After following Jared Polis’s personal attacks on me on Twitter, Jersey Jazzman decided to examine what Polis has done in Congress. He is good on some issues, like gun control and the environment. But when it comes to fiscal issues, he favors tax breaks for corporations and the rich.
He praises Colorado’s SB 191, which bases 50% of teachers’ evaluations on test scores, which most researchers say is wrong. It is one of the most punitive corporate reform bills in the nation. I was in Colorado the day it was passed by the State Senate. The Colorado NEA asked to speak out against it, and I did. But the bill was introduced by young 32years old) State Senator Michael Johnston, ex-TFA, a fervent believer that teachers should be judged by test scores and should be fired or lose tenure if they couldn’t raise them.
Jersey Jazzman concludes thus:
Wealthy “liberals” who do not want to talk about inequality have found a useful issue in education “reform.” They can affect concern for the poor by pointing their fingers at teachers and their unions, deflecting the blame away from themselves. They can pretend that “college and career readiness” will lift the poor out of a system they themselves have benefitted from: a system that requires winners and losers. I don’t think Jared Polis wants to see anyone suffer. I don’t think Jared Polis likes poverty. But I do think Jared Polis would rather not reflect on the possibility that maybe his wealth was acquired at the expense of the working poor and the shrinking middle class, and that maybe we need to reform our government, our economy, and our markets with far more urgency than we need to reform our public school system. If wealthy, “liberal” reformers would finally start acknowledging this state of affairs, maybe we could have a significant, substantive conversation about the future of this country — and that would include education reform. It appears, however, that Jared Polis would rather just call the people who are trying to talk about education at a level beyond platitudes “evil”. –
See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-continuing-problem-of-wealthy.html#sthash.dXf6rMNo.dpuf
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is happening on a LARGE scale in Dallas ISD.
LikeLike
Dallas imported Mike Miles for superintendent from Colorado Springs, so he brought Colorado “reform” with him. That’s why he got hired.
LikeLike
And at the same time, Miles had a cushy consulting gig in Paterson, NJ, granted to him by fellow Broadie and NJ Ed Commish Chris Cerf.
“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it!”
– George Carlin
LikeLike
California registered Dems include Eli Broad of the infamous Broad Academy, and his protégé Michelle Rhee (and her basketball player husband who is mayor of Sacramento). Fabian Nunez, former Dem Speaker of the House, now works for Michelle Rhee, and both work to clean her, and charters, images.
Current Dem Speaker of the House John Perez, who is cousin of former LA mayor and Dem, Tony Villaraigosa, like Polis, is openly gay and claims to be progressive. However, along with his cousin Tony, who is now working for the pyramid scheme Herbalife (which the LA Times recently reported, scams mainly Latinas), is pro charter school.
New mayor and a Dem, Eric Garcetti, has chosen all charter supporters for his team, and his wife worked with former Repub mayor, Richard Riordan, long time charter supporter…and she a Dem.
Go figure!
Never underestimated power hungry, and money hungry, Dems who can be as treacherous as their not so ‘Secret Sharers’ who are Repubs, (with credit to Joe Conrad for the analogy).
LikeLike
You forget Michelle Rhee’s husband’s biggest claims to fame – his repeated sexual overtures to underage girls, taking money from his Hope Foundation to try to buy their silence (Michelle, his fiance at the time, rushed to his side to handle the PR fallout), his recent $37,000 fine for failing to declare campaign contributions and the current investigation into other financial conflicts of interest… http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/being_kevin_johnson.html
LikeLike
Thank you Sahila for adding to the behaviors of some Dems who retain seats of power. Johnson and Rhee are on a mission to close public schools in our State Capitol, Sacramento, and have shut down 23 at last count.
With colluding Dems in the State House, will they ever support prosecuting this man, and impeaching him???
Where can voters go to find legislators, in our form of representative government, who will truly be the voice of the People?
LikeLike
Charters are cash cows. The “reformers” can’t resist the temptation of easy money. Who cares if it rips off communities, families, teachers, and children. You can pretend that you are saving them all.
LikeLike
“He is good on some issues, like gun control. . .”
Well if you’re talking about the ability to hit what your shooting at I’d be okay with that but somehow I don’t think that is what Diane is hinting at since he has a zero percent NRA rating.
LikeLike
Fire, floods, hail, frogs, locusts…add SB 191 to the list of plagues.
LikeLike
Polis and others like him (those who consider themselves Democratic Centrists or New Dems or Dems for Education Reform) are especially damaging because they make positions further to the right seem acceptable. It wasn’t until Polis and his ilk began supporting charters that vouchers became a policy option. It wasn’t until they began to support TFA that Scott Walker’s union busting tactics became an option. It wasn’t until they supported test-driven teacher evaluation that even more draconian efforts at de-professionalizing teaching became okay to talk about.
LikeLike
Agree. Greed took over.
LikeLike
What? There are actually wealthy liberals????? “If wealthy, “liberal” reformers would finally start acknowledging this state of affairs, maybe we could have a significant, substantive conversation about the future of this country —” Whad da ya know? Liberals. And rich. Like in Bloomberg rich? Like in Warren Buffet rich? Those bad guys are NOT Republicans???? Harry Reid rich? Bill Clinton rich? Oh my goodness, as Shirley Temple used to say, I thought rich=bad and bad=Republicans. My whole world view is being turned upside down. You mean ALL the Democrat Senators and ALL the Democrat House members, including millionaire Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein, are receiving blanket subsidies for their and their staff’s health insurance so that the ACA will be affordable for them and their staffs. Why, why, why, that’s almost like a waiver, NOT something poor working stiffs get. I guess a Democrat CAN do wrong, after all, like getting rich. We all know that the rich are the problem in this country. Yep, bust anyone who is rich back to the street so they will become more sensitive to the plight of the really poor. Give me your potential Democrat voters yearning to be supported, . . . no yearning to be free . . . forget that. No one really wants freedom any more, unless it is free handouts. Daddy, daddy, Obama, give, give, give, like your government is my mama.
LikeLike