Disaster capitalism strikes again! A victory for rapacious billionaires, Betsy DeVos, and DFER. Instead of putting the PR economy on a path to recovery, the disaster capitalists will give them charters and vouchers.
The following is a jubilant press release from the rightwing group “Center for Education Reform,” which despises public schools:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
(202) 750-0016 | news@edreform.com
PR Supreme Court Confirms: Education Opportunity Constitutional
[Washington, D.C., August 10, 2018—] Students and families of Puerto Rico were given a major victory today when the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that new education opportunities are constitutional and dismissed the island’s teachers’ union’s challenge to the new education reform law enacted on March 29, 2018, which provided for a path for charter schools and scholarships for students to attend private schools.
“Today’s decision paves the way for what has become an unprecedented island-wide coalition to drive educational excellence, comprising leaders in government, business, higher education, ed tech, and civic groups like the Boys & Girls Club,” said Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO, Center for Education Reform. “As we have seen throughout the US, such efforts produce exceptional results and provide new and meaningful pathways for children trapped in failing schools,” Allen added.
Math proficiency for Puerto Rico stands at 33%, while only 10% of students in grades 7, 8 and 11 were able to pass standardized tests last year. Although it’s their native language, only 49 percent of students achieved proficiency in Spanish last year. Knowing the value of educational freedom, parents began to exit the state for Florida and beyond even before Hurricane Maria. The Education Secretary Julia Kelleher moved to close schools based on these migrations and failing education and the new law was a bi-partisan response to institute more accountability and inevitably more options for students and families, but it was in jeopardy when the unions filed suit. The teachers unions also were pushed to strike by the US head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, whose now infamous conversation on an Amtrak train plotting the strike was widely reported.
The Supreme Court overruled a highly political ruling by a Superior Court Judge who claimed that the Puerto Rico Education Reform act violates the territory’s Constitution.
“We knew after the first ruling against educational options that the Superior Court’s decision had no grounding in constitutional law,” said Allen, “as precedents have shown time and time again. We congratulate the leaders of Puerto Rico and hope this sends a signal to the establishment that nothing can stand in the way of educational achievement.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Now the students of Puerto Rico will be trapped in privately managed charter schools with public funds subsidizing these and contractor calling the shots in order to maximize their profits. It will be interested in seeing if the religious schools in Puerto Rico will be included in the public funding.
LikeLike
Not surprised to see this happen where democracy has been murdered by an unelected, unaccountable financial management board. There are only two ways to advance these highly unpopular policies: brute force or deception.
LikeLike
Puerto Rico also has a two-house legislature where laws are revised and/or written and then voted on.
The PR Senate has 30 elected legislators
The PR House of Representatives has 51.
The majority in the PR Senate belong to the New Progressive Party (PNP) and they hold 21 seats or 70% of the total
The PNP also holds the majority of seats in the House of Representatives with 34 or 66.6%.
The Governor is also a member of the PNP.
The question is: Is the PNP a real “Progressive” political party or in name only?
The PR Supreme Court vote says they are progressives in name only since the majority of justices are affiliated with the PNP.
Is this another case where Christian Nationalists and/or the racist right has hijacked a term like “progressive” and twisted it out of context and meaning? The extreme right seems very good at misleading people through the names of their organizations.
LikeLike
What Lloyd describes is mandated in the Paul Weyrich training manual. Weyrich founded ALEC and Heritage Foundation and he was the architect of the religious right.
LikeLike
The PNP is not new to the “progressive” label – that’s been it’s moniker for more than 50 years.
The political parties don’t really line up with our party divisions on the mainland. The PNP has long been the pro-statehood party, while the PDP, Popular Democratic Party is pro-status quo. The PIP, Puerto Rican Independent Party has long been a minority voice, garnering about 2-4% of the vote whenever there’s a plebescite on the question of status. It is the issue of status which most animates Puerto Ricans living on the island.
Though Rosselló (PNP), the current governor, has been avidly currying favor with Republicans (his father was governor before him) and Carmen Yulín Cruz (PDP), mayor of San Juan, has been highly critical of them, both parties (and of course the “radicals”of the PIP) are quite a bit to the left of our Republican and Democratic parties.
LikeLike
Bad news, indeed.
Here come the grifters.
LikeLike
It’s a real shame for the kids who are now in public schools- now the neglect and sometimes outright hostility towards their schools starts.
They’re collateral damage in these privatization schemes- they have no advocates in their own government.
LikeLike
Also- when ed reformers say there is no possible valid criticism of their ideas and the problems are because of “poor implementation” all they’re doing is shifting accountability from the designers of these schemes to the front-line people who work in schools.
This is an age-old management dodge, meant to insulate higher-ups and drop problems on employees.. It’s amusing to me that ed reformers aren’t aware of it.
It’s not new at all.
LikeLike
It is a sad day for the young people of Puerto Rico. These “reformers” know how to manipulate policy to suit their profit producing agenda. Money talks more loudly than the PR Constitution.
LikeLike
Who will advocate for the kids in the unfashionable public schools?
Certainly not the charter cheerleaders and voucher zealots who designed this thing.
Why don’t they get a lobbyist? Will public schools be neglected and ignored like public schools are in the states, now that ed reformers have captured Puerto Rico?
Who decided that public schools are less worthy than charters and private schools, and is the public aware (yet) that this decision has been made by people who parachuted in from DC lobbying shops?
Puerto Rico public school parents better hire themselves a lobbyist. They don’t have a seat at the table.
LikeLike
Privatization is often about exploiting the poor and those without a voice.
LikeLike
Public school parents can’t afford to hire a lobbyist. That’s for the rich who are plundering the island.
LikeLike
There is not much left to plunder in P.R. The island was a train wreck, before the hurricane hit. The island cannot take a bankruptcy under US law, since it is not a state.
LikeLike
Gosh, the plunderers are stuffing their pockets in the midst of the wreckage. Looting what’s left.
LikeLike
Poor Charles. I thought he was paying attention here, apparently I was wrong.
It’s not about plundering what is there, it is about siphoning future federal funding into the pockets of the privatizing grifters. Monies that should be going to directly to the schools, students and teachers, for whom it should be theoretically intended, will never get there. But consultants, TFA, Pearson, investors, administrators, and other hangers-on will get those funds instead.
IF the Dems win the House, THEN we must make their lives miserable until they do something about this.
LikeLike
Charles spews the usual lies from the right. Puerto Rico was NOT a train wreck. Charles is a hollow cutout.
LikeLike
Puerto Rico had severe problems, and was in financial crisis, before Hurricane Maria. see
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/10/04/puerto-rico-debt-crisis-bankruptcy-donald-trump/731091001/
US territories cannot take bankruptcy.
LikeLike
Let them eat cake, right?
American citizens like you and me, Charles, but they speak Spanish.
Will you send cake?
LikeLike
Be fair. I did not say anything about what dessert the islanders eat. I am just saying that the island had severe financial troubles, long before the hurricane hit. The island has suffered terrible financial distress, and financial mismanagement.
The island is in a tropical zone, with plenty of sunshine, and the majority of their electricity is produced from fuel oil. With the trade winds, and their large quantity of sunshine, the island should switch their power production to wind and solar.
Territories are forbidden from taking bankruptcy, and they do not have the same financial relief laws, as states. This is not the fault of the island, the federal government has mandated this, and the islanders do not get a vote in the congress. (They are immune from most federal taxes), This is representation without taxation.
I am not a financial expert. The feds were working on a relief package, before the hurricane. The necessity of financial relief is more acute now.
I know that the islanders are US citizens. They deserve help and compassion.
LikeLike
Be fair. I did not say anything about what dessert the islanders eat. I am just saying that the island had severe financial troubles, long before the hurricane hit. The island has suffered terrible financial distress, and financial mismanagement. The island government is hamstrung by obsolete federal laws, which put the territories at a disadvantage in managing their financial affairs.
The island is in a tropical zone, with plenty of sunshine, and the majority of their electricity is produced from fuel oil. With the trade winds, and their large quantity of sunshine, the island should switch their power production to wind and solar. The island’s power grid and generators are antiquated.
Territories are forbidden from taking bankruptcy, and they do not have the same financial relief laws, as states. This is not the fault of the island, the federal government has mandated this, and the islanders do not get a vote in the congress. (They are immune from most federal taxes), This is representation without taxation.
I am not a financial expert. The feds were working on a relief package, before the hurricane. The necessity of financial relief is more acute now.
I know that the islanders are US citizens. They deserve help and compassion.
Congress needs to repeal the law that prohibits territories from taking bankruptcy, and bring the financial management laws of the territories up to the same standards as the states.
LikeLike
You can’t really blame political leaders in Puerto Rico.
The big shots in DC made them an offer- “accept our privatization scheme or no funding for you!”
To call that “consent” is a real stretch, but it’s SOP for ed reform. Not so much persuasion- more like coercion. That’s why they swoop in after disasters- not much resistance or critical analysis or really dissent of any kind. It’s very small “d” democratic and collaborative- do we want or you don’t get the money.
LikeLike
“That’s why they swoop in after disasters- …”
Hence the term disaster capitalism. I guess they think it makes the scavenging of what’s left sound better. so the robber barons make out while everyone else starves.
LikeLike
Not surprising. The money people have the power to do whatever they want with Puerto Rico—to disregard the will of the people, to take advantage of the people whenever and wherever they can just because they have the money to do so. Profits over people. May the Supreme Court Judges be held accountable for this awful decision during their lifetime. Shock after shock after shock—what more can the people of PR withstand? What can we do to help??? What do they need?? Who do we ask??
LikeLike
After just having read that public school supporting activists from Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and Detroit were fighting to prevent disaster capitalism from privatizing PR schools, I am extremely disappointed that the oligarchs were able to capture the PR Supreme Court. Democracy in Chains.
LikeLike
Neo-Carpetbaggers.
LikeLike
I have spent many years teaching within the Puerto Rican community in Philadelphia. One of the problems encountered was the transience of the students. Their families would live between Puerto Rico and the mainland and chunks of time would be lost. Most of the time, the students would not return to the same school. This caused them to lack of consistent basic skills.
LikeLike
I have spent many years teaching within the Puerto Rican community in Philadelphia. One of the problems encountered was the transience of the students. Their families would live between Puerto Rico and the mainland and chunks of time would be lost. Most of the time, the students would not return to the same school. This caused them to lack of consistent basic skills.
LikeLike
“Nothing can stand in the way of” education grifters. Oh the irony that PR’s privatizing head of education spent almost $17 mil. on a business firm in Calf. to teach ethics to students. Oh the irony that PR’s head of education makes 3 times the amount that PR’s governor makes.(The Nation) Well-funded U.S. propaganda machines pave the way for Puerto Ricans and Ohioans to continue to be fleeced. Chester Finn at his pinnacle.
LikeLike
This article ends with a question regarding the Puerto Rican per person debt estimated at $17,000. The debt has become an excuse for privatizing public services.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/08/puerto-rico-1427-hurricane-maria-deaths.html
LikeLike
That debt was caused by the hedge funders.
LikeLike
Useful idiots on the right- Jonah Goldberg, George Will, Jonathan Turley and Frederick Hess (unless they are duplicitous traitors to American democracy). The 4 woke up late to the consequences of their shilling for oligarch PR- “freedom” and “liberty”.
LikeLike
Useful idiots who claim to be on the left- the Center or American Progress for rejecting Michael Moore’s blueprint for Hillary’s campaign failure and for doubling down in service to hedge funders who rip off pensions and who spend big on charter schools.
LikeLike
Naomi Klein has been documenting the effects of disaster capitalism in Puerto Rico:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/08/naomi-klein-interview-puerto-rico-the-battle-for-paradise
But I suggest you not watch the following video on a full stomach, if the issues of colonialism and the predations of the wealthy concern you. It’s hard for me to describe the level of rage these crypto-tech bros inspire in me.
https://www.theguardian.com/changingmediasummit/video/2018/aug/09/the-perfect-storm-building-a-crypto-utopia-in-puerto-rico-video
LikeLike
When we despair, we go on because we remember “it is our duty to shelter the innocent from injustice and to protect the weak from oppression”
LikeLike