174 is the number of charter schools in the metropolitan are of Detroit today. We are talking about the epicenter of the economic crisis. Let's remember Detroit had a vision of the future and that vision was called the Ford Company. Today the Ford Company like many other industrial companies is investing in other countries to produce the same product for cheaper labor. What does this mean for the workers of Ford in Detroit? Lay offs of course, therefore, those people have to choose, either leave the city or try to make sense of it all and make a living. This is why having the social forum in Detroit was perfect! Detroit, the Motor City, was the city that grew along companies like Ford, yet it is also the one that has fallen the hardest, because of corporate globalization. continue...

- Report to the Trinational, in Montreal, May 6, 2010

Six days after he took office, 17 months ago in January, 2009, President Obama made his first public appearance as president when he visited the Capital City Charter School in Washington, DC. This was a deliberate and symbolic act. It launched an ever-escalating wild-ride towards the corporatizing and privatizing the system of public education in the United States.

The United States was the first country to guarantee free, universal public education. It is now moving rapidly to becoming the first country to end it. The well-orchestrated effort to turn over public schools to private corporations is a part of a much larger joint corporate-government campaign to privatize everything that is public in the United States. This process has escalated drastically since the US bank collapse in September of 2009, and the bank Bailout with $13 trillion of taxpayer money. continue...

Estimados Compañeros del CNTE:

Estamos mandado esta carta a ustedes para darles nuestra solidaridad y apoyo en su lucha en contra de los corruptos lideres del SNTE y del gobierno corrupto, represivo y entreguista de el Presidente Calderón.

Como maestros su lucha es nuestra lucha, lo acontecido el dia 24 de Mayo y la represión a su lucha y sus demandas es el ejemplo claro de la política de represión a las luchas por los derechos a la educación publica y gratuita en México. continue...

Snow on Mother\'s Day in Montreal hailed the end of the ninth Trinational Coalition for the Defense of Public Education Conference on May 9th, 2010. Despite the weather being unseasonably cold, the topics of fighting school privatization, education budget cuts, and strategies to save our public schools were hot topics addressed during the 3-day conference. A diverse gathering of over 200 professors, teachers, paraprofessionals, students, and union leaders represented colleagues from British Columbia, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Milwaukee, New York, Oakland, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Morelos, Ontario, Quebec, Guatemala, Grenada, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina and more. The event was co-organized by the Canadian Teachers unions in Quebec the CSQ (Centrale des sydicats du Quebec) and FNEEQ-CSN (Federation nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Quebec) with the support of CISO (Centre international de solidarite ouvriere). This year\'s theme was, "Towards Public and Democratic Education." continue...

Last week a humvee pulled into Santee's campus with pull up bars and free "gifts" in exchange for student's personal information. "Is this legal?" I was asked. According to LAUSD Policy Bulletin 2067.1, All military vehicles must receive clearance from the LAUSD Office of Risk Management. So, yes, unfortunately, it is legal. CAMS has reported military vehicles on campuses several times, with most not having received clearance from LAUSD. continue...

Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green speak out about the budget cuts affecting teachers and kids in California. continue...

On March 4th, thousands upon thousands of Americans gravitated towards each other to defend public education -- and no one group was in charge! Over 700 activist students, unions and individuals had gathered in Berkeley on October 24th to propose a March 4th day of Strike/Action to Defend Public Education. Soon schools and communities across California were joining this effort, or organizing events completely on their own. Sources like Reuters and the New York Times reported that actions took place in about 30 states, at major cities centers, high school walkouts, and campuses of the UC, Cal State and Community College systems. continue...

For several years, parents, teachers and students have been promised that their problems can be solved by turning over public school money to charter school companies like Green Dot, Kipp, etc. Here are some news articles showing how the truth is starting to come out.

One is about a student who earned the top grades at Accelerated School, but when she questioned problems there was told she could no longer speak at her graduation. The community organized protests, and just minutes before the graduation she was told she could speak. Another article is about the closure of Justice Animo charter, which got poor results and which needing more funding. Students held a sit-in, and teachers who had been promised input into decisions were not included in the decision to close. continue...

Parents and students would be well advised to consider some of the dangers and abuses that may come under a privatized school system. Public schools are subject to regulation by federal and state governments. The teachers go through stringent credentialing programs and have their backgrounds vetted by the FBI. You cannot be assured this from a private school. Private schools will make promises about their teachers' backgrounds and their teachers' qualifications, but without strong federal oversight there are no guarantees. The teacher could very well be a child predator being protected by powerful friends within company (think along the lines of the Catholic church child abuse scandals). When a school is a for-profit run business, lies and nepotism will rule when it leads to greater profits. continue...

Two members of Academic Professionals of California, five faculty from the California Faculty Association and a student from Dominguez Hills spoke to the CSU Board of Trustees on March 17th about the Early Start Remediation proposal. Their Statement is reproduced below, as are links to a recent article and short video on the subject. continue...

A spirited column of students, staff and faculty marched past UCLA's monument to greed and corruption on September 24, intent on changing the University of California. The campus Samueli Building is named after a convicted felon who founded the Broadcom Corporation. The march was part of a statewide one-day strike by UPTE, the Union of University Professional and Technical Employees, protesting wage cuts and student fee increases resulting from the crisis caused by people like Henry Samueli. At UC Berkeley, police estimated that 5,000 people attended the campus rally. They chanted their support of university faculty and staff, and that "Education should be free!" continue...

Obama's Back-to-School speech deserves commentary on many points. Here I am going to simply mention some telling assumptions that are laced through the presentation.

The President, of course, gets some points for talking about how students must accept responsibility for their own achievement. Though fundamental, this is hardly new. The elephant in the room is - achievement... for what? What is the real purpose of an education - a public education - in America 2009? continue...

Arne Duncan announces that Obama will make the first-ever speech of a President to k12 kids on Tuesday, September 8. We should mobilize and exploit every facet of this "teacheable moment" For every public school teacher who is tired of massive California cutbacks, for every education provider who is tired of Privatization, to every classroom teacher who recongnizes that our status, as En Loco Parentis, makes us obligated to speak out in the children's best interest; to all of you who are sick and tired of what passes for public education in Oakland,

This is your chance!

Let's take advantage of this event and let the truth ring out! Let us use this (dare I say?) Teacheable Moment to let parents, students and the whole Oakland community what is REALLY going on: downsizing counselors, eliminating librarians in Flatlands schools, fewer and fewer psychologists, humdrum drill-and-kill teaching to the test for bogus reasons, cutbacks everywhere, Apartheid schools in America.

Oh yes, we classroom teachers are the ones who really know. We must not remain silent!!

The Los Angeles County Office of Education
is proud to announce
President Obama's Back-to-School
Address to Students Across America
LIVE BROADCAST: Tuesday, September 8, 2009
10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
www.whitehouse.gov

With the adoption of the Public School Choice Motion by LAUSD last week, the door is open for "other internal and external stakeholders" to "create more schools of choice." This clearly opens the way for the Pentagon to set up military academies as they have in Chicago (along with other places around the country). A resolution will be introduced by those of us in CAMS to insure that there is public input into any military academies or new JROTC programs in LAUSD that are initiated. In Chicago these military programs were initiated without any parent, community and teacher input.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/fast-times-recruitment-high

Nearly 300 people from across the nation poured into the Friends Center in Chicago and Roosevelt University the weekend of July 17-19, 2009 for the National Network Opposing the Miltarism of Youth Counter-Recruitment and Demilitarization Conference. The faces represented what the counter recruitment movement is all about and how it has grown over the past years from a handful of established organizations to a vibrant grassroots movement with the intermixing of youth and adults. Representing organizations from approximately 35 states they included the very young (from 12 years of age) to the seasoned activists. The people themselves, including veterans, youth, educators, parents and community activists manifested the growing diversity that this movement has embraced. continue...

Felipe Calderón
June 13, 2009
President of the Republic of Mexico
felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx

President Calderón:

We, the members of the Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education – Los Angeles Section, are writing this letter in support of the teachers of Puebla, Mexico. We are making an urgent call to the governments of Mexico and of the state of Puebla to stop the brutal repression of the teachers immediately and to release all those people who have been disappeared or who have been jailed. We fully support the demands of the teachers of Puebla, specifically their demand to cancel the Alianza Por Calidad de la Educacion, and we demand that the state and federal governments recognize the democratic sections of 23 and 51 of the teachers’ union.

We urge you to put a stop to the corporate takeover of public education in Mexico. The right to a free quality education for all our children is under attack throughout the hemisphere. As with No Child Left Behind in the United States, the brunt of these programs comes down the hardest on the poorest and most discriminated against children. Teachers in the United States see the struggle against privatization of education in Mexico and here as one. Mexico being a sovereign and democratic country should be governed by its people and not by international corporations.

Sincerely,

For the Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education, Los Angeles Section
Los Angeles, California

On Thursday the 11th of June, 2009; Annandale Elementary was visited by L.A.U.S.D. Board Member, Yolie Flores. As expected Ms. Flores was not very welcomed by the school's staff and students. She was received by angry parents; who not only had signs and banners that showed their concerns, but also were very well prepared as they met with Ms. Flores in a small parent meeting. Some of the questions asked focused on concerns from how the stimulus money is being spent, to why is the District public channel KCLS untouchable.continue...

A strategy is uniting corporate and political elites: using budget shockwaves to bury public education under a landslide of privatization. But unions in K-12 and higher ed have reacted like shovelers standing back-to-back, each one blindly tossing dirt over their shoulder into the other’s hole, sinking ever deeper.

Let’s look at how this hurt them in California’s May 19 special election, and on the issue of charter schools. In the election, educators not only didn’t have a common plan, but actually worked against each other. While California Teachers Association (CTA) spent $9.2 million supporting Propositions 1A and 1B, the California Federation of Teachers CFT) spent $567,000 against 1A, and the California Faculty Association (CFA, the professors in the California State University system) spent $1.2 million against it. continue...

Hola Compañeros y compañeras.

El magisterio democrático de las secciones 23 y 51 del SNTE (Puebla), fue reprimido brutalmente por el gobierno estatal el 10 de junio del año en curso. Fueron desalojados de sus locales sindicales, hay 17 presos, un desaparecido y maestros heridos. Hoy habrá una manifestación en la ciudad de México para protestar por estos hechos.

A los detenidos el gobierno amenaza con acusarlos de despojo y motín por lo cual serían muchos años de cárcel. continue...

They protest with their bodies because they lack the economic power of the corporate elite who bled the economy dry, then demanded cuts to schools and services while grabbing billion dollar bailouts. Nor do they have the political power of elected officials who took millions from public schools, to fund the charter schools and excessive testing demanded by that same elite.

As America applauds the election of a Black president and Latino mayors, L.A.’s poorest communities face more layoffs than schools in wealthy areas. Black and brown children will suffer a worsening of their already unequal education. Teachers of all colors are going hungry to remind us how dangerous L.A. can be when its rulers are allowed to starve the young of equal education, and hope.

www.trinational-usa.org

Messages of support for the teachers can be sent to:
josexlara@yahoo.com

Read in Spanish

Dear Board Members Garcia, Flores-Aguilar, and Vladovic:

We write to you today to ask for your support. We have counted on it before and you have been there for us in the past. You have been there to push for A-G classes, small schools, decentralizing LAUSD, sending QEIA funds to schools with the greatest need. But now when the need is greatest, you have chosen not to fight for our children and instead you have given in to fear and hopelessness. continue...

Last Friday May 22, 2009 Santee high school students led a massive student protest and marched down to Beaudry. Picking up from the energy of the past student protest by CEJ, Santee students have taken to the streets twice in the past 7 days with protest growing larger in strength and intensity every time.continue...

Based on the article below and others (including the analysis by Víctor Raùl Martínez) it is evident that the new leadership of Secciòn 22 is putting more emphasis on extending and intensifying its position in society in general by means of interventions in aid of different struggles in different regions of the state,although they might be struggles not directly related with educational matters. another declaration Chepi, the new secretary general of the union, has affirmed that Section 22, with more than 70,000 members, has a presence in literally all the communities in the state. Therefore, if the teachers raise their social consciousness they can have a powerful effect in the life of the entire state. That is to say, the goal of the teachers should not be only to educate students in classrooms but to educate all of society. As a consequence of this broad definition of education, the teachers union can turn itself into the principal counterweight to the government which the union leadership considers illegitimate and repressive. continue in English...
Read in Spanish...

Dear Friends,

A year has passed since I decided not to give my students the WASL here in Seattle. I was thrilled and heartened by the dialog which ensued and by the outpouring of strength and support I received through hundreds of emails and phone calls. Though my school district suspended me for two weeks without pay I feel the results were well worth the consequences.

Today we have a new SPI in Olympia, Randy Dorn, who unseated the WASL Queen, Terry Bergeson, in November. He ran on a "no confidence in the WASL" platform, but the jury is still out on whether anything significant will actually change.continue...

South Central Los Angeles - Over 60 teachers at Santee Education Complex conducted a one (1) hour strike during the first hour of school on Friday March 27th, 2009. Chants of "Not to my school, not to my students" and "When they say cut back, we say fight back" filled the air. The teachers of Santee were mad but more importantly, the teachers at Santee were organized.

Although faced with the possibility of losing their jobs, the teachers conquered their fears and went on strike to defend the education of their students and to defend their dignity as teachers who deserve to remain in the classroom.

Over 55 teachers, or almost one third, of the teachers at Santee have received termination letters. Teachers participated in the one hour strike to make two important statements. First, to highlight the disproportionate number of teachers that are being cut in inner-city schools like Santee when compared to schools in more affluent parts of Los Angeles. Only 7 teachers at Cleveland High (in the valley) and only 13 West Hollywood High teachers received termination letters. Although we do know that not a single teacher should be fired at those schools, we know that schools like Santee are getting hit much harder. continue...