A colleague showed me the cover of the Murdoch Post today.
The lead story was entitled "Perv Teachers".
It detailed three DOE employees - one para, one sub, and one teacher (I guess "Perv DOE Employees" doesn't have the same juice as "Perv Teachers") who were arrested for inappropriate and/or sexually explicit contact with students on the Internet.
3 DOE employees out of 80,000.
I did the math on that and came up with the percentage of how many DOE employees were caught as "pervs" - 0.0000375%.
Meanwhile last month a FOX 5 News reporter named Charles Leaf was arrested for child molestation.
The Murdoch Post did NOT run that story on the front cover.
In fact, they barely ran that story at all.
They gave it two paragraphs.
The Daily News, good news people that they are, did give it some coverage.
They covered the original arrest, then did some homework and found out that the Fox 5 reporter had actually been accused of molesting family members in the past.
So the Murdoch Post, which was hawking the 3 DOE "pervs" story today and followed it up with a "Bloomberg says teachers who 'friend' students on Facebook should be fired" story this evening couldn't be bothered with covering the Fox 5 reporter arrested for molesting a four-year old and alleged to have molested family members in the past, but they could give front page space to the DOE story.
Today I went over to the Fox 5 website and counted 27 on air personalities.
I did the math on that.
I discovered that 0.037% of Fox 5 on air personalities are "pervs".
In other words, there are more pervs at Fox 5 News than in the DOE, at least if you are counting the latest tabloid stories.
How come the Murdoch Post isn't running that story?
Oh, right - Murdoch owns Fox 5 too.
Ironic, that.
Or just hypocritical.
I wonder how many other "pervs" are over at Fox 5?
Didn't Ernie Anastos say something about "plucking" chickens or something?
Perdido 03
Monday, October 18, 2010
Bob Braun Takes Aim At "This Season's Education Reform"
From my favorite writer in the Newark Star Ledger:
That must be the rebuttal to all the "manifestos" Klein and Company publish in the papers or spew on TV.
This education reform movement isn't about improving education.
It's about reducing spending, especially for teacher salaries and infrastructure.
Klein himself has told us that.
He envisions a future where one teacher in Sri Lanka teaches 100 students here in NYC, perhaps home on their computers, perhaps in some "education center" somewhere with a para-professional or two to watch over them while they "do their work."
That's what "online education" is all about - saving money on salaries and buildings.
That is what this latest education reform movement is about.
Sure Obama has increased education spending since he took over - but little to none of that money goes to classroom use.
Certainly it doesn't go to teacher salaries (even as he says he has helped raise teacher salaries.)
Rather the money goes to no-bid contracts for standardized tests, it goes to build "data systems" to track the scores from those tests, and it goes to central administration "accountability experts" to fire people based on the scores they're tracking.
That's not spending more on education.
That's spending more on administration.
Meanwhile teachers are threatened with layoffs here in NYC, many teachers have been let go across the country and many more may get pink slips before the year is out.
But take a look at how many charter schools are hiring - especially for management and administration.
Somebody's getting the money that used to go to education.
But it certainly isn't public school children or public school teachers.
This season’s version of education reform has hit some speed bumps, what with the resignation of the Washington, D.C., schools chief and the report that students in the City of Oz version of school — the Harlem Children’s Zone — did not do as well as expected on state tests.
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"Superman and Wonder Woman Meet Kryptonite" was the headline to these stories suggested by Paul Tractenberg, the Rutgers Law School professor who has, for decades, championed education reform done the hard way — by paying for, and persistently pursuing, it.
He refers to the superhero status given to Michelle Rhee, an advocate of merit pay and soon to be ex-superintendent, and Geoffrey Canada, the well-paid CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone charter schools, by the movie "Waiting for Superman" and Oprah Winfrey.
Winfrey urged Gov. Chris Christie to hire Rhee as Newark’s superintendent and dubbed Canada "superman" of education. That was all on the same show that billionaire Mark Zuckerberg — a graduate of a prep school that charges $40,000 annually — pledged $100 million in Facebook stock over five years to reform Newark schools that cost nearly $1 billion a year to run.
How that reform will occur, we don’t yet know, but responsibility will be given to Cory Booker, called the "rock star mayor of Newark" by Winfrey. Booker, once details are settled, will be an informal educational adviser to the governor, a sort of Robin to Christie’s Batman.
One development is certain, according to someone studying school reform for decades: This latest wave of hyped reform won’t be the last. Joseph DePierro, the dean of Seton Hall’s College of Education and Human Services, says the nation witnesses highly touted, New Dawn, we’re-finally-going-to-fix-it-now demands for change every generation.
"The question is what good they do, or how much harm," says DePierro.
The university dean is concerned because, he says, this one is accompanied by an unprecedented attack on public schools and their employees and is at least as motivated by reducing spending as it is by improving education.
"It’s very different from past reform efforts,’’ he says. He cites calls for change that followed "A Nation at Risk," a presidential report that warned the damage done to schools by neglect and underfunding was like an "act of war" committed against us by a foreign country.
"That report recommended raising teacher salaries, improving their benefits, enhancing their security, all with the aim of attracting bright young people to the profession," says DePierro, who started his own career as a public school teacher.
"We did that, but now we’re taking it all away — at a time when the state and the nation need to hire those young bright people. We’re also showing public scorn for teachers by emphasizing the idea many should be replaced, or just dismissed."
One of the planks of the governor’s education reform platform is a plan to dismiss poor-performing teachers and use the savings to fund merit pay. He also wants to expand charter schools.
DiPierro’s theory might explain why, in every generation, education smashes into a crisis, real or manufactured, and the crisis is wrestled to the floor by the latest great plan for reform.
A generation before "A Nation at Risk," schools endured the Sputnik scare after the Soviet Union put a beeping, metal basketball in orbit that, according to some, threatened our nation. It led to enhanced spending for math and science education.
Fueled by fear of Reds and willing to spend the bucks, the United States — little more than a decade later — landed the first man on the moon; unfortunately, Neil Armstrong blew his lines stepping onto the lunar dust.
Ideology and economic circumstances play roles in shaping cyclical reform. The "A Nation at Risk" era was the flush, spare-no-expense years of Ronald Reagan’s "Morning in America." A Republican governor, Thomas Kean — not the New Jersey Education Association — led the fight for increasing teacher’ salaries here and sent public school costs skyrocketing.
But spending money on teachers is just so yesterday. Now, politics and economic circumstances call for cutting public spending, weakening unions, privatizing as much of government as can be sold to profit-making enterprises.
DePierro says he worries about the long-term impact of this newest round of reform.
"I don’t think it will kill public education," he says. "But it already has maimed it."
That must be the rebuttal to all the "manifestos" Klein and Company publish in the papers or spew on TV.
This education reform movement isn't about improving education.
It's about reducing spending, especially for teacher salaries and infrastructure.
Klein himself has told us that.
He envisions a future where one teacher in Sri Lanka teaches 100 students here in NYC, perhaps home on their computers, perhaps in some "education center" somewhere with a para-professional or two to watch over them while they "do their work."
That's what "online education" is all about - saving money on salaries and buildings.
That is what this latest education reform movement is about.
Sure Obama has increased education spending since he took over - but little to none of that money goes to classroom use.
Certainly it doesn't go to teacher salaries (even as he says he has helped raise teacher salaries.)
Rather the money goes to no-bid contracts for standardized tests, it goes to build "data systems" to track the scores from those tests, and it goes to central administration "accountability experts" to fire people based on the scores they're tracking.
That's not spending more on education.
That's spending more on administration.
Meanwhile teachers are threatened with layoffs here in NYC, many teachers have been let go across the country and many more may get pink slips before the year is out.
But take a look at how many charter schools are hiring - especially for management and administration.
Somebody's getting the money that used to go to education.
But it certainly isn't public school children or public school teachers.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Goldman Sachs, Dirty Money and the Harlem Children's Zone
Goldman Sachs gave a $20 million grant to the Harlem Children's Zone through it's charity wing, Goldman Sachs Gives.
According to Geoffrey Canada, founder of the HCZ, that money will enable the organization to build a new school, among other things.
Isn't that wonderful!
But how much of that money Canada and the HCZ is receiving from Goldman Sachs was made from human misery and/or criminal activity?
In April, Goldman Sachs was charged by the S.E.C. with fraud in the structuring and marketing of a CDO (collateralized debt obligation) tied to subprime mortgages.
Goldman settled that case in July, agreeing to pay $550 million dollars in the settlement. Goldman did not admit wrongdoing, but did agree to pay the fine for "marketing materials for Abacus 2007-AC1 that contained 'incomplete information.'"
In other words, they lied to the people they were selling their financial product to. They made believe the product had some value when they knew that it was essentially worthless (full of mortgages that were in danger of default.) In fact, Goldman even made side bets AGAINST Abacus 2007-AC1.
Here is how Bloomberg News described the transactions:
So Goldman made money both coming and going - they sold a worthless financial product that was guaranteed to go belly up to their customers without telling them it was worthless, then made MORE money by betting against that very product themselves.
Ingenious - no wonder they call these guys Masters of the Universe!
But that's not the only fraudulent way Goldman Sachs makes money.
Goldman Sachs also owns Litton Loan Servicing - a company that has been sued numerous times for all kinds of fraudulent business practices.
Back in 2005, customers of Litton Loan charged the company with fraud in a class action lawsuit:
Litton Loan settled that case in 2009, but since the court found that the plaintiffs had not "established the elements needed to determine predominance or superiority on their claim for actual damages," statutory damages were capped at $500,000 for the entire Class.
This class action lawsuit was far from the only complaints against Litton Loan Servicing. Here is a whole host of complaints at Consumercomplaints.com (66 pages of them!) against Litton.
Here is one complaint about Litton from that site:
There are lots of other outrageous complaints against Litton there, many as heartbreaking as the one above. Litton Loan Servicing is creating lots of misery in the world, much of it because they just don't seem to care about details, circumstances, ethics or even the law when it comes to dealing with their customers.
And unfortunately the way Wall Street works these days, you can become a Litton Loan customer without intending to if your original mortgage company sells your mortgage to them, as has happened to hundreds of thousands of people.
Also as we can see from this NY Times article on October 13, 2010, Litton Loan Servicing isn't exactly hiring "professionals" to do its business either:
And yet this employee was doing loan officer work.
So Litton is using amateurs to process its foreclosures, throwing tons of people out of there homes without cause, charging fees they shouldn't be charging for loan payments that weren't actually late, and claiming people are in default on their mortgages even when they aren't.
And they're getting away with this, as is the company that owns them, Goldman Sachs.
Goldman also owns a substantial part of for-profit education company Art Institute which according to Bloomberg News peddles degrees for up to $100,000 that students later find are "worthless."
So here is this company that has sold toxic financial products that it knew was worthless to customers without telling them while shorting those very same products, owns a loan servicer that is scamming hundreds of thousands of people all across this country and owns a 38% stake in a for-profit education company that offers worthless degrees for as much as six figures that leave students in debt up to their eyeballs but without gainful employment.
Let me ask the question again, how much of the $20 million that Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone received from Goldman Sachs was made from human misery and/or criminal activity?
How much of that money came from somebody who fraudulently lost their house to Litton Loan or had to pay late fees for mortgage payments that weren't actually late?
How much of that money came from students who paid for a worthless degree from Art Institute and are working as strippers or grocery clerks to pay off their loans?
How much of that money came from investors who bought into a Goldman financial product that Goldman knew was worthless and who lost their shirts in the Housing Bubble collapse?
And what does it say about both Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone that they're happy to take the money made from shady foreclosures, fraudulent mortgage fees, garbage college degrees at diploma mill universities, and worthless collateralized debt obligations that were hawked to naive investors as something of value?
The old saying goes that you are what you eat.
The same can be said for non-profit organizations that claim to be doing good in the world.
They are where they raise their funds from.
Given how Goldman Sachs makes its money, Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone ought to be ashamed that they have taken even one cent from Goldman and should give back the entire grant.
Sure Canada can build a new school with that money.
But how many people have had their lives destroyed by Goldman Sachs, lost their homes or their savings to these crooks, in order for Mr. Canada and the HCZ to build that school?
According to Geoffrey Canada, founder of the HCZ, that money will enable the organization to build a new school, among other things.
Isn't that wonderful!
But how much of that money Canada and the HCZ is receiving from Goldman Sachs was made from human misery and/or criminal activity?
In April, Goldman Sachs was charged by the S.E.C. with fraud in the structuring and marketing of a CDO (collateralized debt obligation) tied to subprime mortgages.
Goldman settled that case in July, agreeing to pay $550 million dollars in the settlement. Goldman did not admit wrongdoing, but did agree to pay the fine for "marketing materials for Abacus 2007-AC1 that contained 'incomplete information.'"
In other words, they lied to the people they were selling their financial product to. They made believe the product had some value when they knew that it was essentially worthless (full of mortgages that were in danger of default.) In fact, Goldman even made side bets AGAINST Abacus 2007-AC1.
Here is how Bloomberg News described the transactions:
April 17 (Bloomberg) -- From July 2004 through April 2007, as credit markets boomed, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. created 23 financial transactions called Abacus, the word for a relatively crude counting tool involving the shuffling of beads.
Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the bank for securities fraud in what would be the penultimate offering in the series, according to Bloomberg data.
The bank used the deals to off-load the risk of mostly subprime home loans and commercial mortgages to investors, either as hedges for similar positions or to bet against securities itself. While the data show New York-based Goldman Sachs issued at least $7.8 billion of Abacus notes, the risk passed to investors was multiples higher.
The Abacus transactions are so-called synthetic collateralized debt obligations, which marry two financial innovations that contributed to the worst collapse in financial markets since the Great Depression.
The financial tools, often called technologies, are credit- default swaps, used to transfer the risk of losses on debt, and securitization, used to slice the risk in a pool of assets into various new securities.
Abacus deals were filled with default swaps that offered payouts to Goldman Sachs if certain mortgage bonds didn’t pay as promised, in return for regular premiums from the bank.
Some of the cash needed for the potential payouts to Goldman Sachs would be raised upfront, and essentially placed in escrow, from sales of Abacus CDO notes with varying ratings. The grades were tied to how many of the underlying securities needed to default before the CDO classes would.
Such securitization enabled debt with the lowest investment-grade ratings to be transformed, in part, into AAA securities that turned out to not be as safe as that ranking suggested. At least $5 billion of Abacus slices now carry junk ratings, below BBB-, from Standard & Poor’s, or have defaulted, Bloomberg data show.
The SEC said that Goldman Sachs created and sold Abacus 2007-AC1 without disclosing that hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped pick the underlying securities and also bet the CDO would default. Paulson was proved correct, and his hedge fund eventually turned a $1 billion profit and CDO investors lost a similar amount, according to the SEC.
So Goldman made money both coming and going - they sold a worthless financial product that was guaranteed to go belly up to their customers without telling them it was worthless, then made MORE money by betting against that very product themselves.
Ingenious - no wonder they call these guys Masters of the Universe!
But that's not the only fraudulent way Goldman Sachs makes money.
Goldman Sachs also owns Litton Loan Servicing - a company that has been sued numerous times for all kinds of fraudulent business practices.
Back in 2005, customers of Litton Loan charged the company with fraud in a class action lawsuit:
The Nationwide Class alleged claims based on violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ("RESPA") relating to Litton's improper actions in imposing late fees or treating payments as late during the 60-day grace period following the effective date of loan transfer if a borrower sends a payment to his or her old servicer on time. The California Subclass alleged claims based on violations of California law relating to Litton's unfair business acts and practices with respect to the servicing of loans.
Litton Loan settled that case in 2009, but since the court found that the plaintiffs had not "established the elements needed to determine predominance or superiority on their claim for actual damages," statutory damages were capped at $500,000 for the entire Class.
This class action lawsuit was far from the only complaints against Litton Loan Servicing. Here is a whole host of complaints at Consumercomplaints.com (66 pages of them!) against Litton.
Here is one complaint about Litton from that site:
PATRICIA of CHICAGO, IL September 20, 2009
In December 2005/January 2006, without our knowledge or consent, our mortgage was sold to Litton Loan. Before we knew what hit us, our home was foreclosed. In January 2007, we read in the daily newspaper that our house was being "sold" and actually went to the "foreclosure sale." We were directed to the offices of Pierce & Associates -- the equally atrocious bulldogs who are rubber-stamping case-after-case amassing exorbitant attorney fees and court costs in the Foreclosure Court on behalf of Litton Loan. Finally, an agent of Litton sent a fax through Pierce with a Forbearance Agreement; and DESPERATE to keep our home, we made lump sum and monthly payments over the next 10 months in excess of 47,000.00 (I have copies of the cashiers checks). During this time, we attempted to contact Litton Loan hundreds (maybe even thousands) of times. Either the voicemail box was full and we couldn't leave a message, or the voicemail indicated the agent was helping another customer and would return our call in 72 HOURS. On occasion, we were fortunate enough to connect to a "live" person, they were clueless as to our situation, some became rude and condescending, and more often they said we needed to speak to a supervisor because according to their records, our home was foreclosed. EVERY TIME IT WAS A DIFFERENT AGENT, WITH THE NAME OF A "NEW" SUPERVISOR. Guaranteed they have a HUGE EMPLOYEE TURNAROUND!
To date, we have no evidence that our OVER 47,000.00 was ever applied to our mortgage loan. In January 2007, we retained a foreclosure firm who called off the dogs and ATTEMPTED but FAILED to negotiate with any one Litton officer. They would come to terms, and Litton was penalized on more than one occasion, but then the Litton player would change, and we were right back to square one. Well, the Sheriff's Officers came to the door with battering rams to evict us. They gave us ten (10) days. A week later, a Notice of Eviction was served on THE WRONG PARTY! They didn't even have our names on the complaint. We looked like fools in the eviction court, and refused to be under the jurisdiction of the Court. Simultaneous, we hired an attorney to file a complaint in the Foreclosure Court, and on October 14, 2008, the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois ordered: This cause coming to be heard on Defendant's Motion to Quash Service of Summons, upon due notice, and the Court being fully advised: It Is Hereby Ordered: That the Defendants having met their burden of proof, the Motion to Quash Service of Summons is granted, and all orders and the issued deed are void ab initio.
THEREAFTER, WE CONTACTED LITTON A HUNDRED MORE TIMES, EACH TIME WE WERE TOLD OUR HOME WAS SOLD! WE TRIED TO SECURE A MORTGAGE FROM SEVERAL OTHER LENDERS, BUT WERE TOLD OUR CREDIT HAD THE FORECLOSURE AND THEY EITHER COULD NOT NEGOTIATE WITH LITTON BECAUSE THEY WERE NO LONGER THE LENDER, OR LITTON DID NOT RETURN THEIR CALLS. Last month, the attorney that handled the motion to quash service sent a letter stating that ONE WEEK following the hearing, Litton claims to have served us with foreclosure papers; and the house was again foreclosed! LITTON NEVER GAVE US A CHANCE TO SECURE A MORTGAGE FROM THEM OR ANY OTHER LENDER AFTER WE PREVAILED IN THE FORECLOSURE COURT. The attorney wants another 3,600.00 to go through the same process in Court and reverse the foreclosure. WE WERE NEVER SERVED ON OCT 27 2008. Not only do we want to sue the process server, LITTON LOAN, and their agents, but more importantly we WANT TO SECURE A REVERSE MORTGAGE FROM A LENDER!!! PLEASE HELP US!
There are lots of other outrageous complaints against Litton there, many as heartbreaking as the one above. Litton Loan Servicing is creating lots of misery in the world, much of it because they just don't seem to care about details, circumstances, ethics or even the law when it comes to dealing with their customers.
And unfortunately the way Wall Street works these days, you can become a Litton Loan customer without intending to if your original mortgage company sells your mortgage to them, as has happened to hundreds of thousands of people.
Also as we can see from this NY Times article on October 13, 2010, Litton Loan Servicing isn't exactly hiring "professionals" to do its business either:
At Litton Loan Servicing, an arm of Goldman Sachs, employees processed foreclosure documents so quickly that they barely had time to see what they were signing.
“I don’t know the ins and outs of the loan,” a Litton employee said in a deposition last year. “I’m not a loan officer.”
And yet this employee was doing loan officer work.
So Litton is using amateurs to process its foreclosures, throwing tons of people out of there homes without cause, charging fees they shouldn't be charging for loan payments that weren't actually late, and claiming people are in default on their mortgages even when they aren't.
And they're getting away with this, as is the company that owns them, Goldman Sachs.
Goldman also owns a substantial part of for-profit education company Art Institute which according to Bloomberg News peddles degrees for up to $100,000 that students later find are "worthless."
So here is this company that has sold toxic financial products that it knew was worthless to customers without telling them while shorting those very same products, owns a loan servicer that is scamming hundreds of thousands of people all across this country and owns a 38% stake in a for-profit education company that offers worthless degrees for as much as six figures that leave students in debt up to their eyeballs but without gainful employment.
Let me ask the question again, how much of the $20 million that Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone received from Goldman Sachs was made from human misery and/or criminal activity?
How much of that money came from somebody who fraudulently lost their house to Litton Loan or had to pay late fees for mortgage payments that weren't actually late?
How much of that money came from students who paid for a worthless degree from Art Institute and are working as strippers or grocery clerks to pay off their loans?
How much of that money came from investors who bought into a Goldman financial product that Goldman knew was worthless and who lost their shirts in the Housing Bubble collapse?
And what does it say about both Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone that they're happy to take the money made from shady foreclosures, fraudulent mortgage fees, garbage college degrees at diploma mill universities, and worthless collateralized debt obligations that were hawked to naive investors as something of value?
The old saying goes that you are what you eat.
The same can be said for non-profit organizations that claim to be doing good in the world.
They are where they raise their funds from.
Given how Goldman Sachs makes its money, Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone ought to be ashamed that they have taken even one cent from Goldman and should give back the entire grant.
Sure Canada can build a new school with that money.
But how many people have had their lives destroyed by Goldman Sachs, lost their homes or their savings to these crooks, in order for Mr. Canada and the HCZ to build that school?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
A Public School Teacher's Manifesto
Rebuttal to the nonsense that Klein and Company published in the Kaplan Test Prep Post:
This comes on the heels of Philadelphia school's superintendent Arlene Ackerman publishing a rebuttal to the Klein/Rhee nonsense in the Kaplan Test Prep Post this morning.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bonds that are being forced upon them by another group of individuals, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all students are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are a quality education, proper funding for their schools, and the pursuit of their dreams. Whenever any group becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Public Educators to stand up and voice their opinions, and to stand up and fight for such principles that shall seem most likely to affect their students and their profession in a positive manner.
When a long train of abuses and accusations, reduces professional educators to servants who must perform under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to unite and rise up against such tyranny. Such has been the patient sufferance of professional educators across this nation; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand participation in any type of reform that might occur. Recent history is a history of repeated injuries and accusations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over America’s public education system. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
The recent manifesto titled “How to Fix Our Schools” did not include the input of one single teacher, parent, or anyone other than those who are already holding the power to make decisions regarding the public education system.
The broadcast media has uniformly excluded teachers from any publicly televised discussions regarding how to “fix” the public education system except as in a token format.
The print media has consistently criticized, blamed, and singled out teachers as the number one cause of all that is wrong with the public education system.
The evaluation systems being proposed do not fairly judge a teacher’s performance, yet they are being touted as the savior for our nation’s public education system.
The teachers’ unions have been unfairly and falsely accused of damaging the public education system by making it impossible to terminate poorly performing teachers. This is a blatant lie.
The Race to the Top initiative has forced school districts in one state to compete against school districts in other states instead of all districts in all states being properly funded. Apparently all men are created equal, but all states are not.
The arguments against many of the proposals made by those who have the power to make decisions regarding the public education system have been swept under the rug, trampled upon, and–in most cases–discredited and ignored. Any research presented by public school teachers is viewed as defensive, self-serving, and union propaganda.
The message has been sent loud and clear: teachers’ opinions do not matter when it comes to what is best for America’s public education system.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A system, whose aim is thus marked by every act which may define Tyranny, is unfit to be the system that America’s school children must rely upon to decide their futures.
We, therefore, the public school teachers of America, solemnly publish and declare that NOW is the time to speak out. NOW is the time to act. NOW is the time to educate America as we educate our students, with passion, honesty, and perseverance. NOW is the time that we must share the truth about public education. NOW is the time that we must let America hear OUR ideas concerning how to fix our schools, fix our society, fix the American Dream that has been broken and stolen by those whose motives are not sincere.
All this we must pledge so that America’s children, their Lives, their Fortune, and their and their ancestors’ sacred Honor remains secure for the eternity of these United States of America.
This comes on the heels of Philadelphia school's superintendent Arlene Ackerman publishing a rebuttal to the Klein/Rhee nonsense in the Kaplan Test Prep Post this morning.
5 Cops Charged With Manipulating Crime Stats
Here we go:
Indeed the problem is citywide and you can be sure just as Bloomberg and his minion Chancellor Klein knew the test scores in NYC public schools were fraudulent, Bloomberg and his minion Commissioner Kelly know the crime stats are fraudulent.
Again I say, what is the mechanism to remove a mayor who has spent nine years manipulating statistics, lying about the manipulation, and running for re-election promoting the fraudulent stats as proof positive of his governing genius?
Frankly, Bloomberg belongs in jail right next to Bernie Madoff.
Five cops from a Brooklyn precinct have been hit with departmental charges accusing them of manipulating crime statistics, police sources said Friday.
Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello, the former commanding officer of the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, is among those charged.
The Daily News first revealed allegations of number fudging in the precinct in an explosive report in February. Officer Adrian Schoolcraft told NYPD investigators that supervisors in the precinct were badgering or ignoring crime victims. He said they also designated some felonies as misdemeanors.
The systematic cooking of the books was done to make the crime rate appear lower. Mauriello is charged with tampering with grand larceny and stolen vehicle reports. He's also charged with misleading investigators. He couldn't be reached for comment.
...
The four other cops charged include two police officers and two sergeants. One sergeant is accused of failing to verify that two patrol officers filed a robbery complaint. The two patrol officers are charged with not filing the complaint in the first place.
Details on the charges against another sergeant weren't immediately available. That sergeant will be served next week, and all five cops will remain on full duty for the time being.
Schoolcraft has filed a $50 million federal lawsuit against the NYPD, accusing his bosses of suspending him and forcing him into a mental institution against his will because he reported wrongdoing.
"The problem is citywide," his lawyer Jon Norinsberg said. "It's not just the 81st Precinct."
Indeed the problem is citywide and you can be sure just as Bloomberg and his minion Chancellor Klein knew the test scores in NYC public schools were fraudulent, Bloomberg and his minion Commissioner Kelly know the crime stats are fraudulent.
Again I say, what is the mechanism to remove a mayor who has spent nine years manipulating statistics, lying about the manipulation, and running for re-election promoting the fraudulent stats as proof positive of his governing genius?
Frankly, Bloomberg belongs in jail right next to Bernie Madoff.
Education Reform Brought To Us By The Same People Who Brought The Mortgage and Foreclosure Mess
I have spent an awful lot of time, energy and space bashing Wall Street, our corporate culture, including the media, and our Dear Leaders in Washington - both Bush and Obama - for the financial crisis that began unfolding in 2007 and nearly brought the country to ruin in 2008-2009.
But the stories about the foreclosure mess that have hit the news in the last month truly take my breath away - people having their homes foreclosed upon who didn't even have mortgages, banks hiring Walmart floorwalkers as "mortgage experts" and having these "robosigners" sign off on thousands of foreclosures a month without knowing what exactly they were signing off on, banks hiring companies to illegally change the locks on doors of people's homes.
Barry at The Big Picture has been right on this story and with his expertise and knowledge of finance and the markets, he is a terrific resource to go to if you want to catch up on this story.
But the Kaplan Test Prep Post has a pretty good article this morning about the mess that says the rule of law has been superseded in a SYSTEMIC WAY by the banksters, hedge fund criminals and other Wall Streeters who believe they are TOO BIG TO FAIL:
Ah, yes - the machine.
Therein lies the problem.
The country is now run by machines - machines that are owned by a wealthy few who do not care about anything but making sure the machines run efficiently and their money comes in every month.
Problems with the process?
Fuck you, where's my money!
Bank doesn't have proof that it owns the mortgage?
Fuck you, where's my money!
Bank is foreclosing on a homeowner who doesn't actually have a mortgage?
Fuck you, where's my money!
The only thing that matters is the money.
Truth, honesty, fairness, property rights, the Rule of Law, ethical business practices - none of these things matter.
The only thing that matters is the money.
This is where globalization, free trade, and the privileging of corporate culture over all else have brought us - the only thing that matters is the money.
And all this is happening AFTER these criminals nearly brought the country to ruin back in 2008.
Somehow, rather than hold the people responsible for this mess in 2008 - the top leadership at Goldman Sachs, at AIG, at Bear Stearns, at Lehman, at Merrill Lynch, at Morgan Stanley, at Citigroup, at HSBC, at BoA, at JP Morgan Chase, at Countrywide Financial, at the hedge funds, as well as the politicians who enabled this to happen like Clinton, Bush, most of the U.S. Congress, the freaking cheerleaders in the news media, and the regulators like Greenspan and Geithner who were supposed to be watching the store - we have allowed these motherfuckers to STILL run the country, make policy, steal from the working and middle classes and enrich themselves off the public dime.
Hell, we're allowing them to BREAK THE LAW.
And now they're coming for education - putting the machine in place in Washington and in cities all across the nation to "measure" schools, "measure" teacher performance, "measure" student performance with batteries of standardized tests created by corporate companies with no-bid contracts, then closing down the "bad" schools and opening up for-profit charter schools in their place.
All of this is brought to us by the same billionaires and hedge fund criminals who brought us the Tech Bubble, the Housing Bubble, the Credit Crisis of '08, and now the Foreclosure Crisis of 2010.
And we literally are fighting back against the machine - in public education, Joel Klein and other corporate edu-deformers see online education as the wave of the future.
One teacher in a central location (perhaps India or Sri Lanka?) communicating with students all across one city.
What a boon for the corporate reformers!!!
You can fire tens of thousands of teachers, increase class sizes to one hundred students, stop investing in infrastructure like school buildings, and save municipalities millions a year in education, salary, and benefits costs.
This, my friends, is the wave of the future.
This is what the education reformers want to bring us.
And of course as they socialize people over the Internet rather than in classrooms, they will be disempowering the future generations from the ability to socialize, to communicate well, and of course to mobilize in the face of societal problems they may want to change.
Don't kid yourself, that is the plan Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson, and other edu-deformers have for the future of America.
A compliant workforce trained just well enough to run things but not socially or intellectually conscious enough to know just how badly they are getting fucked by their corporate owners.
It is time to take back the world from the corporate owners.
It is time to smash the machines.
It is clear that this will not be easy.
You would have thought after the near collapse in 2008 that the scumbags who brought that about would have been banished from business and leadership roles in society.
Unfortunately those very same people - or people just like them - are still running things and still enriching themselves off the backs of others.
So I fear that a democratic movement is not going to be enough to take back the country from the banksters and the Bloombergs.
But we must try.
And we must remember that all these "crises" from the Housing Bubble to the Credit Crisis of 2008 to the Foreclosure Crisis of 2010 to the manufactured "Education Crisis" of 2010 are all linked together.
They have all been created to enrich the banksters and the hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson, and advance the power, wealth and prestige of billionaire vulture philanthropists like Gates and Bloomberg.
UPDATE: I should add that the "change agents" of '08 - the Obama administration - doesn't think the foreclosure fraud problem matters all that much and won't support a national moratorium on foreclosures until the problems in the system can be worked out.
Once again, the Obama people siding with the Big Banks and the hedge fund criminals.
How's that for change we can believe in!
POSTSCRIPT: Barry at The Big Picture has some advice for what to do if you have been personally harmed in the foreclosure mess.
Here it is:
But the stories about the foreclosure mess that have hit the news in the last month truly take my breath away - people having their homes foreclosed upon who didn't even have mortgages, banks hiring Walmart floorwalkers as "mortgage experts" and having these "robosigners" sign off on thousands of foreclosures a month without knowing what exactly they were signing off on, banks hiring companies to illegally change the locks on doors of people's homes.
Barry at The Big Picture has been right on this story and with his expertise and knowledge of finance and the markets, he is a terrific resource to go to if you want to catch up on this story.
But the Kaplan Test Prep Post has a pretty good article this morning about the mess that says the rule of law has been superseded in a SYSTEMIC WAY by the banksters, hedge fund criminals and other Wall Streeters who believe they are TOO BIG TO FAIL:
Millions of homes have been seized by banks during the economic crisis through a mass production system of foreclosures that was set up to prioritize one thing over everything else: speed.
With 2 million homes in foreclosure and another 2.3 million seriously delinquent on their mortgages - the biggest logjam of distressed properties the market has ever seen - companies involved in the foreclosure process were paid to move cases quickly through the pipeline.
Law firms competed with one another to file the largest number of foreclosures on behalf of lenders - and were rewarded for their work with bonuses. These and other companies that handled the preparation of documents were paid for volume, so they processed as many as they could en masse, leaving little time to read the paperwork and catch errors.
And the big mortgage companies overseeing it all - including government-owned Fannie Mae - were so eager to get bad loans off their books that they imposed a penalty on contractors if they moved too slowly.
The system was so automated and so inflexible that once a foreclosure process began, homeowners and consumer advocates say, there was often no way to stop it.
"The problem is when you try to fight back against this machine, well, it's a machine," said Michael Alex Wasylik, an attorney for homeowners in Dade City, Fla. "You have to be able to get your case off the mass production line and to someone who will take the time to read what they file, but in many mortgage firms that person doesn't exist."
The financial incentives show that the problems plaguing the foreclosure process extend well beyond a few, low-ranking document processors who forged documents or failed to review foreclosure files even as they signed off on them. In fact, virtually everyone involved - loan servicers, law firms, document processing companies and others - made more money as they evicted more borrowers from their homes, creating a system that was vulnerable to error and difficult for homeowners to challenge.
"This was a systemic problem. It's not like a few renegade employees made mistakes," said lawyer Peter Ticktin, who defends Florida homeowners facing foreclosure. "It was industry-wide and pervasive, and everyone knew about it."
Ah, yes - the machine.
Therein lies the problem.
The country is now run by machines - machines that are owned by a wealthy few who do not care about anything but making sure the machines run efficiently and their money comes in every month.
Problems with the process?
Fuck you, where's my money!
Bank doesn't have proof that it owns the mortgage?
Fuck you, where's my money!
Bank is foreclosing on a homeowner who doesn't actually have a mortgage?
Fuck you, where's my money!
The only thing that matters is the money.
Truth, honesty, fairness, property rights, the Rule of Law, ethical business practices - none of these things matter.
The only thing that matters is the money.
This is where globalization, free trade, and the privileging of corporate culture over all else have brought us - the only thing that matters is the money.
And all this is happening AFTER these criminals nearly brought the country to ruin back in 2008.
Somehow, rather than hold the people responsible for this mess in 2008 - the top leadership at Goldman Sachs, at AIG, at Bear Stearns, at Lehman, at Merrill Lynch, at Morgan Stanley, at Citigroup, at HSBC, at BoA, at JP Morgan Chase, at Countrywide Financial, at the hedge funds, as well as the politicians who enabled this to happen like Clinton, Bush, most of the U.S. Congress, the freaking cheerleaders in the news media, and the regulators like Greenspan and Geithner who were supposed to be watching the store - we have allowed these motherfuckers to STILL run the country, make policy, steal from the working and middle classes and enrich themselves off the public dime.
Hell, we're allowing them to BREAK THE LAW.
And now they're coming for education - putting the machine in place in Washington and in cities all across the nation to "measure" schools, "measure" teacher performance, "measure" student performance with batteries of standardized tests created by corporate companies with no-bid contracts, then closing down the "bad" schools and opening up for-profit charter schools in their place.
All of this is brought to us by the same billionaires and hedge fund criminals who brought us the Tech Bubble, the Housing Bubble, the Credit Crisis of '08, and now the Foreclosure Crisis of 2010.
And we literally are fighting back against the machine - in public education, Joel Klein and other corporate edu-deformers see online education as the wave of the future.
One teacher in a central location (perhaps India or Sri Lanka?) communicating with students all across one city.
What a boon for the corporate reformers!!!
You can fire tens of thousands of teachers, increase class sizes to one hundred students, stop investing in infrastructure like school buildings, and save municipalities millions a year in education, salary, and benefits costs.
This, my friends, is the wave of the future.
This is what the education reformers want to bring us.
And of course as they socialize people over the Internet rather than in classrooms, they will be disempowering the future generations from the ability to socialize, to communicate well, and of course to mobilize in the face of societal problems they may want to change.
Don't kid yourself, that is the plan Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson, and other edu-deformers have for the future of America.
A compliant workforce trained just well enough to run things but not socially or intellectually conscious enough to know just how badly they are getting fucked by their corporate owners.
It is time to take back the world from the corporate owners.
It is time to smash the machines.
It is clear that this will not be easy.
You would have thought after the near collapse in 2008 that the scumbags who brought that about would have been banished from business and leadership roles in society.
Unfortunately those very same people - or people just like them - are still running things and still enriching themselves off the backs of others.
So I fear that a democratic movement is not going to be enough to take back the country from the banksters and the Bloombergs.
But we must try.
And we must remember that all these "crises" from the Housing Bubble to the Credit Crisis of 2008 to the Foreclosure Crisis of 2010 to the manufactured "Education Crisis" of 2010 are all linked together.
They have all been created to enrich the banksters and the hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson, and advance the power, wealth and prestige of billionaire vulture philanthropists like Gates and Bloomberg.
UPDATE: I should add that the "change agents" of '08 - the Obama administration - doesn't think the foreclosure fraud problem matters all that much and won't support a national moratorium on foreclosures until the problems in the system can be worked out.
Once again, the Obama people siding with the Big Banks and the hedge fund criminals.
How's that for change we can believe in!
POSTSCRIPT: Barry at The Big Picture has some advice for what to do if you have been personally harmed in the foreclosure mess.
Here it is:
My advice: If you have been in any way personally harmed by the illegal actions of any bank, law firm, process server, or loan servicing agency, you MUST file criminal charges.
If your home was broken into by a firm to change the locks illegally, that is breaking and entering, and conspiracy. If the wrong bank filed a foreclosure action, if the wrong house was foreclosed upon, its time to go criminal prosecution route.
Go to the local police department, fill out the requisite forms. Then go to your District Attorney’s Office or County Prosecutor’s office, and ask to speak to someone in charge. Tell them you want to prosecute. You can also contact your state Attorney General about the same. Follow up with written letters, that you send you your local newspaper and the NYT, WSJ, USA Today.
If any local DAs balk — some will know bank execs from the political groups and golf courses — let them know you will keeping a written record of all of this, and you plan to make sure that their opponent in the next election knows all about their bank coddling ways. When they stammer, hammer them about their opponent’s interest in who is and isn’t a bank bitch.
Corporations that get free speech rights also have liability for their own criminal actions. Its way past time we start forcing those responsibilities to have some meaning.
This is not about keeping deadbeats in their homes, as a few idiots and liars have asserted. The corporate sympathizers who are too busy fellating the bank to recognize what is going should be ignored. This is about fundamental property rights and the Rule of Law in the United States — nothing less.
Much of Barry's advice can be used to address a whole host of other problems with the system too.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Baltimore Teachers Reject "Reform" Contract
Baltimore teachers said thanks, but no thanks, Thursday night to a new contract that would have based their pay on student outcomes and professional development, instead of seniority and degrees.
The contract had been touted by many in education policy as a potential new model for the state, and even the nation. Even the morning of the vote, the U.S. Department of Education had bragged about the expected deal in a press release highlighting examples of cooperation between teachers and education-redesign minded managers.
Back when the contract was announced, Jack Jennings, the president of the Center on Education Policy, told The (Baltimore) Sun that the agreement was "extraordinary" and squelched claims that unions are impediments to reform. And Emily Cohen, a policy analyst at the National Council on Teacher Quality, told the paper that the city went further than any other district to eliminate automatic pay increases.
Although the contract included pay raises and kept health benefits at their current levels, some teachers were skeptical of the idea that future salary increases would be tied to effectiveness and professional development, the Associated Press reported after the vote.
...
Marietta English, president of the AFT-affiliated Baltimore Teachers Union, told The Sun that the rejection was the result of "frustration and misinformation" about the contract. And she said in a statement that the union had been told that "some charter school operators have encouraged their teachers not to vote for this agreement."
"We negotiated a very new and different agreement at a time when fear, frustration and distrust are at an all-time high," English told The Sun. "We are confident that this is a bump in the road, and if we continue on the road of working with the administration, and listening to and respecting our members, we will soon have a great teacher contract for the city of Baltimore."
The vote drew more than 2,600 teachers, with about 58 percent voting against the contract, schools Chief Executive Officer Andres Alonso said. He issued a statement stressing that he would keep working with the union.
Next thing to do is vote out the sell-out leadership who tried to sell Baltimore teachers on the "Salary Commensurate With Test Scores and PD" jive.
Then take aim at Randi Weingarten and the rest of the sell-outs in the AFT leadership who touted this piece of shit contract as a model for contracts all across the country.
Hey, Randi, hope you can read lips!!!!
You too, Arne!!!
This Is Why We Need Tenure
Next time Oprah, Arianna Huffington or some other ed deformer says getting rid of tenure is the most important "reform" needed to improve public education, refer them to this case:
The police didn't believe the student's story, but the principal and the DOE did.
Without work protections, this teacher would be without recourse - both for his job and his reputation.
A judge tore into city investigators Thursday for a shoddy probe that cost a teacher his job at a Manhattan school for kids with emotional and legal problems.
The decision means Charles Bryant can reclaim his teaching license and possibly get his job back at Public School 35M.
He was in his first year as a teacher there after nearly 20 years working as a teacher's aide with troubled students at Rikers Island and a Manhattan hospital.
"I don't know whether to jump in the sky yet, but I'm really overjoyed," Bryant told the Daily News. "I love teaching - it's my calling; it's what I do."
In her decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Emily Goodman slammed the Department of Education's Office of Special Investigation for a one-sided report on the encounter between Bryant, 44, and Charles Cherry, 16.
Cherry said he got into a fight with Bryant and the teacher punched him and poked him in the eye.
The school's principal took the word of Cherry and three pals - and the Education Department investigator based his findings largely on the principal's statement, Goodman said.
Meanwhile, the investigator ignored a police captain's finding that the student's story "did not hold up," the judge wrote.
"It is extraordinary that the investigator could base his findings on the principal's statement when, according to his own report, she was 'unsure' of what Cherry said," Goodman wrote. "Such uncertainty as the basis for ending a man's productive life shocks the conscience."
A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said it was "disappointed" with the decision.
Bryant said the October 2008 clash started when Cherry walked past him and smacked his head.
"Instead of going after the kid, he went to the principal's office," said Bryant's lawyer, Stephen Hans. "She told him she would take care of it."
Stepping out of the school for a break, Bryant ran into the student again and said the principal was looking for him - only to get walloped, he said.
"I got worked over really badly," he said. "It was unprovoked."
He lost his job, and worked in security and with the Census Bureau while he sued.
"When I lost that job, I lost a lot," he said. "I had a good position and I loved that job."
Cherry could not be reached for comment.
Bryant said in court papers the teen was arrested and charged with weapons possession after the incident.
The police didn't believe the student's story, but the principal and the DOE did.
Without work protections, this teacher would be without recourse - both for his job and his reputation.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Pat Sajak Says Teachers Shouldn't Be Allowed To Vote
From the Wheel of Wingnuttery file, here is Pat Sajak with a novel idea - deny teachers and cops the right to vote:
The next step in education reform and union bashing - disenfranchising teachers and union members.
Never mind that hedge fund managers, Wall Street CEO's and other corporate whores get to vote in elections for politicians who provide their companies with billion dollar bailouts.
Or that those same crooks get to buy Congress, the Senate and the White House with their political donations and then have economic policies made that directly benefit their companies.
Never mind all of that - the problem is teachers and cops voting in elections that might affect their salaries, pensions or work rules.
You know who they should take the vote away from?
Idiot game show hosts.
Seriously, anybody who has hosted "Wheel of Fortune" for as long as Sajak has is too vapid to be allowed to vote.
None of my family and friends is allowed to appear on Wheel of Fortune. Same goes for my kids’ teachers or the guys who rotate my tires. If there’s not a real conflict of interest, there is, at least, the appearance of one. On another level, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has recused herself from nearly half the cases this session due to her time as solicitor general. In nearly all private and public endeavors, there are occasions in which it’s only fair and correct that a person or group be barred from participating because that party could directly and unevenly benefit from decisions made and policies adopted. So should state workers be able to vote in state elections on matters that would benefit them directly? The same question goes for federal workers in federal elections.
The next step in education reform and union bashing - disenfranchising teachers and union members.
Never mind that hedge fund managers, Wall Street CEO's and other corporate whores get to vote in elections for politicians who provide their companies with billion dollar bailouts.
Or that those same crooks get to buy Congress, the Senate and the White House with their political donations and then have economic policies made that directly benefit their companies.
Never mind all of that - the problem is teachers and cops voting in elections that might affect their salaries, pensions or work rules.
You know who they should take the vote away from?
Idiot game show hosts.
Seriously, anybody who has hosted "Wheel of Fortune" for as long as Sajak has is too vapid to be allowed to vote.
The Goal of Education Reform
Buried in this Atlantic piece about Michelle Rhee's departure from the D.C. school system is this Randi Weingarten nugget:
I disagree that the "reforms" brought by Rhee won't be scalable elsewhere.
When you have a union head like Weingarten so willing to cave on core work issues like seniority, tenure and work conditions, everything is scalable.
But the important part of the piece is the attrition rate Weingarten expects for the D.C. system - 80%.
Those teachers Rhee (and now her successor) don't fire will bolt out of the system anyway under the new contract.
And the system will have a revolving door of TFA's and other cheap twenty-something McTeachers, lowlabor costs, and non-existent pension costs.
That, my friends, is ALL the reform movement is about.
That and opening up the billions of education dollars to private enterprise (or choice, as the reformers like to call it.)
Lower salary and pension costs, a privatized system - the neo-liberal goal for everything in American life.
And they are succeeding.
Weingarten says that Rhee's reforms won't be scalable, and that attrition rates among teachers will exceed 80 percent over five years.
I disagree that the "reforms" brought by Rhee won't be scalable elsewhere.
When you have a union head like Weingarten so willing to cave on core work issues like seniority, tenure and work conditions, everything is scalable.
But the important part of the piece is the attrition rate Weingarten expects for the D.C. system - 80%.
Those teachers Rhee (and now her successor) don't fire will bolt out of the system anyway under the new contract.
And the system will have a revolving door of TFA's and other cheap twenty-something McTeachers, lowlabor costs, and non-existent pension costs.
That, my friends, is ALL the reform movement is about.
That and opening up the billions of education dollars to private enterprise (or choice, as the reformers like to call it.)
Lower salary and pension costs, a privatized system - the neo-liberal goal for everything in American life.
And they are succeeding.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Bloomberg Adviser and Financier Steven Rattner Settles With S.E.C.
The scandals keep coming for the people around Mayor Moneybags:
Rattner is more than just an adviser to Bloomberg.
Here is the NY Times in April on the role Rattner plays in Bloomberg's life:
Kickbacks, bribes, unethical behavior.
Yet still the mayor remains close to Rattner and take his advice.
Oh, goodie.
Looks like you have to be a teacher to earn the mayor's rebuke.
But kickbacks, bribery, unethical behavior - no problem for Moneybags...so long as you're a bankster.
Steven Rattner, the former car czar, has agreed to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over kickback claims involving the New York State pension fund, a person with knowledge of the negotiation said Wednesday.
Mr. Rattner will accept a multiyear ban from the securities industry and pay a fine of more than $5 million, the person said. He is still in negotiations over a similar settlement with the office of the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.
The settlement, which is expected to be announced on Thursday, caps a multiyear investigation by the government into kickbacks paid to officials with New York’s pension fund. Earlier this month, Alan G. Hevesi, the state’s former comptroller, pleaded guilty to a corruption charge involving the state fund.
The Quadrangle Group, the private equity firm co-founded by Mr. Rattner, settled with the S.E.C. and Mr. Cuomo’s office in the spring and disavowed Mr. Rattner’s conduct in a statement. The firm agreed to pay $7 million to the pension fund and $5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Rattner refused a similar offer to settle with the S.E.C. last spring, because he did not want to accept the ban from the industry. Quadrangle had been cooperating in the government’s investigation of Mr. Rattner. Since leaving his post with the Obama administration’s auto task force over a year ago, Mr. Rattner has been advising Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York on his personal finances and writing a book about his tenure as car czar.
Rattner is more than just an adviser to Bloomberg.
Here is the NY Times in April on the role Rattner plays in Bloomberg's life:
Steven L. Rattner, the financier under increasing scrutiny in a state and federal kickbacks investigation, is playing a key role in creating a new investment firm that will manage Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s fortune and finance his philanthropic foundation, according to three people told of the arrangement.
At Mr. Bloomberg’s urging, Mr. Rattner has taken a hands-on approach in helping to build the new company, despite his legal problems, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of angering the mayor and Mr. Rattner.
The move comes at a time when others, including the investment firm he founded, are taking pains to distance themselves from Mr. Rattner.
...
The move comes at a time when others, including the investment firm he founded, are taking pains to distance themselves from Mr. Rattner.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has accused Mr. Rattner of paying kickbacks to an aide to former State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi in exchange for the aide’s help in landing a state investment contract for Quadrangle, the private equity firm that Mr. Rattner founded and ran for years.
Mr. Rattner has since left Quadrangle, but last week, the firm paid $12 million to settle allegations in the kickback case and, in unusually harsh language, it rebuked Mr. Rattner for his role, calling it “inappropriate, wrong and unethical.” Mr. Rattner’s lawyers vigorously denied those claims.
Mr. Rattner, according to the three people, has told friends that he is “working with the mayor,” and he has repeatedly appeared at the 78th Street office that houses the Bloomberg Family Foundation and the mayor’s new investment office. A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Stu Loeser, declined to comment on the details of Mr. Rattner’s work with Mr. Bloomberg, but said, “He is a friend whose advice the mayor has and continues to rely on.”
Kickbacks, bribes, unethical behavior.
Yet still the mayor remains close to Rattner and take his advice.
Oh, goodie.
Looks like you have to be a teacher to earn the mayor's rebuke.
But kickbacks, bribery, unethical behavior - no problem for Moneybags...so long as you're a bankster.
Rhee's Replacement
Before we get all teary-eyed at the announcement that Michelle Rhee is packing up her bags, broom, and hostility and returning to Sacramento full time to keep her husband, Kevin Johnson, away from the sixteen year olds, let's take a look at who is replacing her, at least on an interim basis:
Seems to me the replacement is going to follow the same "reform" path trod by the more controversial Rhee.
In fact, Henderson may be more successful at it because she is less controversial, less of a lightning rod and a publicity hound than Rhee.
So while I definitely enjoyed seeing the arrogant Mr. Fenty have his political hat handed to him in the primary and I especially enjoyed Michelle Rhee looking like she was going to cry at the press conference she held with Gray after their post-primary meeting, I think we need to acknowledge that while one reform witch has left for now, another is stirring the very same cauldron and will be doing much mischief in D.C.
Presumptive mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray introduced Kaya Henderson on Wednesday as the interim chancellor of D.C. public schools and vowed that reforms launched under Michelle A. Rhee would continue when he takes office in January.
"We cannot and will not return to the days of incrementalism," said Gray, who appeared at a mid-morning news conference with Rhee, Henderson and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who will formally appoint Henderson at Gray's request. Gray, the D.C. Council chairman, beat Fenty in the Democratic primary election last month.
Gray also said that while he has "no intention of micromanaging DCPS," he asked Henderson to keep the school system's senior leadership in place until at least the end of the current school year. Henderson is regarded within the Gray camp as a potential permanent successor to Rhee.
...
In Henderson, Gray inherits someone in tune with Rhee on the fundamentals of education reform, especially the belief that teacher quality is the most important determinant of student success. Rhee and Henderson worked together at the New Teacher Project, a teacher recruiting nonprofit group that Rhee founded and ran before she was appointed by Fenty in June 2007. Henderson was a vice president for the group.
She was Rhee's first appointment and was named her top deputy the day Rhee was introduced to the District. At the time, Rhee made it sound as if they had come to the District as a package.
"I told Kaya, 'I can't do this without you,'â??" Rhee said at the time. "She's everything you'd want in a leader. She has an ability to motivate people. She's a critical thinker, and she's an innovative thinker."
At the New Teacher Project, Henderson ran the organization's D.C. operation, which had contracts with D.C. public schools to supply teachers. Before that, Henderson worked for Teach for America - where Rhee began her educational career - teaching middle school Spanish in the South Bronx.
At a D.C. Council meeting last year, Henderson recounted her first impressions of the city's struggling school system and her aspirations to change it. "I was stunned at the lack of commitment to ensuring the highest-quality educational force in the country," Henderson said. "The District tolerated people and practices that other school systems would never accept."
At a meeting in August of school principals, Henderson offered a football coach-style motivational talk, reinforcing Rhee's core message: that poverty and other conditions outside the classroom are not an excuse for poor academic achievement.
"Our responsibility is to deliver the goods, no matter what the situations our students are in," she said. "The reform is in the schoolhouse. You are here because we believe you are the right people to deliver this reform. The election is not our concern; the election is not your concern. Go hard, or go home!"
As deputy chancellor for "human capital," Henderson was a key figure in the firing of 98 central office employees in 2008. She was also lead D.C. negotiator on the marathon contract talks with the Washington Teachers' Union, which led to a labor pact that establishes classroom performance - rather than traditional seniority - as the main factor driving job security.
Seems to me the replacement is going to follow the same "reform" path trod by the more controversial Rhee.
In fact, Henderson may be more successful at it because she is less controversial, less of a lightning rod and a publicity hound than Rhee.
So while I definitely enjoyed seeing the arrogant Mr. Fenty have his political hat handed to him in the primary and I especially enjoyed Michelle Rhee looking like she was going to cry at the press conference she held with Gray after their post-primary meeting, I think we need to acknowledge that while one reform witch has left for now, another is stirring the very same cauldron and will be doing much mischief in D.C.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Schundler: Christie Sacrificed RttT Money Rather Than Compromise With Union
Wow - Chris Christie really does hate unionized teachers:
Christie said he's done with Schundler and won't dignify any of these accusations with a reply.
I say the New jersey legislature ought to subpoena Christie himself to testify.
If Schundler's account is true, Christie needs to face the music.
Not only did he lie to the public about his actions in this mess, he needlessly sacrificed $400 million dollars because he didn't like what the radio talk show hosts on some winger show were saying about him caving to the unions.
On a side note, I wonder if any of this will wind up on an episode of Oprah?
After all, Orpah is a huge fan of Christie.
On second thought, I bet it won't end up on Oprah.
She's busy doing a show about Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal - 40 years after Love Story!
Now that's some hard-hitting journalism!
New Jersey's former education chief said Gov. Chris Christie sacrificed a $400 million federal grant rather than risk appearing to have negotiated with the state teachers union over the application's content.
Bret Schundler told a legislative oversight panel looking into the failed grant application that Christie vetoed compromises on merit pay and layoffs that would have won the teachers' endorsement. Instead, the application was hastily rewritten and submitted without union support. The union's lack of buy-in cost New Jersey precious points.
Christie "found it utterly intolerable for him to be viewed to have given in to them (the union)," said Schundler, who was called out publicly by the governor after striking a deal with the teachers. "The money was not worth it."
Schundler said Christie was particularly upset at being portrayed on radio station 101.5 FM as having caved to union demands.
If Christie had accepted the consequences, New Jersey would have finished fourth and received funding, Schundler told the Democrat-controlled panel, where he testified under subpoena Thursday.
New Jersey was the highest-ranked state not to receive funding, finishing 3 points behind Ohio, which got money.
The state lost 5 points for providing school funding data for the wrong year.
Senate Democratic Leader Barbara Buono, who sought subpoena power to compel Schundler to testify, said after the hearing that many disturbing details of the application process were revealed.
"It's unconscionable that the Race to the Top application was rewritten more with an eye toward punishing the (teachers union) than it was toward rewarding our schools," she said. "It's unconscionable that the decision to scrap a hard-won compromise that would have propelled our application was based on the criticisms of a radio talk-show host. And, it's unconscionable that $400 million for our schools took a back seat to politics."
...
Schundler told lawmakers he had been happy with his agreement with the union, saying that the compromises he approved were "inconsequential."
One involved substituting the words "merit pay," which the teachers union abhorred, with the word "bonus" and referring to "bonus" provisions as a "pilot program" rather than permanent policy. Another was to scrap a provision to tie layoffs to performance rather than seniority.
Christie claimed in a news conference after the grant recipients were announced that Schundler had corrected the funding data during a grant review in Washington. The Republican governor then blamed the Obama administration for failing to accept New Jersey's corrected data.
However, Schundler said he could not have corrected the mistake because the grant rules restricted new information from being introduced during the interview. He said that is what he told the governor repeatedly before Christie spoke to the press. A video of the grant interview bore out Schundler's account.
"I never believed I needed to say, 'governor, stick to the truth, there's a videotape,'" Schundler said. "Maybe I should have."
Schundler said Christie misspoke publicly about the grant failure—either accidentally or on purpose—then erroneously blamed Schundler for providing misinformation.
Christie said he's done with Schundler and won't dignify any of these accusations with a reply.
I say the New jersey legislature ought to subpoena Christie himself to testify.
If Schundler's account is true, Christie needs to face the music.
Not only did he lie to the public about his actions in this mess, he needlessly sacrificed $400 million dollars because he didn't like what the radio talk show hosts on some winger show were saying about him caving to the unions.
On a side note, I wonder if any of this will wind up on an episode of Oprah?
After all, Orpah is a huge fan of Christie.
On second thought, I bet it won't end up on Oprah.
She's busy doing a show about Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal - 40 years after Love Story!
Now that's some hard-hitting journalism!
Record Year For Wall Street Compensation
Oh, goodie - the banksters are paying themselves record compensation:
Many of these same people paying themselves record compensation, btw, were behind the Keep Teachers Great movement to end seniority rules in public education and make sure that middle aged teachers making $75,000+ get laid off first when Bloomberg drops the axe.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Wall Street compensation is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive year.
"About three dozen of the top publicly held securities and investment-services firms -- which include banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money-management firms and securities exchanges -- are set to pay $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year, a 4% increase from the $139 billion paid out in 2009, according to the survey. Compensation was expected to rise at 26 of the 35 firms."
Many of these same people paying themselves record compensation, btw, were behind the Keep Teachers Great movement to end seniority rules in public education and make sure that middle aged teachers making $75,000+ get laid off first when Bloomberg drops the axe.
Wouldn't It Be Great If Cuomo Was Saying This?
First, the quote:
That's Nathan Deal, current candidate for governor of Georgia.
He is a Republican.
He sought input from teachers as he was putting together his education platform.
That's right - teachers.
Unlike Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the NBC/GE family, Geoffrey Canada, Mike Bloomberg, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Adrian Fenty, Oprah Winfrey, or Andrew Cuomo, Deal actually likes and respects teachers.
How do I know?
Well, I listen to his words:
Wow - honor the service of teachers, listen to their ideas, shoot straight with them...what a concept!
Contrast those words from Deal with Andrew Cuomo's platform, which demonizes teachers, calls for more charter schools without any accountability measures, pushes to end teacher tenure, calls for the end of the seniority system in layoffs and promotes merit pay.
Cuomo hasn't said much in public about teachers lately, but he was seen leaving a meeting with some hedge fund managers/education "reformers" with a briefcase full of hedge fund criminal cash, so it would be reasonable to expect that Cuomo will promote the education deform agenda that is supported by his hedge fund owners.
And indeed, his campaign literature parrots Democrats for Education Reform pamphlet rhetoric.
I'm not saying Nathan Deal would necessarily garner my vote were I living in Georgia. He has some stands on other issues, particularly immigration, which I find disturbing.
But I do know that I would appreciate hearing him defend teachers and ask for their input on education issues.
Cuomo, on the other, dismisses teachers and the teachers unions and prefers to only take input from the hedge fund managers/education "reformers" he meets in hotel rooms.
Cash only, please.
“There is no one-size-fits-all education policy that is best for all corners of the state. Our local officials need flexibility and less red tape so they can pursue solutions that will work best in their regions. We’re doing more with less these days. Teachers have taken a lot of hits. Unlike the Democrats, I’m not going to promise huge new spending plans that no governor will be able to keep. Instead, I’m going to shoot straight with teachers, honor their service and, most important, I’m going to LISTEN to their ideas. As governor, I’ll have a strong working relationship with teachers built on a shared devotion to world-class education for our children.”
That's Nathan Deal, current candidate for governor of Georgia.
He is a Republican.
He sought input from teachers as he was putting together his education platform.
That's right - teachers.
Unlike Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the NBC/GE family, Geoffrey Canada, Mike Bloomberg, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Adrian Fenty, Oprah Winfrey, or Andrew Cuomo, Deal actually likes and respects teachers.
How do I know?
Well, I listen to his words:
"I can't develop an educational platform without the input of the professionals in the classroom," Deal said. "Teachers are already offering thoughtful and constructive advice and I look forward to hearing from more of them."
The survey also offers teachers an opportunity to submit written advice for Deal on priorities for education.
"Give teachers the power to teach their students in the most appropriate and beneficial way," wrote one teacher in her comments to Deal. "Teachers have to be treated with respect and we need an advocate not more dictators or enemies!"
Deal, who is married to a former school teacher and is the son of career teachers, said Georgia's teachers will have a strong advocate in him.
"When Roy Barnes was telling teachers what was wrong with them, I was helping my wife grade papers," Deal said. "I have been listening to Georgia teachers throughout my public life and welcome their input."
Wow - honor the service of teachers, listen to their ideas, shoot straight with them...what a concept!
Contrast those words from Deal with Andrew Cuomo's platform, which demonizes teachers, calls for more charter schools without any accountability measures, pushes to end teacher tenure, calls for the end of the seniority system in layoffs and promotes merit pay.
Cuomo hasn't said much in public about teachers lately, but he was seen leaving a meeting with some hedge fund managers/education "reformers" with a briefcase full of hedge fund criminal cash, so it would be reasonable to expect that Cuomo will promote the education deform agenda that is supported by his hedge fund owners.
And indeed, his campaign literature parrots Democrats for Education Reform pamphlet rhetoric.
I'm not saying Nathan Deal would necessarily garner my vote were I living in Georgia. He has some stands on other issues, particularly immigration, which I find disturbing.
But I do know that I would appreciate hearing him defend teachers and ask for their input on education issues.
Cuomo, on the other, dismisses teachers and the teachers unions and prefers to only take input from the hedge fund managers/education "reformers" he meets in hotel rooms.
Cash only, please.
Monday, October 11, 2010
School Matron At Oprah Leadership Academy Acquitted Of Abuse Charges
From the Daily News:
Notice two things from this story:
First, Oprah does NOT accept the court ruling.
As always, Oprah knows more than anybody else about stuff, including the magistrate and the prosecutor who is declining to retry the case.
Perhaps Oprah's right and nine girls under her care were raped and abused by somebody Oprah hired at her school.
But you can see the pattern with Oprah when it comes to this kind of thing - she has unique otherworldly insight that tells her the woman is guilty even though the court says not beyond a reasonable doubt she isn't.
Next, notice how Oprah opened her big mouth about the school's headmistress, but then had that mouth shut when the woman hit her with a defamation lawsuit.
Oprah settled the defamation suit out of court in March.
For cash.
But that certainly hasn't stopped Oprah from talking shit.
She's been defaming teachers for the last month.
Maybe we should file a defamation lawsuit against her too.
JOHANNESBURG -- A woman accused of abusing teenagers at Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa was acquitted of the charges Monday, and Winfrey said she was "profoundly disappointed" by the trial's outcome.
Prosecutors had accused former school matron Tiny Virginia Makopo of trying to kiss and fondle girls at the school soon after it opened in 2007 outside Johannesburg.
Makopo also had been accused of assaulting one of the teens as well as a fellow supervisor.
Mthunzi Mhaga, a spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority, said Monday that Makopo had been acquitted of the charges.
"The magistrate indicated that the state did not prove itself case beyond reasonable doubt on all the charges. We won't be appealing the judgment," Mhaga said.
Winfrey had called the allegations crushing given her own stated history of childhood sexual abuse and promised an overhaul of the school.
...
The lavish $40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened in January 2007, aims to give girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.
The school is spread across a 22-acre campus with neat lawns and garden paths decorated with mosaics. It has computer and science labs, a library and a wellness center. The school is home to about 300 girls from across the country.
...
In March, Winfrey had settled a defamation lawsuit filed in Philadelphia by the school's former headmistress, Nomvuyo Mzamane, who claimed Winfrey defamed her in remarks made in the wake of the 2007 sex-abuse scandal at the school.
Mzamane claimed that she was never told of any sexual abuse. However, Winfrey's lawyers said in a March pretrial memo that Mzamane failed to discipline Makopo despite her history of run-ins with students and fellow staff.
Mzamane said she had trouble finding a job after Winfrey stated she had "lost confidence" in her.
Lawyers for both sides in March said Winfrey and Mzamane met to resolve their differences out of court.
Notice two things from this story:
First, Oprah does NOT accept the court ruling.
As always, Oprah knows more than anybody else about stuff, including the magistrate and the prosecutor who is declining to retry the case.
Perhaps Oprah's right and nine girls under her care were raped and abused by somebody Oprah hired at her school.
But you can see the pattern with Oprah when it comes to this kind of thing - she has unique otherworldly insight that tells her the woman is guilty even though the court says not beyond a reasonable doubt she isn't.
Next, notice how Oprah opened her big mouth about the school's headmistress, but then had that mouth shut when the woman hit her with a defamation lawsuit.
Oprah settled the defamation suit out of court in March.
For cash.
But that certainly hasn't stopped Oprah from talking shit.
She's been defaming teachers for the last month.
Maybe we should file a defamation lawsuit against her too.
Questions of the Day
Do you think the editorial writers at the Times will read the news section of the paper and discover that the Bloomberg/Klein "Education Miracle" is actually a fraudulent mirage and that both Bloomberg and Klein knew this pre-2009 even as they were ratcheting up the mayor's campaigns for re-election and the renewal of mayoral control of the school system by touting the fraudulent test scores?
Seriously.
Because so far, whenever I see editorial pieces about education or the NYC school system at the Times, it's always about what a great job Bloomberg and Klein have done, progress has still been made despite the fraudulent test scores and other instances of Klein-metic, etc.
It's like the Times editorial writers live in an alternate reality devoid of actual facts and just swallow hole whatever p.r. crap emanates from Tweed and Bloomberg LP, er, City Hall.
The same can be said for the editorial writers at the News, Post, and Murdoch Street Journal.
While I'm at it, do you think that the editors at the Kaplan Test Prep/Washington Post, led by Fred "The Iraq War Was A Fine Idea And I Still Stand By That" Hiatt will read the Times piece and think twice before they give Klein a platform to spew horseshit?
Nahhh....
Seriously.
Because so far, whenever I see editorial pieces about education or the NYC school system at the Times, it's always about what a great job Bloomberg and Klein have done, progress has still been made despite the fraudulent test scores and other instances of Klein-metic, etc.
It's like the Times editorial writers live in an alternate reality devoid of actual facts and just swallow hole whatever p.r. crap emanates from Tweed and Bloomberg LP, er, City Hall.
The same can be said for the editorial writers at the News, Post, and Murdoch Street Journal.
While I'm at it, do you think that the editors at the Kaplan Test Prep/Washington Post, led by Fred "The Iraq War Was A Fine Idea And I Still Stand By That" Hiatt will read the Times piece and think twice before they give Klein a platform to spew horseshit?
Nahhh....
Common Dreams: When It Did Become Acceptable To Scapegoat Teachers?
There is a very, very good piece at Common Dreams by Robert Freeman on the teacher scapegoating movement.
I repost it in full:
I repost it in full:
When Did Teachers Become Bums?
When did teachers become bums? When did it become okay to vilify an entire occupation — three million college educated professionals working as hard as anyone to make the world a better place?
It wasn’t that long ago that teachers occupied a quasi-secular-sainthood. It was the underpaid, overworked teachers who guided, inspired, succored, and cajoled every one of us to find in ourselves that bigger person we all long to be.
But lately it’s become acceptable, even sport, to blame teachers for all of the ills of American education.
The new documentary, “Waiting for Superman” is just the most recent salvo in a broad-spectrum campaign to demonize teachers, teachers’ unions, and public education in general. It is a blinkered caricature of life for five underprivileged students, with teachers cast as the villainous Simon Legree.
Indeed, it is amazing what a rapid turn-around the film represents in the public narrative about teachers: from near-adulation only a few years ago to ill-concealed contempt today.
In truth, it is teachers who have held education together in recent decades against a seemingly endless deluge of social pathologies. Consider just a few examples.
In the past thirty years:
- Most mothers have joined the workforce. No more Mrs. Cleaver at the door with warm cookies and milk and help with Beaver’s homework.
- We’ve surrendered our children’s socialization to television, video games, the Internet, and on-line social media.
- America jails more of its population than any country on earth — a sign of an almost psychotically violent society. One in thirty children has a parent in jail!
- We’ve absorbed the largest wave of immigrants in our history, many speaking no English and with little educational background.
- Many of the best teachers, especially women, have found opportunities in other fields that were not open to them before.
- Forty-five million Americans live in poverty; one of five American children are raised in poverty; one out of every eight Americans are on food stamps. The middle class is dying.
It’s pretty hard to teach a kid who has been raised by the television, when he hasn’t eaten breakfast, when the family has been kicked out of their home, when he has to work a job to help feed the siblings, when the parents have just gotten divorced or lost both of their jobs, when no-one at home speaks English, or when their most alluring role models are dope dealers, pimps, or gangsta rappers. Imagine, then, trying to teach a room full of such trauma cases.
Yet, for many of our lowest-performing schools, that is the world we actually live in. Trying to teach in that world is like trying to put up a tent in a hurricane. No sooner do you get it up than it comes right back down again. And the force factor is increasing. But teachers continue to do it.
Finally, let’s be honest about the motives of those behind the teacher-bashing.
We spend almost $750 billion each year on public education. Enterprising capitalists want to get a piece of it. A little known loophole enacted at the end of the Clinton administration allows wealthy investors to double their investment in only seven years by providing the funding for building charter schools.
That’s a 10 per cent annual return compared to less than 1 per cent available in conventional bank deposits. And the investment is essentially foolproof since it is public spending that assures the payback.
Now, making a profit isn’t a crime in a capitalist country but isn’t it funny how these “reformers” always cast their motives as altruistic? These “philanthropists” include the Walton Family Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and some of the wealthiest hedge fund managers in the world — yes, the same wizards who brought us The Greatest Economic Collapse Since the Great Depression.
It is they, fronted by President Obama, who are behind the charter school movement. Their goal is to make franchises of our schools, docile, low-cost industrial robots of our teachers, and McStudents of our children. This, despite the fact that the best academic studies of charter schools have shown that they perform no better than public schools and in many cases perform worse. Sometimes much worse.
A 2009 Stanford University study surveyed results for schools teaching more than 70% of the nation’s charter school students. It showed charter schools performed better than comparable public schools in 17% of the cases. But they were more than twice as likely to perform worse, in 37% of the cases.
That doesn’t matter. What matters is getting in on the big money.
In truth, the motive of the charter school boosters is the same profit motive that destroyed a once vibrant public health system, replacing it with the highest cost/lowest quality system in the industrialized world. Now they want to do the same for education. And the bonus add-in for them is that in the process they will destroy one of the most potent democratizing institutions in the history of America: public education.
But in order to make the sale, they have to demonize teachers first.
Are there bad teachers out there? Of course there are! They should be fired. By sheltering incompetent teachers, the unions are only giving ammunition to those whose motives are far more base than mere incompetence: making a profit off of your children. That is the reality of the public debate about education and teachers today.
Teachers don’t teach in a vacuum. Education isn’t some Immaculate Conception that occurs in a classroom, untouched by the world around it. And fast-money billionaires don’t invest for the warm-and-fuzzies.
If you want better schools, work for more stable incomes, families and neighborhoods. Get involved in your schools. Fire the few bad teachers but support the overwhelming number of good ones. And don’t be suckered by those peddling venom in the guise of altruism. Your children are products to them, pieces of meat on an assembly line whose only purpose is to produce profits. We can be better than that.
Robert Freeman teaches history and economics at Los Altos High School in Los Altos, CA. He is the founder of One Dollar For Life, a national non-profit that helps American students build schools in the developing world through contributions of one dollar. His earlier piece, “Competing Models for Public Education,” was also published on Common Dreams. He can be reached at robertf@odfl.org
Their goal is to make franchises of our schools, docile, low-cost industrial robots of our teachers, and McStudents of our children.
Couldn't have said it better.
That's the "reform" movement as run by the vulture philanthropists encapsulated in 21 words.
Obama Loses The Elites
From one of the deans of conventional wisdom, Mark Halperin:
I sent an email to Halperin telling him that President Obama has also lost educators and teachers. Here is that email:
Halperin is one of the Morning Joe crew and regularly bashes teachers and schools.
But I thought it would be good to send him this email anyway.
As for the CW that Obama has lost the elites and most people think the White House is
"over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters, I think that is dead right."
What is it that they say about even a blind squirrel finding an acorn sometimes?
Well, Mark Halperin found an acorn with this statement.
"With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle."
I sent an email to Halperin telling him that President Obama has also lost educators and teachers. Here is that email:
Mr. Halperin,
I am a veteran NYC teacher with 10 years experience.
I think the Obama administration's education policies are a travesty. He ran his campaign vowing to end the worst excesses of NCLB; but his RttT program has suckered states into adding standardized tests in every subject at every grade level in order to track the stats of students, teachers and schools. He has added NO money to classrooms (I have 170 students this term, no money for new books, a hole in the roof of my classroom that is 3 feet by six feet) but has added plenty to top-down reforms that privilege testing and data tracking over curriculum and resources for schools.
I also want to note that candidate Obama ran against scapegoating teachers for all the ills in public education. But now President Obama has decided, along with much of the media elite, that teachers are THE problem in schools and if we can just find a way to fire many of them, everything will go swimmingly.
The morale among my colleagues is very low. We feel, as Diane Ravitch has been saying most eloquently, that President Obama has decided to double down on failed policies like charter schools (the CREDO study shows only 17% of charter perform better than traditional public schools while 37% perform worse), merit pay (the Vanderbilt study show merit pay does NOT increase performance by either teacher or student), and teacher evaluations tied to test scores (NYU economist Sean Corcoran has shown how value-added analysis of test scores has a MOE of 20%), and scapegoating of teachers and schools that are irreparably damaging our school system.
So as you write about all the people in this country who have lost faith in President Obama, you ought to add educators. I understand that most media elites these days perhaps agree with the Obama administration rather than educators about reform, but as a 10 year vet I can tell you that these policies are doing irreparable harm to students and schools and if they are not stopped soon, you will see a future generation even less educated, less skilled and less emotionally and socially developed than the current ones.
PS: I work in a school that primarily serves students of color. You would be surprised how many of my students have also lost faith and hope in President Obama.
Halperin is one of the Morning Joe crew and regularly bashes teachers and schools.
But I thought it would be good to send him this email anyway.
As for the CW that Obama has lost the elites and most people think the White House is
"over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters, I think that is dead right."
What is it that they say about even a blind squirrel finding an acorn sometimes?
Well, Mark Halperin found an acorn with this statement.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
NY Times Nails Bloomberg/Klein On Their Test Scam
The Times reports that Bloomberg knew the NYC test scores were fraudulent in 2009, even as he was running his re-election campaign on how great the test scores were.
Anybody know what the mechanism is for putting a mayor in jail for fraud?
Because that's where Michael Bloomberg belongs, along with his chancellor, Joel Klein.
Instead the two of these crooks are being hailed as "education miracle workers" and given air time on NBC and print space in the Washington Post to spew more of their education reform jive.
Justice in this world can often be hard to come by, but if there is any at all, these two men will be exposed as the frauds they are, just as George W. Bush - once hailed as a "great leader" after 9/11 - was exposed as an incompetent moron after Katrina.
Anybody know what the mechanism is for putting a mayor in jail for fraud?
Because that's where Michael Bloomberg belongs, along with his chancellor, Joel Klein.
Instead the two of these crooks are being hailed as "education miracle workers" and given air time on NBC and print space in the Washington Post to spew more of their education reform jive.
Justice in this world can often be hard to come by, but if there is any at all, these two men will be exposed as the frauds they are, just as George W. Bush - once hailed as a "great leader" after 9/11 - was exposed as an incompetent moron after Katrina.
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