The money behind the “parent trigger” movie comes from the rightwing.
It’s a shame to see mainstream movie stars and musicians fooled into thinking this movie “honors” teachers.
The parent trigger is a transparent attempt to fool parents into seizing control of their public school and handing it over to corporate charter chains.
So, the game is to fool the Hollywood crowd and to fool parents with deceptive packaging.
Read this about funding by Walton (Walmart) family, whose money supports vouchers and charters. It is known for its anti-union views.
And then there is the film’s producer, Walden Media, owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, who funds libertarian and far-right think tanks and anti-gay activism. And, it may or may not surprise you to learn that his energy company is involved in hydrofracking, a technique opposed by environmentalists everywhere. In New York, Anschutz is fighting a small town named Dryden, that doesn’t want its water supply despoiled by this process. No choice for them!
Anschutz also owns many newspapers, which report favorably on his odious activities.
Is our democracy for sale?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In New Jersey we are battling for the right to vote down charter schools in suburban (if not all) districts. I personally agree. But consistency dictates that if we get the right to deny charter schools with a popular vote, we should also have the right to close those public schools to which we object. Isn’t that fair? What’s the difference between the two votes?
The NJ charter law passed by the Assembly requires ALL voters in a district have the opportunity to approve a charter. Parent trigger laws only require a majority of parents at a school to approve conversion to a charter.
http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/potential-abuses-of-the-parent-trigger/
So parents could “push out” the kids the replacement charter would be ill-equipped to serve. Demographic differences in charter and public school populations has been well documented.
In any case, this would be like saying only people who use a public park should get a say in how it is managed, and whether it should be turned over to private operators.
That’s a big difference, and I will agree, unfair. I support community approval of charters, and I support community denial of any school to which the community sees fit. But the rules for both votes should be the same.
You do not have to close a public school-if changes need to be made you VOTE for those that sit on your school board to make the necessary changes. You-yourself can be elected to the schoolboard to make changes. Get active in your PTO for change.
Charters board-private-you have no say or vote in who is on that board. Good for you and your state that you can vote down charter schools. There is no oversight in how they are run or how funds are spent.
If the district takes such a vote, that’s democracy. If the parents in a school vote to privatize it, that’s an illegal taking of public property.
Reblogged this on Kmareka.com and commented:
Diane Ravitch exposes the money trail of right-wing corporate funding for the parent trigger laws.
Dryden, NY (the target of Anchutz ) is the town where I grew up an went to school. I now live about 10 minutes away in another town “hydrofrackers” are trying to exploit. It is interesting how the “energy exploration/independence” and “school reform” movements have progressed and parallel each other. Both are backed quietly by the industries and interests that stand to profit (not gain) the most. Backers of both movements already enjoy more wealth, power and privilege than the people they impose their agendas upon. Because of their wealth and power, they are able to influence policy. Elected officials begin to parrot industry PR and push legislation that forces the interests of the minority upon the majority. Insiders for these industries begin to get appointed to “oversight” agencies that either already exist or are created in order to push their agenda. Having sacrificed our job market, property values, the middle class and our economy to their greed, this small but influential group have set sights on what opportunities still are available: natural resources and publicly funded agencies that build/support society as a whole.
Ruining the economy may not have had “long game” intentions from the start, but it has certainly served a purpose. People are desperate for some hope. The collusion of industry/profit and policy mean that people are being told what they want to hear: tearing up our land and possibly ruining the country landscape and the clean well-water that supplies homes and farms is a risk worth taking for a little economic stimulation. Gutting public school budgets, spending those dollars for more testing, and then scrutinizing test scores will save money and provide students with a better education. “Too few gas drilling operations and too many school teachers is a convenient narrative that allows the scapegoating of those trying to protect the things that sustain our nation: the land and the people. And make no mistake: those with the power and influence to push gas drilling and school reform are not likely to live near those drilling operations or send their children to a “reformed” school.
Like the town I live in, not all people in Dryden believe that allowing energy exploration is going to provide benefits that outweigh the long-term cost. The same is true with public schools and reform. Open examination of who pushes for these policies, who is impacted by them (and how), and the path by which private interest becomes public policy would be the best use of media/press energy. Think FOX news will do it?
Another piece to the Hydro-frack campaign is how proponents cite research studies that are “peer” reviewed from federal/state funded universities. But when investigation of the origins of these studies takes place, one finds that the studies were conducted/funded by a university reasearch foundation whose funding/sponsorship is not FOIL-able. University of Buffalo had to backtrack one of its foundation’s pro hydrofracking “peer reviewed research paper” after the foundation’s sponsors & funding including gas & oil companies.
There is a bill in the NY senate/assembly requiring that these universities benefitting from ferderal/state funding reveal their funding/salaries, etc…
All I can say is the rats are coming out of the woodwork.
This is sickening me.
Who’s going to stand up and do something?
Why are there not plans to demonstrate at the opening of this movie?
Where would the organized effort come from? Logically, our union. *crickets* The NEA’s silence is deafening.
Maybe there are no plans YET…but according to my calendar, September 28 is over a month away.
I know from experience that even three—yes three!—people with signs, who have alerted the media beforehand that they’ll be there, in front of the theatre, protesting, can have an ENORMOUS impact.
I’m going to email and text and tweet my friends to join me at this Opening Night Demonstration outside the main theatre showing this awful “WBD”.
So…what are the rest of us going to do? 😉
WE are! All of us.
I just called the SAG office. The gentleman I spoke to was very understanding. However, he explained that SAG members are entitled to participate in whatever causes they wish. But, he did say that SAG – the entity – may be able to come out with a supportive statement.
Wouldn’t that be kind of them? Are you holding your breath?
Parents across America:
Beyond the parent trigger hype & propaganda: Just the Facts
Click to access Beyond-the-parent-trigger-hype-and-propaganda-final.pdf
I live near Dryden and these frackers will stop at nothing to get their way. It’s scary they’re getting involved in education now.
What bothers me is the relationship between industry, policy and the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. Our NY DEC mission statement regarding the issue of natural resources sounds more like their mission is facilitating industrialization than protecting/conserving. Local towns and Town Boards are made to feel powerless when facing the gigantic deep pockets of corporations who come into their quiet rural areas and force themselves in, knowing that they and their families won’t suffer the harmful impacts but will reap generous economic rewards.
The same goes for school “reform”. Public schools were already hostage to the numerous un/underfunded mandates that combine with the mission they have to serve ALL students, not just the carefully filtered and lured away ones who are easy to manage and will bring their voucher dollars with them…ALL STUDENTS. Now we have non-educators and supposed experts with questionable resume’s like Rhee, popping up like a “whack-a-mole” game to snipe at an endeavor and a profession she really knows little about. She gets paid 1/2 to nearly a whole year’s teaching salary to insult teachers and schools at ONE speaking engagement and then disappears only to pop up again somewhere. Rupert Murdoch, more familiar with sensational smear-news (a.k.a. FOX) for the right wing and somehow attached to a text-message hacking scandal has openly expressed interest in the hundreds of billions of dollars to be had in the education industry. He might now have access to personal information about American school children. Here in NY. our own Governor and Ed commissioner (with little to no experience in actual public schools) made it sound as if the most important thing we can do is use student results on standardized tests to identify and fire bad teachers. School funds were held hostage pending agreements to these type of conditions, even though the new common core standards and finalized versions of the standardized tests aren’t yet in place. Who does this rush benefit? Who gains from the imposition of many new tests, new standards, and the creation of a system that sends tax dollars away from public service to private industry? Certainly not the people having to deal with the devastation at ground zero.
Jose Vilson, a teacher, wrote a piece on Won’t Back Down at thejosevilson.com. This comment from a parent caught my attention:
I just don’t understand. Teachers don’t make a lot of money. They obviously don’t teach because it’s lucrative. They do it despite the fact that it pays so poorly.
How will my child’s education improve if we continue to chip away at the little bit of economic security that teachers now have?
Will my son become a better student if the person who teaches him is constantly worried about money, job security, and being part of the school in the future?
Will my child’s teacher somehow become more focused and “better at teaching” if we browbeat her, call her “lazy” and “stupid”, imply that she’s “just doing it for summers off and a fat pension when she retires”?
– Showing teachers even less respect won’t produce better students. Okay?
– Taking away the rights that the teacher’s union provides won’t make our kids work harder and achieve more. Okay?
– Allowing outside interests—often backed by the richest people who NEVER have their kids in our schools—to come in and brainwash 51% of the current parents in a school, using deceptive election techniques and false promises, is NOT a way to improve our schools. Okay?
– Harvard will not be in my child’s future—and nor will the state university extension campus—if his teachers are paid no better than workers at Burger King. Okay?
– My child will not become a better student if all of his teachers in the future are kids right out of college, with little or no education background, making minimum wage, with lousy benefits and zero representation. Okay?
You’re advocating an educational system where teachers can be fired when they “get too old” or “voted for someone I don’t like” or “wouldn’t accept my invitation for an intimate, late night dinner”. And there will be zero process of appeal or any attempt to hear the other side of the story.
The fact that ALL of us don’t have any due process before we’re fired, or a fair hearing when we’re accused of some infraction, or a decent pension at the end of our careers doesn’t mean it should be eliminated for those remaining few who do. Okay?
Stripping teachers of their union representation, their professional standing, and their personal dignity will NOT make my child the scholar I want him to be. Why would anyone assume otherwise.
Okay?
We’re playing right into the hands of the worst elements of our society when we let ourselves be brainwashed into hating our teachers and the very concept of free, universal education.
As a parent—I’ve never been a teacher, and I’ve never had a relative that was a teacher—I want the best, not just for “my kid”, but for ALL kids. He can’t succeed if everyone around him is failing.
And none of these beautiful children will succeed if the right-wingers and billionaires behind the push for charters, vouchers, triggers and privatization succeed in their plans to make public schools a thing of the past.
Let’s stand and fight, parents: The time to be counted is now!
“We’re playing right into the hands of the worst elements of our society when we let ourselves be brainwashed into hating our teachers and the very concept of free, universal education.”
This is beautiful. Can I use/re use/re-post and give you credit for this?