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Welcome to day of LAUSD Edpeak 101, the total immersion language course designed for those outside of public education that find themselves increasingly challenged in understanding what comes out public education administrators mouths.In post literate America, a condition due in...

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) If you were watching KNBC Los Angeles news coverage last night, you may have seen a report by Conan Nolan titled, Where Do Problem Teachers Go? The "Rubber Room." It served as a sort of one minute and fifty three second limited spot summary of Leonard Isenberg's last article, "LAUSD & UTLA: THEIR PROBLEMS ARE STRUCTURAL NOT PERSONNEL," in which Lenny articulates the many levels of accountability due to LAUSD and UTLA for the conditions which permit disasters like the events at Miramonte Elementary School and the archaic detentions centers called rubber rooms.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It is much easier to point a finger at the latest incarnation of LAUSD institutional failure, Superintendent John Deasy, then to finally realize that the problem isn't Deasy per se, but the way LAUSD is set up to fail. Once we understand this we can take the time and effort necessary to reconfigure LAUSD into a viable form that finally allows this critically necessary institution of public education to get it right. What hangs in the balance is whether or not we will remain a nation that honestly aspires to being "One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice [and education] for all."

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Michelle Rhee and her husband Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson appeared on Wednesday night at the R.F. Kennedy Learning Center. In this carefully orchestrated event Rhee gave a data rich presentation that clearly showed a public education in longstanding corruption and dysfunction. What was missing was any in depth understand of what caused this regrettable situation in the past and what continues to fuel its existence.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Deasy's self-serving main purpose is rather to frame the discussion of these regrettable and avoidable events in a manner in which LAUSD has no responsibility. Ironically, it is precisely this district penchant for never taking responsibility that has in fact created the fertile ground for a "culture of silence" he mistakenly ascribes only to teachers, who in reality are too terrorized by LAUSD administration to speak up, when clearly the price of so doing is to be targeted for losing your job.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It is important for the credibility of this blog to recognize when those we have rightfully criticized in the past finally stand up and speak truth to power. Today, February 9th, on the Pat Morrison radio show on 89.3 KPCC, UTLA President Warren Fletcher finally lived up to his responsibility as the head of a union charged with the protection of predominantly innocent teachers in a a school environment that is safe for all. This was in marked contrast to what LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and his predecessors have done in their longstanding abysmal treatment of teachers, which in the context of the Miramonte tragedy, LAUSD has been seeking to lay exclusively at their feet.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) If you've been watching the news, reading the papers or listening to talk radio at all during the past week, you've heard of the events at Miramonte Elementary School. Two longtime male teachers have been accused of the most reprehensible acts against children and recently a female teacher has been accused of acting in concert with them. To make matters even worse, over the past few days it has been revealed that complaints of the same nature were made against another teacher several years ago, which were never addressed. Needless to say, this story has gone ballistic and has easily been disseminated across the country by now. Parent reactions have been justifiably severe. They include soliciting the services of attorneys, withholding attendance, demonstrating outside the school and making further inquiries. The immediate result has been what's described as an "unprecedented" action by the district superintendent of LAUSD, John Deasy. He has moved the entire staff, both certificated and classified off the campus and by this Thursday, February 9th, he'll have replaced them entirely. So what we should now be asking ourselves is what exactly brought these events about and what are the motivations in the steps taken thus far by the district.

CHECK OUT VIDEO OF KENNEDY HIGH DEMONSTRATION (Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Today we went out to Kennedy High School in Granada Hills to support the highly respected teacher Manny Alvarado who has been unjustly targeted for punishment by his principal Suzanne Blake, who has put him on 3 weeks of unpaid administrative leave without anything even remotely resembling justifiable cause or fair process. In so doing, Principal Blake has shown a complete and utter disregard for the well being of Alvarado's students, who uniformly describe Alvarado as a dedicated and inspirational teacher, who should rather have been lauded for the difficult job he has gladly done in fulfillment of a vision of public education that LAUSD leadership seems at a loss to achieve.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Not only has LAUSD administration continued to sweep these scandals under the carpet for years, they do so while allowing the sexual harassment and bullying of teachers and others as well. When teacher Sheril Sakai reported that she was being sexually harassed at her school, not only was nothing done, but charges where brought against her that have lead to her removal from the classroom and her livelihood. Ms. Sakai is only one of hundreds of teachers that have been subjected to this treatment as a matter of standard operating procedure at LAUSD.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) This Saturday, February 4th I will be on the Tavis Smiley & Dr. Cornell West Radio Show that you can listen to on KPFK at 11 am or on KPCC at 10 pm or go about 1/3 of the way into the following link: http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/tavis/local-tavis-1002649.mp3

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In the following videos from the January 24th Town Hall Meeting at El Camino High School, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy pulls a Pontius Pilate and washes his hands of any responsibility for finally implementing a system of excellent public education for all, by blaming Governor Brown and budget cuts for the longstanding dismal state of public education at LAUSD. "We have no control over our budget and must make do with whatever the state gives us," is the line that Deasy says again and again at the Town Hall before irate community members, while seeking to extort more money from property owners in Los Angeles, who have, up until now, always given LAUSD whatever money it asks for without ever having LAUSD held accountable for the results of this generationally failed public education system that continues to destroy the lives of predominantly Black and Latino students in a de facto segregated system far worse than what existed when the U.S. Supreme Court intervened with Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) After having read Superintendent Deasy's comments and those of board member Tamar Galantzan as well as those who responded, it's rather obvious what's at work despite references to students, parents and some subject areas being taught. This is all about money and trying to justify asking for more when most of us wonder about what happened to all the previous money raised through bond initiatives in addition to that contributed by wealthy donors, the men who would be kings like Eli Broad and Bill Gates.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The actual task of fixing public education would be rather straight forward - if honestly addressed. There are several factors that continue to purposefully confound the process by substituting platitudes for any in depth and pragmatic program that would define itself by the student and their families actual existence and needs. Initially. we would have to pragmatically address the engrained subjective needs and deficits of those already in the system to whatever extent still possible, with the clear knowledge that the longer they have been in the present system, the more immutable the damage.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Wednesday night's town hall meeting sponsored by The Daily News at El Camino High School with LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and Board Member Tamar Galatzan and moderated by Daily News columnist Doug McIntyre was a close second, when it comes to a self-delusional definition of chutzpah with idealistic quote from John Adams which Superintendent John Deasy opened the event and then proceeding to contradict it with everything he said about the bleak reality now facing public education in Los Angeles, while protesting that somehow it would still be possible for him, Galatzan, and other LAUSD employees to do their job..

Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) When is a union not a union? Affected schools under the stabilization and empowerment initiative will be automatically waived from the district policy of giving priority placement to recently laid off teachers in newly vacant positions. District officials claim that this will ensure the placement of teachers who are the most "proper fit." In practice, however, districts and schools will have a free hand to replace experienced veterans with their younger and lower paid counterparts, if the positions are filled at all.

BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND PICKET AT EL CAMINO REAL HIGH SCHOOL 5440 Valley Circle Blvd. Woodland Hills, Ca. 91367 Wed. Night JAN. 25, 2012 AT 6:30PM LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT Dr. John Deasy and Tamar Galatzan will be hosting a so called town hall meeting.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) On October 11, 2011, Mr. Art Zeidman, Regional Director of the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, in San Francisco send Superintendent Dr. Deasy a sixteen page letter (Case No. 09-10-5001) that outlined civil rights protections that LAUSD had agreed to remedy. The full text of that letter may be read and/ or downloaded at www.ed.gov/. (In the top right corner Search box enter either "Los Angeles Unified School District" or "Case No. 09-10-5001" and the website's internal search will take you there.) Those federal civil rights include protections against race, color, age, disability, and national origin discrimination. What laws and federal protections were looked at in their one and a half year audit of LAUSD? Discrimination based on race, color, and national origin as prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI. Sex discrimination including sexual harassment as prohibited by the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX. Disability discrimination as prohibited by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and its recent amendments. Age discrimination as prohibited by the Age Discrimination Act of 1975.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Kathleen Carroll was an attorney for California Teacher Credential (CTC) from 2006-2010, when she was summarily dismissed without even minimal respect for her right to due process of law. She was fired because she dared to point out that CTC, which is supposed to be under the executive branch of California state government, had become a law unto itself with no oversight where arbitrary and capricious actions of this agency were the rule and not the exception as to how they operated on a daily basis.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Rupturing the school to prison pipeline starts when the crimes of LAUSD and school districts like it throughout this country are confronted and stopped. It is 44 years since the Latino walkouts from E.L.A. schools and Latino public education at LAUSD is worse today than it was back then. So where is MALDEF...having self-congratulatory dinners and having its President Thomas Saenz back his client Mayor Villaraigosa's empty reforms with no measurable gains.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Probably the great malaise that continues to infect all those involved with public education is a sense of apathy and hopelessness. Whether explicitly expressed by those who have given up and are just hanging on until retirement or implicitly stated by those who continue to mouth platitudes on public education success in the face of their own continuing failure, there is not only no belief in or implementation of a plan for fixing public education, but conveniently no belief that it can actually be accomplished. In reality, nothing is further from the truth nor more indicative of the fact that racism is still very much alive and well in America for those of all ethnicities that continue to profit from the status quo.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) LAUSD reports that its change of menu for its students has not been received with much success. Maybe this has something to do with a complete and longstanding inability by LAUSD leadership to create the requisite culinary knowledge and taste that it must build in the communities where it schools exist in order for students to want to eat a wholesome diet. Poor diet is just another indicator of an educational and social system designed to destroy instead of nurture minority and poor children. Eating wholesome food is a learned characteristic of any society that completely educates - in the broadest sense of the word - all its children. In French society from birth babies are TAUGHT to eat healthy food that is presented as part of the country's distinct cultural identity as early as baby daycare (creche) from the time their mothers have to go back to work when their babies are 3 months old. In addition, those mothers had already received prenatal care to insure that their prenatal diet while carrying the child maximized the possibility to fulfill the genetic potential of their child.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The following video from Chicago shows what needs to be done, if parents and other public education reform realists who are tired of being ignored. Their children will no longer be allow to fail in silence. Educators will no longer be allowed to be forced out or quit in droves from the mentally and physically unhealthy environment that has too long been allowed by corrupt administrators and the politicians that keep them in power unrepentant. If what we say or do can be ignored with impunity by those in power than it isn't worth doing. Clearly, what is going on in Chicago needs to happen here now.

A small gift to perdaily made by clicking on the "Donate" button on the right will give us the financial power to confront and change public education in Los Angeles and throughout the United States.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It was 19th century British historian Lord Acton who said, "All power tends to corrupt, absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely." You'd think by the 21st century we might have learned this lesson, but the purposefully failed Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which absolutely refuses to share power with any of its shareholders- teachers, parent, or students- has continued to exemplify this quote and there doesn't seem to be any governmental entity willing to bring it to any end, even though so doing is the clear prerequisite of finally having a well run and pragmatic public school system capable of dealing with the problems LAUSD continues to cause and is clearly incapable of addressing.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) LAUSD had a meeting today at Dorsey High School to roll out the Public School Choice Program for the parents and community members present. I went to the meeting, because my own analysis of this program, which I covered at perdaily clearly showed that this was just more of the same recycled and renamed vacuous school reform rhetoric from the past, e.g.LEARN, that has no chance of bring about any positive change to communities of color and poverty in LAUSD. What I felt most important for the parents to be aware of that were being asked to go along with this program is the fact that like all other supposed LAUSD reform, power will stay with the school principal and LAUSD Superintendent, who have an absolute veto over anything that teachers, parents, and students might decide actually worked better. Again, what LAUSD says in terms of parent, teacher, and student input is belied the reality of the clear legal language that again and again say the principal and superintendent maintain a veto and

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Probably the greatest irony of purposefully failed public education at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) - with the active longstanding complicity of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) leadership - is the complete lack of imagination exhibited by these two entities in carrying on self-serving business as usual to the ongoing determent of predominantly Latino and Black students who have been and continue to be sold short on the public education that is their right. A testament to just how long this pernicious system has been in place is that most educators - whatever their ethnicity - have no real expectation that minority children can learn. In an old television police show, the intro would always say, "The names have been changed to protect the innocent." At LAUSD, the names of their latest "education reform" scam are always changed from Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN) to Charter to Small Learning Community to ESBMM and now to Local Initial School (LIS), but if you review previous incarnations of supposed education reform, that is all that has changed and the innocent students and teachers are never protected . The present Memorandum of Understanding that LAUSD and UTLA leaderships are trying to rush through as an early Christmas present for themselves is exactly like earlier reforms that never pragmatically address the dismal reality of LAUSD schools with anything other than edspeak rhetoric, instead of a specific plan that lays out what you do with students who have been socially promoted from grade to grade without having fulfilled grade level standards until they quit, disrupt the class because they are no longer capable of being engaged, or "graduate" with a diploma that isn't worth the paper it is written on.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Last night I attended a United Teachers Los Angeles House of Representatives meeting at the UTLA headquarters. For those of you with better things to do with your life, I will give a less in depth analysis of why this tentative agreement is a disaster for teachers - and by logical extension - students, parents, or anybody else that actually wants real public education reform. Simply stated: It's business as usual On tomorrow's post I will go into a more details analysis - if you are still not convinced - of the specific terms of the proposed contract that are problematic to say the least.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) After listening to the incoherent charade that Ira Berman had been laying out to my teacher friend in much the same manner that I am sure he has used to con other less informed teachers into resigning from LAUSD, I now start to lay out why I really came to this meeting. LAUSD administrators have "maliciously" and mercilessly destroyed the lives of teachers and other certificated and classified employees without the slightest fear of being held responsible for their heinous crimes, because of the arguably blanket immunity of California Government Code Section 821.6.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) During the last several weeks I have been inundated with phone calls from Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) rubber room teachers and others who the new regime of Superintendent John Deasy is moving to dismiss in an expedited manner, Finally many of these long targeted and completely innocent teachers are starting to realize that LAUSD's actions against them - and not against teachers and administrators who are in fact guilty of what they have been accused - have nothing do do with culpability, but rather getting rid of as many high priced teachers as possible - along with the expensive benefits they have accrued for a lifetime of professional career service. It is only recently that these teachers have become aware that once their own dismissal proceedings start, they never stop irrespective of whether there is any evidence to prove that they have done anything wrong.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) LAUSD and UTLA have announced that they have reached a tentative agreement UTLA President Warren Fletcher is either suffering from early onset Alzheimer's or he has totally capitulated to LAUSD leadership either out of being in over his head as UTLA president, stupidity, or concern about maintaining his recent personal good fortune of having his annual salary and benefits phenomenally augmented over his measly teachers salary and a manner not too dissimilar to LAUSD administration that also have forgotten that they started their careers in education as teachers and then got as far away from the purposefully cultivated insanity of the average LAUSD classroom.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) New for the holiday season for those of you who are looking for the gift that keeps on taking. It is called the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board Game, it has very little to do with education and everything to do with making obscene amounts of money at whatever the cost. For those of you who have played Monopoly in the past, the transition to the LAUSD Board Game should be rather straight forward. Like Monopoly, it's all about money, but adds the crucial function of reinforcing negative racial and ethnic student stereotypes, while bring to the game world the leading edge media favorite of applying these negative stereotypes to teachers and anyone else who gets in the way of the ultimate goal of the game: The privatization of public education and the dumbing down of as much of the 99% as possible

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) This is the "Cradle to Prison Pipeline" I have been working on. The alignment of what happens to certain segments of youth in the K-12 system perfectly lines up with the prison population. This is a mathematical proof. This alignment is too close for it to be an accident. I have sent my information to several researchers around the country and they seem to see this also. I am seeing the results of this lack of providing an education to students as they then end up in the justice system. Another outrageous enterprise for investors. This is our criminal world today and I do not mean those youth I mean the adults who do this to them. Nothing like this can be an accident. I have been putting this information into the public sector for over 20 years and Richard Arthur for over 50 years. As Richard once said "Why not put them in jail when they are born. I would save a lot since that is what is going to happen anyway."

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Last night I went to the Hammer Museum for one in a series of excellent programs moderated by KPFK 90.7 FM's Ian Masters entitled Political Persuasion: The 2012 Elections. As we start the countdown to next year's presidential election, I was surprised by the unanimity between the veteran but opposing campaign strategists. Both Bill Zimmerman, who has worked on many political campaigns for candidates or ballot initiatives and Dan Schnur, the now director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, who worked on virtually all Republican presidential campaigns since Ron Reagan, agreed that it would be least educated that would hold the balance of power in deciding whether Barack Obama would get a second term or whether a Republican would replace him.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) As one clueless superintendent after another is anointed by the forces of public education privatization and the mass media to implement revolutionary public education reform that never seems to come about in our public schools, nobody in a position of power questions or seems willing to hold accountable a non-system of public education where predominantly Black and Latino students have the continued and generational misfortune of being sold out with a one-way ticket to the underclass..

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) While it requires only a rudimentary education to spot the daily blatant distortions that Fox News KTTV 11 puts out in lieu of any real, truthful, and unbias reporting, the fact that Fox News successfully continues to get away with this travesty passed off as the "news" is a powerful testament as to just how far the average America has gone down from being educated in a manner that LAUSD students and their parents of the 1950s and 1960s took for granted. As I described in the prior post about Fox 11 KTTV News concerning morally challenged "Reporter" Daniel Leighton, what Fox does is pander to the deep seeded ignorance and prejudices of its listening audience, while requiring no critical analysis of itself or of its audience that seems incapable, because of its own LAUSD "education," replete with not even basic skills of critical analysis, to make them aware of the rational contradictions of virtually everything Fox 11 KTTV says. It is not out of the realm of the possible to imagine a Fox ad campaign with the slogan, "Fox News, well thought and objective analysis never gets in the way.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) On November 2, 2011 I get the following email from Daniel Leighton of Fox News Channel 11, "Give me call re story on lausd rubber rooms 3108773392 thanks." Now since Mrs. Isenberg didn't have any dummies for children, I wonder what Fox would want from me, since calling me a progressive would be a major understatement. After several emails back and forth, Mr. Leighton says to me, "Listen, we are just a Fox affiliate, I determine what gets on the air." What Mr. Leighton says he is interested in doing is uncovering the phenomenal waste incurred by LAUSD that locks hundreds of teachers in LAUSD Local District Offices, other sites, or in their homes for years on end, while it continues to pay them.

(en español después) Who is more likely to rip off a poor person of color? A person with a middle class background who has never suffered the deprivation the majority of people of color have experienced as a by-product of the post-Columbus world they live in or people of color who are logically more tempted by finally being given access to a 6 figure salary and benefits for going along with a system of exploitation they have never had access to?

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Last night at the Center for the Junior Blind in Baldwin Hills, Congresswoman Karen Bass and Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali spoke about fixing public education as "the most important civil rights issue of our generation." And yet, In laying out where we stand now and the Obama administration's ambitious goals for fixing public education by 2020 Assistant Secretary Ali tried the impossible task of trying to reconcile her optimism with her equally honest assessment that there was not only no money to fix public education, but the rather extreme likelihood that there would be even less in the future.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) If you have been targeted for dismissal as a teacher by LAUSD, there is one way that you might be able to defend yourself, which United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and their attorneys at Trygstad, Schwab & Trygstad seem to avoid at all costs. California Education Code Section 44944 requires: (a) (1) In a dismissal or suspension proceeding initiated pursuant to Section 44934, if a hearing is requested by the employee,the hearing shall be commenced within 60 days from the date of the employee's demand for a hearing. This provision is presently ignored by LAUSD, UTLA, and Trystad, Schwab & Trygstad to the detriment of the teacher being brought up on charges and facing dismissal.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) As perdaily approaches its two year anniversary this November of writing about all the news that's fit to print about the inept Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), that somehow never seems to see the light of day with the Los Angeles Times or any other mainstream media outlet - or Broad and Gates Foundation financially dependent National Public Radio outlets for that matter. In moments of self-doubt, one wonders whether we are making a difference? With the excellent self-critical educational skills that I developed as a student from an LAUSD of a different era during the 1950s and 1960s, I reflected as we post our 300th blog post as to whether what I am reporting makes any difference in the unceasing and purposeful decline of public education at LAUSD and the rest of predominantly minority filled public school districts throughout this country. After all, it's hard to stay a racist without LAUSD and its compadres throughout this country continuing to cultivate stereotypes of Black and Latino stupidity from the naive optimism of Black and Latino children and their parents who continue to pursue the American dream, when they should know better by now.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) When I read Mr. Isenberg's blog about the rubber rooms, I thought the District's process was, at worst, simply stupid. This morning, I had an opportunity to visit one of these teachers at his temporary assignment. Teachers call these temporary assignments "rubber rooms", apparently due to the similarity to holding facilities at mental hospitals that have walls made of rubber to prevent patient self-injury. What I observed was appalling - and what I heard was even worse. Teachers are required to sit in separated cubicles that are more reminiscent of jail visiting facilities than of a school site. I also confirmed that the District has given them absolutely nothing to do - not even "busy work". Having been required to work at an empty desk during my own whistleblowing experience, I know that being required to do nothing while being watched constantly is an extremely stressful and totally punitive procedure.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) LAUSD continues to incarcerate more and more innocent teachers in "rubber rooms" (usually Local District Offices) in a desperate attempt to either balance their budget or get rid of competent teachers who have balked at going along with LAUSD corruption and long failed business as usual policies that administrators without imagination haven't a clue how to change. In a culture that finds daycare in lieu of the excellent public education preferable, these teachers were foolish enough to believe that they could implement against LAUSD & UTLA incompetent self-dealing, something better and consistent with the ideals that got them into teaching in the first place. These teacher are tortured on a daily basis by LAUSD administrators who would have no trouble working a Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo..

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) If you were a school district like the Los Angeles Unified School District that had a $408 million budget shortfall for the academic year 2011-2012 and $15 billion in unfunded and already vested lifetime medical benefits, what would you do? Here's a little gambit that would make Bernie Madoff or John Gotti proud. The scintillating intellects at LAUSD and their new Superintendent John Deasy straight from the Gates Foundation with his mandate to privatize public education, tells his underlings to target teachers with the following characteristics:

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken, like recently termed out UTLA President A.J. Duffy eschewed the use of a first and middle name throughout his career, which I am sad to say is about all these two men have in common. Mencken, who was known at the "Sage of Baltimore" for his satire, wit, and journalistic excellence would have had a field day in examining the blatant hypocrisy of A.J. Duffy and his mercenary proclivities for never being fettered by any belief that he wasn't willing to sell out...for the right price.

Check out what follows as a clear explanation of how the fix is in with public education at the Los Angeles Unified School District and elsewhere throughout this country in the move to privatize public education. See what mainstream media blacks out and what should be part of the discussion on real public education reform.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Several years ago Green Dot Schools then CEO Steve Barr did a video interview for a documentary on public education that I was working on. In it he said, "We can turn around Locke High School in a year." It occurred to me at the time that if you could make up for all the damage that had been done to these students in South Central (I'm not politically correct, since changing the name hasn't changed the reality for the better in this area), then none of us would have to go to 13 years of K-12 education. It is now years later, where only 14 of the original 500 student class graduated and only 85 of a recent 1400 student class graduated. This does not mean that even those who graduated were college ready with A-G requirements. Rather than think and ask why this is happening and finally address student deficits in a timely manner, before it is too late for most students by the time they get to high school without Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) or basic math skills, people still refuse to address the underlying faulty reasoning that tries to fix the damage after the fact and then implicitly accepts race and poverty as the explanation as to why students don't succeed.

Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In discussing my own case with Mr. Lapekis and LAUSD's desire to deprive me of my lifetime health benefits under the "Rule of 80" (where my age and service time add up to 80 to give me lifetime health benefits), Ron points out that LAUSD already has approximately $15 billion in fixed unfunded lifetime health benefits for those who have already vested and is doing everything- legal and illegal- to stop as many teachers like myself from vesting.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) David Lyell's political aspiration are his exclusive motivation. The well-being of his fellow teachers has nothing to do with anything he says or does. Before David ran for UTLA Secretary, he blogged for me at perdaily to advance his candidacy, while doing the same at NYC teachers, and anywhere else he could to promote himself, his career, and his candidacy for UTLA Secretary - his first step toward the political career he so covets - think LAUSD Board member Jose Huizar for a comparable plan. Predictably, after being pursued for access to perdaily and other sites where I blog, II haven't heard much from David since his election. I wonder why?

LAUSD and Superintendent John Deasy should listen to Diane Ravitch and the majority in this putative democracy that want the excellent public education that LAUSD has stood against for generations. The Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation want to privatize public education and if successful will condemn our democracy to the junk heap of history if they are successful in taking education away from "We the people," who have to be educated in order to function as the arbiters of power that keeps politicians and their corporate masters in check.

When the Q&A period commenced, Lenny was the first to be called. He related the recent test fixing scandals in New York, D.C, and now Atlanta and asked Cortines to respond to similar allegations that Lenny reported to Cortines 2 years ago along with physical evidence that Lenny has about the same test fixing going on at LAUSD. Immediately, the smile departed from Cortines face and he became ostensibly defensive. But Lenny went on to relate his personal experience as a teacher long aware of these "fixing" issues - as most teachers are - and how he had been targeted and terminated for his refusal to stand by silently, but rather attempting to report it to the Los Angeles Times Reporter Mitchell Landsberg, who although reporting this scandal to Cortines, never wrote a word about it in the Times. As of this writing, the L.A. Times continues to blackout this topic and many others dealing with LAUSD corruption.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) For 23 years I was an acclaimed teacher who taught school with excellent teaching evaluations and no negative marks of any kind against me. Only when I dared to say that cheating on student assessments was rampant in my school and throughout LAUSD (for which I have documentary proof) was I subjected to a well orchestrated campaign of harassment, highly defamatory false charges, and ultimate dismissal from LAUSD which is now pending before an expensive and protracted legal process that LAUSD seems content to endlessly throw money at even though they have no evidence against me that has not been fabricated.. I guess I should be flattered that they recently engaged the toney outside law firm of Bergman and Dacey to continue the assault. This is why I was not surprised by today's revelation about the fixing of student assessments in Atlanta, Georgia. "Rampant, systematic cheating on test scores in this city's long-troubled public schools," is a mirror image of the scam that continues to go on unchecked at LAUSD.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Language has often been a political issue in the United States whenever there have been large waves of immigration. As an antidote for this national xenophobia, speaking a different language has been discouraged through social intimidation, violence, and attempts to establish English as the official language, or simple refusal of services to those that don't speak English. In the not to distant past, non-English speaking students were forced to abandon their native language or were subjected to punishment in school for speaking it.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) There is a disturbing trend that is becoming more and more prevalent in various aspects of American society, which has come to have much more in common with the fanaticism it derides in Muslim fundamentalism than in a rich history of free thinking that derives strength from and protects the ideas of those who question authority. Irrational orthodoxy that eschews fact, logic, and reason, while taking exception with this same type of aberrant behavior in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, sees no problem with imposing their right reasoning against parallel intellectual traditions in these countries and the United States of rational social order and accomplishment.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) As somebody who went to law school and taught constitutional law at both the secondary and university levels, I had always operated under the delusion that one was innocent until proven guilty by a preponderance of the evidence in a civil case and beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case. In the corrupt world created by the Los Angeles Unifed School District (LAUSD) and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), nothing could be further from the truth. From the moment you are targeted for removal from teaching for what quickly becomes a never ending sequence of fabricated charges based on reasons mentioned in Part 1 of this article, you are presumed guilty by virtually everybody you deal with. And even those few people who see clearly that you are being railroaded by LAUSD and UTLA do nothing to intervene on your behalf, because they are terrified of losing their own jobs...or privileges While there are some pretty awful teachers within LAUSD, ironically, they will be the last to be harassed, attacked, and removed, because they play ball with corrupt LAUSD or UTLA administrations. None of this could take place if UTLA did its job and the law firm of Trygstad, Schwab & Trygstad didn't help in facilitating your removal from teaching by LAUSD. Here is the way it is done:

((Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) If you are a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) you have no civil rights and no union rights. LAUSD may target you for removal, because you either refuse to go along with the longstanding and highly profitable financial scam they have been running for generations now called public education, aka minority daycare. It is being played against predominantly students of color in a school district that Whites abandon long ago (only 6% left in LAUSD), making it more segregated that it was prior to Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. Or if you are just "guilty" of having a great deal of seniority, which puts you high on the salary scale, you can be removed from teaching with no collective bargaining rights and especially no arbitration as guaranteed by the LAUSD/UTLA Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is now systematically ignored, even if UTLA voted for it. With a $408 million budget shortfall, it's open season on older high-seniority and better paid teachers who either suffer from good teaching or honesty in the face of endemic LAUSD/UTLA corruption.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Given the unrelenting decline of American public education and the war-failed economy which is being used to justify its continuing premeditated destruction, one often hears in description of this sick farce: "The definition of insanity is to continue implementing the same failed policies with the expectation of a different result. While that seems to be a pretty good explanation of the militant ignorance that continues to drive public education policy into the ground, there now seems to be even a better definition: "The definition of insanity is to continue using the same people whose failed policies destroyed public education in the first place to try and fix it." Case in point, Richard Riordan, Caprice Young, and Judy Burton to name just a few of the usual suspects that continue unquestioned by the corporate controlled mainstream media to implement the corporate agenda to privatize the $250-370 billion "business" that public education represents, while dumbing down the public education foundation of this democracy to assure that corporate actions motivated solely by greed/profit will go unquestioned.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) When we think of those who collaborated with Nationalsozialismus or Nazism and the Third Reich during World War II, we usually have quite appropriate visions of Vichy France. But early on, the Nazis had sympathizers in many other countries organizations including in America and some moved on to becoming allies and collaborators. It may be surprising to realize but some of these were even Jews themselves who went so far as to help in the selection of other Jews who would go to the camps. Most noteworthy and vile among the many features of Nazism was racism, assassination and genocide. But the Nazis also opposed liberalism, democracy, capitalism, industrialization and, of greatest interest to us, trade unionism. The most powerful unit within Nazi corps was the Schutzstaffel or the SS which faithfully enforced the policies listed above. They did the dirty work. So the issue to be addressed here is the similar nature of certain organizations and their working committees who are taking over the field of education within our own Los Angeles community. For any of you who have done any time with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) the comparisons to Nazi Germany are more than apparent. The totalitarianism and suppression of freedom of expression are commonplace and daily ordeals. Teacher intimidation and roundups grow in frequency. The loses of protections under tenure, permanency, and seniority are recent. The end of careers or the threat of it is a constant presence. And what makes these conditions so much worse is the ever reliable collaborative relationship the district holds with its partner, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA).

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It is a difficult thing to say - and it would seem from what I read - a difficult thing to comprehend, but there is very little that can be done within the existing power structure at both the state and federal level. Having said this, you must understand that I am not "so negative," as I have been labeled, but rather a realist who would like to act in a way that is likely to REQUIRE a response from the corrupt power structure that presently ignores us at no cost to themselves. You can file an action with Public Employees Review Board and the likely result with be that you will lose...two years from now in an action decided by the same type of political appointees that are as much in the pocket of LAUSD as is the California Teacher Credentialing, where 43% of the employees are afraid for their jobs if they report the nepotism and corruption that is rampant in these and other state and federal agencies. You can demand that LAUSD, UTLA, and other corrupt entities treat you in a manner the complies with law and your rights to equal protect and due process, b

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In trying to understand how the magnitude of such complete and utter gross incompetence or just plain old fashion corruption can go on for so many years at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) without anybody in a position of government authority taking action to stop it, it occurred to me that maybe the shear magnitude of the stupidity might have made it difficult for the average person to get their mind around it, especially if their own public school education taught them to follow orders and avoid critical thought whenever possible.. So lets look at a another more comprehensible mini-LAUSDesque boondoggle that recently occurred at Palisades Charter High School, where the same type of downright militantly ignorant actions of their board voted to not offer long term administrator Ann Davenport a renewal of her contract, even though she has always had excellent performance evaluations and the support of the faculty, while representing the greatest continuity and institutional knowledge that has not as of yet been driven from the school.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) While the ongoing corruption, incompetence, and programmed failure of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) as an educational institution is bad enough, when one measures the continuing abysmal results that this purposefully failed system has had with those unlucky enough to have no alternative for their education, what is far worse are the archaic values it promotes that continue to be touted and unquestioningly accepted by the majority of our society, who themselves are a product of this public education system where critical thinking is not abided.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Rather than let this corruption go unchecked, I encourage you to become a little proactive and send me any documentation you might have of where the State of California has been defrauded in either the aforementioned examples or in any other manner you might be privy to: Lenny@perdaily.com I will work will attorneys specialized in this California False Claims Act, which includes qui tam provisions enabling the recover of such money. California's law, which was passed in 1987 was modeled after the Federal False Claims Act, but since LAUSD is a public entity, they are immune from prosecution under the federal False Claims Act qui tam proceeding, but not immune from state action. The reason LAUSD administrative corruption is at epidemic proportions is because those running the district have had no consequences for ripping off LAUSD. Even if somebody is tenacious enough to stick with a clearly less than objective judicial system for the years necessary, it is clear that California's courts are loathe to hold corrupt officials at LAUSD responsible. And even in the unlikely situation where you do win a case, LAUSD and not the then retired corrupt official gets left holding the bag.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Yesterday, I was drawn to the 8th floor of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) building on Wilshire Boulevard, because I was intrigued by the email I had received about the meeting, which said it was going to be about trying to define alternative and truly effective ways to deal with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) corruption and dysfunction that has continued undaunted to assure that predominantly Latino (73.4%) and Black students (10.2%) of LAUSD student population do not get the public education they are entitled to and which would allow them to be productive member of society. When I arrived, I saw David Rapkin and several other people from the self-proclaimed "activist" teacher faction of UTLA called PEAC. I had had a run in with them 14 months ago as Rapkin immediately pointed out at one of their meetings, when I pointed out that we were now 40 years after the student walkouts in E.L.A. and that Latino education at LAUSD was now worse than it was then, to which I was told, "It takes time to build a union movement." As I left that meeting, I pointed out that 40 years of "radical organizing without results seemed a bit much, given the desperate conditions that LAUSD Latino students continue to face that are now even worse than they were back then." I went on to say that my students didn't have the luxury like they did to sit around in what strongly resembled a faculty staff development- which also never seem to go anywhere- talking about revolution in public education, but never actually doing something that might bring it about.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Although teachers, parents, students, Osama bin Laden, and the Tooth Fairy have been blame for what is wrong in public education the corrupt and incompetent leadership of LAUSD is always given a pass, when it comes to what changes would definitively and finally fix public education, even though they are the ones clearly response for our present long-failed public education system. Logic should dictate that you cannot put Count Dracula in charge of a blood bank, an arsonist as the fire chief, or people who have shown for generations that they don't have a clue as to what will work. They have never once succeeded in improving big city minority filled public school districts with their non sequitur reforms. What I find fascinating, although a bit depressing, is what people do when faced with this public education system that is built on accommodating to failure with no expectation of ever succeeding in turning itself around. In the present discussion of the captive silenced majority that really wants something better, I find that they tend to talk about factors that have either nothing to do with public education reform or factors that would not be present at all if a decent public education system was being implemented, which it is not.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I have been publishing perdaily for about a year and a half now. Maybe some of you wonder why I continue to show LAUSD and UTLA administrative corruption and incompetence no quarter, while constantly seeking to illustrate the all too often depressing reality that these self-serving and dishonest administrators have made in Los Angeles and elsewhere by building a system of public education that accommodates to failure, instead of pragmatically demanding the best from every student and teacher. While some of you might think my fight involves the harassment, bogus charges, suspensions, and ultimate dismissal proceeding that LAUSD with the help of UTLA is still trying to hang on me and other innocent teachers throughout the district, you would be wrong as I am not vindictive no matter how egregious and malicious the crimes of the those at LAUSD and UTLA are.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The reform of the evaluation process is the first step in honoring teachers. The criteria and the methods for GENUINE, AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT of performance exists and can be found in The American Educator and education periodicals and forums. Diane Ravitch and Randi Weingarten are just two of the voices of reform that discuss GENUINE EVALUATION there, and in education forums. We do not need your cockamamie schemes and cynical words. American teachers do not need you to invent 'reform.' Your ideas have dishonored us for too long, to be fooled by your rhetoric now. You sir, are not an educator but a politician who can say what you will, but we teachers know the truth of what you stand for. We see all that you have done toward the goal of privatizing education.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Kathleen Carroll was supposed to testify on Monday, May 9th before a committee of the California State Legislature looking into these allegations of impropriety at CTC about corruption within this agency, but when I turned on the coverage of the hearing by local Sacramento CBS affiliate channel 13 with the Internet link Ms. Carroll sent me, I couldn't believe my eyes at the distortion Sacramento CBS affiliate Channel 13 had the dishonesty to air as "news." What these disreputable "reporters" had done was front load the piece with a totally unrelated and unsubstantiated introduction about "bad teachers," who were accused of having shown "pornography to their students" or another teacher, who had "committed rape...off campus." The introduction went on further to talk about "thousands of teachers," that had done bad things, but which CTC had never even bothered to investigate. None of this had anything at all to do with Attorney Kathleen Carroll's testimony about CTC corruption within the CTC and had nothing to do with "bad" teachers, other than the fact that teachers had been denied due process in CTC's sloppy handling of files presented by districts like LAUSD's in their attempts to railroad these teachers out of the profession without cause or with highly suspect documentation of allegations that might justify removing a teacher's teaching credential and with it their livelihood..

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) While the mainstream media is willing to continue irrationally vilifying teachers for what is wrong in public education and continuing to ignore the proverbial 850 lb. gorilla of LAUSD administrative incompetence and corruption that really has always had the power to bring about change, but consciously chooses not to, I am not. Clearly the not-so-clever folks running LAUSD who continue to run public education into the ground for their own benefit and that of their corporate patrons, who seek the privatization and monetization of public education, could not do so unless they got some help from respected academics, politicians, and others whose judgment might just be colored by their own egos and financial self-interest. Case in point, I just got off the phone with Professor William Ouchi from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management, who not only was the chairman of LEARN (Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now) back in May 1999, but wrote an article entitled Education Reform Lessons from the Trenches, where he sings the praises of this now destroyed public education reform program that was designed to "increase accountability and strengthen reading instruction."

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) There was a time when doctors believed that bad blood made people sick and that all you needed to do was let out some of the bad blood and the patient would get well. At some point after many years of using this technique, somebody finally took notice of the fact that an inordinate number of patients were dying and that the ones who were getting well were doing so in spite of this ill-advised treatment. Finally, members of the medical profession stopped bleeding people. Alas, it seems that although clear and unequivocal evidence shows that value added assessment has at least a 43-45% margin of error, according to academics like Professor Diane Ravitch of New York University and others according to all relevant data on the subject, militantly ignorant people in administration at LAUSD and the lemming reporters at the L.A. Times and other mainstream media outlets of print and electronic media around the country continue to follow LAUSD over the cliff in trying to lay their own blame on teachers whose blood they have no problem in continuing to let.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) For those of you who haven't realized it yet, the dysfunction and corruption of purposefully failed public education is not just limited LAUSD, but rather is a nationwide disgrace and scandal. In the months to come, perdaily will connect you to others around the state and country that refuse to accept purposefully corrupt and failed public education. The following post was written by Jerry Mintz of the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO). For those of you who feel trapped, when it comes to viable education options for yourself or your kids, think about connecting with his site and the other we list daily at the end of the article: Jerry Mintz, Director Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) 417 Roslyn Rd., Roslyn Hts., NY 11577 www.EducationRevolution.org info@EducationRevolution.org 800-769-4171 (domestic) 516-621-2195 (international)

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) At the root of public education's generational failure to educate Latino and Black students in this country is the unrelenting not so subliminal message that these young people are inferior and cannot learn. While it was bad enough when this kind of pernicious racism was practiced exclusively by Whites against Latinos and Blacks, what now makes it worse are institutionally de facto racist entities like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which have succeeded in co-opting elements within the Latinos and Blacks communities to work in for it in sustaining this failed system by continuing to offer only the rhetoric of quality public education, while few within this institution - whatever their ethnicity - actually have a good faith belief in the inherent ability of these students to succeed like their more affluent peers of a lighter persuasion.

Education is a Right! Saturday, May 7, 12 noon - 4pm Pasadena City College, Creveling Lounge 1570 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena 91106 Creveling Lounge is near the corner of Colorado & Hill

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I talked with Connie Llanos today of the Daily News. She is an excellent reporter and could be much better, if she was allowed to do any story she has knowledge of. Given the time, research, and access she has already achieved covering the topic of public education, it is clear to me that she knows a hell of allot more than she is actually allowed to report.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) If you're expecting a retelling of Homer's Iliad here, you're going to be disappointed. For that I'd suggest the local library where any number of translations are available to help you wade through all ten thousand ponderously repetitive lines. Or maybe you could rent that awful movie with Brad Pitt. No, this is all rather about supposed reformers in public education, the politicians who support such well publicized reformers, and the "liberal press" which stands behind them. But I promise you that we'll get back to that Trojan Horse before it's all over. Let's start briefly here with statement about the political party which always boasts of the need for reform in education while paradoxically defunding it at every opportunity. And, no, by referring to one political party I don't mean to make reference to either Democrats or Republicans. I mean specifically "one" singular political party, because, if you haven't caught on yet or if you've been in a coma for the past thirty years or so, you may not know that, aside from language and logos, there's no tangible difference between either Democrats or Republicans. In this same sense, there's equally no distinguishable difference between neo-liberals and neo-cons. They're all the same and particularly on education policy.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) My take on Granada Hills Charter High School's national victory in the Academic Decathlon last Saturday, April 30th, is quite different than that of Reporter Rick Rojas of the Los Angeles Times in his article "Granada Hills wins top decathlon tiltle." I have two questions and one answer that seems to me to focus on and explain the apparent contradiction in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) being so successful in the Academic Decathlon over the years and yet such an abysmal failure when it comes to educating the lion's share of its students. - How can students in a school district where close to 50% of the students quit school in frustration or indifference, just between the 9th and 12th grade, be able on a regular basis to win the National Academic Decathlon 12 times? - Why it is that in a school district like LAUSD where the total enrollment in 2010 was 73.4% Hispanic/Latino and 10.2% Black and only 5/9% Asian and 9.5% White, that the predominant make up of the 12 LAUSD teams that have won the National Academic Decathlon are predominantly Asian and White?

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I keep getting the same complaint from fellow teachers and parents, who think that they and the students will somehow miraculously survive the reductions in forces (rifs) and the havoc it is reeking on public education around this country, if they are just nice and positive in the face of their own imminent professional and intellectual demise, "Lenny, you're not positive." or "You need to emphasize what is good at LAUSD" or "We like what you say, we just don't like how you say it." When in reality, what they don't like is having to get off their respective backsides and actually do something other than listen to themselves talk to people at LAUSD that are clearly not listening. Tonight at Millikan Junior High in the San Fernando Valley, parents, teachers, staff, and students got together to plan and network with a group founded by 7 mothers called Educate Our State who are working for a walkout in all public schools around the state for May 24th.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) LAUSD's new Superintendent John Deasy spoke with members of NewTLA and other LAUSD teachers at the Santee Learning Center today after school. What impressed me the most was when he acknowledged the fact that he, "Didn't have the answer to many of LAUSD's problems." While he is clearly an intelligent man who wants to tap into and facilitate the talents of all LAUSD employees, he still doesn't realize that the culture of LAUSD is a top-down bureaucracy that has steadfastly fought any notion of two-way accountability that might allow Deasy to implement his goal. Just ask Professor Charles Kerschner, who wrote a book about LAUSD, how LAUSD bureaucracy destroyed LEARN reforms in the 1990s. When President Barack Obama first got into the White House, he fought to keep his own Blackberry, because he didn't want to be wholly dependent on the White House inner circle for all of his information. He wanted to be able to access friends and dissident ideas that might have great value, simply because they were not filtered through his bureaucracy.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) For any reader who hasn't taken out the time to spend five minutes devoted to the articles recently appearing in perdaily.com suggesting the power of a parent and student boycott, you may be missing one of your last chances to save public education and the noble profession of teaching. In fact, before reading any further here, you may wish to go back and first read LAUSD vs. REBELS WITHOUT A CAUSE-BOYCOTT?, WILL BLACK AND LATINO PARENTS SUPPORT A BOYCOTT OF LAUSD? and LAUSD BOYCOTT. The language herein is quite colorful but not merely rhetoric. You have to understand the essential principle at work, What's stated are facts and events unfolding even as you read this - if you choose to do so. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that you may know most of it already as do many others and especially if you're in the teaching profession. But that's also the problem. While the feds, the state, and district go about their business of shaving expenses by reducing education to a series of cheaply packaged programs - that only vendors profit from - and teaching to a rating scale of performance against the criteria of these programs, we all stand by waiting for someone else to do something about it because we correctly realize that others see what we see.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In a school district like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) with a combined Latino and Black student population of close to 90%, several important questions were brought up when we met last Friday, April 22nd to explore whether Latino and Black students and parents would support a boycott of LAUSD in an attempt to finally hold corrupt and self-serving LAUSD administration and the politicians and corporate interests that keep them in power accountable to this majority constituency.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) You have no expectation that criminals act rationally, so why would you think that the logic of firing one principal instead of 3 teachers would make any sense to the not so petty criminals running LAUSD and public school districts like it around the United States. These people could never have gotten or continued to maintain their corrupt power over generations of students and their parents, if they were not protected by politicians at both the state and federal level, who are themselves put in power by corporations that want to privatize public education to monetize the potential $250-370 billion a year business of public education, while dumbing the citizenry down to eliminate dissent.. Google Professor Lois Weiner and neo-liberal agenda. Maybe after you read this you will not expect to be treated fairly and might finally decide to do something before it is too late.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Here is a riddle for you: What does all opposition to LAUSD endemic corruption have in common? Answer: It only responds to LAUSD's malicious and premeditated incompetence and harassment and never makes LAUSD administrative leadership face the consequences for their bad acts. As you have heard me say before, and which any teacher knows in dealing with their students, if there are no consequences for bad actions, either from students, teachers, or LAUSD's arrogant leadership, then nothing will change. A MODEST PROPOSITION TO TURN THIS SITUATION AROUND- What if students at all schools around LAUSD decided to stage a walkout on the same day, much in the manner that students at Hamilton High School recently did?

JOHN GOTTI - NYC OR LA's NEXT SUPERINTENDENT? - "HIGHLY QUALIFIED" (Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In the last couple of months, emboldened by "the dominant narrative" of the corporate media blaming teachers for for their own longstanding incompetence, LAUSD has significantly augmented the number more teachers - especially those at the top of the salary scale - it is going trying to force out of the profession on bogus charges. My email at perdaily has exploded with desperate teachers who have come under attack and don't know what to do. This appears to be motivated by a desperate effort at LAUSD to balance their $408 million deficit, before lower echelon administrators start losing their jobs. The teachers who contact me at perdaily all tell a strikingly similar story of having ridiculous fabricated charges brought against them to try and force them into quitting or early retirement, rather than face the costly hearing process, appeals, and exorbitant lawyers fees and protracted court costs over years on unpaid administrative leave of trying to save their jobs.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) If Teacher Paulette Jackson supposedly did not turn in her lesson plans on time, even though she often stayed at school until 10pm preparing for the next day, she was put on unpaid administrative level without benefits and LAUSD moved for her removal as a teacher in complete derogation of a 14 year exemplary career. Dave Peters goes to a school as a substitute and winds up being fired, when a man with an LAUSD visitor's pass on his shirt allegedly touches two of his students. Where was the school's administration? How is a sub supposed to know who is supposed to be on campus? Sorry, not relevant in LAUSD Mike Bujko reports a female assistant principal going into the Boys' Locker Room while the boys were changing and Bujko is harassed and forced into early retirement. Roz Press gets sprayed with a toxic fire extinguisher and has been sick for the last 10 years, but LAUSD goes after her and not the student.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I received another missive from Jill1975 in our continuing exchange that started because of the Jazmine Williams article on the Huffington Post, about the Hamilton High School walkout to protest draconian LAUSD budget cuts that threaten the very existence of Hamilton's excellent magnet and other programs. As a social studies teacher and student of history, I note that historically the greatest social instability, that is often contemporaneous with the decline of prior societies, comes when not only is there a huge disparity of wealth and education, but also when the more affluent segment of society live in a fantasy land. What follows is more of Jill1975 magical thinking that gives you an insight into the all too common phenomenon of White entitlement and perceived and self-fulfilling minority inferiority, now brought to you by the fully integrated and corrupt administration of LAUSD and other public school districts around the country that continue to fail for generations with no consequences. Could it be that they have the public education system they want?. My response follows. Again, feel free to make your own comments as to what you think of what she writes:.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The following is a comment I responded to in the Huffington Post about Jazmine Williams article on the student organized walkout at Hamilton High School that we cover hear at perdaily. Feel free to add your own take on what I believe to be the naive comments of Jill1975 and others, who don't seem to have a clue as to the reality that LAUSD teachers, students, and parents have to deal with on a daily basis. Could it have anything to do with the complete blackout in the mainstream media as to what is really going on?

(Mensaje se repite en Espanol) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) A belated happy birthday to the late Dr. Martin Luther King. Still fighting to make your wisdom and insight a reality in our America. While injustice of any kind is reprehensible, it is my belief that the greatest injustice possible takes place when government authorities abuse there vast power to attack individuals without even the slightest good faith belief that they have done anything wrong. After sitting through the teacher Paulette Jackson's inquisition that was held two weeks ago in the Office of Administrative Hearings, I was curious to find out if the way she had been treated in complete and utter derogation of her civil and property rights was an exception or the rule. Regrettably, what I uncovered was a consistent and undeviating pattern of complete and total disregard of individual LAUSD teachers and classified staff rights. Mampre Polmakian was the LAUSD attorney representing the District against Ms. Jackson in a matter that by all rights should have been handled by UTLA grievance under the LAUSD/UTLA Collective Bargains Agreement, if UTLA leadership wasn't so clearly in collusion with LAUSD against its own members.

(Mensaje se repite en Espanol) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Often when people find out that I went to law school, they look at me rather quizzically and in disbelief and ask, "Why would you want to be a teacher?" Something I take the humorous approach and respond by saying, "California doesn't need another Jewish attorney." At other times when I reflect on what this means in terms of the value our society gives to teachers, I am saddened by a materialism that thinks it can define success by how much money you make. I just celebrated my 64th birthday last Friday and although it will probably get me labeled un-American, probably the least important thing to me at this point in my life is making more money - although I plan on pursuing the salary and benefits that LAUSD has taken from me by removing me from teaching on trumped up charges.

(Mensaje se repite en Espanol) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) MY HORRENDOUS STORY: I am all too familiar with LAUSD's inhumane treatment of teachers that have been attacked at school. On Dec. 8, 2000 a student in my class attacked me in class. My life and health changed forever. Before the attack I worked everyday at Sepulveda Middle School in North Hills CA. I was a fully credentialed contract teacher and I was a very happy, healthy and positive person with the energy of 100 people. I taught 5 or 6 classes a day with almost 40 students in every class. On Dec. 8, 2000 I was attacked in my classroom by one of my students who sprayed me in my face with the toxic chemicals from a fire extinguisher. The principal, Mrs Charness, never called the paramedics even though I was gasping for air.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) What is very popular in the mainstream media these days is using the false dichotomy to misdirect the reader or listener away from other possibly more viable alternatives by failing to acknowledge that they even exist. A relative simple and straight forward example of this phenomenon could be seen on the March 30, 2011 Patt Morrison show on KPCC where the topic had to do with whether half-day or full day kindergarten was better for young students, who came most likely from lower socio-economic families where standard English (or Spanish for that matter) was not the language spoken in the home. Throughout the 20 minutes or so devoted to this segment Patt Morrison carefully steered the conversation between the supposedly exclusive positives and negatives of either option without ever addressing whether some other factors might also be at play.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) (As I get read to post this 3rd article in a series about corruption at UTLA by Mark Hemphill at perdaily, the UTLA election results are in and Warren Fletcher has been elected president with David Lyell as Secretary. While Fletcher was able to take the top spot at the union, he did not carry all of his slate. Given the low turn out in the run-off, allegations of gross irregularities, and general teacher apathy, Fletcher does not have much time to posit a clear and specific plan to rally support from rank and file, before UTLA is made irrelevant by the incessant outrageous actions by LAUSD that have gone unanswered by A.J. Duffy and the exiting cabal that have continued to run things at UTLA into the ground. Whatever you thoughts are at this time, the least effect thing that teachers and other LAUSD employees can do is to continue to fight among ourselves instead of coming together behind Warren to keep him focused on what needs to be done for us to become a force to be reckoned with as the silenced majority at LAUSD - majority needs to rule. Notice that the minority who continue to run things at LAUSD still face no consequences for their dishonesty. Any teacher can tell you what happens in a classroom when there are no consequences and clearly the same is true for LAUSD administration - care to give them consequences? Warren deserves at least a chance to see if he represents anything other than the same capitulation to LAUSD that has gone on for the last 4 administrations of UTLA. Clearly, whether you choose to accept it or not, Warren will either reestablish a fair balance of collective bargaining with LAUSD or he just might be the last president of this union)

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Part 2: The Roles of Ambitious Bit Players If you had the patience to read through part 1 on this subject, you now have a good idea of just how rife with corruption the first round the UTLA election was. You also know the main offenders and how all attempts to hold them accountable have met with less than enthusiasm by the union or generally ignored. Nevertheless, the reader deserves to know the depth to which the corruption has reached. Chiefs are of little impact without braves to do their bidding. The same applies here. To compromise this election to the level reported, it took great cooperation from smaller players with origins where it would have never been expected. There isn't the time or the space to cover every one of them, but the following is a representative example.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Part 1: Where It All Began Unless you're a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District teaching community, you probably didn't know that round one of the elections for offices within the United Teachers of Los Angeles union has come and gone and round two comes to a conclusion March 29 between the two surviving virtually indistinguishable runoff slates to decide the remaining offices. However, even if you're a member of the teaching community, you may not know of these events, given that estimates of the voter turnout ran as low as 15% and no higher than 17%. Pretty sorry for the second largest teacher's union in the country. At some school sites, teachers didn't even know there was an election, and if they did, they couldn't identify the candidates much less separate them by their positions on issues. But even if you're not a teacher, Keep this in mind. What happens here will dramatically effect all teachers, public education and you by transference. So read on if you want to know what's really going on.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) One of the advantages of having a long and purposeful failed public education system, where abysmal English language skills are only matched by equally atrocious math skills is that the Los Angeles Times reporter Jason Song can write an article entitled, "L.A. schools chief cuts his own pay" and fewer people are left with enough critical thinking skills to question either the linguistic sophistry or fuzzy math that Song uses to arrive at his conclusion in complete derogation of what has actually taken place. The fable goes something like this: Gates Foundation's John Deasy is given the job of Superintendent of LAUSD to replace Ramon Cortines at $330,000 a year with no other candidates for the position. Ramon Cortines has been paid $250,000 a year, if you don't count his generous benefits package and the $150,000 a year he also made from Scholastics for 10 years in a clear conflict of interest that LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia told him not to worry about, even though LAUSD had $16 million a year in contracts with Scholastics. As we have seen elsewhere lately, it just seems like some people are above the law.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Did you ever wonder where kids learn about bullying in school? Try looking at the way in which teachers are treated by their principals with the blind support of LAUSD administration. Meanwhile, back at the Office of Administrative Hearings this last Monday March 21, 2011, an observer noted that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Attorney Mampre A. Pomakian kind of went ballistic before his closing arguments by attempting to attack my previous observations of his less then stellar performance at the hearing of harassed teacher Paulette Jackson that I posted earlier at Perdaily.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In the Warsaw Ghetto, a young zionist came back, after following the trains filled with Jews, to tell the Jewish leaders about Auschwitz and the extermination camps. The leaders, who had been supplying lists to the Nazis of the people in the ghetto to be "relocated" refused to believe what the young zionist was telling them about the "ultimate solution." They continued to fight among themselves, while offering their tacit support to the enemy, because that had allowed them to survive in the past. In the end, they were either killed in Auschwitz or in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. These folks didn't have a choice, teachers, students, and parents in LAUSD do.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) OUR WINNER EX-CIA AGENT FRANK SNEPP is who determines what gets on the air at KNBC is our choice for the Joseph Goebbels 2011 Media Manipulation Awards. Snepp worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1968 until 1976.He started as an intelligence analyst and then graduated to being a full-time interrogator on the Station's counterintelligence staff. Snepp always has has a knack of .digging out valuable information from doing his interrogations, whether it be in Vietnam or later as a reporter. It must have been very frustrating for him to know about the corruption I shared with him about LAUSD, but one thing Frank has never done is go against those in power, who he has always blindly equated with American values, no matter how far they have strayed from fundamental notions of constitutional democracy.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It has not been an easy job to destroy an independent media in this country and along with it any vestige of freedom of the press as supposedly guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. I think it is only fair that in the spirit of American Idol we go through the top individual L.A. candidates, who have done the most to destroy a free press this year, and award our 1st Annual Joseph Goebbels Award, given in loving memory of Germany's Propaganda Minister, who came to power in 1933 and was able to eliminate the intellectual traditions of one of the most civilized countries in the world in record time - sound familiar? Prescient?

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)The problem with writing about the depressing corrupt reality of public education on a daily basis at the Los Angeles Unified School District and virtually every other purposefully constructed to fail inner city minority filled public school district throughout this country is that it is depressing as hell. Teachers, students, and parents that remain trapped in this system tend to naturally become apathetic as to the chances of ever turning things around based on their daily dose of a rote anti-intellectual approach to what could easily be changed into the joys and excitement of real education and the excitement of allowing their imaginations to run wild with all the possibilities as to what their lives could be. The message from those running this human hive is clear, don't think or question or the administrators will put a coat of school boy on your ass...and nobody wants that, do they?

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Something important took place today at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. Students at the highly successful magnet school with excellent Humanities, Music, and Drama Magnets as well as 6 small learning communities who were threatened last week with the loss of 22 of their teachers decided to fight back. Using Facebook and other social media they organized thousands of their fellow students, parents, and supporters to stage a walkout from the school to say in the clearest of possible terms that they were not going to passively roll over and allow their educations and futures to be compromised by politically inspired manipulations throughout this state and country that were trying to impose draconian cuts to education that really had no rational justification. As one of the organizers of the event student Olivia Natt said in some of her remarks addressed to the whole student body, which had walked out of Hamilton High School in an orderly manner at 9:00am, "Children should not be used as leverage by politicians for their partisan political goals."

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) When I first started teaching back in the late 1980s, somebody told me that principals were Gods and I was foolish enough to believe that they did not mean this literally. Today I spent another day in the surrealistic world of the Office of Administrative Hearings at 320 W. 4th St. in Downtown Los Angeles in "courtroom" number 9 on the 6th floor, where I got another object lesson in just how unquestioningly LAUSD administration will support its principals no matter what they do. What I saw again was an expensive process where LAUSD Attorney Mampre R. Pomakian, Staff Relations or Human Resources Ira Berman (he can't seem to make up his mind) and an expensive cast of judge, commissioners, court reporter, paralegal, and a stellar supporting cast spent their time trying to prove that when it comes to teachers: IF IT DOESN'T FIT, YOU MUST CONVICT

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) From the first day of this farce, the judge and two retired teacher were given LAUSD's book of "evidence" against Ms. Jackson, even before the judge decided as to whether it was admissible or not. Even after the judge had ruled that some document could not come in or other documents of questionable origin could, there was no attempt made to limit what access these two retired teachers would have to "the evidence" presented by LAUSD. While a professional judge might be able to limit his ultimate deliberation to admissible evidence, one could not reasonable expect two retired teachers to not be impermissible swayed. However, even with LAUSD's failure to comply with discovery of documents requested by Dr. Michael Wells, who was helping Ms. Jackson in her defense, based on a claim of sovereign immunity, the rank incompetence of LAUSD shown through. One witness who had written Ms. Jackson up for alleged improper behavior admitted that he had never observed her firsthand and had only written her up "as a favor" to somebody else at LAUSD who asked him to do so and yet this proceeding was allowed to go on.

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) (This post keeps getting more and more surreal as the day goes on in terms as to what LAUSD and UTLA can do without due process of law or maintaining even basic civil rights having to do with the property rights involved in employment. I just received the following email from Tara Thomas at UTLA) "Thank you, I received your email. You didn't receive a ballot this time around because the eligibility is based upon paying Union dues as of February 4th payroll. Our records indicate that you have not paid union dues since December 2010. You are on Inactive status at this time. In Unity, Tara R Thomas UTLA Business Office Phone 213-637-5165  fax 213-368-6231 tthomas@utla.net" So it seems that all LAUSD would have to do to eliminate UTLA as a union is to put us all on unpaid administrative leave in complete derogation of the LAUSD/UTLA Collective Bargaining Agreement and applicable law, because by so doing, teachers - according to Tara Thomas of UTLA - would lose their right to vote at UTLA in any attempt to confront LAUSD corruption in the illegal dismissal of teachers or UTLA complicit in these illegal actions. So what happened to the legal presumption of being innocent until shown guilty by a preponderance of the evidence with the burden of so proving on the alleging party???

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) How You Can Expect to be Treated by the National Education Association (when you need them most) by Daniel Geery Following negotiations of our Master Agreement, in 1989, the Shelley School District hired a new superintendent, Val Edrington, well-known for his militaristic approach to things. Edrington was not pleased with my active role in the IEA and NEA. Shortly after his arrival that I was placed on probation, based on a long list of nonsensical allegations, such as "dominating grade level meetings," being absent when I was present, getting "blacktop smudges on PE balls," having inadequate lesson plans (though for seven years the previous administration commended my teaching and lesson plans), and for the content of a letter that was never published, wherein I questioned the superintendent's questionable history and activities in our district. Specifically, I had composed a draft of a letter about the shenanigans of the superintendent, took it to a local paper to see what one of the reporter's thought might need to be changed for it to be published. He kept a copy and took it to the school district's lawyer. To my surprise and horror, a termination hearing was scheduled in May, 1991. I asked the Idaho Education Association and its Executive Director to send a lawyer to assist me. "We can't," they claimed--such an action, they said, would be "too costly." A kangaroo court proceeding ensued. No record was made that was suitable for review, I was fired, with no income and no recourse.It is difficult to convey in words how demoralizing and depressing this situation was. In this small community, social support evaporated. The mere firing of an educator meant to many that I must have done something horribly wrong to be terminated from a tenured teaching position (several of my peers, aware of what was going on, were deeply concerned, but at a loss as to what to do).

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It is not racism to say that predominantly Black and Latino students cannot learn when every effort has been made to destroy their intelligence by not timely addressing their fundamental needs in education or by not doing adequate remediation at an early enough age to get them caught up to their peer group. The Music Man and other teacher movies are Hollywood. The hard reality is that once the neurobiology and sociology human development milestones are allowed to pass without even attempting to fulfill them, permanent damage is done in a more and more irreversible manner as a direct function of how long they are allowed to last, until it is no longer possible for the student to reach what would have been their potential, if they had been taught in an age-appropriate manner.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It is insane and it makes me want to cry for our country's future, because these 'kids' will not be kids for long. In no time they are uneducated adults, incapable of doing the real work, the critical analysis that is required in today's workplace. No one makes widgets in this country anymore, and those who cannot think or analyze, as Bob Herbert wrote this week, will be relegated to the lowest paying labor. Just as fanatics have hijacked a wonderful, peaceful religion, so have profiteers and the billionaires hijacked our public institutions, purchasing the support of the media to put out the destructive misinformation and outright lies that have brought public education to an end. Put your 'money' where your 'mouth' is, and report on the genuine research that expert academics have presented on evaluation.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Before the hearing began, Judge Nafarrette said, "I haven't even reviewed the file," which Administrative Law Judge Scarlett had only given him at 8:40am that same morning. But as I listened to the testimony, I realized this was only the last step of a seamless system of endemic incompetence that started with the unwarranted harassment and removal from teaching of Ms. Jackson by novice Principal Kendra Wallace of Daniel Webster Middle School with the blind support of LAUSD administration that not only offered no critical analysis of the completely false charges brought against Ms. Jackson, but actually helped in the fabrication of evidence against her.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Now, one can only be astounded by the blatant hypocrisy of LAUSD in going after Crescendo Charter Schools for some of the same practices that continue to take place on a regular basis in LAUSD schools, where teachers like myself are given answers to assessments that we are supposed to administer but not score. So why do we have the answers? Hmm... No one at LAUSD in administration or on the Board questions this or the results in their own schools, when students with low elementary levels in English, math, science, and social studies, somehow get passing grades on assessments that they objectively do not have the foundational skills to even understand, let alone do well on. In addition, clearly written on the proctor's copy of these assessments are statements that these assessments are going to be give again, so what the teachers not just at Crescendo, but throughout LAUSD are tacitly encourage to do is help their students cheat.. So why would honorable teachers do this? Could it have anything to do with the not so subtle threat that LAUSD administration holds over their heads with value added assessment (45% margin of error), negative teaching evaluations, and overt threats if these teachers don't knuckle under to the dishonesty that is promulgated by LAUSD administrators who are more concerned with creating the appearance of education then actually doing something that would accomplish it. Ask any teacher how their administrator would respond if they gave an "F" to a student who did no work, was habitually truant, and deserved it.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Bullying/abuse in the workplace and educational/academia setting deprives families and society of security; financial stability, emotional balance and can result in debilitating health for the victim/target and or their family members. Those that abuse/bully others in the workplace, in the schools, in the boardrooms are destroying intelligent and talented people from living productive and quality lives. Workplace and educational/academia bullies/ abusers are obliterating lives. THERE IS NO INTERVENTION IN 85% OF THE CASES Workplace abuse/bullying is two to three times more prevalent than illegal discrimination. In most cases, it is sub-lethal and non-physical. According a Zogby Poll approximately one in six workers have directly experienced workplace abuse.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I thought the following article from the Washington Post was well worth your reading. Please share it with as many of your friends as possible. It is clear that we are the silenced majority, who are finally starting to connect on the Internet to overcome the longstanding blackout in the corporate controlled mainstream media. In a country where over 90% of Americans get their only information about what is going on from the local "news," we must take education to the Internet to escape the intellectual ghetto we presently find ourselves in and raise the awareness of this country as to what is really going in in public education and elsewhere, before the American version of Mubarak or Gaddafi winds up in power...if that hasn't already taken place.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) There is no way that public education throughout this country can be as bad and corrupt as it presently is without the willing collusion of teachers' unions like UTLA and those in Philadelphia, NYC, and elsewhere with their dysfunctional school districts. If you would like to try and turn it around, you must conquer your LAUSD/UTLA purposefully cultivated teacher apathy and vote for new leadership in the UTLA runoff elections. This is the first step to change and accountability for everyone at LAUSD and UTLA, along with the politicians who empower them and look the other way while they systematically dismantle meaningful public education in this country. Key to fulfilling the clear corporate agenda of ending democracy in this country is eliminating a publicly educated citizenry that is capable of understanding the ramifications of what is being done to them and their children in public schools that has made them incapable of having sufficient education to operate as a repository of power and oversight as anticipated by our Founding Fathers.

CLICK AND CHECK OUT THE VIDEO

THE NON-IDENTICAL TWINS? (Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Duffy, Over the last 6 years, it has been hard to distinguish any difference between what you and Julie Washington do. Now, if you have your way, I will not have to. If Julie Washington gets in to continue your disastrous regime's approach to dealing with LAUSD, in another 3 years there likely will not be a UTLA to stand up for our rights. It takes a great deal of chutzpah to accuse others of "lying by omission," when that is what your regime has done for two terms and a total of 6 years. As I have mentioned several times on this site, I was a teacher for 23 years with excellent Stulls and not a mark against me, until I reported the fraudulent graduation of 79 students from my school with valid diplomas, even though they had low elementary school reading abilities on the STAR Reading Assessment with some as low as 2nd grade. You also know that teachers are giving assessments that they have the answers to, even though they are not supposed to grade them. But, with bogus value added assessment with a 45% margin of error, these teachers are not supposed to "help their students do well," when they know their very jobs may hang in the balance?

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Dear Michelle, In response to your video, I always become suspicious when somebody says, "Research shows" and then doesn't cite the research that supports firing more senior teachers in favor of new teachers- especially, since the academics I talk to like Professors Lois Weiner, Diane Ravitch, and others completely disagree with you and they are willing to cite data. Also, using a pejorative word like "antiquated" to describe "last hired, first fired," simplistically ignores at least the arguable logic that those who have done it longer tend to do it better. Would you like a first year resident operating on you or a 20 year veteran that has done the procedure hundreds of times. Implicit in your comments are the false belief that good and seasoned teachers are not professionals and can be replaced by novices whose idealism is equal to years of experience.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Contrary to what seems to be the present belief, education is not a dispensable luxury, it is an absolute necessity for all people, if they hope to live in anything other than chaos. Schools are the one place where we all come together as a people to acquire the indispensable tools we will need along with knowledge of heritage that define us, so that we can live in peace as a productive people furthering the work of civilization started by our ancestors. Education is supposed to be that civilizing agent for which there really is no replacement. Without education, people have no stake in society or the law that are supposed to structure it. There are not enough police or soldiers in the world to maintain law and order, if the majority of people have not been educated into feeling that they are part of "we the people," from which police and other governmental authorities derive their delegated power. Without education, we wind up living in an ever more polarized and alienated society, where police and not teacher are charged after the fact with the impossible job of maintaining the law in predominantly minority underprivileged communities that have been purposefully uneducated. It is only logical that there is no support for law in these communities and that police snap under the stress of trying to maintain order where the majority of the people in poor inner city communities have not been given the basic elements of education necessary to give them a stake in the society and laws that the police are charged with enforcing. What is fostered by this ignorance are stereotypes held by both the ignorant - not stupid - minority communities about the police and of the police about these communities of color that put both of them constantly at odds. It is worth noting that in lieu of an intelligent teacher, we interpose a not as well educated police officer, who is allowed to have the lowest score on the civil service examination in trying to cope with the complex problems of broken families and failed education that they had no hand in making.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The first round of the UTLA Election have now been tallied with 6186 union member voting out of an approximate 45,000 members for a dismal 13.75% turnout. While UTLA can continue to call itself a union for a little while, until LAUSD finishes dismantling it with the help of UTLA leadership, a real union has the ability to get rank and file into the street to shut down LAUSD, before LAUSD succeeds in shutting down teaching as a fairly compensated profession in Los Angeles. This is a big part of the neo-liberal agenda for the privatization of public education and the dumbing down of curriculum and is going on all over this country. UTLA can only succeed by doing something more than just reacting to the latest outrage proposed by LAUSD. It requires UTLA leadership to actively organize rank and file under a clearly stated and specific alternative plan for real public education reform that concentrates on reforming LAUSD and not teacher, which UTLA leadership presently stands by and allows to be harassed, dismissed, and scapegoated for the crimes of this district that A.J.Duffy and his cronies have allowed to continue while taking no action.

FINALLY A TEACHER HAS THE GUTS TO TELL THE TRUTH AND THE MASS MEDIA FINALLY REPORTS IT (Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) It is regrettable that Honors English teacher Natalie Munroe had to trash her students in Bucks County, Pennsylvania for anybody to take notice of the plight of teachers across this country. What is even more regrettable is that most of what she said is true and has been true for years - although blacked out in the mainstream media - but administrators and parents prefer to attack teachers rather than deal with the underlying problem. After all, purposefully failed public education has been going on for so many years that the parents and administrators themselves are a product of a system where they were never required to learn manners, so they never taught them to their own children.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Blind adherence to stated school course objectives irrespective of the student's actual academic level will not provide students with effective instruction in content areas, because it presupposes an adequate reading ability, which is not always the case. Rather, what I suggest is a technique that is used effectively with mentally ill people - you allow them to regress to a level at which they can function comfortably and then start to bring them forward. The sooner this is done, the greater the likelihood that you can turn around the student, however, if students are allowed to get to the secondary level without addressing their deficits, it becomes more and more difficult - if not impossible - to turn around the damage caused by neglecting to timely educate a student. What we see a great deal of at LAUSD is permissive retardation by failure to teach appropriate academic and social skills in a timely manner. The Lau decision said that it was unconstitutional, not to mention irrational, to try and teach 1800 Chinese speaking students complex mathematics in English, when they could not understand the language. Why is it any less illegal to try and teach 11th grade history to my 2th grade reading level students? The text level is just as foreign to them as English texts in complex mathematics are to Chinese students. If anything, the culpability is greater because the Chinese students inability to learn is not due to the continued misfeasance of an educational system over a 12 year period, but rather due to the fact that they immigrated to a foreign country.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog postIn my never ending) quest to make teaching better, let me end this post with one suggestion that could make things a whole lot better and really wouldn't cost very much. Every year teachers retire and take with them into oblivion all the lesson plans that they have used over their careers. While ever lesson plan we have done is not great, all of us have certain lesson that we have given that are truly excellent. What would it take to build a database of these lessons broken down by grade level and subject matter with all the other collateral material that we might have spent a great deal of time putting together. Wouldn't this be a great gift for a new teacher to give them a good point of departure in the daunting process of starting to teach?T Imagine being able to look a five or six lessons with a myriad of approaches and levels on any chapter in any subject. One of my mother-in-law's favorite expression is, "You can't straighten dogs legs." Does this apply to school districts as well?

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In looking for a post for today, I started to browse through some of my old files and came across an assignment I did in 1997 when I was getting my teaching credential at California State University at Los Angeles (CSULA). As I read through it, I couldn't help but noticing that the same form over content, we're gonna do it the same way, even if it doesn't work, anti-intellectual attitude was as alive and present back then as it is today with no sign of abating. But since the majority of affluent people are out of this purposefully failed system and don't have the intelligence of seeing how it is going to impact their lives and the lives of their children, I guess we will all have to wait until the LAUSD and the Educrats bring this society down around all of our ears. EDSE 423 Leonard Isenberg Professor Osborn Learning Log #7 March 1, 1997 Taking this program seriously is making my life more and more complicated. Rather than float from class to class in mindless performance of the varied tasks that I am supposed to unquestioningly accomplish, I am cursed with what Guilford so aptly describes a divergent thinking mentality that "produces multiple responses or solutions" that are drawn from synthesizing that which all my professors are putting out there. In so doing, I am confronted with an irrational approach to education that can only advise me to shut up and do as I am told. I keep telling myself that I must look at the bright side- as I approach 50 and am in the midst of dealing with my mid-life crisis, I can still regain my youth by the déjà vu experience being forced back into looking at reality the way I did when I was in junior high school. And if I question the irrationality around me, I get chastized like I used to when I was 14 by people who still think that because is an answer instead of a conjunction.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Dear LA Friends and Colleagues, A few short years ago, you all avoided going through a calamity that was about to befall you that would have had huge ramifications for all education systems throughout the United States and the rest of the world. But thank God, you were able to at least temporarily avert the travesty at that time by your staunch and steadfast resistance. At that point, you became heroes of education, but maybe didn't realize it. Our Mayor Bloomberg tried to export to you, via your sycophantic Mayor Villaraigosa, the establishment of mayoral control of your public schools. The Supreme Court twice upheld your right to be free from such tyranny, but it was not without your courageous fight against mayoral control that the court took note as well as action. The decision was conclusive and decisive in your favor. It put a halt to Mayor Bloomberg's attempt to storm the country with his privatization of public education and plans to get his for-profit institutions on the fast track to domination. Again, kudos and thanks for making sure that it did not happen. Here, in New York, chaos now reigns supreme as this megalomaniacal master of mediocrity, misinformation and manipulation, the "education mayor" has been nothing short of disastrous in his administration and has unleashed his AGWs (administrators-gone-wild) to perpetrate ever-renewed waves of administrative terrorism to subvert the concept of public education, remove the control almost entirely from the people and liquidate whatever vestiges of union strength had been left from his constant barrage of demolition. And now he's promoting his efforts to end seniority rights and tenure in a national movement to vilify teachers for wanting any sort of job protection from unscrupulous demagogues like himself and his incompetent chancellors. Here, you must resist again, for it is surely going to revisit your area, with the possibility that Arne Duncan and Obama and/or Bill Gates, George Soros or the likes of Michelle Rhee joining in the frontal assault. Best wishes for your and our unity to defeat the neo-lberals agenda for the end of teaching as a profession and the privatization of public education..

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) As of this writing, I have received no ballot and was wondering how many of you are in the same situation, which seems designed to maintain the same cabal of Duffyesque control at UTLA in the person of Julie Washington et al, who Duffy has taken every opportunity to push to the rank and file, while denying other candidates and slates equal access. Today at perdaily, we received allegations that there was "beginning to emerge election mail tampering, possible fraud with packets of opposition candidate flyers, supposedly mailed out, by firm hired by UTLA." In addition, we receive other claims that "many dues payers received packets of candidate flyers only AFTER they voted!" What further added to what is more and more seeming like a concerted effort to thwart Opposition candidates and an honest election is that the, "Flyers were also either double stuffed or sent on duplicate packets so even more dues payers got NO flyers of some opposition candidates at all with their packets."

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) While the rational mind tells you that the harassment, intimidation, and bullying you see at LAUSD are not just happening to you and 200 teachers deposited in rubber rooms around the District, there is something very empowering about realizing that there is nothing personal about these despicable acts that are practiced around this country to silence the majority of excellent teachers who dare to stand up for what they know to be right. It is rather sad that our unions seem equally tainted by the same corruption that exists in these purposefully failed school districts, where money and power have long ago supplanted the desire to give all students the public education they are entitled to. What follows is Lorna Stremcha's story in her own words. See how much of her Montana reality is exactly the same as what you or one of your colleagues has experience in Los Angeles Unified, NYC Public Schools, or the vast majority of purposefully corrupted school districts in between that continue to maintain power at any cost by savaging teachers and ignoring the needs of students.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The danger with writing a site like perdaily five days a week is that you spend far too much time confronting the dark corrupt world of public education as seen through the unimaginative eyes of those running it. To counter this occupational hazard, I had the pleasure today talking with Anthony Cody, an educator from Oakland California. Rather than spend our time talking about what is wrong in public education, which we all know so well that it is creating an attitude of futility and apathy among us that is the antithesis of why good teachers got into teaching in the first place. While neither one of us wants to ignore what is wrong, we both thought that a better way of addressing it might be to posit what teachers would do to reform public education, if we were given the support to implement our clear vision inspired by years of experience as professional teachers. In furtherance of our conversation, Anthony sent me the following 6 links to articles that he has written and projects he has been involved in that specifically address problems we are all facing.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) There is no distance between the issues of LAUSD teachers, parents, and students and those of NYC Public Schools. If you agree, go to http://www.nycteachers.com and register to create a national forum where we can finally be heard. When you introduce presently isolated people in NYC fighting for better public education or when you meet somebody in L.A. who shares your goals and concerns by the connect you have made at http://www.nycteachers.com/ than you will know that you have taken the first definitive step to ending corruption and premeditated incompetence in public education. What do you have to lose except your present apathy, which is no condition for a teacher to suffer from, unless you want to infect your students with it.

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The following candidates are not together on a slate, but represent the best voices in UTLA to bring much needed change to our union. Only 20% of all members vote. So even if you do not vote for any of these candidates, please vote! Part of the reason we get kicked around so much by the school district is because we are not actively involved, and we do not make our voices heard in elections. Officers: President: Warren Fletcher NEA Vice President: M.J. Roberts AFT Vice President: John Cromshow Elementary Vice President Juan Ramirez Secondary Vice President: Frances M. Copeland Treasurer: Scott Johnson Secretary: David Lyell Board of Directors: NEA Central Area: Catherine R. Proctor NEA Valley East Area: Erika Jones AFT Valley East Area: Lisa Karahalios NEA Valley West: Colleen Schwab NEA Harbor Area: Haidee Fierrro, Elgin Scott, Aaron Bruhnke, Candidate for Special Education: Tim Delia Candidate for Substitutes: Dave Peters If you do not receive a ballot in the next few days, please call and/or email Tara Thomas at UTLA to request a ballot. You can reach Tara at: 213.637.5165

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) As we have said many times over during the last year on this site, the unquestioned fallacy that remains the exclusive mantra of mainstream media is that the longstanding failure of public education is the responsibility of teachers, when nothing could be further from the truth. In the following comment, meant to address this purposeful distortion of who is really responsible for failed public education, Karen Horwitz, the founder of NAPTA, talks about who should really be held responsible for the ongoing and premeditated failure of public education in this country. My voice, the voice of Karen Horwitz, and those of the silenced majority - which is never given space in mainstream media - is really the dominant narrative that must be heard, if we ever expect to reconstitute an uncorrupted public education system as the sine qua non of this country's continuation as a philosophically and economically vital democracy, where the interest of the majority take precedence over those who continue to pervert the system for their own self-interest:

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) "We all know that the destructive individuals of the world have a way of finding each other, organizing, and building a forceful assembly that at times has had the power to destroy us all." Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, Evil is the antithesis of good--especially what linguist Noam Chomsky declares is the Greater Good. Evil behavior "deprives innocent people of their humanity, from small scale assaults on a person's dignity to out-right murder." Evil is arguably inherent with the efforts being made to assure failurein public education, by districts like LAUSD, whose notoriously adversarial relationship with teachers denotes the downfall of quality in our community's schools, most of them serving students who are among the working poor majority or already deeply entrenched in the city of lost angels' skid row poverty as it stretches from blocks into miles of dissident souls betrayed by the American Dream. The wanton attack on educators and certain schools, along with the escalation of "business" paradigms counterintuitive to the mission of public education are alarming trends, as teachers passionately note here on Perdaily.com and in pro-pedagogy blogs across the nation as well as in Great Britain, Canada and Australia.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Let me take this opportunity to welcome Nicholas Riccardi to the L.A. Times Staff. His article in Saturday, January 29th's Los Angeles Times entitled A school's triumphant rise continues that most hallowed of Los Angeles Times traditions of irrationally attacking labor - in this instance teachers - while giving LAUSD and Denver public school administrators a pass for corrupt and failed public education systems that they are the architects of. If administrators of Denver's Bruce Randolph School are the admitted architects of failed public education as Superintendent Ray Cortines and his predecessors are the architects of failed LAUSD schools, then why would destroying a unionized professional teachers corp in any way address the structural failures in design that teachers had no say in implementing in the first place? Ironically, the only teachers it will get rid of are those who refuse to complement the emperor on his new clothes.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) What they don't want you to know is that charters started as a way to explore innovative teaching practices, that fewer than one in seven charters produce better results, and while they should be explored, charters should not be promoted as the "be all end all" to the problems facing our schools that the politicians - school board members and the Superintendent - have refused to address for years. What they also don't want you to know is that there's an incestuous relationship between current and former board members, district employees, and many in the charter school industry. We need to follow the money trail. Our incoming superintendent, John Deasy, negotiated an $80,000 salary bump despite recent layoffs, pay cuts, and firings - all done because the district supposedly doesn't have enough cash. The board didn't even bother to consider any other candidates. Deasy has worked for the Gates Foundation, embracing their push for value-added assessments, despite that, at best, value-added has a margin of error of plus or minus 45 points, and even worse, the foundation has been withholding data from researchers.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) On January 18th, 19th, and 20th, Sonali Kolhatkar dedicated three segments of her daily morning show Uprising on KPFK - 90.7FM at 8a.m. - to the endemic corruption that continues to be allowed in the running of public education at LAUSD and elsewhere throughout the United States. She focused on the systematic harassment of any teacher that stands against this corruption in defense of honest and rigorous public education for all in a country that is now more segregated than it was pre-Brown vs Board of Education.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I was a teacher for LAUSD for 32 years with good evaluations until I and 2 other colleagues (P.E. Teachers) reported a female Asst. Principal entered the boys' locker room when the football team was changing for a game. As "mandatory reporters, we reported the incident and the administration as a whole started various kinds of harassment and retaliation as a result of that reporting. It got to the point where it became unbearable to continue working for LAUSD, which forced me to retire 2.5 years earlier that I had intended. I filed a lawsuit against the LAUSD and the individuals involved and am currently in the Appeals process. During the trial 5 employees and administrators perjured themselves while giving false testimony even thought there was direct evidence from the LAUSD itself that there were boys dressing in the locker room when the AP went into it. The LAUSD has used every trick in the book to try to get this case dismissed and was unable to do so. We are moving forward with the hope that a positive result for us in this case may open up Pandora's box against the LAUSD and many more teachers may come forward with similar lawsuits. Call me, if you like. I am in Rio de Janeiro 1.954.671.0279

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) In Jason Felch and Jason Song's latest piece of yellow journalism for the L.A. Times entitled "Teachers no longer safe in seniority," one cannot help being astounded at the ability of these two journalistic aparatchiks to say so much while consciously leaving out critical information that might allow their readers to come up with exactly the opposite conclusion The Two Jasons want them to. What makes this all the more reprehensible is that anybody with the access to LAUSD of The Two Jasons and their other job threatened colleagues at the Times undoubtedly know that what they "report" are scripted talking points of a neo-liberal agenda to destroy the remnants of real public education and the knowledge and empowerment our Founding Fathers counted on public education for to give the citizens of this country as the repository of power under the constitution- no education, no democracy.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Several years ago, Patti Stonesifer the president of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was speaking at the Los Angeles Central Library about the Gates Foundation's using its vast wealth in addressing the deplorable state of American public education. In attendance were LAUSD Board Member Marlene Canter, Steve Barr of Green Dot Schools, and many other movers and shakers in public education, who had come to pay homage to the power that Ms. Stonesifer personified. At some point while I was sitting there, it dawned on me that Ms. Stonesifer, although she seemed very bright and had a personal fortune of over $350 million made working for Microsoft, was really in no better position to fix public education than I was. In fact, I actually might stand a better chance of succeeding than she did, because of what I knew from being on the inside as a teacher that she and the other people of good will present that evening did not know: After all, there point of entry into the public education reform arena was through the same corrupt and self-serving bureaucracy that was responsible for the long term and premeditated destruction of public education in the first place, which was not likely to give them anything but a distorted picture of what was really going on.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post Writer Evelyn Waugh's classic black comedy The Loved One was also the source of a subsequent film starring Jonathan Winters. The story is a loosely veiled spoof on Forest Lawn and the American way of death. In one classic scene of the movie multiply-part-playing Winters who is the owner of the cemetery, when he finds out that the land on which the cemetery is built is worth a fortune, screams at the top of his lungs, "How do I get those stiffs off of my property." He ultimate solves his problem with a clever scheme to sell burials in space, where he can clear the cemetery land at the same time that he is making a fortune selling high priced funerals that rocket the deceased into space.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Many years ago in Africa before I Love Lucy was on television and the Amos and Andy radio show's White performers were not considered racist. And long before doo rags were a sign of Black pride, but rather a sign that Blacks had not as yet appreciated how beautiful they were, there lived only two races on the face of the earth. There were the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons. The Cro-Magnons were a truly superior people of not only higher intelligence, but also a high level of rare human empathy and a keen sense of fashion that is clearly lacking in 21st century America and elsewhere as humanity strives to see if it can assure its own extinction over the next 15 to 20 years by continuing to strip mine the earth, while irreparably maiming large segments of its population in public schools.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, January 18-20 KPFK's Uprising Show with Sonali Kolhatkar will talk about issues of real public education reform that are presently blacked out in the mainstream media. Listen live at 90.7 FM if you are in Los Angeles or podcast at: http://www.kpfk.org/listen-live.html If you want to listen later, the shows will be archived at: http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/ January 18th show on KPFK: What happens to teachers who stand against LAUSD endemic corruption Public education as LAUSD and UTLA see it are about adapting to failure, rather than positing a pragmatic and viable model that addresses the subjective needs of students, teachers, and their families to insure an environment where learning is not the exception and 50% of teachers do not quit within the first 5 years because of the untenable environment they are required to teach in with no administrative support for either good teaching or the minimal level of discipline it requires..

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) I'm disappointed by the appointment of John Deasy as the superintendent to the LAUSD School Board. The school board didn't even bother to consider any other candidates, which is very strange. The public needs to remember that the mayor, who celebrated this appointment, after recently attacking UTLA, was also handed a vote of "no confidence" by teachers at eight of the 10 schools he takes credit for operating. The reality is that the teachers at those school sites operate those schools. The mayor, who rarely shows up, only operates them on paper, and dismally at that. We need to remember that this is the same mayor who, in 2009, spent 15 times as much as his nearest opponent on his campaign, then refused to debate him.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) LAUSD never reveals its line budget. LAUSD has departments and highly paid administrators that have no effect on education at the schools. LAUSD has lobbyists and outside contracts. LAUSD cuts from the lowest ends of the payroll. LAUSD blames the teachers for everything and maintains an adversarial relationship with them. LAUSD spends "$100 million per year on non-mandated assessments -- that is, testing not required by law -- and $43 million on mini-districts." LAUSD looks for ways to treat teachers poorly--especially those who speak out, those who keep difficult classes in order but do not produce strong test scores, and those that school administrators do not like.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Ordinary people who believe in the law of the land are incredulous and say, "How can our public school systems across the country be so corrupt? SIMPLE -with the help of the media and the complicity of the union. You see, while the media focuses and points the finger at those "bad teachers," at the 'dead-wood" the union mishandles tens of thousands of cases. THE WAY IT WORKS: • The crucial point where the contract would prevent charges based on abusive, false allegations from being IS AT THE SITE! • But, the union's rep on-site is a teacher who depends on the principal for everything: the student load, the duties, the materials, the program. Collusion with administration has become epidemic here and grievance procedures are abandoned or subverted. IT IS SO SIMPLE! To bypass the grievance procedure MANDATED in a contract, the principal tells a parent to complain directly to the CHANCELLOR or superintendent, with one of several SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS which mean the teacher can be REMOVED immediately. • CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IS A FAVORITE , and teacher comments can be interpreted as threatening, and used to charge a teacher with corporal punishment. (Education law is clear that THIS is illegal.) • Sexual abuse " there has been a three -fold increase in these allegations interpreted from the ASSOCIATED PRESS release to mean that thirty percent of our teachers are abusive to students, when in truth, this charge is just a ploy to remove a teacher, in most of the cases. • Theft or misuse of funds: which is ironic, since it is administration that that often robs the school blind. • Drug Abuse: any allegation can doom a teacher.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Thus, across the country, a corrupt bureaucratic system has put into in place a procedure that circumvents the union contract, education regulations and basic civil rights laws, in order to remove any teacher. This process is the total abrogation of the civil rights of Americans... who just happen to be teachers! This "process" has so infiltrated our school systems, that now our teachers' careers, reputations, health care and financial security are destroyed and there is ABSOLUTELY NO RECOURSE TO THE LAW! Teachers have difficulty finding lawyers to represent them, because few lawyers have the deep pockets to litigate against an entity whose deep pockets are filled by your tax dollars. Litigation, in any case is a financial nightmare. Moreover, the judicial system is stacked against the teachers, as judges routinely rule in favor of the administrations. Teachers lose.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) What also struck me by sharp contrast right next to it was the face of presumptive LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, who was smiling in much the same manner as his predecessors Admiral Brewer and Ramon Cortines had while doing absolutely nothing during their tenures of office to change the long-failed culture of LAUSD. A culture where ignorance is still allowed to maintain racial fantasies that cause predominantly minority young people to pass through 13 years of education - if they don't drop out first - completely unscathed by the formation that would make them less susceptible to this useless waste of our nation's greatest asset. It also occurred to me that the images of Black and Latino incomprehensible grief has become so common place as an image in our society that people hardly pause in appreciating the catastrophic effect that such indifference to human grief has specifically on these communities, but also on all of us in this society. It is not just the Whites that have no expectation of Black and Latino youth living better, but it is also the Black and Latino communities themselves that have been forced to live in the L.A. version of Baghdad or Kabul for so long that they too have lost any hope for a better future.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) It is my New Year's resolution for 2011 to finally develop and publicize a clearly stated and specific platform for real and accountable public education reform by bringing together people from all over this country to share their collective and remarkably similar insights as to the real nature of the purposefully failed and the endemically corrupt present public education system as well as a rather straight forward way it can be dealt with. This is the first of many blogs from myself and an initial list of insightful educators, parents, students, writers, and others from all of the United States whose views have been systematically excluded from the mainstream media and the present carefully controlled monologue of bogus public education reform that will continue until we the people stop and replace it with a truly functional public education system. The links to these tenacious heroes who continue to posit a positive views of excellent public education for all will be posted and linked to on a daily basis on this site and increased as they are joined by others from around the country until we reach the critical mass necessary to achieve the pragmatic and effective implementation of public education that we are entitled to. Browse through their links to see the stark similarities of the present corrupt public education system around this country and their clear vision of what has to replace it if we intend to survive as a democracy that vests power in its highly educated citizens.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) After 184 posts on this site made every school day for the last year, I think I have public education reality out there for anybody who would like to look through this site for the rampant corruption and what I have suggested could be done about it. In the future, I will keep this site up and monitor those who contact and want to post, but I will now only post on an occasional basis as I need the tremendous amount of time it takes to write 5 posts a week to defend myself and others through expensive and time consuming legal process. Clearly, teachers are the key to bringing down corrupt LAUSD and it is for this reason that LAUSD administrators brutally attack anyone who dares challenge their militantly ignorant policies that continue to destroy student and teachers lives. In talking with some of the 80 - 200 teachers who share my fate of either being on paid or unpaid administrative leave, there are clear similarities in the abusive tactics that LAUSD has employed against all of us in complete and utter disregard for truth and due process of law.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) On Tuesday, November 9th at 4:44pm I received a call on my cell phone from Janice Davis, Head of High School Programs for LAUSD. After 8 months of being confined to my home between the hours of 7:30am to 3pm, Monday-Friday, she was calling to tell me that the LAUSD Board had rubber stamped LAUSD Chief Academic Officer Dr. Judy Elliott's recommendation made on October 4th to have me put on unpaid status as a first step toward dismissing me from employment as a teacher from LAUSD. Now begins the real fight in venues, that at least in theory, are out of LAUSD's control and where I will have a right to judicially enforced discovery to request the non-existent documents that LAUSD has used as a basis to sustain false charges against me while refusing to authenticate anything in total violation of anything that even resemble due process. There is nobody at LAUSD who has a good faith belief that I am guilty of anything other than not going along with their fraud. Given that I know for certain that I have done nothing wrong, in all likelihood when compelled to produce documents to support their charges, they will refuse, drop the charges, and place me back in another school only to start the process of intimidation all over again with incessant assistant principal visits and writing me up on a new series of nonexistent charges until I do what the majority of teachers in my situation do which is to quit, retire, or if they are lucky get bought off upon the signing of a non-disclosure agreement with LAUSD that forbids them from discussing the terms of their settlement or anything else about the way they were treated.

(Mensaje se repite en Español) On November 5th last week, I received the following terse email from David Rapkin of Progressive Educators For Action