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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Catching Parent Revolution’s Linda Serrato in a lie | Dailycensored.com

Catching Parent Revolution’s Linda Serrato in a lie | Dailycensored.com

Catching Parent Revolution’s Linda Serrato in a lie

Written by Robert D. Skeels * rdatheneEducation, PoliticsMar 17, 2011
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“[O]ther education providers to COMPETE with public schools for the opportunity to educate children.” — The Heartland Institute(Bigoted Reactionary Right Wing “Think Tank”)

“There’s nothing the matter with teachers that a little less unionization and more COMPETITION couldn’t cure.” — Ann Coulter (racist reactionary right wing pundit)

“It would force the district to learn how to run great schools by forcing them to COMPETE.” — Ben Austin (Executive Director LAPU/PR)

austin ford 300x168 Catching Parent Revolutions Linda Serrato in a lie
The brilliant piece by renowned journalist and Parent Across America co-founder Caroline Grannan entitled Parent trigger misfires by disrupting and dismantling local schoolsdocuments some of the more egregious problems with the so-called Parent Empowerment Act in California (aka Parent Trigger — since the wealthy Ben Austin, who lives in a wealthy area that is “87.5% white and the median household income is $169,282,” is blissfully unaware

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City effort to enlist parents in politics began months ago | GothamSchools

City effort to enlist parents in politics began months ago | GothamSchools

City effort to enlist parents in politics began months ago

by Maura Walz

For months, Department of Education employees have been trying to mobilize parents to public meetings and to sign petitions in support of city political goals, parent coordinators said today.

Evidence of that effort came to light yesterday after a staff member of the DOE’s parent outreach office distributed a petition to hundreds of parent coordinators urging state lawmakers to abolish the current seniority-based teacher layoff system. City officials renounced the petition and said that political organizing would stop going forward.

But parent coordinators from schools in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens said today that the Office of Family Information and Action’s push to have parent coordinators politically mobilize parents began months ago and that the message was spread by several OFIA staffers. The coordinators spoke on condition of anonymity to protect

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Nuclear Energy Advocates Insist U.S. Reactors Completely Safe Unless Something Bad Happens | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Nuclear Energy Advocates Insist U.S. Reactors Completely Safe Unless Something Bad Happens | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Nuclear Energy Advocates Insist U.S. Reactors Completely Safe Unless Something Bad Happens

MARCH 17, 2011 | ISSUE 47•11

WASHINGTON—Responding to the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sought Thursday to reassure nervous Americans that U.S. reactors were 100 percent safe and posed absolutely no threat to the public health as long as no unforeseeable system failure or sudden accident were to occur. "With the advanced safeguards we have in place, the nuclear facilities in this country could never, ever become a danger like those in Japan, unless our generators malfunctioned in an unexpected yet catastrophic manner, causing the fuel rods to melt down," said NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko, insisting that nuclear power remained a clean, harmles

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Modern School: Florida Law Lacks Merit and Pay #edFL

Modern School: Florida Law Lacks Merit and Pay

Florida Law Lacks Merit and Pay


A Republican-sponsored bill (SB 736) that would impose a merit pay plan on teachers and end tenure for new hires was approved by the Florida House on Wednesday. The legislation requires school districts to evaluate teachers partially on how much their students improve on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) or other exams over a three-year period. Half a teacher’s evaluation would be based on these test scores, while half would be based on evaluations by principals, and the evaluations would be used to determine if a teacher should get merit pay or
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4LAKids - 'Penny wise, pound foolish' BUDGET UPDATE: LAWMAKERS TAKE $1 BILLION FROM FIRST 5

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: BUDGET UPDATE: LAWMAKERS TAKE $1 BILLION FROM FIRST 5

BUDGET UPDATE: LAWMAKERS TAKE $1 BILLION FROM FIRST 5

PUBLISHED ON FIRST 5 LA (HTTP://WWW.FIRST5LA.ORG)

17 August 2011 - The state Legislature on Wednesday agreed to take $1 billion in funding from California's First 5 commissions - a controversial move that prevents voters from deciding whether Proposition 10 funds may be used to help fill the state's budget gap.

Both the state Assembly and Senate passed AB 99 [1] with the two-thirds vote they say allows them to circumvent placing the fund grab on the ballot in June. The bill authorizes the redirection of $50 million from First 5 California, the state Proposition 10 Commission, and $950 million from First 5 county commissions, including First 5 LA, which stands to lose the most funding: $424 million, according to the State Department of Finance. Excluded from this requirement are county commissions receiving less than $600,000 in annual revenues from the Proposition 10 tobacco tax. The legislation, which is part of the state budget package, requires Gov. Jerry Brown's approval.

Legislators' approval of the funding grab could have dire consequences for children's programs supported by First 5 Commissions. Contrary to earlier assurances from

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Think All Journalism is Migrating to the Web? These Students Publish Hardcopy Newspaper - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Think All Journalism is Migrating to the Web? These Students Publish Hardcopy Newspaper - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Think All Journalism is Migrating to the Web? These Students Publish Hardcopy Newspaper

by Peter Pappas

The-FowlOr perhaps you think that high school students are unmotivated, unwilling to take on complex tasks and totally disinterested in anything that isn't digital?

Well these kids destroy all these stereotypes and more.

Students at Bolder High School in Colorado are 3 issues into publishing their own "underground" newspaper. And they're producing "The Fowl" in old school manner - hard copy with hand drawn illustrations. No InDesign processing for them. As one of the student editors says - "People our age don't get heard that often, because we're not seen as that credible. But we have things to say that we're

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Schools Matter: Dear Randi

Schools Matter: Dear Randi

Dear Randi

by Jim Horn
I got an inspiring email from Randi Weingarten today, urging me sign a pledge of solidarity with her and other unions around the country:
.. . .Now our challenge is to take this moment and turn it into a movement. And the way to do this is by re-energizing America’s labor movement, which is the only institution fighting for working people at the ballot box and the bargaining table.

The AFT has joined with other labor unions and allies to stand together and participate in the “We Are One” Week of Action starting April 4.

Will you take the pledge to
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Colorado author & parent: CDE’s response on CSAP is Unsatisfactory « Failing Schools

Colorado author & parent: CDE’s response on CSAP is Unsatisfactory « Failing Schools

Colorado author & parent: CDE’s response on CSAP is Unsatisfactory

MARCH 17, 2011
by Sabrina

Note: The following comes from Seeds of Tomorrow author Angela Engel. She shared this because she is concerned over the misinformation being given to parents, as well as the way in which concerned parents are being marginalized in discussions over their children’s educations.

A longtime educator and children’s advocate, she has opted her children out of CSAP for years, because of her desire to raise happy, well-adjusted children as well as her concerns over the

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EDUSolidarity #wiunion #wearewi #notmywi #miunion #solidarity #unionmember #p2 #edusolidarity

EDUSolidarity

EDUSOLIDARITY
Fellow Educators,
As we all know, teachers and our unions, along with those of other public sector employees, face unprecedented attacks in the national media and from local and state governments. It is easy for politicians and the media to demonize the “unions” and their public faces; it is far more difficult to demonize the millions of excellent teachers who are proud union members. Those of us who are excellent teachers and who stand in solidarity with our unions are probably no stranger to the question “Well, why are you involved with the union if you’re a good teacher?” It’s time for us to stand up and answer that question loudly and clearly.
On Tuesday, March 22, teachers in NYC will wear red in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and elsewhere. We also stand with teachers in places like Idaho, California, and Texas who are facing massive layoffs. We would like to take this stand on the web as well. We encourage you to publish a piece on March 22 entitled “Why Teachers Like Me Support Unions.” In this piece, please explain your own reasons for being a proud union member and/or supporter. Including personal stories can make this a very powerful piece. It would be great to also explain how being a union member supports and enables you to be the kind of teacher that you are. We want these posts to focus not only on our rights, but also on what it takes to be a great teacher for students, and how unions support that.
After you have published your post, please share it through the form that will go live on March 22 at http://www.edusolidarity.us. Posts should also be shared on Twitter using the tag #edusolidarity.
JOIN US IN BLOGGING “WHY TEACHER LIKE ME SUPPORT UNIONS” ON MARCH 22
In Solidarity,
Ken Bernstein – Social Studies, MD – teacherken
Anthony Cody – Science Instructional Coach, CA – Living in Dialogue
Ed Darrell – Social Studies, TX – Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
Nancy Flanagan – Educational Consultant, MI – Teacher in a Strange Land
Jonathan Halabi – Math, NY – JD2718
Jamie Josephson – Social Studies, DC – Dontworryteach
Stephen Lazar – Social Studies/English, NY – Outside the Cave
Deborah Meier – Professor of Education, NY – Deborah Meier’s Blog
Doug Noon – Elementary, AK – Borderland
Kate Nowak - Math, NY – f(t)
Sabrina Stevens Shupe – Educational Activist, CO – Failing Schools
Jose Vilson – Math, NY – The Jose Vilson
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