Saturday, February 5, 2011

New Emanuel Ad Provides Fresh Grist / Chicago News Cooperative

New Emanuel Ad Provides Fresh Grist

By DAN MIHALOPOULOS
February 5, 2011

Ahead of what is being described as a major budget-platform announcement scheduled for Tuesday, Rahm Emanuel released his latest campaign television ad, in which he states that “city government is not an employment agency.”

Miguel del Valle, a rival mayoral candidate who lacks the campaign cash for a television ad, scoffed when told of his rival’s new spot.

“I find it interesting,” Mr. del Valle, the city clerk, said. “It was the patronage system in the city of Chicago that got him elected to Congress in 2002.”

Last month, Mr. Emanuel’s campaign aired a TV ad promising that city hiring would be based on merit. The new ad came a day after a federal judge gave a 21/2-year prison sentence to

Please Consider Supporting Planned Parenthood Today - Dana Goldstein

Please Consider Supporting Planned Parenthood Today

by Dana Goldstein

Planned Parenthood provides affordable basic health care for millions of American girls and women--often when they have nowhere else to turn for services including contraception, cancer screening, STI testing, and pre and post-natal care.

Planned Parenthood also uses private dollars to provide abortion, the most common surgical procedure in the United States. One-third of American women have had an abortion, 60 percent of whom were already mothers when they chose to do so.

And Planned Parenthood also does incredibly sophisticated lobbying work on Capitol Hill and in state houses

Marriages Made in Tuition Heaven - The Bay Citizen

Marriages Made in Tuition Heaven Most people find friends on Facebook. Others find husbands. A University of California, Berkeley, student from the Midwest felt she couldn’t afford the annual $30,000 in student fees, including $20,000 in out-of-state tuition. She posted that she was ...

Local Intelligence: Children's Fairyland, Oakland The United States’ first storybook theme park opened in 1950 near Lake Merritt. Admission ranged from 9 to 14 cents, depending on the visitor’s age. The park, Children’s Fairyland, still prospers, delighting those young at heart with 10 acres of gentle ...

Oakland Mayor and Chief Share Uneasy Alliance During a news conference at Oakland City Hall on Monday, Anthony Batts, the police chief who recently applied — unsuccessfully — for the same position in San Jose, was asked if he intended to stay at the helm of the embattled Oakland Police Department. ...

N.J. education chief Chris Cerf, Mayor Cory Booker present findings on Newark schools reform | NJ.com

N.J. education chief Chris Cerf, Mayor Cory Booker present findings on Newark schools reform

Published: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 3:59 PM Updated: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 6:44 PM

By David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger
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Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerNewark Mayor Cory Booker and Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, shown here in this January file photo, today tag-teamed a presentation of their findings about how to reform Newark schools.

NEWARK — After months of scouring the books at Newark Public Schools, Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf and Mayor Cory Booker presented their findings to a group of community leaders in Newark today, charting a path for reform and trying to get city stakeholders on board.

"We should all be here motivated by a sense of moral outrage," said Cerf, who is playing a direct role in fixing Newark schools, as well as finding a new superintendent. "We have big, bold ambitions, and we are not interested in incremental change."

The study was conducted by a diagnostic team and has been underway for roughly nine months. The team, funded by private money raised by Booker, assessed

Speaking at NJEA conference, U.S. Sen. Menendez says it's time to stop blaming teachers | NJ.com

Speaking at NJEA conference, U.S. Sen. Menendez says it's time to stop blaming teachers

Published: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 3:45 PM Updated: Saturday, February 05, 2011, 3:46 PM

By Aliza Appelbaum/The Star-Ledger
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Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerU.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, pictured in a March file photo, who has long supported the teachers union, today told them he supports their pension and tenure plans.

TRENTON — U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was the keynote speaker at the New Jersey Education Association 2011 Legislative Conference in East Brunswick early this afternoon, where he told the grateful union the things they were expecting to hear from an official who has always supported public education.

The NJEA has not gotten along with Gov. Chris Christie, who in the last year has pushed for anti-tenure legislation for teachers, spoken about an expensive pension system and failed to secure education jobs funding in time for this academic year. At the conference, Menendez took the opposite position on all the issues, praising teachers for working hard under less-than-optimal

Davis teacher elected president of state teachers association - Yolo County News - sacbee.com

California Teachers Association

Dean Vogel

Our Towns - Yolo County News

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Davis teacher elected president of state teachers association

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

Published: Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011 - 2:39 pm

A veteran teacher and counselor from Davis will be the new president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association.

Dean E. Vogel was elected by delegates in Los Angeles today, as part of the organization's quarterly State Council of Education meetings.

He will replace current CTA President David A. Sanchez, who will term out of office June 25 after four years.

Vogel's election was unanimous, CTA officials said.

Vogel's career as an educator spans 37 years in positions in elementary and higher education.

Not only has he taught children, but he has also trained school counselors and student teache

“Two Steps Back” Is A This American Life Episode Everybody Should Listen to — Especially Superintendents & Principals | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Two Steps Back” Is A This American Life Episode Everybody Should Listen to — Especially Superintendents & Principals Two Steps Back is a several year old episode of “The American Life.” It tells the tale of an innovative Chicago school with a collaborative principal getting the life crushed out of it by the desire for uniformity and control by the central office ...

More Egypt Protest Resources Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Egypt: The Middle East In Revolt is TIME Magazine’s constantly updated page with many multimedia resources. Crisis In Egypt is the regularly update site for ABC News. ...

Help Send Message to Univ of Texas- Reinstate Cesar Chavez Day - Hispanically Speaking News

Help Send Message to Univ of Texas- Reinstate Cesar Chavez Day

HS News is pleased to help spread the word…

The United Farm Workers, and the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation are proud to support the grassroots efforts of the University of Texas El Paso’s (UTEP) Students for Cesar Chavez collaborative who are gathering signatures on petitions asking University of Texas El Paso President Diana Natalicio to reinstate the March 31 Cesar Chavez holiday, which was abruptly canceled in November 2010.

The move was announced January 3rd during the winter holiday break. The Faculty Senate at UTEP removed Cesar Chavez Day as a holiday from the university’s calendar for the next four years. This was done behind closed doors without any student input. Understandably this move has generated controversy on campus. Students have come to us asking for help and we want to do all we can to

Seattle Public Schools community blog: Heads Up, High School Parents

Legislative Round-Up I haven't been keeping up as much as it seems that things change daily but here is what I believe the latest is. The Senate now has put out their proposal for trying to close the state budget gap (although still haven't closed it). In terms of ...

Heads Up, High School Parents I just skimmed this article but apparently all Washington parents will get a letter from their school (district?) about the rules and schedule for state testing. Look for that in the mail. From the Seattle Times article: State rules for who has to ...

Thank You A reader pointed out that Charlie and I don't thank our readers and followers of this blog. That person is right about us never having done (to the best of my recollection) one thread dedicated to thanking you for reading this blog. (This person ...

My Take on Learning in the 21st Century | Lefty Parent

My Take on Learning in the 21st Century

by Cooper Zale

In my previous piece, “What is 21st Century Learning?” I tried to put a context around eleven replies to that question from people identified by Ed Week magazine as thought-leaders in the business of education. That context is the transition in American society, and the wider world (case and point is Egypt and the Arab world in the past month), from external authority to the shared authority of a circle of equals. At this time in our human history, I can think of no more profound thread in our cultural evolution.

In keeping with this developmental thread, it seems appropriate that I go beyond commenting on the thoughts

School Tech Connect: Miguel del Valle In Rogers Park

Miguel del Valle In Rogers Park

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Spent part of the day at a del Valle event in the neighborhood. There were all kinds of Rogers Park stalwarts there, and just before I left we heard Katy Hogan announce that at the 49th ward endorsement meeting, Miguel received twice as many votes as Rahm. This is a very progressive ward.

We need a run-off election in this town, and we need for Miguel to be in it. There needs to be a long, hard talk about what kind of city we’re going to be and whether or not there's a For Sale sign on the whole damn thing. I'm not going to lie, I've asked Miguel a lot of very pointed questions, and in the back of my head I'm sort of hoping he'll take a swipe at someone, but he doesn't do that. This is a guy who's more about the big embrace rather than the sharp elbow.

On that, much more to come. Meanwhile, here I am cornering the candidate.

Here were some of the faces present in the crowd. The Sullivan kids are my new great hope for the future. There's a city full of these bright young people, but all you ever hear from you-know-who is charter, charter,

Schools Matter: Kress the Moneyman

Kress the Moneyman

by Kenneth Libby

Sandy Kress is busy these days advocating for, among others, Pearson, TFA, News Corp-owned Wireless Generation, and money managers. Here's the most recent list of companies Kress is lobbying for in the great state of Texas:

Abraham Trading Company      Moody Building / Second & Main Street P.O. Box 7  Canadian, TX 79014
    Type of Compensation: Prospective
    $25,000 - $49,999.99
    Client Start Date: 01/19/2011
    Client Term Date: 12/31/2011

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
300 West 6th Street Suite 2100 Austin, TX 78701

Month 5 As a Failing School « InterACT

Month 5 As a Failing School

by Martha Infante

When the state test scores were released in August of this year, our public urban middle school knew it was in trouble. We had lost over 20% of our staff through layoffs in the last 2 years and the impact on instruction was noticeable. So when we were placed on the “failing schools” list in September, we were not surprised.

And so began a school year where we faced the unique Los Angeles Unified School District sanction of being offered to other organizations for better governance and management in a process called Public School Choice(PSC). Graciously, we were also extended the opportunity to bid for ourselves, and thus we have been working

NYC Public School Parents: Lynne Winderbaum on Michael Bloomberg’s version of democracy

Lynne Winderbaum on Michael Bloomberg’s version of democracy

by Leonie Haimson

“This is not democracy—letting people yell and scream," the mayor declared on his weekly radio show. "That's not freedom of expression—that's just trying to take away somebody else's rights."

How positively Orwellian hearing Mayor Bloomberg lecture us on what is or is not democracy.

This is the man who fired every member but one of the Panel for Educational Policy who didn’t agree with him on grade retention and replaced them with members who did—and always will.

This is the man who said he strongly supported term limits until he came to the end of his second term,

The PEP and the School Closing Process is Illegitimate « JD2718

The PEP and the School Closing Process is Illegitimate

by jd2718

And with that realization, why participate? Quick answer – the walk out was a great response. But that needs some discussion.

On Thursday I was there. (Not Tuesday. I’ve been not well, and even Thursday took effort. But I did not want to miss it)

When we talk at these meetings, we are speaking to each other, and for the record. The meetings are uncomfortable for some of the panelists, especially Black. The discussion among panel members is for the record, and not to affect policy. Eight of thirteen vote yes.

So why do we go? In theory, the votes could go differently. But we know that if one of the eight broke ranks, Bloomberg would replace them, and a revote would restore his direct decision-making authority. It is vaguely

solidaridad: On Anschutz, Villaraigosa, LAUSD Privatization Candidates, and Riding Dinosaurs

On Anschutz, Villaraigosa, LAUSD Privatization Candidates, and Riding Dinosaurs

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

This article was first published on Dissident Voice

... [A] Bizarro World, where the richest and most powerful people in the U.S. are cast as a plucky band of selfless rebels fighting for the civil rights of poor children of color, while dedicated and overworked teachers who can't afford a house or pay for their children's college tuition are imagined to be the greedy overlords of the old order. — Randy Childs (Educator and Activist)

Failure doesn't begin to describe charter sycophant Villaraigosa and PLAS

Failure doesn't begin to describe charter sycophant Villaraigosa and PLAS

I'm not sure if anyone got a chance to read Producer, stadium developers donate to group backing Villaraigosa's school board candidates, but the piece details how fringe right wing billionaire Philip

Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Saturday coffee.

by Fred Klonsky

The Chicago tradition after a 2 foot snow fall is to dig out a parking space and then place some old furniture in the space to hold it when you leave.
The fact that Chicago has a tradition of doing anything after a 2 foot snow fall should tell you something about this City. How many places have enough 2 foot snow falls to have traditions connected to them?
There’s no law. But god help the person who moves your shit. Even Mayor Daley famously gave his thumbs up to the practice.
The only thing that is in some dispute is when your dibs runs out. I’ve seen some people keep their furniture out

Old school.

by Fred Klonsky

Leadbelly.

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Saturday, February 5, 2011