PUT YOUR COMMUNITY ON THE 2020 BLACK LIVES MATTER AT SCHOOL MAP! – Black Lives Matter At School #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool #BlackLivesMatter

PUT YOUR COMMUNITY ON THE 2020 BLACK LIVES MATTER AT SCHOOL MAP! – Black Lives Matter At School

PUT YOUR COMMUNITY ON THE 2020 BLACK LIVES MATTER AT SCHOOL MAP!

Is your school or community planning events for the 2020 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action? If so please take a minute to enter information about what is happening at your school or community for the Week of Action on the National Education Association’s EdJustice webpage (click on the link and scroll down). We know you have been busy planning events to make this year’s Week of Action a powerful affirmation of Black lives in your school and community. Please email us your calendars and flyers and we will add them to the website. We want to know if you are teaching the 13-Guiding Principles, planning youth events, hosting a rally, or participating in the Student Creative Challenge (2020 prompt will be announced on MLK Day).

Help us let the world know that you are participating in the growing Black Lives Matter at School Movement!

PUT YOUR COMMUNITY ON THE 2020 BLACK LIVES MATTER AT SCHOOL MAP! – Black Lives Matter At School

Why, Democrats, Why? | Teacher in a strange land

Why, Democrats, Why? | Teacher in a strange land

Why, Democrats, Why?

So now we have a manufactured-for-media tiff between the Sanders and Warren campaigns. If you’re one of the people who have taken sides on social media—shame on you for making this election, already tilting the balance between America as we know it and Chaos, even more dangerous.

On Twitter, someone posted this simple question: Why aren’t the Warren and Sanders campaigns coordinating? Together, their fans form a larger and sturdier block of progressives with similar if not identical policy ideas than the silos where other candidates are holding court—a large enough group that it could conceivably wipe out Fumblin’ Joe Biden or inexperienced neolib Pete Buttigieg, their two biggest challengers.

If progressives want to win this election, the questioner asked, why don’t we take a leaf from Republicans, whose willingness to coalesce behind seriously flawed, even corrupt, candidates and office-holders means they win elections they should, by all measures, lose convincingly? Party before country is the heart of political rot, but—along with voter suppression, gerrymandering and outright lying—it’s been working pretty well for the Republicans.

Why not deliberately work together instead of devolving into he-said/she-said?

What followed was the lengthiest and most discouraging Twitter thread I’ve read in weeks. It was heavy on ugly anti-Warren bits (‘corporate bitch’) but included some CONTINUE READING: Why, Democrats, Why? | Teacher in a strange land

Defying Threat of Termination, 1,200 Florida Teachers Rally to Save Public Education | Common Dreams News

Defying Threat of Termination, 1,200 Florida Teachers Rally to Save Public Education | Common Dreams News

Defying Threat of Termination, 1,200 Florida Teachers Rally to Save Public Education
"Florida teachers are rallying for fair pay and better funding for schools, and they won't be intimidated or undermined."

More than 1,200 Florida teachers on Monday followed through on a pledge to stand up for their students and schools at a statewide rally in Tallahassee despite a threat from the state Department of Education which warned that the teachers were risking termination by attending the event.

Teachers in Polk County, Florida received an email Friday night from the state Department of Education (DOE) saying that attending the rally constitutes "an illegal strike under Florida law." Teachers across the state have reportedly been saving up personal days for months to attend the action.

"I don't really have any fear that they're going to follow through with the threats... When there's hundreds of thousands of students in the state of Florida who don't have full-time teachers as it is, they don't need to be firing teachers."
—Dr. Bruce Sabin, Polk County teacherFormer educator and columnist Peter Greene wrote in Forbes that Polk County school leaders should be "especially concerned about Florida's churn and burn rate; they lose more than half of their new teachers within the first five years"—but its high turnover rate didn't stop district officials from reportedly asking the state to warn teachers that "failure to report represents a lack of commitment and focus on what’s most important," and that they could be fired as a result of attending the rally.

Termination threats had little effect on the 1,200 Polk County teachers who planned to travel nearly 300 miles to the state capital on Monday, the eve of the first day of Florida's new legislative session.

"I don't really have any fear that they're going to follow through with the threats," teacher Dr. Bruce Sabin told ABC Action News. "Our contract guarantees us the personal CONTINUE READING: Defying Threat of Termination, 1,200 Florida Teachers Rally to Save Public Education | Common Dreams News

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? 

A site to discuss better education for all

Gary Rubinstein: More Reform-Funded Nonsense About KIPP Graduation Rates

by dianeravitch / now

Gary Rubinstein is the Myth-Buster of the Resistance. He has achieved this eminent position because of his intolerance for hype, propaganda, and lies. In this post, he bust the myth that low-income charter school graduates have a dramatically higher college graduation rate than low-income public school graduates. In fact, he shows, charter school graduates have the same college graduation rate as

Steve Hinnefeld: Indiana’s School Rating System Is Worthless

by dianeravitch / 1h

Steve Hinnefeld is a veteran reporter on Indiana education. In this post, he describes the shift from a simplistic A-F rating system (the one devised by Jeb Bush) to the federal rating system, which includes more factors. The problem with both ratings systems is that they accurately measure student income. The highest rated schools have students with the highest income. The lowest rated schools h

Arizona: Goldwater Institute Sues to Invalidate Regulation of Voucher Money

by dianeravitch / 2h

The far-right Goldwater Institute has filed a lawsuit claiming that the state has no right to regulate how parents spend their voucher money, the money that is paid by taxpayers. Goldwater says that if the parents misspent the money, it should be refunded to parents so they can try again. The Goldwater Institute, along with the DeVos family and Charles Koch, have sponsored efforts to expand the v

Jersey Jazzman: The Hoax of “Choice”

by dianeravitch / 3h

Jersey Jazzman, aka New Jersey teacher Mark Weber, analyzes the false promises of choice advocates . He demonstrates their repeated claims that charters and vouchers will give poor kids “the same choices” as rich kids. This is nonsense. Wealthy Right-wingers have been trying to destroy public education for decades. This is their latest hoax. The private schools where rich families send their chil

YESTERDAY

New York: Will Democrats in State Senate Sell Out to Hedge Fund Billionaires?

94by dianeravitch / 15h

The New York Daily News reports that lobbyists for billionaires who support charter schools had a cozy meeting with Democrats in the State Senate. Even though pro-public education progressives swept control of the State Senate away from the charter-crazy Republicans in the State Senate, the lobbyists know that money is still green, no matter who is in power. Jeffrey Cook-McCormac, a lobbyist work

Sign Up Now for the Network for Public Education Action Conference in Philadelphia, March 28-29!

by dianeravitch / 22h

Join your friends, allies, and other members of the Resistance in Philadelphia, March 28-29. Now is the time to register!

Sanders Speaks Out for Public Schools and Their Teachers in Florida

88by dianeravitch / 22h

Thousands of teachers in Florida are rallying at the state capitol today to demand higher wages and better working conditions. The Republican-dominated legislature has been handing out public monies to charter schools and for voucher programs, but ignoring the public schools that enroll 85% of the state’s students. Several of the key legislators are related to charter operators. Conflicts of inte

Hooray! The Astrology Book Club Recommends SLAYING GOLIATH!

by dianeravitch / 23h

SLAYING GOLIATH will be published one week from tomorrow! I can’t wait for you to read it and send your comments. Meanwhile, the latest kudo came from an unexpected source: LITHUB. Its Astrology Book Club selected SLAYING GOLIATH as one of its annual recommendations . CAPRICORN Diane Ravitch, Slaying Goliath (Knopf, January 21) If you really need something to get done, call a Capricorn. These tou

Arthur Goldstein: Albany Hands Down the New 10 Commandments to English Teachers

by dianeravitch / 1d

Arthur Goldstein, veteran teacher of many decades, thinks he knows a thing or two about teaching English. The State Education Department doesn’t trust him or other English teachers. So they have distributed new mandates about how to teach “advanced literacy” to make sure that he does what he is told. And he doesn’t like it. Frankly, it sounds like Common Core in a new dress. Goldstein writes: For

Larry Lee: The Colossal Charter Mess in Alabama

by dianeravitch / 1d

Larry Lee, native Alabaman, follows the charter confusion in his home state, where the law describes precisely how charter schools should be authorized. But, as Lee notes, the actual process of creating new charters has proceeded with complete disregard for the law, and no one seems to care. Public schools in Montgomery will be replaced by charter schools, but the local board did not agree (the l

Domingo Morel: The State Takeover of Houston Schools Is about Race and Power, Not School Improvement

57by dianeravitch / 1d

Domingo Morel is a professor of political science at Rutgers University who has studied school takeovers across the nation. He is the author of Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy. In this post, he describes the proposed state takeover of the Houston Independent School District as a hoax. It is a manufactured crisis. It is a theft of political power, and it is based on race. If the

DeVos Ignores Judge’s Order: Will She Be Punished?

44by dianeravitch / 1d

During the Obama administration, Congress passed legislation to protect students who had been defrauded by for-profit colleges. In most cases, the “colleges” made claims about their success in placing their graduates in jobs. 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all