Coleman: Trump’s schools pick is scary

Coleman: Trump’s schools pick is scary:

Coleman: Trump’s schools pick is scary

Few of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks frighten me more than Betsy DeVos as education secretary.

Sure, his foreign policy team is suspect and potentially dangerous. His nominee for attorney general, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, is a throwback to pre-Civil Rights era Jim Crow days. But DeVos, a former Michigan Republican Party chair, is scary on steroids.

Let’s review:

■In 1993, she worked to pass Michigan’s first charter-school bill. It opened the door for public money to be shifted to quasi-independent educational institutions.

■In 2001 she reportedly singled out education reform as a way to “advance God’s kingdom.”

■In 2003, as a board member of Children First America and the American Education Reform Council, and later as the chair of the American Federation for Children, she lobbied for school-choice voucher programs and tax-credit initiatives.

A growing number of people, this writer included, believe that Trump through DeVos intends to move forward on a voucher plan for America’s public schools and turn a blind eye to regulatory oversight. And that’s dangerous — especially for urban public school districts.

In response to Trump’s nomination of DeVos to lead the Department of Education, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten declared:

“Betsy DeVos is everything Donald Trump said is wrong in America — an ultra-wealthy heiress who uses her money to game the system and push a special-interest agenda that is opposed by the majority of voters. Installing her in the Department of Education is the opposite of Trump’s promise to drain the swamp.”

How does DeVos feel about the nomination?

“I am honored to work with the President-elect on his vision to make American education great again,” DeVos tweeted last month.

When was education great?

■Was that before 1869 when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the Detroit Public Schools couldn’t lawfully operate separate systems for black students and white students — and that black kids would go to school with white kids?

■Was that before the seminal U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down separate but equal in the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision?

■Was that before black parents, the NAACP and others joined a class action lawsuit against the state of Michigan arguing that African-American children were the victims of systemic racial discrimination in the 1971 Bradley v. Milliken case?

■Was that before the 1997 Durant v. State Board of Education case where the State Supreme Court mandated that Michigan school districts provide appropriate funding for special education programs and students?

Here’s what we know: .Coleman: Trump’s schools pick is scary:

Trump’s education nominee and her family members are major donors to the senators who will vote on her confirmation - The Washington Post

Trump’s education nominee and her family members are major donors to the senators who will vote on her confirmation - The Washington Post:

Trump’s education nominee and her family members are major donors to the senators who will vote on her confirmation

Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, is not just a prospective Cabinet member seeking confirmation from the U.S. Senate.

She is also a billionaire Republican donor whose family’s donations have funded the campaigns of many of the senators now tasked with voting on her nomination, including members of the committee overseeing her confirmation hearing next week.

During the 2014 and 2016 election cycles, DeVos and her relatives gave at least $818,000 to 20 current Republican senators, including more than $250,000 to five members of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), according to a Washington Post analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

DeVos personally made a relatively small percentage of those donations: at least $31,400 to committee members and $96,000 to all senators. But her giving appears to have been coordinated with her family: In most cases, senators received donations from more than a half-dozen DeVos family members, including her husband, his parents and his siblings, on the same day.

To money-in-politics watchdogs, the DeVos family’s contributions create a conflict of interest for senators now charged with judging Betsy DeVos’s fitness to helm the federal education department.

“She’s acknowledged that her family gives, and gives a lot, because it’s aiming to buy influence,” said Robert Weissman of Public Citizen, who said the scale of the DeVos family’s political Trump’s education nominee and her family members are major donors to the senators who will vote on her confirmation - The Washington Post:

Schools Matter: Ed Deform 2.0 in Less than Five Minutes

Schools Matter: Ed Deform 2.0 in Less than Five Minutes:

Ed Deform 2.0 in Less than Five Minutes

Published on Jan 5, 2017.  This is a summary for the one-hour talk "Ed Reform 2.0-Personalized Learning in Orwellian Times" available for viewing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0quQS.... For additional information visit Wrench in the Gears at https://wordpress.com/stats/day/wrenc....

Schools Matter: Ed Deform 2.0 in Less than Five Minutes:

How testing practices have to change in U.S. public schools - The Washington Post

How testing practices have to change in U.S. public schools - The Washington Post:

How testing practices have to change in U.S. public schools

Florida teachers protest in Tallahassee against state’s education policies. (Photo by Mike Archer, Used with permission)

There has been some testing reform progress made in the last year or so as state and federal officials finally began to acknowledge a grassroots movement by parents, educators, students and activists, who have protested the excessive and harmful use of high-stakes standardized tests. As part of that movement, hundreds of thousands of students “opted out” of mandated high-stakes standardized tests, with more than 20 percent of students in New York State doing so in each of the last two years.

“Accountability” systems used to evaluate students, teachers and even schools have been based on student standardized test scores, which were wrongly seen as the most important measure of how much a student learned, how well a teacher taught, and how effective schools were in closing the achievement gap.

Now it’s a new year and a new opportunity for states to construct new assessment policies and tests that are fair and effective. How to do it? This post offers one path, by Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, known as FairTest, a non-profit dedicated to ending the abuse and misuse of standardized tests.

By Monty Neill

Last year was a good one for testing reformers. More states dropped graduation exams. Many districts cut back testing time. The grassroots assessment reform movement grew stronger and more diverse. This new year can be even better if assessment reformers take advantage of opportunities under the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

ESSA ends most punitive federal accountability mandates. Of course, we cannot predict what President-elect Donald Trump and his education secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos, will try to do on testing and accountability. We do know that it will take concerted grassroots organizing to halt harmful state and local policies, creating space to improve education and implement new assessment systems.

The key testing reform demands remain:

• End high-stakes test uses for students, teachers, and schools;
• Reduce testing to the federally mandated minimum; and
• Implement educator-controlled, local performance assessments.

In this blog, FairTest shares our recommendations on testing practicesHow testing practices have to change in U.S. public schools - The Washington Post:

Ed Notes Online: Aim Of School Choice Is To Limit Choice - Norm in The WAVE

Ed Notes Online: Aim Of School Choice Is To Limit Choice - Norm in The WAVE:

Aim Of School Choice Is To Limit Choice - Norm in The WAVE

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2017-01-06/School_News/Aim_Of_School_Choice_Is_To_Limit_Choice.html

AIM OF SCHOOL CHOICE IS TO LIMIT CHOICE

School Scope

By Norm Scott

I’m continuing my series of columns on the voucher/school choice issue which will come to the fore under the Trumpadministration especially with his educational secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos, a fierce opponent of public schools. The very concept of a public school system is under attack which connects to the general anti-government movement. Over this series I am attempting to point out the fallacies.

One of the major talking points we hear from “choicers” is that the public schools are a government monopoly. David S. D'amato, policy advisor at the libertarian Heartland Institute, wrote Americans have forgotten the destructive philosophy upon which the government education apparatus was built. The centerpiece of that philosophy is the fallacy that centralization and monopolization equate to quality and results.

Centralized? We have one of the most decentralized school systems in the world with each city, town or county in theoretical control of their own schools and budgets – not always a good thing in some places – but stay with me. Here in NYC the system is so big it could use some decentralization down to neighborhoods, but not the total balkanization where each school is an island and competes with the other nearby schools for the best performing students and the same funding. Ironically, it has been state and federal governments that have tried to use the choice movement to override local controls by force feeding charter schools and common core into communities. Thus we saw as a counter reaction, the growth of the optout movement that led to 20 percent - 225,000 students – whose parents refused to let their kids take the state tests last year.

Let’s talk about the “monopoly” charge that we often heard from the very people who ran the NYC schools for 12 years under Bloomberg – Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott, both of whom lined up a 100 percent with the choicers. There is much irony in Ed Notes Online: Aim Of School Choice Is To Limit Choice - Norm in The WAVE:

DeVos would set precedent as secretary of education without strong commitment to public schools | EdSource

DeVos would set precedent as secretary of education without strong commitment to public schools | EdSource:

DeVos would set precedent as secretary of education without strong commitment to public schools

Betsy DeVos may well be the first U.S. secretary of education to come to office without expressing a strong belief in the importance of traditional public schools as a core democratic institution, and without any detailed ideas on the record for improving them other than prodding them to compete with charter schools and private schools.

If approved by the U.S. Senate after hearings scheduled for next week, the multibillionaire DeVos would be the 11th secretary of education. Her single-minded focus on finding alternatives to public education – largely in the form of taxpayer-supported vouchers and other ways to underwrite tuition for private schools – is unmatched by any other previous occupant of the post.

A review of DeVos’ public statements has not surfaced one where she indicates that public schools can be reformed to better serve children, or any set of strategies covering central challenges such as classroom instruction, teaching methods, or testing and accountability to accomplish that. Most of her statements are about “failing schools” and giving children a way to escape them.

The one statement she has made recently regarding classroom instruction was to post on her website within hours of being selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be his secretary of education that she was opposed to the Common Core state standards — which she described as a “federalized boondoggle.”

DeVos did not attend public schools. Nor did her children. She founded the American Federation for Children, whose board she chaired until a month ago. The organization’s main goal is to promote greater “school choice,” especially for DeVos would set precedent as secretary of education without strong commitment to public schools | EdSource:

Stabenow Opposes Betsy DeVos For Education Department Secretary | News/Talk 94.9 WSJM

Stabenow Opposes Betsy DeVos For Education Department Secretary | News/Talk 94.9 WSJM:

Stabenow Opposes Betsy DeVos For Education Department Secretary

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D), Mich.

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow says she will vote against Betsy DeVos as the next head of the U.S. Education Department. The Michigan Democrat says she talked to DeVos. Stabenow says DeVos’ support for charter schools has “seriously undermined public education” in the state. DeVos, the former head of the Michigan Republican Party, is in favor of giving parents more education options. Her husband, Dick DeVos, started a charter high school in the Grand Rapids area that focuses on aviation and engineering. He also ran unsuccessfully for governor of Michigan against Jennifer Granholm in 2006.

The U.S. Senate will hold a confirmation hearing for DeVos on Wednesday. Ed Patru, a spokesman for a group called Friends of Betsy DeVos, tells the Detroit Free Press that Stabenow and DeVos still can find “common ground” on education issues.

- See more at: http://www.wsjm.com/2017/01/06/stabenow-opposes-betsy-devos-for-education-department-secretary/#sthash.r4aEUcXc.dpuf

How 2012 Chicago Teachers Strike Changed Fight Over Public Education | Chicago Tonight | WTTW

How 2012 Chicago Teachers Strike Changed Fight Over Public Education | Chicago Tonight | WTTW:

How 2012 Chicago Teachers Strike Changed Fight Over Public Education

The Chicago teachers strike of 2012 made international headlines and marked a major shift in the fight over public education reform.

After seven days on the picket lines, 26,000 teachers went back to the classroom with a new contract, but also with new direction.

That’s the case made in the new book “A Fight for the Soul of Public Education: The Story of the Chicago Teachers Strike,” by University of Illinois labor education professors Bob Bruno and Steven Ashby.

Bruno joins us to take a look back at what that strike – the first Chicago saw in 25 years – meant for public education and the labor movement.

Below, an excerpt from “A Fight for the Soul of Public Education.”

Introduction

For seven school days in September 2012, approximately twenty-six thousand members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) walked picket lines in front of 580 schools. The Chicago school strike was the first the city had seen in a quarter century.

This book offers an analysis of what happened during the strike and why it is important for public education and the common good. We aim to tell two interwoven stories.

First, we provide a rare look deep inside the contract bargaining process, based on extensive interviews with both management and union bargainers. For roughly ten months leading up to the strike, union and management teams enveloped themselves in the minutiae of more than one thousand contract proposals. A labyrinth of procedures governed the bargaining activity, and two major state education laws needed to be incorporated into the contract. Bargaining continued throughout the strike, and the parties eventually produced a labor agreement whose proteacher substance few had predicted possible.

Second, we seek to tell, through the teachers’ and staff’s voices, the story of how the CTU was transformed from a top-down, bureaucratic organization into one of the most member-driven unions in the United States. In this process, a labor conflict focused solely on compensation at the start developed into a challenge to a national education reform movement that, teachers charged, was systematically destroying public education and using Chicago as its test case. Unlike in past strikes, tens of thousands of teachers, clinicians, and paraprofessionals marched repeatedly in Chicago’s neighborhoods and downtown. Thousands of community members and parents joined the demonstrations. Crowds swelled, shutting down streets in the city’s Loop district. Instead of accepting the loss of classroom control and corporate style-management of schools, which teachers had been told for decades was “inevitable,” the CTU reinvigorated a national teachers movement by fighting back. The ripple effects of the 2012 strike are being felt in school districts and union halls across the country.

The strike occurred in the context of a decades-long political and economic struggle where probusiness forces maneuvered against teachers unions, often with bipartisan support from Democrats and Republicans, for control of the country’s public education system. Public schools have always been the subject of intense scrutiny, but, beginning in the 1980s, they became the institutions over which the How 2012 Chicago Teachers Strike Changed Fight Over Public Education | Chicago Tonight | WTTW:

The American Teacher vs. Betsy DeVos

The American Teacher vs. Betsy DeVos:

The American Teacher vs. Betsy DeVos

They are asking me the question, ‘Is the American Dream dead?’ And the American Dream is in trouble. But we’re going to get it back and do some real jobs.

–Donald Trump, Rochester, NH Town Hall, September 17, 2015

The appointment of Betsy DeVos as education secretary will offend every teacher in this country who has studied and committed their professional careers and lives to children. It will not be a “real job” because she is not qualified.

The American dream for teachers has been to serve. Becoming a teacher takes time and effort. And no matter what any outsiders say about public schools and learning, it is the teacher within the classroom who does the job.

Most teachers attend undergraduate school for four years. They study child development, psychology,  how to teach reading, math, science, social studies, art, music and other subjects.

Many go on for two more years of graduate school specializing and earning master’s degrees to prepare themselves to be even better at what they do.

Teachers are responsible for continuously learning so they can keep well-informed of the latest ideas for their students.

They also spend countless hours student teaching under the watchful eye of a supervising teacher.

Many teachers go on to earn doctorate degrees where they must do serious research and complete dissertations. This takes years!

Teachers choose their career not based on getting rich—please look at their salaries. They choose teaching because they like kids and their subject/s.

Some teachers come to the field through an alternative path. If they are to become real The American Teacher vs. Betsy DeVos:

Connecticut Congressional Delegation has raised more than $100 million - Wait What?

Connecticut Congressional Delegation has raised more than $100 million - Wait What?:

Connecticut Congressional Delegation has raised more than $100 million

“Money is the mother’s milk of politics.” – Jesse Unruh, California Politician

As California politician, Jesse Unruh, famously observed, money is the primary nourishment for American politicians.  Big donors and lobbyists curry favor and buy access as they provide the fuel politicians need to win campaigns.

In today world of politics, success is not merely whether you win or lose, but how much money you collect along the way.

A review of federal campaign finance reports reveal that Connecticut’s Congressional delegation is “highly successful” when it comes to raising massive amount of campaign funds despite the fact that Connecticut’s congressional campaigns are not very competitive.

Since beginning their congressional careers, Connecticut five U.S. Representatives and two U.S. Senators have raised in excess of $100 million dollars to fund their political campaigns.

Member of Congress	Career Total Raised
John Larson (D-1)	$13.8 Million
Joe Courtney (D-2)	$11.9 Million
Rosa DeLauro (D-3)	$12.5 Million
Jim Himes (D-4)	$14.9 Million
Elizabeth Esty (D-5)	$8.0 Million
Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut)	$17.5 Million
Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut)	$21.5 Million

The following is a breakdown of campaign donations raised and source of funds for each member of Connecticut’s Congressional Delegation:

Representative John Larson (D-1)

Has raised a total of $13.8 million
Including $2.7 million through his political action committee, Synergy PAC

Total Source of PAC and Special Interest Funds
Business          77%
Labor               20%
Ideology          3%
First Elected in 1998

Joe Courtney (D-2)

Has raised a total of $11.9 million
Including $235,000 through his political action committee, Husky PACConnecticut Congressional Delegation has raised more than $100 million - Wait What?:

New research shows broad academic benefits for students taking ethnic studies classes | 89.3 KPCC

New research shows broad academic benefits for students taking ethnic studies classes | 89.3 KPCC:

New research shows broad academic benefits for students taking ethnic studies classes

Public school districts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Long Beach and about a dozen others have started ethnic studies classes in recent years.

But they’ve done so without a key ingredient: academic research that shows how students are benefitting from those programs.

Now, a new study of an ethnic studies program in San Francisco public schools is shedding light on how the new classes may be helping students. 

“There’s no research out there that has looked at this kind of analysis, doing this kind of research in California at all,” said U.C. Irvine education professor Emily Penner, the lead researcher of the ethnic studies program.

Penner studied the effect of ethnic studies classes on 1,400 struggling students in San Francisco schools over four years.

“The effect of that program was a positive and large increase in GPA and credits and attendance by the end of the year,” she said.

The way San Francisco educators taught topics in Latino, African American and the history of other cultures connected with the diverse student body, she said.

She completed the paper based on the research this fall, she said, and it is set to be published by the American Educational Research Journal later this year.

The research comes at a critical moment for ethnic studies courses in California public schools.

Advocates have failed to pass a statewide ethnic studies requirement, but a new law does compel state officials to create a model ethnic studies curriculum within two New research shows broad academic benefits for students taking ethnic studies classes | 89.3 KPCC:

Ethnic Studies Now Coalition - http://www.ethnicstudiesnow.com/

Democrats Who Oppose Betsy DeVos Have Nothing To Lose

Democrats Who Oppose Betsy DeVos Have Nothing To Lose:

Democrats Who Oppose Betsy DeVos Have Nothing To Lose

In “an unprecedented break” from tradition, Democrats in the US Senate are expected to challenge as many as eight of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, including Betsy DeVos for US Secretary of Education, according to a report by the Washington Post.

The opposition to DeVos, Politico reports, comes from “more than a dozen Democratic senators from all wings of the party” who “will portray DeVos’ views as being outside the education mainstream.”

The non-mainstream “views” Politico cites include her “bankrolling efforts to create state voucher programs” and to expand a “loosely-regulated charter school sector” in Michigan, her home state. The Senators are “also intent on drawing attention to her lack of experience in a traditional public school setting. DeVos has never worked as a public school teacher or superintendent, nor has she sent her own kids to public schools.”

Opposition to DeVos has brought an outcry from conservative and politically centrist fans of “education reform” who claim opposing DeVos is driven “partisanship” and “nasty,” “personalized” rhetoric.

It’s true that the opposition to DeVos is a radical departure from what’s happened in the past.

Contrast the reception she is about to get on Capitol Hill to what happened eight years ago when the Senate confirmed former Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education. As Education Week reported then, Duncan “coasted through his confirmation hearing … on a wave of bipartisan support.”

Even well into the Obama administration, when Duncan resigned, his replacement, Acting Secretary and former New York state education commissioner John King, “got a partisan-fireworks-free confirmation hearing from the Senate,” per Education Week.

Keep in mind, both Duncan and King had been controversial figures in Democrats Who Oppose Betsy DeVos Have Nothing To Lose:

Addressing the Recent Increase in Bullying: A Webinar for Parents - Education Law Prof Blog

Education Law Prof Blog:

Addressing the Recent Increase in Bullying: A Webinar for Parents

On Wednesday, January 11, 2017, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Parental Readiness and Empowerment Program (PREP) in partnership with the Center for Safe Schools and the Center for Education Equity will host a free webinar for parents and advocates on school bullying in response to a surge of recent hate crimes and acts of discrimination in schools nationwide.  During the webinar, participants will learn how to recognize and report school bullying as well as how to engage their community and what parents can do. The webinar will take place at 3 p.m. EST in English and at 6 p.m. EST in Spanish. Please RSVP here.  For more details, please see the attached flyer below or visit the website at www.prepparents.org

El miércoles, 11 de enero, El Programa de Preparación y Capacitación de Padres (PREP por sus siglas en inglés) de El Comité de Abogados Para Los Derechos Civiles Bajo la Ley en colaboración con el Centro para Escuelas Seguras y el Centro para Equidad Educativa ofrecerán un webinario gratuito para padres y defensores acerca del acoso escolar en respuesta a un aumento de recientes crimines de odio y actos de discriminación en las escuelas a nivel nacional. Durante el webinario, los participantes aprenderán cómo reconocer y reportar actos de acoso escolar y también cómo involucrar a su comunidad y lo que pueden hacer los padres. El webinario tendrá lugar a las 3 hora del este en inglés y a las 6 hora del este en español. Por favor inscríbanse aquí. Para más detalles, por favor vean el folleto adjunto o visiten nuestro sitio de web www.prepparents.org  Education Law Prof Blog:

Small Local Group Uncovers Widespread Opposition to Confirmation of DeVos as U.S. Education Secretary | janresseger

Small Local Group Uncovers Widespread Opposition to Confirmation of DeVos as U.S. Education Secretary | janresseger:

Small Local Group Uncovers Widespread Opposition to Confirmation of DeVos as U.S. Education Secretary

On Tuesday, January 3, as everybody crawled out from under holiday cooking, gifting and celebrating, leaders of our local Heights Coalition for Public Education met to consider mounting some kind of local response to the existential threat of a Betsy DeVos-led U.S. Department of Education. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy Devos alarms us because her only connection with public schools has been a lifelong commitment to using her billionaire philanthropy to privatize education. We’ve all personally sent letters or signed petitions to protest Trump’s nomination of Devos to be our next education secretary, and we looked for a way to expand our advocacy to include our broader community.

We crafted a sign-on letter for organizations and assigned different people to reach out to leaders they knew to see of their organizations would consider signing on. On Wednesday, we learned there was some time pressure: DeVos’s hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (Senate HELP) Committee had now been scheduled for January 11.

Everything sped up. When some organizations lacked a way to meet formally to consider our letter, they polled their members. People responded by telling leaders of their organizations their own stories and their concerns about the danger of losing democratically controlled public schools whose mission it is to serve all children.  One person complained: “Betsy DeVos has refused to pay a $5.3 million fine for campaign violations by her PAC in Ohio. She’s not only an anti-public education ideologue but also a scofflaw and a deadbeat to boot.” Another sent his dismay as a former longtime resident of Michigan: “Thanks for this letter. We spent most of our lives in Michigan and are very well acquainted with the anti-government, anti-public education beliefs and advocacy of Betsy DeVos.  Trump could not have picked a worse person to head public education in his administration.” As they rejected the idea of expanding a school choice marketplace, many declared their commitment to improving access and opportunity in our public schools.

We discovered this week that a mass of people from across our community, across Greater Small Local Group Uncovers Widespread Opposition to Confirmation of DeVos as U.S. Education Secretary | janresseger:

 

Badass Teachers Association: Trenton Deserves Board Members Capable of Selecting a Qualified Superintendent (NJ)

Badass Teachers Association: Trenton Deserves Board Members Capable of Selecting a Qualified Superintendent (NJ):

Trenton Deserves Board Members Capable of Selecting a Qualified Superintendent (NJ)

The state capital of New Jersey has been under attack from education reformers for years. Following reformer playbook moves time and time again that seek to minimize the voice of the community and take away their democratic rights, the board of education is failing to fulfill their obligation to do what is right for the children of the community. 

The latest move from the Trenton Board of Education is to now appoint a superintendent that the community members of Trenton clearly do NOT want in charge of their schools, of their children.

The Trenton Education Association has submitted and released the following letter. NJ Badass Teachers stand by their side in this battle.

January 3, 2017 

The relationship between the Trenton Board of Education and community stakeholders has been characterized by a lack of trust, due to the incompetent actions of the Trenton Board of Education. The Trenton Board of Education has been secretive and non-collaborative in many areas, from not adhering to established federal special education law, troubling six figure payouts to administrators in the midst of massive layoffs , (paraprofessionals, speech, occupational therapists, physical therapists and secretaries), and not being able to satisfy their own decisions.

"Success requires strong leadership, and Mayor Jackson is noticeably silent when confronted with the failures of his appointed board members who have little to no history to the Trenton community. Ultimately, the buck stops with the Mayor and his silence is a clear green light for the shenanigans happening at the Trenton Board of Education. This Board of Education fails to respect and engage Trenton community stakeholders, exhibits a clear ignorance of the challenges and trends of urban education, and often fail to even show up and stay awake for board meetings. Overall, there appears to be a lack of a coherent educational vision from Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson and his board. Mayor Eric Jackson is earning his moniker of ‘No Action’ Jackson.

The process of selecting a new permanent superintendent for the Trenton Public Schools has displayed all of the hallmarks of how this board chooses to perform its public functions; a lack Badass Teachers Association: Trenton Deserves Board Members Capable of Selecting a Qualified Superintendent (NJ):

Join me in Ann Arbor January 10 - Bill Ayers: Demand the Impossible! | Literati Bookstore

Bill Ayers: Demand the Impossible! | Literati Bookstore:

BILL AYERS: DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE!

Literati welcomes Bill Ayers to Ann Arbor as part of a national tour to celebrate the release of his latest book, Demand the Impossible!: A Radical Manifesto.

Demand the Impossible! is a manifesto for movement-makers. In an era defined by mass incarceration, endless war, economic crisis, catastrophic environmental destruction, and a political system offering more of the same, radical social transformation has never been more urgent. Demand the Impossible! urges us to imagine a world beyond what this rotten system would have us believe is possible. In critiquing the world around us, insurgent educator and activist Bill Ayers uncovers cracks in the system, raising our sights for radical change, and envisioning strategies for building a movement to create a more humane, balanced, and peaceful world.

"For Bill Ayers, it is the freedom of our collective imagination that links the contemporary world—ensconced as it is in pervasive militarism, racist violence, and environmental devastation—to the flourishing of our planet. This is a manifesto that should be read by everyone who wants to believe that “another world is possible.”—Angela Y. Davis, author of Abolition Democracy and Freedom is a Constant Struggle

"With huge numbers of us recognizing the need for transformative change, this ambitious and exuberant book perfectly matches its historical moment. Ayers fearlessly confronts the intersecting crises of our age—endless war, surging inequality, unchecked white supremacy and perilous planetary warming—while mapping emancipatory new possibilities. From the first page, his courage is contagious."—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

"Demand the Impossible is more than a book, more than a manifesto. It is a torch. Bill Ayers’ vision for a humane future is incendiary—fire that incinerates old logics and illuminates new paths. If we do not end the violence of militarism, materialism, caging, dispossession, debt, want, ignorance, and global warming, our very survival is impossible. Read aloud."—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams

Bill Ayers is a social justice activist, teacher, Distinguished Professor of Education (retired) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of two memoirs, Fugitive Days and Public Enemy.

Event date: 

Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 7:00pm

Event address: 

124 E. Washington

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Demand the Impossible!: A Radical Manifesto (Paperback)

By Bill Ayers

$14.95

ISBN: 9781608466702

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Haymarket Books - September 20th, 2016

“Say it Ain’t So” NEA and AFT | tultican

“Say it Ain’t So” NEA and AFT | tultican:

“Say it Ain’t So” NEA and AFT

In 1919, the biggest baseball star in Chicago and possibly all of America was “Shoeless Joe” Jackson. After “Shoeless Joe” and seven other members of the Chicago White Sox were convicted of fixing the 1919 World Series, the Chicago Daily News headline – “Say it ain’t so, Joe” – was the anguished plea from fans and especially hero-worshipping boys. Today, when I look at America’s teachers’ unions, I feel similar emotions to the ones those disappointed boys must have felt.

The leadership of both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) are not protecting educators and public schools. They campaigned for and support the new education law ESSA. They lend their name to advance Competency Based Education (CBE). They promote Social Emotional Learning (SEL). In the last election, both unions immediately endorsed a candidate with a greater than two-decade record of promoting policies undermining professional educators and privatizing public schools.

The California Teachers Association (affiliate of NEA) publishes, California Educator. There are two main thrusts in the December 2016 issue; implementation of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and promotion of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) education.

NGSS like its sibling CCSS codifies terrible “Say it Ain’t So” NEA and AFT | tultican: