Merryl Tisch Looks To Bring Bob Bennett, James Dawson And Harry Philips Back As "Adjunct Members" Of The Regents Review Committee

Regents Chancellor Tisch has a plan to bring some former Regents back:

Chancellor Emeritus Robert Bennett served as a member of the Board of Regents for 20 years, seven of which he served as Chancellor of the Board. Regent Emeritus James Dawson served on the Board for 22 years and has served frequently as the active Regent on the Regents Review Committee. Regent Emeritus Harry Phillips III served as a Regent for close to 15 years, the last several of which he spent as the chair of the Professional Practice Committee. Their years of experience serving on the Board of Regents and their familiarity with the disciplinary process will greatly enhance the work of the Regents Review Committee.

It is recommended that the Board of Regents appoint Chancellor Emeritus Robert Bennett, Regent Emeritus James Dawson, and Regent Emeritus Harry Phillips III as Adjunct Members of the Regents Review Committee for a term to begin on April 14, 2015 and end on December 31, 2017.

Some reaction:

@Stoptesting15 After Phillips lohud forum, he is okay with me, but Bennett? no no no a million times no, and it is a consent agenda item
— Christine Zirkelbach (@CMZR) April 12, 2015

In a plutocracy, plutocrats get to do what they want.

Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch Looks To Circumvent Mayoral Control, Force School Closings

Diane Ravitch:

Recently Mayor Bill DeBlasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina announced a plan to help struggling schools by providing extra tutoring, after-school programs, and other needed resources. They made clear that they wanted to support schools with low test scores instead of closing them. The mayor said he would invest $150 million in extra resources to the lowest performing schools.

However, Merryl Tisch, the chancellor of the state Board of Regents, said on a radio show that if the schools didn’t show progress by this coming spring,  she would move to close them and replace them with charter schools. The Tisch family, in addition to being generous philanthropists, are big supporters of charter schools.

Giving the DeBlasio plan only a few months to prove its success seems awfully unfair. Schools don’t get “turned around” in a few months. Surely Tisch knows that.

Indeed she does - but this is all about the power to fire teachers and close schools, as Tisch made clear in her statements.

So she doesn't actually care whether the de Blasio plan has enough time to succeed or not.

All Merryl Tisch cares about is making sure there is a precedent to break the teachers contract by giving the principals of these "failing" schools the power to fire teachers.

This isn't a fight over education or what's best for the kids.

It's a labor battle, with Tisch looking to help the privatizers by enshrining the right to fire teachers regardless of the contract between the district and the union.

So she's giving until spring for the de Blasio plan to show "progress."

It's November 17.

In short, Tisch has rigged it so that the plan cannot show "progress" and then she will move to have the schools closed and the teachers fired regardless of "mayoral control."

It's amazing how the reformers loved mayoral control when they had a mayor looking to destroy the system in power.

Now that there's a mayor who's a little less trigger happy about closing schools, they're going to circumvent mayoral control.

Funny how that goes.

This Must Be The Fault Of Teachers And Public Schools

From the Murdoch Post:

Life’s traditional milestones of marriage, home and children do not hold any currency for today’s millennials due to lack of cash.

Many young adults, facing a difficult job market, suffer from a failure to launch their lives and leave the safety of the family home. Many must continue to rely in some part on parents for financial support, according to the findings of a new survey.

“The majority of young adults are struggling to achieve financial security in their transition from college to adulthood,” according to the Arizona Pathways to Life Success for University Students (APLUS). It is an annual study that polls some 1,000 young people who are making the transition from college to post-graduate life.

...

Indeed, financial problems are also changing how some young adults are running their lives in their 20s, the survey said.

“Many participants reported that marriage (28 percent) and having children were not important life goals; (19 percent) felt home ownership unimportant, and (16 percent) rated living on their own as unimportant,” the survey said.

The survey also showed that about half of respondents continue to need financial support. And it isn’t just a problem of unemployment. The survey found as well that half of those still getting help from their parents have full-time jobs.

“I think the economy has been a factor and also the fact that high student debt is very well documented and is causing concern,” according to Ted Beck, president and chief executive officer of the National Endowment for Financial Education, which worked on the poll.

The Post piece finishes with two stories of young people who are "beating the odds'" and making it in NYC by working numerous part-time jobs and /or being "serious" and "diligent" - which is a way of saying that those who aren't making it aren't willing to work hard or be serious and diligent.

But of course the reality is, systemically, young adults are screwed these days.

Debt, job prospects, companies using "internships" as a way to never have to hire entry level employees - these are all difficult obstacles to overcome.

The economy is creating jobs - but they're mostly low-paid service jobs.

And of course some of the careers that used to provide a decent living for people - like teaching - are being destroyed by the Wall Street types.

Dunno how any of this ends up, but you can see that the current trajectory is not sustainable.

And despite what Duncan or Obama claim, the problems young adults face at starting their adult lives and taking care of themselves financially are not caused by bad schools or bad teachers.

They're caused by a system that is fundamentally weighted toward plutocracy - one that gets weighted more and more that way every year.

Here's Part Of Mayor Bloomberg's Legacy

This is it, in a nutshell:

The city's poverty rate sat at 21.4% in 2012, barely unchanged from a year earlier, according to a report released by Mayor de Blasio's office and the Center for Economic Opportunity on Wednesday.
The rate increased across nearly every demographic group between 2008 and 2012, the report found.
Notably, New Yorkers of Asian descent saw the rate rise 6.6% to 29% and non-U.S. citizens experienced an increase of 5.3% to 29.9%. About a third of the city's Asian-descent residents are also non-citizens.

Eight percent of adults between the working ages of 18 and 64 lived in poverty in 2012, up 1.8% from 2008. Among families with two full-time workers, the rate increased by 1.3 percentage points to 5.2%.

Conditions in the city improved after the 2008 recession, but -- using the CEO's metrics -- 45.6% of New Yorkers continued to live near the poverty line in 2012, the report says. The standard federal measure set the rate at 30.7%.

Almost half of all New Yorkers live either in poverty or near-poverty.

You know whose fault that is?

Teachers, that's who!

If more of these lazy, pension-sucking, tenure-loving, test-hating teachers could just be fired, and more failing schools closed, we could address this poverty issue and - oh, wait, no, that's not actually right.

You see, middle class jobs have disappeared at an alarming rate over the past decade and they aren't coming back.

As Gothamist noted:

New York's reality mirrors what the country is experiencing. Per another report on the meager wage job boom in the Times:

The National Employment Law Project study found that there were about a million fewer jobs in middle-wage industries — including parts of the health care system, loan servicing and real estate — than there were when the recession hit. 

Economists worry that even a stronger recovery might not bring back jobs in traditionally middle-class occupations eroded by mechanization and offshoring. The American work force might become yet more “polarized,” with positions easier to find at the high and low ends than in the middle.

Now you can blame schools and teachers for this mess, as Mayor Bloomberg and so many of the education reformers like to do, but the truth is, the plutocrats running things (including Bloomberg himself) are sucking up more and more of the economy, they're paying less and less in taxes, and even when they engage in so-called "philanthropy" to "help others," it's more often than not a way to a) lower their tax bills and b) make money for other parts of their conglomerates.

That's why Bloomber is worth five times as much now as when he became mayor, it's why Bill Gates has more money than he ever has even as he claims he wants to give most of his fortune away in philanthropy.

It's one big racket, folks, and it's rigged for plutocrats.

You can blame teachers and schools, government workers and pensions or whatever, but the truth is, the economy and government policy are now rigged for the 1% and that ain't changing unless people take to the streets and make it change.

The Problem With Supporting De Blasio

A Michael Fiorillo comment from Chaz's blog:

DeBlasio has made some serious errors in judgment. The snow-day-that-wasn't is a sideshow, but his being caught flat-footed by Moskowitz is a big deal; he and the public schools were badly hurt by it.

Sad as it is, he's probably the best we're going to see for quite a while, in that he doesn't want to see us eating cat food in a ditch somewhere. That sets him apart from most of the people we're dealing with in education, and counts as "progress."

I never expected that much from him, but I also think we have an interest in at least not joining Moskowitz, Cuomo, Murdoch and Zuckerman in piling on him.

I don't know if he "deserves" our critical support, but for the time being I'm not sure we have that much choice. The alternatives to DeBlasio, Moskowitz in particular, are pretty sickening.

If nothing else, this whole episode of "Mayoral Control Is Only In Effect If It Helps Charters" shows that its one thing to be mayor, and quite another to control the government.

As usual, Michael makes salient points.

I left a comment at Accountable Talk a while back that addresses my biggest frustration with de Blasio:

I defended de Blasio over the fake snow plow UES crisis the Post ginned up and against the Eva nonsense at Perdido Street School blog.

The problem is, de Blasio and his people have no coherent pushback strategy against the bullshit they're getting hit with.

Given that BdB ran Hillary Clinton's campaign, he ought to know that if you take on the corporate overlords over charter schools, tax increases and the like, they're not going to like that and they're going to go at you.

Yet somehow the de Blasio people seem surprised at the vehemence with which the Murdoch and Zuckerman papers have gone after him, the way the TV stations have gone after him, the way Cuomo and Eva went after him.

I'd be happy to defend this guy for the right reasons, but until he starts to defending himself effectively, it's all for nought.

BTW, I'm over the snow thing. That's not a big deal, Bloomberg would have had us come in to. The thing that bothered me about the whole mess was HOW de Blasio and Farina tried to defend it. They took what was a problem and made it worse with an ineffectual pushback (Macy's is open...it's a beautiful day...) And that's what's most frustrating to me - there are times when it seems like he fell off a turnip truck, brushed himself off and got right into politics without actually learning how to do it.

I maintain that if de Blasio doesn't get more savvy in how he handles the media, Cuomo, Eva, the plutocrats and all the rest of the enemies he has coming at him (and make no mistake, they are ALL enemies out to get him), nothing we do or say to defend him will matter much.

Last week some in the media tried to blame the Harlem gas explosion on de Blasio, reporting that he hadn't appointed a full time Buildings Commissioner yet and the one he has is a Bloomberg holdover.

That meme didn't stick because it's difficult to see how a newly appointed de Blasio Buildings Commissioner would have helped avert the explosion, but it's not like they're not trying to gin up at least one anti-de Blasio controversy a week there in the press.

I'm hoping as the weeks go on and de Blasio and the people around him get more comfortable, they'll get better at pushing back against this garbage and tamping down the fake controversies before they get blown out proportion.

All I can say is, they had better or otherwise they - and we - are in for a long four years of fake UES snow controversies and phony wars against charters.

The Daily News Can't Wait For The Security State To Replace Unionized Doormen

The Daily News has a propaganda piece cheerleading for technology that will replace doormen while still making sure the riff-raff don't get where they don't belong:

An Israeli general is at work on a “biometric security” system that he believes will have New Yorkers tossing out their keys and maybe ditching their doormen, too.

Using sophisticated scanners that can recognize a person’s face, voice, build and stride, the system can unlock your door in under two seconds. Any strangers not in the database will be denied access. 

“This is only the beginning,” says General Aharon Farkash, the founder and president of the firm FST21. “This is the way people will enter buildings in the 21st century.”

To help establish FST21 in the states, Farkash opened a North American office earlier this month at 7 World Trade Center. Should you drop by, you’ll be greeted by one of its security devices. But unless he’s beamed a code to your phone or you work there already, there’s no convincing the small 8-inch scanner to let you in.

...

“Cities are crowded, often dangerous places, with the gap between rich and poor growing,” Farkash says. “We need a way to live safely but also comfortably next door to one another.”

For those worried about privacy as well as security, Farkash stresses that the system is self-contained, so it is impossible to hack from outside. It also stores no data of users coming and going beyond two weeks.

“I was the Israeli NSA, so I can tell you I know privacy, and the best effort is being made to keep things private,” Farkash says.

Gee, sounds fabulous.

Except I don't buy that part about keeping things private and anybody who has even scanned an article in the last year about NSA spying shouldn't either - they'll be tracking everywhere you go via this "biometric security" apparatus, the cell phone you carry and the credit cards you use to purchase items.

Such is life in the 21st century.

But besides our privacy and humanity, what else do we lose in the tradeoff when every building starts using "biometric security"?

Why, unionized jobs of course!

For individual homeowners, it offers the convenience — and cool factor — of not having to fumble for the keys anymore, especially with the kids and groceries in hand. For condo and co-op boards, it could mean serious savings.

“It’s much cheaper than a doorman,” Farkash says. “To have 24-seven coverage, that’s four shifts a day, at least $250,000 a year. Our system is 70% less to install, and 90% less to maintain each year after that.”

Oh, goodie - another technological advance that will replace jobs humans do.

On the plus side, when the people who used to have jobs but can no longer find them in our increasingly globalized, technology-laden economy start to steal to eat, the "biometric security" will keep them out of your condo.

On the negative side, you (or I) may be the one the security is looking to keep out.

More plutocratic propaganda from the Daily News masking itself as "journalism".

NYSED Commissioner John King Says New York Legislature Doesn't Have Power To Pull State Out Of Common Core

I know, sounds crazy, but he said it:

Some legislators have suggested ditching the Common Core standards altogether. King defended their educational value, descibring that they push students to improve in writing, comprehensive reading and mathematical problem solving.

But, ultimately, it wasn't the Legislature's decision to adopt the Common Core, and it won't be in their power to scrap it, King said.

“To the extent that we're talking about the standards and teaching and learning, that's obviously in the purview of the Board of Regents and the State Education Department,” he said.

King, perhaps buoyed by his education reform allies in the private sector backing him up and telling him they'll go to the mattresses for him, really thinks he shares unlimited power, along with the Regents, to do what he wants in education policy.

Can there be any stronger evidence to suggest we have transitioned from a representative democracy in the State of New York to a plutocracy in which wealthy business interests put functionaries like King into place and impose their own agenda regardless of how the rest of the people in this state feels about that agenda than this statement?

The Legislature had better disabuse this little autocrat king of his arrogant conviction that he is unaccountable to the people of this state or their elected representatives in the Legislature for the education policies he imposes with the aid of the Board of Regents.

Simply an outrageous statement by NYSED Commissioner King and, I believe, one that is worthy of his dismissal.

Because if he is not stripped of his power and sent packing, he simply is going to continue unimpeded with his education reform agenda.

Bloomberg Dictatorship Ends

It's over.

Finally.

Seven Hours Left In Bloomberg's Reign Of Error

In honor of Bloomberg's 12 years of "service":



Buh-bye.

Maybe Somebody Should Look Into Bloomberg's Bribe Money?

Buzzfeed:

One of Mike Bloomberg’s signal accomplishments in New York City was reversing the flow of corruption. In the old days, and in every other city in the world most days, favor-seekers bribe politicians — with cash in envelopes, with legal contributions, or with political support. In Mike Bloomerg’s New York, the mayor bribed you, buying the silence or cooperation of individuals, cultural organizations, and social service groups with hundreds in millions of dollars spent on small personal favors — a legal payment here, a medical procedure there — and charitable contributions.

Bribery is still bribery, whether it's old school bribery with the bribes going to the politicians or the new school/Bloomberg school bribery where the mayor bribed people into silence and/or cooperation.

Alas, Bloomberg hasn't been exposed as the crook he is.

Perhaps it has something to do with some of those bribes heading into the hands of journalists as they roll onto the Bloomberg News/Bloomberg Views/Bloomberg Businessweek payroll.

Perhaps it has something to do with Bloomberg's fellow media owners of the Times, Post, Journal, News, et al. not wanting to expose a fellow plutocrat.

Either way, Bloomberg spent hundreds of millions if not more bribing people into silence.

And we'll never know how many people were on his payroll or just what was left unexposed or unchallenged because of all his largesse.

NYSED ELA Lesson Module - 17 Days On One Short Story

As I posted earlier this week, the teachers who have had the misfortune to have to use the Common Core lesson modules provided by NYSED at a website they call Engage NY have found that the material is so full of mind-numbing, soul-sucking drudgery that they had lost the interest of students by the second week of school.

I have heard many complaints from teachers about one module that has students read and re-read one short story over and over and over and over for 17 straight days...

Here is an overview of that 17 day lesson module:

Lesson    Text    Learning Outcomes/Goal    

1    St. Lucy’s (p. 225: title, Stage 1 epigraph, and paragraph 1)    Students will begin the curriculum learning to read closely as they examine an excerpt from Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” They will explore the structural complexity of this as they examine the epigraph, a description of Stage 1 of Lycanthropic Culture Shock.     

2    St. Lucy’s (pp. 225–235: Stages 1 and 2)    Students will listen to a read-aloud of the first half of the story. This lesson provides important fluency support and introduces students to some of the text’s central concerns. Students are introduced to the narrator, Claudette, and the rest of her pack, as they begin to consider the narrative arcs of the main characters.       

3    St. Lucy’s (pp. 235–246: Stage 3 to the end of text)
    This lesson concludes the read-aloud of the text and ensures students have sufficient familiarity with the arc of this story to engage fully in the close reading activities in subsequent lessons. The lesson assessment asks students to identify one of the text’s central concerns and practice marshalling textual evidence to support their thinking.       

4    St. Lucy’s (pp. 226–227: From“‘Ay caramba,’ Sister Maria de la Guardia sighed.” to “Neither did they.”)    Students will return to the Stage 1 narrative to uncover connections between the Stage 1 epigraph and the Stage 1 narrative. Students will look more closely at Claudette, Mirabella, and Jeanette—the three main characters in the text—and consider how Russell’s precise language helps us understand both the girls and their experience at St. Lucy’s.       

5    St. Lucy’s (pp. 225–227: Beginning of text to “Neither did they.”)     This lesson introduces students to text annotation and reinforces the value of rereading a text multiple times. Students will consider the reason the girls are at St. Lucy’s while practicing using their annotations as a tool to find evidence.       

6    St. Lucy’s (pp. 227–229: Stage 1, from “That first afternoon, the nuns gave us free rein of the grounds.” to “It can be a little overstimulating.”)    Students will continue to learn the close reading skill of annotation as they begin, for the first time, to interrogate Russell’s text by considering the accuracy of the Stage 1 epigraph. This serves as an introduction to a key tension in the work and establishes a foundation students will use to challenge this and other texts in lessons and units to come.

7    St. Lucy’s (pp. 229 –231: from “Stage 2: After a time …” to “… cocked her ears at us, hurt and confused.”)    Students will continue to develop the skill of answering text-dependent questions through writing as they analyze Stage 2 of Lycanthropic Culture Shock more deeply. This lesson introduces students to the NY Regents Text Analysis Rubric. In this and subsequent lessons, they will refine their understanding of text analysis by using this rubric to assess their work.

8    St. Lucy’s (pp. 231–235: from “Still, some things remained the same.” to “This was a Stage 3 thought.”)    This lesson deepens students’ consideration of the developing rifts at St. Lucy’s. Through Claudette’s eyes, they examine the experiences and development of the three main characters. Here, students will refine their ability to marshal textual evidence by learning how to paraphrase and directly quote evidence in their writing as they prepare for the Mid-Unit Assessment.

9    St. Lucy’s (pp. 235–239: from “Stage 3: It is common that…” to “Jeanette got a hole in one.”)    Students will continue to read closely and answer text-dependent questions as they begin a deep examination of Stage 3. Here they will consider some of the difficult choices Claudette makes, deepening their understanding of how Russell develops this character. In this lesson, students will prepare the Mid-Unit Assessment through collaborative discussion.

10    St. Lucy’s (pp. 239–241: from “On Sundays, the pretending felt almost as natural…” to “…how the pack felt about anything.”)    Students will demonstrate their understanding of the text they have read by writing a formal response to the Mid-Unit Assessment prompt. After the assessment, students will continue their examination of Stage 3, practicing their annotation skills. 

11    St. Lucy’s (pp. 239–245: from “On Sundays, the pretending felt almost as …” to “… that was our last communal howl.”)    In this lesson, students consolidate their understanding of Stage 3 and move toward an exploration of the text’s climax in Stage 4. Students will review their reading annotation from Lesson 10 by participating in a Text-Dependent Questions Gallery Walk that will continue students’ work with text analysis through an evidence-based discussion. Students will again dip into a subtle interrogation of the text by considering the veracity of the Stage 4 epigraph for the characters.

12    St. Lucy’s (pp. 245–246: from the Stage 5 epigraph through the end of the text)    Students will work collaboratively with a partner, using the NY Regents Text Analysis Rubric to revise their Mid-Unit Assessment. Students will conclude their analysis of Stages 4 and 5 and consider Claudette’s assimilation process.    

13    Entire Text    This lesson begins students’ analysis of the St. Lucy’s text as a whole. Working in groups, students will analyze the different stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock. This work supports the final unit assessment that asks students to look critically at Claudette and make a claim about her ability to assimilate into human culture.      

14    Entire Text    This lesson continues students’ exploration of the key ideas, characters and central ideas in Russell’s text. Student groups will present their analysis of one of the stages of culture shock in the text. Students will use the annotations and information they learned from the presentations to write a response to a prompt that asks students to analyze the how Russell develops a central idea and use multiple pieces of textual evidence.

15    Entire Text    Students will learn how to revise their Lesson 14 writing response by adding an introduction and a conclusion, preparing students for the End-of-Unit Assessment.     

16    Entire Text    Students will prepare for the End-of-Unit Assessment by discussing and engaging in a class debate about the prompt. Students will consolidate their understanding of the text by considering and interrogating its fundamental premise—the value of assimilation.       

17    Entire Text    Students will exhibit the literacy skills and habits developed in Unit 1 by writing a formal evidence-based essay addressing the assessment prompt.   

Here is how students have received the genius that is this EngageNY lesson module that uses one short story for three and a half weeks of lessons:
 
The first day, they're excited to start a new lesson and read a story that seems to be about werewolves.

By the third day, they're bored by reading and discussing the same story for three days straight and starting to get antsy.

By the sixth day, they're outwardly hostile to the lessons and the teacher for teaching the lessons.

By the ninth day, they're totally disengaged from class and talk openly about how much they hate English.

By the twelve day, they no longer give a shit about anything - not the class, not the story, not the teacher, not the "assessment" (i.e., "test" for those of you who aren't fluent in reformy geekspeak) that is coming up on Day Seventeen.

By the seventeenth day, students complete the "assessment" with little regard to how they do on it because they stopped caring about the entire process somewhere between the end of Day Four and the beginning of Day Five.

Many people I know think that NYSED Commissioner John King and his merry men and women in reform at SED are diminished and humorless human beings, but I don't think that is so.

Any group of people that could call a website full of lessons that manages to completely disengage children from school "Engage NY" surely have a sense of irony somewhere beneath those nineties goatees and glasses.

A commenter on another Perdido Street School post who has taught this very 9th grade Engage NY module thinks he knows what the NYSED and Regents are trying to do with the Common Core lessons and tests:

As a 9th grade ELA teacher following the Engage NY Curriculum, I have seen first hand how destructive it really is. For three weeks we have been close reading one story! For the first time, my 9th grade students are completely disengaged. How many times can you annotate the same passage?

I also believe now that these units are actually lowering the rigor of my class. We are now into the second marking period and have read one story and written zero essays (other than the usely MOSL exam). At this point last year my 9th grade class had written two essays, read 5 short stories, and were halfway through their first novel, and we were having fun doing it.

The end of the opening unit has students reading (only key scenes) from Romeo and Juliet and then showing the Baz Lerhman film to supplement. How is reading 5 scenes from Romeo and Juliet, rather than the whole play, more rigorous?

Indeed, more and more people are coming to see the claims of increased "rigor" in the Common Core math and ELA standards as hollow promises or out-and-out deception.

The Common Core State Standards are meant to dumb down children, strip them of their creativity and passion for learning, and show them that their future lives will be full of mind-numbing, soul-sucking regimented tasks and standardized work that they will do over and over and over again.

In short, the Common Core revolution is meant to resign children to their hopeless future as a member drone of the 99%.

You can bet the children of the elites are not stuck reading 20% of Romeo and Juliet or spending a month on one short story.

The pushback against Common Core critics from the likes of College Board President (and ELA standards architect) David Coleman and NYSED Commissioner John King is that the increased rigor in these standards will help students to be college and career ready.

It seems to me having students read one scene in every act of Romeo and Juliet (approximately 20% of the text), then watch the film to fill in the narrative gaps or read one short story over and over and over in order to practice annotation will not get students college and career ready in any way, shape or form.

It will have them ready to drop out of school by the 10th grade, however, or just completely disengaged from their own education.

The Common Core - the perfect tool for the corporate and political elites to grow a generation of numb, compliant children into numb, compliant adults.

Education Reform Elites Hate Democractic Processes

It's so much easier to impose, threaten and punish:

When we put this draconian treatment of those questioning test policies side by side with the takeover of whole school districts by state governments, the imposition of Mayoral control of public schools, and the mass closing of public schools over the protests of community residents in cities like New York and Chicago, we see that when it come to Education Policy, elites have decided that democracy, both procedural and substantive, has become a luxury we can no longer afford. Tellingly, this is true whether one lives in an inner city neighborhood or a middle income suburb!

Professor Naison puts the finger on the culprits:

Who is responsible for this? The culprits are many, but I would suggest that when examines Education policy, the first place to look would be whether the organization responsible for the intimidation is taking funds from two sources- the US Department of Education, and the Gates Foundation. The collusion of the two- reflecting the conflation of centralized government power with centralized corporate power- suggests the depth of the threat we face to popular democracy in this country, and not only in education.

I've long given up the fantasy that we live in a democracy and have a say in how our country, our states, our cities are governed.

Certainly the move toward autocracy was evident before 9/11, but it has grown ever more evident since.

The elites have used terrorism and national security fears to add ever-more layers of control over us, they have used globalism and economic insecurity fears to add ever-more power and impunity to the elites while destroying the little protections we in the working classes have (and if you're not a member the elite, you are in the working classes.)

In education policy, mayoral control is just another mechanism for the elites to circumvent democracy and impose autocracy.

And so the ever-sliding descent into corporate totalitarianism continues, with the state using their paramilitarized police forces and corporate-owned media to control the people and quash dissent.

Fighting the corporate education reform movement, fighting the corporate shills who promote and profit from the corporate education reform movement, fighting the corrupt politicians who promote it and the wealthy business interests who have bought those politicians is akin to fighting a second American Revolution.

Fighting the corporate education reform movement is fighting for the soul of our nation, fighting to take it back from the neo-liberals and corporatists who have stolen it.

How You Will Know If De Blasio Sold Out To Rupert Murdoch

Democratic mayoral nominee Bill de Blasio, he of the "Tale of Two Cities" campaign, spent all yesterday meeting with the oligarchs of the city, including having a private and secret meeting with NY Post publisher Rupert Murdoch, NY Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other members of the New York plutocracy.

The de Blasio campaign is sending out the message that de Blasio was simply meeting with the plutocrats to tell them he will not back down from his campaign pledge to break the inequality that has brought about the "Tale of Two Cities" divide in New York, a problem he has spoken so eloquently about all during the mayoral campaign.

But some of us wonder if that's what he was doing, why keep the meeting with Murdoch, Zuckerman, Blankfein, et al. secret?

What's to hide if he was simply laying down the law to the plutocrats that the times they are a changing and they either get with those changes or get swept away?

Might it be that de Blasio didn't actually send that message to the plutocrats, that instead there was another message sent which was meant to assuage the nervousness and anxiety of a bunch of rich white guys who have had their own way with the city for the last 20 years?

Call me a conspiracy nut if you will, but I have to admit, my "Hmmm..." meter goes up when I hear de Blasio has been having secret meetings with Rupert Murdoch and Mort Zuckerman even as he's holding fundraisers with the rich and well-heeled across the city, hitting them up for the maximum contributions while they have tea and crumpets with Dante and Dad.

Now I don't know what was discussed at the de Blasio/plutocrat meeting, but I suspect there were no policy particulars talked about.

Rather, I suspect that the boys at that meeting (and they were all boys unless Kathryn Wilde was there too) had a frank and honest discussion about what the phrase "campaign rhetoric" means and how campaign rhetoric often gets forgotten in the heat of governing.

While we can't know exactly what was discussed at the de Blasio/plutocrat meeting, we can get a sense of how the plutocrats received the message.

The NY Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has been hammering de Blasio heavily for the last few weeks, calling him everything from Sandanista Bill for his work with a Jesuit-relief group in Nicaragua in the 1980's to going after his father's suicide.

If the tone of the de Blasio coverage in the Post changes from heavy hammer job to a softer, more gentle approach, you will know that what Rupert Murdoch heard de Blasio tell the plutocrats at the de Blasio/plutocrat meeting made Rupert Murdoch feel better about Bill de Blasio.

The Post coverage of Cuomo often follows this trajectory as well.

They run suck-up pieces about Cuomo when he's doing what they want, they go after him when he's doing stuff they don't like.

Now that de Blasio has met and had a frank discussion with Rupert and his fellow plutocrats, that pattern of Post coverage will play out with Sandanista Bill.

If we suddenly get more measured coverage from the Posties, you will know that de Blasio sold you out.

Bloomberg DOE Makes Mayor Bloomberg Subject Of City Test That Will Be Used To Evaluate Teachers

All hail our Dear Leader, the Great Bloomberg!

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is often the subject of debate — but now he’s the subject of an essay question that forces students in the schools he controls to rate his career.

The question, part of new city-created exams being administered in public schools this fall, asks seventh-graders to read a recent speech made by Bloomberg and write about whether the mayor’s career has been defined by successes or failures.

Are Americans Waking Up From Their Self-Induced Comas?

Washington Post polls finds many Americans no longer believe in the fantasy of the "American Dream:

Four years into an economic recovery in which most of the benefits have flowed to the top earners, a majority believe that the American Dream is becoming markedly more elusive, according to the results of a Washington Post-Miller Center Poll exploring Americans’ changing definition of success and their confidence in the country’s future.

Although most Americans still think hard work and education breed opportunity, their faith in a brighter tomorrow has been eroded by intensifying struggles on the job and at home that have led some to conclude that the United States has emerged from the Great Recession a fundamentally changed nation.

Among the poll’s findings:

Media Plutocrats Aim Daily At De Blasio, James

The Post has more negative stories about Bill de Blasio out today.

The Daily News has a negative editorial out about Tish James today.

Every day in the papers, the media plutocrats who own the Post, Daily News and Times - Bloomberg's fellow newspaper buddies and friends from his social circle - take aim at these two candidates for mayor and public advocate respectively with story after story meant to drive down their support and their approval ratings.

Even if the media plutocrats are not successful at helping their guys, Joe Lhota and Dan Squadron, win their respective races, the media plutocrats have another strategy in mind:

To undermine de Blasio and James with b.s. story after b.s. story so that, in the end, de Blasio won't be able to govern effectively as mayor and James won't be able to serve effectively as public advocate if they are each elected.

It's a cynical games these men play (and they are all men - rich, white, arrogant men, just like their pal, Bloomberg), a game they are playing for keeps.

We'll see in a few days when the next round of polls comes out in the mayor's race if their game is working against de Blasio.

I suspect that his numbers will be down a bit after the barrage he has taken in the press - particularly the Post.

And we'll see on Tuesday if it worked against James.

She has a lot of union support and the runoff for public advocate is expected to be a low turnout affair.

That may help her win despite the attacks.

Nonetheless, I predict that the media, along with the establishment in this city, will do to James what they did to John Liu this last cycle.

There will be some "scandal" that will effectively silence her, marginalize her, or worse, and put her out of commission.

That Liu's "scandal" - campaign finance fraud allegations over $7,000 donations - was small compared to, say, Bloomberg's campaign finance fraud bribing Independence Party officials three election cycles running with millions of dollars to put him on their ballot line, made no difference to the plutocrats and their functionaries.

Do what the rich, white men want or they will destroy you.

That is the message we learned from the Liu case.

The corollary to that:

Rich white men get to do whatever they want and nothing happens to them.

That's what we learned from watching Bloomberg bribe Independence Party officials with millions of dollars three election cycles running and manipulate term limits so that he could have his third (illegal) term.

The press will undermine de Blasio too, if he is elected and magnify every little issue, every little flaw.

They will seek to destroy him as soon as they can so that, even if he wanted to, he will not be able to undo Bloomberg's policies.

Meanwhile Bloomberg should be in jail with John Haggerty for what he pulled with his Independence Party bribes.

But he is feted in the media as a hero and a genius - the genius that saved New York.

Again, the message is - rich white men can do whatever they want but you had better do what the rich white men want or they will destroy you.

Another Day, Another Negative NY Post Story On De Blasio

He's a commie pinko ticket-fixing, transcendental meditation-loving, document-shredding, cop-hating Marxist member of the Sandanista Party and New York City will be DESTROYED if he is elected mayor.

That's the message, day-in and day-out from the Posties.

Gee, they really sound threatened.

After 20 years of corporatist mayors, they seem to be worried that somebody might take power who doesn't automatically side with the plutocrats.

Now I dunno if that's going to be true or not.

I'm a bit cynical in my middle age, so I tend to think whatever a politician promises on the way, he/she must be held accountable for those promises once they're in.

And there are plenty of examples in de Blasio's past of his working with real estate or corporate interests and giving them what they want.

So I dunno exactly why the Posties and other corporatists in the city are so scared of a de Blasio as mayor.

Perhaps they are concerned because they think they will get a mayor in power who won't accommodate them 100% of the time.

After 20 years of always getting what they want from City Hall, that may scare them a bit.

But seriously, the hyperbole over this is a bit much.

The Class War Is Over - The Plutocrats Won

Andrew O'Hehir in Salon:

American conservatives love to attack anyone who raises the issue of worsening economic inequality for waging “class war.” Their compulsion to keep repeating that phrase is revealing in itself; it’s like the serial killer in a movie who can’t help returning to the scene of the crime. Because the only class war being waged in 21st-century America is the relentless, all-fronts struggle conducted by the rich against the poor.

Within the last week, we have learned that poverty remains at near-record levels in our supposedly affluent nation. Even amid a so-called economic recovery, nearly 22 percent of the nation’s children live in poverty, and the overall number of poor people reached an all-time high, at 46.5 million. Income inequality, meanwhile, is roughly twice as bad as it was in the 1970s, reaching a level never seen before in this country or any other industrialized nation. The top 1 percent of Americans now bring home almost 20 percent of the country’s annual income, and have seen their tax bills decline by almost half. Britain, which has pursued similar tax-cutting policies over the last 30-odd years, finds itself a distant second in inequality, with its top 1 percent of earners commanding about 10 percent of total income. So while we may be behind the Brits in public health, life expectancy and almost every other quality-of-life indicator, we still totally kick their asses when it comes to disgusting rich people.

Read the rest of the O'Hehir piece and think about the role our union leadership has played in the class war, especially in the ceding of ideological ground to the free marketeers.

Of course, if you have union leaders who see themselves as part of the elite here to negotiate the terms of exploitation of their members rather than protectors of the rank and file, perhaps the ceding of ideological ground to the free marketeers on so many different issues has been purposeful and conscious.

I tend to think the union elites and the corporate elites all play fight in public for us, then go back to the dressing room and yuck it up over cocktails and cocktail weenies.

In other words, they're bought off and the whole game is rigged.

But 13 years watching Randi Weingarten spin her horse@#$% has made me cynical.

The Fundraising Race Between Bill De Blasio And Joe Lhota

The NY Times reports that de Blasio has a slight lead over Lhota in fundraising since the primary ended.

De Blasio has $700,00 in funds, Lhota $500,000.

Both candidates have raised similar amounts since the primary ended - de Blasio $147,000, Lhota $144,000.

But de Blasio also has $500,000 in funds that were raised for a runoff that he cannot use until January.

So the fundraising totals skew how much de Blasio has raised compared to Lhota a bit.

As posted earlier this week, there's an outside PAC raising money for Lhota that has received just two donations from David Koch and his wife, amounting to a little over $290,000.

The Times reports that a spokesman for that PAC said

the group had seen “a significant pickup in interest, and that has started to translate into support,” and on Friday night it released a new television commercial praising Mr. Lhota.

We'll see about that.

With two polls out this past week showing Lhota losing to de Blasio by 41 and 43 percentage points respectively, Joe Lhota is going to have to prove he can close that 40 point+ a gap a bit before many of the plutocrats start throwing a lot of cash his way.

Bloomberg's Real Estate Policies Drive Increase In NYC Poverty

This must be the fault of schools and teachers:

The latest U.S. Census data is drawing a troubling picture of the struggles of many New Yorkers living in poverty.

It also shows the number of city residents living below the poverty level is on the rise.

According to the data, 21.2 percent of New Yorkers are in households below that level.

That includes 31 percent of children age 17 and under.

Meanwhile, 19.1 percent of those 65 years and older are also below the poverty level.

Nationwide, for a family of four, poverty is defined as living off less than $23,492 a year.

NYC is way above the nationwide average:

The Census data shows 15.9 percent of Americans nationwide, or roughly 48.8 million, lived below the poverty level in 2012.

One big reason, besides the economic downturn of '09 for the increase in poverty in NYC?

Bloomberg's real estate policies:

Nearly 40 percent of the city's landmass will have been rezoned by the end of Bloomberg's reign — probably his most significant legacy, especially considering the new construction the zoning changes enabled. The particulars vary by neighborhood, but the driving idea has been unvarying: Development equals economic growth.

Yet success drives up rents and strains the finances of longtime middle-class residents. Nearly one third of New York's renters now spend more than half their monthly income on shelter… As the proportion of millionaires climbs, so does the share of New Yorkers living at or near the poverty line. 

Bloomberg has made this city a luxury product for the wealthy.

Everyone else, as far as our billionaire mayor is concerned, can go screw themselves.