Billy Townsend tells the story in this post of Hillsborough County in Florida, where parents and community activists are actively resisting the State Legislature’s demand for privatization of public schools.
It is a fascinating post that shows that regular people can beat big money and political power when they get angry enough about scams and shady real estate deals and schools that exclude limited-English-proficient children and children with disabilities.
Here is a small part of the story:
The anti-privatization, anti-fraud, pro-human being approach to public education in Florida — of which I’m proud to have been an early advocate — was politically ascendant in this state at the community level when COVID struck and temporarily overshadowed it.
Now it’s back, thanks to Hillsborough; and it’s much more consequential than the performative battles over 2024 presidential election talking points currently making the most news.
This movement elected me in 2016 in Polk County. It got rid of former Senate President Joe Negron’s wife a couple years ago. It purged a number of voucher-loving Democrats in recent primaries. It helped Karen Castor Dentel in Orange County win 72 percent of the vote in August after the charter industry labeled her “Public Enemy Number 1.” (They also labeled me “Public Enemy Number 1,” which is the name of this newsletter now. Yes, they had two number 1s.)
Open the link and be inspired.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
DeSantis and his cronies act like the ‘Mafia’ or perhaps The Third Reich. The governor is moving many functions of local governance to the state level. He is trying to neutralize local community school boards. DeSantis is a would be dictator, and he does not want any resistance to his agenda which includes the demolition of the state’s public schools. The governor supports the monetization of young people, particularly in communities of color. He knows that privatization is tool of gentrification that provides multiple streams of revenue for the politically well-connected. DeSantis continues to stamp out local governance, and most of the legislature shares his vision as well.
Hillsborough will not go quietly, and resistance is a must. Savvy locals have organized to fight back. Even though they are out spent in local elections, local communities can push back against unreasonable autocratic rule. As long as people have the power to vote, they can make change. While it may not be easy, it can be done through grassroots organizing and community outreach. In order to impede the privatization juggernaut, people must actively defend their public schools as the people in Hillsborough County,FL, continue to do.
And as expected, the education commissioner has threaten to withhold funding due to Hillsborough County denying the charter school contract renewals.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2021/06/23/corcoran-threatens-hillsborough-school-board-over-charter-school-denials/
I posted the link to his page at OpED News https://billytownsend.substack.com/p/hillsborough-county-restarts-the?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMjg3OTQ0LCJwb3N0X2lkIjozNzc0ODYwMCwiXyI6ImZwV1FuIiwiaWF0IjoxNjI0MDYzNjM4LCJleHAiOjE2MjQwNjcyMzgsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xNjIyMDYiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.7Gc8gkrmM-n6rHZuEiNoTPHJ7o7iZ7A8ltt436c–u8
The mover and shakers that are the privatizers are all public enemy #1, and what they are doing to destroy our public schools should be not only a felony but lead to a life sentence in a maximum-security prison without parole. Since Florida is also a death penalty state, I think the death penalty should be included as a punishment for a private felony.
If you click the next link and look at the colored map that shows the death penalty states, it sort of looks like GOP-Traitor-Trump land. Red is Red.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state