Ed Johnson is a persistent, tireless advocate for systemic improvement of the Atlanta Public Schools. As a systems analyst, he opposes school choice, which helps some and hurts others.
He wrote the following letter to the Atlanta School Board after watching the Inauguration ceremonies on January 20:
20 January 2021
Inauguration 2021: “America United” and “a Union with Purpose”
Joseph R. Biden
President, United States of America
Amanda Gorman
National Poet Laureate
Dear Atlanta Board of Education members:
We the people will have neither an “America United” nor “a Union with Purpose” as long as you continue to help pursue the ideological folly of school choice and charter schools with the aim of gradually but surely destroying public education and public schools.
The prayer and hope now is that each of you will reach into the deepest recesses of your heart and soul and extract any remnants of wisdom you find there that will lead you to understand that school choice and charter schools ideology is folly and absolutely contrary to there ever being an “America United” existing as “a Union with Purpose.”
The prayer and hope extend to you also finding the wisdom in your heart and soul to let go foolish Black racialist ideologues, such as one Howard Fuller, so that you may start living up to your sworn Oath of Office to uphold the Atlanta Independent School System as the public good it is supposed to be.
You swore, in part:
“In all things pertaining to my said office, I will be governed by the public good and the interests of said school system.”
However, your chairman and known Teach for America alum and Howard Fuller acolyte, Jason Esteves, recently intimated his election to the school board constitutes a mandate to impose his adherence to Black racialist ideology à la Howard Fuller upon the public good that is the Atlanta Independent School System.
School choice and charter schools ideology is not of, by, nor for the public good.
Neither is Black racialist ideology à la Howard Fuller and similar others.
Rather, school choice and charter schools ideology is of, by, and for private interests.
And so is Black racialist ideology à la Howard Fuller. Witness the demise of Fuller’s Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) after private interests cut off their money flow.
If you were to strive to fulfil your sworn Oath of Office, then maybe, just maybe, the Atlanta Independent School System, which is more commonly known as Atlanta Public Schools, will stand a good chance of becoming a public good with a purpose.
Right now, the Atlanta Independent School System has no purpose of its own.
Rather, the system has any number of default purposes, where, at any given moment, a default purpose will manifest as any coordinated number of purposes of any number of private interests.
Naturally, in keeping with school choice and charter schools ideology, the relatively new APS Office of Partnerships and Development and the relatively new APS Office of Innovation function, essentially, to steer the Atlanta Independent School System always toward soliciting, aligning to, and sustaining the purposes of varied private interests that aim to supplant public interests.
So, should you need prayer assistance with reaching deep into your heart and soul to find requisite wisdom essential to we the people ever having an “America United” existing as “a Union with Purpose,” much such assistance is generally available.
You only have to reach out and ask for it.
Ed Johnson
Advocate for Quality in Public Education
Atlanta GA | (404) 505-8176 | edwjohnson@aol.com
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I posted a link to this at OEN https://dianeravitch.net/2021/01/22/letter-from-a-connecticut-teacher-to-dr-cardona-stop-the-spring-tests/
MY 900 character intro: ‘We the people will have neither an “America United” nor “a Union with Purpose” as long as you continue to help pursue the ideological folly of school choice and charter schools with the aim of gradually but surely destroying public education and public schools. The prayer and hope now is that each of you will reach into the deepest recesses of your heart and soul and extract any remnants of wisdom you find there that will lead you to understand that school choice and charter schools ideology is folly and absolutely contrary to there ever being an “America United” existing as “a Union with Purpose;”’ says Ed Johnson, a systems analyst & tireless advocate for systemic improvement of the Atlanta Public Schools. He wrote this letter: ‘Inauguration 2021: “America United” and “a Union with Purpose” after watching the Inauguration ceremonies.”
My first comment The children. ARE the future Americans who will ensure this IDEA of democracy does not perish. The power elite do not want an educated citizenry. While they push the idea of freedom to choose — “the choice’ they offer is not a fine public system where every teacher knows what LEARNING LOOKS LIKE, and enables our future citizens to acquire genuine skills, and presents our children with evidence and information that is accurate and truthful.
With almost 16,000 separate school systems in 50 states, it is impossible for us to know what the power elite is ‘selling’ as ‘educational choice. They fill the local boards of education with folks who know nothing about ‘learning,’. People who will push the ‘tests’, which enrich the test makers, and offer nothing of value to our children
My second comment with link to your site :
The blog of Diane Ravitch is a MUST READ FOR ANYONE who wants to make sense of what is afoot on the American Landscape. Each day, she scours the nations most knowledgable sources, for the information. Go there. Get her newsletter. Know what is being done to create division, to destroy our future democracy, by disabling real education.
In a recent blog, about the Connecticut schools, she addressed the “testing” abuse. “Educators also know that the regime of profit-driven standardized testing will not improve teaching and learning. They never have.” https://dianeravitch.net/2021/01/22/letter-from-a-connecticut-teacher-to-dr-cardona-stop-the-spring-tests/
If educators are forced to teach to a test in order to increase graduation rates, students are merely learning how to take a test. This is antithetical to what 21st-century learning should look like: problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, project-based learning, capstone projects, creativity, and more.
If schools are pressured to close the achievement gap, but their only tools are computer programs that hold students hostage to rote “learning”, then students are not experiencing rich and meaningful learning. Only 21st-century learning experiences will increase graduation rates that are credible and that actually prepare students for a growingly complex world.
If equity means giving students in impoverished areas less rich and meaningful learning, by continuing the standardized testing regime, the equity gap will only increase. What students in impoverished areas need is much more of what students in more affluent areas already have. Connecticut’s discriminatory per-pupil expenditure disparity tells the whole, sad story.
I am sure I am going to groan with embarrassment when you answer this question, but here goes. What does OEN stand for? Google and Wikipedia among others are no help at all.
Public schools are a public service and a public asset. Communities should not be transferring ownership and responsibility to private corporations. Public schools belong to the communities they serve, not private companies.
“School Choice” is greedy, predatory pols instructing those not invited to the table to choose among floor scraps.
At Howard Fuller link: “public [sic] charter schools” are “the vehicle to ensure that their children get the best education possible.” “Possible,” as in this is all we got, all we can imagine, all anyone will fund, so mow your neighbors down and climb on their shoulders to grab it before they do.