Sunday, November 4, 2012

by seattleducation2011

Why is this woman laughing?

Alice Walton has donated $1.7 M to Initiative 1240 which would privatize our schools. If the Waltons are going to determine educational policy in our state, we should at least get to know them better.

WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE is a feature-length documentary that uncovers a retail giant’s assault on families and American values.

The film dives into the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to fight a goliath. A working mother is forced to turn to public assistance to provide healthcare for her two small children. A Missouri family loses its business after Wal-Mart is given over $2 million to open its doors down the road. A mayor struggles to equip his first responders after Wal-Mart pulls out and relocates just outside the city limits. A community in California unites, takes on the giant, and wins!

For more on the Walmart Waltons and their interest in education, see theWalmart 1% on Education.

By the way, did you know that the developer who just bought the Red Apple property at 23rd and Jackson in Seattle is considering a Walmart at that location?

Dora

Don’t Give Up… « Deborah Meier on Education

Don’t Give Up… « Deborah Meier on Education:

Don’t Give Up…

by rogermeier

……or at least Vote on Tuesday before you do. Since we can’t opt out of the world as it is–including all its almost unbelievable distortions–we have to stick together and figure out what comes next. I’m nervously expecting Obama to win–although sometimes I expect the worst just so I won’t be surprised—and the fight after that will be just as important as if he loses.
Someone showed me an ad attacking a Democratic candidate for the Florida House of Representatives (who happens to be a teacher’s union member), linking her to Penn State sex abuser Jerry Sandusky because she favors tenure, et al. Meanwhile, education “savior” Michelle Rhee is exposed as a fake and a failure (as an educator) over and over… and she still can raise more money in one phone call than I’ve probably been able to do in a life-time (and I’ve been trying).
Some sensible middle-of-the-roader writes that, after all, doctors and lawyers are expected to police their own

"California charter school lobby pouring big cash into Ponder school board bid" by News Ticker | San Diego Reader

"California charter school lobby pouring big cash into Ponder school board bid" by News Ticker | San Diego Reader:

California charter school lobby pouring big cash into Ponder school board bid

Matt Potter, November 4, 2012

San Diego's Proposition Z, a measure to raise property taxes for school bonds, is billed by its backers as a way of enabling the "San Diego Unified School District to maintain safe and productive learning environments for students during the state’s ongoing budget crisis."

But, according to report Friday by a local online news site backed by several well-heeled charter school advocates, a little-discussed political sweetener is tucked inside for the state's charter school lobby.

As reported by the Voice of San Diego, the tax boosting measure would "allow the district to pull an estimated $2.8 billion in loans. The money will go to a number of things, but $350 million will go to charter schools, new and old.

"The district will also set up a special committee dominated by 'representatives of the charter school community' to advise the school board on how to divvy out the money."

According to the Voice, "San Diego could set a national precedent and see an explosion of new facilities for charter schools."

Schools Matter: MOOC-ing Toward Epistemological Imperialism

Schools Matter: MOOC-ing Toward Epistemological Imperialism:

MOOC-ing Toward Epistemological Imperialism

by Jim Horn

The newest fad in digitized thought delivery is the MOOC (Massively Open Online Courses), and as soon as the politically-disinterested MIT engineers can hook up with the economically-rapacious profiteers of UofPhoenix, we are likely to see the "global economy" become underpinned by the new "global college." And just as the the global economy is about ferreting out the most vulnerable societies on Earth for exploitation, from production to consumption, the global college will be about stocking the cognitive shelves of tribesmen everywhere with the exceptionalist epistemologies that put ancient Greece at the Cognitive Creation and John Locke at the Modern Political Beginning, and Washington, DC as the site of the Second Coming of Adam Smith.

Think of it--Harvard in the African bush on hand cranked computers connected to satellites 20,000 miles up. Or

Mitt Romney’s For-Profit College Connections | toteachornototeach

Mitt Romney’s For-Profit College Connections | toteachornototeach:

Mitt Romney’s For-Profit College Connections

by aristotlethewise

Mitt Romney’s For-Profit College Connections
Highlighted In Video Made By Student Debt Activists
PopoutA new video from group of young activists warns of Mitt Romney’s connections to for-profit colleges, hoping to raise awareness of how the Republican presidential nominee might govern the controversial for-profit education sector. The video shows Romney talking about college affordability and insists the candidate is “sketchy” about for-profits.
The Student Debt Crisis Campaign, a group that includes activists involved in the Occupy Colleges and Occupy Student Debt movements, posted the video on YouTube last week. Two of the video’s creators, Natalia Abrams

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Is Democracy for Sale?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Is Democracy for Sale?:

Is Democracy for Sale?

by Melissa Westbrook

It would appear that some people - especially wealthy people - believe this is so (and are willing to spend huge sums to prove it).

We have our own examples here in Washington State. Consider our initiative process. In this last cycle, we see nearly every single initiative pushed by a handful of wealthy people. The liquor initiative (I love Costco but this was wrong), the gay marriage referundum, the charter school initiative - it's a sad thing. And, they are not only willing to pay for a campaign but pay to get it on the ballot.

The idea that in Washington State our initiative process is a way for grassroots efforts from citizens to make their voices heard is becoming a joke.

So what's next? Well, just as we have seen the huge money in our presidential election (both sides) and on down, the next thing will be...School Board elections.

Seattle Schools This Week

by Melissa Westbrook

Monday, Nov. 5th
Curriculum&Instruction Policy Committee Mtg. (Agenda reviewed by Charlie in an earlier thread).

Wednesday, Nov. 7th

Road Map to College: College Application Completion Event

Roosevelt High School from 3 pm to 7 pm
For more info and to register, visit www.roadmaptocollege.org

School Board Meeting, starting at 4:15 pm.
Call starting at 8 am on Monday, Nov. 5th to register for the Speakers list. 252-0040 or

Thursday, Nov. 8th
Audit&Finance Committee Mtg. from 4-6 p.m. Agenda.
Financial updates along with one notation "Change to PTA room rental" - not sure what that might mean. Availability? Cost? Also, the 2013-2014 budget development. Superintendent Banda said at the State of the District event that the district was going to be experiencing a budget shortfall (he gave a number but it seemed so high that I want to check it before I print it).

Friday, Nov. 9th
BEX Oversight Committee mtg from 8:30-10:30 am.

Saturday, Nov 10th
Director Martin-Morris from 9:30-11:30 am at Diva Espresso at Lake City Way/NE 80th
Director Smith-Blum from 10-11:30 am at the Capital Hill Library, 425 Harvard Ave. E.

Diane in the Evening Urgent Message 11-4-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

An Urgent Message for Voters Who Support Public Education

by dianerav

There are critical elections taking place on Tuesday throughout the country that parents, education advocates, and others who care about preserving and strengthening our public schools need to take notice of and cast their ballot appropriately. Out-of-state money from billionaires and astroturf groups like Students First are flowing into state races, like this one in Tennessee and local school board elections, like these in New Orleans and New Jersey, to push damaging policies to privatize and digitize our public schools.
There are also referendums and initiatives on the ballot in many states and cities that will affect the future of our public schools for years to come. In each case, there is tremendous private money being used to facilitate the expansion of charters and vouchers, promote budget cuts, and impose mayoral control, and against allowing elected school boards to protect and support their local public schools. The hedge funders, billionaires, for-profit

Teachers For Social Justice: 10 Arrested in City Hall Sit-in Against School Closings

Teachers For Social Justice: 10 Arrested in City Hall Sit-in Against School Closings:

10 Arrested in City Hall Sit-in Against School Closings

by sarah-ji

On Friday, November 2, a spirited crowd of 100 parents, teachers, students, and community members held a rally and press conference at City Hall demanding a moratorium-of at least two years-on all school closings, turnarounds, consolidations, and phase-outs. After the rally we sat in at the Mayor's office, refusing to leave until we had a meeting scheduled with the Mayor (no surrogates). That never happened, as one of his staff claimed she "couldn't do that." Outside supporters held a candlelight vigil. At 10PM the police threatened all those remaining. Ten parents, teachers, and community members were arrested and charged with trespassing. They spent the night in the police lock up (those arrested were CTU teachers and retired teachers, and members of

NYC Public School Parents: Parents throughout the nation: use your vote wisely on Tuesday to protect and support your public schools; do not let the privatizers buy your elections!

NYC Public School Parents: Parents throughout the nation: use your vote wisely on Tuesday to protect and support your public schools; do not let the privatizers buy your elections!:

Parents throughout the nation: use your vote wisely on Tuesday to protect and support your public schools; do not let the privatizers buy your elections!

by Leonie Haimson

protect and support your public schools;

do not let the privatizers buy your elections!

There are also referendums and initiatives on the ballot in many states and cities that will affect the future of our public schools for years to come. In each case, there is tremendous private money being used to facilitate the expansion of charters and vouchers, promote budget cuts, and impose mayoral control, and against allowing elected school boards to protect and support their local public schools. The hedge funders, billionaires, for-profit charter operators, and right-wingers are using their vast resources to impose their political will, and in most cases are dramatically outspending the good government organizations, education advocates, teachers, and other concerned citizens, who would rather save and strengthen our public schools rather than dismantle them.

For example, there are two statewide referendums on charter schools that people need to vote AGAINST. The

Your 2012 Education Political Primer - Woodbridge, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators

Your 2012 Education Political Primer - Woodbridge, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators:

Looking Ahead

Your 2012 Education Political Primer

As the election plays itself out this coming week, we as educators continue to work on behalf of children and our communities as a whole. Whatever the outcome of the vote, the work goes on and our efforts must continue. So I want to keep this post simple and straightforward. Whatever your political persuasion, there are certain objective, observable realities we can all agree on in looking across the education landscape:

As public educators, we are employed by our government to educate our citizen’s children.

As education professionals, we have an obligation to inform our government and its citizens of what is in the best interests of the children with whom we are charged.

As publicly employed professionals, we work in the conditions created by the decisions made by our government and its citizens.

We are largely funded by revenue collected through local taxes which is augmented by state and federal funding.

We work within the contexts of the society in which we live. The world has changed much since we were students and so we have changed our goals and roles as educators.

As society continues to evolve, education will continue to reflect the changing needs of society.

Society is moving towards an individualized delivery of goods and services. It is not happening overnight, but little by little consumers expect everything to be customized for their needs and interests.

The individualized delivery of instruction is a huge challenge for educators, where standardization, funding formulas and accountability are the legacy of the industrial age.

The push towards more individualized instruction will continue in public education, long after our good work is done and we are retired.

Public education will look very different by the end of this century. Are you ready to start touting the virtues of 22^nd century skills?

When you look at these statements in the progression in which I offer them here, does it seem that there are forces at play far beyond our immediate influence? There are. These forces are forever changing society and, therefore, will forever change education. Are these forces of a Your 2012 Education Political Primer - Woodbridge, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators:

America's Most Disgusting Political Ad

America's Most Disgusting Political Ad:

America’s Most Disgusting Political Ad: Florida Republican Group Links Elementary School Teacher To Jerry Sandusky

By Josh Israel on Nov 4, 2012 at 11:08 am

In a stunning smear, a GOP group chaired by a prominent Republican strategist and funded by the state Republican leadership, has sent a mailing to Florida voters accusing an elementary school teacher running for state legislature of enabling child molestation because she is in a teacher’s union.

The mailings attack Karen Castor Dentel, an elementary school teacher in Maitland, Florida, and the Democratic challenger for the 30th District State House of Representatives seat. Because she is a member of the Florida Education Association, which opposed a 2011 bill that eliminated tenure for public-school teachers, the mailer says she would “rather protect bad teachers and the union” than “young and impressionable students.” One one side of the mailing is a picture of convicted serial child molester Jerry Sandusky — who as an assistant football coach at Penn State would not have been protected by any Florida public school teacher’s union; the other side shows a picture of her and the other says:

Karen Castor Dentel’s priorities are clear:
* Use tenure policies to protect bad, burnt-out, longtime teachers at the

Right Wing Pro-voucher Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee jumps into state elections to push education PRIVATIZATION Hechinger Report |

Hechinger Report | Right Wing Pro-voucher Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee
jumps into state elections to push education overhaul:

Right Wing Pro-voucher Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee

jumps into state elections to push education overhaul

by Sarah Butrymowicz

A dozen states are poised to pass significant education reforms this year depending on the outcome of next week’s election. A slate of state-level candidates want to abolish teacher tenure and tie teacher evaluations to student tests. On the ground trying to make sure they win is a new organization, StudentsFirst, founded by former Washington D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
The group has infused cash and grassroots organizing into races in states such as California, Iowa and Michigan, where teachers unions have historically dominated politics and enshrined policies like tenure and pay based on seniority in state law. StudentsFirst—with a platform that is anathema to unions—hopes to undercut their power and remove many of the labor protections that unions support.

Ed in the Election

The 2012 election is the group’s first real test. In Missouri, another state on the brink of wide-scale education reform, StudentsFirst has poured more than $100,000 into the state since the primaries and recruited more than 40,000 members to try and elect 21 candidates it has endorsed. Nationwide, the group has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in primary and general elections.
Due to the reputation of its founder as a tough reformer and unapologetic enemy of unions, StudentsFirst is the most high profile and controversial among a small number of similar groups, including Stand for Children and Democrats for Education Reform, that have emerged in the last few years to fight against policies typically supported by unions. Most recently, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he had formed a super PAC to back candidates that support, among other things, the education reforms he has pushed in New York,

The Sunday Mail. « Fred Klonsky

The Sunday Mail. « Fred Klonsky:

The Sunday Mail.

by Fred Klonsky

Thousands of runners in New York took to Central Park and Staten Island on Sunday morning, to both celebrate their sport and help those devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
From the CORE caucus: Chicago teachers should vote for Jay Rehak and Lois Ashford to sit on the Chicagoteachers pension board.
The Illinois Labor History Society honors veteran steel union reform leaders Ed Sadlowski, Alice Puerala and Frank Lumpkin. When I came to Chicago in 1973 and got a job as a millwright in the 96 inch plate mill at US Steel’s Southworks plant, 20% of all the steel in America was produced between the East Side of Chicago and Burns Harbor, Indiana. Most of those high paying industrial jobs are gone now. It started with a “no-strike”

Jersey Jazzman: The Sickest Attack On Teachers And Unions Ever

Jersey Jazzman: The Sickest Attack On Teachers And Unions Ever:

The Sickest Attack On Teachers And Unions Ever

by Duke

What in the hell is wrong with these people?!

In a stunning smear, a GOP group chaired by a prominent Republican strategist and funded by the state Republican leadership, has sent a mailing to Florida voters accusing an elementary school teacher running for state legislature of enabling child molestation because she is in a teacher’s union.

The mailings attack Karen Castor Dentel, an elementary school teacher in Maitland, Florida, and the Democratic challenger for the 30th District State House of Representatives seat. Because she is a member of the Florida Education Association, which opposed a 2011 bill

Outside Cash Flooding into New Orleans School Board Race « Diane Ravitch's blog

Outside Cash Flooding into New Orleans School Board Race « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Outside Cash Flooding into New Orleans School Board Race

by dianerav

DFER Fake Democrats for Education Privatization (click on Picture)

IT IS A RULE: YOU CAN'T BE AGAINST PEOPLE AND FOR CORPORATIONS AND CALL YOURSELF A DEMOCRAT...EVER!

This is becoming a familiar story: billionaires and millionaires are choosing a school board member in New Orleans. One of the city’s leading charter advocates, Sarah Newell Usdin, is the recipient of more than $110,000, way more than her opponents. Usdin was executive director of New Schools for New Orleans, which received nearly $30 million from the federal government to open charter schools. she also worked for the New Teacher Project and is an alumna of Teach for America. Among her contributors: Joel Klein and hedge fund manager Boykin Curry, both residents of New York City, not New Orleans.

According to the National School Boards Association, 87% of school board members spend less than $5,000 to run for office.

In the most recent state board election, Kira Orange Jones, the director of Teach for America in New Orleans, raised $450,000 in her successful effort to oust an incumbent. She had the support of the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ organization called Democrats for Education Reform. Among her generous contributors: Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Eli Broad, both billionaires who don’t live in Louisiana. Jones’ opponent raised $9,000.

There seems to be a concerted program by DFER and its allies to pour money into local and state school races and issues. The number of contributors is small, but they swamp the local races. The same names pop up again and again. Their agenda is always the same: testing, union-busting, TFA, and privatization.

Diane Ravitch cuts check for local school board candidate | NOLA.com

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 11 hours ago

Diane Ravitch cuts check for local school board candidate | NOLA.com: Diane Ravitch cuts check for local school board candidate It would be hard to find a more obscure election, overshadowed as it is by city council races, not to mention a multi-billion dollar presidential contest. Yet some of the country's biggest names in education are cutting checks to influence the outcome in the 3rd District of the Orleans Parish School Board. [image: diane-ravitch.jpg]Education historian Diane Ravitch. The latest celebrity contributor: New York University historian Diane Ravitch, the leading cr... more »

Final stretch: Is charter school amendment about “money versus public schools” or “giving every child an option”? | Get Schooled

Final stretch: Is charter school amendment about “money versus public schools” or “giving every child an option”? | Get Schooled:

Final stretch: Is charter school amendment about “money versus public schools” or “giving every child an option”?

by Maureen Downey

As election day looms, the AJC examines the emotions and money around the charter school amendment in a Sunday piece. The amendment remains an explosive issue with great interest from both inside and outside the state.
Pro-amendment groups, including national school-choice advocates and for-profit charter school operators, have raised more than $2 million; amendment opponents have collected $123,243, mostly from public school officials, according to an analysis of campaign-finance records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Please read the entire piece before commenting.
The AJC editorial page came out today in opposition to Amendment One, saying it would be a waste of

Bombs in Florida. Ken Previti reports. « Fred Klonsky

Bombs in Florida. Ken Previti reports. « Fred Klonsky:

Bombs in Florida. Ken Previti reports.

by Fred Klonsky

Ken Previti is a retired Illinois teacher now living in Florida. A pension activist and now the Illinois-Florida Liaison for the Skokie chapter of IEA-Retired, of which I am President. All retired teacher activists are welcome to join the Skokie chapter, by the way.

ALL,

Today as I was sign waving for a progressive candidate 20 south of where I live at a public library early voting site, two possible bombs were discovered 20 miles northwest and then detonated by police in Winter Park, Florida at a public library early voting site. (We often go to a wonderful little French patisserie about two blocks from there.)Winter Park is affluent and republican except for one slim area across the tracks – you can figure outtherest.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/florida-early-voting-site-given-all-clear-after

I feel as though I live in a foreign country where we need American election officials to oversee

Bridgeport’s critical care hospitals are among biggest funders to Bridgeport’s anti-democracy effort - Wait, What?

Bridgeport’s critical care hospitals are among biggest funders to Bridgeport’s anti-democracy effort - Wait, What?:

Bridgeport’s critical care hospitals are among biggest funders to Bridgeport’s anti-democracy effort

by jonpelto

On Tuesday, thanks to Mayor Bill Finch and his team of advisers and associates, the voters of Bridgeport will be asked to give up their democratic rights to choose the members of Bridgeport’s Board of Education. Instead, the Mayor will take over that task.

A coalition of “education reformers” and corporate executives in Fairfield Country are spending a record amount of money to convince Bridgeport voters that it is in their interest to VOTE YES on Question 1, although they go out of their way to make sure that voters don’t understand that a YES vote on Question #1 actually means the people give up their right to select who should oversee Bridgeport’s schools.

QUESTION #1 (misleading language reads):

“SHALL THE CITY OF BRIDGEPORT APPROVE AND ADOPT THE CHARTER

Minneapolis Rephormer Says ‘Elect me Maybe’ | EduShyster

Minneapolis Rephormer Says ‘Elect me Maybe’ | EduShyster:

Minneapolis Rephormer Says ‘Elect me Maybe’

by edushyster2012

Minneapolis School Board candidate Josh Reimnitz has raised seven times as much as his opponent as out-of-state contributors and rephorm advocates have high-fived him with their checkbooks.

EduShyster has already written excitedly about Minneapolis School Board candidate and young rephormer Josh Riemnitz. Now at the urging of some of my Premium members in the Twin-Cities I’m revisiting what insiders are calling the “erase for the phuture of the Minneapolis Public Schools.” Full disclosure: EduShyster has only been to Minneapolis once—AND IT WAS TOO COLD TO GO OUTSIDE. But just because one knows virtually nothing about a city shouldn’t prevent one from taking sides in a race (or in using the pretentious “one” more than once in a sentence). You see reader, education rephorm is pretty much the same these days, whichever of the phifty states one finds oneself in.
Alas, it turns out that EduShyster is not the only relative stranger to the Twin Cities. Young master Riemnitz