WEEKEND QUOTABLES
Pedro Noguera
"The way we are now as a country, not only aren't we living up to the Brown decision, we're not even living up the Plessy v. Ferguson of separate but equal." -- Up W/ Chris Hayes
Melissa Harris-Perry
"I live in the 7th ward of New Orleans, and I don't like what I see happening there in the KIPP schools. I am distressed by the movement away from teachers unions that can actually fight for
SOS EARLY CHILDHOOD WEBINAR
Save Our Schools Webinar Early Childhood Educators Say “No!” to Standards and Tests June 1, 2012, 9 PM Eastern Daylight Time [EDT} Please Join Us! *Nancy Carlsson-Paige* is a professor of early childhood education at Lesley University where she has taught teachers for more than 30 years. Professor Carlsson-Paige was a founder of the University’s Center for Peaceable Schools. Since the mid-1980′s, Nancy has written and spoken extensively about the impact of violence, especially in the media, on children’s lives and social development, and how children learn the skills for caring rel... more »
Another look at Rahm's Texas model
*"If you start in the Chicago Public School system in kindergarten," offered Rahm, "and your cousin lives in Houston, and you both go all the way through high school, the cousin in Houston spends three more years in the classroom." *-- Rahm Emanuel* * Romney's ed adviser and former Houston Supt. Rod PaigeChicago's mayor, in his demagogic appeal for a longer (not necessarily better) school day, is fond of holding up Houston, Texas as his model. This piece in the Texas Observer details some of the reasons why Houston schools and Texas schools in general, may work for some of their s... more »
"Hey hey. Ho ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!
Thousands of CTU members march up Michigan Avenue to CPS Headquarters after a rally at the Auditorium Theatre. | Scott Stewart~Chicago Sun-Times.That was the thunderous sound of 5,000 red-clad Chicago union teachers marching past CPS headquarters at Adams & Clark. Just when Rahm thought is was safe to come out of his office after last weekend's NATO Summit fiasco, he once again became the target of working class venom. Speaker after speaker denounced Rahm's ongoing war on teachers. His contract offer was denounced as an "insult." On every issue, they offered counters to his "reform"... more »
Who will stand up for Public Education in this election?
Romney lands the first punch. Will Dems strike back? If not, who will? In the run-up to the elections, neither candidate(s) has said much about education issues. As for party platforms, neither party has a real education plank. The Republicans have been playing only two notes -- bust the teacher unions and don't tax the rich. The Democrats have been playing none. They have been tight-roping between the teacher unions and the influential hedge-fund "reformers" like Democrats For Educational Reform (DFER) and have seemingly decided to play it safe and go without an education plank. Ne... more »
Thousands of CTU members, supporters will rally today
If *Rahm Emanuel* thought that Chicago teachers would roll over and play dead in the face of his war on the CTU, he's badly mistaken. Yesterday it was announced that nearly 80 percent of CTU members have voted to reject the latest teacher contract proposal in recent straw polls — more than what would be needed to authorize a real strike under the new anti-union law, SB7. At 3 this afternoon, thousands of Chicago teachers will meet in a unity rally inside the Auditorium Theater at State & Congress. At 4:30, many more will join them in a massive show of solidarity with a rally and ma... more »
The most vile attack yet on Wisconsin teachers
This is the most cowardly and treacherous attack yet on public school teachers, make that, on all public employees. That image above is of a full-page newspaper ad taken out in the Janesville Gazette, the local newspaper in Paul Ryan's district. The Gazette, to its credit, didn't print the ad, but it still managed to find its way into subscribers' mailboxes through fliers placed in the paper's home-delivery tube system. The names you can't read in this image are the names of teachers in Janesville who signed the petition to recall Scott Walker. Next to their names, is their salary.... more »
Anatomy of a big high school
Chicago's great architectural critic *Lee Bey *writes for WBEZ public radio, about his alma mater, Chicago Vocational High School ("School of architecture: A look at sprawling Chicago Vocational.") The massive, 72-year-old school, located at 2100 E. 87th St., is not only the city's second largest high school building (only Lane Tech is bigger), but is Chicago's best large-scale example of Art Moderne architecture. The 27-acre school, formerly known as Chicago Vocational High School, was built for $3.5 million, with 45 percent of the cash coming from the federal Public Works Admini... more »
Murdoch's News Corp. is an ALEC Member
Murdoch (l) and Joel Klein.No big surprise here. Adam Peshek, who staffs ALEC's Education Task Force, told Education Week that News Corp. has been a member of both ALEC's Education Task Force and Communications and Technology Task Force since January 2012. This according to PR Watch: *When News Corp. acquired Wireless Generation, a for-profit online education, software, and testing corporation, for $360 million in cash in 2010, Rupert Murdoch called the for-profit K-12 education industry "a $500 billion sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed." A few w... more »
Classic Eli Broad: "Never let a crisis go to waste"
Katrina aftermath *"Never let a serious crisis go to waste." *-- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Nov. 2008. In a recent Edweek piece by a similar title, billionaire power-philanthropist Eli Broad resurrects this quote made infamous by Chicago's now autocratic mayor. It's become an operational phrase for "getting things done" by skirting the public will and abandoning democratic decision-making. For Broad and other disaster capitalists, as Naomi Klein calls them, it's all about taking advantage of real disasters, like Hurricane Katrina. Or if a crisis doesn't exist -- manufa... more »
ALEC to Ravitch: Why pick on us?
In an interesting response to a Diane Ravitch piece in Edweek ("What You Need To Know About ALEC"), Adam Peshek, ALEC's ed director, asks: Why pick on us? Obama agrees with ALEC, claims Peshek, who has nothing but praise for the administration. Peshek has a good point. How about a response, Mr. President or Sec. Duncan. Writes Peshek: *In reality, we are far from alone in this effort. There are dozens of organizations on both sides of the political spectrum that have spent decades promoting the policies we support. In fact, President Barack Obama has done more for charter schools ... more »