Candidate Talarico of Texas - censored

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDE9LrGpNk 

'Trump Does Not Own Our Country': Greg Casar Speaks At Bernie Sanders Ra...

Texas Take Over of Public Schools Fails

The Troubling Trend of State Takeovers of Public Schools

Despite aiming to close achievement gaps, state takeovers of school districts worsen education inequality for low-income and minority students.

Blogging Our Great Divide

August 06, 2024

---

by Georgia Jensen

 

The state takeover of Houston Independent School District, the eighth-largest public school system in the United States, is entering its second year. 

State-appointed superintendent Mike Miles is celebrating the occasion by touting state test score results that show preliminary improvement in student achievement. Other leaders in education across the country are paying close attention to Miles’ tactics to see if they’re effective enough to implement in their own schools.

Since 1989, over 100 school districts across the U.S. have been subjected to state takeovers, in which the state seizes control of low-performing or financially struggling school districts, replacing their locally elected school boards. This is done with the goal of dramatically improving the district’s academic or financial performance. State takeovers are difficult to neatly describe because they vary from place to place depending on the policies that the state-appointed board and superintendent decide to implement. But they are overwhelmingly ineffective.

A 2021 study done by researchers from Brown University and the University of Virginia analyzed over 100 state takeovers between 1989 and 2016. It found “no evidence that takeover generates academic benefits.” In fact, it can take years for schools to return to their previous levels of academic achievement after a takeover. 

 

Texas State Takeovers.

 

https://inequality.org/great-divide/the-troubling-trend-of-state-takeovers-of-public-schools/

 

  

Texas Attacks Immigrants - LULAC

 

LULAC STATE DIRECTOR: TEXAS, WAKE UP!

Nation’s Oldest and Largest Latino Civil Rights Organization Cites Data Supporting Immigrant Contributions to the State’s Economy and Prepares to File Federal Complaints Against Texas Agencies

San Antonio, TX – Hundreds of delegates who attended the 95th annual Texas LULAC State Convention in Odessa have issued a stern warning to elected state officials to wake up, read the data, and stop the discriminatory actions that attack the fastest-growing and most significant labor segment in the Texas economy, while also hurting other Texans in the process.

“We have emerged from this historic convention unified and determined to stop Governor Greg Abbott and his supporters in the Texas Legislature who have targeted us through their discriminatory laws,” says Gabriel Rosales, elected Texas LULAC State Director. Rosales is a lifelong San Antonio resident and labor activist. “Texas SB 4 and SB 17 were written and pushed through with Latinos in the crosshairs. Those elected officials who voted to oppose diversity, equity, and inclusion, known as DEI, are fighting the inevitable changing demographics of Texas. They are racially profiling anyone who is an immigrant or looks like an immigrant. In the process, they are hurting others, including children,” says Rosales.

Several major resolutions were adopted by the convention delegates, including one that intends to draw action against Texas leaders from the highest levels of the federal government against the impact of SB17, adopted by the 88th Texas legislature outlawing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at higher education institutions and elsewhere in state public agencies.

“Banning DEI also adversely impacts programs that help students with academic learning disabilities,” says Rosales. “Children with autism or who are on the spectrum should not be victims of political agendas that gut assistance wholesale without regard to the untold numbers of families they are hurting. Texas LULAC stands with organizations fighting for the developmentally disabled in our state, and we will not allow these cuts to go unchallenged,” he adds.

According to the latest research, for every 1,000 workers, immigrants and asylum seekers contribute $2.6 million to state and local taxes within their first year of eligibility. Moreover, once immigrants have been here for about five years, their median wage will likely increase to about $29,000 per year as they earn higher wages and as a more significant share get full-time jobs, raising a two-earner family’s income to about $58,000, further boosting their contribution as workers and taxpayers.

“Texas LULAC urges voters statewide to examine the data that clearly shows our state’s economy benefits from immigrant labor,” says Rosales. “Indeed, the future of Texas and our country will be better because of the upsurge in younger, stronger laborers willing to do the lower-paying, essential jobs others will not,” he adds.

Citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Texas LULAC charges the State of Texas with discriminating against protected classes and inadequately represented groups in higher education. Texas and its public colleges and universities receive federal financial assistance and have agreed to follow nondiscriminatory practices to receive these funds. The dismantling of DEI initiatives under Senate Bill 17 unfairly targets Latinos, Blacks, and Asians based on their race, color, and national origin.

“The State LULAC Assembly meeting in Odessa, Texas, voted on Sunday, May 19, 2024, to approve this resolution to file complaints with the appropriate federal agencies, including the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Education,” says Rosales. “We urge the federal agencies to conduct prompt investigations of these allegations and take immediate actions to eliminate these discriminatory practices that are in violation of their contractual obligations and violations of the Civil Rights Act. Our membership has authorized me within 30 days after the conclusion of the Texas LULAC State Convention to initiate the formal complaint process and shall file these grievances with the appropriate federal agencies,” said Rosales.

# # #

About LULAC
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 535 Councils and 145,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services, and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting the critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.LULAC.org.

MAGA Republicans Destroy Texas Schools/Teachers

 

Texas is in the middle of a teaching crisis,

A new report from the Texas American Federation of Teachers shows that 70% of Texas educators say they’re ready to leave the profession.

That alarming statistic underscores just how bad the teaching crisis in Texas has become. Since the 2012 school year, around 10% of Texas teachers have left the field each year—citing low wages, poor benefits, unmanageable workloads, and political debates putting their classrooms in the middle of Republicans officials’ culture wars.

The teacher shortage has led to larger classrooms, burnout among educators, and a dip in academic performance among students. In fact, between 2019 and 2022, state math scores dropped 7 points for eighth graders and 5 points for fourth graders.

One-in-five Texas teachers say they currently have a second job after school. That’s unacceptable—and it’s a failure of the Republican statewide leadership that has failed to support our public teachers and students time and time again. 

Help us sound the alarm about Texas’s teaching crisis and fight for real investment in our public schools, teachers, and students. Chip in $9, or whatever you can, to help Team Casar fight for teachers in Texas and across the nation.

Chip In »

Duane, over the last few years, teachers in Texas experienced a global pandemic, rising costs and stagnant pay, and attacks on their curriculums from right-wing politicians.

Texas Republicans like Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and Ted Cruz have failed to significantly raise wages and pay for Texas teachers for years. Then they attacked teachers for wanting adequate health protections for them and their students during the pandemic. And today, they continue to wage phony culture wars around “Critical Race Theory” and “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs for political gain. 

Texas Republicans have failed Texas’s teachers, schools, and students.

But we can change that. The recent report showed that 73% of Texas teachers would stay in their jobs for better pay and more manageable workloads. That’s what Team Casar is fighting for—can you join us?

Chip in $9, or whatever you can, to help us invest in Texas public schools and address the teaching crisis in our state. We can’t let Texas Republicans continue to destroy public education.

 

Thank you for supporting our teachers,

-Greg

Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas: Texas: Two Billionaires Want to Destroy Public Edu...

Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas: Texas: Two Billionaires Want to Destroy Public Edu...: Posting this piece by Diane Ravitch together with the actual, must-see CNN documentary titled "Deep in the Pockets of Texas" that&...

Texas Governor Seeks to Ban Immigrant Children from School Plyler V Doe

 Texas Governor Ready to Challenge Schooling of Migrant Children

Gov. Greg Abbott may target a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that requires schools to educate undocumented children. Some conservatives see an opening for a fresh look at old precedent.

 

 

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has taken a hard stance on immigration, using the issue to beat back challengers in the Republican primary.Credit...Brandon Bell/Getty Images

 

By J. David Goodman

May 5, 2022

Sign Up for the Education Briefing  From preschool to grad school, get the latest U.S. education news. Get it sent to your inbox.

HOUSTON — With the Supreme Court signaling a willingness to reverse decades-old precedents like the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Thursday that he would seek to overturn a 1982 court decision that obligated public schools to educate all children, including undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Abbott’s comments opened a new front in his campaign to use his powers as governor to harden Texas against unauthorized migration. And they demonstrated just how expansively some conservatives are thinking when it comes to the kinds of changes to American life that the court’s emboldened conservative majority may be willing to allow.

The latest proposal for closing public schools to undocumented children significantly widens the range of precedents up for debate. After a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade leaked this week, focus had been primarily on other rights that could be legally linked to the 1973 decision, such as access to contraception and same-sex marriage.

Little has changed in the legal landscape surrounding the education of undocumented children since 1982, when the court issued a 5-to-4 decision to strike down a Texas law allowing schools to refuse admission to unauthorized migrant children, legal experts said. Several attempts over the years to chip away at the decision in the case known as Plyler v. Doe have been unsuccessful, including an effort by Alabama more than a decade ago and in California in the 1990s.

Texas Teachers Union May Strike Over Covid-19

Texas Teachers Union May Strike Over COVID-19 Precautions

https://portside.org/2020-07-12/texas-teachers-union-may-strike-over-covid-19-precautions

Ed Note. While it is illegal for Texas teachers to strike, it was also illegal for California, New York and other teachers to strike at one time. What changed that?  Strikes.

Texas Closes Hundreds of Black, Latino Polling Sites

Texas Closes Hundreds Of Black, Latino Polling Sites

“Voter suppression, plain and simple”: Texas closed hundreds of polling sites in black, Latino areas. Salon: "Texas has shuttered more polling places than any other state since 2012 and most of the closures disproportionately hit black and Latino areas, according to a new analysis by The Guardian. Texas has closed 750 polling locations since 2012, the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a civil rights group, reported last year. The state had one polling place for every 4,000 residents in 2012, but that number rose to 7,700 residents by 2018. The Guardian's analysis found that the overwhelming majority of closures came in areas that saw the largest increase in black and Latino residents. The 50 counties that saw the highest growth in black and Latino population had 542 polling sites close between 2012 and 2018, while the 50 counties with the lowest black and Latino population growth saw just 34 closures. The closures came despite the population in the top 50 counties rising by 2.5 million while the 50 counties that had just 34 closures saw their population fall by 13,000 'This is voter suppression — plain and simple,' saidthe progressive advocacy group MoveOn. The moves are likely to worsen Texas' already-low turnout rates, advocates warned, despite changing demographics and large growth in black and Latino areas."

And, Biden won by a narrow margin. 

Border Patrol finds bodies in the brush

Border Patrol finds bodies in the brush.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/mexico-border-deaths.html?

5,600 Kids Still Held in Texas "Shelters"

5,600 migrant kids in Texas shelters

Even after Tornillo tent city’s closure, more than 5,600 migrant kids are living in Texas shelter

In Texas, and nationally, the number of unaccompanied migrant children being held in government-funded shelters declined in January, according to the latest state and federal data.

Most of the drop can be attributed to the closure on Jan. 11 of a temporary tent shelter in Tornillo, near El Paso. However, the Trump administration also announced in late December it would relax screening policies that immigrants rights groups have blasted for slowing placement of migrant kids with relatives and other sponsors.

As of Jan. 16, state data show there were 5,601 children living at the 34 remaining shelters across the state for unaccompanied youth.

Teachers Against Child Detention

ttps://www.teachersagainstchilddetention.org/feed/5-600-migrant-kids-in-texas-shelters

Beto O'Rourke: We Don't Need A Wall

Teachers: Texas Protesters March to Federal Courthouse Where Migrants Are Being Pr...

Texas education board approves course formerly known as Mexican-American studies

    By Aliyya Swaby, The Texas Tribune
    April 11, 2018
 
* Update, April 13: On Friday, the State Board of Education gave its final approval to development of the Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent course.

Texas advocates for Mexican-American studies classes won a bitter victory Wednesday, gaining approval to move forward with the class they wanted but losing the course title.

The State Board of Education had been debating more than four years over how and whether to offer teachers materials and guidance to teach Mexican-American studies. In a preliminary vote, the board voted nearly unanimously to create curriculum standards for the elective class. But now it will be called “Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent.”  

A final vote on the issue is scheduled for Friday.

The class will be based on an innovative course Houston ISD got state approval to offer in 2015. Texas Education Agency staff will make any needed changes to that set of curriculum standards and then bring it back for the first of two public hearings and votes in June.

Worse than Texas : Chicano History Ignored in California State Textbooks

But, you can do something about that this week !

Mañana is now !
See prior post.  "You cannot oppress a people who are not afraid anymore."

We need your letters insisting on the expansion of Mexican American history in the California State textbooks.   
The closing date is May 1, 2015.  Mañana is now. 

We have a unique opportunity to change the history books in California  K-12 to include Chicano/Mexican American history- but we must act now. This is the time to get that letter written and e mailed  asking that Mexican American history be included in the re write of the History/Social Science Framework for California Schools.

Mexican American/ Chicano history is currently substantially absent from public school textbooks and curriculum in California- and it has been since 1986.  See the prior post below.  A guide to writing such a letter is here. https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/latino-students-and-civic-engagement/project-plan---mexican-american-history.

The following letter from historian Dr. Lorena Marquez describes  some of the important Chicano history that is not covered in the framework and not covered in California history textbooks.  It should be. 

To the History/Social Science Framework Committee

Dear History Social Science Framework Committee,

I strongly urge you to revise the current draft of the History/Social Science Framework to include a more adequate recording of the history of California and the nation by including the significant contributions of ethnic Mexicans. Exclusion and omission of this history is a great disservice to the generations of Chicanas/os who have worked tirelessly to build this country. Latinos comprise nearly 39% of the state population and now constitute over 52% of the students in our schools. By hearing their histories in the larger rubric of United States history, they will feel validated, but most importantly, they will be empowered to make positive change in their communities.

 I recommend extension of the description of the Chicano movement to more adequately address this issue.  Recommended additions: Line 1959.  Page 348.

Coalition of Pastors are urging greater investment in the future of 5 million Texas schoolchildren.

By GEORGE MASON AND FREDERICK HAYNES

Published: 19 October 2014 08:04 PM

Updated: 19 October 2014 08:06 PM

“Love your neighbor.” This commandment is at the core of most world religions, and is certainly at the heart of Christianity. Though the commandment is simple, living it out in daily life can be challenging, particularly in the public sphere.

Eighty-four percent of children in this country attend public schools. Slightly more than 60 percent (over 3 million of our 5 million Texas public school students) are identified as poor. These children in our public education system are our neighbors, and we are called to love them by providing a vibrant and thriving school system. That’s why Dallas-area pastors are calling on elected officials and leaders in the business, faith, parent, labor and neighborhood communities to support the public schools of greater Dallas.

Pastors for Texas Children is a statewide organization mobilizing the faith community for public education. We are focused on supporting great public schools for all Texas children. While money alone does not solve the challenges of public education, they cannot be solved without it.

According to the Texas Kids Count Project 2013 report, Texas ranks 43rd in the nation in per-pupil spending. In 2011, the Texas Legislature cut funding by more than $500 per child and forced school districts to lay off teachers, increase class sizes and reduce prekindergarten programs. We witnessed the cost of these cuts here in Dallas in the closure of 11 public schools, including recognized and exemplary campuses. In 2013, Texas legislators put back only a portion of these cuts — about 60 percent, leaving a continuing and debilitating deficit in public education funding. This means the typical Texas elementary school has $300,000 less per year. Little wonder then that state District Judge John Dietz recently declared our state school funding system unconstitutional.

Ebola, Republican budgets, and our safety

The Republican hysteria machine is at full throttle on the Ebola case.  Texas Governor Rick Perry and Congressional candidate are practicing the campaign of “Look over there !”  They focus on a campaign to denounce the White House for not banning flights from West Africa.  ( There are few  direct flights from West Africa to the U.S.). the campaign is designed to get readers to look at the flight’s as the fear issue.  That is, to look away from the Congressional action that cut the CDC budget by almost 50 % last year. This budget cut  produced a CDC that did not have the funds to adequately train hospital workers and nurses for infectious control and did not provide infection control equipment. See the statement by the Nurses here

http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/statement-by-the-nurses-of-the-texas-hospital/

We should keep some basics in mind.  Last year some 32,000 people died in the U.S. of influenza while some 40% of Americans have not yet received their vaccine for the flu.

How History is Socially Controlled in k-12 - Rodolfo Acuña

How History is Socially Controlled in K-12

Setting Standards :Serfs and Lords

By

Rodolfo F. Acuña

People ask me if the banning of books is actually a blessing in disguise because it calls attention to the banned books. I respond, “Hell No!” Censorship threatens our freedom of speech, and it is the final step toward a totalitarian state. 

In the guise of security, our emails and our phones are tapped. Anyone using a Wi-Fi can be spied on at will. What is happening today pales George Orwell’s 1984; it is as insidious as the methods used by the Nazis, the Stasi and the Russians.

The fallout of the banning of books affects all of us. In the future, it will negatively affect the publication of Latino books. What makes it so dangerous is that most of us are oblivious to this threat to our liberties. We are like the serfs in the Middle-Ages who were willing surrender their freedoms and their properties to the feudal lords in return for protection.

The first fatality of censorship is the truth. In the case of the censorship of books by the Tucson Unified School District, it was not just the books that were banned, it is also what will be published in the future. The banning of books did not affect the sales of Occupied America or the other banned books – the banning certainly did not hurt Shakespeare’s The Tempest. 

If tax dollars go to private schools, what happens to public schools?

by Duane Campbell

 There are few institutions more directly connected  to our state and national prosperity and our democracy than public schools.  Now, a few states, primarily in the South, are dismantling public funding in order to create for profit options for private schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/education/states-shifting-aid-for-schools-to-the-families.html.

It is not surprising that this rejection of  public education as a route to  prosperity for all comes from the South and states dominated by Republican legislatures.  In my opinion, Arizona, Indiana,  Texas, and Alabama can go ahead and decline if they so choose, however we need to set up some borders and tariffs, and perhaps trade agreements to prevent their move to “free market” choices from imposing vast new costs on the states which continue to want democracy and prosperity.  Remember, free market ideology is what brought us the economic crisis since 2007.

Public schools have  significantly contributed to U.S.  prosperity for the last 100 years  and they have fostered  our national unity.  It is accurate that some public schools are failing- particularly those serving low income and minority children.  But, there is no evidence that privatizing will improve these schools.

Texas GOP continues war on thinking

Commentary: Texas GOP wages war on thinking

By Leonard Pitts Jr. | McClatchy Newspapers

Some recent headlines from the alternate universe of modern conservatism:

Rush Limbaugh claims the bad guy in the new Batman movie was named Bane to remind voters of Mitt Romney's controversial tenure at Bain Capital.

Michelle Bachmann, citing zero credible evidence, accuses a Muslim-American aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio's crack investigators announce that President Obama's long-form birth certificate is a fake.

In other words, it's just an average week down there in Crazy Town. And that lends a certain context to a tidbit brought to national attention last week by Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Meaning a plank from the 2012 platform of the Republican Party of Texas which, astonishingly enough, reads as follows: "We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

Holy wow. That is, without a doubt, the most frightening sentence this side of a Stephen King novel.

The Texas GOP has set itself explicitly against teaching children to be critical thinkers. Never mind the creeping stupidization of this country, the growing dumbification of our children, our mounting rejection of, even contempt for, objective fact. Never mind educators who lament the inability of American children to think, to weigh conflicting paradigms, analyze competing arguments, to reason, ruminate, question and reach a thoughtful conclusion. Never mind that this promises the loss of our ability to compete in an ever more complex and technology-driven world.