Seung and Steve Slap Goliath David (Cantor)

People on the NYCEd News listserve actually get hot when DOE press chief David Cantor decides to respond to a posting,which is what he did on GEM's Seung OK's comment on credit recovery. Seung has enormous credibility because he is on the front lines and daily sees the results of the disastrous policies of Cantor's boss.

Seung made a mark recently with his calling out during Randi's farewell address and the Unity Caucus hack machine is trying to lift his delegate position. (See UFT Delegate Assembly, Democracy NOT Unity Hack Attack Part 2, Seung Sings with lots more to come I haven't reported on yet)

Seung has been a teacher for 11 years and just recently became involved with GEM due to his outrage.And what an involvement as he has thrown both feet into the fray with gusto. If there were even 50 more like him out there we'd have BloomWeinKlein on the run.

Will Seung be getting visits at his school from the both the UFT and the DOE over his outspokeness? Frankly, I would be more sorry for the goons than I am for Seung.

For the record, I personally like David Cantor, as do most people who have met him. No matter how much the people opposed to BloomKlein disagree, he has always been a gentleman. His willingness to throw himself into the debate, even though he is always wrong, is something to be admired. I always encourage him to do so. It gives us so much material.


Seung Ok says in response to the NY Times article on credit recovery:

The only issues I have about this article - is it doesn't question the improvement showing that less city college students need remediation courses. The reason for that is the high prices of state colleges. Many higher level students who would have previously attended state colleges are now attending the cheaper city colleges. This is not due to mayoral control.

The other problem is that it should have mentioned that the state education department were recently looking to make recovery courses even more lax. They proposed to get rid of seat time requirements for students, to allow the school to determine what is and is not credit recovery, and to hide the source of credits on students transcripts so no outside observer could discern a regular credit from recovery.

Plus, they did not mention that regents standards are so low, that it is not a measure of anything anymore. Only 33% and 46% respectively on the Algebra and Biology regents is needed for a scaled score of 65.

Otherwise, I think this article is very good at exposing all the loopholes Klein and Bloomberg are allowing to happen for their own stats. I'm not hopeful that they will reign this practice however, because improvement in statistics is the bedrock of their argument to voters to keep in control of DOE.


DOE Press Secretary David Cantor responds:

This is bogus. Not only has the enrollment rate of NYC high school graduates gone up 50% at CUNY schools since 2002, it has gone up modestly at SUNY colleges as well.

Also, the reference to Regents test scoring is completely bollixed. Students do not need to score "33%" on the Algebra test in order to pass. They need a raw score this year of 30 out of a possible 87, but the test isn't divided into equal intervals. For example, a raw score of 19 yields a scale score of 49, while a raw score of 20 yields a scale score of 51; looked at another way, raw scores of 63, 64, 65, and 66 all yield a scale score of 84.

Additionally, the raw score needed to pass changes each year depending on the difficulty of the test's questions; while a student in 2009 needed a raw score of 30, next year a student may need a raw score of 40. Using the mistaken calculation below, and assuming 87 were to remain the high raw score, students would need to score "46%" to pass. By the logic here the State would deserve praise for raising standards.

David Cantor

Press Secretary

Seung slaps back - brilliantly, I might add

To Mr. Cantor,

Fine, if you don't want see the obvious - that there is a recession, and higher level students are in fact opting for CUNY rather than SUNY - then lets look at a report released by CUNY itself:

"In difficult economic times, students and their families especially appreciate the high value of an education at a CUNY college," said Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. "We are investing in CUNY by attracting world class faculty, building modern facilities and creating innovative academic programs in the most exciting city in the world. The University today is among the best values in higher education."

That same report by CUNY goes on to say:

Five elite New York City public high schools – Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, Staten Island Technical High School, Stuyvesant High School and Townsend Harris High School – sent 505 freshmen to CUNY colleges this fall, a 27 percent increase compared with the number enrolled in baccalaureate programs in 1999.

And as far as your scaled scores on standardized testing is concerned, you missed the point completely. The issue is not that every student's grades will be inflated. You remark that a 62,63, and 64 raw score ( out of 87 possible questions) are all scaled at a test score of 87.

The issue is the MINIMAL standards of what you consider proficient (30 correct out of 87 possible credits). So, yes, if this were the physician's licensing exam, those that did great wouldn't get a 140% on an exam. The problem is that the lowest performing group (30 out of 87 questions), would still be graduated as doctors. Let's use common sense here, as someone else just mentioned, would you want anyone - your doctor, bus driver, barber, astronaut, waiter, proctologist to get 30 out of 87 in anything in their training?

And let me tell you why these tests are becoming easier than ever. I ran tutoring sessions for several hours 3 days prior to this years Living Environment exam. There were many students who attended who failed it in the past, and had not taken a single course related to this subject all year. Why did they come and thank me right after the test? They thanked me because every question I crammed into them was on that exam. Of course, because many of the questions appeared last year, and the year before that. These tests are getting narrower in scope, and exact forms of questions are being repeated year after year.

Any test in which one can predict the questions, does not measure what it claims to.

Seung Ok

Parent Steve Koss jumps into the fray

Dear Mr. Cantor,

I normally try my best to refrain from responding to the comments you submit to this listserv, but your most recent posting was so feckless and off the wall, I simply couldn't stand by and let it pass uncountered. I have to tell you that I've never seen anyone put their foot in their mouth so often and so readily as you seem to do; "tribalism" was truly a gem, I must say. Remarkable that they pay you for whatever it is you're doing. A bit of professional advice before I move ahead with responding to your email? Stop trying to defend the indefensible. It's difficult enough to do as it is, but you make complete hash out of it every time you attempt it. If I was your boss, I'd frankly tell you in no uncertain terms to shut the hell up and stay off the Internet.

Now, as for your comments, which I personally find (as both a math major and as a former NYC high school math teacher as well as public school parent leader) so preposterous as to be beyond laughable. They really make me wonder if you have any clue whatsoever as to how the NYC and NYS school systems and exam structures work. It's eminently clear that you don't. What you wrote is some of the most patently ridiculous and intellectually bankrupt stuff I've ever seen from someone who ostensibly speaks on behalf of a major city public school system.

I see that others have already responded regarding CUNY, including statements issued by CUNY itself as to their increasing enrollment due to their "good value for the money" education. Interesting to see the number of students who went to CUNY from the specialized high schools. When I taught at Lab School, some of my best students (especially first generation Americans from immigrant families) also went to CUNY because their families just didn't have the money for something more renowned. I'll leave that argument for others and focus on what I know best (advice I'd highly recommend to you) -- the Grade 3-8 and Regents first level Math exams.

The scaled passing score on Integrated Algebra is a 30 out of 87 points. Period. There's no if's, and's, or but's, no way of dancing around the fact that a 34.5% raw score earn you a 65 and hence the "math credit" toward a (now meaningless) Regents diploma. That fact has nothing to do with how the rest of the exam is scaled. Scaling creates all sorts of issues, but none of them are pertinent to the central argument Ms. Seung Ok was originally making. And nothing in this argument even begins to address all the other aspects of score inflation built into the Regents: narrowed scope, simpler questions, repetition of question content and format, opportunities for systemic cheating, etc.

Regardless, in order to help educate you, I've included below the cut scores for a 65 (passing grade) on every Math A and Integrated Algebra exam since June 1999. The second column is each exam's maximum possible score, the third column is the cut score for a 65 based on that exam's conversion table, and the last column is the percentage of the maximum raw score that it took to get the 65 (e.g., 43 out of 85 in June 1999 was 50.59%, and that was converted to a 65).

MATH A

Jun-99 85 43 50.59
Jan-00 85 44 51.76
Jun-00 85 41 48.24
Aug-00 85 41 48.24
Jan-01 85 46 54.12
Jun-01 85 46 54.12
Aug-01 85 47 55.29
Jan-02 85 48 56.47
Jun-02 85 52 61.18
Aug-02 85 53 62.35
Jan-03 85 52 61.18
Jun-03 85 51 60.00
Jun-03 85 36 42.35
Jan-04 84 37 44.05
Jun-04 84 37 44.05
Aug-04 84 36 42.86
Jan-05 84 34 40.48
Jun-05 84 36 42.86
Aug-05 84 34 40.48
Jan-06 84 33 39.29
Jun-06 84 35 41.67
Aug-06 84 34 40.48
Jan-07 84 35 41.67
Jun-07 84 35 41.67
Aug-07 84 34 40.48
Jan-08 84 34 40.48
Jun-08 84 36 42.86
Aug-08 84 36 42.86
Jan-09 84 35 41.67

INTEGRATED ALGEBRA

Jun-08 87 30 34.48
Aug-08 87 30 34.48
Jan-09 87 31 35.63
Jun-09 87 30 34.48

As you can clearly see, the cut score percentage actually rose somewhat in the few years before NCLB turned education on its head and politicized the outcomes of state standardized exams. Since 2002 though, the cut score percentage has been declining steadily, reaching an abysmal and embarrassing low of 30 out of 87 in three of the four Integrated Algebra exams (which, by the way, are filled with questions that belong in middle schoolers' exams). So your contention that "next year a student may need a raw score of 40" is patently absurd -- it's never happened, and it's not going to happen until folks like you and your bosses who've politicized all of this get out of the middle of something none of you understand and let real educators and parents take charge of their children's education. You only have to look at what happened in June 2003, when the passing score was dropped precipitously due to "anomalies" in that exam but then never re-raised in the years and exams following to see what's going on.

The State has never significantly raised standards since the inception of NCLB. In fact, they've consistently gone the opposite direction, and not just for the high school Regents. The cut scores for Level 3 in Math have been lowered consistently at every grade level, almost one point per year, since 2006 (when full Grade 3-8 testing was implemented -- if you want those numbers, I have them and will happily provide you with them so you don't make a fool of yourself yet again).

Interestingly, the Regents have kept the bar for a "high pass" (85%) pretty much constant. But then again, nobody's looking at that because who cares about kids doing more than just climbing over the lowest bar we can possibly set for them? In point of fact, the 2008 CIR's from NYS make it clear that the percentages of kids scoring over 85% on Integrated Algebra (which requires a raw score equivalent of 77-78%) are horrifyingly low, zero percent in dozens of NYC high schools (I've already found 46 schools where that happened, a total of 81 schools out of 142 I've looked at where the 85% bar scaled score bar was crossed by 2% or less of the students, and a total of 106 out of 142 schools where less than 10% could manage a raw score that reached 75% of the raw score points available to them). Lest you think I'm cherry-picking, my 142 schools included Townsend Harris, LaGuardia, Cardozo, Bayside, Edward R. Murrow, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant, Millenium, Eleanor Roosevelt, Baruch, Hunter Science, School of the Future, Staten Island Tech, Pace HS, Forest Hills, Midwood, Manhattan Center for Science & Math, NEST+M, Bard Early College, Manhattan Village Academy, HS for Dual Language and Asian Studies, Murry Bergtraum, Leon Goldstein, PPAS, and many others that are considered to be among the city's best public schools.

Before you embarrass yourself with another sparkling revelation of your lack of knowledge and apparent unwillingness to study the data in order actually to support your statements with something substantative like some of the rest of us do, I suggest you think twice about what you say on the listserv and how you say it. When you speak, you are not David Cantor, citizen, you are David Cantor, NYC DOE. If you are going to make arguments on behalf of the Chancellor that are utterly bereft of both common sense and supporting fact, you are going to have to deal with responses from people who have spent time studying these things and understand what's really going on despite all the "feel good" P.R. that comes out of both SED and the NYC DOE.

If the tone of this email is insulting, it was meant to be. I'm outraged beyond bounds by what you wrote, not because it's in any way personal, but because it's so nonsensical and demonstrates so clearly how those of you at Tweed simply don't get it. As a presumably responsible representative of the DOE, you cannot just say anything you want (sorry, you're not Rush Limbaugh, at least not yet) and expect knowledgeable parents simply to roll over and say thank you. This listserv isn't one of your silly subway posters that can claim anything without having to deal with public responses. Do your homework and check your facts next time if you don't want to enrage people who actually know what they're talking about.

Steve Koss

David, the ball is in your court. Or did Seung and Steve serve an ace?

NY Times article link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/nyregion/13credit.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=education

More comments on the article posted at Norms Notes:
Credit Recovery

AFT Hack Attack on Portland Local 5017

Some of you may not be paying attention to this "small" story in Portland, Or. But the role being played by the AFT against a local daring to discuss leaving the AFT is indicative of the kinds of desperate attempts to keep people in line. Let's say an entire chapter at a school decided to withdraw from COPE. Will the UFT come in and depose the elected union officials? Don't be surprised.


Let's say you're a relatively small laid back union office in just as laid back Portland, Oregon and one day 20 guys in suits – and no one wears suits in Portland – barge in and take over your office, seizing all records and computers. They say they are from the national AFT (sent by Queen Randi) and are deposing the elected representatives of the Local. Having dealt with Unity Caucus goons for 40 years, what would I do? Call the cops and charge them with breaking and entry. But this is laid back Portland and people are polite.

Here's a follow-up on the Ed Notes report on the AFT takeover of Local 5017 in Portland, Oregon (Randi Goes to Portland As AFT Threatens Local Considering Disaffiliation).

There's a new blog for Local 5017: Take Back Local 5017

This blog is about union democracy. On July 7, 2009 Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, Local 5017, a small healthcare local in Portland, Oregon was taken over by its parent union and put under trusteeship. We want Local 5017 back!

The first I knew something was up in Portland was when Randi facetiously asked me if I wanted to go with her to Oregon at her farewell speech to the UFT Ex Bd meeting, the one where Mike Mulgrew was crowned. Randi is due in Portland next week to try to put out the fire.

The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, Local 5017, has 3500 members, health care workers like lab techs and nurses. They have been in the AFT for 30 years, during which time their concerns have been mostly ignored by the AFT hierarchy. The more active members felt the AFT looked at them as a cash cow, sucking up their dues. One of them even showed up at an AFT convention dressed as a cow covered with cash.

The last straw came when the AFT pulled funding for an important lobbying campaign for a bill that would not allow hospitals to cut staff under a certain level, a lobbying campaign that received little support from the AFT all along. The Local had put much time and effort into the campaign and wasn't even informed by the Oregon AFT lobbyist that the bill had been dropped.

They had been watching from next door the effectiveness of the California Nurses Association led by Rose Ann DeMoro, a left progressive unionist and a dirty word to some union leaders, who is a VP on the AFL/CIO Exec Bd where she gets to rub elbows with Randi. (Hopefully, Randi's collaborationist agenda will not rub off on Rose Ann.) Dreams of actually having a union that would fight for them began to drift through Local 5017's Exec Bd and a decision was made in late May to explore their options, including disaffiliation from the AFT.

Some moles on the 5017 Exec Bd spilled the beans to AFT central and Randi sent a letter to the leaders, along the lines of "please come back, but if you don't, you're dead." Local 5017 elected leaders, upon legal advice, refused to talk to her. Off came the glove. One of the major charges? Their Constitution says they don't hold meetings in July and they called a general membership meeting to discuss - not vote - on the concept of whether disaffiliating from the AFT made sense and what were their other options. Wow! Another was misappropriation of union dues, a more serious charge – until you get the actual details. Like money spent to hold a meeting to discuss the issue of disaffiation. In the UFT, you see, discussing issues openly is considered subversive.

The AFT is like COPE in the UFT, or a black hole – once you get in, there is no getting back out. Ever.

It would be like ICE contacting the AFT and charging the UFT with a total lack of democracy, with manipulating school elections to assure Unity Caucus control wherever possible, for using member dues for personal political agendas, for running a massive patronage machine, etc. And having Randi Weingarten send in a team of AFT goons to take over the UFT and depose the union leadership – led by Randi Weingarten or her hand-picked successor Michael Mulgrew.

Never mind.

Now, we've been down this road before with the FMPR in Puerto Rico, whose 40,000 member actually did disaffiliate five years ago and was dragged into court (unsuccessfully by the AFT) for years. Ed Notes followed the story and used a bunch of stuff from Mike Antonucci at the Educational Intelligence Agency. Stories like this that make teachers unions look like goons make Antonucci salivate and he did a good job of covering the PR story over a period of time. (I collated the EIA stuff in chronological order. It is posted at Norm's Notes here. In addition, I posted more info - search using "FMPR" to find them all.)

Antonucci blogged about it today at EIA.

AFT Running the Puerto Rico Playbook in Oregon.

The officers and board of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals made the fatal mistake of planning to hold a meeting in July – something contrary to the union's bylaws. On the agenda was whether to ask the rank-and-file about remaining affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.

A few former officers found out about the plan and went to AFT national headquarters with the news. AFT proceeded to remove the duly elected officers and the entire board, and establish a trusteeship. AFT tried this once before in Puerto Rico under similar cicumstances, but it didn't work so well.

Now we learn that the Oregon local officers haven't even seen the formal charges against them, and they claim the alleged unauthorized use of union dues has to do with the money spent to set up the meeting.

Supporters of the ousted officers have created a web site called Take Back Local 5017. My advice? First, get a good labor attorney. Second, contact the Association for Union Democracy. Third, get the members in the streets.

Get numbers in the streets? In laid back Portland? Our reports are that the AFT invaders (shades of Eva Moskowitz at PS 123) are using the Randi velvet fist, treating people real nice and trying to win enough people over to kill the insurgency. All in prep for Randi's visit next week (and wouldn't she be surprised to find me out front handing out Ed Notes).

Which will go like this:

All sweetness and feeling their pain and letting bygones be bygones. She will be like sugar and have almost everyone purring. Randi's brilliance is her understanding that you can buy most people with not much more than paying them some attention and promising more of the same (see New Action Caucus). Nothing much else will really change, but people will feel they are being listened to. Thus, the major insurgency will end, there will be a few months of being paid attention to and then it's back to the beginning.

My advice to Local 5017? Stay in the AFT (that I see as a fait accompli already) and join with other emerging dissidents to make Randi rue the day she bothered to try to lock you in.


Related
An earlier report from EIA: AFT Stages Coup (or Counter-Coup?) in Oregon.

Note his interesting final point: no member can be entirely comfortable with the summary removal of their elected officers based on the accusations of a handful of opponents. Exactly the tactic Unity Caucus uses to challenge chapter elections when they don't like the winning chapter leader or delegate.

... a small army of American Federation of Teachers officials and staff walked into the headquarters of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP) and took control of the union. The affiliate represents about 3,000 nurses and health care workers in both Washington and Oregon.

AFT put the union under a “protective order,” removing from office OFNHP President Kathy Geroux, three other officers, and the entire 16-member executive board.

“OFNHP’s leaders forgot what business they are in,” said AFT-appointed trustee Mark Richard. Richard previously served as an AFT-appointed trustee over the United Teachers of Dade after the Pat Tornillo scandal. ”They were supposed to protect members rights, create democracy in the workplace and the union hall and ensure that contractual language were protected. Instead, they engaged in a campaign of falsehoods, ignored members rights, violated their fiduciary responsibilities and placed their contract with Kaiser at risk.”

AFT asserts it was “approached by several members of the Oregon affiliate, including former elected officers, who presented a petition asking for assistance from the national union.” The current OFNHP leadership team was accused of “using union dues without proper authorization and taking actions in violation of the union’s local and national constitutions to change the bargaining status of OFNHP’s members and possibly switch union affiliations.”

“There was no other avenue left, so we acted,” said AFT spokesman Jamie Horwitz. “This is a rare circumstance triggered by a large number of local members contacting us and saying their local was out of control. The local has every right to leave the AFT, they just have to follow the rules.”

The situation may be exactly as AFT describes, but we should reserve judgment until we hear from the ousted union officers. AFT action’s are eerily similar to those it took in Puerto Rico in 2005, but the FMPR defied the trusteeship and successfully seceded from the national union.

AFT has the responsibility to protect members from the actions of unscrupulous local leaders – something it has had difficulty doing in the past – but no member can be entirely comfortable with the summary removal of their elected officers based on the accusations of a handful of opponents.

There will be more to come.

Yes there will. We're efforting to get ahold of Randi's letter to Local 5017 elected officials and hope to have reports on her visit.

Brooklyn Dreams Charter School Update

According to a Sheepshead (Bay) Bites update, the information on Brooklyn Dreams Charter School was inaccurate.

Some excerpts:

Officials overseeing the application process for the school told us that the BDCS is not planning on using public school facilities at Shell Bank J.H.S. or any other in any district. In the application details and executive summary we received in a pdf file from the NYC Department of Education Chancellor's office, the BDCS stated, "The founding group anticipates leasing renovated space for the school through NHA in CSD 21, and do not intend to seek space through the New York City Department of Education."

We were told that applications could take two to three years to write up and even more time to be approved, so it is difficult for a school to establish an address or physical facility before the application is submitted for approval. We were reminded that all charter schools are public schools that do not charge any tuition, and as such these schools, once approved, do have a right to use public school facilities -- so long as there is a justified need and permission is granted by the community's school district.

We found that although the school has listed as their educational service provider the National Heritage Academies -- a Grand Rapids, Michigan,-based group that advocates teaching Creationism as scientific theory -- a representative we spoke with on the phone at the NHA was not aware of this relationship with the BDCS. Still, the BDCS's Board of Directors has officially stated that, if approved, the school will be under the NHA's administration. The school's application summary also states this.

Hmmm. Does anyone smell a creationism rat? Or other duplicity? Charters routinely declare they will be seeking space, only to come back after getting approval saying they had no luck (see one Hebrew Language Academy). and one minute it's District 22 (where Shell bank is located) and the next they are looking in Dist. 21. Wherever the path of least resistance, I guess.

There will still be a public hearing at Shellbank MS on July 16

Charter Applicant Hearing
I.S. 14 – Shellbank MS 2424 Batchelder St.
Brooklyn, New York 11235
(Between Avenue Y & X)

The original article at SBB are here and at E.Notes here.

Staten Island CEC Takes Stand on Charter Schools

Staten Island is getting its first charter school. And there has been a reaction. This reso from the Staten Island Community Education Council (what used to be the local school board) is really worth checking out for its call for limits on what charter schools can pay and lots of other goodies. Thus Eva Moskowitz would lose her charter if she wants to make $375,000 a year. The argument that the money did not come from public funds is bogus. If they had the money to pay her, then why are we the public being forced to subsidize her schools by giving her space in public schools?

The following resolution was presented to the public at the Community Education Council 31 Calendar Meeting held on July 6, 2009 at the Petrides Educational Complex, Staten Island, New York. A vote was taken and the resolution approved unanimously by voice-vote of the CEC members present, as reflected in the Minutes.

RESOLUTION # 55 ~ CEC 31 REQUESTS THAT DOE & SUNY-BOARD OF REGENTS DENY CHARTER INCORPORATION TO ANY APPLICANT THAT DOES NOT: LIMIT SALARIES & SALARY INCENTIVES FOR CHARTER SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS; AND FOLLOW STANDARDS OF CONDUCT THAT ALL PUBLIC EMPLOYEES MUST FOLLOW REGARDING USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS

WHEREAS, there are currently 78 NYC charter schools, with a total of 24,000 students, and at least 20 additional charter schools have been approved to open in fall 2009; and

WHEREAS, every NYC charter school receives taxpayer money for each student it educates - for the 2008-2009 school year, the per pupil allocation (PPA) for charter schools in New York State is $12,432 – in addition to several state and federal grants; the vast majority of funding that charter schools receive — more than 95 percent — is from public school districts – approximately $150 million statewide and growing; and

WHEREAS the NY State Charter Schools Act of 1998 (Education Law § 2850-2857) clearly states that charter schools are considered to be “within the public school system” but also states that charter schools “operate independently of existing schools and school districts” (Article 56, § 2850, 2ff); and

WHEREAS the NY State Charter Schools Act of 1998 further describes a charter school in the following manner:
· As an “education corporation” (§ 2853, 1a); and
· For purposes of local zoning, land use regulation and building code compliance, “a charter school shall be deemed a nonpublic school” (§ 2853, 3a and 4a); while at the same time
· “Employees of a charter school may be deemed employees of the local school district for the purpose of providing retirement benefits, membership in the teachers’ retirement system and other retirement systems open to employees of public schools” (§ 2854 3c); however
· “An employee of a charter school shall be an employee of the education corporation and not an employee of the local school district” (§ 2854, 3a); and
· “A charter school shall be subject to the provisions of the public officers law” (§ 2854, 1e); but
· Aside from public schools’ health and safety, civil rights and student assessment requirements, “a charter school shall be exempt from all other state and local laws, rules, regulations or policies governing public or private schools, boards of education and school districts, including those relating to school personnel and students, except as provided in the school’s charter” (§ 2854, 1b); and
· Each charter school may create its own “code of ethics” in its application for incorporation (§ 2851, 2v); and

WHEREAS it is obvious to the Community Education Council of District 31 (CEC 31) that the NY State Charter Schools Act of 1998 is inconsistent in regard to whether a charter school is treated as a public or nonpublic school, private corporation or city employer, all of which seems entirely dependent on whatever designation is most convenient for charter schools’ boards of trustees; and

WHEREAS CEC 31 believes that the lack of consistency in the law governing charter schools results in the board of trustees of these schools being allowed to establish their own policies and manage their schools’ finances as they see fit, and that their decisions allow them to flaunt NYC Department of Education regulations and NY state laws regarding conflicts-of-interest, use of public taxpayer funds and codes-of-ethics; and

WHEREAS CEC 31 believes that the carte blanche given to charter schools has led to situations such as:
· Misuse of taxpayer funds by a Bronx charter school rewarding its teachers with all-expenses-paid “staff retreats” to the Caribbean, Cancun and the Dominican Republic from a bank account that mixes public taxpayer dollars with privately raised donations
· A former director of a Brooklyn nonprofit charter-school management organization that oversees 2 charter schools was paid nearly $700,000 in her last year on the job -- almost triple the salary of the NYC schools chancellor
· The current chief executive of a fast-growing chain of Harlem charter schools – currently overseeing 4 schools with plans to eventually have 40 such schools within 10 years – received compensation of $310,000 last year - $250,000 in salary and $60,000 as a bonus as the “director”, chief executive officer’ and “independent contractor” for the same 4 charter schools. By managing the 4 charter schools she earned more than the NYC schools chancellor, who gets $250,000 to run 1,400 schools. She even surpassed the former SUNY chancellor, who manages 70 campuses with nearly 300,000 students.
· A Bronx charter school paid $400,000 to lease space in a building owned by its founder, whose director is a trustee of the school and whose wife is the school’s principal
· At the same Bronx charter school, a another trustee’s wife earned $55,000 in salary as a paid consultant helping set up a school fund-raising operation
· A NYC charter school set to open in 2009 in Washington Heights with plans to offer significantly higher pay for teachers, $125,000 per year, plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance
· The NYS Court of Appeals currently hearing arguments in a lawsuit brought by charter schools associations to prevent the NYS Comptroller from being able to perform audits of public charter schools, on the basis that that “the Comptroller’s audits of charter schools are duplicative and unfair”

Education Law § 2850-2857 clearly stipulates that the charter authorizer (DoE and/or NYS Education Department) and the Board of Regents provide oversight of charter schools, including fiscal accountability; however charters, which are publicly financed but independently operated, face less oversight from school districts and fiscal authorities such as the NYS Comptroller’s Office; THEREFORE BE IT

RESOLVED, that CEC 31 hereby requests that the NYC Department of Education and the SUNY Board of Regents withhold granting of incorporation as a “charter” to any school that seeks to pay a charter school administrator, principal or teacher an annual salary - including salary incentives such as bonuses – in an amount which exceeds the current salary of a comparable public elementary school or middle school administrator, principal or teacher. The annual salary, including bonuses, for charter school elementary school administrators should not exceed $140,000 per year and $175,000 per year for middle school administrators; and BE IT

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NYC Department of Education and the SUNY Board of Regents withhold granting of incorporation as a “charter” to any school that does not adhere to standard conflicts-of-interest regulations and codes-of-ethics rules that apply to all NY city and NY state employees and elected officials.

Explanation: We believe that since charter schools receive taxpayer money, they should be required to follow standards of conduct that all public employees must follow regarding use of public funds. Charter schools’ trustees should not be allowed to pay whatever salaries and bonuses they wish, nor do business with relatives and friends if taxpayer money is involved. Charter schools’ financial records should be subject to audit by the NYS Comptroller, in addition to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute on a regular basis. If any charter school applicant does not wish to adhere to these stipulations, their “charter” should be denied. We do not believe that we should seek to improve schools at any price. We do not believe that anything should be allowed in exchange for improved student performance and scores. Honest standards, fairness, and transparency must exist when public funding is given to any organization.

APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY by roll call vote of all members present: 9 YES; 0 NO; (Absent for vote: Harrison)

PASSED and ADOPTED this 6th Day of July, 2009.

/s/ Kathy Baldassano
Kathy Baldassano
Administrative Assistant, CEC 31

Stringer and Avella Speak at PS 123 Protest of Harlem Success Takeover Attempt

July 10, 2009
Stringer speaks before entering the school on a tour. See the follow-up video of what he has to say when he comes out. Avella as usual says good stuff. The Master of Ceremonies is William Hargraves, an former parent at the school. The wonderful GEM crew came out on very short notice and did some notable chanting (still to come in upcoming video.)



See previous ed notes reports:
Angel Gonzalez and George Schmidt at PS 123 Protest of Harlem Success Takeover Take 2 - July 10, 2009

Rally Fri July 10 as DOE Rules In Favor of Harlem Success Academy Charter School taking over more space at PS 123!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsRDSDGSmK0

TQ and Class SIze

John Thompson has made some great comments at this debate at Gotham:

"I written about the mess four years ago when we became The Wire. How did we
solve it? We just hired more teachers the next year. All of a sudden, problems
that seemed impossible seemed manageable. Then when we we back to the normal
allotment, problems increased again."

I responded:
Just hire more teachers to solve basic problems, the notorious "throwing cash at the problem" we see debunked by the ed deformers. I wonder where you guys got these teachers from? Were they vetted for quality? This is what the deformers say- teacher quality is more important than class size. But what you did was raise the quality of all teachers because TQ does not exist in a vacuum.

When I raised this issue at a forum with Rotherham and Russo, Jennifer Medina from the NY Times, and Richard Colvin of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University. Colvin was incensed when I compared class size in urban areas to suburban schools, saying how the cost was astronomical. "Some people drive Mercedes but not everyone needs to drive a Mercedes," he said. "You can still get around in a Toyota."

Of course, when the financial crisis hit and Bear Sterns and AIG needed enormous funding, all the money that would have enable urban kids to sit in a Mercedes magically appeared.

In NYC they supposedly cut crime by putting lots more police on the streets. They were not vetted for quality first. Some were good and some were bad, but their very presence as a resource had an impact. I say instead of using that stimulus money to reward school systems that kill tenure or expand charter schools, try a few experiments by inundating the very worst schools with masses of teachers, social workers and other services - sort of an expansion of the Harlem Children's Zone. But no one wants to try that. Better to target teachers and unions by using the "it's so hard to get rid of bad teachers" sob story as an excuse not to reduce class size.

What if NEA and AFT stop caring what other people think?

Antonucci asks the right question and we have the answer. Let's try to stop worrying what other people think and start organizing the counter revolution.

Leo Casey claims there is an ed reform - deform- train heading down the tracks and the AFT/UFT needs to get ahead of it and jump on board. We say there is a counter reactive train of teacher/parent true progressive ed reformers coming from the other direction. And we are helping to drive it.

Intercepts

---

Bad News, Bob; Even the Center Cannot Hold Posted: 10 Jul 2009 12:31 PM PDT Mickey Kaus points us to the latest report from the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, titled “National Teachers’ Unions and the Struggle Over School Reform.” I thought about excerpting the stinging barbs from CCCR’s absolute flaying of NEA and AFT, but it’s really worth your time to read the entire 36-page report, then head over to this page for a list of the organization’s commissioners. Not a conservative right-wing bastard in the bunch. The public perception battle is over, and the teachers’ unions have lost. But will it have any effect on Congress and state legislatures? The NRA, tobacco companies, PETA, the ACLU and Big Oil all have negative public images they can’t shed, yet they are still effective in getting their way. What if NEA and AFT stop caring what other people think?

Angel Gonzalez and George Schmidt at PS 123 Protest of Harlem Success Takeover Take 2 - July 10, 2009

Gem began receiving calls on Thursday evening from PS 123 parents and teachers that the DOE had ruled in favor of Eva Moskowtiz and the movers and painters were coming Friday morning. They asked us to be there and we were. That all press reports ignored our strong presence is not surprising. We'll comment more on this in a follow-up as we post more video of Scott Stringer and Tony Avella. See our earlier video of the protest on July 7 as teachers and parents tried to stop Harlem Success from squeezing them out of their space. Here are a powerful six minutes of Angel and George making the case against charter schools.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_2vwEn_zQ

Randi Goes to Portland As AFT Threatens Local Considering Disaffiliation

Members of local discuss disaffiliation, AFT responds with phony charges and will attempt to put them in trusteeship.

Unity Caucus hackism goes national. Why are we not surprised? Shades of Puerto Rico six years ago. (We did lots on that situation. 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.

July 10, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OFNHP Local 5017 Relations with AFT National

Portland OR--At 9am Tuesday July 7, approximately 20 representatives from American Federation of Teachers Healthcare national offices arrived at Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Local 5017 and put the health care union under trusteeship, suspending the officers of the executive board including President Kathy Geroux.

Local 5017's three thousand members are part of AFT's Healthcare Division. In June, the Portland local's executive board began to discuss the possibility of Local 5017 disaffiliating from the national organization, an issue that has arisen more than once over the last fifteen years. A membership meeting was scheduled for the evening of July 7.

“The purpose of the membership meeting was to provide a democratic forum for discussion of whether we should refer the question of disaffiliation to our members for a vote,” said Theo Harper, Local 5017 executive board member. Instead, the meeting was led by the new trustees of the local and the agenda focused on the trusteeship.

AFT Healthcare National issued a statement that said the Executive Board misappropriated funds and violated the bylaws of the local constitution. The executive board members have not seen the formal charges. The board believes that the allegations refer to Local 5017 funds which were spent on expenses related to the July 7 membership meeting. Room rental and other meeting expenses were paid for out of a budget line item specifically for membership meetings. While membership meetings are not ordinarily scheduled in July, as specified in the local bylaws, the constitution also says that special meetings can be called.

The Executive Board is working on a resolution that is acceptable to both parties. AFT National President Randi Weingarten has committed to meeting with Local 5017 President Kathy Geroux in Portland on July 20.

“We believe that everyone on the executive board will be vindicated of all the charges made,” said Kathy Geroux. “We are looking forward to leading our local again after this misunderstanding is cleared up.”

CONTACT:

Kathy Geroux, RN

OFNHP Local 5017 Executive President

Email: Kathyg7170@gmail.com

Bing Wong

OFNHP Local 5017 Vice President of Legislation

Email: bswong33@msn.com

Obama Admin Hits New Low on Ed Deform as it Seeks to Gut NY State Tenure

UPDATE: Obama addresses NAACP in NYC at Hilton Thurs. at 7PM. There's some buzz about a protest outside over his education policies.

A must read article at Gotham.

"The Obama administration official in charge of an educational innovation fund yesterday issued a warning to a New York audience: Unless the state legislature revises a law now on the books about teacher tenure, the state could lose out on the $4.35 billion fund she controls."

The official is Joanne Weiss, "who worked at the New Schools Venture Fund before heading to Washington..." Think she has a dog in the race? Talk about rating teachers based on value added assessment when there is no system proved to work is like saying we should start mining the moon with a shovel. Gee, has anyone been working on systems rating doctors, lawyers and even politicians on value added systems?

"Weiss was in town to discuss The New Teacher Project’s report “The Widget Effect,” which was released last month and urged districts to overhaul their teacher performance evaluations."

Ho-ho-ho. The unbiased NTP being taken seriously by an Obama official. This country is in real trouble.

The Gotham article is linked here:

Obama official to New York: Change your tenure law or else

And make sure to read Pissed Off Teacher's and Ceolaf comments. But John Thompson's bears repeating:

Call her bluff.

If moderate reformers in the AFT don’t have the guts to stand firm on this, the backlash will be awful.

If a state as powerful as NY doesn’t have the guts to stand firm on this, others will crumble. OK, a “reformer” has had her say. Obama has bigger fish to fry, but there is a natural compromise that should be a no-brainer to him. The firewall on teacher indicators will be dropped when a firewall is created to keep test data from being used in evaluations. We could still move ahead with the Denver Plan and the Toledo Plan and similar approaches.

After all, it makes sense to use test scores when appropriate as in performance incentives. But it doesn’t make sense where it is not appropriate, as in evaluations where it could destroy the career of good and effective teachers.

I want the AFT to support Obama, regardless. But I’d like my union to be willing to announce the formation of a major litigation fund to destroy any schemes for using test scores for evaluation. I want districts to know that they will lose more in legal fees than they will gain in Race to the Top Funds if they go down that path.

Then when we drive a stake through the hearts of that mentality, I want my union to go back to being as moderate and willing to compromise as possible. If we want sustainable progress for kids, we can’t get punked on this.

If we lose this one, what self-respecting person would make a career teaching in high-poverty schools? We owe this to our profession.

Sorry, John. Don't expect the AFT to do much more than cheer lead. The attack on tenure by the Obama administration is just the cover the UFT and NYSUT need to duck out of the way as tenure law in NYS is gutted.

As a matter of fact, the dysfunctional state leg doesn't even have to be involved. Watch the upcoming UFT contract, which takes precedence over tenure law, as the UFT will trade money for what will appear to be minor modifications but over time turn out to be disaster.

UFT Exec Bd Nominates Mulgrew As Lone Candidate for Pres as ICE Attempt to Nominate Eterno is Rejected

Putin, Ahmadinejad, Kim Il Jong Jealous of Model of Undemocratic Precedure

Continuing a 25 year tradition, the UFT executive board again rubber stamped a hand-picked successor as the lone nominee to fill out a term of office. Given that Unity Caucus controls all the seats on the Board, Mulgrew is expected to win with 100% of the vote. Saddam Hussein is rolling over in his grave with consternation over how he could never figure out a way to get more than 98% of the vote. Even Ahmadinejad got only 2/3 of the vote. (The Mullahs are having the UFT Constitution translated into Farsi.)

A large group of ICEers, who have no seats on the Board, attended in the hope they would get an opportunity to speak and nominate James Eterno from the floor (read Anna Philips profile of James at Gotham). The vote on July 29 will still result in 100% for Mulgrew and having a 2nd candidate would only be symbolic, but ICE figured, why not try? Worse case scenario, get a few cookies and some fruit (that giant chocolate chip was fab).

James Eterno, a member of ICE, is running for president of the UFT. (Photo via GothamSchools' Flickr)

Figuring to use the EB rule giving any union member speaking time before the meeting as an opportunity to point out the lack of democratic procedure, I called ahead and asked for speaking time and was not told this was not allowed. I was recovering from my Bikram Yoga class, but I dropped my cigar and left the beach in Rockaway and schlepped over, but I was told by Michael Mendel that I would not be allowed to speak, as the speaking rule was suspended for these types of meetings. Former EB member (when she was with New Action) Ellen Fox of ICE also attempted to speak, but was turned away.

We were armed with the UFT Constitution, which has some of the more ambiguous language than credit default swap explanations. ICE's interpretation was that the Mulgew nomination was illegal, as the Constitution says an officer cannot run for another office unless he/she resigned as of July 1. It also says anyone can make a nomination without specifying that only applies to EB members. But if you read the Constitution backwardsor standing on your head, it is all legal.

I had the most fun watching the New Action EB crew, all elected with Unity support, sit there and blandly accept the situation without attempting to nominate anyone. Their fearless leader, Michael Shulman, even got up to ask why there was a need to hold the pro forma election on July 29 if there was one candidate and why not just put on the crown immediately? Mendel said the Constitution calls for two separate meetings. Hey Mike, nice to see the Constitution being followed at times. (Actually, Unity has made the Constitution ironclad undemocratic with few if any loopholes.)

New Action is praying Mulgrew will give them a quarter of the attention Weingarten gave them. ICE expects New Action to run another bogus slate in 2010, with a small group of candidates endorsed by Unity in an attempt to claim there is bipartisanship and to keep any ICE/TJC people off the board.

For the record, in the last election (2007) ICE/TJC received 5500 votes while New Action got 3500, yet NA got 8 seats and ICE/TJC got none. Ahhhh, that fresh air of democracy.

George Schmidt, editor of the widely read Chicago-based resistance newspaper and web site, Substance, joined ICE at the meeting as an observer. "At least you can attend EB meetings even though you are gagged," Schmidt said. "The Chicago TU EB meetings are closed." Ah, more fresh air of UFT democracy, with the reigning theme being, "You can attend, as long as you eat your cookies and fruit and shut up."

Related:
Eterno Comments on Mulgrew Nomination at the ICE blog
MULGREW CORONATION: MEET THE NEW BOSS SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

Rally Fri July 10 as DOE Rules In Favor of Harlem Success Academy Charter School taking over more space at PS 123!

URGENT!

Dictatorship - DOE Rules In Favor of Harlem Success Academy Charter School taking over more space at PS 123!

On the morning of July 10 movers, sent by the $370K - Eva Moskowitz, will arrive again to remove materials from PS 123 Teachers' classrooms as she invades more Public School Space for her charter school!

Emergency Protest

Friday, July 10

8:30 AM

PS 123

301 West 140th St.

(bet. Edgecombe & Frederick Douglas)

Stop this drive to privatize!

Defend our Public School Space!

Be there! Spread the word.

Angel Gonzalez

UPDATE: Man borough Pres Scott Stringer is expected and this "rally" may turn into a press conf.

UPDATE: PS 123 Harlem Parents Make Their Case Against Harlem Success

7/10/09
Two days after this rally, the DOE ruled Harlem Success could go in and take over a swath of PS 123. Another event was held this morning that drew Man. boro pres Scott Stringer and mayoral candidate Tony Avella.

Harlem parents make a powerful statement defending their public school against the invasion of public schools by charters, in this case Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success. They talk about the space their kids are denied, the favoritism shown to charters by the NYCDOE, the creaming, where even in the same family, only the higher scoring kids get recruited. And it's happening all over the city. They go beyond to talk about how they feel about public education in general. One of the most eloquent statements parents have yet made as they refute the charge that only white upper class parents oppose Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein.

Members of GEM and ICE were there to support them, as were reps from PS 15 in Red Hook who are undergoing a similar experience.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_aGF9n8sE8

The UFT Hundred Thousand Dollar Plus Club

And I stopped at the B's.
Have your own party with the rest of the alphabet with a look at the 2008 LM-2 report.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/olms/regs/compliance/rrlo/lmrda.htm
Send us what you dig up.

UFT file number is 063-924

B C

SUSAN AMLUNG COMMUNICATIONS N/A

$160,007

$0

$2,312

$200

$162,519

AMY ARUNDELL SPECIAL REP. N/A

$129,796

$0

$2,676

$0

$132,472

ROBERT ASTROWSKY SPECIAL REP. NYSUT

$162,424

$0

$1,586

$0

$164,010

MARY ATKINSON SPECIAL REP. N/A

$138,623

$0

$5,498

$0

$144,121

JACQUELINE BENNETT SPECIAL REP. N/A

$133,866

$0

$4,464

$0

$138,330

MICHELLE BODDEN SPECIAL REP. NYSUT

$129,502

$0

$0

$0

$129,502

KLAUS BORNEMANN SPECIAL REP. N/A

$129,796

$0

$6,863

$0

$136,659

THOMAS BROWN SPECIAL REP. N/A

$120,351

$0

$2,531

$0

$122,882

JACQUES BYCINTHE SPECIAL ASST. N/A

$97,896

$0

$5,869

$0

$103,765

Just one more note: Let's give special kudos to the husband/wife/son Goldman family for pulling a cool $350 G's.

A B C

ANNE GOLDMAN SPECIAL REP. NYSUT

$136,532

$0

$8,500

$0

$145,032

A B C

JEROME GOLDMAN BORO REP. NYSUT

$159,755

$0

$6,252

$0

$166,007

A B C

JASON GOLDMAN LEGISLATION N/A

$60,983

$0

$574

$0

$61,557

A Memorable Evening with General Bela Kiraly

I knew it had to happen at some point soon, but reading of the death of Bela Kiraly, my former history professor at Brooklyn College, in today's NY Times. was still a shock despite the fact Kiraly was 97. As the obit points out he was an historic figure in Hungary.

As a member of the Hungarian army, he was forced to fight with the Nazi collaborators in Hungry, thought the Times points out "he had tried to join the Russian side in the war rather than serve with Hungary’s fascist forces, but was unable to do so. During the war, Mr. Kiraly commanded a battalion of 400 Jewish slave laborers at the Ukrainian front. Disobeying orders from his superiors, as The Jerusalem Post wrote in 1993, he “put the 400 men under his command into Hungarian uniforms and treated them humanely.” For his actions, he was honored in 1993 as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial authority in Jerusalem."

As a general, he was sentenced to a Stalinist death camp in 1951 for 5 years before being freed just as the Hungarian Revolution was breaking out in October, 1956. He was in a hospital room recuperating when he was asked to lead the forces opposing the Soviets, escaping to Vienna after the Soviet invasion.

He came to America, with some support from the CIA, which used the Hungarian ex-pat community to keep the resistance movement alive. He got his degree in history and started teaching at Brooklyn College in 1964, where I was a history major. He was one of the best college teachers I and many of others ever had.

Bringing an old world charm along with his military bearing, Kiraly made an instant mark on the students and other professors at Brooklyn College when he arrived. Not knowing anything about him, I registered for his 20th Century European history course and had my eyes opened to many new facets of history.

While one would expect Kiraly's experiences to make him a virulent anti-communist (he certainly was an anti-Stalinist), he allowed us to see all sides and make our own judgements. This approach was different from the American born teachers, also anti-communist, but didactic about it. Brooklyn College, which had been a hotbed of radicalism in the 30's was purged by the reactionary president Harry Gideonse. Kiraly brought a sense of balance to the issues.

Unfortunately, I never was able to take his legendary military history course, one of the big regrets of my academic life, but did take a research seminar with him in the spring of 1966. We used to meet every two weeks in his small apartment down the block from the campus. It was my final course before graduating and I produced an 80 page paper on the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Eastern European nations in the Soviet block.

I was teaching computer courses at Brooklyn College in the late 80's and early 90's and one of the history professors told me he had gone back for the first time since 1956 and was, surprisingly, elected to the new parliament.

My wife and I had a unique view of this history when we visited Budapest in October, 1956 a few days before the 50th anniversary of the revolution. With a big celebration with representatives from around the world expected, there were massive protests going on around Parliament, which sits on the Pest side of the Danube and is modeled on the British Parliament building in London.

I was curious about Kiraly but found no information on the computer in the hotel and had just about given up hope.

We were buying some pottery in a shop on the Danube on the Buda side where the owner, George Krall, spoke perfect English and had visited the states many times. I mentioned Kiraly and he said he knew of him and thought he was still alive. Just at that moment, an elderly gentleman was entering the building and George said he had served under Kiraly and called him over. He said that Kiraly was still alive and doing well and lived in Budapest. George began to call all the people named Bela Kiraly in the phone book and sure enough we reached him.

He didn't remember me but asked if I would like to come over to his house for a visit that evening. "Who is with you," he asked? "My wife," I said. "Bring the voman," he ordered. And bring the voman I did. And as you can see in the picture, he still had an eye for the ladies. He certainly charmed my wife.

The cab ride was about an hour on the outskirts of the city. We were ushered into the living room by Kiraly's nephew (I believe) and there he was standing, as straight as ever. The same charm, mesmerizing us, he proceeded to give us a two hour history lesson on every aspect of the Hungarian revolution, his time in the death camp, his escape and many of his experiences in the states. It would take pages to recall it all, but the most vivid was his accounts of the negotiations he engaged in with the Soviets, especially Yuri Anropov the Soviet ambassador who was the key to suppressing the revolution. Kiraly has one of the 12 hot line numbers and was privy to much information.

Kiraly's hero was Imre Nagy, the Hungarian leader, who was executed not long after the revolution, and his eyes misted just a bit when talking about Nagy. Kiraly swore he would not set foot in Hungary again until Nagy was given an honored place of burial and so it was done.

I asked him what he thought of the current demos, from what I read, expecting he might offer them some support since the party in power they were criticizing had communist influences. "They are right wing agitators," he said, "not trying to make the situation more democratic. Democracy is what is important." And that was the essence of Bela Kiraly. Neither pro or anti communist, but pro-democracy. (He should see the UFT.)

He was part of the committee settign up the 50th annivesay party and was going to play a major role in the celebration on

We could have listened all night, but at some point, feeling guilty we were taking up the time of this great man and concerned about keeping him up, I said something about leaving. "Am I boring you," he barked at me? The spell was broken. But he handed over a stack of books he had written, some of them autographed by him.

One of the most memorable evenings we ever had.

I'll post more photos from the trip at Facebook or Norms notes soon.

$4 Million: What the UFT Gave the Glover Park Group

Find out what your union spends its dues on.
Download the UFT LM-2 2008 report.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/olms/regs/compliance/rrlo/lmrda.htm

UFT file number is 063-924

Thanks to Jeff Kaufman. If you find more nuggets send them along. The Glover Park Group has people like Howard Wolfson, a major UFT consultant. Wolfson is a major player in the Bloomberg 3rd term campaign.

THE GLOVER PARK GROUP 3299 K STREET NW WASHINGTON DC 20007

Type or Classification (B)

CONSULTANT

Purpose (C)	Date (D)	Amount (E)
Total Itemized Transactions		$4,042,778
Total Non-Itemized Transactions		$7,823
Total of All Transactions		$4,050,601

Storming Tweed

July 6 rally photos by John Lawhead posted on Facebook.

Councilman Charles Barron at the gates of Tweed

Crowd surges up steps of Tweed as Barron urges people to take back "our" building since mayoral control has expired.

State Assemblywoman Inez Barron tells crowd she opposes mayoral control


Sam Coleman of GEM and NYCORE speaks eloquently about the impact of high stakes testing

Some guys never know when to take off their hat. ICE's Sean Ahern taking notes and Lisa North (in green shirt.)

Rally at Tweed Protests Mayoral Control

They came from all over. Black, white, Latino/a, old, young, teachers, parents, communuity activists, students, ICE, GEM, Parents Commission, ISO, independents. There were hundreds. On five days notice and people were away for vacation. It is only the beginning. I have video. More reports tomorrow before heading up to PS 123 for the 1 PM protest against that breaking and entering public school thief, Eva Moskowitz. (See the July 4 posting: Moskowitz B&E at 123: Rally on Tues July 7).

Diane Ravitch on "The Partnership for 19th Century Skills"

This one from Diane is just brilliant.

The Partnership for 19th Century Skills

Published by Diane Ravitch on July 6, 2009

I for one have heard quite enough about the 21^st century skills that are sweeping the nation. Now, for the first time, children will be taught to think critically (never heard a word about that in the 20^th century, did you?), to work in groups (I remember getting a grade on that very skill when I was in third grade a century ago), to solve problems (a brand new idea in education), and so on.

Let me suggest that it is time to have done with this unnecessary conflict about 21^st century skills. Let us agree that we need all those forenamed skills, plus lots others, in addition to a deep understanding of history, literature, the arts, geography, civics, the sciences, and foreign languages.

But allow me also to propose a new entity that will advance a different set of skills and understandings that are just as important as what are now called 21^st century skills. I propose a Partnership for 19^th Century Skills.

This partnership will advocate for such skills, values, and understandings as:

• The love of learning
• The pursuit of knowledge
• The ability to think for 20 oneself (individualism)
• The ability to stand alone against the crowd (courage)
• The ability to work persistently at a difficult task until it is finished (industriousness, self-discipline)
• The ability to think through the consequences of one’s actions on others (respect for others)
• The ability to consider the consequences of one’s actions on one’s well-being (self-respect)
• The recognition of higher ends than self-interest (honor)
• The ability to comport oneself appropriately in all situations (dignity)
• The recognition that civilized society requires certain kinds of behavior by individuals and groups (good manners, civility)
• The willingness to ask questions when puzzled (curiosity)
• The readiness to dream about other worlds, other ways of doing things (imagination)
• The ability to believe that one can improve one’s life and the lives of others (optimism)
• The ability to believe in principles larger than one’s own self-interest (idealism)
• The ability to speak well and write grammatically, using standard English

I invite readers to submit other 19^th century skills that we should cultivate assiduously among the rising generation, on the belief that doing so will lead to happier lives and a better world.

(Ed’s Note: Diane Ravitch wrote the above for the blog of Common Core, which advocates for comprehensive education in the liberal arts and sciences. She is the organization’s co-chair. It is published here as well, with her permission.)