Category Archives: schools

Newark parents fighting back

by

This just makes my morning!  Bob Braun’s article here.

The explosion of personal anger occurred at 8:30 pm, two hours after the meeting at First Avenue School got off to a delayed and troubled start.  Scores of residents who wanted to attend the meeting were kept outside in single-digit temperatures. Then some were allowed to enter an unheated cafeteria. Police officers, citing fire regulations, said the auditorium in the school was too crowded.

The venue clearly was chosen to keep the size of the crowd down.

~~~~~~~~

See…you can control the negative speech against you by making it harder for the mounting opposition to even get a space to stand.

Remember what I said in the previous blog about education and how it seemed like they were trying to separate kids from their parents by reducing the amount of time at home?

Well, this statement kind of supports that:

a letter to families that suggested if Newark children were home from school they would get into trouble, make the city “less safe” and cause crime to go up

~~~~~

Where do I start?  The insinuation is that parents don’t know how to raise their kids.  That kids are little criminals just waiting for the opportunity to commit a criminal act.

Perhaps art and music instruction would be helpful here in creating and encouraging imaginations so that kids could entertain themselves while out of school, eh?

They could be painting, drawing, learning a new game, playing/practicing an instrument,  playing tag outside, making snow sharks 🙂  , or doing something to give back, like shoveling an elderly/disabled person’s sidewalks, or running errands…the list is endless….

Update: Indiana HB1320

by

Update on this post on the power grab/information grab by Pence and his henchmen.

I found this summary of the bill– as you can see, it does not outline what information is being gathered.  It does not say who is receiving this information.  It does not outline how this benefits children and education.  And why does the state need to provide backup when schools routinely backup their own records??

As I wrote on Diane’s blog–

It looks like Gates has his dirty little fingers in this–gathering more information for…what? or perhaps I should say…who? What kind of information are they gathering? Who will benefit from gathering this information?

The bill does not tell us. Highly suspicious.

I also found this excellent blog by Doug Martin (you might recall he posted on firedoglake).

If passed into law, HB1320 will probably hand another $3.7 million of our tax dollars to a private company which will sell off personal and confidential information of students and families to companies out to market their products and agenda to them.

~~~~~~~~~

This new move is not a new one.  In fact, HB1320 was probably inspired by a model bill drafted for various states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate sponsored bill-mill behind the scenes in Indiana and across the country bringing us school privatization, attacks on the postal service and unions, and the infamous Stand Your Ground Law.

~~~~~~~~~~

Yep.  This has the smell of ALEC all over it.

 

 

 

Action Alert: Pence Power Grab from Glenda Ritz

by

Once again, Glenda Ritz is under threat of losing her authority granted to her by the citizens of Indiana….who voted more for her than Pence.

Calling all Hoosiers…send out emails to have your voice heard.  Don’t let Pence become a dictator!

Teacher’s experience in Gulen Charter school

by

Diane Ravitch has an account of a teacher’s experience in a Gulen charter school.  Unreal.

No books.  And teachers with 100 students limited to 25 copies per day.  Money missing from their paychecks unaccounted for.  Seriously?

All of this is flying under the radar because the mainstream media is not only not covering the Newark 5, they’re not covering the criminal and unethical activities of people running charter schools.

…but they’ll be more than happy to run story after story of bad teachers in public schools…

 

 

The Newark Five: Being heard

by

The Chalk Face has a video up of the Newark principals who were put on indefinite layoff (fired) for exercising their right to Free Speech. (hat tip GF Brandenburg)

This is probably the only place you’ll hear them…because no one in the mainstream media is covering this.  It is a hot topic going by the amount of activity my blog has received.  This should be a top story on the networks…and yet…*crickets*.

Why?

Autistic Child found in New York

by

NBC News has this posted.  The remains of the autistic child that disappeared from school have been found.

I was re-reading my blog on school colocation that had mentioned an autistic child had gone missing because the school was so overcrowded, he slipped out without being noticed.  I wonder if this is the school…and if so, why aren’t the networks mentioning this?  (I had seen the news on CNN before NBC website)

Wanna bet they won’t mention that school overcrowding via colocation with charters is responsible for this death?

Yeah, just like they’re *all over* the Newark school principal firings…er I mean indefinite layoffs (yeah, they were fired…)…haven’t heard a peep about it, but judging by the visitors to my blog on it, this is a hot issue.

The Law and Louisiana Teachers

by

This is why I love the law….if it is working properly (i.e., judges apply it fairly), then the “little guy” wins out even when being bullied by those bigger with $$ bank accounts.  Woot.

The Octopus of inBloom…

by

Mercedes Schneider has an excellent blog up on all the twists and turns of school profiteering–who is involved, who’s making the $$ off of our kids.  It’s an in-depth blog well worth the time of the read.

The comments are intelligent, as well.  One of them links to this article.  Bill and Melinda Gates are freaking insane.  How detached from the real world does one have to be to think this is okay??  It’s not a true measurement of engagement in the lesson–it only measures arousal.  The student could be thinking of something else, as one comment in the article illustrates, not what is being taught.  Creepy doesn’t *begin* to describe this electronic gadget.

Note the very last paragraph where National Council on Teacher Quality, which receives funding from the Gates Foundation promotes this insanity.  Remember, folks, Gates is now part of the Billionaires Media Message….gotta keep that in mind when reading anything positive on Gates, et al., because they’ve probably written it themselves or had any number of people they support financially do their dirty work for them.

Also, in the link Mercedes provided for her former post on this, is this gem:

First of all, it was Gates money that funded the inBloom data “cloud.”

Next, the sponsor of the webinar, EWA, has taken $2.7 million in Gates money since 2003.

Third, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has taken $13.5 million in Gates money. (In November 2013, I wrote this post on Aimee Guidera and DQC. Enlightening reading.)

Fourth, USDOE Assistant Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton used to work for Gates as the Gates Foundation director of its education division. Shelton is also a partner with the charter-market-creating New Schools Venture Fund (a connection to Education Undersecretary nominee Ted Mitchell) AND was a senior management consultant for McKinsey and Company (former employer of Common Core “lead architect” David Coleman).

Fifth, Fordham University professor Joel Reidenberg and others conducted a study on privacy issues and “cloud computing”… funded by Microsoft.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Yep, it’s the revolving door with Jim Shelton…like the FDA.  Anyone wanna bet Shelton will go back to Gates once his work to destroy public education is done?

Finally, another person posted this link of a group of Carbondale, Colorado parents getting together to fight for our public schools.

 

Newark Principals fired for protesting school closings

by

Diane Ravitch has this up on the latest in taxation without representation and punishing an American citizen for exercising their right to Freedom of Speech.

One of the links was so compelling I want to put it here.  So much for inept educators being disciplined for non-performance…you’re punished even if you’re doing well, apparently.  Good Grief, what a nazi!!

Gov. Christie must have a “Bully’s Playbook” that all in his inner circle go by…

And Michele Brown and the Economic Development Authority should be investigated, also, while they’re at it…