July 29, 2014

See the really big smiles of Campbell Brown and Plaintiffs as they sue teachers for due process.

They absolutely look radiant, so happy. They are filing a suit against teachers who have due process rights. They are well-funded, ready to begin their fight against public schools teachers.
Campbell's husband, Dan Senor, is not pictured. However he is joining his wife in her fight against public education.

He was a major architect of the Iraq invasion, but since he is on the board of Michelle Rhee's group Students First he is in a position to help in the anti-union anti-teacher fight.

Teacher Tenure Fight Comes to New York City


Plaintiffs backed by Campbell Brown file suit to overturn teacher tenure laws. (WNYC)

I doubt that cheering little girl has understanding of this situation.

Seven parents filed a lawsuit with New York State Supreme Court on Monday seeking to overturn teacher tenure laws that they said prevent their children from receiving a "sound basic education" that is guaranteed by New York State’s constitution.

“Having bad teachers who can’t be removed, having a rating system which makes a mockery of a legitimate rating system for teachers, these are all systematic deprivations of the right to a sound education," said attorney Jay Lefkowitz. His firm, Kirkland and Ellis, is working pro bono for a new group called the Partnership for Educational Justice founded by former TV anchor Campbell Brown. They note that more than 90 percent of the state's teachers were rated effective or highly effective in 2012 but only 31 percent of state students were proficient on their math and reading tests in 2013.

The suit follows on the heels of the controversial Vergara ruling in California against tenure protections in June. Of the seven plaintiffs named in the suit, five are from New York City and two from Rochester.

Bronx resident Angeles Barragan said her daughter fell behind due to an incompetent teacher who didn’t assign homework and didn’t help her child learn to read. Now Natalie is repeating second grade at Kings College School P.S. 94.

Notice no blame is assigned to the student, no blame to the parent. Only the teacher.

This is very similar to the overturning of teacher due process rights in California recently. The parents and students stand publicly blaming only the teacher.

I find myself wondering to myself, but never out loud of course....were rewards given to these parents for their efforts? And the students who were paraded in public...did they really understand the implications of what they were doing?

Just like the California ruling, the plaintiffs are pictured publicly. Mainly students. Do they really understand?

Michelle Rhee is smiling.


Attorneys Theodore Boutrous, far right, and Marcellus McRae, second from right , are joined by nine California public school students who sued the state to abolish its laws on teacher tenure, seniority and other protections, during a news conference in January.

The union said:

"This suit is not pro-student. It is fundamentally anti-public education, scapegoating teachers for problems originating in underfunding, poverty, and economic inequality," California Federation of Teachers President Joshua Pechthalt said.

The CTA described Students Matter as a group created by Silicon Valley multimillionaire David Welch and a private public relations firm and said the group is supported by former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor "Michelle Rhee and Students First, Parent Revolution Executive Director Ben Austin, billionaire and school privatizer Eli Broad, former lawmaker Gloria Romero, and other corporate education reformers with an interest in privatizing public education and attacking teachers' unions."

This is basically a sad time in America's history of public education. It is sort of like the beginning of the end for a proud tradition.

Instead of giving schools needed resources, the policy of this administration is taking those resources, and lot of money....from public schools. They are giving it to private companies who want to form charter schools that are not regulated financially or educationally.

July 27, 2014

London yesterday, July 26. Huge rally for Palestine. Video.

Published on Jul 26, 2014

Thousands March In Free Palestine Protest, London 26th July 2014
PHOTOS HERE: http://www.demotix.com/news/5372515/t...

Footage taken on Whitehall outside Downing Street.

July 24, 2014

Delightful! Fox News station calls out Rick Scott on being expert question dodger. Great video.

Watch those eyes. He thinks he's so clever.

July 24, 2014

Those famous "educators", Campbell Brown and Dan Senor, on attack against NY teachers.

This is a perfect example of why education "reformers" have so much influence, though they know little about education. There is money and power behind them, and the media loves them. Teachers have little money and influence, and there are only a few bloggers telling their side of it.

How in the world did a former CNN anchor and an Iraq war architect get the credibility to move into New York public education? Who gave them the authority to try and force teachers to lose due process and collective bargaining rights?

There's a important graph at Muckety. Also an article about them.

Brown and Senor take on New York teachers

TV journalist Campbell Brown and Republican strategist Dan Senor are becoming the first couple of school reform.

Brown, a former CNN anchor, is the founder of Partnership for Educational Justice, which wants to abolish teacher tenure in New York.

Her husband, Senor, is a former adviser to the Romney campaign and spokesman for the Bush administration’s Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Senor is on the board of StudentsFirstNY, another group that has faced off against the teachers unions. The organization is an affiliate of StudentsFirst, founded by former DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee.

The couple’s school connections overlap in many ways, as illustrated in the interactive Muckety map above. StudentsFirst and Success Academy share funders and board members, including billionaire hedge funder Daniel Loeb.

Don't miss Salon's article today by very capable education writer, Jeff Bryant. Love its digs at Michelle Rhee.

A reeling Michelle Rhee passes the lead to Campbell Brown

For years, Michelle Rhee, the former District of Columbia schools chancellor, has been upheld in the media as someone with the formula and fight required to “fix” public schools.

...Supported by shadowy money and shaky science, these wealthy folks have created a “blame teachers first” campaign that seeks to address education problems rooted in inequality and low investment by attacking teachers’ job protections and professional status. Their efforts are, of course, “for the children.”

...But recent developments in the career trajectory of Rhee may have prompted the Blame Teachers First crowd to pick a new front person to lead their campaign: former CNN anchor Campbell Brown.

..Rhee’s Sullied Reputation

However you feel about Rhee and her campaign to label “ineffective” teachers as the cause of just about everything wrong with public education, her luster certainly seems to be waning.

I wonder how New York teachers feel right now while waiting the same shenanigans that led up to the teachers of California losing their due process rights in court?

July 22, 2014

Holocaust survivor speaks out for Gaza. Amazing statement.

Found at Twitter



I looked up more about Reuven Moskovitz and found this article from 2010. He is quite an activist. From BBC

Jewish activists sail to Gaza in defiance of blockade

Richard Kuper, a member of the UK-based organising group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said it was a symbolic act of protest and also a message of solidarity to "Palestinians and Israelis who seek peace and justice".

"This is a non-violent action," he said.

"We aim to reach Gaza, but our activists will not engage in any physical confrontation and will therefore not present the Israelis with any reason or excuse to use physical force or assault them."

Among the activists is 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Reuven Moskovitz.

"It is a sacred duty for me, as a (Holocaust) survivor, to protest against the persecution, the oppression and the imprisonment of so many people in Gaza, including more than 800,000 children," he said.

Well said, Mr. Moskovitz.

Crossposted at Twitter

July 20, 2014

The 56 year long love story of James Garner. Beautiful tribute.

July 19, 2014

Thousands Gather In London For Protest Against Israeli Military Action in Gaza

From Huff Post UK

Gaza Conflict: Thousands Gather In London For Protest Against Israeli Military Action

Thousands of protesters have gathered in London today to call for an end to Israeli military action in Gaza and "justice and freedom" for Palestine.

Up to 15,000 people are thought to have marched through the capital from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy in Kensington after Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza on Thursday.

This was the latest and one of the more peaceful demonstrations as rallies take place across the globe in recent days.

Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said London has "already shown its outrage at Israel's attacks on the mostly refugee population of Gaza, with people turning out in their thousands last week.

July 17, 2014

Charter schools a gravy train for US wealthy. Also path to citizenship for foreign investors. EB-5

As TeacherKen at Daily Kos pointed out last year....all you have to do is follow the money.

Just follow the money

Our democracy is being sold off, one piece at a time.

The idea of local control of public functions is disappearing.

And remember that the restrictions imposed upon government agencies with respect to rights protected in the Bill of Rights and elsewhere do not necessarily apply to corporate entities. No pubic school could fine a parent for a child's behavior, nor expel a child without due process, but charters are known to do both, often with regularity.

Perhaps it is hard for people to understand how much the profit motive is driving the expansion of charters - which I might note is only one part of the corporate attempts to control the hundreds of billions in tax revenue intended to fund PUBLIC education. The traditional media organizations have done a horrible job in covering this aspect of what is happening in American public education.

Also last year there was an important article at Forbes on how the EB-5 visas are now involving charter school investment.

Charter School Gravy Train Runs Express To Fat City

It’s not only wealthy Americans making a killing on charter schools. So are foreigners, under a program critics call “green card via red carpet.”

“Wealthy individuals from as far away as China, Nigeria, Russia and Australia are spending tens of millions of dollars to build classrooms, libraries, basketball courts and science labs for American charter schools,” says a 2012 Reuters report.

The formal name of the program is EB-5, and it’s not only for charter schools. Foreigners who pony up $1 million in a wide variety of development projects — or as little as $500,000 in “targeted employment areas” — are entitled to buy immigration visas for themselves and family members.

“In the past two decades,” Reuters reports, “much of the investment has gone into commercial real estate projects, like luxury hotels, ski resorts and even gas stations. Lately, however, enterprising brokers have seen a golden opportunity to match cash-starved charter schools with cash-flush foreigners in investment deals that benefit both.”

I am bringing this gravy train thought down to what is going on in Florida. The Chinese are very involved in this here, except we can't know the charter schools in which they are investing. They like their privacy, you know.

From 2012

Chinese investing 90 million in FL charter schools by next year. Remain anonymous.

Chinese funding Florida charter schools

Chinese investors are taking advantage of the EB-5 investment visa program, the so-called "green card via red carpet," by putting millions into Florida's charter schools and an aquaculture farm in Central Florida.

Under the EB-5 program, through investments of at least $1 million — or $500,000 for "targeted employment areas" — foreign nationals are able to obtain legal residency in the US so long as the money they invest will help secure or create at least 10 full-time jobs.

A group of Chinese investors have put $30 million into the state's charter school program to date and are looking to invest three times that amount in the next year, Ilona Vega Jaramillo, director of international business development for Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development arm, said in a US-China roundtable discussion last week.

She would not name any of the investors, citing confidentiality.

Just in case you were wondering how successful Florida charter schools have been...take a look at this list of charter schools that have closed here.

I have not counted them, but I hear there are 250 on the list...dating from 1998 until this summer.

July 15, 2014

Charter School Scandals Resemble the Subprime Mortgage Crisis..short but powerful video.

Mark Naison (1970), Fordham University Professor of African and African American Studies, Chair of African and African-American Studies and Co-Director of the Urban Studies Program. Ph.D., Columbia. African-American history; 20th century social and labor history.



Some background from Naison's blog.

Why Charter School Scandals Resemble the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

....But inevitably, the boom turned to bust. When the high rates on the mortgages started kicking in, millions of people defaulted on their loans, not only losing their homes but setting in motion a chain reaction which destabilized not only the banks which had written the mortgages, but the financial institutions which had bundled them, along with their customers. Some of the largest banks and insurance companies in the nation failed and went under, and others had to be rescued through an injection of funds from the federal government at huge expense to tax payers. And as the economy plunged into near Depression, the residential housing market was shattered, and along with it the dream of widespread home ownership among the poor. Today, there are 13 million abandoned homes and commercial properties in the US, while large numbers of families live doubled and tripled up in properties which were designed to be private homes

While the comparison is not exact, there are some powerful similarities between what happened to subprime mortgages and what is currently taking place with charter schools, another “short cut” to opportunity which has been seized upon by elites for financial and political gain, to the detriment of those for whom the charter school was initially designed to help.

Charter schools, which are public funded schools which have their own boards of directors and can set their own hiring policies, curricula, and patterns of student recruitment and discipline independent of the regulations governing public schools , were initially created to promote greater experimentation and innovation in public education. Many early charter schools were created by teachers and parents and promoted innovative pedagogies. Some still do.

But somewhere along the line, public officials began to see charter schools as a way of circumventing expensive labor contracts with teachers unions and of providing an alternative to public schools in inner city communities which had been battered by disinvestment, job losses and drug epidemics. They invited foundations and the private sector to come in and create charter schools on a far larger scale and with a very different model than parent/teacher cooperatives, using private money as well as public money. The professed goal was to give inner city parents and students safe alternatives to battered, underfunded and often troubled public schools, something many parents welcomed, but inviting powerful interests to help shape what was essentially an alternate school system free from public regulation and oversight proved to be as dangerous as it was tantalizing.

July 15, 2014

Abandoned baby horse meets 4 ft teddy bear. Adorable pics.

Abandoned Foal Finds a Friend in the Most Adorable Way Possible

Hours after birth, this baby horse foal was found stumbling around by a farmer. The newborn foal was abandoned by his mother. We’re sure she had her reasons, but the story does get better. The foal was taken to the Mare and Foal Sanctuary where they instantly started caring for him. What happened next is both adorable and heartwarming.

They became inseparable.