Education Action Group’s Ben Velderman strikes again.
Thanks goodness for Saturday coffee.
This has been a lousy week.
Wednesday’s murder of an innocent man, Troy Davis, by the state of Georgia created a constantly shifting mood of sadness to anger.
I couldn’t talk about it at work on Thursday, even when a colleague brought it up. And Thursday was a full day of administration and union discussions about contract violations by a principal. By the end of the day I was just grumpy.
In the past weeks I have heard from other teachers in Illinois who have received a Velderman. Teachers’ work emails have been the subject of a FOIA requests.
I have been asked for advice.
Ben Velderman is the slimeball who works for the anti-union wing-nuts at the Michigan-based Education Action Group.
Education Action Group defines misnomer. This bunch does nothing about education. Their action consists of harassing teachers who are outspoken unionists, as these teachers have been. And they barely constitute a group.
To the teachers who been targeted by EAG FOIA requests, I basically shared with them what I had done. I pointed out that this group was not much more than a website masquerading as an organization. When this happens to an IEA members then IEA in Springfield should be contacted. EAG’s intent was to intimidate. “Keep on doing what you’re doing,” I said.
EAG had threatened to make a “project” out of me, but I’ve never heard from them again. Cowards. Bargain basement political terrorists is what I called them back when my work emails were seized.
EAG’s cult leader, Kyle Olson, went bonkers over that. He started foaming at the mouth about how Bill Ayers was a friend of mine so how did I have the nerve to call him a terrorist.
Funny. Last time I looked, Bill Ayers had over 4,000 friends on Facebook. Last time I looked, Olson had 50 followers on Twitter.
My only question is when will our IEA leadership take this seriously? While EAG is tiny, they do intimidate. How many teachers in the state has this happened to who haven’t written to me? When I asked IEA Executive Director Audrey Soglin this question back when I got a Velderman, she said, “We are treating this as we would treat any member concern.”
Jesus. Thanks Audrey. I could have been talking to a customer representative at Comcast. In fact, a customer representative at Comcast would be more responsive.
An open letter to NBC’s Brian Williams.
Wisconsin’s governor has been invited to appear on an NBC broadcast discussing education. Why not invite Michelle Bachmann on to discuss the value of scientific thought?
Dear Mr. Williams,
I was shocked to learn that you are featuring Gov. Scott “Teachers Are Thugs” Walker on your program The State of Education, streaming online via the NBC News initiative Education Nation, at 1 p.m. on Monday, September 26.
Being familiar with some of your work on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon, I’m aware you not only know that Scott Walker is an enemy of teachers, but have in fact slow-jammed that news yourself on at least one occasion.
Given your familiarity with Walker’s attacks on educators and other public servants, you must be aware of his equally devastating attacks on public education itself in Wisconsin. But the fact that he has been invited to participate in this summit, and the eagerness with which he has already begun to reveal the lies he plans to further espouse on your show, compel me to provide you with a partial list of the many ways Scott Walker has waged war on public education in Wisconsin, and is shamefully ill-qualified to participate in a forum on education.
Yours sincerely,
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin parent, educator, PTO member, state employee and public education advocate.
Read the entire letter to Brian Williams here.
Fred Klonsky 