Tidbits - November 13, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments- Voter Suppression; Election Failure by Democrats; Progressive Victories You Didn't Hear About; Federal Judge Guts Nationwide Ban On Housing Discrimination; America Rigged for Massive Wealth Transfer to the Rich; Global Economic Divide; Cuban Five and Alan Gross; Fracking Banned in Denton, TX; Ferguson; Inner City Schools Function Like Prisons; A Good Movie Tip; Women's Labor Music Announcements- Labor Notes Hiring; Events in Oakland and New York

School Librarian Cutbacks Widen Digital Divide

Alison DeNisco District Administration, August 2014
School libraries with more staff and larger collections lead to stronger academic performance, a study says. Yet one-third of public schools do not have a full-time, state-certified librarian. Often when education funding is cut, libraries and the arts are the first to go.

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Building Not Rebulding Public Education

Lois Weiner Jacobin
Adapted from a longer piece in the current issue of New Politics (see link below). Fighting corporate education reform is less about restoring the old system to its former glory than building a just one for the first time.

labor

What's Wrong with the Vergara Decision for Teachers

Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew San Diego Free Press
While teachers led their classrooms, a judge in a Los Angeles courtroom said that for students to win, teachers have to lose. If we want every child to have a chance to thrive, we must retain and support a stable teaching force-especially in high-poverty schools. By attacking the rules that protect and support teachers, the "Vergara "decision destabilizes public education.

Chicago Teachers' Union Report on School Closings

George N. Schmidt, Bob Simpson, and David Vance Substance News
“Shuttering our schools was touted as a hard and difficult choice by the mayor and the Board [of Education], but this was the easy, draconian choice,” said CTU President Karen GJ Lewis. “Parents, teachers, and the public demanded resources and supports for these education communities. Sadly, by making promises that remain unfulfilled, these schools and the students they serve have been dealt yet another blow—from failed policy to broken promises.”

Private Operators Dominate Public Schools in North Lawndale

Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah Chicago Tribune
When school starts next year, nearly 70 percent of the public schools in North Lawndale will be in private hands. Most of those schools were failing or under-enrolled when CPS turned the buildings over to charter operators, or fired staff and put the AUSL in charge. Test scores and other data show the privately run schools aren't doing much better academically and in some cases are performing worse than the schools they took over or the district-run schools that remain.

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Separate and Unequal: The Charter School Pedestal The Public Can’t Reach

Trymaine Lee MSNBC
Critics say that charter schools—publicly funded but run by private organizations—are being used as a means to privatize public education at the expense of the vast majority of students. They say the charter movement is a Trojan-horse riding under the guise of school choice, used as an instrument to break teachers unions.

Tidbits - April 3, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - U.S. Military Policy, Foreign Policy and Aggression; Public Education and New York's Segregated Schools; Obamacare; Bernie Sanders for President - exchange on electoral politics and tactics; Trade Policy; Venezuela; Congress and the 1%; Pope Francis; poverty; Announcement - Call for Tributes and Reflections: The Life and Work of Rod Bush - San Francisco - Aug. 18, 2014
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