Category Archives: big box stores

Bullying Chicago Teachers, via Byrd-Bennett

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Fred Klonsky has this up on the heavy handed Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

We must plan for the event that some teachers will be insubordinate and refuse to administer the test.  If the teacher regularly assigned to the classroom has refused that assignment, another teacher or an administrator should be assigned to administer the test.  The teacher who has refused the assignment should be given the option of going home without pay on all testing days or supervising the students who are not taking the test in silent reading activities.  If there are special concerns about a teacher’s conduct, principals should immediately consult with their Talent Generalist at 773-535-2800.

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This is just unreal.  This reads like a handbook for Nazi Germany and Hitler.  What’s next…the police called in to administer the tests?!

CPS Professional Development

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Yes, folks, this is where your hard earned tax dollars are going to…not to teachers’ salaries or the unions like the education profiteers would like you to think….

Good Grief.  I have no words.

Wait…yes, yes I do…how many people in this room would like to get up and walk out?

How many?

How many?

 

Chicago Teachers Union Strike: A Report

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Jan Resseger has a blog up on the report of the Chicago Teachers Union strike in September 2012.  This, my friends, is what a democratically run union looks like.  Other unions TAKE HEED.

The teacher’s and counselor’s passion is evident in this report.  They care about these kids and what the profiteers are doing to them. Note how the police, fire, parents, and community stepped up and supported them.  Good for them.

 

More on Saucedo background

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Here’s the background on the rally today at Saucedo Elementary in Chicago.

It’s pretty serious when a teacher is threatened with termination if she/he refuses to subject the kids to this form of bullying.

Alert: Chicago Parents and Public Ed Supporters

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Fred Klonsky has this up on a rally for Chicago Teachers Union and parents against the testing, testing, testing mentality of the education profiteers and their toadies.

Rally is at 3:30 p.m. at Saucedo Elementary at 2850 W. 24th Blvd.  Wear red in support!

 

Eye Candy

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This week’s pics of beautiful Canada.  I was thinking about Neil Young’s song and the video of the Earth before the energy companies move in, and how much is lost that cannot be regained after they’re done stripping the land…

Saving Michigan Public Schools

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Diane Ravitch has this link up on Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton fighting the good fight for Michigan public schools from the profiteers.

From the link:

State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, who signed his authority over school reform to the experimental EAA for 15 years in 2011, asked to get it back immediately, apparently due to deep concerns about the EAA’s many failures – but EAA Chancellor John Covington refused. Given the crumbling relationship between the EAA and Flanagan, Lipton said the EAA must be brought to a halt, not expanded, as Republicans in the Legislature are seeking to do.

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and then there’s this:

And why won’t the governor, through his control over the EAA Board of Directors that hired and can fire Covington, demand Covington to immediately return control to Flanagan or be removed from office?”

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Stunning.   Absolutely stunning that they signed authority over for 15 years to an uproven entity!!  Who does that?!

Of course the Repubs are not only not stopping this, but trying to expand it.  (Probably hoping that it will be harder to stop a speeding train).  Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Koch Brothers, John Arnold, and the billionaires boys club have too much at stake to take their marbles and go home…

 

The mother of the dying child speaks out

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Ken Previtti (Reclaim Reform) has a follow up to the mother whose child was in hospice and the state of Florida was demanding he be tested.   Keep the kleenex handy.

Godspeed to her and her family.

Heartless creeps.

Charter Schools Gravy Train

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(hat tip to scathing purple musings)  Forbes, of all places, has this article up that pretty much summarizes all that is wrong with charter school profiteers.

As mentioned here before, the article notes that Bill Clinton allowed them to proliferate by giving them tax credits and not only that, but green cards for foreign investors.  Yep.

As I’m reading about the for-profit scheme and how the author notes that they have not been that profitable…I’m thinking of the “classes” being given to kids via video or online “learning”…so they don’t have to pay a teacher at all.  Or–they have one teacher to answer questions or grade tests for however many kids they can squeeze in….I don’t even know the answer to that and I’m not going to even try to guess.   They don’t really care, anyway, if the child is getting a good education…as long as it looks something like an education, they’re just fine with that…

Lastly, I’m even more impressed with public schools after reading this–the author notes that charter schools can pick and choose their students, so they should be showing better test scores than public…less than a third do that.

So…even with the students that are autistic or mentally challenged, the public schools still outdid the charters.  Here’s to the dedicated and beleaguered public school teachers….::clink::