Grassroots Education Movement
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An expendable library in Brooklyn
We were following this story last week about the unjustifiable conversion of great middle school library in Brooklyn into a room for planning, meetings and small classes. That’s because the three charter schools sharing the building with JHS 126 have the clout under BloomKlein’s charterization campaign to get what they want when they want it. … Continue reading
STD testing and the DoE
There’s an “education and testing” program for sexually transmitted diseases coming to 100 high schools citywide this year set up by the NYC Department of Health and the DoE. Apparently they hit 110 schools last year. High school teachers were told to distribute letters addressed to Parents and Guardians to their students. These letters contained … Continue reading
Vending junk food and sugar
Parents and teachers met with Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott this summer to ask that all junk food be removed from school vending machines. They report that effective October 1st, all vending machines were filled with baked products.” This is a victory, but in one sense only: Reason prevailed in this particular case. The people in … Continue reading
"DC is definitely a mess."
There was an article in the Washington Post yesterday about the more than 220 teachers who lost their jobs and the “abrupt loss” of 300 security guards whose company went out of business the night before. Protests resulted in skirmishes and arrests at more than one school. This is all happening under the chancellorship of … Continue reading
Two articles in the Daily News
Another article in the Daily News on what’s going on over at PS 15 with the PAVE charter school asking for an extension to share its space. Also today, Diane Ravitch on “The Charter School Problem: results are much less positive than a new study suggests”.
Investing in charter schools, or outright speculation?
An easy-to-read article by Daniel Wolff in Counterpunch starts off with a quote by the CEO of a real-estate trust who sunk many millions of dollars into charter schools: “We’re not speculators. We’re investors.” That’s frightening, particularly when you think that BushBama has been pushing the charter school agenda for a decade. What’s good about … Continue reading
Military recruitment, student privacy
How our country beefs up the military (in the past eight years through the Patriot Act of 2001 and its reauthorized version in 2006) figures strongly in a presentation to be given at the UFT headquarters on October 7th by two ICE members, Gloria Brandman and Lisa North, who also work with the Students or … Continue reading
Notice of hearing Wed., Sept. 23rd
Here’s the announcement of tomorrow’s governance hearing, which of course teachers can’t attend, at least for the first few hours of the meeting. I am curious about the amendments passed by the Senate (underlined sentences below), because they do not become law until both houses pass them and I haven’t heard whether the Assembly did … Continue reading
PS 15 and PAVE duke it out at the CEC hearing
UPDATE: The Daily News finally steps in to comment on Sept. 27th.I wonder if they’re reading the blogs. Important videos on the Sept. 17th CEC hearing in Red Hook over the continued occupation of public school space by the PAVE Academy Charter School. After a vigorous defense of the charter’s occupation of the building by … Continue reading
Bloomberg to lay off children services workers this month
A message from Faye Moore, President of AFSCME Local 371 — Childcare Services — which another aspect of the struggle to get children in this city the services they need. All teachers know that when I child is hungry, ill, abandoned, and abused, he can never reach his or her full potential in school, no … Continue reading
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