Don't Back Down From Protesting "Won't Back Down" Movie

If you haven't noticed this yet, tonight there is a gala billed as "Teachers Rock" to support the parent trigger movie "Won't Back Down." It will be broadcast on CBS on Aug. 18. (Don't tell me CBS is trying to out "education nation" NBC.) There is so much material coming in I can't include it all. So look at this as a data dump of web sites and some commentary (sorry for some redundancy). If you have more leave the link in the comment section and I'll update this post.

Leonie put up a superb FAQ re the movie “Won’t Back Down” and the Parent Trigger

Here are some more key ref's on Won't Back Down and its corporate backing:

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13643/walmart_

anschutz_teachers_rock_wont_back_down_union_parent_trigger_viola_da/

http://https://www.facebook.

com/pages/Boycott-of-Movie-Wont-Back-Down/270090189772778

Ravitch's twitter campaign:

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/07/tell-wont-back-down-to-back-off/

Parent trigger laws are designed to allow parents at a school to vote to close it and reopen it as a charter. In reality the parents end up with less rights than they started with given that a public school is subject to more pressure than a charter. Go ask the people behind parent trigger laws if they will allow the parents to elect the charter board.

The charter chains are behind these moves and pour money into getting signatures through hook or crook and then drive the engine the rest of the way. Even when parents realize they have been fooled they are not allowed to withdraw their names one court ruled. An attempt to push through a parent trigger law failed recently in Florida. (Sorry I don't have time to include all the links).

This movie is a fictionalized version of PT laws in that a majority of the teachers also have to vote, which on the surface seems like a pro-teacher point of view which is what the movie is pushing. Of course they are voting to turn themselves into non-unionized teachers, I guess something a corps of Teach for America might do. (By the way, the concert tonight will raise funds for TFA amongst other orgs.)

Jose Vilson tackles the point about the so-called teacher voice in the movie:

Parent Trigger And Why We Need To Talk [Let's Be A Solution]

A call has been issued to parents and teachers here in NYC to hold protest event at the September 28 premiere of "Won't Back Down" similar to what was done at the premiere of "Waiting for Superman" two years ago. GEM, ICE, MORE, Change the Stakes and others have been notified and a committee to Stand Up to Won't Back Down (can we call it SUWD?) hopefully will be formed by the end of the month. Some of us envision rolling out those red Real Reform capes.
This caused some comment:

We can’t attack frustrated working class parents, nor teachers who want to fight for change. It would seem to me that we have to say that
1)      We need to fight for all students,
2)      Teachers, and their unions, are not the enemies,
3)      The system is at fault; it can’t and won’t educate all working class students.
4)      The same folks financing the movie are the same capitalists who’ve created the problem.

It’s a fine line, but….

It is a fine line, more than Waiting for Superman. But the backers of the film pretty much cinch the case for holding a protest. We'll see if something gets off the ground. I do admit that after fighting the old line pre-Bloomberg bureaucracy, the political ed machines and the UFT/Unity gang since 1970 sometimes movies like this or elements of the charter movement do appeal to me and taking a stand against them is a fine line. When the people running the unions are if not enemies, obstructions, exactly what approach do you take? We had the same problem in our movie -- while we defended teacher unions we also tried to make a point that they were not doing enough to defend public education though we didn't go into details. (We need a movie just to deal with that.)

Diane Ravitch posts today:

About that “Teachers Rock” Concert

A reader asks a reasonable question about the concert in Los Angeles tonight celebrating a film that disparages teachers, public schools, and unions:

Here's another thought.  You could also contact the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the American Federation of Musicians to express your opinion about this situation.  It does seem a little odd that professionals in these unions would take part in a production that is sponsored and promoted by private parties intent on disparaging professionals in a different union.  Just saying.

George Schmidt has a good take on "Won't Back Down."

Won't back down...' is latest Hollywood addition to the 'Waiting for Superman' propaganda trail. Teacher bashing. Union busting. Privatization agenda again on display thanks to Hollywood moguls and brain-dead stars

George N. Schmidt - August 10, 2012
Recently, the preliminary propaganda for the upcoming Hollywood movie "Won't Back Down" has caught the eye of many of us and sadly misled some of us (including this reporter). A closer look at the pre-release propaganda for the movie and the agendas of the movie's creators and promoters gives everyone an idea of what we're facing. And what we will be facing is that latest iteration of the "Waiting for Superman" genre of pro-charter school attacks on public school teachers, unions, and the public schools themselves.

Union members across the country are beginning to ask why union actors and actresses like Maggie Gyllenhaal (above) are working like dogs to produce union-busting and teacher bashing propaganda like "Won't Back Down" for the right wing propagandists who have begun a new generation of anti-public school media work since "Waiting for Superman" two years agoThe best comprehensive analysis of what is looming came to us through Oakland and friends there. This was an email from Sharon Higgins (sharonrhiggins@yahoo.com) that arrived at Substance on August 9, 2012.

“Won’t Back Down” (WBD) is pure, unadulterated propaganda which was designed to stimulate intense emotional support for The Parent Trigger. WBD was produced by Walden Media, as was “Waiting for Superman,” its documentary predecessor. It is strongly believed that one major reason "Waiting for Superman" failed to even get nominated for an Oscar because the director had staged scenes.

Walden Media is owned by Philip Anschutz, an extremely conservative Colorado billionaire and major donor to right-wing causes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Anschutz
The Parent Trigger was originally conceived by a phony grassroots organization birthed from a charter chain in Southern California (Green Dot Public Schools). More about that here:

http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/2010/02/connections-between-eli-broad-parent.html
Union teachers and other union activists are expected to picket and protest at the opening of the latest union-busting Hollywood propaganda film, "Won't Back Down" when the film opens in September. Like the 2010 movie "Waiting for Superman," "Won't Back Down" is a slick propaganda piece promoting charter schools and bashing real public schools, real public school teachers, and teacher unions.Then the idea was picked up by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) who then wrote model legislation for The Parent Trigger Act. The text was adopted by the Education Task Force at ALEC’s 2010 States & Nation Policy Summit in December 2010, then approved by the ALEC Board of Directors in January 2011.”

ALEC had the document posted on their website for a while, but then removed it at some point. The cached document can still be seen here: http://www.webcitation.org/5yGOUW6Ll

Scrubbing that document and revising parts of their website came about with the growing awareness of ALEC – and the accompanying outrage – which occurred in late 2011 and earlier this year, much of which resulted from the work of this group:
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

The corporate ed reformers who are pushing privatization are subjecting American citizens to a propaganda campaign to advance their agenda. Michelle Rhee is a big part of it, and that is why her organization, StudentsFirst, has collaborated with many of the Tea Party-type governors who are intent on crippling what remains of public education.

“Won’t Back Down” has now become a part of the long and extensive history of propaganda film making. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_film

The hype for WBD started to get underway last week in NYC w/a promotional screening, and it will be non-stop for the next few months. It has also been timed to coincide with other efforts.

Parents Across America has also done a critique of it: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2012/06/parents-give-wont-back-down-movie-trailer-a-thumbs-down/?utm_source=8-9-12&utm_campaign=8-9-12&utm_medium=email

More
 Diane Ravitch here.

Some satire at http://studentslast.blogspot.com/:

Stoning Teachers Raises Some Eyebrows - with Updates

More from Chicago:

Chicago Parents Urge Streep Avoid Parent Trigger Movie Event

As one Chicago parents group's blog (Parents United for Responsible Education: Building powerful public school parents and communities) notes, the education deform / privatization forces are in full propaganda war mode as they push the pro-parent trigger movie, "Won't Back Down." Parents United for Responsible Education publicized the letter it sent to acclaimed actress Meryl Streep, asking her to avoid a promo "Teachers Rock" subterfuge event for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) promoted film.


Blogger New York City Eye asks other progressive pro-student, pro-parent, pro-teachers to likewise petition Streep and other Hollywood media heavies to distance themselves from or renounce the mean undertoned "Won't Back Down."

Immediately after this letter I have posted contact information for personalities connected to the "Won't Back Down" film.

PURE's letter's text appears below:

Dear Meryl

August 10th, 2012

Ms. Meryl Streep

c/o Leslee Dart

Dart Group

sent by facsimile

212 277 7550



If you really appreciate teachers, please pull out of

phony “Teachers Rock” event promoting

the themes of the “Won’t Back Down” movie:

public school privatization and wholesale teacher firing



Dear Ms Streep:

I am writing to ask you to reconsider your participation in the “Teachers Rock” event next week. As parents, we are concerned that this event is part of a larger propaganda campaign to force privatization on public schools. The movie, “Won’t Back Down,” is just the latest and most intensive move in this effort.

While we have been unable to view the entire movie, we have seen the trailer and read promotional stories that are already being published. We also know that the producer, Walden Media and Philip Anschutz, were behind the “Waiting for Superman” documentary whose one-sided and often misleading content created a great deal of controversy among those of us who strongly support our nation’s teachers. Even Roger Ebert eventually rethought his positive “Superman” review.

“Won’t Back Down” is poised to be equally if not more controversial because it claims to be “based on real events” about the “parent trigger law” which allows parents to sign petitions to close their school and turn it into a charter school.

As an active and informed parent, I know that parent empowerment is not the real agenda behind this so-called parent trigger law. It was in fact written by the head of a charter management company which initiated the first parent trigger campaign. The law was taken up by ALEC and has been pushed in a number of other states with generous financial backing of the Walton Foundation (which is sponsoring “Teacher Rocks”) and other corporate school reform funders.

Our small Chicago organization and a larger network with which we are affiliated, Parents Across America, are working to get out the truth about “Won’t Back Down.” We can’t afford to put on a big show or produce a Hollywood movie to make our voices heard, but we do hope you will listen to us. You can find more information about this issue on our web sites, www.pureparents,org and www.parentsacrtossamerica.org.

Thank you so much for your attention.

Best wishes,

Julie Woestehoff

Executive Director

PURE's previous post:

Time to tweet some stars about the Won’t Back Down movie

August 10th, 2012
The propaganda campaign for the parent trigger law created by charter school operators and promoted by ALEC is in full swing.

The big kick-off event is a concert called “Teachers Rock.” Like the “parent tricker” itself, this concert pretends to honor teachers while promoting a movie, “Won’t Back Down,” that is designed to get a lot of them fired and replaced by Teach for America newbies.

The concert will take place this Tuesday, Aug, 14th, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. CBS will air a one-hour special using footage from the concert and the WBD movie, tributes to teachers from stars, etc. on Friday, Aug. 17th, at 8 pm EDT.

We know that most of the performers, like the actors in the movie, don’t have a clue how they are being used to promote school privatization in the guise of parent empowerment, but this concert and WBD movie are going to put the issue front and center and we need to make sure that our voices are heard.

Here’s what you can do:

PAA and I have written about the Won’t Back Down movie before, but if you don’t remember details, take a few moments to read PAA’s review of the WBD movie trailer (which is all we have been able to see so far – we are requesting a screening) and fact sheet on the WBD movie.

Then reach out to everyone you can about this movie and concert. This movie is designed to be even more powerful than Waiting for Superman, and we need to counter it with every thing we have. How do you fight Hollywood? Make the movie controversial, not feel-good. Take it to the stars who mean well but need to open their eyes to what they are doing. Everyone needs to write to CBS, too.

Everyone wants to write to a star, right? A list of contact info for a few of those involved in the Teachers Rock concert follows (gleaned from posters on Diane Ravitch’s blog). The easiest thing to do is to facebook and tweet them, keeping on mind that they are not the enemy. Post your thoughts on their facebook pages, twitter feeds, use their e-mails, write to their publicist! This is the big one and we need all hands on board!

I’ll post my letter the Meryl Streep next.

Here are a few message points:

*The Won’t Back Down movie and the 8/17 Teacher Rocks concert are propaganda for the parent trigger law created by charter school operators and promoted by ALEC.
*Won”t Back Down is a “feel-bad” movie for parents and teachers who support public education.
*The controversial WBD movie promotes charter takeovers of schools, yet charter schools are no better than our regular schools.
*No real teachers were depicted in the filming of the WBD movie.
*Parents won’t be fooled by the “Parent Tricker” or the Won’t Back Down movie.

Teachers Rock performers:
1. Dave Grohl: Manager-Gabby at 323-856-8222
2. Adam Levine: Receptionist will take message at 310-776-7640
3. Jack Black: email to sjackson_asst@WMEentertainment.com
4. Meryl Streep: publicist’s voice mail at 212-277-7555
5. Viola Davis: email to ewolff@apanewyork.com
6. Morgan Freeman: email to stan@sra-pr.com

More:
1. Dave Grohl – Foo Fighters – Agent: Don Muller – WME 1325 Avenue Of The Americas, New York, NY 10019 T.212.586.5100 F.212.246.3583
2. Adam Levine – Maroon 5 singer – Manger: Career Artist Management – 1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 1100 | Los Angeles, CA 90024 | 310.776.7640 (p) | 310.776.7659 (f)
3. Jack Black – Agent: WME 1325 Avenue Of The Americas, New York, NY 10019 T.212.586.5100 F.212.246.3583
4. Meryl Streep – Publicist: Leslee Dart. Dart Group. 90 Park Avenue. 19th Floor. New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212-277-7555.
5. Viola Davis – Agent: Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) 45 West 45th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10036 T. 212.687.0092 F. 212.245.5062
6. Morgan Freeman – Publicist: Stan Rosenfield & Associates, Inc., 2029 Century Park E., Suite 1190, Los Angeles, CA 90067, USA. Phone: (310) 286-7474, Fax: (310) 286-2255.
7. Josh Groban
8. Maggie Gyllenhaal (last, but not least)

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

The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

GEM/ATR Committee issues statement

This was posted at NYCATR blog. We formed this committee a year ago and have a listserve to keep ATRs informed. If you know an ATR or are just interested in being informed (Ich Bein an ATR) as all teachers are potential ATRs. The Campbell Brown story dovetails in here as part of the general assault on teacher protections.

GEM/ATR Committee issues statement

The GEM/ATR Committee has issued a statement in response to the recent arbitrator's decision that saved hundreds of teachers from being assigned to the ATR pool. The Committee's statement is presented here verbatim; only the occasional bold typeface is the addition of NYCATR.

August 11, 2012

1) The UFT is to be applauded for its efforts to defeat the DOE's efforts to vilify veteran teachers and send teachers in the 24 turnaround schools into the ATR pool. The arbitrator said that the DOE was wrong in making teachers reapply for their positions.

However, we call upon the president to extend the same commitment of protection to teachers that have been excessed prior to this June.

This tactic of closing down schools is an old one under Bloomberg, Klein, Black and Walcott. The only thing that is different with the present instance is that the DOE was trying to close schools and circumvent the messy PEP process that resulted in organized community opposition and lawsuits.

There is now court precedent on our side. In New York State on July 24, Judge Joan Lobis sustained the arbitrator’s position by saying that teachers’ contracts must be respected. (290 82nd 338) In Louisiana on June 20, Judge Ethel Simms Julien used the same reasoning to say that 7,000 post-Katrina school employees were wrongly fired in New Orleans. (As this last example is in another state, this can be deemed “persuasive” in a legal argument application for our state.)

While the teachers in the 24 turnaround schools have been saved, it is important to not forget the teachers new to the ATR pool from schools that the DOE has successfully shut down and the prior generation of ATRs. The UFT must insist on a hiring freeze until ATRs have been placed, as it did on September 12, 2007.* 

The excessed teachers are not the causes for "failing schools." The schools the DOE targets for closure disproportionately have low income students, high percentages of special education and ELL students.

1-a) Stop the Lockout

It's time that Mulgrew and the UFT defend all of the ATRs and fight for their placement, just as hard as they fought for the preservation of the positions of the teachers in the 24 schools slated for "closing." 

ATRs are being locked out of positions.

i) ATRs go unhired while novice teachers, many fresh out of college or education school, are placed in positions. We call for the termination of the new replacement workers and for their replacement by ATRs.

ii) Adding insult to injury, workers with the title of teacher are the one class of UFT professional that is forced on a weekly sojourn. The DOE is placing guidance counselors, social workers, librarians and paraprofessionals in full-school year assignments. 

iii) ATRs are asked during job interviews to demonstrate their competency in new teaching protocols: Common Core, workshop model, Danielson Method. Novice teachers are given preferential treatment with summer training in these areas. We call for the termination of novice training and for the offering of training to ATRs.

1-b) No to ending careers with buy-outs

The UFT leadership’s talk of a buy-out is a caving in to the DOE's harassment of ATRs. Mulgrew did not defend the ATRs' teaching integrity when the DOE spoke of the ATRs as dead-weight during the May news reports of buy-out talks.

1-c) No to observations of ATRs

Observations of ATRs beginning in the 2011-2012 are another product of a side agreement to contracts. It is inappropriate for teachers to be observed with students that they have just met, with students that know that the lesson is just a sample lesson.

2) No more side-agreements to contracts

The UFT must stop making agreements to the status of ATRs outside of the contract process. In these side agreements the city is biting off, in piecemeal fashion, contract protections of senior teachers. As an example, on April 15, 2010, and in the summer of 2011 the DOE and the UFT made an ATR agreement without any input from ATRs or other rank and file members of the UFT. These side agreements are made without the sort of membership vote to which contracts are subjected. Yet, the agreements carry the same powerful weight that contracts carry.

3) Dues equity for ATRs: Elected reps of ATRs’ choosing

Furthermore, the UFT must stop its opposition to the ATRs' practice of their electoral rights. ATRs have no venue by which to vote for representatives that come from their ranks to express their interests. Other distinctive groups, such as paraprofessionals and career and technical school teachers have their special divisions. ATRs, with ranks at an estimated 830, equal the size of teaching staffs at about ten large schools put together. For the reasons of parity, ATRs must have elected representatives at the boro level. 

The UFT held during the 2011 to 2012 year that ATRs could vote in whatever school that they were serving for a given week. This is disingenuous. How can an ATR within a few days size up the main issues at a given school and properly weigh the strengths and weaknesses of two or three candidates at the school? It is further unfair to the staff in the school in question. ATRs, as outsiders, in close races could tip elections, affecting the outcome for the staff to be represented at that school. 

The UFT needs to recognize that we are not in a temporary status. It knows, full well, that principals are not inclined to hire them, due to their senior salary level. There is no valid rationale in opposing chapters and representatives with the argument that giving ATRs representation will institutionalize their status. Given that many ATRs have been in this status for more than two years, they already have an institutionalized status by default.

*"Dispelling rumors that their jobs might be in jeopardy, Weingarten made clear that teachers who find themselves working as ATRs maintain their salary benefits and cannot be fired or laid off thanks to a job-security guarantee that the UFT secured in the 2005 contract.

"At a Sept. 12 [2007] labor-management meeting that Weingarten requested on the treatment of excessed teachers, UFT officials called for a moratorium on new hiring until vacancies are filled by current ATRs in the district or high school superintendency provided they have the appropriate license.

"'Filling vacancies with ATRs meets both federal and state requirements related to having a 'highly qualified teacher' in every classroom,' said Weingarten.'"

"DOE officials agreed at the Sept. 12 meeting to modify the new school financing system to encourage principals to hire ATRs. The school will get filled for the first year as if the teacher were a new hire and for the second year at 50 percent of the teacher's actual salary before assuming the cost of the actual salary before assuming the cost of the teacher's actual salary in the teacher's third year at the school.

"UFT officials also urged the DOE, in the next open market transfer period, to require that principals grant interviews, in seniority order, to ATRs with the appropriate license to fill vacancies before new recruits are interviewed or hired. Principals should also be required to put in writing why the ATR was nor hired for the position, the union said.

"The UFT also demanded that all ATRs be allowed access to all DOE job fairs. The union made the demand after receiving word that the DOE barred ATRs from attending job fairs for prospective new teachers last spring." New York Teacher, Sept. 20, 2007.

==========
The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Today: Detroit Screening of "Inconvenient Truth Behind WFS" by Branch of National Education Freedom Ride Campaign

The meeting [with USDOE] started with stories from young people and parents of the impact of closings on their neighborhoods and children. Then we discussed the following [with reps from the USDOE]

•    A moratorium on school closings around the country

•    A Nullification of all decisions made to close schools during the past year

Note how people are zeroing in on school closings as the major instrument of ed deform. The actions of these groups led to a meeting with Arne's army. The same group is screening our movie tonight.

Hello and greetings from Detroit MI. We will be screening "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" next Monday, Aug 13 from 6-7 pm at the University of Michigan Detroit Center. Please let me know if you could briefly skype in following the screening to give us an update on NYC.

We would love for you to give us a brief 10-15 minute update on the state of affairs in NYC--what Bloomberg is up to for next year, what you have been doing on the ground with parents and students and teachers.

I am attaching the flyer for our event as well as the National Education Freedom Ride Campaign into Washington DC that we are launching this September with coalition cities to stop school closures and failed corporate reform policies in our cities (Chicago, NYC, Boston, Baltimore, Detroit, Newark, Washington DC, Atlanta, Wichita KS, Kansas City MO,...).

I don't have to tell Ed Notes readers how proud I am to have been part of GEM's Real Reform Studios team that produced "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" which some people have said is the best single response they've seen to ed deform. It has been shown all over the world (except the UFT) and Monday night's showing in Detroit is an exciting event. Some of us are gathering at the Real Reform Studio HQ in Williamsburg to work on our next film and also to attempt to skype right after the film showing is complete. Here is the flier.

Yes, the worm is turning against the ed deformers despite their tricks in producing films that manipulate the public. Waiting for Superman caused such a negative reaction that it made our film popular. The same will happen with the next iteration pushing the parent trigger. (See Substance story: (Won't back down...' is latest Hollywood addition to the 'Waiting for Superman' propaganda trail. Teacher bashing. Union busting. Privatization agenda again on display thanks to Hollywood moguls and brain-dead stars)

One of the exciting aspects of this event is the news in the attachment below of freedom rides recalling the civil rights struggle. Joel Klein used that expression time and again and it was working for awhile. Not people are waking up to the negative impact of ed deform on local communities and beginning to engage in a renewal of the civil rights struggle to battle ed deform. Imagine freedom rides into Washington and around the White House

Dear Supporter/Ally,

We thought you'd be interested in hearing what we've been up to for the last six weeks when many of us began talking to each other via conference call about the impact of school closings in our Cities.  The more we talked, the more we realized that what is devastating our cities individually is not isolated but the result of misguided federal policies supported by many claiming to be school "reformers".  As a result of our ongoing communication, young people, parent leaders, and organizers from seven cities met in Washington DC on July 9th and 10th.  We spent much of the day on the 9th hearing each other's stories, identifying common ground, grappling with federal and state policies, and preparing for a schedule meeting the next day with representatives of President Obama and the US DOE.

While more groups from more cities have been involved, in the room on this day were representatives from:

 [names of groups redacted] 

Leading up to this meeting was a press conference in Chicago on June 21st where we announced the filing of Title VI legal complaints from five cities.  The Title VI complaints allege that school closings are disparately impacting children of color and English Language Learners in our cities.  (see attached press from the event). The Office of Civil Rights of the US DOE is obligated to investigate the complaints in a timely manner.  

In response to our press conference, the US DOE reached out leading to the July 10th meeting with: 

•    Russlyn Ali, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of Civil Rights

•    Peter Cunningham, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach

•    and Roberto Rodriguez, Special Assistant to the President on Education

The meeting started with stories from young people and parents of the impact of closings on their neighborhoods and children. Then we discussed the following

•    A moratorium on school closings around the country

•    A Nullification of all decisions made to close schools during the past year

•    Their participation in a national listening tour organized by our groups

•     National Hearings on the Impact of Federal Education Policies on our Communities

•    Quick Investigation and resolution of our Title VI complaints (filed from Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Newark, NJ; New York City; and Washington, DC)

•    Support for community schools model and sustainable school transformation

•    A meeting with President Obama

While we don't expect that they will agree to all that we asked for, we are expecting more positive results. We are happy to report that already we have  won commitments to expedite the investigation of the Title VI complaints and to participate in grassroots impact tours that we will organize, culminating in federal hearings on the impact of school closings.

This is an extremely productive beginning but it is only a beginning.  We will continue the dialogue with the DOE and Domestic Policy Council staff while at the same time planning our next steps, including coordinated local actions in August and Freedom Rides to Washington, DC in September. 

Please know, we have done this work in these last weeks with little or no resources.  We are driven by our passion for our children, our schools, and our communities.  We need your help to lift up our message and ensure that this misguided policy that so negatively impacts our young people ends.  It must be replaced with sustainable models of school improvement that include our communities in their development.   

Please be in touch with any questions.  We'd welcome the chance to talk with you more about what we hope to achieve in the months ahead.

In struggle,

Ms. Maiyoua Vang

Ms. Helen Moore   

 www.gofundme.com/Help-DETROIT-FREEDOM-RIDE

"Ethics" in Education: Hawaii Reports on Michelle Rhee and Child Molester Kevin Johnson

The title of this event at the U of Hawaii ought to result in howls of laughter. Give me a sec while I pick myself off the floor.

Sent to the GEM listserve.

Hi,

I thought the GEM group might be interested in this write up of the August 7th Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson presentation on "Ethics in Education" at the University of Hawaii. Members of LaborFest Hawaii wrote this up. LaborFest Hawaii is showing "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" in September for their first annual event.

The authors of this report-back are among the founders of a new annual event called LaborFest Hawaii, a celebration and examination of working class and labor history and current events, and a place where working people can assess present conditions to better organize. Our first event will focus on education with a screening of the Grassroots Education Movement made documentary "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." This film is a counter-argument to Davis Guggenheim's "Waiting for Superman" which targeted teacher unions and pushed privatization, charter schools, and the business model of education. Guggenheim advocates the same austerity-based, anti-union, anti-teacher, and ultimately anti-student reform regime championed by Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, and others. 

Read full report:

http://libcom.org/news/

corporate-school-reformers-
michelle-rhee-kevin-johnson-ethics-education-university-hawaii-0

Also posted at Diane Ravitch's blog where it got a lot of comments:

One may assume that the issue of the cheating scandals in the District of Columbia was not covered in this lecture. Nor did she likely mention that she is being sued in federal court for firing a whistleblower who wanted to reveal the cheating in his school.

MORE at  http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/09/mr-and-mrs-rhee-lecture-

 AFTERBURN:

NY Times Fails To Mention Rhee/KJ Sex Abuse Scandal In Campbell Brown Story

MORE summer series event Thursday Plus CL/Del Training Sept. 19

Learn about MORE, meet others who are down for a different UFT...

If you think the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership have taken us in the wrong direction by agreeing to so much of ed deform (they try to coat themselves in Teflon like it is all Bloomberg's and Klein's fault), it is time to take action to help create an alternative. Other efforts in the past have not taken hold and unless more people get involved there is a danger that we end up right back where we started in trying to build MORE. If the alternative to Unity is just as top down we will get nowhere. So this is YOUR chance to get involved in steering MORE to be an open and democratic organization with widespread representation in the schools. So stop bitchin' and start buildin'.

Hi all, Please spread the word. Face book, twitter, all your teacher friends. And please come yourselves, this is how we build community and a new UFT!

The next MORE summer series event is this Thursday,

 August 16th.   5-8

Lolita Bar: 266 Broome street, Manhattan

map HERE

This is a chance to learn about MORE, meet others who are down for a different UFT and enjoy some cheap happy hour drinks and good conversation.

Come find out what MORE is planning for the fall and how you can get involved in shaping the future of the UFT!

AND SAVE THE DATES!!

Thurs, August 23rd, Solidarity with Chicago teachers. Meet a CTU member and find out what is happing in Chicago and how you can help!

6:30 p.m. 

at The Murphy Institute

25 West 43^rd Street, between 5^th and 6^th avenues

18th Floor, Room C/D

Saturday, Sept 22nd

First MORE meeting of the school year. STAY TUNED!

SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday September 19:

Training for new chapter leaders, new delegates, or anyone trying to build activism within the schools. Loc TBA

Labor Notes, a publication for rank and file labor activists that has been around for more than 30 years, is teaming up with MORE to help provide training for UFT activists interested in trying to build membership activism in the schools. At our workshop on the 19th we'll discuss ways in which we can identify potential activists and leaders within our schools, figure out how to approach and activate them, and discuss what kinds of issues are likely to interest our co-workers.
Join us on the 19th to meet experienced activists from other unions and from among MORE's deep bench of rank and file
leaders.
Stay tuned for details on location and time (most likely starting 4:30-5 PM).
For further info contact
Kit WainerUFT Chapter Leader, Leon Goldstein High SchoolKitWainer@yahoo.com 

 

Dr. Wendel Anthony @AFT2012 Convention

I missed this speech at the AFT and everyone said it was great.



http://youtu.be/2s3kWnHfpLU

Fear and Bloating in the Motor City

I'm really rooting for Randi, whose call for a solutions driven union reminds me very much of Neville Chamberlain's fine leadership of England in the years before World War II.  I think with Randi in charge, we will truly have peace in our time. 

One particular bill which the New York faction was behind suggested that perhaps excessive standardized testing wasn't the best idea.  Chicago wanted to go further and actually do something about it.  Fortunately, New York teachers are as good at pulling teeth as New York Dentists and the resolution was passed with a healthy set of gum and no choppers as of yet.

-- Last Stand for Children

Last Stand for Children reports from AFT convention (Warning: Satire alert)

Fear and Bloating in the Motor City

30,000 teachers descended on Detroit last weekend and I think I surprised a lot of people by being among them.  Why did I decide to go to a city without a single Michelin starred restaurant with these lazy public servants enjoying their luxurious Summer vacations?  Because I go where the story is.

I have a natural distrust of Randi Weingarten if for no other reason than the Weingarten Rights she won for union employees, but I soon found myself rooting for her in what seemed to be a battle between the New York union and the Chicago union.  One particular bill which the New York faction was behind suggested that perhaps excessive standardized testing wasn't the best idea.  Chicago wanted to go further and actually do something about it.  Fortunately, New York teachers are as good at pulling teeth as New York Dentists and the resolution was passed with a healthy set of gum and no choppers as of yet.

The speakers ran the gamut from sleep inducing to nausea inducing.  Dr. Wendel Anthony was my least favorite.  I was in the middle of a really nice sleep when he started speaking and he was just too loud for me to get back to slumber land. I think he was rapping to the Bee Gees or something.

Of course Diane Ravitch was there, making her usual excuses for the teachers.   If you haven't seen it yet, Michelle Rhee has a hysterical video of a fat guy as an Olympic athlete that talks about how the United States has slipped and we need to regain our status as the top education country in the world.   Ms. Ravitch naturally disputed this by pointing out that this wasn't true.  I hate the way she attempts to manipulate an audience using facts.  It doesn't matter if our schools are in crisis, what matters is what we're going to do about that crisis.  Diane again and again uses facts to stop people from seeing the crisis that we all know must exist in the public schools. The great Joe Biden spoke at the convention as well.   Once again the  Chicago Teachers Union provided interesting theater.  Rather than calling for four more years for President Obama and Vice-President Biden, they fliered his speech with yellow papers that they held up during his speech that said Stop Race to the Top.  How disrespectful of a great American hero like Joe Biden.  Unfortunately, I had to leave early so I never did see who won the election to be head of the AFT for the next 2 years.  I'm really rooting for Randi, whose call for a solutions driven union reminds me very much of Neville Chamberlain's fine leadership of England in the years before World War II.  I think with Randi in charge, we will truly have peace in our time.

Breaking: John White Is Missing Link Between Vampires and Humans

John White emerged from a nonhomosapiens branch of robot-like hominids that show no emotion under any circumstances, especially when hearing the pleas of children of color to keep their schools open.

John White as he emerges at twilight

John White, side view

Former Tweedie (and TFAer) John White as the czar of New Orleans and Louisiana schools, has teamed up with Gov. Bobby Jindal to offer vouchers to schools, even those that will not teach evolution but creationism.

This led the crack Ed Notes sleuths to look deep into White's fossil history after reading this NY Times piece "New Fossils Indicate Early Branching of Human Family Tree," on the assumption that White may come from a branch formerly thought to be extinct.

We discovered that at one point deep in our past a branch of the hominid tree thought to be extinct consisted of people so white that even the name White doesn't do them justice:  Robot-like hominids that show no emotion under any circumstances, especially when children of color from closing schools plead to keep their schools open. But the key finding, that these hominids were nocturnal gave us the clue we needed:

John White is the missing link between vampires and homo sapiens.

There is hope. Bobby Jindal's views on exorcism indicate that he and White might hand over public money to schools that teach exorcism with the hope that White's bloodless look and lack of emotion might be cured by an exorcism that would enable White to emerge from his sleeping quarters during daylight hours.

Will Jindal exorcism allow John White to sleep in a bed?

Finally, we discovered this item that critical of the Ed Notes findings:

Tim White, an evolutionary biologist from University of California Berkeley said that it’s “(S)imilar to someone looking at the jaw of a female gymnast in the Olympics, the jaw of a male shot-putter, ignoring the faces in the crowd and deciding the shot-putter and gymnast have to be a different species.”

Afterburn: links to articles

Louisiana Voucher Program: Crazy 'Facts' Students Will Be Taught Under Bobby Jindal's Program 

14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools

TFAer Responds on Onion Satirical Piece

A TFA corps member responds to the Onion piece. It is thoughtful and self-examining. I wonder what year this person is in. On this point: "the fact that about 1/3 of TFA corps members stay in the classroom after the two years seems to go unnoticed." Yes that only 1/3 stay DOES get noticed. And beyond that, what are the numbers for year 3, 4, 5 when people really get their chops as teachers?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Onion Takes on Teach For America":

As a TFA-er in New Mexico, this article was certainly humbling. But I have to say it was also kind of unnecessarily harsh... Not that I want to defend TFA in any way from these criticisms that are true in some cases, but I'm kind of tired of the blanketed criticisms of TFA. We're not all like this (hopefully), but I can understand how some more "privileged" corps members may ruin it for the rest of us. I'll admit, I'm pretty tired of TFA boasting its minute accomplishments with 1-2 students per classroom. Those are the students who would have probably succeeded anyways relative to the rest of their classmates. I get the optimism, but sooooo many voices of still underperforming students with severe needs for a better education are still unheard. From being on the inside, I definitely sense that people in TFA don't really like to talk about their failures with students.

But back to why the article doesn't really do much....Somehow, the fact that about 1/3 of TFA corps members stay in the classroom after the two years seems to go unnoticed. I think TFA thus at least manages to feed teachers into the field, who may not have otherwise decided to teach. Also, after being exposed to the classroom, many TFA corps members struggle with the decision of whether to stay or not in the classroom. TFA is changing enough mindsets, in my opinion, to be making a positive impact on education. The more advocates, the better.... though we still have a long way to go and many TFA alum should stop thinking they are the God-sent answers to our enormous education problem.

Bottom line: I'm sure this article will make many people in TFA, including myself, think about our own teaching and motivations to be here. However, the preaching of this article may only hit home with the choir. I'm trying to think, if I was one of the TFA-stereotypes this article highlights, I would be uber defensive and dismiss it. Try again, the Onion!! Not that you're known for this, but some epic facts to tell us arrogant TFA corps members off would be even more effective. 

 Let me add:
I was in one school for 27 years in a high at risk neighborhood in Brooklyn. Most of my colleagues spent their careers in the school where there was little turnover. TFA does not take into account that a stable teaching group in a neighborhood school is a crucial element and TFA has helped the ed deformers destroy that.

My Vast Cultural Wasteland: Broadway, Tatiana's, Zombies....

No, this is not a post about the 800 UFT/Unity Caucus zombies at the AFT convention.

John Elfrank-Dana Boils the Union Frog After SOS12 Experience

LAST UPDATED FRIDAY, AUG. 10, 12PM

Our teacher union members in NYC are like frogs in the pot on the stove with the flame on low. Union concessions on core rights constitute the rising water temperature in our frog pot. As we become aware of the situation ... that maybe we should consider jumping out (strike?) to save our selves (at least begin to prepare for one).

I had the audacity to suggest this weekend at the SOS convention that SOS exists mainly because of the failure of our teacher unions to protect the profession and quality public education. It was dismissed forthwith by the union committee there without any exploration,,, John Elfrank-Dana, Labor's Lessons

How can we move forward if we don't study the successes and failures of the past? Our problem is that the UFT/AFT leadership will not accept that they made ANY mistakes. As long as they distort history we will continue to sit in the boiling water. ---- Ed Notes

John, who worked with ICE and now with MORE, posted an excellent analysis at his Labor's Lessons blog about the state of the unions.

Jump in or jump off - whither the UFT

Does the fundamental lack of resistance of the teacher unions (until Chicago) make them bear ANY responsibility for the spread of ed deform? Not only lack of resistance but actual support for so much of the ed deform agenda, from supporting the closing of schools to opening up co-located charters here in NYC (oh, I can go on and on). So at the SOS conference I was wondering if this might come up, given the stark contrast between the actions in Chicago and so much of the rest of the nation, as one teacher union after another has compromised itself to the point of extinction. John's frog parable is oh so apt.

John is chapter leader at Murry Bergtraum HS, the last remaining big high school in Manhattan (and prime location real estate for future charters/condos) and his school has faced all the flack coming out of ed deform, including the imposition of "bonus baby" principals and now probably a new principal who will be a closer (Death Watch for Murry Bergtraum). He has also faced personal retaliation aimed at his family from a vindictive principal. So when John talks about the parable of the frog, the temperature in his pot is a few degrees higher.

I had to leave SOS early Sunday morning so didn't get to stay for the Labor and Professional Organizations Principle Writing Workshop as a follow-up to the labor session the day before (see full video here). John stayed for a while and reported support for the Chicago TU. But when he tried to raise the issue of the role unions have played he didn't get any traction. How can we move forward if we don't study the successes and failures of the past? Our problem is that the UFT/AFT leadership will not accept that they made ANY mistakes. As long as they distort history we will continue to sit in the boiling water.

I wouldn't expect, or want, SOS to in any formal way be critical of the actions of the AFT/UFT/NEA but I would hope the leaders would at least be willing to discuss the issue informally as a warning signal that going down the road to appeasement is dangerous. The teachers in Chicago were the frog in the boiling water under the old leadership for so long until about 2 years ago when CORE was elected and began a strategy of fierce resistance. That those beaten and demoralized teachers would vote 98% for a strike just 2 years into the leadership of CORE is a remarkable example of political leadership, something I truly believe we can never expect from the Unity Caucus which sets up charter schools that are co-located in public schools, agrees to being rated on value added etc.

While I agree with John that the ability to strike is what makes the ability of unions to fight for its members credible I also think there are steps in between.

John quotes Leo Casey,"If you draw a line in the sand you'd better be prepared to defend that ground to avoid a routing that could destroy you." And we both agree that Leo is right. But where do you draw a line in the sand? Has the UFT been willing to draw any lines in the sand? For instance, if it had refused to agree to ending seniority rights in the 2005 contract what would have been the result?

CORRECTION: I want to expand on the point Fred Klonsky below was making since some people are not aware of the background. Fred castgates unions leaders taking gas but trying to sell it as a victory instead of saying we were forced to take gas.

In retrospect I realize Fred was talking more about the Illinois state union which jumped on board SB7 -- the bill pushed through by Jonah Edelman's Stand for on Children  -- remember that video (Jonah Edelman Caught With His Pants Down that took away many of the bargaining rights but did give them the right to strike if they could get 75% of the membership to vote for it.  

Here is a video of Leo's statement and a response from Fred Klonsky who is critical of the current Chicago Illinois leadership (and maybe CTU too for initially signing on to SR7 SB7. As Xian Barrett points out, the internal democratic process in CORE and the CTU created a reaction that led to the CTU resistance.

Fred's critique can also be applied to so many aspects of AFT/UFT policy. On the surface I can agree with the "line in the sand" comment. But when Leo says "we can talk about what that line should be" I fault him for not allowing us in NYC to talk about that through the lack of democracy. If in fact we had open discussions about the implications of the 2005 contract or whether the UFT should open charter schools or support the closing of schools until late 2009 or support merit pay schemes, etc, etc, etc. we might be in a different place.

As you watch the video consider what the UFT would do if faced with the exact same demands the CTU are facing. Would Leo draw this line in the sand? Would/could the UFT get even a 50% strike authorization under the same conditions (take into account we have no right to strike while the CTU does even under severe restrictions -- did you know that Rahm got a law passed that forces the CTU to get individual permits for each school they want to picket at?)



I will put up a separate post comparing NYC and Chicago uaing Xian Barrett's wonderful presentation (also see Xian's article as posted on Gotham (An acclaimed Chicago teacher explains why extending the school day isn’t the solution (CNN)), which while militant also is conciliatory and looking for areas of compromise, things I feel I(we) can learn about how to work with others, even those you disagree with. Yes, even Leo at times. I feel the fact that we can have a reasonably cordial relationship is a positive thing. And the parting words I had with Mike Klonsky was that I do listen to criticism about my take no prisoners approach to the union and he said we would continue to have a dialogue.

Back to John's piece. Before the very idea of a strike enters anyone's mind a union must put up fierce resistance on many ed deform issues rather than trying to go half way. Having your union leadership back peddle and sell ed deform ideas (like we are afraid of being charged with unwillingness to be held accountable while I say "fuck your accountability that falls only on teachers and we won't budge until you hold yourselves to the same accountability) saps the spirit to such an extent that the very idea of a strike becomes a farce. Certainly here in NYC where even as the most severe attacks on teachers may be yet to come, it is hard to imagine the same willingness to resist outside of courts exists in the DNA of the UFT leadership.

The Parable of the Frog and the Fate of the Teacher Unions

All of this pondering of the demise of public education and teacher unions at the Save our Schools Convention (SOS) reminds me of the parable of the frog in a pot of water. It goes that if you put a frog in boiling water it will jump out to save itself. However, take that same frog and put it in room temperature water, but put the flame on low and it will be dead before it realizes the gradual change in temperature. More on this down below.

At the SOS Convention this weekend a stark warning from an recent former United Federation  of Teachers (UFT) executive now working at the American Federation of Teachers national office came to the delegates in the Teacher Unions committee- "If you draw a line in the sand you'd better be prepared to defend that ground to avoid a routing that could destroy you." In other words, a union had better be prepared to strike as a last resort and win that strike. That message is a prudent one; common sense taken at face value. But, to take it as sufficient reason to accept more concessions by the AFT in teacher evaluations based on test scores and giving back tenure is mistaken in my estimation.

Since, in my opinion, the UFT is nowhere close to being prepared to strike, the message my members (I am a chapter leader of one of the last large high schools in New York City), accept these concessions or face doom. A more cynical view has been that the UFT uses the threat of a strike and certain doom to scare members into accepting contract givebacks. I have seen this myself, when union brass visited our high school around the last two contracts- saying you'd better accept this or else! Since the leadership does nothing to prepare us for a strike, the threat works, "give up grieving a letter in the file, no seniority transfer? or else strike? Where do I sign?" That was the 2005 UFT contract, and along with UFT President Randi Weingarten support for Mayoral Control, that may have sealed our fate as a union.

Back to the frog parable: Our teacher union members in NYC are like frogs in the pot on the stove with the flame on low. Union concessions on core rights constitute the rising water temperature in our frog pot. As we become aware of the situation (we do have some capacity to be aware, unlike frogs) some of us stir that maybe we should consider jumping out (strike?) to save our selves (at least begin to prepare for one). Ah, but the union executive says, "If you jump out of this pot how do you know you won't fall all the way to the kitchen floor and go splat! Or, perhaps land of the flame of the burner next to this one?" He continues, "Hang in there! Our union president just negotiated a great victory. The DoE wants to turn the flame up another 10 degrees, but we got them down to an increase in only 5 degrees! (ironically working in the DoE's favor- for god forbid the other frogs wake up to what is happening)."

Without a credible threat of a strike, you have no union. All you have is a dues collection agency, a member benefits management office, an ombudsman's office of the DoE, a teacher public relations firm. To be clear it's a policy issue; most the staffers I find at the UFT offices are dedicated and willing to serve. But, you don't have a union without a strike. We can't rely only on court cases, or getting "our guy" in office to protect our rights. The ultimate weapon must be in the arsenal.

I don't take strikes lightly. I am aware of the Taylor Law penalties. I was a Teamster in college when I went out on strike the first time. I have been involved in two strikes and a lockout. I have seen people get their heads split open. Preparing for a strike requires digging in, years of building relations with the parents, polticos, press and most importantly your members. It's a capacity you have to have ready at all times.

I had the audacity to suggest this weekend at the SOS convention that SOS exists mainly because of the failure of our teacher unions to protect the profession and quality public education. It was dismissed forthwith by the union committee there without any exploration.

So, let's get behind our courageous brothers and sisters of the Chicago Teachers Union! They have built the credible threat of a strike. They can serve a model of courage and character for all of us. Those frogs have jumping legs! Take a close look at MORE and ICE in NYC for ideas about moving forward.

==============
The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.