Critical Theories in Education
In her latest “Outrage” Susan Ohanian exposes the web of connections among the CEO of Detroit Public Schools, mega textbook publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the American Federation of Teachers and the Broad Foundation’s effort to take control of city school systems via the mayors, while pacifying teacher unions.
Who benefits from this tangled web? Not the kids, not the teachers …
On October 24 more than 800 students, teachers, and other workers met to plan how to advance the struggle to defend and transform public education in California and beyond.
The 10/24 conference endorsed the U of California and California State U strike and mobilization on Nov. 17th– 20th and decided to call for statewide solidarity actions on these days.
In addition, Conference participants also called for a “Strike and Day of Action that is inclusive of all different tactics, including: walkouts, rallies, march to Sacramento, teach ins, occupations, and all other forms of protests chosen by schools and organizations.”
CALL: March 4 Strike and Day of Action To Defend Public Education
On October 24, 2009 more than 800 students, workers, and teachers converged at UC Berkeley at the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education. This massive meeting brought together representatives from over 100 different schools, unions, and organizations from all across California and from all sectors of public education – Pre K-12, Adult Education, CC, CSU and UC – to “decide on a statewide action plan capable of winning this struggle, which will define the future of public education in this state, particularly for the working class and communities of color.”
After hours of open collective discussion, the conference democratically voted, as its principal decision, to call for a statewide Strike and Day of Action on March 4, 2010. The conference decided that all schools, unions and organizations are free to choose their specific demands and tactics – such as strikes, walkouts, march to Sacramento, rallies, occupations, sit-ins, teach-ins, etc. – for March 4, as well as the duration of such actions.
We refuse to let those in power continue to pit us against each other. If we unite, we have the power to shut down business-as-usual and to force those in power to grant our demands. Building a powerful movement to defend public education will, in turn, advance the struggle in defense of all public-sector workers and services.
We call on all students, workers, teachers, parents, and their organizations across the state to endorse this call and massively mobilize and organize for the Strike and Day of Action on March 4.
Let’s make this an historic turning point in the struggle against the cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and educational segregation in California.
To endorse this call and to receive more information, please contact march4strikeanddayofaction@gmail.com and consult www.savecapubliceducation.org
Below are some some links from the most recent RF Update, read the full update here.
The core issue of our time: The real promise of perpetual war and rising inequality met by the potential of a mass class conscious movement for equality and justice.
Smile of the Week:
Student asks his principal, “Where is my teacher?”.
“Citywide layoffs”, replies the principal.
“My text books?” asks the student.
“State austerity plan”, says the principal.
“Student loan?” continues the student.
“Federal budget cuts”, says the principal.
Finally, exasperated, student asks, “But how am I going to get an education?”.
To which the equally exasperated principal replies, “This is your education”.
The Education Agenda is a War Agenda and the War Agenda is an Education Agenda Featurette:
Duncan Flunked Chicago School Closing Project: “This report reveals that eight in 10 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students displaced by school closings transferred to schools ranking in the bottom half of system schools on standardized tests. However, because most displaced students transferred from one low-performing school to another, the move did not, on average, significantly affect student achievement.”
Hey Kids, Photograph that Recruiter
DFT Praises Extension Of Broad’s Bobb Contract
Detroit: An Individual and Collective Wrong–Award Winning Counselor Mr Z has to Go
NEA Loses NCLB Suit; How Many Hundreds of Thousands of Your Dues $s did NEA Waste?
“Depending on whom you ask, the No Left Child Behind Act might be described in many ways: bold, ground-breaking, noble, naïve, oppressive, all of the above and more,” Judge Sutton wrote. ” But one thing it is not is ambiguous, at least when it comes to the central tradeoff presented to the states: accepting flexibility to spend significant federal funds in return for (largely) unforgiving responsibility to make progress in using them.” NEA will do anything, like courts and ballots, to avoid educator/student alliances to control work places and communities, as those actions would make NEA as irrelevant as it already is.
NEA Bosses Escalated Their Once-Secret Effort to Boost Their Salaries and Merge With the Worst Union in the USA, the AFT and AFL-CIO, When NEA Prez Dennis Van Roekel Directed Key Committees to Revisit the Issue. This is what one researcher rightfully concluded about what would happen some time ago:
And this is what happened last time NEA tried the merger scheme
DPS Lost Millions on Corrupt Land Deals
$30+ Million Detroit Public School Fraud and Growing Every Day
Smashing Protest at Southwestern College, San Diego
Public Universities Gut Student Life, Charge More: “The stimulus isn’t a bridge; it’s a short pier…This fall, flagships still had to cut costs and raise tuition, most by 6.5 percent or more. And virtually all of the nation’s top public universities are likely to push through large increases in coming years.”..“The students are at a point of rebellion, because they’re paying more and getting less,” Flagships are attracting more wealthy and better-prepared students. At U.C.L.A., class size has increased by 20 percent over three years ..Today, UM is largely protected from Michigan’s plummeting economy. Only 7 percent of its budget is provided by the state.
This is the fourth biweekly mailing of links to articles that provide historical background on HAW-relevant topics. Suggestions for inclusion are welcome: they can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com. Members of the working group for this project are listed below.
Sincerely,
Matt Bokovoy,
Carolyn (Rusti) Eisenberg
Jim O’Brien
Maia Ramnath
Sarah Shields
“What the U.S. Military Can’t Do”
By Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com, posted October 22
(historically based article on Afghanistan focusing on US military’s inability to “seal the deal” in previous wars)
“Lessons from the Long War and a Blowback World”
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted October 18
“Fighting the Taliban: What, Exactly, is Being Fought in Afghanistan?”
By M. Reza Pirbhal, CounterPunch.org, posted October 14
(long article on US involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan by a Louisiana State U. historian)
“Left and Right Against War”
By Murray Polner, History News Network 9hnn.com), posted October 12
“Afghanistan – The Proxy War”
By Andrew Bacevich, Boston Globe, posted October 11
“Apocalypse Then, Afghanistan Now”
By William Astore, TomDispatch.com, posted October 11
“Obama’s Prize, Wilson’s Legacy”
By John Milton Cooper, History News Network (hnn.com), Posted October 11
“War and Peace Prizes”
By Howard Zinn, The Guardian, posted October 9
“Unintended Consequences in Nuclear Pakistan”
By Fred Branfman, TruthDig.com, posted October 9
“Honduran Coup Regime in Crisis”
By Greg Grandin, CommonDreams.com, posted October 9
Read the full version of the latest Rouge Forum update here.
The Education Agenda is a War Agenda and the War Agenda is an Education Agenda
Sit-in Against Cuts at Fresno State: “Failure to comply with these demands will be met by increased levels of activism by students.”
Solidarity Alliance at Berkeley Calls for Three Day Action: “To this end we call upon the allied students, workers, and faculty to unite in a system-wide Three Day Solidarity Strike from November 18th to November 20th. We invite all members of the UC community in Northern California to converge on the Berkeley campus to Strike beginning with a mass rally on November 18th and a mass action on November 20th to call for escalation and continued struggle.”
Southwestern College (South San Diego County) Profs Suspended for Protest vs Cuts
Regimented Standards Set Stage for National Tests: “As 48 states charge ahead with plans to adopt common academic standards, the U.S. Department of Education will enlist experts and the public to help design a $350 million competition for the next step: the development of common tests.”
An “Atta Boy, Obama” from Jeb Bush on the Education/War Agenda
Sweetwater Teachers Resist CTA Sellout in CA
Chickens Come Home to Roost with the Chickens in Teacher Ed: Arne Duncan Speech on Teacher Education Programs: “they say two things about their training in ed school. First, most of them say they did not get the hands-on practical teacher training about managing the classroom that they needed, especially for high-needs students. And second, they say there were not taught how to use data to differentiate and improve instruction and boost student learning. On Tuesday night, at a national town hall meeting with teachers, I asked the studio audience of about 100 teachers how they felt about their schools of ed. An uneasy laughter filled the roomnot the kind of response that engenders confidence.”
Ban Maya Angelou! But we know why the caged bird builds its own cage.
From Rock & Rap Confidential:
JUST EXACTLY WHY DO WE NEED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?… Fred Wilhelms writes: I have a good friend, Jon Newton, who for the past couple years, has graciously provided me, through his website p2pnet.net a place to stand and swing at the evils of the music business. Jon has teamed up with Billy Bragg (who recently engaged in a discussion with Jon on the p2pnet messageboard) to form a2f2a.com (Artist2Fan2Artist) as a place for artists and their fans to discuss issues like filesharing and copyright without having the “industry” get in the way. It’s an effort to define what we all know is the common interest in seeing that artists are compensated by the people willing to support their work, without the middlemen as far as possible. Jon is looking for artists to join in the discussion, which has been extraordinarily civil as these things go, because, up to now, Billy has been holding down the fort by himself (admirably, I must say, even if he remains resistant to the overwhelming logic of my own opinions.) [Fred Wilhelms is an attorney in Nashville]
Below are some links and commentary from the latest Rouge Forum Update.
Read the full update here.
October 16/17, is the 150th Anniversary of John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry. Brown knew that the very definition of racism was sharpening (the notion of a separate species) and that slavery sought new territory as well. He knew slavery and exploitation are violent, and profitable, slavery being the cornerstone of industrial capital. And he knew the Masters do not adopt the ethics of the slaves. From his last speech, “Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.”
Action and Reaction in the Schools
The Second Occupation at UCSC Ends With Police Attack 10/15
October 24 UC Berkeley Meeting Notice
UPTE Calls for General Strike: The following resolution calling for direct actions up to / including ageneral strike of public education workers was passed overwhelmingly earlier today by the statewide convention of University Professional and Technical Workers (UPTE / CWA). UPTE is the union that called a one-day strike on September 24, one of the key events in the September 24 day of action at UC Berkeley. OEA’s Rep Council passed a similar motion on October 6. [UPTE represents 12,000 research, technical and health workers at the University of California.
“Therefore be it resolved that we work in concert with other public sector unions, students and community members to organize a unified response that could include a general strike, a walkout from classes and other direct actions.”
Blackwater Ousted at Southwestern College After 2 Year Fightback: “CHULA VISTA, CA (Oct. 16) – Southwestern College District Governing Board approved the cancellation of their agreement with Blackwater-Xe in their October 14, 2009 board meeting. The agreement had students from Southwestern College enrolled in law enforcement training programs using shooting ranges in the Blackwater-Xe Otay Mesa mercenary training facility.”
Gropenfuhrer Signs Ca. Merit Pay Bill
AFT Lines Up For Merit Pay at Obama’s Trough: “Education reformers were pleasantly stunned when the American Federation of Teachers announced today that two of the winners of their new Innovation Fund grants planned to use the money to create teacher-evaluation systems that give weight to students’ standardized test scores.”
D.C. Rhee Fires 400 School Workers, AFT gives a Speech
What of NEA With 3.5 Million Members? NEA Prezzie Dennis Van Roekel addressed the recent AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh where the narcissist Richard Trumka was anointed President of the corrupt Federation. NEA’s bosses have been trying to work a secret merger pact with the AFL-CIO for twenty years. It would add a lot to their salaries, and add another layer of enemies to NEA members. Then Van Roekel traveled on Air Force Two with Arne Duncan, Joe Biden, to Syracuse, to tout education “reform.”
What to do with this “unionism?”
Army Wants to Recruit in Middle School: “Wichita’s program uses a military structure to teach civics lessons…“The Army’s got a lot deeper pockets than education,” he said.”
Rothstein on NCLB Reauthorization: “The Obama administration’s ESEA re-authorization proposal should reject the continued punishment of schools based on flawed standardized tests, and instead focus on the careful and cautious design of new forms of qualitative evaluation.”
NY Times Charts Show Failure of NCLB
Detroit Public Schools Broad Foundation Boss Payouts to Consultants
In an article for October 14th edition of The Tyee, Katie Hyslop describes how four recent Olympic host cities passed laws that criminalize homelessness and links this shameful portion of Olympic history to the Assisting to Shelter Act under consideration by the British Columbia legislature.
Here’s a sampling from past Olympics:
The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver has produced The Assisting To Shelter Act, which would allow “governments to clear the streets of the poor, homeless and addicted just in time for the tourists and cameras to arrive. The act would give Vancouver police the power to force a person to seek shelter when an extreme weather alert is issued. If there is no room at city shelters, people will be put in a jail cell.”
Of course, the BC government says they’re just concerned about the well-being of people who live on the street. You can read more about the proposed BC law here.
The 2010 Olympic games have prompted a series of laws aimed at undermining the civil liberties in the name of corporate profits and convenience, including bylaws that outlaw signage critical of the Olympics.
Check out the 2010 resistance groups at no2010.com and riot2010.com
In Solidarity with the occupations in Vienna [Austria] for Free Education
Since Oct.22nd thousands of students at the University of Vienna are occupying various lecture halls to protest against the increasing commercialisation [against the Bologna process] and for free and emancipatory public education.
Details at Emancipating-Education-for-All.org
Facebook group: In Solidarity with the occupations in Vienna [Austria] for Free Education
The full version of the latest Rouge Forum Update is here.
Here are some of the links from the Update:
In the Little Rouge Schoolhouse:
Rampant Fraud in Detroit PS Amazes Boss
Broad Appointee to Spend $40 mil on Detroit Consultants
Ohanian Comments on the DPS Consultant Rip-off
Marc Bousquet Interviews the UCSC Occupiers
NEA to Abandon Seniority Rules on Staffing?
No Volunteer Left in Taylorized School
What Would Alfie Say About the Nobel Award?
War, War, War But What is the Plan? Who is the Enemy? What is Winning? Don’t Dither!
Honduran Coup Continues Crackdown
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Kissinger (Surprise) Calls For More War, Done Better
Danger of Delay in Afghanistan by the CFR and CIA
An Oldie But Goodie From Country Joe in honor of those young people sitting in the mud in Afghanistan, wondering what their ruling class plans for them, what the strategy is, who the enemy will be and what tactics will be used next (and can we trust that our officers care?)
Money, Profits, Losses, Fear, Greed: The Economy
Wall Street Journal on the Weakening Dollar, Down 25% Since 2000
What does a Trillion Dollars Look Like? Wait! What Does 12.9 Trillion Dollars Look Like?
100th Bank Failure of 2009 Coming to Your Hometown? “Mr. Cassidy projects that as many as 1,000 small banks will close over the next few years…Together, the 8,176 smallest banks control just 15 percent of the industry’s $13.3 trillion in assets.”
Welfare, the Real Minimum Wage, Under Attack Again
Goldman/Government Sachs to Reap another $ Billion
More Education and Resistance:
North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, October 24 to 26