Looking Anew at How Teachers Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Looking Anew at How Teachers Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Looking Anew at How Teachers Teach

Today, reformers from both ends of the political spectrum push Common Core Standards into classrooms. They champion charters and more parental choice of schools. They want teachers to be evaluated  on the basis of student test scores. Policymakers, philanthropists, and vendors send tablets to classrooms. Look at these reforms as blood relatives fixed on changing how teachers teach so students can learn more, faster, and better. An old story to be sure.

Why old? Two traditions of teaching have competed with one another for millennia.  Each has had a grab-bag of names over the centuries: conservative vs. liberal, hard vs. soft pedagogy, subject-centered vs. child-centered, traditional vs. progressive, teacher-centered vs. student-centered, mimetic vs. transformational.

Each tradition has its own goals (transmit knowledge to next generation vs. helping children grow into full human beings);  practices (teacher-centered vs. student-centered); and desired outcomes (knowledgeable and skilled adults ready to enter the labor market and society versus an outcome of moral and civic engaged adults who use their knowledge and skills to help themselves and their communities). No evidence, then or now, has confirmed advocates’ claims for either tradition. These are choices anchored in beliefs. While posing these traditions as opposites, I, Philip Jackson,  and others have pointed out that most teachers, including the very best, combine both ways of teaching in their lessons.

Educational battles have been fought time and again over these traditions in how teachers should teach reading (phonics vs. whole language), math (“new” vs. traditional), science  (learning subject matter vs. doing science) and history (heritage vs. doing history). Yet even at the height of these public wars fought in words and competing policies, teachers  taught lessons that combined both traditions.

Since the early 1990s, however, states have embraced standards-based reforms, Looking Anew at How Teachers Teach | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Hoping, and Waiting, for a Bronx School’s Fresh Start to Pay Off - The New York Times

Hoping, and Waiting, for a Bronx School’s Fresh Start to Pay Off - The New York Times:

Hoping, and Waiting, for a Bronx School’s Fresh Start to Pay Off

Debra Jones, principal of the Urban Scholars Community School, in a kindergarten classroom last month. “My whole thing is, give it time,” Ms. Jones said of her school’s progress. CreditÁngel Franco/The New York Times

New York City has already closed the elementary school at 1180 Tinton Avenue in the South Bronx once, reopening it with new leadership and a new name, the Urban Scholars Community School.

But its students continue to be drawn from the poorest congressional district in the country, with many living in five nearby homeless shelters. Some staff members keep granola bars on hand, because many of the children do not get enough to eat at home. A third of its students are chronically absent.

And in the 2013-14 school year, only 2 percent of the school’s students passed the state English test, while 4 percent of them passed in math, placing it among the lowest-performing schools in the city.

How do you fix a school like that?

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s answer has been the $400 million School Renewal Program, which seeks to turn around the city’s most struggling schools by adding professional development for the staff and by wrapping students and their families in extensive support systems not typically found in schools.

Announced by Mr. de Blasio in November 2014, the program, which runs for three years, is supposed to transform the 94 schools involved. At Urban Scholars, nearly halfway through Renewal’s span, the school has more resources, but the challenges remain immense. It is difficult to say how much change will come.

“The problem is so huge,” Debra Jones, the principal, said of the challenges of poverty that beat away at her school. “We ask ourselves: Where do we start?”

The centerpiece of the Renewal program involves converting each school into a “community school,” which offers services to students and their families to address issues, like poverty, that originate elsewhere but are brought into the classroom each day.

It stands in stark contrast to the methods preferred by the previous mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg. During his tenure, more than 150 failing schools were shut down and replaced with hundreds of new, smaller institutions.

That is what happened to Public School 198, the school that used to occupy the Urban Scholars building. After years of academic failure, the city announced that it would begin shutting down in 2009. In its place came Urban Scholars, with Ms. Jones, a woman with a crackling sense of humor who grew up in Bronx public housing, as principal.

But while the school leaders were new and the number of students fewer, the problems that children brought to class with them were unchanged.

As a zoned school, Urban Scholars inherited families from the school it replaced. In fact, Ms. Jones said that roughly half of the parents at Urban Hoping, and Waiting, for a Bronx School’s Fresh Start to Pay Off - The New York Times:

Differences In Suspension May Cause 20 Percent Of Achievement Gap

Differences In Suspension May Cause 20 Percent Of Achievement Gap:

Differences In Suspension May Cause 20 Percent Of Achievement Gap

The achievement gap between black students and their peers is well documented, but conclusive explanations of the reasons for the gap are harder to come by.

Now a study of more than 15,000 students in Kentucky says that as much as 20 percent of the difference may be due to a single cause: getting suspended from school.

“This analysis — the first of its kind — reveals that school suspensions account for approximately one-fifth of black-white differences in school performance,” write sociology professors Edward W. Morris and Brea L. Perry in the study, published in the journal Social Problems last month.

Morris and Perry analyzed the test scores and discipline records of 16,248 students in grades 6 through 10, using data collected by the Kentucky School Discipline Study from 2008 to 2011.

Even after controlling for other factors, such as socioeconomic status and disabilities, they found a strong correlation between suspension and lower scores on end-of-year tests.

Students performed worse on a standardized math test if they had been suspended, the study found. Results were similar for English scores. (Edward Morris and Brea Perry)

The study notes that black students are more likely to be suspended than their white and Asian classmates. Black students are more likely than whites to attend schools that use more “exclusionary discipline,” such as suspension and expulsion, the study says. Even within the same school, they are also more likely to be suspended.

And students who are suspended do worse on end-of-year tests — worse than their classmates, but also worse than they do themselves in years when they’re not suspended, the study found.

The authors arrived at the 20 percent figure through a statistical model known as mediation. First, they determined the effect of race and ethnicity on achievement. Next, they added the students’ history of suspension as another variable in the model. By seeing how much the effect of race or ethnicity went down with that added variable, they were able to conclude that racial or ethnic differences in suspension account for 20 percent of racial differences in achievement.

The bottom line? It’s pretty significant.

“It’s a lot, yeah,” Perry said. “But you have to understand that the racial disparities in discipline are huge — bigger than the racial disparities in achievement.”

Morris and Perry caution that the link between suspension and lower performance doesn’t mean one causes the other. They say more research would clarify whether it’s the missed instructional time or the punitive nature of suspension, or both, that hurts performance.

It’s also possible, they say, that black students are suspended more often because they misbehave more often — but “we can draw from previous studies,” they add, “which have noted that minority students are disciplined more harshly than white students for similar misbehavior.”

The authors conclude that suspension, in general, lowers school performance and contributes to large racial gaps in achievement.

“Particularly for African American students in our data,” Morris and Perry write, “the unequal suspension rate is one of the most important factors hindering academic progress and maintaining the racial gap in achievement.”

Related:

• School Network With Most Kindergarten Suspensions Says It Will Stop Them
• Mass. Had Hundreds Of Suspensions Last Year — In Kindergarten And Pre-K

 Differences In Suspension May Cause 20 Percent Of Achievement Gap:

School Teachers and Union Unfairly Blamed for Financial Mess in Chicago Public Schools | janresseger

School Teachers and Union Unfairly Blamed for Financial Mess in Chicago Public Schools | janresseger:

School Teachers and Union Unfairly Blamed for Financial Mess in Chicago Public Schools

Here are just some of the details of the financial morass in the Chicago Public Schools.

Back in 2003, David Vitale, a banker and then-CEO Arne Duncan’s recently appointed Chief Financial Officer, convinced the mayoral-appointed school board to begin using risky borrowing strategies.  The Chicago Tribune explains the results of a huge investigation it conducted in 2014: “Vitale, then the chief administrative officer at CPS, and other officials pushed forward with an extraordinary gamble.  From 2003 through 2007, the district issued $1 billion worth of auction-rate securities, nearly all of it paired with complex derivative contracts called interest-rate swaps, in a bid to lower borrowing costs.  No other school district in the country came close to CPS in relying so heavily on this exotic financial product. In fact, market data show the district issued more auction-rate bonds than most cities, more than the state of California… It involved issuing bonds at floating rates and entering into related interest rate swaps that could lessen the impact of cost fluctuations… By 2008 the district was carrying $1.8 billion in bonds that were subject to fluctuating rates, accounting for more than 40 percent of the district’s outstanding debt.”  Then, of course, came the 2008 financial collapse.  The Tribune updates the situation as of November 2014: “Over the life of the bonds, which won’t be fully paid off until 2034, the school district stands to spend $100 million making up the difference, according to the Tribune’s analysis. The extra costs add to the district’s crushing deb burden; last year, the school system’s debt payment was $338 million.”

Fast forward to 2016.  Facing crushing debt, the Chicago school district has unsuccessfully sought increased funding from Springfield, where Illinois’ new governor Bruce Rauner keeps threatening to take over Chicago Public Schools and force the district into bankruptcy, though Republican Rauner continues to be blocked by a super-majority Democratic legislature.

Last week, Chicago Public Schools borrowed again, selling $725 million in bonds to try to make it through this school year.  But with its bonds reduced by several rating agencies to School Teachers and Union Unfairly Blamed for Financial Mess in Chicago Public Schools | janresseger:

Investigation of USDOE CIO Danny Harris: Video and Transcribed Excerpts | deutsch29

Investigation of USDOE CIO Danny Harris: Video and Transcribed Excerpts | deutsch29:

Investigation of USDOE CIO Danny Harris: Video and Transcribed Excerpts

Below are excerpts from the February 02, 2016, Congressional Oversight and Reform Committee’s hearing of the allegations of impropriety related to US Department of Education (USDOE) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Danny Harris.

  

Danny Harris

I begin transcribing at minute 3, with Chair Jason Chaffetz’ charge against Harris and the apparent ineptness of the USDOE in handling student information:

There are 139 million Americans that would be affected by a data breach at the Department of, of, uh, Education. We also need to remember the Department of Education also oversees a student loan portfolio of over 1.2 trillion dollars. This puts it on the proportion of Citibank and other major financial institutions. It is critical because Taxpayers deserve the best in our chief information officer (CIO), and they’re not getting the best at the Department of Education.

The Inspector General (IG) testified recently the Department continues to be vulnerable to security threats and has repeatedly failed to implement the recommendations and failed to detect friendly hacks into their system. The Department scored a negative– was one of just a handful of agencies– but a negative 14 percent on the Office of Management and Budget’s Cyber Sprint. Cyber Sprint was intended to get–government-wide– get ’em up to speed, more security in place– and yet the Department of, of, Education was one of a handful of agencies that actually scored negative on that. And, they received an F in the fitara scorecard.

This is a self-reported score, and they scored an F.

Mr. Harris has served as the chief information officer since 2008, and by virtually every metric, he’s failing to adequately secure the Department’s systems. The Committee’s concerns were further amplified after learning Mr. Harris was investigated for possible criminal and administrative misconduct. The IG closed its investigation months ago, finding that the CIO potentially broke 12 federal laws/regulations and/or agency directives. But the Department of Justice refused to prosecute.

That is a mystery to us; we don’t understand why they would not prosecute such wide use and abuse of the system. Mr. Harris was running two side 

Investigation of USDOE CIO Danny Harris: Video and Transcribed Excerpts | deutsch29:

Room to improve school services for LGBT students :: SI&A Cabinet Report

Room to improve school services for LGBT students :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Room to improve school services for LGBT students

(Calif.) Even with all of the progress made in recent years to improve educational services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, their well-being is still at risk in many schools with only a handful of districts attempting to address the issue through their Local Control Accountability Plans, advocates said.

School climate – one of eight California priorities for which districts must set goals and detail improvement efforts in their LCAPs – covers the overall culture of a school campus. Positive climates allow students to thrive academically and socially, and negative climates may result in higher suspension, bullying or absenteeism rates.

“The LCAP is the perfect vehicle because it allows districts to put into policy ways to target a group that has tremendous struggles in school,” said Laura Kanter, director of Policy, Advocacy and Youth Programs for the LGBT Center OC, based in Orange County. “Moving forward, one of the goals should be that LGBT youth are lifted up as a category in and of themselves that needs attention and specific strategies within the LCAP to support them,” she said.

Under the Local Control Funding Formula, adopted in 2013, additional resources are allocated to schools with more disadvantaged students, including English learners, foster youth and those from low-income families. The LCAPs created by school districts, charter schools and county offices of education must detail how student achievement will be increased per the state priorities.

Many of the 10 largest districts in the state – including Los Angeles Unified and San Francisco Unified – have programs or funds detailed in their LCAPs dedicated to mental health, suicide prevention or intervention services related to conflict resolution between students.

Restorative justice techniques are popular in the area of maintaining a safe and healthy school Room to improve school services for LGBT students :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Chinese New Year 2016: The Year of the Monkey - everything you need to know - Telegraph

Chinese New Year 2016: The Year of the Monkey - everything you need to know - Telegraph:

Happy Chinese New Year 2016! Everything you need to know about the Year of the Monkey
The Chinese New Year party in London will be the biggest outside of Asia. Here's your guide to the celebrations

 This year, Chinese New Year - The Year of the Monkey - begins on February 8th and lasts until Jan 27th, 2017.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Celebrations have started around the world - and now London is joining the festivities.

People gathered at one of Hong Kong's best known temples - the Wong Tai Sin - to make their new year wishes, while dancers dressed in traditional costumes performed at Ditan Park in Beijing.

Wellwishers in the Philippines, Indonesia, North Korea, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand have also kicked off the celebrations in their countries.

The Sydney Opera House in Australia was bathed in red light as part of city wide lumiere and lantern display to welcome in Chinese New Year

While preliminary events have been kicking off across the UK, the big celebrations in the capital won't take place until Sunday 14th February.

On Saturday, the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square hosted a free Chinese New Year-themed family day, while Chiswick House Gardenslaunched the UK debut of the Magical Lantern Festival on Wednesday February 3rd.

The display, which included a 66-metre long dragon, runs until March 6th.

The new year, also known as the Spring Festival, is marked by the lunisolar Chinese calendar, so the date changes from year to year.

The festivities usually start the day before the New Year and continue until the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the new year.

The Chinese symbol for monkey

Each Chinese New Year is characterised by one of 12 animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 blocks (or houses) just like its western counterpart, but with the major difference being that each house has a time-length of one year instead of one month.

This year it's the Year of the Monkey, the ninth animal in the cycle. The next Year of the Monkey will be in 2028.

Popular Chinese New Year Greetings

1. 新年好 / 新年好 (Xīnnián hǎo)

'New Year goodness!'

In Mandarin: /sshin-nyen haoww/
In Cantonese: /sen-nin haow/

2. 恭喜发财 / 恭喜發財 (Gōngxǐ fācái)

'Happiness and prosperity!'

In Mandarin: /gong-sshee faa-tseye/
In Cantonese: Kunghei fatchoy /gong-hey faa-chwhy/

3. 步步高升 / 步步高陞 (Bùbù gāoshēng)

A steady rise to high places! — "on the up and up"

In Mandarin: /boo-boo gaoww-shnng /
In Cantonese: /boh-boh goh-sshin /

The personality of the Monkey

People born in the Year of the Monkey are characterised as lively, quick-witted, curious, innovative and mischievous, but it is also believed to be one of the most unlucky years in the Chinese calendar.

The general image of people in this zodiac sign is of always being smart, clever and intelligent, especially in their career and wealth.

In addition, their gentleness and honesty bring them an everlasting love life. Although they were born with enviable skills, they still have several shortcomings, such as an impetuous temper and a tendency to look down upon others.

• Strengths: sociable, innovative, enthusiastic, self-assured
• Weaknesses: suspicious, cunning, selfish, arrogant, jealous

Performers play the dragon dance during the Chinese New Year parade  Photo: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features

Lucky Signs for the Monkey

• Lucky numbers: 1, 7, 8
• Lucky colours: white, gold, blue
• Lucky flowers: chrysanthemum, alliums
• Lucky directions: north, northwest, west

Famous people born under the monkey sign

Julius Caesar, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Michael Douglas, Alice Walker, Celine Dion, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Christina Aguilera, Owen Wilson, Daniel Craig, Mick Jagger, Bette Davis, Annie Oakley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Cuba Gooding Jr., Gisele Bundchen, Kim Cattrall, Nick Carter, Patricia Arquette, Alyson Stoner, Christina Ricci, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Nick Jonas, Selena Gomez.

Your sign is derived from the year you were born in the Chinese lunar calendar.

The years below are a rough guide, but if you were born in January or February it may be slightly different as the new year moves between 21 January and February 20.

• Rat: 2008, 1996, 1984, 1972, 1960
• Ox: 2009, 1997, 1985, 1973, 1961
• Tiger: 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962
• Rabbit: 2011, 1999, 1987, 1975, 1963
• Dragon: 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964
• Snake: 2013, 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965
• Horse: 2014, 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966
• Sheep: 2015, 2003, 1991, 1979, 1967
• Monkey: 2016, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968
• Rooster: 2017, 2005, 1993, 1981, 1969
• Dog: 2018, 2006, 1994, 1982, 1970
• Pig: 2019, 2007, 1995, 1983, 1971

What does your Chinese zodiac sign mean?Chinese New Year 2016: The Year of the Monkey - everything you need to know - Telegraph:

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Would Horace MannTweet?

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Would Horace MannTweet?:

Would Horace MannTweet?

On February 4, 2016, I was honored to have the opportunity to address the Ohio Deans Compact in Dublin, Ohio. The title of my talk was suggested by Aimee Howley and Deb Teller, the organizers of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Compact: Advancing Democratic EducationI can not be certain that the talk went in exactly the direction they expected. Surely its subtitle must have raised some eyebrows: Would Horace Mann Tweet? Whether my talk satisfied their expectations, perhaps I'll never know. But I can report that the audience was kind, attentive, and shared in the conversation that followed.

To read one person's thoughts on the fate of democratic control of America's public schools, and to learn if Horace Mann would Tweet were he alive today, please click on the following link:

Advancing Democratic Education: Would Horace Mann Tweet?
Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Would Horace MannTweet?:

Gene V Glass

Arizona State University

~          

University of Colorado Boulder

National Education Policy Center

~          

San José State University

Low pay forces South Dakota teachers to hold 2nd, 3rd jobs - Yahoo News

Low pay forces South Dakota teachers to hold 2nd, 3rd jobs - Yahoo News:
Low pay forces South Dakota teachers to hold 2nd, 3rd jobs

 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Jessica Ries settles in behind the counter of Tip Top Tux and phones a couple to remind them of an upcoming fitting before their wedding. In the back room, beyond the dapper mannequins and vest swatches of pink, yellow and blue, a tote filled with review packets for 24 of her Hayward Elementary School students awaits her attention if she gets any down time.

Ries dismissed her fourth-graders at 2:45 p.m. and, after an hour-long teachers' meeting, hurried to the strip mall shop to fill a three-hour evening shift. There's no time to head home or step out for dinner; a chicken breast reheated in the microwave will have to suffice.

"I don't get home until 9 p.m. those nights," said Ries, 26. "That's twice a week, and then I work weekends."

Second and even third jobs are the norm for many school teachers in South Dakota, where teacher pay ranks lowest in the nation, according to a state education task force. Gov. Dennis Daugaard has proposed a half-cent sales tax increase to help raise teacher pay, but his plan needs two-thirds approval in both the House and the Senate — a tough proposition in a legislature with an anti-tax lean.

Mary McCorkle, president of the South Dakota Education Association, said teachers often give up their evenings by grading papers and preparing lessons, and second jobs lead to burnout.

"Something has to give, whether it's your health, your sanity," McCorkle said. "You just can't do everything, and you want to be there for your students."

View gallery

In this Feb. 1, 2016, photo, Jessica Ries calls a couple to remind them of an upcoming appointment a …

The SDEA, which represents more than 5,000 teachers in the state, said Daugaard's proposal is an acknowledgement that South Dakota schools are having trouble hiring and keeping teachers.

The Brookings School District used to get dozens of applications for each open teaching position but now receives resumes from just a handful of qualified candidates, said school board President Steve Bayer. The pool depth is likely dwindling as applicants look across South Dakota's eastern border to better-paying jobs.

"When you can make another thousand dollars a month as an experienced teacher, it's probably worth looking at a place in Minnesota," he said.

South Dakota's average teacher salary of $40,023 in 2013-14 lagged an average of six states that border it by $11,888 a year and was $8,643 behind the next lowest neighbor, North Dakota, the group found. In some of South Dakota's more remote areas, that average salary drops quickly.

Lori Brandt, 54, has been teaching in Big Stone for 31 years, yet the sixth- to eighth-grade reading and English teacher makes just $42,000. To get by, she pulls night and weekend desk Low pay forces South Dakota teachers to hold 2nd, 3rd jobs - Yahoo News:

The Dangers of Obedience: Heroes Have Discipline Problems | Foundation for Economic Education

Heroes Have Discipline Problems | Foundation for Economic Education:

The Dangers of Obedience: Heroes Have Discipline Problems

A girl in your class can't breathe. She clearly needs help. The teacher tells you to stay seated. What do you do?

I would have stayed seated. At least, that's what I would have done when I was 15, the age of Texas middle schooler Anthony Ruelas.

You hear the girl wheezing and gagging, but the teacher refuses to let the students leave their seats. She has emailed the school nurse and is waiting to hear back. Do you still stay put, hoping the nurse's office doesn't use overly aggressive spam filters?

How about when, several minutes later, the girl falls out of her chair?

I'd like to think I would have shown Anthony's courage and character. I'd love to claim that I’d have defied the teacher's authority and carried my afflicted classmate to the nurse's office.

I even like to imagine myself saying what Anthony did as he took action: "F— that! We ain’t got time to wait for no email from the nurse."

But at his age, I suspect I would have stayed obediently planted in my desk-chair, like the rest of the kids, admiring and maybe envying the boy who risked getting in trouble in order to save a girl in distress.

And he did get in trouble. Gateway Middle School suspended him for two days, for what Reason's Robby Soave calls "the unspeakable crime of escorting an asthmatic classmate to the nurse’s office."

“I was like what?” Anthony later told a reporter. “I’m suspended for this? Like, I was trying to help her.”

When school officials informed Anthony's mother of his suspension, it seems they failed to mention the asthmatic classmate. She reports that when her son tried to explain to her what had happened, “I wasn’t trying to hear it. I was like, 'No, they already told me what happened — you walked out of class.'"

To be fair to his mom, this wasn't Anthony's first suspension. And we have to wonder if past discipline problems have anything to do with his still being in 8th grade at age 15. But maybe that's the point: model students don't challenge their teacher's authority, even when they should. They have too much to lose.

Asked if he'd make the same decision again, Anthony replied, "Most definitely!"

Are his obedient classmates as sanguine about their behavior?

A Question of Discipline

When I was Anthony's age, there was an ABC Afterschool Special called The Wave, based on an experiment conducted by a high school history teacher in 1967. Ron Jones had found it difficult to explain to his students how the German people could have acquiesced to — even cooperated with — Hitler'sNational Socialists.

Jones decided to spend one class period demonstrating the appeal of fascism, though he didn't use the F-word at first. He took his class of about 25 students (who were all about Anthony's age) and introduced them to some old-fashioned discipline. For one period, he had them practice marching in and out of the classroom in formation. At their desks, they had to sit straight and smile. It turns out the students liked it.

When Jones came to class the next day, he found them all sitting at their desks with perfect posture and broad smiles. Jones says he hadn't planned to extend the experiment past the first day, but now it had a momentum of its own.

An article at the San Francisco Chronicle tells what happened next:

By the end of day two, participating students had developed a secret hallway salute, which caused enough campus curiosity that by day 

Heroes Have Discipline Problems | Foundation for Economic Education:

The U.S. Labor Movement’s “Pearl Harbor Moment”. The Supreme Court’s Hearing of Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association

The U.S. Labor Movement’s “Pearl Harbor Moment”. The Supreme Court’s Hearing of Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization:

The U.S. Labor Movement’s “Pearl Harbor Moment”. The Supreme Court’s Hearing of Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association

 War can sneak up on you. And now unions are scrambling desperately for shelter, realizing they were in the crosshairs just as the Supreme Court was about to pull the trigger. After dreamily sleepwalking in denial, unions were shocked and awed awake by the Supreme Court’s hearing of “Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association.”

If unions lose Friedrichs, the nuclear fallout might ruin unions for a generation, or more. Some unions seem shell shocked by the existential threat posed by Friedrichs, paralyzed by the Court’s intention to declare total class war. But war demands either surrender or a fight.

A red alert should be broadcasted across every union hall in the country and to the broader public, since Friedrichs is an attack on all working people. Union memberships must be educated about the dire urgency of Friedrichs, and be engaged in creating and implementing the strategy to defeat the enemy. By directly engaging members and publicly mobilizing BEFORE the decision in June, Friedrichs can be defeated.

Staying quiet about Friedrichs is a form of surrender. Some union leaders have already publicly surrendered, such as SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, who told David Axelrod in an interview that “by next summer, we’re [the labor movement ] going to lose another 2 million [members] because of a Supreme Court case…that means another chunk of the movement will be gone.”

Ms. Henry surely knows the Supreme Court is a political institution that is affected by political pressure. And SEIU members deserve a leadership willing to apply massive pressure, by any means necessary. An anti union Friedrichs decision is not inevitable.

The AFL-CIO leadership seems equally frozen by inaction. The AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumka, also went AWOL in the Friedrichs fight. Trumka released a short video of him denouncing Friedrichs and telling people that they could learn how to “fight back” by visiting the website “America Works Together” (apparently he didn’t have the time to explain the strategy in the video).

The America Works Together website is bare bones, and uninspiring. The only thing resembling “fighting back” is a petition, directed against the anti-union group The Center For Individual Rights, which is providing the legal support for the Friedrichs case against the unions.

Of course, petitioning your enemy to stop attacking you isn’t very effective. And If the AFL-CIO is only using this tactic in the face of an advancing Friedrichs, their petition will be as useful a weapon as a white flag.

On the other side of the fight is the plaintiff, Rebecca Friedrichs, who has been 100 times more vocal in publicly opposing unions than the unions have been in publicly defending themselves. Ms. Friedrichs is all over the TV blasting away at unions, who steadfastly refuse to return fire.

Sure, Ms. Friedrichs uses half truths and lies in her attacks on unions, and yes she is backed by large The U.S. Labor Movement’s “Pearl Harbor Moment”. The Supreme Court’s Hearing of Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization:

Charter, tax credit groups again outspend teachers' unions on lobbying | POLITICO

Charter, tax credit groups again outspend teachers' unions on lobbying | POLITICO:

Charter, tax credit groups again outspend teachers' unions on lobbying

While teachers' unions remain near the top of the list of the state’s highest-spending interest groups, a position they’ve occupied for decades, they no longer dominate education lobbying in New York.

The unions have been joined by several groups supportive of issues they’ve opposed, such as expansion of charter schools and a tax credit that would redirect money to private schools, according to a POLITICO New York analysis of lobbying reports submitted to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics and campaign finance disclosure reports submitted by state-level candidates and parties to the Board of Elections.

In all, labor groups and their key allies on education issues spent $8.3 million on political activity in 2015. Charter schools and their influential lobbying arms spent a little over $9 million, and tax credit advocates, $5.7 million, according to the lobbying and campaign finance reports.

For the second consecutive year, reform groups, including charter and tax credit advocates, outspent unions on lobbying, contradicting the argument often made by reform groups that unions dominate state education policy by pouring money into their lobbying efforts.

The $23 million spent last year is down from$30 million in 2014, which is at least partially attributable to the fact that statewide elections were held in 2014.

The decrease is likely also driven by the changed political calculus for both unions and charter groups after most of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sweeping education reform proposals failed during last year’s legislative session.

In the last six months of 2015, two key education factions pulled back their advocacy efforts as imminent threats to unions subsided and charter groups dialed back their lobbying efforts in accordance with Cuomo’s shifting priorities.

Early last year, New York State United Teachers and the United Federation of Teachers were facing existential threats from state government and advocates.

Cuomo proposed a series of reform proposals that would have been anathema for the unions, and a lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s teacher tenure protections was working its way through the courts.

But a year later, Cuomo has largely reversed his education agenda in favor of union Charter, tax credit groups again outspend teachers' unions on lobbying | POLITICO:

Legislative Analyst endorses parental choice program | EdSource

Legislative Analyst endorses parental choice program | EdSource:
Legislative Analyst endorses parental choice program

In most places in California, students must attend a school in the district where they live, or a charter school anywhere if they find one they like. But 47 districts have opened their doors to students outside their borders, under a little–used program set to expire next year.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office, after concluding that the District of Choice program is working as intended, recommended in a report last month that the Legislature extend it for at least five years beyond its June 2017 sunset date. The analyst’s office said the program is providing students with opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have, while encouraging students’ former districts to compete to retain them by providing magnet programs and courses that parents want.

“We think the strengths of the program, including additional educational options for students and improved district programs, justify reauthorization,” according to the report.

Sen. Bob Huff, R-San Dimas, a longtime advocate of school choice, agrees and said he plans to introduce legislation to extend the program and remove some of its restrictions. In a recent radio program, Huff characterized the program as a “win-win situation by creating a little competition within the public school system.”Legislative Analyst endorses parental choice program | EdSource: