Sunday, September 30, 2012

The campaign against teachers and their unions


by Laura Clawson. Daily Kos/Labor
The campaign against teachers is special, and worth paying attention to. It's not like workers in general get much respect in our culture, at least not beyond vague lip service that only ever applies to the individual, powerless worker not asking for anything. And janitors, hotel housekeepers, cashiers, and a host of others could fill books with the daily substance of working in low-status professions, I'm sure. But right now, teachers are the subject of a campaign heavily funded and driven from the top down to take a profession that has long been respected by the public at large and make the people in the profession villains and pariahs, en route to undercutting the prestige, the decision-making ability, the working conditions, and, of course, the wages and benefits of the profession as a whole. What we're watching right now is a specific front in the war on workers, and one with immense reach through our culture—and coming soon to a movie theater near you if it's not already there, in the form of the poorly reviewed parent trigger drama Won't Back Down.
(That it's a war not just on teachers but on the workers of the future and on the government just sweetens the pot for many of the people waging the war.)
Teachers face a catch-22. Those in poor districts are expected to be superhuman, to by themselves counteract the effects of poverty—even though we know that while teachers are the most important factor in educational achievement inside the school, factors outside the school, like poverty, are far more important. But while teachers of poor students are supposed to be superhuman, teachers of well-to-do students are frequently treated by doctor and lawyer parents as idiot failures, teaching because they can't be doctors or lawyers. Policy and funding decisions are used against teachers in poor districts; the condescension of parents serves the same purpose in wealthier ones. But in both cases the professionalism of teachers is undermined.
I've written a lot about how corporate education policy targets teachers (and the concept of education as a public good that should be available to all kids). But this upper-middle-class condescension toward teachers is a potent weapon in that campaign against teachers and education. One of the foundations of the corporate drive to "reform" education to corporate preferences is the idea that billionaires know better, that hedge fund managers and Walmart heirs and Bill Gates, by virtue of having made a lot of money, must know more than education professionals about how education should function. And that translates downward—if Bill Gates is supposed to know how schools should work in general, an engineer or executive at least gets to boss his kid's teacher around.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Truth Behind Won't Back Down

By Julie Cavanagh, Special Education Teacher in Red Hook, Brooklyn

Huffington Post
September 26, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-cavanagh/wont-back-down_b_1906434.html 


This week a film partially funded by Walden Media,
which is owned by entrepreneur and conservative Philip
Anschutz, will be released in theaters. The film, Won't
Back Down, is a work of fiction but claims to be based
on real life events and tells the story of a teacher
and a parent in a 'failing' school who join forces to
'save their school.' Walden Media also funded Waiting
for Superman, which was billed as a documentary on
education and chronicled the stories of several
families navigating the educational landscape
intermixed with commentary from journalists,
economists, philanthropists, and business folks who
surmised the troubles of public education today. These
two films differ in style, but their substance is
aligned and their conclusion is the same: teacher
unions are the obstacle to student achievement.

When Waiting for Superman was released, a group of
parents and teachers, of which I was a part, responded
to that film with our own documentary, The Inconvenient
Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. We highlighted the
myths we believed were propagated in that film, shining
a light on the corporate education reform movement, and
called on parents, educators, young people and
community members to demand real reform. Since then,
the national conversation regarding education reform
has gained more prominence. When we were making our
film, the idea that there were forces attempting to
privatize our public education system and that they
aimed to use teacher unions as a scapegoat while citing
poverty as an excuse rather than an important factor we
as a society must address, was controversial. Today it
is fair to say this conversation is accepted on
national television.

Even though the national consciousness has been raised
regarding issues related to education and folks are
more engaged and informed than ever before, the efforts
to misinform, malign, and muddy the truth remain. Won't
Back Down takes its viewers on an emotional roller
coaster ride and clearly pushes the perspective that
teachers and their unions prevent progress. While I
have my own views about an alternate vision for teacher
unions, I am a proud union member, and know that
teacher unions, regardless of their flaws, are
committed to progress and student achievement; I also
know they are all that stands in the way of the sale of
our public education system to the highest bidder and
that is precisely why they are being attacked.

In our film, we featured several parents and teachers
who actually took a stand against the corporate reform
movement. Whether it was parents and teachers who
joined together to stop a charter school from being
forced into their building against the will of the
community, or to fight budget cuts that were ravaging
their school, to beg the powers that be to stop the
closing of a beloved neighborhood school that was long
under-resourced and undermined, or begging for policy
makers to prevent ballooning class sizes or stop
wasting precious funds on high stakes testing when they
could be diverted to culturally relevant and rich
curriculum; they all shared real, true, authentic
stories about how they, together, would not back down.
There are thousands of real won't-back-down stories out
there (I have shared my school community's here:
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/09/we-fought-invasion-of-ps-15-real-life.html
and you can too), not based on actual events, but are actual
events. Most of them involve fighting the very forces
folks like Philip Anschutz fund.

There is at least one thing however that Won't Back
Down gets right; it does take parents and teachers and
young people working together to make our schools
great. Unions are not obstacles in this and in fact are
positioned to lead the collaboration. One must only
look to Chicago to see a real won't-back-down story
where the cast of characters include not lazy unionized
teachers, but educators who together with parents,
young people and community members are fighting for the
schools they deserve.

I hope the folks who choose to see Won't Back Down
return to their communities energized with the spirit
of collaboration, not demonization, and together fight
for real reforms for our schools.

Follow Julie Cavanagh on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/juliecavanagh15

___________________________________________

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

California needs to invest in its schools



      California public schools are in crisis- and they are getting worse. This is a consequence  of massive budget cuts imposed on the schools by the legislature and the governor in the last four years.  Total per pupil expenditure is down over $1,000 per student. The result is significant  class size increases.   Students are in often classes too large for learning.  Supplementary services such as tutoring, art, and drop out prevention  classes have been eliminated.  Over 14,000 teachers have been dismissed due to the budget emergencies.
         Over 48% of the children in California public schools are Chicano/Latino or descendents of  Mexican/Latino parents.  ( See link, Demographics).  The Chicano drop out rate has not significantly changed in 30 years.   ( See Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to multicultural education, and Chicana/o Educational Pipeline https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/chicana-o-educational-pipeline ) All children need a good education to participate in our democracy and prepare for  life in the rapidly changing economy.
     We need to invest in urban schools, provide equal educational opportunities in these schools, and recruit a well prepared  teaching force that begins to reflect the student populations in these schools. At the same time the largest, most succesful teacher preparation program for Chicano/Latino children has been closed down at Sacramento State- https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/chicano-mexican-american-digital-history-project/history-of-bilingual-education-dept-at-sac-state)  We must insist on equal opportunity to learn, without  compromise.  When we do these things, we will begin to protect the freedom to learn for our children and our grandchildren, and to build a more just and  democratic society.
       California schools are now 47th. in the nation in per pupil expenditure and 49th in class size. Low achievement scores on national tests  in reading and math reflect this severe underfunding. California teachers have been subject to demoralizing  budget cuts that often prevent good teaching. 
     Instead of working with teachers to restore budgets, or to limit budget cuts, a group that claims to be school “reformers” argue that the important issue is teacher accountability.
      This group of “reformers” includes so called   Democrats for Education Reform  led by former State Senator  Gloria Romero and  by Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor of the Washington, D.C. schools. See. https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/

Monday, September 24, 2012

A Gold Star for the Chicago Teachers' Union



After 10 years of top-down disruptions, teachers showed
the power of collective action by those who work in
schools.

By Karen Lewis and Randi Weingarten Opinion

Wall Street Journal September 23, 2012


After more than a decade of top-down dictates,
disruptive school closures, disregard of teachers' and
parents' input, testing that squeezes out teaching, and
cuts to the arts, physical education and libraries,
educators in Chicago said "enough is enough." With
strong support from parents and many in the community,
teachers challenged a flawed vision of education reform
that has not helped schoolchildren in Chicago or around
the country. It took a seven-day strike - something no
one does without cause - but with it educators in
Chicago have changed the conversation about education
reform.

These years of dictates imposed upon teachers left
children in Chicago without the rich curriculum,
facilities and social services they need. On picket
lines, with their handmade signs, teachers provided
first-person accounts of the challenges confronting
students and educators. They made it impossible to turn
a blind eye to the unacceptable conditions in many of
the city's public schools.

Teachers and parents were united in the frustration
that led to the strike. Nearly nine out of 10 students
in Chicago Public Schools live in poverty, a shameful
fact that so-called reformers too often ignore, yet
most schools lack even one full-time nurse or social
worker. The district has made cuts where it shouldn't
(in art, music, physical education and libraries) but
hasn't cut where it should (class sizes and excessive
standardized testing and test prep). The tentative
agreement reached in Chicago aims to address all these
issues.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Improving schools requires working with teachers, not against them


     California public schools are in crisis- and they are getting worse. This is a consequence  of massive budget cuts imposed on the schools by the legislature and the governor in the last four years.  Total per pupil expenditure is down over $1,000 per student. The result is significant  class size increases.   Students are in often classes too large for learning.  Supplementary services such as tutoring, art, and drop out prevention  classes have been eliminated.  Over 14,000 teachers have been dismissed due to the budget emergencies.
       California schools are now 47th. in the nation in per pupil expenditure and 49th in class size. Low achievement scores on national tests  in reading and math reflect this severe underfunding. California teachers have been subject to demoralizing  budget cuts that often prevent good teaching. 
     Instead of working with teachers to restore budgets, or to limit budget cuts, a group that claims to be school “reformers” argue that the important issue is teacher accountability.
      This group of “reformers” includes so called   Democrats for Education Reform  led by former State Senator  Gloria Romero and  by Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor of the Washington, D.C. schools. See. https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/

       The so called “reformers” disrespect teachers.  They prefer schools with principals as managers – and that does not work.  They seek to  reduce teachers to interchangeable cogs in a corporate machine with few rights and little independence.   They have reduced teachers’ job security and professional self respect  in the classroom.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

WE need collaboration to improve schools


by Amy B. Dean
"We are striking to improve the conditions in the schools. Right now the children are getting a raw deal."
That statement came from a striking member of the Chicago Teachers' Union... in 1969. It still resonates in September 2012, when the CTU's members have again walked a picket line. Although it has often been obscured in the news headlines and in the rhetoric of city officials, the real message of the strike of the past two weeks is simple: We're for good schools; we're for kids; and, yes, we're for teachers too.
There's no shame in teachers standing up for their self-interest. When one is devoted to working for the common good over the long haul, taking care of oneself is a necessary part of being a good steward. People who go into the teaching profession don't do it to get rich. They do it with the goal of inspiring and educating the next generation.

By framing the strike as being about greedy teachers threatening the public well-being, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his lieutenants have not only done long-term damage to the cause of repairing our schools; they have engaged in a practice that, sadly, is all too common in our nation's politics. They attempted to blame a complex problem on a single group. It's called scapegoating. And scapegoating should never be a substitute for leadership.
The takeaway from the Chicago strike is that true leadership in education requires partnership -- an approach that supports what is working in our schools and creates a collaborative effort among teachers, school officials, and policymakers to make sure we build on that success.
Education as Engine of Urban Economies

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Chicago Teachers Give Us All a Lesson


Two-thirds of parents supported the Chicago school teachers' protest in spite of the inconvenience caused by the strike.

by Dean Baker

We don't know the final terms of the settlement yet,
but it appears that the Chicago public school teachers
managed to score a major victory over Rahm Emanuel,
Chicago's business- oriented mayor. Testing will not
comprise as large a share in teachers' evaluations as
Emanuel had wanted; there will be a serious appeals
process for teachers whom the school district wants to
fire, and laid off teachers will have priority in
applying for new positions.

If these seem like narrow self-interested gains for the
teachers and their union, think again. Teaching in
inner city schools is a difficult and demanding job.

Most of the children in Chicago's public schools are
poor. Their families are struggling with all the issues
presented by poverty. Many of the schools are in high
crime areas and serious crimes often take place on
school premises. It can be a lot harder job than
working for a hedge fund.

It will not be possible to get committed and competent
people to teach in the public school system if they
cannot be guaranteed at least a limited amount of job
security and respect. The $70,000 annual pay that was
ridiculed as excessive by so many pundits would not
even be a week's salary for many of the Wall Street
types who do nothing more productive than shuffle
paper.

Dan Walters on a slippery slope


 The Sacramento Bee’s prime opinionator makes the argument today that school officials should not be telling the public about the high costs if we do not pass Prop. 30.  He says, “Education Code Section 7054 prohibits K-12 and community college officials from spending public funds "for the purpose of urging the support or defeat of any ballot measure or candidate … ."
The state Supreme Court cited that law three years ago in ruling that it was illegal for a teachers union to use school district facilities to distribute political literature.
Throughout California, however, school officials are sullying the intent of the law by using official communications to plug passage of Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown's sales and income tax increase.

Walters has moved down the slippery slope. Following his argument public employees can’t tell parents and students that tuition increases and budget cuts are coming -  $ 4.5 billion  in cuts to K-12, and  $.5 billion to the universities.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Chicago Strike suspended

More to follow.  Rahm Emanuel threat not helpful. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Chicago Teachers v. Rahm Emanuel

September 14, 2012
Harold Meyerson

A Windy City majority supports the teachers, not Rahm.
Read the commentariat, or just subject yourself to the
deafening consensus of enlightened opinion, and you
have to believe that the beleaguered parents of
Chicago's schoolchildren are fuming at their city's
teachers' union, on strike now for a full week, and
backing Mayor Rahm Emanuel's efforts to shape up the
school district.

Read the polls, or just the press accounts of parental
support for the teachers, however, and you come away
with an altogether different impression. A poll
commissioned and released Thursday by Capitol Fax, an
Illinois political report, of 1,344 registered Chicago
voters found that fully 66 percent of parents with
children in the public schools, and 55.5 percent of
Chicagoans overall "approve the Chicago Teachers Union
decision to go on strike." Among African Americans,
strike support stood at 63 percent; among Latinos, 65
percent. (Roughly 80 percent of Chicago's
schoolchildren are minority.)

So, who disapproved of the strike? A majority (52
percent) of parents with children in private schools,
and a majority of whites (also 52 percent).

Graduate Them, Don't Incarcerate Them! | California Progress Report

Graduate Them, Don't Incarcerate Them! | California Progress Report

Chicago Teachers' Union vs. Rahm Emanuel


 The Democrats’ Scott Walker?
September 11, 2012
Joseph Palermo
The 29,000 striking Chicago teachers are sending the message to Mayor Rahm Emanuel (and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan) that their teacher bashing and privatization schemes for public education have become so onerous and destructive to the teachers’ mission and profession that they have no choice but to fight back.
In this epic struggle to save a profession that is vital to the long-term well being of the nation Mayor Emanuel finds himself in a role similar to that of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin: an anti-union corporate politician who is more than ready to play hardball with a public employees union. Unfortunately for him, his fellow Chicagoan, President Obama, for whom Emanuel served as Chief of Staff, is in the fight of his political life right now trying to win four more years. The timing of the strike couldn’t be worse for the Democrats, and therefore packs a potent punch nationally because it lays bare how toxic the relationship between teachers and Democratic Party leaders has become in recent years.
This strike is not about wages or benefits or any other matter that might concern unionized workers in more prosperous times, this is a fight for the very survival of a profession (and a highly feminized one at that) that has been under relentless attack from sharks posing as “reformers.” Emanuel and his fellow travelers appear to be more concerned about busting the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and turning over quick profits to education corporations poised to make a bundle on their privatization than they are on any common sense solution to the crisis they’ve manufactured.
This strike also shines a light on the deep and bitter conflict that’s been tearing apart the Democratic Party since Arne Duncan launched his “Race to the Top” campaign. If Mayor Emanuel comes off as being too Scott Walkeresque the repercussions of this battle, since President Obama is personally so connected to Chicago and Emanuel and Duncan, could cost him a lot votes and enthusiasm in the 2012 election.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Teacher accountability and the Chicago teachers' strike


Teacher accountability and the Chicago teachers strike

It was bound to happen, whether in Chicago or elsewhere. What is surprising about the Chicago teachers’ strike is that something like this did not happen sooner.
The strike represents the first open rebellion of teachers nationwide over efforts to evaluate, punish and reward them based on their students’ scores on standardized tests of low-level basic skills in math and reading. Teachers’ discontent has been simmering now for a decade, but it took a well-organized union to give that discontent practical expression. For those who have doubts about why teachers need unions, the Chicago strike is an important lesson.
Nobody can say how widespread discontent might be. Reformers can certainly point to teachers who say that the pressure of standardized testing has been useful, has forced them to pay attention to students they previously ignored, and could rid their schools of lazy and incompetent teachers.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Thousands Rally in Chicago Teacher's Strike Against Corporate-Backed Edu...

Analysis - The Chicago Teachers' strike



Mon, Sep 10 2012
By Stephanie Simon and James B. Kelleher
(Reuters) - Chicago teachers walking picket lines on Monday, in a strike that has closed schools across the city, are taking on not just their combative mayor but a powerful education reform movement that is transforming public schools across the United States.
The new vision, championed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who used to run Chicago's schools, calls for a laser focus on standardized tests meant to gauge student skills in reading, writing and math. Teachers who fail to raise student scores may be fired. Schools that fail to boost scores may be shut down.
And the monopoly that the public sector once held on public schools will be broken with a proliferation of charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run - and typically non-union.
To reformers, both Democrats and Republicans, these changes offer the best hope for improving dismal urban schools. Many teachers, however, see the new policies as a brazen attempt to shift public resources into private hands, to break the power of teachers unions, and to reduce the teaching profession to test preparation.
In Chicago, last-minute contract talks broke down not over pay, but over the reform agenda, both sides said Sunday. The union would not agree to Emanuel's proposal that teacher evaluations be based in large measure on student test scores.

Why did the Chicago Teachers' Strike Happen ?


Chicago Teachers Go on Strike <http://dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=833>
Bill Barclay <http://dissentmagazine.org/atw/author.php?id=197> - September
10, 2012 2:50 pm

Today the Chicago teachers went on strike—their first in almost twenty-five
years. The road to the strike has been a long one that includes 1) efforts
by the hedge-fund elite behind Stand for [on] Children (SFC) to make such
an occurrence impossible; 2) the desire of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to
impose on Chicago public schools a model of corporate privatization; and 3)
important changes in the functioning of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

*Stand on Children
*

Monday, September 10, 2012

Broad Foundation Wants to Step on the Gas

Broad Foundation Wants to Step on the Gas:
The Broad Foundation wants to step on the gas….A recent memo from The Broad Center (TBC) proposes a series of strategic shifts in the foundation’s education programs designed to “accelerate” the pace of “disruptive” and “transformational” change in big city school districts, and create a “go to group” of “the most promising [Broad] Academy graduates, and other education leaders, who are poised to advance the highest-leverage education reform policies on the national landscape.”
Ed.note.  The Superintendent of Sacramento Unified Jonathon Raymond is a Broad Graduate. The Broad Center Board includes Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Margaret Spellings, Larry Summers, and Andy Stern, among others. 

Broad Foundation’s plan to expand influence in school reform

by Ken Libby & Stan Karp

Re-posted from The Washington Post Answer Sheet
The Broad Foundation wants to step on the gas.
The California-based foundation, built on the housing and insurance empire of billionaire Eli Broad, has made “transforming K-12 urban public education” a major priority. Its training and placement of top administrators in urban districts across the country and support for charter schools, school turnaroundsmerit pay and other market-based reforms have put it at the center of a polarized national debate about education policy.
A recent memo from The Broad Center (TBC) proposes a series of strategic shifts in the foundation’s education programs designed to “accelerate” the pace of “disruptive” and “transformational” change in big city school districts, and create a “go to group” of “the most promising [Broad] Academy graduates, and other education leaders, who are poised to advance the highest-leverage education reform policies on the national landscape.”

4 Reasons Chicago’s Teachers Are On Strike - Working In These Times

4 Reasons Chicago’s Teachers Are On Strike - Working In These Times

Chicago Teacher Strike _ update



Where we are in Chicago today: 

This morning (Monday, September 10, 2012) the Chicago teachers went on strike – for the first time since 1987.  The road to the strike has been a long one that includes (i) efforts by the hedge fund elite behind Stand for (on) Children (SFC) to make such an occurrence impossible; (ii) the desire of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to impose on Chicago public schools a model of corporate privatization; and (iii) important changes in the functioning of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). 

Stand on Children

The efforts of SFC are by now well known.  A brief review: after spending almost $4 million on Illinois legislative races, SFC got as payoff SB7.  The bill made it impossible for the CTU to pass a strike vote – or so SFC CEO Jonah Edelman bragged in June 2011to the Aspen Ideas Festival that “The unions cannot strike in Chicago.”  Edelman and his allies figured that the requirement for 75% approval for a strike with the further provision that abstentions counted as no votes could not be met. 

Turns out they were wrong.

In early July, CTU membership voted by over 90% (and excluding abstentions, by 98%) to authorize their house of delegates to call a strike if contract negotiations fail.

“Reforming” Chicago Public Schools

When Emanuel ran for mayor of Chicago, one of his announced political goals was to “reform” Chicago public schools.  The system is the third largest in the country and has a high percentage of children from low income families (80% of Chicago’s public school attendees qualify for free lunches).  To understand what “reform” means to Emanuel, we should take the advice of Deep Throat regarding Nixon’s Watergate, “Follow the money.”  It is a good guide to what Chicago is and is not doing for its school children.

TIF monies nicely illuminate the real priorities of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Board of Education.  Earlier this year, Roosevelt University Professor Stephanie Farmer’s analysis demonstrated that TIF spending for education over the past two decades has been biased against open enrollment schools (what we use to call “public schools”).  These schools constitute 69% of total Chicago schools, but they have received less than 48% of TIF money for building maintenance, repair, and upgrading.  In revealing contrast, nine selective-enrollment high schools (charter and magnet) that make up 1 percent of the total number of schools got 24 percent of the money spent on school construction projects.  Overall, CTU estimates that TIFs remove $250 million/year from the CPS.  This is almost half of the budget shortfall forecast by the Board.  (See:  http://createchicago.blogspot.com/2012/06/research-brief-3-tax-increment.html)

The charter school mantra reigns supreme in the thinking of both Emanuel and his appointed Board of Education.  In analyzing the Board’s proposed budget, the CTU pointed out that it:
increases charter school spending by 17 percent, but does not address the rampant inequality in education programs across the district. In 2002, charter school spending was about $30 million; now, CPS proposes a whopping half-a-billion dollars to a failed reform program that has been shown to provide its students with no better education outcomes.
The last decade has seen a huge growth in (nonunionized) charter schools despite lack of any evidence of their alleged effectiveness.  Chicago’s 600 plus schools include 110 charters and another 27 schools run by private firms.  Meanwhile what is the situation for the bulk of Chicago school children?  A quarter of the open enrollment elementary schools have no libraries, 40% have neither either art nor music instruction while many others must choose one or the other but can’t get both.   
Mayor Emanuel sends his children to the private Chicago Lab School – where all of these “extras” are available.

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Chicago Teachers Prepare for Strike


Tomorrow is Decision Day in Chicago. by Diane Ravitch.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has tried to bully the Chicago Teachers
Union and its leader Karen Lewis.

Lewis was elected by the members because they knew she would
stand up for them.

Emanuel has the support of the Wall Street hedge fund managers
organization, somewhat absurdly called Democrats for Education
Reform. He also has the other big-monied people in Chicago, as
mentioned in this article in the Chicago Tribune, including
billionaire Penny Pritzker.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-teacher-strike-politics-20120909,0,6860745.story

The article mentions that DFER staged a protest at union
headquarters to oppose a strike. I wonder how many hedge fund
managers send their children to Chicago public schools. I am
trying to imagine hedge fund managers marching in front of
union headquarters and carrying signs. I am guessing that what
happened was that they "staged" a protest, meaning that they
hired out-of-work actors to carry protest signs. Maybe the
unemployed actors have children in the Chicago public schools.

Read more here. http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/spirits-high-at-the-chicago-teachers-unionctu-strike-hq/#more-16465
The great thing about having Karen Lewis there is that every
teacher in America knows she will stand strong for them. She
will not sell them out. And she will not sell out the
children.

Friday, September 07, 2012

Chicago Teachers prepare for possible strike


Contract talks between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union are over for the day and set to resume at noon Saturday.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis appeared grim as she said negotiations were unproductive today.
She said union negotiators came in hopeful.

“They told us we’d get proposals that answer our biggest concerns, and we did not,” Lewis said, describing talks in the remaining days before Monday's strike deadline as being “intense.”

School Board President David Vitale, exiting negotiations held at CTU headquarters today, indicated there was some progress but warned parents to be ready Monday morning with backup plans for their kids, including CPS’ signing children up for the district’s contingency plan.
Before Friday's talks began about 10 a.m., the CTU said that having Board President David Vitale at the table Thursday was encouraging but that Chicago Public Schools and the union still remain "far apart" on critical issues.
Thursday was Vitale's first day at the table. The district typically brings in high-ranking officials close to the end of contract negotiations to seal a deal.
"While it was encouraging to see Board President David Vitale at the table yesterday, both sides remain far apart on core issues such as job security, compensation and how to give our students a better day," said CTU spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin in a release. "We recognize the tight budget constraints and have always been willing to work with the District to see how we can best utilize the budget and compensate our members and ensure our schools are well-resourced."
Meanwhile, CPS chief Jean-Claude Brizard sent CTU president Karen Lewis a letter today, asking if teachers can avoid picketing the 144 school sites the district will open for half a day in the event of a walkout Monday.
"Since students will stand to lose the most from a strike, I have deep concerns about the impact of forcing kids to walk through a picket line with their parents," Brizard said. "Our students are at an impressionable age when they are merely coming for a meal, shelter and non-instructional activities while we resolve our differences at the negotiating table."

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

26 States Cut Their Education Budgets For This School Year

26 States Cut Their Education Budgets For This School Year: pStates have made deep cuts to their education budgets in the years since the Great Recession, and as their budgets remained crunched by lower levels of tax revenues, more than half are spending less on education this school year than they did last year, a new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [...]/p

Monday, September 03, 2012

Mayor Kevin Johnson and the next anti teacher union film


On Monday afternoon - Labor Day _ , a Hollywood film called "Won't Back Down" -- will be shown   in Charlotte, Los Angeles Mayor Villariagosa  is scheduled to speak on a panel at the theater, joined by Michelle Rhee of StudentsFirst, Ben Austin of Parent Revolution, and Sacramento, Calif., Mayor Kevin Johnson. Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker will also speak at the event.
"Won't Back Down" stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as a single mother determined to get her daughter out of their failing public elementary school and Davis as a teacher at the school who joins with her to gather parent and teacher signatures behind a It's a movie about the push for school choice, a movement that has been gaining momentum around the country for the past several years. It is also a film about teachers' unions, who are one of the Democratic Party's biggest and most loyal sources of political contributions.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second largest teachers' union, blasted the film in an open letter this past week, calling it "divisive" and saying it "resorts to falsehoods and anti-union stereotypes."
"The film contains several egregiously misleading scenes with the sole purpose of undermining people's confidence in public education, public school teachers and teachers unions," Weingarten wrote.

Sunday, September 02, 2012

Labor Day - thank a teacher



 Thank you for your work, your dedication and your commitment to the children and people you serve.
Labor Day means many things to many people—back to school, the end of summer, a needed respite from the daily grind. For us, as working people and union members, Labor Day stands for something special and profound.
It’s a day to honor the deep commitment each of us has to serve the children we teach, the families we heal and the communities we love. It’s a day to reflect on the values we hold dear—that every American should have access to a good job that can support a family, with access to affordable healthcare; that every child should be able to attend a high-quality public school in their neighborhood; that college should not be a luxury for the few but should be affordable for all; and that we should be able to retire with dignity after a lifetime of hard work, without worrying that we’ll be a burden to our loved ones.
Working people built this country—we did it together—brick by brick, school by school, town by town. Through these collective efforts, we built the middle class, each generation did a little better than the one before, we advanced the ideals of equality and justice, and we expanded opportunity for all. 
 
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