Monday, February 13, 2012

Schools Matter: Resistance begins with organizing: Social Justice Schools Conference Report Back

Schools Matter: Resistance begins with organizing: Social Justice Schools Conference Report Back:

Resistance begins with organizing: Social Justice Schools Conference Report Back

"How do we help students and teachers to stop blaming ourselves and each other and start working together to change the system?" — CEJ Student Activist

Labor/civil rights leader and author Bill Fletcher spoke to the attacks on the public sector, the need to project an alternative social vision, and the critical need for an organizing strategy.UCLA's Professor John Rogers discusses the relation of school struggles in contrast to increasing income inequality.We ended the conference with a "make the banks pay" rally in front of the notorious tax deadbeats Chase Bank.
Photos by Robert D. Skeels, see the entire set.

We're beginning to see scattered resistance to the corporate school privatization agenda of the Billionaire Boys Club, ALEC, and Arne Duncan. Across the country we are seeing parents stand with educators against the scourge of standardized tests. Parents Across America is a representative cross-section of many of those on the forefront of these battles. In New York we've seen powerful movements by entire communities and groups like the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM). GEM brought us the watershed The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. Seattle activists have opposed charter schools in the backyard of one of the most infamous charter supporters around. Oregon organizers passed Tax Fairness with their Measures 66 and 67. In Florida authentic parent groups opposed the charter trigger law imported by right-wing astroturf groups. In my neighborhood community members and parents from Micheltorena Street Elementary School and Elysian

Sac City Unified May Close A.M. Winn After All - Rosemont, CA Patch

Sac City Unified May Close A.M. Winn After All - Rosemont, CA Patch:

Sac City Unified May Close A.M. Winn After All

File photo: More than 350 attended a school board meeting to oppose the possibility of school closures and consolidations.

Elementary school students just east of Rosemont may have to find a new school next year, despite a previous decision by the Sacramento City Unified School District not to close their school.

That campus, A.M. Winn Elementary School, is under-enrolled and could save the district $181,000 if closed.

Potential budget cuts for the 2012-13 school year are forcing the district to choose $28 million in possible cuts, and on Thursday the Board of Education will consider adding school closures back to that list.

"Due to the severe budget constraints that the district is facing, the closure and consolidation recommendations presented on December 8th are now being brought back to the board for reconsideration," a staff report states.

If A.M. Winn is closed, its students would be split between Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Rancho Cordova and James W. Marshall Elementary School in Rosemont.

Other schools the district that could again face closure include Freeport Elementary and C.P. Huntington Elementary.

Layoff notices also set to be finalized

Also at Thursday's meeting, the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education is scheduled to finalize layoff notices for the next school year. The employees who receive pink slips are allowed to request a hearing to contest the layoffs.

--

Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education meeting:

6:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 16
Serna Center
5735 47th Ave

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Learning from Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee #edchat

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Learning from Rhee:

Learning from Rhee


This is a guest post by Joanna A. Bujes, an Oakland public school parent and supporter of public education. She has taught at U.C. Berkeley, University of Santa Clara, and SUNY Plattsburgh, and she has been a volunteer teacher and tutor in the Oakland public schools (poetry, drama, math) whenever she could find the time.


RHEE'S FRAMING OF THE DEBATE ON EDUCATION

On the evening of February 7, Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of DC public schools and the public face of the opaquely funded StudentsFirst, addressed an audience of some four thousand people at the Paramount theater in Oakland. This lecture was one of a number of lectures purchased as a series, and did not imply any particular interest in Rhee or in education by the older and relatively affluent crowd attending, the sort of crowd one finds at similar series, whether theater, ballet, or classical music.

As I have never heard Rhee speak before, I cannot say that she tailored her talk to this particular audience, but

Big Education Ape: 2-13-12 PM U.S. Department of Education 2013 Budget #2013BUDGET #edchat

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now:
Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Published by Coopmike48 – 8 news spotters today

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