AFT on NCLB etc

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

The American Federation of Teachers, and its boss, Albert Shanker, were key 
players in demanding the creation of what became the NCLB. In concert with 
the NEA (tagging along, in essence) the Business Roundtable, the US 
Chambers of Commerce, The Broad Foundation, and others, the AFT took out 
full page ads in the NY Times and other newspapers demanding the 
regimentation of schools through externally imposed standards, and 
high-stakes tests.

Now, AFT is insisting that they get paid for implementing Shanker's fascist 
project.

This is akin to the UAW conceding its control over work place practices to 
GM and Ford, in exchange for pay. Over time, this maneuver was part of what 
led to the ruin of the UAW members (one million of them out of work, 
forever) while the UAW bosses continue to draw six-sigure salary. Control 
of the work place is a key issue on any job. The goal of every boss is to 
replace the mind of the worker with the mind of the boss, what is often 
seen as a trade-off for a day's pay. Once work place control is fully in 
the hands of the employers, the pay cuts and layoffs are sure to follow, as 
we have seen for thirty years or more.

Elites in the US are willing to try to pay off parts of the teaching force 
in order to control, and oppress, other sections of  the working class, 
somewhat similar to the pay once offered to skilled white workers who then 
collaborated in keeping black and minority workers out of the skilled trade 
unions---the white workers convinced that the route to a good life was 
segregation, not solidarity. In the case of teachers, the pay off can 
deepen the divisions by paying some teachers more in return for 
performance, test scores, which will invariably mean that teachers in 
wealthier communities will get paid more, thus sharpening the splits among 
the school worker force---which is already happening full tilt. Take a 
glance at what has happened to those skilled tradesmen (they were men) today.

Once teachers are divided within their own ranks by pay, geography, etc, 
and they remain segregated from communities (by race and class---divisions 
which the NEA and AFT promote by insisting on costly and bogus teacher 
certification hoops, then the attacks on health insurances, pay, etc, will 
not be far behind.

Below is a quote from the online AFT Newsletter:


"FUNDING IS PUBLIC'S GREATEST EDUCATION CONCERN, SAYS POLL
Policymakers should take care that testing and standards-based reform dont 
turn into a "Johnny-One-Note" approach to school improvement, a leading 
public opinion poll group warned on June 21. Support for challenging 
standards and assessments is still strong among parents, students, teachers 
and administrators, the New York-based polling group Public Agenda reports 
in the latest installment of its "Reality Check" series, a regular survey 
on public attitudes toward education. But the public wants these reforms to 
be pursued as part of a comprehensive approach to school improvement, said 
Public Agenda executive director Jean Johnson, who was also an author of 
the latest report, "Reality Check 2006: Is Support for Standards and 
Testing Fading?" Particularly revealing was a survey question that asks 
parents which candidate they would support in a local school board election 
based on the education strategies they emphasize from the stump. Forty-five 
percent of parents said they would vote for the candidate who believes "if 
the public schools finally got more money and smaller classes, they could 
do a better job." Coming in a distant second, at 22 percent parent support, 
was the candidate who campaigns for more testing and higher standards to 
ensure kids will master the skills they need. Even less support was given 
to the hypothetical candidate who backed school vouchers (19 percent) and 
charter schools (9 percent). There is a feeling "among most parents, 
students, teachers and school administrators that standards and testing are 
not the be all and end all of school reform," the report stresses. "All 
groups cite problems related to student behavior, motivation and 
cooperation as more urgent than low standards." For details, go to the 
<http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/371UNt61hcWU/>AFT Web site."

and this is the title of the next article in the same newsletter.

"AFL-CIO BEGINS BID TO HALT WORKER RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CHINA"

Why would the AFL-CIO (in which the AFT plays a prime leadership role) be 
so concerned about worker rights in China, when the labor federation is in 
ruins in the US, and its members' lives are in shambles?  The AFL-CIO only 
recently was split in half, its promise of organizing a million new members 
a year amounts to organizing just enough people to stay even,  there has 
been a steady stream of its corrupt leaders (especially AFT leaders) to 
jail, and the pension plans it oversees are in crisis because of 
underfunding. So how come it highlights actions in China?

Or, as good a question: How come the AFL-CIO spends nearly half of its dues 
income outside the USA?

The answers are partly inside these brief obits for Shanker.

Paul Buhle http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue23/buhle23.htm

The AFT and Albert Shanker http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/SHANKER.htm

best r