Matt Taibbi on The Big Takeover

Select quotes from Taibbi's scathing piece in Rolling Stone

...this was a casino unique among all casinos, one where middle-class taxpayers cover the bets of billionaires.

People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.

AIG is what happens when short, bald managers of otherwise boring financial bureaucracies start seeing Brad Pitt in the mirror.

The Democrats, tired of getting slaughtered in the fundraising arena by Republicans, decided to throw off their old reliance on unions and interest groups and become more "business-friendly."

Paulson used the bailout to transform the government into a giant bureaucracy of entitled assholedom, one that would socialize "toxic" risks but keep both the profits and the management of the bailed-out firms in private hands. Moreover, this whole process would be done in secret, away from the prying eyes of NASCAR dads, broke-ass liberals who read translations of French novels, subprime mortgage holders and other such financial losers.

the Wall Street crowd has turned the vast majority of Americans into non-participants in their own political future. There is a reason it used to be a crime in the Confederate states to teach a slave to read: Literacy is power. In the age of the CDS and CDO, most of us are financial illiterates. By making an already too-complex economy even more complex, Wall Street has used the crisis to effect a historic, revolutionary change in our political system — transforming a democracy into a two-tiered state, one with plugged-in financial bureaucrats above and clueless customers below.

Illustration by Victor Juhasz

A MUST READ
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/

Related: Naomi Klein's Nov. 08 piece, The New Trough

Ravitch Savages BloomKlein - Again

Check out our NYC parent blog: video of the March 26 downtown forum on Demystifying Mayoral control; including

• Paul Hovitz on the incompetence of Tweed
Paul Hovitz on the incompetence of Tweed

• State and city laws routinely flouted by this administration.
State and city laws routinely flouted by this administration

• Demystifying Mayoral control: Diane Ravitch on mayoral autocracy...

Demystifying Mayoral control: Diane Ravitch on mayoral autocracy

And don’t miss:
• Announcing a new Mayoral control troll in town! Heeeere's Abby Sugrue of secretly funded pro Bloomberg Learn NY revealed Announcing the new Mayoral control troll in town!

All the above if you missed the individual links at:
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/

thanks to David Bellel as always….

Leonie Haimson

Credit Recovery and Drive-By Diplomas in NYC

Teachers have been screaming about credit recovery and the drive-by diplomas that result as a cheap BloomKlein tactic to pump grad rates. See Jamaica HS CL James Eterno testimony last week on the ICE blog. ICE Members Testify at State Assembly Education Committee Hearing in Brooklyn

This winter, Jamaica High School has followed other schools by starting something called “Credit Recovery.” A pupil who has failed a class can make up an entire course by showing up for three mornings for three hours during winter or spring break. The academic standards have fallen so much that teachers now joke that vehicles better roll up their windows when they pass by our school or they will have a “drive by diploma” thrown in their car. We understand why the SAT scores are down. Standards are virtually nonexistent. Kids are smart. They know this. We know we are not alone and that what is happening at Jamaica is occurring in many other buildings. We are told by administration that if the graduation and promotion numbers don’t improve, the DOE will shut down our school and get rid of us.

Below is a fascinating discussion between Leonie Haimson and David Bloomfield who heads the principals' academy at Brooklyn College, a NYC parent and major critic of BloomKlein, though he does support the concept of mayoral control.

Leonie Haimson writes:

Thanks so much, David; this is truly fascinating stuff.

I’m not sure who Mr. Marino means by “They have tried to stop this action but as I see it, it is still occurring. “ If this refers to DOE, I would doubt its veracity.

In extended questioning at the Brooklyn Assembly hearings last week, Eric Nadelstern passionately defended the current practice of credit recovery and also claimed this it was a long-standing policy of the NYC schools, even before the current administration came into office.

As he was seated with Marcia Lyles, Chris Cerf, Deputy Mayor Walcott, Jim Liebman, and the entire top brass of DOE except for Klein, and Michael Best was seated just behind him (the chief counsel of DOE) and none of them contradicted his remarks, one can only conclude that the DOE very much supports the current policy, whatever they may have stated to SED to the contrary.

Indeed, this comment from SED is reminiscent of their recent statement to the press about the class size increases in NYC schools this year:

"Although the New York City Department of Education made measurable progress in the first year of their Contract for Excellence, we required them to take corrective actions this year. Both the State and City are working together to fully understand this new class size information and decide what further actions are needed to address this situation."

Either the state is more naïve than one would think possible, or another interpretation is in order.

About the following statement in Marino’s email that you reproduce below: “NYC DOE did publish a statement from the Office of School Improvement that Credit Recovery was not acceptable for students to earn credit other than the way I mentioned.”

Could you possibly ask Mr. Marino if he could forward you a copy of this statement, and ask him where and how it was published by DOE?

I have not seen it in the Principals weekly or otherwise. I wonder how it was circulated.

Thanks,

Leonie Haimson

From David Bloomfield
To: nyceducationnews@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [nyceducationnews] credit recovery

I thought people might be interested in a post by a NYS Education Department official about credit recovery, posted on the Long Island School Leadership's listserv for aspiring administrators:

As an Education Associate for the New York State Education Department there is no such item in the Commissioner Regulations as 'CREDIT RECOVERY' and this is a misconception. The only way a student can earn credit for failed courses is that the student have the 180 seat time in the course and go to a summer session for 5-6 weeks and then take the appropriate test at the end of the summer course. Anything less, is a violation of the commissioner's regulations and a school can be sanctioned for this. Hope this is clear to you!

Peacefully,
Sal Marino

Mr. Marino went on to state, in response to whether "component retesting" is possible to allow students to pass a course (i.e., if they flunk the course, could they would only then have to "pass" the parts of the course that they failed in order to receive credit):

The answer to your question is no! If the course let say is Integrated Algebra and the student fails different topics of the course and has a failing average of the course, then he has to repeat the course. I think your thinking of component retesting. That is totally different from course elements. If a student has the seat time in a course and fails the regents exam twice with a grade of between 48 and 55 then they can take the component retest in specific topics and if they get enough credit on this test the scale score is added to the regents grade to help them pass the regents, but not the course. They can pass the course without passing the regents exam. I hope I have made this clear. I also believe that this may be the last year for component retesting.

The good news (though don't hold your breath) is that Mr. Marino states, in response to my question about whether SED will make the DOE crack down on the practice and track credits obtained in this way, he stated:

At the present time the NYC DOE did publish a statement from the Office of School Improvement that Credit Recovery was not acceptable for students to earn credit other than the way I mentioned. They have tried to stop this action but as I see it, it is still occurring. At the present time the legal department of the state and city are working on something, for students to recover credits but it has not been published. Yes you may pass on the information I sent as a reply and I hope others will read this and see that there is no such item as credit recovery in the commissioner's regulations!!
Sal Marino

-David

PRESS RELEASE: DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION: COUNTER THE EDUCATION DEFORMERS

Conference/Strategy Session on fighting testing/school closings/ATR

WHEN: SATURDAY MARCH 28 FROM 12-3 PM.

WHERE: JOHN JAY COLLEGE, RM 1311 NORTH HALL BUILDING, 445 W 59TH ST
A,C,D,B, 1 TRAINS TO 59TH ST

Will charter schools and small elite schools drain away the highest performing students, leaving the public schools and the teachers in them to be branded as failures because they are working with the students who need the most help but are denied the resources to do an effective job? Have we seen the end of the zoned neighborhood schools in poor urban school systems? As school after school is closed, often for nefarious reasons, will we end up with a corps of teachers forced to move from school to school teaching in subject areas for which they were not trained in what is fast becoming a dead end career? And a corps of children and parents shut out of their own neighborhood schools?

We see this conference as a first step in building a coalition of teachers, parents and students to plan campaigns to take back public education from the privateers.


Angel Gonzalez, Sam Coleman and Norm Scott, three of the organizers of the "Stop the School Closings/Defend Public Education" Conference at John Jay College on March 28 appeared on WBAI radio Thurs. Mar 26. at around 7:40. Education At The Crossroads WBAI - 99.50 fm with Basir Mchawi http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/090326_190001eatcrossr.MP3

See the video ad produced by Education Notes for the March 28 conference to save public schools at John Jay College in NYC, is a prime example of the manipulation of the community by charter school advocates. Harlem Success, led by Eva Moskowitz has pushed its way into public school spaces with the support of the NYC Department of Education. The push by Bloomberg and Klein to support charter schools is a prime example of their failure to solve the problems that exist in public schools. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

The CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY:
THE INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY OF EDUCATORS AND
THE NEW YORK COALITION OF RADICAL EDUCATORS

Endorsers: ATRs-School Closings Committee of ICE/UFT, Justice Not Just Tests (JNJT), Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico – Support Committee of NY, Teachers for a Just Contract - TJC/UFT, Teacher Advocacy Group NYC – TAGNYC, Teachers Unite, People Power Coalition, Center for Immigrant Families

Conact:
Norm Scott: normsco@gmail.com, norscot@aol.com, 917-992-3734
Angel Gonzalez: asc-ice@gmail.com, 718-601-4901
Sam Coleman: sam_p_coleman@yahoo.com

An ATR Writes

(Another reason to attend the Mar. 28 conference at John Jay College on closed schools, atrs, high stakes testing and other pressing issues.)

3/27/09

Why can't Article 17 be utilized. Also, why is it that special education teachers with no general ed background are being forced to teach general ed classes and the UFT is doing nothing about it. Special Ed Teachers and General Ed teachers are not the same. I am a special ed teacher and it is not fair to me that for ten years I taught in my license with 12 students. Now I am being forced to teach 20 - 30 students at a time as well as other content area subjects that I am not trained in like gym, science, music, drama etc. This is not what I signed up for and I agree the DOE will not stop what they are doing until we (Teachers) get this out to the media. We have to expose what is being done to us because the UFT is not going to do it.

Why is the UFT turning a deaf ear to teachers complaints. Guidance Counselors that were displaced are placed in their titles, ESL Teachers are placed in their titles as well as speech teachers but why not special ed teachers. I have addressed this before with the UFT with no response.


See Marjorie Stamberg's report of the Mar. 23 UFT Exec. Bd meeting is at Norms' Notes. Attempts have been made and are still being made to create pressure on Micahel Mendel who has been placed in charge of the atr issue.

ATR Issue Brought to UFT Executive Board

Derrick Townsend assistant principal at PS 154 in the Bronx has been reassigned

Report from an Ed Notes stringer at PS 154x
(Become a stringer for ed notes reporting on your school)

It has been learned that Derrick Townsend the assistant principal that assaulted a 9 year old last month and left bruises on her arm and leg has been reassigned to the Teacher Reassignment Center otherwise known as the "Rubber Room."

This action was taken immediately after a swarm of investigators descended upon PS 154 this week and were looking into Derrick Townsend for having allegedly dragged the girl up to 20 feet when she refused to stop crying and come with him.

The investigation is ongoing as is the investigation into Principal Linda Amill-Irizarry's alleged cover-up of the assault.

A criminal complaint against Derrick Townsend have been filed with the NYPD and the investigation is ongoing.

We have seen countless teachers sent to rubber rooms over trivialities. I heard from a friend today who was totally cleared after spending 6 months in the rubber room, sent there by an abusive principal on trumped up charges from a kid who said she made a racial slur. The principal left the system and gets off scot free (there are still teachers from the school in the rubber room after years).

Our reporter touches on an important point. The principal protected the AP and he was allowed to remain in the school despite the fact that people have been reporting the actions of the AP for many months. It was only after the story came out in the press that the incident was addressed by the DOE. Klein was sent letters about Townsend months ago. Leaving a supervisor accused of these acts in the building for months amounts to criminal behavior. I've often said Klein would one day be led out of Tweed with his coat over his head. Now's as good a time as any.

Why We Need to Defend Public Education? The Harlem Success Pro-Charter School Rally

This ad produced by Education Notes for the March 28 conference to save public schools at John Jay College in NYC, is a prime example of the manipulation of the community by charter school advocates. The Harlem Success Schools led by Eva Moskowitz has pushed its way into public school spaces with the support of the NYC Department of Education. The push by Bloomberg and Klein to support charter schools is an admission of their failure to solve the problems that exist in public schools.

PRINCIPAL PROBED IN BIZARRE BUDDHIST 'HATE CHANTS'

If we really want to improve teacher quality to the extent that one day - maybe in the 23rd century - we would be able to take a few billion off the corporate bailout packages to produce enough quality teachers to reduce class size, Buddhist chanting seems as good a way to accomplish this as any discovered so far. All we need is a value-added measurement as to the effectiveness of the chants.

NY Post

Organizing to Create Safer Schools for LGBTQ Youth

Ed Notes has been urging people to attend the conference to save public schools this Saturday at John Jay College.

I wanted to alert you to another conference on the same day. "Organizing to Create Safer Schools for LGBTQ Youth" is an important event that our colleagues at NYQueer (NYCoRE) have planned in conjunction with other groups. This event, the third in a series, was planned before ours, but with the pressure of closing schools and the vacation coming up, we had few dates available.

Check out the flyer. I posted the schedule on Norm's Notes

Organizing To Create Safer Schools for LGBTQ Youth Saturday, March 28th 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

ICE/NYCORE Conference Organizers on WBAI Thurs. Eve

Angel Gonzalez, Sam Coleman and Norm Scott, organizers of the "Stop the School Closings/Defend Public Education" Conference at John Jay College on March 28 will speak on WBAI radio Thurs. Mar 26. at around 7:15.

Education At The Crossroads (show starts at 7pm)
WBAI - 99.50 fm with Basir MChawi

Whither the UFT and a GEM of an Idea

Imagine if every school in the NYC turned into non-unionized charter schools? What would become of the UFT/Unity Caucus machine as it hemorrhaged dues? Well, they have a simple plan. Just organize charter schools into the union.

Not so simple kemosabe. From Gotham Schools - a suggestion that all New York teachers should be able to decertify the union. Of course, these are the two much talked about KIPP schools (KIPP Academy Charter School in the Bronx and the KIPP Infinity Charter School in Manhattan) as the KIPP empire strikes back for the UFT daring to try to organize a Brooklyn KIPP school, efforts that may be floundering.

On the surface, one would think the massive, dues soaked UFT holds all the cards. Many of us lined up as internal critics think not.

Any charter school teacher who takes a peek at the most sophisticated teacher blogs will see what's in store for them as the level of hostility directed at the UFT leaderships is barely a smidgen less than that aimed at BloomKlein. So why would they step into the muck of the UFT?

Many of the union missteps occur because of the fundamental lack of democracy, the complete top-down management and the gap between the leadership and the members. With an absolute almost 50 year lock on control, including the buying off of New Action, the former opposition party, there is no hope of reform. Some people may be fooled into believing changes are coming because they think Randi Weingarten is walking into the sunset of the AFT, but that is not a sure bet and whatever happens, there will be no loosening of the reigns because Unity has built such a tight, foolproof structure.

Over the years, I have heard many opposition voices raised in frustration calling for starting a de-certification campaign in the public schools to create a real threat to the UFT leadership and force them into reform. Imagine if another union did come in and try that? At one time in the 70's the NEA actually tried to put its foot in the door – they took about 20 opposition people out to eat at Gaylord's, a fancy Indian restaurant. We had a nice expensive meal at their expense and said, "No thanks!"

I've been against these efforts, taking the position that if UFT internal critics cannot grow enough to organize an effective force, then bringing in another union would replace the old boss with the new boss.

Thus, it was gratifying to see all sorts of groups and people involved in the UFT informally gather for lunch at the Labor Notes Troublemakers School this past Saturday.

Members of ICE (Independent Community of Educators,) NYCORE (NY Collective of Radical Educators,) TJC (Teachers for a Just Contract,) ISO (International Socialists,) Teachers Unite and independents joined Puerto Rico's teachers union president Rafael Feliciano in a conversation about democratic unions (the FMPR is one) educating members on the issues and organizing and mobilizing them into a force that can counter the collaboration of the UFT by building a grass roots movement that could not be stifled by the union institutions.

Thus, while the lock on power would remain in the hands of people at the top, the rank and file teachers in the schools they have abandoned could start to move in a more militant direction.

If such a movement actually occurs, it may transcend caucuses like ICE and TJC and pay less attention to the rigged institutions of UFT power like the Delegate Assembly and certainly the total Unity dominated Executive Board (81 members out of 89 with the other 8 handed to New Action through Unity endorsement.)

Meanwhile, today is the March Delegate Assembly and we will all still be there to do our thing.
We will be joining Justice Not Just Tests in getting petitions on high stakes testing – the root of all evil – signed.

A resolution on closing schools – the 3rd time the UFT will take a position calling for a moratorium on closing schools – had a provision calling for a mass meeting of teachers from every announced closing school. The UFT leadership took it out. They will take potshots at rallies at individual schools to allow teachers to vent, but will not take concerted action to stop them. Why? Because the UFT believes in the policy of closing schools even though it creates ATRs - over 1700 and counting.

We will be handing out our flyer for this Saturday's conference at John Jay College (starting at 12 pm) which we hope will turn out to be a first strike in building a Grassroots Educators Movement - GEM. (Angel Gonzalez came up with the idea this morning, not bad for one of us oldies but goodies.)

Consider attending or encouraging someone from your school to attend, in particular if you are in a closing or soon to be closed school. If the UFT won't get people together, we will.

COMING SOON: VIDEO I TOOK AT THE HARLEM SUCCESS CHARTER SCHOOL RALLY LAST WEEK. THAT ALONE SHOULD GET YOU TO GIVE UP YOUR SATURDAY

Related:
This Saturday! Education Notes Joins the fightback to save public education -