Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, August 30, 2014

8-30-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online



Ed Notes Online




Moaning Mona Moaning and Video: Mona Davids 2009 Racist Rant Against Julie Cavanagh and PS 15 Teachers
Moaning Mona is moaning again - this time about Campbell Brown not working with her  and her law firm leaving Mona high and dry. Read the joyful news here:http://www.eclectablog.com/2014/08/law-firm-supporting-new-york-parents-union-quits-parents-blame-bullying-by-campbell-browns-education-reform-group.html#.VAH-iHu_RWY.facebook NYC Parents Union ‏@NYCParentsUnionCampbell Brown does not speak for

Gabrielle Horowitz-Prisco - Loretta and Gene Would Be So Proud
A part of the impetus for the change is due to the behind-the-scenes work of people like Gabrielle Horowitz-Prisco, a small woman with fuchsia glasses.... Epoch TimesAt last night's ICE meeting we talked over old times about Loretta and Gene, two education fighters for social justice for their entire lives. They had been founders of ICE and were sorely missed. (Oh what would they be doing over in

AUG 28

MORE Moves Towards the Center
"MORE is a communist organization," someone said to me yesterday. And this not a from red-baiting Unity slug, but from someone who has run on the ICE and the MORE slates. I was even shocked to see a reader of this blog tweet the same thoughts. Shame on her.Would I and James Eterno and Mike Schirtzer and Julie Cavanagh, independent thinkers, be in a group think organization?I have fought
ICE Meeting Friday - ICE and MORE - A Lesson for New Action
At the MORE meeting with New Action last October, we offered the ICE model to New Action as a way for their people to work within MORE for our common aims while keeping their caucus alive. They rejected that offer. ICE will be holding a rare meeting tomorrow. These meetings take place when people feel a need to talk to each other in a relaxed atmosphere where few decisions have to take place.ICE (

AUG 27

Charter Angst: Democracy Prep Parent Ready to Pull Child After 5 Days
All I see every morning and evening is this tall man dressed in bright clothing yelling at the parents every single day since school started... parent at Democracy PrepDP founder Seth Andrews - or Eva Moskowitz in dragOh the joy in this comment on another beloved crooked charter, especially with today's news (see Perdido) about Eva Moskowitz and her move to the financial district - call it "W

AUG 26

Mainstream Media Picks up NYSUT Officer Pension Story--
-- which we broke on Ed Notes - Sellout Fever: Newly Elected Revile - er - Revise .... Thanks for not crediting, CapitalLaw lets NYSUT officers accrue 2 pensions simultaneously Tweet Share on Facebook Share on Tumblr Print By Jessica Bakeman 6:40 p.m. | Aug. 26, 2014 follow this reporter ALBANY—Under a law approved in the final days of this year's legislative session, New York State United

AUG 25

Black and Latino plaintiffs win back pay in Gulino v BOE
Before ed deform - or maybe an early stage of it - one of the first shots at teachers of color was the lifting of licenses from experienced teachers over a test - even if those teachers had excellent ratings.One of them was in my school, an impeccable pre-k special ed teacher who had worked her way up from a para. My principal loved her. But she kept freezing every time she took the test. Sometime
The Left and Right Attacks MORE on Garner March Position: I'm Shocked, There Are Social Democrats in MORE
This is -- or should be -- absolutely the end for MORE and its sponsors in the ISO and other opportunist organizations. This is what social democracy looks like... Comment on MORE position (The March for Justice and Unity) on Garner march.SHAME ON MORE!!! SHAME ON THE ISO AND SOLIDARITY WHICH ARE INVOLVED IN MORE AND SHAME ON TEACHERS WHO DARE NOT STAND FOR PROSECUTION OF COPS WHEN THEY CARRY OUT

AUG 24

Laurel Sturt's "Davonte's Inferno" Blows the Lid on Ed Deform
We are awash in a sea of books on education produced mostly by non-teachers, pseudo-journalists, often with more than a tinge of bias. It seems that everyone covering the education wars spurred by ed deform must write a book. We hear about building better teachers, teacher wars, and how we learn, just to name a few. But books by real teachers who might actually know something always seem to take s
UFT History in a Graphic: Caucuses from 1960-2014
I just finished reading Barbara Tuchman's "Guns of August" about the first month of WWI. Almost every issue we face today can be related back to decisions and outcomes a hundred years ago and beyond that.We need to know some history of the UFT in order to fully understand things in context. I created this flow chart in attempt to get some history on record.I created this for the first MO

8-30-14 Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher


Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher




Keeping retirement weird. The color line.
On our road trip we stopped at the boyhood home of W.E.B. du Bois. Naturally. There was no parking space in front of our house when we got home yesterday afternoon. We had to unload the car from down the block.  It was a small price to pay for the last two weeks and a road trip that took us to Block Island and time with the kids and grand kids, in-laws and friends, several ferry crossings, swimmi
Frustrated? No. We are people with a vision of a city that works for its people.
Our friends came for Bagels with Karen. Representative-elect Will Guzzardi did the introduction. About a month ago Anne and I, my brother Mike and sister-in-law Susan invited our friends to have Bagels with Karen Lewis at their house in Logan Square.  Among those who came was our new 39th House District Representative-elect, Will Guzzardi. In fact, Will gave a warm introduction to the President o

YESTERDAY

New London school board takes back its offer to “Dr.” Terrence Carter.
Attorney Anthony Shannon, center, and Attorney Christopher Engler, right, of Shipman and Goodwin in Hartford carry boxes with copies of the report on the investigation of Terrence Carter as they and New London Board of Education members Rob Funk, left, and Sylvia Potter, back center, and the rest of the board leave the lecture hall to go upstairs for an executive session at the Science and Techno

AUG 27

Why you should care about Hinsdale. Staff jumping a sinking ship? This is what happens when anti-public school activists win control of a public school board.
Hinsdale District 86 school board president Richard Skoda. Tea Party followers got elected with a low turnout to the Hinsdale District 86 board with an agenda of driving out experienced teachers. And it looks like that they are making headway. On the one hand, the Hinsdale teachers union is winning wide-spread support from a community that is concerned about the possibility of a decline in the q
Rauner uses armed investigators to scare off third-party voters. This is what Rauner’s democracy looks like.
Bruce Rauner and Republican Rod Gidwitz hunting Libertarians? Sun-Times’ Dan Mihalopoulos: Rauner’s campaign tried to distance itself when I first tried to ask about the Libertarian ballot-access case last week. “I believe that is a state party issue,” said Schrimpf, the spokesman. Illinois Republican Party officials readily confirmed hiring the lawyer for the petition challenge, John Fogarty, an
Kristin Crowell. Beating Rahm requires deep organizing.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs-fT5xCw6w#t=247]

AUG 26

Chris Christie comes to Chicago to campaign for Bruce Rauner. Although Rauner needs no lessons from Christie on how to reward political pals with pension funds.
Graphic: International Business Times New Jersey’s joke of a governor is in Chicago to campaign for the joke of a gubernatorial candidate, Bruce Rauner. What is happening to those Illinois public employees who are counting on their pension systems for retirement income is no laughing matter Pension sleuth David Sirota is writing about the latest scandal involving the New Jersey governor and his s
“Driving Value within a Changing Network of Schools through Learning and Development: The Use of a 360° Feedback Tool To Drive Change and Bring Value in Public Education.”
Terrence Carter (right) and his attorney. We are on our way from our family’s August vacation rental in Rhode Island to a stop-over with more family on Long Island. This required getting on the ferry from New London, Connecticut to Orient Point, New York. New London. The home of a story I have been covering involving The phony doctor Terrence P. Carter. Carter, whose education leadership backgrou
Election year CPS graduation rates.
CPS President Vitale, CEO Byrd-Bennett and Rahm do the counting. Anne and I are still on the road. Still I want to wish my Park Ridge District 64 colleagues all the best as they start the new school year with students arriving in their classrooms today. It is only two years since I retired, but it is a little odd when I think about the last grade of kindergarten students that I taught on now ente

AUG 23

TMD. Lisa Madigan pleads insanity.
John Dillon. The state’s legal defense of pension theft? Think self-defense or insanity.
-John Dillon is a blogger at Pension Vocabulary, retired teacher and pension activist. On August 21st, legal counsel representing ISEA, RSEA, Heaton & Harrison filed a joint motion in Sangamon County for a judgment on the pleadings as to the affirmative defense, or in the alternative, to strike the affirmative defense. An affirmative defense, in this case the summoning of “reserved sovereign p
Walter Esler. Thousands of Illinois public workers see rollback of health costs because of Kanerva.
- Walter Esler is a member of AFSCME Retired and an activist. Thousands of retired Illinois teachers, civil servants, and university staff will soon be seeing their health coverage deductions cut in half. Illinois Department of Central Management Services(CMS) has rescinded an emergency rule doubling retiree health coverage premiums. The rollback came after SUAA Director Linda Brooks contacted Sta
Walter Esler. Thousands of Illinois public workers see rollback of health costs because of Kanerva.
- Walter Esler is a member of AFSCME Retired and an activist. Thousands of retired Illinois teachers, civil servants, and university staff will soon be seeing their health coverage deductions cut in half. Illinois Department of Central Management Services(CMS) has rescinded an emergency rule doubling retiree health coverage premiums. The rollback came after SUAA Director Linda Brooks contacted Sta