Great way to spend the morning

"This is what democracy looks like!"  (M. Klonsky pic)

I got to march this morning, with thousands of Chicago teachers and supporters who surrounded CPS headquarters to protest the mayor's latest assaults on their collective bargaining rights. Chanting, "Shame on the Board!" "Save our schools!" and "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" the marchers proceeded to the Bank of America and other downtown corporate offices, chanting and making a loud, but beautifully harmonious noise. Dozens of cars honked their support.

The mayor's hand-picked school board meets this afternoon to put their rubber stamp on his reneging on the pay raise teachers supposedly won in the last contract negotiations and there should be plenty of noise in the conference room as well.

V.P. Sharkey  (M. Klonsky pic)

CTU Vice-President Jesse Sharkey (left) standing atop a mailbox, addressed the crowd through a bullhorn, and made clear what the stakes are in this battle and how powerful the forces of big corporate money are that are arrayed against the union.  He called on teachers to stick together and "act like a labor movement."

"I can't guarantee victory," he to the cheering teachers. "But I can promise that we can't win if we don't fight."

At Netroots Nation

Frustration with the administration

That's what I found at the Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis last week. Lots of mostly-young, progressive, media-savvy activists, union members, staffers and educators, pissed off and frustrated at the administration's perceived abandonment of their issues and values since 2008.

I almost felt pity for White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, whose speed rapped, scripted responses to tough questions from Kaili Joy Gray of the Daily Kos and from the audience, were often met with laughter and derision from hundreds of members of the Democratic base in attendance.

But Obama's advisers hope that between now and November 2012 the president can persuade this critical part of his base to turn out in droves again, and the wooing by aides was well under way Friday. "I promise he is as frustrated as you are," Pfeiffer told about 2,400 bloggers and activists attending the annual Netroots Nation conference. He assured them they were "a very important part of the coalition that got him here." -- CBS News

Of course, the overwhelming majority (80% to be exact) of the attendees still voice support for Obama. But the question is, how deep and how active that support will be by election time. 

At an education panel, NEA V.P. and former Utah teacher of the year, Lily Eskelsen told a crowd of progressive educators and activists:

"We have to hold this administration accountable, but we will get a choice between President Obama and our worst nightmare."  

But what she didn't explain was how the NEA leadership's endorsement of Obama, nearly 2 years out, without asking for or getting any commitments in return, is holding them accountable/ (See Lily's Netroots interview with Tom Hartman at http://lilysblackboard.org/). Other excellent ed panelists included: Jeff Bryant, Sabrina Stevens Shupe, Kevin Welner, and Rep. Judy Chu. Sabrina gave a great pitch for the upcoming Save Our Schools March, July 30th in D.C.

Jane Hamsher, blogging at Firedoglake, summed it up pretty well this way:

"If you had told me a year ago that a panel entitled “What to do when the President’s just not that into you” would be a love fest, and White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer would be greeted by booing and hissing, I would have said it was time to put down the crack pipe. But that is pretty much what happened."

Side story: I had to leave Netroots Friday afternoon and head back to Chicago. Sadly, I missed the whole scene with right-wing oinker Andrew Breitbart and his body guard fleeing to the elevator, being pursued  by aggressive bloggers who caught him trying to sneak in without paying.

It is 'her business,' Gov. Christie

Watch Gov. Christie snort at public school mom who asks why he's cutting public school funding, "It's none of your business." He pretends she asked him where he sends his kid to school. She didn't. Christie is a bully and a demagogue.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Teacher Anthony Cody

Teachers and parents feel abandoned - even betrayed - by this administration. We were there for you in 2008, President Obama. Where are you now when we need you? -- The Answer Sheet

Montgomery County Supt. Jerry Weast

Unfortunately, federal dollars from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program are not going where Dr. Weast and the PAR program need to go. Montgomery County schools were entitled to $12 million from Race to the Top, but Dr. Weast said he would not take the money because the grant required districts to include students’ state test results as a measure of teacher quality.

“We don’t believe the tests are reliable,” he said. “You don’t want to turn your system into a test factory.”-- New York Times

Does class size matter?

"If education is to matter in substantive ways, then great conditions, including a reasonable class size, need to be in place to make school a place where great teachers and students want to be". -- Peter Smagorinsky, University of Georgia @AJC.com

How Rahm sizes up the CTU

"The Emanuel camp’s calculation is that various realities make a walkout unlikely. Those include deficits, the system’s sub-par image, the bargaining ramifications of a new state education law, and how a majority of teachers will get increases, distinct from the 4 percent now in jeopardy, based on years of service or added educational attainment... The competence of the moribund union’s past leadership rivaled Italy’s, and the new union chief, Karen Lewis, must somehow galvanize members over an issue, perhaps preserving their pensions." -- James Warren, CNC

Teacher bashing 'reform' has left Central Falls High School in chaos

Superindent Gallo blames teachers for her mess

Central Halls High School is Rhode Island was the opening salvo in corporate reformers' current war on public schools and on teachers. The mass firing of teachers and service staff was hailed as "courageous" by Obama/Duncan. The school and the city (the smallest and most economicaly depressed in R.I.) was thrown into chaos.

Looking back a year later, NPR reports:

The debacle at Central Falls High has gotten national attention because President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have publicly sided with administrators arguing that teachers must be held accountable for students' dismal test scores. Last year, only 7 percent of students tested at grade level in math, 24 percent in reading. This year's test results could be worse. Why? "Because of our low expectations in the classroom — meaning teachers,"  says Supt. Gallo, the administrator who carried out the firings.

Central Falls High has become a cautionary tale about the complexities of school reform and whether the federal government should be dictating what those reforms should be.

Rahm does his best Ronald Reagan

"Not to quote Ronald Reagan, but I will: 'The facts are a stubborn thing,' " Emanuel said.

If there was any doubt that the mayor is itching for a union-busting showdown with Chicago teachers, he's made it perfectly clear by invoking an old hero -- Ronald Reagan. Emanuel's corporate handlers over at the Civic Committee have assured him that blaming rich, greedy teachers for the budget crisis and going after teachers pay, tenure, and pensions is a political winner.
 
They even had him quoting Reagan yesterday, conjuring up images of the great communicator busting the PATCO strike in 1981 and firing over 11,000 workers to the cheers of strike-weary air travelers. But this may have been a mistake at a time when Democrats need to stem the rise in joblessness.
 
Rahm and the corporate school reformers see the current crisis as their big chance to do nothing less than bust the teachers union the same way that Reagan busted PATCO. Only this time they are counting on the acquiescence of the union leadership to avoid another Wisconsin-type battle. Fresh off their victory with the passage of SB7, the reformers got the school board to block Chicago teachers' scheduled 4% pay raise.
 
Demagogue Rahm defended the salary cut, claiming "that three out of four Chicago Public Schools teachers will get other types of raises even without the 4 percent increase." So much for facts being stubborn. The point here wasn't that Rahm wanted to save the budget-conscious school board some money. Rather, he wanted to nullify the whole collective bargaining process which produced the raise. In essence, Rahm and the reformers are pursuing the same strategy as the Tea Party govs in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Michigan. The only difference is in tactics. They want to do it to the workers. Rahm wants to do it to the workers, with their collaboration.  
 
But they may have overplayed their hand this time. This isn't 1981. Now they've pushed the CTU leadership's backs to the wall. This is a leadership that won the last union election by promising to lead a fight- back while attacking the conciliatory approach of the old union leadership. Now they have to stand up and fight or lose credibility. It's not just the promised pay raise but for the very future of their union that's at stake. 
  
 Greg Hinz at Crain's Chicago Business writes:

 "Mayor Rahm Emanuel clearly threw down the gauntlet today, as his new Board of Education unanimously voted not to pay scheduled 4% raises for members of the Chicago Teachers Union. Now the question is, what will the CTU do about it? Union chief Karen Lewis has used lots of angry rhetoric lately, but she has only a few days to make a really heavy decision: Whether to accept the cut or use it as a legal device to reopen negotiations on the now somewhat obsolete contract with Chicago Public Schools."

Even though SB7 has weakened the union's ability to organize a strike by requiring 75% of union members to vote for one as well as requiring a long mediation period, this all could still work in teachers' favor by allowing the union time to organize. It could also help build support from other public employee unions, like the cops' and fire fighters'.  It sounds like Karen Lewis and her troops have decided to go beyond the rhetoric. She went on TV last night and warned:

“We could easily strike because of this.” The teachers union president correctly blamed the school board for a possible strike by teachers stating “we are still shocked that the board would take an action that could possibly lead to a strike…” 

Even the threat of a strike, blue flu, and job actions by public employees as we head towards the 2012 elections, could well wipe that shit-eating grin off of the mayor's face.   

Reich -- The war on workers' rights

Sec. of Labor during the Clinton administration, Robert Reich, tells why the current war on workers' rights has undermined the American economy:

For three decades after World War II – I call it the “Great Prosperity” – wages rose in tandem with productivity. Americans shared the gains of growth, and had enough money to buy what they produced. That’s largely due to the role of labor unions. In 1955, over a third of American workers in the private sector were unionized. Today, fewer than 7 percent are.

With the decline of unions came the stagnation of American wages. More and more of the total income and wealth of America has gone to the very top. Middle-class purchasing power depended on mothers going into paid work, everyone working longer hours, and, finally, the middle class going deep into debt, using their homes as collateral.

But now all these coping mechanisms are exhausted — and we’re living with the consequence.

Momentum Builds For SOS March and Rally in D.C.

Today's Edweek has a major article by Erik Robelen describing the momentum building for the July 30th Save Our Schools march in

D.C.Organizers say the effort aims to galvanize and give voice to those who believe policymakers, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and state governors, have gone astray in their remedies for improving American schools
 ________________________________________

Sabrina Stevens Shupe, in downtown Denver, says she's alarmed to see how testing-based accountability continues to increase. "We were very excited that, 'Oh, we're going to get Obama in office,' ...and we get this bait and switch with Arne Duncan and Race to the Top," says Shupe, a Save Our Schools organizer and former Denver teacher.  — Nathan W. Armes for Education Week

_________________________________________

A two-day conference is scheduled before the march and a “congress” the day after to discuss next steps. Among the organizations to endorse the Save Our Schools march are: the International Reading Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Council of Teachers of English, the nonprofit group Parents Across America, and the Virginia School Boards Association. Also, more than 30 state and local teachers’ unions, plus the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, have signaled their support.

Organizers of the Save Our Schools march say they expect 5,000 to 10,000 people to attend the Washington gathering on July 30. Nancy Flanagan, the Michigan teacher of the year in 1993, said the size of the rally isn’t the point. “The point is to start momentum toward a sea change, to bring together—physically and virtually—a network of people who want change,” she said. Social media have been key drivers of the march, with organizers using blogs, an SOS Facebook page, and Twitter to promote it.

Union contract up for grabs as CPS board meets today

Protest rocks Chicago CFO Summit

In, the wake of yesterday's protests, the seven-member Chicago school board, hand-picked by the mayor, will meet for the first time today and  decide whether to rescind a 4 percent pay raise for teachers which was agreed on in the contract that expires next year. 18 different unions and groups including the Chicago Teachers Union, the SEIU, and a group called Stand Up Chicago helped organize the demonstration.

"The CFOs up in the building right now having a conference, collectively their companies made over $200 billion in profits last year," said demonstrator Casey Murphy. "Executive compensation and bonuses over a billion, and in the meantime it's almost 10 percent unemployment in this country." 

Participants say the corporations attending the event have taken money from chicago's working families -- homes and schools.

"We're just saying that we need to put real priorities into place. It should be our kids before the bankers and everybody else," said Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. -- ABC News

Pam Coleman, a teacher at Solomon School on the Northwest Side, said attempts to deny the raise are a way to force other changes.

"I think they're using the 4 percent as a way to break the contract. Once they open the contract, all the other things will be open to discussion," such as moving to extend the school day as early as this fall, she said Tuesday at a union protest against corporations that, union members say, have gotten tax breaks and bailouts on the backs of public education. -- Tribune

SB-7 signed into law by Gov. Quinn

Clears the way for assault on Chicago's teachers

“This is not a bill to attack the teachers,” said state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, who sponsored the bill.

Illinois Gov. Quinn has signed into law SB7, which severely weakens the power of the state's teachers and their unions to bargain collectively. What makes SB7 different from legislation pushed by Tea Party govs and passed in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan, is that the Illinois bill, now law, isn't as draconian. Public employees unions haven't been outlawed completely. Perhaps a more important difference is that the bill was passed with support from the state's three largest teachers unions, pretty much nullifying any opposition from the rank-and-file, wavering politicians, community activists or from other unions.

This "collaboration" is being hailed by corporate reformers and by some union leaders as a model for the rest of the nation and as a better alternative to the "chaos" and open class warfare in Wisconsin. We shall see whether or not that's true or whether it just makes that warfare more one-sided.

One thing you can count on though, is that the current assault on public schools,  teachers and other public employees will continue as the state's corporate interests use pocket politicians to increase profits and their power position vis-a-vis the unions. For IL teachers, it will still be possible, though more difficult to resist the next attempt at a  pension grab coming up in the fall veto session.

Chicago teachers will now have to face a push by corporate reformers and the mayor to have fewer teachers teaching larger classes, with less job protection, working longer hours and more days for less pay, in the upcoming contract negotiations. The new law makes teacher tenure and layoffs contingent on student achievement based even more narrowly on standardized test scores and makes it easier to dismiss veteran teachers without due process.

With Rahm Emanuel now running the city's schools, we can expect to see a continuation of the disastrous Renaissance 2010 strategy of closing neighborhood schools and replacing them with privately-managed charter schools and replacing union teachers with lower-paid, non-union temps. Even new schools CEO J.C. Brizard admits to Ren10's "collateral damage" as being the "creation of two different [and unequal] school systems."

If there's to be a push-back from the CTU on any of this (including the take-away of the 4% pay raise won in the last contract negotiations), they will have to make it with one hand tied behind their back because of the SB7 bill that they themselves supported.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Duncan Rules

Ed sec. Arne Duncan says he will use his executive authority to impose rules on schools and districts if congress doesn't reauthorize NCLB by the fall.

“We’re not going to sit here and do nothing. Our first priority is to have Congress rewrite the law. If that doesn’t get done, we have the obligation to provide relief in exchange for reform.” ”-- NYTza

Cleaning up Daley's reform mess

New Chicago schools CEO Jean Claude Brizard says he's busy cleaning up the “collateral damage” of past reforms.  

“I think the New Schools work so far has been good, but what it’s done, from what I’ve seen so far, is it’s created two different school systems,” he said. “That’s what I meant by collateral damage.” -- NYT

Don Washington

Many of us feel the President Obama has let us down and that the political system has failed us all. The truth is that this is always the way it's been. As my grandfather said: "Democracy is the battle that never ends, you are fighting for something or losing everything... We are the children of faith and social justice and history tells us that together we are an unstoppable coalition and a reflection of the very best virtues and values of our country. We will one day come together to compel this President or the next to pursue social justice and protect ordinary people from the powerful and selfish. -- Mayoral Tutorial 

 Marc Tucker's report nixes current reform agenda

'It turns out that neither the researchers whose work is reported on in this paper nor the analysts of the OECD PISA data have found any evidence that any country that leads the world’s education performance league tables has gotten there by implementing any of the major agenda items that dominate the education reform agenda in the United States.' -- Report: Standing on the shoulders of giants

Two looks at the Marshall High "turnaround"

Marshall teacher Anthony Skokna, fired for being a veteran teacher who earned too much.

The first is from Ben Joravsky at the Reader:

It's curious, this double standard we have when it comes to cracking down on low-scoring schools. The man in charge of the system retires with, among other things, a well-paid, do-little position at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Meanwhile, the teacher on the front line winds up on the dole...

The second is from Matt Farmer at Huffinton:

 Huberman gutted Marshall last year as part of another high-stakes CPS "turnaround." After firing the old guard, CPS officials hand-picked the school's new faculty to ensure that this "turnaround" will be more successful than Arne Duncan's "transformation" of Marshall back in 2007-08. And although this "turnaround" faculty has yet to complete its first year, it already appears there will be more blood-letting at the school in the days ahead...

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH STATEMENT ON UNION RIGHTS

One of the many reasons I am marching along with thousands of others in D.C. on July 30th is in defense of union rights for teachers and other public workers.  Here is the SOS position on Unions and Collective Bargaining printed in full: 

Unions and Collective Bargaining 

Unions of all kinds are currently under political attack. Public employee unions are especially under fire, as we have seen in Wisconsin and now in other states. As members of public employee unions, teachers are particularly aware of the risks inherent in allowing such attacks to go unchallenged.

Those of us involved in organizing the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action recognize the importance of the right to unionize for all employees. States which have unionized work forces have higher standards of living, and higher performance on various academic measures. Indeed, the nation with the most consistent performance on international comparisons of student performance, Finland, has a teacher corps that is almost completely unionized. 

But this is not just about teachers. It is about police, firefighters and nurses. It is about all workers who wish to organize and collectively bargain on productive working conditions, safety and compensation including benefits.

This is not just about adults, either. Poverty is one of the major factors undermining student achievement in America. By empowering employees to improve their working conditions and pay, collective bargaining rights help to stabilize and strengthen families and communities. That, in turn, boosts the social and financial support available to students and schools. The interests of schools, students, teachers, families, and communities are all connected. Attempts to reform schools without simultaneously strengthening communities have a long history of failure– a history that we need to reverse. 

For these reasons, we fully support the right of all workers to participate in unions, and for unions to have the right to organize and to represent their membership, including through collective bargaining.

Click here to view a list of unions that have endorsed our effort. We hope also to gain the support of unions outside of education.

See you all in D.C. I hope

What's happening with Rahm's year-round school plan?

Jennifer Johnson, a teacher at Lincoln Park High School, administered final exams in a classroom where temperatures reached the mid-nineties on Wednesday, June 8, 2011. | Richard A. Chapman~Sun-Times

Hey Mr. Mayor. What happened to all that talk about year-round schooling? Remember, during the campaign. You were saying how students in Houston were getting 3 more years of classroom seat time than kids in Chicago. Well this week in Chicago (don't know about Houston) the temperature in those old buildings with no A/C shot up to over 98 degrees in some classrooms

Thousands of kids were sent home early to avoid a crisis. Little or no teaching/learning takes place under those condition -- in Houston or any place else. 

For those CPS high schools giving finals this week, the timing of the heat wave was particularly difficult. “It was horrible,’’ said Lincoln Park High junior Rachel Jones of Wednesday’s heat. “I had to leave class five times. ... Finals were really, really hard. All I could think about was how hot it was.’’ -- Sun-Times

Anyway, just wondering where you were and what you were doing. I didn't see you or J.C. Brizard inside any schools. Maybe you were hanging out in some air conditioned principal's office.  BTW, exactly how much are you paying this guy?

Interesting days indeed

Diane Ravitch calls them "an interesting few days." Indeed they were. They began on the last day of May with her NYT op-ed piece which nailed the corporate school reformers for their politically-driven, data-fudging "turnaround" myth-making.

Then came the pitiful response from Arne Duncan via embedded Bloomberg journalist Jonathan Alter, which basically amounted to a paragraph or two of personal invective aimed at Diane.

 "She’s the education world’s very own Whittaker Chambers, the famous communist turned strident anti-communist of the 1940s."

 "Diane Ravitch is in denial and she is insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving her wrong every day." (Fawning Alter quoting "mild-mannered" education secretary Duncan).

And my favorite: "She now uses phony empiricism."  

 This, the day after she  received the Daniel Patrick Moynihan award from the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences for promoting "the use of informed judgment to advance the public good" through "sound analysis and social science research in policy-making, while contributing to the civility of public discourse and pursuing a bipartisan approach to society's most pressing problems."

Ravitch and Alter then had a debate of sorts on David Sirota's Denver radio show. I say "of sorts" because Diane was like the veteran educator confronting an embarrassed school kid who hadn't done his homework. Progressive moderator Sirota had a tough time restraining himself from joining in on Alter's spanking.

Actually Alter has done a service, not only to Duncan (whose communications team obviously feeds Alter his lines) and to corporate reformers (Bloomberg), but to us as well. As Anthony Cody put it, in his Edweek blog, Alter "kicked the hornets' nest."

******

To top things off, Duncan had to pull his over-sized yet overworked PR team at the DOE off of the Ravitch case to do damage control on the Stockton raid story.  I'd like to think I had a little something to do with that after spending my morning yesterday tracking down why NBC News10 pulled its interview with Kenneth Wright. Wright became the victim after Arne's DOE army, assault weapons in hand, and armed also with a DOE search warrant, broke down Wright's door at 6 a.m. and terrorized Wright and his small children for hours. No sooner had I posted the story than the station pulled it (under pressure from the feds???). After my phone calls to the station, I received this missive from News10's Roy Kennedy:

Michael, 

First of all, thanks for contacting us.  The interview with Mr. Wright will be posted soon.  The original package had some old information that needs to be updated.  In the meantime his interview will be put up on the site in the next hour or so. Call or email me if you have questions.

Roy Kennedy News10

If you've followed the story, you know that the original Wright video interview promised by Kennedy was never posted again. But a new video clip (above) does have excerpts from it.  In the meantime, the story changed from the raid supposedly targeting a student loan defaulter (Wright's estranged wife) to:

In a statement to FoxNews.com, Education Department Press Secretary Justin Hamilton confirmed that its Office of Inspector General executed the warrant with the presence of local law enforcement authorities.

"While it was reported in local media that the search was related to a defaulted student loan, that is incorrect," the statement read. "This is related to a criminal investigation. The Inspector General's Office does not execute search warrants for late loan payments."

Now that's what I call damage control. Duncan's OIG troopers bust down the door of a black family at dawn in Stockton. They throw the father down on the ground, hand-cuffed in front of his children. Lock him in a squad car for six hours in miserable heat. Wreck his house searching for who knows what. Then release him without charges and press the local NBC affiliate to change their story and make the video interview with him go away.

Yes, interesting few days indeed.

Maddow's follow-up on the killing of Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Arne's army kicking in doors of parents to collect on student loans

Back in March of 2010, I responded to a WaPo story about Duncan's DOE purchase  of 27 new military-order, Remington Model, 870 police 12/14P Mod GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - Parkerized choke: modified sights: Ghost ring rear, WILSON COMBAT shotguns.

I mistakenly assumed the Duncan's militia was about to invade Rhode Island to enforce the mass firings of teachers at Central Falls High School. I was wrong. Duncan's troops (I can only assume, with new assault rifles in hand) instead invaded the Stockton, CA home of Kenneth Wright at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.




According to ABC News10 in Stockton:

Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts as the officers team barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn. "He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there," Wright said. 

According to Wright, officers also woke his three young children ages 3, 7, and 11, and put them in a Stockton police patrol car with him. Officers then searched his house. As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for was not there - Wright's estranged wife. 

"They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," Wright said.

Wright said he later went to the mayor and Stockton Police Department, but the city of Stockton had nothing to do with Wright's search warrant.The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in S.W.A.T for his wife's defaulted student loans. 

Is the tide really turning?

Thanks to Lady Wonk Dana Goldstein for pulling together a summary of  a glut of new reports raising doubt about current administration ed policies.

Goldstein writes:   

Although much of the Obama administration's education reform agenda promotes test score-based teacher evaluation and pay, the tide seems to be significantly turning against such policies, at least among wonks and academics.

Included in Goldstein's collection is her own excellent piece, The Test Generation in the April, 2011 American Prospect.

Is the tide really turning? Maybe  However, I'm not sure Arne Duncan's crowd pays much attention to the mounds of ed research that have long been building in contradiction to current testing, "merit" pay, and teacher "value-added" evaluation policies.

I'm hoping they will respond more to the growing active opposition from among the nation's 8 million teachers and even more parents, students and community activists as the 2012 election approaches.

See you in D.C., I hope, July 30th.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Science Teacher

"Getting through another year of AYP successfully is like passing a ridiculously large and hard stool. You do it because you have to, there's a modicum of relief when it's done, and you pray you haven't done too much damage when passing it." -- The Logic of Arne

Kate Spade in Afghanistan???

 As part of his efforts, Brinkley brings in corporate executives on trips to Afghanistan to try to get them to invest. An array of executives, including from Citibank, IBM and even Kate Spade, have accompanied Brinkley on these types of trips. When he's making his pitch, he wants to make it clear this is not a charity opportunity. It's strictly business. "I want them to come in and see that they can make actually make money, that there's a market," Brinkley says, "that there's talent that can be brought to bare for their particular business interests." -- Paul Brinkley, head of a Pentagon group called the Task Force for Business Stability Operations 

Duncan attacks Diane Ravitch

"Diane Ravitch is in denial and she is insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving her wrong every day." -- Jonathan Alter at Bloomberg

L.A. teacher responds

"Teachers at schools like mine are concerned that education reform policies are not helping our students, because threats of turnarounds, takeovers, and poor evaluations can’t make us work any harder or make our students any less poor.  Dr. Ravitch understands this reality, and recognizes that the true insult in this debate is the allegation that teachers like me are not working hard enough, or don’t believe enough in the potential of our students, because if we did, our schools would have miracles too."-- Martha Infante at InterAct

 Dr. Cornel West

"There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie." -- Truthout