Teachers Alone Can’t Fix the “Accumulated Hurt” | Portside

Teachers Alone Can’t Fix the “Accumulated Hurt” | Portside:



Teachers Alone Can’t Fix the “Accumulated Hurt”

The issue is violence against children, particularly low income and minority children. But all violence doesn’t come at the end of a gun. Keeping public schools defunded and dysfunctional is also a form of violence. Promoting privatization and competition when kids really need resources is also cruelty. And when society’s evils are visited upon innocent children, teachers alone can’t protect them.

Steven Singer

The Progressive

February 16, 2015

Public school teachers are being called upon to address all forms of violence against children, with few and fewer tools.
Steven Singer

She was smiling and laughing, but her eyes were terrified.

Sitting in class among her fellow middle school students, her words were all bravado. But her gestures were wild and frightened. Tears were close.

So as the morning bell rang and the conversation continued unabated, I held myself in check. I stopped the loud rebuke forming in my teacher’s throat and just listened.

“You know that shooting at Monroeville Mall Saturday night, Mr. Singer? I was there!”

I swallowed. “My gosh, Paulette. Are you okay?”

She acts street smart and unbreakable, but I can still see the little girl in her. She’s only thirteen.

She slowed down and told us what happened; a story framed as bragging but really a desperate plea for safety and love.

She went to the mall with her mother. When they separated so she could go to the restroom, the gunfire began. She ran out and Mom was gone. She was ushered into a nearby store where the customers were kept in lockdown. She stayed there until the police cleared the mall, and it was safe to find her mother and go home.

A seventeen-year-old boy had gunned down three people. One was his target. The others were bystanders—parents who had gotten in the way. Now they were all in the hospital, two in critical condition.

And my student—my beautiful, precious, pain-in-the-butt, braggadocious, darling little child—was stuck in the mix.

I could imagine how scared she must have been separated from her mother, hiding with strangers as police swept the shops, food court, and children’s play center.

Here she was telling the class her story and getting more upset with each word.

I gave her a meaningful look and told her we’d talk more later. Then I began class.

But I kept my eye on her. Was that relief I saw as the talk turned from bullets and bloodshed to similes and metaphors? Did the flush leave her cheeks as we crafted multi-paragraph theses? I hope so.

I think I know her pretty well by now. She’s been mine for two years—in both 7th and 8th grades. I even taught her older brother when he was in middle school.

I know she’s rarely going to do her homework—and if she does, it will be finished in the last twenty minutes. I know she’d rather be out playing volleyball or cheerleading than in school writing or

- See more at: http://portside.org/2015-02-21/teachers-alone-can%E2%80%99t-fix-%E2%80%9Caccumulated-hurt%E2%80%9D#sthash.ROOBF3PD.yZlJVCEj.dpuf

When a Wildlife Rehab Center Regulates Charter Schools: Inside the Wild World of Charter Regulation - ProPublica

When a Wildlife Rehab Center Regulates Charter Schools: Inside the Wild World of Charter Regulation - ProPublica:

When a Wildlife Rehab Center Regulates Charter Schools: Inside the Wild World of Charter Regulation

Charter school “authorizers” are charged with making sure schools can be trusted with kids and with public money. Problem is, many lack the tools to do the job.

by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Feb. 20, 2015, 11:14 a.m.

 Nestled in the woods of central Minnesota, near a large lake, is a nature sanctuary called the Audubon Center of the North Woods. The nonprofit rehabilitates birds. It hosts retreats and conferences. It’s home to a North American porcupine named Spike as well as several birds of prey, frogs, and snakes used to educate the center’s visitors.

It’s also Minnesota’s largest regulator of charter schools, overseeing 32 of them.

Charter schools are taxpayer-funded, privately run schools freed from many of the rules that apply to traditional public schools. What’s less widely understood is that there are few hard-and-fast rules for how the regulators charged with overseeing charter schools are supposed to do the job. Many are making it up as they go along.

Known as “authorizers,” charter regulators have the power to decide which charter schools should be allowed to open and which are performing so badly they ought to close. They’re supposed to vet charter schools, making sure the schools are giving kids a good education and spending public money responsibly.

But many of these gatekeepers are woefully inexperienced, under-resourced, confused about their mission or even compromised by conflicts of interest. And while some charter schools are overseen by state education agencies or school districts, others are regulated by entities for which overseeing charters is a side job, such as private colleges and nonprofits like the Audubon wildlife rehabilitation center.

One result of the regulatory mishmash: Bad schools have been allowed to stay open and evade accountability.

“Almost everything you see come up as charter school problems, if you scratch past the surface, the real problem is bad authorizing,” said John Charlton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education.

In 2010, an investigation by the Philadelphia Controller’s Office found lavish executive salaries, conflicts of interest and other problems at more than a dozen charter schools, and it faulted the authorizer – the School District of Philadelphia’s charter school office – for “complete and total failure” to monitor schools. In 2013, more than a dozen Ohio charter schools that had gained approval from various authorizers received state funding and then either collapsed in short order or never opened at all.

“Considerable state funds were lost and many lives impacted because of these failures,” the Ohio Department of Education wrote in a scathing letter last year to Ohio’s charter-school regulators. The agency wrote that some authorizers “lacked not only the appropriate processes, but more importantly, the commitment of mission, expertise and resources needed to be effective.”

Aside from such dramatic implosions, it’s hard to tell how many authorizers are doing at this important public function. They’re generally not required to say much about the details of their decision-making.

Take Minnesota’s Audubon Center. As a group, the schools overseen by the center fall below the state average on test scores. The group has several persistently low performers, acknowledged David Greenberg, Audubon’s Director of Charter School Authorizing, and a few years back, made the tough call to close one. But test scores offer a limited window into how a regulator is performing. The center works with several schools serving high-need students in Minneapolis, and high-need students tend to have lower test scores. A full picture requires a more holistic evaluation – one that the Minnesota Department of When a Wildlife Rehab Center Regulates Charter Schools: Inside the Wild World of Charter Regulation - ProPublica:

Marie Corfield: My #PARCC refusal letter

Marie Corfield: My #PARCC refusal letter:

My #PARCC refusal letter

Readers, feel free to modify this letter to suit your needs.

February 23, 2015

Dear ------------------,

We are writing to inform you that, as per our parental rights under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, we are refusing to allow our daughter, -------------, to sit for the PARCC PBA and EOY.

Research has shown, and Bari Erlichson, Chief Performance Officer/Assistant Commissioner of Data, Research, Evaluation and Reporting at the NJ Department of Education has publicly stated, that the PARCC is not a diagnostic test as has been claimed. It will do nothing to assist our daughter’s current teachers in her educational progress, but may in fact unfairly harm their careers instead because student test scores are tied to their evaluations. As we’re sure you know, when the tests were administered in New York last year, scores plummeted because the test has been shown to be deeply flawed and in many cases, developmentally inappropriate. This is not fair to our Marie Corfield: My #PARCC refusal letter:

Don’t Confuse Children’s Needs With Adults’ Politics – redqueeninla

Don’t Confuse Children’s Needs With Adults’ Politics – redqueeninla:



Don’t Confuse Children’s Needs With Adults’ Politics

 The buzz about town is that UTLA might strike and I have been asked at least a dozen times what I think about it.

I think these teachers should have struck (“striked”?) years ago. Years and years and years ago.

That’s an answer given as a citizen, an adult, a thinker, a community member, a neighbor. It’s not an answer given as a parent, and one of an incipient college applicatee no less. I’m as worried as the next about the impact on my own child, on her learning, on my family and home life and all the rest of it.

But from the point of view of what I want for my child when I send her off to school, there just isn’t any question. There is no one at all anywhere who wants their child to be warehoused in a “classroom” of fifty kids. That isn’t a classroom of learning, that’s a storage facility and it is simply unconscionable. There really isn’t any other word for it.

So all the random fulminations about how class size isn’t really vital but instead the quality of the teacher is the most important metric or the manners of the child or his readiness to learn – this is just so much utter poppycock tossed up in the air hoping something, somewhere will stick.

And it has because what I also hear is everywhere whispered the bizarre claim that teachers calling for lower class sizes is just a “personnel issue” and a ‘self-serving union ploy’.

I just can’t get over the surreal not to mention oxymoronic nature of such comments. Unions by definition advocate for the rights of their members, so work toward this end is their purpose by design, not disgrace. And for legions of the working class to criticize fellow denizens of the same circumstance is just nothing short of confusing. How does it come to pass that so many would work against their own best interest?

Because that’s what’s happening when fellow common parents and citizens scorn Don’t Confuse Children’s Needs With Adults’ Politics – redqueeninla:

More parents see standardized tests as harmful:

More parents see standardized tests as harmful

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

Arizona parents opposed to standardized testing have a new champion in state Rep. John Ackerley, a Sahuarita Republican.

Ackerly is sponsoring a bill to let parents opt their kids out of statewide assessments — something many already do, asserting the testing is harmful, although strictly speaking, they are violating the law.

The bill not only formally allows opting out, it mandates a school’s grade will not be harmed, as it is now.

“There are going to be parents who have their students not take the test for whatever reason and right now their decision to do so pits them against the school,” said Ackerley. “It sets them up for a fight.”

HB 2246 was approved by the House Education Committee but still needs to be approved by the full House and Senate. Supporters include new state schools chief Diane Douglas and Tucson Unified School District Superintendent H.T. Sanchez.

State law allows parents to withdraw a child only from learning activities or materials that question “beliefs or practices in sex, morality or religion.” A succession of attorney general opinions say statewide achievement tests are neither learning activities nor materials, so parents may not refuse mandatory testing.

Schools are required to test 95 percent of students — a rule designed to prevent them from encouraging parents to keep children home who might not test well.

But today, many parents are taking that step without any encouragement, arguing the amount of testing children are subjected to is excessive and has become a form of bullying.

The number of traditional Arizona schools that failed to test 95 percent of students more than tripled from 2013 to 2014 — going from 19 schools to 62.

Because schools are not required to explain why they missed the 95 percent cut off, the Arizona Department of Education could not speculate on the reason for the rise, said spokesman Charles Tack.

Tack added Douglas is a supporter of parental choice.

“She supports what the bill is trying to do and looks forward to seeing if it gets through so we can ensure that we are protecting schools and not penalizing them as a result of parent choice,” Tack said.

In TUSD, while opting out is not pervasive across the district, Sanchez said some schools like More parents see standardized tests as harmful:

More charter school controls wanted by the left and by Auditor Yost on the right | cleveland.com

More charter school controls wanted by the left and by Auditor Yost on the right | cleveland.com:

More charter school controls wanted by the left and by Auditor Yost on the right

State Auditor Dave Yost, also a Republican, said he plans to give the legislature his own suggested changes early next month. Those will include requiring more financial reporting by charter schools and the private companies that often run them, along with better definition of the role of those companies.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Charter school reform proposals are gaining broad support in Columbus, but there are voices on both the left and the right who say the $1 billion charter school movement in Ohio needs even stronger controls than what has been proposed.

Both Gov. John Kasich and Republicans in the Ohio House have made separate proposals to change the oversight and management of charter schools - public schools open to anyone, but which are privately-run.

A third proposal is coming soon from the Ohio Senate.

While both proposals so far are receiving praise for taking on some important issues, some want them to go further.

Auditor Yost wants clearer rules

"I don't think that what needs to happen is on the table yet," Yost told The Plain Dealer.

Among Yost's concerns: that Ohio has no clear definition of when a charter school is acting as a private organization or when they take on a governmental role in educating children. That leaves private organizations receiving large amounts of tax money that don't have much accountability to the public.

The complaints from the left, coming this week from the Innovation Oho think tank and the Ohio Education Association, are mostly predictable. Both are groups that have been critics of charter schools.

But while they both want bad charter schools closed faster and want better financial reporting, they and most Democrats aren't fighting to shut down the charter movement, just the worst schools.

Charter critics want bad schools closed

OEA President Becky Higgins told the House Education Committee this week that House Bill 2, one of the two proposals, does not do enough to make bad schools improve or be closed.

"First, accelerate the process for closing failing charter schools," Higgins said. "Many charter schools have been persistently under-performing for years. We urge you to adopt provisions that would shut down failing charters more quickly." 

Innovation Ohio, which partners with OEA on a website calledKnowYourCharter.com, also joined that call. That left-leaning group urged the legislature to include three things in its reforms: close bad schools, make charter schools follow the same public records rules as any public entity and change charter funding so that it does not penalize school districts.

Their position, announced at a press conference this week, closely resembles early criticism, of the proposals by State Rep. Teresa Fedor. Fedor had dismissed the More charter school controls wanted by the left and by Auditor Yost on the right | cleveland.com:

More students revolting against standardized tests - CBS News

More students revolting against standardized tests - CBS News:

More students revolting against standardized tests

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National

PHILADELPHIA -- When it comes to standardized tests, parents across the country are (a) concerned; (b) demanding change; (c) pulling tens of thousands of children out of the exams; or (d) making themselves heard at the top levels of government.

Answer: all of the above.

Play VIDEO

Parents debate Common Core in schools

The backlash is kicking into high gear this spring as millions of students start taking new, more rigorous exams aligned with Common Core standards. Officials say the high-stakes assessments are crucial to evaluating student progress and competitiveness.

But a growing cohort of parents, students and teachers are rebelling against what they consider a toxic culture of testing. And officials, including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have begun to listen as the grassroots movement engineers a series of high-profile rebuffs:

- Thousands of Colorado high school seniors walked out on new state-mandated science and social studies tests last fall.

- An Ohio middle school teacher published a letter calling state officials "bullies" for printing a pamphlet that warned of wide-ranging consequences if students sit out exams.

- At least 93 students at a single Philadelphia middle school are declining upcoming tests in a city that saw only 20 students districtwide sit out the exams last year.

The polite phrase for the burgeoning movement is "opt out." But testing opponent Morna McDermott, a Baltimore-area mother of two, puts it more plainly: It's a testing refusal movement - or a boycott.

Play VIDEO

Common Core and an uncommon school

"We're not doing this willy-nilly because we're a bunch of disgruntled soccer moms," said McDermott, who belongs to the national United Opt Out movement and refuses to let her children participate in Maryland's assessments. "This policy is harmful to our society, to our schools, to our teachers and to our children."

Federal law requires states to test students annually in grades three through eight and once in high school. But schools and districts have layered on their own assessments, leading students to take an average of 113 standardized tests over the course of their K-12 careers, according to preliminary research by the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington-based organization representing large urban districts.

Test results measure student achievement but also can be used in teacher More students revolting against standardized tests - CBS News:

US Dept of Ed Wanted Much More Testing from PARCC and SBAC | deutsch29

US Dept of Ed Wanted Much More Testing from PARCC and SBAC | deutsch29:



US Dept of Ed Wanted Much More Testing from PARCC and SBAC

 On February 20, 2015, I wrote a post on the two Common Core State Standards (CCSS) federally-funded assessment consortia, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), and the setting of PARCC and SBAC cut scores using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The following post was originally a comment written by veteran Cincinnati arts teacher, Laura Chapman.

I value Chapman’s commentary because she has years of professional experience from which to draw, and she is a relentless, insightful researcher.

Here, Chapman offers noteworthy detail regarding US Department of Education (USDE) intentions regarding PARCC and SBAC, and how those now-years-old, USDE consortium testing ambitions will not be realized.

In short, USDE could not have all of the testing that it really wanted. Imagine that.

Chapman writes:

I worked on the first and second NAEP tests in the visual arts, vintage 1970s. The subject has no deep tradition of testing and serious issues in thinking through the role of talent and education in achievement. The most useful part of two rounds of NAEP tests in the visual arts was the background information, including the dismal record of access to instruction in and beyond school.

That said, I have also looked at the background on the CCSS and federal funding for PARCC and SBAC tests. USDE had a test-funding plan for the CCSS in April 2010, before the CCSS were published in June. By September 2010, grants were awarded to the PARCC and SBAC groups to begin test development at roughly $300 million total.

Then out of the blue, the two consortiums applied for supplementary funds for curriculum work needed to do the test development. That was a huge snafu in US Dept of Ed Wanted Much More Testing from PARCC and SBAC | deutsch29:

Blue Jersey:: Open Letter to @CoryBooker: You can be part of the #OccupyNPS solution

Blue Jersey:: Open Letter to @CoryBooker: You can be part of the #OccupyNPS solution:

Open Letter to @CoryBooker: You can be part of the #OccupyNPS solution

UPDATE: Newark Public Schools is reporting a meeting between students and Anderson took place this morning. The civil disobedience being led by the leadership of Newark Student Union is in its 66th hour. High school students have vowed not to leave Superintendent Cami Anderson's office at Newark Public Schools until she agrees to speak with them. She has not been at work at NPS for the 3 days of their sit-in. So where's Cami Anderson? Senator Cory Booker, you presided with Gov. Christie over her choice to lead Newark Schools. You no longer run Newark, but you live there and own property there. More importantly, the kids you see on the street or walking to school every day - who grew up knowing you as Mayor - are still kids I hope you feel some responsibility toward. Some of the bravest and strongest of them are now in Day #3 seeking a meeting with her. Imagine if you, not as a senator necessarily but as an involved community member, would intercede and escort her into Newark Public Schools HQ on Cedar Street. That might be the beginning of an important conversation. And the sons and daughters of your City who are now waiting at 2 Cedar Street, deserve that. Our Newark: This civil disobedience protest, in a minority majority city in the middle of Black History Month - with issues that many other city school systems are also facing - is generating tremendous support not only on the streets in Newark, but on social media. And that's a place where you have tremendous influence. One of @NewarkStudents hashtags is #OurNewark. Senator, it's your Newark, too. Can you help?

Rosi Efthim :: Open Letter to @CoryBooker: You can be part of the #OccupyNPS solution

What can the rest of us do? Help Newark Student  leaders get the word out however you can. On Twitter? Follow @NewarkStudents. Hashtags: #OccupyNPS#WheresCami #OurNewark. And on Facebook.Sixty-six hours ago, the leadership of Newark Student Union - high school students in their teens - began a sit-in protest in the executive offices of Newark Public Blue Jersey:: Open Letter to @CoryBooker: You can be part of the #OccupyNPS solution:

Rahm’s Chicago where a $15 birth certificate copy costs $46.45 as schools are closed, teachers fired, etc. | Reclaim Reform

Rahm’s Chicago where a $15 birth certificate copy costs $46.45 as schools are closed, teachers fired, etc. | Reclaim Reform:

Rahm’s Chicago where a $15 birth certificate copy costs $46.45 as schools are closed, teachers fired, etc.

Posted on February 21, 2015by Ken Previti

“RAHM IS GOOD FOR CHICAGO because…” Because he is paying millions of dollars for ads to get re-elected.

Rahm’s Chicago bleeds every single one of the 2,700,000 present citizens and the innumerable people who have lived there in the past. He rips us off every day in every way. How?

One easy example occurred a few weeks ago when I ordered a copy of my birth certificate. The tax fee is $15.00. That is how much goes into the tax base. That seems fair considering the services that Chicago should supply to its citizens.

But how much did I actually pay for a copy of my birth certificate – a single piece of paper mailed to me? $46.45

$31.45 goes to whichever of Rahm’s buddies gets the third party contract to copy and mail one sheet of paper. The money does not go into Chicago’s tax base to support schools and city services. The money goes into a “connected” buddy’s pocket.

Why would any of the 2,700,000 Chicagoans vote to re-elect Rahm?

Hey, Chicago! Wake up and throw the bum out!

By the way, my wife also needed a birth certificate and our marriage license in order to get Rahm’s Chicago where a $15 birth certificate copy costs $46.45 as schools are closed, teachers fired, etc. | Reclaim Reform:

Big Education Ape: Chicago Teachers Take on Mayor Emanuel and the Democratic Machine | Alternet http://bit.ly/1zwiO9e

Big Education Ape: Chicago Inc. Rahm Emanuel Dances for Corporate Money - Vote for Chuy!!! http://bit.ly/1AaLZT1

Baraka and Rice to meet with feds, demand action on schools | Bob Braun's Ledger

Baraka and Rice to meet with feds, demand action on schools | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Baraka and Rice to meet with feds, demand action on schools

Sen. Rice

The most prominent critics of the state administration of the Newark public schools are traveling to Washington, DC, to make their case  to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They will include Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) and other legislators,  union leaders, community activists, and advocates and experts associated with the Education Law Center (ELC) and the Alliance for Newark Public Schools.

The meeting, scheduled for March 4,  will come too late to have any impact on the expected one-year extension of the contract of Cami Anderson, the state-appointed schools superintendent. Indeed, Baraka, in a press conference Thursday, said  he had been informed Anderson already had been offered the extension. In any event, her tenure in Newark is a state matter and she still apparently pleases Gov. Chris Christie, if few others.

Baraka goes to the top to try to save the city’s children

“We have made our case to the Christie administration and clearly they are not going to do anything,” said Rice who, with U.S. Rep.Donald Payne, Jr  (D-10th) set up the meeting with Duncan, the former Chicago schools superintendent who has been President Barack Obama’s education chief since the beginning of his administration.

Rice also said he has not had the full support of fellow Democratic legislators who have resisted his efforts to grant subpoena and other investigative powers to the committee he co-chairs, the Joint Committee on Public Schools.

Anderson repeatedly refused to show up before Rice’s committee until he introduced legislation granting the panel investigatory powers. In early January, at a four-hour hearing, the Newark schools chief avoided answering some of the most pointed questions aimed at her, especially about a land deal in which she sold public school property to charter school interests headed by former associates of both herself and of former state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf.

In response to her evasiveness, Rice accused Anderson of “taking the Fifth,” a reference to claims of the right against self-incrimination often invoked by those suspected of criminal activity.

A second day of hearings before Rice’s committee has been scheduled for March 10.

Rice, Baraka, and many other civic, political, and union leaders have been critical of Anderson’s hallmark reorganization, the so-called “One Newark” plan that has Baraka and Rice to meet with feds, demand action on schools | Bob Braun's Ledger:

How Wall Street's Greedy Tentacles Sank Into Schools, Trapping Them in Massive Debts | Alternet

How Wall Street's Greedy Tentacles Sank Into Schools, Trapping Them in Massive Debts | Alternet:



How Wall Street's Greedy Tentacles Sank Into Schools, Trapping Them in Massive Debts

Capital appreciation bonds have wreaked financial havoc on school districts.

 The fliers touted new ballfields, science labs and modern classrooms. They didn’t mention the crushing debt or the investment bank that stood to make millions. 

                       — Melody Peterson, Orange County Register, February 15, 2013  

Remember when Goldman Sachs – dubbed by Matt Taibbi the Vampire Squid– sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts. Not that Goldman was alone in this; but the unscrupulous practices of the bank once called the undisputed king of the municipal bond business epitomize the culture of greed that has ensnared students and future generations in unrepayable debt.

In 2008, after collecting millions of dollars in fees to help California sell its bonds, Goldman urged its bigger clients to place investment bets against those bonds, in order to profit from a financial crisis that was sparked in the first place by irresponsible Wall Street speculation. Alarmed California officials warned that these short sales would jeopardize the state’s bond rating and drive up interest rates. But that result also served Goldman, which had sold credit default swaps on the bonds, since the price of the swaps rose along with the risk of default.

In 2009, the lenders’ lobbying group than proposed and promoted AB1388, a California bill eliminating the debt ceiling requirement on long-term debt for school districts. After it passed, bankers traveled all over the state pushing something called “capital appreciation bonds” (CABs) as a tool to vault over legal debt limits. (Think Greece again.) Also called payday loans for school districts, CABs have now been issued by more than 400 California districts, some with repayment obligations of up to 20 times the principal advanced (or 2000%).

The controversial bonds came under increased scrutiny in August 2012, following a report that San Diego County’s Poway Unified would have to pay $982 million for a $105 million CAB it issued. Goldman Sachs made $1.6 million on a single capital appreciation deal with the San Diego Unified School District.

Green Light to Exploit

In a September 2013 op-ed in SFGate.com called “School Bonds Are a Wall Street Scam,” attorney Nanci Nishimura wrote:

. . . AB1388, signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009, [gave] banks the green light to lure California school boards into 

How Wall Street's Greedy Tentacles Sank Into Schools, Trapping Them in Massive Debts | Alternet:

Chicago Teachers Take on Mayor Emanuel and the Democratic Machine | Alternet

Chicago Teachers Take on Mayor Emanuel and the Democratic Machine | Alternet:

Chicago Teachers Take on Mayor Emanuel and the Democratic Machine

United Working Families is looking for ways to engage directly with its rank-and-file.

The Chicago Teachers Union and its allies are making a bid to channel the spirit and unity of the teachers’ 2012 strike into unseating “Mayor 1%” and his city council allies.

It’s been a grueling four years under Rahm Emanuel. CTU beat back some of the worst concessions the mayor’s school board pushed, but the union was hit hard by a record 47 school closings in a single year. Broader attacks hit public sector workers and their pensions.

The new, independent political organization United Working Families—formed by CTU and SEIU Healthcare Illinois along with community groups such as Action Now—isn’t just out to oust the mayor. It’s trying to create a progressive, pro-labor political infrastructure to challenge the mayor’s pro-business agenda.

“We certainly want to break from the politics of austerity,” said CTU organizer Brandon Johnson. “We want a break from the disinvestment.

“Whenever you have incumbents that vote 100 percent of the time with the mayor of Chicago and his corporate interest agenda, there is clearly a need to have a more independent voice,” Johnson said.

But not surprisingly, it’s hard to get many Chicago unions to endorse Emanuel’s rival. Many private sector unions have praised the mayor’s development projects, hoping they’ll mean building trades and hotel jobs. Even in the public sector, where Emanuel has pushed deep budget cuts, unions may fear retaliation if they support his opponent and lose. Many think it’s futile to oppose such a powerful candidate.

So without a united front among Chicago union leaders, the United Working Families coalition is seeking out ways to engage directly with the 250,000 rank-and-file union members they represent.

Vision Not Just Votes

That means setting up community meetings in key wards and reaching out to union members and other voters at the most grassroots level. “These are not just simply about getting out the vote, it’s about really laying out a vision: how do you deal with issues of safety, violence, disinvestment in schools,” Johnson said.

Defeating the mayor would be no small feat. Emanuel is a Democratic Party and Obama administration insider. He’s raised $10 million. And historically it’s been nearly impossible to beat Chicago’s Democratic machine, which operates in lockstep with the mayor.

Hopes were high last fall as CTU President Karen Lewis explored a challenge to the mayor; Lewis polled well, and excited both rank-and-file teachers and the progressive voter base. A Lewis/Emanuel contest would have clearly posed the question: Which way forward for Chicago?

When Lewis bowed out of the race for health reasons, a challenge to Emanuel Chicago Teachers Take on Mayor Emanuel and the Democratic Machine | Alternet:

Big Education Ape: Chicago Inc. Rahm Emanuel Dances for Corporate Money - Vote for Chuy!!! http://bit.ly/1AaLZT1