Charter Envy in Boston

Boston, long suffering from charter envy, now plans to convert several of its district public schools into charter schools. On November 3, the Boston School Committee unanimously voted to convert a middle school and a high school into charter schools. This is part of their “Redesign and Reinvest” plan to close 5 public schools and merge two others by year’s end. The closings have been presented by Superintendent Carol Johnson as a necessary step in the wake of budget cuts and declining student enrollment because so many are moving to charter schools. Twelve Boston schools have already been designated as failing, with teachers at six of these schools being forced to reapply for their jobs.

In January, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick signed a law that would raise the cap on new charter schools in the state. The new law is projected to double the number of new charter schools in the poorest performing districts. Patrick is a former Coca Cola executive and Ameriquest board member. A state government report, “The New Promise of Public Education: Ready for 21^st Century Success,” argues that the current education system is not adequately training students for “success in life and work,” and doesn’t “meet the needs of employers.” Charter schools managed by for-profit private companies ostensibly would succeed in training kids to be good workers probably because they would bust the union, downsize the staff, cut services, and make the kids work harder with less support so they get used to their future lives as cubicle drones.

Support Your Public Education

Support Your Public Education

(To the tune of Glory Glory Hallelujah)

It is we who go to meetings and who write curriculum

It is we who work through lunch so that our children are not dumb

We are often here ‘till late, yet we are merely paid in crumbs

by Nick Bygon

Organize and we are strong

Support your public education

Support your public education

Support your public education

The teachers make it strong

Politicians call us lazy and they blame us for their woes

They say they love our children, but our schools they try to close

They cut our budgets, health care and they’ve brought us to new lows,

Organize and we are strong

Support your public education

Support your public education

Support your public education

The teachers make it strong

They demand our students learn without the benefit of books

Or librarians and nurses, so our children’s future looks

Like a choice between low wages or to join the ruling crooks,

Organize and we are strong

Support your public education

Support your public education

Support your public education

The teachers make it strong

(My thanks to Ralph Chaplin, and apologies to any orthodox labor history buffs out there who I may have offended)

When Johnny Can’t Read or Write No More

When Johnny Can’t Read or Write No More

(To the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home)

Huck.Konopacki Labor Cartoons

When Johnny can’t read or write no more 

Hurrah! Hurrah!       

We’ll send him to Iraq once more

Hurrah! Hurrah!

He’ll be useless as a wage slave

Or wind up in an early grave

When we attack our public ed-u-ca-tion

When Johnny can’t think or problem-solve

Hurrah! Hurrah!
He’ll end up with a lousy job

Huck.Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Hurrah! Hurrah!
He’ll be overworked and underpaid

Or scraping by on government aid

When we attack our public ed-u-ca-tion

But, if teachers are allowed to teach

Hurrah! Hurrah!
Free from tests and corporate reach

Hurrah! Hurrah!

The kids will grow, they’ll learn and strive

Their future is better when they’re alive

When we support our public ed-u-ca-tion


Thanks to EdNotes Online for inspiring me with their reposting of the Cathy Black Attack parody

Immigration is an Education Issue

Photo by Fifth_Business

I just watched The Class, an autobiographical sketch of a French school teacher. In one scene the teachers discover that a student’s mother was just arrested and faces deportation. The teachers take up a collection to pay for her legal fees. As I watched this, I was reminded of a student who met with me this week to get advice on college and scholarship applications, a particularly touchy subject as his mother was deported last year. He is currently living with a sibling and has no money for college.

His older sibling was a former student of mine. I knew the family. Yet I never heard about the deportation until a year after the fact. There was no discussion at my school. No outcry. No passing of the hat. Not even a heads up from the counselors that he might be distraught. (They were probably in the dark as much as I was).

In California, Latino students now make up over 50% of the student population. Caucasians are less than 30%. Close to 13% are Asian and Pacific Islander, while the remaining 7% are a mix of African American, Native American and other ethnicities. With numbers like these and ongoing raids by ICE, one would expect that students routinely lose parents to deportation. In Texas, over 45% of students are Hispanic and 3% Asian. In New York, over 20% are Hispanic and 7% are Asian. In Florida, close to 25% of students are Hispanic.

Growing Student Unrest

Britain is planning to hunt down student protesters who occupied Tory headquarters last week and, according PM David Cameron, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Paul McKeever, chair of the Police Federation, said that the man who threw a fire extinguisher from the top of the Millbank building should be “charged with attempted murder.” 

Students protests have been increasing throughout the world. Students have played a major role in the on-going protests in France over Sarkozy’s pension cuts. Students have also protested the deteriorating quality of education, fee hikes, “reform,” and privatization in Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Argentina. In the U.S., University of California officials want to expel a student for occupying Wheeler Hall during anti-fee hike protests in Berkeley. Students have also recently been punished for protesting at Ben-Gurion University, in Israel, for the rights of school employees.

The British response to last week’s protests may seem excessive. Yet, as governments throughout the world continue to use the economic crisis as an excuse to gut social programs, jobs, education, health and welfare, while bailing out and subsidizing the rich, they are terrified that the masses will awaken violently. Therefore, their response to opposition will be swift, severe and increasingly violent.

Corrupt Admin Rips Off SFUSD

A group of San Francisco Unified School District administrators, including an associate superintendent, ripped off the district by redirecting tens of thousands of dollars from community organizations into their own pockets. The administrators were part of the Department of Student Support Services, which works with community organizations to provide students with health education, drug abuse counseling and violence prevention. This is no small matter, as the district currently faces a $113 million deficit.

Associate Superintendent, Trish Bascom, is the former head of Student Support Services, and a key suspect in the investigation. For years she controlled the department’s $20 million budget. Bascom was replaced this year by Kevin Truitt, former principal of Mission High School. Truitt had a reputation at Mission of being transparent with budget matters. With all eyes on his new department, everyone will be expecting more transparency.

Gavin Newsom and Sarah Palin Agree: Parents Are the Deciders

llyn_hunter

What do Gavin Newsom and Sarah Palin have in common? They both believe that parents are the deciders, at least when it comes to fattening their children on junk food.

Palin was recently in Pennsylvania accusing them of being a “Nanny State run amok.” Her solution: stuff the poor deprived children of Plumstead Christian School with her wholesome mamma bear cookies. Poor Palin didn’t realize that the private Christian school would be exempt from PA’s new public school nutrition rules, or that the new guidelines did not ban cookies.

Thomas Hawk

Newsom, who moonlights as a purveyor of quality fine foods and liquor, recently vetoed a local San Francisco ordinance that would ban fast food outlets from giving away toys with their junk food, saying "Parents, not politicians, should decide what their children eat."Newsom also recently vetoed the San Francisco liquor tax which was supposed to help defray city expenditures on alcohol related injuries and illness. Ironically, Newsom has had both a history of alcoholism and corrupting minors. 

Mayor Newsom Trying to Eat a Microphone

Walk Through Schmalck Through--Admin is Never Wrong

Government Death (er, Deficit) Panel

Obama’s Deficit Panel has launched a large scale assault on the majority of Americans. Some of their proposals include:

• ·         Increasing the retirement age to 68 by 2050, and then to 69 by 2075
• ·         Cutting  cost of living increases for retirees
• ·         Cutting Medicare and Medicaid
• ·         Implementing tort “reform,” limiting our ability to sue doctors for malpractice
• ·         Cutting 10% of the federal workforce (approximately 200,000 more people will become unemployed)
• ·         Eliminating many tax deductions, including mortgage deduction interest.
• ·         Reducing the tax rate for those earning over $375,000 per year from 35% to 23%
• ·         Reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 26%

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

The last two proposals actually worsen the deficit, but they mollify the rich who run the show. Obama defended the proposals saying, “We’re going to have to take actions that are difficult and we’re going to have to tell the truth to American people.” Their “truth” goes something like this: The sky is falling because we are living beyond our means. The deficit harms all Americans; therefore, we all have to tighten our belts. However, if this was true, then the rich should have tax increases, not cuts. Former republican senator, Alan Simpson, a commissioner on the panel, joked that he might have to go into the witness the protection program, which might be true if we were in France, or Germany, or England, or just about anywhere else with a semblance of labor militancy.

Meanwhile, over 26% of American adults are without health insurance. The total number is 49.9 million, up from 46 million in 2008, according to the CDC. The largest jump in uninsured individuals occurred among middle class families. Nearly one-third of adults in households making between $43,000 and $65,000 a year were uninsured last year, while one in five adults in households making between $65,000 and $87,000 were uninsured last year. Uninsured children declined slightly. However, uninsured adults must care for children, which is much more difficult when ill, particularly when they have serious chronic illness, which is the case for one in eight uninsured Americans. The uninsured are also much more likely to die of preventable or treatable diseases, which puts further strain on families and children, who then suffer emotionally, from the loss of a parent, and financially, from the loss of income.

Public Spending Increases Wealth and Prosperity

Cartoon by HalcyonSnow

Contrary to the "common sense" arguments of tea-baggers, CEOs, and rich people, in general, cutting taxes and public spending does not increase investment, productivity or wealth. Thanks to the Shanker Blog (see GDP: Government, Democracy, Prosperity), for discovering this interesting research: Why We Need Public Spending, by David Hall, Greenwich University. Over the past 200 years, public spending has steadily increased in all wealthy countries and has coincided with increased prosperity.

Of course, the rich do not want a complete end to public spending. They rely on a constant transfer of wealth from the lower classes up to them through subsidies, tax breaks and government purchases of their goods (e.g., missiles, handcuffs, tasers, etc.) The only way for them to really score off education is for continued government involvement (they want it to be mandatory and tax-funded so they have a constant revenue stream and consumer base). What they really want is an end to low interest government loans and grants to regular people (e.g, unemployment insurance, social security, medicaid) so they can profit from these services.