I think this more or less speaks for itself. It's a company checklist showing lots of broken, damaged, or unsafe equipment. The checklist is from a warehouse operated by NFI, a contractor, but the degree to which the warehouse is operated
for Walmart is strongly suggested by the fact that there's a Walmart logo on the checklist. The form is dated August 8. But workers say things still haven't been fixed.
The rest of the checklist mentions safety problems like "this spark plug is very unsafe" and "ramp is extremely dangerous."
The War on Education
- Oh, hey, did you know that charter schools increase segregation? Among other ways corporate education policies make inequality worse.
- By contrast, here's what American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis have to say about what Chicago teachers fought for in their recent strike:
First, use time wisely. The proposed contract lengthens the school day and year. A key demand by educators during the strike was that the district focus not just on instituting a longer school day, but on making it a better school day. Additional seat time doesn't constitute a good education. A well-rounded and rich curriculum, regular opportunities for teachers to plan and confer with colleagues, and time to engage students through discussions, group work and project-based learning—all these contribute to a high-quality education, and these should be priorities going forward.
Second, get evaluation right and don't fixate on testing. Effective school systems use data to inform instruction, not as a "scarlet number" that does nothing to improve teaching and learning. One placard seen on Chicago's picket lines captured the sentiment of countless educators: "I want to teach to the student, not to the test." If implemented correctly, evaluations can help Chicago promote the continuous development of teachers' skills and of students' intellectual abilities (and not just their test-taking skills).
- This would be disappointing coming from anywhere. Coming from the Chronicle of Higher Education it's just sad. The Chronicle is holding a panel on student loan default. That's good, right?
But the invitation asks us to "Join the Career Education Corporation and the Education Finance Council to explore" this topic, and those two enterprises are listed as the sole sponsors of the event, with the Chronicle of Higher Education as its "host."
Career Education Corporation (CEC or CECO) is the nation's fourth largest for-profit college, and one whose record hardly qualifies it to impart wisdom on issues of student debt. Yet, as I discovered, CEC not only is sponsoring this Chronicle event -- it selected all the panelists.
A fair day's wage