MJ: You don’t sound like a big fan of federal education legislation.

DM: I’m not in favor. [Federal legislation] can do something about poverty and resources for schools. And the president can play a psychological role. When the president is a dummy, putting down smart people, it makes it harder for kids to know he is serious. I don’t want pedagogy and curriculum decided on the federal level. Bush was a dumbing-down model about what it means to be an educated person. Another way the president can play a role in education is by modeling it, by not telling lies and not making up history. But directly, the federal government can do something about resources for more well-educated teachers, more leisure time for kids and families, and time for teachers to think. If we want to leap forward, we need to rethink what schools are like as institutions. If you walk into a school, do you taste and smell education? Is it a place that respects education, or is it a factory looking for higher test scores? Mother Jones interview with Debbie Meier

The leading advocates of choice, privatization, merit pay, and accountability appeared in a panel discussion during the Democratic convention, led by Chancellor Joel Klein of New York City and Chancellor Michelle Rhee of Washington, D.C. Along with such colleagues as the Rev. Al Sharpton and Mayor Adrian Fenty of the District of Columbia, they present themselves as the true voices of “reform.” Listen to them and what one hears is the same views that the Republicans have been expressing since at least 1996, when Republican candidate Bob Dole launched an attack on the teachers’ unions. Now it is Rhee and Fenty trying to persuade D.C. teachers to abandon the tenure rights that their union won for them. Diane Ravitch

What will we do for the children of Calumet City? Will we call Senator Meeks a flamboyant clown for staging a protest where hundreds of students try to enroll in a school far, far better than their own? Perhaps we’ll shrug our shoulders and say that it isn’t really about the money, but about the parents or about the culture, or we’ll think of mediocre schools in our county and in our state stunting the lives of poorer children every year as something regrettable but out of our control, like a hurricane.

The motto of New Trier High School is “Minds to Inquiry, Hearts to Compassion and Lives to the Service of Mankind.” Elegant, isn’t it? To their credit, the New Trier Administration has embraced Senator Meeks and the hundreds of families of New Salem Baptist Church, likely recognizing their common purpose to educate all our children. Dan Johnson-Weinberger

The attack on and arrest of me and the “Democracy Now!” producers was not an isolated event. A video group called I-Witness Video was raided two days earlier. Another video documentary group, the Glass Bead Collective, was detained, with its computers and video cameras confiscated. On Wednesday, I-Witness Video was again raided, forced out of its office location. When I asked St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington how reporters are to operate in this atmosphere, he suggested, “By embedding reporters in our mobile field force.” Amy Goodman

Balloons and confetti dropped. Music of incomparable dildocity blared and then it was over. Sarah Palin was rushed off to isolation lest anyone ask her anything improper about her background, qualifications or knowledge of the world she wants to rule. McCain, up well past his bedtime, headed off for some much needed rest so that he can resume his deranged social studies teacher act today. And we are left to fret over whether or not this duo, with the help of the con artists who brought us George W. Bush, have in fact proven that we will get fooled again. Barry Crimmins

What rhymes with Broad?

Ed Notes Online brings to our attention more dirty work by Eli Broad. He is the money behind Ed ‘08 and the Broad Award to schools who prove themselves business-like and otherwise worthy.

And now there’s this:

ENN is reporting the Eli and Edyth Broad (pronounced Brood) Foundation, the source of so much funding in undermining the urban public school systems (BloomKlein won the Broad prize for education “improvement” last year), has just given a whopping $400 million to a genetic institute, a joint venture by Harvard and MIT.

ENO says Broad rhymes with dude. I said it rhymes with load. Either way it sounds bad.

Last year I reported on the attempt by a small group of Park Ridge parents, backed by national proponents of abstinence only sex education (Hey Sarah. How’s that working for you and yours?), to dumb down the District 207 science curriculum. That attempt failed. But, they’re back.

A concerned parent writes me:

I am writing to alert you to the fact that the folks who tried to get District 207 to drop it’s unit on birth control from the biology curriculum at Maine South appears to be ready to go at it again. Last year, the district gave families the ability to opt their children out of that particular unit if they so desired. The curriculum includes information about abstinence being the only sure fire way to stop pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, but also includes information about birth control, information that I, for one, think our kids need to know to make intelligent and well informed decisions about their actions and the potential life and death consequences of those actions. The curriculum complies with the guidelines provided by the state’s board of education.

Anyone who can make it to the District 207 Board of Education meeting on Monday, September 8 around 7:30 or 7:45, please come.

Bon Jovi.

We got hit with the remains of Gustav on Thursday. It was a good soaking rain. And it broke the 90 degree temps we were having for the start of school. It will be in the seventies this coming week. Good working and sleeping temperatures. Believe me, sleeping is what I do the first few weeks back at work. By 8:30 PM, my lids are drooping. By 9, I’m in bed.

Bedfellows.

You have to admire James Meeks, who is the leading voice for fair and equitable school funding in Illinois, if only for the enemies he has made.

The Mayor, who called Meeks selfish.

A local newspaper columnist who reprimanded Meeks for making New Trier High School his “whipping boy.” Jeez, even the good folks at New Trier know better than that.

And now the wing-nuts at Fordham, who in their eagerness to attack Meeks, laud the most corrupt governor in Illinois history (and that is a hell of a record).

Said Fordham’s Gadfly:

Governor Rod Blagojevich was on the money when he said, “It’s counterproductive to urge kids not to attend school.”

Actually, it appears it may have been very productive.

More rockers pissed at McSame.

The playlist of rockers who are pissed at Palin/McCain is growing longer and longer. Now it is Heart.

Ann and Nancy Wilson are pissed at the Republican Party and have fired off a cease and desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign. Specifically, the Heart women are upset that the GOP has used their classic “Barracuda” as a theme song for Sarah Palin.

(source)

More on the Obama playlist.

While the music world continues to distance themselves from the Palin/McCain team, the Obama playlist get longer.

Unlike his Republican opponent, Democrat Barack Obama is still raising money for his presidential campaign, and he turned Friday to rock legend Jon Bon Jovi for help.

Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, hosted more than 100 people for dinner on their mansion lawn by the Navesink River in Middletown, N.J. The price was $30,800 a person, to be divided between the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

“When I look at Barack, I see an old man,” Bon Jovi said in introducing his guest. Obama is 47, Bon Jovi is 46.

Obama spoke for about eight minutes before greeting guests individually. He vowed to fight Republican attacks on his character and background more fiercely than John Kerry did in his losing campaign four years ago.

(source)

Mike Petrilli of the wing-nut Fordham Foundation makes an interesting observation. Yes he does.

I just noticed that four of the five contenders for this year’s Broad Prize for Urban Education are from either Texas or Florida. While the award goes to school districts, I think this is another indication that state context matters. And what do these two have in common, besides a “former Governor Bush”? First, a longstanding testing-and-accountability system. Second, a robust alternative certification sector. And third, weaker teachers unions than you’ll find in most locales. These things matter.

So, there you have it. Wanna win the Broad (rhymes with toad)? Get a Bush. Do lots of high stakes testing. Be a union buster.

There you have it: A recipe for a Broad (rhymes with what a load) plaque to hang on your principal’s wall.

This is John McCain speaking at the RNC Thursday night.

At the time, he was talking about the problems of service to veterans. The picture projected on the green screen behind him was of Walter Reed. Only, not the veteran’s Medical Center, but the middle school in North Hollywood, California.

Oops.

First exposed by Talking Points Memo, it just gets goofier.

Reported TPM’s Josh Marshall:

A lot of people were asking tonight: what the hell was that mansion up behind John McCain tonight during the first part of the speech? As I noted below, the TV close-ups only showed McCain’s head against the grass in the picture, which made it look like he was reprising his famed green screen performance. And when they panned out, it looked like McCain was showing off one of his mansions.

Then Walter Reed Middle School Principal Donna Tobin issued a statement:

“It has been brought to the school’s attention that a picture of the front of our school, Walter Reed Middle School, was used as a backdrop at the Republican National Convention. Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school nor is the use of our school’s picture an endorsement of any political party or view.”

The LAUSD Board member Tamar Galatzan, who represents Walter Reed Middle School issued a statement:

“Though I am flattered that Senator McCain chose to use a school from my district as backdrop to his remarks at the Republican National Convention, I wished he had checked with me first. As a strong believer in public education, I don’t think the Senator is the most appropriate person to showcase one of the premier schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is unwilling to bring fairness and equity to No Child Left Behind and ensure that schools like Reed get the resources they need from the Federal Government. From what I’ve heard, that’s not a priority for the McCain/Palin ticket.”

Brother Mike’s Small Talk says USA Today’s Greg Toppo has his head up his ass for buying into the DFER weasel’s story of the Democrats splitting over support from and for teacher unions.

As I pointed out earlier, Joe Williams and Whitney (throw yourself on the mercy of the court) Tilson were loitering outside the DNC but couldn’t get inside. Meanwhile one in ten delegates were teacher union members. Some split.

They’re meeting. They’re talking. They’ve taken a strike authorization vote. They given the required notice to strike. And there’s been no significant movement. But they’re still meeting and talking.

Union teachers of the Huntley Education Association are nothing if not patient. The only questions seems to be: How long?

“We’re just continuing to negotiate,” union Co-President Julie Hunter said Thursday morning.

The only significant progress Wednesday may have been the scheduling of future negotiating dates. The sides agreed to meet again Sept. 7, 14, 16 and 23.

Wednesday’s meeting was the first negotiating session since Aug. 24.

(source)