Warning: Be careful who you embed with

em·bed

əmˈbed/ verb 1. fix (an object) firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass.

No, my warning isn't directed at Charlie Sheen's "goddesses". Probably too late for them. It's also too late for GOP current poll leader Ben Carson whose ignorance on foreign policy just got exposed (as if we hadn't noticed) by his "close adviser" and professional embedded "journalist", Armstrong Williams.

So just consider this a warning to everyone who feels they may need it -- AFT, NEA leaders?

Armstrong Williams

For those too young (or too old) to remember, William's approach to journalism was to embed himself with the Bush administration and in particular with Bush's ed secretary, Rod Paige. In January 2005, USA Today reported that documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Williams had been paid $240,000 to promote No Child Left Behind. USA Today found that Williams was hired "to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same".

Now Armstrong has betrayed Carson. I guess Dr. C must not have left enough money on the nightstand.

Not to say that politics doesn't make strange bedfellows, or shouldn't. Just a reminder to use protection.

Case Studies... Billionaire Rauner is now the most hated governor in IL history. His budget terrorism and banning of Syrian refugees have been met with hostility and resistance across the state. But who will step up in this fight to save public education and salvage what's left of social support networks in the state? And what kind of deal will Sen. Cullerton and House Speaker Madigan try and cut?

I know CTU is watching to make sure we don't get sold out again on Cullerton's "compromise" SB318 like we did on the unconstitutional pension-theft bill.

Brother Fred says that the Supremes' latest oral arguments indicate that their next ruling will help insure us against another pension grab.

When the Court rules again in favor of our pension rights, as it is expected to do, it will now include what it did not have the opportunity to rule in SB1. They will not only protect us from the elected pension thieves in Springfield and City Hall. They will protect us from sell-out union leaders as well.

Ald. "Slow Eddie" Burke is still quick enough to know which way the wind is blowing on this one. He knows Rauner will take a beating on the refugee question, especially here in Chicago. For one thing, the governor doesn't have the authority to stop refugees from settling in Illinois. But he can push the legislature to cut funding for refugee aid.

So Burke is introducing a city council resolution reaffirming "Chicago’s historic role as a place of sanctuary and refuge". Co-sponsors are Marty Quinn (13th) and Progressive Caucus member, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th). Should pass easily.

Ald. Waguespack

From Natasha Korecki at Politico -- 9:30 a.m. Progressive Caucus presser at City Hall. From a release:

"Members of the Progressive Reform Caucus will join Access Living Chicago in support of a resolution calling for hearings regarding the impact of financial cuts to special education programs in Chicago Public Schools. To date, Chicago Public Schools has cut approximately $32 million dollars in special education programs, and the budget cut announcements are not over."

-- Expect Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) to introduce a resolution calling for public hearings on special education funding cuts. "This resolution asking for hearings by the Education Committee will provide CPS an opportunity to clear the air and tell the public exactly what the state of funding and support for special needs students is at this point in time and throughout the year," Waguespack said in a statement. "The system supporting special needs students needs to be fully funded and CPS has an obligation to fulfill that duty today."

In case you missed the interview with Kim Foxx, candidate for Cook County State's Attorney on Chicago Tonight. Watch it here.

Who will stand up for Public Education in this election?

Romney lands the first punch. Will Dems strike back? If not, who will?

In the run-up to the elections, neither candidate(s) has said much about education issues. As for party platforms, neither party has a real education plank. The Republicans have been playing only two notes -- bust the teacher unions and don't tax the rich. The Democrats have been playing none. They have been tight-roping between the teacher unions and the influential hedge-fund "reformers" like Democrats For Educational Reform (DFER) and have seemingly decided to play it safe and go without an education plank. Neither party dares to utter the words No Child Left Behind or Race To The Top which are both vote killers for any candidate.

But today it was a clever Mitt Romney who fired the first salvo across the bow of the reticent Dems. Speaking before a friendly crowd at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Romney co-opted much of the Democrats ed "reform" initiative, launched a broadside against the unions, etch-a-sketched on his former support for NCLB, and called for a national system of school vouchers for private schools.

"This president receives the lion's share of funding from organized labor, and the teachers' unions represent a massive source of funding for the Democratic Party," Romney said.    He continued, "If I'm president of the United States, instead of just giving lip service to improving our schools, I will actually put the kids first and the union behind in giving our kids better teachers, better options and better choices for a better future."

Romney's speech puts the ball squarely in Obama's court. In what appears to be an extremely close race, public school parents and three million union teachers, most of whom are Democratic voters,  could make the difference. But until now, the president's reform agenda, led by Ed Sec Arne Duncan, has been almost equally anti-teachers union and eerily similar to that of the neocons who preceded him. It's an agenda that so far has generated little if any enthusiasm among teachers and ed activists at the grass-roots level. And without that enthusiasm, a la 2008, it's doubtful Obama can win, or even if he does, carry congressional candidates with him.

Romney's open embrace of vouchers is a bone thrown to energize the far right wing of his party and would seemingly give Obama room to distinguish himself from Romney. The problem is, his DFER patrons have no problem with vouchers, and echo or even outdo Romney's anti-labor rhetoric. With the NEA and AFT vote already locked up, the Democrats have no need to take Romney on regarding collective bargaining rights or issues like test-based teacher evaluation, smaller class size, mass firings, or school closings. And on privatization issues, such as replacing charter schools with private ones, Obama and Duncan are marching in lock-step with the Republicans.

Romney also officially announced his appointment of his education team, led by former Bush Ed Secretary Rod Paige.  Paige, you may recall, distinguished himself by calling the teacher unions "terrorists" and calling for more Christian religious teaching, including the teaching of  "intelligent design"  in public schools. He also engineered the phony "Texas Miracle" while Superintendent of the Houstonools. Along with Paige, Romney's list of education advisers reads like a who's- who of Bush-era, corporate-style education reform and school re-segregation.

So the question is, where will the pressure from below come from to make public education issues front-burner? Save Our Schools (SOS), which organized last summer's march and rally of thousands of teachers, is trying to organize a national discussion and develop a national platform. With few resources and a late start,SOS  is trying to pull together a People's Platform Convention in D.C. in August with such notables as Jonathan Kozol, Deborah Meier, and Nancy Carlson-Paige heading the speakers list. If they can unite a critical mass around a policy platform, SOS activists and allies could then organize actions and occupations at the upcoming conventions and hopefully provide a voice for teachers and public school advocates.

But to do so successfully, the fledgling  organization will have to raise some big money fast. A presidential election year is the most difficult time to try to raise money. And it's a daunting task to pull together locally-based activists around such a national project.

You can register for the SOS Convention or make a contribution here.

Have you heard...?

1960 Woolworth sit-ins

...We're in the "post-racial" era

Except that in Kentucky, the Limbaugh Party just picked a T-Party senate candidate who would like to roll back the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yes, Rand (named after Ayn?) Paul thinks the law impinges on the freedom of businesses to refuse service to African-Americans, gays, disabled, if they so choose. Paul is also (no coincidence) a big voucher/charter proponent. He obviously feels that through privatization, schools will no longer have to admit ELL and special-needs students, if they so choose.

Already being done, Rand.Thanks anyway.

Then there's my new favorite wingy think-tanker, AEI flack Rick Hess, leaping to defend Supt. Horne's ban on ethnic studies in Arizona. Hess, it seems, favors and enforcement of  white "unum" in the curriculum. Hess has now earned his own SmallTalk tag (below) along with Finn, Petrilli and a tiny handful of other wing-nut ed experts. But I still can't understand how this paid flack for AEI gets his own blog at Edweek.

Both Hess & Horne should make common bond and unum with the Texas school board as they move to rewrite the state's curriculum standards to (among other things) replace mentions of "slavery" with the words, "triangle trade."

Ironically it's former Bush Sec. of Ed and Houston Supt. Rod Paige, of Texas miracle fame, who is now quoted as being critical of the board's rewrite. I say, ironically, because it was Paige who paved the way for all this, when as the nation's schools chief, he tried to force his own Christian fundamentalist religious beliefs on the nation's schools.