Here are links to the Network for Public Education’s resolution calling for Congressional hearings on the misuse, abuse, overuse, and cost of standardized testing in our schools:
PRESS RELEASE: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/2014/03/press-release-npe-calls-for-congressional-hearings/
SUMMARY: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/2014/03/npe-call-for-congressional-hearings-summary/
FULL TEXT: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/2014/03/npe-calls-for-congressional-hearings-full-text/
Diane Ravitch's blog 
excellent
I, like many other New Yorkers, understand the rational differences between your bloggers and charter schools. However, this same group has a real problem understanding why charters cannot enjoy a peaceful coexistence in the education of our children, particularly those that are most vulnerable. http://www.gippersblog.com
I suggest you read the post from earlier this AM about how charters exacerbate segregation. I want those who support choice to acknowledge that the choice is with the school.
Gipper, it’s like a blended family. If what you describe is to be, it will take time, grappling over resources, etc. It can’t just happen overnight.
Charter schools=private education at public expense.
I am not being a smart aleck, I’m just clueless about how resolutions gain power. By what authority does NPE call for congressional hearings?
Can someone just write a resolution on a napkin and it have clout? At what point is a resolution something that is taken seriously?
I really do want to know.
Well, Joanna, somewhere between “writing a resolution on a napkin” and voting on it at a convention of leading education activists, there is undoubtedly some kind of line, and we are well on the serious side of it, I promise you.
For instance, I think this will be “taken seriously” by my newly elected representative in congress, Katherine Clark. And by my senators, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. Katherine attended Diane’s talk at BC Law school a couple of years ago, after having the guts to vote against the RttT juggernaut Education Reform Act of January 2010.
Also, here’s an interesting follow-up note from this morning’s Washington Post:
“Ravitch calls for congressional hearings on standardized testing, gets unexpected support”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/04/activist-calls-for-congressional-hearings-on-standardized-testing-gets-unexpected-support/
Holy cow, what kind of move is this? It can’t help Whiteboard’s clients, can it? Whistleblower? If Peter Cunningham has come over, the insider self-dealers are toast…
And in any case, I think we have the clout to get some of these people under oath. It was the NPE conference, not SXSWedu, that was trending #1 on twitter last weekend.
And, this is not a napkin Senator Warren is holding.
http://twicsy.com/i/SDHYPe
I’m just saying…
the napkin remark was not aimed at NPE, just to be clear. I am cheering NPE on. . . have sent money, etc. I just couldn’t get to Texas and I live in NC where it feels like few are listening or “after having the guts to vote against the RttT juggernaut” anything like that. Writing a resolution on a napkin is a cathartic exercise over a cocktail when lamenting what is happening (and it’s about all you need to sue a lawyer. . .so I just wondered what the difference was). I sometimes feel it’s the only thing I can do, writing a resolution on a napkin (a cocktail napkin, mind you). I am certain it has been done before.
I appreciate you answering.
I will check out the links.
btw. . .”leading education activists” is a phrase that no longer has meaning. It has been usurped by the new “leading education activists.” I think a new qualifier might be in order.
Words. Words. Words matter. Words got us into this mess. Words can get us out.
We need new descriptors.
He’s right. We need new descriptors. Catchy slogans that will stick in people’s minds. For instance: No Child Left Behind; Race to the Top; Common Core; Failing Schools, and/or incompetent teachers.
These are all short easy to remember, stick in your head descriptors.
Although some are long, I suggest one or more of these might fit:
Robber Barons and Wolves of Sesame Street
The Billionaire Pirates of Public Education
Crumbling Charter Schools
Defective Charters
Save Children from Charters
Trickster Michelle Rhee
Marauder Murdock
Buccaneer Bill Gates
Once you come up with your meme slogans, they become your brand and you use one or more in every comment and post.
Lloyd: that would be “she’s right.” I’m a girl. 🙂
You know the other reason I posed my question about calling for congressional hearings and the authority to have someone listen to the calling is that every year my husband and his best buddy declare themselves for the NBA (probably on a cocktail napkin). But, alas, they have never been drafted (at ages 40 and heights of 5′ 9″ respectively)—so you can see what I’m getting at.
Any group of folks can get together and declare that they call for some official action. I just want to know which declarations are heard.
Did I write “he”. Sorry. Is there such a thing as keyboard lag (similar to jet lag)?
Diane said, “We own the social media”
I was all on my own, as so many of us were at that time, when I posted the Daily Kos diary linked to my screen name (on April 8, 2009). Now I’m not. We’re not. We’ve built a Political Action Committee, brothers and sisters.
“Congressional action can save the New York Schools”
While reading “The Bully Pulpit” by Doris Kearns Goodwyn, it’s obvious that the odds of Congressional hearings dealing with this corruption are slim to nothing.
The political machine that supports the destruction of public education to the benefit of he billionaire robber barons and wolves of Sesame Street may only be dealt with the same way Teddy Roosevelt dealt with similar problems when he was president—–through the courts using existing laws.
good book.
Love her.
I fully support every effort to challenge the corporate assault in court, but please don’t stand there behind Doris Kearns Goodwyn to preach your “slim to nothing” political accomodationism.
Democracy is in our hands because we take it, and the arc bends toward justice because we bend it.
“Democracy is in our hands because we take it, and the arc bends toward justice because we bend it.”
Truth sometimes is painful when it comes from someone in the pay or sway of the wealthy 0.1% as they twist facts, spread lies and manipulate democracy to achieve their goals to strip power from the government/people and increase their wealth and power.
Goodwyn’s book, “The Bully Pulpit” (historical nonfiction based on historical facts), clearly shows us the world you advocate where a small minority of very wealthy people control democracy and justice by bending it to their will.
I’m not preaching anything. The wealthy .01% and their few extremist allies are the ones who are preaching lies and manipulating public opinion.
The lessons from history and Goodwyn’s book are not the only sources for the world we are headed toward—an end to civilization as we know it. A path leading back to a fascist world controlled by narrow minded elitist thinking.
If we don’t learn from history we risk repeating it and everything these robber barons and wolves of Sesame Street do as they pull the strings that control their cloned puppet politicians in the GOP and the neo-liberals in the Democratic Party all the way to the White House reveals where the United States is headed—back to the era before the progressive movement made life better in the Untied States for most of the people leading to the era of the middle class and education for all.