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Seattle School Teachers Boycotted Testing and Sparked A National Movement

Diane Brooks Yes! Magazine
Parents, students, and teachers all over the country have joined the revolt to liberate our kids from a test-obsessed education system. As the number of government-mandated tests multiplies, anger is mounting over wasted school hours, “teaching to the test,” a shrinking focus on the arts, demoralized students, and perceptions that teachers are being unjustly blamed for deeply rooted socioeconomic problems.

Remembering Tony Benn and His Five Little Questions

Michael Winship Common Dreams
Benn stood by his principles, even when they were damaging to his career and his party’s electoral ambitions. “Charming, persuasive and sometimes deeply frustrating,” is how former British Home Secretary David Blunkett described him to The Independent newspaper. “[But] what you would learn from Tony Benn was to think for yourself.”

Inequality After Occupy

Penny Lewis Washington Spectator
In the years since the destruction of the occupations, the critique of inequality has only broadened and deepened in the U.S. Occupy should claim credit for getting it on the map, while political iterations old and new have been keeping it there. Today, the fight against inequality is taking greater institutional shape, and seemingly exerting more leverage, in places inspired by Occupy but moving beyond its initial tactics.

The Real Irish American Story Not Taught in Schools

Bill Bigelow Zinn Education Project
Let’s make sure that our schools show some respect, by studying the social forces that starved and uprooted over a million Irish—and that are starving and uprooting people today.

Inside Low-wage Workers’ Plan to Sue McDonald’s — and Win

Timothy Noah MSNBC
Last week workers filed wage theft lawsuits against McDonald's in three states. The suits are an attempt to get at the franchise system in particular, which has enabled large corporations to avoid legal responsibility for what happens in the franchise.