The sellout of the LA teachers strike
From the outset, it was clear that top National Education and American Federation of Teachers it's a merged local) officers did not want an escalation of the wildcat strike wave that took place in right-to-work . . .
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An exemplary life
George may not have remembered but we met in Chicago in 1968, and then again in Chicago in the early seventies for several contentious union meetings. We were on the same side, raising hell with . . .
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Burns’ Vietnam: Other Problems and Lies... Vietnam lies by Ken Burns. More factual contradictions to the Ken Burns false historical 'objectivity' that is trying to sustain American myths about the Vietnam War...
I found the 9th and 10th episodes to be the most egregiously wrong and sometimes disgusting. In order to overcome the fog of lies that follows the fog of war in Vietnam (in the context . . .
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Ken Burns on Vietnam... Boomers Teach the Grandbabies More Lies Ahead About the Wars on Vietnam
[img=9870]They are at it again. They need to beat their own dead horse to death once more. The US rout in Vietnam must be mystified again — to unite a nation reeling from the promise . . .
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NEA RA continues the con game policies of its very very well-paid leadership...'All That is Pretense Dissolves into Delusions: The NEA Representative Assembly 2017'...
The 'Representative Assembly' (RA) of the National Education Association (NEA) met during the first week of July 2017, over the Fourth of July as usual. Thousands of elected delegates from across the USA and territories . . .
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May Day 2017! False Flags Flying: Fake unions planned Faux Mayday...Sellout union leaders in NEA and AFT have long pushed false May Day events and a version of history designed to mislead working women and men..
By the time May 1, 2017 arrived to the world, more people than ever were noticing how the leaders of the labor unions, especially in the USA, were trying to utilize the holiday to divert . . .
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May Day... False Flags Flying: Fake unions plan Faux Mayday...
The National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, and other union bosses are about to sully the celebration of Mayday, an international radical, usually revolutionary, workers’ holiday. The unions' top officials plan a series of . . .
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Open Letter Sent to NEA Representative Assembly delegates on February 8, 2017... Open letter to the National Education Association Representative Assembly exposing NEA's Clinton debacle and slavish bowing to conservative Democratic Party politicians...
This morning I got the email that all NEA members got from NEA boss Lily Garcia: “You inspire me.” Well, Garcia, you don’t inspire me. You rigged NEA’s internal processes against Bernie Sanders in order . . .
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NEA for capitalism, the empire, and Hillary...
The scene opens offstage on July 3, 2016. Lily Eskelsen Garcia sings the national anthem at the “Nationals” baseball game as Air Force Jets roar overhead. Lily, as she likes to be called, is a . . .
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BOOK REVIEW AND ESSAY: 'Days of Rage...America's radical underground, the FBI, and the forgotten age of revolutionary violence'... Who helped the American ruling class undermine the great social, anti-war, and political movements of the 1960s and 1970s -- from the inside?
Days of Rage Book Review by Rich Gibson. November, 2015. DAYS OF RAGE, Americas Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
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By Bryan Burrough. Illustrated. 585 pp. Penguin Press. $29.95.
Another Broad bites the dust... Deasy out in Los Angeles
The background music might be "Another one bites the dust." Following the demise of Broadie Jean-Claude Brizard in Chicago, America's third largest school system, Broad Leadership protege John Deasy has finally been forced out as . . .
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Chicago you are not alone... World-wide support grows for Chicago Teachers Union strike
The already historic Chicago school workers’ strike is still on. As I write this, my understanding is that support for the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 from around the USA and around the world continues . . .
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Detroit 'Emergency Manager' ignores negotiation plea, may finish off Detroit Federation of Teachers
The Emergency Financial Manager of the Detroit Public Schools, Roy Roberts, replied to the American Federation of Teachers’ President, Randi Weingarten, and the Detroit Federation of Teachers’ President, Keith Johnson’s request to restore DFT’s collective . . .
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STRIKEWATCH: THE SCAB. 'Race To The Top' has always been around... In a 1903 speech, Jack London analyzed The Scab
More than 100 years ago, Jack London, then a socialist as well as a novelist, wrote the following about the scab, and how it fit into the context of class war. Read the following and . . .
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San Diego teachers union joins surrenders
The San Diego Education Association has joined other union locals in California in helping to usher austerity into its ranks and into the city's public schools. . . .
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NEA supports CTU
Wow, this is so cool! Is this some kind of a "first" for unions? The NEA
supports us (an AFT local) in our fight against Rahm!
(For now we can leave for . . .
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NEA Convention Report. Part One... The National Education Association Representative Assembly 2012... 'Patriotism! Democracy! It’s About Us! We Teach America! '
The National Education Association held its "RA" (Representative Assembly") in Washington, D.C. over the July 4 week. The National Education Association representative assembly (NEA-RA) began for some delegates on June 26th, ending on July 6th, . . .
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NEA Convention Report. Part Two, more of the same, and worse... If 'Wisconsin' was a victory, how does the NEA spell D E F E A T?... The NEA Representative Assembly Days Two and Three, 2012 Grueling Times with High and Low Lights and a Closing Kablooey!
We left off with an NEA video proclaiming victory in Wisconsin as John Lehman, an NEA member, won a state senate seat. The gruesome loss in Wisconsin was simply washed away in a mass cheer-up. . . .
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NEA Convention Report, Day Three... The NEA Representative Assembly Part Three “We Mis-Educate Our Members and the Nation! No Bullying! Obama! Money=Values!
With memories of the orgiastic fireworks display over the Washington Monument fresh in my mind’s eye, mixed with equally bracing memories of a sonic boom caused by a Navy jet purportedly 30 miles into the . . .
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NEA Convention Report, Day Four and beyond... NEA Representative Assembly Part Four Mopping Up... The Budget; The Left at and After the RA. Coming: Why are Things as They Are?
This will almost conclude the Substance report on the Representative Assembly of the largest union in the United States, the National Education Association in Washington, D.C. The NEA met from July 1 through July 5, . . .
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ANALYSIS: The context of the upcoming NEA RA revealed in the June 13 Tele Town Hall
As the National Education Association (NEA) begins its annual meeting much needs to be debated, but since the group has already endorsed Barack Obama for President, some things deserve elucidation. The core issue of our . . .
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Southern California Sinks in Sea of Setbacks–NorCal Begins Fightback
In southern California school districts in the past week, NEA locals have agreed to tentative agreements or ratified deals that heap past concession onto new ones — piling up the bottomless pit of proofs that . . .
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ANALYSIS: Upheaval in San Diego teachers union over massive cuts adopted by a school board the union helped elect
The San Diego Education Association (SDEA), with 8,000 members, is the second largest school local in California. Of late, it has been in a bit of turmoil, firing its executive director, Craig Leedham, and moving . . .
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University of Texas professor denied entry into Canada to deliver AERA paper
Abraham P. DeLeon, assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas, San Antonio was refused entry to Canada on April 12, 2012. He was scheduled to deliver a . . .
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Occupy Wall Street... Can it Move from What it is To What it Could Be Beyond Chris Hedges's Promotion of Salvation
Below, the reader will find a link to a work by Chris Hedges which is written beautifully — what you would expect from a graduate of a premier private boarding school and the Harvard Divinity . . .
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Is NEA's Reg Weaver a millionaire through his pay, pension?
NEA Boss Reg Weaver: Is he A Millionaire Through the Empire's Bribes
By Rich Gibson
Reg Weaver was the president of the National Education Association for
two terms. During that time, school workers . . .
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NEA endorses Obama
(July 4, 2011) I just got a call from a person who is attending the National Education Association convention as an observer. She's an old friend who has been to nearly as many NEA representative . . .
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Detroit Schools: The System Now At Ground Zero
On June 20, 2011, Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder joined U.S Education political boss Arne Duncan and the Emergency Financial Manager of the Detroit schools, Roy Roberts, (appointed in May by Democratic Governor Granholm) in . . .
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Detroit schools impose unilateral ten percent pay cut
Roy Roberts, the “Emergency Financial Manager,” (EFM) of the Detroit Schools, on July 29, 2011, announced a 10 percent wage cut aimed at all district employees. He also described further benefit cuts but offered no . . .
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NEA's Van Roekel Denies Planned Funding of Obama Campaign... Which Way's the Resistance?
As nearly 10,000 public school teachers finish their planning for the Representative Assembly of the National Education Association (to be held in Chicago at the McCormick Place convention center from June 30 through July 5, . . .
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NEA chief Dennis Van Roekel proposes they back Obama -- again
In the 2008 election cycle, the National Education Association, the largest union in the USA, by far, spent more money on the Obama campaign than any other union, had more volunteers working for him, and . . .
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NEA trying to catch up
On March 31st, I got off a thirty minute national call with NEA boss Dennis Van Roekel (about $450,000 a year) and 3000+ other NEA members. I assume I was on the call because I . . .
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DFT Casts Out Opposition as Conn is Suspended... Detroit Federation of Teachers President suspends opponent following closed-door 'trial'
The top officer of the Detroit Federation of Teachers served as judge, jury, and beneficiary in a bizarre trial on February 28, 2011, in which his defeated opponent was purged, at least temporarily, from the . . .
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Detroit and San Diego: Vastly Different in Form, Similar in Essence And — On Wisconsin!
In the early evening of March 10, 2011 , Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) dissident, and likely winner of the recent DFT presidential election, Steve Conn lost his bid to overturn his suspension from union . . .
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Duncan wants to further militarize public education as Obama wars expand again
More cannon fodder, better, faster. Get out there and help barbarize those kids inside the schools of the corporate state. The message the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan began implementing during the eight years . . .
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The Sky is Falling and the People May Be Rising in Michigan... Or not
Substance readers may fondly remember Henny-Penny, the chicken who, when struck on the head by a falling “something,” set out to tell the King that the sky was falling. It’s a child’s classic, told in . . .
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SUBSCRIPTS: Anti Semites must be cheering Obama pick for 'special envoy' to Egypt
Guess who is the Barack Obama's special envoy to Egypt! It is Frank G Wisner! Who is he? Well, for one thing he is the son of Frank Wisner, the guy from the Office of . . .
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Detroit Federation of Teachers membership meeting votes to overturn election but divisions in the ranks still run deep
The first full week of February 2011 was another difficult week in the tragedy of a death by a thousand cuts that is Detroit. And not all of the problems were in the tumultuous contest . . .
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MEDIA WATCH: Imbecile history from the Tribune Corp. via the Los Angeles Times
Just when you think it might be safe to try and read some of the "news" coming out of corporate American, another piece of sheer unadulterated nonsense appears in some form as "news" or "analysis" . . .
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Wisconsin governor caught plotting with one of his billionaire backers
One communications entrepreneur has caught the Governor of Wisconsin talking with his billionaire backers as reported in the Wisconsin Capitol Journal. Holy crap! People rising! Get the soft nooses! The golden handcuffs! The sucker . . .
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ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW ON MADISON: 'Saving the middle class' could mean saving white people from the poor and most of the working class
Below is the counterfeit slogan that comes from the San Diego Labor Council, a rally to "save the middle class." It comes from recent union activities in California, where I live and work, some in . . .
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Forty votes out of 4,000 separate two sides... Detroit Federation of Teachers election close and perhaps undetermined reflecting a rising tide of teacher resistance
In an extraordinarily close vote, incumbent Detroit Federation of Teachers President, Keith Johnson, claimed formal victory over insurgent radical teacher, Steve Conn, by 41 votes, 1974 to 1933. This announcement appeared on the DFT website . . .
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Detroit’s Tragedy Deepens With Fraudulent Vote Count in Detroit Federation of Teachers election and members split
The calamity that is Detroit only got worse in January. As Substance reported on January 16, 2011, the election of top officers in the Detroit Federation of Teachers was a near tie. Forty-one votes separated . . .
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Detroit Federation of Teachers Schedules Runoff Election For January
In a key US school election, members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) gave only 38 percent of their votes to incumbent Keith Johnson, key negotiator of what may be the worst school contract . . .
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Lawsuit Limits Power of Detroit schools chief Bobb... Or does it?
On December 6th , 2011, a Detroit Circuit Court Judge declared that Detroit's public schools "Emergency Financial Manager" Robert Bobb, had usurped the powers of the Detroit school board by making academic decisions for the . . .
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Detroit schools in final death spiral?
The Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) may be on its last legs. This was a once-proud union that fought like hell, alongside other workers, not only for the school worker force, but for kids. Last . . .
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An Unhappy Anniversary as the Education Agenda Continues as a War Agenda All Out On October 7th ! Real Hope vs Despair!
October 7th marks the ninth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, a full blown hot war, a “War on Terror”, rather than an attack on a crime mounted by a billionaire irrationalist, Osama bin . . .
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ANALYSIS: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda: Fight Back on October 7th !
As schools began to open for the 2010-11 year, two lies that need to be connected were kept apart in the for-profit media. On August 30, 2010, ABC News “This week,” chaired by Christiane Amanpour . . .
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LABOR HISTORY LESSON: October 2 protest grows in militancy... Fake Labor’s Sham Rally Can Become Something Better!
The national mobilization scheduled for Washington, D.C. on October 2 looks like it's going to be more militant and focused than some of its originators originally planned. A growing number of union locals and individuals . . .
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The NEA Representative Assembly of July 2010: A Longer View
When we left off at the 2009 NEA Representative Assembly (RA) in San Diego in July 2009, new NEA president Dennis Van Roekel was hugging Arne Duncan, fawning over new President Barack Obama, and hustling . . .
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Devil's Deal in AFT? The Treasonous Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson may be on his way to a national AFT job
From the Detroit Federation of Teachers' Web Site: http://mi.aft.org/dft231/ "Detroit Federation of Teachers' Johnson Voted AFT Vice President [7.12.10] — "DFT President Keith Johnson was voted an AFT vice president at the national AFT conference . . .
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NEWS ANALYSIS... The NEA Representative Assembly Proves the Education Agenda is a War Agenda
Rank and File Summary... The 2010 Representative Assembly (RA) of the 3.2 million member National Education Association offers clear proof that the U.S. education agenda is a war agenda. The RA was held in New . . .
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SUBSCRIPT: Detroit school board member 'fondles self' during meeting, then apologizes for 'bad behavior'
Ya cannot make this stuff up! The headline should read "Don't touch it!" or maybe, like the nuns used to say, "GET THOSE HANDS OUT OF THOSE POCKETS, YOUNG MAN!" But, please, let's let the . . .
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NEA Bans Delegate for Questioning former NEA President's 2008 Salary of $686,949...
Since May 19, I have called and emailed the press office of the National Education Association, asking the staff to explain why former NEA president, Reg Weaver, collected a total of $686,949, in his last . . .
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STRIKE! Teacher strikes likely to increase in number, have to be defended against scabs and ruling class propaganda
I don't know much about this NEA local in Orange County other than the fact that they are among the first to strike back, to resist, recognizing that concessions do not save jobs but, like . . .
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A March 4th Conference Sets October 7th as International Day of Action and October 16th as Planning Conference at San Francisco State.
A "March 4th Conference" held in Los Angeles on April 23 sets October 7th as "International Day of Action" and October 16th as Planning Conference at San Francisco State. Over 151 people attended the meeting . . .
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NEWS ANALYSIS: March 4 protests stretch across California and all the way to New York... March 4th Actions and Beyond, a Critical Approach
The core issue of our time is the reality of the promise of perpetual war and escalating inequality met by the potential of a mass, activist, class conscious movement to transform both daily life and . . .
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Against Ravitch
Perhaps it is because she floats around in the really thin air that is the field of education that the vacillating reactionary, Diane Ravitch, gets cheers from those who condemned her in her No Child . . .
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Crooked Louisville University Education Department dean to plead guilty to stealing $2 million in No Child Left Behind 'research' scam
The Louisville Courier Journal reported on January 4, 2010, that former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner will plead guilty Friday, January 8, in a case in which he and a colleague are accused . . .
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The Detroit Federation of Teachers’ Contract: The Worst Ever?
In early January 2009 in Detroit. The frozen feet of Johnnie Redding were found sticking up out of the ice in the basement of an abandoned building while amateur hockey skaters played around what of . . .
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Duncan omnipresent as National Education Association Opens annual meeting
Videos of former Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer (and now current U.S. Secretary of Education) Arne Duncan were one of the most common experiences of the thousands of teachers and other NEA delegates who . . .
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Arne Duncan attacks teachers as NEA convention cheers... The Day of Duncan
Maybe it really is George W. Bush’s fault. Eight years of Cowboy George make his successors look right smart.
Take U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He looks like a precocious middle-school boy who knows . . .
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NEA Convention... The 'madness' of electing Barack Obama again while snuffing out any militancy?
NEA RA Day 3: More than Madness by Rich Gibson
When I began to wonder about what to write about today’s RA, the first thought was to use the word that four delegates, none . . .
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NEA Continues...The Education Agenda is a War Agenda...
The Education Agenda is a War Agenda
By Rich Gibson
Reporting and Analysis of Days 4 and 5 of the NEA RA
There is considerable comfort of the idea that we are all . . .
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National Education Association Ends 147th Annual Meeting... A critical summary of the NEA RA
The NEA Representative Assembly Last Day---Day 6:
The Falling Sky, Saviors, and What to Do? By Rich Gibson
The largest union in the USA, the National Education Association (NEA), ended its annual representative assembly . . .
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Subscript: Why is the NEA sponsoring San Diego Padres lunch boxes on 'Camouflage Day'?
Professor Ken Macrorie used to employ "Fabulous Realities" in his writing classes, drawing on Thoreau's, "shams and delusions are esteemed for the soundest truth, but reality is fabulous." Here is a nice example that popped . . .
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National resistance grows to cuts in public education and expansion of high-stakes testing
It may be that the collision of No Child Left Behind, restrictions, the . . .
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Decay, crisis, and renewed resistance
On April 22 2008, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings stood in Detroit to announce she would tighten the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act which serves the purpose of (1) regimenting the curricula around . . .
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The coming collisions... War, stagflation, NCLB, and School Life
In California, Governor Swarzenegger announced a budget cut of 10 percent across the board, a move which would hit California schools, routinely listed as already among the worst of the state systems, hard as 40 . . .
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Michigan adopts 'Chicago Small Schools Model' just as Chicago dumps it
On Tuesday, January 29, 2008, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm gave her annual “State of the State,” speech in the capital building in Lansing.
What could a governor possibly say in the collapse that . . .
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The National Council for the Social Studies' (NCSS) College and University Faculty Association votes down a resolution opposing the Iraq war and fascism
On November 29, 2007, the assembled members of the College and University Faculty Association (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) voted to reject a motion raised by members of the Rouge . . .
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'Small Schools Model' becomes a fiasco in San Diego... San Diego teachers, union ask for an end to 'small schools' at Mann Middle School
In mid-October the Voice of San Diego, an alternative newspaper, ran a major story in the problems at San Diego’s foremost “small schools” project. The project was the brainchild of San Diego’s former schools chief, . . .
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Rouge Forum meeting in March 2008 in Louisville
The Rouge Forum Education: reform or revolution?
Bellarmine University and the University of Louisville
March 14 –March 16, 2008
The Rouge Forum is a group of educators, . . .
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'Public' broadcasting follows the corporate propaganda line... Why do teachers trust NPR and PBS so much?
(SAN DIEGO, August 16, 2007). Here is my response to the bogus Merrow report #2, swiped from the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) website.
In August 2007, PBS ran a three-day “Merrow Report” on . . .
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Indictment of labor press for ignoring the lack of democracy in the AFL-CIO and Change to Win
It’s time for everyone who cares about the future of the working class to look carefully at the way in which the unions representing working class people in the United States operate. The information below . . .
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