Last Tuesday, a contingent of Occupy L.A. marched toward the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters on Beaudry, atop a hill overlooking the 101 freeway. It was a Fellini-esque parade, complete with V for Vendetta masks worn by the group Anonymous, a couple dressed as Aztec warriors, and even the suddenly infamous substitute teacher fired for anti-Semitic statements (she held a yellow sign reading, "Congress Should Print the Money NOT the Zionist Jews!").
But about half of the 100 marchers were an older bunch of generally out-of-shape adults wearing red T-shirts with the letters UTLA. They were members of the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, and they were firmly in control of the march.
"Hell no, we're not fools, we don't want no charter schools!" they chanted at one point.
The peculiar thing was that the real barbarians at the gate were already inside the school district headquarters.
Members of an unusual new coalition, Don't Hold Us Back, were in the audience at the LAUSD school board meeting to deliver public comments. School board members, some of them swept into office by teachers union campaign money, seemed ill at ease as Blair Taylor, president of the Los Angeles Urban League, implored: "This is your moment in history. Turn us away from the status quo."
"We are the consumers!" said a parent named Pilar Buelna, practically shouting at the increasingly uncomfortable school board. "Without me you don't have a job! Make us stakeholders!"
The coalition is made up of respected, longtime urban groups such as United Way, the Urban League, Community Coalition, Alliance for a Better Community, Families in Schools, Asian Pacific American Legal Center and a newcomer, Communities for Teaching Excellence. They are almost all Democrat-heavy organizations, traditionally reluctant to criticize the UTLA, their political ally.
Some of them, like Community Coalition, have even received money from UTLA, and hope to do so again.
The day before the march, Don't Hold Us Back had taken out full-page advertisements in the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Daily News and La Opinion, urging the UTLA and school board to sign a new contract (the one they have now is expired) putting in place a number of reforms that Superintendent John Deasy and school reform groups are demanding — namely: a standard way to evaluate teacher performance; an end to "last hired, first fired," which looks solely at teacher seniority and not at the teacher; and reinstituting full Public School Choice, which allows outside groups to run flailing public schools (in August, the school board temporarily barred charter schools from being allowed to take over schools under Public School Choice).
There was a time not too long ago when the voices of serious school reform in California were more often found among moderate Republicans like Richard Riordan and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a few fiercely independent Democrats like Marion Joseph and Gloria Romero.
School reformers criticized teachers unions while leading Democrats defended the unions — and were handsomely compensated by the UTLA and other wealthy education unions, which showered Democrats with hefty campaign help.
Community Coalition and Inner City Struggle have a long history of siding with UTLA. They did not join the push for Public School Choice or involve themselves in California's Parent Trigger law (openly hated by teachers unions), by which parents can remove the teaching staff of low-performing public schools if parents gather enough signatures from other parents.
One reformer described United Way, until recently, as having been "very vanilla" about school reform efforts, offering to do studies but not much else.
"Traditionally, we were a very neutral organization," admits Elise Buik, president of United Way of Greater Los Angeles. "We had been all things to all people. But when we really started to get behind macro trends, we realized we needed to focus."
Something is happening in Los Angeles, a city perhaps finally experiencing the soul-searching and shifting views on school practices that many leading Democrats in New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago went through.
"Progressive groups are beginning to have a come-to-Jesus moment," says Michael Dolan, political director for Future Is Now Schools (formerly Green Dot America). "It's a national phenomenon: Reflexively anti–charter school community organizations — and even unions as well — are beginning to finally relax their ideologically driven fears about education reform."
It's not that these groups have done a complete flip-flop. But they've begun to see merit in some arguments made by the reformers, who tend to be driven by pragmatics rather than ideology.
The organizations behind Don't Hold Us Back are hardly anti-union. They are all quick to point out that they don't see the teachers union as their enemy.
"This is not about what the union is doing wrong," says Angelica Solis, executive director of Alliance for a Better Community. "It's about the policies that are in place that are impeding our school district."
But that doesn't make the UTLA or the UTLA-backed wing of the LAUSD board any less defensive.
Take Steve Zimmer, UTLA's most dutiful backer on the school board. In an emailed response to L.A. Weekly, Zimmer began by praising the advocacy groups, and then went on the attack. "What troubles me deeply is the silence of these advocacy groups on the financial crisis that is devastating this district, our students and their families," he wrote, saying he worried that the "sole priority is reducing the influence of public-sector labor unions in our public schools. That conversation is valid, but the timing is confusing."
sorry, I couldn't go to the gym to look pretty for your crappy paper. I had work to do last night and just about every night. Or I'm trying to recover from another day of working with wonderful children who suck the life out of me because of all the problems they have. Problems charter school refuse to deal with.
mу bеst friеnd's brother is making $ 83 per hоur working from home. hе was оut оf his jоb fоr eight mоnths but this october his salary wаs $ 8100 only by wоrking оn thе cоmputer fоr а fеw hоurs a day. for more info go to С А S H S H А R Р . С О М
What a stupid-a** article. Who wrote this? Jill Stewart's doppleganger? The "journalist" obviously knows nothing about the deep politics of the LAUSD, the UTLA, the Urban League or Los Angeles, for that matter. This development has nothing to do with "progressives." The reformers in this case are Democratic Party hacks funded by big pocket corpos like Gates and Broad. Of course, the great Arnold Schwarzenegger (who defunded the UC system) and the Alzheimer-ridden Dick Riordan are praised, in passing, as great reformers. Why, of course! And why not praise George Bush an NCLB while you are at it? This is the same doublethink employed for years by Stewart who serves as a lapdoggie for the powerful. Apparently she has now found her own doggie to do her "writing" for her. Reading this crap you can feel your IQ drop by the moment. The giveaway that this is propaganda is the gratuitous attack on the physique of public school teachers. You can bet dollars to donuts that the snot-nose who wrote this is the product of some $25,000 a year private school. I dare him to answer and prove me wrong.
How mendacious to say that ICS didn't support PSC. They were its biggest cheerleaders. In fact, during the LAUSD hearings for the privatization resolution, ICS staffers gushed "Yolie, we're your biggest fans" during the public comments. More importantly ICS' Brenes and Sanchez personally fought along with the duplicitous Flores to have the behemoth Green Dot Corporation take over historic Garfield HS. In the end Green Dot passed, since it's only interested in valuable properties and brand new facilities, not actually helping communities.
Every single one of these so-called "civil rights" groups are 501C3s funded by Bill Gates and Eli Broad to continue their neoliberal school privatization program. We discuss this fund-to-advocate paradigm in a lengthy and well documented essay entitled: "NCTQ's LAUSD report's highly questionable veracity shows Bill Gates' pervasiveness and perniciousness" on Schools Matter.
For these non-profits to even mention "interests of adults" when many of their executives are collecting bloated six figure salaries to advocate corporate school reforms on behalf of Gates and Broad is the height of hypocrisy. Calling these grant hound organizations "progressive" is nothing more than an attempt to provide a veneer to the reactionary libertarian policies they espouse.
Moreover, none of the right wing reactionary ideas -- VAM, "merit pay," removal of tenure, etc. -- proffered by the misleadingly named "don't hold us back" coalition have ever been shown to improve student achievement. None. In fact I defy Yolie Flores and the other reactionary leaders of this anti-community and anti-labor coalition to produce one peer reviewed study from a legitimate academic source showing their AEI/Cato derived ideas work. Just one. And no, policy papers or preliminary reports from right wing thinks like the NCTQ, or the vile Gates Foundation itself are not considered peer reviewed studies."
Wow, that is so enlightening. Help us get the word out, we want to work with you. We have some amazing resources and we are all about the greater good. I for one , fel that UTLA sold out members, anticipating its own demise. Rather than fight tonthe death they are throwing us to the jackals to win six figure positions in the district which averages 8 admin for every teacher. The fascist demeanour it and the board have assumed openly betrays their agenda which is not in the best interest of anyone but these white chalk criminals . Radaxis7@ aol.com from www.perdaily.com
How mendacious to say that ICS didn't support PSC. They were its biggest cheerleaders. In fact, during the LAUSD hearings for the privatization resolution, ICS staffers gushed "Yolie, we're your biggest fans" during the public comments. More importantly ICS' Brenes and Sanchez personally fought along with the duplicitous Flores to have the behemoth Green Dot Corporation take over historic Garfield HS. In the end Green Dot passed, since it's only interested in valuable properties and brand new facilities, not actually helping communities.
Every single one of these so-called "civil rights" groups are 501C3s funded by Bill Gates and Eli Broad to continue their neoliberal school privatization program. We discuss this fund-to-advocate paradigm in a lengthy and well documented essay entitled: "NCTQ's LAUSD report's highly questionable veracity shows Bill Gates' pervasiveness and perniciousness" on schoolsmatter.info
For these non-profits to even mention "interests of adults" when many of their executives are collecting bloated six figure salaries to advocate corporate school reforms on behalf of Gates and Broad is the height of hypocrisy. Calling these grant hound organizations "progressive" is nothing more than an attempt to provide a veneer to the reactionary libertarian policies they espouse.
Moreover, none of the right wing reactionary ideas -- VAM, "merit pay," removal of tenure, etc. -- proffered by the misleadingly named "don't hold us back" coalition have ever been shown to improve student achievement. None. In fact I defy Yolie Flores and the other reactionary leaders of this anti-community and anti-labor coalition to produce one peer reviewed study from a legitimate academic source showing their AEI/Cato derived ideas work. Just one. And no, policy papers or preliminary reports from right wing thinks like the NCTQ, or the vile Gates Foundation itself are not considered peer reviewed studies."
How mendacious to say that ICS didn't support PSC. They were its biggest cheerleaders. In fact, during the LAUSD hearings for the privatization resolution, ICS staffers gushed "Yolie, we're your biggest fans" during the public comments. More importantly ICS' Brenes and Sanchez personally fought along with the duplicitous Flores to have the behemoth Green Dot Corporation take over historic Garfield HS. In the end Green Dot passed, since it's only interested in valuable properties and brand new facilities, not actually helping communities.
Every single one of these so-called "civil rights" groups are 501C3s funded by Bill Gates and Eli Broad to continue their neoliberal school privatization program. We discuss this fund-to-advocate paradigm in a lengthy and well documented essay entitled: "NCTQ's LAUSD report's highly questionable veracity shows Bill Gates' pervasiveness and perniciousness" on www.schoolsmatter.info
For these non-profits to even mention "interests of adults" when many of their executives are collecting bloated six figure salaries to advocate corporate school reforms on behalf of Gates and Broad is the height of hypocrisy. Calling these grant hound organizations "progressive" is nothing more than an attempt to provide a veneer to the reactionary libertarian policies they espouse.
Moreover, none of the right wing reactionary ideas -- VAM, "merit pay," removal of tenure, etc. -- proffered by the misleadingly named "don't hold us back" coalition have ever been shown to improve student achievement. None. In fact I defy Yolie Flores and the other reactionary leaders of this anti-community and anti-labor coalition to produce one peer reviewed study from a legitimate academic source showing their AEI/Cato derived ideas work. Just one. And no, policy papers or preliminary reports from right wing thinks like the NCTQ, or the vile Gates Foundation itself are not considered peer reviewed studies."
How mendacious to say that ICS didn't support the vile PSC corporate give-aways. Brenes and Sanchez were it's biggest advocates and lobbied with the vile Flores for the corporate Green Dot Behemoth to swallow up Garfield. Green Dot doesn't like old buildings or lesser valued real estate, so they passed on GHS.
Every single one of these so-called "civil rights" groups are 501C3s funded by Bill Gates and Eli Broad to continue their neoliberal school privatization program. We discuss this fund-to-advocate paradigm in: "NCTQ's LAUSD report's highly questionable veracity shows Bill Gates' pervasiveness and perniciousness"
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/...
For these non-profits to even mention "interests of adults" when many of their executives are collecting six figure salaries to advocate corporate school reforms on behalf of Gates and Broad is the height of hypocrisy. None of these groups are considered progressive in our communities, they're just self-serving non-profits always looking for bigger funders. Elise Buik is the biggest funding hound of them all, ask her how much Broad, Gates, et al contribute to their Tocqueville Society.
Moreover, none of the right wing reactionary ideas -- VAM, "merit pay," removal of tenure, etc. -- proffered by the misleadingly named "don't hold us back" coalition have ever been shown to improve student achievement. None. In fact I defy Yolie Flores and the other reactionary leaders of this anti-community and anti-labor coalition to produce one peer reviewed study from a legitimate academic source showing their AEI/Cato derived ideas work. Just one. And no, policy papers or preliminary reports from right wing thinks like the NCTQ, or the vile Gates Foundation itself are not considered peer reviewed studies."
Before we trash teachers' unions again, let's look at a few facts
- Manual Arts. A U.S history must travel from classroom to class room. He has classes of 40 to 42 students, making it impossible for him to give student the individual attention they deserve. In addition students at Manual Arts must race to class to get a seat. An art class has 50 students and no art supplies
- Venice High School. Lab science classes have 48 students in science labs designed only to accommodate 36 students, a direct violation of safety rules. There are 50 or more students in math classes, and 75 plus in PE.
- Taft Senior High School. Teachers have 38 to 43 students per class. It takes hours to grade a set of papers.
- Mulholland Middle School. No librarian. Class sizes are well over 30.
Counselors throughout LAUSD have student loads of 750 or more students. Teachers have overcrowded class with 40 or more students. Many school libraries are closed. Schools lack PSA Counselors and nurses.
Why did I get this information from United Teachers, published by UTLA? Why didn't I get it from L A Weekly?
Truth told: neither LA Weekly nor the new Progressive Coalition, Don't Hold Us Back cares about understaffed schools or over crowded classrooms? Like Jack Deasy, they blame all of LAUSD's problems on greedy union teachers unions, even though teachers have not received a raise in 4 years. In the meanwhile, a small army of so-called "progressive educational reformers" receive 6-digit salaries - sucking up money that needs to go into the classroom.
And incidentally, while L A Weekly claims that board members get campaign contributions from teachers' unions, they fail to mention that many board members get campaign contributions from the operators of charter schools.
For example, LAUSD President Monica Garcia even goes to receptions hosted by charter school operators which serve vintage wine and gourmet cheese.
Of course, charters don't face these problems, because they can limit their enrollments. They can send all the students they don't want to educate to public schools. Then they trash public schools for high drop-out rates. (Might a charter school's rejection rate and the waiting list count the same as a drop-out rate?)
Again, L A Weekly doesn't tell the whole truth. In fact they are far more concerned about marijuana than the next generation. The coalition Don't Hold Us Back is just interested in publicity.
The only people who care about students are teachers and UTLA.
You know what, you just proved that UTLA doesn't give a flip for teachers, much less students. If they did these situations would not be possible. They agreed to a CBA that allows LAUSD to be impervious to any accountability for its crimes . While innocent teachers lose their jobs, nepotists create crazy out of class room positions and administrators are promoted for having sex with students. Our schools are sanctuary tto many students or they were before Deasy issued an outragious directive to go after any teachers who might go 30 years and get lifetime healthcare. He essentially wants to steal our pensions, deprofessionalize us and Mr. Duffy did us dirty by having teachers march over a small concession in healthcare. At this point, I think teachers would be glad to pay that differential between the HMO and PPO . It's nothing compared to the sacraficed we have made since I didn't follow the lemmings that day because students are my priority and they shouldn't have to sit in the sun all day while teachers throw a tantrum.
Those shlumpy over-paid and unionized (!) teachers are all "out of shape." Real classy journalism. And a really dumb analysis of an infinitely more complicated issue.
You expected "analysis" from a trashy masseuse and porn ad pennysaver like the Weakly? Like Jill Stewart would put down Atlas Strugged long enough to hire journalists that could actually perform analysis outside of the simplistic Murdoch worldview.
What makes you think Stewart could read such complicated material? Doesn't she get her info anyway from a diode implanted in her neck?
Complicated? I've heard Rand's work described as convoluted or less than cogent, but never complicated. Considering you used the word in relation to Steward, your point is well taken, though.
"It's not that these groups have done a complete flip-flop. But they've begun to see merit in some arguments made by the reformers, who tend to be driven by pragmatics rather than ideology.
The organizations behind Don't Hold Us Back are hardly anti-union. They are all quick to point out that they don't see the teachers union as their enemy.
"This is not about what the union is doing wrong," says Angelica Solis, executive director of Alliance for a Better Community. "It's about the policies that are in place that are impeding our school district.""
Who do these nice reformers think is responsible for the policies? Who is marching to oppose any reforms? Who has made it impossible for a principle to be in charge of a school to turn it around? Who's put roadblocks to principles being able to monitor and assess teachers, to see who's a competent teacher, innovative and effective and who's not?
I'm glad Democrats and reformers are at this impasse. I'm even heartened, but I won't hold my breath. I will keep faith, and pray for all of us that you be bold, courageous, and remember this is about the children.
The only pragmatism the so-called reformers recognize is that the plutocratic 1% funding them to support fringe right wing ideas. The astroturf 501C3s comprising this cynical coalition are not only anti-union, but are anti-community, and anti-student.
Angelica Solis makes a six digit salary to advocate for policies that Annenberg, Broad, and Gates dictate to ABC, policies which have been proven to do irreparable harm to inner city communities.
It's imposible for a principal (the correct spelling, since I went to a public -- not charter school), to turn a school around? Really? Any actual case studies, or is that a teabagger style statement. What roadblocks exist for principals to monitor and asses their teachers? What is an innovative teacher, or did you just throw in a business buzzword since corporate reformers love such jargon?
About the children? Corporate school reform, as practiced by the vile "Don't Hold Us Back" coalition, is all about the money, especially in terms of grants for their astroturf 501C3s.
It is possible. When Gates broke our school up into Small Learning Communities,, our school was chosen to pilot the project. At this time we had a very capabE principal who was fair and very conscientious --he worked harder than anyone I have ever known. Mr. Summe was in before the sun rose and stayed long after it set. His sleeves rolled up, his clothes rumpled by lunch, he was busy evaluating teachers, busting young pot heads and facilitating the kind of Socratic discourse it takes to align the agenda to faculty. We were a very happy staff expat for the few who lacked this man's formidable work ethic. He was spent in a few years of this non stop effort, and the school went from PI to grant winning anomaly with teacher driven paradigms. The ideas behind the SLC were solid. Personalization, collaboration and deference to the educators and the unique needs of students really worked. The kids were inspired. So we're the most cynical teachers.When he left, I sensed Mr. Summe was never rewarded for his hard work, on the contrary. The incompetent bully who replaced him boldly took credit for his success then proceeded to undermine everything he did while abusing the grant money.a principal can make a difference, but if he does, he will be punished and sabotage will crudely implemented to thwart the success. Failure is where the money is. And teacher driven is the last thing Bill Gates wants now that he's figured
Sorry to hear your story.
You'd be hard pressed to find authentic education reformers that don't support SLCs. Gates stopped supporting it because he isn't interested in better pedagogy (if he even knows that word), better curriculum, and a more personalized learning environment, he dropped SLCs because they didn't improve his fetish with standardized tests.
He stopped funding SLCs, but he, like all the other 1% shoving corporate reforms down our throats, send his kids to a school with small learning communities. We have a ton of research that shows what works, but neither Gates nor his 501C3 proxy groups that make up the astroturf "don't hold us back" coalition care about authentic reform. They just want to educate inner city kids on the cheap and bust unions.
This out. He said SLCs failed, but there are hundreds of teachers in the hood who beg to differ. But hey, no one cares what we have to say. It's not like being in classrooms all day every day five days a week makes us or our students experts, just do me a favor and don't mistake me for UTLA. I am not the district nor am I the union. Neither speaks for me or most of my colleagues. They have their own agendas and contrary to the adveseral adlibbing they are symbiotic and successful because they feed on the dysfunction and chaos they have created .
Interesting...doesn't UTLA teachers designate some of their personal contribution to United Way?
Actually we should pay for a legal fund to protect ourselves from these white chalk criminals. The dues we pay should and can be directed to a legal fund that supports them in the event of an issue that includes disciplinary actions or accusations of harassment, defamation or intimidation on the part of administration. The public should be part of these trials so a jury would be called together for the objective hearings. It would keep everyone more honest and educate citizens about the complex operations within a public school.While I appreciate and effort to serve thee greater good, an organization like United Waymis dubious in my book since a very small fraction of the contributions are ever see the people they are designated to help. No offense, but I am tired of paying pencil pushing grifters to screw things up
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