Big Education Ape

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Education is a Trust: Carl Paladino Must Go | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

Education is a Trust: Carl Paladino Must Go | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

Education is a Trust: Carl Paladino Must Go

On Thursday night, the school board for Buffalo Public Schools sent a clear and scathing message to one of its own: resign or we will find a way to force you off our council. The member in question is upstate real estate developer, former Republican candidate for Governor of New York, co-chair of Donald Trump’s New York state campaign, and all around dumpster fire of vulgarity and bigotry, Carl Paladino. Mr. Paladino earned national attention and scorn when he was asked to reply to a Buffalo weekly about his wishes for the upcoming year. In a fashion familiar to those who have observed his public antics over the years, Mr. Paladino wished for the death of President Obama from mad cow disease contracted by bestiality. He further wished for the death of White House adviser Valerie Jarrett by beheading after conviction for treason. He piled on with a hope that the First Lady “return to being a male” and that she would “return” to Africa to live with a gorilla.

Condemnation of his remarks were swift and pretty much total. While Donald Trump has not yet spoken on the issue, the Trump transition team issued a rebuke calling Paladino’s words “absolutely reprehensible,” and his own son took to the family company’s Facebook page to distance the business from his father’s words. The Chancellor of the New York Board of Regents announced a blistering rejection of Paladino’s bigotry on Twitter:

Further denunciations came from sitting Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mr. Paladino’s alma mater, St. Bonaventure University, and parent groups in Buffalo while official calls for his removal from the school board grew.

In his typical fashion, Mr. Paladino defied his detractors, insisting he was not racist and that his remarks were a form of “deprecating humor.” On his own Facebook page, he insisted that his comments had “nothing to do with race,” and proceeded to go on a lengthy rant about his alleged grievances against the Obamas, including numerous accusations that source from fake news and debunked rumors from the dredges of the Internet…or from emails forwarded by your racist uncle (Ms. Jarrett is an American by birth, Mr. Paladino). He also casually referred to the President as a “lazy ass” and signed off by saying “tough luck if you don’t like my answer.”

Considering the long history of dehumanizing African Americans by comparing them to gorillas and the body shaming African American women endure, Mr. Paladino’s comments were blatantly racist. However, to be fair – his comments were not merely racist. They were also obscene, misogynist, homophobic, and immoral. None of this is that much of a surprise. During his catastrophic run for governor in 2010, Mr. Paladino’s personal email habits became public and let’s just say what he offered to Artvoice is in line with his penchant for racist and sexually obscene material. What was not expected was a revised statement as the controversy deepened where Mr. Paladino said that he had not intended to make those “wishes” public, apologized to the “minority community,” and Education is a Trust: Carl Paladino Must Go | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

Jersey Jazzman: The Attacks on Teacher Tenure Still Don't Make Sense

Jersey Jazzman: The Attacks on Teacher Tenure Still Don't Make Sense:

The Attacks on Teacher Tenure Still Don't Make Sense

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The attacks on teacher tenure keep on coming -- and they're as illogical as ever. From the Partnership for Educational Justice:

Newark, NJ—Earlier this month, the New Jersey State Department of Education released state and district level educator evaluation data from the 2014-15 school year. The data revealed that Newark employs more ineffective teachers than any other district in the state and more than five times the number of ineffective teachers in Camden, the district with the second highest number. In the 2014-15 school year, 2.4 percent of New Jersey teachers taught in Newark, but in the same year:
More than half (53.3 percent) of the state’s ineffective teachers were in Newark

Less than one percent (0.9 percent) of the state’s highly-effective teachers were in Newark

Additionally, 12.4 percent of Newark’s teachers received a less-than-effective rating, which was nearly eight times the statewide average (1.6 percent)

If we're going to buy into these numbers, we have to make a whole bunch of assumptions: that data suppression isn't a factor in the skew, that Newark's teacher evaluations are equivalent to other districts', that the unmistakable bias in Student Growth Percentiles isn't affecting these outcomes, etc.

But let's set all that aside for the sake of argument and agree that Newark has an inordinately high percentage of ineffective teachers compared to other districts. What's the Jersey Jazzman: The Attacks on Teacher Tenure Still Don't Make Sense:

Goodbye, 2016, and Good Riddance – Top 10 Blog Post by Me From a Crappy Year | gadflyonthewallblog

Goodbye, 2016, and Good Riddance – Top 10 Blog Post by Me From a Crappy Year | gadflyonthewallblog:

Goodbye, 2016, and Good Riddance – Top 10 Blog Post by Me From a Crappy Year

Is it just me or did 2016 really stink?

Both personally and publicly, it was a year I’d rather not revisit. I lost family. I lost idols (RIP, David Bowie and Prince). And we lost a horrible, protracted Presidential election.

But as has become a tradition, I find myself in front of the computer compelled to compile this list of the best of my own writings.

It would be easy to just say nothing much of value happened in 2016 so let’s just move on. But that wouldn’t be true.

There were good things. I’m just stumped to remember many of them right now. Perhaps as time goes on we’ll look back fondly on a smattering of events from this year that was. Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. That was kinda cool. There were some decent movies and a heck of a lot of good TV shows. The Arrival, Star Trek Beyond, Deadpool… Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, two excellent series about O. J. Simpson. We got a Harry Potter sequel of sorts – and another movie! I thought “Underground Airlines” by Ben H. Winters was quite good. We got an amazing musical in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.” Technically it opened in 2015, but it swept the Tonys this year. And hey! We stopped the Dakota Access Pipeline – for now.

It was certainly a productive year for blogging.

There was so much to write about.

This little education and civil rights blog went into overtime. I almost doubled traffic to the Website and got 2,145 more followers for a total of 11,335.

Gadflyonthewallblog, or if you prefer Gadfly on the Wall Blog, has been going strong since July 2014. In those two and a half years, I’ve gotten 849,000 hits – 363,000 just this year, alone. I also increased the number of posts I write a year. Last year, I only managed about 90 posts. This year it was 120 posts – a full 30 additional articles.

I hope you’ve enjoyed them. I hope you’ve found them valuable.

Sometimes readers send me a note saying that they’re going to share this post or that post with their school board or their representative in the House or Senate. I’m always very flattered to hear that something I wrote is helping someone else fight for what’s right. Of course, I do get a lot of hate mail, too. No death threats yet, but it’s getting awfully close. Readers have wished I was dead, but no one has offered to give me that little push to the other side.

I hope that no matter what your reaction, you’ll remember these are just the writings of a humble public school teacher and father. No one pays me, though sometimes I do get donations for the right to reprint something elsewhere. I write all this stuff because I have to. So few people seem to care what people like me have to say – even in my own profession. Like many others, I’ve stopped waiting to be asked.

So for your end of the year amusement, I offer this top ten list of my most popular writing from 2016. And here’s to a better 2017.

10) F is for Friedrichs… and Freeloader: A Supreme Court Nightmare

Published: January

Description: Some crazy lady didn’t want to pay the union for benefits that she got as a member and didn’t want to give them up. And rich folks everywhere had her back. They slobbered all over and pushed forward a bull crap case through the Supreme Court that probably would have made it much more difficult for labor unions everywhere had not Justice Antonin Scalia died deadlocking the vote. This article was my attempt to show how absolutely absurd the argument was against being forced to pay for something that benefits you.

Fun Fact: Now that Congress blocked President Obama’s Constitutional right to appoint a replacement for Scalia, and Donald Trump will probably get to pick a replacement, look for a similar case to come down the pike and win! Oh, 2016, will you ever truly leave?

9) The Charter School Swindle – Selling Segregation to Blacks and Latinos

Published: June

Description: Charter school promoters often sell these institutions to minorities as being “Separate but Equal.” Hm. Didn’t Brown v. Board outlaw that kind of practice because if schools were separate, they usually were anything but equal? This article is my attempt to explain how charter marketers are really selling minorities Goodbye, 2016, and Good Riddance – Top 10 Blog Post by Me From a Crappy Year | gadflyonthewallblog:

Buffalo Board Of Education Demands Carl Paladino's Resignation After His Racist Anti-Obama Rant: Gothamist

Buffalo Board Of Education Demands Carl Paladino's Resignation After His Racist Anti-Obama Rant: Gothamist:

Buffalo Board Of Education Demands Carl Paladino's Resignation After His Racist Anti-Obama Rant

The Buffalo Board of Education is demanding that ~~your racist uncle~~ board member, real estate bigwig, and Trump adviser Carl Paladino resign for a lengthy, unhinged anti-Obama screed in a local paper.

On Thursday, board members voted 6-2 to give Paladino 24 hours to resign his seat after his racist remarks about President Obama and the First Lady were published in a local paper. The resolution, which according to the Times was read aloud by board members to a room that "exploded in applause," states that the board will ask the state education commissioner to remove Paladino if he refuses to resign.

"Words matter, Mr. Paladino," Barbara Seals Nevergold, the board's president, said yesterday. "The impact on children of color, especially African-American children is incalculable.....They would like me to tell you, 'You're fired.'"

On December 23rd, a local alt weekly called Artvoice published a questionnaire that had been sent to prominent local figures, including Paladino, asking what they'd like to see happen in the new year and what they'd like to see go away. Paladino's answers weren't just political—they were also incredibly racist and sexist towards the current President and First Lady. He wrote:

1. Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her. 2. Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

Some board members believed Paladino's statement reflected poorly on the Buffalo school board. Member Paulette Woods, pointed out his comments violated the public school code of conduct and New York State's anti-bullying law, "If any of our Buffalo Public School children said any one of these offensive remarks ... the student would be suspended. We should also be held accountable for our words and our actions."

The two members who voted against Paladino's resignation suggested that he should have been required to deliver a formal apology to the board and all students in the district instead. Patti Pierce emphasized forgiveness at the meeting, adding that Buffalo residents should "take a page out of the horrific massacre that happened in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine innocent people in a house of worship were slain by a hateful, hate-filled man." (One audience member reportedly left, shouting that it was offensive to compare Paladino's racist comments to the murdered members of the Mother Emmanuel African Methodist Church, all of whom were black.)

Earlier this week, Paladino had issued a (non)apology, also through Artvoice. "I never intended to hurt the minority community who I spent years trying to help out of the cycle of poverty in our inner cities," he wrote. Also, he was... hacked? Sort of?

"I publicly took responsibility for what I said and confirmed those were my answers, but believe it or not, I did not mean to send those answers to Artvoice," he wrote.

And then:

Not that it makes any difference because what I wrote was inappropriate under any circumstance. I filled out the survey to send to a couple friends and forwarded it to them not realizing that I didn’t hit “forward” I hit “reply.” All men make mistakes. What is horrible is explaining to my 17 year old daughter how her hero could be so stupid.

Surprisingly, Paladino's humbling, sincere apology wasn't enough for the board—which, by the way, he referred to as "those timid souls who sit unbloodied in the gallery always prepared to criticize."

In a statement on Thursday, Paladino referred to the board's resolution as retaliatory, because he's been looking into teachers' contract and alleged corruption issues, "The Board of Education's action today is certainly not an illustration of a profile in courage or leadership."

We've asked the Trump campaign for comment. Buffalo Board Of Education Demands Carl Paladino's Resignation After His Racist Anti-Obama Rant: Gothamist:

Friday, December 30, 2016

The Corporate Education Reform (CER) Flu has knocked the Big Education Ape off the Internet.

The Corporate Education Reform (CER) Flu has knocked the Big Education Ape off the Internet.

The Corporate Education Reform (CER) Flu has knocked the Big Education Ape, a popular blog site off the Internet. Damage to the blog site was minor, but the entire staff was idled and is recovering at home. A spokesperson for the Big Education Ape, Big Ed Ape said the site would be back up shortly. Big Ed Ape stated despite having Flu shots, the CER Flu devastated the entire staff.

Our investigative reporter has been researching the reason the flu shot did not prevent the CER Flu. It was found that despite warnings, the Trump-DeVos Virus (aka Voucher Virus) was NOT included in this year's flu shot vaccine. Sources say that the CDC suspects that the Russians hacked the database and minimized the threat the Voucher Virus presents. Below you will find the Corporate Education Reform Flu Report showing the states most affected by the Voucher Virus and the danger for the entire county.

Big Education Ape: Will we see you at our 2017 conference? - Network For Public Education - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/12/will-we-see-you-at-our-2017-conference.html

Big Education Ape: BATs - Listening to Members & Taking Action in 2017 - Badass Teachers Association - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/12/bats-listening-to-members-taking-action.html

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah Talk Education - The Atlantic

John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah Talk Education - The Atlantic:

How Comedy Became Education's Best Critque

Late-night hosts including John Oliver and Samantha Bee devoted air time to school-related issues this year, pushing the topics into mainstream conversation.

This is the second installment in our series examining the intersections of education and entertainment in 2016. Read a previous entry on a documentary, and check back for future pieces on a play, animated movies, and television.

It’s no secret that politics has been especially central to late-night comedy over the past year or so. Some would argue that shows—from The Daily Show to Full Frontal With Samantha Bee—have served as more robust sources of political news than traditional broadcast news. According to a recent analysis by Tyndall Report, since the beginning of 2016, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News devoted just 32 minutes to coverage of policy issues.

“What we’re witnessing, actually, is a movement in these longer-form satire programs in the direction of exploring in-depth, complicated policy issues,” said Dannagal Young, an associate professor of communication at the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication. “I think what humor offers that’s particularly useful is the ability to reframe complex policies in really clear, simple, accessible terms.”

One of the themes that saw a notably prominent presence in late-night comedy in 2016 was education. Trevor Noah interviewed the professor Sara Goldrick-Rab about Paying the Price, her new book about the financial strain of higher education in the U.S., on The Daily Show. Samantha Bee looked at how schools are responding to fears about mass shootings. John Oliver was particularly keen on talking about education issues on his HBO show Last Week Tonight, devoting two segments to them in 2016, one on school segregation and another on charter schools. The latter was so controversial that the Washington-based Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter nonprofit, offered a $10,000 prize to the charter school that created the best rebuttal to Oliver’s tirade; Natomas Charter School in Sacramento, California, won.John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah Talk Education - The Atlantic:

A Teacher on Teaching: Carl Paladino: Worst School Board Member of the Year

A Teacher on Teaching: Carl Paladino: Worst School Board Member of the Year:

Carl Paladino: Worst School Board Member of the Year

December started well for Carl Paladino. A member of the Buffalo, New York school board, co-chair of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in the state, Paladino met with the president-elect and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, just before Christmas. He told reporters afterward that the question of “whether he would be interested and/or willing to serve in the administration in some capacity did come up.” By December 21 the presents at the Paladino home were all nicely wrapped and snug under the tree.

We might even guess there was a “Make America Great Again” hat for Mrs. P. and “Jail Hillary” t-shirts for all the grand kids.

That same day the Buffalo News reported on Paladino’s formal request, during a school board meeting, that once President Trump took office his picture might be placed prominently in every city school.

“Other board members responded to Paladino’s request,” the News continued, “by noting it is at the discretion of principals to decide what they display in their schools. ‘I think this is problematic,’ said board member Theresa Harris-Tigg. ‘Now we are going to mandate, and force something, when it has been their prerogative.’”

“‘Why do we care?’ Paladino responded. ‘Why do we care what their prerogative is?’”

In the end, a compromise was reached, with board members agreeing to put up posters of all former and current U. S. presidents in the schools. Sadly, there was no mention whether or not Paladino would have liked to see Mr. Obama’s picture crossed out.

We don’t know if he was satisfied with the decision. We do know, two days later, he was up to his knees in feces of his own creation. Trouble began brewing when Artvoice, a local weekly, asked city leaders toanswer four questions.

For current purposes only the first two matter:

1. What would you most like to happen in 2017?

2. What would you like to see go away in 2017?

Most city leaders responded in predictable fashion. Sue Marfino, a businesswoman, answered #1: “A return to shopping in communities and at brick & mortar stores.”

Jeff Mucciarelli, co-owner of 31 Club, offered up a wish with which almost everyone in the world might A Teacher on Teaching: Carl Paladino: Worst School Board Member of the Year:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Looking Ahead (Nationally) - Part One

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Looking Ahead (Nationally) - Part One:

Looking Ahead (Nationally) - Part One

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You'll notice I didn't say "looking forward" because honestly, I don't see much hope for public education for all students in this country, state and city. Let's start with nationally.

Trump won the Electoral College and is therefore elected president. However, that win is clearly not a mandate when you consider that he received nearly 63 million votes to Hillary Clinton's nearly 66 million votes. Add into her votes the ballots cast for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and others and you get to about 74 million people who voted against Trump.

He has not even been sworn in and already there are many warning signs. His background and actions tell us three important things.

1) He is not qualified to do the job, seemingly doesn't want to do the job full-time (he seems to think he only needs to be in Washington, D.C. four days a week and was never a great businessman but really, a good self-promoter. Read this Newsweek article for more (and add Native Americans to the list of people he has insulted.)

2) It is amusing in a sad kind of way to see all these people - from Gates to Paul Ryan to many Christian groups - fall into line thinking that, well, he got elected and he's their guy.

There is no person on this planet who knows what he will do or say at any given time. No one.

Now I believe there are people who know how to manipulate him to get what they want but he has proven to be mercurial, petty and with a shallow knowledge of issues. So good luck to all those who believe he will support their issues except for big business, of course.

3) He has no sense of humor and, like, George W. Bush, has a decided lack of intellectual curiosity. If someone cannot laugh at themselves, it's not a good thing. (There's something to wonder out loud Seattle Schools Community Forum: Looking Ahead (Nationally) - Part One:

Slideshow: When deportation fears keep kids out of preschool: a Florida case study | 89.3 KPCC

Slideshow: When deportation fears keep kids out of preschool: a Florida case study | 89.3 KPCC:

When deportation fears keep kids out of preschool: a Florida case study

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For a 16 year-old, Armando Bautista knows a lot about cucumbers.

As a small child he helped his parents, both migrant farmworkers in the U.S. illegally, plant and pick cucumbers in vast fields from Michigan to Florida. The high schooler now has his hopes set on being a mechanic. But these days he spends his time worrying about his parents and how his little sister’s preschool attendance is putting his family in jeopardy.

"My parents don’t have papers and I worry about them every day before they go to work," he said. "They could get stopped by the police and they could get deported and, like, who would take care of my brothers and sisters?"

Bautista’s parents have picked strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers and just about every U.S. grown crop over the last two decades in farms around the country. They move, children and all, as crop seasons change. They always spend winters in Florida.

For children of migrant farmworker families, life can be tough. Older kids are enrolled in local public schools, and may change schools multiple times in a year. But children under 5 were often taken by parents to the farms, running alongside as they worked. This was not only dangerous, it was far from a stimulating early childhood experience.

In 1969 Congress recognized those challenges and created a special branch of the Head Start program specifically to serve the children of farmworkers. In South Florida, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA) has run head start centers for children of farmworkers since 1981. It’s one of these very centers that the youngest Bautista child attends.

And over the last few months, 16-year-old Armando has conducted a daily risk assessment of whether the benefits of his little sister’s early education outweigh the risk of his dad simply driving her to and from preschool.

"I say she should go to school so she can learn," Bautista said. "But at the same time it's worrying because my parents could get stopped while just taking [her] to preschool."

It’s a situation that many farmworker families find themselves in, said Lourdes Villanueva, director of programs for RCMA. In fact, for the first time in its history, RCMA is struggling to fill its head start classrooms. This year the program has a gulf of unfilled seats, 43 percent in fact.

At its 25 centers across South Florida, RCMA has capacity to serve 1,700 children under 5. In early December they had filled just 974 seats. "Never before had we been Slideshow: When deportation fears keep kids out of preschool: a Florida case study | 89.3 KPCC: