Nine people were shot dead in a church in Charleston. How is it possible, while reading about the alleged killer, Dylann Storm Roof, posing darkly in a picture on his Facebook page, the flags of racist Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa sewn to his jacket, not to think that we have witnessed a lynching?
Happy anniversary, DACA June 15 marks the third anniversary of President Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order. It’s opened new opportunities for Cindy, Danilo, Maria, Pedro and thousands like them. (Read more DACA success stories.) On a broader level, the program is also good for the economy.
Bush co-founded a charter school in 1996 called Liberty City
Charter School, which was “an
image-softening vehicle for [his] political comeback.” After opening, we
can only assume Bush forgot about it as the school continued to struggle with
deepening financial deficits, landlord troubles and poor academic performance.
It was ultimately shut down in 2008. JK he didn’t forget—he continues to tout
this school as an achievement.
“A board member at the time called Mr. Bush’s schools the ‘least
worst’ of three proposals. But she said the people working with him were
aggressive to the point of bullying in pressing for approval. Immediately after
he won the race for governor by winning [14 percent of] the black vote, he
abandoned the school and the poor children and families with whom he had
developed a personal relationship.” #Facts
During his time in office, Gov. Bush pushed three voucher
schemes under the guise of school choice: A statewide voucher program (declared
unconstitutional in 2006), the McKay Scholarship Program and the Corporate Tax
Credit Scholarship Program. As a heads up, no accountability or oversight is a
common theme.
The Florida Supreme Court was like, “Nope, not constitutional” 7
years after the start of Opportunity Scholarship Program (it used taxpayer
money to finance private alternatives). The voucher program had no oversight
and no clear link to student outcomes. #Facts
The McKay Scholarship Program, provides vouchers for students
with special needs. Again with no accountability or oversight, this led to problems including rampant fraud,
students being taught in strip malls and parks, school administrators with
criminal records, and schools that used corporal punishment. Naturally, after these stories came out, the Coalition
of McKay Scholarship Schools were like, “if you try to hold us accountable,
we’re going to peace out.” #Facts
Bush also pushed and enacted the Tax Credit Scholarship Program
in 2001, which gives corporations tax cuts if they fund vouchers. Guess what?
There is barely any oversight or accountability and students don’t have to take statewide
tests.
(Wait, weren’t tests kind of his thing?) In the grand tradition of Florida
being Florida, this program was expanded last year raising the cost of the
cap to nearly $1 billion.
As governor, Bush pushed through one of the first A-F grading
systems for schools, an accountability system that was supposed to pressure low
performing schools to improve student achievement by attaching a letter grade
to the school. In practice, school grades related more to the level of poverty
in a school than a school’s achievement level (Also, extra $$$$ for A schools,
more later). #Fact
Only A or F. Forever.
The school grades criteria has also shifted over time resulting in
schools being rated #onlyAorF and the confusion brought by the policy led the
current governor, Rick Scott, to sign legislation suspending low school
grade consequences for the 2014-15 school year.
Through his reform policies, Jeb Bush empowered the FCAT by
linking student scores to a schools’ grade (see how well that worked out
above). In typical #winning mindset, “A” schools received bonuses, while
students at “F” schools were eligible to transfer or take part in voucher
attempt part 1 (unclear how students did and ended in 2006, see above).
Fighting to end child labor June 12 is World Day Against Child Labor. Right now, close to 1 in 10 children around the world are engaged in child labor. And the United States is no exception. Our lax labor laws allow kids as young as 12 to work in tobacco fields, where many contract acute nicotine poisoning. “We must protect all children from being subjected to the worst forms of labor, from becoming victims of human trafficking and from being forced into armed conflicts around the world,” says AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson, who is co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition. “At the same time, we must help them to pursue an education and obtain proper healthcare, and we must address the poverty and economic inequality that too often drives children to work.” Read Johnson’s statement. (Child Labor Coalition photo.)
Debt-free college “Every kid needs a debt-free option—a strong public university where it’s possible to get a great education without taking on loads of debt,” says Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “It’s time to open the doors of opportunity wider and to invest in our future.” At an AFT event on June 10, Sen. Warren, a longtime champion for low- and middle-income families, urged the nation to move toward an entirely debt-free education. Read more about the event and her proposals.
The national graduation rate is at an all-time high — 81 percent. It was such big news, President Obama touted it in this year’s State of the Union address.
That got us thinking: What’s the story behind that 81 percent?
Working with a team of reporters in 14 states, we set off to find out.
Turns out, it’s a complicated number. Some states are doing good things to boost their rates, others, it’s not so clear.
Why teachers need tenure Teacher tenure is under attack, with critics wrongfully portraying it as a job for life. The truth is that for more than 100 years, tenure has provided due process rights to teachers who have demonstrated competence after a probationary period. In the new issue of the AFT’s American Educator, Richard D. Kahlenberg recounts the history of tenure, which was created to protect teachers from favoritism and to ensure students were educated free from political whims. Tenure remains necessary today, he explains, given the fixation on high-stakes testing and the tying of students’ test scores to teacher evaluations. Yet corporate reformers have seized on tenure as the root cause of educational inequality in an effort to weaken unions and to detract from the real threats to public education: poverty and segregation. Read the full issue of American Educator.
“St. Precaria, Protect Us!” Members of University Council/AFT-Santa Cruz implored their whimsical “saint,” using oversized puppets, songs such as “The Age of Precaria,” skits and teach-ins to draw attention to the plight of part-time faculty members, called lecturers in California. Like adjunct faculty across the country, UC-AFT members are worried about job security: Part-time faculty are “churned” so they don’t have the required six years for a more secure appointment. As they begin negotiations on a contract that expired June 1 (temporarily extended through October), local leaders are ready to apply their creativity and perseverance to win the fair benefits, stable appointments, and shared governance they and their colleagues deserve. Read more about the union’s efforts.
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