CommentsFIRST PERSON-For anyone who bothers to look -- since school districts like LAUSD make no attempt to hide it -- there is an ongoing history of illegal attacks on, and removal of, thousands of expensive high seniority teachers from coast to coast on clearly fabricated charges. This is happening because they are too costly for school districts that are themselves in dire financial straits due to their own malfeasance.
The reason why districts like LAUSD go after many of their best, most seasoned veteran teachers remains unreported in the corporate-controlled media, which is owned by the same interests seeking to privatize public education for corporate profit, a trend that will further the dumbing of America. Soon we will reach the point where our citizenry will no longer have enough education to understand how badly they are being screwed.
Longstanding administrative mismanagement reaching the level of criminality has many of these districts teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, while their respective state governments dread the likelihood that they will have to take them over once these corporate vendor-pilfered school districts go belly up into bankruptcy.
And a bogus charter movement -- a stalking horse for the privatizers that own them -- is only shortening the time left before entities like LAUSD are totally made into charter districts. When that happens, all their goods and services will be supplied by “Broad-esque” corporate interests that have no problem saying they value their version of laissez faire capitalism above anything else. This includes little things like a good public education for all in the context of a democratic society, which today's students are no longer educated enough to realize is almost gone.
And if you have the misfortune of being one of the high seniority teachers targeted under this clearly sinister plan, your only option is to seek redress of grievances in a court system that is no longer a neutral arbiter of the facts in search of truth. It knows that if it decides in your favor the state will be left holding the bag for a school district's avoidable malfeasance.
The one asset those opposing the privatization of public education have is the fact that they are an as yet unheard of super majority. They have yet to realize their power to stand against the privatization, dumbing down, and elimination of a meaningful public education upon which our democracy relies. Freedom of association is now possible through 21st century Internet technology, something Ed Snowden and others have and will continue to use effectively -- as long as we have net neutrality -- in addressing the superficial, homogenized Orwellian newspeak that holds sway today.
Presently, I am working with an ever-expanding group of targeted teachers from around the country who have had enough. We are in the process of building websites and non-profits to confront the programmed demise of public education. We share the belief that a vibrant public education is probably the most important factor in turning things around in this country. If you are interested in being involved, please get in touch.
(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles, observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He was a second- generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
