Politics and the White Chalk Crime....

[G]

I was appalled to hear that Obama would consider Joel Klein, an expert at White Chalk Crime, to be Secretary of Education. The following was posted at Huffington Post today, which expresses my opinion. I will paste in the excerpts about Joel Klein below as well as attach it as a download.



We must get President Elect Obama to read my book, White Chalk Crime: The REAL Reason Schools Fail. Although it details nationwide wrongdoing in education, Joel Klein has 17 pages about him! So you won't have to purchase it to learn about Klein's dismal record, we are posting a download of the excerpts pertaining to him at WhiteChalkCrime.com and EndTeacherAbuse.org. Or go to either site to request the download. Please circulate these truths before Obama falls into a White Chalk Crime hole and spends four years digging out. (I say four years since once connected to White Chalk Criminals hope will be out the door!)

This book documents others to avoid, including the union leadership that marches lock step with White Chalk Criminals. Education is a mine field of corruption known only to insiders whose voices are silenced so nothing can change. Terrorizing teachers works! With tax subsidized propaganda at their beckon call and only deceitful voices reaching power, their intentions appear good. They are not. We can prove this. This book contains the voices of 140 educators, 64 of which had the courage to allow me to use their names. It is the first book of its kind and hopefully the last. Education is the torch bearer for democracy. With White Chalk Criminals in control, democracy will fade. Politics cannot control our schools, the heart of our nation, if we expect this to be the age of principles. We must convey this to President Elect Obama. Please circulate this.





The following are some excerpts from White Chalk Crime: The REAL Reason Schools Fail that pertain to Joel Klein, an EducRAT who has contributed to the politicizing of our schools. It is important that President Elect Obama learns about him and why giving this man any more power would be a major mistake.



p. 75-6 [contemplating why the media has not reported White Chalk Crime]

Given the multitude of information that is out there but ignored, one cannot help but

wonder if our corporate controlled media intentionally wants to miss facts that cry out for a

clean-up of our corrupted public school system first and foremost, or whether the assumed

noble nature of Education blindsides the media so thoroughly that they cannot fathom that

dealing with corruption is the key to unraveling our deteriorated schools?



Stossel sanitized fraud calling it “bad spending” and focused on it as a function of a

monopoly rather than an indication of criminals running our schools and highlighted the “it’s

impossible to fire a teacher” fallacy by quoting New York’s Schools Chancellor, Joel Klein,

as saying: “In New York City, it's ‘just about impossible’ to fire a bad teacher…In the last

four years, only two teachers out of 80,000 were fired for incompetence,” after which Klein

described the infamous rubber room as a means of warehousing teachers he deemed unfit to

be near children. Granted some inhabitants of the rubber room might warrant dismissal.

However, I have had personal communication with dozens of rubber room detainees who

landed there for having advocated for students, but with trumped up charges. In fact, recently

I had the pleasure of “meeting” detainee Dr. Lenny Brown. I wrote to him: I can only

imagine your pain. If it helps you at all to know this, I have been doing this work for about

12 years and my book is the culmination of a lot of hard work. I am long past my own

private hell and if it were not for people like you I don't know if I could stay on task.

Although I believe that I have the power to get this known, what kills the power is in time the

hard work is not worth it. Life goes on; it is obvious that power mongers all over this world

have their way every day and you start thinking: so what? But as long as others carry the

same torch, I cannot think like that. I realize that if I hadn't started this organization, the

EducRAT$ would have had their way. I would have stopped. Teachers with courage, the

minority in the first place, burn out. EducRAT$ know this and thus keep striking, certain no

one has the energy to keep the fight going. I have discovered that the energy comes from

people like you who contact me and join regularly and keep me going. The book should be

out soon and it will be better because of you. Keep the faith.



Dr. Brown’s story will thoroughly disgust you. Although a nightmare for Brown, it is a

bonanza of opportunity to teach the public the depth of evil in our schools. EducRAT$ not

only used the sexual predator label to carry out their agenda, but they removed an awardwinning

science teacher when science is key to our nation’s survival. And they did this

based on the word of a student, who can now go through life with a badge of dishonor for

what she did. This story doesn’t stop there. They also took swift action against a colleague

who supported Brown, illustrating why teachers remain silent. You need to read his story:

“Forty Is the New Thirty, and Rubber Rooms are the New Cattle Cars: Time to Remove the

Statute of Liberty from New York and Perhaps the U.S.” Stossel was grossly misinformed.



Interestingly, the rubber room earned its name based on how teachers bounce off the

walls being forced to do nothing in retaliation for caring about children and getting in the

way of New York EducRAT$. To hear an official use a name coined by despairing teachers

suggests a sense of pride of accomplishment rather than the shame he should have for

condoning such a perverted ritual for teachers. I call it the Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo of

Education since the latter featured acts that deeply disturbed the values of religious detainees

to break them down, and the rubber room incorporates acts that deeply disturb the values of

dedicated teachers to break them down – tearing them away from their students for no

legitimate reason while leaving students with unqualified substitutes. David Pakter is, one

of the few other New York rubber room teachers brave enough to speak openly. Dozens of

teachers resign all over New York to bypass these “dens for psychological end results.”



The bottom line is: why did Klein whine that he could only get rid of two incompetent

teachers? Why didn’t he use the psychological hit man approach – psychiatric evaluations,

false charges, harassment and the teacher shattering method that makes teachers give up - on

the sexual predator that he claimed he could not fire? There is a way to fire teachers who

threaten the status quo as evidenced by far more than two New York teachers who have

contacted NAPTA having been catapulted from teaching, but this “way” is not mentioned by

those who want the public’s sympathy to maintain control. Further, remember that false

accusations of sexual molestation are a prime teacher disposal method. Listen to this teacher

speak to his union: “I would like to ask what the function of your organization is and who

provides oversight to your employees, because I feel the union is helping the school district

beat me up so that I cannot tell my story. Sexual charges are the "WMD" of the teaching

world. I have never spoken, much less acted, in an inappropriate way with my students or

colleagues. I'm sure your organization licenses without censure many who have.” He is

correct. The real sexual predators are often winked at since this charge works so well to

prejudice parents against dedicated teachers who get in the way of White Chalk Crime.

Thus, EducRAT$ refrain from “wasting” it on real predators. They reserve it as a weapon the

way most of us save that special outfit so as not to wear it out, using it only when a political

foe needs erasing.



EducRAT$ are synonymous with sociopaths who use pity to con their victims. Their misrepresentations capture the public’s sympathy, as well as hide the assembly line firing of the most talented and dedicated teachers in New York, and all over this country. The number of teachers forced out or terminated for “insubordination” or psychological issues would reveal that there is a method of getting rid of any teacher they want out. And since the unions operate in tandem with the school districts, employing a version of crime that is very organized to operate under the radar, a reality not contained in Stossel’s report, distortion of the truth works. White Chalk Crime, the uninvestigated crime, lurks below the radar and below reports such as his. His prime-time expose on America’s “stupid schools” that was also “stupid about crime and corruption” at least pointed out that more money is no solution for our schools.



p. 196-8 [discussing Ohanian and Emery's book: Why is Corporate America Bashing our Public Schools, a book that exposes the role business is playing in White Chalk Crime.]



Although these authors omitted the lawlessness within which high-stakes testing

nestles, they mentioned acts easily categorized as White Chalk Crime discovered at the

Houston Independent District, mentioned earlier herein, as well as Robert Kimball, the hero

who caused it to surface. They described the San Francisco School District’s alleged

outrageous acts and many more examples of White Chalk Crime and suspicious money

dealings all over this country, including partnerships with corporations that advanced the

corporations far more than the schools. They told how the State of California “spent nearly

$18 million for the right not to rid poverty schools of vermin and mold.” (p.170) This book

along with Ohanian’s website gives us the last corner to the Education puzzle. (The other

three corners that facilitate completing the puzzle are: White Chalk Crime [Fusco’s book],

teacher abuse [Blases’ book], and union corruption [Williams’ book]. This book helped

reconcile Williams’ positive comments about the leadership of Superintendent Bersin in San

Diego that conflicted with those in Howes’ book as well as negative descriptions from many

others. Also, countless New York teachers’ and parents’ documentation of issues in New

York involving Superintendent Klein and his Guantanamo-like rubber room defied

Williams’ descriptions; this book, with its meticulous explanation of the business factor in

Education, markedly enriches one’s perspective.)



I found many clues within their description of the BRT [Business Round Table] paradigm.

For instance, they spoke of Edward Rust, the chair of the BRT’s Education Task force, saying: “[he] wasn’t shy about being a bully when he declared that schools ‘don’t change because they see the

light; they change because they feel the heat.’” (p.155) For parents and teachers it is more

than heat; they are being burned. Regrettably, for reasons yet to be investigated, the

corporate leadership that they described as leading this reform, backed by myriads of

powerful corporations and business leaders including Bill Gates and Eli Broad, has put the

heat on parents and teachers, while allowing the EducRAT$ and their White Chalk Crime to

become even more lucrative.



In fact, “Broad Jumping,” offered insight into a network that holds back reform in that

it reported that Klein, the superintendent leading the New York school’s convoluted mess

won the Eli Broad prize. The article asked: “Who is Eli Broad and why is he using his

billions to help destroy public education in the major urban school systems?” The article

quoted acclaimed educational historian Diane Ravitch as saying: “I am not sure when he

[Broad] became an education expert. … he told me that what was needed to fix the schools

was not all that complicated: A tough manager surrounded by smart graduates of business

schools and law schools. Accountability. Tight controls. Results. In fact, NYC is the perfect

model of school reform from his point of view.” Another nationally recognized educator,

Deborah Meier, was quoted as saying: “I am afraid. Truly. I think the mayor of NYC, and

Eli Broad, are perfectly happy about a future in which most teachers come and go every five

or so years. Temps. Easier to manage and harder to organize. A few will rise to leadership

positions after a few years of teaching—after getting MBAs?—and the rest of the leaders

will come from other fields like law, business, and the military.”



The article mentioned letters from parents sent to Broad: “We urge you not to award

the Broad prize to NYC this year. As parents and teachers, we have witnessed one

incoherent wave of reorganization after another over the last five years, leading to

unnecessary chaos and in many cases, disruption of educational services. None of these

changes have been planned or undertaken with any consultation of the stakeholders in the

system. Instead of transparency and accurate information, we get spin and PR. Though

overall, the amount spent on education has risen, there is no evidence that a larger

percentage of resources has gone to the classroom, despite repeated claims by DOE. Instead,

each year the headcount grows of highly paid officials at Tweed, as well as the number of

multi-million dollar consultants.” Someone pointed out: “…as recent news reports have

revealed, the 4th grade exams in both ELA and math were much easier in 2005, when the

largest gains in NYC performance occurred, putting into doubt their validity.” It quoted

David M. Quintana: “As one of the four (4) parent participants in a focus group …for

researchers from the Broad Foundation, I am disappointed in the fact that NYC received the

Broad Foundation prize today. …This group of parents, handpicked by Martine Guerrier of

the Department of Education (DOE), expressed uniform disappointment with the various

changes put into place by DOE, the lack of transparency and accountability, and the lack of

consideration given the views of parents about what their children really need to

succeed…Clearly the Broad Foundation did not take parents views into consideration when

awarding this prize to NYC ...I feel that the DOE is totally dismissive of parents views and

makes short shrift of our concerns for our children (i.e. - class size reduction, cell phone ban,

school bus fiasco, numerous reorganizations of the DOE, et al). The article went on:

…the reaction of teachers on the front line to the national recognition of BloomKlein

for doing wonderful things in “reforming” the NYC school system? I would bet my pension

that 95% of them are laughing (or crying) themselves silly. And they would be joined by a

hell of a lot of supervisors too. I wonder what kind of prize is given to the CEO’s of

corporations that have absolutely no respect from the bulk of the people that work for them?

.…It should be clear to teachers in the trenches that they are fighting a 2-front war -–

against BloomKlein and their own collaborationist union. There was a picture of UFT

president Randi Weingarten with Joel Klein giving her a big hug and kiss at the Broad Prize

Awards ceremony in Washington. …Last year, Broad gave the UFT Charter schools one

million dollars. Of course the UFT is saying the Broad prize is deserved, due to the teaching

corps, “the best ever” in their words. Funny how they can argue that experience counts for

teachers and then negate that argument by saying a system that has an enormous influx of

inexperienced teachers, 50% of whom leave after 5 years, is the best ever. See Debbie

Meier’s quote above. …Then they validate high stakes testing, which is the instrument by

which the Broad prize is given, negating so much of what their own task force on testing

reported last year. …And to further seal my contention that the UFT leadership are

collaborators (I compare them to the French Vichy in WWII) against the interests of their

own members – The UFT commissioned a study of whether the ELA tests were easier in

2005 (teachers marking the exam at IS 180 at that time confirmed it at the time), thus

enabling Bloomberg to use the “wonderful” results as part of his election bid and as a

means to springboard him on the national stage as a masterly (funny that my spell checker

first came up with “miserly”) educational reformer.



One still needs to wonder, as with any endeavor connected to power, whether evil

forces in their fervor for change, have duped the forces for good and the latter are

inadvertently promoting the evil agenda. A name that surfaced as a BRT role model in

Emery’s and Ohanian’s book was that of Superintendent Paul Vallas, who had a stint at the

Chicago Public Schools several years back, then Philadelphia Public Schools, which he left

during the writing of this book, to tackle the New Orleans’ school recovery. They wrote that

the Broad Foundation had “singled out Vallas as one of several ‘accomplished leaders from

outside the education sector… taking on the challenge of leading our nation’s largest school

districts.’” (p.73) Yet, you will see article after article, many cited in the next Lesson,

describing the trail of White Chalk Crime he left behind. My faith in mankind does not let

me believe that all of these people are calculated and greedy rather than misinformed and

incompetent White Chalk Criminals, while my experience suggests that some must be. Yet

how is one to know, when reporters and major benefactors support acts that have risen to

such scandalous levels? How could these BRT leaders not note the White Chalk Crime, and

what justification exists for not reporting it? A segment of the answer lies in the tendency for

disgusted people to adopt myopic views of a situation. Education is such a colossal mess that

these business-minded types have thrown the baby (good educators) out with the crime

infested bathwater, failing to identify how it became this bungled. Furthermore, EducRAT$,

the power people, have worked their propaganda on these business leaders while censuring

the good people to silence on the matters of Education. Although, it is flawed thinking that a

business model was the answer, it is ill-advised to solely blame business leaders for failing

because they made decisions using the skewed information allotted them; an authentic plan

for change required an expansive analysis, which only inspired educators, the silenced ones,

could have supplied.



p. 199 - 203

Recently we heard about New York Mayor Bloomberg’s considered entrance into the 2008 presidential race. He may run New York well in other arenas, but the New York schools are the Wild West with a touch of the Soviet Union. Just check out New York journalist, activist, Betsy Combier’s editorial where she said:



Anyone who has worked with children, parents, or teachers in the NYC public school

system for the past 5 years knows that something terrible has happened. No one has any

rights anymore. For example: over the past three years, I have been asked to provide

advocacy for 75 children given superintendent suspensions from their schools. What is true

100% of the time is that the children are black or Hispanic, and their "crimes" - if committed

at all - could have been dealt with in a positive way, but never are. …Similarly, teachers are

ousted from their jobs without due process, and both the UFT and the NYC BOE push them

out as quickly as possible without any due process or reporting of the facts. Lives are

destroyed for no reason except retaliation, vindictiveness, greed, and negligence on the part

of the ruling elite. We have ourselves to blame, and we can share the blame with the media,

who refuse to print, post, or put on the evening news the terrible mess that Mayor

Bloomberg and Mr. Joel Klein - he has no contract and therefore we cannot call him

"Chancellor" - have made in New York City. Politicians elected by politicos who need the

Mayor's money will not get off this $billionaire's train either. … The problems that exist in

the NYC school system start with the Department of Investigation not doing the work that

they are mandated to do. They seldom investigate anything that an 'ordinary' citizen or

parent of a public school child, reports, and when a teacher calls to ask for an investigation,

if it is a teacher without political credentials, it is the teacher who is investigated. …



“The New Math? Schools Chief Klein and the Missus Add Up 12 Rooms on Park

Avenue,” substantiated Combier’s comments. It described the elitist life Klein enjoys in a

multi-million dollar penthouse looking down on the city, literally and figuratively. It also

prompted some dialogue on a New York chat board that helps impart what is going on

between David Pakter and the Department of Education. After Pakter managed to trounce

his EducRAT$’ false psychiatric report against him, the latter reopened allegations against

Pakter and sent him back to the Rubber Room. See an explanation of this ongoing “war”

between a rare teacher who has the resources and courage to fight and the power mongers

who have the resources to silence the truth on NAPTA’s website. On August 30, 2007, a

blogger named Sky surmised the following about why our schools fail us:



It is ironic that the same week Klein brought his new luxury condo, he revealed during

an interview with Charlie Rose the thing he most remembered about his father. "Work hard

and you won't have to stay in public housing," he was told by his Dad. Klein's luxury real

estate holdings show that he achieved his goal. Unfortunately, he heads a DOE Kingdom

where most of his subjects are low and middle income, and many live in public housing.

Perhaps this explains Klein's distain [sic] for the parents of public school children. Why

should he elicit the opinion or listen to the ideas of these "failures"? If you don't have big

money or big houses you have failed and you do not deserve to be heard. How far is this

elitist attitude from the original idea of the public schools by great educators like John Dewy

[sic] and social reformers like Jane Adams! Perhaps this explains the underlying failure of

the public schools; how can they succeed when the people running them hold the general

public in contempt?



I would add: how can they succeed when the people running them hold the teachers

willing to work for salaries that will never elevate them to high society in contempt?

Perhaps: “Reaching Out to Students When They Talk and Text,”30 sheds a little light on what

may be going on here and why teacher abuse is at the heart of advanced White Chalk Crime.

Describing this New York program it said: “The city is planning an intensive campaign that

would use cellphones [sic] to help motivate students, most of them minorities and from poor

families, in two dozen schools. The pilot program will include mentoring and incentives for

high performance, like free concerts and sporting events and free minutes and ring tones for

their phones. Every student in each of the schools will be given a cellphone.” It said that an

advertising agency is devising text messages to motivate these students and described this

plan as one that will accomplish what the schools have failed to do: get students to

understand the importance of Education. However, this program defies solid academic

research, which confirms that great teachers are the solution for connecting children to the

need for an Education. “How to be Top: What works in education: the lessons according to

McKinsey,”31 said: “Begin with hiring the best. There is no question that, as one South

Korean official put it, ‘the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its

teachers.’ Studies in Tennessee and Dallas have shown that, if you take pupils of average

ability and give them to teachers deemed in the top fifth of the profession, they end up in the

top 10% of student performers; if you give them to teachers from the bottom fifth, they end

up at the bottom. The quality of teachers affects student performance more than anything

else. …McKinsey argues that the best performing education systems nevertheless manage to

attract the best. …”



Nevertheless they trashed educational research and used Harvard University economist

Roland G. Fryer and focus groups to arrive at a plan. It said: “Fryer approached five

advertising agencies in September and asked them to come up with plans to ‘rebrand’

academic achievement. Although it is not clear which of the plans education officials will

choose, Dr. Fryer is enthusiastic about one that tries to make poor teenagers aware that

academic success can lead to jobs that pay enough to support a middle- or upper-middleclass

way of life.” So we have several businesses – advertising agencies, market research

firms, and phone companies – and an unrelated academic discipline replacing educators and

teachers and their wisdom. (This may explain why so many dedicated teachers have been

exiled to the rubber room in New York; they are being replaced with the things that money

can buy.)



Additionally, this plan bolsters immediate gratification over the essence of good

citizenship and character or delayed gratification for doing work. Even if this plan works,

which I highly doubt based on documented research as well as my experience with

motivating children, at best we will raise more self-centered materialists who have no

intention of working for anything but their own ends when the purpose of our schools was to

produce highly functioning citizens. The article quoted Superintendent Klein: “’We want to

create an environment where kids know education is something you should want. Some

people come to school with an enormous appetite for learning and others do not — that’s the

reality.’” But do we want them to want an education solely to pursue material ambitions?

This plan is comparable to paying people to attend church to make them religious. There is a

huge gap between showing up or even learning facts and absorbing the ideals behind the

facts. Can our country afford to create more unprincipled people with money power to seek

gratification with no concern for others or the laws of this land? Isn’t the purpose of

Education to produce high functioning, law abiding citizens?



There are values that these business-oriented types fail to grasp to the detriment of all of

us; they are not cut from the same cloth as those who pursue careers in Education, a topic I

develop in Lesson #15. They don’t see the point of the product – Education - or the needs of

children, above all their safety needs, nor do they respect or speak with those who do. No

profession with objectives that reach beyond the realm of profits could remain stable if

business types fully control it: HMO’s negative impact on medicine imparts what the

intrusion of business into medicine caused, yet that was a partial intrusion in contrast with

this invasion of Education where teachers, other than the political players who robotically

follow EducRAT$, have been virtually eliminated in terms of input and decision making.

Applying the business paradigm to teaching is a disaster; it eliminates an arm of society

intended to balance the lack of humanity inherent in the business model and its focus on

profits rather than on relationships. As we have lost our balance, we have lost our ideals and

principles, and created a moral vacancy.



“Jack Welch is My Daddy: The Former CEO of General Electric Brings His Big Stick

to the Principals Academy…and Shows the Newbies How to Use It,”32 told how this retired

executive will be heading “a new academy aimed at improving the quality of New York

City’s school principals.” It described Welch’s management style as hardhearted, with

getting rid of negative people high on his list, pointing out that these people would be:

“anyone who expresses skepticism about any aspect of the new curriculum. … “And there’s

no doubt what Jack Welch would counsel the new principals to do with the people who dare

question the new program, or its implementation – even when they ask out of genuine

concern about what’s best for students.” It alleged that Welch would promote getting rid of:

“those who do not immediately surrender to the new order.”



Now apply Welch’s thinking to principled teachers dedicated to being negative about

White Chalk Crime, and refusing to surrender to practices that abuse children and

lawlessness and it will reveal just what is so wrong with the business template imposed upon

Education: It provides an air tight cover up for White Chalk Crime accidently or not so

accidently. This author, who in describing her position in defense of teachers alleged, as I

have, that there are very few teachers who fight the system to perpetuate their own

deficiencies saying: “It is an argument on behalf of those teachers who express their doubts

about what they are being asked to do out of genuine concern that students will not be well

served by some of the changes being forced on them. These teachers take their role seriously

enough that they are willing to risk administrative censure – and in some schools, that’s

getting serious – in order to protect their students from the untested new – arguably as

important a function as that of rescuing them from the discredited old.”



She cited a counter to her argument that reeked of EducRAT-speak: “students ‘didn’t

get what they needed’ when teachers had more autonomy.” She said: “To which I reply that

while teachers have never had as little leeway to ‘correct’ for the shortcomings of the

curriculum or methods they were required to use as they do now, they’ve never had

complete autonomy either. …Their input was rarely sought before; it is even less valued

now.”



The article went on to question Welch’s innovativeness and accused him of succeeding

more with his financial manipulation skills than other qualities. However, even if Welch is

the great leader many believe him to be, the following proves him wrong for Education: she

quoted Welch as saying regarding environmental concerns relating to GE’s manufacturing

procedures: “‘On this one, guys, let’s just keep two steps ahead of the law,’ Welch told

those assembled. With more lawyers and money to devote to that enterprise, GE successfully

fended off responsibility for any cleanup for years.” (From At Any Cost: Jack Welch,

General Electric, and the Pursuit of Profit, by Thomas O’Boyle, Vintage Books, New York,

© 1998: “For years, a class of chemicals called PCBs were created in GE plants as a byproduct

of the manufacturing process for plastics. Their dangers to humans are widely accepted.

One study by two scientists from Wayne State University found evidence that

babies born to mothers who had eaten PCB tainted fish were born sooner, weighed less, and

had smaller heads than those whose mothers did not eat fish...A subsequent study, published

in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that children who had been prenatally

exposed to PCBs in concentrations only slightly higher than those found in the general

population exhibited IQ deficits, poor reading comprehension, and difficulty paying

attention.”) This thinking that parallels White Chalk Crime’s tax subsidized evasion of the

law is the last thing we need around our children!



She alleged: “GE attorneys kept tabs on individual workers poisoned by working

directly with PCBs, creating lists of the ‘experts’ GE could call upon to refute these workers’

claims about the health effects the chemicals caused.” She described other suspicious acts

GE initiated and alleged: “Defense contract fraud was so rampant in GE that in June 1990

the Department of Defense took the unusual step of creating a special office in Philadelphia

solely to police and audit GE defense contracts.” Quoting from: “At Any Cost: Jack Welch,

General Electric, and the Pursuit of Profit,” by Thomas O’Boyle, she claimed that Welch:

“‘had created a climate of purposeful insecurity, a turbocharged environment in which

people were never quite certain they would have a job tomorrow. It was a form of corporate

cannibalism, which eventually unleashed a series of scandals that were unprecedented in the

history of American business for their variety and scope. More than anything, it was Welch’s

treatment of GE employees that engendered the cynicism which in turn paved the way for

those scandals, blemishing his own reputation and that of General Electric.’” Is teacher

abuse now becoming more believable as you contemplate how well it fits within a business

model of management?



She then pointed out that since the share price of GE rose, “no one argued with its

[merciless style of management] effectiveness.” This begs the question: since our schools

have become increasingly inferior, why isn’t anyone arguing the effectiveness of the current

management? She said: “there seems to be a general belief in the leadership at the DOE,

from Chancellor Klein down, that the interests of students and teachers are mutually

exclusive, and that the latter must indeed be policed or they will not get the job done. The

idea that their experience and opinions might also serve children seems not to have any

adherents, or at least not any vocal ones.” By now you know why there are no outcries to

this ruthless practice of marginalizing teachers, but apparently she was not aware of teacher

abuse and how it facilitates a one-sided argument.



Although apparently not aware of White Chalk Crime either, she referred to the recent

scandals in the business world and questioned the wisdom of applying the business paradigm

to Education saying: “It doesn’t appear that anyone at the Leadership Academy has really

taken the time to evaluate whether the mantra Welch is pitching is something his students

can profit from. And whether the success of his pitch might have some hidden costs, that

someone, at some point, will end up paying for.” The hidden costs of ruthless management

are strewn throughout this book: teachers whose lives have been destroyed and students

whose futures have been compromised. Moreover, the ignorance inherent in choosing a

leader such as Welch to restore one of the vital pillars of our democracy is breathtaking. Do

we no longer have any leaders that comprehend that the qualities intrinsic for leading for

profit and those for leading for principle are in total opposition? Someone like Welch is as

unable to lead a principle-driven organization as someone like me would be unable to lead a

business. I worked as a teacher for less than $40,000 a year when I doubt he would work for

less than $40,000,000 per year. I have worked at exposing White Chalk Crime for over a

decade with no material gain - with many financial costs, an act that someone like him

probably cannot fathom. The profile needed to educate children is simply not that of what is

needed to excel in business and never will be. Education is not about taking profits; it is

about giving away our wisdom to a new generation. There are no financial profits to be

gained by being a teacher, just spiritual profits. A person like Welch has chosen an entirely

different road in life and whether he was a genius or a scoundrel in business, people like him

do not belong in Education. Thus, whether this new direction was an intentional

enhancement of White Chalk Crime, or whether it was just one more idiotic direction born

of a dysfunctional system and a quickly disintegrating democracy, it has taken White Chalk

Crime to new dimensions. Ponder the businesses that stand to gain from this new cell phone

plan in New York alone, and we may have the authentic answer for this shift in values: an

opening to expand White Chalk Crime. Either ignorantly or cunningly, business directed

schools promise to take EducRAT$ to new heights and children and the rest of us to new

lows.



As you read on about Philadelphia Schools, you will be scratching your head, glad that

your neck isn’t broken like one of their teachers who served under BRT’s favorite son, Paul

Vallas. Yet, I do have to proffer these leaders a partial excuse: how could they have properly

established effective think tanks with people too terrorized to speak? Further, it is possible

that since prior to late 2002, when NAPTA emerged, these business executives had only the

EducRAT viewpoint as teachers rarely spoke of teacher abuse openly, and thus they honestly

could not infer teacher abuse. If so, this book eliminates that excuse. These people know

now; let’s see what they do. However, if you study NY teacher David Pakter’s case, you will

be hard pressed to justify his treatment or the elitism that placed Klein way above the people

he has a duty to serve. Pakter has communicated with Klein and been ignored, and those

power mongers surely are frothing over the new business opportunities placed before them

in this labyrinth of deceit that is our schools!



p. 225-6



At: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPFU7LyJNU you can hear what NY children’s

advocate Betsy Combier reported to Chancellor Joel Klein about African-American and

Hispanic children’s lack of opportunity to ride buses to gifted programs. Klein cleverly

denied that he had disregarded these students. Yet, he did not deny Combier’s allegation that

these minorities had no bus service to help them attend gifted classes. Turning the focus on

the wording of her accusation to conceal that his program had indeed denied these children,

he took the offensive against Combier, an emblematic EducRAT stunt. Since EducRAT$

holding power to do as they please may and often do overlook policies that people under

them devise that in turn fail children, White Chalk Crime advances discrimination.

Unfairness to minority children is the crux of discrimination and the real travesty of justice

whether it is deliberate or inadvertent. Certainly facilitating gifted Education is crucial to

help minority and impoverished students to soar beyond their deprived circumstances. Thus,

failing to provide such service to the brightest minority children is negligence that rises to

the level of abuse, and as such, dooms impoverished minority children to a broken lifestyle.

Racial discrimination, intentional or not, coupled with teacher abuse that deprives these

children of competent, gifted educators, is a chilling example of White Chalk Crime against

the neediest of our nation’s youth.



p. 228 - 230

Dick Morris is one more duped political pundit. He discussed24 the book that he and his

wife, Eileen Mcgann published: “Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations,

Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection,

and Drug Companies are Ripping Us Off …And,” © 2007, mentioning that the rubber room

at 110 Livingston in New York City is an outrage because the union prevents administrators

from disposing of incompetent and sexually perverted teachers who are contained there at

the cost of $20 million per year due to the union doing battle for these teachers, when in

truth it houses mostly political prisoners – teachers who got in the way of the EducRAT$’

nefarious agendas – because the union will not support these teachers. Although Morris

claimed that his book was “meticulously documented,” EducRAT propaganda observably

compromised his ability to document just as it has compromised the ability for all who care

about our schools to arrive at the truth. Since what goes on in Education, stays in Education,

and none penetrate the White Chalk Crime veil, he offered only the EducRAT$’ version,

missing what the Teacher Advocacy Group NYC (TAGNYC) said about the rubber room:



We represent teachers and counselors who have been excessed, unfairly U-rated for

political reasons, teachers forced into ATR status, and high-salaried and senior teachers

who have been discriminated against. We feel abandoned by the United Federation of

Teachers, which by its silence is allowing Bloomberg and Klein [EducRAT$] to destroy our

careers. We are a group of NYC teachers and counselors who are angry and determined to

protect ourselves from the teacher abuse encouraged by the Bloomberg-Klein team. We

DON’T advocate protection of incompetence and we WON’T tolerate the harassment of

competent teachers, especially senior teachers, with the goal of depriving them of their

livelihood or forcing them into an unwanted retirement. The Teacher Advocacy Group

(TAG) intends to give a Voice to teachers who are being heard by no one else. TAG seeks to

bring the message to NYC teachers that harassment is happening citywide. It wants to

expose the atmosphere of fear that permeates too many of our schools, especially schools

serving inner city students. TAG wants our Voice to say loud and clear that teaching is our

profession and that we intend to stay in our profession, as the competent teachers we have

always been judged to be. We seek to reveal that while school administrators engage in

smoke and mirrors and just plain academic fraud to push up graduation rates and test

scores, targeted teachers are harassed, badgered, and given U-ratings.



Morris missed much more. An anonymous rubber room detainee speaking to UFT

President Randy Weingarten on September 17, 2007, at UFT headquarters said: “The latest

UFT paper speaks about a high school science teacher with a Ph.D. in physics and advanced

engineering degrees who attempted to demonstrate Newton’s Third Law of Motion by

asking his students to press their hands against his. This is the way Lenny Brown has been

teaching this lesson for over 15 years. This most remarkable and extraordinary teacher was

shamefully and embarrassingly removed from his school by the Office of Special

Investigation in the guise of having committed some 3020a violation. In reality, we all know

it’s only a rouse whereby ‘empowered’ abusive principals are following the Chancellor’s

orders to make every veteran/tenured teacher disappear one-by-one. What a tragic and

humiliating way to end an otherwise brilliant and successful career. There are 100’s of

Lenny Brown’s languishing in so called ‘rubber rooms’ in all five boroughs. I know because

I’m in one of them. Two months after I reported my principal for professional misconduct

and corruption, I was removed from my school on fabricated and trumped up charges.”

From “Rubber Room and Back,” a story once posted at NAPTA’s website, but removed

when the teacher became frightened that her current EducRAT$ might connect it with her, is

another rubber room detainee’s description of her life as a teacher in New York that

reinforces just how dysfunctional this system is. In it she said: “The whole system up to the

highest level in the education department is totally corrupt and these administrators know

they don’t have to worry because they can get away with this. Destroying a teacher’s career,

in some cases their lives, is just another day at work for them. It’s like shooting fish in a

barrel.” In it, she repeatedly mentioned Oprah as “our only hope.” This foul and abusive

system has ensured that only misinformation reaches the public, and in clever ways such as

through the voices of respected public figures such as described herein. Awareness of the

criminality in our schools is vital to us as a society, yet when this truth is told, on rare

occasions, it is brushed away as it is too debilitating to accept, just as was the truth about

abusive priests for so many decades. The truth about Education pulls the rug of meaning out

from under anyone trying to live a life of substance. Thus, for most it is better to not know

and easier to ignore. But for our children it must be known, embraced, and acted upon.



p. 279-282

Norman Scott’s article, preceded by David Pakter’s comments, captured THE GAME:

Pakter - Re: Your article - "Joel Klein's Iron Curtain" Your analogies are right on the

mark. Well done. The part about the crushing of "Jason" is heartbreaking. It is now standard

operating procedure throughout the system. Teachers everywhere work in a Stalinist type

atmosphere of perpetual fear, knowing at every moment that they could be next. To survive,

most teachers deny their own good sense and creativity and simply dumb down their

teaching mode to a level of "party level" conformity in order to blend in and not attract the

attention of supervisors. The mantra in teacher survival today is "conform, do not do

anything that will get you noticed, stay off the school's radar screen". It is Huxley's Brave

New World and Orwell's 1984, combined. Fear is now king and Education on life support.

Tens of thousands of inner city students who might have broken free from the terrible cycle

of poverty by being exposed to mind expanding and creative teachers have been cheated out

of a better future by the Party Bosses you write about. It is a nation wide human tragedy and

a true crime against children in the fullest sense of the word. This article confirms your

place as ranking among the keenest observers of the contemporary Education scene.

Joel Klein’s Iron Curtain, by Norman Scott: When all decisions flow without checks

and balances from one source — be it a national leader, the head of a school system, the

principal of a school, a union leader, an abusive member of a household - any form of

dictatorship - the system inevitably fails. Decisions hatched in the mind of a super powerful

person served by sycophants are not subject to the kind of vetting (like someone saying “are

you out of your mind?”) and lead to the “emperor without clothes” effect. Some kind of

democratic process, often messy, is necessary to prevent the train from running loose down

the tracks. If you deal with the daily doings at the NYC Department of Education and with its

counterpart the United Federation of Teachers, these words should ring true. There’s

nothing like a trip to Prague and Budapest, a decade and a half out of the yoke of 40 years

of Soviet domination, to get one to thinking about similarities to the BloomKlein invasion of

the NYC school system. “Are you crazy?” said my wife as we strolled around these

incredibly beautiful cities. “If you make this comparison people will think you are nuts.”

She’s probably right, but here goes anyway.



The Czech Republic and Hungary were both part of the Soviet Empire that controlled

Eastern Europe with an iron fist. Puppet governments were installed but the people saw

themselves as invaded by an alien force and feelings of nationalism engendered an anti-

Soviet mentality. When the yoke was lifted in 1989, a sense of freedom these nations had

never known burst forth. Revolutions in Budapest (1956) and Prague (1968), both revolts

suppressed by an invasion of hordes of Russian tanks - bullet holes still show on the walls

some buildings - had turned these cities into the epicenter of resistance to Soviet control.

Hungary is about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their Revolution, which lasted

from Oct. 23 to Nov. 4, 1956. Being there two weeks before this celebration had an impact.

While on the trip I read, “The Incredible Lightness of Being,” Czech writer Milan

Kundera’s story of a Czech doctor during the “Prague spring” of 1968 when freedom

blossomed and the aftermath of the suppression by the Soviets that August.

Kundera writes, “Anyone who thinks that the Communist regimes of Central Europe

are exclusively the work of criminals is overlooking a basic truth: the criminal regimes were

made not by criminals but by enthusiasts convinced they had discovered the only road to

paradise…”



Tomas, a brilliant surgeon, is demoted to window washer after the Soviet repression

because of a letter to the editor he wrote to a literary magazine during the Prague spring. In

the letter, Tomas criticized the apparatchiks (blindly loyal bureaucrats) who had condemned

Czech citizens charged with a variety of fabricated crimes and then later claimed they didn’t

know and were just following orders. Kundera claims it is irrelevant whether they knew or

not. “The main issue is whether a man is innocent because he didn’t know. Is a fool on the

throne relieved of all responsibility merely because he is a fool? Isn’t his ‘I didn’t know! I

was a believer!’ at the very root of irreparable guilt?”



Let me digress to a story of a NYC teacher who contacted me shortly before I left. Jason

(a pseudonym), who has been teaching a number of years, was ordered by his administrators

to teach in a certain restricted style in which he was not only uncomfortable, but truly felt

was not in the best interests of the education of his students. He refused. The result was a

vicious attack by school administrators, coordinated by a new principal who had recently

graduated from the Leadership Academy - often compared by teachers serving under the

yoke of these graduates as a KGB training ground. He was threatened with a U rating,

received visits from regional supervisors, threats of termination, manipulation of personnel

that had him at the point of being excessed out of the school, and other techniques taught in

the dungeons of the Leadership Academy. Assistant principals who had been supportive and

knew him for years turned on him on a dime – the classic response of apparatchiks, the same

way Tomas’ boss behaved in the novel.



The struggle reached the point where Jason was pretty much out the door. Realizing he

had to think of his wife and kids, he capitulated. He told them he would teach as they wanted

him too. (Need I say the union was useless throughout?) The day Jason gave in, he sat in his

car and cried, the first time he had done so as an adult. He just saved his job — you might

think they were tears of joy. They were not. Jason cried for having been forced to give up his

integrity; for being forced to do what years of experience told him in his marrow was wrong

for his students; for being forced to choose between family and principle; for basically

losing his profession.



The people who hounded him were smug and satisfied in their “victory” and they now

parade Jason around as a model teacher. But they are really parading their conquest as an

example to all the others. Jason laughs with irony, knowing full well a crime has been

perpetrated against both he and the students he teaches. This battle took a lot out of him and

has dissipated some of his passion for teaching. Whether you were in Eastern Europe from

the late 40’s through the late 80’s or in the current DOE, passion outside the narrow box of

orthodoxy is degraded, not valued.



Did putting Jason through the ringer benefit his students? Apparatchiks who are “True

Believers” - Leadership Academy grads and Kundera’s “Fools”- will shout, in unison, “Yes,

Children First.” The mentality and behavior of the “True Believers” at the DOE and in

totalitarian states are similar and their tactics are scarily familiar. The Assistant Principals

who knew what a good teacher Jason was before and know it is all a crock will claim they

were just following orders. Kundera would say they are all fools. I can’t tell you how many

similar stories I am hearing, with many people saying, “Now, it’s just a job.” Or worse,

ending up in the Gulag of the DOE – the rubber room. One day someone will write: “First

they came for the senior teachers near retirement; then they came for the non-tenured; then

they came for the people who could not produce the results they wanted; then they came for

those who could not turn straw into gold; when they came for me, there was no one left.”

Maybe when the iron curtain at the DOE is lifted post BloomKlein and the fear of speaking

out against these “state” crimes is over there will be a day of retribution. Meanwhile, the

School Scope columns must suffice.



Mr. Klein, tear down that wall! Klein has built his version of the Berlin Wall between

managers and educators. Many of the apparatchiks at the DOE, especially at the Region

level who carried out policies they knew were bad for teachers and children - if they were

really educators - are now singing a different tune as BloomKlein are reorganizing once

again as a way to cover their mismanagement. Region level jobs are threatened as the

Empowerment Zone expands and the regions shrink. What has been going on is the

replacement of educators with corporate types in the anti-educator modus operandi of the

corporate takeover of school systems throughout the country. People trained to be educators

are not to be trusted. Thus, Klein's emphasis on corporate, entrepreneurial types as

principals without educational experience. Or taking former educators and brainwashing

them at the Leadership Academy before unleashing them … into the schools.

Enormous sums are spent on doing professional development for all kinds of expensive

programs that funnel more enormous sums into the pockets of private companies. What

teachers learn in school or what they have learned from experience is denigrated. Yet, a

qualified teacher under NCLB is measured by the courses and degrees they complete in

education. “Qualifications” are not required of the people being chosen to run school

systems, Klein being exhibit number one.



Note this quote by Mike Bloomberg in an article in the Washington Post when he tried

to answer criticisms for the lack of parental input under his administration. "Parents know

about their kids, but they're not professional educators. There is no reason to think they

should be designing a school system or running a school system. Do you want parents to

make medical decisions? I don't think so." Hmmm. Mayor Mike. You sort of skipped the

professional educator step when you chose a lawyer to run the NYC school system. If you

should ever have to have an operation, I hope you choose a plumber to do the job. Educators

- and by this I mean people who actually taught for a few years - see BloomKlein’s

corporate invasion of the school system as a hostile takeover. Sort of like tanks rolling into

Prague and Budapest. Coming soon: What lies beneath — how the apparatchiks at the UFT

almost outdid their counterparts at the DOE when Jason attempted to give out literature

critical of the union leadership.



Scott described a political system trickling down fear to accomplish EducRAT goals,

which in New York professes to be gaining control of a system gone astray by

disempowering the teachers. What leaders do to regain control is hardly advantageous if they

do not understand how to educate children. It is impossible to reconcile the Business Round

Table’s support of what has been occurring in New York. When generals dogmatically

maintain power in districts where power comes first, and children are last, others unwittingly

support the treacherous system. Subsequently, those who tacitly agree to hurt children, due

to fear, are soldiers for a fraudulent system. In Lighting the Way, Schiff pointed out that

“Virginia [Durr] came to see the links between the civil rights movement and the labor

movement, both opposed by a power structure intent on keeping the poor divided,

dependent, and fearful.” (p.208) A parallel exists here with the rogues running our schools

intent on keeping us “divided, dependent, and fearful.” Just as the poll tax controlled who

could vote during the South’s Reconstruction to ensure supremacy for those in power,

EducRAT$ devised methods of disenfranchising teachers (and parents) so that EducRAT

power remains absolute. Schiff called this “frightened power,” the outcome of repression.

(p.210)



P. 371

(I will present further data concerning our unions as accomplices to EducRAT$ later in this lesson. However, note that Oprah’s people missed the significance of unions attempting to block progress such as what Johnson accomplished against the odds, and missed White Chalk Crime altogether.) Another answer is: many teachers are giving out their cell phones and trying whatever they can but

are hopelessly trapped in White Chalk Crime fiefdoms such as this teacher who posted on a

chat board: “Who can help? Re: new teacher says- ‘it's hell’… Posted by $ 100,000 is too

little for this. Klein wouldn't last a week on 8/27/07:”



On 8/26/07, new wrote: I’m a new teacher in the south bronx. My first day was

Monday. I prepared and planned and planned and prepared. I get up at 4:30 to be there by 7

am before the traffic starts. I have my lessons ready and am very organized I am the first one

there and the last to leave. I leave around 7 pm every night. The first week has been hell. The

students are disrespectful, make animal noises and yell out in the middle of lessons. I have

tried assertive discipline, sending home notes the first week, asking for teacherly advice from

staff members but nothing works. I wanted to run out of the classroom from a near

breakdown. The few kids who do want to learn despite the disruptions I feel sorry for. I

spend my lunch period chasing down students in the lunchroom (their lunchroom) who

didn’t hand in homework. I spend about an hour each eve making calls to parents who never

call me back. It’s exhausting trying to keep tabs on everyone even though I remind and

repeat the homework assignments even telling students to call me on my cell when they get

home if they have any questions. I don’t know what to do. The noise level is extremely loud

and I am extremely miserable. I feel like the new year is starting off on the wrong foot even

before it has begun. Who can help?



p. 387[discussing the media's failure to report White Chalk Crime]

Even when the reporters discussed facts, they did so in a measured vacuum. For instance they said: "Pakter, a former 'teacher of the year' honored at City Hall during Rudy Giuliani's mayoral tenure, just bought a new Jaguar with his $90,000 salary for 'doing absolutely nothing. …It's a present from [Schools Chancellor] Joel Klein,' Pakter said. 'I want to teach, they won't let me teach, but they'll pay me enough to buy a car. Can someone explain this to me?'" This text that portrayed Pakter's sarcastic response to crushing abuse, omitting the essence of his situation - his agony over the betrayal to his

students, served to inflame the public. It left the public enraged that they had paid for this

car, not incensed that EducRAT$, the true squanderers of public funds, had psychologically

slaughtered a dedicated teacher. Pakter tried to make a point that required more information

than the reporters provided, which turned a piece intended to expose EducRAT$ into a piece

that strategically accused the union and the teachers.



p. 388-9

And Dr. Jacqueline Taylor Basker, another rubber room detainee whose story is also at our site, conveyed her feelings over a course of time. (You may think I repeated a story because so many teachers felt the same way, but this is one more voice):



The psychological abuse of teachers is horrific - I am in a NYC "rubber room" full of

teachers (approx. 150) who got in trouble with administrators, or are on mostly bogus

charges against them, who sit there in a type of gulag doing nothing, being watched by

security guards all day long. The Dept. of Education has even sent several retired teachers

as "spies" to watch us closely and record all our activities. We are not able to see what they

are writing and reporting about us. It is the most humiliating and depressing situation, but it

is a paradigm of the disregard teachers are held in this society. … To focus on the students

and dedicate yourself to them for me was how I survived. Unfortunately, the more

competent, creative, caring and intelligent a teacher is, the more likely they will get into

trouble. … I am still in the NYC "rubber room" and go daily as though I am putting my head

on the guillotine and wondering if this is the day the blade will fall. I am trying to endure the

best I can, but I feel my resilience is wearing thin. I try to stay busy and productive despite

the Attica type situation we are in - with extra security guards to watch us, and new spies

from the main DOE office to watch us all day and take notes on our activities and

movements.



People endure the best they can but it is such a terrible human abuse - especially for

teachers used to active days of interaction with students and colleagues. And, because

people are getting paid, we are supposed to be content! … I had a hearing last Spring, which

my union rep said was a "slam dunk" for me - there were missing witness statements, proper

forms were not filed, and the best was that both the Principal and Vice Principal testified

that an uncle came to complain about me; the hearing officer asked if he were the legal

guardian, and they said, no, but the mother had come to school the following day. However,

these days were our Thanksgiving vacation when there was no school. Also, I had the

paperwork to prove I did not have the student in class the day of the alleged incident. Yet,

despite all this, I lost. … I retired, took the money and ran off to Jordan where I am happily

teaching as a professor with New York Institute of Technology's program in Amman. …The

situation is worse than ever for teachers. My son, who was a Teaching Fellow in NYC, had

one successful year, then got one of these new Klein clone Principals and left the following

year. He is now getting his MFA at Columbia, never to return to teaching, which is too bad

because he was really a good teacher with much care for his students.



Then New York City Guidance Counselor Ernest Jeter wrote to a reporter: It is clear

that the Mayor and the DOE are on a clear mission to destroy the New York City

educational system by taking these drastic dictatorial actions that are clearly aimed at

suppressing any and all discontent with how the children of New York City are being

educated or blowing the whistle on all the diabolical corruption that currently exist in the

DOE. …It time for the media to take a serious stand against those who are threatening the

rights of all of us. It is time for those in the right positions to pay homage to those of us who

are and have seriously risked all for the sake of the principles that make this country what it

is. …Mr. McFarland, some of us really do believe in this thing we call "justice". Some of us

believe in it so much that we are committed to fighting a protracted fight to ensure the

children of New York City get what they rightfully deserve and that the individuals who

instruct and guide them are treated humanly and with respect.



p. 389-390

And this response to the article was written by one of the many rubber room detainees:

In my school, in the month of March 2007, a teacher learned that one of his female students

had recently been sexually raped. The teacher reported the matter to the principal. The

principal, in knee jerk reaction, gave orders to the same teacher, his Middle School assistant

principal and the guidance counselor that "the matter" was NOT to be reported. Five days

later, the courageous guidance counselor reported it to ACS. (Miraculously, the guidance

counselor has not yet been sent to the rubber room for "insubordination.") A similar incident

occurred just last Friday with a sixth grade student from the same school. The student

confided to the SAPIS (roughly halfway between a teacher and social worker) teacher, who

contacted the Middle School Assistant Principal after hours, who then contacted the

Principal (the same Principal of the earlier incident), who became furious and verbally

abusive of the Assistant Principal for having contacted him and attempting to deny him

"credible deniability." Finally, the NYPD showed up at the school on Tuesday (four days

later), after the parents came to the school Monday evening looking for the principal.

I'm assuming the police have not yet arrested the parents of the girl for reporting the

matter. (I'll keep you updates as soon as the parents are arrested.) After all, these types of

incidents and reactions are wholly inconsistent with the newspaper reports of 90% parent

satisfaction. Nowhere did I read a headline: "Why are 1200 Principals Getting Paid for

Doing Nothing"? CORRECTION: Stop the press. Performing cover-ups on a routine daily

basis to make the Klein-berg administration look good is NOT doing nothing. In fact, it is

highly repetitive and fatiguing work.



These and many other matters will be reported at my upcoming 3020a Hearing when the time comes, not so much for purposes of seeking justice, but for purposes of creating a historical document and a blueprint for creating lesson plans for the next generation about the witch-hunts which took place during the Klein-berg reign of terror. A special chapter on the role NOT played by the news media will be included. By the way, in case you are curious what unmentionable deed I committed to become destined and fated to inhabit the rubber room, I shamelessly and shamefully reported my principal for

"official misconduct" and "corruption" to his LIS supervisor at Region 7. While the

Principal was subjected to two disciplinary hearings and had a file opened at CSI (which

mysteriously disappeared a few weeks afterwards), I was sent straight to the rubber room

(without "passing go") on fabricated and trumped up charges. Fortunately, I have a

powerful secret weapon, neither Bloomberg, Klein nor their Integrated Police Unit (NYPD,

OSI, CSI, DOI, ACS, ETC.) have. You see, I read and studied Kafka when I was 14 and there

is nothing they can do to surprise me.



p. 392

To hear the side that receives little to no press and which the public needs to know to protect its interest, watch NY parent, teacher and child advocate Betsy Combier make a heartfelt plea at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jHY_PPNvx0. She made that appeal to NY City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein in September of 2007. Many are telling their stories on the Internet. Yet, the misreporting beat goes on and on.



p. 422-3

TFA [Teach for America] is fishy from another perspective: EducRAT$ supporting the TFA concept for the sake of providing students with good teachers while disposing of great teachers makes no

sense. To get to the bottom of it, I searched for more answers and came across the following

on TFA’s website where they proudly announced their sponsors: “‘I am thrilled to be able to

support Teach For America corps members and the work they do....They embody

extraordinary talent and the will to take no excuses in their mission to make our nation a

better nation. They are impact players.’ - Joel Klein, New York City Schools Chancellor.”

We have explored what is going on with teachers in New York City under Klein’s watch –

some of the most talented and most dedicated to helping children including the minority

children are languishing in rubber rooms such as David Pakter, teaching in other countries

such as Dr. Jacqueline Taylor Basker, or no longer teaching such as standards setting teacher

Susan Schwartz. A former rubber room detainee expressed: “I thought the teachers in the

rubber room were better, more articulate, seemed more educated, with a better sense of

humor, than any teacher I met while teaching. I felt that the RR contained the elite of the

NYC teaching profession, like the DOE skimmed off the best.” “'RUBBER-ROOM'

TEACHERS DEMAND RIGHTS,” said: “Colon, [Hipolito Colon, 57, a teacher who has

spent over two years in a center in Downtown Brooklyn], who is helping organize the

rubber-room respect campaign and was to make his case to UFT executives today, said he

has yet to be formally charged with any wrongdoing. …He was transferred to the center at

25 Chapel St. after blowing the whistle on his principal for allegedly using an unlicensed

assistant as a teacher. He is suing the Department of Education as well as the state teachers'

union.” Inflicting Guantanamo-like solutions on successful teachers that report White Chalk

Crime and then replacing them with a steady source of recent graduates does not impart a

chancellor wanting great teachers. Also, bearing in mind that Pakter’s ordeal with Klein was

over Pakter’s unwanted effort to end discriminatory practices aimed at minority students and

EducRAT$ have shockingly booted highly qualified African-American teachers out of their

jobs for political reasons across this nation, backing a program to address minority needs is

incongruous. (See stories of Vernetta Northcutt, Debra Satchel and Jean Bloom in Lesson #7

and at EndTeacherAbuse.org.)



Thus, the EducRAT$’ backing of TFA must be for reasons other than wanting to supply

minorities with great teachers one of which could be the ability to donate large sums of

money to buy “cheap” teachers, while obtaining a tax write-off to offset their lucrative

incomes. Then, since these “cheap” teachers are doing this as a pit stop in their career, and a

pit stop it is, they will not be “trouble” down the road, “trouble” meaning idealistic,

dedicated types who will establish roots in the system and will be inclined to report White

Chalk Crime. I am sure there are many other materialistic, corporate angles for supplying

teachers this way that a mind hard-wired to care about others could not envision. I have only

figured this GAME out as an observant insider armed with an enhanced ability to analyze

students, which shifted to analyzing the system when they thwarted my journey as a teacher.

These EducRAT$ are far ahead of any of us natural born educators or trusting citizens in terms of concocting schemes to turn our children into dollar signs. The point is that one must find anyone who promotes the dismal status quo in Education as suspect. Klein’s promotion of this organization is suspect because he would not be chewing up and spitting out wonderful, kind, dedicated teachers if he truly cared about great teachers or the children for that matter. When he backs the removal of good teachers, their students suffer dearly. A teacher/student relationship is not a material commodity and

replacing good veteran teachers with two-year, even if good, revolving door teachers is

wrong for children just as going into homes and replacing mothers with new more effective

mothers would be. Only a cad or a person who prioritizes money and power over principles

and law could not realize how much this hurts children as well as teaches them bad values.



The profile of the students selected for TFA conveys why this is an EducRAT scam. At

TFA’s website, it said: “Who we're looking for - We look for exceptional leaders who

have a track record of achievement (whether in school, work, or extracurricular activities).

We also seek individuals who have the potential to achieve based on the skills and strengths

that we’ve determined over time lead to success in our classrooms.” Leaders are not robots.

Leaders are people with the courage to join NAPTA and who do not sit back and take orders

that are lawless or that are harmful to children because “that is the way the system works.”

Leaders do not give inappropriate grades because “that is the way the system works.” There

is no way EducRAT$ want leaders, but they can tolerate them for a couple of years, as long

as moving on is part of the formula. (Kaplowitz’ principal could not last a year!) That way

they can pretend to really want good teachers in the classrooms while providing themselves

with a tax shelter for all the money that flows their way.



p. 478-9



Below, NYC rubber room detainee .. elucidates why abuse is so handy for EducRAT$: As a

former educator and newly designated rubber room detainee, I would like to bring to your

attention for your peace of mind, a new work by a renowned psychologist specializing in

trauma treatment who has been on the staff of Harvard Medical School for over twenty-five

years. Martha Stout Ph.D. has written a new book titled: The Paranoia Switch. This

monumental work goes a long way in explaining how ruthless demagogues exploit the fear

and paranoia of a traumatized population in order to control the "paranoia switches" that

result in human paralysis, fear and ultimately the triumph of evil by those without a

conscience. In essence, traumatic events like terrorism overload the limbic system. The

heightened response in that part of our brain called the amygdala which registers the

emotional significance of the event, leads to decreased functioning in the hippocampus

which usually prioritizes information and allows the higher brain to create coherent

memories. So traumatic events do not get integrated by the higher brain, but instead leave us

with nonintegrated fragments of memory: isolated images and sensations. These memories

can then be "triggered" by similar images and experiences. In this way, ruthless and

conscienceless leaders, administrators, CEO's, principals, chancellors, politicians, etc. can

keep us in a state of vulnerable paranoia.



Using this model of human brain functioning and conditioning, consider the witch hunts

which followed certain historical traumatic events like the formation of the KKK following

the end of slavery, the illegal internment of over 100,000 loyal Japanese citizens during

WWII, the McCarthy witch trials following WWII, the axis of evil that was created after

9/11, etc. and how these were used by fear mongers to create scapegoats that allowed power

hungry leaders with visions of a "new society" to push the buttons on the "paranoia

switches" that were installed into our brains during times of national crisis.

Professor Stout goes on to explain that entire populations are victimized and held

captive by fear, paralysis and paranoia in much the same way the "battered wife syndrome"

works. Individuals are targeted for harassment, abuse and humiliation by someone in a

position of power and made to feel that their well-being and survival depends on their

getting along with that same person --while they are shunned, isolated and ostracized by

their peers and colleagues and made to feel powerless and hopeless. The abuse never ends,

just gets more insufferable, intolerable and unbearable, until the victim finally becomes

"uncooperative and insubordinate". Ring a bell?!



And after you are humiliated and removed from your school by the functional illiterate

former special ed students masquerading as the keystone cops (aka: OSI), who will believe

you? The first thing Klein did after taking over was remove principal tenure by creating fear

and paranoia that any principal can be fired at a moment's notice, at will. This fear and

paranoia worked splendidly and resulted in absolute loyalty and obedience. Next, the former

gym teachers and shop teachers who became appointed as principals by forming

meretricious liaisons with strange bedfellows, were brainwashed into believing they were

newly anointed corporate CEO's. This was the vestment equivalent of boots and uniforms.

So here we are eight years later. The best and the brightest teachers with proven track

records will continue to flood the rubber rooms. The most incompetent principals and

despicable human beings will continue to follow orders and use the "How To Get Rid of

Tenured Teachers" manuals in furtherance of the agenda at Tweed. The most dysfunctional

behavior disordered students are openly boasting: they can get any teacher fired any time.

And they're right!!! Did the workshop model result in improved literacy or classroom

discipline? Have student academic performances honestly improved one iota? (On stat

sheets it's "Alice Through The Looking Glass".) The Teaching Fellows are more

dehumanized and demoralized than ever and quitting in droves.



Karen Horwitz

312 - 397 1940 (Chicago)

312 - 498 9074 (Cell phone)

[e-mail]









Karen Horwitz

[e-mail]




(Attachments successfully scanned for viruses.)

Attachment 1: Joel Klein excerpts from book.pdf (application/pdf)

[JD]

Interesting article... I don't have time to read all of it at the moment, but I think I got a good overview of it. One quote I found particularly interesting was: Sexual charges are the "WMD" of the teaching world. In other words, if you want the general public to support your bad decisions (e.g. forcing a teacher out of work without reason VS. going to war against a certain country without reason)... let's make up these outrageous charges against this person (or nation) we don't like, and then the public will CERTAINLY be on our side. So very sad!

But as for the teachers who are willing to speak out about these injustices... good for them!