Coincident with massive, at times explosive, student protests in Rome and London, University of Puerto Rico has again become a flashpoint with a student strike beginning Tuesday that turned the main campus into a militarized zone of police, riot squad, and SWAT teams, complete with low-flying helicopters and snipers. What began as a conflict over a steep student fee hike is now seen as a larger struggle to preserve public education against privatization.
Resistance to the imposed $800 student fee has triggered repressive state measures: police have occupied the main campus for the first time in 31 years and Monday the local Supreme Court, recently stacked by the pro-Statehood political party in power, outlawed student strikes and campus protests. More than 500 students defied the ruling by demonstrating on campus Tuesday, brandishing the slogan "They fear us because we don't fear them" ("Nos tienen miedo porque no
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Maritza Stanchich, Ph.D.: Puerto Rico Student Strike Intensifies, Public Education and Civil Rights at Stake
The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part One « EdVox
The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part One
A Four-part Series Assessing His Accomplishments: PART ONE
by Norm Fruchter
“We played big and we got big results,” Joel Klein told the NYC Education Reform Retrospective conference on November 10th, in a talk summing up his administration’s accomplishments after 8 1/2 years as Schools Chancellor. During those years he radically transformed the city school system. The 40-year-old foundations of decentralization, the citywide school board and the 32 elected community school boards and their appointed superintendents, are gone. The privileges of teacher seniority are much reduced; teacher hiring decisions (when not restricted by a hiring freeze) are now primarily a free-market school-level function. The high school landscape has been radically altered.
Since 2002, some 20 large, poorly performing high schools have been closed, some 200 new small high schools have been created, and the high school admissions/assignment process has been revised to expand student choice. More than 100 charter schools are currently operating in the city, and 100 more are being planned. The teaching force has been bolstered by a significant percentage of new teachers from non-traditional sources, and
The Answer Sheet - Joel Klein's business model and the drowning of Nicole Suriel
Joel Klein's business model and the drowning of Nicole Suriel
Governor-elect Brown’s Budgetary Shock Doctrine Blows Up School Board Planning
Governor-elect Brown’s Budgetary Shock Doctrine Blows Up School Board Planning
Over the past few weeks education advocates have been getting some unexpected signals coming out of Sacramento. The word “No” is being bandied about in ways that could result in shocking cuts to education State-wide for the next school year.
Faced with yet another budget shortfall—this one to the tune of $28 billion over the next eighteen months—it’s common knowledge that the California legislature will have to make additional cuts to the state budget. A special legislative session called by Gov. Schwarzenegger to make immediate cuts a few days back passed the buck, making the funding crisis a top priority for incoming Gov. Jerry Brown. Education advocates knew this was likely, and the plan has been to focus lobbying and other resources on the next administration, hoping for a more favorable reception.
That hasn’t been the case. The incoming administration has apparently decided to immediately confront the State’s structural deficit head-on, rather than trying to patch shortfalls up with
At Agassiz School, progress and a sense of betrayal - The Boston Globe
At Agassiz, progress and a sense of betrayal
Parents staged a demonstration in Jamaica Plain this month to protest plans to close the Agassiz School in a budget squeeze. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)By many accounts, the Agassiz Elementary School, one of 12 underperforming schools in Boston, appeared to be showing glimmers of a rebound.
Math scores on the MCAS exam shot up this past spring after the school offered more intensive tutoring. Student attendance rates improved as the school cracked down on tardiness and absenteeism.
And the school district spent about $900,000 last year to replace dozens of grimy, leaky windows, allowing sunlight once again to filter into this Jamaica Plain building where air quality and mold has long been a concern.
Yet instead of optimism brimming from every nook and cranny, a sense of
LATEST EDUCATION NEWS WIRE UPDATES
- 1960 plane collision over NYC spurred improvements(AP, 9:31 a.m.)
- Report: Fewer grads choosing to be Calif teachers (AP, 8:20 a.m.)
- Dogs show students: Exams' bark is worse than bite(AP, 9:31 a.m.)
- Hearing for Ex-Mass. teacher on child rape charge (AP, 4:08 a.m.)
- Highlights of the tax package before the Senate (AP, 3:21 a.m.)
LATEST K-12 EDUCATION NEWS
- Vote on Boston school reform (AP, 3:08 a.m.)
- Gunman fires at Fla. school board, kills self (AP, 9:50 a.m.)
- At Agassiz School, progress and a sense of betrayal(Boston Globe, 12:16 a.m.)
- Cops: Man fires at Fla. school board; kills self (AP, 12:01 a.m.)
- Poll: Most want easier way to fire bad teachers (AP, 12/14/10)
Stunning video: Gunman fires at Fla. school board - NorthJersey.com
Warning: Video might be inappropriate
for some viewers.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — An ex-convict calmly held a school board at gunpoint, complaining about taxes and his wife being fired before shooting at close range as the superintendent begged, "Please don't."
Minutes earlier, the room had been filled with students accepting awards, but no one was hurt except the gunman, who shot himself Tuesday after exchanging fire with a security guard, police said.
"It could have been a monumental tragedy," Bay District Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt said. "God was standing in front of me and I will go to my grave
Students Riot in Italy as Government Teeters « Student Activism
Students Riot in Italy as Government Teeters
Students staged mass protests in Rome and throughout Italy yesterday as the Italian parliament voted on a confidence resolution that threatened the government of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi, who has proposed huge cuts to higher education as part of a reform package condemned by many in Italy’s universities, prevailed by a mere three votes. As news of the result spread through the crowds, anger swelled — in all, more than a hundred protesters were injured.
Though Berlusconi, who has dominated Italian politics for more than a decade, survived yesterday’s vote, his
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Thousands turn out in the cold for Chicago mayoral forum
Thousands turn out in the cold for Chicago mayoral forum
 |
| M. Klonsky photo |
UIC's Forum was packed last night. Nearly 3,000 turned out, mainly from the city's community and social-service orgs, in the bitter cold, under the banner of New Chicago-201l. This poor frost-bitten soul was one of them. Big money candidate Rahm Emanuel wasn't, and his absence united the crowd with a round of boos.
California Teaching Workforce is Running on Empty | California Progress Report
California Teaching Workforce is Running on Empty
By Margaret Gaston
Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning
Cumulative cuts of more than $20 billion from California’s schools over the past three years have made it tougher for teachers to help students meet increasing expectations for academic achievement and have badly damaged the state’s ability to recruit and prepare new teachers needed for the future, according to the annual report on California’s teaching workforce released this week by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning.
The report makes clear that California’s teaching workforce is running on empty. The disinvestment in building a top quality teacher workforce is at odds with rising demands for students’ academic success, and the fiscal crisis has so severely damaged the pipeline for recruiting and training new teachers that teaching quality may be put at risk for many years to come.