Modern School

Today in Labor History—May 27

2012-05-27T05:25:00.000-07:00

Communards in their Coffins

May 27, 1871 –Today marks the end of the Paris Commune and the Bloody Week that destroyed it. Communards were lined up and shot against the wall, now known as "mur des fédérés," to honor their memory. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1947 –The U.S. Fishermen and Allied Workers union merged with Harry Bridges' ILWU. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1958 – Ernest Green became the first African-American to graduate from Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 –A grand jury indicted the "L.A. 13" for conspiracy to disturb the peace for their role in the Chicano school walkouts: Sal Castro, Eliezar Risco, Patricio Sanchez, Moctezuma Esparza, David Sánchez, Carlos Montes, Ralph Ramirez, Fred Lopes, Richard Vigil, Gilberto Olmeda, Joe Razo, Henry Gomez, & Carlos Muñoz, Jr. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 – University and high school students went on strike in Dakar, Senegal. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1980 – 3,000 unarmed civilians were slaughtered by the South Korean military during the Kwangju Uprising, which lasted from May 18 through May 27. The victims had been protesting military rule and demanding democracy. A similar uprising and massacre occurred in 1950 in Cheju-do. However, the Cheju-do Massacre, which resulted in 60,000 civilian deaths, was backed, and then covered up, by the U.S. government. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 26

2012-05-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

Mandrin, France's "Robin Hood"

May 26, 1755 – Louis Mandrin, the French version of Robin Hood, was caught and executed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1791 – King Louis XVI of France was forced by the revolutionary French Assembly to relinquish his crown and state assets. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1851 – Stevedores and Longshoreman struck in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1871 – The “Bloody Week” of repression and violence against the Paris Commune continued, with battles at the Bastille and Villette. Communards were defeated on this date at Belleville and Père Lachaise. The Versailles forces assassinated injured communards in their ambulances, inspiring an angry crowd to execute 50 hostages in revenge. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1894 –The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) struck for an eight-hour day in Cripple Creek, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1920 –The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Marine Transport Workers struck in Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Walter Reuther, UAW

May 26, 1937 - Henry Ford unleashed his company goons on United Auto Workers organizers at the “Battle of the Overpass” near the River Rouge plant. General Motors and Chrysler signed collective bargaining agreements with the UAW in 1937, but Ford held out until 1942. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 26, 1937 --The "Little Steel" strike began in Ohio. Over 600 workers picketed at Republic’s mill in Cleveland, while virtually every one of its 6500 workers abandoned the mill. The National Guard was used to crush the strike, first in Youngstown, and then in Canton, Massillon, Warren and finally Cleveland, completely busting the strike by mid-July. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1944 –The French resistance called General Strike against the Nazis in Marseille, while a U.S. bombing raid on Marseille killed 6,000 in the workers' districts. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1968 – The May Days uprisings were continuing in France. A General Strike had paralyzed the government which was on the verge of collapse. (From the Daily Bleed)

LAUSD To Apply for Paltry RttT Grant

2012-05-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

3 Easy Tricks to Maximize Profits From the Public Sector

1. Demand low taxes to increase personal income while decimating school budgets, thus making public education look like a disaster in need of corporate management

2. Claim your private enterprise will solve these problems and should be funded with public tax dollars (e.g., charter schools, Common Core Standards, laptops for every child, new textbooks or ebooks, tutoring services, etc.)

3. Insist that teachers’ unions are the main impediment to reform and lobby to have them weakened, eviscerated or outright banned

All of the above have been on the table for years at Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), one of the 176 California school districts currently at risk of going bankrupt. The district’s budget deficit for the 2012-13 school year was projected to be $390 million as of 3/13/12, according to the LAUSD website.

There is no question that record low tax rates combined with revenue losses due to the housing market collapse have contributed to LAUSD’s budget woes, which in turn have led district officials to attempt all sort of ludicrous shenanigans, like asking teachers to take 20 furlough days (and consequently asking students to give up 20 days of instructional time). The latest absurdity is Sup. Deasy’s plan to plug the nearly $400 million dyke with a measly $25 million federal Race to the Top (RttT) grant (see the Los Angeles Times).

For the first time, RttT grants will be offered to individual school districts, and not just states, willing to sell their souls for chump change. Aside from the fact that the grant would only cover 6% of the current budget hole, the one-time grant would expire at the end of the school year, leaving the district with the same problem the following year unless it can increase its revenue stream or find longer-term and bigger cuts.

There are those who would argue that $25 million is better than nothing and in these dark times one must take what one can get. However, one must consider what must be sacrificed in order to get this “free” money before one can call it a good deal.

Interestingly, the state of California found the eligibility requirements for RttT so burdensome that it voluntarily withdrew its grant proposal because the money was too little for what was being asked. Unfortunately, it did not make this realization until after it had already implemented some RttT requirements, like adoption of Common Core Standards (CCS), which are projected to cost the state more than $1 billion in new textbook and curriculum costs—far more than it would have won in RttT grants.

One of the biggest sticking points is that the state or local districts would need to get union support before moving ahead, since RttT requires the use of student test score data in teacher evaluations, something that cannot occur without changes to teachers’ contracts. Some NEA and AFT locals around the nation have rolled over and accepted this, despite the fact that the data is inconsistent and often inaccurate even when used properly and, in many cases, it is not even used properly (see here, here and here). Consequently, many good teachers could be mischaracterized as ineffective and possibly fired as a result, thus depriving students of good teachers. Worse, it could drive many good teachers away from challenging lower income schools, or from the profession entirely, thus worsening the problem evaluation reform purports to fix.