The demonizing, restructuring, and privatizing of our present public education system not only in Chicago but across the country, thanks to bipartisan political (corporate-enabling) will (with the powerful engineering of consent of citizens by the corporate media) has more to do with “disaster capitalism” profiteering, racism, and poverty than the unfairly scapegoated role of the American teacher.
The ruthless union-busting/weakening by this bipartisan political will is also foreshadowing across the board/across the nation slashing of work pay, benefits and conditions for all American workers.
Here are some excerpts from various writers and activists about the “big picture” of what the Chicago teachers' struggle actually represents:
Emanuel has fully embraced Friedman’s ideas, taking advantage of the economic crisis to eliminate liberal arts classes, displace hundreds of teachers, weaken teacher health benefits and tenure, and privatize essential services. He’s also demanded teacher evaluations be tied to standardized tests results of students, an idea that hurts poor students as teachers in crowded inner-city schools are forced to narrow curriculum. Instead of planning lessons that teach students to inquire, students will be force-fed facts to be demonstrated on exams. Students will no longer learn, they will memorize.
From day one, the Obama administration joined and has helped co-ordinate the all-out assault on public education. Obama's campaign pockets are flush with contributions from what Glen Ford called the “charter school sugar daddies,” at whose behest he and Arne Duncan...spent their first year and a half in office coercing states to expand charters or lose out on more than $4 billion in federal education moneys. Obama's allies on Wall Street invest heavily in charter schools, tapping into the public money stream to build their own vision of corporate education.”
snip
Obama's Race to the Top program awards federal funds to states and school districts based upon how many teachers they fire or replace with Teach For America or similar temp agencies, how many teacher pensions are eliminated, how many teachers are subjected to evaluation on test scores and other spurious criteria, and how many public schools are replaced with charters. The Eli Broad and Walton Family Foundations, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates and Heritage Foundations actually wrote Race To The Top, and under President Obama and Secretary Arne Duncan, school districts and states have felt themselves obliged to utilize their consultants to help them qualify under its guidelines for federal education funding.
“The teachers’ strike in Chicago is arguably one of the most important labor actions in probably decades. If it does not prevail, you can be certain that the template for the attack on the union will be carried out across the country against other teachers unions and against the last redoubt of union activity, which is in the public sector, of course—firemen and police.”
One teacher who declined to be identified was shouting, “The biggest problem is poverty, and nobody wants to talk about that!”
An SEP supporter broke in to say, “Workers are talking about it all over. It’s the Democratic and Republican Parties that aren’t talking about it. They refuse to talk about it, but it’s the reality teachers are facing, in the classroom and also at home. The Democrats and Republicans want working people to pay for the financial crisis, and teachers have been first on the firing line.”
snip
[Jinny] Gerhardt [special ed teacher] said. “And there is a sense this isn’t just about Chicago. A lot of teachers are also struggling in Wisconsin and New York.
“The 800-pound gorilla in the room is poor kids. CPS doesn’t want to teach them.”
Strening [a music teacher] connected the attack on teachers and other workers to the financial crisis of 2007-08. “When I saw on CNN that with the financial collapse, when bond traders had lost everyone’s money, featured guests on the programs blamed public workers, unions, pensions, then I knew we were in trouble. They were going to blame the public workers for the lost money they had gambled away.”
[Karen] Lewis acknowledged at the press conference after the delegates meeting that the shutdown of schools was the “elephant in the room” and a driving force of teacher opposition.
Public school systems nationwide, starved of funding as a result of the economic crisis, have eliminated more than 300,000 teaching positions since 2008. Obama has responded by tying meager federal funds to the elimination of restraints on charter schools and the implementation of test-based evaluation systems.
In this process, the trade unions—including the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—have been active participants. Whatever their occasional criticisms of Emanuel and other “reformers,” the unions have collaborated every step of the way. At every point they sacrifice the interests of teachers to maintain their political alliance with the Democratic Party.
snip
This assault on teachers’ job security will allow the city to push out better-paid, more experienced teachers and replace them with ones who are younger, less experienced and lower-paid. Similar motives are behind the administration’s drive to more closely tie teacher evaluations—which are the basis for pay and tenure decisions—to test scores.
The claim that these measures are motivated by a desire to do “what is best for the kids” and to hold teachers “responsible” turns reality on its head. It is the teachers who are seeking to defend the rights of the students and opposing the attack on the public schools being carried out by the so-called “reformers.”
snip
Conditions of poverty and mass unemployment dominate large parts of cities such as Chicago. Over a third of Chicago’s children live in poverty and more than 80 percent qualify for free or subsidized lunches because their families are low-income.
It is the political representatives of the corporate and financial elite and the capitalist profit system who are responsible for these conditions, not the teachers. Over the past three decades, the public education system has been increasingly subordinated to the demands of big business.
CPS is deliberately starving the most troubled schools—generally in the poorest areas—of funds for infrastructure improvement. The Chicago Tribune in December quoted CPS Chief Operating Officer Tim Cawley as stating, “If we think there’s a chance that a building is to be closed in the next five to 10 years, if we think it’s unlikely it’s going to continue to be a school, we’re not going to invest in that building.”
snip
The horrific conditions in major urban centers are the product of the destruction of infrastructure and industry and an offensive against working class living standards going back decades. Now the same ruling class that is responsible for the crisis is utilizing it to justify the destruction of all of the gains previously won by teachers in decades of struggle.
snip
It is not simply a matter of one city. The concern is that if the Chicago teachers are not decisively defeated, teachers throughout the country—and workers in general—will be encouraged to fight back.
Jerry White, SEP presidential candidate:
Every teacher knows what is necessary to improve educational results. Students have to have enough to eat and decent living conditions. Teachers must have adequate resources, reduced class sizes, and up-to-date textbooks and supplies in order to provide a safe and productive learning environment.
Instead the opposite is happening and public education is systematically being gutted. This attack on public education is one of the most telling signs of the failure of the existing social system—capitalism. A system that cannot educate its youth and provide them with decent employment and a secure future deserves to perish.
In the US and around the world, unemployment, poverty and hunger are growing. Rather than carrying out genuine reform policies to alleviate social suffering, governments in every country are using the crisis to impose austerity and destroy the social gains won by the working class over more than a century of struggle. The assault on teachers and public education is part of a social counterrevolution.
This is the vision that Washington now supports, and that the Chicago school board, appointed by current mayor and former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, endorses: more school closings, more privately managed schools, more testing, merit pay, longer school hours. ....
The Chicago Teachers Union has a different vision: it wants smaller classes, more social workers, air-conditioning in the sweltering buildings where summer school is conducted, and a full curriculum, with teachers of arts and foreign languages in every school. Some schools in Chicago have more than forty students in a class, even in kindergarten. There are 160 schools without libraries; more than 40 percent have no teachers of the arts.
Jerry White, candidate for president from the Socialist Equality Party:
...The issue is not a lack of resources, but the monopolization of society’s wealth by the super-rich and the exclusion of working people from any decision-making over how the wealth that workers create is allocated. The Bush and Obama administrations found trillions to bail out the Wall Street speculators. Trillions more have been squandered on criminal wars to control the oil wealth in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Decent public schools are today incompatible with the continued existence of a system in which social needs are subordinated to private profit and the enrichment of a narrow elite. Basic democratic and social rights in general cannot survive in a society riven by social inequality.
That is why the fight of teachers, parents and students to defend public education is a struggle against the entire economic and political order. A vast redistribution of wealth is required so that hundreds of billions of dollars can be poured into the public schools to hire teachers and provide the necessary resources to raise the intellectual and cultural level of society as a whole.
Phyllis Scheffer, vice-presidential candidate from the Socialist Equality Party:
....“This struggle is the opening salvo against the living standards and social rights of the entire working class. They will not stop at education. The teachers strike must be made into a general struggle against all austerity measures.”
snip
Many teachers spoke about the conditions imposed on them by Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and the hypocrisy of Emanuel's claim that it is the strike—rather than CPS and the attack on public education being carried out by the city—that is hurting children.
“The conditions for students are horrible. In general, there is one counselor for every one thousand students in the schools,” said Allison, an elementary school counselor. “When they close down community agencies like free clinics and mental health agencies, the students are referred to the schools. I have to decide to refer the student to an agency where they have to pay for services or keep them and provide services for them myself. This is a difficult decision since the ratio between counselors and students is already so high.
“In the state of Illinois, it is over 900 students to one counselor. The American School Counselors Association says that there should be a ratio of 1 counselor for every 250 students. We have four times that in Illinois!”
Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate:
“Obama and Romney have made it clear that they think our kids don't need a quality education. They expect middle class people to bear the tax burden, and are not willing to make the wealthy pay a fair share, in order to fund our schools. The situation in Chicago is about whether the superrich pay their share, or whether we have underfunded schools.”
....The severe cut backs in funding brought on by the recession have taken a heavy toll on schools throughout the country. In battleground states like Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Florida, thousands of teachers and other personnel have been laid off, class sizes have risen and critical programs—kindergarten, music, art, afterschool programs etc. have been slashed or even eliminated.
snip
The most important provisions of the contract, according to the information so far available, are:
1) Expansion of test-based evaluation systems used to victimize teachers and blame them for the crisis of public education. The union highlights indicate that 30 percent of evaluations, and perhaps more in future years, will be based on “student growth” (testing). Tenured teachers will have only one year before they can be fired on the basis of these evaluations, while non-tenured teachers will be subject to immediate dismissal.
2) Capitulation to the Emanuel administration on teacher recall. Principals will have the decisive say in hiring teachers. There are provisions to give laid-off teachers preference in rehiring only at schools that take in students from schools that are shut down.
3) No restrictions on the shutdown of public schools, the mass firing of teachers, and the opening up of charter schools. The Emanuel administration has plans to close up to 120 schools over the next five years—one fifth of the entire Chicago Public Schools system—and open up 60 new charters run by for-profit companies.
4) No provisions to address chronic understaffing and deteriorating conditions in the public schools. According to the union, the CPS is committing to hire some nurses, social workers and counselors “if it gets new revenue.”
A wage increase of two to three percent a year over three years, barely keeping up with inflation. Any increase in wages to teachers will be more than balanced by layoffs and school closings, and the extension of the day and year without compensation.
Students and teachers describe the school as a safe haven, a place where, despite a severe lack of resources, teachers offer innovative lessons with real-world context and organize clubs and after-school programs on topics like literature, science, and the environment.
Curie students say they recognize the extra lengths their teachers go to in making sure they get a stimulating, top-flight education even in such trying circumstances. Hence many students and former students have spent the past few days on the picket lines with their teachers and former teachers.
snip
Students describe teachers regularly buying supplies out of their own pockets.
Unions are under attack in the United States—not only from people like Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, but now, with the teachers strike in Chicago, from the very core of President Barack Obama’s inner circle, his former chief of staff and current mayor of that city, Rahm Emanuel. ...
At the heart of the conflict is how schools will be run in Chicago: locally, from the grass roots, with teacher and parent control, or top-down, by a school board appointed by Emanuel.
snip
This struggle reflects the essence of Occupy Wall Street—community members across class, race and other traditional divides uniting in disciplined opposition to corporate power.
It has been largely successful, thanks to the diabolical genius of American racism, which always assumed that the project was aimed at Black and brown communities. The general attitude in 2002 was: break up that blackboard jungle in the inner cities. By all means, experiment on them! African American communities became the wedge through which could be inserted a corporate network of charter schools. Once the charter model reached critical mass in enough localities, President Obama unleashed an unrelenting wave of extortion and bribery that he called Race to the Top, forcing states to vastly expand the new market for charters. Thus reassured that taxpayer-financed education – a potential trillion dollar “market” – would become a Wild West for no-risk investment, Wall Street’s denizens jumped in the game with all four hooved feet.
Monica Davey and Steven Yaccino:
The strike arrived after months of violence in Chicago — homicides are up 30 percent over last year — and in some neighborhoods, families said they worried that a lack of school might bring still more danger. As of Sept. 2, 1,706 shootings had taken place here since the year’s start, a 10 percent increase over the same period in 2011, and much of the violence has been attributed to young gang members. As the strike began, the Chicago police said they were adding to their presence on the streets, and there has not appeared to be a particular increase in violence.[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
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“The 800-pound gorilla in the room is poor kids. CPS doesn’t want to teach them...” add to that children who have limited aptitude, mental capacity, language and social skills growing up in an environment infused with violence, criminal behaviors, alcohol and drug abuse where perceived options are limited and education is not only regarded as an exercise in futility but derided as a "cop out" to the powers of oppression. In the "Good Old Days" these kids went to "Juvee", dropped out and got drafted, or got pregnant and married. The difference is that entry level jobs in union shops in manufacturing or logistics served as safety net and now those jobs are gone.
So much to keep track of that I won't be able to read it all today but good job. One of the biggest problem is that they continue to ignore some of the most important aspects that contribute to the problem like the fact that property taxes are the primary source of funds and that is one of the most important thing their arguing over even though they disguise it otherwise. Another problem that doesn't receive enough attention is the fact that copyright laws are being used to drive up the cost of educational material now referred to as "intellectual property" which means that those in power partly own the right to educate.
And of course the fact that a small number of people have been making these decisions and they've only been giving lip service to the rest.
And of course the fact that a small number of people have been making these decisions and they've only been giving lip service to the rest.
Libby--If what you're saying is that schools exist in a larger climate of both poverty and the corporate profit goal, I don't see how anyone could argue that.
I would argue that the question isn't that that exists---the question is what to do about it.
Your quote from Kari Lydersen, a very respected writer, offers some clues. There are schools where its working. What we need to do is figure out why and replicate them.
I'd argue that the worst mistake we can make as a society is to make our goal "winning" rather than coming to a resolution. As karen Lewis said, "There is no such thing as a perfect negotiation. If there was, it wouldn't be a negotiation."
Standing outside the union hall Tuesday, hearing the roar of approval that went up from the delegates when they decided to go back to work; I realized that some would not like their decision to accept what they had negotiated. But if you take that position--you aren't listening to what the teachers say they want. To me, that's disrespectful.
One in 4 children in the CPS is below the poverty level. Schools feed them. I understand that is a shameful reflection on society. But I'd opt for feeding the kid while I tried to change society.
One of the reasons that labor---by most all accounts--is seen as being victorious here is that Lewis made negotiation the goal. Until the entry of David Vitale into the mix, the CPS goal was "winning."
The teachers who fought say this is a fair compromise. So does the mayor.
The details on what was decided in evaluating teachers was more than fair---and I've read all of them.
No one is saying we're done. But there was progress made.
I would argue that the question isn't that that exists---the question is what to do about it.
Your quote from Kari Lydersen, a very respected writer, offers some clues. There are schools where its working. What we need to do is figure out why and replicate them.
I'd argue that the worst mistake we can make as a society is to make our goal "winning" rather than coming to a resolution. As karen Lewis said, "There is no such thing as a perfect negotiation. If there was, it wouldn't be a negotiation."
Standing outside the union hall Tuesday, hearing the roar of approval that went up from the delegates when they decided to go back to work; I realized that some would not like their decision to accept what they had negotiated. But if you take that position--you aren't listening to what the teachers say they want. To me, that's disrespectful.
One in 4 children in the CPS is below the poverty level. Schools feed them. I understand that is a shameful reflection on society. But I'd opt for feeding the kid while I tried to change society.
One of the reasons that labor---by most all accounts--is seen as being victorious here is that Lewis made negotiation the goal. Until the entry of David Vitale into the mix, the CPS goal was "winning."
The teachers who fought say this is a fair compromise. So does the mayor.
The details on what was decided in evaluating teachers was more than fair---and I've read all of them.
No one is saying we're done. But there was progress made.
It would not be PC to round up the poor and gas them- but we can force a billion dollar drug business - created and maintained with the support of both parties - into the stressed hoods that have endured four full decades of repression (I call this the Great Repression) - education and basketball are the only way out.
As the left as become right no one gives a shit about the poor non white inner city populations most likely not to vote, produce, or consume up to corpgov's exepectations. We should call it what it is and that is genocide. It only makes sense to screw with education - to speed up the elimination of the non white urban population.
But the middle class should beware - becuase the elite keep us as a buffer - to manage the hordes of poor - now that they have the system figured out they have already started hacking away at programs important to us - we are obsolete now as well. Mexican labor and Chinese goods will carry the elite through the end of this "new american century"...
As the left as become right no one gives a shit about the poor non white inner city populations most likely not to vote, produce, or consume up to corpgov's exepectations. We should call it what it is and that is genocide. It only makes sense to screw with education - to speed up the elimination of the non white urban population.
But the middle class should beware - becuase the elite keep us as a buffer - to manage the hordes of poor - now that they have the system figured out they have already started hacking away at programs important to us - we are obsolete now as well. Mexican labor and Chinese goods will carry the elite through the end of this "new american century"...
It would not be PC to round up the poor and gas them- but we can force a billion dollar drug business - created and maintained with the support of both parties - into the stressed hoods that have endured four full decades of repression (I call this the Great Repression) - education and basketball are the only way out.
As the left as become right no one gives a shit about the poor non white inner city populations most likely not to vote, produce, or consume up to corpgov's exepectations. We should call it what it is and that is genocide. It only makes sense to screw with education - to speed up the elimination of the non white urban population.
But the middle class should beware - becuase the elite keep us as a buffer - to manage the hordes of poor - now that they have the system figured out they have already started hacking away at programs important to us - we are obsolete now as well. Mexican labor and Chinese goods will carry the elite through the end of this "new american century"...
As the left as become right no one gives a shit about the poor non white inner city populations most likely not to vote, produce, or consume up to corpgov's exepectations. We should call it what it is and that is genocide. It only makes sense to screw with education - to speed up the elimination of the non white urban population.
But the middle class should beware - becuase the elite keep us as a buffer - to manage the hordes of poor - now that they have the system figured out they have already started hacking away at programs important to us - we are obsolete now as well. Mexican labor and Chinese goods will carry the elite through the end of this "new american century"...
jmac, thanks for wading through all of this. I have more that I want to say in a followup blog on this but I was overwhelmed by the warnings of the above writer/activists.
More to say about what was going on with the Chicago teachers and I was disappointed they did settle, though I am grateful they went as far as they did. The 800 delegates voted for settlement so I assume the rank and file balance of the 26,000 will go along.
In these desperate times it shows how outraged morally these teachers were about the "soul of education" as well as outraged for their own economic plight. To have the media devour them so mercilessly, continue the work of the non-accountable ruling class elite scapegoating them must have been very hard on them.
And the sticks and faux-carrots from an obnoxious Emanuel who told Karen Lewis early on that he refused to throw money at the bottom 1/4 of kids in Chicago who weren't worth it. Though I'm thinking Rahm wasn't honest and the fraction is even larger. Our representatives on all levels don't want to represent their full constituencies. Just like charter schools, they want to cherry-pick. And they have the strong arm of the corporate media as weapon to either ignore the plight of who they neglect or to vilify their latest victims, like the teachers.
Everyone knows American schools are in trouble. Making them worse and calling it "reform" is evil.
All that money the corporatists stole and they are like the Energizer bunny, they keep on stealing. Now from America's children. 1 out of 4 kids in American under poverty level which is a really low bar to begin with. Shameless doesn't begin to describe it on the part of the Obamas, the Arnes, the Rahms, and the rest of the rat bastards, and of course the rabid rat bastard Republicans. But to pretend the Repubs are the ones to blame exclusively is to wear blinders.
It was really important to bring the Chicago issue to a close and get it out of the media spotlight because of the upcoming election. Extra pressure on those Dem-loyal union leaders. Chicago is totally a Dem town and that brought too much reality out in the open. No Repubs are blocking what should be happening in helping Chicago schools. It is the corporate-loving Dems selling out there TOTALLY.
Obama is not neutral at all re this strike. Rahm is doing the heavy lifting. But like Bloomberg in NYC, those type pols enjoy the tough-guy stance and often the media also loves it and goes with it. Free speech and free assembly no longer respected by so many "authoritarian following" Americans, especially faux liberal Dems.
best, libby
More to say about what was going on with the Chicago teachers and I was disappointed they did settle, though I am grateful they went as far as they did. The 800 delegates voted for settlement so I assume the rank and file balance of the 26,000 will go along.
In these desperate times it shows how outraged morally these teachers were about the "soul of education" as well as outraged for their own economic plight. To have the media devour them so mercilessly, continue the work of the non-accountable ruling class elite scapegoating them must have been very hard on them.
And the sticks and faux-carrots from an obnoxious Emanuel who told Karen Lewis early on that he refused to throw money at the bottom 1/4 of kids in Chicago who weren't worth it. Though I'm thinking Rahm wasn't honest and the fraction is even larger. Our representatives on all levels don't want to represent their full constituencies. Just like charter schools, they want to cherry-pick. And they have the strong arm of the corporate media as weapon to either ignore the plight of who they neglect or to vilify their latest victims, like the teachers.
Everyone knows American schools are in trouble. Making them worse and calling it "reform" is evil.
All that money the corporatists stole and they are like the Energizer bunny, they keep on stealing. Now from America's children. 1 out of 4 kids in American under poverty level which is a really low bar to begin with. Shameless doesn't begin to describe it on the part of the Obamas, the Arnes, the Rahms, and the rest of the rat bastards, and of course the rabid rat bastard Republicans. But to pretend the Repubs are the ones to blame exclusively is to wear blinders.
It was really important to bring the Chicago issue to a close and get it out of the media spotlight because of the upcoming election. Extra pressure on those Dem-loyal union leaders. Chicago is totally a Dem town and that brought too much reality out in the open. No Repubs are blocking what should be happening in helping Chicago schools. It is the corporate-loving Dems selling out there TOTALLY.
Obama is not neutral at all re this strike. Rahm is doing the heavy lifting. But like Bloomberg in NYC, those type pols enjoy the tough-guy stance and often the media also loves it and goes with it. Free speech and free assembly no longer respected by so many "authoritarian following" Americans, especially faux liberal Dems.
best, libby
Zachd, thanks for showing up and commenting.
I overdid all my quoting but I wanted to show and repeat the perspective of so many re the big picture on this strike. First OWS, then Wisconsin and now Chicago. And the pushback on these was great with all of them. The media tried to ignore them. Then to titillate with the story but not really to promote the values.
And there is no real respect or support for these strikers from either party, even though the Dems want to, now that it is election time, pretend some degree of "populism" to win votes, but just as they let the Wisconsin strikers twist in the wind and let Walker win when that should have not happened, they let the media vilify the teachers for them and the Dem-loyal union leaders help snuff out this front line of pushback from citizens, especially before the election. Not to sully Obama's chances.
Obama, never to be made accountable. He gets the default pass after so much betrayal after these four years. It is stunning.
I think of that quote "hungry people make poor shoppers". Also something about people in denial becoming even more closely bonded with their primary abuser, especially confused "children". That is what the citizenry has become. So vulnerable, confused and more and more disempowered to helplessness.
Hard to do righteous, long-term fighting when you need to support yourself and your family with food and housing.
I give it to the teachers. I also mourn the end of this particular front to fight the ruling class elite from.
best, libby
I overdid all my quoting but I wanted to show and repeat the perspective of so many re the big picture on this strike. First OWS, then Wisconsin and now Chicago. And the pushback on these was great with all of them. The media tried to ignore them. Then to titillate with the story but not really to promote the values.
And there is no real respect or support for these strikers from either party, even though the Dems want to, now that it is election time, pretend some degree of "populism" to win votes, but just as they let the Wisconsin strikers twist in the wind and let Walker win when that should have not happened, they let the media vilify the teachers for them and the Dem-loyal union leaders help snuff out this front line of pushback from citizens, especially before the election. Not to sully Obama's chances.
Obama, never to be made accountable. He gets the default pass after so much betrayal after these four years. It is stunning.
I think of that quote "hungry people make poor shoppers". Also something about people in denial becoming even more closely bonded with their primary abuser, especially confused "children". That is what the citizenry has become. So vulnerable, confused and more and more disempowered to helplessness.
Hard to do righteous, long-term fighting when you need to support yourself and your family with food and housing.
I give it to the teachers. I also mourn the end of this particular front to fight the ruling class elite from.
best, libby
Chicago Guy, thanks for commenting!
I want to do followups on this I have done so much research as I told you. I copped out for an intro and just quoted all these people saying what I was also trying to say. Trying to paint the "big picture" of what is happening more and more nationally and to me the settlement is insulting.
Obama's Race to the Top and Charter-schools creating is just as craven and exploitive and destructive as Bush's No Child Left Behind.
Yes, indeed, there is a crisis in education. But to worsen it by calling it "reform" is Orwellian and craven and that is what the Rahms and Duncans and Obamas are doing.
And the fact that the media had such little empathy for the teachers and such a narrow focus. I know as an ex-teacher to get 26,000 teachers hitting the pavement things must be VERY grave, indeed. Teachers want stability, they are not into teaching for the money. They earned the right to job security. Yes, there are deadwood teachers. But this isn't really about eliminating them. This is about scapegoating teachers. Taking away funding. Making conditions all them ore impossible for good teachers to sustain their work. And also to weaken the union in ALL professions.
As the rat bastard politicians hand over more and more government money to profiteering opportunists capitalists or ego-mad ruling class elites who presume to know more about educating than educators. But who bottom line are looking for more fast bucks.
We need reform with education. REAL reform.
We need POVERTY to be addressed in America. We have all been goose-stepping by the homeless all these decades and have you ever even heard the word "homeless" uttered by a politician except for John Edwards during his campaign? Obama can't even lower his eyes below the middle class he is so quickly lowering to lower class, by the way. Not even working class, cuz where is the GD work?
We need human empathy. EMPATHY. So street gang violence is up in Chicago. Duh! And they want to take funding away from struggling schools and punish the teachers there who have kids who are not standard test high scorers. So those kids will drop out of school to what kinds of lives?
Maybe they can go into the prison population and make drones for practically nothing so that will help promote war and make their lives miserable. That is where we are at. But the sociopathic corporations will be serviced.
Sorry, Chicago. I worked hard for universal health care. And your pragmatism, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good stance, reminds me way too much of the public option apologists who trusted the Dems and sold out a movement that could have had momentum but got betrayed by incrementalists who did not realize and many still don't the incrementalism was backward not forward. Look what we got with healthcare and now with Medicare and social security on the chopping blocks.
Most people pretend we got something serious with health care. Maybe you, too. But what we could have had, what we had a right to have, got flushed when it didn't have to be. Obama gave it up without even trying he was such a Trojan horse to the VENDORS, those obscenely wealthy now and corrupt vendors. Sociopathic in their ruthlessness. The vendors are deciding who lives and who dies in America and the politicians gave them that right for MONEY. Corporate-captured government. It is appalling.
The teachers need to feed their families. They know that thousands of them will be laid off soon with more and more school closings and Rahm as super sell out re the corporations. Mr. Wheeler and Dealer. The union leaders had a hard job but they were in the corrupt Dem Party's pocket is how I see it. They went as far as they could and I appreciate them for that. I feel sorry they had such crap heaped on them from a media that people just don't get yet what an incredible tool it is for disempowering us as citizens. Divide up and conquer. Make citizens authoritarian followers.
The War on Empathy rages on in America. The government and ruling class elite are so winning.
My take, Chicago Guy, but I really appreciate you dialoguing with me!!! Hope we can continue!
best, libby
I want to do followups on this I have done so much research as I told you. I copped out for an intro and just quoted all these people saying what I was also trying to say. Trying to paint the "big picture" of what is happening more and more nationally and to me the settlement is insulting.
Obama's Race to the Top and Charter-schools creating is just as craven and exploitive and destructive as Bush's No Child Left Behind.
Yes, indeed, there is a crisis in education. But to worsen it by calling it "reform" is Orwellian and craven and that is what the Rahms and Duncans and Obamas are doing.
And the fact that the media had such little empathy for the teachers and such a narrow focus. I know as an ex-teacher to get 26,000 teachers hitting the pavement things must be VERY grave, indeed. Teachers want stability, they are not into teaching for the money. They earned the right to job security. Yes, there are deadwood teachers. But this isn't really about eliminating them. This is about scapegoating teachers. Taking away funding. Making conditions all them ore impossible for good teachers to sustain their work. And also to weaken the union in ALL professions.
As the rat bastard politicians hand over more and more government money to profiteering opportunists capitalists or ego-mad ruling class elites who presume to know more about educating than educators. But who bottom line are looking for more fast bucks.
We need reform with education. REAL reform.
We need POVERTY to be addressed in America. We have all been goose-stepping by the homeless all these decades and have you ever even heard the word "homeless" uttered by a politician except for John Edwards during his campaign? Obama can't even lower his eyes below the middle class he is so quickly lowering to lower class, by the way. Not even working class, cuz where is the GD work?
We need human empathy. EMPATHY. So street gang violence is up in Chicago. Duh! And they want to take funding away from struggling schools and punish the teachers there who have kids who are not standard test high scorers. So those kids will drop out of school to what kinds of lives?
Maybe they can go into the prison population and make drones for practically nothing so that will help promote war and make their lives miserable. That is where we are at. But the sociopathic corporations will be serviced.
Sorry, Chicago. I worked hard for universal health care. And your pragmatism, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good stance, reminds me way too much of the public option apologists who trusted the Dems and sold out a movement that could have had momentum but got betrayed by incrementalists who did not realize and many still don't the incrementalism was backward not forward. Look what we got with healthcare and now with Medicare and social security on the chopping blocks.
Most people pretend we got something serious with health care. Maybe you, too. But what we could have had, what we had a right to have, got flushed when it didn't have to be. Obama gave it up without even trying he was such a Trojan horse to the VENDORS, those obscenely wealthy now and corrupt vendors. Sociopathic in their ruthlessness. The vendors are deciding who lives and who dies in America and the politicians gave them that right for MONEY. Corporate-captured government. It is appalling.
The teachers need to feed their families. They know that thousands of them will be laid off soon with more and more school closings and Rahm as super sell out re the corporations. Mr. Wheeler and Dealer. The union leaders had a hard job but they were in the corrupt Dem Party's pocket is how I see it. They went as far as they could and I appreciate them for that. I feel sorry they had such crap heaped on them from a media that people just don't get yet what an incredible tool it is for disempowering us as citizens. Divide up and conquer. Make citizens authoritarian followers.
The War on Empathy rages on in America. The government and ruling class elite are so winning.
My take, Chicago Guy, but I really appreciate you dialoguing with me!!! Hope we can continue!
best, libby
Snowden,
Thanks for commenting. I am as cynical and despairing as you right now. I sure didn't use the "apartheid" word lightly. But I know I repel all those hanging on so dearly to denial re Obama especially during a horrifying election where the two choices are so much alike as the media tells us they are so different. Such bullshit from all involved. God the levels of bullshit and evil we are dealing with.
Blame the victims. Blame the kids, blame the teachers. Blame the victims and trust the media will do a damn good job of continuing the Orwellian crazymaking. Ethical freakshow of a universe is what Maddow once called it before she began drinking too much Dem koolaid.
Money talks. Money is power. The public trust, the common good, they don't even get lip service any more.
Did Obama say something smooth on Letterman this week? Well, there you go. He deserves the vote. Look at Romney so bad? Once again, then Obama must deserve the vote. WTF???? Why? Because the teebee will only talk about those two candidates and the talking heads especially of faux-progressive MSNBC will cherrypick and do selective analysis against team Republican and let team Democrat be as betraying and corrupt as it wants?
I want to go on writing about this particular crisis, Snowden. Thanks for showing up and validating my perspective on this. Wish there were more of us, but it sure as hell needs to be said.
best, libby
Thanks for commenting. I am as cynical and despairing as you right now. I sure didn't use the "apartheid" word lightly. But I know I repel all those hanging on so dearly to denial re Obama especially during a horrifying election where the two choices are so much alike as the media tells us they are so different. Such bullshit from all involved. God the levels of bullshit and evil we are dealing with.
Blame the victims. Blame the kids, blame the teachers. Blame the victims and trust the media will do a damn good job of continuing the Orwellian crazymaking. Ethical freakshow of a universe is what Maddow once called it before she began drinking too much Dem koolaid.
Money talks. Money is power. The public trust, the common good, they don't even get lip service any more.
Did Obama say something smooth on Letterman this week? Well, there you go. He deserves the vote. Look at Romney so bad? Once again, then Obama must deserve the vote. WTF???? Why? Because the teebee will only talk about those two candidates and the talking heads especially of faux-progressive MSNBC will cherrypick and do selective analysis against team Republican and let team Democrat be as betraying and corrupt as it wants?
I want to go on writing about this particular crisis, Snowden. Thanks for showing up and validating my perspective on this. Wish there were more of us, but it sure as hell needs to be said.
best, libby
I SHARE YOUR EXTREME CONCERN. GREAT POST.
For the United States to say that it does not have the money for education is sacrilege and such bulls**t. We all know how to get the money for great and free K-12 and higher education too. Just a few tax points on the big money will do it with sugar on top.
But you watch, same as with health care and Social Security. The president, the Congress and the media will talk and talk and talk about everything in this universe and they will keep "talking" forever, but not one, not one person will touch taxing the rich.
You will see, Obama will get elected (hopefully), and he will make it look like he fought Goliath to get us those three tax points on the rich. The attitude will like this: Hey! What more do you want, thank God you still have half of your benefits!
Excellent piece, like always, Libby. R
But you watch, same as with health care and Social Security. The president, the Congress and the media will talk and talk and talk about everything in this universe and they will keep "talking" forever, but not one, not one person will touch taxing the rich.
You will see, Obama will get elected (hopefully), and he will make it look like he fought Goliath to get us those three tax points on the rich. The attitude will like this: Hey! What more do you want, thank God you still have half of your benefits!
Excellent piece, like always, Libby. R
Kathy, thanks so much!!!
Thoth, I so agree!! The money is there. The obscene greed is so disgusting and the media and both parties so in league to protect the rich!!! Even to take school lunches away from hungry kids. It is disgusting! thanks once again for visiting! best, libby
Thoth, I so agree!! The money is there. The obscene greed is so disgusting and the media and both parties so in league to protect the rich!!! Even to take school lunches away from hungry kids. It is disgusting! thanks once again for visiting! best, libby
"what is to be done?
as long as you are willing to accept the rules of the game as they are now, nothing.
as long as you are willing to accept the rules of the game as they are now, nothing.
OMG Libby, where to start? You cover so much ground. I keep thinking of the right-wing Central American death squads whose targets were always labor unions, famers cooperatives, consumer unions, and any grass-root groups who resisted total and complete corporate domination. No grass-roots group could be allowed to resist total control & domination by the plutocracy. It hasn't become as violent here but the agenda is the same. The domestic agenda in the USA is the same, even with less violence.
And I think of that movie "Waiting for Superman" that acheived mainstream distruibution and was a very dishonest advertisemnt for charter schools. Viewers would never know that only 17% of charter schools out-performed public schools. 83% were either the same or inferior in outcomes.
And teachers are expected to single-handedly overcome all the effects of poverty, low birth weight, malnutrition, family dysfunciton, drug abuse, abuse and neglect, despair and depression so the larger society doesn't have to face the fact that American society has a higher percentage of school-age children living in poverty today than any other industrialized nation. [r]
And I think of that movie "Waiting for Superman" that acheived mainstream distruibution and was a very dishonest advertisemnt for charter schools. Viewers would never know that only 17% of charter schools out-performed public schools. 83% were either the same or inferior in outcomes.
And teachers are expected to single-handedly overcome all the effects of poverty, low birth weight, malnutrition, family dysfunciton, drug abuse, abuse and neglect, despair and depression so the larger society doesn't have to face the fact that American society has a higher percentage of school-age children living in poverty today than any other industrialized nation. [r]
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