Subverting Big Money's Attacks on Public Education

Debbie Meier

Sixty years ago, I was active in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) as well as the democratic socialist movement, and I subbed in Chicago public K-8 schools two days a week. Spending those days in the schools raised some doubts in my mind about both the civil rights and socialist agenda. It was clear that the average urban student was being trained to be “dumb,” thoughtless (in the literal sense) and accepting of what couldn’t be changed. Could we achieve the kind of democracy we dreamed of with such a “dumbed-down” public?

Teaching kindergarten restored my faith. Working in a mostly all-black school was the most exciting experience of my life—intellectually, socially, and emotionally. The kids did have fine vocabularies, were constantly making sense of the world, had profound questions, and were quick learners when engaged. They weren’t “dumb,” but they had good reason to follow their parents’ advice to be obedient and keep quiet in school. With the impetus of the civil rights movement and movements for school change, though, it seemed as if schools could encourage that liveliness of heart and mind and tenacious imagination that I witnessed during the next decade. 

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.

You cannot oppress people who are not afraid anymore

  "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.  You can not un-educate the person who has learned to read.. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.
Cesar Chávez. November 9, 1984.

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. Time is passing. 

Mexican American/ Chicano history is currently substantially absent from public school textbooks and curriculum in California- and it has been since 1986.  Latino student political non participation and alienation from school is significantly caused by Latino absence from the K-12 textbooks and curriculum. 

On behalf of the Mexican American Digital History project, we  ask that you  write a letter to the review committee for the revision of the History/Social Science framework.  Now is a good time to get this done (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

We ask you to 

1.     Look over the draft History/Social Science Framework for California Schools.  

(or take our  suggestions and guides to specific pages)

2.    Write a letter  to the Framework Committee encouraging the inclusion of  Mexican American/Latino history in the revised framework.  It is most effective to make specific recommendations of material to include- see samples. To be effective your letter should arrive by May 1, 2015.

3.   Send your letter to  hssframework@cde.ca.gov

4.  Send a copy to the Mexican American Digital History project at campd22702@gmail.com

5.     Links to documents and  background information is available at the site above.

Working Class Under Siege

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: CampusProgressive AllianceThe Progressive Forum Pr...: Campus Progressive Alliance The Progressive Forum Presents The Working Class Under Seige Labor & Students Fight For a Better...

Working Class Under Siege- Progressive Forum

Working Class Under Siege:

Organized labor and students fight for a brighter future.

Forum:  April 16, 2015.   3 PM.

Speakers, video, dialogue.  Free - Join us.

Fabrizio Sasso; Executive Director of Sacramento Central Labor Council.

Kevin Wehr, President, California Faculty Association. Paul Burke, Sociology, Ian Lee- the Fight for $15, Robert Longer (CWA)  Citizens Trade Campaign TPP,  SQE Zobeida Menez, Erica Zamora, Andee Suderland. DSA Student Debt Campaign

Leisa Falkner- exploitation of adjunct faculty.

 3 PM. Hinde Auditorium, CSU –Sacramento , Free

Sponsored by Sacramento Progressive Alliance, DSA, California Faculty Assoc. , Students for Quality Education,  Campus Progressive Alliance.

6 PM. Film.  Wisconsin Rising.

antiracismdsa: American Exceptionalism v Teaching History of Mino...

antiracismdsa: American Exceptionalism v Teaching History of Mino...: Ed. Below, the writer makes a good argument about history.  This is the background from which readers should insist that California revise the California History/Social Science Framework.

Letters on the inclusion of Mexican American History in the History/Social Science Framework

Cesar Chavez and Duane Campbell 1972

History /Social Science Framework Committee   (Sample letter)

Re: Inclusion of  Mexican American/ Latino history in draft Framework

I am a professor (emeritus) of  Education at CSU Sacramento.  For thirty-five years I prepared new teachers for California schools.  One of my particular emphasis was preparing future teachers to teach history and social studies.  You can find a record of this in my most recent book, Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to multicultural education. Allyn and Bacon  (4^th edit. 2010)

Based upon this experience I strongly urge you to revise the current draft of the History Framework to include a more adequate recording of the history of California and the nation by including the significant contributions of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to this history.  You really can’t have a fair and balanced history without extending more information on this topic.  Latinos comprise nearly 39% of the state population, and descendants of Mexican Americans and Latinos now constitute over 52% of the students in our schools.

As I have argued in my writings, and in testimony to the drafting committee during the 2009 attempt to revise the framework, children and young adults need to see themselves in the curriculum.  Students, particularly students of color, have low levels of attachment to California and U.S.  civics messages in significant part because the government institution they encounter the most- the schools-  too often ignore the students own history, cultures and experiences.

A fundamental way to engage students in civic culture is to engage them in their own schools and communities.  That is where the students most encounter civic opportunities.

Teachers- ( and allies) We need your letters on inclusion of Mexican American History

Cesar and friends at Sac State. 1972.

  "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.  You can not un-educate the person who has learned to read.. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.
Cesar Chávez. November 9, 1984.

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. Time is passing. 

Mexican American/ Chicano history is currently substantially absent from public school textbooks and curriculum in California- and it has been since 1986.  Latino student political non participation and alienation from school is significantly caused by Latino absence from the K-12 textbooks and curriculum.

Update: October 2015.  The Mexican American Digital History Project and a broad group of allies have been working for over a year to add Chicano history to the California History/Social Science Framework, the document that determines what goes into textbooks in California.

 We are pleased to inform you that the Quality Instructional Materials Commission of the California State Board of Education have posted their proposed revised framework and it includes most of what we wanted. 

It is here.  http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/cc/cd/hsssmcmtgagenda102015b.asp

On behalf of the Mexican American Digital History project, we  ask that you  write a letter to the review committee for the revision of the History/Social Science framework.  Now is a good time to get this done (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

We ask you to

1.     Look over the draft History/Social Science Framework for California Schools. 

(or take our  suggestions and guides to specific pages)

2.    Write a letter  to the Framework Committee encouraging the inclusion of  Mexican American/Latino history in the revised framework.  It is most effective to make specific recommendations of material to include- see samples. To be effective your letter should arrive by May 1, 2015.

3.   Send your letter to  hssframework@cde.ca.gov

4.  Send a copy to the Mexican American Digital History project at campd22702@gmail.com

5.     Links to documents and  background information is available at the site above.

Teachers Cheating on Tests - Atlanta

Taking the Fall in Atlanta

Posted April 3, 2015 at 11:10 am by RICHARD ROTHSTEIN  

Eleven Atlanta educators, convicted and imprisoned, have taken the fall for systematic cheating on standardized tests in American education. Such cheating is widespread, as is similar corruption in any institution—whether health care, criminal justice, the Veterans Administration, or others—where top policymakers try to manage their institutions with simple quantitative measures that distort the institution’s goals. This corruption is especially inevitable when out-of-touch policymakers set impossible-to-achieve goals and expect that success will nonetheless follow if only underlings are held accountable for measurable results.

There was little doubt, even before the jury’s decision, that Atlanta teachers and administrators had changed answers on student test booklets to increase scores. There was also little doubt that Atlanta’s late superintendent, Beverly Hall, was partly responsible because she had, as a state investigation revealed, “created a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation” that had permitted “cheating—at all levels—to go unchecked for years.”

What the trial did not explore was whether Dr. Hall herself was reacting to a culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation that her board, state education officials, and the Bush and Obama administrations had created. Just as her principals’ jobs were in jeopardy if test scores didn’t rise, her tenure, too, was dependent on ever rising test scores.

California School Funding Gap is Reduces

Proposition 30 Has Increased  California School Funding - and we passed it !

A valuable way of comparing states’ investment in schools is to look at  K-12 spending as a share of each state’s overall economy. Unlike       other commonly used measures, such as K-12 spending per student, this approach accounts for the personal income received by residents in each state, thus providing a more meaningful comparison that better reflects the financial resources available to support schools and other public systems and services.

 A new Budget Center fact sheet examines California’s K-12 spending as a share of the state’s economy. This analysis shows that while California’s investment in K-12 schools lags that in the rest of the n ation, the gap between California and the rest of the US has narrowed since 2012-13, partly as a result of voters approving Proposition 30’s tax increases in November 2012. Read the fact sheet.

From the California Budget and Policy Center  

Pearson Educational Publishing: No Profit Left Behind

A POLITICO investigation has found that Pearson stands to make tens of millions in taxpayer dollars and cuts in student tuition from deals arranged without competitive bids in states from Florida to Texas. The review also found Pearson’s contracts set forth specific performance targets — but don’t penalize the company when it fails to meet those standards. And in the higher ed realm, the contracts give Pearson extensive access to personal student data, with few constraints on how it is used.

POLITICO examined hundreds of pages of contracts, business plans and email exchanges, as well as tax filings, lobbying reports and marketing materials, in the first comprehensive look at Pearson’s business practices in the United States.

The investigation found that public officials often commit to buying from Pearson because it’s familiar, even when there’s little proof its products and services are effective.

Teaching About Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the UFW

By Duane E. Campbell

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.  You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read.  You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.  Cesar Chávez.  November 9, 1984.

On March 31, 2015,  Eleven  states  and numerous cities will hold holidays celebrating  labor and Latino Leader Cesar Chavez. Conferences, marches and celebrations will occur in numerous cities this weekend.  See the  post below  on the Cesar Chavez Youth Leadership Conference at UCD on March 28.   A recent film Cesar Chavez: An American Hero, starring Michael Peña  as Cesar Chavez and Rosario Dawson  as Dolores Huerta presents important parts of this story and shows how Chavez was lied about and attacked by Ronald Reagan, the Nixon Administration, the Republican Party and numerous right wing forces.  This film works well in high school classrooms. Lesson plans for teaching about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta are here. https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/lessons-cesar-chavez-and-dolores-huerta.Chavez lessons

The story of Cesar Chavez, and to a lesser degree Dolores Huerta is mentioned in history books for California students, however much of the additional Mexican American history is missing.  A group of scholars, teachers, allies, activists have joined  in our campaign to improve the history textbooks in California by including the histories of  Mexican American/ Chicano people.  More than 52% of California students are descendants of Latino and Mexican people. Unfortunately they  can't they be found in the textbooks.

You are invited to participate in this effort. We need each of  you and your friends to write a letter.  Here is a guide. Here is how to write a letter :https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/latino-students-and-civic-engagement/project-plan---mexican-american-history

We can each do our part.

Meanwhile,  in March of 2015  hundreds of farmworkers have walked off their jobs in Baja California, Mexico, from the agricultural fields just a few miles from the U.S. border , fields developed to provide a harvest to the U.S. markets.  Farm labor strikes and violence against strikers remains a volatile issue.  Farm workers deserve dignity, respect, and fair wages.  Achieving these goals will require a union.

Cesar Chavez Youth Leadership Conference

Teaching About Cesar Chavez

Let me tell you about this man.  Cesar Chavez, Union Organizer.  4th. and 5th. grade. Available from CFT.org  http://cft.org/images/committees/docs/letmetellyouaboutthis man.pdf

www.goo.gl/jhyuZh

The Schools We Deserve - Los Angeles

UTLA rally draws thousands in call for 'the schools LA students deserve'

• 

February 26, 2015—Today thousands of educators from across Los Angeles jammed Grand Park today in a rally for "the Schools LA Students Deserve." They arrived by rail, bus, car and on foot—wearing UTLA red to send a loud message to LAUSD that Los Angeles teachers will not stop fighting for smaller class sizes, fully staffed schools, clean and safe schools, and fair compensation. UTLA was joined in the rally by students, parents and community groups and supported by its affiliates CFT, CTA, AFT and NEA.

Last week, UTLA declared an impasse in negotiations with the District after LAUSD failed to bring meaningful proposals to the table on the key demands for the Schools LA Students Deserve. UTLA says it will continue to organize and hold actions until the Superintendent starts to listen.

Teachers life

Teach The Students Well- Their Own History !

Write Chicano/Mexican American History into California State Textbooks

By Duane Campbell

Mexican American/Chicano history is substantially absent from public school textbooks and curriculum in California- and it has been since  1986.  This year we have an opportunity to change that. 

California has the largest student  population of any state, with more than 6,236,000 students  in school in 2013.  Students who are Mexican American of Latino heritage make up over 53% of the total school population. 

Latino student political non participation  and disconnectedness is significantly caused by Latino absence from the K-12 textbooks and curriculum. 

Children and young adults need to see themselves in the curriculum.  Students, have low levels of attachment to California and U.S.  civics engagement in significant part because the government institution they encounter the most- the schools-  ignore the students’ own history, cultures and experiences.

California state textbooks currently largely ignore the roles of Mexican Americans and Latinos in building this state.  Students need to learn civic engagement – it is not automatic.  Students need to learn that they belong , that they are a part of the community and its history.

Vote for Eric Guerra- April 7

Eric Guerra has made District 6 his home since he first attended Sacramento State University nearly 20 years ago.

Eric and his family emigrated from Mexico when Eric was a young child. They earned a living as farmworkers in and around the Sacramento region, and Eric pitched in, working in the fields before and after school and each summer to help the family make ends meet.

Eric's Activism Started at Sac State

The lessons Eric learned from his parents – about the importance of hard work and education as a way to a better life – drove him. He did well in school, enrolled at Sacramento State University, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Master’s in Public Policy and Administration. Eric also met his wife, Christina, in the Master’s program at Sac State.

As an undergraduate, Eric’s fellow students elected him Student Body President, and he successfully raised over $60,000 to fund student projects on campus. While at Sac State, Eric advocated for the community during the inception of the 65th Street Transit Village Plan to direct redevelopment funds into community improvements. He also met with then-City Councilmembers Dave Jones and Steve Cohn to address the issues of blight and improved pedestrian and bicycle paths in the region. Eric’s efforts to improve the neighborhood were highlighted in a 2003 Sacramento Bee article.

Charter Schools are Not Educational Reform

by David Hornbeck

As Philadelphia's Superintendent of Schools, I recommended the approval of more than 30 charter schools because I thought it would improve educational opportunity for our 215,000 students. The last 20 years make it clear I was wrong.

Those advocating change in Maryland's charter law through proposed legislation are equally committed to educational improvement. They are equally wrong. New policy should not build on current inequities and flawed assumptions, as the proposed charter law changes would do.

Mixed academic results: Charters, on the whole, do not result in significant improvement in student performance. It's mixed at best. In some evaluations, charter schools overall actually underperform regular public schools.

The 3 most important parts of Obama's emotional speech in Selma

Sorry about the ads.

Eric Guerra for City Council

The Sacramento Progressive Alliance supports Eric Guerra for Sacramento City Council, District 6.
Special election.  April 7, 2015.
The Sacramento City Council has not had a Latino member for twenty years. Many  of the Democratic Party clubs are supporting his opponent. Eric was a strong ally of multicultural education while he was President of ASI at Sac State.
Contract the Guerra campaign on Facebook. Campaign volunteers are needed.
The decision was made at our board meeting on Feb.21. 

Screw State Universities

How Republicans Chose Tax Cuts over Education  by Ed Kilgore- TPM. 

12130 Views

Scott Walker- Wisconsin 

The last time we had anything like the recent wave of Republican takeovers of state governments was in 1994, when the GOP picked up ten net governorships and took control of fifteen new state legislative chambers. The officeholders who benefited from this shift were for the most part very lucky people, assuming their positions just as the Long Boom of the mid-to-late 1990s began to gain momentum. The resulting revenue bonanza made it easy for Republicans at the state level to keep tax cut promises without unpopular spending reductions. Remember that large group of GOP governors who backed George W. Bush when he ran for president in 2000 as a “reformer with results?” They all, including Bush, owed a big debt of thanks to the drivers of the national economy, including Bill Clinton.

But the current batch of GOP landslide beneficiaries in the states are not quite so lucky, at least so far. While the economy has slowly picked up pace since the first cohort of them took office in 2011, it’s hardly roaring. And it’s not clear who’s in a worse position: veteran Republicans in budget trouble because of tax cuts already passed, or the 2015 freshmen who took office promising tax cuts they have no way to pay for without deep budget cuts. An additional complication is the revenue crisis facing states—most of them governed by Republicans—depending disproportionately on oil and gas severance taxes, which have been decimated by the recent fall in world oil prices.
Some high-profile Republican governors and legislative leaders are in a particularly deep hole of their own making, and are taking on the state version of the political “third rail” by attacking higher education spending.
There are plenty of reasons why higher ed is an unusually tough place to cut, varying from the power of alumni to football and basketball and the perceived economic payoff of a good state university system. Still, during the depths of the Great Recession, virtually all states cut higher ed subsidies, which non-coincidentally produced a large wave of tuition increases. But some cut more than others, and are doing less to replace lost funding now that the economy’s doing better. Only eight states failed to increase per student higher ed spending in Fiscal Year 2014: Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Louisiana, West Virginia and Wyoming. And now in 2015 it generates headlines when significant higher education cuts are proposed, as in Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Louisiana.
You may note that these are all states with highly ideological Republican state administrations and legislatures. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback narrowly survived a reelection challenge focused on his credit-damaging tax cuts and unpopular education cuts; now, with little to lose, he’s back for more. In North Carolina, a state often matched with Kansas as a deliberate conservative policy experiment station, state legislators (guided by a conservative think tank founded by highly influential billionaire Art Pope) are seeking shutdowns in ideologically unfavored parts of the university system.