See this ad in today’s USA Today.
Funny the ad doesn’t mention that the highest performing states in the U.S. on the NAEP are Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut, all of which have strong unions.
Or that the states at the bottom of the NAEP ratings do not have strong unions (or, in some states), none at all.
The ad was underwritten by the deceptively named “Center for Union Facts,” which last year ran a full-page ad in the New York Times blaming the AFT and Randi Weingarten for our international test scores.
I responded at that time by describing my encounter with the Center for Union Facts as an organization that exists to bash unions but has no knowledge about American or international education.
At that time, the Center for Union Facts was exposed by Mercedes Schneider as a front for anti-union corporate groups.
When facts don’t matter, when lies are presented as facts, discussion is impossible.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Weingarten billboard is still up on 42nd street.
Evidently the USA Today ad was concieved and paid for by the same lobbyist for many of the billionaires corporations, as was the Weingarten ad.
He was featured on 60 Minutes, also on Rachel Maddow, and is a slimy character who will go to any lengths to clean up for his clients. He even worked to kill the Americans with Disabilities Act to this same end.
This new ad is published by the Center for Union Facts, one of his many corporate entities (shells). He is a shady guy who will shill for anyone who pays up.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE…I just read in the LA School Report that the Center for Union Facts, Rick Berman, has notified parents in all schools in the US to sue their districts under the theory of Vergara…for civil rights infractons.
This hired gun, this thug for cash, did not even wait out the week to start his dirty work for his clients. Remember, he represents most of the billionaires who are working, along with ALEC, to kill all American unions.
Google him and read all the pseudo agencies he developed as sham names through which to do his brain washing of the American public.
How do we fight back?
Diane, you have also pointed out in the past that Mortimer Zuckerman, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. News and World Report and Publisher of the New York Daily News is on the Board of the Broad Foundation. http://tinyurl.com/ltdvt8f
Along with this unveiling of slimy characters, Barry Munitz who was summarily fired as Prez of the Getty Center some years back for his financial machinations, is on the Broad Academy Board. He is a true scoundrel and high living man who lied about the many thefts of art from Europe in which he participated, and he let the curator take all the blame.
Since these are the kinds of people Eli Broad chooses to oversee his Superintendent/CEO training, we can understand Deasy and Byrd-Bennett, and all the others who are bringing down public ed, with no pangs of conscience.
I find it helpful to learn about who the Board members are of the extemist greed merchants agencies/corporations, and encourage everyone to report these findings here, and all over. They should be ‘outed’ and their activities should be made transparent public information.
The next to last issue of the Columbia Journalism Review had as its lead article: “Who Cares if it is True?” That tells it all about our media.
“while providing teachers the support, respect and rewarding careers they deserve”
-Arne Duncan
I’d hope Obama or Duncan would denounce this repugnant ad, but I won’t hold my breath.
Obama got his second term. He doesn’t need teachers anymore. We got kicked to the same curb as Howard Dean et al.
When he first took office I was a bit hesitant to say this, but now that we’ve all had time to see his true political stripes I would be willing to stand on the roof of the school where I teach with a bullhorn and say this: I’M GLAD I DIDN’T VOTE FOR HIM!
And our unions will respond right?? Don’t hold your breath.
I know that I’m coming in fast with Godwin’s Law, but since the trade unions were some of the first groups targeted by the Nazis, I must state: these ads look like some kind of Nazi propaganda. They really do. I teach a section on propaganda and use the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum propaganda exhibit, so I have seen a lot of this repugnant stuff. That ad looks ever bit like some of the dreck I have seen. Sickening.
I work with these same issues in my public policy classes. Please,
Threatened o W, contact me at
joiningforce4ed@aol.com
so we can work together. I am sure we are in contact with many of the same people.
It’s a good thing we have a president and an administration that are pro-teacher and will stick up for us.
Oh wait a minute; we DON’T have that.
Never mind.
Reblogged this on V-Hypnagogic-Logic and commented:
Yes, somehow the word “union” has been made into some sort of horrible, dark word with “socialist” overtones by the Tea Party Republicans. A union implies unity. Unity means working together for a perceived good cause. That good towards which people are working together becomes the Common Good, hence “community.” There is NOTHING wrong with working together for a good cause — it’s the best way. It’s what has made any actual human progress happen. I know people who are into union-bashing, because it’s fashionable, and because “news” “outlets” like Fox News are into it, but if you look around, and see that we have a five-day working week, vacation time, family leave, medical compensation, healthcare, good roads, good schools, good public utilities, etc., it’s always been done by people who work hard, and who are represented by strong unions. Of course, like ANYTHING else in the world, there are good versions of unions, and imperfect versions. That is not a reason to scrap unions. That’s like saying, “So-and-so is a bad mother and a woman, therefore all women are bad mothers.”
I think you’re spot on “Threatened out West.” Sickening is the word. And yes, trade unions were among the first groups that Hitler and his henchmen targeted. This is pretty dark stuff.
Yes, somehow the word “union” has been made into some sort of horrible, dark word with “socialist” overtones by some. A union implies unity. Unity means working together for a perceived good cause. That good towards which people are working together becomes the Common Good, hence “community.” There is NOTHING wrong with working together for a good cause — it’s the best way. It’s what has made any actual human progress happen. I know people who are into union-bashing, because it’s fashionable, and because “news” “outlets” like Fox News are into it, but if you look around, and see that we have a five-day working week, vacation time, family leave, medical compensation, healthcare, good roads, good schools, good public utilities, etc., it’s always been done by people who work hard, and who are represented by strong unions. Of course, like ANYTHING else in the world, there are good versions of unions, and imperfect versions. That is not a reason to scrap unions. That’s like saying, “So-and-so is a bad mother and a woman, therefore all women are bad mothers.”
Diane, I notice you don’t mention California as having strong unions, because if they did, one might ask where they were while Vergara was being manufactured in the courts? After the union no show in Vergara, one must wonder just how half-heartedly they will appeal the decision in Vergara. With friends like this, teachers don’t need enemies.
The mistake you make is to give all unions a pass, just for being a union- doing otherwise would make one anti-union, hell no? Chicago has a union, Los Angeles’ UTLA is quite another story. Voicing objection when union leadership sells out rank and file doesn’t make one anti-union, just capable of thinking, which is something one would think is an appropriate activity for teachers.
Folks like Randi Weingarten mouthing the same vacuous platitudes as those running the corrupt school districts isn’t any better because she is supposedly on the side of labor. Your own professional career is illuminated by speaking truth to power. Is corrupt union leadership that will never go back to a classroom and continues to sell out thousands of dedicated teachers at the top of the salary scale somehow immune from your intellect?
Matt DiCarlo at Shanker Blog has done a series of posts researching what effect unions have on student achievement and arrived at the conclusion that they essentially have no effect, positive or negative.
As for comparing right-to-work states and union states, things often look different when the data is disaggregated. The famous example of Wisconsin and Texas comes to mind: http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/03/longhorns-17-badgers-1.html
Teacher unions benefit students: the only thing keeping class size from topping 50 here in NYC – something Michael Bloomberg openly promoted – is the teacher’s contract.
Likewise, union protections and tenure give teachers the space to openly advocate for students when policy or administration would do them wrong.
Newman: I’ll tell you a little secret about [class size limits]: They’re meaningless!
Well, maybe not meaningless, but I’ve had three DOE parent-years where one of my kids was in a class over the limit, one significantly (in K, sadly). Everyone thought this was very troubling, but bupkis was done about it.
Still, you are mostly right. This is one area–possibly the only area–where the interests of the UFT and parents converge.
The class size ceiling in the contract is nothing to sneeze at, and the union’s ability to enforce it definitely benefits students. On the other hand, when was the last time the union made lower class sizes a priority in its contract negotiations? 40 years ago? Longer? It seems like the union and the city both have been more or less satisfied with where class sizes are for a long time.
But it’s true that class sizes could be even higher, and I am thankful for that, not to mention that I can still walk.
Well, that’s the thing–personally, my kids are 0 for 3 in having the limit actually enforced (I don’t even think a grievance was filed for the K class that was way over the limit; I didn’t know anything about anything back then). It isn’t a hard or absolute cap–here is a good Eterno piece about it: http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/class-size-arbitration-is-joke.html
Right. I’m sure “why bother” is always a compelling response to the question of whether a grievance should be filed.
This reminds me of the semi-recent flap a few months ago where Chancellor Farina — an experienced educator who respects teachers in mellifluous tones, collects comment cards from parents, and certainly is not completely incompetent — made one of those gaffes in which she was in front of a microphone and said what she was actually thinking. I can’t remember the specifics, but basically someone asked a question about how class sizes were up to 30 or 35 and what the DOE was doing to lower them, and Farina’s response was, oh, that doesn’t sound too bad. If Joe Klein had said it, it would have been all over the edu blogs, but as it was it only generated a few tweets (including from L. Haimson, much to her credit). The DOE just does what it does.
FLERP! Perhaps class size is rolled over as is in new contracts or already enshrined in state law. In our area, it rarely comes up with local negotiations because nobody till now sought to increase it. The Reformers add it in as a barganing chip. “Teachers – you want to avoid poverty in retirement or keep lower class sizes?”
Most people understand the benefits of a small class size. The wealthy pay for it and the not so wealthy take on big mortgages to get it. Try to impose higher teacher:student ratios in a private school and there’s backlash. Realtors use it to sell homes.
It is simple math. If I have x minutes for y students, increase y and I have less time per student. I don’t see how any convoluted junk science study could contradict the obvious.
How is “achievement” defined? Test scores, right? Yawn.
Graduation rates, college attendance, college completion, too.
Graduation rates can be gamed. College attendance ignores good vocational students and can be gamed. College completion is a fuzxy number and can be gamed. So what is “achievement”?
Gosh..what a surprise.
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/HAVE-REPORTERS-BECOME-POLI-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Media_Media-Bias_Media-Blackout_Media-
While listening to The Diane Rehm Show this morning, I was very sorry to hear Robert Reich agreeing with another guest about how crummy our schools allegedly are. But it was right as I pulled into the parking lot at my employment, so maybe I misunderstood. The topic was inequality.
I don’t see a transcript, but here’s a link to the programme:
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-06-12/two-views-solving-income-inequality-america
When the 1% have abolished public schools as we know them, eliminated qualified, educated, certified teachers, and reduced “school” to kids behind a computer screen, be it in a room of 400 with a clerk over-seer, or at home or wherever, perhaps things will turn around and the politicians will tweak the laws, rules, regulations, statutes back in the students’ favor, and schools will open again, with real teachers, supplies, lunch, security, etc.
See Beatriz Vergara’s future….she will have a miserable life. Do you think she will grow up to do great things? She should be ashamed of herself. Do you think the 1% will hold her up as their poster child and claim them as their own? I don’t see her coming up through their ranks of the 1% to become a Wendy Kopp or Michelle Rhee “spokeperson” – after all, she doesn’t possess the breeding they like, and certainly not the smarts. She will be a used empty shell, with time to reflect on being used like she has been, after whatever money was given to her family is long gone.
I know the defendants filed for summary judgment, and it was denied, but did the defendants file any counterclaims? Did they not prove who was behind this shill of a case and why, or was that not germane to the defense?
When your superintendent, Deasy, is on the side of the plaintiffs…….. that is pretty appalling.
Or that Finland’s teachers all belong to a strong labor union.
Many Europeans bnelong to strong labor unions in general.
Thank you for reminding us that labor unions are there for the people and without them, the people have no voice—no one to speak for them. And this is exactly what the Wall-Mart and McDonald mentality of the super rich want, workers without a voice.
When the U.S. still had child labor, children ages 7 to 12 were considered easier to manage and cheaper, and half the workforce in many factories were not even teenagers yet.
Lloyd,
Unions sustain and maintain the middle class. When the middle class is strong, it goes out and stimulates the economy by consuming . . . . house extensions, kitchen renovations, cars, blenders, hockey equipment, knitting needles, and the local diner.
When our unions are all but completely decimated, we will have no more mass economy, and the rich will only spend within their own markets, which is good news for people who work in industries that specialize in rich man’s spending (Southeby’s real estate servicesHarry Winston, Balenciaga, Rolls Royce, etc.).
It’s the new normal.
Honduras, here we come . . . .
What you say is true. Imagine how much money will be lost to the consumer economy when 3.3+ million teachers see their average pay drop across the board.
From Texas we learn: “Teacher Salaries: Charter schools pay teachers less, have greater than twice the percentage of less experienced (0-5 years) teachers, and have fewer teachers with advanced degrees than school districts.”
From this one report: Average teacher salary in 2011 public schools versus Charters:
Public school $48,838
Charter Schools $41,175.
Based on this one average, how much will be lost annually to the consumer economy if Charters take over teaching all of our children? $2,424,000,000,000 (correct me if my number is wrong) I based this on 3.3 million public school teachers losing $8.000 a year, on average. Imagine the number of jobs that will be lost outside of education as restaurants and shops go out of business and cut back staff.
You may want to scan this report from the Texas Association of School Boards, Inc.
Click to access chartercomp2012.pdf
Would 21 BILLION help?
and, but he way,… what I see ‘out there’ is disaster, because we have a generation of men where 30% of adult men live with their parents or alone .(stat from the Ny Times today.) They were sold from their first breath, a message, that if they ‘think it’ they can do it’ and that they “deserve the best”… a non-stop barrage of messages overt and subliminal none of which explained that dreaming is not enough, that hard work make life worthwhile
“The best way for a father to teach this is by example. This explains why a child’s ability to grow up to be a productive adult is so strongly predicted by the presence of a working father in the home.”
If they run and burn, the future America is doomed… and isn’t that what the oligarchs are doing, ending the America that we knew, so that a stressed and ignorant population will let them run the show… Orwell had it right. So did Thomas Wolf who acknowledged that GREED WAS THE DEADLIEST SIN.
Am I off topic?
sorry.
I meant eight thousand dollars and not eight dollars in that difference in pay, on average.
AMEN!
SIGH!
Evil.
“The Center For Union Facts” and the Obama Administration on the same page.
Good Lord.
Amusing how the Administration “love” for public school teachers lasted exactly as long as it took to take the CC tests. It started the day they rolled out the test and it ended with the huge media push to promote this ruling.
Jill Biden should be embarrassed for playing her role in that purely political play-acting.
Has Duncan been out to bash public schools today? Its a day ending in “Y”right?
They’re calling it “tenure reform”. Someone should tell the DC crowd the whole country shudders when they “reform” something. We have DC reform fatigue. Why don’t they “reform” their own profession? Reform politics. Stop serving lobbyists instead of constituents. Pass some ethics rules. Tell the truth. Reform your own house.
I’m still baffled by why the Democratic Party has decided to run on “everything that is wrong with this country is caused by lazy and stupid middle class workers”
I hope they didn’t pay a consultant millions of dollars for this “message”
No, a few plutocrats pay the Dims millions of dollars for this message.
The only thing one need know about the Center for Union “facts” is that it is a Rick Berman front group. See http://www.bermanexposed.org for details and spread the word. It’s time we brought this human cancer out of the shadows and make his brand and his front groups permanently toxic. Here’s another link to Mr. Toxic Lie Machine. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Berman
I only read USA today when I can get it free.
Hope people got to see Chris Hayes’ report on Vergara which just aired a few minutes ago on MSNBC. He pointed out the fallacies of the court opinion and shared the history and logic behind teacher tenure.
Never blame a bad teacher for their own existence. The vey small percent of truly bad, grossly ineffective teachers cannot fire themselves. The blame rests squarely on inexperienced, unqualified, incompetent, and lazy MANAGEMENT.
What dont these reformers get about this simple fact?
Well, it didn’t take long for that to happen, that’s for sure. I can’t even say that I’m surprised, although it does make me sad & very angry. If you go to USA Today’s Facebook page, they are being barraged with postings from many angry teachers and others who support teachers and public education. I would encourage others to do the same.
At least this is overt & we can point to it & say that this is very clearly union and teacher bashing. That being said, I cannot tell you how many conversations I’ve been in where people make comments about teachers and teaching that are not as overt, but clearly are disparaging. Currently, I’m doing a doctoral program in educational leadership. (I have no intention in becoming an administrator!) There are few people in the program that seem to take great pleasure in bashing teachers, especially the “older” “tired” ones & how they wish they could just get rid of them. Or the many comments about how awful the unions are and how they do nothing but protect bad teachers. Of course, these comments are being made by school site administrators. I kept waiting for my professors to say something & yet, too often, the only person speaking up is me.
When our own schools of education do nothing and say nothing about these attacks on public education, it gives me a glimpse of what’s not being said to our young teachers about the importance of their union and the value that our older teachers bring to the profession.
The younger teachers hold us older teachers in disdain. They believe they are protected from the testing trap that will fall on them. They also do not realize that in a few years, especially without tenure, they will be the expensive excess baggage to be thrown out. Their perky enthusiasm will not save them. They smirk at me and deride me daily, (their students did not out score mine), but they shall be where I am now. It is sad, they believe their own excellence will save them, but they are ignorant and will be surprised. Either they will stay poor on the pay scale, or be too expensive to keep.
Veteran teachers tend to be the ones that bring up test scores.
One, year, one of the teachers in the district where I taught broke down the standardized test score averages by number of years a teacher had been in the classroom and found that the students of teachers who had the least experience had the lowest overall averages compared to veterans with 10 or more years, and the more years a teacher had taught, the higher the average for that subgroup—based on experience.
When I left, the high school was on an upward trend, but since then many of the other older ed-vets have also retired and left the trenches behind, and that high school’s ranking dropped by 50% from a 4 to a 2. The poverty rate, as measured by free or reduced breakfast/lunch, also climbed from 70% to 80%.
It seems the newbies are struggling. If they stick it out and don’t jump ship, after about ten or more years of experience, they will start to turn that drop around that took place after ed-vets with 20 to 40 years of experience left.
Let them gloat. You will have the last laugh but don’t expect them to admit they are wrong in their arrogance. Many in the younger generation just starting out grew up as a member of the self-esteem generation and they are self centered narcissists and sociopath who strongly believe they will be successful at anything they do, but without the experience of ever having faced real failure and learning from it. Many will crash and burn, then run away with their proverbial tail tucked between their legs.