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 Marxism and Education The Internationalist Group and League for the Fourth International have published several pamphlets on struggles over the capitalist assault on public education internationally. Click on pamphlet front pages below to see article lists and get selected articles. |
Pamphlets
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To order pamphlets, write to: Mundial Publications, Box 3321, New York, NY 10008, U.S.A. Cover prices include mailing costs. |
Articles
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Bloomberg/Klein School “Reform” Flunks Out “Merit Pay,” Witchhunting and Corporatizing Public Education Close Down the “Rubber Rooms” – Reinstate All “Excessed” Teachers! For Union Control of Hiring! The mounting attack on New York City teachers by schools chancellor Joel Klein and billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg is only the tip of the iceberg. A full-scale assault on public education being waged by the Republican White House, the Democratic state house and top capitalists like Bill Gates. They are out to reshape the workforce to “compete in a global economy,” and for that they want to put the schools under private control, push most students out by the 10th grade and bust teachers unions. The day before national test results revealed that New York City schools failed to improve math and reading scores, Klein announced that the NYC Department of Education had set up a “Teacher Performance Unit” to drive out teachers they want to get rid of. Yet instead of fighting to defeat the drive to corporatize and privatize public education, United Federation of Teachers leader Randi Weingarten negotiated the introduction of “school-based” merit pay. “Merit” or “performance” pay, however you package it, is a threat to the very existence of the union. “Merit Pay,” Witchhunting and Corporatizing Public Education (26 November 2007) |
| Cops
Out of the Schools! No to Mayoral Control! For Teacher-Student-Worker-Parent Control of the Schools NYC Teachers, Students Under Attack In the umpteenth reorganization of the New York City schools, NYC schools chancellor “excessed” more than 700 teachers in alternative education programs, forcing them to reapply for their jobs. Hundreds of experienced teachers with excellent records ended up in Absent Teacher Reserves due to the UFT leadership giving up seniority rights in the 2005 contract. Klein told the New York Daily News that “we should be able to terminate those employees” altogether. The DOE has been trying to eliminate alternative education programs for several years. Behind this is a program to corporatize and privatize “public” education. Instead of a quality education being a right, they want to respond to “market forces” by supplying a “two-tiered” education system with good schools for a petty-bourgeois elite and stripped down, scripted 3Rs programs for future low-skilled workers. Now it is revealed that the reauthorization bill for the No Child Left Behind law includes a provision requiring schools to introduce “merit pay” or forfeit federal money. The union should demand that NCLB be abolished, not “improved,” as UFT/AFT tops want. NYC Teachers, Students Under Attack (17 October 2007) |
| NYC Department
of Education: Corporatization,
Repression and Union-Busting Since taking control of the New York City schools five years ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his factotum Joel Klein have relentlessly pursued an agenda of corporatization of public education. This has meant top-down control by managers with little or no educational experience or knowledge; multi-million-dollar contracts for educational entrepreneurs and corporate services vendors; bullying police presence in and around the schools, including beatings and arbitrary arrests of students and teachers; massive testing, with “high stakes” tests victimizing poor, minority and immigrant students; the wholesale elimination of bilingual schools and failure to service English language learners (in a city where more than half the students come from immigrant families); military recruiters trolling school grounds looking for cannon fodder, and much more. Down with mayor control of the schools! To put a stop to the destructive disorganization of “public” education, New York City schools should be run by elected bodies of teachers, students, workers and parents. NYC DoE: Corporatization, Repression and Union-Busting! (6 June 2007) |
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