Union/Socialist/Marxist Machine &Teachers protest Cuomo, schools,curriculum

May 17, 2014. The Union/Socialist/Marxist Machine and Teachers were joined by parents and  students, as well as a few school bus drivers, at NY's City Hall to protest Cuomo, Bloomberg, Charter Schools and the "Common Core" curricula.

 

Odd bed-fellows: Republican parents and Teachers Unions joined together in opposition to Common Core :
 

"... to support a bill that would delay the administration of a standardized test aligned to the Common Core. Conservative lawmakers also sponsored a bill, co-written by the teachers union, that overturned a State Board of Education policy tying decisions about teacher licenses to student test scores."

Speeches and signs, however,  revealed a very un-Republican animus towards those "Evil Capitalists" on Wall Street,

 
Seems the Capitalists are to blame for our failed Public Education. 

Communist, Democrats, Greenies, "Workers", Occupy... all sprung forth from the same piece of political and philosophical dung.... Droning on and on about Profits vs our Civil Rights.

Taking Back OUR Schools Rally & March

 
"Progressives' and the Commie-fed 'Working Families Party' lead the mantras about "social injustice". Teachers and their unions raged on about 'inequality' ravaging our schools. 
They claim it's only the rich white kids getting a quality education denied to kids-of-color.

Money is Evil. Money is Racist.

Profits trump a quality Education for the poor. 

"There are too many WHITE teachers!" claims one speaker.  

 "Agitate. Indoctrinate. ORGANIZE."

 Embrace their self-imposed ignorance or else be banished; branded as a subversive Tea Party/Conservative Nut-Job.

 "Leave NY State" says Cuomo.

 
"NY doesn't want you"

Re-education not education (for the media and the students).

"The victim vs the master" meme enthralls the sycophant media. Challenge them and you will meet the Progressive's Evil Twin "Snidely" who is "evasive, un-intimidated and very disrespectful".

 "Common Core"..."Government Controlled" textbooks... testing and teachers .... Government Control of our schools.... this now offends the Union/Leftist/ Prog/Socialists.

Marx didn't like to belong to organizations he didn't control. And once within an organization, Marx tried to control literally everything it did.

Many Marxists (not just “left communists”) argue that Marxism, or communism, is not about state control and centralization. According to Marx it is.

In the extreme and all-encompassing level of this communist, centralization is thoroughly Stalinist (or Marxist!) in nature.

A list from The Principles of Communism (replicated in the Communist Manifesto) written by Engels in 1847; a list of what must occur in a communist society/state:

i) The abolition of private property.

ii) The central organization of wages for workers on the land and in factories.

iii) The nationalization of transport.

iv) Private banks were to be erased and superseded by centralized or state banks.

v) The state would own all factories, workshops, farms, etc.

vi) All education was to be centralized or state-controlled and funded by the state.  

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Slideshow:  Many of the signs protested Testing and Common Core.  No testing for students. NO testing to evaluate the teachers! Plus a  plethora of complaints straight from the Soc/Commie/Prog/Leftie playbook

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From Save Our Schools and Save Our Schools Face Book Page  more on their opposition to TESTING. The national Testing Resistance & Reform Spring campaign. 

Calling all NYC Metro Area community activists, the “voices of resistance”, families, students, civil rights advocates, voters, immigrant families, policymakers and legislators, union members, teachers, faith leaders and all communities that believe in a good public education for all!

Join us in ... seeking to create & sustain a public school system that provides a fully funded, equitable, community-based education for every child. This means that....decisions about our children’s schooling would be made democratically by families and professional educators, free of corporate and political intervention.

From the NY Times: 

With tensions running high over issues surrounding academic benchmarks, standardized testing and performance evaluations for educators, an unlikely coalition of teachers, lawmakers and parents from the left and right banded together to push back against what they see as onerous changes in education policy. (many changes that the LEFT nurtured and enforced)

The kid makes a point :

Excerpts from a few speakers:

VIDEO - Part 1 - In part one, the speaker was particularly pleased that there was a bill just passed by the Assembly Education Committee - a unanimous bipartisan vote - putting a two year delay on teacher evaluations. No teacher "Evals", no schools closed.




  VIDEO - Part 2 - In Part Two, the speaker (a member of Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence) focused on an education that has "Equity  with Excellence; Excellence with Equity for ALL students. A fundamental Human Right. Quality Education that is not possible in NYC without a Struggle for CHANGE. 

They were not disappointed in the election of DeBlasio as Mayor of NYC, but are strongly opposed to Mayoral Control of the Public Schools. And they are very opposed to Charter Schools.

"Quality in Education goes Beyond Academics. Mayoral Control Must Go. We The People are NOT Represented. We the People must Rise Up. Parents Must Mobilize and Empower Themselves."
"Transform a curriculum that is Culturally Relevant. Mandatory Black Studies. Indigenous Studies. Cultural Studies from Pre-K thru High School will mean less likely disrespect and attacks because of Cultural Studies. The process in place now is inappropriate and unacceptable."

VIDEO - Part 3 -  In Part Three, the speaker was a black woman who introduced herself as a parent. She complains that "the NYC schools have become a pipeline in to our prisons. Too many of our students are being arrested in our schools where they are supposed to be learning. Our schools are not Prisons. Our children are not criminals."  She was an advocate for After-school Programs. Social Workers....

( Part 3 video won't embed) Please follow link
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39CuDFxvy8o



More on the opposition to Corporations and Testing:

• Let corporations know that we will resist their efforts to privatize and control public education.

• Assure authentic classroom based assessment that informs teaching and learning; end high stakes testing.

• Assure locally developed curricula that honors local languages and cultures while addressing the unique needs of special education students, English language learners, and the poor and children of color who have been marginalized into a second tier system of education; end common core standards

• Ensure privacy of student data – end inBloom

VIDEO- Part 4- Special Ed teacher- In Part Four, a Special Ed teacher is speaking. She is a critic of High Stakes Testing on Students with Disabilities. "Creative, invested teachers have skills that cannot be tested or quantified. Dedicated Educators who have been deemed ineffective simply because they took on the challenge of teaching children who need the most support"

• Establish universal high quality preschools, taught by early childhood experts, and available to all children as part of their public education.

• Stop edTPA- States are outsourcing the evaluation of student teachers to Pearson. This allows a private for-profit company to determine how our children will be taught and by whom.

• Wrap around services for every neighborhood public school, including: counselors, social workers,
 psychologists, and health care workers.

• Strengthen neighborhood schools, assure high quality schools in every neighborhood; resist
 charter schools and vouchers.

VIDEO  - Part 5 - In Part Five,  The speakers are from the  Badass Moms (and Teachers) Assoc. (there were two) one of whom spoke of her 15 seconds of fame when she confronted Gov. Christie. Caught the end of the first speaker, "Join hands Parents and Teachers. Never let Go til we get our class rooms back".

The second speaker, "I shocked myself when I confronted Gov. Christie."

She continues, "We have more power than we even recognize. We have a right to organize. We need to take back our schools. Our responsibility to act. Inform the decision makers that we will no longer sit by and let this happen.

We gave their brand of educational reform a chance. We will not allow an even more intense brand with racist (?unclear?) We demand change. Now we must create it.

Money does not have the ultimate power. People have the ultimate power. We need to run for office. To put the correct people in place that will make the informed decisions of what is best for our children now and in the future."

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 What is the  'Badass Moms Association' 

According to their facebook page:

MEMBERS CAN BE BANNED FOR: Supporting corporate deform entities (TFA, StudentsFirst, Pearson, Bill Gates, etc.); supporting Common Core State Standards; excessive arguing or disrespecting decisions made by the mods/admins/founders and disrespecting any UNION; making comments that conflict with the mission of Badass Moms Association; making any racist comments. No teacher bashing.

We oppose the Common Core State Standards, Teach for America, expansion of Charter Schools and the disinvestment in our public schools.

ACTIONS: re BAM "If it comes to a battle between the billionaires and the moms over the future of public education, I am betting on the moms!" Mark Naison, Founder

of Badass

No mention of ridding the schools of the incompetent educators. Corporations Bad. Unions Good.

"Rules that protect bad teachers from firing are common across the country... According to New York’s school boards association, the average proceeding to remove even one incompetent teacher extends for 830 days and costs taxpayers $313,000. So teachers are far more likely to be moved to failing schools than fired. And these schools tend to be filled with black and Latino kids. The problem entrenches itself as those teachers stay in the system longer, where they are then protected by seniority. Not only does this keep a failing teacher in the classroom, but it makes it impossible for schools to hire new, more effective teachers."

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 Then there was the Kumbaya moment and it was time to vacate the premises.

VIDEO - Part 6- UNIONS LOVE SINGING - In Part Six, the singer gave this intro before leading the crowd in song:  "What a Crowd! Give your self a big Hand!" He continues, "Democrat Representatives in Trenton said we're having a real tough time. You gotta get the people out there singing and screamin' and tellin' what's wrong with the schools." (next a Woody Guthrie song)

"This school is your school. This school is my school. From Philadelphia to the New York Island. From the Jersey classrooms to Chicago City. These schools were made for you and me"

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Background on the participants:

List of  speakers:

Asean Johnson and Shoneice Reynolds, Naison, Brian Jones, Carol Burris, Jeannette Deutermann, Leonie Haimson, Joe Rella, Jose Vilson, NYC student  ”J”,  Marla Kilfoyle, Melissa Tomlinson, Monty Neill, Dao Tran, Ken Mitchell, Daiyu Suzuki, Akinlabi Mackall, Muba Yarofulani, Rosie Frascella, Stephanie Rivera, Bianca Tanis,  Lisa Winter

                                     Participating groups:

Alliance for Quality Education – BATS – Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE) - Change The Stakes – Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats  -  Children Are More Than Test Scores – Class Size Matters – The Coalition for Educational Justice CEJ -  Coalition for Public Education - Communities United New Jersey -Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action at Manhattanville College – EDU4 – FairTest- iCOPE –Hudson Valley Against Common Core -Lace to the Top – LI Opt Out - MORE –NAACP MID Manhattan-Network for Public Education-Newark Students Union-New Caucus of Newark- New Jersey Education Association (NJEA)- New York Allies for Public Education – NY PRINCIPALS .ORG – NY Student Union –NYCORE –  Parents Across America –    Parent Leadership Project-Parent Voices NY- Parents to Improve School Transportation – Port Jeff Station Teachers Association – Radical Women -Reclaiming the Conversation on Education – Save Our Schools (SOS) – Save Our Schools-NJ –S.E.E.D.S. (SEEDSWORK) - Stop Common Core in New York State - Students Not Scores LI – Students United for Public Education (SUPE) – Teachers United – Time Out from Testing-UFT-United Opt Out National-Ya Ya Network-

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BTW- within a week of the rally... Cuomo accepted the endorsement of the Working Families Party.... All was forgiven...

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