Nine years ago the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC), Brown Berets, Union del Barrio, and others organized a protest against ABC’s racist, ICE-fascist glorifying, Homeland Security USA show.
Nativist Minutemen, the Ku Klux Klan, and Neo-Nazis counter-protested us, and liberal Democrats criticized us for being too radical. We were right! #not1more
This short essay was originally published on The Daily Censored on August 11, 2011. It would seem that all of the old works on that site are gone. That's unfortunate because I published a lot of work there. I had a teaser here linking to it, a practice I stopped doing precisely because I've learned from harsh experience that websites die and all the content is lost (like my At The Chalkface works). I was able to track down a reprint on Susan Ohanian's site, but her site is having issues as well. Ultimately, I was able to retrieve a copy of the reprint from the Wayback Machine.
I want to reproduce this last sentence from Ohanian's introduction, since she had such insight into why the essay was important:
“The hardline right wing may well love the vacuous phrase “soft bigotry of low expectations,” but let’s remember that education deform democrats love it just as much. It is mostly used to put progressive activists on the defensive.” — Susan Ohanian
“We address the soft bigotry of low expectations so that we may ignore the hard racism of inequity.” — John Kuhn
Although this footage isn't new and commentators have already discussed it, it deserves reexamination since it illuminates one of the core false tenets of the corporate education reform canon.
Amidst the bizarre assertion that Sesame Street is indoctrinating children in some sort of insidious left wing plot, reactionary Ben Shapiro says that:
"I talked to one of the guys who's at Children's Television Workshop originally and he said the whole purpose of Sesame Street was cater to black and hispanic youths who, quote unquote, did not have reading literature in the house, there kind of this soft bigotry of low expectations that's automatically associated with Sesame Street."
Ahhh — the chimerical "soft bigotry of low expectations." As opposed to the hard bigotry of the pervasive institutional racism underpinning our economic system, which facilitates the division of workers and submerses a majority in abject poverty in order to make a small minority obscenely rich. The very same minority, by the way, that supports privatizing public education via charters and vouchers.
The dubious phrase is beloved by the hardline right. The Birchers at the Heartland Institute [1] use the phrase with reckless abandon. Cato, Manhattan, Hoover, and all the other reactionary right wing think tanks repeat the phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" as if it's the mantra necessary to permanently bring back the gilded age they all pine for.
Of course the nonsensical phrase isn't limited to fringe right-wing kooks that also think John Galt and Howard Rourke are historical figures. Many supposed-liberals, or at the very least Democratic Leadership Council party operatives, use the phrase as often, if not more often than their teabagging counterparts.
The vile billionaire hedge fund shyster Whitney Tilson uses the phrase incessantly. Remember too that the ever obtuse Tilson helped form two of the most virulent corporate reform and privatization pushing organizations in existence: Teach for America (TFA) and Democrats for Education Reform (DFER). The latter, DFER, uses the phrase in its privatization propaganda. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has used the phrase. TFA's Wendy Kopp has had a lucrative career peddling the phrase. The snarling queen of Erasuregate, Michelle Rhee, cherishes such phrases. Los Angeles' poverty pimping opportunist Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proudly plasters the phrase on twitter.
The unprincipled construction "soft bigotry of low expectations" is typically credited to the Council on Foreign Relations's arch-reactionary Michael Gerson, who was the speechwriter for fraudulent Rod Paige's Texas Education Miracle co-fraud, George W. Bush.
Like all the philosophically threadbare propaganda from the right, the expression is vapid and vacuous, without any real meaning whatsoever, putting it right along with "no excuses," and "working hard and being nice." Professor Noam Chomsky best addresses these types of phrases:
"It doesn't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy?" [2]
The policy in question is to ignore poverty and demand a false accountability from all of poverty's victims. While there are countless works discussing this, a recent pair of essays by my Schools Matter colleague Professor P. L. Thomas, EdD, really get to the heart of this issue: Poverty and Testing in Education: "The Present Scientifico-legal Complex" part 1 and part 2.
Humane Expectations Devoid of any Bigotry
In my many years I've never come across an educator that had anything but "realistic expectations tempered with compassion and empathy" for their students, regardless of where they taught. Moreover, for right wing reactionaries to accuse hard working women and men that have dedicated their lives to educating inner city students of bigotry of any sort smacks of hypocrisy of the highest order. It's laughable on its face.
Of course compassion and empathy are foreign words to the rogues gallery discuss above, none of whom have ever taught in their lives. Well, with the exceptions of Wendy Kopp and Michelle Malkin — I mean, Michele Bachmann, er, — I mean Michelle Rhee (sorry it's so easy to confuse those three). Rhee is so devoid of empathy and compassion that one of the most enduring stories from her short stint as a TFA missionary is when she taped her students mouths shut with masking tape and then walked them to the lunchroom, bleeding lips and all. Kopp is seemingly less of a sociopath than Rhee, but it's clear her passion for fame and fortune outweigh any compassion she might have once had.
Access To Books
The other thing reactionary Shapiro gets entirely wrong before employing the hackneyed "soft bigotry of low expectations" nonsense, was to dismiss the Children's Television Workshop's catering to children that "did not have reading literature in the house." Access to books in the home is a major indicator of academic achievement and impoverished families have very limited access to books. This is a fact, and not something to be dismissed by a sniveling right winger threatening to "take them [Elmo and Big Bird] out back and cap them."
Another one of my Schools Matter colleagues, the distinguished Professor Stephen Krashen, PhD, has researched and written extensively on the subject of access to books. Here are a small sampling of his available short articles linking to longer works on the subject.
Given the staunch anti-intellectualism, lack of knowledge about all thing pedagogical, and academic aversion that whiny right wingers like Shapiro are known for, it's no wonder that he didn't get the whole importance of providing additional educational resources for children that "did not have reading literature in the house" like the prescient folks at Children's Television Workshop always have.
"True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity." [3]
Now that we're discussing these things, let's talk about the stark racism and classism stemming from the corporate education reform movement, which is orchestrated by the same plutocrats that aired Shapiro's television program. After all, those are the sort of things that vacuous phrases like "soft bigotry of low expectations" are supposed to distract us from.
NOTES
[1] Heartland Institute is none other than Parent Revolution's sister organization. Word is that in addition to co-hosting school privatization forums that Ben Austin and Ben Boychuck formulate policy together.
[2] Chomsky, Noam. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, Second Edition. New York: Seven Stories Press., 1991. pp. 25-26.
[3] Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., 2009. p. 45.
Network for Public Education (NPE) is helping to support California Senate Bill 808. The legislation, while it doesn't go far enough, is an important first step towards reeling in the outrageous excesses of the charter school sector. My letter to my State Senator appears below, as well as the call to action letter from NPE.
Senator de Leon:
I am a third year law student, studying hard so that I can become an attorney and defend families of children with disabilities against discrimination by the lucrative charter school industry. Prior to my studying law, I wrote for numerous publications about the essentially unregulated charter sector, exposing abuses, fraud, misrepresentation, and more importantly, discriminatory conduct towards the most vulnerable students.
Charters discriminate against English language learners, students with disciplinary histories, students with disabilities, and more. Meanwhile, their high-powered executives—many of whom are not even educators—pull down astronomical salaries and use their ability as unregulated 501c3s to award no bid contracts to their friends, relatives, or in the case of a current Los Angeles School Board member, to their own consulting firm. Since members of the taxpaying public don't elect charter school boards, there exists a system that puts public money into private hands with no mechanisms to ensure even a modicum of transparency or oversight.
Furthermore, my alma mater, UCLA, has conducted several studies demonstrating that charter schools exacerbate segregation, and fuel the so-called "school to prison pipeline." A perusal of the studies compiled by UCLA's The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles would cause any reasonable person to realize that decades of letting the revenue-stream-driven charter school industry "regulate" itself has resulted in an abject situation.
Therefore, I'm asking you to please support SB 808. This bill would give California’s democratically elected, local school boards the final say when it comes to the approval of charter school petitions. The present system takes away community control, forcing districts to navigate reduced budgets and high legal costs for schools over which they have no authority.
Schools that receive public dollars must be responsible to the public. Thank you.
Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve (SLASD) General Assembly
Every month students, parents, and teachers of #StudentsDeserve gather to discuss and plan for the future of educational justice inside and outside our schools in Los Angeles. Considering the political state we are in, now more than ever we know that our grassroots work is important and necessary. For that reason, we invite YOU (students, parents, and teachers) to our General Assembly THIS THURSDAY. Come hear about the work that students and parents are building!
Bring a fellow parent and/or student to our General Assembly to learn about the fight for the Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve. Join us! Details in flyer attached below.
If you have any questions please email us at: lastudentsdeserve@gmail.com
First published on Schools Matter on June 1, 2016
“[Mike] Feinberg’s fumbling rhetoric and transparent body language cannot conceal the condescending corporate paternalism that is a defining characteristic of KIPP’s abusive corporate reform school testing camps.” — Professor James Horn
Dr. Horn's book just arrived in the mail. To read after my 2L year ends. @MismeasureOfEd #edreform pic.twitter.com/wIjpbBPGRI
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) April 6, 2016
Parent-Activist Karen Wolfe provides powerful testimony against corporate charter profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's scheme to make it easier for charters to occupy large portions of public schools. Her piece is available here.
Jeff Bryant announced this on another site:
Over the next few days Capital & Main, an independent news outlet in California, will be looking at charter school expansions in the state and their impact on school districts, teachers, and students. Given some of the sources involved in the reporting, this should be really good. See the kick-off here.
LAUSD Board Candidate Carl J. Petersen continues to expose the wrongdoing of Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS).
Teachers who are members of United Teachers of Richmond UTR and Vallejo Education Association joined with parents and supporters of public education in Richmond, California on May 28, 2016 to report on the continuing attack on public education through charters, testing and privatization.
There was also reports on the role of Ron Beller and the Caliber Charter Schools which wants to buy the Adams school site for $60,000.
Additional media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9n36VzQ14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWO_zxwxZQg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrmgFgfoFPw
Production of Labor Video Project
“"International Women’s Day was first designated as an official socialist holiday by the Copenhagen Conference of Socialist Women in 1910. In 1917 in Russia, a mass strike by women textile workers on International Women’s Day marked the beginning of what came to be known as the February Revolution."” — Haymarket Books A Woman’s Place is in the Revolution!
“In order to raise it above history, the nation is given the support of the race. History is viewed as the emanation of the race.” — Leon Trotsky
I am soliciting take out menu items for my parody of the racist restaurant chain. Feel free to contact me with menu item names and brief descriptions of what the dish contains. I have plenty of space remaining on the menu, and am sure that others can come up with more clever ones than I did.
The real life Pete Turner, owner of the restaurant chain with a hopelessly racist name, has refused to address genuine concerns that his ill conceived moniker fuels nativism and hatred. Dehumanizing others as means to market one's business is deplorable in the extreme.
As we see with the entire field of GOP presidential hopefuls, as well as with right-wing Democrats like Hillary Clinton, cashing in on fears by blaming immigrants for the economic crimes of our own 1% is a popular political tactic.
While mocking bigots like Turner provides some amusement, I suggest you join me in signing the M.E.Ch.A petition demanding the restaurant change its racist name.
Donald Trump's proposal is one that we as the Legalization for All Network (L4A) cannot and will not support. As fighters for immigrant rights across the country, we have asked many to respond to Donald Trump's costly and outrageous proposal.
And while the majority of our responses are against Donald Trump, we would also like to shine light on Republican Candidate and Governor of New York Chris Christie's recent proposal. Christie's immigration proposal promises to treat immigrants like FedEx packages, tracking them with bar-codes; instead of treating them with equality. These same 11+ million undocumented, and mixed-status immigrants are forced into migration by U.S.A. policies like NAFTA/CAFTA, or coups in places like Honduras.
Deporting all of the undocumented and bringing back only a few chosen ones or stalking them like FedEx property, is no solution for any immigrant.
"Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates call to overturn the right to citizenship for the children of immigrants echos the call made by Russel Pearce, author of the anti-immigrant Arizona SB1070. The same call to strip citizenship from the Nisei, the American-born children of Japanese immigrants during World War II, and also Chinese Americans who were targeted by the anti-Chinese movement in the 1870s and 1880s. This issue was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1898, in the case of the US vs. Wong Kim Ark, where the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment to the constitution meant what it said, that everyone born in the United States are citizens. The 14th Amendment was passed in 1868 to guarantee rights to African American slaves and their children, and to overturn the 1857 Dredd Scott vs. Sanford Supreme Court ruling that African slaves and their children had no rights to citizenship. By calling for the end of right to citizenship, Trump and other Republicans are in effect raising the banner of the Slave South. Just as we fought to ban the Confederate battle flag, we must fight Trump and others who want to take this country back 200 years. Masao Suzuki is a member of the San Jose Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) that organizes and educates around World War II concentration camps for Japanese Americans."
- Masao Suzuki Economics professor at Skyline College. San Jose, California
"Donald trump promueve el odio y el racismo, y contra ese tipo de personas no se puede utilizar la razon, hay que derrotarlos con la organizacion y la mobilizacion. Como latino hoy mas que nunca debemos luchar por la legalizacion de todos nuestros herman@s indocumentados, Legalizacion para todos ahora."
- Edward C Tolentino, activist. Tucson, AZ
"Since Trump announced he would be running for President, the Latino community has become Trump's obsessive target for discrimination and hate-speech. As a consequence we immigrants have to deal with this continued attitude of disrespect and hate. In stores we are treated with a disrespectful attitude. As mothers, we are getting sued for not being able to pay our medical bills after giving birth. We are getting mistreated and taken advantage of at our work-places, and our kids continue to experience discrimination at their schools. Regardless of our citizenship status, we as immigrants will continue to feel repression if Trump wins. Trump's plans promise to continue targeting us as immigrants - and myself as a Mexican immigrant- but we are only becoming wiser and stronger. And we will fight back!"
- Citlalli Martinez, undocumented mother of two. South Carolina
In the beginning of his "Presidential Campaign", Donaldo attacked the Mexican people. My tíos y tias. Mis primos. Mis abuelos y mi padre. Calling them rapist and violent when I've know them for all my life and those two things don't describe them. Words like loving, honest and trabajadores come to mind when I think of them and the Mexican people. But now, Donaldo has attacked me and the Chicano Nation of Aztlán! He threatens to take our citizenship but what he does not understand that even before the 14th amendment and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and even before the Spanish conquest and inquisition, the Chicanos people have been here! Out blood, sweat and tears are engraved in this land. So go ahead Donaldo, try to take our citizenship away, pero no llores when the Chicano Nation comes to take yours!"
- Bryan Orozco, activist. Tucson, Az
"What we are seeing here is straight up racism. These people, Trump, Walker, Bush, and those who follow them, claim to be very patriotic. They stand to 'defend America from foreigners'. In reality, they just hate people of color, specifically Latinos, with a flaming passion, with no real education on who we are. These people need to turn off CNN and get to know their gardeners, maids, janitors, and the people who prepare their damn food. I'm not going to reduce my people to just those positions, cause we are everywhere. We are teachers, scientists, and doctors. This country doesn't run without us. People like Donald Trump live in their own little world. They're more scared of us, then we are scared of them. Remember, we are everywhere. Try to deport us all, and you will have a revolution on your hands. We Latinos can do anything we put our minds to. There's a Mexican proverb that says 'They tried to bury us, but didn't know we were seeds.'. Also, while we are talking about stripping citizenship from immigrants, have you renewed your passport yet, Mr. Bush? "
- Adrian Romero, Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. Salt Lake City, UT
"Not only is this plan unrealistic, it's is in humane. Trump's slogan is "Make America Great Again", but who is he trying to make America great for when immigrants are the backbone and powerhouse that runs this country everyday? He cannot deport 11 million people!"
- Maria Belen Sisa, DACAmented student, worker and activist. Gilbert, AZ
"Trump's racist comments against Mexican immigrants are another of the ongoing attacks on our community. These attacks usually intensify during elections and economic crisis. We are all united in denouncing these racists attacks; especially now since the other Republican presidential candidates are taking them up. Lets stand strong in our fight for legalization for all!"
- Carlos M. Montes, Brown Berets Co-founder and Board Member of Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council. Boyle Heights, Los Angeles
"Trump's plan to deport all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is inhumane and won't happen. This country needs the labor of those immigrants and they are humans that have to be treated with equal respect. His massive deportation plan will lose him the Latino vote. However if he somehow wins the presidency, immigrant rights organizations across the country will stand up and resist any massive deportations."
- Oscar Hernandez student and immigrant rights community organizer with YES!. Milwaukee, WI
From the August 24, 2015 issue of Update
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is leading an effort to expand the number of charter schools in LAUSD. The Broads are being joined by the Walton Family and the Keck Foundations, among others. The expansion of charter schools is supposed to decrease the number of children attending what the charter industry calls failing schools or those with lower test scores. The aim is to get at least 50% of these children in the privately-run charter schools which could potentially be located on District sites. LAUSD already has about 100,000 students attending charter schools, more than any other school district in the country. In an email to LA School Report, the officials from the Broad Foundation wrote, “Too many of our school children still aren’t getting the quality of education they deserve, which is why tens of thousands of students are currently on public charter school waiting lists. We are in the early stages of exploring a variety of ideas about how to help give all families—especially in low-income communities of color—access to high- quality public schools and what we and others in the philanthropic community can do to increase access to a great public school for every child in Los Angeles.”
Officials from charter organizations, such as ICEF and Green Dot, are, understandably ecstatic about the proposal as it will generate more dollars for their programs. The foundations could provide funding for early administrative costs of new charters and for teacher training. Board Member Mónica Garcia said she is open to the foundations’ plans and says that her district could benefit from additional charter schools. However, not everyone is happy about this expansion. Because charter school teachers are not unionized, UTLA is not supportive of these independent schools and feels that input of teachers is disregarded. In a call to members, Alex Caputo-Pearl, UTLA President, vowed to fight the plans of the foundations, saying they are “out to destroy collective bargaining.” Board President Steve Zimmer is concerned that the charter schools will continue to be selective about who they enroll, leaving those students who require more specialized services and resources at the District schools. A mass exodus of students to charters will also severely decrease state and federal funding for the traditional schools.
As has been noted before, Eli Broad, the Waltons and other billionaires have been active in LAUSD politics for many years and have supported controversial efforts for reform. Financial resources have been provided candidates for the Board of Education that AALA has not supported and who have been strongly procharter. It should also be noted that Dr. John Deasy, former LAUSD Superintendent, was a graduate of the Broad Superintendent Academy and is now the Superintendent-in-Residence for the Broad Center. In fact, it has been reported that Eli Broad said that John Deasy was the best Los Angeles superintendent in memory. That, in and of itself, should give us all a reason to pause and look at this expansion plan with a critical eye.
Instituto de Padres / Parent Institute
Saturday, July 18, 2015
12:00 to 4:00PM
3303 Wilshire Blvd., 8th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Instituto de Padres / Parent Institute by Robert D. Skeels
[The Education Trust-West] and many of the cited sources in the [20]14-15 ETW/LAUSD Case Study are noted School [R]eformers aligned with Secretary Duncan, the Broad/Gates/Waltons — and the then superintendent John Deasy — whose [Local Control Accountability Plan] LCAP this was. The Walton Foundation is thanked for their support. — Scott M. Folsom (4LAKids)
The Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC) and their billionaire backers saw Governor Brown's wrongheaded Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) proposals as a "double-play" against public education. On the one hand elimination of categorical funding would further expose the most vulnerable (e.g. Students With Disabilities—(SWD)) to inequitable funding at the whim of those controlling the LCFF/LCAP process, on the other it would further the designs of those wanting to destroy the public commons as per the Andy Smarick roadmap.
The NPIC drove the entire Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) LCFF/LCAP process. Authentic community, family, and educator voices were drowned out by a cacophony of corporate voices in the guise of "engagement" that only the well-funded NPIC can wield. The United Way of Greater Los Angeles (UWGLA), and its smaller NPIC allies like Community Coalition, and their man in LAUSD—Eli Broad trained Superintendent John Deasy, controlled the LAUSD LCFF/LCAP process from start to finish, with a blitzkrieg series of forums, surveys, public relations, and more. However, no one should be surprised that Community Coalition is now the front group suing the district on behalf of their funders. That's how to create a crisis part of neoliberalism, so well described by Naomi Klein, works.
The activists behind the Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve (SLASD) movement have organized an Instituto de Padres / Parent Institute forum to train authentic parent and community leaders to advocate for students in their communities. Here's an excerpt from a note sent to me by a parent leader discussing the event:
I urge you to encourage adult student leaders in the community to learn about the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). We are having a Parent Institute on Saturday, July 18th. Please see attached flyers in English and Spanish. Khallid Al-Alim, LAUSD parent activist, will explain this budget process. It is crucial that we understand this, if we are to effectively push back against the NPIC that you so clearly describe.
Is Social Justice Law School for you?
Ever consider wielding our oppressors’ weapons against them?
If you’re a social justice minded person in Los Angeles, with at least two years of college credit, consider Peoples College of Law (PCL). PCL offers a four-year evening Juris Doctor program to accommodate working students. Successful completion of the Juris Doctor (J.D.) program provides qualification to sit for the California State Bar exam. From their site:
Our recruitment and admissions policies are strongly directed toward socio-politically conscious Native American, Asian Pacific Islander, African-American/Black and Latina/o students. Our goal is to have a student body that is at least half women and two/thirds Third World People. Peoples College of Law affirmatively recruits LGBT applicants.
From the May 18, 2015 issue of Update
Bain v. CTA is the latest lawsuit to be filed against teacher unions specifically, but public employee unions in general. This lawsuit has been brought forward by StudentsFirst, the organization founded by former Washington, D.C., schools' chancellor Michelle Rhee, on behalf of four public school teachers. Named in the lawsuit are not only CTA, but UTLA, NEA, CFT, AFT, United Teachers of Richmond and various school superintendents. The plaintiffs (teachers from Los Angeles, West Contra Costa and Arcadia unified school districts) are challenging the law that allows unions to call them nonmembers because they only pay the agency fee. Those who only pay the agency fee exempt themselves from the political activities of the union, but also from some of the perks of membership such as voting on the contract, representation during conferences, extra insurance, etc. Bain and the other teachers in the suit say that it is unfair and unconstitutional (violates their free speech) for them to be denied any benefits of membership as a result of their decision to pay a reduced amount in union dues. In essence, they want to be able to both opt out of full membership in the union and pay significantly reduced dues, yet be able to vote for union officers and participate in other decision-making activities, which union rules currently prohibit.
Antiunion groups have been arguing for years that unions violate workers' First Amendment rights by charging dues. However, the question in this case is not that teachers can opt out of membership and pay a reduced amount of dues, but what benefits members and nonmembers receive from the union. Moshe Z. Marvit, a Philadelphia labor and civil rights attorney and Century Foundation Fellow, says that it is a strange First Amendment argument, that "...you should still have the right to vote in an organization that you don't want to be a part of...It is a strange irony of this case that the plaintiffs readily admit the myriad benefits that come with union membership, but argue that it is unfair to require them to be members of the union to get those benefits."
StudentsFirst, which is financially backing the suit, is funded by a virtual who's who of billionaires and right-wing education reform foundations that include the Walton Family Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hedge-fund managers David Tepper and Alan Fournier, Charter Schools USA and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Attorney Marvit concludes, "...this case...is litigation funded and promoted by antiunion groups that is part of a general strategy to defund unions, destroy solidarity and erase the benefits of union membership..."
I'm a died-in-the-wool David Gilmour fan, but have mad respect for Roger Waters' principled stand on #Palestine! http://t.co/LQNURpVK9k #BDS
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) May 15, 2015
Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve (SLASD) General Assembly
Thursday, May 21, 2015
4:30-6:30PM
St. Marks Lutheran Church
3651 South Vermont Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90007
(2 blocks north of the Expo line's Vermont station)
Final General Assembly of the school year. This year we have accomplished so much!
At our General Assembly, we'll be assessing our work this year, and planning for our work over the Summer and next Fall to hit the ground running!
Please join us!
.jpg "Rally against the cuts to Adult Education, Early Education, School Nurses, and Counselors")
All the Pieces Matter
Join us at LAUSD headquarters on Beaudry next Tuesday, May 12, for UTLA's "All the Pieces Matter!" rally against the RIFs. Come together and show support for our students and Adult Education, and other programs being cut such as Early Education, and counselors. As educators, we are all an important piece in the fight for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve: Parent-enriched Early Education to K-12 to Adult Ed to every classroom to Health and Human Services.
Featuring an analysis of education, policy and practice affecting our public schools.
KPFK 90.7 FM
KPFK's Politics or Pedagogy? with John Cromshow
Tuesday, April 28
7:00 PM
Call in number: (818) 985-5735
TOPIC:
Money, education and the school board race. Case in point, LAUSD District 5. It takes money to run a political campaign - lots of it - even for something as basic to education as a school board race.
GUESTS — PRERECORDED:
Bennett Kayser (LAUSD School Board), 10-minute Q & A
Scott Folsom (4LAKIDS), Money, the School Board Race and more
Roger Wagner, Ph.D. (Servant Leadership)
GUESTS — IN-STUDIO:
Andrew Thomas, Ph.D. (District 5 candidate in the 2015 Primary)
PANELISTS:
Lisa Karahalios (LAUSD Teacher)
Plus a Kayser Campaign Staffer
TO: Campaign Managers, LAUSD School Board, District 5
FROM: John Cromshow, KPFK, Politics or pedagogy?
RE: INVITATION Candidates Forum Participation
DATE: Tuesday, April 21, 2015
To confirm our conversation regarding the Candidates' On-Air Forum:
Call in number: (818) 985-5735
