Monday, March 7, 2011

District recommends termination for Hope Moffett | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

District recommends termination for Hope Moffett

by Dale Mezzacappa on Mar 07 2011 Posted in Latest news

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The School District plans to terminate Hope Moffett, because she gave tokens to studentsthat they used to leave class and attend a protestagainst the policies of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, specifically, the planned conversion of their school to a charter under Universal Companies, Inc.

The District decided that this act constituted “endangering the welfare of children” and removed Moffett from the classroom pending the outcome of the disciplinary hearings. The District set a “204 conference” – a termination hearing – for

Mark Miller Letter | Solidarity Wisconsin #WeAreWI #WIUnion

Mark Miller Letter | Solidarity Wisconsin

Mark Miller Letter

by Steve Hanson

The attached letter was hand delivered to Walker and Fitzgerald's office this morning.

March 7, 2011
Governor Scott Walker Senator Scott Fitzgerald
115 East State Capitol 211 South State Capitol
Madison, WI 53707 Madison, WI 53707

HAND - DELIVERED

Dear Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald:

Over the past several weeks we have witnessed an unprecedented public debate in Wisconsin over the value of
public workers and the importance of collective bargaining rights. I write today to offer to meet, in-person, as
soon as possible to resume discussions on how we reach a bipartisan solution to our differences on January
2011 Special Session Senate and Assembly Bill 11.

The working people of Wisconsin are deeply concerned about what the future holds for their families, and for
the great state they call home. Now more than ever they are counting on us as leaders to work together to

Mark Miller Letter The attached letter was hand delivered to Walker and Fitzgerald's office this morning. March 7, 2011 Governor Scott Walker Senator Scott Fitzgerald 115 East State Capitol 211 South State Capitol Madison, WI 53707 Madison, WI 53707 HAND - DELIVERED ...

Make Walker Dance! Goofy, but kind of fun. Now is the time on Sprockets where we dance! The Ugly Dance

Recall drives could make history As improbable as the last three weeks have been in state politics, Wisconsin is about to embark on another wild ride into the political unknown - a series of legislative recall campaigns on a scale the nation has rarely, if ever, seen. Journal ...

Overflow Crowds at City College Conference Hear Call for General Strike in California #WeAreWI #WIUnion

Overflow Crowds at City College Conference Hear Call for General Strike in California

by Doug Porter

Organizers for the day-long community/labor conference, held last Friday at San Diego City College were stunned by the response--expecting perhaps 150 registrants, nearly 300 people turned out. “This is a good kind of problem to have”, said AFT member Professor Jim Miller, as he asked attendees to rotate seating so everybody could have table space during a lunchtime seminar entitled “Making Change at Walmart”. It was clear from talking to forum participants that recent events in Wisconsin have resonated locally.

My Challenge to the False Prophets of Education Reform | Dailycensored.com

My Challenge to the False Prophets of Education Reform

Written by Paul ThomasEducationMar 7, 2011

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At some point during my sophomore year of junior college, I came to recognize myself as a teacher while working as a tutor for Dean Carter’s British Literature survey course. I had discovered my calling to be a writer about a year before that.

During my journey to major in education and certify to teach high school English, I committed fully to creating my own classroom unlike most classrooms I had experienced as a student, but I also pledged to work from inside the public education system to reform all of education—not just my classroom.

For nearly thirty years now, which include moving to teacher education after teaching high school for eighteen years, I have had my calls for reform marginalized, ignored, and silenced, but I could never have predicted the current education reform movement that has backed critical reformers such as me into a state of constant rebuttal—marginalizing us in the worst

Serious people. « Fred Klonsky's blog #WeAreWI #WIUnion

Serious people. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Serious people.

by Fred Klonsky

Sometimes the simplest solution is the right solution.

In Michael Moore’s terrific message to Wisconsin on Saturday he stated a fact that the those who are rich and powerful want desperately to hide.

The 40o richest Americans have more wealth than 150 million Americans combined.

“Wisconsin is not broke. America is not broke,” said Moore.

When those like the American Enterprise Institute’s Fred Hess demand that serious people can come to no

Shanker Blog » A Call For Common Content

A Call For Common Content

by Shanker Institute Staff

A diverse group of influential education and other leaders today announced support for clear curricular guidance to complement the new Common Core State Standards that have been adopted by most states.

Today’s statement released by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and signed by dozens of educators, advocates, policymakers, researchers and scholars from across the educational and political spectrum, highlights one largely ignored factor needed to enable American students to achieve to high levels and become internationally competitive—the creation of voluntary model curricula that can be taught in the nation’s classrooms.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, urged broad support and dissemination for the statement, “A Call for Common Content”. “We are arguing for the tools and materials that teachers need,” she said. “With rich, sequential common curricula, amplified by state and local content—and with teacher

Using Bad Arguments for a Good Bill | The Forum for Education and Democracy

Using Bad Arguments for a Good Bill

by Deborah Meier

Once again our best and brightest feel required to introduce legislation that is so obviously worthy by calling upon arguments I detest!

I’m referring to the “Foundations for Success Act” introduced in Congress recently by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The bill proposes to provide universal childcare and early childhood education.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s a good bill. My concern is that we got into the habit of viewing education as a tool for defeating Communism, and gradually as a weapon in economic duels with Japan, Germany and now China!

And in such a war we call upon our least accurate and most distasteful data—test scores--as though our rank order in the world of education was based on some larger more grand definition.

We furthermore feel obliged to treat their parents as defective child-rearers.

Updates On Last Week’s Occupations at Dickinson, Milwaukee, Berkeley « Student Activism #WeAreWI #WIUnion

Updates On Last Week’s Occupations at Dickinson, Milwaukee, Berkeley « Student Activism

Updates On Last Week’s Occupations at Dickinson, Milwaukee, Berkeley

by Angus Johnston

Last week’s March 2 National Day of Action saw scores of protests in more than a dozen states — including two that ended in arrests and one that ended with a bunch of people taking their clothes off.

The big story out of last week, however, was three extraordinary campus occupations — one in the Northeast, one in the Midwest, and one on the West Coast.

In Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, feminist students — fed up with their administration’s foot-dragging on campus sexual assault policy — occupied their administration building for four days. They left on Saturday having won major changes to campus regulations.

At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an occupation of a theater space on campus is still ongoing, six days

New Poll: Wisconsin Voters Like Teachers, But Not Gov. Walker | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG #WeAreWI #WIUnion

New Poll: Wisconsin Voters Like Teachers, But Not Gov. Walker | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

New Poll: Wisconsin Voters Like Teachers, But Not Gov. Walker

by James Parks, Mar 7, 2011


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Another poll in Wisconsin shows the public is strongly opposed to Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on public employees’ freedom to bargain. The latest poll, commissioned by a conservative think tank, theWisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), shows 51 percent of voters disapprove of Walker’s plan, and nearly two of three (65 percent) say he should compromise on his budget proposal and its anti-public employee union provisions.

On the other hand the Democrats in the state legislature, public employee unions in general and teachers’ unions in particular all have much higher favorable ratings than Walker does. Democrats in the legislature–including the Wisconsin 14, state senators who left the state in order to block a vote on the proposals–received a 50 percent favorable rating with 42 percent disapproving of the job they’re doing. Fifty-nine percent of voters view public employee unions and teachers’ unions favorably.

On the other hand, voters do not approve of the job Walker is doing by a 53 percent – 43 percent margin. That’s also the margin when it comes to Walker’s personal favorable rating.

Check out the WPRI poll here. This poll is just the latest to show Walker’s attacks on public workers is turning off voters. Check out reports on other polls here and here.

Michael Moore wades into Wisconsin bill row and gets labelled a 'communist' | Mail Online #WeAreWI #WIUnion

Michael Moore wades into Wisconsin bill row and gets labelled a 'communist' | Mail Online

Michael Moore gets labelled 'communist' as he rallies at Wisconsin protests

By MARK DUELL
Last updated at 2:59 PM on 7th March 2011

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Moore compares protests to Egyptian uprising
Claims wealthy have 'stolen souls' of working class
Donald Trump says his views echo Fidel Castro

A multi-millionaire liberal film-maker has compared the Wisconsin protests to Egypt’s revolt and told residents they are galvanising America against the wealthy elite.

Michael Moore, 56, urged protesters this weekend to fight Republican efforts to trim trade union powers and said to thousands of them: ‘Madison is only the beginning’.

His speech comes after he was criticised by business magnate Donald Trump,

Claim of Return for Wisconsin State Senators Debunked | FDL News Desk #p2 #wiunion #wearewi #wegoted #foknews #govwalker

Claim of Return for Wisconsin State Senators Debunked | FDL News Desk

Claim of Return for Wisconsin State Senators Debunked

by David Dayen

(photo: mrbula)

The Wall Street Journal thought they had a scoop when they took a statement from Wisconsin’s Senate Democratic leader Mark Miller and weaved it into a story about an end to the standoff.

Playing a game of political chicken, Democratic senators who fled Wisconsin to stymie restrictions on public-employee unions said Sunday they planned to come back from exile soon, betting that even though their return will allow the bill to pass, the curbs are so unpopular they’ll taint the state’s Republican governor and legislators [...]
Sen. Mark Miller said he and his fellow Democrats intend to let the full Senate vote on Gov. Scott

Schools Matter: Billionaires' Jersey Boys, Starring Cory Booker

Billionaires' Jersey Boys, Starring Cory Booker

by Jim Horn

With Cory Booker oblivious to the outcome for another ostensibly African-American mayor who tried to run roughshod over the parents and teachers of Washington, DC, it looks as though Newark Schools will be the next site for a popular uprising to bring down the Oligarchs' corporate school containment plan for the poor. Compilation by Stan Karp:

Braun: School reform effort between Christie, Booker is against the law
Star Ledger 3/7/11
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2011/03/working_partnership_between_go.html
Newark residents want reform but they also want a say — all parents do. When decisions about their children are made behind closed doors by billionaires who believe they know what’s best for them, they have a right to be

Thank You Wisconsin 14! #wearewi #wiunion

Hands On the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC – Zinn Education Project

Hands On the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC

Book – Non-fiction. Edited by Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, and Dorothy M. Zellner. 2010. 632 pages.
An unprecedented women’s history of the Civil Rights Movement, from sit-ins to Black Power.

More information.

In Hands on the Freedom Plow, fifty-two women — southern and northern, old and young, rural and urban, black, white, and Latina — share their courageous personal stories of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.

The testimonies gathered here present a sweeping personal history of SNCC: early sit-ins, voter registration campaigns, and Freedom Rides; the 1963 March on Washington, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the movements in Alabama and Maryland; and Black Power and antiwar activism. Since the women spent time in the Deep South, many also describe risking their lives through beatings and arrests and witnessing unspeakable violence. These intense stories depict women, many very young, dealing with extreme fear and finding the

VIDEO: America Is NOT Broke | MichaelMoore.com

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is an Academy-Award winning filmmaker and best-selling author

128Comments Print

March 5th, 2011 9:03 PM

VIDEO: America Is NOT Broke

By Michael Moore

America is not broke.

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar

Shanker Blog » An Update From The Independent Labor Movement In Egypt

An Update From The Independent Labor Movement In Egypt

by Heba F. El-Shazli

Our guest author today is Heba F. El-Shazli. She has 25 years of experience in the promotion of democracy, independent trade unions, political and economic development. She has worked with institutions and leaders throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to challenge authoritarian regimes. Currently she is a visiting professor of international studies and modern languages at the Virginia Military Institute. The views expressed here are her own.

The revolution in Egypt has unleashed a torrent of pent up frustration and protest from Egyptian workers in all walks of life. For weeks, beginning the day after former President Hosni Mubarak resigned, workers have taken to the streets to demand respect for basic worker rights and democratic principles. Their grievances are

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Monday, March 7, 2011