With a current state budget deficit in Illinois of some $13 billion, among the largest in the country, state legislators are making tough decisions about where to save money. Recently, Governor Pat Quinn proposed an “early release” program for prison inmates who have committed nonviolent crimes, but it was quickly met by a political backlash. The state has also seen severe cuts in public education. With the current economic crisis, Illinois residents will soon have to decide which they value more―education or incarceration.

Last week United Public Workers for Action (UPWA) called for a demonstration against the privatization of public education when it was announced that US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan would be the keynote speaker at Foothill Community College's graduation ceremony. After the UPWA initially received permission from the college administration to stage a peaceful protest, Foothill College president Judy Miner called organizer and Skyline Community College instructor George Wright to ask that he cancel the planned demonstration. Wright was also contacted by counsel at the office of the Education Secretary.

With all the hoopla in the media regarding [Friday's] spectacle of a "public hearing", it's important for those who were not able to attend (after all, most people work on Friday mornings and/or afternoons or have other daytime obligations) to understand clearly what actually went down, what was said, and perhaps most importantly, who said it.

Based on close listening and note-taking throughout the first six hours of the seven-hour forum, here are some interesting numbers I recorded on the subject of "who said what."

Of the 43 people I witnessed speak, only twelve spoke in favor of the legislation. But what's most interesting is the fact that of those twelve who spoke in favor of the legislation, six were elected officials/politicians, and three were affluent CEOs. Only three community members and/or parents or RCSD students, with no financial and/or political ties to mayoral control spoke in favor of the legislation.

On the other hand, 31 spoke against the legislation. Of those 31, eight were elected officials/politicians. Twenty-three community members and parents spoke against the mayoral control legislation.Read the Testimonies! Elizabeth Brown , Carrie Peetluk , Crystal Johnson , Tim Adams, Lori Thomas, Rev. C. Michael Tillman, Sr., Mary Adams, Ricardo Adams, Chris Edes,

READ MORE | | | Previous R-IMC Coverage: THE EXPERTS SPEAK: Parents' and Students' Perspectives on Mayoral Control | Community Asks Duffy, "Why Avoid Open Debate?" | Students March Against Mayoral Control | Indy TV #33: Community Education Task Force on Proposed Mayoral Takeover of Schools | Opponents of Mayoral Control Picket David Gantt's Office | Community Education Task Force Press Conference Opposing Mayoral Control of RCSD | Stop Mayoral Control!

On Monday night, June 14, 2010, longtime community activist Terry Townsend delivered a list of demands for construction of the new school to replace the Booker T. Washington School in Champaign. The new school is to fulfill the requirements of the consent decree to provide an additional 200 seats in the historically black community of the North End. The Unit 4 School Board is currently reviewing bids for the $13 million school. The old school has already been torn down and its replacement will be roughly double the size. Townsend says that this will significantly impact the neighborhood, bringing increased traffic and paving the way for gentrification.

 

 

In a hotly contested battle for leadership of one of the metro area's largest unions, an openly progressive slate of Chicago teachers has beaten the old guard in a landslide. The incumbents — with their longstanding practice of chronic management collusion and a blind eye to Chicago's massive push to privatize one of the nation's largest public education systems — were beaten by an openly progressive slate advanced by CORE, the Caucus of Rank & File Educators. Their core agenda? To fight for teachers AND students on the ground with a union structure that is bottom up, transparent, democratic — and rooted in progressive union values. Read More

The presentation addressed a series of myths that had been circulated about charter schools. Schall described charter schools as serving to undermining the public schools mission of educating all students, siphon-off tax funds and to bust the teacher’s union.

The corporate media is brutally honest on rare occasions. Take for example a recent article in The New York Times Magazine, titled The Teachers’ Union’s Last Stand (05-23-10). The title itself is surprisingly sincere, since it admits that the nation’s teachers are being targeted for attack by the Obama Administration, through his “Race to the Top” education reform. And although the article has an inherently corporate bias, it contains many revelations that have been otherwise ignored in the mainstream media.

A proposal at the Peralta Colleges to establish "free speech zones" has evoked Orwellian visions of the campuses' futures. Yet others see the proposal as a necessary procedure to protect free speech. Speakers would be limited to the 150 foot x 150 foot main quad at Laney College, as well as the outdoor quads at COA and Merritt College, and the Student Lounge on the fifth floor at Berkeley City College. Fliers would be restricted to bulletin boards. All fliers would also require an English translation.

The demolition of Booker T. Washington Elementary began on May 19, 2010. A new two-story school costing $18 million is going to be built to fulfill the requirements of the "consent decree." The new school will double in size, significantly impacting the neighborhood.A traffic study has been conducted showing the increased traffic in the area.

According to local black activist Terry Townsend, a plan is underway to destroy the historic Douglass Park neighborhood. 

BD

 

From Texas Freedom Network: The debate over new social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools has predictably spiraled down into another “culture war” battle pushed by far-right pressure groups and their allies on the State Board of Education. Before curriculum teams had completed even first drafts of the new standards, in fact, far-right board members had already moved to hijack the process.

Last spring, for example, the board appointed two prominent evangelical, political activists – David Barton of WallBuilders and Peter Marshall of Peter Marshall Ministries – to a panel of so-called “experts” in social studies. Yet as TFN Insider reported, Barton and Marshall were absurdly unqualified to serve on such a panel. They got their places on the panel primarily because of their ideological beliefs – both are prominent religious-right leaders who oppose separation of church and state who want students to learn that the Founders intended to create a Christian nation based on fundamentalist biblical principles. They also want social studies classrooms to promote a conservative ideological agenda and censor instruction on progressive leaders such as Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall. [Read Full Article]

On Wednesday May 19th at 1pm, The Texas Freedom Network will be hosting a "Don't White-Out Our History" Rally. At the William B. Travis Building, 1701 Congress Ave., Austin. Read the Full Proposed Revisions to Texas Social Studies Curriculum | The May 12th edition of the Arab Voices radio show on KPFT, spoke about the changes that are unfavorable to Arabs and Muslims.

The federal government keeps trying to tell us that things are looking up for the economy, but cities and states across the country are still struggling to meet budget requirements. One of the things on the chopping block here in New York City is after-school programs, which provide kids of working parents someplace to go, get help with homework, and stay off the streets. GRITtv's Sam Alcoff and Anna Gold visited one such program, CAMBA, in Brooklyn and brought us this report.

In the recently released itemized receipts for repairing Kerr Hall, following an occupation of the building in November 2009, there appears to be evidence that the UC Santa Cruz administration filed a claim for damages that occurred, and may have been reimbursed for the costs. This implies that the UCSC students being held responsible for participating in the occupation are being charged for expenses that have been covered by the UC's insurance policy. This raises questions about the validly and legality of those restitution charges.

Attend the School Board meeting on Monday, May 10 (this Monday), at the Portland Public Schools Administration Offices on North Dixon. There will be student speakers at this event. The School Board meeting is scheduled from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m

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Help support the ones most affected by Portland Public Schools Redesign Plan -- the students, their families and their neighborhoods. Listen to their voices and support them in their right to be heard and listened to. It is their future at stake!

Marshall High School in outer-Southeast Portland and Benson Technical High School are the high schools which are going to be most impacted by the High School Redesign Plan. The proposal for Marshall High School includes making it a "focus" (which focus is as yet undisclosed) school with a student body of 400. Lents neighborhood teens not attending the Marshall High School "Focus" School would be attending Madison or Franklin High Schools, a substantial commute from their neighborhood. Marshall High School is a vital part of the struggling Lents neighborhood. The effective closure of Marshall High School would negatively impact the Lents community.

The proposal for Benson Technical High School is to transform it from a four-year technical high school and make it a two-year vocational school for juniors and seniors. These juniors and seniors would attend other schools but would enroll for tech classes at Benson. Both Marshall High School and Benson High School serve large populations of low income and minority youth, who will suffer from these changes.

What does it mean to be an accountable settler in the Twin Cities and in particular, the University community? This is a question that I have been asking a lot of myself as of late as a student of a bureaucratic institution such as Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Something that seemingly all academics should learn to grapple with here in Minnesota as we hustle about our daily routine is that we are living, breathing and learning on stolen land.

Minisota Makoce, the land that we reside on currently, was stolen away from the Dakota people through a process of genocide, land theft and now, state-issued violence.

On April 24, 2010, Washington DC AFT Local 6 Vice President Nathan A Saunders charged that Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers has been taking tens of millions of dollars from the Walton Foundation, controlled by Wal-Mart, to push privatization of the schools in DC and throughout the country. Weingarten is supporting merit pay in the DC contract. Video || thewashingtonteacher Blog