Category: Education
Student protests in defense of public education as a right are spreading across the globe. The courage young people are showing is remarkable, as they confront governments who do the bidding of bankers while pretending to put “students first.” Student protests in Chile have resumed, with between 80,000 – 150,000 young people taking to the streets in Santiago, to demand free public education.
The Indiana University (IU) student strike of April 11-12, 2013, was an important milestone in new student activism.
In her informative blog, Diane Ravitch refers, correctly,to a “fawning interview” with Bill Gates. I think we have to move beyond these visceral reactions to understand why this is occurring. And to do that, we have to look at the international picture. I’ve been told that when I discuss this international picture, it sounds like I’m describing a “conspiracy.” Heavens no! Conspiracies are secret, and this is a public project.
Teachers are guilty of “labour terrorism”? Sounds too ridiculous to take seriously?
As readers of New Politics and/or my new book probably know, I’m not bashful about criticizing the politics and policies of the international confederation of teachers unions, the Education International (EI). So what does it mean that the EI has just published my blog about what EI should be doing – but isn’t?
Preamble: Last weekend I spoke at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in Liverpool, the UK’s largest teachers union. Largest in Europe too, I think. (NUT – correct me if I’m wrong, please.)
Rahm Emanuel has timed these school closings to frighten Chicago teachers, to punish them for their successful challenge to the rich and powerful who control Chicago’s schools, to make Chicago teachers doubt their strength — and to sway the upcoming union election.
The March 25 issue of The New Republic offers a lengthy piece by Rutgers professor David Greenberg, “Agit-Prof: Howard Zinn’s Influential Mutilations of American History.” The essay presented as a review of Martin Duberman’s Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left (2012) [read the review by Ron Briley, the book editor of History News Network (HNN), here
In a major event that will have a serious impact on Mexican politics and labor unions, Elba Esther Gordillo, who for more than twenty-five years has led the Mexican Teachers Union (el SNTE), was arrested on Feb. 26 on the charge of embezzling millions of dollars in union funds which she reportedly deposited in banks in Europe and spent on real estate.
The reaction to Aaron Swartz's suicide has quickly reached a level of intensity which may have surprised those who will eventually need to respond to it.
Will Johnson has an interesting piece in The Jacobin about what’s happening to teachers’ work.
The Mexican Congress has in near record time approved a new law on education called for by the new president Enrique Peña Nieto intended to reassert government control over the country's education system, break the power of the Mexican Teachers Union bureaucracy, and improve the quality of education. At the heart of the new law is a regular teacher evaluation with increased emphasis on merit.
What’s important for teacher unionists internationally to be considering? Mary Compton asks me some hard questions in this interview. One issue Mary and I didn’t discuss is teacher evaluation, which has emerged in the past year as the most dangerous issue many teachers unions navigate. But I think the response teachers unions should take flows from the reasoning in this interview.
Students are fighting for their dreams and are being met by violent repression. Chilean youth have mounted the largest demonstrations since Pinochet’s murderous regime took power. Yet, they continue their struggles for jobs and educational opportunity. The latest chapter in this story is being written in Mexico. Protestors have been “disappeared.” We know what that likely means if international protests are not mounted.
You have to really give these guys who are carrying out the destruction of public education credit, though I’m not sure what award we should give them. Is it for worst effects of social engineering? They can’t win that – yet. The competition is too stiff – just consider all the brutal dictatorships in the past four decades.
In following commentary on Obama’s victory, I’ve been struck by the extent to which fear has driven people’s votes.
Dear Parents,Although we have never met, I’ve been involved indirectly in your children’s education, as a researcher on urban teacher education. I’ve been told that my books and articles, which explain what makes urban teaching special, have really helped city teachers do better at helping all students succeed.
As the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) holds fast to its strike deadline of Sept. 10, negotiations continue. It’s always risky to trust reports in the mass media, especially the virulently anti-teachers union media that we have today, about what’s happening in negotiations.
I’ve been asked by readers how they can show their support to teacher unionists in Chicago and Colombia, whose struggles I describe in my recent NP post. One way is to contribute to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) Solidarity Fund. The billionaires are pouring big bucks into defeating this movement and union dues alone won’t be able to cover the union’s costs in trying to win this battle to protect public education.
You wouldn’t know it from the US media, but the education wars are heating up globally. Three of the hottest spots are Chicago, Chile, and Colombia. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has revved up its struggle to protect public education in that city, with a vote to issue a 10-day strike notice (no strike date set).
Teacher unionism was born more than a century ago, in Chicago. Teachers in Chicago are once again leading the way by authorizing a strike over the policies that are destroying public education in communities across this country – and the globe. In a letter to education activists, Pauline Lipman, a professor at University of Illinois, Chicago, describes the background to the strike and explains why Chicago teachers deserve support from anyone who wants good schools for all kids:
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The New Politics Summer 2026 issue will soon be in the hands of subscribers, featuring articles on Democracy versus Degeneration in the United States (with contributions by Dan La Botz, Ellen Schrecker on McCarthyism Then and Now interviewed by Elizabeth Rapaport, Ben Silverman on the fascism debate, Samuel Farber on free speech, Samuel Barney on rural prisons, and Raoul Cansino and Bill Kelly on nativism), Imperialism Around the World (with articles by Lisbeth Moya González on Cuba, Husam Mahjoub on Sudan, Siyavash Shahabi and imperialism and the working class, and Matt Benson on the Mapuche in Chile), interviews on labor struggles and Russian political prisoners, a history of the International Socialists, review essays by Frieda Afary on AI, Javier Sethness on Western Marxism, and Peter Drucker on Molly Crabapple, as well as reviews on Ukraine, the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, white rage, South Asia, and Afghanistan, plus a letter on women under the Taliban.