The recent elections contained powerful messages to supporters of public schools and real education:
Do not give up hope.
When the public is informed, it supports its public schools.
It does not want to outsource its public schools to entrepreneurs.
Money cannot buy the voters when they are informed about what is at stake.
Parents and teachers can win any election, no matter how much money is thrown into it by the privatizers if the public is informed.
Consider this:
*Tony Bennett, the superstar of the corporate privatization movement, was beaten even though he outspent Glenda Ritz by 10-1.
Glenda Ritz got more votes than the Republican who won the governorship in Indiana.
*The punitive Luna Laws in Idaho, the reddest of red states, were repealed overwhelmingly. They were anti-teacher, anti-union, anti-child, pro-testing, pro-merit pay, and pro-privatization.
And they lost.
*The emergency manager law in Michigan was defeated.
*California voters passed a proposition to raise taxes to support education, while defeating a proposition to curb the political influence of unions.
*Voters in Bridgeport, Connecticut, rejected a proposal to abandon their right to elect their school board and turn control of the schools over to the mayor.
There were other victories and some losses as well.
But the main lesson is that parents, teachers, and citizens can defeat the monied interests.
They can do it if they organize a strong grassroots effort, if they communicate effectively in person and by social media and with whatever tools they have.
The 1% have millions of dollars to deploy to state and local races, and they will try to overwhelm the race with their money, but this election proved an important point:
They are not invincible. They can be beaten.
They wield power with their money by giving to politicians and hiring lobbyists.
But they can’t buy elections unless we let them.
Do not be afraid.
Do not agonize. Organize.
Be ready next time.
I wish I felt more optimistic because I often feel like it’s a lost cause or at least a crap shoot. But I vote, and my family votes. So I guess we just have to hope for the best.
That is the plan. We will organize and be better prepared next time.
Just to clarify… I’m speaking with regard to educational issues only.
Good to read about this. Pretty bleak here in Arizona. School funding got decimated here, in several different ways. I think there are a lot of people here who see this as an opportunity to join together and raise their voices. We will take inspiration from those of you who succeeded in this election. Thank you.
I agree with you, Diane. Until now, the public hasn’t really understood that “entrepreneurs” have been trying to take over our schools. They haven’t known that “getting rid of tenure” actually means getting rid of due process for mainly female teachers while retaining those rights for police and firefighters (mainly men). And they haven’t really understood how testing has become the curriculum as well as a weapon against the teachers of the poor.
What citizens DO know is that teachers are the people in the classrooms and they know that we work hard. When the citizens are fully informed, I have no doubt they will, once again, be on the side of schoolteachers.
If citizens want charters, they’ll have them but I don’t think they’ll put up with privatizing these schools for profit while keeping teachers’ salaries low. If these schools are opened, they should be under the auspices of parents and teachers with salaries similar to traditional schools. Also, they should have to accept everyone who applies, just as traditional schools do.
We are beginning to educate the public now, in good part to your leadership. Thanks so much for your support of public education, one of our greatest institutions and the bedrock of our democracy.
The Charter Industry here along with our own billionaire-boutique charter school spent upwards of $200,000 on a smear campaign against Anna Song, a county board member who voted against renewal of their charter. They even went after her husband.
She spent about $6000. She won by a landslide.
The way I look at things is that we often need about 10-20% of what the other side spends and we will win every single time. Clearly that’s all we needed in WA state. With leverage like this, the other side will give up pretty quickly.
I thought the comments before the election about how important it was NOT to go third-party in a swing state were interesting. Well, I am in Florida and it is STILL too close to call. As far as the Electoral College is concerned, my vote didn’t matter too much and I could have gone for a third party candidate if I wanted to do so. 🙂
Don’t know if you got Minneapolis school board results. TFAer Josh Reimnitz narrowly defeated Patty Wycoff. Margin was just 650 some votes out of over 21,000.This was a sad one. Dems were divided as normally intelligent Mpls Mayor R.T. Ryback gave his support to Josh, a 26-yr-old that only moved to Mpls last May, and influenced many others to follow. Keith Eliison and other major Dems supported Wycoff, long-time resident, involved activist and trained treacher. We need a major educational effort to Democrats so that more aren’t duped by these corporatist frauds.
Diane,
You’re a voice of optimism for us all. I tend to the cynical pessimistic side but it sure does appear that with work and effort and spending a tenth of what the moneyed powers do we can defeat them. And as you have reiterated many times, the truth can and will win out!
Thanks for all you do and thanks to the many members of this community who have done a ton of work to defeat some of these insanities. Our work here in Missouri is cut out for us now as ALEC and it’s main supporter Rex Sinquefeld gear up to try to destroy public education in Missouri. The Rheeeformers group has also been spending a ton of money here to influence things. But Missouri has a bit of a stubborn streak-think Missouri Mule-and many, including right wing republicans and the corporate democrats can be swayed by the truth of what is going down. They really do believe in the “Show Me” philosophy and we can “Show them”.
Again, gracias,
Duane
Reblogged this on SaveOurSchoolsNZ and commented:
Wise words – do not give in – organise, inform, mobilise, fight.
On election night, Rachel Maddow announced the loser was…. public education.
http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/11/election-results-public-education-loses.html #satire
Luckily in our country, there are two ways to have power: a lot of money; or a lot of people. What we learn is that if we organize and educate, we can win!
Precisely! People need to look at the math! 99% (& even 47%!) is greater than 1%–every time! All the issues and the races that were
won (& two big ones for schools & teachers in Chicago & in IL) were won BECAUSE of the people power/pushback. There IS strength in numbers, and the numbers are people NOT money,
Yes WE can!!!
Although education lost in some places, the number of wins are encouraging. I plan to do all that I can do for the cause. On the weekend before the election, my state representative knocked on my door. Instead of pretending that I wasn’t home (yeah, I do that), I talked to him for quite a while about my views on education in Connecticut and the nation. He is very much in our court. I let him know that teachers will never vote to reelect “DINO DAN” Malloy and why.
Diane — I have many parents who want to Opt Out of The Testing; however they have expressed deep concern about sanctions that could be imposed upon the school. Several parents of children who have IEPs are totally fed up with the excessive amount of testing. I have been encouraging them to write a letter stating they do not want their child to take the tests, but to send them to school. We will provide a quiet environment in which they can read. I am short staffed, so I will probably supervise these students myself.
Our district just found out that the APPR protocol that we submitted to SED was rejected. Apparently, SED has hired third year law students ( at the rate of $50.00 an hour) to review the plans that districts submit.
Sad.
All if us have concerns about the sanctions SED might impose.
Remind me again please— what country is this??
In the mean time, my students remind me what life should really be about as they march in with warm sweaters, jackets, food, etc for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Their contributions have filled a room. A U-Haul truck is leaving today to deliver the items our little community has collected.
When this reform “stuff” gets to me, I seem to draw strength from my students.
We all need to keep them in mind– at all costs.
If I have a large number of parents Opt Their Children Out of Testing and my school is put on an improvement plan — oh well — I’ll just visualize that U Haul truck filled with you intentions as it pulls away today and heads downstate.
Marge
A caval donato non si guarda in bocca!
Marge
Why are you using class warfare, Occupy Wallstreet rhetoric of 1%? Oh yes OWS movement was so stellar: going to the bathroom on police cars, drug use, rapes, and other violence. Yes, let’s keep that rhetoric up.
Diane — this was sent to me. I thought it was worth
sharing. Marge Begin forwarded message: From: Jim Rathmann
<jfr460302@hotmail.com> Date: January 13, 2013,
9:27:40 PM EST To: adrienne Thompson
<athompson@kideney.com>, Arlene Szabo
<s195ers1010@yahoo.com>, bob parnett
<bparnett@aol.com>, “bvilonen@kideney.com”
<bvilonen@kideney.com>, Daniel Pesta
<okla65@gmail.com>, Dick Pagano
<rpagano497@yahoo.com>, “dmorlock@kideney.com”
<dmorlock@kideney.com>, Donna Hamilton
<dmh260@yahoo.com>, eileen wuethrich
<ewuethrich@rochester.rr.com>, Jean Mattia
<jmattia@esl.org>, Jim Asztalos
<james_j_asztalos@keybank.com>, Jim Hamiliton
<jrh680@yahoo.com>, Jim Spiritosanto
<giacomo_s@yahoo.com>, JoLyn Donlon
<jdonlon1@stny.rr.com>, Julie McRae
<juliemcrae1@hotmail.com>, kathy bilz
<bilzfam@aol.com>, Kellie Fox
<ktfoxfam@aol.com>, Ken and Marilyn
<mrechlin1@yahoo.com>, Ken Rechlin
<krechlin1@yahoo.com>, KREG mebust
<kreg.m@charter.net>, Mal Boudreau
<malkath@embarqmail.com>, Margaret McCann
<luckymiggs@aol.com>, “Borchert, Margaret”
<mborchert@wscschools.org>, Pat Laubisch
<flywayfarm@rochester.rr.com>, Stephanie Landregan
<slandreg@unex.ucla.edu>, Suzanne Robertson
<taffy959@aol.com> Subject: FW: A Must read – 35
STATES AND COUNTING ________________________________ Date: Sun, 13
Jan 2013 12:38:20 -0800 From: katleendrilling@yahoo.com Subject:
Fw: A Must read – 35 STATES AND COUNTING To:
karenbishop14@yahoo.com; gstef22345@verizon.net;
edcindylew@msn.com; eileenbuffalo@roadrunner.com;
jfr460302@hotmail.com
Diane — I would like to know who makes money on this recommended technology —??? Ethics issues??
Marge Borchert
Begin forwarded message:
Diane — Parents are asking who is the individual at the NY State Ed Department to send a FOIL request to. They are concerned about the hiring that has been going on and want a listing of each department with names , job responsibilities and salaries. They are outraged that districts are in financial crisis yet SED hires law interns at $50.00 an hour to study erasure patterns. Thank you!!
Marge Borchert