Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Queens Teacher: It's War - Private Sector v. Public Sector

Queens Teacher: It's War - Private Sector v. Public Sector

It's War - Private Sector v. Public Sector

by Queens Teacher
Gazillionaires are orchestrating a class warfare. Read this great comment from nytimes.com

First, our jobs are sent to China and Mexico. Whole towns are devestated and the tax base gutted. The owners and the corporations move their accounts off-shore and pay no taxes. The Republicans turn billion dollar surpluses into trillion dollar deficits, deregulate the banks, and fund two wars with blood but not money. The richest 1% has more than the other 99%, while 50 million Americans are without health insurance. The Walton family has more money than the bottom 40% of our people combined by selling goods manufactured by non-union labor in China and sold by non-union, low paid labor in the US. Our quality of life has declined, poverty has
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Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily
Damn Good Education Daily
voices.washingtonpost.com - This was written by Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. He is the author of "All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools through Public School Choice." In this pos...

SchlFinance101




tomwhitby.wordpress.com - June 23, 2010 by tomwhitby When Shelly Terrell and I first discussed the idea that spawned #Edchat neither of us had any idea what it would become. It started as a place to begin, conduct and recor...

tomwhitby
huffingtonpost.com - A few weeks ago, I clapped for a usually mundane spectacle in the spectrum of NYC sports: New York Yankees' Hall-of-Fame-bound shortstop Derek Jeter's sincere press conference regarding his re-sign...

CohenD




clevescene.com - A regular week at the Weems School was a minefield of surprises for staff and students alike.For students, that was a blast: The lunch menus were constantly changing, any given day could yield an u...

DianeRavitch




blogs.edweek.org - Dear Deborah,I have been fascinated by the continuing commentary and controversy about the results of the international tests of reading, mathematics, and science known as PISA (the Program for Int...

DianeRavitch
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NYC Public School Parents: Joel Klein will rake in the dough

NYC Public School Parents: Joel Klein will rake in the dough

Joel Klein will rake in the dough

by Leonie Haimson
Joel Klein will reportedly make over $4 million a year at NewsCorp.

Let’s hope that Murdoch takes a total bath on this one, and he and Klein aren't able to make a penny off of poor kids – either here in NYC or in Africa – by selling bogus “educational” video games supposed to lead to real learning.

Kids, parents and teachers have suffered enough as a

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New Jersey Starved the Pension Beast

New Jersey Starved the Pension Beast

New Jersey Starved the Pension Beast

by Chad Aldeman



New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been in the news a lot lately for his handling of the Garden State’s budget crisis around government-worker benefits. The New York Times did a piece earlier this week on a confrontation between Christie and teacher Marie Corfield around cuts to education funding, and 60 Minutes featured Christie in a wide-ranging piece on the state of state budgets. Neither of these stories has fully gotten to the heart of why the state now has a $20 billion liability for teacher pensions, and neither of them mentions the fact that only eight years ago the state had a teacher pension fundsurplus.

So what happened? A stock market crash certainly hurt, but the state has made its own problems along the way. Through a combination of low contribution rates and benefit enhancements, New Jersey starved the pension beast.

Traditionally, Starve the Beast has been employed by fiscal conservatives to force budget deficits, which in turn

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THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: "Education is Not a Business"

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: "Education is Not a Business"

"Education is Not a Business"

by The Perimeter Primate


From the "Education is Not a Business" movie website:
The real story of public education is not being told. "Education is Not a Business" will expose the current school "reform" movement as an assault on public education by unregulated capitalism. The real problems in education (such as the achievement gap) are NOT due to teachers, public
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Update: New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Parents 4 democratic Schools

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They don’t care about kids. It was never about kids. « Fred Klonsky's blog

They don’t care about kids. It was never about kids. « Fred Klonsky's blog

They don’t care about kids. It was never about kids.

by Fred Klonsky

Teachers. Cops. Fireman. First responders. Public health workers. Your neighbors. If they belong to a public sector union, they are the target.

For a while they tried to make it seem as if it was about student learning and teacher quality. But that was all a humbug. They don’t care about kids. It was never about the kids.

It’s about unions and the teachers, cops, fireman and your neighbors who belong to them.

Now that the old industrial and private sector unions have been hobbled, we’re the last ones standing. Now they have come for us.

This morning’s NY Times. Column one. Above the fold: Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions

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Shanker Blog » Death Of A Teacher Union Icon

Shanker Blog » Death Of A Teacher Union Icon

Death Of A Teacher Union Icon

by Burnie Bond

The New Year brings sad word of the passing of Szeto Wah, celebrated Hong Kong democracy activist, legislator, and teacher union leader. He died on January 2 at the age of 79.

Once recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in Hong Kong, and known by millions as “Uncle Wah,” Szeto came to prominence in the 1970s as the firebrand founder of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union (PTU), which he led from 1974 to 1990. He was also a founder and leader of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, served in the Hong Kong legislature from 1985 to 2004, and was the founder and chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. The alliance was the leading organization offering support to the pro-democracy movement in Mainland China, which organizedyearly protests on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

While condolences flow in from all over the world, the political question of the day in Hong Kong is whether or not the Chinese authorities will allow exiled democracy activists back into Hong Kong to attend Szeto’s funeral.

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Schools Matter: CA Charter Facilities Ruling

Schools Matter: CA Charter Facilities Ruling

CA Charter Facilities Ruling

by Kenneth Libby
From the Courthouse News Service:
Court OK's Law on Use of Public School Facilities
By JEFF D. GORMAN
(CN) - A California appeals court upheld a state law requiring public schools to share their facilities with charter school students.

The California School Boards Association and three other educational groups took the State Board of Education to court to challenge Proposition 39, which voters approved in 2000.

Among other things, Proposition 39 required public schools to share their facilities with students
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