Does anyone know the analogous stats for the statement below for NYC for the closed and to be closed schools?
"Blacks currently make up only 29 percent of Chicago’s teachers, but they comprised 43 percent of those recently fired. Whites represent almost half the teaching force, but only 36 percent of the layoffs."
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
"Educational
policy in the Obama era isn't about education at all. It's about
replacing skilled, experienced teachers with rootless temps better
suited to serve in the privatized holding tanks they wish to turn public
schools in poor neighborhoods into, for a population on its way to low
wage jobs and prisons."
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Educational policy in the
Obama era isn't about education at all. It's about replacing skilled,
experienced teachers with rootless temps better suited to serve in the
privatized holding tanks they wish to turn public schools in poor
neighborhoods into, for a population on its way to low wage jobs and
prisons.
Black Teachers Fired En Mass
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“Blacks currently make up only 29 percent of Chicago’s teachers, but they comprised 43 percent of those recently fired...”
If you have any doubt
that President Obama and his cronies are at the forefront of public
school privatization and the decimation of Black teachers, just take a
look at Chicago. That’s where Obama’s basketball buddy, Arne Duncan,
wreaked havoc as schools chief until the new president appointed him
secretary of education, and where Obama’s former White House chief of
staff, Rahm Emanuel, now reins as mayor with overall control of the
public schools. Arne Duncan fired 1,300 Chicago teachers during his
eight years at the helm, the large majority of them Black women,
replaced by mostly white, younger teachers at about half the cost. The
teachers union sued, charging racial discrimination – a case that is
still before the courts. Now, with a thousand more teachers fired last
year under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the union has filed a complaint [5]
with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, once again
charging racial discrimination. Blacks currently make up only 29 percent
of Chicago’s teachers, but they comprised 43 percent of those recently
fired. Whites represent almost half the teaching force, but only 36
percent of the layoffs. The union’s lawyer calls it a “systematic effort to rid the Chicago Public Schools of tenured teachers who are African-American.”
Community groups have joined the teachers in asking the courts to halt the closing [6]
of 17 supposedly “underperforming” schools, many of them on the city’s
South Side. In Chicago, such closings wipe out the schools’ entire work
force, right down to the janitors [7]
– whose performance, of course, has nothing to do with standardized
test scores. But wholesale staff massacres clear the way for charter
schools operated by private teaching corporations. The Academy for Urban School Leadership [8],
a national charter school founded by a venture capitalist, once
employed the current CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. The new crop of
young, white teachers are largely graduates of programs funded by a
Who’s Who of rightwing foundations and corporations – the people
educator Diane Ravitch calls the “billionaire boys club.”
“Their
goal is not just to break the teachers unions, but to
de-professionalize education and to sunder all ties between teachers and
the communities they serve. ”
President Obama has
advanced the corporate project to privatize public education with
lightning speed, inflicting far more damage in far less time than George
Bush ever could – because George Bush is not a Black Democrat. Bush’s
men called the teacher’s unions “terrorists” and other bad names, but
Barack Obama has been a much more effective servant of the privatizers.
Their goal is not just to break the teachers unions, but to
de-professionalize education and to sunder all ties between teachers and
the communities they serve. Thats why Black teachers have been targeted
for mass firing in Chicago and all across the country. They tend to
have tenure and to be staunch supporters of their unions, and they live
in the communities where they work, as neighbors, parents and leaders.
When Barack Obama and Arnie Duncan and Rahm Emanuel target Black
teachers for mass elimination, they deliver a savage blow to African
American community cohesion. Privatization of public schools is a
central part of the disempowerment of Black America. For Black Agenda
Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120222_gf_ChicagoSchools.mp3
[10]
Links:
[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/education-public-education/blame-teachers
[2] http://blackagendareport.com/category/education-public-education/race-top
[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/other/ba-radio-commentary
[4] http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/grady_jordan_and_citizens.jpg
[5] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-black-teachers-eeoc-0209-20120209,0,1960218.story
[6] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-ctu-lawsuit-0210-20120210,0,1695788.story
[7] http://blackagendareport.com/print/content/teachers-file-racial-discrimination-suit-against-obama-administrations-school-“turnaround”-p
[8] http://peoplesworld.org/chicago-teachers-union-black-teachers-hit-hardest-by-school-closings/
[9] mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com
[10] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Fblack-teachers-fired-en-masse&linkname=Black%20Teachers%20Fired%20En%20Masse%20
No comments:
Post a Comment