Pope Francis on Migration

Trump Cuts Legal Immigration

WH Cuts Legal Immigration By Two Thirds

Trump just quietly cut legal immigration by up to 65%. Vox “With one proclamation signed late Friday evening last week, President Donald Trump made his adviser Stephen Miller’s dreams of restricting legal immigration a reality. When it goes into effect November 3, the proclamation will make getting into the US much harder for immigrants sponsored by family members, the phenomenon Trump has excoriated as ‘chain migration.’ It will throw up a barrier to those coming through the diversity visa lottery — the subject of Trump’s ‘shithole countries’ rant — which allows the US to accept 55,000 immigrants annually from countries with historically low levels of immigration. Researchers estimate it could keep up to two-thirds of future immigrants out who would be admitted under current law. Under the proclamation, immigrants who do not have health insurance and cannot afford to pay medical care costs will not be able to move to the US permanently. The move could bar roughly 375,000 immigrants annually, based on projections of data from fiscal year 2017, according to Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. Those 375,000 immigrants won’t be affected at random. The proclamation targets immigrants who have come to the US legally under policies Trump and his advisers often attack.”

Why I support Impeachment

I support impeach because...

Add your reason in the comments section. 

President Trump is impeached !

Thoughts on Impeachment

By Josh Marshall

|

 Talking Points Memo; December 18, 2019 10:45 a.m. 

JOIN TPM FOR JUST $

With the day now upon us, I wanted to lay out some points on impeachment which seem to me essential and definitional.

The signature reality of the Trump Era is confusion. False stories crowd out real ones – false stories driven less by ignorance than as a mode of attack. We hear endlessly about ‘two realities’, in which partisans on either side of the political divide see the same things and come away with radically different understandings of them. This is mainly false. We see and understand the same things but simply react differently. The great threat we face as a country isn’t poor logical reasoning but the growth of authoritarianism and leader-worship. 

Here are three points that, for me, function as a sort of north star through this addled and chaotic process.

One: The President is accused of using extortion to coerce a foreign power to intervene in a US presidential election on his behalf. 

Two: There is no one in US politics who would ever find that behavior remotely acceptable in a President of the opposite party. 

Three: The evidence that the President did what he is accused of doing is simply overwhelming. The documentary evidence points overwhelmingly to guilt. His sometimes unwilling accomplices say he is guilty. His own words prove his guilt. He continues to justify what he is accused of and continues to do the same things again and again in plain sight.

This process has been so clotted with tantrums, goalpost-moving and dissimulation that it can be hard to keep one’s bearings. For me, those three essential points clarify the matter and drown out the yelling and stomping.

Another observation.

Ordinary venal corruption can be impeachable. Some serious crimes that are not tied to a President’s official duties might be impeachable. But the crimes Trump is accused of – and of which he is clearly guilty – are definitional examples of the kind of wrongdoing impeachment was designed to combat. 

Bretón has it wrong- Again

Bee opinion columnist Bretón has a harsh column about the SCUSD budget crisis.
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article238321423.html

Part of the problem is what he assumes.,

He argues teachers should take a pay cut, and that they should pay some of their health care. This is the essence of austerity.  He assumes that the way to fix the problem is to pay teachers less,

( You can see how well this works out.  The Bee now pays its reporters less. They have over 100 fewer reporters. The quality of the paper has diminished substantially.  It is no longer a substantive paper. see https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/growing-local-news-deserts-endanger-democracy-study-finds)

Why assume that cutting salaries is the answer?  Lets try an alternative.

Assume the teachers should be paid well.  Assume that teachers should have quality health care for themselves and their families.  This is what unions are fighting for all across the nation,. It could be called Medicare for All.

Well, if we need to pay teachers well, more money will be needed for schools.  Yes, we should tax more and adequately fund our schools.  We have not done that since the passage of Prop. 13.  Austerity, underfunding schools, is a lousy policy. Just fighting over who gets their salaries cut is avoiding the important issues.  Fund the schools.

Here is how.

NEA-AFT Host Presidential Forum

When the nation’s two national teachers unions quickly endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2015, they faced intense backlash from fellow labor leaders and from rank-and-file members who thought they jumped the gun.

Thousands of members of the American Federation of Teachers signed a petition asking the union to withdraw its endorsement, and National Education Association members protested in letters that cited strong support within the organization for 

This time around, both of the powerful labor groups are slowing their endorsement process, taking more input from members and holding public events with candidates. 

The unions’ endorsement processes will culminate on Saturday, when they co-host a public education forum with 2020 candidates, televised by MSNBC, with civil rights and education groups like the NAACP and Voto Latino. It will be the first time such an event has ever been held.

“We have been waiting about 72,000 years for this. It really is historic,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, whose union has more than 3 million members.

The forum will include Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), billionaire Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The AFT, which has 1.7 million members, became the first international labor union to endorse Hillary Clinton in July 2015. For the 2020 election, the group has completely overhauled its endorsement process. They’ve held town halls around the country with candidates and invited them to spend time with teachers. Locals are now allowed to endorse candidates apart from the national organization ― United Teachers Los Angeles has already endorsed Bernie Sanders, and AFT President Randi Weingarten said at least one other local is working on their own endorsement process. 

A

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten (R) and National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García (2nd from R) said their unions are getting a lot of attention from Democratic candidates in the 2020 election.

Most major Democratic candidates have participated in one of the AFT’s town halls. Buttigieg is still working to schedule one, Weingarten said. Booker, who has had a historically tense relationship with teachers unions, hasn’t shown as much interest.

“We’ve really tried to pursue it, and let me just say it hasn’t gotten scheduled yet,” said Weingarten. A spokesperson for Booker did not respond to a request for comment. 

Meanwhile, Warren and Sanders have asked for a second town hall appearance. 

If You Don't Think Sanders Can Win ?

Don’t Think Sanders Can Win? You Don’t Understand His Campaign

There was a time in America when being called a socialist could end a political career. Not anymore.

By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Dr. Taylor is the author of “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.”

·       Dec. 10, 2019

·        

o    

As the Democratic primary elections get closer, the party leadership has begun to fret in public about universal health care and other ambitious proposals. Even former President Barack Obama tried to assuage donors’ fears in November when he said that the “average American” doesn’t think we need to “tear down the system and remake it.” His comment captured the essence of tensions that have roiled the party for months. Party elites believe focusing squarely on President Trump’s record will end his presidency, while others counter that the Democrats also have to champion bold policies. 

The surprising resilience of the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont vindicates the latter approach. Mr. Sanders’s improbable rise to Democratic front-runner began in 2015 when he organized his campaign for president around a redistributive agenda of universal health care and free college, along with a number of other progressive reforms. Party insiders dismissed this as fanciful and out of touch, but Mr. Sanders aggressively challenged Hillary Clinton for the nomination while picking up 13 million votes.

SAC CITY UNIFIED BUDGET CRISIS

See post below.

SCUSD Budget Crisis- State Audit

December 10, 2019====See also  Community Forum post below.
2019-108
The Governor of California President pro Tempore of the Senate Speaker of the Assembly
State Capitol
Sacramento, California 95814
Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders:
As directed by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, my office conducted an audit of the Sacramento City Unified School District (Sacramento Unified). Our assessment focused on Sacramento Unified’s financial condition, and the following report details the audit’s findings and conclusions. We determined that Sacramento Unified has not proactively addressed its financial problems.
Sacramento Unified failed to take sufficient action to control its costs in three main areas—teacher salaries, employee benefits, and special education. Sacramento Unified increased its spending by $31 million annually when it approved a new labor contract with its teachers union in 2017. Despite warnings from the Sacramento County Office of Education that it could not afford the agreement, the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education approved the agreement without a plan for how it would pay for it. Sacramento Unified also failed to control the costs of the generous employee benefits it provides, which increased by 52 percent from fiscal years 2013–14 through 2017–18. We also found that Sacramento Unified lacked clear policies to guide staff on what are appropriate expenditures for special education, limiting its ability to control these costs. Consequently, Sacramento Unified projects it will largely deplete its general fund in October 2021 and will likely need to accept a loan from the State to continue operating. If it accepts such a loan, the required loan payments would result in less funding for students and a loss of local control to an appointed administrator.
Although both Sacramento Unified and its teachers union have proposed changes to stabilize the district’s finances, we found that the proposals are unlikely to solve the district’s ongoing financial problems. In fact, several proposals from the teachers union would increase costs dramatically. Given that accepting state assistance would result in less funds for students, we would have expected Sacramento Unified to develop a detailed plan for resolving its financial concerns, but it has not done so. It states that it needs to make $27 million in reductions by fiscal year 2021–22, but even that amount may not be sufficient to end its deficit spending. We have identified a number of options the district could take, including making changes to salaries and benefits for different groups of employees; however, if it is to avoid the negative effects of insolvency, Sacramento Unified must act quickly to develop and implement a plan.
Respectfully submitted,
ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA California State Auditor

Report is not the same as the SCUSD press release on the subject.

Our Story Is the Story of America

Teachers Union- Community Forum

Sanders Releases a Real Immigration Plan !

antiracismdsa: Sanders Releases a Real Immigration Plan !: Sanders on Immigration By far the most progressive plan of any of the candidates. Key Points ·         Institute a moratorium ...

Pozole Breakfast - Fundraiser for Students

On the Coup and Repression in Bolivia

antiracismdsa: On the Coup and Repression in Bolivia: Statement on Human Rights Violations in Bolivia Evo Morales – the democratically elected President of Bolivia from the MAS party (...

Red for Ed - Indiana

Indiana is a leader among the 50 states in shifting resources from public education to vouchers and charter schools

Tuesday’s statewide walkout of teachers in Indiana could lead to an illegal strike, (Photo via Facebook / Central Indiana DSA)

“Red for Ed” is the slogan that animated 15,000 teachers, students, and trade unionists to  attend a huge rally at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, November 19.  147 school districts were shut down around the state because teachers felt obliged to attend this statehouse rally, one of the biggest ever in Indiana history. Core demands involved compensation (incoming teachers earn just $35,000 in a state where 37 percent of households have earnings below a livable standard); an end to 15 hour professional training for all teachers to keep their accreditation; and an end to evaluating teachers on the basis of questionable test scores of students (which obliges teachers to teach for the test rather than wholistic learning). Teachers marched around the Statehouse and waited in long lines to enter the Capital building, waiting as much as an hour during drizzling weather. Once inside 6,000 teachers sitting on the floor or standing against railings on the second or third floor  listened to teachers from around the state talk about the lack of compensation (many teachers have had to take second and third jobs), inadequate supplies (teachers have to bring pencils, crayons, and paper for their students), and unmanageable class sizes. Indiana is a leader among the 50 states in shifting resources from public education to vouchers and charter schools  embracing what is called a “Mindtrust” model of education, using a profit/loss market model to evaluate the educational process. Because public education has been underfunded (“starving the beast”) performance often has stagnated. Then privatizers have advocated for charter schools. However, charters have often had deleterious effects on teachers, students, and communities. These school policies involving defunding public schools, investing in charter schools, privatizing, defunding, and attacking teachers and communities have spread all across the country. But now Indiana teachers have become the latest to say “No.” They have been inspired by teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, California, Arizona, Illinois and elsewhere. And this round of mobilizations is broadly supported by families and communities that see educational institutions as the anchor of society. In addition, teachers increasingly see themselves as workers and trade unionists see teachers as allies. As in the case of Indiana, the trade union movement supported the November 19 mobilization. The Threat to Public Schools Since the dawn of the twentieth century the anchor of most communities in the United States, has been its public schools. Schools help raise, nourish, mentor, and educate the youth of America. Parents, as best they can, participate in supporting school systems and provide input on school policy. Teachers and school administrators sacrifice time and energy to stimulate the talents of young people. And teachers through educational associations and trade unions organize to protect their rights in the workplace, always mindful of the number one priority; serving the children and the community.

No One Is Illegal -

DSA webinar: No One Is Illegal 

When:             November 21^st, 2019, 8:30pm EST, 7:30pm CST; 5:30pm PST

Register:          https://act.dsausa.org/signup/no-one-illegal-webinar-capitalism-imperialism-and-borders/

Sponsor:          Immigrant Rights Working Group – Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

Borders throughout the world have become sites of state violence, racist discrimination, and policing of workers freedom of movement. Governments from the US to Mexico, the EU and Israel to name just a few have militarized their boundaries, policed them with guards, forced migrants to take dangerous routes where they are losing their lives in record numbers, jailed those that survive in concentration camps, and exploited others as cheap labor denied the rights of workers with citizenship. On this webinar, experts on capitalism, climate change, imperialism and migration will explain the systemic roots of population displacement, the nature and function of the new border regime and present a case for working class unity against the oppression and scapegoating of migrants in the U.S. and throughout the world. 

Speakers:

Justin Akers Chacon, author of No One is Illegal and Radicals in the Barrio.

Todd Miller, author of Empire of Borders, Border Patrol Nation, and Storming the Wall.

Harsha Walia, author of Undoing Border Imperialism, cofounder of No One Is Illegal.

Jorge Mújica, author of Voces Migrantes: Movimiento 10 de Marzo, DSA member and Organizer with Arise Chicago, National Council member of the National Writers Union.

To get involved in DSA, become a member, join the Immigrant Rights Working Group, and find out more about activist campaigns. 

Webinar : No One is Illegal

antiracismdsa: Webinar : No One is Illegal: DSA webinar: No One Is Illegal  When:             November 21 st , 2019, 8:30pm EST, 7:30pm CST; 5:30pm PST Register:           htt...

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘It's Bad.’ | All In | MSNBC

DACA Goes To Supreme Court

DACA BEFORE SCOTUS: The Supreme Court tomorrow morning will hear oral arguments over the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program . The high court will debate whether it can review President Trump's decision to phase out work authorization and deportation protections for 669,000 Dreamers who were illegally brought to the U.S. or overstayed a visa as children. 

DACA, which was established in 2012 as an executive-branch program by former President Barack Obama, provides deportation relief and work permits to Dreamers brought to the United States as children. Trump, arguing that DACA would not withstand legal challenges, moved to phase out the initiative in September 2017. But federal courts blocked the decision. 

"All eyes will be on Chief Justice John Roberts when the court hears arguments Tuesday," Mark Sherman reports for the Associated Press. "Roberts is the conservative justice closest to the court's center who also is keenly aware of public perceptions of an ideologically divided court."

He points out that Roberts sided with the high court's four conservatives on upholding Trump's travel ban and it's four liberals in rejecting the administration's move to add a citizenship question on the census. "His vote could be decisive a third time, as well," Sherman writes. Read more on Washington Post. 

Chile Awakens

Chile Awakens

BY

ANDREW RICHNER 

ABIGAIL GUTMANN-GONZALEZ

Last week, in response to a four-cent rise in the price of the metro fare, mass protests fed by dissatisfaction with thirty-plus years of post-Pinochet neoliberal consensus erupted in Santiago and then across Chile. In response, students organized mass fare dodging, the government escalated with heavy police presence, and mass protests ensued. The right-wing government of President Sebastián Piñera reacted swiftly and severely, imposing a state of emergency and toque de queda (curfew), a legacy feature of the 1980 Chilean constitution deeply reminiscent of the most turbulent days of the military dictatorship.

The youth of Chile, and in particular students, have been at the forefront of popular resistance, not just in the present moment, but as far back as the mass mobilization of students in 2007 and 2011 against privatization and the for-profit education system. These earlier mobilizations led to the formation of the Frente Amplio (or “Broad Front”), a broad left electoral coalition composed of distinct left parties and social movements whose principal aim is to challenge the neoliberal consensus.

Collapse of the Neoliberal Consensus

Despite its reputation as a relatively wealthy Latin American country, Chilean society is deeply divided between the rich and poor. Income inequality is worse in Chile than in any other OECD nation. Meanwhile, public services ranging from the pension system to water remain privatized — as much a legacy of the Pinochet years as the 1980 constitution and the state of emergency.

“Economically, Chile continues to do the same thing it’s been doing for twenty years, namely following an extractivist model, which relies heavily on copper but also has to do with forestry, fisheries, etc.,” explains Emilia Ríos Saavedra, a Revolución Democrática (a member party of Frente Amplio) militant and city councilor in Ñuñoa, a suburb of Santiago. “This creates a tension and a feeling of helplessness where the political system cannot respond. There is no capacity on the one hand, and on the other hand, the political and economic elites, above all, are not capable of thinking about the larger needs of the country.”

As the center-left coalition that led Chile through the transition to democracy failed to address the growing crisis caused by the economic policies of the Chicago Boys who collaborated with Pinochet in the 1980s to dismantle Chile’s social democratic legacy, their popular support has collapsed. In the 2017 presidential election, the right-wing billionaire who introduced consumer debt to Chile, Sebastián Piñera, was elected.

See more: 

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/chile-protests-sebastian-pinera-frente-amplio

Chicago Teachers Didn’t Win Everything, But They’ve Transformed the City—And the Labor Movement

Rebecca Burns
November 1, 2019
Working In These Time

Chicago teachers and staff returned to the classrooms Friday after more than two weeks on strike. Their walkout lasted longer than the city’s landmark 2012 strike, as well as those in Los Angeles and Oakland earlier this year.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike also lasted long enough for the season’s first snowstorm to blanket thousands of teachers and staff who surrounded City Hall Thursday morning to demand Mayor Lori Lightfoot agree to restore missed instructional days as a final condition of their returning to work. After a few hours, the union and the mayor arrived at a compromise of five make-up days—a move Lightfoot had resisted until the eleventh hour, despite the fact that it’s a standard conclusion to teacher strikes.

Over the course of an often-bitter battle, CTU and its sister union, SEIU 73, overcame a series of such ultimatums from the recently elected mayor. Before the strike, Lightfoot had refused to write issues such as staffing increases or class size caps into a contract at all. Following a budget address last week, Lightfoot vowed that there was no more money left for a “bailout” of the school district. But a tentative agreement approved by CTU delegates Wednesday night requires the school district to put a nurse and social worker in every school within five years and allocates $35 million more annually to reduce overcrowded classrooms. Both unions also won pay bumps for support staff who have made poverty wages.

Yet these substantial gains still fell short of what many members had hoped to achieve, given that they were fighting for basic investments already enjoyed by most suburban school districts—investments that Lightfoot herself had campaigned on this spring.

“It took our members 10 days to bring these promises home,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates told reporters after an agreement was reached over instructional days. “But I want to tell my members: They have changed Chicago.”

Race, Borders and Belonging

Barack Obama has a message about being politically woke

Chicago Teachers Union Members Win Their Strike

CHICAGO — More than 300,000 public school students prepared to return to school as Chicago leaders on Thursday announced an end to an acrimonious teachers’ strike that lasted 11 days, the longest here in decades, and turned life upside down for families across the nation’s third-largest school district.

In the end, the clash between the teachers and Chicago’s new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, appeared to have brought mixed results. The city agreed to spend millions of dollars on reducing class sizes; promised to pay for hundreds more social workers, nurses and librarians; and approved a 16 percent salary increase over the coming five years. But not all union members were satisfied; a vote to approve a tentative deal was noticeably split, and some teachers wanted to press on to seek steeper reductions in class sizes, more teacher preparation time and aid for special education. New York tTimes. 

Chicago Teachers Union members voted Wednesday to approve a tentative five-year contract in a tight vote, but they say they will remain on strike until the mayor agrees to make up the days lost due to the strike.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot plans to hold a press conference at 9:45 p.m. to respond, but from the beginning she has said she didn’t want to make up the missed days.

Under the tentative agreement, the teachers union got the school district to agree in contract language that over five years it will add a nurse and a social worker in every school. They also got the school district to promise to hire a host of other staff, including lots of special education case managers and homeless coordinators.

It also won $35 million to reduce overcrowded classrooms. 

Chicago Teachers Striking for the Common Good

common good

Chicago educators and school staff in their third week of striking. They’re showing how unions can use the power of picket lines and public pressure to fight for more than wage increases. The twenty-five thousand educators of the CTU and 7,500 school workers represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 want their new contracts with the Chicago Public Schools to commit in writing to increased resources; more nurses, counselors, and other support staff; class size caps; limits on school privatization; affordable housing assistance; and more. The traditional bread-and-butter issues of wages and benefits are important in this strike, especially for the poorly paid paraprofessionals of both unions whose average annual salaries are low enough that their children qualify for free and reduced-price meals when they go to school. But the CTU and SEIU are using this strike to demand answers to bigger questions, too: what will it take to achieve education and social justice? And how can unions use the power of picket lines and public pressure to help get there? This broader vision for labor is often called “bargaining for the common good.”

Bilingual Opportunity

California’s Bilingual Opportunity: Supporting Students’ Home Languages


Across California’s K-12 classrooms today, millions of students arrived to school with an invaluable asset: the ability to speak a language other than English.

However, due to many factors, California has not prioritized quality bilingual programs for these students and many of them do not become literate in their home language.

See our latest fact sheet to learn more about the benefits of leveraging students' language assets in our schools and workplaces. This is the first in a series of three fact sheets by Senior Analyst Jonathan Kaplan and Research Associate Aureo Mesquita looking at opportunities policymakers have to help the state's bilingual students achieve biliteracy.



Share the Budget Center's latest report on Twitter!

Chicago Teachers Remain on Strike

UNIONS

CHICAGO TEACHERS REMAIN ON STRIKE: The 25,000-member Chicago Teachers Union, on strike since Oct. 17, is set to miss another day of school, and Chicago Public Schools will remain closed. Teachers have been striking for reduced class size, nurses and social workers in schools, among other things. CTU on Sunday told Chicago Public Schools that it would not reach a deal and will head into an eighth day of striking. This will be the longest teachers strike in Chicago since 1987, when the teachers strike lasted 19 days.

Education Department"s Rip Off on Student Loans

The Education Department’s Rip-Off Schemes Radicalize Its Own Staff

Billionaire daughter-in-law to the Amway fortune Betsy DeVos probably contracts with the U.S. Mint to exclusively reissue $100,000 bank notes so she can light them on fire to light candles in her office. But she’ll have exactly one less, after a federal judge in San Francisco fined her exactly that amount, because the Education Department continues to collect on fraudulent loans issued to students of shady for-profit college network Corinthian Colleges.

Around 16,000 students have been affected by DeVos collecting on illegal loans, so that’s $6.25 each. Nevertheless, seeing any personal liability at all for an Education Department that not only failed to stop Corinthian from lying to students and saddling them with debt for worthless diplomas, but then kept trying to squeeze those students for unlawful payments, must offer at least a little solace. The Education Department resisted compensating Corinthian students at all, until they went on a debt strike. Under Arne Duncan, students ripped off by for-profit colleges were allowed to assert “defense to repayment” to get the loans canceled. 

That process moved at turtle-like speed, with only one-fifth of Corinthian students made whole by the time DeVos took over. She instituted hurdles to prevent loan forgiveness, which Judge Sallie Kim ruled unlawful. This ruling is stayed pending appeal, but DeVos’s department kept trying to collect loan payments anyway, despite the dispute. Three thousand borrowers made these payments. The Education Department even garnished wages on 1,800 students, which it had no right to acquire. 

Zucked: Early Facebook Investor Roger McNamee on How the Company Became ...

Chicago Teachers Strike Continues

DRIVING THE DAY

CHICAGO TEACHERS STRIKE: More than 30,000 Chicago public school educators and staff in the nation's third largest school district remain out on the picket line for the fifth school day, despite Mayor Lori Lightfoot request that the teachers end their walkout without a contract, POLITICO's Nicole Gaudiano reports. The strike began last Thursday, a work stoppage that affects 360,000 students.  The walkout has drawn the support of Democratic presidential candidates including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also joined teachers on Tuesday with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. Bargaining meetings continued Tuesday between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, but most of the union bargaining team returned to the picket lines. "They won't waste their time trying to talk to a brick wall," CTU President Jesse Sharkey said. On Tuesday evening Chicago Public Schools announced on Twitter that classes were once again canceled today. "CTU has not scheduled a House of Delegates vote, which would be necessary to end their strike," CPS tweeted.  CTU members said Sunday night that they're still negotiating over class size, school staffing, and paraprofessional pay, Gaudiano reports. "The city has proposed a 16 percent salary increase over five years and committed in writing to providing support for oversized classes, a framework for enforceable targets on reducing class sizes first in high poverty schools, and putting one nurse and [one] social worker in every school, Lightfoot has said." More from POLITICO.

Wear Red for Chicago teachers on Thursday.
Yesterday I was on the picket lines in Chicago with Elizabeth Warren. She took time from the campaign trail to come to Chicago to support the members of the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73, who are entering the seventh day of their strike. 

And she’s not the only one standing with them. Bernie Sanders has been at CTU rallies. Cory Booker met with Chicago teachers earlier this week. Joe Biden had a phone call with striking teachers and school staff. And multiple other candidates have tweeted their support. 

In a video, CTU President Jesse Sharkey asks all of us to show our solidarity with our colleagues, as they start their second week of the strike, by wearing red tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 24, and by sharing a photo on social media of yourself (and your colleagues, if possible) wearing red. Click here to watch and share the video about how we can all show our solidarity.

and read the post about the Sacramento USD budget below. 

The Mess in the SCUSD Budget

Nikki Milevsky Stands Up tom Sac Bee Bully Marcos Breton

Sacramento, October 17, 2019--This morning the Sacramento Bee posted an op ed from SCTA First Vice President Nikki Milevsky in which she responds to the latest attack from Sac Bee opinion writer Marcos Breton.

You can view her editorial here, or read below:


"Four weeks into this new school year, more than 100 teaching vacancies remain unfilled. Thousands of Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) students are in classrooms without fully credentialed educators. At C.K. McClatchy High School, one government teacher surveyed her class and found that more than half of her students had a temporary substitute teacher for some of their classes.

How did we get into such a mess?
In February, SCUSD somehow failed to count 730 students in its enrollment figures – which could have been an $8 million per year mistake. Incredibly, the district superintendent and the county administrator charged with overseeing the district’s finances confirmed the error on April 1, but hid this information from the public. Nevertheless, SCUSD plowed ahead in May with layoffs.

While the district reports substantially lower numbers, we know that more than 400 staff were laid off – including 175 certificated teachers – making SCUSD the only major school district in California to implement mass layoffs during a national teacher shortage.

Now the district can’t fill positions. Would you want to work in a school district that lays off dynamic young educators based on dodgy budget numbers?

In March, a top state education finance official, Michael Fine, said he has “no confidence” in the district’s financial data and that he has other serious concerns. District leaders also kept this information from the public and even from members of the school board.

In the face of poorly staffed classrooms, improper budgets and “no confidence” from state officials, what’s the path forward for Sacramento public schools?

Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Bretón thinks he has the answer: He says teachers should sit down and shut up. Breton believes the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA), which represents district educators, should accept whatever the school board demands. He maintains teachers should agree to set aside the collective bargaining agreement, a contract that was personally negotiated by the superintendent with union representatives and unanimously approved by the school board.

Bretón also says teachers and others who care about our schools should stop organizing, stop talking and stop holding our elected school board accountable.

You are wrong, Mr. Bretón. This situation is too critical to stay silent and, as education activists, we won’t apologize for robustly advocating on behalf of our students and families.

Chicago Teachers Strike -This week

Chicago’s Teachers Are Making History. Again.

Rank-and-file workers are finally taking back their unions, and strikes are spreading across the country as a result.

By Jane McAlevey

https://www.thenation.com/article/union-strike-chicago-teachers/