Category: Education

Statement of Support

by Josh Pechthalt, the president of California, AFT

The California Federation of Teachers endorses the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Occupy Wall Street, and its local variations, represent the legitimate response of the 99% of us adversely affected by growing wealth and income inequality in America. The richest one percent of the population has doubled its share of the nation’s income over the past twenty years. Yet during this time the wealthy received massive tax cuts, a major cause of public budget shortfalls that hurt students, make our streets less safe, and harm the health of children and seniors.

At an October 3rd meeting, the Point Loma district school alignment committee declared that they had identified school campuses in Point Loma and Ocean Beach to be either closed or “realigned”.

Here are the District’s preliminary recommendations for the Peninsula:

• Close Cabrillo Elementary;
• Close Barnard Chinese Mandarin Magnet
• Relocate the language program to Dana Middle as a K-8 school;
• Expand Dewey Elementary to include fifth-grade,
• Expand Loma Portal Elementary to include fifth-grade,
• Expand Ocean Beach Elementary to include fifth-grade,

Politics, Poetry, Fiction, and Music and More in the Heart of the City

The 6th annual San Diego City College International Book Fair is this week (October 3^rd to the 8^th), and it offers an impressive line-up of writers, poets, and musicians including:

• Marjorie Cohn, editor of The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse;
• Cris Mazza, author of Various Men Who Knew Us as Girls;
• Zohreh Ghahremani, author of Sky of Red Poppies;
• lê thi diem thúy, author of The Gangster We Are All Looking For;

PARIS, FRANCE. September 27th this year, teachers in France from primary school to high school went on a national one-day strike. They weren’t asking for pay raises–though they certainly deserve them–they were on strike to demand the means to do their jobs.

There were around 150,000 demonstrators, including parents supporting their demands. The current rightwing government has already eliminated thousands of educational posts and proposes to eliminate another 14,000 next year. [Editor: Let’s be clear: France does not have a “socialist” government or education system.]

Editor: We have received this notice of a protest from the San Diego Anti-Corporation Alliance, about their protest on Wednesday, September 28th on the steps of the Hall of Justice. They have a myriad of demands, focused on protecting public workers’ rights, public education, medical marijuana persecution, and complaints about District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. We have a link to an indymedia website with a video.

According to Cal/EPA, San Diego Unified School District among those implementing textbook

By Susanne Rust/California Watch

Under pressure from the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the plastics industry, school officials in California edited a new environmental curriculum to include positive messages about plastic shopping bags, interviews and documents show.

Tea party offers a lesson, but progressives don’t get it.

By Rick Janhkow

Below is a recent NYT News Service article that illustrates a point I have tried to make in the past about why progressive activism in this country is so weak and ineffective, and why counter-recruitment and school demilitarization work is an antidote to that weakness.

In general, peace and other progressive movement organizations in the U.S. focus on electoral campaigns, legislative lobbying and street protests that are immediate responses to crises, while they fail to simultaneously pursue long-term strategies that are necessary to make the general public willing to embrace and actively seek progressive social change.

By Explorer Parent

The OB Rag had it right when publishing the article on September 1st, “Is former principal of Point Loma charter school being hounded by U-T Watchdog?” Indeed, Jill Green was being targeted by the Union Tribune Watchdog with erroneous and misleading information.

Thoughts Stemming from 9-11

My radio alarm woke me up with someone summarizing a study that found that a significant number of schools have not done much as far as engaging students in learning experiences involving 9-11. Because it’s too “controversial.” Is that not sad?

That reminds me of a man on TV, not too long after that fateful day, who said we should tell our children that nothing like this will ever happen again.

Editor: We have received a number of comments to our post about former principal Jill Green of Explorer Elementary charter school travails. Here is Jill Green’s original statement, made sometime around the time of her dismissal last Spring.

By Jill Green / August 2011

As the founding principal of Explorer Elementary Charter School, my devotion to the children, families and teachers at the school was the high point of my professional career. The pride I had in locating a space for the school to allow it to open in 2000, as well as

Jill Green was the founding principal of Explorer Elementary Charter School – a K-5 school located in the same building complex as High Tech High School in Point Loma. That was until she resigned at the end of April this year.

Until she resigned, Green earned $110,277 annually. But allegations made by the charter school’s governing board that Green abused her expense account were raised, and these concerns ostensibly led to her departure. The board alleged that she spent thousands of dollars on business meals, wine, gifts, and even dog treats over the last two years on her credit card, expenses that were covered by taxpayers.

Oh, did I ever fall in love with this morning. It was so nice and sunny, so soothing to my soul and bones. And I was still all a swoon when this lovely beginning of the day segued into the afternoon.

At some point on such a day I knew I would want to write, something, anything, because writing to me, is a form of play and this was a day in which to play. I, however, had no particular topics to approach in mind so I went to a website of writing prompts and blindly chose one that asked me to go through a dusty photo album which was no problem because my soul mate, a photographer del mundo, bequeathed me enough dusty albums to ignite a Haboob like the ones that smothered Phoenix…