William Hite, the Broad-trained superintendent of schools in Philadrlphia, released his plan to demolish public education in that poor district, which has been controlled by the state for more than a decade. There is plenty of shame to go around: to Governor Corbett, who wants to destroy public education in his state; to the Legislature, which has let the governor have his way; and to the business and civic leaders of Philadelphia, who didn’t care enough to fight for Other People’s Children. Here, Randi Weingarten details the carnage:
June 7, 2013
AFT President Calls Philadelphia School Layoffs a Travesty
Washington—AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement on the announced layoffs of nearly 3,800 Philadelphia educators and school employees.
“What was Superintendent Hite brought in to do? Mass close schools even though it makes the corridors and streets less safe for kids and destabilizes neighborhoods? Make draconian budget cuts that strip schools of nurses, libraries, guidance counselors, art, music and after-school activities, and rob children of the rich learning experience they deserve? And now impose nearly 3,800 layoffs so that public schools can’t function?
“This is a travesty. We are watching before our very eyes the evisceration of public education in the City of Brotherly Love. And instead of an all-hands-on-deck approach, instead of investing in our children’s futures, we see Gov. Corbett and Mayor Nutter sit on their hands while Superintendent Hite and the School Reform Commission have the gall to strip our schools to the bone and blame the very people who work closest with kids—the very people who devote their lives to helping children achieve their dreams. Where are the priorities of the governor, the mayor, the superintendent and the SRC? Certainly not with the children of Philadelphia.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great! So what is RW’s plan of ACTION!!!! More speeches? Several years ago RW was asked a question: Under what conditions would she call for a strike? Her answer was the loss of tenure. Well it’s happened with the new teacher evaluation systems that call for a teacher’s dismissal after two consecutive negative VAM ratings. RW(AFT) and MM(UFT) need to do more than whine and schedule lame demonstrations. How about for openers telling teachers to not proctor Pearson exams! Or how about calling for massive strikes. Of course that won’t happen because union dues are deducted and paid to the union whether or not a teacher joins the union. A strike, or even just a call for a strike would stop the automatic deductions. End result is that the union leadership works for the political leaders more than it does for it’s members who are forced to pay union dues. Just for the record, it’s an “Agency Fee” that is deducted when the teacher doesn’t join the union. Either way the union gets its money.
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Totally agree.
Where is the AFT and NEA call for a nationwide strike as schools open this fall? Where is the outrage being channeled? Why aren’t there massive meetings being scheduled for this summer so membership can devise plans to fight this monster of reform?
The email “alerts” I receive from AFT and NEA are always urging me to contact my Washington representatives to support other issues but never about fighting the reform hydra. Why?
The unions sat by for a generation and let state after state pass “Right to Work” laws with hardly a whimper, making any strikes and actions illegal and ruinously costly to the unions. The fines associated with actions and strikes will bankrupt the unions, as designed, and therefore make them completely tame and useless so we are hobbled and imprisoned by fear, it seems.
And now, even in strong union cradles like Chicago, Philadelphia, and NYC, the states are using end runs to nullify contracts and destroy union ability to negotiate all while closing schools, slashing budgets, imposing evaluation schemes and contracts willy nilly without a single member vote.
I can’t understand why Weingarten and Van Roekel are still holding office and why the membership of both organizations isn’t screaming for action. I kept thinking that it was because the onerous reforms hadn’t yet moved out from Florida and Texas to other states but they are now in place in all but a couple of states and teachers all over the country are in danger of job loss and working under horrible conditions. Unemployed teachers can’t pay union dues.
Still we remain silent and passive. Why? What will wake the sleeping giant? What exactly is the purpose of a union if not to lead the membership in protecting their very existence?
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Unfortunately the teachers of Philadelphia are legally prevented from striking by state law. Pretty sure Weingarten knows this.
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They are going to lose their jobs anyway. Who will they get to teach the children if they fire them all? What do they really have to lose?
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Why don’t all the teachers get together and vote not to comply with policies that they disagree with — standardized testing, for instance.
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I’m a teacher in Philadelphia and I spent my Saturday this weekend finding out throughout the day which of my friends and co-workers had been laid off. Weingarten is absolutely spot on when she says that the students of Philadelphia are not the concern of Hite, the SRC, or the state. Most of my co-workers laId off were history teachers – an untested subject in PA. What is happening in Philadelphia is a complete travesty and a failure of democracy, and not just because I might lose my job or because the union might lose some dues. If I return to the classroom in the fall, the “education” I will be able to give my students will not look anything like what I was taught education should be. And that’s a travesty.
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Then why don’t the teachers strike like Chris said? They are just slowing but surely strangling the district. They teachers are sitting ducks.
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Would it make any difference if the teachers did the hiring through a “union hall”? At the beginning of each new year, the district would tell the district how many positions it had and what kinds they were and the union would send in the teachers. This would take hiring out of the hands of the principals. The union wouldn’t assign a teacher if the class had too many students etc.
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I think that would be disastrous. Teachers are hired by administrators. If the system is overrun by bad teachers as it appears to be according to the “reformy” crowd then at least one could theoretically blame administration. If unions hired the teachers it would play right into the hands of the reformers who claim teachers, and more importantly unions are the problem.
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Is this the same Randi Weingarten who rode on Arne Duncan’s bus campaigning for Obama’s re-election last fall? If so, why are you outraged NOW? RttT and DFER began corrupting public schools in 2008.
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Was this President Obama’s plan for public education while campaigning in 2008? Why is he silent while public education is being slaughtered? Why has he not spoken to the teachers, parents, and most important, the students in Chicago about the school closings? He was just here in North Carolina bragging about his plan for high speed internet in all schools, but why didn’t he visit any low-performing schools where 95% of the students are receiving free or reduced lunch? Is he blind to what is happening or is this what he wants to see?
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Pres obama is also not bragging about the all time high stock market going on, would tarnish his ” evil wall street ” cred. He is dangling the carrot of high speed internet which reveals how in the bag for bill gates, pearson unesco, He is gutting society while rewarding wall street. Dems and repubs. He goes both ways. All those like randi weingarten bought into his hopey changey transformation utopia and helped him along, not realizing that like so many before him he will turn around and send you to a gulag. Remember trotsky?
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Haven’t you figured out that he is totally bought out and clueless. He dines with rich people. How many teachers (public and charter) has he talked with? Arne Duncan too? None. They don’t give a hoot about what you think.
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Steve Jobs told Obama after he won that one of the things he must do is go after the teacher unions. Obama is looking to join the billionaires boys club after his tenure. Pure and simple.
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Actions speak louder than words. To paraphrase a very old poet, what Weingarten says is fit to be written on wind or flowing water.
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Urban shrinkage! Urban shrinkage! Urban shrinkage! What better way then to destroy an entire school system and watch the inhabitants run in all directions looking for a safe place to land. The poor, disenfranchised, immigrants, working poor, middle-class unaware that the company has held all the cards and deals the deck. On all sides of the isle there have been the plans to move on recapturing the the cities. Look to the 1970’s and read about the proposed design to take back the cities, regain the revenues from those that can afford to pay, eminant domain will rein,
real estate will be recaptured and the undesirables will be vanquished by the overlords
at the hands of their own greedy leaders. Exactly what is happening to our cities as we sit and ponder what has already happened! Just nobody informed the victims who are trying to find the pieces of their lives and where to go for survival. Where is that place? Is there a plan for the “others” of society? Is it underground so as not to be seen (much like the scifi movies of past years) or hmmmmmm……….America has lost it’s soul and
as always it is about money…the Midas Age. Shame!!!!!
Notice the lack of absolute outrage on the privacy issue and the unsettling silence on the education story which should be looked at as a national crises? Our leaders are party to this reshaping of America and some have been speaking out about the plans for years. Read Galbraith, Moynihan, look up Obama’s meeting with Dan Kildee (Flint,Michigan design and Pittsburgh) on and on. They just forgot to tell the public, the guys who pay for all this disruption in their lives and lack of security and jobs for their children. For some the plan is well made and their children will have an opportunity to whatever we used to call the American Dream.
Is it as bad as what I wrote…you bet!!!!!! Diane Ravitch and some others have seen the dark side and are trying to wake up the masses. It is never too late to meet the challenge it is just better to do it in concert with others and with a good plan. Leaders have formed and hopefully the plan can bring compromise and not total destruction. Right now it is not looking good! HOPE, PLAN, ACTION, a formula better then lay down and die!
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Well stated!
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http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/mayor-nutter-threatens-magazine-with-criminal-charges-for-white-in-philly-story/
Philly is in the clutches of some quack ideology over a course of years. The fact that it has been strictly dem run since the late 50’s is completely ignored by dems. I have left my party because of the disasterous consequences of what is equal to totalitarian dictatorship and its resultant poverty welfare state resulting in todys epic crushing of public schools to build for profit prisons. The schools have been bloated and ignored and forced leftist soviet style curriculum causing the overwhelming poverty to grow. These are political choices that have been made for decades culminating in the disasters unfolding and highlighted thankfully on this blog.
Common core, regionalism, all slow death of our republic and in the heart of american freedom we are but slaves to our master mayor nutter.
Unfortunatly the state run soviet style media keeps this information from the masses, who are not web savvy.
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More misdirection and triangulation from Ms. Weingarten.
Why, from reading this statement, you’d never know that she is the one collaborating with these people, and that her “solutions driven unionism” is a response to the Overclass’ “problem” with the very existence of teacher unions.
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Along with some previous commenters, I do not trust Randi Weingarten at all! She is saying militant words to cover her ties with the corporate reformers like Gates and Broad.
Weingarten has had an over ten year association with the Broad Foundation.
http://tinyurl.com/opnqlav (See page 2)
http://tinyurl.com/oztuo3
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There will never be any success in Phillie or any other district where students are not held accountable for their own success or failure. Visit the schools, there are fights, gang rule, apathy galore. I feel sorry for the students who want to learn. Their parents send them to charters or private schools. There are many who can’t escape and they just disappear or struggle through. I have seen students putting on make-up, listening to music, texting during class. When sent to office they are sent back. There is no buy-in to their education and they still PASS. This seems the norm now.
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So true. They will pass because teachers are held accountable for student failure. As I’ve stated some time earlier, a student told me I can’t fail too many students who make no effort because I would be blamed. That was in 1995 before all this madness made it even worse.
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Weingarten is irreparably compromised. She dropped her inBloom board membership, but she is still very much connected to Gates and Broad. So, her words are empty.
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I live right outside of Philadelphia and it is a travesty what Mayor Nutter and Gov. Corbett are allowing in our city. The families in the city who can afford the tuition to elite private schools are not affected by this. Others will home school or be able to send their kids to less expensive but still private parochial schools. So the most disenfranchised families and students are being sacrificed to the pirates of privatization. My niece works for a charter school in the city of Chester, the owner MAKES A PROFIT while she has to buy supplies for her special needs students. My own school district of 12, 000 students has lost most of our librarians. We have 2 librarians for the entire district. The agenda to privatize education not only affects city schools but suburban ones as well. Our township has the highest taxes in our county and this is driving away families. We have an excellent Art and Music curriculum and are constantly winning regional and national awards in this area. Last year we almost lost our art and music classes due to budget cuts but the community came together with a large roar and we were able to keep them. There’s now a non-profit art education organization to insure that there will be money to continue these programs. I’m proud of my community but there is still so much more to fight. These reform educators are here to make a profit on the backs of children and government officials refuse to see this. The officials want an easy fix and there isn’t one. I would say we could start with respecting education as a profession and stop trying to see it as a business.
On a side note, if the federal government would actually give the funding to special education that they said they would, our district would be in a much better situation.
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This is absolutely hideous. I feel more strongly than ever that our stronger unions need to help the weaker ones to learn what practical steps need to happen to join a united front to stop this kind of carnage. Hite was able to do as he pleased in Prince George’s County, Maryland because the union is so weak. I think teachers must join hands with principals, parents and students AND PUT A STOP TO THE CORPORATE TAKE-OVER of public schools by bully superintendents who have no teaching experience and are puppets. Hite is definitely one! How do teachers and unions across this nation help fellow teachers in Philly? I would love to hear Karen Lewis’s thoughts on this as well as Carol Burris….. As far as Weingarten is concerned, teachers have every reason not to trust her based on her “corporate reform” affliliations as M.Schneider mentions! Prince George’s County is getting a new school superintendent by take-over power granted to Rushern Baker (has no education background but is given total authority to hire the superintendent). Just wondering if this new superintendent will follow Hite’s lead. Ughhh.
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Teachers just sit by and take it.
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To Michael Fiorillo and Others:
I’m delighted that Ms. Weingarten is speaking out against what is going on in Philadelphia.
But this is once again another indication of her typical triangulation, her jumping on the bandwagon at a “choice” opportune moment, and proof that she is fighting results of a movement that she was instrumental in creating by cooperating with the reformers.
Hers was never an oppositional and confrontational style; she cut deals behind closed doors.
She has taken almost a million dollars from the Gates Foundation. She featured Bill Gates as a keynote speaker at an AFT convention.
I urge everyone under the AFT to see her as their best friend and ultimately trust her as their worst enemy. By doing so, you WILL be empowered and transformed.
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They kicked this into high gear under Vallas and now the turbo is at 55 pounds of boost and the nitrous has been turned on for total destruction with the help of the Prez and Duncan. As they are the “Privatizers in Chief.” This is all about the plan for fascist Amerika and the elite and all others to be indentured servants in permadebt through their student loans and credit card debt. Who says they cannot raise it above 28%, no one. Lower the wages, raise the interest rates, keep a crooked banking system and let it all be controlled by a select group of billionaires and you have what we have now and it will get worse in the future if the public here, who is really responsible for all of this, does not rise up and say “Enough is Enough and we are not taking this anymore.”
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I found this truthful and well -researched article that discusses 4 issues that have been behind the corporate reform movement and its effects on the urban schools.
It discusses the Chicago and Philadelphia schools closings.
This is a POWERFUL article .
PLEASE READ THIS!
http://www.nationofchange.org/forces-driving-america-s-education-spring-1369577132
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If teachers in Philly strike, the state can yank the certification of anyone participating. I know plenty of teachers who would wager one job they might lose but not many who would risk the rest of their professional careers.
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