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Documentary films ratchet up pressure on teachers unions-AFT Pres Weingarten Invited Gates
Union buster and education privatizer Bill Gates is a major backer of the new anti-labor film "Waiting For Superman". He was also invited as the guest of honor by AFT President Randy Weingarten to their 2010 AFT national convention. Weingarten is a major backer of charter schools in NYC and Washington DC. where she received millions of dollars from the Wal-Mart Walton Foundation to help privatize the schools. She defended her support of Green Dot charter schools in NYC as well.
Documentary films ratchet up pressure on teachers unions - AFT Pres Weingarten Invited Bill Gates To AFT Convention While Gates Was Backing pro-privatizaton film "Waiting For Superman"
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/24/3052921/documentary-films-ratchet-up-pressure.html
Friday, September 24, 2010
Paramount Pictures
A scene from the documentary "Waiting for Superman" shows preparations for a lottery in Washington, D.C., to determine which four students will be accepted into the SEED Charter School.
MORE INFORMATION
NOW PLAYING
"Waiting for Superman" opens today in Los Angeles and New York City. It opens Oct. 1 in San Francisco and Oct. 8 in Sacramento.
"The films criticize tenure and highlight how difficult it is for school districts to fire bad teachers. They present the unions as a major cause of problems in America's public schools." Unions, greed and bureaucracies have crippled this state and this nation. If we can ever move past our pervading sound-bite mentality we may actually have a chance to fix something by looking at the reality of what's going on around us. Oh, and teacher's union please don't trot out the tired "it's for the children" line. It hasn't been about the children for almost two generations now. The results make that fact painfully obvious.
-- alzheimer_society
Leave your comment
More on sacbee.com powered by Lingospot
Court overturns Oregon laws against giving explicit books to minors
CAROL J. WILLIAMS, 3 days, 21 hours ago
Microsoft's Gates joins' Superman' school mission
DAVID GERMAIN, 2 days, 1 hour ago
Documentary films ratchet up pressure on teachers unions
Share
By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall [at] sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Sep. 24, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Political pressure on teachers unions has been mounting for months, with national attention focused on charter schools, merit pay and other approaches to education that unions generally hate.
Now the pressure is moving to the big screen in a manner sure to pervade the public consciousness in a whole new way. Three new documentary films explore public education, taking stances that have inflamed teachers unions and brought applause from organizations that support charter schools and other union-busting changes.
The films criticize tenure and highlight how difficult it is for school districts to fire bad teachers. They present the unions as a major cause of problems in America's public schools. The solution, offered in two of the films through compelling stories of children trying to get into better schools through a lottery, is charter schools.
It's not the first time filmmakers have turned their lenses on schools, but the cluster of documentaries – and the massive publicity push associated with one of them – illustrates a new chapter in American education: the growing influence of charter schools and the philanthropies that support them.
Charters – public schools that are free from many of the regulations that govern traditional schools – have been around since the 1990s but have enjoyed increasing support under the Obama administration. Most charter schools are not unionized, making them a natural adversary for teachers unions.
Charters are touted as an alternative for families unhappy with their neighborhood school, and have proliferated in urban areas where many schools don't perform well. That's created a new narrative for filmmakers – one that may propel movies about education out of obscurity and into the mainstream.
"Documentary makers have for decades been interested in education, but they have generally failed as films or failed to get traction with wide audiences," said Jon Else, who teaches documentary filmmaking at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
"What's changed in the landscape this month is that we now have this very high-profile film that happens to have a great title."
"Waiting for Superman" is the most visible of the new education-themed films. It opens today in some cities and Oct. 8 in Sacramento. The movie has already enjoyed lots of publicity: Oprah Winfrey featured it on her show earlier this week, and Time magazine put it on the cover, saying the film "is not just a movie but a dispatch from a revolution."
Made by the same team behind "An Inconvenient Truth," "Waiting for Superman" profiles five kids in cities across the United States who are trying to get into charter schools. One story line featuresMichelle Rhee, the Washington, D.C., schools chief – who is engaged to marry Sacramento MayorKevin Johnson – as she lays off teachers and fights her local union over tenure.
While the film notes that not all charters are successful – in California, they perform about on par with traditional schools – the human tales it chronicles highlight charters as the best existing alternative.
Philanthropies that have emerged as a dominant force opposing teachers unions are funding efforts to promote the film. The Gates, Broad and Fisher foundations – which have poured millions into charter schools nationwide – are paying for a "social action campaign" to accompany the film, urging viewers to get involved with policy decisions that affect education.
WaitingForSuperman.com tells visitors how to start a charter, urges them to attend school board meetings and asks that they contact their governor to support creating a national curriculum for public schools.
"We think the film is a great wake-up call for Americans about the extent of the education crisis and a rallying point to raise awareness," said Erica Lepping, a spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation, which gave $500,000 to support advocacy related to "Waiting for Superman."
The Broad Foundation also gave $50,000 to support marketing for "The Lottery," which was in theaters over the summer and is now on DVD. It tells the story of four children in New York Citytrying to get into a charter called Harlem Success Academy. Their futures hinge on the results of a lottery.
"It's a sobering movie and a depiction of what's happening in our country," Mayor Johnson said after a screening of "The Lottery" in Sacramento last month. Johnson is a hero in the national charter schools movement for his role in converting Sacramento High into a charter in 2003 in the face of virulent union opposition.
The screening was sponsored by EdVoice, an advocacy group that supports charters, and the local chapter of the NAACP.
In both "The Lottery" and "Waiting for Superman," the drawing to see who gets into the charter schools provides the climactic, nail-biter moment that many previous education movies have lacked.
"It leaves the impression that public school teachers are bad, that charter schools are a panacea and that teachers unions are responsible for failing schools," said Michael Powell, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, one of two national teachers unions. "Anybody who knows about these issues knows it's much more complicated than that."
The third film, called "Teached," is in the editing phase. It will tell the stories of several teachers, including a former Elk Grove Unified teacher who was laid off during budget cuts because of union policies regarding seniority.
"It's not anti-union, but it is questioning tenure," director Kelly Amis said of her film. "And asking whether tenure as it is today supports teachers and supports students."
The National Education Association, the larger of the two national teachers unions, considered spending $3.5 million to create an ad campaign to counter "the media propaganda of this summer's series of anti-teacher union documentaries," according to an agenda from its July meeting.
In the end, union officials decided it wasn't worth it, said John Wilson, executive director.
"I think the films are a blip. They will come and go, but the union will still be there, our members will still be in these schools," he said. "We don't see any advantage of going to war with documentarians."
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/news_chick_blog/20100920/Bill-Gates-on-Oprah-today-~-Waiting-for-Superman/
Bill Gates "Waiting for Superman" with Oprah
Comments | Print this | E-mail this
When Bill Gates on Oprah yesterday didn't talk about "what's it like to be one of the richest men in the world." The topic was - education.
Oprah featured the documentary "Waiting for Superman," which is about education reform. It's directed by the same man who worked on Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" - Davis Guggenheim.
Here's what Gates has to say about the documentary, and his interest in education reform, on his blog Gates Notes:
I’m appearing today on The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about an important new film that I think everyone should see. It’s called “Waiting for Superman”. The film’s depiction of the state of America’s public education system is something people won’t quickly forget. In fact, I think it’s the kind of movie that is powerful enough to influence – and hopefully even change – the public consciousness about our approach to education.
There’s no question that the quality of our education system helped to make America great. But today, many of our public schools are failing. Only one-third of high school students are prepared for college when they graduate. And half of minority students drop out of high school altogether.
It’s a tragedy that so many families have no real alternative for their children than a failing local public school. We need dramatic change, but it’s a difficult story to tell.
Director Davis Guggenheim tells the story brilliantly, and with great urgency. As an Academy-award winning director of An Inconvenient Truth, Guggenheim introduces us to several students and lets us get to know them, their families, and their desire to get a great education. He is a great storyteller, and conveys the story of these students with powerful emotional impact.
Guggenheim also breaks down complex but critically important policy matters such as inconsistent state standards, teacher effectiveness, and educational data in a way that is compelling and convincing.
The film focuses on charter schools, which we know are only one aspect of the solution. The foundation supports high-performing charter schools as labs for education innovation. But charter schools reach only about 3 percent of our public school students, so they are only one part of a multi-faceted, system-wide set of solutions.
Great teaching remains at the center of the solution. Improving schools will require that we figure out how to improve the way we train, measure and reward effective teachers. Achieving that will be hard and it will take a great deal of effort. The foundation is working with several partners who are actively engaged with us in groundbreaking efforts to improve teacher effectiveness.
I was pleased to have a small part in the film. I agreed to be interviewed because I believe we are at a unique moment for education reform and I want to do everything I can to support this change.
I encourage others to get involved too. You can start by seeing the film and visiting web sites associated with the film, such as getschooled.com andwaitingforsuperman.com/action.
Photo courtsey Harpo Productions
YouTube - Bill Gates in Sundance movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bud52q4bi1o
breakingnews11 | January 26, 2010
Bill Gates appears briefly in "Waiting for Superman," a documentary on the problems of America's public education system.
Category:
http://www.ditii.com/2010/09/20/bill-gates-on-oprah-waiting-for-superman-education-controversy/
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is one of the featured guests on "Oprah" today, the subject is "Waiting for Superman," an education-reform documentary that has won praise from Gates and others, while stirring controversy for its portrayal of teachers' unions. "Waiting for Superman" is directed by Davis Guggenheim, best known previously for his work on Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."
Weingarten Wanted AFT Teachers To "Give Respect" For Her Honored Guest Speaker and union buster Bill Gates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkSSSYQuIcs&feature=related
AFT Gates- Randi chastized for actions by California teacher
views
GEMNYC1 | July 12, 2010
AFT Gates- Randi chastized for actions
YouTube - Bill Gates at the AFT Convention - 1984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYQzoDy_ocA
Bill Gates at the AFT Convention - 1984
GEMNYC1 30 videos Subscribe
Loading...
418
views
GEMNYC1 | July 15, 2010
Bill Gates' appearance at the AFT Convention was cheered wildly by most of the delegates. But about 60 walked out and others held a silent protest inside. Here is a parody of the famous Apple intro to Mac at the 1984 Super Bowl, the only time it was ever shown.
The idea was hatched at Sunday night dinner in Seattle with George Schmidt and some CORE members. I am realizing that so many people have no idea of the significance and irony of that commercial, which was shown just once at the 1984 Super Bowl as an Apple ad to introduce the revolutionary Macintosh, which introduced the mouse and the graphical interface. It was also a political attack on the then dominant IBM, which has entered the personal computer field that Apple had invented in 1976/7. But with Microsoft capturing the operating system - in pre Windows days, which was copied from the MAC, it could also be seen as an attack on Gates 26 years ago. We made sure to add the complicit AFT/UFT - that's Randi in the background mocking the protesters leaving the hall to the cheers of Unity Caucus.
AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration
http://blip.tv/file/3519531
As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten
visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010 as part of a national tour.
http://www.aft.org/fight4america/
She made some brief comments and then was interviewed. Weingarten discussed the affects
of charters schools including Green Dots, merit pay, cutting the school year and the policies
of President Obama and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan.
Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027 San Francisco, CA 94172 laborvideo.blip.tv
http://www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908
AFT Pres Weingarten Taking Money From Walton Foundation Controlled by Wal-Mart: Washington DC AFT Local 6 VP Nathan A. Saunders Speaks
http://blip.tv/file/3547715
April 24, 2010 at the 2010 Labor Notes convention in Detroit, MI, Washington D.C. AFT Local 6 VP Nathan A. Saunders
outlined what they are facing with school privazation being supported by the AFT national union leadership. According
to Saunders, Randi Weingarten has taken tens of millions of dollars from the Walton Family Foundation from Wal-Mart
and other anti-labor foundations and are using this money to push privatization of education.
Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027, SF, CA 94172
laborvideo.blip.tv http://www.laborvideo.org http://www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908
AFT Congratulates Recipients of Gates Foundation Grants - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/american-federation-of-teachers-statement-on-intensive-partnership-grant-091119.aspx
GRANTEE ANNOUNCEMENT
November 19, 2009
AFT Congratulates Recipients of Gates Foundation Grants
WASHINGTON -- The American Federation of Teachers welcomes the unprecedented support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for efforts to improve teaching and learning through grants totaling $290 million to school systems in Hillsborough County, Fla.; Pittsburgh; Memphis; and a group of charter schools in Los Angeles.
“These Gates Intensive Partnership grants will show that when dedicated adults engage in true collaboration, the real winners are the students,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said. She extended special congratulations to the teachers and staff in the Hillsborough County and Pittsburgh schools who are represented by the AFT. “The grants create an opportunity for teachers, administrators and their respective communities to shape the future of their schools for years to come,” Weingarten said.
To read the full press release, visit the American Federation of Teachers web site.
###
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
ONLINE RESOURCES
The American Federation of Teachers
PRESS RELEASES
Sep 22, 2010
International Alliance Launched to Support Country-Led Progress in Reproductive, …
Sep 17, 2010
Frank Rijsberman Named Director of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene at the Bill & Melinda …
Sep 15, 2010
Bill and Melinda Gates Fund Assessment of Haitian Aid
More
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/24/3052921/documentary-films-ratchet-up-pressure.html
Friday, September 24, 2010
Paramount Pictures
A scene from the documentary "Waiting for Superman" shows preparations for a lottery in Washington, D.C., to determine which four students will be accepted into the SEED Charter School.
MORE INFORMATION
NOW PLAYING
"Waiting for Superman" opens today in Los Angeles and New York City. It opens Oct. 1 in San Francisco and Oct. 8 in Sacramento.
"The films criticize tenure and highlight how difficult it is for school districts to fire bad teachers. They present the unions as a major cause of problems in America's public schools." Unions, greed and bureaucracies have crippled this state and this nation. If we can ever move past our pervading sound-bite mentality we may actually have a chance to fix something by looking at the reality of what's going on around us. Oh, and teacher's union please don't trot out the tired "it's for the children" line. It hasn't been about the children for almost two generations now. The results make that fact painfully obvious.
-- alzheimer_society
Leave your comment
More on sacbee.com powered by Lingospot
Court overturns Oregon laws against giving explicit books to minors
CAROL J. WILLIAMS, 3 days, 21 hours ago
Microsoft's Gates joins' Superman' school mission
DAVID GERMAIN, 2 days, 1 hour ago
Documentary films ratchet up pressure on teachers unions
Share
By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall [at] sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Sep. 24, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Political pressure on teachers unions has been mounting for months, with national attention focused on charter schools, merit pay and other approaches to education that unions generally hate.
Now the pressure is moving to the big screen in a manner sure to pervade the public consciousness in a whole new way. Three new documentary films explore public education, taking stances that have inflamed teachers unions and brought applause from organizations that support charter schools and other union-busting changes.
The films criticize tenure and highlight how difficult it is for school districts to fire bad teachers. They present the unions as a major cause of problems in America's public schools. The solution, offered in two of the films through compelling stories of children trying to get into better schools through a lottery, is charter schools.
It's not the first time filmmakers have turned their lenses on schools, but the cluster of documentaries – and the massive publicity push associated with one of them – illustrates a new chapter in American education: the growing influence of charter schools and the philanthropies that support them.
Charters – public schools that are free from many of the regulations that govern traditional schools – have been around since the 1990s but have enjoyed increasing support under the Obama administration. Most charter schools are not unionized, making them a natural adversary for teachers unions.
Charters are touted as an alternative for families unhappy with their neighborhood school, and have proliferated in urban areas where many schools don't perform well. That's created a new narrative for filmmakers – one that may propel movies about education out of obscurity and into the mainstream.
"Documentary makers have for decades been interested in education, but they have generally failed as films or failed to get traction with wide audiences," said Jon Else, who teaches documentary filmmaking at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
"What's changed in the landscape this month is that we now have this very high-profile film that happens to have a great title."
"Waiting for Superman" is the most visible of the new education-themed films. It opens today in some cities and Oct. 8 in Sacramento. The movie has already enjoyed lots of publicity: Oprah Winfrey featured it on her show earlier this week, and Time magazine put it on the cover, saying the film "is not just a movie but a dispatch from a revolution."
Made by the same team behind "An Inconvenient Truth," "Waiting for Superman" profiles five kids in cities across the United States who are trying to get into charter schools. One story line featuresMichelle Rhee, the Washington, D.C., schools chief – who is engaged to marry Sacramento MayorKevin Johnson – as she lays off teachers and fights her local union over tenure.
While the film notes that not all charters are successful – in California, they perform about on par with traditional schools – the human tales it chronicles highlight charters as the best existing alternative.
Philanthropies that have emerged as a dominant force opposing teachers unions are funding efforts to promote the film. The Gates, Broad and Fisher foundations – which have poured millions into charter schools nationwide – are paying for a "social action campaign" to accompany the film, urging viewers to get involved with policy decisions that affect education.
WaitingForSuperman.com tells visitors how to start a charter, urges them to attend school board meetings and asks that they contact their governor to support creating a national curriculum for public schools.
"We think the film is a great wake-up call for Americans about the extent of the education crisis and a rallying point to raise awareness," said Erica Lepping, a spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation, which gave $500,000 to support advocacy related to "Waiting for Superman."
The Broad Foundation also gave $50,000 to support marketing for "The Lottery," which was in theaters over the summer and is now on DVD. It tells the story of four children in New York Citytrying to get into a charter called Harlem Success Academy. Their futures hinge on the results of a lottery.
"It's a sobering movie and a depiction of what's happening in our country," Mayor Johnson said after a screening of "The Lottery" in Sacramento last month. Johnson is a hero in the national charter schools movement for his role in converting Sacramento High into a charter in 2003 in the face of virulent union opposition.
The screening was sponsored by EdVoice, an advocacy group that supports charters, and the local chapter of the NAACP.
In both "The Lottery" and "Waiting for Superman," the drawing to see who gets into the charter schools provides the climactic, nail-biter moment that many previous education movies have lacked.
"It leaves the impression that public school teachers are bad, that charter schools are a panacea and that teachers unions are responsible for failing schools," said Michael Powell, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, one of two national teachers unions. "Anybody who knows about these issues knows it's much more complicated than that."
The third film, called "Teached," is in the editing phase. It will tell the stories of several teachers, including a former Elk Grove Unified teacher who was laid off during budget cuts because of union policies regarding seniority.
"It's not anti-union, but it is questioning tenure," director Kelly Amis said of her film. "And asking whether tenure as it is today supports teachers and supports students."
The National Education Association, the larger of the two national teachers unions, considered spending $3.5 million to create an ad campaign to counter "the media propaganda of this summer's series of anti-teacher union documentaries," according to an agenda from its July meeting.
In the end, union officials decided it wasn't worth it, said John Wilson, executive director.
"I think the films are a blip. They will come and go, but the union will still be there, our members will still be in these schools," he said. "We don't see any advantage of going to war with documentarians."
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/news_chick_blog/20100920/Bill-Gates-on-Oprah-today-~-Waiting-for-Superman/
Bill Gates "Waiting for Superman" with Oprah
Comments | Print this | E-mail this
When Bill Gates on Oprah yesterday didn't talk about "what's it like to be one of the richest men in the world." The topic was - education.
Oprah featured the documentary "Waiting for Superman," which is about education reform. It's directed by the same man who worked on Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" - Davis Guggenheim.
Here's what Gates has to say about the documentary, and his interest in education reform, on his blog Gates Notes:
I’m appearing today on The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about an important new film that I think everyone should see. It’s called “Waiting for Superman”. The film’s depiction of the state of America’s public education system is something people won’t quickly forget. In fact, I think it’s the kind of movie that is powerful enough to influence – and hopefully even change – the public consciousness about our approach to education.
There’s no question that the quality of our education system helped to make America great. But today, many of our public schools are failing. Only one-third of high school students are prepared for college when they graduate. And half of minority students drop out of high school altogether.
It’s a tragedy that so many families have no real alternative for their children than a failing local public school. We need dramatic change, but it’s a difficult story to tell.
Director Davis Guggenheim tells the story brilliantly, and with great urgency. As an Academy-award winning director of An Inconvenient Truth, Guggenheim introduces us to several students and lets us get to know them, their families, and their desire to get a great education. He is a great storyteller, and conveys the story of these students with powerful emotional impact.
Guggenheim also breaks down complex but critically important policy matters such as inconsistent state standards, teacher effectiveness, and educational data in a way that is compelling and convincing.
The film focuses on charter schools, which we know are only one aspect of the solution. The foundation supports high-performing charter schools as labs for education innovation. But charter schools reach only about 3 percent of our public school students, so they are only one part of a multi-faceted, system-wide set of solutions.
Great teaching remains at the center of the solution. Improving schools will require that we figure out how to improve the way we train, measure and reward effective teachers. Achieving that will be hard and it will take a great deal of effort. The foundation is working with several partners who are actively engaged with us in groundbreaking efforts to improve teacher effectiveness.
I was pleased to have a small part in the film. I agreed to be interviewed because I believe we are at a unique moment for education reform and I want to do everything I can to support this change.
I encourage others to get involved too. You can start by seeing the film and visiting web sites associated with the film, such as getschooled.com andwaitingforsuperman.com/action.
Photo courtsey Harpo Productions
YouTube - Bill Gates in Sundance movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bud52q4bi1o
breakingnews11 | January 26, 2010
Bill Gates appears briefly in "Waiting for Superman," a documentary on the problems of America's public education system.
Category:
http://www.ditii.com/2010/09/20/bill-gates-on-oprah-waiting-for-superman-education-controversy/
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is one of the featured guests on "Oprah" today, the subject is "Waiting for Superman," an education-reform documentary that has won praise from Gates and others, while stirring controversy for its portrayal of teachers' unions. "Waiting for Superman" is directed by Davis Guggenheim, best known previously for his work on Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."
Weingarten Wanted AFT Teachers To "Give Respect" For Her Honored Guest Speaker and union buster Bill Gates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkSSSYQuIcs&feature=related
AFT Gates- Randi chastized for actions by California teacher
views
GEMNYC1 | July 12, 2010
AFT Gates- Randi chastized for actions
YouTube - Bill Gates at the AFT Convention - 1984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYQzoDy_ocA
Bill Gates at the AFT Convention - 1984
GEMNYC1 30 videos Subscribe
Loading...
418
views
GEMNYC1 | July 15, 2010
Bill Gates' appearance at the AFT Convention was cheered wildly by most of the delegates. But about 60 walked out and others held a silent protest inside. Here is a parody of the famous Apple intro to Mac at the 1984 Super Bowl, the only time it was ever shown.
The idea was hatched at Sunday night dinner in Seattle with George Schmidt and some CORE members. I am realizing that so many people have no idea of the significance and irony of that commercial, which was shown just once at the 1984 Super Bowl as an Apple ad to introduce the revolutionary Macintosh, which introduced the mouse and the graphical interface. It was also a political attack on the then dominant IBM, which has entered the personal computer field that Apple had invented in 1976/7. But with Microsoft capturing the operating system - in pre Windows days, which was copied from the MAC, it could also be seen as an attack on Gates 26 years ago. We made sure to add the complicit AFT/UFT - that's Randi in the background mocking the protesters leaving the hall to the cheers of Unity Caucus.
AFT Pres Weingarten On The Crisis In Education, Privatization & The Obama Administration
http://blip.tv/file/3519531
As part of a national tour, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten
visited San Francisco on April 20, 2010 as part of a national tour.
http://www.aft.org/fight4america/
She made some brief comments and then was interviewed. Weingarten discussed the affects
of charters schools including Green Dots, merit pay, cutting the school year and the policies
of President Obama and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan.
Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027 San Francisco, CA 94172 laborvideo.blip.tv
http://www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908
AFT Pres Weingarten Taking Money From Walton Foundation Controlled by Wal-Mart: Washington DC AFT Local 6 VP Nathan A. Saunders Speaks
http://blip.tv/file/3547715
April 24, 2010 at the 2010 Labor Notes convention in Detroit, MI, Washington D.C. AFT Local 6 VP Nathan A. Saunders
outlined what they are facing with school privazation being supported by the AFT national union leadership. According
to Saunders, Randi Weingarten has taken tens of millions of dollars from the Walton Family Foundation from Wal-Mart
and other anti-labor foundations and are using this money to push privatization of education.
Production of Labor Video Project P.O. Box 720027, SF, CA 94172
laborvideo.blip.tv http://www.laborvideo.org http://www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908
AFT Congratulates Recipients of Gates Foundation Grants - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/american-federation-of-teachers-statement-on-intensive-partnership-grant-091119.aspx
GRANTEE ANNOUNCEMENT
November 19, 2009
AFT Congratulates Recipients of Gates Foundation Grants
WASHINGTON -- The American Federation of Teachers welcomes the unprecedented support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for efforts to improve teaching and learning through grants totaling $290 million to school systems in Hillsborough County, Fla.; Pittsburgh; Memphis; and a group of charter schools in Los Angeles.
“These Gates Intensive Partnership grants will show that when dedicated adults engage in true collaboration, the real winners are the students,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said. She extended special congratulations to the teachers and staff in the Hillsborough County and Pittsburgh schools who are represented by the AFT. “The grants create an opportunity for teachers, administrators and their respective communities to shape the future of their schools for years to come,” Weingarten said.
To read the full press release, visit the American Federation of Teachers web site.
###
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
ONLINE RESOURCES
The American Federation of Teachers
PRESS RELEASES
Sep 22, 2010
International Alliance Launched to Support Country-Led Progress in Reproductive, …
Sep 17, 2010
Frank Rijsberman Named Director of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene at the Bill & Melinda …
Sep 15, 2010
Bill and Melinda Gates Fund Assessment of Haitian Aid
More
For more information:
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/24/3052921/d...
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