The Connecticut Council for Education Reform (that phrase “for Education Reform” always means “for privatization of your public schools”) urges voters in Bridgeport to pass a resolution that would eliminate their right to elect a school board.
The CCER thinks that the mayor knows best.
The mayor will know how best to close public schools and replace them with privately controlled schools that can kick low-performing students out.
The mayor knows best how to educate the city’s children.
Please, voters, abandon your rights.
The mayor knows best.
Who are these people who don’t believe in democracy?
Read Jonathan Pelto’s latest post to learn their names.
They believe in electing the school board where they live.
They don’t think that poor people and people of color can be trusted to choose those who represent them.
As Jonathan incisively asks,
Imagine if corporate executives told the American people that because Congress is, as we all know, dysfunctional, that members of Congress should be appointed by the President rather than elected by the people.
Yet that is exactly what these business people are saying.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Democracy requires commitment. Capitalism requires only greed.
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Speaking with Margaret Warner on Sept 14, Justice Souter commented that democracy “dies” when citizens are unable to identify the parties to hold responsible. They will cede their responsibilities to someone who promises a solution by throwing up their hands and saying “You deal with it.”
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About an hour and ten minutes into the video; This link might work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVJhXQB1TAk#t=4200s
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You could probably track their board of directors to someone involved in charters or privatization. One bank listed has a senior executive whose wife is the Co-CEO of
Achievement First. I suppose placing him on the board would be too obvious, so they just choose a different executive. There is money to be made…is there truly is a genuine concern for the poor brown children in Bridgeport, CT?
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Naked Capitalism (www.nakedcapitalism.com) has an excellent essay on neoliberal philosophy, and it’s antidemocratic implications:
“Proponents of neoliberalism are therefore often in the “critical literature? portrayed as sceptics of democracy: if the democratic process slows down neoliberal reforms, or threatens individual and commercial liberty, which it sometimes does, then democracy ought to be sidestepped and replaced by the rule of experts or legal instruments designed for that purpose. The practical implementation of neoliberal policies will, therefore, lead to a relocation of power from political to economic processes, from the state to markets and individuals, and finally from the legislature and executives authorities to the judiciary.”
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/10/neoliberalism-kills-part-two.html
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