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Michael Dunn's Blog (106)

LAUSD: More Bureaucracy to Save Black Boys?

In honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday, LAUSD’s lame duck superintendent Ramon Cortines announced that he has convened a committee to help black students finally close the achievement gap. In LAUSD, 71% of white…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 19, 2011 at 12:11am — No Comments

Did Johnson Steal DFT Election?

Keith Johnson, an ally of Arne Duncan, Eli Broad and Robert Bobb (the guy who wants to increase class sizes to 60 students), is claiming victory in the recent runoff election for president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 18, 2011 at 11:02pm — No Comments

Why Can't a Boy Be More Like a Girl?

My first reaction upon seeing the title, “Why Can't a Boy Be More Like a Girl?” was, “Why would we want boys to be more like girls? Boys are perfectly fine the way they…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 17, 2011 at 7:22pm — 1 Comment

Teachers Strike Over Job Cuts

In England, teachers have gone on strike at Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, over proposed job cuts. The school plans to cut 34 staff, including up to 20 teachers, in order to reduce a £1.3 million…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 17, 2011 at 1:07pm — No Comments

Republican Ninny State Says No to Teacher Gestapo

Republicans are not only ignoring calls to tone down their vitriolic rhetoric, they seem to be hell bent on turning every one of their pet projects for enriching themselves into a circus of absurd and violent ranting. In one of the latest examples, Rep. Sondra Erickson,…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 16, 2011 at 7:59pm — No Comments

Authentic School Choice for Virtually No One

The school choice and voucher movement is heating up again, with the new Republican majority in congress and pressure from their Tea Party supporters. They want less “Big Government” intervention (read: less support for publicly funded and publicly controlled local schools that…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 16, 2011 at 5:03pm — No Comments

NewTLA: Voice of Reform or Reaction Within UTLA?

NewTLA: Voice of Reform or Reaction Within UTLA?…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 15, 2011 at 9:01pm — No Comments

Arlene Ackerman’s Iron Fist

Echoing the Justice…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 8:42pm — No Comments

California Plans to Gut Higher Education

Jerry…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 8:20pm — No Comments

Study Finds High Toxin Levels in Pregnant Women

A new study by the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) has found over 40 toxins in the blood and urine of pregnant women. Many of the toxins have been banned in the U.S. since the 1970s, before many of the…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 7:58pm — No Comments

Poverty Diminishes Vocabulary

A common theme in my writing is how much poverty impacts…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 4:42pm — No Comments

Class Sizes of 62--Detroit to Close 70 More Schools

Detroit’s financial manager, Robert Bobb, wants to close 70 more schools to help close the city’s $327 million budget deficit. Bobb said that the school closings will increase high school…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 4:40pm — No Comments

Texas Anti-Immigration Hysteria

Just when you thought Arizona had usurped Texas’ standing as the most xenophobic state in the nation, Texas has come back with a host of proposed new anti-immigrant legislation,…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 4:38pm — No Comments

Left Wing Sellout in Chicago?

When the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) took over the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) last year, many teachers were hopeful that things would change, especially the horrible policies of Arne Duncan and the collaborationist policies of the old school CTU.…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 4:37pm — No Comments

SF Schools Rogues Gallery

Superintendent of San Francisco Schools, Carlos Garcia, has vowed to reform his administration and make accounting more transparent, in an attempt to clean up the image of SFUSD in the wake of the Trish Bascom embezzlement scandal. (Didn’t Arlene Ackerman do this already?)…

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Added by Michael Dunn on January 14, 2011 at 4:36pm — No Comments