President Barack Obama was targeted by the right-wing and presumably right-wing parents who didn't want their children to be fed "propaganda" by Obama in his speech to students that was to be broadcast to schools nationwide.
Of course, this is absurd. As much as I disagree with his politics, I would have loved to have heard President George W. Bush speak in my school. I would have loved to hear President Bill Clinton speak. It shouldn't matter. This is the President of the United States.
As promised, the White House released the remarks that will be shown to schools all across the country. Here is an excerpt:
I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
Those who attacked Obama over a speech to students throughout the country really have egg on their face. Those that said Obama was going to spread his "socialist agenda" also have egg on their face.
This speech is a speech from a president, not a politician. These are words that every student should hear and words that every parent should be saying to their children.
There is nothing more than encouragement and advice in the speech. No propaganda. No socialist agenda. No politics.
The comedy there is that while Obama's speech isn't political, Republicans chose to make it political. Even though it seems small, this is a big issue. If the GOP is willing to go so low as to make this political, how can they be taken seriously?
In these days of transparency as buzzword, I don't hear a lot of argument that "transparency is a bad thing in general." What I do tend to hear is that "we just can't do X, Y, and Z if we're that transparent, and that would cripple the ABCDE agenda."
But because that transfer occured in the context of an immensely complex formula understood by less than half a dozen people and negotiated in a back room long after the official hearings had finished and the press had gone home, nobody really got upset by it, because nobody knew exactly how much money they were losing, and we were in no hurry to tell them....
Sometimes it's better to hide the true extent of people's contributions to the common good. Otherwise they'll start asking questions and from there it's a slippery slope all the way back to every family huddling alone in a cave and foraging for fruits and nuts.
Kevin's reply boils down to something pretty simple:
Lying to parents just isn't a long-term strategy.
At the national level, we've watched the Republicans indulge in this conceit for decades. Rich Republicans want to lower taxes for the rich, but the country is a lot less excited about that prospect. The answer? Well, lots of lying, actually, plus some backroom deals. Fight like hell against anyone who wants to find out what's going on, cast your opponents as elitists who just want to bore people with facts, and build a theology of executive power that makes it hard for anyone to challenge what's going on. (See Jonathan Chait's The Big Con for a good telling of this story, if you can stomach it.)
At the state level, unfortunately, both parties fell into similar attitudes in defense of their own agendas. (The minorities in both legislative houses, for some reason, tend to support much more transparency than the majorities.) Many Democrats are watching the State Senate to see if its members actually learned the value of transparency while they were in the minority, or if it was just talk, and the same goes for our Governor, who seems to have forgotten his old speeches.
A lot of the reason that voters today are angry is the growing realization that they've been lied to, on a tremendous scale. The extreme right and left have always had that sense, but there are a lot more angry centrists out there than I've ever seen. Even (maybe especially) if they aren't political junkies, they're complaining that they just aren't getting the straight story, especially about finances but also about everything else.
If you need to lie about policy, odds are good that you've gotten ahead of the voters. For better or worse, democracy isn't about getting your platform enacted - it's about responding to the will of the voters. The Republicans pushed as far as they could before the whole structure started coming down on them. I hope we can learn from their disaster, and push back against their lying ways, not just the details of what they lied about.
The measure, called the "Better Schools Act," would remove the mayor's ability to appoint the majority of the Panel for Educational Policy, considered a central issue on school control, as well as allowing the New York City Independent Budget Office to audit and evaluate the "financial investments and academic achievement" in public schools. It also would train parents and students to be more involved.
Assemblyman Carl Heastie, who is also the Bronx County Democratic chairman, is carrying the bill. Its co-sponsors include Linda Rosenthal, Jeff Aubry, Bill Boyland, Nelson Castro, Vivian Cook, Deborah Glick, Janele Hyer-Spencer, Hakeem Jeffries, David Koon, Grace Meng, Nick Perry, Linda Rosenthal, Matt Titone, Keith Wright (a contender to be the Manhattan Democratic chairman) and Inez Barron.
On the Senate side, Sen. Kevin Parker is sponsoring the bill and has seven co-sponsors already.
As Jimmy points out, leaders in both houses have been supportive of mayoral control, but would like to see more oversight and allow for more parental involvement. Currently, that is not the case.
It was an important day around the state yesterday as school budgets were put up for a vote in over 500 school districts.
According to the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), 97.2 percent of New York's 547 public school districts passed their budgets. That figure is based on NYSUT's own estimates and reviews of budgets from across the state.
As of 9 a.m., NYSUT's unofficial count showed voters in 547 school districts passed their budgets. In 16 districts, voters rejected their school boards' plans for how resources will be allocated for students and schools in the 2009-10 school year. The NYSUT count includes about percent of the state's school districts. If the percentages hold as the final counting is completed, the 97.2 percent 'pass rate' would top the record 95.3 percent of budgets passing in 2007.
"Even in these tough economic times, we see that voters recognize the importance of supporting their local schools," said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi. "By voting 'yes,' New Yorkers are saying they understand that as our economy turns around, students must be ready."
Iannuzzi said that by adopting local budgets, voters are showing confidence in the ability of schools to turn out skilled graduates who "can and should be the mainstays of a strong work force" to fill high-tech jobs created, for example, in GE's new battery research plant in Niskayuna; Advanced Micro Devices' multi-billion-dollar chip plant in Saratoga County; and the new solar project recently announced for Long Island.
Iannuzzi did credit the federal stimulus package and the education funds included in the package as a reason why so many budgets passed.
Iannuzzi said this year's high passage rate is due, in large measure, to the federal stimulus package, which invested some $1.25 billion this year in public schools. The stimulus package enabled the governor and state Legislature to erase proposed state budget cuts and provide a small increase in funding. In addition, Iannuzzi said, many school boards put forward conservative budgets, resulting in the lowest spending and property tax increases in recent memory. Property Tax Report Cards revealed that statewide spending increases averaged 2.35 percent, while property tax levies edged up 1.89 percent.
I find it comforting that so many school budgets passed even with such disdain for government and anti-tax types railing against the state and public institutions. Having 97.2 percent of budgets being passed by voters signals that voters still do have confidence in the education system and believe that making investments in education through their tax dollars is still a worthy investment, no matter how low or high that investment is.
(Pictured, at left, is Richard Iannuzzi speaking before the NYSUT Convention in Buffalo.)
Being a teacher is something Iannuzzi knows plenty about. It is why he is the best man to serve as president of such a diverse union that includes 600,000 members statewide. For 34 years, Iannuzzi was an elementary school teacher in Central Islip, where he spent 20 of those years teaching fourth grade. It was during his teaching career that he was very involved in teachers' unions, including his service as vice president of the Central Islip Teachers Association starting in 1976 to 1996 before becoming president of that organization from 1996 to 2004.
While at the convention, I caught up with Iannuzzi and had a chance to ask him a few questions about how he thought the convention went, why NYSUT decided on a social justice theme for the convention and his thoughts on the budget impact on teachers.
QUESTION: How was your experience in Buffalo and how do you think the convention went?
IANNUZZI: I'll start with the city of Buffalo and the wonderful mayor (Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown) and the convention bureau (the Buffalo-Niagara Convention Center and Visitors Bureau) they have done more to make us feel at home than any convention site I have ever been at. It's been a great city and a great convention bureau and our hope is that we will be able to be back. That's our goal.
As far as the Representative Assembly goes, I'm excited about it. I feel good now that we are done with it. That we achieved our goals and that the delegates went home inspired and satisfied that they had a good convention. That Woody Guthrie quote does it for me, which is our goal is to make sure that these officers get their job done. If we can help them get their job done, then we've gotten our job done.
Q: There is a debate brewing in school districts across the state about how the state budget and federal stimulus package will impact teachers. Some school districts are proposing cuts, layoffs and so forth to address budget problems. What is your take on that?
IANNUZZI: At the end of the day, when a school district puts its budget forward, it needs to, as always, think about its federal support, state support and its local property tax support. We always understand that and appreciate that.
What's different this year is that the federal stimulus money was clearly designed and directed to save and preserve jobs. Where any school district is not applying those dollars directly for that purpose, our commitment is to aggressively pursue those responsible for that misappropriation and to be sure things get done correctly. We know the Governor's office understands that. We know that the state Education Department understands that.
My last comment on that is to the people that live in those communities and the message is that if your school board is foolishly misappropriating those funds, the result is going to be the potential of losing the funds and property taxes going up even higher.
On behalf of both the community and my members and the kids, our goal will be to be sure those dollars the way they were designed to be spent. And if they are spent that way, what will happen is that teachers will be in classrooms, good things will continue to happen and our hope is that the standards that are raised, the achievement gap is addressed and potentially, we will be able to create the trained and well educated workforce that will grow the economy in the state, especially upstate, in ways that will make it self-sufficient and able to carry it on with their own dollars instead of dollars generated by new business and new industry.
Q: I was impressed by the social justice themes today and that is really impressive that NYSUT has been engaged in that. Talk a little bit about that and what the motives are behind making the union social justice minded.
IANNUZZI: I think if you go back to the birth of the union movement, it really was about providing an opportunity for collective action in ways that the voice of those who were voiceless could be heard. And that's really how unions started and how unions have grown.
Perhaps there is a period of time, it could be argued, where unions, in general, have concentrated on so many other issues that they haven't been able to concentrate on social justice. But our view of social justice is that now that we have begun to move forward in respect to our ability to move workers further and further into the middle class, we still have an obligation to be sure that our lowest wage earning workers get a living wage, that we protect their health insurance and their nutrition.
We believe that our responsibility as a union expands beyond our members. It expands to other workers and that we ought to be sure that it expands to those we serve, whether we are talking about children, patients or the public.
In his biography posted on the NYSUT website, there is this quote from Iannuzzi, which certainly could best sum up Iannuzzi's view of what he hopes to do as a union and as president of that union.
"Whether we work in health care, on a campus or in a school - whether we are in-service or retired - we all bring different contributions and concerns to our shared union endeavors," said Iannuzzi, who has spoken frequently concerning the potential for diversity to increase the power of unity. "After all, each of us understands that our strength is not in focusing on our diverse professions, geography or the size of our locals, but in our common union culture. In essence, our strength is our solidarity."
Iannuzzi's leadership has brought many successes to NYSUT. And with his leadership, the union will still look for ways to best represent their members as well as improving the world around them.
In 2002, the NYS Legislature passed sweeping reform of New York City's schools called the Mayoral Control Bill. This law addressed what most had agreed was a major problem; the school system had become a collection of turf wars with no one accountable for the effective operation of the entire system. The cornerstone of the legislation was to place that accountability for the system's effectiveness in one arena...the office of the mayor. The law also included a sunset date of June, 2009, that would provide a chance to review its results, and then take up the issue of the law's renewal.
Since that time, many improvements have, indeed, taken place in the schools' performance, and now the review of those improvements has begun.
To that end, the Assembly has scheduled a series of 5 hearings across the City so that parents' voices can be heard on this very important issue. The first hearing is going to be held this Thursday at 10:00 AM in Queens at the Queens Borough Hall Meeting Room 213, located at 120-55 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens.
I am working with Learn NY, an organization that wants those voices to be heard, and the Assembly hearings are the perfect venue.
One of the issues that I hear a lot in this discussion is that this law and its renewal effort is somehow attached to THIS mayor and THIS chancellor. The law is about accountability and the mayor's office...whoever the mayor may be...and there will be other mayors of NYC.
To find out more about Mayoral Control and share your stories, you can go to the Learn NY web site. To find out about the dates, times and locations of the hearings, as well as download the public hearing reply form so that you can testify, you can one-stop-shop here.
If you are a parent and you would like to attend with other interested parents, you can sign up here.
This issue effects the education of millions of children and, as a result, is going to be front and center as we get closer to the June renewal date. Please, educate yourself and let your voice be heard.
Yesterday, the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief's final report was delivered to Governor Paterson's desk for his review and consideration. The commission, headed by Tom Suozzi and Cassie Prugh, has investigated one of the most difficult and inter-connected challenges that faces New York government, especially now during a time of considerable economic turmoil.
I know how personal and difficult the issue can be. When I ran for the State Senate in 2006, I heard about property tax and education reform on almost every doorstep I visited...and I visited thousands.
A reader just passed along some information that is very interesting. The reader received a robocall today that said Sen. Malcolm Smith is a threat to education funding. The call also said to the recipient that they should call Sen. Smith and demand that he support funding for education.
The reader pointed out two key facts:
(1) The reader lives in Oswego County, which obviously isn't in Sen. Smith's district.
(2) There was nothing at the beginning or end of the call that identified where the call originated from.
I won't disclose who the reader is, but they did say that they have a family member who lives in the house that works in education. One might conclude that these calls are targeting educators or those who are tied to education, whether they are school counselors, superintendents, principals, etc.
The number that the call came from was 1-603-214-3698. I "Googled" the number and it came back that it matched some numbers associated with telemarketing calls. So it more than likely is just a random number being used to make these calls.
I would think that this is the Republicans or one of their groups that are conducting these robocalls. The reason for targeting Sen. Smith could be to try and say that you don't want the Democrats to have the majority in the New York State Senate because they will cut education funding. This has been a Republican talking point and source of dueling between the GOP conference and Democratic conference recently.
If you have received one of these phone calls, feel free to pass along your story: robert.harding22@gmail.com.
UPDATE: Another reader from Oswego County passed along a message saying that they received an identical robo-call targeting Sen. Smith and mentioning education. He, too, works in education. And like the call that started this discussion, no identification was given.
For the past seven years, there has been a disturbing trend in the demographics of New York City. In each of those years, there are fewer children enrolled in our public schools than the year before. In the late 90s, student enrollment increased, but starting with the 2001-02 school year that trend was reversed. If the 2001-02 year were a blip, it could have been chalked up to the 9/11 attacks, but it turned out to be merely the beginning of a longer-term trend (see graph below).
According to Census Bureau estimates*, New York City's population increased by 2.6% from April 1, 2000 to June 1, 2006. Yet during that same time, student enrollment in our public schools declined by 4.4%. I'm not a statistician, but I'm pretty good with numbers, and that seems to me to be a significant difference.
NY-26: As I'm following Jon Powers in my car on this rain-drenched day in the 26th District, passing picturesque red barns and rolling green fields, I am reminded of the importance of agriculture in this community. Hand painted road signs advertising blackberries, honey and sweet corn dot the roads ribboning out in front of us. The occasional "Powers for Congress" sign is a nice touch, almost as if they knew Powers would be traveling through. But the easy-going bucolic scenery belies the economic hardship that affects many folks in upstate New York.
Powers is seeking to address one of the root causes of such hardship: problems with our education system. To that end, Powers hosted a teachers' round table in Lockport Thursday for this purpose at The Daily Grind coffee shop.
The disappointing graduation rate was the first thing one teacher mentioned, noting that the funding is not the problem, the graduation rate is the problem. On the topic of testing, one teacher stated "If you're teaching the material, it doesn't matter if the test is changed or not."
When the topic of high school rankings by magazines such as Newsweek came up, it was noted that the number of students now taking AP courses has drastically risen and some students are being pushed into AP when they are not prepared for it. One teacher said that "By the time they get to high school, they are tested out."
Powers pointed out that the concept of "discovery learning" is dying out and that some are saying there will be no Einsteins in the future because of it. This points to the "teach to the test" ideology running rampant in our schools and threatening to erode love for learning while promoting rote memorization. Thinking outside the box and using one's imagination are key components to innovation and subsequently a robust economy. It's all tied together, education and the economy, and Powers gets that.
Sue Powers, a retired reading teacher and the candidate's mother, pointed out that no one has been tracking success of these various programs adopted by schools. Another teacher agreed and said "No one is polling graduates to see how they're doing." Jon Powers agreed and said "Schools have very little follow up in alumni." A third teacher concurred and asked "How can we say we're creating lifelong learners if we don't know?"
One thing is for certain, Powers has an education plan and he's going all around the 26th District asking our area's teachers what their thoughts are so we can know.
In the latest rebuke to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's agenda, state lawmakers have decided to bar student test scores from being considered when teacher tenure determinations are made.
Legislators said the move was the final detail negotiated as part of the budget, which they expect to complete on Wednesday. It was a setback to efforts by the mayor and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer to hold teachers accountable by using student performance data, and a boon for the teachers' unions, which hold enormous influence over the political process in the capital.
The new language being prepared for the state law says that for the next two years student scores will not be considered in decisions on teachers' tenure; in the meantime, a commission is to be created to study the issue.
Test scores are only a snapshot of a moment in time, and it is impossible to pinpoint their causation to a single teacher. Furthermore, test scores measure little except for the ability of a student to take a standardized test, and they often cause classrooms to become test-tutoring centers instead of educational opportunities.
This is not to suggest that some form of accountability is warranted for schools and teachers. A better way would be to analyze schools in their entirety with meaningful criteria, such as % of students who graduate, % of students who go to college or graduate school, % of students employed, unemployed, or in prison 5 or 10 years after finishing school. If the school as a whole slips backwards in these categories for too long, the whole school should be re-evaluated. And as for tenure, that is something principals should decide- not bureaucrats who analyze test scores.
(Awesome. These kids rock. - promoted by phillip anderson)
On Thursday the 14th of 2008, St. Valentine's Day, NYC's Students are Taking Action.
In response to the City and State's recent education budget cuts, a group called Students Against Budget Cuts has organized a protest on the steps of Tweed Courthouse.
This is no surprise to me. These cuts have sent a shock down the spine of NYC's student body to larger extent than any education issue since the cell phone ban. Students feel betrayed. We feel as though the State and City are disrespecting us and demeaning our status as learners.
These budget cuts are more of a future-cut than anything else. They show a great lack of concern for the urgent welfare of our City's students and in doing so forgetting about the future of our City, our State and our Society
The education investment is one for the years to come. It won't always yield the quickest results but in the long term it is an investment for the future. Through these budget cuts, Spitzer and Bloomberg signaling to NYC Students that no, we are not the future.
So now, you've got us energized, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Spitzer. Students are protesting. Facebook Groups against the cuts are popping up every day. Petitions are being circulated. At LaGuardia, the Student Government has put together a Budget Cuts committee to coordinate protest efforts and to examine the school's budget and make recommendations about how to respond to the cuts.
Do not take our investment in our learning for apathy. When you wrong us we will fight back. Listen.
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger natbell and crossposted from Edwize.]
The UFT has begun gathering input from the community about mayoral control of city schools and what it has meant for the city's 1.1 million school children. The law that temporarily authorized centralization of the system has been in place for six years, and is scheduled to sunset in 2009.
A union task force is holding hearings in each of the five boroughs, where parents, community members and other stakeholders are evaluating whether the law should be continued, modified in some way, or allowed to expire. The community's input will help the union develop its own position on the law.
It always surprises me how my fellow students always seem to take much more moderate and pragmatic positions on many of today's more controversial education issues than I would expect.
At last weeks New York City Student Union meeting, the issue that came up was Mayoral Control of NYC schools, which Albany can either reinstate or let sunset in 2009. While much of what we hear on the issue from other members of the education community (parents, teachers, activists) is outright condemnation, most students were supportive of the idea of Mayoral Control.
I've been on the fence about the issue for a while now, but after hearing my fellow students arguments, I am convinced that Mayoral Control is not the devil after all.
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Leo Casey, and crossposted from Edwize.]
New York Measuring Teachers by Test Scores: so reads the headline on the front page of the New York Times which announces the NYC Department of Education's secretive pilot project to use value added statistical measures of student standardized test scores to examine the performance of teachers. The teachers and their schools will not be informed that they are the subjects of this study.
The DoE's "value added" project is a fundamentally flawed exercise which can not possibly deliver what it promises. It is being pursued, with the full knowledge of its flaws, because technocratic ideology trumps sound educational practice at Tweed. Moving forward with such a flawed project is extraordinarily irresponsible because "value added" -- the idea that one should measure how much academic progress students have made, rather than just their absolute academic standing -- holds promise as an useful tool in the repertoire of schools and educators. But the way in which it is being recklessly pursued by Tweed will cast discredit on the entire enterprise.
The DoE has no contractual or legal authority to use test score data in the evaluation of teachers, and the UFT will oppose it with all the means at our disposal. This is a line in the sand for the UFT.
I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to what Joe Williams (of the horribly misnamed Democrats for Education Reform) set as his New Year's resolution, but he starts off the year with a post accusing New York City Councilman Robert Jackson of "pimping himself" (Jackson is also Chair of the City Council's Education Committee). Here's what Jackson said, that Joe Williams disagreed with.
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Jackie Bennett, and crossposted from Edwize.]
What is going to happen in our New York City high schools now that Joel Klein has based 55% of the high school progress reports on the number of courses students take and pass. Consider this: if students don't pass, the school's grade will suffer, and punishment may follow. Klein will fire principals and close the schools.
And to make things worse, Klein has also sent out signals that it's a good thing when schools find creative ways to give a student credit. For example, Klein instituted a policy of seat-time credit (credit recovery, as it's euphemistically called) wherein students who fail a class because they didn't do much work can hand in a project of some kind to a different teacher after the course is over, and have that grade reversed.
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Leo Casey, and previously posted on Edwize.]
On the Disney Company's corporate website, the reader will find a honor roll of teachers from across the United States who have been recognized by the American Teacher Awards, starting with the first class of 1990 and concluding with the last class of 2006. A close examination will reveal that there is no teacher listed as the 1992 honoree in the category of Social Studies. Two of the three Social Studies finalists are listed, but the teacher who was actually named Social Studies Teacher of the Year is missing.*
I am that missing teacher. My name disappeared some time after I organized a public letter, signed by twenty-five American Teacher Award honorees, protesting Disney's sponsorship of John Stossel's Stupid in America, an ideological broadside against public education and the teachers who labor in our public schools.
[I hope this post about education funding proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]
It took 13 years, but the Campaign for Fiscal Equity forced the state to start spending on poor children. After dickering while a whole generation of children passed through the school system, the state finally relented and allocated $7 billion in new education spending over the next four years. Real money. The possibility of real change.
So why does it feel as if nothing's changed--or it's changing in tiny increments? Where are the small class sizes? What's up with universal pre-K? Why aren't our middle schools restructured? What happened to serious mentoring of new teachers? And where are all the new school facilities?
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Leo Casey. This crosspost rearranges the original post for space considerations.]
The New York City Department of Education web site has had a dramatic facelift, with almost every new whistle and bell you could want.
Iannuzzi was named president of NYSUT in April 2005 and also serves as vice president of the 
