Clashes between police, teachers leave 4 dead in Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Clashes between police, teachers leave 4 dead in Mexico

Jun 19, 7:15 PM EDT
By SAYRA CRUZ

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) -- Violent clashes between police and unionized teachers who were blockading roads and burning vehicles in southern Mexico left four people dead on Sunday, according to union and state officials.

The radical union, which goes by the initials CNTE, is opposed to the mandatory testing of teachers as part of the government's sweeping education reform and is also protesting the arrest of union leaders on money laundering and other charges.

Sunday's clashes involved federal and state police. An Associated Press journalist saw riot police firing on protesters in the municipality of Nochixtlan in southern Oaxaca state, in an attempt to dislodge them.

Isabel Garcia, a member of the CNTE's political commission, said three people supporting the protests were killed. She provided no further details.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_MEXICO_TEACHER_PROTESTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-06-19-19-02-08

[Feeling the Bern]

1. Solidarity, brothers and sisters!

[Igel]

3. Yup.

Because solidarity is the right thing to do.

Even if a majority of the population wants it.

Even if it means you're teaching high school biology and might not know enough to teach 3rd grade science because you've never (a) been tested to see if you know biology and (b) have never been evaluated to see if you have basic teaching skills and know the professional and ethical requirements.

Before a student teacher can walk into a classroom in the US s/he takes a content test in the US.

Before a teacher can be certified s/he takes a pedagogy and professional responsibilities test.

Sadly, at least in most states (perhaps all states), once you pass each of those tests you're good for the rest of your life. You may have paperwork to complete, but if you've passed the test in biology you never take another one. It's why my biology teacher in 9th grade knew precisely as much about DNA as the textbook that we used; it was from the early '60s. He'd been certified to teach biology in the '40s or very early '50s.

And then there's the entire idea of union officials being even suspected of corruption. That can never happen, because the worst of us is better than the best of them. The lowest, scummiest, worst union official would never, but never, deign to steal so much as 1 cent (or centavo) and could never, ever use his (or her) position to enrich self or family or friends. Never happened in the history of unions in the US. It's offensive to even contemplate the suspicion. It's like the CPSU and those horrible allegations that it was corrupt as hundreds of party bosses became oligarchs and Russian mafia in the '90s. Nonesense: they just had superior financial skills, which is what made the USSR such a roaring financial success for so many decades.

Geesh. Yes, sometimes it does bern.

[Feeling the Bern]

4. This being said to someone who has certification to teach four subjects

and has taught in four countries in 12 years.

Thanks for the lesson on teaching. Go away now.

When did progressives stop supporting unions and organized labor?

[rhett o rick]

2. This is the status quo that some want to continue. Heaven help those suffering

among us.