Steven Singer notices a deafening silence from Reformers, who say nothing in response to the nation’s first charter chain strike in Chicago. Come to think of it, the Reformers were silent last spring, during the historic Teacher Revolt in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Co,orado, Noth Carolina, and Arizona.
Are the Reformers on the side of teachers who want smaller classes and a decent salary? No se.
Singer writes:
Charter school teachers in Chicago are in their fourth day of a strike.
Yet I wonder why the leaders of the charter movement are quiet.
Where is Peter Cunningham of the Education Post?
Where is Shaver Jeffries of Democrats for Education Reform?
Not a word from Campbell Brown or Michelle Rhee?
Nothing from Bill Gates, Cory Booker, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?
Not a peep from Betsy DeVos or Donald Trump?
This is a historic moment. Teachers at various charter schools have unionized before, but it has never come to an outright strike – not once since the federal charter school law was established in 1994.
You’d think the charter cheerleaders – the folks who lobby for this type of school above every other type – would have something to say.
But no.
They are conspicuously silent.
I wonder why.
Could it be that this is not what they imagined when they pushed for schools to be privately run but publicly financed?
Could it be that they never intended workers at these schools to have any rights?
Could it be that small class size – one of the main demands of teachers at the 15 Acero schools – was never something these policymakers intended?
It certainly seems so.
Here is the answer, Steven. Charters were funded to kill unions. You guessed it. Now you know it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
While this is a positive sign that charters are losing steam, we are nowhere near their demise or charters being absorbed by public schools. As long as the profiteers can extract public money by buying representatives and fleecing public schools, they will continue to do so unless the public stops them.
The newly elected Democratic governors appear to be heeding the message from voters. Many of them are calling for a moratorium on charters or much needed regulation. Privatization pirates still dictate policy in Ohio and Florida. Billionaires can still afford an army of evil think tankers laser focused on getting access to public funds.
The teacher walk outs of the spring and a charter school strike are positive signs of change. People will revolt against oppression and fight for rights with or without a union.
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I don’t think we’ll be hearing from Michelle Rhee again — she is lying very low with a lot of money reaped from StudentsFirst, on which she’s undoubtedly living quite comfortably. Plus there’s the problem of a number of sexual-abuse reports about her husband. Sorry, this is off topic; just noting. Aside from that, the silence certainly is notable.
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Rhee is working with Miracle-Gro. As Mercedes Sneider points out, she is still selling crap, and I guess you could also say she is peddling miracles. https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/michelle-rhee-branded-but-still-promoting-crap/
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At first I thought this was a joke or satire but truth is stranger than fiction. How the hell did Rhee/Johnson get this new gig, so unrelated to her earlier “pursuits?”
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She’s no longer listed as a Miracle-Gro director, so I guess she didn’t work miracles there. That blog post about her is 4+ years ago. Rhee still has a Twitter account and retweets others’ tweets promoting so-called education “reform,” but doesn’t seem to be making any comments of her own. She and her spouse reaped a nice harvest of donations from StudentsFirst — speaking of Miracle-Gro — and haven’t shown their heads in public. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=98364&p=irol-govmanage_pf
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snake oil salesmen of the past would have known her intimately
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Yesterday, I just received my copy of Gadfly on the Wall: A Public School Teacher Speaks on Racism and Reform by Steven Singer.
Another book, which also came yesterday is: The History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools written and illustrated by Susan Dufresne.
Both are published by GARN PRESS.
I can eager to read them.
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Peter Cunningham’s silence, mentioned by Singer, is interesting, as Cunningham is now one of the key folks on the staff of one of the two front-runners in the upcoming Chicago mayoral race — one of the Daley family. Surely, mayoral candidate (forgot his name) Daley and his communications chief Cunningham can’t avoid comment on this (and future) charter teachers strikes forever.
Talk about caught between a rock and a hard place.
If Daley / Cunningham come out IN SUPPORT OF these (and coming soon more) charter school teachers who are organizing themselves into unions, then driving a hard line at bargaining, and of course, striking, they’ll enrage the corporate ed. reform privatizers who are pouring millions into the Daliey campaign so that Daley / Cunningham will push charter schools, and crush teacher unions and squelch any budding teacher unionization. Those corporate ed. reform privatizers see charter school unionism as the end of them reaping huge profits through cheaping out on salaries, having sky-high class size, etc.
If Daley / Cunningham come out AGAINST these (and coming soon more) charter school teachers who are organizing themselves into unions, then driving a hard line at bargaining, and of course, striking, they’ll lose the greater majority of voters who, in the progressive, union town of Chicago, backed the 2012 (public school, not charter) teachers’ strike, giving those striking teachers a 78% approval rating.
Back just before and during the (ultimately successful) 2012 Chicago teachers strike, millions were spent by deep-pocketed corporate ed reform privatizers in Chicago on propaganda — including expensive TV commercials (i.e. Stand for Children), sell-out black privatizers appearing on news programs — trying to convince the public that the public school teachers & their unions were and are an evil “special interest who cared more about adults than children, and wanted to maintain a status quo that allowed those special interest teachers to be greedy and lazy … blah-blah-blah.”
None of that multi-million-dollar smear stuck. Indeed, judging by the 78% approval for the striking teachers in Chicago, it likely backfired.
It’s definitely a LOSE—LOSE situation for Daley / Cunningham.
As for those “sell-out black privatizers appearing on news programs,” who can ever forget— again, back during the 2012 Chicago teachers strike — the deranged blathering of that Connecticut, African-American ass-clown Dr. Steve Perry, who was paid handsomely to attempt to smear the Chicago striking teachers, and try to turn the public — black, brown, and white alike — against the striking teachers?
Sorry, Steve, It didn’t work. Again, Steve’s inept and idiotic media appearances likely helped those strikers, and increased public support for them.
Here’s Steve comparing the striking Chicago teachers and the impact of their striking to … I kid you not … “a drunk uncle at a wedding trying to make a toast, and makes a fool out of himself at the worst possible time.”
(Seriously Steve, your farts make more sense than this):
(at 1:24)
(at 1:24)
BELOW, you have Perry — again during the 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike, on his handsomely compensated, “unions-&-teachers-are-lazy,-greedy,-and-evil” campaign tour — on ultra-right-wing Michael Medved’s show spouting more of such nonsense,
Dr. Steve calls the decision of teachers to strike “an unconscionable act” and an abandonment of their “moral obligation” to teach children, “putting their own self-interest ahead of children” (The reasons for striking are EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF THIS.)
Here’s six-figure-salaried Perry mocking teachers who talk about how “poor” they are … “these POOR teachers, these POOR teachers” that they claim to be, when, in Dr. Steve’s opinion at least, they’re already over-paid, as he thinks $47K-a-year in one of the most expensive cities in the world is excessive, and more than enough to live on:
(at 6:48)
(at 6:48)
“Every single time you hear a teacher tells his story about ‘poor teachers. They talkin’ ’bout POOR teachers, POOR teachers, THESE POOR teachers.’ (talks about how many days in the school year and other stuff)… You making almost $50,000??!!! You’re doing alright! You’re doin’ just fine!”
If you want a really deep dive into the billionaire-funded astroturf groups out to turn public opinion against unionized Chicago public school teachers, and now unionized Chicago charter school teachers, watch this documentary BELOW.
My favorite part of this is when the anti-union corporate ed. reformers actually … it’s almost unbelievable … they actually paid homeless African-Americans to come to, and fill up the seats at Chicago Board of Ed. meetings, and pretend to be public school parents who are speaking out IN FAVOR OR CLOSING TRADITIONAL, PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND REPLACING THEM WITH PRIVATELY-RUN CHARTERS (???!!!)
(These closings of schools have the effect of replacing unionized teachers with non-union teachers, and thus deplete the overall ranks of Chicago’s teachers union, CTU.
In short, the closings, are in part, a method of flat-out union busting.)
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( at 3:17 )
( at 3:17 )
UNSEEN INTERVIEWER: “Did they offer you some money?”
PAID HOMELESS AFRICAN-AMERICAN: “Yeah.”
UNSEEN INTERVIEWER: “And they paid you to say, ‘Come and close the school,’ ?”
PAID HOMELESS AFRICAN-AMERICAN: “Yeah.”
UNSEEN INTERVIEWER: “Did they tell you why, or what school or anything like that?”
PAID HOMELESS AFRICAN-AMERICAN: “No.”
UNSEEN INTERVIEWER: “You guys live around here?”
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Now what’s the difference between this down-on-his-luck homeless man, and corporate ed. reform stooge Dr. Steve Perry?
Well, both are African-American, and both are paid by the same group, a group with two interweaved goals — privatization of public schools and busting teachers unions.
However …
The former is a poor person desperate for money to feed himself.
… while …
Dr. Steve Perry is an amoral, degenerate swine, and a repugnant, well-paid tool of oligarchs in their quest to profit from the privatization of public schools.
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We need to publish the six figure and sometimes seven figure salaries of the leaders of privatization and charter kingpins. The public should know where their money goes
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Jack,
Here’s a $10 bet that Daley/Cunningham will not Side with the striking teachers. They will either remain silent or be actively hostile to unions.
As for Steve Perry, you may be interested to know that he attended the Koch brothers’ annual retreat for oligarchs to warn about the danger of unionized teachers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/01/30/daily-202-koch-network-laying-groundwork-to-fundamentally-transform-america-s-education-system/5a6feb8530fb041c3c7d74db/?utm_term=.98653121ba1a
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Here’s the thing:
Whether or not Daley wins (but especially if he wins, obviously), if he puts out a statement support for teachers at charters unionizing — something which would win over huge popular support of his run for mayor, perhaps even being the factor that puts him over the top and into office — this would embolden and encourage the non-union staffs at all of the rest of Chicago’s privately-managed charter chalns (i.e. Noble et al), and lead to uprisings there, or contribute strongly to the likelihood of such unionization campaigns.
Such developments would totally defeat two of the major purposes or goals (from the corporate ed. reform POV, that is):
— getting rich from funding, or from running (huge executive salaries)
charter schools.
— weakening CTU, or public school unions in general, perhaps eventually bringing about their total demise.
This, in turn, would enrage those charter privatizers, and put them off opening new charter schools in Chicago. Heck, it may even lead those charter operators and their big-moneyed backers leaving Chicago.
Their thinking being:
“If we have to pay that much more to operate these charter schools — costs driven by lower class size, a strong unionized work force driving hard bargains at the negotiating table, and not just for teacher salaries, but also teacher asst. salaries and for funding extra-curriculars, a full rich curriculum, counselor, school psychiatrist, fully-trained special ed. staff, and low class size special ed classes, etc. …
*”Well then screw that. How are we ever gonna get rich if that’s how things work. We ain’t comin’ to Chicago. In fact, we may even close the schools that we now have there, and leave town..”
It’s pretty much what’s happening in Los Angeles. The Alliance for College-Ready Charter Schools is spending millions to tie up in court the new union at its schools from going ahead with its operations. A key court case is coming up this month on this score. If the Alliance teachers union goes ahead and gets this same deal that the Acero teachers are not getting, this could create a domino effect in both Chicago and Los Angeles.
The same thinking will occur in Los Angeles.
ONE MORE TIME:
“If we have to pay that much more to operate these charter schools — costs driven by lower class size, a strong unionized work force driving hard bargains at the negotiating table, and not just for teacher salaries, but also teacher asst. salaries and for funding extra-curriculars, a full rich curriculum, counselor, school psychiatrist, fully-trained special ed. staff, and low class size special ed classes, etc. …
*”Well then screw that. How are we ever gonna get rich if that’s how things work. We ain’t comin’ to Chicago. In fact, we may even close the schools that we now have there, and leave town..”
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“Dr.” Perry is basically the Koch Brothers’ ventriloquist mannequin, or pull-string talking doll, regurgitating the “anti- public school / anti-teacher / anti-union talking points given to him by Perry’s corporate ed. reform masters.
(I was going to say “Koch Brothers’ lawn jockey,” but that’s probably going over the line .. either that, or it’s an insult to actual lawn jockeys 😉 )
What a money-motivated sell-out.
To his race.
To the middle and working classes.
To vast majority of the American public, who support public schools and the teachers who work in them.
If you really want to see what a fraud Perry is, then check out this piece on his charlatan-ish doctor dissertation:
After much on-line sleuthing — which shouldn’t have been necessary, as such dissertations are universally posted for the public to inspect — Mercedes Schneider found it.
Mercedes discovered that Perry made a few hours of phone calls (that constituted the entirety of his doctoral “research”) then wrote something that an above-average 8th grader might have thrown together as his year-end term paper.
And it wasn’t ever presented to a committee, then revised as many times as necessary before being accepted — as is universal practice —but is only signed off on by one faculty member, someone presumably allied with Perry and the corporate ed. reform world.
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MERCEDES SCHNEIDER:
“A dissertation is meant to be a scholarly contribution to one’s field of study. It is meant to be a unique contribution, one that adds substantially to research in the selected field as determined by a faculty committee chiefly comprised of those who possess the expertise to critically appraise the candidate’s work.
“And it is meant to demonstrate the author’s suitability to be recognized as an expert scholar in a clear and defined academic specialty.
“Steve Perry’s so-called ‘dissertation’ accomplishes none of these goals and makes a mockery of academic rigor.
“Perry has earned a ‘cereal box doctorate’: Buy the cereal; pull out the prize. That’s it.
“Why am I being so hard on this former CNN “expert education commenter”?
“This ‘education expert’ who on one hand says the problem is that professional educators ‘are not connecting’ with students, but on the other, says:
“ “If you don’t want to go to college, don’t go to Capitol Prep (Perry’s school). Go somewhere else”?
“This arrogant self-promoter who introduces himself on his website as ‘America’s Most Trusted Educator’?
“His dissertation ‘contribution’ amounts to nothing more than a self-reported six hours on the phone asking Upward Bound staff what they believe works; transcribing these interviews, and organizing responses into sets. Period.
“So much for ‘manning up’ academically.
” … “
“Congratulations, ‘Doctor’ Perry. Like a woman who agrees to get married for the diamond ring, you now get to refer to yourself as ‘doctor’ for completing your University of Hartford program. Based upon perusal of your website, I know that the title is very important to you.
“Even your Twitter handle has that “Dr.”
“Yes, his dissertation is a flimsy, rice-paper version of the real deal. But don’t believe that a self-important man like Perry is short on words. In his pseudo-diss, he wrote 176 pages. Perry thinks he has a lot to say– only most of it pertains to the work others have accomplished. He is long-worded on a literature review of studies that clearly overwhelms his sad, slight, research ‘contribution.’
“He calls his “dissertation” an ‘exploratory, qualitative case study of a single Upward Bound project’ in which he ‘used a single, semi-structured telephone interview’ of ‘six Upward Bound project staff.’
“When I was working toward my doctorate (a bit more rigorous in its completion), doctoral students in the University of Northern Colorado College of Education had to defend choosing a qualitative dissertation against the idea that qualitative is “easier” than quantitative. I have heard fellow students comment, ‘I don’t like numbers, so I’ll ‘just’ do a qualitative dissertation.’
“I do not advocate the view that a well-done qualitative dissertation is ‘easier’ than a well-done quantitative one.
“Whether qualitative or quantitative, a rigorous dissertation proposal adequately answers the question, ‘So what?’
“In other words, why bother conducting this study? What of substance or significance might this study contribute to the body of research in a given field? (Even though qualitative research involves emergent themes, the researcher should still be able to defend the value of the study.)
“A well-done qualitative dissertation is often twice as long as a quantitative dissertation since the qualitative medium of research is the word. Thus, a rigorous qualitative dissertation can easily be 300 pages or longer. And there is much to “qualitative’; the general term encompasses numerous study designs, including but not limited to ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, narrative research, and case study.”
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.. and on Mercedes goes.
Oh, and here’s “Dr.” (quotes intentional) Perry’s actual dissertation.
Judge for yourself:
Click to access steve_perry_dissertation.pdf
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The reason the greedy corporate deformers are silent is because they are thinking:
“This will also pass because most Americans have short attention spans, not as short as Trump’s but still short enough, and soon they will forget and we will be moving on to achieve our agenda of a huge serf class of poverty wage paid slaves that have no voice.”
Those serfs will work until they drop and die with no medical care, no job security, no social safety net and only poverty wages that keeps them in debt to the billionaire autocrats in charge of everything.
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Silence is golden.
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Whadda ya know?
Predictably, Mayoral Candidate Bill Daley ducked the “opening new charter schools” and “school closing” questions on a survey that was sent to him and that he returned … while many others did not equivocate on a commitment to not open any new charter schools, nor did they refuse to make a commitment to cease all school closings. Those positions are polling extremely high, but Daley ran from the questions.
(almost certainly doing so under the direction of Peter Cunningham, or at Cunningham’s vehement behest) :
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/most-mayoral-candidates-say-no-to-more-chicago-school-closings/70686259-e362-429c-a97a-46652f44d50a
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WBEZ:
Both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Mayor Richard M. Daley embraced the idea that it’s a moral imperative to close chronically low-performing schools and replace them with new schools that promise to be better or send displaced students to higher-performing schools.
As mayor, will you support closing chronically low-performing schools?
Dorothy Brown No
Gery Chico Yes
Bill Daley Did not answer yes or no
Amara Enyia No
LaShawn Ford No
Ja’Mal Green Did not respond
Jerry Joyce No
John Kozlar No
Lori Lightfoot Did not answer yes or no
Garry McCarthy Did not respond
Susana Mendoza Did not answer yes or no
Toni Preckwinkle No
Neal Sales-Griffin Did not respond
Paul Vallas No
Willie Wilson No
Chicago Public Schools has lost more than 42,000 students since the 2013 closing of 50 under-enrolled schools. Those 42,000 missing students could fill 70 average-sized Chicago schools.
As mayor, will you support closings schools that are more than 50 percent under-enrolled?
Dorothy Brown No
Gery Chico Yes
Bill Daley Did not answer yes or no
Amara Enyia No
LaShawn Ford No
Ja’Mal Green Did not respond
Jerry Joyce No
John Kozlar No
Lori Lightfoot Did not answer yes or no
Garry McCarthy Did not respond
Susana Mendoza Did not answer yes or no
Toni Preckwinkle No
Neal Sales-Griffin Did not respond
Paul Vallas Did not answer yes or no
Willie Wilson No
Since closing 50 schools in 2013, the city has lost 42,000 students, but also opened 38 new schools and/or constructed new buildings.
As mayor, will you support opening new schools and/or constructing new building in years when overall enrollment has declined?
Dorothy Brown No
Gery Chico Yes
Bill Daley Did not answer yes or no
Amara Enyia No
LaShawn Ford Yes
Ja’Mal Green Did not respond
Jerry Joyce Yes
John Kozlar Did not answer yes or no
Lori Lightfoot Did not answer yes or no
Garry McCarthy Did not respond
Susana Mendoza Did not answer yes or no
Toni Preckwinkle Yes
Neal Sales-Griffin Did not respond
Paul Vallas No
Willie Wilson Yes
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