March 3, 2014

Video of Chicago teachers being treated like children in meeting. It's humiliating.

Professional Development meetings, sometimes called In-Service, are supposed to be offering up intelligent new developments in the field of education. Looks like someone in the back of the room took this video.

Published on Feb 17, 2014
This presenter was one of several consultants flown in from California and the United Kingdom for the Chicago Public Schools' Office of Strategic School Support Services' special network. This is a professional development for teachers of Saturday ISAT preparation classes.

This woman actually gets paid for this terrible presentation.

From CBS News Chicago:

In Video, Consultant Treats CPS Teachers Like Small Children

CHICAGO (CBS) — A video posted on You Tube apparently shows a consultant running a professional development seminar and treating Chicago Public School teachers like kindergartners.

The woman running the class on several occasions in the one-minute video asks the group of teachers to repeat single-words, or short phrases, back to her.

Consultant: “So repeat after me. We will”

Class: “We will”

Consultant: “Use”

Class: “Use”

Consultant: “Accurately”

Class: “Accurately”

Consultant: “Grade appropriate”

Class: “Grade appropriate”

Consultant: “General academic”

Class: “General academic”

Consultant: “In domain specific words.”

Class: “In domain specific words.”

Consultant: “And phrases”

Class: “And phrases”

Just like little children being asked to memorize something.

Canadian Education blogger Joe Bower had a whole lot more to say. He's right.

Here is what Education Hell looks like

He makes 4 valid points.

1. Roller coaster of emotions. I experienced a roller coaster of emotions as I watched this apocalyptic video. First, I was in shock. I couldn't believe this was happening. Second, I was angry. I couldn't imagine sitting in that classroom chanting without speaking up or walking out. Third, I was profoundly sad. If this is the nature of education reform and the future of our schools then I want nothing to do with it. Lastly, I am energized and hopeful. The only thing that cancerous education policies and practices need to survive is for good teachers to say and do nothing.

2. This is not Professional Development. This is at best a very poor inservice. This is precisely why teachers need a powerful Union that has a strong Professional Association focus to make sure that teachers have control over their own professional learning.

3. Teaching or testing? Teaching to the test and excessive test preparation invalidates inferences that can be drawn from the scores – yet they are the inevitable response to pressure to produce good test scores.

Leaving out #4 to add his last paragraph, to which I think the answer is yes...unfortunately.

One last bonus horror: Is this being done to the teachers to encourage them to return to their classrooms and do exactly this to their students?

Before I retired this kind of mindless stuff was already beginning. Our last few development days were jokes. We were all stifling laughter, or perhaps tears as well.

Wasted time, wasted money to that consultant, and even worse degrading to the teachers.

That is not just Rahm's Chicago school system (yes it is his because he has mayoral control). It is happening on various scales around the country.

March 2, 2014

More: Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meek supported GOP incumbents over Dem candidates.

Two Florida Democratic congress folks prefer their Republican incumbents to their own party.

This time around, Wasserman Schultz and Meek say their relationships with the Republican incumbents, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, leave them little choice but to sit out the three races.

''At the end of the day, we need a member who isn't going to pull any punches, who isn't going to be hesitant,'' Wasserman Schultz said.

The decision comes as Democrats believe they have their best shot in years to defeat at least one of the Cuban-American incumbents with a roster of Democrats that include former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, opposing Lincoln Diaz-Balart; outgoing Miami-Dade Democratic party chair Joe Garcia, opposing Mario Diaz-Balart; and businesswoman Annette Taddeo, opposing Ros-Lehtinen.

But Wasserman Schultz and Meek say their ties to the three Republicans are personal as well as professional: Both served in the state Legislature with Mario Diaz-Balart and say they work in concert with all three on South Florida issues.

I call that party disloyalty. So Wasserman-Schultz best not lecture any one who questions policy. Seems she gave up that right in supporting right wing GOPers because they were friends.

March 2, 2014

Dem Power Brokers kept many "liberals" out of FL races. Bvar22 is right about "beat downs".

I was just reading his post about how the Left HAS taken many "Beat Downs" from the Party Power Brokers.

He tells about how the party leaders, the WH and the election committees, stepped in and interfered in state primaries.

They have done so much of that in Florida. These are only instances that I know of personally, and most of them are from the early to mid 2000s. We were very active politically here at that time, and it was painful to see.

Here's what the DCCC under Rahm did in FL's 16th district with the help of then state party chairwoman, Karen Thurman.

Mahoney vs Lutrin....what was done in FL 16th by Rahm and Thurman.

Remember Tim Mahoney? He had an affair and lost miserably. He had replaced a strong union supporter and liberal school teacher, David Lutrin. Dave was forced out of the face by Rahm and Karen Thurman. On purpose. Deliberately.

David Lutrin, a school teacher, union activist and staunch supporter of immediate withdrawal from Iraq, decided to run against Foley before Mahoney entered the race. After Mahoney declared his candidacy, Lutrin was contacted by field organizers for the DCCC who asked him to drop out and let Mahoney run unopposed.

Lutrin said that he also met personally with Mahoney. During a three- hour breakfast meeting, Mahoney offered Lutrin a higher-paying job if he agreed to drop out of the primary. "Mahoney tried to get me to run in a different district. He offered me a job at one of his non-profit organizations where he said that I would make more than I was making as a teacher. He said I could campaign full time while working at his non-profit as long as I agreed to drop out of the race," Lutrin said. Lutrin declined the job offer.

According to Lutrin, when he refused to step aside, the DCCC shored up local political support for Mahoney. The local AFL-CIO chapter, of which Lutrin was a member, came out with an early endorsement of Mahoney's campaign. According to Lutrin, the union told him that "they would like to back a fellow union brother, but Mahoney has more money and more political support from the party." Lutrin eventually dropped out of the race when the local teachers' union decided to support Mahoney.

Screwed by your own union. No doubt they had pressure or promises or both from Rahm and Karen.

Earlier on there was Jan Schneider. I know of this one from personal experience.

More on the tale of what the DCCC is doing in Florida's 13th District.

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) March 16, 2006 -- In 2004, Jan Schneider ran the closest Congressional race in the State of Florida -- and she did it against incumbent Congresswoman Katherine Harris! Some prominent friends, relatives and associates in Las Vegas, Nevada -- including local Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-Las Vegas), foundation chair Elahé Mir-Djalali Omidyar (mother of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar), prominent physician and philanthropist Dr. Parvin Modaber Jacobs and actor and artist Tony Curtis -- are helping Schneider win the open seat Harris is vacating to run against Florida Senator Bill Nelson. They are throwing a fundraiser at the luxurious Grand Salon, Park Towers, One Hughes Center Drive in Las Vegas tomorrow, March 17, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has also previously contributed to the Schneider campaign.

Who Is Jan Schneider?

In 2004, to repeat, Schneider ran the closest Congressional race in the state of Florida. She held incumbent Congresswoman and former Florida Secretary of State Harris to a margin of 55% to 45%. Despite the heavily Republican registration in the Florida 13th Congressional District (roughly 50% Republican to 30% Democratic to 20% other), as a political unknown, Schneider managed to capture the hearts and minds of large portions of the local electorate. An independent-minded person who is appalled by the extreme partisanship affecting both political parties in Washington these days, Schneider is committed to putting the interests of the country and her constituents first.

A straight-shooting Yale-educated lawyer with a Ph.D. in political science from Yale. Schneider has three decades of experience as a practicing lawyer, educator and author. She also has a 30-year history of fighting for public interest causes, particularly in the areas of environmental protection, women’s rights, the arts and public housing. Among other things, Schneider is the author of two books and dozens of articles on environmental protection, and she currently provides pro bono legal services to residents of Sarasota public housing projects. For further information, consult her website at www.VoteJan.com .

Her primary opponent, Christine Jennings, came into the race with the support of the DCCC...which led to Barbara Boxer's support, and so on.

About Christine Jennings

"SARASOTA COUNTY -- In just over an hour on Tuesday morning, Democrat Christine Jennings raised more than $100,000 in political contributions in her bid to win a seat in Congress.

While $100,000 in a day is not abnormal for Republican fund-raisers in Sarasota County, it's a surprising one-day haul for a Democrat. In 2004, Jennings raised $264,000 during her entire campaign. Boxer said she wouldn't have made time for the fund-raiser if she didn't think Jennings could win. She said she checked with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee before agreeing to do the fund-raiser with Jennings.

"What did it for me was the fact that the DCCC said she can win," Boxer said.

Boxer isn't the first big name national Democrat to support Jennings. Political action committees for former presidential candidate John Kerry, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and DCCC Chairman Rahm Emmanuel have all contributed to Jennings campaign

Screwed by the DCCC. This one was personal for us.

I get almost 20 emails a day from progressives running in campaigns this time. Probably it is a result of still belonging to the DFA, run by Jim Dean. It is definitely a result of our surfeit of donations during the years of the Dean campaign.

When I think of what the Power Brokers of the party have done in Florida...just the stuff I know about on a personal level, I find myself being very cautious with my donations. Why? Because I remember how those Power Brokers played a role along with the media in the end of the Dean Campaign. And I can't forget.

The battle and its early beginnings

Liberal Oasis on Howard Dean and the DLC
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/00...
SNIP.."May 16, 2003 PERMALINK
The "Smear Dean" Campaign Is On
(posted May 16 2:15 AM ET)
(minor edit May 16 12:45 PM ET)

The DLC memo is titled "The Real Soul of the Democratic Party."
But it should be "Kneecapping Howard Dean."

However, it is so ludicrously ham-handed, Dean trumpeted it himself on his campaign web site. (A smart rapid response that bodes well for the future.)

If the memo was a principled argument over what the party should stand for, that would be fine. You can have honorable disagreements within one's party.

But the memo is nothing but a string of half-truths and contradictions designed to ward off insiders from backing Dean, while at the same time undermine Dean's support from the Left....."

My late hubby and I both thought, as did all the others in our campaign group here....indys, Republicans, Democrats....that what we were doing would make a difference. We thought our enthusiasm would bring change. It didn't, and the disillusionment has been hard to shake.

March 1, 2014

"A Dirty Word Gets Clean" Digby's got a good point.

Good for her. I openly and proudly identity myself a liberal, even in this fundamentalist right wing area in which I live....with a Southern Baptist Church on nearly every corner. I especially emphasize it to former Southern Baptists I see. When I was recently in the hospital some of these groups would walk the halls and go in rooms to see if they could pray with patients. I told them they should have gotten my permission via a nurse before they walked in.

When word gets out you are a liberal everyone around here wants to pray for you.

Anyway, back to Digby. She's right. More and more are wearing the liberal label after it's been abused for years.

A Dirty Word Gets Clean

Hmm:

The shift toward greater liberal self-identification has been led by Democrats. Currently, 43% of Democrats say they are liberal, a nearly 50% increase from 29% in 2000. Over the same period, the percentage of Democrats identifying as moderate is down to 36% from 44%, and conservative identification is down to 19% from 25%.

U.S. Political Ideology — Recent Trend Among Democrats



Now, we don’t know exactly what they are defining as “liberal.” I would guess more than a few define it as President Obama’s philosophy which I think is more accurately defined as “moderate.” (He said himself that he would be considered a moderate Republican back in the 80s.) It is curious that this increase in self-defined liberals seems to have jumped just in the last couple of years, so it’s hard to say it’s all Obama driven.

In any case, there are two factors here that are of interest. The first is that the demonization of the word itself seems to have faded a bit. If 43% of Democrats are now willing to call themselves liberal it is obviously no longer a shameful label. I don’t know why that’s happened, but perhaps it’s just as simple as the fact that the conservatives have been making such asses of themselves in recent years that normal people are no longer as influence by their opinions.

When I came to DU in 2002 I was terribly afraid of the word "liberal". Where I live it was taking a chance to mention it, still is sometimes....and still is in our neighborhood.

I am not fearful of it any longer, and I am proud to give myself that label.

February 28, 2014

Here we go again. Liberals slammed again. WP "Are the Democrats getting too liberal?"

This has gone on for decades. When in doubt blame the liberals. It's a fairly vague term that many are reluctant to claim because of the negative connotations. Years of attacks from the right wing noise machine have made it an unpopular label.

Are the Democrats getting too liberal?

Andrew Kohut is founding director and former president of the Pew Research Center. He served as president of the Gallup Organization from 1979 to 1989.

While Republicans have become more conservative, Democrats have grown more liberal. The Pew Research Center’s values surveys, spanning 1987 to 2012, show that Democrats as a whole have moved to the left in recent years. They are much more socially liberal than they were even a decade ago, more supportive of an activist government, more in favor of increased regulation of business.

Under the more centrist Obama administration, the leftward movement of Democratic voters has been of limited political consequence. Most of the change on social policies such as same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization has come at the state and local levels. However, looking ahead to 2016, the viability of liberal Democrats has emerged as a critical question for the Democratic Party. Even as conventional wisdom coalesces around Hillary Rodham Clinton as the establishment candidate, the success of prominent progressives — Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio come to mind — means the party could face an ideological divide in 2016.

And the progressives, or liberals, seem to have the momentum. Gallup recently reported that liberal self-identification has edged up to its highest level in more than 20 years. Similarly, Pew Research’s values surveys have documented increasingly liberal beliefs among Democrats on social, economic and regulatory matters. While the move leftward has occurred among moderate and conservative Democrats as well as liberal ones, liberals have either moved further left or hold more intense views than moderates and conservatives.

And then comes the usual warning about how liberals will harm the party.

In the shutdown era, Democrats have had a more moderate image nationwide than the tea-party-burdened GOP. But that image may be at risk if liberal Democrats set the pace for the party. We could see them rally around a progressive leader — Warren, de Blasio or some yet-to-emerge candidate — who speaks their language of economic populism. If the agenda of this new New Left drives Democrats’ choices, it might weaken the ideological and demographic coalition that has led the party to victory in four of the past six national elections.

It hasn't been that long since we had to listen to the former White House secretary, Robert Gibbs, say that critics of the president ought to be drug-tested. And more.

Robert Gibbs says leftwing critics of Obama 'ought to be drug tested'

The Obama administration's most public face, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, has tried to climb down from angry remarks he aimed at leftwing critics, calling them "crazy".

In an interview with The Hill newspaper in Washington DC, Gibbs revealed frustration at attacks on the administration from liberal Democrats and others on the left, in terms likely to make relations even worse:

"I hear these people saying he's like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested," Gibbs said. "I mean, it's crazy."

The press secretary dismissed the "professional left" in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, "They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we've eliminated the Pentagon. That's not reality."

There's been enough of that kind of talk. We don't need it, and it hurts the party.

February 28, 2014

CPS threatens to discipline teachers who won’t give students ISAT test.

Barbara Byrd Bennett is not a happy camper lately.


Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief executive officer for Chicago Public Schools, speaks during Wednesday's Chicago Board of Education meeting. | Chandler West/For Sun-Times Media

CPS threatens to discipline teachers who won’t give students ISAT

Chicago Public Schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett has threatened to discipline any teacher who refuses to administer an annual state achievement test next week, according to a letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

The letter, sent out Thursday to principals, claims teachers could face the harshest repercussion from boycotting the test — losing their state education certification.

On test day, teachers will be ordered to leave the school building if they refuse to administer the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, according to the letter.

....“Barbara Byrd-Bennett and CPS are afraid of us speaking up — of us voicing our opinion on how these tests are unjust,” said Sarah Chambers, a special education teacher at Saucedo. “We already discussed the potential repercussions and we know that what we are doing is right.”

Silent3 has a post about the hundreds of students who are refusing to take the test. I would say Barbara Byrd Bennett has her hands full.

Hundreds of CPS students refuse to take annual test

Holding signs that read “Our children are more than a score!,” the group encouraged parents to not have their children take the test...

“We think this is a great time for parents and students to say we are demanding more from our public schools than testing,” said Creswell, of More than a Score, an organization of parents, teachers, students and community members frustrated by CPS testing.

Wonder if Bennett is going to threaten the students as well.

February 26, 2014

70% of FL teachers got graded on students they did not teach. Results to be published anyway.

This just outrages me. It is making a mockery of education. It's a joke, and it's going on around the country.

From the WP

The most meaningless teacher evaluation exercise ever?

The Florida Times-Union newspaper sued the state Education Department to get access to what are called “value-added” scores of teachers that are used to make high-stakes decisions about their jobs. These scores come from student standardized test scores, which are then plugged into a complicated formula that supposedly can calculate the “value” a teacher adds to a student’s achievement. In Florida, half of a teacher’s evaluation comes from these scores and the other half from administrative observation; the ratios are different in different states.

The First District Court of Appeals granted the newspaper’s request, forcing the department to turn over the scores.

Here’s the thing: These formulas can’t determine a teacher’s value with any constant validity or reliability, and testing experts have urged policy makers not to use it for any high-stakes decisions about students, teachers, principals or anybody else. Unfortunately, Florida and many other states, encouraged by the Obama administration, have ignored this advice and now use this “value-added method” (VAM) of evaluation.

There are numerous problems with using VAM scores for high-stakes decisions, but in this particular release of data, the most obvious and perhaps the most egregious one is this: Some 70 percent of the Florida teachers received VAM scores based on test results from students they didn’t teach and/or in subjects they don’t teach.

Here's more about the formula used. Since several here applauded the wisdom of such a formula to judge the depth of learning and true teacher ability...despite all outside factors....then you will find it quite fitting. You will think that finally teachers got what is coming to them...the prevailing attitude now. The propaganda against public schools has gone on so long and been so intense that it seems to have stuck.

Formulas for value added evaluation of teachers



To the 70% of those Florida teachers whose grades are meaningless because they did not teach those subjects....I empathize. I wonder if good teachers looking for jobs will realize that hey...Florida teachers have NO tenure anymore...and they are having their scores posted to the public. They will think quite hard before coming here to teach.

February 25, 2014

In education "there's big money to be made behind the reformy scenes." With taxpayer money.

Jersey Jazzman's blog yesterday talked about the endgame in this rush to reform education.

Education "Reform": The Endgame

ultimately we can't understand what's happening in Newark, in New Jersey, and in the rest of the country without asking where this is all going. What are these radical superintendents and state leaders -- trained by Eli Broad, Teach For America, and New Leaders for New Schools, among others -- trying to accomplish? What is the goal for the reformy, self-appointed, corporate foundation-supported education policy mavens? What do the big money donors to the reformy cause -- Gates, the Waltons, Broad, Zuckerberg, Arnold, Tepper & Fournier, Rock, the Koch brothers -- want? What is the endgame?

It's a difficult and complex question, and the data doesn't really give us an answer. The best we can do is speculate, but there's a problem with that: in my opinion, these people are highly self-conflicted when it comes to their goals. I don't believe that Bill Gates really thinks it's OK to see good teachers inadvertently fired because of an innumerate, illogical evaluation system that uses Value-Added Modeling. I don't think Michelle Rhee really wants children and parents wasting time on test prep. I don't think Arne Duncan really believes that children in poverty aren't at a disadvantage when gauging their academic outcomes.

He then says that "The only reason they would do this is that there has to be something in it for them."

1) There's good money to be made in being reformy.

2) There's big money to be made behind the reformy scenes. Down in South Florida, the Zulueta brothers, according to the Miami Herald, control a $115 million real estate empire, financed with public monies, and tax-free because it houses charter schools. Andrew Tisch's K12 Inc. is looking to expand into Newark, managing virtual charters for profit in a market they hope to see expand enormously. Investors are gathering big piles of money to invest in charter school expansion, using new markets tax credits to practically guarantee a return. Charter operators have essentially bought themselves state-level politicians and rewritten the laws to rake in piles of cash for their schools as public districts wither and die. Even the "noble" CMOs have back-channel real estate deals brewing.

I could spend all day providing links to stories like these. Anyone who denies that the "reform" movement isn't abetting a wholesale transfer of public monies and property to private concerns is either corrupt or willingly obtuse.

In another article the blogger points out more about how "back-channel" real estate deals work:

Make Big Money Building Charter Schools: Joe Bruno Shows You How!

Step 3: Charter Operators - Including FOR-PROFIT Operators - Build Facilities On Land They Own

But the Zuluetas’ greatest financial success is largely unseen: Through more than two dozen other companies, the Zuluetas control more than $115 million in South Florida real estate — all exempt from property taxes as public schools — and act as landlords for many of Academica’s signature schools, records show.

These companies collected about $19 million in lease payments last year from charter schools — with nine schools paying rents exceeding 20 percent of their revenue, records show.

Here's the telling part:

Step 4: The Taxpayer Foots the Bill

As "public" schools, the charters in the Doral network receive taxpayer funds for each child they enroll. According to Doral Academy High School's 2012 audit, Academica receives a $450 yearly management fee for each student enrolled. That makes expansion a good deal for Academica: more students, more fees.

I think they also get per-pupil fees in addition to that. Which of course means that money is not going to "real" public schools. This link gives info on that in the section called Funding. I am looking up more on that, as I am pretty sure they get more than the $450 a year per student.

There's more at this link about about Zulueta and his charter schools and influence.

FL's richest charter school company has close ties to state legislators, Bahamian retreats.

I would not care about their luxury retreats if they were not getting public money. That does make me care. From 2011.

They have strong ties to the Florida legislature.

Academica’s achievements have been profitable. The South Miami company receives more than $9 million a year in management fees just from its South Florida charter schools — fees that ultimately come from public tax dollars.

.....On April 15, the board of Doral Academy selected state Sen. Anitere Flores to run a new college proposed by the charter school network. As the college president, Flores will work side by side with Academica, the influential charter school management company that will also manage the college.

....Academica’s owners, Fernando and Ignacio Zulueta, have steered $150,000 in campaign donations to Tallahassee lawmakers and political committees through real-estate companies they control since 2007, state election records show. The Zulueta family has donated a further $75,000 in the past five years, and Academica executives and school contractors donated a further $54,000, records show.

Academica’s closest ally in the capital is in the family: Rep. Erik Fresen, a Miami Republican, is the brother-in-law of Fernando Zulueta, Academica’s CEO. Zulueta is married to Fresen’s sister, Maggie, who also is an Academica executive.

Education for profit, what's best for the students is down the line a bit.

February 23, 2014

In Newark 700 teachers may be laid off, many replaced by TFA

Just another part of Arne Duncan's education "reform".

From Bob Braun's Ledger. Braun is a former columnist with the NJ Star Ledger.

Bob Braun (Twitter)

Bob Braun, the legendary former columnist for The Star-Ledger, didn’t appreciate his former employer’s endorsement this past weekend of Gov. Chris Christie.

Mr. Braun, who left his job at The Ledger at the end of June, just short of the 50-year service mark, wrote a scathing reaction piece on his new blog to the editorial page’s support for Christie…

Newark: 700 teachers may be laid off, many replaced by TFA

Teach for America is one of Arne's favorite groups. Even though many of its alumni have become disillusioned with the group, he remains loyal. In many cases they are now replacing career teachers, GOOD career teachers.

The state administration of the Newark Public Schools (NPS) is expected to lay off hundreds of experienced city teachers and replace many with new hires, including more than 300 members of Teach for America (TFA). The report comes from union sources but is supported both by the latest version of the state’s “One Newark” plan and by the Walton Family Foundation website. The foundation is expected to subsidize the hiring of the new teachers.

Get that? The Walton family will subsidize this probable move. Money does buy education.

The NPS has not responded to requests for information or confirmation or denial of previous reports that Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of Newark schools, will ask outgoing state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf to waive seniority rights of hundreds of Newark teachers. This would permit their firing without resort to the detenuring process. Members of the Newark school board, however, confirmed Anderson’s plans to “right-size” the teaching staff.

It's called union-busting.

The Walton Family Foundation website posted this note: “Due to the impact of Teach For America’s corps members and alumni in the region, the Walton Family Foundation announced that they will support the recruitment, training and support of nearly 370 Newark area teachers over the next two years. This will undoubtedly mean great things for Newark’s students, parents and communities.”

According to the union sources, Anderson will attempt to fire some 700 teachers and replace about half with new hires, including the TFA members. According to the TFA regional website, Newark schools already have hired some 200 members. They are usually graduates of liberal art programs who sign up for two years to teach in low-income areas and then leave.

Anderson herself is both a TFA graduate and an executive with the foundation-financed TFA, an organization that also receives federal subsidies.

This is not okay. Ask yourself if President Obama intended for Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education to allow things to get this out of hand? It's a good and fair question and needs to be asked.

Linked at My Twitter site

February 21, 2014

Chained CPI has for years been "a potential sop to conservatives".

One definition of sop from the Free online dictionary.

n.
1. A piece of food soaked or dipped in a liquid.
2.
a. Something yielded to placate or soothe.
b. A bribe.

We have tried far too long to placate the right wing extremists. There has been little thought to the harm that might be done to the elderly...it's been a political play, a thoughtless one.

I'm glad President Obama has decided to drop it from the budget this time. It should never have been there in the first place.

This is a great piece by Michael Hiltzik in the LA Times.

Bye-bye, chained CPI

As we've pointed out in the past, the difference is cumulative. The result is a stealth benefit cut for recipients that grows over time. It might look modest at first, but after 10 years of retirement, recipients would be receiving 10% less in their monthly checks than they would have received under the traditional CPI. After 20 years--that is, for retirees in their mid-80s--the difference is minus-20%.

That's especially disturbing because retirees become more dependent on Social Security as they grow older and begin to outlive their personal assets. It's also troubling because Social Security is most important for the elderly, especially low-income elderly, as a bulwark against economic downturns.

Despite all that, the chained CPI has lived on for years in Washington as a potential sop to conservatives in negotiations over a fiscal "grand bargain."

The White House now indicates that it has finally given up hope on reaching that bargain with Republicans. (What took them so long?) So the chained CPI, which was part of President Obama's budget proposal as recently as last year, is out of the budget to be unveiled on March 4.

Hiltzik says it may be gone for now, and that is a victory. However he doesn't think it will be a lasting victory at all.

He says "Recent history shows that the dream of forcing low-income seniors to pay for budget cuts so that wealthy Americans aren't burdened with a tax increase never really dies; it just goes into hibernation."

Now we have the battle over the TPP which appears to be something that will change the face of our country forever. That, too, may be a winnable temporary victory.

I want to add that we need to keep fighting both parties who are intent on taking education out of the public venue...and turning it over to private sectors who will get the taxpayers' money.

But that would be just a useless thing to say, as few seem to care about it. The free market schools of Newt Gingrich's dream are now coming to be under a Democratic administration. That's pretty bad.