It's come to this...

Beggar schools
Chicago school children may be able to wipe themselves at school again, thanks to toilet paper donations from Proctor and Gamble. Rahm's budget cuts have left many schools going without. Parents' thanks go out to Ald. Nick Sposato who organized the TP drive after CPS cut about $3 million from budgets for six schools in his ward. The Daily Caller reports that schools in Venezuela are also facing a TP shortage.

Cruz, T-Party victory
800,000 govt. workers go without pay. Food programs for poor kids threatened. Student loans in trouble. But drones keep flying. NSA keeps spying. Deportations continue.

Testing Madness
Good guest post in Monday's Seattle Times by Trish Millines Dziko, "The endless rounds of standardized testing for Washington students". (h/t Paul T.)

With all those standard and assessment changes, new curriculum gets developed, teachers get retrained, new teacher-evaluation systems are proposed and new digital tools are developed. Before you know it, a whole cottage industry emerges.

Loot, Pillage & Burn 

Don't miss Matt Taibbi's new Rolling Stone feature: "Looting Public Pensions: A New Think-Tank Study" .

Today, the same Wall Street crowd that caused the crash is not merely rolling in money again but aggressively counterattacking on the public-relations front. The battle increasingly centers around public funds like state and municipal pensions. This war isn't just about money. Crucially, in ways invisible to most Americans, it's also about blame. In state after state, politicians are following the Rhode Island playbook, using scare tactics and lavishly funded PR campaigns to cast teachers, firefighters and cops – not bankers – as the budget-devouring boogeymen responsible for the mounting fiscal problems of America's states and cities.

Brit teachers walk
Thousands of teachers are taking part in a one-day strike in a row over pay, pensions and working conditions. The industrial action – the latest in a wave of regional strikes – has been organised by two of England's biggest teaching unions, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the NASUWT. -- The Guardian

Don't miss

Lessons from the 1963 Boycott:

The Struggle for Quality Education in Chicago Then and Now

Tuesday, October 22, 6-8p.m., Free, open to the public

The DuSable Musuem of African American History- 740 East 56th Place

Register at 63boycott.eventbrite.com