John Oliver’s Program on Charter Schools Went Viral

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1. LeftCoastTeacher says:

   August 29, 2016 at 12:56 am

   That’s on YouTube alone. There’s also HBO and I think Netflix (I am not certain something owned by Reed Hastings counts.). Check out the number of views of Last Week Tonight’s Standardized Testing episode too — on YouTube alone. These are the most important events.

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   • Ed Johnson says:

     August 29, 2016 at 9:41 am

     The link…
     

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2. pbarret says:

   August 29, 2016 at 1:06 am

   The e-mail address to send him support didn’t work for me nor did a search to find another way (I don’t do social media). He certainly deserves all the support we can give him.

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3. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

   August 29, 2016 at 1:25 am

   Word of mouth is the most powerful promotional method. Beats paid ads every time.

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   • Joel Herman says:

     August 29, 2016 at 9:35 am

     “The fact that TTIP has failed is testament to the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets to protest against it,!!!!!!!!! ”
     “the three million people who signed a petition calling for it to be scrapped, and the huge coalition of civil society groups, trade unions and activists who came together to stop it. TTIP would have resulted in a massive corporate power grab, and sovereign democracies across the E.U. would have been deeply compromised.”
     http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/ttip_has_de_facto_failed_says_german_economic_minister_20160828

     That my friend Llyod is the way you beat down the Plutocrats, Something that we have not seen in this country for quite sometime.
     When they fear the Pitchforks are next they back down for a time. .

     The Problem is not Trade, not Wall Street, not ed Reformers, not low wages and union busting, not Black Lives not mattering ….. The problem is we are degenerating into Oligarchy. This has to be fought by a visible!!!! massive progressive movement that changes the narrative. Occupy Wall street on steroids, including all of the above.

     Robert Reich’s recent post asked where will the Trump base be four years from now. Unless we change the Narrative (“political revolution”) that base will be larger more angry and the next Demagogue may be a little slicker.

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     • Lloyd Lofthouse says:

       August 29, 2016 at 11:14 am

       This should be where (someone like) Bernie Sanders (or him) steps in and uses the momentum of his movement to carry the fight forward and grow it.

   • Joel Herman says:

     August 29, 2016 at 1:09 pm

     I fully agree. It also should be where 360.org the Sierra Club,the NAACP, the NEA,UFT and organized Labor steps in. The day after the election no matter who is elected. There were reasons many Unions endorsed Hillary over Bernie, not many were thrilled with the strategic political decision they made, including mine.

     I did send a letter to one of NYs most powerful Labor leaders urging the above. Without, mentioning names, if not for his grandfather the UFT would have been crushed, before it was recognized as a bargaining agent. Lets see where it goes. I may see him in the next few weeks. Always hopeful !!!!

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4. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   August 29, 2016 at 1:25 am

   Hooray. Thanks for this info, Diane.

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5. Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene says:

   August 29, 2016 at 2:27 am

   I posted a copy of my letter of support here:

   Thank you John Oliver for exposing how charter schools steal from children
   View at Medium.com

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6. Jack says:

   August 29, 2016 at 3:44 am

   Prior to his show last week, can you think of anything in the mainstream media — i.e. a feature on 60 Minutes or 20/20 or Dateline NBC — that has ever gone after charters this way?

   For years, those folks in the mainstream media have been given, and have been well aware of much the same facts as Oliver was, yet they have failed to do the story that Oliver did last week.

   Such scandals and problems with charters have been around for over two decades, so why did it take a late night comedian / comedy show to at last bring this story to such a large segment of the U.S. public? The mainstream media either won’t or can’t (are being prevented) from covering this story properly.

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   • Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene says:

     August 29, 2016 at 3:48 am

     Exactly.

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   • Threatened Out West says:

     August 29, 2016 at 7:48 pm

     To be fair, the Detroit Free Press did that exceptional take-down of Michigan’s charter catastrophe a couple of years ago. But as far as broadcast media, I don’t think there’s been one like John Oliver’s piece.

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7. Chiara says:

   August 29, 2016 at 5:26 am

   I know most of you don’t need a reminder, but here’s one anyway.

   Oliver got all of the information in that piece from local reporters. They’re the ones who did the investigations. They’re not paid very well. They’re not getting 12 million dollar grants from Gates, their newspapers aren’t subsidized by Broad and they don’t get multi-million dollar contracts.

   He’s entertaining and funny and I’m glad he did a piece on charter schools that didn’t focus on “high performing networks” in NYC or Boston or DC, but all the content came from local media sources, 99% local newspapers. Without them no one would know any of this.

   When the Akron paper did a multi-part investigation into charter schools they had to use interns from college journalism programs to do the records review and make all the phone calls to charter operators to gather information. That’s what it takes – hundreds of hours.

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8. Patricia Carlin says:

   August 29, 2016 at 5:27 am

   Please consider him for the hall of fame, Diane. He had been able to reach so many people beyond the educational community.

   >

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   • retired teacher says:

     August 29, 2016 at 9:07 am

     John Oliver has performed a great public service by helping to spread the word about charter theft to the greater community. Many more people may seek to become informed about this issue as a result.

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9. Chiara says:

   August 29, 2016 at 5:45 am

   “The children entering kindergarten and first grade this school year were not yet born when the Great Recession ended in mid-2009. Incoming high school seniors were not yet in middle school.

   But in many states and localities, the wounds to school budgets from recession-era cutbacks are still large, leaving schools with more students and less money. Recent data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that as of last year, 25 states were still spending less per student than before the recession, adjusted for inflation, and cuts in seven states exceeded 10 percent. In 31 states, local government spending per student fell between 2008 and 2014, the latest data available (adjusted for inflation). It is safe to assume some improvement in recent years, but even so, there is clearly a long way to go before overall spending catches up with enrollment and inflation.”

   We’re basically at full employment- it doesn’t get any better than 5/6% unemployment.

   They’re still not funding schools. If they’re not funding them now, they never will.

   Using the Wall Street crash as an excuse to permanently reduce school funding is just reprehensible. What a shame that all those thousands of paid ed reform advocates ignore funding.

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   • 2old2teach says:

     August 29, 2016 at 1:19 pm

     Chiara, you don’t really believe that 5-6% unemployment figure , do you? Even if you ignore urban neighborhoods with abysmal employment figures, can we also ignore those who have given up or those who are employed at well below their former salaries? If you lose a decent position after 50, chances are you have already reached your earnings peak.

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10. Chiara says:

    August 29, 2016 at 6:30 am

    Is Richard Whitmire a big deal in ed reform? All their sites seem to be promoting him right now. Apparently he churns out fawning pieces promoting charter schools.

    Tweets by richardwhitmir

    Do a round of emails go out when it’s time to promote one or another of these people? It really feels coordinated. Sometime in the next month the Obama Administration will be citing Whitmire as an expert- guaranteed.

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    • Allison says:

      August 29, 2016 at 7:59 am

      He has a book out about the “history” of charter schools. Tone deaf, pro-charter, no longer a journalist, just a PR agent for the reform movement. He was a big proponent of Michelle Rhee and “Won’t Back Down”.

      Campbell Brown is currently promoting his book on her website as if it’s the next “Waiting For Superman”. I’d like to think Campbell promoting this lightweight signifies the desperation of the reform movement.

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11. Chiara says:

    August 29, 2016 at 8:44 am

    Allison
    August 29, 2016 at 7:59 am
    He has a book out about the “history” of charter schools. Tone deaf, pro-charter, no longer a journalist, just a PR agent for the reform movement. He was a big proponent of Michelle Rhee and “Won’t Back Down”.

    Does “lightweight” matter,though? Duncan promoted the heck out of the “Smartest Kids in the World”, probably because it dovetailed perfectly with the Common Core sales job.

    He quoted it in speeches endlessly. It’s an echo chamber. They almost seize on a “theme”. I don’t think it’s actually planned- I think it’s how echo chambers operate.

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12. jeffsalisbury says:

    August 29, 2016 at 8:53 am

    Reblogged this on Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" and commented:

    John Oliver’s Program on Charter Schools Went Viral
    by dianeravitch
    John Oliver’s very sharp critique of charter schools went viral. In one week, it has had more than 5 million views.

    Reply
13. Shelley Zipper says:

    August 29, 2016 at 9:04 am

    He did a rant on charters once before; this one was over the top, in a good way! It was awesome to hear so much information, specific content and details–a rare combination on television these days. Kudos to you, John Oliver, on a job superlatively well done!

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    • retired teacher says:

      August 29, 2016 at 11:05 am

      I saw his other rant as well. The reason this one is over the top is that the amount of waste and fraud in charters is out of control, and our policymakers keep sending them money and ignore the problems.

      Reply