Perdido Street School:
Michael Wolff: NY Post Soon To Be Gone
How Do We Counter The Sophisticated P.R. Operations Of The Corporate Deformers?
Perdido Street School Week
Michael Wolff: NY Post Soon To Be Gone
In Britain's edition of GQ:The New York Post could well be Rupert Murdoch's most beloved newspaper. It's the title that by losing so much money - as much as $100m (£60m) a year - has arguably helped make his fortune. It has been his bully pulpit and cudgel in the United States. It's the vehicle by which he has punished enemies and rewarded friends, an instrument of rough justice that has been incr
How Do We Counter The Sophisticated P.R. Operations Of The Corporate Deformers?
The battle over the UFT contract agreement has gotten me thinking about public relations and messaging.Earlier I wrote a post asking people to start thinking through the p.r. war that is sure to come if the UFT contract agreement is voted down.My argument basically was this:Contracts are not negotiated in isolation of the political environment - what gets reported in the press, the propaganda that
What Comes After?
There's a lot of talk in schools and around the Internet about voting the UFT contract agreement down and forcing de Blasio to give teachers a better deal in a second agreement.People say this will show the public that teachers are starting to stand up for themselves, they're not going to take getting humiliated or beaten up by the politicians or press anymore.I have also heard how teachers voted
MAY 15
Is Cuomo Allying With Bloomberg To Bring Olympics To New York?
Because the dreams of the Little Billionaire are never really crushed, no matter how many times Shelly Silver sticks a shiv in them:One of the biggest disappointments of Michael Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor was his failure to lure the Olympic flame to New York. Now, one of his closest lieutenants and the architect of the 2012 bid is pitching a fresh case for bringing the 2024 summer games to the ci
Chris Christie's Former Campaign Manager Goes After Christie
Getting closer and closer to Chris Christie: Gov. Chris Christie’s former campaign manager says he told the governor about plans to close lanes on the George Washington Bridge in December, contradicting Christie’s claims he had no prior knowledge. Bill Stepien, who lost his job in the scandal, contends he told Christie about the GWB traffic plans on Dec. 12, a day before the governor told reporter
NYSED Commissioner John King Says APPR Teacher Evaluations And Common Core Will Bring About Greater Economic Equality
I called this yesterday before NYSED Commissioner King gave his Brown vs Board of Education speech:Anybody want to bet an APPR artifact that King recycles some of the same boilerplate from the last speech about how the fight for education reform/Common Core is much like the fight for civil rights for this speech today?Here's Jessica Bakeman on yesterday's speech:ALBANY—On the 60th anniversary of t
MAY 14
Cuomo's All Class
From State of Politics:The Cuomo administration on Wednesday is denying claims being made by Republican Rob Astorino’s gubernatorial campaign that a top aide sought to move the county executive to a less-than-prominent seat at an event featuring President Obama. Astorino spokeswoman Jessica Proud says the White House had initially offered to seat him in the front row at today’s announcement on the
Get Ready For Another Common Core/Civil Rights Speech From NYSED Commissioner John King
NYSED Commissioner King has already compared himself to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and said the education reform/Common Core fight is much like the fight for civil rights:Paraphrasing Martin Luther King, Jr., the commissioner said: “In a real sense, this afternoon, we can say that our feet are tired, but our souls are rested. “Change is hard,” he continued. “It is challenging, and it is tiring, bu
MAY 13
Bridgegate Scandal Gets Closer To Chris Christie
From NJ.com:Gov. Chris Christie tonight downplayed the sworn testimony his chief spokesman gave to the state legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal earlier in the day, saying it didn't reveal anything new.Michael Drewniak, the longtime press secretary in the governor's office, delivered seven hours of testimony today, stressing that neither he nor Christie knew ab
An Anti-Coleman Assignment
I don't know about you, but I'm running on fumes about now.Between the compliance stuff for the new teacher evaluation system (including the fetishization of the lesson plans which I covered a while back), the Common Core implementation (which has been going less than swimmingly), the MOSL tests and grading, the Regents classes I have had this year and just the overall "gotcha" zeitgeist
Opt-Out Movement Posied To Grow Even Bigger
From Gary Stern and Randi Weiner at LoHud:More than 3,140 students in the Lower Hudson Valley sat out the recent state math tests, an 84 percent increase over the number who opted out from the ELA tests only four weeks earlier.Overall, 3.4 percent of local students in grades 3-8 were directed by their parents to skip the math tests, according to a survey of 54 school districts in Westchester, Rock
MAY 12
Eva Moskowitz Says She May Run For Mayor
Not a surprise to anybody paying attention to the "charter wars" - Eva Moskowitz is creating her own little fiefdoms across the city to use as power bases for a future run for mayor: Charter school maven Eva Moskowitz may have a mayoral run in her future. “I might run for mayor some day,” she said on the John Gambling radio show. “But right now, I’m very, very focused on educating the 10
Why Won't UFT Leadership Debate The Teachers Contract Agreement?
It's not too difficult, really - if the agreement is so good, then the UFT leadership ought to send somebody out to debate the contract agreement at Francis Lewis High School this week.But apparently the UFT leadership are scared to do so, since they not only won't debate the contract, they won't even acknowledge that there is another side in the union that wants to debate the contract agreement.M
MAY 11
Take A Tour Of Sandra Lee's House With Jenna Bush
Tried embedding the code, for some reason, doesn't want to embed right, but here's a must watch video with Jenna Bush taking us on a Christmas tour of the house Sandra Lee and Governor Andrew Cuomo share together.Do not watch on a full stomach - it's that nauseating.Just gives you some context for the "Sheriff Andy and Sandra Lee didn't get building permits so they could stiff the tax man&quo
What Good Is "College And Career Ready" When There Are No Jobs For College Graduates?
I'm so sick of hearing Common Core proponents issue the boilerplate jive about how the CCSS are helping to make students college and career ready to compete in a global 21st century economy.The truth is, there are few jobs out there for college graduates and the prospects aren't getting better:While members of the class of 2014 have some cause to celebrate, they also know they are a few short mont
Why Is Cuomo Henchman Larry Schwartz Defending Sandra Lee Over Charges Of Building Permit-Fudging?
LoHud reported this morning that Andy Cuomo's partner, Sandra Lee, has had extensive work done to her house but failed to get the needed permits - and thus property value reassessments - needed for that work:Lee enjoys what might be considered a more unattainable lifestyle at the six-bedroom, $1.2 million house she shares with Cuomo at 4 Bittersweet Lane. She has done much in the past six years to
Will The UFT Leadership Publicly Debate The Contract Proposal?
NYC Educator posted the following this morning:On Friday I decided it would be a good idea to have a forum in which both sides of the contract proposal are examined. I asked my friend Julie Cavanagh if she would be interested in presenting the con side, and she agreed. I went to my principal and asked if we could use the school auditorium. He said if we got a permit and did so after school hours i
Daily News Goes After The Little Charter School Crooks But Leaves Big Ones Like Moskowitz And Kenny Alone
One of the lines you sometimes here from charter school proponents and supporters - charters must be free from the same regulations as public schools so they can do their magical "innovation" thing.Of course a lack of regulations also can lead to this: On a quiet Ditmas Park side street, taxpayers shell out $2.3 million a year to lease space from the Catholic Church for a charter school
MAY 10
What That Meeting On Long Island Between Teachers Union Leaders And Cuomo Signifies
In case you missed the news, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, the "steppin' razor" of New York politics, the politician of whom it is said, "You either do what he wants you to do or you're road kill," had a meeting with the heads of five small local unions on Long Island this week:Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo met Thursday with teachers who had protested his education policies at a large rally