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When Did Teacher Unions Decide to "TURN" Against Collective Bargaining Rights?

by Kathy Carroll
At a United Public Workers For Action forum, speakers exposed the systemic connections between the Gates Foundation, Walton and other privatizers with the leadership of the AFT/CFT and NEA/CTA in California. These officials are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from union busters and privatizers and are colluding with them to destroy public education through charters, testing schemes like "Common Core" and other scams.
gates__bill_at_aft_2010_convention.jpg
Labor, Privatization And How To Defend Public Education: SF Forum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PllIoc2e54w
On July 6, 2014 in San Francisco a forum was held titled
Labor, Privatization And How To Defend Public Education.
Speakers included Kathleen Carroll, fired Commission On Teacher
Credentialing, attorney & whistleblower; Rick Baum, member
of CCSF AFT Local 2121; George Wright, retired Professor
AFT 1493; Gray Brechin, UCB Geography Department, author
of "Imperial San Francisco"; Sharon Higgins, researcher on
privatization and Gulen charter chain.
Billionaires from the Walton Walmart family to the Gates
Foundation, the Fisher GAP KIPP operation and the Broad
Foundation are spending fortunes pushing charters to loot
public education. The "Common Core" and testing schemes
profiting Pearson Inc. are part of the drive to totally privatize
public education. UC Regent Richard Blum and others with ties
to politicians are also benefiting financially from this transformation.
Politicians in California and nationally are actively supporting
privatization, the "Common Core" and charters to eliminate and
re-segregate our public schools.
At the same time in San Francisco privatizers are seeking to revoke
accreditation of the City College of San Francisco in order to
destroy the unions and privatize the largest community college
in California. This forum looks at how this privatization agenda
is being implemented and what our unions and the labor
movement need to do to fight it.
Sponsored by United Public Workers For Action
http://www.upwa.info

When Did Teacher Unions Decide to "TURN" Against Collective Bargaining Rights?
http://www.upwa.info/documents/7-11-14-Carroll.htm
By Kathleen Carroll
7/11/14

We watch the chaotic struggles against mass school closures, mass teacher-school employee layoffs, and the proliferation of charter schools. We see the expansion of charter school management organizations and online learning, testing, with associated tech companies taking huge chunks of education tax dollars. We then hear politicians claiming what we have is a budget crisis, yet many of the same names appear over and over. The profiteers that usually emerge within the debate about privatizing public education include Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Michelle Rhee and her Students First, and the Milken Foundation, just to name a few.

But what is missing from the debate is the fact that teacher union officials themselves are active participants in the scheme to monetize and profit from the public education system. Our public education system was built-up over hundreds of years with taxpayer money.

The labor struggles before and during the Depression Era are well documented. Why do labor unions including national teacher unions NEA and AFT exist? They exist because fearless workers risked and sometimes lost their lives to improve working conditions for future generations of workers. Sacrifices were made so those future works would have safe working conditions, a livable wage, benefits such as health care and the 8-hour work day. The labor union is supposed to protect against human exploitation of workers for unlimited profits, at least that is the lesson of the tragic Triangle Fire (http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/MacBook-Air-2013.htm history of Triangle Fire).

In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed. The NLRA outlawed practices that gave rise to the prohibitive "company union" and prohibited companies, government, or management from running, controlling or managing the union workforce. The NLRA prohibited the union bureaucracy from being incorporated within a company's-government's management.

So, workers are supposed to run-manage unions, not businesses, or company-government managers. This makes sense, since it is the workers fighting-negotiating collectively to have a contract containing provisions for a living wage, benefits, safe working conditions, a grievance process, and protection against arbitrary and politically motivated firings or layoffs.

Within businesses and government management struggles not for workers' rights, but to maintain a high profit margin and high executive compensation. Of course this dictates worker exploitation including reduced worker wages and is the antithesis of why a labor union exists.

We are overly bombarded by billionaires running advertisements, to fund their next get rich quick scheme to "TAP" into the public education tax dollar spigot. In fact, we are so bombarded that too few of us hear what the union brass is doing.

In 1995 the late Helen Bernstein was president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA). At that time Ms. Bernstein and Adam Urbanski (then UFT New York, now AFT vice president) formed a non-profit Teacher Union Reform Network "TURN" with a grant from the PEW charitable trust. TURN now has affiliates throughout the country at the national, state, and local levels; see the TURN exchange network. TURN leadership is now headed by AFT vice-president Adam Urbanski.

What might be surprising to teachers is that TURN takes money from the billionaires. These billionaires are certainly not looking out for worker rights, but instead concentrating on vigorously busting up the labor unions and squashing collective bargaining rights. The Gates and Broad Foundations have each given millions to TURN. Union leaders such as Karen Lewis (president of Chicago teachers union) spoke at TURN's 2012 national convention, and Diane Ravitch, Deborah Meier and Linda Darling Hammond did likewise in 2013.

In the Broad Foundation 2009 Annual Report at page 10 the foundation exuberantly admits to "investing" in union leaders like Randi Weingarten (AFT president) to run/manage incentive based compensation. (Doesn't this seem like the very prohibitive "company union" outlawed back in 1935 to prevent exploitation of the workforce?) This type of merit based, union busting tactic has been criticized by Diane Ravitch on her blog and in her books. So, why is Ravitch speaking at TURN's national convention? And was she paid to do so? If paid, was she paid by the very same privatizers she had so vehemently exposed in her published books "Reign of Error" and "Death and Life of the Great American School System"? What a strange TURN of events.

Under the banner of fostering labor-management collaboration, TURN has drastically shifted the purpose of a labor union. TURN is just another organization taking money from profiteers under the guise of improving teacher effectiveness. Teachers bear witness to the massacre of their collective bargaining rights. They are losing tenure laws, dismissal rights, and protection from arbitrary layoffs and firings. Most teachers are numb from shock, but continue to blame the fat cats for siphoning off public education tax dollars. The fat cats exist and what they are doing is absolutely wrong. But would the effort to privatize our public education system ever have gotten off the ground without the cooperation of those money conflicted union officials who were willing to be bought off? It is not clear when the union officials "TURNed" against collective bargaining rights, but it is clear that they have.

Take a quick look at Randi Weingarten and you will find Randi is a trustee at New Visions for Public Schools, which is funded by the Walton Family Foundation, by Gates, and by Milken, the junk bond felon. Publicly available reported IRS 990 forms show that Randi is on the board of Green Dot New York Charter School and the board of New Visions for Public Schools. Keeping Randi company on the Brooklyn Green Dot board was board member Nadya (aka Nadine) Dabby. Take a quick look at Dabby and you will find she is paid by the Broad Foundation, and that California Governor Brown appointed Dabby (a Broadie) to the State's Allocation Board.

Broad's relationship with Randi Weingarten goes back over a decade as readily admitted in the 2009 Broad Foundation annual report. Too many illicit non-profits to list receive funds not only from the billionaire foundations, but also from rank and file teacher money, e.g., the AFT Innovation Fund. These funds seek to shift focus away from teacher collective bargaining right, and instead misdirect public focus on the scam so-called problem with "ineffective" teachers. The very frequent occurrence of the "grossly ineffective teacher" term in the recent Vergara decision made one feel brainwashed reading the decision. Maybe that was indeed the goal, to ensure the public would believe there indeed exists a serious problem with "grossly ineffective teachers".

Hopefully the public is smarter than the scam artists realize. There exists a serious problem with income inequality between the very rich and the rest of society. A child going to school hungry or facing other socioeconomic factors at home, e.g., inability to read, write or speak English, will have hurdles that will
be difficult to overcome regardless of what teacher is in that child's classroom.

It should be noted that Green Dot Public Schools is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. This means if they are to see profits, they must expand, which in TURN means more traditional public schools must close, so more lost jobs.

The unions have formed and partnered with many illicit non-profits, with union busters buying off union officials, e.g., California Teacher Association's Institute for Teaching (IFT). Dean Vogel, a school counselor, is both president of CTA and CEO of CTA's non-profit IFT. Dean Vogel was paid $174,000 (according to 990 form filed June 2012 with IRS), and received an additional $85,000 reportable income from related organizations ... asserting only one hour of work per week on this 990 filing. Yes, read that again: Dean Vogel makes $174, 000 plus $85,000 for one hour per week just at the non-profit. Of course this sum does not include any additional income Mr. Vogel makes from other sources, perhaps a school district. CTA's IFT has taken money from Bechtel Foundation, from the Gates Foundation, and from the Hewlett Packard Foundation. Eric Heins is IFT secretary and Micki Cichocki is IFT's CFO. The same IRS 990 filing shows David Sanchez (former CTA president) received $193,000 compensation, plus an additional $89,000 in reportable income. Per the IRS 990, Carolyn Doggett (former CTA executive director was paid $298,000 and an additional $131,000 in reportable income. Gail Mendez was paid $190,000 and an additional $93,000 in reportable income, while poor Beverly Tucker was only paid $103,000. Note according to the IRS 990 form, these figures are for the individual's working only one hour per week!

Should teachers always try to improve teacher quality? Yes, but not at the expense of collective bargaining rights. Such tradeoff is not the role of any labor union. The public-private partnerships are nothing more than unethical and illegal conflicts of interest to boost the bottom line of the profiteers. It is the profiteers who stand to gain the most from the scam assertion that a serious problem with teacher effectiveness exists. For-profit teacher preparation programs are more than willing to step in to solve the fictitious problem ... for a fee. Similarly the various technology companies are chomping at the bit for their chance to get those public education tax dollars. Don't be fooled by all the scams!

So, what can teachers do to restore their labor union's role as that of an advocate for worker rights? Teachers must work to remove the many, many conflicts of interest. These conflicts exist at the local, state and national delegate/official levels, and must be removed immediately. Otherwise, it will be only a matter of time before the fat cats laugh all the way to the bank as they boast about how easy it was to get teachers to pay for their own demise. Sadly on their trip to the bank, they will perhaps pass a few boarded-up public schools.

Kathy Carroll is an attorney, government whistleblower and public education advocate
For video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYCl1tw8rj8&feature=
§Kathleen Carroll
by Kathy Carroll
800_carroll__kathy_at_upwa_meeting.jpg
Attorney whistleblower and public education advocate Kathleen Carroll has exposed the systemic corrupt connections between the "non-profit" foundations funded by Gate, Walter, Broad, KIPP with the leadership and many staff members of the AFT and NEA
§Dean E. Vogel
by Kathy Carroll
vogel_e._dean_cta.jpeg
Dean E. Vogel who is president of the California Teachers Association is getting hundreds thousands of dollars from union busting privatization "non-profits". He denied in his own union blog that the CTA took any money from Gates and other foundations.
weingarten_green_dot_schools_steve_barr__.jpg
AFT President Randi Weingarten who is on the board of for profit Green Dot schools has colluded with Steve Barr former CEO, the Gates Foundation and the Walton Foundation to push charters, "Common Core" and the privatization of public education.
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by Kathleen Carroll
weingarten_green_dot_schools_steve_barr__.jpg
Who Should Go, the Public Education Privatizers or the Teachers?
You be the Judge

[Edvoice, Privatization scams, AB215 and Vergara invoking misassignment problems supposedly addressed in the Williams settlement].

By Kathleen Carroll

One of the main goals of the public education privatizers has been to make it easier, legally, to fire teachers. Understanding this goal is not difficult. You fire more teachers; you show how bad the public education system is with so many bad teachers. This in turn justifies systemic change or more euphemistically referred to as education reform. And the reform is always the same, more charter schools, more online education, more testing, more replacement of teachers with Teach For America Troops/others. Education reform also always includes more for profit teacher preparation programs- because now not only are the public schools really bad according to the privatizers, but now we don’t have enough teachers in the profession, so we need to recruit more and find alternative ways, short cuts, on how teachers get licensed- enter for profit teacher preparation programs $$$$. The public education privatizers have the perfect business plan- create chaos, justify change, make change, make profits. And the more change, the more profits to make.

Add the constant false claim that there are so many sex offenders in the classroom that are impossible to get rid of, and the privatizers create the perfect distraction to fool the public while scooping up billions of tax dollars- all in the name of helping students.

The problem that never gets addressed in the corporate controlled media is the serious human abuse taking place against teachers to achieve these privatizing ends. As the public education system gets primed with low wage, inexperienced, temporary teachers who cost less and don’t require benefits, the privatizers are also adding teacher bullies provided by the numerous education leadership academies trained to spy on, write up and report back on any outspoken critic of the privatization agenda. Some of the teacher bullies are Broad trained education consultants (privatizer moles). These bullies are right there working along side the teachers.

So if a teacher happens to complain when school administrators hold back Black students in a English class, when in fact they qualify for advanced placement (an actual story), this teacher automatically becomes a target. She begins to get reassigned to classes where the majority of students have behavioral problems, she then gets assigned to subjects outside of what she is authorized to teach, and she is constantly monitored, watched and written up for even speaking to colleagues. As her every move is watched, and the privatizer moles continue to write her up, the teacher becomes more and more stressed. Eventually the dismissal will look like a problematic teacher was given numerous chances and failed to comply, when actually this was a serious case of on the job mental torture by the agents of the privatization agenda. No one is talking about these abuses, but they are happening across this country. Remember why the privatziers would want it to appear that Black students are failing, to justify the need for systemic change- more change- more profits. It is sickening. The public education privatizers, really scam artists, have even hijacked the civil rights movement to suggest that they are the only ones fighting to ensure equal educational opportunity- no mention ever of all the money they are making from their many scams all funded by our public education tax dollars.

This siphoning off of public education tax dollars creates another crisis- the claim that the public education system needs more funding. More funding from whom? Yes, we the tax payers are paying for this outrageous scam. The rich privatizers create the de-funding of public education as tech companies, testing companies, consultants, evaluation companies, charter schools, online schools and the like, take- take- take our public education tax dollars, then the politicians, who the privatizers have funded through campaign donations, claim the public education system needs more money. Simple solution really, you don’t need to be a math wiz for this one- stop making deals to give public education tax dollars to corporations and to the rich, stop the madness. But no, the politicians and key government policy makers (many with economic conflicts with the privatization entities) keep shoving these scams down our throat like there is no other solution to the manufactured budget crisis. I don’t think we are buying it anymore, do you?

The public education privatizers have been working on many fronts. A few of their main goals are listed below- much of which was obtained from websites of the numerous non-profit front groups that serve this agenda like 50can.org:

1. Put their folks in office / gov / mayors / school bds/ supts / admin / teachers, mayoral control includes selection of school board members
2. Put their transplants in your local district- push for local control (less opposition from the pesky public)
3. Change Teacher Evaluations <--base them on test scores
4. Get rid of teacher tenure / keep the new teachers (cheaper)
5. Allow their leaders at the school site to fire teachers
6. They have folks studying up on teacher pensions (Hoover inst)
7. They have finance folks in place
8. They have consultants / strategists
9. They have textbook companies in place ex. Peason + new common core standards
10. They want digital learning / e learning that "they" sponsor
11. They want "their" technology / data instruments in our schools
12. They want to run the schools like a business
13. They have bought out many newspapers / media companies + hired many reporters to bias the news
14. They have a lot of their own media companies / tv already in place
15. They want to make a killing $$$ on textbooks, digital textbooks, common core standards, consulting, Teach for America, their technology and data driven instruments in our schools….all paid for with our tax dollars.

A major player in the public education privatization agenda which funds many
political campaigns in the state of California is an organization called Edvoice.

Edvoice was considered one of the top five political action committees by funding amount for the 2010 California general election. Let’s take a peek at who is behind Edvoice.

Edvoice is currently headed by Bill Lucia (CEO) (this list may not be current but is correct for his positions held) Chief Consultant of the Assembly Education Committee, senior staff on the Budget and Appropriations Committees, and Chief of Staff and education consultant to the Chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus. He has also served in Senior Analyst roles at the Legislative Analyst's Office and the Department of Finance.

Edvoice was founded in 2001 by Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix, Facebook BD member, former Microsoft board member, Green Dot founding funder, Aspire School founding member) and John Doerr (venture capitalist, investment banker), along with former CA state Assembly members Ted Lempert and Steve Poizner (high tech entrepreneur); http://www.csba.org/NewsAndMedia/Publications/CASchoolNews/2009/Apr/InPrint/NewSBEmembers.aspx
Eli Broad and Don Fisher (deceased CEO of The Gap and major KIPP supporter) once served on EdVoice’s board. Doris Fisher, widow of Don Fisher is currently a major funder of Edvoice.

Eli Broad is currently a major funder of Edvoice!!

Edvoice is described as “a state-wide coalition of California business leaders and others who support education reform”. Another co-founder is Don Shavley, Gates foundation Senior program officer, co-founder of Californians For Public School Excellence (co-founded with Reed Hastings), Green Dot Public Schools board of directors; was also involved in starting the first charter school in California- San Carlos learning Academy.

Green Dot Public Schools is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange- tax payer funded!!

Aspire Public Schools is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange- tax payer funded!!

Also on Edvoice board of directors- Carrie Walton Penner- granddaughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton (Carrie is also on KIPP BD, CA Charter School Association BD and married to Greg Penner who is/was on Teach For America BD and who manages Madrone Capital Partners).

Carrie Walton Penner is currently a major funder of Edvoice!!

Reed Hastings contributed one million dollars to the passage of Proposition 30. Why? Privatizers want local control. Why? There is less resistance/opposition from those pesky public voters. Reed Hastings also threw his monetary weight behind another Proposition- Prop 39- to lower the percentage of voters required to pass local school bonds from 65% to 55%. Yes, Mr. Hastings doesn’t seem to care too much about democratic processes that may interfere with his opportunities to make huge profits from tax dollars.

Still think, these cronies are in it for the kids???

Edvoice was behind Senate Bill 1530, a bill to make it easier to fire teachers, introduced in February 2012 but did not pass out of the Assembly Education Committee. Jennfier Wada, lobbyist for Edvoice was present, never stated she was a lobbyist from Edvoice when she spoke at the hearing and of course supported the bill wearing her Louis Vuitton high heels. Edvoice gave campaign contributions to the author of SB 1530, California senator Alex Padilla. The privatizers lost this fight, but was that the end for the public education privatizers? Oh no, not with all that profit to be had. Not when they needed manufactured crisis to create systemic change and make more profits. In 2012, before SB 1530 dies in the Assemby Education Committee after heavy media scrutiny, the privatzers were already cooking up another scheme. This time they needed the public to be distracted so they could re-write legislation to make it easier to fire teachers. What would be a good distraction? A good way to create smoke would be to call up your media cronies and get the public to pay attention to a major lawsuit attacking teacher tenure laws and dismissal laws. Enter the Vergara lawsuit, filed May 2012. At the same time, work on new legislation while no one (the human beings not profiting from this privatization scheme anyway) is looking too closely. And so, Assembly Bill 215 was born. AB 215 has been ordered enrolled, it has passed both the senate and the assembly. It is awaiting Governor Brown’s signature. Not too much media scrutiny on AB 215- too much buzz around the Vergara decision (the smoke).

What is AB 215? Not too surprising, if you have been following the money scammers, it aims at amending two of the very same dismissal statutes that were attacked in the Vergara lawsuit, namely CA education section 44934 and 44944. Why? The privatziers need to make it easier to fire teachers? Why? They need to make it look like so many bad teachers exist in the public schools that there needs to be systemic change. Why? They need to replace outspoken critics of the privatization agenda with low cost, low wage, no benefits teachers. Why? They need to introduce through government contracts more testing, more evaluations, more online schooling, more school closure conversions into charter schools, more lease agreements with charter management companies- more- more-more- more profits…all with our tax dollars. Ah, get it? It is the privatizers that have the budget crisis! But, that is not what we, the public, are being told.

The privatizers have big plans, many of which have created mass layoffs, teachers committing suicide, school closures where low income students now have difficulty getting to school in dangerous neighborhoods, numerous students not receiving a quality education as they get tested and tested for a major part of the day, and parents, teachers, school staff and children in a constant state of flux. The devastation caused by the privatizers has also left many qualified teachers struggling in poverty, mentally exhausted and resulted in way too teachers no longer with us. The privatizers have also left many fired whistleblowers struggling to survive.

But, but but, all that money, they must make all that money or at least tap into a major portion of it. And so, they continue their scams- the kids, it is all for the kids.

Still think they are doing it for the kids??

The public education privatzer success has been amazing. And maybe that is the real reason for the ramping up, the scams are so fantastically ridiculous, that people everywhere are waking up to the fact that public education policy makers (many with economic conflicts with the privatizers) need to stop giving our tax dollars to the rich (testing giants like Pearson, K12 inc, Green Dot, Aspire, Tech companies, Pearson evaluations; Pearson textbooks, Pearson curriculum/content )- get rid of all the billionaire/corporate speculators that are wasting our tax dollars on themselves, get back the qualified teachers that were either wrongfully dismissed or improperly laid off (if they haven’t been totally scared away); hire back the school counselors….and everyone work together to help the individual needs of students-not the cookie cutter approach that is destroying our public education system.

And repeal charter school laws!!!! And do it now. Teachers need union officials who don’t take money from public education privatizers, who protect their rights- so teachers need to clean their union house, elect new union reps to protect the sanctity of qualified educators- and do it now. And parents and students must all be vigilant-opt out of the testing scams-de-fund the privatizers. And last but in no way least, prosecute the criminal conflicts of interests to send the scam artists and their co-conspirators to jail- lock them up and throw away the keys for perpetrating this convoluted, inhumane, discriminatory and sick fraud.

The public education privatizers never want to mention socioeconomic factors such as poverty, domestic violence in the home, absent parents or lack of food as having any appreciable impact on student learning. No, these real factors would make their arguments that lack of student learning is the sole fault of bad teachers impossible to swallow, so these factors always get left out. Why? They want to privatize, they want the money, the goals- keep your eye on their goals and all will be clear.

So while teachers, activists, community leaders, and journalists focus on the faulty facts of the Vergara decision, the public education privatizers successfully pushed through amendments to the education code making it easier to fire teachers- AB 215, all while no one was looking too closely. Teachers can now only have 5 witnesses for a dismissal hearing involving so-called egregious misconduct, none of the witnesses can be deposed for longer than 7 hours and the whole dismissal hearing must be wrapped up in 7 months except for good cause shown. Sound fair? It is not suppose to be fair. No mention that current law automatically suspends a teacher charged with a mandatory sex or drug offense as defined in education code 44010 or 44011, and if convicted no due process attaches as these are mandatory revocation offenses. Now, under AB 215 any employee accused of egregious misconduct will be subject to an expedited dismissal hearing with extremely little time to defend against false allegations. Does anyone see the potential for abuse by the privatizers with all their money and attorneys on their side? The abuse is already happening at lightening speed.

The plaintiffs in Vergara case actually invoke the problem of misassigning inexperienced teachers in schools containing predominantly low income or minority students, an issue not raised in the decision. The employment and tenure laws at issue in Vergara do not determine where a teacher is placed at a particular school site. The local school district that hired the teacher determines this assignment. Local school districts assign hired teachers to specific school sites, determining whether an inexperienced or experienced teacher exists at a particular school site. Most in the education community know this fact; the employment statutes at issue in Vergara are simply irrelevant to teacher assignment. Another problem is misassignment of teachers with improper credentials or with improperly issued waivers issued by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). CTC is supposed to issue waivers only after a local school district performs due diligence in finding a qualified teacher for a vacant position, then the school district signs under penalty of perjury a statement of need to the CTC, whereby CTC then decides to issue a waiver to an otherwise ineligible applicant for a teaching credential.

The Williams settlement (California lawsuit and settlement resulting in 5 legislative bills (and numerous education code amendments/additions) addressing the placement of qualified teachers in low performing schools, to reduce the number of emergency permits, require proper credentials in classes with ESL students or learning disabilities, among many other issues attempting to address serious discriminatory practices affecting low income and minority students) was supposed to rectify the problems of misassigned teachers in the classrooms of low income and minority students. What happened? Was there another deal brokered between government policy makers and the privatizers? Ask Governor Brown what happened. He hired Susan Burr to be his education advisor. Who is Susan Burr? Burr drafted the 1992 California Charter School Act while she served as principal consultant to the CA state senate, authored by former California senator, and CSU Institute for Education Reform co-founder Gary Hart. Who monitors the misassignment of teachers?- the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

And where was the teacher union execs and officials while all of this (Vergara and AB 215) went down? Follow the money, both unions NEA and AFT have taken money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Broad Foundation (public education privatizers) just to name a few of the privatizers funding the unions. And another union, the SEIU, also took money from the Broad Foundation to help organization efforts to push education reform (privatization money scams) in Los Angeles and other urban districts.

Labor unions are supposed to protect labor, which is after all, why they receive dues from their members. But, the conflicts of interest here make it impossible for the teachers (rank and file) to fight back- unions either remain silent or misinform their members (and the public) about what is really going on. Again, that seems to be the point of the public education privatzers- buy everyone off, including apparently the union execs- silence all opposition. But, the rank and file teachers, activists, parents and even students are waking up to the scams. Human beings with human compassion will rise up and fight back. It is never too late to expose corruption, greed and most importantly inhumanity. It must be exposed for what it is- disgusting.

https://www.facebook.com/CitizensForEducationRestoration
weingarten__randi_cft2011_convention.jpg
Regional Turn Satellites-Labor-Management Collaboration Partnerships Funded By Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation
http://www.turnexchange.net/regions.html
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With funding support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and with administrative and program assistance from the Consortium for Educational Change, five TURN regions are expanding reform efforts across the nation, focusing on the following five goals:

• Empower teacher unions to become leaders in driving improvements in teaching and learning.

• Encourage labor/management collaboration to address policies, programs and practices that impact teaching and learning.

• Encourage and support TURN regions and their participating teams to develop a teaching and learning focus.

• Create opportunities for TURN regions and their members to broadly share their successes and challenges.

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If you are interested in participating in an existing TURN Regional Network, contact the person(s) listed in the network closest to you.

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