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Hey Aaron,
Thanks for your insightful post. Good analysis as always, considering..."
Posted by Tomas Palermo in Philly Students Front and Center
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Philly Students Front and Center
Philadelphia student activists made the news in a terrific Philadelphia Inquirer article this week for their efforts to ensure that ongoing teacher union negotiations with the school district would focus on what matters most: student learning.
At stake in the union contract negotiations are some pretty typical issues: teacher pay, length of contract, work hours. Specifically, the city's new schools superintendent, Arlene Ackerman, wants to increase the length of the school day and raise pay for teachers in hard-to-staff subjects and schools. While both ideas are widely regarded as having positive impacts on student achievement and closing the gap between wealthy and low-income students, the unions have been reluctant on both fronts. The union is also bargaining for a long-term contract, while Superintendent Ackerman is looking for a one year deal--purportedly because she would like to become more familiar with the district before signing a longer teacher union contract.
One student commented on the ongoing negotiations and how they have tended to miss the issues that matter most for students -- such as getting high quality teachers into every Philly classroom regardless of the school's achievement levels, socioeconomics, and racial breakdown-- saying, "I've seen students cut class and come to my classroom to avoid bad teachers. The system of teacher distribution in Philadelphia is broken."
What is fascinating about this news item is that the student protestors, more than two dozen organized by the Philadelphia Student Union who gathered outside an elite magnet school in the city to deliver their message, got quick responses from the negotiating parties. The Superintendent's spokesperson issued a statement saying, "The district's top priority in negotiating the current contract is ensuring that we place teachers where children most need them." She went on to say that Superintendent Ackerman would welcome sitting down with students and parents at the negotiating table if the unions approved it.
Unfortunately, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers union president, Jerry Jordan, did not express his support for the idea of student participation in the negotiations. However, he did point out that the union "has always taken a position of watching out for kids." One may wonder how this position of watching out for kids can possibly be consistent with refusing to let them have a voice in these issues that direly affect their education.
What might it look like if low-income and low-performing schools were staffed by caring teachers who are committed to their students? Maybe something like this (a staff video made to congratulate graduating students in a Bronx middle school):
When Wall Street Goes Broke
Last night, President Bush took to a primetime national television address to convince the American public that a $700 billion dollar bailout for Wall Street was absolutely, positively necessary. He also made sure to let everyone know that he's still against government intervention and loves unregulated free markets. Except when unregulated free markets fail. Like, now.
In case you missed it:
See more here.
Feel better?
No?
You're not alone. In cities across the country, people will take to the streets to say no to welfare bailouts for Wall Street.
To see an event near you, click here.
Regardless of whether you're for or against the massive bailout plan, it's important to ask about the particulars: how it works, who's responsible, and what happens if it fails. And, as Roberto Lovato remarks, what happens to the rest of the world, namely Main Street, Cesar Chavez Blvd. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., if the causes of this economic nightmare aren't addressed.
A New Patriotism
“Bin Laden didn’t blow up the projects. It was you n----, tell the truth n----. Bush knocked down the towers. Tell the truth!” As the crowd bulldozed though the chorus of Immortal Technique’s inflammatory song “Bin Laden,” the Harlem emcee paced the stage of Manhattan’s The Madison, playing resident hype man of the 9/11 Truth Movement. The moment encapsulated the fervor of a patriotic night of hip-hop, truth telling and advocacy.
On a weekend where many opted for moments of silence to commemorate the seventh anniversary of 9/11, 2008 Now or Never sought to bring justice to the victims, first responders and the American public by demanding answers to what some left-wing watchdog groups see as suspicious questions surrounding the attacks.
The star-studded concert was a benefit for first responders, a group of 9/11 rescue workers who've been largely ignored by the government. They include firefighters, police officers, port authority workers and volunteers who searched for victims in contaminated debris at and around ground zero in the weeks following the attacks. Now, many suffer from life-threatening respiratory illnesses.
The concert, however, was only a portion of the four-day affair, which also included demonstrations, speeches, movie screenings and a barbeque.
The weekend also represented the convergence of activist groups like We Are Change, the 9/11 Truth Movement, and the FealGood Foundation, all of whom advocate for an independent investigation of the 9/11 attacks and aid first responders.
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The Space Between Dissent and Terrorism
As Hurricane Gustav descends upon the Gulf Coast, the party who taught us how heartless our government can be in crisis struggles with the age old question..."What is the appropriate level to party?"
But before the games can even begin at the Republican National Convention, cases of police crackdowns on diverse activist and journalist communities are already starting to surface.
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Let's Build Together
(This was originally posted on Rock the Trail -- a project of Rock the Vote and WireTap)
National Night Out: America’s Night Out Against Crime (NNO) reenergized the nation again for the 25th year on August 5, 2008. This community-centered event was initially developed by Matt A. Peskin, the Executive Director of the National Association of Town Watch (NATW). In 1984, (just months after my birth) Peskin launched NNO in Northfield, New Jersey- a small, predominately white community of just over 7,000 people. NNO was a creative way to address crime prevention and bring attention to programs as well as create unity among law enforcement and the community they serve. The first year's nationwide efforts brought out more than 2.5 million people into their streets.
What better way to check what’s going on in the streets of your hood than taking a stroll and hangin’ out for the night? Nothing unusual for us young folks, right? But what about your neighbor? Do you know who they are? Do you know what issues they care about on the block? Do you know if your neighbor is registered to vote? If you answered yes, then you are 10 steps ahead of the game. Unfortunately, most people do not know who their neighbors are, or interact with them much. In this time of technology, we spend a lot of time behind our computers (I mean c’mon now, face it. You’re at a computer right now reading this). We poke our neighbors on Facebook, and leave Myspace “Have a Great Weekend” glitter graphics on pages, but do we really care about our neighbor’s weekend? Do we really value real human interaction?
After a little thought, I decided to leave my last Myspace comment and close up shop, hitting the streets of the Twin Cities, Minnesota!!
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Candidates Must Address Youth Unemployment
There's a problem with the youth unemployment rate -- it's too high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the July unemployment rate for teenagers was 20.3 percent. Compare that to 5.7 percent unemployment rate of all Americans and you begin to understand the magnitude of the problem.
In the context of the increased participation of young voters and the unemployment rate, CIRCLE's director Peter Levine argues that this campaign season reflects only the issues of college-educated young voters, the majority of young voters in this primary season:
"[W]e hear some talk about the cost of college and some discussion (albeit not enough) about issues that especially concern idealistic college students, such as climate change. But there is silence about the serious plight of working-class youth."
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Go To Iraq Or Go To Jail
Take your pick: prison or war.
That's what some army recruiters are telling high school students in Houston, Texas to scare teenagers into joining the army.
On July 29th, 2008, a local CBS affiliate in Houston broke this story about illegal army recruitment tactics and a shady new strategy called the "Delayed Entry Program." As part of a $5 billion recruitment budget for 2008--that's right, $5 billion—Army recruiters ask high school students to sign a non-binding contract that says they intend to enlist in the army upon graduation.
According to the Army's own policies for the new program, "under no circumstances will any [recruiter] threaten, coerce, manipulate, or intimidate future soldiers, nor may they obstruct separation requests... At no time will any [recruiter] tell a Delayed Entry Program member he or she must go in the Army or he or she will go to jail."
So when Eric Gonzalez and Eric Martinez, two high school friends in Texas who signed a Delayed Entry contract, were told they'd go to jail if they didn't join the Army, they realized something wasn't right. They came up with a plan to tape record the recruiter's illegal and dishonest claims, then leak it to the press.
Here's an excerpt of what Irving was told after repeatedly explaining he wanted to go to college instead of joining the army:
"You want to go to school? You will not get no loans, because all college loans are federal and government loans--so you'll be black barred from that. As soon as you get pulled over for a speeding ticket, they're gonna see you're a deserter, they're going to apprehend you, take you to jail.
"So guess what? All that lovey-dovey 'I wanna go to college' and all that? Guess what? You just threw it out the window, because you just screwed your life."
So how would you know if a military recruiter was lying to you? And even if you did know they were lying, whom would you go to? Who could you tell?
Worse yet, how many teenagers are in Iraq and Afghanistan right now because they were told they didn't have a choice?
To take action on this issue visit: http://www.notevenone.org/takeaction.html
Trekking Through the Life of a Guide
I'm sitting at a tiny, dark, and dingy café tucked away in the busy streets of Kathmandu, having milky Nepali tea with Ang Sherpa, a 24-year-old young man who guides tourists through the tortuous terrain of Nepal's soaring Himalayas and captivating hills. If you've ever been to Nepal, you'll have seen tenderly young Nepali child laborers. Yet Ang, who does not 'look' disadvantaged and is older, tells me a story mixed with politics, economic insecurity, and familial obligations that most tourists would never know unless they asked. At an age when most in the US are expected to 'invest' in their future by attending college, for Ang, working is investing in not only his future, but that of everyone else in his family.
Ang, who is a Sherpa (a Himalayan ethnic group which is prominent in high expedition trekking), is the second oldest of eight children. Along with two of his brothers who have been working in Dubai and Saudi Arabia for the past three years like thousands of other Nepali migrant laborers, all three work full-time to support their unemployed, 52-year-old parents and a Buddhist monk brother. They also pay the private school fees of their two younger sisters, their brother's English and tourism classes, and an ex-Buddhist monk brother's English language classes. Ang works as a full-time trekking guide, an industry that compromises 8 percent of Nepal's Gross Domestic Product, though it is certainly not a steady income throughout the year, because trekking seasons runs from September to May-after and before the monsoon season. . During the off-season, Ang doesn't work because jobs are hard to come by: the unemployment rate is estimated to be at least 42 percent, and young people are particularly hit hard since 38 percent of the working age population is composed of youths.
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Mideast Youth Takes On Afghan Media
Last year, we profiled Mideast Youth, an independent blogging network dedicated to eliminating extremism from the Middle East and North Africa. I thought I'd check back in with the group to see what they've been up to. Sure enough, they've been busy as ever. But their new project is both fascinating and really cool.
Mideast Youth has launched Afghan Press, a blog whose purpose is to "use digital media to show the world what currently goes unreported" in Afghanistan. The journalist-activists who started Afghan Press want to cover daily events in remote villages and interview locals -- everyday people -- who are never represented in the media. And they hope to do this using all different forms of media.
Afghan Press has also become a place to announce journalism training opportunities for Afghan journalists. In this way, Mideast Youth hopes to contribute something to Afghanistan's media.
From the Afghan Press mission statement:
Afghanistan is a country riddled with poverty, illiteracy, censorship, human rights abuses and corruption. There are hardly any progressive and independent news sources functioning within it. We aim to change that!
We want to create a powerful Afghanistan through new media technologies. The internet is our only gateway to free speech and global outreach...It is time for Afghanistan to have a successful digital media outlet that is by the people, for the people, to the world and whose mission is to improve the country.
Milwaukee Police Attack High School Students
Shortly after 4pm on Tuesday, June 10, Milwaukee police officers attacked and arrested a Riverside High School student who allegedly hit a car with a water balloon during a supposed water balloon fight. Onlookers witnessed this act of aggression by the police officers on duty. The officers on the scene viciously beat the victim over the head and tackled him to the ground. According to over a dozen witnesses, the boy was lying prone on the ground for several minutes before officers proceeded to lift his shirt and attack him with a tazer gun, an excessive and potentially lethal force. The tazer gun was used at close range. After the melee, the police spokesperson told the media that three officers were injured, but has yet to provide concrete evidence supporting these claims.
According to witnesses, including the boy's cousin, the student attacked is a severe asthmatic and was not resisting arrest when tazered. The student was held in the police vehicle for twenty minutes until an ambulance arrived on the scene. At least thirty officers were present and arrested a total of seven students and one parent. At least three of the people arrested were in the act of filming the incident. Police forced many of the first hand witnesses to leave the area.
Demand Police Accountability from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett: (414.286.2200, mayor@milwaukee.gov) and new Police Chief Edward Flynn: (414.935.7200, acolem@milwaukee.gov)
Some of the students were detained for two days before being released and many of the students arrested are currently facing criminal charges and expulsion hearings.
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A Roomful of Lawyers and the Right to Education
I’ve spent the past two days at a conference hosted by the National Access Network, an alliance of organizations that works to support state-level legal efforts to increase educational opportunity.
The fact that such an organization exists, servicing a growing body of lawyers who have tried state-level education lawsuits in nearly all of the 50 states, may seem something of an anomaly to casual observers of civil rights in America. After all, we are barely more than a half-century removed from one of the most well-known lawsuits in American history, Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which established as a matter of national jurisprudence that schools could no longer discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity. So the concept of equal educational opportunity has long been at the very heart of the battle for civil rights.
The anomaly is that even as civil rights have become increasingly a matter of federal court action—from Miranda rights to free speech rights to other matters of equal protection—the progress of lawsuits on the federal level to further education as a civil right has long since ground to a halt. Whether it was the 1973 Rodriguez US Supreme Court decision which ruled that children do not have any kind of a right to education in the federal government, or the 2007 Seattle / Louisville decisions which effectively ended the legacy of Brown-initiated desegregation efforts, the federal courts have been a place where education advocates have gone only to get bad news over the past three decades.
In the wake of these negative rulings at the federal court level, a quietly impressive—and at times, heroic—group of lawyers have risen up to fight on behalf of children in the states instead. The basic nature of the challenges that these lawyers have brought is to question whether states, all of which have some limited clause requiring the provision of public education, have met a certain standard to provide educational opportunity to their children. Some of the lawsuits have fought for more equitable distribution of resources between wealthy and poor districts; others have argued instead for an adequate level of resources in every school district within a state, equity notwithstanding. The trial record is a mixed one, but the adequacy lawsuits have been particularly successful, winning 20 out of 28 state cases at the state Supreme Court level.
The recognition among lawyers that these state lawsuits are the “only game in town” has grown into a truism, with any discussion of raising a new federal level claim scorned upon as unrealistic. The problem with foregoing action at the federal level, be it legal or political action, is that it impels an end game where we have 50 different sets of standards, resources, and ultimately educational opportunities—and children will win or lose depending on what state they are born in. That might have been okay two hundred years ago or even a half century ago when youth in different states faced unique economic challenges, but that is no longer the case today.
All of this made my participation at the conference, representing Our Education’s 20,000+ students who believe that quality education ought to be a federal right guaranteed to all American children no matter what state they live in, something of an oddity. In a roomful of brilliant lawyers who have spent thousands upon thousands of hours fighting to force statehouses to do better by children but who have generally looked at the federal government without much hope, the idea of a constitutional amendment is at best naïvely optimistic, and at worst, a detraction of resources and energy away from more winnable strategies.
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Not Everyone's On Board With Urban Farming
People across the country are getting involved with the urban farming trend. Young people, old people, socially conscious people, gardening lovers, and people who just like to eat. In light of my piece this week, I thought this account of new urban agriculture endeavors in Seattle was pretty interesting.
What stood out to me was the backlash some new projects are getting from the city's transportation department.
Seattle residents interested in the local food movement are getting creative in finding green spaces in areas of unused, urban land. In these overlooked "nooks and crannies," reports SeattlePI, residents are starting to grow their own fresh produce. For example, they're transforming planting strips adjacent to city streets into sources for cheap and healthy food.
But Seattle's Dept. of Transportation say that these impromptu gardens are potential traffic hazards. It also says they could cause health risks. From the article:
[T]he Seattle Transportation Department, which technically requires homeowners to get a street-beautification permit before planting anything there, discourages people from growing food. Among the potential problems: crops tainted with automobile and stormwater pollution; bushy plants spilling into the street; creating a haven for rodents and pooping dogs; and potential complaints ranging from vegetable theft to unsightly dead cornstalks.
However, transportation officials also say that there is no law that specifically prohibits small-scale farming on planting strips.
Furthermore, the Dept. of Transportation hasn't actually done any studies or surveys to find out if their claims about health risks are valid.
Meawhile, many residents seek an alternative to shopping at grocery stores where prices continue to rise. Plus, in inner-city areas, it's difficult to find healthy food even at existing grocers. Residents believe they should be able to grow their own food instead of having to drive long distances to get access to fresh produce (with gas prices being what they are).
What city officials may not realize is that transforming unused bits of land into small-scale farms is the first step to creating a sustainable food system that will not only boost health (rather than presenting a risk to it), but will also boost local economy and the community.
Light on Opportunity or Light on Interest?
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/05/08/presidential-candidates-have-little-opportunity-to-talk-about-education.html?PageNr=1A US News & World Report article published earlier this month provides an accurate overview of how education has been treated on the presidential campaign trail so far this election cycle.
In short, education has played an insignificant role in both of the primaries, and appears to be headed in the same direction in the general election. None of the three remaining candidates have staked out bold positions on the most important K-12 and higher education issues, and none of them have made much in the way of headlines in terms of promises or policy proposals.
Both Senators Obama and Clinton appear to be content with criticizing funding levels for NCLB, clamoring for increased loans to help with college affordability, and drawing moderate lines on teacher pay and quality initiatives. One disjunction between the two is that Senator Clinton has toed the teachers union supported line of rewarding teachers based on how well whole schools are doing whereas Senator Obama has taken the more controversial stance of rewarding only those individual teachers who are dramatically improving student achievement.
For his part, Senator McCain has had even less to say about education. He doesn't even yet have a full education platform published on his campaign website, and has really only issued standard GOP responses on education, trumpeting such ideas as school choice, merit pay for teachers, charter schools, and sometimes even vouchers. To the degree that education remains a low-priority issue, it will benefit Senator McCain since he has little expertise on the matter, especially given a traditional Democratic advantage among voters who consider education to be a key election day issue.
My only challenge to the article regarding low attention paid to education on the campaign trail is to the title. US News has the piece printed under the headline, "Presidential Candidates Have Little Opportunity to Talk About Education." I question whether this gets to the heart of the matter, or if it actually gives the candidates a bit more credit than they deserve regarding this issue which, after all, may be one of the most pressing policy matters facing our nation's future.
To me, the presidential candidates have plenty of opportunity to address whatever issues they deem to be important. After all, we're talking about candidates who give multiple speeches each day talking about all of the changes they'd like to make to the country. Senator McCain, for instance, has had no trouble making headlines with his unique views on global warming and climate change--issues which he has raised on his own, without having to wait for the right "opportunity". In other words, I'm afraid the candidates have not lacked in opportunity to address education, but have instead lacked sufficient interest to make it a crucial topic. And if you're wondering why none of the candidates (not just this year, but really for the past half-century since K-12 education has become a federal issue) have made K-12 school reform a priority, allow me to ask you a question to offer a hint why education will take a backseat for the foreseeable future: how many elementary, middle, and high school students are allowed to vote?
Burger King Caves!
After years of resistance, Burger King finally joined fellow fast food giants McDonalds and Yum! Brands in meeting farm worker demands for decent wages and working conditions. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Burger King announced on Friday that the fast food chain will begin paying a penny more per pound of Florida tomatoes in order to boost wages for tomato harvesters. A penny more per pound actually raises wages by 75 percent, if you can believe that. Until now, the standard rate has been about 45 cents for a 32-pound bucket.
As The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel points out, the victory is "testament to the tenacity and discipline of the Coalition, a community-based worker organization, which has exposed a half-dozen slavery cases that helped trigger the freeing of more than 1000 workers." The students who have continued to fight hard for this cause also helped pave the way for Friday's announcement.
In her piece, vanden Heuvel mentioned a Senate Labor Committee hearing on harsh working conditions for South Florida farm workers. At the hearing, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser said simply of the Florida tomato harvesters:
"The exploitation of farm workers should not be tolerated in Florida. It should not be tolerated anywhere in the United States. There are many social problems that are extremely difficult to solve. This is not one of them."
It's especially not difficult for Burger King, who will only lose less than $300,000 a year -- that's nothing when BK made $2.23 billion last year.
A good bit of news for once for immigrant farm workers.
Are Unhappy Students the Exception or the Rule?
If you want to know how good a school is, here's a novel idea: ask the students.
At a bad school, you'll hear complaints that are well-founded, such as a number of the quotes from a powerful report published earlier this week in Washington, DC .
One elementary school student complained, "Give us harder work, not the busywork that we already know."
A middle school student, when asked about her teachers, said that "they let you know you are failing but then let you go on struggling and then send you to summer school."
A student at the same school reflected, "Teachers don't teach us a thing throughout the entire period. When visitors come, they start working."
And at one of the city's high schools, one history class had an almost unbelievable lesson plan, where students were asked, "Where is your favorite place to shop?"
The concept of students complaining about school is not a novel concept, of course, especially at this time of the year when summer is just around the corner and patience grows thin on the part of adults and students both. But there is something telling in these comments from DC's students--and its telling more because of who says them, than what they are saying.
After all, were you really all that surprised to hear that it was students from an inner-city with high levels of poverty complaining about bad teachers, low expectations, and overall low quality of education? I hear similar statements from students all the time in my school, and I have to confess that they are often on point. In short, reports of student discontent are numerous in DC, St Louis City, and other areas with high concentrations of low-income and minority children, and they often hit on important themes, such as those having to do with low quality teachers or run-down school buildings.
Meanwhile, if a school is actually pretty good, you'll likely hear a combination of compliments and complaints. The difference about the complaints, however, will be marked. Instead of focusing on obvious problems such as inept teachers, broken facilities, lack of safety, and inadequate student support and discipline, in the nicer suburbian schools, complaints will sound a lot more like the student in the video below, which is to say high on passion and energy, but low on common sense. (Message to student: you are right that some teachers focus too much on rote memorization, but trust me when I say that learning vocabulary words does serve a purpose in the end!)