Working Life 9/26/2007

Front page blog post at Working Life:

Union Busting 101: A Look Inside Jackson Lewis
by Steve Perez

I want to urge everyone to read Unionbusting Confidential, the cover story from the latest issue of In These Times. For the low, low price of $1,595, article author Art Levine signed up for a seminar on staying union-free led by attorneys from Jackson Lewis. As labor laws weaken, companies are spending literally billions on union busting, and Jackson Lewis is one of the go-to law firms. Here's a sample of what their seminar is about:

What if we felt like saying a lot of anti-union stuff to our workers? Lotito introduced a segment called "You Can Say It." Could we tell our workers, for instance, that a union had held strike at a nearby facility only to find that all the strikers had been replaced—and that the same could happen to the employees here? Sure, said Lotito. "It's lawful." He added, "What happens if this statement is a lie? They didn't have another strike, there were no replacements? It's still lawful: The labor board doesn't really care if people are lying."

But if everything failed, and we found ourselves negotiating with a newly formed union, then we still shouldn't lose heart. Instead, we could continue to undermine the union by rejecting all of its demands during negotiations. (In fact, in about a third of the cases after a union victory, employers don't even agree to a contract.)

Go read the rest.

We're familiar with Jackson Lewis here in New York.

Read this post on Edwize exposing a similar seminar, held in November 2005, on "union prevention" in New York state charter schools led by Jackson Lewis, with special guest Rod Paige as the lunchtime speaker.

AFT NCLBlog 9/20/2007

From AFT NCLBlog:

Blinded me with Science

I am late out of the box on this one but, tardy or not, it's worth checking out. Jackie Bennett at Edwize points out the inconsistencies in this recent editorial from her hometown paper about NCLB and whether it promotes science instruction.

Room 8, The Albany Project, Daily Gotham 9/20/2007

Front page blog post at Room 8, The Albany Project and Daily Gotham:

NCLB - It's Getting Serious
posted by SteveUFT

[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]

Lest you think that the debate over reauthorizing No Child Left Behind is hard-to-follow/wonkish/a tempest-in-a-teapot or anything like that, note that Jonathan Kozol today entered his 76th day of a partial hunger strike over NCLB.

In protest over that law, Kozol, the widely-published, passionate advocate of educational equality, has taken himself into the realm of serious danger.

He's sick of NCLB. Mandating math and reading tests and punishing schools and students who do not meet their targets is "turning thousands of inner-city schools into Dickensian test-preparation factories," Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page quoted Kozol as saying. It has "dumbed down" school for poor, urban kids and created "a parallel curriculum that would be rejected out-of-hand" in the suburbs.

. . .

Eduwonk 9/18/2007

From Eduwonk:

Odds And Ends

Off Message: New York wins the $1 million Broad Prize for education*, UFT head Randi Weingarten says, "It's a great day for New York" and joins city officials to accept the award but over at Edwize they're all grumbling and sourpuss. *I'm on the review board.

Room 8, The Albany Project, Daily Gotham 9/17/2007

Front page blog post at Room 8, The Albany Project and Daily Gotham:

The NY Times, The Business Roundtable, and NCLB
posted by SteveUFT

[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Jackie Bennett in response to a New York Times editorial.]

Every corner of the educational community has protested the consequences of No Child Left Behind, including that the law has narrowed the curriculum and unfairly penalized schools already making progress.

In spite of that, an editorial in the NY Times defends the status quo. Referring to proposed NCLB revisions, the Times complains that the changes will "allow schools to mask failure in teaching crucial subjects like reading and math by giving them credit for student performance in other subjects."

Yet, just one paragraph earlier the Times has this to say: "Faced with poorly educated workers at home — especially in science — American companies are increasingly looking abroad."

. . .

Room 8, The Albany Project, Daily Gotham, Blogs United 9/12/2007

Front page blog post at Room 8, The Albany Project and Daily Gotham:

Numbers Don't Lie, But . . .
posted by SteveUFT

[I hope this post on the recently-released Learning Environment Survey proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger CitySue.]

. . . those who attempt to explain them often do. The so-called Learning Environment Survey released by the city of New York is a case in point.

For teachers the results were gratifying. Nobody -- not even Mike the Master of Spin -- could do anything to diminish a statistically astounding 90 percent approval rate!

Curiously, although the DOE apparently wanted to know what parents thought about "the quality" of their child's teacher, it didn't ask parents what they thought of the school principal. Though maybe it's not so surprising considering the fact that Klein is betting the farm on them to bail him out of the first and second reorganizations.

. . .

Also, a front page quick hit at Blogs United

Politicker 9/4/2007

From the Politicker:

Elsewhere: Spitzer, Carville, Morano

The UFT thinks the Schools Chancellor is already being counter productive.