We’re now well into the fourth month of the Democrats for Education Reform, established and financed by four Wall Street hedge fund operators.

Joe Williams, who first entered into the blogging world on behalf of the anti-union New York Charter School Association [NYCSA], has been blogging for DFER. What’s interesting is that despite a steady stream of criticism against Democrats of every conceivable political stripe, including all of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, Williams has yet to find a single Republican worthy of criticism. The sole mentions of Republicans on the blog — Tom Carroll of NYCSA and recently turned independent Michael Bloomberg — have been positive. Perhaps this is what the Sun was getting at in their headline to the story announcing the arrival of DFER, “How New Generation of Reformers Targets Democrats on Education.” More »

In an op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times, our friend Rick Kahlenberg reflects on the controversy over the Kahlil Gibran International Academy [KGIA]. The task of public schools, he argues, is to teach what it means to be an American. Citing the authority of Al Shanker, he suggests that a dual language school such as KGIA, with a special curricular focus on a second language and its associated culture, would be more inclined to adopt an uncritical approach to that particular experience. Further, with its special focus on the particular culture, it would be more apt to neglect the teaching of what we Americans have in common.

We agree with Kahlenberg — and Shanker — that the preeminent purpose of public schools is the education of the next generation of American citizenry. But we do not believe that dual language schools have proven to be any more susceptible to failure at this task than other public schools with different curricular themes and foci, from enterpeneurship and math to social justice and core knowledge. Every public school faces the challenge of teaching students how to think critically, about their own particular history and culture, about the larger American cultural mosaic and its historical evolution, and about our place in world history and culture. Every public school has to figure out how to focus its teaching on our common national purpose — what we Americans hold in common that is the foundation of our collective well-being. More »

The Charter Blog thinks that the American Federation of Teachers shouldn’t be taking a stand on the Iraq War.

We know it is a hard, dirty job shilling for the Bush administration these days, and somebody has to do it. But really, if you are going to do the job, why do it so poorly?

When you suggest that teachers should be silent on matters of great public import, wouldn’t it at least make sense to select an issue where White House policy has not been so clearly disastrous for the nation? An issue where the American public might have some sympathy for your stance?

Far too often, educational policy debates have the feel of one of the three card monte games one sees on New York City street corners during the summer.

In 2004, the Republican Congress established a voucher program for students in Washington DC public schools. The United States Department of Education just issued the first of the annual studies that are mandated by the law, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After One Year.

As today’s New York Times reports, the study found that students utilizing the vouchers and attending private schools [two-thirds of which were parochial Catholic schools] “did not show significantly higher math or reading achievement.” More »

As my co-workers and family will testify, I am something of an inveterate consumer of Starbucks venti soy lattes. The habit is so deeply ingrained that when I walk into the outlet down a block from the UFT offices, they start making the order on sight, without asking me what I want.

But as much as I enjoy — and depend upon — good coffee, and as much as I have little patience for the cultural Puritans who would have us forego any product tainted by the world marketplace, the passing pleasures of consumption clearly has its limits. I am grateful that the outlet near the UFT does not practice the annoying corporate Starbucks mantra of calling its customers “guests.” When I invite guests into my home, I do not ask them to pay for the bread we break together. My friendship and my camaraderie are not commerical transactions, thank you.

Desire for the material product is no substitute for the love of friends and countrymen, and the pleasures of consumption are no substitute for the life of the citizen. The primary ends of what Aristotle would call the good life focus on the exercise of the rights and duties of citizenship, so that the demos of which we are part actually rules in our republic. The latest Bridging Differences dialogue between Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier reminds us that citizenship and the nurturance of the public sphere and a vibrant civil society, not consumerism and the worship of the market, are the foundation of democratic self-governance. If we need a compelling reason to defend a truly public education, we could do no better than beginning there, with the importance of cultivating citizenship to the life of our democracy.

Starbucks makes a fine model for public education — if the choice between chais and lattes, rather than the democratic election of representative government, is what make us a sovereign; if homogeneity and standardization, rather than diversity and pluralism, is the foundation of democracy; if passive individual purchases are more virtuous than public action for the common good; and if education into democratic citizenship is unimportant.

Harold Meyerson’s recent Washington Post essay demolishes the Starbucks theory of democratization in China. It is increasingly difficult to believe that such theories are put forward entirely in good faith, rather than as transparent apologies for corporate market share and profits at the expense of democratization. And then there is the obvious connection — that the very same corporate actors fighting unions and democratization in China are fighting unions and seeking to privatize public education in the United States. One might even call it the “Wal-Mart Connection.”

Edwize, as seen from the bowels of Tweed.

From all of us to our readers.

In this morning’s New York Times, one finds a report that New York City is suing to prevent the merger of GHI and HIP, the two largest health insurance plans serving municipal employees, including teachers. The article notes that more than 90% of municipal employees use one of the two insurance plans, leading to the City’s claims that the merger would create a monopoly that could artificially increase the cost of health services. GHI and HIP disagree, of course, but more importantly, so does the U.S. Department of Justice, which looked at the proposed merger and decided that it did not violate anti-trust law early last month.

The City filed suit on the last possible day, and it is not yet clear whether it is serious about preventing the merger. The suit could just as easily be used as a negotiating card with GHI and HIP, as a point of leverage for the City to get the best possible deal on cost containment. The City may also be looking for a share of the proceeds if the combined company goes for profit, as HIP has already proposed to do. [Both GHI and HIP are now not for profits.]

Needless to say, the municipal employees of New York City have as much a stake in these developments as the City — where the City wants to minimize costs, we want to ensure that the quality of services and the breadth of benefits is not reduced or diminished. In an age of growing health care costs, and of corporate efforts to unload their share of the costs on their employees, municipal unions need to be vigilant.

Fortunately for municipal employees, health insurance benefits have been negotiated for decades on a citywide basis, through the Municipal Labor Committee. [Article 3G of our collective bargaining agreement has taken note of this arrangement.] And fortunately for teachers, Randi Weingarten is the head of the MLC — she took the position, with all of the added responsibilities, so she could be in a position to protect our health insurance. That gives us a seat at the table, and an important voice in ensuring that the proceeds from a possible for profit conversion go to supporting and protecting the health insurance benefits we receive. The MLC could even decide to intervene in the legal proceedings, as it has in similar cases in the past, if that would serve the interests of municipal employees.

In the past, negotiating health care insurance through the MLC has stood UFT members and other municipal employees in good stead. Over the years, we have won significant new benefits, such as coverage for mental health care and benefits for domestic partners. With the upcoming contention around the proposed GHI-HIP merger, this arrangement becomes all the more important for protecting our health insurance benefits.

Two days past, we mourned those who died, five years ago, on September 11.

I have my own, very special memories of a number of those men and women.

On that date, our youngest child was ill with an ear infection, and early in the morning we were taking her to the doctor. As we were about to enter the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, our daughter says, “look at the fire,” and one could already see a huge plume of smoke from Manhattan, although it was not entirely clear from the Brooklyn side exactly what was burning.

As we entered the tunnel, traffic slowed down and then came to a halt, and word came across the radio of the first plane smashing into the World Trade Center. Then came the announcement of the second plane, and the realization of what had taken place. After what seemed an eternity, there was enough movement that we were able to exit the tunnel, although we were caught in a snarl of traffic at the exit.

Sitting in the car, we saw a seeming endless stream of ambulances, fire vehicles and police cars coming through the part of the tunnel which would ordinarily carry Brooklyn bound traffic, and racing on to the World Trade Center, which was located three blocks away. Slowly we made our way to the east, but had not yet made it to Broadway when the first tower fell. We heard a roar and a simultaneous cry of horror on the radio that the first tower was falling, and then I could see in the rear vision mirror a cloud of dust literally racing down the street toward us. It enveloped the car in an instant. For a good five minutes, it was as if we were in a white out blizzard, except the color was gray: we could not see a thing, even though the windshield wipers were steadily clearing away the ash.

When the air finally cleared, so did the traffic, and we were quickly able to make our way up to the doctor’s office, near the UFT’s old offices, and then to the UFT.

Once we were home safe that evening, the sheer horror of that morning’s events replayed itself in my mind’s eye. Above all else, one image appeared, again and again: the sight of that steady stream of first responders, rushing to the World Trade Center and what would be, for all too many of them, their death. In the subsequent years, that image has often been with me.

We live in a day and an age where ‘rational choice’ and ‘public choice’ theorists denigrate and demonize public life and public sector unions, in education, health care and other fields. This is done on the theory that public service is a myth, and that those of us who labor in the service of the public are self-interested, selfish men and women seeking only our own personal economic advantage. We do not care, the narrative goes, for those of the public entrusted to us, only for ourselves. The brave men and women who gave their lives five years ago, as well as those who survived but put their lives at risk, all in a self-denying quest to save others, is the most powerful statement I have ever witnessed of the reality, of the powerful altruism, of public service.The fire fighters, the police, the emergency medical technicians who gave and risked their lives that day all belonged to public sector unions. The teachers and para-professionals from schools near the World Trade Center, who put the safety of their students first even when it meant risking their own, were public servants who belonged to the UFT.

It is important not simply to remember that sacrifice and heroism, but to honor it, and the ideal of public service which motivated it.

SAVE DARFUR NOW:
Voices to Stop Genocide

Sunday, September 17, 2006, 2:00 p.m.
East Meadow in Central Park
New York, NY

[Enter park from 5th Avenue at 90th Street. Follow East Drive uptown (north) to East Meadow.]

At our national convention this July, the AFT passed a resolution against the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

Sadly, in less than two months, a desperate situation has taken a terrible turn for the worse. As this past Sunday’s New York Times reported, the government of the Sudan is planning a major escalation of its campaign of extermination in Darfur; with hundreds of thousands already dead, and the government of the Sudan turning the screws to force out the vastly inadequate team of peacekeepers from the African Union, the prospects for the peoples of the Darfur are too grim to contemplate.

And still, the United Nations and leading nations of the world with the capacity to stop this horror do nothing.

Men and women of conscience, including New York City’s educators, must make our voice heard. Join with your brothers and sisters this Sunday in Central Park.

“Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities.”

a. David Horowitz

b. Jerry Falwell

c. Pat Robertson

More »

Nancy from Se Hace Camino Al Andar is co-writing Edgeutech, a blog on the intersection between technology and education.

First of all, apologies to regular readers for the light posting over the last two weeks. Irony demands that serious illness strike during the most beautiful weeks of summer (the week and a half prior to this weekend were some of the mildest yet sunniest days I’ve seen in New York city from inside an apartment.)

First, Carnival links:

This week the Carnival of Education is at Education in Texas.
Last week, big media “School Me,” (operated by the Los Angeles Times) hosted the Carnival of Education.
The previous week the Carnival was in New York.
While we were covering the Williamsburg charter school story we missed the carnival at the lilting house.

If you missed last week’s Carnival of Education and need to get your fix of education related posts from the blogosphere, you can follow the link.

Mike in Texas has this weeks oversized Carnival of Education.

Jordan Barab has a fairly important post on card check union organizing, a subject we’ve written about extensively.