We're now several weeks away from the giant crocodile tears shed by LAUSD Vice President Flores Aguilar when she defended her [1] privatization resolution as being all about the kids. Indeed, all of the Corporate Charter Choice resolution's defenders constantly went on and on about how the resolution somehow put kids first. The way proponents framed it, anyone opposed to their neoliberal tenets of privatization and corporate handouts was against kids. Highly paid Green Dot executive Ben Austin's now infamous schtick about a "system designed for adults by adults," was intended to create a false dichotomy between children and their parents, and is a great example of such unscrupulous rhetoric. However, real education activists [2] saw through what Quang Tran cites as VP Flores Aguilar's "principles, [and] moral conviction."We knew this of course, because of a vote Ms. Flores Aguilar made a few weeks earlier -- to lay off hundreds and hundreds of teachers. The direct results of her vote is massive class size increases: "Budget cuts push some classrooms way over capacity." Some principles and moral conviction. Of course this was by design, to make public schools more prone to failure in order to bring in another wave of privatization. In fact, Ms. Flores Aguilar's cynical vote to massively increase class sizes for public schools followed by her resolution to privatize nearly a third of the district comes straight out of the playbook of corporatization advocates like Newt Gingrich, The Hoover Institution, The Hudson Institute, and the Cato Institute.
Where were all these so called children's advocates like Ben Austin, Maria Brenes, Quang Tran, and Gabe Rose when the board was deciding to fire teachers and increase class sizes -- guaranteeing a substandard education for children? Sure it isn't as glamorous to protest the school board as it is to appear on TV with self colonizers like Bill "blame the victim" Cosby [3], but you think all these people claiming they passionately support education would have joined us protesting both the budget cuts and increases in class sizes. None of them said a word, and now we see the results of Ms. Flores Aguilar's vote, with "English and math classes have gone from an average of around 34 students last year to 42 this year."
I'm sure the young women of Fairfax High sitting on the file cabinets in the photo accompanying the Los Angeles Times article really appreciate all you've done for them Vice President Flores Aguilar! Thanks for all your advocacy for the kids!
NOTES
[1] More properly, Marshall Tuck and the Green Dot grant writing staff's resolution written at the behest of Eli Broad and the Mayor.
[2] In other words, activists who don't get paid six figures a year to be activists and have read Paulo Freire. The Wall Street Journal recently listed Austin as an activist, which is exactly what he postures as, despite having never been an activist in his entire life. If Parent Revolution's Austin or any of his network of rich boys with white savior complex were really children's' advocates, then where were they when the community was engaged in struggle against the budget cuts? Green Dot's Ben Austin was almost certainly lounging at home in his gated Beverly Hills community while we supported the parent campers at John Liechty Middle School and Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. While LAPU's Ben Austin enjoyed lavish luncheons with ever the opportunist Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, we supported the hunger strikers and parents in front of Cortines office. While Ben Austin was endorsing fat checks from Eli Broad and William Gates, we were raising funds for Aurora Ponce. A "parent advocate" and "revolutionary" indeed! Furthermore, Austin's constant mention of his daughter's school is just another example of his unending stream of lies. Ben Austin has two daughters, a toddler and an infant. Someone should ask the pathological liar which one of those children currently attends a LAUSD school.
[3] http://www.parentrevolution.org/index.php/blog/entry/the_parent_revolution_will_be_televised/
2 comments:
Well said. I like that the Times article says that 36 middle schoolers in an English class is a manageable number. Multiple that by 5 periods. Give them weekly writing assignments. Give them 1 to 1 feedback. Call parents. Plan projects. Anyone who thinks these numbers are doable hasn't taught in ages, never was a decent teacher, or has something to gain by public school "failure." Public ed is being set up. Why isn't everyone outraged?
I copied and pasted my above piece into the comments on Yolies' blog. They ended up turning off comments and removing all the existing comments. That says volumes about her and her politics.
Post a Comment