GR Bus Driver’s Union confronts Mayor Bliss during Labor Day walk

Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

Earlier today, members of the Grand Rapids Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and supporters, gathered near the Ah Nab Awen Park in downtown Grand Rapids. Several hundred people were getting ready to participate in the annual Mayor’s Labor Day Walk with the ATU members wanting to make a statement about the failure of Mayor Rosalynn Bliss to honor the bus driver’s union contract.

Just last week, the ATU protested at The Rapid Board meeting, where an ATU member was arrested, while Mayor Bliss and other board members voted to give The Rapid CEO a raise.

ATU members and supporters led the walk and while crossing the Grand River on Bridge St, labor activists stopped moving and forced walkers, including Mayor Bliss, to go around them.

Forcing people to walk around them, the labor activists then were able to surround the Mayor, continuing to engage her about her union busting tactics. By…

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See “Backpack Full of Cash” in Boston or Plan Your Own Showing in Your Community

Diane Ravitch's blog

There will be a screening of “Backpack Full of Cash” in Boston on September 13. Everyone is invited. The film was made by professionals at Stone Lantern Productions and narrated by Matt Damon.

If you don’t live near Boston, go to the website, contact the producers, and arrange a screening in YOUR community.

If you recall, the Network for Public Education called on PBS to show “Backpack Full of Cash” to make up for showing a three-hour series attacking public schools and promoting the Betsy DeVos libertarian view. That show was funded by four libertarian foundations, as well as DeVos and Koch money. Despite the fact that NPE and The Daily Kos inundated PBS with more than 200,000 emails, they have not shown “Backpack.”

But you can see it by setting up a screening in your community.

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Should Teachers Do Product Promotions in Their Classrooms?

Diane Ravitch's blog

I would say the answer is no. Children are a captive audience. It seems unethical to use the classroom to promote brand loyalty. The classroom should be a place to learn and ask questions and develop ones skills, abilities, and interests.

But this story in the New York Times says that big business is moving into schools, using teachers to promote their products. Teachers need the extra money and school supplies. What do you think?

“MAPLETON, N.D. — One of the tech-savviest teachers in the United States teaches third grade here at Mapleton Elementary, a public school with about 100 students in the sparsely populated plains west of Fargo.

“Her name is Kayla Delzer. Her third graders adore her. She teaches them to post daily on the class Twitter and Instagram accounts she set up. She remodeled her classroom based on Starbucks. And she uses apps like Seesaw, a…

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Education Reform and Racism: Why Aren’t We Talking About This?

New post on Seattle Education

Education Reform and Racism: Why Aren’t We Talking About This?
by seattleducation2010
Original Title: Why Aren’t We Talking About This? Reposted with permission from Save Maine Schools – Helping You Navigate Next-Gen Ed Reform. Everyone in the nation is talking about our racist history, but do people know what type of racism is happening today, beneath our noses, under the banner of education reform? When I was twenty-five, […]

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Seattle Education

Original Title: Why Aren’t We Talking About This? Reposted with permission from Save Maine Schools – Helping You Navigate Next-Gen Ed Reform.

Everyone in the nation is talking about our racist history, but do people know what type of racism is happening today, beneath our noses, under the banner of education reform?

When I was twenty-five, I interviewed at a charter school in Brooklyn.

Before I sat down to talk to the dean, I observed a kindergarten class that looked nothing like any kindergarten class I had ever seen: just shy of thirty children sitting in rows on a carpet, each with legs crossed and hands folded, all completely and utterly silent.

In my interview, the dean asked me what I noticed about the class.

“They were very well behaved,” I said.

“Yes, they were. But they sure don’t come in like that,” he answered.  With icy pride in his…

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There’s A New Voice At Washington’s National Cathedral Who’s Saying What Needs To Be Said.

Although I’m not Episcopalian, I have a special feeling about the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. This is because I was born and raised in DC and lived just a short distance from the Cathedral, so I often played on the beautiful grounds surrounding the edifice and my mother took me there frequently to attend the concerts which seemed to be happening all the time.

           What I didn’t know about the Cathedral growing up was that it has also been a gathering-place Americans committed to essential American values like equality, freedom and alleviation from poverty and want. Dr. King delivered his last sermon there in 1968, the transition to democracy in South Africa was celebrated by Bishop Desmond Tutu in a special service in 1995. If the Cathedral is known for one thing, aside from the Darth Vader gargoyle, it’s the institution’s commitment to advocacy, in particular helping veterans…

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