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April 05th, 2013

4/5/2013

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The attack on public schools from K-college is ever more apparent as parents, students, and communities shout they do not want these reforms!!!!  These Third Way corporate politicians will not stop.....this has been a goal since Clinton....but you can educate people in your community as to what is happening and you can RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!!!

DO NOT ALLOW A THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY RUN A CANDIDATE FOR YOU.....


We have watched as public universities have been made into 'innovation centers' and now we are watching as legislation ending student loans and tracking the middle/lower class into cheapened online classes is moving forward......SEE WHERE THE PHRASE MOVING FORWARD TAKES US!!!!

Universities are the hotbed of any democracy and that is why the 1% have hit them first.  The underserved are the weakest politically and their politicians are co-opted and working against them.  Here in Baltimore we have nothing but bad policy for the working class and poor in a City Hall full of representatives with districts largely working class and poor!!!  THESE POLS ARE THROWING THEIR CONSTITUENTS UNDER THE BUS AS REGARDS EDUCATION AMONG ALL THINGS.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

Baltimore is a captured political environment but we are growing community networks that are separate from those put into place by O'Malley, Rawlings-Blake, and Johns Hopkins.  MOVE AWAY FROM THE FARM TEAM AND BECOME THE CHANGE YOU WANT.....

RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!!!

SEE WHY BALTIMORE'S BOND DEAL WILL COME BACK TO HURT THE PEOPLE WITH WALL STREET GAINS!

School districts pay dearly for bonds

Trey Bundy and Shane Shifflett, California Watch Updated 11:49 pm, Thursday, January 31, 2013


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/School-districts-pay-dearly-for-bonds-4237868.php#ixzz2PV4vawVm


The Napa Valley Unified School District had a quandary: The district needed a new high school in American Canyon, but taxpayers appeared unwilling to take the financial hit required to build it.

So in 2009, the district took out an unusual loan: $22 million with no payments due for 21 years. By 2049, when the debt is paid, it will have cost taxpayers $154 million - seven times the amount borrowed.

School board member Jose Hurtado said he stands by the deal. But if it were a mortgage, he acknowledged, "we would run."

Napa is one of at least 1,350 school districts and government agencies across the nation that have turned to a controversial form of borrowing called capital appreciation bonds to finance major projects, a California Watch analysis shows. Relying on these bonds has allowed districts to borrow billions of dollars while postponing payments, in some cases for decades.

This form of borrowing has created billions of dollars in debt for taxpayers and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for financial advisers and underwriters. Voters are usually unaware of the bonds' high interest. At least one state, Michigan, has banned their use.

In California, where rules governing the loans are among the loosest, more than 400 school districts and other agencies have racked up greater capital appreciation bond debt in the past six years than agencies in any other state.

They have borrowed $9 billion that will cost taxpayers $36 billion to repay over the next 40 years, according to data compiled by California Treasurer Bill Lockyer. He called it "debt for the next generation."

"The average tenure of a school superintendent is about 3 1/2 years, so they aren't going to be around, in most instances, to worry about paying that off," Lockyer said. "Nor will the voters, probably, that enacted it in the first place."

Good for advisers The capital appreciation bond business in California has been lucrative for dozens of private financial advisers, banks and credit rating firms that have charged government entities nearly $400 million for financial services since 2007, state data show.

The bonds are unusual in public finance because they postpone debt far into the future. Typical school bonds require borrowers to begin making payments within six months and cost two to three times the principal amount to repay. But with deferred payments, districts have ended up paying as much as 23 times the amount borrowed.

The decision to issue these bonds instead of traditional bonds typically is made by district officials after voters have approved bond measures, and the public usually has no knowledge of how much they will cost to repay.

Earlier this month, Lockyer and Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction, called for a statewide moratorium on capital appreciation bonds.

Widespread use Since 2007, school districts and government agencies in at least 27 states and Puerto Rico have financed projects with capital appreciation bonds.

In Texas, 590 districts and other government entities have issued these bonds over the past six years - more than any other state, according to a database maintained by the federal Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. California was second, with 404, followed by Ohio, with 202.

Bay Area districts that have issued these bonds include:

-- The Hayward Unified School District, which issued $21 million in bonds that will cost $131 million to repay - 6.2 times the principal.

-- The Bellevue Union Elementary School District in Santa Rosa, which issued a bond worth more than $378,000 that will cost $4 million - 10.75 times the amount borrowed.

-- The West Contra Costa Unified School District, which sold $2.5 million in bonds that will cost $34 million - 13.5 times the principal.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/School-districts-pay-dearly-for-bonds-4237868.php#ixzz2PV4qCNi4



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THE ELITE UNIVERSITIES HAVE DECLARED AMERICAN POLITICS DEAD AND SO THEY DO NOT SEE THE REASON TO HAVE POLITICAL SCIENCE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS.

IT IS UNIVERSITY POLITICS THAT FUEL DEMOCRACY AND JUSTICE.....THIS ATTACK ON UNIVERSITIES AND CORPORATE CONTROL IS AN ATTACK ON POLITICAL FREEDOM!!!



AAUP Condemns Plan to Ban Political Science Funding   Inside Higher Ed

April 5, 2013 - 4:29am The American Association of University Professors has issued a statement condemning the recent Senate vote to bar the National Science Foundation from supporting most work in political science. The statement said that "efforts by politicians to restrict research support for certain disciplines" are "misguided" and that they threaten "the integrity of the rigorous scientific review process used by federal agencies to fund research that advances knowledge."


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Who thinks the goal isn't eliminating all educators from the picture except licensed lecturers chosen by the Kleptocracy? Think Chinese autocratic messaging. Universities are the foundation of freedom and activism since classical times so it is very important for Third Way corporate democrats and the 1% to completely capture the university experience.

Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times EdX, a nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will release automated software that uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers.

By JOHN MARKOFF Published: April 4, 2013 New York Times

Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program.

And then, instead of being done with that exam, imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade.

EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.

The new service will bring the educational consortium into a growing conflict over the role of automation in education. Although automated grading systems for multiple-choice and true-false tests are now widespread, the use of artificial intelligence technology to grade essay answers has not yet received widespread endorsement by educators and has many critics.

Anant Agarwal, an electrical engineer who is president of EdX, predicted that the instant-grading software would be a useful pedagogical tool, enabling students to take tests and write essays over and over and improve the quality of their answers. He said the technology would offer distinct advantages over the traditional classroom system, where students often wait days or weeks for grades.

“There is a huge value in learning with instant feedback,” Dr. Agarwal said. “Students are telling us they learn much better with instant feedback.”

But skeptics say the automated system is no match for live teachers. One longtime critic, Les Perelman, has drawn national attention several times for putting together nonsense essays that have fooled software grading programs into giving high marks. He has also been highly critical of studies that purport to show that the software compares well to human graders.

“My first and greatest objection to the research is that they did not have any valid statistical test comparing the software directly to human graders,” said Mr. Perelman, a retired director of writing and a current researcher at M.I.T.

He is among a group of educators who last month began circulating a petition opposing automated assessment software. The group, which calls itself Professionals Against Machine Scoring of Student Essays in High-Stakes Assessment, has collected nearly 2,000 signatures, including some from luminaries like Noam Chomsky.

“Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scoring,” the group’s statement reads in part. “Computers cannot ‘read.’ They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication: accuracy, reasoning, adequacy of evidence, good sense, ethical stance, convincing argument, meaningful organization, clarity, and veracity, among others.”

But EdX expects its software to be adopted widely by schools and universities. EdX offers free online classes from Harvard, M.I.T. and the University of California, Berkeley; this fall, it will add classes from Wellesley, Georgetown and the University of Texas. In all, 12 universities participate in EdX, which offers certificates for course completion and has said that it plans to continue to expand next year, including adding international schools.

The EdX assessment tool requires human teachers, or graders, to first grade 100 essays or essay questions. The system then uses a variety of machine-learning techniques to train itself to be able to grade any number of essays or answers automatically and almost instantaneously.

The software will assign a grade depending on the scoring system created by the teacher, whether it is a letter grade or numerical rank. It will also provide general feedback, like telling a student whether an answer was on topic or not.

Dr. Agarwal said he believed that the software was nearing the capability of human grading.

“This is machine learning and there is a long way to go, but it’s good enough and the upside is huge,” he said. “We found that the quality of the grading is similar to the variation you find from instructor to instructor.”

EdX is not the first to use automated assessment technology, which dates to early mainframe computers in the 1960s. There is now a range of companies offering commercial programs to grade written test answers, and four states — Louisiana, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia — are using some form of the technology in secondary schools. A fifth, Indiana, has experimented with it. In some cases the software is used as a “second reader,” to check the reliability of the human graders
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A SHOUT OUT FOR THIS BANKRUPTCY APPROACH TO STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS!!!!

Third Way corporate democrats are pushing the Student Loan Forgiveness Act which benefits the wealthy and banks......progressives are pushing the student loan bankruptcy which works best for the middle/lower class!!!!!


http://www.votetocracy.com/house_bills/hr532-...Bill to Restore Bankruptcy Protections to Private Student Loans Advances in House

Federal legislation that would restore bankruptcy protections to private student loans cleared a first hurdle today, passing 6 to 3 in a vote by a panel of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The bill, which has been offered in several previous congressional sessions, still faces long odds, however. Many Republicans oppose the measure, warning that it would drive up interest rates and further shrink the market for private loans, and the congressional legislative session is winding down. Only four weeks remain before the House’s target date to adjourn.                          
                                                                                       __________________________________________________

 The Student Loan Fairness Act of 2013
                                                                                                           
    “Creates a 10-10 standard for student loan repayment, in which an individual would be required to make 10 years of payments at 10% of their discretionary income, after which, their remaining debt would be forgiven

    Permanently caps the interest rate for all federal student loans at 3.4%, ultimately eliminating the need to enact temporary measures every year to prevent rates from doubling

    Allow those eligible to convert their private loan debt into federal direct loans

    Suspends interest rates while borrowers are un-employed

    Rewards graduates for entering into public service”
                                                                                                          Discretionary income, in this case, appears to be defined as any annual income exceeding 150 percent of the poverty line for an individual or family.  "While current borrowers would be eligible for full forgiveness under the plan, future borrowers would be subject to a $45,520 cap on forgiveness (based on the average overall cost of a four-year degree at a public university). The aim is to incentivize students to be mindful of educational costs and for colleges and universities to control tuition increases."     

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WHY THE STUDENT LOAN FAIRNESS ACT IS JUST A BANK BAILOUT THAT WILL HURT FUTURE MIDDLE/LOWER CLASS STUDENTS:

First, it will move all private loan debt to the Federal government (taxpayers) even the fraud-ridden for-profit schools:  ...see why the right to discharge student debt in bankruptcy was changed!!!!                                                                                                                      
 Loonin said that about 70 percent of the people she works with at the NCLC, most of who are already in default, attended for-profit colleges.

"There's rampant fraud in that sector, and deception," she said. "A lot of people are being deceived into signing up, deceived as to resources, equipment, faculties, and deceived about the prospects at the back end. The for-profit issue is really a consumer fraud issue."    

Second, this bill is designed to implement policy that affects future students in that it directs universities to lower costs....which sounds good, but the intent is to use this directive to move public universities and community colleges to online classes and degrees.  So, to get a Federal student loan you will have to attend a lower quality college/online degree program.  The purpose is to remove access to quality education for most students!    

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Raise your hand if you knew education funding would not happen in a recession!!! So, when education reformers spend billions of dollars on restructuring all kinds of administrative policy and remove all kinds of staff all for education quality and then cut resources, teacher's pay, and hand off funding to corporate donors......aren't you a little skeptical about their real goals? RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE NEXT ELECTIONS!!


US states cut higher education spending by nearly a third

By World Socialist WebSite (about the author)         (Page 1 of 1 pages)
General News 4/1/2013 at 01:25:33 Become a Fan

opednews.com




Since the recession began, state governments have cut funding to public higher education by 28 percent. This is the finding of a recent study published by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). What emerges is a devastating picture of the situation facing youth seeking an education, as over three quarters of undergraduate students in the US attend public colleges and universities. 
Titled "Recent Deep State Higher Education Cuts May Harm Students and the Economy for Years to Come," the CBPP report describes the deep cuts in state spending and student aid and the resulting increases in tuition, cuts in jobs and infrastructure, and curtailment of services at the affected colleges and universities.

Nationwide, states are spending $2,353 or 28 percent less per student on higher education in fiscal year 2013 when compared to 2008, just before the recession triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Individually, 48 states are spending less per student than in 2008, with most making severe cuts.

The amount of spending cut varies from state to state; in some areas it has been particularly drastic. Arizona and New Hampshire have cut spending per student by more than half, and nine other states have cut it more than one third; 36 states have cut funding by more than 20 percent. States and localities provide 53 percent of the funding for instruction at public colleges and universities in America.

In response to the cutbacks, schools have themselves cut spending, as well as raised tuition, resulting in education that is both more expensive and worse in quality. Individually, every single state has increased tuition at four-year public institutions faster than the rate of inflation since 2008.

Nationwide, tuition has risen by 27 percent or $1,850 per student, adjusted for inflation, since the 2007-2008 school year. In some states the tuition rise has been especially steep, with California and Arizona leading the pack with increases exceeding 70 percent.

Increases in federal assistance, such as an increase in the availability of Pell Grants and an expansion of some higher education tax credits, have fallen short of covering the decreases from the state end, adding up to about three quarters of the shortfall nationwide. And because these increases were applied basically equally among all states, the states with the worst state funding decreases, like Arizona and New Hampshire, are falling particularly short. The funding shortfall was further exacerbated due to the recent expiration of federal emergency funds at the end of the 2011 fiscal year.

<a href="http://ox-d.lanistaconcepts.com/w/1.0/rc?cs=51030f68dd793&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE" ><img src="http://ox-d.lanistaconcepts.com/w/1.0/ai?auid=332813&cs=51030f68dd793&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE" border="0" alt=""></a> In addition to increasing tuition, schools have responded by cutting spending through the elimination of faculty positions, discontinuation of many course offerings, the closing of facilities like computer labs, reduction of library services, and even the closing of entire campuses. In Arizona alone, more than 2,100 university positions were eliminated; eight "extension-campuses," which facilitate distance learning, were closed; and 182 schools, programs and departments were consolidated or eliminated.

The majority of state money used to fund higher education comes from tax revenue, which, adjusted for inflation, is down nationwide by 6 percent compared to 2008. At the same time, an increasing number of young people are attending public universities, partly as a result of the "baby boom echo," which resulted in a surge in people presently aged 18-24 years. Compared to the beginning of the recession, 1.3 million or 12.4 percent more full-time students were enrolled in public higher education in the 2011-2012 school year.

These cuts are all the more damaging to students and their families as they come at a time when the working class is still reeling from the officially ended recession. Additionally, $85 billion in sequester cuts signed into law by President Obama last week will affect programs providing housing assistance, early childhood education, nutrition assistance and unemployment insurance, among many others.

Compared to 2008, median household income is still down 8 percent. Unemployment remains high, officially at 7.7 percent, which is still a falsely rosy measurement as it does not include the underemployed and those who have stopped looking for work. Real estate values are still depressed as well.

All of this puts families of those seeking higher education in dire financial straits, and dissuades young people from attending college at all. The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce projects that by 2018, 62 percent of jobs in America will require some form of college education, which is up from 59 percent in 2007 and 28 percent in 1973. It also projects that by that time, the country's higher education system will produce 3 million fewer graduates than the labor market will demand.

The cuts to higher education are of a piece with broad attacks on public education by state governments, and especially the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" program. Under this policy, schools in poor districts are held to the same testing standards as those in affluent areas.

Under this policy, if students fall short of mandated standardized test scores, teachers may be fired and replaced with inexperienced and lower-paid new-hires. So-called "failing schools" may then be closed or turned over to charter companies, which run the schools for a profit, funneling public funds into the pockets of private shareholders. Some public school districts, including in Michigan's capitol, Lansing, are eliminating art, music and physical education classes, which do not factor into the standardized tests. 

The author also recommends: Wall Street turns profit on student loan debt [11 March 2013]




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Here we have yet another billionaire buying the Bill Gates education reform that no one wants and again they are targeting the urban schools because the poor have no political power to protect them. Once these school privatizers take these urban schools to charters and Teach for America they will use these school systems to spring board to all public schools. IF MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICA THINK THIS WILL ONLY TAKE POOR SCHOOLS .....THINK AGAIN.

REMEMBER, THIRD WAY ONLY PROTECTS THE 10%.


Mark Zuckerberg's money lays path for change in Newark schools

KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/Getty Images Most of Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation has been spent on brokering a new teachers contract that creates performance-based pay and opening new schools.

Joanne Rutherford’s first graders at Peshine Avenue Elementary School in Newark, N.J., start class by drawing constellations. The classroom is equipped with a smartboard and a fancy projector, but those weren't bought with the $100 million donated to the city's public schools in 2010 by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In fact, you won't find any of Zuckerberg's largess in Mrs. Rutherford's classroom. At least, not obviously.

“In some ways it’s less tangible," explains Newark Public Schools Superintendent Cari Anderson, "but in many ways, it’s a lot more systemic and a lot longer lasting.” Anderson says Zuckerberg’s money isn’t buying things, it’s changing how things are done.

“Most significant from our standpoint," she says, "has been the support that he and other philanthropists gave to achieve a breakthrough labor contract with the Newark Teacher’s Union.”

Yes, a labor contract. Some $50 million helped broker an agreement with the union to accept a new teacher evaluation system and pay based on performance.

Kim McLain, who heads the Foundation for Newark’s Future -- the group in charge of doling out Zuckerberg’s money -- says this wasn't dictated by Zuckerberg, but it fits with the vision behind the donation.  

“One of the things that we firmly believe in is that in order to have a really good educational system, it starts with the teacher in the classroom,” she says.

Zuckerberg’s gift has also been used to help open several new schools, including charter schools, and to create a centralized system for tracking student progress.  

This doesn’t mean that everyone in Newark is toasting the founder of Facebook.

“It’s an agenda about which I have serious doubts,” says Paul Tractenberg, founder of the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers. He disagrees with the new approach, arguing that it will “weaken collective bargaining, weaken job security of teachers, [and] hold teachers accountable based largely on standardized test scores of their students.”

Superintendent Anderson says Newark’s underperforming schools need bold ideas and a break from the past.

“Private philanthropy can be a critical catalyst to remove systemic barriers that the system can’t remove," she says, because "the system is the problem sometimes.”

What will the changes mean for the first graders in Mrs. Rutherford’s class? It will be some time before these reforms can be judged on student preparedness and graduation. Like most investments, the returns aren’t instant.

Click here to see how the Foundation for Newark's Future has divied up Zuckerberg's $100 million donation so far.


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This should make everyone sick as these teachers.....no doubt wrong for what they did....are being treated like criminals while corporate criminals terrorizing our economy are pushing this education agenda!!!!!

WHO IS CRIMINAL? WHEN A SOCIETY DISTORTS THIS.....IT IS AUTOCRATIC!!!


Web Only// Features » April 3, 2013

The Need to Cheat Atlanta Public Schools might be guilty of cheating, but the real scandal is standardized testing.

BY Bill Ayers Teaching toward a simple standardized measure and relentlessly applying state-administered (but privately developed and quite profitable) tests to determine the “outcomes” both incentivizes cheating and is a worthless proxy for learning.

The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House.

The former superintendent, Dr. Beverly L. Hall, and her 34 obedient subordinates now face criminal charges, but the central role played by a group of un-indicted and largely unacknowledged co-conspirators, her powerful enablers, is barely noted.

Beyond her “strong relationship with the business elite” who reportedly made her “untouchable” in Atlanta, she was a national super-star for more than a decade because her work embodied the shared educational policies of the Bush and Obama administrations. In the testing frenzy that characterized both No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top Dr. Hall was a winner, consistently praised over many years by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for raising test scores, hosted at the White House in 2009 as superintendent of the year, and appointed in 2010 by President Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences. When the Atlanta scandal broke in 2011 Secretary Duncan rushed to assure the public that it was “very isolated” and “an easy one to fix.”

That’s not true. According to a recently released study by the independent monitoring group FairTest, cheating is “widespread” and fully documented in 37 states and Washington D.C.

The deeper problem is reducing education to a single narrow metric that claims to recognize an educated person through a test score. Teaching toward a simple standardized measure and relentlessly applying state-administered (but privately developed and quite profitable) tests to determine the “outcomes” both incentivizes cheating and is a worthless proxy for learning.

I recently interviewed leaders at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools—the school Arne Duncan attended for 12 years and the school where the Obamas, the Duncans, and the Emanuels sent their children—and asked what role test scores played in teacher evaluations there. The answer was none. I pressed the point and was told that in their view test scores have no value in helping to understand or identify good teaching. None.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR Bill Ayers is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Fugitive Days (Beacon) and co-author, with Bernardine Dohrn, of Race Course: Against White Supremacy (Third World Press).

More information about Bill Ayers






0 Comments

March 25th, 2013

3/25/2013

0 Comments

 
PLEASE LOOK AT WHAT THE POLITICIANS ACTUALLY DO AND HOW THESE LAWS ARE ENFORCED AND THEN HOW THE HEADLINES SELL THESE POLITICIANS.

DO NOT KEEP VOTING FOR THESE THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS....RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!
!



Speaking more about the looting of America's public assets to enrich the few and the  impoverishing of American citizens I want to look locally at what is happening in all Third Way corporate democratic states.  Johns Hopkins as I said is trying to boot everyone out of the health care system that will cut health industry profits and now they are doing it to their own employees by making the lowest paid health care workers pay for their own health insurance.  As happens in Maryland in all labor deals involving negotiation over pensions and wages a small wage increase is followed by handing benefit costs that take more of the worker's check than the raise gives thus lowering their incomes even further.  Now, with all this 'people need to be responsible for some of their own health care costs mantra' that is Third Way democrat and republican speak that 80% of Americans will not access health care, we all know that paying a co-pay on expensive treatments like surgery or cancer treatments bankrupt average families right away.  These co-pay policies are designed to allow the 80% of American's access to only preventative care....all those lab tests and x-rays that allow lots of medical fraud.  JOHNS HOPKINS IS MAKING THEIR EMPLOYEES MAKE LABOR CHANGES THAT WILL ESSENTIALLY BANKRUPT OR END ACCESS TO CARE.  Remember, Hopkins has received trillions of dollars in taxpayer money over decades, it had copious land deals that have real estate quasi-public and tax-free, it is known to be a part of the massive fraud of entitlements.....HOPKINS IS A HEALTH INSTITUTION OWNED BY THE PUBLIC SO NEEDS TO SIMPLY GIVE ALL HEALTH CARE FREE TO ALL.

Below you see where this issue stood 2 years ago and Hopkins is moving to make this worse.  Think about how a state like Maryland gains headlines in mainstream media as having successes in health care reform and getting people covered.  Then look at how many people have been pushed into coverage that will keep them from access.  DO YOU REALLY THINK O'MALLEY, LT GOV ANTHONY BROWN, AND MARYLAND ASSEMBLY ARE REALLY MOVING HEALTH ISSUES FORWARD FOR THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND?



Health care workers rally for better pay, more rights Many said they are currently barely making poverty wages and are unable to afford the health care benefits they provide for other patients.

Brew Editors June 24, 2010 at 10:48 pm Story Link 2

The crowd at Thursday’s 1199 rally.

Photo by: Elizabeth Suman

Around 400 people, joined by actor and activist Danny Glover and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, crowded Mt. Vernon Square yesterday afternoon for 1199SEIU’s “The Heart of Baltimore” rally to demand that all health care institutions allow workers to freely, without employer intimidation, vote on union representation.

Many area hospitals and nursing homes employ union-represented health care workers, with Johns Hopkins Medicine being the first to do so over fifty years ago. But many more, including the University of Maryland Medical Center and St. Agnes Hospital, are largely not unionized. Participants in the rally said some employers discourage their employees from pursuing unionization with fear campaigns and punishment.

“How much do I like my job?” Gary Miller, a technician at St. Agnes Hospital Emergency Department mused out loud, before deciding to answer why he supports unionization.

“St. Agnes Hospital is not yet unionized and we’re letting the union make the first move, otherwise we [workers] could get in big trouble.”



Gary Miller, a technician in the St. Agnes Hospital Emergency Department and a home nurse at the North Nursing Home (Photo by Elizabeth Suman)

Wade Hilton, a physical trainer who worked in a hospital for many years, shared similar sentiments, saying that some workers “are afraid it’s going to affect their jobs” if they demand unionization. They may not lose their job, Hilton said, but they could be demoted to a lower-paying one.

Why take that risk?

The crowd of nurse’s aides, technicians and laundry, food service and other workers — many of them still wearing their scrubs and carrying stethoscopes, all of them enduring the blistering heat — said they need to organize to improve their sector’s chronic problem of low pay and poor working conditions.

Many said they are currently barely making poverty wages and are unable to afford the health care benefits they provide for other patients. Organizers said the problem is disproportionately worse in Baltimore and that nurse’s aides here make less than their counterparts in every other major East Coast city.

They are two-and-a-half times more likely than other Maryland workers to be on food stamps, and more than half of them make so little, their children qualify for the state’s low-income health insurance plan, according to the union.

Since one in every five Baltimoreans works in the health care, the union argues that its campaign will not only improve workers’ lives by raising wages and guaranteeing health care benefits, but, in effect, heal the ailing Baltimore economy as well.

“It is about strengthening the economy for the entire city,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said to the crowd, a sea of people in purple shirts waving yellow inflatable batons. “When health care workers have a voice, we all win.”

Workers with a sense of ownership, control and say over their environment perform better Miller said: “With the union, when we voice our concerns we will have much better of a chance of controlling what will be implemented, which is good not only for us but for the patients too.”

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (Photo by Elizabeth Suman)

Rawlings-Blake echoed that sentiment, saying that every health care worker deserves a voice on the job and that when they do, “you can assure that every patient gets the right care.”

Less than 10 percent of Maryland health care workers belong to unions. Some institutions have a portion of their workforce represented by a union. The University of Maryland Medical Center, for example, has about 6,800 employees (not including 1,000 faculty physicians) and, of that group, the only union members are about 400 employees in housekeeping and food service, according to director of public affairs, Ellen Beth Levitt.

Levitt said the idea that hospital employees are intimidated or discouraged from seeking union representation is “ridiculous” and “couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“There are always going to be some exaggerations and false accusations,” Levitt said. “Truly, our employees are happy.”

Annie Henry, an instrument processor with Johns Hopkins Medicine, has been a member of the union for 41 years and said she joined in order to battle racism sees in the work place. Henry said that after working for Hopkins for only six months she was ready to walk out the door and that it was joining the union that gave her a “voice without retaliation.”

Since then she said the union’s strength increased but that subtle bias persists even in workplaces like hers where the union is allowed. When she was applying for a position a few years ago, she said, she was rejected on the basis of being a union member.

Annie Henry, an instrument processor at Johns Hopkins (Photo by Elizabeth Suman)

Still the benefits outweigh the setbacks. Laura Pugh, a cook and delegate also with Johns Hopkins Medicine, joined the union in 1970 and says she did so because she “wanted to see change.” She describes how at the time she could only go in one door because she was black and that she was afraid to speak back to white employees. But “we have gotten better” Pugh stated, “better wages, better health benefits, we got a pension.”

Despite successes, the campaign is far from over. The local Baltimore union, which had been in existence since 1969, merged with the regional 1199SEIU (Service Employees International Union) five years ago, launching the campaign for free and fair union election. Last fall the campaign got a show of support frmo government when the Baltimore City  Council and Baltimore County Council passed resolutions calling on all health care institutions and health care providers to free and fair union election. .

Enthusiastic tambourine shaker (Photo by Elizabeth Suman)

Thus the rally, advertisements in magazines and newspapers, radio support and other forms of publicity are needed, organizers said, to raise awareness about the Heart of Baltimore campaign and put pressure on health care CEOs to adopt a free and fair union election code of conduct.

“We have now learned that change is possible and we have to make [employers] realize that we are a partnership,” Pugh said. “We’re trying to get everyone involved because everybody should have health insurance.”

Henry explained that she urges health care workers to join the campaign for unionization because there is safety in numbers. “At some point in time everybody is going to want to make more money and why wouldn’t you want to pay workers to make a decent living?” she demanded.

People registering for 1199 (Photo by Elizabeth Suman)

John Reid, the Executive Vice President of 1199SEIU Maryland/D.C. invigorated the crowd declaring that Baltimore health care workers have long suffered in comparison with their fellow counterparts just down the road in D.C.

Reid addressed the audience urging health care workers to stand up and assert their rights saying “we are ready to make our voice heard because we are the heart of Baltimore.”


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THIS IS A CURRENT ARTICLE THAT SHOWS EMPLOYEES ARE IN THE SAME POSITION AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.  THEY ARE PROBABLY STILL MAKING CLOSE TO THAT $7-8 AN HOUR WAGE.  THIS SITUATION IS MADE HARDER WHEN THE IMMIGRANT LABOR IS BROUGHT IN HAVING NO RIGHTS BY LAW.

Tuesday Mar 12, 2013 6:59 pm

For Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore Is A ‘Company Town’
By Bruce Vail

Johns Hopkins' new $1.1 billion medical center, the biggest new investment in urban Baltimore in decades, is a potent symbol of Hopkins' wealth and power in the city.   (Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System)

BALTIMORE—Unionized workers at Johns Hopkins Hospital finalized a new labor contract this week in an episode that highlights the stark economic power of wealthy Hopkins in a city badly wounded by industrial decline and municipal neglect.

Late last week, members of 1199SEIU—the East Coast healthcare division of the Service Employees International Union—voted to approve a one-year contract covering maintenance workers, kitchen staff, nurse aides and other workers, says Armeta Dixon, an 1199SEIU vice president with experience dealing with Hopkins and other hospitals in the area.

Though it provides a welcome 2.25 percent wage increase without any big concessions, the contract is problematic in that it also defers for a year the resolution of a difficult issue that could prove very damaging to union members; Hopkins wants to impose a new health insurance system that “would be an economic hardship” on members, Dixon says, and there appears to be little room for agreement between the union and hospital managers on how to handle the issue.


In an interview with Working In These Times, Dixon was reluctant to discuss the economics of the Hopkins proposal, but an earlier estimate from the union had pegged the additional cost at $1,800 a year for each member. If imposed by the hospital at that level, the new health care costs will eat up all the gains from the wage increase, and will actually reduce the take-home pay of the largely low-paid union workers.  

The one-year contract, Dixon indicates, is essentially a stalling tactic that provides a little breathing room for further negotiation. Normally, Hopkins and two other Baltimore hospitals sign three-year contracts at about the same time, with similar wage and benefit provisions. But that pattern has now gone by the wayside, and the union faces an especially challenging year ahead.

Les Bayless, a Baltimore union activist who has worked for SEIU and other unions in the area, says that while the healthcare union has some real strengths, it is badly overmatched in its contest with Hopkins. As the second largest single employer in Baltimore—the university itself is the first—Johns Hopkins Medicine is a huge presence in the city. Unionized employees make up only a small portion of Hopkins Hospital employees, and the union has made no inroads at all into the well-paid technical and professional vocations that have made it famous at the national and international level.

Further, the hospital and its associated organizations have invested billions in medical facilities here in an era when industrial and commercial businesses have fled the city. Within the last year, the nearby Sparrows Point steel mill was closed permanently, and the city’s largest private corporation, Constellation Energy, was gobbled up by a Chicago-based conglomerate. In contrast, Hopkins Hospital opened a gleaming $1.1 billion medical complex in an economically depressed section of the city. Hopkins’ wealth and influence are unmatched in the region, Bayless says, and even the largest and strongest unions would be overpowered.

But Dixon says that this reality is not going to prevent 1199SEIU from fighting Hopkins over next year’s contract. Members are already “overburdened” with high heath care costs, she says, and have already begun mobilizing for a new contract fight.        

All of this comes at a time when 1199SEIU is developing its “Heart of Baltimore” campaign, a long-term effort to increase membership with new organizing initiatives at non-union hospitals and other health care facilities.

The campaign was launched in 2010 with a low-intensity effort to build political support at the grassroots level. Among other things, the union wants local politicians and public institutions to support a “Free and Fair” code of conduct for healthcare employers that would prohibit aggressive anti-union campaigns. It has some backing from influential politicians, such as Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

A focus for organizing is the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), another large hospital that has long been in the union’s sights. UMMC spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver confirmed that 1199SEIU organizers have been active recently at the Center’s facilities but declined any further comment. New organizing is never easy, Bayless observes, and it will be difficult for 1199SEIU to mount an effective UMMC effort with the Hopkins contract issue casting a shadow over developments.

But, Dixon says, the immediate next step for 1199SEIU is to reach new agreements with the two other Baltimore hospitals with union contracts, Greater Baltimore Medical Center and Sinai Hospital. Existing contracts have expired with both hospitals and temporary extensions are in place, says Dixon, adding that negotiations have already started but there is no target date for completion of the new agreements.

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Anyone who knows Maryland and especially Baltimore construction know of Whiting - Turner.  They receive almost all of the areas development business and they are very clear.....they don't do hire union contractors or labor.  Now you look at Hopkins and their stance with unions and their employees and you see how regressive the Baltimore labor market is.

Not only does this show the relationship between the movers of labor and development in the city....it shows the absolute pay to play environment as Hopkins decides development and uses that power to get all kinds of private donations.  This entire school of engineering for massive future contracts seems to make a scratch donation.


IF WE ARE TO END THIS CRONY CAPITALISM IT IS THIS LOCAL GRAFT THAT LEADS US TO THE POLITICIANS WHO CLIMB THE POLITICAL LADDER.....O'MALLEY AND NOW RAWLINGS-BLAKE FEEDS THIS CULTURE!!!
History
Originally known as the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering building, Maryland Hall was renamed in 1931 to recognize the Maryland General Assembly's role in establishing the School of Engineering.[2]

Engineering at Johns Hopkins was originally created in 1913 as an educational program that included exposure to liberal arts and scientific inquiry.[3] In 1919, the engineering department became a separate school, known as the School of Engineering. By 1937, over 1,000 students had graduated with engineering degrees. By 1946 the school had six departments.

In 1961, the School of Engineering changed its name to the School of Engineering Sciences and, in 1966, merged with the Faculty of Philosophy to become part of the School of Arts and Sciences. In 1979, the engineering programs were organized into a separate academic division that was named the G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering. The school's named benefactor is George William Carlyle Whiting, co-founder of The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company.

Several departments at the school have been nationally and historically recognized. The Department of Biomedical Engineering is recognized as the top-ranked program in the nation. The Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering has consistently ranked as one of the top 5 programs nationally by US News and World Report [1] in recent years.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is well-known for it's fundamental and historic contributions to the study of mechanics and turbulence. Although it has always been very small, a great number of famous scientists have been associated with it over the years. These include Clifford Truesdell, James Bell, Stanley Corrsin, Robert Kraichnan, John L. Lumley, Leslie Kovasznay, Walter Noll, K. R. Sreenivasan, Hugh Dryden, Shiyi Chen, Andrea Prosperetti, Fazle Hussein, Harry Swinney, Stephen H. Davis, and Mohamed Gad-el-Hak. Many of the landmark papers in the field of fluid mechanics (turbulence in particular) were written using data from the Corrsin Wind Tunnel Laboratory. The wind tunnel is still in operation today. The department was also home to the school of rational mechanics. It was recently ranked as one of the top 5 departments in the nation for research activity by the National Research Council (the department was ranked 13th by the generic US News and World Report rankings).





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MEANWHILE, LOOK AT CYPRUS AND THE EUROPEAN UNION AS WORKERS WITH GOOD LABOR BENEFITS SEE THE 1% PULLING THEIR RETIREMENTS AND BENEFITS APART UNDER THE GUISE OF GOVERNMENT DEBT.

THEY ARE DOING THE SAME THING IN PRIVATE BUSINESS.  THIS IS NOT DRIVEN BY NEED......IT IS DRIVEN BY GREED.



As regards this article:


Do you know who these bondholders are? That's right......public sector municipal bonds, public/private pensions, and insurance investments. The rich have totally exited bank investments and the public are the only ones taking these loses. The exact situation exists in all Western countries.....especially the US. The big banks in the US have been declared crony and criminal very publicly by sophisticated investors who would not place their money in this system.....yet for some reason pension funds, municipal bond funds, and insurance investments prop the whole banking system.  Do you hear the emphasis on Russian money launderers and none on who the shareholders are?  In Europe they do not have their retirements in Trusts separate from the banks and that is what the TROIKA are eliminating when they bring down these public banks.  See why Third Way and Republicans want Social Security and Entitlements in the banking system and  not in Trusts?

THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS = THIRD WORLD POLICIES.....RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE NEXT ELECTIONS!


Cyprus reaches last-minute deal on 10 billion euro bailout

By Jan Strupczewski and Michele Kambas | Reuters – 39 mins ago


By Jan Strupczewski and Michele Kambas

BRUSSELS/NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus clinched a last-ditch deal with international lenders to shut down its second-largest bank and inflict heavy losses on uninsured depositors, including wealthy Russians, in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.

The agreement came hours before a deadline to avert a collapse of the banking system in fraught negotiations between President Nicos Anastasiades and heads of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Without a deal, Cyprus's banking system would have collapsed and the country could have become the first to crash out of the European single currency.

Swiftly backed by euro zone finance ministers, the plan will spare the Mediterranean island a financial meltdown by winding down the largely state-owned Popular Bank of Cyprus, also known as Laiki, and shifting deposits below 100,000 euros to the Bank of Cyprus to create a "good bank".

Deposits above 100,000 euros in both banks, which are not guaranteed under EU law, will be frozen and used to resolve Laiki's debts and recapitalize Bank of Cyprus through a deposit/equity conversion.

The raid on uninsured Laiki depositors is expected to raise 4.2 billion euros, Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijssebloem said.

Laiki will effectively be shuttered, with thousands of job losses. Officials said senior bondholders in Laiki would be wiped out and those in Bank of Cyprus would have to make a contribution.

An EU spokesman said no across-the-board levy or tax would be imposed on deposits in Cypriot banks, although the hit on large account holders in the two biggest banks is likely to be far greater than initially planned. A first attempt at a deal last week collapsed when the Cypriot parliament rejected a proposed levy on all deposits.

UNFORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCES

Cyprus government spokesman Christos Stylianides said: "We averted a disorderly bankruptcy which would have led to an exit of Cyprus from the euro zone with unforeseeable consequences."

Asked about the level of losses on uninsured depositors in Bank of Cyprus, he told state radio: "The assessment is that it will be under or around 30 percent."

The Cyprus central bank said the agreement had also avoided the disorderly default of Laiki Bank.

Among Cypriots, there was a mood of wariness about the deal.

"How long will it last?" asked Georgia Xenophontos, 23, a hotel receptionist in Nicosia. "Why should anyone believe anything this government says?"

But many in the capital appeared intent on enjoying a sunny holiday morning, drinking coffee at pavement cafes and watching camera crews filming people drawing money from bank machines.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Cypriot lawmakers would not need to vote on the new scheme, since they had already enacted a law on procedures for bank resolution.

At a news conference in Berlin, Schaeuble said the agreement was "much better" from Germany's perspective than the deal last week that would have hit small depositors and was rejected by the Cypriot parliament.

The new deal offers the country the best chance of getting back on its feet, Schaeuble said.

Anastasiades is expected to make a statement at some point after his return to Cyprus at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Lefteris Christoforou, vice-chairman of the ruling Democratic Rally party, said it was important that Cyprus had avoided a chaotic bankruptcy. "It is a bad deal, but the extreme scenario we had to contend with was worse."

RESIGNATION THREAT

A senior source in the Brussels talks said Anastasiades threatened to resign at one stage on Sunday if pushed too far.

The Conservative leader, barely a month in office and wrestling with Cyprus's worst crisis since a 1974 invasion by Turkish forces split the island in two, was forced to abandon his efforts to shield big account holders.

Diplomats said the president had fought hard to preserve the country's business model as an offshore financial center drawing huge sums from wealthy Russians and Britons but had lost.

The EU and IMF required that Cyprus raise 5.8 billion euros from its banking sector towards its own financial rescue in return for 10 billion euros in international loans. The head of the EU rescue fund said Cyprus should receive the first emergency funds in May.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the agreement was "a comprehensive and credible plan" that addresses the core problem of the banking system.

"This agreement provides the basis for restoring trust in the banking system, which is key to supporting growth," she said in a statement.

With banks closed for the last week, the Central Bank of Cyprus imposed a 100-euro daily limit on withdrawals from cash machines at the two biggest banks to avert a run.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici rejected charges that the EU had brought Cypriots to their knees, saying it was the island's offshore business model that had failed.

"To all those who say that we are strangling an entire people ... Cyprus is a casino economy that was on the brink of bankruptcy," he said.

The euro gained against the dollar on the news in early Asian trading.

Analysts had said failure to clinch a deal could have caused a financial market sell-off, but some said the island's small size - it accounts for just 0.2 percent of the euro zone's economic output - would have limited contagion.

Cyprus's banking sector, with assets eight times the size of the economy, has been crippled by exposure to Greece, where private bondholders suffered a 75 percent "haircut" last year. 
Those bondholders again not the rich.....the public and their retirements!!

Without a deal by the end of Monday, the ECB said it would have cut off emergency funds to the banks, spelling certain collapse and potentially pushing the country out of the euro.

Under the bailout agreement, Laiki's ECB funds will pass to Bank of Cyprus, and the central bank will "provide liquidity to BoC in line with applicable rules".

Anticipating a run when banks reopen on Tuesday, parliament has given the government powers to impose capital controls.

On Tuesday, the 56-seat parliament had rejected a levy on depositors, big and small. Finance Minister Michael Sarris then spent three fruitless days in Moscow trying to win help from Russia, whose citizens and companies have billions of euros at stake in Cypriot banks.

The tottering banks held 68 billion euros in deposits, including 38 billion in accounts of more than 100,000 euros - enormous sums for an island of 1.1 million people that could never sustain such a big financial system on its own.


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PEOPLE IN MARYLAND UNDERSTAND THE CRONY AND CORRUPT POLITICS OF MARYLAND AND THE DAMAGE DONE TO THE AVERAGE CITIZENS BY POLICY THAT IS NEVER ENFORCED AND OVERSIGHT THAT ALLOWS FOR THE WORST OF EXPLOITATION.

LOOK AT HOW THE PRESS WILL MAKE O'MALLEY SEEM PERFECT.  NOW IS THE TIME TO WRITE ALL LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO LET THEM KNOW WHERE O'MALLEY STANDS.


South Carolina Democrats see O'Malley 'rising' Governor is keynote speaker at state party event


By Erin Cox, The Baltimore Sun 9:48 p.m. EDT, March 23, 2013

CHARLESTON, S.C.— — Gov. Martin O'Malley took the stage Saturday at a high school in this early presidential primary state, telling an auditorium of South Carolina Democrats that his principles worked in Maryland — and they'd work elsewhere.

"We're investing more to improve public education, to hold down college tuition, to spur innovation and job creation," O'Malley said to a crowd of 150 party faithful. But he also said Maryland has "cut state spending big time," casting himself as a pragmatist who makes tough choices.

In a 20-minute speech focused largely on South Carolina's politics, O'Malley did not mention liberal social policies he has pushed, such as legalizing same-sex marriage and repealing Maryland's death penalty. Party officials here said that in a state with a Republican governor, the point was to showcase a successful Democrat who can boast of No. 1 ranked schools and an unemployment rate below the national average.

"We've been following him," George Temple, former chair of the Charleston County Democratic Party, said after he stopped O'Malley to shake his hand. "He's a rising star who is obviously on his way to bigger and better things, we hope."

O'Malley, who is considering a 2016 bid for the White House, was stumping for a possible Democratic gubernatorial candidate as he delivered an address that both sharply criticized South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley and proclaimed "the threshold of a new era of American progress."

As the keynote speaker at this conference for the South Carolina Democratic Party, O'Malley had a dual purpose, experts said: rallying Democrats in a state dominated by Republicans and introducing himself and his message.

"What Martin O'Malley is doing now is exactly the thing he needs to do," said political consultant Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who works in Charleston.

"You can go out here on the street in front of my office and ask 20 people who Martin O'Malley is," Fowler said before Saturday's event. "Someone will probably tell you he plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nobody knows him, so he's working from a clean slate."

Charlie Cook of the "Cook Political Report" considers O'Malley one of four likely candidates for the 2016 nomination. The list is topped by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden. Alongside O'Malley on the second tier, Cook said, is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  IF YOU LIKE THE DIRECTION THE COUNTRY IS HEADING THESE THIRD WAY WILL CONTINUE THESE POLICIES!!

"Nobody outside of Maryland knows O'Malley's record. There is no impression" of him, Cook said. "We're talking about blank pieces of paper."

Cook called the records of O'Malley and Cuomo virtually identical. "You'd need a microscope to see the difference," he said.

In South Carolina, hours before O'Malley arrived at the event, college seniors Keegan Smith and Bryan Carter relied on Google to introduce them to Maryland's governor.

"The media is telling me he's the new up-and-coming Democrat, but that's all I know," said Smith, a political science major at the College of Charleston, the same university O'Malley's daughter Tara attends.

"He was mayor of Baltimore, right?" asked Carter.

After the speech, both young Democrats said they liked what they heard. "I see the charisma," Carter said. "I think his achievements in Maryland could really help in South Carolina."

The Maryland Republican Party's executive director took issue with the achievements O'Malley cited. David Ferguson drove his truck down to Charleston to stage an event outside the West Ashley High School where O'Malley spoke, giving local Republicans a playbook to attack him. Ferguson's talking points include enumerating the thousands of businesses that have left Maryland and the unemployment level.

"Just like Barack Obama was unknown in 2004, Martin O'Malley is unknown in 2016," Ferguson said. "He's able to invent whatever he wants to say, and someone needs to be around to tell the truth. … If you can't find a job when you graduate, what does it matter to keep the cost of college down?"

The Maryland General Assembly, which ends its annual session in two weeks, has been working toward giving O'Malley another set of accomplishments that appeal to a Democratic base. Lawmakers have already voted to repeal Maryland's death penalty and provide a subsidy for the development of offshore wind power.

He's also expected to get new gas taxes to pay for mass transit and highway projects, as well as some if not all of his gun control proposals. His past victories include legalizing same-sex marriage and extending in-state tuition rates to some illegal immigrants — issues that political consultants say appeal to most Democratic primary voters in any state, including South Carolina.

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March 19th, 2013

3/19/2013

0 Comments

 
THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE WHEN A WEEK DAY KEEPS ME FROM MY COMPUTER!!!

SIMPLY RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE AND WE CAN AND WILL TURN THIS AROUND.  IF YOUR ORGANIZATION IS NOT DOING THIS.......THAT LEADERSHIP IS NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME!!!!!

I want to end for now my discussion of Zeitgeist and Sustainability as building new social order that seeks to keep most people in poverty and living with no social safety nets.  Your Third Way corporate democrat intends to make all that is public private and maximize wealth at the top.....THAT IS THEIR CAUCUS PRINCIPLE.


Below you see how energy and greening tax credits have filled corporate balance sheets and they all show as profits not cost in development.  Remember, the public universities are now where all research and development is done for corporations and they are all supported by the taxpayer and students. These tax breaks are pure profit!!  Add to that the level of fraud and you see why corporations are richer than any time in human history.  Clinton and Obama are the ones to thank because they ran and took the democratic party away from the people and worked for these corporate profits!!!

We know that s-corporations are set up to allow the shareholders to bear the burden of business taxation and that these shareholders are not paying a cent in taxation for the most part.  The b- corporation is geared to do the same thing only with a claim to be environmental/justice oriented while doing it.  That is not happening as well.  I received a message from National Insurance Company that they were now a corporate sponsor of Human Rights Watch.  In Baltimore, land of human rights violations, not one word is said of police brutality, incarceration, and wage poverty.  It fights only for gay rights and environment......THE O'MALLEY/OBAMA.....THIRD WAY AGENDA.  These are great justice issues only neither have anything to do with real human suffering. 

WE ARE WATCHING DEATH AND SUFFERING IGNORED FOR LESS PRESSING ISSUES.  DO YOU HEAR OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL?  THEY HAVE BEEN BANISHED FROM AMERICAN PRESS BECAUSE THEY RANK THE US AS TOPS IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS.  THEY ARE A REAL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION!!!

The point is this:  Human Rights Watch is a DAVOS 1% Organization that simply ignores most human rights issues created by the 1% and captures this policy.  It doesn't really work for historical and deadly justice issues.  So, you have an insurance agency like National Insurance partnering with this 'human rights' organization and immediately it is a b-corporation getting tax write-offs for its charitable work.  THESE B-CORPORATIONS ARE SIMPLY FUNNELING MONEY AS DONATIONS TO ORGANIZATIONS THAT CAPTURE THE POLICY ISSUE THAT PROTECTS PEOPLE FROM THE ABUSES CREATED BY THE COUNTRIES SUPPORTED BY THE US.

It is not a good policy to allow b-corporations to write-off taxes when we know fraud and corruption is rife.  It will simply be abused.





Human Rights Watch

United States and the CIA

Strong criticism against Human Rights Watch was caused by the Organization's declarations in favour of CIA illegal actions of Extraordinary rendition towards suspected terrorists. CIA Secret Rendition Policy Backed by Human Rights Groups? “Human Rights Watch and, apparently, other human rights groups signed off on renditions in talks with the Obama administration, saying publicly that there is "a legitimate place" for the practice.


Selection bias

The Times accuses HRW of "imbalance" since it ignores many human rights abusing regimes while covering other zones of conflict "intensely", notably Israel. It issued 5 lengthy reports on Israel in one 14 month period, whereas in 20 years it has issued only 4 reports on the conflict in Kashmir, despite the fact that there have been 80,000 conflict-related deaths in Kashmir and the fact that "torture and extrajudicial murder have taken place on a vast scale."[31] It issued no report on post-election violence and repression in Iran. One source[who?] told The Times, "Iran is just not a bad guy that they are interested in highlighting. Their hearts are not in it. Let’s face it, the thing that really excites them is Israel.” [28] The Times also accuses HRW of failing to report on human rights abuses of Arabs when "perpetrators are fellow Arabs."[28]

Nick Cohen, writing in The Spectator in February 2013, says that both "Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch look with horror on those who speak out about murder, mutilation and oppression if the murderers, mutilators and oppressors do not fit into their script."[32]


_________________________________________________

Imagine that a startup in greening has the designation of B corporation....it gets both the tax breaks in doing business and then it gets tax breaks for simply being.  One top of that most times the 'cause' for which it works is not really met.



B Corp and a Benefit Corporation are Not Created Equal


By Jonathan Mariano | September 8th, 2011


Corporation is a non-profit certification from B-Lab, a company that supports the legal structure Benefit Corporation

B Corp is just short hand for a Benefit Corporation, right? Not quite. Although there are similarities between the two in name, and in spirit, there is a crucial difference. B Corp is a certification and a Benefit Corp is a legal entity. Let me explain.

The Confusion Between B Corp and Benefit Corporations
First off, let’s talk about the confusion. If we look at the description of a B Corp and a Benefit Corporation, both are extremely similar.

“Certified B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.” – B Corp

“Benefit Corporations are a new class of corporation that are required to create a material positive impact on society and the environment and to meet higher standards of accountability and transparency.” – Benefit Corporation.

Confusing? Yes. Both seek to benefit society and the environment. So then what is the difference?

B Corp – The Certification
B Corp is a certification offered by a non-governmental organization named B Lab. (I know, alphabet soup confusion!) There is no state legislative mandate or structure, per se.

Rather, companies wishing to become a Certified B Corp fill out an Impact Assessment. A company not only has to meet certain social and environmental criteria, but provide support documents to become fully certified. Furthermore, company bylaws must eventually be amended to include stakeholder interests. The change in bylaws will make the company strikingly similar to a Benefit Corporation in corporate structure.

Benefit Corporation – A State Legal Entity
A Benefit Corp is a state government legal corporate structure. It is a way to legally structure a company like an LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp. Benefit Corporation status will allow companies to embed their sustainable principals into their DNA. In some ways, this is just a more straighfortward version of what B Lab is trying to do with the B Corp certification.

The California Legislature recently passed legislation to allow companies incorporated in the state to be Benefit Corporations. The nuances of the bill may differ from state to state in order to accommodate each states unique legal structure.

Yet, the heart of the the Benefit Corporation is the same across the board. Rather than a corporation focusing on just profit for the shareholders, a Benefit Corporation is required to focus on the public benefit (hence the name Benefit Corporation.)

Only five states have the Benefit Corporation as an option when incorporation in that state: Hawaii, VIrginia, Maryland, Vermont, New Jersey. Six more states are in the process of making it part of their states corporate legal system: Colorado, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, and Michigan.

On a side note, just to clear up even more confusion, B Lab, creator of the B Corp certification also advocates for such legislation.

B Corp or Benefit Corporation?
Now that we have cleared up the difference between B Corp and Benefit Corporations, can a company be both a B Corp and a Benefit Corp? The answer is yes, granted you meet the requirements of certification and incorporate in a state that has a Benefit Corp entity.

________________________________________________

New, for those who don't know Delaware's record for corporate protection, from 0% taxation to judicial courts that try national cases and always seem to fall in favor of that business.  There is the perk of Delaware being the national capital in dynasty accounts that create shell corporations and accounts to hide wealth.......WHAT CORPORATE STATE WOULDN'T WANT THAT DESIGNATION?

WAIT.......MARYLAND SAYS LET'S USE FAKE SOCIAL AGENDAS AS A SELLING POINT!!!!!

Almost all of what is happening is designated health, environment, and arts.


Maryland in line to become B corporations pioneer New type of company would be organized around social agenda

by Douglas Tallman | Staff Writer  

 ANNAPOLIS — Maryland is poised to become the first state in the nation to recognize a new classification of corporation that puts social welfare issues on the same footing as profits.

"For these companies, it makes sense and it's consistent with the brand we're trying to establish in Maryland," said Del. Brian J. Feldman (D-Dist. 15) of Potomac on Saturday.

Feldman sponsored House legislation that would have the state recognize so-called B corporations — "B" for benefit — in which for-profit companies have environmental, public health or arts objectives integrated into their charters.

"The B corporation legislation builds into the DNA of the company public purposes along with private purposes," said Sen. Jamie B. Raskin, the Senate sponsor of the legislation.

The bill passed the House, 135-5, on Monday. The Senate version passed, 44-0.

Del. H. Wayne Norman, a lawyer who has set up charitable entities, was one of five Republicans to vote against the legislation.

"I don't see any necessity for the B corporation. I'm happy with my no vote, my red vote," said Norman (R-Dist. 35A) of Bel Air. "I just didn't see the need to change a long-standing law."

Companies could become B corporations after a two-thirds vote of their shareholders. The companies would have to report to a third party its efforts to live up to its social agenda, similar to how companies report financial data to Moody's Investors Service.

The legislation also gives a B corporation's directors some protection if shareholders sue because the company's public-service goals conflict with the stockholders' fiduciary interest.

But Feldman and Raskin say that more than the legal protections, the legislation offers corporations a chance to brand themselves as community-minded businesses.

The B corporation benefits from being able to tell people they have organized not only to raise shareholder value but also to advance the environment and enhance a particular community, said Raskin (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park.

"I think that Maryland can become the Delaware of B corporations," he said. "We could be the magnet for companies that want to organize in this way."

A Web site set up for the issue says 285 companies have organized themselves as B corporations by altering their own charters or bylaws, but Raskin said they are B corporations in name only.

"None of them are recognized that way as a matter of state statute," he said.

_____________________________________________________


The amount of money corporations are making in tax fraud is enormous.......only outdone by the profits from outright business fraud and it could only happen with your Third Way corporate democrat at all levels of government.  Maryland is ground zero for these corporate pols running as democrats!!!!

RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!!!!!!!



Tax lobbyists help businesses reap windfalls While Congress fights over ways to cut spending and the deficit, generous breaks for corporations pass with little notice

By Christopher Rowland |  Globe Staff     March 17, 2013

Pete Marovich for The Boston Globe

Tax breaks won by the Washington lobbying industry, centered on the K Street corridor, show how cheap it is, relatively speaking, to buy political influence.



WASHINGTON — Lobbying for special tax treatment produced a spectacular return for Whirlpool Corp., courtesy of Congress and those who pay the bills, the American taxpayers.

By investing just $1.8 million over two years in payments for Washington lobbyists, Whirlpool secured the renewal of lucrative energy tax credits for making high-efficiency appliances that it estimates will be worth a combined $120 million for 2012 and 2013. Such breaks have helped the company keep its total tax expenses below zero in recent years.

The return on that lobbying investment: about 6,700 percent.

These are the sort of returns that have attracted growing swarms of corporate tax lobbyists to the Capitol over the last decade — the sorts of payoffs typically reserved for gamblers and gold miners. Even as Congress says it is digging for every penny of savings, lobbyists are anything but sequestered; they are ratcheting up their efforts to protect and even increase their clients’ tax breaks.

‘It’s not about tax policy, it’s about benefiting the political class and the well-connected and the well-heeled in this country,’ Said Senator Tom Coburn of oklahoma.

The Senate approved tax benefits for Whirlpool and a host of other corporations early on New Year’s Day, a couple of hours after the ball dropped over Times Square and champagne corks began popping. A smorgasbord of 43 business and energy tax breaks, collectively worth $67 billion this year, was packed into the emergency tax legislation that avoided the so-called “fiscal cliff.’’



Whirlpool officials said the tax breaks help the company retain jobs, but in recent years, it has closed refrigerator manufacturing plants in Indiana (above) and Arkansas.

In the days that followed, the tax handouts for business were barely mentioned as President Obama and members of Congress hailed the broader effects of the dramatic legislation, which prevented income tax increases on the middle class and raised top marginal tax rates for the wealthy.

Yet the generous breaks awarded to narrow sectors of the American business community are just as symptomatic of Washington dysfunction as the serial budget crises that have gripped the capital since 2011. Leaders of both parties have repeatedly declared their intention to make the corporate income tax code fairer by lowering rates and ending special breaks, while intense lobbying, ideological divides, and unending political fights on Capitol Hill block most progress.

The result: sweeping bipartisan tax reform of the sort negotiated in 1986 by Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip’’ O’Neill Jr. is rated a long shot once again this year. In fact, the most visible signs of cross-party cooperation on corporate taxes are among regional groups of lawmakers who team up, out of parochial interest, to maintain special treatment for businesses in their home states.

In the absence of meaningful change, corporations like Whirlpool continue to pursue the exponential returns available from tax lobbying. The number of companies disclosing lobbying activity on tax issues rose 56 percent to 1,868 in 2012, up from 1,200 in 1998, according to data collected by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Whirlpool had plenty of company on New Year’s, including multinational corporations with offshore investment earnings, Hollywood companies that shoot films in the United States, railroads that invest in track maintenance, sellers of energy produced by windmills and solar panels, and producers of electric motorcycles.

Their special treatment is a fraction of a broader constellation of what the federal Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will be $154 billion in special corporate tax breaks in 2013, contained in 135 individual provisions of the tax code.

Watchdogs and tax analysts denounce these favors as a hidden form of spending that amounts to corporate welfare. In essence, these “tax expenditures’’ are no different than mailing subsidy checks directly to companies to pad their bottom lines.

Congress reduced the number of tax breaks in 1986 as part of the broader reform package. The breaks steadily crept back, particularly in the last decade, as lawmakers heeded requests from advocacy groups and business lobbyists to lower taxes as a way of subsidizing particular industries.


Howard Carruth of Arkansas, a machine maintenance worker, lost his job with Whirlpool last year. He said Congress made a mistake giving tax breaks to the company.


“There’s a justification and rationale for virtually every one of these. They have their intellectual advocates, and they have their political advocates, and that’s how they get in the law,’’ said Lawrence F. O’Brien III, an influential lobbyist and a top campaign fund-raiser for Senate Democrats who represents financial industry clients and other interests.

Whirlpool has a powerful Michigan delegation behind it, including key committee chairmen of tax-writing and energy committees in the House. In response to questions from the Globe, the company said its special tax breaks led it to save “hundreds’’ of American jobs from the effects of the recession.

“Energy tax credits required that Whirlpool Corporation make significant investments in tooling and manufacturing to build highly energy-efficient products,’’ Jeff Noel, Whirlpool’s corporate vice president of communication, said in an e-mail. “If you look at our 101-year history, we have definitely paid our fair share of US federal income taxes.’’

But its federal income taxes have been minimal in recent years, thanks in large part to tax credits and deferrals, according to public filings. Its total income taxes — including foreign, federal, and state — were negative-$436 million in 2011, negative-$64 million in 2010, and negative-$61 million in 2009. It carries forward federal credits as “deferred tax assets’’ that it can use to lower future tax bills.

The renewed tax breaks granted by Congress in January, which were retroactive to the beginning of 2012, will not be recorded until Whirlpool pays its 2013 taxes. Because of the absence of that tax credit, and because of greater earnings and changes in foreign taxes, the company estimated its total 2012 tax expenses will be $133 million.

Whirlpool did not provide a specific number of jobs retained. The benefits were not sufficient to protect Whirlpool’s employees at a refrigerator manufacturing plant in Arkansas. Last summer, the company laid off more than 800 hourly workers, closed the factory, and moved manufacturing of those refrigerators to Mexico. It was part of an overall reduction of 5,000 in its workforce announced in 2011 in North America and Europe.

Congress “made a big mistake,’’ by authorizing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits for Whirlpool based on arguments that the company would retain domestic jobs, said Howard Carruth, a machine maintenance worker and union official who began work at the plant in 1969 and lost his job last year when the plant closed.

“They really hurt the economy around here,’’ he said. “I blame the corporate greed.’’  NOT THE POLITICIANS GIVING THEM ALL OF THESE BREAKS?

The closing also transformed Carruth from loyal to embittered customer: “We bought Whirlpool for our own house, for family and friends. If one of those goes out in my house right now, it will not be replaced by Whirlpool.’’

Many companies would probably pay much higher taxes — including Whirlpool — if Congress eliminated special breaks and lowered the income tax rate to 25 percent from the current 35 percent.  THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!!!  CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE THAT LOWERING THE RATE WILL CAUSE THESE BUSINESSES TO PAY MORE?  IT IS RIDICULOUS!!!

An extra benefit of winning government subsidies through the tax code: Recipients remain immune from spending cuts like the automatic “sequester’’ imposed on March 1.

Called the “tax extenders,’’ 43 credits, deferrals, and exceptions for general business and energy firms were lumped into the fiscal cliff legislation. The returns on lobbying investments companies realized when the Senate passed its fiscal cliff bill helps explain why Washington tax lobbyists remain in demand:


■ Multinational companies and banks, including General Electric, Citigroup, and Ford Motor Co., with investment earnings from overseas accounts won tax breaks collectively worth $11 billion — a return on their two-year lobbying investment of at least 8,200 percent, according to a Globe analysis of lobbying reports.

■ Hollywood production companies received a $430 million tax benefit for filming within the United States. As a result, companies like Walt Disney Co., Viacom, Sony, and Time Warner — with the help of the Motion Picture Association of America, chaired by former Connecticut senator Christopher J. Dodd — realized a return on their lobbying investment of about 860 percent.

■ Railroads lobbied on a broad array of issues, a portion of which yielded $331 million for two years’ worth of track maintenance tax credits. Return on investment: at least 260 percent.

■ Even at the low end of the economic scale the returns can be large. Two West Coast companies that manufacture electric motorcycles — Brammo Inc. of Oregon, and Zero Motorcycle Inc. of California — reported combined lobbying expenditures of $200,000 in 2011 and 2012. They won tax subsidies payable to the consumers who buy their products worth an estimated $7 million. The electric motorcycle market stands to receive a return on that investment of up to 3,500 percent.

Like each of the industries that won special treatment in the Jan. 1 “extenders’’ corporate tax measure, the electric motorcycle lobby argued that tax breaks would protect or create jobs. Electric motorcycle manufacturers only employ hundreds of workers now, said Jay Friedland, Zero Motorcycles vice president, but could employ thousands in the future.

“There are definitely provisions in the extenders that people scratch their heads at, but if your goal is to build a replacement for the pure oil economy, this is the kind of industry you want to make an investment on,’’ he said.

Measuring the rewards for lobbying on individual tax provisions is by nature imprecise, especially for large corporations that weigh in on dozens of issues. Companies file blanket disclosure reports that do not break down their lobbying expenditures by individual issue.

Publicly traded companies like Whirlpool with narrower lobbying agendas, and who publish their annual tax credit benefits in shareholder disclosure reports, are easier to track.

In addition to seeking tax breaks, corporate lobbyists also seek to protect favorable elements that are already baked into US tax policy. Private equity firms, for instance, fight each year to defend the tax treatment of “carried interest’’ payments for investment managers. Those payments are treated as a capital gain by the Internal Revenue Service, and thus taxed at a much lower rate, 20 percent in 2013, than the top income-tax rate of 39.6 percent.

The best-known example of a millionaire benefiting from “carried interest’’ tax treatment was Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, who reduced his individual tax rate to below 15 percent by applying the provision to his extensive Bain Capital profits.

The publicity surrounding Romney’s tax returns fueled an onslaught by critics. The private equity industry’s trade group and the nation’s largest firms spent close to $28 million on lobbying in 2011 and 2012, according to public records. So far, they have won — a benefit that the Obama administration has estimated is worth at least $1 billion over two years. The return on investment for maintaining the status quo on the carried-interest tax rate over two years was at least 3,500 percent.

The returns show how cheap it is, relatively speaking, to buy political influence.

“It’s an end run around policy, and that makes it very efficient,’’ said Raquel Meyer Alexander, a professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia who has examined the investment returns on lobbying. “Firms that sit on the sidelines are going to lose out. Everyone else has lawyered up, lobbied up.’’

Critics lament that fiscal combat between Republicans and Democrats is preventing serious reform of the business tax code.

“What we’re doing is running a Soviet-style, five-year industrial plan for those industries that are clever enough in their lobbying to ask all of us to subsidize their business profits,’
’ said Edward D. Kleinbard, a former chief of staff at the Joint Committee on Taxation and now a law professor at the University of Southern California.

“These are perfect examples of Congress putting its thumb on the scale of the free market,’’ he said. “I’ll be damned if I know why I should be subsidizing Whirlpool.’’

Congress has the opportunity every two years to stop doling out a good portion of these favors. A peculiarity of many special tax breaks is that Congress places “sunset’’ provisions on them.

Some observers say passing temporary tax breaks gives lawmakers an ongoing source of campaign funds — from companies that are constantly trying to curry favor to get their tax credits renewed. Others say it’s because making these tax rates permanent would require a 10-year accounting method — a step that would show how much each provision is truly costing taxpayers.

Whatever the reason, Congress has made many of them quasi-permanent, by simply extending them again and again.

“It’s the same cowardice that Congress has on everything. They don’t want to be truthful about what they are doing,’’ said Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican and persistent critic of government waste and special deals in the tax code.

Coburn voted against the raft of “extenders’’ when they were previewed and approved by the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing in August 2012. He offered amendments to strip individual tax breaks out of the package — including the high-efficiency appliance tax credit for Whirlpool and GE — but they were shot down by the majority Democrats on the committee, led by chairman Max Baucus, of Montana.

“It’s not about tax policy, it’s about benefiting the political class and the well-connected and the well-heeled in this country,’’ Coburn said in an interview. “We’re benefiting the politicians because they get credit for it. And we are benefiting those who can afford to have greater access than somebody else.’’

Whirlpool pursues its Capitol Hill agenda from an office suite it shares on the seventh floor of a building on Pennsylvania Avenue that is loaded with similar lobbying shops and sits just a few blocks from the Capitol. Across the street, lines of tourists wait to view the original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution at the National Archives.

Whirlpool and other appliance manufacturers won tax breaks for producing high-efficiency washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators in 2005, as part of a sweeping package of energy incentives approved by the Republican-controlled Congress.

But that victory was just the beginning of a prolonged effort. Whirlpool and other appliance manufacturers must perpetually work to win renewal of their credits every two years or so. In recent years, the company has spent around $1 million annually on lobbying, up from just $110,000 in 2005.

The fiscal cliff legislation represented the third time the appliance tax credits were included in a tax extenders bill.

Defending the credits has become easier, said a person who has participated in Whirlpool’s lobbying efforts. The extenders, this person explained, is an interlocking package of deals, each with a particular senator or representative demanding its inclusion.

“Some of it is the inherent stickiness of something that is already in the tax code,’’ said the person, who was not authorized to speak about Whirlpool’s efforts and requested anonymity. “If they open Pandora’s box and start taking things out, it’s politically very difficult.’’

The paradoxical posture of senators of both parties was on full display at the hearing last summer of the Senate Finance Committee to consider the most recent package of tax extenders. Some members lamented the system of doling out tax breaks, pledging to reform the corporate code, even as they defended individual items in the legislation and voted to approve it.

The senators said they wanted to provide stability and predictability for businesses that had come to rely on the temporary provisions to stay afloat and retain workers.

They did make an effort to trim the package: Some 20 provisions were left on the cutting room floor, according to data cited in committee. The panel ultimately approved the bill with a bipartisan, 19-to-5 majority.

Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, went to bat for Whirlpool and other companies who she said are creating next-generation appliances that save water and electricity.

“We have one of those major world headquarters in Michigan — and it’s amazing what they are doing,’’ she said. “Right now, we are exporting product, not jobs,’’ she added, without mentioning Whirlpool’s Arkansas plant closure last year.

Former senator John F. Kerry, another member of the committee, said certain industry sectors need temporary tax subsidies. Oil and gas companies, Kerry explained, benefit from permanent tax breaks in the law, while the wind, solar, and other alternative energy interests are forced to come to Congress “hat in hand’’ every two years.

Coming “hat in hand’’ in this context means deploying teams of lobbyists, mostly former Capitol Hill aides. They left their government jobs with an understanding of the tax code and, working in the private sector, are able to leverage their political connections to gain access to congressional leaders and staff.

Among the busiest and most influential of these tax-lobbying teams is Capitol Tax Partners, a firm headed by Lindsay Hooper, and his partner, Jonathan Talisman. Hooper served as a tax counsel to a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee in the 1980s. Talisman held the post of assistant treasury secretary for tax policy during the Clinton administration. They did not respond to requests for comment.

Capitol Tax Partners lobbied on behalf of 48 companies in 2012, according to its mandatory disclosure reports. That client roster includes a bunch of companies that won tax breaks in the fiscal cliff bill: Whirlpool (energy-efficiency tax credits), State Street Bank (tax treatment of offshore investment income), and the Motion Picture Association of America (tax breaks for domestic film production), to name a few.

In Whirlpool’s case, Capitol Tax Partners and other boutique tax lobbyists helped the company win access to key lawmakers, said the person who has participated in the company’s lobbying efforts.

“There is a certain amount of door-opening and phone-call-answering quality of some of these firms that can be useful to make sure that you are getting your message to the right person at the right point in time,’’ the person said. “But on the substantive issues, these were done by the energy-efficiency advocacy groups and the companies themselves.’’

After the Senate Finance Committee approved the tax extenders package last summer, it remained uncertain when it would materialize on the Senate floor for a final vote. Insiders kept their eyes peeled as the rancorous debate over the fiscal cliff — whether taxes would rise on the middle class wealthy — drowned out any voices discussing corporate tax reform.

Nothing was certain, until majority Democrats rolled out their bill on New Year’s Eve. With tax increases for the rich included, it would raise $27 billion in new revenue in 2013. The Obama administration trumped that figure as helping to reduce the deficit
.
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March 08th, 2013

3/8/2013

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People who have been classroom teachers know that teachers did not have time enough to do the job before all of these reforms......THESE POLS KNOW ALL OF THIS DATA AND EVALUATION CANNOT BE DONE BY TEACHERS!!!!!



I want to emphasize that all of policy, in this case education is driven by private non-profits established by the 1%.....in Baltimore's case Johns Hopkins, to capture both sides of the issue and lead all public input towards the policy wanted by the 1%.  That is why it feels the communities have no say on local public policy......they really don't!  I regularly shame public media for its silence on all of this.  It is no secret NPR and APM have all been taken by corporate interests and only presenting Third Way corporate policy as the democratic stance.  Third Way is behind Obama's education reform and it all involves privatizing and cheapening education as I have demonstrated.

We saw with special education in Maryland your incumbent is setting the stage for the next stages of privatizing......we have the charters with vocational tracking, they are moving towards evaluations, and we heard from the Baltimore City Public Schools director of Special Education that Teach for America will begin entering the classrooms in higher numbers and now these laws in the Maryland Assembly move towards the Michelle Rhee Parent Trigger that makes it easier to move a school from being public to being charter.  All of this preys upon parents simply wanting decent instruction in the classroom and with K-12 being slowly defunded, that will not happen.  THESE THIRD WAY CORPORATE POLITICIANS ARE CREATING THE PERFECT STORM THAT WILL HAVE THEM DECLARING THE NECESSITY TO PRIVATIZE.  Below you will see an article where New York City teachers unions are finally shouting out as to the intent of these Third Way education reformers to simply place students in front of computer screens as education.

Remember, this is being done because with corporate tax and taxation on the rich disappearing and wages and employment low there will not be enough revenue to support public anything.....especially public education.  Special needs and underserved will become the platform for instating the privatized structure for schools as business that will then be extended to all public schools.  The affluent private schools will still have the quality of democratic and humanities based schools we know are the best.....because they will be the leaders needing a well-rounded education.  The masses only need to know how to work after all.


SIMPLY RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE AND VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE......WE CAN TURN THESE POLICIES AROUND!!!!!


Below you see a opinion piece by a New York City teacher who exists in the same education climate that will come to Baltimore and is now in progress.  Note how the comments regarding special needs training matches that given by advocates and parents at the meeting here in Baltimore!!!!  The common theme is that teachers are being worn down and out of the profession which works when the goal is to replace them with education techs and online classrooms.

NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH KIDS AND QUALITY......IT IS ALL ABOUT PRIVATIZING AND PROFITS!!!


People who have been classroom teachers know that teachers did not have time enough to do the job before all of these reforms......THESE POLS KNOW ALL OF THIS DATA AND EVALUATION CANNOT BE DONE BY TEACHERS!!!!!


Mr. Thompson says:

Isn’t it unfortunate that special education reform and SESIS have been launched without effective citywide training and data-based suggestions for implementation? Principal- and network-led professional development sessions on these topics reflect the fact that school leaders themselves don’t know what’s going on with special education in New York.



Evaluate This!

Feb. 12, 2013  Ed Wize
12:35 pm
by Mr. Thompson


Everyone’s talking about the breakdown in the teacher evaluation talks between the mayor and the union as if it were the only chance to fix public education in New York City. Do we need an evaluation system? Absolutely. Is it a cure-all for our educational ills? Absolutely not.

I am still in the middle of my honeymoon period with teaching, the first career I’ve truly loved. Sadly, like so many teachers in our city, newbies such as myself and grizzled veterans alike, I am developing a profound sense of regret linked to the growing sensation that I may not be cut out for the classroom, or at least the New York City classroom. I rarely feel recognized for my work. I rarely feel effective in the classroom. I rarely feel like I’m giving my students what they will need to succeed in college and beyond.

Certain mayors, governors, members of Congress and leaders in education reform constantly denigrate teachers. In fact, there are times when I feel like that is the only topic of national interest where there is a degree of political consensus: Our students are failing and teachers are to blame.

Along with most teachers I know, I’m spending 12 to 15 hours every day teaching, planning lessons, grading papers, developing presentation slides, completing paperwork, enhancing my classroom environment and calling parents. Once you add in my meals and commute, there’s barely enough time to sleep!

And, new evaluation system or no, I’m being held accountable for everything I do. Nearly every email in my inbox is marked “high importance” and then followed up with countless check-ins. Danielson rubric “feedback loops” are happening every month. Administrators march through my room nearly every week. My student data binder is thoroughly reviewed by teachers, administrators, network consultants and our superintendent.

Every time I turn around, I’m being told “Good job, but …” And every time a change is suggested to me, I implement it. Not enough student work on the walls? Fixed! Student work hung too high? Lowered! Process for completing an assignment unclear? Posted!

But when teachers need help, we’re given sympathy without assistance. Sorry — there are no office supplies available, but you’re supposed to have color-coded charts, class sets of dry erase markers, an array of options for organizers and manipulatives, and even a variety of paper choices to allow for student agency in every assignment. Sorry — there are no aligned resources for the unit you’re teaching, but still you’re supposed to find content-aligned, leveled, authentic literature for every student in every subject. These items are presented to me as non-negotiables by the city and my administration. But what about teacher non-negotiables?

Isn’t it interesting that Common Core Learning Standards were introduced without aligned curricula? Isolated task bundles full of grammatical mistakes as part of a vast trove of online garbage that I’m supposed to wade through during my free time just don’t cut it
. Isn’t it unfortunate that special education reform and SESIS have been launched without effective citywide training and data-based suggestions for implementation? Principal- and network-led professional development sessions on these topics reflect the fact that school leaders themselves don’t know what’s going on with special education in New York.

Isn’t it shameful that the people demanding Universal Design for Learning, scaffolding and differentiation, Danielson-aligned teaching practices and data-driven instruction could not offer any of these cutting-edge teaching techniques themselves? I’m absolutely sick of being told the importance of visual anchors at presentations without any visual anchors!

So is a new teacher evaluation system — one that helps teachers improve — important? Absolutely. But let’s not forget that without standards-aligned curricula, robust learning resources and a dramatic improvement in teacher morale, there may not be many teachers left to evaluate.

Mr. Thompson is the pseudonym of a fourth-year elementary school teacher in Brooklyn. A version of this post first appeared on the UFT blog Edwize.org, where “New Teacher Diaries” is a regular feature. If you’re interested in writing a New Teacher Diary entry for Edwize, send an email to edwize@uft.org.

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Here you see a local article on the state of Baltimore's special education progress.  You can see they are moving towards inclusion and eliminating the special education departments just as they are in New York.  This is only setting the stage for failure and you know what happens when Parent Triggers are used by parents of specials needs.......charters just for special needs.....warehousing.

As Congress and Obama allow tens of trillions of dollars stolen from government coffers stand, it will be budget cuts for all Title 1 funding for special needs and underserved.  That is the goal of sequester.  Who drives this education reform?  Obama and ALEC.......PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW SENTIMENT FOR OBAMA TO CLOUD THE FACT THAT IT IS THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS CAUSING THESE PROBLEMS WITH PRIVATIZING!!!



For Baltimore schools, special education still a work in progress Parents, advocates say that despite progress, school system has long way to go after Vaughn G. settlement


By Erica L. Green, The Baltimore Sun 6:05 p.m. EDT, June 23, 2012

At 4 years old, Imani Frederick couldn't recognize colors. Even a year later, he couldn't form complete sentences and struggled to count to 10. When he was 6, a neuropsychologist observed the fidgety, easily frustrated boy and diagnosed attention deficit hyperactive and expressive language disorder.

The doctor predicted that he would have difficulty academically and recommended classroom accommodations, such as a seat near the teacher, who would need to repeat directions for him. Imani's school should also establish a behavioral plan for him, the doctor suggested.

More than a decade later, the Baltimore City school district has come to a different conclusion about Imani Frederick. Even though he received special education services in elementary school before going to private school for a time, district officials said they couldn't confirm that he had a disability when he enrolled in public high school.

"Needing services doesn't mean that I'm retarded, but I just have a lot of energy and I don't get things as fast as everybody else," said the soft-spoken Frederick, 19 and a rising senior at the Friendship Academy of Science and Technology.

The Baltimore school system has long been criticized for failing special education students. For a quarter-century, the district has been under increased court and state oversight, the result of a landmark lawsuit alleging that it didn't comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal law that guarantees students with disabilities an appropriate free education.

As that extra layer of scrutiny comes to an end this year, some of the challenges that inspired the lawsuit remain, The Baltimore Sun found in interviews with dozens of parents, special education experts, and school officials as well as state audits obtained through public records requests.

Frederick's mother, Sharon Jackson, is among a vocal group of parents who contend that special education students aren't getting the help they need in the classroom, setting them back. Parents describe battling a bureaucracy that denies them services or doesn't know how to handle the students. Some say they are called several times a week to pick up their children when teachers give up.

Meanwhile, state officials have continued to flag issues in audits as recently as last year. Among the findings: Many special instructional and testing accommodations recommended in individualized education plans, such as one-on-one help from teachers, weren't provided. And the co-teaching model, which adds a special education teacher to the classroom, isn't used as widely as auditors recommend.

"We are not out of the woods at this time," said Blondelia Caldwell-Harrison, who chairs the district's parent advocacy group, the Special Education Citizen's Advisory Committee. "We must do better than what we're doing today in educating our children."

Statistically, the system has made noteworthy progress: Graduation rates among special education students are up and dropout rates are down, and more students with disabilities are in general education classrooms, rather than being illegally segregated.

Overall, district officials say, schools are more able and committed to serve the population, which accounts for more than 16 percent of the city's 83,000 students. The school system has planned a public forum Wednesday to discuss the progress it has made since the lawsuit.

"For 20 years, under the lawsuit, the district struggled to move the needle on many outcomes," city schools CEO Andrés Alonso, said in a statement. "Then, in the past five years, the needle moved. That happened because of focus, leadership and commitment, openness to criticism, and collaboration. Those things cannot be mandated or legislated, or they would have changed in the 20 years earlier."

But Frederick's experience recalls that of some disabled students when the lawsuit was filed 28 years ago. Back then, school officials neglected to conduct assessments of disabled students in the time frame required by federal law, delaying needed special education services. Moreover, special education advocates accused the school system of shutting out some children by not identifying them as special-needs students.

Still today, parents and advocates suspect that because it is costly to educate special-needs students, some are not being afforded the extra help.

When Frederick enrolled in the academy, district officials said they couldn't find files that would have outlined his individualized education plan — which is required for special education students.

Undeterred, Jackson pressed the district to find her son's files, which were eventually were traced to a warehouse. She also took her son to Kennedy Krieger Institute for an independent evaluation, which not only found he suffers from ADHD but also adolescent depression. Doctors there recommended extensive educational assistance and vocational training.

Nonetheless, the school system has maintained that Frederick doesn't qualify for special education services.

'Grateful' for lawsuit

Problems with city schools' handling of special education students came to light when the Maryland Disability Law Center sued the mayor and city in 1984, on behalf of Vaughn Garris — identified in court records as Vaughn G. — and more than 30 other students.



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As this article states it appears that the pace in which these reforms are being pressed seen to be driven by needs not associated with the children's interests.  Education reform is driven by the fear of reformers that parents, teachers, and the public will understand the negatives and work to stop this kind of reform.

As a classroom teacher the public school in which I taught had a special education department within the school complete with specialized teachers and support staff.  These special needs students could be included in general classes as was their ability.  This was working fine for what I remember of parents and teachers.

Inclusion is about eliminating these special education departments and it is all about saving money.  We all know that it will be impossible for a teacher with a class of 30-40 students, which is where class size is going, to handle a special needs student especially when the support is Teach for America.  So, there seems to be no other goal in this then to declare special needs will be warehoused in separate schools as a congregate population.
  That is the cheapest solution and we know towards that is the goal of these reformers!!


Testimony on special education reform Testimony of Carmen Alvarez, UFT vice president for Special Education, before the New York City Council Education Committee

June 12, 2012 Watch video of the City Council oversight hearing on special education reform >>
UFT testimony begins at the 2-hour-34-minute mark.


Hello and good afternoon to you all. I want to thank Chairman Jackson and members of your distinguished committee for allowing me the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Carmen Alvarez and I am the vice president for special education of the United Federation of Teachers.

I am here to sound the alarm about the Department of Education’s special education reform, which is rolling out to all schools in September. We are concerned that thousands of students with disabilities will not receive the supports and services they need as a result of this reform. We predict that this poorly implemented reform will lead to thousands of lawsuits from parents about children deprived of services that this city will be left to deal with for years to come — long after the current administration leaves office.

To begin, I want you to understand that the UFT believes very strongly in the goals of this reform. We believe that students with disabilities should be able to attend the same schools that their nondisabled peers attend as long as the schools are able to provide the specialized instruction and supports they need to succeed. We also believe that students with disabilities should receive instruction in the same classrooms as their nondisabled peers when the student’s instructional and behavioral needs can be addressed in that environment. Our concerns are with the DOE’s implementation of the reform.

Historically, the needs of the students as articulated in the IEP have driven the services that students receive. Under the reform, incoming kindergarten, middle and high school students with disabilities will be expected to attend the zoned or choice school they would attend if they were not disabled even if that school does not have available the program or service on their IEPs. Unless a child has been accepted into a special program, such as ASD Nest or District 75, or requires bilingual services or a barrier-free site, the parents will not have the option of having their child attend another school that has the program or service on their child’s IEP. Instead it’s clear from the DOE documents we’ve read that the DOE expects principals to direct school teams to review and change students’ IEPs to match the services available in the building.

Making matters worse, the DOE’s changes to the funding of special education services will drive many principals to compel changes to IEPs to bring more money to their schools. Instead of funding “classes,” schools will receive funds based on the percentage of time each child receives special education services. Funding for full-time integrated co-teaching services and full-time special classes will decrease while funding for parttime special education services will nearly double. As a result, principals have a real financial incentive to close self-contained classrooms and full-time CTT classes regardless of what students may need.

In the DOE’s magical thinking, the achievement of students with disabilities will improve simply because they will be spending more time in general education classrooms. The DOE claims that more time in the general education classroom leads to improved achievement, better behavior, fewer absences and better post-school outcomes. However, the research the DOE cites doesn’t say that at all. In fact, the research on the advantages of mainstreaming is infinitely more complex and nuanced than the DOE presents. Indeed, the DOE’s own summary of the results of Phase I of the reform concluded that “student outcomes showed no statistically significant differences on Math & ELA proficiency between Phase I and Comparison Schools.” Nor was there a significant difference in attendance rates. This information can be found on page 13 of the DOE’s powerpoint entitled “NYC Special Education Reform: Preliminary Results.”

Incredibly, the DOE is moving full speed ahead with this massive change without any plan for professional development for general education teachers who will be called upon to instruct students they may not have served before. Nor is the DOE offering anything geared to helping special education teachers and support personnel deliver the highquality, evidence-based, individualized instruction and support services that children with significant learning and behavior challenges require. Indeed, there is nothing at all about specialized instruction for students with disabilities in the DOE’s plan.

The DOE wants students with disabilities to learn the Common Core Learning Standards alongside their general education counterparts. On the national level, a recent study (see Kurz, Elliott, Lemons, Zigmond, Kloo & Kettler, 2012) concluded that students with disabilities nested in general education classrooms do not have an equal or equitable opportunity to learn common core content. The gap is significant. According to this research, “Teachers need substantial support to meaningfully cover the intended general curriculum with all students, in particular those with disabilities. Many students with disabilities will need 30 to 40 more days of class time annually to have equitable OTL [opportunity to learn].”

The DOE likes to cite the extremely low graduation rate for students in self-contained classes as a reason for moving students out of them. Yet there are many reasons for the poor outcomes of students in these settings, several of which can be traced to the DOE’s own policies. First off, students in self-contained classes tend to have learning or behavior issues that are much more serious than their counterparts who receive integrated co-teaching and special education teacher support services. Second, self-contained classes are often bridged, meaning that the teacher is expected to teach curriculum at more than one grade level. It is unreasonable to expect children with disabilities who require more explicit instruction and more time to learn to meet grade-level standards when their teacher is required to provide instruction at multiple grade levels. If the DOE wants self-contained classes to have a reasonable chance of success, they need to stop bridging. Third, teachers in self-contained classes have rarely received support in research-based, effective practices. Lastly, course materials in alternative formats and assistive technology are rarely provided to assist students in accessing grade-level content.

So, what needs to be done to put the reform on the right track?

  1. Don’t force parents to send their child to his or her zoned school if the school is not able to provide the program and services on the child’s IEP. The DOE must offer options for parents who believe that their child needs a program or service that is not available in the zoned or choice school. These options must be available for both incoming and current students and should be in schools as close to the parent’s home as possible. The process should be expedited so that parents will know what school their child will attend by the end of June and so that schools will be able to hire sufficient staff to meet the incoming children’s needs before school opens in September.
  2. Revamp the reform message to put the IEP first. The DOE’s Reform Guide must clearly indicate that the primary focus of schools must be on implementing students’ IEPs, not creating “new innovative and inclusive programs.” Schools should be held accountable when they switch whole classes of students to new programs. We suggest that changes to IEPs that exceed 5 percent of the average number of changes over the last three school years in a given school should trigger an audit. These audits should take place no later than 15 days from the date of the trigger and may include site visits and meetings with school staff as well as parents. The DOE must protect parents and staff against retaliation for reporting practices that violate special education laws and regulations.
  3. Provide appropriate training. No school should be permitted to move forward with this reform until it can guarantee that school staff has received professional development in research-based strategies for addressing the needs of students with significant learning and behavior challenges in a mainstream setting. Professional development must be delivered by fully trained and knowledgeable personnel and should begin over the summer and continue throughout the school year.
  4. Slow down the pace of the reform. The DOE should not make the very children it is trying to help casualties of this reform by moving faster than the system’s capacity to successfully change direction.
Make the 2012-13 school year a transition year. Continue to study the data from Phase I schools and make the data available for others to see and study. Help schools understand the new budget allocations and how to use them to provide the supports and services recommended by IEP teams. Get the IEPs of incoming students to the schools they will be attending in the September as soon as possible and hire staff to work on planning over the summer. Concentrate less on developing new programs and more on providing the services that IEP teams have already recommended. Handle the infrastructure issues. Make sure SESIS can transfer IEPs to students’ new schools and handle placement functions. Make sure schools have the computers, printers and other equipment needed to provide parents with a copy of their child’s IEP and to provide teachers and providers access to their students’ IEPs. Use this transitional year to provide strong research-based professional development to all affected staff.

The UFT is committed to closing the achievement gap for students with disabilities. We are prepared to demonstrate our commitment and show the DOE the way by offering a Special Education Institute for the 2012-13 school year. This institute will include a series of professional development offerings that will focus on research-based strategies for addressing the needs of students with significant learning and behavior challenges and will help general education and special education teachers work together effectively in co-teaching classrooms. It is our hope to include training in intensive diagnostic reading and math instruction for SETSS and special class teachers and Marilyn Friend’s Power of Two program for teachers of integrated co-teaching classes. For behavior, we anticipate offering a program comparable to the DOE’s successful, but far too limited STOPP (Strategies, Techniques and Options Prior to Placement) program. We would like to be able to offer professional development for teachers who work with students with autism and other specific disabilities as well.

Make no mistake, it is the DOE’s responsibility, not ours, to fund and provide this instruction and support for our members. But since the DOE has not stepped up to do this crucial work, we will not stand idly by while students flounder and our members drown in unmanageable demands.

In closing, this committee has an important role to play in this reform. As this reform rolls out in 1,700 schools next year, the committee can and should provide continuing oversight. We call on you to work with parents, advocates, school personnel and other stakeholders to define reporting metrics for this reform and to demand data from the DOE demonstrating progress on each of the identified measures. It would be helpful to all who are concerned about this reform if the committee issued regular reports on the successes and challenges schools are experiencing. We need to work together to get this right so that parents can have confidence in their children’s schools and all students can have the opportunity to succeed.





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Baltimore is connected to New York City by Bloomberg and Hopkins and Alonzo is a former staffer for Klein and his privatizing machine!!!!


News Corp. Education Tablet: For The Love Of Learning? by David Folkenflik

March 08, 2013 2:03 AM Listen to the Story Morning Edition

Joel Klein, former New York City schools chief, left to run News Corp.'s education division. On Thursday, Amplify announced a specially designed education tablet.

Richard Drew/AP The educational division of the media conglomerate News Corp, called Amplify, unveiled a new digital tablet this week at the SXSW tech conference in Austin, Texas, intended to serve millions of schoolchildren and their teachers across the country.

Amplify promises the tablet will simplify administrative chores for teachers, enable shy children to participate more readily in discussions, and allow students to complete coursework at their own pace while drawing upon carefully selected online research resources.

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch views the digital tablet as part of a push to modernize the educational system. But he has another goal in mind as well. The media mogul is counting on future revenues from his educational branch to help shore up the finances of his newspaper and publishing division as it is split off later this year from the conglomerate's vast holdings in television and entertainment.

And as a result, News Corp.'s initiative is stirring both interest and controversy.

In the past few years, Murdoch has described education as a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars. At a May 2011 event in Paris, Murdoch noted that the fields of medicine, finance and media have all accelerated their adoption of technology. But schools have failed to share such advances, he said.

"Today's classroom looks almost exactly the same as it did in the Victorian age: a teacher standing in front of a roomful of kids with only a textbook, a blackboard, and a piece of chalk," Murdoch said.

The person Murdoch hired to lead his charge, Joel Klein, is familiar in education circles. Klein is a Democrat and served as assistant attorney general under President Clinton. He was chancellor of the New York City school system for more than eight years for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He's easy to pick out at Amplify's offices in midtown Manhattan. He's the only person dressed in a suit and tie in a workspace that more closely resembles a start-up — replete with people confidently volleying at a ping pong table and piloting miniature helicopters overhead as their CEO walks by.

"Critics and others have said, 'You know ... technology has been around a long time, but it hasn't changed the learning experience'," Klein told NPR. "It's not about hardware, it's not about devices, it's really about learning.

"And if this does what I believe it will do — which is enhance the teaching and learning processes — then it's gonna be a home run."

A sneak peak revealed an Android tablet with a firm silicone jacket (designers say they have to expect pupils to be as careless with the tablets as their traditional text books). It is customized with apps for teachers to help them run quizzes and determine what progress pupils are making with ease while containing all of their coursework in a single, 10 inch device. It comes loaded with Amplify's curricular materials that satisfy so-called "Common Core" requirements mandated in all but five U.S. states. If Amplify wins the rights to carry most texts electronically – admittedly a tough nut to crack, given how warily publishers view e-books – the tablet can truly serve as a digital backback.

Other companies, including such giants as Apple, are trying to sell school districts on the value of their tablets too. Stephen Smyth, president of Amplify's Access division that creates the digital platforms on which its curricular material is delivered, argues that his company's tablet is distinctive because it is designed to allow students to interact with teachers instantaneously.

"These devices are connected," Smyth said recently. "If you go to Best Buy or a retailer and buy a tablet off the shelf, it can't do this. Really, what we're trying to solve here is actually how to have teachers use tablets in the classroom environment."

But some critics question what problem the tablets from Amplify – and its competitors — are solving. Some teachers union officials argue Amplify's efforts are part of a disturbing effort to lure politicians with technology that promises to enable teachers to handle more students per class – and thus reduce how many teachers school districts will need to employ.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of the nonprofit Class Size Matters in New York City, said Klein and Murdoch "believe that public school kids should have larger classes, and instead of getting personalized instruction via their teachers, should do it via a computer."

The tablet may well function perfectly well on its own terms, Haimson said, but she contends that Amplify's goal is less as about helping school children than turning a profit.

"It's all part of the same vision they have for transforming education by privatizing it," Haimson said. "And we have seen not just in New York City but nationwide an avid pillaging going on of public resources for private ends."

Klein's record in New York, a selling point in Murdoch's decision to hire him, is political baggage among some of his foes in the battles over education policy. Diane Ravitch, a former assistant education secretary under President Ronald Reagan who now criticizes some of her earlier allies, wrote last year that Klein and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had manufactured a schools crisis in a report for the Council on Foreign Relations. Klein and Rice wrote a report that carried this stark warning: "Educational failure puts the United States' future economic prosperity, global position and physical safety at risk."

She wrote that Klein and Rice offered prescriptions that were unproven — especially the reliance on technology proffered by private corporations.

Just days after leaving city government in 2010, Klein joined News Corp. in order to invigorate Murdoch's efforts in education. The company swiftly paid $360 million for an educational tech venture called Wireless Generation started by several of Klein's former employees. That firm was used as the basis for what they rechristened "Amplify."

But before they could get very far, Murdoch's tabloids in London became embroiled in the bribery and criminal phone hacking scandal. New York state revoked a $27 million contract for an education database with Amplify, citing concerns about the integrity of its parent company.

And Klein was pulled away to help Murdoch clean up the legal mess. He led an effort to collaborate with law enforcement authorities in both the U.K. and the U.S., thus limiting the company's likely liability in both countries and enabling it to avoid any criminal prosecutions or major civil sanctions for bribery in the U.S., at least so far.


"The good news was, while we had a problem in the UK, that problem wasn't a global problem," Klein said.

Yet Klein, now back at Amplify, conceded there is some suspicion of his boss's politics and motives, too.

In this country, Murdoch has pushed for greater reliance on charter schools, criticized teachers' unions and given money to aid selected politicians sharing his agenda. For example, records show News America, an arm of News Corp, gave $250,000 toward a group that helped to fund like-minded candidates running for the Los Angeles Board of Education. And Murdoch's primary American news organizations — Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post - have high profile conservative pundits that have often been skeptical to the point of hostile toward teachers' groups.

But Klein said Amplify should not be confused with its corporate siblings that often serve as a platform for political stands.

"Rupert realized this from the beginning: This is a division that's going to be focused on education," Klein said. "We don't have a political mission — none whatsoever. What we're doing is developing materials in math and science and the English language arts — designed by leading experts.

"Our commitment," Klein said, "is education only. We have no subsidiary agenda."


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Is Baltimore really serious about integrating special needs into inclusive classrooms if they are sending Teach for America into these classrooms as the support person supposedly having the answers general education teachers do not have?  Of course not.  Teach for America are simply college grads with no special education beyond a short course load of education classes.  They are not specialists and they often have no passion or intent on staying so this is a feigned attempt at transitioning at best.


Below is a good indicator of what should happen but as we heard from advocates none of these support systems exist!!

Supporting students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms by Orville Ingram | December 6, 2012 New York Teacher issue

With the special education reform in full swing, many of us teachers — especially general education teachers — will find ourselves teaching students with disabilities and possibly collaborating with special education teachers. It is almost certain that more students with disabilities will be included in classrooms with their nondisabled peers, and we need to understand how we can support them.

First, examine your own beliefs and assumptions about inclusion. Before true inclusion can take place, we must first understand our own beliefs and assumptions about it and acknowledge where we stand on the issue. In order for us to truly support students with disabilities in the inclusion classroom, we must determine the potential benefits of inclusivity.

To that end, I recommend reviewing the questionnaire for SHARE, which stands for Sharing Hopes, Attitudes, Responsibilities and Expectations. You can find it in the publication TEACHING Exceptional Children on the Council for Exceptional Children website in the article “Tips and Strategies for Co-Teaching at the Secondary Level.” I use it with my co-teacher to discuss expectations about co-teaching and supporting students with disabilities.

Next, tap in to the experts. Special education teachers, related service providers and paraprofessionals are great resources on how to work with students with disabilities. They are experts in their field and can help us understand what is needed to support these students. Each has a unique role and can provide information that will help us understand how to teach students in an inclusive setting.

For example, paraprofessionals can be a great resource for providing academic and behavioral supports by observing students, collecting data regarding students’ progress toward Individualized Education Program goals and identifying behavioral issues. Speech therapists understand students with expressive and receptive language issues and can help students with and without disabilities with classroom activities that support effective communication. Occupational therapists can help students develop their fine motor skills (for those with difficulty with handwriting or dysgraphia) and physical therapists can help students improve their gross motor developmental skills (such as navigating stairs). Don’t forget your school counselors and psychologists, especially when you have students with behavioral or social issues.

Also consult physical education and art teachers because students may demonstrate physical and artistic skills in these classes that may be transferable to your class. For example, in English language arts, a student with disabilities might not be able to write elaborate responses to an assignment, but given the option to demonstrate understanding graphically or artistically, he or she might perform well.

Conference with students often. While it is great to tap in to the experts, just remember that the person at the center of all this is the student. Students, especially those who are old enough to understand their disabilities, can be the best source of understanding how to support them.

Consider, for example, a secondary school student with ADD/ADHD. This child may know what triggers his or her distractions, inability to focus, or anxiety. Talking to the student about something as simple as preferential seating may provide helpful information about why the student acts out while sitting at the back of the classroom, becomes unfocused while sitting too close to the window or gets anxious while sitting up front.

I teach high school and, at the beginning of every school year, I conference with my students about what their needs are and how to advocate for themselves. I also ask them about the type of support they expect in the inclusion classroom. Also, who understands a child’s needs — academically, socially and emotionally — more than the parents and family members?

I use the vocational 1 interview form for students and parents as well as a student preference survey or student learning survey. You can find vocational 1 interview forms on the Special Education Student Information System or other forms on the Internet.

The IEP is your bible. Most general education teachers are probably now using SESIS to access students’ IEPs. Examine the IEPs of your students with disabilities early in the year so you know what services they are mandated to receive.

In my school, we created a document called the “IEP at a glance.” It provides basic but pertinent information about the student, such as disability classification, management needs, recommendations and accommodations, and any related services the child might be receiving. At least twice a year in my teacher team, I present each teacher with a copy for the students with disabilities in their classes and help them understand what’s in the IEP.

They love it. It not only helps them better understand their students’ needs but also helps them plan their instruction around the IEP goals.

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March 06th, 2013

3/6/2013

0 Comments

 
YOU SEE BELOW HOW THIRD WAY CORPORATE POLS IN BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND USE LANGUAGE IN BILL-WRITING THAT SOUNDS GOOD BUT YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT HIT YOU UNTIL THEY VOTE IT INTO LAW!!!!
I COULD NOT GET ANYONE TO DESCRIBE THIS BILL TO ME IN A WAY I KNEW IT WAS MEANT.......PARENT TRIGGER!!!


We heard on the news that the sequester will hit education funding and especially Title 1 funding which is the underserved and special needs students. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see each step being taken to restrict ever more these education programs for the lower-class.  It is deliberate and it is a Third Way corporate democratic goal......ending all New Deal and War on Poverty Programs.  If the democratic party were not taken by a Third Way corporate majority as is now, none of this would be happening.  Democrats always protect these programs.  People do not understand that Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton are working against the middle/lower class and not for them as corporate politicians.  So are all of your Maryland Democratic incumbents as they are Third Way and corporate.....that is why policy in Maryland always works against the people. 

JUST TAKE BACK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES NEXT ELECTIONS!!!

This is the direction that special needs and underserved school policy is going with Alonzo and O'Malley working hard to making Baltimore the model for this privatization.  If you look at Montgomery or Howard Counties you don't see any of this charter/Teach for America policy.....they are fighting it!!

I also want to remind special needs and underserved parents of the building of all services for yourselves and children at the city's border with the county.  As I said with the special needs summer schools.....all located along the city's border you will see all Medicaid health systems being built along the city's borders and the new low-income communities as well
IT IS NEVER GOOD NEWS TO SEE A CONSOLIDATION OF DEVELOP BY CLASS/INCOME AS IS HAPPENING IN BALTIMORE'S DEVELOPMENT.  THEY ARE ACTIVELY MOVING PEOPLE INTO MARGINALIZED LEVELS OF SERVICE AND ACCESS.


HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES LOOKED LIKE FOR THE UNDERSERVED AND SPECIAL NEEDS BEFORE BROWN VS THE BOARD OF EDUCATION?  THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO MOVE OUR SOCIETY BACK TO THOSE DAYS!


I asked at this meeting regarding special needs education what the Maryland General Assembly bill 691 contained.  While bills are being written in Maryland no one knows what these bills contain unless you are a member of these umbrella non-profits charged with rubber-stamping all policy coming from these corporate pols.  As usual, I received just the snippet of the rule that makes it sound as if it is good public interest legislation.  Only later will the hidden bad policy be made public after it is too late to challenge.  SB 691 has this one provision that places the burden of proof that a school is failing on the school system not the parents.  So, in the case of these parents frustrated by these inadequate conditions for their special needs children......they can complain the school is not functioning in their interest and demand changes......THE PARENT TRIGGER.  No one knows what this policy is meant to do.....it just sounds good right?  It is education policy pushed by Michele Rhee and the privatizing education group that pushes charters, Teach for America, and School Choice as a development tool.  Rather than empower the parents it takes the protections of the state and federal public education policies and hands the schools to these very charter/Teach for America people all with the idea they will be better than the public schools these parent's have now....  AND THEY NEVER ARE.  REMEMBER, THE GOAL OF PRIVATIZING IS TO CREATE THE CHEAPEST, MOST EFFICIENT SCHOOL SYSTEM THAT WORKS SIMPLY TOWARDS TRACKED VOCATIONAL TRAINING........THE ANTI-PUBLIC SCHOOL!!

So , the underserved and special needs families are being made desperate with bad education policy and think they need this TRIGGER to get better for the child.  The TRIGGER is worse.  THESE ARE THE 'CHOICES' MARYLAND IS GIVING TO ITS WORKING/UNDERSERVED RESIDENTS.  WE WANT THOSE MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES WHO ARE SAYING 'WHO CARES'......IT IS COMING TO YOU AS THIS IS A MODEL FOR ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS, NOT JUST FOR THE LOWER CLASS!!



WE CAN TURN THIS AROUND ...... YOU SIMPLY MUST STOP VOTING FOR YOUR SAME INCUMBENTS....THEY ARE NOT CUTE AND CUDDLY.....THEY ARE KILLING OUR FUTURES!!!


RUN AND VOTE LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES NEXT ELECTIONS!!!

Below you will see an article by the very right conservative Weekly Standard.  That should give you a clue that this policy has long been a conservative Republican policy and now it is being pushed by Third Way corporate democrats as are in Maryland.  These Third Way have the same policy beliefs as Republicans on all issues involving business and profits.  They see schools as businesses not public education.  ALL OF BALTIMORE'S DEMOCRATIC POLS SUPPORT THESE POLICIES!!!

AS MUCH AS PEOPLE WANT TO THINK OBAMA IS WORKING FOR THEM.....HE IS NOT.....HE IS WORKING FOR CORPORATE INTERESTS.  RAHM EMMANUEL OF CHICAGO IS HIS PARTNER IN THIS EDUCATION REFORM AS IS O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE IN MARYLAND.

People in Baltimore know Michelle Rhee who created this policy and pushes it.....she is the School Superintendent in Washington DC that was forced from office for policy no one supported!!


Parent Trigger Update

3:00 PM, Apr 11, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARREN    The Weekly Standard   

Proposals to enact so-called "parent trigger" laws, where parents can choose to convert their failing school into a charter school, are gaining traction, and the teachers' unions and some liberal groups are unsurprisingly up in arms. In Ohio for instance, Republican governor John Kasich has included a law similar to California's trigger law in his budget proposal, and the state teachers' union is not pleased:

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said the trigger provision is based on California's parent-empowerment law, which was enacted early last year. A dozen other states have discussed similar measures.

Ohio's largest teachers union questions the California example.

"Given the confusion and disputes that have arisen with California's experience with a parent-takeover law, including parents who feel they were misled in signing petitions, Ohio should proceed with caution," Ohio Education Association spokeswoman Michele Prater said in an email....

"I don't know how you don't create chaos when you've always got this specter of parents who are dissatisfied in some way saying, 'We're going to initiate this process and reconstitute this school,'" said Scott DiMauro, a Worthington teacher who heads the Central OEA/NEA, a regional union branch. He spoke on behalf of Join the Future, a new group advocating for public schools and teachers.

A related bill aimed at increasing parent involvement is moving along in the Colorado legislature as well, passing the state senate there last week. Several other states, including Pennsylvania and Georgia, are also considering similar laws.

In Chicago, where mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel made a parent trigger a central part of his campaign, a group called Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) has come out against any such measure:

...on Tuesday, Parents United for Responsible Education spoke out against the measure, saying it would be too disruptive and could be misused by charter operators. PURE executive director Julie Woestehoff said that research shows local school councils' efforts to reform troubled public schools from within are working.

"It's really a huge opportunity for charter school operators to get a school building for themselves," Woestehoff said. "It just seems like there's a lot of opportunity for conflicts of interests and deceptive and misleading kinds of practices."

PURE began in the late 1980s in Chicago in response to an effort by then-mayor Harold Washington to reform education policy with testing standards and a business model for the public school system, which PURE argues "[justifies] union busting and school privatization." Woestehoff has been lauded by the left-wing Ford Foundation for her efforts.

The fight over charter schools and laws like the parent trigger has created an interesting dynamic, in that many combatants on either side of the issue come from the left. Rahm Emanuel is, of course, the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama. The executive director of Parent Revolution, the pro-trigger non-profit group supporting McKinley Elementary's parents in Compton, is Ben Austin, a former aide to Bill Clinton. And director Davis Guggenheim of An Inconvenient Truth fame, certainly no conservative, achieved popular and critical acclaim for his pro-school choice documentary Waiting for "Superman," released last year.

On the other side are liberal allies to the teachers' unions like Woestehoff and the unions themselves. The fact that this debate is happening among Democrats could be considered a victory for conservative and pro-market school choice advocates who have seemingly moved the center on this particular education issue to the right.



Below is a Chicago organization that works for the people not a private non-profit as we have in Baltimore that co-opts the people's issues and work for the 1%.  Check them out!!


We all see the school closing as a political and development tool having nothing to do with what is best for the families and children.  Poor performing is as school funding allows.  A school's lack of success is usually a result of failed public policy.  What this article shows is all of the turmoil created by this education reform is as much about frustrating and getting rid of teachers and unions as it is development. 

As I said yesterday advocates for children recognize the policy of using Teach for America as a filter towards just that.....privatizing these public schools led by temporary Teach for America staff that will leave after a few years.  UPROOTING PRINCIPALS AND UNION TEACHERS AND CREATING A SCHOOL AS AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESS SETS THE STAGE FOR INTRODUCING THE TIERED INSTRUCTION THAT MAKES EDUCATION CHEAP AND EFFICIENT.


PURE------BUILDING POWERFUL PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS AND COMMUNITIES


New report: LSCs and democracy outperform turnarounds Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

On the eve of a potentially catastrophic Board of Education vote to turnaround ten more Chicago schools, the school reform research group Designs for Change has released a report showing that school turnarounds are not worth the extra expense, and that the unheralded reforms brought about under the authority of parent-led, democratically-elected local school councils have been far more effective.

9 key conclusions of the report, titled “Chicago’s Democratically-Led Elementary Schools Far Out-Perform Chicago’s ‘Turnaround Schools’ Yet Turnaround Schools Receive Lavish Extra Resources”:

Conclusion 1. The study’s evidence does not justify the continuation of the School Turnaround Strategy in Chicago schools with a concentration of high-poverty students, including the establishment of more Turnaround Schools through February 2012 Chicago School Board Action.

Conclusion 2. Each phase of the School Turnaround effort in Chicago has
been generously supported with extra resources, including teacher pre-
service preparation, school facilities improvement, staff selection, school
leadership, and staff support.

Conclusion 3. School communities have repeatedly sought these same resources
that have been given to the Turnaround Schools, but have been denied. Chicago
must have an equitable transparent process for allocating desperately-needed resources.

Conclusion 4. Given the meager academic progress of Elementary Turnaround
Schools and their high teacher turnover rate, which undermines the basic
culture of the school, the researchers conclude that the resources devoted to
Turnaround Schools can be better spent by supporting alternative research-
based strategies.

Conclusion 5. This study indicated that the high-poverty schools achieving the
highest reading scores were governed by active Local School Councils who chose
their principals, and had experienced unionized teachers. effective elementary schools have dedicated strong Local School Councils, strong but inclusive principal leadership, effective teachers who are engaged in school-wide improvement, active
parents, active community members, and students deeply engaged in learning
and school improvement.

Conclusion 6. Related research indicates that high-poverty schools with
sustained test score improvements tend to carry out a specific set of practices
and methods of organization. These effective elementary schools have dedicated strong Local School Councils, strong but inclusive principal leadership,
effective teachers who are engaged in school-wide improvement, active
parents, active community members, and students deeply engaged in learning
and school improvement.

Conclusion 7. A basic distinction between high-scoring and low-scoring schools
is that high-scoring schools carry out engaging instructional activities
that help students master demanding standards, while low-scoring schools focus on various form of test preparation.

Conclusion 8. In their practice of School-Based Democracy, the school
community functions as a unified team and understands and acts on the close
relationship between the issues facing the school and the community.

Conclusion 9. While even the highest-scoring schools, based on existing
measures, need to improve, the practices and methods of collaboration that
characterize the high-poverty schools that show sustained improvement
are clear. The resources now used for Turnaround Schools need to be shifted
to helping these effective schools become resources for other schools and
to support their own mutual continued improvement.
_______________________________________________
You can see how a law that empowers parents of special needs by placing the burden of proof on the school not the parent for poor achievement just sets the stage for parent trigger.  These schools will not spend a lot of money litigating these things so it will weaken the school's ability to fight an attack by the Michelle Rhee crowd.  Privatized schools do not bode well for any family but especially special needs and underserved!!! 

Proposed law would force school boards to heed parents’ petitions for school reform February 28, 2013 at 9:48 pm

By Ilana Kowarski
Ilana@MarylandReporter.com

Students wait to board school buses. (By Len Lazarick)

National education reform advocates support a Maryland bill that would mandate reform for failing schools whenever a majority of parents petition for intervention, but the state superintendent and the state teachers union oppose the idea.

The bill is one of many “parent trigger” laws that have been proposed in states throughout the nation as they struggle to fix failing schools and remedy inequities in the education system. At a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday, impassioned reformers faced arguments from professional educators who warned the bill could lead to chaos in the school system.

Joy Pullmann, the managing editor of School Reform News, a publication sponsored by the conservative Heartland Institute, told the committee that parents ought to have more influence in school reform.

Pullman argued that parents are the most likely to know what their children’s needs, and won’t be swayed by conflicting interests like money or power.

Parents know best, advocate says

“Many people like to say they care about children and can even believe this sincerely while instead harming children,” Pullman said, “…. The love motivating parents to constantly sacrifice their time and comfort their children makes them, and no one else, the right ones to direct their children’s future.”

Though Maryland schools are the highest ranked in the nation by Education Week, there are some school districts with a large number of failing schools, particularly in Baltimore City and other regions with high poverty rates.

Del. Gail Bates, the sponsor of the legislation and a Howard County Republican, said her legislation would empower parents to make their voices heard.

“I’m a former teacher, so I know the value of a year in the life of a child,” Bates said. “It’s actually crucial.  We cannot allow children to wait for a year for schools to improve.”

School superintendent, boards oppose legislation

But  school superintendent Lillian Lowery, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education and a statewide teachers union took issue with Bates in written testimony.

The association of boards of education argued that parents do not have the training necessary to guide struggling school districts. Its testimony stated that petitions from 51% of parents should not override the professional judgments of educators.

Amy Maloney, a lobbyist for the Maryland State Education Association, wrote that Bates’ bill would be a diversion from long-term improvement.

“By simply asking parents to sign a petition, HB 875 does not engage the parent community in a  real way,” Maloney stated, “and it is more likely to cause chaos than become a constructive reform.”

Modeled after Calif. law

Bates’ bill is modeled after legislation enacted in California amidst outrage over failing schools in Los Angeles.

However, the bill only allows parents to petition for two types of reform — for the school to be closed and reopened as a charter school or under a new management organization, or for the school to be closed and students sent to higher-performing public schools nearby.  Parents would not be able to simply ask for the transformation of their local school, which typically entails hiring and firing but allows for the retention of high-performing staff.  Under the bill, the local board of education could overrule the parental recommendation, but only if the board proposed an alternative reform.

Despite those restrictions, Bates’s bill is supported by Parent Revolution, an organization which advocated in California for the parent trigger law. Ryan Donohue, the deputy director, wrote that Maryland schools perform well as a whole but his organization is concerned about the poverty gap between high-performing and underperforming schools.

“Thanks to the leadership of Delegate Bates and the other sponsors of this bill, Maryland can become a lighthouse state for all who believe that parents should have a seat at the decision-making table for their child’s education,” Donohue stated in his testimony.



____________________________________________________

PLEASE DO NOT SIT BY AND THINK ALL OF THIS IS INEVITABLE......THIS POLICY IS BEING PUSHED BY ONLY ABOUT 20% OF THE POPULATION.....YOU HAVE FAR MORE POWER IN NUMBERS THAN THEY DO.......

ORGANIZE AND ENERGIZE FOR THE COMING ELECTIONS!!!


Remember, it is the Mayor who is sending the power of the school board and system to the state and all of this policy.  VOTING FOR A MAYOR THAT IS NOT CURRENTLY CONNECTED TO POLITICS AND SHOUTS OUT AGAINST ALL THIS POLICY IS A MUST!!!

Parents Across America

Parents Across AmericaParents Across America (PAA) is an independent non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization that connects parents and activists from across the U.S. to share ...parentsacrossamerica.org -
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What We Believe


WHAT WORKS: Proven Reforms: We support the expansion of sensible, research-based reforms, such as pre-K programs, full-day Kindergarten,  small classes, parent involvement, strong, experienced teachers, a well-rounded curriculum and evaluation systems that go beyond test scores.

Sufficient and Equitable Funding: Resources do matter, especially when invested in programs that have been proven to work.

Diversity: We support creating diverse, inclusive schools and classrooms whenever possible.

Meaningful Parent Involvement: Parents must have a significant voice in policies at the school, district, state and national levels. We are not just “consumers” or “customers” but knowledgeable, necessary partners in any effective reform effort.

What Doesn’t Work:  Privatization: A strong public education system is fundamental to our democracy. We oppose efforts to privatize public education through the expansion of charters, vouchers or other privately-run programs at the expense of regular public schools.

High-Stakes Testing: Excessive reliance on standardized exams narrows the curriculum, promotes teaching to the test and leads to unfair and unreliable evaluations of students, teachers and schools.

School Closings: Closing schools wreaks havoc on families and communities, and too often fails to deliver on promises to create better opportunities for children. We believe in improving the schools we have, rather than shutting them down.

Ignoring Poverty: The nation’s educational “crisis” is made worse by the widening gap between rich and poor. Along with investing in our schools, we should also be investing in families.

If you agree, please join us, as we fight for children and better schools!

Click here to download a PDF of this statement.


Become a PAA chapter or affiliate!

Parents Across America Chapter/Affiliate Application Form If you share PAA’s overall goals of progressive, positive education reform and a strong parent voice in education decision making, please consider becoming a part of our leadership network. The more of us there are, the stronger our voices will be at every level!

Benefits of chapter or affiliate status include:

  • Support and advice on building your organization.
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  • Alerts about key legislative and other campaigns.
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  • Collaborative leadership with a fast-growing network of parent activists.
  • An opportunity to have a positive impact on public education in your community and across the U.S.
What’s the difference between a chapter and an affiliate?

A PAA chapter is a new organization you start to promote the mission and goals of PAA in your area. Chapters are usually named “PAA-”city” or PAA “state” (i.e. PAA-NewOrleans, PAA-Seattle).

PAA chapters cannot endorse candidates for elective office. You can do so as an individual, as long as you emphasize that you are not speaking on behalf of PAA or your PAA chapter.

A PAA affiliate is an existing local or statewide education advocacy group that shares our overall goals and wants to join in to promote the mission and goals of PAA in your area (i.e. Chicago’s affiliates PURE and 19th Ward Parents).

Please review our statement, “What We Believe.” If you agree, and want to join in our efforts, please fill in and submit the form below. Thank you!



___________________________________________________
MICHELLE RHEE AND STUDENT'S FIRST IS ALL ABOUT SCHOOL PRIVATIZATION AND TIERED FUNDING, TEACH FOR AMERICA, AND SEGREGATING SCHOOLS WITH SCHOOL CHOICE.  GETTING RID OF TEACHER'S UNIONS A PRIORTY

  • Our Mission
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Michelle A. Rhee, Founder and CEO of StudentsFirst

Michelle Rhee has been working for the last 18 years to give children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a changing world. From adding instructional time after school and visiting students' homes as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, to hosting hundreds of community meetings and creating a Youth Cabinet to bring students' voices into reforming the DC Public Schools, she has always been guided by one core principle: put students first.

Each chapter of Michelle's story has convinced her: students of every background and ZIP code can achieve at high levels, and for our schools to become what children deserve, every educator is called to believe this. Even in the toughest of circumstances, all teachers are called to turn the incredible potential that fills their classrooms daily, into the achievements worthy of our children and country.

If you are a member of the media and would like to set up an interview or TV appearance with Michelle, contact mediarequests@studentsfirst.org.

RADICAL: Fighting to Put Students First In her new book, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First, Michelle Rhee draws on her own life story and delivers her plan for better American schools. Michelle's goal is to ensure that laws, leaders, and policies are making students - not adults - our top priority, and she outlines concrete steps that will put us on a dramatically different course. Informing her critique are her extraordinary experiences in education: her years of teaching in inner-city Baltimore; her turbulent tenure as chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools; and her current role as an education activist. Rhee draws on dozens of compelling examples--from schools she's worked in and studied; from students who've left behind unspeakable home lives and thrived in the classroom; from teachers whose groundbreaking methods have produced unprecedented leaps in student achievement. The book chronicles Rhee's awakening to the potential of every child blessed with a great teacher, her rage at realizing that adults with special interests are blocking badly needed change, and her recognition that it will take a grassroots movement to break through the barriers to outstanding public schools.

 

Teaching with Teach for America As a Teach for America (TFA) corps member in a Harlem Park Community School in Baltimore City, through her own trial and error in the classroom, she gained a tremendous respect for the hard work that teachers do every day. She also learned the lesson that would drive her mission for years to come: teachers are the most powerful driving force behind student achievement in our schools.

 

Bringing Excellent Teachers to Classrooms across America - TNTP In 1997 Ms. Rhee founded The New Teacher Project (TNTP) to bring more excellent teachers to classrooms across the country. Under her leadership TNTP became a leading organization in understanding and developing innovative solutions to the challenges of new teacher hiring. As Chief Executive Officer and President, Ms. Rhee partnered with school districts, state education agencies, non-profit organizations and unions to transform the way schools and other organizations recruit, select and train highly qualified teachers in difficult-to-staff schools.

Her work with TNTP implemented widespread reform in teacher hiring practices, improving teacher hiring in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oakland and Philadelphia. TNTP placed 23,000 new, high-quality teachers in these schools across the country.

 

Driving Unprecedented Growth in the D.C. Public Schools On June 12, 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed Chancellor Rhee to lead the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), a school district serving more than 47,000 students in 123 schools. Under her leadership, the worst performing school district in the country became the only major city system to see double-digit growth in both their state reading and state math scores in seventh, eighth and tenth grades over three years.

The graduation rate rose, and after steep declines enrollment rose for the first time in forty years. In her last year as chancellor, every eligible DC public school attracted applicants for the annual K-12 Out-of-Boundary, preschool, and pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) lotteries. Fourteen schools had waitlists for the first time. Ultimately, a record high of 5,219 families, representing an increase of 50 percent over 2009, expressed interest in DCPS programs located in all eight wards.

 

Collaborating with Pioneers Michelle Rhee currently serves on the Advisory Boards for the National Council on Teacher Quality and the National Center for Alternative Certification.

 

Education Michelle has a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University and a master's in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.


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January 29th, 2013

1/29/2013

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For those that say the working class do not need labor protections from unions so let them work like third world poor consider that these work conditions are hitting college educated workers as well.  Remember, the protesters in Egypt and other autocratic countries are professionals impoverished by regimes.   So, when educators, health care professionals, and postal employees hit the protest trail you see a war against all labor not only the working class. As Governor O'Malley and Mayor Rawlings-Blake duped the voters regarding the gambling referendum by saying these would be good paying jobs....that minorities would be hired to these good paying jobs.....that profits would go to education, THEY WERE LYING TO YOUR FACE YET AGAIN AND THE PEOPLE HAVE SAID ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  Every member of Baltimore City Council knew the move would be to have casinos without unions.....they knew that most of the hiring would have the best paid brought in from out of area and the positions for the minority workers would be horrible working conditions with part time work with continuously changing shifts and duties.  The Baltimore City Council and Maryland Assembly has not even addressed the 'felon' issue as regards Baltimore citizens as O'Malley's and Rawlings-Blake war on the poor has many people guilty of simply loitering registering as felons.  THERE IS NO INTENT TO HIRE ANY MINORITIES IN JOBS THAT WON'T BE EXPLOITATIVE.

What about those funds for education from gambling proceeds?  Well, we see already one county using the funds to pay for the transportation services from BWI to the casino and with the Baltimore casino we see the City pols already using taxpayer money to train casino staff.......that's the education these pols will give you with these gambling proceeds.  So, the labor unions, the teacher's unions, the justice organizations that all worked to get gambling approved WERE ALL SCREWED BY BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND POLITICIANS.  THIS IS WHY O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE ARE MOVING TO NATIONAL POSITIONS......WHEN IT COMES TO CONNING THE PUBLIC FOR CORPORATE PROFITS.....THEY ARE TEAM PLAYERS!!!

Ever more seriously is the attack on our postal service.  Third Way corporate democrats like Maryland's pols voted with the Republicans for policy designed to starve the Post Office of revenue.....killing it by taking its ability to compete with private services like FedX and UPS.  So, policy like taking Postal meters and postage stamps away from the Post Office and allowing sales everywhere took away great revenue from the Post Office as it does foot traffic that would lead to mailing.  Allowing private post offices to open when the need wasn't there all worked to take traffic away from the Post Office and place them with private carriers like UPS and FedX.  DID WE NEED COMPETITION WITH THE POST OFFICE WHICH HAD US PAYING PENNIES TO SEND A LETTER UNTIL IT WAS FORCED TO COMPETE WITH PRIVATE PROFIT?

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE PROFIT, NOT THE SERVICE AND THAT IS WHY THEY ARE SYSTEMATICALLY KILLING THE POST OFFICE.   The nail in the coffin was the policy of pre-paying employee pensions to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.  Now, if you are making the Post Office compete with private companies that do not pre-pay their pensions are you really creating a fair and free market?  Of course not, you are trying to kill a public service.  THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS VOTED WITH REPUBLICANS TO CREATE THIS BURDEN THAT IS KILLING YOUR LAST METHOD OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION!!!

How important is the fact that the post office is our only PUBLIC method of communication?  IT IS HUGE!!!! Think about how you will be able to afford the rates if private industry is allowed to go without competition.  We are seeing our phone bills become unbearable......we are seeing computer rates becoming unbearable......we will see our package rates become unbearable if the Post Office is not there.  SO HOW WILL PEOPLE COMMUNICATE IF RATES ARE TOO HIGH?  HOW LONG WILL GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZE THE POOR? 

THEY WILL NOT.  JUST AS WITH ENERGY COSTS THESE SUBSIDIES TO THE POOR WILL END AND A VAST NUMBER OF PEOPLE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HAVE ENERGY, HEALTH CARE, AND NOW COMMUNICATIONS ABILITY.  WHO ARE THOSE POOR.......LOOK AT EGYPT AND GREECE TO SEE PROFESSIONALS OF ALL STRIPES AS POOR AS ANY!!!!!

Lastly today let's look at another professional class being driven into poverty as yet another democratic platform is crushed by Third Way corporate democrats.  The teaching profession.  University campuses have always been the place of democratic activism and free speech as tenured professors were able to speak freely against government corruption and tyranny.  So, if you are building a corrupt and tyrannic society the first thing you want to do is get rid of the university campuses and those pesky academics........and that is what Third Way corporate democrats like O'Malley and Obama are doing.  This is why universities and colleges are being filled with adjuncts from the business-world who are only connected to the college as a part-timer......it is why we are seeing tenured positions disappear as academics are now afraid to speak and are indeed silent as the greatest transition from free and democratic to corrupt and autocratic happens right before us.  EVERYONE IS FEARFUL OF LOSING JOBS AT A PERIOD WHEN JOBS ARE BEING HELD DELIBERATELY SCARCE.  EVEN FACEBOOK ENTRIES ARE KEPT CLEAN OF DEBATE AS THESE SOCIAL MEDIA ARE SURVEILLED TO AN INCH OF THEIR LIVES.   This is deliberate silencing of political voice and academics are the foundation of  political voice.

Below you'll see what is happening across the country with all levels of education......K-college.  Teachers are being made paupers as their jobs are marginalized by manufactured budget cuts.  Part-time, Teach for America, principals required to pay back salaries in order to finance their schools as they are in Baltimore.....all of this is disturbing and unacceptable and all driven by Obama, O'Malley, and Third Way corporate democrats across the country.


YOUR THIRD WAY POL IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IMPOVERISHER.  THEY KNOW THAT TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD WOULD PAY FOR ALL OF THE NEEDS OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS BUT THEY KEEP CUTTING PUBLIC SERVICES/PROGRAMS AS CORPORATIONS BECOME FABULOUSLY WEALTHY.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!

Working Without Pay January 18, 2013 - 3:00am By Colleen Flaherty
Inside Higher Ed


College food drives are usually organized by student groups aiming to serve needy off-campus populations. The one this week at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan is different. It’s benefiting part-time faculty members who can’t make ends meet until their late paychecks arrive at the beginning of next month.

“This really came as surprise to a lot of people,” and the recent holidays and current tax season haven’t left many part-time faculty with a financial cushion, said Kelly O’Leary, part-time French and English instructor and co-president of the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Federation of Teachers, the part-time faculty union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan. About 300 part-time instructors, many of whom were expecting to be paid on Tuesday as usual, won’t be paid until Feb. 1 due to administrative issues.

“We have a number of single moms trying to support kids,” O’Leary said. “I don’t think people understand that they’re below poverty wages.”

To help bridge the gap, the union launched the food drive on Jan. 11. Since then, it has been flooded with food donations and gift cards to Meijer supermarket, where faculty can buy more food, gas and prescriptions. “We’ve had part-time faculty coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘I’m a diabetic and I need to buy insulin,’ ” said the union's co-president, Catherine Barnard, a part-time psychology instructor. “At first, we didn’t even think about medication, but many of these people don’t have benefits.”

Because some part-time faculty have expressed shame at publicly accepting help, Barnard said she’s arranged via e-mail to meet part-time faculty in the parking lot or elsewhere on campus with donations. Most of the help has come from full-time faculty and part-time faculty with heavier course loads, and the drive is being promoted on the union's Facebook page, where O'Leary has posted a virtual "I am working without pay" button.

Kalamazoo Valley pays part-time faculty about $2,400 per course on a term-to-term basis, compared to about $10,000 per course for some full-time, permanent professors paid an annual salary (not taking into account other full-time faculty duties), Barnard said. (By way of comparison, a 2010 survey of non-tenure-track faculty members by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce showed the median compensation rate for adjuncts to be $2,700 per three-credit course.) Barnard estimated that most part-time faculty teach two or three courses on campus each semester, which, without picking up additional courses at other area institutions, would amount to an annual income of less than $15,000.

A union member notified leaders of the payday delay on Jan. 7, at the start of the semester. O’Leary said she attempted to meet with the administration to change the payday, to no avail (the union co-president said administrators blamed part-time faculty who were slow to turn in their semester paperwork and low staffing during the holiday period for the delay).

College officials reject the idea that the pay schedule should have taken part-time faculty by surprise. Michael Collins, vice president for student and college relations, said in an e-mail that the pay calendar was first posted on the college intranet in August 2012, and that full-time and part-time pay faculty pay schedules have differed from each other going as far back as 30 years (Kalamazoo Valley’s 129 full-time faculty were paid on Tuesday).

O’Leary disagreed with that statement, saying the part-time faculty pay date was included in the faculty calendar in an obscure place that did not show up on most people’s computer screens, and went missing from the calendar for prolonged periods during the fall semester. Additionally, she said, most faculty who expect their pay at a certain time each month don’t check the calendar to verify that it will be arriving. (In her nearly two decades of working at the college, she said pay had only been delayed once before, at the start of the fall 2011 semester. The union was formed shortly after.) She also pointed to state wage and earnings laws that guard against late payments after a routine pay schedule has been established by an employer, although such laws pertain to a biweekly or weekly pay schedule; the college typically pays faculty on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Although it’s not a permanent fix for part-time faculty, Nancy Beers, a part-time history instructor, said the drive has been welcome news to families such as hers, with Michigan’s tough job market (her husband was laid off last year and she’s picked up fewer courses this semester – four, compared to eight at three different campuses in the fall – than she would have liked).

“The only way we’ve made it [this month] is that we saved everything we could from last semester,” she said.

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AS O'MALLEY SIGNS ON TO RACE TO THE TOP, HE REQUIRES SCHOOL TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS TO MEET ACCESSMENT REQUIREMENTS AND SALARY INCREASES BASED ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE.  BUT AS WE HEAR AGAIN AND AGAIN, FUNDING ISN'T THERE.....A CITY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL TOLD ME SHE'S SCRATCHING FOR MONEY FOR TOILET PAPER.  WE WERE TOLD THAT UNDERSERVED SCHOOLS WOULD GET HIGHER TEACHER PAY TO ATTRACT BEST TEACHERS.....WHAT WE SEE, JUST AS EXPECTED, THE HIGH PAY GOES TO THE WEALTHY COUNTIES WHILE THE UNDERSERVED SCHOOLS HAVE THE LOWEST PAY.  AFFLUENT SCHOOLS ARE SUPPLEMENTED BY PRIVATE DONATIONS.  NONE OF THESE POLICIES PRODUCE GOOD CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE, THEY ONLY MAKE TEACHING LESS ATTRACTIVE AS A CAREER.

City principals among lowest-paid school leaders in state School, union officials say new contract will make salaries more competitive City schools

CEO Andres Alonso, shown during a visit with The Sun's editorial board and reporters, has given the Baltimore system's principals more autonomy. (Christopher T. Assaf, Baltimore Sun / June 28, 2011)

By Erica L. Green, The Baltimore Sun 5:54 p.m. EST, February 2, 2012

YET THE QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION BELOW SOMEHOW GOT THESE SAME PRINCIPALS THAT WERE DESCRIBED AS THE LOWEST PAID IN THE STATE TO MAKE WHOPPING DONATIONS TO THEIR OWN SCHOOLS.......BASICALLY ERASING  ANY INCREASE IN THE CONTRACTS MENTIONED ABOVE. 

So the media is giving us the impression these school officials are being paid more when they are simply being made to give it back to keep their jobs (think about the Hispanic workers I spoke of who work in Baltimore's Enterprise Zones who told us they are paid a wage as demanded by Living Wage and Green Card laws and then forced to give back $5 an hour to keep their jobs)  THIS IS REALLY EVIL PEOPLE AND IT IS ALL DRIVEN BY JOHNS HOPKINS AND THEIR QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES/NON-PROFITS

Waverly School Principal-------$20,000
Barclay School Principal -----  $8,750
Guilford School Principal ----- $20,000
Margaret Brent School Principal ----$3,434

THE SCHOOL'S STAFF ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO DONATE AS THESE WILL BE MATCHING FUNDS FOR LARGER DONATIONS.  REMEMBER, WE HAVE BUDGET DEFICITS BECAUSE OF MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD AND CORPORATE TAX BREAKS THAT HAVE THEM PAYING NOTHING......THIS IS THE PROBLEM AND THE PEOPLE ARE BEING MADE TO PAY THEIR WAGES IN DONATIONS AS WELL AS SEEING THEIR TAX REVENUE GIVEN TO THESE NGOs.......

THIS IS EVIL STUFF FOLKS!!!!!!

About FLBC The Family League of Baltimore City, Inc. is a quasi-governmental nonprofit organization that works with a range of partners to develop and implement initiatives that improve the well-being of Baltimore’s children, youth and families. The Family League’s work touches the lives of tens of thousands of Baltimore families each year.

The Family League is uniquely able to coordinate major initiatives, bring together a range of partners, and fashion new approaches to the city’s urgent problems.


HERE WE HAVE YET ANOTHER QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION DESIGNED TO FUNNEL PRIVATE MONEY TO DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS WITHOUT COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND WITH THE COMPLETE WISHES OF THE PEOPLE DONATING.....OR AT LEAST THE BIG DONORS AS WE SAW ABOVE, SOME OF THE LOW LEVEL DONORS ARE SIMPLY DONATING TO KEEP THEIR JOBS!!!!!
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US Postal Service faces ruin without rescue from Congress, watchdog warns Inspector general David Williams says cash-strapped service, saddled with debt and low revenues, is in 'very serious trouble'

The USPS lost over $16bn last year, and has lost about $41bn over the past five years, according to estimates. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The chief postal watchdog has warned that the troubled US Postal Service will go out of business this year unless Congress acts to rescue it.

David Williams, the inspector general of the USPS, says the service is in "very serious trouble", after five years lumbered with heavy debt and falling revenues.

In an interview with the Guardian, Williams warns that Congress, which has been distracted by November's elections and the fiscal cliff crisis, must act this year to save the service.

The USPS lost over $16bn last year, and has lost about $41bn over the past five years, according to Robert Taub, a vice-chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Since 2006, the postal service has been required – unlike any federal agency  – to pre-fund its retirement and healthcare benefits to workers. This costs it about $5.5bn a year. Currently, the post office has paid in $330bn for benefits, but the Office of Personnel Management recently told Williams that it will need $394bn to satisfy the legal requirement.  THIS IS A BIG REASON  WHY THE POST OFFICE IS STRAPPED AND THEY ARE USING THIS TO DISMANTLE OUR ONLY PUBLIC MEANS OF COMMUNICATION!!!!

At the same time, it has been unable to raise postal rates enough, because they are pegged to inflation, and inflation is low. (A long-awaited rise is coming on January 27, moving postal rates up by 2.75%).

The economic downturn in 2007 hit the postal service hard, as people sent less mail; it has also seen a steep decline in its most profitable product, first-class mail.

Richard Geddes, an assistant policy professor at Cornell and an American Enterprise Institute scholar who has studied the postal service, says first class mail has fallen from 103bn pieces in 2000 to just around 74bn pieces in 2011.

Even though it has shrunk from nearly 900,000 thousand employees in 1998 to about 530,000 now, many regulators and lawmakers see the US Postal Service's infrastructure as inefficient, and have talked about areas they would like to cut – the number of facilities that the USPS uses to process mail, for instance.

Williams, whose organisation audits the USPS, described the set of financial constraints on the service as "murder – it wasn't premeditated, but it was murder."

The postal service has reached its $15bn credit limit with the US Treasury, and has in effect run out of money."This is the year that they borrowed so much that they can't borrow any more," Williams said.

Asked whether the USPS will need a bailout this year, Williams replied: "Yes. The choices are that it would cease to exist or it would need a bailout." Williams said he did not expect the USPS to require taxpayer dollars, but instead that it would require congressional intervention, perhaps to reduce the pension payments.

The US Postal Service, which missed its last two payments into the benefit funds, has never made a single payment without having to borrow from the US Treasury. Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, notes the irony: the USPS pension payment goes to the US Treasury, so for the past five years it has been borrowing from the Treasury to pay the Treasury.

There are many possible solutions to the problem, but, as a start, Williams, Goldway and Taub believe that the pension payments should be reduced. "I favor a post office that is not burdened by this unrealistic pension obligation," Goldway said.

Goldway says the main reason for the dire financial state of the USPS is the debt it took on to meet its pension payments. "They wouldn't be in the situation they're in without having borrowed all this money," she said.

California congressman Darrell Issa, a Republican who has taken the lead on postal service reform along with congressman Dennis Ross, suggested last year that USPS employees should be required to pay into their health and life insurance benefits, like all federal workers.

Another school of thought holds that the postal service could shrink further, cutting staff and facilities. Williams suggests that if the post office took steps to reduce its size that it could save $12bn a year: "Which is more than enough to get them out of the trouble they're in."


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IF YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOT RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES AGAINST INCUMBENTS.......THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME!!!!!!  ARE YOUR LEADERS WORKING WITH THE CORPORATE POLS OR ARE THEY WORKING FOR YOU???????

November 2, 2012 Teachers unions in Ohio seek to elect educators to office By Sarah Butrymowicz Hechinger Report

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Special-education teacher Donna O’Connor and 23 of her colleagues gathered at their union’s headquarters here in January for a first-of-its-kind campaign boot camp. Prompted by an intense battle over collective bargaining that has pitted unions against a Republican-controlled State Assembly, the Ohio Education Association started grooming its own candidates to take back control of state education policy.

O’Connor, who is currently running for a House seat in the Columbus suburbs, felt her own sense of urgency as she learned how to fundraise, write speeches and debate during the union training sessions. “I started connecting the dots about seven years ago [that] I couldn’t just shut my classroom door and the politicians would leave me alone,” she said.

(Photo by Progress Ohio)

Teachers have long run for office, often with encouragement and support from their unions. This year, however, educators in states with some of the biggest labor disputes and most controversial education policies have been campaigning in record numbers. It’s one of the most direct ways that teachers and unions are showing their frustration over mounting attacks on tenure, the growth of nonunionized charter schools and efforts to evaluate teachers based on student test scores.

“You’re starting to see a lot of teachers say, ‘Enough is enough. I want to run for office,’ ” said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. The group works to elect Democrats committed to making dramatic changes to education policy, including many that the unions oppose such as eliminating tenure. Williams said he expects the trend of educators vying for office to continue. Official statistics aren’t kept on how many teachers are running, but anecdotal evidence from several states suggests the numbers are up.

The teachers union in Wisconsin, which was the center of a lengthy battle over collective bargaining last year, has six members competing for statewide office. In Tennessee, the first state to pass a law tying teacher evaluations to test scores, nine out of 11 teacher-candidates survived state legislature primaries to advance to the November elections. (Typically, two or three teachers in Tennessee run for any sort of office in a given year, according to the state’s teachers union). And in Minnesota, where mounting class sizes and debates over changing the seniority system have upset teachers, 35 educators are on the ballot. Members of the Minnesota teachers union, Education Minnesota, have estimated that that number is about a third higher than normal.

“Unfortunately for the past two years, the Legislature has ignored the real problems and focused on bashing teachers,” Education Minnesota president Tom Dooher said in a written statement. “We’re hopeful more people with classroom experience will be elected and re-order its priorities next year.”

Ohio was thrust into the national spotlight last year when its legislature passed Senate Bill 5, which banned unions from collective bargaining. A ballot initiative that November repealed the law, but the memory—and the anger it inspired—has not faded.

Although many potential candidates who attended the OEA’s training sessions decided not to run this year (and one lost in a primary), 10 remain on the ballot for state office—an unprecedented number, according to the OEA. In the last six years, just three other OEA members have run. This year, an 11th educator, a former member of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) in his first year of retirement, is also running.

The Republicans have a stronghold in both houses of the Ohio State Assembly. In the House of Representatives, they are one member away from a super-majority, which would mean that any law passed as an “emergency measure” would take effect right away.

State congressional districts were redrawn in Ohio this year, in what supporters of the teachers union claim was gerrymandering meant to help Republican candidates. Still, the changes created new seats for some teachers to run and prompted others to challenge incumbents. Many teachers are now locked in tight races in districts that lean heavily red.

O’Connor, the special-education teacher, lost her current representative, Democrat John Carney, to another district during the redistricting process. Faced with an incumbent who had voted against collective bargaining and for a budget that cut state education funding by more than 10 percent, O’Connor decided it was time for her to get directly involved. She described the bill that outlawed collective bargaining as the “icing on the cake” in motivating her to run.

Tom Schmida, an OFT retiree up for election to the House in the Akron suburbs, was also spurred to run by a host of issues. A Democrat, Schmida is concerned about the future of collective bargaining, charter school accountability and a provision in the approved budget bill that will tie teacher evaluations to test scores. “An overreaching agenda by the extreme elements of the Republican Party, especially in the State House, [goes] beyond Senate Bill 5,” he said.

Schmida is in a close race against incumbent Republican Rep. Kristina Roegner, a staunch proponent of charters, vouchers and the elimination of collective-bargaining rights. Schmida’s grassroots campaign has knocked on about 7,500 doors and made 9,000 phone calls. Many of his volunteers are teachers and union members themselves, he said.

Both of the state’s teachers unions have endorsed all of the teacher-candidates. The OEA has also sent out mailings to members about its teacher-candidates, organized phone banks and helped produce a campaign video. “We’ve supported them through every means we possibly can,” said OEA president Patricia Frost-Brooks.

OEA declined to give specifics on the amount of money it has spent to help teacher-candidates get elected.

To Williams, these steps are a logical extension of unions’ long-time political involvement. “Teachers unions all over the country have been pretty successful at keeping the pipeline for potential candidates for office filled with good candidates,” he said. “We’re starting to see the unions take their message up a notch. It’s not just about good candidates … [but] getting teachers to be recruited.”

Yet Williams worries that too many teachers in office might derail the current education reform agenda. “As we move into an area where there’s lots of debates about teacher-quality issues and teacher-tenure issues, [the unions] are going to want people who will shut that debate down,” he said. He believes having more educators in office will be helpful only if they offer perspectives from the trenches without sidetracking the reform conversation.

Several Ohio teacher-candidates say they’re open to discussion and compromise. They add that their larger goals—like a better system of funding education—need not be divisive. It’s more about ensuring a teacher voice, they say.

“In 2011, that really showed us what happens when we don’t elect officials that are pro-workers, pro-public education and pro-teacher,” O’Connor said in her OEA-produced campaign video, referring to Senate Bill 5. “Electing pro-public education candidates is most important this time around. I think the teachers that are running, we can help protect and improve public education from the inside out.”

This story also appeared on NBCNews.com on November 2, 2012.
  

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January 22nd, 2013

1/22/2013

0 Comments

 
The democratic base understands the nature of the current DNC....Third Way corporate and global...and I agree she fits right in with that group.  These are the people who look you right in the eye as you demand the fraud be addressed across all business sectors and they all say 'what fraud'?  I listened to a APM Marketplace interview with the Mayor of Miami......a city that rivals Baltimore in fraud and corruption and just as with Maryland's O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake he attributed all of the government watchdog reports of malfeasance a 'problem with paperwork'.  This has become the code for 'I'll do anything to advance the interests of the 1% no matter the costs to the general public.  That is the Third Way corporate democratic stance and it is why O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake has a national stance.......they are rampant team players with this!!

Those looking at these Maryland politicians know what it takes to be in this crony political environment and as an extension can imagine why they have been selected to move forward in the DNC.  THE PROBLEM WITH ALL OF THIS INEQUITY, CRIME, AND CORRUPTION STARTS WITH THIRD WAY POLICY.  LABOR AND JUSTICE MIGHT NOT BE CRIME FREE IN ANY SENSE, BUT THE FOCUS IS ON PEOPLE AND NOT CORPORATE INTERESTS!

Think of how just these two pols have spoon fed the Baltimore Development Corp and have article upon article published as to crime, corruption, and unaccountability..........IS THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IN YOUR FUTURE LEADERSHIP?

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!

RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN THE NEXT ELECTIONS!!!

The bad news for these two leaders and for the Third Way corporate caucus is that the democratic base has caught on even as mainstream media tried its best to cover for them.  The democratic base represents 80% of the democratic party to the 20% of corporate Third Way types so these Third Way are a dying breed.  It takes a while to organize in a captured media environment but as with Europe who is seeing an overwhelming shift from corporate liberal to labor...yes we can!!!!


Rawlings-Blake to take leadership post at DNC

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as Mayor of Baltimore as she is sworn in by Frank Conaway Sr. (Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun / December 6, 2011)

By John Fritze, The Baltimore Sun 11:10 a.m. EST, January 21, 2013

WASHINGTON — Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will become the secretary of the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday, giving her a prominent role in national politics.

The appointment, which has not been formally announced, will give Rawlings-Blake a voice in the party's national political apparatus at a time when President Barack Obama is beginning his second term and several Democrats — including Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley — are thought to be jockeying for the 2016 nomination.

"My hope is that we can carry forward the momentum of the Obama administration and that we can continue to grow the Democratic Party," Rawlings-Blake said Monday in Washington, where she was attending Obama's second inauguration. "It's about making sure that we activate the majority of the people in the country."

The move comes as former Obama campaign aides are launching a permanent advocacy group called Organizing for Action that hopes to marshal the volunteer muscle that twice elected him to the White House. Some Democrats have questioned whether the group, which will accept donations, could cut into the party's influence.

A DNC spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The most public role the party secretary performs is to call the roll of delegates at the national convention — a largely symbolic act of recognizing each state on the floor to determine which candidate its delegates will support. Behind the scenes, the secretary is responsible for scheduling meetings, distributing talking points to members and, occasionally, campaigning for candidates across the country.

Rawlings-Blake, 42, has served as Baltimore's mayor since 2010 and has presided over the city at a time of historic lows in homicides and fire deaths. A former president of the City Council, she also has led the city through trying budget times.

The daughter of the late Del. Howard P. Rawlings, she helped change the direction of city and state politics when in 1999 she convinced her influential father to back O'Malley, a white councilman from Northeast Baltimore, in his bid for mayor of a majority-black city. O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake have remained close allies.

The current DNC secretary, Alice Germond, has served for three consecutive terms — predating Obama's first term. Active in the party for more than four decades, Germond is married to longtime political writer and former Baltimore Sun columnist Jack Germond.

"I wish her very well," Alice Germond said of Rawlings-Blake. "I've enjoyed being the secretary for a long time. It's a tremendous honor."

The decision, which must be confirmed by what is expected to be a perfunctory vote by party leaders, appears to have been made quickly. Rawlings-Blake said she first learned of the appointment Sunday when she was in Washington attending a reception for Vice President Joe Biden's official inauguration.

Baltimore Sun reporter Luke Broadwater contributed to this article.

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The state budget's turnaround has everything to do with mortgage and bank fraud settlements that just get put in the State General Fund and do not make it to the people who were victims of the frauds and it does not make any attempt to rebuild the non-existing white collar criminal agencies as is directed in all settlements.  Maryland has a habit of making it impossible for its citizens to seek damages for fraud on their own and when the state or federal government makes even a cursory settlement it rarely makes it to the people.

What is important to remember is this: 

The state owes $1.5 billion at the very least to Baltimore City Schools per law suits; $700 million needs to go to underserved communities from mortgage fraud so they can decide how to spend the money; the public sector pensions need to be fully funded as we are not going to watch them disappear through neglect; the transportation fund which we all are sure was a victim to budget balancing now needs to be replenished without taxing average citizens or Wall Street credit bond instruments as the Muni-market is getting ready to implode.

So, there really isn't a balanced budget there is just a deliberate decision to not pay people what the state owes them and calling it a closed case.......which isn't first world and it is not democratic.....it is a campaign stunt.


Big improvements for Md.'s budget Our view: Gov. O'Malley's spending plan still has some soft spots, and dangers lie ahead, but it represents a remarkable turnaround in the state's fortunes

2:35 p.m. EST, January 17, 2013  Baltimore Sun

Amid the boasting typical of a governor's budget proposal, Gov. Martin O'Malley's new spending plan includes this peculiar claim to fame: The O'Malley administration has managed to effectively eliminate Maryland's structural budget deficit not just once but two times. This is a bit like bragging that you've married the same person twice — it suggests you've gotten to the right place in the end but glosses over some unpleasantness in the middle.

The fiscal unpleasantness, in Mr. O'Malley's case, was particularly severe, and to be fair, not really his fault. When Mr. O'Malley came into office in 2007, the state had a substantial cash reserve, thanks to the real estate bubble, but obvious underlying budget problems. That fall, Mr. O'Malley pushed through a package of new revenues — tax increases and slot machine gambling — and new spending that, on balance, should have put the state on sound footing. Then the global economy melted down, and the state was in worse shape than ever.

The climb back has been long and painful, but it is nearly complete — at least for the moment. The state's structural deficit — the chronic imbalance between projected spending and revenue — falls to just $166 million, according to the Department of Budget and Management. Considering the gap for this year was estimated at one point to be almost $1.9 billion, that's quite a turnaround, and little of it came easily.

The O'Malley administration and the General Assembly approved income and alcohol tax increases, shifted some teacher pension costs to local government and benefited from some modest improvements in the economy. The bulk of the improvement, however, comes from holding spending to a much slower rate of growth than had been expected — thanks in no small part to innovative efforts in the health department to hold down Medicaid costs. That the governor has managed to do that during such difficult economic times while maintaining historic investments in K-12 and higher education is remarkable and a testament to his priorities.

Still, it's not time for celebration just yet. Mr. O'Malley uses his budget book to tout Maryland's recovery from the recession and its record of job growth in recent years, but that progress is exceedingly fragile. A failure by Congress to raise the federal debt ceiling could ruin the economy again, and Maryland is more vulnerable than almost any other state to the kinds of spending cuts that will be required to bring the federal budget deficit back to a manageable size.

Meanwhile, there are some soft spots remaining in Governor O'Malley's budget. He is proposing that the state not make this year's installments in its plans to repay an income tax reserve fund the state raided during the height of the recession, or open space funds diverted by the Ehrlich administration. Each move saves the state $50 million. And Mr. O'Malley is proposing to continue for the next five years his practice of shifting real estate transfer tax funds from their intended purpose, land preservation programs, to the general fund, and instead paying for those programs through capital funds. Such a maneuver is legal, and previous budgets relied much more heavily on it and tactics like it. They got us through the recession, but their long-term cost is becoming apparent.

Debt service payments have increased from $654 million in Governor O'Malley's first year in office to a projected $984 million next year. By 2022, annual payments are expected to approach $1.5 billion. The state portion of the property tax is dedicated to making those payments, and it is expected to grow only modestly during that time. Before long, the state will likely have to raise the property tax rate or start dedicating money that could otherwise go to pay for schools, health care or other operating expenses to pay off the bonds.

The new spending and tax breaks the governor is proposing for next year are relatively modest. He is asking for a 3 percent pay raise for state workers, perfectly reasonable given the pay freezes and furloughs of recent years; a $25 million investment in school safety; $1.5 million for a much needed-study of the environmental and economic costs and benefits of allowing hydraulic fracturing in Western Maryland; and an assortment of new or expanded tax credits designed to boost employment in cybersecurity, the film industry and other sectors.

Still, legislators should carefully examine them and the rest of the $37.3 billion spending plan. The General Assembly could easily cut enough to wipe out what remains of the structural deficit, but that need no longer be the major focus. Given the uncertainty created by federal budget deliberations and the costs the state put off during the last few years, lawmakers need to concern themselves with increasing the resiliency of Maryland's finances. Governor O'Malley wisely proposed to increase the state's rainy day fund from 5 percent of revenues to 6 percent, and he is leaving another $236 million in unallocated funds. Legislators should seek to go further to help the state withstand what could be more difficult times ahead.

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THE ONLY WAY THAT JAMES CLYBURN COULD ADVANCE INTO THE HOUSE LEADERSHIP WAS TO JOIN THE THIRD WAY CAUCUS.  THOSE OF US WHO WATCH THIS STUFF UNDERSTAND THAT CLYBURN WAS NOT THIRD WAY BEFORE HE ASKED FOR THIS LEADERSHIP POSITION.

THIRD WAY HAS CAPTURED OUR DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERSHIP AND THE DEMOCRATIC BASE OF LABOR AND JUSTICE MUST REPLACE THIRD WAY IN THE MAJORITY AND LEADERSHIP TO REVERSE THIS HOLD CORPORATIONS HAVE ON CONGRESS!!!!

Third Way Home

Third Way Co-Chair James Clyburn

US House, South Carolina

President Barack Obama has said he is, “One of a handful of people who, when they speak, the entire Congress listens.” As Assistant Democratic Leader in the 112th Congress, the number three Democrat in the House, James E. Clyburn will be the leadership liaison to the Appropriations Committee and one of the Democratic Caucus’ primary liaisons to the White House. Working with the internal caucuses, he’ll play a prominent role in messaging and outreach.

His humble beginnings in Sumter South Carolina, as the eldest son of an activist fundamentalist minister and an independent civic minded beautician, grounded him securely in family, faith and public service. He was elected president of his NAACP youth chapter when he was 12 years old, helped organize many civil rights marches and demonstrations as a student leader at South Carolina State College, and even met his wife Emily in jail during one of his incarcerations.

When Clyburn came to Congress in 1993, he was elected co-President of his Freshman class and quickly rose through leadership ranks. He was elected Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1999, and his reputation as a leader and consensus-builder helped him win a difficult three-way race for House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair in 2002. Three years later, he was unanimously elected Chair of the Democratic Caucus. When Democrats regained the House majority in 2006, Congressman Clyburn was elevated by his colleagues to House Majority Whip.

As a national leader he has worked to respond to the needs of America’s diverse communities. He championed rural communities supporting the development of regional water projects, community health centers, and broadband connections. He has supported higher education by leading the charge for increased Pell grants; investing millions in science and math programs and historic preservation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He has encouraged economic development by securing funding for Empowerment Zones; investing in green technology development such as nuclear, wind, hydrogen and biofuels; and directing 10 percent of Recovery Act funding to communities 20 percent under the poverty level for the past 30 years. Clyburn was instrumental in advancing into law measures to resolve historic discrimination issues, significantly reducing the statutory disparity in cocaine sentencing and compensating African and Native American farmers who suffered racial discrimination under the USDA loan program

Jim and Emily Clyburn have three daughters, Mignon, Jennifer Reed, and Angela Hannibal; two sons-in-law, Walter Reed and Cecil Hannibal; and two grandchildren, Walter A Clyburn Reed and Sydney Alexis Reed.
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Third Way corporate democrats are represented in policy by the Brookings Institute. Here you see that this think tank is and has always been about global interests and is the source of Reagan's and Clinton's move to break the Glass Steagall wall to build global corporate empires. THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE WORKING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE'S INTEREST.......YOU AND I ARE SIMPLY SOMETHING THAT HAS TO BE PLACATED IN THIS RUSH TOWARDS EMPIRE BUILDING.

We must take back the democratic party if we are to make these industries accountable to the American people rather than the reverse!!! Run and vote for labor and justice these next elections!!

Terrible Imperialism
The Brookings Institution: a Think Tank of Good Feelings

The Brookings Institution is generally presented as Democrats’ main think tank (a usually political center of research, propaganda and spreading of ideas), though it is mainly a representative entity of moderate elites which favors a limited economic regulation opposed to the American Enterprise Institute’s libertarian patters. Today, it is very active in foreign policy and, as well as neoconservatives, it suggests the use of force but for humanitarian reasons and as a duty and not based on a democratic evangelism or a biased enthusiasm. Half of its researchers were former members of the National Security Council or the White House.

Voltaire Network | 30 June 2004 français  русский  Español  Just before U.S.’s entry into WWI in 1916, businessman Robert S. Brookings and his friends financed the creation of an institute of governmental research that would be called Brookings Institution. Since they were convinced that good management is not based on political decisions but on the quality of its technical capacity, they identified a group of six researchers, including a professor of Political Sciences of Princeton University, to work with the President of John Hopkins University.

During the war, the institute worked for the National Defense Council and once it ended, it analyzed the budgetary consolidation of the country. In the 30s it advised candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt though its New Deal project was criticized. During WWII, the Brookings Institution worked on prices control and war economy. Later, in 1946, it focused on rebuilding Europe and made all necessary economic assets for the Marshal Plan as a complement of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) political studies [1].

In the 50s and 60s, the Brookings Institution increased its financial sources and signed major research contracts with the federal state, always to study economic issues. Its position is recognized as a center-right institution and progressively identified with the Democratic Party although many of its members were and still are republicans. Consequently, its funds and influence depended on the White House. It was powerful during Kennedy and Johnson but Nixon’s administration did not renew its contracts. Nevertheless, it flourished again under Carter’s though languished during Reagan’s to reemerge again during Clinton’s.

Today’s Brookings Strobe Talbott In 2002, Strobe Talbott became the sixth president of the Institute whereas John L. Thornton was the head of its Administration Council, among which Teresa Heinz was included. Talbott was Time Magazine’s former director of foreign services, Under Secretary of State, and a man Bill Clinton, his old roommate at the university, trusts in. As a member of the troika [2] that was supposed to negotiate with Yugoslavia the prevention of the war in 1999 he became internationally renowned. On the other hand, Thornton, professor of economics, is the President of Goldman Sachs. Teresa Heinz is Senator John Kerry’s wife [3]. It seems that all members of the Administration Council were approved by the Council on Foreign.

In 1998 and with the purpose of reaching a consensus, Brookings Institution -considered as a Center Right entity - came to an agreement with the extreme right wing American Enterprise Institute (AEI) [4] to set up a joint program for studying the federal rules on economic regulation. Its analyses were reviewed by the Council of Economic Advisers of the White House.

Brookings Institution has also studied international matters and they are currently a third of its researches. It has three main working groups: The Center for the Study of Northern Asia Polices: it monitors Japan and Korea but it is mainly focused on the simultaneous relations of America with China and Taiwan. It is directed by Richard C. Bush III, former director of the North American Institute of Taiwan, and supervised by J. Stapleton Roy, former American ambassador to China and Henry Kissinger’s business partner. Among its researchers, Michael O’Hanlon has become a figure in television studies and Congress hearings, extremely loquacious on North Korean nuclear danger.

The Center for the Study of U.S. and Europe: Previously the Center for U.S. and France, it was extended to study Turkey, Russia and Italy. It is directed by Philip H. Gordon and mainly financed by the federal State, through the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and industrial Daimler-Chrysler.

Philip H. Gordon This Center is linked to an equally called program directed by Guillaume Parmentier at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) which is completely bipartisan though neoconservatives have their own niche.

Guillaume Parmentier The Saban Center for Middle East Policy: Its analyses are made from American and Zionist perspectives. It is directed by Martin S. Indyk, former American ambassador to Tel Aviv and co-founder of WINEP, a think tank of Likud. It was name after his sponsor, Jewish millionaire Haim Saban, co-owner of Fox TV, and was inaugurated by Abd Allah, King of Jordan.

Haim Saban One of Brookings Institution’s employees is Kenneth M. Pollack, author of a reference book on the Iraqi war which was written before the hostilities. According to it, certain conditions should have been met before launching the attack. Even though it could have been used by war opponents, the author has become a justifying-the-war-intellectual.

Other researchers have programs of their own, like Susan Rice, for instance, former assistant to Madeleine Albright, who is working on the threat weak states constitute to American security. Another example is Nigel Purvis, who along with the Pew Center, is working on the possibilities of using U.S aid and cooperation to the Third World to pressure them to make concessions on ecological matters.

Such activities are very impressive for their quantity and the quality of its experts. However, Red Voltaire has noticed that these intellectuals have something in common though they never say it: even when economics and not international politics is their main focus, more than half of Brookings Institution currently 142 researchers seem to have worked for the National Security Council or the White House. The fact that its Council of Administration, composed of multinational patterns, favors companies such as AT&T or Chiquita (former United Fruit) which key role in the National Security Council secret operations is well documented, is quite remarkable.

In the year 2003, Brookings Institution’s goods were assessed at 197 million dollars and a donation of 10 million dollars was added to its profits. The institution budget was calculated at 39 million dollars. 275 persons worked at the main office plus 40 additional researchers abroad. Brookings Institution published 27 reports and 50 books in 2003.



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January 18th, 2013

1/18/2013

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THIS ATTACK ON LABOR IS NOT ONLY AT THE BOTTOM WAGE SCALE......IT IS HITTING THE MIDDLE-CLASS HARD. 

We have political pundits who are all 'centrists' that hold all of mainstream media....EJ Dionne and David Brooks for example as public media's voice for all things political.  These two are both Brookings Institution, free-trade corporate globalists who will not speak ill of corporations in any way and they represent 'democrats' and 'republican' view......AND THEY BELIEVE THE SAME THING. So when Brooks constantly tells his audience that what is happening isn't class-warfare but simply inequity caused by education status, he is lying to you and I.  These labor protests always seem to be about the lower-class because those protests make the news and higher professionals are fearful of being public even as these wage and benefit cuts move them closer to lower-class.  Teachers and academic professors, firefighters, postal workers, health industry workers have many people working for them who have degrees....some many degrees....and they are watching their quality of life disappear.  This impoverishment is hitting every labor sector and it is all driven by the consolidation of US business sector into the hands of a few people who are making billions in profits as we sink further in earnings.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

We hear over and again that it is about US businesses remaining 'COMPETITIVE' and we must have 'FREE-MARKETS' when in actuality they are working to end all of these things with hostile takeovers, capturing market share, and price-fixing at high levels to soak the consumer.  NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE FREE MARKET OR COMPETITIVE.  THEY CERTAINLY ARE NOT DEMOCRATIC.  So high unemployment was deliberately created with this massive collapse of the economy......they all knew the collapse was coming years before it happened as they worked to make it as deep as possible.  They are working to keep it with the Fed policy and the consolidation of businesses that will control all hiring.  Mom and Pop are even being stomped out of this economy.  THIS IS WHAT BROOKINGS INSTITUTE CALLS THE 'NEW ECONOMY'.

Below you will see the nurses unions on the street as these corporate execs squeeze a typically middle-class employment sector for all the profits it can.  This is important because it is health care that is identified as a leading growth industry.  We are told the other major growth industry, technology, will not create jobs as the number of people hired by that industry is a drop in the bucket.  THIS HIRING SITUATION WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE STILL HAD REGIONAL BUSINESSES WITH A DIVERSIFIED OWNERSHIP AND LAWS THAT PROTECTED AND NURTURED COMPETITION.....IT IS A PRODUCT OF THIRD WAY CORPORATE POLITICIANS AND THEIR GLOBAL MARKET POLICY.  The US is stagnant as these corporations grow in leaps and bounds overseas.  The businesses that come back to the US do so with the intent of having third world wages.

We can reverse this by simply demanding Rule of Law be reinstated and all of those trillions in corporate fraud is brought back to the US economy.  It is impossible with these Third Way corporate pols but we can RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES NEXT ELECTIONS!!!!

DO YOU HEAR YOUR LABOR LEADERS CHOOSING CANDIDATES TO RUN AT EVERY LEVEL?  DO YOU HAVE CANDIDATES CHOSEN FROM YOUR JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS?  IF NOT, YOUR LEADERS ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME!!!!!!

MAKE YOUR NEW JOB TITLE 'POLITICIAN' AND DON'T SELL THE PEOPLE OUT!!


Nurses are strong on union support for their members and for the general public health benefits!!! THANK YOU NURSES UNION FOR SHOUTING AGAINST DECLINING WAGES AND BENEFITS IN WHAT WILL BE ONE OF THE FEW GROWTH INDUSTRIES.  Below is a call to arms from one medical community that mirrors all in this country:

This weekend, dozens of nurses from Steward Quincy Medical Center were out in their community meeting with the public and distributing leaflets detailing their serious concerns about unsafe staffing conditions at the facility and their need for improvements in these conditions to ensure quality patient care. Nurses were at local shopping centers, T stations and other highly trafficked locations, where they received a very positive response from the public, handing out thousands of leaflets. Below is the text from the leaflet:

A Message to Our Community from the Nurses at Steward Quincy Medical Center

For nurses, working in a hospital is more than just a job. It comes with a sacred duty to our patients to provide the best care possible. That includes the duty to speak out when we believe our patients' well being may be at risk. We are so severely under-staffed at Quincy Medical Center that nurses believe this is the time for us to speak out:

• Registered nurse staffing at Quincy Medical Center is at a bare bones level, forcing nurses to care for too many patients at one time, which may compromise our ability to provide safe patient care.

• At the same time, there is not enough non-RN technical and support staff to provide the care our patients deserve.

• RNs have submitted more than 125 official written reports of unsafe staffing incidents to management in 2012.

• Our community hospital is now owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar private equity investment firm. Health care staffing decisions are now being made at the corporate level driven by the profit motive, and not at the local level based on the needs of our patients and community.

• There is no medical justification for this level of staffing. In fact, the only reason management has provided is that staffing costs money.

This is our community hospital. We are proud to be RNs at Quincy Medical Center and we are committed to its future success. We ask for your support to ensure that you and all our families receive the safe, quality care patients deserve.

Call Quincy Medical Center at 617- 773-6100 x4012 or email Daniel.Knell@steward.org and tell him to listen to his own staff! No hospital can ethically increase its profit by putting patients at risk by failing to provide enough staff.

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THESE STANDARDIZED TESTS ARE NOT ABOUT QUALITY EDUCATION...THEY ARE ABOUT MEASURING PERFORMANCE FOR WHAT IS TO BE AN AUTOCRATIC EDUCATION SYSTEM DESIGNED FROM THE CHINESE SCHOOL SYSTEM.  IT IS ABOUT TRACKING STUDENTS AND ABOUT MAKING SURE EDUCATORS PROVIDE ONLY THE INFORMATION DICTATED BY THESE COMMON CORE AND ONLINE REGISTERED LECTURES.

THERE IS NOT SO MUCH A PROBLEM IN STANDARDIZING HARD SCIENCES WHERE MATH AND SCIENCE HAVE DEFINITIVE LAWS....BUT THIS IS REACHING ALL LEVELS OF EDUCATION HUMANITIES AND LIBERAL ARTS THAT THRIVE BY DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT.

Standardized test backlash: Some Seattle teachers just say 'no' Resistance to standardized tests has been simmering for years, but now a group of Seattle teachers is in open revolt. No longer will they administer the tests, they say, citing a waste of public resources.

By Dean Paton, Correspondent / January 11, 2013  Christian Science Monitor


Students walk out of the lunchroom past a poster urging preparing for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessments System (MCAS) tests, in this March 1999 file photo. Massachusetts students who don't pass the test don't graduate.

John Nordell/Staff/File



Forty-five minutes after school let out Thursday afternoon, 19 teachers here at Seattle's Garfield High School worked their way to the front of an already-crowded classroom, then turned, leaned their backs against the wall of whiteboards, and fired the first salvo of open defiance against high-stakes standardized testing in America's public schools.

To a room full of TV cameras, reporters, students, and colleagues, the teachers announced their refusal to administer a standardized test that ninth-graders across the district are mandated to take in the first part of January. Known as the MAP test – for Measures of Academic Progress – it is intended to evaluate student progress and skill in reading and math.

First one teacher, then another, and then more stepped forward to charge that the test wastes time, money, and dwindling school resources. It is also used to evaluate teacher quality.

“Our teachers have come together and agreed that the MAP test is not good for our students, nor is it an appropriate or useful tool in measuring progress,” said Kris McBride, academic dean and testing coordinator at Garfield High. “Additionally, students don’t take it seriously. It produces specious results and wreaks havoc on limited school resources during the weeks and weeks the test is administered.”

RECOMMENDED: Are you as well read as the average 10th grader?

Garfield’s civil yet disobedient faculty appears to be the first group of teachers nationally to defy district edicts concerning a standardized test, but the backlash against high-stakes testing has been percolating in other parts of the country.

  • The New York State Principals association recently issued a scathing letter, nearly four pages of “unintended negative consequences” it claims such tests foment.
  • In Maryland, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr has called for a three-year moratorium on standardized testing.
  • In north Texas last year, superintendents of several high-performing school districts signed a letter to state officials and lawmakers saying high-stakes standardized testing is “strangling our public schools.” As of Jan. 8, 880 districts that educate more than 4.4 million Texas students have adopted a resolution opposing these tests. 
“This high-stakes testing – there needs to be a moratorium on it, because it’s out of control,” says Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, Long Island, N.Y. “None of these tests really have anything to do with curriculum. Maybe they have a little bit to do with math. But that’s it.”

Dr. Burris co-authored the letter for the New York State principals. On Dec. 31, she started a petition in New York opposing high-stakes testing. In 10 days, she says, 5,500 administrators, teachers, and parents have signed it.

“Parents are stressed. Teachers are stressed. Kids are stressed by these tests more than parents,” Burris says. “And when you tie teachers’ evaluations to these tests, the teachers end up focusing their lessons on the tests. And that’s starting to destroy elementary education.”
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I WANT TO INCLUDE THIS AGAIN TO EMPHASIZE THAT IT IS THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS WHO ARE WORKING AS HARD AS REPUBLICANS TO SHRINK UNIONS.  THE PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ARE THE LAST STRONGHOLD FOR UNIONIZING AND AS SUCH IT IS IMPORTANT TO FIGHT TO KEEP THEM STRONG AS THEY HELP STRENGTHEN PRIVATE SECTOR UNIONS.

BELOW YOU SEE WHERE O'MALLEY NEGOTIATED A DEAL THAT HE KNEW WOULD LEAD TO THE MTA EMPLOYEES WHO WERE UNIONIZED IN STATE UNIONS BEING SLOWLY IMPOVERISHED AND NOW FIRED AS UNION MEMBERS WITH THE OFFER OF REHIRE AS NON-UNION DOING THE SAME JOB.

THIS IS DELIBERATE UNION-BUSTING!!!

MY COMMENTS TO THE ARTICLE BELOW:

The key word here is other contractor.  This is our public transportation system and we do not want any of it to fall to private contractors because, as you see, there is no stability for the employees attached to these contractors.....which is the point says Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore City Council.  These are employees that should be working for the MTA making a middle-class salary with strong public sector benefits.  What Baltimore politicians are doing is privatizing public transportation a little at a time and throwing these employees into a private hiring situation that impoverishes them, takes their benefits, and now we see they are losing their jobs and seniority.  When Veola took jobs from the MTA there were contract protections for the workers.  The idea was that the employees would remain unionized just as they were with MTA but, as is the plan with all these public-private partnerships, they are brought down to poverty and then if unionized, a reason is found to dismiss.  Now, when/if these employees are rehired or moved to yet another private contractor will they be unionized?  You can bet that won't happen in Baltimore with this City Council and mayor.....they seek to make you as poor as possible!!


Veolia Transportation warns that it will lay off 78 Most could be hired by a competitor, company tells state
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun 1:02 p.m. EST, January 15, 2013

Veolia Transportation warned state officials that it will be laying off 78 employees in Baltimore as it stops servicing a portion of an unspecified contract, but added that most could be hired by the new contractor.

The cuts are expected March 3.

Veolia's notice to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said the workers are based at a Huntingdon Ave. location. Veolia's services in Baltimore include paratransit.

State labor officials said the company hopes that employees who don't switch to the new contractor will find other jobs at Veolia. The company is based in Illinois and has operations across the country.

jhopkins@baltsun.com



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November 26th, 2012

11/26/2012

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Every state in America is under siege by this innovation mantra that is driven by the fact that America is somehow needing to redouble its efforts in corporate innovation because it is competing with the world for global business.  This is why public universities are being hijacked, it is why we are seeing Maryland transportation being run by a French business, and it is used as the reason corporations can no longer pay taxes as they must be competitive with other nations. ALL OF THIS IS HYPE USED TO EXPLAIN THE USE OF OUR TAXPAYER MONEY FOR BOOSTING CORPORATE PROFITS.  American jobs are not dependent on the growth of these businesses globally......domestic jobs are hindered by this global growth.  This growth only grows profits and it makes these companies unaccountable to anyone other than shareholders.

Third Way corporate democrats are making these changes.  It is why Maryland's policy is moving this way.  It is not good for the democratic base because as we know, it is killing the middle/lower classes.  THEY ARE TELLING US......TOUGH LUCK.  WE ARE TELLING THEM.....NO YOU DON'T!!!!

O'Malley made his political career moving Maryland Forward as his campaign slogan shows.  Below I want to show you where these pols want to take us.  We see an article on MIT that is in full corporate swing and is the prototype of other public universities.  You can see that they amount of public and student money that goes into these 'corporate programs' enriches a few within these departments and simply serves as a corporate laboratory.  IT DOES NOT BENEFIT MOST PEOPLE AND IT COSTS ALL OF US DEARLY AS ACCESS TO A BASIC EDUCATION IS DISTORTED SIMPLY TO MEET THESE CORPORATE GOALS.

Why the French company of Veola in Maryland rather than growing our own industry-players?  IN ORDER TO OPEN MARKETS IN OTHER COUNTRIES, THE US MUST ALLOW OTHER COUNTRIES TO OPEN THEIR MARKETS HERE.  Are we getting good service or best practices?  NO.  We are simply opening a door for whomever O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly is promoting.  So, Maryland taxpayers paid for all of the new buses and public transport vehicles tied to Veola......that is where our Transportation Trust fund went.  Contracts will have those buses owned by whom at the end of the term?

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

BELOW YOU SEE KOCH BROTHERS AND TEA PARTY GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER PROPOSING JUST WHAT IS ALREADY HAPPENING IN MARYLAND.  UMBC IS A KOCH BROTHER'S DREAM. U OF M IS ON ITS WAY.  IT IS EASY TO SEE HOW THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS ARE JUST AS CORPORATE AS ANY REPUBLICAN.  IT'S HARD TO BE A DEMOCRAT WITH GOALS OF WEALTH AND GLOBAL CORPORATIONS LIKE THAT.

Wisconsin Governor Seeks Shift in Higher Ed November 19, 2012 - 4:20am Higher Ed


Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, announced in a speech Friday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California that he plans to propose major changes in the funding of technical colleges and University of Wisconsin System, The Wisconsin State Journal reported. Walker said that funding needs to shift so that higher education institutions are funded not on enrollment or even completion, but on completion in programs that train students for jobs that the state needs.

"We’re going to tie our funding in our technical colleges and our University of Wisconsin System into performance and say if you want money, we need you to perform, and particularly in higher education, we need you to perform not just in how many people you have in the classroom.

"In higher education, that means not only degrees, but are young people getting degrees in jobs that are open and needed today, not just the jobs that the universities want to give us, or degrees that people want to give us?"

"We’re going to tie our funding in our technical colleges and our University of Wisconsin System into performance and say if you want money, we need you to perform, and particularly in higher education, we need you to perform not just in how many people you have in the classroom.

"In higher education, that means not only degrees, but are young people getting degrees in jobs that are open and needed today, not just the jobs that the universities want to give us, or degrees that people want to give us?"

"We’re going to tie our funding in our technical colleges and our University of Wisconsin System into performance and say if you want money, we need you to perform, and particularly in higher education, we need you to perform not just in how many people you have in the classroom," he said. "In higher education, that means not only degrees, but are young people getting degrees in jobs that are open and needed today, not just the jobs that the universities want to give us, or degrees that people want to give us?"

Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson, a Democrat, said that Walker's plan sounds like "social engineering" that would force students to study "what industry wants" rather than what students want.

__________________________________________________

THIS STUDY SHOWS THAT ALL OF THESE EFFORTS AT RECREATING SCHOOL STRUCTURES ARE NOT GIVING THE PUBLIC BETTER QUALITY........WHY IS IT THAT MARYLAND IS ALWAYS PLOWING AHEAD WITH POLICY THAT IS PROVING TO BE INEFFECTIVE IF NOT BAD FOR THE PUBLIC?  THESE POLS ARE WORKING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS......NOT YOU AND ME.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

Study: Deregulated Universities Don't Have Better Outcomes October 18, 2012 - 3:00am  Inside Higher Ed

A study released Wednesday by Policy Matters Ohio, a nonpartisan think tank, found that deregulating the governance structure of public higher education institutions -- a primary component of Ohio Governor John Kasich's higher education agenda -- doesn't have a significant effect on outcomes such as enrollment, graduation rate and the number of low-income students who graduate, but could lead to higher tuition rates, at least in the states examined. The study looked at three classes of institutions: "highly deregulated" (Virginia and Colorado), "partially deregulated" (Illinois, New Jersey and Texas), and "coordinated" (Kentucky, Maryland and Minnesota) and compared their outcomes to that of the nation and Ohio over the past decade.

"Given the track record of deregulation in other states, we have little reason to think that this approach will make tuition more affordable, increase access for low- and moderate-income students, or increase graduation rates," the report's authors write. "The primary factor affecting access and affordability is state support for higher education and state targeting of support for low- and moderate-income families."

The report's authors readily acknowledge that most of the deregulation took place about halfway through the decade and that confounding variables in the states selected might have an effect on the overall outcomes.


_____________________________________________________

WONDER WHY WE ARE NOT SEEING JOB CREATION AS ALL OF THIS TAXPAYER MONEY IS SUNK INTO THESE ECONOMIC TROUGHS?  ALL OF THESE SCHEMES TO MARKET THE STATE ARE MET WITH A WORLD OF SIMILAR MARKETING AGENTS THAT ARE LOST IN THE HYPE.  WE ALL KNOW HOW TO MAKE JOBS.......WE HAVE PEOPLE IN OFFICE BENT ON MAKING THOSE BUSINESSES INTERNATIONAL.  WE WATCH AS O'MALLEY GOES TO INDIA AND ISRAEL ON ECONOMIC JUNKETS.......WE ARE PAYING FOR HIS NATIONAL CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHTS

Report: DBED just a ‘marketing agency’  Posted: 9:00 am Mon, November 26, 2012
By Alexander Pyles
Daily Record Business Writer

Maryland’s economic development agency uses more resources to market the state than it does to develop the state’s job market, according to a report by an anti-tax group that is frequently critical of the O’Malley administration’s business acumen.

___________________________________________________
WHO ARE THESE STUDENTS GETTING INTO ELITE SCHOOLS AND COMING AWAY WITH FUTURE CORPORATE JOBS ALL FINANCED BY FEDERAL AND STATE TAXPAYERS?  LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE TO SEE THE CITIZENS OF MASSACHUSETTS DEALING WITH A BUDGET DEFICIT.


Polaris Venture Partners BUYS MIT RESEARCH AND MAKES BILLIONS.  MASSACHUSETTS CITIZENS CAN'T EVEN GET GOOD HEALTH CARE.  YOU CAN TELL THIS MAKES ME HOT!!!!!

IT IS ABSOLUTELY ABSURD TO THINK THAT THIS CORPORATIZATION OF UNIVERSITIES IS A GOOD THING FOR THE PUBLIC OR FOR ACADEMICS.  MAKING MILLIONAIRES OF UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS WHO ARE PAID BY TAXPAYERS AND ARE GETTING FREE LABOR FROM STUDENTS.  RATHER THAN BASIC RESEARCH WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE VENUE FOR UNIVERSITIES, WE ARE NOW SEEING APPLIED PRODUCT ORIENTED RESEARCH THAT SHOULD BE IN CORPORATE R AND D.

HOW WILL THESE START-UPS, WHICH TO ME ARE JUST LIKE APPS ON MOBILE PHONES OR CABLE CHANNELS OFFERED BY A SATELLITE DISH.....HOW WILL THIS AFFECT OVERALL COMPETITIVENESS OF THE US WHEN BASIC RESEARCH FAILS TO PROVIDE THE NECESSARY GROUNDWORK?  THESE PROFESSORS ARE MERELY EMPLOYEES OF THE CORPORATIONS SEEKING ANSWERS AND PRODUCTS.

THE PUBLIC DOES NOT GET THE PATENT.....THAT IS ALL PROPRIETARY.  AS AN ACADEMIC I AM FINDING IT HARDER TO FIND OUT FOR WHAT TAXPAYER MONEY IS BEING USED AND WHAT RESEARCH IS BEING DONE.  WE DON'T HEAR OF THE FAILED RESEARCH THAT IS FOOTED BY THE TAXPAYER AS CORPORATIONS WIN BIG WITH WINNING RESEARCH.  WHO GETS ALL OF THIS SUCCESS AND MONEY?  WHO HIRES THESE PROFESSORS THAT BECOME MILLIONAIRES?
THE PUBLIC WILL HAVE NO CONTROL ON THE TYPE OF RESEARCH IS DONE.  WHEREAS THE STUDENT WOULD PURSUE HIS/HER INTERESTS WE NOW HAVE AN ASSEMBLY LINE...........VOCATIONAL CAREER COLLEGE.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!!

Hatching Ideas, and Companies, by the Dozens at M.I.T.

By HANNAH SELIGSON Published: November 24, 2012 New York Times

HOW do you take particles in a test tube, or components in a tiny chip, and turn them into a $100 million company?

Dr. Robert Langer, 64, knows how. Since the 1980s, his Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has spun out companies whose products treat cancer, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia, among other diseases, and even thicken hair.

The Langer Lab is on the front lines of turning discoveries made in the lab into a range of drugs and drug delivery systems. Without this kind of technology transfer, the thinking goes, scientific discoveries might well sit on the shelf, stifling innovation.

A chemical engineer by training, Dr. Langer has helped start 25 companies and has 811 patents, issued or pending, to his name. That’s not too far behind Thomas Edison, who had 1,093. More than 250 companies have licensed or sublicensed Langer Lab patents.

Polaris Venture Partners, a Boston venture capital firm, has invested $220 million in 18 Langer Lab-inspired businesses. Combined, these businesses have improved the health of many millions of people, says Terry McGuire, co-founder of Polaris.

Along the way, Dr. Langer and his lab, including about 60 postdoctoral and graduate students at a time, have found a way to navigate some slippery territory: the intersection of academic research and the commercial market.

Over the last 30 years, many universities — including M.I.T. — have set up licensing offices that oversee the transfer of scientific discoveries to companies. These offices have become a major pathway for universities seeking to put their research to practical use, not to mention add to their revenue streams.

In the sciences in particular, technology transfer has become a key way to bring drugs and other treatments to market. “The model of biomedical innovation relies on research coming out of universities, often funded by public money,” says Josephine Johnston, director of research at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research organization based in Garrison, N.Y.

Just a few of the products that have emerged from the Langer Lab are a small wafer that delivers a dose of chemotherapy used to treat brain cancer; sugar-sequencing tools that can be used to create new drugs like safer and more effective blood thinners; and a miniaturized chip (a form of nanotechnology) that can test for diseases.

The chemotherapy wafer, called the Gliadel, is licensed by Eisai Inc. The company behind the sugar-sequencing tools, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, raised $28.4 million in an initial public offering in 2004. The miniaturized chip is made by T2Biosystems,  which completed a $23 million round of financing in the summer of 2011.

“It’s inconvenient to have to send things to a lab,” so the company is trying to develop more sophisticated methods, says Dr. Ralph Weissleder, a co-founder, with Dr. Langer and others, of T2Biosystems and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

FOR Dr. Langer, starting a company is not the same as it was, say, for Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook. “Bob is not consumed with any one company,” says H. Kent Bowen, an emeritus professor of business administration at Harvard Business School who wrote a case study on the Langer Lab. “His mission is to create the idea.”

Dr. Bowen observes that there are many other academic laboratories, including highly productive ones, but that the Langer Lab’s combination of people, spun-out companies and publications sets it apart. He says Dr. Langer “walks into the great unknown and then makes these discoveries.”

Dr. Langer is well known for his mentoring abilities. He is “notorious for replying to e-mail in two minutes, whether it’s a lowly graduate school student or the president of the United States,” says Paulina Hill, who worked in his lab from 2009 to 2011 and is now a senior associate at Polaris Venture Partners. (According to Dr. Langer, he has corresponded directly with President Obama about stem cell research and federal funds for the sciences.)

Dr. Langer says he looks at his students “as an extended family,” adding that “I really want them to do well.”

And they have, whether in business or in academia, or a combination of the two. One former student, Ram Sasisekharan, helped found Momenta and now runs his own lab at M.I.T. Ganesh Venkataraman Kaundinya is Momenta’s chief scientific officer and senior vice president for research.

Hongming Chen is vice president of research at Kala Pharmaceuticals. Howard Bernstein is chief scientific officer at Seventh Sense Biosystems, a blood-testing company. Still others have taken jobs in the law or in government.

Dr. Langer says he spends about eight hours a week working on companies that come out of his lab. Of the 25 that he helped start, he serves on the boards of 12 and is an informal adviser to 4. All of his entrepreneurial activity, which includes some equity stakes, has made him a millionaire. But he says he is mainly motivated by a desire to improve people’s health.   TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING MIT SALARIES!!!!

Operating from the sixth floor of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research on the M.I.T. campus in Cambridge, Mass., Dr. Langer’s lab has a research budget of more than $10 million for 2012, coming mostly from federal sources.

The research in labs like Dr. Langer’s is eyed closely by pharmaceutical companies. While drug companies employ huge research and development teams, they may not be as freewheeling and nimble, Dr. Langer says. The basis for many long-range discoveries has “come out of academia, including gene therapy, gene sequencing and tissue engineering,” he says.

He has served as a consultant to pharmaceutical companies. Their large size, he says, can end up being an impediment.

“Very often when you are going for real innovation,” he says, “you have to go against prevailing wisdom, and it’s hard to go against prevailing wisdom when there are people who have been there for a long time and you have some vice president who says, ‘No, that doesn’t make sense.’ ”

Pharmaceutical companies are eager to tap into the talent at leading research universities. In 2008, for example, Washington University in St. Louis announced a $25 million pact with Pfizer to collaborate more closely on biomedical research.

But in some situations, the close — critics might say cozy — ties between business and academia have the potential to create conflicts of interest. REALLY?????

There was a controversy earlier this year when it was revealed that the president of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center owned stock in Aveo Oncology, which had announced earlier that the university would be leading clinical trials of one of its cancer drugs.  Last month, the University of Texas announced that he would be allowed to keep his ties with three pharmaceutical companies, including Aveo Oncology; his holdings will be placed in a blind trust.

“One question is how much is the commercial interest driving the research,” Ms. Johnston says. “I think that universities and the public policy makers are a little unsure where they think the balance should be. Does this opportunity skew the research agenda in terms of commercial application instead of the public interest?” She was speaking generally, and not commenting on any particular institution.   CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND CORPORATE CONTROL?  REALLY????

Dr. Langer says that there is no pressure at his lab for students to turn their research into a business. In fact, he says, about half of his students stay in academia. “I feel like one of our successes is that we trained so many great people who are now teaching at universities,” he says, adding that strict ethics rules are in place to prevent conflicts.

If they remain in academia, scientists at M.I.T. can still take equity stakes in the companies that their discoveries helped form. But they are barred from owning shares in any company that provides a research grant to their lab. They also cannot be executives of a company, although they can serve as paid advisers.

One issue at the crux of technology transfer is: How do universities protect the public good?
THEY DON'T!!!!!

“M.I.T. always reserves rights for all nonprofit institutions, noncommercial research and education,” says Lita Nelsen, director of M.I.T.’s Technology Licensing Office, who has helped the Langer Lab file for hundreds of patents, close to 80 percent of which have been approved.

As an example, a controlled-release polio vaccine developed in the Langer Lab was financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for use in the developing world. The foundation has also arranged to use, through Seventh Sense Biosystems, a rapid way to draw blood with a microneedle patch that could be used outside the confines of a medical center. (The approach is still in human trials.) The Langer Lab has also been working with the United States Army on a regenerative-tissue project that would help wounded soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

When a discovery is licensed at M.I.T., the university splits the profit three ways — among the department where the discovery was made, the university and the inventors. Who determines who these staff that will be millionaires or students who will go to work for these spin-offs will be?

“The founding principle in 1861, when M.I.T. was created, was to provide and support the industrialization of America. I always say we were founded on the principle of tech transfer,” says Susan Hockfield, who served as M.I.T.’s president from December 2004 until June of this year.

David H. Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries, the conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., wrote in an e-mail that “innovation and education have long fueled the world’s most powerful economies, so I can’t think of a better or more natural synergy than the one between academia and industry.” Mr. Koch endowed Dr. Langer’s professorship at M.I.T. and is a graduate of the university.

YES, many of the Langer Lab’s discoveries are helping to fight disease. But you can’t say that about a hair-thickening product that is made by a company called Living Proof. The product is sold at stores like Nordstrom and Sephora; Dr. Langer serves on the company’s board and holds a small equity stake.

How did he end up in the hair care business? That discovery actually came from a way to create new materials, the original intent of which was to treat prostate and ovarian cancer. Various chemical compounds, however, could be fished out from the discovery for many different purposes, including a hair thickening product.

Of course, not everything that comes out of the lab is a sure bet. A drug may not make it past clinical trials, or an alternative treatment may prove more effective.

Dr. Langer is still assessing the commercial potential of a project involving the vocal cords. He and Dr. Steven M. Zeitels, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation, who has operated on singers like Adele and Julie Andrews, developed a gel that can be used on vocal tubes to make them more pliable. The gel had promising results in clinical trials on dogs, according to Dr. Langer. “I don’t know if it’s a company, though,” he says.

But he favors the kind of research that takes chances. As Dr. Bowen of Harvard says of Dr. Langer’s students: “They all come away thinking nothing is impossible.”



Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed the the state budget into law on July, 8, 2012, 10 days after lawmakers sent it to him on June 28, 2012.[1] FY2013 began on July 1, 2012, and with no budget signed into law, legislators passed a temporary spending measure to keep the state government operational.[2]

The state operates on an annual budget cycle and is currently in FY2013.[3] The state's fiscal year begins July 1.

Massachusetts has a total state debt of approximately $102,258,050,000, when calculated by adding the total of outstanding official debt, pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) liabilities, Unemployment Trust Fund loans, and the FY2013 state budget gap.[4] The total state debt is higher than the prior year's total of $97,940,986,000.[5]

Massachusetts's total state debt per capita is $15,522.96.[6]



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November 13th, 2012

11/13/2012

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We want to take this week to look at city politics as it relates to building a healthy government that is moving back towards democracy.  I want to say we have had successes!  When the system is systemically corrupt it takes some time, but signs of change can be seen in city council's move towards more oversight....albeit small moves, and the media's willingness to talk about the corruption openly.  We have the city council chair of the finance committee where all things corrupt start shouting loudly and strongly for full auditing of all agencies and admitting that the city has 'plenty' of money that is not making it to the communities.  Now, Carl Stokes is no doubt covering his own interests, but public comment is the first and best move for change.  So, regardless of motive.....I thank Carl Stokes for taking this year to shout out for change!  We did get the council to approve a handful of department audits.  Can you believe that cost is always given as a factor when the city is losing billions of dollars to fraud?

We won an acknowledgement from two media outlets....Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Brew ....that corruption is alive and needs to be addressed.  The Baltimore Brew does great investigative journalism and presses for openness.  This is growing.  You won't hear it from public media in Baltimore where of course you would expect it.  They are either co-opted by the people behind the corruption or their funding is threatened by speaking out against corruption.  That is where public media is in crisis.

We are winning in our successes in bringing more people out to shout loudly and strongly against policy that works against the average person.  I applauded community leaders who stood up at the Federal Reserve meeting on Baltimore development and let them have it for forcing the poor out of downtown communities and into their communities instead of helping these poor grow in the communities in which they live!  These community leaders didn't say 'send in the helicopters and the police cars'....they said we want wrap-around organizations that will help these underserved people integrate into the community.  THANK YOU FOR DOING THAT!  I'm seeing this kind of activism all over and it makes it hard for those pushing injustice to continue freely.  We also finally forced the Board of Estimates to hook up the cameras in the meeting room and show the meetings on TV channel 25.  This was long ignored and it is a good start in transparency.....now you have to watch and share the information!

I want to describe a situation that I see as moving us forward with our goal of voting incumbents out.  I always stop to talk with the union workers who picket against contractors.  I know, they hire poor people to work for low wages to walk the lines.....like that is the worst of the problem.  There is always a union member or two on these sites.  So I stop and ask what the problems are on this construction site.  This is a trade union.  He immediately turns to the wall and describes how this contractor subcontracts to that contractor who subcontracts to that contractor who subcontracts to that contractor.  His fingers are moving all over the brick wall beside us as he shows his disgust at the system.  He said 'do you know that they actually make us agree to hand back to them $5 an hour from the amount they are required to pay by contract in order for us to be hired????  This is democracy????  Trades are told to campaign for jobs with a politician and then no jobs occur.  The workers are all brought into the area for other states.

Now, I will tell you that that is progress.  You always had these union members hesitant to speak openly about abuses but now they are fed up.  I told him the unions must stop siding with incumbents and run their own union candidates.  HE LOOKED AT ME WITH A BIG SMILE AS IT OCCURRED TO HIM THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT WOULD WORK!!!!

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE.  IF YOUR LABOR OR JUSTICE ORGANIZATION IS NOT RUNNING A CHALLENGER FOR ALL OFFICES....THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME!!!

Below you'll see how totally captured Baltimore is when you look at who is on the ethics board and how it never meets.  The Mayor and her legal council Nilson.  Now, if you have systemic corruption, those are the two you want on the ethics board?  The State of Maryland does the same.  The other members are Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland. This is my comment in the Baltimore Sun:


The citizens of Baltimore, just as the citizens of Maryland must wake up to what happens when you keep allowing the same people to stay in office term after term.  There is a political lethargy that I think will awaken as the ethics deteriorate to such an extent as to become ridicule.  Very few political environments survive widespread distain.

We are seeing more displays of public demands of accountability and this will grow.  What we need to do is demand Rule of Law be enforced across the board.  If we allow these pols to pick and choose when they will enforce law, we are not living in a Rule of Law nation.  I encourage Common Cause Maryland to move beyond the language of its most recent push for ethics legislation at the state level to go further in defining the terms and removing the requirements of 'conviction' which we all know in this environment of corruption pols and corporations are rarely being convicted.

We have glaring examples of ethics violations when we look at examples of development with Johns Hopkins playing a primary role in development and at the same time receiving 'donations' for things like their Lacrosse Museum named for Cordish and a new football stadium for its satellite school dunbar 'donated' by UnderArmour.....both recipients of copious tax and grant benefits.  The entire ABAG and Maryland non-profit system is ethics violations waiting to happen.


Ethics oversight board hasn't met in years Board in charge of city's ethics director has no recorded meetings since 1990s By Luke Broadwater, The Baltimore Sun 7:58 p.m. EST, November 11, 2012


Baltimore's ethics director is in charge of advising elected officials and fielding constituent complaints about them. It's unclear, however, if anyone is overseeing him.

A seven-member oversight panel, the Board of Legislative Reference, is responsible for hiring and firing the ethics director, according to the city charter. But, according to current and former city officials, the board has not met in six years — and perhaps longer.

The current ethics director, Avery Aisenstark has come under fire for doing legal work on the side for developers who are challenging zoning decisions in Baltimore County. Those same developers have had significant business interests before city agencies. Aisenstark's office also has been criticized for failing to review ethics disclosure forms that city officials are required to file.

  • Related
  • City ethics director does legal work on county zoning battle
  • Common Cause questions city ethics director's fitness for job
  • Ethics board closes session without publicly discussing probe into mayor's tickets
  • Bill before City Council aims to close 'gaps' in ethics code
  • More than half of city officials, employees fill out ethics forms wrong
  • See more stories »
The watchdog group Common Cause has said Aisenstark's private legal work raises questions about his fitness to hold his $94,000-a-year city job. If someone made such a complaint about any other city official, the ethics board might look into it. In Aisenstark's case, the inquiry would instead fall to the Board of Legislative Reference, city officials say.

Christopher B. Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization, questioned whether the law shouldn't require more frequent board meetings and reviews of the director's work.

"What's the point of having the board if there's no oversight?" Summers asked. "With a leadership vacuum, you have an entrenched culture of complacency and a mentality that some employees are untouchable."

According to the city's charter, Aisenstark — who was hired for his city position in the mid-1990s — reports to the Board of Legislative Reference, composed of the mayor, city solicitor, president of the Johns Hopkins University, deans of the University of Maryland and University of Baltimore schools of law, director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and a member of the City Council.

"There is not currently a council member serving on that board," said Lester Davis, spokesman for Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young. "The Council President believes that the board should certainly meet more frequently than once a decade. He will soon meet with his colleagues on the council to determine the best member to appoint to the board."

Aides to some other board members did not respond to inquiries from The Baltimore Sun about the panel's status, except to say they were unfamiliar with it and would research the matter.

Roswell Encina, spokesman for the library, said Chief Executive Officer Carla Hayden was familiar with the board but unsure when it last met. He said she believed it met only when new mayoral administrations took office.

But others say they recall no such meetings since former Mayor Sheila Dixon and current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake were sworn in.

"It has not met since I began my current job in January, 2007," said City Solicitor George Nilson in an email. "I am unfamiliar with history of its meetings before that date."

"I've always found it to be a bit odd," said City Councilman William Cole, who suggested the board should at least be required to meet annually to review Aisenstark's performance. "You're putting people on this board and they don't even know they're on it."

Councilman Robert Curran, who has served since 1995, said he has never even heard of the Board of Legislative Reference, and cannot recall any meetings of it during his tenure.

"If you ask 15 council members about the Board of Legislative Reference, 13 or 14 of them couldn't tell you what it is," he said. "There are a lot of things in the charter that need to be updated."

Aisenstark is director of Baltimore's department of legislative reference and its ethics board. He has acknowledged that as a private lawyer, he has done work on behalf of the Committee for Zoning Integrity, a group that is challenging some Baltimore County zoning decisions.

The group is funded by the Cordish Cos. and Howard Brown of David S. Brown Enterprises, as well as the owners of the Garrison Forest Plaza and Green Spring Station shopping centers, according to disclosure reports.

Cordish and Brown have both sought city approvals in connection with their business interests in recent years. Cordish, for instance, sought a $3 million rent abatement last year on the Power Plant Live development. Brown is seeking city approval to demolish the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre to build two residential towers, three stories of retail space and underground parking.

Aisenstark, who runs a law firm called Avery Aisenstark LLC, attended a court hearing in Towson Oct. 31 during business hours related to the zoning fight. He said he was doing legal work for Stuart Kaplow, the attorney for the committee. Aisenstark said he took leave from work at City Hall to attend the hearing.

Aisenstark did not respond to requests for comment for this article, and previously said he would not respond to media inquiries from The Baltimore Sun. He has defended his work on behalf of the developers, saying they do not have business with his city agency and his work does not represent a conflict of interest.

Aisenstark's city responsibilities include advising elected officials on ethical matters, such as whether they can accept gifts from developers. He also advises the city's five-member ethics board, made up of citizens who consider complaints about the behavior of city officials and employees.

The mayor's office has said it is not responsible for Aisenstark or his actions. That duty falls to the Board of Legislative Reference, spokesman Ryan O'Doherty said. The board's duties, according to the charter, are to hire a director or remove him for "incompetence or neglect of duties."

The chairwoman of the Board of Ethics, Linda "Lu" Pierson, has not responded to requests for comment on Aisenstark's legal work.

According to the charter, Aisenstark's duties also include collecting and maintaining the financial disclosure forms filed by city officials. In February, The Baltimore Sun reported that the forms are rarely checked, and a comprehensive review of the forms had not been done in years.

Members of the ethics board later arranged for a city intern to review the forms. The review found that more than half of the 1,900 forms were filled out incorrectly or not at all.
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The Baltimore media pretend that the Occupy movement is over but I have been very pleased with the level of shouting loudly and strongly that went on all through the summer.  It is getting louder!  Hispanics are particularly harmed in Baltimore by the city's head turning to wage and workplace abuse.  The Mayor and Governor acts as though they welcome immigrants and then they all turn their collective heads as they are abused and laws openly broken.  We have the Minority Business lawyer suing for contract discrimination and we will have labor in there suing for lack of law enforcement!  When wages are allowed to be below an already double-poverty wage.....and this is driven by Johns Hopkins......ALL WAGES MOVE LOWER!!!

The Light of Fair Development Shines On! Posted in Events, Fight for Fair Development, Human Rights Zone, Solidarity, Unity on May 21st, 2012 by Ashley – Comments Off The March to Occupy GGP was a glorious demonstration of determination, hope, and solidarity. Low-wage workers, faith leaders, students, community organizers, and activists gathered at an elementary school in West Baltimore to prepare for the four-mile march to occupy the Inner Harbor mall. We were joined by many of our allies from Baltimore and beyond, Media Mobilizing Project, Poverty Initiative, Picture the Homeless, Community Farmworkers Alliance, Good Jobs Better Baltimore, Another BDC is Possible, Unite HERE!, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers traveling all the way from Florida.

We could not have asked for a better day, clear and bright, like the message we were sending to General Growth Properties: two years of ignoring the problem of rampant human rights abuses at your malls is unacceptable, it’s time to put your house in order and ensure workers’ human rights to work with dignity, healthcare, and education.

With that message in mind, we set off from the elementary school. Just blocks from the school, we approached Mondawmin Mall, one of six GGP malls in Maryland. Harbor workers and families led the march right into the mall singing “This Little Light of Mine, I Am Gonna Let it Shine!” We disrupted this temple of consumerism charging it with the energy of the beloved community. And just like a flash of light, we went in one door and out the other bound for the Inner Harbor.

Our march route connected us with a Baltimore much different from the Baltimore showcased to tourists in the heart of our city. But as the heart of our city, the Inner Harbor does not act like most hearts, pumping blood throughout the body down to the last fingers and toes, rejuvenating the entire body with necessary nutrients. No, this heart is a heart that only pumps one way, to the top.

As we marched down historic Pennsylvania Avenue, Baltimore’s African-American entertainment midway where Billie Holiday used to perform at the Royal Theater, we saw a city that had seen better days, but we were greeted with overwhelming expressions of solidarity from people on the street. One woman who used to work at the Inner Harbor making less than minimum wage, told us to ‘go get’em.’ One driver rolled down the window saying thank you repeatedly as she drove past the march. Marchers passing out fliers got into great conversations with bystanders who related with the message of freedom from poverty and Fair Development. In a city that has been devastated by poverty, we were not simply shining a light on the problem, but letting the light that exists within to shine through.

We kept marching, across Martin Luther King Boulevard, down Eutaw Street and past another historic and thriving Baltimore landmark, Lexington Market. In contrast to the branded space of the Inner Harbor, Lexington Market is the original festival marketplace, a commercial, social, entertainment, and transportation hub for the city. Once again, bystanders demonstrated overwhelming support for the march as we got closer and closer to our final destination, the Inner Harbor.

We arrived at last at the Inner Harbor. While tourists and consumers were surprised and entertained by our energetic spirit and music, Harborplace management were very prepared and not at all entertained. Instead of allowing the peaceful march to flow through their mall carrying the message of Fair Development, they decided instead to shut-down the mall. They locked and barred all the doors, trapping consumers inside the mall and locking consumers out, save one heavily guarded door. Ironically by shutting down their own mall, their actions were more disruptive to business than our actions. It is telling that they would rather shut-down the mall rather than engage workers and the community. Instead of coming to the table with workers, they send security to monitor and shadow our actions.

However, what their actions do reveal is that workers and allies are being heard. We wrapped up the March to Occupy GGP with words of solidarity and a recommitment to the fight for Fair Development. As Luis Larin, United Workers Leadership Organizer, stated, “the march might be over, but the fight goes on until human rights are respected.”

_________________________________________________
This law  was announced to great fanfare.  The problem is that it fails to cover most work and city hall and DLLR allow loopholes to circumvent it.  I want to take a look at how this law is actively undermined.  Keep in mind this law largely relates to service and maintenance contracts AND ONLY BOOSTS WAGES A FEW DOLLARS, YET IT NEEDS TO BE CIRCUMVENTED?  THIS IS SHAMEFUL!

What is the Living Wage?
Governor Martin O'Malley signed a bill into law establishing Maryland's Living Wage. The new law is effective as of October 1, 2007. The Living Wage Law requires certain contractors and subcontractors to pay minimum wage rates to employees working under certain State services contracts. The Living Wage Law currently requires the payment of the Living Wage of either $12.49 per hour, effective September 27, 2011 or $9.39 per hour effective September 27, 2011 depending upon the jurisdiction where the services are performed. The State Living Wage does not apply to county and municipal contracts although some local governments such as Montgomery County and Baltimore City have their own living wage requirements.  This law applies prospectively only to contracts awarded after October 1, 2007.

FOR BALTIMORE:

Living Wage All service contracts established by Ordinance 442, and currently referenced by the City Code, Article 5, Subtitle 25, require the payment of the City’s Living Wage. The Commission conducts an annual study using federal poverty guidelines to determine the future wage rate to be paid. The recommendation is then submitted to the Board of Estimates. The current hourly Living Wage rate of $10.59 will remain in effect through June 30, 2012.

So, what these city council and state assembly people do when a contract actually fits with the Living Wage laws is construct the award so that it fails to meet a specification, in the case below......the $100,000 baseline.

The following minimum hourly wage rates shall apply to all contracts in excess of One Hundred
Thousand Dollars ($100,000)                   
General Laborers13.90

I took this from this week's Board of Estimate agenda.  It happens so often that the Baltimore Brew wrote articles highlighting the practice.  Mind you, your elected officials should be working towards the spirit of the law, not actively helping companies to circumvent it.  This shows a contract that if not augmented would have been over the $100,000 threshold and it is a maintenance contract.  The wage laws do not kick in for $75,079 and $82,175     LabVantage is the third largest LIMS provider in the world.   THEY HAVE A LOT OF MONEY BUT CAN'T PAY A LIVING WAGE?



The Board is requested to approve
the Extra Work Order
/INCREASES TO CONTRACTS AND EXTENSIONS

11. LABVANTAGE $ 75,079.05 Ratification SOLUTIONS, 7,097.95 Term Order INC. 28,391.80

Solicitation No. 08000 – Software Maintenance Agreement – Department of Public Works, Environmental Service Division – P.O. No. P515926

On October 20, 2010, the Board approved the initial award in the amount of $82,175.00. The Department of Public Works continued to use software maintenance services from the vendor beyond the term of the original contract. The requested action will allow ratification of the contract, and the agency to continue to utilize the requirement covered by the contract until the time a new contract is awarded. The period of the ratification is January 1, 2012 through November 6, 2012. The term order is for the period of November 7, 2012 through December 31, 2012.
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In Maryland all labor is forced to make all kinds of partnerships in order to get work.  If you have a Mayor or Governor working for corporations to hand Maryland labor and small businesses over to these larger corps on a silver platter, then you have contractors who play the game.  So, if you keep wages low and you shout out for politician's issues you will get the work.  This is why unions have such a hard time in Maryland yet they always team up with the very pols that make their lives difficult.  Trade unions support all these 'job creators' and yet the union jobs never surface.  We'll watch National Harbor.

Minority contractors in Baltimore are the most abused business group.  I watch Board of Estimate meetings where one after another long-term minority contractor is sent packing.  There are only a handful of black contractors that are consistently awarded contracts and Pless Jones is one.  You know in a city with a majority of African-Americans, there are thousands of minority businesses.  WE WANT PLESS JONES TO FIGHT FOR STRONG LABOR AND UNIONS!

Mr. Jones,

I read your article in the Baltimore Sun about labor at National Harbor and PLAs.  When you highlighted that only 11% of Maryland's construction workforce is union, you identified the problem.  If we are to get wages back up to a middle-class living wage we must have strong unions.  We all know that laws surrounding Living Wage and Prevailing Wage are all circumvented by contractors all the time....perhaps by you as well.  I am writing to you in particular because first, you are a minority contractor and second, because you always seem to be out front on all issues pushed by the Governor and Mayor of Baltimore that leave me, a labor and social justice advocate, scratching my head.  You know what?  Other contractors think you are have a monopoly on minority business because you speak out for issues that leave people scratching their heads.

I speak with labor all the time.  Those that aren't unionized speak of contractors that hire at one hourly rate and then make the worker agree to hand back as much as $5 an hour.  Or we see companies that organize themselves so that they have less than 10 employees or employees come from out of state and are paid their home state wage.  Then we see contracts awarded for less than $100,000 that are later augmented by an Extra Work Order letting them escape wage requires.

Now believe me when I say that I truly doubt that a union contract will be signed in National Harbor as it is all Enterprise Zone and I have not seen union labor.....mostly immigrant labor on Enterprise Zone jobs.  I also know that Enterprise Zone construction has mostly right-to-work labor brought into Maryland.  So, I am not naive enough to think what the governor or mayor have in mind is better than your viewpoint.  These construction contracts are most often bad for the worker and bad for local contractors like yourself.

My point is this:  



We want to clean up all these ways of circumventing the system to the benefit of equal playing field for contractors and a strong wage for the worker.  Minorities, black and Hispanic (and I say Women), are in need of this protection and we would hope a minority contractor like yourself would lead the way.  Unions have all of the organizing structure to fight these problems and would do so if they weren't at the 11% disadvantage in Maryland.  Why not promote unionization rather than disclaim it?  Hire only union employees and watch the National Harbor deal to lobby for actual hiring of union labor.




Thank you in advance for advocating for the best for minority and women workers and businesses!




Cindy Walsh

Citizens Oversight Maryland


Dixon orders open bidding on future demolitions

By Annie Linskey | annie.linskey@baltsun.com September 9, 2009

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon directed the city's quasi-public development arm Tuesday to use a competitive bidding process for all future demolition projects, reversing a year-old policy and bringing the agency into line with city rules.

The Baltimore Sun reported Monday that the Baltimore Development Corp. awarded a $378,477 contract to demolish the Maryland Chemical building to P&J Contracting, owned by Pless Jones, without publicly advertising that the job was available. Instead, BDC officials contacted a handful of city demolition firms and picked the lowest of three offers they received. The BDC was in the midst of using a similar process for a second contract to knock down nearby warehouses.

Jones, who got the Maryland Chemical contract, is a frequent contributor to Dixon and other city elected officials. He also received a $4 million contract to demolish buildings on the Uplands project although paperwork on his bid was out of date.

YET PLESS JONES DECRIES FAVORITISM WHEN IT COMES TO UNIONS AND STRONG WAGES!!!!

A sixth casino would create jobs, but for whom? Agreement to use union workers would shut out most in Maryland

By Pless B. Jones Sr. 11:14 a.m. EDT, August 7, 2012

It seems you can't turn on the television or the radio this summer without hearing some voice extolling the virtues of bringing a sixth casino to Maryland —this one to be built inPrince George's County. And while there is an active public dialogue on the issue of expanded gaming, it is important for Marylanders to understand what is being promised and what may underlie the rhetoric. One particular element of the proponents' campaign deserves clarification — the jobs promised.

As The Baltimore Sun reported on July 13 ("National Harbor ad claims not supported by state analysis") there is much that is misleading in the ad campaign paid for by Building Trades for the National Harbor, which urges the public to support a sixth casino. In the misleading category is the claim that a "resort casino in Prince George's County would create thousands of good paying jobs," presumably for Marylanders.

The truth is that while there may be thousands of construction jobs in building a new resort, those jobs would be largely closed to the Maryland workforce. As a result of an agreement the developer of the National Harbor project has indicated he will sign, the new casino would be built under what is called a project labor agreement.

A project labor agreement (PLA) is an agreement between developers of construction projects and construction unions, under which construction firms must work as union shops; they must enter into collective bargaining agreements with the unions and hire union workers through union hiring halls. Where PLAs are required, the jobs are limited to a union-only workforce, which compels merit shop contractors like me to forgo my own trained employees for workers whose quality and ability are unknown to me.

There are currently 146,215 construction workers who live and work in Maryland. These are the men and women who build our hospitals and our schools. They refurbish hotels and repair roads and bridges. Their handiwork, skill and craftsmanship literally dot our landscape from the Eastern Shore to Garrett County.

But of these 146,215 workers, only 11 percent have chosen to belong to a union. Under a PLA, almost 90 percent of our construction workforce would not be eligible for the jobs to build this new resort casino. And, for local minority and women-owned firms, 95 percent of whom do not belong to unions, the result is a virtual lock-out of the competitive bidding process. This would include my company, a Baltimore City-based merit shop construction firm and minority business, which I have worked hard to build for over 40 years.

Maryland has a proud tradition of union and non-union (or merit shop) construction firms working side by side, without labor unrest, on literally thousands of projects all across the state. All of these workers have been significantly impacted by our nation's sagging economy and are just now beginning to see a rebound.

We know that labor unions urge the use of PLA's as a means of ensuring that workers receive good wages, benefits and apprentice training. But the truth of the matter is that the state's prevailing wage law ensures that workers, union and non-union alike, are similarly compensated on public works projects. Rather, as taxpayers we should be wary of any proposal that that would restrict competition and would discriminate against nearly 9 out of every 10 Maryland construction workers.

No matter what our views on this gaming issue, we would hope that any major construction project would be open to all Marylanders — not just the select few who have chosen to belong to unions. No Marylander should suffer the injustices of discrimination, whether we are talking about race, age, sex or labor affiliation.

Pless B. Jones Sr. is the owner of P&J Contracting Co. and president of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association. His email is pless.jones@pandjcontracting.com.

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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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