Save Our Schools Still Marching to DC

NEA yesterday voted against supporting SOS's People's Education Convention. It appears some Florida delegates took to the floor claiming that SOS is a Michelle Rhee backed group.  This is complete fabrication.

Fred Klonsky a Chicago teacher, well known blogger, and bother to Mike Klonsky a member of the SOS National Steering Committee reported back via his blog:

"Q: What happened with the NBI supporting the SOS conference in Washington that is planned for August?

A: It got voted down.

Jane Watson, an SOS supporter and delegate from Washington state said simple NBI that didn't ask for much than an endorsement of the conference and putting a link to SOS on the NEA website. It seemed very non-controversial. I have to say that most delegates in the hall know very little about SOS.

Then somebody, I don't know who, offered an amendment to send the issue of working with SOS to the Executive Committee. I thought this was probably a good idea since the NEA had supported the SOS march in Washington and had a relationship with the organizers. But that was rejected by the delegates for reasons that had nothing to do with the issue of SOS itself and had more to do with RA rules.

But then suddenly a group of delegates from Florida - I don't know who they are - went to the mic and started blasting SOS. They claimed it was a Michelle Rhee front group. One claimed that the organization had "withered" since the Washington march and that Diane Ravitch has quit."

Diane Ravitch's message this morning suddenly makes perfect sense to me:

“I have had several emails from people at the NEA representative assembly asking me if I was no longer supportive of the Save Our Schools organization.  Apparently some delegate got up and said I had disassociated myself from the group. I replied that this was untrue.  I was invited to speak this summer, and I declined but that was no indication of a lack of support, just a wish to minimize travel during the summer.  I participated as the lead respondent in an SOS webinar on June 19. I think that is a show of support.  I support SOS.”

These outspoken Florida delegates have a great deal to answer for.  They got up to speak, and spewed lies; they cannot claim ignorance.  Who knows, maybe this being an election year has changed the waters at NEA.  The same NEA who last year fully endorsed SOS’s march on DC.

Let me emphatically repeat, SOS has not changed since our Washington march. Our principles remain the very same:

For the future of our children, we stand strong in support of:

1. EQUITABLE FUNDING FOR ALL PUBLIC SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

• ·       Equitable funding across all public schools and school systems
• ·       Full public funding of family and community support services
• ·       Full funding for 21st century school and neighborhood libraries
• ·       An end to economically and racially re-segregated schools 

2. AN END TO HIGH STAKES TESTING USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF STUDENT, TEACHER, AND SCHOOL EVALUATION

• ·       The use of multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools
• ·       An end to pay per test performance for teachers and administrators
• ·       An end to public school closures based upon test performance

3. TEACHER, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN FORMING PUBLIC EDUCATION POLICIES

• ·       Educator and civic community leadership in drafting new ESEA legislation
• ·       Federal support for local school programs free of punitive and competitive funding
• ·       An end to political and corporate control of curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions for teachers and administrators

4. CURRICULUM DEVELOPED FOR AND BY LOCAL SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

• ·       Support for teacher and student access to a wide-range of instructional programs and technologies
• ·       Well-rounded education that develops every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential
• ·       Opportunities for multicultural/multilingual curriculum for all students
• ·       Small class sizes that foster caring, democratic learning communities

What is new in 2012 at SOS?
A) We established a Civil Rights committee.  Why? Specifically because almost everything that is happening to children in our nation’s public schools is related to civil rights violations.

B) We created a Labor committee, to work on a platform that supports labor.  Why? Because we believe in unions.

C) We followed up on a promise made at last year’s SOS Congress.   Nancy Carlsson-Paige along with Deborah Meyer are currently working on our early childhood platform with our Early Childhood Committee.  

These were the three areas that SOSers felt we needed to strengthen after last years march.

Of course SOS still rejects No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top policies. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Save Our Schools Peoples Education Convention in DC. where children, parents, teachers and public schools are so much more important than lies, or politics!

Still marching, 

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

SOS March National Steering Committee

Poverty matters Secretary Let Them Eat Tests

Secretary Arne Duncan, and his crew have been focusing on the Common Core and more testing they somehow over looked the staggering statistic that for the first in American over 1 MILLION Children attending our public schools are homeless. Our nation's mainstream media and billionaires love to cite Secretary Status Quo Duncan's rhetoric as an indicator of successful Education Reform Policy.
Let's all make this perfectly clear saying poverty does not matter is failing 1 million children attending our public schools. You could fight for them, but you rather test them.
Testing and standards doesn't house them,
Testing and standards doesn't feed them,
Testing and standards doesn't put their parent back to work,
NCLB and RTTT 1 trillion dollars spent on testing and standards failed them,
You Secretary Duncan have failed them.
Don't believe the hype America,
Poverty matters!
Momma always always said there go I, but for the grace of god. The truth is the wealthy and the powerful don't say that. They can never see themselves as poor, as hungry, and this is why in their minds poverty is something they cannot comprehend.
Even when hungry, and not certain where we would sleep at night Momma always read us Matthew 25:35-40 " For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶  I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? ³⁸ And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,^[a] you did it to me." 
So all of you 1% percenters remember this. There shall come a day when all we do shall be judged, and all we did not do shall be marks upon our souls.
Children are more than test scores, and the homeless children coming to our nation's public schools deserve more than the hype of new standards.
Still marching,
Jesse


If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening to today on his walk...it's Woody Guthrie's I Ain't Got No Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTnVMulDTYA

If you are wondering what the Walking Man is reading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/28/homeless-students-us_n_1635709.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

I know a scam when I see it America

Our leaders worship the too big to fail bankers and Wall Street billionaires. You know the ones who closed our factories, made American workers pack up their machinery to be sent over seas. Those people, who forced our hard working brothers and sisters to train their replacements in China. Yeah, people you know- those wealthy Americans who can't get enough tax break patriots. The ones who say let the poor fend for themselves. 
Our politicians tell us to place our faith in the private sector heroes, the ones that brought us:
The Tech Bubble, 
The stock bubble, 
The real-estate bubble, and
The too big to fail banks,
Yeah the ones we bailed out,
The ones who borrow from our taxpayer backed Fed at near zero interest rates,
Those big corporations that our Supreme Court Justices label people, and said they can spend as much as they want to influence our elections. 
Now these bright ones, these judases, are saying firemen, policemen, nurses, and teachers should not be guaranteed pensions.
Now, I am no Ivy League graduate. I went to David E. Public School, graduated from James J. Ferris high school, and hold a few degrees from those state universities that they love to berate, but I know a scam when I see it. 
Wake my fellow Americans it's time to start respecting those that protect us from fire, from crime, clean our bedpans, and teach our children. 
I say the time for paying homage to Wall Street, bankers, and billionaires is over, and the time to vote the bums out is now.
No more tax breaks for billionaires,
Still walking,
Still talking,
Still writing,
Still marching,
And still ain't nobody gonna turn me around,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

On my walk today it was all Bruce Springteen's Rocky Ground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUYnoWqct0