Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal

I did a short piece accompanied by a 12 minute video. Maybe this is the model for print journalism.

The Wave, March 22, 2013: http://www.rockawave.com/news/2013-03-22/Columnists/School_Scope.html

School Scope

Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal 

 

By Norm Scott

At a sometimes raucous March 11th meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, the Mayor Bloomberg-controlled Panel rejected the efforts of Queens PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj and Manhattan PEP rep Patrick Sullivan both of whom called for a moratorium on school closures, phase-outs, and co-location proposals. Fedkowsky, appointed by Borough President Helen Marshall, has increasingly become an opponent of many of the Mayor’s policies as they have ravaged more and more neighborhood schools. He joined Sullivan in presenting the resolution which was supported by most of the hundreds of attendees, many of whom used their two minutes of speaking time to support the moratoriums.

Over the past five years Rockaway has seen both its large comprehensive high schools either closed or in the process of being phased out.

Fedkowskyj questioned the DOE’s process of communicating to parents the rationale for phasing out schools and the process for providing support they claim to have given schools before and after the phase out process. “This month’s agenda is excessive and out of control after 11 years of mayoral control…Too many of our school communities are being targeted year after year by the Mayor. He steamrolls past parents without providing specific targeted support for struggling school communities,” said Fedkowskyj in introducing the moratorium resolution.

Melvin Hydleburg, one of the two student reps in the Panel, a student at Lehman HS in the Bronx, which has repeatedly been threatened with closing during his entire tenure there and was pulled off the closing schools list a few weeks before the March 11th vote, spoke about the negative impact on the high school experience for thousands of students going through the school closing process over the Bloomberg era. “There are students here tonight that could be home doing homework…I know how they feel and it sucks…It’s about the students and how they are affected.”

In the end, the PEP voted down the call for a moratorium by a vote of 8-3 with the Brooklyn rep abstaining. At the end of the long meeting that began at 6 p.m. and ended around 11 p.m. they voted to close another 22 schools despite the pleas of parents, students, teachers and a slew of politicians. Video link

I think I remember putting in that people were calling Marty Markowitz a clown when his rep abstained. I prefer "piece of crap."

Fighting School Closings, Chicago Style

Do you know what Unity Caucus people are going to say? "You see, if only the CTU had not been so militant and struck. This is retaliation. We know how to deal. We know we have to be good boys and girls and they will let us live a little longer.

Karen Lewis would say they want to kill us sooner or later. Our only chance is to fight them on all fronts sooner and with all guns blazing.

In reality, if CORE had not won the election, the Chicago Teachers Union would be a bare bones shell by now. And what irony that the very people who led the CTU down the road to extinction are now saying that CORE did not do enough. The proverbial guy who kills his parents and pleads mercy on the grounds he's an orphan.

	Closings Update
Dear CTU member, You probably heard yesterday that the school district plans to close, co-locate and turnaround 70 schools this year. Your sisters and brothers in the CTU will stand tall with you during these difficult times. You have newly won rights in this situation, and our field staff will help you assert them, should the need arise. The CTU will continue to fight any and all school closings or other actions that displace our members and harm the education of our students. We are planning a mass rally on March 27th, we are developing legal challenges to these closings, we will continue to pursue legislative action, and we will continue working with our members and community to build a mass movement to stop this massive privatization drive. Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked Board of Education are attempting the largest mass school closing in the history of the nation—but the mayor is more vulnerable now than ever, thanks to the strength we have all built together with parents, students and community. We have the momentum, for the first time: Thousands of people came out to public hearings to reject school closings over the last month. The public knows CPS is lying about the budget and underutilization because they are: expanding charters inflating the deficit creating $1 billion more in liability, by CTU estimates, if they actually do what they promise (hardly likely) and install air conditioning, provide sufficient security, and adequate social supports to the receiving schools, and they will increase class size, not decrease it. Rahm hopes to project strength with these closings because he is actually weaker now than ever. Black aldermen and legislators are finally waking up to the realization that this will have a devastating impact on their communities. The newspapers are actually covering the educationally damaging and discriminatory impact these closings will have on Black students, special needs students, and low-income communities. Our members are united like never before. We held a packed House of Delegates meeting on school closings just last week. 250 people have agreed to be arrested on March 27th and schools are ready to take the next steps. Everyone knows the closings will increase the violence and harm the academic opportunities for our children. CPS has even adopted military planning strategies for these closings. They mean to make war on our neighborhood schools. It seems that Rahm is more committed to a high “body count” of school closings than helping our communities survive and thrive. What can we do? Know your rights – in the event that the school does close you should be aware of what your rights are. The March 27th Rally is essential. It is one of best chances to show how strong and powerful we are. If we flood the streets with thousands, surround City Hall, take hundreds of arrests and express a booming rejection of these harmful, undemocratic policies, we have a fighting chance. Take home all your parent phone numbers over the break and get them to come out on the 27th and to a future meeting to fight the school closing. Come to the Bank of America action tomorrow, Saturday 3/22/13, to make them give $36 million back to CPS for rip off loans since 2008 -- this money, if returned, could keep all our schools open and then some. The training and action is from 10am to 12:30pm tomorrow at 2229 S. Halsted. We must prepare for a big confrontation. Power concedes nothing without a fight; it never did and it never will. The future of our public schools and the well-being of our students are in jeopardy. This is a critical battle and your union is with you 100%. Please contact Lupe Coyle if you would like to schedule a meeting with members from your school during Spring break to meet with an organizer or field representative. We will get back in touch with you as soon as possible to schedule a day and time. Here is the Ravitch post with Karen Lewis' response Karen Lewis on Chicago School Closings by dianerav The mass closing of public schools in Chicago should be the lead story on every news channel tonight. It is not. The fact is that a dozen years of No Child Left Behind and three-plus years of Race to the Top has persuaded the American public that closing schools is "reform." It is not. It is a dereliction of responsibility. It is an abdication of any oath of office that a public official in this country takes. It is a betrayal of any commitment to equality of educational opportunity. It is a capitulation to corporate interests. I wish I could be in Chicago on March 27 to stand with the teachers, parents, and students who have been abandoned by Rahm Emanuel and all those who carry out his shameful orders to close neighborhood public schools. Here is the statement of Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union: CHICAGO –The Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the following at a news conference regarding proposed school closings: “We are standing here today in the beautiful Mahaila Jackson elementary school in our city’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. This school was named for one of the greatest gospel singers in our nation’s history, a woman who sang at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral, a woman who was instrumental in our Civil Rights struggle. Unfortunately, we are gathered here today not to talk about this pioneer or even about how this school does an outstanding job of providing a great learning community for some of our special needs students. We are standing here because this school, along with scores of others, has been targeted for closure by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Public School district.... “Closing 50 of our neighborhood schools is outrageous and no society that claims to care anything about its children can sit back and allow this to happen to them. There is no way people of conscious will stand by and allow these people to shut down nearly a third of our school district without putting up a fight. Most of these campuses are in the Black community. Since 2001 88% of students impacted by CPS School Actions are African-American. And this is by design. “Closing 50 schools is not grand or glorious. This is nothing to celebrate or marvel. “These actions unnecessarily expose our students to gang violence, turf wars and peer-to-peer conflict. Some of our students have been seriously injured as a result of school closings. One died. Putting thousands of small children in harm’s way is not laudatory. “There is no safety plan. There is no transportation plan. The city has already raised CTA fares and now they expect parents to put their five-year-old on a crowded city bus in order for them to get to school, when they used to be able to walk to a school in their neighborhood. The way this is being done is an insult and it is disrespectful. “The CTU is the bargaining unit for 30,000 of the district’s employees SEIU and Unite HERE represent thousands more. Yet CPS did not feel obligated to brief any of us in advance of today’s announcements. Instead, they called a few aldermen last night and then summoned principals this morning at 6:00 a.m. to spring the news on them. They had no consideration for their employees or our students—at all. They have no regard for our parents. They do not care about the children of their employees, many of whom also attend our public schools. “I also find it extremely cowardly for the Mayor’s administration to announce these actions while he is vacationing out of town. They are also making this announcement days before people are headed into spring break. CPS has spun our entire district into utter chaos, a management model perfected on Clark Street where they are headquartered. “This city cannot destroy that many schools at one time; and, we contend that no school should be closed in the city of Chicago. These actions will not only put our students’ safety and academics careers at risk but also further destabilize our neighborhoods. “This is why we intend to rally, united and strong, on Wednesday, March 27 to send a signal that we are sick and tired of being bullied and betrayed. Some of us are going to put our bodies on the line—because a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And when we declare the victory, some of us will sit back and sing the lines of one of Mahaila Jackson’s songs—How I Got Over. “Rahm Emanuel has become the ‘murder mayor.’ He is murdering public services. Murdering our ability to maintain public sector jobs and now he has set his sights on our public schools. But we have news for him: We don’t intend to die. This is not Detroit. We are the city of big shoulders and so we intend to put up a fight. We don’t know if we can win, but if you don’t fight, you will never win at all. “The people of this city can no longer sit back and allow this mayor, his school board and his corporate cronies to run rough-shod over democracy. They’ve turned their backs on affordable housing; turned their backs on job creation; and, now they’re turning their backs on our students, their families and our schools. We are tired of playing their school reform games. But who are the winners and losers? Who made the rules? And what do they keep telling the losers to keep them playing their games? “We do not have a utilization crisis. What we have is a credibility crisis. CPS continues to peddle half-truths, lies and misinformation in order to justify its campaign to wipe out our schools and carry out this corporate-driven school reform nonsense. CPS continues to peddle an ‘underutilization myth’ and ‘billion dollar deficit lie’ as justification for their actions. When research and the facts prove them wrong they simply reconfigure their talking points in order to further perpetrate their sham and to keep us playing their school reform games. “For the past several weeks there has been a resounding cry against school actions from parents, students, educators and community stakeholders. The Mayor and the CEO have ignored these petitions for justice at these hearings and apparently have not listened to single word that was said. Parents have been direct, loud and clear. Students have been loud and clear. Principals have been loud and clear. Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians have been loud and clear: DO NOT CLOSE OUR SCHOOLS! GIVE US THE RESOURCES WE NEED, RIGHT NOW, TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS AND GIVE THEM THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE. “Enough with the lies and public deception: School closings will not save money and taxpayers will not see costs benefits in two years. Why? Because vibrant school communities will be quickly transformed into abandon buildings, neighborhood eyesores and public safety hazards. “This is the mayor’s 25% solution. Yet, who will be held accountable when one of our students is harmed as a result of these policy decisions? And, who will be the ones to ensure justice is served?” ### The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information please visit CTU’s website at http://www.ctunet.com.

Change the Stakes Open Letter to Walcott

Change the Stakes – an organization of parents and educators committed to replacing such tests with more meaningful forms of assessment – urges you to publicly pledge that scores from this year’s state English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests will not be used to penalize students, teachers or schools. The upcoming testing cycle represents an unprecedented grand experiment: the exams, and the standards on which they are based, are new and untested.  --- Letter to Walcott from CTS

----how excited I was to hear that NYC parents are mobilizing to take action against the testing-madness.... we don't want classrooms or schools to be "data-driven," we want them to be child-driven, learning-driven and data-informed. Good luck and let us know in Chicago how we can be supportive..... 
In cahoots, Bill (Ayers)

When people ask where is GEM at now I respond there are 2 branches: one is involved with MORE and the other has morphed into Change the Stakes, which is a true parent/educator/statistician (Fred Smith) grassroots partnership organization here in NYC, including elementary through college teachers and even principals. CTS works with other testing groups like Parent Voices and Time Out From Testing (TOFT), all of which were involved in organizing the great Pearson pineapple protest last May. Look for more action especially around the opt-out movement coming up. Imagine the day when thousands of parents refuse to have their kids take the tests being used to strangle public education?

One of the wonderful things for me to witness has been the excitement of the parents who formerly felt isolated and unempowered feeling the power of being part of an organized group like CTS with people with amazing talents.

The parents in CTS have taken the lead and put together this letter to Walcott. As a member of the listserve I was a non-participant in the process but able to watch it come together as a listserve lurker of the remarkable group of people involved. While GEM can take credit for doing an amazing number of things in the 2 years it was most active, the work of Change the Stakes is as high on the list as producing The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.

Here is Diane Ravitch's post followed by the letter itself followed by an email received from Bill Ayers in Chicago.

Parents in NYC called on Chancellor Dennis Walcott to pledge not to use this year’s tests to punish students, teachers, or schools. 

Change the Stakes (www.changethestakes.org), an activist group comprised of parents, teachers and teacher educators – argues that this year’s tests are so fundamentally flawed that the scores should not be used. Here’s our letter to the Chancellor:

OPEN LETTER TO CHANCELLOR WALCOTT
By Change the Stakes
March 20, 2013

Dear Chancellor Walcott,

In four weeks, public school children across New York City will begin two weeks of intensive, high-stakes standardized testing. Change the Stakes – an organization of parents and educators committed to replacing such tests with more meaningful forms of assessment – urges you to publicly pledge that scores from this year’s state English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests will not be used to penalize students, teachers or schools. The upcoming testing cycle represents an unprecedented grand experiment: the exams, and the standards on which they are based, are new and untested.

Educators, parents and students alike are painfully aware that this is a “transitional year” in the state testing program. Two years ago, New York State adopted its own version of the new national education standards known as the “Common Core” and this year’s tests are the first to be aligned with them. Not only are the standards new and unproven, the heart of the program – the curriculum – is still being developed. Teachers haven’t been given sufficient time to transition students to the new learning standards, yet children are being tested on them next month anyway.

You yourself acknowledge the serious challenges inherent in using scores from the looming April 2013 exams to assess student performance – and presumably, by extension, the performance of teachers and schools. In a recent letter to parents, you state:

“In past years, decisions about summer school were made based on estimates of each student’s performance level on the State tests: 1, 2, 3, or 4. This year, because the tests are new, we cannot predict how the State will determine performance levels.”

If the purpose of your letter was to reassure parents, you did not succeed. As far as we can tell, the letter has had the opposite effect by setting off alarms among parents who weren’t already focused on the sweeping changes taking place. Another Department of Education (DOE) document developed for parents, Tips for Talking with Your Elementary School Child about the Common Core Standards & Changing State Tests, is even more disturbing: it says that young children should be told to expect school work and tests to be more difficult this year and that feelings of struggle, anxiety and nervousness are common reactions. These new pressures are likely to be particularly onerous for English Language Learners.

In short, the DOE has acknowledged the harmful nature of the abrupt transition to the Common Core – in a year when schools and families also endured a devastating hurricane, a bus strike and a mass elementary school shooting in a nearby community – and yet offers only platitudes about how to help children, parents and educators cope.

Given the poorly managed phase-in of the Common Core and the experimental nature of this year’s assessments, we call for you to immediately and publicly announce that:

§ All student promotion decisions will be made on the basis of a range of indicators, including a review of a substantive portfolio of work representative of a child’s academic progress throughout the year. 

§ Teachers will not be evaluated on the results of this year’s tests as the scores are not comparable to last year’s.

§ School Progress Reports, which are almost entirely based on student test scores, will be either suspended or significantly changed to incorporate additional evidence of student achievement. No schools will be closed using this year’s test scores.

§ Parents have a right to opt their children out of the tests, as Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky has publicly stated, and the DOE will put in writing procedures about how to do so. 

It is unacceptable for city students, teachers and schools to be judged by the results of these new exams, which are unpredictable by your own admission, especially when other means of assessment already exist. 

The time has come for the DOE to finally acknowledge and respond to the growing concerns among public school parents about high-stakes testing. The current direction of policies and practices MUST change.

Sincerely,
The Members of Change the Stakes
http://www.changethestakes.org

Ayers' email:

You may know that Chicago Public Schools will announce any minute the schools they plan to close--it will be the largest school closing plan in history, and it represents an all-out assault on public education following a long and systematic pattern of abandonment and Jim Crow education. There will be a lot of talk of budgets and deficits to cover  this draconian and entirely unjustified move, but none of it the least bit convincing once you look at the evidence. Stay tuned and stay close.

We've also been in crazy-land over at Lane Tech H.S. The CPS chief banned the graphic memoir of the Iranian revolution, Persepolis, on the grounds that it was too graphic...and student demonstrations and parental outrage continue apace. A call to the Lab School, where our mayor sends his kids, turned up several copies in the library, a couple of them in French, and the book listed on one syllabus as required reading. Jim Crow curriculum at work---the mayor's kids get real literature, the "masses" get test-prep.

All of this is prelude to telling you how excited I was to hear that NYC parents are mobilizing to take action against the testing-madness. Reading about the dazzling boycott being organized is encouraging---another important indication that we are not alone and that a coherent resistance to the destruction of public education is coming together. Your boycott is such a clear and morally justified response to the education malpractice our children face in New York and Chicago and throughout the country. I hope parents can organize large numbers of families to participate in every school, and that you seize this moment to change the framework of the conversation---we don't want classrooms or schools to be "data-driven," we want them to be child-driven, learning-driven and data-informed.

Good luck and let us know in Chicago how we can be supportive. 
In cahoots, Bill
 

MORE Pre-Break Happy Hour Downtown Thurs. 3/21 Manhattan (near W. Village Chelsea)

Come on out and bring friends and co-workers. Wonderful sangria, drinks and tapas are available at this great Spanish bar/ restaurant.

Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE)

Downtown Happy Hour

 

Want to learn MORE about MORE?

Meet some of the candidates running in the UFT election?

Meet other teachers in the area?

Build a stronger chapter?

Need a drink before Spring Break?

 

Join MORE at our first Downtown Happy Hour!

Thursday, March 21st @ 5PM

La Nacional Tapas Bar

(reservation made for back of bar)

(239 West 14th Street between 7th & 8th Ave

--

Video: PEP Rejected Call for Moratorium on School Closings, Phaseouts and Colocations

I finally had a chance to put this together from the March 11 PEP meeting. Given there is another one tonight focused on giving away entire swaths of the school system to Eva Moskowitz, it will be another busy night.

At the PEP, Queens Rep Dmytro Fedkowskisj and Mahattan's Patrick Sullivan presented the moratorium resolution. This video has their statements and their reading of the reso which lost by a vote of 8-3 with the Bronx rep joining them and the Brooklyn rep appointed by the spineless Marty Markowitz abstaining -- you can hear some audience members erupting in catcalls calling Markowitz a clown.

http://youtu.be/_W3k-QcznS0



By the way, did you hear of the new PEP rule: Eva gets equal opportunity to choose a member of the PEP along with the borough presidents.

New PEP member, David Brown, represented Success Network in co-location suits

http://www.paulweiss.com/professionals/partners-and-counsel/david-w-brown.aspx

David also maintains an active pro bono practice. Recently, he has represented Success Academy Charter Schools in cases where plaintiffs sought to prevent the co-location of charter schools in school buildings owned by the New York City Department of Education. Also on the Board of Harlem Link Charter School, which hasn't exactly received stellar school grades/test scores despite a high attrition rate taking out low scoring kids.

By the way, the founder of Harlem link is the well-known ed deformer who went under the monicker of Kitchen Sink, who given some of the stories about Harlem Link has been rather quiet of late.

MORE Releases New Election Video Ad

MOVEMENT OF RANK AND FILE EDUCATORS, NEW CAUCUS OF THE UFT, CHALLENGES MULGREW'S LEADERSHIP, ISSUES VIDEO AD

For Immediate Release

Press Contact- James Eterno 

media@morecaucus.org 

New York, NY, March 19, 2013: The Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) is running in April's United Federation of Teachers officers' election. MORE is challenging the governing Unity caucus of President Michael Mulgrew. Unity has ruled the UFT for more than 50 years.

MORE believes that Unity co-signed on to government policies which are leading to the deterioration of our student's learning conditions; Mayoral control, privatization of schools, over reliance on high stakes exams, and evaluation schemes based on testing which does not take into account our children's socio-economic conditions, are just some of the harmful polices that Unity caucus has agreed to.

MORE's UFT Presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh states;

“For more than fifty years, one caucus and one caucus only, has led the UFT. In the last ten years, in a departure from the roots of our union's founding, the leadership has failed to organize and mobilize the membership at the time we have needed their leadership the most. The tidal wave of unprecedented attacks on our profession, our schools and our children will not stop with a new mayor. It is time for change. It is time we demand MORE from our union.” MORE believes that a democratic, member-driven union will better address the needs of students, parents, educators, and the communities we serve. 

The ballots will be mailed under American Arbitration Association letterhead on April 3, 2013. Voting begins immediately from that point until April 24, 2013.

Here is the link to our new commercial 

http://youtu.be/mN5cSbD4TTw

Help us take our 2nd video viral. Share on your social media, blogs, and email to all your friends and family. Ask your UFT colleagues to check it out and share it too! The ballots will be sent out April 3rd by USPS. The time is now to expect MORE from our union. We have a choice for a new positive leadership of the UFT which will build a strong union movement along side parents, students, community groups, and other workers' groups.

---------
In addition to running in the UFT elections, MORE organizes events ranging from educational forums and protests to social gatherings. For information about MORE visit www.morecaucus.org. www.facebook.com/MOREcaucusNYC www.twitter.com/MOREcaucusNYC

There are sort of 2 wings in MORE. One end stresses the concept of Positive Alternative Leadership (PAL); the other looks to go after the throats of Unity and New Action.

Guess which wing I am in?

I only know Mike Schirtzer, who bills himself as the lone registered Republican in MORE, for about 8 months. It's like I found a son. Jeez, is there anything Mike, Superman, can't or is not willing to do to promote MORE? Here is the first video he ever did, with lots of input from the MORE steering committee. I think I can truly think about retirement.

Pics: MOREs at NYCORE and More

The MORE table

International HS teachers from various schools plus Seku

International HS teachers from various schools minus Seku

Diana models remodeled MORE Tee. Coming soon: fringes

The always amazing Bree Picower, one of NYCORE's driving engines

The Change the Stakes crew: Lisa, Rosalie, Jane

Gloria, Kevin and Emily (Kevin needs to shrink)

Leia forgot to wear her MORE tee. We forgive her after this mayoral control presentation

Diana and Lauren present at Change the Stakes workshop

OK. Kevin lowers himself to meet Emily

MORE top officer candidates Marissa Torres and Brian Jones do MORE spiel

Karen Lewis Video at NYCORE: 30 Minutes of Wisdom

Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the [Democratic] party." --- Micah Uetricht from Strike for America: The CTU and the Democrats as quoted by Diane Ravitch.

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.-- Diane Ravitch

What a treat seeing Diane Ravitch signing on to the analysis that lays waste to the UFT/AFT strategy of never mentioning the word "neo-liberal" and placing the blame on Bloomberg and holding out hope to NYC teachers that once Bloomberg is gone all will be well with a Democrat in office. Sorry, Charlie. Ask Chicago and especially CORE teachers what neo-liberalism is and you will get an immediate response. Go ask the average Unity Caucus member what it means and you will get "duh."

If you viewed the video of Karen and Mulgrew at the UFT Friday night (Karen Lewis and Mike Mulgrew at Left Labor Project), this keynote at NYCORE from Saturday morning is a powerful treatise on organizing and teaching. You see how Karen was a TEACHER and these are the people we want running our TEACHER unions.

People who spend years interacting with students and parents. Leaders who know and understand what we do and can translate that into action to defend the teaching profession and public schools. She even gives some discipline tips (and I was thrilled since I used to do exactly the same thing -- tell the parents of the most difficult behavior problems what a pleasure it is to work with their children.) But most important -- and here is a lesson for MORE -- she talks about how CORE started in 2008 with 8 people studying the issues to try to understand what was happening to teachers and public education. "You need to understand your enemy in order to fight them." And the most fun --- mocking Rahm Emanuel and his stamping of his tiny little feet.


NYCORE Conference 2013 - Karen Lewis Keynote from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.


Diane Ravitch just posted this which resonates with the issues raised by Karen. (Really, for long-time Ravitch watchers, how remarkable to see this coming from Diane.)

How CTU Confronted Antagonists in the Democratic Party by dianerav

This is a stunning analysis of the relationship between labor unions and the Democratic Party.

It is a must-read.

Many in education have been baffled by the bipartisan consensus around Republican ideology. Micah Uetricht is not baffled. He says without hedging that "Democrats have swallowed the Right’s free market orthodoxy whole. Much of the party appears to have given up on education as a public project."

Teachers unions, he writes, have been unable to articulate a coherent response to their abandonment.

That is, until last September, when the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike. He writes:

"The union has been unafraid to identify the education reform agenda pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his party nationally as an attempt to exacerbate inequalities within the education system, strip teachers of power and erode their standards of living, and chip away at public education as an institution, and to call such Democrats enemies. Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the party."

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.

I wanted to share a comment my friend made on the Friday night video that cuts to the core of some of the things Karen is talking about that distinguishes the CORE/CTU from the Unity/UFT approach: the refusal to let the enemy divide us. Divide closing school teachers from safe school teachers. Divide ATRs from the rest. Divide rubber room teachers from the mainstream. Divide small schools from large schools. What Unity does is call people like me and opposition caucuses like MORE dividers because we do not go along with whatever the leadership decides, even if it takes us over the cliff (like running charter schools -- which helps legitimize them -- and worse, co-locating them and undermining the public schools they reside in).

Karen Lewis is amazing. I only saw the initial statement you put up on the blog, but one of the things she seemed to be doing was to actually put her three maxims into effect by the way she was relating to the entire group she was addressing--both MORE and Unity Caucus people (who else was there?).
1. Unite
2. Make yourself stronger
3. Build power

Even her later statements which made Unity squirm were probably meant to do that, especially after she manipulated Mulgrew into echoing her (in the parts of his statement that was videotaped), setting up the contradiction between what he says and what the union actually does. Especially given the missed opportunity of building unity with parents/students/community when it came to closing schools.

For example, the question of union officer salary: How can union leaders really represent (and unite) teachers if our salaries [and job security] are so different from theirs, not to mention members of other unions and parents?

So, what do we have to do to make ourselves strong and unite with others? Let's start working to eliminate whatever we can that divides us (including those of us sitting in the room). Not that we necessarily believe that Mulgrew himself can be "united", but there were many others in the room.

The MOREs in the room Friday night looked at each other and covered their mouths as Mulgrew said stuff echoing Karen that was so far from reality, we felt we were in a comic book.

Here is one more quote from the Micah Uetricht article:

the union has put forth its own vision of reform, both at the bargaining table and in the streets through their engagement in mass action, their September strike, and their formal policy recommendations. It is a vision that explicitly rejects the Democratic Party’s education agenda and offers a strong program to shore up public schools as a public good–stronger than any reform proposals by the two major national teachers unions.

 You mean Randi's "Share Your Lesson" doesn't quite cut it?

Weekend Update: Happy Hunting

 Happy Hunting -- not a blog about MORE going after Unity. Or a show sponsored by the NRA.

Taking a nice break from the ed wars, what a treat this afternoon/evening attending the New York Theatre Company review, Happy Hunting, at the theater at St. Peter's church on 54th and Lexington. I only went because I took the car all day yesterday for the NYCORE conference and felt I owed my wife even if I expected to be bored to death. When I heard the usher tell someone the first act ran an hour and 40 minutes and I had to pee within 5 minutes of sitting down, I figured I was in trouble. Not wanting to step over the young Asian woman sitting next to me during the act -- she turned out to be a dancer studying with the choreographer -- I decided to grin and bear it. And it turned out to be a delightful show.

The NY Theatre Company terms their current 4 play series as "Musicals in Mufti", meaning they do not wear costumes or use sets and due to one week rehearsal times walk around with scripts in their hands. (There are only 3 performances of each play). There is some light choreography and some heavy duty singing by a fabulous cast. Happy Hunting was an Ethel Mermon vehicle in which she starred with Fernando Lamas and that turned into a disastrous relationship. Klea Blackhurst plays the Mermon role and you would think old Ethel was reincarnated. What a stage presence. All the actors sang and danced and acted and it was all so good.

Well, I got through Act 1 and raced to the bathroom. Act 2 was shorter and at no point did I dose -- an unusual event for me at a theater. Well, after a bathroom break and ready to leave, we realized there was a talk back event with all the actors and special guests so we went back in. And who were the special, special guests? Estelle Parsons who had been in the original show in 1956. And also a famed dancer and choreographer, Luigi, who sadly had to be helped onto the stage. But he is 88.

Well, we were treated to over a half hour of theater lore and stories. Even the actors were fascinated to learn new stories about the characters they were playing and about the original actors who first played their roles. The NY Theatre Company people had done tons of research on Happy Hunting and asked Parsons and Luigi many questions to clarify issues lost over the years.

So, what started out as an "owe you one" to my wife, turned into a fabulous afternoon, followed by a fine Beef Bourgignon at a French restaurant on 62nd and Lex.

We might take a shot at going to see Silk Stockings next weekend -- that is if my wife has it all together for the 25 sedar guests coming on the 25th. My bet is we are not going anywhere. But she can have the car all day Saturday and Sunday. I am not leaving the house given there is some basement and backyard work to do. We have had the construction guys here for 3 weeks with another 3 weeks to go - at least. Oy! The ed wars are a break.

Karen Lewis and Mike Mulgrew at Left Labor Project

The panel. Darn, wish I had cropped out that balding guy on the right.

Saturday, March 16, 7 AM.

Just racing off to NYCORE but I wanted to share some quick views of last night's LEFT Labor Project event at the UFT. Given the background and connections of some of the people in the LLP and the willingness of Mulgrew to host and support this event, I found the evening somewhat remarkable, especially given that this was right outside the Shanker hall. Did they turn that noted anti-Communist fighter's pictures to the wall?

Anyway, bringing Mulgrew together with Karen Lewis was a positive thing. The head of the LLP Larry Moskowitz (no, not a relation to evil), Lorraine Chavez, an organizer in Chicago who works with the CTU and CORE and the UFT's community Liason, Anthony Harmon made for an interesting mix.

[I had to leave before finishing this].

Sunday, March 17, 10 AM.
I return with some better perspectives after spending a full day at NYCORE and taping Karen's full 30 minute presentation (posted later). We had a MORE crew there - John A, Joan, Gloria, Pat, David, Seku, Brian and Megan. I want to do some more analysis of how this played out with them given the obvious differences between the CTU and UFT, though Karen didn't openly lay them out as I will below. On Friday night I had a crappy flip camera and taped both Karen and Mulgrew before running out of room on the camera before Mulgrew finished speaking. I'm sorry it did as the entire event was worth taping, especially the questions (people filled out cards). View what I managed to tape below.

https://vimeo.com/61951036



So, here are the positives.

Mulgrew was approached by the Left Labor Project and offered full support of the UFT, including most importantly loads of refreshments, including beer and my top thing: pigs in the blankets.

Now some have pointed to the much-advertized appearance of Karen at NYCORE which has openly been supporting MORE and the reason for her trip to NYC as an operating factor to create some balance and not make it look like Karen was endorsing MORE. And I agree that this was a good thing -- Karen should not be placed in a position of getting involved in an internal election here in NYC. (I still haven't posted the brief twitter flame war between Julie and Randi over this issue -- Randi sort of endorsing Mulgrew and Julie hammering her for it.)

I have had very little personal contact with Mulgrew so I have no personal issues and few opinions, but I came off this event liking him better and shook his hand. He didn't try to compete with or outshine Karen (as Randi would have) and he gave a lot of space and credit to UFT community liaison Anthony Harmon. Before Friday I only knew Anthony as a nice guy but came away very impressed with him and to Mulgrew's credit the room and UFT resources he has given Anthony to work with. Also, there is a very good relationship between Karen and Mulgrew. That was obvious. I hear from my pals in Chicago this is not a surface thing but that they talk often.

But there are certainly some flash points that at times made me cringe in "sympathy" for all the Unity people in the room. The most obvious was when she said that CORE people upon winning gave up there perks. This with a room full of people with perks (sorry, that is not on the video). Karen spoke about how they fought and are fighting school closings with a major citywide fightback against closing schools  --- remember, Karen called on all Chi teachers to come out and support their colleagues in closing schools ---- it was double cringe time to see all the Unity people sitting there knowing full well they have only dealt with one school at at time and often just let schools go without a fight. This prompted Mulgrew to say that he reversed the UFT policy of not fighting at all and even supporting closing schools for many years. (Again not on the tape).

And then Karen went after charters -- she admonished us to not repeat exactly what she said -- she got enough hate mail -- and there she was sitting in a room with people who support the UFT charter and its co-location and undermining of the public schools they occupy.

Triple cringe time.

There is probably more to say but I need to debrief with the rest of the MOREs who were present. Note below the pics Valerie Strauss' piece on how the CTU is training people in the use of civil disobedience, something out of the realm of the UFT.

Robert Jackson and Karen

Gloria Brandman and Karen

Chicago school activists get trained in civil disobedience tactics

Posted by Valerie Strauss on March 15, 2013 at 7:00 am

Chicago teachers on strike last fall. (By John Gress/Reuters)

Chicago Public Schools officials are considering closing as many as 129 public schools said to be under-enrolled — and activists are gearing up for a fight.

The Chicago Teachers Union is co-sponsoring “Citywide Non-Violent Civil Disobedience Trainings” to teach parents, teachers and others  protest techniques, including disruptions, occupations and arrests, according to a union press release. The trainings, the release said, are going to be led by political activist and scholar Lisa Fithian, who for decades has been a student, labor and community organizer on a range of issues. Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey will participate in one of the training sessions, which is also being sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement, a group of community-based organizations from across the city. [NOT THE GEM HERE IN NYC AND NOT AFFILIATED].

Read full article here.

MORE Weekly Update #48 - March

Movement of Rank & File Educators Weekly Update #46 - March 14th, 2013

Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Upcoming: NYCORE Conference  Sat., March 16 8:45 AM - 6:00 PM Vanguard HS 317 East 67th Street Planning/Election Committee Thurs., Mar. 21 5:00 PM Cosi (55 Broad St.) UFT Election Ballots! Mailed to members homes Beginning Wed., April 3 General Meetings Sat., April 13 Sat., May 18 224 W. 29th St., 14th Fl.  NYCoRE  4th Annual  Conference   Sat., March 16th, 2013  Click Here to Register  Read Workshop Descriptions! Keynote: Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago's Teachers Union Vanguard High School 317 East 67th Street New York, NY 10065 8:45 AM - 6:00 PM   Come meet MORE's candidates. We will have election literature to distribute at your school. Please bring all your friends and forward this email TODAY Fri, March 15th BROOKLYN/QUEENS BORDER (District 19) 3:00 - 5:00 PM Boulder Creek Steakhouse 355 Gateway Drive, Brooklyn Exit 15 off the Belt Parkway SOUTH NASSAU 5:00 - 7:00 PM Cannon's Blackthorn Two for one drinks and a free buffet 49 N. Village Road, Rockville Centre one block north of Sunrise Highway, next to the LIRR station Thurs., March 21st MANHATTAN 5:00 - 7:00 PM La Nacional Tapas Bar 239 W. 14th Street (betw. 7th & 8th Ave) MORE Takes on School Closings Standing in solidarity with parents, students, and teachers in closings schools, MORE members took on the Panel for Educational Policy this week.  Read more about the protest and how our union leadership failed to mobilize. Check out great videos of the speakers and hear MORE's James Eterno speak out against the closings on NY1 For more background on the PEP, check out Liza Featherstone's great analysis.   Please share MORE's campaign video... http://youtu.be/XusIasWTHrg Give to MORE for the Election Campaign Please donate generously so we can prepare and distribute election materials citywide including leaflets, videos, mailings, buttons, etc. Donate online, bring cash or a check made out to MORE to our March 9th meeting, or send a check to Movement of Rank & File Educators, 305 E. 140th St. #5A New York, NY 10454. Please give generously. The time for a change is NOW. Spread the word Volunteer to help distribute campaign literature at your school and schools nearby! Reply to this email or check our website.

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