Please do some crowd sourcing or crowd fundraising to help a young documentarian finish her film about the current assault on public education via standardization and misuse of testing.
Her name is Shannon Puckett.
She interviewed me in San Diego when I spoke to NSBA.
When she was done, she gave me a T-shirt that read: “The revolution will not be standardized.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks so much for giving this the Ravitch Bump! I’m sure your bumps are bigger than mine. (p.s. great Skype kickoff for the meeting.) 🙂
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I am so glad that someone is making this. There are soooo many huge stories out there. As a teacher in a small, rural school – we just don’t experience some of the same pressures. But those pressures are still there. Our hearts are still breaking. We are still getting sick from stress and living in fear of our livelihood and the consequences for our children. We still go home after school and after inservices and cry. Our issues are different, not as media worthy – but still painful. I am grateful that people like this film maker, like you Diane Ravitch, like the countless bloggers, and like Mark Naisson and all of the BATS across the nation exist. And I WANT A T-SHIRT LIKE THE ONE SHE GAVE YOU!
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I submit, with all due revererence for those who tragically lost their lives in the inferno, that this account could aptly serve as a parable for what’s at risk if the Ed-deformers aren’t stopped:
Off the Rails:
When a runaway train slammed into the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic in July, incinerating the city’s core and killing 47 people, it may have marked the end of the line for the perilous, profit-maximizing model of railroading that has enthralled corporate and government officials across North America and the globe.
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15649/off_the_rails_how_a_lack_of_oversight_doomed_lac_megantic/
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P.S. Thanks for helping publicize this. The doc has great potential.
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You want footage, I have footage. Good for you to do this project. I am working with others on similar projects and we are planning one of our own from our deep 50 year perspective nationally. You can contact me at georgebuzzetti@gmail.com. I have Gloria Romero from DFER, all the last of Rhee in L.A. last year, Claypool’s conference on Miramonte, many board meetings, student arts in singing, choirs, poets, performers, the Miramonte protest and interviews, This is just to start. I have two hard drive of this. And Steve Zimmers first in many years Committee of the Whole in which they thought they outsmarted him by cutting off video but I have it. Great presentations. Video is powerful. Just having my camera in a room is powerful. Once, to stop me, after CORE-CA sent the General Counsel’s Office a letter more than one week ahead of the meeting that we would be there and do our legal right to record the meeting. We went with two cameras and an audio recorder. When we got there there were 9 police, a canine unit, an asst. superintendent and the #2 from the General Counsels Office, Greg McNair. We turned on the recorders before we went onto their property, signed in, and went into the room for the meeting. As soon as I started to assy. my camera the general counsels office and asst. sup leaped at me and demanded that I shut it down. I told them that I had sent a letter giving the laws which stated my rights to do such and the laws which stated that they could go to jail for attempting to stop me. They said they did not care about the law or if they went to jail and to please go outside. Outside they stupidly stated on both video and audio that we could record this conversation and we did. Bad for them as the general counsel stated that LAUSD could do anything it wanted to and could make up anything it wanted to. We said we do not care what you say give us the law and case law you are citing. Never happened. Then I pull out my press pass and said “Do you mean to tell me that even though I also have a press pass you do not care about the constitution. He said I don’t care about that and you are not recording. At that time I thought we had enough ammunition. We went outside and a Spanish T.V. station shows up as a result of a call and guess what they allow them to go in and record the same meeting we were refused. This happens a lot. It means we are doing a good job. This is some of the kind of video I have much of it in HD most of the rest in digital tape format.
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Testing is hurting and affect on group of student—our special education population. I can tell you some stories that you would shake your head at.
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Agreed–I have collected at least fifty such stories from teachers in various states (and have been involved in some as a sp.ed. teacher) and now Arne wants to abolish alternative assessments, meaning that EVERY sp.ed. student will have to take their state
high-stakes, “standardized” tests (such as the severly disabled student in Florida as seen in the video posted on Valerie Strauss’ blog).
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I am so glad to hear this news! I look forward to the release of this documentary!!! I have huge disappointment in Michael Moore as early on I thought surely he would have taken on the education issue since this issue hits all the issues supposedly near and dear to him (unions, democracy, 1 percent vs the 99 percent), school to prison pipeline, workers rights etc…. But in reality, the nation does not need the “pranky, over-the top style” of Moore on such an all-important issue. We need a good, hard serious and factual examination of what is the biggest threat to democracy in America..
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Just sent a donation. This is marvelous, a culture of opposition taking shape from the bottom up.
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Support? ABSOLUTELY! She’s developing a wonderful project. Speaking from the mountaintop will spread the word. Kudos to Sharon!
K. Keevins
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Thank you so much for posting this!!! I really appreciate your support. The Ravitch bump has been significant. Thank you! I look forward to your talk in Berkeley. I’ll be there with a couple teachers from the film.
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