Today: New Teacher Underground Discusses UNIONS! 5 PM

I was really hoping to make this today but it is the last day with our 20 year old cat who while still a fighter seems to be suffering too much. But if you can make it check it out. Gotham funder Ken Hirsh, my favorite hedge funder, said he will stop by. Sorry I'll miss him because we have had some great conversations.

I posted this on the "Ruben Brosbe is leaving" thread at Gotham, urging him to attend this so he can go off to Harvard with a little perspective. Go add your 2 cents.


The New Teacher Underground

5-7pm Thursdays all summer long (Extended time to 8 pm for continued conversation)
Lolita Bar, 266 Broome Street-- Find us downstairs
B/D to Grand, F to Delancey, J/M/Z to Essex

The New Teacher Underground is a social space for new and alternatively certified te

achers to find support and dissect the current realities of education in NYC. Teachers of any experience level will be able to engage with the discussion and help contribute to the development of our thinking, and you are welcome whether you have attended every week or have yet to join us. So far this summer we have had four great conversations on topics such as privilege and power, the history and structure of the NYC public schools, the nature of alternative certification programs, mayoral control and high stakes testing, etc. These sessions have been both socially and intellectually engaging; coming together with newer teachers to strengthen our understanding of education in New York City has been rewarding.

This coming Thursday our topic is Your Union and Social Justice Unionism where we will have an opportunity to engage with questions like, What do teacher protections like tenure and contracts mean for us and for our students? How does the UFT organize us and what more should it do? We will be joined by three experienced and knowledgeable individuals who will share their thinking and help facilitate our conversation. Peter Lamphere, chapter leader and member of the Grassroots Education Movement, will provide some context for why teacher protections are important and can share his knowledge about the history of the UFT and its relation to labor movements in this country. Sam Coleman, NYCoRE member and Fight Back Friday organizer, will help us think about how our union could be functioning differently. Natalie Havlin, organizer with Teachers Unite, will help lead us in an activity where we envision the type of effective collective actions in which teachers could be engaging. We will also have resources for teachers in charter schools who may be interested in thinking about their relationship to the teachers unions. And we will be sure to have plenty of time for discussion, with extended time until 8pm upstairs for those who want to keep the conversation going.

We will have a few copies of the great article "Who's Bashing Teachers and Public Schools and What Can We Do About It?"originally published in Rethinking Schools, but if you'd like to read it before the session on Thursday it may include some useful ideas to bring to the conversation. We hope you will join us!

Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested, and feel free to contact us at newteacherunderground@gmail.com or check us out on facebook or at our blog on the NYCoRE website.

The New Teacher Underground5-7pm Thursdays all summer long (Extended time to 8 pm for continued conversation)
Lolita Bar, 266 Broome Street-- Find us downstairs
B/D to Grand, F to Delancey, J/M/Z to EssexJuly 14th: What it Means to be a Teacher in New York City Right Now
Developing a people’s history of the New York City public schools
July 21st: Privilege, Power and Public Schools
Unpacking the concept of the “achievement gap” by addressing privilege and power in our school system and in our classrooms
July 28th: The Meaning of Alternative Certification
What are the histories of Teach for America and the New York City Teaching Fellows programs? What role do they play in today’s education climate?
August 4th: Welcome to Teaching
Understanding mayoral control, high-stakes testing, privatization and other top-down policies that impact our classrooms
August 11th: Your Union and Social Justice Unionism
What do teacher protections like tenure and contracts mean for us and for our students? How does the UFT organize us and what more should it do?
August 18th: The so-called “No Excuses” Classroom
…and other educational jargon in your teacher training reading material. What do “accountability” and “data” really mean to our work?
August 25th: Anti-Racist Classrooms & Anti-Racist Curriculum
How to circumvent institutional racism in schools and develop culturally relevant curriculum that connects students to the world outside the classroom
September 1st: First Days…
How can you really prepare? What is most important? What strengths will you bring to the classroom? What is your teaching core?

Is the UFT sugarcoating the new ATR deal?

One of our favorite new blogs (and Gotham Schools too) is NYCATR. Today they compare the UFT and the DOE view of the ATR agreement. Yummy! 

 

(Head on over and read the other good stuff: NYC ATR - http://nycatr.blogspot.com/)

We recently summarized an official DOE document that gives the nitty-gritty details of the new rules for deployment of the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR).  

          *click here for a link to the DOE document

               *click here to see NYCATR's summary

Now, the latest edition of the UFT's newspaper, the New York Teacher, has provided their own summary of the ATR agreement (see page 3 of the August 4th edition). 

The problem is that there seems to be a discrepancy between the DOE's version and the UFT's version.  

The DOE says that vacancies created by long-term absences will be covered by ATR teachers on a "trial basis," prior to a school using a per-diem substitute;  a principal may remove an ATR teacher from such a "trial" at any time, at which point a per-diem substitute may be hired.

     *In other words, there is no guarantee that any ATR teacher will ultimately land the long-term assignment.  If, after subjecting an ATR to a trial, the principal still prefers a per-diem  candidate, Ms. Per-Diem gets the gig.

The UFT reports: "Every long-term absence or leave must be filled by an ATR.  Two ATRs must be sent for consideration for placement to any school that has at least one vacancy.  The principal can accept them or not." (Italics added by NYCATR.) 

     *This sounds like the assignment will definitely be given to an ATR teacher; the only question is which of the ATR teachers will win the beauty contest. 

And so, we wonder:

*Did the UFT have access to a DOE document that NYCATR

hasn't seen yet?

*Does the UFT know how to read?

*Is the UFT trying to sugarcoat a lousy deal

that they negotiated for the ATR teachers?

The author of this blog is pro-UFT, but he is an equal-opportunity questioner. Any answers out there?

Duncan Playing With NCLB Rules is Blatant (and illegal) Attempt to Forcefeed States into More Ed Deform

 Arne Duncan announced that any state promising to lower class size drastically would be eligible for relief from onerous NCLB laws.

NOT!!!!!

In fact, the only states eligible are those meeting the ed deform agenda being pushed by the Obama Admin - and hey gang - let's not make believe that somehow Duncan and Obama are not on the same page- like calls for firing Duncan meam anything. That was one of the weak areas of SOS - the focus on Duncan and not on Obama. How interesting that Obama sat by helpless while Republicans gutted us while he is so blatantly willing to break the law on education. (Like how about him just declaring the debt ceiling is raised and Go Fuck yourselves!) Yes, he views us as patsies.

Well, a lot of people are not buying the Obama/Duncan doodoo.

National organization Parents Across America rejects Duncan's "waiver" proposal and calls for complete overhaul of No Child Left Behind 

The national organization Parents Across America opposes the proposal by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to offer "waivers" to states, exempting them from provisions of the law known as No Child Left Behind if they adopt education policies favored by Duncan.  

While Parents Across America (PAA) agrees that No Child Left Behind is an unrealistic, rigid and punitive law, the waivers that Duncan has now proposed are likely to be equally bad, if not worse. The Department of Education could force more states to adopt the Common Core Curriculum thus continuing to ignore the fact that it is illegal for the federal government to impose a national curriculum. The proposal is also likely to expand the destructive agenda of over-testing, school closings, and privatization, despite the fact that these policies have no scientific evidence to support them and are causing tremendous distress in communities across the nation.   

Natalie Beyer, school board member in Durham NC, says: “Parents agree that American students are spending too much class time on standardized testing, but these new proposals would do nothing to help.  Instead, the proposed waivers would further extend federal control over local school issues.  We request a study from the General Accounting Office of how much No Child Left Behind has already cost states and local districts and the estimated costs of implementing Common Core Standards under Race to the Top.  We implore Congress to include parents, teachers and students in an immediate thorough overhaul of NCLB before going any further down this dangerous road.”   

Adds Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, “Duncan’s heavy-handed and prescriptive approach would only continue the trend of spending billions to build up the bureaucracy and provide excessive profits to testing companies and consultants, while teachers are being laid off and class sizes are growing throughout the country.  Whether the system of rewards and punishments will be based on value-added test scores instead of absolute goals, the result is the same for our schools and our children: more money and time spent on testing and test prep instead of real learning.”

Says Karran Harper Royal of the Pyramid Community Parent Resource Center in New Orleans, where more than 70% of students now attend charter schools, “Race to the Top has been far worse than NCLB and has done little to help our most academically needy students.  Yet what Arne Duncan is now proposing through these “waivers” could produce even worse outcomes for our children.” 

Rita Solnet of Palm Beach County School District Curriculum Council agrees:  “Numerous studies conclude that incentives linked to high stakes tests do not increase learning.  In fact, long term studies conclude this leads to a climate of cheating and gaming the system to survive. Every month we read of another major cheating scandal created by high-stakes testing.  Stop wasting taxpayer money on failed policies. I am pleased Secretary Duncan acknowledged the destructive flaws within NCLB.   NCLB is a train wreck. Let's not replace it with another one. Let's do this the right way so every child,  regardless of disability, ELL status, family income level can be assured a high quality public education delivered by respected professionals."

 Pamela Grundy of Mecklenburg Area Coming Together in Charlotte, NC concludes, “We need real reforms based on evidence, and partnerships with parents, teachers and communities, not a unilateral and autocratic agenda imposed from above. As parents watching our children’s education suffer, we are saying, “Enough.”

And at Schools Matter

R Lucido: price of NCLB waiver - agree to much worse Race to the Top

Rog Lucido: The feds are offering "a waiver from an oppressive and failed NCLB policy only to be switched to a much more sinister and stifling program."

Sent to the Fresno Bee:

Yesterday Education Secretary Duncan admitted that this year 82% of America’s schools will have failed under NCLB’s test and punish provisions, which he called an ‘impediment’. So, he is going to offer waivers so that our 100,000 schools who are receiving federal funds (approx. 5-10% of their budgets) will not have to meet NCLB’s test score provisions and the associated sanctions. He admitted that the law is faulty and schools need to be free from this ‘impediment’. But there is a price to pay for the waiver. He will gladly give schools a waiver only if they agree to more testing to judge students, teachers, schools and districts, adopt a new set of standards, then the states would need to replace NCLB’s test score targets with their own. Surprise! These are the core requirements of the ominous and educationally perverted ‘Race to the Top’, which is his blueprint for the replacement of NCLB.
This is nothing more than ‘bait and switch’ applied to education. Offer a waiver from an oppressive and failed NCLB policy only to be switched to a much more sinister and stifling program. States, parents and teachers need to reject this ploy to regain their educational autonomy.

 

Education Radio Blog Launches!

Stay tuned for more information about upcoming shows...our debut show will focus on the issues, people and events of the July 2011 Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action.
 http://education-radio.blogspot.com/
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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

E4E: Fire Peter Lamphere and Rachel Montagano

Read this story at Gotham School Community:

Peter Lamphere (a core member of GEM) and Rachel Montagano in Gotham Schools discussing the importance, and the truth about, tenure: http://gothamschools.org/2011/08/01/our-experience-proves-tenure-is-not-obsolete/#disqus_thread

Both were chapter leaders who were persecuted for union activities. I've written about both of them as poster children for why we need tenure. (Can't manage to add links using one hand but use search blog if interested - Rachel's principal is Reginald Landau and Peter's was Valerie Reidy.)

In the world of E4E, Rachel and Peter are collateral damage. "Sure there are mistakes," they would argue, but the greater good (to us so we can continue to live off the hands of DFER and Gates and not have to teach) is served by firing Peter and Rachel, acknowledged master teachers.

U-ratings for political activity? Why that's the very reason tenure exists in the first place. i said to Joel Klein at numerous PEP meetings: as long as there is one teacher who is allowed to be persecuted for political or personal reasons, the entire structure of monitoring teachers comes apart. Some think that the new eval systems based on test scores is a fairer system. Not when tenure laws are suspended and they can be fired.

I have a dream. That one day E4E's Evan and Sydney are turned loose in a death row cell block as they try to convince the prisoners that even if they are innocent society is better off if they are executed anyway.

Below is the entire Gotham piece for future reference:

Our Experience Proves Tenure Is Not Obsolete

by Peter Lamphere and Rachel Montagano

Mayor Bloomberg’s comments on his Friday radio show that tenure “may have been necessary in the McCarthy era” but is now a relic of the past highlight how out of touch he is with the current realities of the school system.
Bloomberg argued that protection for academic freedom was not necessary for public school teachers because we are “not writing papers about things that are very controversial.” However, in some schools, advocacy for students or for the employment rights of teachers can result in witch-hunts from school administrators that can border on the McCarthyesque. Tenure is meant to shelter teachers from the whims of these administrators.
As two New York City teachers who have both been targeted with unsatisfactory ratings because of our union activity, we know from firsthand experience that tenure is one of the few protections for whistleblowers and teacher advocates.

Update: 100,000 March to Defend Public Education in Chile: SOS on Steroids

UPDATE:
Aug. 9, 2011    100,000 took to the streets today to protest the Government Palace (La Moneda) in

Santiago, Chile to demand free quality public education.

Angel Gonzalez

Angel Gonzalez reports:

Support the struggle for public schooling in Chile:

Sun. Aug. 7 more than 60,000 students, parents, community and teachers marched to demand quality free public education, an end to profiteering, regulation of the privatized system and democracy for all institutions.

 Aug. 9   TODAY......A national work stoppage, mobilizations, march and  a 10 PM Pot & Pans Banging for public education. (something to consider here)

Aug. 12  Coordinated day of action across Latin America for public education.

Folks:  

We need to be in solidarity with the struggles for public education from across the Americas.   

Learn the lessons from the successes and failures from all our movements.  What strategies and tactics work and can be applied here in the USA.  

The neoliberal agenda with public school privatization using charter schools was first piloted (1972) in the nation of Chile after a violent and successful CIA backed coup that toppled the socialist Allende government and installed the fascist Pinochet regime.  

The AFT and the AFL-CIO partnered with the CIA in promoting Milton Friedman's neoliberal politics 

& Dictator Pinochet's barbaric torture & shock doctrine perpetrated against the Chilean working class.  

The AFT was a partner in Chile's charter privatization in the 1970's.  

See Chilean links below in Spanish.

Angel Gonzalez

Domingo 7 de agosto 2011 17:38 hrs.     

http://radio.uchile.cl/noticias/117607/

Familias repletan Parque Almagro en acto por la educación

Javier Candia y Cristián Pacheco

La marcha por la educación pública gratuita de calidad convocada por la Coordinadora Metropolitana de Estudiantes Secundarios, la Agrupación de Padres y Apoderados y el Colegio de Profesores se desarrolló en un ambiente de alegría y fiesta en un acto cultural en el Parque Almagro. Cabe destacar que durante el acto central no se registraron incidentes, y la manifestación se caracterizó por la tranquilidad en que participaron, según los organizadores, al menos 60 mil personas.

Lunes 8 de agosto 2011 19:32 hrs.  

http://radio.uchile.cl/noticias/117737/

Movimiento por la educación confirma paro y marcha desde Usach para este martes

Javier Candia

Los distintos actores que conforman la mesa social por la educación reiteraron su llamado a la ciudadanía a participar de las diversas protestas programadas para este martes para exigir al Gobierno que entregue una respuesta concreta ante las demandas estudiantiles. Marchas, cacerolazos y movilizaciones coordinadas a nivel latinoamericano, son algunas de las actividades que se están programando para esta nueva jornada de protesta social.

http://radio.uchile.cl/noticias/117737/

Abrazos,

Angel

Support Verizon Strikers: NYC Teachers From GEM and other Groups Join Picket Line

Leaflet prepared by CWA for teachers joining picket line

Message to UFT/AFT - You Are NOT a Union of Professionals - and Never Will Be
Yes, teachers today are further away from being viewed and treated as professionals than they have ever been. With teacher unions becoming the main target of the corporate ed deformers, it is time to connect the rank and file teacher to other rank and filers (as opposed to the leadership which expresses "support" for other unions but by harping on the "professional" theme creates a sense of separation from the guy at Verizon who climbs a pole.

Yesterday afternoon I joined a bunch of GEMers and teachers from other UFT activist groups at the Verizon picket line on West St. in the shadow of the World Trade Center site. You see, we can't be only about our own narrow interests as teachers and I'm proud to be associated with a group that clearly recognizes that. That we are young, old and in the middle is clear from the photos.

We were also joined by my friend Joyce, a retired CWA worker who knowing we were coming had the CWA prepare a special "Thank you Teachers" flyer for us explaining the givebacks being demanded. Teachers need to start making the connection that a victory for Verizon workers affects us just like the Regan firing of Patco air traffic controllers 30 years ago has impacted the entire labor movement.

And one more thing. The  imbalance of wealth and corporate control is due to a large part to the lack of a counter force. And labor is the only real potential force out there. But labor union leaders have continually played footsie and made sure to dampen any militancy that might  arise among workers. The cuts to social programs in this country will lead to London calling on our shores real soon.

Video updates will be added as they come in. Here is the first one.

Cheers as Teamsters pull their people out in solidarity

Reports from the picket line
Gloria Brandman, GEM
The Verizon rally was very spirited, energetic and loud. There were approximately 15 UFT members that I saw but others may have arrived after I left. Teachers were well received and Joyce, a CWA member, gave us each a flier with a huge headline stating: THANK YOU TEACHERS! It went on to explain that Verizon had made it clear that they want to remove almost every protection their employees have, leaving no other option for the CWA and EW then to go on strike. We engaged in conversations with the workers which were periodically interrupted by shouts of "scab", boos and whistles as people went in and out of the building. One woman explained that some of the supervisors who had to go to work were really in solidarity with the workers and would give them silent smiles. However, Verizon has brought in many scabs form other states, paying room, board and airfare. When we departed, we were thanked by almost everyone we passed for joining with them on the picket line.

Angel Gonzalez, GEM
As teachers, we're fighting for the same as telephone workers: labor rights, pensions, medical benefits, quality services, adequate wages and to halt CEO corporate/government corruption.

Support the CWA Verizon workers' strike.

Pete, Angel, Kelley join Verizon workers

The crew wearing UFT "painter" caps: Gloria, Julie, Sam, ,Joan

Kelley, Teachers Unite on right

Pete, ICE

I don't have my scanner set up but here are a few shots of the CWA leaflet.

So, find a Verizon picket line and stop by to say hello.  And honk your horn in support if you pass one by.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Murdoch Thuggery and Long-term Links to Joel Klein - and Bill Gates too

None of this suggests that Mr. Klein cut some sort of a deal that resulted in a job 14 years later. But the speed of the antitrust decision surprised even the people involved in the takeover. One of the participants, who declined to be identified discussing private negotiations, said he thought the sale was effectively blocked before the surprising turnaround.  - David Carr, NY Times, Aug. 8, 2011

You just have to read this article in today's NY Times about how Joel Klein handed Rupert Murdoch a cupcake 14 years ago when he was at the Justice Department. Carr points to another decision made a year later against  Murdoch. Just cover as far as I'm concerned.

As it turns out, a News Corporation division has twice come under significant civil and criminal investigations in the United States, but neither inquiry went anywhere. Given what has happened in Britain with the growing phone-hacking scandal, it is worth wondering why.

Both cases involve News America Marketing, an obscure but lucrative division of the News Corporation that is a big player in the business of retail marketing, including newspaper coupon inserts and in-store promotions. The company has come under scrutiny for a pattern of conduct that includes below-cost pricing, paying customers not to do business with competitors and accusations of computer hacking.

News America Marketing came to control 90 percent of the in-store advertising business, according to Fortune, aided in part by a particularly quick and favorable antitrust decision made by the Justice Department in 1997. 

Now it gets better

The deal would make News America Marketing the dominant player in the business and, for that reason, the San Francisco field office of the Justice Department recommended to Washington that the News Corporation’s takeover bid be challenged on antitrust grounds. Typically, such a request from a field office would carry great weight in Washington and, at a minimum, delay the deal for months.

But the Justice Department brass overrode San Francisco’s objections and gave its blessing in just two weeks. So who ran the antitrust division at the Justice Department at the time? Joel Klein, who this year became an executive vice president at the News Corporation, head of its education division and a close adviser to Rupert Murdoch on the phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

Carr goes on to point to the decision a year later denying Murdoch the right to sell a share of his satellite company and states:

so any suggestion that a department of the United States government was snugly in the hip pocket of Mr. Murdoch would not be correct. 

Balderdash. I'm increasingly proud of having said early in the Joel Klein tenure as chancellor of the NYC schools that one day he would be doing a perp walk with his coat over his head. (Come on, where are the photoshop guys?) I know, I know. I hugged the guy. Contradiction? Not at all. I'll bring him cookies in jail.

As many of you know, Klein pushed Wireless Generation into NYC schools. Murdoch buys the company, hires Klein as consigliare. We need 2 coats over heads at the perp walk - 2 for the price of one. Did Murdoch play a role with Bloomberg to  insert Joel Klein as his Manchurian Candidate to lead the potential goldmine known as the NYC school system?

You can catch up to the story at these links I culled from Gotham:
Teachers unions want the state to kill a contract with Wireless Generation. (Daily News, WNYC)

By the way, there is a petition (see below) urging the State Comptroller to deny this contract - I think it was approved by the PEP but might be brought up again by speakers at the Panel for Educational Policy on Aug. 17 (weds) 6pm at Murray Bergtraum HS which will vote a contract with Verizon, another corporate thug. I think Liu approved for some reason - makes me nervous about him - fear of alienating Murdoch?

Now let's turn to the more general thugery of the Murdoch operations as described in the current issue of Rolling Stone.

But the corruption exposed at the News of the World is not the work of a "rogue" element within News Corp. — it's a reflection of the lawless culture that defines the company. As CEO, Murdoch not only tolerates employees and executives who push the boundaries of legality and good taste, he celebrates them — at least until the cops show up. "There's a broader culture within the company," Col Allan, editor of Murdoch's New York Post, crowed in 2007. "We like being pirates." Whatever veneer of integrity News Corp. may have accrued after its purchase of The Wall Street Journal the very same year masks an ingrained corporate ethos that believes integrity is for suckers. The attitude passed down from the top, says one veteran of Murdoch's tabloids, is aggressive and straightforward: "Anything we do is OK. We're News Corp. — so fuck you and fuck your mother."  ----Rolling Stone

How far did the Murdoch culture pervade Tweed under Klein? And I view the WSJ as just a more literate version of the NY Post with biased reporting when it comes to education, at least. I told a reporter from WSJ who wanted to know more about the GEM high stakes testing committee that the other day. Haven't heard back. My sense is that the WSJ would start with the premise that somehow union money was behind it. Or maybe terrorists who want to undermine the ed deform economy on which Murdoch/Klein are looking to make big bucks.

More from the RS article:

Indeed, an examination of Murdoch's corporate history reveals that each of the elements of the scandal in London – hacking, thuggish reporting tactics, unethical entanglements with police, hush-money settlements and efforts to corrupt officials at the highest levels of government – extend far beyond Fleet Street. Over the past decade, News Corp. has systematically employed such tactics in its U.S. operations, exhibiting what a recent lawsuit filed against the firm calls a "culture run amok." As a former high-ranking News Corp. executive tells Rolling Stone: "It's the same shit, different day."

These are just little bits from the must-read Rolling Stone piece. Remember the affair between Bernie Keric and Murdoch employee Judith Regan. Get all the juicy details including how Murdoch scum Roger Ailes obstructed justice - how about a perp walk for 3?


Thanks to a blogger who would usually do a smashing job on this story but is a bit tied up and sent me the links and commentary below:

Klein helped Murdoch out 14 years ago with an antitrust deal.  Smells crooked (though he did rule against Murdoch in a later deal.)

Here's the Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/business/media/news-corps-legal-trail-in-the-us.html?hp

Was Klein on the Murdoch payroll long ago?  Hmm....
 

The dominos are starting to fall into place with the Murdoch story here in America.  Rolling Stone has some malfeasance at the NY Post in this piece here:

http:/www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rupert-murdochs-american-scandals-20110803

The more they dig, the more they will find that what News International did in Britain, they did here in America too - hacking, bribery, conspiracy to subvert justice, etc.

And Klein is at the middle of it.

Sign our petition vs. no-bid contracts for Murdoch's Wireless Generation!

Also at the NYC Parent Blog:

“As part of our contribution, the [Gates] foundation took an important first step a few weeks ago and selected a vendor to build the open software that will allow states to access a shared, performance-driven marketplace of free and premium tools and content. That vendor, Wireless Generation, will create the software, but it will be owned by an independent nonprofit, so that any school, school district, curriculum developer, or tool builder can contribute to the collaborative.”Really, did it really have to be Wireless Generation?  But why doesn’t that surprise me?

UPDATE: note  the words"free and premium content,"  something I had not originally noticed but was pointed out by Dr. Ed Fuller on his blog here.  So Wireless Gen and Murdoch are poised to make a buck off of this project -- and the content they receive from teachers, who are expected to share their ideas free of charge? 

Unholy alliance between Murdoch, Klein and Bill Gates? "Pretty cool" huh?

http://nyceducator.com/2011/08/murdochs-education-ventures-go-forward.html

=================
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Hey Teachers: Support Striking Verizon Workers

One of the reasons the labor movement is in so much trouble is the lack of solidarity. The UFT/AFT sells the "union of professionals" line - as if we're closer to people who actually manage their professions than to other workers. Where do you think you stand in today's deskilling and degrading of teachers?

GEM and possibly other groups are gearing up for some support activities starting tomorrow afternoon at 5 PM. I may try to make it into the city if I can.

Verizon Workers are on Strike!

Teachers, Parents, Students, Community Members

Let’s show our support and join them on the picket line.

Their struggle is our struggle!

 Monday, August 8  5PM

140 West Street, Between Vesey and Barclay St.

Take the #3 to Park Place  or the A,C to Chambers St

Bring signs, banners, and energy!

http://www.cwa-union.org/

  http://usuncut.org/targets/verizon

Company Refuses to Bargain Seriously, Verizon Proposals Would Take Workers Back Decades

Washington, D.C. -- More than 45,000 workers are on strike today at Verizon Communications. Bargaining continues. Since bargaining began on June 22, Verizon has refused to move from a long list of concession demands. As the contract expired, nearly 100 concessionary company proposals remained on the table.

As a result, CWA and IBEW have decided to take the unprecedented step of striking until Verizon stops its Wisconsin-style tactics and starts bargaining seriously.

Even at the 11th hour, as contracts were set to expire, Verizon continued to seek to strip away 50 years of collective bargaining gains for middle class workers and their families.

CWA and IBEW members are prepared to return to work when management demonstrates the willingness to begin bargaining seriously for a fair agreement. If not, CWA and IBEW members and allies will continue the fight.

Verizon financials

• 2011 annualized revenues are $108 billion and annualized net profits are $6 billion.
• Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend.
• Verizon’s top five executives received compensation of $258 million over the past four years.

The contract covers 45,000 members of CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from New England to Virginia.

Read updates at www.cwa-union.org/verizon

Foundation/Philanthropy Scamming re "Bloomberg donating $30M to minority youth"

Updated: Thurs, Aug. 11, 10pm
Add this link from Democracy in Education blog.

Why Michael Bloomberg’s Plan to ‘Aid Minority Youth’ Is a Terrible Idea

I got a call from a 4th year ATR yesterday. We talked about a lot of things - mostly Yankee baseball - but I was taken aback a bit given the destruction his career suffered under Bloomberg, when he praised Bloomberg for his recent philanthropy towards students of color. I don't give robber barons credit for anything, esp since Bloomberg ties his giving to political favors.


Here is a piece of a discussion going on on list serves to put some of that into perspective - aside from some of the openly racist remarks Bloomberg made.

This conversation on the ednews listserve (related to Bloomberg's "30 million dollar gift to minority youth") was really valuable (below, begin at the bottom with Paola's comments and work your way up).  Many of us understand that philanthropy, particularly in regards to education, has a dark side, but it is hard) to articulate exactly why on a deeper level.  We know it is about control, we know it is about isolating and controlling wealth; the conversation below explains how foundations and charities both use the tax code to protect and shelter the wealth of some while giving the appearance of "giving" to others.  If everyone paid their fair share, if there weren't major loop-holes and benefits for corporations and wealthy individuals, such as those described below, would we need wealthy folks to give to those who are not, or could our government have the resources to provide equitable systems and services for ALL?  Most or all of you probably already know this stuff, but what they wrote below helped me understand the fundamentals and specifics better.

In Chicago they have begun to "follow the money" and educate on these issues, when some of us were there last month we did a march from the Board of Trade to the Banks to the DOE and CORE had informational materials highlighting the financial injustices between these three groups.  We heard from parents in Florida who are doing this across their state in a myriad of ways in a workshop at SOS.  I spoke with a woman from St. Louis yesterday, they are beginning to do this (including a rally to encourage folks to withdraw their money from Bank of America this weekend).   I know some of this is happening here - Wall Street actions and Bloombergville.

The issue of corporate, foundation, and charity tax loop-holes and benefits, as well as campaign finance reform, are issues that directly and negatively impact our public education system, and collectively these foundations, wealthy individuals and corporations are what/who are driving the DEforms our kids and our schools are facing, but it is not something we have spent any/significant time on in terms of the education and organizing work we have done because we have been so focused on the local and immediate attacks such as co-locations, charters, closings, budgets etc. 
 
 

From Leonie: 

Besides the obvious tax advantages (and the political  PR gains) this sort of campaign may yield, we should remember that the Bloomberg Foundation has parked its investments in tax havens throughout the world – in Cayman Islands and elsewhere:

http://gawker.com/5521105/the-bloomberg-foundation-loves-offshore-tax-havens

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/11/mike_bloombergs_5.php

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-16/nyc-mayor-s-09-tax-forms-show-more-offshore-money.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12165497


http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/bloomberg%E2%80%99s-offshore-millions?page=0


By the end of 2008, the Bloomberg Family Foundation had transferred almost $300 million into various offshore destinations—some of them notorious tax-dodge hideouts. The Caymans and Cyprus. Bermuda and Brazil. Even Mauritius, a speck of an island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Madagascar. Other investments were spread around disparate locations, from Japan to Luxembourg to Romania. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s about as opaque set of investments as you can find,’ said Rich Cohen, who covers foundations and charities for Nonprofit Quarterly.
 
From Richard:

a related aspect of what Paola writes below: 

A billionaire like David Koch -- who has poured funding into the organizations which got the anti-tax tea party movement going -- chooses to give $100 million for a vanity project, the renovation of the N.Y. State Theater at Lincoln Center, and

-gets the theater re-named after him (when probably far more City and State taxpayer funds were expended on it over the years) and

--gets to avoid all taxes on that $100 million.  This deprives the federal, state and local governments of any access to collecting a portion of  the money, which they might have elected to use for more pressing societal needs, if they had it to use.

RB 

From Paola:

Bloomberg’s  (and Gates’ and Zuckerberg’s and the donors who rescued the January regents) “generosity” is partly funded by the taxpayers—through forgone federal, state and local tax revenue to the tune of about 40 cents  on every donated dollar.     

The inefficiency of carrying out social policy through charitable giving excites only extreme wonks, and only once in a while at that.  For example, a Harvard Business Review article, nicely discussed here, made a splash 10 years ago—but changed nothing.  The authors took aim specifically at foundation giving: "When a donor gives money to a social enterprise, all of the money goes to work creating social benefits. When a donor gives money to a foundation, most of the gift sits on the sidelines. On average, foundations donate only 5.5 percent of their assets to charity each year, a number slightly above the legal minimum of 5 percent. The rest is invested to create financial, not social, returns.”  They argued that because foundations pay out a small portion of their total assets each year, their contributions to society do not equal the taxes forgone: "When an individual contributes $100 to a charity, the nation loses about $40 in tax revenue, but the charity gets $100, which it uses to provide services to society. The immediate social benefit, then, is 250 percent of the lost tax revenue. When $100 is contributed to a foundation, the nation loses the same $40. But the immediate social benefit is only the $5.50 per year that the foundation gives away — that is, less than 14 percent of the forgone tax revenue.”   Actually, as the GIA Reader article points out, public charities (aka 501(c)3’s) do not create as much social benefit as the HBR authors give them credit for since they don’t re-distribute anywhere near 100% of donations in social benefits once operating expenses, including salaries, are taken into account (see, e.g., the recent NY Times  expose of the Young Adult Institute Network)
            If all this makes your eyes glaze over, think of the bottom line: we (the voters, who elect the legislators who ultimately write the tax code) allow obscenely rich people to opt out of paying taxes—already relatively low--on large chunks of their income so that they can then turn around, fund whatever projects tickle their fancy, and be praised by all for their “generous giving.”.  To put it another way, what is the difference between Bloomberg et al. and the Ancien Régime nobleman who paid no taxes but gave coppers to the poor to save his soul?
Paola de Kock

Added link at Democracy in Education: 

Why Michael Bloomberg’s Plan to ‘Aid Minority Youth’ Is a Terrible Idea

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Paralysis

Maybe it's my useless right wrist. Every time I start to blog I get distracted by a hundred issues and end up not writing anything much at all. So I spend most of the time reading other blogs on the Ed Notes blogroll and following the links. "I should note this or that," I think but just don't seem to have the discipline to follow up. SOS? Was that a year ago?

People have told me this is an opportunity to rest and recharge but I find being in the action fuels my energy supply. Right now I am at a very low energy state. I did get my wife to drive me into the city for Thursday's New Teacher Underground meeting on the lower east side. She went off in search of food supplies - found great bialys and pickles - while I descended into the lower level of Lolita Bar clutching the thin rail with the fingers of my left hand.

There was a great crew of mixed ages there. The goal of the NTU organizers is to expose new teachers to the big educational issues along with how things work. Lisa Donlan came with a wonderful chart showing the levels of governance. Fordham prof. Dr. Mark Naison, Notorious PhD - see his rap at SOS - did a presentation on how teaching and community activism go together. Unfortunately I was getting tired - what was in that beer?- and had to leave before Angel Gonzalez did his presentation but I'm sure it was smashing. I also had to fulfill the other part of the deal with my wife - dinner out.

It was fun to get out after a few days of recovery from the incredible activity of 5 days at SOS, which I still intend to write about before the experience totally slips away. But not right now. The lure of a Sunday matinee movie and early dinner in the city is much too tempting, especially with my personal chauffeur awaiting.

In the meantime, check out these videos:

Keith Olbermann expressing the outrage so many of us feel - and increasingly at Obama (my wife declared him a Wus and said she would rather not vote than vote for him - and she is no leftist but outraged at his - choose one: a) caving in to Republicans or b) he really is an increasingly not so closet Republican.



Robert Reich video: bail out education

http://www.readersupportednews.org/video/4-video/6874-robert-reich-bailout-education

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"provide the highest performing applicants from Ivy League schools with a 6 week medical tutorial and set them loose on our nations inner city hospitals" - Brian De Vale Urges Nurse for America Program to Meet Shortage

TFA and the Fellows program create the illusion that there is no shortage of "cerified" teachers. These folks are considered licensed, thus eliminating the need to pay more to attract more folks into the profession.

I propose a similar program NFA... Nurse for America to deal with the health care crisis.

We will provide the highest performing applicants from Ivy League schools with a 6 week medical tutorial and set them loose on our nations inner city hospitals...we will do this because the nurses and doctors of America have failed our inner city people.

Thus we must fire the [current crop of older] nurses.

Rather than try to understand what decades or in some cases centuries of neglect, public policy and the resulting lack of education about good health choices, alcohol and substance abuse, diabetes, sickle cell, asthma etc...have created, we will blame the doctors and nurses and shut down their hospitals and replace them with CHARTER HOSPITALS!!!!!

Maybe Arne Duncan can be Surgeon General. He is as qualified for that as he is for Sec. of Education. Didn't he sprain his ankle at least once while he was a basketball player? So he understands healthcare...just like he understands education because he went to school.

Susan Ohanian: Sex, Lies, and SOS

 If I had to name the reasons I wanted to go to SOS so badly, seeing Susan Ohanian and Juanita Doyan again were right at the top. I only met them once before in March 2003 at the WOO in Birmingham AL where 20 activists (including John Lawhead who I roomed with - 6 months later we formed ICE) from around the nation gathered to give WOO director Steve Orel a Courageous Educator  award for his battles defending the poor students who were being pushed out of the schools based on high stakes tests. Steve (now deceased - and how wonderful it would have been to see him at SOS) was fired for his efforts. At that point we as a group took a strong and principled stand opposing NCLB (which the AFT/UFT supported) and high stakes tests in general. It took 8 years for the rest of the world to begin to catch up. To my mind Susan is the real superstar of the resistance because she has been doing it forever. And George Schmidt, her partner in crime, who was also at SOS.

So, I'm just about to start writing my magnum opus on my SOS experience when along comes this spider. Here Susan gives voice to some thoughts that kept springing into my head but I keep pushing away so as not to spoil a rousing aura of good will to all. I know, I know, one step at a time. But Susan and I are getting too old to wait much longer. Look for my mag op later or this weekend.

Sex, Lies, and SOS

Publication Date: 2011-08-04

By Susan Ohanian  

http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=958

For all the music and praise of teachers, the SOS march had a more troubling side.

We all know that Superman isn't going to rescue public schoolchildren. But let's face it: Neither is Action Hero Matt Damon. At his educator mom's request, Damon traveled from a movie set in Vancouver, British Columbia to speak out for public schools at the SOS march in Washington, D. C. on July 30. Inexplicably, most of the D. C. area teachers stayed home.

Longtime educator Gary Stager, who red-eyed from California, asked an important question : "Washington D.C. is less than a day’s drive from hundreds of thousands of teachers. Why was Matt Damon fighting for their profession while they stayed home?" A subway ride away and they couldn't make it?

Please don't say these hundreds of thousands of teachers were scared. What should scare them is the reality of their profession being systematically destroyed.

I'm naive enough to have been stunned by the low turnout at the SOS march, but I think I've figured it out. Both the NEA and the AFT made a show of donating $25,000 for necessary basics like lots of water, a medical station, and so on. But union leaders didn't come and they didn't bother to mobilize teachers to show up. A dozen or so people worked the crowd handing out souvenir fans (compliments of WTU/AFT Local No. 6 AFL-CIO) but there was no mobilization of DC teachers.

I didn't see thousands of New York City teachers either. I hung out with GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) a dissident activist group within UFT. They made the film "Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" which got a great reception Friday night before the march. I met Norm Scott, one of the GEM leaders eight years ago when we were in a group traveling to Birmingham, AL to pay tribute to the World of Opportunity (The WOO). I mention this because I also met my SOS roommate Juanita Doyon, the WA state mother who is national Button Queen, at the WOO in Birmingham. And John Lawhead, who rode his bike from New York City to the DC march. And Nancy Creech from Michigan who has had two salary cuts of $9,000 each in the last two years was also at the WOO. She told me, "Now they are after our pensions." With the price of gold up, Nancy sold jewelry to finance her trip to D. C.

I mention this WOO connection just to show the commitment of teachers and parents who showed up at SOS. It was very good to mingle with them and with new friends--a teacher who came alone from Norman, Oklahoma, a Colorado mom whose children were kicked out of charter school when she insisted on opting out of the state test (people on a very small discussion each donated $50 to get her there), two teachers from North Carolina, a Florida activist who is neither a teacher nor the parent of a school age child--but someone who knows that public schools are vital to democracy. And many many more. I now kick myself for not writing down names.

And here's a shout out to those young GEM teachers who recognized how hot this old lady got during the march itself. Where they got it I don't know, but they kept bringing me bags of chipped ice.

The march itself was short. Before that, I walked around for 4 hours at SOS, talking with earnest, hopeful, angry teachers and parents from across the country--people thinking they were going to an event that would be start of a resistance movement. They didn't realize the unions had sold them out from the get-go. They didn't realize the featured speakers had a limited agenda, speaking passionately but not moving beyond equitable funding, an end to high stakes testing, a richer curriculum.

Seems like we've heard this a few hundred times before.

Those speeches from the podium didn't clarify things, didn't even mention the deliberate and systematic plan in progress to destroy social and educational contracts made over the past decades. Teachers aren't going to be stirred to save themselves unless and until they understand why these terrible things are happening to them and the children they teach. Teachers need to understand the corporate plan progressing since the Business Roundtable first outlined it in 1988.

Why didn't anybody at the podium call out Barack Obama, whom Black Agenda Report editor Glen Ford describes as the corporate Democratic Trojan Horse? Not only is Obama setting in motion "a rolling implosion of Roosevelt's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society," he's data bombing the principles of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, John Holt. . . and every thoughtful practitioner in the country today.

If you think that's harsh, take a look at this:

U.S. President Barack Obama is singularly the most dangerous, anti-democratic president in the history of this nation. He has used his pigmentation as as a shield for corporate fascism and the emaciation of everyday, ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and around the world.
--Larry Pinkney, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board, Obama's Bait and Switch Game: Otherwise Known As B. S. Aug. 4, 2011

Maybe this is way over-the-top, but why did Obama get a pass at SOS? Ask the NEA. Ask the AFT. Ask the SOS speakers.

Maybe it's to be expected at an event underwritten by a union that has already endorsed Barack Obama for a second term that the only visible criticism of Obama at SOS was provided by someone in the crowd from LaRouche who showed up with a poster depicting the President with a Hitler mustache.

D. C. union (WTU) president Nathan Saunders welcomed the crowd to the SOS march. Last December, soon after his election, he told the Washington Post: "I've got more skills to solve problems than practically any president that's ever run WTU. I also have formalized training in problem resolution. My masters is in negotiation and management....Part of the Harvard Trade Union Program is conflict management. And so I think I have some unique skills to solve problems." He added that he absolutely does not believe in confrontation." He added that " confrontation is not the first order business."

How many teachers' careers have to be destroyed before confrontation does become the first order of business-- in DC-- and across the country?

Confrontation will be difficult. Teachers are by their nature people pleasers. We don't like to say "No." We like to cooperate. But to save the profession, teachers will have to be willing to ramp up the rhetoric a thousandfold from what they heard at the SOS. Ramp up the rhetoric and the collective action, too. Teachers must be willing to strike; they must refuse to give the tests. I'm not talking individual heroic acts here. I'm talking mass action, hundreds of thousands of teachers standing up and shouting that they're mad as hell and not going to take it any more.

More from Susan on SOS and Obama
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A Letter to President Obama from the SOS March
Ruth Rodriguez
undelivered speech at SOS
2011-08-01
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4173

I wish Ruth Rodriguez had been able to deliver her speech at the SOS march. It would have been the one statement from the podium that laid school woes directly at the feet of President Obama.


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Ruin-Nation: The Obama Catastrophe
Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
2011-08-03
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1025

MUST read. MUST read.


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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.