This is an Open letter to Bernie Sanders, so that he can know what happened in the past 2 decades to teachers, and thus to the process of learning, as the bogus 'reform movement silenced the real educators and sold magic elixirs as the schools failed!

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Dear Bernie,

The votes of millions of teachers, are at stake. If talking to the millions of teachers out there is your objective, then I speak to you Senator - Bernie - AS A TEACHER who knows what other teachers NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU. I have trying for months to reach anyone that I could communicate what you are missing. So, today, before I go to Texas to visit my grandkids I write this (I voted for you, in the NY primary on an absentee ballot.

'I had hoped to tell you this in person -- my fellow classmate and president of MY high school class. Hidden for 2 decades, the plight of the teachers must be part of your narrative. This letter is a bare introduction. It is what I have written about to Jeff Weaver, and even your brother.

The purpose of this letter is to help you and your campaign, to create a POLICY STATEMENT THAT WOULD resonate with teachers, because it shows them that YOU graspthe real hidden crux of the destruction of our INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. I can ENSURE you that teachers will KNOW,that YOU KNOW! There is no other way to explain what this letter can do for you. It will assist you in grasping that you must stop talking about "schools". That is "their' word,and I will explain who theyare in this letter. You need to begin the conversation about learning, not teaching, which was Duncan's rant, sold by the media until the schools erased the careersof over a hundred thousand of the professional practitioners, with a lawless processthat WORKED.

I read the Ravitch blog where teachers talk, and I can say with some authority that they complain that neither candidate is talking to them. This letter can help you shape your policy statement to resonate with millions of teachers. I listen closely to their plight on that landscape where they practice their profession, their career -- a place run by corrupted business managers called principals and superintendents.

There are millions of teachers and parents too, who are awaiting a leader who will stand up and address the real reason that the schools tanked! New teachers leave in 3 to 5 years, which keepsthe budgets low in schools defunded by austerity rants. This ensures that the next generation of American voters will be ignorant of our history and real facts about anything, and bereft of the critical thinking skills which enable WORK of any kind.

I offer one link which shines a spotlight on the objective of the oligarchs who are behind the utter destruction.

Guess who is writing the social studies curricula in North Carolina" the Kochs.Does that not scare you?

To begin, a very brief introduction: My resume at my author's Page at Oped News, where I am a "trusted voice" who 'reports' on the devastation to the 15,880 schools systems that are America's Institution of Public Education.

I have been telling the same story for 16 years now, the story of the beginning of the end to the public schools and with it the only road to income equality. Like you, I have always spoken truth, and so nothing I say here is new-- just hidden by the media.what is new, is the speed of the privatization movementand the

I have been an activist writer on this subject, SINCE 1998 when I personally experienced the beginning of the war on public education, that began with the first, hidden and literally unknown assault on the career practitioner-teacher, and resulted in the catastrophic failure of our wonderful NYC schools. I listen to the voices of the teachers at the Ravitch blog for two years now, and I can tell you that they lost the war, And, Senator, they ARE the grunts on the ground in this the battle for who will tell our future citizens our history!

Teachers are fighting a powerful corporate entity --the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, of which Pearson is a 'charter' member. Their vast wealth bought the mediawhich sang Duncan's ''bad' teacher' serenade, to bamboozlethe public. You needs to begin the conversation about learning, not teaching, which was Duncan's rant!

I have on my desk, Clinton Rossiter's, "The American Presidency," which we both read in our history class with Larry Storch. I know what that office means to this country, and I have worked tirelessly for you, as a Founding Member, and I will do whatever possible to elect the man who I know isa great man.I listen to you, Senator, and Iknow what you have tried to do, and what you have accomplished.

If there was one story out of the tens of thousands of stories of dedicated, talented and educated people that is evidence of the teacher's plight, it is this one Lawless America "Cold Interview" - YouTube.I beg you to hear Lorna Stremcha tell her story of the principal who set her up to be sexually assaulted.

Bernie, we saw the financial crisis and heard the critters at Libor say, "Hey, everyone was doing it." The schools are microcosms of the larger culture. When there is not a shred of accountability under the law, and in addition the MEDIA , this 5th estate, is silent, then the failed human beings and greedy power-mongers get to do their dirty work.

We need to bring collective bargaining and the civil law, and thus we need to build strong NEW union leadership. THIS you need to stress. The law must rule the workplace. This is the go-to book for your campaign: "Bravery, Bullies and Blowhards, by the lady you saw in the Lawless video link earlier in this letter. (You did see it??)

My story, which I will tell briefly, is well known to Diane Ravitch, whom I met when I was a celebrated educator in NYC, who experienced that first assault on the profession. I did not know then that the tenured teachers with the most powerful voices on LEARNING, were the targets-- thrown to the dogs, onfabricated charges, as in LAUSD today.

Dan Rather heard my story at the beginning, when I was famous, and there were 40 students applying to my school to be in my Communication Arts classroom. I was, at the time, the cohort for the Harvard National Standards research and the NYS English Council's Educator of Excellence. How can a teacher whose students test at the top of NYC on the first ELA exam (which 3/4 of city kids failed) to be charged with incompetence.?

I experienced the utter collapse of my CIVIL RIGHTS to confront the administration that had emptied my employment folder, and filled it with total fabrications -- just as I was perhaps, the most celebrated teacher in NY State. All my awards (Who's WHO Among America's Teachers) and decades of excellent performance reviews, GONE, replaced my bogus documentation.

Now you know the lengths to which they can go when the law is absent from the workplace!

And one last anecdote, the behavior of which shines a spotlight on the crux of the problem: the charge of incompetence, an actual charge, came a year, after I had been 'rubberized,' for six months with no word as to why.

No union rep spoke to me, as my students wrote to me in email, about the destruction of my wonderful classroom. Moreover, the superintendent of NYC District 2 wrote a letter and published it to my school, saying that I had been found guilty of 'corporal punishment,'-- although there had never been a hint of the allegation, and no charges or hearing.

If this lawlessness is incomprehensible, imagine how I felt when I stood in shock and objected to the lies of verbal abuse, and the NYC UFT Manhattan head honcho in 1998, silenced my objections. It was not enough to rob me of my career, they shredded my reputation while I was unable to defend myself.

That is what is happening in the schools. The intimidation is something that makes it impossible for the professional to design the lessons, or to have any autonomy in the practice.

Hey, I am a Brooklyn bred gal, and as my readers know" I persevered! I hired a real attorney, and for $25,000 he filed a lawsuit ( pointing out that even if-- in an insane moment I had cursed at a student in front of 30 kid s-- it was not, under the law--'corporal punishment!'

Teachers cannot get justice in the courts. It bankrupts them!

There is more, much more, but this is not about me; I only touch on my story because along with Lorna Stremcha's tale of abuse, it demonstrates the extremes, how far they CAN go to silence our voices! Read the stories of teachers at the NAPTA site, Senator, and you will glimpse that first decade before Bush invented VAM"and WHAM, so that now teachers are evaluated out the door in 3 to 5 years, saving between $40 K and $65K by not vesting them in benefits.

And along came a spider called Duncan who sold this narrative of teaching, not learning. and using these bogus tests to catch the teachers in the web.

Test scores are collected and then marketed by greatschools.org. This non-profit is a sophisticated and well-funded system for gathering test scores and other information about students and parents, then selling that information. The website literally sells ads and licenses for access to test scores and other data on schools--public, private, and charter--with expansions planned for pre-school and daycare-centers.

The PROCESS of civil rights abuse, is THE SCANDAL OF THE CENTURY.

You must address the need for teachers to be able to participate in the conversation about learning in their own practice!

Without the law of the land to protect them, teachers were harassed, humiliated and vilified. With their voices silenced, Bush could foist NCLB & VAM. and set up a testing program which measured nothing a teacher can use. The real Performance Standards state that genuine evaluation and authentic assessments (tests) are for the teacher's usein planning to meet the needs of each emergent learner. I know this because my work met every one of the standards principles in a unique manner, according to the researchers at the LRDC, and I never gave a test! The test was in their ability to write!

To help your campaign to draw an insight, go to my serieshere, and see the links to the Ravitch posts on the privatization movement. Or go to her site and put in "the legislatures" which are defunding public education, and then labeling schools as ' failing,' so they hand over the education of our future votes to private charters which have no oversight.

This is occurring at a dizzying speed.For example just this week, despite a court direction to fund public schools,the Washington State legislature is spending its session looking to fund charters, which cater to only 13% of the population. Legislatures could only do this if the voices of the real educators, the teachers were GONE from the conversation!

ONE LAST piece of advice: Diane Ravitch can really help you Bernie. I realize that you know who she is, but let me just point out that she was the Secretary of Education for 2 administrations, and is the top academic in America, and one of Politicos 50 Most important Americans. Her last book is so important to read: Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools

Recently her site, which she began 2 years ago, reached 26 million views. It is America's Teacher's Room, but it is where parents go, too, to tell what is afoot in their schools, and to hear teachers talk about what Diane reports. The commentary there, for anyone who reads the feed offers a glimpse into the truth about what is HAPPENING TO TEACHERS (and thus education) -- something that is nowhere to be found in the media! (who at your campaign follows it???)

This brilliant woman is the voice of us all, and can tell you, Bernie, what is afoot on that stage. Contact her and ask her what she thinks must be addressed" I am just a 'mere' teacher! LOL! Have your staff go to her site and read the laments of the teachers out there now. Teachers leave in 3 to 5 years, which IS the objective! It keeps the budgets low, and at the very same time ensuring that the next generation of American voters will be ignorant of our history and real facts about anything, and bereft of the critical thinking skills which enable WORK of any kind.

Let teachers know you will be working to RESTORE their autonomy as professionals in their classroom practice, to design the lessons to meet state objectives, and do so according to their own knowledge and education. Promise them the support they need to DO THEIR JOB, and that can only happen if the administrations do their job" which is outlined in the Principles of Learning" the pew funded, Harvard research that went MISSING! FIND IT!

Trump often says, "Believe me."

I find that ironic, but I say this to you, BELIEVE ME because I can be trusted to offer the EVIDENCE AND FACTS, AND TO really help you win the NY and California primary" DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TEACHERS THERE ARE IN THE 2 LARGST SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE NATION!

Yours sincerely,

SUSAN LEE SCHWARTZ

www.facebook.com/susanlee.schwartz

Authors Website: http://www.speakingasateacher.com

Authors Bio:

I began teaching in 1963,; Ba and BS in Education -Brooklyn College. I have the equivalent of 2 additional Master's, mainly in Literacy Studies and Graphic Design. I was the only seventh grade teacher of English from 1990 -1999 at East Side Middle School, which opened in 1990. My students placed amongst the highest reading and (eventually, when the ELA tests were instituted) writing scores in NYC. This attracted Harvard, looking for teachers who could be matched to "The Eight Principles of Learning", the thesis by Harvard's Lauren Resnick, that powered the Standards project, funded by Pew.


In 1998, based on the assessment of my teacher-practice by the Learning & Research Development Center, at the University of Pittsburgh, which studied my teacher-practice after I was chosen to participate in THE Standards project , I was awarded the NYSEC (New York State English Council)) "Educator of Excellence of Award," a much coveted and PRESTIGIOUS award. I have been included five times, in "Who's Who Among American Educators". Now that I am "googleable" as former students tell me, I get scores of letters from former students describing the enormous impact that I had on their life.


Currently I am a freelance travel writer and photographer, but I also write widely, about real education reform in order to change the national conversation to where it needs to be -- ABOUT LEARNING, and what makes genuine learning possible, or impossible, rather on the bogus subject of poor teachers and teacher standards. Learning how to learn--critical thinking--not rote memorization-- is the object of the PRACTICE OF PEDAGORY for which teacher who wish to PRACTICE THIS PROFESSION get a degree and a license.

I write because people with loud voices and personal agendas have destroyed the practice of pedagogy, and silenced the voice of the only ones who can set the record straight, the grunt on the line -- the teacher-practitioner--a genuine professional trained to know exactly what is needed to facilitate learning in each particular classroom.

I speak as a teacher and write because:


* those who have the national stage, are pushing tests, and pointing to bad teaching, as the reasons schools fail, but that is pointing in the wrong direction and thus a genuine solution and real reform eludes the people of this country..


* the national conversation has been usurped by businessmen and pundits with no understanding of the emergent learner, or the actual classroom practices that enable creative and critical thought. (Everyone who went to school believes they know what is needed "to teach".)


* What is REALLY NECESSARY for children to LEARN in school, is pre-school literacy, parent involvement in shaping attitudes and monitoring home activities, and classrooms where the teacher-practitioner sets the agenda based on curriculum objectives and the knowledge of pedagogy, rather than AN AGENDA SET BY some administrator who never taught, and who promotes the scripts and tests that enrich privateers who thrive on failing schools.


I speak as a teacher and write because:

* corrupt administrators, use a process that targets senior teacher-practitioners, despite exceptional dedication and huge success in their career, for harassment and egregious, criminal deprivation of due process.


* there is a hidden and scandalous deprivation of due process -- allowed and empowered by unions which do not fulfill their obligation and contract for immediate investigation and fair, promt, grievance procedures, thus permitting a "waiting game" which prevents due process.


* the national assumption expressed in the media is that the unions protect teachers BUT the truth is the unions have looked away from the breaking of tenure, and THUS, as they are the legal arm that protects teachers, teachers have lost their civil rights, and have no genuine access to the courts.

I speak as a teacher and write because: