A History of the Grassroots Education Movement

The genesis of GEM 

GEM emanated from a committee established in Jan. 2009 by the Independent Community of Educators, a caucus in the UFT that has been challenging the leadership since its founding in late 2003. This committee was charged to organize around three principles: school closings, high stakes testing that drove school closings and the resulting creation of a pool of teachers from these closing schools who were left to fend for themselves looking for a job on the open market.

At that time, some people in ICE had joined a high stakes testing committee called Justice Not Just Tests established by the NY Collective of Radical Educators (NYCORE). The two committees merged and  held an all-day conference around these issues at the end of March which attracted participants from other activist groups around the city.

Even before that conference took place, a 4th major issue was rearing its head: the growth of charter schools and their co-locations within public school buildings. Rather than expand the conference to include this issue, a separate event was held a few weeks later. It was the still unnamed group's tackling this issue head on and taking a stand against not only co-locations but the very idea of charters as undermining public schools that began to get noticed.

Meetings were held every week or two and began to attract people but not having a formal structure or a name was confusing. Finally, Grassroots Education Movement was chosen. GEM was no longer a committee but had taken on a life of its own, still operating conceptually as a coalition of activist groups in NYC.

In late May, 2009 GEM held a march from Battery Park to DOE HQ at the Tweed Courthouse, stopping briefly at the UFT HQ to register opposition to the UFT favorable position on charters, along with its refusal to make a stand on school closings and the way the seniority rights of teachers being forced out of these schools were given away by the union.

Through the summer of 2009 GEM's focus turned almost solely to charter co-locations in Harlem and Red Hook Brooklyn. Parents and teachers at Harlem schools being invaded by Eva Moskowitz's Success Charter network asked GEM's assistance in organizing opposition to the most aggressive charter school operation in the city. At the same time GEM and the Red Hook group (CAPE) based at PS 15 which was invaded by a charter run by the son of a billionaire who was a contributor to Mayor Bloomberg's educational initiatives joined forces.


The 2009-10 school year
During the 2009-10 school year GEM activities were focused less on the union and more on school closings and charter co-location battles, reaching out with whatever limited support GEM could offer. A series of Toolkits to aid schools in fighting back were created along with a widely distributed pamphlet, "The Truth About Charter Schools in New York City." GEM built alliances with other activist groups, the highlight being a Jan. 2010 rally/demo across the street from Mayor Bloomberg's home (and peripherally, his next door neighbor, billionaire Meryl Tisch who heads the State Board of Regents.) Towards the end of the school year GEM helped organize Fight Back Fridays where a number of schools take local actions on certain Fridays followed by some concerted actions.

In early 2010 GEM also began to address the structural issues involved in trying to build a democratic grassroots based organization, establishing an interim steering committee and beginning to move towards a membership based organization. Those efforts continue today.

2010-2011 school year/summer
GEM continued its work on on school closings and charter co-locos throughout the year. GEM members attended many of the school public hearings speaking about how all these issues are part of the national neo-liberal agenda to privatize public education to clarify how these are not just local/neighborhood battles.


GEM formed an ad hoc committee of many groups and a rally in late January and organizing with parents and teachers to speak out at Panel for Educational Policy meetings (the rubber stamp Bloomberg appointee dominated Board of Education), which also included some performance art.

Fight Back Friday events escalated as more schools signed on. GEM was in the middle of the battles to deny a waiver to the inappropriate (and insulting to many educators) of Bloomberg's appointment of magazine publisher Cathie Black as Chancellor. GEM members attended a conference in Chicago where 250 teacher union activists from around the nation gathered to discuss the crucial issues facing teachers and their unions. GEM was an active participant in the SAVE OUR SCHOOLS activities in Washington, including doing a well-received workshop on organizing.

With the imminent release of the biased ed deformist documentary Waiting for Superman about to be released at the end of September 2010, GEM organized a rally in front of the theater on opening night that attracted press attention. Wearing red capes with RR (Real Reform) stamped on them, 50 GEMers and their supporters serenaded movie goers with a rap song throughout the evening.

A GEM committee named Real Reform Studios was formed to create a response to WfS. Since the director of WfS had made Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, the GEM film was titled "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." The GEM film would expose the biased inaccuracies in WfS and offer its own vision of Real Reforms, listing 10 as a basis.

Work continued on the movie throughout the school year, premiering in May in front of 700 people at Riverside Church with Diane Ravitch as the guest speaker. Word of mouth led to the film being spread all over the nation and abroad as 4000 dvds were distributed (with 3000 more on order). The film was featured at SOS in Washington and at SOS local events in cities around the nation.

Over the last year GEM has been meeting with other activist groups in NYC to explore areas where we can all work together to bring more of a unity of purpose to the battle for public education. One key point of unity is developing a concept of social justice unionism.

Many of these groups have come together for a current action we have planned: to support the Verizon workers on strike while at the same time opposing an outrageous contract the NYCDOE is trying to push through. The Communication Workers of America are working with the groups and a rally was scheduled outside the Panel for Educational Policy meeting on Aug. 17.

The upcoming 2011-12 school year
One of the most exciting initiatives undertaken by GEM for the upcoming school year was the decision to focus attention on high stakes testing, forming a committee in July to examine the issue from all angles, including an opt-out campaign. Over 25 people attended the incredibly productive August 15 meeting and are looking forward to an exciting campaign.

Other upcoming GEM activities:

• The work on school closings and charters will continue and a refocusing on some of the union issues that GEM dealt with in its early days is on the agenda.
• Continued distribution of the film and more film projects for Real Reform Studios.
• Continue to work for more of a synthesis between the various activist groups.

From the GEM web site:

About Us

Inform, Support, Inspire: Promoting Policies for a Fully Funded and Effective Public School System

The Grassroots Education Movement (GEMNYC) educates, organizes, and mobilizes educators, parents, students and communities to defend public education. Too many current corporate and government policies seek to underfund, undermine and privatize our public school system. GEM advocates around issues dealing with the equality and quality of public educational services as well as the rights of teachers and school workers. These issues include the incessant push for charter schools, the attack on union rights, the focus on high-stakes standardized testing, school closures, and the failure to address the racism and inequality that exists within our schools. As the attacks on public education and teachers grow more vicious, the collective organization of those who directly face these attacks at the grassroots level becomes all the more essential, and in fact constitutes the most effective potential resistance. GEM advocates for a positive vision of education reform by building alliances with other activist groups and organizing and helping coordinate the struggle at the grassroots school and community level, with a focus on school-level organizing.

UFT Officially Joins PEP/Verizon Aug. 17 Protest

See our previous report on this event with the official statement we put out with other groups endorsing: A Midsummer Night's Scream - Picket PEP Over Verizon Contract/Support CWA Strike - Weds. Aug. 17, 5PM


Well sometimes actions emanating from the grassroots gets a reaction from the UFT leadership.

A week ago an internal memo circulating within the Grassroots Education Movement suggested an action protesting the outrageous contract with Verizon (which had cheated the DOE in a previous contract but is refusing to pay back the money unless the contract is renewed) and support for the Verizon workers on strike at the upcoming Panel for Educational Policy meeting this Weds. Aug. 14 at Murray Bergtraum HS.

An announcement was drawn up and other allies of GEM began to  sign on. We contacted leaders at the Communications Workers of America asking them to join us at a 5PM rally outside Bergtraum and received an enthusiastic response (there is a massive Verizon building adjoining Bergtraum). Last night this memo circulating in the halls of the UFT came through.

Dear colleagues,
This coming Wednesday, August 17, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy will vote on a $120 million DOE contract with Verizon to wire schools. Please join a picket and protest at 5 p.m. outside the meeting at Murry Bergtraum HS for Business Careers at 411 Pearl St. in Manhattan. See map for directions.

Despite making billions of dollars in profits in the last four years, Verizon is waging an unprecedented attack on the wages and benefits of its 45,000 unionized employees in its landline division. The company wants its workers to start contributing to their health care premiums while freezing pension contributions for current employees, eliminating traditional pensions for future workers, limiting sick days to five a year, and eliminating all job-security provisions.

According to the Special Commissioner for Investigations, Verizon was also implicated in a recent DOE corruption scandal. His office states contractor Ross Lanham stole millions from the education system through a false billing scheme for wiring schools. The Special Commissioner of Investigations and further wrote that “Verizon concealed from the DOE and law enforcement that they got millions of dollars in contracts through Lanham….”
Take a stand against our scarce education dollars going to private contractors like Verizon. We hope to see you at the protest on Aug. 17.

Sincerely,
LeRoy Barr and Ellie Engler
UFT Staff Directors

Clearly this PEP was not on the UFT leadership's radar screen until it bubbled up from the bottom, I view the reaction as a positive development towards working with the UFT hierarchy when we all can agree. I know they are not going to reach down deep into the membership to mobilize (they are focused on the Aug. 27 rally in Washington DC) but do expect the usual suspects - some union employees and top-level Unity Caucus people to be there. We can only hope the UFT leaders use their control over the communications apparatus to inform the members why supporting the CWA and opposing the Verizon contract is important.

But don't be surprised to see the UFT try to marginalize groups like GEM which started the ball rolling. Maybe more on this aspect in follow-ups.

Groups supporting action at PEP so far:
BYNEE, Class Size Matters, CPE-CEP, Grassroots Education Movement, New York City Parents Union, New York Charter Parents Association, NYCC, NYCORE, S.E.E.D.S, Teachers Unite, Independent Community of Educators, The MANY, Teachers for a Just Contract (list in formation)

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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.

Catless

Buffy, Pinkey, Pippen, all born in 1991

Ed Notes went online for the first time almost 5 years ago on August 27, 2006 with this simple photo and headline: An Attentive Class Size of Three. Well, looking back, only Pinkey was paying attention.

This morning for the first time in 20 years I woke up without having to clean the litter box or change the food or water, or say "good morning" to a cat. While Buffy died at 11 from cancer in 2002 and Pippen succumbed to kidney disease a year and a half ago at 18 and 6 months, Pinkey hung in long enough to celebrate her 20th birthday. Yesterday a wonderful vet and a technician came to our house to put Pinkey to sleep on the dining room table where she loved to chase strings, rumble though boxes and tear up bags from Staples, thus sparing us all the last traumatizing ride to a vet's office. The vet absolutely refused to accept payment for this service - she is a true and compassionate animal lover. (She is new to Rockaway and will be opening up an office soon - even though we have no more pets I may use her as my primary doctor.)

I won't go into the details of why we made the decision at this time - when Pinkey tried to jump from the dining room chair to the table and didn't make it Thursday night we knew we made the right decision. Amongst many other issues, we had seen a tumor grow on her back over the last 6 months from a tiny nodule to a giant hump that made Pinkey look like a miniature camel - the hunchcat of Rockaway. Her time was clearly up despite the fact she was still eating voraciously - how could a cat be such skin and bones - maybe down to 5 pounds from that chubby animal above - while eating so much? Maybe it was all going to feed that hump.

Pinkey was different from Buffy and Pippen, both of whom we took in in the fall of 1991, about 6 months after the last of our first set of cats died at the age of 19. That 6 month period was the only time in our over 40 years together that we did not have cats. Until now, that is. Just watch us kill each other without a cat around to settle our differences.

Pinkey came to our back door in June 2002 bare-pawed and pregnant and wearing a tiny blue collar. We didn't want a third cat - and neither did Buffy and Pippen. So we put up ads looking for her owner while we boarded her at the vet, who performed an abortion. When no one claimed her we did, naming her Pinkey because, well, she had a lot of the color pink in her.

We soon found out why no one claimed her as Pinkey turned out to be the most destructive cat we had ever had. Sweet-natured (never bit or scratched) but a relentless furniture destroyer who would notice any item new to the house immediately and go right for it. We began to call her work "Pinkey Art" and were thinking of showing them off in a gallery. (You should see what she created out of the Staples bags.) My wife went on a tear to Pinkey-proof the house, often to little success.

Pinkey never met a window shade she didn't try to reshape.

Pinkey was relentless, the most determined cat that would do whatever it took to get her way. Hungry but we weren't getting up to feed her? Just keep knocking stuff off our night tables or using her claws and teeth to rip up  every paper she could find until you took care of her needs. Open any door to a room or closet she wasn't allowed into and she would be lurking and make a mad dash for the most remote spot where you couldn't grab her.

She was like a clown cat, her antics keeping us in stitches - even the other cats didn't know what to make of her and often just watched in wonder before she would set one of them off too.

Furniture was her specialty as she ruined an entire room. When we went shopping for replacements we told the salesmen we needed Pinkey-proof material. They just looked at us. Note: we never really found this magic material.

Yesterday, after the pet cemetery came to take Pinkey away, my wife began to de-Pinkey proof the house. Slip covers came off the furniture. I saw my dining room table for the first time in 20 years.

Is this what a dining room table looks like?

I guess the most vivid Pinkey story has to do with the best rocker/recliner chair I ever sat in. We bought it in 1971 when we lived in an apartment on Ocean Ave in the 70's.  I spent my life in that chair, despite the fact that Salle, our cat at the time wrecked it. About 6 years ago we finally had it reupholstered for an immense amount of money. Within a half hour of delivery, before my wife could Pinkey proof it, she went to work. Here are the results after just a few minutes.

A half hour after reupholstered chair arrived

Thus began the war. Pinkey made the chair her special project. My wife covered the chair in layers and pushed it against the wall to keep Pinkey from wrecking the back. She somehow moved the massive chair enough to get back there. My wife stuffed boxes and assorted other stuff to defeat Pinkey. One day I heard some noises coming from behind the chair. Suddenly, a box came flying out as Pinkey went to work. You just had to roll on the floor laughing.

We often speculated as to which cat would survive the others. We should have known it would be Pinkey, the battler with a will of iron. As recently as months ago, the vets marveled at her, even though she had lost half her weight. "I wish I had her blood work," said one. But with one leg dragging we watched her keep up the fight, gingerly going up and down the stairs to her litter box. It wasn't until the last few days that she started to have accidents missing the box. She was no longer doing any of the things she loved - besides wrecking furniture, bird watching and looking out the window. And sleeping about 22 hours a day - she no longer seemed able to sleep peacefully, finding it hard to get in a comfortable position. But despite all of this, she miraculously still managed to jump enough to get where she wanted to be. Until her last dash to the table Thursday night. I watched her carefully calculate the first leap to the chair and barely make it. She didn't make the next leap to the table and flopped a long way to the floor. We rushed over figuring she hurt herself badly. But Pinkey just got up and looked at us almost embarrassed, not quite believing that her will didn't prevail once again, as she walked off to get more food.

She went peacefully on Friday morning, with her dignity intact.

This morning I sat down to read the Times in the recliner - Pinkey's special project - for the first time in probably 30 years - and hoisted a final tribute to the cat with the indominatable spirit.

I'm ready to rock again.

A Midsummer Night's Scream - Picket PEP Over Verizon Contract/Support CWA Strike - Weds. Aug. 17, 5PM

Join BYNEE, Class Size Matters, CPE-CEP, Grassroots Education Movement, New York City Parents Union, New York Charter Parents Association, NYCC, NYCORE, S.E.E.D.S, Teachers Unite, Independent Community of Educators, The MANY, Teachers for a Just Contract (list in formation) this Weds at 5pm.

Verizon has admitted to overcharging us as a result of alleged fraud by a middleman but is not willing to make us whole. They will only negotiate and want their contract renewed first. - Patrick Sullivan

Wow, are these guys at Verizon crooks, stealing money out of the mouths of babes, all with the compliance of WalBloom and the PEP, which wiil vote to hand them piles of more money on Weds. Aug. 17.



Protest Verizon DOE Contract at PEP/Support Verizon Workers on Strike

On Wednesday, August 17, the Department of Education's Panel for Education Policy will vote on a $120 million two year contract with telecom giant Verizon to wire our schools.   There are at least five good reasons to strongly oppose this contract ( see below.)

At the same time the PEP will be voting on a spending plan that will sharply cut our school budgets - for the third year in a row - and lead to even larger classes.

Join us at the PEP meeting near City Hall to protest this immoral and possibly illegal contract. 

 Whether you can join us or not, please  send the message below to the members of the PEP.

What: Picket and Protest 

Where: Murry Bergtraum HS, 411 Pearl Street, Manhattan (4/5/6 or N/R to City Hall / Brooklyn Bridge)

When: Wed. August 17, 2011 at 5 PM

Why?  Verizon is shortchanging their own workers and stealing from schoolchildren!   Say no to more giveaways to private contractors and more wasted spending on technology while are class sizes are increasing! Tell the PEP to vote down the Verizon contract with the DOE!

Take a stand against the increasing portion of our education budget that is wasted on private contractors and for-profit vendors, like Rupert Murdoch's Wireless Generation.

Sponsored by:  BYNEE, Class Size Matters, CPE-CEP, Grassroots Education Movement, New York City Parents Union, New York Charter Parents Association, NYCC, NYCORE, S.E.E.D.S, Teachers Unite, Independent Community of Educators, The MANY, Teachers for a Just Contract (list in formation)  

And please send the following email to the PEP; feel free to change wording and/or add details about the conditions in your child’s school:

Dear PEP member:

Please vote no on the $120 million contract with Verizon. Here are five good reasons:  

1.    45,000 Verizon workers are currently on strike, as management has demanded a long list of concessions, cutting their health benefits, pensions, and sick time – givebacks amounting to $20,000 per worker. Meanwhile, the company has $100 billion in revenue, net profits of $6 billion, and Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company a $10 billion dividend. The top five company executives have been paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the last four years.  This is yet one more corporate attack on the middle class. Why should the city be contracting with such a greedy and unethical company?

2.    Verizon is seriously implicated in the recent scandal in which the Special Commissioner of Investigation found that a consultant named Ross Lanham in charge of school internet wiring stole $3.6 million dollars from the city  through a false billing scheme, and that Verizon “facilitated this fraud.” Though DOE admits that “Verizon is in discussion with the DOE regarding repaying of the overcharges,” the company has not yet agreed to pay back any of this money, and the case has been referred to the US attorney’s office for possible prosecution.   Why should DOE reward Verizon by paying the company more millions?

3.    In the same document in which the DOE outlines the contract, there are twenty other instances listed of suspicious or illegal behavior on the part of Verizon, triggering numerous investigations.

4.    All NYC public schools are already wired for the internet; but according to the DOE, this second round of wiring is for high-speed internet and hi-definition video  to facilitate the expansion of online learning and computerized testing.  This is occurring at the same time as budgets are being cut to the bone, schools are losing valuable programs, and class sizes are rising to the highest level in over a decade.  A quarter of our elementary schools are so overcrowded they had waiting lists for Kindergarten.  It is outrageous that in the midst of this budget crisis, the DOE should be spending $120 million for unnecessary technological upgrades when children do not have seats in their neighborhood schools.

5.    Finally, this contract with Verizon began on January 1, 2011, and DOE is only now asking for the PEP  to approve it “retroactively.”  But there is no allowance for retroactive contracts in state law, unless the chancellor finds that due to an emergency, it is necessary for “the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare” and provides a written justification.  This was never done in this case.  Thus, this contract with Verizon is likely illegal on the face of it.  

I                 I hope you will vote your conscience, and reject this outrageous contract, 

(                             (name, address)

Send this message to: llbryant@inwoodhouse.com; jchan@dbpartnership.org; pepofqueens@yahoo.com; FFoster@schools.nyc.gov; thernandez@samvill.org; patk.j.sullivan@gmail.com; okotieuro@yahoo.com; JKay3@schools.nyc.gov; EMarti@schools.nyc.gov; Dperuggia@schools.nyc.gov; majorm766@gmail.com; gittepeng@yahoo.com; Lnieves01@gmail.com

Thanks, and please forward this message to others who care,

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.

Verizon: Corporations Are People Too - Mitt Romney

Rank and file Teachers have been supporting the CWA strikers against Verizon.

Interesting article in Sept 2009 NY Times - Verizon wants customers to cancel land lines. Verizon paid NO federal taxes and Ivan Seidenberg makes $55,000 a day.

Verizon Boss Hangs Up on Landline Phone Business

Roll over in your grave, Alexander Graham Bell.


Here is a current article in the Times

 

Democracy Now covered the strike:  http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/11/verizon_workers_strike_over_full_scale

Video of GEM, NYCORE, Teachers Unite teachers supporting Verizon on picket line.




This is a letter that came through to a fellow GEM member from a striking mom...

Hi there. 

You probably don't know me.  I'm on strike with Communications Workers of America, against Verizon Communications.  I've been a technician in New York for over a decade and I'm a mother.  A lot of lies are being spread about us, about our union, and what our strike is about.  You should hear our side because things are hard for working families now, and getting harder.

            And I'm scared.  At the end of the month if we are still on strike, my family loses its health care.  My husband is out of work, and strike pay for a month is less than we made in a week.  We can't afford to go to the pediatrician with no health care, period.  Our last visit cost $305.  Just because we can't afford it doesn't mean we won't do it-like everyone else on the planet we'll just go further into debt.


            I'm sure as a parent you've had those moments when you realize just how much you adore your children, that you'd do anything for them, a feeling so strong you can't even put words to it.  Think about how you feel when they are threatened, bullied, or hurt.  That is how we feel every second on our picket lines, knowing we are fighting for them.  We want them to have health care and a stable home. But we also want them to have parents who are not so beat up by working faster and harder with no job security that when we get home at the end of the day, we have a little energy left.  Maybe even are in a good mood.  Wouldn't that be nice?

            My days go like this now: wake up before 6 to feed and change my 8 month old son, then go to the picket line.  I watch managers barely trained in the field drive my truck and use my tools to do my job.  When we rally and chant they drive right through us; 23 people have already reported being hit by vehicles on the picket lines; the first morning we were out I saw a manager hit my coworker in the leg with his car and an ambulance had to be called.  In 1989 a technician in New York was struck and killed right in front of where he had worked by a manager working as a scab.   His kids said good-bye to him one morning and never saw him again.

       We're out in the sun, the rain, the heat, the horrible New York humidity.  We didn't ask to go on strike, the company made demands so insulting we had no choice.

But what's it all for?  Ads are running in the papers saying we make $91,000 a year and have 4 weeks vacation.  Ads that imply it's our greed that is causing the strike.  I have worked 11 1/2 years for the company and never made that much, nor will I if I don't take voluntary overtime for 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week-but only if the company offers it.  That part kills me-the company shrinks the workforce so they have to offer overtime sometimes, then calls us greedy for taking it! 

Do people who are willing to work 12 hours a day deserve to make good money?  Do people who work in unheated manholes in January or up telephone poles in August deserve to bring home a good check to our families?  To do work that is dirty and dangerous and that keeps us away from our families for all our waking hours to me seems worth the company paying us well.   But I would say the same about the women and men who sit in call centers and offices who handle call after call, who are timed to the second and patrolled like chain-gangs in their cubicles.  And I'd guess you work pretty hard too, maybe too hard and you're exhausted and run down too.

And 4 weeks of vacation is only for those of us who are 15 years with the company, so that's not me for another 3 1/2 years thank you very much.

People also talk about "free medical" and "Cadillac insurance plans".  We don't live in France people!  We don't have money deducted from our paycheck, it's true.  But we pay co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance, out-of-network fees etc etc.  We already pay thousands of dollars a year for our families, and they want us to pay up to $6800 more.  If we all made $91k a year that wouldn't kill us, but we don't.   Most of the company isn't technicians-service reps and operators and call center workers make much less than us already.

But let's be honest, it's tough times, right?  Everyone is being cut back.  Well, not exactly everyone.  Verizon isn't having tough times at all-this year they already made 6 billion dollars.  And the year's not over!  Everyone knows that billionaires got bailouts and people are still getting laid off, foreclosed, and cut back.  Our bosses make money that is inconceivable.  Like $81 billion for former CEO Ivan Seidenberg.  Really?  $81 billion and you want me to pay 25% of my medical premiums?   That seems a tiny bit hypocritical.  When our bosses say "no one has the benefits you do! Why should you be special?" what they are really saying is "no wage worker has what you do!  Why do YOU deserve what WE have?" 

       Well I'm sorry if I look at my son in the morning and think he deserves the absolute best of everything in the world.  You'll have to forgive me that greedy impulse.

If a profitable company like Verizon can get the literally 100 concessions they want from us, who's next?  How will your family survive with what amounts to a 10% pay cut, if you already haven't taken it?  City workers and state workers are already getting choked by the budgets; corporation will be watching to see if Verizon can crush some of the last unions that have preserved a solid standard of living for their members.

We're not striking because we think we deserve more than other people, we want MORE PEOPLE TO HAVE WHAT WE HAVE, or BETTER.  But we can't get there by giving back.

  I'd rather be in a race to the top than a race to the bottom.  A win for us can only HELP your family.  We are in the richest country in the world whether it's a recession or not; no family should be worrying about their mortgage and no child should be without health care.

Ways you can help us:


* Tell your friends and family the truth about our struggle.
* If you see us picketing, give us a thumbs up, or a honk.  If it's a hot day, a bottle of water is nice or a snack.  You have no idea how much a smile and word of encouragement means after 8 hours of picketing in the August sun.
* Don't shop at Verizon Wireless if we're outside.  The unions aren't asking people to boycott or cancel their plans, just don't cross our line when we're there.

* Sign and circulate this letter to CEO Lowell McAdams <http://action.cwa-union.org/c/1153/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2657&tag=cwa-email:20110808-action-vzgreed> .

The last thing I'll say is, if you thought you could make the world a better place for your kids, would you do it?  Of course you would, you're already trying every day.  And so are we.

Thank you in advance. 

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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.

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/
 ======

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.

==============

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.