{"id":9373,"date":"2013-01-26T23:39:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T07:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=9373"},"modified":"2013-01-26T23:39:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T07:39:00","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-january-27-is-auschwitz-liberation-day-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-january-27-is-auschwitz-liberation-day-1945\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: January 27 is Auschwitz Liberation Day 1945"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>We Say Fight Back!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Seattle Boss Threatens Test Boycotters <\/strong>Seattle school officials sent a letter Wednesday asking principals to inform all their teachers by day\u2019s end that they will be disciplined if they refuse to give district-required tests.
\nBut at a rally Wednesday afternoon at Seattle Public Schools headquarters, teachers boycotting the Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, said they would not back down because the tests are an unreliable measure that hurts students.
\nThe boycott, which started at Garfield High, now includes a handful of teachers at ORCA K-8 and 32 staff members at Chief Sealth. Teachers at many other schools have sent letters of support, as have parents and students. \u00a0 seattletimes.com\/html\/education\/2020199641_newtestboycottxml.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Seattle Boss Jose Banda is a Bad Person <\/strong>Mr. Banda has spent the past four years as Superintendent of the 20,000-student Anaheim City School District. During this time, the District saw increased student achievement for all students, including English Language Learners. In addition, the District narrowed the achievement gap and 19 of 24 schools met their school-wide Academic Performance Index (API).
\nUnder Mr. Banda\u2019s direction, the District created a focused approach to instruction, assessment and interventions, while at the same time maintained fiscal solvency during one of the worst economic crises in the state\u2019s history. Mr. Banda also developed strong relationships with the business community, city government and service organizations, as evidenced by an innovative math partnership with the MIND Institute and the successful passage of a $170 million construction bond in 2010. www.westseattleherald.com\/2012\/05\/17\/news\/update-seattle-schools-superintendent-jose-banda-<\/a><\/p>\n

The Scary Letter <\/strong> If a teacher refuses to administer the MAP assessment after a clear direction by you, such conduct is considered insubordination. When a staff member engages in insubordination, such action will lead to appropriate disciplinary action as outlined in School Board Policy 5281 Staff Disciplinary Action and Discharge. Previously, the discipline imposed by the District when a teacher refused to administer a required assessment was a 10-day, unpaid suspension.
\nIf you have staff who have either not administered the test on the date required by you or have given you clear notice that they do not intend to administer the test, you are required to give that staff person this communication, preferably in a letter or email that you send and hand to them:
\nDear ________:
\nState law requires that teachers implement a course of study in accordance with District directives. As you are aware, the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) is a District assessment that teachers are required to administer. You are receiving this communication because you are required to administer this assessment. Based on information that I possess, I believe you have either refused to or have declined to administer the MAP assessment.
\nFor staff who disagree with MAP assessment, I acknowledge that you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Your disagreement with the appropriateness of the MAP assessment, however, does not excuse your obligation as a certificated employee to provide this assessment consistent with District directives.
\nThus, I am specifically requiring that you administer the MAP assessment by the Feb. 22, 2013 deadline, notwithstanding your apparent disagreement with the District\u2019s decision to require this assessment. Your refusal to administer the assessment consistent with District requirements and this directive will lead to discipline. Discipline that has been imposed for such insubordination in the past has included a 10-day, unpaid suspension. Please contact me immediately if you have concerns over getting this assessment done by Feb. 22, 2013. \u00a0 SEE FURTHER ON THIS LINK FOR RESPONSES TO THE THUG \u00a0http:\/\/seattleducation2010.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/24\/seattle-superintendent-threatens-punitive-actions-against-boycotting-teachers-a-seattle-teacher-responds-others-around-the-country-write-letters-in-protest\/<\/p>\n

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Swarm the Bastard superintendent@seattleschools.org<\/a>, \u00a0schoolboard@seattleschools.org<\/a><\/strong>
\n <\/strong>Mailing address:
\nOffice of the Superintendent
\nMS: 32-150
\nP.O. Box 34165
\nSeattle, WA
\n98124-1165<\/p>\n

Phone: (206) 252-0180
\nEmail: superintendent@
\nseattleschools.org<\/a>
\nFax: (206) 252-0209<\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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So Long, Detroit Schools<\/strong> The financial slide inside the state’s largest school district will continue through 2016, leaving Detroit Public Schools with 28 fewer schools, 1,688 lost positions and 13,000 fewer students, according to a deficit elimination plan obtained by The Detroit News.
\nDistrict and state officials say the drastic cuts will bring DPS’ deficit to zero by that time and with it the possibility of emerging from state control. The district has been under an emergency financial manager since March 2009.
\nDespite closing schools and shedding thousands of employees, DPS still will have a budget deficit the next two years.
\nTo reach its goals, DPS is slashing expenses by $120 million in 2013-14, by $42 million in 2014-15 and by $33 million in 2015-16.
\nThat will allow the district to whittle its current deficit of $72 million to $46 million in 2014 and $21 million in 2015, according to the deficit elimination plan, which state officials approved last week.
\nBy 2016, the year DPS projects a small surplus, the district expects to have less than 40,000 students \u2014 under a quarter of its enrollment in 2000. \u00a0From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20130124\/SCHOOLS\/301240362#ixzz2J2RXmaSJ<\/a><\/p>\n

Why the National Education Power Grab? Because the Education Agenda is a Class and Empires’ war agenda, but here are details <\/strong>In December, California’s application for a waiver from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act was denied by the U.S. Department of Education. This, we were told, was because California had failed to embrace the federal department’s reform agenda, especially on issues of evaluating teachers.
\nThe denial is disturbing for what it reveals: namely, that the American education system is being reshaped in a truly fundamental way, and with little debate. National policymakers now behave as if they believe their role in making education policy ought to be much the same as that of the states in setting goals and standards, creating accountability systems, defining teacher quality, determining strategies for producing high-quality teachers and improving low-performing schools. Left unresolved, the conflicts this creates about who is in charge are likely to worsen. \u00a0 www.latimes.com\/news\/opinion\/commentary\/la-oe-tucker-nationalization-of-education-20130124,0,5846090.story<\/a><\/p>\n

Michigan Loves those Prisons (how the world loves a cage) <\/strong>Between 2002 and 2012, state spending per student on higher education declined 35 percent even as public spending per prisoner increased 42 percent, Business Leaders for Michigan said Monday. In 2002, Michigan spent $2 billion on higher ed and $1.7 billion on prisons. A decade later, the state spent $1.3 billion on public colleges and universities and $2 billion on prisons.
\nFrom The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20130122\/OPINION03\/301220321#ixzz2J3NfSCCQ<\/a><\/p>\n

UTLA Bosses Sign on to test-based evaluations (merit pay’s backbone) <\/strong>A landmark agreement to use student test scores for the first time in evaluating Los Angeles Unified teachers was approved by union members Saturday.
\nUnited Teachers Los Angeles reported that 66% of 16,892 members who voted approved the agreement with the nation’s second-largest school district. L.A. Unified now joins Chicago, New York and many other cities in using testing data as one measure of a teacher’s effect on student academic progress. About half the union’s 34,000 members voted. \u00a0 www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-utla-evals-20130120,0,5009372.story?track=rss<\/a><\/p>\n

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Rose: <\/strong> Character Education Won’t Defeat Capital’s Poverty <\/strong> Character education \u2013 teaching kids to be responsible and to persevere \u2013 isn’t enough to bring poor students out of poverty or close the achievement gap. Policymakers need to tackle the underlying causes of poverty and the significant obstacles poor children face. \u00a0http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/Commentary\/Opinion\/2013\/0123\/Character-education-is-not-enough-to-help-poor-kids<\/p>\n

Bowling Green SU–Losing 11 percent of the Profs won’t hurt quality <\/strong> Nearly 11 percent of Bowling Green State University\u2019s faculty will be eliminated for the 2013 fall semester, the school announced Friday.
\nThe reduction of 100 full-time jobs at the main campus and Firelands campus in Huron, Ohio, will be accomplished through attrition, retirements, and the expiration of some one-year teaching contracts, a BGSU spokesman said.
\nThe college has 932 full-time faculty members on the campuses.
\nProvost Rodney Rogers said in a statement the reductions are not expected to affect the quality of education for the 20,000 students enrolled at BGSU. \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.toledoblade.com\/Education\/2013\/01\/18\/BGSU-to-cut-100-faculty-positions-in-fall.html<\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/span><\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Glenn Ford on Obamagogue’s InHogUration Spectacle <\/strong>\u201cHe merely peppered the speech with progressive buzzwords and references \u2013 just enough notes to get the faithful to fill in the empty spaces with their own internal music.\u201d
\nLike an abusive spouse who preys on the emotional desperation and dependency of his domestic victim, Barack Obama knows that all he need do is offer some cheap street corner flowers and a few sweet words, and the previous nights and months and years of beatings will be forgiven. Just hum a bar or two of an old, shared song, and the battered partner will supply a full symphony of Barry White\u2019s Love Unlimited Orchestra \u2013 because she needs to hear it, if only inside her own head.
\nAfter four years of chasing Republican skirts in search of a grand austerity bargain; of debauching himself in marathon binges of global lawlessness and aggressive war; of defiling the Bill of Rights through preventive detention and massive domestic spying; of callous neglect of the jobs and lost wealth crisis afflicting the most loyal members of his political family; and of brazen cavorting with the vile and filthy rich, sheltering them from incarceration for crimes against the national and global economy, Barack Obama slunk home on the morning of January 21, to be smothered with kisses.
\nMuch of what passes for the Left, and for traditional African American leadership, agreed with the New York Times\u2019 assessment that Barack Obama\u2019s second inaugural address represented a firm embrace of \u201ca progressive agenda centered on equality and opportunity.\u201d Significantly, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell echoed the sentiment: \u201dThe era of liberalism is back\u2026the speech certainly brings back memories of the Democratic Party in ages past.\u201d
\nIt is in the mutual interest of corporate media and rightwing Republicans to move the bar of \u201cprogressive\u201d politics ever rightward. However, for African Americans and white progressives, it amounts to erasing their own political legacies from history.
\n\u201cThere is no agreement to end U.S. combat involvement in Afghanistan, and no intention of achieving one.\u201d
\nActuality, Obama embraced nothing: he merely peppered the speech with progressive buzzwords and references \u2013 just enough notes to get the faithful to fill in the empty spaces with their own internal music. It was classic Obama.
\n\u201cA decade of war is now ending,\u201d said the Second Incarnation of Obama, sounding a false \u201cpeace\u201d note. If he was talking about Afghanistan, that\u2019s a damnable lie. There is no agreement to end U.S. combat involvement in Afghanistan, and no intention of achieving one \u2013 only the stated goal to lower troop levels. The Pentagon is fielding contingencies to reduce U.S. troop strength to between 6,000 and 20,000. (When Obama entered office there were 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, which he raised to about 100,000 in the \u201csurge\u201d of 2011.) Although the administration line is that most of the remaining Americans will be \u201ctrainers,\u201d they will include thousands of Special Forces troops to continue \u201ccounterinsurgency\u201d and \u201ccounterterrorism\u201d operations. Special Forces are \u201ctrainers\u201d and \u201cforce multipliers\u201d by U.S. military definition, \u201ctraining\u201d native troops while engaged in combat missions. U.S. air forces, drone and manned, will continue to pound targets. Obama\u2019s nearly completed \u201ccodification\u201d of U.S. drone policies exempts the CIA from any clear rules for \u201ctargeted-killing\u201d drone operations in neighboring Pakistan for at least a year, to allow them to do as much damage as possible in the quest for Obama\u2019s version of peace. But history may record Obama\u2019s greatest crime against peace as changing the definition of war. According to his unique doctrine, the U.S. cannot be in a state of war, or even \u201chostilities\u201d with another people or country, unless Americans are killed in the process. Thus, Obama refused to report to the U.S. Congress under the War Powers Act following eight months of bombardment of Libya, claiming no state of war had existed since no Americans had died. By this logic, the U.S. is empowered to bomb anyone, anywhere on the planet at will, without the constraints of national or international law, as long as care is taken to protect the lives of U.S. personnel. \u00a0http:\/\/blackagendareport.com\/content\/white-house-un-reality-show<\/p>\n

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Rapper forced off Stage at InHoguration <\/strong>A rap artist was forced off the stage at an inaugural event in Washington, D.C. Sunday night after he performed an anti-Obama diatribe.
\nThe scene unfolded at The Hamilton one block from the White House as Lupe Fiasco, a Grammy-nominated rapper from Chicago, began performing \u2018Words I Never Said,\u2019 a single he recorded in February of 2011.
\n\u2018I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bull***t, just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets,\u2019 he rapped. \u2018\u2026 Rush Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist, Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn\u2019t say s**t. That\u2019s why I ain\u2019t vote for him, next one either, I\u2019m a part of the problem, my problem is I\u2019m peaceful and I believe in the people.\u2019
\nFiasco\u2019s microphone was cut and a handful of security personnel surrounded him on stage. He was reportedly asked to move on to the next song and refused, so he was asked to leave.
\nAs he moved off the stage, Fiasco turned to the audience and waved his hand, then took a bow. The crowd was shouting his name. \u00a0 facelessinblack.tumblr.com\/post\/41140532944<\/a><\/p>\n

No Peace Dividend Ahead–Stiglitz <\/strong>Nearly 12 years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began, a war-weary America is getting ready to leave. But there will be little in the way of a peace dividend for the US economy once the fighting stops.
\nThe direct costs of the war are already $700bn. The original mission was to root out al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But in 2003, the US shifted nearly all of its attention and resources to Iraq. The Taliban regrouped and strengthened in Afghanistan, making the conflict far more expensive. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda shifted operations into Pakistan, Yemen and Mali, where France this month sent troops. \u00a0http:\/\/www.ft.com\/intl\/cms\/s\/0\/da88f8fe-63e9-11e2-84d8-00144feab49a.html#axzz2J2FsPPGs<\/p>\n