Why Are Things As They Are?

We Say Fight Back!

Congratulations to Joe Burns for the publication of Reviving the Strike: www.revivingthestrike.org/

Did US Ally, Pakistan’s ISI, Murder Syed Saleem Shahzad? Read this Book he died for: 

New classified intelligence obtained before the May 29 disappearance of the journalist, Saleem Shahzad, 40, from the capital, Islamabad, and after the discovery of his mortally wounded body, showed that senior officials of the spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, directed the attack on him in an effort to silence criticism, two senior administration officials said.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/world/asia/05pakistan.html?hpw

Baja on Strike! After negotiations collapsed between Baja California’s government and an employees’ union, an estimated 5,000 state administrative workers, a little more 3,000 of them in Tijuana, walked off their jobs Thursday. The workers, known as “burócratas” in Mexico, are demanding an 8.2 percent increase in their base salary.  http://www.sandiegored.com/noticias/14839/5-000-state-workers-walk-off-job-in-Baja-Cal/

Oakland EA Demo: Jail Bankers! Not Teachers! w/Jack G + pals

Is another Counterfeit California Grocery Strike in the Cards, or Might this be the Real Magilla? The United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents more than 60,000 Southern California grocery workers, began this week to ramp up its efforts against the three major grocery chains as the two sides remain far apart at the bargaining table on the critical issue of sharing healthcare costs.   www.voiceofoc.org/healthy_communities/article_004a5e80-a32e-11e0-b047-001cc4c03286.html#user-comment-area

This is What Came of the Last California Grocery Strike: 1. The southern California grocery strike involving 70,000 United Food And Commercial Workers members from October 2003 to March 2004 was one of the most significant actions the U.S. labor movement took in the last twenty years. 2. What happened? The workers lost, betrayed by their union leaders. This defeat was devastating, setting up a spiral of attacks on the lives of people who must work to live, particularly on the minimal health benefits that a few working people still have. The old labor saw, “An injury to one just goes before an injury to all,” is already felt in teacher-union contract negotiations.
3. Could this have been won? Yes, it could, but not within the confines of the law, and not in the confines of the structures of the unions, not within the philosophy of the “labor movement” (i.e., the AFL-CIO with the independent National Education Association tossed in for good measure), not without preparation-and most importantly, not without organization and wise action.   clogic.eserver.org/2004/gibson.html

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Projected School Workers Layoffs for 2011: AASA released a new report that estimates school districts will be forced to lay off 227,000 teachers and other school employees in the 2011-12 school year.   schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2011/05/nsba-aasa-urge-federal-officials-to-eliminate-unneeded-regulations/

Gates+Broad+Superintendent of the Year+High Stakes Exams+Corrupt Principals+Crooked Teachers+Bonuses=Atlanta Cheating Scandal (no banksters or US war criminals in jail either): At least 178 teachers and principals in Atlanta Public Schools cheated to raise student scores on high-stakes standardized tests, according to a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation…This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.
The report on the Atlanta Public Schools, released Tuesday, indicates a “widespread” conspiracy by teachers, principals and administrators to fix answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), punish whistle-blowers, and hide improprieties.   www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0705/America-s-biggest-teacher-and-principal-cheating-scandal-unfolds-in-Atlanta

Detroit Charters: Thumbs up or Down? Educators say DPS and the charters are trying to solve the same problem: overcoming the environment so many children come from, where poverty creates a shaky foundation for success.
“Everybody is pretty much in the same boat,” said Doug Ross, CEO of New Urban Learning, which runs University Preparatory Academy, one of the few schools to consistently outperform DPS. “We can’t change the external environment.”
Not all charters or Detroit Public Schools are the same, and comparisons can often be difficult. The three Covenant House schools have the lowest scores, but also some of the biggest challenges. And DPS’ best high schools, Renaissance and Cass Tech, are open only to the district’s best students — and score accordingly. Renaissance had an ACT average of 20.9, Cass Tech 19.2, well beyond the district’s overall average.  http://www.detnews.com/article/20110707/SCHOOLS/107070387/1026/local/Charter-high-schools-in-Detroit-not-making-grade

Susan Ohanian’s Research on the Aspen Inst. and Schooling: I’ve been following the public school deformation work at the Aspen Institute for quite some time, starting with a 2003 roster of an American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy (AEI) get-together titled Nation at Risk: Twenty Years Later.   (much more and worth your time susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1009)

Yippee! No New Textbooks written by Morons for Texas! After months of working to shield classroom instruction from budget-cutting frenzies, school districts in Texas will have to start classes in August without new textbooks.
The Texas Education Agency confirmed late last week that an ongoing reconfiguration of its online ordering system coupled with a delay in state funding for textbooks will postpone the arrival of new books beyond the start of school the week of Aug. 24 and likely into September.  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/07/05/116992/school-year-in-texas-will-start.html

Corrupt Superintendent, Principals, AND Teachers Face  Prosecution in Atlanta Cheating (who said, Hell No!?): Educators implicated in the Atlanta Public School cheating scandal could face criminal charges, according to a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney.
Holly Hughes is not involved with the case but said prosecutors may consider filing racketeering, forgery, conspiracy and fraud charges against those who organized or ordered the cheating.
“If they’re able to prove these were deliberate acts, there could be a RICO case brought against them,” said Hughes.  http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/15044133/atlanta

Full Report on the Atlanta Scam (86 Confessed–Eighty Six): www.cbsatlanta.com/story/15031243/gov-releases-full-report-on-atlanta-schools-cheating-investigation

Bigger Cheating Scandal! NCLB about to Flunk Everybody! If Congress doesn’t move quickly to change the No Child Left Behind law, they project that a whopping 82 percent of the nation’s public schools could fail to meet proficiency targets this year, facing sanctions that ultimately can include a loss of federal aid. That’s up from 37 percent last year.
Beset with a case of the jitters, Education Secretary Arne Duncan is warning of “a slow-moving educational train wreck for children, parents and teachers” — and he’s not waiting for the crash.  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/07/04/116988/fear-of-more-failing-test-scores.html

The End of the Elite UC and Fake CS”University” Systems? The state’s two systems were each cut by $650 million, and they each could lose $100 million more if the state’s optimistic revenue expectations do not materialize. For both systems, the $650 million is roughly a 20 percent cut of operating money from the state.
This fall, for the first time, the University of California will take in more money from student tuition than from state finances.
The state’s two-tier system has long been seen as a model of public higher education, with the University of California’s 10 campuses as major research hubs and the California State University’s network of 23 campuses graduating tens of thousands each year. But the cuts, which are the biggest in the state’s history, threaten to erode the system’s stellar reputation (sic)…Tuition is expected to rise roughly 20 percent next year, just the latest in series of steep increases. Yearly in-state tuition at California State University will average about $5,500, while at the University of California, it is expected to be $13,200 if the increases are approved this month. Programs all over the state are being shuttered, star professors are leaving for colleges in other states, faculty positions are being left unfilled and class sizes are continuing to grow. While the state’s spending on the system is down to a level not seen since the late-1990s, the campuses enroll tens of thousands more students.
Schools, meanwhile, are stepping up their efforts to recruit students from other states, using their higher tuition payments to help fill the coffers at the expense of California applicants. ..Last year, when budget cuts prompted a 26 percent tuition increase at the University of California, thousands of students protested, shutting down freeways and holding walkouts. The reaction this time has been more muted so far, partly because so many students are on summer break and the exact amount of the increases is still unknown. www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/us/09uc.html?_r=1&hp

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XdGiTcNX9U

Porter: How and Why the US is losing to AQ: Data on attacks by armed opposition forces and U.S. combat casualties since the U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan was completed last summer provide clear evidence that the surge and the increase in targeted killings by Special Operations Forces have failed to break the momentum of the Taliban.

The Taliban and allied insurgent organizations launched 54 per cent more attacks and killed or wounded 56 per cent more U.S. troops over the nine months from last October through May than in the comparable period a year earlier, according to data collected by the U.S. Department of Defense and by the highly-respected Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO).
The nearly 1,571 attacks in May recorded by ANSO, which exceeded the previous monthly peak total of 1,541 attacks in September 2010, was achieved four months earlier in the fighting season than the previous peak.
The number of attacks in June was two per cent less than in May, according to the latest ANSO report published on the organisation’s website Sunday.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last June that U.S.-NATO forces would have to demonstrate “progress” by the end of calendar year 2010 or face a collapse in public support.
But the Taliban responded to the surge with a carefully planned strategy to maintain much higher levels of offensive operations through the period from October through December, which normally drop off from the high point of the offensive. The war plan for 2011 was aimed at pushing the level of attacks to new highs earlier in the year than ever before.  http://www.counterpunch.org/

Iraqi Puppets: “Please, Invaders, Stay with Us!” The senior Iraqi military leaders have advised Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that some troops should stay. American officials have said they would agree to a such a request. …The American Special Operations advisers worry about what will happen to their Iraqi counterparts without their American relationships — and largess, evident in the Special Operations headquarters on Victory Base. The complex, paid for with $32 million of American money, includes $2 million for an indoor training ground the commandos refer to as the “shoot house.” They note that many of the nighttime missions are carried out with American helicopters.
The American government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars training and arming these forces, yet the exact amount is unknown because the military has not fully accounted for it, according to a report late last year by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which reported that only $237 million had been directly attributed to support for the Iraqi special forces.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html?hpw

War Means Citizenship (or is that backwards?) Since 2001, more than 65,000 service members have become citizens, aided in part by the increase in recruiting for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.   www.kpbs.org/news/2011/jul/05/record-number-immigrants-becoming-citizens-through/?utm_campaign=todays-news-analysis&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=headline

All those Who Favor War with China, Raise Your Hands: Doubts are swirling in the Philippines over whether the United States will live up to its promise to provide its military with the weaponry and equipment needed to stand up to China’s aggressions in the South China Sea. The concerns arise as the two sides launch their annual joint naval exercises, held this year near the contested Spratly Islands.
The 11-day exercises, known as Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT), commenced earlier this week and trainings will cover maritime interdiction, patrol operations and gunnery exercises. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters that the US also vowed to extend intelligence assistance to the Philippine navy for areas in the South China Sea  …The US has a history of broken military equipment promises to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which have become glaringly apparent as China flexes its naval muscle in the South China Sea.
Those upgrades were supposed to come in exchange for Manila agreeing to bilateral defense accords with the United States, including enhanced cooperation in the fight against global terrorism. Beyond the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), the Philippines agreed to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US in 1999.  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MG02Ae03.html

US Plays Key Role in Non-Warlike Bombing of Libya: U.S. forces are still flying hundreds of bombing raids over Libya even though the Obama administration claims that American armed forces are only playing a limited role in the conflict.

Since NATO’s Operation Unified Protector took over from the American-led Operation Odyssey Dawn on 31 March, the U.S. has flown hundreds of strike missions, according to United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).
The White House originally claimed that U.S. planes were mostly providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and played down the number of bombing raids.
However AFRICOM spokeswoman Nicole Dalrymple said: ‘U.S. aircraft continue to fly support missions, as well as strike sorties under NATO tasking.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010505/Air-Force-Navy-flying-thousands-missions-Libya-Obama-says-U-S-playing-limited-role.html

Council on Foreign Relations Guide to Pakistani “Terrorists”: As an increasing number of suicide attacks rock Pakistan’s major cities, concerns for the country’s security are rising. In recent years, many new terrorist groups have emerged, several existing groups have reconstituted themselves, and a new crop of militants has emerged, more violent and less conducive to political solutions than their predecessors. Links between many of these new and existing groups have strengthened, say experts, giving rise to fresh concerns for stability. A failed bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square in May 2010 with links to Pakistan also exposes the growing ambitions of many of these groups that had previously focused only on the region. The Pakistan-born U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad who confessed to the bombing attempt was sentenced to life imprisonment by a U.S. court in October 2010.

Pakistani authorities have long had ties to militant groups based on their soil that largely focused their efforts in Afghanistan and India. But with Pakistan joining the United States as an ally in its “war on terrorism” since 9/11, experts say Islamabad has seen harsh blowback on its policy of backing militants operating abroad. Leadership elements of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, along with other terrorist groups, have made Pakistan’s tribal areas (the semi-autonomous region along the Afghan border) their home and now work closely with a wide variety of Pakistani militant groups….www.cfr.org/pakistan/pakistans-new-generation-terrorists/p15422

Four Months into the NonWar on Libya, What did the Vaunted Historians Against the War have to Say? Not a Peep.

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Bosses got (a lot) Richer: executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. That works out to a 23 percent gain from 2009. The earlier study had put the median pay at a none-too-shabby $9.6 million, up 12 percent….Pay skyrocketed last year because many companies brought back cash bonuses, says Aaron Boyd, head of research at Equilar. Cash bonuses, as opposed to those awarded in stock options, jumped by an astounding 38 percent, the final numbers show…the chief executive of Viacom, at the top of the list. Mr. Dauman made $84.5 million last year, after signing a new long-term contract that included one-time stock awards.
Leslie Moonves, of the CBS Corporation, got a 32 percent raise and reaped $56.9 million. Michael White of DirecTV was paid $32.9 million, while Brian L. Roberts of the Comcast Corporation and Robert A. Iger of the Walt Disney Company each received pay packages valued at $28 million…Some of the other highly paid executives on the new list who were not in the April survey are Gregg W. Steinhafel of Target, who had a $23.5 million pay package; Michael E. Szymanczyk of Altria, $20.77 million; and Richard C. Adkerson of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, $35.3 million.
Most ordinary Americans aren’t getting raises anywhere close to those of these chief executives. Many aren’t getting raises at all — or even regular paychecks. Unemployment is still stuck at more than 9 percent.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/business/03pay.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hpabove, parasitical monarch William attempting to infect children with subservience

Summary Unemployment Report for June: The unemployment rate for Blacks was 16.2% last month. This is according to the latest
report on the nation’s employment situation released Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its monthly Employment Situation report. This rate was virtually unchanged from May, when unemployment in the Black community stood at 16.2%. For the nation as a whole,
unemployment was virtually unchanged at 9.2% in the month of May. Among whites, unemployment was 8.6%; among Latinos, unemployment was 11.9%. Comparable May 2011 figures were 9.1%; 8.0%; and 11.9% respectively.  http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/blackworkers/monthly/bwreport_2011-07-08_35.pdf

Moodys: Portugal is Junk: Portugal’s debt rating was cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday, ratcheting up the pressure on euro zone governments to work out a lasting solution to their financial woes, a day after Standard & Poor’s said it would consider Greece to be in default if a French plan for rolling over its debt were implemented. With Greece effectively bankrupt, French and German banks want to give Athens more time to repay loans as they come due. But they are having to go back to the drawing board after Standard & Poor’s said Monday that such a measure would amount to a default because the banks would have to wait longer to be repaid and the value of Greek bonds would be reduced.
That deflated hopes that Greece’s problems might be brought under control soon. If the proposals do not work out, Mr. Pébereau said, “we’ll come up with something else.”    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/business/global/06euro.html?_r=1&hp

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqVWZ-VOwWw

Obamagogue=No Jobs, No Safety Net, But Yeah Capitalism!

For the second month in a row, employers added barely any jobs in June, showing that the economic recovery has hit a serious speed bump. With all levels of government laying off workers, the Labor Department reported that employers eked out just 18,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs in June. The already low number created in May was also revised downward to a dismally small 25,000 new jobs, less than half of what was originally reported last month.
Although the government’s survey of employers showed them adding jobs, a separate survey of households showed that more people were out of work than in the previous month, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 9.2 percent. www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/business/economy/job-growth-falters-badly-clouding-hope-for-recovery.html?_r=1&hp

Obamagogue Care? Phooey. He Doesn’t Care: A new report estimates health reform will exclude about 20 percent of all uninsured children in California. The analysis from UCLA says eligibility restrictions will prevent many children from getting affordable care.
Shana Alex Lavarreda wrote the report for the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
She estimated that about 30,000 children won’t be allowed to get discounted health coverage because they’re undocumented. Nearly 150,000 other kids who are legal immigrants   www.kpbs.org/news/2011/jul/07/220000-california-kids-could-be-left-uninsured-und/?utm_campaign=todays-news-analysis&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=headline

The Rich are different from You and Me. Plus, We Are Happier??? Freedom and personal autonomy are more important to people’s well-being than money, according to a meta-analysis of data from 63 countries published by the American Psychological Association. While a great deal of research has been devoted to the predictors of happiness and life satisfaction around the world, researchers at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand wanted to know one thing: What is more important for well-being, providing people with money or providing them with choices and autonomy?  http://www.bmedreport.com/archives/29303

Solidarity Forever

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GYXQ1Ia1_s

above, another fascist element inside what is called US “Labor”

Report From NEA Rep Assembly: Hugging Obamagogue: On July 4th , National Education Association Representative Assembly delegates, local leaders from all over the USA, voted 5,414 to 2,102 to endorse the demagogue, Obama. Most of those opposed to the endorsement only sought to delay it, hoping to “send Obama a message,” about the Race to the Top.   counterpunch.org/gibson07052011.html

US Unionism at its Best: USW Boss Defends Koch Brothers + Capital: A number of organizations are advocating a boycott of the products that come from companies owned by the Koch family. This is problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it could potentially hurt the wrong people.
The Koch brothers own Georgia Pacific. It is an American consumer goods company that makes everyday products like facial tissue, napkins, paper towels, paper cups and the like. Their plants are great examples of American advanced manufacturing. Incidentally, GP makes most of its products here in America. The company’s workforce is highly unionized. In fact, 80 percent of its mills are under contract with one or more labor union. It is not inaccurate to say that these are among the best-paid manufacturing jobs in America.
This presents a dilemma and a paradox. While the Koch brothers are credited with advocating an agenda and groups that are clearly hostile to labor and labor’s agenda, the brothers’ company in practice and in general has positive and productive collective bargaining relationships with its unions.  http://blog.usw.org/2011/03/30/a-well-intentioned-bad-idea/

UAW Prepares to Sell Out Auto Workers, Again: As the UAW fights for jobs, and the automakers work to lower labor costs, the two sides could find common ground. That’s because the automakers can lower their labor costs by hiring new workers at entry-level wage rates of $14 and $16 per hour, thereby lowering their average labor cost per worker.
Under the current contract, GM and Chrysler can hire an unlimited number of entry-level workers until 2015 while Ford’s contract is capped at 20%.
Already, Chrysler has lowered its total labor costs more than Ford and GM because it has filled many of the more than 2,800 jobs it has announced since June 2009 with entry-level workers.
That has helped Chrysler cut its total labor costs per worker from nearly $76 per hour in 2006 to $49 per hour in 2010.  http://www.freep.com/article/20110703/BUSINESS01/107030439/UAW-Detroit-3-prepare-face-off-around-table?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

Big Hug: NEA Bosses and Good Cop Biden’s Demagoguery: In his introduction, Van Roekel applauded Biden for understanding that “putting Americans back to work is the greatest priority of our nation right now.”
“The middle class needs more leaders like Vice President Biden,” said Van Roekel. “He knows that the key to economic prosperity for all is a vibrant middle class, and without organized labor, the middle class will not grow and thrive.”
The Vice President encouraged educators to work closely with lawmakers and others who genuinely want to improve public education so that all students in America have access to quality public schools…Biden referenced his wife in a fun opening remark saying, “My name is Joe Biden and I’m in love with an educator! And I’m in love with education!”
Inspired by Vice President Biden’s call to action? Sign up now at EducationVotes to get involved in the fight for public education and the American worker! You will be a key member of the team in the 2011 and 2012 campaigns.   www.nea.org/grants/am-2011-vp-biden.html

The Emergence of Fascism as a Mass popular Movement:

Your FOIA May Get as Old as You: Forty-five years after President Johnson signed the U.S. Freedom of Information Act into law in 1966, federal agency backlogs of FOIA requests are growing, with the oldest requests at eight agencies dating back over a decade and the single oldest request now 20 years old, according to the Knight Open Government Survey by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org).

The Knight Survey of the oldest requests utilized the FOIA to examine the actual copies of the oldest requests from the 35 federal agencies and components that process more than 90 percent of all FOIAs. It shows that the oldest requests in the U.S. government were submitted before the fall of the Soviet Union. These unfulfilled requests – some are for documents that are themselves more than 50 years old – are victims of an endless referral process in which any agency that claims “equity” can censor their release.  http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB349/index.htm

The Heavens Weep

Exxon, the World’s Most Profitable Corp, Continues War on Earth:

Magical Mystery Tour

Priest’s Computer Yields Kiddie Porn. Now, Maybe God did it? Additional images of a child have surfaced in an investigation of a priest charged with possessing child pornography.
Kansas City police found the images on a computer at an Independence priests’ residence where the Rev. Shawn F. Ratigan was living before being charged, documents show.
During his time at the residence, Ratigan had been instructed by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to stay away from children and not to have access to computers and cameras.  http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/05/2996533/inquiry-of-priest-yields-more.html

Worst Thing in the History of the World

Monthly Review Obtains former Liberal-with-a-Bomb, now Grant-sucking Liberal, to oversee “Education” Issue. Phooey to a Lifetime of Opposition to Class Consciousness! Bill Ayers should be called to account for his turnaround from leader to critic of the corporate school reform.
The statement below from former Chicago Mayor Daley (1989-2011) was made during Obama’s campaign for the nomination in 2008. The corporate school reform was first unfolded in Chicago under the Daley administration and has since gone national. Bill Ayers’ role may not be widely known outside of Chicago, but if there is any doubt that he played an important role in shaping the corporate school “reform” model that has since been replicated in New York City and other large urban systems, Mayor Daley’s statement below makes it clear that at least the Mayor of Chicago viewed Ayers contribution as significant.

Mayor Daley Speaks Out
STATEMENT OF MAYOR RICHARD M. DALEY REGARDING SENATOR BARACK OBAMA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH BILL AYERS:
There are a lot of reasons that Americans are angry about Washington politics. And one more example is the way Senator Obama’s opponents are playing guilt-by-association, tarring him because he happens to know Bill Ayers.
I also know Bill Ayers. He worked with me in shaping our now nationally-renowned school reform program. He is a nationally-recognized distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois/Chicago and a valued member of the Chicago community.
I don’t condone what he did 40 years ago but I remember that period well. It was a difficult time, but those days are long over. I believe we have too many challenges in Chicago and our country to keep re-fighting 40 year old battles.
____________________________________________________________
If, in 2008, Mayor Bloomberg publicly thanked a graduate school education professor from the Teachers College, or NYU or Fordham for their help in shaping “Put Children First,”(Bloomberg and Klein’s NYC version of the corporate school reform) that same professor in 2011 might well squirm visibly under the weight of such a dubious distinction, particularly when asked for comment before audiences of NYC k-12 parents, students and educators.
If this hypothetical professor wished to retain some credibility among k-12 parent, student and school staff in 2011, he or she would do well to start first with an apology, offer some explanation for the past collaboration and identify what prompted them to change their views.
Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary of Education under Bush Sr acknowledges that she has changed her mind about education “reform” and attributes her conversion to the data which failed to substantiate the claims of the “reformers.” Whether you find her explanation sufficiently “radical” or not, as a historian Ravitch makes an effort to link her own epiphany on the corporate school reform to historical fact. (I still don’t agree with her call for a national core curriculum however)
Why should k-12 parents, students and school staff in NYC expect any less from Bill Ayers or any other convert from the ranks of the corporate reformers? The corporate reform ‘ship’ is leaking badly. The trickle of defectors that have jumped ship to date may soon grow into a swarm. But if these defectors just move over and assume the same positions and functions as they did on the people’s side as they once occupied on the corporate side, what will have changed?
Peace,
Sean Ahern

Best Thing in the History of the World

Happy Birthday Paul!

PSU’s Kerry Collins’ Last Pass: Former Giants quarterback Kerry Collins is retiring from the NFL after 16 seasons in the league, his agent announced Thursday.  http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/07/08/former-giants-quarterback-super-bowl-xxxv-goat-kerry-collins-retires/

Lucky Winner of 2010 RF Dance Contest (he wuz robbed!)