From justinakers at cox.net  Tue Dec  7 07:22:37 2010
From: justinakers at cox.net (Justin Akers Chacon)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 23:22:37 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] California's education outlook: huge classes,
	shorter school years, less learning
Message-ID: <35266AFDC86644D9B0F440C0D94B0866@JustinPC>

California's education outlook: huge classes, shorter school years, less learning
By Sharon Noguchi

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16772497?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+edsource%2Fschool_finance+%28EdSource+%7C+School+Finance+News+Articles%29&nclick_check=1

Posted: 12/03/2010 05:50:24 PM PST

Updated: 12/05/2010 11:07:12 PM PST


After the Legislature opens a special session today ?to discuss how to close a $6 billion hole in the current state budget, schools are likely to endure another big midyear blow. And then comes the really bad news: the need to reconcile a projected $19.5 billion shortfall for 2011-12, partly by cutting education.

Here's the likely result: "Schools will become more and more like prisons and less and less like schools," said David Plank, a professor of education at Stanford University. "You'll have huge classes, restive young people and overworked teachers." 

Sound drastic? So is the budget crisis.

Soon after he is sworn in next month, Governor-elect Jerry Brown will have to present a budget for 2011-12, a year that likely will be worse than any that California schools have endured in modern history. The deficit is so huge that educators and officials either can't think about it or can't believe it.

That denial stems partly from successive years of cutbacks, when schools made do and Sacramento staved off disaster with accounting tricks, a bond, temporary tax increases and Uncle Sam's stimulus funds. Now, even as state tax revenues continue to plunge, those options are exhausted.

Part of the problem, educators say, stems from Californians' mantra about education that sounds like a Target slogan: Expect more, pay less.

California already spends nearly the least per-student in the nation on K-12 education, and has 

among the largest class sizes, and the fewest counselors, librarians and administrators per student. How much worse could it get? Possibilities that school officials are raising include: 


a.. A school year, already trimmed by five days in some districts, shortened by another week. 


a.. Layoffs of counselors, librarians, athletic directors, coaches -- and an end to after-school athletics. 


a.. Dozens of districts declaring insolvency. 


a.. The state schools system going into federal receivership. 

Besides the $6 billion hole in this year's state budget and a 2011-12 state shortfall pegged at $19.5 billion by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, schools are staring at even more: $1.7 billion the state deferred from this fiscal year to next. The potential end of billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds. A $2 billion drop in what the state guarantees education through the voter-approved Proposition 98.

Edgar Cabral, a policy analyst for the LAO, calls the outlook "dire." Some districts, he said, may go insolvent.

The immediate reason for the fiscal distress is that tax revenues are down, while costs -- teachers' salaries, health insurance and utilities -- keep rising. In addition, California has a "structural deficit" -- its services cost more than its taxes bring in. And the Legislature's habit of putting off tough decisions, for example, by deferring payments to school districts, adds to schools' plight.

If the Legislature doesn't come to agreement in this month's special session, it will hand off the hard decisions to Brown and a new Legislature convening in January. With the political difficulty of raising revenues, the state will likely face more budget cuts. And because K-12 education comprises about 40 percent of state spending, it will be nearly impossible to balance the budget without inflicting deep cuts in education.

Neither Brown nor many state and school officials want to speculate on how -- and how much -- schools will be cut. 

State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, one of the Legislature's education experts, said the coming year is "truly scary." For starters, he thinks the Legislature may simply write off the $1.7 billion it promised to pay schools next year for costs incurred this year.

And, he said, it may further cut into the school year, as it did before, allowing districts to trim the 180-day school year by five more days, to 170 days.

The Legislature passing off tough decisions, like whether to shorten the school year, angers local educators. "If they don't want to fund a 180-day school year, they should mandate that for everybody," said Stephen McMahon, president of the San Jose Teachers Association. It's unfair for less-wealthy districts like San Jose Unified to have to impose unpaid furloughs when wealthy districts keep the longer school year, he said.

The state also may cut back on the per-student payments to districts, while extending them some budgetary flexibility to use state moneys where needed rather than for specific programs such as busing or gifted-and-talented education.

The budget picture is so grainy that no one has specifics. But supposing a $4 billion cut -- which would be less than half of what education's proportional share of next year's projected shortfall would be -- districts would lose $644 per student. For San Jose Unified, that comes to a $20.6 million cut to a district that's already bumped up class sizes, eliminated librarians, music, art and other programs. 

The district's budget chief, Ann Jones, said, "There is no way education can bear that."

To save enough simply by reducing the school year, the state would have to cut back to 150 days, said Ron Bennett, president of School Services of California, which advises school districts. "I think a federal judge would be on your doorstep if the state of California proposed doing that." 

Without additional revenues or other solutions, "We're looking at scorched-earth kind of policies," he said.

But educators are ever the optimists. Whatever happens, "the sun will come up tomorrow and kids will come to school," Jones said.

Jerry Kurr, budget chief for the East Side Union High School District, said school budget officers sometimes say, "We can balance any budget. Just give me a large tent and a couple of teachers." He notes that the state sets no maximum class size for high schools.

But however California cuts education, the likely result, Plank of Stanford said, will be "less and less learning will go on."
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From justinakers at cox.net  Wed Dec  8 16:26:44 2010
From: justinakers at cox.net (Justin Akers Chacon)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 08:26:44 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] Another trillion dollar handout the rich,
	budget cuts for the rest of us...
Message-ID: <638DA6B894744982B44CDDB3B692BAC1@JustinPC>


Notice the silence of the Republican/Tea Party crowd on how this cash handout will increase the US deficit? Meanwhile, Obama's "bipartisan" Bowles-Simpson
"deficit reduction" Commission is mapping out a long-term slashing of the social service net.  

Meanwhile, back in California, lame duck Governor Schwarzenegger is calling for a "special legislative session" to push for another $10 billion
dollar cut to social services before his term ends. 

Ever get the feeling that we have only one political party in this country? The Rich Peoples' Party?


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/us/politics/08impact.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
December 7, 2010
Tax Package Will Aid Nearly All, Especially Highest Earners
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
The deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years includes a bevy of additional credits and deductions that will reduce the burden on nearly all households. 

But the tax benefits will flow most heavily to the highest earners, just as the original cuts did when they were passed in 2001 and 2003. At least a quarter of the tax savings will go to the wealthiest 1 percent of the population. 

The tentative deal includes a two-year patch for the alternative minimum tax, a reduction in the payroll tax and a plan to reinstate the estate tax with lower rates and higher exemptions than in 2009 - all of which will offer far more savings for high earners than those in the low- or middle-income bracket. 

The wealthiest Americans will also reap tax savings from the proposal's plan to keep the cap on dividend and capital gains taxes at 15 percent, well below the highest rates on ordinary income. 

And negotiators have agreed that the estimated $900 billion cost of the cuts will simply be added to the deficit - not covered by reductions in spending or increases in other taxes. That is good news for hedge fund managers and private equity investors, who appear to have withstood an effort to get them to pay more by eliminating a quirk in the tax code that allows most of their income to be taxed at just 15 percent. 

In fact, the only groups likely to face a tax increase are those near the bottom of the income scale - individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000. 

"It's going to look like the rich are getting richer again," said Anne Mathias, an analyst for MF Global Inc. 

In the agreement, which breaks a campaign pledge to eliminate some tax breaks for the top 2 percent of American earners, President Obama won a few concessions from Republicans, including a 13-month extension in government benefits for the long-term unemployed. After several extensions, the maximum has been 99 weeks. 

The administration also succeeded in extending several of the tax credits in last year's stimulus plan to aid low- and moderate-income Americans: the earned-income tax credit, the child credit, the child and dependent-care credit and the tuition deduction. 

As a result, families with an income near the median of $55,000 would owe about $2,700 less in taxes than if the Bush-era cuts had been allowed to expire. 

A two-income couple earning $146,000 would owe about $7,000 less than if the tax cuts were allowed to expire, and about $3,400 less than they did in 2009. 

The proposal does not include an extension of Mr. Obama's signature tax cut, the Making Work Pay credit, which provided a credit of up to $400 for individuals and $800 for families of low and moderate income. Instead, the plan creates a one-year reduction in Social Security payroll taxes, which are generally levied on the first $106,800 of income. For an individual earning $110,000, that provision would reduce payroll taxes by $2,136. 

Although the $120 billion payroll tax reduction offers nearly twice the tax savings of the credit it replaces, it will nonetheless lead to higher tax bills for individuals with incomes below $20,000 and families that make less than $40,000. That is because their payroll tax savings are less than the $400 or $800 they will lose from the Making Work Pay credit. 

"It will come to a few dollars a week," said Roberton Williams, an analyst at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, "but it is an increase." 

To the wealthiest Americans, however, an assortment of breaks is available. 

The plan includes a two-year "patch" for the alternative minimum tax, which is now paid by about 4 million taxpayers with income in the mid- to high six figures. Without the patch, more than 20 million additional taxpayers would have been liable for that tax. 

The estate tax - which was allowed to lapse this year and was scheduled to resume at a rate of 55 percent on most assets above $1 million - will be reinstated under less onerous terms. Estates over $5 million will be subject to a 35 percent tax. 

The proposal will also maintain the current rates on dividends and capital gains, averting scheduled increases to ordinary income and 20 percent, respectively. 

The marginal tax rate on high incomes will also remain unchanged. The top brackets had been scheduled to increase to 36 percent and 39.6 percent, from 33 percent and 35 percent. 

Under Mr. Obama's failed proposal, which would have raised the rates on income over $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals, the taxpayers at the top 1 percent of the income scale - those with incomes above $564,000 - would have received an average tax break of $28,000. Under the agreement reached with Republicans, the top 1 percent will receive breaks of about $70,000. 
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From justinakers at cox.net  Mon Dec 13 16:27:03 2010
From: justinakers at cox.net (Justin Akers Chacon)
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:27:03 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] Recent video of UK student protests against
	budget cuts
Message-ID: <F01FE3FEDE35432781EC8993717EBAE0@JustinPC>

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=23375
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From justinakers at cox.net  Tue Dec 14 06:42:50 2010
From: justinakers at cox.net (Justin Akers Chacon)
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:42:50 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] Brown appoints Schwarzenegger's finance director
Message-ID: <2915DFB2A959485785D16581993FC51E@JustinPC>

Get ready for 'Republican cuts with Democratic characteristics.'

-------

 


This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California / State Politics

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/08/v-print/3241037/jerry-brown-makes-budget-health.html

Jerry Brown makes budget, health appointments
dsiders at sacbee.com 
Published Wednesday, Dec. 08, 2010

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown announced the first appointments of his administration Tuesday, including the reappointment of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director, Ana Matosantos.

Diana Dooley, legislative secretary and special assistant to Brown when he was governor before, will be appointed secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency, Brown announced.

Dooley is president and CEO of the California Children's Hospital Association. 

Brown, facing an estimated $25.4 billion budget deficit, has worked closely with Matosantos to prepare a budget proposal for January, and her appointment was expected.

"She certainly knows where all the skeletons are buried," said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University. "To that extent, he (Brown) can start moving forward right away, rather than spend so much time playing catch-up."

Matosantos, 35, and Dooley, 59, are Democrats, as is Brown.

"Ana has what it takes to manage the Department of Finance during this period of fiscal crisis," Brown said in a prepared statement. Finance officials believe Matosantos will become the first finance department director to serve under governors of different parties.

The announcement preceded a budget forum Brown is hosting today in Sacramento. Lawmakers, constitutional officers and some 1,200 local officials were invited to attend.

Matosantos stepped down Monday as Schwarzenegger's finance director and joined Brown's transition team Tuesday, according to finance spokesman H.D. Palmer. Schwarzenegger appointed chief deputy finance director Cynthia Bryant to replace Matosantos for the rest of his term. 

Dooley will take over the Health and Human Services Agency as the state implements federal health care reform and grapples with funding for social services. Her appointment affords her a post on a powerful five-member board that will be responsible for running a state-run health insurance exchange.

Dooley said the state's safety net is "stretched to the point of being tattered in places" and that her challenge will be to preserve essential services with limited funding.

"It isn't a pretty picture," Dooley said. "There will be very difficult decisions to be made, and there will have to be sacrifices made by everyone."

Though Brown has waited longer than some previous governors to announce appointments to his administration, his doing so Tuesday came earlier than in 1974, when Brown first won election. That year, it wasn't until the final days of December that Brown announced his first appointments. 


? Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved. 

 
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From marcosresiste at hotmail.com  Tue Dec 14 21:07:28 2010
From: marcosresiste at hotmail.com (marcos perez)
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:07:28 -0700
Subject: [Educationforall] FW: [Ed4All] Fw: March National Month of Actions
 for Public Education
In-Reply-To: <30067597.1292354460224.JavaMail.root@elwamui-sweet.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
References: <30067597.1292354460224.JavaMail.root@elwamui-sweet.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
Message-ID: <SNT120-W19F69F1B649A3097DF2859A1130@phx.gbl>



 


Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:20:57 -0800
From: bbalderston at earthlink.net
To: baysoli at yahoogroups.com; eastbaymarch4outreach at googlegroups.com; ed4all at googlegroups.com
Subject: [Ed4All] Fw: March National Month of Actions for Public Education








-----Forwarded Message----- 
From: info at defendeducation.org 
Sent: Dec 13, 2010 6:00 PM 
To: bbalderston at earthlink.net 
Subject: March National Month of Actions for Public Education 




March 2011 - National Month of Actions to Defend Public Education

National Conference Call on January 9th to determine character, Pass action proposal
Minutes and audio from December 12th National Call
Read below for more details.
On December 12th, 2010, public education activists from throughout the US discussed and began organizing plans for actions next semester, spring 2011. We formulated a base proposal and decided to use that as a basis for discussion and development of a more complete proposal on the next national conference call scheduled for January 9th. 
Proposals or amendments to the base proposal (see below) should be sent to the discussion group list defend-education at googlegroups.com or to proposals at defendeducation.org. Proposals can be brought up Jan 9th, but it would be beneficial for them to be sent in early to make time for discussion and consolidation of similar proposals to save time.

Base Proposal


March 2011 - Month of actions to Defend Public Education

March 2nd 2011 as the official kick off date 

Call for a Student Strike at or near the end of march (date to be determined Jan 9th) 

Educational events/actions at the beginging of the semester (Jan/Feb)

Final Proposal to be adopted on the January 9th 2011 conference call.
Minutes Attached.
Full Call Audio
New Website and Domain
Facebook Group
Follow us on Twitter!


--
If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, this link

To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link
Forward a Message to Someone this link
 		 	   		  
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From justinakers at cox.net  Thu Dec 16 15:56:37 2010
From: justinakers at cox.net (Justin Akers Chacon)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:56:37 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] Wall Street Bonuses enough to fill every state's
	FY2011 budget deficits
Message-ID: <CDFCC3882E6247B2B5BFC707D0C07F83@JustinPC>


http://www.seiu.org/2010/12/big-banks-bonus-bonanza.php


Big Banks Bonus Bonanza
By Matt Browner-Hamlin 
Once again, Wall Street is on track to pay astronomical bonuses to its star traders, even as the rest of America is reeling from the devastation the banks have unleashed on the global economy. These billion-dollar bonuses come at our expense, have no rational justification, and only serve to destabilize the larger economy. It is time to rein in banker compensation to get the economy working for Main Street again and to prevent another global economic catastrophe in the near future. 

Today SEIU has released a new report, Big Banks Bonus Bonanza. From the report:

  Despite unleashing havoc on the global economy, Wall Street is once again getting ready to pay astronomical bonuses this year. The nation's six largest banks alone are on track to pay their bankers a staggering $143 billion in bonuses, benefits and compensation ("bonus and compensation"), more than enough to fill the $130 billion2 total budget gap for all 50 states in FY 2011. If Wall Street pumped this money directly into the economy instead of paying it to its bankers, it could create 3.6 million new jobs, and lower the unemployment rate by 2.3 percent. Bank of America tops the list, with $35 billion in bonuses and compensation set aside for its bankers.
Additional metrics for the scale of Wall Street's bonus bonanza: 
  If even a fraction of the big banks' $143 billion in bonuses and compensation were used to fund important policy priorities, we could bring about a real economic recovery in this country: 
    a.. If $143 billion were injected directly into the economy as a cash stimulus, it could create 3.6 million jobs, at no cost to taxpayers. 
    b.. Just half of the money the top six banks are getting ready to pay in 2010 would provide the $73 billion needed to give all underwater homeowners in the country loan modifications with principal and interest rate reductions to market value. 
    c.. The banks' bonus and compensation pool for 2010 is more than enough to fill the $130 billion budget gap in every single state for FY 2011. 
    d.. Just 28 percent of the total payout could finance a $40 billion federal jobs initiative to create 1 million jobs in early childhood education, in-home services for the elderly and people with disabilities, and other community services. 
    e.. $10 billion, less than a third of what Bank of America alone is doling out to its bankers, could fund an increase to Head Start that would create 330,000 new jobs and better prepare children for school. 
    f.. The full $143 billion could extend unemployment coverage for each of the 15 million unemployed workers in the United States by more than seven months or buy individual health insurance plans for 65 percent of the nation's uninsured, changing the lives of more than 29 million people in the process.
  $140.5 billion comes to $549 million each work day for bonuses and compensation. Even if the bankers donated just one day's pay to our communities, it could change lives. 
    a.. One day's pay at the top six banks could save 141,000 homes from foreclosure by providing mortgage payment assistance to struggling families. 
    b.. It could fund a 14-week extension of unemployment benefits for 134,000 laid-off workers. 
    c.. It would be enough money to fund full yearlong scholarships for 72,000 college students, allowing them to attend an in-state public university for free.
You can download the full report on Big Banks Bonus Bonanza by clicking here (PDF link). 




.
 
__,_._,___
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From justinakers at cox.net  Thu Dec 16 16:09:10 2010
From: justinakers at cox.net (Justin Akers Chacon)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:09:10 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] Brown promises austere budget at forum focused on
	education
Message-ID: <C98C7B4DA16E4F62965B81DF38FBE381@JustinPC>

Brown promises austere budget at forum focused on education
By Steven Harmon
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 12/14/2010 04:11:38 PM PST
Updated: 12/14/2010 05:29:33 PM PST


SACRAMENTO -- Gov.-elect Jerry Brown had some words of advice for those gearing up for the budget he will propose next month: "Please sit down if you're reading the stories on the budget on Jan. 10. If you're driving, fasten your seat belt because it's going to be a rough ride."

That much has been evident from the hard truths Brown continued to unleash Tuesday at UCLA during a forum focusing on where education fits in the state's overall revenue picture. It was his second budget forum in seven days, and Brown made it clear that few people will emerge unscathed as the Legislature seeks a way out of a potential $28.1 billion hole.

After being cheered at the start of the forum, Brown said, "I don't know if you'll be cheering after the budget comes out."

But Brown also telegraphed what some took to be hints that he is laying the groundwork to take a tax hike initiative to voters in the spring.

"I think the signals are clear that he'll push through an austerity budget with an all-cuts budget early in the year, and he'll say if you don't like it, here are the revenues we need," said Robert Cruickshank, editor of the liberal Calitics.com blog.

Brown said he wanted to complete the budget in 60 days, saying, "I don't think we have a lot of time to waste" -- a hint suggesting that he would like to allow the bad news of harsh cuts time enough to sink into voters' minds before a spring special election.

"Where I see openings that will pave the way for positive initiative, then I'm going to lead the charge," Brown said. "But I'd want to do it very carefully and very thoughtfully because I want to make sure we succeed." 


Brown even drifted into soliloquies that warmed the hearts of liberals, referring to California's deficit as a fraction of the state's overall wealth and talking about the harmful effects of the "redistribution" of income to the wealthy.

"Income redistribution that's occurred upward from the middle class and below is now at a level comparable to pre-Depression 1920s," he said. "So what we are facing is not only a budget deficit. We're facing a societal crisis, and we will only resolve it as we understand it and we work not only to exercise a discipline, which has been sadly lacking, but also a fairness that enables everybody to feel they have an honest stake in the whole society. That's the larger picture here."

He called the current era, with widening gaps between the wealthy and middle class, "a very difficult period. We've never had it before. It may be worse than the Depression in terms of political pressures, the tearing of the social fabric."

Those who are the most privileged, he said, "really have to take the lead" in resolving the fiscal crisis. He said that group includes government agencies, which can do "a lot more with less."

Education officials urged Brown to seek tax increases to lift a downcast education system that has taken $17 billion in general fund cuts over the past two years.

"Temporary taxes need to be extended," said Joel Shapiro, superintendent for South Pasadena schools. "Absolutely, we can't do without revenues. We need to educate the voters of California "... that the only way to keep the education system from deteriorating worse is to increase revenues, taxes or fees."

But Brown appeared slightly miffed at the tone Shapiro took toward voters.

"You say we've got to educate them -- in some ways, they've got to educate us," Brown said. "It's not really a we/them. It's society. There's a lot of hostility to government. They look at the city of Bell, they pick up the paper and see firefighters getting a $250,000 pension. There's a lot of skepticism about government in the political process. That's a reality and we have to take the world as we find it and we have to work through it."

James Johnson, a Long Beach councilman, asked Brown how he intends to figure out the contradiction voters have between their desire to fully fund schools and their hostility to taxes.

Brown answered, partly in jest: "That's why we're here -- we're hoping one of you people will come up with it. We didn't gather here just to hear ourselves speak."

One dilemma, he said, was that the state tries to make sense out of competing outlooks from regions that have little in common -- an argument, he said, for shifting many of the state's responsibilities to local governments.

"When we take so many local decisions and put them all at the state Capitol, then we have all these different perceptions working on the problem," he said. "That's why we get a lot of breakdown and gridlock. Because people see the world differently."

One indication of how he'd like to "offload costs" from state to local: There are 45,000 inmates who are incarcerated for 90 days or fewer in state prisons who he said could be housed in county institutions at a lower cost.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_16858378?nclick_check=1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+edsource%2Fschool_finance+%28EdSource+%7C+School+Finance+News+Articles%29
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From papasconchesse at hotmail.com  Sun Dec 19 21:02:59 2010
From: papasconchesse at hotmail.com (Antonio Perez)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:02:59 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] FW: ACLU: summary of 1st amendment issues at UPR
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikyZ0PTXMVhGAJBnp6RiaBGeey2ytRFeQ-pqe_2@mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTi=UZTXDoX-GRr74zPS=EPYQPcfFszAqTfOGGs3K@mail.gmail.com>,
	<6951BE41-3E38-44CB-82F7-2B6EDE07D6B6@gmail.com>,
	<AANLkTini5fBBrtL=p8hn23jz-Px7x-HyMa-Rxj6YSyZ2@mail.gmail.com>,
	<AANLkTimPEc8BL32=cz=FXbKPO3hf84_mACA9tiK2rD7V@mail.gmail.com>,
	<AANLkTikyZ0PTXMVhGAJBnp6RiaBGeey2ytRFeQ-pqe_2@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <SNT117-W281A7DDED058306B614338D5180@phx.gbl>



 


Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:47:23 -0400
Subject: ACLU: summary of 1st amendment issues at UPR
From: pages.roberto at gmail.com






















SUMMARY OF CURRENT STATE OF 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS 
IN PUERTO RICO AND ROLE SECURITY FORCES PLAY IN SUPPRESSING SPEECH 
(latest events UPR Walk Out) 
The Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortu?o, has taken down University of Puerto Rico gates and has ordered armed police officers onto the UPR?s Rio Piedras campus (main campus) to assure that from now on there will no longer be any "leftist political activism" on campus and to stop any attempts to call for a student walk out. UPR students called a two day walk out, which ended Wednesday, December 8, 2010, to protest an arbitrary hike in student fees and other related administrative matters. The walk out was a continuation of an earlier UPR general strike. Last week, Marcos Rodriguez Ema, Secretary of the Governorship (Governors Mansion), in a live television interview said he would forcefully remove anyone who dared protest at UPR; that he would "kick their asses (los sacar?a a patadas)" off campus. 
Just days before, Puerto Rico?s police commissioner announced that he will be dismantling the controversial riot squad of the Tactical Police Unit, in response to US DOJ concerns that may be leading to a patterns and practice case by the United States. The ACLU has been filing complaints with the US DOJ for the past three years and has met with the DOJ in Puerto Rico and DC regarding the ongoing police violence and profiling. 
This past Tuesday, December 7, 2010, the first day of the two day walk out, University officials brought on to campus a private security force "Capital Security" comprised of unlicensed and untrained young men recruited off the streets to control student protestors. Immediately, a violent situation emerged; many of these so called "security employees" came in with 2x4?s, wielding open knives and blackjacks, acting more like a goon squad. When interviewed by the press, some "security guards" admitted that they have no experience or training, that their only experience was kicking ass "free of charge" in the streets of their communities and that "here I will get paid for it". This private security force was to replace the controversial tactical police unit, but has proven to be just as violent. http://www.elnuevodia.com/videos-megustadarcantazos-191847.html 
Ample evidence suggests that violent events during the 48 hour walk out, that was allegedly instigated by masked student protestors ("encapuchados") outside the gates of the university, was in fact the work of masked provocateurs ? paid "security guards". The government has labeled actions by student protestors, blocking classrooms, as acts of terrorism. 
Yesterday, Governor Fortu?o ordered armed police officers on campus for the first time in twenty nine years, allegedly in response to the stated violent events outside the campus gates and acts of terrorism. University rules prohibit armed police officers on campus; police officers are to be outside the gates of the campus; the University of Puerto Rico has its own unarmed campus police. UPR has a long history of extreme armed police violence, which has led to maiming and killing of university students. 
Governor Fortu?o has absolutely prohibited any protests, stating that protests can take place outside but will not be allowed on the UPR campus. He specifically has called police officers to not allow left wing 
activism on the UPR campus. Also, State University officials are attempting to close down or Blackout "Radio Universidad" the University?s FM public broadcast radio station, a source for unbiased political and current events news analysis. They are attempting to silence the station for a period of not less than three months, while campus disputes play out. University authorities are contemplating a petition before the FCC to allow the government of Puerto Rico a period of silence. "Radio Universidad" staffers have petitioned the ACLU and met in our office where they expressed their concern that the government is looking to quiet dissent; this was attempted once before during the last student strike. "Radio Universidad" staffers believe that the station blackout is an attempt to quash free speech and is an act of prior restraint. 
On the Bayam?n Campus of the University of Puerto Rico, participants at a student assembly, by unanimous vote, passed a resolution to have the matter brought to the ACLU for legal evaluation and recommendations. The ACLU learned of this vote through an article published in Wednesday?s newspaper, as student representatives have not yet contacted us. "Radio Universidad" staffers complained of an interview of a high level university officer that was not allowed to air. The interview consisted of 9 questions asked; the very questions asked by other media sources. The stations manager however believed the interview to be hostile to the university official. 
This is but the latest of many events since this new Puerto Rican government came into power that serves to illustrate the times in which citizens of Puerto Rico are living, there appears to be a concerted effort by the government to dismantle any semblance of dissidence. The government is on an ideological campaign to put down obstacles to its political agenda by implementing cold war tactics reminiscent of the 1960?s and 1970?s. Its must vulnerable victims are the fundamental rights guaranteed by the first, fourth and fifth amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Puerto Rico Constitution, and international human rights documents. 
William Ram?rez 
Executive Director 
American Civil Liberties Union 
Puerto Rico National Chapter 
Union Plaza, Suite 1105 
416 Ave. Ponce de Le?n 
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918 
Link to: WAPA American interview with ACLU PR Director: 
http://wapa.tv/noticias/locales/aclu-observa-proceso-en-la-upr/20101209115859 
Link to WAPA America interview with Gobernador Luis Fortuno: 
http://www.wapa.tv/noticias/politica/gobernador--policia-se-quedara-en-la-upr/20101209073727 
Link to news segment ? UPR Students denounce threats by UPR "security guards": 
http://www.wapa.tv/noticias/primera-plana/denuncian-amenazas-de-muerte/20101207223424 
http://www.elnuevodia.com/videos-encapuchassedefienden-191806.html 


Link to news segment on UPR private "security guards" and related violence: 
http://wapa.tv/noticias/locales/se-complica-rapidamente-la-situacion-en-la-upr/20101207173524 		 	   		  
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From papasconchesse at hotmail.com  Mon Dec 20 16:09:49 2010
From: papasconchesse at hotmail.com (Antonio Perez)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:09:49 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] Puerto Rico Student Strike Intensifies,
 Public Education and Civil Rights at Stake
In-Reply-To: <SNT117-W605A0A07F370E4B3D2438DD5190@phx.gbl>
References: <AANLkTi=UzjZ_hcg-iNRXnm+huvf4xBDz8Ob97dZ_Rj0C@mail.gmail.com>,
	<SNT117-W605A0A07F370E4B3D2438DD5190@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <SNT117-W3732ADE806B08798A24DDED5190@phx.gbl>







http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maritza-stanchich-phd/puerto-rico-student-strik_b_797233.html 







Maritza Stanchich, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English, University of Puerto Rico
Posted: December 15, 2010 03:12 PM

Puerto Rico Student Strike Intensifies, Public Education and Civil Rights at Stake





Coincident with massive, at times explosive, student protests in Rome and London, University of Puerto Rico has again become a flashpoint with a student strike beginning Tuesday that turned the main campus into a militarized zone of police, riot squads, and SWAT teams, complete with low-flying helicopters and snipers. What began as a conflict over a steep student fee hike is now seen as a larger struggle to preserve public education against privatization.Resistance to the imposed $800 student fee has triggered repressive state measures: police have occupied the main campus for the first time in 31 years and Monday the local Supreme Court, recently stacked by the pro-Statehood political party in power, outlawed student strikes and campus protests. More than 500 students defied the ruling by demonstrating on campus Tuesday, brandishing the slogan "They fear us because we don't fear them" ("Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo"). This current strike revisits accords to negotiate the $800 fee, which in June ended a two-month shut down of 10 of 11 UPR campuses, as UPR faces a $240 million budget shortfall precipitated by the state not honoring its own debt to the institution.
Civil rights groups have declared a state of high alert in the wake of disturbances last week and statements by leading public officials seen as creating a hostile climate that inhibits free speech rights. In response, about 15,000 UPR supporters marched on Sunday from San Juan's Capitol building to La Fortaleza governor's mansion, under a balmy bright blue tropical sky in this U.S. Territory of about four million U.S citizens, though little known to most Americans beyond being a tourist destination.In the standoff leading up to this week, top university officials have repeatedly threatened that a strike may prompt them to shut down the main campus at R?o Piedras, which serves 20,000 plus students, employs about 1,200 professors and 5,000 non-teaching staff, and hosts millions in scientific research funding (system-wide the UPR serves about 65,000 students). In addition, 10 of 11 University of Puerto Rico campuses remain on probation by its accrediting agency, The Middle States Association, in the areas of long-term fiscal viability and effective administrative governance, of which the current student mobilization is a symptom, not a cause.
Tensions mounted last week leading up to a two-day student walkout when Capitol Security, a private security firm contracted by the university for $1.5 million, demolished entrance gates to the campus. Hired guards were young with little or no training or evaluation, bore no identification badges and some were armed with sticks and pipes in a climate of intimidation perhaps not seen since dockworkers strikes of the 1940s. Many of the guards had been recruited from marginalized Afro-Puerto Rican communities, such as Villa Ca?ona in Lo?za, which has been the site of documented police abuses, lending a disturbing dimension of institutionalized racism, according to community leaders there.
Several violent incidents were reported, including a student who was seriously beaten and injured by guards. One video purportedly of students breaking security van windows was repeatedly aired in the local media as the justification for the police occupation of the campus, just as students had peacefully concluded the two-day walkout last Wednesday evening.
"UPR has a long history of infiltrators and saboteurs involved to instigate such incidents," said William Ram?rez, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The purported incident capped off a series of provocations. Gov. Luis Fortu?o in a televised appearance openly declared that leftists would no longer be tolerated on the campus. His Chief of Staff Marcos Rodr?guez Ema publicly taunted that students and professors who dare protest will get their asses kicked out ("vamos a sacarlos a patadas").
The university administration has also designated areas limiting protests to outside the campus, and on Monday Chancellor Ana Guadalupe formally prohibited all protests or group activities of any type on the campus through January 15. The chancellor also issued an edict this week requiring all students to carry their student identification cards at all times.
According to Ram?rez, Fortu?o's public statements targeting leftists, designated protest areas off campus and protest prohibitions are violations of constitutionally-protected First Amendment rights. The police presence and heavily-equipped riot squads also create a climate of intimidation that restricts expression, he added.
"Rather than responding to violence, they have created a violent environment," Ram?rez said, adding that under such conditions, in which a police occupation is deployed as a preemptive measure, "it is almost guaranteed that violence will occur."
In response to the campus police presence, a majority in a meeting of about 300 professors Thursday voted to refuse to hold classes on campus while under siege, with senior professors recalling the trauma of deadly campus police violence during the last occupation in 1981. On Saturday, Police Chief Jos? Figueroa Sancha announced plans for a permanent police precinct on the campus, using drug interdiction as the justification despite common knowledge that drug puntos or selling points operate a steady business a short distance from the university. Normally the campus operates with its own contingent of security guards.
Some student leaders who are not pro-strike have also voiced complaints about the police takeover of campus. Omar Rodr?guez, Student Council president for the College of Education and founder and editor of the 30,000+ member-strong Facebook page Estudiantes de la UPR Informan, reported that he was attacked without provocation by private security guards and that the police stood by and laughed when he pleaded for their intervention.
"The exaggerated police presence is unnecessary and intimidating," he said, adding that it was pedagogically absurd to expect students to concentrate properly on their studies in such an environment.
Making the best of these tensions, student strike leader Giovanni Roberto reached out to dialogue with Capitol Security guards in working-class solidarity. "They brought us the youth who are precisely the reason we are struggling, so that they could have access to the university," he said.
It is estimated that the new $800 fee will force 10,000 UPR students to leave the university, though the state legislature and the Fortu?o government have enacted last-ditch efforts to create funds for student jobs and scholarships. Numerous proposals from credible sources detailing fiscal alternatives to the fee seem to fall on deaf ears.
The strike itself has yet to build broad support, however. Widespread concern that a strike will jeopardize the institution's survival has mobilized some against the strike, including students, despite majority opposition to the $800 fee. While students from other UPR campuses held walkouts or approved strikes, yet other campuses recently voted down such measures. And non-striking students at the R?o Piedras campus, including previous strike leaders, signed a public proclamation to keep the campus open and classes running normally.
Nevertheless, strike organizers are gambling that the blunders of the administration will win support for the students as well as mobilize other groups. The largest professors' organization, Asociaci?n Puertorrique?a de Profesores Universitarios, and the non-teaching staff union, La Hermandad de Empleados No-Docentes, issued standard calls to members to respect pickets. And president of the UTIER electrical workers union, ?ngel Figueroa Jaramillo, issued a public call for support from Tuesday's campus demonstration.
Whether or not this current conflict has the potential to destabilize the Fortu?o administration depends in part on a broader context of economic well being. Fortu?o and a legislative majority from the extreme right came to power with a broad mandate to punish the previous party in power for the worst economic downturn in decades, with no mid-term or recall elections in Puerto Rico as a check on current policies.
A self-described Reaganite, Fortu?o has become a darling of the Republican Party for imposing highly unpopular austerity measures through legislation called Ley 7 (Law 7), laying off 20,000 public sector employees; targeting government agencies, including UPR, with crippling cuts aimed at perceived ideological enemies; and declaring null and void all public sector labor contracts for three years. Such a move, reminiscent of President Reagan's firing of striking air traffic controllers, should have stateside unions wary of Republican Party policy interest.
In fact the fee as a mechanism to destroy the social mission of the affordable public university of excellence was instituted by then Gov. Reagan at University of California, which saw a 32% fee increase last November and an additional 10% more recently, despite protests and arrests there.
It has also been reported that the Fortu?o administration has already begun negotiations to sell off -- or long-term lease -- UPR campuses to private colleges, including those owned by major contributors to his campaign. And this just as a student loan default crisis associated with mediocre private colleges in the United States threatens to spiral into as costly a mess as the mortgage crisis.
The events unfolding cohere with the popular thesis of Canadian author Naomi Klein, known as "disaster capitalism." However, students are mobilizing in Puerto Rico and worldwide around deep cuts to public higher education and subsequent privatization, in movements that may just be getting their first wind.
"From San Diego to Rome, from San Juan to London and Amsterdam, 2010 will be remembered as the year of student protests internationally," commented Antonio Carmona B?ez, Ph.D., a political science lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. "Not since 1968 have university students stood up around the globe -- simultaneously -- against authority, this time to save public education."
Maritza Stanchich, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico. 		 	   		  
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From marcosresiste at hotmail.com  Fri Dec 24 00:10:21 2010
From: marcosresiste at hotmail.com (marcos perez)
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:10:21 -0700
Subject: [Educationforall] FW: [isosandiego] National City schools prepare
	for teacher strike
In-Reply-To: <bay143-w12DB2BB86A706F9EC80290A51C0@phx.gbl>
References: <bay143-w12DB2BB86A706F9EC80290A51C0@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <SNT120-W56A053B6EFA54BA940D301A11D0@phx.gbl>




To: isosandiego at yahoogroups.com
From: aka0001 at hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:46:00 -0800
Subject: [isosandiego] National City schools prepare for teacher strike


















 



  


    
      
      
      


NATIONAL CITY ? The National School District is preparing for a teachers? strike.

 

The union ? known formally as the National City Elementary Teacher?s Association ? voted on Thursday to authorize a strike, union President Linda Cartwright said.

 

On Monday, the school board unanimously passed an emergency resolution authorizing Superintendent Chris Oram to begin recruiting substitute teachers should a strike occur. The board also authorized the district to close a school or suspend programs if necessary.

<snip>

 

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/20/national-school-district-prepares-teacher-strike/

 

Rick G.
 		 	   		  


    
     

    
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From justinakers at cox.net  Thu Dec 30 20:36:50 2010
From: justinakers at cox.net (Justin Akers Chacon)
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:36:50 -0800
Subject: [Educationforall] Democrats moving against teachers' unions across
	country
Message-ID: <0C9A2BE30A2B4AD1AFF67FAAA187293A@JustinPC>

Democratic schism opens on fixing schools
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/24/3279341/democratic-schism-opens-on-fixing.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics
By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall at sacbee.com 
Published: Friday, Dec. 24, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A 

Sacramento Bee

Across the nation Democrats have begun to split over education, with a growing chorus arguing the party must move away from its traditional allegiance with teachers unions in order to improve chronically low-performing schools.
In California, the divide likely will be magnified in the year ahead as a new political action committee lays ground here with a goal of backing Democrats who support education policies that unions generally oppose.

Gloria Romero, the former state senator from Los Angeles who lost her bid this year to become the state superintendent of schools, is heading the new California chapter of Democrats for Education Reform, a PAC that operates in 10 states. In New York, the group supported candidates who pushed for expansion of charter schools, whose teachers are typically not unionized. In Colorado, it backed those who wanted to rewrite teacher tenure laws. 

Romero said trouble in the schools - 21 percent of California students drop out of high school, and the rate is even higher among Latinos and African Americans - is no longer an "elephant in the room."

"It's a donkey in the room," Romero said. "It's Democrats who have been tightly aligned with education's special interests year after year, decade after decade, and we haven't progressed. So we have to examine our conscience, our party, and really forge a new path forward."

It's not the first time Romero has fought the teachers unions. Union leaders backed Tom Torlakson, who won the race for state superintendent, while her funding came from EdVoice - a Sacramento firm that advocates for charter schools - and its network of wealthy entrepreneurs.

David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association, said Romero's new role doesn't amount to much of a political threat.

"If her ideas were that popular with the voters, she would have been the next superintendent of public instruction," Sanchez said. "Her ideas didn't make the cut."


L.A. mayor weighs in 

But there are signs that teachers unions are losing the tight grip they've traditionally held on Democrats.

In a speech earlier this month, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat who got his start as a union organizer, blasted the L.A. teachers union for blocking changes in the schools.

Michelle Rhee, the former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor who fought the teachers union there over tenure and merit pay, is launching a national advocacy group to back politicians who can't get union support because of their views on education.

"Being a Democrat myself, a lifelong Democrat who is committed to the Democratic party, we've got to bring our party along in this," she said during a recent visit to Sacramento.

And earlier this year, California teachers unions suffered a rare defeat when the Legislature passed a set of bills, written by Romero, that they opposed. The laws give parents new clout to make changes in the lowest-performing schools, including the power to convert them to charters and dismiss teachers.

Many Democrats, including Torlakson, voted against the bills. But they passed with an unusual coalition of support from Republicans who prefer a free-market approach to education and Democrats who said they were looking out for the best interests of black and Latino children.

"It's a people's movement, in a way, from groups like NAACP saying 'enough is enough,' " said Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP, which supported Romero's bills.

"We're all saying you have to do something about our young people here. You just can't leave them hanging year after year."

Taking a position against the unions was a switch for Huffman, a Democratic Party activist who worked for the CTA for 12 years and describes herself as a strong believer in labor rights.

"I'm not trying to destroy the union," Huffman said. "But sometimes you have to make a choice in life and right now, the education of our young people is more important than protecting the union."


Race to the Top 

The backdrop for the shifting politics of education is the Obama administration, which has embraced many ideas that make unions bristle. Obama's $4 billion Race to the Top program encourages states to expand charter schools and create data systems that tie teacher pay with student performance. His education secretary, Arne Duncan, was suggested by Democrats for Education Reform.

The group is allied with Rhee, the former Washington, D.C., chancellor, and her fianc?, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson - who became a darling of the national school reform movement when he turned Sacramento High into a nonunion charter school.

"I was elated when (Democrats for Education Reform) decided to come to California because we need to get Democrats in California mobilized," said Johnson, who was "Mr. March" in a 2009 calendar of education activists the group put out.

Democrats for Education Reform started in New York in 2007 and has become a political force there with substantial backing from several hedge fund managers. The organization's views reached the masses this fall with the release of "Waiting for 'Superman,' " a documentary about the poor performance of American schools that features interviews with many of its members.

So far the group has few donors from California, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows. One exception is Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who contributed $5,000 to the organization in 2009.

Romero is busy raising money to get the group's California chapter started this spring. Just last week, she said, she was in Silicon Valley meeting with potential donors during a luncheon organized by Powell Jobs. "This was a roomful of people saying, 'Count me in,' " Romero said.

The growing anti-union movement among Democrats could make the next few years "a pretty gory battle" in the Capitol, said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at UC Berkeley.

"The guy in the hot seat is going to be Jerry Brown," Fuller said. "He's going to have to mediate between these two camps that have opened up in his own party." 


? Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved. 
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