Dr. John Telford

Interview with Dr. John Telford - Mark Schauer Fundraiser

2014-02-23T13:53:00.001-05:00

Dr. John Telford LIVE at Detroit Main Library Part 4

2014-02-22T12:38:00.003-05:00

Dr. John Telford LIVE at Detroit Main Library Pt. 3

2014-02-22T12:38:00.001-05:00

Dr. John Telford LIVE at Detroit Main Library Part 2

2014-02-22T12:37:00.001-05:00

Dr. John Telford LIVE at Detroit Main Library Part 1

2014-02-22T12:35:00.001-05:00

Detroiters continue to resist Emeregency Management

2014-01-15T18:15:00.001-05:00

Peace all, It's an honor to share that we've added two new articles, by Dr. John Telford and Bill Wylie-Kellermann, to the Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management site. Please share widely and sign-on to the People's Declaration of Detroit's State of Emergency. Respect, ~Gregg

Fascism & Classism in Detroit and Lansing
By Dr. John Telford

Author, Poet, and Superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools, June 14, 2012 – March 29, 2013

Fascism & classism
Are nearly clearly the same crime.
Therefore I say that since they may,
They clearly nearly need to rhyme!

The 1999 state takeover of Detroit’s public schools spearheaded a horrifying assault on Detroit voters’ rights which has culminated in local and federal judicial collusion in the gangster banksters’ repressive theft of Michigan’s largest city and its precious assets fifteen years later—but nationally, this is only the opening volley of an extraordinarily virulent fusillade of neo-fascism. Along with other Michigan school districts with overwhelmingly black and brown student populations, it is a matter of casual fact that the public schools in Detroit have long been egregiously under-funded vis-à-vis the Detroit metropolitan area’s white suburban districts. Read on: http://www.d-rem.org/fascism-classism-in-detroit-and-lansing/

Detroit: Coming to a City Near You
By Bill Wylie-Kellermann

Pastor, St Peter’s Episcopal Church – Detroit
This article will appear in the January issue of the Catholic Worker.

Christ drove the money lenders out of the Temple. But today nobody dares to drive the money lenders out of the Temple…because the money lenders have taken a mortgage on the Temple. -Peter Maurin, Easy Essays

Let me tell you about a new form of urban fascism, one which is the template for direct corporate rule. Though it comports fully with what is happening in most of the global south, this despotism called emergency management is being deployed in Michigan, and Detroit is its major test ground. Since March of 2013 we have been living under a non-elected government thoroughly allied with the banks and corporations. Read on: http://www.d-rem.org/detroit-coming-to-a-city-near-you/

Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management
http://d-rem.org
Stand with Detroit! sign-on and share the
People's Declaration of Detroit's State of Emergency
http://detroitstateofemergency.org

Dr. Telford at the Detroit Public Library

2013-12-13T13:24:00.001-05:00

My apologies for not being able to post the actual videos of this event here on the site, which was my intention, but I've been experiencing technical difficulties with Blogger. However if you simply click on the links below you can view the entire program, which I do believe is one of my best.

Thank you, and enjoy.

Dr. John Telford at the Detroit Public Library Main Branch Pt. 1

Dr. John Telford at the DPL Pt 2

Dr. John Telford at the DPL Pt. 3

Dr. John Telford at the DPL Pt. 4

Photos from a wonderful evening

2013-12-09T11:01:00.001-05:00

Photos from a recent wonderful evening spent with good people where I shared my skills on the violin as well as readings from all three of my books.

Excellent analysis of Detroit bankruptcy fiasco

2013-11-10T22:15:00.001-05:00

If you want to read one of the best analyses I've seen so far of the bankruptcy fiasco, check out this link:

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4027

Thanks to my good friend Thomas Stephens for directing me to this very informative article.

Detroit Educator Dr. John Telford at Detroit Unity Chapel Part 3

2013-11-10T20:10:00.001-05:00

Detroit Educator Dr. John Telford at Detroit Unity Chapel Part 2

2013-11-10T20:08:00.003-05:00

Detroit Educator Dr. John Telford LIVE in Detroit at Unity Chapel PART 1

2013-11-10T20:02:00.001-05:00

Hard to believe, but Gov. Snyder out to get me

2013-10-03T00:16:00.005-04:00

Once again the Detroit Native Sun is one of the few papers willing to tell the truth about what is going on in this city - and about how Gov. Rick Snyder is actually trying to punish me for standing up for my right to keep my job as Interim Superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools. How dare I have a backbone!

I apologize for the small size but this is the best I could do for reproduction.

The headline that should have been...

2013-10-02T23:51:00.000-04:00

Michigan Citizen speaks out against EM featuring Yours Truly

2013-10-02T23:34:00.003-04:00

Great piece in the Michigan Citizen by Shea Howell. One of the few media outlets still speaking truth to power against the Emergency Manager fiasco.

Resisting the EM

Posted by: The Michigan Citizen Posted date: September 25, 2013 In: Fresh Ideas, Front Page, Top Stories Of The Week | comment : 2

Week 26 of the occupation

By Shea Howell
Special to the Michigan Citizen

As Rick Snyder campaigns for his second term, people are bombarded with images of the “can do” governor. One image we won’t see is Gov. Snyder meeting with the Detroit elected Board of Education. If the governor had his way, the elected board would pack up and get out of town. That is because the Detroit elected school board has been persistent in its resistance to the emergency manager and to the destruction of democracy.

Unlike the Detroit City Council, where some elected members cozied up to the new manager, hoping to win favors, the elected school board has remained united in opposition to the EM. As the EM has closed schools and slashed programs, the elected board has provided the only public forum for discussion of these issues.

The Detroit Public Schools system was the test case for Emergency Manager legislation. It was the first state takeover of a locally elected school board and has continued for more than a decade. This takeover gives us a picture of the use of emergency management to turn public resources into private gain. It demonstrates the contempt for democracy and for the city of Detroit that fuels this legislation.

The state takeover of DPS began in 1999, shortly after the citizens of Detroit voted a massive $150 billion construction bond. The construction industry, with close ties to Republican Gov. John Engler, saw the potential for windfall profits. Thus Engler appointed the first emergency manager.

At the time DPS had a surplus of $93 million. The academic level of the district was solid and improving. Test scores were at the mid point in the state and rising, out performing neighboring Ferndale for example. DPS was introducing new ideas in education, with theme-based high schools, language immersion programs and special efforts for students with disabilities. All of this progress and innovation was stopped with the state takeover.

A decade later, in 2009 Robert Bobb left the job of emergency manager with a $327 million deficit and chaotic schools. His replacement, Roy Roberts, hasn’t done any better, providing a so-called deficit reduction through borrowing.

At every step along this torturous path, the Detroit elected board of education, concerned parents, child advocates, students and teachers have resisted being emergency managed. In the last period, the Detroit school board, calling itself the school board in exile, has been especially united and active in organizing public resistance and launching court challenges. In some ways, it was their success in wresting academic control away from appointed managers under the earlier version of this legislation that led to the Republican effort to make clear that elected officials have no power to do anything under emergency management.

Now Gov. Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette are going after the elected school board superintendent, John Telford. The elected board appointed Dr. Telford as superintendent of DPS. He receives one dollar a year for his efforts. He has proven to be a tireless public advocate for children and their right to an education.

In the murky time following the public rejection of all emergency manager legislation, the elected school board extended Dr. Telford’s contract. With the new Public Act 436, the emergency manger fired him. Telford sued and lost in court.

Not content with the win in court, the governor and attorney general are now suing Dr. Telford personally for nearly $36,000 in court costs. Telford, a retiree on a fixed income who was represented pro bono in the court case, can hardly afford these costs. The message from the governor is clear — I will punish those who disagree with me.

For his part Dr. Telford says, “They may be able to punish me, but they can’t silence me. They can’t make me quit.”

In the sweep of history, it is people like Dr. Telford, who represent the best in us and who deserve our support.

My Detroit News editorial from Sept. 10, 2013

2013-09-13T10:46:00.002-04:00

Now that the Detroit mayoral primary is over and the inadequately-funded candidates — including me — were soundly defeated by the two lavishly-financed and media-anointed frontrunners, I will offer fresh ideas for the sorely-needed revitalization of Detroit and its traditional public schools.

Our schools must ensure that upon high school graduation, all DPS students are masterfully fluent in the written and spoken English language, free of dialect or poor grammar.

In order for Detroit Public Schools to be enabled to impart these skills successfully, it must become a single unified and autonomous district once again, governed by its good, elected school board without further state interference. The ill-advised 1999 state takeover with its subsequent decade-plus of inept leadership and its 2012 jettisoning of 15 buildings to the failed EAA have brought the vast majority of our city’s public schools to the brink of academic and financial ruin.

Detroit Public Schools enjoyed a $93 million surplus in 1999 and the scores were at the state midpoint and rising. When emergency manager Robert Bobb departed 10 years later, he left behind a $327 million deficit and the scores were the worst in America. If that was the reformers’ concept of what constitutes reform, I’d hate to see their concept of what constitutes deformity.

John Telford is a former Detroit Public Schools superintendent

Interview on MiVote

2013-07-30T12:11:00.000-04:00

Click the link below to view my interview on MiVote! Vote John Telford on August 6!

http://mivote.org/2013/07/john-telford-for-mayor/

Vote for John Telford!

2013-07-23T18:39:00.001-04:00

Many thanks to Charlie Kadado for this great banner!

Once again I'm thrown out of a debate...

2013-07-18T10:19:00.002-04:00

Here's the footage captured by Channel 4 News

video platform video management video solutions video player

My Mayoral Interview on Detroit Channel 4.

2013-07-15T21:28:00.005-04:00

Here is my mayoral interview now on Click On Detroit Channel 4.

From the Michigan Chronicle

2013-06-18T10:12:00.002-04:00

Looks like I'm in the race...

The more they try to shut me up, the louder I get

2013-06-07T15:33:00.001-04:00

Some of you may have already heard that when I attempted to participate in Tuesday's mayoral debate I was forcibly - and wrongfully - ejected. To learn more about what happened, click here to read WXYZ Channel 7's account of the event, complete with video.

Stay tuned, folks. This one promises to be a serious fight.

My fundraising party

2013-05-25T22:45:00.000-04:00

In case you missed my fundraising party...

MESSAGE TO ALL MY FRIENDS:

My deepest thanks to the many supporters of my grass-roots Mayoral campaign who turned out for my fund-raising party on May 25 - and to the members of my committee who made the affair so successful. Thanks to you, we have a good start-up kitty for lawn signs, cards, radio spots, etc. For the information of those of you who couldn't make it (and for those of you who did), our next (and final) Telford-for-Mayor Fund-Raising Party prior to the August 6 primary will take place again in the Rumors on the River Restaurant in the River House at 8900 E. Jefferson, just east of the Belle Isle Bridge, on THURSDAY, JUNE 27, between five and eight o'clock p.m.. Tickets are again $20, and are again available at the door. You can also make out checks to Committee to Elect John Telford and mail them to me at 8900 E. Jefferson, Ste. 1107, Detroit MI 48214. Please spread the word to folks in your circle of influence who care about Detroit and about our city's public schools and schoolchildren, and let me know via email or by calling me at 313-460-8272 if you would like to volunteer in my Mayoral campaign. .

While I've been speaking in churches and invading the barber shops, and I spoke at a cage fight on E. Jefferson last Saturday night (one of my former Finney kids won), you may have noted that I've been notably absent in the early Mayoral debates. A few key phone calls have now rectified that, and I will be debating at the Charles A. Wright Museum of African-American History between 8:00 and 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30. (That debate will be televised.) Some earlier debate sites where I'll also be participating include the New Center Park on the southwest corner of Second Avenue and West Grand Boulevard on Friday, June 7 at 5:30; the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament at 9844 Woodward Avenue between E. Boston Blvd and Trowbridge at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 20; and the Dexter-Elmhurst Community Center at 11825 Dexter between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25   I may also be debating tonight at the Galilee Baptist Church at 5251 E. Outer Drive at Lappin (just east of Van Dyke) at 6:00 p.m. I wasn't invited, but we have conversed with church officials and hope that in fairness as a duly certified candidate I may be permitted to debate. If not, we will be seated at strategic points in the audience to pose questions to participating candidates and offer answers of our own.

Also, for those of you who are interested in old-time Detroit athletics, as a former All-American quarter-miler (WSU, 1957), I'll be making a brief presentation to another All-American quarter-miler (Deon Hogan of old Kettering High and Kansas State, 1983) at the Detroit Track Old-Timers' 22nd Annual Awards Dinner at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Woodward at Warren on Friday, June 21 at six o'clock. Tickets are $22 and are available at the door.

P.S. - An update on my federal lawsuit to retain my Detroit Public Schools Superintendency: Federal Judge Sheeh has set a court date of July 25 at 9:00 a.m.to examine the possibility of tying my case into the broader federal suit to overturn Public Act 436, the disenfranchising replacement law for PA 4, the emergency manager law. When I become Mayor (and if we can get the word out to enough grass-roots voters, my mayoralty is a distinct possibility), I will still exert sufficient influence to be involved in the selection of my suitable successor as DPS Superintendent - one who will cooperate with the current good elected board to release the EM from his job on February 8, 2014 and regain power for the elected board.

2013-05-13T23:01:00.001-04:00

Educator and activist John Telford joins Detroit mayoral race

By Ann Zaniewski

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The ballot for Detroit’s mayoral race got more crowded Monday with John Telford’s announcement that he would seek the city’s top job.

“I haven’t been happy with the way things (have been) going in city hall ever since the (Kwame) Kilpatrick administration,” Telford, former interim superintendent for Detroit Public Schools, said. “I want to see more cooperation between schools and the city.”

Telford, 77, is among about a half dozen candidates who have submitted signatures to appear on the August ballot.

Telford is a civil rights advocate with an educational career that spans more than five decades. He has taught, coached and served in administrative roles at several Detroit schools, according to a news release from his election committee.

His résumé includes serving as deputy superintendent for Rochester Community Schools from the mid-1980s to early 1990s, and in 2009 he served briefly as interim superintendent in Madison District Public Schools, where his plan to end the district’s deficits by recruiting students from Detroit was met with controversy. He served for about 10 months as interim superintendent for the Detroit Public Schools district before being replacedin late March after state-appointed emergency manager Roy Roberts gained academic control over the district.

Telford said if he’s elected mayor, he would offer police, recreation and other city services to high schools to turn them into community anchors.

Telford said that in the mayoral race, he’s targeting front-runner and former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan. He criticized Duggan’s role as a board member of the Education Achievement Authority, the controversial school district set up by the stateto reform troubled schools. Duggan recently resigned from the board.

“Some folks think I’m running to keep Mr. Duggan out,” Telford said Monday. “But no, I’m running to win.”

Telford said he submitted more than 1,000 signatures Monday to the city ensure a spot on the August ballot. Mayoral candidates must turn in at least 500 signatures from registered Detroit voters by the end of the day today.

John Telford for Mayor of Detroit

2013-05-12T14:53:00.001-04:00

My friends,

Tomorrow I will be formally announcing my candidacy for Mayor of Detroit at 1 pm on Monday, May 13, at the City Clerk's office on 2978 West Grand Boulevard. I do so for no other reason than because I care deeply about this city of my birth, and I believe strongly that I have the ability to contribute to its restoration. Some of my critics have implied that this is all about ego, and that is simply incorrect. Nothing more need be said about that except that these are people who may claim to know me but quite obviously do not know me at all.

Please allow me to address a few other concerns that I already know are out there. For example, the concern that I may be too old and/or infirm to take this extremely challenging job. I don't challenge the fact that I'm no longer a young man. I strongly contest the assumption that my age will hinder my ability to work vigorously for this city. I believe freedom fighter Nelson Mandela was older than I am now when he became president of South Africa after spending more than a quarter century behind bars. Sure it's true that Detroit is a challenging city, but I defy anyone to say that the city of Detroit faces more challenges than the nation of South Africa did at that point in time. And no, I am not equating myself to Mandela. Hardly. I am, however, making the point that anyone who assumes someone of my age cannot be up to this job needs to do some research.

Then there is the concern that I am white. Yep. I am. Have been all my life and, I suspect, I will most likely be white up to the day I die. As for whether a white man can collect enough votes in a predominantly black city to be elected, well, the only ones who can answer that question are the voters of Detroit. I will say that, as someone who was born and raised in this city and who has been an educator in and around this city for more than 50 years, I have learned that Detroiters are not stupid. Far from it. And for anyone to assume that they will automatically dismiss any candidate simply because that candidate is white does not understand this city as well as they think they do. No, I am not naive. Nor am I dismissing the potency of the race issue in Detroit. Like I said, I was raised in this city so of course I am aware of the part it plays. But race only plays one part, not every part. Detroiters, although understandably more predisposed to vote for African Americans since most of them are African American, do not use that measure as their sole criteria in the voting booth. They also are willing to vote for those who are in their corner. How else could you explain a Maryann Mahaffey?

There will also be those who will eagerly pounce on my admittedly 'colorful' past. Fine. It's all in my book. Anyone with any questions are more than welcome to purchase my book and I welcome the additional sales. I have always been open about who I am and the life I have led. But if anyone believes they can prove that I have not lived a life committed to the City of Detroit, then I would find that interesting. Because my record is there, and it speaks for itself. My record as an activist, and as a civil rights fighter is all there. My record as a fighter for Detroit children is all there. My record as someone who will never stop fighting, and who knows how to fight, is all there.

I am a Detroiter.