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4401-A
Connecticut Avenue, Box 294, Washington, DC
20008
Tel: (202) 244-7535, Fax: (202) 244-7584
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Education Exchange
Volume 2, Issue 11 --
November/December 1998
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Focusing on
Education Reforms at Your School, in Your State
Legislature, and in Congress
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GLSEN
Conference in San Francisco
Pushes for Gay Agenda in Schools
Proclaiming that "Šschools are the number one place for
organizing," gay and lesbian activist Suzanne Pharr urged
several hundred attendees at the 2nd annual
Gay/Lesbian/Straight Educators' Network to be "out, proud,
and authentic" in the public schools. According to the GLSEN
conference program, Pharr founded the Women's Project, which
monitors the activities of the Religious Right and develops
defense strategies for organizations attacked by the Right.
Pharr preached that public schools, libraries and
bookstores are the three top battlegrounds for those in the
gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual movement, and of those,
schools are the priority. Pharr claimed that "Šthe Right
knows the most critical place is in the schools and they are
successful in organizing in schools." In addition, she
asserted that the Right has also been successful in electing
school board members, controlling teachers with gag orders,
and regulating access to textbooks and other information.
Pharr insisted that the Right's promotion of vouchers and
privatization is an effort to "move toward the merger of
church and state." She alleged that Religious Right
organizations such as Promise Keepers and Christian athletic
groups have targeted stadium takeovers as well in their
effort to take control of America's youth.
Pharr proclaimed that she has no opposition to
Christianity, but objects to its being legislated
To counter the efforts of the Religious Right, Pharr
urged an aggressive "queer agenda" and "redistribution of
wealth in this country." To accomplish this, gays and
lesbians must accept that the school is the center of the
struggle for democracy. "We knew this in the civil rights
movement of the 50s and 60s," she said, "and now we are
trying to open the doors wider and wider" to accept everyone
&endash; regardless of sexual orientation.
Pharr stressed that teachers should organize other
teachers with the help of the teacher unions, and include
community members. Teachers should be open about their
sexual orientation, "break the rules when necessary, and be
disloyal" to heterosexual privileges. "That," she stressed
to the GLSEN audience, "will put you in the right place. And
if you cannot do that, the very least you can do is to get
out of the way!"
Pharr spoke of the dream of GLSEN and others to create a
situation where education is accessible and equal for
everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation. With the
help of GLSEN and other gay/lesbian organizations, she
predicted that students will lead the movement in this
country. "Our relationship with children is where we have
our most fear," she said.
Pharr claimed that this movement is not about causing
youth and children to go wrong. Sex is not the issue, and
the more they know about it the better off we are. Pharr
ended her remarks with a standing ovation as she urged those
in the GLSEN audience not to abandon the front lines, and to
gain more courage for the movement.
Edison
School Offers Stock Options to Teachers
Stock options have been offered to 90 staff members at
Reeves Elementary School in Miami, one of 51 public schools
nationwide operated by the Edison Project. The options
cannot officially take effect for 2-3 years when the Edison
Project intends to make its first public stock offering.
According to Pat Tornillo, executive vice president of
United Teachers of Dade, "This is the first time in the
history of American education that teachers have become
direct economic stakeholders in the public schools where
they work." American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President
Sandra Feldman further stated, "This is an innovative
approach to teacher compensation that did not come in
exchange for scaling back teachers' salaries and benefits.
It was done in partnership with the union."
The Edison Project has taken bumps and bruises from the
teacher unions, but with this stock option plan, they may
have found a route to some degree of ceasefire, if not
success, with the unions. Edison General Counsel Chris Cerf
explained that the options would be in addition to current
salaries, which are generally higher in Edison schools than
other public school salaries due to longer school days and
years.
The Education Policy Institute's June Education Exchange
addresses the Edison Project's growth in more depth.
Are
Education Efforts Really "For the Children"?
The North Carolina Association of Educators' (NCAE) head,
John Wilson, told the 700 Club in an October interview,
"Learning to read and write is secondary to learning to get
along..." Wilson's comments were directed at the Healthy
Start Academy in downtown Durham, which is fighting a court
battle to retain its charter -- all because its
overwhelmingly black student population (95+ percent)
challenges diversity quotas in the state's charter school
law.
According to Healthy Start Academy publicist Kay Daly,
Wilson further remarked to Tim Henderson, a Raleigh citizen
who had contacted him about the matter, "Well, if Healthy
Start Academy teachers will join our union, we will walk
away from this whole deal. Otherwise, we will continue to
try to shut them down."
Even in the midst of this court battle, the lawsuit
claims "Healthy Start has discovered ways of developing the
hidden potential of Durham's impoverished, generally
fatherless, inner-city black youths in ways no other public
school has yet discovered." In fact, the kindergarten level
students rose from the 42nd percentile on the Iowa Test of
Basic Skills to the 99th percentile. The first and second
grades also showed double-digit gains in test scores.
The Education Policy Institute's September Education
Exchange newsletter
(http://www.educationpolicy.org/newsletter/EESep98.htm)
addresses the racial quota question surrounding North
Carolina's Healthy Start Academy in more depth.
* * * * *
In an October Education Industry Report, William L.
Walton, Chairman and CEO of Allied Capital, noted that
"selling to and working in our public education system is a
sobering experience for those who believe they can rapidly
change existing education practices. For example, I [Walton]
was once told by school officials that they could not buy
one of our programs because it was too effective and would
raise parental expectations too high for the school's other
curriculum areas."
Rhetoric aside, talk of raising educational standards,
when put to the test, is frequently shot down by those who
have the power to implement such higher standards. Fear of
failure in the eyes of the public has led to pervasive
mediocrity on the part of the educational elite, and in this
wasteland lies that great paragon of virtue that papers over
the realities of the challenge. Yet, as a people we are told
and many believe that we withhold a system of competition in
education "for the sake of the children."
Unions
Set Sights on Private/Sectarian Schools
The Nov. 23, 1998 issue of the Education Intelligence
Agency Communique makes reference to the changing and
improving environment for union organizing among sectarian
schools due to low pay and benefits, strict administrative
control, and occasional dismissals without due process.
As it turns out, not only are the National Education
Association and other unions eager to organize within the
private and sectarian school community, some within those
communities are actively seeking them out.
According to the AFL-CIO's Work in Progress for Nov., 23,
1998, "More than 200 Methodists from across the United
States and several foreign countries gathered in Atlanta,
Ga., Nov. 13 to discuss ways to help the United Methodist
Church address concerns of workers..." Two bus loads of
participants demonstrated to achieve a first contract for
Head Start workers organized by Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Local 1985.
In addition to such moves toward unionization among some
mainstream religious denominations, the National Council of
Churches, a liberal Protestant group, just days after the
U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the
Wisconsin voucher program decision, publicized its
determination that public money should go only to public
schools.
With fewer and fewer clergy among the ranks of sectarian
school teachers, union pressure to organize may increase
among private and parochial schools. School choice victories
are slowly eroding teacher union (NEA/AFT) membership.
Currently, nearly three-fourths of all public school
teachers are unionized.
For further reading about the National Council of
Churches policy debate and statement on public schools,
visit http://ncccusa.org/98ga/schools.html on the web.
Chasnoff
Defends Homosexual Lifestyles
It's Elementary, a controversial video to train public
school teachers on how to promote discussion and acceptance
of homosexuality in the classroom, is scheduled to be
broadcast by a San Francisco public television station in
June, 1999. Debra Chasnoff, coproducer and director of It's
Elementary, announced at the GLSEN conference that KQED had
agreed to air the video during a time slot when most parents
could view it.
Chasnoff expressed her disappointment that the airing
will not be part of a national feed from PBS, which has thus
far rejected the video. Chasnoff indicated that scrutiny
from Congressional watchdogs such as Senator Jesse Helms may
be the reason PBS has refused to air the video. PBS receives
federal funds, whereas the San Francisco station apparently
does not.
Chasnoff reported that "at least 500 schools of
education" are using a shortened version of the video for
training sessions for prospective teachers. In addition, she
and her coproducer, Helen S. Cohen, have been assisting in
the training of representatives of youth service groups,
health organizations such as Planned Parenthood, and public
(and some private) school teachers.
Often, portions of the video are shown in classrooms with
children as young as kindergarten, a practice that Concerned
Women for America has labeled "an aggressive new national
campaign." A columnist with the New York Post characterized
It's Elementary as "78-minutes of relentless propaganda to
advance the acceptance of homosexuality, as distinct from
tolerance."
Chasnoff produced It's Elementary in response to the
reactions to the "two-mom-family" her son was going through
as he entered a public elementary school in San Francisco.
Advocates Push
"Teachable Moments" in Homosexuality Crusade
Advocates focusing on school safety and violence issues
are using federal and state funds allocated for those
purposes to create a safe school environment for gays,
lesbians, transgendered, and youth questioning their sexual
orientation. San Francisco school district professional
development trainer, Kevin Gorgan, suggested that if funding
requirements include involvement by parents, that the "deck
should be stacked with PFLAG (Parents and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays) members and parents who have gay kids."
Teachers in San Francisco's 80 elementary schools will
begin district-wide training in January. Objectives of the
training include an emphasis on age-appropriate classroom
vocabulary. For example, a lesbian should be described to
kindergartners through second graders as "a woman who has
romantic feelings for another woman"; whereas, for 8-12
year-olds, trans-gendered is defined as an umbrella term
which includes transexuals, transvestites, cross-dressers
and intersexed people.
When teachers understand these terms, they are better
equipped to deal with "teachable moments" in the classroom
and playground. One goal is to discourage namecalling of
gays and lesbians while teaching tolerance and acceptance of
others' differences.
Classroom curricula are being developed by GLSEN and
other pro-homosexual organizations for use in reading, math,
and writing classes.
EPI's
Education Quick Facts
- John Holmes, of the Association of Christian Schools
International, revealed that the U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture is requiring all participants in federal
school nutrition programs and other USDA programs --
including religious schools and other religious
institutions -- to display a poster saying that
discrimination is prohibited on the basis of "race,
color, national origin, gender, religion, age,
disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and
marital or family status. Holmes adds that the USDA is
forcing compliance with a statute the Congress has not
approved. (Source: LifeSite Daily News, Oct.
29, 1998)
- In 1997, Congress repealed, for one year, the special
tax break enjoyed by the DC headquarters of the National
Education Association, worth approximately $1.1 million a
year. The [1998 Appropriations] Omnibill makes that
repeal permanent. (Source: Office of House Majority
Leader Dick Armey, Oct. 22, 1998)
- Univ. of Michigan Professor Michael Nettles cites
several factors behind research showing African Americans
lagging behind other ethnic and racial groups on SATs.
One factor is that in predominantly African-American
schools, 51 percent of the teachers are teaching courses
that are outside of their college majors, and 25 percent
are teaching courses they don't feel qualified to teach..
(Source: Detroit Free Press, Nov. 19, 1998)
- The percentage of all students who attend private
schools is much higher in big cities (15.8 percent) than
in either suburban (11.7 percent) or rural areas (5.4
percent). (Source: The Taubman Center
Report, John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University, 1998)
Copyright 1998
Education Policy Institute, PMB 294, 4401-A Connecticut
Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008-2322 202/244-7535, Fax
202/244-7584 http://www.educationpolicy.org
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