This is a message from theNetwork for Public Education.
2019 will be the year of the public school, with your help and support.
“From West Virginia to California teachers are boldly standing up for themselves, their students and their schools. Teachers are walking out due to a lack of sufficient funding, which has resulted in the deterioration of salaries, fewer services for children and increased class size.
“They are also making it clear that they understand why public school funding has been drained. Privatization schemes like charters and vouchers have made school funding a competition, not a public obligation.
“As Oakland Education Association President, Keith Brown, told the Washington Post:
More than $50 million is diverted every year to charter schools while our students have a 1,750 to 1 ratio for students to school nurses and 600 to 1 for guidance counselors. The charter schools that capture our dollars lack financial transparency and accountability standards…
“In West Virginia, teachers and school service workers had a two-day walk out to show their opposition to provisions in proposed legislation that would have created the state’s first charter schools and allowed vouchers in the form of education savings accounts (ESAs).”
Open the link to find the NPE toolkit, which shows how YOU can make 2019 the year of the public school.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think teachers stepped into a space that was empty. Ed reformers may disagree with them, but they’re the only people advocating on behalf of existing public schools.
If ed reform had anything positive to offer families in public schools other than “enroll in this charter” or “take this voucher and flee” the space they’re filling probably wouldn’t have existed, or would have been much smaller.
I encourage public school families and others who support existing public schools to go read any ed reformer (including the US Department of Education) and look for ANYTHING positive they offer to students and families in existing public schools. They offer nothing. In fact, most of what they propose involves public schools losing something they already have. It’s such an echo chamber they don’t even see how negative they appear to public school families. The BEST they offer is “your schools will probably continue to exist, because obviously we can’t privatize all of them, immediately”. That’s the UPSIDE.
They’re “education advocates” who at best ignore 90% of schools and at worst actively weaken them. That’s their offer. Then they’re shocked when people don’t jump at it.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Let-s-Make-2019-The-Year-in-General_News-Education-Costs_Education-For-All_Education-Funding_Education-K-12-190225-447.html#comment726241
with these comments
comment 1 Submitted on Monday, Feb 25, 2019
Diane Ravitch was asst, Sec’y of Education, and has been fighting for our public schools at her blog.
She saw the power elite, after Citizens United, create PACS to spend billions on dismantling the public schools and privatizing education…making it a market –lie they did to health care… with the same results. IN creating the NPE, with its fabulous leadership, YOU now have a place to go in order to GET THE FACTS!
Please, go there and learn what you can do to stop the Demolition of our Public Schools, –because, you see, the ONLY road to INCOME EQUALITY is in LEARNING the skills and knowledge needed to do work.
This wonderful animated graph on income equality from years ago.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
. shows what is happening as the POWER Elite control our congress and give it al to the 1/0th of 1%
At the Oped link is a graph from today’s NY Times that shows how the income of the very rich have grown FASTER than THE ECONOMY WHILE THE MIDDLE CLASS HAS FALLEN BEHIND.
IF PUBLIC SCHOOLS FAIL, then there will be NO middle class.

comment 2 links at Oped.
I have been explaining forever, that the move to demolish public edcuation is in fact the PLOY to end democracy, which depends on shared knowledge, as E.D. Hirsch famously said!
Here at OEN, see my many series which follow the devastation of our public schools, as the INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION is decimated by the ‘reformers’ who sell privatization (I.e charter schools and vouchers)as ‘choice.’
BTW… I found the Ultican article at The Ravitch blog, which is a treasure. Everyone should read, or at least follow her posts.
and while you are considering the TRUTH read A Layman’s Guide to the Destroy Public Education Movement
This comprehensive overview of the movement to destroy public education (DPE) describes their methods and names the leaders–a small group of billionaires undercutting democracy and privatizing public schools, and it is financed by several large non-profit, tax-exempt organizations. Without this spending, there would be no wide-spread public school privatization. The game plan, varies from district to district aims for the same result: The dismantling of democratic control of public schools. “Almost all of the education reform initiatives coming from the DPE forces are bunkum, but their hostility to democracy convinces me they prefer a plutocracy or an oligarchy to democracy. The idea that America’s education system was ever a failure is an illusion. It is by far the best education system in the world plus it is the foundation of American democracy. If you believe in American ideals, protect our public schools.”
About time.
Teachers should be telling the politicians and the oligarchs what to do. Everyone would be better off.
Teachers’ Strikes Are Rattling Washington. This Hearing in the U.S. House Is Proof.
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/21747/hearing_denver_public_schools_teachers_wages_house_of_representatives?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=0e06068b-bbb5-49ed-b21b-b502f3c1dccc
One group that presumably won’t be celebrating public schools is New America, funded by Google’s Eric Schmidt. N.A.’ s new president is a Broadie. And, she was with privatizers in New Orleans and Chicago- Arne Duncan’s crowd.
Democrats should be made aware that they can’t run fast enough nor, far enough from “neoliberals”.
Corey Booker, Hakeem Jeffries and Susan Davis, the stars of tech monopolists and hedge funds, can rely on Neera Tanden of the Gates-funded Center for American Progress to run interference for them. She went ballistic at Bernie’s recent suggestion that candidates should not be assumed to represent a constituency based solely on an identifier like race or gender.
Interestingly, Colbert, who fawned over Bill Gates a few weeks ago on his program, appears to agree with Tanden.
Stopping right wing school privatization, while a Black President supported it was daunting. But, we’re all learning the Dem establishment expects compromises to be made by their candidates, even if it’s selling out America’s most important common good.
CAP and DFER are siblings and they’re not liberal nor are they welcome among true Democrats.
I will do as NPE asks, but I must admit to believing these days, weeks, or months are mostly fluff and can actually be counterproductive. First, on a practical level, has any of these commemorative awareness ever changed how anyone reading this thinks or has thought about an issue? Has it changed behavior?
These can also serve as rhetorical cover for public officials who really don’t support or do anything substantive for the issue being highlighted. I am, for example, sick and tired of elected officials smilingly posing with patients holding commemorative resolutions about this or that disease month when I know they have voted against or ignored issues like research funding, access to insurance, or supportive services. They then use these in constituent correspondence—I’m writing from experience—with answers like, “I supported this or that day or month,” without actually addressing substantive issues.
In my opinion, the only way these are helpful is if they are part of an overall strategy tied to specific legislation or administrative action. These are great times to get commitments and expose hypocrisies. If they don’t change behavior of opponents, all they do is provide a political sugar high for the people behind them that is quickly dissolved into continued frustration. A photo up and nice piece of paper alone don’t go far.
I will do it too, but it doubt it will have much impact here in Florida where the almost all representatives ride the privatization gravy train.
I fear they will use this as an opportunity to highlight “public” charter schools.
rule #1: Never give up. Never. Never. Never.
We’re not giving up. If substantive change is the goal, I believe this is a misplaced use of resources. It has to be a tactic as part of a larger strategy, not a one time thing that causes warm, fuzzy (empty) feelings. If there’s anyone out there with a story about how one of these commemorative days/weeks/months led to fundamental change on any issue under the sun, please feel free to put me in my place.
Counter narratives are necessary. The fact that no Democrats showed up at this year’s School Choice week (substantially because of Diane), made a difference in talking points. The opposite occasion, Public School Week, provides opportunity to distinguish contractor schools from public schools.
If NPE has connections with the late night comedians… there could be humorous mocking of the billionaire boys club timed with public school week… a commemorative event to honor “Contractor School Ca-Balls” in the Hamptons, Palm Beach and Silicon Valley.
2019, so far, has been for me personally, the greatest professional year of my life. Going on strike to fight privatization and school district austerity was deeply fulfilling. It unified the teachers. It unified the community (the real community, not the corporate “community”). It made my family and friends prouder of me than ever before. The fight to save public education has begun! Check out the NPE toolkit! And to all teachers and teachers union leaders who read this — hi, New York City — I highly recommend going on strike to protest charter scamming, merit pay scheming, TFA deprofessionalizing, large class sizing, and/or classroom underfunding. I feel like the last line of Tale of Two Cities, and I am still alive!
Up until now, public education’s most significant contribution was instilling the virtues of a great nation in successive generations. Where private schools failed to teach students like Donald Trump, where they failed in instilling a work ethic and compassion, instead instilling entitlement, public schools succeeded in creating a great engine that drives fairness and productivity.
Now and going forward, teachers have an equally important role. They are pivotal to democracy at a watershed moment.
Thanks especially to you, LCT.
Greatly appreciated, Linda.