There is a charter school in San Diego called the Gompers Preparatory Academy. Since 2018, its private management has been fighting teachers who want to form a union. When the COVID crisis struck and the state planned budget cuts, Gompers laid off more than a third of the staff. By coincidence (!), nearly all the teachers laid off were the very ones who wanted to form a union!
Does the charter management know who Samuel Gompers was? Hint: the first president of the American Federation of Labor and a pioneer of the union movement.
Gompers Preparatory Academy announced Monday it had rescinded a decision made two weeks ago to lay off more than a third of the school’s teachers because of state budget cuts.
The layoffs would have increased class sizes from 19 students to 28 at the public charter school in southeastern San Diego. Ninety percent of Gompers students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and some may be the first in their families to attend college, the school has said.
Some teachers had criticized the layoffs as an attempt to end their recently formed union…
Nearly all teachers who received layoff notices last month were union supporters, a San Diego Education Association spokesperson previously told inewsource. Gompers leaders had maintained the cuts were necessary and said decisions were based on seniority.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think I will start the William Lloyd Garrison School of Slavery.
The Paul Wellstone War College
Look, I love me some irony. But this? It’s over the top.
“Nearly all teachers who received layoff notices last month were union supporters”
Ed reformers support rights in the workplace! In theory. As long as no employee tries to assert them. They’re “empowered”! They just can’t do or say anything without management permission.
“Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound. Greenwashing is considered an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly”
We need a word like that to describe ed reform’s phony commitment to employee rights in the workplace.
yes: the process is exactly the same. UNSUBSTANTIATED but repeated claims deceiving consumers, making them believe that public schools are failing and alternatives are desperately needed…over and over and over
“A new White House-backed ad campaign aims to encourage people who are unemployed or unhappy in their jobs or careers to “find something new.”
The opening ad in the “Find Something New” campaign beginning Tuesday features ordinary people sharing their stories. A companion website provides links to training and other resources.
The initiative was swiftly criticized on social media, with some suggesting the effort is insensitive during a pandemic and the widespread unemployment it has caused. Others criticized the involvement of Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter and White House adviser.”
People are making fun of this but it’s “the skills gap” which is part of the sacred gospel of ed reform. They ALL recite it.
Arne Duncan spent 8 years telling people they wouldn’t be unemployed or have low wages if they would just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and “retrain”.
Ivanka is only repeating what she’s heard from elite ed reformers and economists. This is the standard ed reform response to unemployment. They all said the exact same thing after the financial crash.
The “skills gap” has been discredited over and over but no one in ed reform cares. They’re very fond of it because it shifts the entire burden onto the worker. That’s why CEO’s love it too.
Just think about this- rather than putting actual money into training people (their employees) America’s CEO’s put money into an ad campaign to tell people to go pay for training.
They really have absolute contempt for us. It’s ALL marketing. There’s not a bit of substantive assistance or real investment in any of these stupid gimmicks or ad campaigns. They’re just sending people around in circles. It’s cruel.
“The companion website offers links to education and training options, including online and virtual learning.”
Great! Let’s take the unemployed and load them up with student debt.
The Trump Administration and US CEO’s paid to put up a website and run an ad campaign. The unemployed workers will pay for the training.
It’s a flim-flam. An old fashioned con. A fake solution that will leave them worse off than before the ad campaign ran.
You should check out Dr. Thomas Sowell’s new book: Charter Schools and Their Enemies.
Read Thomas Sowell? That’s an oxymoron if there ever was one. I’d rather drink bleach to protect myself from COVID-19.
I work at this school. First of all the layoffs were done because of the anticipated budget cuts announced by Gov. Newsome on his first budget announcements because Charter schools are required to have their budget balanced and sent to the state before the larger school districts. They did the cuts by seniority because it was the most “fair way” to do this. Both union and non union supporting teachers were laid off.