NYC Public School Parents: K. Webster on the undue influence of businessmen on our public schools

NYC Public School Parents: K. Webster on the undue influence of businessmen on our public schools

K. Webster on the undue influence of businessmen on our public schools

by Leonie Haimson

Kathleen Webster engages with Jonathan Alter on his attack on Diane Ravitch and his praise of Bill Gates and the other Billionaire Boys Club for their involvement in public education. For earlier critiques of Alter's attack , see here and here. Kathleen points out that at the same time Gates and other corporate mavens are seeking to impose their favorite policies on our schools, they are contributing to hugebudget cuts here in NYC and throughout the country, by not paying their fair share of taxes. Thus their irresponsible behavior is causing a double whammy to our public schools. Microsoft, Gates' company, is one of the nation's prime experts in tax evasion; for more on this, see here and here.

To Mr. Alter: I leave it to others to debunk the absurdities of the rest of this article. But, Re: "what’s wrong with business executives ... devoting time and money to public schools? " If businesses executives would shoulder their share of the tax burden instead of milking this country for all its worth we would not need their "largesse" to fund our schools. And public schools could get back to the

The Swanson legacy. The Walker plan without the heavy lifting. « Fred Klonsky's blog

The Swanson legacy. The Walker plan without the heavy lifting. « Fred Klonsky's blog

The Swanson legacy. The Walker plan without the heavy lifting.

by Fred Klonsky

In an article summing up the Illinois legislative session in Catalyst by EdWeek writer Sean Cavanagh:

Their hardest-fought victories include the passage of laws that curb teachers’ collective bargaining rights and tie educators’ tenure, advancement, and pay to their performance, including their ability to improve student test scores.

Ironically, they weren’t hard-fought at all. IEA President Ken Swanson gave these actions his full support and approval with the weight of the union’s lobbyists and media machine behind him.

What he didn’t have was the support of the membership, which stayed away from Lobby Day in droves.

Nonetheless, the legislation won praise—including from U.S. Secretary of

Beyond Shop til’ we Drop | Lefty Parent

Beyond Shop til’ we Drop | Lefty Parent

Beyond Shop til’ we Drop

by Cooper Zale

I’m thinking about the sluggish US economy and trying to do the math. Seventy percent of our economy is based on consumer spending… rich seem to be getting richer and more of everyone else are falling into economic distress. Do all of us with disposable income need to go back to “shopping til’ we drop” and buying stuff we don’t need to make our economy grow again and move people out of that economic distress? There’s got to be a different path forward that leverages some sort of “less is more” principles. Can we somehow shift our economy from being based on private overconsumption and perhaps redirect it more towards building say more shared public infrastructure?

I as always, apply my hierarchy vs circle of equals frame of reference to these issues. My thinking generally is that we, as a species, have reached a phase in our individual and collective (cultural) development where we are transitioning (sometime three steps forward and two back) from lords, monarchs, bosses, (even experts?) etc to a more level and egalitarian relationship with each other. My “ministry” is all about calling out and facilitating that transition and doing what I can to not get “stuck” in conventional wisdom and the path of least resistance.

So given my agenda, I tend to look at issues through a lens that puts a premium on facilitating our freedom and development versus limiting that freedom and directing our development. So applying this lens to economics

A Letter To A Writer Who Doesn’t Want To Hear It | The Jose Vilson

A Letter To A Writer Who Doesn’t Want To Hear It | The Jose Vilson

A Letter To A Writer Who Doesn’t Want To Hear It

by Jose

Dear burgeoning writer,

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but we need to talk. It’s the same talk my editors had to have with me after my first few submissions, and one that I never had to have again afterwards. You see, for writers that care, the act of writing is a personal craft, and I can’t deny how hard it is to get your writing critiqued because it is a piece of you. Whether it’s a personal poem or an objective article, you put in all this time into your piece, hoping that you’ll get the same exact feedback that all your friends do:

“Oh, you’re such a great writer!”

“That was awesome. I’m really excited that you wrote this piece.”

“Your performance of the piece was stunning. I feel it right here [points to heart or temple].”

So, when you came to me asking me to give you feedback, I was under the impression that you wanted me to

Dad at the Chalkboard: The Twenty-Six Year Old Hug or Why One Should Never Laugh in a Deserted Funeral Home

Dad at the Chalkboard: The Twenty-Six Year Old Hug or Why One Should Never Laugh in a Deserted Funeral Home

The Twenty-Six Year Old Hug or Why One Should Never Laugh in a Deserted Funeral Home

by Brian H

At around 4:30 AM on Monday, May 30, 2011 my grandmother died.

If it hadn't been for the keyboard, I would have missed what occurred at 9:45 AM on Friday, June 3, 2011.

That's when, five days after she died, my grandmother spoke to me for the last time.

On Thursday morning we were sitting in the auditorium at The Peanut's school, waiting for her kindergarten farewell concert to begin. My mother was going over the funeral plans with The Wife, my mother-in-law, and me. 'Nana', as we have always called her, is a deeply devoted Christian woman. She had been ill for a long time so death's approach was not exactly a surprise. When she discussed her impending funeral with my mother, she told her that she wanted several hymns sung at her service. The only problem with that turned out to be that there was no piano or organ available for Mom to play at the funeral home. My mother-in-law, who has been taking piano lessons for a year now, offered us the use of her electric keyboard so Mom didn't have to lead everyone in singing the songs A Capella.

Friday morning, the day of the funeral, I drove over to my in-law's house to pick up the keyboard and its three piece stand. I loaded it up in the back of my car and drove over to the funeral home. I pulled up the winding

Apologist Alter gets an earful. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Apologist Alter gets an earful. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Apologist Alter gets an earful.

by Fred Klonsky

Reformy apologist, Jonathan Alter.

If you read the scummy hack writing job Jonathan Alter tries to pass as journalism and you read it early, you may have missed the pleasure of the reading the comment section.

Alter’s piece is full of nasty, unsupported slanders of Diane Ravitch like, “While healthy skepticism is a virtue, Ravitch seems bent on extinguishing any hope that our teachers and schools can do better.”

Huh? If anyone gives hope to teachers that things can be better, it is Diane Ravitch.

But reading the comment section also gives hope. Taken together, the responses provide a scathing critique of the reformy nonsense of Alter, his patron Michael Bloomberg, Arne Duncan and the like.

H/T to my old friend from my grad student days, Celia Oyler, for sending me back to the comments.

NYC Public School Parents: Shino Tanikawa: The deep flaws in the CEC selection process

NYC Public School Parents: Shino Tanikawa: The deep flaws in the CEC selection process

Shino Tanikawa: The deep flaws in the CEC selection process

by Leonie Haimson

The below email is from Shino Tanikawa, a member of the Community Education Council in District 2 to Dennis Walcott. Shino points out the deep flaws in the selection process for Community Education Councils, which ended last week, despite the postponement that resulted from a threatened lawsuit:

From: Shino Tanikawa shinot@verizon.net

To: Chancellor Walcott DMWalcott@schools.nyc.gov

Cc: Ojeda Hall

Sent: Sun, June 5, 2011 9:39:38 AM

Subject: CEC Election

Dear Chancellor Walcott,

Thank you for the decision to postpone the CEC election. I appreciate your willingness to work with parents. Unfortunately, the postponement did not result in any significant improvements. Many of my concerns before the postponement remained unresolved. So that you can run a better election next time, I would like to share some of the remaining problems that require resolution and carefully planning.

· Many parents did not seem to know the advisory voting was repeated and that they had to vote again even if they voted during the first round.

· The same confusion over how to cast advisory votes remained after the postponement. Many parents never received the flier with the login information or they did not hold onto it after they cast their first votes, not realizing the advisory voting was being repeated (please note many elementary

Maria Shriver on Alzheimer’s and Women: Hope Over Fear | BlogHer

Maria Shriver on Alzheimer’s and Women: Hope Over Fear | BlogHer

Maria Shriver on Alzheimer’s and Women: Hope Over Fear

October 20, 2010 9:32 am by Maria Shriver in Life

• BLOGHER ORIGINAL POST

• 8

Try to remember what you were doing a minute ago. Got it? Now wrap your brains around this: In the past minute, another American developed a fatal disease that will slowly erase the personality and a lifetime of memories. That person will either die with that disease or from it, because there is no cure. That disease is Alzheimer’s, and it’s a growing national epidemic.

Right now, Alzheimer’s disease is like an earthquake rumbling deep in the core of our society, and women are at its epicenter. Women are fully two-thirds of the people with Alzheimer’s. They are also 60 percent of the unpaid caregivers of loved ones who have it. In every way, Alzheimer’s is a mind-blowing disease -- not just for the people who get it, but for everyone around them.

Believe me, I know. When my father, Sargent Shriver, was diagnosed back in 2003, my mother, four brothers and I all felt we were entering a world that was

The birth of the CIO | SocialistWorker.org

The birth of the CIO | SocialistWorker.org

The birth of the CIO

Bill Roberts explains how the deep setbacks for the U.S. labor movement in the 1920s were only the prelude for the mass unionization struggles of the 1930s.

June 3, 2011

Pennsylvania members of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in front of their office

THE BIRTH of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) ushered in a period of labor militancy that transformed the American labor movement.

For a 10-year period, between 1936 and 1946, the struggles of U.S. workers were among the most dynamic of any industrially advanced countries.

The explosive nature of this growth in labor action can be seen in the number of strikes. Between 1923-32, there were 9,658 strikes involving 3,952,000 workers. Between 1936-45, there were 35,519 strikes involving 15,856,000 strikers.

Prior to this dramatic turnaround, the U.S. labor movement was on the skids. Not only were the craft unions of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) losing members at the rate of 7,00

AFT - A Union of Professionals - TEACH 2011

AFT - A Union of Professionals - TEACH 2011

• AFT.org
• Teach2011

• Print

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Conference Info

• TEACH
• Tentative Schedule
• Registration
• Housing Information
• Travel Discounts
• Sponsorship Opportunities

July 11-13, 2011, Washington, D.C.

This summer, the American Federation of Teachers invites you to our TEACH (Together Educating America’s Children) conference. Educators are facing extraordinary demands—and we’re putting together an extraordinary gathering to provide you with the practical tools, professional knowledge, and inspiration to meet them.

With the theme of “Making a Difference Every Day,” TEACH will showcase the groundbreaking work taking place throughout the AFT. Learn how union members are tackling the toughest issues in our field, and making breakthrough changes that will improve education for students across America.

To be sure, the conference will provide the high-quality workshops for which its predecessor, QuEST, was known. But TEACH will also bring you overviews of innovative work in our field that educators need to know about, exciting demonstrations of the latest educational technology, thought-provoking keynote speakers and much more.

For more details as plans for AFT's TEACH conference take shape, watch this Web page, or:

Follow us on Twitter:www.twitter.com/AFTteach

Follow us on Facebook:www.facebook.com/AFTteach

Sign up to receive email updates: www.aft.org/teach2011/join.cfm

NEA - Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA)

NEA - Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA)

2011 NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA)

NEA Standing Strong:
for our Students, our Schools, and America

Chicago, Illinois — June 30 - July 5, 2011

HIGHLIGHTS

NEA's next Annual Meeting will be held at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois.

• 2011 Tentative Agenda
• NEA's 1st Annual Day of Learning (NEW)
• Delegate Resources
• Travel, Transportation and Lodging

Key Events

• NCUEA Summer Conference (June 26-29)
• Joint Conference on the Concerns of Minorities and Women (June 27-29)
• NEA-Retired 2011 Annual Meeting (June 28-29)

1st Annual Day of Learning (July 1, 10:00 am - 4:30 pm)

Pre-conference learning opportunities at the 2011 NEA Annual Meeting for RA Delegates and other NEA Members only. Learn more.

Friendship Night (July 2, 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm)

For this year's Friendship Night ( PDF, 782 KB, 1 pg.), NEA is pleased to host a live performance of NPR's popular radio show "From The Top." This program showcases exceptional student musicians from around the country. Purchase tickets by June 20th to receive early bird discount.