Black Agenda Report is a fierce critic of the privatization and dismantling of public education. Some of their rage must be due to the fact that the privatizers claim they are doing it to “save” minority children.
In this post BAR rages against Trach for America as a union-busting organization.
Bruce Dixon of BAR writes:
“Back in the days of organizing meat packing, steel and auto workers, employers couldn’t use tax-exempt donations to transport, pay and train their scabs, and they had to wait for strikes to deploy them. That was before Teach For America….
“What’s the Difference Between Teach For America, and a Scab Temp Agency?….
“If you’re a public school parent or student, there’s none. If you’re an educator or other school employee or a friend or relative of any school employee, there’s none. If you live in a community where the local public school is one of the last hopeful possibilities that might bind a neighborhood together, there’s none.
“If you’re a school CEO or administrator trying to hollow out your public schools to justify their closing and privatzation, or a mayor trying to justify those campaign contributions, there’s no difference at all, either. If you’re a hedge fund investor, like the charter school sugar daddies who contribute billions to Barack Obama and a host of black and white politicians in state and local government across the country; there’s still no difference.
“You have to be a taxpayer — and let’s understand that corporate elites and the wealthy have largely shed the burden of taxation onto the backs of the middle class and the poor in this the era of neoliberalism, to begin to see a little difference…. The Grapes of Wrath era scabs were generally not trained, transported or paid with tax-exempt foundation money.”
The article includes this rap from the HBO series “Treme”:
Davis M., rhyming to a musical collaborator:
Four years at Radcliffe, that’s all you know,
a desire to do good and a 4.0.
You’re here to save us from our plight, you got the answer cause you’re rich and white
on a two year sojourn you’re here to stay, Teach For America all the way
got no idea just what you’re facin’, no clue just who you’re displacin’
old lady taught fathers, old lady taught sons, old lady bought books for the little ones
old lady put in thirty years, sweat and toil, time and tears
was that really your sad intention, to help the state of Louisiana deny her pension?
Collaborator:
Hold it, hold it….
First of all the state of Louisiana fired the teachers, not Teach for America
Davis M.:
A scab is a scab is a scab…
I know it’s just a typo but change the c to s and you have Trash for America…perfect.(Your third sentence).
I was thinking that a tracheotomy is needed to allow public education to breathe to survive the stranglehold of the edudeformers and their educational malpractices.
Most TFA teachers are people of color or from low income communities themselves. You good w/ calling those folks trash?
Thanks for another illuminating post. I will forever see TFA as the scabs they are, and call them as such.
I prefer Jere Hochman’s approach.
Richwine’s doctoral thesis:
I called the Harvard graduate Dean and he said he has no comment. He referred me to the communications office.
statement I read to the communications/presss office: ”
Testing students:
quote: “Underlying Richeiwne’s supposed doctoral work is equation of lies:Lie # 1 Intelligence can be defined and measured, lie # 2race is a biological-scientific, not social, construct, lie # 3 some people are simply better and deserve more, some lives are not worthy of life. There is nothing untoward about pointing at today’s respectable test-promoters, and saying: “Fascist.. ”
These are the same lies they use to shut 1/3 of the people out of the food lines or deny them food stamps ; they have to prove that some people are unworthy. It is
a sorting system and that is all. When they end up with their sort they tell some people “Your life has no meaning your death has no significance.
I do not understand your comment.
What evidence do you have that 1/3 of people are “shut…out of the food lines or (denied) food stamps”?
Have you read Richwine’s thesis?
For those interested, this is Richwine’s recent response to his critics: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=6BD3D71B-05B1-47BD-A0F8-D14594156F79
By the way, personally I believe environment and discretionary effort play far bigger roles in IQ test scores than do genetics.
It reminds me of the recent news story of the hospital which decided a 15 year old boy, with 6 months to live, did not deserve to be on the heart transplant list because he was not well behaved (according to their standards). When his mother complained to the media, suddenly they reconsidered. Did I mention he was black? It will be interesting to see if they are “successful” in finding him a new heart.
Your description of this incident is egregiously misleading. From what I have read, what you misleadingly described as bad behavior was a failure to take medications and to follow prescribed medical protocols. These criteria make perfect sense and have nothing to do with the ethnicity of the patient. I hope the young man gets his heart, takes his medications and follows the tough medical protocols that accompany major surgery.
see http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/noncompliance-teen-barred-heart-transplant-list-article-1.1425368
You need to be more precise and responsible in your reporting of events.
Fantastic column from Black Agenda Report.
Yes, TFA are scabs. Yes, they are further eroding the poorest communities.
Wendy Kopp is like Chaucer’s Pardoner: she “preaches” the evils of cynical education policy and castigates the supposed lack of quality teachers in poor school districts, showing the dire consequences of such cynicism and greed. Then she turns around and “guilts” whoever will listen into dropping their gold into her personal collection basket–salvation guaranteed if you do!
What a great analogy and the visualization is superior.
Now we need a talented illustrator…Robert Rendo…where are you?
And one more treasure from Glen Ford, the Black Agenda Report’s executive editor. It is his appearance at an event in NY in May 2012 to talk about the Corporate Assault on Public Education and will be well worth your time.
I love the Black Agenda Report! Good publication! Thanks for this.
This is the story Ford wrote in 2002 (he refers to it @ 40:40min.) about Cory Booker, the Walton Foundation, etc.-founded astroturf BAEO. http://www.blackcommentator.com/poisoned_tree.html
Everybody needs to be familiar with the Glen Ford speech, which is about the best source out there as to how we got into this mess we are now in. Now that Cory Booker could well wind up running for president, this fraud has GOT to be exposed so he never gets there.
Is this summary of the tax situation in this country really true?
““You have to be a taxpayer — and let’s understand that corporate elites and the wealthy have largely shed the burden of taxation onto the backs of the middle class and the poor in this the era of neoliberalism . . . “?
Great article and website.
TFA is a potential and in some cases another way to provide scabs, period, end of story.
Take a look and read everything in this cartoon: