Jitu Weusi Passes
Jitu Weusi, whose given name was Les Campbell, was an activist and founder of the Coalition for Public Education. His early history as a community teacher and firebrand in Ocean Hill-Brownsville during the 1968 teacher strike made him a legendary figure, both praised and vilified, in UFT history. I had some brief contact with Jitu in the past few years and after initially approaching him with some trepidation -- I was open about supporting the UFT in the '68 strike -- I found him to be a gentle and inspiring man open to discussing the past and future. I liked him immediately and I wish I had spent more time with him but he seemed to be a very busy guy.
The '68 strike has been on my mind a lot lately -- with the argument about opposing mayoral control leading to the "then what?" question, the various versions of "community" control have bubbled back to the surface. When people scratch their heads about the UFT's adamant support for some version of mayoral control, the simple answer is: 1968.
Jitu played no small role in those events.
I was hoping to do some historical perspective this summer with a group of teachers who opened up their schools during the strike, some of whom have a very interesting perspective. I don't know if I would have had the nerve to ask Jitu Weusi to take part and I doubt if he would have. There has been so much more to his life since then and he shouldn't be solely defined by those years. The announcement on the list serves came from his
The '68 strike has been on my mind a lot lately -- with the argument about opposing mayoral control leading to the "then what?" question, the various versions of "community" control have bubbled back to the surface. When people scratch their heads about the UFT's adamant support for some version of mayoral control, the simple answer is: 1968.
Jitu played no small role in those events.
I was hoping to do some historical perspective this summer with a group of teachers who opened up their schools during the strike, some of whom have a very interesting perspective. I don't know if I would have had the nerve to ask Jitu Weusi to take part and I doubt if he would have. There has been so much more to his life since then and he shouldn't be solely defined by those years. The announcement on the list serves came from his
Walcott Misuses Public Funds and Public Space For Political Ends and Must Be Held Accountable
Guest column By A. P. Salamander
If ever there’s been a moment revealing how grossly Mike Bloomberg has diminished and twisted the office of Chancellor of Education from an independent advocate of students to a highly paid political shill of the mayor, it was found in Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s transparent politicking of behalf on Bloomberg before an audience of principals at Brooklyn Tech High School this past Saturday, May 18. This is no small matter. For a public official to be publicly politicking in a public building to publicly paid civil servants under the pretense of a conference on public education is utterly immoral and cannot possibly be legal.
To give you some context, a teacher wearing an “Occupy the DOE “ button on his or her overcoat at school can be cited and written up for professional misconduct.
Consider Walcott’s act in the context of the following rules from the Department of Education’s Chancellor’s Regulation D-130,
(http://docs.nycenet.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-86/D-130__1-15-04.pdf) which clearly