Advocating Public Education Roundup 10W17 - No School Closures

The Animo Social Justice (?) Charter is closing for no other reason than Green Dot cannot show a return on their financial investment. Skeels' - a very adept freelance forensic accountant - questioning of Petruzzi's "We don't have a rich guy...." is right on. It shows that Green Dot's rich guys are putting their eggs in more lucrative baskets - like another Green Dot school on the Westside. [Read the Billionaires Boys Club chapter in Diane Ravitch's The Death and Life of the Great American School System] — Scott M. Folsom (4LAKids)

I had a bunch of article deadlines recently, so I was very glad to see Caroline Grannan hold down the fort here with some really excellent articles and commentary. This roundup will focus on the articles pertaining to local school closures and the struggles to prevent those neoliberal "solutions."

As part of my ongoing campaign of shameless self promotion, I'll mention my articles first. In Taking on a charter school closing I cover the struggle for justice by the Ánimo Justice students against their capricious cash conscious corporate CMO. The previous piece was published the day of the big community forum on school closures and the historic march of the Ánimo Justice community all the way to Green Dot Public Schools' headquarters in luxurious World Trade Center building downtown. My write up of those two events appears in South Central protests school closures.

Jose Lara 0106 Video Blog [Fremont Reconstitution]


[Click if you can't view the video]

I really like what that one guy is saying at the 1:40 mark, especially his stance on taxing the rich.

The last article I was tied up with was about one of the most pernicious advocates of school closures and hostile take-overs by corporate charters, none other than poverty pimp and chief privatization cheerleader, Ben Austin. My exposé Political Patronage for Green Dot Public Schools’ Chief Propagandist tears the ugly mask off the hideous face of this repugnant and reprehensible privatizer.

Other coverage of these topics

Kevin Douglas Grant, senior editor of Neon Tommy wrote an excellent report about the forum in Two South LA High Schools Combine Efforts As They Fight To Save Themselves.

Scott M. Folsom liked my South Central protests school closures piece so much, he reprinted it with an introduction and some very cogent commentary following on his high profile blog 4LAKids under the title Fremont High, Ánimo/Green Dot Social Justice Charter, Menlo Adult School: SOUTH CENTRAL PROTESTS SCHOOL CLOSURES + smf’s 3¢.

Two more pieces that address the Ánimo Justice tragedy. Mike Klonsky has a good write up in It's hard to lose something you were so involved and invested in. He's actually spoken to Steve Barr and also has some great quotes from students and other people. Fred Klonsky discussed the sit-ins back in March in Green Dot's Animo Justice Charter shutting down. Students are sitting in.

José's thoughts on Fremont

I found this statement about Fremont HS so profound, I had to reprint it here.

"I am in support of the teachers of Fremont because I am tired of untested education reform fads." There is absolutely NO creditable evidence that reconstitution, a process of firing all the teachers and making them reapply for their jobs, has a positive effect on the education of the students that attend that same school. I am in support of the teachers of Fremont because I am tired of untested education reform fads that do nothing to improve the education of our students, but instead threaten, intimidate, and blame the teachers for systematic problems in education created by years of neglect by LAUSD. The reality is that the reconstitution of Fremont is less about reform and more about threatening teachers into accepting untried reforms based solely on high-stakes testing that cut our contractual rights and use our students as guinea pigs for educational experience. Like with all bullies, we must stand up to the LAUSD superintendent. If we do not stop this threatening bully now, all our schools will be next. I encourage everyone to get involved with the struggle against the reconstitution of Fremont because only united, will we win! — Jose Lara (Santee Education Complex HS)

While Fremont is foremost in our minds, we also should be supporting the community at Lincoln HS, where the conniving LAUSD President Monica Garcia has schemed with some scabs including Beth Kennedy and Scott Petri to reconstitute one of the school's SLC via a loophole in the Pilot MOU. This type of class collaboration with our oppressors is unfortunate and reeks of the highest sort of opportunism outside of the realm of the privatizers.

More right wing mendacity on Ánimo Justice

Going back to the Ánimo Justice coverage. Even the mainstream press, normally sycophantic in the extreme to Green Dot Public [sic] Schools, were fairly neutral in their reporting. For a change they didn't use the occasion to cheerlead school privatization.

However, on the extreme reactionary realm of Reason, champion of Freidman's failed free market fantasies and bastion of the throughly discredited Austrian School of economics, Randite Lisa Snell [1] tries (like all ed-(de)reformers) to spin the closure in a positive light. However, her assertions, like her politics, fall flat on their face.

Snell, who is woefully uninformed on education issues to begin with, falls for reprinting Green Dot's press release in the Los Angeles Times without fact checking:

Closing Animo Justice makes sense because it has not equaled other Green Dot schools in performance... Petruzzi said. [2]

Of course Randite Snell is merely quoting Howard Blume's article which didn't vet information. However, had Snell taken the time to put aside Atlas Shrugged long enough to fact check her regurgitation of falsehoods she would have realized Ánimo Justice Charter High School actually outperforms three other, or 20% of Green Dot's local campuses. In other words, Ánimo Justice isn't even in the bottom quintile of Green Dot's perpetual bottom dwellers in terms of performance.

This coupled with Marco Petruzzi's other huge lie to the Ánimo Justice community:

We have no money. We're a nonprofit. We don't have a rich guy that gives us extra. — Marco Petruzzi

Of course they don't have "a rich guy," they have dozens! Maybe pathological liar Petruzzi used this slight nuance as a way to rationalize not counting the millions upon millions of dollars heaped on Green Dot by billionaires and their foundations including the Walton Foundation, Eli and Edythe Broad, Bill and Melinda Gates, Reed Hastings of Netflix, Donald Fisher of the Gap, and many others.

While we all know there is no honor among businessmen, lies of this magnitude do speak volumes to the type of people running charter-voucher schools. Petruzzi, Burton, Ponce, and all the other corporate vultures like Wallace, will go to any length to keep the money flowing in. Sadly, children and communities lose every time a charter-voucher school displaces a public school. The degree of mendacity and malfeasance these corporate charter-voucher school executives exhibit is nothing short of astonishing.

There has already been news that Green Dot is planning on opening two more charter-voucher schools, further proving that the entire Ánimo Justice incident is all about the money.

Jose Lara 0105 Video Blog [Animo Justice]


[Click if you can't view the video]

Be sure to visit Jose Lara's Video Blog

-----
NOTES

[1] http://reason.org/blog/show/green-dot-to-close-underperforming
It wouldn't be surprising if Poverty Pimps Gabe Rose, Shirley Ford and Ben Austin turned out to be huge fans of Lisa Snell, they all share the same extreme right wing economic views. After all, the former both quote AEI, Cato, Hoover, Hudson, and other discredited right wing "think" tanks and actually talk about competition and markets as if they're a good thing!

[2] http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-greendot23-2010mar23,0,1323354.story

I wanted to sneak this tidbit in: the 2006 Green Dot Educational Project 990 lists Marco Petruzzi’s insatiable former school privatization profiteering outfit — R3 School Solutions — as having raked in $141,500 of the public’s money via the Green Dot cash cow. Another win for the kids. Putting kids first. A kids centered agenda. No adult agendas here whatsoever.

Advocating Public Education Roundup 10W17 - No School Closures

The private sector rewards only true merit — not!

Blaming teachers is the current hottest fad in “education reform,” and the sub-fad is pronouncing that getting rid of “bad teachers” would magically solve all our problems.

Of course there are some truly problematic teachers who shouldn’t be teaching at all, so let’s note that right off the bat. But what I’m addressing here is the frequently repeated claim that the private sector just efficiently gets rid of the bad and rewards the good and doesn’t have these problems. A parent posted the comment below on one of our local education listserves here in San Francisco, in response to one of those claims. I’m reposting it anonymously with her permission.

I have to chime in about the supposed efficiencies of the private sector. My husband works for a large corporation that, like so many, first underwent "extreme hiring" during the boom and then underwent massive layoffs.

If the private sector was so good at weeding those who perform poorly from those
who do well, you'd think only the best and the brightest would be left, but that isn't true. Certainly he works with a lot of great people, but there is still deadwood, including a couple in management. Usually these are people who talk a good line (and so might be best used in sales, to be honest), but never turn in their piece of the project on time.

Here’s my own view. My background in a private-sector industry is in unionized daily newspapers. Our pay scale was based on seniority, from <1 year to >6 years, and then negotiated raises in the contract. "Overscale" pay could be and was awarded on an individually negotiated basis — the equivalent of merit pay, of course.

The universal belief among my colleagues was that overscale was awarded when an employee was in a specific position to leverage management — for example, I made some due to taking on an unappealing position that nobody wanted, in an emergency — or to employees who were particularly aggressive and skilled at negotiating.

There was not a shred of belief in our newsroom that overscale was awarded based on actual pure merit.

I still sometimes see the byline of a former co-worker who was barely functional doing the actual job (reporting, writing, editing) but who was always charming, persuasive and winning, and gave great meeting. That colleague moved up from my former workplace, the San Jose Mercury News, to one of the names you would immediately mention if you were asked to name the nation’s top three or four newpapers.

I’m not sure where the people who believe that the private sector is so great and successful at rewarding the good and weeding out the bad have been working, but I’m not completely convinced it’s on Planet Earth.

— Caroline Grannan, San Francisco

The private sector rewards only true merit — not!

Time to pressure Rep. George Miller : revoke NCLB

Noted education commentator and author Diane Ravitch was in my part of the state, the San Francisco Bay Area, last week, urging Bay Area residents to launch a protest campaign to pressure our own Rep. George Miller to stop defending the No Child Left Behind law — which is based on (as Ravitch says) "measure and punish."

Miller co-sponsored the original law, but I asked her Ravitch there's any reason to pressure him at this point. She explained that he can control reauthorization of the law, and that Nancy Pelosi and the House Education Committee do what he wants. Miller’s district is in the East Bay, and he has offices in Richmond, Concord and Vallejo. Contact info at the end of this post.

I'm posting a string of quotes from Ravitch — both from her book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" and from commentaries by her and interviews with her — to clarify why No Child Left Behind should be viewed as harming schools and even as a threat to the future of public education.

Quotes:

As 2014 draws nearer, growing numbers of schools across the nation are approaching an abyss. Because NCLB requires states to promise that they will reach an impossible goal, the states have adopted timetables agreeing to do what they can't do, no matter how hard teachers and principals try. Most have stretched out the timetable — putting off the biggest gains for the future — to stave off their inevitable failure. The school officials who wrote the timetables in the early years of implementation must have hoped or expected that they would be retired and gone long before 2014 arrived. With every passing year that brought the target date closer, more and more public schools failed to make AYP and were labeled as "failing." Even though some states lowered the cut scores (or passing marks) on their tests to make it easier for schools to meet their target, many still failed to make AYP toward 100 percent proficiency for every subgroup. And in states that maintained high standards and did not lower the cut scores, even more schools fell behind.

***

One of the unintended consequences of NCLB was the shrinkage of time available to teach anything other than reading and math. Other subjects, including history, science, the arts, geography, even recess, were curtailed in many schools. Reading and mathematics were the only subjects that counted in calculating a school's adequate yearly progress, and even in these subjects, instruction gave way to intensive test preparation. Test scores became an obsession. Many school districts invested heavily in test-preparation materials and activities. Test-taking skills and strategies took precedence over knowledge. Teachers used the tests from previous years to prepare their students, and many of the questions appeared in precisely the same format every year; sometimes the exact same questions reappeared on the state tests. In urban schools, where there are many low-performing students, drill and practice became a significant part of the daily routine.

***

NCLB was a punitive law based on erroneous assumptions about how to improve schools. It assumed that reporting test scores to the public would be an effective lever for school reform. It assumed that changes in governance would lead to school improvement. It assumed that shaming schools that were unable to lift test scores every year — and the people who work in them — would lead to higher scores. It assumed that low scores are caused by lazy teachers and lazy principals, who need to be threatened with the loss of their jobs. Perhaps most naively, it assumed that higher test scores on standardized tests of basic skills are synonymous with good education. Its assumptions were wrong. Testing is not a substitute for curriculum and instruction. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools.

***

In the NCLB era, when the ultimate penalty for a low-performing school was to close it, punitive accountability achieved a certain luster, at least among the media and politicians. Politicians and non-educator superintendents boasted of how many schools they had shuttered. Their boasts won them headlines for "getting tough" and cracking down on bad schools. But closing down a school is punitive accountability, which should happen only in the most extreme cases, when a school is beyond help. Closing schools should be considered a last step and a rare one. It disrupts lives and communities, especially those of children and their families. It destroys established institutions, in the hope that something better is likely to arise out of the ashes of the old, now-defunct school. It accelerates a sense of transiency and impermanence, while dismissing the values of continuity and tradition, which children, families, and communities need as anchors in their lives. It teaches students that institutions and adults they once trusted can be tossed aside like squeezed lemons, and that data of questionable validity can be deployed to ruin people's lives.

***

Tests are necessary and helpful. But tests must be supplemented by human judgment. When we define what matters in education only by what we can measure, we are in serious trouble. When that happens, we tend to forget that schools are responsible for shaping character, developing sound minds in healthy bodies (mens sana in corpore sano), and forming citizens for our democracy, not just for teaching basic skills. We even forget to reflect on what we mean when we speak of a good education. Surely we have more in mind than just bare literacy and numeracy. And when we use the results of tests, with all their limitations, as a routine means to fire educators, hand out bonuses, and close schools, then we distort the purpose of schooling altogether.

***

Results from this multibillion-dollar undertaking have been disappointing. Gains in achievement have been meager, as we have seen not only on NAEP's long-term-trend report, but also on the NAEP tests that are administered every other year. In national assessments since the No Child Left Behind legislation was passed, 4th grade reading scores went up by 3 points, about the same as in the years preceding the law's enactment. In 8th grade reading, there have been no gains since 1998. In mathematics, the gains were larger before NCLB in both 4th grade and 8th grade.

***

In the latest international assessment of mathematics and science, released this past December, U.S. students again scored well behind students in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Taipei. Our 4th grade and 8th grade students recorded small improvements in mathematics, but not in science, where those in both grades scored lower than in years predating No Child Left Behind.

The decline of 8th grade test scores in science from 2003 to 2007 demonstrates the consequences of ignoring everything but reading and mathematics. Because NCLB counts only those basic skills, it has necessarily reduced attention to such non-tested subjects as science, history, civics, the arts, and geography.

***

(NCLB) has encouraged the states to dumb down the standards by saying that every state would have its own definition of proficiency, every state would use its own test, by setting a deadline of 2014—which is totally unrealistic—by which all students are supposed to be proficient, and then having very onerous sanctions for schools that are unable to meet this completely unrealistic deadline. It's meant that everyone is encouraged to find ways to produce the numbers, and one thing we know from the market sector is that when the numbers are what counts, people meet the numbers, even though they sacrifice the goals of the organization. What we're doing instead of producing well-educated people is producing the numbers. The gains since No Child Left Behind was adopted are smaller than before No Child Left Behind was adopted.

***

The basic strategy is measuring and punishing. And it turns out that as a result of putting so much emphasis on the test scores, there's a lot of cheating going on; there's a lot of gaming the system. Instead of raising standards, it's actually lowered standards because many states have dumbed down their tests, or changed the scoring of the tests, to say that more kids are passing than actually are.

There are states that say that 80 to 90 percent of their children are proficient readers and proficient in math. But when the national test is given, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the same state will have not 90 percent proficient, but 25 or 30 percent.

***

The Obama education reform plan is an aggressive version of the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind, under which many schools have narrowed their curriculum to the tested subjects of reading and math. This poor substitute for a well-rounded education, which includes subjects such as the arts, history, geography, civics, science and foreign language, hits low-income children the hardest, since they are the most likely to attend the kind of "failing school" that drills kids relentlessly on the basics. Emphasis on test scores already compels teachers to focus on test preparation. Holding teachers personally and exclusively accountable for test scores — a key feature of Race to the Top — will make this situation even worse. Test scores will determine salary, tenure, bonuses and sanctions, as teachers and schools compete with each other, survival-of-the-fittest style.

e-mail Miller via a form here:

http://georgemiller.house.gov/contactus/

U.S. Mail

Hon. George Miller
2205 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Phones:
202-225-2095 (D.C.)
925-602-1880 (Concord)
510-262-6500 (Richmond)

707-645-1888 (Vallejo)

Or contact him through Facebook (the one with the picture of him that says “Local Business”).

— Caroline Grannan,
San Francisco public school parent and advocate

Time to pressure Rep. George Miller : revoke NCLB

Bloomberg and Klein's "Choice and Charter" scheme exposed for what it is -- Jim Crow

Letting billionaires make decisions for us and re-instituting segregation isn't choice...



[Click if you can't view the video]

'In the long run, charter schools are being strategically used to pave the way for vouchers. The voucher advocates, who are very powerful and funded by right-wing foundations and families, recognize that the word voucher has been successfully discredited by enlightened Americans who believe in the public sector. So they've resorted to two strategies. First, they no longer use the word "vouchers." They've adopted the seemingly benign phrase "school choice," but they are still voucher advocates.' — Jonathan Kozol

Bloomberg and Klein's "Choice and Charter" scheme exposed for what it is -- Jim Crow

¡La Marcha Unido! Ven con nosotros a Primero de Mayo

Given the scale and viciousness of attacks on immigrants in particular under Janet Napolitano, and attacks in general on workers under the current administration, making this the largest International Workers Day march is beyond imperative. May Day is our day! Workers' rights and immigrant rights are one and the same! We demand full legalization for all, an end to the racist I.C.E. raids under Napolitano, no exploitative and racist "guest worker/bracero" programs to make the bosses richer, and for the right to organize at every workplace (ie. EFCA).

The SCIC has joined with other immigrant rights groups to announce the unified march this year. Here's footage of the press conference in which this historic announcement occured.



[Click if you can't view the video]



[Click if you can't view the video]

¡La Marcha Unido! Ven con nosotros a Primero de Mayo

Is firing bad teachers really the key to fixing education?

Education historian/commentator Diane Ravitch points out that the states with non-union teachers (who thus have little or no job security) tend to have lower
academic achievement than the states with strong teachers' unions.

That should put to rest the myth that bad teachers with ironclad job security are the cause of the challenges facing public education.

As Ravitch adds, the state reported to have the consistently highest academic achievement is Massachusetts — a strong union state. (It’s also widely called "Taxachusetts" by the right — could there be a connection?)

Ravitch emphasizes that she's not necessarily saying that unionization and job
security lead to higher academic achievement, but the facts show that unionization and job security clearly don't work against higher academic achievement. They are correlated.

I thought it was worth looking for some data. But not officially being a statistician, I wasn’t really sure of the best measure of state-by-state academic achievement.

So I decided to look at one measure that interests me. That's the list of "cut scores" for National Merit semifinalists. National Merit recognition is based on
the PSAT scores of 11th-graders. The cut score for recognition varies from state
to state. That's explained this way on Wikipedia:

The minimum Selection Index for recognition as a Semifinalist is set by the NMSC [National Merit Scholarship Corporation] in each state at whatever score yields about the 99th percentile.

The organization FairTest has posted a list of the cut scores for the high school graduating class of 2010, which range from 201 (Wyoming) to 221 (Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey). California's is 218.

The National Right to Work Legal Foundation posts a list of Right-to-Work states (which don't allow workplaces to require union membership, meaning unions are toothless) and what the Foundation calls Force Unionism states. I took those lists, added each state’s Class of 2010 National Merit cut scores and averaged.

The results:
Right-to-Work states: average cut score 208.4545
Forced Unionism states: average cut score 213.6897

That result seems to show that unionized teachers correlate with higher academic achievement, and non-union teachers correlate with lower academic achievement.

If I’m missing confounding factors, I can’t see what they would be. It's true that not all 11th-graders take the PSAT, and the culture probably varies state by state as to whether taking the PSAT is more widely encouraged or less. But that wouldn’t seem to confound the basic finding.

By the way, the lowest-cut-score state — Wyoming at 201 — is a Right-to-Work state, and the three that are tied for highest — Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey — are strong labor states.

It seems conclusive: Teachers' job security — and, if you will, "forced unionism" — correlate with higher academic achievement.

— Caroline Grannan,
San Francisco public school parent and advocate

Is firing bad teachers really the key to fixing education?

Professor Ravitch was kind enough to pose in a photograph

"Race to the Top bribes States to do the wrong thing." — Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)



The Diane Ravitch event at UCLA was very well attended and an excellent occasion overall. Her hour long talk and the question and answer session with UCLA's Professor Mike Rose afterwards were engaging and informative. I will have a write up on the event soon, but have too many article deadlines beforehand. For now, I was fortunate enough get a photograph with the author during her book signing.

Dr. Ravitch was at UCLA to discuss her watershed new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Jim Horn, Ph.D. of the highly respected Schools Matter blog had this to say about the Ravitch tour:

Thanks to Ravitch, the truth has just gone mass market (most likely NYTimes Bestseller List), and nothing could be sweeter than the squirming among the corporate leeches and snake oil salesmen who have taken public education to the brink of destruction.

In A school is not a business Jeff Bale reviews Ravitch's new book that dismantles the justifications for George Bush's No Child Left Behind law and school privatization.

Professor Ravitch was kind enough to pose in a photograph

On April 17, 2010 Stand Up To The Nazis!

"[T]he collective neurosis of the petty bourgeoisie, its readiness to believe in miracles, its readiness for violent measures..." — Leon Trotsky



Virginia's Governor declaring April "Celebrate Chattel Slavery Month." Gubernatorial candidate and California Charter School Association (CCSA) founder Steve Poizner threatening to send the National Guard to the border. Textbooks in Texas now eschewing Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall in favor of renowned racist reactionaries like Newt Gingrich. Green Dot Public [sic] Schools and American Indian Public Charter School requiring "pledges" to capitalism. Teabaggers allowed to display open racism and homophobia towards members of Congress. Los Angeles Parents Union Parent Revolution's Ben Austin getting appointed to the California Board of Education by fellow Milton Freidman acolyte Arnold Schwarzenegger. DFER Charter-Voucher school cheerleader and hedge-fund manager Whitney Tilson being able to say things like "we need a lot more well-off, well-educated white folks" in public forums.

These are just a sample of recent incidents and current events. From them it's clear that despite small numbers, the fringe right has a great deal of momentum and power disproportionate to their size. During times of economic crises — like this great recession caused by Wall Street — politics are polarized. This means many people are beginning to draw the correct conclusions about our economic system and imperialism, and how it needs to be discarded. Sadly it also means there are some people drawn to right wing extremism. White supremacist groups including NSM, Stormfront, Teabagging, KKK, Neo-Nazis, and other reactionary right wing groups are actively recruiting and growing. Their vile hate speech allows politicians, media sources, and other right wingers just to the left of them to appear "reasonable" in comparison. This explains how a right-wing Democrat like Yolie Flores Aguilar, Inc. was able to lift and employ the dubious and infamous operative segregationist phrase "school choice" from the Jim Crow era, and then be heralded as a civil rights advocate by her fellow right of center DFER/DLC peers.

This is why it is so important to stamp out neo-fascistic movements wherever and whenever they appear. Join a multi-racial coalition this Saturday to send the Nazis back under the rock they crawled out from.

2010-04-14 Update - Press Conference Announced:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Linh Hua | 310-622-3511 | linh.hua.mail@gmail.com

Danielle Heck | 310-404-1739 | danielleheck@earthlink.net

WHO: Coalition of Community Activists, Students, Teachers, Community Members, and Labor and Religious Leaders

WHAT: THIS IS OUR CITY! Press Conference

WHERE: Los Angeles City Hall, South Side

WHEN: Thursday, April 15; 9:30am

WHY: SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE NEO-NAZI RALLY. WE SAY NO TO RACISM! WE SAY NO TO SCAPEGOATING! WE SAY NO TO HATE SPEECH! THIS IS OUR CITY!

WE DEMAND THAT MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA STAND WITH HIS CITY AND REVOKE THE PERMIT ALLOWING THE NEO-NAZIS TO RALLY AND RECRUIT IN OUR CITY!

An ad hoc coalition of community activists, students, teachers, community residents, and labor and religious leaders will gather on the South Side of Downtown City Hall tomorrow, THURSDAY, April 15th, to SPEAK OUT against the Neo-nazi rally and recruitment scheduled for Saturday, April 17th. Known formally as the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the Nazis call for a white-supremacist world order built fundamentally upon hate and violence against immigrants, Jews, non-whites, the LGTB (lesbian, gay, transsexual, bisexual) community, and what they call "pro-Marxist unions." They aim to "reclaim the Southwest" by attacking the cultural strength of Los Angeles. According to Adam Lerman, an organizer with the National Women's Rights Organizing Coalition (NWROC), one of several groups scheduled to speak at Thursday's press conference, "LA is the home of the great immigrant rights marches of 2006 and the new mass student movement of 2009/10. We will not allow the racist scum of the NSM to use our city as a launching point for a campaign of racist harassment, abuse, assault and murder. The NSM seeks to convince white youth that the best way to respond to the economic crisis, budget cuts and the increasing cost of higher education is to fight to strengthen white privilege. We stand for building an integrated, united struggle for increased resources, for greater educational opportunity for everyone, for equality."

The coalition demands that our representatives meet this serious attack on Los Angeles with serious action!! "History clearly shows that when good people fail to take Nazi rallies seriously, they and other neo-fascist groups grow ever stronger," warns James Lafferty, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild, L.A.

Given the dire economic conditions that we are currently facing, the city of Los Angeles must vigilantly stand against all incitement of hate and scapegoating. As local LA Unified teacher Bill Neal pointedly observes, "The truth is that mainstream politics fuels the hate that Nazis exploit... This problem can only be resolved by the voices of ordinary people rising above the callous blame game, the hopeless scapegoating, and violent hate, and building a grassroots alternative to the politics of despair."

We demand that our city representatives stand with us against Nazi terrorism. We demand that city revenue go towards education, jobs, healthcare, not police protection for Neo-Nazis. As Geri Silva, Executive Director of Families to Amend California's Three Strikes (FACTS) argues, "The more we find ourselves linked by our position outside the bounty of what society is offering, the more we find comfort with each other, the more we need and accept each other and conversely the less we will tolerate groups that espouse race hatred and white supremacy. Neo-Nazi groups have no rights that good people have to respect."

Mayor Villaraigosa, WE SAY NO TO RACISM! WE SAY NO TO SCAPEGOATING! WE SAY NO TO HATE SPEECH! THIS IS OUR CITY!!

Among those participating in this coalition to protest the Nazis are The Jewish Labor Committee--Western Region, Peace and Freedom Party, International Socialist Organization, National Womens Rights Organizing Coalition (NWROC), Librarians' Guild, Radical Women, the Southern California Immigration Coalition, Rev. Jay Atkinson, Minister Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City, T Santora, President, CWA 9000; riKu Matsuda--host of Flip the Script on KPFK, Union del Barrio, the Here to Stay Coalition; Sonia Bautista, President of REFORMA, L.A.; organizers from the March 4 student protests; the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN/LA); Marie Cartier, PhD at Cal State Northridge's Gender and Women Studies Department; Circulo Mictlanxiuhcoatl; the Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid, Southern California; AIDS activist J.T. Anderson; Thandisizwe Chimurenga of the Ida B. Wells Institute; the Arbeter Ring (Workmens Circle); and the Puerto Rican Alliance.

On April 17, 2010 Stand Up To The Nazis!

What would a real "Parent Revolution" look like?

...well it would at least be this critical of our reactionary millionaire Governor, whose refusal to tax corporations and the über-rich has placed their selfsame created financial crisis squarely on working class families.

Hot for Teachers w/ Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green from Megan Fox

[Click if you can't view the video]

This video is meant to be humorous, but the points it makes are cogent and real. While teacher and union bashing is all the rage with the elitist DFER/DLC/LAPU/PR jet-set, budget cuts are to blame all around here. What's more is that CMO charters exacerbate these problems, and so called "choice" is simply a way to re-segregate society, avoid teaching ELL and Special Needs Children, and let the rich further divide us. These aren't just the well documented conclusions the left has drawn — for a right of center analysis of these issues please read Diane Ravitch's watershed new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

TAX THE RICH! FIGHT BUDGET CUTS! STAND BY TEACHERS! EDUCATE EVERY CHILD!

What would a real "Parent Revolution" look like?

California's Number One Enemy of Public Education Nominated for the State Board of Education

CALL YOUR STATE SENATOR AND TELL THEM YOU VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE BEN AUSTIN AND ALAN ARKATOV'S STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION NOMINATIONS

Only Schwarzenegger would nominate a charter profiteer who has an open case (City Ethics Case # 2010-36) with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission to the SBE

The Beverly Hills Barrister, Ben Austin, showed his true colors once again when he refused to support the parents of Animo Justice — desperate for help regarding their now closing Green Dot school. Ben Austin's incredible mendacity is matched only by his epic opportunism. So much for corporate CMO charter "parent empowerment," when parents in his own organization needed Austin most, he did what he does best — looked out for himself and his own well heeled interests. We need to contact our State Senators and demand neither of these snake oil salesmen Ben Austin nor Alan Arkatov be confirmed. Both of these individuals have made a fortune at the public trough, neither have contributed to the public good. It's reprehensible and repugnant to see these slick opportunistic politicians have garnered nominations for such an important post.

SCHWARZENEGGER STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION APPOINTMENTS - MARCH 29 2010
L.A. charter school supporters Austin and Arkatov nominated to state school board

California's Number One Enemy of Public Education Nominated for the State Board of Education

¿Que queremos? ¡Justicia! ¿Cuando que queremos? ¡Ahora! Animo Justice community marches and descends on Green Dot Public [sic] Schools headquarters

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¿Que queremos? ¡Justicia! ¿Cuando que queremos? ¡Ahora! Animo Justice community marches and descends on Green Dot Public [sic] Schools headquarters

Open letter to Prof. Shaffer on Ánimo Justice - ¡Tenemos el Animo Pero No Justicia!

Green Dot promised us a quality education and a democratic school where our voice counts, so why is our school being shut down with no parent and student say?" — Animo Justice Parent

"Everything we do from now moving forward, will be to expose all of Green Dot's lies and everything they lied to us and to our parents." — Animo Justice Student

Ralph Shaffer is Professor Emeritus of History at Cal Poly Pomona. Prof. Shaffer has been writing the candidates for the State of California, Superintendent of Public Instruction trying desperately to get them to take action, or at the very least, a stand on Green Dot's monumental announcement to shutter Animo Justice. He is also trying to get the charter-voucher friendly press to write more honest stories on this front. In an effort to inform his inquiry and help him ask the most pointed questions possible, I sent him this open letter.

Prof. Shaffer:

Let me suggest any inquiry into Animo Justice take into consideration that it was the only school with sufficient ELL and Special Education resources, both in the Green Dot universe, and in that attendance boundary (Jefferson excepted). This is critical in understanding the gravity of the closure. All those I spoke to said Animo Justice had been a CMO "experiment" to prove that they could serve similar populations to public schools, while still paying astronomical salaries to their executives, and running schools in their trademark heavy handed top down fashion. It was going to serve as a bastion against corporate charter critics to say that they weren't "skimming," and could educate every child.

Sadly for the families and community Green Dot supposedly serves, the experiment effected Green Dot's profitability. Suddenly their much ballyhooed "kids centered agenda" was jettisoned for reasons solely tied to their bottom line — the hallmark of corporate CMO charters, their "raison d'être" so to speak. One would think that a CMO with such dismal Special Ed and ELL populations in the rest of their schools would find a way to keep Animo Justice going. As for Marco Petruzzi's assertion that Animo Justice was their worst performing school, another lie. That "distinction" belongs to Animo Watts II.

When Petruzzi's letter tells distraught parents that they will be able to transfer their children to Animo Ralph Bunche, he fails to mention the school doesn't have proper facilities for those ELL and Special Education students. He also failed to mention there aren't enough seats at Animo Ralph Bunche in general for all the students at Animo Justice. Parents and students found that out when they spoke to lesser Green Dot officials last week who held a informational meeting with the Animo Justice parents.

One of the student leaders, an Animo Justice Junior who led the march to Green Dot headquarters, said there were some Green Dot officials suggesting a return to public schools for students that wouldn't be able to attend Animo Ralph Bunche or commute to another Green Dot facility. This is unconscionable, but not unexpected by any of us that have followed the rise of CMOs and the charter-voucher industry.

Also unreported was the fact that Animo Justice teachers were told a different story than that contained in Petruzzi's "public" letter announcing the school closure. The Green Dot teachers who spoke to me at the community forum held Friday in South Central Los Angeles all told me that their jobs were up in the air. Suddenly AMU is exposed as the yellow union it is — there has been no attempt save their members jobs or dignity. All of the teachers I spoke to were exceptionally young, another feature of CMO style cost savings.

The energy and militancy of the Animo Justice families at Friday night's forum was something to behold. I was awed and humbled by people trying their best to give their children optimal opportunities. I was also warmly received by Green Dot students, parents, and teachers who not only enthusiastically applauded my speech, but many spoke to me after the event and several even obtained my contact information.

Noticeably absent from the meeting? Shirley Ford, Ben Austin, Gabe Rose, and all the other so-called "Parent Revolution" executives. Here was a forum specifically tailored to their mission statement, and they failed these families since they were not there. Clearly, their "parent empowerment and advocacy" begins with and ends with hostile takeovers and conversions of public schools to charters. The parents on Friday night needed the Green Dot founded, Ben Austin run advocacy group there to support them. LAPU/Parent Revolution, like Green Dot, left these Animo Justice parents and the community with nothing but empty rhetoric, outrageous lies, and broken promises.

Green Dot should be forced to keep the school open, or at the very least, pay LAUSD to transform it into a real public school that will serve the needs of its population. If corporate CMO charters want to abdicate their responsibility to educate every child, then there should be a heavy price for their executives and billionaire backers to pay. Animo Justice is proof positive that the dearth of laws managing charter operation have failed us, and that publicly funded institutions should not be exempted from public oversight and scrutiny. In addition to implementing oversight laws, the law should be changed where charter renewal petitions occur annually instead of every five years — it's the only way to avoid more tragedies like Animo Justice.

Robert D. Skeels

Open letter to Prof. Shaffer on Ánimo Justice - ¡Tenemos el Animo Pero No Justicia!

LA Times writes a story on a Marshall Tuck's PLAS school and then pins blame on LAUSD?

New depths have been plumbed by the voucher-charter happy publication on 1st Street.

In "A lesson about speaking up" Mr. Hector Tobar writes a deservedly critical piece on one of Marshall Tuck, Ryan Smith, and Antonio Villaraigosa's monstrosities and then squarely blames LAUSD without mentioning it's a PLAS school. Mr. Tobar would have been well served looking up even a modicum of information about what he writes about. As a journalistic courtesy, here's your research:

Markham Middle School: The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools

Truth is Marshall Tuck was a failure at Green Dot Public [sic] Schools and now he is a failure at PLAS. Why Tuck is allowed near schools just might be the great mystery of this epoch.

What's next, blame public schools and UTLA for Animo Justice's closure? Maybe charter sycophant Steve Lopez can pen a fluff piece blaming CSEA and myself for Animo Film & Theatre Arts' demise? LAUSD gets enough wrong on its own without taking the blame for Villaraigosa and Tuck's epic failures.

Shameful at best Los Angeles Times, but we've come to expect such coverage.

With indescribable astonishment

Robert D. Skeels

LA Times writes a story on a Marshall Tuck's PLAS school and then pins blame on LAUSD?

More Arne Duncan mendacity, elitism, and cronyism on display

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Time for corporatist Arne "Katrina Schadenfreude" Duncan to step down from DOE.

Linda Darling-Hammond should have been SOE right from the start.

More Arne Duncan mendacity, elitism, and cronyism on display

UdB and Parents Host Community Forum on School Closures

Special thanks to Social Justice Educator Jose Lara for passing this information on!

Fremont, Menlo, Animo Justice, All school that will be closing down this year. Join Union del Barrio as we unite with parents and students to discuss why is this happening and what we can do about it. It is time we demand justice!!!!

UdB and Parents Host Community Forum on School Closures

Central Falls Teachers Union Rally

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Central Falls Teachers Union Rally

A Call To Action From a Concerned Parent

This open letter from an anonymous parent in the Valley was sent to all social justice minded activists in order to spread awareness and agitate people to action!

I am a public school father. I have a child in Special Education and a child in General Education. I have received papers from a source at my elementary school that glaringly reveal the plans and completely callous attitude towards our Special Needs program in the public schools by Superintendent Ramon Cortines. The documents are damning for so many reasons. The planned changes show a complete lack of preparation and thought. The plans illustrate the desperation of LAUSD to cut costs at all costs. It seems that there is one thing that has been conveniently left out of all of the proposed cuts. That would, of course, be any thought for our children. 

I spent 40 minutes on the phone with Cheryl Krohn. She is the Head of the Special Education Dept. in District 1. After explaining my concerns she took me through the reality of the situation and it is even worse than I had previously stated. Ramon C. Cortines, The Superintendent of LAUSD has mandated that District 1 and 2 close 64 Special Ed classes. These districts make up the valley. They had originally been told to close 27 in District 1 and 22 in District 2 and Cortines has added to that number. More will probably be added. Pink slips have already gone out. As a matter of fact Ms. Krohn informed me that she (the head of district 1) had received a pink slip as well. 

Ms. Krohn told me that when she was mandated to close 27 classrooms she voiced her concerns to her superiors. She said that "she didn't know how she could do it" and that "she thought it was crazy." Her superiors told her that the per class Norm had to be increased. The only exception was autism. That exception has since been lifted. In fact, she informed me that in the fall there will be an Autistic class in a high-school in her district with 19 students in it. I told her this was a human rights violation. She did not object to that statement. She said that LAUSD is in a crisis and that the way we look at public education will change. She anticipates much forced retirement and attrition in the field of special education in the coming year. This is a disaster in the making. Actually it is a disaster.

There has been a reluctance from LAUSD officials to write about this for fear that parent groups and attorneys will have time to intervene. Officials at the schools are obviously very concerned. The school officials I have spoken with have eloquently voiced their concerns to downtown and have received only obligatory replies. There is a mention of busing in these documents. In an email from Cheryl Krohn it states that the children will be bused to “appropriate alternative locations”. Pressing for further information, school officials verbally voiced their deep concern about the children in their special needs program and about where they would go. LAUSD simply stated that "they had no plans as of yet" and that the only certainty is that "they would be bused." I am also told there has been pressure to deny service and to move children that are not ready from Special Education into General Education. This completely irresponsible act will not only endanger these special needs children but also take up valuable time from an already overtaxed teacher giving her less time and resources to teach her "typical" children.

In an already heavily weighted IEP system these changes will certainly be disastrous. Lower income and ESL (English as a Second Language) parents who are already wildly unrepresented will surely be completely lost now. Getting services to special needs children must be a priority. LAUSD continues to think like bean counters without any thought about our children. This is a human rights emergency. We need these people to understand that these cuts border on child abuse. We need these people to understand that early education and special needs services are paramount to the futures of these children and to our nations future. We need them to realize that paying for 15 years of services for special needs children will save them from taking care of a large majority of them for 60+ years. That giving them this precious help in their formative years will give them the strength to become vibrant contributing adults. We're not just talking Autism here, which effects 1 out of 70 boys. Special Education includes a wide range of conditions including ADD, ADHD, and Down Syndrome to name a few. 

This is a call to action! Let's be very noisy about this. We can't let this stand. Call and write Ramon Cortines and let him know that arbitrary cuts to special ed programs are not acceptable. They are, brick by brick, dismantling everything that has been built since the landmark Chanda Smith Decision. Please help me bring this story out and try and change things. We can't let this happen to our kids and the people who are dedicated to helping them.

A Call To Action From a Concerned Parent

Press Release: LET KIDS, PARENTS AND TEACHERS RUN ANIMO JUSTICE. CLOSE GREEN DOT!

Press Release.
March 23, 2010
By Leonard James Martin
Candidate for the State of California, Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010

LET KIDS, PARENTS AND TEACHERS RUN ANIMO JUSTICE. CLOSE GREEN DOT!
Leonard J. Martin, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction

This week's announcement that the corporate giant in the charter school business will close a Los Angeles high school reveals the folly of running public schools like a business. Yet that is exactly what charter advocates, including the leaders of Green Dot, insist is the key to successfully "operating" public schools in Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

Like an employer closing a branch plant to save money, Green Dot decided to close one of its many "subsidiaries" in L.A. That decision was taken without input from those most affected by the closure: students, teachers and parents. Instead, the self-appointed, unelected corporate board at Green Dot made that decision behind closed doors.

How often we see the same ruthless approach in the business world as one large corporation after another shuts its doors, putting great numbers of employees out of work without adequate notice or an opportunity to offer input, all for the sake of the bottom line.

Kids are not a commodity. Green Dot has not learned that but it is true. Billionaire-financed "educational" corporations should not be allowed to interrupt a child's schooling. When Animo Justice closes at the end of the academic year, kids in grades 9-11 will be set adrift. Was this part of the "contract" that parents and kids signed when they entered the school?

There is a simple solution. The governing board that granted Green Dot the right to organize this school - the Los Angeles Unified School District - should add Animo Justice to the list of 30 schools that have already been turned over to others to run, primarily to teachers. In this case, give the school to those most involved in the education process at Animo - the kids, their parents and their teachers.

Short of that, the school board should refuse to approve the closing of the school and should force Green Dot to continue operating it, even at a loss. But that would punish the kids more than it would punish Green dot.

Leonard J. Martin
for the State of California, Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010

Leonardj.martin@gmail.com

P.O. Box 802888
Santa Clarita, California 91380-2888

Press Release: LET KIDS, PARENTS AND TEACHERS RUN ANIMO JUSTICE. CLOSE GREEN DOT!

A REAL Parent and Student Revolution brewing at Corporate Green Dot CMO Charter Schools

"Everything we do from now moving forward, will be to expose all of Green Dot's lies and everything they lied to us and to our parents." — Animo Justice Student

The ultimatum is at odds with Green Dot's principles, which call for teacher input into critical decisions — Judy Riemenschneider

Steve Barr's corporate charter-voucher establishment in Los Angeles, like all EMO/CMO factory schools with their unelected and unaccountable boards, have been a paradigm of parent and community disenfranchisement. &mdash Robert D. Skeels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Is there a PARENT TRIGGER for this?

Green Dot Public [sic] Schools' Marco Petruzzi recently announced that they were doing what all investment bankers, hedge fund managers and Corporate CEOs do when the aren't realizing high profitability, the closure of Animo Justice. Since children are mere commodities to the hedge fund manager and investment banker logic of individuals like Marco Petruzzi, Steve Barr, Gabe Rose, and Ben Austin, this is a sad extension of their business principles.

Think "parent advocate" Ben Austin will sweep in to rescue these parents from a lack of "adult accountability" and "mismanaged bureaucracy?" Wasn't it Petruzzi and Austin that came up with the farcical "give us three years and we'll give you a great school" motto? Is this an example of parent power? Is this what Yolie Flores Aguilar, inc. means by high performing charters? Is this what Ben Austin refers to as "a kid centered agenda?"

Downsizing. Corporate values through and through. As Social Justice Educator Jose Lara says "Welcome to the business model."

In Green Dot to close Justice Charter High School Howard Blume mentions Animo Film & Theatre Arts will probably be the next to "go out of business."

However, parents and students of the school aren't taking the shocking announcement by the well heeled corporate executives sitting down. Instead of posturing and misappropriating the language of revolutionary resistance, like corporate hack Ben Austin constantly does, these real Green Dot parents and Green Dot students are taking real direct action!

We in the social justice community fully support the students, parents, activists, and community members trying to prevent school closures!

Here's a quote from one of the organizers:

Today, over 400 students participated in a sit-in that lasted nearly 5 hours, culminating in a walk out, where press covered the action. Students are protesting the blatant disrespect Green Dot has shown them, their families, and their entire communities by promising to provide them a quality education and democratic schools, only to shut down the school at the end of this school year, with students and parents having absolutely NO say in the decision. For those who don't know, Animo Justice is the ONLY school in the Green Dot Jefferson cluster that accepts English Language Learners and the school with the 2nd highest proportion of students with IEPs in all of GD. Hmm ... sounds a bit like creaming the crop to me....

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Wasn't it Green Dot's David Ha that insisted that every Green Dot Public [sic] School had a huge waiting list since Green Dot offered "school choice?" How does that explain Green Dot closing schools due to low attendance? Then again, he also said Milton Freidman was widely respected, so we can understand his utter confusion.

Note to charters: children are not a commodity! Tell the greedy executives at this corporate CMO to keep Animo Justice open. On top of sucking up our tax dollars, Green Dot Public [sic] Schools get millions of extra dollars from the Waltons, Broads, and Gates. They are only closing to raise profitability and target other schools. I hope Arne "Katrina Schadenfreude" Duncan is watching, because this is what their corporate schools model inevitably leads to. Oh yeah, that's what he wants.

Pedagogy not profit!

More on this soon...

A REAL Parent and Student Revolution brewing at Corporate Green Dot CMO Charter Schools

An Afternoon with Diane Ravitch - At UCLA!

"The Obama administration is using its unprecedented billions to advance a strategy of deregulation and deprofessionalization." — Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)

"[T]here should be no education marketplace." — Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)

An Afternoon with Diane Ravitch
Monday, April 12, 2010
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Grand Horizon Room
Covel Commons, UCLA campus
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095

The celebrated education historian, research professor, and author Diane Ravitch will be discussing her recent book entitled The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. She will also engage in a conversation with Professor Mike Rose, and take questions from the audience.

Given the scale of misinformation and propaganda disseminated by the false education reformers in Los Angeles, particularly anti-labor billionaire Eli Broad and his proxy organizations like the thoroughly astroturf "Parent Revolution," having a real education expert in Los Angeles to speak truth to power is something not to be missed.

Schools Matter's Jim Horn had this to say about the Ravitch tour:

Thanks to Ravitch, the truth has just gone mass market (most likely NYTimes Bestseller List), and nothing could be sweeter than the squirming among the corporate leeches and snake oil salesmen who have taken public education to the brink of destruction.

RSVP Required

For directions to the UCLA campus, please use the following link: http://bit.ly/7McgLI. Parking for event attendees is available in Sunset Village (SV) parking structure at $10 per car. For parking information and event location, please go to: http://bit.ly/6V0SJq.

Please direct all inquiries to Alexander Pierson, UCLA GSE&IS Office of Development & Alumni Affairs at (310) 206-0375, or via e-mail at apierson@support.ucla.edu.

Presented by
UCLA School Management Program (SMP)
UCLA Education Alumni Association
UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS)

An Afternoon with Diane Ravitch - At UCLA!