CURMUDGUCATION: Driven By Parent Choice

CURMUDGUCATION: Driven By Parent Choice:
Driven By Parent Choice

That's the dream for some reformsters-- a school system that is driven not by regulation or government edict and certainly not by the professional educators who work there, but a system that is driven by parent choice.

I believe there are probably idealistic purists among the visionaries who really do believe that we'd have a system where parents peruse sets of pure and transparent data and then make informed choices based on that data, allowing schools to compete and improve by responding to how their data plays out in the marketplace. These purists are sweet, like delightful five year olds who still wait breathlessly for Christmas morning and the proof of Santa's arrival.

But there are also advocates of choice who are less idealistic and less pure. They understand what having a system "driven by parent choice" really means. I'll give you a hint-- it doesn't mean a system driven by parent choice.

Idealists talk about parent choice as if it occurs in some sort of iron-clad vacuum, influenced by nothing by clean data and clear thinking.

That's silly. Parent choice is malleable, shapeable, bendable, and open to influence. Yes, technically, in a choice system, the ultimate decision is theoretically made by parent choice. But that parent choice does not begin and end with parents-- it is molded and directed by a hundred other forces.

Purists imagine parents poring over spreadsheets, consuming mounds of impartial school information CURMUDGUCATION: Driven By Parent Choice:

ICYMI: This Week's Edubloggery Sampler

Well, this has been a week. I will leave you to find your own pieces about John King failing upward and the NEA deciding to shove a Hillary recommendation down membership's throat. In fact, maybe you'll enjoy some reading to take your mind off all of that.

Highlighting Websites and Blogs
Nancy Bailey offers a great, mostly-organized list of some of the folks writing about the Great Public Education Debate. I include this not because she says nice things about me, but because it's always good to expand your reading horizons

Does Subject Matter Knowledge Matter As Much As We Think?
A look at some research about what has impact in the classroom. The most powerful part is seeing what does have an impact

A Charter Place Parable
Short and sweet tale of why charters are a bad idea, from the superintendent of Chapel Hill schools (so you really might have missed it)

AP Classes Are a Scam
This article from the Atlantic is actually three years old, but it's still worth a read now that the PSAT is more directly set up as a marketing tool for AP courses.

A Look Back at DeVos
Links to three videos of reformsters gabillionaire Richard DeVos talking about how public education needs to be the next frontier of trashing democracy for fun and profit. Oh, and the videos go back to 2002.

The Reformy Arguments Are Getting Worserer
This week the Jazzman got himself into an argument with one of the crack writers over at Education Post. This is the final piece of the series-- you can backtrack if you like, but this captures the Jazzman at his fact-wielding best.

Class Is In Session With Jose Luis Vilson
Vilson was profiled this week, and actually, sadly, it would be notable enough that any publication decided to profile an actual working teacher, Vilson is also an accomplished author and activist, so this profile is doubly rewarding. Lift yourself up by reading about one of the good guys who is actually making his voice heard from inside the profession.

Principal Eric Guthertz of Mission High School in San Francisco (Kristina Rizga) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Principal Eric Guthertz of Mission High School in San Francisco (Kristina Rizga) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Principal Eric Guthertz of Mission High School in San Francisco (Kristina Rizga)

This is the fourth and final excerpt taken from Kristina Rizga’s new book Mission High. With her permission I have published descriptions of math, English,  and history lessons. In this post, Rizga describes the principal of the school. Mission High School has 950 students with the vast majority coming from Latino, African American, and Asian American families. Seventy-five percent are poor and 38 percent are English Language Learners.

As the head of a school at which students carry passports from more than forty countries, Eric Guthertz probably has one of the most multicultural closets of any principal in the nation. Dressed in his usual getup this morning—slim-fitted, button-down shirt, dark grey slacks, and a large, black walkie-talkie pinned on his belt—Guthertz shows off dozens of his favorite clothing items that he wears throughout the year for various cultural events. Hanging on the wall in his office that doubles as a closet, there are several guayaberas—formal men’s shirts worn in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean—which he wears to the students’ Latino Club celebrations. There is a traditional Moroccan cream-colored shirt with black buttons that a student from Morocco gave him. The Black Student Union gave him a traditional kufi hat and scarf from West Africa. His favorite piece is a dark navy, three-piece suit that students from the Chinese Club gave him five years ago.

In Guthertz’s universe, hustling to find funding to keep Mission’s cultural clubs and events alive is as important as improving test scores. As an educator with twenty-seven years of experience in inner-city schools, Guthertz is convinced that multicultural and student-run clubs, after-school programs, and extracurricular Principal Eric Guthertz of Mission High School in San Francisco (Kristina Rizga) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Let us all conduct a little experiment about Pre-K education | @ THE CHALKFACE

Let us all conduct a little experiment about Pre-K education | @ THE CHALKFACE:

Let us all conduct a little experiment about Pre-K education

David Kirp has an op-ed on the mixed outcomes of universal Pre-K programs.

“Money doesn’t guarantee good outcomes, but it helps,” they say.

Even as more 4-year-olds attend pre-K, many states are delivering it on the cheap. While Boston spends $10,000 for each preschooler, in 2014 the average expenditure, nationwide, was $4,125. That’s $1,000 less (adjusted for inflation) than the 2002 average — and a third of what’s spent for each K-12 student. In education, as in much of life, you get what you pay for.

I can definitely tell the difference when an incoming Kindergartener has or has not been to school before. A year of Kindergarten will mitigate those differences. A child’s individual development will also likely determine whether the impacts of pre-K are realized or simply vanish.

But rather than speculate about the impacts of money and whether low-income children are equally Let us all conduct a little experiment about Pre-K education | @ THE CHALKFACE:

What to do when a colleague refers to students as bank robbers and murderers?

Let us all be clear on this.

When teachers disparage students to their faces, call them “evil,” “bank robbers,” “murderers,” and then lament how behavior is out of control, perhaps you suggest that this attitude is not the best strategy.

I can attest to the fact that teachers in high-poverty schools must dig very deep to get through a school year. We experience furniture being thrown, hallway tantrums accompanied by blood curdling screams, fights, threats of violence against adults, and additional threats of violence from members of the community. It can be very frustrating.

But I don’t care if I’m a green monster and you’re a purple people eater, I say something about your attitude. We’re all stressed, we all struggle, and not one struggle is more important than another.

Get over it and try to solve your problem. http://atthechalkface.com/2015/10/04/when-teachers-call-students-bank-robbers-and-murderers/

More than 50% of teachers in England 'plan to quit in next two years' - BBC News

More than 50% of teachers in England 'plan to quit in next two years' - BBC News:

More than 50% of teachers in England 'plan to quit in next two years'

Teachers often complain about their workload

More than half of teachers in England (53%) are thinking of quitting in the next two years, a survey has suggested.

The survey, conducted by the National Union of Teachers, found 61% of those wanting to leave blamed workload and 57% desired a better work/life balance.

Two thirds of the 1,020 primary and secondary school teachers questioned felt morale in the profession had declined over the past five years.

Schools minister Nick Gibb pledged to tackle excessive workloads.

The findings of the survey are timely, because last month the five main teaching unions warned of a crisis in recruitment and retention, although the government maintains the vacancy rate has stayed stable at about 1%.

The survey, undertaken with a representative sample of teachers, also suggested many were unhappy with some of the government's plans.

• 76% said forcing schools that require improvement to become academies would damage education
• 62% said the plans for 500 new free schools would also damage education
• 54% were not confident the new baseline test for four-year-olds would provide valid information about a child's ability

General secretary of the NUT, Christine Blower, said: "This survey demonstrates the combined, negative impact of the accountability agenda on teacher workload and morale.

"Teachers feel that the Department for Education's work thus far to tackle workload has been totally inadequate.

"Meanwhile, nearly one million more pupils are coming into the system over the next decade. The government's solution so far has been to build free schools, often where there are surplus places, and to allow class sizes to grow.

"Add to this a situation where teachers are leaving in droves and teacher recruitment remains low. We now have a perfect storm of crisis upon crisis in the More than 50% of teachers in England 'plan to quit in next two years' - BBC News:

What will next Indianapolis mayor do with charter schools?

What will next Indianapolis mayor do with charter schools?:

What will next Indy mayor do with charter schools?

Get Hoosier School Heist in Paperback

Hoosier School Heist On FaceBook

The next Indianapolis mayor will inherit a power that gives him direct control in shaping the city’s educational landscape, an elevated role that is essentially unprecedented in the state and across the country.

It’s a political hotbed that will put the city’s new chief executive in charge of a growing network of charter schools, which with about 14,000 students ranks as the fifth-largest school district in Marion County behind Perry Township.

The intent of charter schools was to provide students and parents more options for a public education beyond a traditional public school, particularly in low-performing districts such as Indianapolis Public Schools.

Charter schools enjoy more autonomy than their traditional counterparts. With those freedoms came the hope they would elevate student achievement and new methods for instruction.

While results have been mixed, both candidates for Indianapolis mayor say they support charter schools. But key differences are the pace at which Republican Chuck Brewer and Democrat Joe Hogsett would open new charter schools — and their party-line take on the unionization of charter teachers.

Brewer said any time a neighborhood is at risk of losing residents because of a low-performing school he’d consider opening a charter. Hogsett said he’d focus more on quality , and not quantity, when it comes to charters.

In 2002, former Mayor Bart Peterson’s administration authorized the first round of charter schools under a new power provided by the Indiana General Assembly. The Indianapolis mayor is the only mayor in the state with such authority.

Today, the mayor oversees 33 charter schools, some with multiple campuses.

The winner of the mayor’s race will play a lead role in the opening, overseeing and closing of charter schools in the city. The mayor also will preside over a city that’s seeing an emergence of innovation network schools, a new model similar to charter schools that both candidates say they support.

Brewer said he ultimately wants traditional public schools to win. Until Indianapolis Public Schools and other school districts innovate and raise their level of performance, he said, charter schools are needed to “bridge that gap.”

Hogsett has called for “bold, persistent experimentation” as part of his broader educational platform.

Beyond charters, Brewer and Hogsett also say if elected mayor they’d strongly What will next Indianapolis mayor do with charter schools?:

Supreme Court Prepares to Take On Politically Charged Cases - The New York Times

Supreme Court Prepares to Take On Politically Charged Cases - The New York Times:
Supreme Court Prepares to Take On Politically Charged Cases

WASHINGTON — The last Supreme Court term ended with liberal victories, conservative disarray and bruised relations among the justices. The new one, which starts on Monday, marks the start of Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr.’s second decade on the court and will reveal whether the last term’s leftward drift and acrimony were anomalies or something more lasting.

The court will decide major cases on politically charged issues, includingthe fate of public unions and affirmative action in higher education. It will most probably hear its first major abortion case since 2007 and will revisit the clash between religious liberty and contraception coverage.

It will consider three cases that could make it harder for workers and consumers to band together in class actions. And it will hear cases on the death penalty, a topic that twice led to unusually sharp and bitter exchanges on the bench last term, after Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. accused opponents of capital punishment of pursuing a “guerrilla war” against executions. Justice Sonia Sotomayor responded that supporters of the death penalty would be content to allow condemned inmates to be burned alive.

Some of last term’s opinions were unusually barbed even by the standards of Justice Antonin Scalia. Dissenting from the decision establishing a right to same-sex marriage, Justice Scalia called Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s majority opinion pretentious, egotistic and incoherent.

Chief Justice Roberts, who has said that he hopes to guide his court toward modest and unanimous rulings, cannot have enjoyed the rancor. Nor was his summer brightened by attacks on him from Republican presidential candidates unhappy with his sustaining of the Affordable Care Act for the second time.

The new term’s biggest rulings will land in June, as the 2016 presidential campaign enters its final stretch, and they will help shape the political debate.

“Constitutional law and politics are certainly not the same thing, but they are interrelated, never more so than in a presidential election year that will likely determine who gets to appoint the next justice or two or three,” saidVikram D. Amar, dean of the University of Illinois College of Law.

By the time the next president is inaugurated, Justice Stephen G. Breyer will be 78, Justices Scalia and Kennedy will be 80, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be 83.

“This coming term will again put into focus that the court is divided along partisan lines and that the 2016 presidential elections will be hugely consequential in shaping constitutional and other law for perhaps a Supreme Court Prepares to Take On Politically Charged Cases - The New York Times:

Olympia’s Freedom Foundation has unions in its sights

An employee in a unionized workplace in Washington has had few options if, like Mary Jane Aurdal-Olson, she didn’t want to contribute money to a labor union.

Workers must pay a share of the cost of bargaining, since every worker is supposed to benefit from the improvements a union secures.

But that principle is under fire. The U.S. Supreme Court cracked the door last year for some employees to withhold their money and in the court term that starts Monday it might swing the door wide open. At least one union branch in Washington has taken a financial hit in the wake of the 2014 decision.

An Olympia-based conservative group is trying to ensure the rulings hit home. The Freedom Foundation helped Aurdal-Olson stop her paycheck deduction and has campaigned via phone, mail, airwaves and doorsteps to encourage other dissenters.

It’s part of a strategy targeting unions — especially SEIU, one of the largest spenders in Washington elections — on multiple fronts. The foundation has seen sporadic success, including a recent decision by the state’s Democratic attorney general to sue one SEIU branch and a finding made public Friday by campaign-finance investigators that could lead to pursuit of a second branch.

Foundation CEO Tom McCabe took the helm nearly two years ago and brought an aggressive mentality from a previous job leading attacks on Democrats at the big-spending state home http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/politics-government/article37688049.html

Charter schools suspend kids, public schools don’t — which does better?

Pushed Out: Charter Schools Contribute to the City’s Growing Suspension Rates | School Stories:

Pushed Out: Charter Schools Contribute to the City’s Growing Suspension Rates

A recent report by the New York Civil Liberties Union exposed the escalating number of students who have been suspended since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the city’s schools more than a decade ago. Some believe one contributing factor may lie in the growing number of the public charter schools created during his tenure that develop their own discipline codes and have higher than average suspension rates.

Advocates for Children, a nonprofit that represents the legal rights of public school children, believe that the rise in charters (77 in 2008 and 135 in 2012) has gone hand in hand with the fact that a number of them exclude children–particularly those with special needs–at higher than average rates.

“One thing that’s great about charters is that they have access to resources others may not have, and said Paulina Davis, an attorney with Advocates for Children, who works specifically on the organization’s Charter School Initiative. “We want them to use them for benefit, not for exclusion.”

Some, not all, of the more well-established charter networks known for their “No Excuses” curriculum suspend kids at some of the highest rates in the city.  Two Brooklyn Collegiate Charter Schools in the UnCommon Schools network suspend students at 35 and 40 percent rates. Achievement First, another charter network with strict behavior codes suspends 4 to 18 percent of its students at its five city schools, higher than the city’s average.

Democracy Preparatory Charter High School in Harlem suspended 22 percent of its students. Its other four locations did not list suspension data. Others ranged from lower to higher-than-average suspension rates. The Harlem Success Academy suspended 5 to 12 percent of its students at its four locations. The city’s four Knowledge is Power Program charters, which are part of a national network of “no excuses” schools, suspended between 6 and 14 percent of its students. For the 2008-09 data, the average suspension rate for the city’s 77 charter schools at the time was 7.6 percent. All numbers are based on the 2008-09 school year, the most recent data available.

Dixon Deutsch, director of the Special Education Collaborative at the New York Charter School Center said there are two sides to the charter suspensions debate, and that schools that use the “no excuses” model believe in trying to ensure a productive and safe environment for all students, Deutsch said.

“I think it’s important to have a discipline policy that is rigorous and also fair,” said Deutsch. “My particular plan is to believe in high expectations for kids, but also sweat the small stuff, because small stuff builds up over time and becomes very large stuff very quickly.”

Many public charters do provide better than average environments for special needs children, Deutsch said. But it’s tricky to create a productive environment for all children that does not compromise the rights of students with behavioral and learning needs. Some teachers feel the pressure to clear behavior problems from their classrooms in order to boost test scores. Others simply are unaware of the proper procedures for handling behavior and learning issues.

As of 2012, about 125 of the city’s current 135 charters belong to the Special Education Collaborative that just recently began providing behavioral specialists to charter schools, Deutsch said.

Brianna Pena, 5, was suspended from her "No Excuses" charter on her very first day in school. (Photo by Sarah Tan)

One kindergarten girl, Brianna Pena, 5, was recently pushed out of her strict disciplinary school, the Harriet Tubman Charter in the Bronx, after throwing a tantrum on her first day of school. Brianna’s mother, Milagros Lopez, had transferred her from another similar charter, South Bronx Classical, in October, after she felt the rules and standards for behavior were too strict. The experience was no different at the Harriet Tubman Charter, however, where Brianna spent less than a day there before the school suspended her and demanded she be psychologically evaluated before she be able to return.

“Her first day of school at Tubman, they didn’t even let her stay, she wasn’t even there for an hour,” Lopez said.

The school reported Brianna had been “yelling and throwing chairs,” a school document of the incident stated. Video footage taken by a teacher shows a small girl crying on the floor of a classroom.

“If there was an issue, they should have called me into the office,” Lopez said. “Obviously, she was just having adjustment issues, it was her first day there.”

Lopez has since placed Brianna at Girls Prep, an all-girls charter in the Bronx, where she said that though Brianna has had minor behavior and adjustment issues, the school has made an effort to work with her and Pushed Out: Charter Schools Contribute to the City’s Growing Suspension Rates | School Stories:

Charter schools suspend kids, public schools don’t — which does better? | New York Post http://bit.ly/1L7O0jY

Are Sex Abuse and Charter School Scandals Catching Up With Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson? | Alternet

Are Sex Abuse and Charter School Scandals Catching Up With Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson? | Alternet:

Are Sex Abuse and Charter School Scandals Catching Up With Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson?

A former NBA star plays fast and loose with young women and taxpayer funds.

Is Kevin Johnson the Democratic Party’s Bill Cosby?

Johnson is the famous ex-NBA basketball star who became a charter school founder, then the mayor of Sacramento, CA, and was recently president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. But according to a series of investigative reports on Deadspin.com., a sports blog, Johnson’s past is filled with underage women who he molested as a sports star two decades ago, to teenage students and teaching assistants he fondled as the principle of a charter school that he founded. Some are now speaking up and not burying that past.

“There was no penetration. No rape. No knife to the throat threatening death. Just something that happened,” writes Mandi Koba on her blog, recounting the summer two decades ago when she was 15 and hanging out with Johnson the basketball star. “But it nearly destroyed me. It’s not been the physical harm that was caused me that’s taken the longest to heal from. Not the way his hand felt on my body. Not his hot breath on my face. Not even the words that he whispered. It’s been the messages. The feelings of worthlessness. Feelings that I was responsible.”

Koba, now in her mid-30s, wrote that she “lost control” of her life “because of who my abuser was.” Like many of the women who have kept secret their abuse by Bill Cosby years ago and are now speaking up, Koba said she is trying to “support victims on their journey to becoming survivors, [to] use my own story to add to the other voices of survivors who choose to speak out and try to dispel the many myths people have about sexual abuse.”

Johnson’s history with Koba is detailed in a 1996 Pheonix, Arizona, police report that describes how he gained her trust and began physically imposing himself. Her therapist contacted police and an investigation ensued. No charges were filed, as is often the case when celebrities are involved and the details less than black and white. A decade later, Johnson’s personal attorney, Fred Hiestand, told the L.A. Times that “his accuser was mentally unstable and had been swayed by a zealous therapist.”

But what’s telling in the Deadspin article by Dave McKenna is that Johnson apparently didn’t change his behavior after that sordid chapter—where he writes that “Kevin Johnson paid [Koba] precisely $230,600 for her silence.” A decade later, in 2007, Johnson was back in hometown, Sacramento, and the founder of a charter school, St. HOPE, where he laid the building blocks for his political ascent. Yet at St. HOPE, Johnson’s history of crossing innappropriate personal lines repeated itself.

A teacher, Erik Jones, “went to police in 2007 after a student told him that she and other kids at St. HOPE had been molested by Johnson,” McKenna writes. A child abuse report filed with police by Jones quoted one of the young women saying, “Mr. Johnson [a teacher and President of St. HOPE publics Schools] came up behind me and started to massage my shoulders. Soon his hands Are Sex Abuse and Charter School Scandals Catching Up With Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson? | Alternet:

Video and Transcription of John King’s Remarks at Arne Duncan’s Resignation | deutsch29

Video and Transcription of John King’s Remarks at Arne Duncan’s Resignation | deutsch29:

Video and Transcription of John King’s Remarks at Arne Duncan’s Resignation

Below is a Youtube video of the October 02, 2015, White House press conference regarding US Secretary Arne Duncan’s resignation and former New York State Chancellor, John King’s becoming interim secretary for the remaining year that Obama is in the White House.

In my October 03, 2015, post, I transcribed Obama’s and Duncan’s remarks.

Below are John King’s remarks, which I transcribed using the above Youtube video. (King begins speaking at 55:30.)

And now, I offer my readers yet another dose of corporate reform disconnect: John King.

Thank you, Arne, for your very kind words. Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to serve and for your faith that you have placed in me and the team that we have at the Department.

I’m deeply honored by the chance to serve and also deeply humbled by, uh, following in Arne’s footsteps. Arne is an extraordinary leader who I have watched demonstrate tremendous courage in fighting for kids and fighting for what’s best for kids, um, but also as being willing to listen, to listen to folks and to make adjustments, and to make sure everything we do every day is towards the goal of greater equity. Uh, Mr. President, you and Arne and our team at the Department have laid out an ambitious agenda, from 

Video and Transcription of John King’s Remarks at Arne Duncan’s Resignation | deutsch29:

Geaux Teacher!: Broad & Walton Are Betting I Will Lose the BESE Election!

Geaux Teacher!: Broad & Walton Are Betting I Will Lose the BESE Election!:

Broad & Walton Are Betting I Will Lose the BESE Election!

By Mercedes Schneider -

Broad and Walton Contribute a Combined $650,000 to Upcoming Louisiana BESE Election

Billionaires Eli Broad and Alice and Jim Walton have contributed a combined $650,000 to Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby’s PAC, Empower Louisiana, so that Grigsby might use it to try to retain a corporate-reform-bent majority on the state’s education board, BESE, from 2016-19.

The BESE election is scheduled for October 24, 2015.

According to Empower Louisiana’s campaign finance report (07-17-15 to 09-14-15), Jim and Alice Walton each donated $200,000 on August 20, 2015, and Broad contributed $250,000 on September 10, 2015.

The total on the above report is $763,710, which means that as of September 14, 2015, money from two billionaires from Arkansas and one billionaire from California constitutes the principal funding for Grigsby’s efforts to preserve a BESE majority known for supporting charters and vouchers without equally supporting adequate oversight; supporting high-stakes testing without supporting timely, clear, comprehensive reporting of testing results, and for allying with a state superintendent known for hiding and manipulating data, refusing to honor public records requests, and refusing to consistently audit the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE).

Grigsby considers the above to be the desired course for Louisiana’s state board of education. According to the October 01, 2015, Advocate, he plans to spend his PARC’s predominately Walton and Broad money on 3 of the 11 BESE seats:

Grigsby’s group — it is limited to independent 

Geaux Teacher!: Broad & Walton Are Betting I Will Lose the BESE Election!:

 

Click Here to Follow Flip BESE on Facebook 

LEE P.BARRIOS FOR BESE 1 Web Site

JASON FRANCE FOR BESE 6 Web Site

MIKE KREAMER FOR BESE 7 Web Site

Schooling in the Ownership Society: SUPES IS BACK -- New names on the letterhead. Looking for more no-bid contracts from CPS

Schooling in the Ownership Society: SUPES IS BACK -- New names on the letterhead. Looking for more no-bid contracts from CPS:

SUPES IS BACK -- New names on the letterhead. Looking for more no-bid contracts from CPS

“The primary leaders [Somomon & Vranas] of the former SUPES Academy have begun new endeavors and will not be joining us in this work ahead.” -- Joseph Wise

The federal investigation in Chicago of SUPES has obviously been sandbagged. Federal investigators have refused to comment on the investigation. Now, even withBarbara Byrd-Bennett fleeing the scene and a grand just supposedly in session, SUPES is trying to make a comeback.

After all, UNO did it with the feds on their trail, simply by shifting a few culpable leaders into different positions, changing the names on company letterhead, and relying on political powerhouses like Mike Madigan, Eddie Burke, and Rahm Emanuel to provide cover. So reported new SUPES owner, Joseph Wise figures he can pull it off as well, cashing in on the next round of no-bid deals CPS regularly hands out to connected consulting firms. Wise, whose companies have gotten at least $5 million in recent business from CPS, claims to have acquired "the best parts of The SUPES Academy".

Wise who formerly worked for scandalized SUPES leaders Gary Solomon andThomas Vranas, also wants to get more business from CPS by opening alternative Schooling in the Ownership Society: SUPES IS BACK -- New names on the letterhead. Looking for more no-bid contracts from CPS:

Teachers Told They’re Endorsing Hillary Clinton by NEA Leadership. Membership Opinions Unnecessary | gadflyonthewallblog

Teachers Told They’re Endorsing Hillary Clinton by NEA Leadership. Membership Opinions Unnecessary | gadflyonthewallblog:

Teachers Told They’re Endorsing Hillary Clinton by NEA Leadership. Membership Opinions Unnecessary

The decision has been made, teachers.

YOU WILL ENDORSE HILLARY CLINTON IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES.

Your union has spoken.

Now please donate to the Political Action Committee (PAC).

The National Education Association (NEA) represents 3 million educators. It is the largest labor union in the country. However only about 180 people made the decision to back Clinton.

The NEA Board of Directors voted today 118 to 39 in favor of the endorsement with 8 abstentions and 5 absences.

Thursday the 74 member PAC Council voted to endorse Clinton with 82% in favor, 18% against and some of the largest delegations – California and New Jersey – abstaining.

Check my math here. So 61 PAC votes plus 118 Directors plus one Teachers Told They’re Endorsing Hillary Clinton by NEA Leadership. Membership Opinions Unnecessary | gadflyonthewallblog:

GREAT NEWS! Anthony Cody has just been chosen as the winner of this year’s George Orwell Award - Garn Press

GREAT NEWS! Anthony Cody has just been chosen as the winner of this year’s George Orwell Award, given by the NCTE Public Language Awards Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English - Garn Press:

GREAT NEWS! Anthony Cody has just been chosen as the winner of this year’s George Orwell Award, given by the NCTE Public Language Awards Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English

Congratulations to Anthony Cody from everyone at Garn Press for being chosen as the winner of this year’s George Orwell Award, given by the NCTE Public Language Awards Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English.

The book Anthony wrote that Garn Press submitted for the award is The Educator and the Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges the Gates Foundation and you can read about it here.

The Orwell Award was established in 1975, to recognize writers who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse. A list of past recipients can be found on the NCTE Website. Paul Thomas, who is also a Garn Press author, is on the list and so the Press is doubly proud.

The NCTE Awards Committee writes to Anthony, “congratulations, and thank you for your efforts to promote honesty and clarity in public language”.

Anthony, on behalf of all the parents and teachers who are struggling with the negative impact of Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation on public education we thank you for both The Educator and the Oligarch and your indomitable leadership. We wish you well as you continue to speak truth to power in defense of teachers and children U.S. public schools.

The Educator And The Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges The Gates Foundation

Paperback: Amazon | Barnes & Nobleebook: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple iBooks | Kobo
Paperback ISBN: 9781942146001
eBook ISBN: 9781942146018
Paperback: $17.99 USD
eBook: $9.99 USD
Garn Press Imprints: People and Society
Genre: Nonfiction
Category: Ed. Policy & Reform; Education & Teaching; Philanthropy & Charity

 GREAT NEWS! Anthony Cody has just been chosen as the winner of this year’s George Orwell Award, given by the NCTE Public Language Awards Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English - Garn Press:

Time to Unite To Face Addiction | Michael Elliot

Time to Unite To Face Addiction | Michael Elliot:

Time to Unite To Face Addiction

Today, the health crisis of addiction cuts across so many other issues we face. It's a social justice issue with mass incarcerations overflowing our expanding prison industrial complex. It's an education issue because it affects children in such incredible numbers, and is one of the most profound killers of young people in this country. It's a political crisis because politicians lack the knowledge and courage to take action. Addiction takes a terrible toll on families, on our health care system, on the economy and on the vitality of our youth. Currently we treat addiction like a moral failing, like an issue of personal responsibility rather than treating it like the disease it is.

Addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a public health crisis impacting more than 85 million Americans. Today is the day we begin facing addiction. We stand with thousands of others on the National Mall to #UNITEtoFaceAddiction and end the silence on addiction, along with Joe Walsh, Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow, The Fray, Jason Isbell, John Rzeznik and more special guests. Watch history unfold live:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/2yJ3N2cjfjp

Follow Michael Elliot on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shoot4education

MORE:

Families Facing AddictionAddiction and RecoveryAddiction and Recovery

Time to Unite To Face Addiction | Michael Elliot: