Norm in The Wave on Marine Park Protest

Here is the column I just wrote for The Wave, Rockaway's community newpaper, for this Friday's edition.


Protest over Hebrew Charter School at IS 278 in Marine Park
By Norman Scott

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, the Marine Park Community mobilized massive numbers of people to an overflowing auditorium to protest at the Department of Education Public Hearing at IS 278 over the upcoming placement of the Hebrew Language Academy (HLA) charter school, funded and founded by the billionaire Michael Steinhardt (the Steinhardt Conservatory at Brooklyn Botanical Garden) in the building. His daughter Sara Berman is spearheading the school and spoke at the meeting. The Steinhardts should have stuck to gardening.

The back story is that when HLA received approval there was an absolute promise that they would find their own space. They looked and looked – they say- but couldn’t find a suitable location. One minute they were looking for 25,000 square feet of space and the next it was 50,000. One parent said he found loads of locations in about 10 minutes on the web and asked how they couldn’t find a space in two years. There was just a bit of suspicion that there was never any intention of finding a space, for which HLA would have to either buy or pay a lot of rent. Space in public schools is free for charters. A no-brainer. IS 278 with great facilities and right in Marine Park – the target all along. Few believed that HLA would only be there for the promised two years while they looked for a space. There is a tendency to demand more and more space as grades are added. Witness Eva Moskowitz’ Harlem Success Schools attempts to take over as many public school buildings as they can.

There’s more. IS 278 has been asking to turn their school into a 6-12 grade school so kids can continue the special arts programs, much of which will be taken away when HLA occupies 6-8 classrooms and 6 more rooms for administration. Suddenly, the DOE is offering a deal of sorts – or a bribe. Take HLA for two years and then get your 6-12. Most people weren’t buying it, as the arrogant and condescending patrician-looking Tweed official John White does not exactly come off as trustworthy. Numerous parents asked, “Why should we assume HLA will find a space in the next two years when they haven’t found one over the last two?”

The charter lottery was held in a YMHA on a Sunday afternoon and many in the community claimed it was not advertised widely. HLA claimed they sent out many notices. Three hundred people applied for 150 positions. HLA reps claimed there was diversity, but brought no numbers to back it up. Sara Berman raved about how there would be two teachers in a room. And low class sizes. Wow! No wonder parents, even in Marine Park where schools generally do pretty well, are tempted. But that is a part of the divisiveness of charter school, which ultimately undermine neighborhood schools. I bet no parent at IS 278 ever saw two teachers in a room. Or real low class sizes.

The Hispanic speaking principal chosen to head HLA, who speaks no Hebrew, spoke. Would you be surprised if she is a temporary figurehead who at some point in the next year will leave to spend more time with her family?

Politicians can’t resist a crowd. Anthony Weiner, Bill Thompson, State Senator Marty Goldman, local Councilman Lew Fiddler and reps of other politicians showed up to make statements “supporting” the community. Hypocrites all. The problem is putting the schools in control of the mayor and almost every one of them still supports mayoral control of the schools. Brooklyn State Senator Karl Kruger, whose rep, wearing a yarmulke no less, spoke out against placing HLA (http://hlacharterschool.org/) in IS 278 made a strong statement challenging Bloomberg’s control over the schools. Kruger, a conservative Democrat, “ vehemently opposes Senate Majority leader Malcolm Smith’s support for mayoral control” according to the Gotham Schools blog. “Kruger’s proposal eliminates the position of schools chancellor and replaces it with a commissioner of education, who the mayor would select from a list of three candidates nominated by the Panel for Educational Policy board.” Good start Carl, but the power to control education should be totally removed from the hands of politicians. That’s why the IS 278 community is in the pickle it’s in.

As one would expect, the UFT was absent. I heard people asking why and I told them the UFT couldn’t help you protest the placing of a charter school in your middle school since they had done exactly the same thing with their charter middle school in East NY at IS 166 - George Gershwin (my Alma Mata). I urged teachers to put pressure on the union.

Most speakers, while opposing placing the charter in IS 278, said they supported HLA and wished them well in finding other space. Educational historian Diane Ravitch's disagrees. She wrote an oped in the Daily News in January: He [Steinhardt] is asking taxpayers to support an institution that has obvious religious overtones. In a city with a great variety of Jewish schools and other agencies that encourage Jewish identity, it makes no sense to create a public school with the same purpose. If the goal of the Hebrew Language Charter School is to strengthen the religious identity of Russian and Israeli Jews, then it should be a private school. If the goal is to teach Hebrew to a broad variety of students, then the Regents should encourage the teaching of Hebrew in the regular public schools.

If the IS 278 community succeeds in keeping HLA out and the DOE shoves HLA into another public school with a less activist, the IS 278 community doesn’t seem to think there would be anything wrong with that. I spoke at the meeting representing the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM). I told them they were not alone, as the DOE is attacking its own public schools (don’t they run them) and favoring charters. I said I was against the very idea of charter schools that funnel public money into the hands of private interests. The much trumpeted “school choice” is juts a marketing concept to undermine neighborhood schools and privatize them. I spoke directly to the few HLA supporters sitting in the front row with big white “I Support HLA” buttons.

“If you wanted a dual language Hebrew school, why didn’t you approach the mayor and ask for one to be established as part of a public school? After all, there are many dual language public schools in existence. The mayor has dictatorial control of the schools you probably could have accomplished it. Or why not just open a private school? But you want to jump onto the charter school gravy train and grab public funds for your own private use.”

Michael Steinhardt lost millions in the Bernie Madoff scheme. He seems to have come up with a nice one of his own. Learning from the master.

Protest over Charter School at Junior High School 278 in Marine Park

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, the Marine Park Community mobilized massive numbers of people to an overflowing auditorium to protest at the Department of Education Public Hearing at IS 278. The only media (aside from Ed Notes) appeared to be Channel 5.

GEM was there with signs and a GEM leaflet and two of us spoke. I have some poor quality video and I will try to put up some segments in a day or two. I'll grab a few stills off the video later and add them to this post.

As one would expect, the UFT was absent. I heard people asking why and I told them the UFT can't help you protest the placing of a charter school in your middle school since they had done exactly the same thing with their charter middle school in East NY at IS 166 - George Gershwin MS - (my alma mata). I urged teachers to put pressure on the union for support.

Here is a report from parent leader Dorothy Giglio, who spoke very eloquently, on the NYC Parent blog (Charter school students as the "jewels" of the DOE)

In recent days we are hearing a lot about Mayoral Control and whether it should be continued or not, changed or left the same. The Mayor said many times he wants to be judged on how he handles the schools.

Well right now, the parents and community of Marine Park in Brooklyn are involved in a real life struggle with the Department of Education. A struggle that would never have existed except for the current system of Mayoral Control.

In order to satisfy the whims of a newly established charter school, one whose founders clearly stated if they were allowed their charter would find their own space and would definitely not look to enter any public school building, has now shown their real colors as they attempt to force their way into an existing neighborhood junior high school, IS 278.

This would never even have become an issue if we still had Community School Boards that actually answered to the community and had some real power. Instead the DOE does as it wants. Against the will of the people, the elected representatives, the civic associations etc.

But worse of all, it became really apparent the contempt that the DOE holds the parents and students of New York City. Last night at a town hall meeting held by Sen. Marty Golden where this issue was raised at a packed house and the opposition of everyone there was apparent, Mr. John White of the DOE stated that the 150 children scheduled to be in the charter school are the "jewels" of the DOE.

I guess that means that the 1100 children currently attending IS 278 as well as the numbers of students that would attend this school in the future are just dross to the DOE. They are throwaways. Why care what happens to them, their education, their class sizes, and the programs that help them or the quality of their school day -- all of which will be sacrificed because of the forced entry of this charter school? Why care what happens to a neighborhood school that has worked for years to improve the success of their children? They don't matter because to the Mayor and the DOE they are not the "jewels".

Mr. White also stated those 150 families signed up in the charter are taxpayers who have rights. More rights, I guess, than the thousands of taxpayers that have already signed petitions against this placement throughout the community.

So that is what they think of our children and anyone not involved in their charter schools. That is the result of Mayoral Control.

--Dorothy Giglio, long time parent leader in District 22

For more on the Hebrew Language Charter school, which has announced an intention to take space inside IS 278, a Title One school in Brooklyn, see this Daily news article and Diane Ravitch's oped here.


The IS 278 PTA announcement:

Marine Park Community Set to Protest the HLA Charter School Proposed to be placed within Marine Park JHS/IS 278

The HLA web site: http://hlacharterschool.org/

Bloomberg Front Group Uses UFT Pro-Mayoral Control Position

Tell Mayor Bloomberg's Petitioners: No Mayoral Control, Period

by Marjorie Stamberg

I just got an e-mail from our Chapter Leader alerting us that Mayor Bloomberg's funded lobbying group, Learn NY, is lurking outside the schools asking teachers to sign a petition supporting mayoral control. Even worse, they are saying that this is the UFT's position, so they're telling teachers it's ok to sign the petition.

This is outrageous. If we see these guys hanging around, we need to let the union know right away. And let the Mayor's petition people know what we think about Bloomberg's corporatizers and charterizers. Ask 'em how much they're getting paid to gather signatures. Closing schools, hundreds of ATRs, high-stakes testing, Principal's Academy clones who haven't spent a nano-second in the classroom -- this is the mayor's agenda.

But the fact of the matter is that starting in 2002 the union supported Bloomberg's power grab for control of the schools. Even today it says "the UFT's support for mayoral control was instrumental of the passage of the law" (from UFT School Governance Task Force report, February 2009).

And despite its talk of "checks and balances," the UFT's proposal says explicitly that "the mayor should retain control of the school system" by selecting the chancellor, appointing five members of an education policy council, and control of the budget.

The UFT's "modifications" are for a couple more members to the education council appointed by the city council types, and a couple less appointed by the mayor. As if that would fundamentally change anything. As for the P.E.P.--the Panel for Educational Policy, it has well earned it's nickname of "Panel for Educational Puppets."

The whole push for mayoral control is part of the drive for corporatization of public education. And as Deborah Meier, the founder of the small schools' movement, noted, even the recent New York State tests which Bloomberg and Klein touted, show that school districts with mayoral control did worse than those without it.

When the vote on the UFT's position came up at February's special delegate assembly, many delegates were deeply concerned about any form of mayoral control. Many wanted the vote put off until they could bring it back to their chapter members for discussion. People had at most a couple days to look at the UFT report. But the vote was rammed through.

So, it's no wonder Bloomberg's hacks and flacks are trying to capitalize on the glaring ambiguity in the UFT's position.

Personally, I don't think we need the mayor, or any of the suits telling us what to do. As many people have pointed out, mayoral control is inherently dictatorial. The schools should be democratically run by teachers, parents, students, and school workers working together in the best interest of the kids.

--Marjorie Stamberg

The New Existential Threat by Paul Moore

When this humble teacher advised that the global economy was over a few months ago it was greeted with mild amusement by most I'm sure, if it registered at all. After all who am I? The end of the global economy was, of course, not my original idea. It belongs to the "peak oil" pioneers. People who saw that the planet's supply of oil would peak and then decline. And that an economy built on a fantasy, that oil would serve as a perpetual and cheap source of energy, would fail.

The failing has begun and much smarter people than me have begun to talk about it. For instance, NPR's Morning Edition spoke with Canadian economist Jeff Rubin about his new book 'Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller' Take a listen here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=104466911&m=104517033

For more about the book go here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104466911

Why discuss this matter on a site that seeks to defend the principle of universal public education across the US? Because this transition will have a profound effect on public education and what's left of American democracy.

For instance the biggest threats to public education in the age of globalization, the Business Roundtable, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the wife and spawn of Sam Walton, and Mayor "Little Ceasar" Bloomberg are going to go into decline. The Green Dot's, the KIPP, the TFA's, and Eva Moskowitz' Harlem crusade are soon over. The $18 billion Gates lost this year is just the first measure of his fall. He's gonna live like us soon! Of course I exaggerate, Gates would fake his own death before he'd work for a living. But the point is a realigned capitalist economy will deal these folks out.

The US economy is going to be run out of the banks, out of Goldman Sachs' offices. That's why the US treasury is being transferred there now. And the social order, if it can be maintained behind massive joblessness and the end of pensions and health care, will be the responsibility of the military. The public schools face a new existential threat, fascism, the last refuge of capitalism from an economic system that actually works for humanity.

Paul A. Moore

Battering BloomKlein

There are three current articles that take BloomKlein to the woodshed on a number of issues.

1. The ineffectiveness of the Leadership Academy
2. The lack of adequate planning for overpopulation in schools due to the Bloomberg building boom
3. No-bid contracts

1. The NY Times piece (Principals Younger and Freer, but Raise Doubts in the Schools) on how hard it is to be a principal and how young and inexperienced so many are, insists on judging schools based on the DOE's own flawed report card system. The article does make the point that evcn in this report card one grade system, which I believe has been at times tainted by political considerations, Leadership Academy principals do not fare as well as more traditional principals with more teaching experience. I want to comment in the future on this issue based on my sense that putting absolute power in anyone's hands - a mayor, a union president, a principal, a teacher – does not result in the best system and often results in disaster.


2. When Jeff Coplon writes about education, I listen. I was very impressed with his NY Mag piece on the NEST school on the lower east side - NEST+m: An Allegory which was full of insights on the kinds of manipulations principals go through to get the kids they want in a school. The current piece - Five Year Olds At the Gate - in NY Magazine covers the rally held by parents at City Hall over the lack of space in kindergarten that Ed Notes chronicled in a video. (NYC Parents Protest School Overcrowding at City Hall, May 6)

In 2007, the Department of Buildings issued permits for 31,918 units, a 35-year high-water mark. By the most conservative estimate, that year’s activity alone brought hundreds of millions of dollars into the city coffers in closing taxes, much of it from buyers lured by strong public schools. But a disconnect yawned between development and the children it engendered. The crux of it, says Beveridge, is revealed in PlaNYC 2030, the mayor’s blueprint for a livable city of 9 million people—who, it should be noted, will be making lots more kindergartners. The document called for parkland within ten minutes of each New Yorker and a local war on global warming, but spent less than a sentence on the DOE’s capacity needs. “School construction is not part of the plan—full stop,” Beveridge says. “They plan all the other infrastructure, but they don’t worry about the schools.”

Bloomberg had fashioned a city of cranes and baby strollers, but only the cranes fell into his field of sight.

3. BloomKlein and No-Bid Contracts
Wayne Barrett, who I often disagree with, does a number on the n0-bids.
Barrett: There's No-Bidness Like Bloomberg Bidness

NYC parent Steve Koss commented on the Barrett piece:

It seems that from the very first days of the Bush/Cheney administration, when they steadfastly refused to release the names and affiliations of the crony capitalists who attended the VP's so-called energy policy forum, the new rule in executive government is to spit in the face of all who are charged with oversight. Thus, Bush and Cheney routinely ignored Congressional requests for information and/or refused to answer subpoenas, even in cases where the laws specifically ordered that they must do so. They were equally dismissive of the General Accounting Office and every other federal agency, and even the courts, rendering moot and impotent the entire concept of checks and balances on which this country was built.

Now, as Wayne Barrett's Village Voice article demonstrates, we see yet again from Bloomberg and Klein the same haughty dismissiveness of anyone who dares look over their shoulder, even when doing so is not only their right but their reason for existence. Bloomberg/Klein repeatedly demonstrate the same contempt for the checks and balances that arise from independent oversight that we saw from Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove and their ilk.

One can hardly help but conclude that the Mayor and Chancellor have wholeheartedly adopted the strategies they witnessed from the previous presidential administration, having effectively learned at the feet of the masters. Of course, the fact that this behavior is wholly antithetical to the very notion of democratic government as defined by our Founding Fathers is irrelevant; it's all about poiwer and control now, not good government or concern for the citizenry. It also shows that, at least in the case of NYC, the State Legislature needs not only to amend mayoral control of schools (which has become the prime example for unaccountability -- just read Mr. Barrett's outrageously unbelievable closing sentence from Joel Klein, claiming that no-bid contracting is an "urban myth"!!), it needs to put some serious teeth (i.e., enforceable sanctions) into these oversight agencies. I have no problem seeing a schools chancellor or mayor or city controller sitting in jail for refusing to provide information or answer questions -- checks and balances are far more valuable than those individuals' freedom to ignore legitimate requests made in the public interest. Without them, we have government of, by, and for the rich and corporate, unanswerable to anyone, operating behind closed doors, and implementing policy by diktat.

This is what Mr. Bloomberg wants us to buy into, another four years (or more, if he decides to purchase a few more elections) of authoritarian government by contempt? Is this the government NYC needs? That the people want? That our schools need? What it heaven's name does its very behavior teach our children except that money and power makes and follows its own rules? Where's the civics lesson in that?

As does Leonie Haimson

Very interesting article from the Village Voice below on the recent State comptroller’s audit of no-bid contracts, including the following:

Dennis Tompkins, the spokesman for DiNapoli, says that the auditors requested the contract database on January 17, 2008, and got it piecemeal in March and May, but didn't get the entire database until November. When DiNapoli sent the department a final draft of the audit on March 6, 2009, seeking a response in 30 days, the department didn't comply and requested a 15-day extension. Finally, on April 27, says Tompkins, the auditors met with DOE and said DiNapoli was going to publish the audit without DOE response. The next day, DOE submitted a detailed, four-page reply that it had obviously been sitting on. DOE appeared to be trying to delay the release of the audit until legislative leaders had settled on a package of bills to renew mayoral control.

When the previous State Comptroller was auditing DOE’s use of the state class size funds, he allowed the DOE to delay its official response for many months, which also delayed the release of the audit, which found widespread misuse of hundreds of millions of dollars. The audit, released in March 2006, found that the DOE had formed only twenty additional classes in K-3 over the baseline number, instead of the 1586 extra classes the Department had claimed.This means that only 1.3% of the additional classes were created, with each one costing the taxpayer over $4 million. Instead, as the audit concluded, the DoE had used millions of dollars of state funds to pay for teaching positions which had existed before the program began – contrary to law – and the situation had gotten considerably worse over time:

“….we believe that the DoE’s calculations are not consistent with the Law, because DoE’s method substitutes Program funding for local funding that was used previously for early grade classes (and teachers) that existed prior to the Program’s implementation.” [1]

In the audit, the State Comptroller made numerous recommendations for improved performance and implementation on the part of the city. Nevertheless, in their official response, DOE’s Kathleen Grimm refused to adopt any of these suggestions, claiming that their compliance was sufficient.

The date she sent the DOE’s official response, without which the Comptroller would not release the audit? The response was dated November 7, 2006– the day of the last mayoral election. And they say that Mayoral control has de-politicized the schools? Puh-leaze.

Note: The journalism students Barrett mentions who tried to pry information on the no-bids from Tweed and were stalled and stone-walled, used Ed Notes and other blogs to advertise their quest.

No Bid Tip Sheet Public Eyes on Public Schools).

Welcome to our experiment in open-source investigative journalism. We are a team of three students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism reporting on sole-source contracts awarded by the New York City Department of Education.

Pallas Parses Cerf and Klein on Teacher Data Initiatives

Pallas:
I’ve been skeptical of New York City’s Teacher Data Initiative for some time. As I’ve commented previously here and here...

Lurking in the background is the fear that the Teacher Data Reports will be used to evaluate teachers. “Absolutely not,” is the steady refrain from Chancellor Joel Klein. “The Teacher Data Reports are not to be used for evaluation purposes. That is, they won’t be used in tenure determinations or the annual rating process,” wrote Chancellor Klein and UFT President Randi Weingarten, in a joint letter last October. I think that this is the primary purpose of the Teacher Data Reports, but they are being cloaked in rhetoric that describes them as a professional development tool.

It turns out that there’s a smoking gun. Today’s New York Times feature story on Chancellor Joel Klein makes mention of a recently-published book by Terry Moe and John Chubb for which he wrote a book-jacket blurb, entitled “Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics and the Future of Education.” The book has a brief section on New York City, drawn, a footnote tells us, from the public record and an interview with Deputy Chancellor Chris Cerf. Here’s what Moe and Chubb write:

“The district aims to use the [value-added teacher effectiveness] indicators to make major personnel decisions. Most important, it wants to take tenure decisions out of the hands of principals and base them instead on three years of value-added assessment data. By sorting the wheat from the chaff at tenure time, the district’s goal is to slowly but surely upgrade the quality of its teachers. Unfortunately, that goal cannot be met in the near future-for as we discussed in Chapter Three, the teachers union went straight to the New York legislature in protest, and used its political power to engineer new legislation that prevents the city school district (and indeed, all school districts in the state) from using student performance data as a factor (even if one of many) in teacher tenure decisions.”

Excerpt from The Smoking Gun by Aaron Pallas

Posted at Gotham Schools, May 22

Given the role Randi Weingarten plays in this drama, at what point do classroom teachers declare her bogus role as a union leader null and void?

Report from UFT ATR Meeting

A correspondent reports:

On Thursday, May 22, I went to the ATR meeting. Michael Mendel explained about what the hiring freeze means for the ATRs. Randi came for some minutes and talked about it also. She pretended to be a martyr. She stated how hard has it been to reach this agreement in NY when in some other states people were losing jobs.

At that point, I wanted to stand up and tell her that it was her fault that caused this mess. She is the one who gave up seniority rights. During this meeting many ATRS applauded RW and Mendel. I couldn't believe this!

I wonder if this hiring freeze will be implemented. In the district I teach in most all the principals are crooks. They think they are attached to the buildings they run. They hide the jobs and give them to their friends.

NYC Teacher Arthur Goldstein Speaks Out Against Mayoral Control

UPDATED, Sunday, 9 PM:
Added comments from Leonie Haimson in response to the apple polishing Mark Sternberg, principal of the Bronx Lab School. Leonie is too nice. The reporter she refers to (How did the reporter miss this?) is David Herzenhorn who missed a lot accidentally on purpose when he covered the NYC ed beat. He is now covering the political beat in DC and co-wrote a front page article in today's Times. I wonder what he missed today?

If you look at the piece I posted below this one where Bloomberg trashes parent attempt to play more of a role with his "joke" of claiming "educators should be in charge" when in fact his non-educator chancellor has made teacher input minimal, here is one educator who doesn't buy into mayoral control, which unfortunately his union leadership does.

In today's New York Daily News, Arthur Goldstein, an ESL teacher at Francis Lewis HS in Bayside, takes a stand. Nice to see a teacher publicly speak out.

Teacher Against Mayoral Control

As a teacher in an A-rated school, I believe mayoral control has been an absolute disaster.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our federal and state governments have checks and balances so no one person has total control, which is a synonym for dictatorship.

City kids need reasonable class sizes and decent facilities. Under Mayor Bloomberg, class sizes just took their biggest leap in 10 years.

Some people say class size doesn't matter, but even the best teachers can give more attention to 20 kids than 34. The fewer kids I have, the more individual attention each one gets.

Under this mayor, charter schools get the best of everything, including small classes and new technology.

My high school was built to hold 1,800 but enrolls 4,450 students. My kids sit in a crumbling trailer, with no technology and often no heat in the winter. So much for efficiency.

The mayor says it's his way or "the bad old days." That's a false choice. We need a system that works better than what we have.

We need a chancellor who works for the kids, not the mayor. The chancellor needs to fight for what's best for kids whether or not the mayor agrees. He can't do that if the mayor can fire him for not following his orders.

A few years ago, the mayor fired two members of the Panel for Educational Policy who had the nerve to disagree with him. Consequently, the PEP is a mayoral rubber stamp. No mayoral appointee dares to stand up for kids.

This mayor boasts about accountability. Teachers are accountable. Principals are accountable, but the only time the mayor is accountable is once every four years.

That's not enough, particularly for a man who is prepared to spend $100 million to buy reelection and who scoffed at the voters by changing the term limits law they twice affirmed.

Four more years of this system guarantees the privatization and destruction of public education in New York City. That's a prospect we should all oppose.

Arthur Goldstein teaches English as a Second Language at Francis Lewis High School in Queens

Leonie's Comments

An oped from the opposite point of view from the principal of Bronx Lab is here: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/05/24/2009-05-24_accountability_saved_my_dying_school.html

The headline for his oped is “Accountability saved my dying school” but the truth is very different.

DOE allowed Evander Childs to die, and instead opened new schools w/ completely different types of students w/in them.

As Eduwonkette noted in 2007: “On every dimension, the Evander incoming 9th graders are lagging behind academically - they are more likely to be in special education or to be classified as ELL, they are much more likely to be overage for their grade (i.e. they had been retained before), their attendance rates in junior high school were much lower, and they were much less likely to be proficient in reading and math.

Of particular note is the praise showered on Bronx Lab at the end of the 2004-2005 school year - see this NY Times article - but 46.6% of their kids were proficient in reading and 52.7% in math when they walked in the door, while Evander's entering students passed at rates of only 11.1% in reading and 12.8% in math.

How did the reporter miss this? ….Comparing these schools is either incredibly foolish or incredibly dishonest - and I don't think the folks running NYC schools are foolish.”

What else? Oh yes, according to the DOE’s statistics, Bronx Lab has class sizes this year ranging from 13 to 25. Meanwhile, most of our large high schools – including the one that Arthur Goldstein teaches at – continue to have class sizes of 34, and the DOE refuses to do anything about it.

In fact Joel Klein recently said if he had his way, he would shrink the teaching force by 30% -- which would consign many of our regular public high schools to class sizes of 45 students.

Bloomberg Does Stint at Comedy Club

NYC Teachers were rolling in the aisles with laughter after hearing this Bloomyism:

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that parents should butt out of trying to dictate educational policy as the debate over mayoral control of the schools intensifies.

"You do not want parents setting educational policy. You do not want parents telling teachers how to teach. Teachers would not be happy about that," Bloomberg said on his WOR radio program.

"That's what you have professionals for," he added.

NY Post, May 23

Professional educators like Joel Klein and his merry band of Tweeders, of course.

I didn't think Bloomberg was capable of jokes beyond telling pregnant employees to "get rid of it."

Leonie Haimson wasn't laughing:

While Bloomberg is contemptuous of parents and says educators not parents should be in charge, the reality is that he has disempowered both parents and educators in his effort to privatize and corporatize the system. Indeed, only two out of 20 of the top bureaucrats at Tweed are educators.

Signs of Increasing Teacher Radicalism From Chicago, LA and SF Teachers

If this movement grows, will it have any impact on the ed-deformer collaborationist Randi Weingarten and the UFT/AFT machine? One check will be at the AFT convention in the summer of 2010 when Weingarten runs for reelection. Don't expect any opposition from NYC, where Unity Caucus controls all 800 delegates or NY State with Nysut under the same controls. NYC/NYS controls the AFT with over 40% of the membership.

The same situation probably exists in Chicago which also has a collaborationist leadership but an emerging opposition led by CORE (Caucus of Rank & File Educators) may have an impact. There are also some signs in St. Louis. Expect a major movement to come from the west coast, in particular LA, where a progressive group is in charge of the union and has embarrassed the UFT/AFT with its militant actions.

The GEM coalition here in NYC will be reaching out to these other groups to see if a national coalition can be formed.

Since many of these activists have socialist roots, just watch the AFT propaganda machine start spewing its red-baiting, especially with the UFT's chief red-baiter Jeff Zahler, who attacked 2007 ICE/TJC Presidential candidate Kit Wainer for his socialist views, now ensconced at AFT HQ in Washington.

« Theft of Pay Update

CORE Represents at Labor Notes Conference

CORE members were highly visible at Saturday May 9th’s “Troublemakers School” hosted by Labor Notes and Malcom X. College. CORE members participated in workshops where they learned: how to prepare effective grievances for possible arbitration, fighting back in the public sector, and organizing and bargaining during an economic crisis among other topics crucial for fighting Unionists.

As a caucus of educators, it was not enough for CORE to merely be students. CORE member, delegate and National Board Certified Teacher Karen Lewis co-presented a workshop entitled “Changing Your Union.”

Ms. Lewis gave an overview of the shape of education in Chicago and how it inspired a small group of Chicago Teachers Union activists to work together to change the Union from within. She described how CORE has become a group of educators who are doing the things the Union leadership should be doing, but in their free time for no additional pay. CORE has been collecting data and doing research on such items as: Huberman’s attack on pensions, CPS payroll, and proper staffing of schools.

She then described our January 10th meeting where CORE drew 500 people in a blizzard to talk about school closings. This event led to the formation of the GEM coalition that became a force of positive change in Chicago school reform. The actions of the groups around school closings saved six schools from being closed, phased-out, consolidated, or turned-around over the 2009-2010 school year

Question-and-Answer session concluded the presentation. Karen advocated for term limits on officers and cuts in officer pay as being crucial in keeping leadership’s attention to the needs of the rank-and-file. She discussed the importance of member education and the need for balance between “service Unionism” and activist Unionism.

At the end of the conference, delegate and CORE member Jackson Potter spoke on the closing panel. Jackson spoke about how CORE is effectively changing the culture of the Union. He spoke about how CORE came from a group of teachers who were not interested in leaving the classroom, but were interested in using our brotherhood and sisterhood within the Union to make the classroom a place where we can better serve our students. CORE wants to put a stop to the culture of “the further you get away from the classroom, the bigger the rewards.”

This was a great day of learning and teaching for the Educators at CORE. Being a member-driven caucus, and not a personality-driven one means that a lot of work needs to be done in self-education and educating the public. Saturday’s event was another instance of that dedication to education.

Call for Community and Teacher Hunger Strike in LA

May 26th to June 1st

Our schools, our communities, our children are facing a growing crisis.

Overwhelmed by deficits, politicians are trying to balance their budgets on the backs of children, the poor, and the working people of California. Our schools’ past allies in public office, Board Members Garcia, Flores-Aguilar, and Vladovic have abandoned us. We are sending a clear message to these elected officials: we will accept nothing less than a new budget that protects every child and every classroom.

To this end we call for a fast of purification, dedication, sacrifice and conscience. Our goal is to achieve self purification, to call on ourselves and our elected representatives to rededicate themselves to the children of our communities, to make personal sacrifice and inspire others to join us, and to remind everyone of conscience what is right and just at this moment.

We call on you to join us. Some of us will fast until this struggle is won. Many of us will fast for several days or for only one day. Some of us will participate in a strict, water-only fast, others in juice fasts. All are welcome.

The first fast will begin on May 26th and last until June 1st. On June 1st we will have a community celebration for those who will be breaking their fast.

On that day we will also invite as many individuals as possible to begin fasts for a short period of time and then pass their fast on to someone else who will do the same, creating chains of people throughout the community.

To sign up, email hungerstrike@riseup.net or call (323) 490-2412.

Perhaps we can bring the day when children will learn from their earliest days that being fully man and fully woman means to give one’s life to the liberation of the brother who suffers. It is up to each one of us. It won’t happen unless we decide to use our lives to show the way. –Cesar Chavez

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps:

collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dialogue cannot exist in the absence of a profound love for the world and its people. –Paolo Freire



San Francisco's Educators for Democratic Union Platform

http://www.educatorssf.com/index.php?p=1_2_EDU-Platform


A democratic union that functions with transparency.

1. Membership will have active oversight of bargaining.

2. The bargaining team will be accountable - making regular reports to the Executive Board and Assembly, seeking membership input and direction.

3. All changes in workday, wages and benefits will be voted on by the full membership. We will have open and thorough discussion on any changes in dues: where the money will go, how it will benefit members.

4. All resolutions passed and minutes taken during Executive Board and Assembly Meetings will be posted in a timely manner on the UESF website.


A union that defends the rights of ALL its members.

1. We believe in equal rights to pay increases for paraprofessionals, substitutes, child development and K-12 teachers.

2. Union leadership will spend more time in the school and work sites finding out what members concerns are and taking action.

3. We seek to defend and expand the number of paraprofessionals working in SFUSD.

4. Protect teachers from subjective evaluations.


Social justice for all: educators, families and students.

1. We will engage in dialogue with families about a long-range vision for public education and what education could look like.

2. We oppose the attempts to reintroduce JROTC to our schools. We will be active participants in the antiwar movement.

3. We will defend the rights of all immigrant families to live and work in San Francisco free of harassment from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

4. We oppose school closings.


Empowering members at their school sites.

1. Union leadership will visit school sites and take an active approach to building strong UBCs.

2. Real reform starts at the school sites--- not at 555 Franklin. Encourage members to take action where they work to improve education and working conditions.

3. We will lead and encourage discussions on issues that matter to our membership in addition to the contract--- pedagogy, school climate and discipline, building community-school relationships, etc.

4. We absolutely oppose using test scores alone to measure the success of students or educators –- Rewrite ESEA(Elementary and Secondary Education Act) and end NCLB (No Child Left Behind).


The defense of public education and the public sector through progressive taxation.

1. We will build relationships and emphasize strategic actions with other unions and public sector stakeholders to build and fund a new vision for social justice and equity.

2. We will work to change how schools are funded and fight to transform Prop 13 to adequately fund public schools and social services.

3. No merit pay! We will fight to stop the privatization of any aspect of public schools and help existing charter schools to unionize.

Marine Park Community Set to Protest the HLA Charter School Proposed to be placed within Marine Park JHS/IS 278

No matter where your school is located, you are in the same danger of these privatizers. This case is particularly egregious. Ed Notes wrote about it here. We pointed out that the "lottery" was held in a YMHA on a Sunday afternoon without community notice. There are religious and political implications behind this. A prime issue is how the lie that they would find their own building was used to get approval.

If you can support these parents and teachers, come on down on Tuesday night. I will be there to video tape the event. We should use events like this to call for the state legislature to end mayoral control.

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, the Marine Park Community will mobilize and protest at the Department of Education Public Hearing at IS 278, 1925 Stuart Street, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Parents and Community members are vehemently opposed to the placement of any charter school within IS 278 in District 22 in Brooklyn. A charter school being dually housed inside the building with the Intermediate School would negatively impact the educational process of the school, harming not only the current students but the community as a whole. The intrusion of the Charter school will greatly limit the students’ access to fundamental spaces in the building such as the gym, library, and lunchroom. The loss of classroom space to the Charter will result in larger class sizes for the IS 278 students. Space restrictions will also cause the students to lose access to lunchtime tutoring sessions with their teachers and programming access to the schools renowned and award winning music program. The Charter School will also cause unnecessary traffic congestion that will endanger the lives of the current and incoming students.

When HLA made its application, at the public meeting June 23, 2008 it specifically stated when questioned that it would not place the charter within any public school, but would be acquiring their own private space. This obviously was not the truth.

For several years Marine Park JHS has petitioned with enormous community support to be allowed to extend itself from a 6-8 to a 6-12 school. This is a much better concept as it group students of the same age group who could continue to utilize all the space without loss of existing programs and create a performing arts school. The DOE has stated that there is no room for this reasonable request yet now states that there is room for an additional school with all its ancillary facilities. We question the DOE’s support of a special interest group over the needs and wants of the neighborhood community.

The dual housing of schools will impede the use of vital facilities such as the gymnasium, library, cafeteria and computer centers. Marine Park JHS currently has approx. 1,100 students and three lunch periods beginning at 10:00 am and ending at 1:00 pm. When would the HLA plan on having lunch for their 150 students (5 and 6 year olds) when they would not be commingling with 11 to 14 year old.

The space utilized by the dual housing of schools will result in a reduction or loss of the access to the rooms required by the renowned and award winning music (both instrumental and choral), drama and art programs that are currently in place at Marine Park JHS. Marine Park JHS is used on an ongoing basis by several local organizations to provide vital after-school activities. These programs include participants from all age groups and from all different schools (public and private). With the siting of this charter and its planned extended day, these much needed services would be lost to the children of the Marine Park community.

Charter schools are fundamentally meant to be housed in Districts with failing schools to offer an alternative educational choice to parents. District 22 prides itself on its long history of success in almost all of its schools. The community did not ask for nor is in need of Charter School intervention. Why is the community being forced to cut services to the children of this community school? Each year that the charter school is housed inside of IS 278, the community will lose more space for its children who want to attend IS 278.

The community has left their opinions to both Deputy Mayor Walcott and Mayor Bloomberg, flooding 311 with calls over the past 2 weeks. Thousands of signatures in opposition have been collected. The community’s outrage has been voiced at every Civic and Public venue available. Senator Marty Golden, Councilman Lew Fidler, Assemblyman Alan Maisel,other elected officials and civic leaders have added their voices in opposition to this plan.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/04/29/2009-04-29_marine_park_parents_protest_plan_for_charter_school_in_public_building.html

Back to the Fray

I'm back from 4 days at the annual FIRST LEGO League partners conference in Manchester, NH, where people live free or die. A place with elected school boards. No mayors controlling their schools. Or no-nothing about education superintendents like Joel Klein. New Hampshire must be missing African-American and Hispanic parents who need the guidance of dictators. If NH had mayor Mike running things, the cemeteries would be overflowing.

Being away from the NYC ed/pol scene can be a good thing, especially in the FIRST environment where the focus is on creating wonderful experiences for kids - truly Children First. It is nice to see so many people who understand one of the prime missions in education. There is a great mix of educators, engineers and people from the business community. Many got involved as parents. A couple from Arkansas started out that way and now are handling the FLL in the state. They mentioned that one of the former members of a high school team called "The Bomb Squad" is now helping us in NY as a mentor.

I had some great conversations. One in particular with an engineer associated with a university who has seen the deterioration of the public schools in parts of his state due to the charter school invasion.

FLL is expected to have over 8000 teams in the US and Canada and 8000 more in 45 countries. This was a North American conference and most states were represented, as was Haiti and Colombia.

We got an exclusive look at the new Smart Moves game but are embargoed from revealing details until Kickoff on Sept. 3.


Teachers who get involved in FLL say it is the best thing they do all year. Registration is open now. The season runs from the beginning of the school year through mid-March, with borough qualifying tournaments and a citywide at the Javits Center which will take place concurrently with the high school events (FTC and FRC. Learn about all FIRST events: http://www.usfirst.org/).

FLL is for ages 9-14. Elementary, middle and even 9th graders in high school can take part. We had 150 teams from NYC take part in this past year's Climate Connections game.

Learn more about FIRST LEGO League: http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/default.aspx?id=970.

Register a team (you can pay later): https://gofll.usfirst.org/.

Follow NYC robotics on my robotics blog.

Training and support are provided. Contact me if your school is interested.

The jury found that the School District and Principal Brown retaliated against Farb for filing a harassment complaint against Brown

Beware: This is an ad for a law firm but the case is interesting. A teacher charges someone with sexual harassment and gets fired. I hear similar cases in NYC but nothing much happens. Maybe NYSUT lawyers should drop in on Leeds, Morelli, etc.

http://www.topix.com/content/prweb/2009/05/leeds-morelli-brown-obtain-huge-verdict-against-school-district

Leeds Morelli & Brown Obtain Huge Verdict Against School District

May 13, 2009

Original PRWeb article: Leeds Morelli & Brown Obtain Huge Verdict Against School District
Read 1 comment »

- Principals and school administrators hold positions of trust and responsibility in our society. Last Wednesday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York found that Principal James Brown of Baldwin Middle School in Baldwin, N.Y., violated that trust when he terminated Cheryl Farb, Dean of Students, in retaliation for her filing a complaint for sexual harassment and discrimination. Farb was represented by the firm Leeds Morelli & Brown.
Farb, et al. v. Baldwin Union Free School Dist., et al., 05 CV 0596 (JS)(ETB)

The jury found that the School District and Principal Brown retaliated against Farb for filing a harassment complaint against Brown. Following an eight-day trial, jurors awarded a total of $5.25 million to Cheryl Farb and her husband. The award included $4 million in emotional damages and $1 million in punitive damages awarded to Ms. Farb, as well as $250,000 for loss of consortium to Farb's husband. The Court has yet to determine Farb's damages for economic losses and is expected to award a substantial additional amount for those losses. The Court also ordered the School District to pay all of Farb's attorneys fees. Leeds Morelli managing attorney Jeffrey Brown stated, 'We are very proud of our trial team and inspired by the courage Ms. Farb demonstrated by standing up for the rights of children and women throughout the country.'

Cheryl Farb worked at the Baldwin Middle School during the 2002/03 and 2003/04 school years until she was terminated. During her time at the school, she filed a complaint against the principal for making sexual and racial comments about both her and students at the school. The jury found that Principal Brown, in retaliation, exploited his position as Farb's direct supervisor by issuing her poor evaluations and fabricating reasons to take disciplinary action against her.

The jury also found that Baldwin School District failed to properly train its employees about sexual harassment; failed to keep Farb's complaint confidential; and failed to oversee Principal Brown's supervision of Farb after she filed her complaint against him.

Cheryl Farb stated, 'I am happy with the outcome of the trial and am glad that the jury was able to see that I was wronged. I hope this verdict sends a message that people should speak out when they see improprieties in their workplace and retaliation for speaking out will not be tolerated.' Speaking on the quality of their legal counsel in the case, Farb's husband, Harry Newman, said, 'As an attorney, I am thrilled and amazed at the quality of the work that Leeds Morelli & Brown has done for us. Our attorney, Rick Ostrove, is one of the finest trial attorneys I have ever seen in my life. His closing statement was definitely the best closing statement I have ever seen in my entire career.'

About Leeds Morelli & Brown, P.C.: Leeds Morelli & Brown, P.C. is a New York City area litigation firm that is dedicated to seeking justice for its clients. The firm offers free consultations about potential claims of sexual harassment or discrimination in the workplace. For more information, call 1-800-585-4658 or visit www.lmblaw.com.

Media Contact:
Jeff Brown
1-888-5-JOBLAW


Media Contact:
Leeds Morelli & Brown, P.C.
Jeff Brown
516-873-9550

Trackback URL: http://prweb.com/pingpr.php/U3VtbS1Db3VwLVN1bW0tU3VtbS1TcXVhLUNvdXAtWmVybw==

Illustrating Why One Man Rule Has Got to Go

The following interchange between parents Steve Koss and Lisa Donlon on the mostly parent-based NYC Education News listserve is just a sample of the daily fare. I know for a fact that much of the NY Ed press monitor the list. Yet you do not see this parent anti-BloomKlein much reflected. Mostly you hear about UFT opposition, which is basically untrue as all they do is make it look like they are against certain policies so the members think they are really a union. This strong parent point of view along with the many anti- BloomKlein classroom teacher blogs is what is driving some of the opposition. (Leonie Haimson for UFT President, as she often does more to defend teachers than the union leadership.) But the chorus is growing. Probably not in time to stop a renewal of mayoral control. But if the legislature is smart, it would sunset the law again in 4 years. That threat might serve to hold the line on some things.

Here Steve and Lisa talk about the paltry numbers in the recent CEC election, or meaningless straw poll, at the district level where despite an expensive lobbying campaign the Tweedies and their flunkies couldn't come close to matching the old Community School Board 5% turnout. This gang can't shoot straight even with a bazooka.

The DOE's straw web site (www.powertotheparents.org) for promoting straw input from
parents for straw polling as input to straw elections in which to select members
to the straw parent organization Community Education Councils, has posted those
straw polling results in what can only be described as the most laughable and
ludicrous form I have ever seen.

Apparently, in an attempt to make the poll results as useless, vague, and
uninformative as possible, the website lists results in three categories: CEC's,
the Citywide Council on Special Education, and the Citywide Council on High
Schools. In each case, the candidates votes are listed not in total, not even
with numeric counts, but simply by the presumably originating schools of those
who voted, and given only in percents!!

That's right - no vote tallies, just percents. To choose just the very
first example listed for the CEC's, we're apparently being allowed to know that
in District 1, an unknown number of parents from School M015 (no name given,
although it happens to be P.S. 015, Roberto Clemente on East 4th Street in
Manhattan) ostensibly voted for their six (yeah, SIX!!) candidates (for nine
positions) in the following way: 26.09% for Monse Santana, 17.39% for Andrew
Reicher, 17.39% for Edward Primus, 13.04% for Corinna Lindenberg, 13.04% for
David Gerstl, and 13.04% fo! r Waldestrudis Acevedo.

A little very simple, trial-and-error math work yields the probable real
counts that produce these percentages: 23 total votes apportioned to the above
candidates as 6, 4, 4, 3, 3, and 3 votes, respectively. So all you PA and PTA
electors from District 1, don't you feel truly empowered and informed to know
that your #1 vote-getter from the full parental voice across your entire
district may well have garnered a grand total of six votes? Of course, it's
always possible that the votes came in as a multiple of this, such as 46 votes
instead of 23, apportioned instead as 12, 8, 8, 6, 6, and 6.

Who knows? Given the lack of parent interest as shown even in the number of
candidates, however, I'd always opt for the lowest possible set of numbers as
the most likely. It's as if we had a Presidential election and we were only
allowed to know the percent of votes coming from each precinct for each
candidate. No numerical counts, no totals by county or state or anything else.

It's a perfect way to provide utterly useless and meaningless data that
also hides the doubtless abysmal parent response to what was likely a
multi-million-dollar effort staged by Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein to
engage (or should I say, co-opt?) public school parents. Just one more example
of how mayoral control has become mayoral autocracy, with meaningless little
crumbs of "democratic participation" tossed out periodically as "sops for the
saps."

If there had been a genuine response with active parent involvement, the
DOE PR machine would have been in full gear, blasting out press releases and
data and pie charts and heaven knows what else. Instead, it's an abysmal
failure, a deservedly total rejection from parents who are smart enough to know
a naked emperor when they see one, and that emperor doesn't even have the nerve
to release the results in an honest fashion. Albany, please take note once again
of the reality of what you've created, and what you so desperately need to
fix.

Steve Koss

Thanks, Steve, for the lucid and spot-on analysis of the ludicrous
straw poll. Just for the record, there is a 7th candidate for CEC One but
the DoE/their vendor managed to accidently leave her off of the straw poll.


It took numerous calls to both DoE ( OFEA) and vendor
(PTTP) to get them to even admit there was a problem ( someone at Power to
the Parents actually assured me that Anilsa Sanchez was on the website
listing candidates for the straw poll, when in fact, she was not).

The left-off candidate is actually a sitting CEC member, whose candidacy
not only slightly "brings the numbers up," but she also brings the additional
representation of the parents of the district as the law requires of the CEC
membership by virtue of her race, ethnicity, home language status and
type of school she represents.

Autocracy combined with ineptitude- the worst of all possible
worlds? or a necessary correlate?

Bring on the wider lens of multiple view points, the checks and balances of
democratic participation and oversight; save us from the paralysis, chaos and
corruption of mayoral control.

Parents must call their representatives in Albany to let them
know they want the madness to stop, and are depending on their state
electeds to reform this broken system in the next few weeks.

One man rule has got to go!

Lisa DonlanCEC One

New York City march for schools

By Michele Showman May 19, 2009

NEW YORK--About 75 New York City public school teachers, students and parents rallied in lower Manhattan on May 14 to urge the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to resist school closings and control of the schools by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The protest was organized by Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), a coalition of dissident caucuses within the union, as well as parent and community groups. GEM seeks to unite teachers and parents in pressuring the UFT to resist mayoral control and school privatization.
They also came together to support the 1,700 teachers who have lost their jobs as a result of school closings, as well as the hundreds of teachers in temporary re-assignment centers ("rubber rooms"). Their demands include eliminating high-stakes testing, reducing class sizes and no to merit pay. GEM held a conference on charter schools earlier this month at Pace University that built momentum for the protest.

Protesters went to UFT headquarters, where protesters picketed and chanted, "DOE [Department of Education]! Open your eyes! We don't want to privatize." The protest continued to the offices of the Department of Education, where a number of speakers spoke to the importance of union resistance to mayoral control, and to democratic control of the schools.
"Over 20 schools have been closed, and more are on the chopping block," said Angel Gonzalez. "We must oppose principals who behave like centralized dictatorships."

Marchers cheered when Brian Jones, a middle school teacher in East Harlem, said, "President Obama's charter schools represent an attempt to do education on the cheap. Billions are available to bail out the banks: we need that money to bail out the schools!"

By connecting teacher union activists with community forces, GEM is mobilizing the kind of force that can stop school closings, and put control of schools in the hands of teachers and parents.

Battle Intensifies in LA Schools

http://socialistworker.org/2009/05/19/battle-intensifies-in-la-schools

From Socialist Worker


BATTLE INTENSIFIES IN LA SCHOOLS
====================================

Gillian Russom and David Rapkin, members of United Teachers Los Angeles, report on the union's response to a court order barring a planned one-day strike on May 15.

May 19, 2009

AFTER AN anti-union judge issued a temporary restraining order banning our planned one-day strike set for May 15, thousands of members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and hundreds of Los Angeles students pushed back with a series of actions on that day.

Morning picket lines before school, student walkouts and sit-ins, a civil disobedience action by teachers, and an afternoon union rally sent a clear message that our struggle to stop layoffs and class size increases is not going away.Teachers, students, and parents are outraged at the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) plans to lay off nearly 2,900 teachers and 2,600 other school employees, and increase class sizes in every grade level.

The layoffs are unnecessary, since money from the federal stimulus bill is sufficient to save these jobs.UTLA members had voted to hold a one-day strike May 15 to protest the layoffs, but union officers decided to cancel the work stoppage when Judge James Chalfant issued a restraining order that could have imposed a fine of $1,000 and a loss of credentials on each teacher who participated.

Chalfant also threatened to fine UTLA itself $1,000 for each member who took part in the strike--a penalty that, if successfully imposed, would have bankrupted the union.

The pickets, civil disobedience and rally were important in keeping teachers active and sending the message that we'll continue the fight. However, it comes in the context of the injunction, which was a major defeat for us and represents a formidable attack on the labor movement.

Plus, Superintendent Ramon Cortines' hard-line stance can't be underestimated. From Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa--a supposed friend of UTLA--to the school board to Cortines and the courts, we are being hammered.The next step it is to reinvigorate the fight in whatever ways we can. Chalfant's temporary restraining order--which could become a permanent injunction against strikes and job actions--needs to be challenged.

This intervention against our democratic right to strike is an attack on the entire labor movement, and UTLA must enlist active support from the LA County Federation of Labor and unions everywhere.Most importantly, we need to prepare union members for a long, tough fight.The fight against layoffs is taking place while a tentative agreement on a contract was set aside prior to a ratification vote by the membership. The district may well agree to pull back partially on layoffs in exchange for reopening contract talks to seek unpaid leave and other concessions from the union. How much we can win in negotiations depends on the level of pressure we maintain through our organizing over the coming weeks.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SOME ACTIVISTS were disappointed with the UTLA officers' decision to call off the strike, but nevertheless shifted quickly into organizing actions that wouldn't violate the court order.

Angry picket lines were set up in front of most schools Friday morning for the hour before classes started. At Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, 100 teachers chanted, "The district says cut back, we say fight back!" and "What do we want? Lower class size! When do we want it? Now!"

Later that morning, we took part in a civil disobedience action in front of LAUSD headquarters with 37 other teachers and union officers. By getting arrested, we hoped to show our ongoing commitment to fighting the cuts, and to keep public attention focused on the detrimental impact that class size increases will have on students' education.Wearing t-shirts reading "Don't raise class size" and "Restrain the district," we stormed up to the locked doors of the school board's offices. Our chants of "Don't raise class size" reverberated off the building as TV cameras rolled.

Knowing that the school board would not arrest us on their steps, we moved into the middle of the street where we formed a circle and sat down. "We are here because for over 500 years, we have been facing oppression," said Martha Guerrero, a history teacher at Roosevelt High School. "Students of color and marginalized youth are continually denied a quality education, and it is obvious that this system does not care about their future. Enough is enough, ¡ya basta!"Twenty-one women and 17 men, including UTLA's president, vice president and secretary, were handcuffed by police in riot gear and transported to two LA jails. We were released around 9 p.m. after about six hours in holding cells.

Students showed their opposition to the cuts and solidarity with teachers in actions at several schools around the city. About 500 students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles held a sit-in in the school's central yard. Later, they moved to the athletic field bleachers, and the school provided a sound system so they could discuss why they didn't want teachers laid off. Garfield could lose 13 English and social studies teachers.Sit-ins of hundreds of students also took place at Jordan High School in South Los Angeles, Franklin High School in Highland Park and Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in downtown LA."We care about the teachers," Jasmine Guerrero, a senior at Franklin, told the /Los Angeles Times/. "But it's more about us. One teacher for 45 students, it's not a productive learning environment."

At Miguel Contreras Learning Complex School, 300 students held a sit-in in the courtyard from 8 a.m. until about 10:30. Speaking on a bullhorn, one student leader listed the names of LA schools and how many teachers each school would lose due to the cuts.

Another leader gave out the phone number of school board president Monica Garcia, and dozens left messages demanding that she change her vote."Students are definitely making the connection between supporting the teachers' struggle and the fact that their own education is at stake," said Jess Kochick, a teacher at Miguel Contreras. "They were saying things like, 'If they're not going to let you strike, we're not going to go to class!' What students are doing is definitely going to be a crucial part of how we win."

A spirited after-school rally drew about 1,500 teachers, students and parents to the LAUSD building yet again. The head of the LA County Federation of Labor, Maria Elena Durazo addressed the crowd, emphasizing that the struggle for public education is a fight for the whole working class.

UTLA activists are pressing ahead with further mobilizations. Teachers around the city are planning actions including community forums and a protest by elementary school students and parents as well as a possible hunger strike leading up to a major protest at the school board's next meeting on May 26.All this is vital--but more activism and organization will be needed. In the weeks and the months ahead, UTLA faces what are likely to be the most important struggles in its history, and the union will need to be mobilize and organize its rank-and-file members like it has never done before.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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Teachers Unite Chapter Leader Support

I'm on the road this week. I'm up in Manchester, NH at FIRST HQ for a robotics conference this week so blogging may be sketchy. Certainly, no graphics.

Monday night was a busy one. There was lots of stuff going on at the PEP meeting at Stuyvesant HS with the anti-mayoral control parent group and others on military recruitment.

I couldn't make it because Teachers Unite was holding its prospective chapter leader training session. Michael Fiorillo (ICE), Megan Behrent (TJC) and I were the old hands answering a wealth of questions from people thinking of running either for CL or Delegate.

If you are running or thinking of running for chapter leader or are involved in supporting a candidate in your school, the discussion was very valuable. We hope to continue meeting and eventually form a meaningful support group for chapter leaders that will be able to link the role of union leader at the school level with the broader issues facing teachers.

There was a lot of meat on the table to chew on and I will try to report on some of it when I get a chance this week to follow up.

Here is one item that came up:

The type of support CLs get from the union varies. The key person is the District Rep. Since Randi killed elections (they used to be elected by the CLs in the district) they are more beholden to the leadership than to the members. But I maintain they were never all that beholden in the first place since they were all in the ruling Unity Caucus, which runs the union as a one party system.

The DR is like an overseer, watching for signs of dissonance. They keep CL from wandering off the reservation. CLs feel very beholden to the DR as they are the major conduit to the UFT and even friends of Ed Notes and ICE often feel wary of handing out our literature. ("My DR will rip me a new a-hole if I pass this out was one comment.")

Monthly District meetings of CL are always well attended, way more than Delegate Assemblies. There the DR passes out the word of what the union needs them to do. You see, the union views CLs as their employees and gophers even though they are chosen by their staffs. Thus, these meetings are filled with "Do Nows" and very few DRs hold full discussions and brainstorming sessions for CLs to help each other with their issues and coordinate a multi-school strategy. The goal is to keep them all isolated and dependent on the DR and the union, not each other.

One thing we pointed out to the attendees was the narrow view the UFT has of the way to deal with many issues in the school. Basically, the advice it to keep things between a teacher under attack and the CL, and not to fight things politically by trying to mobilize fellow teachers and parents where appropriate. Again, isolate the teachers and make them dependent on the CL, thus reinforcing the UFT chain of command and its tight top down control.

Pride and Prejudice: Seward Darby on ATRs in the New Republic

The New Republic's Seward Darby clearly an ed deformer supporter, attended the Mar 28 Grassroots Education Movement conference on closing schools, charter schools and ATRs. She signed in but did not identify herself as a reporter. Her negative report (School's Out Forever by Seward Darby in The New Republic) is dripping with so much bias and venom, don't get wet reading it. Teachers grumble. They furrow their brow. They shout. The dress of a few people are described for negative effect.

Participants at the March meeting--sponsored by a self-described "dissenting caucus" of the UFT--are leading a campaign to get the city to repeal its mutual-consent policy, including the ATR. And they echoed Weingarten's grievance (though they also called her a "failed labor leader" for agreeing to scrap forced placement in the first place)."

Darby made no attempt to explore the true roots of dissent, that the organizers of the conference represent some of the most progressive teachers in NYC, and that the issues of closing schools and high stakes tests are part of the ATR equation.

"Meanwhile, as states look for ways to qualify for federal stimulus money by committing to increasing teacher effectiveness, New York stands as one model of what not to do."

I've collected a series of Darbyisms from this "journalist" less than two years out of college, clearly an expert in urban education. Note how every teacher is presented with a negative description. And all seem to be vets, ignoring the fact that the conference attracted a mixed bag of newer and older teachers.

Darby is a shill. Numerous quotes from TNTP's Tim Daly but never mention his contracts with the city and what he has to gain by attacking ATRs. Using quotes from Daly and TNTP on ATRs, which has large contracts in NYC to train new teachers, is like using Dick Cheney as a resource on weapons of mass destruction.

"I'm happy now," one such teacher told TNTP researchers. "I don't have to prep, I don't have to grade tests, I don't have my own class. I don't really have to do anything."

Take one quote and apply it to all 1400? I guess Darby didn't have the time to read the comments from ATRs who sent in numerous resumes but didn't get one call. Daly forgot to talk to them too. She had the opportunity to talk directly to many ATRs in the room but chose to use this old quote from TNTP.

"Perhaps worst of all, the ATR is part of what was supposed to be an effort to free New York from the stranglehold its powerful teachers' union" [Stanglehold? Has Darby been awake at all?]

The battle over teacher hiring is why, on a Saturday afternoon in late March, a group of angry veteran teachers gathered in a chilly Manhattan classroom. They were there to protest the ATR. Sitting at desks scattered haphazardly [look at these people,can't even straighten the desks.] through the room, the educators shouted complaints as one woman scribbled notes on sheets of paper taped to the blackboard. They decried New York's mayor, his chancellor of education, and school principals, and they lamented this cabal's primary goal: to replace experienced educators with younger recruits. "A lot of principals don't want teachers who've been around for a while because when they say jump, we'll say, 'Why?'" one woman cried, her brow furrowing with anger. "A twenty-two-year-old would say, 'How high?'

"It's like in the nineteenth century, when people were thrown off farms and had to live in crummy parts of cities," grumbled one teacher, slumped at his desk in snakeskin cowboy boots and a shirt emblazoned with the UFT logo.

Their sense of entitlement dates back to 1961, when the newly formed UFT challenged the weak job security and low pay of the teaching profession.

But the plan is deeply flawed because, in 2005, UFT refused to sacrifice its commitment to lifelong job security. It won the ATR, which means that, while displaced teachers have to compete for jobs, there is no consequence if they do not find them. They would simply get paid to wait in the ATR."

TNTP found no hiring bias against ATR teachers.[Do they have a dog in the race?]

Wearing black boots, army pants, and a skin-tight shirt that said "undefeated," a reserve teacher standing by a snack table declared himself a "political prisoner."

Another retired teacher shouted that the city's attacks on seniority and job guarantees "will make the AIG crooks look like gold." [THAT's ME and I don't shout. I just speak loudly. Of course she took this out of context.]

Today, teachers lingering for months, even years, in the reserve are more likely than the rest of the city's educators to have "unsatisfactory" performance ratings, [DEBUNKED BY EDUWONKETTE] and many haven't applied for new jobs online, [HOW ABOUT DATA? "MANY" MEANS EXACTLY HOW MANY?] where the city maintains an employment database, or attended a job fair.

Chicago, one of the only other big U.S. school systems to adopt mutual consent, allows teachers to remain in reserve for ten months, after which they are removed from the public payroll.

because of growing opposition and outrage from the UFT and teachers clinging to the past.

Lots of code words here. Note the negative descriptions, ignoring the people who spoke so eloquently at the conference. Darby was in the same room I was but was wearing narrow blinkers

I especially like this one:

Another woman holding an issue of the International Socialist Review silently shook her head.

Wow, and red-baiting too. Way to go Seward.

She emailed me to say she would call to interview me. The call never came. But why hear all sides of the issue when you are out to do a hatchet job in the first place?

Can you spell s-h-o-d-d-y j-o-u-r-n-a-l-i-s-m?

CHARTER SCHOOLS IN HARLEM: Part of the Solution, or Part of the Problem?

The actions of the EEPs and ERPS are driving people to question many aspects of their market-based policies.

An Informational Meeting for Parents

GUEST SPEAKERS:

AKINLABI E. A. MACKALL
co-founder of S.E.E.D.S., Inc. (www.seedswork.org) and on the
Coordinating Council of Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence –
BNYEE (www.bnyee.com). He has been a community empowerment researcher,
planner and implementer for his entire adult life.

MICHAEL FIORILLO
ESL/English teacher at Newcomers High School in Queens, Public School
Parent and Alumnus, UFT Chapter Leader

Wednesday, May 20
6:30pm
Jackie Robinson Community Center
110 East 129th Street
at the corner of Lexington & 129th

Sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement
GEMnyc@gmail.com 718-601-4901

The Grassroots Education Movement is a coalition of groups and individuals fighting against the privatization of education in NYC.