04.25.10

Technology and what Dr.Henry Gates didn’t tell you about Africa’s involvement in the slave trade.

Posted in General at 3:36 pm by Travis

Back in 2007, I was attending my second National Educating Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta. I was a part of the Digital Equity Special Interest Group.  The guest speaker was Dr. Sylvia Rousseau, Professor of Clinical Education; Rossier School of Education Ed.D., Pepperdine University, California.  She remarked about the sordid history that we have with technology and how the arenas of technology and education have played host to the constructs of race, gender and class from the beginning.  There has been a push for some time now to marginalize the struggles of African Americans.  I posted to this blog a while back a GAO report on the condition and demise of black radio which is so important to the types of conversations that we have in our communities.  Efforts were made in the late 1990’s to not only keep minority ownership at a minimum, but diminish the existing owners.  Even when it was financially advantageous to sell stations to minority owners, Congress responded by eliminating the tax deferment for the buyers to further dissuade  the selling of stations.  One constantly hears the same rhetoric day in and day about excuses.  Blacks need to stop making excuses for not achieving at higher levels in education and excuses in not becoming financially independent and stop depending on the government for what they should be able to do for themselves.

This attitude is in part what Kinder and Sears calls “Symbolic Racism” that somehow minorities break the moral code of white, protestant America and have become the symbols of laziness and immoral behavior.   If they lived better, they could do better, essentially.  This theme is constantly being broadcast in political forums especially as it relates to the school reform and achievement gap debates.  The attitude of most reformers is that minority children just aren’t working hard enough and teachers are not doing enough to make it happen.  The non-educational issues that surround and influence everything from behavior to assessments are irrelevant.  So when I read the latest writings of Dr. Henry Louis Gates concerning whose to blame for slavery, I find myself not entirely in a state of disbelief.  For everything that Dr. Gates proposes in his articles, he has to anchor with the reference to excuses as a means to marginalize factors that are not most apparent in order to make his case.  Just as most of these school reformers who claim that they, and they alone truly love children.  It’s sort the old Red Fox routine of “Who are you going to believe me or you own lying eyes?”

First, many true historians will tell you that slavery as it existed in those cultures at that time was far different from the chattel slavery on America.  Even the term slave had a totally different meaning as it related to status, treatment and overall outcome of that person’s life.  Chattel slavery would not dare to allow a “slave” to have status that the African slave had.  Dr. Gates questions how the Europeans were able to access this human capital so easily if not by the willing hand of  African tribes willing to sell their countrymen seeing that interior exploration of the country had not yet begun.  In his article he stated,

“For centuries, Europeans in Africa kept close to their military and trading posts on the coast. Exploration of the interior, home to the bulk of Africans sold into bondage at the height of the slave trade, came only during the colonial conquests…

Herbert J. Foster wrote an article in 1979 in The Journal of Black Studies titled” Partners or Captives in Commerce?: The Role of Africans in Slavery”.  In it he references Basil Davidson who wrote about the distinctions between African and European/American slavery.”

Davidson writes,

“The slave was not an agricultural or an industrial laborer but a personal servant, who, when serving a wealthy master, enjoyed great advantages and social status…Europeans trading along the Guinea coast during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often had to deal with men described as “slaves”; who were serving as agents of inland kings… Europeans found it difficult to understand how “slaves”-who, as they understood the term, were beneath contempt-could wield so much authority and command the consumption and disposal of so much wealth…  Davidson also writes, “This was not slavery as Europeans understood the word:  chattel slavery, the stripping from a man of all his rights and property-but serfdom, vassalship, ’domestic slavery’.”

How is this for irony?  Foster also references Martin Robinson Delaney who was a Harvard-trained physician and explorer and was the first black to be commissioned by President Lincoln as a major in the army with field rank. He traveled to Africa  between July of 1859 and August of 1860.   In his book entitled,”Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party”, Delaney was quoted as saying,

“It is simply preposterous to talk about slavery, as that term is understood, either being legalized or existing in this part of Africa. It is nonsense. The system is a patriarchal one, there being no actual difference, socially between slaves (called by their protector sons or daughters) and the children of the person with whom they live. Such persons intermarry and frequently become the heads of state.”

Dr. Gates spotlights several kingdoms in West Africa who had a “considerable” role in the slave trade one of which was  the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana.  English explorer Robert Sutherland Rattray from his book, “Ashanti Law and Constitution” also referenced by Foster stated,

“A slave might marry; own property; himself own a slave; swear an oath; be a competent witness; and ultimately become heir to his master…. Such briefly were the rights of an Ashanti slave. They seem in many cases practically the ordinary privileges of an Ashanti free man…. An Ashanti slave in nine cases out of ten, possibly became an adopted member of the family, and in time his descendants so merged and intermarried with the owner’s kinsmen that only a few would know their origin.”

This is add more evidence to the fact that chattel slavery  and the African system of slavery were two totally different constructs on many different levels.  The parallels of African slave structure  and European feudal systems, in my opinion, was an open door for the European exploitation of African nations.  It is what they did with this open door, and what was used to keep the door open is the focal point of my post, technology.  Foster believed that culturally both societies were equal when they met .  It was the introduction of European technology that upset the balance of power in West Africa(Foster, 1979).  The technology of firearms.  Doesn’t this theme sound way too familiar?  From guns to drugs to the digital divide, the use of  new technology has had a devastating effect on certain societies.  Foster goes on to reveal that the guns destabilized the balance of power in the African nations.  The technology of firearms gave it’s possessor incredible power at that time. It meant bringing a gun to a knife fight, literally.

Guns were traded for slaves.  Other tribes wanted this new technology and were willing to trade slaves for the guns. The introduction of this technology produced a desperation among the tribes to do whatever they had to for survive  to stop involvement in the gun for slaves arrangement would have meant obliteration for your kingdom.   Of course, they should take full responsibility for their actions, but I guess because they lack the moral fortitude to say no,  they were willing to participate in the slave trade without prejudice as Dr. Gates and others would have us to believe.  Europeans and African joint mercenary raids provided two things.  A defeated enemy for the Africans and slaves for the Europeans to sell in the slave trade (Foster, 1979).

European machine technology allowed them to mass produce iron and textiles far better and faster than the Africans.  This is what I think is the most devastating part of this trade.  As the Europeans introduced these products to the Africans, it undermined their ability to produce them on their own.  By trading slaves for these materials, the African nations began to see the erosion of these skills over time which would make them even that more dependent on the Europeans for survival.  These skill sets were also interwoven into the fabric of the society as a whole, so what we begin to see is the destruction of the African culture on two fronts, the killing of the African people and the dismantling of the African culture. Another major problem for these types of arrangements is the dependency that both parties became locked into.  Foster states that anywhere between 100,000 to 150000 guns were exported to Africa by the gun manufacturers with Africa not seeing any of the profit that would have grew the country, but instead created a economical and social deficit that is still seen today.  The Europeans questioned the wisdom of arming the African people with so much weaponry, but they eventually got past there concerns due to the enormous profit and the threat of competition if they stopped (Davidson, 1961).

What Dr. Gates fails to mention is that many of the kings took a stand against the growing problem of guns for slaves and tried desperately to stop it. Foster again references Davidson in which King  Affonso of the Congo wrote to John III of Portugal.

Affonso also complained that his country was being “utterly depopulated by thieves” and “men of evil con-science” who grab his people and cause them to be
sold … “it is our will that in these kingdoms there should not be any trade in slaves nor market for slaves.”

King  Agaja of Fon took a more direct approach by conquering the coastal kingdoms that were raiding his to stop the exporting of slaves (Foster, 1979).

My focus in this post was not to debate Dr. Gates but rather bring clarity to what was said.  It is ever so important in this hour that we have information to make quality judgments. We have the internet.  Use it to research and not just make Facebook and Twitter post, and if you do, make most of your postings something of substance.

References used in this post

FOSTER, H. J. (1976).  “Partners or Captives in Commerce?: The Role of Africans in the Slave Trade”.   Journal of Black Studies, 6, 421.

DAVIDSON, B. (1971) “Slaves or captives? Some notes on fantasy and fact,” in Nathan Huggins et al. (eds.) Key Issues in the Afro-American Experience. Vol.
1. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
— (1966) A History of West Africa. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor.
— (1961) The African Slave Trade. Boston: Little, Brown.

DELANEY, M. R. (1861) Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party. New York: J. Hamilton.

RATTRAY, R. S. (1929) Ashanti Law and Constitution. London: Oxford Univ. Press.

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04.17.10

The shroud has fallen… The tablet wars have begun

Posted in General at 3:39 pm by Travis

Stop looking for an iPad killer.  The issue is who will be the strongest contender.  It seems that we are about to hit a tsunami of tabless in the next coming months, and I predict that many will make a strong showing at ISTE 2010 in Denver.  Particularly, those who are planning to get into ed-tech.  If you are marketing the classroom without walls, paperless classroom scenario than what better place to be than the premiere educational technology convention where thousands of tech coordinators, teachers and administrators will be.  Yes, administrators, people who write the checks.  Who will be the best opponent to take on Apple?   HP has a lot of potential, but the Moby’ s price point of $99 is very appealing to these schools wanting a 1 to 1 solution in the face of more cutbacks.  Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.

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04.06.10

To the “Reform at Any Cost” crowd and supporters, thereof

Posted in Education at 9:02 am by Travis

Diane Ravitch – A new agenda for school reform – washingtonpost.com.

This is an excellent article uncovering the shear ignorance, misrepresentation and oversimplification of educational reform.  Parents, I hope you read this article and allow it to be the basis for your continuing education on education and reform.  It’s time out for speeches, half-truths,  and catch phrases.  Everybody loves children, not just the “reform at any cost” crowd.  The RAAC crowd do not love children any more than anybody else.

If you truly love children, then inform parents and the community with real knowledge about what it take to educate a child not just hit a benchmark number.  Remember, there is a difference between achievement and true learning.  Inform the people instead of  catch phrases to make them feel good while capitalizing on their ignorance.

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03.28.10

Fly Me To The Moon. What about right around the corner?

Posted in General at 5:05 pm by Travis

I have been watching a lot of post of twitter concerning education reform, failing school, sorry teachers, school closure and student achievement.  I saw a post recently where a parent was quoted as saying that they would drive to the moon for the best education.  It’s funny how we will go to such extremes for what we think is a good deal.  No real knowledge, no real understanding, but rather what someone has told me is a good deal.  You really don’t know anymore,  there than you did you at your previous school about what quality education is about, but their test scores are through the roof so they must be doing something right.  Their teachers work on the weekends for free so they must really care about the students.   What I am talking about is the lack of knowledge about what education is really about and how the people who desperately need to know it the most, don’t , nor do they realize that they need to.

I think we confuse inclusion with integration.  It’s not enough to be at the table, but what are you bringing to the table?  The day of dropping our kids off in kindergarten and picking them up in the 121th grade are over!.  It’s time out for just sending our kids to school to get a good education.  We must make sure that they are getting that education and not just a good grade or benchmark score.  There is a fire sale on schools.  Everything must go, but a good deal of them are in our neighborhoods, but that’s okay.  What bothers me about all of this rhetoric on school reform is that it sounds a lot like assimilation.  See if you remove enough of certain symbols and structures within a group’s culture or community, they will become submissive to anything eventually.  This is how education was used from the beginning of our relationship with this country and much has not changed since then.  Gloria Ladson-Billings refers this and other similar issues  in her article , “From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools”

She refers to a conversation with Professor Emeritus Robert Haveman of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Economics, La Follette Institute of Public Affairs, and Institute for Research on Poverty, he stated:

The education debt is the foregone schooling resources that we could have (should have) been investing in (primarily) low income kids, which deficit leads to a variety of social problems (e.g. crime, low productivity, low wages, low labor force participation) that require on-going public investment. This required investment sucks away resources that could go to reducing the achievement gap. Without the education debt we could narrow the achievement debt.

We know more about Tiger Woods’ mistresses than what a good, quality, differentiated curriculum looks like.  We  give more thought and input to the voting and scoring process of “American Idol” than what the  NAEP, SAT and state scoring “really” says about how are kids are doing, the current and future trends and what constitutes as failure.  But the car is all gassed up to take a trip to the moon.  I could never understand why black folks who never became involved in any form with their “failing” neighborhood school went across town to a charter school  and baked cookies, parked cars and volunteered time they didn’t have in the own neighborhood.  Recently Bill Maher was criticized by many for saying “fire the parents” when it comes to school reform.  While I don’t think it is to that extreme, I think that there is something to be said about parent involvement beyond coming to a play, concert or sporting event.  We as parents should know what makes good education inside and outside the classroom.  In Ladson-Billings article, she categorizes several “debts” that contribute to the overall eduction debt. They being

• historical
• economic
• socio/political
• moral

We should be trying to control as much of the educational landscape of our communities as possible instead of abdicating to someone else’s philosophy of how we should and can be educated.  If we would study history we would see the need.  Since I am talking about our response to our “failing” neighborhood schools and getting  those frequent-flyer miles to the moon, I want to point to something she said in the article as part of the section on socio/political debt.

As a result of the sociopolitical component of the education debt, families of color have regularly been excluded from the decision making
mechanisms that should ensure that their children receive quality education. The parent–teacher organizations, school site councils, and other possibilities for democratic participation have not been available for many of these families. However, for a brief moment in 1968, Black parents in the Ocean Hill–Brownsville section of New York exercised community control over the public schools.  African American, Latina/o, Native American, and Asian American parents have often advocated for improvements in schooling, but their advocacy often has been muted and marginalized.

We should know what test scores mean thoroughly instead of the “Gong Show” version we see on television.  We might as well hire those judges to assess our schools and tell us who’s the best and who’s not because we have so oversimplified school reform.

Do this.  At the New Moon School District look and ask for these things.

1. Diversity Statement apart from the school vision and mission statement
2. Ask if there is a diversity committee and what is done through out the year to address, recognize and celebrate the diversity of the school.
3. Ask someone qualified to explain differentiation in the classroom and ask to observe your child’s classroom  and look for it.
4. Ask to see lesson plans.
5. Find out what percentage of the kids that graduate have to take remedial courses once they get to college and how many have actually graduated from college.
6. Ask about the highest level of degrees among teachers at the school and what is in place to increase it.
7. Ask about the diversity of the teaching and administrative staff.  Does it reflect the school population?  Does the school board reflect the community’s population?
8. Find out  if there is a discipline disparity
9. Ask about the dropout rate and what dropout  prevention process is in place
10. Then ask yourself, why didn’t I ask these questions of my “failing” neighborhood school before I abandoned it.

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03.24.10

Where are the black magazine iPhone apps?

Posted in Digital Divide at 9:17 am by Travis

IPad Subscriptions Could Boost Mag Circulation – BLACK ENTERPRISE.

Where are the black magazine & newspaper  iPhone and web apps?  There is something wrong with this picture.  Technology is one way to overcome the obstacles in the real world, but getting on the forefront of the technology is crucial.  It’s time that we start creating our own paths and stop waiting for others to chart the territory first, then jump on board.  You have fewer opportunities to dictate the terms when you wait.  Black magazines are all talking about the effect that iPad could have on magazine, all the apps you can get for your iPhone, but they don’t have an app, nor do they seem to have a plan for one.  Essence Magazine even had an article  iPhone Apps for Ladies but no Essence iPhone/iPad app seems to be in the works. The only black magazine app I have seen is Black Men Magazine.  Essence, Ebony/Jet, Black Enterprise please  tell me that you have these products in development and that we are not going to sit back and “see” how well the iPad does before we jump on board.  “CP” time  with technology is not cool at all and can be extremely costly.

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03.10.10

Firing teachers: First step to reform or useless effort? – USATODAY.com

Posted in Education at 6:43 am by Travis

“The policy center concluded that the restructuring models promoted by Obama are an improvement over No Child Left Behind but warned that because they include “specific directives that are not supported by research, it is unwise to prescribe them” to schools. “The federal government should be careful about directing people to do things when it doesn’t have the evidence,” says center President Jack Jennings.”

via Firing teachers: First step to reform or useless effort? – USATODAY.com.

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02.03.10

Start Black History Month Off Right

Posted in General at 9:41 pm by Travis

The first thing we do is start highlighting black figures that we have never heard of.  Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with this, but I believe that “hindsight is 20/20″.  In other words, to clearly see the present you have to look at the past.  Dr. Carter Woodson  who we consider the father  of Black History Month wrote a deeply thought provoking book that  many quote the title of, but have never read, “The Mis-Education of the Negro“.   Although this text was published in 1935, it is highly relative and prophetic for today’s issues surrounding black America.  Anybody who is especially interested in educational reform would do good to read this book or even buying the audio book for your iPod/iPhone/Touch/iPad or whatever you listen to these days.  So this month’s lesson people is go and read The Mis-Education of the Negro and then tell me if you agree with what many are calling educational reform, empowerment, and post-racial America.  Peace

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01.30.10

The iPad and ed tech. My thoughts

Posted in General at 2:20 pm by Travis

Now it’s here.  After months of speculation and rumor, Apple has finally shown us its latest creation, the iPad.  Since I am in educational technology, I will look at it from that perspective first.  Would I get one? Sure. I was looking to getting an iPod Touch soon because teachers should have a Touch or iPhone in their toolkit, but I think I will wait for the iPad.  I like the mobility factor, web access and access to a well established app store.  I am not crazy about the absence of Flash or the camera, but the benefits outweigh its short comings in my opinion.

Here are my thoughts on a few areas in education.

Labs are so 20th Century.

The golden days of putting kids in a lab with a room full of computers are over.  I am sorry to tell you this principals and administrators, but they are.  Frankly, there’s no time.  It takes time to get kids to the lab, settled in, software up and work done, and this is if there are no hardware or software bugs to hold things up.  We have to then log off, straighten up and leave the lab.  Time, time, time.  A one to one solution is a must if you are going to take advantage of time and true collaboration.  Cost is no longer a factor.  Netbooks and now the iPad have changed the excuse of cost for a one to one solution.  The iPad won’t destroy the netbook market, but it does offer a very valid alternative.  If it had Flash, then it might be a different story.

Everyone is looking at the textbook option as a distinct advantage of the iPad, but we need to look beyond just reading a textbook.  This platform has the ability to offer a highly interactive textbook experience.  Something that allows students to interact with other students within the context of the lesson within the chapter.  The absence, again, of Flash may be Apple’s way of forcing ed tech software companies to develop apps which I suggested to some company reps several months ago. I know a few good supplemental web based software programs that have to have Flash to operate.  The iPad gives the advantage to the netbook on this one because some companies have already altered their sites to take advantage of the small screen.  We want highly interactive and engaging classroom.  Kids will not stay focused on lectures and  neither will adults for that matter.  Combined with other interactive technologies such as IWBs (Interactive Whiteboard), one could have one the most engaging classrooms where students cannot wait to learn.  Google Docs and Zoho alone make the iPad worth placing in the classroom.  Zoho has an iPhone app already and you can do some cool stuff with Zoho Notebook.

School administration

I am just thinking out loud here, but mobility is perfect for the on the go school administrator.  The iPad allows the mobile school administrator the freedom to process and go.  Attention ed tech software developers, administrators need dashboards in the form of apps.  The need to be able to pull up the current status of say,  test score data.  Teachscape is definitely on the right road because they will soon be releasing their classroom walkthrough app for the iPhone.  This is a major plus for the mobile administrator.  Classroom walkthroughs are to be quick, in an out, getting a snapshot of the learning taking place in the classroom.  A team of administrators can go through their school and with a good dashboard, began to compile the data and see what is gong on in a matter of minutes.  They can then sit down and perform a more in depth analysis of the data for improving instruction.  Real time access to data for discipline.  Pull up a student’s file. Administer discipline and record the a incident.  Until I get my hands on one, I can only speculate and hypothesize, but you can see the Ipad can definitely enhance education beyond textbooks.

Digital Divide

This is something that is not talked about much, but there is a belief out there that low income, under-performing students don’t “deserve” engaging cutting-edge technology. Whenever we talk about these types of technology, we believe that only the “good” kids should have them.  The ” other” kids will tear them up, steal them or sell them.  This perception has to change.  Diversity also means a diversity of  access.  In reality, these students need the technology more in most cases.  These technologies empower and inspire.  When done right, educational technology makes kids take ownership for their learning, and they will go to the ends of the earth to protect their ability to learn.  Only when kids become disconnected from the learning do they disregard it and the tools that they use.  All of our talk of AYPs, testing and benchmarks along with the rationing out of technology has caused all lot of this disconnect.  911 emergency!  Reconnect the community.

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12.23.09

Edward Deming’s 14 points for Education and Educational Technology Pt. I

Posted in General at 12:21 am by Travis

By now, you should know that I am an advocate of the teaching and guidance of Edward Deming as a road map for true educational reform.  You should also know by now that I am not a fan of heavy corporate influence into education and educational reform.  Since we seem to continue  down this road, I thought it would be good to align Deming’s principles of manufacturing with that of education.  After all, his methods have made Toyota the  number one automaker in the world since we love to judge success by numbers.  I have to agree with others on this one question.  How do we turn over our schools to some of the people who almost destroyed the financial system with some of the same principles that they want to use on our schools?

Edward Deming’s 14 Points.

1.”Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product (student learning) and service(edification of society ), with the aim to become competitive ( in the global market) and to stay in (the) business (of educating and preserving society), and to provide (candidates for) jobs.

If the teacher, as the reformers put it, is the single most important part of the child’s achievement in school, then the vision and the articulation of that vision shared among all stakeholders is the single most important factor in educational reform from leadership.  Where are you going, how you propose to get there, are the other people on this journey aware of this and what do you do after you get there?  The vision is the guiding principle for what is to take place in the district, school and classroom while involving the community.

The problem is that this is especially true for educational technology.  Many school leaders are so removed from ed tech since they have IT staff and/or educational technology specialist in their schools.  Many administrators think, “These people handle all of the ‘technical stuff’ while I focus on student achievement.”  Wrong!  In the 21st Century, with 21st Century learners and 21st Century mandates, effective learning and achievement (there’s a difference) can not be attained by avoiding the importance of technology inside the curriculum.  Technology must be seen as important as any other learning strategy that those highly paid consultants hash and rehash for us every summer and fall.

I said technology in the curriculum, not just shuffling students off to a computer lab for drill and practice work.  Many people in education and the community see technology from the aspect of what I call “The Matrix Effect”.  This is taken from the scene in The Matrix where Neo learns kung fu by just plugging in while the operator uploads the information into his brain.  This is what I think subconsciously happens when we think of computers in school and computer labs.  We teach all of the learning strategies from the consultants then we take them to the computer lab and transfer that into their brains with drill and practice.

Once the technology is seen as equally important, we have to ask ourselves, “How do we measure its effectiveness and how do we change it, improve on it and what does the next level of progress look like?  The visioning process is a tedious one but well worth the time and effort.  Right now, many schools are operating with a wild west mentality.  Technology is being acquired with no real sense for purpose because it was not part of the visioning process, no one can be sure if what is being acquired will really work.  What’s worse is there is no way to measure it.  It could be too much or not enough.

I have been looking over the NCES report from their survey of Educational Technology in public schools.

There is a  portion of the survey  that reflects the  “Percentage distribution of public school districts reporting whether they employ an individual responsible for educational technology leadership full or part time, by district characteristics: Fall 2008″

• 17 % of schools survey had no one in a leadership position for educational technology.
• 32% of schools surveyed had someone part-time.

When you look at the numbers from other categories, the numbers are more disturbing.

• Although school districts of less that 2500 students had 42% of people full time in ed tech leadership, 21% did not.
• While 36% of Rural schools had someone full time, 23% did not.

The poverty concentration reveals an evolution of the digital divide.  With all of our schools being connected to the internet, many still do not have enough computers to take advantage of this.  What’s worse is educational leadership in these schools.  According to the survey, of the schools with 20% or more of students in poverty, 47% have someone full time, 33% have some one part-time, and 20% have no one at all.  This means that over 50% of the schools surveyed that  have 20% or more poverty have either no one or someone part-time in ed tech leadership.  Now some will argue that something is better than nothing, I disagree.  With all of the challenges that come with schools in high poverty, a part-time tech leader could be like having no one at all because  they may not have the time, nor have the adequate resources to provide quality PD on curriculum integration.

Remember, constancy of purpose.  Constantly defining and refining the purpose for what we are doing.

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11.24.09

With Double Digit Unemployment, H1B visas should not be allowed.

Posted in General at 7:37 am by Travis

Blacks hit hard by economy’s punch – washingtonpost.com.

Look at what and how much companies are paying for work from foreign laborers.

Take a look at the Foreign Labor Certification Policies and Regulations from the Department of  Labor.

The INA directs the Secretary of Labor to certify that there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified and available and the employment of an alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed. The regulations of the Department of Labor delineate the specific rules to be followed for each program, which requires labor certification from the Secretary of Labor.

Go to the FLCDataCenter.com and look at the H1B data. This a list of every employer in every state that has requested permission to hire foreign workers for certain jobs.   You can download the data file in either an Access database file or text file to open in Excel.   Look at the jobs, what they are paying and explain to me this. With unemployment as high as it is especially in our community, why are they continually being allow to hire foreign workers?  Are you telling me that you can’t find anybody to work these jobs for the prevailing wage. A wage is a wage when you have nothing.

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