Invitation to March on June 4th for our Kids, for Public Education and for MPS « Larry Miller's Blog

Invitation to March on June 4th for our Kids, for Public Education and for MPS « Larry Miller's Blog

Invitation to March on June 4th for our Kids, for Public Education and for MPS

by millerlf

Dear Friends:

On Saturday June 4^th the MPS community and friends will be assembling at MacDowell Montessori (17^th and Highland) at 11 AM for a march in defense of the civil rights of our children. The Grand Marshall of the march is Vel Phillips who will be accompanied by Peggy Rozga and other members of the historic NAACP Youth Commandos. We will then march across the 16^th Street Bridge to Forrest Home Elementary (15^th and Mitchell). At 1:15, in the Forrest Home playground, we will hold a rally for public education. The rally will end at 2:30.

We are inviting each MPS school to participate. This is an event that the district supports, although not an official sponsor. The sponsors are Voces de la Frontera, Micah, I Love My Public Schools, Council for Spanish Speaking and Milwaukee City Council PTA/PTSA’s Inc.

The theme of the march is to show some of the great things that are at stake of being lost with the proposed budget. Students, families and schools are saying “don’t take this away from us.” We are asking for school contingents to include drum lines, marching bands, sports teams, a walking art show and anything else that illustrates the holistic approach MPS takes to educating our children.

To download a PDF of the poster for the June 4th Civil Rights march for kids go to:

Poster marchmilwaukee June 4

To download a copy of the PTA leaflet go to:

PTA June 4

To download a copy of the PTA leaflet in Spanish go to:

PTA June 4 Spanish

Larry Miller MPS School Board Member

Joint Finance Continues The Assault On Wisconsin’s Kids « Larry Miller's Blog

Joint Finance Continues The Assault On Wisconsin’s Kids « Larry Miller's Blog

Joint Finance Continues The Assault On Wisconsin’s Kids

by millerlf

On Friday the Joint Finance Committee agreed to reduce funding cuts to public education by approximately 12 %. Alberta Darling (and company) is trying to give a new face to the massive slashing of public education funds. This will prove meaningless as Darling faces recall for her misconduct as a legislator.
Following is a letter from “I Love My Public Schools” in response to the Joint Finance Committee’s decision.
Dear Public School Supporter:
Do you have 20 minutes, and a computer? Please write a letter to the editor this weekend to address the Joint Finance Committee’s vote on Friday to defund public education statewide.
The JFC agreed, along party lines, to reduce funding to Wisconsin public schools by $1.6 billion over the biennium, instead of the $1.7 billion Scott Walker had proposed. They returned about $100 million to the state

Cuts-only budget is the wrong choice

by millerlf

By Robert Kraig and Ken Taylor May 28, 2011 MJS Op-ed
The central premise of Gov. Scott Walker’s devastating budget cuts is that the state’s fiscal crisis is making him do it.
The governor claims he has no choice but to raise taxes on low-income workers while slashing education, health care, community supports for seniors and people with disabilities, mass transit and other core investments that promote economic opportunity and freedom for all Wisconsinites to live independent and fulfilling lives.
To test the governor’s assertion that these are necessary choices, we convened some of the top budget experts in the state to examine whether it is possible to balance the state budget without making crippling cuts.
Participants in the process included the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. Our best and brightest 

On winning this fight. « Fred Klonsky's blog

On winning this fight. « Fred Klonsky's blog

On winning this fight.

by Fred Klonsky

More rain is expected this afternoon. No picnic at the park or forest preserve? Extra time to do some work on Senate Bill 512.

If you have called 188 412 6570 and haven’t gotten through. Or if you haven’t gotten a response, there’s other things you can do.

Bob Haisman is a retired teacher and the former president of the IEA. He sends along these suggestions:

E-mail your legislator. In the subject line write, “Do not cut my Pension” — or — “NO SB512″

Visit a district office and leave hand written notes. If the office is

Teacher: Of 8,892 data points, which ones matter in evaluation? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Teacher: Of 8,892 data points, which ones matter in evaluation? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Teacher: Of 8,892 data points, which ones matter in evaluation?

by Valerie Strauss

--

This was written by Charles Duerr, who has taught for nine years at a Title 1 elementary school in Bellevue, Washington. A National Board Certified Teacher, Duerr read the following statement to the Bellevue School Board in response to the district’s recent bargaining proposals as well as the national movement to tie teacher evaluation to student standardized test scores.

Read full article >>

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sunday links.

by Fred Klonsky

Cartoon: H/T Facebook SOS Million Teacher March

The Illinois House may actually put in a couple hours this afternoon. Their session ends Tuesday. They may vote today on the teacher pension killing bill. So make another call: 1 888 412 6570.

Federal anti-terrorism agents spy on a Texas anti-corporate activist. They catch him with a quilt.

Teach for America. A jobs program for wealthy college grads funded by taxpayers and rich folks.

They call them “frozen assets.” By that they mean teacher salaries and health benefits. And guess what they want to get their fat little hands on? For what? More bubble tests.

Can you think of any other profession – from hair styling to fire fighting to neurosurgery – where we wouldn’t value

The wall.

by Fred Klonsky

Queens Teacher: Bill Gates' Pet Peeves About Public Education

Queens Teacher: Bill Gates' Pet Peeves About Public Education

Bill Gates' Pet Peeves About Public Education

by Queens Teacher

From Education Sector:

Gates puts his drones on the case to find out how money can be saved regarding...

Increases in teacher salaries based on years of experience

Increases in teacher salaries based on educational credentials and experiences

Professional development days

Number of paid sick and personal days

Testing + Reward/Punishment = High Stakes Testing | Seattle Education

Testing + Reward/Punishment = High Stakes Testing | Seattle Education

Testing + Reward/Punishment = High Stakes Testing

by seattleducation2011

One would think that if little to no improvement was made from the No Child Left Behind program, that the Department of Education, specifically Arne Duncan, would reflect on that and not instead push his Race to the Top program which is simply NCLB on steroids.

The National Academy of Sciences recently published a report, Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education, on the value of high stakes testing and is discussed in an article in Education Week.

Below is an excerpt.

Dora

Nearly a decade of America’s test-based accountability systems, from “adequate yearly progress” to high school exit exams, has shown little to no positive effect overall on learning and insufficient safeguards against gaming the system, a blue-ribbon committee of the National Academies of Science concludes in a new report.

“Too often it’s taken for granted that the test being used for the incentive is itself the marker of

Brat Fests for The People - blue cheddar blog

Brat Fests for The People - blue cheddar blog

Brat Fests for The People

by bluecheddar

This is a brief video I did of the People’s Brat Fest from yesterday. Take a look at how many palm trees they had! They could’ve operated a palm tree scavenger hunt.

Autonomous Solidarity Organization’s first brat fest was a delicious success. In no way is it scaled to match Madison’s supposed world’s largest brat fest. However, the brats served at the regular brat fest are Johnsonville brats.

Three alternative brat fests sprang up this year in Madison largely because key figures in the Johnsonville Foods corporation donated over $44,000 to Scott Walker’s campaigns since 2005.

But there’s another thing going on. Madison is one of the foodie capitols of the nation. While Johnsonville products are not so bad, the purveyors lined up for today’s Alt Brat Fest at Orton park are the exemplars of food

Revolt: US could create full-employment forever, but chooses Americans’ misery, decay, death | Dailycensored.com

Revolt: US could create full-employment forever, but chooses Americans’ misery, decay, death | Dailycensored.com

Revolt: US could create full-employment forever, but chooses Americans’ misery, decay, death

Written by Carl_HermanBusiness, PoliticsMay 29, 2011

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source: Carl Herman, Examiner.com

Americans could have full-employment if government created money, and employed anyone interested for infrastructure improvement (hard and soft).

Below is an article I wrote in 2009 (slightly revised) to explain this accomplishment is as easy as the sentence above describes.

For my comprehensive explanations on economic solutions, read this and this (and here for foreign policy interests, here if you’d like me to verbally explain all this from a radio and podcast interview).

Because what US “leadership” does rather than these easy solutions are criminal acts that every year kill millions, harm billions, and loot trillions of our dollars, I advocate for revolution. Revolution stops all allegiance to a government’s crimes and criminal leaders, and demands prosecution – or because both political parties are so deeply criminal - Truth and Reconciliation.

“I know the American People are much attached to thei

Schools Matter: National Research Council Finds High School Exit Exams Increase Dropouts Without Increasing Achievement

Schools Matter: National Research Council Finds High School Exit Exams Increase Dropouts Without Increasing Achievement

National Research Council Finds High School Exit Exams Increase Dropouts Without Increasing Achievement

by Jim Horn

Conclusion 2: The evidence we have reviewed suggests that high school exit exam programs, as currently implemented in the United States, decrease the rate of high school graduation without increasing achievement. The best available estimate suggests a decrease of 2 percentage points when averaged over the population. In contrast, several

Charters, in black and white: Integrating charter schools is long overdue

Charters, in black and white: Integrating charter schools is long overdue

BY ERIC GRANNIS

Sunday, May 29th 2011, 4:00 AM

Erik Dreyer/Getty

Minorities who attend diverse schools are more likely to attend college.

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About 90% of students attending charter schools in New York City are minorities. This has provoked some to accuse charter schools of creating "racial isolation" and rolling back the integration efforts that started with the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling of 1954.

At the national level, UCLA's Civil Rights Project issued a report lamenting that "charter schools enroll a disproportionate share of black students and expose them to the highest level of segregation."

As a charter school trustee and husband of a charter school operator, my first reaction to hearing this was disbelief: How could anyone complain about giving too many minority kids a good education? But perhaps these critics have a point.

Charter schools justify high minority enrollment as helping close the racial achievement gap. Seats in good schools shouldn't be "wasted" on white students, who usually already have access to the better public schools in any given geographic area. It's a logical

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/05/29/2011-05-29_charters_in_black_and_white.html#ixzz1NkYoWSj2