New Orleans Liberation Academy: Reflections on Organizing towards Collective Liberation at Occupy NOLA

New Orleans Liberation Academy: Reflections on Organizing towards Collective Liberation at Occupy NOLA:

Reflections on Organizing towards Collective Liberation at Occupy NOLA

by New Orleans Liberation Academy

Over the last few weeks our students and advisors have been partipating in various aspects of Occupy New Orleans actions and working groups. Most centrally though, we have all been deeply engaged in the Anti-Racism Working Group meeting 3 times a week a diverse collective of anti-racism organizers and activists from participating in the Occupy movement and other longtime organizers from the community. Fellow member of the working group, provided great analysis and a look at the anti-racist organizing that is coming out of the Occupy Movement in New Orleans in her post published today on the Monthly Review Zine, and we are happy to share it here:


Reflections on Organizing towards Collective Liberation at Occupy NOLA
by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

Over the past few weeks, I have been invigorated and moved by the energy surrounding Occupy Wall Street and

LDF Takes a Stand for Teacher Quality and Equity in ESEA Reauthorization | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog

LDF Takes a Stand for Teacher Quality and Equity in ESEA Reauthorization | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog:

LDF Takes a Stand for Teacher Quality and Equity in ESEA Reauthorization

Posted By The Editors | October 19th, 2011 (2 hours ago) | Category: Education | No Comments » Print This Post

LDF joined more than eighty civil rights, disability, parent, student, grassroots and education organizations from across the country to urge Congress not to turn back the clock on teacher quality gains for poor and minority students, English Learners, and students with disabilities as it considers reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB).

In a letter to Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Michael Enzi (R-WY), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions and co-sponsors of a bill to reauthorize the ESEA, the coalition urged that the revised ESEA require teachers to complete a minimum level of training and demonstrate competence

Occupy LA Anti-Semitic Comments: LAUSD Substitute Teacher Fired Over 'Anti-semitic' Remarks at Occupy LA Protest - ktla.com

Occupy LA Anti-Semitic Comments: LAUSD Substitute Teacher Fired Over 'Anti-semitic' Remarks at Occupy LA Protest - ktla.com:

LAUSD Fires Teacher Over Anti-Semitic Comments at 'Occupy' Protest

Protester was a substitute teacher.
VIDEO: Watch Glen Walker's Report

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Former LAUSD substitute teacher Patricia McAllister, who is also an Occupy LA protester, was fired by the school district for making comments deemed to be anti-Semitic. (KTLA News)

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• VIDEO: Occupy LA Takes On LAUSD - Glen Walker reports

KTLA News

4:15 a.m. PDT, October 19, 2011

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Occupy LA protesters demonstrated on the steps of Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Monday, speaking out against the district's dismissal of a substitute teacher who made public comments deemed anti-Semitic at a recent protest.

The teacher, Patricia McAllister, spoke out at a recent Occupy LA protest, saying the Jews run the nation's banking infrastructure and should be forced to leave the U.S.

"I think that the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and

Making Sense of Michelle Rhee's Legacy and Teacher "Churn and Burn" - Dana Goldstein

Making Sense of Michelle Rhee's Legacy and Teacher "Churn and Burn" - Dana Goldstein:

Making Sense of Michelle Rhee's Legacy and Teacher "Churn and Burn"

by Dana Goldstein

If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend Washington Post reporter Bill Turque's analysis of Michelle Rhee's legacy one year after she left the D.C. public schools. Turque writes about the "churn and burn" in the D.C. teacher corps since the introduction of the controversial new IMPACT teacher evaluation and merit pay system: One-third of all teachers on the payroll in September 2007 no longer work for the district, and inexperienced teachers are more clustered than ever in low-income schools and neighborhoods. We know this is problematic because DC's own data shows that 22 percent of teachers with six to 10 years of experience are rated "highly effective," compared to just 12 percent of teachers with less than six years experience.

That said, if inexperienced but minimally-competent teachers are replacing grossly incompetent ones, the high turnover might be a better option than leaving bad teachers in the classroom. In the case of D.C., is that what's

A Letter from a Seattle Public School Teacher to His Colleagues Regarding the School Board Race | Seattle Education

A Letter from a Seattle Public School Teacher to His Colleagues Regarding the School Board Race | Seattle Education:

A Letter from a Seattle Public School Teacher to His Colleagues Regarding the School Board Race

by seattleducation2011

This was a letter that was sent to me that I would like to share with the Seattle community:

Dora

Dear Seattle Teachers and Seattle Education Advocates -

On Wed. 19 Oct the ballots go in the mail for the Seattle School Board election of Tues. 8 November.

WE each need to get 5 people WE know to vote for the FOUR challengers to

School police officers relocate protestors' tents from LAUSD headquarters - LA Daily News #OWS

School police officers relocate protestors' tents from LAUSD headquarters - LA Daily News:

School police officers relocate protestors' tents from LAUSD headquarters

Daily News Wire Services

Posted: 10/19/2011 08:07:30 AM PDT

Updated: 10/19/2011 08:12:37 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES - School police officers have relocated the tents of protesters from outside the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters to pre-arranged locations nearby, a school police sergeant said early this morning.

The demonstrators -- some of whom have been taking part in the Occupy L.A. encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall in protest of corporate greed and high unemployment -- had marched to the school district headquarters Tuesday afternoon to protest teacher layoffs and large class sizes.

"The locations we moved their tents to are at the corners of Third Street and Beaudry and Fourth Street and Beaudry," Los Angeles School Police Department Sgt. Michael Vargas told City News Service.

"This move to those corners was worked out between our command and representatives of" United Teachers

Report from retired teachers meet. Fighting for pensions. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Report from retired teachers meet. Fighting for pensions. « Fred Klonsky's blog:

Report from retired teachers meet. Fighting for pensions.

by Fred Klonsky

Got this from Chris Turney of the Du Page Illinois Retired Teachers Association:

Hi Fred,

Just got back from the IRTA Convention in Springfield. They had 396 delegates in attendance. They meet every other year. It is quite different from IEA, but they are the activists and are very dedicated. Many are former IEA members, former administrators, and a large group of women who belong to Delta Kappa Gamma, a strong networking educational group.

Anyway, the big issues were pension funding and pension legislation. Our pension has accrued 24 percent interest in the last eight years. Without the wise investment choices made by our trustees with our own money, we could have been in big trouble with our payments since the state has not always been timely with their payments to us (currently they owe us money). Some years have

Occupy Movement Solidarity: Where are the Professors? | Dissident Voice #OWS

Occupy Movement Solidarity: Where are the Professors? | Dissident Voice:

Occupy Movement Solidarity: Where are the Professors?

by Matt Reichel

Absent from the occupy protests throughout this country, as with most meaningful movements in recent memory, are faculty of our major universities. Aside from the symbolic arrest of Cornel West and passive words of support from Noam Chomsky, the academic profession has been notably absent from this exhilarating movement.

This is particularly bothersome because one of the primary grievances of the protestors is the cost of higher education, and the larger role of indebtedness in informing the present precariousness of young people. Education debt, even more than housing debt, plays a repugnant role in this society, insofar as it preys on the young and ambitious, ultimately leaving citizens shackled to the financial industry for the bulk of their adult lives. Before anyone is capable of making sound fiscal decisions in life, they find themselves five-figures in the red, just for doing what they grew up believing to be the “right thing.”

When British students rallied against fee increases last year, professors were present alongside. The same goes

How City Schools Pushed Themselves Towards the Precipice of Insolvency - voiceofsandiego.org: Pounding The Pavement

How City Schools Pushed Themselves Towards the Precipice of Insolvency - voiceofsandiego.org: Pounding The Pavement:

How City Schools Pushed Themselves Towards the Precipice of InsolvencyComments (4) | 9:20 pm

This summer, San Diego Unified School District trustees were asked to make a difficult decision.

The district had prepared to lay off 1,400 employees, including about 800 teachers — about 10 percent of its entire workforce. Then the state offered a lifeline, issuing newly optimistic economic forecasts and telling districts to rehire teachers.

With the extra money, the district could now afford to bring back more than 300 teachers who had previously been told they'd be laid off. That would help keep cherished class sizes down at some of the district's most challenged schools, and, in board President Richard Barrera's words, prevent the district from "blowing up" programs that had been making significant headway.

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How Insolvency Can Change SchoolsComments (5) | 6:25 pm

Top officials at San Diego Unified say the district's financial health isteetering on the edge of a cliff. If the state cuts more funding this year, the district could soon fall over the edge and into insolvency.

As I explained yesterday, insolvency would then spur a radical shift in local control over San Diego's schools for decades to come. The state would take over the district, firing its superintendent and stripping its school board of all authority. Until the district repays a bailout, the state would remain a fixture in the district's financial affairs.

For a glimpse at what could happen to San Diego Unified, I examined what did happen to Oakland Unified in 2003. The district declared insolvency, received a $100 million bailout and then handed over control to the state.

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What Happens if City Schools Go InsolventComments (15) | 11:30 am

Last week, top officials said the San Diego Unified School District is on the brink of financial collapse and may require a state takeover to remain afloat.

So what does that mean?

A takeover would push the state to loan the district millions of dollars to pay for its bills. Declaring insolvency would spur radical changes in the district's operations.

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San Diego Schools Chief: 'Starting Point on the Road to Insolvency'Comments (39) | 10:11 am

Things have gotten to the point at the San Diego Unified School District that its top two officials are tossing around a big word: insolvency.

Here's Superintendent Bill Kowba,according to the Union-Tribune:

“Barely one month after school has opened we are at the edge of the cliff, looking over and down at insolvency,” Kowba told the school board Tuesday night. “We are facing the reality of midyear budget cuts that could be the starting point on the road to insolvency and state takeover.”

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