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Estados Unidos: La fundación de Bill Gates aportó 44 millones en educación

Noticias

América del norte/Estados Unidos/17 Mayo 2018/Fuente: El nuevo día

La ayuda del filántropo dio forma a los nuevos planes estatales requeridos por una ley del 2015

El filántropo multimillonario Bill Gates vio una oportunidad para su fundación en una nueva ley federal de educación en Estados Unidos que tiene amplias repercusiones en las aulas del país.

Su organización sin fines de lucro, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,ha dado 44 millones de dólares a diversos grupos en los últimos dos años para ayudar a dar forma a los nuevos planes estatales de educación requeridos por la ley del 2015, de acuerdo con un análisis de The Associated Press. Los gastos pagaron por estudios alineados con los intereses de la fundación, llevaron a buena cobertura de prensa e incluso tuvieron un papel en la redacción de la nueva estructura educacional en un estado.

Las subvenciones ilustran cuán estratégico e involucrado puede ser el fundador de Microsoft en la promoción de su agenda de reforma de la educación, ejerciendo calladamente influencia nacional en la forma en que operan las aulas. La cuidadosa red de influencia de Gates es a menudo invisible, pero permite a su fundación impulsar la conversación en respaldo a su visión sobre cómo reformar los atribulados sistemas escolares en Estados Unidos.

Críticos dice que se trata de interferencia por una fundación con vastos recursos y riqueza. La Gates Foundation dice que simplemente trata de navegar un cambio “tectónico” de responsabilidad para la educación, del gobierno federal a más control local.

«Para 50 estados con diversas capacidades y preparación, fue una oportunidad y una preocupación de que los estados y socios en esos estados necesitan respaldo”, Allan Golston, presidente de los trabajos en Estados Unidos de la Gates Foundation.

La fundación se gastó unos 44 millones de dólares centrados en la ley federal del 2015 llamada Todo Estudiante Exitoso. La ley da a los estados flexibilidad para crear su propia estructura de educación, y los estados reciben fondos federales para cumplir con sus propias reglas.

La ley requiere estándares académicos, lo que significa que la espina dorsal de la mayoría de los sistemas educacionales estatales es el programa llamado Common Core, un símbolo para muchos críticos de lo que llamaron años de extralimitación federal en educción durante los años de Obama. Gates fue influyente en el respaldo a los estándares académicos del Common Core y ahora hace lo mismo en momentos en que los estados tratan de determinar la mejor forma de implementar sus políticas educacionales bajo la ley de 2015.

Y es así como funciona la mayor entidad filantrópica: financiando desde trabajos para políticas hasta amplios estudios y análisis, además de grupos nacionales de activismo, líderes comunitarios y cobertura de prensa.

Algunos críticos del Common Core dicen que no estaban al tanto del interés de la fundación Gates en la ley de educación ni los millones de dólares que continúa invirtiendo en respaldo a los estándares. “Lo están haciendo calladamente porque no quieren que el público en general sepa que siguen interfiriendo en la política de educación”, dijo Carol Burris, de la Network for Public Education.

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Think Tank: States Aren’t Teaching Consent in Sex Ed

Noticias

By: usnews.com/16-05-2018

Not all require teachers to mention ‘healthy relationships,’ ‘sexual assault’ or ‘consent’ in class.

The Center for American Progress recently released an analysis of what it called «the current state of sex education standards» across the U.S., focusing on discussions of consent and healthy relationships in those teaching standards. Analysts at the think tank considered state laws in 24 states and Washington, D.C., that require sex education in public schools and found that not all states address those topics in their sex education standards.

According to the review, just 10 states and Washington, D.C., reference «healthy relationships,» «sexual assault» or «consent» in their sex education programs.

Rhode Island, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., mandate detailed state standards that «address aspects of sexual health and clearly categorize topic areas» by age, according to the analysis. Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina and Vermont don’t spell out these requirements, but they have revamped state standards to address consent or health relationships.

Moreover, the review found that California, New Jersey and Oregon have comprehensive sex education standards, requiring teachers to discuss healthy relationships as part of sex education. Each state, CAP says, requires educators to use medically correct materials, as well as incorporate lessons on healthy relationships or consent. California, New Jersey and Oregon also boast teen pregnancy rates 3, 4 and 11 percent lower than the national average, respectively. 

The majority of the states analyzed – Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota,Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Utah – reportedly provide teachers with little guidance on which subjects should be covered in sex education curriculums. Those teachings cover pregnancy prevention and preventing sexually transmitted diseases, but don’t address the development of healthy relationships and don’t divide standards by age, according to the review.

Still, the think tank reports that a number of reforms are building momentum in state legislatures across the country.

*Fuente: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2018-05-15/cap-states-arent-teaching-consent-healthy-relationships-in-sex-education

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EEUU: NC march leaders want teacher pay and education spending to reach national average

Noticias

Por: hastingstribune.com/16-05-2018

RALEIGH, N.C. — The group organizing Wednesday’s mass teacher rally in Raleigh says it wants state lawmakers to sharply raise education spending — including pay raises for all school employees — and to reverse many of the education changes made in the past seven years.

More than 15,000 teachers have signed up to attend the “March for Students and Rally for Respect,” an event that’s causing at least 38 school districts, including Wake, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Durham and Johnston counties and Chapel Hill-Carrboro, to cancel classes Wednesday.

On Monday, the North Carolina Association of Educators released its priorities for the march, which coincides with the opening day of this year’s state legislative session. The list includes raising both teacher pay and per-pupil spending to the national average over the next four years. The group also wants “significant and livable raises for all public school employees.”

The National Education Association estimates that North Carolina’s average teacher salary is $9,622 below the national average and per-pupil spending is $2,406 below the national average. The NCAE says lawmakers should not cut corporate taxes until both teacher pay and per-pupil spending reach the national average.

“North Carolina public school educators, parents, and our communities demand better for our students,” NCAE President Mark Jewell said in a statement. “These specific public education priorities will give every student an opportunity to succeed and help recruit and retain educators as we face a critical shortage in our classrooms and school buildings.”

Senate Leader Phil Berger’s office responded Monday by pointing to how the Republican-led state legislature has increased public education spending by nearly $2 billion since 2011. Berger’s office also noted that lawmakers have promised a fifth consecutive teacher pay raise that will lead to an average 6.2 percent raise next year.

“Over 44,000 teachers in North Carolina — half the state’s workforce — are receiving at least a $10,000 raise since 2014 under the General Assembly’s budgets,” added Joseph Kyzer, a spokesman for House Speaker Tim Moore. “That’s why North Carolina has ranked No. 1 and No. 2 the last two years for teacher pay growth by the NEA.”

Other big-ticket items for the NCAE, which is the state affiliate of the NEA, include adding at least 500 school nurses, social workers and counselors this year and expanding Medicaid to improve health options for students. The group also wants lawmakers to put a $1.9 billion statewide school construction bond referendum on the ballot “to fix our crumbling schools and large class sizes.”

In the face of rising health insurance premiums, the NCAE also wants legislators to provide school employees with “enhanced and protected health insurance and pension.”

Some of the NCAE’s “expectations” for legislators would require reversing changes made since Republicans gained the majority in 2011, including:

— Restoring extra pay for teachers with advanced degrees.

— Restoring longevity pay for school employees based on their years of service.

— Restoring career status, colloquially called teacher tenure, that gives due process rights to teachers before they’re fired or demoted.

— Ending pay for performance based on student test scores for teachers and administrators.

“There isn’t a vision here for increasing student achievement,” said Terry Stoops, vice president of research for the conservative John Locke Foundation. “There’s a vision for increasing the amount of money we spend on public schools but with very little sense on how that money would be used.”

*Fuente: http://www.hastingstribune.com/nc-march-leaders-want-teacher-pay-and-education-spending-to/article_8dd0ef1d-2b2d-5e85-b112-ec2a0e3aaa37.html

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EEUU: Facebook lanza portal educativo para jóvenes

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EEUU/15 de mayo de 2018/Fuente: https://aristeguinoticias.com

La nueva plataforma ofrece sugerencias sobre aspectos como la seguridad, el informe de contenido y quién puede ver lo que comparten, detalló.

Este martes Facebook lanzó un portal para jóvenes que les enseñará a navegar seguros y conocer qué datos recopila de los usuarios y cómo los utiliza.

En su blog de noticias, indicó que el portal está disponible a partir de hoy en 60 idiomas en el link: facebook.com/safety/youth.

Explicó que ahí los adolescentes encontrarán información sobre cómo sacar el máximo provecho de productos, como páginas, grupos, eventos y perfil, navegando de manera segura.

En el portal también descubrirán cuentas de adolescentes de todo el mundo sobre cómo usan la tecnología de maneras nuevas y creativas.

“Es un espacio para que escuches a personas de tu edad hablar con sus propias palabras de los temas que les importan en Internet”, explicó.

De acuerdo con Facebook, la nueva plataforma ofrece sugerencias sobre aspectos como la seguridad, el informe de contenido y quién puede ver lo que comparten.

La sección de consejos muestra a los jóvenes qué hacer si necesitan una pausa en las redes sociales y una guía sobre cómo aprovechar al máximo Internet.

“También estamos explorando nuevas formas de llevar estos consejos directamente a los adolescentes en Facebook. A principios de este mes empezamos a mostrar sugerencias para adolescentes en News Feed, sobre cómo controlar quién ve qué en su perfil y enlaces al Hub de prevención de acoso“, destacó.

Detalló que para construir el portal hablaron con grupos de adolescentes en el Reino Unido, Italia, Estados Unidos y Brasil; además de recibir sugerencias en eventos como el taller del Día de la Internet Más Segura en São Paulo, el foro juvenil #WeMatter en Canadá y cumbres de la Red de Seguridad Global.

Adelantó que celebrarán más mesas redondas durante los próximos meses para seguir aprendiendo de los jóvenes sobre cómo usan Facebook.

“Estamos trabajando con legisladores, expertos en privacidad, otras empresas y diseñadores de experiencia de usuario para brindar a los adolescentes las herramientas y la información que necesitan”, agregó. (NTX)

Fuente de la Noticia:

https://aristeguinoticias.com/1505/kiosko/facebook-lanza-portal-educativo-para-jovenes/

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Switching sides: Whitewashing history in the age of Trump

Henry Giroux

By: Henry Giroux

Madeleine Albright, without irony, has written a book on resisting fascism. She has also published an op-ed in the New York Times pushing the same argument.

Albright, former secretary of state under Bill Clinton, is alarmed. She wants to warn the public to stop the fascism emerging under the Trump regime before it’s too late.

Unfortunately, moralism on the part of the infamous and notorious is often the enemy of both historical memory and the truth, in spite of their newly discovered opposition to tyranny.

It defies belief that a woman who defended the killing of 500,000 children as a result of the imposed U.S. sanctions on Iraq can take up the cause of fighting fascism while positioning herself as being on the forefront of resistance to American authoritarianism.

Albright appears on ‘60 Minutes’ in 1996.

Denis J. Halliday, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Iraq for part of the sanctions era, once said of those measures: “We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that.”

Is any policy worth the death of 500,000 children?

Albright, however, is not alone.

Hillary Clinton, herself a former war-monger and an unabashed ally of the financial elite, has also resurrected herself as a crusader in fighting the creeping fascism that now marks the Trump regime.

Speaking recently at the PEN World Voices Festival, Clinton appeared to have completely removed herself from her notorious past as a supporter of the Iraq war and the military-industrial-financial complex in order to sound the alarm “that freedom of speech and expression is under attack here in our own country.” She further called for action against America’s creeping authoritarianism.

‘Flight from memory’

It’s an odd flight from memory into the sphere of moral outrage given her own role in supporting a number of domestic and foreign policies both as a former first lady and as secretary of state.

There was the refusal to punish CIA torturers, the drone killings, the lavishing of funds to the military war machine, the shredding of the federal safety net for poor people and the endorsement of neoliberal policies that offered no hope or prosperity “for neighbourhoods devastated by deindustrialization, globalization, and the disappearance of work.”

Clinton’s critique of Trump’s fascism does more than alert the public to the obvious about the current government, it also legitimatizes a form of historical amnesia and a long and suppressed legacy of cruelty and human misery. It gets worse.

Michael Hayden, the former NSA chief and CIA director under George W. Bush, has joined the ranks of Albright and Clinton in condemning Trump as a proto-fascist.

Writing in the New York Times, Hayden, ironically, chastised Trump as a serial liar and in doing so quoted the renowned historian Timothy Snyder, who stated in reference to the Trump regime that “Post-Truth is pre-fascism.”

And yet he’s now being regarded as an honest, expert commentator on intelligence and other issues.The irony here is hard to miss. Not only did Hayden head Bush’s illegal National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping program while the head of the NSA, he also lied repeatedly about about his role in Bush’s sanction and implementation of state torture in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dubious heroes

The United States and its Vichy Republican Party has drifted so far to the fascist right that people like Albright, Clinton and Hayden are serving as heroes in the political and ethical resistance to fascism.

While the call to resist fascism is to be welcomed, it has to be interrogated, not aligned with individuals and ideological forces that helped put in place the racist, economic, religious and educational forces that produced it.

I am not simply condemning the hypocrisy of former politicians who are now criticizing the emerging fascism in the United States. Nor am I proposing that only selective condemnations should be welcomed.

What I am suggesting is that the seductions of power in high places often work to impose a silence upon people that allow them to benefit from and become complicit with authoritarian tendencies and anti-democratic policies and modes of governance. Once they’re out of power, their own histories of complicity are too often easily erased, especially by the mainstream media.

Their newly found stances against fascism do nothing to help explain where we are and what we might do next to resist it now that it’s engulfing American society and its economic, cultural and political institutions.

What is often unrecognized in the celebrated denunciations of fascism by celebrity politicians is that neoliberalism is the new fascism.

And what becomes invisible in the fog of such celebration is neoliberalism’s legacy and its deadly mix of market fundamentalism, anti-intellectualism, rabid individualism, unchecked selfishness, shredding of the welfare state, privatization of the public sphere, white supremacy, toxic masculinity and all-embracing quest for profit.

‘Savage politics’

The new and more racist, violent and brutal form of neoliberalism under Trump has produced both a savage politics in the U.S. and a corrupt financial elite that now controls all the commanding institutions of U.S. society.

Systemic corruption, crassness, overt racism, a view of misfortune as a weakness, unapologetic bigotry and a disdain of the public and common good has been normalized under Trump, but it’s been gaining strength for the last 50 years in U.S. politics. Trump is merely the blunt instrument at the heart of a fascistic neoliberal ideology.

We need to be wary, to say the least, about those mainstream politicians now denouncing Trump’s fascism who while in power submitted, as noted U.S. sociologist Stanley Aronowitz puts it, “to neoliberal degradations of health care, jobs, public housing, and income guarantees for the long-term unemployed (let alone the rest of us).”

What is often ignored in the emerging critiques of fascism is neoliberalism’s legacy coupled with the mainstream media’s attempts to hold up many of its architects and supporters as celebrated opponents of Trump’s fascist government.

Trump is the extreme point of a long series of attacks on democracy —and former politicians like Albright and Clinton cannot be removed from that history.

Unchecked and systemic power, a take-no-prisoners politics and an unapologetic cruelty are the currency of fascism because they have long been the wedge that makes fear visceral and violence more than an abstraction.None of these politicians have denounced nationalism, the myth of American exceptionalism and the forces that produce obscene inequality in wealth and power in the U.S., or the oppressive regime of law and order that has ruled the U.S. ruthlessly and without apology since the 1980s.

This lethal mix is also a pathological condition endemic to brutal demagogues such as Trump. Trump and his ilk demand loyalty —not to justice and democracy, but loyalty to themselves, one that stands above the truth and rule of law.

Stamp out amnesia

The calls to resist fascism are welcome, but they can’t be separated from the acts of bad faith that helped produce it.

The fight against fascism is part of a struggle over memory. We must not engage in historical and social amnesia.

It is also a fight to defend the public spheres and institutions that make civic literacy, the public imagination and critical consciousness possible. We must expose the forces that are and have been complicit in the longstanding attack on democratic institutions, values and social relations, especially those that now hide their past and ideological convictions.

Any resistance to fascism has to be rooted in the call to make education central to politics with a strong emphasis on the teaching of historical consciousness and civic literacy as crucial weapons.

At the same time, the fight must be unwavering in its refusal to equate capitalism and democracy. We are at war over not just the right of economic equality and social justice, but also against the powerful and privileged positions of whiteness, toxic masculinity and the elimination of solidarity and compassion.

This is a war waged over the possibility of a radical democracy while acknowledging that the rich and powerful will not give up their power without a fight.

Looking for guidance on fascism in the U.S. today? Listen to Parkland activist Emma Gonzalez, 18, not Albright, Clinton or anyone else who has been complicit. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

And so instead of listening to complicit politicians and others deeply embedded in a system of exploitation, disposability, austerity and a criminogenic culture, we need to listen to the voices of the striking teachers, the Parkland students, the women driving the #MeToo movement, the Black Lives Matter organizers and others willing to make resistance visible, collective and widespread.

The fight against American-style fascism cannot and will not be lead by establishment politicians and pundits parading as the new heroes of the resistance to Trump’s fascism.

Source:

http://theconversation.com/switching-sides-whitewashing-history-in-the-age-of-trump-95729

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EEUU: Betsy DeVos just got exposed for sabotaging the Education Department’s investigation into for-profit colleges

Noticias

EEUU/ May 15, 2018/By: RACHEL LEAH, SALON/ Source: https://www.rawstory.com

The Education Department significantly scaled back a special team investigating abuses by for-profit colleges, the New York Times reported and Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, has hired several of the people who were formerly employed at the for-profit colleges under investigation. They now hold top positions in the education department, while “The unwinding of the team has effectively killed investigations into possibly fraudulent activities at several large for-profit colleges,” according to the Times.

The original investigative unit was created by the Barack Obama administration in 2016 to look into advertising, recruitment practices and job placement claims at several for-profit institutions, like DeVry Education Group. This was amid the collapse of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges. But student complaints echoed beyond the Corinthian institutions, and pointed to widespread fraud, predatory activities and gross misrepresentation of enrollment benefits, program offerings and job placements rates at for-profit colleges.

This team, which under President Obama included more than a dozen lawyers and investigators, has now been stripped down to three employees. “Their mission has been scaled back to focus on processing student loan forgiveness applications and looking at smaller compliance cases, said the current and former employees, including former members of the team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation from the department,” the Times reported.

Early last year, the investigation into DeVry was stopped and a few months later, DeVos hired former DeVry dean, Julian Schmoke, as the investigative team’s supervisor. Investigations into two other large for-profit colleges, Bridgepoint Education and Career Education Corporation, were also halted. And former employees of these institutions, Robert S. Eitel, Diane Auer Jones and Carlos G. Muñiz, were hired by DeVos.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department told the Times that “conducting investigations is but one way the investigations team contributes to the department’s broad effort to provide oversight.” She added that the new employees from the for-profit education industry had not influenced the investigative unit’s task.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) pointed out that the marginalization of the investigative unit is just one of many of DeVos’ decisions to roll back Obama-era regulations that are meant to protect students from the for-profit college industry. “Secretary DeVos has filled the department with for-profit college hacks who only care about making sham schools rich and shutting down investigations into fraud,” Warren told the Times.

DeVry settled two lawsuits in 2016, one with the Federal Trade Commission for misleading students and one with the Education Department for fraudulent claims about graduation success rates. But the investigative unit continued to look into other claims made by the institution.

Other for-profit colleges like Bridgepoint, which was under investigation, has deep ties to the administration. Bridgepoint is a former client of Mercedes Schlapp, director of strategic communications at the White House. The consulting and lobbying firm, Cove Strategies, which she founded with her husband Matt Schlapp, worked with Bridgepoint and is still a Cove client. “Bridgepoint and other online institutions were persecuted by President Obama’s administration because they dared to bring innovation to the education market,” Matt Schlapp told the Times in an email. “I believe educational innovation and disruption are a fight worth having and it matches the President’s agenda of rolling back the excess of the Obama regulatory stranglehold.”

The Education Department spokeswoman told the Times that the department’s new mission is “focused on weeding out bad actors” across institutions of higher education, “not capriciously targeting schools based on their tax status.”

Source:

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/betsy-devos-just-got-exposed-sabotaging-education-departments-investigation-profit-colleges/

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Meet the 2018 Teacher of the Year Honored by Trump the White House Doesn’t Want You to Hear (Audio)

Noticias

USA / May 13, 2018 / Democracy Now

When Mandy Manning received her 2018 Teacher of the Year award at the White House Wednesday, the press was barred from her speech, and President Trump did not mention who she teaches: immigrant and refugee children. While she was at the White House, Manning handed President Donald Trump a stack of letters from her refugee and immigrant students, while billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos looked on. She also wore six politically themed buttons as she accepted her award from Trump, featuring artwork from the 2017 Women’s March, a rainbow flag and the slogan “Trans Equality Now!” Mandy Manning joins us from Spokane, Washington, where she is an English and math teacher at the Joel E. Ferris High School. She was named 2018 National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief School State Officers.

 

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, as we turn now to the 2018 Teacher of the Year. When Mandy Manning received her award at the White House on Wednesday, the press was barred from her speech, and President Trump did not mention who she teaches: immigrant and refugee children.

MANDY MANNING: Over the next year, I want students to know I am here for refugee and immigrant students, for the kids in the Gay Straight Alliance and for all the girls I’ve coached over the years, to send them the message that they are wanted, they are loved, they are enough, and they matter.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s 2018 Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning. While she was at the White House, Manning handed President Donald Trump a stack of letters from her refugee and immigrant students. Manning also wore six politically themed buttons as she accepted her award from President Trump, while billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos looked on. Manning’s buttons featured artwork from the 2017 Women’s March, a rainbow flag and the slogan “Trans Equality Now!” This is President Trump presenting her her award.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: To Mandy and all of the amazing educators here today, your tireless dedication doesn’t just inspire your students, it inspires all of us. And I can tell you, it very much inspires me. We honor you and every citizen called to the noble vocation of teaching. Now it is my privilege to present Mandy with the National Teacher of the Year award.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Mandy Manning, who has returned from Washington, D.C., to Washington state, to her home in Spokane. There, she teaches English and math to refugee and immigrant students at the Joel E. Ferris High School. She was named 2018 National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief School State Officers.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Mandy, and congratulations.

MANDY MANNING: Thank you. Thanks very much.

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about your message at the White House, what took place on Monday? You were with the secretary of labor, the secretary of education. You were with the president of the United States.

MANDY MANNING: Mm-hmm. So, it actually was on Wednesday afternoon. And the White House really did a good job of honoring us. We had a reception, and we had an opportunity to be on a panel with Secretary DeVos and Secretary of Labor Acosta. The four finalists sat there, and we got to speak about some very, very important issues facing education, like school safety and the opioid crisis. And, of course, I spoke about my students, my immigrant and refugee students at the Newcomer Center here. We had a reception, and then the presentation of the award was next. And I spoke to the audience and gave my remarks, and then we had a short intermission, which is where I had my opportunity to hand the letters to the president from my students. And I also asked him if he would be willing to come to Spokane and meet my students, my immigrant and refugee students, to see how amazing, dedicated, focused and what productive members of our community they are as future citizens of our United States.

AMY GOODMAN: The press was barred from recording your speech?

MANDY MANNING: I didn’t know that until after, after the ceremony, when I spoke with a reporter afterwards. That’s when I found out that my remarks were not witnessed by the press.

AMY GOODMAN: That they were prevented from being in the room. Well, I didn’t think it would be particularly subversive to play a clip of your speech at the White House, but apparently it is, so we’re going to play it from a recording made by a friend of yours on their cellphone. This is a clip.

MANDY MANNING: I am honored and humbled to be the vehicle through which my students may tell their stories. I am here for David, a future IT specialist who hopes to one day be able to attend university. I am here for Tamara, who is currently studying pre-med at Eastern Washington University. I am here for Safa and Tara, both future elementary school teachers. I am here for Safa—I mean, for Solomon and Gafishi, who believe that the United States is the place where they have found the center of their lives, where they can have dreams and hopes to be someone. You see, my students are immigrants and refugees brand new to our nation. I teach in the Newcomer Center at Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington. And all of the students who come through my classroom have three things in common: They are just learning English. They have escaped trauma to find new lives in our nation, and they are focused and determined to be productive citizens of our United States. And most importantly, they succeed.

AMY GOODMAN: The speech no one saw but those in the room, like, oh, the education secretary, DeVos, the labor secretary, Acosta. President Trump, I don’t believe was there at that point. But again, the press barred from being in the room and recording that speech. Mandy Manning, you were talking there about your students. Talk about the countries they come from, as you teach at the—what’s known as the Newcomer Center. President Trump did not mention, in his awarding you the Teacher of the Year award, that you teach refugee and immigrant students.

MANDY MANNING: Yes. So, I teach in the Newcomer Center, which is a specialized English-language development program for brand-new immigrant and refugee students. So these are the students who just came to the country, like one to three months prior to starting school here in the United States. And they also know very little English. So, my students come from all over the world. They come from Iraq, Afghanistan, several countries in Africa, such as Uganda, Sudan, Eritrea, Rwanda, Tanzania—all over. I have Syrian students. I also have current students from Burma-Myanmar. I’ve had students from Micronesia, Malaysia, Chuuk island in Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, students from El Salvador—all over.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Mandy, can you talk about the pins you wore as President Trump recognized you as the Teacher of the Year?

MANDY MANNING: Sure. So, I teach—I not only teach immigrant and refugee students, but I also have worked closely with the Gay Straight Alliance. I was a co-adviser before becoming the Washington state Teacher of the Year. And I also coach girls’ basketball. And on my girls’ basketball team, I have had a trans boy, who had to, you know, be on the girls’ basketball team. But these pins represent my students. And I wanted them to know 100 percent that as I stood there in this White House, that I am there for them. I am there to be the vehicle through which they can tell their stories, and I want to represent them. And so, that’s what my pins represented. And the one from the Women’s March is the one that represents the DREAMers and the DACA immigrants.

AMY GOODMAN: And you were also speaking—this past Wednesday is in the midst of the teacher walkouts and strikes around the country. Can you comment on these?

MANDY MANNING: Well, at the heart of every teacher is their students. And in many states and in many areas, we are underserving many of our students. And sometimes it takes that collective voice, where teachers come together, to ensure that they have the supplies that they need and the equipment and also the compensation to be the very best that they can be for their students. And so, sometimes we don’t have a choice. When we want what’s best for our students, we have to come together with that collective voice, because that’s when we can make change.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you endorse these strikes and walkouts, oh, from West Virginia to Oklahoma to Arizona?

MANDY MANNING: I believe that, yes, anything that we can do to ensure that our students have what they need, because that’s—you know, that’s what teachers want. We want what’s best for the students.

AMY GOODMAN: And, you know, the last time we saw a televised event that involved teachers and students at the White House was after the Valentine’s Day massacre in Parkland, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, February 14th, where both students and staff, teachers, were gunned down. There, they told President Trump directly—some of them said—one, the husband of a teacher, said, “No, we don’t want teachers to be armed.” President Trump and Vice President Pence went to the NRA convention on Friday, right after giving you that award on Wednesday. There, people were not allowed to bring in guns to the NRA meeting, the National Rifle Association meeting. Your thoughts on guns in the schools?

MANDY MANNING: Well, of course, I can only speak for myself, but I will never and do not ever want to carry a gun in the classroom. The most important thing in my classroom is the relationships that I build. And I strongly feel that if we had guns in our schools, and particularly if I carried a gun, it would dramatically impact the feeling in my classroom and my ability to connect with my students. And I just—I think that it’s an idea that is a temporary Band-Aid to make people feel like that might be—make us feel more safe. But in reality, if we bring more guns into the school, I personally would feel less safe. Plus, you know, the relationships that we build and the connections in the community would be so deeply impacted. So, I would never, ever carry a gun in my classroom.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you get a chance to discuss this with Secretary of Education DeVos or Secretary of Labor Acosta—guns in the schools, the strikes, the walkouts?

MANDY MANNING: We did have an opportunity to speak about guns and school safety. But we really focused on the fact that in order to have safe schools, we need to have connected schools, which means students need to feel connected to their peers, they need to feel connected to their teachers, and they need to feel like their school represents them and is a safe place for them. And so that was the focus of our discussion, that the key to school safety is ensuring that teachers can do the things that they need, and have the latitude in their classrooms to meet the needs of the students within their individual classrooms—

AMY GOODMAN: Mandy—

MANDY MANNING: —and that schools need to be places—go ahead.

AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead. “And schools need to be places…”

MANDY MANNING: That meet the needs of the community within which they reside.

AMY GOODMAN: Could you end by sharing a letter from one of your students? You asked them to write letters to President Trump?

MANDY MANNING: Yes. And they wrote just beautiful letters. So I did—I chose one from a student, and I will leave his name off, but from a student from Iraq. So, he says, “Dear President Trump.” Oh, he put his name in here, so I’ll say it. “Dear President Trump, My name is Yusif, and I am from Iraq. In January 2017, you won the presidency. I should have arrived in the U.S.A.; however, because you signed the immigration ban, I had to wait until March. My mother was already here in Spokane, Washington, and I had not seen her in four years. When I graduate from college, I will be a DJ. And if you want to learn more about me and my mom’s story, you can watch our video on YouTube. Search ‘Maha Al’Majidi’ and click on the video called ‘Iraqi refugee reunites with her son.’ Sincerely, Yusif.”

So, the letters are just beautiful. And some are very supportive of the president. Most of them say “thank you” and how much they appreciate being here the United States. And, of course, some—I was just listening to the show, your show, a little bit earlier, and some do speak about his language about people from Africa and how that hurts, and it encourages other people to use that same kind of language. And it does not make for positive connections within our community. So, the students were great. They had great insights into our nation. And they were very respectful and kind.

AMY GOODMAN: Mandy Manning, when President Trump called country—called Africa, which he called a country, Africa, Haiti, other countries “s—hole countries”—I mean, you’re an English teacher. You teach refugees and immigrants. What did you tell your students that day?

MANDY MANNING: I told them that we love them, that we know their value and that we can see that this is a place for them to come to have hope and dreams and be someone, and that we want them here and that they are lovely, beautiful human beings who make the United States a richer, more beautiful country.

AMY GOODMAN: Mandy Manning, we want to thank you for being with us, English and math teacher who teaches refugee and immigrant students from everywhere, from Iraq to Syria to Burma, at the Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington. She was just named the 2018 National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief School State Officers. Last Wednesday, President Trump presented her with the award during a ceremony at the White House. This is Democracy Now!Stay with us.

Source:

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/5/7/meet_the_teacher_who_staged_a

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