Mayoral Candidate Chuy Garcia Hosts Logan Square Rally Thursday #‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Mayoral Candidate Chuy Garcia Hosts Logan Square Rally Thursday - Logan Square - DNAinfo.com Chicago:



Mayoral Candidate Chuy Garcia Hosts Logan Square Rally Thursday

 LOGAN SQUARE —Mayoral candidate Chuy Garcia has scheduled stop in Logan Square Thursday to rally supporters ahead of the April 7 election.

Garcia’s “Rally for the Neighborhood” starts at 6 p.m. March 12 at the Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie Blvd.

In the Feb. 24 election, Garcia, a Little Village resident, attracted strong support around Logan Square, Humboldt Park and Hermosa — a base of support second only to the city’s Southwest Side, according to voting data.

That support is bolstered by incoming 35th Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who swept the ward vote against Ald. Rey Colon on a progressive platform that included a pledge to support Garcia’s campaign for mayor. Garcia has a campaign office in Logan Square.

The Thursday rally will be followed by a neighborhood canvassing event organized to “build the movement to put out communities and working families first,” according to an announcement.

Garcia faces Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the runoff contest.

The campaign ask those interested in helping canvass following the Thursday rally to call 773-270-5970 or email carlos@chicagoforchuy.com.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:Mayoral Candidate Chuy Garcia Hosts Logan Square Rally Thursday - Logan Square - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

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Click here to go to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago Website

‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

State Board Suspends School Accountability on Common Core - ABC News

State Board Suspends School Accountability on Common Core - ABC News:

State Board Suspends School Accountability on Common Core

 The California Board of Education suspended the state's school accountability system on Wednesday for one year to give teachers and students time to adjust to new standardized tests aligned with Common Core standards.

The board voted at a meeting in Sacramento not to produce an Academic Performance Index for the 2014-15 school year. The index uses student results on statewide tests to rank schools and to identify those that need improvement.

School board President Michael Kirst said the state wants to make sure it is measuring student growth, not just baseline performance, on the new Smarter Balanced tests.

The Common Core benchmarks adopted by a majority of states around the nation have come under fire in recent years, largely from conservatives who decry them as a federal infringement on school policy. The standards were approved for implementation by individual states, though the U.S. Department of Education encouraged their adoption through initiatives like Race to the Top.

The new tests have angered some parents and teachers across the nation who say the exams distract from real learning, put added stress on students and staff members, and waste resources, especially in poor districts.

In California, by contrast, the Common Core standards have been largely embraced by district leaders, parents and teacher unions.

Kirst said even if the new test results aren't used on the state index, they will still be reported at the school, district and state level.

"They'll be held accountable to the public," Kirst said.

Several districts, including Los Angeles Unified, the nation's second-largest, requested that this year's assessments not be used for accountability purposes, arguing that students have not had enough time to practice on testing devices and that the new tests could not be reliably compared to the old pencil-and-paper standardized tests that California children took to measure growth.

"We need that next year to look at this issue of growth," said Edgar Zarzueta, LAUSD chief of external affairs.

The Smarter Balanced tests are required to be taken on a computer or tablet. At LAUSD, there were numerous problems when a practice test was administered, including the website crashing and slow connectivity.

Those issues appear to be resolved: The tests are now being administered in 94 Los Angeles schools, and officials said Tuesday there were no major issues.

The tests evaluate students in grades three through eight and 11 in Common Core-aligned English-language arts and math.

Suspending the state's evaluation system means scores in the first year won't be used to take any corrective actions. Numerous parent, teacher and education organizations commented in favor of the delay at Wednesday's meeting.

"We feel that accountability is very important to the public, but it's sensible to delay because the information is not all going to be clear and solid and current and we need the transition time," said Celia Jaffe, education commissioner of the California State PTA.

The decision to suspend California's school accountability system is also part of a larger effort to State Board Suspends School Accountability on Common Core - ABC News:

High School Students Across the Country Are Fighting for Their Rights | Rolling Stone

High School Students Across the Country Are Fighting for Their Rights | Rolling Stone:



High School Students Across the Country Are Fighting for Their Rights
Inside the growing student-led movement for better school policy

Newark Student Union Member Levere Terry holds up a sign accusing New Jersey Governor Christie of being a liar during a rally outside the State House in Trenton. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger/Corbis

On a late afternoon in February, a small crowd forms in front of the public school system administration building in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Cans of Brisk iced tea and a stack of pizza boxes sit beside the front door. The group is busy chanting “Let the kids eat now!” and “Student needs, not corporate greed!” when the door opens and someone announces that the food and drinks will be allowed into Superintendent Cami Anderson’s office. Outside, the crowd cheers and continues chanting. Upstairs, eight members of the Newark Students Union, along with two community organizers, await the donated food as they approach hour 24 of their occupation of the superintendent's office.

Newark high school students formed the Newark Students Union (NSU) in 2012 and are helping lead the city’s struggle against Anderson and for a return to local control of the school system. The state took control of Newark's public school system (NPS) in 1995, and current Governor Chris Christie appointed Anderson in 2011. This fall, she implemented the One Newark plan, which called for the closing and re-siting of some schools. Others were converted into charter schools. The plan also replaced neighborhood-based schools with universal enrollment, in which an undisclosed algorithm matches students to schools. Confronted with mass community opposition, Anderson stopped attending board meetings and refused to meet with those impacted. NSU occupied her office to demand that she meet with the community and resign; a week later, the state announced that it had renewed her contract for another year.

What's happening in Newark is part of a nationwide movement in which organizers are combating school closures, high-stakes testing, and a shift from district schools to privately-run, publicly-funded charters. The Journey for Justice Alliance (J4J), a national organization fighting public school privatization, filed a civil rights complaint arguing that One Newark, as well as restructuring plans in Chicago and New Orleans, discriminates against African-American students, violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. An investigation is currently underway. According to a J4J report titled “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” Chicago’s charter school enrollment increased by 33,771 between the 2005-2006 school year and the 2012-2013 year, while district school enrollment dropped by 57,112 in that timespan. 23,341 students were lost. Some students never re-enroll after their school is closed or converted, which J4J argues increases their chances of incarceration. Newark witnessed a loss of 1,000 students over the same period. Meanwhile, faced with a $304 million budget gap, Philadelphia’s superintendentclosed 24 schools in 2013. The Chicago Board of Education voted to close 49 the same year.

Parents, teachers and politicians have long dominated discussions around   Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/high-school-students-across-the-country-are-fighting-for-their-rights-20150311#ixzz3U7ufNAwl 

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Big Education Ape: The Amazing Students of the Newark Student Union - These Kids Rock! #OccupyNPS #OurNewark http://bit.ly/1JwIXij



Big Education Ape: Newark Students Union-The Legacy of Cami Anderson #OccupyNPS #OurNewark http://bit.ly/19d0bkJ



Big Education Ape: The Student Heroes of Newark | Daniel Katz http://bit.ly/19d0f45

The Leadership Team of the Badass Teachers Association Supports A Parents' Right to Refuse the Test!

Badass Teachers Association:

The Leadership Team of the Badass Teachers Association

Supports A Parents' Right to Refuse the Test! 

The Leadership Team of the Badass Teachers Association would like to publicly state that we support a parents' right to refuse state testing for their children.  As an education activist organization of over 54,000 teachers and parents, we know that the testing our children are subject to under corporate education reform is harmful, invalid, and not being used as an instrument to further instruction.  We strongly object to any education practice that is not rooted in sound pedagogy and is being used as a weapon to harm children and their communities.  We most strongly object that these tests scores are being used to close schools in our poor communities, which are also predominantly our communities of color.  As educators, we will never support assessments that continue to marginalize, blame, and punish our children and their communities.  Therefore, we strongly advise all parents to refuse their children from state testing. When we deny education departments the data, they cannot use it against our children, their communities, or teachers.  REFUSE THE TEST!

The Leadership Team of the Badass Teachers Association has also published a statement against the sit and stare policy.  This abusive policy requires children, who refuse state testing, to sit and stare for hours.  Here is our statement on that policy:  http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2015/02/bats-leadership-team-releases-statement.html

The Leadership Team of the Badass Teachers Association has also published that we are, as an organization, conscientious objectors to state tests that are being used to punish, blame, and fail our children, their communities, and teachers.  You can read that statement here: http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-badass-teachers-association-we-have.html

We want to tell all our parents and students that WE SUPPORT YOUR RIGHT TO REFUSE HARMFUL TESTING and we also would like to encourage all teachers/parents to REFUSE YOUR OWN CHILDREN FROM TESTING.  Badass Teachers Association:

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

Click Here to go to the Website FairTest

Left-wing protesters target hedge funds - The Insider Blog | Crain's New York Business

Left-wing protesters target hedge funds - The Insider Blog | Crain's New York Business:

Left-wing protesters target hedge funds

 On Saturday, a cadre of liberal activists from New York City will travel to Greenwich, Conn., to protest outside the home of billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. It is the first time since the bailouts following the economic crisis of 2008 that city activists have traveled to Connecticut's hedge-fund havens to demonstrate at the homes of the financial elite.

The protesters plan to wield signs and chant slogans that are aggressive, bordering on violent. One image features a photo of Mr. Jones with his head between a set of pruning shears, including the message, "Time to clip some hedges."

Liberal protesters are targeting billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones with images like this.Photo: Hedge Clippers

Mr. Jones is being targeted for his financial support for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the charter-school movement. In addition to founding the Robin Hood Foundation charity in 1988, Mr. Jones also helped create the Excellence Charter School, the country's first all-boys charter, located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He also donated $500,000 to New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, a pro-charter super-PAC that funded attack ads against Mayor Bill de Blasio last year.

"This is one of the first time activists are targeting these guys in their home," said Jonathan Westin, director of New York Communities for Change, a reform group previously known as Acorn.

Liberal activists are sending around information about Mr. Jones' wealth in advance of Saturday's protest. "Robin Hood or Robber Baron?" it reads before listing Mr. Jones's $4.6 billion net worth, $200 million income last year and $1.6 million in political donations in New York. It also notes his oceanfront properties in Connecticut and Florida, as well as his private game reserve in Tanzania.

The protest is meant to draw attention to political ties between billionaires like Mr. Jones and politicians including Mr. Cuomo and Senate Republicans, whom activists blame for tax breaks given to financial firms and real estate developers, as well as for bills enabling the spread of charter schools.

The group, a coalition of New York Communities for Change, Strong Economy for All and the Alliance for Quality Education, calls itself the Hedge Clippers. It also demonstrated outside a charter-school symposium at the Harvard Club Tuesday.

"We really are living in the new Gilded Age," said Michael Kink, executive director of Strong Economy for All.

As for the violently suggestive image of Mr. Jones's head about to be "clipped," Mr. Kink said the group was "committed to nonviolent protest." Mr. Westin said the image was an allusion to hedge-hemmed mansions of Greenwich.

"These billionaires probably spend more on landscaping each year than many New Yorkers pay in rent," he added.

A spokesman for Mr. Jones declined to comment.

The protest is reminiscent of similar demonstrations held outside the Connecticut homes of AIG executives in 2009 by activists angered by bonuses for the bailed-out insurance giant. Those drew only about 40 people. Mr. Westin said he expects "hundreds" to attend the demonstration this Saturday.Left-wing protesters target hedge funds - The Insider Blog | Crain's New York Business:

When a Teacher’s Job Depends on a Child’s Test - The New Yorker

When a Teacher’s Job Depends on a Child’s Test - The New Yorker:

When a Teacher’s Job Depends on a Child’s Test

BY REBECCA MEAD

 If it’s March, it must be test-prep season: next month, New York students in grades three through eight will take the state’s standardized English Language Arts and Mathematics tests: three days of exams devoted to both subjects, lasting for upward of seventy minutes a day. These are often referred to as high-stakes tests because of the impact that the results can have on student promotion, teacher evaluation, and school funding—and the stakes of the tests in New York this year may be pushed higher still. In his State of the State address, delivered at the end of January, Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to make education reform a centerpiece of his agenda. “Everyone will tell you, nationwide, the key to education reform is a teacher evaluation system,” the governor said. He noted that while only thirty-eight per cent of New York State high-school students are deemed to be “college ready,” according to their scores on standardized tests, 98.7 per cent of teachers in New York’s schools are rated “effective.” “How can that be?” Cuomo asked. “Who are we kidding, my friends? The problem is clear and the solution is clear. We need real, accurate, fair teacher evaluations.”

That teachers should be evaluated is an assertion with which no reasonable person involved with education—from a policy-maker to a parent—is likely to disagree. But how teachers might best be evaluated remains a contested science. In New York City, a system that incorporates a range of metrics, called Advance, was adopted in 2013. Students’ results in state tests account for twenty per cent of a teacher’s rating, but the teacher’s curriculum materials are also evaluated, as is his or her classroom practice, which is observed on multiple visits throughout the year by the school principal or another observer.

In his remarks, Cuomo dismissed the methods of evaluation currently in place as “baloney,” and stated his intention to institute a new set of measures. If his proposals are approved along with the rest of the state budget ahead of the annual April 1st deadline, fifty per cent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on his or her students’ scores on the annual state tests, with the remaining fifty per cent heavily weighted to include the assessment of an outside observer after a one-time visit. The judgment of the school principal will count for just fifteen per cent of a teacher’s effectiveness rating. Any teacher deemed ineffective for two consecutive years may be fired.

Cuomo’s faith in the results of state tests as the best measure of the abilities of both students and teachers is not universally shared. Among those who have dissented is New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio. (Assembly Democrats are also reportedly opposed.) In testimony to a joint legislative budget committee in Albany, de Blasio warned that “excessive reliance on high-stakes testing is troubling. Standardized tests should not be the largest part of a full evaluation of a student or a teacher.” The mayor pointed out that test scores might be tipped downward by only a very small variation in student performance from year to year. With their livelihoods potentially in jeopardy over such minor variation, teachers will be obliged to teach to the test, he said, rather than “teaching for learning.” Teachers themselves are warning that, under such conditions, they will be obliged to narrow their curricula, forgoing collaborative science projects for worksheet drills. Other observers have pointed out that When a Teacher’s Job Depends on a Child’s Test - The New Yorker:

East L.A. Blowouts: Walking Out for Justice in the Classrooms | KCET

East L.A. Blowouts: Walking Out for Justice in the Classrooms | Highland Park | Departures Columns | KCET:

East L.A. Blowouts: Walking Out for Justice in the Classrooms

By Kelly Simpson | 

March 7, 2012

 In 1967 Mexican American students throughout the Southwest held a 60% high school dropout rate. If they did graduate, they averaged an 8th-grade reading level. Due to Anglo-centric internal school policies many Chicano students were fielded to vocational training or classes for the mentally disabled. Prejudice from teachers and administrators, both liberally-minded and outright bigoted, instigated stereotypes of Mexican Americans that discouraged the students from higher learning. These inequalities in education led to the 1968 East Los Angeles Walkouts, also known as the "Blowouts," which displayed the largest mobilization of Chicano youth leaders in Los Angeles history.

During the 1950s college educated and professional Chicanos, as part of the Education Committee of the Council of Mexican Americans Affairs, challenged the school system through proper channels, including P.T.A. participation and meetings with school officials and legislators. In 1967 Julian Nava was elected as the first Latino to serve on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board of education. Despite these efforts, however, Mexican American students continued to trail behind in the classroom.

The 1960s gave hope for social justice within the Chicano community, as civil rights leaders across the nation demanded change and equal opportunities for people of color. Leaders like Ceasar Chavez, Reiss Lopez Tijerina and Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales were shaking up injustices in the labor system, presenting Chicano youth in Los Angeles with role models to emulate. Meanwhile, a developing iconography of cultural pride and beauty was empowering Chicanos with art and murals throughout East Los Angeles communities.

To combat the failed efforts toward progress in education, young Chicano activists looked to the changing political climate for a more direct approach for action. From March 1 to March 8 1968, approximately 15,000 students walked out of classes from Woodrow Wilson, Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Belmont, Venice and Jefferson High Schools, all demanding an equal, qualitative, and culturally relevant education. The protesters were blocked by administrators barring doors to the outside, and helmeted police officers either jailed or escorted students to their principals. Two student beatings were reported during the March 6 walkout at Roosevelt.

The walkouts were a result of both a changing cultural zeitgeist and the collective efforts of organizing groups such as the Brown Berets, United Mexican American Students (UMAS) and The Young Citizens for Community Action (YCAA), two local newspapers: La Raza and Inside Eastside; and Sal Castro, a Mexican American educator teaching at Lincoln. These leaders, along with local clergy, professionals and parents, formed the core of the Educational Issues Coordinating Committee (EICC), which served as a voicebox for the fight for equal student rights in the aftermath of the walkouts.

In a special meeting held March 11 1968, the students articulated their needs and injustices through the EICC in a list of 39 demands presented to the Los Angeles Board of Education. Chief among the demands were academic changes to the LAUSD curricula and source material in order to reflect Mexican American history and culture. They demanded bilingual education, Mexican folklore in textbooks, and the recruitment of administrators of Mexican descent in schools with a majority Mexican American student body. Additional demands included improvements to school buildings, facilities and the Industrial Arts Program -- designed seemingly to funnel Mexican Americans to low-paying jobs, which required less critical thinking and communication skills.

Unfortunately these demands fell to the wayside along with the public's attention. An anti-climactic community meeting held at Lincoln High School on March 28 brought 1200 attendees, who witnessed the Board of Education agree with 99% of student demands, yet not follow through citing lack of funding. When 13 of the walkout organizers, dubbed the L.A. 13, were later arrested on felony conspiracy charges for "disturbing the peace," the focus shifted dramatically to legal defense of those being prosecuted rather than fighting for equal education. The EICC dismantled not long afterward due to discontent between groups within the coalition, who ranged from militant youth to middle-class professionals.

If the walkouts weren't entirely successful, they certainly empowered and unified the East L.A. community under a just cause, while awakening the political consciousness of Chicano youth. With placards that read "Chicano Power," "Viva La Raza" and "Viva La Revolucion," they instigated the first public demonstration of Chicanismo en masse. Their demonstrations were covered by the Los Angeles Times and Chicano newspapers across the Southwest, increasing visibility of working-class, Chicano issues. However, with the grassroots support loss and the organization dissolved into merely a symbol, the needs of the working class were soon faded from the spotlight.

Garfield High School principal appealing to students to return to classes, March 7th 1968. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library

In recognition of the courageous efforts by these students we've listed their original demands below, as noted on Latinopia. The success of changes like 1998's Proposition 227, which introduced a Structured English Immersion model which is currently shaping a new generation of elementary school student in Highland Park, reflects great improvements for seeds laid by the student protesters. Yet much and more has changed since 1968. Read the list to learn more about Chicana/o youth struggles in the 1960s, and see how they fit in with contemporary educational needs:

PROPOSALS MADE BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OF EAST LOS ANGELES TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

ACADEMIC

• No student or teacher will be reprimanded or suspended for participating in any efforts which are executed for the purpose of improving or furthering the educational quality in our schools.
• Bilingual-Bi-cultural education will be compulsory for Mexican-Americans in the Los Angeles City School System where there is a majority of Mexican-American students. This program will be open to all other students on a voluntary basis. A) in-service education programs will be instituted immediately for all staff in order to teach them the Spanish language and increase their understanding of the history, traditions, and contributions of the Mexican culture. B) All administrators in the elementary and secondary schools in these areas will become proficient in the Spanish language Participants are to be compensated during the training period at not less than $8.80 an hour and upon completion of the course will receive in addition to their salary not less than $100.00 a month. The monies for these programs East L.A. Blowouts: Walking Out for Justice in the Classrooms | Highland Park | Departures Columns | KCET:

Chicago Teacher Pension Money Invested With Rahm Emanuel's Friends and Donors #‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Chicago Teacher Pension Money Invested With Rahm Emanuel's Friends and Donors:

Chicago Teacher Pension Money Invested With Rahm Emanuel's Friends and Donors

 It is the kind of transaction Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s much-touted ethics reforms appeared designed to halt: Chicago teachers’ pension money flowed to financial companies connected to some of the mayor’s friends and top donors. Emanuel, whose administration appoints some members of the teachers’ pension-fund board, received campaign cash from those same financial firms despite his own 2011executive order purportedly preventing donors from receiving city business.

“When Mayor Emanuel took office, he said he was going to stop the culture of pay-to-play,” said Alderman Scott Waguespack, who is among a group of lawmakers asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether the donations also violated that agency’s anti-corruption rule. “This is an example of his failure to follow through on those promises.”

Emanuel’s office declined an International Business Times request for comment.

According to city documents obtained by IBTimes, the firm affiliated with Illinois’ Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner -- a longtime friend of Chicago’s Democratic mayor -- as well as executives at private-equity giant Madison Dearborn have gained substantial investments from the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund (CTPF) since Emanuel took office. The documents also show the CTPF has an indirect equity stake in Grosvenor Capital Management. Executives at the latter two firms have donated nearly $1.8 million to Emanuel’s campaign and political organizations since 2011.

The teachers’ pension money went to the donors’ firms even though the Chicago Teachers Union has become one of Emanuel’s most outspoken opponents after the mayor shuttered 50 schools across the city and proposed cutting public employees’ retirement benefits. SEC rules are designed to prohibit campaign contributions to city officials from executives at firms managing city pension money. Those rules are in addition to the executive order signed by Emanuel that purports to prohibit campaign donations from city contractors and subcontractors.

“Pay-to-play practices unfortunately remain all too common in pension funds,” said Jay Youngdahl, a fellow at the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard University. “It encourages a toxic milieu in which pension trustees may place their own interests or the interests of those who appointed them above the interests of the people whose healthy retirement depends on the funds. For an investment manager to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to a public official charged with appointing trustees to a fund, while at the same time providing investment services and soliciting business from a pension fund, is a clear red flag.”

The CTPF, whose board includes two appointees from Emanuel’s board of education, declined to comment, as did Rauner’s company, GTCR. Michael Sacks, the CEO of Grosvenor who also serves as atop Emanuel administration appointee, told IBTimes that while the teachers’ pension system does have an indirect equity stake in Grosvenor, it does not pay fees to the firm. A representative of Madison Dearborn asserted that federal and municipal rules barring donations from companies managing pension money do not apply to the firm.

The new disclosures follow a November report showing other Chicago pension funds overseen by Chicago Teacher Pension Money Invested With Rahm Emanuel's Friends and Donors:

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Click here to go to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago Website

‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Wisconsin Education Policy: Part 1 Hail to the king. Part 2. Let the bodies hit the floor. | BustED Pencils

Wisconsin Education Policy: Part 1 Hail to the king. Part 2. Let the bodies hit the floor. | BustED Pencils:

Wisconsin Education Policy: Part 1 Hail to the king. Part 2. Let the bodies hit the floor.

 Once again our elected officials have decided to intervene (here and here) in matters that deal with public education and as usual they continue to muck around—and if they get their way—make things worse for children, but reward campaign donors.

First, in a blatant attack on one of our foundational democratic institutions, our elected officials have decided to usher in a new era of monarchies.  School boards will be stripped of any authority to make decisions that reflect the values of their communities and local superintendents will be given supreme rule over local public schools.

The revised Assembly bill, released Tuesday, also places sole decision-making power with a school district superintendent to improve a low-performing school, and the ability to override school board policies.

If a public school does not improve after three years, the bill requires a school board to authorize its superintendent to act unilaterally to improve the school ‘contrary to policies and procedures adopted by the school board.’

The bill also prohibits school boards from “retaliating” against the superintendent.

Yes.  There it is.  Elected school boards will be neutered and possibly even punished for representing our local communities.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that local school board politics can be messy and sometimes even divisive, but is that really a reason to give all authority to one person?  And let’s be real.  Do we really believe the “unilateral” power proposed for supers will not be usurped by politicians—essentially creating puppet rulers that really only represent the desires of campaign donors?

How about teasing out this idea (legislation)?  If public schools continue to serve legislatively neglected students and communities, we require that our elected officials turn over the authority to qualified educators and community members to make evidence based policy decisions? And if need be, our elected officials will also be required to provide the necessary resources that legislatively neglected schools deserve.

Part 2.

And if the gut shot to community based democracy wasn’t enough, our elected officials Wisconsin Education Policy: Part 1 Hail to the king. Part 2. Let the bodies hit the floor. | BustED Pencils: