Fwd: Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico+NCLB

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

> From: Juliet Luther <liejml2@OPTONLINE.NET>
>
>
> This morning the Puerto Rican government decertified the main 
> teachers' union in Puerto Rico.  That union is the Federacion de 
> Maestros de Puerto Rico.  If you recall some of my posts in the past 
> year have concerned the fact that this union was one of those that 
> has consistently opposed NCLB and any attempts to implement, 
> particularly the standardized testing in the schools, carrying out a 
> number of successful job actions.  I have, as a teacher in NYC 
> watched developments there closely as I think they are among the few 
> standard bearers we teachers have.  They have consistently insisted 
> that pedagogues have the right to make professional assessment 
> judgments about student progress in learning, and for that they 
> deserve our respect.  If only we had such leadership in our own unions.
>
> A related set of events were the recent attempts on the parts of an 
> organization called "El Sindicato de Maestros" and the "Asociacion 
> de Maestros" in an effort to recruit the membership of the 
> Federacion (the majority of teachers) away from the Federacion, to 
> join these other organizations, which call themselves unions, but 
> are really a small, competing union which wanted to afilliate  with 
> the AFT and (the latter) an employer/government organization.  The 
> first organization was made up of teachers who were unhappy that the 
> Federacion  had de-affilliated with the AFT.  They lost their bid to 
> represent the teachers of Puerto Rico, by a wide margin.  The other 
> attempt was designed to break the Federacion and to generally 
> strengthen the position of the US government's interests in Puerto 
> Rico by alienating the workforce from a locally responsive union to 
> one which would reflect the interests and program of the colonizing nation.
>
> This past summer I had the pleasure of personally speaking with the 
> President, Rafael Feliciano Hernandez and the Organization 
> Secretary, Maria Elena Lara, during a public activity.  Both were 
> interested in having contact with others here who are resisting the 
> continued assault on our students' rights to free, public education 
> and the right of teachers to teach and assess students according to 
> what research and our learning inform us to do.
>
> These teachers and this union need our support.  Pay attention to 
> the upcoming events.  We may be able to play a role of support.
>
> I am pasting the link to the article:
>
> http://www.fmprlucha.org/comunicadosprensa/comunicadosprensa.htm
>
>  and the website, here: http://www.fmprlucha.org/index2.html
>
> I will also send postings of the article from today and a letter to 
> parents which they sent in April.  I see no difference between their 
> statements about their political line in the parent letter and that 
> of many of our Institute members' arguments against NCLB.  They are 
> our allies.  The emails for the executive committee are on the site 
> and I am asking the list to consider that we invite them to 
> participate in the Institute listserve forum, at the very least.
>
> Juliet Luther
> Bilingual Educator/ESL Specialist