Archives for category: Unions
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Billionaires vs. Unions: Who Is David? Who Is Goliath?

By dianerav
April 23, 2013 //
19

Leo Casey, a long-time union activist, here reviews a recent report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute decrying the immense power of teachers’ unions. Michael Petrilli of TBF described the unions as “Goliaths” battling the weak, underfunded “Davids” of the corporate reform movement.

Casey challenges the report and the characterization, pointing out that corporate reformers have deployed vast amounts of money–far greater than the teachers’ unions could ever muster–to destroy the last vestige of teacher unionism. This assures that teachers have no voice at the table when governors and legislatures decide to slash spending on education or to privatize it to the benefit of entrepreneurs and campaign contributors.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Broad Foundation, Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Rhee, Michelle, Unions, Walton Foundation

Nine of the Ten Richest in US Are Attacking Unions

By dianerav
April 22, 2013 //
87

Leo Casey explains here that there really is “class warfare” in the U.S. today.

It is not the 1% that is attacking unions and working Americans.

It is the 1% of the 1%.

Nine of the ten richest Americans–all billionaires–are united in opposition to rights for working people.

They don’t want working people to have an assured pension.

They don’t want teachers to have any job security.

They want to roll back the New Deal.

They want capital to be unfettered.

They want teachers to have no rights at all.

They want to open up public education for entrepreneurs and profiteers.

They want privatization of public education.

But do not despair.

Armed with knowledge, we can beat them where it counts: at the polls.

Categories Teachers and Teaching, Unions, Teacher Tenure, US Education, Privatization, For-Profit

The Attack on Unions: Which Side Are You On?

By dianerav
April 22, 2013 //
123

The attack on unions flared into public view in 2011, when Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin attacked public sector unions, and thousands of people surrounded the State Capitol in protest.

Since so many radical Republicans took office in 2010, the effort to destroy public sector unions–especially the teachers’ unions–has accelerated.

Leo Casey explores the context of the anti-union movement here.

In state after state, legislatures have wiped out collective bargaining rights. That meant teachers would have no voice in the funding of public schools or their working conditions. Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.

The so-called reformers are closing public schools and turning the students over to private corporations. 90% of charters are non-union.

The questions that I keep asking are, where was Barack Obama as the efforts to destroy America’s workers gained momentum? Why didn’t he go to Madison in the spring of 2011? Why did he go instead at the very height of the Wisconsin protests to hail Jeb Bush in Miami as “a champion of education reform?”

Why did his Secretary of Education effusively praise some of the most anti-union, anti-teacher state commissioners of education in the nation, like John White in Louisiana and Hanna Skandera in New Mexico? Why have Secretary Duncan and President Obama said nothing in opposition to the attacks on teachers, the mass closure of public schools, and the growing for-profit sector in education? Why was the Democratic National Convention of 2012 held in North Carolina, a right-to-work state? When was the last time that the Democratic Party held its convention in a right to work state?

Categories Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Teacher Evaluations, Unions, Teacher Tenure, Privatization, Obama, For-Profit, Economy, Support for public schools

Who Created Rhee? Don’t Blame the Unions.

By dianerav
April 19, 2013 //
36

Earlier today, John Merrow posted a blog in which he asked, “Who Created Michelle Rhee?”

From the context, I assume he means who was responsible for making her the face of the corporate reform movement? Why was she praised by both Barack Obama and John McCain in their 2008 debate only a year after she started work as DC superintendent of schools? Why was she featured on the cover of Time and Newsweek? Why was she lionized in the national media?

All this, even though as Merrow now says, “I am also reporting that, after five years of Rhee/Henderson, the DC schools are worse off by almost every conceivable measure: graduation rates, truancy, enrollment, test scores, black-white gap and teacher and principal turnover.”

How did the national media miss these developments? Why did they turn Rhee into a superstar despite the lack of any accomplishments?

Merrow puts the blame on four suspects:

First, Rhee herself because she inflated her credentials (no Ne in the mainstream media noticed).

Second, he blames himself because he aired twelve (12!) different episodes on national gelb
Vision chronicling her progress in “reforming” the DC schools. Now, he acknowledges that there was no progress but he didn’t know it at the time.

Third, according to “conspiracy theorists,” THEY, the funders of the far-right created her, by pouring millions of dollars into her one-woman campaign to smash the unions, tenure, and pensions, while promoting charters and vouchers. On the list of THEY, he includes the Waltons, the Koch brothers, ALEC, Eli Broad, and Joel Klein.

Fourth, he blames the unions. If they had not been so intransigent, then there would have been no Michelle Rhee to battle them. This seems to be a stretch. Fred Klonsky takes issue with Merrow here.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, Unions

LA Times Defends Wall Street Hedge Fund Reformers

By dianerav
April 16, 2013 //
12

Last weekend the California Democratic Party passed a resolution that forthrightly criticized corporate education reform, including high-stakes testing and privatization. The resolution specifically singled out Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ Democrats for Education Reform as organizations that are fronts for corporate interests and Republicans.

But this upset the Los Angeles Times editorial board, which is known for its contempt for teachers’ unions. The Times apparently thinks that giving public funds to entrepreneurs, corporations, and hustlers with no oversight or accountability is “school reform.”

They neglected to mention that most of the candidates supported by StudentsFirst are Republicans, not Democrats.

Categories California, Charter Schools, Democrats for Education Reform, Unions

SUNY Educators: Teachers Should Speak Out Too

By dianerav
April 15, 2013 //
34

This letter comes from three teacher educators at the State University of New York

In the assault on public education, New York State is in the midst of a battle. The growing movement to opt out of state testing has caught the attention state leaders and school administrators, who have a stake in supporting assessments. The New York State Teacher Union (NYSUT) represents public school educators. As a public union, it claims to support the best interests of students. In fact, NYSUT has sponsored a petition to limit high stakes testing and a forum for teachers to “tell it like it is” about testing. And on April 13, NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira led a rousing call for teachers to “ratchet up our collective voice.”

But earlier in the week, NYSUT President Richard Ianuzzi sent a memo to local union leaders. This memo acknowledges the growing opt out movement, as well as the complex role of teachers in this era of “over-emphasis on standardized testing.” However, the memo goes on to inform local leaders that:

• Locals and individual union members who advise parents or students to “opt out” of state tests may face risks.

• A teacher who, in conversations with students or parents, takes a position on testing contrary to the school district’s educational program may potentially be charged with misconduct or insubordination and could be subject to disciplinary action.

• A local speaking as a union or an individual member speaking as a parent or citizen about educational concerns over standardized testing for instance, in a letter to the editor or in a statement to the Board of Education is protected as long as they are not encouraging parents or students to opt out from a scheduled test.

As activists, scholars, and teacher educators who are working with parents and teachers to inform the public about the current “reform” movements, we find this memo chilling. How easy would it be to perceive that a teacher speaking out about the negative effects of high-stakes testing would be encouraging parents or students to opt-out?

Public educators have always occupied a complicated place in society. We are agents of the state who are working to improve the system. To improve the system, we must critique it. These critiques can be perceived as insubordinate; this perspective explains the importance of academic freedom. Teachers are experts in the field of education. As Neira states, their voices must not be silenced: they should be invited and amplified. NYSUT, as the union representing teachers, must support the needs of students by supporting the expertise of teachers. They should be encouraging teachers to speak out and giving every level of support to those who do.

Expectations for professionalism or propriety, such as those supported in this union memo, silence teachers. To silence teachers prevents educators from being activists in their own field. It dismisses their expertise and their commitment to the public good.

Imagine if doctors, lawyers, or engineers were discouraged from sharing knowledge that would benefit their clients? This would not be tolerated, and it should not be tolerated in the profession of education. Our future depends on it.

- Julie Gorlewski, Barbara Madeloni, and Nancy Schniedewind

Categories New York, Testing, Unions

Mass Protest Rally in Chicago

By dianerav
March 25, 2013 //
16

The Chicago Teachers Union is planning a mass protest rally on Wednesday. The schools closings in Chicago are the largest in American history. Never has any district closed so many schools at the same time. Only since the passage of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top has the public been told that school closings are “reform.” They are not. They are an abandonment of responsibility by those at the top.

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin
March 25, 2013 312/329-6250
StephanieGadlin@ctulocal1.com

As Thousands Plan to Rally against School Closings downtown this Wednesday, the Board of Education erects barricades

CHICAGO—Apparently officials at the Board of Education (BOE) are getting the message: The parents, educators and clergy of more than 30,000 Chicago Public School (CPS) students do not want their schools closed.

Today, BOE security began erecting metal barricades around the building as thousands of people plan to rally this Wednesday in protest of CPS’ plan to shutter 50 schools and disrupt 50 others. Some have noted this is the largest school closing campaign in the history of the United States.

CPS officials and the mayor continue to spew confusing propaganda as justification for closing schools. School bureaucrats claim there is a $1 billion deficit while simultaneously promising incentives to 50 or more schools that will serve as receiving campuses for students displaced by school actions.

Using the district’s own financial metrics, these incentives such as new air-conditioning, libraries, counselors and social workers will cost over $700 million.

On Saturday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried to confuse the public even further by stating school closures would somehow benefit students academically. While admitting the city has failed its fiduciary responsibly to provide all of its students with an adequate education, the mayor stopped short of acknowledging the huge racial implications of these closures.

Thousands of parents have accused the schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and the mayor of lying about a pretend “underutilization crisis” in order to open more charter operations and privatize public education in the city. Most of the schools targeted for closure are in the African American community.

In the meantime, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) will join with other labor organizations, parent groups, churches and community-based organization in a mass march and rally on Wednesday, March 27 at 4 p.m.

People will gather at Daley Plaza at rush hour before heading to City Hall and BOE headquarters at 121 S. LaSalle Street.

Participants will include CTU Local 1 President Karen Lewis, SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff, Unite HERE Local 1 President Henry Tamarin, parents, clergy, students, rank-and-file teachers, paraprofessionals, school clinicians, lunchroom and custodial workers, community activists, and others.

###

The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools and, by extension, the students and families they serve. CTU, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, is the third largest teachers local in the country and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information visit CTU’s website at http://www.ctunet.com
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Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Unions

Randi Weingarten and Gates’ Phillips on Teacher evaluation

By dianerav
March 25, 2013 //
95

Randi Weingarten and Vicki Phillips of the Gates Foundation have jointly written an article bout teacher evaluation.

At a time when teachers and the teaching profession and teachers’ unions are under attack in states across the nation, how important is teacher evaluation?

What do you think?

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Unions

How CTU Confronted Antagonists in the Democratic Party

By dianerav
March 18, 2013 //
16

This is a stunning analysis of the relationship between labor unions and the Democratic Party.

It is a must-read.

Many in education have been baffled by the bipartisan consensus around Republican ideology. Micah Uetricht is not baffled. He says without hedging that “Democrats have swallowed the Right’s free market orthodoxy whole. Much of the party appears to have given up on education as a public project.”

Teachers unions, he writes, have been unable to articulate a coherent response to their abandonment.

That is, until last September, when the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike. He writes:

“The union has been unafraid to identify the education reform agenda pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his party nationally as an attempt to exacerbate inequalities within the education system, strip teachers of power and erode their standards of living, and chip away at public education as an institution, and to call such Democrats enemies. Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the party.”

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.

Categories Chicago, Democrats, Emanuel, Rahm, Privatization, Supporting public schools, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Unions

Why Did the Teachers Strike in Chicago?

By dianerav
March 14, 2013 //
16

For more than a week in September, the nation was astonished to see thousands of Chicago teachers on strike.

The media treated it as an old fashioned dispute over wages and hours, which it was not.

Many of us who follow education issues knew that the teachers were striking against nearly 20 years of nonstop ill-considered “reforms” imposed on teachers by politicians and uninformed policymakers.

The bottom line: Enough is enough.

This excellent article explains the teachers’ strike and puts it into a larger context.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Unions
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