Laura Clawson’s Workers’ Week in Review

I frequently cite Laura Clawson of Daily Kos for her great reporting on workers’ issues.  Here is a link to her overview of the week’s labor news.  The first story is especially troubling.  A group of “education reformers” are trying to influence a school board election in Los Angeles.  Why?  They want to chip away at traditional public schools and teachers unions.  I recommend this story and everything else Laura Clawson writes.

Diane Ravitch on Michelle Rhee and the Campaign against Teachers

Common Dreams has reposted an article in which Diane Ravitch examines Michelle Rhee’s impact on education “reform.”  I use quotation marks because anyone who has read Ravitch’s great book The Death and Life of the Great American School System understands how most reforms seem to have one goal:  Destroy the public school system.

Ravitch takes Rhee to task for her alliances with politicians who are transferring funds and resources from public schools to charter and private schools.  Rhee’s primary argument centers on blaming teachers for poor performance.  Ravitch answers that the former Chancellor of Washington D.C. schools is basing her argument on “urban myths,” claims that do not stand the kind of research Ravitch has done throughout her career.  It’s easy to blame teachers.  Ravitch will not take that easy path, which is why I trust her.

How Teachers Were Laid Off in Washington D.C.

Writing in Common Dreams, Jesse Hagopian analyzes the standards used to evaluate teacher performance in Washington D.C., where 241 teachers were recently laid off for “poor performance.”  This article is further evidence that we need to look behind the “bad teacher” myth and focus on administrators who want to bust unions.  Corporate media loves education reformers like Michelle Rhee, Ron Huberman, and Arne Duncan.  Where is the proof that they are making schools better?  They certainly are making it easier for charter schools to exist.  Who is profiting from that “reform?”