ICE urges all readers to vote against Bloomberg!

Published at the ICE blogs and web site: UFT Elections 2010, ICE Blog, ICE Web site

ICE Statement on the Nov. 3, 2009 Vote for Mayor

The election on November 3^rd will have lasting consequences for public education and the city. It deserves the attention and involvement of all New Yorkers. The UFT has a long history of candidate endorsements made without any regular process of consultation with the membership and often contrary to members' interests. The decision to sit out the contest between Michael Bloomberg and his opponents speeds us to the brink of more disasters. If appearances are real and the UFT leadership's passive support for the mayor's reelection is a deal for a new UFT contract by deadline, our union is deeply complicit in another landmark defeat for the teaching profession.

Nearly eight years of direct control over the schools have provided Bloomberg with an unchecked opportunity to implement numerous policies premised on distrust and contempt for teachers, students and school communities. Early on with his rush to implement grade retention policy he put the blame on 8-year olds for low reading scores and further worked to make standardized testing a year-round concern. “Weekend, vacations, summer -- time off is a luxury earned, not a right,” he told a radio audience in 2002. Chancellor Klein went to work making testing an obsession for all schools by hanging their fate on it.

His administration accelerated the wholesale closing of neighborhood high schools. Together with a successful assault on teachers' contractual rights this led to the creation of an excess teacher reserve force in the thousands. The result of dozens of school phase-outs deepened the gulf between the two worlds children in New York encounter at the high school level. One consists mostly of large neighborhood or selective schools and is increasingly filled with white and Asian students An entirely different realm awaits black and Latino students consisting mostly of new small schools, stripped of both enrichment programs, IEP services and bilingual programs and plagued with teacher turnover.

The new schools have been staffed with discriminatory hiring through privately-run programs. Just as tens of millions in funding by Bill Gates went to school reorganizations, Eli Broad's millions were used to train principals to see teachers as antagonists. In recent years Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein have extended the agenda of privatized education by embracing charter schools, displaying a marked preference for the chain operators. Their favoritism towards the charters has allowed them to invade neighborhood schools and shrink them.

For educational activists the past eight years have meant not only palpable damage but also lost opportunity for positive and progressive change. The Bloomberg monopoly of power has excluded local participation in decision making, eliminating a common entry into politics by Black and Latino New Yorkers. It has also preempted meaningful discussion around educational goals and policy. What should be the goals of a public education? How can schools do more just provide an exit from the poorest communities? How could schools be part of a collective effort to improve neighborhoods and increase democracy?

Bill Thompson has played an important role as city comptroller in exposing Bloomberg-era fraud and mismanagement. His supporters are waging a spirited fight against a billionaire mayor with lopsidedly less resources. It is difficult to offer Thompson unqualified support when he has thrown support to mayoral control and supports much of the underlying corporate agenda for education. The mayoral race this year also attracted Tony Avella (who Thompson defeated) and Billy Palen who is running as the Green Party candidate. Both advocated a more grassroots response to the current mess and it's a shame Thompson didn't adopt some of their policies in his campaign against the mayor.

Despite these differences anything other than energetic rejection of the Bloomberg monopoly is the wrong choice for our union.

We urge all readers to vote against Bloomberg!

AFT Takeover Sanctioned By US Labor Department

The Lund Report, an Oregonian Health Blog run by Diane Lund (who I accidentally ran into on a subway in NYC this summer), has an excellent report on the AFT takeover of a Portland health care local which had been discussing leaving the AFT before being invaded by an AFT goon squad, er, Vice presidents. Randi went out there to speak. She even invited me along but I was washing my hair. The UFT has had the AFT in receivership for 35 years (or since Shanker became AFT President.)

Previous articles in ed notes on the situation in Portland:

Education Notes Online: Randi Goes to Portland As AFT Threatens ...

Jul 11, 2009

Search the blog for FMPR.) Time for a national opposition movement in the AFT? I foresee road trips in my future, though Randi jokingly invited me to go to Oregon with her at the Ex Bd meeting the other day. My bags are packed, Randi. ..

Education Notes Online: AFT Hack Attack on Portland Local 5017 (Jul 13, 2009)

randi in portland (or) and a weird subway meeting

Jul 20, 2009

her about me says, "diane is the founder and former executive director and editor of oregon health forum/oregon health news, an organization she ran for 16 ½ years. under her leadership, it became the leading resource for health policy ...

Union Rules Own Takeover Legit Despite Federal Probe
U.S. Department of Labor has final say based on a formal complaint

By: Diane Lund-Muzikant

October 21, 2009 -- The American Federation of Teachers is maintaining its grip on the 3,000 nurses and health professionals who work for Kaiser Permanente and Providence Milwaukie Hospital following a four-month investigation.

A hand-picked panel of three AFT vice presidents voted to continue the trusteeship on Oct. 16, however the fight may be far from over. An investigation has been launched by the U.S. Department of Labor in Seattle, which will ultimately determine whether the takeover was lawful. It’s unknown who filed the complaint.

AFT took control of the local union’s functions and finances through a protective order on July 7, “to prevent the erosion of members’ bargaining status, contractual protections and democratic rights,” according to Mark Richard, OFNHP administrator.

That same evening, the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals had scheduled a special membership meeting to consider disaffiliating from AFT by amending its constitution. Union representatives feared they would be traded to SEIU and had approached the California Nurses Association, which intends to create a new organization known as the National Nurse Organizing Committee. They also were preparing to embark on labor negotiations with the Kaiser Coalition.

AFT maintains the union violated its constitutional requirements, which does not allow a membership meeting to be held during July, put their members status in the Kaiser Coalition at risk, and expended funds for meetings, materials and elections in violation of the local union’s rules.

“Essentially what happened here was a small group of leaders purposely deceived the wider membership,” according to Richard. “They forgot their mission. They were supposed to be guaranteeing democracy in the workplace and in the union hall. The goal now is to strengthen the union and restore OFNHP to local control.”

AFT acted after receiving a petition from some current and former officers as well as members who was concerned that certain OFNHP leaders were ”cavalierly violating the union’s constitution and taking steps to remove the local union from membership in AFT and the Kaiser Coalition without transparency and proper membership approval,” according to Richard.

Kathy Geroux, who was stripped of her role as union president by AFT, could not be reached for comment. But TheLundReport did get a copy of the legal brief she filed with her attorney, Barbara Harvey.

Disputing the claims made by AFT, Harvey contends the national union seized control to scuttle the disaffiliation campaign. After taking over its operations, Richard acknowledged that the “deposed leadership had done a commendable job of streamlining the budget, limiting expenses and generally restoring the union to financial good health,” according to her brief.

By using its powerful authority, “the AFT violated its own constitutional procedures for invoking that authority,” Harvey wrote. “And utterly failed to produce the sort of record of imminent financial catastrophe that its constitution requires to justify emergency proceedings.”

The OFNHP had authority to hold a special meeting on July 7 with prior notice, and the $3,000 expended for that meeting had been budgeted and approved by the executive board, she insisted.

In attempting to interpret its bylaws, AFT had no particular expertise, “reflecting either a creatively self-serving result-oriented bias or shocking unfamiliarity with life in the trenches.”

Harvey also called AFT “guilty of distortion made in its grab for whatever monkey wrenches might be at hand to derail the OFNHP leadership’s admittedly lawful and protected substantive purpose.”

Around the same time as the takeover, labor negotiations were about to get underway with Kaiser. By removing from office those people most effective in handling those contract negotiations, “AFT is over its head,” according to Harvey. “The AFT has not handled these negotiations in the past. The trusteeship itself is what will cause immense damage to the members’ economic welfare.”

For related article click here.

Gerald Bracey

I didn't know much about Jerry Bracey and had little contact with him, but the work he did in battling the Ed Deformers was immense. (Just google him.) With so few resources to battle the forces arrayed against us, this is a giant voice that will be missed. The one contact I had with him was an email when he heard Diane Ravitch was going to be given the UFT's John Dewey Award. (He and Diane did not exactly get along.) "Are you holding some kind of protest," he wanted to know? He seemed ready to head to New York if that was happening. It wasn't. (That was before Ravitch become a major voice fighting the ed deformers herself over the past few years - there's more than a bit of irony here if she fills some of the gap we have lost with Bracey's death. Her upcoming book (March) promises to blow the lid off.)


Yesterday afternoon, Susan Ohanian sent out the very sad news about Jerry's death with this announcement:

There are no postings to send tonight.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

Gerald Bracey died unexpectedly today. His loss is devastating--as expert and as friend and mentor. Jerry didn't suffer facile argument quietly--whether it came from the left or the right. He was our mentor, the fellow who we could trust to explain hard data, the one we could depend on not to capitulate.

Fearless in the face of power, Jerry told the truth and wasn't afraid to make enemies.

Rest in Peace, Jerry. You leave a void in our hearts and in our struggle for justice for the children.

Susan


George Schmidt followed:

Bracey was one of the authors on this cartoon

October 21, 2009

Colleagues and friends:

I'm sending the following to CORE and Substance and then going upstairs to tell Sharon.

One other thing: Going through all the stuff Jerry wrote, I came across "Bill Gates, If you're so rich, how come you're not smart?" an Arizona State University Point of View Essay from 2005.

Brief, to the point, and pure Bracey.

Made me laugh again, and remember a tiny bit about what makes Jerry so alive forever.

Here's what I have so far:

Although CORE is fairly young, as everyone knows, many have been in these same struggles for a long, long, long time. One of the best was Jerry (Gerald) Bracey, who wrote more than a dozen books about the misuse of high-stakes testing and the lies of official power. Jerry also served as an expert witness for me during the Board of Education's hearing that terminated my employment, spent numerous times in Chicago, and was one of the most delightfulpeople to join in the fight against data driven drivel. His comprehensive knowledge of both the history of these idiocies and the current iterations of each idiocy, coupled with a really great sense of humor, were one of the strongest things about our movement, even in our darkest days under "No Child Left Behind" and since under "Race to the Top."

When I received word through Fair Test's ARN (Assessment Reform Network) and from Susan and others, I wrote the following:

I'm still sitting here saying, "No. This is impossible. It was only yesterday..."

Because it was. Our last conversation was two days ago.

Jerry called here to ask about Arne Duncan's claim that over 50 percent of the (high school) students in Chicago are attending schools outside their attendance area. He was in his usual good spirits and sounded as healthy as ever.

We talked, as usual, for a long time about the other projects he was working on.

He said he had to go because it was his turn to walk the dog.

My first thought is speechlessness.

We will have to share more soon.

Right now, all I can say is that it was a privilege to work with Jerry, to print his stuff, to stand with him in our battles, and to consider him a friend. So much of what he did will live on forever, thanks to his relentless sense of humor and hard work.

We will all treasure his memory.

And for now share our feelings as best we can with his family.

Please let us know the arrangements as soon as possible. Who will be there in Port Townsend (or where) on our behalf? There are so many "our" for this behalf it's hard to know where to begin.

That's all for now,

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.net


Sharon Higgins at the Perimeter Primate commented:
The Perimeter Primate said...

This is an enormous loss. Jerry was an extraordinarily clear and independent thinker.

The modern education reform establishment desperately needs to read his recently released book, "Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality."

Perhaps we can all pay tribute to Jerry's life work by purchasing a copy of "Education Hell" and send it with a loving note to our favorite ed reformer-type.

Here are some people to start with:
- Arne Duncan and his entire staff at the DoE
- Democrats for Education Reform (Joe Williams, Whitney Tilson, Newt Gingrich, Al Sharpton, etc.)
- Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg
- Bill Gates and his entire staff at the Gates Foundation
- Eli Broad and his entire staff and the Broad Foundation
- Any Broad-trained superintendents or residents in your local school district
- Jay Green and his staff at the U. of Arkansas Department of Education Reform
- etc.

Test Questions on Outer Space Lead Eva Moskowitz to Book Space Shuttle for Harlem Success Field Study

Ed Notes News Scoop

Having learned from her impeccable sources that there would be a passage on outer space on the next reading test, Eva Moskowitz has booked the Space Shuttle to prepare the Harlem Success Academy kids for the exam. "This should be the difference we need to kick the rest of the PS 123 crowd out of the school so we can take it over completely," said a HSA spokesperson. "Our scores will be so much higher that there will be no question as to who should occupy the building."

The $2 billion for the booking came from the Gates Foundation, with an extra $2 billion for the trailer to tow the 200 kids who will going on the trip. "We leave no one behind when we are scrounging for points on the exams," said the spokesperson. Moskowitz will go along on the trip and be compensated accordingly with a million dollar bonus.


Related:

A Moo-Moo Here, and Better Test Scores Later

by Javier Hernandez, who seemed to have his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, as evidenced by this:

"On a chilly morning last week, the kindergartners, in blue-and-orange school scarves, crowded around a corral at the Queens County Farm Museum to gaze at an elderly cow named Daisy and a sheep standing nearby. In the background, children from other schools giggled and played as the Harlem students huddled quietly."

Read it in full at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/education/20farms.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

Weingarten Playa Manchurian Candidate as She Brokers Deal in New Haven

There's nothing surprising in Weingarten's dealing in New Haven. The AFT/UFT doesn't play the role as teacher advocate but as broker between teachers and the ed deformers. In fact it's worse than that. Weingarten is there to sell the as much as the ed deform program to teachers as she can get away with. The new Manchurian Candidate.

"I rarely say that something is a model or a template for something else, but this is both," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who helped broker the New Haven deal.

"This shows a willingness to go into areas that used to be seen as untouchable," Mr. Duncan said.

A showdown between the White House and the powerful teachers' unions looks, for the moment, a little less likely.

This week in New Haven, Conn., the local teachers union agreed, in a 21-1 vote, to changes widely resisted by unions elsewhere, including tough performance evaluations and fewer job protections for bad teachers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, as well as the unions, said the New Haven contract could be repeated in other school districts.

Read it in full at The Wall St Journal.

Manchurian Candidate 2

Dave Bellel Strikes Again

Randi Weingarten, The Manchurian Candidate

Russia’s Leaders See UFT Unity Caucus as Template for Ruling

52 Broadway — Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: Unity Caucus.

Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the UFT's ruling Unity Caucus.

United Russia’s leaders even convened a special meeting this month with senior UFT officials at UFT headquarters at 52 Broadway to hear firsthand how they wield power.

Russia in recent years has started moving toward the UFT model. “To me, the meeting demonstrated that United Russia wants to establish a single-party dictatorship in Russia, for all time,” an observer commented.

"100 percent of the members of the UFT executive Board are endorsed by the Unity Caucus," said Putin, "an awesome display of one party control that exceeds even the old Communist Party in Russia," Putin continued. "They control the entire media of the UFT and have ingeniously packed the monthly delegate assembly meetings with their supporters by holding meetings for 3300 delegates in a space that holds only 850. Brilliant.

"And they don't even have to send assassins to remove their opponents," Putin said shaking his head in wonder. "Not yet at least. But we have a deal with Mulgrew. He tells us how to have total power and we show him how to remove his critics. We told him to start small by removing visitors from the Delegate Assembly hall by forcing them to watch it on TV on the 19th floor, where windows can easily be left open. Accidents do happen. Heh, heh heh."

Ed Notes News report based on original article in the NY Times

Why was Arne Duncan hyping now-discredited nonprofit?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ex7bLGb1sk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seIAv1z2wSc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0_-RGLCQgk&feature=related

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10936500/Arne-Duncan-receives-Save-A-Life-Foundation-award-9206

New Video: The Renovation and Heartbreaking Dismantling of the John Ericsson Middle School 126 Library to make way for a Charter School Teacher Lounge

UPDATE: See Steve Krashen piece for Substance:

Charter school in New York kicks public schools kids out of their school library... Educators Need to Know More about Libraries: The Case of JHS 126

This story has been around for over a week but this video is new and a powerful example of the undermining of public education. We'll have more to say about the people running the charter school soon as they have gotten real nasty with critics. And that's being kind (I have the emails and when if are published questions will be raised as to the kinds of people who run charters.) The latest tactic is to try to discredit the library teacher and attack 126 itself as a failing school. Typical charter school invasion tactics. They want the building. Check the resources and volunteerism it took to renovate this library. (I remember the pre-renovated library since I used to go in there to work with the computers.)

The Wonderful Renovation and Heartbreaking Dismantling of the John Ericsson Middle School 126 Library to make way for a "Charter School" "Teacher's Lounge."

Chicago Resistance to Ed Deform Grows as Does Opposition in the Union

Maybe it takes 15 years of mayoral control and the entire ed deform program to get things moving. Chicago has been the poster boy, having had first Paul Vallas (who ruled and ruined Philadelphia and is doing the same to New Orleans as we write) and then Arne Duncan, who was almost considered a joke when he ran the schools before Obama put a punctuation point on Duncan when he Peter Principled him into a national role as Education Secretary.

The Chicago Teachers Union, being run a basic clone of our own Unity Caucus dominated UFT, not only didn't stand up to the Mayor Daley assault, but actually cooperated in many areas (sound familiar to UFTers?) The CTU version of Unity is called the United Progressive Caucus (UPC). In 2001, an opposition caucus led by Debbie Lynch won power (with George Schmidt's Substance playing a major organizing role by distributing 3 issues of the paper to every single Chicago teacher). By the way, it should be pointed out that Daley supporters on the editorial pages actually urged teachers to vote for the UPC and against Lynch's PACT Caucus.

For a number of reason too complicated to get into here, Lynch lost the next election (she got the most votes in the first round but lost in the run-off to UPC's Marilyn Stewart. But for those in NYC thinking about this spring's UFT elections that all it takes is "winning" an election, the point should be made that the UPC still controlled the House of Delegates (like out DA) and the staff positions and used these positions to undermine Lynch at every turn. (She also made some crucial mistakes.) Stewart won the next few elections as Lynch's power waned (she is running again with PACT in the CTU elections this May).

The ed deform program in Chicago is known as Renaissance 2010 and the attack on the public schools has been intense. We've seen the entire program here in NYC under BloomKlein. They have the nerve to call it Children First. I won't get into details of the impact of ed deform but watch the 5 minute video below for Jackson Potter's perfect representation. It is no accident that these deforms have been linked to the increasing violence in Chicago, as we reported on George Schmidt's wonderful piece a few weeks ago. (Chicago Turnaround' the deadliest 'reform' of them all.) I love it when Schmidt's bitter enemies and who were silent for so long write about this issue but make sure to never mention the work Substance does.

The impact on the CTU has been intense. The CTU has hemorrhaged over 6000 teachers to charter schools and other privatized operations. Stewart's response has been to try to repress the growing opposition. She recently forced opposition groups to give out their literature outside and banned Schmidt from selling Substance at the doors of the House of Delegate meetings (which he has been doing for 30 years) and even called 911 on him and two cops threatened to arrest him.*

The rise of the Caucus of Rank an File Educators (CORE)

Around 18 months ago, CORE came on the scene and created an alliance of sorts with Schmidt. The combo has had a dynamic effect on the Chicago scene. Jackson Potter is one of the chief spokespersons for CORE. I got to hang with Jackson and a group of CORE people in July at the 5 city conference we held in LA and I learned an enormous amount from them.**

Here is a 5 minute video from March 2009 where Jackson elucidates the impact of Renaissance 2010 and the work CORE has been doing.

The URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akv07-iXs_c




Related
Follow all the doings in Chicago at Schmidt's Substance News. http://www.substancenews.net/
And the CORE blog.

Must see 28 minute video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model on our sidebar or at Labor Beat hosted on blip.tv: http://blip.tv/file/2428857

See the Black Agenda Report on CORE's anti-discrimination suit.
""The fired teachers are disproportionately African American, and the newly hired teachers are not-(ironic, eh, in Obama land?)

Chicago Teachers File Racial Discrimination Suit Against Obama Administration's School “Turnaround” Plan

*{By the way, this same kind of repression has started here in NYC. And I believe that was one of the reasons Mulgrew was chosen because the AFT/UFT hierarchy knows that what happens in Chicago will eventually happen here, but much more slowly because Unity is way more powerful than the UPC. Mulgrew is there to bring the goon mentality to the table, as opposed to Randi's "I feel your pain" mantra. (Speaking of goons, I saw Jeff Zahler at the DA after his return from Washington DC as AFT staff director - look for the usual red-baiting from Zahler in this year's union elections - mr. zahler goes to washington....). Mulgrew's new regime has forced all visitors to the DA up to the 19th floor to watch on TV, something I refused to do and was harassed by 2 Unity goons. I told them to call the cops and they backed down. But I think it will eventually happen as Mulgrew will feel he has to defend his toughness (GEMers and ICEers will be ready with cameras.) More on this issue in a separate post.}

**We are way behind here in NY in organizing efforts but maybe we need a decade or more of ed deform for things to jell. The work of GEM, ICE, TJC, NYCORE, and Teachers Unite allied with the growing core of parent and community activists, and even some politicians, give us hope.

Nick Kristof Strikes Again, and Gets It Wrong Again

Updated: Oct 17, 9PM (GO YANKEES!)

The letters in today's Times in response to Kristof's column were unanimously thumbs down, something I've never seen before. I posted them at Norms Notes.
Times Letters Respond to Kristof Column

Here is my original compilation of reactions I posted Friday, with some additional add-0ns from Accountable Talk.


I was going to write about Nicolas Kristof's column in yesterday's Times supporting the education deformers but Steve Koss does it so much better. Not the first time Kristof has ventured into territory he knows nothing about.

Ed Notes covered his previous lame attempts:

Education Notes Online: Updated: Skoolboy Savages Kristof

Feb 19, 2009

And I would usually believe Kristof. But when you actually know something about something and see a guy getting it so wrong, I wonder why I should take anything he writes seriously. Word to the wise: Don't write glowing reports about ...

a ground zero for kristof on education knowledge

Mar 22, 2009

today we have another in a long line of low-level, almost amateurish columns on education in the ny times from nicolas kristof. he can write all the great stuff about darfur or wherever, but when someone can get education so wrong, ...

Before I let you get to Koss, I want to list the hackisms, platitudes and recycled nonsense used by Kristof, stuff that came directly from a Joel Klein press release.

cowed by teachers’ unions, Democrats have too often resisted reform and stood by as generations of disadvantaged children have been cemented into an underclass by third-rate schools...it’s difficult to improve failing schools when you can’t create alternatives such as charter schools and can’t remove inept or abusive teachers...But there’s mounting evidence that even in such failing schools, the individual teacher makes a vast difference.Research has underscored that what matters most in education — more than class size or spending or anything — is access to good teachers. A study found that if black students had four straight years of teachers from the top 25 percent of most effective teachers, the black-white testing gap would vanish in four years...This is the central front in the war on poverty, the civil rights issue of our time. Half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, isn’t it time to end our “separate but equal” school systems?

These ed deformer supporters love to talk about the research - often proven tainted by people with a dog in the race - call it Hoxbyisms. Do they ever mention the gold standard Tennessee study on class size? To talk about teacher quality out of the context of class size and general school conditions is like blaming crime on the quality of the police or fires on the quality if firemen. They just wouldn't dare.

Kristof should check out the separate but unequal charter schools vs the public schools they are implanted in.


Nick Kristof Strikes Again, and Gets It Wrong Again
by Steve Koss (posted to the NYC Education News Listserve)

I can think of few journalistic practices more damaging and wrongheaded than the reporter who helicopters into a complex problem for a few days, sniffs around a bit without really understanding the context in which he or she is observing, and then drops an "expert opinion" editorial on the matter. No one in my recent memory appears more prone to this, and more badly misled, than the NY Times's periodic editorial contributor, Nick Kristof, particularly with regard to education.

Back in 2002, Mr. Kristof dropped himself in on some schools in Shanghai and then wrote a ridiculous column on China's "super kids" whose schooling and intelligence were apparently going to bury the U.S. competitively in the future. He could not have gotten the Chinese education system more wrong in 750 words than he did at that time; reading his 2002 column today (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/22/opinion/22KRIS.html is still an embarrassment for anyone who really understands what's going on in the Chinese education system.

Now, Mr. Kristof has inserted himself into education once again, and just as foolishly, with his latest contribution to the NY Times. In an October 15th piece oddly entitled "Democrats and Education" (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/opinion/15kristof.html), Mr. Kristof elects to beat on that favorite old dead horse of education critics, that the problem with US education is bad teachers and their unions who simply won't let schools get rid of them. In his article, he talks about NYC's system where "failed teachers" are sent at full pay to "rubber rooms," clearly not understanding that the purpose of such centers is to hold teachers against whom potentially serious allegations of misconduct (such as, for example, sexual misconduct or verbal or physical abuse of students) have been made while their cases are being investigated. Whatever one may think of rubber rooms, they are not holding pens for teachers who have merely been judged incompetent.

Of course, Mr. Kristof trots out a couple horror stories about bad teachers to "prove" his point, and there's certainly no argument here that abusive teachers who degrade their students or show up drunk do not belong in classrooms. As his column progresses, he slyly manages to conflate the clearly unacceptable behavior of his "horror stories" with the term "ineffective teachers," as though the U.S. education system is suffering from an epidemic of school-based child abuse. Ineffective and drunk (or telling a failed suicide that next time the student should cut his wrists more deeply) are not equal.

Anyway, these horror stories are old news, and Mr. Kristof writes as though he just discovered this issue. Beyond making it easier to remove such "ineffective" teachers, what are his solutions? Two of them are more charter schools and "objective measurement to see who is effective." Of course, while calling for better teachers with better compensation, he conveniently ignores the fact that under NCLB, teachers of all stripes and levels of ability are being hamstrung by precisely those types of measurement systems, all of which begin with state-defined standardized exams which place enormous pressure on school administrators and teachers to show ever-improving results. The damage these exams are doing to real education is incalculable, since they distort both teaching and curricula by narrowing content, detracting from coverage of other subject areas, and focusing on test-taking rather than education as an exploration and learning experience.

In his closing, Mr. Kristof writes, "I’m hoping the unions will come round and cooperate with evidence-based reforms, using their political clout to push to raise teachers’ salaries rather than to protect ineffective teachers," as if this is the essential either/or choice. It's merely another false dichotomy -- the two items have nothing to do with one another.

More charter schools, more "objective" measurement of teachers' value added based on standardized exams, less intrusion from the teachers' unions -- this is what Mr. Kristof wants the Democrats to be doing. Sadly, President Obama (through his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan) appears to be working from Mr. Kristof's playbook, acting more like a conservative Republican than the Democratic reformer for whom we thought we had voted

Steve Koss

Related: From Accountable Talk

Kristoff, Revisited.

I've written a number of posts on Nicholas Kristof's off the wall views on education. See here, here, and here, for example.

I thought I was going to have to do it again after reading Kristof's latest diatribe in today's Op-ed section of the Times, but Thoughts on Education Policy saved me the effort. Well worth a read.

Cornell Students Protested Rhee's Speech On Campus

I'm cross posting this important piece from Candi Peterson's blog as the Rhee blowback continues. Ok, I do disagree with this point:

"I bet that special teacher of yours loves his or her union because it empowers him or her to fight to improve the quality of your education. Teachers unions are democratic expressions of teachers and their values. Each teachers union is not comprised of external forces but is instead comprised of the teachers themselves. As such, the goals of teachers unions are the goals of teachers."

Not in NYC or most teacher unions under the thumb of totalitarian dictators who make Putin jealous of their power.


visit: http://thewashingtonteacher.blospot.com/

Oct 15, 2009

Cornell Students Protested Rhee's Speech On Campus

This opinion article appeared in the Cornell Daily Sun and explains why students from Cornell University protested Rhee's speech.

Cornell Students Explain Why They Protested Rhee's Speech on Campus

link: http://www.cornellsun.com/

Teachers Unions Protect Teachers: Will Chancellor Rhee '92 Listen?
October 14, 2009
By Andrew Wolf

"Everyone remembers that special teacher who touched his or her life. We all have had that teacher who would go the extra mile to help usindividually - a teacher who dug into his or her own pocket book to buy colored pencils for our art projects.

We remember this teacher because he or she did not just make us feel cared for, but also made us feel capable. Due to his or her skill, we were empowered; we were motivated. This teacher clearly did not become a teacher for fame, for glory and certainly not for fortune. This special teacher picked his or her profession because of a desire to help our
country reach its full future potential.

In public schools in most states that special teacher was probably in a union. Furthermore, I bet that special teacher of yours loves his or her union because it empowers him or her to fight to improve the quality of your education. Teachers unions are democratic expressions of teachers and their values. Each teachers union is not comprised of external forces but is instead comprised of the teachers themselves. As such, the goals of teachers unions are the goals of teachers. That special teacher used his or her voice in his or her union to fight for you; teacher unions fight for small class sizes, for more computers and for the right of every American to receive a high quality education.

What does that teacher expect in return? As we all know, teachers have never been paid at a level that matches the amount and quality of their of work, so clearly pay is not their motivation. Basically, in return for their service, teachers ask for a basic degree of fairness. They ask that if they are laid off or fired, that it be for a just cause and not because of discrimination.

Above all, they ask for respect and the right to be included the shaping of their classroom. Who would know better how to improve the delivery of education than those who do just that day in and day out? People become teachers because they want to improve students' lives and they use their unions to help them accomplish this goal.

The Cornell Organization for Labor Action, of which I am a member, protested Michelle Rhee's '92 talk last week because it does not believe she respects the important role teachers and their unions play in shaping the future of education in this country. We feel that Chancellor Rhee, instead of working with teachers to fix the problems afflicting our education system, has presupposed that the problem is teachers themselves. Our quarter card, which was criticized in The Sun last week in both a column and editorial, outlined the ways in which Chancellor Rhee denies teachers the right to participate in the education reform debate.

First, my fellow members of COLA and I take issue with the fact that Rhee wields layoffs as a key component to education reform. While layoffs are an unfortunate result of our current economy, Rhee often uses layoffs to fire experienced teachers based on the unfortunate assumption that youth and vigor is always better than experience.

Second, COLA disagrees with Chancellor Rhee's belief that standardized tests hold the key to education reform. Furthermore, we disagree with Rhee's attempts to evaluate teachers based on these standardized scores. In a 2008 report "Grading Education" by the Economic Policy Institute found that measuring teacher and school performance by these tests was an utter failure. The study found that these tests forced teachers to "teach to the test," stifling creativity and vastly under serving top-performing students. It found that such programs result in teachers fighting with each other to keep successful techniques hidden instead of encouraging cooperation. Overall, the study found that these tests narrowly focused on reading and math, while ignoring the whole growth we should expect from our students. Perhaps most horrifying, though, the EPI report found that schools, fearing that under-performing children would drag their schools funding down, often stuffed these children into special education classes or falsely suspended them on the day of the standardized test. The EPI report concluded that measuring performance solely on standardized test scores can in no way properly evaluate the success or failure of schools or their teachers. Yet, Chancellor Rhee wanted to institute this type of policy and she tried to do it unilaterally without anyone else's input. COLA disagrees with these actions.

Third, COLA, myself included, disagrees with the arbitrary nature of Rhee's policies. In 2008, the US Congress, worried about Rhee's approach, asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate her practices. The Government Accountability Office found Rhee at fault and criticized her for instituting policies without clear guidelines and without consulting teachers, parents or the community. COLA joins in this criticism as we find the exclusion of teachers, parents and the community in shaping education reform counter-productive.

Fourth and finally, I demand more accountability from Rhee in regard to her policies. Last year, Rhee fired numerous principals without explaining her criteria or evaluation process. This was troubling because many of these principals were from the District's top-performing schools including the Oyster-Adams Bilingual Elementary School where Rhee's children attended. My fellow members of COLA and I worry that without transparency, Rhee abuses her authority to silence her critics.

These were the four points outlined on COLA's quarter card, which I helped to compose last week. COLA believes these issues directly relate to the future of education reform. We believe that Rhee denies teachers their right to participate in the process of reform where their voices and commitment are so deeply needed. Instead, she silences them and vilifies them through firings. COLA believes this is counter-productive and we again ask Chancellor Rhee to include teachers in the process of education reform.

Every year, Cornell sends more students to Teach for America than any other university, often including a COLA member. These students enter TFA excited at the prospect of making a difference in young peoples' lives. Hopefully, many of you who join Teach for America will become teachers in the long term. I know that those same values that drove you to service will drive your efforts in your union and in reforming our education system. The only question, then, is: Will Rhee listen?

Andrew Wolf '10, a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, is a member of COLA."

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence, opinion article courtesy of Cornell Daily Sun, picture courtesy of Education Next

Endorse Thomson Resolution Trashed at DA Fearful UFT Leaders Surrender to Bloombergs’s Reich

Special to Ed Notes

By Philip Nobile

Sometimes union loyalty asks too much. Like heeding the advice of UFT leaders at yesterday’s Delegate Assembly NOT to do the right thing by endorsing our ally Bill Thompson in favor of our enemy Mayor Bloomberg and avoiding his payback in contract negotiations.

Stretching for the offensive historical allusion, President Mulgrew, Political Action Director Egan, and Staff Director Barr told us not to join the Resistance because the Fuehrer might get mad. And the delegates, who originally voted enthusiastically to discuss the endorsement resolution, turned around and cheered Barr’s full throated, morally compromised, debate ending cri to postpone a decision. If things change in the next three weeks, he said, we can bring you back. As if.

Mulgrew telegraphed his Thompson position prior to the debate when he said, “I suspend my emotions” (read conscience) and voiced his mantra, repeated ad nauseam by the non-endorsers, about acting “in the best interest of the membership” and “our job is to protect their well being” … without adding “because a sweeter contract is more important than our integrity,” thus killing his shot at a Profile in Courage Award.

Speaking relentlessly against the resolution, Political Non-Action Director Egan earned the Dick Morris Triangulation Award for ticking off realistic political reasons for icing Thompson—the polls are bad, there’s an eight point gap, the best an endorsement can do is move three points, no winning strategy, other unions back Mayor, negotiations would end, why take the risk. Egan went further to ridicule the highroaders—“It’s not the Alamo. There’s nothing virtuous in falling on our sword.” So don’t fight Santa Anna in City Hall. Mulgrew profusely thanked the Triangulater for justifying surrender.

Speaking boldly for the resolution was a delegate who dared to unleash his emotions: We’re dying with bad data, U-ratings, reassignments, Bloomberg regime is brutal to teachers, to students, Thompson has supported us and he’s not Bloomberg who’s making hay on education. And virtuously falling on candor, the delegate conceded that Thompson would probably lose. Camus would love this guy, but not the Vichyites in the room.

In the end, Barr killed with his let’s-wait argument. “If we endorse Thompson,” he said, negotiations end. Now we are players. We have to do what’s best for the members.”

Contract, contract über Alles.

To understand all is not to forgive all.

Philip Nobile is a former staff writer for Esquire, New York, and the Village Voice. He has been reassigned to Brooklyn’s Chapel St. rubber room for the past two years on two trumped up (he says) corporal punishment complaints. Although OSI substantiated the complaints, to date the DOE has failed file charges.

Note: Ed Notes has not endorsed Thompson due to his refusal to rigorously attack Bloomberg's education record but urges people to vote for him to keep the Bloomberg winning percentage as low as possible. Nobile points to UFT political director Paul Egan's point that a UFT endorsement would at most mean around 3% points for Thompson (now we know the value of all the time and money the UFT spends on endorsements). The closer Thompson comes the weaker Bloomberg would be in the future based on a lower perceived mandate which would weaken him politically. We will add our own thoughts on the DA later.

See James Eterno's report at the ICE blog:

The Disastrous UFT Policy on Charter Schools

Hard copy of the October edition of Education Notes distributed at the UFT Delegate Assembly, Oct. 14, 2009. If you want a copy to distribute at your school email me at normsco@gmail.com.


Education Notes has been reporting on the charter school invasions all over the city with lots more to come. Bloomberg announced he wants a hundred thousand students (that’s one tenth) of the students in NYC to be in charter schools. He wants competition with a public school system that he wants to abandon. His real dream is to have all schools be non-unionized charter schools and have no public schools left.

Now where to put all these schools? Simple. Shove them into any public school they can. (And when they can’t, find space in public housing complexes.) It has been clear that BloomKlein always tilt in favor of charters over public schools. The Ed Notes blog has been chronicling some of these battles. One of the biggest has been taking place at PS 15 in Red Hook, where the teachers and parents have been fighting back against the invasion of the PAVE charter school by forming CAPE (Concerned Advocates for Public Education). PAVE originally asked for 2 years in the school before moving to their own digs. When teachers started to organize and called in the UFT they were told not to worry, 2 years go by quickly. It didn’t take long before PAVE asked for 3 more, which CAPE has been fighting with a petition campaign and other actions.

Those of us involved in the battle against the charter invasion have come to refer to the machinations of charter school operators as “bait and switch.” Come in and ask for a little, lie about your numbers so you can get more space, change your charter to ask for more grades. “Oh, out kids love our school so much. How can we release then to the awful local public school when they graduate? We need to be k-12. Give us your entire building.” Tweed uses its footprint of schools to declare them under utilized (clusters should travel, special Ed only need hallways, etc.) In every request, in every conflict, the BloomKlein administration comes down on the side of the charter as they purposely destroy targeted public schools, even purposely putting in principals they know will be incompetent and will alienate staffs and parents to undermine the school and make the local climate favorable to a charter. This has happened in so many places as to reveal a pattern.

At a meeting to discuss the issue in September, a UFT official said we have to make sure PAVE doesn’t over stay the 3-year extension (that adds up to 5). Some teachers were a bit incredulous at the acceptance of a fait accompli. But they haven’t gotten, nor do they expect to get, help from the union in this battle.

The same at PS 123 in Harlem, where Eva Moskowitz’ Harlem Success Academy has invaded 4 schools and parents and teachers at PS 123 have been demonstrating against the separate but unequal conditions of the 2 sections of the schools, with Eva’s section newly painted and all spruced up. When all the HSA doodads blew the electricity, the DOE ordered electricians to give them what they need. At PS 15 the same thing happened and when one DOE employee balked at authorizing the installation of new lines for PAVE, he was told to do it or be fired. There’s so much more to tell about this story, but I’ll refer you to the Ed Notes blog for fuller explanations and videos (look for links on the side panel).

We all know that the entire charter school movement is not about education but a political attack on teachers and their unions. These are not mom and pop teacher/parent run charters, but corporate type chains. Thus KIPP has 5 charters around the city but runs them like a chain, as they do their over 60 schools nation-wide. Basically, we can end up with 1500 independently operated schools in city, with no community basis – the end of the neighborhood school with any semblance of being run in a democratic manner with some public oversight over policy. Teachers and parents in these systems are totally marginalized. At least in urban school systems, while the suburbs, with many unionized schools I might add, have a totally different venue where parents have no choice but the local public school and get to vote.

The problem rank and file teachers face is that the UFT itself has bought into so much of the system, having 2 charter schools of its own, both occupying space in public schools in East NY and competing for public school kids. That very fact has removed the UFT’s ability to help teachers in schools being invaded by charters to fight back. Thus, in schools like PS 123 and PS 15, the UFT remains on the sidelines. I mean, how can they complain about charter invasions? That the UFT schools are union based is beside the point. That means the UFT schools needs more money than non-union charters to run since the charters have the advantage of lower pension (if at all) and health care (if at all) plus free labor in forcing teachers to work longer days and longer years. The UFT should get out of the charter school business and start fighting back for the public schools.

In the past 9 months, the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), which began as a committee of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), grew to encompass members of just about every activist group in NYC and has now become an independent organization. GEM has begun to fill the gap left by UFT inaction by reaching out to public schools invaded by charters. GEM’s next meeting (Oct. 20) will address some of these issues. GEMers will be handing out a leaflet at this meeting with details. Make sure to take one. If you are in a school invaded by a charter, or in danger of being invaded by one, come to the meeting.


Addendum (no room in the hard copy):
The UFT's response is to organize charter school teachers into the UFT and the AFT has sent in a full-time organizer to facilitate that. This should be fun to watch as the UFT has to sell them on what they will win for them while losing gads of stuff for the teachers they actually represent.

I can't speak for the rest of the opposition, but Ed Notes will support the efforts to organize charter schools but will also communicate to teachers exactly what kind of union they are thinking of joining: a dues sucking undemocratic top-down union. Example: 100% of the members of the exec board were endorsed by Unity Caucus in the last election (including the 8 New Action members.) We will urge them to demand the same contract UFT public school members enjoy. (I'm guessing there will be just a few sweetheart contracts.) ICE, TJC and any other groups that pop up will also urge these teachers to join them in the struggle to create a more perfect union.

More on NAEP from Steve Koss

Koss to the NYC Education News listserve:

In Jennifer Medina's NY Times story today ("No Gains by New York Students on U.S. Math Tests, Unlike State Scores" -- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/education/15scores.html?hpw), she cites Joel Klein as saying that, as she puts it, "the city has no choice other than to use the state exam to reward and penalize schools, because it is the only test that measures all city students."

Of course he has always had another choice, and that was not to "reward or penalize schools" based on a narrow, standardized, and predictable exam in which the bar for passing is being consistently lowered year after year. To argue otherwise is no different than a street thug who murders an old lady for her handbag and defends his actions on the grounds that there was no one else around at the time for him to rob and there were no gas stations handy. It's the same sort of false dichotomy that Klein and Bloomberg have been practicing for eight years, the type first inspired by George Bush with his infamous, "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists." We're not talking terrorists any more, but Klein's policies have been, in their own way, nearly as devastating for our schools and children as terrorism.

Ms. Medina's article goes on to quote Mr. Klein's self-defense in light of the extraordinary embarrassment of the just-released NAEP results, the ones that show the world just what the emperor's new clothes have really been all along. “I have said many, many times that we should raise the bar,” Mr. Klein said. “The state’s definition of proficiency needs to be tethered to a more demanding standard.”

In these two sentences, the chancellor of over one million children in NYC's public schools proved just how badly he doesn't get it. Let's just leave aside for the moment the fact that over the past six years, Klein and Bloomberg have positively crowed over the grade 3-8 NY state exam results, preening like peacocks over the numbers without ever suggesting in those moments that they found fault with the standards or the exams or worried that NYC schools' extraordinary results might be overstating students' real gains. Instead, they and their crony owners of the NY Daily News and NY Post have consistently used the results in furtherance of their own political careers and/or agendas at the expense of NYC's children and their families.

What Klein's statement above shows, most significantly, is that even at the height of his regime's biggest embarrassment to date, he's not calling for a rethinking of his strategy. Instead, he's essentially asking for more of the same, and simultaneously blaming unidentifiable others for his failure! "We just need to change the tests," he's implying. "Make them more demanding."

Never mind that his policies have subverted the educational process, converting classrooms into test prep mills and teachers into Kaplan-style advisors on test-taking-strategy, demotivating students and removing exploration and creativity from the classroom, narrowing the curriculum, shoving aside other subject areas like science or social studies (and art and gym) because schools are not measured on them and principals and teachers are not incentivized with bonuses on them, and threatening principals and schools with closure if they did not "get on board" with their exam scores. No, if only the NY State exams were made a little more difficult, then all would be well and NY students would be champions on the NAEP and truly well-versed in their understanding and use of mathematics. Yes, that's it, it must be the tests that are at fault.

Clearly, this man does not, and never will, get it. Nor will he ever admit that, just maybe, he has been wrong.

If someone wanted to devise a strategy for destroying the efficacy of America's pre-high school public education system, they could not have developed anything more devious than the one Chancellor Klein has imposed on NYC schools with Michael Bloomberg's blessing and the encouragement of many others who should have known better (and probably did).

Steve Koss

P.S.: Interesting as well to note how quickly Mr. Mulgrew (UFT) jumped on the "the NYS exams are no good" bandwagon. Yes, let's all blame the amorphous NYSED rather than look in the mirror and ask ourselves, "What have we done?" Where has the UFT been the last six years other than teaching to the tests when they knew better while shoveling multiple pay raises into their collective pockets. They've allowed themselves to be bribed into looking the other way.

For me personally, the latest NAEP results mark a new low in the saga of NYC public education.

See Ed Notes' posting on NAEP results earlier in the day:

Proof of NY State Grade Inflation: NAEP math scores just released; no gains for NY State

Letters to the NY Post on ATR situation

CONTRACT WITH DISASTER: HELP KIDS AND TEACHERS

Click on the link below to access the story.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/letters/contract_with_disaster_help_kids_LoHGKcxI5Dm02yoH5SONCO

THE ISSUE:What City Hall should seek in negotiations over the teachers contract.

Winters shamelessly espouses the opinions of The New Teacher Project and ignores its vested interest in having new teachers hired through the Teach for America or the Teaching Fellows programs.

In yet another example of the Bloomberg administration's rush to privatize public education, The New Teacher Project gets paid to recruit and provide training for the inexperienced teachers hired through these entities.

Winters states that teachers hired through these programs are "younger and more energetic than teachers in the ATR." Has he personally met them?

Most of the certified teachers in the absent teacher reserve pool have received "satisfactory" ratings and were placed in the pool through no fault of their own. They were sent there because their schools were closed down or reorganized by the city.

What Winters espouses amounts to privatization and age discrimination. It is precisely why we have labor unions to defend the rights of all workers.

Scott E. Bayou

Maspeth

***

Winters suggests that the city should hold its line on salary increases, while no longer paying the salaries of teachers in the ATR.

Under the terms of the Taylor Law, an old contract remains in effect until the teachers agree to a new one. In other words, the city cannot force teachers to accept a worse contract than they have now.

The city has already paid out some $200 million over the last two years to satisfactory teachers who aren't teaching, but this is due to a colossal blunder by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

The teachers union is not going to accept a loss of job protection for satisfactory, tenured teachers, and the city cannot and should not ask them to.

Paul S. Cohen

Brooklyn

Foreign and Domestic

For my School Scope column in the October 16 edition of the Wave, www.rockawave.com.

By Norman Scott

The day after Obama’s election, working on my column for the Wave, I posed the question, “Will Obama turn out to be a great president or a failure? An FDR or a Herbert Hoover, who had an even lower approval rating than W? It could go either way. When you think of great presidents, they seem to emerge only in times of crisis. Think there are just a few lurking? FDR ran for president with a very different agenda than he ended up enacting due to desperate times. He showed the kind of flexibility that was needed. Policies that had a major impact for generations.”

“The problem I have had with Republicans is that they are driven by a narrow ideology that has helped put us into this mess. Like if you breathe government action, you are a socialist. But when it takes forms of socialism to bail out millionaires, why go right ahead. It was this sort of thinking that led to handing over billions to banks that should have had the requirement to be used as loans to free up credit but instead is being held onto by banks to buy other banks. One day soon we will have only 3 or 4 banks in this country. The only thing I have to fear is fear of Obama's dependence on the same old, same old Clinton people, who come out of places like Goldman Saks when we need some truly radical thinking. Bill Ayres, where are you when we need you?”

Well, almost a year later, it’s looking a lot more Hoover than FDR. Now don’t get me wrong. This is no tea-bag right wing criticism of Obama. I am coming from the far left, which has been just as critical. When the Republicans went after FDR’s radical (at the time) call for things like social security, he laughed at them and organized his core supporters in a form of class warfare (even though he as from the upper class) and became the most loved president by working people ever. Instead of following in FDR’s footsteps, Obama has kowtowed to his critics. For those of us itching for a class warfare fight, it is sickening.

Obama’s education policy is even worse than Bush’s as he supports all the evils that we have seen here in NYC as a result of the BloomKlein policies.

On the economy, Obama seems to have sided with the banking class that got us into the mess. Goldman Saks seems to be running the country – and making billions. Worse for Obama has been the rising unemployment rate. Remember the Hoovervilles – tent cities of homeless that sprung up all over the country between 1929 and 1932? Tampa recently rejected a Catholic charities proposal to create a tent city for the homeless. They didn’t call it Obamaville, but that is coming soon to a tent city near you.

How fast can you say “President Sarah Palin?” I’m already looking for a safe haven, like a condo in Kabul. Speaking of which….

Let’s talk Afghanistan

I must venture into foreign policy here before the raging debate on Afghanistan gets totally out of hand. First, a little historical perspective. Before Bush invaded after 9/11 that country had a rough stretch – of around 2000 years. Well, certainly 200 years. Take a look at a map of where Afghanistan sits. Iran on the east, Pakistan on the west and south and a bunch of small states that were part of the Soviet Union. The British controlled India/Pakistan until 1949 and ended up fighting 3 wars in Afghanistan to protect these areas from Russia. Every one was a disaster, with an entire British army being wiped out in the 1841. The more you look at history the more you can blame British colonial policy for many of the problems the world faces today as they created many artificial nations ignoring tribal realities. Can you spell I-R-A-Q? Add Palestine/Israel, India/Pakistan and the entire Middle East.

The Soviet Union took a crack at Afghanistan in 1979 when the Afghan government asked for help against a Mujahideen Islamist revolt, which was supported by Muslim nations, including Pakistan, while the government was supported by Pakistan’s enemy, India. (The results of those British colonial machinations again.) President Carter punished the Soviets by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and started sending aid to the rebels. But when Regan took over, he went much further, sending a great deal of support to the Mujahideen in an attempt to undermine the Soviet empire. The nine-year war really did in the Soviets and was instrumental in the ending of the Cold War. But watch out what you wish for. One of the people the Regan administration supported was a guy named Osama bin Laden and that led to the rise of Al Qaeda.

One of the strengths of the Taliban in defeating the Soviets was the moral imperative of fighting an incredibly corrupt and lawless government. With all the horrors they brought to the table, the Taliban also created such a harsh environment, the crooks and rapists couldn’t operate. All the Taliban did was cut off the heads of girls who wanted to go to school.

Now, jump ahead to George Bush and the post 9/11 invasion. Instead of focusing on solidifying Afghanistan and dealing with Pakistan’s support of Al Qaeda, he invaded Iraq, while leaving Afghanistan in the hands of one of the major crooks, Harmid Karzai. The “defeated” Taliban went back to work and “Voila”, 8 years later (one year less than the Soviet fun time in Afghanistan) we have the major pickle we are in.

Think back to Vietnam in the 60’s, with a fraction of the population and land area of Afghanistan. Our ally in South Vietnam had a corrupt and ineffective president. The CIA solution was to have Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated on November 2, 1963, an assassination approved by Kennedy. Three weeks later, he was dead himself. Remember, we pumped in over 500,000 troops. Estimates are that we would need at least double that in Afghanistan, not the measly 80,000 the military wants now. No matter how many troops end up there, the problem is Karzai and his band of merry thieves. That gives the Taliban the moral high ground. I wonder if the Obama administration sometimes doesn’t think of the assassination option as a “solution” to that part of the problem. No matter what they decide to do, all options lead to disaster – lose/lose no matter what Obama decides to do. No one wants see the Taliban in power again, but it may be inevitable given the lack of an effective Afghani government forever. (Hey, maybe they could use Mayor Mike running the country?) The question on the table is whether to also lose thousands of American lives and untold billions of dollars and still lose the war.

But no matter what, let’s never forget that this no-win position is a result of the Bush disaster. And no matter how bad the Obama presidency gets, I wouldn’t go backwards to a Bush-like Presidency for anything. But I’m afraid that’s exactly what will be happening in 2012. Hmmm, maybe I can get a deal on a condo in South Waziristan.

Proof of NY State Grade Inflation: NAEP math scores just released; no gains for NY State

Watch BloomKlein spin themselves into the ground. Thompson, of course, will take little advantage because he hasn't hit Bloomberg hard on the phony ed gains. Even better, watch the UFT spin since it has tied itself to the BloomKlein phony test gains.


This just in from Leonie Haimson.

http://nationsreportcard.gov/math_2009/

No significant change since 2007 for NY State in either 4^th or 8^th grade math. Since NYC is such a large part of NY State, this means it is very likely the same for NYC – ie no significant improvements since 2007.

This is yet more compelling evidence that the NY state exam scores, which showed big jumps statewide at both levels, were badly inflated.

See http://nationsreportcard.gov/math_2009/gr4_state.asp for 4^th grade math.

Esp. map: NY state surrounded by states with significantly higher results in 4^th grade math.

http://nationsreportcard.gov/math_2009/gr8_state.asp for 8^th grade math.

In both 4^th and 8^th grade math, the big increases in scores occurred between 2000-2003 ; before the Bloomberg/Klein policies put into place.

Webcast of results starting shortly.

Follow-up from Leonie:

Let’s see how Bloomberg/Klein et al, and the editorial boards that are in their thrall, try to spin this one!

Gotham Schools' Anna Philips reports:

No improvement for New York state on national math exam

by Anna Phillips

Math scores for students in New York state have hardly budged in the last two years, challenging results from the state’s own exams that show significant score increases.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as NAEP, or the nation’s report card, is out today and New York’s results on the math exam have changed little from 2007.

Two years ago, 43 percent of the state’s fourth graders were proficient or higher in math, while this year, that number is 40 percent. In 2007, 31 percent of eighth graders scored at or above proficient, and in 2009 it was 34 percent.

While the NAEP scores, released this morning, show no significant changes, the state’s yearly math exams tell a different story. Between 2007 and 2009, fourth graders gained nine scale score points and eighth graders gained 18 points. According to the NAEP exam, fourth graders’ average scale scores decreased by two points and eight grade students’ scores rose by three points.

Philly Student to Sharpton, Duncan and Gingrich: Why are you on a "listening" tour...

...but don't listen or learn from the community?

The Philly Student union puts the ed deformers on the spot.

"We wanted to put forth some input as to what educational reform should look like in Philadelphia and the nation."

But they aren't interested.

See the video, From the Other Side of the Fence, at Philly Student Union.

Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire - Another Deep Throat Emerges

Deep throats at HSA seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Starting tomorrow: lie detector tests. Can't wait for the people who left to start talking.

I saw that you posted on the principal (Jacqui Getz) leaving Harlem Success Academy. It's true! She and two school leaders left with her. This is the second principal to leave in two years. Last year's principal was fired mid year, just before the third grade exams. He was good, just didn't fit Eva's idea of what a principal should be.

I don't know how she can get away with not having an Administrator in that school. Doesn't the State follow through on it. She should be out of compliance somehow!

I think they'll be bleeding teachers and staff by the boat-loads this year.

They already lost a teacher this year. So you have a number of people leaving in the first two months already.

Earlier in the year, she told teachers that it was not in her "vision" for the school to have teachers unionize - I bet you they would, if there was anyone planning on staying longer than a year or two. Plus, people are too afraid to even attempt that.