Post-election day panel

Moderated by Jim Braude; panelists are Michael Jonas of CommonWealth magazine, Jennifer Braceras a  (conservative) commentator and political columnist, and Robert Haynes, president emeritus MA AFL-CIO
Notes going up at the end...everyone's talking too fast to post as we go! Sorry for any typos; I'll clean it up later.

And remember how I couldn't find a Washington result?

Here's why: THEY HAVEN'T CALLED IT YET!

Elsewhere on the ballot on election day: a wrap-up UPDATED

So we know the news from the top of the ticket--and there's a good letter here to President Obama this morning--but there were a number of other education-related issues and positions of interest nationwide.

• Congratulations this morning to Glenda Ritz, the state superintendent-elect in Indiana! Ms. Ritz defeated Tony Bennett, who has been pro-corporate type reform and was HUGELY funded by those sources. Ritz has been quoted as saying there's too much emphasis on standardized tests. Good news!
• Bridgeport, CT defeated a ballot question calling for a mayorally-appointed school board. Score one for democracy! Michelle Rhee's group spent $100,000 on that loss.
• According to the tweets coming out of Chicago last night, the city would like to elect their school board, by an overwhelming (80%!) margin. That measure was non-binding. 
• Miami-Dade County in Florida has passed a $1.2 billion (with a "B") bond issue for schools. 
• Houston, Texas passed a $2 billion (likewise, "B") bond issue for their schools.
• California defeated Proposition 38 which would have progressively increased state income taxes to fund education. However, the state passed Proposition 30, which is Governor Jerry Brown's measure to increase taxes on the wealthiest, as well as add a temporary increase to the state sales tax, all for education funding.
• Alabama defeated the change to their constitution, that, while taking out the language on segregated schools, would have cast doubt on the guaranteed right to a public education.
• Georgia passed a measure that moves the power creating of charter schools back to the state level (from the local level). And we know how well that one works...
• I've heard reports that Washington also passed their measure 1240 on charter schools--that state hasn't allowed them--but I can't find definitive word.

Mixed, but not a bad night for education. And Mr. President? We're holding you to that promise on sequestration not happening.

Going back to local affairs for a moment...

Should you be following the attempts to intimidate voters in Worcester that went on in Worcester last Thursday, you should read Steven H. Foskett's livetweeting and Nicole Apostola's liveblogging of the Election Commission meeting.
...which was lively.

Meanwhile back in Chicago

On the day that Mayor Rahm Emanuel was one of the primetime speakers at the Democratic National Convention, this was the front page of the Chicago Sun Times:

September has a weird meeting schedule

Just a bit of a warning for those who following such things: September's meeting schedule is odd.

The state primary is on September 6 (yes, Thursday), so we are not having our first Thursday meeting then. It is getting bumped to the following Thursday, September 13. At that meeting, we will get Superintendent Boone's Opening of School report (as per usual).
The second meeting is on its usual third Thursday, which happens to be the next week, September 20.

One of these things is not like the other...

I was, I have to say, enjoying taking a break from having to post about the Stand for Children ballot measure.
To be fair, it did make the news last week, as the Massachusetts Teachers Association struck a deal with Stand for Children to file a bill with the state legislature which would "curb" seniority. (Note: I have yet to see the bill. I'd be interested.) Within a day, both the American Federation of Teachers (who represent Boston teachers) and the AFL-CIO said they'd fight the bill. Governor Patrick says he's reviewing it.
Stand continues to say that if the bill doesn't go through by July 3, they'll go forward with the ballot measure. So we're still legislating at the point of a measure, rather than on the merits of the case.
Back here in Worcester, there was an article earlier this week that covered a bit about the ballot measure as well as the changes in the Worcester teachers' contract. Since the changes had nothing to do with evaluation or termination, a bit of a stretch on putting the two together...and this was followed today with a T&G editorial.

Now I know that there's a driving need in news to see trends, to make things part of national movements, and so forth. But you're reaching here, guys. Talking to the person running the school before the transferring there is a good idea all the way around; believe it or not, teachers care about their working conditions. The "fit" of a teacher and a school works in both directions, and either should be able to decide.

At the same time, anyone who knows any labor history--and if you don't, get reading--knows that it is bad news to make layoffs or terminations anything other than a very clean process with no parts left up in the air. That's how we get our long, ignominious history of teachers being fired for standing up to administration, for having unpopular (or not identical) political views, for fighting for kids, for getting married, or for getting pregnant.

I've heard the arguments that this "would never happen today," but as someone who once sat in a principal's office and had her position threatened for standing up for her students' First Amendment rights, I ain't buying it.

Inauguration Day

The 2012-13 Worcester School Committee taking their oath of office (the above swiped from clbergpowers' Twitter feed)

I will be serving as Vice Chair this year.

Hey, guess who's now a PAC?

Stand for Children!
Not only that, they've now joined forces (check the addresses) with our old friends, Democrats for Education Reform (hereafter, DFER). You'll remember that this comes (not coincidentally) at exactly the same time as Stand's atrocious ballot initiative, tying all decisions around teachers to student test scores (it's called, with the ed reformers' genius for Orwellian language* "Great Teachers Great Schools").
Gee, you think they're planning on spending some money?



*and totally lack of attention to punctuation. But I digress.

who said what

If you're tracking education in the 2012 presidential race, you may be interested in this HechingerEd blog post on who said what during last night's Republican presidential debate.