A few months ago, Steven Singer wrote a critique of privatization that Facebook refused to let him post. It wa titled “School Choice is a Lie.” This Post was blocked by Facebook, and Steven was banned from Facebook for a week. It has happened again!
Steven wrote this post, “The False Paradise of School Privatization.” Once again, Facebook has banished him. Please read the post and put it on your Facebook page if you have one.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
I posted it and my WordPress is linked to Twitter and Facebook.
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I LOVE this article. Not surprising that creep Zuckerberg banned this super article by Singer.
Zuckerberg is “eyeing” Hawai’i’s schools as his source of income first, then on to others.
Zuckerberg is also “BRANDING” himself via awards for science.
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I do not do Facebook, but every time Diane Ravitch says someone who is writing knowledgeably about education and has been bumped from that platform, I have another reason to NEVER use Facebook.
My theory: The 74million has figured out how to initiate these blocks. The blocks appear to be done by looking for key words and the algorithms perform the blocks. Some individual or some group has paid for the blocking.
As computer scientist Cathy O’Neil reminds us, “Algorithms are opinions embedded in code.” That quote is from her first TED talk, which opens with the use of VAM to rate teachers. I recommend her book Weapons of Math Destruction. It is written for a general audience and all about use of algorithms to judge people and content. Cathy O’Neil also has an irreverent blog mathbabe.
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Well, in this case, algorithms are censorship.
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I left FB two years ago when Zuckerberg began to team up with Bill and Melinda Gates, the masterminds of the tech take over of Public Schools.
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Done. And I asked followers to spread the article.
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Posted
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Diane FACEBOOK’s FAULT : Do we need any more evidence about WHY privatization is the death knell to open communications in a democracy?
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I find it shocking that this relatively innocuous but thoughtful article would be offensive to some Facebook algorithm. As I have stated before, I am not a fan of the data mining, but I like Facebook’s potential reach and the fact that I can keep up with colleagues and family. I used to argue with a lot of duped people a few years ago. Today, I find more and more people agreeing with me; public opinion is changing on the issue of public school privatization. NPE’s posts have been gliding past the algorithm, and the Coffee Party Movement frequently posts more damning posts about privatization than this post. Perhaps a group of presumed “iconoclasts” are automatically in the “block” pool, and names Singer or Ravitch as the author trigger the algorithm to block content.
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Boy, the Zuck really gets his feelings hurt easily! It just goes to show how FB, developed to be this great communication tool for everyone, is it’s own Utopia and it seeks to get rid of the ones that don’t fit in.
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Don’t forget that Campbell Brown, the duchess of privatization (DeVos is the Queen), is in charge of “content” for Facebook.
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Not directly related to this post but Eva Moskovitz was on NPR’s Leonard Lopate yesterday, (before he was suspended for sexual misconduct) and I maneged to get on live to challenge her. I recall, maybe incorrectly, that she resisted state audits because she claimed Success Academy is essentially a private school. I challenged this because she went on about how her schools are public schools accountable as public schools or words to that affect. I also challenged her statements about how well rounded her educational programs are by stating that I thought her schools are test taking preps. I questioned her about the quality of the education by asking her how many if any of her students gained entry into Stuyvesant H.S. She ignored the Stuyvesant part and went on about how well rounded the education was.
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Go get ’em, Michael Brougham!
Agh, Lopate now? & Schwartz? Hope NPR’s review is swift & faves will be back on the air in short order. At this rate I’m going to be reduced to listening to TED talks while driving [gag]
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Just saw this on Snopes, thought you might like to pass it along:
Does the 2017 Tax Reform Bill Help Private Schools and Hurt Public Schools?
Reply: TRUE
https://www.snopes.com/tax-bill-private-schools/?utm_source=bme&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=wednesday_update&bt_ee=mjWL2rru2HuYzZBCb7MPYtK55RNdcDV0lHTxK7lEOmJpdRR7YUn8JjgcR3nVZzAW&bt_ts=1512563507394&utm_source=bme&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=wednesday_update&bt_ee=FdZxE2QpcJPvg+UFiihaT90Pqgp9IP6W1fwM6UMSRgztF7ZbdlhMLf9W1Yc5Fixh&bt_ts=1512563507207
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Thanks for Snopes.
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Posted on my page. So far aok.
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My post went through.
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reposted.
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Facebook product, thru the energetic lobbing efforts of Summit Charter Schools and thousands of cheerleading ed reformers, is now in 130 school districts nationwide.
Facebook doesn’t seem like a particularly responsible company. They almost surely deliberately misled Congress when they were asked about foreign interference in the 2016 election. One is supposed to testify truthfully when called before Congress. Facebook didn’t.
Is there some reason we have to give them access to public schools? Can we at least get cheap, gimmicky ed tech product from a more responsible vendor?
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Ivanka Trump
K-12 #STEM education is critical to ensuring our youth are prepared for the careers of the future. Join the conversation!
Please don’t do this to your students. Don’t let Ivanka Trump “lead” science education.
I mean, come on. Why are we paying for this nonsense?
They can’t find a single actual scientist in DC? Someone who actually studied in a STEM field? We get these political campaigns in our schools now too?
Spare them this. they deserve better.
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Better start attacking their godless religions or you’ll forever be behind the eight ball in the education battle. That will ensure news coverage while actually attacking the cancer directly and getting the truth out. Fun!
Journalists are not your friend so just like in “Little Shop of Horrors” you have to constantly feed them blood (religious conflict) or they won’t “love” you. More fun!
Thanks for the “facebook of evil” post. Informative in many ways.
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Done…let’s see what happens now…(-;
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Done.
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Reposted both. Screw FB.
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I’m confused.
So the Russians can post lies on Facebook claiming Hillary is a murderer and is operating a meth lab under a pizzeria or some such nonsense, but an opinion piece about education is off limits?
I can see why some people feel we are living in a dystopia universe and that common sense is a lost art.
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Great piece. Just posted it on FB.
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“It is the public school system that gives you choice. You decide to live in a certain community – you get to go to that community’s schools. Period.”
This statement from Singer’s post troubles me greatly. It is true, but it too has a dystopian ring to it. Colleges fight over students from some of the wealthy suburban regions, but snub students from other school districts. All school districts are not created equal. Rural and inner city schools face budget issues and greater numbers of students who have learning problems. Magnet schools pull certain students away from community schools, leaving the ground from which learning sprouts less fertile. Students who are highly motivated in some community schools are forced by regulations to sit in classes where problematic behaviors from a minority of students rob them of the education they deserve.
Anyone who has read my posts knows that I strongly support public education and oppose test and punish schemes. I agree with Singer’s suggestion that a greater degree of choice exists in the public school than in charters or vouchers where the school decides if you are a good fit. But sometimes community schools are penalized by a community of people who do not see the value of a good education or who do but are not willing to fund it. It is this situation that we must address on a systemic level. If we do not address this, privitazation has a trove of anecdotes that will support their contention that we are not doing a good job. They will continue to rive off a few good students for particular programs, thereby silencing the parents of the few who desire education. The rest will be allowed to rot, underfunded and neglected in a dystopia of the dual systems.
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Singer says: “It is the public school system that gives you choice. You decide to live in a certain community – you get to go to that community’s schools. Period.”
You say: “This statement from Singer’s post troubles me greatly,” and “But sometimes community schools are penalized by a community of people who do not see the value of a good education or who do but are not willing to fund it. It is this situation that we must address on a systemic level.”
Does addressing this situation on a systemic level involve changing the rule that people who live in a certain community get to go to that community’s [public] schools?
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I am not sure what I mean. I certainly do not think the solution is destroying the ability to attend a community school. Perhaps the solution is to quit assuming that all the students learn at the same rate in the same way. Perhaps the funding issue is the key.
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“Perhaps the solution is to quit assuming that all the students learn at the same rate in the same way. ”
That’s what I loved about special education. I got to work with the kids as individuals much more than a general ed teacher would typically get to.
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Yeah, probably our way of funding public schools needs an overhaul. My understanding is that when Vermont tried to get extra $$ out of wealthier communities who funded schools above the state formula, the communities created foundations into which they could funnel those funds so they stayed in the community. Vermont tried to give those towns that turned down referendums or just had less more money by requiring wealthier towns to give half of what they raised beyond state standards to the state to be redistributed. The knee jerk reaction of wealthier communities was that they valued education and why should they have to subsidize those who didn’t. Every state has issues with equitable distribution of funds. Property taxes are not it.
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Every time equitable funding issues are raised in Tennessee, the wealthiest districts just spend more money, pulling all the experienced teachers from the rural areas adjacent to them for 5 or 10 thousand more a year. But it is more than that. We are so wealthy that we can surround ourselves with people who are just like us. I do not see a solution that exists without a dystopian end.
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In NJ we have been redistributing state taxes from wealthier to poor communities for a long time (30+ yrs? Maybe longer). What happens in my district is, we just keep raising prop taxes to make up the difference. We pay 96% of school budget out of our local taxes. The 2-1/2% RE tax cap hasn’t changed that, since we were already at par before that was instituted. We are still somewhat mixed SES-wise, but gradually the process is squeezing out middle-income residents, & all but wealthy etirees.
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PUZZLING: Facebook is potentially making Steven’s story that much bigger by censoring his post and punishing him for writing it. Now he can promote it elsewhere as “What Facebook didn’t want you to see” and alert people that FB is chilling speech on its platform.
Thank you for Diane for bringing attention to this. I’m sure most people do not know FB does this. What’s strange though is their policy. They could just as easily leave his post up but use their controls to make sure no one actually sees it.
Instead they wade into waters of censorship and give Steven a much bigger story. Unfortunately we don’t know what in this article they don’t like, compared to dozens of others he posted, but there is a lot of concern today about the level of control Facebook and Google now have over people’s hearts and minds.
Steven should bring this story to The Open Markets Institute, an organization I learned of through Zephyr Teachout where they work to expose the disproportional power concentrated in giant monopolies like Google, Facebook and Amazon. More here: http://104.131.34.189/about-us/
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Interesting link…I’ll have to check it out.
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“they work to expose the disproportional power concentrated in giant monopolies like Google, Facebook and Amazon”
With the end of Net Neutrality, concentration of power over communications channels will be vastly increased.
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My computer warned me away from the site because of its non-standard address and the fear of viruses.
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Hmmm….what make of that….? What do you think, Jake Jacobs?
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correction: “what TO make of that….” it’s early here.
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As a HS Principal in the late 1970s and a Superintendent for 29 years, I know that some faculty members wished the rules governing student behavior were as ironclad as the ones that charter school leaders like Eva Moskovitz imposes on students. I hope that teachers like Mr. Singer appreciate that because public school administrators do not have the luxury of throwing children out of school the way that charter operators can they need to improvise in developing discipline plans the same way he and his colleagues improvise lessons. Everyone who works in public education is doing the best they can. Everyone who works in public education is trying to make life better for the children who attend their school. And everyone who works in public education is challenged by the finger-pointing of the “reformers” who want to impose ironclad rules on students… AND impose ironclad rules on everyone who works in public education.
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I posted to my page, it stayed up.
Really like Mr Singer’s post. I tend to ‘polarize’, i.e. to characterize such schools (& many other rightwing ideas) as tyrannical, compared of course to all things benevolently lefty & democratic. Tyrannies are efficient but lack civil rights – bad, democracy messy but fair – good. The ‘Utopia’ angle is refreshing. It helps me remember that folks leaning toward rigid one-size-fits-all can be found at both ends of the spectrum. Their plans spring from Utopian ideals, but trample others’ Utopian ideals underfoot. Not democracy.
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It is tough all over for those of us who write a lot about privatization, and why it has a lot that is not good. Whatever I said to have my post removed, I apologize, and, as usual, do not know what it was.
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Reblogged this on KathyPowers1 and commented:
How long is her sentence?
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