WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Loyola Prof. Charles Tocci

To push our schools to even greater levels of sustainable success with long term stability, we must deepen democracy and grow public participation in the district. -- Medium

Lauren Peace

When [West Va teachers] get back into their classrooms, hopefully sooner rather than later, they must talk to their students about how, under intense pressure, and with little more than the support they found in each other, they fought for what was right, and they were heard. -- New York Times Op-ed.

Dan Mihalopoulos

“Judging by the numbers, Illinois may be closer than any other state to becoming a plutocracy — government by the wealthy." -- Sun-Times  

Marie Newman, IL congressional candidate

A good guy with a gun against a bad guy with a gun never works. That's been statistically proven. So we don't even have to have that discussion because it's nonsense. -- Guest spot on Hitting Left 

  Donald Trump [Oink alert]

But [Sen. Elizabeth Warren] said that Rex Tillerson and I should sit down with the leaders of Iran and North Korea and smoke a peace pipe. ... I didn’t like that Pocahontas. -- Gridiron Club dinner

LABOR DAY WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Kim Mead, president of the Washington Education Association 

"Instead of diverting taxpayer dollars to unaccountable charter schools, it’s time for the Legislature to fully fund K-12 public schools so that all of Washington’s children get the quality education the Constitution guarantees them." -- WA Supreme Court rules charters unconstitutional

Valerie Strauss

 Thus, while claiming to be “public,” and while having some elements that are public (most importantly, public funding for a no-tuition education), their operations are basically private. -- Washington Post

Jitu Brown on meeting with Arne Duncan

"He was sympathetic. He said that he would talk to the mayor. I think it was interesting because...in 2008 Dyett had the largest increase of students going to college in all of Chicago Public Schools. And Arne Duncan and Mayor Daley did a big press conference at Dyett and he stood right next to me and asked me, "How did you all do this?" -- Melissa Harris-Perry interview on MSNBC

Jeannie Oakes

Jeannie Oakes, AERA president

I have reviewed the plan in light of my decades of experience as an educational researcher by training and profession. As a UCLA professor, I have spent years studying efforts to create high quality and equitable schools for young people living in communities like Dyett's -- communities of concentrated poverty and racial isolation. I currently serve as president of the American Educational Research Association, an organization of more than 25,000 educational researchers. Based on my experience and educational expertise, I find the coalition's plan to be outstanding. -- Answer Sheet 

"In essence,CPS killed a school that was on the rise." Jitu Brown on #FightForDyett on the @MHPshow today: http://t.co/e1SmTYgdj0 #Phled too

— Caucus of Working Ed (@CaucusofWE) September 5, 2015

CESJ STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY

We, the Executive Board (Rita Kohli, Alyssa Hadley Dunn, Keisha Green, La Mont Terry, Katy Swalwell, Bianca J. Baldridge, Nicholas Daniel Hartlep, Cleveland Hayes) of the Critical Educators for Social Justice (CESJ) special interest group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), stand in solidarity with communities working to challenge racism.

Based on recent grand jury decisions not to indict the officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and as educators committed to equity and justice, we feel a responsibility to take a formal stance against the anti-blackness that plagues our schools, justice system, and society. The events in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York provide two examples of blatant racial injustice woven into the fabric of the United States. Even since the killing of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014, we have seen multiple cases of unarmed Black youth shot and killed by the police, including twelve-year-old Tamir Rice.

Our SIG has, at its heart and in our mission, a commitment to “the struggle for social justice, human rights, and democracy in education for diverse communities.” This includes a challenge to the ongoing and systemic racial oppression that we see in Ferguson and beyond. As critical education scholars, we must recognize the socializing message of this callous disregard of Black lives. We have a responsibility to reframe the discussion and illuminate that ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter. We cannot afford to stay silent.

Please see our full statement (linked below and here:http://bit.ly/1u57w8l) and share with your communities. You will see that we have committed to a dialogue about #BlackLivesMatter and its implications for the academy at AERA's annual meeting in Chicago in April 2015.
bit.ly/1u57w8l

AERA Boycotts Arizona

The 25,000-member American Educational Research Assoc. has joined the growing list of organizations vowing to boycott Arizona in protest of its new immigration law.

"As education researchers, we need to be concerned about the effects this new law may have on fostering an environment of fear with consequences for students' learning, educational achievement, and attachment to and belief in the social institutions of society," said Kris Gutierrez, the group's president-elect and a researcher from the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Debra Viadero, Edweek)

"Fascists"

I've read Fred Hess' report from AERA twice and still can't figure out who he's calling, "fascists in flip-flops." Can you? The researcher from the far-right American Enterprise Institute is upset because AERA's  membership appears to be so "one-sided" in their opposition to Arizona's law.

Ella Baker Award

I didn't go to AERA this year, but I'm told, one of the highlights of the Denver meeting was the presentation of the Ella Baker Award to Grace Lee Boggs. Presenters included Vincent Harding, Barbara Ransby and Charlie Cobb.