Reader Cheryll Brounsteun posed this concern:
“I have followed the evolution of “school reform”. I believed naively that once Obama recognized that the reform movement was a scam to make money by selling tests, technology, curriculum, privatizing education and breaking unions that Democrats would take steps to protect public education.
“Sadly, Obama’s public support for TFA, Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, and Rahm Emmanuel clearly underscore that public education has been traded or sold and is being dismantled in stages. The destruction of public education is as great a travesty as the devastation of the environment and the corruption of our judicial system that ignores the crimes of the 1%. Yet, most citizens lack an awareness that the basis of a viable democracy is disappearing.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Most people have no idea what is going on in public education because the corporate “reformers” have been sneaky and dishonest. A lot of citizens have bought into the lie about union thuggery and tax wasting. They need to see where their tax dollars are going now. And it isn’t into the classroom or teacher paychecks or even textbooks. It is going into tests and snake oil being sold to naive school boards.
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The reformers along with the media often mislead the public by calling charter schools public schools. The general public does not understand the difference. Most people don’t have the difference on their radar unless there is a scandal. Then, the bait and switch come out.
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As a life-long Democrat, this has been my greatest disappointment with President Obama, Arne Duncan and others who have completely bought into the corporatization and privatization of public education. In these years, I have talked to way too many fellow Democrats who do not understand what a tragedy this is for our children’s and the nation’s future.
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I received a Democratic fund-raising call from a woman who, subsequently identified herself as a retired Massachusetts school superintendent. She seemed genuinely surprised that Democrats had sold-out public education. She said she hadn’t had time to research the issue but, would.
Democratic collusion with profit seeking hedge funds and tech companies, is contrary to our expectations. It is a significant hurdle to overcome, as is, the Gates PR machine.
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Please check out this post by local Rhode Island students. Their teacher was suspended for speaking honestly with students about the PARCC tests. Many teachers are afraid to speak out for fear of retribution. Is this America? Doesn’t a vibrant educational system encourage engagement in discourse?
Thank you for all you do!
Barbara Walton-Faria Chair RI Teacher Advisory Council
Sent from my iPad
>
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Those school boards are not naive. Follow the money, Atlanta school board race for an unopposed seat resulted in flood of money coming in from anti public school pro charter yahoo from California. There are plenty of school board member who are using this pipeline of cash as a way to develop war chests of their own for their own political aspirations. #waytogetelected. They are so disingenuous- a facade of how it is all about the kids.
Georgia teachers have half their evaluation based on ridiculous tests that cost a tremendous amount of money to distribute and technology to test with. Follow the money and all paths lead to turning a blind eye to actual progressive democracy. Buying up snake oil makes for good relationships down the road- board of ed seats are a great way to have higher aspirations.
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Yep. This is happening in big cities with sophisticated people. There is nothing naive about my mayoral controlled district and appointed school board. Billionaire Hyatt Hotel heiress Penny Pritzker was on my school board prior to being appointed to Obama’s cabinet as US Secretary of Commerce. Reportedly, Pritzker helped to raise a lot of funds for his campaign, but with dark money, it’s hard to know how much she gave herself. It looks to me like there’s a lot of quid pro quo going on amongst those involved in education “reform,” business and politics.
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You are right. I guess I am naive to think that school boards operate for the benefit of children.
Any school board members reading this?
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It’s an exercise in signalling. The Democratic embrace of ed reform works to the advantage of a lot of people hell-bent on getting rich, but it’s not the goal. It’s not that cynical. Which is why it’s hard to fight.
Democrats are hypersensitive to the charge that they’re behind-times, that the days of post-war social democracy, the union workplace, collective security, that whole ball of wax — have come and gone. (That would be a real conservatism, instead of the soi-disant conservatism of the GOP
Consequently, Democrats are prone to leap first, and look later in a way — if they’re really conservative, and not another kind of radical that is — don’t have to. “Embracing change” comes in a lot of forms and they’re not all benign.
The tragedy is, it’s unnecessary, and it won’t work. Things don’t change that fast.
The GOP are still the party of fiscal responsibility despite having blown up the budget, and the Democrats are still weak on defense despite fighting a series of wars of choice back to Vietnam.
Those notions will persist until the last voter who remembers Eisenhower is dead.
It’s equally unnecessary and equally pointless to ‘reform’ education. The notion that Democrats are in thrall to labor, and minorities, and other interest groups, and are locked in the political framework of the sixties; not working for ‘We the people’, but chasing a dream mosaic, isn’t going to be supplanted that easily — even provided it needs supplanting
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Unfortunately, the president has misled us on the issues of public education, Wall Street accountability, and the Trans Pacific and European trade agreements. I had hoped for a real reformer, worked hard for him, and am so disappointed that big public corporations and their profits come first.
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Similar here. He is a sellout. Yet many of my friends and other people who consider themselves liberal still support him. There seem to be many smug liberal Democrats who are obsessed with feeling smarter than and superior to Republicans, and they are clinging to Obama with eyes wide shut.
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They are definitely not too smart if they are clinging to Obama with their eyes wide shut.
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They can’t admit they were wrong about Obama.
Just as they can’t admit they were wrong about so many other aspects of neoliberalism.
Denial is a very powerful self-defense mechanism.
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Yes, and when you suggest so, you will be encouraged to be more positive, or take antidepressants, or get religion. People are delusional because, I guess, it’s hard to face reality, which is frightening. We have an overpopulated world, and no political party to help keep working people from being terribly exploited, while many others have no work at all. Other Americans may still support Obama because they must feel superior to Republicans, no matter what.
Clearly, we need a major political party that is behind working people. If that doesn’t materialize, maybe we’ll be facing a revolution?
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“Agnostics” make lousy advocates.
Public schools had a kind of perfect storm- Democrats lost more and more power at the state level (11 governors and hundreds of state legislative seats) while the DC Democrats decided they would remain carefully “neutral” on public schools and Duncan promoted charter schools.
So public schools are left with this scenario: a passionate, committed and powerful group of conservatives who never supported “government schools” and are eager to privatize up against a bunch of potted plant technocrats
Of course public schools haven’t fared very well in DC. They don’t have advocates in government. Charters and vouchers have advocates in the GOP. Our schools have “agnostics” in the Democratic Party. It’s not even a contest. There’s no help at the state level, because Republicans control more and more states.
Public schools seem very resilient to me, the public doesn’t dislike them near as much as DC does, but I don’t know if any public entity could survive not having advocates in government.
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Speaks out of BOTH SIDES of HIS MOUTH. Follow the $$$$$. Vote 3rd Party and don’t throw your vote away.
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Which 3rd party? I vote 3rd party and a D or an R will still win the presidency. I am bitterly disappointed with Obama’s educational policies and his pro corporate stance but at least he has not privatized Social Security, as Bush tried in 2005, and at least we did not get 2 more far right wing supreme court justices (as we would get with a Jeb Bush). Sorry, there are no easy answers and it’s up to the American people who don’t seem to be ready for a true progressive party or a workers’ party.
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I was going to offer an lengthy reply but you can’t get the message through your thick skull. With your logic things will only get worse. I hope there aren’t too many people with your ideology running around because if there are, we are already roasting in the kettle.
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“The More Effective Evil”
The “Evil more Effective”
Is better than the lesser
If evil’s your objective
Then vote for wolf sheep-dresser
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Exactly what I mean just in the form of poetry. Well done. In simpler terms, I think I will vote for the guy that kicks me in the gut instead of the guy that will kick me in the face without even realizing in the end I am still the one getting kicked regardless of the anatomical location of where the kick lands. Just plain dumb logic if you ask me! I would rather vote for the guy that doesn’t kick me at all.
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Arne Duncan and Andy Cuomo are why I have not voted for a democrat since 2008.Obama got my vote in 2008 but didn’t get it the second time around when I figured out he’s just another lying dirt bag politician.
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Same here. I’m glad you see it, too, as do others here. There must be more CHOICE in elections!
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PS – Though we’ll be vilified by many who identify as liberal Democrats when the Republicans win the next one, which I think they will. Things will go from bad to worse, and whose fault will it be? Little me and little you, who didn’t vote Democrat. I think teachers need to be part of a coalition to form a third major party, behind working and average people.
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Newly elected Gov. Wolf of Pennsylvania is the exception to the rule, and national Democratic Party leaders should pay heed, but they won’t. The Democrats will continue to sell out public education so long as Citizens United is the law of the land. Money from the 1% trumps the needs of the citizenry every time. Politicians don’t listen anymore to their constituents. They can’t afford to.
Vote Sanders in ’16.
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This is an article about how Democrats tare “rediscovering” labor unions:
“The larger progressive movement is coming around to the realization that if you want to address income equality and wage stagnation, you need to support unions,” says David Madland, director of the Center for American Progress’ American Worker project. “Now that Republicans increasingly have become so hostile to unions, they’ve sort of forced a fight, and forced progressives to evaluate what they think.”
DC Democrats rediscovered labor unions only after Democrats lost state after state and GOP governors put in Right to Work in state after state. They reluctantly decided to drop their “neutral” stance only after it was nearly impossible to reverse course.
They should rename the Democratic Party. Call it The Agnostics. They don’t lead on anything and they don’t believe in anything.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/13/to-fix-inequality-democrats-are-pushing-unions/?hpid=z3
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Thanks for posting. Personally, I’m pessimistic. The first thing that needs to happen is campaign finance reform, but you don’t much hear about that.
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I like the idea for the name change, but they should keep the party’s symbol.
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PS – However, I think there’s a major divide-and-conquer thing going on. Visiting NY a couple of years ago, a couple of my reasonably-intelligent friends badmouthed teachers for their good pensions there. They are resentful.
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Amen! Cheryl, please write this same message as a letter to the editor in your local paper. And send a personal note with this message to your minister, the president of your state’s LWV and perhaps your chapter of Assoc. of University Women. You get the idea. You might add some few facts about your town’s public school successes by way of example that your schools are doing well (if that is the case). The public is less connected to public schools these days and may not realize that most public schools are doing FINE.
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One of the reasons most people fail to realize that most public schools are doing well is that there has been a systematic campaign to attack and destabilize public education. This has been part of the strategy to make them vulnerable to takeover. This insane testing regime is designed to be yet another nail in the coffin. Once corporations co-opt public perception, there will be less resistance to their agenda. That is why all the waste and failure of privatization needs to be exposed.
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We need to borrow a page from the Book of ALEC and primary Dems who fail to support schools.
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“Follow the money” about sums it up.
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From a local perspective, the Obama Labor Dept has done much more for “public education” in this county than the Obama Ed Dept.
The Labor Dept has some community college programs here that actually help poor and working class younger people. Maybe the person who is running things over at Labor could advise Arne Duncan on “college and career readiness” that has nothing to do with standardized testing and ridiculous teacher ranking schemes. Amazingly enough, they didn’t have to fund and promote a privatized community college “sector” to get it done. They offered support to the existing public community college, and it “worked!”
I know this “traditionalist” approach would be dismissed as unfashionable in Duncan’s “movement” circles, but it will actually be a positive, lasting legacy for President Obama here.
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They are resentful because they have been successfully duped by the divide and conquor strategy.
Their anger needs to be directed at the corporate elites, the 1 percent and their “escorts” who populate the state and federal elected offices. They are the ones who have dismantled economic security for Americans, beginning with Reagan.
Obama is no FDR. I personally witnesses his political cowardice 11 years ago when he abandoned a candidate he’d previously supported after his political and financial masters told him to do so.
Obama is no FDR. He has turned his back on so many of us – the poor, the teachers, the working classes – it is time we turn our backs on him.
May the contempt he has shown so many of us be returned to him a thousandfold.
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I don’t think Obama really cares what we think of him at this point. He is getting ready to sign a book deal while he hits the lecture circuit. He is an opportunist, like most of the others in public office.
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You’re right – he doesn’t care now and I doubt he ever did,once he began nursing at the teat of the 1 percenters. He has been a tool for the Pritzkers since embarking on a political career.
Now he feebly proposes some progressive legislation (not on education, of course!) when he knows it has no chance of passing.
Obama has sold out Americans time and time again – not getting Single Payer through when he had the chance, abandoning union workers in Wisconsin after promising to don his shoes and walk alongside him, and his rabid push for the TPP, which will be the finishing touch to reduce the United States to a 3rd-world Nation,
For Obama and his sponsors, it will be Mission Accomplished,
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Obama is loathsome.
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The key to understanding Obama is the Commercial Club of Chicago. I think they played a big role in getting him elected. On their website, they have a link “New Schools for Chicago” which is all about charters. They have been pushing pension “reform” in IL. Many of their 1%ers would benefit from the switch to 401k’s. Duncan was Mayor Daley’s CEO (not superintendent) of CPS. Daley was a member of the CCofC. Emanuel, Obama’s former Chief of Staff is. Bill Daley, Emanuel’s replacement is also a member. Both Daley and Emanuel typically appoint 3 of the 6 CPS board members from the club. Vitale, the current President is a member. Penny Pritzker, who Obama appointed Sec. of Commerce, and who no doubt is involved deeply in the TPP treaty the 1%ers are concocting is a member as well, and was a former CPS board member. The CCofC is another shadow government, like ALEC, but you never hear about them. I think Obama owes them. I like much of what he does, but not what he did with appointing Duncan, or TPP.
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Pritzker Villainthropy- backs the Goldman Sachs social impact bonds,
making money on the misery of the homeless and on disadvantaged pre-schoolers.
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Oops, I forgot the best of all. Our vulture capitalist, anti-union governor Bruce Rauner, and his wife are also members of the CCofC and as Diane recently published, the International Business Times reported that Rauner and Emanuel are friends, through the CCofC, and Emanuel recently funneled billions of CTU pension funds in his direction.
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David Sirota, of IBT, is a journalist in the finest sense of the word.
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Diane, I am sorry I do not know how to e-mail you, but I thought you’d like to share this story with your readers about how Arne Duncan lied when cornered by parents on the US DOE’s threat to withhold funding if CPS students did not take the PARCC test:
The article begins with Arne’s arrogance when forced to walk through a crowd of protestors after his driver took a wrong turn into a dead-end alley:
“U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan arrived at a South Side elementary school Thursday morning for an event — but his driver took a wrong turn down a dead-end alley, and Duncan was forced to walk half a block to the school amid protesters who’d been waiting for him to complain about standardized testing.
“About 50 parents and children stood outside Ariel Community Academy so they could deliver their message to him about their opposition to the PARCC test. They chased his black SUV when it turned short of the school into an alley.
“But the alley was a dead end. The SUV stopped. Duncan got out in his shirt-sleeves, his suit jacket over one arm.
“He strode back up the heavily puddled alley to the nearest school entrance, smiling at the chanting (“Chicago hates the PARCC”) and signs (“Arne, Rahm, Park the PARCC, stop test bullying.”) Aside from a few pleasantries, he did not speak to the people surrounding him.
“’There’s no way he didn’t see why we’re here and why we we’re protesting,” said Lynn Ankey, mother of two at Belding Elementary School on the Northwest Side. “Despite the bullying by ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) and by him to ISBE, we’re not giving up and we’re still going to stand up for our kids.’”
“Once safely inside the school, Duncan was asked about the protest outside.
“Why is his U.S. Department of Education forcing a controversial standardized test — one many parents don’t want and that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has argued is “not ready” for prime time — down the throats Chicago Public Schools?
“’I’m not,” Duncan said. “’The state works it out without Chicago. . . . That’s the state’s decision.’”
“But isn’t the mandate being dictated by the federal government? Isn’t that what’s behind the threat to withhold $1 billion in funding that forced Chicago’s hand?
“’No. You’re wrong. . . . You’re making stuff up. You don’t have your facts straight’,” Duncan said.
“The secretary was asked about the parental animosity stemming from the PARCC test and the resulting protest that forced him to go through the gantlet of protesters to get into Ariel Community Academy, 1119 E. 46th Street.
“I welcome the conversation. It’s good. . . . It’s a healthy conversation to have,” he said.
“But he said, “It’s important to assess kids annually. . . . Millions of kids around the country are taking the test. We’re fine.’”
“With that, a press aide to Duncan stepped in and ended the interview.”
The link is that the Chicago Sun-Times. Google: “education-secretary-arne-duncan-wades-anti-testing-protesters-chicago-event.”
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Sounds a lot like a Pearson response. We don’t set policy, we only deliver and grade the tests the states pay us to deliver. You got a PARCC problem, take it up with your state BOE, not Pearson. Maybe Arnes on the payroll?
I wonder what all those Pearson lobbyist really do if they don’t try and direct policy?
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If reports are true, one thing Pearson does, is own a company that received leaked information from the Federal Reserve, which benefitted hedge funds by almost $260,000,000.
The Federal Reserve Chief Counsel is on the hot seat for complaints that he didn’t follow-through on an investigation.
This fall, Mother Jones reported that Pearson’s 3rd largest shareholder is the government of Libya.
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Wow. Libya is one third owner of Pearson? If true then the truth is obvious: An international conspiracy to defeat the U.S. by destroying its biggest contributor to success that is our system of public education. (half believable?)
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Why Are Democrats Selling Out Public Education?
Because they are corporatist just like the Repubs. There is very little difference between left and right anymore. Obama is just Bush III. He’s a Wall Street and corporate crony.
The only difference between left and right are social issues, and those are just diversions too keep the public form studying real issues.
Wake up people, we need a third party and we need it now.
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“The Democrats lost their voice”
They lost their voice on Wall Street
In talks with Jamie Dimon
It made them hoarse to oft repeat
“I really love your diamond”.
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Why have Democrats lost their voice
Because between an R and a D there’s no good choice
Both parties bow down to their corporate bosses
While the masses are left to count their losses
You vote for a D and you you end up with an R
If don’t vote third party a moron you are.
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Obama’s suport for the “reformers” is especially egregious since he campaigned (2008) strongly in support for teachers and unions.
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We are not going to fix the two party system. Citizens United was the death knell of the American democratic system. I vote green now as they do not take money from companies,only people. I am tired of picking the lesser of two evils when I go to vote. 42% of Americans describe themselves as independents, they just need to vote that way to end this.
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I know this may sound conspiratorial but I have come to the conclusion that there are no “democrats” or “republicans” only politicians. This belief was formed over time watching things unfold around me. For instance, in NJ the new evaluation system our governor put in place a few years ago couldn’t have been passed without full support of the democrats because the NJ Assembly was majority Democrat. Yet, despite the anti-teacher elements and rhetoric coming from our governor at the time, Democrats gave support and it was passed. I was raised to believe that the Democrats were friends to union people, the average guy. I am seeing that they are no more friends of those groups than Republicans. They are the same with an agenda that serves them. It is so sad but for me, very true.
President Obama has been a big supporter of Common Core, standardized testing and by default the replacement of innovative, creative thinking and learning with a learning to pass a test mentality.
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NY Teacher has the right idea. It will take enough suffering to rouse the citizenry, but with enough pain, they will have to realize that a third party is the only viable chance of change for the masses.
This post was dedicated to talking about the democrats.
Democraps.
Demon-crats.
Demo-cruds.
Demo-duds.
Demo________.
Whatever you want to call them . . . If they are not the mostly evil bloated GOP, then they are the stuff that comes out the far end of the elephant’s butt a while after the elephant has eaten.
SPLOP!
Obama and Arne Duncan are as much democrats as Julia Child shunned butter.
But forget about the GOP and the democrats, save a for a few really great people on both sides of those aisles and some independents, like my idol Bernie Sanders. Even Liz Warren who I love, is in favor of vouchers. That’s what you get for going to Harvard.
Third party is the only way to go.
And Liz needs to be educated more about the nuances of teaching and learning and importance of supporting education as a public good . . . .
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Bernie Sanders yes Elizabeth Warren no way!
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Warren is a wolf-sheep cross-dresser.
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She’s darn tootin’ good at it. I’ll tell you: I am beginning to rethink her, and I am not paranoid.
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Yes she is. You just have to pay attention very closely.
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Remember that Hillary Clinton was on the board of Walmart and we know what they think about fair wages, workers rights and working conditions. Teachers will be just human capital to be exploited to raise passive drones who are willing to work part time and have no health care unless they collect it from the government. She won’t get my vote either. Maybe the AFT and NEA should back someone who is independent from the Wall Street gravy train at least in the primaries? I don’t think Bernie Sanders could win or accomplish anything himself if he did, but by running he could serve a larger purpose to pull the discussion in a more progressive direction. I have seen him talk of running as an independent, but I have yet to see him suggest that Americans could put a majority of legislators into office like him in order to change the system. It is the only way to get campaign reform passed and change the constitution so that it matches today’s reality rather than the 1700’s.
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Hill is and always will be a shill, alas.
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Most of America is like lambs being led to the slaughter. Thank goodness for websites like this one — how do we make it more and more visible to most Americans?
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By taking away their televisions
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I prefer smacking them all in the head and saying, “Snap out of it!”
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Well, it would help if ‘the left’/unions developed a long-term plan. The neoliberal political program was widely adopted in the ’80s because figures like Friedman and Hayek had been laying the intellectual groundwork for decades. Through the Mont Pelerin Society, they were able to coordinate with other sympathetic scholars from around the world and tailor their message/ideas to elicit support from the wealthy. Moreover, the instituional/organizational infrastructure was already in place by the ’80s due to the emergence of think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Institute of Economic Affairs (UK) in the preceding decades. It’s not a coincidence that Hayek persuaded Anthony Fisher to start the IEA, or that former Heritage president Edwin Feulner also served in the same capacity for the Mont Pelerin Society during the late ’90s.
Perhaps the left could benefit from a Mont Pelerin Society of its own…
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“Yet, most citizens lack an awareness that the basis of a viable democracy is disappearing.”
Why? Well, thinking about two methods of boiling a lobster as similes for how some citizens may be boiled into a dead state of unawareness may help explain why.
Method 1: The “Disruptive Change New Jersey-style” Method
Fill pot with tap water
Bring water to a boil
Plop lobster into pot
Quickly lid pot to avoid hot splatter from lobster trying to escape
Remove lid after lobster has succumbed
Continue boiling until desired doneness
Remove done lobster from pot
Feast
Method 2: The “Hope Lobsters Can Believe In” Method
Acclimate lobster to room temperature
Fill pot with tap water
Let pot of water reach room temperature
Ease lobster into pot of water at room temperature
Continually and very slowly turn up heat (caution: up the heat continually, not continuously)
Watch as lobster remain unaware of it being cooked to death; reduce heat if necessary
Let water come to a rolling boil after lobster succumbs
Continue boiling until desired doneness
Remove done lobster from pot
Feast
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I read this to my husband and I seriously laughed so hard I cried. Thanks for so wonderful humor!
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Hello again DR readers,
Well, as an active member of the Green Party, I have to chime in here. The problem with the Democrats is what we Greens have been trying to tell EVERYONE for many years now. They are bought and sold and that means they are controlled by corporate interests first and foremost. Yes, of course we all know that there are plenty of well-meaning Democrats out there, but when you have money in politics you can NEVER have a fair electoral system that allows the truly independent voices to lead. You will always end up with the 1% at the top controlling everything. We MUST stop supporting the corporate parties!! Break your addiction! Escape from your abusive relationship with the Democrats! As 2012 Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein said, “voting for Democrats has only brought us everything we were afraid of”.
The Green Party is completely independent of all monied interests. We take no corporate donations of any kind and we advocate for a complete overhaul of our corrupt electoral system (and all other corrupt systems). And much to the surprise of most skeptics, the Green Party is growing by leaps and bounds. The Greens are in Parliament in many other countries and its only a matter of time before we win a major seat in the US that will start the domino effect…..join us now! Time is running out for the planet!
In Peace and Hope,
Dani Liebling
Brooklyn, NY
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Ms. Liebling, Please try to push into NV and other states where Green is not appearing on ballots. I assume the party is trying, but not there yet.
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No comments from the liberal teachers? I guess this is too uncomfortable for most Democrat teachers. President Obama and Arne Duncan have done MORE to harm public education than any Republican could have done. In Florida, they handed the Republican dominated state $700 MILLION and the frame work to harm teachers and students.
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Yes to everything you are saying.
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FL Teacher, Did you overlook or just Ignore the the first page so you could trash “liberal teachers”? Many responded there and indicated they are decidedly against Obama and Duncan, who are “New Democrats,” not traditional Democrats. “New Democrats” are Democrats in Name Only (DINOs) and have been ever since Clinton turned the party right of center to capture the Southern vote. DINOs are not liberal, which many people learned from Obama’s bait and switch tactics after 2008, so they voted 3rd party in 2012, including a number of us who voted Green.
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So where are all the ‘traditional Democrats’? How long do DINOs have to control the party before they are considered ‘traditional Democrats’? Is 20+ years not enough?
I also voted for Jill Stein in 2012, but our electoral system effectively ensures that the two major parties will maintain political power.
As a result, we should probably focus on shifting the ideological landscape via grassroots activism.
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A lot of us wondered what happened to liberal Democrats and didn’t know that the party had intentionally turned hard right and officially jumped on the GOP’s neoliberal economic bandwagon under Clinton. I think a good deal of that happened under the radar for a lot of liberals here, many of whom are just realizing that they effectively have no party at all.
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We need to reclaim our great democracy. We must work towards a grass roots activism that unites Republicans, Democrats, independents and everyone else who believes in our Constitution in demanding campaign finance reform and the reinstatement of the Glass Steagall Act.
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Oh we know why.
The conspiracy of the 1/100 of 1% is to end democracy, which can only exist when citizens are educated and share a real history, not one conceited by the Koch bros.
E.D. Hirsch wrote that democracy depends on shared knowledge
Click to access hirsch.pdf
The money that they are pouring into this nation is corrupting both parties. The democrats depend on this dark money , too
http://billmoyers.com/2014/09/22/5-signs-dark-money-apocalypse-upon-us/?utm_source=General+Interest&utm_campaign=94370722aa-Midweek_0924149_24_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4ebbe6839f-94370722aa-168347829
We have a shadow government that rules both parties.
The corporations are making trillions by taking over the INSTITUTION of public education like they privatized the INSTITUTION of public health, but make no mistake about it, this war on our schools is about the end of the democracy we once knew.
The money owns the media, and they promote the Duncan rant.
http://billmoyers.com/segment/john-nichols-and-robert-mcchesney-on-big-money-big-media/
We need an amendment to end CITIZENS UNITED. The dark money is buying the legislatures, one by one! Like they turned the sates RED, they will turn the schools over to the oligarchs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiAq9sIvTJE#t=119
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Dianne,
I am more concerned about the complacency shown by most of us who simply refuse to help fight back. Many of us will complain in these blogs but fear retribution if they actually say anything in their schools. We have to emulate the heroes at Garfield High in Seattle and fight back. Otherwise, we are just as guilty as the corporate education reformers.
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The attack on public education is not isolated to K-12, higher education is also a target. The campaign against education is also an attack on research, scientific inquiry, and knowledge. The reformists create their own “brand” of research. Methodologically based research asking questions that seeks to understand practice or phenomena is irrelevant. I Reformists believe that intelligence is two dimensional (test scores such as an IQ or SAT and lots of money). Obama and Arne and their cadre of reformists do not respect or value education, educators, experience or research and this hubris explains why the want to replace educators with non-educators.
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Read “Option Three,” a satire by Professor Joel Slatzky, who saw ti coming to higher ed!
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