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    The Corporate Hijacking of Public Education Crystal Sylvia March 11, 2011

    *See "The Myth of the 'Crappy Teacher'" which accompanies this article in the print edition.

    The education reform movement currently sweeping the country has been embraced by the likes of Bill Gates, President Obama, Al Sharpton, Newt Gingrich, Bill Cosby, and Oprah Winfrey. Some may be inspired to see such a divergent group joining forces to help make public schools better for children. However, when you take a closer look at the policies involved in this reform, the reality is quite chilling.

    Michelle Rhee, the former Chancellor of DC Public Schools (DCPS), is the face of what needs to be called corporate education reform. The premises of corporate education reform are: the main impediments to improving public schools are teachers’ unions because they rigidly defend bad teachers; schools need to be run like businesses to make them less bureaucratic and more dynamic; educational experience is not required to be a teacher, principal, or chancellor; the corporate education reform model is the only way public education can be transformed; and success can be measured through data-driven outcomes, with the most important data being student test scores.

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    Defeating ‘White Rage’: An Anti-Racist Call to Action! Lydia Pelot-Hobbs January 1, 2010

    Since Obama’s inauguration, the right wing has mounted a major campaign to de-legitimize his administration. The past six months have seen tens of thousands of white protesters mobilized across the US, through so called “tea parties” fueled by right-wing radio and TV personalities. At a time when many working class communities are feeling the effects of the economic crisis and seeing sharp rises in unemployment and job loss—protests against the stimulus package and healthcare reform have brought with them a severe anti-black and anti-immigrant backlash, painting Barack Obama as “foreign-born,” “socialist,” and “fascist.”

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    Turning the Tide: Migrant Rights, Barrio Defense, and New Directions B. Loewe December 1, 2010

    These days people are scared. Whether it’s fear of big government or job loss, immigration raids or foreclosure, socialism or fascism, police violence or terrorist attacks, cap and trade or ecological collapse, one thing we all hold in common is an undeniable sense of insecurity.  Which direction the country goes to resolve these fears is largely up to us. Times of crisis hand us all with the responsibility to answer the question, “How shall we be together as a people?” One of the key sites for resolving that question is the migrant rights movement and the resolution of who is and who is not considered part of the body-politic.

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    Women's Work: A Review of "Want to Start a Revolution?" Rachel Herzing December 1, 2010

    WANT TO START A REVOLUTION?
    EDITED BY DAYO F. GORE, JEANNE THEOHARIS, AND KOMOZI WOODARD
    NYU Press, 2009

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    With Liberty and Justice for All? Jon Liss June 1, 2010

    The war against immigrants has just taken another turn for the worse with the passage of SB 1070 by the Arizona state legislature. This law is designed to criminalize undocumented immigrants, all who help them, and ultimately all who "look" like them! It is a continuation of a 20-year battle that will ultimately determine the future of the US. Winning full political and economic rights for 10 to 15 million immigrants will have an impact comparable to that of freed slaves and the rise of Black reconstruction in the 1860s and 1870s or to the formation of Roosevelt's New Deal coalition in the 1930s and 1940s.

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    Burning Too Few Illusions Mike Davis July 14, 2002

    The 1992 Los Angeles riot never happened. Forgive me—I am not trying to be clever. This is not a philosophical provocation in the mode of Jean Baudrillard’s notorious claim that the 1989 Gulf War was ‘impossible.’ Rather, it is a straightforward argument from the factual record: the 1992 riot, as visualized by most of the world, never happened.

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