A collection of things to read and review

•  The back-and-forth in last month's House hearing on undocumented students' right to a public education revealed their using stats on English learners, which is not the same group at all
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal takes up the topic facing many Massachusetts towns this spring with a look at South Hadley's tax override (that's a gift link).
  
  
• I thought Jacobin's angle on the LA teachers strike (that didn't happen) being connected directly to the resistance to AI was interesting. This would of course be very much in line with the actual Luddites.
  
  
• I recommend subscribing to Benjamin Riley, but if you don't, please have handy his Illustrated Guide Resisting to "AI Is Inevitable in Education"
  Also, he was kind enough of share his family's really disturbing experience with his late father's resisting treatment because of what he received from AI; here's a gift link to The New York Times piece. 
  
  
• Speaking of AI, analysis finds that Google's AI overview is providing misinformation "on a scale unprecedented in human civilization"

daffodils, even

Board of Ed for February: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream is here. The meeting is fully remote.

tree in my backyard
why they are fully remote

Today will be (I believe) the sole appearance of  Amy Kershaw, as Acting Secretary of Education, as Steve Zrike will have started before their March meeting. 

LA Teachers go on strike today

Smart look at this in the Washington Post: 

From 1960 to 1980, white families in Los Angeles with school-age children left the city just as the school district rolled out desegregation plans. According to historian Jack Schneider, “Los Angeles became a city for those without children, for those who could afford private schools and for those who could not afford to leave.”
This didn’t only happen in Los Angeles in the era of desegregation. Education theater of the kind unfolding right now is part of the same comforting narrative that has been told across the country in the decades since: We white suburbanites look on concerned and grateful our children aren’t in those schools. Public education is a public good, but definitions of the public have grown increasingly narrow. From California to Maine, calls for school district secession — “splintering off whiter, wealthier districts from larger, more diverse ones” — have mounted over the past two decades. As one Alabama mayor explained, seceding is the only way to keep “our tax dollars here with our children, rather than sharing them with children all over.”
This “not my fault, not my problem” mentality that underpins education reform has a legal basis. Detroit, like urban centers on the nation, struggled to desegregate its schools during the 1960s and ’70s. Local leaders there turned to surrounding suburban communities as partners to improve city schools. Suburbanites recoiled, posting “This Family Will Not Be Bused” signs in their front windows.
In the 1974 Milliken v. Bradley decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Detroit’s busing plan was unconstitutional because the outlying districts were not responsible for Detroit’s problems.
Since then, though, historians have documented exactly the opposite. Struggling big city public schools cannot be understood in isolation from their neighboring successful suburban school counterparts and the regional and state policies that create separate school systems. Education reform without consideration of federal policies, state funding equations, tax laws and zoning policies will remain ineffective.

 And the L.A. Times looks at the issues being debated.

Not out of the woods yet on a bus drivers' strike in Worcester UPDATED

While we were all (most?) relieved to see the buses hit the road today in Worcester, please note carefully the words of Mayor Petty on this:

It is my understanding that the Durham Bus Company ended negotiations today. I asked Shannon George of Teamsters Local 170 not to implement any job action for at least three days and he has agreed to do so. Shannon George has also agreed to return to the bargaining table in good faith...I have offered to work with both sides to find a fair and equitable solution to this ongoing contract dispute. Schools will be opening Monday morning as scheduled and Local 170 members will be there to transport our students.

Reading the coverage, it sounds as though the two sides are pretty far apart. I'm making contingency plans for Thursday.

UPDATE: Well, shows what I know! Keep your eyes on the Wednesday ratification vote.

Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates now meeting

...watching the #CTUstrike hashtag for news.

Still going...

The Chicago teachers' strike entered its sixth day today and now will go at least through Tuesday. Yesterday, the Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegations declined to vote to end the strike, wanting to give the teachers they represent sufficient time to read the proposed contract language. When this led Monday morning to aldermen zinging the teachers for not getting back to work, there were some pointed references to the Board of Aldermen not reading contract language themselves. Sunday night, Mayor Rahm Emanuel filed for an injunction ending the strike, on the grounds that the teachers were striking for reasons other than salary and benefits (the only reasons allowed under Illinois state law), and further that the health of children was being compromised by the strike. Today, the court refused to hear the order on an emergency basis; it will be heard Wednesday morning, after the House of Delegates meets again on Tuesday afternoon.
And today's Chicago strike Revolutionary War history tee-shirt.

Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates votes Sunday

The Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates is voting Sunday afternoon on proposed language, according to numerous sources on Twitter, livetweeting coverage of the news conference. According to CTU President Karen Lewis, the delegates will vote only once they've seen the actual contract language: "You've heard of teachers? They like to read."

Chicago strike sign of the day

And, after the jump, a weekend video bonus:

Chicago strike sign of the day

from the Other 98%'s Facebook page.

Chicago teachers ON STRIKE: link round up

I'll do a round-up of links later today.
____________________________________________
NOON UPDATE:
The Chicago Teachers Union press release is here (I don't know if the administration didn't issue one; I can't find one); You can read NPR 's coverage here; the New York Times here; the Chicago Tribune here and what's going on with the kids in the meantime. You might also listen to Democracy Now. You can get a progressive perspective here.

Teacher Beat points out that much of what's being negotiated isn't about money; in fact, as Professor Naison writes, this is a strike against Race to the Top.
Mirriam Webster has seen a spike in "union" being looked up today.

If you're looking for something to do to support the teachers, you can find suggestions (including how to send pizza) here.

Best quote so far, from CTU president Lewis: “I think the whole idea of an imperial mayoralty where you wave a magic wand or cuss someone out and things happen is untenable.”
More to come!

The clock is ticking in Chicago

With the picket lines scheduled to form in Chicago at 6:30 am tomorrow, negotiations are continuing tonight. The Chicago Teachers Union blog is reporting that there will be a press conference at 10 pm (which you can watch live here; remember, times are Central)..
And (via Facebook), no, they aren't bluffing:



Daily Kos has a report from strike headquarters from earlier this weekend.