Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin:

Egyptian union leader sends message of support to Wisconsin workers:

Teachers’ absence could turn into lesson for students comes from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

From Cairo to Madison: Hope and Solidarity Are Alive

Alice Mercer and I, along with many others, attended a rally at the California State Capitol in Sacramento tonight in support of the Wisconsin unions.
Here are some photos from the rally. The first two, which show me and others, were taken by Alice. You’ll see a picture of her in there, too. The presentation is a little strange — I’m trying out a new tool I haven’t used before:

MSNBC reports:

“A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows the public strongly supports employee bargaining rights. In the survey, 61% oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who favor it.”

Workers’ protests swell in Midwest as budget battles continue comes from CNN.

To my critics: Teachers deserve rights by Diane Ravitch

Michelle Rhee has been all over the news, and on this blog (see The Best Posts About Michelle Rhee’s Exaggerated Test Scores and 4 concerns about Michelle Rhee). If you’re not tired of hearing about her, here are two good articles that have just been published:

Still Waiting for Superwoman: What Michelle Rhee’s fans don’t get about education reform is from Slate.

The Meaning of Michelle Rhee is by Mike Rose.

Teachers Unions, ACT/SAT, and Student Performance: Is Wisconsin Out-Ranking the Non-Union States? is a very important post by Angus Johnston. He examines the research connecting the role of teachers unions to student achievement.

I’m going to print an excerpt here, but you’re making a mistake if you don’t read his entire post:

There’s only been one scholarly effort to tackle this problem that I’m aware of. Back in 2000, three professors writing in the Harvard Educational Review did a statistical analysis of state SAT/ACT scores, controlling for factors like race, median income, and parental education. They found that the presence of teachers unions in a state did have a measurable and significant correlation with increased test scores — that going to school in a union state would, for instance, raise average SATs by about 50 points.

Two other findings leap out from the Harvard Educational Review study. First, they concluded that Southern states’ poor academic performance could be explained almost entirely by that region’s lack of unionization, even when you didn’t take socioeconomic differences into account.

And second, and to my mind far more interesting, they found that concrete improvements in the educational environment associated with teachers’ unions — lower class sizes, higher state spending on education, bigger teacher salaries — accounted for very little of the union/non-union variation. Teachers’ unions, in other words, don’t just help students by reducing class sizes or increasing educational spending. In their conclusion, they stated that

“other mechanism(s) (ie, better working conditions; greater worker autonomy, security, and dignity; improved administration; better training of teachers; greater levels of faculty professionalism) must be at work here.”

I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Learning Why Teachers Unions Are Important and to The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin.

Thanks to M.E. Steele-Pierce on Twitter for the tip.

Wisconsin Power Play by Paul Krugman at the New York Times may be the best piece that’s been written about what’s happening in Wisconsin.

I’ve added it to The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin.

As many people know, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while supporting workers who were striking in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a strong supporter of organized labor. Here is one of his statements that I think indicate clearly what his position would be on what is happening in Wisconsin today:

“Negroes in the United States read the history of labor and find it mirrors their own experience. We are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on the goodwill and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us. They deplore our discontent, they resent our will to organize, so that we may guarantee that humanity will prevail and equality will be exacted. They are shocked that action organizations, sit-ins, civil disobedience and protests are becoming our everyday tools, just as strikes, demonstrations and union organization became yours to insure that bargaining power genuinely existed on both sides of the table.

“We want to rely upon the goodwill of those who oppose us. Indeed, we have brought forward the method of nonviolence to give an example of unilateral goodwill in an effort to evoke it in those who have not yet felt it in their hearts. But we know that if we are not simultaneously organizing our strength we will have no means to move forward. If we do not advance, the crushing burden of centuries of neglect and economic deprivation will destroy our will, our spirits and our hope. In this way, labor’s historic tradition of moving forward to create vital people as consumers and citizens has become our own tradition, and for the same reasons.”

—Speaking to the AFL-CIO on Dec. 11, 1961

Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin:

Battlefield Wisconsin: Visualizing the protest comes from Salon.

Wisconsin Teachers Show Us How to Resist the Shock Doctrine is from Anthony Cody at Ed Week.

Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill Protest from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.

Alice Mercer posts What’s up Wisconsin?, which gives her perspective and tells about a support vigil that will be happening here in Sacramento on Tuesday.

Why America’s Teachers Are Enraged by Diane Ravitch on CNN.

This is amazing: Video: Rep. Peter Barca explodes with anger after Assembly Republicans begin voting before Democrats enter the chamber (thanks to Liam Goldrick for the tip). Here’s what happened next:

Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, responded by saying that he started early because “Honestly, I thought you guys weren’t showing up.”
Fitzgerald acknowledged that Barca was correct in his reading of the rules, and members allowed the bill to return to its amendable stage. Fitzgerald then moved to adjourn the Assembly until 10 a.m. Tuesday, prompting a standing ovation from Democrats, who promised to continue working on amendments to the bill.

Protests in Wisconsin – We are Winning