Chuck Pascal was elected as a delegate on Bernie Sanders’ slate in Pennsylvania.
He is a member of the Platform Committee and will attend its meetings in Orlando, where he plans to represent the views of parents and educators who share our values about strengthening public schools and repelling privatization.
He needs our help to defray the costs.
He has launched a Go Fund Me campaign and welcomes contributions of any size: $10, $20, whatever you can afford.
Yes, we can crowd source his trip! We need a voice in the deliberations of the Democratic Platform Committee.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for corporate control of our country’s system(s) of public education. Feel the Bern!
Glad to support someone recommended by Diane. Thanks and good luck, Chuck.
This is a pretty sad state of affairs when we have to have an on-line bake sale in the hopes of having ONE delegate that will support public schools and public school teachers at the “Democratic” convention.
Just another reason to vote 3rd party, vote Jill Stein. One can find the Green Party’s education platform at:
http://www.gp.org/social_justice/#sjArts
A teaser from the platform:
E. Education and the Arts
1. Education
The Green Party supports equal access to high-quality education, and sharp increases in financial aid for college students.
A great challenge facing the people of the United States is to educate ourselves to build a just, sustainable, humane and democratic future, and to become responsible and effective citizens of the local and global communities we share. Greens believe every child deserves a public education that fosters critical and holistic thought, and provides the breadth and depth of learning necessary to become an active citizen and a constructive member of our society. We do not believe our public school system, as it presently operates, helps us reach that goal.
The Green Party is strongly opposed to the dissolution of public schools and the privatization of education. We believe that the best educational experience is guaranteed by the democratic empowerment of organized students, their parents and communities along with organized teachers.
We must stop disinvestment in education and instead put it at the top of our social and economic agenda. Effective schools have sufficient resources. Too many of our teachers are overworked, underpaid, and starved of key materials. We also must be more generous to our schools so that our children will learn what generosity is, and know enough to be able to be generous to us in return.
Greens believe in education, not indoctrination. We do not think that schools should turn our children into servile students, employees, consumers or citizens. We believe it is very important to teach our children how to ask good questions. . .
Hold on! Do we know for certain that Mr. Pascal will be the ONLY person on the Democratic Party Platform Committee with progressive, pro-public schools, anti-privatization views?
Or is he (hopefully) the only one that needs some financial support to get there?
There is a distinction, of course. And there’s the VERY real opportunity that this presents: If Mr. Pascal can do a good enough job to inform and persuade his fellow platform committee members, there will be tremendous value in sending him there.
So let’s not assume all other members of the Democratic platform committee are clones of Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee; more likely than not, most of them don’t know much about this issue but even IF Mr. Pascal is the only person with our views on K-12 education on this committee, it is, if anything, EVEN MORE IMPORTANT that we make sure he’s there to state our case and promote it, passionately and persuasively to the other members of the committee.
I’ll be sending a few bucks to Mr. Pascal for this and I urge everyone else to do so as well!
Let me tell you: This is the situation with MOST of the delegates to the Dem convention. I am another one who was elected delegate in Oregon, but I doubt I will be able to make the trip, a once in a lifetime trip, because I have not been able to raise more than 20 bucks of the 2k needed for expenses.
And yes, I am very vocal on public ed, having posted off and on here since Diane started the blog.
The sexism against Hillary Clinton is palpable. Jill Stein is a crackpot with no chance at all of being elected.
I thought Jill Stein is a woman.
So talking about Hillary’s corruption is “sexist” but calling Jill Stein a “crackpot” is not. Interesting.
Does one become a crackpot when one gets a bachelor’s degree from Harvard?
Or when one gets the MD degree from Harvard Medical school?
Or maybe that happens after one starts practicing as a physician?
If Jill Stein is a crackpot, I’d say we need many more crackpots.
Yeah, it IS a sorry state of affairs — but human affairs are messy, and movements begin when things become intolerable… which they are for people who just bought a home, and discovered that the foreclosure scam on mortgages are now a favorite tool of the hedge funds.
Intolerable things cause actions… I think the Brexit mess shows that. I you watched Trevor Noah, you know that many of the people were so ignorant, they did not even know what the EU, was… had to lookout up on the internet.
Human societies change constantly, and ours is NOT the one INTO WHICH I was born in 1941– nor is it like the one I remember existed when I got married in ’63 ; that was the year that Kennedy lived in that house which the ‘Donald-critter- covets. Even when my sons graduated from public schools, things were very different in the eighties… but the New World Order was making plans.
They have done a lot, but we have a new crop of young folks and too many are furious, graduating from college, and even law school, and having to live with mom. Apartments have become condos and affordable housing escapes the middle -class, not just the poverty stricken
So many of our young people, now graduating high school, may have to decide between rent and food for their family, and 52% of our people, all our citizens are spending all they have… no savings for retirement. I cannot imagine the United States when most are 60, or 70, and too many are 80 and 90, and have nothing.
Yeah, the Supreme Court had an opportunity to change when that corrupt egotist left this mortal coil.
We can change our legislatures… bit by bit, unless the oligarchs decide to interfere… and make no mistake about what they are able to accomplish. We, greater fools, need to hold that bake-sail… don’t miss this one.
One more thing…and I’d appreciate this being passed on to Mr. Pascal directly: Effective “shorthand” for communicating with his fellow delegates, particularly those on the platform committee: Remember who is on the side of The Privatization Plutocrats: Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio…and every single other person who ran for the GOP nomination, including…that very bizarre guy with the strange ultra-orange combover who has a proclivity for suing people and declaring bankruptcy as a key part of his “wealth building” and self-promotion empire.
On the other side are the two unions that are arguably the MOST consistent and loyal supporters of the Democratic Party over the years, and the majority of parents and taxpayers living anywhere in the United States.
It should make this a “No Brainer” for a lot of people who little about this issue. But if you can convince them that almost ALL Republicans are on board with this School Privatization effort and that most Democrats and independents who learn about it will turn against it, that is a good starting point.
Most Democratic politicians including Hillary Clinton favor privatization. Andrew Cuomo is another prime example. Corey Booker worked hard to privatize schools when he was mayor of Newark. I am sure other readers can add many other Democrats to the list.
I want to acknowledge my agreement with Abigail’s comment but I also want us to not despair that there isn’t yet any well known national political figure—a governor, a senator, a big city mayor or a member of Congress—that comes to mind when we ask who can be counted on to aggressively and unapologetically defend our K-12 public schools and our nation’s historic leadership role in free, universal education for all children.
Abagail is correct in assuming that there are other “Democrats” on this shameful and awful list, people like Chicago Mayor Rahm “Close 50+ in Retaliation” Emanuel, Colorado Congressman Jared “Billionaire Book Thrower” Polis, and even the so-called “progressive” Howard Dean who has been particularly hostile towards parents and educators in all of this. (My understanding is that his son is a TFA veteran—you know, just for 24 months before moving on to his “real career” elsewhere—and that explains a lot of it.)
In my state, Washington, 10 sellout “Democrats” in our legislature voted in March to defy our state supreme court’s clear and unambiguous ruling outlawing charter “schools” and thus joined a solid block of Republicans who couldn’t contain their public glee at getting 20% of their opponents to rig our state lottery system so that IT now becomes the source of charter cash, as opposed to the source they were originally hoping to tap for those private businesses.
With the help of a $500,000 slush fund that the “reformers” didn’t even bother to conceal—they literally went door to door in the state capital, writing checks on the spot to “reward” any legislator who promised to do as they instructed—these compliant legislators put this backdoor charter finance bill together in the last 48 hours of the session, behind closed doors, with no public notice, or hearings, or anything else.
Meanwhile, while virtually every single newspaper in the state was egging the legislature on to “bring back the charters”, led by the now Gates Foundation funded Seattle Times, the supposedly all powerful, all knowing, lavishly resourced teacher’s union was neither seen nor heard from in the struggle to stop this awful legislation; it was a 100% volunteer group of parents and taxpayers who took multiple hours out of our own lives to make trip after trip to Olympia in a vain effort to stop this.
We who opposed this didn’t have the time and money and organization to make those 10 “Democratic” miscreants pay at the polls in the upcoming primary in early August—but we hope to in 2014.
As opposed to our “reform” opponents in such well-funded groups as Stand For Children and “Democrats” for Education Reform, none of us are paid. All of them are.
Here’s what we must do: Become even SQUEAKIER wheels. They have the money but WE have the numbers. And we need to bug, pressure, threaten and…reason with any politician, from either party who doesn’t understand the threat that privatization poses. And, we have to make an example out of the worst of the pro-privatization politicians; and generally a primary challenge is the best way to do this.
If we can get Mr. Pascal to the platform meeting, and the convention, which I’m sure we will, we also need to make sure he is well-prepared with all kinds of effective handouts, talking points and other persuasive materials to let his fellow Democrats know that they are in bed with the Chris Christies and Jeb Bushes of the world when they endorse any of this “reform” poison. That WILL work, if enough people see it, ON AN ONGOING BASIS going forward; one film clip, or article, or handout, or PowerPoint, no matter how well prepared and cogent, will not bring people in our camp right away. But Mr. Pascal can get things started for a lot of folks if he arrives very well prepared to make his arguments and back them up. (I have lots of suggestions as to some source materials, as I sure you do too.)
Finally, contrary to what some of us might think, the Democratic Rank and File is NOT filled with DFER and other “reform” types and we can still bring them around if we do it in the right way and realize it won’t happen overnight. At that point, the Emanuels, Cuomos, Bookers and other “Democrats” will see that there is no support among party activists and they’ll start to change their tune, or just abandon what they think is a losing cause.
So, let’s not despair that we don’t yet have a well known Public Education Champion on the national stage…YET. Instead, let’s educate our fellow citizens, and party activists, and elected officials, and help CREATE such a person.
I look forward to all of us participating in The Next Chapter of this existentialist drama, one which, as Diane has pointed out, we ARE going to win in the long run. Let’s bring it about, as rapidly as we can, starting with supporting Mr. Pascal in his trips to Orlando and Philadelphia!
On To Victory!
I donated and I put it on my Facebook page, because we can keep the momentum that Bernie started, and throw with bums out….#THROWTHEBUMS OUT! Bernie spoke tour last recently and said…get active, run for office. Well when one of the people do, then we need to step up and give a little.
The DNC already rejected Bernie Sander’s labor pick and made it quite clear unionize labor voices not welcome.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/06/01/sanders-dnc-vetoed-union-leader-pick-for-platform-committee/
The DNC platform committee also just rejected the proposal opposing TPP.
That is downright foolish, given Trump’s stated opposition to TPP.
If Clinton loses to Trump, she will have no one to blame but herself (and no, I don’t believe Clinton reps on the platform committee would vote that way without an OK — if not specific directions — from Clinton)
I will donate. I have a small amount of funds available since there are no pro-public schools candidates to donate to 🙂
Zephyr Teachout won her primary. She’s really interesting. The anti-corruption candidate. She’s the only one as far as I can tell but one is better than none. It’s a hopeful sign. There should be an anti-corruption Party. I would join it.
SomeDAM Poet
June 28, 2016 at 8:37 pm
The DNC platform committee also just rejected the proposal opposing TPP.
That is downright foolish, given Trump’s stated opposition to TPP.
If Clinton loses to Trump, she will have no one to blame but herself (and no, I don’t believe Clinton reps on the platform committee would vote that way without an OK — if not specific directions — from Clinton)”
Trump’s lying though. TPP will pass. That’s why they passed Fast Track. They don’t negotiate one of these massive deals for a decade and then not pass it.
It took two Presidents of two different Parties to get NAFTA. They just wait it out until the public moves on to something else and then they pass the trade deal. It’s yet another fake debate.
These people have literally never done a trade deal they wouldn’t pass. They may as well announce passage the moment negotiations conclude.
I agree that Trump is probably lying when he claims to oppose TPP, but that is neither here nor there with regard to whether it is foolish for the DNC platform committee to reject a proposal to oppose TPP.
The latter rejection is just dumb because lots of voters will simply listen to which candidate is saying what about TPP.
They will hear Trump opposing TPP and pointing out that Clinton has claimed to be both for and against it at times (actually true) while Clinton will be left to explain why her reps on the platform committee rejected a proposal to oppose TPP.
A day after the DNC committee voted to reject opposition to TPP, Trump was already making an issue of it and will undoubtedly now (thanks to the DNC vote) continue to make an issue of it until election day.
I do not think teachers should rule out any efforts to recapture the place of importance they no longer have to democrat politicians. I wrote a letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch in which I admitted that I am disappointed with their refusal to provide a forum for discussion of education issues. Citizens need a place where they can exchange their views with people in powerful places. They have eight forums for sports, and several others almost never used for a variety of subjects. The reason they do not have one for education is that a careful examination including views of parents and teachers is not something that fits in with the present arrangement of being talked down to, in tightly controlled ways by those in power.
I went on to chastise the democrats for taking support of educators for granted, essentially abandoning them in the face of aggressive anti tax republicans, and a bi-partisan of the wealthy who favor the “reform” list of solutions.
I singled out the likely democrat nominee for governor, Chris Koster, as a democrat for whom I plan to vote … if …. and only if … he publicly states that he thinks it would be helpful to the community for the Post Dispatch to furnish a forum dedicated to education. I hope to start a chain reaction of people more powerful and credible than I am to push for this simple, common sense favor from the Post Dispatch.
I doubt they publish my letter. If they do, and I do not hear anything from Chris Koster, I have 1000 dollars set aside to apologize to him for asking too much of him on behalf of education in Missouri.
Last week, I had dinner with my nephew and his wife. Matt Grossmann has been referenced for his research regarding asymmetry in politics by many people, including Paul Krugman in the NYT. His wife, Sarah Reckhow, author of “follow the money”, which documents what wealthy foundations have used their money for. It has been more on behalf of acquiring power than it has been on behalf of children’s education.
I said “Matt, congratulations of your understanding of the widespread recognition of your explanation of the differences between republicans and democrats. With your knowledge of politics, and Sarah’s expertise regarding education, the two of you need to give us some sort of explanation about just what has made democrats shortchange teachers and children in their efforts to have various groups work together to produce results.” Not much needed to be said about republicans, a party which, as Matt points out in is research, is driven by ideology.
I asked them to take five minutes some time to figure out ,,, what was uncle joe talking about?
I should have proof read my post:
present arrangement of allowing those in power to talk down to us in tightly controlled ways.
and a bi-partisan (alliance) of the wealthy
, I have 1000 dollars set aside to (to run an ad in the pd in which I) apologize for asking too much of him on behalf of education in Missouri.
His wife, Sarah Reckhow, wrote “follow the money”,
Matt, congratulations on the (not of) widespread recognition
Joe, which of the four Repblicans running for governor do you think is less hostile to public education? Since Koster is a certainty for Dem primary, some Democrats are.planning to vote in Rep primary in Aug in case the Rep wins the Governor’s race in Nov. The candidate websites are not detailed. Keeping the Rex Sinqufeld backed candidate out seems pretty clear. Didn’t Rex say that he would back Koster if his candidate Hanaway loses?
I had not heard that about Sinquefield’s willingness to support Koster if Hanaway is not the gop nominee. In MO, I am being told that asking Koster to make a suggestion to the Post Dispatch in exchange for my vote is an illegal quid pro quo. The hostility towards the idea of a full discussion of education issues in Missouri is real.
St Louis does not have a free press, you are right! No St Louis media have covered the FBI raids on the headquarters of the Concept charter school chain. The Gateway Science Academies in St Louis are part of that chain. People have to read the Chicago Sun Times toread about the FBI raids on the headquarters of three St Louis charter schools. The Governor controls the head of the St Louis SAB. If Koster wins or Hanaway wins, will that personconvert all the St Louis Public Schools with charter schools?
Chris,
The schools you mentioned are part of the Gulen chain, the one run by a Turkish imam.