Class Sizes of 62--Detroit to Close 70 More Schools

Detroit’s financial manager, Robert Bobb, wants to close 70 more schools to help close the city’s $327 million budget deficit. Bobb said that the school closings will increase high school class sizes to an appalling 62 students per class. 60 schools have already been shut down over the past two years. The plan also calls for laying off 249 teachers and extends a plan that deducts $250 per period from teachers’ paychecks.

Brown Board Appointees: Payback or Social Control?

Jerry Brown canned a majority of California school board members during his 1^st week in office, most of whom were strong advocates for the Ed Deform agenda. Those axed included Ted Mitchell, president of NewSchools Venture Fund, Johnathan Williams, founder of the Accelerated School, an L.A. charter organization; Alan Arkatov, president of Changing.edu; and Ben Austin, chief executive of Parent Revolution (the Green Dot front organization behind the Parent Trigger). His appointments will certainly weaken the charter school and parental trigger movements.

Some critics accused Brown of appointing campaign supporters as payback for their generosity in helping him defeat billionaire Meg Whitman. Others take it further, saying the string of appointees (which included a lobbyist for the California Teachers Association) was an effort to keep them and their money in Brown's corner.

Brown doesn’t just want them in his corner. He wants them to do his dirty work.

Let’s look at the situation honestly. California has a $28 billion budget gap that must be filled. Brown has already promised deep cuts to public sector employees, including teachers. There will be layoffs. Pensions, salaries and benefits will be slashed. Public sector workers and low income families are going to take the brunt of the hits and they are not going to do it willingly.

To pull this off, Brown needs the complicity of the biggest unions to help keep pissed off workers in line. He needs the union bosses to tell their members, “Hey, we got the best deal that was possible under the circumstances, so let’s all go home and be glad most of us still have our jobs.” The last thing Brown wants is mass protests. By making these appointments to the board, he believes he has purchased labor’s compliance and passivity. And he probably has, or at least he has further secured the compliance of the union bosses. How the rank and file will respond remains to be seen.

Brown Pays Back CTA With Felon & Lobbyist

Jerry Brown has already made several new appointments to the California Board of Education, including the re-appointment of Michael Kirst and Bill Honig, who he had first appointed in the early 70s. In total, Brown appointed 7 new board members in an attempt to stack the board with cronies who will do his bidding. Honig is a former 3-term state Superintendent of Public Instruction and a convicted felon (illegal diversion of public funds).

Brown replaced board member Ben Austin, who is also the executive director of Parent Revolution, the Green Dot front group that pushed for the Parent Trigger takeover of McKinley school in Compton. While this should be seen as a small victory, Brown’s other appointees, are not as promising as many liberal pundits would have us believe. Honig, for example, is not only corrupt, but he is also a huge proponent of phonics, which has long been discredited. And Kirst, a close friend of Brown’s, who is expected to be the new board president, a position he held from 1975-82, was instrumental in shaping Brown’s education platform, which included increasing the number of apprentice teachers and charter schools.

One of his new appointees, Patricia Ann Rucker, is a California Teachers Association (CTA) lobbyist, and is clearly payback for CTAs generous contributions to his campaign. CTA, in fact, spent more on the governor’s election than any other lobbyist. CTA President David Sanchez said, “We commend Governor Brown for returning public school educators who reflect and understand the complexities of our public schools to the State Board of Education.” It will be interesting to see how she responds to the impending budget cuts and continued pressure for merit pay, more charter schools, abolishing tenure and gutting pensions.