruits and that has dropped to 25%. And the % of white teacher recruits has risen from 49% - 65%.

 Sean worked with the UFT to put together a diversity resolution which addressed this issue and it was passed at a recent Delegate Assembly. Sean sent this email around yesterday.

"It is an urgent tactical and strategic necessity that  the defense of seniority be joined with the effort to stop and reverse the disappearing of Black and Latino educators."

Bloomberg wants to be able to lay off senior higher paid teachers in order to retain newly hired, untenured, lower paid teachers.  In order to do this the NYS legislature would have to change existing law.  

The senior teachers most at risk are more likely to be Black and Latino teachers. New teachers are more likely to be white as a consequence of Bloombergs hiring policies. Since 2002 there has been a yearly decline in the percentage of Black and Latino teachers being hired.  In addition the senior teachers who are being most targeted for layoff are those in the absent teacher reserve (ATR).  The Bloomberg policy of closing schools in the Black and Latino communities disproportionately affects Black and Latino teachers who are concentrated in these schools.

The link to the article by Jeff Kaufman http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/, former UFT Executive Board member and a leading rank and file spokesperson for ICE (Independent Coalition of Educators) one of the opposition caucuses in the UFT, provides useful background on the activities of a group set up and funded by the Gates Foundation which supports teacher layoffs without regard to seniority.  

Missing from Brother Kaufman's otherwise excellent article is a racial profile of the teachers that are most at risk;  the senior teachers, and the ones more likely to be retained in the event of an layoff;  the newly hired teachers.   We can't force a social consciousness onto Gates and his flunkies but we can speak for and practice justice in our own schools and union.

The layoff of senior teachers over newly hired teachers would accelerate the disappearing of Black and Latino educators from NYC public schools.  It is an urgent tactical and strategic necessity that  the defense of seniority be joined with  the effort to stop and reverse the disappearing of Black and Latino educators. 

The joining of these two issues cuts across caucus affiliation and is the touchstone of solidarity at this moment within the UFT .  The extent to which union activists  raise our own awareness and that of the membership and public at large will go far in determining the strength of our common defense of learning and working conditions in the coming months.  Leaders and caucuses existing and in formation will be measured by their words and deeds on this touchstone of solidarity.

  

Defend seniority rights in the event of layoffs!

Defend learning and working conditions - Renew the Millionaires tax!

Stop and Reverse the Disappearing of Black and Latino Educators!

Implement the "Resolves" in the UFT Resolution on Diversity!

Peace,

Sean Ahern

http://www.uft.org/union-resolutions/resolution-promoting-diversity-new-york-city-teaching-force

Resolution promoting diversity in the New York City teaching force

January 19, 2011

WHEREAS, it has been a long standing policy of the UFT to support the existence of a diverse teaching force, both in the interest of equity and because education research has consistently proven that African-American and Latino students who have had teachers of color as positive role models achieve greater educational progress; and

WHEREAS, a study of the UFT Committee on Civil and Human Rights found that in relation to the numbers of African-American and Latino students in New York City public schools, African-American and Latino educators are dramatically underrepresented;

WHEREAS, the Committee found that while the hiring of new African-American and Latino educators had steadily increased into the early 2000s, there has been a troubling reversal of this trend under the tenure of Chancellor Joel Klein with the effect of exacerbating, rather than abating, the dramatic underrepresentation of African-American and Latino educators; be it therefore

RESOLVED, that the UFT demand that the New York City Department of Education rededicate itself to a policy of actively recruiting and hiring teachers of diverse backgrounds in order to reverse the downward trend of the last eight years in the percentages of African-American and Latino classroom teachers and to diminish the considerable gap between the numbers of African-American and Latino students and the numbers of teachers of color; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT use all its resources to compel the Department of Education to take affirmative action to increase the numbers of teachers of color in its contracts with third party entities engaged in teacher recruitment on its behalf; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT use all of its resources to compel the Department of Education and the third party entities engaged in teacher recruitment on its behalf to target recruitment at public universities such as the State University of New York and the City University of New York; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT lobby the Federal, State and City governments to develop and expand scholarships and other incentives to encourage and support college students in entering the educational profession; and be it further

RESOLVED, that in conjunction with the NYC Department of Education, the UFT encourage the development and expansion of future teacher programs in the NYC public high schools, and highlight education as a viable career path by encouraging its development through the use of financial supports; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT use all of its resources to compel the Department of Education to provide expand its support for existing programs which produce large numbers of experienced and qualified African-American and Latino teachers – the career ladder program for para-professionals and the Success Via Apprenticeship program for aspiring Career-Technical teachers; and  be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT continue to combat the negative depiction of teaching and the teaching profession which can only result in turning away prospective teachers from our profession, and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT through its own efforts and in conjunction with the Department of Education persuade the Teach for America program to expand its pool of potential teachers to include more teachers of diverse backgrounds and advocate that both Teach for America and the NYC Teaching Fellows actively recruit more African-American and Latino teachers.

ADD ON

Attack on Public Employees Deals a Sharp Blow to Blacks

Is the NYC Parks Department Racist?

One would certainly think so given the fact that small, insular, wealthy communities (full disclosure - I live in one of them) get lifeguards - lots of them while the poorer east end Rockaway communities get zilch.

More evidence that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has compared himself to Martin Luther King as a civil rights activist, supports closet racist policies that have lead to more segregated schools, the disappearing black teacher, and entire beach communities of people of color who do not have lifeguards and are threatened with summonses and arrest by Parks Dept. police if they should venture to put a toe in the water.

Message from NYC Parks Dept. head Adrienne Benepe:
Hey people of color: OK to sit on a crowded beach, but don't go in the water.

Here is an excerpt from a letter to Parks Dept. head Adrienne Benepe by Jeanne Dupont, who leads the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance:

The population in these areas are polar opposites; Neponsit has a population of .02% minorities, where Far Rockaway has a 98% minority population. This cannot continue, as this is racial discrimination and could put the Parks Department in serious danger of legal action if it were investigated further.

Here's Jeanne's entire letter:

Please register your complaint that Far Rockaway needs its lifeguards every day, not just on the weekends. Visit 106 Headquarters for Lifeguards at Beach 106th Street on the boardwalk, call (718) 318-4000 extension 0, or call 311.

From Beach 75th Street on up, there are lifeguards every 100 yards. The outright neglect of our neighborhood is abominable, so please make yourself heard.

You may also want to write to Adrian Benepe, the NYC Parks Commissioner. Attached (and below) is a letter that Jeanne DuPont of Rockaway Waterfront Alliance sent today.

Thank you.

July 8, 2008

Mr. Adrian Benepe

Commissioner

NYC Department of Parks & Recreation

The Arsenal

16 West 61^st Street

New York, NY 10023

Dear Commissioner Benepe,

As you know, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance has been working to encourage the public to use their waterfront through programs and activities that are so desperately needed in the Rockaway community. But it is difficult to watch as much of our work is undone by PEP patrol officers who chase the public off their beaches in search of an ‘open’ beach with lifeguards.

Last year in our local paper, you ‘Pledged a Commitment’ to the Rockaway community. But since that time little has changed and we still have no “Learn to Swim” or local “Lifeguard Training” programs anywhere in the Rockaways and the lifeguard recruiting process does not seem to be getting the numbers of lifeguards required to keep our beaches safe.

As it stands now, certain beaches are extremely well staffed for the privileged few, while other beaches in Rockaway are extremely underserved; putting the public at risk and overextending the lifeguards themselves.

For the past two weekends the beachfront at Beach 25^th Street in the Rockaways has had well over 500 people each day, and no lifeguard at all during the week. This beach is adjacent to one of the largest populations of people on the peninsula, exceeding 25,000 residents and yet there is only 1 lifeguard stand for miles of public waterfront all the way to Beach 74^th Street.

This seems extremely unjust given the fact that areas on the far western end of the Peninsula like Neponsit, have more than 21 lifeguards; 7 stands, 100 yards apart for less than 2,000 residents in an area with no public boardwalk, parking by permit only, and no access to public transit. This would seem to be a “private beach” paid for with public resources that are required to serve seven miles of public waterfront.

There is a drastic contrast in services provided between City Council District 31 and 32; two districts that lie adjacent to one another along the same waterfront. City Council District 31 presently has only 4 lifeguard stands from Beach 9^th Street to Beach 54^th Street, while City Council District 32 has over 72 lifeguard stands from Beach 74^th Street to Beach 149^th Street, every 100 yards apart.

It is also important to note that the population in these areas are polar opposites; Neponsit has a population of .02% minorities, where Far Rockaway has a 98% minority population. This cannot continue, as this is racial discrimination and could put the Parks Department in serious danger of legal action if it were investigated further.

To address the present shortage on the Eastern end, I would ask that the Parks Department in the very least, have lifeguards all week long at the 1 stand at Beach 25^th Street and consider designating more stands along the beaches from Beach 25^th Street to Beach 38^th Street, to ensure the publics safety and emergency back up for the lifeguards that are stationed there.

Additionally, NYC legislation should to be revised, as it is in all other US coastal states to have a “swim at you own risk” policy. By doing this the city would reduce their risk of lawsuits and could use the funds, presently used for PEP officers to hire certified lifeguards, so we can have more ‘open’ swimmable beaches and less harassment to the public who deserve the right to use their waterfront.

I would be interested in speaking with you further about these issues. If you would like to meet to discuss how some of these things might be resolved, I can be reached 917 975-5623.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jeanne DuPont

Director

Rockaway Waterfront Alliance

cc:

Councilman Joseph Addabbo

Steve Cooper, Frank Ave Civic of Edgemere

Richard George, Beachside Bungalow Preservation Assoc.

Phil Karmel/ Bryan Cave LLC

Congressman Gregory Meeks

Les Paultre. Rockaway Beachside Neighborhood Assoc.

Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer

Stephanie Samoy

Councilman James Sanders

State Senator Malcolm Smith

Barbara Smith, Deerfield Civic Assoc.

Assemblywoman Michele Titus