Monday, July 5, 2010

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog #education #NRARA10

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog

How Mayor Bloomberg celebrated the 4th

'It's for the kids'

Bloomberg celebrated the birth of our constitutional democracy by slamming the State Supreme Court for "interpreting the law" and for ruling that his closing of 19 N.Y. schools was illegal.

In a Wall St. Journal article yesterday,



WEEKEND QUOTABLES


NEA Pushes Back
Mr. President, your instincts were right—the path your advisers have laid out is not! ... Our members feel betrayed, and so do

The roll call on Obey's Amendment

"I didn’t come here to be Arne Duncan’s congressman. Who do people think put the money into these programs in the first place? I did ... Welcome to Washington and welcome to hard choices.”-- House Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey (D. Wisc.)

Rep. Obey's amendment, includes $10 billion in aid to state governments and shifts $500 million out of Arne Duncan's $5 billion Race To The Top pool and into putting thousands of laid-off teachers back into their classrooms. But despite Obama's veto threat, the amendment passed 

'Making decisions together' -- What a concept!


Yes that's right, making decisions together in Central Falls where State Ed Commissioner Deborah Gist had, only months earlier, with Arne Duncanapplauding wildly in the background, forced the firing of every single teacher and staff member in the school. It was their way of sending a message that teachers no longer had collective bargaining rights and that states would have to toll the No Child Left Behind Race-To-The-Top bell or go bankrupt.

'The secretary of education is somewhat unhappy' -- Rep. Obey

Rep. David Obey stood up to threats of an Obama veto Thursday and pushed through a piece of legislation that will help prevent thousands of teacher layoffs. The House bill includes Obey's amendment which will force some $800 million in cuts to Arne Duncan's pet reform program, Race To The Top. The money will be used to prevent teacher firings and exploding class sizes.
"The secretary of education is somewhat unhappy," Obey acknowledged. "One of the secretary's objections, evidently, is