Privatization of Oakland public schools embraced by an elected school board
A vote by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) on a 2019-20 spending plan that because of Assembly Bill 1840 will allow the school board to close schools and sell property and will again put . . .
|
Oakland teachers pull off wildcat strike
Similar to Chicago, the Oakland school district is crying poverty while they are hiding a $30 million surplus. The local union leadership is overly cautious, probably because they're being directed by the state leadership, which . . .
|
Joe Hill's songs remind us that attacks on immigrants are nothing new in the USA... Paul Robeson and Joan Baez have sung about these kinds of attacks before....
Apropos our frustration at the current level of political backwardness and historical ignorance of so many US citizens, and apropos the 100th anniversary of the state-sponsored murder of IWW union organizer and Swedish immigrant, Joe . . .
| Article |
Newark police arrest community activist who opposed 'One Newark' charter schools expansion plan
Cami Anderson was appointed by New Jersey Gov Chris Christie. She is implementing the plutocrat ed-deformers' nationwide plan of bashing teachers, closing neighborhood schools, and opening corporate charter schools, referred to here as the "One . . .
| Article |
Newark's corporate schools superintendent storms out of community meeting...
Hot stuff come to everyone from Newark, NJ. A dictatorial school superintendent, appointed by Governor Chris Christie, imposes the typical undemocratic corporate-takeover plan on the city�s school system (close the neighborhood schools, open privatized-ish charters . . .
| Article |
COMMON CORE: The lies underlying the Common Core push have been exposed, and now the resistance has to be done state-by-state
All the evidence points to the upcoming year as a time for a major struggle across the USA against the so-called "Common Core" being promoted by the Obama administration through the U.S. Department of Education . . .
| Article |
Brooklyn organizing against high-stakes tests
The following article came to my attention and I think Substance readers want to add this to their information about the current struggles of the resistance to high-stakes testing. As readers already know, the movement . . .
| Article |
'Obamacare is backfiring in multiple ways on a labor movement already battered and bruised...' Will AFL-CIO resume push for universal 'single payer' health care now that the problems with 'Obamacare' are hitting unionized workers?
In this essay below, originally published at Huffington Post, Steve Early covers one aspect of the Obamacare privatized healthcare debacle: the concerns of organized labor (what's left of it!!) about how employers are already manipulating . . .
| Article |
MEXICO: President delivers State of the Union address behind military phalanx... Mexico teachers need international support as they continue to fight government's attacks on democracy in education and real public schools
Mexican teachers are fighting back vs the neoliberal policies of the "new-PRI" government, and highlighting the link between "high stakes accountability" in education ("education reform," the Mexican version of NCLB and Race To The Top) . . .
| Article |
The courage to say 'NO!' to educational absurdity
Today teachers in the USA need to think about the need for courage in the face of absurdity and the damage done to children. In the essay below, published in Education Week, Alfie's Kohn"s inspirational . . .
| Article |
COMMON CORE WATCH: Former Texas State Ed Commissioner blows whistle on Common Core... is coming from 'education reform groups who admit their real goal here is to create a national marketplace for education products and services.'
Former Texas Commissioner of Educatoin Robert Scott has blown the whistle on how corporate representatives and the U.S. Department of Education under Arne Duncan used strongarm tactics to force states to adopt "Common Core Standards" . . .
| Article |
Texans organize to end high-stakes testing in the state that pioneered it for No Child Left Behind
Test mania in Texas is beginning to recede. Compalints from middle class parents against thehigh school tests have prompted a bill in the state legislature, while a new website recommends posting comments in support of . . .
| Article |
'Chicago Teacher' rap video from the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 finally begins to arrive for fans on the West Coast
"Chicago Teacher" is a nice rap song explicitly composed to support the Chicago Teachers Union during their recent strike. An example of "conscious rap" which only seems available in the Bay Area and on . . .
| Article |
More details on the devastation in Rockaway from Norm Scott
Here is a text message report from Norm Scott, an old teaching buddy and co-founder of the opposition caucus within the UFT teachers' union. Since retirement, Norm has published an online daily magazine of education . . .
| Article |
Video of Karen Lewis's speech to the Chicago City Club now available
The video of the November 20, 2012 speech by Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis is now available at You Tube. In the speech, the president of the union that led the Chicago Teachers . . .
| Article |
'Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry...' Powerful video puts ruling class hypocrisy into perspective showing Obama and Clinton preaching freedom in Middle East while...
One of the most powerful video histories of the current struggles of the Occupy movement from Wall Street to Los Angeles (in the context of the world) is now available via You Tube. That . . .
| Article |
MEDIA WATCH: Peoples' media. How the 'Koch Brothers' bought the governor of Wisconsin
The following has been making the rounds and deserves to be linked from Substance as well. As you know, the Buffalo Beast prank called Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, pretending to be billionaire David Koch, the . . .
| Article |
Ed Trust West backs teacher bashing release of 'value added' information in Los Angeles
Below is the EdTrust West's statement of support for teacher bashing by the LA Times, written by their latest flak, Arun Ramanathan, recently minted with his EdD by Harvard. Another one of their string of . . .
| Article |
Letter: New York to measure teachers by test scores
New York to measure teachers by test scores
January 21, 2008
Substance:
The latest reauthorization proposal for NCLB, by Miller/Kennedy, touted a growth model for “reform” (just like the New York City . . .
| Article |
Letter: Alan Greenspan blames public schools for plutocratic proliferation
September 25, 2007
Substance:
Alan Greenspan was interviewed on Democracy Now on Monday, and he laid out a line of free market propaganda that should be taken as an insult to any rational . . .
| Article |
Letter: Is the ubiquitous ‘Bottom line’ educational malpractice?
May 30, 2007
Substance:
I hope you can find some way to use the following, which appeared yesterday in the newspapers. This one is from the San Jose Mercury News May . . .
| Article |
