Fwd: great job mikey

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

Mike McCarthy's piece below only begins to touch on the truly vicious 
things Alan Bersin did to kids, teachers, some administrators, and many 
community people in San Diego. McCarthy does not, for example, go into the 
flatly racist and anti-working class aspects of Bersin's efforts. Those who 
believe in the political process might want to try to cut off his appointment.

I note, however, that the San Diego Education Association did virtually 
nothing about Bersin's activities, and teachers continued to proctor not 
only the Big Tests, but to implement his "Blueprint," throughout his tenure 
here. At some point, people become, not what they say they are, but what 
they do.

California's schools are widely (and correctly, I think) seen as among the 
worst in the US, if not the worst. Bersin managed to make one of those 
school systems even worse than it was when he showed up.

best r





> Michael MacCarthy <mmwrites@san.rr.com> wrote:
> > 3/19/06
> >
> > Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Union-Tribune Editorial Board,
> >
> > Pasted in below is my Op-Ed submission in response to Ms. Nakamura's 
> > "letter to the editor" ("A Full Disclosure on the Superintendent's Fund", 
> > 3/18, letters section).
> >
> > In the interests of fairness and balance, I hope you will see fit to 
> > publish this piece.
> >
> > Many thanks.
> >
> > Mike MacCarthy
> > President
> > Voters For Truth in Education
> > San Diego, CA 92111
> > (858) 715-9831
> > <mailto:mmwrites@san.rr.com>mmwrites@san.rr.com
> >
> >
> > Whining & Crying by Mr. Bersin and His Apologists
> >
> > by Mike MacCarthy
> >
> > Re "A Full Disclosure on the Superintendent's Fund" by Katherine Nakamura 
> > (3/18, U-T Letters Section).  Don't you just love it when bullies gets a 
> > dose of their own medicine?  Like in  "Christmas Story" when 10-year-old 
> > Ralphy finally gets so fed up with two upper-class tormentors who make 
> > his life and that of his friends and younger brother a daily nightmare, 
> > he beats the living daylights out of both bullies.  Remember how those 
> > grade school tyrants reacted when Ralph's mother finally broke up the 
> > fight?  They whined and cried like little babies.
> >
> > Alan Bersin and his supporters both in San Diego and Sacramento remind me 
> > of typical schoolyard bullies.  Remember how Mr. Bersin and his new San 
> > Diego City Schools (SDCS) administration told city school stakeholders 
> > who disagreed with new top-down policies against students, parents, 
> > administrators, teachers, and non-certified personnel, "Go ahead, make my 
> > day.  I'm a lawyer and know exactly what to do with lawsuits."  Sounds 
> > like bully talk to me.
> >
> > Remember how the Bersin administration violated federal and state law 
> > with respect to how they were running the 1998 Prop MM campaign, and how 
> > they settled for a $10,000 fine, and then went on violating the law 
> > despite having signed a document saying they would not?  Remember how the 
> > state sued SDCS because they were routinely violating the law with 
> > respect to special education students?  Remember how the Bersin 
> > administration had policemen summarily escort 15 principals and 
> > administrators out of their schools in 1999 and then dragged out the 
> > lawsuit filed by these district employees until 2005, forcing them to 
> > borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars for legal costs to defend their 
> > rights as American citizens--despite the fact that SDCS had clearly 
> > violated their rights (that's what the judge said)?  Sounds like the 
> > deeds of bullies to me.
> >
> > Remember how the Bersin administration turned loose its legal thugs 
> > against the Title I parents of the District Advisory Council (DAC), and 
> > then gutted that leadership on legal technicalities because the DAC had 
> > the unmitigated gall to file a lawsuit against SDCS for violating Title I 
> > parents rights (a lawsuit the state eventually agreed with)?  Remember 
> > how a regular Bersin apologist and president of the city school board 
> > used SDCS emails to threaten two other members with whom she most always 
> > disagreed?  Remember how the Bersin administration secretly went to 
> > Sacramento and asked for waivers from Title I regulations and state 
> > academic standards while proclaiming to the press and on its website that 
> > they were following and exceeding those very same standards.  Remember 
> > how Mr. Bersin and his supporters on the school board and in the press 
> > called those who disagreed with their (now-proven) flawed "Blueprint" 
> > policies anti-Semitic?  If people talk and act like a bullies, then . . . 
> > . well, . . . you fill in the blanks.
> >
> > Now we come to the current situation with Mr. Bersin and his pending 
> > appointment to the State Board of Education (SBE) that was set for 
> > 3/29/06, but re-scheduled (by his many rich and powerful friends in 
> > Sacramento) to April 19th  due to recent revelations in the San Diego and 
> > Sacramento press about Mr. Bersin and his secret Superintendent's 
> > $524,000 slush fund while employed by SDCS.  Mr. Bersin referred to the 
> > slush fund investigation by an independent law firm and the conduct of 
> > the new SDCS school board as "McCarthyism" and a "political 
> > vendetta".   Now, further adding to the cacophony, board member Ms. 
> > Nakamura comes galloping to Mr. Bersin's rescue like Joan of Arc saving 
> > Charles VII claiming in her 3/18/06 U-T letter that the investigation and 
> > subsequent board member comments concerning Mr. Bersin's slush fund are 
> > akin to a "Salem Witch Trial".  "He has turned over receipts to the 
> > Union-Tribune," she writes as if that publication were an impartial 
> > observer of the whole Bersin State Board of Education nomination process 
> > (seen any recent "Bersin-critical letters to the editor" in the 
> > U-T).  Sounds like whining and crying to me.  And this isn't the first 
> > time Mr. Bersin has hidden behind Ms. Nakamura's skirts in the face of 
> > criticism of his public policies and deeds.
> >
> > But Ms. Nakamura is right about one thing: "The more things change, the 
> > more they stay the same," which leads me to explain, in short, why there 
> > is so much grassroots opposition to Mr. Bersin's pending appointment to 
> > the State Board of Education. It's based on his actual record here in San 
> > Diego, not his PR spin.  It's because, despite budgeting $350 million for 
> > the "Blueprint For Student Success", the facts are (according to the 
> > California Department of Education and SDCS sources, comparing similar 
> > California school districts) that the Bersin administration produced:
> >
> > 1.      Lower API test scores;
> > 2.      Lower SAT college entrance test scores;
> > 3.      Higher dropout rates;
> > 4.      An achievement gap that remained the same or greater for 
> > disadvantaged minorities;
> >
> > In addition, the Bersin administration did not keep all its Prop MM promises.
> >
> > And finally, the Governor already has one staff person on the SBE; two is 
> > too many for the best interests of ALL children and their families to be 
> > fairly represented on the California State Board of Education.
> >
> > Mike MacCarthy is a freelance writer and president of Voters For Truth in 
> > Education, a California nonprofit corporation dedicated "to better 
> > education . . . for all students, regardless of race or national 
> > origin."  He can be reached at <mailto:mmwrites@san.rr.com>mmwrites@san.rr.com.
>
>
>
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