ChesapeakeCitizen's blog

A Tale of Two Coasts: Clean Transit Heroines Janette Sadik-Khan and Chandra Brown

ChesapeakeCitizen — Sun, 08 May 2011 11:43:35 +0000

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries

ChesapeakeCitizen — Mon, 02 May 2011 03:53:12 +0000

By DAVE EGGERS and NÍNIVE CLEMENTS CALEGARI

New York Times, April 30, 2011

WHEN we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No one contemplates blaming the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition.

And yet in education we do just that. When we don’t like the way our students score on international standardized tests, we blame the teachers. When we don’t like the way particular schools perform, we blame the teachers and restrict their resources.

No Future No Peace - US Uncut's Teach-in at BofA, New York City

ChesapeakeCitizen — Mon, 02 May 2011 03:34:09 +0000

No Future, No Peace

by Allison Kilkenny | April 30, 2011
TheNation.com

New York City organizers from the anti-tax dodging movement US Uncut today staged two peaceful teach-ins at Bank of America branches. Carl Gibson, the founder of the original US Uncut chapter in Jackson, Mississippi, joined the NYC protesters. Gibson was in town after playing a major role in the Washington, DC Power Shift flash mob [1] that successfully shut down a BP gas station, and the GE-oriented prank [2] pulled on the media in tandem with the Yes Men.

The bank is a familiar target for the tax dodging movement, and has been an object of the group’s outrage since US Uncut’s inception. “Bank of America hasn’t paid taxes on earnings in the last two years,” Gibson explains. “While they’re getting away with not paying taxes, we’re getting budget cuts.”

World Half Empty -Succinct Peak Oil Analysis With Solutions, By My Art Student!

ChesapeakeCitizen — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:17:15 +0000

Video by Dylan Greene
Contact information: dylan@balt-trans.org

Cal State Students Stage Sit-In to Protest Budget Cuts

ChesapeakeCitizen — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:51:45 +0000

by Allison Kilkenny | April 21, 2011
www.thenation.com

Many people assume Americans are prone to apathy and oftentimes diffident to hit the streets in protest. To this, I reply that labeling US citizens as impassive requires completely overlooking the rich tradition of activism on campuses nationwide. Particularly, students in California could run clinics on how exactly civil disobedience should be done, so it’s no surprise that the students at California State University, Fullerton [1], spent a second night in the school’s administration building last night in protest over cuts to the university’s system budget.

The sit-in began Monday night after CSUP President Milton Gordon refused to sign a symbolic declaration in defense of public education. (Photos of the occupation can be viewed here [2]). Cal State faces at least $500 million in cuts during the next fiscal year.

US Uncut, Ruckus Society, Brass Liberation Orchestra "Pay Up!" Flashmob at S.F. BofA

ChesapeakeCitizen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:26:08 +0000

BP's Oil Spill Tax Credit Matches EPA's Entire Annual Budget

ChesapeakeCitizen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:39:17 +0000

By Allison Kilkenny, at Nation Magazine online. Read article here:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/160023/bps-oil-spill-tax-credit-matches-ep...

Power Shift 2011's Polluter Protest in Washington, D.C.

ChesapeakeCitizen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:25:52 +0000

Make BP Pay! Not the EPA! D.C. Action, Powershift 2011

ChesapeakeCitizen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:21:14 +0000

Who’s Bashing Teachers and Public Schools and What Can We Do About It? (Hint: It's About Fixing Our Democracy)

ChesapeakeCitizen — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:20:38 +0000

by Stan Karp

www.rethinkingschools.org

The short answer to this question is that far too many people are bashing teachers and public schools, and we need to give them more homework, because very few of them know what they’re talking about. And a few need some serious detention.(Illustration: David McLimans)

But the longer answer is that the bashing is coming from different places for different reasons. And to respond effectively to the very real attacks that our schools, our profession, and our communities face, it’s important to pay attention to these differences.

The parent who’s angry at the public school system because it’s not successfully educating his/her children is not the same as the billionaire with no education experience who couldn’t survive in a classroom for two days, but who has made privatizing education policy a hobby, and who has the resources to do so because the country’s financial and tax systems are broken.