“Bad Teachers”
This is such an interesting and heartening read. And it relates to Community and Technical College Instructors perfectly. Enjoy!
Time is Now
This is an important article about what is happening to students as a result of the constant defunding of community colleges around the country. Here in WA State, we are up against it in the new session in Olympia. And even if we do well there, a great deal of work needs to be done to redirect the public agenda to include a robust resource rich approach to public colleges. The public is proving time and again that community colleges are needed most in hard times. And good times. There is no need to prove our worth in a long-term vie of return on investment. Why are we creating another situation for people to end up in debt when we know that to do. It’s called the right thing.
Washington state’s tax breaks are breaking the bank – and crippling our schools
This is a fantastic as well as fantastically important. Please read and pass it on. The more we know, the harder it will be for the lies about the budget to continue.
Hands Untied: A video for the Special Session
Welcome to the week of the special session of the Washington State legislature. You have likely heard about the dire predictions for revenue shortfalls and potential cuts. You may have also heard that advocates and activists are going to the capitol to register our concerns. We thought we’d start the week with a little movie trailer:
The Income Tax of 1935 is a real piece of legislation. It would be cheeky for sure, but the Governor could sign it and force a court battle. Even considering substantial climate change, this snowball’s chance in hell is not really the point.
The reason for using the Income Tax of 1935 in the video is to snap out of the mindset that the Governor, or legislators, are incapable of doing things differently than the status quo – which led to this point of desperate measures. Our commitment to our children, our citizens and the future itself is in real jeopardy.
Simply blaming everything on forces outside of Washington State does not do justice to the fact that we have the resources in this State to fix our dire straights in a hurry.
Pushing for new and innovative solutions is one of the principles we will be living by. And not allowing a sales tax battle to split interests against one another is more important than ever. Please stand with social services, health care and all of our vital Washington State agencies.
We need GUTS not CUTS. Income, not sales tax. And political courage not expediency. There are very concrete proposals on the table to raise more revenue than the sales tax proposal would, and begin the long road toward correction of an upside-down state tax system.
Please read more about some of the other options here:
http://oureconomicfuture.org/pdf/TalkingPoints.pdf
http://www.eoionline.org/tax_reform/fact_sheets/one-billion-in-progressive-revenue_nov11.pdf
http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1383&context=sulr
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-solution-close-tax-loopholes/Content?oid=7336303
http://oureconomicfuture.org/pdf/ExemptionsVsProgramCuts.pdf
Two links
Hello Everyone. The teach-ins at Seattle Central campus, held by faculty from all Seattle campuses, received this write-up. Stay tuned for more teach-in announcements.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/11/05/us/AP-US-Occupy-Seattle-Classes.html?_r=1&hp
A vibrant and important dialogue regarding the Occupy Movement and our campaign will continue. As we face a special session in the legislature for another potential round of cuts, strategic choices are that much more important. Please send your comments as we form next steps.
This article from the Rolling Stone provides analysis that has been hard to find in most media. It is a terrific piece to open discussion for folks with multiple viewpoints:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-ows-protests-20111110#ixzz1dJytaKL9
Proud Faculty Teaching @ Occupy Seattle
Last night, I listened to my colleagues teach topics that ranged from tax fairness to labor history to better writing for position statments to an emotionally riveting presentation of the Letter from Birmingham Jail. We taught in the rain and frosty cold on the South Plaza of Seattle Central campus from 9 pm until 7 am with participants of Occupy Seattle. I have not been this proud to be a teacher on these campuses in a very long time. Thank you to everyone who came out and participated in this “teach-in” Here is a gallery of images from this weekend. Video will come soon. Sandy
http://gallery.me.com/sandycioffi#100062
Seattle AFT Teaches @Occupy Seattle
PRESS RELEASE
Faculty conduct all-night classes on South Lawn at Seattle Central Community College
Teach-in supports Occupy Seattle encampment
Faculty from Seattle Central, South Seattle, and North Seattle Community Colleges will be teaching courses throughout the night at the Occupy Seattle encampment on Sunday, October 30, 2011, beginning at 9 p.m.
9 p.m. – 10 p.m. “The Economic Reality” and “AFT Seattle’s history of activism.” Teachers: John Burbank, Economic Opportunity Institute; Lynn Dodson, secretary of King County Labor Council; Richard Burton, political chair, KCLC.
10 p.m. – 12 p.m “Community Service Organizations.” Teachers: Rick Olguin and Carol Hamilton, faculty, NSCC.
12 p.m. – 1 a.m. “Rhetoric of Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from
Birmingham Jail.’” Teacher: Jeb Wyman, faculty, SCCC.
1 a.m. – 2 a.m. “Lobbying the legislature.” Teacher: Karen Strickland,
president, AFT-Seattle.
2 a.m. – 3 a.m. “Camera Techniques for Documenting Human Rights
Abuses.” Teacher: Sandy Cioffi, faculty, SCCC.
3 a.m. – 4 a.m. “Economics and Politics.” Teacher: Kshama Sawant,
faculty, SCCC.
4 a.m – 5 a.m. “The Art of Protest Signs.” Teacher: Don Barrie, faculty SCCC.
5 a.m. – 6 a.m. “Labor History and the Psychology of Greed.”Teacher:
Dove John, faculty, SCCC.
6 a.m – 7 a.m. “Crafting a Position Statement.” Teacher: Aryana
Bates, faculty, NSCC.
The teach-in is organized by the American Federation of Teachers-Seattle, Local 1789 (AFT Seattle), representing 1000 teachers at local community colleges. Yesterday, AFT Seattle passed a resolution in support of Occupy Seattle’s plan to camp on the Seattle Central Campus.
The intent of the teach-in is to demonstrate support for the Occupy Seattle movement, part of a national protest against the vastly increasing disparity of wealth, a political process manipulated by money, the shameful neglect of education in this country. AFT Seattle believes the massive de-funding of higher education in Washington is undermining our prosperity, our society, and our democracy.
“We feel it’s vital to show the city–and the world–that the concerns of many faculty at our institutions resonate with the Occupy movement,” says Karen Strickland, president of AFT Seattle. “Our decision to endorse OS coming to Seattle Central is important. Several months ago we decided to launch our Enough Already campaign to raise awareness about the de-funding of our institutions. The OS movement offers us an opportunity to move forward with our goals.”
The average income of the top 1% increased from around $500,000 in 1994 to 1,137,000 in 2008. The average income of the 99% was $41,333 in 1994 and rose to only $43,372 in 2008, while student tuition has more than doubled ($432 in 1994, $910 in 2008, $1180 2011), and now covers 50.6% of the cost of their education, compared with 29% in 1994-1995.
Several months ago AFT Seattle launched the Enough Already campaign to raise awareness about the catastrophic de-funding of Seattle’s community colleges. Please see the Enough Already campaign website (http://teacherswithspine.org/) for more information.
The decision to support the Occupy Movement follows Governor Gregoire’s announcement of an additional 15% cut to the community college budget, on top of a 17% reduction in state funding already taken this year.
While the SCCC President Paul Killpatrick initially rejected OS on campus due to concern about student access, AFT Seattle believes that our students’ access to an education has already been severely restricted due to budget cuts.
Occupy Seattle comes to Seattle Central Community College.
Listening Forums Week 2
Ed Ciok makes a statement at the Central Campus forum.
Last week, our Listening Forums began at North and Central campuses. We had vibrant discussions, great refreshments and a small arts and crafts outlet for expression. Seriously though, the quality of faculty input toward the campaign is extremely high. We will continue these discussions this week and provide a full report including some direct quotations and notes on this site in the coming weeks. Please check back to see what is next. And please attend this week at either SVI or South campus. We look forward to seeing you there.
Listening forum kick-off this week
This week, our campaign listening forums begin.
We must act now to do something differently than we have before. But the philosophy and specifics of our campaign are to be determined by you.
These conversations will be facilitated to produce a real result of a finished strategy made by all of us. If you cannot attend any session but want to participate, please write on the comments section. We want everyone represented; all viewpoints will truly be honored.
This will be our campaign. We will forge the most vital consensus possible about how to continue to be top quality educators. And we will create a plan for future action. The AFT Local 1789 participated in the Rebuild the American Dream Conference.
As a part of our “Enough Already” campaign, we will be considering an official endorsement and joining this building movement. Participants in the upcoming forums will receive a copy of the Contract for the American Dream. Please spend some time reading and watching here:
In addition, these resources may provide some interesting discussion as well. You will see that these materials are from all over the political spectrum. Check back for more links and blog entries periodically.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/privatize_education.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/wash-o28.shtml
https://chronicle.com/article/Privatization-Overtakes-the/128811/
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Problem-With-In-State/128371/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-emdin/teachers-occupy-wall-street_b_998126.html
Defending the commons at the people’s college
From Rewiring Solidarity:
“We’re a democratizing force”
Not everybody in Seattle loves Bill Gates.
“Gates wants to tell us how to teach, but I just want him to pay his fair share of taxes,” said Sandy Cioffi, a film and video instructor at Seattle Central Community College.
Cioffi doesn’t want creative partnerships with corporations such as Gates’ Microsoft for her school. She wants something more substantial – tax loopholes for corporations closed.
“I don’t want to hold out my hand like Oliver and say ‘Please, sir, more,’” she said in a reference to Charles Dickens’ famous orphan. “I want Microsoft to pay more than one percent in taxes.”
Cioffi’s local, AFT 1789, has begun a project to respond to the rising tuition costs and defunding of community colleges by the state over the last several decades and go back to the promise of the Community College Act of 1967—accessible and affordable public education for the public good.
“We’re a democratizing force,” added Local 1789 President Karen Strickland. “But what we’re seeing now is increased poverty and less democracy. We need the public to see public education as an investment in public good, not as a budget item.”
Read more from Rewiring Solidarity: Defending the commons at the people’s college
