AFT Pres Weingarten Supports Charters, Merit Pay, Green Dot Schools and Attacks UTLA during 2010 Visit to SF: “I started a Green Dot school in New York”!

Posted by: Danny Weil Posted date: July 06, 2012 In: Business, Education, Media | comment : 0 Comments

In the following video (http://blip.tv/laborvideo/aft-pres-weingarten-supports-good-charters-merit-pay-and-attacks-utla-during-visit-to-sf-3538770, you can see what American Federation of Teachers, (AFT) President, Randi Weingarten had to say back in 2010 when asked what plan and strategy AFT had to fight privatization.
The video is important for it sheds some history as to where we are and how we got here.
In this video you will see Weingarten as President of AFT advocate for merit pay, and yes, even defend charter schools.  She also defends the “motives” Arne Duncan and the Department of Education, states that charters could be good for labor relations and even good for instruction.   She applauds the corrupt EMO, Green Dot Public Schools (recently the subject of a lawsuit for unconstitutional denial of freedom of speech: http://www.dailycensored.com/2012/06/17/los-angeles) and even criticizes local UTLA for standing against the further proliferation of charter schools in an effort to save the public commons.
It is also telling that when asked if there is or has been any education by the union leadership for their membership around the issue of privatization, Weingarten never answers.  That’s because there isn’t any nor has there been and she knows it.  For Weingarten supports privatization or the ‘public-private partnership’, as it is being sold by Wall Street.
Randi Weingarten is a reminder of the ‘Munich Agreement’ (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/397522/Munich-Agreement) crowd who has capitulated with the privatizers on Wall Street while telling her membership “she doesn’t agree with marketplace reforms” (http://blip.tv/laborvideo/aft-pres-weingarten-supports-good-charters-merit-pay-and-attacks-utla-during-visit-to-sf-353877).
The AFT leadership has sold out their members for the privatized agenda of the Obama administration, Race to the Top. 
The union has even started the American Federation Of Teachers Educational Foundation, a convenient 501 C (3) shell organization which has received $5 million from the Department of Education (http://www.aft.org/newspubs/press/2010/080510b.cfm) and the $1 million from privatizers, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/grants-2011/pages/american-federation-of-teachers-educational-foundation-opp1033412.aspx).  It’s basically a legally created institutional parking lot designed to park private and public funds.
We also mustn’t forget to mention the ‘other’ open secret society AFT has set up to get their hands on even more corporate funds (http://www.aft.org/issues/schoolreform/csi/funding.cfm).  Most of this is surreptitiously done and members are scarcely aware.  If they are, they are led to believe that this is all for the sake of protecting public education when it is obviously part of a hostile takeover by privatizers that have been going on for years.
The following was reported on July 6, 2012 in Education Week and will give you an idea of the whole rancid state of educational affairs and corporate and union bedfellow ties:
“The American Federation of Teachers and British publishing firm TSL Education have invested $10 million together in an online repository of lesson plans, tools, and supports aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The union hopes it will become the premier destination for teachers seeking to align their instruction with the new student expectations” (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2012/06/aft_tech_company.html).
It is certainly obvious that Randi Weingarten has aligned herself not only with the political forces in the Department of Education under Duncan, but she is now selling out the union by partnering AFT with for-profit service providers and most members have no idea, even though they subsidize all of this with their dues.
Diane Ravitch reported July 1^st on her blog that:
“The school leaders of New York City, Newark, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., convened a meeting to tell publishers that they would not buy their textbooks unless they were closely aligned with the Common Core standards (http://dianeravitch.net/2012/07/01/one-of-the-strangest-stories-of-the-day/).
This of course is monopolistic collusion, illegal extortion and shows to what extent the textbook cartel will go in using duress to extort cities and schools.  These are some of the same companies that Weingarten’s AFT Foundation is taking funds from (http://www.dailycensored.com/2012/06/18/the-financial).   So, how can this be?
Ravitch goes on to shed a bit more light:
“I note that Jason Zimba, the author of the math standards, attended the event. Zimba is–or was until a few weeks ago–a member of the small board of directors of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst. The other members were David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core standards, and a third person who works for David Coleman. Coleman, recently named to be president of the College Board, created an assessment company called the “Grow Network” which was sold to McGraw-Hill in 2005, for a rumored $81 million” (ibid).
The AFT leadership is in bed with the same people who threaten public education.  This is hard to swallow but even harder to ignore in face of evidence.  The whole thing is disgraceful and is why teacher unions are losing ground to privatization all over the country.
An overpaid executive leadership coupled with a passive dues paying membership has left AFT with the likes of Randi Weingarten as president and new institutional ties with for-profit entities that threaten the entirety of public education and our students.  Most of this is and has been done behind the backs of teachers who work day and night with kids while their leadership wines and dines with transnational textbook companies, disgraceful politicians, members of Wall Street and the corporate elites.
It is time that the rank and file of the American Federation of Teachers realizes that their leadership is not only overpaid but that they are selling out their constituencies — students, parents and teachers — for a ‘seat at the Wall Street table in an effort and agreement to ‘dismantle public education as we know it’, as Bill Clinton might say.
As teachers, students and citizens we don’t want a seat at the corporate table, we want a new table!  As rank and file union members it is time teachers demand and force our unions to have day long teach-ins on privatization, Wall Street influence in education, financialization, the secretive deals and phony foundations that are being set up by AFT leadership in conjunction with seedy politicians and the private corporations and phony philanthropy-pirates that fund them.  We want full disclosure and lantern lit transparency so we can steer the direction of our profession.
If teacher unions cannot even educate their members, if they continue to sell out their rank and file to charter charlatans, if they move the privatization ball closer and closer to full blown vouchers, if they continue to collude with corporate educational cartels and if they capitulate with the corporate enemies that look to turn education into a $400 billion dollar financial scam on Wall Street then let’s get rid of them and replace them with people who will fight for everything public.
The following video was done with Weingarten in 2010 and once you see it, you can compare it with the reality that has set in now in 2012, both in your own life, the lives of your children and the health of the nation.  Weingarten’s well rehearsed rhetoric and sophistry can now be seen in light of the actual policies that AFT has endorsed and engaged in.
http://blip.tv/laborvideo/aft-pres-weingarten-supports-good-charters-merit-pay-and-attacks-utla-during-visit-to-sf-3538770
AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration -As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010. There are 1.4 million members in the AFT.
http://www.aft.org/fight4america/ S
She made some brief comments and then was interviewed. Weingarten discussed the affects of charters schools including Green Dots, merit pay, cutting the school year and the policies of President Obama and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan. She also attacked the UTLA for it’s opposition to charter schools. Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027 San Francisco, CA 94172 laborvideo.blip.tv www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908 Further Videos On Education From The Labor Video Project LA Students & UTLA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization-No More Give Aways, Save Our Schools! http://blip.tv/file/3213579 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 UTR, UTLA, OEA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization Of Public Education http://blip.tv/file/3089609 Public Education, Privatization and Labor – Part 2 With Brechin and Missé http://blip.tv/file/3108721 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 Video SF State Students Occupy Business Building To Protest Fee Increases & Defend Public Education http://blip.tv/file/2954787 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Protest CTA Push For Privatization http://blip.tv/file/2933715 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Speak On Contract Fight, Privatization & Rigged Union Vote http://blip.tv/file/2878250 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Picket Scab Training In Berkeley http://blip.tv/file/2678555 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers And Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 “Solidarity, What Is A Public University” A Poem For The UCB Sep 24,2009 Strike/Walkout http://blip.tv/file/2643965 YouTube – Shut It Down! UC Berkeley Walkout & Mass Rally by Staff, Students & Faculty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4h7fOPO5Cg&feature=channel_page The Lessons Of The UCB Sep 24, 2009 Mass Strike/Walk-out: UCB SWAT Member Blanca Misse http://blip.tv/file/2657153 Blanca Misse UCB UAW-AGSE2865& SWAT Member Speaks At UCB Strike/Walk-Out 9/24/2009 and “Solidarity What Is A Public University” http://blip.tv/file/2645883 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers and Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 OEA Leader Jack Gerson Supports Strike Action By All CTA Teachers In California http://blip.tv/file/2652793 SFCC/SFSU Speakout Against Buget Cuts At SFCC Mission Campus 9/23/2009 http://blip.tv/file/2639414 Video SFSU Students & Faculty Protest Budget Cuts http://blip.tv/file/2548024AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration -As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010. There are 1.4 million members in the AFT. http://www.aft.org/fight4america/ She made some brief comments and then was interviewed. Weingarten discussed the affects of charters schools including Green Dots, merit pay, cutting the school year and the policies of President Obama and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan. She also attacked the UTLA for it’s opposition to charter schools. Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027 San Francisco, CA 94172 laborvideo.blip.tv www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908 Further Videos On Education From The Labor Video Project LA Students & UTLA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization-No More Give Aways, Save Our Schools! http://blip.tv/file/3213579 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 UTR, UTLA, OEA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization Of Public Education http://blip.tv/file/3089609 Public Education, Privatization and Labor – Part 2 With Brechin and Missé http://blip.tv/file/3108721 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 Video SF State Students Occupy Business Building To Protest Fee Increases & Defend Public Education http://blip.tv/file/2954787 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Protest CTA Push For Privatization http://blip.tv/file/2933715 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Speak On Contract Fight, Privatization & Rigged Union Vote http://blip.tv/file/2878250 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Picket Scab Training In Berkeley http://blip.tv/file/2678555 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers And Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 “Solidarity, What Is A Public University” A Poem For The UCB Sep 24,2009 Strike/Walkout http://blip.tv/file/2643965 YouTube – Shut It Down! UC Berkeley Walkout & Mass Rally by Staff, Students & Faculty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4h7fOPO5Cg&feature=channel_page The Lessons Of The UCB Sep 24, 2009 Mass Strike/Walk-out: UCB SWAT Member Blanca Misse http://blip.tv/file/2657153 Blanca Misse UCB UAW-AGSE2865& SWAT Member Speaks At UCB Strike/Walk-Out 9/24/2009 and “Solidarity What Is A Public University” http://blip.tv/file/2645883 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers and Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 OEA Leader Jack Gerson Supports Strike Action By All CTA Teachers In California http://blip.tv/file/2652793 SFCC/SFSU Speakout Against Buget Cuts At SFCC Mission Campus 9/23/2009 http://blip.tv/file/2639414 Video SFSU Students & Faculty Protest Budget Cuts http://blip.tv/file/2548024AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration -As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010. There are 1.4 million members in the AFT. http://www.aft.org/fight4america/ She made some brief comments and then was interviewed. Weingarten discussed the affects of charters schools including Green Dots, merit pay, cutting the school year and the policies of President Obama and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan. She also attacked the UTLA for it’s opposition to charter schools. Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027 San Francisco, CA 94172 laborvideo.blip.tv www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908 Further Videos On Education From The Labor Video Project LA Students & UTLA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization-No More Give Aways, Save Our Schools! http://blip.tv/file/3213579 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 UTR, UTLA, OEA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization Of Public Education http://blip.tv/file/3089609 Public Education, Privatization and Labor – Part 2 With Brechin and Missé http://blip.tv/file/3108721 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 Video SF State Students Occupy Business Building To Protest Fee Increases & Defend Public Education http://blip.tv/file/2954787 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Protest CTA Push For Privatization http://blip.tv/file/2933715 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Speak On Contract Fight, Privatization & Rigged Union Vote http://blip.tv/file/2878250 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Picket Scab Training In Berkeley http://blip.tv/file/2678555 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers And Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 “Solidarity, What Is A Public University” A Poem For The UCB Sep 24,2009 Strike/Walkout http://blip.tv/file/2643965 YouTube – Shut It Down! UC Berkeley Walkout & Mass Rally by Staff, Students & Faculty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4h7fOPO5Cg&feature=channel_page The Lessons Of The UCB Sep 24, 2009 Mass Strike/Walk-out: UCB SWAT Member Blanca Misse http://blip.tv/file/2657153 Blanca Misse UCB UAW-AGSE2865& SWAT Member Speaks At UCB Strike/Walk-Out 9/24/2009 and “Solidarity What Is A Public University” http://blip.tv/file/2645883 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers and Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 OEA Leader Jack Gerson Supports Strike Action By All CTA Teachers In California http://blip.tv/file/2652793 SFCC/SFSU Speakout Against Buget Cuts At SFCC Mission Campus 9/23/2009 http://blip.tv/file/2639414 Video SFSU Students & Faculty Protest Budget Cuts http://blip.tv/file/2548024AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration -As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010. There are 1.4 million members in the AFT. http://www.aft.org/fight4america/ She made some brief comments and then was interviewed. Weingarten discussed the affects of charters schools including Green Dots, merit pay, cutting the school year and the policies of President Obama and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan. She also attacked the UTLA for it’s opposition to charter schools. Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027 San Francisco, CA 94172 laborvideo.blip.tv www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908 Further Videos On Education From The Labor Video Project LA Students & UTLA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization-No More Give Aways, Save Our Schools! http://blip.tv/file/3213579 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 UTR, UTLA, OEA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization Of Public Education http://blip.tv/file/3089609 Public Education, Privatization and Labor – Part 2 With Brechin and Missé http://blip.tv/file/3108721 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 Video SF State Students Occupy Business Building To Protest Fee Increases & Defend Public Education http://blip.tv/file/2954787 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Protest CTA Push For Privatization http://blip.tv/file/2933715 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Speak On Contract Fight, Privatization & Rigged Union Vote http://blip.tv/file/2878250 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Picket Scab Training In Berkeley http://blip.tv/file/2678555 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers And Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 “Solidarity, What Is A Public University” A Poem For The UCB Sep 24,2009 Strike/Walkout http://blip.tv/file/2643965 YouTube – Shut It Down! UC Berkeley Walkout & Mass Rally by Staff, Students & Faculty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4h7fOPO5Cg&feature=channel_page The Lessons Of The UCB Sep 24, 2009 Mass Strike/Walk-out: UCB SWAT Member Blanca Misse http://blip.tv/file/2657153 Blanca Misse UCB UAW-AGSE2865& SWAT Member Speaks At UCB Strike/Walk-Out 9/24/2009 and “Solidarity What Is A Public University” http://blip.tv/file/2645883 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers and Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 OEA Leader Jack Gerson Supports Strike Action By All CTA Teachers In California http://blip.tv/file/2652793 SFCC/SFSU Speakout Against Buget Cuts At SFCC Mission Campus 9/23/2009 http://blip.tv/file/2639414 Video SFSU Students & Faculty Protest Budget Cuts http://blip.tv/file/2548024From April 20, 2010
http://blip.tv/laborvideo/aft-pres-weingarten-supports-good-charters-merit-pay-and-attacks-utla-during-visit-to-sf-353877
AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration -As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010. There are 1.4 million members in the AFT.
http://www.aft.org/fight4america/
She made some brief comments and then was interviewed. Weingarten discussed the affects of charters schools including Green Dots, merit pay, cutting the school year and the policies of President Obama and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan. She also attacked the UTLA for it’s opposition to charter schools. Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027 San Francisco, CA 94172
laborvideo.blip.tv www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908
Further Videos On Education From The Labor Video Project LA Students & UTLA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization-No More Give Aways, Save Our Schools! http://blip.tv/file/3213579
Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983
UTR, UTLA, OEA Teachers Speak Out On Privatization Of Public Education http://blip.tv/file/3089609
Public Education, Privatization and Labor – Part 2 With Brechin and Missé http://blip.tv/file/3108721 Public Education, Privatization and Labor UCB East Bay Forum – Part1 With Gerson,Wright & Brown http://blip.tv/file/3104983 Video SF State Students Occupy Business Building To Protest Fee Increases & Defend Public Education http://blip.tv/file/2954787 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Protest CTA Push For Privatization http://blip.tv/file/2933715 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Speak On Contract Fight, Privatization & Rigged Union Vote http://blip.tv/file/2878250 Richmond UTR-CTA Teachers Picket Scab Training In Berkeley
http://blip.tv/file/2678555
UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers And Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 “Solidarity, What Is A Public University” A Poem For The UCB Sep 24,2009 Strike/Walkout http://blip.tv/file/2643965 YouTube – Shut It Down! UC Berkeley Walkout & Mass Rally by Staff, Students & Faculty http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=L4h7fOPO5Cg&feature=channel_page
The Lessons Of The UCB Sep 24, 2009 Mass Strike/Walk-out: UCB SWAT Member Blanca Misse
http://blip.tv/file/2657153 Blanca Misse UCB UAW-AGSE2865& SWAT Member Speaks At UCB Strike/Walk-Out 9/24/2009 and “Solidarity What Is A Public University” http://blip.tv/file/2645883 UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout, Strike & Rallies To Defend Education-Workers and Students Speak Out http://blip.tv/file/2654485 OEA Leader Jack Gerson Supports Strike Action By All CTA Teachers In California http://blip.tv/file/2652793 SFCC/SFSU Speakout Against Buget Cuts At SFCC Mission Campus 9/23/2009 http://blip.tv/file/2639414 Video SFSU Students & Faculty Protest Budget Cuts http://blip.tv/file/2548024 AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration -As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010. There are 1.4 million members in the AFT. AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration -As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010. There are 1.4 million members in the AFT.

LAUSD to fight judge's order on sharing classroom space with charters Inbox x

Even though Deasy is considered fairly conservative and pro--charter (came from Gates foundation) as is board, they are fighting tooth and nail to have to give up even more space to charter schools; arguing it will force them to increase class size, lose specialized rooms, and bus kids outside their neighborhood.  Shows you what an elected school board will sometimes do, which is actually work to protect or improve the public schools under their charge.

LAUSD to fight judge's order on sharing classroom space with charters

By Tami Abdollah

Tami Abdollah / KPCC

Students leaving school on a bus.
L.A. Unified has vowed to fight a judge’s order to comply with a state law that requires districts to share space equally among public school students, including those in charters, saying that it would bring “catastrophic” results, lopsided class sizes, and may force busing of students.

Advocates for charter schools say L.A. Unified is overreacting, and that the district is wrong in how it determines class sizes; charter school students are legally entitled to more facilities than the district is providing.

The point of contention is the method used to determine what is a classroom, and whether that includes facilities used by special needs students for more intensive work — or computer labs, parent centers and even classrooms that are still on the drawing board.

Last week, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green ordered L.A. Unified to comply with the law, setting a July 11 deadline for sending revised offers for facilities to the roughly 45 charter schools that officials say could be affected by the decision.

But calling the order impossible, district officials have promised to fight the ruling, saying that it would require L.A. Unified to displace students from their neighborhood schools, forcing them to be bused elsewhere, and would dramatically skew class-size ratios in favor of charter students.

Under the order, the ratio of elementary school students to class size would be 24 to 1 on the district side of the school but 15 to 1 on the charter school side, said LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. Facilities such as computer labs, parent centers and specially designated classrooms would have to be removed to create space for charter students, Deasy said.

"I want to be very, very clear, this is not possible to carry out," Deasy told the L.A. Unified school board at its meeting last Thursday.

Deasy said the district would have to start moving students "tomorrow" to comply with the order because the school year starts early, in mid-August.

"And I for one believe it is completely inappropriate and against everything this board and district has done to relieve overcrowding, to take a student from a neighborhood school and move that student to a non-neighborhood school," Deasy said.

The latest chapter in the legal battle for school space is centered around Proposition 39, a measure passed by voters in 2000 to ensure that space is shared equitably among public school students, including those in charters. The law requires districts to provide facilities to charter schools in the same ratio of classrooms to students as it would have if the students had remained in the district.

The legal briefs have spanned years and include a 2008 settlement agreement that the district is not following, according an argument filed in May by the California Charter Schools Association.

Under Proposition 39, qualifying charter schools with, for example, at least 80 students living within a district’s boundaries can apply each year to that district to request facilities.

L.A. Unified currently applies a "norming ratio," or standard, to assign students to a classroom and offer facilities to charters.

The ratio is no less than 24 students per classroom for grades K-3, 30.5 to 1 for grades 4-6, 28 to 1 for grades 7-8, and 30 to 1 for grades 9-12. The district argues that following this ratio when it allocates space to charters is in keeping with the "spirit and intent" of Proposition 39; all public school students receive the same space.

But Charter Schools Association officials say the district's actions are illegal and unfair.

"LAUSD's 'norming ratio' reflects many choices that LAUSD can make for itself, but not for charter schools," the association wrote in its brief.

"When LAUSD makes choices about how to spend money and about collective bargaining, those choices can result in LAUSD putting more students into the classrooms it uses — for reasons other than a lack of classrooms. LAUSD is free to use its funds as it sees fit and to use fewer classrooms than it has available, but its choices...cannot be imposed on charter schools."

In granting the motion, Judge Green agreed.

David Huff, an attorney who represents the district in the case, said the judge's order is "supremely unfair" and violates the "spirit and intent" of Proposition 39. He said the association is more concerned about legal technicalities than truly providing equal facilities or its students. Huff said this is made clear by the association's focus on "inventory" or on what is considered a classroom.

The association, in its brief, states that the law requires the district to count all classrooms "no matter how they are used or whether they are used."

But Huff said the district would then be required to count rooms such as those used by special needs students for more intensive work --  or computer labs and parent centers --  as classrooms. Huff said charter schools are allowed to share these facilities.

"We count what we actually provide to our students," Huff said, "because that's how we accommodate charter schools’ students as they would be accommodated if they otherwise attended their local neighborhood school."

The district is also being asked to count classrooms that are not yet constructed or may not open for years under the order, Huff said. Additionally, it must count classrooms that may have been filled by charter students as available space for this ratio, Huff said. "That's not fair because it's just not reality," Huff said.

But the association's officials argue that with declining enrollment and the district's multibillion-dollar voter-approved building program, there is more than enough space to comply with the law.

"I'm disappointed that the school district has reacted in the manner it has," said Ricardo Soto, the general counsel for the Charter Schools Association.

"The law requires [the district to] account for all the space at a school site and look at the total number of students served at that school site and make a comparable offer, an equitable offer, to charter schools based on that allocation," he said.

Soto said the association has offered to work with the district to implement the order over the next months. But school board President Monica Garcia said at last week's board meeting that implementing the order in time for the 2012-13 school year will be "catastrophic and chaotic."

L.A. Unified's six other school board members joined Garcia and the superintendent in echoing their opposition to the judge's decision. School board member Steve Zimmer said the order would create "a two-tiered system" of education.

"The last time I checked, superintendent, there are federal civil rights implications to creating a two-tiered system at one public school," Zimmer said.

"Our message is a very simple one, a very basic one," said board member Marguerite LaMotte. "We were voted into this office to uphold the public school system of Los Angeles, and as far as I’m concerned, no district child is going to be made to move from his or her neighborhood school because of charters. OK? It’s that simple for me."

And board member Richard Vladovic said he felt betrayed by the Charter Schools Association's suit.

"I look at every other district in the state, the 1,100 districts in this state. I don't see the charter association going after Beverly Hills," Vladovic said. "I don't see them going after any other district, but the one that's helped them the most."

L.A. Unified, the nation's second-largest school district, is also the largest charter authorizer in the nation, according to district officials. The district has more than 210 charter schools serving more than 96,000 charter students or nearly 15 percent of the district's total student population in its area. These figures are one reason, Soto said, that the association has pushed this case.

"I would say all districts have their challenges in complying with Proposition 39," Soto said. "...There are school districts that do better than Los Angeles Unified, there are school districts that do much much worse than Los Angeles Unified."

Soto said that although the district had made strides in meeting Proposition 39’s requirements over the last few years, it has required continuous legal filings. He said the association hoped to work with the district outside the courtroom to comply with the law.

Eight Ways America Is Headed Back to the Robber-Baron Era

We are recreating the Gilded Age, a period when corporations ruled this nation, buying politicians, using violence against unions and engaging in open corruption. Over the past 40 years, corporations and politicians have rolled back many of the gains made by working and middle-class people over the previous century. We have the highest level of income inequality in 90 years, both private and public sector unions are under a concerted attack, and federal and state governments intend to cut deficits by slashing services to the poor.
We are recreating the Gilded Age, the period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when corporations ruled this nation, buying politicians, using violence against unions, and engaging in open corruption. During the Gilded Age, many Americans lived in stark poverty, in crowded tenement housing, without safe workplaces, and lacked any safety net to help lift them out of hard times.
With Republicans more committed than ever to repealing every economic gain the working-class has achieved in the last century and the Democrats seemingly unable to resist, we need to understand the Gilded Age to see what conservatives are trying to do to this nation. Here are 8 ways our corporations, politicians and courts are trying to recreate the Gilded Age.
1. Unregulated Corporate Capitalism Creates Economic Collapse
In the late 19th century, corrupt railroad capitalists created the Panic of 1873 and Panic of 1893 through lying about their business activities, buying off politicians and siphoning off capital into their own pockets. Railroad corporations set up phony corporations that allowed them to embezzle money from the railroad into their bank accounts. When exposed, the entire economy collapsed as banks failed around the country. The Panic of 1893 lasted five years, created 25% unemployment, and was the worst economic crisis in American history before the Great Depression.
In the early 21st century, the poorly regulated financial industry plunged the nation into the longest economic downturn since the Depression. Like in the Gilded Age, none of the culprits have served a day in prison.
2. Union Busting
In the Gilded Age, business used the power of the state to crush labor unions. President Hayes called in the Army to break the Great Railroad Strike of 1877; President Cleveland did the same against the Pullman strikers in 1894.
Today’s corporations don’t have to use such blunt force to destroy unions, but like in the past, they convince the government to do their bidding. Whether it is holding up FAA renewal in order to make it harder for airline employees to unionize, Republican members of the National Labor Relations Board leaking material on cases to Republican insiders, or governors Scott Walker and John Kasich seeking to bust their states’ public sector unions, not since before the Great Depression has the government attacked unions with such force.
3. Income Inequality
Today, we have the highest levels of income inequality since the 1920s and the gap is widening to late 19th century levels with great speed. In those days, individuals like John D. Rockefeller had more money than the federal government, while the majority of Americans lived in squalor, poverty and disease.
In the Progressive Era, we started creating laws like the federal income tax, child labor laws and workers’ compensation to begin giving workers a fair share of the pie. For decades, labor fought to increase their share and by the 1970s, had turned much of the working class into the middle class. Today, that middle class is under attack by a new generation of plutocrats who wish to recreate the massive fortunes of the Gilded Age.
4. Open Purchase of Elections
In 1890, copper magnate William Clark paid Montana lawmakers $140,000 to elect him to the U.S. Senate. While most plutocrats did not share Clark’s interest in being politicians, they ensured their lackeys would serve in office, often by offering corporate stock to politicians. Disgusted by this corruption, America in the Progressive Era of the early 20th century created a number of reforms, including the 17th Amendment that created direct elections of senators, as well as a 1912 Montana state law limiting corporate expenditures in politics.
Beginning with the Citizens United decision and continuing with the recent overturning of that 1912 law, the Supreme Court has allowed corporations and wealthy plutocrats to buy elections openly once again.
5. Supreme Court Partisanship
In the Gilded Age, the Supreme Court interpreted laws not as to the intent of the lawmakers, but to promote business interests. It refused to enforce the 14th Amendment to stop segregation, but it did create the idea that a corporation was a person with rights. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was intended to moderate monopolies; the Supreme Court only enforced it against unions since organized labor “unfairly restrained trade.”
Today’s Supreme Court has resorted to this aggressively partisan stance. The Court is fine with the open flouting of the 4th Amendment, allowing strip searches of middle-school girls if they’re suspected to be carrying drugs, but creates a grotesque expansion of the 14th Amendment in the Citizens Uniteddecision. Meanwhile, Antonin Scalia just took the opportunity in a Supreme Court dissent to lambast his colleagues for striking down much of the Arizona anti-immigration law by approvingly citing 19th-century laws in the South that limited the movement of African Americans.
6. Violations of Civil Liberties
In the late 19th century, civil and military authorities looked down upon protesting citizens. Widespread violations of civil liberties took place when Americans protested for almost any reasons, whether it was labor unions, political gatherings in Washington, D.C., or African Americans organizing to protect themselves from white supremacists. Police shot strikers and thugs and mobs murdered organizers.
Today we are seeing a growing recreation of this society with no respect for civil liberties. The use of police violence against Occupy protesters, like the pepper-spraying of nonviolent activists at the University of California-Davis did spawn some outrage. But in the aftermath of the PATRIOT Act, the authorities have tremendous power to suppress protest and are not afraid to use it against peaceful citizens.
7. Voter Repression
The Gilded Age saw the rolling back of Reconstruction, with black people unable to vote in the South due to the grandfather clause, poll taxes, literacy tests, and threat of violence. Conservative extremists have chafed at black people voting ever since the civil rights movement ended segregation.
Today, voter ID laws and voter roll-purging seek to limit black voting again. Florida Governor Rick Scott hopes to purge enough black people from the voting rolls to swing the Sunshine State to Mitt Romney this fall, while a lawmaker in Pennsylvania openly said the Keystone State’s recently passed voter ID law would do the same. Even more shocking, the recently released Texas Republican Party platform has a plank calling for the repeal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed in the wake of police beatings of civil rights protestors in Selma, Alabama.
8. Anti-Immigration Fervor
In the Gilded Age, Americans feared the millions of people coming from eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East and Asia to work in the nation’s growing economy. Fearing these immigrants would never assimilate, Americans looked to bar their entry. Beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and continuing through the Immigration Act of 1924, the country slowly closed its doors to the world’s tired and hungry.
Today’s immigrants face an increasingly militarized border, states like Arizona trying to usurp federal immigration policy, and increased numbers of deportations. Conservatives fear the changes Latinos could bring to the United States and talk about English-only laws and the evils of bilingual education. They also recognize the likelihood of Latinos voting for the Democratic Party in coming decades and thus use the same kind of voter repression strategies that target black voters.
The Gilded Age was a horrible time and I fear the nation slipping back into this hell of poverty, violence and hate. I believe that young people largely reject the extremist agenda that is hurtling us through a time machine to the bad old days of the 1890s, but they don’t have the power right now. Republicans know the demographics do not favor them and are trying to fix the game through voter suppression, packing the courts with extremists, and concentrating wealth and power so they can control politicians and the media.
During the Gilded Age, people throughout society began organizing for reform: labor unions, farmers, middle-class reformers. After 1900, this organizing paid off as government began passing reforms to alleviate the most extreme problems of the Gilded Age. Child labor laws, worker compensation for injuries at work, government regulation of the railroads, and the direct election of senators all took power away from corporations and put it back in the hands of the people. It wasn’t perfect, but it started the social reforms that created the American middle-class.
Like in the late 19th century, we need to take back our country from corporate control. We need to create well-paid jobs in the United States, revitalize the labor movement, and pass legislation to respect civil liberties, give undocumented immigrants legal status, and ensure that voting rights laws are enforced. Like our ancestors, we can fix these problems. First we need to recognize that the 1% has declared war upon the middle class and then we can start organizing to create the better tomorrow we crave.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.

Erik Loomis

Erik Loomis is a professor of labor and environmental history and a blogger at Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Carol Burris: Is ‘filling the pail’ any way to train teachers?

Is ‘filling the pail’ any way to train teachers?

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School in New York. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.
 

By Carol Corbett Burris
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” I keep this quote on my desk. No one knows who authored it — it is often misattributed to William Butler Yeats. Whoever created it was wise indeed for those whose vocation is educating students upon hearing it, recognize its truth.
I reflect on that quote often these days. I worry that the pail fillers are
An isolated shot of a bucket of sand for the childrens play time either on vacation, at the beach, or just at home in the sandbox. (Matthew Benoit) determining the fate of our schools. The ‘filling of the pail’ is the philosophy of those who see students as vessels into which facts and knowledge are poured. The better the teacher, the more stuff in the pail. How do we measure what is in the pail? With a standardized test, of course. Not enough in the pail? No excuses. We must identify the teachers who best fill the pail, and dismiss the rest.

However, educational research as well as the wisdom that comes from instructional practice, tell us that learning happens in the mind of the learner. There is an engagement, a lighting of the fire, which must occur for deep learning to happen. As a young and somewhat naïve teacher, I once argued with Madeline Hunter that if my teaching were perfect, all students would perfectly learn. She smiled and told me that I was wrong.

“Effective teaching increases the probability of learning, you cannot guarantee it,” she said.
She was, of course, correct. Hunter spent her life pouring through research to identify the teacher behaviors that increased the probability of learning. A psychologist by training, she opened a lab school at UCLA, became a certified teacher and practiced her findings by teaching elementary children in her school. She had a respect for the profession that blossomed from her own practice and from her scholarship. How horrified she would be by the thinking that reduces teaching to test-prep drill and professional practice to a numerical score.

At the Relay Graduate School of Education (RGSE), teacher education that balances research, theory and practice has been replaced by ‘filling the pail’ training. Designed to serve the needs of three charter school chains — KIPP, Achievement First and Uncommon Schools— RGSE has no university affiliation, yet awards masters degrees in New York State.

In order to enroll in their program, one must teach, uncertified, in an affiliated school. Traditional public school teachers need not apply. Degrees are earned by online video and reading modules, attending discussion groups and by the uncertified teacher’s students’ test scores. If the test scores are not up to snuff, the teacher does not earn her degree. There are no classes in educational theory or history, nor any indication that the candidate must complete a masters thesis requiring research and reflection. It is cookie-cutter training grounded in one vision of instruction — the charter school vision. Each candidate’s pail is filled with the same techniques.

I invite readers to watch the Relay Graduate School of Education video entitled “Rigorous Classroom Discussion,” which you can find here. Go to the link and look for the title. In the video, the teacher barks commands and questions, often with the affect and speed of a drill sergeant. The questions concern the concept of a “character trait” but are low-level, often in a ‘fill in the blank’ format. The teacher cuts the student off as he attempts to answer the question. Students engage in the bizarre behavior of wiggling their fingers to send ‘energy’ to a young man, Omari, put on the spot by the teacher. Students’ fingers point to their temple and they wiggle hands in the air to send signals. Hands shoot up before the question is asked, and think time is never given to formulate thoughtful answers. When Omari confuses the word ‘ambition’ with ‘anxious’ (an error that is repeated by a classmate), you know that is how he is feeling at the moment. As the video closes with the command, “hands down, star position, continue reading” there is not the warmth of a teacher smile, nor the utterance of ‘please’. The original question is forgotten and you are left to wonder if anyone understands what a character trait is. The pail was filled with ‘something’ and the teacher moves on.

I do not fault the teacher in the video for her style. She is performing as taught by a system that, in my opinion, better prepares students for the dutiful obedience of the military than for the intellectual challenges they will encounter in college. In schools taught by RGSE teachers, the Common Core State Standards will be, I fear, merely heavier rocks in the pail.
As I watched the video, I thought about the rich discussions, open-ended speculative questions, ample think time and supportive feeling tone that I find in the classrooms of the teachers at my school. I remember the same culture in the middle school where I taught. Both are diverse schools that serve students with little as well as students with much. Suburban parents would be horrified by the magic finger wiggling and drill techniques used in the video clip. How sad that charter school students are treated as if, were they were given one second to think, the teacher would lose control. How horrifying that student grades and punishments are put on public display. The dignity of the learner comes in second to his or her compliance.

This, however, is the inevitable outcome of a system that is insular and that never looks beyond the practice of charter school leaders. Teacher education programs should bring together a diverse group of teacher candidates — from both city and suburb, and from private, charter and public schools. These programs should facilitate an exchange of ideas that fuels reflection and inspires inquiry into one’s own practice. When, a teacher preparation program is instead designed with a singular, data-driven focus, the fire that comes from the discussion of ideas of education’s great thinkers are but embers in a pail. “I can study Vygotsky later,” said an Empower Charter School teacher in an article on Relay in The New York Times. We can only hope that for her students’ sake, there will still be room left in the pail when ‘later’ comes.


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New Teacher Underground Meet-Up Sundays in the Summer

Please note event time change. Workshops will begin at 5 PM.

THE NEW TEACHER UNDERGROUND

Summer 2012 Workshop Series for Newer Teachers

Sundays in July 

NEW TIME: 5 - 7 PM 

July 1 - Identity in the classroom

July 8 - Antiracist pedagogy 

July 15 - Resisting the deficit model

July 22 - Culture and community

July 29 - Queering the curriculum 

  

The Cherry Tree (South Brooklyn Pizza)

65 4th Ave., Brooklyn

Atlantic Av - Pacific St (D, N, R, 2, 3, 4, 5, B, Q)

The New Teacher Underground (NTU) is back for a second summer of gatherings for incoming and newer teachers. NTU, a working group of New York Collective of Radical Educators, is a social space for newer and alternatively certified teachers to find support and dissect the realities of education in NYC. Through educating ourselves, we strive to be empowered both in and out of the classroom. Each workshop will revolve around a short reading and activity exploring a critical topic in education. 

RSVP: newteacherunderground@gmail.com. Also check us out on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: @ntu_nyc. Hope to see you there!

Khem Irby Blogs on Charters from NC

NYC parent activist and friend to many of us, Khem Irby, moved to NC and is already blogging about charter schools in her new community.  Hurray for Khem and may her involvement spark activism of other parents in her new home!

AYP

• June 26, 2012
• 1 comment

According to NCLB half of Guilford County charters are not meeting AYP

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Khem Irby

Greensboro Charter Schools Examiner

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All charter schools and public schools in North Carolina must meet their Adequately Yearly Progress or AYP. According to No Child Left Behind (“NCLB”) students in grades 3-8 must not only pass their required state reading and math exams but each year they must make progress on these exams. If a school does not meet one of their targets they did not meet AYP. AYP has high stakes and is a measuring tool used by the U.S. Department of Education to determine if the use of Title I funds has been spent well.

This accountability tool for assists educators, administrators, community and parents. Ideally charters have the flexibility to use innovative teaching methods, materials and technology when possible. So if the schools make AYP then it is safe to conclude that the teaching methods were successful as well. This is good news for any parent in Greensboro when exercising their charter choice.

Guilford County has four charter schools, Guilford Preparatory Academy, Triad Math and Science, Phoenix Academy, Inc., and Greensboro Preparatory Academy. Two more will be opening in fall 2012. According to the 2010-11 progress reports for these schools two out of the four charter schools did not meet their AYP targets. Guilford Prep met 11 out of 13, Triad Math met 17 out of 17, Phoenix Academy met 12 of 13, and Greensboro Prep made 9 out of 9. This report also revealed that the state of North Carolina did meet its AYP.

Last year North Carolina legislators and the governor decided to lift the charter school cap in North Carolina. Guilford County as of April 2012 thereby also decided to fast track the opening of Cornerstone Charter Academy and The College Preparatory and Leadership Academy of High Point this coming fall 2012. Should AYP influence the decision to create more charters with our tax dollars or how will new charters learn from the report of their peers?

AYP does not reveal the character, and the development of the whole child which includes art, music, team building, social skill development and culture. Therefore, how much weight should be given to AYP? Quality education and reform should not be determined merely reading and math scores.

The community at-large and parents need a measuring tool to determine whether charter schools are a high quality choice. Therefore, parents must therefore attend open houses, talking to other parents, students, teachers, administrators, read reviews, and search the media and see for themselves how to use their choice wisely with charters. Of course all four of the charter school websites brag about their successes and display their best foot forward.

We must conclude that there is much to learn from this report and the information also leaves us with questions. AYP Report Card system is not adequate for legislators, educators, communities and parents to make informed decisions regarding charter choice. AYP must be put in perspective and used as one tool and opportunity to learn how best to educate children. If charters are being used as a choice in education reform, then they also must be scrutinized more carefully, especially if they seem to be mimicking or encountering the same educational struggles that public schools are facing.

By the way, North Carolina was granted a waiver from their 2010-11 progress report.

An Urgent Message from President of Philadelphia Fed of Teachers

    

	Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
	June 30, 2012
	Dear Legislator: On behalf of the 15,000  professional and paraprofessional members represented by our organization and employed by the Philadelphia Public Schools...dedicated, trained and experienced individuals into whose nurturing, development and care are entrusted daily throughout the academic year to nearly 205,00 children...I would like to clearly state our position on various legislative proposals and amendments coming up for a vote today. We oppose any charter schools and/or cyber charter school legislation or amendmendatory effort that fails, at a minimum, to require transparency, accountability and ethical standards in the organization, operation and administration of such taxpayer financed educational institutions.  Additionally, any statutory or regulatory requirements or evaluation protocols that apply to educators and/or administrators in school district operated, taxpayer funded, public schools must apply equally to educators and administrators in taxpayer funded charter and cyber charter schools.  Anything less is unfairly discriminatory to all involved...educators, students, administrators and taxpayers. We oppose any legislation that fails to fairly reform taxpayer funded charter and cyber charter schools funding formulas consistent with the recent report of Pennsylvania's Auditor General.  And, we are opposed to the direct payment of public school district allocated state funding to taxpayer funded charter and/or cyber charter schools, or any similar scheme that imposes a priority for such payments of allocated tax dollars to public school districts. We oppose any legislation that compromises the ability of already financially strapped school district operated schools to educate our children and/or compromises the right of taxpayers from controlling or even knowing how their tax dollars are being spent by private and quasi-private entities that receive taxpayer funding that is to be dedicated to educating our children. We further oppose any legislation that will permit and possibly even encourage the state to transfer students from one public school district to another, urban students to suburban and rural school districts or school district operated schools to taxpayer funded and privately operated schools. Finally, we are compelled to oppose any legislation that permits a statewide authorizer or renewal facility of charter and/or cyber charter schools, that strips citizens of their say, their local voice, vote and direct approval of how their local tax dollars will be spent and how their local school and community will operate. Thank you for your consideration of our organization's positions on these critical issues. Sincerely, Jerry Jordan, President

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
1816 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
www.pft.org

Nashville Blues for Rejected Charter School

Segregation Fear Sinks Charter School

By STEPHANIE BANCHERO

Nashville school officials have rejected a proposal to open a charter school in a middle-class part of the city, highlighting a broader national battle over efforts by operators of such publicly financed, privately run schools to expand into more affluent areas.
The Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools board voted 7-2 Tuesday night to reject an application by Great Hearts Academies, a nonprofit that operates prep-school-like charter schools, for five new establishments.
The Arizona-based group planned to open its first Tennessee school in a middle- to upper-middle class area in west Nashville, after being invited by parents who either were unhappy with local public schools or said they favored choice in education.

Enlarge Image

Brian McCord for The Wall Street Journal

Nashville resident Jack Harrington, shown with his wife and two of his children, helped lead an effort to bring a charter school to the city.

The board denied the application because members worried that low-income parents wouldn't be able to easily transport their children across town to a school on the west side, meaning the plan could effectively cause "segregated schools," said Olivia Brown, spokeswoman for the district.
"Rather than enhance diversity in the district, this would send us in the opposite direction," said Edward Kindall, one of the board members who voted against the plan. "I went to segregated schools and this gets us dangerously close to separate but unequal."
The school board also approved, by votes of 9-0 and 8-1, two other charter schools Tuesday, both of which will cater mainly to low-income students. Mr. Kindall backed both schools.
Dan Scoggin, chief executive of Great Hearts Academies, said the school would have been open to all students, and that his organization planned to build other schools elsewhere in the city.
"It's really sad and depressing that the school board is not ready to accept broad reforms that offer parents—all parents—a great alternative," he said. "We have a great record of success and they have deprived parents of that option."
Great Hearts Academies might appeal the case to the state board of education, he said.
Charter schools have long been seen as an alternative for low-income and minority children stuck in underperforming traditional public schools. Of the approximately 5,000 charter schools nationwide, only about 20% are in the suburbs, while 51% are in urban areas, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
But as the charter movement expands, and more middle-class parents become disenchanted with local public schools, charter operators have pushed to open schools in middle-income and suburban communities, triggering battles in such places as New Jersey and New York similar to that seen in Nashville. The share of low-income students in charter schools dropped to 51% in the 2009-10 school year from 62% in 2004-05, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Nina Rees, incoming CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said expanding into suburban and middle-class communities is "important to broaden the base, so all parents—including middle- and upper-income—can see charters are a viable option for them... It helps build support for the idea of charters."
Nashville, a diverse district that is 72% poor and 68% minority, has struggled. Only about 45% of elementary students passed state reading exams last year, and 33% passed the math test. The city has had charter schools for years, but previously only low-income children or those in low-performing schools could enroll. A recent change in state law made the schools available to middle-income families.
Jack Harrington, an investment banker living in Nashville, was part of a group of mainly middle-class parents who gathered this year to research bringing charters to their communities. He said hundreds of parents attended meetings because they were "hungry" for alternatives to the local schools.
"We are on such a disastrous path with public education that we need to pursue every opportunity for real improvement," said Mr. Harrington, who sends his children to private school.
Members of the group visited 10 charters across the country and eventually opted for Great Hearts. It has 12 schools, roughly 10% of whose students are low income and 30% are minority.
"We missed a great opportunity to bring a great charter operator to Nashville when our public education system is one of the lowest-scoring in the nation," Mr. Harrington said.
Write to Stephanie Banchero at stephanie.banchero@wsj.com

HIGH-STAKES TESTING RESISTANCE SPREADS ACROSS NATION

FairTest                                 

National Center for Fair & Open Testing

                                                                                    for further information:

                                                                                    Dr. Monty Neill  (617) 477-9792

                                                                                    Bob Schaeffer     (239) 395-6773

for immediate release, Tuesday, June 26, 2012

HIGH-STAKES TESTING RESISTANCE SPREADS ACROSS NATION;

RESOLUTIONS, BOYCOTTS, OPT-OUTS SHOW INCREASED PUBLIC OPPOSITION

TO FAILED “TEST-AND-PUNISH” SCHOOL POLICIES

A rising tide of protest is sweeping the U.S. as growing numbers of parents, teachers, and administrators take action against high-stakes testing, according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest). Instead of “test-and-punish” policies, which have failed to improve academic performance or equity, the movement is pressing for broader forms of assessment they say will enhance teaching and learning. From Texas to New York and Florida to Washington State, reform activists seek to reduce the number of standardized exams. They also want to scale back the consequences attached to test scores and use multiple measures to evaluate students, educators, and schools.

More than 10,000 individuals, 350 organizations and hundreds of school boards have now endorsed the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing.  Launched by education, civil rights and religious groups including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund, United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries, Parents Across America and the National Education Association as well as FairTest, the National Resolution urges state officials to “reexamine school accountability.” It calls for a system “which does not require extensive standardized testing, more accurately reflects the broad range of student learning, and is used to support students and improve schools.” It also asks Congress and the Obama Administration to overhaul No Child Left Behind.

The national movement was catalyzed by Texas where 545 local school boards have adopted a “Resolution Concerning High Stakes, Standardized Testing of Texas Public School Students.” The endorsing districts are responsible for educating 3.3 million students, more than two-thirds of the state’s public school enrollment.

In Florida more than a dozen countywide school committees serving three-quarters of a million students endorsed the National Resolution. Early supporters included Broward County, the nation’s sixth biggest district, and Palm Beach County, the 11^th largest. Then, the state association of school boards annual convention voted to endorse a state-specific version. Dozens of newspaper editorials, opinion columns, and letters to the editor have called for a reduction in testing and an overhaul of the state’s assessment system. 

The National Resolution has also won support from several school boards in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area as well as Ohio and Virginia.

The resolutions are not the only form of protest. This spring New York parents organized a boycott of a “field test” designed to develop future questions. Parents at more than five dozen schools held their children out on days the exams were scheduled. Boycotts also emerged in other states. In Snohomish, Washington, 550 parents opted their children out.  Campaigns aimed at encouraging more “opt-outs” are underway in California and Colorado.

This summer, assessment reform leaders intend to use campaign season to continue their momentum. They plan to press elected officials and their challengers to take public positions against test misuse and overuse. In St. Petersburg, Florida, for example, voters already convinced seven of eight contenders for the local school board to oppose high-stakes standardized exams. By “bird-dogging” candidate forums, asking pointing questions, publishing opinion columns in local media, and commenting on political blogs, advocates expect to deliver a clear message to those who ultimately make assessment policy: “Enough is enough!”

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- The National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing is online at http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/

A Future for Teachers Unions, But Only with a Figh

Published on Sunday, June 10, 2012 by Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/10-10 

A Future for Teachers Unions, But Only with a Fight

Educators in Chicago, incited by union passivity amid continued assault from corporate reformers, organized to defend their communities, schools, and profession

by James Cersonsky

“Things are the way they are” in urban schools, Michelle Rhee professes in Waiting for Superman, because “it all becomes about the adults.”

While teachers unions generally scoff at this sort of sloganeering, most lack any effective strategy of resistance to the “student”-focused, union-busting, scorched-earth privatization pushed by Rhee and her billionaire colleagues. Chicago’s teachers union, the third largest in the country, is a light forward. On Friday, teachers surpassed the 75% quota necessary to authorize a strike, which would take place come the fall if the union decides to move forward with it. More impressive than this figure is the work that made it possible.CORE activists rally against the city's school closing and privatization plan last winter. At a January education summit drawing hundreds, they laid out plans for battling the next round of school closings--while they build support for their union election bid this spring. (Photo: Photobucket)
Under the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE), the CTU boasts an organizing model that cracks into Chicago’s teaching workforce and neighborhoods as doggedly as the city’s Democratic machine. While the city shutters, charterizes, segregates, gentrifies, intimidates, and fires, the union has created a member organizing department where one didn’t exist before, trained over 200 shop stewards, held countless public meetings and protests against school closings, and organized in hand with parents, students, community groups, and other unions—altogether, a new vision for twenty-first century teacher unionism.

Adulthood according to Rahm Emanuel
The blitz on Chicago’s teachers is a coked-up rendition of national trends. In 1995, Republican state legislators gave Mayor Richard M. Daley control over the city’s school board. Under current mayor Rahm Emanuel, teachers face intensified threats to the existence of their schools, intimidation from mayor-appointed principals, and the rollback of institutional safeguards against the whims of the machine.
With Emanuel’s backing, the Illinois legislature recently passed SB 7, which undermines seniority as the basis of job security, extends teachers’ probation period for test-based evaluation from two years to four, removes bargaining disputes from the Illinois Labor Relations Board, and ups the union’s strike quota to 75% of all covered employees (this last provision only applies to Chicago; the quota remains at 50% elsewhere). Since his election, the mayor has phased in longer school days while simultaneously demanding wage cuts—2% raises spread over a five year period, a net loss accounting for inflation and increases in healthcare fees.
"In Chicago, school reform is as much about real estate as schools per se. Large swaths of black neighborhoods have no open-access public schools, and mayors have used tax-increment financing to draw money from poor districts and shuffle it elsewhere."
Emanuel is the poster child of Chicago’s Commercial Club, whose 2003 report on student performance in Chicago schools, Still Left Behind, became the blueprint for city policy. The report advocates “tough-minded” teacher evaluations, “broad outsourcing of the management of failing schools to independent organizations,” and the complete elimination of teacher tenure—which first came about in the 1920s to protect women from firing for pregnancy or marriage.
“Emanuel is really helping people understand how our government and schools are set up, because he’s just not being subtle,” says Jen Johnson, a ninth year high school social studies teacher. “The way that our mayor has shoved things down our throats, people are much more aware that we are at the center of a national struggle.”

Taking back the land
In Chicago, school reform is as much about real estate as schools per se. Large swaths of black neighborhoods have no open-access public schools, and mayors have used tax-increment financing to draw money from poor districts and shuffle it elsewhere or, even worse, let it sit. In a report from the Data and Democracy Project, Pauline Lipman and colleagues show a disturbing correlation between neighborhood school closings and areas undergoing gentrification.
Since the city announced “Renaissance 2010” in 2004—a plan for massive conversion of district schools into charter schools, contract schools, and “performance” schools—over 100 schools have been hit with turnaround, charter takeover, or some other extreme measure. On average, the district schools’ replacements turn over 66% of their teachers over four years, and 80% of displaced students land at schools performing no better than their previous ones.
Incited by the union’s inactivity around school closings, teachers assembled in early 2008 to create CORE. “We talked to teachers, we talked to parents, we went across the city for Board of Education meetings, and in the process we started learning that these policies were affecting a lot more people than just teachers,” says co-founder Al Ramirez. “We started noticing that this is a part of gentrification, about real estate. Where did the families have to go?”
"Alongside groups like Parents United for Responsible Education, Blocks Together, and the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, teachers continue to fight school closings while campaigning for humane student treatment..."
From its inception, CORE spoke at every Chicago Public Schools hearing on school “actions” alongside a spate of community allies. In 2008, CORE pushed the city to remove six schools from its annual closure list—the first time in four years that more than a single school was saved. In the middle of a blizzard in January 2009, it held a forum on Renaissance 2010 with over 500 people from some 80 schools.
To its name, the caucus reached out to fellow rank-and-filers—which, in a profession dominated by contract-oriented business unions, is all too uncommon. CORE held steering committee elections, school-by-school meetings, “fun-raisers,” and study sessions on the union’s contract and school budget. The organizing paid off; in 2010, CORE swept union executive board elections and became synonymous with the CTU.

Dominance and collaboration
While CORE protested outside the “Advance Illinois” breakfast in June 2009, Arne Duncan’s homecoming party after moving from CPS to Obama’s cabinet, then-CTU president Marilyn Stewart sat inside and applauded him. As current president Karen Lewis sees it, “The problem is that management thinks that collaboration means that I tell you what to do.”
The CTU’s unwillingness to submit to ill-advised collaboration is a promising departure from most other teachers unions. Unions in Providence, New Haven, Denver, Baltimore, and elsewhere have won serious hand-clapping from Duncan at his annual “Labor-Management Collaboration Conference,” public opinionators like Nicholas Kristof, and other wide-eyed champions of “Scandinavian-style” partnership.
New York’s United Federation of Teachers illustrates what this sort of partnership can mean in practice. While rank-and-file groups like Teachers for a Just Contract and the Independent Community of Educators have tried to shake up the union, the size of the UFT’s membership and the existing regime’s sophisticated patronage system have held such forces at bay. This same leadership, decidedly pro-charter to begin with, folded under threats to funding from Duncan’s Race to the Top program by allowing the city to double its cap on charters and fasten teacher evaluations to test scores. Before she left to lead the national AFT, UFT President Randi Weingarten endorsed Mayor Bloomberg’s control over city schools.
The CTU does have a certain luxury in standing up to Emanuel—it has its own collaborators. Alongside groups like Parents United for Responsible Education, Blocks Together, and the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, teachers continue to fight school closings while campaigning for humane student treatment, a CPS CEO with a background in education, an elected Board of Education, and greater community input into school curriculum design. The union also has a network of critical education researchers at its side—a partnership that is unique to Chicago. Foremost is Pauline Lipman, whose research on the geography of school reform is the backbone of the union’s thinking on closing and turnaround policy.

A future for teachers unions?
In 2010, the CTU’s incumbent United Progressive Caucus put out flyers declaring, “Stop Mob Action, Stop Radical CORE!” This was a desperate attempt in the heat of union elections to red-bait CORE for the leftist affiliations of some of its central figures. In practice, CORE’s “radicalism” boils down to a recognition that teachers unions have to take on the hard task of organizing—inside and out—to combat well-funded corporate revolution.
The Chicago Sun Times headline following a 4,000-strong CTU rally last month—“Angry teachers rally despite Mayor Emanuel saying they deserve raise”—reflects how not to understand the union’s current struggle. Indeed, Emanuel did make such a posture. “Chicago teachers deserve a pay raise,” the Sun Times quoted. “They work very hard.” But to suggest that a line item could appease this crowd confuses contract demands for the member-driven, coalitional movement driving them.
Building organizing capacity, particularly in prep for potential strike, has its birth pangs. “There’s the fact that we can’t get in a time machine and organize people ten years ago for this fight,” says English teacher Kenzo Shibata. “A lot of people who we’re talking to are being talked to by the union for the first time.”
It’s the four years that rank-and-filers have been talking that must be taken seriously. Teachers unions and public education advocates hoping to resist Emanuel-style “reform” ignore the history and vision of the CORE-led CTU at their peril.

James Cersonsky is a Philadelphia-based writer and organizer. His work has appeared at Dissent, AlterNet, Common Dreams, and elsewhere. Email him at jcersonsky [at] gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @cersonsky.