Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Chicago Teachers's Strike, A Wake-Up Call!


     The Teachers' Strike in Chicago is a Wake Up Call!

     Put teachers and professional educators back in charge.

      
Mr. Emanuel has pressed for longer school days, more control for principals
in picking teachers, and an expansion of the city’s charter school system.
He is wrong on all counts.

We need shorter school days. Forcing children to start school before their   parents start work has been counterproductive. Youngsters need eight hours sleep. They should not be required to be in class any earlier than 9 am.  By 3pm they should be dismissed and either sent home or released to participate in after-school activities. Teachers should show up by 8am and stay until 4:30 pm. The most current research supports later start times for schools.

Principals are administrative personnel. They may or may not be professional educators. Principals are responsible for making sure our schools function.  This includes scheduling classes, meetings, building programs, maintenance, purchasing, promotion, public relations, and public-speaking engagements. Principals should have little, if any, input in the selection of materials, educators, curriculum, or teaching methods. These tasks should be reserved for trained professional educators: our teachers.

Our primary focus should not be on charter schools, but on repairing dysfunctional public schools.

Our teachers are willing to sacrifice and work the picket lines because they feel under-siege and disrespected. Threats of school closings, increasingly large class sizes, and an evaluation system that judges teachers based on the test scores of their students, are unacceptable working conditions. 87 percent of the students in Chicago schools come from low-income families. While these students may be economically handicapped, it serves no useful purpose to handicap their teachers.

Robert Bloch, the lawyer for the teachers’ union, said both sides are still working out the details but that union officials were hopeful that they could present a complete agreement sooner instead of later.  But he cautioned that, “It’s for the House of Delegates to determine whether we will suspend the strike so kids can go back to school.”  The agreement must represent our teachers and their concerns for their students. 

Much of the contract dispute has focused on teacher evaluations and job security, but few details of the deal have been made public. The new resolve to keep the details of the agreement private seemed questionable. During a closed meeting of the union’s House of Delegates on Friday afternoon, union negotiators did not share details of the proposed agreement among those assembled.  Depriving the rank-and-file of this information seems foolish.

The tentative agreement may include several provisions Mr. Emanuel and
school officials had pressed for — a longer school day, principals’ ability to
hire teachers, and a teacher evaluation system that would include student
test scores. But many details are not known, including a final agreement on raises and benefits for teachers. It seems foolish to write an agreement based on the demands of management while working teachers are ignored, their complaints dismissed, and our clients, the students, get lost in the shuffle.

Karen Lewis, the often outspoken president of the Chicago Teachers Union, who had described the sides as far apart, said many teachers had renewed hope that they could soon be back in their classrooms with students. But some teachers were waiting for the details before they allowed themselves to grow too invested in ending the strike. “We’re not going to rush it,” said Sara Echevarria, who works at the union as a coordinator for grievances. “We’re not desperate.”
For families across Chicago — even those who support the striking teachers, joining the line of pickets near every school or honking as they drove past clusters of teachers all in red — the thought that school may reopen soon comes as a huge relief.  Many described a week of chaos: missed work days, searching  for baby-sitters, and children who are confused about missing the second week of a new school year.

But the bottom line is this: During the past few years, when school boards and school administrators have interfered with academics in our  schools, our schools have continued to fail. We need to reverse this process and repair our schools.  It is time to put teachers back in charge.

Timothy Martin Flanagan
writer, editor, activist, and organizer.
JWJ steering committee, Labor Radio Collective, The Portland Alliance,  Writingresource.info, and retired educator: AFT Local 2277, Portland, Oregon.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Breaking News! Brutal Attacks on Peaceful Occupy Oakland gathering!
http://www.theportlandalliance.org/occupation
CourageConquers Fear
Stand up for the 99%

Breaking News!
OccupyPortland

The Portland Alliance and KBOO are sponsoring 
VOICES IN ACTION: HUMAN RIGHTS ON FILM NWFILM.ORG

  Download Poster!    Download the Schedule!
"The right to rebellion is the right to seek a higher rule..."   GEORGE ELIOT
Sunday, Nov. 13
 Greg Palast at the Bagdad:
702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
ForTheAlliance&KBOO!

Speaking Truth to Power Since 1981!
Support local media!
Of, by, & for the people!
Here is a new Alliance Interactive Calendar: add your own events! We are a 501C3 Nonprofit for Public Benefit. (NAAME)
Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List iconSign up for our Email Newsletter
For Email Marketing you can trust
Table of Contents!
Live Music & Festivals

 
Our  Community Calendar is where thousands of organizers in the Pacific Northwest discover opportunities for action or submit their own events!
        http://www.theportlandalliance.org/communitycalendar
If you want to learn more about the Alliance, please examine the seven issues we have published in 2011 at this address:
        http://www.theportlandalliance.org/issues.html 

Or visit our Blog and carry on a conversation with our staff.
            http://portlandalliancenews.blogspot.com/
 
We are the news for Occupy Portland, the Occupy Portland Alliance is on site.  Check with Andrea Townsend for the Occupation Alliance http://www.theportlandalliance.org/occupyportland  send stories, articles pictures for online or print issues!

Education begins with the paper you read!

Support Alternative Media Speaking Truth to Power!
Breaking News! Brutal Attacks on Peaceful
Occupy Oakland gathering!

http://www.theportlandalliance.org/occupation
CourageConquers Fear
Stand up for the 99%

Breaking News!
OccupyPortland

The Portland Alliance and KBOO are sponsoring 
VOICES IN ACTION: HUMAN RIGHTS ON FILM NWFILM.ORG

  Download Poster!    Download the Schedule!
"The right to rebellion is the right to seek a higher rule..."   GEORGE ELIOT
Sunday, Nov. 13
 Greg Palast at the Bagdad:
702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
ForTheAlliance&KBOO!
Speaking Truth to Power Since 1981!
Support local media!
Of, by, & for the people!
Here is a new Alliance Interactive Calendar: add your own events! We are a 501C3 Nonprofit for Public Benefit. (NAAME)

Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List iconSign up for our Email Newsletter
For Email Marketing you can trust
Table of Contents!












TLC





Our  Community Calendar is where thousands of organizers in the Pacific Northwest discover opportunities for action or submit their own events!
        http://www.theportlandalliance.org/communitycalendar
If you want to learn more about the Alliance, please examine the seven issues we have published in 2011 at this address:
        http://www.theportlandalliance.org/issues.html 

Or visit our Blog and carry on a conversation with our staff.
            http://portlandalliancenews.blogspot.com/
We are the news for Occupy Portland, the Occupy Portland Alliance is on site.  Check with Andrea Townsend for the Occupation Alliance http://www.theportlandalliance.org/occupyportland  send stories, articles pictures for online or print issues!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

How to fix our Schools!

There are clearly identified problems with our secondary schools.

1. Inferior texts
2. Inappropriate teaching methods
3. Dumbing-down curriculum
4. Passing kids through

And we know why these problems exist.

Public schools are not required to answer to parents.
Instead, educators are forced to comply with the demands
of politicians and school boards with political agendas. 

These agendas are weakening our schools. Schools and teachers are
forced to use supposedly brilliant education plans thought up by state
judiciaries, legislatures,
and bureaucracies. And taxpayers are expected to pay the bill.

A separation of school and state may be beneficial. By shutting
out the interfering politicians and giving the power to the parents
and teachers, schools can become accountable.
We need to put parents and teachers back in charge.

Punishing teachers because of the actions of school boards and
politicians is ridiculous and does not address the problem or the
solution. Trained teaching professionals can get the job done. 
We need for school boards, administrators, and politicians to get out of the
way and let educators do their jobs. 

"The demonizing of teachers is another public relations feint, a way for corporations to deflect attention from the theft of some $17 billion in wages, savings and earnings among American workers and a landscape where one in six workers is without employment. The speculators on Wall Street looted the U.S. Treasury. They stymied any kind of regulation. They have avoided criminal charges. They are stripping basic social services. And now they are demanding to run our schools and universities...
“Not only have the reformers removed poverty as a factor, they’ve removed students’ aptitude and motivation as factors,” said this teacher, who is in a teachers union. “They seem to believe that students are something like plants where you just add water and place them in the sun of your teaching and everything blooms. This is a fantasy that insults both student and teacher. The reformers have come up with a variety of insidious schemes pushed as steps to professionalize the profession of teaching. As they are all businessmen who know nothing of the field, it goes without saying that you do not do this by giving teachers autonomy and respect. They use merit pay in which teachers whose students do well on bubble tests will receive more money and teachers whose students do not do so well on bubble tests will receive less money. Of course, the only way this could conceivably be fair is to have an identical group of students in each class—an impossibility. The real purposes of merit pay are to divide teachers against themselves as they scramble for the brighter and more motivated students and to further institutionalize the idiot notion of standardized tests. There is a certain diabolical intelligence at work in both of these.”

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/04/hedges-on-why-u-s-is-destroying-its.html

Thursday, April 22, 2010

SOS: Save our Schools!

Both the Washington Post
and New York Times
ran front-page stories
reporting
that school districts
across the country

are facing the worst
cuts in 50 years,
and seriously
contemplating
thousands of layoffs,
larger classes, shortened days,

and fewer programs
to help students.

States are also
making historic cuts
in higher education
that are hurting

students and faculty.



Send a letter now to your senators
and representatives
urging them to support the

Keep Our Educators Working Act
(S. 3206)

and the Local Jobs for America Act
(H.R. 4812).



both bills would:
Provide $23 billion to help
school districts avert
educator layoffs

in the upcoming school year;

Enable districts to
continue to implement
positive programs
to help ensure
all students
receive the great education
they deserve;
and
Help restore previously cut funding
for postsecondary education in order to
retain or create jobs for higher
education faculty and professionals.



Act now! Send a letter to your senators
and representatives urging them to support
the Keep Our Educators Working Act

and the Local Jobs for America Act.


Failure to quickly
provide this assistance

will shortchange
our children's futures
.


In unity, 
|http://www.unionresource.org/
and
The  AFT  http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/teacherjobs042210

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

National Day of Action!

National Day of Action
to Defend Public Education!
Thursday, March 4th at 1pm
March and Rally at the South Park Blocks
by Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union

On March 4th, thousands of students, workers,
and teachers will take action across the country
including in the states of California, New York,
and here in Oregon to resist the ongoing attack
on public education including the proposed
privatization of Portland State University.

Education is a Right!   Save Faculty and Staff Jobs!
Stop the Attacks on Departments including Women and Black Studies!
Debt Forgiveness for Students!
Take a Stand to Defend Public Education!
No More tuition Hikes! No More Cuts!
Fully Fund Education Now!
Bailout Schools Not Banks!
Stop the Privatization of Education!
Endorsed By: Radical Women, Students for Unity, Associated Student of Portland State University Executive Staff, International Socialist Organization, PDX JWJ, Pan American Solidarity Organization
and Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, Peaceresource.org, Unionresource.org,
& The Wordsmith Collection
Contact Information

Contact Us At:  march4strikeanddayofaction@gmail.com
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/login.php

Friday, January 29, 2010

The Death of Howard Zinn

We are saddened to hear of the death
of writer, historian, and activist Howard Zinn,
whose determined opposition to militarism
focus on popular struggles serves as an
inspiration. Howard served on the advisory
board of the Jewish Voice for Peace--

Howard Zinn will be missed, but the spirit he
embodied, the power of people, workers, and
students to resist militarism and corporate abuse,
lives on in the growing movement to end U.S. and
corporate aggression, occupation, and exploitation.

Yesterday University of South Florida student
Laila Abdelaziz challenged President Barack Obama
on U.S. aid to Israel and violations of human rights.
There is a movement spreading across North American
campuses to highlight how university investments support
the Occupation. We see it in a video from Carleton
University's Students Against Israeli Apartheid and
in the work of the University of Arizona Community
for Human Rights, among many other student groups.
Click here:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=319
 for campus resources that will help
carry Dr. Zinn's legacy forward.

US CAMPAIGN TO END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION


PO BOX 21539 WASHINGTON, DC 20009
202-332-0994
USCAMPAIGN@ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG
WWW.ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG