Sacramento Bee says: Judge mayor on his record, A Short Walk Down Memory Lane in Pix

Judge mayor on his record, good and bad | The Sacramento Bee:

Judge mayor on his record, good and bad

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

When you’re a celebrity mayor, you can’t be too shocked when the occasional sordid accusation gets thrown your way.

So it is with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is being shadowed by a new focus on old allegations first made in 1996 that he molested a teenage girl while playing for the Phoenix Suns. On Tuesday, the head of Sacramento’s Democratic Party called on him to step aside, or at least not seek re-election.

Without solid new evidence, we don’t know if the allegations are true. He has denied them consistently and only he and Mandi Koba were in the room. We do know that while no criminal charges were filed, Johnson paid a $230,000 settlement to Koba. We also know it was inappropriate, reckless even, for a 29-year-old NBA player to be spending time alone at his home with a 16-year-old girl.

The Sacramento Bee and other media outlets thoroughly reported on the case during Johnson’s first campaign for mayor in 2008. Voters elected him anyway, and re-elected him overwhelmingly in 2012.

What is new is that Deadspin, a sports news website, found Koba and got her to talk last month. Then late last week, it posted videos of her police interviews, adding a visual to the transcripts already published in The Bee and elsewhere.

That apparently prompted ESPN to delay the national broadcast of a long-awaited documentary on Sacramento’s successful effort to keep the Kings in town, a film that starred Johnson. That’s what major corporations do – they protect themselves. Still, the timing of the announcement was awkward at best, literally hours before the documentary had its premiere Monday night in Sacramento. ESPN’s move is drawing more national attention to Johnson and his city, this of the unwanted variety.

Johnson should be judged by his performance as a public official – whether he has delivered and conducted himself with dignity while mayor. So it’s troubling that he also faces sexual allegations while in office. In April, a former aide to the city manager accused Johnson of sexually harassing her multiple times during a seven-month period at City Hall.

Johnson denies the allegations. Again, we don’t know for sure what happened. We do know that the city’s human resources department and an outside law firm found the allegations toJudge mayor on his record, good and bad | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article38992029.html#storylink=cpy

The Hillary/Bernie Political Kabuki Theater Has Been Scripted Just As High Stakes Testing Has | Reclaim Reform

The Hillary/Bernie Political Kabuki Theater Has Been Scripted Just As High Stakes Testing Has | Reclaim Reform:

The Hillary/Bernie Political Kabuki Theater Has Been Scripted Just As High Stakes Testing Has

Why must the Democratic Presidential Primary Debate be scripted like the teacher preparation of children for the mandated high stakes tests? The arguments and limits are pre-framed for a targeted consumer.

This will not be a debate. Corporate education reformers who contribute huge amounts of money to candidates and political lobbyists will not be revealed by name. Teachers will continue to be evaluated and fired as children are labeled and monetized within the framework created by billionaire corporate education investors. The faux-debate will also have the preordained candidate who says whatever it takes to get elected. She will be “challenged” by those who are actually there to attack the popular candidate who dares to speak truth to power, Bernie Sanders, who will be painted as the cartoon stereotype of the crabby old man.

Children, parents, teachers and everybody deserves better than this political Kabuki Theater of the Absurd which will take place tonight.

The script has been pre-written. Only the “performers” will be important.The Hillary/Bernie Political Kabuki Theater Has Been Scripted Just As High Stakes Testing Has | Reclaim Reform:

Sacramento Democratic Party leader: Mayor Kevin Johnson should ‘step aside’ | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento Democratic Party leader: Mayor Kevin Johnson should ‘step aside’ | The Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento Democratic Party leader: Mayor Kevin Johnson should ‘step aside’

The head of Sacramento’s Democratic Party called for Mayor Kevin Johnson to “step aside” on Tuesday after a 1996 video of a teenage girl accusing the mayor of sexual abuse surfaced and ESPN delayed the national release of a documentary highlighting the city’s effort to keep the Kings.

Kerri Asbury, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County, told The Sacramento Bee she thinks Johnson should resign so that “the focus returns to the city’s needs and not more reports of impropriety.”

Mayor Kevin Johnson talks about Measure L during a meeting with members of the The Bee’s editorial board on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 in Sacramento, Calif. Randy Pench rpench@sacbee.com

Asbury said the party’s executive board has not taken a formal position on Johnson’s future and likely won’t until at least its Nov. 12 meeting. However, after speaking to other members of the party’s leadership, she said, “If I were putting down money on which way the committee would go, I would bet on a call for resignation.”

“At a minimum, I think he needs to not seek re-election,” Asbury said. “I feel the integrity of the mayor’s office has been broken.”

For his part, Johnson told reporters Monday night that the video of the teenager and ESPN’s decision would play no role in whether he seeks an unprecedented third term next year. He said he would make a decision “pretty soon here.”

“It’s unfortunate that stories like this continue to come forward,” the mayor said outside the Crest Theatre, where the ESPN documentary was shown at a premiere sponsored by the Kings. “When I ran for mayor (in 2008), I knew these were all going to be a part of fair play. Politics is a game that throws out dirty things along the way and you’ve got to take hits on the chin.”

The local Democratic Party has never endorsed Johnson, a Democrat, and was instrumental in the successful campaign to defeat his strong mayor ballot measure last November. The feud dates back to 2003, when Johnson’s nonprofit St. Hope organization was awarded control of Sacramento High School and began operating the campus as a charter school employing non-union teachers.

Steve Maviglio, the mayor’s political spokesman, fired back at the Democratic Party, saying, “most Sacramento Democrats believe that their party’s organization should be spending its time electing Democratic candidates instead of attacking them.”

“Perhaps they should spend their time paying attention to campaign laws and avoiding fines from the FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) and trying to become Sacramento Democratic Party leader: Mayor Kevin Johnson should ‘step aside’ | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article38974704.html#storylink=cpy

Ex-CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleads guilty, tearfully apologizes to students - Chicago Tribune

Ex-CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleads guilty, tearfully apologizes to students - Chicago Tribune:

Ex-CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleads guilty, tearfully apologizes to students

PDF: Barbara Byrd-Bennett plea agreement

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett faces up to about 7 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to steering multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts to an education consulting firm in exchange for the promise of lucrative kickbacks and other perks.

After pleading guilty to a single count of wire fraud, Byrd-Bennett stopped briefly to talk as she left the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. With tears in her eyes, she said she had a message for the schoolchildren and their families.

"I am terribly sorry, and I apologize to them. They deserve much more, much more than I gave to them," she said.

Byrd-Bennett, 66, then left without taking questions from a crowd of reporters.

She is cooperating with prosecutors and has agreed to postpone her sentencing until after the charges against her co-defendants have been resolved.

According to her 22-page plea agreement, prosecutors have agreed to seek a sentence of about 7 1/2 years in prison — below the 11 to 14 years in prison called for under federal sentencing guidelines — in exchange for her cooperation.

Earlier in court, Byrd-Bennett stood at a lectern with her hands folded in front of her as she answered a series of questions from U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang about her background and her desire to plead guiltyEx-CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleads guilty, tearfully apologizes to students - Chicago Tribune:

Why Educators Should Get Serious About Free Universal Education - Education Week

Why Educators Should Get Serious About Free Universal Education - Education Week:

Why Educators Should Get Serious About Free Universal Education

By Susan Hopgood, Lily Eskelsen-García, & Randi Weingarten

As educators, we're optimists by nature, and we believe the global goals adopted by the United Nations late last month will be achieved by the 2030 target date, including free quality education for all. What gives this particular goal the best chance of success is how the U.N.-identified "sustainable development goals" are interrelated—the success of one requiring the success of others. The elimination of poverty and hunger and the ensuring of healthy lives and gender equity, to name a few, are all benefits of quality education.

Why the optimism? Start with the people who were not in New York City to attend the United Nations but who dominate global attention—the millions around the world displaced and on the move because of natural and man-made disasters, and the parents who are risking everything to give their children a quality education, a healthy start, and an upbringing free of violence. We can see this most recently with the tens of thousands fleeing war-torn Syria and Afghanistan and the mounting human toll of that exodus.

No single goal's success will end this misery. Teachers in Lebanon working double and triple shifts to accommodate Syrian-refugee students without extra pay are part of a comprehensive solution only when we add meaningful civil society and governmental interventions. The inclusion and accountability that link our challenges together will drive a new definition of success that leaves Why Educators Should Get Serious About Free Universal Education - Education Week:

BAT Fall Fundraising Drive – Please Support Our Mission and Message

BATS:

BAT Fall Fundraising Drive – Please Support Our Mission and Message

Be a BAT Supporter—Donate today as we kick off our fall fundraising drive.  Based on the last 2 days of events (Duncan Resignation & NEA Recommendation of Hillary), we hope to do a fall campaign that will see us buying either newspaper ads, billboards, or radio ads to get our message out about the attempt by billionaires to destroy public education!  We can’t do that without your help! 

Why should you be a BAT Supporter?  Here is why!

1.  Successful rally outside the USDOE in Summer of 2014 that led to a meeting with Secretary Duncan.  We were able to be brutally honest with him regarding the USDOE’s education agenda. 

2.  Summer of 2015 BATs headed back to DC for the BATs Teacher Congress.  The highlight of the event was that BATs from over 25 states convened on Capitol Hill with over 61 appointments to discuss education, children, and funding equity.   6 brave BATs occupied Bernie Sanders office which led to a lengthy phone call with one of his education advisors.  BATs meet and escorted Jesse Turner into DC after he walked 400 miles from Connecticut to DC to bring to light the attack on our public schools.  BATs also partnered with United Opt Out and Save Our Schools in a Mock Trial of Eli Broad, Rahm Emanuel, Campbell Brown, and Arne Duncan that was broadcast by Education Town Hall Radio. 

 

3.  Also, at the BAT Congress our Quality of Life Workplace Team met with the USDOE about teacher working conditions in this country.  This meeting happened due to the partnership between the BATs Quality of Workplace Team and AFT on a study in which  over 90,000 teachers filled out (30,000 completing) on the quality/working conditions of the teaching workplace.  See here for the full report

http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/worklifesurveyresults2015.pdf

 

4.  As a result of our Quality of  Workplace Team, an amendment was written into the ESEA Reauthorization bill to study and assess school conditions for children and teachers. 

 

4.  BATs have presented at some of the biggest education conferences in the nation.  Roots Camp, Netroots, AFT TEACH, and Network for Public Education.

 

5.  BATs have a strong and vocal caucus in the NEA (NEA BAT Caucus) which now has over 200 members and who dropped  17 NBIs this year with  10 were approved.    BATs will be applying for an AFT Caucus this year, so we will have caucuses in both major unions.

 

6.  BATs continues to be a strong presence on social media, specifically twitter, where many of their campaigns highlights the attack on our public school children, our communities, and our teachers.  See #evaluatethat  #whatif  and the hijacking of the #EmployeeFreedom hashtag that Right to Work groups were going to use to tout the fact that educators could not join unions. 

 

7.  BATs appears on radio frequently.  Education Town Hall, The Rick Smith Show, The Jeff Santos Show, and Just Let Me Teach allow rank and file educators from BATs extend their voice over the airwaves to the general public and the nation.  

 

8.  BATs continues to support and partner with other organizations around the country in the fight for equity and public education.  We have proudly partnered with Network for Public Education, United Opt Out, and Save our Schools.

 

9.  Our state BATs groups have mobilized for on the ground action to bring to light the attacks on public education children, schools, and teachers.  Our WA BATs have protested the Gates Foundation, our Oregon BATs protested Pearson, our Nevada BATs held a large rally in Las Vegas about the attacks on the teaching profession, our Florida BATs protested the Jeb Bush education summit, our NY BATs continue to work with NYSAPE and other parent coalitions to demonstrate regularly – the latest was a protest against Gov. Cuomo at the NY State Fair, our Ohio BATs were a strong force in a protest when Gov. Kasich announced his presidential bid.  BATs are everywhere!

 

10.  BATs will be filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case of Friedrichs vs. CTA.  This is the case that could essentially make us a Right to Work NATION!

 

11.  BATs have been featured in over 200 news articles from the Washington Post, to the New York Times, Time Magazine,  and the Huffington Post.   Google us!

 

What is this letter asking of you today?  We are asking you to be a supporter of our work.  We do not take money from large foundations but we rely on our friends in this fight and on people like you to support our work.  Much of what we do costs money.  We need funds to continue to operate our website, buy supplies, push out mailings, conduct robo calls, hold our yearly event, apply to conferences so that we can spread the BAT message, register BAT panels at education conferences around the nation, and to continue to get our message out in a variety of venues.   We look to the future of BATs as unlimited possibilities.  We look to being able to buy ads in major papers to counter the rhetoric of corporate education reform, we look to the possibility of buying moving ads to get our message out about the attacks on public education, we look to the possibility of buying billboards so that the general public can see in full view that their public schools are under attack by the 1% for profit.  Our future has no limits if we have the revenue to do it.  So, won’t you please be a supporter of our work?

Do you believe in our message?  If so, please support it.   We are now a 501(c ) 4 and have a structure built for success.  See here  http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2015/10/big-bat-surprise-month-bats-became-501c4.html   (*donations ARE NOT tax deductible)

What will you get?  We will be listing all of our supporters on our website for all to see at the end of this fundraising drive!

We hope that you will consider being a BAT supporter because that will tell us  you believe in our work.  At the end of our Fall Fundraising Drive (October 31) we will be putting all our supporter names on our BATs Wall of Supporters.  We hope you will consider placing your name and/or your organization on that wall.  You can donate on our website by clicking the PayPal donate button at the top left of this page. You can also send a check made out to The Badass Teachers Association, Inc,  P.O. Box 1390, Bellmore, NY 11710.   Thanks for being a supporter, you will NOT regret it. 

 

In Solidarity

Marla Kilfoyle, Executive Director

Melissa Tomlinson, Asst. Executive Director BATS:

Badass Teacher (BAT) Association

WELCOME TO THE BAT CAVE

Badass Teacher Association Web Site

September 2015

Dudley aka Origin
"September 2015" by Dudley aka Origin. Released: 2015.

00:00 / 01:38

• 1. September 2015

Budget Disputes in Pennsylvania’s Legislature Could Force Public Schools to Shut Down - The Atlantic

Budget Disputes in Pennsylvania’s Legislature Could Force Public Schools to Shut Down - The Atlantic:

The Tenuous Fate of Pennsylvania’s Public Schools

The legislature’s budget disagreements could mean that many of the Keystone State’s schools are about to shut down

Pennsylvania public schools are now at Defcon 1—borrowing millions of dollars to keep the lights on, starting to ask teachers to work without pay, and even voting to shut the schoolhouse doors and send the kids home—all because an unprecedented state budget crisis has left them within weeks of insolvency.

Funds are running out so fast in Erie, the state’s fourth-largest city, that the schools could shut down by November 1. The school board last month unanimously authorized this previously unthinkable option. If the money runs dry, Erie would consider requiring its 12,000 students to stay home for a week or two.

Yes, it would disrupt their learning. Yes, it would present families with unexpected childcare chaos. But talking to the anxious administrators on the ground, it soon becomes clear: Their options are disappearing as quickly as their bank accounts.

“By the end of October, if there’s no movement, we’re in trouble.”

“Nobody anticipated the budget would come in on time ... we knew that this impasse would happen, but as it drags on and the effects become more real, it takes on the sense of a crisis,” said the superintendent of Erie’s Public Schools Jay Badams. “It also seems more and more ridiculous. All of our money’s sitting there in Harrisburg [the state capitol] and here we are having to contemplate shutting down.”

Such are the outrageous options that a startling number of Pennsylvania school superintendents are actively considering, three-plus months into the state budget standstill that’s left 500 of them struggling to make it through the first half of the school year with page after page of their budgets missing in action.

Legislators’ inaction since the deal was due June 30 has, so far, resulted in the withholding of some $2 billion in state-aid payments to districts. By the end of this month, that number is expected to soar to $3 billion. Even in the Keystone state, where budgets are routinely delayed by weeks or months, this is uncharted territory, school officials say, and goes far beyond the usual faceoff between states and their school districts over funding allocations.

Exacerbating the Harrisburg hangup: Many Pennsylvania districts, still recovering from the recession and a massive 2011 state-aid cut, were already financially vulnerable.

The PTSA has stepped up to fundraise— but you can only hold so many bake sales.

“They were going into this delayed budget with less financial resources behind them than they would have the last time around,” said Steve Robinson, a Budget Disputes in Pennsylvania’s Legislature Could Force Public Schools to Shut Down - The Atlantic: