Naomi Klein discussing school privatization and union busting

Obama is also involved in attacking labor rights with his pushing of charter schools and draconian budget cuts. — Naomi Klein


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Naomi Klein on Anti-Union Bills and Shock Doctrine American-Style: "This is a Frontal Assault on Democracy, It's a Kind of a Corporate Coup D'Etat"

As a wave of anti-union bills are introduced across the country following the wake of Wall Street financial crisis, many analysts are picking up on the theory that award-winning journalist and author Naomi Klein first argued in her 2007 bestselling book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. In the book, she reveals how those in power use times of crisis to push through undemocratic and extreme free market economic policies. "The Wisconsin protests are an incredible example of how to resist the shock doctrine," Klein says.

Excerpt:

One thing I wanted to come back to that I was starting to get at earlier about why what's happening in Wisconsin is happening in Wisconsin and what we need to take from it is that when bad things are happening, it's helpful to have a bad guy. And Scott Walker is a good bad guy. And he has galvanized progressives. And people have, you know, an enemy to organize around and to point out these disparities. It hasn't happened at the federal level, despite the fact that Obama is also involved in attacking labor rights with his pushing of charter schools and draconian budget cuts. He's not a good bad guy for progressives. So, we're still in a situation where Obama is getting away with, in my opinion, shock doctrine-style tactics, because people don't--still don't want to believe that Obama is doing it, too. So, when you have an easy bad guy, a Republican governor who's obviously trying to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, you can mobilize the left. But it won't just work if we are only going after the Republicans and if this is fought along just partisan lines, as opposed to being fought based on principle. No matter who is doing it, we need to be mobilizing, if it's Obama, if it's Scott Walker. [1]

_____
NOTES
[1] Emphasis mine.

Naomi Klein discussing school privatization and union busting

ICS phonebanking for Luis Sanchez? Conflict of interest much?

"We have our cake, and are eating it too." — Eli Broad (Predatory Pseudo-Philanthropist and Corporate Charter School Backer)


Bad enough that Luis Sanchez is reactionary Philip Anschutz's corporate candidate of choice. Even worse that Sanchez is putting his business connections and cronies ahead of the Echo Parque community's desire to make CRES #14 a public school, which is a natural considering that he hangs out in Beverly Hills tossing back cocktails with the affluent charter-voucher school jet set.

Indeed, just when you think Luis Sanchez couldn't be more unscrupulous and scandalous, he surprises with ever more deplorable acts of ignominy.

I got word over the weekend from several East Side parents that Inner City Struggle — or is that "S" for Sellout? — (ICS) was providing material and physical support for Sanchez's get out the vote efforts. The clincher was an email from an activist and LAUSD parent who wrote the following:

I thought you might find it interesting that the offices of ICS are being used to phone bank for Luis Sanchez's campaign. I know, for a fact, that last Tuesday there was phone banking which led to ICS shutting down their office at 5pm rather than 7pm.

Today I called ICS to see if they would confirm or deny their phonebanking efforts. They didn't answer, but I did leave a message in hopes they would call back. I also used their website contact us feature to try and get them to contact me. I suppose I wouldn't want to answer questions about serious conflicts of interest and misuse of 501C3 status either.

Not that this is the first time that Brenes, Sanchez, and Co. have used their 501C3 for nefarious, and probably illegal activities given the laws that are supposed to govern so-called nonprofit organizations. I recently documented ICS conspiring with Green Dot and several other charter-voucher PSC backers to try and split Garfield and its overflow school (Torres) between ICS and corporate charters during round one of the PSC school giveaways.

Getting this yet another example of Sanchez's corruption out the night before the election won't do much good considering the corporate candidate's coffers are teeming to the tune of six figures. It's also of little consequence given that the current board has blinders towards conflict of interest. Remember Cortines' Scholastic entanglement where the corporate congenial Mónica Garcia pooh-poohed what had to be one of the worst conflict of interest instances in recent memory.

We can't look to the philandering Mayor to provide Sanchez moral guidance either. Not only did Villaraigosa tour with charter crony (and at the time, city employee) Ben Austin promoting school privatization in closed town halls, Mayor Failure allegedly was the reason Parent Revolution's Austin's City Ethics Case # 2010-36 was conveniently dropped when Austin, Romero, and Schwartzenneger were forging the corporate charter trigger legislation (Orwellianly named Parent Empowerment).

However, this further documents Luis Sanchez's unbridled malfeasance, and we can point to it in the future when questions of his dubious character arise. Like the depraved Gates Foundation employee Yolie Flores-Aguilar, who Sanchez will likely be replacing, we can be sure that he'll be "Putting Charters First."

ICS phonebanking for Luis Sanchez? Conflict of interest much?

The President now toasting Teabaggers. What's next, touting Texas textbooks?

"You know, I'm amused. I can't tell you how many foreign leaders who are heads of center-right governments say to me, I don't understand why people would call you socialist, in my country, you'd be considered a conservative." — President Barack H. Obama (CNN’s State of the Union 2009-09-20)


I first read about the President praising teabagger and brother of war criminal George W. Bush on Anthony Cody's blog, prompted by his brilliant tweet:

@AnthonyCody | Obama is Right: Education is a Bi-Partisan issue. Both Dems and Repubs are pushing bad ideas. #WakingGiant, #edchat http://bit.ly/hc6scS

Another excellent piece addressing this is President Obama shares the stage with Jeb Bush in Miami.

Since I spent most of the weekend polemicizing against HuffPost liberals who were attacking Matt Damon for criticizing the Administration's education policies, this gave me some very current and topical information in which to confront the liberal defenders of right wing privatization schemes.

Here's what I wrote on HuffPost:

Yesterday the President lauded the vile right wing reactionary Jeb Bush as a "champion of education reform." Bush, whose privatization pushing policies include segregation exacerbating charter-voucher schools, and union busting. Moreover, his diverting of resources from public schools into privatization have left public schools with even less funding.

To be sure, Bush's market "solutions" originated from the vile minds of depraved reactionaries like Andy Smarick and Rick Hess, members of some of the most extreme right wing think tanks in the country (ie. AEI, Hoover, Hudson, Cato, etc.). These Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman acolytes aren't interested in public education. Instead their end goal is to eliminate what they consider the "big government monopoly" in education, and to open education up to profit making.

A celebrated education author's prescient essay reveals the real goals of what is currently termed "education reform."

"The education industry represents, in our opinion, the final frontier of a number of sectors once under public control... represents the largest market opportunity... the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada." — Montgomery Securities prospectus quoted in Jonathan Kozol's The Big Enchilada

Here many people unleashed vicious invective against Matt Damon, while the President is heaping praise on one of the most reprehensible corporate education reformers around — Jeb Bush (a teabagger favorite at that). Perhaps now people will see the contradiction in this, Damon sure does.

Using the other sides' (ie. right wing) education policies isn't bipartisanship, it's capitulation. These policies are anathema to the progressive teachings of Paulo Freire, Donaldo Macedo, Jonathan Kozol, Alfie Kohn, Henry Giroux, and so many others. We call on this president to fire the current Secretary of Education and to make wholesale changes to its disastrous education policies.

The President now toasting Teabaggers. What's next, touting Texas textbooks?

Thank you Matt Damon! Let's replace RTTT with the Zinn Education Project

"...[T]he person who wants bold changes in the way our society is going is not going to find them represented by either the Democratic or Republican candidates, and that's still true with Obama and McCain." — Howard Zinn


Hollywood luminary and social justice minded Matt Damon is quoted in the Huffington Post saying some very profound things about this administration's corporate neoliberal education "reform" policies:

"He's [Obama] doubled down on a lot of things, going back to education... the idea that we're testing kids and we're tying teachers salaries to how kids are performing on tests, that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We're training them, not teaching them." — Matt Damon

Many HuffPost liberals and a handful of like minded teabaggers were quick to assail Damon with hackneyed "why don't you stick with acting" attacks. What Damon's detractors don't realize is that he is, on average, far better educated than many of them. Moreover, his long friendship and collaborative works with celebrated historian, author, and social justice advocate, the late Professor Howard Zinn, demonstrates that Damon had one of the best political mentors around, who taught him to speak truth to power. Every HufffPost reader defending President Obama's policies by telling Damon that he should understand that politics is about "realism" and "compromise," is providing political cover for neoliberalism and privatization. They're doing the reactionary right wing's job for them by not standing against Obama and Duncan's deplorable Shock Doctrine education policies.

Here are my comments as they appeared on the HuffPost:

Kudos Mr. Damon. Glad to see more people calling out the president's reactionary education policies. In essence RTTT goes further than NCLB in terms of unwarranted testing in that it embraces and encourages widespread privatization via charter-voucher schools. There is nothing progressive about policies that Rand or Friedman would have espoused, policies that use words like competition, market solutions, and choice — all highly discredited ideas at that.

Before anyone defends these policies, let them ponder this. How progressive are this administration's education policies when they are universally lauded by the likes of AEI, Cato, Heritage, Hoover, Hudson, and all the other extreme right wing think tanks? I would be very concerned about my politics if I found the Birchers were agreeing with me.

I unequivocally support Matt Damon's criticisms of this administration, and especially, its education policies. All progressives should. Instead of the highly discredited corporate "edreform" policies like No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top, let's ditch high stakes standardized tests and make The Zinn Education Project our national curriculum. It would go a long way toward making public education achieve its true potential.

"I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers" — Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn's many books include his groundbreaking: A People's History of the United States.

Thank you Matt Damon! Let's replace RTTT with the Zinn Education Project

Why won't LAUSD's Luis Sanchez discuss Echo Parque's CRES #14?

"Public Charter" is an oxymoron. — Steve Neat


Echo Park Patch's Muffy Marracco does an excellent job in outlining LAUSD District 5 board hopefuls (with the notable absence of write-in candidate Scott Folsom) in Meet the Candidates for the School Board. In addition to writing biographical and campaign information, Marracco asks each candidate their views on the hottest topic in Echo Parque/Historic Filipinotown right now — should CRES #14 become a community run public school, or be handed over to a privately run charter school corporation. Two things stand out about Luis Sanchez in the article. First, is Sanchez's staggering six figure campaign war chest which dwarfs that of all the other candidates combined. The second is Sanchez's evasive answer to the CRES #14 question. The following are my edited comments on the piece that puts both those issues into context.

Here's a few more fun facts on Luis Sanchez. Sanchez's campaign has been funded by some of the most reactionary right-wing forces in Los Angeles through Mayor Villaraigosa's Coalition for School Reform — a slush fund to elect privatization friendly school board candidates. Among the plutocrats funding Sanchez is the notorious billionaire Philip Anschutz. Anshutz's fortune also funds some of the most vile fringe-right organizations in existence, including Heritage, Hoover, AEI, Cato, and others. I doubt many LAUSD District 5 voters are aware of Sanchez's nefarious backers. To learn more, please see:

On Anschutz, Villaraigosa, LAUSD Privatization Candidates, and Riding Dinosaurs

Of course, loathsome, ideologically-charged billionaires aren't the only ones stuffing Luis Sanchez's coffers with high hopes of a generous return on investment. Indeed, Sanchez is a darling of the lucrative Los Angeles charter-voucher school industry. Aware that Sanchez will continue to grant no-questions-asked charter approvals, and not only supports the PSC school privatization motion, but supports future versions of it without the marginally democratic advisory vote, the charters are all in. His well heeled colleagues running Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) haven't been able to grow their market share quickly enough with the PSC process as it is right now. They want the messy democratic parts of PSC to go, and went as far as to have pro-NCLB hack Maria Casillas' right wing Families in Schools 501C3 write a report recommending that community and parent votes no longer be part of PSC.

Ultimately, everything that needs to be said about Sanchez's candidacy is right here appears in the March 1, 2011 piece Race for open school board seat shaping up as a surprise in the LA Times:

"Luis Sanchez...worked the room at a posh Beverly Hills condo...The nearly 50 guests drank Au Bon Climat chardonnay and Piper Sonoma sparkling wine as Sanchez's backers, including school board President Monica Garcia and charter school leaders, lauded him..." [1]

That's a man we can all identify with, right? After all, everyone in our communities sips expensive wine in Beverly Hills with the affluent charter school jet set, no? Such exclusivity and elitism is all about the kids correct? Those self-same wealthy charter school executives claim theirs is a kids centered agenda, with no adult interests to speak of.

Have to love how Sanchez dodges the CRES #14 question altogether. Perhaps it's because his boss, Monica Garcia, and the Gates Foundation employee — Yolie Flores Aguliar, whose seat he's running for, are both very close friends with Camino Nuevo Charter Academy's CEO Ana Ponce. Because Sanchez is far more concerned with what the California Charter Schools Association views are on the disposition of CRES #14, than the community's desires, it's no wonder his mealy mouthed answer is so noncommittal.

Sanchez and his wife, Maria Brenes, used their 501C3 Inner City Struggle (ICS) to help Yolie Flores threaten the Garfield High School (GHS) community for over a year. Providing political cover and material support for Flores' PSC and Ben Austin's LAPU/PR, ICS kept the Garfield community in turmoil with constant fear of a hostile take over. Ironically, in the end, none of the CMOs bid on GHS in the PSC round because they realized it would impact their bottom lines. Sadly the GHS community's own school improvement progress was held back by Sanchez, Brenes, and Flores' power politics on behalf of their charter backers.

At the time the high-handed Flores dismissed the will of the GHS community, and even went as far to say that she knew what was best for them. Some of this is documented in Garfield HS Parents, Students, and Community Confront LAUSD VP Flores-Aguilar.

It doesn't take much to realize that Sanchez, whose backers and politics are identical to Flores, will treat our community with the same arrogant disdain.

I recommend everyone in LAUSD District 5 vote accordingly, sign the petition to save CRES #14, and contact their school board members to inform them that we as a community want our wishes and votes respected. We want the LD4 & Echo Park Community Design Team Partners plan for our school!


_____
NOTES
[1] Emphasis, mine.

Why won't LAUSD's Luis Sanchez discuss Echo Parque's CRES #14?

Dr. Diane Ravitch On The Daily Show Tonight March 3, 2011

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


Please read this important message from The Organizing Commmite of SOS:

Diane Ravitch: On The Daily Show March 3, at the Save Our Schools Teach-in on March 11!

One of the nation's clearest voices for real reform has been Diane Ravitch. This week she will dispel the illusion that the billionaires' "education reform" agenda is working, or has support, in her appearance on the popular Daily Show on Comedy Central. The program will air [on] Thursday, Mar. 3, 2011.
 
If you are in New York City, please go to the studio at 11th Ave between 51st and 52nd streets, between 4 and 5 p.m. and welcome her with signs as she enters the building for taping.
 
And Dr. Ravitch has agreed to sit down with activists from Save Our Schools for a ninety-minute webinar 8:30 to 10 pm Eastern time on Friday, March 11. She will share some personal reflections on the intense rounds she has been making, with appearances from New York, Tucson, and Denver to the Daily Show and then to Madison, Wisconsin. We will also discuss ways people can get involved and support the organization of the SOS March in D.C. in July.
 
The webinar is limited to the first 100 people who register, but we will save ten slots for people interested in organizing house parties for five people or more. So gather friends, fellow teachers, parents and students, for a rare chance to converse with one of our heroes.
 
To register, go here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SOSRavitchRegistration

Dr. Diane Ravitch On The Daily Show Tonight March 3, 2011

Developmental/Transitional Bilingual Model Versus Dual Immersion

Both Camino Nuevo and Echo Park Community Partners offer bilingual programs. What may be misleading to some is the significant difference in the type of program that is offered at each school. The differences lie in three areas: 1. the students for whom the program is designed, 2. the goal of each program, and 3. the issue of parental choice. Camino Nuevo offers what is called a developmental or transitional program, while Echo Park Community School offers a dual immersion program

Students/class composition
Developmental program – 100% of students are English learners. If English speaking students were to be placed in this program, they would be receiving instruction appropriate for English learners. This is the case at Camino Nuevo.

Dual language program – Ideally 50% of students are English learners and 50% are English speakers. Each group may be represented by as high as 70% with the companion group being as low as 30%.

Defining the goals
Developmental Program – The goal of the program is for all English learners to transition to an all-English program. Kindergarten students are taught in their native (target) language for 80% of the day while being taught in English for 20% of the day. The percentage time of the target language decreases each year until such time as 100% of instruction is given in English. The student is reclassified and designated as RFEP (Redesignated Fluent English Proficient). After reclassification no instruction is given in the target language.

Dual Language Program – The goal of the program is for ALL students to become bilingual and biliterate. All students are taught all subjects in English and the target language as long as they are in the program.

Parental choice
According to state law and LAUSD policy, parents must be offered the option of a bilingual, a dual immersion or an English-only program. Camino Nuevo, according to its literature, places ALL students in a bilingual program, negating the possibility of parental choice. If it were a traditional charter school, this might be acceptable since the parents would have the choice of sending their child to that school. But under Public School Choice requirements, it is a school with a boundary area. That is, every child within the boundary attends that school. The parent who does not wish the bilingual option has no choice but to find another school outside the boundary. In a diverse community such as Echo Park, this requirement to participate in a bilingual program is neither appropriate nor legal.

Echo Park Community School (EPCS) offers a dual immersion strand. Beginning in kindergarten and adding a grade a year, a dual immersion program will be offered to the children of all interested parents. An English-only option is also available. Additionally EPCS will participate in the FLES program (Foreign Language in Elementary School) offering the language study option, as an elective, to all students who are in grades not yet receiving the dual program. Middle school students would have the same option.

Cheryl Ortega
cortega25@hotmail.com
Director of Bilingual Education
United Teachers Los Angeles


For More on CRES #14 and The Echo Park Community School
http://www.echoparkcommunityschool.com/
http://www.newechoparkschool.org/
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/EchoParkMomsforEducation/

Developmental/Transitional Bilingual Model Versus Dual Immersion

March 2011 Defend Public Education

http://www.defendpubliceducation.org/


On March 2nd, students throughout the country will take part in a national day of action to defend public education. Actions are expected in several states including California, Georgia, New York, and elsewhere. With a reported $125 billion budget gap in state budgets this coming year, students are gearing up to wage a serious fight back against continued austerity measures put on the backs of students and workers.

March 2nd, the third national day of action following March 4, 2010 and October 7th, 2010, will be the kickoff of a month of escalating actions through March, consolidating in a national day of walkouts and strikes on March 31st. Students are also supporting major anti-war actions on March 19, April 9 and 10, actions in defense of Ethnic Studies programs, and actions onMarch 11 in solidarity with striking students at the University of Puerto Rico. Students are actively coordinating with international efforts, taking part in the Spring of Resistance Project, part of the International Student Movement Platform.

Over the past few months, we have seen major actions take place in the Wisconsin, Tunisia, Egypt, and across the Arab world. The role of youth in these struggles has inspired many students in this country to step up our efforts to fight back against this economic crisis. On top of these actions, students in the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico have shown us how we must fight back. Students in the UK and Puerto Rico have been bold – and it is this bold action that students in the US want to bring to their campuses. If we are to learn anything from the struggle in Wisconsin, we must be bold if we want to win.

The massive budget deficits states have faced over the past few years were caused by decades of tax breaks for the rich, attacks on students and workers, the continuation of wars and occupation overseas. The continued wars and occupations have costs communities schools, healthcare, jobs, and much more. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that the bombs dropped in Vietnam explode at home – and this holds true today.

March 2nd is just the beginning of a much bigger fightback that students and workers are gearing up to wage. Students plan to continuing organizing throughout the spring semester to inspire fellow students into action and begin to strengthen a national movement to defend public education.

For questions or to interview students in your area, contact Wes Strong 860-916-2761

March 2011 Defend Public Education

John Stewart's A Message for Teachers

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - Message for Teachers
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

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John Stewart's A Message for Teachers

The First Step: Protect Children from the Effects of Poverty

With so much money and power aligned against the neighborhood public school and against education as a profession, public education itself is placed at risk. — Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)


Dr. Krashen takes on plutocrat William "Bill" Gates's specious and vapid op-ed in the Washington Post. In all fairness Gates is an expert on writing error prone software rife with security holes, whereas Krashen is an expert on education. While Class Size Matters' Leonie Haimson also does an excellent job rebutting the convicted predatory monopolist and provides excellent supporting evidence in Arne Duncan and Bill Gates — Dumb and Dumber, Krashen's list of sources at the end of his comments should snuff out any flicker of hope the corporate ed-reformers might have towards trying to hoodwink and bamboozle us further.

Gates, like the other members of the neoliberal Broad/Gates/Walton Triumvirate, just wants to find a way to educate working class children on the cheap. His vicious, ongoing attacks on the hardworking women and men that teach in our communities' classrooms is representative of his deep hatred of working people.

We have a better idea. Instead of letting these vile plutocrats dictate public policy with their vast fortunes, let's return to Eisenhower era income tax rates and then democratically decide how we can use that money to best educate people in our communities.

Robert D. Skeels

The First Step: Protect Children from the Effects of Poverty

Stephen Krashen, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California

Sent to the Washington Post, Feb 28, 2011

To the editor:

Bill Gates proclaims that "other countries have raced ahead" of the US in education, and in order to catch up, our teachers must improve ("How teacher development could revolutionize our schools," Feb. 28). The premise is false: American education has been successful. The problem is poverty.

American students from well-funded schools who come from middle-class families outscore students in nearly all other countries on international tests. Our average scores are not spectacular because the US has the highest percentage of children in poverty of all industrialized countries (over 20%; in contrast, high-scoring Finland has less than 4%).

All educators are interested in improving teaching quality, but there is no national crisis in teaching quality. Our first step should be to protect children from the damaging effects of poverty: better nutrition (Susan Ohanian suggests the motto "No Child Left Unfed"), excellent health care for all children, and universal access to reading material. The best teaching in the world is useless when students are hungry, sick, and have little or nothing to read.

Stephen Krashen

Some sources:

American students in well-funded schools:

Berliner, D. The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA: Negativism,
Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the
Educational Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R. (Eds.). PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools.
Amsterdam: Sense Publishers. In press.

Bracey, G. 2009. Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality. Educational Research Service

Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics
achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13.

Poverty and hunger, health and access to books:

Berliner, D. 2009. Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential

Krashen, S. 1997. Bridging inequity with books. Educational Leadership 55(4): 18-22.

Martin, M. 2004. A strange ignorance: The role of lead poisoning in "failing schools." http://www.azsba.org/lead.htm.

The First Step: Protect Children from the Effects of Poverty

Voters chose public school Echo Park Community plan over CNCA corporate charter school by more than 2 to 1 margin!

Let's give credit to Echo Park Moms (& Dads) for Education, Other Local Parents, the LD4 & Echo Park Community Design Team Partners, UTLA/PEAC activists, CEJ and other public education activists. We need to keep the momentum going, as Mónica Garcia y Yolie Flores are really close to Ana Ponce, and after the horrible Gratts ES/Para Los Niños incident last year, we can't take the advisory vote for granted. If you haven't signed a paper petition, check out the online petition.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/EchoParkMomsforEducation/

We're having an event on Monday night at Pizza Bueno in Echo Parque. Details will be posted here soon in this space.

Pizza Bueno
Monday, Februrary 28, 2011 2:30-5:30PM
2100 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026-3125

Here's more information on the public school plan

• Nuestra escuela tendrá un programa de estudio visionario. El aprendizaje será basado en proyectos y será multidisciplinario, integrando los artes y promoviendo conocimiento y respeto por el medio ambiente.Los estudiantes pensarán críticamente, investigarán y explorarán la historia local, y tendrán experiencias valiosas por medio de nuestra colaboración con miembros de la comunidad y los recursos de Echo Park.
• Our school will have a visionary curriculum It will be project-based and multidisciplinary, integrating the arts and promoting knowledge and respect for the environment. Students will think critically, research and explore local history, and gain valuable experiences through our collaboration with Echo Park community members and resources.
• Nuestra escuela será para TODOS los estudiantes.Es una escuela inclusiva que recibe a todos los estudiantes, no importa el nivel de ayuda que necesitan.Les damos la bienvenida a todos.Estudiantes con necesidades especiales trabajarán juntos con estudiantes en el programa general en un medio ambiente que promueve respeto por nuestras diferencias y que da valor a como se destaca cada estudiante.
• Our school will serve ALL students It is a fully inclusive neighborhood school that welcomes all students, regardless of their level of need. Students with special needs will work together with general ed peers in a school culture that promotes respect for all differences and that values each individual's strengths.
• Nuestra escuela será democrática.Como una escuela pública, tendremos un Concilio Escolar (School Site Council) compuesto de maestros, padres, y administradores.Este grupo tiene el poder de hacer decisiones sobre asuntos como el presupuesto de la escuela y el currículo. Padres y maestros realmente tienen una voz en la formación del futuro de la escuela.En escuelas Chárter, como Camino Nuevo, esa voz es solamente consultivo; las escuelas son manejadas por una mesa directiva privada.
• Our school will be democratic As a public school, we will have a School Site Council composed of teachers, parents and administrators. This body has decision-making power over things like the school budget and curriculum. Parents and teachers have a real voice in shaping the school's future. In charter schools, that voice is advisory only; they are run by private boards.
• Tendremos un programa de lenguaje dual que servirá a una población diversa.Estudiantes que hablan español, inglés, otagalo (o cualquier otra idioma) tendrán la oportunidad de establecer la capacidad de leer y escribir en más de un idioma.
• We will have a dual language program that serves a diverse population of learners Students who come from Spanish, English, or Tagalog speaking backgrounds (or any other language) will have the opportunity to build academic literacy in more than one language.
• Este plan fue escrito por maestros.Es apoyado por un movimiento de padres y miembros de la comunidad de Echo Park que creen en la visión y el propósito de esta escuela.

In the end this debate (as do all the PSC choices) comes down to who should control our resources: the community or an unelected board of a charter corporation. Once we hand the public over to the private, we abdicate control. Our community deserves better than that. We should be able to control our own destiny, and not rely on, in the words of Paulo Freire, "the false generosity of paternalism."

Voters chose public school Echo Park Community plan over CNCA corporate charter school by more than 2 to 1 margin!

Something Wicked This Way Comes -- Whitney Tilson in Los Angeles

Gabe Rose, Deputy Director Parent Revolution aka McKinley Parents for Change

Predatory hedge fund manager and white supremacist Whitney "we need a lot more well-off, well-educated white folks" Tilson, is bringing his Plutocrats for Education Elimination... er, I mean Democrats for Education Reform road show to Los Angeles this Monday. Tilson, who made his fortunes using daddy and mummy's money in the honorable work of shorting against housing derivatives and managing hedge funds for other billionaires, is a self-styled education reformer. His ill earned fortune funds several right wing school privatization ventures including DFER, KIPP, and TFA. Tilson despises working people, our communities, and our input (aka democracy). He hasn't met a problem that a rich white guy like himself couldn't solve since he thinks he's smarter than everyone else.

I would organize a protest, but we have an event that same night for the LD4 + Echo Park Community Partners Design Team Plan. The good news is that we've won the advisory vote, but still have lots of work to do.

If anyone else is interested in protesting these reactionary agents of neoliberalism and school privatization, here's the details:

DFER School Privateers Planning Session
Monday, February 28, 2011, 6:30-8:30PM
Frederick Douglass High School
3202 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, CA  90018

Despite all his wealth and Ivy League education, Tilson is somewhat of a dullard, and his writing is reminiscent of a disinterested third grade charter school dropout. His recent attempt to rebut an essay by Dr. Diane Ravitch was embarrassing to say the least. My comments on Tilson's screed were so well received in social justice circles that the South Bronx School Blog reproduced my comments from the HuffPost. Here they are:

But, let's give credit where credit is due. The blogger, rdsathene of the Solidaridad blog put Whitney's writing so eloquently in perspective;

I suppose the best part of watching a predatory hedge fund manager try to rebut the most celebrated education historian in our nation is that we are witness to how the right wing's obsession with Ayn Rand's ideas (competition, rewards, etc.) are pervasive in all their discourse.

I've never seen a less cogent, flailing, amateurish essay. I was trying to count the straw men and non sequiturs, but ran out of patience. It's funny that finance capitalist­s like this talk about top college graduates. If the above screed is indicative of their lack of critical thinking skills, it's no wonder they cleave to standardiz­ed tests so much.

Beautiful. Well said.

I was flattered that my humble prose would be considered beautiful.

Who else will be at this neoliberal privatization-fest? Of course, DFER's incorrigible Gloria Romero, who created the corporate charter trigger law and SB 592, which hands public school property over to private corporations. Corri Tate Ravere, associated with the Families That Can thugs, as well as ICEF (where's the money Mike Piscal?), and the CCSA. Caprice Young also of the ICEF money-pit and that notorious charter-voucher market share increasing industry group CCSA. Tara Roth McConaghy, formerly of corporate front group GOOD, which has a love affair with snake-oil salesman extraordinaire, Steve Barr. Lastly, Crook and Liar Ben Austin's lieutenant, Gabe Rose (aka Compton parent and founder of McKinley Parents for Change).

With such a ghastly assortment of public school and teacher haters in one place, let's hope it doesn't attract their ideological equivalents, the teabaggers.

Something Wicked This Way Comes -- Whitney Tilson in Los Angeles

Are Value Added Methods (VAM) the new Flat Earth? How long do discredited theories linger?

[The University of Colorado at Boulder study] drives a proverbial stake through the heart of the VAM pseudo-science, that like its cousin phrenology, should have passed off the scene long ago. — Robert D. Skeels (LAUSD District 2 Board Candidate)


For some time I've been researching in order to write a lengthy academic piece regarding how discredited the LA Times' VAM (and VAM in general) is amongst anyone knowledgeable about pedagogy and testing methodologies. In the meantime, the watershed study by the School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder came out and saved me the trouble. The definitive university study doesn't just refute the specious Times' data and conclusions utterly, it drives a proverbial stake through the heart of the VAM pseudo-science, that like its cousin phrenology, should have passed off the scene long ago.

Initially some familiar with Russ Stanton's favorite school privatization hit-men, wanted to excuse them from their wanton recklessness and mendaciousness that ruined many lives and reputations. For me, there was no such deviation from principles. Here are my thoughts that were published when the news that the LA Times' grand VAM deception was first exposed as the sham it is:

I have a choice between believing distinguished university professors and researchers, confirming what nearly all the credible experts were saying about VAM, versus yellow journalists and amateur statisticians Jason Felch and Jason Song?

It's bad enough that the Gates Foundation paid for all the VAM pseudo-science hype, but I recently learned that Gates also supports the Discovery Institute to the tune of millions. They believe humans rode dinosaurs, which is about as scientifically correct as VAM.

A close friend recently giggled when I said during a discussion on my piece On Anschutz, Villaraigosa, LAUSD Privatization Candidates, and Riding Dinosaurs which further exposed the Gates Foundation's funding of the Discovery Institute:

I have no problems with religion, I'm a person with strong spiritual beliefs myself. However, when you start talking like the Flinstones is a documentary, you've lost me.

So rather than spend an inordinate amount of time writing about VAM, which should also go the way of the dinosaur, let me provide some reading material and some masterful quotes.

First, teacher and author Larry Ferlazzo has collected some excellent resources regarding VAM The Best Posts About The LA Times Article On "Value-Added" Teacher Ratings.

Most important are these documents from the National Education Policy Center (NEPC):

• Due Diligence and the Evaluation of Teachers
• Research Study Shows L. A. Times Teacher Ratings Are Neither Reliable Nor Valid
• Gates Report Touting ‘Value-Added’ Reached Wrong Conclusion
• FACT SHEET CONCERNING L.A. TIMES’ POSTS OF FEBRUARY 14, 2011

The "Conclusion" section of the last document cited has probably the best assessment of both the Times' original work, and their futile defense of it.

The Times has not been simply reporting on teacher evaluations or ratings. It has been creating them and publicizing them. This unusual position confers upon the Times a profound obligation to ensure that any ratings it publishes are both valid and reliable. It is incumbent on the paper‟s reporters and editors to cautiously report on the effort‟s weaknesses.

Moreover, this ethical obligation is amplified when the Times is presented with a critique of the social science work that the paper had commissioned and used. Yet inexplicably the story about the critique was assigned to the same reporter who wrote and has repeatedly defended the original story, and this assignment was apparently made by the same editor who worked on the original story. The result, not surprisingly, was an attempt to mislead readers and whitewash the critique.

As the two NEPC fact sheets document, this is not a matter of experts merely disagreeing. This is a matter of mistakes in judgment and in fact. We call upon the Times to stop trying to defend the indefensible, pull down its invalid teacher ratings, and set about the difficult business of getting its story right.

Stanton's community hating and teacher loathing publication still tries to defend the indefensible. Following one of their tepid apologies of their neo-phrenology, the distinguished Dr. Mike Rose of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies posted a cogent comment that speaks to the heart of this issue:

I grew up with The Times, know and admire people on the paper, and have been fortunate to contribute to its opinion page. But I have to ask: What is happening at The Times? With each article in Value-Added methods it gets deeper and deeper into a mess of its own making and displays further hubris or ignorance.

Mr. Lauter claims that the big public policy question people have been arguing since The Times published its first value-added article is whether "teachers have a significant impact on what their students learn or whether student achievement is all about demographics." This statement is a little like claiming that a recently published article on, let's say, a lawsuit against a tobacco company got the public arguing about the link between tobacco and lung disease.

The complex web of issues involving parental income, student achievement, and the role of the teacher has been a central topic in education research and practice for a very long time and in many countries. I was writing about it over two decades ago, and a half-century worth of work preceded mine. To say that The Times study (or the one from Colorado) finds that the quality of the teacher matters, is perhaps news to Mr. Lauter, but not to others who know about schools.

In its eagerness to justify itself, The Times staff resorts to parsing out the details of The Times and Colorado studies -- something, by the way, that journalists always accuse researchers of doing -- but miss the big point. The paper acknowledges but finally sets aside the well-known fact that Valued-Added scores are not stable, and that the results one gets will significantly depend on the models and assumptions one uses. Given the way these measure work, it is unlikely that the instability will be refined away. These problems, therefore, will have a marked effect on the accuracy of the evaluation of teachers -- including the vast range in the middle -- and on their employment and career advancement. Furthermore, just as important, the use of this problematic method will affect the nature of the profession and recruitment into it.

I cringed at the cheap insinuation that the Colorado study is influenced by the source of some of its funding. Shall we consider the vested interest of Mr. Lauter, Mr. Felch, etc. in this project? Or the fact that Thomas Kane, who Mr. Lauter approvingly quotes, is a high-level official at the Gates Foundation, overseeing a project which has invested heavily in Value-Added methods? The point is that there are all kinds of personal, professional, and institutional investments in this debate, so if you're going to lay them out, lay them all out. And if you suspect a biasing influence, do the reporter’s job of demonstrating it.

But the big, big question for me is how is it that this newspaper moved so strongly toward advocating a particular technology in school reform? The Times is not just editorializing that we need reform, but within its news department is taking a side on a technique. The paper is no longer reporting the news, but creating it and spinning it.

Here's a thought experiment. The PSA test for prostate cancer has many supporters and detractors in the medical community. The Times has run excellent articles reporting on this debate. Imagine, though, if the Times decided to take a side in it, and hired a medical researcher to run a study for The Times in support of its stance. Preposterous, right?

But that is analogous to what The Times has done.

Mike Rose
Social Research Methodology Division
UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
Posted by: Mike Rose | February 14, 2011 at 08:56 PM

Thank you Professor Rose for phrasing so eloquently what we all wanted to say.

Are Value Added Methods (VAM) the new Flat Earth? How long do discredited theories linger?

Parents Across America In Solidarity with Teachers

All over the country, from Wisconsin, to Rhode Island, to New York, a fierce assault has been launched against our teachers – against their right to negotiate for better working conditions, for seniority protections, and against arbitrary layoffs, without due process.  
 
This assault has been funded and carried out in many cases by the same small group of wealthy men who want to privatize our public schools.  You should note that no one is talking about removing seniority protections from firefighters or police.
 
As parents, we understand that experience matters when it comes to effective teaching; (see our fact sheet on this issue).
 
We also realize that in many cases, better working conditions also means better learning conditions for our children, and that without the right to collective bargaining, class sizes could swell to unimaginable proportions – something that these men who are trying to impose their solutions  on our schools are aiming for, though they themselves send their children to private schools where classes sizes are limited to 15 or less.
 
We recognize that this attack on the teaching profession would make the job far less attractive, especially in our large urban districts, which already suffer from high rates of teacher turnover.  If our nation wants to attract qualified candidates to the profession and keep them there longer, this attack on the teaching profession is the exact opposite direction from where we should be going.
 
In this time of dire need, as parents we stand behind our teachers and say no more.  Rallies are planned at 12:00 NOON tomorrow, Saturday February 26, in many places. MoveOn has compiled the master list of events around the country. Find the event or events nearest you here, and join us!
 
This is no time to sit back, and allow the billionaires, hedge fund operators and privateers to attack our teachers and destroy our public schools.
 
Leonie, Mark, Sharon, Andrea, Rita and Lisa for Parents Across America

Parents Across America In Solidarity with Teachers

To All Defenders of Public Education

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is hosting an International Summit on the Teaching Profession in New York City on March 16-17. It is by "invitation only" and timed to take place right before the "Celebration of Teaching and Learning" at the NYC Hilton.

Duncan will be using this international platform to push the school privatization and market-based education policies he has been trying to impose on school districts across the nation. NEA and AFT national leaders, who have, despite their members' opposition, endorsed much of of the Duncan ideology and rhetoric, will also be in attendance.

This event, which is sure to receive a great deal of publicity, provides us with a great opportunity to publicly demonstrate the opposition of students, teachers, parents and education advocates to Duncan's K-12 policies, as well as to the massive budget cuts that are triggering tuition hikes across the country, undermining access to higher education.

BAMN is organizing a picket of the event. Would you or your organization be interested in participating? We haven't yet worked out all the details, and we are flexible about choosing a time that would make it possible for the most people to attend.

If you are interested, please respond to this email with your contact information, and I will organize a conference call to work out the details.

Sincerely,
Donna Stern
BAMN National Coordinator

To All Defenders of Public Education

Dr. Stephen Krashen on Book Access Contributing Closing "Achievement Gap"

"If this study shows anything, it shows that we've got a two-to-one margin of bad charters to good charters, that's a red flag." -- Margaret E. Raymond (Director Stanford Center for Research on Education Outcomes CREDO 2009)


While all the self-styled right wing reactionary 'experts' on education are blaming the so-called achievement gap on hard working teachers and their unions, real experts on education like Dr. Krashen have consistently pointed out that poverty is the number one factor we need to address.

Unlike Austin, Rhee, Romero, Deasy, Anshutz, Ponce, Gates, Barr, Broad, Petruzzi, Krinsky, Rose, Piscal, McFarlane, and all the other reactionaries claiming to have simple answers to complex problems, Dr. Krashen isn't only an expert on pedagogy, he actually reads all the important studies in the field. His analysis is brilliant, and his research is invaluable to all of us advocating social justice.

Stephen Krashen, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California

Controlling for social class and children's books in the home closes the black-white in kindergarten: An important result buried deep in Fryer and Levitt (2004)

Stephen Krashen

Fryer and Levitt (2004) examined reading and math test scores in kindergarten and grade 1 using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (about 1000 schools). Their focus was the gap between black and white children.

For reading, the difference between black and white children at the start of kindergarten was .40 (where 0 = mean, sd = 1). Thus, black children scored 40% of one standard deviation below white children.

When Fryer and Levitt controlled for SES, (parents education, parent occupation, household income), the gap dropped to .134.

When they controlled for SES and number of children's books in the home the gap dropped to nearly zero, -.006.

This is a major result: social class and the presence of children's books evens the playing field. And this is only for a test given at the start of kindergarten. As they note, "including number of books …. completely eliminates the gap in reading" (p. 452).

As is typical for these kinds of results, it is buried deep in this long paper.

When Fryer and Levitt controlled for more predictors, including age at kindergarten, birth weight, whether the mother was a teenager or age 30 at the time her first child was born, the characteristics of neighborhood, whether mother was working, preschool program participation, parental involvement in child's life, family size and family structure, the difference was.093. Black children did slightly better.

Fryer and Levitt did not find the same "summer slump" than others have reported: In fact, black children closed the gap slightly over the summer. But the summer in this study was between kindergarten and grade 1. Closing the summer gap is related to access to books and self-selected reading over the summer (studies by Heyns, 1975 and by J. Kim, 2003). Not much self-selected reading takes place with six year olds.

As usual, there was no mention of libraries of any kind.

_____
NOTES
Fryer, R. and Levitt, S. 2004. Understanding the black-white test score gap in the first two years of school. The Review of Economics and Statistics 86 (2): 447-464.
Heyns, B. 1975. Summer Learning and the Effect of School. New York: Academic Press.
Kim, J. 2003. Summer reading and the ethnic achievement gap. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk 9(2): 169-188

Dr. Stephen Krashen on Book Access Contributing Closing "Achievement Gap"

Teacher at Imagine Charter School Fired for Bumper Stickers

This is one of the things the far right loves about the charter-voucher school push — the ability to silence dissent, particularly from teachers.

If this young woman was in a union, she'd still have her job, and those students wouldn't be deprived of her teaching.




[click if you can't view this video]


Does anybody still want to know why social justice groups like Coalition for Educational Justice support due process for teachers?

Teacher at Imagine Charter School Fired for Bumper Stickers

Meeting: LD4 + Echo Park Community Partners Design Team Plan

CRES14 LD4 and Echo Park Community Partners Plan Meeting
Saturday, February 19, 2011, 10:00am—12:30pm
The Cathedral Congregation—St Paul
840 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90026-4209
In the Meeting room (follow the signs)
Parking is free

• Our school will have a visionary curriculum It will be project-based and multidisciplinary, integrating the arts and promoting knowledge and respect for the environment. Students will think critically, research and explore local history, and gain valuable experiences through our collaboration with Echo Park community members and resources.
• Our school will serve ALL students It is a fully inclusive neighborhood school that welcomes all students, regardless of their level of need. Students with special needs will work together with general ed peers in a school culture that promotes respect for all differences and that values each individual's strengths.
• Our school will be democratic As a public school, we will have a School Site Council composed of teachers, parents and administrators. This body has decision-making power over things like the school budget and curriculum. Parents and teachers have a real voice in shaping the school's future. In charter schools, that voice is advisory only; they are run by private boards.
• We will have a dual language program that serves a diverse population of learners Students who come from Spanish, English, or Tagalog speaking backgrounds (or any other language) will have the opportunity to build academic literacy in more than one language.

Sound good? Sign the petition and join us this Saturday!

• Nuestra escuela tendrá un programa de estudio visionario. El aprendizaje será basado en proyectos y será multidisciplinario, integrando los artes y promoviendo conocimiento y respeto por el medio ambiente.Los estudiantes pensarán críticamente, investigarán y explorarán la historia local, y tendrán experiencias valiosas por medio de nuestra colaboración con miembros de la comunidad y los recursos de Echo Park.
• Nuestra escuela será para TODOS los estudiantes.Es una escuela inclusiva que recibe a todos los estudiantes, no importa el nivel de ayuda que necesitan.Les damos la bienvenida a todos.Estudiantes con necesidades especiales trabajarán juntos con estudiantes en el programa general en un medio ambiente que promueve respeto por nuestras diferencias y que da valor a como se destaca cada estudiante.
• Nuestra escuela será democrática.Como una escuela pública, tendremos un Concilio Escolar (School Site Council) compuesto de maestros, padres, y administradores.Este grupo tiene el poder de hacer decisiones sobre asuntos como el presupuesto de la escuela y el currículo. Padres y maestros realmente tienen una voz en la formación del futuro de la escuela.En escuelas Chárter, como Camino Nuevo, esa voz es solamente consultivo; las escuelas son manejadas por una mesa directiva privada.
• Tendremos un programa de lenguaje dual que servirá a una población diversa.Estudiantes que hablan español, inglés, otagalo (o cualquier otra idioma) tendrán la oportunidad de establecer la capacidad de leer y escribir en más de un idioma.
• Este plan fue escrito por maestros.Es apoyado por un movimiento de padres y miembros de la comunidad de Echo Park que creen en la visión y el propósito de esta escuela.

Meeting: LD4 + Echo Park Community Partners Design Team Plan

Camino Nuevo Staff Admonishing Echo Park Community to "Fact Check?"

"The original vision of charter schools was that they would help strengthen public schools, not compete with them." — Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)


In the comments section of Lobbying Around Leadership at Echo Park’s New School Heats Up, a CNCA staffer named Kelly states "Robert (and anyone else), please make sure that you are checking where you get your facts (or where your fact-finder's get their facts)." She then goes on to present some statistical data. I responded thusly:

Kelly, I appreciate your admonishment on fact checking, but are you suggesting that the CSU's data is erroneous or inaccurate? Furthermore, you and several other "statisticians" keep insisting that the CSU sample is "only 17 students." Given that CNHSC graduated roughly 100 students in 2008, it represents nearly one fifth of your graduating class. My sources familiar with UC system remedations tell me that while CNHSC numbers are a little better there, they aren't as stellar as the CNCA CMO claims they are. Also, for those claiming that 17 students is statistically insignificant in terms as CSU enrollments, it's still that selfsame number of students having to retake high school courses.

Here's some more statistical information since we're sharing links, let's use some that aren't from charter-voucher industry trade associations like the CCSA or GreatSchools, Inc., which have a vested interest in the data they collect and present.

Camino Nuevo High School Charter - Los Angeles - California Schools Guide - Los Angeles Times shows CNHSC' unofficial API rank as 6/10, with a fairly poor diversity score.

What's more, the California Department of Education's SAT Report shows CNHSC SAT scores as being fairly low, which would seem to support the CSU remediation rate data that Kelly is trying hard to discredit.

Data from SAT Report (CA Dept of Education)

97.94% Camino Nuevo High School Charter students tested
Critical Reading Average	379
Math Average	396
Writing Average	396
Composite	1171

Resulting in only 11% of CNHSC students testing with a composite SAT of 1500 or above. 1171 is well below the composite SAT to make the even the lowest spot on this list: Highest Average SAT Scores in Los Angeles County - California Schools Guide - Los Angeles Times.

Part of the statistics above are probably due to the fact that the median teacher experience at CNHSC is only 4 years. However, that doesn't mean that CNCA staff aren't dedicated or sincere, just relatively inexperienced. Yet many CNCA staff keep saying their corporation has a decade of doing what it does in contrast to an "unproven" plan proffered by LD4/EP Community Parters. Since many of the educators involved the the community plan have taught for more decades than CNCA has been in existence, that meme is absurd on its face. That hasn't stopped the CNCA staff from repeating it though!

Just as paid CNCA staff are able to find statistics favorable to them increasing their market share, community volunteers like myself are able to find CNCA statistics that aren't flattering. As a social justice activist I don't see test scores as be-all, end-all. That said, CNCA's marketing literature does, and I feel it's appropriate to question that. Sorry for speaking truth to your power CNCA.

In the end this debate comes down to who should control our resources: the community or an unelected board. Once we hand the public over to the private, we abdicate control. Our community deserves better than that. We should be able to control our own destiny, and not rely on, in the words of Paulo Freire, "the false generosity of paternalism."

Camino Nuevo Staff Admonishing Echo Park Community to "Fact Check?"

More lies, misinformation, and propaganda from wealthy Camino Nuevo Executives

Getting information from the CCSA and Jed Wallace is tantamount to a reporter in the 1970s getting information on the health risks of smoking from the Tobacco Industry. — Robert D. Skeels (CEJ)


This Week's Topic: Echo Park's Newest School is an Echo Park Patch piece intended to spark community dialog about the disposition of CRES 14. As we've seen throughout the process, there's what the community thinks and then there's propaganda campaign by CNCA executives and staff. The pernicious Hoa Truong, CNCA's COO, made very misleading, and frankly, mendacious comments under the article. Here is my expanded and revised response to his proverbial pack of lies:

Hoa Truong presents what can only charitably be called half truths here. True CNCA is a 501C3 "non-profit," but that is merely a tax status and says little else. Rather than private companies, they are private corporations (that's what the C in 501C3 stands for). As private corporations, the have unelected boards. In CNCA's case that board has no parents or community members from our attendance boundary.

For more on Camino Nuevo's board, see: 'Social justice hedge fund managers' and 'social justice investment bankers' at Camino Nuevo?

Moreover, although Camino Nuevo Charter Academy are "not for profit" there are no limits to the salaries charter-voucher schools pay their well heeled executives. Ana Ponce, CEO of CNCA, pulls down a whopping $140,639. For more on this see: Crafty Camino Nuevo Charter Charlatans

Mr. Truong mentions that CNCA's "board meetings are public meetings." Note that being able to attend a meeting is a far cry from the community having control over CNCA and their schools' operations. To CNCA's credit, they are one of the very few Charter Management Organizations (CMO) that hold public meetings, most meet in secret. CMOs like CNCA mistakingly equate input with decision making.

Truong, a businessman, not an educator, certainly has a vested interest in not divulging such information. More to the point Truong is a graduate of the vile Broad Residency in Urban Education, a plutocrat funded venture that can only be described as school privatization shock troops. Rather than allowing him and the elites populating his board dictate to us, we have a better idea.

The public school option (LD4 Echo Park Partnership) for CRES 14 will almost certainly be run under the Pilot school model. Pilot schools have Governing School Councils which have real decision making power. Governing School Councils are comprised of community members, parents, teachers, and administrators. There is nothing analogous to this in the corporate charter-voucher school world. CNCA's Ana Ponce herself said the following at a Union Avenue School meeting "Parents having decision making power over a budget is not a sustainable model." Aside from her business buzzwords, she shows an utter contempt for ordinary working class people. In Truong and Ponce's world, decision making is best left to "our betters."

We say no, we demand the right of our community's self determination. We want CRES 14 to be a community controlled public school, not a corporate charter school.

More lies, misinformation, and propaganda from wealthy Camino Nuevo Executives