5-24-14 Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Schooling in the Ownership Society All Week

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk 

Schooling in the Ownership Society

Bridging Differences

Are Prosser teachers 'gaming the system'? Or is this reporter gaming them?

"If anyone out there has been in Prosser for more than a second, they would see that you can't make a Prosser teacher do anything they don't believe in." -- Prosser teacher Maria MagdalenaAfter reading Ted Cox's piece (Prosser Staff 'Gamed' CPS Survey, Gave H.S. Leaders Inflated Marks: Sources) in DNAinfo yesterday, I had to use breathe-in, breathe-out techniques for anger management.For

13 by Mike Klonsky / 21h 

MAY 22

'When you close a school you open a prison'

THE PIPELINE... Hundreds marched Monday night from Lawndale to the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center to call for an end to what they call the “school to prison pipeline.” Activists began their march with a rally at Paderewski Elementary, a school that was among the more than 50 closed in 2013, down Ogden Avenue to the detention center.PadlocksMembers of nearly 30 different community

5 by Mike Klonsky / 2d 

MAY 21

Chicago, a year after the closings

“School closings have done nothing to improve the education of CPS students, nor have they saved money, but the same policies that led to massive closures continue to be implemented.” -- CTU ReportTwo major reports came out of Chicago this week. The first, from the CTU, finds that despite promises, the closing of 50 schools last year made conditions worse for students in both the closed and receiv

7 by Mike Klonsky / 3d 

MAY 20

Randi tours Chicago with Karen Lewis. Leaves blasting the mayor.

"It feels that the Chicago mayor wants to kick the public [school] system in the teeth at every opportunity."AFT's Randi Weingarten and NEA's Dennis Van Roekel have been trying to ride two horses at the same time, courting approval from Obama/Duncan while bucking their own rank-and-file in their support for Common Core. Feeling increasing pressure from below, they recently shifted their

1 by Mike Klonsky / 4d 

MAY 19

WEEKEND QUOTABLES 60 years after Brown

Grandparent Ollie Clements at Gresham sit-inDonna Brazile "Sixty years later, 'separate and unequal' is still alive...privatizing our school systems results in increased segregation, not improved opportunities." -- CNNGary YoungeRacism is far more than old white men using the N-word -- The GuardianOllie Clements, a grandparent of a Gresham student“Not just books and textbooks and other m

6 by Mike Klonsky / 5d 

IL Senate votes to kill Charter Commission. Bad news for Gülen charters?

Fethullah GülenThe IL Senate voted to abolish the State Charter School Commission which had the power to override school district decisions to reject charter applications. The bill to abolish was sponsored by Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood and passed the Senate 34-22. It now goes back to the House for possible action next week.This watered-down version of the bill still leaves rejected charter

by Mike Klonsky / 2h hide  //  save

MAY 20

A handful of Common Core text/testing publishers buying up everything in sight

Captive audience marketing to kids on Channel 1 Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt just acquired Channel One and Curiosityville. HMH is one of the biggest text/testing publishers cashing in on the booming Common Core market, along with Pearson and McGraw-Hill.  In  2007, Pearson acquired Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International.Channel One News, founded in 1989 by school privat

by Mike Klonsky / 3d 

We Need a Strong Alliance for Schools

Meier: States are making it easier to hand over our schools to private interests or providing money to existing private schools.

5 by Deborah Meier / 2d hide  //  save

MAY 20

Thoughts From a Sit-In

Klonsky: The struggle in the cities, while certainly connected to testing and curriculum (common core), has been focused on equity.

7 by Guest Blogger / 3d 

MAY 15

Don't Write Off Everyone in the Tea Party

Meier: It's too easy to ignore families who fundamentally disagree with us without seeing the damage it causes.

18 by Deborah Meier / 9d 

5-24-14 Wait What? All Week

Wait What?:

  Wait What? All Week

Renaissance Man says – Sign My Petition (sort of)

Say what you will about Colin McEnroe but he is one of those has guys who has earned the mantle of being called a “Renaissance Man,” a term that first appeared in the 17th century to describe a “person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas.” Colin McEnroe’s WNPR radio show can […] The post Renaissance Man says – Sign My Petition (sort of) appeared first on Wait What

3 by jonpelto / 31min 

Union Leader says Pelto is anti-union?

In recent weeks, one political pundit called me a “union stooge,” while the former Democratic Party Chairman, John Droney, referred to me as a “liberal ideologue.” But this morning, in a “What the _____” moment, the President of SEIU 1199NE, the great union that represents 19,000 Connecticut health care workers issued a press release attacking […] The post Union Leader says Pelto is anti-union? ap

33 by jonpelto / 20h 

MAY 22

Democratic State Central Committee’s legacy of using donations to fight pro-public education Democrats

One of the newer Wait, What? readers raised a question in the comment section of the blog this week.  They took offense when one of the blog’s longest standing, and most respected readers, realsaramerica pointed out that Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy and the State Democrats diverted resources away from beating Republicans and, instead, used the money to […] The post Democratic State Central Committ

14 by jonpelto / 1d 

MAY 21

Do you wanna tax break?  Apparently it depends on how much you’ve donated

As the 2014 Session of the Connecticut General Assembly came to a close two weeks ago, the $55 rebate that Governor Malloy had promised disappeared…. Poof! So did the promised tax break for retired teachers, and the tax break on clothing costing less than $50, and the tax break on over-the-counter, non-prescription medicines and the […] The post Do you wanna tax break?  Apparently it depends on ho

21 by jonpelto / 2d 

The latest on the 2014 governor’s race

From NPR’s Where We Live: Jonathan Pelto to Set Up Exploratory Committee For Governor’s Race Listen to podcast here: http://wnpr.org/post/jonathan-pelto-looks-shake-race-governor Former state legislator Jonathan Pelto has been criticizing Governor Dannel Malloy for years. Recently he said he’d consider shaking up this year’s race for Connecticut governor by running from the left. “I’m exploring a

24 by jonpelto / 3d 

MAY 20

Next up:  WNPR’s Where We Live – 9am today

Jonathan Pelto Looks to Shake Up the Race For Governor Former state legislator Jonathan Pelto has been a vocal critic of Governor Dannel Malloy since day one. His frustration with the current administration may push him to run for governor as a liberal third-party candidate. Pelto joins us in-studio to talk about why he’s considering […] The post Next up:  WNPR’s Where We Live – 9am today appeared

2 by jonpelto / 4d 

MAY 19

Dannel Malloy and Arne Duncan will hold press event in Hartford Today – May 19, 2014

Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy, who introduced the most anti-teacher, anti-public education “reform legislation” of any Democratic governor in the nation will join Arne Duncan, the anti-teacher, anti-public education United States Secretary of Education, for a joint appearance in Harford today. The press event will feature Governor Malloy and United States Secretary of Education Duncan, along […] Th

23 by jonpelto / 4d 

MAY 18

Wendy Lecker and Diane Ravitch on the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

Diane Ravitch, the nation’s leading voice for public education explains, As segregation grows worse than it has been for decades, the problems are worsened by current “reforms.” School privatization intensifies segregation, high-stakes testing creates cause for closing struggling schools instead of helping students. As Wendy Lecker writes, there is a growing grassroots to prevent the […] The post

13 by jonpelto / 6d hide  //  save

MAY 17

Hey at least we’re not Rhode Island…

Connecticut may not have a governor who supports fair and adequate funding of our public schools, but at least we have a State Supreme Court that is willing to step  up and ensure Connecticut’s children get the quality education that they need and deserve. The citizens of Rhode Island are not so fortunate. Here in […] The post Hey at least we’re not Rhode Island… appeared first on Wait What?.

15 by jonpelto / 6d 

Kneecapped’ Malloy Has Only Himself to Blame

Last night, Democratic Party leaders and delegates met to re-nominate Dannel “Dan” Malloy to run for a second term as Connecticut’s Governor. Having won by 6,400 out of more than 1.1 million votes cast four years ago, the most recent public opinion poll indicates that only 44 percent of Connecticut voters think Malloy deserves to […] The post Kneecapped’ Malloy Has Only Himself to Blame appeared f

92 by jonpelto / 7d