Angie Sullivan teaches second grade in Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada. She is a passionate advocate for her students, most of whom live in poverty in a county blessed with untold riches.
Guess what? The Nevada Legislature has decided to issue bonds so that billionaire Sheldon Adelson can have a new stadium. Adelson is a far-right Republican; he was one of Newt Gingrich’s biggest supporters. He now supports Trump.
Angie writes about it here, in an email circulated to journalists, legislators, and school board members:
Important events.
Drop-out Sheldon Adelson declared one of America’s richest men
http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheldon-adelson/
Sheldon Adelson gave money to Trump – both have extreme political views.
http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/donald-trump-donation/
Trump is rejected by prominent Nevada Republicans
Sheldon Adelson wants a stadium and for tax payers to assume the risk.
http://m.reviewjournal.com/business/stadium/adelson-commits-personal-wealth-back-stadium-plan
U.S. Senator Harry Reid backs stadium.
http://m.reviewjournal.com/business/stadium/reid-declares-support-stadium-raiders-move-las-vegas
Democratic Lobbyists campaign for stadium
http://www.ktnv.com/news/ralston/sands-to-stadium-committee-your-money-or-your-team
Special session called to give Adelson funding for stadium
Democratic Nevada Senators could stop stadium deal or at least make sure stadium jobs were union or starving public schools got much needed funding. They don’t.
A few Nevada Democratic Senators try
http://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2016/oct/09/education-not-a-billionaire-deserves-our-tax-money/
The Culinary Union openly campaigns against this give-away to Billionaire Adelson – who is aggressively anti-union.
The DNC uses Culinary to campaign for Hillary.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_561c5817e4b050c6c4a29bc2
Democrats hate Adelson?
Seems confusing?
Perhaps circular.
Not hard to figure out; money is driving this car.
To be clear: Sheldon Adelson could pay for 20 stadiums if he wanted to do so. He enjoys making us do it for him.
___________
What these political money games look like for me?
I worked from 3:30pm to 7:30pm at my school trying to copy reading materials. I have zero reading textbooks. The copiers were not working.
No textbooks
No paper.
No copier.
I gave up for tonight.
And I am only one accountable?
Guess that makes me a whiner?
Maybe I should suffer because my Title I, Tier I at-risk school teaches the poor?
I was emailing Democratic Nevada Senators who received huge donations from Adelson – asking them to hold out since the stadium deal is a money pit and public schools are starving in Nevada.
Second year in a row a special session is held to give a billionaire a tax payer funded deal.
I get lectured by democrats who could have done something: They say the money will trickle down to me and my at-risk kids.
Trickle down? I am waiting by the broken copier right now because I have no textbooks.
I’m not supposed to be disappointed?
30 years Nevada public education has been neglected. We are not ahead even after last session restored previous cuts.
Over-night Sheldon Adelson gets a new toy.
Is it any wonder teachers feel like they have zero allies?
Stop your whining and eat those crumbs!
I guess I should lose my job because I state openly I need a reading textbook.
Pardon me for being disappointed today.
The injustice is so thick it is hard for me to see.
I will be at every protest Culinary needs to hold to make those stadium jobs UNION.
Angie
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
SMH
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People like Adelson, Gates, Trump, and the hedge funds of DFER, are worse than rats in a maze clawing for a dopamine hit. Unlike the rats, for whom the pellets are reward, the men listed, get their kicks, by clawing and taking from others.
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Here’s one thing Nevada voters can do.
Retiring Harry Reid’s U.S. Senate’s sead’s open, and Adelson stooge Joe Heck has a slight lead over Democratic candidate Catherine Cortez Masto.
So VOTE FOR CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO:
Donate here:
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/ccmbutton
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Ooops, I buried the lede, (forgot it, actually 😉 )
Catherine Cortez Masto broke with fellow Dem Harry Reid, and strongly opposes any and all bonds or money for Adelson’s stadium:
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/sep/16/why-cortez-masto-opposes-recreational-marijuana-pu/
Why Cortez Masto opposes recreational marijuana, public money for NFL stadium
By Megan Messerly (contact)
Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 | 2 a.m.
More Coverage
Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Catherine Cortez Masto said Wednesday she opposes using any public dollars to fund the construction of an NFL stadium in Las Vegas.
Nevada is still playing “catch-up” after the Great Recession and should be investing in mental health, education, health care and infrastructure, not contributing to a stadium project spearheaded by billionaire developers, Cortez Masto said during an interview with the Las Vegas Sun’s editorial board. Cortez Masto, a former state attorney general, is locked in a tight battle against Republican Rep. Joe Heck to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid when he retires at the end of his term.
Cortez Masto’s remarks came just hours after a committee charged with recommending tourism-related projects to the governor voted in support of a plan for the public to contribute $750 million in tax dollars to the construction of a $1.9 billion NFL stadium. The stadium project was first put forward by Las Vegas Sands Corp., Majestic Realty, and the Oakland Raiders, who plan to move to Las Vegas should a stadium be constructed.
Cortez Masto joins a handful of elected officials — notably, county Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani — and community members raising concerns about the public contributing money to a stadium project backed by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Sands’ CEO.
“If a billionaire wants to build a stadium, then a billionaire should pay for the stadium,” Cortez Masto said.
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Catherine Cortez Masto also opposes Nevada’s voucher system (since an overwhelming majority of people oppose vouchers, the privatizers just renamed them, calling them “Education Savings Accounts,” saying that this voucher “program takes money away from public schools.”
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/aug/11/cortez-masto-opposes-education-savings-accounts-pr/
Nevada Democratic Senate hopeful Catherine Cortez Masto says she doesn’t support the state’s embattled Education Savings Accounts program.
The former Nevada attorney general made the remarks to reporters on Wednesday following a campaign event with immigration activists in Las Vegas.
The Republican-controlled Legislature voted on party lines last year to authorize the program, which allows parents to tap public education funds to use for private school tuition. Two lawsuits have challenged the constitutionality of the program, which is on hold and under review by the Nevada Supreme Court.
Cortez Masto says the program takes money away from public schools. Asked about how to help children stuck in low-performing schools, she said she supports investments like the tax package backed by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and approved last year.
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This problem of the hyper wealthy using OPM, other people’s money, the taxpayers money, is endemic in America. In Chicago, that is THE major abuse of TIF funds. The Pritzker family got $5.2 million as a part of a larger TIF deal for others who also really really didn’t need it.http://www.newstips.org/2012/08/penny-pritzkers-tif/
The torrential upwards redistribution of wealth by the hyper wealthy in America is why our schools and other commons resources are floundering.
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The wealthy participate in deals with the government for the opportunity to use OPM to enrich themselves. Zukerberg and his wife “donate” $3 billion to cure or manage all disease. He set up an LLC so you know he is looking for ROI and tax benefits. I hope his money is better spent than it was in Newark trying to “save” the poor minority students from “failing” schools.
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and then never apologizing to the students and teachers so unhappily used as pawns in the ‘experimental’ mess
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Yes, agree. The right wingers like to say that the trouble with socialism is that you run out of other people’s money. Baloney! The trouble with capitalism is this scam of billionaires stealing tax money, legally, to feather their nests and to fund their pet projects. What a despicable racket and it goes on all the time all over this country
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Public education isn’t valued in the US. Not K-12 public schools and not public universities and community colleges.
With the exception of flagship or elite public colleges.
It’s the main reason I think public schools will suffer if ed reformers continue to strip the local connection between people and their public schools. If it worked middle and lower tier public colleges would be thriving and they’re not. They get no respect at all.
The only real advocates public schools have is on the local level. They’ll die if they’re run nationally with a set of nationalized chains.
It’s a kind of snobbery, I think. They all give lip service to how much they love community colleges, for example, but none of them attended one and none of their children attend them. They’re schools for those other people.
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The local commitments you speak of are under attack by the foundation-funded networks targeting communities and districts, especially within large metro areas. One example is foundation funded and networked Education Cities.
Another is a new rating scheme for cities from Bellwether, intended to rate them on an “innovation index.” The index is constructed from pillars and criteria (following an OECD model). The index is constructed from data such as the Gates compact, expansion of charters, charter laws; presence of TFA, unified enrollment, taxpayer support for “education entrepreneurs,” technology infrastructure including broadband, venture capital available for education, whether governance of “service providers in education” is removed from elected officials (except for the mayor),
The data flowing into the index will also feature student “growth” scores on statewide tests sufficient to map a trend.
The cynical part is that low test scores in a district or metro area are weighted highly within the index. They are valued. Why? They are treated as a signal that the city is ripe for “innovation” in education.
I hope to get more information about this index organized as a post. The alignment of this report with ALEC’s baby–the American City County Exchange–is not good news, nor are huge investments in local and state foundations from the billionaires who live elsewhere.
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Ohio’s doing a big push for vocational ed now. I think vocational ed is great- I took that training after high school and so did my middle son.
They’re bringing in people to sell it who would never do that, and their kids would never do it either. Their kids don’t even attend public schools let alone pursue a trade in high school. They really can’t find an electrician or a plumber or a machinist to do this?
Penny Pritzker is the best representative of working people in the US? I find that hard to believe.
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I am right there with you in Clark County, Angie. So far I have my own copy machine, $250, my own website subscriptions,$275, and my school generously gave me a case of paper. I really could have used the leveled reading materials they promised me last June! My home office area looks like a print shop because I am copying material for 7 reading groups based on their needs and abilities. The Clark County motto for us is “Nothing is too good for our kids, so that is what they will get.” Maybe teachers will get discount tickets and the chance to sell peanuts at the games.
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Trump is right in his message ,just wrong in his solutions and despicable as a human-being. Both parties no longer represent the majority of Americans . Shelly and Donald should be behind bars. Shelly should have been in jail for bribery at his foriiegn casino holdings.
The Donald should say a prayer to Jefferson daily. For not following Adams and jailing people for sedition . I suppose if the IRS went after him for criminal tax evasion , he would cry foul.
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