IEA publishes Koch and Wal-Mart boycott info. « Fred Klonsky's blog

IEA publishes Koch and Wal-Mart boycott info. « Fred Klonsky's blog

IEA publishes Koch and Wal-Mart boycott info.

by Fred Klonsky

As a result of our New Business Item passed at the IEA RA a month ago, the IEA has published a letter from President Ken Swanson that includes information about the anti-union practices of the Koch brothers and Wal-Mart. As directed by the RA, the IEA website also includes a thorough list of consumer products made by Koch brother owned companies.

The link also takes note of the role of the Koch brothers funding of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has been responsible for intimidation of pro-labor academics at Michigan public universities.

Swanson says:

At the 2011 Illinois Education Association Representative Assembly, a new business item was passed that asked IEA to please let its members know about some of the big businesses that are behind the current anti-public education

Will Michigan Teachers Walk? | Labor Notes

Will Michigan Teachers Walk? | Labor Notes

Will Michigan Teachers Walk?

Howard Ryan

| April 7, 2011

Michigan teachers are voting whether to authorize bold actions to challenge the king-like powers of the state's "emergency financial managers." Public sector strikes are illegal in Michigan, although some teachers (like these Detroiters) have mounted successful strikes. Photo: Jim West.

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Faced with a Republican onslaught whose impact could be deeper than that seen in Wisconsin and Ohio, the Michigan Education Association is taking a membership vote to authorize job actions.

The day after busing a 100-member delegation to join the Madison protests in mid-March, MEA President Iris Salters asked her union’s 110 local presidents to conduct the votes among 155,000 teachers and school support staff.

A yes vote would authorize MEA “to engage in significant activities—up to and including a work stoppage”—that will “increase the pressure on our legislators” to “end these attacks.” Specific demands on the legislators were not spelled out. The votes are to be conducted by April 14, but the MEA will not release results unti

Save Our Schools March & National Call To Action | California Progress Report

Save Our Schools March & National Call To Action | California Progress Report

Save Our Schools March & National Call To Action

by megan

By Lisa Schiff

Exon Mobil, $156 million. Bank of America, $1.9 billion. General Electric, $4.1 billion. Chevron, $19 million. These highly profitable companies, and many others like them, received these extraordinarily large amounts of money back as tax refunds. Yes that’s right, Republican lawmakers at the state and federal levels are trying to convince the American public that we need to decimate critical services like Medicare and public education so that we can hand over our money to these companies.

In the most intense ideological battle since Newt Gingrich was in office, Republicans at state and federal levels are holding fast to plans to extend tax breaks and implement drastic cuts to a variety of social services, including education. In California, the health care community, K-12 public schools and public institutions of higher education are steeling themselves for unknown levels of losses.

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Church and State: How Bad Religion Gets It Wrong on Government

by megan

By Rev. Peter Laarman
Progressive Christians Uniting

Competent journalist friends of mine have been doing good reporting lately on the unholy intersections between conservative religion and conservative political ideology within Tea Party and Republican circles. Whereas lazy corporate media types tried to convince us that the Tea Party marks a break with Religious Right dominance inside the GOP, it was always obvious to serious observers that an anti-tax gospel has been a major feature of Religious Right teaching for decades. And thus it was equally obvious that the smarmy Ralph Reeds of this world would surely find their place in any new Grand Coalition of anti-government activists.

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Is Parent Revolution an Astroturf Group? | Mother Jones

Is Parent Revolution an Astroturf Group? | Mother Jones

Is Parent Revolution an Astroturf Group?

McKinley Elementary School parent, Oralia Velasquez. Photos: Kristina Rizga

I went to Compton to find out.

— By Kristina Rizga

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Thu Apr. 7, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

Like all the houses on this block of southern Los Angeles, education reformer Oralia Velasquez's bungalow has bars on the windows and doors. I ring her doorbell one night as her neighbors—men in blue uniform shirts, kids carrying soccer balls—enter a few of the pastel houses that line the street, greeted by barking dogs and the wafting smell of dinner. We sit near family photos and statues of the Virgin de Guadalupe and discuss the complex national education debate playing out now at her daughter's elementary school.

California's parent trigger law: Say an elementary school like McKinley fails to make "adequate yearly progress" for four consecutive years, according to state markers measured using standardized test scores. If 51% of the school's parents sign a petition, they can request significant changes: closing the school, bringing in a charter school operator to run their school, or replacing the principal, teachers, or other administrative changes. The current version of the law doesn't require that public forums discuss all of the rights and options before or during the petition process, either. This is the first of 75 "parent triggers" allowed to take place in California's schools, and Compton is the first district in the country where this law is going through a test run.

Until the nation's first "parent trigger" law passed in the school district, news coverage of Compton was often reduced to gang violence and drive-by shootings. But the flatlands are also dotted with graceful, dilapidated hom

Michelle Rhee's political scorecard

Michelle Rhee's political scorecard

Michelle Rhee's political scorecard

by admin

Michelle Rhee’s constant support of right-wing governors has many wondering about her political affiliations (as proof of this: go to Google, type “Is Michelle Rhee”, and see what the top searches are). While Rhee is quick to label herself a Democrat, many commentators have questioned her bona fides. Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis recently wondered if Rhee is becoming a “right-wing darling”, a blogger for the Asian-Pacific Americans for Progress has labeled her response to the Erasure Gate scandal as “the kind of response you would expect from the right-wing”. Rhee openly expressed reservations about voting for Obama in the 2008 election, and hasrecently partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Looking at the politicians Rhee has worked with since leaving DC, it seemed that all were Republicans. So we decided to start keeping score. For your information (and entertainment), here’s a chart of the governors that

Jersey Jazzman: Chris Christie: Lying Liar

Jersey Jazzman: Chris Christie: Lying Liar

Chris Christie: Lying Liar

Maybe it's a function of writing day in and day out about the lazy job the press does on calling Chris Christie on his bull. But I wasn't surprised in the slightest that Diane Sawyer let him get away - yet again - with some sensationally bald-faced lying:

DIANE SAWYER: We have seen all the high-octane debate. Debate is a polite word sometimes for what's going on about education in New Jersey. I was looking up and I saw the ad running now that has been taken out, which talks about you and keeps saying, "Chris Christie is making the wrong choices for New Jersey." [Critics say] that larger class sizes put the children at risk, that cutting funding for the schools over $1

Benjamin Todd Jealous: Prison Spending Bleeds the Education System

Benjamin Todd Jealous: Prison Spending Bleeds the Education System

Prison Spending Bleeds the Education System

Posted: 04/ 7/11 10:35 AM ET

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By Benjamin Todd Jealous & Rod Paige

There is a bipartisan tide of lawmakers who are trying to fix our nation's out-of-control corrections system, and make funding for education the priority.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill to transfer thousands of nonviolent offenders from state prisons to county jails, an admirable effort to reduce prison overcrowding and make treatment programs more effective. In Virginia, Gov. Robert McDonnell is working to close eight prison facilities and use that money to support higher education.

And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked in his 2010 State of the State address: "What does it say

This Week In Education: Advocacy: The Left's Getting Itself Organized, Too

This Week In Education: Advocacy: The Left's Getting Itself Organized, Too

Advocacy: The Left's Getting Itself Organized, Too

by Alexander Russo

Unwilling to let the juiced-up centrist groups have advocacy all to themselves, the Annenberg Institute just announced its own Ford Foundation-fundedcenter for education organizing (PDF), whose focus will be " democratic participation by parents, students and community members that challenges persistent patterns of educational inequality." Take that, charter school- and merit pay-fans. No word yet on how big the center will be, or who's heading it. For what it's worth, Richard Rothstein tells me that the Broader, Bolder Alliance is still going strong -- Elaine Weiss is the head -- but BBA's focus is "building policy support for narrowing the social and economic inequalities that children bring to school..." rather than advocacy and community organizing. So now you know. Image via.

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (April 4, 2011)

ANNENBERG INSTITUTE LAUNCHES CENTER FOR EDUCATION ORGANIZING
NATIONAL TEAM FOCUSED ON NURTURING GRASSROOTS EDUCATION-ORGANIZING EFFORTS AND