hola!

hi there, Tula!!

Hi, Biodun, Hi, JayT!

Thanks for starting out this thread.

The program involves intensive hands-on training, conferences, evaluation and mentoring to ensure the highest skill levels among teachers.

It is, of course, no accident that Berman is going after a union that is NOT
doing what he is accusing them of.

Thanks Tula! “…no one could have anticipated we’d need teachers!”

My mother works as a high school business and IT teacher. She works weekends, holidays and summers grading papers and projects, creating and refining teaching materials, attending required professional development events, tutoring and supporting her students and their often-very-educationally-bereft families. She went to school for years as an adult to earn her shot as this second “dream” career, and is very proud of the professional heights she has scaled despite health and other challenges.

Just what is it about this woman and so many others like her that is so threatening to the likes of Berman and his ilk? That she, they might have the AUDACITY, the UNHOLY TEMERITY to insist that her job, their jobs, is/are difficult, important, and deserve/s adequate compensation?

People like Berman make me glad I don’t own a gun, because I would dearly love to show him how far I could get with one…(h/t Al Capone).

[Mod Note; threats of violence are discouraged at FDL. Let’s find a better analogy the next time.]

Good post, Tula. You left out one group of folks with an anti-education axe to gring: the far rightwing of the religious community.

They’re afraid of sex education, despite the fact — fact! — that as many as one in four teens have STDs.

They’re afraid of science education, especially around evolution and climate change, despite all the testimony of those well known liberal Nobel Laureates, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

And of course, they’re also pissed off that the Supreme Court won’t let the teacher lead prayers in school and read the bible to the class.

These folks are a minority nationally, but in some areas of the country — including some anti-union areas — they are quite powerful locally.

As a pastor and the son of two former public schoolteachers, these folks distress me greatly.

This guy really is a dolt:

The “winners” will be offered $10,000 each if they permanently resign or retire from any career in education—if they sign a release agreeing to have their name and the reasons for their selection published by the group.

So they would leave a $60 K job for the golden opportunity to get $10 K and get their name smeared all over the country as a bonus? Somebody needs to school this idiot.

He is not an idiot. He knows exactly what he is doing. Smear works. Bullshit hyperbole works. He is anti-union. I bet he will soon show himself to be a racist/fascist/feudal type.

Obviously, the whole farce is just to demean all public school teachers. Hopefully, they’ll screw up and somebody can successfully sue for libel.

Naturally, Berman is too intellectually stunted to recognize that, but for teachers, he would not possess even the capacity to sign his own name.

Hypocrisy is unbecoming.

Are there links between this effort and the fundamentalists who want to destroy the public education system? The attacks on Science education are only the first battle in a long war to remove “thought” from education. Both Christian and Islamic fundamentalists have similar goals. My GF’s niece goes to a christian madrassa and the educational result is disturbing.

Interesting..Two hours ago, I bookmarked a German news report about Christian fundalmentalists and the Discovery Institute working with Islamic fundamentalists in Turkey to remove evolution and science teachers fromm Turkish Schools. That story is no longer available.

I’ve been looking for links, and haven’t seen any so far. My guess is that CUF and Berman are aware of the Fundy opposition to public education, and tailor some of their public ads and statements to reach those folks, but that there aren’t any specific ties (financial support, board members from the TheoCon community, etc.).

But I could easily be wrong.

Berman is a parasite. Our economic and social system are provide a petri dish for his kind.

The destruction of public education is an endeavor that belongs not only to the fundy branch of the Republican Party, but also the Conservative and Libertarian subsets. These groups do not want to pay to educate other peoples’ children. Self-proclaimed “Libertarian” asshole (genuine) Neil Boortz harps on this topic constantly. He refers to public schools as government schools. (Government is always bad, of course, when discussed by rich, lying conservative hypocrites.)

Among Berman’s list of hatchet jobs is a PR campaign through his American Beverage Institute to slam Mothers Against Drunk Driving on behalf of the alcohol industry…

As a recovering alcoholic myself (with a brand-new, shiny, one-year token in my pocket), I gotta say that even on my worst day, I could never muster an argument against MADD.

Takes a special kind of motherfucker to accept payment to argue against them, I think.

What are the teachers; unions doing in response? How are they defending themselves? Do they have a rapid response team?

I think he, and the chamber of commerce and other backers all know where they learned to read and write. They know how now, and they don’t give a shit about anyone else.

I’ve become convinced that the ultra conservatives actually want just a wealthy upper class and a large ignorant hand-to-mouth labor pool. Nothing in between. I don’t think they even understand that they need enough people able to buy their goods and services. Now that they own Boardwalk and Park Place, they’re playing to win. Unfortunately, they’ve gone a long ways toward achieving their goal.

Despite the many attacks on teachers, especially unionized teachers, I think we can agree most of them are smarter than your average bear. That’s why so many teachers have joined unions — for solidarity and better wages, health and retirement benefits, and dignity and respect. I think a lot of the attacks are based on jealousy, because they have been so successful at bargaining.

– Your Average Bear

((jayt))

way to go, dude!

If you care about children, you encourage them, support them and teach them every day. You work to keep them safe and to make sure they feel safe. You reach into your own pocket to buy them school supplies (and sometimes lunch or a warm winter jacket). You intervene if you think a child is being mistreated, neglected or abused.

That’s what teachers do.

If you don’t care about children, you attack children’s teachers and make their jobs even more difficult. You hire a photographer to take a disgusting image of a child hung up by his neck. Then you use the image of an bullied child as the basis of an attack on the child’s teachers.
Then you launch a million-dollar campaign that includes a disgusting image that will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

That’s what Richard Berman and the Center for Union Facts are doing with their New York Times ad.

The NAM and the Chambers of Commerce may think they’ve effectively eradicated unions, like polio, but that’s not enough. Mutations abound. They also know that we’re in for a sea change in our domestic way of life. Not just the ramifications from the rise of the Surveillance State, but wholesale changes in how jobs are defined and benefits agreed on and paid for. Globalization and outsourcing are tentacles of the same beast that we come to grips with or not at our peril.

The process of redefining work will redefine what we mean by a “community”, which includes what we demand of our government. The backlash from Bush may directly affect the ill-gotten gains these companies have reaped during his hold on power. Which means union busting is a growth industry.

I suggest that we turn the tables and treat union busting as the polio that needs eradicating. But not so vehemently that we turn our defensive mechanism on ourselves, like rheumatoid arthritis. We can use kind words, too.

Since the (religious thought police) article is no longer available, I will post an excerpt..

“There are outstanding figures within Islamic theology who have participated in this discussion [of creationism]. There is no reason to be surprised, there is a very rich tradition,” David Berlinski, keynote speaker for the meeting and an analyst for the US-based Discovery Institute, a Christian creationist organization, told ISN Security Watch.

“This is a hot issue. We are in the midst of a worldwide religious revival. Historians 500 years from now will talk about the religious revival of the late 20th century and early 21st century.”

link

Yeah, has anyone noticed how the repubs really flush down any meaningful support of the little ones who can’t vote? It’s really pathetically transparent.

I hate this attack stuff. I myself have mixed feelings about teachers. Some I loathe, and there are a few I would take a bullet for. But attack them? Never.

We in California already paid way less than other states do per student and we’re cutting that back thanks to the Governator (what is HE thinking?). Huge uproar here statewide.

Thanks for helping this make sense to me because

I just never really understood the venom and hatred expressed against teachers. I know lawyers who bill hundreds of dollars an hour yet resent that teachers get paid a living wage and then even have the summer off! And these are the same teachers that will teach their own kids.

And true, there are those who don’t want to pay to educate other people’s children yet they seem to be these same people that complain the loudest about crime and “the shiftless class” apparently from whence all criminals arise (except those on wall street)

And heavenforbid we employ sex education. Mercy, the population might actually become healthier and happier — but then again, there would be (S.E.X)

know lawyers who bill hundreds of dollars an hour yet resent that teachers get paid a living wage and then even have the summer off!

Ahem…. present company excluded?

The whole point of sending children to places like Phillips Exeter or Phillips Andover is to give them a leg up in life.

Would an ‘aristocrat’ who is rich enough to do so also want to pay taxes to make competitive those poor children who are in the public education system.

Most ‘conservative’ goals can be traced back to aristocratic goals (keep the families of aristocrats in money and power). What is fascinating is how aristocrats can convince other ‘conservatives’ to adopt their goals. Stuff like constraints on free trade will lead to Communism which will outlaw religion.

Front Business page Fresno Bee. A petition has been filed with the National Labor Relations Board to oust the union representing nurses who work at clinics and a skilled nursing facility at the former University Medical Center. The two sides were court ordered in 2003 to bargain but have never been able to reach an agreement. The petition seeks to eliminate representation by the California Nurses Association.
Seems like a concerted effort to bust what is left of the unions.

I have a friend, a retired English Teacher. He calls himself a Libertarian, but has voted Republican at every instance that I’m aware of. He and his wife both live off teacher retirement annuities and complain that they don’t get a cost of living raises. HE ARGUES AGAINST PUBLIC EDUCATION AND HAVING TO PAY FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S KIDS TO BE EDUCATED. I believe it is a form of insanity.

A lot of damage to our education system has been done by these partisan right-wing attack groups. As has been noted above, not just by attacking the unions and the curricula, but by cutting funding. Here, in CA, prop 13 undercut the property tax funding base. So, despite having high per capita income, and high cost-of-living compared to other states (data here), we consistently rank below the national average in per-pupil spending. Because of this Ms p and I have home-schooled our three kids through their middle school years.

Knowledge is power. There was a time in history when it was a death penalty offense to teach a peasant to read. It serves the masters purpose to keep us uneducated and subservient. They want substandard schools and teachers. My daughter put herself thru college to become a teacher but she cannot afford to give up the job she had to get thru college.

We pay very high property tax in this small city for school bonds. Our district ranks among the best in the country because of it.

I think public education is fundamental to a democracy. Didn’t Washington note that democracy is dependent on an informed electorate? Yet these aristocrats and their neanderthal supporters claim to be patriots.

That reminds me of the blind lady I know who “thank(s) god every day that George Bush is president”. In the meantime, she tells me how much she enjoys public transportation and the local department of blind services (she is on her way there to view a special television device that would enable her to read the captions on Fox News). No Joke.

Hmmm. My mother was an English teacher and librarian. Her sister taught 2nd grade. My father’s sister was a math teacher. Her daughters included a first grade teacher, second grade teacher and special needs teacher. All belonged to the NEA. Proudly.

This Berman guy suffers from hatred of everyone-agorarepulsion. It starts with professions that were once all women. Teachers, nurses, etc. You know how flightly and deceptive women can be. We can trust them to teach our kids and give the sick care but only under the direct, oppressive authoratarian rule. And when the profits are made by the top tier of the society. You know, the ones that live in gated communities for their protection against the uneducated riff raff.

I try to avoid the subject, because my friend has some good characteristics and I feel strongly enough that I’ll dump the friendship if it goes too far. But I’m inclined to ask him if he believed public education was a fraud the whole time he was doing it, or if he just developed that belief after he retired.

I heard Tip O’Neal talk about people who went to school under the GI Bill, bought their house under that or FHA, sent their kids to college on federally insured loans and grants, are drawing social security and using medicare, and complain about the Federal government being on their back.

Excellent point. Under slavery in this country, it was against the law to teach slaves to read. Punishment/enforcement varied state by state, but the point was clear: Education is power.

We pay a fairly low tax where I am and the schools are definitely suffering for it.

Hehe. Do they think those flimsy gates are going to protect them after they’ve turned the rest of us into barbarians?

Denial is their first line of defense.

Great post, Tula.
And let’s not forget that Berman’s bombastic belligerence is being backed by quieter policy shifts harming educators around the country–like LA Gov. Jindal this week, yanking funds for teachers’ aides and teacher salaries to pay for income-based vouchers for private and charter schools.
–Mariya

Bad news. Louisiana is leading the way to the first half of the 19th century.

I think you are talking about members of my family. Also Republicans, live off teacher’s retirement the other social security and they complain about both but want to put a stop to it when it no longer applies to them. He had a job all his life thanks to unions. They didn’t have to put out a dime on their elderly parents thanks to social security checks they lived off.

I don’t get it. They are average joes but love corporate rule. Huh? On Iraq - they attacked us on 9/11 and Saddam is Hitler. If you think not, just ask them ;)

As any recovering alcoholic knows, denial is just a river in Egypt.

This is certainly nothing new in LA. In the 50’s and 60’s vouchers were a political issue. At the time the Catholic church was pushing hard for them. LA has been cleanized of their pesky democratic majority by the will of God (Katrina). Down with the possibility of education and hope.

And further to Louisiana (how low can you go):

From BayouBuzz:

At the time when the Jindal Administration is touting a “ethics” including a web site designed to assure accountability in government, a story has “broken” in the Advocate that indicates state-financed preferences for the Louisiana rich and the famous, including our new Governor and again, his Chief of Staff, Timmy Teepell.

Perks and Preferences: The web site might want to include the Lab School expenditures in Baton Rouge where one child of Governor Bobby Jindal and children of his Chief of Staff, Timmy Teepell, are attending while other parents cannot receive the same benefits.

I concur with Peterr’s analysis. An educated population is skeptical, inquiring, and resourceful: thus difficult to control using traditional methods of religious propaganda. So the nascent theocrats would much rather teach kids about Noah & the flood than about basic stratigraphy, or about how good unencumbered capitalism is for the environment than about climate models.

This faction has doing everything it possibly can to weaken the US educational system — which was struggling anyway. Perhaps my standards are too high, but I’m appalled that we have children graduating from high school who can’t draw a world map, haven’t read a single work by Shakespeare, and can’t explain Newton’s Laws. (And please don’t get me started on the fiasco that is NCLB.)

Teachers (at all levels) are our defense against the darkness. We must support them. (Not that all of them are terrific, and not that all of them have the greater good at heart. But as a profession, they’re outstanding.)

I can’t believe your friends was teachers that their students remember fondly. During my teaching career I saw far too many bored and boring, just going through the motions waiting to start collecting those retirement checks. And while being a college counselor, I saw many, many kids choosing to be teachers because they didn’t have to take math they had the afternoon off, and education courses were “easy”. And they were! Teaching Biology in Middle School, Algebra education for Teachers, etc. There’s a reason education draws from the lower SAT scores, and it’s connected to the fact the pay in many parts of the country is on a par with managing McD’s.

Good Lord - WAS, not were!

No…were not was! I think I’d better just shut up.

Except for the fact that the education major is approximately the dumbest member of American society, yah.

Quadruple teacher salaries now I say, and remove the requirement that teachers have a degree in stupidity. That takes care of the easy part within about 5 years - eliminating our idiot teacher population. The hard part will be fixing families.

Illustration of out idiot education major:

http://sherifffruitfly.googlep.....withthegre

With your spelling and grammer errors, I can see why you are against education

heh - Except that I’m the world’s biggest proponent of education. But it ain’t education if idiots are the teachers; rather, it’s only “education”.