'Let's finish the job'

From Will Guzzzardi

Mike --Two years ago today, we came within 125 votes of doing what no one thought was possible. When I decided to challenge one of the most powerful political families in Illinois, I knew it wouldn't be easy. But what I didn't know was just how many people across the district -- parents, teachers, progressive leaders, young and old -- would come together to support this campaign.

Looking back on it, the reason that's happened is simple: this community is ready for change. Our neighbors deserve better than leaders who put political allies ahead of the people who elected them. And our families deserve better than the distasteful smear tactics that have been filling all our mailboxes for more than a month now. Today, we have an opportunity to prove that a better kind of politics is possible. Let's go finish the job.

Thank you so much.-Will

New Orleans teacher/blogger Mercedes Schneider opens up a can of whoopass on Bill Gates. Can she do that? Doesn't she know who he is -- the world's richest?

It seems that Gates has once again bought himself an audience; he offered his CCSS-indulging speech to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) at its Teaching and Learning conference. Why is Gates, a non-teacher, offering his non-expertise to an audience of nationally-certified teachers? Consolation prize for millions donated.

Hell yes, she can. If you don't know Mercedes, you should. Check her out at deutsch29.

More proof that privately-run charters are not really public schools.
Last Thursday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin ruled, in a suit filed by number-one charter hustler Eva Moskowitz, that state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli cannot audit New York charter schools because the schools are not technically “units of the state.”