Texas Freedom Network: Proposed Instructional Materials Put Science Education, Public Schools at Risk in Texas

Texas Freedom Network: Proposed Instructional Materials Put Science Education, Public Schools at Risk in Texas

Proposed Instructional Materials Put Science Education, Public Schools at Risk in Texas

Vendor's Creationist Materials Could Be Used in Public School Science Classes Around the State

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2011

Science in Texas public schools would take a shocking leap backward if the State Board of Education approves newly proposed instructional materials that promote creationism and reject established, mainstream science on evolution, spokespeople for the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) and the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) said today. In addition, public schools using those creationism-based materials could face expensive legal challenges even as they struggle with massive budget cuts at state and local levels.

"Two years ago State Board of Education members thumbed their noses at the science community and approved new curriculum standards that opened the door to creationism and junk science," said TFN President Kathy Miller. "Now they are getting exactly what they wanted

Kochtopus: Right-wing Network of Money, Power, and Influence | Dailycensored.com

Kochtopus: Right-wing Network of Money, Power, and Influence | Dailycensored.com

Kochtopus: Right-wing Network of Money, Power, and Influence

Written by HurricaneDeanBusiness, Daily Journal (Opinion), Media, PoliticsApr 25, 2011

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Charles and David Koch might very well the greatest threat to America sense World War II. Over the last fifty years, the bothers have been slowly developing, tweaking, and expanding a fascist political network designed to end American democracy as we know it. The many arms of the Koch brother’s ideological network have been descriptively labeled by some as the Kochtopus.

The Kochtopus finances no less than 85 right-wing extremist organizations that actively promote the Koch brothers vision of a corporate state or fascism. Fascism is not a word that should be thrown about lightly. After all, over the last century, the greatest threat to freedom and democracy was not communism, rather fascist influenced Nazism. Of course, this is not to say

Larry Hirsch: The Lie in Ending LIFO

Larry Hirsch: The Lie in Ending LIFO

The Lie in Ending LIFO

Posted: 04/25/11 02:32 PM ET

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Mayor Bloomberg , Michelle Rhee , Teach For America , Last In First Out , Lifo ,Education News

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Mayor Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and the other "education reformers" feel that ending the policy of Last In First Out (LIFO) when it comes to teacher layoffs is the crucial piece to improving public education. LIFO is the practice of having junior teachers be the first to face the ax when jobs are cut, while those with the most seniority are kept. They claim that LIFO will force cities to lay off good young teachers, while those with more experience remain even if they don't deserve to. Therefore they are pressuring legislatures that ending LIFO is the absolute and only answer to seniority reform. However, there are some holes in their argument that should be pointed out.

First, at least in New York, many young teachers come from programs like Teach For America

solidaridad: ¡Marcha a Primero de Mayo! May Day 2011 March

solidaridad: ¡Marcha a Primero de Mayo! May Day 2011 March

¡Marcha a Primero de Mayo! May Day 2011 March

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

¡La Marcha esta para derrechos de todos trabajadores. Ven con nosotros a Primero de Mayo!

As a social justice candidate for the District 2 Board seat of Los Angeles Unified School District, I'll be marching in support of teachers and communities with the Educators Contingent. See you there.

Sunday, May 1, 2011 from 10:00am — 1:00pm
Starting at Olympic and Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90015



ARE-LA Endorsement of SCIC May Day March

Dear Members of the Southern California I

The disadvantages that indie charter schools do and don’t face | GothamSchools

The disadvantages that indie charter schools do and don’t face | GothamSchools

The disadvantages that indie charter schools do and don’t face

by Anna Phillips

Do mom-and-pop charter schools get a raw deal when it comes to finding rent-free public space in New York City?

For many charter schools, the fight for space in public schools is a bruising one. In a column in the Sunday Times, writer Michael Winerip suggests that it’s that much worse for start-up charter schools that aren’t tied to charter networks or wealthy backers. The latter type, he argues, are able to open dozens of charter schools in public space all over the city. Meanwhile, a mom-and-pop charter school in Queens has to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a privately-owned building when the city doesn’t give it space.

Is it a universal truth that the public school real estate hunt discriminates against start-ups? It’s not clear. The charter school Winerip mentions, Growing Up Green Charter, is one of only nine charter schools in all of Queens. Almost all of them are independent charter schools started by teachers or religious groups and most of them are in private space.

Home to some of the best traditional public schools in the city, Queens also has some of the most

Michelle Rhee uses Care2 to astroturf edu-privatizers

Michelle Rhee uses Care2 to astroturf edu-privatizers

Michelle Rhee uses Care2 to astroturf edu-privatizers

by admin

What Michelle Rhee’s billionaire dollars buy…

The following post originally appeared on the DailyKos.com, on April 17, 2011.

Michelle Rhee, tool of corporate edu-privatizers, is using Care2 to astroturf her anti-teacher, anti-union, Students First Foundation with a petition entitled “Save Great Teachers”. (The foundation title itself is propaganda. For someone who is all about accountability, she should change the name to Profitsfirst.org, it would be more accurate.) Studentsfirst.org is well financed by the Billionaires Boys Club, Diane Ravitch’s apt descriptor of the wealthy edu-privatizers who are crawling all over DoE, congress and state legislatures to lobby for laws to break teachers unions and teachers employment safeguards.
According to Ken Libby at http://www.schoolsmatter.info/… Rhee intends to raise $1billion through her Students First Foundation. Her sugar daddies are putting serious money behind initiatives to sell public schools to Wall

In the wake of Michelle Rhee's damage

by admin

Originally posted on Conducting the Inner Light, April 17, 2011.

Michelle Rhee has a new piece on Huffington Post, Why I’m Proud of Student Achievement in D.C. (and Why We Need National Reforms, in which she trots out all her euphemistic (to put a nice word to lies) language about her “achievements” in Washington. It never ceases to amaze me the way in which Rhee and her advocates, especially Richard Whitmire, dredge up the same horse manure, over and over again, and try to pass it off as oats. Here is a video I stumbled across on The Teachers Leader Network in a piece written by Dan Brown (not Davinci Code Brown but a local teacher) that demonstrates loud and clear how damaging Michelle Rhee’s management was for our schools.

Isn’t it astonishing to hear what went on? Especially since we saw none of this in the news! How do you think opening day would have looked as a scene in Waiting for Superman? But it is exactly this kind of management that Michelle Rhee should get press for – autocratic, despotic, and damaging. Instead, she is managing to influence major decisions in education around the country.

Let’s take for example, Georgia. Rhee was able to get 7,000 members of her Students First organization to send out 12,000 emails and calls to legislatures around the state advocating the hiring of teachers on the basis of