Teachers' Union President arrested in Mexico

Powerful Leader of Mexican Teachers’ Union Is Arrested

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD. NY Times

The leader of Mexico’s powerful teachers’ union, the largest labor syndicate in Latin America, has been arrested on accusations that she embezzled millions of dollars in union funds for personal expenses, including California residences, cosmetic surgery and artwork, the country’s attorney general announced Tuesday night.

The arrest of the union boss, Elba Esther Gordillo, a bombastic figure viewed as a kingmaker among politicians for her ability to deliver votes and suppress enemies, stunned a nation accustomed to seeing powerful figures escape scrutiny despite whispers of their spending habits.

“She was this mixture of political patron, incredibly powerful union boss and very, very wildly ‘entrepreneurial,’ ” said Gabriel Guerra, a political analyst in Mexico City.

Ms. Gordillo was arrested a day after President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law sweeping changes in education law, designed to break the union’s grip on hiring and the administration of schools, and a day before the union planned to meet on a strategy to fight the changes. The timing of the arrest is sure to raise questions; Mexican presidents have been known to use the power of federal prosecutors to go after rivals, only for the cases to fall apart eventually.

Sequester + austerity = stupid budget cuts

Take Action: The Senate will vote Thursday on legislation to prevent harmful cuts.  Please tell your Senators to vote for the American Family Economic Protection Act, S. 388 and for more information on how your state would be affected by the cuts, see our state fact sheets.

 In economics austerity is the  policy of reducing government spending by cutting social services such as health care, education, food assistance, and other welfare assistance.   At the federal level, Republicans and some Democrats  seek austerity by cutting social Security and Medicare. Republicans also are insisting on massive budget cuts known as the sequester.  By any name, these cuts are bad.  In the case of state governments  public tax money is used for police, fire fighters, park services, nurses, doctors, social workers and health assistants.  State  and local austerity efforts cut these services.

In the current economic crisis, the governments of Ireland, Greece, Italy, the UK, Spain and Portugal have implemented austerity programs and cut their budgets  creating  more unemployment and making  the recessions in these countries worse.

This is not acceptable !

When Will They Ever Learn?

 PBS: MAKERS: Women Who Make America tells the story of how women have helped shape America over the last 50 years through one of the most sweeping social revolutions in our country’s history, in pursuit of their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity and personal autonomy. Aired  on PBS Feb. 26 .

It certainly was an excellent documentary- but, the writers and producers left out Latinas.   There were two brief cameos with Dolores Huerta and an Albuquerque construction company owner Alvarado. : Makers: Women Who Make America

Episode:

Here are notes to tell the rest of the story.

https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/dolores-huerta-at-sac-state

https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/lessons-cesar-chavez-and-dolores-huerta

https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/dolores-delgado-campbell-40-years-of-chicana-activism

https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/a-brief-guide-to-chicano-mexican-american-history

As a further illustration of  the Anglo centric view of the documentary, they even left out  Congresswoman Patsy Mink who wrote the legislation for the landmark Title IX legislation.  See http://www.patsyminkfoundation.org

Billionaires try to buy LA school board election

This week in the War on Workers: Billionaires try to buy LA school board election

byLaura ClawsonFollowF

Michael Bloomberg is among the plutocrats pouring money into LA's school board elections.

A group of billionaires and astroturf groups is trying to buy a Los Angeles school board election to expand the corporate education policy agenda in that city. One big goal is to defeat one-term incumbent and former teacher Steve Zimmer. The "Coalition for School Reform" has gotten $1 million from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But the group wasn't exactly broke before Bloomberg's contribution, according to the LA Times:

Education and arts philanthropist Eli Broad leads the way with a contribution of $250,000 to the coalition, which includes L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Also in for $250,000 is billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio, who headed the Univision network for years.

Lynda Resnick, the entrepreneur behind POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and other ventures, has donated $100,000 to the coalition. Investor Marc Nathanson and his wife, Jane, have together given $100,000.

Bloomberg's former schools chancellor, Joel Klein, who now runs NewsCorp's education division, 

Bill Moyers: Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair | Alternet

Bill Moyers: Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair | Alternet

Twenty Myths About Unions

David Bacon.  Journalist, photo journalist, labor journalist, immigrant rights activist. Speaking Feb. 20, 2013.  2013.  Hinde auditorium.  Sacramento State. 1:30 PM.

Sponsored by the Serna Center. See post below. 

False Promises- MOOCS. There is no democracy here

 This is an  initial analysis of some of the issues in Massive-on line education  MOOC as advocated by Jerry Brown in place of adequately funding higher education.

Geoff Shullenberger

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/fishy-higher-ed-reforms

"In the MOOC philosophy, education is understood fundamentally as a transfer of information, in line with the computational understanding of cognition in which the mind is a processing device being fed input and generating output. This is a twenty-first-century version of what Paulo Freire called the “banking method of education,” a model that Deweyan humanists and practitioners of critical pedagogy have long repudiated as reactionary and disempowering.

Open Online Courses (MOOCs) they offer. The New York Times education section dubbed 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and the paper’s celebrity columnists Thomas Friedman and David Brooks have been hailing MOOCs as a “revolution” and a “tsunami.” Time announced in a cover article on MOOCs that “College is Dead. Long Live College!” and USA Today assured us somewhat less hyperbolically that “college may never be the same.”

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/fishy-higher-ed-reforms

California School Budgets

Under the budget proposed by Governor Brown,

public school spending  K-12 in

California  will increase by $1,000 per student.

This is an increase of some  $ 9.2 billion due to  Proposition 30  and Prop. 98 mandates.

It will remain more than $850 million below the 2007- 08 levels, after adjustment for inflation. 
Source. California Budget Project.  www.CBP.org

Mexican American Digital History Project

The Mexican American Digital History Project.  Dr. Duane Campbell.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

1:30 – 2:45 p.m.

At orchard suite,  Student Union

Sponsored by the Serna Center.

Reception follows at the Multi-cultural Center (Library 1010)

3:00—4:00 p.m.

California State University

Sacramento,6000 J Street,

Sacramento, CA 95819 

How Walmart money and others directs Sacramento school "reform" efforts

 See the excellent analysis by Seth Sandronsky

Last December 3, the California Fair Political Practices Commission recommended fining Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a Democrat, $37,500 for improperly reporting donations to his multiple nonprofit groups. The political watchdog agency agreed to this penalty at a Dec. 13 meeting. The donations included a total of $500,000 between Jan. 19, 2012, and June 5, 2012, from the Walton Family Foundation to Stand Up for Sacramento Schools, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit school reform group that Johnson founded in 2009 with a commitment of $500,000 from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

The money trail, however, goes beyond Mayor Johnson’s untimely reporting of donations to his nonprofits. His local education reform efforts illustrate a broader national trend: corporate funding of education reform via nonprofits to alter public schools. In an era of a growing income gap between corporate America and the general public—the one percent and 99 percent, in the words of the Occupy Wall Street movement—the power of corporate-funded philanthropy to shape public policy has become part of the social landscape. In the case of school reform, breaking public-sector unions is high on this elite agenda. Consider the Walton Family Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nonunion behemoth based in Bentonville, Ark. This family had a net worth of $115.5 billion in 2012, according to the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America. Its foundation “invested” close to $160 million in K-12 education reform across the U.S. in 2011: http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/about/2011-grant-report.

Read the detailed and valuable report.

http://sacramentopress.com/headline/78980/Opinion_Private_money_and_public_schools_Part_I

Fair Use

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. WE ARE MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN OUR EFFORTS TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. WE BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A 'FAIR USE' OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML. IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND 'FAIR USE,' YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.

If any publisher or owner of a copyrighted product believes we have violated your copyright, please contact us and we will usually remove the article, except under the guidelines of fair use above.  We will then post material about the contested issue  from alternative sources.

The Dignity Campaign's Alternative for Immigration...he Dignity Campaign's Alternative for Immigration...

antiracismdsa: The Dignity Campaign's Alternative for Immigration...: THE DIGNITY CAMPAIGN'S ALTERNATIVE VISION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM By David Bacon OAKLAND, CA  (2/6/13) The Nation - web edition ht...

National Day of Action to Support Seattle Teachers' Test Boycott

“We demand quality assessment!”

Wear Red on Wed for Ed!  Scrap the MAP!

*Join the event on Facebook!*

Click here for a list of events

Supporters will hold meetings, press conferences, rallies, take photos, and wear red to show support

Contact: scrapthemap@yahoo.com

For more info, visit:
http://scrapthemap.wordpress.com/

What: Educators, Students, Parents and supporters of Public Education nation-wide will take action in support of Garfield High School teachers and all teachers in Seattle Public Schools refusing to administer the MAP test.

Teachers at Garfield High School and other Seattle Public Schools have gained national attention and support for their stand against the Measure of Academic Progress, for its invalidity, waste of time and resources and its scandalous arrival to Seattle.  We call on supporters of public education nationwide to participate in actions in their locale to show their support for our effort to Scrap the MAP.  Supporters will hold meetings, rallies, take photos, and wear red to show support on February 6^th. 

What You Need to Know About the Seattle Teachers' Rebellion and the Deeply Flawed Test That Inspired It | Alternet

What You Need to Know About the Seattle Teachers' Rebellion and the Deeply Flawed Test That Inspired It | Alternet

School "reformers" have it wrong

The school reform dialogue is frequently centered upon the executive role of Principals. Advocates such as Michelle Rhee assert that Principals and other leaders should be able to select teachers, dismiss teachers, and design instruction through their control of teachers. The Broad Foundation has particularly advanced this viewpoint through their training of business executives as district superintendents.  These self described “reformers” have it wrong.  Their view is fundamentally in error. That may be one of the big reasons it is not working. 

The argument for this extraordinary role for principle leadership comes from two sources, ideological assertions that hide a particular view of learning and a model of the role of  principals based upon models of directions and management  from private industry.  This model is inappropriate for public schools and professional teachers.  The “reformers” have not learned the basic  role and functions of democracy in public education.

In  private industry and commerce a leader is in charge  because the goal of the

Institution is to make profit.   The leader is empowered to make decisions to maximize profit. this is a part of the complete domination of work life in the private sector by authoritarian structures.  Private industry usually  is not a democratic environment.  Workers do not have the right  to decide how to do their work.  They are to follow orders or leave.

School budgets improve, remain lower than 2007.

Important report on the state budget. State spending per K-12 student will rise in the current (2012-13) fiscal year and in 2013-14 due to voter approval of two revenue measures – Proposition 30 and Proposition 39 – last November, according to the Governor’s proposed 2013-14 budget. Yet even with this increase, per student state support for public schools will remain much lower than the 2007-08 level, after adjusting for inflation.

The full report is at

http://californiabudgetbites.org/2013/01/28/key-facts-about-the-governors-proposed-budget-part-3-spending-per-student-rises-due-to-new-revenues-but-still-faces-a-long-climb-back/

Teacher boycott of standardized tests spreads

Teacher boycott of standardized test in Seattle spreads Valerie Strauss January 26, 2013 The Washington Post   A boycott of Washington state’s mandated standardized test by teachers at a Seattle school is spreading to other schools and winning support across the country, including from the two largest teachers’ unions, parents, students, researchers and educators.     , ,     A boycott of Washington state’s mandated standardized test by teachers at a Seattle school is spreading to other schools and winning support across the country, including from the two largest teachers’ unions, parents, students, researchers and educators. The decision by teachers at Garfield High School to boycott the state’s Measures of Academy Progress because, they say, the exams don’t evaluate learning and are a waste of time is fueling a growing debate about the misuse of standardized tests in public education.

Common Core Standards are change - not reform

The Common Core: Educational Redeemer or Rainmaker?

 by Julie L. Pennington ,Kathryn M. Obenchain ,Aimee Papola & Leia Kmitta — October 12, 2012

The Common Core State Standards are poised to guide U.S. educational practice and assessment for the coming years. This commentary examines the framing of the argument for the new standards by the constructors of the CCSS and how the alignment of resources during the implementation phase is tightly ensconced within the organizations who drafted the standards.

Framing education as in need of additional rigor and collective cohesion, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are now promoted as a redeemer for educational reform while No Child Left Behind quietly fades into the background.  As states are currently invited to pursue “relief from provisions of …(NCLB)” (http://www.ed.gov/esea/flexibility), the CCSS are poised to preside over a movement to (what are self-described as) more rigorous, more communal and more state-led standards and assessments (http://www.corestandards.org/).

Gov. Brown's view on school improvement

State of the State. Governor Brown. Jan. 24, 2013.

Constantly expanding the coercive power of government by adding each year so many minute prescriptions to our already detailed and turgid legal system overshadows other aspects of public service. Individual creativity and direct leadership must also play a part. We do this, not by commanding thou shalt or thou shalt not through a new law but by tapping into the persuasive power that can inspire and organize people. Lay the Ten Commandments next to the California Education code and you will see how far we have diverged in approach and in content from that which forms the basis of our legal system.

Education

In the right order of things, education—the early fashioning of character and the formation of conscience—comes before legislation. Nothing is more determinative of our future than how we teach our children. If we fail at this, we will sow growing social chaos and inequality that no law can rectify.

In California’s public schools, there are six million students, 300,000 teachers—all subject to tens of thousands of laws and regulations. In addition to the teacher in the classroom, we have a principal in every school, a superintendent and governing board for each school district. Then we have the State Superintendent and the State Board of Education, which makes rules and approves endless waivers—often of laws which you just passed. Then there is the Congress which passes laws like “No Child Left Behind,” and finally the Federal Department of Education, whose rules, audits and fines reach into every classroom in America, where sixty million children study, not six million.

Why does race, ethnicity matter in public schools ?

Start at about 24 minutes into the recording.
Diversity Forum:  Why Race and Culture Still Matter
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Tyrone Howard

December 5, 2012
California State University, Fullerton
Access the Full Video: 
http://distance-ed.fullerton.edu/bbpresentations/Diversity_Forum_12-5-2012/player.html