Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In my mailbox

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In my mailbox

In my mailbox

by Mike Klonsky

From Javier Lacayo

Hi Mike,

I wanted to send some information your way on our ‘Parent Day of Action’ which kicked off at 7am this morning. By 9am, our volunteers and organizers had already collected over 1,000 petition signatures of New Yorkers opposing Bloomberg's plan to fire 4,100 teachers. Throughout the day, more than 100 volunteers have been talking to parents at schools and subway stops across the City (press release here: http://bit.ly/lqAFvM).

In addition to gathering petitions, we have also been collecting audio and video testimonials from public school parents. You can find them all, uploaded in real time, at parentsforteachers.com

We want to make all of this information and these resources available to local bloggers like you. So

A pull-no-punches commencement speech for teachers - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

A pull-no-punches commencement speech for teachers - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

A pull-no-punches commencement speech for teachers

by Valerie Strauss

Here are excerpts from the commencement speech that renowned educator Linda Darling-Hammond recently gave at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was awarded an honorary degree.

Darling-Hammond, didn’t pull any punches about how she views today’s school reform movement, which encourages new college graduates to teach in high-poverty schools with little training.

“Our leaders do not talk about these things,” she said. “They simply say of poor children, ‘Let them eat tests.’ ”

Read full article >>

National Testing Push Yielded Few Learning Advances: Report (VIDEO)

National Testing Push Yielded Few Learning Advances: Report (VIDEO)

First Posted: 05/27/11 02:01 PM ET Updated: 05/27/11 05:27 PM ET

NEW YORK -- Education policies pushing more tests haven't necessarily led to more learning, according to a new National Research Council report.

"We went ahead, implementing this incredibly expensive and elaborate strategy for changing the education system without creating enough ways to test whether what we are doing is useful or not," said Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the committee that produced the report.

Heavily testing students and relying on their scores in order to hold schools -- and in some cases teachers -- accountable has become the norm in education policy. The No Child Left Behind Act, the largest piece of education legislation on the federal level, for example, uses performance on math and reading exams to gauge whether schools are failing or succeeding -- and which schools are closed or phased out.

"Incentives are powerful, which means they don't always do what they want them to do," said Kevin Lang, a committee member who also chairs Boston University's economics department. "As applied so far, they have not registered the type of improvements that everyone has hoped for despite the

Social Engineering and Facilitating an Enriched Environment | Lefty Parent

Social Engineering and Facilitating an Enriched Environment | Lefty Parent

Social Engineering and Facilitating an Enriched Environment

by Cooper Zale

My first reaction to Newt Gingrich’s statement opposing both “left-wing and right-wing social engineering” was that I agree completely, but I need to be careful what I wish for here and think about what is negative “social engineering” versus what is a societal consensus on an “enriched environment” that facilitates moving our larger community forward.

My own awareness of the dark side of social engineering was catalyzed by reading radical educator John Taylor Gatto’s book, The Underground History of American Education, where he at times bluntly challenges the institutions in our society (including our public education system) dedicated to improving our behavior, for our own good whether we like it or not. Says Gatto in the book’s prologue…

The shocking possibility that dumb people don’t exist in sufficient numbers to warrant the millions

Pick up the phone again. House votes on Friday. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Pick up the phone again. House votes on Friday. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Pick up the phone again. House votes on Friday.

by Fred Klonsky

Don’t stop making the calls.

The Illinois House has postponed the pension vote until tomorrow.

1 888 412 6570

No on SB512

“No reduction in retirement benefits. No increase in costs. We’ve met our obligations. Any change would be unfair and unconstitutional.”

Schools Matter: School Librarians Are Being Interrogated by LAUSD Lawyers

Schools Matter: School Librarians Are Being Interrogated by LAUSD Lawyers

School Librarians Are Being Interrogated by LAUSD Lawyers

by Jim Horn

School librarians, or teacher librarians as they referred to in Canada, must have both teaching certification and library-media certification. Most have Masters in Library and Information Science on top of their teaching credentials.

In urban schools that do not have active middle class parent groups who insist on libraries on librarians, school libraries are being shut down by bean counters and technofools whose virtual brains tell them that poor children in their segregated and computerized testing camps don't deserve a library or a librarian to guide them in research skills and in choosing good literature, either fiction or non-fiction. And thus, the caste system adds a new level of inequality and indignity on top of crippling poverty.

This scary story is from AlterNet:

Last night, the Canadian radio broadcast, "As It Happens," featured a remarkable story about what's going on in Los Angeles public schools, as officials grapple with a budget crisis. Librarians -- more specifically, teacher-librarians, are being escorted to the basement of an administration

John H. Jackson: Protect the American Union by Supporting Public Schools

John H. Jackson: Protect the American Union by Supporting Public Schools

Protect the American Union by Supporting Public Schools

America's public schools are ground zero in the movement to reframe American politics and public policy from one of common opportunity to individual gains.

Policymaking used to embody the notion that the good of the people was the good of our Union. Today, policymakers seemingly subscribe to the notion that what is good for a few is good enough, even if at the cost of our Union.

It's time to call out these policies and the politicians who promote them for what they really are: modern anti-Unionists.

While arguing for programs and policies that weaken schools, rarely do they mention that most successful Americans of all races, ethnicities, religions and professions were and are products of our American public school system. This vast majority of citizens prove that when we invest in our public systems and employees, they work and produce high outcomes.

But each day seems to bring a new example of leaders undermining our

Will 2012 Become Labor’s Moment of Political Truth? - COLORLINES

Will 2012 Become Labor’s Moment of Political Truth? - COLORLINES

Will 2012 Become Labor’s Moment of Political Truth?

Protest inside Wisconsin State Capitol building this winter. Photo: Creative Commons/mrbula

by Yvonne Yen LiuShareThis | Print | Comment (1)

Friday, May 27 2011, 9:09 AM ESTTags: 2012 campaign, afl-cio, labor, richard trumka

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LOBBYISTS GET NAFTA-STYLE TRADE DEALS BACK ON TRACK

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, well, Richard Trumka is no fool. The president of the largest labor federation in the country—the AFL-CIO boasts of 11 million members—had scathing words for Democrats and President Obama at a speech last week at the National Press Club.

“If leaders aren’t blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families’ interests, working people will not support them. This is where our focus will be—now, in 2012, and beyond,” Trumka said.

The speech built upon a theme Trumka has been developing for months: Don’t count on labor to blindly support Democrats who aren’t supporting labor. “It’s actually going to be fun,” he told Salon’s Joan Walsh a few weeks ago, speaking of the union’s plan to give “less to party structure, and more to our own structure.” He repeated the point last week. “Our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate,” he said. Ouch.

AFL-CIO isn’t the first union to publicly distance itself from Democrats’ electoral fate; the firefighters union declared in April that it would freeze its federal political spending in 2012 and direct money to local campaigns instead. But the support of AFL-CIO is of another scale, both financially and politically. Trumka’s much

Troublemakers School a Hit with Chicago Activists | Labor Notes

Troublemakers School a Hit with Chicago Activists | Labor Notes

Troublemakers School a Hit with Chicago Activists

by Howard Ryan | Fri, 05/27/2011 - 1:37pm

Jenn Johnson from the Chicago Teachers Union and James Thindwa from In These Times address a workshop on labor's political agenda in Chicago. Photo: CTU.

As employers and politicians slash budgets, squeeze workers, and target union rights, labor activists are searching for answers. Two hundred found some in the tactics, strategies, tools, and sources of inspiration shared at the Labor Notes Troublemakers School May 21 in Chicago.

Attendees came heavily from education and other public sector unions—Chicago Teachers Union, AFSCME, University of Illinois graduate employees—but Teamsters, Electrical Workers (IBEW), and worker centers such as ARISE came as well.

The event opened with a “Lessons from Wisconsin” plenary, where Madison teachers union president Peggy Coyne pointed out that students actually ignited the Wisconsin movement.

High school students in Madison and elsewhere walked out en masse when they learned their teachers’ rights were under fire, while graduate teaching assistants from the University of Wisconsin launched the occupation inside the statehouse.

Madison building trades council leader Eric Cobb remarked on another lesson: the powe

How Do Teachers Matter? Not as Cause Agents But as Learning Opportunities | Dailycensored.com

How Do Teachers Matter? Not as Cause Agents But as Learning Opportunities | Dailycensored.com

How Do Teachers Matter? Not as Cause Agents But as Learning Opportunities

Written by Paul ThomasEducationMay 27, 2011

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Lost in the exaggerated claims of “bad” teachers being at the core of all that ails education and the concurrent calls for greater teacher accountability, often linked to student test scores, is a careful consideration of why we have universal public education in a free society and what the role of the teacher is within that purpose.

Debates about teacher quality and education reform are doomed to fail if we do not first place both within our purposes for and beliefs about education, human nature, and our culture. Universal public education, in its essence, must rest upon a commitment to human agency and autonomy as well as a full and complex faith in and support for democratic principles.

Once we embrace human agency and autonomy–everyone is born equal,

School Tech Connect: The Trib Is So Gross...

School Tech Connect: The Trib Is So Gross...

The Trib Is So Gross...

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

I see the Trib has attempted to crucify Poe, May, and Biss, in the dishonest way that is the hallmark of theTrib's editorial page. You know you're doing something right when you get scolded in the Trib, so I congratulate these three for standing up against something that is wrong.

Poor Biss-- he learned a tough lesson with that "present" vote. He's got to figure out if he's fish or fowl, that guy. For the record, his questions were neither "blather-rich" nor "soliloquoy"-like in nature; it's just that theTrib people have trouble with anything remotely nuanced. But seriously-- Note to Biss: unless you are 100% tax-

Judge: Corporate donations ban unconstitutional - USATODAY.com

Judge: Corporate donations ban unconstitutional - USATODAY.com

Judge: Corporate donations ban unconstitutional

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge has ruled that the campaign-finance law banning corporations from making contributions to federal candidates is unconstitutional, citing the Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United decision last year in his analysis.

In a ruling issued late Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Cacheris tossed out part of an indictment against two men accused of illegally reimbursing donors to Hillary Clinton's Senate and presidential campaigns.

Cacheris says that under the Citizens United decision, corporations enjoy the same rights as individuals to contribute to campaigns.

The ruling from the federal judge in Virginia is the first of its kind. The Citizens United case had applied only to corporate spending on campaigning by independent groups, like ads run by third parties to favor one side, not to direct contributions to the

Anti-tax Crusader Norquist “Enforces” No Brain Pledge in Capitol Visit « State of Emergency

Anti-tax Crusader Norquist “Enforces” No Brain Pledge in Capitol Visit « State of Emergency

Anti-tax Crusader Norquist “Enforces” No Brain Pledge in Capitol Visit

by Leonard Feldman

Grover Norquist makes his case at a recent meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)
Financier and a primary mover and shaker behind the drive to get legislators to sign a “no tax pledge,” Grover Norquist was reportedly in California and meeting with Republican lawmakers in Sacramento to shore up their commitment to his “no-tax” pledge, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Norquist, a long-time supporter of privatizing government services, has also been a driving force behind efforts to

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Friday morning TYs

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Friday morning TYs

Friday morning TYs

by Mike Klonsky

Now that I've turned another year older, I'm trying to act my age, a little more mature if you will. So I've dropped by Friday morning FUs in exchange for Friday morning TYs (thanks) in order to get back on a positive footing and class-up the blog a bit. You see, some of my readers, including the sisters over at Our Lady Of Mercy (who follow me on Twitter) were complaining that they felt limited when it came to forwarding my profanity-riddled SmallTalk posts. I hope my FU fans will forgive me.

This morning's TY goes out to Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin for her rulinggranting a permanent injunction that voided Gov. Walker's law banning collective bargaining rights for many state and local employees.

Another TY goes out to my favorite faux-research and think-tank debunkers, NEPC, for including my post on the

Californians Have Lost 100,000 Public Sector Jobs « State of Emergency

Californians Have Lost 100,000 Public Sector Jobs « State of Emergency

Californians Have Lost 100,000 Public Sector Jobs

by Leonard Feldman

Hard fiscal times have cost more than 100,000 Californians their federal, state or local government jobs, according to information from the California Employment Development Department, as reported in the Orange County Register.

These job losses include tens of thousands of public school employees, including teachers, counselors, nurses, and educational support professionals.

The new report provides one more telling reason that the state legisalture and governor must approve extending the current temporary taxes as a way to help keep Californians working and put more of our state’s residents back to work.

Here’s the link to the story’s main chart.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/government-302188-employment-jobs.html?graphics=1#graphics1

Kathleen Sebelius Wants Your Kids to Sit Still - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Kathleen Sebelius Wants Your Kids to Sit Still - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Kathleen Sebelius Wants Your Kids to Sit Still

by E.D. Kain

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is making me question whether the United States really needs a Health and Human Services Secretary to begin with. She told reporters recently:

You really need to look at the range of issues, because if a 5-year-old can’t sit still, it is unlikely that they can do well in a kindergarten class, and it has to be the whole range of issues that go into healthy child development.

To keep children planted firmly in their seats, the federal government is dishing out $500 million dollars in competitive grants to the states as part of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program. Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the program jointly. The money is intended to help children from birth to five years of age.

Now don’t get me wrong, I hope the money helps kids especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, though I suspect that giving low income families grants (read: vouchers) so that their children could attend preschool

Quick hit: NYC parents speak out « Failing Schools

Quick hit: NYC parents speak out « Failing Schools

Quick hit: NYC parents speak out

MAY 27, 2011

by Sabrina

My son has a wonderful teacher, she is patient, understanding, intelligent and best of all she loves the children.

I had the pleasure of going on a few trips with the class. I watch Mrs. Javidi talk and interact with the children. Wow she is great. My child can read, he writes, he knows how to add, and I can go on and on about the wonderful job that she has done with my son.

Now she is having a baby of her own and I tell you the baby is lucky already. But she and her husband, who is also a teacher, are at risk of losing their jobs. Politicians go on TV, on the radio and encourage good teachers to come teach in NEW YORK public schools, because it’s the best in the nation. Now we have Great Teachers and