What else can we do?

I promised to offer alternatives to CTA’s historic pattern of defeatism and accommodation (discussed in the previous post).  So today I’ll list a few fairly general things I think CTA and its parent organization, the National Education Association (NEA), should do to pull out of this long downward spiral of political retreat and increasing weakness.

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Oakland’s Experience with “School Reform”

Oconnell_Gallo_Local Control
State Supt. hands Oakland "local control" and $80 million debt.

While Real School Reform will take a broad, national view, it will do so with a distinctly local perspective. “Local” means Oakland, California, where I’ve taught high school social studies since 1990 and have been a union activist for most of that time.

So shortly I’ll begin posting as a delegate from the National Education Association’s annual Representative Assembly in San Diego, but first the latest big news from Oakland: our district allegedly regained local control June 28 after six years of state administration.

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