Please, if you have HBO, watch the VICE documentary on Friday. I don’t know the time. I was interviewed. I have no idea what direction it will take, but VICE always has an interesting take on whatever it does.
Let me know how it goes. I never watch myself on TV.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good! It will be on 5:30 ET. The description is as follows: Gianni Toboni goes to Michigan to see school choice in action and understand the future of public education. I watch Vice News, and they have done other stories on charter waste and fraud. My guess is the message will show the devastation of privatization. I am happy they contacted you as I have suggested it on their Facebook page. I’m not trying to take credit as your reputation precedes you.. I have also tried to get you invited to Bill Maher’s show, but education is not one of the topics he discusses very often.
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Thank you.
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WOW, advocacy working.
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It is on at 7:30 pm and aired again at 11 following Bill Mahr. You may be able to see it run on You Tube as well, not necessarily at the same time. It is about Michigan, probably a 15 minute segment. I guess this is the regular time for evryone. I am in South Jersey, near Philadelphia on Comcast. (6/8)Visiting the state of Michigan to see school choice in action and what the future of public education might look like; the battle for the Central African Republic’s many natural resources causes devastating harm to the country and its civilians.
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I checked the HBO website, the schedule says the program runs mon-thurs. do you have a title or a URL with the information?
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I will find out and post it.
I just know it is a VICE documentary about education.
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On these mini documentaries, they usually cover two topics about fifteen minutes each.
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I watch VICE news nightly in the east at 7:30pmEST on PBS on our channel 513 cable, 13 VHF. Mon-Thurs is a 30-min news report; Friday is a public affairs 30-min report on different topics. The video news reporting is a breath of fresh air compared to the over-scripted, must-have-happy-news-at-end major network evening news which is most watched. And, Diane, you are great on video and TV, so watch yourself and enjoy.
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Ira, I don’t watch because I get upset seeing how I have aged. I am not going willingly into old age, although I am certainly there.
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You are ageless. Your beauty is unmatched.
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Ahhhh
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No, it’s awww
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Subject: Investigate Betsy DeVos for Civil Rights Violations, Corruption, and Student Loan Abuses.
I signed a petition to Office of Inspector General, which says:
“We demand the Inspector General investigate Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Her pattern of unethical, immoral, and possibly illegal actions make her unfit to serve the American people.
Action must be taken before the next school year begins. Millions of students, parents, and borrowers are at risk.”
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/investigate-betsy-devos?source=s.em.cp&r_hash=i8I0lFeD
Thanks!
Carol
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This isn’t a segment of the regular Vice news, Ira. This is one of their longer documentaries, which generally run on Fridays. I can’t yet find it on my guide, but it should be up tonight, so I’ll write when I do see it.
I didn’t think a Vice doc. was on as early as 5:30, which would be 4:30 PM CT; Bill Maher’s show is on Friday nights.
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Yes, just looked at the guide on our tv, & that VICE is on HBO from 6:30-7:01 CT; 7:30-8:01 ET; 4:30-5:01 PT &–what’s MT–one hour ahead of PT–? It’s repeated on HBO from 10-10:31 CT,etc. & 12:40-1:10 AM Sat., on HBO. Then, it’s also on HBO-W several times–9:30-10:01 PM, CT; & Sat. Am–1-1:31 AM, CT. It’s listed as “No Choice but to Choose; Rebel Republic”: visiting the state of Michigan, to see school choice in action, & what the future of public education might look like; the battle for the Central African Republic’s…” They always show the one first they list first, so tune in at the beginning!
If you miss any of these, look at your on-tv guide; it’s repeated many times. Also, it will be on OnDemand, if you have that. &, retired teacher, you are right–it should be a 15-minute segment (Mon-Th Vice has segments on numerous topics, about 5 min. each).
Will post a comment about how you
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Nope–still not up, though most everything else tomorrow night is (it’s on HBO 560-HBOZN), but the time slot for 5-7 PM Friday, 6/8 still says, “TBA.” Hmmm…makes one wonder…
Anyway, as soon as someone knows, PLEASE post ALL time slots (CT, ET, PT, MT); I know I get confused when I’m traveling. Also, if we miss it & have OnDemand, HBO keeps things on that for a reeeeeeeaaaally long time.
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Looked at the HBO schedule; the 30 min.VICE for tomorrow night is scheduled for 6:30 & 10 PM on HBO (not ZN), & is titled, “No Choice but to Choose & Rebel Republic,” & has a picture of rebels in what looks to be another country. So, perhaps, Diane, this is a regular VICE, & you have a short segment? Or maybe they’re airing an entire half-hour of the title story (as I’d said, that’s what they usually do on Fridays)? I’m confused…
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I think the segment is about school choice in Michigan and DeVos.
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Sorry–clicked before I finished my comment–will let you know how it goes, Diane…sure you knocked it out of the park!
&–ira–apologies–you didn’t say it was the Vice w/the short segments.
Glad the story is covered, & we’ll soon see how!
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Here is another article from VICE news. It doesn’t pay to be poor in Chicago. This happening will stay with this poor child for the rest of his life. I realize that it is hard being a policeman in ghetto areas. How long will this lack of caring for the poor continue? It will take a monumental movement and the will to change poverty simply isn’t there.
…………………………
Video shows Chicago cops handcuffing terrified 10-year-old boy who “matched” description
Chicago police officers detained and handcuffed a 10-year-old black boy who was playing in his grandparents’ front yard because they thought he matched the description of someone they were attempting to track down.
Cell phone footage tweeted out Friday that has been viewed over 700,000 times, shows officers handcuffing a young boy, identified by NBC News affiliate Chicago 5 as Michael Thomas Jr., while questioning him about a gun. Chicago police say the officers didn’t do anything wrong.
Police said they had received multiple calls about a young boy with a gun, and said Thomas ran away from them at first when they approached, according to the news outlet.
“Keep in mind, this is difficult for an officer to tell right off the bat if you’re 10 years old, 12 years old [or] 14… So they handcuffed the kid for safety reasons,” Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a press conference Wednesday. “Because he did match that description. They followed all the rules and protocols that we have in place, so I’m not concerned about that at all.”..
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/vbqpxa/video-shows-chicago-cops-handcuffing-terrified-10-year-old-black-boy-who-matched-description
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I’m still concerned about guns and didn’t know where to post this article.
There isn’t a hint of having gun control so that killers don’t have access to guns in this editorial from Boise. The Idaho Daily Statesman would probably be hit with a protest the country has never seen if it suggested that guns are the problem. It is suggesting security devices instead of armed guards.
[Signs like this greet visitors in the parking lot and entrances to Idaho’s Garden Valley School, which has about 250 students in pre-k through 12th grades. Provided by Garden Valley School] See article for photo of the sign.
ATTENTION
Please be aware that trained staff members at Garden Valley Schools are armed and can use whatever force necessary to protect students & staff.
…………………..
Armed guards at Idaho schools: Is this the best choice for rural classrooms?
…School districts in Idaho are overseen by local school boards and local administrators who know their districts best, and we wouldn’t change that. Some rural schools, like Garden Valley, have armed and trained school staffers to respond to emergencies. Garden Valley is 45 minutes from the Boise County Sheriff’s Office in Idaho City, and in winter response times can be much longer still. Prominent signs on school doors warn visitors that staffers are “legally armed and can use whatever force necessary to protect students and staff.” So far, at least, that approach is working for Garden Valley.
But we worry about putting guns in the hands of security guards who are not trained for dealing with students, hostages or active shooters – the very scenarios for which we need qualified, trained experts.
We also worry about what kind of background these guards, however well intentioned, would have for sensitive work with children, parents, teachers and the hurly-burly of a school environment.
We also worry about the risks of deadly crossfire from security guards placed into high-stress, high-chaos, high-risk crises…
Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/editorials/article212686629.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
http://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/editorials/article212686629.html
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As Billy Crystal, in his Fernando Lamas persona would say, “Diane, you look mahhhhvelous!” &, of course, what you say is truth to power, as always. The Vice segment was spot-on, & hope LOTS of people saw it/will see it.
The footage closed schools, alone, is worth a thousand words.
&–hope everyone caught the spray paint on one of those schools:
“Lies closed this school.”
None of us, here, will ever shut up or give up. Kudos to you, Diane, for keeping us–& everyone out there who will listen–informed, enlightened & resistance-ready.
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“This week on VICE: the growing movement to privatize public education. ‘If you close all of the public schools in your area, what is the choice? You have no choice.'” The segment showed powerfully how children’s lives are being devastated by the spread of privately run schools. It started with the NCLB’s emphasis on choice leading up to DeVos. So they went to DeVos’ home state.
Detroit: “More than a hundred schools have been closed down over the last twenty or so years. That’s more than five schools per year, so when driving around Detroit, you’re usually only a few minutes from a school that’s been closed down.” Frank Cody High School students: “We don’t get enough advisers, we don’t get enough electives, we don’t get enough resources to make our education better… We don’t get no art class, they took that away. We don’t have Spanish class…” Then the interview with Diane, talking about narrowing of the curriculum because of testing for charters, and the loss of funding to public schools.
So, while close to 100 charters have opened in Michigan since 1995, almost 200 public schools have shut down in the same time. They interviewed Aliya Moore, Detroit mother and public school activist: “It was almost like, if we can get rid of these schools, we can get rid of this district, and charter it out.” Charters with uniforms and walking on blue lines are “more of a prison or jail mentality, not really open to parent input and involvement. Just get the dollars, get the kids and if the school fails [ they] can just open another with another name. It’s a business.
Interview with Lamar Lemmons: “[The charter lobby] is extremely strong and Betsy DeVos and the DeVos family essentially spearheaded it… She helped undermine DPS… They had to create a crisis, and then drive the children — we call them educational refugees — into the for profit charter schools. But the charter schools, as a rule, don’t perform as well as the public schools.” They showed statistics on the underperformance of charters nationally and in Michigan.
DeVos founded charter, West Michigan Aviation Academy in Betsy’s home town of Grand Rapids. James, a senior, flies a plane. He is white. The school is run by directors like a corporation. Interviews with three white students talking about how much support they get. VICE: “I notice that you have a very diverse student population. All of the pilots are white. Why is that?” Larry Fisher, Dean of Student Life: “Those are the ones who made it through the program. That’s something we’d love to have, more diversity.”
Dick DeVos: “I think there has been an effect of charter schools on public schools and my hope is that the effect’s been positive, that the effect is that traditional schools, having been confronted with an alternative that they were never confronted with before… will have them take a look at themselves and say how can we be special too.”
VICE: “I’ve talked to low income parents who I know would be offended by that because they feel like the influence your family has over the Michigan State Legislature has caused their public schools to be shut down.”
DeVos: (Looks perplexed for a few seconds.) “Okay, that (pause) I appreciate that (stutter) I appreciate their perspective. The answer’s (pause) we don’t. We haven’t. I don’t know how, I don’t know how they can come to that conclusion (stuttering, eyes turning red) fairy speaking.
VICE: “I think that lobbying for pro-charter legislation, funding campaigns of candidates who are voting strictly pro-charter, contributing to the Michigan Republican Party whose stance on education is pro-charter, I think those would be the reasons. And they feel like the rise in charters is defunding their public schools. I think that’s what they would say.”
DeVos: “And I appreciate their point of view. And I respect that. I respect that point of view.”
VICE: “On average when you look across the country, charter schools don’t outperform traditional public schools. How do you push the growth of charter schools when we don’t know they’re any better than traditional public schools?”
DeVos: (Finally smiling.) “Why are parents choosing charters? Nobody’s forcing them to go to a charter school. If parents weren’t choosing charters, charters wouldn’t exist. Parents are making these decisions, not bureaucrats, not me, not you. Parents are choosing these alternatives because apparently they think they’re better (pause for affect) for their children. I hope it’s not that one does better than the other. I hope it’s that they all do well.”
VICE: “That’s the nature of competition, though, is not everyone wins.”
DeVos: “The nature of competition in education is that potentially everybody wins.”
VICE: “A hundred schools were closed in the last twenty years. That’s not winning.”
DeVos: “Children are getting a better education as a consequence of new options and new choices and new possibilities. That is winning.”
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LeftCoastTeacher: Thank you for the information. I don’t get HBO but really like VICE. They have comprehensive news and don’t waste time.
The DeVos family are all creeps. Destroy public schools and then pretend charters are providing a better alternative. Of course, DeVos is spreading the word of god. He and Betsy are on a holy mission and can’t be blinded by facts. Making money by scamming the public reminds me of a quote:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked
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