Did Obama Bomb the World Trade Center?

Ed Notes News has learned that Barack Obama once walked past the World Trade Center, clearly an indication he was part of the terrorist plot. Sarah Palin is expected to make this charge at upcoming appearances. ENN has obtained an advanced copy of Palin's remarks, to be delivered at a meeting of a group of loyalists who will be wearing their newly laundered sheets for this special occasion.

“There is a lot of interest, I guess, in what I read and what I’ve read lately. Well, I was reading my copy of today’s Education Notes and I was interested to read about Barack’s strolls around Manhattan before the World Trade Center bombing.

“I get to bring this up not to pick a fight, but it was there in Education Notes, so we are gonna talk about it. Turns out one of Barack’s earliest visits when he came to New York, according to Education Notes, and they are hardly ever wrong, was walk past the WTC, where he was observed looking up for some 30 seconds."

Background: here and here.

Ed Note: We're betting that polls will show a majority of Americans who come across this parody will believe that Obama is really a member of bin Laden's organization. Or do they believe that already?

Joe Klein to visit Oz

Trevor Cobbold from down under sends us another example of how the Bloomberg/Klein/Rhee, etc. gang race all over the world to try to impose their failing vision of ed reform. It's not educational, mate, it's an ideological crusade.

Will Klein wash up to the Aussie shore like a Bondi cigar?

Norm,

You will be interested to know that Joe Klein has been invited by the Aust. Govt Education Minister, Julia Gillard, to visit Autsralia in November.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/05/2382401.htm

Her idea is to use Klein to convince our State Govts. to sign up to a her proposed school reporting system to be based on the New York model.

This is going to provide a good opportunity for teacher unions and parent organisations to focus on the failings of the NY reporting system. I would appreciate it if you can forward any useful material or sources you or your colleagues have on the problems of the New York system.

I will keep you informed of developments on the visit.

Trevor Cobbold
Save Our Schools

OK, gang. Let's help Trevor out. No diatribes. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Forget the "look what they did to the teachers" stories because the public not only doesn't care, but thinks teachers deserve it. Leave those fights for inside the sell-out UFT.

The fudging of test scores, the phony grad rates and the use of "seat time" to hand kids diplomas, the forced migration of kids from one closed school to the next, the high class sizes, the enormous sums spent outside the classroom, etc, etc, etc.

The horror, Colonel Kurtz? Yes indeed and now the irony too!

From Paul Moore

The horror, Colonel Kurtz? Yes indeed and now the irony too!

John Castellani's puss has been all over TV for the last several days. He's the president of the Business Roundtable.

Back when the Business Roundtable was riding high in 1989, flush with Reagan era confidence, the big company CEO's met for an education summit in Charlottesville, Virginia. They came down from their summit and announced to the world that they would transform America's public schools.

Who could have imagined that less than twenty years later these same men would appear, hat in hand, to plead with public school teachers, parents and students to each give them $3,000 as their share of a $700 billion public bailout. Goodness, what happened to their vaunted
business model? Somehow these proponents of data driven education have no idea what their collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) are worth. Most shockingly, the poster boys for accountability who pranced around with their noses in the air chanting "no excuses" over
the battered minds and bodies of poor children, want sympathy and want to be rescued by their victims!

Public school teachers, parents and students our time under these sanctimonius, hypocritical blowhards is over! They have forfeited their right to any influence in our schools. Mail your No.2 pencils to the Business Roundtable, swords into plowshares, standardized tests into poetry contests.

Long live Douglas Avella!

Paul A. Moore
Miami Carol City High School

Howling at the Debate: Did Ifill Roll Over for Palin?

THE IFILL COWER: Gwen Ifill asked very few follow-up questions last night. Was that because of the evening’s format? Or was it a function of Ifill’s political problems? Brit Hume’s first remarks after last night’s debate referred to the problem Ifill carried with her into this debate:

HUME (10/2/08): Well, now the families come on the stage to join the two contestants as they say good-bye and thanks to the moderator, Gwen Ifill, who seemed to have gotten through this evening without anybody jumping on anything she said or making her the issue, which I'm sure she's very grateful for.

Let’s translate: If Ifill had challenged Palin last night, conservative elements would have scorched her for displaying her vile “liberal bias.” And yes, that’s clearly what Hume meant. Because let’s face it, there was exactly zero chance that weaklings of the pseudo-left were ever goin to “jump on” Ifill. As we all know, conservatives go after people like Ifill. Liberals ask her for jobs.

More insightful analysis of how the so-called liberal press operates at today's edition of The Daily Howler.

September Madness

Which bank will win the tournament and become the only bank left standing? Choose the winner and take home the pool.

Click to enlarge

Naomi Klein: Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street’s Shock Doctrine

The dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. A President McCain would embrace these policies willingly. A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and "free-market stimulus."

Klein's full piece from Huffington Post

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2008/10/disaster-capitalism-in-action.html

Step up to the plate Teach for America

I posted an article from The Feministe by "Anna" called "Why I Hate Teach for America" on Aug. 24, 2008. One of the things TFA'ers who comment on critics say is that they are filling a breach that other teachers won't go into even if it's only for 2 years. In NYC with 1400 unassigned teachers (ATR's) due to closed schools adn excessed positions, TFA continues to pour people into the NYC school system. The cost to the system has been estimated to be $70 million.

Amazingly, the blame has been placed on these experienced teachers by Tim Daly of the New Teachers Project who has a contract to train new teachers and a vested interest in attacking these experienced teachers. His biased reports may in fact be a hidden part of his contract.

Groups in NYC have been calling on the DOE to place a moratorium on TFA recruitment until all these teachers are placed or use them to create more classes where feasible to reduce class size.

The anonymous comment below on the "I Hate TFA Post" came across the other day.


I am a traditionally trained teacher. I have a dual degree in elementary and special education. I'm currently working on my M.Ed in Literacy. It pains me to think of the disservice we are doing our students with TfA.

I've seen people with no background become literacy coaches in 3 years, teaching new recruits how to teach! It's an absolute joke.

We are putting the wrong people in the neediest situations and often watching them fail. With programs like TfA we are putting a band-aid over a huge flesh wound in the American educational system.

I believe that alternative programs can be a part of the certification process but TfA is missing the boat, big time.

I teach special education in an inner-ring suburb of a large metropolitan area. I think of what our students are missing by having teachers, with less than 8 weeks of training, standing in front of them, especially in the elementary grades. Research proves that these primary years are the most important in shaping our academic success and our nation is willingly letting people with no experience or background teach literacy and math.

Unfortunately, this is the way it will be unless this great nation of ours realizes that we need to turn things around, supporting our students at home and our teachers in the classroom. Our profession has lost its nobility.

Students are disrespectful and are supported in their poor choices by parents. We need to reward teachers who pursue higher education degrees and continue to teach with higher salaries and an ounce of appreciation for the often thankless things we do and the countless hours spent helping students beyond our contracted day.

Teach for America perpetuates the problem by supporting the idea that teaching is a stepping stone to bigger and better. In my mind, teaching is the bigger and better. Teach for America boasts that high expectations are required for student achievement. I agree, and I have higher expectations for programs like TfA and the people who have chosen this path.

Step up to the plate TfA and require your recruits to enter the field and continue with their training to TEACH!


Ed Note: I do not agree with the "Students are disrespectful" part of this comment because it brands all students. However, since I also taught special ed kids with emotional difficulties as a cluster teacher - and believe me, I was completely untrained to deal with them - I can understand why this teacher may feel this way.

Leonie on Teachers to Be Measured Based on Students' Standardized Test Scores

Click on image to enlarge


"Using a complicated statistical formula, the report computes a "predicted gain" for each teacher's class, then compares it to the students' actual improvements on the test. The result is a snapshot analysis of how much the teacher contributed to student growth. "

Leonie Haimson writes to her listserve:

What factor did they use in terms of improvements -- one year's gains or losses in test scores? Such a small number of students as are included one class would likely lead to an even more unreliable measurement than the progress category at the school level, which culminated in the highly unreliable school grades.

How does such a highly erratic and variable measure get teachers "comfortable with the data, in a positive, affirming way," as Chris Cerf asserts? How exactly does it "help teachers identify their strengths and weaknesses" as Randi writes?

Moreover, according to the "performance predictor" chart above -- the formula was supposed to control for class size at the classroom and school level. Did it?

It appears so. "The teacher data report balances the progress students make on state tests and their absences with factors that include whether they receive special-education services or qualify for free lunch, as well as the size, race and gender breakdown of the teacher's class."

In an oped about evaluating teacher performance in the Daily news in April, Klein wrote that “Nor should test scores be used without controlling for things like where students start academically, class size and demographics.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/04/08/2008-04-08_beware_the_teacher_tenure_trap.html

Will we ever get to see the formula? How much of a factor did they attribute to class size?

I'd like Eduwonkette and other statistical experts to be able to analyze it.

I am Grateful the Mayor is Willing to Step Up: Randi Weingarten

WOW! Two Randiisms in one day. It doesn't get any better than this.

Of course Randi opposes term limits. She can be AFT/UFT president for life (bet ya she is already running for UFT re-election in 2010 - Mulgew who?)

Note the typical disclaimer showing her "concern" so she can appear to support both sides. By the way, one sticking point in any merger with the NEA which has term limits.

Remember how Unity hacks went around schools telling people we only have to wait out Bloomberg to get changes.

Go to the people? No group more than teachers should be leading the charge to stop Bloomberg. Instead Randi will sit this one out and leave it to the people when we know Bloomberg has already bought the election.

From: UFT Press [mailto:UFTPress@uft.org] (WHY NOT SEND THEM AN EMAIL?)
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 4:14 PM
Subject: United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten re term limits:

Personally, I have always been opposed to term limits, as has this union. I am also, as are so many people, very concerned about the economy, and I am grateful the mayor is willing to step up. That said, I am very concerned, given that New Yorkers have twice spoken about this issue in referendums, and because of that, I think the most democratic way to change term limits is to go back to the people.”

Sample Teacher Data Reports on Student Test Scores

Usually I'd put these up on Norms Notes. But this issue is important enough to put them on the main blog.

How about that formula for measuring teachers (see below) or analyzed it in terms of its reliability? If it turns out to be unreliable – as has every other formula the DOE has developed in recent years -- how can it be useful even for diagnostic purposes?

The NY Times report today said this:

The teacher data report balances the progress students make on state tests and their absences with factors that include whether they receive special-education services or qualify for free lunch, as well as the size, race and gender breakdown of the teacher’s class.

Using a complicated statistical formula, the report computes a “predicted gain” for each teacher’s class, then compares it to the students’ actual improvements on the test. The result is a snapshot analysis of how much the teacher contributed to student growth.

The reports classify each teacher as average, above average or below average in effectiveness with different categories of students, like those who score in the top third or the lowest third on the test, and those still learning English or enrolled in special-education programs. It also contains separate measurements on effectiveness in teaching boys and girls, though it does not distinguish performance by students’ race or income level. Teachers will also be given a percentile ranking indicating how their performance compares to those who teach similar students and to a citywide pool.

Teaching Resources
http://schools.nyc.gov/Teachers/Resources/teacherdatainitiative.htm

Teacher Data Initiative

A few things to keep in mind when viewing the sample Teacher Data Report:

* The sample Teacher Data Report contains illustrative, not real, data.
* The name of the teacher and the school are fictitious—any resemblance to the name of an actual teacher or school is purely coincidental.
* The sample report is a working draft. The reports' format may be revised based on additional feedback from teachers and school leaders before they are distributed.

Assistance understanding the reports
Schools will receive training on how to read and interpret Teacher Data Reports before they receive their reports. In addition, Web-based tools will be available to help teachers and school leaders understand Teacher Data Reports at the time that the reports are made available.

Click to enlarge

Why did the UFT agree to teacher data initiative?

UPDATE 2:15 PM:

If you can wade through the wordiness and obfuscation, watch the most intellectually dishonest member of the UFT/Unity hierarchy - aka Leo Casey - justify this mess at Edwize.

Blogger JD2718 calls Casey's junk "essentially Bunk"
These reports will provide new a ways to discipline teachers, and new tools to bend all of our teaching to ‘the test.’ Read his complete take.

Will this be the result when teacher evaluations are made public?


People are asking what the UFT had to gain by agreeing to the measuring of teachers based on students' test scores? Did they get something under the table for this? Did Tweed put a gun to their head? My guess is that is exactly what Klein did.

If Tweed made a unilateral announcement they would implement the program no matter what the UFT said or did, the UFT would look as helpless as it is. So they chose to jump on board to avoid looking even worse for the membership, who have to be outraged at this agreement.

The realities in the schools are that all the assurances given mean nothing. The UFT is not capable of resistance given the destruction of the union at the school level by Klein. They are only culpable for the current sorry state of the union.

Even reporters who have contacted me seem incredulous at the actions of the UFT.

Let's look at some implications.

• A teacher looks for a job and the principal asks for the personal report, which the teacher according to the union doesn't have to show. Good luck.
• Teachers who are measured will absolutely make sure they get good scores by whatever means necessary. Voila. The scores go up. Look how well BloomKlein are doing. Someone should measure the scores of a test group.
• Teachers in schools score poorly. Time to close them and create a whole new wave of ATR's.

What does this mean for ATR's who on the surface do not seem connected to this policy? If the UFT can give up teachers on this one, why not a deal that even if hidden under the covers, will end badly for ATR's? What if the DOE were to announce it would unilaterally fire ATR's after 1 year? "Go ahead, Chickie, do something," Klein challenges the UFT. "Grieve!" the UFT will tell people. "We'll go to court." Hey, maybe they'll even win. One day. The UFT can scatter the money over the graves of the ATR's.

Let's reiterate that no matter what is said in the joint statement, a witch hunt for teachers is behind it all, as Chris Cerf stated in the NY Times:

In introducing the pilot program, Mr. Cerf said it would be a “powerful step forward” to have the teacher measurements made public, arguing, “If you know as a parent what’s the deal, I think that whole aspect will change behavior.” But this week, he said that for now the reports will be treated as personnel records not subject to public-records laws.

In addition, no independent monitor has ever been able to verify the oft-repeated claim from DOE that “the school system has shifted more than $350 million from the bureaucracy to schools and classrooms” in recent years.

Ya gotta love Cerf. He says it like it is. Well maybe not exactly love.

How about bringing back the old colonial stocks and put teachers who don't measure up on public display?

Coming around 6 PM today: Sample teacher data reports

Teachers Measured on Test Scores: UFT Gives Away the Rest of the Store

See follow-up postings

I am practically rendered speechless at the joint announcement by KleinGarten that the UFT and Tweed have agreed on a plan to measure teachers by the standardized test scores of their students. But don't you see, it is for the teachers' own benefits so they can improve. It will NEVER be used against them Randi maintains. It "once and for all closes the door on using student test score data to evaluate teacher performance." Huh? But you see, Randi really feels there is too much testing but agrees to merit pay and now this program that, guess what? Puts even more emphasis on testing. Does she have 3 sides of her mouth to speak out of?

Let's see now. Jennifer Medina reports in the NY Times:

In introducing the pilot program, Mr. Cerf said it would be a “powerful step forward” to have the teacher measurements made public, arguing, “If you know as a parent what’s the deal, I think that whole aspect will change behavior.” But this week, he said that for now the reports will be treated as personnel records not subject to public-records laws.

And this goody:

Principals interviewing prospective teachers from other schools would be permitted to ask candidates for their reports, but the candidates would not have to provide them.

Well, teachers, in particular ATR's looking for a job, when a prospective employer asks you for your report: JUST SAY NO! That ought to get you the job.

Here are some goodies from Randi's letter to UFT District Reps:

Although the teacher is the most important factor in student learning, there are many other influencing variables that are outside the teachers’ control, many of which cannot be precisely measured. [You see teachers, I just sold you down the tubes but I am really sympathetic.] That’s why we have opposed the use of student test score data sorted by individual teachers for high-stakes decisions such as tenure, evaluation or pay. [Let's see now. They'll fire you before you get tenure by saying it wasn't your students' performance but you wore the wrong color shirt. And evaluate you on this basis? Nahhhh!]

Now this Randiism is even better:

In our agreement, which is spelled out in a joint letter appearing in this week’s Principals’ Weekly that is being issued this evening (reprinted below), the DOE makes it clear to principals that the results of these analyses must not be used for evaluation purposes. Instead, they should be used to help teachers strengthen their instruction and to help the school plan instructional and professional development strategies. In addition, the data is available only to the principal and the individual teacher, unless that teacher decides to share it.

Like many other types of data and other professional tools, this information can be a powerful instructional tool if teachers have the access, understanding and time to use it properly to assess and address their own strengths and weaknesses. But used improperly, it can be seen as a tool of intimidation and punishment. The chancellor and I issued the joint statement in order to ensure the most productive and positive use of these reports.

The commitments expressed in this joint letter should reassure members that the data will not be used against them. However, we must at the same time be prepared to respond to any violations of this understanding. Chapter leaders who believe that the letter or spirit of the agreement is not being followed should alert their district reps immediately.

Really, I can't go on. So I'll post Marjorie Stamberg's comments this morning on ICE-mail. You can read the full texts of Randi's letter to Dist. Reps (who must be holding their sides laughing). the joint letter, and the full NY Times article on Norms Notes. Note- the teacher portal URL in the joint statement is http://schools.nyc.gov/Teachers/default.htm.

Marjorie Stamberg Comments:

Now the District Reps are being asked to tell us that the joint Klein-Weingarten letter linking teacher performance to student test scores is some kind of victory for teachers! Weingarten insists it won't be used to deny tenure or for annual teaching rating. Not going to be used punitively?! This has about as much credibility as Treasury Secretary Paulson's assurances up until two weeks ago that the economy was fine. Can I interest you in a bridge that's up for sale?

The union should "just say no" to the whole idea of linking test scores to teacher performance. Instead, they buy into it, with a caveat on how it supposedly "won't be used." But it's just plain WRONG, by all measures of pedagogy as well as basic union principles.

First off, what this will be used for is for teacher bashing--in the New York Post, Daily News, Times, and the rest of the mainstream media who for years have blamed teachers for the failures of a public education system run by people who are dead set opposed to public education.

The fact that Randi has a joint letter with Joel Klein on something like this speaks volumes about the union's failure to combat head-on the assault on public education and on teachers and students by these educational counter-reformers. This whole exercise is based on this battery of endless standardized tests which has grievously distorted public education, leading to the wholesale elimination of music and arts programs to slashing social studies, science and in a number of cases eliminating sports programs and recess.

The joint letter makes much of how providing the information about the performance of each student on standardized tests will supposedly help the teachers to improve his or her educational technique by knowing more about their students' progress or lack thereof. The fact of the matter is, the information on a student-by-student basis, on different area studies (ELA, math, etc) is already available to schools and teachers on ATS.

The only thing this program will do is provide a listing of such scores that will convey no new educational information and can only be used for "evaluating a teacher." The joint letter claims that this will not be used for determining tenure or annual ratings. This is a transparent fiction--the principle will sit there with this information staring them in the face and ignore it?

Furthermore, there's a long history of using what are intended as diagnostic tests for purposes of "evaluation and exclusion." At the City University, the old WAT test was supposed to be used to determine which areas an incoming student needed remedial help. But then in the late 1990s, the Giuliani regime through it's agent Herman Bedillo turned this into a prerequisite for graduation and was used to exclude students from graduating.

Here we have Unity Caucus once again greasing the skids for Bloomberg/Klein's union busting!

--Marjorie

TJC: ATRs UNDER THE GUN

From Teachers for a Just Contract

ATRs have been receiving a lot of negative publicity. ATRs are teachers who, through no fault of their own, do not have a program. Their school may have closed, or there may be fewer students in their school or taking their subject. Before Weingarten and her Unity Caucus messed everything up, teachers in this situation got placed in the closest vacancy. (And, no, they did not "bump out" any appointed teachers.) But three years ago, in the 2005 contract, Weingarten and Unity gave up this right. They claimed they were protecting jobs. But TJC urged everyone to reject the contract, writing at the time:

"Under the new contract, an excessed teacher, regardless of how many years of seniority, LOSES THE GUARANTEED RIGHT TO A TEACHING PROGRAM. The principal of a school must consent to let the excessed teacher into his or her school. The excessed teacher continues to be paid, but he or she may remain as an ATR (Absent Teacher Reserve), a kind of permanent sub. It is not clear what happens to this teacher if his or her school is being closed." ("Truth vs. Spin," TJC, October 2005)

Only a year later, the 2006 contract contained a new danger for ATRs: a potential buy out. We wrote at the time:

Buy Out for ATRs -
Anyone who has been an ATR (excessed teachers with no program) for a year can be offered a buyout. This paves the way for ATRs being threatened, pressured and harassed into accepting this "voluntary" layoff. Anyone of us could become an ATR at any time, regardless of our seniority, if our school closes or our department is downsized. What's worse, no amount for the buyout is set in the contract. It must be settled by negotiation or arbitration: and we will have no vote on it.

Excessed teachers once had bumping rights by seniority.
The union gave that up in 2005. We also had a no layoff clause. We were told the provisions for ATRs were the equivalent of a no layoff clause. It's a slippery slope: this new change makes ATRs an endangered species, and further erodes our seniority rights and job security." ("Vote No! We Can Do Better" TJC, November 2006)

Now the danger is a step closer to reality. The media and the ‘think tanks" are hot on the trail of the ATRs, claiming they are a waste of taxpayer money. (As opposed, let's say, to bailing out Bear Stearns) Randi, whose fingerprints are all over the knife sticking out of the back of the ATRs, is jumping up and down in seeming indignation. But it could be that, before long, she'll be crowing about the generous buyout she's gotten the ATRs, and pointing out that in Chicago, they would simply be laid off, implying "Take the money and run," while there's money to take. She'd like everyone to forget that it's her fault ATRs exist in the first place.


THE MOST POWERLESS VICTIMS
We support whole heartedly the ATRs and our colleagues who've been removed to reassignment centers in their struggles for justice. But the plight of untenured teachers is just as bad and often worse. Untenured teachers don't have even the right to a 3020a hearing. All it takes is one administrator or supervisor who is irrational, bigoted, eager to hire a favorite, or some combination thereof, and their teaching career is D.O.A. There is no second chance. The higher-ups who come in to observe invariably rubber stamp the school administrators. The so-called appeal procedure is a waste of time and a cruel joke. The union, though it collects the same amount of dues from these untenured people, provides far less protection for them. This is a tragic waste of teaching talent.

One of these many individuals has written a moving and indicting description of his experience. It reads, in part: "the principal . . . has decided that I am not qualified to teach math. Interestingly enough [he] is a medical doctor by profession, and has made this ‘diagnosis' at the end of the school year without a single [classroom observation]. What's even more interesting is that this "diagnosis," which was supposed to be backed by six [observations] - was accepted by . . . the DOE. My letter to the regional superintendent . . . was left without an answer. In another case, asking a . . . deputy chancellor about which non-existing document she is referring to when making her decision [upholding the U-rating], I received no response. . . . Theoretically, it is possible for a fired teacher to take his grievance to court. This is possible only in theory . . . due to financial reasons. Additionally, on the DOE's side . . . [the] regional superintendent . . .makes sure that the last step [of the appeal] at the DOE takes place only after the expiration date of any possible legal recourse . . . Only after this is the teacher within his rights to ask for any recording of the hearings held - - but even these recordings may be blank . . . as . . . in my case."

Kafka-esque, nightmarish: even these terms don't begin to describe it.

READY FOR SOME GOOD NEWS?
Persecuted by their principal, and with their Chapter Leader in league with him, a group of veteran teachers at Graphic Communication High School gave up on the union and hauled the miscreant into court. After much time, energy, and money have been expended, their rightful cause has met with success. On Sept. 19, after a two-week trial, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, a jury found the New York City Dept. of Education and Jerod Resnick, principal of Graphic Communication Arts High School, guilty of intentional and willful discrimination on the basis of age against teachers Diana Friedline and Midge Maroni, and retired teacher Anthony Ferrero, and awarded the teachers monetary damages.

TJC congratulates these courageous UFT members on their well-deserved victory. It is an indictment of the UFT leadership that they needed to resort to an expensive, time consuming battle in court to get justice. We must carry on our efforts to reform our union from the grassroots to the top, to make it into a democratic organization that will serve our interests.

You can reach Teachers for a Just Contract.
Our mailing address is TJC, POB 1346, Bronx NY 10471

The next time it could be an economic shock: Naomi Klein

Keith Olbermann discusses "The Shock Doctrine" with Naomi Klein.

Video from Nov. 2007
http://www.naomiklein.org/video-audio/countdown-keith-olbermann

Klein's thesis is that Milton Friedman's "fundamental capitalism" thesis can be best implemented in a "clean" slate environment. But people will resist. So there is a need for some kind of shock to get them to submit. It could be war, natural disaster, or economic meltdown - whoa there Nelly, sound familiar? Only a crisis produces real change. Democracy gets in the way.

Create a period of confusion, dislocation, regression. Politicians come forward playing the father figure and use that dislocation to push through policies in a state of emergency. The shock of 9/11 was used to privatize the military. Iraq is a perfect example of using shock and awe to privatize the entire country - drool, capitalists, drool. The uniform of a disaster capitalist - Brooks Brothers suit and army boots. Iraq was a corporate takeover with guns. It was looted, not reconstructed.

We should recognize signs of coming shock therapy and the next time there's a shock - AND IT COULD BE AN ECONOMIC SHOCK - she says in this Nov. 2007 interview. Which may explain some of the resistance to the bailout. Hmmm, the stock market drops 700 points and resisters are shocked. You see, ze bailout is good for you.

You can only play the same record a number of times before it gets badly scratched.

Thanks to Sean for the find.

Say It Ain't So Elizabeth

We knew it was coming. Still, it was a shock see this headline in today's NY Times:

Losing Money, New York Sun Is to Shut Down

Yes, the home base of Elizabeth Green, the best education reporter I've seen in NYC, is publishing its last issue today. Elizabeth is quoted in the article:

“I don’t think it’s going to be hard for people to remember the role of this newspaper,” said Elizabeth Green, an education reporter who had worked for The Sun for 16 months. She defined that role as “people committed to having a substantial conversation and holding our leaders accountable.”

And she certainly did hold them accountable. That the conservative NY Sun allowed her such free reign to write comprehensive articles that so often nailed issues that the other papers were ignoring is remarkable.

From her first days in NYC, she scouted out all the players on the ed scene, not just the spokespeople. She even reached out to the ICE as an opposition caucus to the Unity dominated UFT to get our point of view even if she didn't always use our quotes. She got to know everybody on the scene, often meeting them for breakfast (I'm still waiting for mine.)

She was probably the only reporter who had direct access to Eduwonkette when she was anonymous and everyone was trying to expose her. Elizabeth inspired a level of trust even among teachers who so often mistrust reporters and when there was a story brewing, many of us handed it off to her.

In our last conversation she said she didn't want to leave the education beat, something which so many reporters who finally get to know the local scene end up doing.

Here's hoping Elizabeth Green is grabbed up by someone, hopefully in NYC. But if she's not given the room to roam she had with the Sun, it would all be a waste. I told her that if she ever got to work for the NY Times, I would bet she would find limits on her ability to expose BloomKlein because they seem to have a dog in the race.

So here's the challenge to the NY Times education editor. Hire Elizabeth Green and turn her loose. If they do, I expect to get that breakfast Elizabeth owes me.

Update:
See Leonie Haimson's tribute to Elizabeth Green:

On the blog, I write about the loss of Erin Einhorn, Mike Meenan, and now Elizabeth Green– and also recaps some of Elizabeth’s greatest hits

Education beat losing its best reporters...and now Elizabeth Green.

700 Billion Reasons to Vote Against the Bailout

David Sirota actually has 5 reasons. Read them at Norms Notes.

If You Want to Dance, Pay the Fiddler

Thanks to Fred Klonsky over at Prea Prez for coming up with this almost perfect quote that can be applied to today's financial situation from an old source. Boy do we need someone like him today.

It is an old maxim and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used to pay the fiddler…all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now, that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel.

- Abraham Lincoln, January 11, 1837

Bailing Out the Foes of Public Education

This article dovetails the politically and ideologically based ed reform movement (as opposed to education driven) with the current bailout mania. Note how Price starts with "A Nation at Risk" in 1983, which is exactly where Vera Pavone and I started with our review of Kahlenberg's Shanker bio (see sidebar for a pdf). Shanker's embrace of ANAR was a key element in the downhill spiral of the UFT/AFT in its alliance with the business community.


Bailing Out the Foes of Public Education
Quoting Friedman All the Way ...

By TODD ALAN PRICE

We live in dubious times when staunch deregulators howl for vigorous and immediate regulation.

Lessons from the past

In 1983, the release by the Reagan administration of the report A Nation at Risk, launched over two decades of attacks on public education by right wing foundations and corporate pundits. Teachers and students were ill equipped to defend against the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute, just a few of the many shock troops aiming their sights on the public schools.

The document stated that we were losing the battle against economic powers such as Japan, "unilaterally disarming ourselves" by miseducating youth.

In a previous Fighting Bob article, Demolition Reauthorization, it was described how "some of the loudest critics of public education, the Hoover Institution, the Fordham Foundation, the Aspen Institute, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Milwaukee's Bradley Foundation and Fortune 500 corporations everywhere have partnered with the federal government in an effort to, they claim, save our public schools."

The strategy employed so successfully in this all out blitz of the media by supposedly august foundations and think tanks is to attack the public schools, try and drain them of funds through tax payer vouchers to private schools, then to 'save' the remaining public schools, placing them under increased regulation, and when they fail, restructure them and reopen them as newly reconstituted charter schools.

The collapse of the banking, investment and housing industry draws similar parallels.

More

Message to the Press: Ask tough questions about the bailout

Are we being railroaded into believing there's a phony crisis to force the public to pony up to rescue the wrong people? Is the "crisis" the weapons of mass destruction of today? I think I got this right when I heard on CNN today that Goldman Sachs had $20 billion in risk that would be saved by the bailout. Remember that is where Paulson comes from. Goldman Sachs execs actually sat in on talks to design the bailout.

I am repeating a call I made a few days ago to bailout the American worker who provides the fuel for the economy by creating New Deal style WPA jobs for all the things this country need so desperately, including hiring scads of teachers and creating enough space to reduce class size in urban schools.

David Cay Johnston was an economics/tax reporter for the Times. This piece was posted on a forum for journalists (http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13611). Contradicting most of what we've been told about the credit situation, that he says is not a crisis, Johnston exhorts his fellow reporters to be skeptical and "check it out" instead of making the mistake they made in reporting the Administration's case for the Iraq war and the Patriot Act.

Here's an excerpt:

Ask this question -- are the credit markets really about to seize up?

If they are then lots of business owners should be eager to tell how their bank is calling their 90-day revolving loans, rejecting new loans and demanding more cash on deposit. I called businessmen I know yesterday and not one of them reported such problems. Indeed, Citibank offered yesterday to lend me tens of thousands of dollars on my signature at 2.99 percent, well below the nearly 5 percent inflation rate. That offer came after I said no last week to a 4.99 percent loan.

If the problem is toxic mortgages then how come they are still being offered all over the Internet? On the main page AOL generates for me there is an ad for a 1.9% loan (which means you pay that interest rate and the rest of the interest is added to your balance due.) Why oh why or why would taxpayers be bailing out banks that are continuing to sell these toxic loans?

More...

Thanks to Merry T.

How to Save Millions in Education in NYC Without Affecting the Classroom....

....in your dreams.

Let's sell the Tweed Courthouse out from under BloomKlein

Jane Hirschman from Time Out From Testing is circulating a letter (read it in full a Norms Notes where Jane explains each item in detail.)

UPDATE: Chaz reminds me that he had his own list of suggestions. Also check the comments for additions.

The Mayor is announcing his plan next week for city-wide budget cuts, including in public education. The current financial crisis affords us an opportunity to look at the mismanagement of our tax dollars.

• HIRING FREEZE ON THE DOE EMPLOYEES AT TWEED HEADQUARTERS

The number of DOE employees at Tweed Headquarters has increased by more than 500 in the last 5 years (from 1,832 in 2003 to 2,337 in 2008). That's a 28% increase! Currently, there are 14 job openings advertised on the DOE website, seven of which have salaries of $170,000 or more. We don't want additional CEOs from defunct Wall Street firms working for the DOE.

• CUT ARIS, AN 80 MILLION IBM COMPUTER SYSTEM USED TO TRACK OUR CHILDREN'S TEST SCORES

• ELIMINATE THE $80 MILLION MCGRAW-HILL "ACUITY" CONTRACT.

• END THE SCHOOL PROGRESS REPORTS.

• STOP THE K-2 STANDARDIZED TESTING PROGRAM

• END THE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY - $10 million a year

• CUT THE 2009 SCHOOL QUALITY REVIEW - $6.5 million

• CUT THE "THINK-LINK" COMPUTERIZED WAREHOUSE - $1 million

Feel free to add your own favorites.
I would add all merit pay programs and call for a public review of all private contracts and consultants. There is no excuse in the "no excuses" world of BloomKlein to cut one dime out of classroom services without looking at the enormous at the top.

Think they can get anything decent for the Tweed courthouse in today's real estate market? Could pay for a couple of new schools.

They're in a Snit at Mimi ....

...at must read blog It's not all flowers and sausages over how she dealt with a disruptive child who she calls "Big Boy."

Today, he yelled at another kid to "shut up." (The child at whom he was yelling was not making any noise, by the by.) The other child looked up and said, " you're telling ME to shut up??!? You NEVER shut up!"

And I knew it was time. We had an emergency class meeting, with Big Boy, in which we talked about how his behavior made everyone else feel. There was no pointing, no tattling, and no name calling allowed. My friends were only allowed to say how Big Boy's behavior made them feel.

....Big Boy ended up having the best day he's ever had. It was kind of amazing (although I'm not sure how appropriate).

Well, there was some reaction for the holier than thou crowd. Poor kid was embarrassed. You know the drill. Even a principal chimed in chastising Mimi (make sure to read the comments, which are mostly supportive of Mimi.)

I did plenty of the same stuff. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get some kids to cut the crap. Teachers of self-contained classes where you live with these kids all day all year have to use unorthodox means for the kids and them to survive in their little communities. When one kid is abusive to others, something must be done, often on the spur of the moment. Teachers can't afford to think deep psychology at these times. Soliciting comments of peers in a public setting when handled by a teacher like Mimi is perfectly legitimate.

Mimi points to how immature this kid is. The class meeting was probably the best thing that has happened to Big Boy in a school setting. He will still regress at times, but he is on the road to being able to work in a class setting. Hey, isn't school really about getting kids to to learn to function in menial jobs without complaint?

Bravo, Mimi.

Note: Flowers and Sausages and Have a Gneiss Day are currently my favorite blogs for their descriptions of the day today stuff that goes on in schools. That they seem to teach in such different settings and have such different backgrounds makes reading both blogs so intriguing. Both are deeply anonymous. If they weren't, they would each need a food taster.

What grade did your school get?

Professor Celia Oyler at Columbia Teachers College sent this along to various list serves.

What grade did your school get? How valid and reliable are these grades? Given the fact that these grades are being tied to very high stakes outcomes (bonus pay and school closings), it is essential that the public be educated about the construction of the grading formula.

As teachers, we know that students want our grading systems to be fair.
Take the quiz on testing your knowledge on the school grading formula at
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news/article.htm?id=6681
and decide for yourself just how "fair" the system is!

Also, "skoolboy" really breaks it down at:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/skoolboy/

Hoola Hoops, Tulips, and CDOs... by George Schmidt

Naomi Klein points to the Chicago School of Milton Friedman's disciples as the most fundamental of capitalists. (To our educators, reading Klein will show you how Uncle Miltie's theories underlie a lot of what is going on in your schools today.) When right wing Republicans blew up yesterday's bailout conference at the White House, economists from Chicago were cited. No surprises there.

George Schmidt, who has lived under mayoral control of the school system for 13 years, would be classified as the alternate Chicago School. Can it be that George and Miltie's boys and girls have some common ground of agreement on opposing this bailout? In this post to ICE mail George treads on this ground.

Note that when George says, "The white collar workers who produced these commodities may have had "perfect" SAT scores and MBAs from the "best" Ivy League schools" he is also describing the very same types that Joel Klein has surrounded himself with.

9/26/08

Friends from ICE:

Some of us have been talking about this for a couple of weeks as the latest Wall Street, "bi-partisan", and Bush scam unfolded. For the first time in a long time, I find myself re-reading the first volume of Capital while agreeing with the most conservative Republicans. The market has judged these commodities, and there is no reason why we should not let the market continue to take its course.

Basically, the "products" that Lehman Brothers, Goldman, Merrill and Genworth Financial (watch that one next, shipmates) and the others were selling were no different (in the classical capitalist sense) from any other commodity produced for a competitive market. Just because they were given fancy named like "Collateralized Debt Obligations" (CDOs) or "Default Swaps" and had to wait to be birthed by Capital until the age of computers doesn't make them any different from their classical ancestors in the history of markets, bubbles, and panics.

The fact that the products were produced using computers by overpaid whiz kids (and their elders, right up to Henry Paulson) doesn't change their basic reality. The white collar workers who produced these commodities may have had "perfect" SAT scores and MBAs from the "best" Ivy League schools, but they were still producing a product to sell at a profit in the "marketplace" they've been worshipping since the first day they read "Atlas Shrugged" in one of those right wing essay contests every high school was forced by poverty to sponsor.

The financial products, as commodities, were and are no different from Hoola Hoops, SUVs, and Rely tampons (which also proved "toxic" after years of marketing hype).

This latest (bi-partisan) scam, from an Adam Smith point of view, is that they think they can unload a worthless inventory of commodities they have overproduced (in typical fashion, going all the way back to the Tulip Bubble at the very onset of Capital) on the taxpayers.

It may help some people to see what's going on by viewing all these arcanely named thingamajigs as simply the latest version of the Hoola Hoop. There is a market. The commodity is overproduced by those trying to cash in on the market. The price of the commodity crashes, and someone is left with huge inventories.

Why should we be buying this generation of Hoola Hoops with our tax dollars when we were smart enough to avoid buying them when they were for sale in the open market?

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.net

Randi, Joel, in PR Joust of ATR's

You won't find many of these in the UFT proposals but you will find lots of rhetoric

UPDATED WITH ICE RESPONSE TO DOE "FACTS" and
see Elizabeth Green in today's NY Sun - I posted it on Norms Notes.

Comment from an ATR:

With all the anti-teacher and anti-ATR press out there this week, why is the UFT so silent????????????? Why no letters to the editors, no op-ed rebuttals? I am hearing from my fellow ATR's who were sent far and away this week and there are some real horror stories out there. And I have no idea what my rights are. Can I be made to sit in an office one period a day to do their bidding? Is this just something ATR's do since I don't see regular teachers doing it? Where is my file? If I am observed as a day-to-day sub, what can they critique me on? etc etc etc.

The silence from the union is deafening.

The silence has ended with the interchange of letters below between Randi and Joel and a UFT press conference that echoes the one held years ago on age discrimination. Sort of. (More aboutthe press conference later.) Both letters and a Tweed fact sheet (definitely read the "facts" on ATR's) are posted at Norms Notes. Also read the full ICE take on these "facts" Excerpt:

In no surprise to anyone, the DOE "Fact Sheet" on excessed teachers distorts the picture. They claim that most teachers in excess are finding jobs. However, a closer look at their numbers shows that their open market hiring system isn't working for most excessed teachers. By looking at the DOE's own data which we show below, we can clearly see that well under 50% of excessed teachers are being hired at new schools through the open market.... Their own facts don't lie. We need stronger contractual protections, not weaker ones.

My response it the usual. The UFT is more concerned with perception than reality. Prime: how the public perceives them. PR is king. Thus, being out in front with a rigorous defense of ATR's leads to the conclusion they created the system in the first place by giving away seniority rights.

How to defend ATR's? Unity suits say "You're still getting paid." They have no concept of what being a teacher is when they so blithely accept that you can be in the system for 20 years and be demoted to a day to day sub on a dime.

Some of our Unity brethren are crying in comments on the Norms Notes blog: Why blame us? Klein changed the funding. Boo, hoo. Poor dears. Got caught with their pants down.

Talk is cheap. To get anywhere the UFT would have to take a very hard stand on issues Klein wants badly and refuse all cooperative modes with the Klein. Target a cherished Tweed program and go after it full speed ahead by mobilizing teachers as refusniks. Without teeth, it's all about PR hot air.

Unity Caucus' Rick Mangone, chapter leader of the soon to be closed Lafayette HS in Brooklyn , has been commenting here and on norm's notes about the wonderful upcoming (it came) UFT press conference and how great it would be for ATR's. Again, later on that.

As you read the Randi/Joel interchange below, keep in mind that it is easy for Randi to propose anything. And just as easy for Klein to reject it. Now what? Do Unity people think that these words of Randi's will be enough to soothe the boo boo of the 2005 contract, which by the way Rick Mangone avidly supported? Teeth, man, teeth.

Right after Klein rejects Randi's proposals, what do her words mean? Does the UFT leadership believe ATR's will bow down and say, "Thank you, Randi. We knew you were with us. And when I am covering subjects I never imagined I would be teaching, I often think of how your words help me go on." Teeth, man, teeth.

I think just a few ATR's might be looking for some incisers to back up Randi's words.

Here's the letter Randi sent Klein on Sept. 24 calling for:

1. An immediate hiring freeze at the central Department of Education, and at the school and district level for any license areas where there are people in excess and available for placement.

2. A redeployment of teachers and other excessed personnel in the Absent Teacher
Reserve (ATR) into vacancies as they arise.

3. Develop a program to recertify excessed personnel in additional license areas, so they are available to fill vacancies as they arise.

Note in Klein's response how he threw her words back at her (emphasis mine):

I want to reiterate that we will not alter our policy on forced placement of teachers. It makes sense to try to limit the significant and growing cost of unselected excessed teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve, but doing so by forcing these teachers into schools is not the answer. A return to this discredited practice, which harmed our schools for decades, would, once more, require schools to accept teachers regardless of whether principals and faculty believe they are the best candidates or good fits for positions.

At our announcement of the School-wide Performance Bonus awards last week, you and I both emphasized the critical need for teacher quality and effective collaboration among teachers and supervisors. You said, “We know, and I think there has become a real consensus in this City, that teacher quality and collaboration are real keys – pivotal keys – to turning around student achievement in schools.” Forced placement contradicts both of those goals. It would be far better to give excessed teachers a reasonable period of time to find a position before they are placed on unpaid leave. Such a policy would mitigate the cost while maintaining fairness and obviating the need for forced placement and all the negative repercussions a return to that system would bring.

Read both letters in full at Norm's Notes.

Of course Leo Casey chimed in with this analyis on Edwize:

First, as a result of the NYC Department of Education’s policy of school closings, there has been the massive displacement of hundreds of educators through no fault of their own. Second, as a consequence of the DoE’s changes to the school budget process, there has been the introduction of budgetary disincentives for the hiring and placement of experienced, senior teachers, a category into which many ATRs fall. And third, there has been the DoE’s gross mismanagement of its educational human resources, which has gone from bad to worse this last year. An intellectually honest account of the swelling ranks of the ATRs would address in a forthright manner each of these three developments.

Gee, Leo. Ya think? School closings? Ooooh! The UFT just spent the last umpteenth years cooperating with school closings. Exhibit #1: Randi Weingarten saying Lafayette HS SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSED. See any ATR's over there Leo?

And they changed the budget process on you? Oh, my! You just missed those issues when you'all pushed the 2005 contract down everyone's throats? As to Leo's use of the words "intellectually honest," his picture is in the dictionary – next to the antonym.

Naomi Klein: Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street’s Shock Doctrine

I am deeply immersed in Naomi Klein's (my new guru) Shock Doctrine, a 40 year history of the attempt to take back America from the New Deal. Total unregulated capitalism (Chile under Pinochet is the model) with no government interference. And for you educators – ending public education with total privatization, no more teachers unions – well, maybe "cooperative" and "collaborative" ones like the UFT/AFT. Or any union for that matter. What do you think? Are they pretty far along already? (See NYC school system, circa 2002-2008.)

And by the way. Instead of putting 800 billion into the corporate hoppers - supposedly to keep the economy humming and preventing unemployment, how about putting the money directly into people's pockets by a New Deal style WPA that would create jobs that could fix the deteriorating infrastructure, put people in many places where they are needed (London and Tokyo have so many people working at each subway stop to provide help and assistance), and goodness gracious, even enough teaching positions to cut class size.

Here is an excerpt from Klein's take on the current crisis over at the Indypendent.

I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place…).

The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to “return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms.” In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow “competition” (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling.

It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the right’s ability to use this crisis — created by deregulation and privatization — to demand more of the same.

Read the rest at the Indypendent.

Dearest

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully
Minister of Treasury Paulson

PS: Non-Americans welcome too.

Anon. from internet

UFT Hypocrisy on Merit Pay Exposed

I'm working with the Justice Not Just Tests group from NYCORE to campaign against all forms of merit pay. An excellent pamphlet is being prepared that we want to distribute to schools that accepted and rejected merit pay, so let me know if you are interested in helping us get this out if you are in one of the shcools or have access to someone.

I almost missed this post on the issue from NYC Educator. It is posted here, but it needs to be reposted again so I am including most of it.


A recent post by Leo Casey in Edwize criticizes the School Progress Reports that the DoE issues (you know, the ones that give "A"s to schools the state classifies as "persistently dangerous"). I agree, of course, that there is fluctuation from year to year, and that the variation from one year to the next is not all that significant.

What, in particular, did Mr. Casey find troubling about these reports?

One small problem: they are not reliable.

He'll get no argument from me. Here, though, is what strikes me as odd--when I read this article in NY Teacher about UFT merit pay (you know, the merit pay system that absolutely is not a merit pay system, like the sixth class you teach Monday to Thursday that is absolutely not a sixth class), I can't help but notice the following:

The criteria for awarding bonus money to a school will be aligned with the Department of Education’s new School Progress Reports and entail various benchmarks, more than just standardized test.

Now this is where I really get confused. Since the School Progress Reports are not valid, why would Ms. Weingarten and Mr. Casey base the not-merit pay system on them? I mean, I've been reading Edwize and NY Teacher for years, and the one thing I've learned is that the UFT patronage mill never makes mistakes about anything, no matter what.


Hey, NYC. You must have an iron constitution. When I read Edwize, which is almost never, I get a tummy ache. Bromo, anyone?

Awe Shocks: Disaster Capitalism in Action

Are we in the worst financial crisis since the depression of the 1930's? I'm not so sure. And why should we believe what we're being told? Sure there are banks in trouble. But imagine if there's a tad of exaggeration to exploit the crisis. We're seeing shock and awe all over the place. While we're left staring into space, they run in a grab the cookie jar. Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," lays a lot of this out.

The proposed massive bailout has been called socialistic. Not. It is the reverse - the total take over of the financial system (it was part of the way there already) without the few checks and balances that remain. I can assure you of one thing. You hear all that talk about limiting CEO profits and pay? Right now for public consumption to temper the critics. Like I say about the UFT: Watch what they do, not what they say. They'll make an example of a few but the fat cats will walk away fatter than ever. At one point we said the new Russia was becoming more like us. It looks more like the US is becoming Russia with its privatized state with billionaire oligarchs and gangsters. Can assassinations of critics in the press in the US be far behind? Maybe that's why the press corps is so cowed about reporting the truth. Like, why isn't Naomi Klein on major TV stations explaining what's really going on? (Though I hear she made a great appearance on Bill Maher a few days ago.)

Klein's thesis is that when a system suffers severe shock, whether a natural disaster or man made, a golden opportunity is presented for those who are prepared to rush in and grab what can be grabbed while people are still in shock and before any opposition can formulate. This is a world-wide phenomenon: Examples she cites: Iraq, New Orleans, Russia, Chile in the 70's under Pinochet. She could have included the NYC school system under BloomKlein, as clear a case of the shock doctrine as can be made. But more on shock and awe in NYC schools at another time.

Klein (Naomi, not Joel) puts forth the idea that in the 1970's the Milton Friedman school of an unfettered, fundamentalist view of capitalism began to put into effect its plan to dismantle the New Deal, which just by the way saved capitalism from coming undone in the last great financial crisis when there was actually a left in this country that was capable of organizing people.

Klein writes in her introduction:

The corporatist alliance is in the midst of conquering its final frontiers: sectors of Western economies that have long been protected from profit making – including responding to disasters and raising armies. Since there is not even the veneer of seeking public consent to privatize such essential functions, either at home or abroad, escalating level of violence and even larger disasters are required in order to reach the goal....Bush's exploits merely represent the monstrously violent and creative culmination of a fifty-year campaign for total corporate liberation.

Well, we may be in the mother of financial disasters and whether it is all real or "created" or exaggerated to create the sense of shock needed, the goal is to move the ball up the field. Check Blackwater to see private armies and the privatization of disaster response. Oh, and have you checked the enormous profit-making opportunities in the NYC school system where even after school programs have been thrown on the table for private firms to make a bundle? Sorry, I was going to resist going there today.

Klein talks about the Keynesian/New Deal concepts of capitalism:

A free market in consumer products can coexist with free public health care, with public schools, with a large segment of the economy – like a national oil company– held in state hands. It's equally possible to require corporations to pay decent wages, to respect the right of workers to form unions, and for governments to tax and redistribute wealth so that the sharp inequalities that mark the corporatist state are reduced. Markets need not be fundamentalist.

Keynes proposed exactly this kind of mixed, regulated economy after the Great Depression, a revolution in public policy that created the New Deal and transformations like it around the world.

It was exactly this system of compromises, checks and balances that [Milton] Friedman's counterrevolution was launched to methodically dismantle....the desire for a clean slate on which to build a re engineered model society.

Klein refers to the Friedman doctrine as a "dangerous ideology" because of its drive for purity. Sound familiar?

Bob Herbert in the NY Times last week discussed the Palin/McCain health plan which would basically lead to the end of employer backed health plans and throw everyone at the feet of health insurer middlemen who can take their pound of flesh out of the system. And how's about that old kid, social security, the prime New Deal enchilada the Friedman bunch have been after? I'm heading down to get mine while it's still there.

So expect the latest economic shocks to lead to - not more regulation, but less. Just listen to those radical kids for change - Palin and McCain who will take the right wing ideology so well described by Naomi Klein in her book and use the current crisis to go further in making the American government an instrument and banker for the private interests while removing as many of the protections for the American public as they can get away with.

As for the NYC school system, 3 reorganization shocks were applied and the continuance of the mayoral control onslaught continues. As we write this the UFT leadership is figuring out how they can present to the membership a PR-based document that makes it look like they want changes but in reality continues a system that has the ability to apply the shocks needed to cow parents and teachers, not to say children, into submission.

For a prime example of the latter, check out D2Route's Educating the future workforce to accept disaster capitalism. (thanks to A Voice). If you think this is about KIPP, you are correcto.

UFT Unity Caucus Hack of the Week: Charlie Turner

Read all about the "compassionate" Charlie Turner, Brooklyn high school District Rep. in comments on the ICE blog. I extracted them on Norms Notes. If you need him, Turner is always available to pull opposition literature out of teacher mail boxes. The ultimate UFT "suit", this guy wears a suit over his suit.

Blog of the Day: My Kingdom for a Parking Space

For those who follow the adventures of Have a Gneiss Day, this blog is a real treat. I found It's Not All Flowers and Sausages through Gotham Schools. Get the scoop on what really goes on in schools. Here, we get the real scoop on the impact of the parking permit amidst the other trials that go along with teaching. Some commenters tell her to go to the union, not realizing it was the union that sealed the parking deal.

Sometimes it feels as if the forces in the universe are alligning to make this job as difficult as possible, just to see if I have the balls to stick with it. Other times, it feels as if teachers (as people) are the absolute last priority on everyone's list...that we will just suck it up and deal with ridiculous situations "for the kids."


If one more person tells me to do it "for the kids", I might throw a kid at them. Seriously. Stop playing on our good intentions and altruistic dedication to the future and treat us like the professionals you so desperately claim you want us to be. It just seems at times as if this job teeters on the brink of being inhumane.

More at It's Not all Flowers and Sausages

The PR Assault on ATR's Begins

Tim Daly of the New Teacher Project, is out with another assault on ATR's. (See 3 articles in NYC papers I posted on Norms Notes.) He had a similar report back in May '08 (see links below to 3 Ed Notes posts at the time.) Daly feels any teacher who can't find a job within 12 months should be put on unpaid leave. That the city hired 5000 new teachers with a 1000 senior, higher salaried teachers, many who tried to apply for jobs but found little interest, possibly due to these very same salaries, is not a factor to Daly.

As the organization with a $4 million contract to recruit and train new teachers, Daly has a big dog in the race. But he is "concerned" about the costs of carrying these ATR's. I do not see the connection. Why would the NTP get invlolved with this issue if not for the fact that if ATR's were hired before new teachers were hired, Daly's contract would be endangered. Oh what will he do when all senior teachers are gone? Why there will be a new generation of senior (relatively) with high salaries to go after.

I guess part of the $4 million is to lead the PR assault on ATR's that BloomKlein hope will pressure the UFT to give them up.

What do you think most teachers feel about the odds of the UFT succumbing to public pressure? (See comments from ATR's in previous posts.)

As a union that wants to be viewed as "progressive" and willing to be part of the ed reform movement, especially with Randi Weingarten's new national stature as president of the AFT, all balls are in the air.

Previous Ed Notes posts on Tim Daly and the NTP

How Many Sides of His Mouth Can Tim Daly Speak Out Of?

The New Teacher Project

Absentee Teacher Reserves

Here is the list I printed in May of all the people the NTP has to support with that DOE money.

NYC Teaching Fellows [support]
Lesley Guggenheim, Program Director
Joseph Bywater, Senior Director of Operations
Gabriela Calderon, Selection Lead
Chris Casarez, Director of Placement
Dan Cayer, Recruiter
Alissa Ginsberg, Selection Lead
Paul Hawkins, Director of Technology
Kathryn Hayes, Director of Training and Support: Instructional Quality
Ellen Hur, Director of Marketing and Recruitment
Brandeis Johnson, Director of Training and Support: Development and Design
Jennifer Lee, Operations Associate
Kimberly McCann Fultz, Operations Team Manager
Michelle Mercado, Director of Selection
Crystal McQueen, Pre-Service Training Coordinator
Lindsey Payson, Training and Support Coordinator
Kristen Rasmussen, Communications Team Manager
Lindsey Reu, Communications Manager
Nahid Sorooshyari, Selection Lead
Deborah Teng, Marketing Lead
Liren Teng, Operations Associate
Maria Uruchima, Training and Support Associate
Melody Vargas, Placement Lead
Alice Walkiewicz, Placement Lead
Jessica Wedge, Recruiter

Weingarten Supports Closing Salary Gap - Maybe

One intriguing comment from Randi Weingarten today in Elizabeth Green's report on Tim Daly's report on ATR's (see our post later this afternoon) in the NY Sun as a way to cut down on the reluctance of principals to hire higher salaried teachers:

The president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement responding to the report that she supports evening the financial playing field between senior and junior teachers.

Is this a sign of a crack in the UFT's slavish commitment to equal raises across the board? Will future contracts have differentiated percentage raises and limits on the top?

While the concept has been raised in ICE at times, I look at Randi's statement as just something for her to say for PR purposes (I'm shocked), with no real plan. In fact it is not well thought out as a solution to the ATR problem because with 50% of new teachers leaving and Tim Daly lobbying for a lifetime contract to train new teachers, principals will always have a pool of bottom salaried people to plug into a 2 for 1 deal.

Currently, the gap between entry level and top salaries is $55,000. Most of the big raises start coming as people get into their 2nd decade of teaching through longevity raises at various points based on years of service. I haven't followed things that closely, but the gap still remains large for many years. But them again, even with a top salary of $100,000, the DOE and the UFT don't expect all that many people to get there. Thus, they could raise the top to $120,000 without worrying about it costing too much, while firming up the middle.

If she were serious, the key to doing this is to raise the jumps in salary at the steps in the first 8 years.

This is an idea that bears looking into - in theory.

Remember, this is the UFT which will manage to screw up even a good idea.

A Yankee Memory - and a Parade

In 1978 when the Yanks won the series I had a trip scheduled to the Museum of Natural History that week. It was not easy to change trips on short notice. I tried to think of a place to go in the financial district and came up with the American Indian Museum and pulled all the strings needed to get the change.

Naturally, I didn't include the fact that the main purpose was to attend the Yankee parade. So I took my 6th grade class to the parade route where we waited for the Yankees to pass. We had to wait for about 2 hours. The kids interacted with the people around us (which weren't enormous) as paper came down from the buildings.

Managing a class of almost 30 kids as the lone adult in those conditions is a good test of certain teaching skills. (They should give merit pay for this.) Especially since this was early October. But this was pretty much the same class I had in the 5th grade the year before and we were very comfortable with each other.

Finally, we saw the floats. "Reggie, Reggie," as the kids saw their hero (not mine, as Reggie was not one of my favorites.) They went by quickly - not many trucks. They were gone in about 30 seconds. The crowds disappeared quickly. The streets were loaded with paper that had been thrown from the buildings. The kids were rolling around in it and having a blast. They kept playing for a while and then we went to Battery Park for lunch and those great views of the harbor.

We never did get to that Indian Museum.

In 1998 when the Yankees won the Series, I was no longer at the school and working for the district. I took the day off and went to the parade - alone. The size and intensity of the crowds were enormous compared to 20 years before.

On the way into the city, I stopped to visit my old school. Ironically, one of the students on that trip had just completed a 7 year prison term and came to visit me just as I was leaving. I told him I was going to the parade. "Just like you took us," he said. Holy Cow! I had forgotten all about it.

"Mr. Scott, that was one of the best experiences of my life," he said. "I'll never forget it."

Derek Jeter for President

Todays' food for thought:

Would all the rabid Jeter fans whose vote for president might be influenced by race, view Jeter's mixed race the same way they view Obama's? Is Jeter more qualified than Palin? If he's not retired in 2012....