Education

Tennessee Is About To Take School Privatization To An Extreme

March 15, 2022 Andy Spears, The Progressive Magazine. Educate! Charter Schools, Corporatism, Education, Tennessee

Tennessee - If you are wondering what it looks like when school privatizers are close to total victory, Tennessee is a prime example. Here, the forces that want to take public money and hand it over to private entities are on the verge of completing their conquest. Tennessee’s current legislative session features a range of attacks on public schools. Some of these would have immediate impacts, while others take a longer-term approach to fully privatizing K-12 education in the state. First, it is important to understand that groups backing privatization in the form of charter schools and vouchers are among the top spenders when it comes to lobbying state legislators. For example, the American Federation for Children—an organization founded and previously led by the family of Betsy DeVos, a school privatization advocate and former President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education—spent $887,500.

Student-Community-Labor Coalition Grows In New York City

March 13, 2022 G. Dunkel, Workers World. Resist! Education, Labor Unions, New York City (NYC), Worker Rights and Jobs

A growing student-community-labor coalition held a large rally March 6 on demands related to New York City educational institutions. After gathering at Brooklyn Borough Hall, participants marched over the Brooklyn Bridge to Foley Square in Manhattan. Key organizers of the rally and the coalition were the Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York (American Federation of Teachers Local 2334), United University Professions (AFT Local 2190) and CUNY Rising Alliance, a coalition of 30-plus student, worker and community organizations “fighting for free and high-quality CUNY.” About 600 people heard James Davis, president of PSC-CUNY, and Fred Kowal, president of UUP, explain the needs of students and workers they represent at various institutions and how the pending New York state budget should recognize these needs.

Strike Day Four: Teachers And Education Assistants Holding Strong

March 12, 2022 Fight Back News. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Protests, Worker Rights and Jobs

Minneapolis, MN – The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) strike entered its fourth day on Thursday March 11 as Minneapolis Public Schools remained closed. Picket lines continued to have large crowds with many schools reporting 100% turnout to their picket lines every day of the strike, and the others reporting nearly all educators on their lines. Each day of the strike so far has featured morning pickets at schools starting at 7:30 a.m. and a large unity action happening mid-day or early afternoon. On Tuesday at noon a large rally of around 7000 educators and supporters was held at the Davis Center where the Minneapolis Public Schools office is housed. On Wednesday the unity rally was at the Minnesota State Capitol and again several thousand showed up to hear speeches shouted from the stage to large chants from the giant crowd.

Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike Is A Struggle For Black Lives

March 12, 2022 Adnan Ahmed, Left Voice. Resist! Black America, Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Minneapolis teachers’ strike kicked off this week with a huge turnout. Over 4,000 teachers and Educational Support Professionals (ESPs) are on strike for the first time in 50 years. The teachers are demanding smaller class sizes, increased wages (especially for ESPs who are mostly people of color), increased mental health support for students, and retention of educators of color. Students, parents, and community members have joined these educators in this strike. The Teachers’ Demands Are Anti-Racist With the George Floyd uprising, Minneapolis saw the rebirth of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The police violently repressed community members and people burned down the 3rd precinct. A few months later, on November 4, 2020, over 600 community members and BLM activists were arrested during a protest on the 1-94 freeway, the largest mass arrest in Minnesota’s history.

CounterSpin: Braxton Brewington On Student Loan Debt

March 12, 2022 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Educate! Education, Media, Student Debt, Student Loans

An NBC News story headlined “White House Confronts Political Pressure to Extend Pause in Student Loan Payments Ahead of Midterms” represented much media focus on student loan debt: treating the fact that 45 million Americans owe some $1.7 trillion as an “issue,” an object of debate, a potential election factor. And that’s all true. Student loan forgiveness was one of Biden’s campaign promises. The federal pause on repayments is set to expire on May 1, and what happens with it will have an effect on the president and the party. But, of course, there’s also a much broader and deeper conversation to be had about student loans, and about debt, that hopefully will carry us beyond any particular election cycle. For an update on the current situation and our understanding of what’s at stake, we’re joined now by Braxton Brewington, press secretary and organizer at the group Debt Collective, a membership-based union for debtors and allies.

How The White House Could Wipe Out Federal Student Loan Debt

March 12, 2022 Josh Axelrod, The American Independent. Create! Education, Finance and the Economy, Joe Biden, Student Debt, Student Loans

Last week, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain hinted that President Joe Biden may soon take action on the nation's $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Biden has several options at his disposal to aid the nation's 43 million student loan borrowers, experts told the American Independent Foundation. "The president is going to look at what we should do on student debt before the pause expires, or he'll extend the pause," Klain said on the podcast Pod Save America last Thursday. "Right now, people aren't having to pay on their loans, and so I think dealing with the executive branch question, what we should do about that, what his powers are, how much we should do on that, that's something we're going to deal with later on," Klain added.

Wexner Center For The Arts Workers Want To Unionize

March 10, 2022 Sheridan Hendrix, Portside. Organize! Education, Ohio, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

taff at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University have announced plans to form a union with the hope of making the museum an "equitable, transparent and sustainable workplace." Wex Workers United sent a letter to Wexner Center and university leaders Friday asking them to recognize their new union, formed in collaboration with AFSCME Ohio Council 8, according to a news release. "We believe our endeavor is inextricably linked to the center’s stated mission and ongoing commitment to social justice and institutional transformation," according to Wex Workers United's letter to leadership. "These goals can only be realized through deep structural change." University officials referred The Dispatch to the Wexner Center for the Arts for a comment.

Massive Turnout On Day One Of Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike

March 9, 2022 Adnan Ahmed, Left Voice. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

For the first time in 50 years, Minneapolis public school teachers and educational support professionals (ESPs) went on strike yesterday to demand better wages, smaller class sizes, mental health support for students, and retention of educators of color. The last time Minneapolis teachers went on strike was in 1970 when it was illegal for public employees to strike. The strike began at seven o’clock in the morning on Tuesday. Teachers, students, parents, and their supporters picketed outside their schools and made speeches. Supporters brought coffee, snacks, and hand warmers. Many of the picketers carried signs calling out Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) superintendent Ed Graff for dismissing the demands of students or teachers.

Minnesota Workers United Organizes Support For Upcoming Teachers’ Strike

March 7, 2022 Fight Back News. Organize! Education, Minnesota, Protests, Worker Rights and Jobs

Minneapolis, MN - On Saturday March 5 rank-and-file union members along with parents, teachers and students held a press conference in support of the teachers, education support professionals (ESPs) and education assistants who will begin a strike Tuesday in Minneapolis and Saint Paul public schools. More than 93% of the Minneapolis educators voted to authorize the upcoming open-ended strike, along with a 78% strike vote from Saint Paul educators. In the week after the educators’ votes, food service workers in the Minneapolis school system also authorized a strike by a 98% vote. The food service workers’ strike is expected to start soon after the educators’ strike begins.

Educators In St. Paul And Minneapolis May Go On Strike Soon – Here’s Why

March 6, 2022 Cirien Saadeh, Prism Reports. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

In a Feb. 24 announcement, teachers with the Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), which includes both teachers and Education Support Professionals, announced an intent to strike. Filed with the state of Minnesota’s Bureau of Mediation, the intent to strike was authorized by the board in a vote counted Feb. 17 and provides a legally-mandated, 10-day warning to the school districts about a possible strike. The demands from both unions to their districts have been similar. They are asking for limits on class sizes, wage increases, and better mental health support for students. According to reporting from Minnesota Public Radio, the districts have said that the teachers’ demands are not feasible due to budget shortfalls.

Richmond Educators Are First In Virginia To Win Bargaining Rights

February 25, 2022 Vernon Snow, Labor Notes. Resist! Education, Teachers, Virginia, Worker Rights and Jobs

Teachers and other public school employees in Richmond, Virginia, won a major victory in December when the city’s school board, in an 8 to 1 vote, approved a resolution granting them collective bargaining rights. The victory sets a precedent for other districts and public sector employees throughout the state. Richmond is the first school district in Virginia to reinstate collective bargaining rights, after the legislature in 2020 lifted the state’s 43-year prohibition on collective bargaining for local government workers. Members of the school board had made repeated attempts to delay the vote. Winning took a mass mobilization led by the Richmond Education Association, which convened district-wide workers’ assemblies, held rallies outside school board meetings, and shared dozens of teacher testimonies during public comment periods.

The Power Of Recognizing Higher Ed Faculty As Working-Class

February 23, 2022 Helena Worthen, Working-Class Perspectives. Strategize! Education, Higher Education, Worker Rights and Jobs, Working Class

Just over 20 years ago, Michael Zweig published The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret. At that year’s How Class Works conference at SUNY Stony Brook, academics from history, political science, labor and industrial relations, and other fields debated Zweig’s use of the term “working class.” Some thought it was a throwback to the 1930s or a tip-off that someone was a Marxist. But even at a conference attended by many academics from working-class backgrounds, no one pointed out that academics are working class. Twenty years ago, academia still seemed like a middle-class or even an upper-class job, even though that had started to change in the mid 1970s.Young academics expected that if they did “all the right things,” they would get tenure and live happily ever after.

Effort To Put History Of Indian Boarding Schools Into Classrooms

February 20, 2022 Rachel Louise Just, Up North Live. Create! Boarding School, Education, indigenous, School Curriculum

Lansing, Michigan - An effort is underway in Lansing to encourage Michigan's Board of Education to ensure new generations of students would be taught about the history of Native American boarding schools. The history of the boarding schools would also focus on the atrocities committed at the schools. Sen. Wayne Schmidt, R-Travere City, introduced SB 876, which would encourage the curriculum for 8th-12th grades. “My response for that is very favorable. I’m glad to hear that. You know, it’s always good to be heard," said George Jeffrey Martin, Secretary, Gun Lake Tribal Council. “It’s the start of allowing us to tell the story. It’s not gonna be pleasant.” The proposed legislation was created with the input of Native American tribal leaders, who are more aware than anyone of the horrors committed in the boarding schools.

National Day Of Strikes And Protests In Puerto Rico

February 19, 2022 Rafael Azul, WSWS. Resist! Education, National Strike, Puerto Rico, Worker Rights and Jobs

Teachers and government workers carried out a national day of strikes and protests in Puerto Rico Friday. There were marches and rallies across the US territory. A mass demonstration took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital city. The marchers demanded just wages and pensions and an end to the privatization of schools and government services. Despite a morning attempt by San Juan police to block a section of marchers, the protests were peaceful and high-spirited. In San Juan, in the early morning hours demonstrators began congregating in the Hiram Bithorn baseball stadium before marching toward the headquarters of the Fiscal Control and Supervision Agency. Among the many demonstrators were teachers, electricity and road workers, university professors and students.

Brown University Faculty Reject Push For Koch-Funded Scholarship

February 19, 2022 Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams. Resist! Education, Koch Brothers, Student Activism, Worker Rights and Jobs

More than 60% of Brown University faculty members voted Tuesday to postpone a vote on the creation of a new academic center until next month, giving professors more time to assess whether administrators have adequately strengthened the institution's gift policy to ensure that wealthy right-wing donors are not bankrolling science-denying, corporate-friendly research. The proposed Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) would absorb and expand programs from the Political Theory Project (PTP), which has received funding from the Koch Foundation led by fossil fuel billionaire and GOP mega-donor Charles Koch, The Brown Daily Herald reported this week. Students Against Koch Influence (SAKI)—a campus group that has been organizing opposition to the proposed PPE Center—acknowledged that "more work is to come in writing and codifying the new policy" but celebrated the delay as "a huge first step."

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