What Next From FOX? Challenging a Jew for Daring to Write About Jesus?

“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms. Green asked..... FOX News

readers of a fundamentalist/Evangelical persuasion are furious that a Muslim published a book about Christianity’s origins.”... NY Times

Today's NY Times business section has an interesting article, which in the context of my spending the past month reading Jeremy Scahill's "Dirty Wars" makes some interesting connections run through my brain.

I heard a fascinating hour long interview with Reza Aslan on NPR last week about Jesus the man. Aslan pointed out that Jesus the man was never a God and in fact, coming from a poor working class family, was probably fairly lowbrow and in fact a Jewish fundamentalist radical, which is the way he died. Not a Christian, but one of a long line of Jewish radicals like Marx. Trotsky, et al. Not that he actually said that, but it is great to see fundamentalists -- be they Christian, Jew or Muslim, sweat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/business/media/odd-fox-news-interview-lifts-reza-aslans-biography-on-jesus.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Odd Fox News Interview Lifts Reza Aslan’s Biography on Jesus

By JULIE BOSMAN

Reza Aslan, the author of “Zealot,” a provocative new biography of Jesus, has found an inadvertent ally in generating book publicity: Fox News.

In an interview on Friday that was by turns bizarre and uncomfortable, Lauren Green, a host from “Spirited Debate,” a weekly Fox News webcast, pressed Mr. Aslan on the question of why, as a Muslim, he would choose Jesus as his subject.

“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms. Green asked.

“Well, to be clear,” Mr. Aslan said, his eyebrows lifting up in surprise, “I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.”

The nearly 10-minute video clip quickly entered the Internet bloodstream on Saturday after it was posted on Buzzfeed with the irresistibly clickable headline, “Is This The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done?”

Since then, the Buzzfeed page featuring the video has been viewed nearly four million times. Mr. Aslan quickly amassed an additional 5,000 Twitter followers. On Monday, Random House, Mr. Aslan’s publisher, said the interview had clearly helped the book: in two days, sales increased 35 percent.

On Friday, “Zealot” was in the No. 8 spot on Amazon.com, the nation’s biggest seller of books; by Sunday, it had hit No. 1.

Random House is rushing to meet the surge in demand for the book. On Monday, the publisher ordered 50,000 copies, bringing the total to 150,000 copies in print by the end of the week.

An investigation of the historical Jesus, “Zealot” has been praised by many reviewers since its publication on July 16. In a review in Tablet magazine, Adam Kirsch called “Zealot” a “coherent and often convincing portrait of who Jesus was and what he wanted.”

But some conservative critics have suggested that the book is not a work of scholarship, but merely “an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East,” as John S. Dickerson, an opinion columnist, wrote on FoxNews.com last week.

The reaction to the book has spread to Mr. Aslan’s Amazon page: on The Atlantic Wire, Alexander Nazaryan pointed out that browsing through dozens of one-star reviews on Amazon revealed that “plenty of readers of what seems to be a fundamentalist/Evangelical persuasion are furious that a Muslim published a book about Christianity’s origins.”

The book was already selling steadily before the FoxNews.com interview on Friday. Since the release of “Zealot,” Mr. Aslan has hit the publicity circuit, discussing the book on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “Weekend Edition” on NPR. “Zealot” had its debut at No. 4 on the New York Times print hardcover best-seller list that will appear in print on Aug. 4.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Aslan said that in three weeks of his book tour, he had received an “overwhelmingly positive” response to his work, and that it was anything but an attack on Christianity.

“I hope that people recognize that your faith, as Jesus said, is supposed to be built on a rock, not on sand,” he said. “I guess my message is: Relax.”

Mr. Aslan was born in Iran, moved to the United States with his family as a child and later earned degrees from Santa Clara University, Harvard and the University of Iowa. He is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Book Passage, a bookstore with two outlets in the Bay Area, hosted Mr. Aslan for a signing last week. Karen West, the director of events, said more than 250 people attended it. But the Fox News interview, she said, has exposed the book to consumers who aren’t regular book buyers.

“It’s moved now out of the NPR realm and it’s gotten into the broader culture,” she said.

A spokeswoman for Fox News did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Mr. Aslan said that after reading Mr. Dickerson’s essay on FoxNews.com, he was prepared for a similar line of attack from Ms. Green.

He was so eager to promote the book on Fox News that his publisher tried — in vain — to secure an interview spot on “Fox & Friends,” a morning show.

“I’ll be perfectly honest — I’m thrilled at the response that people have had to the interview,” Mr. Aslan said. “You can’t buy this kind of publicity.”

Perdido Street on Thompson: Political Hack And Walking Conflict Of Interest

After a closer look at Thompson's political record and associations, he is no less a crook and a hack than Quinn herself. And to be honest, I'm not so sure he isn't worse than Quinn. .... RBE

Councilman Jumaane Williams explained mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson‘s race relations speech by musing about his poll numbers among black voters. “I think he originally felt that certain segments of the population were going to go with him automatically. He started looking at polls and seeing that wasn’t happening,” he said. “Thompson’s trying to have it both ways without putting any skin in the game.”

Reality-Based Educator nails it. Remember how the UFT first endorsement in 2001 was one Alan Hevesi?

This is so good I am printing it and adding it to my sandwich for lunch.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Bill Thompson - Political Hack And Walking Conflict Of Interest

With the Anthony Weiner poll plummet made official by yesterday's Quinnipiac poll release (Weiner dropped to fourth in the race; 53% of New Yorkers say he should drop out), I am starting to turn my attention back to the candidate whose policies I can live with who will be most effective at taking on Christine Quinn in a runoff.
The Marist poll from last week and yesterday's Quinnipiac poll release show us that the two candidates with a good chance to make the runoff against Quinn are Bill Thompson, the former NYC comptroller, and Bill de Blasio, the current Public Advocate.

Read it all:  http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/07/bill-thompson-political-hack-and.html

Though many teachers I know favor Liu or even Sal Albanese, the default position will be Thompson or de Blasio, who I don't particularly love either. But if I were voting today that is where my vote would go. Just don't ask me what I think tomorrow.
 

The Little Theater That Could: Rockaway Cafe: The Comeback - Final perfomances this weekend

UPDATED with links:

The press will race to New Jersey to cover anything related to Sandy recovery, but other than the local paper, The Wave, no one outside of Rockaway seems to have noticed the awesome talent demonstrating one of the clearest signs of Rockaway's comeback.

Here are a few numbers from the brilliant choice of music focused on the storm and the recovery using Credence Clearwater Revival, Billy Joel and The Beatles, amongst others. https://vimeo.com/71311581

I was rocking right along at both performances I taped as one of the videographers at the Rockaway Theatre Company - (I even acted on their production of "The Odd Couple" -- no I was not capable of playing Oscar or Felix and luckily had the role with the least amount of lines. ) I'm going back Friday night to tape it again. I never get tired of the work of the RTC and even worked with chief carpenter and set designer Tony Homsey in helping rebuild the stage -- he even let me use the nail gun -- and I didn't kill myself.

Last October they put on a fabulous Simon play, "Brighton Beach Memoirs" which closed the day before Sandy hit the theater so hard it couldn't reopen until last week in a spectacular and moving way. Here is another clip that if you have time this weekend (Fri, Sat at 8 and Sunday at 1) come on down. tickets at: www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org. Or email  me and I'll hold them for you. The best $20 ($15 if a senior) you will spend this weekend. By the way, NYC teachers play a major role at the theater from basically running it to acting and the band consists mostly of NYC teachers. Another clip to whet your appetite.  https://vimeo.com/71167899

And finally, my article for this week's Wave where I hope to do a regular column on the RTC.

Rockaway Theatre Company Update

By Norm Scott

For The Wave, to be published Friday, August 2, 2013

The little theater company that could came roaring back to life over the past two weeks, bringing a good chunk of Rockaway comeback spirit with it with its opening production “Rockaway Café – The Comeback” at its refurbished theater which sustained serious Sandy damage. Susan Hartenstein in last week’s Wave (Hallelujah Rockaway Theatre Company! http://www.rockawave.com/news/2013-07-26/Columnists/From_The_Artists_Studio.html ) captured the spirit of the RTC and its unique Fort Tilden WWII vintage theater. “Rockaway Café is our story,” Hartenstein wrote. “A story told with great humor and poignancy. Cleverly weaving contemporary rock and pop songs and standards with original choreography, and based on an original concept by Susan Jasper and John Gilleece, we are taken from disaster to aftermath to daunting struggles to hard-fought triumphs and exuberant hope for the future. Opening night the waves of emotion and pleasure flowing back and forth between the talented cast and the highly receptive audience and the bonds within those groups were palpable.”

For an all-volunteer operation - from carpentry, set design, costumes, music, acting, dancing, singing, management, creativity – just think of an applicable word and apply to RTC – to not only come back so soon, but to do it with such verve and vigor while also rebuilding the theater is beyond remarkable. And the great band lead by Jeff Arsberger does not get mentioned often enough. They can play at my Bar Mitzvah in my next life anytime. Never forget the amazing local talent we have here in Rockaway and our extension in South Brooklyn where between the areas most performers seem to come from. 

Nancy Re Cregan in a letter last week said, “The show features great "storm" songs like "Umbrella," "Bad Moon Rising," and "Let the River Run" just to name a few. There is also an original version of "I Will Survive" that recaps the strong character of Rockaway, Breezy, and Broad Channel.” The words were written by RTC stalwart Susan Jasper.

Here are links to some video I shot at the Friday and Saturday performances last weekend featuring some of the dynamic talent (young, teen, young adult, adult, and my generation – old.) 

https://vimeo.com/71167899,    https://vimeo.com/71167899.

I dare you to watch them and not come to one of the 3 performances left this weekend: Fri., Sat at 8PM, Sunday at 3PM.

Reserve tickets at: www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org.

Soon after Sunday’s performance, new sets will be built and rehearsals will begin for the next show, Boeing, Boeing, opening September 20.

Andy Borowitz: Weiner Names New Campaign Manager

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—One day after his campaign manager quit, the mayoral candidate Anthony D. Weiner named his penis to the post, telling reporters, “He was already making most of the major decisions, anyway.”

In announcing the new appointment, Mr. Weiner lavished praise upon his penis, calling him “a tough hombre” who “cares about the struggles of ordinary, middle-class New Yorkers.”

More:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/07/weiner-names-new-campaign-manager.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20%28155%29

George Schmidt: Why every Substance reporter should be proud of the work we've done

[We] knew that at the May 22 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, we were going to witness one of the greatest anti-democratic and racist attacks on public schools since Alabama Governor George Wallace declared "segregation now and segregation forever" while trying to block the integration of the public schools of Alabama more than a decade after the Brown decision. Wallace was there along with several other Southern governors -- from Virginia to Texas -- who  were following the same course, but less flamboyantly. Remember: The attacks on desegregation in the Southern schools were also an attack on public education.  ... George Schmidt

I'm inspired just reading this.

There was a time -- 2001-2004 when I hoped Ed Notes could be like Substance but got sidetracked with the formation of ICE. I wonder if I hadn't gone in that direction and just kept developing Ed Notes as an independent ed news source for NYC teachers if that wouldn't have been more valuable an organizing tool. But I do know myself -- I don't have the patience, the organizational ability, the organizing ability, the reportorial skills, and lots more missing --- including the ability to recruit a staff --- that George has had for the past 40 years. So it was done.

A group of 10 MOREs are heading to Chicago in two weeks for a conference. Very much looking forward to seeing and hanging out with George.

July 27, 2013

Colleagues, comrades, friends, and others...

1. REASONS FOR SUBSTANCE PRIDE... As your proud editor, I spent half the night working editing the two great reporting jobs by Marybeth Foley and Susan Zupan that are now on the top of the Home Page at substancenews.net -- and I'm still not finished because I want to add a dozen more photographs to help our readers understand each in context. 

As the summer of 2013 began, just about everyone who had experienced the 2012 - 2013 school year in Chicago was either tired, exhausted or more than "all of the above." We had all achieved a great deal, from the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 through the fights against the school closings. But after CORE won the great victories in the May 17 Chicago Teachers Union election, it was soon clear that the ruling class was not going to lighten up in their struggle to privatize as many of Chicago's real public schools as possible as soon as possible. Virtually all of us knew that at the May 22 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, we were going to witness one of the greatest anti-democratic and racist attacks on public schools since Alabama Governor George Wallace declared "segregation now and segregation forever" while trying to block the integration of the public schools of Alabama more than a decade after the Brown decision. Wallace was there along with several other Southern governors -- from Virginia to Texas -- who  were following the same course, but less flamboyantly. Remember: The attacks on desegregation in the Southern schools were also an attack on public education. So the hypocritical votes of the six members of the Chicago Board of Education at the May 22 meeting to close 49 schools and "co-locate," "turnaround," and screw more than a dozen others (while simultaneously adding more to the charter schools) was no surprise. 

At the same time, we began hearing from people in Connecticut after a court there ruled that Paul Vallas didn't have the credentials to be a school superintendent in that state. And that's what I want to remind us of today...

2. SUBSART AS A 'FIRST ROUGH DRAFT OF HISTORY.' One of the reasons why it has become so important for those of us who report for Substance to do our jobs quickly, thoroughly, and with lots of graphics within a day or two of the event we are reporting (or analyzing) is that we are forced to move on quickly. Tomorrow we have new stories to report. We are covering the most important "beat" in the struggle for democracy and public education in the USA today: Chicago. The integrity of our reporting enables people to go "back" and find information they can't get anywhere else. The Vallas situation is one case in point I'd like to share (again). We began out presence on the Web (at the "old" site, substancenews.com) in early 2002 with our special issue, "The Paul Vallas Hoax" at the time Vallas was trying to get the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Illinois. We were just learning to use the Web, and had to make major revisions in our web site to fully utilize the capacity of the Web to do graphics. We didn't get that capacity until 2007. Since then, we have all learned almost as fast as we need to keep up with the technology. Over time, most of us have mastered digital photography (remember when we used to share those one-use Fuji cameras, and when Kodak was King?) as well as honed our reporting skills. At the same time, I've learned how to edit better, especially how to maximize the "search" tagging for all of our stories. As a result, over time we are contacted more and more as people across the USA (and some from elsewhere on Earth) look for the alternative history of "school reform" in Chicago. The latest is Bridgeport, where the Vallas Hoax is in a new iteration. 

But the key is that every day our reporting, tedious as it may be, brings in the latest chapters. We miss more stories nowadays than we can cover, but that's a tribute to the organizing in Chicago (and elsewhere in some cases). We might have covered more of the dozens of school closing hearings, and recent protests, but we are still covering as much as anyone.

Which brings us to...

3. THE FEDERAL COURT CASE AGAINST SOME OF THE CLOSINGS. The current federal court case against some of the school closings (because they are a violation of the ADA and IDEA) is just the latest in the court cases we have had to cover (or miss) going all the way back to our landmark 1980 case (S.U.B.S. v. Rohter) which established our right to sell Substance in Chicago's public schools. Susan Zupan's coverage of that case was doubtless stressful, but the fact is we are now the only news organization that has complete coverage (to date) of that very very important case. Reading the reporting (and virtually having a front row seat to the testimony, which the reporting "brings alive"), I knew that over time, despite its length, our reports would be central to people's understanding of the case. I had heard from others in addition to Susan that the Board's witnesses were weak and duplicitous, but only after reading the report on Markay Winston's doubletalk did I fully realize what that means. And as you can see from the way I've shared graphics to highlight the history of Winston's ascension to the "cabinet" in Chicago from her Cincinnati roots, we are the only news organization that can tell a story in context as well as with the facts.

4. THE BOARD MEETINGS UNDER RAHM'S REGIME. 
Never underestimate the willingness of tyrants to expand their tyranny. As Marybeth Foley is reporting this month, for the first time I know of, fewer than half the total number of speakers signed up to speak at a monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education actually got to speak. As we've reported, almost exclusively, under David Vitale the Board has worked overtime, and sneakily, to undermine every aspect of public participation. At the same time, they rehearse their talking points and smiles proclaiming over and over and over that they want more "transparency." Etc. BlahBlahBlah... 

Thanks for making this a wonderful summer, despite the nastiness we are organizing against and reporting about...

George Schmidt, Editor   

DON'T GET DISCOURAGED.   

I Won't Post Video of Amateur Actor/Teacher's Mock Chippendale Routine in Review: Campbell Brown Might See It

Sometimes people take off their shirts, and I don't personally see anything awfully wrong with that. It's certainly not grounds for dismissal... NYC Educator.

Paranoia will destroya.

Guilty!

I taped the wonderful Rockaway Theatre Company's review, "Rockaway

Cafe: The Comeback" a moving performance of storm-related and uplifting songs, many with exquisite dance routines. There are many NYC teachers involved in the RTC, which is led by two retired teachers and most of the band teach at a NYC high school.

One of the young teacher/actors was part of a group of 3 bare-chested male dancers performing a mock Chippendale's stripper routine. I immediately thought, given stories like these, the hundreds of DOE lawyers trying to justify their jobs scouring the world for anything teachers might do in private life that could be used against them for a witch hunt trial might just glom onto this.

After the show the teacher asked me what I thought. "That could get you fired," I told him and another teacher-performer, both young and in the system for less than 10 years. I said I was going to put up the entire video, but not for public consumption. (Though I will put up individual numbers.)

They looked at me like I was nuts. "Not for doing that," his female companion said. Both are wonderful, top-level teachers in decent schools and loved by their students and their administration. It is beyond their conception. "You don't know how nuts they are in the DOE," I said.

I hate to be the Grinch and maybe the chances of this happening are infinitesimal but being an activist in World War T keeps you looking over your shoulder.

Besides, Campbell Brown might just be at the beach in Riis Park and wander into the theater. Which by the way, you all should do too. Get tickets here: http://www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org/lorem-ipsum-event1/

Afterburn
NYC Educator reported on this the other day.

Apparently a teacher in Merrick, Long Island appeared shirtless in some stupid reality show, and resigned under pressure from administration. The News appears sympathetic to his cause, as am I. Sometimes people take off their shirts, and I don't personally see anything awfully wrong with that. It's certainly not grounds for dismissal.

High Turnout at MORE Summer Event Overflows the Space

One new attendee chapter leader said she wishes school was on now so she could share this with her chapter. The presenters really explained the different viewpoints of how to view union leadership so well...

They just kept coming and coming last night to see our UFT: Friend or Foe event on the lower east side. To such an extent that some of the MORE crew went out to the bar to make room for newcomers attending a MORE event for the first time. Well over 60 people I hear. I won't go into the  details -- MORE will post text of the presentations while I process the video -- I had some audio problems and will see how it comes out.

Last year we had 60 people for the History of NYC Teacher Unions event Michael and I did. (See [CORRECTED LINK]  video here.) With little historical context or info out there, the people in ICE who lived that history are important voices to counter whatever spin the UFT/AFT puts on things.

When we post yesterday's text/video I hope people take a good look at it. What was great about yesterday was the variety of views we had.

And of course, Gotham Schools continues its boycott of MORE events so bogus E$E can be promoted as the alternative to Unity, which when push comes to shove is really closer to them than to MORE.

After all, they both support most of the following:

-->

• supporting the teacher accountability ed deform mantra - the evaluation mess
• signing on to "we must get rid of bad teachers" as a solution
• variations of merit pay schemes
• mayoral control
• common core
• charters and co-locations
• rating and grading schools and generation of phony statistics on graduation rates, dropouts, all resulting in….
• Closing schools (which the UFT supported through the end of 2009 and still supports to some extent), destroying neighborhood schools, dezoning, eliminating comprehensive HS and availability of electives for the vast majority of HS students. Forcing children to travel longer distances.
• tepid defense of reducing class size, which ed deformers disparage as a solution
• the contract and agreements in 2005 that coupled school closings with the burgeoning population of ATRs who started off as in-house subs and ended up as the wandering unwanted. Leading to the forcing out of thousands of older and experienced teachers.
• charter schools, co-location (the union had 2 co-located charters), unequal treatment from DOE. The growing corps of temporary, non-unionized at-will teachers.
• the growing segregation of the student body—the wanted vs. the unwanted
• denial of tenure to newer teachers (year after year extensions, discontinues from principals with a grudge -- no rights for non-tenured and increasingly restrictive rights for tenured teachers who are now facing even the end of that protection
• a grievance procedure in the toilet
• multi pension tiers

July 25 4-7PM - MORE Summer Series: How Should We View the UFT/AFT Leadership?

I helped organize this discussion based on what I see as various points of view regarding the union leadership in the UFT/AFT. It will take place at Local 138 (138 Ludlow St, a block and a half north of Delancey.)

There have been internal debates for years in ICE, GEM and MORE on this issue. How far does an opposition caucus go in criticizing the leadership? Does it risk blow back -- feeding into a sense of anti-unionism, especially from the newer generation of teachers who often enter with an anti-union bias? How do you try to compete for power in the UFT without being critical? How does MORE manage to counter the so-far successful propaganda campaign over the last 2 decades that it is the mayors (Giuliani and Bloomberg) who are the problem, not the people running our union?

One MORE member sent me this question:

How do we connect our members to our union and help them to understand its importance and galvanize them to get involved-- how do we overcome the disenfranchisement and disconnectedness and instead convince people our union is actually a force for good and justice locally, nationally, and globally?

My thoughts are how do we do the above with a union leadership that at best can be considered ineffective and at worst collusive with our enemies? I won't get into the whys and wherefores of this time but maybe some answers will emerge later today.

Other questions that have come up:

What strategies and tactics should an opposition caucus use in relating to the union leadership? Should the opposition work with the leadership? If so, when, how and under what terms? If it's going to be critical, what kind of tone should be maintained? If the decision is to criticize/attack the leadership, then how should it be done, while making it clear to all that The Union is always to be supported? In other words, how can the leadership be separated from the Union in the eyes of the rank and file? And should it?

Given the power balances in the UFT do you attempt to lobby the leadership towards better policies? That's pretty much what New Action does. They have no grassroots and they play the role of a loyal opposition -- not even an opposition given that they could not win one position in an election without Unity support.

Some in MORE think that the leadership can be pressured, but instead of playing the inside New Action game, organize enough rank and file and the leadership will be forced to respond.

Some think the UFT leadership cannot really be pressured to change direction, given their history of capitulation and even when they look like they are doing something right, that is only on the surface. In fact they coopt the language of the critics (what they say) but don't actually do anything very much different (what they do).

Peter Lamphere, formerly from TJC and now a major cog in MORE, will be giving us the benefit of his long-time activism in the UFT and will touch on many of these issues in his presentation.

I hear all the time, even from newbies: if only we had Al Shanker instead of Randi and we would have a militant fighting union. As a 43 year activist I don't buy that line and in fact believe that there is a direct line ideologically from Shanker, through Sandy Feldman through Randi and Mulgrew.

Ira Goldfine, my colleague from the 70s and a founder of ICE in 2003 will do a presentation going back to the late 60s through the 90s pre-Randi to show this connection. That Randi did not in fact take the union in another direction. Shanker started the give back ball rolling as far back as 1972, the last time we got a good contract.

The UFT/AFT/Unity leadership has made it easy to be critical based on their support for so much of ed deform. Here is a partial list compiled by Vera Pavone who is doing one of the presentations later today focusing on the UFT since mayoral control.

• supporting the teacher accountability ed deform mantra - the evaluation mess
• signing on to "we must get rid of bad teachers" as a solution
• variations of merit pay schemes
• mayoral control
• common core
• charters and co-locations
• rating and grading schools and generation of phony statistics on graduation rates, dropouts, all resulting in….
• Closing schools (which the UFT supported through the end of 2009 and still supports to some extent), destroying neighborhood schools, dezoning, eliminating comprehensive HS and availability of electives for the vast majority of HS students. Forcing children to travel longer distances.
• tepid defense of reducing class size, which ed deformers disparage as a solution
• the contract and agreements in 2005 that coupled school closings with the burgeoning population of ATRs who started off as in-house subs and ended up as the wandering unwanted. Leading to the forcing out of thousands of older and experienced teachers.
• charter schools, co-location (the union had 2 co-located charters), unequal treatment from DOE. The growing corps of temporary, non-unionized at-will teachers.
• the growing segregation of the student body—the wanted vs. the unwanted
• denial of tenure to newer teachers (year after year extensions, discontinues from principals with a grudge -- no rights for non-tenured and increasingly restrictive rights for tenured teachers who are now facing even the end of that protection
• a grievance procedure in the toilet
• multi pension tiers
• paying lip service to the big

I bet you can add some more. How can this be? That a union leadership can be either so tone-deaf or

Remember, the early attacks under BloomKlein in 2002 led to the alliance between Randi and New Action which accepted the "we must support the union leaders in this time of crisis," thus ending their role as the leading opposition caucus in the UFT after 12 years since they merged in 1990 when Teachers Action Caucus (founded in 1968) and New Directions (1976) merged. Thus in reality, the dirty deal ended 35 years of history of there being a recognized opposition that proved throughout the 90s through the 2001 election that they could win at least some executive board seats on their own without Unity support. Now there is hope that MORE can rise from the ashes to create a vibrant challenge to the leadership.

Recently there have been blogs on this issue by people like Diane Ravitch and Unity flack Peter Goodman who left a comment on the NYC Educator blog (To Bobblehead, or Not to Bobblehead)

Unfortunately the union movement has spent too much time fighting internally rather than concentrating on their enemies...

This is the constant Unity line to kill internal criticism for 50 years.

In Diane's post, My Friend Randi Weingarten which garnered over 250 comments, mostly critical of Randi and some of Diane for posting this (I think it was a good thing she did), she said:

It serves no purpose for those of us opposed to teacher-bashing and corporate reform to fight among ourselves. We must stand together so that we will one day prevail over those who want to destroy public education and the teaching profession. We can’t win if we are divided. I will do nothing to help those who pursue a strategy of divide and conquer. They want us to fight among ourselves. I won’t help them.

There is no little irony in that this very post served to unleash a storm of comments critical of Randi. But some still seem to think deserves to be classified as someone we must stand together with given the enormous attacks on teachers and their unions. And by the way, I don't separate Mulgrew from Randi no matter how hard Unity people say they are different (style over substance in my view) -- watch what they do, not what they say.

I found one interesting comment supporting Diane's post (which also do) saying that maybe Randi will listen to Diane and stand up more for us due to Diane's influence.

This is an astounding statement, hoping an academic and advocate not connected to the union is supposed to influence the national leader of one of the two national teacher unions to stand up for us rather than sit on the fence (at best) or at worst, stand on the other side. Witness her most recent call for the "bad" teachers to get out of the profession, which NYC Educator (Getting Rid of "Bad Teachers") and Perdido (It's Time To Fire "Bad" Union Leaders Like Randi W) dealt with.

So, come on down later today if you are interested in jumping into this discussion, which I am sure will not be the end of it.

Randi Weingarten Proves She's an Ed Deformer, Mulgrew and UFT Should Condemn Her...

...but it will not happen because Mulgrew and Unity are totally aligned with her.

I won't get into the details given other bloggers hammering Randi:
Pissed off teacher: Union Should Stick To Defending Teachers -     When a person hires a lawyer, the lawyer does not decide whether the person is guilty or innocent. The lawyer just defends that person to the bes..

Perdido St: It's Time To Fire "Bad" Union Leaders Like Randi Weingarten

Randi Weingarten led the attack on firing "bad teachers" yesterday, giving more ammunition to the "Bash Teachers" movement by saying that teachers who are ineffective at their craft do not deserve to be defended and should be fired.

NYC Educator: 

Getting Rid of "Bad Teachers" - That's what AFT President Randi Weingarten focused on in some sort of AFT gathering. I don't get invited to AFT gatherings in my lowly capacity as repres...

I have always maintained that our union leaders are on the other side and really support ed deform.

Come to the MORE summer event Thursday from 4-7 that I have helped organize: UFT Leadership: Friend or Foe to explore this issue in depth.

Thurs. 7/25 UFT Leadership: Friend or Foe: An analysis of the leadership of our union and how a caucus such as MORE views them Our summer series continues at Local 138 on Ludlow st, Lower East Side, NYC. 4-7pm $3 beer and drink specials.

Video of our 1st summer series on high stakes testing and a preview of this one can be found at here

Support Teacher/Parent Marie Corfield for Assembly in New Jersey

JJ is one of the awesome bloggers out there. I'm not big on political campaigns but if he asks I am there. I am heading over to donate to Marie right now.

Dear friends of Jersey Jazzman,

I promise I'll keep it short, and I promise this will be the only time you will hear from me about this:

My good friend, Marie Corfield, is running for Assembly here in New Jersey. I don't have to tell any of you what a slog we've had here going up against Chris Christie and his war on public education. Marie is a teacher, a mother, and our best hope of having a real educator's voice be heard in the fight to save New Jersey's public school system. She is in a competitive district, and there is no doubt she can win this election - IF she has enough money.

I know you are all in different positions and capable of different levels of support. I'd ask you to consider the following:

1) Marie is having an on-line fundraiser this Thursday, July 25: a "money bomb," where she hopes to raise sorely needed revenues for her campaign. Please consider contributing:

http://www.corfieldforassembly.com/

I wrote a blog post about the "money bomb" here:

http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/07/marie-corfield-money-bomb-thursday-july.html

2) If you are in a position to do so, please consider sharing the details of this fundraiser with your audience (I understand many of you cannot, but Marie would still appreciate your personal support). The Facebook page for the "money bomb" is here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/178282025685540/?fref=ts

Any social media traffic you can contribute would help: blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, etc.

Believe me when I say I have never written an email like this before. But this is a special circumstance, and Marie is a special person. When she wins, she will make us all proud.

Many thanks,

Mark (aka JJ)

Joe Williams' DFER Propaganda Laugh Riot, Lauding E4E, Ignoring MORE Support

...new organizations like Educators for Excellence are increasingly giving voice to teachers who have a totally different framework for social justice...... 18% of active teachers who actually voted, one out of five of those teachers voted for someone other than Mulgrew to be president... Joe Williams, DFER, in DN.

Message to Joe Williams: Those one in five voted for MORE whose members mock and despise E4E as your astro-turf creation. In case you missed it E4E didn't have the chops to put itself out there in the UFT elections even with their millions of dollars to run a campaign. They would have been exposed as the joke they are. In fact they barely have a presence left here in NYC with their events dwindling to nothing. Hey Joe, I have an idea. Why doesn't DFER sponsor a debate between MORE and E4E and watch them run for the hills. Or rather they have already run for the hills -- the Beverly Hills.

Perdido Street School made this cogent point:

Many of us in the UFT rank and file despise the UFT leadership because they cave to much to the DFER/hedge fund/Bloomberg/Gates/Obama agenda, not because they don't cave enough to it.

DFER propaganda-meister Joe Williams mocks UFT President Michael Mulgrew 

Now Williams does have a few interesting things to say.

Once upon a time, city teachers were united in a social justice battle for better pay, benefits and working conditions. They fought hard and they fought together, because the benefits of doing so were obvious.

The internal dynamics of the UFT expose the stark disconnect.
Inside the union, the old guard is still holding on strong – and that has become a nightmare for Mulgrew. The men and women who made the UFT, now retired, still serve as the most active voting bloc within the union. (Retirees are allowed to vote in UFT elections.) The problem is: Most of them left NYC long ago, for warmer environs down south and a lower cost of living.
In union elections this spring, for example, only 18% of the city’s teaching force cared enough about what the UFT was doing that they even bothered to vote. (And of the 18% of active teachers who actually voted, one out of five of those teachers voted for someone other than Mulgrew to be president.)

It has gotten so bad that the UFT is considering launching an internal task force to find out why the overwhelming majority of active classroom teachers are disconnected from the union.

Yes, that internal task force, which MORE is/will be invited to take part in. Which I adamantly oppose -- I am in the minority. Here's what will happen. They will be sworn to secrecy so our own reps can't come back and report to us. The TF will be dominated by Unity -- and New Action -- all caucuses, even phony bogus ones like NA are supposed to be part of this. And I can predict what they will come up with. 

And the lack of a democratic union where nothing much can be at stake given the way the elections are structured will NOT be part of the discussions. They will recommend more outreach/advertizing etc. 

Frankly, if I am still around I will argue for MORE to boycott the election farce next time in 2016 -- campaign yes, but against the way elections are run -- and the resulting campaign will actually have a bigger impact. I will lose that argument inside MORE and if the numbers don't change much - oh, maybe MORE wins the 7 high school exec board seats and MORE will be where New Action was in the 90s. Ho hum.

Newark's NEW Caucus on Chicago Layoffs

Some of them were union activists, trying to make their public schools and their union better.... NEW Caucus

The Chicago layoff story while hiring Teach For America scabs (Mark Naison: Teach for America-Our Modern Day Pinkertons) is a declaration of nuclear war.

RBE did a good job the other day in branding Rahm Emanuel a murderer (Rahm Emanuel's School Closings Put Children's Live). In a fair society Rhambo would be on death row, along with his pals who murder innocent civilians (Obama: I Could Be My Own Drone Bombing Victim.)

NEW Caucus, which basically won the Newark union elections last month, is predicting that Cami Anderson will be doing her own version of Rhambo next year once Rosemary's Randi's baby -- the contract she brokered -- hits full force.

Despite it being the summer, NEW Caucus has been busy.  More on that in a later email...

But for now, we wanted to share some recent articles that are relevant to all Newark education workers and public education in general.  So those articles are toward the bottom.

But the huge, terrible news today is what has been taking place in Chicago since Friday.

Chicago has begun laying off 2,100 education

workers!!!  MANY OF THEM ARE (were) TENURED!  

Some of them were union activists, trying to make their public schools and their union better.  

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07-19/news/chi-cps-more-layoffs-coming-20130718_1_pension-reform-cps-new-teachers-contract

PLEASE READ!  This is what is coming to Newark!  We have already heard rumors that because our Superintendent did not close any schools this past year (an election year for her employer) she WILL close schools in large numbers next year if Christie wins a second term.    

Newark education workers MUST begin mobilizing to protect our students, our public schools, our city, and our profession!  

The corporate education reformers are willing to destroy schools, communities, student lives, and 

the lives of education workers in their push for markets and profit.  

It's up to US to stop them.

Below are more articles, further driving home the damage caused by the corporate "reform" agenda:

1)  article on Philly school closings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/education/budget-cuts-reach-bone-for-philadelphia-schools.html?emc=eta1

2)  Jersey City Public Schools outsourcing substitutes.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2013/07/jersey_city_schools_to_outsource_substitute_teachers_at_4m_cost.html

3)  Corporate reformer push to "reform" schools of education.

 http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/13/07/09/alternative-grad-school-raises-concerns-about-who-s-teaching-nj-s-teachers/

and another critiquing the "reform" agenda for schools of education.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/are-schools-of-education-_b_3563103.html

4)  GREAT article on the disruptive and negative results of "renew" or "turnaround" schools

in Washington, DC.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/with-reconstitution-dc-officials-hope-for-school-turnaround/2013/06/10/9c998a44-cb0a-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html

In Solidarity,

Newark Education Workers Caucus

(NEW Caucus)

 

NewarkEducationWorkersCaucus.com

862-367-9211 

Facebook.com/NEWCaucus

Twitter.com/NEWCaucus

YouTube.com/user/NEWCaucus

Google Calendar: NewarkEducationWorkersCaucus@gmail.com

Jeff Kaufman Covers Trayvon Martin Protest in Los Angelos

Jeff is spending the month in LA attending the National Academy on Constitutional and Political Theory. He was at the Trayvon Martin rally and send these videos and pics. He said, "The woman with the cut out paper is, of course, a teacher from East LA (middle school math). We met teachers from various schools in LA United included one who had been in the rubber room 3 times."

This Was The Week That Was: Norms Social Notes

It's been a busy week at the ole homestead. So, given my disappearing

Mighty Max: 7 weeks old

memory, I'm doing a day by day chronicle of the last week so I don't do the same things this upcoming week where the only thing on the agenda is going to see Dirty Wars Monday and the MORE summer series: UFT leadership, Friend or Foe on Thurs. (Come on down -- $3 happy hour beers -- I may have a few BEFORE the meeting.

Saturday July 13

Brother, sister love

Brother in law birthday. Go to Jersey, the Highlands, for party. Hot. Hit lots of traffic in SI and on Garden State. Eat lots of hot dogs (one was fat free), cheeseburgers, drink lots of beer. Play Boce on lawn with 29 year old cousin Dan as partner while bro-in-law gets stuck with my wife who throws ball sideways-- see pic for reaction. I'm not bad and have a Boce future.

See niece's daughters (28 months and 5) get more interesting with every visit -- they lobby parents for another child, 5 year old complaining what hard work it is to be a big sister -- she has to do all the work. Wife ends up alone with them taking care for about 15 minutes. Nothing like watching her chase a 2 year old around.

See benefits of being only child as my wife and her brother do a love pose.

Sunday, July 14
Celebrate future testing opt-outer Jack Cavanagh's first birthday with Julie and Glen - and about 50 others. Jack has had quite a year, attending DAs, MORE meetings, etc -- if this kid becomes a teacher I will be shocked. Looked like great food -- but  still full from all the crap from Sat so miss out and eat little -- which I regret an hour later when I get home and am starving.  Mollie and Darren are there and we get to meet 6-week old Max for first time. (I gotta find some of the great Max --- another future opt-outer.) And how great to see Lisa Donlan who I don't see often enough. The whole Real Reform crew was there except for Brian. Making the Inconvenient Truth Behind WFS was one of the richest experiences of my life and the team will be bonded forever. Now let's get all those kids grown up so we can do another one.

Monday, July 15
Stay home and stare at garden of the future while smoking a pipe and reading "Dirty Wars" (looking for drones from Bill Gates) while doing no work. Too bad you can't dream a garden into life. I have all these grandiose plans to build, build, build but so far all I do is cut vines, brush - my inner George Bush -- and take down old trellises. At night I don't even watch the home run hitting event, which bores me to hell. So I sit on deck and smoke and read.

Tuesday, July 16
Ditto Monday (with a visit to gym) until leave for Change the Stakes steering comm meeting at 4:30 followed by regular meeting at 6. My fave group of people -- maybe because most are parents and not teachers. Screw the all-star game though I do get home to watch some of it. Snore.

Wednesday, July 17
College pal Dan and Australian wife Robyn do insane thing. Took a bus from Washington DC where they now live to Manhattan where they took the Jitney to East
Hampton for a few days. That entire process takes almost 8-10 hours and they get in Monday night. (Love this week's NY Jitney cover.)

So we do a more insane thing. Rather than go to our beach 3 blocks away, we drive 2 and a half hours to the Hamptons to go to the beach there -- which frankly didn't impress me much. We manage to eat lunch before the beach and dinner later (no missing meals in my wife's world), though we choked on the outrageously expensive food and surly service for dinner. Still a great view of sunset followed by another 2.5 hour trip home in the dark - can't they afford lights in EastHampton? No baseball to miss tonight so all is good. Love that XM radio.

Thursday, July 18
Julie comes to beach with 2 pals and no kids. I never go to the beach unless people come. So I head over to meet them in 95 degrees at noon. Surprisingly there is a nice breeze and it feels pretty good. Get 2 hour harangue about what a sexist I am -- I need to send her pics of my junk in my underwear and then ask for rehabilitation  -- hey, it worked for some people. It was fun to chat given how busy Julie has been and also get over to the beach and see the progress in repairing the wall.

Get home at 2:30 and head for deck to smoke and read more "Dirty Wars" while looking up for incoming drone from the AFT while checking back fence for signs of CIA assassination teams. At 4 wife says, "Hey, want to go to the beach?" So off we go for another 2 hours. More beach time over last 2 days than I've had in a year. My face is RED!

David, Gloria, Liza, Lisa, Moi, Pat

Still no baseball so stay up for Letterman and Craig Ferguson.

Friday, July 19
The big MORE air-it-out meeting where we get to bitch about the good, the bad and the ugly. Sorry, can't speak about it without worrying about a MORE drone. But kudos to Seku and Jia, 2 of the emerging leaders of MORE for doing a spectacular job.
Aside: Too bad people think of a caucus only in terms of elections. Most important: 30 people care enough give up a hot Friday afternoon (if people weren't away it would have been 60) to shlep into the city for what could have turned out to be a difficult meeting and to have 2 relatively new people a) be trusted to handle this and b) to have that trust reinforced beyond conception is what makes this work so rewarding.

Liza can make anyone feel happy- even me

Then it was party time as some of us headed over to a bar in Williamsburg for Liza and Vanessa's bachelorette party. I've never been to a bachelorette party before. "Don't worry," Gloria told me. "No one thinks of you as a guy." Gee thanks. David came along with Pat to make sure I wasn't the only guy.

Vanessa and Liza

The official wedding is in Maine next week which we can't attend. Turns out they got married officially on Friday so this was a very special evening for us all. Those who know Liza's awesome history of activism in GEM, NYCORE and the early stages of MORE miss her terribly since she and Vanessa moved to Seattle, where Liza has jumped into the test resistance movement.

Saturday, July 20
Last day of heat wave. So instead of going to the beach we head into Brooklyn to our friends' daughter and hubby's new apartment they moved into yesterday in Fort Greene near Washington Av and Greene St. Nice place in a gentrifying neighborhood. I can't get my head around an

at the ice cream stand minutes before downpour

apartment that costs 7 times what I paid for my house 34 years ago. (You can get an entire house in Rockaway for the price of an apt in Bklyn now). Then we walk over to a nice little restaurant a few blocks away, followed by a walk over to Dekalb near Vanderbilt for some ice cream. Where we get caught in a massive downpour and my wife has the only umbrella. While waiting it out under an overhang we meet a British/Scottish couple with a 4 month old and a dog. We all make friends very quickly before heading off into the rain, trying to walk between the drops.
Stay up till 2 watching Bourne something or other followed by The Newsroom.

Sunday, July 21
Gym and a day of just hanging out -maybe a movie and afternoon nap---