Los Angeles Teachers Plan a Tweetstorm Against Trump and DeVos

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1. Steve Ruis says:

   January 4, 2017 at 1:06 pm

   This is an incredibly bad idea. Mr. Trump has shown that his #1 desire is for attention and he doesn’t care whether it is good or bad. The best think that could happen is if his tweets were to be met with and his numbers of followers were to drop precipitously.

   We should give him opposition to his bad ideas and attention for his good ones. Any dog can be trained, same is true for politicians.

   On Wed, Jan 4, 2017 at 12:01 PM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:

   > dianeravitch posted: “The UTLA is organizing a tweet storm in opposition > to Trump, DeVos, Walmart, and Broad. The hashtag is #schooltrump Please > support them!” >

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   • Ellen Lubic says:

     January 4, 2017 at 1:57 pm

     I do not know if tweeting is worthwhile, but the article below shows exactly why teachers and their supporters must influence at least 3 Repubs to vote with the Dems in the Senate to deflect the Right Wing dissolution of all that we have worked for over the past three decades.

     Dems did vote en masse but they are only 48 strong…it is imperative that McCain, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, and others be contacted by thoughtful polite Dems explaining why we need them to save America from the Trumpede.

     “Senate Republicans Pass Resolution That Begins Obamacare Repeal Process

     by David Badash
     January 04, 2017 1:19 PM

     Process Will Defund Affordable Care Act

     At 1:13 PM EST the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution that will begin the process of repealing Obamacare. The final vote tally was 51-48. The resolution instructs the House to have a repeal bill ready by January 27.

     Seven years ago, on December 24, 2009, the Senate voted 60-39 to pass Obamacare. All Republicans voted against it, all Democrats voted for it.

     “Today, we take the first steps to repair the nation’s broken health care system, removing Washington from the equation and putting control back where it belongs: with patients, their families, and their doctors,” Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee who sponsored the legislation, said in a statement.

     Republicans did not have the 60 votes needed to repeal Obamacare, so they opted to defund it via a budget resolution, which only requires a simple majority.

     “That means they can essentially gut the law, removing all the subsidies that help low- and middle-income people buy health insurance and getting rid of the smorgasbord of taxes — on medical devices, insurance companies and wealthy individuals — that pay for those subsidies,” NPR explained.

     Republicans, despite having voted more than 60 times to repeal Obamacare, have never had a legitimte replacement plan. It is widely reported that they will take two to four years to replace the Affordable Care Act, leaving up to 30 million Americans without insurance, and many paying exceptionally high premiums for having pre-existing conditions, including HIV, diabetes, cancer, and even pregnancy.

     Repealing Obamacare also devastates Medicare, and will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Donald Trump uring the presidential campaign promised he would never touch Social Security or Medicare.

     Concerned citizens can call lawmakers in the House and Senate at 202-224-3121″.

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     • Ellen Lubic says:

       January 4, 2017 at 2:04 pm

       And to Alex Caputo-Pearl, it would be far more worthwhile for UTLA to finance a candidate who is running AGAINST the #1 charterizer on the LAUSD BoE, the mendacious and destructive Monica Garcia.

       I support Lisa Alva, and hope you get UTLA to donate to her campaign right now…and not do to her what UTLA did to Monica Ratliff when she intitially ran for the BoE.

       Let’s see the union back a candidate who believes in public schools, not privatized charters. No more Pacoima events in support of charters with bussed in masses from around the county, all at taxpayers expense.

       C’mon Alex…do what is right, not what is politically attention getting.

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   • Michael P Dominguez says:

     January 8, 2017 at 12:33 am

     UTLA is a fount of bad ideas and photo -ops. It collaborates with the bosses to fire older higher paid teachers near vesting in health benefits and will spend $1 million to re-elect Steve Zimmer who votes to fire any teacher accused of anything, no matter the evidence. He is a darling alumnus of TFA as is UTLA president Michael Alex Caputo-Pearl. Ruis is right, but UTLA is not a union and doesn’t care about what is right. https://dianeravitch.net/2015/02/28/steve-zimmer-defends-bennet-kayser-against-charter-industry-attacks/

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2. marynwill says:

   January 4, 2017 at 1:17 pm

   I tweeted my senators “Are you voting against DeVos for the sake of public schools?” after sending them an email with my constituent credentials and twitter handle.

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3. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

   January 4, 2017 at 1:55 pm

   Posted here…http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Pre-Inauguration-Citywide-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Donald-Trump-Cabinet_Inauguration_School_Trump-Idiot-in-chief-170104-226.html#comment637850
   with this commentary which has links you can use.

   *** Tying up the phone lines WORKS. See Trevor Noah ,the Daily Show January 3

   Grassroots movements are the only way to stop this authoritarian president from putting the worst people into his cabinet.

   Teachers can organize to stop the cabinet posting of Betsy DeVos

   Here is an example of what this GRASS-ROOTS organization does.You can share this alert with friends and family in your state by posting this link: http://wp.me/p3bR9v-2aB

   “The confirmation hearings for Betsy DeVos will happen shortly. Please call your senators this week and let them know you oppose her appointment as Secretary of Education. If you called already, please call again.

   It is most effective to call a local office. Below is the list of local office locations to drop off a letter, and local numbers to call your senators.

   If you want a script for your call, you can find it here. Please pick up the phone and call.

   New York Kirsten Gillibrand; Albany/Capital District Office

   Leo W. O’Brien Federal Office Building;11A Clinton Avenue,Room 821;Albany, NY 12207 Tel. (518) 431-0120; Fax (518) 431-0128

   Buffalo Office

   Larkin At Exchange

   726 Exchange Street, Suite 511

   Buffalo, NY 14210

   Tel. (716) 854-9725

   Fax (716) 854-9731

   more at the site…

   BATs – KEEPs UP THE PRESSURE!! Devos hearing is January 11th. Join Journey for Justice, The Network for Public Education, and BATs as we continue the pressure to block her confirmation as Secretary of Education. Get those phone lines ready! Read more here on how you can take action – step-by-step instructions.

   and>>>>>>>>

   Do no forget the NPE which stands of rNETWORK for PUBLIC EDUCTION and is the GO-TO for real news and action regarding our schools. (The NPE was created by Diane Ravitch, Anthony Cody, Leonie Haimison and Carol Burris and educators who know the reality about what public education needs)
   and this from an article at
   http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/a-very-simple-point-organ-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Legislators_Majority_Organizing-170103-650.html
   “If you want to build a functioning progressive majority that votes in legislators who pass progressive laws, you organize. If you want to build a political party with the backbone to stand up for our values in a time of Trump, you do the same thing. You organize.Organizing means talking to people (which means listening), identifying local leaders and comprehensively building your political party and movement at a local level. Everywhere. It’s that simple.No one likes to do it, because it’s hard and costs time and involves making a comprehensive investment in the most valuable commodity a political party has. People. At the local level.The fact that this is hard, does not make my point less true, or effective.There is no substitute for building and organizing. There is no substitute for talking to people and engaging them at the local level. None.”

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   • Ellen Lubic says:

     January 4, 2017 at 2:08 pm

     To my LA allies…please do both…tweet your demands re DeVos, but also support our local candidate, Lisa Alva, who needs UTLA financial support to beat the pernicious Monica Garcia (who will have billionaire cash pouring in to her campaign, yet again).

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     • Michael P Dominguez says:

       January 8, 2017 at 12:45 am

       LAUSD parent activist Carl Petersen is running for the same seat. He has much experience advocating within LAUSD for special education students and parents. He is the ONLY candidate that has listened to and has expressed concern about UTLA’s collaboration in firing older teachers. Lisa Alva is a protege of former BOE member Bennett Kayser who along with Steve Zimmer is proud to have fired any teacher accused of anything regardless of evidence. She has not expressed any concern until recently about the unjust firing of teachers but neither has UTLA which keeps its members in ignorance about this purge. (See my post above for click on this link https://dianeravitch.net/2015/02/28/steve-zimmer-defends-bennet-kayser-against-charter-industry-attacks/)

       Carl Petersen deserves teacher support but UTLA will most likely not oppose Monica Garcia.

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4. Karen Wolfe says:

   January 4, 2017 at 2:43 pm

   Good. I’m always glad about opportunities to show education activists leading the discussion.

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5. Laura H. Chapman says:

   January 4, 2017 at 5:34 pm

   I don’t Tweet, or Facebook. I have responded to the NEP initiatives among several others.

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   • JB2 says:

     January 5, 2017 at 8:13 am

     Suggest that many see Twitter as valuable tool for political awareness and activism.

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6. LeftCoastTeacher says:

   January 4, 2017 at 7:00 pm

   A tweet storm. That’s cute. It reminds me of the scripted lesson based, Common Core inspired, online textbook the district just bought, which I am using, and already finding ways around using. It encourages young people to tweet. (This is an English textbook, mind you.) It does not encourage social justice activism — or reading lots of good literature for that matter. It tells the students that they should instead be “clicktivists”. We are to write and send tweets in class. What better way to to give your personal data for profiling to the powerful men against whom you are sort of protesting than to send them short whimpers via social media. …..Better ways still exist.

   And I too support Lisa Alva (I just heard all about her, my fellow L.A. teacher) and wonder why we allow reformsters to control BoE elections instead of supporting my fellow teachers.

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7. Clarity says:

   January 5, 2017 at 4:07 am

   Wikileaks: Broad, Eric Schmidt, Mukesh Ambani (one of the wealthiest men in world), Salmon Kahn (huge Indian film star and Kahn Academy), Eric Schmidt (Former Google CEO who now heads Pentagon Innovation Board. Look what they’ve been up to!

   All those invasive assessments used to create the AI. The Lab school kids are probably the models (not for wax but robots)
   Download the pdf docs. The 2014 has full outline of the meeting in Denver moderated by Charlie Rose.

   M
   8:30 – 9:30 AM
   9:45 – 10:45 AM
   10:45 – 11:45 PM
   12:00 PM
   6:15 PM
   SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 BREAKFAST DISCUSSION with Charlie Rose
   HER MAJESTY QUEEN RANIA AL ABDULLAH OF JORDAN
   MIDDLE EAST moderated by Charlie Rose
   HIS EXCELLENCY SHEIKH HAMAD BIN JASSIM BIN JABOR AL-THANI Former Prime Minister &
   Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, The State of Qatar
   EHUD BARAK Former Prime Minister & Former Minister of Defense, The State of Israel
   TONY BLAIR Former Prime Minister, Great Britain and Northern Ireland | Quartet Representative to the Middle East
   DEFINING MODERN EDUCATION moderated by Charlie Rose
   ARNE DUNCAN Secretary of Education, US Department of Education
   SALMAN KHAN Founder & Executive Director, Khan Academy
   RAFAEL REIF, PHD President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
   SIR KEN ROBINSON, PHD Best Selling Author & Internationally Renowned Expert on Creativity, Innovation
   & Education
   BEYOND THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE moderated by Charlie Rose
   FRANCIS COLLINS, MD, PHD Director, National Institutes of Health
   ERIC LANDER, PHD Founding Director & President, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
   SHINYA YAMANAKA, MD, PHD Nobel Laureate | Senior Investigator & L.K. Whittier Foundation Investigator in
   Stem Cell Biology, Gladstone Institutes | Director & Professor, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University
   ANTHONY ATALA, MD Director, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine | W.H. Boyce Professor, Wake
   Forest School of Medicine
   LUNCHEON DISCUSSION with Charlie Rose
   JOE BIDEN Vice President of the United States
   AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES & SEMINARS
   https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/55710

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8. Clarity says:

   January 5, 2017 at 4:11 am

   and page one of that Agenda…. Artificial Intel

   FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 POLITICAL ROUNDTABLE moderated by Charlie Rose
   JAY CARNEY Former White House Press Secretary | Former Washington Bureau Chief, TIME
   JOHN DICKERSON Political Director, CBS News | Chief Political Correspondent, Slate
   MARK HALPERIN Managing Editor, Bloomberg Politics
   GLOBAL SECURITY moderated by Charlie Rose
   LEON PANETTA Former Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense | Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
   ROBERT GATES, PHD Former Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense | Former Director, Central
   Intelligence Agency
   GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, USA (RET.) Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency | Former Commander in
   Afghanistan, US & International Forces | Former Commander, US Central Command
   RICHARD ENGEL Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News
   CHINA & THE GLOBAL ECONOMY moderated by Charlie Rose
   GENERAL KEITH ALEXANDER, USA (RET.) Former Commander, US Cyber Command | Former Director,
   National Security Agency | Former Chief, Central Security Service
   LAEL BRAINARD, PHD Former Under Secretary for International Affairs, US Department of the Treasury
   KURT CAMPBELL, PHD Former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs, US Department of State
   | Chairman & CEO, The Asia Group, LLC
   ROBIN LI Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Baidu
   HANK PAULSON Former Secretary of the Treasury, US Department of the Treasury | Chairman, The Paulson Institute
   ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & BEYOND moderated by Charlie Rose & Eric Schmidt
   ANDREW NG, PHD Chief Scientist, Baidu | Director, Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab
   ARATI PRABHAKAR, PHD Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
   MARC RAIBERT, PHD Founder, Boston Dynamics

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   • Linda says:

     January 5, 2017 at 9:02 am

     The Waltons’ Gen Next Foundation is worth a look. Two prominent people featured, at the site, Rumsfeld and Napolitano.

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9. NYSTEACHER says:

   January 5, 2017 at 7:37 am

   A) I feel like this is akin to going to battle on the ground the enemy has chosen. Never a good idea. Twitter and dominating narratives, especially ones that everyone said he was going to be destroyed by, is distinctly Trump’s wheelhouse.

   B) More importantly, if this election cycle has taught us anything (and it is becoming clear that it may have not), its the danger and political limitations of tech/social media. Tech evangelists have worked hard to manufacture a belief that tech and social media could make us all artists and political activists of the positive sort. Turns out that tech people may have done well in their courses on math and programming in college, but they are deeply deficient in the humanities, where one of the chief skills acquired is having a critical understanding of the limitations and problems of human creativity and invention. Those German railroads in the 1940s were really well built and efficient!
   HRC depended waaaay too much on the algorithms and suggestions of tech people. Trump exploited a medium in the most obvious and simple way possible, as a megaphone for the creation of a fascistic personality cult. The tech evangelists thought Twatter and Facebook would be a wonderful platform of humanity coming together for social good, and paid no mind to the fact that the platforms could be used bluntly and simply as a superhighway for fascism.
   We also need to understand, like HRC’s campaign did not, that nothing is more important than the old work of organizing on the ground. We as organized teachers need to understand that this war will not be won via social media postings.

   Not a new message.

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10. Linda says:

    January 5, 2017 at 8:57 am

    Degrees of separation among Gates, religious conservatives, and charter school advocacy are minimal. A post at Conservative Leaders for Education (CL4E) recommended DeVos for Secretary of Education. The recommendations’ list also included Lisa Graham Keegan (AZ.) She, the Walton Family Foundation and Kim Smith are all recipients of awards from the National Alliance of Charter Schools (Gates grant- $5.5 mil.) Smith founded NSVF, Bellwether, TFA, and Aspen Pahara, Gates provided funds to all 4. In addition to DeVos and Keegan, CL4E recommended Dr. Carlos Campo, who was an “education consultant to the Gates Foundation”, after he was President of Regent University. The school’s motto is “Christian Leadership to Change the World”. Hanna Skandera (N.M.), was another recommendation. She is an Aspen Pahara Education Fellow.

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