Deadline for Parents to Run for Education Councils is Tomorrow

Nothing like disenpowering parents to stimulate a lack of interest and we won't get into the shameful performance of BloomKlein (see the NYC Parent blog for more) in the fiasco of removing just about any input from parents, but some people are still trying.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 18, 2009

Media Contact: Morgan Pehme

Tel. (646) 861-5048

press@powertotheparents.org


Deadline for Parents to Run for Education Councils is Tomorrow

Only 24 Hours Left for Public School Parents to Register to Represent Their Kids, Community

Midnight, March 19th, is the deadline for public school parents to register to represent their children and local school district on NYC’s Community and Citywide Education Councils (CECs). Although many parents have applied to run for a CEC seat, there are still District schools that have yet to put forward candidates.

CECs were formed in 2003 to replace the City’s school boards. CEC members advise the Department of Education on issues impacting parents and schools like instructional programs and zoning.

“You can register online to be a CEC candidate for your District in a matter of minutes at www.powertotheparents.org,” explained Jeff S. Merritt, Founder and President of Grassroots Initiative, the New York City-based nonprofit organization partnering with the Department of Education to recruit and assist CEC candidates.

Parents who have any questions about applying to run for a CEC seat are encouraged to call the election’s toll-free help line immediately: 1-877-NYC-VOTE and to look at the www.powertotheparents.org website to get answers to frequently-asked questions.

For a quick explanation of how to run for the CEC, parents should watch the Public Service Announcement at www.powertotheparents.org/info.html. Media and community activists can also embed the PSA on their website using the code below.



For more information about the elections or how to run for the CEC, log on to powertotheparents.org or call 1-877-NYC-VOTE.
###

Rotherham on Weingarten: Two Peas in a Pod

[I]n the coded language of labor negotiations it's actually a signal from Weingarten that she's open to negotiating and moving in Rhee's direction if Rhee can give her the necessary political cover.

This is the key quote as Ed Sector's Andrew Rotherham looks at Weingarten as a "reformer" in the wrong mode where reform means giving up teachers to mauling. Ed Notes has been saying all along that Weingarten desperately wants to make a deal with Rhee and probably even sent over some PR people to show Rhee how to cool it a bit to give Weingarten cover to sell out the DC teachers as she did in NYC.

He mistakenly gives Weingarten too much credit for interfering with the pace of "reform" in NY State. The good thing about this piece is how he traces it all back to Al Shanker, so we see the continuum of over 25 years of UFT/AFT policy and he gets the role Weingarten has played, not as an advocate for teachers, but as a intermediary between the rank and file and the market based/business/Broad crowd looking to undermine public education. He paints her in a corner. He claims she can lose it all to charters if she doesn't make a deal, and he does get that the important thing to Weingarten is membership - and dues - so she and her crowd can maintain power. We are part of a building coalition to make it just a little harder for her to accomplish her and Rotherham's aims.

Just a few delicious quotes which should resonate with every NYC classroom teacher.

Can AFT president Randi Weingarten satisfy teachers and reformers at the same time?

Randi Weingarten, the notoriously feisty president of the second-largest national teachers' union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), received a hero's welcome at the National Press Club last November. In her speech, she vowed to give ear to almost any tough-minded school reform, and, in a line that thrilled many reformers, promised that the AFT will not protect incompetent teachers: "Teachers are the first to say, 'Let's get incompetent teachers out of the classroom.'"

Caught up in a contentious situation with the Washington, D.C. school system that has challenged her reformist credentials, Weingarten's attempt to satisfy both sides of the debate is being put to the test.
---------
When exactly Weingarten got directly involved in the Washington negotiations remains a matter of some debate, but there is no doubt that she has been deeply involved and that a counter-offer submitted to Rhee in late January by the WTU comes with her approval. As her Press Club speech would suggest, Weingarten is open to firing bad teachers. But the counter-offer, which hasn't been made public, would complicate rather than streamline that process in D.C. Among those who have seen the details, there are two views about what it means for the negotiations. Some say it is what it appears to be--at odds with the spirit of what Weingarten promised in her Press Club speech, wrapping teachers even more tightly in tenure protections and extending the termination process. Others say that in the coded language of labor negotiations it's actually a signal from Weingarten that she's open to negotiating and moving in Rhee's direction if Rhee can give her the necessary political cover. If adopted as currently proposed, however, Rhee's hurry-up reforms would be throttled back to a glacial pace and students would suffer.

-------------
It's hard to find an elected official or policy analyst in Washington who won't privately acknowledge that the NEA is bereft of real ideas about how to improve schools, whereas Weingarten is at least full of ideology-bucking plans.

Jeez. Ideology bucking. What a crock.

Read the entire piece at Norm's Notes.
Can AFT president Randi Weingarten satisfy teachers and reformers at the same time?

A Clueless David Brooks

I actually like some of the things moderate conservative David Brooks says – at times. But when he can be so clueless about education, can you believe in anything he writes? In his March 13 column, "No Picnic for Me Either," Brooks' confusion is evident in his opening words:

In his education speech this week, Barack Obama retold a by-now familiar story. When he was a boy, his mother would wake him up at 4:30 to tutor him for a few hours before he went off to school. When young Barry complained about getting up so early, his mother responded: “This is no picnic for me either, Buster.”

That experience was the perfect preparation for reforming American education because it underlines the two traits necessary for academic success: relationships and rigor. The young Obama had a loving relationship with an adult passionate about his future. He also had at least one teacher, his mom, disinclined to put up with any crap.

Wait a minute. His mother was also his teacher? Brooks confuses the elemental point right here. It was his parent, not his teachers who made the difference. The so-called ed reformers talk about great teachers out of one side of their mouths while disrespecting the mass of teachers out of the other side. People who talk about total solutions to the problems in education and say they must include attacking the social problems in the lives of kids (which include parental and home life issues) are always accused of making excuses. Sadly, Obama has joined the chorus.

The phony ed reformers are finding that as they take over more of the public school system, they discover it will take more than merit pay or charter schools. They themselves start making excuses. (Just wait 'till KIPP takes over entire swaths of schools and can't hide the warts.) Like, why does Joel Klein have to close so many schools that have been under his control for 7 years? He and Arne Duncan talk about the need for charters to promote innovation. Klein and Duncan have run entire school systems for 7 years. What stopped them from innovating in the public schools?

Brooks' next paragraph takes us from confusion to total bewilderment.

We’ve spent years working on ways to restructure schools, but what matters most is the relationship between one student and one teacher. You ask a kid who has graduated from high school to list the teachers who mattered in his life, and he will reel off names. You ask a kid who dropped out, and he will not even understand the question. Relationships like that are beyond his experience.

Okay, so let's get this straight. The most important factor in graduating from high school depends on a relationship with a teacher? Did Brooks actually read Obama's book? Can he cite even one teacher Obama credits with having a transforming influence on him?

I went to school in East NY section of Brooklyn where many of our parents didn't graduate from high school - my mom didn't even go to elementary school and could barely read or write and most of us couldn't name a teacher who made such a great difference. In fact, we had quite a few lousy teachers - more than great teachers. Yet my mom nudged me as much a Obama's mom.

But let's look at Brooks' other clueless point – that kids who drop out had no relationships with teachers. He should check the letters and phone calls I received over the years from my former dropouts, some from state penitentiaries. My fault, I guess. Or maybe Brooks should have joined me at some of the funerals I attended for former students who were slaughtered in drug wars.

In fact, I found the future dropouts in my 4-6 grade classes were the most needy of a parent surrogate, and they were the ones I often grew closest too.

The kids with stable families looked at their teachers as, well, teachers. Some were inspired. One teacher in my school took a few favorite 3rd graders to Alvin Ailey and one of the kids swore that day she would become an Alvin Ailey dancer - and she did. I had that same child in the 6th grade and believe me, she would have been successful no matter what. Her mom was a nurse, one of the few students in my schools whose parents had middle class jobs.

Related:
Brooks entire column is here.

This week from the Daily Howler: David Brooks doesn’t know several things. He does say some things which are useful. http://www.dailyhowler.com/

FAIR dissects David Brooks

http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8459

David Brooks Loves Data--When It Gives the Right Results

This comes from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). Showing the failure of our media to do its job, they deserve our support.

by Jim Naureckas

In a typically half-empty David Brooks piece (3/13/09), the columnist praises Barack Obama for embracing "rigor" in education policy, for endorsing "testing and accountability," for "mak[ing] sure results have consequences." He complains about the "education establishment’s ability to evade the consequences of data" and that watered-down proficiency standards mean that "parents think their own schools are much better than they are." He commends Obama's commitment to "use data to make decisions," and Education Secretary opposition to "ignoring failure."

But Brooks says many doubt whether Obama "has the courage to follow through" on these principles, and point to "the way the president has already caved in on the D.C. vouchers case":

Democrats in Congress just killed an experiment that gives 1,700 poor Washington kids school vouchers. They even refused to grandfather in the kids already in the program, so those children will be ripped away from their mentors and friends. The idea was to cause maximum suffering, and 58 Senators voted for it.

Obama has, in fact, been shamefully quiet about this. But in the next weeks he’ll at least try to protect the kids now in the program.

The odd thing is that the D.C. voucher program is a very poor poster child for the importance of rigorous, data-driven education policy that rewards success and punishes failure. The students participating in the voucher program have been watched closely, and according to two Department of Education studies they aren't doing significantly better in reading or math than the peers they left behind in public school. The one bright spot that the studies found is that parents of kids in voucher schools report being more satisfied--in other words, "parents think their own schools are much better than they are."

"Rigorous" is not a word one would apply to Brooks' argument here.

FAIR blog
2009-03-13

KIPPer Karping: Fresno Scandal/Pro-Union Kipper Says "Nevermind"

Laying KIPP open to criticism

Jim Horn at Schools Matter reports

The KIPP Fresno Horror Story That the National Media Won't Tell: Part I

The KIPP Fresno story has disappeared from media coverage, except for McEwen's continued editorializing the news section of the Fresno Bee, where he has repeatedly painted this horror as a minor incident resulting from disgruntled parents or former employees. The facts, some of which are presented below in this Part I, demonstrate that this is not the case.

KIPP Fresno Part 2: Questionable Leadership AbilityKIPP Fresno

Mr. Tschang's and others' actions exceeded the bounds of the law. --Notice to Cure and Correct, p. 8

I received an email this morning from a source who suggested that the atrocities at KIPP Fresno represent the "tip of an iceberg" in terms of crimes against children in the KIPP brainwashing camps. The source wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of ending up on a "KIPP hit list."

Part 3: State Mandated Testing Violations by CEO and Staff

Two areas that KIPP supporters like to talk about are the test scores and the college attendance rates of graduates.

If we take KIPP's own numbers of 80% of those who complete 8th grade at KIPP go on to college, what does that really say? If, as the research shows, 40-60 percent of students who begin KIPP in 5th grade do not finish 8th grade, we have a much less impressive number. If my math is working, and we use an average of 50% as average dropout and kickout rate between grades 5 and 8, then we have 4/5 x 1/2=4/10, or 40% of those who began KIPP in 5th grade going to college.

Unionization efforts at KIPP derailed?

In the meantime, Russo reports at TWIE that UFT unionization efforts at KIPP in Brooklyn are endangered after a pro-union teacher says "nevermind."

KIPP strikes back?

Last week, Kashi Nelson realized that she’d made a mistake supporting unionization for herself and the other teachers at KIPP AMP.

On Thursday, she formally notified the union that she was withdrawing her support.

Over the past few weeks, administrators cracked down on teachers for not arriving at school on time.

In response, teachers insisted on having an official clock installed at the school.

Things were getting more formalized, Nelson saw.

The weekly school newsletter stopped including praise for teachers’ efforts.

Nelson frequently received texts and emails from upset colleagues.

The rumor mill said that another teacher – a part-time musician – was being fired.

“It got ugly,” she said. “It was really bad.”

CORE: Chicago Teacher Caucus Makes Waves

I spoke to Substance's George Schmidt briefly today and he tells me CORE (The Caucus of Rank and File Educators), a caucus in the Chicago Teachers Union, has had a galvanizing impact on the progressive educators in Chicago by leading the charge against the corporate, mayoral control-driven agenda. Their actions have even forced the regressive Marilyn Stewart Unity Caucus like CTU to join the parade. The mostly youthful CORE and the more senior Substance have established a close relationship, with some CORE members writing for Substance.

In NYC, the UFT holds a rally with supposedly 75,000 people and says - "Thank you, now go home and write letters to politicians." It's basically a one shot deal instead of building militancy and an activist network for further actions. The UFT leadership is afraid of activism because then questions might be raised as to how undemocratically the organization is run. Ed Notes and ICE believes in many of the positions of CORE in the CTU. Read these excerpts from the CORE newsletter in Chicago or click link below. See Ed Notes' previous post on LA Teacher Union action (Periodic Assessment Boycott by LA Teacher Union).

The parallel here in NYC (though we are years behind and have to deal with the monster Unity Caucus machine that is capable of cooptation and destroying of militancy) has been the recent activity on the part of ICE and NYCoRE (NY Collective of Radical Educators.)


The CORE Mission:

A group of dedicated teachers, Retirees, PSRPs and other champions of public education. We hope to democratize the Chicago Teacher's Union and turn it into an organization that fights on behalf of its members and the students we teach.

Angel Gonzalez sent this to ICE-Mail.

Let's build our NYC militant grassroots organization so that we can unite with Chicago, LA, Puerto Rico, and other regions to fight the privatization of schooling with the onslaught of School Closings, Charter Schools, High Stakes Testing, Deskilling of Students & Teachers, Lowering of worker wages & benefits, teacher firings & harassments, loss of union rights, etc. etc. etc. Let's organize the local struggles so that we can mobilize for the global fight for public education.
- Angel Gonzalez, ASC-ICE, JNJT-NYCoRE

(excerpts below)

Protest February 25th at the Board of Education

As opposition grows city-wide against Mayor Daley's undemocratic “school reform”, the Chicago
Teachers Union, CORE, and the GEM coalition will show its growing strength at the next meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The last hearing saw over 500 protesters fill the streets around 125 South Clark Street and this month we hope for more.

Teachers should take a personal business day, if possible, and attend the Board meeting. Contact the Union to arrange buses from your school for the protest, which will begin at 3:30pm. Go to
COREteachers.org and join our e-mail list for updates on the opposition to Renaissance 2010!

Get Involved with CORE!
Visit COREteachers.org to read about the hearings on closing schools and upcoming actions, to join our mailing list, and to become a supporting member. The fight for quality public education needs CORE and CORE needs you!

GEM Coalition Unites Teachers, Parents, Community Groups
Dubbing themselves the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) six parent, community, and education activist groups joined ranks with CORE and the Chicago Teachers Union to form a new coalition opposing Mayor Daley's attacks on quality public education. The groups first began organizing together in the run-up to CORE's January 10th community hearing at Malcolm X College.

Friendly relations turned to energetic collaboration in preparation for the January 28th demonstration outside the Chicago Board of Education meeting that drew over 500 protesters.

GEM's web site strongpublicschools.org has fact sheets, alert bulletins, and links to coalition groups: Blocks Together, CTU, CORE, Chicago Youth Initiating Change (CYIC), Designs for Change, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), Pilsen Alliance, Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), South Side United, Local School Council Federation, South
West Youth Collaborative, Substance News and Teachers for Social Justice.

http://coreteachers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/2009-02-21-newsletter-core.pdf

Periodic Assessment Boycott by LA Teacher Union

I don't have to tell you boys and girls teaching in NYC, how things might be if we didn't have a collaborationist union in the UFT. Read below abot the LA Teachers union and weep.

Click http://www.utla.net/pab for more info on this struggle being waged by LA teachers.

Periodic Assessment Boycott

STARTING JANUARY 27th!

Don't turn in the tests!

Assessment should be between you and your students, not you and the bureaucracy!

*************************************

On January 27, we launched a boycott of periodic assessments.

UTLA is calling for a complete boycott of all periodic assessments, Open Court Assessments, and any other district mandated tests that are NOT required by State or Federal law, or that aren't needed to determine appropriate placement for a student, such as CELDT tests. We are boycotting the submission of the test data to the District.

LET US KNOW
If you, or somebody you know at your school, is written up, let us know. Fill out the "Written-Up" form, or call 213-637-5147.

BOYCOTT IDEAS
If you have some successful organizing ideas, send us your boycott organizing ideas and we'll soon post them on the UTLA site for other members to see.

Actions to Take

Additional Information

LET US KNOW If you, or somebody you know at your school, is written up, let us know. Fill out the "Written-Up" form, or call 213-637-5147. BOYCOTT IDEAS If you have some successful organizing ideas, send us your boycott organizing ideas and we'll soon post them on the UTLA site for other members to see.

Assessment Research United Teacher articles by Julie Washington and Janet Davis (page 13) Bargaining Flash: "Why I'm joining the protests" "Strength in Numbers" letter to members (2 pages) Explanatory letter from members to parents Explanatory letter from members to parents (in Spanish) Response letter from members to administrators (2 pages) California Education Code 60602 & flyer (2 pages) UTLA legal letter to LAUSD (2 pages) UTLA response to Superintendent Cortines' letter Q&A about Periodic Assessment Boycott (2 pages) Q&A about "Letters of Reprisals" Initial flyer Press Conference Media Coverage

We are taking this action for many reasons

1) We cannot waste money in a time of budget crisis
• The District is spending millions on periodic assessments while at the same time threatening to lay off teachers, increase class sizes, and cut important programs.
• LAUSD is facing a severe budget crisis. We can no longer afford to let LAUSD spend valuable resources on extra tests that don't help our students learn.
• The cost for the tests could be as high as $150 million a year when packaging, distribution, and personnel time are factored in, not to mention the loss of weeks of valuable instructional time spent prepping students for the tests instead of teaching. That's money that could go to other things, such as stopping teacher layoffs, that have a much bigger impact on student achievement.

2) These tests aren't useful and they waste valuable instructional time
• GIVE CONCRETE EXAMPLES: "Right now, middle school students are losing two weeks of English instruction to testing."
• Teachers teach, not tests. We don't need superfluous District-mandated tests to know whether the students we work with every day are learning
• Most teachers feel that the periodic assessments-which are mostly composed of multiple choice questions-produce useless "junk data" while taking away valuable time from teaching and learning.

3) Students will benefit from the extra instructional time
• The boycotts will not hurt student learning. Teachers will still be giving out multiple tests, class assignments, and homework, along with regular report cards.
• These tests are NOT required by state law. State law requires that District ensure that diagnostic assessment takes place, and the normal work of teachers in evaluating their student's progress meets the law's requirements.
• Every teacher has access to Teacher Guides that provide assessments at no cost.
• The state and federal governments have rigorous standards and testing requirements in place for our students. The tests we are boycotting are not part of these state or federal requirements.

4) How can I participate in this action?
UTLA recognizes and respects that some teachers may find some parts of the periodic assessments useful in helping them understand what their students are learning. It is up to teachers and individual departments to decide upon whether to administer the tests. If you choose to administer all or part of the tests, you can still participate in the boycott by refusing to turn that data in to the District.. Our battle is with the bureaucracy, not with each other. Don't feed the bureaucracy by turning in your results!

Send the Bureaucrats a Message:
Excessive Testing Hurts Our Kids and Our Classrooms!

Related: LA teachers sit in over layoffs

UPDATE: Highlights of the protest at Fordham HS for the Arts on March 13th

....after a hard day’s work for most of us who labor in NYC schools

SEE THE VIDEO



by Woodlass (http://underassault.blogspot.com/), guest contributor
March 14, 2009

The rally was introduced by Lynne Winderbaum (district rep, Bx HSS), who was flanked by the likes of Michael Mulgrew (Chief Operating Officer of the union), LeRoy Barr (Director of Staff), Jose Vargas (Bx Borough rep), and Rodney Grubiak (Bronx special rep).

Something’s got the UFT’s attention for a change.

Winderbaum slammed into Iris Blige and her wayward approach to educators, kids, and schools and said the union is “fed up” with the DoE’s support of principals like this one, who ¨ruin lives and ruin careers.” There are many of these in the city, but few of them get publicized for their aberrational behavior (see JD2718 here, and his July 08 ¨Do Not Apply” list as well).

Blige and her triumvirate (as someone called the staff of three she empowered to help her run the school) have set up a culture of terror. She disciplines teachers in front of kids, comes out of what someone called her “bat cave” to yell at students without knowing their names, and sends chapter leaders and other staff to the rubber room on false charges and on no charges. Some languish there for up to two years until their cases are dismissed.

¨It was hard to come to work in the morning,” said Peter Healy, a teacher who had decided Fordham Arts was no place for him and has found a position elsewhere.

Yesterday’s rally was organized in support of teacher Raqnel James, who has recently become a victim of Blige’s miserable judgment and management skills. It was reported at a recent union meeting that Blige arranged for eleven cops to come and arrest her at school, claiming she had written a letter that had included threats. Lacking evidence (the letter was faked), the police refused to charge her. Blige remains unscathed, protected by a chancellor who seemingly condones, and maybe even asks for administrator misconduct that borders on or exceeds legal limits (who knows).

Another gruesome story came from Fannie Davis, a veteran teacher of 32 years who had been a popular dean of students when Blige decided to excess her. She grieved, and after what looked like a successful hearing, Davis returned to the school to face a pissed off Blige. With the help of one of her APs (who later rescinded his statement and apologized to Davis personally for his action), Blige trumped up a cause for Davis's removal. Into the rubber room went she the very next day, where she remained sans allegation, sans charges, sans meetings, sans everything.

One full school year later, out of the blue, came a simple letter telling Davis to go back to work, which she did, but only to serve in a series of activities hardly matching her 34 years of teaching expertise: cafeteria and bleachers supervision, and copy machine duties (they told her to watch TV while she was down there doing that).

After some months of this, and fearful that a U-rating would be doled out come June no matter what, calls were made, emails were sent, lawyers were convened, and solution was found. She's now teaching her own subject at two different sites, free of Blige and enjoying her profession once again.

Blige, by the way, is footing the bill for this. Sweet!

Joel Klein is burnishing his legacy.

Michael Mulgrew picked up where Winderbaum left off. He told the crowd that the whole community is saying they want their school back and enjoined everyone present to make sure to keep the fight going.

[Editorial comment: With the UFT's stunning inability to keep any fight going, or even to recognize where the battles are, I’m not sure Mulgrew was in any position to request this of the teachers who came out for this rally in the cold.]

A pumped up LeRoy Barr said Blige has been sending a strong message: ¨We are clear we will not allow [teachers] to be respected in this building," which he says qualifies her for the PINI program Principals in Need of Improvement. (I'm yawning.)

Jose Vargas added that if anyone is punished for participating or supporting this rally in any way, he wants to know about it.

{Ed Note: YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! HEY JOSE, CAN YOU SEE? HOW MANY YEARS OF HARASSMENT DID THESE PEOPLE UNDERGO? REMIND US EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID ABOUT IT.}

As the crowd chanted ¨RELEASE MS. JAMES, REMOVE BLIGE!" and "HEY, HO, IRIS BLIGE HAS GOT TO GO!", people were seen peeking out upper floor windows. Rumor has it that Blige was out of the building taking a group of intimidated first-year teachers to dinner.

Whew! With all that activism, one could get the impression our union has taken a stand against Klein.

Don’t count on it. We may respect some of our district reps for their commitment and efforts on our behalf, but the higher-ups are not dealing with the virus that has infected NYC education.

The Obamagogues' Liars and Our Future

Susan Ohanian puts out a daily digest of dynamic articles. This one by Rich Gibson ties many points together from Geithner to Duncan to Obama. All these years we are told there is no money to reduce class size but magically trillions appear to bail out banks and for wars. Their solution is to look for quality, heroic teachers who will work 12 hour days till they burn out, who just happen to be brand new at half the salary. Why do we accept this? Gibson's call to action may be starting to resonate but there is a lot of work to be done. The communities under attack and socially conscious teacher must organize together so if it ever comes to having to shut down schools to fight back, there will be less chance of dividing people. There are two ways to shut down schools to stop the madness: a strike or a parent/student boycott. Imagine both.

Just a taste before reading the entire article. Gibson says:

"No money for schools - print it"

"This is a full scale class war, with the rich assaulting poor and working people everywhere. This is going on in schools, in warfare, in the financial crisis, in the health care system, in the foreclosures: everywhere."

"the union bosses are on the side of the banksters and their bought and paid for hucksters who serve in the executive committee of the rich, the government. The union bosses deny that this real class war is going on, and lure people into support for the emergence of what has all the markings of fascism, as with the eradication of any semblance of academic freedom in schools."

And my favorite:

"No money? Go print it. You did for the banksters, now go get ours. You admit that reason had nothing to do with the bailouts. That was about power. If you do the printing, we will not accept the money as
a bribe to go back in and continue the racist child abuse that is whatever you plan to call NCLB. We will treat the money, and our new colleagues, as victories, and we will press on for more still."

The Obamagogues' Liars and Our Future

http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=649
Publication Date: 2009-03-12
By Rich Gibson

It is not our education system. It is Theirs. It is not our economy. It is Theirs.


For those who had the time to stay up and watch Charlie Rose on PBS the last two nights, we were treated to Timothy Geithner, the new Treasury boss, and Arne Duncan, in that order.

What was striking to me was that, in contrast to The Obamagogue, they're both lousy liars.

Geithner looks like he is in a card game and knows that everyone at the table can see he is cheating, but he is smug enough to keep dealing off the bottom anyway. Geithner repeatedly said that those who led the world into this great financial crisis are bad people, but they must be saved as "we are all in this together and must save our economy." He went on to insist that, really, we are all at fault.

Arne Duncan, Education boss, enjoyed Rose's typically softball style (they ended with a near hug). Duncan, following on The Obmagogue's education speech at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, insisted that schools are really the central organizing point of much of US life
(true) and that he intends to expand that, with schools fully open to the community, as much as possible.

Of course, they must be very good schools, in order to serve our nation, where we are all in international competition with other countries whose education systems are better.

With what I saw as a smirk, that others may see as a cute grin, throughout the interview, Duncan was not so good at dodging the fact that he has never been an educator, nor did Rose do much to press him on the issue. Duncan just harkened back to his days at his lovely mother's knees when she was tutoring poor kids. Mom the Missionary. Son the Bishop.

Rose took for granted that Chicago schools are the better for Duncan's presence, though in a quick comment they agreed that he had closed some of those schools---and Substance News has covered which ones. Guess whose?

Duncan even did a poor job trying to convince us that the President's (and Duncan's) project is "non-ideological, just what is good for kids."

Duncan spoke up, over and over, for merit pay, for charters, for more regimented national curricula, more sophisticated testing, though he made no mention of the militarization of schooling--and Rose never asked. This is the crux of a non-ideology.

Remarkably, Duncan claimed that he spoke to both the president of the NEA and the AFT. Each fully backed The Obamagogue's education speech.

Duncan underlined that the bureaucrats who run both school unions support national standards, as they do. And he reminded us that Al Shanker, the worst union boss in the history of the US, was a progenitor of charter schools, as he was. Duncan told the truth about that, just as The One told us the truth before the election: more wars and more attacks on freedom in schools. That so few actually grasped this is troubling--a very disturbing analytical miscue.

The problem with NCLB, was two fold, per Duncan. It was under-funded. It did not set a high bar for all states. To him, "NCLB needs to be rebranded."

Notably, the Duncan segment of the Charlie Rose Show was sponsored by the Eli Broad Foundation.

The key lie that is shared by Geithner, Duncan, and The Obamagogue, is that we are all in this together. We are not.

This is a full scale class war, with the rich assaulting poor and working people everywhere. This is going on in schools, in warfare, in the financial crisis, in the health care system, in the foreclosures: everywhere.

The education agenda, the finance agenda, all of these are war agendas.

It should be easy to see who is one the side of who. The union bosses are on the side of the banksters and their bought and paid for hucksters who serve in the executive committee of the rich, the government. The union bosses deny that this real class war is going on, and lure people into support for the emergence of what has all the markings of fascism, as with the eradication of any semblance of academic freedom in schools.

Right now, thousands of layoff notices are going out to California teachers who, predictably, will be told that sacrifices must be made in order to save jobs and "our" education system.

It is not our education system. It is Theirs. It is not our economy. It is Theirs.

The core issue of our time is booming color-coded inequality potentially challenged by mass class conscious resistance with a real purpose, a north star: overcoming the system of capital with considerable sacrifice in order to live in a world where people can live more or less equitably by sharing--each contributing to the freedom of the others.

Concessions do not save jobs. Like feeding blood to sharks, concessions make bosses want more. Look at the demise of the United Auto Workers Union, now near dead, after decades of one concession after the next, pensions and health care about to be wiped out (note Delphi).

When they say cut back, we must say Fight Back.

We want, not the status quo, but more school workers hired. No more racist high stakes exams. Recruiters off the campuses.

No money? Go print it. You did for the banksters, now go get ours. You admit that reason had nothing to do with the bailouts. That was about power. If you do the printing, we will not accept the money as a bribe to go back in and continue the racist child abuse that is whatever you plan to call NCLB. We will treat the money, and our new colleagues, as victories, and we will press on for more still.

We have some power too. We can shut down your schools, open freedom school in the midst of growing civil strife, and teach kids the fact that, among other things, all of history really is the history of class struggle.

If we do not resist, we can look quickly into the future and see what is in store for us. Here is The Duncan/Obamagogue model, Michelle Rhee:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/0/11/AR2009031103742.html

Mississippi Burning After Obama Speech

The Daily Howler has some wonderful stuff on the Obama speech.
On Thursday, he focused on Obama's comparison of Wyoming and Mississippi.
One thing he didn't mention is that Mississippi teacher unions - you know, the cause of all ed problems – probably have little impact. They can pretty much get rid of any teacher they want and load up on quality teachers. Maybe even send the entire Teach for America corps in there to save them.

Here is a excerpt, but make sure to read the entire thing:

Percentage of public school students eligible for free/reduced lunch:
Wyoming: 29.7 percent
Mississippi: 67.5 percent

Gee. Could the human stories behind those data help explain that the gap in reading achievement—the “seventy-point” gap Obama’s staff didn’t even bother to source? Beyond that, let’s look at some other data about these two groups of kids. Because of the weight of American history, these data are relevant too:

Racial composition of public school populations:
Wyoming: 84.5 percent white/1.5 percent black
Mississippi: 46.5 percent white/50.8 percent black

Given what we know of American history—the history which extends right up to this day—could those data help explain the gap between those states’ reading scores? Or must the gap be “explained” by the measure your bloodless elites have picked out?

Might we spend a few brief moments lingering here, out in the real world? In one of these states, forced illiteracy was official state policy, for several centuries, for what is now its largest student racial group. In states like Mississippi—in states like Maryland, the state where we type—it was against the law, for several centuries, to teach black children how to read. After that, Jim Crow came to visit—and he spread his blight all around, perhaps for another century. (No, the effects don’t go away just because we’ve decided we hate them.) And yet we are told, by our first black president, that it must be the difference between these states’ current “standards” that explains the gap in their reading scores! Good God! It’s hard to find words for the sheer stupidity—for the cosmic heartlessness—contained in such pure, scripted nonsense.

(By the way: There’s also a substantial difference in per pupil spending. In the 2005-2006 school year, Wyoming spent $11,392 per pupil—almost sixty percent more than Mississippi’s $7166. No, that really isn’t the difference. Then too, it doesn’t help.)

Does anyone think that this reading-score gap would flip if these two states swapped “standards?” Does anyone think the difference in these states’ reading scores is really determined by those “standards?” And by the way, might we make a thoroughly predictable observation?

As noted, Wyoming’s fourth-graders scored 17 points higher on the NAEP reading test in 2007. (Speaking very roughly, people sometimes say that ten points on this scale corresponds to one academic year. That’s a very rough rule of thumb. For all NAEP reading data, start here.) But guess what? Quite predictably, that seventeen points starts melting away if you control for income and race. Among non-poverty students, Wyoming’s fourth-graders led Mississippi’s by only six points; ditto if we compare white students only. (Wyoming has so few black kids that the NAEP can’t provide meaningful data.) And the gaps are even smaller in eighth-grade reading, where Wyoming’s non-poverty kids outscored Mississippi’s by four points.

We can’t recall if NAEP’s published data let us compare non-poverty white kids (middle-class whites) in the two states. (Again, Wyoming has too few blacks.) We’ll keep hunting on NAEP’s site. But we’ll take a wild guess here, based on what we’ve already seen: If we compare middle-class white kids in these states, that reading gap will be quite small—or it won’t exist. In other words, when we start comparing apples to apples, the troubling effects of those divergent “state standards” start to wither away. And duh. That’s because Mississippi’s problems aren’t caused by its current state educational standards. Her problems are caused by American history—and by the heartless, know-nothing conduct of our bloodless elites.

Here is a comment from Andrew on our post
More Fallout From Obama Ed Speech

How reactionary and retrograde was President Obama's education address? Well, it got an "A" from the poster boy for neoliberalism Jeb Bush. The former privatizer-in-chief of the state of Florida gave it his stamp of approval saying, "It is great that the president supported accountability, charter schools and pay for teacher performance. . . The president has the potential of leading the country to meaningful education reform."

Jeb Bush rose to power and the NCLB appeared on the scene because and when the "global economy" was riding herd on this planet. Globalization is at the very foundation of business model for schools, charters, vouchers, data driven instruction, merit pay, standardized testing, and most perversely of all, paying students to consume their version of education. It was the reason the Business Roundtable and Bill Gates were interested in public education at all. The CEO's wanted a profit making private school system and Gates wanted visas for Indians and Taiwanese who will do Microsoft's high tech work for less than MIT grads. There is a data collection frenzy over public schools nowadays simply to serve the interests of Bill Gates computer software company and Michael Dell's computer hardware company. America's children are irrelevant to these people.

But something happened on the way to a global economy and a privatized education system to serve it. The whole thing fell apart. Opps, AIG needs its fourth taxpayer bailout. Opps, Freddie Mac needs another $30 billion from the government. Opps, the FDIC needs another $500 billion to cover impending bank failures. Opps, GE's credit worthiness is downgraded by S&P. Opps, the governments of Iceland and Latvia have fallen and they can't get up.

When a massive systemic planetary force like globalization dies its like a Hummer that has run out of gas. It will continue rolling down the road awhile longer. And that accounts for the absurdities that are coming out of the President's mouth now. His tune will soon change though.

Because soon it will be every private school and charter school investor for himself. Bill Gates, the primary funder of the KIPP charters, lost $18 billion of his personal fortune this past year. Private school students are being moved to the public schools by their debt ridden parents in significant numbers already. The President's own inability to yet grasp that the world he used to live in is about to evaporate is dangerous. He himself will soon be fighting off the coup makers in the midst of the greatest economic dislocation the American people have ever experienced.

Teachers Protest Principal Iris Blige at Fordham High School for the Arts

Sometimes, the yo-yo principals who emerge from under the rocks at Tweed go too far. The UFT got the permits and will brag about their support. But as we are seeing around the city teachers are beginning to take action. Expect to see a lot more of this as teachers get fed up. And maybe Fordham U should be taken to task for the use of its name if is it officially associated with the school for supporting union busting.

RALLY FOR JUSTICE -- RALLY FOR JUSTICE

Fordham High School for the Arts

The principal at this school, Iris Blige, is abusive, arrogant, and disrespectful of teachers. She has framed several teachers that for some reasons made her angry. One teacher has been completely devastated by Bilge’s abuse and the way Blige framed her to get rid of her. On Friday, February 13, 2009, teachers all wore black to stand in solidarity with this teacher. The situation has gotten so bad everyone is now ready to walk out. Two chapter leaders resigned because they claim that they couldn't deal with her. Blige said "the school was too small for any kind of union presence."

Join us to protest the unfounded removal of yet another teacher by Principal Iris Blige!

Demand the immediate return of Raqnel James to the classroom!

Protest Chancellor Klein's support of abusive principals!

Fight against Klein's support for principals who make false allegations!

Speak out against principals who are retaliatory and intimidating!

Schools need quality principals and real leadership!

Where: ROOSEVELT CAMPUS
500 East Fordham Road, Bronx (across the street from Fordham University)
When: Friday, March 13 , 2009
Time 4 p.m.

Directions:
Trains: No. 4 to Fordham Road then the #12 to the school, or D to Fordham Road then the 12 or 22 to the school. (Catch this bus on Valentine Avenue).

Spread the word!

ISC Vs. Childen First

Before reading my comments below, check this Elizabeth Green report on YARAT (Yet Another Reorganization At Tweed) A DOE plan to personalize bureaucracy is making unions nervous

Ed Notes Comment:
Insiders report that Klein has unleashed a war between ISC and Children First network, with officials of each back biting and holding back on cooperation. Just what the schools need under the massive insanity emanating from Tweed. The Children First Network started out like a bolt of lightning with some great schools, but as in any business oriented mentality, the ramp up has led to a deterioration. But since that is of little relevance in the world of Tweed, bet on ISC to lose this one. The problem for the CFN is that they will find their little group of 13 - a very unlucky number in this case- will not be able to deliver. We all know there was waste when there was an ISC in each of 40 districts and the transition to 10 regions were rough, but was actually beginning to work. But of course they changed course - creative destruction, or something like that - and they moved to borough organizations. Now that's not working - guess why? THE PEOPLE AT TWEED ARE ALL BOOBIES. Now back to districts in essence with 13 support people for 20 schools. Hell, my old district (14) didn't have much more than 13 people for 27 schools. So, it's back to the beginning with what will turn out to be more waste.

Just another big OOOPS!

More Fallout From Obama Ed Speech

Reality Based Educator lays it on President Merit Pay over at NYC Educator. And it's about a lot more than education. President Merit Pay Or How I Have Come To Despise Barack Obama

Below are comments from Leonie Haimson (Obama ed advisors are nudniks), San Francisco Examiner Caroline Grannan (Obama gets a lot of it wrong about public education) and Bob Somerby's Daily Howler on Obama's misguided education speech. But it's always fun to see the Chicago so-called reformer crowd making excuses – the Obama was just throwing a bone to the Republicat Democrats on charters theory of pulling the wool over your own eyes.

Leonie:

A lot of this tripe is repeated over and over by the Bill Gates crowd as well as the Inside the beltway think-tanks (or non-think-tanks), many of whom are now leading the charge inside the Obama administration.

My biggest problem w/ Obama’s speech is not his description of how bad things are -- because I do think they are pretty bad in our large urban school systems where most poor kids get educated, as opposed to the nation as a whole – but his so-called solutions: Higher standards, more testing, merit pay, charter schools, and getting rid of bad teachers.

This is the Bloom/Klein agenda writ large and is both foolish and counterproductive. Unfortunately, it is also the agenda of the Center for American Progress –the home of our friend Robert Gordon, who is now one of Obama’s top education advisers.

Too bad the Dept. of Treasury is not making education policy. Not only would they be more skeptical of the line that unregulated competition will lift all boats –and cognizant of the huge risks involved in relying on simplistic statistical measures to gauge success and bonuses – as they have seen the disastrous results of these assumptions in our financial markets.

But also, two actual experts on the benefits of smaller classes and skeptics of the benefits of allowing the proliferation of charter schools have been appointed to top positions in the Treasury Dept.: Alan Krueger, as Treasury’s chief economist and Cecelia Rouse, one of three people appointed to the Council of Economic Advisers. Both of them are currently at Princeton and have done excellent research showing the economic benefits of class size reduction.

It is very unfortunate that in comparison, Obama’s education advisers seem to be free-market nudniks.

Caroline:

Yes, we can check our facts next time.

Boy, is President Obama confused. That was my reaction to his recent speech on education to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

And what’s with the praise of charter schools, President Obama? Charter schools have been around for 16 years now. Some are great, some are disasters and the rest are all along the range in between – just like traditional public schools. As has been amply documented, charter schools overall do not outperform traditional public schools, despite having numerous advantages over them (including massive financial bounty from billionaire private philanthropists and the avid support of a series of public-school-disparaging presidents).

More and more voices are talking about the way the charter school movement started as a “progressive” and “grassroots” way to allow parents a full voice in how their children are educated – and has now been largely hijacked by the pro-privatization, anti-public-education free-market right. You’d think those folks would be hiding in a corner right now, with their philosophy so obviously discredited -- I'm one of the millions of Americans suffering direct economic harm from their gleeful experiment with unregulated free markets – but they’re still out there waving the flag for charter schools. (A growing legion of resisters among real-life urban parents around the nation is rising up to decry the “stranglehold of the billionaire eduphilanthropreneurs,” as Oakland’s Perimeter Primate blog puts it.)

Caroline's entire piece is here.


Somerby:

Why do politicians paint this Gloomy Portrait of American schools? In some cases, they may not know what they’re talking about; everyone has heard these Standard Claims, and people tend to believe them. But yes, there can be political uses for such gloomy misstatements. As Bracey has noted, gloomy claims have long been used by educational “conservatives” to undermine faith in the public schools; vouchers and charters are more appealing if you believe that the public schools are a wreck. On the other hand, a president can set himself up to be a star if he overstates the mess which predates him.

The Daily Howler will be writing more about Obama's speech today.

All of the above refer to the Gerald Bracey refutation of most of Obama's "facts." We posted on Bracey yesterday. Bracey: On Education, Obama Blows It

Jim Horn at School Matters lays it on Arne: Oh yes, Arne, the Great Incenter

Oh, and we must include the UFT Pathetic Response to Obama Speech

Merit Pay Miracles at MS 324M

I take it all back. the NY Post reports that merit pay does work miracles – if you look at MS 324 in Washington Heights,

where an experimental merit-pay program is working - parents, teachers and students were overjoyed yesterday that President Obama is on board. Principal Janet Heller and her mostly young and motivated educators said the merit pay is about showing respect for a job well done.

Just take a look at this astounding number: the percentage of students meeting math standards jumped to 71 percent from 39 percent the year before.

Holy cow! And all because of paying teachers $3000 extra a year. Imagine if it had been $4000!

(Mostly) young and motivated educators at MS 324 exuberant over Obama speech.

I can't wait for this year's results when the numbers jump above 100%. I have an idea. Pay teachers 10 grand extra and watch 8th graders do calculus.

Civil War in Harlem Over Charter Schools

Sometimes you just have to let Tweed do all the work to organize parents and teachers against their policies. Look at it as letting the game come to you.

While teacher opposition voices have been more than simmering for years, albeit with the dampening effect of the UFT collaborationists, parent voices have mostly been coming from white middle class parents. The BloomKlein appeal to Black parents that their reforms were addressing the civil rights issue of the times seemed to be working.

But as we reported the other day in this post Parents, Teachers at Ocean-Hill Brownsville's PS 150K Lied to by Tweed about PS 150 in Ocean-Hill Brownsville and PS 241 in Harlem (also see our reports on the protests in Chicago) parents who are not being guaranteed entry into the charters are beginning to push back. In our post we talked about the ads being run by charter school interests to undermine public schools - the meeting to be held last night at PS 194 was a prime example.

Well, it was some meeting as Elizabeth Green captures the scene in one of her best ever reports at Gotham Schools. Leonie Haimson tipped her hat at the NYC Public School Parent blog:

Civil war in Harlem over charter schools: shame on DOE!

An excellent description in Gotham Schools of the bitter hearings that took place yesterday about the DOE's plan to eliminate PS 194, a zoned neighborhood school in District 5, and move another branch of Harlem Success Charter School into the building: A divided house spars over charter schools’ growth in Harlem.

As we have pointed out previously in relation to the intention to close PS 294 in District 3, this unilateral decision is illegal according to state law -- one cannot eliminate school zones, according to Section 2590-e of NY State education law, without the approval of the Community Education Council. It is also immoral.

I have witnessed these charter school hearings before. They are the worst experiences one can imagine. Shame on the DOE for creating this situation by throwing crumbs before starving parents.

I'll leave you with just a crumb from Green, but make sure to read the entire thing.

Many of those opposed to housing the charter school at 194 said they are concerned that charter schools — public schools that operate outside the regular district bureaucracy — are part of a larger gentrification of the neighborhood. “Tarzan and Jane are back again, swinging through Harlem: Not with vines, but with charter schools,” said a community activist who offered her name as Dr. K. Samuels. Samuels explained that by Tarzan she meant John White, the thin, long-faced DOE official who ran the hearing, and that by Jane she meant Moskowitz, the politician-turned-school operator who sat a few feet away from her and held her Blackberry in her lap. Samuels added, “Like Tarzan and Jane, coming right through the black community, and they were making everything better because the natives couldn’t do it.”

The colonial metaphor caused some Moskowitz supporters to shake their heads, but Samuels defended it as apt. Though not all of the staff members at Harlem Success Academy 2, the charter school proposed to move into P.S. 194, are white, many are, including the principal. Moskowitz and White are also white. The principal of P.S. 194, meanwhile, is black. Her staff includes a mix of races.

Photoshopped by David B. I still think Eva wears the loin cloth in this family.