Vote for My Blue Dog for the District 5 seat of the LAUSD Board of Education

Dear Friend:

A very important election will take place on Tuesday, May 17th that will determine the future direction of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

California Democrats for Education Privatization (DFEP) is proud to announce our endorsement of My Blue Dog for the District 5 seat of the LAUSD Board of Education.  Currently, the seat is held by Yolie Flores, our strongest champion for school Privatization at LAUSD, who is not running for re-election.

We need to support My Blue Dog to continue the progress that has been made in the largest public school district in California and the second largest public school district in the United States. Since 2006, LAUSD has led ground-breaking Privatizations, such as the innovative Public School Choice Resolution at the District’s lowest performing schools.  This initiative offered parents and the community an opportunity to challenge the status quo and turn chronically under-performing schools into profitable charter schools.  More recently, due to the vision, leadership, and outright courage of the current Privatization-minded Board majority, significant advances have been made in destroying teacher morale and holding teacher’s jobs hostage for student performance on silly tests(very profitable).

My Blue Dog is a candidate who will ensure that the momentum of profitable Privatization will not end.

This is a very critical election.  One seat will decide the majority voting bloc of the new school board.  I ask you to help elect My Blue Dog who we know will put profits and corporate interests first and the community in its place.

I urge you to join California DFEP and education Privitizers throughout the region in supporting My Blue Dog for the LAUSD School Board.

My Blue Dog needs your help in order to sustain his campaign through Election Day.  Please donate to his campaign on his website at mybluedogforschoolboard.con.  

In closing, I want to urge you to sign-on to DFEP's Statement of Principles.  This will help the broader education Privatization world send a message that the time for change in our schools is now. The link to the Statement of Principals is at: DFEP.org/petition/SOP/.

Also, be sure to check us out at DFEP’s website page at: DFEP.org/branches/ca/.

You can also find us on Facebook at: facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Democrats-for-Education-Privitization-California/

Sincerely,

GLORIA $ ROMERO (not the other one*)

Charter Queen

Democrats for Education Privatization

gloria@DFEP.org

*SENATOR GLORIA ROMERO (ret.)

Modern School: Teachers, Students Attacked in Mid-East Uprisings

Modern School: Teachers, Students Attacked in Mid-East Uprisings

Teachers, Students Attacked in Mid-East Uprisings

by Michael Dunn

Bahraini Protest (Image by Ryan Bayona)

Teachers have been at the forefront of the Bahraini uprising and many teachers have been seized by security forces as a result. According to the Teacher Solidarity website, 6 female teachers were seized last week from a school in Muharraq. Teachers and students were also

My Plea to Citizen Trump | Lefty Parent

My Plea to Citizen Trump | Lefty Parent

My Plea to Citizen Trump

by Cooper Zale

Not quite sure why Donald Trump is suddenly pushing all my buttons. I mean he’s always been ridiculously full of himself. Maybe its the whole “birther” thing, culminating in Obama revealing his long-form birth certificate and Trump saying he had never been more proud of himself for making that happen. Or maybe its the fact that he has waltzed his way into the 2012 Presidential nominating process and is sucking oxygen out of a needed political dialog about America’s path forward, particularly among the potential Republican candidates.

Just give me a ten second audience with the guy so I can convey my thought that he seems like the biggest asshole on the planet! He probably would take that as a compliment, or at least tell me so, because I don’t

Dear May: I Know Your Tricks | Mr. Teachbad's Blog of Teacher Disgruntlement

Dear May: I Know Your Tricks | Mr. Teachbad's Blog of Teacher Disgruntlement

Dear May: I Know Your Tricks

by mrteachbad

It’s finally the end of April.

Happy Friday and good riddance to another month. Now comes May. Pretty cool, right? Almost done.

But listen, Month of May…get outta my face. You suck.

You think you are so great:

Hey, Teachers…look at me. I’m MAY!! I’m not like Dickhead March who’s cold, but can never seem to muster up a snow day. And I’m way better than Moody April who will be sunny during the week and then piss cold rain on you all weekend. No, that’s not me. I’m different. I’m what you want. And when you see me, you know the school year is almost done. Plus, I give you Memorial Day. Then you get that giant, sweet vacation in the summer. Yeah…you can smell it, can’t you? You’re almost at the finish line. I’m awesome!

May, let me tell you; you are the worst tease in the whole world. I hate you and you suck.

You are warm. And you know we all get swept away with your longer days, grass, flowers, shorts, sandals,

Aparna Vashisht: Starting a Parent Revolution

Aparna Vashisht: Starting a Parent Revolution

Starting a Parent Revolution

Posted: 04/29/11 03:49 PM ET

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Education , Education Reform , Information Revolution , Schools , Education News

The familiar is comforting to us. We don't fear what we have experienced before, the known. When we as parents visit our kids' school, it's no wonder that we feel that the schools are fine. Most of us attended the same type of schools; the setting is familiar. The rooms have desks with attached chairs, notebooks, textbooks, crayons, pencils, blackboards, etc. -- perfect images of how school was when we were kids. The way schools communicate with parents is also the same. They send us a notice on paper in our kids' backpacks or on a notebook, and even that is exactly like how our parents got the notes.

What's wrong with this picture?

Our kids today have more access to information at their fingertips than we ever did, but the schools have done woefully little to keep up with the information revolution. Why are teachers still giving assignments that can be solved by one simple Google Search? We are so used to the concept of school being the same as it was in our youth that we don't notice, don't think about, how desperately it needs to change. I am not saying that schools should be inundated with the latest technological gadgets, but that the basic premise of our education system needs to change.

1. We need to meet students where they are, which is a more advanced place than we were at

Freaky Friday. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Freaky Friday. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Freaky Friday.

by Fred Klonsky

No adapters for early adopters.

On Monday I attended a board meeting where an administrator from the central office proposed spending a quarter of a million dollars on a pilot program of technology coaches in three of our buildings.

Why I think this is a goofy idea in just a moment.

This week, three of us, all teachers, each purchased an iPad2 with our own money (I don’t know how to write the plural of an iPad2). Today, when one of the teachers wrote to the same administrator requesting the district

Wave of Sit-ins in US continue at UT « occupy california

Wave of Sit-ins in US continue at UT « occupy california

Wave of Sit-ins in US continue at UT

By *

AUSTIN, Texas – Students at the University of Texas, Austin have taken over the office of President Bill Powers, demanding that he take a stronger stance against sweatshop conditions of workers producing university apparel. Similar sit-ins have taken place recently at Emory University; College of William and Mary; Rutgers; University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Tulane against poor working

Jersey Jazzman: He Makes No Sense in Boston, Either

Jersey Jazzman: He Makes No Sense in Boston, Either

He Makes No Sense in Boston, Either

by Duke

No matter where he goes, Chris Christie is an intellectual train wreck:

In speech nearly identical to those he's given before other scholarly groups and at his trademark town hall, Christie laced more criticism of the NJEA into his call for changing education policy.

"They're there to protect the lowest performers, to protect a system of post-production compensation," Christie said of the union. "For you to believe that's for the kids, you have to believe that a child will learn better under the warm comforting knowledge that a teacher pays nothing for their health benefits."

If Christie's benefits plan goes through, all teachers will make less money - 12% to 20% less. He says that won't

School Council Member: "Logandale Needed More Parent Involvement" | Progress Illinois

School Council Member: "Logandale Needed More Parent Involvement" | Progress Illinois

School Council Member: "Logandale Needed More Parent Involvement"

The outcry to stop Chicago Public Schools from combining Avondale Elementary and Logandale Middle School showed unity in the community, but it may have been a case of too little, too late —as one local school council member said Thursday that Logandale “needed more parent involvement” in the months leading up to Wednesday’s consolidation move.

“Maybe if they knew what was at stake it would’ve been different, but they never had [parent involvement],” said Sonia Cortez, who serves on the Avondale and Logandale LSCs. “No we don’t know what’s going to happen. The kids are going to go back and forth between both schools, I guess.”

The Chicago Board of Education approved CPS' plan to consolidate the two schools, even though community leaders, educators, and concerned parents worked hard to draft a plan that would work as a compromise. During the talks, CPS officials were slammed for being disrespectful to the community and, at one meeting, even walked out.

The move to consolididate came just a day before another Logan Square school, Frederick

We Party Patriots » Blog Archive » Ayn Rand vs. Christianity

We Party Patriots » Blog Archive » Ayn Rand vs. Christianity

Ayn Rand vs. Christianity

by Elliot Banfield

We know that the Atlas Shrugged premiere was two weeks ago and that the film’s producers have admitted it was a failure. We know that everybody has weighed in on the fact that, just as with the Founding Fathers meme, Tea Partiers have been duped into thinking the message of Atlas Shrugged is in line with their own. And we know, above all else, that talking about this stuff can rot your brain and distract from important policy discussion and action taking.

Still, we came across an ‘Ayn Rand as she relates to the Tea Party’ memo so complete, and from such a

Jersey Jazzman: Splitting Hairs

Jersey Jazzman: Splitting Hairs

Splitting Hairs

by Duke

I'll get back to this article by Al Doblin later, but let me just weigh in on this:

Last week, Governor Christie and I went back-and-forth on public education during an editorial board meeting with The Record. The governor corrected me when I said the state was constitutionally required to provide a thorough and efficient education. New Jersey must provide a thorough and efficient system of public education, he said.

Can I just point out that this rhetorical splitting of hairs is just about the stupidest aspect of our ongoing education debate here in New Jersey?

Is anyone saying that the NJ Constitution allows a child to get an education that isn't thorough and efficient, as long as the system is thorough and efficient? Do you think this distinction was very important to the writers of

State Accountability Report Card - Accountability (CA Dept of Education)

State Accountability Report Card - Accountability (CA Dept of Education)

State Accountability Report Card

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) required annual statewide summary report of student assessment results, high school graduation rates, teacher qualifications, and other indicators.

Program Information

• Overview of the State Accountability Report Card

State Accountability Report Card

• Report Card 2009–10 (PDF; 337KB; 39pp.)
  
  
• Report Card 2008–09 (PDF; 298KB; 24pp.)
  
  
• Report Card 2007–08 (PDF; 272KB; 20pp.)
  
  
• Report Card 2007–08 in Spanish (PDF; 296KB; 20pp.)
  
  
• Report Card 2006–07 (PDF; 937KB; 20pp.)
  
  
• Report Card 2006–07 in Spanish (PDF; 417KB; 20pp.)
  

Related Sites

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
  
  
• U.S. Department of Education (Outside Source)
  
  
• Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
  
  
• School Accountability Report Card

VIDEO: Student Occupations at Five Campuses | Labor Notes

VIDEO: Student Occupations at Five Campuses | Labor Notes

VIDEO: Student Occupations at Five Campuses

by Kathleen Brower | Fri, 04/29/2011 - 11:57am

Students at Emory University were arrested after sitting in to demand termination of the school’s contract with food service giant Sodexo, exposed for human rights abuses globally.

When it comes to budget cuts and policies that hurt students and campus workers, student activists are refusing to sit down…unless it’s in their president’s office. This week and last, students at five universities staged sit-ins for student and worker rights, and this seems to be only the beginning.

For the past few years students across the country in United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) have been running campaigns against budget cuts and salary freezes that hurt students and already underpaid workers. This spring that work has blown up. Students in USAS launched a national “Take Back Our Economy” project and mobilized in more than 30 cities March 2 and April 4 in support of workers’ rights.

Last week, USAS activists at two universities in the South simultaneously occupied their university presidents’ offices to demand justice for workers on their campuses. At Emory University in Atlanta, students staged a seven-hour sit-inafter more than 100 students rallied with Martin Luther King’s nephew Isaac Farris Jr. and State Senator Vincent Fort. They urged the president to terminate the school’s multi-million-dollar contract with food service giant Sodexo, exposed for human rights abuses globally.

Using Skype, the Emory activists teleconferenced with USASers at Virginia’s College of William and Mary, live from their own sit-in in the president’s office, where students

San Mateo students to protest cuts « State of Emergency

San Mateo students to protest cuts « State of Emergency

This afternoon, students from San Mateo’s Hillsdale High School plan to march and rally in protest of statewide budget cuts to public education. Conceived as part of a community service project, about 40 students are expected to march a mile from campus to a main junction in front of rush-hour traffic.

More and more students are getting involved and standing up for their education. Just last week, students at CSU Fullerton staged a 4-day Sit-in to protest “the death of higher education.”

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