Julie Cavanagh and Khem Irby on the new film, An Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

Speaking out about the myths behind charter schools, unions, and the importance of parent rights.

Honor a teacher-warrior on Memorial Day as well!

As much as there are military conflicts going on in Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere, there is also a war happening right in this country, with one side armed with billions of dollars, and the other being carried out by ordinary teachers, parents, advocates and some forthright academics, the outcome of which will determine whether public education in this country will improve or will be further undermined.

We have posted a Facebook page to honor four NYC teacher warriors and winners of this year’s Class Size Matters “Skinny” awards, who have given us the real “skinny” on what is going on in our schools:  Jackie Bennett of Edwize, Julie Cavanagh of PS 15K and GEM, James Eterno of Jamaica HS, and Christine Rowland of Columbus HS.

Each of these teachers have compellingly marshaled facts and evidence in the battle to save NYC public schools.

Please contribute your own comments and/or photos about these four terrific teachers, or any others who you wish to honor. Shutterfly is going to make a book about this year’s awards, so the more comments and photos we get the better!

Past winners of the “Skinny” award, which will be given on June 15 at our annual benefit dinner, are Diane Ravitch (who is also co-hosting this year's event), Jennifer Jennings, Gary Babad, Robert Jackson, Juan Gonzalez and Norman Siegel.

Please also consider buying a ticket for the event; for more info, please click here.  Thanks!

This week, the real reformers finally broke through!

On Thursday night, Diane Ravitch with her usual incisiveness pointed out the importance of poverty and the unfairness of teacher-bashing on Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show.

According to Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet, Ravitch’s book shot up from #758 on Amazon's list to #35 by the next afternoon.

Jon Stewart showed a short clip of the segment on Fox News debate, to ridicule the commentators’ attack on the “greed” of teachers, while defending the huge bonuses and salaries of Wall Street financiers and bankers whose irresponsible behavior caused the economic collapse in the first place.

On CNN, Matt Damon criticized President Obama's education policies:

“He misinterpreted his mandate…This idea that we’re tying teachers’ salaries to how their kids are performing do on tests. That kind of mechanistic thinking has nothing to do with higher order thinking; we’re training them, were not teaching them.”

Julie Cavanagh, NYC public school teacher and one of the leaders of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), was brilliant on NY1's Inside City Hall, pointing out the importance of teacher experience (and class size), in opposition to the push by Mayor Bloomberg and Michelle Rhee to eliminate seniority protections for teachers.

The New York Times, the home of conventional wisdom, featured an extended article about how the scapegoating of teachers has gotten out of hand. (See also FAIR's critique of the article's claim that teachers are actually scorned by the majority of Americans, rather than simply by those in power.)

Thursday's To the Point, a national NPR radio show, also featured Diane, Kay McSpadden, a teacher from South Carolina, and I. Ms. McSpadden said that many people in her state regularly blame the teachers union for the poor performance of their schools, yet there is no teachers union in South Carolina!

A perfect example of how with the collusion of the media, the corporate CEOs and the elected officials whom they control have conveniently created a fictional bogeyman, as a distraction from the real problem that afflict our schools: rampant budget cuts, inequitable funding, large classes, lack of parental input into decision-making, and an overemphasis on testing and privatization.

Let’s hope this is just the beginning of a reversal in which the real educational reformers will finally get a chance to present their perspective in the major media, and the privateers are no longer able to monopolize the airwaves through their wealth and influence – though they have no research and no common sense to back them up.

The clip of Matt Damon on CNN is below:

Julie Cavanagh, Brooklyn teacher and member of Grassroots Education Movement at Deny Waiver rally

Say No! to the waiver for Cathie Black

Norman Siegel and Michael Meyers, civil rights leaders, teacher Julie Cavanagh, Council Member Robert Jackson, chair of the NYC Council Education Committee, and parent leaders William McDonald, Philip DePaolo and Tina Schiller speak out against the mayor's nomination of Cathie Black as NYC schools chancellor. More newsclips at AM NY, AP/WSJ, and NY1 .

NYC teacher and parent critique "Waiting for Superman"

Check out the dynamic duo, Julie Cavanagh, public school teacher at PS 15 in Brooklyn and member of CAPE and GEM, and Mona Davids, charter school parent and head of the New York Charter Parents Association, talking about "Waiting for Superman" on Fox TV this morning.

Also be sure to check out the GEM video, "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." Hurray for them!

Hearing on the extension and expansion of PAVE charter inside PS 15K

Excerpts from last night's hearings on the administration's intention to allow the PAVE charter school to stay and expand in PS 15 in Brooklyn, well beyond their original agreeement.

For more on this issue, see our blog here, Juan Gonzalez' column, InsideSchools, and the CAPE website. Thanks to Norm Scott as always for the video.