Green Cards For Sale For Union-Busters

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

While non-profits and student fundraising groups help build schools in poor communities in Africa and Latin America, wealthy investors from China, Nigeria and other nations are spending tens of millions of dollars to build superfluous school classrooms, libraries and gyms for U.S. charter schools.

Under the federal EB-5 program, wealthy foreigners can effectively purchase U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families if they invest at least $500,000 into certain development projects, including private charter schools, according to Reuters. All they have to do is create 10 new jobs (even at minimum wage) and maintain them for at least two years. This year the feds approved 3,000 applications for the EB-5 program, nearly double last year’s total.

It’s a great deal for the foreign investors, as they can reap large rewards for their investments, while living legally in the U.S. as they manage their investments. At the same time, charter schools are always looking for more capital to supplement the state and local revenues they already receive. The additional investment capital, combined with lower labor costs and fewer contractual restrictions (most charter schools are not unionized), allows them to do numerous things that would be impossible for traditional public schools (e.g., longer school days, force teachers to be on-call at night and on weekends for homework help, replace teachers with non-credentialed monitors and force students to spend long hours in front of computers).

The influx of foreign capital makes it easier for charter schools to proliferate, increasing the ratio of public schools that are run by private (and in many cases for-profit) charter companies, while at the same time increasing the ratio of non-unionized teachers and unskilled pseudo-teachers. In New Orleans, for example, where charter schools now make up the majority of public schools, unionized teachers now comprise a small minority of working teachers.

Aside from making charter schools much more profitable by reducing wages, benefits and job protections, this back door form of union busting benefits other regional businesses by lowering average wages and benefits in the area. Without tenure and seniority protections or the backing of a union and union lawyers, teachers are less likely to speak out in defense of their students, colleagues or working conditions. Overall, it increases worker passivity and submissiveness, since any criticism or questioning of management could cost one her job.

However, one might reasonably wonder why foreign investors need to be bribed with green cards if charter schools are such a great investment?

The fact is that charter schools are still a relatively risky investment. The IRS is planning to scrutinize their tax-exempt status more closely, according to the Reuters article, especially if they rely on for-profit management companies, as many “non-profit” charters do. At the same time, many charters are being shut down by regulators or going out of business because of poor financial performance. Six Missouri campuses of Imagine Schools, one of the nation’s largest for-profit chains, were recently shut down by state regulators because of poor academic performance, according to the Reuters article. Charters from the Aspire chain have also been revoked, or not renewed, in California. Close to 15% of the 6,700 charter schools that started over the past twenty years have since closed, mostly because of financial troubles, according to the Center for Education Reform.

The EB-5 program also serves the interests of Obama and Duncan’s school privatization agenda by attracting more investment capital to help support fledgling charter schools, while relieving the feds of some of the financial responsibility at a time when there is considerable resistance to government spending on social programs. It is telling that the federal government is unwilling to provide funds to lower class sizes in traditional public schools or to pay teachers a decent wage. It is also telling that the feds have made it easier for wealthy foreigners to live here comfortably as they exploit communities, children and teachers, while refusing to pass the Dream Act or any meaningful immigration reform that would prevent the disruption of immigrant families who are already living here, often with children who are here legally or who have lived here since early childhood.

LAUSD Molestation Settlement in the Works

After the arrest of Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt for molestation, 16 law firms filed suit on behalf of 126 students and 63 parents and guardians. Former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso has overseen a mediation process between the families and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). According to the 4LAKids blog, a settlement may be reached by late January. Two lawyers, representing 26 of the students, were not participating in the mediation and planned to file separate lawsuits. However, the district believes they will ultimately convince them to participate in the settlement.

The lawsuits allege that LAUSD officials did nothing to protect children from the accused teacher. Indeed, there is considerable evidence that the district lost Berndt’s personnel files and failed to act on numerous parental complaints about him. (For more on the history of the case, click here, here and here).

District compliance counsel, Gregory McNair, said the district didn’t want children traumatized by testifying in court, 4LAKids reports. While this is likely true, far more significant factors are cost and damage control. Having to fight several protracted legal battles is extremely expensive, particularly when the district will likely lose and have to pay lawyers’ fees in addition to punitive and personal damages. A protracted legal battle would also likely bring to light even more examples of incompetence on LAUSD’s part and exacerbate public anger and mistrust with the district.

Today in Labor History—December 18

December 18, 1829 – Scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamark died on this date. (From the Daily Bleed) Lamarck was best known for his discredited theory of inheritance of acquired traits, the idea that characteristics acquired during the parents’ lifetime would be passed on to offspring. It was later discovered that traits of the parents are passed down to offspring through DNA, while acquired traits (e.g., losing a finger in an accident or getting larger muscles from weight lifting) do not involved changes to the DNA that can be passed down. Yet, over the past decade, with the discovery of epigenetics, Lamarck’s theory has been shown to be true under certain circumstances. Some experiences that occur during the parents lifetime that do not change the DNA, but add epigenetic markers to the DNA, are not only passed on the their children, but can be passed on to grandchildren and great grandchildren, too. (For more on epigenetics, see the NOVA special “The Ghost in the Genes.”)

Horse-Powered Thresher

 December 18, 1830 - The "Swing Rioters" went on trial on this date. The rioters were agricultural laborers who fought for a minimum wage during the early decades of the 19th century. During this time, England shifted from self-sufficient, open fields to farms rented by tenant farmers. Technology, including the increasing use of threshers, and a surplus of labor, drove down wages. Farm workers in the "swing" counties of the south and east of England responded by destroying farm machinery. Hundreds were arrested, jailed and executed. (From Workday Minnesota)

December 18, 1878—Joseph Stalin was born on this date and went on to slaughter between 10 and 60 million peasants, workers and other mostly innocent civilians. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

Chicago Teachers Tell the Rich to Back Off

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is calling for a march and protest on December 18 to “Tell the Fat Cats:  Get Your Paws Off Our Public Schools.”

While I could make many of the same criticisms of this that I have of the Occupy Movement (see here and here), I would rather call this a step in the right direction. (Plus, I really like their graphic for the protest).

(From the CTU website)

Certainly this is a reformist demand that lacks a meaningful critique of capitalism or public education’s role in bolstering it. Yet a mainstream craft union is unlikely to ever do this anyway. At least the CTU is placing some of the responsibility for their district’s crumbling infrastructure and their members’ declining working conditions directly on the backs of the rich—who have been tripping all over themselves and Chicago’s children in the race to convert CPS school sites into charter schools—rather than the usual vague union complaints about poor funding and belt-tightening by everyone.

The biggest problems with public education are not due to any defect in the schools or teachers. Rather, poverty and the wealth gap are the primary causes of the achievement gap. No reform that is currently on the table even attempts to address this. Certain social reforms, like those of the New Deal and the Great Society served to reduce poverty and close the wealth gap, and graduation rates climbed to their highest levels in response. But these economic gains have largely been reversed over the past 40 years, with an accompanying decline in wages and living standards for the majority of Americans.

Much of this decline has been due to a restructuring of the tax code, allowing the wealthy to keep a greater percentage of their wealth, causing a net decline in the revenue available for social services, like public education.

We are not likely to see the unions demanding an end to capitalism or even a reduction in poverty (though this reform would likely do far more to solve public education’s myriad problems than all the other current pseudo-reforms combined). However, it is not unreasonable to think that other teachers unions might start following the CTU’s lead and at least push back against the corporate-led “reforms” that are weakening the unions, deskilling the teaching profession and undermining the quality of education just so they can make a quick buck.

Explicable School Massacres—Violence is American as Apple Pie

The horrific tragedy at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School last week sickened the nation and was particularly appalling, as most of its victims were between the ages of 5 and 10. AFL-CIO Boss Richard Trumka lamented the “inexplicable horror” of the massacre, while President Obama called for “meaningful action” to stop the seemingly endless wave of violence (e.g., Wisconsin Sikh temple, Colorado movie theater, and California’s Oikos University massacres earlier this year).

Even though the shooter’s motives are not yet known, there is much that is explicable about the incident, contrary to Trumka’s claims to the contrary. For example, it is probably safe to generalize that a person who walks into an elementary school and slaughters twenty young children is disturbed, if not insane. Apparently, there is some indication that family members were aware of his emotional troubles.

Whether or not they had tried and failed to get him the help he needed, the fact is that it is unnecessarily difficult and expensive to obtain behavioral or mental health care in this country. There are long waiting lists to get into addiction treatment centers. There are millions of Americans who have no health insurance and millions more who have such poor quality insurance that they cannot see a competent practitioner for such routine conditions as depression or anxiety.

While we are unlikely to ever eradicate mental illness, we could significantly reduce the rare acts of violence and relatively common fear, depression, anxiety and relational problems that accompany mental illness with a comprehensive health care system that provided free and accessible physical and mental healthcare to everyone.

Another simple solution would be to enact stringent gun control laws. The U.S. remains the only wealthy country in the world in which guns can be so cheaply and easily obtained, and it continues to have the highest rate of gun deaths because of this. According to the New York Times, American kids are 13 times more likely to be gunned down than kids in other industrialized nations. Overall, there are 30,000 gun-related deaths each year in the U.S. The Connecticut gunman apparently walked into his mother’s home, grabbed a few of her numerous weapons, killed her and then let loose in the elementary school—something that would have been far more difficult if guns were not so readily accessible.

It is ironic that Obama made his most recent school massacre address from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, named for Reagan’s press secretary who was shot and permanently disabled in a 1981 assassination attempt. Brady has since become a strong advocate for tougher gun control laws. Yet during Obama’s press briefing, his own press secretary, Jay Carney, said this was “not the day for a debate on gun control” and, as president, Obama has consistently refused to make any serious attempt to strengthen gun control laws. Furthermore, Obama is the first U.S. president to assert the right to assassinate anyone anywhere in the world, including U.S. citizens, having killed well over 3,000 people, mostly civilians, with drone attacks under his watch--hardly the actions of a president who wants to take meaningful action to stem the wave of violence.

Also not on the table for discussion are the numerous other national social dysfunctions that that contribute to violence in our communities. For example, pundits and advocates for children often decry violent video games, movies and music videos, but there is no evidence that any of these things increases the chances that a child will be violent toward his peers or as an adult. However, there is considerable evidence that adults sent into battle sometimes come home and behave violently toward their families, coworkers or random individuals. Yet, rather than increasing diplomacy and decreasing warfare, the U.S. has been doing the opposite over the past few decades, attacking Granada, Panama, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, just to name a few. And while there is increasing acknowledgement by the military of the causes and consequences of PTSD, suicide rates in the military and wait times for access to VA services remain high.

In addition to the occasional acts of violence that can be directly linked to the post-traumatic stress that often accompanies combat, the cultures of the military and police are about social control through physical coercion and, if necessary, lethal force. Soldiers and police are trained to shoot to kill. Suspects and enemies who do not cooperate fully and quickly are physically assaulted. Thus, it should come as no surprise that rape in the military occurs far more often than in the general population. In 2010, 19,000 soldiers were sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers and an estimated 20% of all female soldiers are sexually assaulted during their service in the military. In the general population, rapes are estimated to occur at a far lower rate (some studies suggest fewer than 1 per 100,000 people annually).

However, even for civilians, violence is often a normal part of life. For example, the majority of cases of violence and sexual assault against children are perpetrated by adult members of their own families, often on a regular and ongoing basis. Equally banal is the violence and threatened violence faced by women, people of color and gay and transgendered people—violence that is rooted in bigotry, but that is facilitated by lax law enforcement and prosecution and by right wing punditry and religious intolerance.

Capitalism, itself, also contributes to violence. For example, corporations weigh the costs of litigation versus potential profits when determining how safe to make their products, with the consequence that consumers are often killed or maimed by defective products. Some corporations—particularly those operating in poorer countries—facilitate or participate directly in violence against their employees and community members (see here and here for just 2 examples). However, U.S. corporations have a long and sordid history of killing American workers in the name of profits (e.g., Ludlow Massacre, Homestead Strike, also see Modern School’s Labor History Timeline for many more examples), while they often kill and maim their employees through speed-ups, poor maintenance and law safety precautions.

Regardless of whether one has a good job, or a job at all, the capitalist system creates a division of wealth and power that leads to want, privation and uncertainty for the majority. This frequently makes people feel cheated and angry, though their anger is often misplaced and directed against fellow workers or family members instead of the bosses.

In response to this most recent school shooting, the only change we are likely to see is increased vigilance by school districts (indeed, we are already seeing this), with improvements in their protocols for dealing with intruders and other emergencies. While this is an important precaution that can reduce the amount of harm done by an intruder (or a violent insider), it will not end school rampages if the other causes of violence are ignored and weapons remain so accessible.

Today in Labor History—December 17

Deborah Sampson painting (from Garden of Praise website)

December 17, 1760 - Deborah Sampson was born on this date in Massachusetts. Sampson disguised herself as a man in order to fight with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. She fought in several skirmishes with British forces before being wounded and discovered She was subsequently discharged from the army. (From Workday Minnesota)

Simon Bolivar, 1800, painted by Jose Gil de Castro, 1825

 December 17, 1830 – Latin American liberationist Simón Bolivar died on this date in Santa Marta, Columbia. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 17, 1875 –Violent bread riots occurred on this date in Montreal.(From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—December 16

December 16, 1912 – The French CGT union launched a General strike against the War To End All Wars. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 16, 1970 – The Polish government pacified coastal cities where workers had rebelled against high prices, by shooting shipyard workers, killing between 50 and 150, including soldiers who refused to shoot people). (From the Daily Bleed)

December 16, 1977 - Eight women in Willmar, Minnesota, launched the first bank strike in U.S. history.  (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—December 15

December 15, 1792 - The U.S. Bill of Rights was adopted promising freedom of speech, religion, the press, and "the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (From Workday Minnesota

December 15, 1882 – The women tailors union, first women's trade union in Australia, was formed on this date. (from the Daily Bleed)

December 15, 1941 – The AFL labor union pledged not to strike in any defense-related industries for the duration of the war. (from the Daily Bleed)

December 15, 1965 – In an attempt to outdo their patriotism during World War II, the AFL-CIO pledged its "unstinting support" for the U.S. war effort in Vietnam. (from the Daily Bleed)

December 15, 1970 – Polish youth and workers torched the Gdansk Communist Party headquarters and quietly watched it burn. Elsewhere in Poland, ZOMO riot police shot miners striking at "Manifest Lipcowy" mine in Jastrzebie, Upper Silesia, wounding four. (from the Daily Bleed)

December 15, 1992 -- 300,000 coal miners struck against the Solidarity government in Poland. (from the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—December 14

Daneil DeLeon, 1902 (from Wikipedia, public domain)

December 14, 1852 -- Daniel DeLeon was born on this date in Curacao, West Indies. DeLeon was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He was also a leader of the pro-political action faction within the IWW that hoped to create socialism through the ballot box. Soon after the founding of the IWW, his faction lost out to the pro-Direct Action faction, led by Big Bill Haywood, and eventually broke off to form the short-lived Workers International Industrial Union. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

Errico Malatesta (from Wikipedia, public domain)

 December 14, 1853 – Italian anarchist theorist and militant Errico Malatestawas born on this date in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Naples. (From the Daily Bleed )

December 14, 1957 – Dave Beck, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was convicted of embezzling from his own union. (From the Daily Bleed )

Polish 1970 protests in Gdynia: body of  Zbyszek Godlewski) carried by the demonstrators.(from Wikipedia, public domain)

 December 14, 1970 – Strikes began in Gdansk, Poland, and spread to Gdynia, Szczecin, other industrial centers, with widespread factory occupations. Rioting toppled the Communist government, only to see it replaced with a new military regime. Labor resistance and protest continued in Gdansk, leading to the formation of Solidarnosc, which toppled the Communist government once and for all in the 1980s. (From the Daily Bleed )

December 14, 1992 – 300,000 coal workers struck against Poland’s "Solidarity" government. (From the Daily Bleed )

December 14, 1995 – 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ended a 69-day strike at Boeing, winning increases in pay and health benefits and job protections against subcontracting.. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—December 13

December 13, 1924 - American Federation of Labor founder and President Samuel Gompers died at age 74. One of his most famous quotes was "We want more schoolhouses and less jails, more books and less arsenals, more learning and less vice, more constant work and less crime, more leisure and less greed, more justice and less revenge (From Workday Minnesota)

December 13, 1971 --  Workers in Namibia struck against the contract labor system imposed by the South African government, marking the beginning of popular support for southern African liberation struggles. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 13, 1981 – Communist General Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland for the next three years to suppress and destroy the 10-million strong Solidarnosc trade union workers' movement, during which at least 10,000 activists were. This date is now known as "Solidarity Day."