Murdoch Thuggery and Long-term Links to Joel Klein - and Bill Gates too

None of this suggests that Mr. Klein cut some sort of a deal that resulted in a job 14 years later. But the speed of the antitrust decision surprised even the people involved in the takeover. One of the participants, who declined to be identified discussing private negotiations, said he thought the sale was effectively blocked before the surprising turnaround.  - David Carr, NY Times, Aug. 8, 2011

You just have to read this article in today's NY Times about how Joel Klein handed Rupert Murdoch a cupcake 14 years ago when he was at the Justice Department. Carr points to another decision made a year later against  Murdoch. Just cover as far as I'm concerned.

As it turns out, a News Corporation division has twice come under significant civil and criminal investigations in the United States, but neither inquiry went anywhere. Given what has happened in Britain with the growing phone-hacking scandal, it is worth wondering why.

Both cases involve News America Marketing, an obscure but lucrative division of the News Corporation that is a big player in the business of retail marketing, including newspaper coupon inserts and in-store promotions. The company has come under scrutiny for a pattern of conduct that includes below-cost pricing, paying customers not to do business with competitors and accusations of computer hacking.

News America Marketing came to control 90 percent of the in-store advertising business, according to Fortune, aided in part by a particularly quick and favorable antitrust decision made by the Justice Department in 1997. 

Now it gets better

The deal would make News America Marketing the dominant player in the business and, for that reason, the San Francisco field office of the Justice Department recommended to Washington that the News Corporation’s takeover bid be challenged on antitrust grounds. Typically, such a request from a field office would carry great weight in Washington and, at a minimum, delay the deal for months.

But the Justice Department brass overrode San Francisco’s objections and gave its blessing in just two weeks. So who ran the antitrust division at the Justice Department at the time? Joel Klein, who this year became an executive vice president at the News Corporation, head of its education division and a close adviser to Rupert Murdoch on the phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

Carr goes on to point to the decision a year later denying Murdoch the right to sell a share of his satellite company and states:

so any suggestion that a department of the United States government was snugly in the hip pocket of Mr. Murdoch would not be correct. 

Balderdash. I'm increasingly proud of having said early in the Joel Klein tenure as chancellor of the NYC schools that one day he would be doing a perp walk with his coat over his head. (Come on, where are the photoshop guys?) I know, I know. I hugged the guy. Contradiction? Not at all. I'll bring him cookies in jail.

As many of you know, Klein pushed Wireless Generation into NYC schools. Murdoch buys the company, hires Klein as consigliare. We need 2 coats over heads at the perp walk - 2 for the price of one. Did Murdoch play a role with Bloomberg to  insert Joel Klein as his Manchurian Candidate to lead the potential goldmine known as the NYC school system?

You can catch up to the story at these links I culled from Gotham:
Teachers unions want the state to kill a contract with Wireless Generation. (Daily News, WNYC)

By the way, there is a petition (see below) urging the State Comptroller to deny this contract - I think it was approved by the PEP but might be brought up again by speakers at the Panel for Educational Policy on Aug. 17 (weds) 6pm at Murray Bergtraum HS which will vote a contract with Verizon, another corporate thug. I think Liu approved for some reason - makes me nervous about him - fear of alienating Murdoch?

Now let's turn to the more general thugery of the Murdoch operations as described in the current issue of Rolling Stone.

But the corruption exposed at the News of the World is not the work of a "rogue" element within News Corp. — it's a reflection of the lawless culture that defines the company. As CEO, Murdoch not only tolerates employees and executives who push the boundaries of legality and good taste, he celebrates them — at least until the cops show up. "There's a broader culture within the company," Col Allan, editor of Murdoch's New York Post, crowed in 2007. "We like being pirates." Whatever veneer of integrity News Corp. may have accrued after its purchase of The Wall Street Journal the very same year masks an ingrained corporate ethos that believes integrity is for suckers. The attitude passed down from the top, says one veteran of Murdoch's tabloids, is aggressive and straightforward: "Anything we do is OK. We're News Corp. — so fuck you and fuck your mother."  ----Rolling Stone

How far did the Murdoch culture pervade Tweed under Klein? And I view the WSJ as just a more literate version of the NY Post with biased reporting when it comes to education, at least. I told a reporter from WSJ who wanted to know more about the GEM high stakes testing committee that the other day. Haven't heard back. My sense is that the WSJ would start with the premise that somehow union money was behind it. Or maybe terrorists who want to undermine the ed deform economy on which Murdoch/Klein are looking to make big bucks.

More from the RS article:

Indeed, an examination of Murdoch's corporate history reveals that each of the elements of the scandal in London – hacking, thuggish reporting tactics, unethical entanglements with police, hush-money settlements and efforts to corrupt officials at the highest levels of government – extend far beyond Fleet Street. Over the past decade, News Corp. has systematically employed such tactics in its U.S. operations, exhibiting what a recent lawsuit filed against the firm calls a "culture run amok." As a former high-ranking News Corp. executive tells Rolling Stone: "It's the same shit, different day."

These are just little bits from the must-read Rolling Stone piece. Remember the affair between Bernie Keric and Murdoch employee Judith Regan. Get all the juicy details including how Murdoch scum Roger Ailes obstructed justice - how about a perp walk for 3?


Thanks to a blogger who would usually do a smashing job on this story but is a bit tied up and sent me the links and commentary below:

Klein helped Murdoch out 14 years ago with an antitrust deal.  Smells crooked (though he did rule against Murdoch in a later deal.)

Here's the Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/business/media/news-corps-legal-trail-in-the-us.html?hp

Was Klein on the Murdoch payroll long ago?  Hmm....
 

The dominos are starting to fall into place with the Murdoch story here in America.  Rolling Stone has some malfeasance at the NY Post in this piece here:

http:/www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rupert-murdochs-american-scandals-20110803

The more they dig, the more they will find that what News International did in Britain, they did here in America too - hacking, bribery, conspiracy to subvert justice, etc.

And Klein is at the middle of it.

Sign our petition vs. no-bid contracts for Murdoch's Wireless Generation!

Also at the NYC Parent Blog:

“As part of our contribution, the [Gates] foundation took an important first step a few weeks ago and selected a vendor to build the open software that will allow states to access a shared, performance-driven marketplace of free and premium tools and content. That vendor, Wireless Generation, will create the software, but it will be owned by an independent nonprofit, so that any school, school district, curriculum developer, or tool builder can contribute to the collaborative.”Really, did it really have to be Wireless Generation?  But why doesn’t that surprise me?

UPDATE: note  the words"free and premium content,"  something I had not originally noticed but was pointed out by Dr. Ed Fuller on his blog here.  So Wireless Gen and Murdoch are poised to make a buck off of this project -- and the content they receive from teachers, who are expected to share their ideas free of charge? 

Unholy alliance between Murdoch, Klein and Bill Gates? "Pretty cool" huh?

http://nyceducator.com/2011/08/murdochs-education-ventures-go-forward.html

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Hey Teachers: Support Striking Verizon Workers

One of the reasons the labor movement is in so much trouble is the lack of solidarity. The UFT/AFT sells the "union of professionals" line - as if we're closer to people who actually manage their professions than to other workers. Where do you think you stand in today's deskilling and degrading of teachers?

GEM and possibly other groups are gearing up for some support activities starting tomorrow afternoon at 5 PM. I may try to make it into the city if I can.

Verizon Workers are on Strike!

Teachers, Parents, Students, Community Members

Let’s show our support and join them on the picket line.

Their struggle is our struggle!

 Monday, August 8  5PM

140 West Street, Between Vesey and Barclay St.

Take the #3 to Park Place  or the A,C to Chambers St

Bring signs, banners, and energy!

http://www.cwa-union.org/

  http://usuncut.org/targets/verizon

Company Refuses to Bargain Seriously, Verizon Proposals Would Take Workers Back Decades

Washington, D.C. -- More than 45,000 workers are on strike today at Verizon Communications. Bargaining continues. Since bargaining began on June 22, Verizon has refused to move from a long list of concession demands. As the contract expired, nearly 100 concessionary company proposals remained on the table.

As a result, CWA and IBEW have decided to take the unprecedented step of striking until Verizon stops its Wisconsin-style tactics and starts bargaining seriously.

Even at the 11th hour, as contracts were set to expire, Verizon continued to seek to strip away 50 years of collective bargaining gains for middle class workers and their families.

CWA and IBEW members are prepared to return to work when management demonstrates the willingness to begin bargaining seriously for a fair agreement. If not, CWA and IBEW members and allies will continue the fight.

Verizon financials

• 2011 annualized revenues are $108 billion and annualized net profits are $6 billion.
• Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend.
• Verizon’s top five executives received compensation of $258 million over the past four years.

The contract covers 45,000 members of CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from New England to Virginia.

Read updates at www.cwa-union.org/verizon

Foundation/Philanthropy Scamming re "Bloomberg donating $30M to minority youth"

Updated: Thurs, Aug. 11, 10pm
Add this link from Democracy in Education blog.

Why Michael Bloomberg’s Plan to ‘Aid Minority Youth’ Is a Terrible Idea

I got a call from a 4th year ATR yesterday. We talked about a lot of things - mostly Yankee baseball - but I was taken aback a bit given the destruction his career suffered under Bloomberg, when he praised Bloomberg for his recent philanthropy towards students of color. I don't give robber barons credit for anything, esp since Bloomberg ties his giving to political favors.


Here is a piece of a discussion going on on list serves to put some of that into perspective - aside from some of the openly racist remarks Bloomberg made.

This conversation on the ednews listserve (related to Bloomberg's "30 million dollar gift to minority youth") was really valuable (below, begin at the bottom with Paola's comments and work your way up).  Many of us understand that philanthropy, particularly in regards to education, has a dark side, but it is hard) to articulate exactly why on a deeper level.  We know it is about control, we know it is about isolating and controlling wealth; the conversation below explains how foundations and charities both use the tax code to protect and shelter the wealth of some while giving the appearance of "giving" to others.  If everyone paid their fair share, if there weren't major loop-holes and benefits for corporations and wealthy individuals, such as those described below, would we need wealthy folks to give to those who are not, or could our government have the resources to provide equitable systems and services for ALL?  Most or all of you probably already know this stuff, but what they wrote below helped me understand the fundamentals and specifics better.

In Chicago they have begun to "follow the money" and educate on these issues, when some of us were there last month we did a march from the Board of Trade to the Banks to the DOE and CORE had informational materials highlighting the financial injustices between these three groups.  We heard from parents in Florida who are doing this across their state in a myriad of ways in a workshop at SOS.  I spoke with a woman from St. Louis yesterday, they are beginning to do this (including a rally to encourage folks to withdraw their money from Bank of America this weekend).   I know some of this is happening here - Wall Street actions and Bloombergville.

The issue of corporate, foundation, and charity tax loop-holes and benefits, as well as campaign finance reform, are issues that directly and negatively impact our public education system, and collectively these foundations, wealthy individuals and corporations are what/who are driving the DEforms our kids and our schools are facing, but it is not something we have spent any/significant time on in terms of the education and organizing work we have done because we have been so focused on the local and immediate attacks such as co-locations, charters, closings, budgets etc. 
 
 

From Leonie: 

Besides the obvious tax advantages (and the political  PR gains) this sort of campaign may yield, we should remember that the Bloomberg Foundation has parked its investments in tax havens throughout the world – in Cayman Islands and elsewhere:

http://gawker.com/5521105/the-bloomberg-foundation-loves-offshore-tax-havens

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/11/mike_bloombergs_5.php

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-16/nyc-mayor-s-09-tax-forms-show-more-offshore-money.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12165497


http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/bloomberg%E2%80%99s-offshore-millions?page=0


By the end of 2008, the Bloomberg Family Foundation had transferred almost $300 million into various offshore destinations—some of them notorious tax-dodge hideouts. The Caymans and Cyprus. Bermuda and Brazil. Even Mauritius, a speck of an island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Madagascar. Other investments were spread around disparate locations, from Japan to Luxembourg to Romania. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s about as opaque set of investments as you can find,’ said Rich Cohen, who covers foundations and charities for Nonprofit Quarterly.
 
From Richard:

a related aspect of what Paola writes below: 

A billionaire like David Koch -- who has poured funding into the organizations which got the anti-tax tea party movement going -- chooses to give $100 million for a vanity project, the renovation of the N.Y. State Theater at Lincoln Center, and

-gets the theater re-named after him (when probably far more City and State taxpayer funds were expended on it over the years) and

--gets to avoid all taxes on that $100 million.  This deprives the federal, state and local governments of any access to collecting a portion of  the money, which they might have elected to use for more pressing societal needs, if they had it to use.

RB 

From Paola:

Bloomberg’s  (and Gates’ and Zuckerberg’s and the donors who rescued the January regents) “generosity” is partly funded by the taxpayers—through forgone federal, state and local tax revenue to the tune of about 40 cents  on every donated dollar.     

The inefficiency of carrying out social policy through charitable giving excites only extreme wonks, and only once in a while at that.  For example, a Harvard Business Review article, nicely discussed here, made a splash 10 years ago—but changed nothing.  The authors took aim specifically at foundation giving: "When a donor gives money to a social enterprise, all of the money goes to work creating social benefits. When a donor gives money to a foundation, most of the gift sits on the sidelines. On average, foundations donate only 5.5 percent of their assets to charity each year, a number slightly above the legal minimum of 5 percent. The rest is invested to create financial, not social, returns.”  They argued that because foundations pay out a small portion of their total assets each year, their contributions to society do not equal the taxes forgone: "When an individual contributes $100 to a charity, the nation loses about $40 in tax revenue, but the charity gets $100, which it uses to provide services to society. The immediate social benefit, then, is 250 percent of the lost tax revenue. When $100 is contributed to a foundation, the nation loses the same $40. But the immediate social benefit is only the $5.50 per year that the foundation gives away — that is, less than 14 percent of the forgone tax revenue.”   Actually, as the GIA Reader article points out, public charities (aka 501(c)3’s) do not create as much social benefit as the HBR authors give them credit for since they don’t re-distribute anywhere near 100% of donations in social benefits once operating expenses, including salaries, are taken into account (see, e.g., the recent NY Times  expose of the Young Adult Institute Network)
            If all this makes your eyes glaze over, think of the bottom line: we (the voters, who elect the legislators who ultimately write the tax code) allow obscenely rich people to opt out of paying taxes—already relatively low--on large chunks of their income so that they can then turn around, fund whatever projects tickle their fancy, and be praised by all for their “generous giving.”.  To put it another way, what is the difference between Bloomberg et al. and the Ancien Régime nobleman who paid no taxes but gave coppers to the poor to save his soul?
Paola de Kock

Added link at Democracy in Education: 

Why Michael Bloomberg’s Plan to ‘Aid Minority Youth’ Is a Terrible Idea

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Paralysis

Maybe it's my useless right wrist. Every time I start to blog I get distracted by a hundred issues and end up not writing anything much at all. So I spend most of the time reading other blogs on the Ed Notes blogroll and following the links. "I should note this or that," I think but just don't seem to have the discipline to follow up. SOS? Was that a year ago?

People have told me this is an opportunity to rest and recharge but I find being in the action fuels my energy supply. Right now I am at a very low energy state. I did get my wife to drive me into the city for Thursday's New Teacher Underground meeting on the lower east side. She went off in search of food supplies - found great bialys and pickles - while I descended into the lower level of Lolita Bar clutching the thin rail with the fingers of my left hand.

There was a great crew of mixed ages there. The goal of the NTU organizers is to expose new teachers to the big educational issues along with how things work. Lisa Donlan came with a wonderful chart showing the levels of governance. Fordham prof. Dr. Mark Naison, Notorious PhD - see his rap at SOS - did a presentation on how teaching and community activism go together. Unfortunately I was getting tired - what was in that beer?- and had to leave before Angel Gonzalez did his presentation but I'm sure it was smashing. I also had to fulfill the other part of the deal with my wife - dinner out.

It was fun to get out after a few days of recovery from the incredible activity of 5 days at SOS, which I still intend to write about before the experience totally slips away. But not right now. The lure of a Sunday matinee movie and early dinner in the city is much too tempting, especially with my personal chauffeur awaiting.

In the meantime, check out these videos:

Keith Olbermann expressing the outrage so many of us feel - and increasingly at Obama (my wife declared him a Wus and said she would rather not vote than vote for him - and she is no leftist but outraged at his - choose one: a) caving in to Republicans or b) he really is an increasingly not so closet Republican.



Robert Reich video: bail out education

http://www.readersupportednews.org/video/4-video/6874-robert-reich-bailout-education

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

"provide the highest performing applicants from Ivy League schools with a 6 week medical tutorial and set them loose on our nations inner city hospitals" - Brian De Vale Urges Nurse for America Program to Meet Shortage

TFA and the Fellows program create the illusion that there is no shortage of "cerified" teachers. These folks are considered licensed, thus eliminating the need to pay more to attract more folks into the profession.

I propose a similar program NFA... Nurse for America to deal with the health care crisis.

We will provide the highest performing applicants from Ivy League schools with a 6 week medical tutorial and set them loose on our nations inner city hospitals...we will do this because the nurses and doctors of America have failed our inner city people.

Thus we must fire the [current crop of older] nurses.

Rather than try to understand what decades or in some cases centuries of neglect, public policy and the resulting lack of education about good health choices, alcohol and substance abuse, diabetes, sickle cell, asthma etc...have created, we will blame the doctors and nurses and shut down their hospitals and replace them with CHARTER HOSPITALS!!!!!

Maybe Arne Duncan can be Surgeon General. He is as qualified for that as he is for Sec. of Education. Didn't he sprain his ankle at least once while he was a basketball player? So he understands healthcare...just like he understands education because he went to school.

Susan Ohanian: Sex, Lies, and SOS

 If I had to name the reasons I wanted to go to SOS so badly, seeing Susan Ohanian and Juanita Doyan again were right at the top. I only met them once before in March 2003 at the WOO in Birmingham AL where 20 activists (including John Lawhead who I roomed with - 6 months later we formed ICE) from around the nation gathered to give WOO director Steve Orel a Courageous Educator  award for his battles defending the poor students who were being pushed out of the schools based on high stakes tests. Steve (now deceased - and how wonderful it would have been to see him at SOS) was fired for his efforts. At that point we as a group took a strong and principled stand opposing NCLB (which the AFT/UFT supported) and high stakes tests in general. It took 8 years for the rest of the world to begin to catch up. To my mind Susan is the real superstar of the resistance because she has been doing it forever. And George Schmidt, her partner in crime, who was also at SOS.

So, I'm just about to start writing my magnum opus on my SOS experience when along comes this spider. Here Susan gives voice to some thoughts that kept springing into my head but I keep pushing away so as not to spoil a rousing aura of good will to all. I know, I know, one step at a time. But Susan and I are getting too old to wait much longer. Look for my mag op later or this weekend.

Sex, Lies, and SOS

Publication Date: 2011-08-04

By Susan Ohanian  

http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=958

For all the music and praise of teachers, the SOS march had a more troubling side.

We all know that Superman isn't going to rescue public schoolchildren. But let's face it: Neither is Action Hero Matt Damon. At his educator mom's request, Damon traveled from a movie set in Vancouver, British Columbia to speak out for public schools at the SOS march in Washington, D. C. on July 30. Inexplicably, most of the D. C. area teachers stayed home.

Longtime educator Gary Stager, who red-eyed from California, asked an important question : "Washington D.C. is less than a day’s drive from hundreds of thousands of teachers. Why was Matt Damon fighting for their profession while they stayed home?" A subway ride away and they couldn't make it?

Please don't say these hundreds of thousands of teachers were scared. What should scare them is the reality of their profession being systematically destroyed.

I'm naive enough to have been stunned by the low turnout at the SOS march, but I think I've figured it out. Both the NEA and the AFT made a show of donating $25,000 for necessary basics like lots of water, a medical station, and so on. But union leaders didn't come and they didn't bother to mobilize teachers to show up. A dozen or so people worked the crowd handing out souvenir fans (compliments of WTU/AFT Local No. 6 AFL-CIO) but there was no mobilization of DC teachers.

I didn't see thousands of New York City teachers either. I hung out with GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) a dissident activist group within UFT. They made the film "Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" which got a great reception Friday night before the march. I met Norm Scott, one of the GEM leaders eight years ago when we were in a group traveling to Birmingham, AL to pay tribute to the World of Opportunity (The WOO). I mention this because I also met my SOS roommate Juanita Doyon, the WA state mother who is national Button Queen, at the WOO in Birmingham. And John Lawhead, who rode his bike from New York City to the DC march. And Nancy Creech from Michigan who has had two salary cuts of $9,000 each in the last two years was also at the WOO. She told me, "Now they are after our pensions." With the price of gold up, Nancy sold jewelry to finance her trip to D. C.

I mention this WOO connection just to show the commitment of teachers and parents who showed up at SOS. It was very good to mingle with them and with new friends--a teacher who came alone from Norman, Oklahoma, a Colorado mom whose children were kicked out of charter school when she insisted on opting out of the state test (people on a very small discussion each donated $50 to get her there), two teachers from North Carolina, a Florida activist who is neither a teacher nor the parent of a school age child--but someone who knows that public schools are vital to democracy. And many many more. I now kick myself for not writing down names.

And here's a shout out to those young GEM teachers who recognized how hot this old lady got during the march itself. Where they got it I don't know, but they kept bringing me bags of chipped ice.

The march itself was short. Before that, I walked around for 4 hours at SOS, talking with earnest, hopeful, angry teachers and parents from across the country--people thinking they were going to an event that would be start of a resistance movement. They didn't realize the unions had sold them out from the get-go. They didn't realize the featured speakers had a limited agenda, speaking passionately but not moving beyond equitable funding, an end to high stakes testing, a richer curriculum.

Seems like we've heard this a few hundred times before.

Those speeches from the podium didn't clarify things, didn't even mention the deliberate and systematic plan in progress to destroy social and educational contracts made over the past decades. Teachers aren't going to be stirred to save themselves unless and until they understand why these terrible things are happening to them and the children they teach. Teachers need to understand the corporate plan progressing since the Business Roundtable first outlined it in 1988.

Why didn't anybody at the podium call out Barack Obama, whom Black Agenda Report editor Glen Ford describes as the corporate Democratic Trojan Horse? Not only is Obama setting in motion "a rolling implosion of Roosevelt's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society," he's data bombing the principles of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, John Holt. . . and every thoughtful practitioner in the country today.

If you think that's harsh, take a look at this:

U.S. President Barack Obama is singularly the most dangerous, anti-democratic president in the history of this nation. He has used his pigmentation as as a shield for corporate fascism and the emaciation of everyday, ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and around the world.
--Larry Pinkney, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board, Obama's Bait and Switch Game: Otherwise Known As B. S. Aug. 4, 2011

Maybe this is way over-the-top, but why did Obama get a pass at SOS? Ask the NEA. Ask the AFT. Ask the SOS speakers.

Maybe it's to be expected at an event underwritten by a union that has already endorsed Barack Obama for a second term that the only visible criticism of Obama at SOS was provided by someone in the crowd from LaRouche who showed up with a poster depicting the President with a Hitler mustache.

D. C. union (WTU) president Nathan Saunders welcomed the crowd to the SOS march. Last December, soon after his election, he told the Washington Post: "I've got more skills to solve problems than practically any president that's ever run WTU. I also have formalized training in problem resolution. My masters is in negotiation and management....Part of the Harvard Trade Union Program is conflict management. And so I think I have some unique skills to solve problems." He added that he absolutely does not believe in confrontation." He added that " confrontation is not the first order business."

How many teachers' careers have to be destroyed before confrontation does become the first order of business-- in DC-- and across the country?

Confrontation will be difficult. Teachers are by their nature people pleasers. We don't like to say "No." We like to cooperate. But to save the profession, teachers will have to be willing to ramp up the rhetoric a thousandfold from what they heard at the SOS. Ramp up the rhetoric and the collective action, too. Teachers must be willing to strike; they must refuse to give the tests. I'm not talking individual heroic acts here. I'm talking mass action, hundreds of thousands of teachers standing up and shouting that they're mad as hell and not going to take it any more.

More from Susan on SOS and Obama
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
A Letter to President Obama from the SOS March
Ruth Rodriguez
undelivered speech at SOS
2011-08-01
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4173

I wish Ruth Rodriguez had been able to deliver her speech at the SOS march. It would have been the one statement from the podium that laid school woes directly at the feet of President Obama.


\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Ruin-Nation: The Obama Catastrophe
Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
2011-08-03
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1025

MUST read. MUST read.


============
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

SOS Photos/Links

I keep trying to do a long piece on SOS but just can't type for that long. Maybe tomorrow.

Here is a slide show I made of the fab GEM workshop at SOS.
A GEM workshop on “Building a Grassroots Movement to Defend Public Education” to a packed room of more than 40 people at Thursday’s conference.  See the montage of the year in review we showed here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vge-rx6QXgQ




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At the GEM blog Julie Cavanagh lists her SOS Top Ten Event Highlights 
(Driving Miss Daisy in drag is not one of them)

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Michael Solo pics at Fight Back Friday blog
http://fightbackfridays.blogspot.com/

Photographs of the Rally & March

https://picasaweb.google.com/113455396360021548056/SaveOurSchoolsRallyMarchSOSJuly30thWashingtonDC?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN_orJTslIClKg&feat=directlink

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GEM photos on Shutterfly
http://sosmarchgem.shutterfly.com/4

A few highlights

Liza also hurt wrist in bike incident. Matching Fall Risk bracelets

The GEM car crew

Watching movie on bus going home - photo by Brian Jones

Some Coverage - compiled by Michael Solo at GEM's  Fight Back Friday blog:

News Coverage of the SOS Rally & March

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-march-on-washington/2011/07/30/gIQAz48zjI_story.html

http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/sosrally/index.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0730/Save-Our-Schools-March-a-teacher-revolt-against-Obama-education-reform

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-30/us/us.teachers.sos.march_1_teachers-standardized-testing-rallies?_s=PM:US

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/matt-damons-powerful-educ_b_914420.html

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/07/30/37rally_ep.h30.html?tkn=YVRFUJcg2N4yicgNzbtJMSPvdf72iF2K%2B8%2F9&cmp=clp-edweek

http://www.americanindependent.com/196416/thousands-come-out-to-teacher-rally-in-washington-protest-obama-and-decade-of-bad-policies

http://dailycensored.com/2011/08/01/teachers-as-radicals-after-sos-what-now/

http://gothamschools.org/2011/08/01/matt-damon-criticizes-eva-moskowitzs-charters-at-d-c-rally/

======
Mark Naison,  Notorious PhD, comments on an ed deformer commentary on his rap at SOS:

Here is a You Tube version of my "Achievement Rap" as performed at the Save Our Schools March in Washington

The commentary is critical and sarcastic, but I have always felt, as a writer, that bad publicity is better than no publicity and I guess I should take the same attitude toward my emerging "career" as a rapper.

Matt Damon's Warm-Up Act: Notorious PHD‏ - YouTube
	www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FXsGH_ajAM

Brian Jones on SOS March

Brian, Alev, Norm, Lisa, Julie

Here's  a great piece from my DC roomie and car mate driving down (see crew above) Brian Jones in Socialist Worker, who co-narrates our film. Brian was treated like a rock star by SOS participants who saw "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Auperman."


COLUMN: BRIAN JONES [1]
A stand to save our schools

The recent Save Our Schools conference and march drew thousands as part of a movement for real education reform and against teacher-blaming.

August 2, 2011

LAST SATURDAY, I joined thousands of educators, parents, students and activists who gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Save Our Schools (SOS) march. Coming from all parts of the country, participants were united by outrage with federal education policy and local school budget cuts.

Homemade signs spoke clearly to the growing frustration with privatization, attacks on teachers' unions, and especially to the use of high-stakes standardized tests to measure student achievement and, increasingly, teacher effectiveness. "Spend $ on kids, not te$t$!" read one sign, and another "Education > testing". My personal favorite wasn't a placard or banner, but a mock graveyard arranged near the rally site where tombstones indicated that Joy, Creativity, Cooperation and Critical Thinking, were among the deceased.

Before the protest, I spent two days in the classrooms and hallways of D.C.'s American University, rubbing elbows with hundreds of parents, students and educators--including some of the biggest names in progressive education. This was the Save Our Schools conference.

I found myself in conversation with people from Florida, Oregon, Georgia and Arizona. I saw scruffy activists in shorts and flip flops holding court with administrators in heels and pearls. We debated and discussed everything from the motives of corporate reformers (profit? ideology? both?) to the strategies we can use to fight for progressive reform and to defend public education.

The legendary educator Debbie Meier had to step over me to get into a jam-packed workshop, where the author Jonathan Kozol was among those looking for a place to sit ("What do you mean there aren't enough seats?" he quipped). We listened to the leading lights of Rethinking Schools magazine, from Wisconsin, New York, and New Jersey. Bob Peterson, newly elected president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, quoted the late historian Howard Zinn: "Teachers can't just be teacher-unionists, but need to be teachers of unionism."

On the first morning, Kozol had opened the conference with a blistering assessment of the growing racial and economic segregation of the nation's schools. The pressure to demonstrate "progress" on high-stakes standardized tests has instituted a "reign of terror" in urban schools, Kozol said, making the savage inequalities he wrote about decades ago, even more savage:

In too many of the urban schools I visit--and principals will tell me this with despair--two-thirds of the school year is consumed by preparation for exams. As a result, culture is starved. In the elementary grades, music and art and history and geography and science and exploratory subjects and projects, which bring exhilaration and excitement to a child are exiled from the course of study, or are included only in the most truncated forms.

Of George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation (which Obama has pursued and expanded) Kozol said, plainly, "We're not here to ask Congress to make a few minor changes. We are to say that you cannot fix this awful law, it needs to be abolished!"

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

I TRAVELED to D.C. from New York City with a group of educators and parents from the Grassroots Education Movement. Our workshop (on building a grassroots movement to defend public education) was well-attended, and our film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, received a standing ovation at a Friday night screening.

The closing plenary featured a group of student activists from New Orleans. This spirited group of activists ranged from high school down to elementary grades. They call themselves "Rethink."

They learned how to organize around issues that directly affect them--from the quality of school food to high-stakes tests, to the school-to-prison pipeline. "They try to fix little things in the school to get us to shut up," one of them observed.

Another student, a poet, mused, "Oh my god, it's a Black youth from New Orleans! We are smart, fun, powerful, open-minded..." and concluded, "I am truth. I am justice. I am forgiveness. But why can't it be: we are?"

During the question-and-answer period, an adult asked, "What can we do to help you?" One of the youngest members answered: "Don't try to force youth to do things. Listen to us. Guide us, but let us lead our own struggle."

One of the most interesting developments of the weekend occurred outside of the conference, however. On Wednesday, three members of the SOS March Executive Committee staged a symbolic protest at the Department of Education. To their surprise, a DOE staffer invited them inside. They met with various officials for about an hour, including approximately 15 minutes with Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

Duncan allegedly insisted that he had a lot of "common ground" with the march organizers--an assertion they repeatedly denied, arguing instead that his policies were punitive and damaging to the process of genuine education.

The next day, the organizers received a phone call from the White House--an invitation to meet, on Friday, with President Obama himself. For three hours Thursday night, the committee debated what to do. I was told by one of the participants that the committee reflected on the way that President John F. Kennedy succeeded in blunting the militancy of the famous 1963 March on Washington, and were keen to avoid being similarly co-opted. With the debate raging, someone pulled up Arne Dunan's Facebook page and noticed that he had already posted a note about his meeting with the SOS organizers. The posting allegedly emphasized their "common ground" (and has apparently since been taken down).

Sensing that a meeting with Obama could be misused in the same way, they decided to decline the invitation. They released the following statement:

We sincerely appreciate the interest of the White House in the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action. We'd be pleased to host any White House or Department of Education personnel on the Ellipse on Saturday so they can hear firsthand what teachers, students, parents and community members from around the country have to say about public education. Thousands of concerned citizens will be sharing their experiences and their thoughts on the future of our schools. July 30th is your opportunity to listen to us. After the march, we will be open to meeting with White House or Department of Education leaders to further discuss our specific proposals.

This was an act of remarkable political courage. Progressives face tremendous pressure to play ball with the Democratic Party come hell or high water. Maintaining this loyalty, they are told, is the only way to stay "relevant" or "in the conversation." But this simple act of refusal sent a more powerful message than any that they could have possibly delivered in person. Here, a large group of fairly mainstream educators (including some well-known and respected public figures) decided that their arguments would be more effectively delivered in the streets than in the Oval Office.

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

ON SATURDAY, we gathered just a stone's throw from the White House to do just that. From the front, speakers included education historian (and former United States assistant secretary of education) Diane Ravitch. "I'm a historian," she began, "there has never been a spontaneous national grassroots movement of parents, teachers, and students to save our schools!"

Ravitch blasted President Obama and Secretary Duncan for pursuing a business oriented approach to reform. "Carrots and sticks are for donkeys," she told the crowd, "not professionals."

Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University, was a key figure in Obama's transition team back in 2008, and many thought she was a shoe-in for secretary of education. When Arne Duncan got tapped instead, it was an ominous sign. Duncan has never been an educator, but that didn't stop him from leading the charge for corporate "reform" when he oversaw the Chicago Public Schools, to disastrous results. So there we were, in the shadow of the White House, and I saw Darling-Hammond approach the microphone.

In the age of budget cuts and austerity, she spoke to the shameful priorities of the government: "We won't spend $10,000 a year to educate children, but when they grow up we'll spend $40,000 to keep them in prison," she said.

And to the poisonous atmosphere of teacher-bashing that prevails, conveniently absolving political leaders of any real accountability, she said, "If the banks are failing, they think we should fire the tellers--and whatever you do, don't look for the man behind the curtain."

Comedian Jon Stewart's pre-recorded video message elicited a few chuckles, but the speech that moved many to tears was given by the actor Matt Damon.

He wasted no time getting right to the point--the obsession with testing and "data" is killing real education:

I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself--my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity--all come from how I was parented and taught.

And none of these qualities that I've just mentioned--none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success--none of these qualities that make me who I am...can be tested.

But the part of the speech that hit many of us in the gut was the ending. He spoke to our collective sense of pain and frustration, and offered sincere solidarity, and the hope that broader forces might be rallied to our struggle:

This has been a horrible decade for teachers. I can't imagine how demoralized you must feel. But I came here today to deliver an important message to you: As I get older, I appreciate more and more the teachers that I had growing up. And I'm not alone. There are millions of people just like me.

So the next time you're feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called "overpaid;" the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that's been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything...Please know that there are millions of us behind you. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you, and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you and we will always have your back.

I'm sure the SOS organizers have their own assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the conference and the march. I wasn't able to stay for the congress on Sunday, but I look forward to hearing more about the ideas it was to generate about where we go from here.

From my perspective, I would have liked to see more workshops run by K-12 teachers. I would have like to have seen some of the teachers I met speaking from the stage on Saturday. Clearly, there needs to be more of a conscious effort to bring the younger echelons of our ranks on board, and to make special outreach to parents of color. But overall, I was impressed with what they were able to pull off with so few resources. For their vision and hard work, they deserve our praise and sincere thanks.

For their political courage in declining Obama's invitation, they deserve our support and solidarity. The SOS march has laid down an historic marker, and perhaps even the seeds of something we have desperately needed, but haven't seen in this country in over a generation--a large, national grassroots political movement that is truly independent of the Democratic Party.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Columnist: Brian Jones
Brian Jones is a teacher, actor and activist in New York City. He is featured in the new film The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman [2], and his commentary and writing has appeared onMSNBC.com [3], the Huffington Post [4], GritTV [5] and theInternational Socialist Review [6]. Jones has also lent his voice to several audiobooks, including Howard Zinn's one-man play Marx in Soho [7], Wallace Shawn's Essays [8] and Noam Chomsky's Hopes and Prospects[9].

http://www.www.socialistworker.org/2011/08/02/a-stand-to-save-our-schools

The Real Score of High-Stakes Testing: "Kids Set to Firebomb Teachers in Tennessee"

Nothing better illustrates the impact of the red-scare McCarthy-like attacks going on against teachers than this piece from Tennessee where 50% of teacher evals will be based on test scores - and students are already planning their revenge on certain teachers they don't care for.

Note though the growing counterattacks by the good guys and gals.

Lawrence O'Donnell's passionate & reasoned defense of teachers (& even mentions class size!) on last night’s The Last Word :

 http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/02/7235006-rewriting-the-attack-on-teachers 

Anderson Cooper explains why anyone who messes with Matt Damon has earned a spot on AC360's RidicuList

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/02/the-ridiculist-matt-damon/?hpt=ac_mid

Before you dive in, check out this great piece about our guy on the PEP - with a semi-coherent quote by me.  Patrick Sullivan in the News - With a quote by some guy named Norm
The Anti-Chancellor: Scott Stringer’s education-board appointee objects to Dennis Walcott, again and again

====================

	The Real Score of High-Stakes Testing: Damaged Students and Cheating Professionals
		~~BREAKING NEWS ~~ "Kids Set to Firebomb Teachers in Tennessee" Excerpt from NAREN's July  survey of educators on high-stakes testing.  See full 27 page report at: http://www.naren.info/news/index.html "Obviously no one understands high school kids and how they think. Next year Tennessee will base 50% of its evaluation, merit pay, promotion and retention on these state tests. A teacher found out from his son who is in a local high school that the kids have already circulated a list of teachers who they will be "fire bombing" by deliberately messing up their tests in hopes of getting the teachers fired. The kids have found out it doesn't effect their grades so they have formed these "Fire Bomb Lists" to deliberately screw up the tests with the wrong answers to get the teachers fired. Any teacher who puts a lot of pressure on them will go on the list, no doubt. My guess is you are going to have a LOT of sweet-talking teachers this year!" --Tennessee HS Teacher NAREN Central Office has released a startling and revealing report after administering a survey to a sampling of American teachers and administrators in early July of this year. Initiated by a bonfire of a story out of Atlanta where 178 educators in an organized "ring" were caught changing high-stakes testing scores. Similar stories out of Houston, Baltimore, and other cities began to surface. Newer allegations came forth regarding investigations of cheating by teachers in schools connected to the Race to the Top, high-stakes testing, merit-pay, and paying teachers based on test scores — even a SINGLE test score! Backed by and urged on by Arne Duncan, secretary of Education, and some larger figures in the news such as Bill Gates, Michele Rhee and big testing corporations birthed a movie titled Waiting for Superman, which basically said US schools were going to hell, and the call was for more pressure on teachers to perform. A reactionary film, Race to Nowhere, surfaced last year claiming that kids were under too much pressure as is. Then the cheating scandals illustrating the pressure on teachers finally encouraged our survey. This 27-page report includes quotes from over 30 educators about the problems being caused by overemphasizing testing as a panacea for what ails our schools. The report shows clearly the opposite, i.e., the cure is worse than the disease. This report by Anthony S. Dallmann-Jones, PhD, NAREN Director, is available here. Names of teachers and administrators have been deleted to respect requests for anonymity. It will be apparent why this is needed.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

August 15th: High-stakes testing GEM committee builds for the school year

Subj: August 15th: High-stakes testing GEM committee builds for the school year

After an inspiring Saturday at the Save Our Schools march in which the hypocrisy and disturbing effects of high-stakes testing were front and center, it is as clear as ever that we must do something here in New York to reverse the trend of continuing to raise the stakes on standardized tests. Check out a video of Matt Damon's speech that crystallizes the damage created by the new climate of high-stakes testing and even alludes to the possibility of building a boycott.

At the first meeting of GEM's high-stakes testing committee we began the process of democratically building a campaign to expose these tests for what they are: unreliable, racist, resource-draining tools of the corporate reformers that undermine good teaching and learning and are then used as justification for closing schools, holding students back and firing teachers. Something must be done, and one lesson learned from the march is that there is a critical mass forming across the country of groups who are trying to do something to expose high-stakes testing for what it is. In New York the work that we do can be a model for the rest of the country, and for that reason and many more you should join us and become a part of building this campaign.

This next meeting will include a focused strategic planning session where we will be finalizing our goals and developing a calendar for how to build during the coming school year. We will then breakout into various action-groups focused on a range of next-steps including literature creation, building a boycott, community engagement and envisioning alternatives to our current test-based education models.

We hope you will join us.

GEM High-Stakes Testing Committee Meeting

Monday, August 15, 5pm

CUNY Graduate Center Room 5414

5th Ave and 34th St.

1/2/3 [to 34th St.-Penn Sta. (at 7th Av.)] B/D/F/M/N/Q/R to 34th

St.[-Herald Sq. (at 6th Av.); PATH to 33rd St. (at 6th); #6 to 33 St.

(at Park); M34 bus or M16 bus both via 34th St.; avenue buses.]

Sincerely,
The Grassroots Education Movement

Hillary Lustick comments on high stakes tests and the work of the GEM HST committee in the community section at Gotham Schools.

What’s At Stake With High-Stakes Testing

by Hilary Lustick
 

I know “summer” should be synonymous with things like “lying in an inner tube on a lazy river,” and I’m getting get my fair share of that. But there is just too much going on in education politics for me to close my eyes for longer than a few seconds — and too much going on in the world of teacher activism to want to.

Despite budget cuts, New York is valiantly scrounging together the money to pay for additional testing — now in the arts. I won’t bother asking whether these tests or anyone can actually assess the effects of art education on young people. I won’t even argue against tests themselves: Assessment is a precious way for a teacher to gauge what her students have learned and what she needs to teach differently.

But when we make these tests “high-stakes” for teachers — i.e., tell them that their careers depend on test scores — we give more power to a piece of paper than to the power of the human social and academic intellect. When school becomes a matter of overcoming a hurdle, a student’s learning needs become impediments to be resented, quashed, and expelled. Teachers, who among us has entered the field of education in order to expose the success of gifted students and sweep under the rug students with emotional, physical, and language needs?  Whoever you are, congratulations to you — you’re going to have a very successful career in the era of high-stakes testing.

In response to the mushrooming consequences attached to test results, the Grassroots Education Movement is in the early stages of putting together a new campaign, tentatively titled the “Change the Stakes” Campaign. (Join by signing on to GEM’s mailing list.) We’re not arguing against testing — we as educators know that assessment fits into a conscientious teacher’s curriculum. We are against high-stakes testing. We are against using unproven tests to determine the fate of students and teachers, telling students they have failed and, implicitly, that they shouldn’t try again. The tests we use are rarely developed by teachers, and definitely not by the teachers who actually know our students. As professional pedagogues, we can’t stand by that policy when there are better approaches out there.

If you think there is no model for alternatives to testing, come visit my school around the end of the term. You’ll see parents and students engaged in what we call Student-Led Conferences — highly-formalized presentations in which students share what they have learned in each of their courses and how it enabled them to produce their most quality work. Some schools have become so proficient in their versions of Student-Led Conferences that they are considered performance-based assessment schools, and in recognition the state even exempts students at some city high schools from most Regents exams. The designation, and the exemption, means these schools are trusted to assess their students on academic performance directly related to what they learned— rather than their ability to fill in the right bubble. Shouldn’t we be moving all schools toward quality student performance rather than high scores on tests not developed by educators?

SOS Report and GEM In Action - 2010-11

UPDATED WITH NEW MATT DAMON VIDEO: Thurs. Aug. 4

See Julie's great report on SOS with video links at the GEM blog

SOS March
http://gemnyc.org/2011/08/02/sos-march/

AUGUST 2, 2011 BY GEMNYC
The SOS March in DC was an inspiring event.            
See pictures here:  http://sosmarchgem.shutterfly.com/4

GEMers did a fabulous workshop. Here are 2 video montages of the year's events we showed:


http://youtu.be/4UBisAVLilk



http://youtu.be/Vge-rx6QXgQ


Here is Matt Damon getting heated with a corporate deformer/reporter question as filmed by Gotham's Geoffrey Decker. Really must-see video since the libertarian reporter didn't put up all the footage that shows her to be a fool - esp when she claims to be just as educated ad Damon's mom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WIv7Xk8BjA

Atlanta and Philly Cheating Scandals Would Pale in Comparison to NYC...

UPDATE: WEDS AUG. 3 - 9AM - SEE BELOW THE FOLD FOR DAILY NEWS ARTICLE POINTING TO INTENTIONAL REMOVAL OF CHEATING CONTROLS BY TWEED.  OR CLICK HERE.

 ...but don't expect there to be any where near the investigation needed. Here are a few excerpts from today's NY Times piece:  Review Aims to Avert Cheating on State Tests

 Before Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg won control of the schools, the city did conduct erasure analyses, but they were stopped by the Board of Education because of concerns about cost and effectiveness, city officials said. ---Sharon Otterman, NY Times

That about sums it up. Bloomberg was "worried" about "cost-effectiveness" when it came to monitor cheating. How far did Sharon have her tongue planted in her cheek when she wrote that?

New York does not conduct statistical analyses of its high-stakes third- through eighth-grade tests to scour for suspicious results that could signal cheating, like unusual spikes in a school’s scores or predictable erasures on multiple-choice questions, officials said. 

Another knee-slapper.

While New York City conducts investigations when questions about results are raised at a particular school, the city’s Education Department does not look systemwide for suspicious patterns on the tests. Those tests are the primary way the city judges the performance of elementary and middle schools on its annual school report cards.

I can tell you about schools where teachers were ordered to put up large sheets with the answers in front of the room. Guess who would get in trouble, the principal or the teachers?

What would it take to really expose cheating in NYC?

Read Mike Winerip's ripping piece in Monday's NYTimes on what it took in Atlanta.
In Pennsylvania, Suspicious Erasing on State Exams at 89 Schools

By MICHAEL WINERIP

A large data file contains evidence that suggests cheating on state exams at 89 Pennsylvania schools.

For places that are serious about exposing cheating, there is a new gold standard: Atlanta. In the bad old days, Atlanta school officials repeatedly investigated themselves and found they had done nothing wrong. Then, last August, the governor decided that, once and for all, he was going to get to the bottom of things, and appointed two former prosecutors to oversee an inquiry.

Sixty of Georgia’s finest criminal investigators spent 10 months on it, and in the end turned up a major cheating scandal involving 178 teachers and principals — 82 of whom confessed — at 44 Atlanta schools, nearly half the district. 

Once the questionable schools have been pinpointed, the serious work begins. In Atlanta, the investigators chosen to conduct the cheating inquiry were given the necessary legal tools (subpoena power) and generous resources (over 100 people were involved). Then they went out and worked the schools like police detectives, flipping one cheating teacher, who in turn would identify others.

Where there's no will there's no way. And no matter what Meryl Tisch or John King say, there's no will on the part of the State Ed Dept  to do what Atlanta did because they are complicit up to their eyeballs.

But the NY Times has resources to at least do what the tiny Notebook in Philly did. Does the Times have the will?

More links: The state is reviewing test security measures. (GothamSchools, Daily News, Times, Post, WSJ)

AND HERE IS A LATE ENTRY FROM THE DAILY NEWS PROVING THE POINT THAT BLOOMBERG INTENTIONALY REMOVED CHEATING CONTROLS. BELOW THE FOLD:

GEM/E4E Debate Seniority in Costco Mag: I Go Manno o Womano With Sydney

Updated: Tues, Aug. 2, 11:30AM

Eight million copies in print and the link to our movie in print. They wanted 400 words max. As you know I can spit out 400 words in one sentence so I didn't get everything in I wanted too. But the Costco people were dolls to work with - I felt they were sympathetic to our side - and I rewarded them by spending $350 Monday on what seems like nothing. But do we love that store - I ate my way through the shopping experience today but my wife claims Costco calories don't count. And let me add that Costco is the anti-Walmart as they treat their workers really well. I never had contact with what seems like a happier work force than at my local store. Unionized too I believe.

Their only mistake? Labeling Sydney who taught for 2 or 3 years before taking Gates and DFER money and running into political chicanery an "expert in the field." Note how she calls for laying off ATRs -

And how about that sick pic of me - yeah, my wife took it.

http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201108#pg19

An Open Letter from

Kelley Wolcott

BCS Chapter Leader

8th Grade English Teacher

Why I Am Attending the People's General Assembly on August 2nd at the Charging Bull

I just wanted to let you know about an important event that will be happening this Tuesday, August 2nd at the Charging Bull statue in Bowling Green Park to object to the national debate on the debt ceiling. On Tuesday, August 2nd at 4:30 pm, we will be gathering the the Charging Bull statue to voice opposition to the continuing trend of budget cutting to the public sector. 

As I'm sure you already know, Congress and the White House have been in a heated battle as to whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. Republicans are using the threat of not raising it, which would result in the defaulting of the U.S. economy, to push for even more unnecessary budget cuts that would ultimately trickle down to us on the state and city level throughout the year. It's hard to imagine what that would look like considering that our schools have already taken massive financial hits on the local level. Many of us do not have a concrete idea of what these cuts will look like on the ground level in the fall, but I do know how my school will be impacted in a very real sense. The school that I teach in had $500,000 slashed from our school budget, which means that we have lost funding for the following:

   - Money for supplies like paper or toner

   - Sub funds, meaning more coverages 

   - Money for per diem Academic Intervention Support, to help at risk and academically struggling students

   - Money for our Expeditionary Learning PD contract.

   - Per session for anything other than the PSAL (sports) will provide

   - Funding to hire all necessary staff, we are currently understaffed for Special Ed, ESL, and administrative secretarial needs

   - Loss of Title I funding

   - Loss of Teacher's Choice money (used by teachers to cover out-of-pocket classroom expenses)

This so-called budget deal is a perfect example of a how political parties, unions, and elected representatives continue to give up concessions while claiming to "save" the few rights and benefits that we have left, and to protect what little we have. Meanwhile, those with lobbying power and money can continue to increase their record profits at the expense of the middle class. Giving up our rights and benefits one piece at a time, rather than fighting for what the public deserves in a healthy democracy and world power, is a downward spiral and a huge mistake. 

Even though the mayor, the city council, and the UFT want to applaud themselves for allegedly saving classroom teaching positions by averting layoffs, they have not in fact saved jobs in any real sense that helps understaffed schools. Since the city has been on hiring freeze for the past 3 years we have lost approximately 10,000 teaching positions system-wide through attrition. This loss of teachers has lead to a steady and consistent rise in class size in public schools. Additionally, their budget deal has left individual schools with devastating cuts that could result in the elimination of even more classroom positions through "excessing" in addition to the loss of classroom resources. 

Regardless of the city's claim that budget cuts are a necessary "sacrifice," what is becoming more and more clear is that they are crying wolf. When they claim to not have money for schools, they did have plenty of money for:

   - a $27 million no-bid contract to News Corporation subsidiary Wireless Generation, for educational and testing software

   - $54.9 million and $23.7 million to implement a new and severely flawed computer system called SESIS, which the Education Department outsourced to a Virginia-based corporation called MAXIMUS  

   - a $80 million deal with CTB-McGraw Hill to create interim tests

   - a $32.1 million contract for Pearson, an educational corporation with a spotty track record, to devise the math and English language arts exams     

   - a $2 million dollar contribution to the UFT for their charter school to be relocated

Our tax dollars should be used for our right to prosper socially in well financed, healthy communities with open libraries, fire houses, and schools. Our tax dollars should to be used to help people prosper physically through social security, health care, and housing. Our tax dollars should be used for our right to prosper educationally by guaranteeing that every school, teacher, and student is able to provide the highest quality education and are given the appropriate resources and support to do so. Our tax dollars should be used for the right for teachers to actually teach through the development and implementation of culturally relavant, engaging, and innovative curricula that meet the needs of students and communities, rather than high stakes standardized tests that reduces children, schools, and teachers into data rather than educators and learners. 

Our elected representatives NEED to STOP to giving our tax dollars to those who need it the least such as corporations, banks, and wealthy individuals; and to return it to taxpaying communities. And WE need to hold our representatives accountable. In order for that to happen, we are going to have to fight for what is rightfully ours. 

I hope that you will be able to join me on August 2nd to fight back and send a strong message. It will be the beginning of a year long campaign to demand that government start doing it's job and to return to spending our tax dollars in our communities by:

   - fighting for fair budgets that support schools and the public sector 

   - ending Bush Era tax cuts 

   - closing corporate loop holes  

   - restoring the Millionaire's tax in New York state 

For more information and to RSVP visit our Facebook Event Page at August 2nd General Assembly - Stop the Bull, Make Wall St. Pay! 

In the event you can't make it, the greatest way you can help is by spreading the word! Forward this endlessly via email, Facebook, Twitter, phone calls, or smoke signals. Thanks for taking the time to read this diatribe and I hope to see you all on Tuesday!

 

In solidarity,

Kelley Wolcott

BCS Chapter Leader

8th Grade English Teacher

SOS Report: Back Home

Previous coverage:

• SOS Update Friday 3:25
• SOS update - Leaders Turn Down White House
• SOS notes - Kozol Keynote

Left DC around 1:30 Sunday, got home at 9pm (loads of traffic and drop-offs in Manhattan and Brooklyn.) Amazing and heroic driving by Julie Cavanagh even though using no hands while turning around to the back seat is a pretty unique method of freeing me from driving. Hey, I could have driven using my left arm. My CRV came through - except for dead battery Sunday morning. More on that in future post.

So many stories, so little ability to type. If I could type with 2 hands this update would run forever. Luckily you will be spared. I'll have to put up a few of these as long as I can remember. I'll say one thing about the GEM crew I went with: I was back in camp as a 10-year old. I laughed so hard at times my broken wrist took on a life of its own. What fun to see a group that can stand up and argue policy with the best of them also get real silly. But I'll embarass them all another time - maybe with pics - if I don't get bribes.

The showing of our film to this audience was an important event and got a really great response. Julie and Brian were treated like rock starts. Both Susan Ohanian and Debbie Meier were in attendance. But more on the film, which was shown in multiple cities over the weekend in a follow-up post.

There are lots of analyses out there as to what really happened over the past 4 days around the Save Our Schools conference and march. It is hard not to mix the political with the personal. There was minimal union involvement - intentionally, though the NEA and AFT gave $25 Gs each. So much of this bubbled up from the classroom. I really liked the people running SOS. The entire 4 days were rich in content to such an extent that the march itself was only one factor.

Estimates run from 5-8000 mostly teachers (k-grad school), parents, policy people, some administrators, and superstars like Ravitch, Kozol, Meier, Matt Damon, etc. Kozol and Meier did not just give speeches but hung around for all 4 days of the conference to mingle and build for the future - when we left  around 1pm yesterday Kozol and Meier were still there.

A few of the Gemers who took good care of me in DC: Left: Jones, Dervish Right: Donlan, Cavanagh

To me the entire trip - and why I wanted to go so badly - is/was about building relationships locally (our GEM crew bonded and our work will be better for it) and nationally. How great to see Susan Ohanian and Juanita Doyan again after 8 years - when we gathered in Birmingham AL to oppose NCLB. How nice to see the rest of the world catching up. We distributed buttons made by Juanita all over the place.

See this "We're not gonna take it" montage on you tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EumSu0t6Ec&feature=share) where you can see a glimpse of the GEM banner and Julie wearing her Diane Ravitch tee-shirt.

It was such an era of good feeling I went over to Leo Casey at the Friday night reception and said "Let's make up" and shook his hand. (I mean I hugged Joel Klein.) Leo was gracious. Leo and my close pal (and chauffeur) Julie Cavanagh have an excellent relationship so does it make sense for me to be so hostile? Maybe it reflects a shift in my attitude about the UFT/AFT in the context of my work with GEM where our position vis a vis the union is: we are doing what we are doing because the UFT doesn't but if they want to come along they are welcome. It's more complex than that, but some of my colleagues have been critical of me when I just let it fly without any analysis or reasoning behind it. So despite my outreach, don't expect any lessening in my criticism of the UFT, just less personal attacks. Won't be as much fun though. (A shout-out to Michael Mendel, who called my wife this weekend to see how I was doing. What a love-fest this is turning out to be.)

There's so much to report maybe it's best to return to some chronology from where I left off Friday, which I'll do in upcoming posts where I'll fill you in on who we hung with and more about the turn-down from the White House meeting on Friday.

In the meantime:

How nice to see The Reflective Educator, James Boutin (thanks for the shout out to GEMers, James), again.We talked about working together in the future no matter where he is located.

Here are links to his excellent reports:

SOS Conference Day One

SOS Conference Day Two

SOS March in DC

Matt Damon:

http://youtu.be/HqOub-heGQc


Stories in WAPO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-march-on-washington/2011/07/30/gIQAz48zjI_story.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend

More on this Story

• Teachers take ‘Save Our Schools’ plea to D.C.
• Answer Sheet: What was new about the rally
• Matt Damon’s clear-headed speech to teachers
• March leaders answer White House invitation

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