Stephanie Simon reports at politico.com that former high-level Obama advisors will help the fight against teacher unions and due process rights. Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor who is highly antagonistic to teachers’ unions, is creating an organization to pursue a Vergara-style lawsuit in New York against teachers’ job protections. Her campaign will have the public relations support of an agency led by Robert Gibbs, former Obama Press Secretary, and Ben LaBolt, former Obama campaign spokesman.
Simon writes:
“Teachers unions are girding for a tough fight to defend tenure laws against a coming blitz of lawsuits — and an all-out public relations campaign led by former aides to President Barack Obama.
“The Incite Agency, founded by former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, will lead a national public relations drive to support a series of lawsuits aimed at challenging tenure, seniority and other job protections that teachers unions have defended ferociously. LaBolt and another former Obama aide, Jon Jones — the first digital strategist of the 2008 campaign — will take the lead role in the public relations initiative.”
Campbell Brown achieved a certain notoriety or renown for articles she wrote in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere insisting that the unions were protecting “sexual predators” in the classroom.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Teachers are the “new Jews” (my apologies if anyone is offended by that… but the analogy is is spot-on).
First of all, to Ahmad…
“Huh?”
Anyway, back to the issues. At the end of this linked article, they talk about the funders and allies of this attack on teacher unions:
———-
“Korn blasted the ‘Partnership for Educational Justice,’ which will be organizing the legal campaign, as an ‘AstroTurf’ group funded by right-wing ‘extremists.’ He noted that Brown’s husband, Dan Senor, a former policy adviser to Mitt Romney, sits on the board of StudentsFirst, an education reform group that has long pushed to weaken or abolish tenure — and that has attracted donations from extremely wealthy individuals.
“ ‘Campbell Brown ought to disclose her donors who are funding this attack on working people and the rights of teachers,’ Korn said. ‘We will vigorously defend due process and seniority rights against these attacks by billionaire hedge fund managers.’
“Brown declined to name her donors, saying only that they come from both parties.
“Lefkowitz, the attorney who will be leading the New York case, has successfully litigated other cases that pitted him against teachers unions.
“He won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court defending Wisconsin’s voucher program, which gives eligible parents public funds to pay tuition at private and religious schools. He also successfully defended the for-profit public school management company K12 Inc. against a lawsuit brought by the Chicago Teachers Union. And he worked pro bono to help enact a ‘parent trigger’ law in California, which allows parents to seize control of a failing public school and bring in new management or staff.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/robert-gibbs-ben-labolt-legal-fight-teachers-union-incite-agency-108243.html#ixzz35aQjGzV6
Jack..not really comfortable with your analogy for nothing compares with the Holocaust of over 10 million people and 6 million Jews. However I do understand your angst.
If anyone is left that does not recognize that this Manchurian Candidate President is a total shill of Wall Street, corporate America, and a puppet of the 1%, the billionaires who run ALEC, and who are determined to kill off all unions, not only teacher’s unions, and to make us all their serfs, then those folks have not been paying attention.
I have written about this goal for the past year. Vergara opened the flood gates for this onslaught and the big money is now pouring into the pockets of the top law firms in the US to file and win lawsuits with Vergara as their precedent.
It has made me very uncomfortable, and angry, that so few even paid attention until after this vile decision was made based on the false statistics presented by Chetty and Berlinger. This judge is from a small Right Wing venue (an important part of the plan to file there rather than in San Francsico or LA) and although it would look like a slam dunk to reverse the ruling made by Treu (this judge should be named False), the damage is done. The major law firms have had their filings prepared just waiting for this trumped up decision and many filed within days of the verdict for the plaintiffs. I keep saying Ted Olson and Gibson Dunn and Crutcher do not take simple little “civil rights” cases unless there is huge master plan for endless litigation based on this case. Can it be a national collusion of these Wall Street profiteers? You bet.
This has been in the planning for at least 4 years…read about it by googling the case and Olson and his group. Welch and Eli Broad trumped this up with their golden lawyers years ago, and they worked their plan in sync to their desired outcome.
Where are the labor lawyers?
Ellen,
I’m not totally comfortable with the analogy, either…. however, when I read stuff like the article above, the analogy involuntarily comes to mind.
My point is that an innocent group—unionized teachers, in this instance—are being scapegoated and attacked by an ignoble group—money-motivated, union busting privatizers— for selfish and ignoble ends… and this is being done through the use of the most vicious, dishonest, far-reaching, and ruthless propaganda in human history.
That’s the extent of the comparison.
Let me tell you… the unjustly scapegoated—we teachers—we are not—repeat NOT—going down without a fight… nor should we.
Even the NLRB does not have lawyers of this caliber who have spent their lives as the top litigators for the 1%.
Yes, it would be great if brilliant labor leaning lawyers such as Tribe and Chemerinsky and Galbraith and Black, and others, would be opposing forces, but they do not work for free and evidently the union’s lawyers do not measure up to these most astute business lawyers. and the unions do not have the deep pockets of the billionaires. Might is making right…and it will get far worse.
Waltons and Broad are again pouring money into parent trigger assaults nationwide. See Diane on this topic today. Ben Austin is coming on strong in LA after a quiescent period. There will be frontal attacks in the many areas that are bringing down public education…and this is a carefully planned battle. Where are teacher’s unions leadership in all this? Why have they not worked in cooperation for years to fend off this attack? Well, we see Randi and others of her ilk at work…not for teachers it would seem.
Yes, where are the labor lawyers??? Dream on.
How ironic that our first African-American president will be the Democrat who waterboarded the New Deal to death.
It’s time time to turn the page on the Democratic Party.
Since we’re talking about Vergara, I’m re-posting something of mine.
(I have combined 2 posts, so what follows is a bit redundant—i.e. my posting of YouTube link)—… sorry)
Here’s a video of one of the “grossly ineffective teachers” and “2013 Pasadena Teacher of the Year” named in this lawsuit (by her former student and plaintiff Raylene Monterroza):
Mind you, this above video was played during court, and Ms. Monterroza was questioned about how it felt to watch the video of students praising her “grossly ineffective teacher” (starting at 00:49). She replied that watching it was upsetting, and that those students must have been lying as that wasn’t Ms. Monterroza’s experience.
Hmmm…
Watch the “teacher of the year” video again, starting at 00:49, where the students give their opinion of the teachers.
Do these kids sound like they’re lying? Do the kids’ description of their teacher Ms. McLaughlin align with the criteria of the stereotypical “grossly ineffective teacher” that the Vergara legal team claims that Ms. McLaughlin is?
Again, this is a video portrait, as you see, celebrating and profiling Ms. McLaughlin’s award-winning teaching, as the “Rotary’s Pasadena 2013 Teacher of the Year.”
The student plaintiff, Ms. Raylene Monterroza, claimed in her testimony that those students in the video can’t be telling the truth, as it conflicts with her own experience. She said that watching that video prior to her testimony, “upset” her… as it included countless students contradicting her and the entire Vergara team’s claims that Ms. McLaughlin is… again… “a grossly ineffective teacher.”
Again, watch the video portrait of Ms. McLaughlin (who was also won the Pasadena NAACP’s “2008 Star of Education” award, by the way) and ask yourself…
So which is Ms. McLaughlin?
a deserving, multi-award-winning “Teacher of the Year”, praised to the hilt by countless students in the video?
OR
“a grossly ineffective teacher” according to JUST ONE student, and a teacher who taught the (Vergara plaintiff) Ms. Monterroza “nothing,” and thus destroyed Ms. Monterroza’s education?
Watch it again while you ponder that question:
I think this answer is pretty obvious, and hopefully will be to any Appeals Court or Supreme Court judges.
“The major law firms have had their filings prepared just waiting for this trumped up decision and many filed within days of the verdict for the plaintiffs.”
What major law firms filed complaints within days of the Vergara verdict?
Thanks for those video links, Jack.
I find the attack on this teacher of the year to be an affront to civilized discourse and an affront to justice.
Unless the district had a list of the 1 to 3% of incompetent teachers, that was in place for several years, and then some of those teachers were teaching the plaintiffs, then that might make some sense.
Otherwise, how many students might find one of their teachers incompetent in their expert opinion? 97 to 99%. I don’t think you need a statistician to answer that question.
TC,
I agree, and when I watch the video, I wonder what how Ms. McLaughlin is holding up today. Hopefully, she focuses on the opinions of her supportive students and not that of thoroughly-coached and mendacious Ms. Monterroza.
There was some “Perry Mason moments” of sorts during the trial. For example, Ms. Monterroza claimed that she never read any books because Ms. McLaughlin never assigned any, or required any work of her.
When Ms. McLaughlin took the stand, she presented the class syllabus that she’s given to all her fifth graders over the years. This included numerous books that were required reading, the papers that were required, and numerous assignments—something that hundreds of former students (though not Ms. Monterroza, of course) would back up was the cornerstone of her class.
Of course, this syllabus included all the class work and homework that a student must complete if he or she wanted to… maybe… oh, I don’t know… learn something.
When asked if Ms. Monterroza had completed ANY—not “some”, mind you…”any”—of the work required, Ms. McLaughlin recalled her records and said, “No.” When asked for an evaluation of her overall performance, Ms. McLaughlin replied delicately, “Raylene did not do her best.”
Needless to say, Ms. Monterroza and the the Vergara plaintiffs had all the credibility of O.J. Simpson during the civil trial against him—i.e. when Simpson was presented with photos of his wife’s beaten-up face (taken by police who answered his wife’s 911 call), Simpson claimed that this was the result of his wife picking at her acne… oy vey!
The judge had his mind made up before he walked into court on DAY ONE.
Indeed, this whole Vergara trial was like something out of Mao’s :Cultural Revolution” in China during the 1960’s. For those not acquainted with this, here’s primer: zealous students, under party leaders’ directions, would persecute their teachers. Kids would get their jollies as they put their teachers on a stage, put dunce caps on them, then screamed at them while forcing their teachers to bow their heads, kneel down, and confess their “crimes” and on and on…
These kids—appointed and empowered as “Red Guards” by Mao’s henchmen— would parade their former teachers through the streets…
Hey wait… there’s a scene from THE LAST EMPEROR that shows this way better than I could describe it…
Watch from: 01:19 – 04:19
(at which point—04:19—some female Red Guard students start performing an inane Commie “line dance” of sorts… creepy…)
At 02:45, watch “Pu Yi”—the former-Chinese-emperor-now-gardener—as he tries to stand up for his former teacher (for clarification: years ago, while Pu Yi’s was imprisoned, his teacher was referred to as “governor.”)
In response to Pu Yi, a teenage “Red Guard” zealot screams in his face:
“Join us (in the persecution of teachers), Comrade, or f— off!”
Next, the students force Pu Yi’s former teacher to his knees and demand that he “confess his crimes.” Amazingly, he refuses.
Pu Yi then chimes in, shouting, “But he is a teacher! A good teacher! You cannot do this to him!” before Pu Yi is violently subdued by the student fanatics.
Anyway, this scene is all happening AGAIN, and it’s happening HERE in the Vergara case courtroom, and soon will in countless more “Vergara” courtrooms to come. It’s a less intense version, to be sure, but THE overall situation is the same:
we know have kids—directed by and empowered by evil adults with an evil agenda—enthusiastically persecuting their innocent teachers.
I am a Jew. I am not offended. Campbell Brown, Dan Señor, Obama, Duncan, Gibbs and company will not be satisfied until the profession of teaching has been eliminated in this country, and they have clearly found their final solution in the Vergara opinion. When tenure and seniority are gone, and teaching is reduced to a job filled by temp agencies, and all schools are privatized, I hope their wishes for a quality education for every young American will be fulfilled, but I doubt it.
I have said before that Sinclair Lewis had it right when he wrote “It Can’t Happen Here.” It Can and it is. Teachers, unless and until our union leadership finally decide to represent us and not act as paid patsies for the two major political parties, it is time to pack our bags and head north to Vermont or, if the fascists capture that state, Canada.
Seriously, I have one or two years to go before retirement. I love my job and my profession. My personal concerns about tenure are long past. But I have a young man assigned to be my student teacher in the fall, and I don’t know what I can say to him when it comes to questions about job prospects and the future of teaching. I am sure Campbell Brown and Robert Gibbs have answers, but I don’t.
Thanks, GST. As an non-Jew, I try to tread lightly with that “teachers are the new Jews” analogy.
As to what Campbell Brown and their ilk would probably tell your student teacher protege.. they would likely vomit up some drivel along the lines of…
“Well, if you’re a good, hard-working, non-pedophile teacher, then you don’t need tenure or unions, and thus, you will have nothing to worry about during your long teaching career.”
Oh really?
Can somebody tell me a time in history when the absence or destruction of unions/workers’ rights led to or caused better working conditions, better salaries, benefits, more respect, and a long, fulfilling, productive career in one’s job?
No, I didn’t think so.
“Well, if you’re a good, hard-working, non-pedophile teacher, then you don’t need tenure or unions, and thus, you will have nothing to worry about during your long teaching career.”
Exactly.
This idea seems well embedded in the American psyche.
I have had many of my former student teachers, all big eyed and sincere tell me only “bad teachers” need protections or layers or professional organizations (we have no unions in my red state).
One or two anecdotes about good teachers tossed under the bus by administrators or accused of something crazy by an unstable parent usually brings them around. If not a few years on the job and witnessing some injustice does the trick.
Wonder how youngsters get the idea that unions only protect the guilty and everyone else will get a fair shake?
Hum, can’t quite put my finger on it.
😉
Teachers are the “new Jews”???? I am offended….that you said jews instead of niggers
I never realized until just now that this site doesn’t have a “flag” feature.
Let’s just say that teachers are the current scape goat for all this country’s perceived ills.
ellen…that is what I meant…I apologize…it there was a way to delete my crudeness, I would………
Joe, I wasn’t offended by either. Both statements come very close to the truth.
While of a different magnitude, you are exactly right in your analogy. They are vilifying teachers and saying they are the problem just like they did the Jews in Germany. I am a Jew and find this sickening.. If they succeed, the United States will change forever. It is sad.
you don’t say. now what did you say?
Just posted this to Facebook, along with the following comment:
“Tenure = due process, which is the ONLY thing that protects teachers from bad or evil administrators. It allows teachers to advocate for students or blow the whistle on bad practices without fear of losing their careers. It allows dedicated teachers to actually have a career they can retire from, instead of being let go because they got “too expensive.”
Let Obama put his kids into a Stepford-like charter that spends all its money on big payouts for the owners and not much on the classroom. Let his girls be subjected to rigid “zero tolerance” practices and rote learning. Let them drill for hours every single day, preparing for badly written, high-stakes tests. Then see if he still supports charters.”
BTW – I am a retired, twice National Board Certified Teacher, and spent my entire career working with urban, at-risk students.
On the subject of the Obama’s education vs. the “No Excuses” charter model, here’s thought experiment.
Imagine what would happen if Barack and Michelle paid a visit to their school, snuck in the back of the class (the point-of-view of the camera) and witnessed this indefensible horror:
I imagine Barack and/or Michelle interrupting this atrocity, screaming,
“STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!!! What the BLEEP do you think you’re doing to my child, and to the rest of these children???!!!
(to the teacher)
“What’s your name?! Where’s the principal?! We need to talk to her right now!!!!”
(taking Sasha or Malia by the hand, talk to her)
“We’re getting you out of this freak show before you suffer any more damage!”
However, we all know that the teaching in this video does not and never will happen at…
Sidwell Friends (the Obama’s kids school),
or at Lakeside in Seattle (where Gates kids go)
or at the Montessori school (where NY State Ed. Commish John King sends his kids),
or at Chris Christie’s kids private school,
or at the Chicago Lab School (where Emanuel sends his kids and also where my own nephew and niece attend, by the way)…
as there is a difference between the education enjoyed by the children of the elite—including the Obama kids—and the education that “corporate reformers”, in their end game, are designing for “other people’s children—those of the middle and working classes.
I imagine the Obamas would have the same reaction to my kids’ public school.
Maybe they would, but they aren’t hyping public schools as some kind of magic cure to the ills of education, unlike their touting of charters.
It doesn’t even do that, let me tell you, but it’s better than nothing.
You have to have an outside lawyer to have a chance at winning these rigged tribunals, and I am sure OK’s are as bad as Nevada’s, and even if you “win,” you will have a target on your back.
OMG ! Corporate reformers don’t make kids in charter schools engage in mindless chanting or repetition of the speaker..
If that Nashville Prep video wasn’t bad enough, check out the professonal development that Chicago Public Schools “corporate reform” management put their teachers through:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/28/a-video-that-shows-why-teachers-are-going-out-of-their-minds/?tid=pm_pop
I’m surprised the teachers put up with that crap and that the leader of this ridiculous PD made it through un-shredded. Also that no one threw anything at her or displayed intense passive aggressivity.
LA hired Pearson to do trainings, etc. Total waste of time, but at least their facilitators pretended to respect the expertise that teachers brought to the table.
Reblogged this on We Are More and commented:
Americans must become proactive rather than reactive in political participation. Educators must return to teaching citizenship and political awareness.
Gerri, I have said/written for many years that civics is the one mandated and consistent class that every school child must take. Learning how to be a citizen, what it means to vote, and how government works is the prime lesson…more important than math and science and other core subjects which can be left up to local districts. It is citizenship that binds us as a nation…so maybe taking away Civics was the beginning of this end game.
True. I do have hope for change though.
Help the public be proactive. Is there a template for communication at “We Are More”? If not, write and post, here, a concise, compelling letter that people can copy and send to their school boards, local civic organizations and newspapers. The people can personalize the letter but, won’t have to start from scratch to explain a complex issue.
I think it would be appreciated.
One letter by Bruce Nottke, an Athens Ohio school board member, was published at Plunderbund. He asked the readers to contact the state board of education. His letter addressed charters but not, Common Core testing.
Thank you – that is a very good suggestion. I’ll get that going as soon as I can.
Although, I may not have to – most states are pulling out.
What can we do? Vergara seems to first attack the period to obtain tenure – in NY it is already longer and 3 years is about the national average – how many years is enough?
Second, assuming the awarding of it isn’t the problem, but what happens after with regards to both annual staffing choices as well as lay off procedures, how does tenure lead to a bad education for students? How lenient do firing procedures need to be to satisfy these people? How do you get away from a system other than last in first out being turned into an excuse to use ageism (or payrollscale-ism) to eliminate teachers whenever you feel teachers are too costly?
If we turn teachers into a profession where it is a teacher’s job to kowtow to their manager, we will be glorified grocery store clerks or babysitters, not pedagogues.
Try daycare workers. These dirtbags won’t be happy until teachers are making minimum wage with no benefits.
If they really cared about getting quality teachers into low performing schools wouldn’t they have gone after the way teachers are assigned? LA is a big school district, and it’s true that the worst schools are hard to staff. But instead of trying to move high quality teachers (however they think they can measure that) they act as if they can fire their way out of the problem.
Oh, and unlike California, New York now does have a law in place to dismiss ineffective teachers, and that is tied to test scores. The only vestige remaining is last in first out, and I find it incredulous that anyone would think districts wouldn’t manufacture budget crises to get rid of teachers they declare ineffective and “just can’t wait” (to deny them their pension).
The specifics of the law doesn’t matter.
That was clear when they immediately went after Connecticut.
The objective is to destroy teachers unions.
YES…I have been stressing this for the past year. Thanks Chiara for your comment.
“Good teaching” is strictly a matter of opinion; it cannot be quantified.
It is INSANE to have their careers hinge on the test scores of students, students who have sole control over whether or not they will learn.
This is all about hollowing out the middle class.
YES Susan, the Vergara decision is a giant step toward finishing off the Middle Class, or what is now left of it, and making us all the working poor.
1% overlords, 99% serfs.
They (Broad, Gates, Murdoch, Waltons et al, most Presidents and their staffs since Eisenhower, war profiteers, Wall Street tycoons, etc. + ALEC) planned their work and worked their plan, and it is coming to total fruition. Unless we all can cooperate and gather together in unity, the Middle Class will be seen only in history…that is if they allow history books to reflect the good old days of the American Dream…but they still insist the is American Exceptionalism.
That decision will spawn a whole new cottage industry in overpaid DC blowhards paid to run PR campaigns.
How many former Obama Administration people are on the privatization payroll now? 100? 200?
The antipathy towards public schools in that administration starts to make a lot more sense when Obama staffers all rush to cash in on it.
Anyone who didn’t know by now that ed reformers are vehemently anti-labor is either a dope or on the ever-growing ed reform payroll.
The moment teachers unions are gone, they privatize every public school in the country.
It’s a disgusting betrayal of the public trust.
I have to say though, I appreciate the hacks who actually get on the billionaire payroll. It’s more honest than staying on the public payroll while actually working for billionaires.
Of the two, I prefer the privately-paid hacks. At least we’re not paying them tto screw us.
I wish I could still be surprised.
I just heard Duncan on the radio. He’s creating a new special education program.
Sounds like 50 million more to testing companies.
You-all need to quit your jobs and go work for a testing company. Arne Duncan is almost single-handedly creating a boom in that industry.
50 million more for tests! Ka-ching!
Those magnificent men and their testing machine,
50 million more dollars go flying around.
It was the usual gobbleydegook. I think he said “high expectations”
Also! The DC word is “assessments” now. They’ve dropped “test” because they’re incapable of plain language.
If you say “thoughtful assessment” that makes it different from a test. Be sure to add “thoughtful”. It’s their favorite word. They all repeat it like deranged parrots.
I keep recognizing the “corporate reform-speak”.
Regarding the elimination of all job protections, and reducing teachers to the same fire-at-will status as a fast-food worker…
“reformers” call that being “empowered with personnel flexibility” or “enabling labor cost control”
or
how about the clever “labor reforms” … as in “reform” “labor’ unions out of existence… or “reform” “laborers” into quasi-slaves.
I just saw some of these euphemisms in a Forbes column by Carrie Sheffield that just came out yesterday:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carriesheffield/2014/06/22/california-court-teacher-tenure-ruling-bolsters-public-schools-finances/
When you know the truth, it’s funny reading statements like, “In his recently-released book, Unintimidated, (Governor Scott) Walker attributed his ability to survive a recall election, demanded by his pro-union critics, to positive results among school districts better able to manage their budgets under post-recession constraints.”
First of all, it was to early get any so-called “positive results.”
Secondly, he won because he outspent the recall opponents 10-to-1, with all kinds of out of state money from folks like the Koch Brothers, (and also because Russ Feingold, who polls showed would have wiped the floor with Walker, resisted pleas to run and instead stayed in academia)
Thankfully, Walker’s now under investigation for criminal activity in how coordinated all the fundraising for that money to fight his recall.
Also, Ms. Sheffield claims that now the Vergara verdict will help traditional public schools win back students that went to charters, or retain students that might otherwise flee to charters.
How? Try to follow her line of thinking.
————————————————
“Ironically, despite unions’ general opposition to California’s court ruling, this new change puts traditional schools in a better competitive position for funds determined on a per-pupil basis.”
—————————————————-
Hmmm… well, EXACTLY HOW will that make traditional schools more “competitive”? Well—doncha know it?—Vergara will lead to a BETTER “quality” of teachers, and that will then win over parents.
——————————————————
“Vergara offers LAUSD a chance to win back students by improving teacher quality, thus bolstering its financial position as well.”
————————————————-
So let me get this straight, Ms. Sheffield… by changing teaching from…
————————————-
CATEGORY A … a profession with requires exacting education, extensive expertise, a demanding training period before actual practice… much like that of doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. … a career job that last decades…
and converting it to …
CATEGORY B… nothing more than a low-level service job that requires the most minimal education, almost no expertise, and little if any training period (just gimmicks from godawful books written by “experts” like Doug Lemov) … like fast food, retail sales at a store, office temping, etc. … not a career… just a mere “job” with no protections, or due process before getting fired… a short-term job where it’s only a few years on the job, and out you go, to then be replaced by a next round of similarly poorly-compensated, short-term workers…
—————————————–
… that is what is supposed to make teaching in LAUSD more attractive to college students deciding on a major/career, or older people considering a career change… and then draw in the best of those two categories?
Yeah, right!
CATEGORY B need only be paid a pittance and can be abused and over-worked with impunity, while CATEGORY A requires considerably more compensation. If the money-motivated privatizers are going to make a decent profit while taking over all or much of what is now public education, the the work force has to be the CATEGORY B.
I remember talking to a TFA Corps Member at a school site, telling her that doctors, lawyers, and engineers need exacting education, extensive expertise, a demanding training period before actual practice… and so should teachers.
Her reply, “Yeah, but those are different from teaching; those are REAL professions.”
THUD! Sound of my jaw hitting the floor. (That’s part of what they’re taught during their five weeks of training… oy vey!!)
The other agenda is that corporations—including those not engaged in raping and pillaging of public educatin—and rich folk will have their taxes drastically cut as a result of all this. Those corporations will have higher profits, higher price for their stock, and happy stock-holders as a result. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN CHILE… thanks to decades of the dictatorship there, and no democratic process to stop privatization.
That’s why the so-called “corporate reform” privatizers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars vilifying the current teachers and their unions—documentaries, movies, op-eds, foundations, etc. Those unions are getting in their way of their rampage towards profits. The privatizers desperately need to destroy the public’s faith and confidence in teachers, and pass so-called “right-to-work” laws that will destroy unions. They want to do to education what they did to the housing industry, and to Wall Street… education is the next realm to conquer, rape, and pillage. These are the same folks.
However, you’ll notice that in the schools that these well-heeled folks send their own kids, you have teachers with multiple degrees, decades of experience… schools that include full-time dedicated libraries / librarians, arts teachers/ program, music teachers / programs..
Unlike the McSchools they want for the kids of the middle and working classes, these schools have small class sizes, and no (or very little) time spent in a cubicle with on-line or digital teachers. 100% (or close to it) of their kids’ instructional time is spend with live teachers of CATEGORY A above, and because of the small class sizes—12-to-1, 10-to-1, that attention is often 1-on-1… again, totally unlike the McSchools they want for everyone else’s kids.
Duncan was on the radio with TN’s despised commissioner of Ed, Kevin Huffman. Huffman is under scrutiny because he missed the end of school deadline for TCAP test scores. http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2014/06/09/bring-transparency-school-testing-process/10202061/
This isn’t the first time Huff has made everyone in TN- including the republican legislature- angry. https://www.facebook.com/RemoveKevinHuffman
Seems like every time Huffman was in hot water, his evil twin, Duncan flew in to TN or made some public statement praising TN’s education plan.
Why didn’t his disgusting wife fly in on her Time broom to save the day? Oh, he wasn’t caught fondling a teen girl this time?
In all places: New York. I never thought I would see this. Despite the APPR law, Cuomo will surely find yet another way to destroy public schools and teachers. Any NY teacher is crazy to vote anyone other than a Green candidate. Robert Shepherd is fond of quoting Macbeth: “And may these juggling fiends be no more believed who plater with us in a double sense, that keep the word of promise to our ear, and break it to our hope.”
With the loss of public ed will come a loss of several decades of students with even a basic knowledge. This won’t turn out well for those groups traditionally ignored and discriminated against. After teachers are put down
Who will they go for next?
There is so much news out there journalists have to make their mark somehow. And so they jump on a negative bandwagon and yell louder and with greater shrill than any other and they will make their mark. Ignoring the truth along the way. Teacher’s unions allow teachers a due process when accused. They also protect the rights of the kids by suing districts and administrators when they don’t follow federal and state regulations especially with regard to special ed. Recently in LA a man, very perverted, was exposed in a school. He was arrested. Deasy the supt. also basically layed off the entire staff, housing them for a year in an empty highschool and then trying to get them to reapply for their jobs. Their only recourse was their union which at least got their jobs back for them even if at different schools. That kind of across the board unfairness is rampant in districts, teachers know this and without union we are up the creek without a paddle. Therefore if this nonsense continues their will be teacher strikes state wide the likes of which have never been seen before. This I truly believe. Teachers are fed up.
Democrats- time to change party affiliation. This is so sad. I gave up on Hope and Change a while ago. Time for an alternative. This should really seal it. I hope.
I agree.
The Democrats have sold their souls. Here is a link to a cartoon from 50 years ago that warns about all of this:
I think Gibbs is also an “analyst” (paid hack) at MSNBC so look for a full-on media/government attack on public schools. Not that that there’s any difference with the actual Obama policy towards public schools.
Is it at all strange for all these powerful, wealthy people lining up to go after middle class public school teachers? Aren’t they embarrassed?
I guess they’re not familiar with the phrase “punching down” in NY and DC.
I see a problem with their lawsuit, as tenure is a part of the NYS Constitution. In order for tenure to be eliminated there needs to be a call for a Constitutional Convention which must be approved by the voters during the general election before any changes can be contemplated.
This call is the only thing which can make NYS teachers and other public servants very afraid, as the whole pension system throughout the state can then be changed for both current and future retirees.
http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/vision-better-education-areas-surprising-agreement
This is the Duncan speech to the PTA. He’s selling fear. He must not know that parents have been listening to politicians spout this same drivel since Reagan.
Also? It’s all of your fault that wages are stagnant. It has nothing whatever to do with the complete capture of politicians by monied interests. None. Nada.
Millionaire Tom Friedman said so in the NYTimes so it must be true.
I can’t wait to see these jerks go after police, fire, and other public sector workers, who have IDENTICAL “protections” teachers have. But I keep forgetting those are “men’s jobs,” and men are entitled to having jobs that pay enough to support a family. Women don’t need the pin money of teaching, so let’s get rid of them.
All this talk from Obama this week about the need for workplaces that are flexible & understanding of the demands of home life. The only reason people ever got paid sick days or vacation time or a living wage or any kind of balance between home & work was through collective bargaining & there were laws in the books that backed up the right to bargain! His administration, though, and Democrats continue with their war on working people. They won’t stop with destroying collective bargaining & pensions for teachers. We’re just first on their list. Other public workers will come next.
Shame on President Obama, Arne Duncan, Cuomo, Rahm Emmanuel, Robert Gibbs. DINOs all, elitist, money-grubbing frauds who have sold their souls to the highest bidder. Remember when Democrats were for the people and not the corporations:
“Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor- those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized – do a disservice to the cause of democracy”. ___John F. Kennedy, August 30, 1960.
I’m wondering what Hillary’s position on teacher tenure is.? Is she just another DINO who will promise hope and deliver pain. Are there any journalists left in this country able to put that question to her, or must we be satisfied with Benghazi and Lewinsky questions until the inevitable coronation. I hope my union is thinking twice about throwing support to any candidate who doesn’t plainly and unequivocally support teacher tenure and collective bargaining. Until we have some answers:
Bernie Sanders in 2016!
I strongly recommend that, if you are interested in Hillary, you read Carl Bernstein’s book (tome–it’s a hefty one). Forgot the title, but follows Hilary through Bill’s years as governor, & you must read about her machinations insofar as the Arkansas teachers. The whole thing did NOT come from Gov. Bill, but Hill.
Elizabeth Warren in 2016.
Neoliberalism is a form of economic liberalism, which advocates support for great economic liberalization, free trade, open markets, privatization, deregulation, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.
Plutocracy defines a society or a system ruled and dominated by the small minority of the wealthiest citizens. Unlike systems such as democracy, capitalism, socialism or anarchism, plutocracy is not rooted in an established political philosophy. The concept of plutocracy may be advocated by the wealthy classes of a society in an indirect or surreptitious fashion, though the term itself is almost always used in a pejorative sense.
Republican? Democrat? Both are anachronistic terms. They are all neoliberals in a plutocracy.