Angie Sullivan is a teacher-warrior who never gives up the fight for quality education in Nevada. She wants qualified teachers and adequate funding. She won’t back down. She wrote this letter to Senator Harry Reid:
“@TeachForAmerica: “You’ve done so much to help our country.” – @SenatorReid via video to our alumni at #ECVegas14
I have a HUGE HUGE problem with this! BIG Gigantic!
Senator Reid thanks scab labor by video at their big rally?
Teach for America that routinely union busts and funds campaigns against democrats with its war chests?
Their primary purpose is to fundraise and control the education privatizing conversation – developing reforming educational leadership with a few years of classroom experience. How do they do this? Install new graduates without teaching skill in at-risk schools and replace real teachers as fast as possible with “stars” who never intended to make the classroom a career.
Nevada has a Majority Leader but we are last in the nation in public education on too many levels to outline here. No money, no support, no help.
Me and my co-workers with actual teaching licenses worked for decades for my state in under funded conditions and get what? These frauds and Teach for America scabs?
Our conditions deteriorate, our tenure is demolished, our pensions are attacked, our supplies dwindle, our class size explodes, we aren’t allowed to teach anymore with all the crazy mandates installed, the crazy Department of Education Secretary applauds the attack, we are attached to scores for kids that can learn but will never score well due to disenfranchisement, and we are blamed by crazytown media for every social ill under the sun.
And that is what the Democratic Party has done to public education.
I haven’t even begun to list what the extremist left has done — but I’m sure those terrorists will shoot me down to exercise their 2nd amendment rights soon since they are allowed to access me as a government employee.
Enough is enough.
The answer isn’t to oppress women who teach kids to read with the same standards they have in Maine. The answer isn’t to abuse kids by making them do more and more testing – they fail before they ever set foot in public school because our community is suffering. The answer isn’t to allow Teach for America with 5 weeks of training to replace a teacher who is actually trained. And the answer definitely isn’t to fire us because democrats are on a witch hunt for “bad teachers”.
Here is the reality. Nevada has a poverty problem and importing a bunch of Harvard graduates who want to beef up their resumes as TFA teacher for a couple of years – is a drain on resources and doesn’t help at-risk kids.
CCSD is looking for 3,000 teachers at the same time it fires 300? Something is wrong. We are going to fill these jobs with “saviors” from elite colleges who become tourist teachers?
This video is a slap in the face to every fully licensed teacher in our nation.
You may celebrate this watering down and privatization of Nevada’s education – but me and my house will stand against you and them — because this secret combination is evil and subversive to the American Dream.
O God hear the words of my voice and help your Nevada teachers who love their students – let this and every other reforming and resource drain scam – stop – so that authentic learning can fill our communities.
All I can do is weep.
Angie
“Extremist left?”
I know…Is she confused? Those are actions of extreme right.
My mistake – RIGHT. Nevada – basically the entire state – is under watch for an unusual amount of crazytown.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/opinions/cliven-bundy-and-the-dangers-of-fueling-extremism/2014/07/18/4f47c50c-0e71-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html
Teacher addresses are published – so yes the open carry crazytown — can come right up to your door because teachers are employed by the government.
Oh, don’t worry. He’ll get back to you next time he needs labor support to get elected.
Democrats in DC will be contacting you every two years (6 years in the case of Senators, and of course 4 for Presidents) in the period from August to November.
I could plot on a graph exactly when Democrats “re-discover!” their “commitment” to public education and labor unions, and I could do it ten cycles out.
They have generously lent their purely rhetorical support to a $10.10 wage for workers. What more do you want?
I raise a lot of hell – mostly politicians run from me. Although Nevada Senator Justin Jones ( Megan his wife is Harry Reid’s fundraiser) did threaten my job. And Nevada Senator Aaron Ford called me a B (I asked him if that meant the nasty word – he never got back to me). Assemblyman Elliot Anderson told me I was annoying. And those are responses by the Democrats in leadership on Nevada legislation education issues. Don’t think they will change anytime soon since Students First has given thousands and thousands to their campaigns and caucuses.
Every 2 years? How do you manage that? I get e-mails every day, most asking for money.
How’d you like to be this poor guy?
“To grow the economy and expand opportunity, we need a dynamic & empowered labor movement.” -@LaborSec to @AFLCIO
He should wander over to the USDOE and Congress and the White House and let them know his thoughts on this. That might be an interesting debate.
Apparently he hasn’t heard what Democrats are running on this cycle: the decline of the middle class is the fault of middle class workers. Glad we got that problem solved, and we did it without involving anyone who is actually powerful or in charge of anything!
The Nevada AFL- CIO used education to create a TEI – an education initiative and then . . . When the time was ripe key players in their hierarchy received $50K to each to fight against it. The best chance we have had in 30 years to get money was created by my union brothers who immediately horse traded for some deals for themselves. What can you do – with friends like this it is difficult to deal with our common enemies
I agree with most of the heartfelt lamentations of Angie but I’m puzzled by this statement: “I haven’t even begun to list what the extremist left has done — but I’m sure those terrorists will shoot me down to exercise their 2nd amendment rights soon since they are allowed to access me as a government employee.” Extremist left? Was that a typo, since the extremist left is for gun control, not exercising their 2nd amendment rights. It’s Sarah Palin, the far right and the tea partiers who are all gaga for exercising their 2nd amendment rights.
My apologies for writing left when of course it is the RIGHT!
Nevada doesn’t need Sarah Palin – we have Michelle Fiore http://m.lvsun.com/news/2014/jul/20/true-nevada-political-rise/
She had a bill last session to arm all teachers. Yes, she wanted me to go to school to my classroom of five year olds and pack heat. I guess pay for my weapon, my gun safe, and my gun lessons on my own too because she’s cheap.
“All I can do is weep”
No Angie!
The privatization of the commons and the corporatization of the nation is as aggressive and insidious an act against the people as any act of war.
We need to start with a nationwide walkout of ALL educators and related staffers. The corporations, the wealthy and their lackeys will not break until they are confronted and eliminated with a real threat that will absolutely remove them all from continuing to do this again.
Acts of aggression against the people demand a swift and devastating response.
Weeping will never change any injustice.
Seconded. I am not a communist, more of a democratic socialist, so I offer these favorite words of Eugene Debs in sympathy and support:
“Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.”
Vote for Bernie Sanders, 2016!
I cry a lot because it is so terribly overwhelming. I cry and I write.
I cry and write, too. I can truly relate to your post. I am trying to get local politicians to talk to me and they will not even return my calls or emails. Our district in Colorado recently elected an ultraconservative board. The corporate reform movement has been brought to our doorstep. Charter mania is already beginning to occur despite protests from the community. The school board merely ignores the community and plows blindly ahead.
Just out of curiosity, how can educators like me get our writings to folks like Diane Ravitch? How did your letter wind up being noticed by Diane?
I bore my non-teaching social circle with endless raging about “reform”: I think they would prefer me to cry honestly lol.
I am totally opposed to any kind of violence (as regards the educational issues that are discussed in Diane’s forum). It would be inappropriate, wrong and stupid. Not to mention unnecessary. Dr. Martin L. King and Gandhi accomplished so much more with nonviolence than they would have by resorting to arms. And they faced actual brutal violence and both died from the bullets of assassins.
Send her an e-mail.
It’s less a poverty problem than the fact Nevada has a very high transience rate. Kids often move from school to school to school, and no amount of testing or punitive actions against teachers will reverse this. Not all poor kids move from place to place, but transient kids have NO stable learning environment at all.
I know about Nevada. It treats its teachers poorly. The “unions” there more often than not are in bed with school districts.
I don’t look for Harry Reid or any other D.C. politician to do one thing about it. The letter writer may feel good after writing it, but Reid isn’t going to do one thing about it because Duncan and Obama LOVE TFA.
I still think it is poverty – which leads to the high turnover . It is a vicious cycle of no one graduating, families without money, kids without support – and generations of illiteracy. A burden on our systems because of the loss of economic power – due to dropping out.
Oh, Angie Sullivan is so right, but I’m afraid that her grammatical errors will not instill the respect she deserves. Ouch!
I’m some kind of pissed off.
We are at the bottom of every report in the nation. And Senator celebrates by video with TFA at a swanky casino on strip?
And his hand won’t let Democrats come out in support if any revenue raising in my state?
What kind of union-busting leadership is this?
http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/nevada-education-ranked-last-nation
It’s particularly galling for Reid. Wasn’t he re-elected in large measure due to the support of labor unions?
I’m not in a union and I don’t mean to tell you what to do, but at what point do you withdraw support from Democrats? What would it take? It might be good to have a genuinely non-governmental labor movement. All of these politicians are hopelessly captured anyway. Does the benefit still outweigh the real downside of being tied to them? They’re not real popular with the public, DC, if polling is any indication.
I stopped voting Democrat when Obama killed the public option. Maybe that was premature, but I’ve only had my suspicions vindicated since.
I am in a union, and I second Chiara’s suggestion. It would be powerful if the state level unions would pass resolutions to withdraw support from Democrats and go third party. I think this would be more effective than a strike, because I think striking just plays into the image of teachers as lazy and out of touch. It also gives them a chance to hire all of the under employed fresh college grads out there.
I too am here in CCSD, it is amazing the money they find for “reform” and consultants. Harry’s last election was closer than it should have been, the one before that was almost lost. This time I expect our subtle corporatist governor to run against him and win. He won’t have my support, he is no different than my enemies, except for the fact that they tell me up front what they really think of me. Governor Sandoval has stated among friends he would like to get the public out of public education and he is a good buddy with the NPRI wing nut think tank. I shall make them fire me and will stay to the end. I hope you will continue the opposition to Angie.
All we can do is a few things everyday and speak up for our kids.
I’m really really truthful and that causes more problems than you can list.
Politicians want to operate and receive money in a vacuum.
Speaking of vacuums – one was created the other day when science common core was legislated in Nevada – between a discussion about raw milk and mining.
I wonder if Strickland and Granholm’s “pro public ed” group is pure election year posturing, too.
What are the plans besides appearing in front of teachers unions in July of an election year? Not to mention that everything they say will be immediately contradicted by the actions (or inaction) of the Obama Administration.
They have a huge charter building fund going to the Senate, while funding for public schools has been cut all over the country under Democratic and Republican ed reform leadership. Will Strickland oppose that, or at least act as an advocate for kids who attend existing public schools? They could sure use one. Their schools are getting hammered, and all DC can do is build charter schools.
Amen!
So Harry Reid’s tweet has been deleted. It was up for quite awhile and now it’s gone. And that means?
We are still last in the nation and major education players in Nevada are directly connected to TFA including the Casino Tycoon and Nevada State Board of Education Chair Elaine Wynn.
The tweet may be gone but I’m still pissed.
Angie’s comments are correct with one error. This privatization scheme was hatched on a bi-partisan level under Republican Jeb Bush’s direction and the Governors Association. BOTH parties are Wall Street hacks-we must come to the realization that both sides of the aisle are in this together, and we like-minded teachers, parents, students, citizens must unite and fight the destruction together. We may have some different reasons for attacking privatization; we may have different reasons for endorsing the institution of public schools, but no matter what YOUR personal reason is, we have to stop partisan bashing and fight the fascist corruption that has been working hard to infiltrate our government, our businesses, and our public institutions for decades! The battle must be fought and won collectively.
Polly, join the Network for Public Education.