The Providence Journal published a scathing editorial about Governor Gina Raimondo’s dereliction of duty in demanding the full opening of schools next month while failing to provide sensible plans to do so.
It is titled “Rhode Island’s Education System Goes from Mediocre to Just Plain Chaotic.”
Raimondo is a former venture capitalist who redesigned the state’s pension system by cutting them. She is also a “reformer” who welcomes charter schools and is a favorite of DFER. And she is chair of the Democratic Governors Association.
The editorial begins:
On June 10, Governor Gina Raimondo asserted that all students would be back in the classroom on August 31.
This was after her confusing narrative that Rhode Island was “#1 in online learning,” a claim that sends chills through frustrated parents, educators, and students who knew another reality this spring.
Raimondo nearly every day proclaims Rhode Island is #1 at something, but the reality is that Rhode Island may only be #1 in ridiculous claims of being #1.
No state is #1 in this pandemic and certainly, neither this state nor any other are winning anything — it is all different degrees of losing.
Raimondo is not responsible for the disease and she has made a number of solid decisions, but also some major errors. The decision to return infected hospitalized nursing home patients to nursing homes caused the additional unnecessary spread and deaths. This helped drive Rhode Islands’s per capita death rate to be the 5th highest in the United States.
As part of her Trump-like doctrine to return to schools, she ordered all of the school districts to develop “their own” plan for returning to the classroom.
This chaotic approach of asking beaten down administrators and faculty to develop their own plans with little support has been an exercise in futility and frustration. Doesn’t the state have the expertise on the disease?
One would hope the state’s consultants – paid millions via a no-bid contract – would have more expertise on best practices than a principal in Exeter-West Greenwich does on how to design a safe school environment to protect children and faculty.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The full array of members of the Democratic Governor’s Association can be found at this website, along with their photos. Although many have posted informative bios, some, like Raimondo, have conspicously avoided that.
You might be interested in visiting this website and commenting on any of the governors you know about, especially their policies on education. I think that many here are DINOS–Democrats in name only. https://democraticgovernors.org/governors/
Governor DeSantis has a plan for solving the education problem in Flor-uh-duh. Reopen schools fully in the middle of a pandemic, reduce the student and teacher population by a hundred thousand, and save the state a lot of money. Leadership.
BTW, Laura. You are missing peak mosquito season in Flor-uh-duh. I hear them plotting against me outside my window at night. Let’s give him Zika! I get the middle of his back! No, I called that first! Let’s all swarm him at once and carry him off to the swamp.
Raimondo should be thrown out of the Democratic Party. At least her inexcusable 2019 tenure as chair of the Democratic Governors Association has come to an end.
She promotes privatization because it helps the rich get taxpayer funding for their kids’ private and Catholic schools.
She is a graduate of Catholic schools.
Privilege protecting privilege?
A correlation study that’s warranted-
private school- educated politicians (and political appointees) who advance the 1%’s interests contrasted with the public school-educated cohort.
Raimondo is the worst. She came to Illinois & started this whole uproar about the teachers’ pensions creating the IL fiscal crisis: a right-wing group had invited her to a tony suburban event (of course, lot$ of wealthy people w/clout & belonging to groups decidedly against working people, unions &, esp., “other people’s children”).
She has been investigated by the S.E.C. &, of course, should have been indicted, & should be in jail.
Rhode Island: is anyone from there reading this? Get.Her.Out.Of.Office.
Cruella DeVos, appointed by the founder of a fraudulent “university,” protects fraudulent universities and refuses assistance to defrauded students
And then there’s this:
Trump and DeVos’s Plan to Reopen Schools Hides a Sinister Agenda
https://truthout.org/articles/trump-and-devoss-plan-to-reopen-schools-hides-a-sinister-agenda/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1afe72f5-a453-4b4c-af3a-a0a082a76d7b
Introducing disease into public schools to further destroy their reputations. It’s no less likely than unidentified federal forces under Trump’s control forcing protestors into unmarked vans.
Betsy DeVos – same demon seed as Erik Prince.
So, here’s a question: What is the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doing discussing the locations of ballistic missile bases with Melania Trump? Doesn’t that sound more than a little BIZARRE?
Quotation from this story:
The general [John E. Hyten] said, according to Spletstoser’s notes, that “the president wanted to sell nuclear-powered submarines to the South Koreans, and I had to talk him out of it, explaining why this was a bad idea.”
“Everything is about a business deal — that is how the president views things, through that lens,” Hyten added, per the Post.
“I also spent a lot of time talking to Melania Trump about the locations of all our intercontinental ballistic missile fields,” he continued. “She was more inquisitive and smarter than the president.”
https://news.yahoo.com/top-general-called-trump-idiot-195818993.html
Very frightening. This is the level of U.S. national security?
appalling
Maybe she is a Putin plant?
The Russians have been cultivating Trump since it was the Soviet Union. This is his second Czech wife who was a former model.
Melania isn’t Czech. She’s Slovenian.
Hello everyone,
This doesn’t really have to do with this post, but I was so moved by this speech. This is a powerful woman. Every young woman should watch how to stand up for yourself and other women.
Yoho belongs to a religious right church which likely explains his non-apology statement on the House floor, “I’m not going to apologize for loving my God”.
AOC is an American treasure.
AOC continues to impress. I doubt I will be alive in 20-30 years, but I sure wish I could see where she’s going. It’s really special to see. On another note, Yoho may be one of the more appropriately named persons in history. So close to Yahoo, Yoohoo, Wacko…
AOC-
The U.S. is lucky to have her- her skills and heart – one out of approx. 60,000,000. If Pelosi had more of AOC in her….
Representative AOC continues to win my admiration as she addressed the egregious behavior of Yoho. Yoho’s behavior was despicable, and his lack of a real apology speaks of weakness and not strength. What is it to be a man is something each male has to work out for himself as he matures. She delivered a series of blows, well placed in mentioning that how he treats women is a part of a general behavior that shows itself to people in his family and outside. That is generally true.
Representative AOC is one who I will continue to watch as she might very well one day run for president. So far she has many qualities which I like and of course one of those is to speak out, and not allow important issues to be swept under the proverbial rug.
People like Yoho slip through our measuring equipment and get into congress but they are not the best representatives. Donald Trump slipped through in spite of his insulting just about everyone on the Republican plate. But no one should have voted for him after he spoke about Fiorina’s face. I am not voting for anyone’s face. At that point he should have been dismissed as a potential candidate, with no further questions asked. A man who relies on insults is incapable of the discourse that will take the Nation upwards in its development, human and technological. We need to find meaningful ways to choose the best people to be in congress.
Raimondo has always been a disgraceful feckless sell-out to privatizers and charter grifters. If Dems more explicitly courted public sector unions and by extension public school teachers it would be a win/win. But clowns like Raimondo put the Dems squarely in the Republican ideological camp. I just don’t understand how anyone calling themselves a Democrat could continue to support exacerbating the wealth gap and feeding billionaires more middle-class wealth and power. The progressive wing of the democrat party needs to be listened to if the party is to have a future with young voters. Raimondo and her ilk are anachronistic dinosaurs like the Loch Ness monster.
If CAP could be dismantled, progressives would have more clout in the party.
CAP has lots of money. It’s the unofficial outpost for the Obama administration and will likely supply lots of appointments to the Biden administration.
Speaking of DINO’s, IIhan Omar’s Democratic primary challenger (Minnesota) has raised 5 times the amount she has. He was partner in an anti-union law firm. Based on her opponent’s legal summary of a Catholic labor case in 2012, I speculate his opinion in the civil rights law exemption for religious employers case (Biel v. St. James Catholic school), would have backed the religious leaders. It appears he has the support of the pro-Israel crowd who have big bucks. Maybe Sheldon Adelson has or will open his wallet for him.
Some in the prosperity religious right appear to be politically pivoting to advantage themselves. Anticipating Dem wins, they support DINO plants.
From May 20, 2020 Newsbreak, “The Minnesota Catholic Conference….sent Gov. Walz a letter announcing (it) will resume worship services on May 26 despite Gov. Walz current Covid 19 executive order.”
Antone Melton Meaux seems like the kind of guy who would betray the people of Flint, Mich. if CAP’s John Podesta suggested it. Or, like Clarence Thomas, he would be a standard bearer for the right wing.
I actually watched this clip of Trump (the real Trump) last night. Usually I find it so depressing (and not funny) that our president can be this inane, but Trump’s demeanor was so over the top that I could not stop howling with laughter. He was like a five year old full of pride he could count backward from 10.
And the Fox News sycophant “doctor” interviewer kept silently nodding and smiling, looking like the proud papa so pleased with his son’s amazing accomplishment.
(This is where I sorely miss Jon Stewart. His show would focus on the reporters and correspondents – not just at Fox but at the networks and the NYT – and instead of letting them get away with their sycophantic reporting, they were embarrassed.) It meant reporters had to do some self-reflection and be better if they didn’t want their sycophantic or “both sides do it” lousy journalism to go viral and make them look like fools to their friends and family and the rest of the world. There is a very humorous clip to be made of that Fox News “medical correspondent” who looked like the biggest fool and the clip of his embarrassing sycophancy should go viral.)
Confession: Even when I was younger, I have never performed well if I have to repeat back 5 words in order that were said out loud to me 20 minutes earlier. I found it much easier to absorb and retain information by reading it, not hearing it. Kudos for Trump (if he is telling the truth) because he far surpasses me in the ability to hear a list of 5 things and repeat it — in the same order! – 20 minutes later. His doctors were so amazed because “no one gets it in order!” Maybe having a head empty of anything except what is good for Trump is the reason Trump is so “cognitively there”. His “memory” is just amazing. Even days later, he can repeat those 5 words in order perfectly! If I was a conspiracy theorist, I might even suspect that he was given help memorizing them before the ‘test” and that’s why he can still repeat them in their exact order many days later. But I’m sure it is just his brilliant memory, which proves beyond a doubt his cognitive skills are the best in the world.
The test actually calls for repeating the list of very simple words five minutes later.
But Trump repeated those five words in perfect order days later – in front of America! So when Trump proudly explains how “cognitively there” that proves he is, how can any of us doubt it? Trump has done something that is far beyond my own cognitive abilities!
Did you ever take one of those cognitive tests and remember the list of words in the exact order days later? If not, you clearly aren’t as “cognitively there” as Trump.
Speaking of the Trump brood- Melania is younger than Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Kim’s father was a close advisor to Gavin Newsom and Kim was Gavin’s first wife. She
worked at Fox from 2006-2018 (requirements to survive at the network have been covered in movies and books). Kim was educated at Catholic schools and has had two divorces- family values of the religious right. She’s between 8 and 10 years older than junior.
So, Linda, I’m curious: was Guilfoyle originally a Democrat who switched parties?
Guilfoyle- party of opportunism; prosperity religion
Is Newsom a DINO or a Democrat?
Guilfoyle- a Republican since she first registered to vote at 18. Reportedly the Trump campaign pays her $180,000 a year via the Parscale Strategy firm checkbook.
I know it’s not politically correct to comment on a woman’s looks, but she really creeps me out. Perhaps the opportunistic ideology adds to it, but that’s one scary looking and sound person. So I’m superficial! Sue me!
Greg
Megyn Kelly is crafted in the same mold, like a Stepford Wife with different specifications- a simulated person.
A former Venture Capitalist? There’s an education data war in play. Who wins with distance learning?