tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33771914009809765842024-03-19T01:48:31.061-07:00Educate for DemocracyA blog by Bob Peterson, founder of Rethinking Schools magazine and former president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association. Posts focus on the essential links between quality public schools, a vibrant multicultural democracy, and justice for all.Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-34750991704123371792017-04-29T04:09:00.000-07:002017-04-29T04:09:45.610-07:00Climate Deniers Flooding Schools with Alternative Facts— Educators Are Fighting Back<div class="MsoNormal">
While hundreds of thousands of concerned global citizens
march for science and climate justice, a massive corporate-financed
disinformation campaign on climate change is flooding our nation’s schools.</div>
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The right-wing Heartland Institute which is financed
by the <a href="https://zinnedproject.org/2014/11/the-koch-brothers-bill-of-rights-institute/">Koch
brothers</a> and other billionaires, is sending out 200,000
glossy books, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming">Why
Scientists Disagree About Global Warming</a></i> and an accompanying DVD to the country’s science
teachers. </div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; text-transform: uppercase;"> TIFFANY CRAWFORD, VANCOUVER
SUN</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The purpose of their book is to sow confusion and doubt, not
unlike previous campaigns the Heartland Institute has conducted, such as the
one in 1990s, financed by the tobacco company Philip Morris, to raise doubts
about the dangers of second hand smoke.</div>
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According to the <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/fight-misinformation/global-warming-facts-and-fossil-fuel-industry-disinformation-tactics.html?s_src=promo&s_subsrc=googleads&gclid=Cj0KEQjw0IvIBRDF0Yzq4qGE4IwBEiQATMQlMcCcCaBdUe2IOTaZsVuBcbIiasONN_GwLAng4hBc_0saAjDg8P8HAQ#.WQMlXlKZM3E">Union
of Concerned Scientists</a>, the Heartland Institute has for years, “received
funding from fossil fuel interests such as ExxonMobil and the coal magnate Koch
brothers.” Heartland even sponsored a billboard campaign in 2012 casting
climate change activists as “murderers, tyrants, and madmen.”</div>
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This campaign has come under recent criticism by Curt Stager
in a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/opinion/sowing-climate-doubt-among-schoolteachers.html?_r=0">New
York Times<span style="font-style: normal;"> op-ed</span></a></i>, but his exposé
touches only the tip of a massive iceberg. School textbooks rarely do the issue
justice, teachers are not well versed in the subject, and conservative
politicians in many states frown on even discussing the issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, the oil and coal industry
continue to pour money into various pseudo educational materials to obfuscate the
truth.</div>
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Victories can be won against such corporate-financed
curricular materials. Educator Bill Bigelow recounts how in 2012 a coalition of
education and environmental groups, spearheaded by <a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml">Rethinking Schools</a> and
the <a href="http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/">Campaign for a
Commercial-Free Childhood</a>, exposed the cozy relationship between the coal
industry and Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of materials for
children. After publication of an <a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/25_04/25_04_bigelow2.shtml">exposé</a> of
Scholastic’s propagandistic “The United States of Energy” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rethinking Schools</i> magazine, a
campaign to pressure Scholastic to break its ties with the coal industry led to
a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> editorial,
“<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/opinion/13fri4.html?_r=0">Scholastic’s
Big Coal Mistake</a>,” and then quickly to Scholastic pulling the curriculum
off its website and promising not to shill for the coal industry any longer.</div>
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Last year the inadequacy of school textbooks on climate
change led students, teachers, and climate activists to convince the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-bigelow/portland-oregon-schools-c_b_10069106.html">Portland,
Oregon, school board</a> to adopt a climate justice resolution and to “abandon
the use of any adopted text material that is found to express doubt about the
severity of the climate crisis or its root in human activities.”</div>
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Despite attacks by the Heartland Institute and other climate
deniers, the Portland schools are moving forward engaging parents, community
members, students and parents to create a <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/portland-public-schools-first-to-put-global-climate-justice-in-classroom-20170406">climate
justice curriculum</a> for kindergarten through 12th grade.</div>
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People interested in learning how to organize similar
resolutions in their school district can visit the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rethinking Schools</i> site and download a free <a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/apcekit/index.shtml">Climate
Justice Kit</a>. </div>
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People can also make sure their school library and child’s
teacher has a copy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ProdDetails.asp?ID=9780942961577">A
People’s Curriculum for the Earth</a></i>, edited by Bill Bigelow and Tim
Swinehart. The 410-page book contains resources, lessons, and engaging role
plays. Naomi Klein called it “an educators toolkit of our times.” </div>
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It is a good antidote to the poisons that are being spread
by the Heartland Institute and other climate deniers. </div>
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As we march and organize for climate justice, the schools
are an important battle ground. Our children and grandchildren should have the
right to learn the science behind climate change, the stories of those most
affected, the impact on all living fauna and flora and what they might do to
work for climate justice.</div>
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-26795950274310159402017-04-08T09:54:00.004-07:002017-04-18T18:45:53.964-07:00Milwaukee School District Declared "Safe Haven" for Immigrants<div class="MsoNormal">
The Milwaukee School Board unanimously passed a “Safe Haven”
resolution on March 30 in response to the growing fears in Milwaukee’s
immigrant communities caused by the Trump administration’s actions and
statements.</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/YESstudents/" target="_blank">Youth Empowered in the Struggle</a>, a youth group of Voces de
la Frontera, along with <a href="http://www.schoolsandcommunitiesunited.org/" target="_blank">Schools and Communities United</a>, the Milwaukee Teachers’
Education Association, and progressive school board members including Tatiana
Joseph and Larry Miller were key to the resolution’s success.</div>
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The <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B12ZLvdhd_1YN3lsOEpEU2Z2cVU" target="_blank">resolution </a>states, “That the Milwaukee Board of School
Directors declare Milwaukee Public Schools (the District) to be a safe haven
for its students and families threatened by immigration enforcement or discrimination,
to the fullest extent permitted by the law.” The resolution describes in detail what that
means. </div>
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Hundreds of students, parents and educators came to the
school board meeting in support of the resolution – so many people that an
overflow room had to be opened after the auditorium was filled to capacity.</div>
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A video of this action, done by <a href="http://youtu.be/mMBLkNZ62Uw" target="_blank">ShowTime</a>, captures that power of the
youth organizers and importance of this national issue.</div>
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Thank you Youth Empowered in the Struggle.</div>
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¡Sí se puede!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mseub8zcZ8w/WOmAR0AR36I/AAAAAAAABk4/GD5xGbROEJcRSsnlje4VdcIV3Tl2L9PIgCEw/s1600/sanctuarydemo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mseub8zcZ8w/WOmAR0AR36I/AAAAAAAABk4/GD5xGbROEJcRSsnlje4VdcIV3Tl2L9PIgCEw/s320/sanctuarydemo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
photo credit: Joe Brusky</div>
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-34498919272000197482017-01-19T15:43:00.001-08:002017-01-19T15:43:34.431-08:00An Orwellian cloud covers Trump's cabinet nominees<div class="MsoNormal">
While it is doubtful that US President-elect Donald Trump
ever read George Orwell’s 1984, Trump’s cabinet choices appear to come right
out of the doublethink that ruled Orwell’s dystopian society. In Orwell’s book,
the Ministry of Plenty rationed essentials while the Ministry of Truth
manufactured falsehoods.</div>
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Trump’s pick for the Secretary of Energy said last year he
wanted to abolish the department. His choice for the Environmental Protection
Agency is best known for suing the agency. His proposed Labor Secretary has
criticized overtime, minimum wage and sick leave initiatives. His attorney
general nominee has a long history of opposing voting rights, women’s rights
and once said he decided he didn’t like the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan only
after he learned they smoked marijuana.</div>
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However, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education, Betsy
DeVos, is perhaps the most extreme of Trump’s cabinet nominees. She has spent
her entire adult life — and her family’s considerable wealth — mounting
campaigns to transfer public dollars away from public schools and into private
and religious schools.</div>
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The 59-year-old DeVos will be in charge of the U.S.
Department of Education, which has 5,000 employees and a budget of $73 billion
last year. Unlike many countries, the U.S. educational system is decentralized,
with much power resting at the state and local level. However, federal policy
initiatives have played a growing role in recent decades, particularly in
shaping educational policy across the country.</div>
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Historically, the department has been focused on protecting
civil rights in areas of class, race, and gender, and has focused its budget on
public schools. Before he won the election, Trump announced his main education
focus was to invest $20 billion in federal money to increase school choice.</div>
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In the United States, the term “school choice” has become
code for supporting “independent” charter schools that are nominally public but
privately controlled, More threatening, it is code for transferring public tax
dollars to private schools, including religious schools, that operate with
little to no public oversight. For instance, under U.S. law private schools are
able to circumvent basic safeguards such as freedom of expression and gender
rights. In general, neither their finances nor their curriculum are made
public.</div>
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Betsy DeVos is the ideal candidate for such an unprecedented
policy shift. She has had virtually nothing to do with public schools her
entire life. She’s not an educator, nor has she worked for any public school
institution. The main organizations she has headed, The Alliance for School
Choice and the American Federation for Children, were specifically set up to promote
school privatization, and have spent millions of dollars electing local, state
and national politicians.</div>
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DeVos hails from a wealthy family and married into an even
wealthier one. Her father, Edgar Prince, was a politically active auto parts
businessman. When not making money, he supported the creation of the Family
Research Council, a conservative Christian religious group that has been called
a “hate” group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBT views.
DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, is founder of the security firm Blackwater, which
ushered in the era of private contractors performing duties for the U.S.
military in order to evade public outcry over U.S. operations in the Middle
East. Its employees were found guilty of killing dozens of Iraqi civilians in a
massacre in 2007.</div>
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When DeVos married Richard DeVos, Jr., her oligarchic empire
expanded. Her father-in-law co-founded Amway, a pyramid marketing company that
made millions for its founders. Richard DeVos, Sr., has also been a long-time
supporter of right-wing religious and economic groups.</div>
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Forbes magazine estimated the net worth of the DeVos family
as $5.1 billion. This puts DeVos in the top tier of Trump’s oligarchic cabinet
— even richer than Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, who was the CEO of
Exxon.</div>
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Betsy and her husband have continued their families’
right-wing political traditions. They have been powerbrokers in the Republican
Party and have donated millions of dollars to right-wing think tanks,
foundations, legal teams and political action committees.</div>
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Known as a smart and determined political organizer, Betsy
DeVos understands the important role of labor unions, particularly public
sector unions, in opposing privatization. Thus her strategy has long included
attacks on unions and worker rights.</div>
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DeVos ability to bring religious groups into the
privatization struggle is strengthened by her personal beliefs. In 2001, she
told a group of Christian philanthropists that her work on school issues was a
campaign to “advance God’s Kingdom.”</div>
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In fact, her positions are so extreme — against any form of
government regulation of voucher or charter schools — that some supporters of
school privatization have expressed concern about her appointment. The main
association of charter schools in the state of Massachusetts, for instance,
said that DeVos’s positions would “reduce the quality of charter schools across
the country.”</div>
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The Republicans control both the Senate and House of
Representatives of the U.S. Congress and it is expected that DeVos and Trump’s
other nominees with be approved. But as the last year has made clear, political
developments in the United States are highly unpredictable. The fight over the
federal role in public education is far from settled.</div>
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<i>Originally published at <a href="https://educationincrisis.net/blog/item/1415-school-privatizer-to-head-trump-s-us-department-of-education">educationincrisis.net</a>.</i></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-82847140687614929272016-06-30T07:24:00.001-07:002016-06-30T07:24:28.020-07:00Teachers and the Colombian Peace Accord - Books versus Bullets<b>Throwing Books at Bullets</b><br />
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<i>Despite violence and
intimidation, Colombia’s teachers have been a bulwark for workers’ rights.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;">By Bob Peterson</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><div>
Tuesday, August 25, 1987 began like any other day for Luis
Felipe Vélez, president of the teachers union of Antioquia, Colombia’s most
populous state. Shortly after 7 AM, Velez said goodbye to his wife and
three young children and headed to the union’s office in downtown Medellín.</div>
<div>
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But as the thirty-three-year-old was about to enter the modest
adobe-brick building, two assassins leapt out of a green Mazda 626 and opened
fire, riddling his body with bullets. Velez died two hours later.</div>
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Word spread quickly among human rights activists, teachers,
and Vélez’s colleagues in the Association of School Teachers of Antioquia, and
by 5 PM a large crowd had gathered at the union office for a vigil.</div>
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Among the throng were Hector Abad Gomez and Leonardo Betancur,
two well-known human rights leaders. As Gomez and Betancur entered the union
office, two men jumped off a motorcycle and walked toward the crowd. One shot
Gomez six times; the other chased Betancur into the office and killed him.</div>
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It was a <a href="http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/los-martires-de-universidad-de-antioquia-articulo-370118">bloody
day</a> in a bloody period. During the 1980s and ’90s, assassinations were an
everyday reality for union and human rights activists in Colombia. And
violence, while on the wane, continues to this day.</div>
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According to Colombia’s National Union School (ENS), more than
1,000 teacher union leaders were killed between 1977 and 2014 — the
equivalent of 7,000 teacher union leaders being murdered in the US. The ENS has
also documented over 14,000 incidents of violence against labor activists,
ranging from assassinations to beatings, kidnappings, and torture. The
perpetrators have only been brought to justice in 1 percent of the cases.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6aXTz_grpfI/V3Ul-IFInOI/AAAAAAAABK8/HhNIR0d2JdcXysdc7lDYM9D67SEBgcL2ACLcB/s1600/streetartbarbaraminer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6aXTz_grpfI/V3Ul-IFInOI/AAAAAAAABK8/HhNIR0d2JdcXysdc7lDYM9D67SEBgcL2ACLcB/s320/streetartbarbaraminer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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This campaign of intimidation and murder (in combination with
neoliberal restructuring) has taken a toll on Colombia’s labor movement. Union
membership is 4.4 percent of the national workforce today, down from 17 percent
three decades ago.</div>
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As the movement has shrunk, public educators have become
increasingly important. Teachers in Colombia now make up about half of the
membership of the Central Union of Workers, Colombia’s main federation of
unions.</div>
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And they have one more thing in common with teacher unionists
in the US: they’re fighting neoliberal reforms tooth and nail.</div>
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<b>Global Front Lines<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This past December, during a long visit to Colombia to study
Spanish and learn about the situation in the country, I walked into the same
teachers union office where Vélez was assassinated. On the wall hung portraits
of Vélez and the sixty-six other teacher union leaders in Antioquia murdered
since 1977. Above the pictures, a wooden sign read (in Spanish): “Here we are
and here we will be forever in the heat of the struggle in defense of human
rights.”</div>
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Seeing the dozens of portraits of slain teachers was chilling,
a stark contrast to the congratulatory plaques lining the office walls at my
own union, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.</div>
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I had been aware of <a href="http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/south-america-colombia-labor-union-human-rights-judicial-government-corruption-paramilitary-drug-violence-education">the
danger</a> facing private-sector union activists in Colombia — especially those
organizing against multinational sugar cane, banana, and mining companies — but
the pictures drove home the importance of public-sector workers to the struggle
for justice and human rights in Colombia. Elites in the country literally had
them gunned down to try to weaken popular resistance.</div>
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While the situation outside Columbia is less dangerous,
public-sector unionists across the world have emerged as a bulwark against
efforts to eviscerate public services. From Chicago to Colombia, teachers have
leveraged their position in society to fight the privatization and
disinvestment national governments and international institutions are pushing.</div>
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Teachers and schools are in nearly every town and city in the
world. Urban and rural teachers are in daily contact with impoverished and
disenfranchised communities. And despite anti-union attacks and growing
privatization, teacher unions remain among the largest in the world. (In the
United States, the National Education Association and the American Federation
of Teachers have some 4.5 million members, making K-12 public education one of
the country’s most unionized sectors.)</div>
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<a href="http://www.ei-ie.org/en/websections/content_detail/3247">Educational
International</a>, the global federation of teacher unions, has launched an
international campaign against the commodification of education. But much more
is needed.</div>
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To be successful, teacher unions must take our struggle beyond
the schoolhouse door and fight for more than just the rights of our members. We
must struggle for a more genuine democracy, a more expansive social justice.</div>
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Colombian teachers, many of whom have given their lives, are
on the front lines of this struggle.</div>
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<b>Culture of Fear<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Though separated by thousands of miles, my conversations with
teachers and union activists in Colombia underlined the commonality of our
struggles.</div>
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Teachers from Colombia and the US alike decry the growing
emphasis on standardized testing, the tendency to blame teachers for not
solving problems created by pervasive poverty, the top-down commands that
devalue teaching as a profession, and the narrowing of the curriculum, which
edges out all-important issues such as social justice and critical thinking.
They object to <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/07/the-charter-school-profiteers/">corporate
reforms</a> that privilege private schools and defund public education —
reforms that, at their heart, represent an attack on democratic rights.</div>
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“We are fighting privatization of our public schools,” said
John Avila, a former social studies teacher and current head of research for
Colombia’s Federation of Educators (FECODE) in Bogotá. “The neoliberal agenda
. . . is strong in Colombia.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Last spring, the federation led a fifteen-day national strike
that focused on two issues — meager pay and a new teacher evaluation
system that consisted of a single, written test. The union made gains on both,
winning a 12 percent pay increase over three years and a more sophisticated
evaluation system that does not include a written test.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Indeed, despite right-wing violence and a culture of fear, despite
limits on organizing, despite the prohibition of agency fees, Colombian
educators have persevered — roughly 70 percent of the country’s
teachers are union members.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Longest Civil War in
Modern History<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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To fully understand the challenges and potentials facing
Colombia’s teacher unions, a bit of history is necessary.</div>
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Colombia’s civil/guerrilla war dates back to the 1960s and is
considered the longest contemporary struggle in the world. A central issue was
land tenure – wealthy landowners and multinational corporations seizing land
for mining and banana and palm oil plantations. Another issue was the country’s
closed political system – the ruling oligarchy and their two political parties
had formed a national front in the 1950s that effectively prevented legal means
of politically challenging their rule. </div>
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In the 1980s, Colombia’s narco-trafficking escalated, further
complicating the country’s politics and unleashing an increased level of
violence. This situation became more problematic when both paramilitaries and
left guerrillas began to use the drug trade to help fund their operations. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
The U.S., meanwhile, linked its War on Drugs with its crusade
against left movements in Latin America.<sup> </sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The high point was in 1999, when President Bill Clinton and
Colombian President Andrés Pastrana signed “Plan Colombia” to fight drugs and
terrorism in Colombia. From 2000 to 2008, the U.S. Congress provided more than
$6 billion to Colombia, making it the largest non-Middle Eastern recipient of
U.S. military assistance. How much went to fighting drugs and how much to
fighting left guerrillas has never been clear. As the MIT Center for
International Relations noted in 2008, Plan Colombia is “a counternarcotics
strategy that has turned into a counter insurgency one.” <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3377191400980976584#_edn1" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--></span></sup></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
But both the war on drugs and the counter-insurgency have
failed. Colombia remains the world’s leading producer of cocaine, and the
government has been unable to defeat the leftist guerrillas. After decades of
violence, there is a yearning for peace in Colombia. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/25/cracks-showing-in-colombia-peace-process-after-latest-crisis/">pending
peace accord</a> between Colombia’s government and leftist guerrillas is
raising hopes that teacher unions will be able to bring even more people into
their ranks. As Carlos Lotero — longtime labor leader and now the director
general of the National Union School — put it: “It’s a lot easier to organize
for worker rights if leaders are not routinely murdered.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Two decades ago, peace talks between the government and the
guerillas led to the formation of the <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Colombias-Patriotic-Union-A-Victim-of-Political-Genocide-20151023-0056.html">Patriotic
Union</a>, a left political party. But both the Patriotic Union and the peace
process collapsed when the ruling oligarchy and paramilitaries launched a
campaign against the nascent party. According to the House of Memory in Medellín,
nearly five thousand members of the new party were “assassinated,
disappeared, or massacred” between 1984 and 1997.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Today, the peace process enjoys much broader support and is
attracting more international scrutiny. The negotiations began in 2012 in
Havana, Cuba and a tentative pact was announced in September 2015. The
Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
continue to make progress on the details of a final peace agreement, although
they did not complete the accord by the hoped-for deadline of March 23. In June the two sides reached an agreement on a cease fire, the last major obstacle to a final peace agreement. It is likely that there will be a referendum on the agreement in October.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Every educator and teacher union leader I spoke with supported
the peace process, in the hopes that it it will rein in paramilitary death
squads and provide space for organizing and social transformation.</div>
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<b>Perseverance<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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As the peace process in Colombia moves forward, the unions
have developed a broad agenda to fight for worker rights. And because of
Washington’s continued involvement in the country, Colombian union activists
say the solidarity of US progressives and unions is essential.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Lotero spoke in particular about provisions in the US-Colombia
free-trade agreement, which was signed in 2011. Because of pressure from the US
and Colombian labor movements, the pact included a Labor Action Plan intended
to safeguard worker rights. Now Colombian unions are fighting to make sure that
language is put into practice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Provisions of the Labor Action Plan include: establishing a
ministry of labor, ending subcontracting designed to prevent unionization,
opening an office of the International Labor Organization in Colombia, and
changing legal codes to expand and enforce basic labor laws.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
The plan also calls for measures to prosecute perpetrators of
anti-labor violence and increase protection for activists, including government
funding for bodyguards and armored cars. Intimidation is an ongoing concern.
According to the US Department of Labor, “threats against labor leaders and
activists have <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/us-colombia-free-trade-agreements-labor-safeguards-are-failing-keep-trade-unionists-1569224">increased
significantly</a>, in the form of text messages, phone calls, letters, emails
and other forms.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
But as I spoke with teachers and union leaders in Colombia, I
was struck by their matter-of-fact perseverance — a persistence examined in a
book that all union activists in Medellín seem to have read: <a href="http://fdcl-berlin.de/aktuelles/2012/tirandole-libros-a-las-balas/"><i>Tirándole
libros a las balas</i></a><i>, </i>or <i>Throwing Books at Bullets</i>. The
book chronicles the history of violence against teachers in Antioquia from 1978
to 2008.</div>
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Fernando Ospina, president of the Antioquia teachers union,
explained the title’s significance.</div>
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“Teacher unions have been targeted by violence and bullets,” Ospina
said. “Our response has been with education, social research, and social
justice. They shoot bullets. We throw books.”</div>
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----</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Bob Peterson taught fifth grade for thirty years in the
Milwaukee Public Schools. He was president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education
Association and is an editor of <i>Rethinking Schools </i>and President of the Rethinking Schools Board of Directors.</div>
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A shorter version of this article first appeared in the online Jacobin magazine on April 6, 2016</div>
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<u style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #386eff; font-family: 'times new roman';">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/04/colombia-farc-teachers-assassination-public-sector/</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
For a pdf of a Spanish translation of this article click <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1Ydjc1RlBDa3lBNWM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 4.5pt; margin-top: 0in;">
For a pdf of the English version of the article click <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YOG9vZmNoeF9hQ2M/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3377191400980976584#_ednref" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> US military
involvement and aid has spanned decades. Dr. Martin Luther King <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">noted this in his April 4, 1967 “Beyond
Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech when he criticized the use of US
helicopters against the Colombian guerrillas. Since then over 10,000 Colombian
military personnel were trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation (formerly the School of Americas). In 2009 the US and
Colombia reached an agreement to allow the US military to control seven military
bases inside Colombia. See Jenny Manrique Cortés, U.S. and Colombia: A Growing
Military Intervention, in Audit of the conventional Wisdom, MIT Center for
International Studies, December 2008. </span><a href="http://web.mit.edu/cis/pdf/Audit_12_08_Manrique.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://web.mit.edu/cis/pdf/Audit_12_08_Manrique.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Iglesias-Cavicchioli,
Manuel (June 2010). </span><a href="http://www.reei.org/index.php/revista/num19/archivos/1294844328-Nota_IGLESIAS_CAVICCHIOLI_Manuel.pdf"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">"U.S. Foreign Policy, the South American integration,
and the case of the military bases in Colombia"</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (PDF). </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Revista_Electr%C3%B3nica_de_Estudios_Internacionales&action=edit&redlink=1"><i><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">19</span>.
</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Serial_Number"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">ISSN</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1697-5197"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1697-5197</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span><a href="https://www.google.co.in/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=OWq3VtO4KYOM8Qem5qSABw#q=%22U.S.+Foreign+Policy%2C+the+South+American+integration%2C+and+the+case+of+the+military+bases+in+Colombia"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.google.co.in/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=OWq3VtO4KYOM8Qem5qSABw#q=%22U.S.+Foreign+Policy%2C+the+South+American+integration%2C+and+the+case+of+the+military+bases+in+Colombia</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-90057215637513217882016-04-16T05:59:00.000-07:002016-04-16T05:59:39.769-07:00Tirándole libros a las balas <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">A pesar de la violencia y la intimidación, los
maestros de Colombia han sido un baluarte de los derechos de los trabajadores.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Por Bob Peterson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">El martes, 25 de agosto de 1987 comenzó como
cualquier otro día para Luis Felipe Vélez, presidente del sindicato de docentes
del departamento de Antioquia, Colombia, el estado más poblado. Poco después de
las 7 AM Vélez se despidió de su esposa y sus tres hijos menores y se dirigió a
la oficina del sindicato en el centro de la ciudad de Medellín.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Cuando Vélez, de treinta y tres años, estaba a punto
de entrar en el modesto edificio de ladrillos de adobe, dos asesinos saltaron
de un Mazda 626 verde y abrieron fuego, acribillando su cuerpo a balazos. Vélez
murió dos horas después.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">La voz se extendió rápidamente entre los activistas
de los derechos humanos, profesores y compañeros del Vélez en la Asociación de
Institutores de Antioquia, y alrededor de las 5 PM ya se había reunido una gran
multitud en la oficina del sindicato para una vigilia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Entre la multitud estaban Héctor Abad Gómez y
Leonardo Betancur, dos conocidos líderes de los derechos humanos. Cuando Gómez
y Betancur enteraron en la oficina del sindicato, dos hombres saltaron de una
motocicleta y caminaron hacia la multitud. Uno le disparó a Gómez seis veces; el
otro persiguió a Betancur hasta la oficina y lo mató.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Fue un día sangriento en un período sangriento.
Durante los años ochenta y noventa, los asesinatos eran una realidad cotidiana
para los activistas de los derechos humanos y sindicales en Colombia pero la
violencia, aunque en decadencia, continúa hasta el día de hoy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Según la Escuela Nacional Sindicato de Colombia
(ENS), más de 1.000 dirigentes del sindicato de docentes fueron asesinados
entre 1977 y 2014 – el equivalente de 7.000 dirigentes del sindicato de
docentes fueron asesinados en los Estados Unidos. La ENS también ha documentado
más de 14.000 incidentes de violencia contra activistas laborales, que van
desde asesinatos a palizas, secuestros y torturas. Los autores sólo han sido
llevados ante la justicia en un porcentaje de los casos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Esta campaña de intimidación y asesinato (en
combinación con la reestructuración neoliberal) ha hecho un estrago en el
movimiento laboral de Colombia. La densidad sindical es del 4,4 por ciento de
la fuerza de trabajo nacional hoy, por debajo del 17% de hace tres décadas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qHtFFbd7v0s/VxI2uULlFEI/AAAAAAAABIA/Gdv4T6bvEa4RHruVWbOsJufg9RvgfGwRgCLcB/s1600/streetartbarbaraminer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qHtFFbd7v0s/VxI2uULlFEI/AAAAAAAABIA/Gdv4T6bvEa4RHruVWbOsJufg9RvgfGwRgCLcB/s400/streetartbarbaraminer.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Barbara J. Miner</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">A medida que el movimiento se ha encogido, los educadores
públicos se han vuelto cada vez más importante. Los maestros en Colombia
actualmente representan alrededor de la mitad de los miembros de la Central
Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia, la federación principal de sindicatos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Ellos tienen algo más en común con los sindicalistas
magisteriales de los EE.UU.: están luchando contra las reformas neoliberales
con uñas y dientes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Líneas del
frente mundial<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Este diciembre pasado, durante una larga visita a
Colombia para estudiar español y aprender acerca de la situación en el país, yo
entré en la misma oficina del sindicato de maestros donde Vélez fue asesinado.
En las paredes cuelgan retratos de Vélez y de sesenta y seis otros dirigentes
del sindicato de docentes en Antioquia que fueron asesinados desde 1977. Encima
de las fotos, un cartel de madera dice: ¡Aquí estamos y aquí estaremos siempre,
en el fragor de la lucha! Por la defensa de los derechos humanos.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Ver las decenas de retratos de maestros asesinados
fue escalofriante, un contraste marcado con las placas de felicitación que
adornan las paredes de la entrada de la oficina en mi propio sindicato, la
Asociación de Maestros y Educadores de Milwaukee. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Yo estaba consciente del peligro que enfrentan los
activistas de los sindicatos en el sector privado en Colombia – especialmente
aquellos que se organizan en contra de empresas multinacionales de caña de
azúcar, banano y las empresas mineras – pero las imágenes resaltaron la
importancia de los trabajadores del sector público en la lucha por la justicia
y los derechos humanos en Colombia. Las elites en el país les habían mandado a
acribillar para intentar debilitar la resistencia popular.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Aunque la situación fuera de Colombia es menos
peligrosa, los sindicalistas del sector público de todo el mundo han surgido
como un baluarte contra los esfuerzos para diezmar los servicios públicos.
Desde Chicago a Colombia, los maestros han aprovechado su posición en la
sociedad para luchar en contra de la privatización y la falta de inversión que
los gobiernos nacionales y las instituciones internacionales están impulsando.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Los maestros y las escuelas están en casi cada
pueblo y ciudad en el mundo. Los maestros urbanos y rurales están en contacto
diario con las comunidades oprimidas y marginadas y a pesar de los ataques
antisindicales y la creciente privatización, los sindicatos de docentes siguen siendo
los más grandes del mundo. (En los Estados Unidos, la Asociación Nacional de
Educación y la Federación Americana de Maestros tienen cerca de 4,5 millones de
miembros, haciendo que la educación pública K-12 sea uno de los sectores más
sindicalizados).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">La Internacional de la Educación, la federación
mundial de sindicatos de docentes, ha lanzado una campaña internacional contra
la mercantilización y la privatización de la educación, pero se necesita mucho
más. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Para tener éxito, los sindicatos de docentes deben llevar
nuestra lucha más allá de la puerta de la escuela y luchar por algo más que los
derechos de nuestros miembros. Debemos luchar por una democracia más verdadera,
una justicia social más amplia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Los docentes colombianos, muchos de los cuales han
dado sus vidas, están en la primera línea de esta lucha. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">La cultura del
miedo<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Aunque separados por miles de kilómetros, mis
conversaciones con los maestros y activistas sindicales en Colombia resaltaron la
similitud de nuestras luchas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Los profesores de Colombia y EE.UU. por igual
lamentan el creciente énfasis en las pruebas estandarizadas, la tendencia a
culpar a los profesores por no resolver los problemas creados por la pobreza
generalizada, los comandos jerárquicos que devalúan la docencia como una
profesión y el estrechamiento de los planes de estudios, que prácticamente
elimina los asuntos importantes, tales como la justicia social y el pensamiento
crítico. Se oponen a las reformas institucionales que favorecen las escuelas
privadas y recortan los fondos para escuelas públicas, reformas que, en el
fondo, representan un ataque a los derechos democráticos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">“Estamos luchando contra la privatización de
nuestras escuelas públicas,” dijo John Avila, un ex-profesor de estudios
sociales y actual director de investigación de la Federación Colombiana de
Educadores (FECODE), en Bogotá. “La agenda neoliberal . . . es fuerte en
Colombia.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">La primavera pasada, la Federación encabezó una
huelga nacional de 15 días que se centró en dos asuntos, la escasa remuneración
y un nuevo sistema de evaluación docente que constaba de una única prueba
escrita.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">El sindicato hizo progresos en ambas, obteniendo un
12 por ciento de aumento de sueldo durante tres años y un sistema de evaluación
más sofisticado que no incluye una prueba escrita. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">De hecho, a pesar de la violencia y una cultura del
miedo, a pesar de los límites de la organización, a pesar de la prohibición de
las “agency shop” (acuerdos mediante los cuales los empleados de las unidades
de negociación pagaban cuotas de sindicato)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">,</b>
los educadores colombianos han persistido – aproximadamente el 70 por ciento de
los profesores del país son miembros del sindicato.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">La guerra civil
más larga de la historia moderna<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">A fin de comprender plenamente los desafíos y
posibilidades que enfrentan los sindicatos de docentes en Colombia, un poco de
historia es necesaria. La guerra civil se remonta a la década de 1960 y es
considerada la más larga lucha en el mundo contemporáneo. Un problema central
era la tenencia de la tierra, los terratenientes y las multinacionales confiscaban
las tierras para la minería y las plantaciones de banano y aceite de palma. Otro
asunto era la de un sistema político cerrado – la oligarquía gobernante y sus
dos partidos políticos habían formado un frente nacional en la década de 1950
que previno eficazmente a los medios jurídicos de desafiar sus políticas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">En la década de 1980, el narcotráfico escaló en
Colombia, complicando aún más la política del país y desencadenando un nivel de
violencia sin precedente. Esta situación se vuelve más problemática cuando
ambos grupos <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>paramilitares y
guerrilleros de izquierda empezaron a utilizar el tráfico de drogas para
financiar sus operaciones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Los Estados Unidos, entretanto, combinó su guerra
contra las drogas con su cruzada contra los movimientos de izquierda en América
Latina. El punto culminante fue en 1999, cuando el Presidente Bill Clinton y el
presidente colombiano Andrés Pastrana firmaron el “Plan Colombia” para combatir
el tráfico de drogas y el terrorismo en Colombia. Del 2000 al 2008, el Congreso
de EE.UU. proporcionó más de $6 mil millones de dólares a Colombia, lo que la
convierte en la mayor receptora de asistencia militar estadounidense fuera del Medio
Oriente. Nunca ha sido claro lo que se destinó a la lucha contra las drogas y cuánto
a la lucha contra las guerrillas de izquierda. Como el MIT Centro para las Relaciones
Internacionales señaló en 2008, “Una estrategia antidrogas que se ha convertido
en una lucha contra la insurrección.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>La
guerra contra las drogas y la contrainsurgencia ha fracasado. Colombia sigue
siendo el principal productor mundial de cocaína y el gobierno ha sido incapaz
de derrotar a la guerrilla izquierdista. Después de décadas de violencia, hay
un anhelo de paz en Colombia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">El acuerdo de paz pendiente entre el gobierno
colombiano y las guerrillas izquierdistas está aumentando las esperanzas de que
los sindicatos de docentes serán capaces de traer aún más gente a sus filas.
Como Carlos Lotero – veterano líder laborista y ahora el director general de la
Escuela Nacional Sindical – dijo: “Es mucho más fácil organizarse para los
derechos de los trabajadores si los líderes no son asesinados rutinariamente.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Hace dos décadas, las conversaciones de paz entre el
gobierno y la guerrilla resultaron en la formación de la Unión Patriótica, un
partido político de izquierda. Pero tanto la Unión Patriótica y el proceso de
paz fracasaron cuando la oligarquía gobernante y los paramilitares iniciaron
una campaña en contra de la naciente partido. Según la Casa de la Memoria en
Medellín, cerca de cinco mil miembros del nuevo partido “fueron asesinados,
desaparecidos o masacrados” entre 1984 y 1997.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Hoy, el proceso de paz goza de un apoyo más amplio y
está atrayendo más atención internacional. Las negociaciones comenzaron en 2012
en La Habana, Cuba, y un pacto provisional fue anunciado en septiembre de 2015.
El gobierno colombiano y las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC)
continúan avanzando sobre los detalles de un acuerdo de paz definitivo, aunque
no completaron el acuerdo para la fecha esperada del 23 de marzo. Su intención
es tener pronto un acuerdo, seguido de un referéndum en octubre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">La
perseverancia <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Como el proceso de paz en Colombia avanza, los
sindicatos han elaborado un programa amplio para luchar por los derechos de los
trabajadores y debido a la continua participación de Washington en el país,
dicen activistas sindicales colombianos, la solidaridad de nosotros, los
progresistas y los sindicatos, es esencial. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Lotero habló, en concreto, sobre las estipulaciones del
acuerdo de libre comercio entre los EE.UU.-Colombia, que fue firmado en 2011.
Debido a la presión de los movimientos laborales de Colombia y los EE.UU., el
pacto incluye un plan de acción laboral destinado a salvaguardar los derechos
de los trabajadores. Ahora los sindicatos colombianos están luchando para
asegurarse de que las palabras sean puestas en práctica.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Las estipulaciones del Plan de Acción de trabajo
incluyen: el establecimiento de un ministerio de trabajo, acabando la
subcontratación diseñada para impedir la sindicalización, la apertura de una
oficina de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo en Colombia, y el cambio
de los códigos legales para expandir y hacer cumplir las leyes laborales
básicas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">El plan también prevé medidas para enjuiciar a los
autores de violencia contra trabajadores y aumentar la protección de los
activistas, incluidos los fondos del gobierno para guardaespaldas y carros
blindados. La intimidación es una preocupación constante. Según el Departamento
de Trabajo de Estados Unidos, “las amenazas contra dirigentes sindicales y
activistas han aumentado significativamente, en forma de mensajes de texto,
llamadas telefónicas, cartas, correos electrónicos y otras formas.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">Hablar
con los maestros y dirigentes sindicales en Colombia, me sorprendió por su
perseverancia, la persistencia analizadas en un libro que todos los activistas
sindicales en Medellín parecen haber leído: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tirándole
libros a las balas</i>. El libro relata la historia de violencia contra los
docentes en Antioquia desde 1978 hasta 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Fernando Ospina, presidente del sindicato de
profesores de Antioquia, explicó el significado del título. “Los sindicatos de
docentes han sido el blanco de la violencia y las balas,” dijo Ospina. “Nuestra
respuesta ha sido con la educación, la investigación social y la justicia
social. Disparan balas. Tiramos libros.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- - - -
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Una versión de este ensayo fue publicada en la
revista “Jacobin” April 6, 2016. </span><u style="text-underline: #386EFF;"><span style="color: #386eff; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/04/colombia-farc-teachers-assassination-public-sector/</span></u><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Bob Peterson enseñó quinto grado por treinta años en
las escuelas públicas de Milwaukee. Fue presidente de la Asociación de
Educación de Maestros de Milwaukee y es un editor de <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Repensando las E<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3377191400980976584" name="_GoBack"></a>scuelas</i>. </span><span style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Algunos de los escritos en español de Bob se pueden
encontrar en <a href="http://www.bob-peterson.blogspot.com.es/2015/11/escritos-por-bob-peterson-en-espanol.html">http://www.bob-peterson.blogspot.com.es/2015/11/escritos-por-bob-peterson-en-espanol.html</a></span><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="color: #484848; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-5343445139433439552016-04-09T04:20:00.000-07:002016-04-09T04:20:47.191-07:00Throwing Books at Bullets: The Heroic Struggles of Colombian Teachers<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite
violence and intimidation, Colombia’s teachers have been a bulwark for workers’
rights.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Tuesday, August 25, 1987 began like any other day
for Luis Felipe Vélez, president of the teachers union of Antioquia, Colombia’s
most populous state. Shortly after 7 AM, </span><span style="font-size: 19px;">Vélez</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> aid goodbye to his wife
and three young children and headed to the union’s office in downtown Medellín.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But as the thirty-three-year-old was about to enter
the modest adobe-brick building, two assassins leapt out of a green Mazda 626
and opened fire, riddling his body with bullets. </span><span style="font-size: 19px;">Vélez </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">died two hours later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Word spread quickly among human rights activists,
teachers, and Vélez’s colleagues in the Association of School Teachers of
Antioquia, and by 5 PM a large crowd had gathered at the union office for
a vigil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Among the throng were Hector Abad Gomez and Leonardo
Betancur, two well-known human rights leaders. As Gomez and Betancur entered
the union office, two men jumped off a motorcycle and walked toward the crowd.
One shot Gomez six times; the other chased Betancur into the office and killed
him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It was a <a href="http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/los-martires-de-universidad-de-antioquia-articulo-370118">bloody
day</a> in a bloody period. During the 1980s and ’90s, assassinations were an
everyday reality for union and human rights activists in Colombia. And
violence, while on the wane, continues to this day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">According to Colombia’s National Union School (ENS),
more than 1,000 teacher union leaders were killed between 1977 and 2014
— the equivalent of 7,000 teacher union leaders being murdered in the US.
The ENS has also documented over 14,000 incidents of violence against labor
activists, ranging from assassinations to beatings, kidnappings, and torture.
The perpetrators have only been brought to justice in 1 percent of the cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This campaign of intimidation and murder (in
combination with neoliberal restructuring) has taken a toll on Colombia’s labor
movement. Union membership is 4.4 percent of the national workforce today, down
from 17 percent three decades ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As the movement has shrunk, public educators have
become increasingly important. Teachers in Colombia now make up about half of
the membership of the Central Union of Workers, Colombia’s main federation of
unions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And they have one more thing in common with teacher
unionists in the US: they’re fighting neoliberal reforms tooth and nail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Global Front Lines<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This past December, during a long visit to Colombia
to study Spanish and learn about the situation in the country, I walked into
the same teachers union office where Vélez was assassinated. On the wall hung
portraits of Vélez and the sixty-six other teacher union leaders in Antioquia
murdered since 1977. Above the pictures, a wooden sign read (in Spanish): “Here
we are and here we will be forever in the heat of the struggle in defense of
human rights.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Seeing the dozens of portraits of slain teachers was
chilling, a stark contrast to the congratulatory plaques lining the office
walls at my own union, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I had been aware of <a href="http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/south-america-colombia-labor-union-human-rights-judicial-government-corruption-paramilitary-drug-violence-education">the
danger</a> facing private-sector union activists in Colombia — especially those
organizing against multinational sugar cane, banana, and mining companies — but
the pictures drove home the importance of public-sector workers to the struggle
for justice and human rights in Colombia. Elites in the country literally had
them gunned down to try to weaken popular resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">While the situation outside Columbia is less
dangerous, public-sector unionists across the world have emerged as a
bulwark against efforts to eviscerate public services. From Chicago to
Colombia, teachers have leveraged their position in society to fight the
privatization and disinvestment national governments and international
institutions are pushing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Teachers and schools are in nearly every town and city
in the world. Urban and rural teachers are in daily contact with impoverished
and disenfranchised communities. And despite anti-union attacks and growing
privatization, teacher unions remain among the largest in the world. (In the
United States, the National Education Association and the American Federation
of Teachers have some 4.5 million members, making K-12 public education one of
the country’s most unionized sectors.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ei-ie.org/en/websections/content_detail/3247">Educational International</a>,
the global federation of teacher unions, has launched an international campaign
against the commodification of education. But much more is needed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To be successful, teacher unions must take our
struggle beyond the schoolhouse door and fight for more than just the rights of
our members. We must struggle for a more genuine democracy, a more expansive
social justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Colombian teachers, many of whom have given their
lives, are on the front lines of this struggle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Culture of Fear<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Though separated by thousands of miles, my
conversations with teachers and union activists in Colombia underlined the
commonality of our struggles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Teachers from Colombia and the US alike decry the
growing emphasis on standardized testing, the tendency to blame teachers for
not solving problems created by pervasive poverty, the top-down commands that
devalue teaching as a profession, and the narrowing of the curriculum, which
edges out all-important issues such as social justice and critical thinking.
They object to <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/07/the-charter-school-profiteers/">corporate
reforms</a> that privilege private schools and defund public education —
reforms that, at their heart, represent an attack on democratic rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“We are fighting privatization of our public
schools,” said John Avila, a former social studies teacher and current head of
research for Colombia’s Federation of Educators (FECODE) in Bogotá. “The
neoliberal agenda . . . is strong in Colombia.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Last spring, the federation led a fifteen-day
national strike that focused on two issues — meager pay and a new teacher
evaluation system that consisted of a single, written test. The union made
gains on both, winning a 12 percent pay increase over three years and a more sophisticated
evaluation system that does not include a written test.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Indeed, despite right-wing violence and a culture of
fear, despite limits on organizing, despite the prohibition of agency fees,
Colombian educators have persevered — roughly 70 percent of the
country’s teachers are union members.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/25/cracks-showing-in-colombia-peace-process-after-latest-crisis/">pending
peace accord</a> between Colombia’s government and leftist guerrillas is
raising hopes that teacher unions will be able to bring even more people into
their ranks. As Carlos Lotero — longtime labor leader and now the director
general of the National Union School — put it: “It’s a lot easier to organize
for worker rights if leaders are not routinely murdered.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Two decades ago, peace talks between the government
and the guerillas led to the formation of the <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Colombias-Patriotic-Union-A-Victim-of-Political-Genocide-20151023-0056.html">Patriotic
Union</a>, a left political party. But both the Patriotic Union and the peace
process collapsed when the ruling oligarchy and paramilitaries launched a
campaign against the nascent party. According to the House of Memory in
Medellín, nearly five thousand members of the new party were
“assassinated, disappeared, or massacred” between 1984 and 1997.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Today, the peace process enjoys much broader support
and is attracting more international scrutiny. The negotiations began in 2012
in Havana, Cuba and a tentative pact was announced in September 2015. The
Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
continue to make progress on the details of a final peace agreement, although
they did not complete the accord by the hoped-for deadline of March 23. Their
intention is to have an agreement soon, followed by a referendum in October.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Every educator and teacher union leader I spoke with
supported the peace process, in the hopes that it it will rein in paramilitary
death squads and provide space for organizing and social transformation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Perseverance<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As the peace process in Colombia moves forward, the
unions have developed a broad agenda to fight for worker rights. And because of
Washington’s continued involvement in the country, Colombian union activists
say the solidarity of US progressives and unions is essential.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Lotero spoke in particular about provisions in the
US-Colombia free-trade agreement, which was signed in 2011. Because of pressure
from the US and Colombian labor movements, the pact included a Labor Action
Plan intended to safeguard worker rights. Now Colombian unions are fighting to
make sure that language is put into practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Provisions of the Labor Action Plan include: establishing
a ministry of labor, ending subcontracting designed to prevent unionization,
opening an office of the International Labor Organization in Colombia, and
changing legal codes to expand and enforce basic labor laws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The plan also calls for measures to prosecute
perpetrators of anti-labor violence and increase protection for activists,
including government funding for bodyguards and armored cars. Intimidation is
an ongoing concern. According to the US Department of Labor, “threats against
labor leaders and activists have <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/us-colombia-free-trade-agreements-labor-safeguards-are-failing-keep-trade-unionists-1569224">increased
significantly</a>, in the form of text messages, phone calls, letters, emails
and other forms.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But as I spoke with teachers and union leaders in
Colombia, I was struck by their matter-of-fact perseverance — a persistence
examined in a book that all union activists in Medellín seem to have read: <a href="http://fdcl-berlin.de/aktuelles/2012/tirandole-libros-a-las-balas/"><i>Tirándole
libros a las balas</i></a><i>, </i>or <i>Throwing Books at Bullets</i>. The
book chronicles the history of violence against teachers in Antioquia from 1978
to 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fernando Ospina, president of the Antioquia teachers
union, explained the title’s significance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Teacher unions have been targeted by violence and
bullets,” Ospina said. “Our response has been with education, social research,
and social justice. They shoot bullets. We throw books.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">----<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Originally published by <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/04/colombia-farc-teachers-assassination-public-sector/" target="_blank">Jacobin</a>, on April 7, 2016.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Bob Peterson taught fifth grade for thirty years in
the Milwaukee Public Schools. He was president of the Milwaukee Teachers’
Education Association and is an editor of <i>Rethinking Schools</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-17763492912826559362015-11-19T03:36:00.006-08:002015-11-19T03:36:55.510-08:00Escritos por Bob Peterson en español Si tiene interés en mis escritos en español, puede encontrarlos a continuación:<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">Enseñaza
para la justicia social<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD">Contando números para la justicia social,
por Bob Peterson. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Docencia</i> Nº 47,
Agosto 2012, Santiago, Chile. P. 53-67.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="http://www.revistadocencia.cl/pdf/20120917232541.pdf">http://www.revistadocencia.cl/pdf/20120917232541.pdf</a></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Presidentes
y Esclavos: </span><span lang="ES-TRAD">Ayudando a los estudiantes a encontrar la
verdad, por Bob Peterson. </span><i><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rethinking
Multicultural Education</span></i><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> edited
by Wayne Au, Rethinking Schools, 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Milwaukee, Wisconsin. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://zinnedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Spanish_Version_Presidents_Slaves.pdf">http://zinnedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Spanish_Version_Presidents_Slaves.pdf</a></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">La
Escuela Fratney<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD">La Escuela Fratney: un viaje hacia la
democracia, por Bob Peterson, en <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Escuelas
democráticas</i>, comps. por Michael W. Apple y James A. Beane. Ediciones
Morata, S.L., Madrid, 1997.p. 95-130.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YYWNyMzhwWjZ0UnM/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YYWNyMzhwWjZ0UnM/view?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD">La lucha por la democracia y la calidad
de la educación: la escuela Fratney, (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, EEUU), por Libia
Stella Niño. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Educación y Cultura</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> No. 100</span></i><span lang="ES-TRAD">, Bogota, Colombia.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YbU9lc2dPcmFfVTQ/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YbU9lc2dPcmFfVTQ/view?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">El
sindicalismo magisterial de justicia social<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD">Un movimiento para revitalizar el
sindicato de maestros, reflexiones de campo, por Bob Peterson. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rethinking Schools</i>, Winter 2014-1015,
Vol. 29 #2, Milwaukee, WI , p. 13-21.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="http://rethinkingschools.org/static/archive/29_02/RS29-2_peterson_esp.pdf">http://rethinkingschools.org/static/archive/29_02/RS29-2_peterson_esp.pdf</a></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD">Principios de enseñanza de justicia
social y los tres componentes del sindicalismo magisterial de justicia social,
por Bob Peterson, </span><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">18.10.2015</span><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YbkVzczNaSnI3ZkE/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YbkVzczNaSnI3ZkE/view?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD">Repensar la estrategia del sindicalismo
magisterial, por Bob Peterson. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Opciones Pedagógicas</i>,
Número 24, Año 2001, Bogota, Colombia p. 66-80.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YdW1PZ0ZqRllFeVk/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YdW1PZ0ZqRllFeVk/view?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">Artículo
por estudiantes sobre las intervenciones militares de los EEUU<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD">Los marinos han aterrizados: Las intervenciones
militares de Estados Unidos y la globalización, por Bob Peterson, en <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for
Justice in an Unjust World</i> edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson.
Rethinking Schools, 2001, Milwaukee Wisconsin pp. 118-121.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YV1dfVHRjT29CQ0E/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YV1dfVHRjT29CQ0E/view?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">Contra
la privatización de las escuelas publicas<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">El
apoderamiento de MPS: Una idea fracasada que le fallará a los niños de la
ciudad de Milwaukee, por Bob Peterson. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel</i>, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 17 de mayo de 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxHgH-Gtog63cW9sd1ZIbFVpc2s/view">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxHgH-Gtog63cW9sd1ZIbFVpc2s/view</a></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">Libro
infantil – El Dr. Martín Luther King<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">El
doctor Martín Luther King: El hombre, la lucha y la esperanza</span></i><span lang="ES-TRAD">, por Bob Peterson. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1985, 29 páginas.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YZ3N0WmMtMG5LVFU/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YZ3N0WmMtMG5LVFU/view?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD">Artículos
sobre el trabajo de Bob Peterson y otro activistas<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">El
Activismo por la justicia social está formando un sindicato más perfecto (y
duradero), por Cindy Long. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NEA Today</i>,
28 de septiembre de 2015. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-TRAD"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YeXRxR2lqRnBKdG8/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YeXRxR2lqRnBKdG8/view?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-47565758356696925752015-09-23T17:40:00.001-07:002015-09-24T07:01:06.981-07:00Abele misses key facts as he helps Republicans takeover MPS<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #10131a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chris Abele is mistaken.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Milwaukee
County Executive Abele's recent claim</span></span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">that he is "committed to making
sure MPS is not harmed" during the process of the state-ordered takeover of MPS, shows he doesn't understand what's really going on in Milwaukee. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Abele's recent <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/chris-abele-my-pledge-to-mps-and-its-students-b99582217z1-328725561.html" target="_blank">op ed</a> in the <i>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</i> followed a <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/why-we-oppose-the-takeover-of-milwaukees-public-schools-b99579300z1-328199071.html" target="_blank">forceful statement</a> by several community leaders against the MPS takeover. The No Takeover movement is clearly growing and being felt by the powers that be.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are four things Abele apparently doesn't understand about schools in Milwaukee:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1) The
schools that Abele's commissioner will force MPS to charter will be
non-instrumentality schools. They will be run by private operators. Therefore the employees will NOT be PUBLIC
employees, not be eligible to participate in the state's retirement system. Most will not have the right to just cause in discipline matters. These are NOT public schools
-- at least not in terms of the people who work there.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XKW_AQyCuLc/VgNogf2g8_I/AAAAAAAAA6E/WA2KF30KVPw/s1600/notakeovercropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XKW_AQyCuLc/VgNogf2g8_I/AAAAAAAAA6E/WA2KF30KVPw/s320/notakeovercropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2) The
schools are not di</span></span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rectly controlled by the democratically elected school board.
The school board isn't required to approve such charters. Even more important, however,
once these schools are chartered by the commissioner they can essentially do what
they want. Past practice bears this out: The leadership of the non-instrumentality <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/milwaukee-education-leaders-announce-reboot-plan-for-bradley-tech-high-b99481307z1-299771771.html" target="_blank">Carmen HighSchool has tried to take over</a> Bradley Tech High School despite explicit
opposition from the school board and the superintendent. In other words, some
of these so-called "public" schools are trying to replicate themselves against
the will of the democratically elected school board. These are NOT public
schools -- at least not in terms of the democratic decision-making progress.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #10131a;">3) Data
show that the 15 MPS non-instrumentality schools, with only one exception, serve significantly fewer students with special needs. Similarly these schools, with only one exception, serve fewer students who are classified as "MRP" -- most restrictive placement. The two charts below have the data from MPS for the 2013-2014 school year..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4) Abele writes in his oped that "Milwaukee County is in a unique position to provide to provide services... such as mental health, transit, and housing [to schools]." That's great. No need to do it through a commissioner or wait until the threat of an MPS Takeover, however. Community advocates and the MTEA have been promoting the notion of community schools for some years. Abele should have his staff call the community schools coordinators at James Madison High School, Bradley Tech HS, Auer Avenue and Hopkins Lloyd Community School and use those schools as a start.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Milwaukee </span><u style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Public </u><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Schools is the only institution in this city that has the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve ALL students in Milwaukee. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chris Abele
needs to understand that his participation in this Republican Takeover effort inherently damages
the Milwaukee Public Schools. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #10131a;">We should keep the pressure on Able to say NO to the Takeover. If he does move forward, he should appoint a commissioner who is absolutely in support of public schools and then instruct the person to do the absolute minimum: Put a tiny school in an empty building to satisfy the state law for the first year and then create no more non-instrumentality schools in subsequent years but instead put County resources into supporting the students who attend MPS.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #10131a;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #10131a;">-------</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #10131a;">A final note. A huge thanks to the thousands of staff, parents, students and community members who participated in the <a href="http://mtea.weac.org/2015/09/18/milwaukee-fights-back-against-school-takeovers-with-walk-ins-at-more-than-100-public-schools/" target="_blank">Walk Ins</a> last Friday. And a thanks to staff, parents and students of Highland Community School (which is a non-instrumentality charter school) for consistently standing with with MPS advocates opposing the MPS takeover. Finally, a thanks to Jack Norman for the graphics used in this blog.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #10131a;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #10131a;"><br /></span></span></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-12953855338226329852015-09-18T09:53:00.002-07:002015-09-18T09:54:02.446-07:00Why we oppose the takeover of Milwaukee's public schools<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
On Friday morning, thousands of parents, educators, students and community members gathered outside more than 100 public schools in Milwaukee. Our purpose: to stand up as a community to celebrate each individual public school in our community, and to voice our opposition to a proposed public school takeover in our city.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
A public school takeover plan, passed as part of the state budget last July, looms over our schools, our children, and our city. State legislators have charged Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele with choosing a school takeover czar or "commissioner" this fall. The commissioner would then choose one to three schools to convert into privately run charter or voucher schools for the 2016-'17 school year. In each subsequent year, up to five schools could be handed over to private operators.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
Milwaukee parents and community members are concerned about this plan for several reasons:</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
■The plan threatens the entire Milwaukee school district — not just the schools identified for takeover. More than 40% of children in Milwaukee already attend privately run charter or voucher schools. When taxpayer money is taken away from public schools to fund privately run charter and voucher schools, public school students lose funding and opportunities. Eventually, the financial burden will become too great for our public school system to bear. Similar challenges have brought school systems to their financial brink in districts from Detroit to Chester Uplands, Pa.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
■The takeover plan offers no new ideas or resources to help children succeed. Milwaukee already has 25 years of experience with a failed voucher school program and privately run charter schools with a checkered history. Simply changing who runs a school does not lead to student success.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
■The takeover schools will leave students without critical services. Voucher schools and privately run charter schools are not required to meet the needs of special education students or English language learners. It is an outrage that a privately run charter or voucher school could take over a public school and then refuse to educate the students who used to be enrolled there, due to their learning needs.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
■School takeovers will eliminate good jobs in our city — particularly for African-Americans and Latinos. Takeovers have hurt the local economy in New Orleans, Memphis, and Detroit. They have eroded, in particular, middle class communities of color. And they have led to a less diverse teaching force.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
■Most significantly, the school takeover plan eliminates democratic local control, disenfranchises black and Latino communities, and punishes mostly students of color. A recent report by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools shows that across the nation, school takeovers happen almost exclusively in African-American and Latino communities: Of nearly 50,000 students whose schools were taken over, 97% were black or Latino.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
Milwaukee parents have a different plan to improve schools by turning them into Community Schools — a nationally recognized model that increased graduation rates in Cincinnati by more than 30%. State legislators who want to help should support this proven model.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
Public school students in our state are under attack. From billions in budget cuts to the constant threat that your school may not be there next year, uncertainty reigns. Parents, educators, community leaders, and students are right to demand better.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
Our spirits were buoyed Friday morning when we stood shoulder to shoulder with public school supporters who are ready not only to support and protect our schools, but to lift them up and strengthen them as we build the schools and communities our children deserve.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This commentary was submitted by Ingrid Walker Henry, co-chair, Schools and Communities United; Dr. Tony Baez, former director Centro Hispano; the Rev. Willie Briscoe, president, MICAH; Angela McManaman, president, Parents for Public Schools; Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director, Voces de la Frontera; Gina Palazzari, interim executive director, Wisconsin Jobs Now; Fred Royal, president, NAACP Milwaukee branch; and Kim Schroeder, president, MTEA.</i></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Printed originally in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 18, 2015 http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/why-we-oppose-the-takeover-of-milwaukees-public-schools-b99579300z1-328199071.html</i></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">
<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></i></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-26078726817593962372015-09-01T14:16:00.001-07:002015-09-01T14:16:57.430-07:00Walker Deserves an “F” for his attack on Milwaukee Public Schools<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y50UFjhF0lQ/VeYQZrwrA8I/AAAAAAAAA4M/cP8hWbWSjDE/s1600/incarceration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y50UFjhF0lQ/VeYQZrwrA8I/AAAAAAAAA4M/cP8hWbWSjDE/s320/incarceration.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Just days before children
started the new school year, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker leveled charges
against the Milwaukee Public Schools and exposed a level of ignorance about the
conditions of African Americans that surprised even his most ardent critics.</span><!--EndFragment-->
<br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chuck Todd of Meet the Press interviewed Walker for the
August 30 show, and in a segment available only in the <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/scott-walkers-full-meet-the-press-interview-515822659517">on-line</a>
version, he asked Walker:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“There is a higher incarceration rate for African American men in Wisconsin than anywhere in the country, … a study that said African American children in Wisconsin ranked 50th in the nation when it comes to opportunity, and the African American unemployment is double the national average. Why is it?”</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walker’s response: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“It’s the sad truth. It’s been true for
decades. Part of it, I think, is some of the poor policies in the city of Milwaukee.
We pushed back on it. You look at the Milwaukee Public School system has a real
challenge and one of the big disparities… has been there. That’s part of the
reason why I’ve been such an advocate long before I was governor for school
choice….”</blockquote>
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A few moments later Chuck Todd interrupted Walker, “Like
this is on Milwaukee – there’s not much more you could have done.”</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Right now… we’ve done all sorts of things. We put out
hundreds of millions of dollars to help rebuild the economy out there but again
you have to have leaders who are willing to use the tools we have given them….
As president I am going to try empower cities, towns, and villages of all
different sizes to have more freedom and more liberties to do things without
the restrictions from Washington and without some of the restrictions you see
one of the biggest areas of big government and union control as commonplace has
been Milwaukee.”</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As his sole example, Walked talked about the case of Megan
Sampson, a high-school English teacher who was laid off from Milwaukee Public
Schools in 2010. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, “<a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/feb/16/scott-walker/gov-scott-walker-says-wisconsins-teacher-year-was-/">Walker
has used her as the face of Act 10</a>, his signature bill that curtailed
collective bargaining for most public employee unions. Since Walker referenced
her in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2011, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/117779193.html">Sampson has asked
Walker to stop using her story</a> and <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/06/10/teacher-renews-call-for-walker-to-stop-telling-her-story/71025754/">renewed
her calls this year</a> when Walker began using it <a href="http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/scott-walker-ignores-wishes-of-teacher-who-asked-him-to/article_ac9ab221-7efd-57bc-b894-f266e9dfb1ae.html">in
presidential campaign appearances</a>.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What’s wrong with
Walker’s statements?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walker asserts that Milwaukee Public Schools is the main
reason for Wisconsin’s high incarceration rate of black males, the high black unemployment
rate, and the fact that our state is worst in the country in protecting the
well-being of African American children, based on 12 key indicators. Really?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Keep in mind that Wisconsin’s incarceration rate of African
American males is 12.8% – the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">highest</i>
of any state in the nation, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">twice</i> the
national average – in a country with the highest incarceration rate in the
world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Schools and Communities United pointed out in its
document <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.schoolsandcommunitiesunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Fulfill-the-promise-SCU-report-and-excerpt.pdf" target="_blank">Fulfill the Promise: The Schools and Communities Our Children Deserve</a></i>, these statistics are only part of
what it called the New Jim Crow. Metropolitan Milwaukee is the most residentially segregated metropolitan area in the nation between blacks and white and between
rich and poor. It has second highest black poverty rate (39.2%, 4.9x great than
white) among the 40 large benchmark metropolitan areas. It has the lowest
percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses among the top 36 metropolitan areas.
And just this week the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/murder-rates-rising-sharply-in-many-us-cities.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New<i> York Times</i></a> reported that Milwaukee has had the
greatest percentage increase in homicides among all cities in the nation.<br />
<br />
Walker made no reference to these daunting problems, nor to any serious plans to address these issues of increasing inequality and racial injustice.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walker, has offered two "solutions” to these problems. 1)
Dismantle the public schools and provide taxpayer dollars to private,
unaccountable schools. 2) Strip the right to collectively bargain on a range of
issues from most public sector unions and local democratically elected
governmental bodies. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For a quarter of a century vouchers have been a conservative’s dream – no
unions, no school board, no state-mandated curriculum or regulations – and what
has been the result? Vouchers schools on the whole perform worse than the
Milwaukee Public Schools. Milwaukee has had the largest
city-based private school voucher program. If it is as great as Walker implies
why hasn’t it improved school outcomes for children or solved these larger
social problems? One thing it has done, is transfer more than $1.2 billion tax
payer dollars to private schools.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moreover, Walker’s scapegoating of educators, public
schools, teacher unions and local school boards distracts people from the serious
conversations and actions needed to address these complex problems. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in the city
that has the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve all students.
Like other public institutions it reflects our nation’s historic problems
of institutional racism, and class and gender bias. And like most large school
systems it is dealing with many problems not of its own making: homelessness,
children and families lacking health care, poverty, stable housing and family sustaining
jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What’s refreshing about MPS is that the school board,
administration, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association and most of its dedicated staff are committed to
addressing and overcoming these school-related problems and being part of
community-wide efforts to help solve the larger social problems that affect us all. The
recent initiative between MPS, the MTEA, United Way and community groups like MICAH and Schools and Communities United to build the community school model at four MPS schools is one such
example.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fundamental question for presidential wannabes like Governor
Walker, is whether they will join with the broader community to improve and
fully fund our public schools, or continue down the failed path of abandoning
the public schools while spending hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payers
money on private, unaccountable entities.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Until we see that change, Governor Walker continue to
receive an “F” in my grade book.</div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-56633604976460404772015-07-12T16:31:00.000-07:002015-07-12T19:34:36.675-07:00Walker Shows His Real Politics: Destroy the commons starting with public schools<div class="MsoNormal">
Governor Scott Walker signed a biennial state budget Sunday
afternoon that accelerates his quest to destroy the public sector in Wisconsin.
Within 24 hours, Walker will formally announce his candidacy for president to
take his right-wing agenda nationwide.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Wisconsin budget accelerates Walker’s four-year attack
on the public sector, in particular the public schools. Among its measures are
an expansion of a voucher program that provides taxpayer funding of private
schools and cuts of $250 million to the state’s nationally renowned public
university system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walker has the most far-reaching budget veto powers of any
governor, and some people had hoped that he might ameliorate some of the more
draconian measures of his budget, which was approved by the Republican
controlled legislature last week. But Walker by and large let the 1,500-page
budget intact, using his line-by-line veto powers to make <a href="http://doa.wi.gov/Documents/DEBF/Budget/Biennial%20Budget/Governor's%20Veto%20Message/2015-17%20Veto%20Message.pdf" target="_blank">minor tweaks</a>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is one common theme to Walker’s budget: underfunding
public institutions, expanding the privatization of government functions,
restricting environmental protections, and decimating workers’ rights. Among
its many provisions: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
• Mandatory drug testing for those seeking unemployment
insurance and public assistance services;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
• A repeal of “prevailing wage law” requirements for local
government projects, and elimination of a state mandate that factory and retail
workers get at least one day off per week. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
• Removing the term ”‘living wage” from state statues, referring
only to a minimum wage, which in Wisconsin is $7.25 per hour.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
• Decreases subsidies for <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walkers-budget-calls-for-more-recycling-cuts-b99440034z1-291603051.html">recycling</a>,
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
• Eliminates dozens of scientists’ position at the
<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/gop-budget-pares-reach-of-department-of-natural-resources-b99535103z1-313861181.html" target="_blank">Department of Natural Resources</a>, opens up thousands of acres in state forests
to commercial timber cutting, restricts local zoning along lake shorelines and
raises user fees at state parks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walker’s most damaging and telling attack on the public
sector involves education.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The University of Wisconsin took a massive $250 million
budget cut. In addition, tenure is no longer protected by state law but instead
will be determined by the University’s Board of Regents, most of whom are
gubernatorial appointees.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
K-12 public schools were particularly decimated. Shortly
before the budget’s signing, Wisconsin State Superintendent of Schools Tony
Evers <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/312940981.html" target="_blank">publicly requested</a> that Walker veto more than 20 education measures that
would undermine the state’s public schools. Walker refused. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead, the budget continues Walker’s agenda of undermining
public education.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A majority of public school districts in Wisconsin will
receive less funding this year, and no school district’s state funding will
keep up to inflation. At the same time, the budget expands taxpayer support of
private voucher schools, which are overwhelmingly religious schools and which
are subject to minimal public oversight. (For instance, voucher schools do not
have to follow the state’s law prohibiting discrimination against students on
the basis of sex, sexual orientation, marital or pregnancy status. Nor are they
subject to the state’s open meetings and records requirements.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The budget also creates a new and complicated<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“special needs voucher” law that was
opposed by all special education advocacy groups because of its detrimental
effect on special education protections.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The budget also increases the number of authorizers of
privately run charter schools that are not subject to the oversight of publicly
elected local school boards. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In previous years, all publicly funded schools in Wisconsin
— traditional public schools, voucher schools, charter schools — were required
to take the same standardized tests, in order to have some semblance of
comparing student achievement. The budget eliminates that requirement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Milwaukee, the state’s largest district and home to
predominantly African-American and Latino students, the budget includes a
“takeover” plan that increases privatization and decreases oversight by the
elected school board of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The plan empowers the Milwaukee County Executive to
appoint a “commissioner” who will have parallel power with the MPS school
board. The commissioner can privatize up to three of the city’s schools the
first two years, and up five every year thereafter.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps most indicative of Walker’s perspective is the
budget’s elimination of the Chapter 220 urban-metropolitan schools
desegregation program. At a time when racism and racial tensions have reached alarming
levels across the United States, Walker has eliminated the only program in the
state designed to counter segregation in the public schools and improve opportunities
for African-Americans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walker signed the budget in Waukesha County, an
overwhelmingly white county that is among one of the wealthiest and most
conservative in the entire United States. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Monday, Walker will return to Waukesha and officially
launch his bid for President. It is an apt indication of which side he will
protect in what is an increasingly divided and unequal country.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6g3ysyuAua4/VaMjmw_ef0I/AAAAAAAAA1g/fl4X_lpwg-U/s1600/childwrongwaybudget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6g3ysyuAua4/VaMjmw_ef0I/AAAAAAAAA1g/fl4X_lpwg-U/s320/childwrongwaybudget.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">photo credit: Barbara J. Miner</span></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-87726377560892101702015-07-08T07:23:00.000-07:002015-07-10T05:09:55.759-07:00Walker’s Budget Undermines Public Education, with Bull’s-eye on Milwaukee<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Wisconsin Governor Scott
Walker is expected to do two things in the next few days: Formally announce his
candidacy for President and sign Wisconsin’s biennial budget. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">The first may receive
national attention, but it is the second that will disastrously affect
Wisconsin — and that should receive national play. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Buried within the budget are
135 non-budget policy items — a toxic cocktail of attacks on public education, democracy,
environmental protections and labor rights. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">For Wisconsin’s schools, the
budget is a blueprint for abandoning public education. In Milwaukee, in
addition to insufficient funding, the budget includes a “takeover” plan that
increases privatization and decreases democratic control of the city’s public
schools. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">The budget was passed by the
Republican-controlled Senate a few minutes before midnight Tuesday, with all
Democrats and one Republican voting “no”. The Assembly is expected to pass the
budget Wednesday and send it to Walker by the end of the week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">The attack on the Milwaukee Public
Schools (MPS) is in the context of a frontal assault on public education across
the state. The budget cuts $250 million from the University of Wisconsin
system, holds overall K-12 funding flat in the first year with modest increases
in the second (which, given inflation, means cuts). And while programs
promoting privately-run charters are expanded, the budget eliminates Chapter
220 — a metropolitan-wide program designed to reduce racial segregation in
public schools and improve equal opportunity for students of color.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">The budget is also expanding
the statewide voucher program, under which tax dollars are funneled<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>into private, overwhelmingly religious
schools. (The program is modeled after Milwaukee’s private school voucher
program which began in 1990 and which now includes 112 schools and 25,000
students.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">The “takeover” plan for
Milwaukee, where nearly two-thirds of the state’s African-American population
live, was proposed by two white suburban legislators, Sen. Alberta Darling (R) and
Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R). Because the plan was inserted into the budget rather
than proposed in a separate bill, there was never a public hearing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">The plan empowers the
Milwaukee County Executive to appoint a “commissioner” who will have parallel
power with the elected school board overseeing MPS. The commissioner can
privatize up to three of the city’s schools the first two years, and up five
every year thereafter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">The take-over plan is
replete with problems that are indicative of Governor Walker’s approach to
public policy and the public sector. These problems include:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">1) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Expands failed policies</b>. The notion of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>improving public schools by turning them over to private
charter or voucher operators has been tried before — and failed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">For 25 years, voucher
schools in Milwaukee have been a conservative’s dream – no unions, no school
board, no state-mandated curriculum or regulations – and what has been the
result? Vouchers schools on the whole perform worse than the Milwaukee Public
Schools.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>In the last quarter
century, vouchers schools have drained over a billion dollars of taxpayers’
money away from Milwaukee students who depend on the public schools. This<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>under-resourcing of public schools
means larger class sizes, less individual attention and greatly reduced access
to art, music libraries and physical education compared with suburban counter
parts. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">2) </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-weight: bold;">Undermines democracy.</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> Elected school
boards and lack of choices are not the problem with our schools. Milwaukee
arguably has more publicly funded school options than any urban system in the
country, from citywide and neighborhood-based public schools, to MPS charter
schools, to city-controlled charter schools, to charters run by the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to private voucher schools, to open enrollment that
includes suburban districts. The rhetoric around governance is a smokescreen to
get rid of democratically elected school boards and publicly controlled schools.
Yes, democracy can be messy, but the alternative is worse. If we decide to
abandon every democratic institution that is not up to our hopes and dreams,
why not get rid of the U.S. Congress? Or the Wisconsin Legislature?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">3) </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-weight: bold;">Exacerbates inequality</span><span style="font-family: Times;">. Data show that privately run charter and voucher
schools serve significantly fewer students with special needs, English language
learners and more difficult to educate students. Students are counseled out and
pushed back into public schools. The “takeover” plan will only increase this problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">4) </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-weight: bold;">Continues Milwaukee’s plantation mentality</span><span style="font-family: Times;">. Milwaukee is the most segregated metropolitan
region in the nation. It should give pause when two white suburban legislators propose
having a white county executive appoint a “commissioner” who can <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pluck schools away from the democratically
elected school board of an overwhelmingly nonwhite district.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">No one denies that the
Milwaukee Public Schools need to do a better job. Yet the state budget expands
a disturbing history of abandonment, which will only makes matter worse. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Despite its problems, the
Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in the city with the capacity,
commitment and legal obligation to serve all our students. Our schools are the
foundation of our democracy and of our future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">When we abandon our public
schools, we not only abandon democracy, we abandon our children’s future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Gov. Walker has the most
far-reaching budget veto powers of any governor, and can literally change the
budget line by line. How he uses that veto pen will foretell his national plans
as he enters the Republican presidential primary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">In Wisconsin, where we have
four years of experience with Walker, we expect him to continue his policies of
abandoning public institutions, hurting the poor, and undermining the middle class. Hopefully,
national <o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-align: center;">observers will see through Walker’s rhetoric and analyze the realities
of his state budget.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s-M7R78xeIw/VZ0xw3MxhCI/AAAAAAAAA0o/QAss__LX0ac/s1600/notakeoverphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s-M7R78xeIw/VZ0xw3MxhCI/AAAAAAAAA0o/QAss__LX0ac/s320/notakeoverphoto.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times;"><br /></span></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-13877593977156086892015-07-02T20:10:00.000-07:002015-07-02T20:10:59.881-07:00Schools and Communities United Stands in Solidarity with Milwaukee Transit Workers<i>The following is the speech given by Bob Peterson on July 2, 2015 on behalf of Schools and Communities United at a rally in support of the Milwaukee Transit Workers (ATU) in their struggle for respect and a fair contract.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
Hello Milwaukee Transit Workers!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association and <span id="goog_1756708412"></span><a href="http://www.schoolsandcommunitiesunited.org/stand-in-solidarity-with-the-milwaukee-transit-workers/" target="_blank">Schools andCommunities United stand in solidarity </a>with you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
Schools and Communities United is a coalition of over 20 community
organizations working to improve and defend public schools. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
But quality public schools will
only happen in healthy neighborhoods. So we fight for both the <a href="http://www.schoolsandcommunitiesunited.org/publications-2/publications/" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">schools</b> and the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">communities</b> that our children deserve</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
And our children and their families
deserve a community with a strong public transit system, a system that treats
its workers with respect and dignity and provides adequate compensation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
If it’s public, Gov. Walker and County
Executive Abele want it defunded and turned over to private interests. Whether
it’s our public university, our public schools, public radio, public TV, public
health care, public natural resources, or public transportation — it’s on
Walker’s hit list. And all too
often it’s on Abele’s hit list as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
Chris Abele previously collaborated
with Walker and Republican legislators to eviscerate the power of the County Board. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
Now Abele is collaborating with two
suburban legislators -- Senator Darling and Representative Kooyenga to attack
the Milwaukee Public Schools. They plan to have Abele appoint a commissioner
who would have equal power of the elected school board --<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>power to <a href="http://www.bob-peterson.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-failed-idea-will-fail-milwaukees-kids.html" target="_blank">take over</a> dozens of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Milwaukee public schools and turn them
over to private operators. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
These attacks – on Milwaukee
Transit Workers and on MPS have two things in common. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
First they are attacks on two
essential public services like schools and transit that serve ALL people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
Second they are taking place in the
most hyper segregated metropolitan area in the nation where white power brokers
think they can ride rough shod over communities of color – whether it’s white
suburban legislators putting a white County Executive in charge of a
commissioner to take over public schools that serve mainly students of color. or
whether it’s a white County Executive who ignores the fact that the vast majority
of transit workers in this city are African American. I call that racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 67.5pt;">
Schools and Communities United calls
on the people of Milwaukee to stand with the Milwaukee transit workers and demand
that the all public services be fully funded and kept public!</div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-87896793031348922882015-05-17T06:49:00.000-07:002015-05-17T06:49:54.871-07:00A failed idea will fail Milwaukee’s kids<div class="MsoNormal">
During my 30 years of teaching fifth grade, I’ve always
encouraged my students to look critically at problems and to learn from
mistakes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sen. Darling’s and Rep. Kooyenga’s plan to take over public
schools in Milwaukee does neither. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The few details in their plan provide no framework for
actually improving academic achievement. Equally important, the plan ignores
the Milwaukee community’s experience with similar efforts to dismantle our
public schools and undermine our democratic institutions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are several glaring problems with the <a href="https://millermps.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/new-attempt-at-takeover-of-milwaukee-public-schools/" target="_blank">Darling/Kooyenga plan</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Not learning from
mistakes</b>. Attempting to improve public schools by turning them over to
private charter or voucher operators has been tried before — and failed. For 25
years vouchers have been a conservative’s dream – no unions, no school board,
no state-mandated curriculum or regulations. What has been the result? Vouchers
schools on the whole perform worse academically than the Milwaukee Public
Schools.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vouchers schools have drained over a billion dollars of taxpayers’
money away from public schools and into private schools with little public
accountability. The defunding of public schools has meant larger class sizes,
less individual attention to students and greatly reduced access to art, music,
libraries and physical education within Milwaukee’s public schools. Let’s fully
fund our public schools and fix them, not abandon them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Undermines
democracy. </b>Governance is not the problem with our schools — Milwaukee
arguably has more governance options than any urban system in the country. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rhetoric around governance in the
Darling/Kooyenga scheme is a smokescreen to get rid of democratically elected
and accountable school boards and schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are two ways to undermine democracy. First by attacking
voter rights through limiting early voting options and requiring photo IDs. Another
way is to remove entire institutions from democratic control. Yes, democracy
can be messy, but the alternative is worse. If we decide to abandon every
democratic institution that is not up to our hopes and dreams, why not get rid
of the U.S. Congress? Or the Wisconsin legislature?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part of a coordinated
attack</b>. The Darling/Kooyenga plan can’t be viewed in isolation. It’s in the
context of Walker’s budget that continues deep cuts in public education across
the state, and increases statewide privatization of public schools<span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:Robert%20Peterson" datetime="2015-05-15T11:11">.</ins></span>
In addition, Walker’s budget eliminates Chapter 220 – the only educational
program in Milwaukee designed to reduce racial segregation in public schools
and improve equal opportunity for students of color. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Exacerbates
inequality. </b>Data show that privately-run charter and voucher schools serve
significantly fewer students with special needs, English language learners and
more difficult to educate students. Students are counseled out and pushed back
into public schools. The Kooyenga/Darling plan will only increase this problem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Refusal to learn
from other urban areas. </b>Other urban districts have tried similar takeovers,
with disastrous results.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>A takeover
plan in Detroit is costing the state $72 million, with the mayor raising strong
objections. In Memphis, several national charter operators have repeatedly
proposed new schools, only to abruptly cancel their plans. And in New Orleans,
thousands of students — including those with special needs — are being
underserved. Let’s learn from, not replicate, the problems that have come up in
these other cities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Continues
Milwaukee’s Plantation Mentality</b>. The plan’s colonial implications — what MICAH
President Rev. Willy Brisco calls the “plantation” mentality that dominates
social policy in Milwaukee — are disturbing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Milwaukee is the most segregated metropolitan region in the
nation. Sixty years ago the U.S. Supreme court, in its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brown</i> decision that was fundamental to overthrowing Jim Crow
segregation, noted that “separate is inherently unequal.” It should give people
pause when two white suburban legislators propose having a white County
Executive appoint a “commissioner” to be able to pluck schools away from the
democratically elected school board of an overwhelmingly non-white district.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we want to truly provide equal education opportunities, why
not try something truly radical. Why not build a countywide school system –
democratically elected and controlled and open to all children, regardless of
the ZIP code where they were born. Not only would this open up well-funded schools
with excellent opportunities and learning conditions to the children of
Milwaukee, it would attack the dual problems of segregation and inequality that
plague our region.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Sending the wrong
message to our children. </b>What message do we send to the next generation
when we condone a plan to remove control of public institutions from a democratically
elected board? When we undermine a Superintendent with a Doctorate from Harvard
University and instead place public schools in the hands of a “commissioner” to
be appointed by a county executive who doesn't even have a college degree and was not elected to run schools? When
we allow a plan that specifically says the children of Milwaukee do not need
licensed teachers? <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3377191400980976584" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These are just some of the many problems in the Darling/Kooyenga
plan. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This proposal should be rejected by anyone who believes in
democracy and the importance of educating all
children.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in the
city with the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">all</b> our students.<br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Our schools are the foundation of our democracy and of our
future. Let’s unite to support and improve our public schools, not abandon
them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--------</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This op ed was published in the May 17, 2015 print edition of the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_973909707"></span>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<span id="goog_973909708"></span></a>.</div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-74029552721544955992015-05-12T12:56:00.002-07:002015-05-12T13:09:20.401-07:00WI GOP Legislators Plan to Takeover Milwaukee’s Poorest Public Schools -- A racist attack on democracy and public schools<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
Wisconsin State Senator Darling
and Assembly Kooyenga recently issued new version of their “<a href="https://millermps.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/new-attempt-at-takeover-of-milwaukee-public-schools/" target="_blank">recovery zone”proposal</a> for the Milwaukee Public Schools. Their proposal to take over several
of Milwaukee’s public schools is an insult to the Milwaukee community and is
part of a larger plan to privatize schools throughout the state. I call on all
people who believe in public schools and democracy to oppose this plan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
For two white suburban
legislators to propose that the white County Executive appoint a “Commissioner”
who will have “parallel authority” to the democratically elected school board
is a racist attack on the democratic rights of the citizens of Milwaukee, the
majority of whom are black and brown. The Commissioner will be able to
privatize five schools a year under this proposal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
This proposal is replete with
false assumptions, misguided assertions, and unworkable ideas. It would be
laughable if not for the fact that anti-Milwaukee bias and anti-public
education sentiment among some power brokers in Madison make this threat real.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
Twenty-five years of experience
with voucher and charter schools in Milwaukee has proven that turning schools
over to private operators is not a silver bullet for improving academic
achievement. There is no guarantee that students at a privatized school will
perform better.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
The false assumptions and
assertions of Darling and Kooyenga’s plan include the following:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
1) The basic “solution”
proposed by Darling and Kooyenga is that their “new governance structure in MPS
[is] to free students from nonperforming schools.” The assertion that there is
a need to provide “new opportunities” to parents and students ignores the fact
that the city of Milwaukee has more school options for parents to choose from
than virtually any other city in the nation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
2) The assumption that
privatizing schools” will improve educational achievement in Milwaukee ignores
the fact that after a quarter of a century of massive school “choice” in
Milwaukee, there is little evidence showing improved educational achievement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
3) Labeling schools “failing”
due to low test scores is wrong. There are a multiplicity of factors – such as
low attendance, concentrated poverty, impact of high levels of students with
special needs or English language learners – that may contribute to low scores.
This does not mean the school is failing. In fact, it is a signal that other
institutions in our society are failing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
4) The assertion that
“consequences of these ‘failing schools’ are a significant factor in
contributing to Milwaukee’s declining economic and social health” shows little
understanding of the social, economic, and political history of our city. It
ignores the long history of racial segregation in housing, schools and jobs,
the devastating consequences of the corporate decisions to move tens of
thousands of family sustaining jobs out of Milwaukee, and the hyper-segregation
and growing inequality and joblessness that plagues our city.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
5) There is no cost estimate or
funding source provided for the “Commissioner’s” work, which according to the
proposal, includes doing a qualitative analysis of 55 schools and directly
managing several schools or supervising charter operators.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
6) Under the proposal parents,
students and community members are stripped of their democratic rights as to
the future of their schools because power will be transferred from the
democratically elected school board to an appointed “Commissioner.” The
Commissioner will have unilateral authority to choose schools that will be
taken from the public school system and privatized.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
7) Educators at the privatized
schools will be required to “waive current and future privileges to be
represented by any union,” which is contrary to federal law governing private
sector employers.<br />
8) Apparently the educators at
the schools established by the Commissioner will not have to have a
teacher or administrator license because, “employees shall receive non-portable
licenses as requested by the commissioner.”<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/1GxcDXB" target="_blank">Sign the petition</a> against the recover zone and this proposal </div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-58364138971527364332015-03-21T05:31:00.001-07:002015-03-21T05:33:02.103-07:00Walker's Budget: Hypocritical and Racist<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Testimony before the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Milwaukee, Wisconsin • March 20, 2015</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Bob Peterson,
President of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association</div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have taught 10 and 11 year-old children for 30 years in MPS.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I taught at La Escuela Fratney in Milwaukee’s Riverwest
neighborhood I had the opportunity to see the power of Chapter 220. White
students from Mequon and Whitefish Bay used 220 to take advantage of our school’s
two-way bilingual program as their parents wanted their children to learn two
languages with student of many races. Over the years, I’ve heard from those parents
and students what a valuable experience it was in their lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, that is a side benefit of the program. The power
of the program is that it provides. African-American children the right to
access educational opportunities in the suburbs, something that was out of
reach for most families given the Milwaukee regions’ hyper segregation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">metropolitan</b>
Milwaukee is #1 in the nation in black/white residential segregation and # 1 in
residential segregation based on poverty. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is it not odd that when the State Legislature has gone out
of its way to expand taxpayer funded private school options throughout the state,
the one “choice” program on the chopping block is the only one that reduces racial
isolation and segregation?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ending Chapter 220 when expanding vouchers and charters is
at best hypocritical and at worst racist.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition, the funds provided to MPS for Chapter 220 are
significant and without those, MPS would be face a serious fiscal crisis with
dire consequences for the students.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead of ending Chapter 220 increase support for public
education, the foundation of our democracy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Public school systems in our communities are the only
institutions have the have the capacity, commitment and legal obligations to
serve all students. While it may be seductive to expand taxpayer-funded private
schools through vouchers and charters for the few, the result is to limit and degrade the
choice for the many.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vouchers and privately run charters drain money from public
schools and do not serve all children. They serve fewer students with special
needs, fewer English Language learners and regularly push back to public schools
the hardest to educate children.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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History will be the judge. Will the 2015 Wisconsin State
Legislature continue to undermine Wisconsin public schools through funneling
millions to private schools<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or
will you recognize the necessity to support public schools as the corner stone of
our democracy?</div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-23802042393185154012015-03-19T07:36:00.000-07:002015-03-20T09:09:30.289-07:00Fulfill the Promise of Public Education<h3>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Remarks by MTEA President Bob Peterson </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">at the Support Public Schools Rally featuring Diane Ravitch • </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">March 18, 2015 </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If there’s ever been a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">time</b> in our nation’s history to defend and improve our public schools,
that time is now!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If there’s ever been a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">place</b> that needs people to defend public education, that place is
Milwaukee and Wisconsin. So thank you Diane Ravitch for being with us here
today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We must work together to fulfill the promise of
public education and create the schools and communities our children deserve. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There is a war going on against the public
sector and the common good. And Milwaukee is ground zero in that war. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Twenty-five years ago proponents of private
school vouchers claimed that to improve Milwaukee schools they had to get rid
of district bureaucracy, state regulations and teacher unions. Well, for the
past quarter of a century they’ve experimented on the children of Milwaukee –
no bureaucracy, no state regulations, no unions in their voucher schools. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The result: worse academic achievement than public
schools, serve very few children with special needs, no accountability, lots of fly-by-night
operations, and a constant push-out of hard to educate students back into the
public schools. The oldest and largest voucher program in the nation has
failed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What is Gov Walker’s response to this failure? Expand vouchers statewide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Milwaukee Common Council was the first city
government in the nation to be allowed to charter privately-run schools. The
results: little accountability, pathetic oversight. Their schools serve one half
as many children with special needs as MPS and 1/3 as many English language
learners. Last fall one of their schools offered adults a $200 bribe for each new
child they brought to school on third Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What is Walker’s response to this fiasco? Expand privately-run
charter schools statewide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walker’s plan is simple. Give tax breaks to the rich.
Turn down hundreds of millions of federal dollars for high-speed rail, Badger
Care, and early childhood education. Destroy unions. Vilify teachers. Accept huge
donations from the Koch Brothers. Declare a budget crisis and make further cuts
to education and social services.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">His agenda is about promoting privatization,
undermining democracy, and abandoning public institutions<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If it’s public, Walker and the 1% want it
defunded and turned over to private interests. Whether it’s our public
university, our public schools, public radio, public TV, public transportation,
public health care, or our public natural resources — it’s on Walker’s hit
list. Writer Arundhati Roy summed it up, “Privatization of essential
infrastructure is essentially undemocratic.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Four years ago Walker and his supporters made
the largest budget cuts in public education in the history of Wisconsin. It
meant less individual attention to our students. Less art, music, phy ed and librarians.
This year Walker plans to cut $300 million from the UW system, $127 million
from the public schools.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We must not allow a Governor who has not had
enough education to know whether the earth is six thousand or 4.5 billion years
old to destroy our good state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There are other people waiting in the wings to
propose even more draconian legislation. Senator Alberta Darling and Rep.
Kooyenga, have proposed a New Orleans’s style Recovery Zone for Milwaukee to
further privatize our schools. We have one message for Darling and Keyenga:
Keep your hands off MPS!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
folks it’s not only the Republicans who are preventing our children from
getting the schools they deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In 2009 we saw a Democratic Governor and
Milwaukee Mayor propose a mayoral takeover of the MPS school board. Arne Duncan
supported it. The Democrats for Education Reform sent in lobbyists to promote it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But people in Milwaukee fought back. The
Coalition to Stop the MPS Takeover, MPS School Board members and Congresswoman
Gwen Moore said no and we won. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We still have a democratically elected school
board so vote on April 7.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On
the federal level we aren’t winning. Corporate-backed, bipartisan education
policy is a disaster for children.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">George Bush’s No Child’s Behind Left and
President Obama’s Race to the Bottom have promoted school privatization and a
massive increase in testing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This obsession with testing and the idolatry of
data are squeezing the joy out of learning. They’re destroying the craft of
teaching and turning teachers into test technicians and data collectors. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Classrooms are becoming test prep
centers, suffocating creativity, collaboration, inquiry, reading of whole
books, and culturally relevant pedagogy.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Teachers waste hours inputting and analyzing
data that reveals little that they don’t already know about their students.
They’re forced to implement scripted curriculum that is antithetical to quality
teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Should our children be subjected to endless test
prep and narrow curriculum? Or should they have well rounded education that
President Obama’s daughters and Joe Biden’s grandchildren receive at the
Sidwell Friends School? Or that Arne Duncan received as a child at the Chicago
Lab School?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The children of Milwaukee also deserve the best.
Our schools should not be data driven, but child driven and data informed. It’s
time to demand that students have more time to learn and have teachers more time
to teach. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That is what Schools and Communities United
outlined in its report <a href="http://www.schoolsandcommunitiesunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Fulfill-the-promise-SCU-report-and-excerpt.pdf" target="_blank">Fulfill thePromise: The Schools and Communities our Children Deserve.</a> Fair funding.
More teaching. Less testing. Teach the whole child. Smaller class sizes. Expand
bilingual education. Community schools. Our schools should be greenhouses of
democracy in revitalized neighborhoods.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Milwaukee Public Schools is the only
institution in our community that has the capacity, commitment and legal
obligation to serve all children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We should be proud of that, but also recognize
that unless we work together to defend and improve our public schools, what was
once a great city and state will be gone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The enemies of public schools are strong and
well financed. Our struggle to defend public schools and the entire public
sector will only be successful if we are part of a broader social movement for
economic and political democracy and racial justice. We need to work with other
social movements like Black Lives Matter, Raise Up 15 for living wage, immigrant
rights, the environmental movement and prison reform. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is will be a long fight. But there is no
alternative. Together we can and will create the schools and communities our
children deserve. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-33814204358948513652015-02-21T20:37:00.000-08:002015-02-21T20:38:22.143-08:00Gov. Walker: Support Jobs, Not Attack Working Families<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
Wisconsin desperately needs family-supporting jobs. Yet Governor Walker and the Republicans’ misnamed “right to work” legislation will do the opposite.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
Such legislation might boost Walker’s presidential ambitions, but it will hurt all working people in Wisconsin.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
In 2011 Governor Walker and the Republican majority used a budget shortfall as an excuse to attack the rights of public sector workers and the public sector.</div>
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Now they have turned their attack towards destroying the rights of private sector workers, blaming private sector unions for our economic woes.</div>
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This law is nothing more than a cover for pro-corporate interests who know that weak unions and low wages can build ever-higher profits. Rather than build prosperity, this legislation will undermine our state’s progressive tradition and quality of life.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
This country has a long history with such anti-union laws. Most states with these measures are in the West or the South, such as Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and have lower wages and a poorer quality of life.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
A better name for Republican’s proposed legislation would be “race to the bottom.”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
Here’s why.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">So-called right-to-work states have lower wages. </strong></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
Good wages and benefits are key to quality of life – both to support families and to provide a reliable tax base for education, infrastructure and public services. Yet the annual median income in right-to-work states is $6,185 less than in other states, according to 2009 U.S. Census Bureau data. What’s more, these anti-union states tend to have higher poverty rates, less access to health care and lower performing schools. In the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s well-respected “Kids Count” survey, the three worst states for children are in right-to-work states and the three best all allow workers to form strong unions. Would you rather have your child go to the University of Wisconsin or the University of Mississippi? Would you prefer to raise a family in Mississippi, where the 2013 child poverty rate was 34%, or in Wisconsin, where it was 18%?</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Strong unions build a strong middle class.</strong></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
During the New Deal, federal laws not only permitted but encouraged collective bargaining. After World War II, such policies built a foundation for shared prosperity and a thriving middle class. With the rise of deregulation and attacks on unionization in recent decades, including Walker’s attack on public sector unions in Wisconsin in 2011, income inequality has skyrocketed as the rich have grown richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class has shrunk. As <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The New York Times</em> has editorialized, “the drive for more jobs must coincide with efforts to preserve and improve the policies, programs and institutions that have fostered shared prosperity and broad opportunity – Social Security, Medicare, public schools, progressive taxation, unions, affirmative action, regulation of financial markets and enforcement of labor laws.”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">So-called right-to-work laws undermine workplace democracy and foster a freeloader mentality.</strong></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
Right-to-work laws promote freeloading and are a backhanded way of de-funding unions. The union, by law, negotiates wages and benefits that all workers receive whether or not they are union members. The union, by law, represents workers in disputes that arise – whether or not they are union members. Current Wisconsin law allows all represented employees in private sector job sites to share in the cost of union representation. The proposed Republican legislation would allow workers to escape paying their fair share while still receiving all benefits. That’s not the way democracy works. Contributing to the common good is an essential component of democracy. Imagine if this freeloader scheme existed throughout society. People could refuse to pay taxes and still receive a public education, drive on our freeways and receive police and fire protection.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
As we dream of a better future for our children, we should heed the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated during his campaign supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as right to work,” King warned. “It provides no rights and no works. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining. . . . We demand that this fraud be stopped.”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
Governor Walker should deliver on his campaign promise to create jobs, not use false slogans and a new attack on Wisconsin working families to bolster his presidential ambitions.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 26px; padding: 0px;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Bob Peterson is president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.</em></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-22816843132062629942015-02-14T16:12:00.002-08:002015-02-15T11:16:17.523-08:00WI Children Do Not Deserve Walker’s Budget Cuts<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Remarks by Bob Peterson</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">at the Stop the Cuts Rally</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Madison,
Wisconsin</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">February 14, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hello
UW-Madison! I bring greetings of solidarity from thousands of teachers and
educational assistants who are members of the Milwaukee teachers union.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We
stand with you to fight against the cuts proposed by a Governor who has not had
enough education to know whether the earth is 6,000 or 4.5 billion years old. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We
stand with you to fight against attacks on the public UW-System, public technical
colleges and public schools. We know that public schools in our communities are
the only institutions that have the commitment, capacity and legal obligation
to serve all children, including for example in Milwaukee 3,000 homeless
students being served by MPS. Similarly, as the Wisconsin IDEA so proudly notes, the UW System is
dedicated to serving all citizens throughout Wisconsin. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We
stand with you to fight <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">all</b> attacks
on the public sector. If it’s public, Walker and the 1% want it defunded and
turned over to private interests. Whether it’s our public university, our
public schools, public radio, public TV, public transportation, public sector
unions, public health care, or our public natural resources — it’s on Walker’s
hit list. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
from Milwaukee, so I am particularly concerned about Walker’s success in using
the race card. We must not allow Walker to play on racial fears, and convince
white people to vote their prejudices instead of their class interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
Milwaukee this Monday – President’s Day –a multiracial coalition will rally at
of Scott Walker’s house. High school students will demand “Fund our Future.” I
invite you all to come – 4:30 PM. Find details on facebook page of
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/schoolsandcommunitiesunited" target="_blank">SchoolsandCommunitiesUnited</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
a 5<sup>th</sup> grade teacher, so I know these cuts will affect children and
their future the most. Listen to the wisdom of a ten-year old student, Eddie. Four years ago, Eddie was in my fifth grade classroom during Walker’s
first attack on public employees and schools. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
asked my students to write in their journals: “</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">What the
budget cuts mean to me. </span></i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Eddie wrote a poem in her journal entitled “A Letter to Governor Scott
Walker.” Listen carefully to a child speaking truth to power:</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>A Letter to Governor Scott Walker<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: center 3.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>Budget cuts: an unfair mutiny<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>that
destroys the economy<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>and
slowly tears apart all humanity<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>and
makes the flaws of ourselves<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>that
much deeper<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>that
much bigger<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>and
that much more hurtful.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>It
is hard to believe<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>that
all this circles<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>around
Governor Walker<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>the
King of destroying schools and jobs<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>So
congratulations Scott,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>you
ruined kids' lives!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>Now
isn't that a sport?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>Just
A. Student<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>P.S.
Kids are the future.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i>Frightened?</i></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Eddie
and others do not deserve Walker’s budget cuts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
for us to succeed in stopping these cuts and other attacks on the public sector
we need to recognize we can’t do it alone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
struggle will only be successful if we are part of a broader social movement
including Black Lives Matter, Raise Up 15 for a living wage, defending immigrant
rights, the environmental movement and prison reform.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Let
us unite in a broad social movement for economic and political democracy and
racial justice in this state and country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let us choose hope over despair and continue to fight for our children
and justice in our communities.</span><!--EndFragment-->Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-17864761389905208232015-02-10T19:08:00.001-08:002015-02-10T19:08:22.013-08:00Choose Hope Over Despair: Fighting Gov. Walker's Attack on All Things Public<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Remarks by Bob
Peterson </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
at the Save Our
Schools Community Strategy Session</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
MATC
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
February 7, 2015</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Why
are we here? We are here our children, our grandchildren, and our entire
community. We are also here for the people have gone before us, those who
fought for the rights that are now being threatened by the know-nothings that
run our state government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We know the public schools needs to improve, as do most social services in our
community. That’s why several of our workshops today will examine how to
improve our public schools while we fight to defend them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
we also know that when governors cut budgets, when companies move family
sustaining jobs out of our community and when business leaders and politicians
ignore the glaring racial and economic inequalities, it’s time to organize and
to stand up for what is moral and just.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We
did that in 2009 when a Democratic Governor and Mayor proposed that Milwaukee’s
democratically elected school board be replaced by one appointed by the mayor.
Wendell Harris of the NAACP and I co-chaired the Coalition to Stop the MPS
Takeover and together, with many people and other leaders, we stopped that
sorry attempt to disenfranchise our community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
those who oppose democracy and justice do not rest. Backed by the wealth of the
Walton’s, Koch brothers, and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce
they managed to pass a voter ID law that would have disenfranchised hundreds of
thousands had it not been the legal work of the ACLU, the NAACP and others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
2013 the MMAC and Republicans talked about a New Orleans style recovery zone for
the Milwaukee Public Schools – in which dozens of public schools would be taken
over by private operators unaccountable to any elected body. We restarted the
Coalition to Stop the MPS Takeover and again, with many others, pushed
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea was shelved and anti-public
school legislation like SB 286 was blocked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
coalition to stop the takeover, however, didn’t want to always be viewed as on
the defensive and only against things. So we changed our name to Schools and
Communities United. Last May 17<sup>th</sup> over 500 people commemorated the
60<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brown
v. Board</i> school desegregation decision. We did so by publishing the booklet
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fulfill the Promise: The Schools and
Communities Our Children Deserve”</i> that’s in your pocket folder. It’s main
message: our children deserve both high quality <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">public</b> schools and revitalized neighborhoods. You can’t have one
without the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And
notice I said <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">public</b> schools. The
Milwaukee Public Schools are the only institution in the city that has the
commitment, capacity and legal obligation to serve ALL children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Schools
and Community United continues today – promoting community school model – which
you’ll hear more about shortly – and organizing against privately-run charter
schools that don’t serve all kids. Currently we’re campaigning to convince the
City Council that it should hold the schools it charters more accountable, and
we’re having impact – but we need your help, which will be explained later in the
program.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
today we face one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime. We have a
governor who is set on destroying the public sector to benefit the wealthy few.
If it’s public Walker and the 1% want it defunded and turned over to private
operators -- whether it’s our public university, our public schools, public
radio, public TV, public transportation, public sector unions, or our public
natural resources. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Unfortunately many in the state legislature have the same
attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
key ingredient in Walker’s success so far has been to play the race card,
saying he didn’t want Wisconsin to become like Milwaukee. Too many white
working people voted their prejudice instead of their class interests. And
because of that we are in one hell of a mess. And it’s a national mess, with
Wisconsin and Milwaukee at ground zero.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
friends throw up their hands and say, but what can we do? The forces of evil
are too powerful and too wealthy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
acknowledge that these are very difficult times and short term, it’s bleak. To
those who say it is hopeless and use such pessimism to rationalize their own
inaction, I say look at our history. I ask, would confronting Walker and
reinvigorating public life in our country take more effort than that exerted by
the abolitionist movement as they successfully fought to end the scourge of
slavery? Would it take more work than that by the suffrage movement as they
successfully fought to win the right for women to vote?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or of the labor movement which won
union rights, social security and Medicare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or of the civil rights movement that won the right to vote
and ended de jure segregation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
I am comparing our current situation to some of the historic challenges that
our forefathers and foremothers had to confront. And they fought for justice
and succeeded because they had the tenacity and courage to continue in even the
darkest of times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">While
we are here advocating for educational justice, our struggle will only be
successful if we see ourselves as part of a broader social movement including
Black Lives Matter, Raise Up 15 for living wage, immigrant rights, the
environmental movement and prison. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
what we must do now, we must unite in a broad social movement for economic and
political democracy and racial and social justice. All those who are under
attack – students, women, people of color, parents, undocumented, elderly, the
unemployed – must recognize that our future and the future of our children are
bound together. Thank you for coming today, continuing our work tomorrow. Let
us choose hope over despair and continue to work united for our children and
our communities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 337.5pt;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 337.5pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-46550085172768260302015-02-02T16:11:00.001-08:002015-02-02T16:13:38.830-08:00Walker's Attack on U-Wisc Shows He's Unfit to be Governor, to Say Nothing of President<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #10131b; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 22.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Defend our Public Universities<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">By Bob Peterson and Barbara Miner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walker
has said his proposed budget cuts for the UW System would<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> “</b></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #343434; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">be like Act 10 for the UW."
It’s a frightening analogy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #10131b; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As with Act 10, Walker’s proposed
cuts have nothing to do with the state budget. It’s about promoting
privatization, undermining democracy, and abandoning public institutions<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walker’s Cuts are a
Manufactured Crisis<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2011, Walker introduced Act 10 —all but eliminating the
collective bargaining rights of public sector unions — under the guise of
solving a budget shortfall. Even after union leaders agreed to increase
workers’ payments to healthcare and pensions, Walker continued with Act 10. It
became clear that Act 10 was an attempt to weaken democratic rights, cripple
the power of unions, undermine the public sector, and increase the power of
private interests.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, in 2015, there is another manufactured crisis. Walker
is proposing $300 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin System.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cuts would be the largest in the UW
System’s history, and would cripple one of the state’s most honored public
institutions. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this is a manufactured crisis. Just one example. If
Walker had accepted full federal funding for BadgerCare, the state would have
saved more than $500 million over three-and-a-half years. (Figures are from an
August 2014 editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walker is putting his
presidential ambitions ahead of what’s good for Wisconsin<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walker is proposing his 13 percent, $300 million cut in
funding to the UW System as part of his presidential campaign. Other states,
focused on the needs of their residents, are putting money into their public
universities and colleges. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Across the country, state support for public universities is
up 10 percent in the last five years, according to a survey from Illinois State
University. Iowa increased state funding by 12% from 2009-10 to 2014-15. In
Indiana it was 8%, and 7% in Ohio. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Wisconsin, it’s down four percent — and now Walker wants
an additional 13 percent cut. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Milwaukee, Walker’s cuts would mean $40 million in cuts
in the next two years — about the amount of money it takes annually to run the
College of Engineering and Applied Science, the Silber School of Public Health,
the School of Information Studies and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare.
Should those programs be eliminated?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walker is undermining
democracy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Act 10 was part of a multi-pronged, partisan attack on
democratic rights and local control, from voting rights to collective
bargaining. In undermining public sector unions, Walker sought to eviscerate
the most powerful defenders of the public sector.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As part of his plan for the UW System, Walker is once again
undermining principles of democracy and collaboration. In addition to the
funding cuts, Walker wants to eliminate the UW system as a state agency run in
accordance with state law. Instead, he wants to create a so-called “public authority.”
But there are several devils in the details.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, Walker would control those appointed to the new
authority. Second, Walker wants to eliminate the long-standing concept of
“shared governance” at the UW System, under which the faculty, students and staff
are involved in decision-making. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walker’s goal: public
dollars for private interests<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As governor, Walker has increasingly diverted public dollars
into privately controlled organizations. In education, the most disturbing
example is the public funding of private voucher schools, a program that Walker
expanded across the state. (Since the Milwaukee voucher program was started in
1990, more than $1.7 billion in public tax dollars has been diverted into
privately run voucher schools, most of them religious schools. The voucher
schools are allowed to ignore basic democratic safeguards, from constitutional
guarantees of due process, to open meetings and records requirements.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The UW System has a worldwide reputation, not only for its excellence
in education, but also for its role in promoting research and the free exchange
of ideas in service to the common good. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The UW System is too
valuable to be sacrificed in service to a conservative ideology that undermines
the democratic mission of public institutions, and that privileges
privatization over the public good.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
By Bob Peterson, president of the <a href="http://mtea.weac.org/" target="_blank">Milwaukee Teachers’Education Association</a>, and Barbara Miner, author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://thenewpress.com/books/lessons-from-heartland" target="_blank">Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of PublicEducation in an Iconic American City</a>.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-53767913642755572292014-09-07T17:04:00.001-07:002014-09-07T17:04:19.370-07:00UWM Charter School Uses Bribery to Increase Enrollmen<section class="post" style="-webkit-transition: margin-bottom 0.2s ease; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 20px; position: relative; transition: margin-bottom 0.2s ease; word-wrap: break-word;"><h2 style="font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin: -5px 0px -4px;">
<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/7cdf3a6897b38835c5b4ec8efe1e1627/tumblr_inline_nbjp8wXQrg1skwpos.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; height: auto; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></h2>
<div class="body-text" style="line-height: 1.6; margin-top: 1em;">
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
Originally posted at the <a href="http://bit.ly/1uctb2k" target="_blank">MTEA blog</a> </div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
The University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee should be ashamed.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
Urban Day — a UWM charter — is using bribery to increase enrollment.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
Urban Day, on its <a href="http://www.urbanday.org/www/" target="_blank">website</a>, in radio commercials and in flyers (photo above) distributed in the neighborhood, is promising $100 to anyone who recommends a student who will enroll and be present on the third Friday of September.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
As educators know, the third Friday is used by the state to determine a school’s funding. As many MPS teachers also know, there is a history of students from voucher and charter schools transferring to an MPS school after that third Friday count.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
For years stories have circulated of private voucher and privately-run charter schools offering incentives to parents to enroll their kids – gas cards, gift cards, and even money.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
But UWM’s cash-for-students plan stoops to a new low.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
On its website, Urban Day has a full-page graphic of $100 bills with the headline: Refer a Student, Earn Money.” The flyer meanwhile states: “Earn Free Money!!!” by convincing people to enroll in their school.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6af524176c043e5057ae5af0021f3537/tumblr_inline_nbjpqf26Z61skwpos.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
The flyer goes on to note: “For every new student who is enrolled at school on September 19<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> and has you as a reference: We will pay you $100. (No limit on the number of students, but students must be present on September 19<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> for you to receive money.)”</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/1a4cd68b6ed56612b17ea27d80deb31d/tumblr_inline_nbjphiGdJs1skwpos.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
Urban Day originally was a private voucher school, and for years had been touted as an exemplary community school. It became a UWM charter school in 2010.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
Urban Day’s flyer did not include any information about the school’s curriculum or offerings. Nor did the flyer (or website) note that in 2011-12 and 2012-13 the school met “few expectations” on the new statewide <a href="https://apps2.dpi.wi.gov/sdpr/district-report.action?district=8125&year=2012-13" style="color: #333333;" target="_blank" title="Urban Day School Wisconsin Report Card">report card</a> — the second lowest rating, just above “no expectations.”</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
In 2012-13, only 8.6% of Urban Day students had special needs, compared to nearly 20% in MPS.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
UWM is supposed to be the flagship public university in our city. It should be ashamed.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 1em;">
</div>
</div>
</section><section class="panel" style="-webkit-transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); -webkit-transition: opacity 0.35s cubic-bezier(0.86, 0, 0.07, 1); color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: 50px; line-height: 22px; opacity: 1; position: relative; transition: opacity 0.35s cubic-bezier(0.86, 0, 0.07, 1); z-index: 2;"><footer class="post-footer" style="clear: both; display: table; height: 50px; opacity: 1; position: relative; width: 700px; z-index: 2;"><section class="meta" style="display: table-cell; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: middle;"><ul class="date-notes" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"></ul>
</section></footer></section>Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-1020073708032736622014-06-08T09:17:00.001-07:002014-06-08T14:55:15.270-07:00Which Side Are You On? Should public policy promote discrimination? <div class="MsoNormal">
St. Marcus, a private voucher school, wants to buy Lee
Elementary, a public school. The decision comes before Milwaukee’s Common
Council in coming weeks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Taxpayer funding of private schools raises any number of
problems. But this particular controversy rests on one essential question:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Should public policy promote discrimination, in particular
discrimination against gay people and women? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last week, supporters of democracy and equality won a
well-deserved victory when a federal judge overturned Wisconsin’s ban on gay
marriage. The victory was the culmination of decades of struggle, with
supporters of gay marriage often dismissed or criticized in the early years. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The controversy over St. Marcus raises similar issues of
equality versus discrimination. Will politicians who support gay marriage have
the courage to say “no” to the sale of Lee Elementary to St. Marcus? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
St. Marcus is a private voucher school that is connected
with St. Marcus Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is part of the conservative
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran synod. The synod’s core beliefs include:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Homosexuality is a sin</li>
<li>Living together outside of marriage is a sin</li>
<li>Women are not to hold positions of authority over men. (The St.
Marcus School Council is appointed by the church’s all-male board of directors,
and the school council chair must be a male. Women are not allowed to vote for
the church’s board of directors.) </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a religious-based school, St. Marcus and its teachers are
expected to defend and promote the synod’s beliefs. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the Common Council approves the sale of Lee Elementary to
St. Marcus, the voucher school hopes to enroll an additional 850 students who
will be taught the synod’s beliefs. An estimated $5 million more per year<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>in taxpayer dollars will be used to promote
the synod’s beliefs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the question the Common Council faces. Will it
approve the sale to St. Marcus, knowing that it is thus using public policy to
promote and expand publicly funded discrimination? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or will council members do the right thing and say “no” to
publicly funded discrimination?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">RELIGIOUS FREEOM
VERSUS DISCRIMINATION<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me make it clear. This is not a question of religious
freedom. I was raised Lutheran (in a more liberal synod) and my wife was raised
Catholic. We have any number of relatives who disagree with our beliefs, and we
disagree with theirs. It’s no problem. We all respect religious freedom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
St. Marcus should be free to promote its religious views.
But not with taxpayer dollars and a public policy stamp of approval.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Milwaukee voucher program was set up by the state
legislature and Milwaukee voters have never had a chance to vote on this
controversial program. This is a chance for the Common Council to defend
democracy and equality and say “no” to policies of discrimination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">PUBLIC DOLLARS SHOULD
BE USED TO EDUCATE ALL CHILDREN<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The voucher schools’ ability to discriminate against gay
people and women is part of larger problems. To name just a few:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Private voucher schools do not have to adhere to open
meetings and records requirements. (Public schools do.)</li>
<li>Private voucher schools, unlike public schools, do not have
to educate all children. Unlike public schools, they do not have to provide ELL
or bilingual education. Unlike public schools, they do not have to provide all
needed special education students. Unlike public schools, they can expel or
suspend students at will, with no constitutional protections of due process and
free speech.</li>
<li>Private voucher schools, unlike public schools, do not have
to adhere to Wisconsin law that prohibits discrimination against students on
the basis of sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital or parental status.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the years, private voucher schools have drained more
than $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars from public schools. Due to funding cuts,
public schools have been forced to reduce art, music, physical education and
libraries, and have drastically enlarged class size. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Voucher schools have been used to privatize, defund and
dismantle the Milwaukee Public Schools — even though MPS is the only
institution in the city with the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to
educate all children.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All these controversies swirl around the proposed sale of
Lee Elementary to St. Marcus. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Voucher supporters are adept at framing the program in
rhetoric of “choice.” But with the current controversy over the sale of Lee Elementary
to St. Marcus, there is no escaping this fundamental question:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Should public policy and taxpayer dollars promote discrimination?
If you believe so, then vote for the sale. But be clear: that is what your vote
means.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But if you believe that public policy should defend
democracy and safeguard equality, the choice is clear. Say “no” and don’t sell
Lee Elementary to St. Marcus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-55766482560566350192014-05-23T17:20:00.002-07:002014-05-23T17:20:21.455-07:00A New Teacher Union Movement is Rising<div class="MsoNormal">
A revitalized teacher union movement is bubbling up in the
midst of relentless attacks on public schools and the teaching profession. Over
the next several years this new movement may well be the most important force
to defend and improve public schools, and in so doing, defend our communities
and our democracy. </div>
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The most recent indication of this fresh upsurge was the
union election in Los Angeles. Union Power, an activist caucus, won leadership of
the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the second-largest teacher local in the
country. The Union Power slate, headed by president-elect Alex Caputo-Pearl, has
an organizing vision for their union. They have worked with parents fighting
school cuts and recognize the importance of teacher – community alliances.</div>
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In two other cities –Portland, OR, and St. Paul, MN – successful
contract struggles also reflect a revitalized teacher union movement. In both
cities the unions put forth a vision of “the schools our children deserve”
patterned after a document by the Chicago Teachers Union. They worked closely
with parents, students and community members to win contract demands that were
of concern to all groups. The joint educator-community mobilizations were key
factors in forcing the local school districts to settle the contracts before a
strike.</div>
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The St. Paul Federation of Teachers involved parents and
community members in formulating their contract proposals, which emphasized
lower class size, less time spent on test prep and testing, and increased early
childhood services. Working with parents they staged a massive “walk-in” to
schools when 2,500 people – educators, parents, community members and students
– walked into school in unison in a show of solidarity. </div>
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The Portland Association of Teachers organized support from
religious leaders, the NAACP, and the Portland Student Union. They conducted
petition campaigns and generated public support. Ultimately the school board
agreed to many of the PAT’s proposals, including hiring 5% more teachers to
reduce class size, and a substantive increase in planning time for elementary
teachers.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Social Justice
Unionism<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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For years a small but growing number of union activists,
myself included, have promoted a vision of social justice teacher unionism that
builds on the lessons of past, but pushes the envelope w<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a>ell
beyond traditional unionism. We promote an organizing model with a strong dose
of internal union democracy and increased member participation. This contrasts
to a business model that views union membership as an insurance policy where
decision-making is concentrated in a small group of elected leaders and/or paid
staff.</div>
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We also are redefining the role of teacher unions so that we
become the leading professional force in our communities to defend and improve
the craft of teaching and the quality of public education. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Another essential part of social justice unionism is the
recognition of the key role played by coalitions of parents, students,
educators and community – on city and school levels. Such coalition work must
deal not only with educational issues, but broader non-school issues such as living
wages and voter and immigrant rights. </div>
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Teacher leaders in Los Angeles, Portland, St. Paul and
elsewhere have drawn inspiration from the transformation of the Chicago
Teachers Union. Led by Karen Lewis and other activists, the CTU organized a
successful strike in September of 2012. The strike won significant improvements
in the quality of schools and received overwhelming community support, despite
the efforts of an appointed, corporate-dominated school board and Chicago Mayor
Rahm Emanuel. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their strike was
anchored in months of member and community organizing, and the CTU continues to
organize on numerous educational and community fronts.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Different Conditions,
<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Of course, teacher unions must respond differently depending
on conditions they face. </div>
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I know. I am from Milwaukee, WI. I was elected president of the
Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, the largest union local in the state,
just weeks after Governor Scott Walker and his Koch brother friends imposed Act
10 on public sector workers (except the police and firefighter unions that had
endorsed him). </div>
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Act 10 took away virtually all collective bargaining rights,
including the right to arbitration. It left intact only the right to bargain
base wage increases, and even those are limited to a yearly cost of living
index. The new law ended fair share and payroll dues deduction. It imposed an
unprecedented annual recertification requirement on public sector unions, requiring
a 51% (not 50% plus one) vote of all eligible members, counting those who do
not vote as a “no.” Using those criteria, Governor Walker would never have been
elected.</div>
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The Governor then further attacked public schools and educators
by imposing the largest cuts to public education in Wisconsin’s history. He
also expanded the Milwaukee-based private school voucher program statewide
further contributing to the defunding of public schools. </div>
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The MTEA’s response has been to accelerate our work as a
social justice teacher union. We believe that schools must become greenhouses
for both democracy and community revitalization. Our work has included:</div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li>Building strong coalitions with
community, parent, students and religious organizations to fight school
privatization and to improve public schools.</li>
<li>Creating our own Teaching and
Learning Department to reclaim our profession and our classrooms.</li>
<li>Establishing a non-profit
organization, The Milwaukee Center for Teaching, Learning, and Public Education,
that provides an array of teacher-to-teacher professional development.</li>
<li>Dramatically increasing member
participation in many areas: school-based building committees, neighborhood
canvassing, union-sponsored professional development workshops and classes,
campaigns and committees advocating for developmentally appropriate early
childhood practices, bilingual education, less standardized testing, adequately
staffed libraries, and more.</li>
<li>Promoting culturally responsive teaching,
including bilingual education, learning a second language for all students, and
multicultural, anti-racist teaching.</li>
<li>Partnering with the district on
key reform initiatives such as the rollout of the new state mandated teacher
evaluation system and the promotion of community schools within our district.</li>
<li>Working to ensure the rights of
members who now work under a “handbook,” not a negotiated contract. </li>
</ul>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">National Movement<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whether teachers find themselves in the backward state of
Wisconsin, or a state with more progressive labor and educational laws, teacher
unions should reimagine themselves and move toward social justice unionism. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People are stepping up to the challenge. Last August and
this spring, the Chicago Teachers Union and Labor Notes hosted meetings of
local teacher union activists and leaders to learn from one another.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Support for these types of move towards social justice
unionism appears to be coming from the highest levels at both the NEA and AFT.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the 2012 NEA Representative Assembly NEA Executive
Director John Stocks called on members to become “social justice patriots.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>NEA President Dennis Van Roekel has
promoted the Great Public School initiative that encourages unions to move in
these progressive directions. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Randi Weingarten has been arrested protesting school
closings in Philadelphia, and this past March she spoke at the newly formed Network
for Public Education conference in Austin, Texas, during which she announced
she would recommend that the AFT no longer accept money from the Gates
Foundation.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is no longer sufficient to just critique and criticize
those that are attempting to destroy public education. Teacher unions must
unite with parents, students and the community to improve our schools – to
demand social justice and democracy so that we have <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">strong public schools, healthy communities,
and a vibrant democracy.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">-----<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">originally published on <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/23-7" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>, May 23, 2014</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Bob Peterson is President of the Milwaukee Teachers’
Education Association. A founding editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rethinking
Schools</i>, he has taught 5<sup>th</sup> grade for 30 years in MPS. He is
co-editor with Michael Charney of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Transforming
Teacher Unions: Fighting for Better Schools and Social Justice. </i>(Rethinking
Schools, 1998)</div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3377191400980976584.post-86934774606260560142014-05-06T19:22:00.000-07:002014-05-06T19:22:29.875-07:00Milwaukee's New Jim Crow - Time to Act on May 17<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HIJXtwBMBzI/U2mNuCzdhoI/AAAAAAAAAYI/Rb38WpQaqD4/s1600/opportunities.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HIJXtwBMBzI/U2mNuCzdhoI/AAAAAAAAAYI/Rb38WpQaqD4/s1600/opportunities.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="userContentWrapper aboveUnitContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;">
<div class="_wk mbm" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A recent <a href="http://www.aecf.org/Newsroom/NewsReleases/HTML/2014/RaceforResults.aspx" target="_blank">report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation</a> showed that Wisconsin is the worst state in the country in protecting the well-being of African American children based on 12 key indicators. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Milwaukee, home of 2/3s of the state's African American population, is suffering under these realities. It's time for community leaders of Milwaukee to wake up to the growing segregation and inequalities in our metropolitan area. </span></span></div>
<div class="_wk mbm" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People will have the opportunity to commemorate the <i>Brown v. Board Decision</i> on May 17, it's 60th anniversary, AND to participate in a call to action to address the ravages of segregation and inequality that haunt our community.</span></span></div>
<div class="_wk mbm" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Join us on May 17 to demand </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the schools and communities our children deserve. More info at <a href="http://schoolsandcommunitiesunited.org/">SchoolsAndCommunitiesUnited.org</a> </span></div>
<div class="_wk mbm" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here for an <a href="http://www.mtea.org/Public/pdf/BrownVsBoardPoster_8x11.pdf" target="_blank">English leaflet</a> and a <a href="http://www.mtea.org/Public/pdf/517savethedateSPN.pdf" target="_blank">Spanish leaflet</a> for the event.</span></div>
</div>
Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633802590937598525noreply@blogger.com0