These measures, taken together, would effectively cripple public control of public education. They would dangerously weaken the power of teacher unions, thus facilitating still further attacks on the public sector.
They would leave education policy in the hands of a network of entrepreneurial think tanks, corporate entrepreneurs, and armies of lobbyists whose priorities are profiting from the already huge education market while cutting back on public funding for schools and students.
Their measures mean privatization of education, effectively terminating the right to a public education, as we have known it. Powerful forces in the country want the U.S., first country to guarantee public education, to be the first country to end it.

2 years ago charter schools were still viewed as experiments affecting a relatively small number of students; in 2007 corporate privatizers led by Broad and Gates grossly expanded their funding to the point where they now loom as a major presence.
No Child Left Behind is still a major issue in 2008. It continues to have a corrosive effect on public schools. It is designed an unfunded mandate requiring schools meet rigid standards every year though no more money is appropriated to support this effort.
Law suits were filed to attack one of the most destructive elements of NCLB, that it is unfunded. This fact alone, of all the inequities built into the law, reveals the bankruptcy of the corporate model in all of its ramifications. Those that have are imposing educational standards for those that don’t, ostensibly to raise them up, in fact keep them down.

Ever more money is taken out of the classroom to meet federal requirements when schools with low test scores are in “Program Improvement”. Once schools are in PI for 5 years they can be forced into privatization.
In California, more than 2000 schools are now in “Program-Improvement”, required to meet specific and mostly impossible standards or divert increasingly greater amounts of money out of the classroom and into private programs.

Schools in 3rd year PI must take money out of programs that helped schools with a high proportion of low achieving schools and make it available to private tutors. Cf “Career Opportunities” 2.13.07 East Bay Express
Charter schools cost the district money; it loses Average Daily Attendance (ADA) revenue from the state for every child that went to a charter school. Furthermore in California public property, often including buildings, supplies, computers and all manner of resources, is usually handed over to charters at no cost.

For the last fifty years, public education was one of only two public mandates guaranteed by the government that was accessible to every person, regardless of income. Social Security is the other. Now both systems are threatened with privatization schemes.
Govt today openly defines its mission as protecting the rights of corporations above everything. Thus public education is a rare public space that is under attack. The same scenario is being implemented with most of the services that governments used to provide for free or at little cost: electricity, national parks, health care and water.

In every case, the methodology is the same: under-fund public services, create an uproar and declare a crisis, claim that privatization can do the job better, deregulate or break public control, divert public money to corporations and then raise prices.

In the past year, it’s become evident that the corporate surge against public schools is only part of a much broader assault against the public sector, against unions, and indeed against the public’s rights and public control of public institutions.
In New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation is used as an excuse for permanently privatizing the infrastructure of a major American city

“Within weeks, the Gulf Coast became a domestic laboratory for the same kind of government-run-by-contractors that had been pioneered in Iraq. … As many remarked at the time, within days of the storm, it was as if Baghdad’s Green Zone had lifted off from its perch on the Tigris and landed on the bayou.
To spearhead its Katrina operation, Shaw corporation hired the former head of the US Army’s reconstruction office. Fluor, another Iraq contractor, sent its senior project manager from Iraq to the flood zone.”

p 410-411 The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein

Control of the schools was given to Paul Vallas, first “CEO” of Chicago Public Schools who pioneered the corporate approach. Vallas had been head of Philadelphia’s schools until a series of political and financial crises, including a deficit he said didn’t exist, lead him to consider new cities to plunder.

New Orleans Loyola University law prof. Bill Quigley accurately describes how charter systems quickly evolve towards well-funded, niche schools for the Haves and schools of deprivation for the Have-Nots. He also clearly exposes the lie that charter schools are “public schools”.
Their management lacks the public accountability of public schools, do not have to report to the public and can pick and choose their students, something that public schools cannot do. At the same time charter schools often receive vast private donations of funds that provide them with tremendously greater resources than public schools. Nevertheless, they do not show significant achievement.
Cf. "Blowback, the myth of charter school success”" 2.12.08 L.A. Times.

Both in Oakland and New Orleans, state power was used to usurp the public’s control of their schools and to force into place a corporate vision of schools without public discussion. In both cases, the loss of civil rights over public schools has meant a drastic worsening in the quality of educational delivery.
Almost all the entrepreneurial proposals are aimed at central cities, where the corporate vision is touted as the historic solution to decades of discrimination in public education.

In 2007, we hear about Educational Maintenance Organizations (EMOs), private corporations, like HMOs, proposing to dispense services people used to expect from govts. Corporations now realize that owning individual schools is not the major direction for profit. Rather they intend to provide services to schools in the aggregate, regardless of schools succeed or fail. These corporations become targets for investment.
In 2007, Peter Henry published an important, easily accessible, and well documented report, “The Case Against Standardized Testing”

”But, putting all this aside, let’s return to the central premise: student effort will increase when there is ‘more’ riding on a test’s outcome. Astoundingly, there is no research data showing that such ‘high-stakes’ environments actually work to improve effort, achievement or scholarship. None.” (p 43)
There are no large-scale, peer-reviewed academic studies that prove, or even suggest, that a high-stakes, standardized testing educational program improves learning, skill development or achievement for students.”

“First, the role of school boards would change. Schools would no longer be owned by local school districts. Instead, schools would be operated by independent contractors, many of them limited-liability corporations owned and run by teachers.
The primary role of school district central offices would be to write performance contracts with the operators of these schools, monitor their operations, cancel or decide not to renew the contracts of those providers that did not perform well, and find others that could do better.
The contract schools would be public schools, subject to all of the safety, curriculum, testing and other accountability of public schools”.

p16, Tough Choices”

religious schools The Christian Right in the courts and on the hustings EDUCATION (Schools Board Policy & Procedure Manual, Zion Lutheran Elementary, Anaheim) SAFETY, Overview / STUDENT SERVICES, Testing INSTRUCTION, Parent-Teacher Conferences Anaheim Discovery Christian School curriculum Immigrant education issues - mas raza Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of LA CHIRLA part of Calif. Immigrant Welfare Collaborative 213.353.1333 Summary of Immigration News CCIR Action Alert US & World News 5.28.99 Trustees Seek to Bill Mexico for School Costs School board considers billing Mexico millions for educating illegal immigrants YES! on Prop 226 CABE California Association for Bilingual Education BajaRat UnzWatch - CA Prop227 economic impact Latinos students, SAT tests, & UC admissions demographics & economic facts - Cato Inst./NIF USC Library bibliography Voice of Citizens Together anti-immigration monitors. Capitulation in California video ACRU H. Garber OC eugenicist candidate for 46th Dist.

Anaheim Coalition for Education Rights Harald Martin recall California Educator - California Teachers' Assn Anaheim City School District City of Anaheim Police Department School Programs @LA Education: K-12 School Districts OCRegister schools & colleges links state Stanford 9 exam scores LATimes Orange Cty real estate sect. incl community breakouts & school profiles Shrub Anaheim backs away from immigration issue City council defers to federal govt 1.24.01   Paul J. Young Channel 2000 Anaheim   The Anaheim City Council has decided to hold off on voting for or against a measure that would've given its local police officers the authority to round up illegal immigrants. The Huntington Beach-based California Coalition for Immigration Reform submitted a proposal to the council earlier this month advocating the implementation of just such a policy. More than 1,000 members of the community signed in support of the measure, which provoked anger among immigrants' rights groups. "This is purely, purely an anti-immigration move that is meant to target people who look different than what some people think an American should look like," Zeke Hernandez told the LATimes this week. The president of the Santa Ana chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens was among a host of activists urging Anaheim lawmakers to table or vote down the measure. Under its provisions, Anaheim police officers would take on the task of arresting any suspected illegal immigrants unable to provide proof of residency. Immigration reform advocates say that local police departments have to do more to stem the tide of illegals entering the country. Anaheim policeman Harold Martin is responsible for coming up with the idea of Anaheim police officers taking the place of Immigration and Naturalization Service agents wherever and whenever necessary. Martin turned to a 1996 federal law that states local law enforcement agencies can, in effect, perform the same duties as the INS, with the permission of the U.S. Atty General.

Salt Lake City was the last to try, but it scuttled the plan amid fierce protests by groups that favor an open border between the U.S. and Mexico. Barbara Coe, who chairs the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, decided to introduce the idea in Anaheim, where the local high school Board of Trustees voted in 1999 to bill foreign countries for the expense of teaching undocumented immigrant schoolchildren.
The Justice Dept overruled the board, saying that it didn't have the authority to involve itself in what was ostensibly a federal issue.

But immigration reform activists say that they're tired of what they perceive as federal inaction on the issue of stanching the influx of "illegal aliens".
"We are quite tired of American citizens being injured and killed by illegal aliens, and it is time to put a stop to it," Coe told the Times. She added that neither she, nor her supporters, is interested in deporting illegals only from South of the Border. "If they can't provide documentation that they are here legally, then they are subject to arrest … We don't care if you are pink or blue; all we care about is the illegality," Coe said.

Immigration reformers say that the situation is desperate and that a city like Anaheim could set a precedent for the rest of the nation to follow. The debate over the best course of action raged in Anaheim City Council chambers Tuesday night, where the mayor and council members listened to both sides of the issue.
"I hope that you don't even consider this measure," Garden Grove resident Dietrich Nicholson told the council. "It's immigrant-bashing. It's racism from the word go."
Gesturing to the 11 speakers on hand to appeal for the council to accept the proposal, Nicholson said, "If you look behind me, the word 'senior citizen skinheads' comes to mind. That's what we're dealing with here."

Nicholson's comments raised the ire of Dr. Howard Garber, a 40-year resident of Anaheim who said that individuals trying to paint immigration reformers as racists are relying on nothing less than smear tactics to damage a good cause.
"We're tired of the defamation, we're tired of the intimidation," Garber told the council. "We're talking about national law, and our resolution merely favors implementing it. "I want to say that, whether it is a federal statute or local [Dr. Howard Garber turns to address those accusing him & his colleagues of being 'racist'] ordinance, obedience to the law cannot be and should not be selective .... We're trying to do a good job for California and the country."

At the conclusion of Tuesday night's public hearing, the Anaheim City Council announced that it would not place the reformers' initiative on the agenda for a vote, effectively tabling it. According to the Orange County News Channel, council members appeared to agree that, on its face, the idea was akin to racial profiling, and that immigration-related issues were the province of the federal govt.
But councilman Frank Feldhaus said later that the council's decision did not mean that the city was closing its doors to other proposals on immigration reform.

education technology & links Abilene Internet2 network Educause .edu registry EdVoice reform advocacy net tools California Los Angeles Susan Abdulezer

Abilene high speed nationwide Internet2 network. "Partnerships with Internet2 network universities & regional networking organizations will provide institutions such as elementary & secondary schools, community colleges, museums & libraries access to the national high-performance network."

U.S. govt will appoint private manager for .edu
7.01   Converge magazine

Wash.DC   U.S. govt plans to cede control over the dot-edu Internet domain to the not-for-profit higher education organization Educause. The Commerce Dept.'s National Telecommunications & Information Association said it intends to enter a "cooperative agreement" for the domain's management. Educause, national group that represents the high tech interests of 1800 colleges & universities, will manage the domain registry and will be responsible for doling out addresses. Dot-edu domain has long been a source of controversy in higher ed. Community college leaders and other non-university educators have railed against the longstanding policy that dot-edu addresses are reserved for 4 year universities. "Educause intends to create a public process through which changes in these rules can be proposed, discussed and recommended to the Commerce Dept."

organizations Intl Society for Tech in Ed Ctr for Digital Govt superintendant leadership Nonprofit groups aim for tech trust 7.01   Converge Wash.DC   5 large nonprofit organizations recently released a study that details a plan for $18 billion to be set aside from proceeds brought in by govt auctions of airwaves. Similar in function to the National Science Fdtn, the fund would offer money to universities, museums and other public institutions so that they can make their services more accessible through technology. The report shows that the U.S. tech infrastructure is not being fully utilized to bring educational & civic information to society at large. … the report wass published by the Carnegie Corp., Knight Fdtn, MacArthur Fdtn, Century Fdtn and the Open Society Institute. High-tech execs unveil ed reform group 6.01   Miriam Jones Converge magazine A group of executives has unveiled EdVoice, an advocacy group for educational reform. … shows growing power high tech leaders exert over public policy. EdVoice, led by John Doerr and NetFlix CEO Reed Hastings, will work to enlist regular California citizens in effort to improve schools, focusing particularly on 3 issues facilitating opening of charter schools reducing licensing hassle experts in certain fields must face before becoming teachers offering teachers financial incentives to work in low-performance schools. references   mirror online typing tutor adult literacy telecourse Education Dept Ed Sec Rod Paige No Child Left Behind Using infotech to tranform way we learn California Virtual Campus NKLA Neal Richman Workforce L.A.

labor Teaching assistants are told: no union 7.16.04   Justin Pope AP Sheyda Jahanbani may be a student, but her life at Brown University in Providence, R.I. feels more like a job. There are long hours of teaching, a boss who gives orders, and she depends on her income to pay the bills. But in a 3-2 vote Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Jahanbani and other graduate students at America's private universities are students, not workers. That means they can't form unions to negotiate wages, health care and workplace grievance procedures. "Clearly, anybody who starts grad school understands there are going to be sacrifices," said Jahanbani, 27, who is pursuing a doctorate in American history. "At the same time, there are basic rights any employee has the right to expect. Health care. A decent wage. Some respect in the workplace." The decision, in a case involving Brown, is a victory for private universities, which depend on relatively inexpensive graduate student labor to teach classes. Nearly a quarter of college instructors are graduate students, according to evidence cited in the ruling. The universities also maintain that what they pay students is simply financial aid, not income, and graduate student unionizing could upset an academic apprenticeship system that has existed for decades. "It's an important decision for private research universities in that it restores the traditional relationship between graduate research and teaching assistants and the university," said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education, which represents universities. But pro-union graduate students decried the decision as politically motivated and anti-labor. Three Republican appointees of President Bush voted in the majority — overturning a 2000 decision involving New York University — while two Democrats dissented. The students also said the board failed to appreciate how drastically graduate student life has changed over the last 30 years. Students must teach more now, which means their degrees take longer, and they are more likely to have families to support. "It is work, and it's an essential part of the university," said John Harwood, an art history graduate student at Columbia University in New York.

Govt agency NLRB deals with private employers and has no jurisdiction over public universities and colleges, which are governed by state laws. Those laws vary but unions are recognized by many public universities, including the University of California system, the University of Wisconsin, Michigan State and the University of Michigan.
There are more than 2 million graduate and professional students, according to the National Association of Graduate- Professional Students. About 44 percent of graduate students attend private universities, according to the most recent U.S. Education Dept statistics.

NYU is the only private university that's recognized a graduate student union. In 2002, graduate students there negotiated stipend increases of up to 40 percent, as well as improved health care benefits. But that contract comes up for renewal next year, and NYU issued a statement saying it was still considering how it would proceed in light of the ruling.
"The impact of the contract was huge," said Elena Gorfinkel, a graduate student in cinema studies, who will have an $18,000 stipend next year, considerably higher than in the past. "It made the university accountable to us in a way."
Groups at several other private universities, including Brown, Columbia, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania and Tufts, are pushing for union recognition, but their efforts suffered a major setback with the decision.

Support for unionizing is by no means universal among graduate students, however. Last year, union backers at Yale called an unofficial vote, hoping for an overwhelming show of support for union recognition. To their embarrassment, the measure failed. Several graduate students said they weren't surprised that a Republican-controlled NLRB would reverse the NYU decision.
"I'm more disappointed in Brown University, in these leaders of prestigious universities that are beacons of progressive politics," Jahanbani said. "I'm surprised that (Brown), this bastion of progressive thought, would hand such a juicy morsel over to the anti-labor movement."

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