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A Message from David Berliner about the Day of Action

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2018 //
7

David Berliner wrote a series of tweets, calling for a national teachers’ strike, on February 14, after the news of the massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That night, he combined the tweets into a short post, which I put online. That post received more than 100,000 views in a bit more than 24 hours. Clearly, many teachers, parents, and students were eager to find a way to express their sorrow and outrage.

This is the product of Dr. Berliner’s brilliant idea. 

David Berliner sent the following message as a follow-up:

“I think my essay, sent to Diane’s many followers, sparked the fire we now hope to build under the NRA. We have had enough. It’s a representative democracy and our representatives need to do what we want, not what the NRA wants.

“I had proposed May Day as the day of action. For lots of other reasons many groups preferred April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, as a day of remembrance and action. I will happily join with teachers and administrators. I will happily walk with school bus drivers and school lunchroom, janitorial, and maintenance staff. I hope also that the millions of ex-educators, parents and grand-parents are with us too, demanding safety for our children and our teachers. We need gun control and more widespread and better mental health services now!

“April 20th will be a day to show what democracy looks like. A day our citizens order our representatives to make us a safer nation.”

DCB

David C. Berliner
Regents’ Professor Emeritus
Arizona State University
120 E. Rio Salado Pkwy, #205
Tempe, AZ 85281-9116
Phone: 480-759-5049

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Education Reform, Guns in Schools, Resistance

Bill Phillis: Gubernatorial Candidates Pledge to Repeal Anti-Democratic Youngstown Plan

By dianeravitch
February 22, 2018 //
1

 

”The Youngstown Plan” was cooked up by corporate elites to strip democratic control from the people of the city and privatize their schools without their consent.

Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy writes:

“ The “Youngstown Plan” (HB 70) catches the attention of gubernatorial candidates

“Dennis Kucinich and Joe Schiavoni agree the legislation that removes boards of education from operation of school districts (HB 70) is bad public policy. Senator Joe Schiavoni has opposed HB 70 beginning with its morally-defective process of formulation, and passage. Dennis Kucinich proposes the repeal of this legislation.

“Not even the State Board of Education members were aware of this game-changing public policy until after the Governor signed the bill. This stealthy policy proposal became law in less than 24 hours after its introduction.

“Readers may recall the current Governor and the past Superintendent of Public Instruction; along with a half dozen or so Youngstown area folks, crafted this anti-democratic policy in dark underground chambers in the Mahoning Valley-away from public view.

“Now the boards of education for Youngstown and Lorain have been stripped of their rights to operate their respective districts.”

It is up to the voters of Ohio to stop this theft of democracy.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Ohio, Privatization

Indiana: GOP Legislator Proposes Total Privatization of Muncie School District

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2018 //
9

 

A Republican Legislator has proposed turning over the Muncie School District to Ball State University and allowing the University to replace the elected board with an appointed one of its choosing. Muncie currently has a large deficit and an emergency manager. The state has starved the schools of adequate funding.

“During a hearing on Thursday, Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, questioned the bill’s author, Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, and the university president about a provision that would exclude a BSU-run MCS from having to follow numerous education laws.

“The bill would allow BSU to govern financially distressed MCS effective July 1 by appointing a new seven-member school board to replace the current five-member elected school board.

“There is a list four pages long, Tallian said, of “a huge part” of the Title 20 education code that the school district would not be required to follow, such as collective bargaining rights for teachers, health insurance, “the entire body of the school transportation law,” accreditation, equal education opportunity, teacher licensing, “the whole body of law about school curriculum” and data reporting.”

Ball State’s record running charter schools is unimpressive, although it’s lab school has high ratings.

“A laboratory school is a school run by a university, like Ball State’s highly rated Burris Laboratory School, which has much less poverty among students and many fewer minority students than the city school district.

“Unlike teachers in Indiana’s traditional public schools, Burris teachers lack collective bargaining rights. Charter schools are not required to participate in collective bargaining with teachers, either.

“A charter school is a public school operating under a contract, or charter, between the school’s organizers and a charter school authorizer, such as BSU, which oversees but doesn’t manage more than two dozen charter schools around the state, nearly half of which are rated D or F.”

So Ball State runs a successful elite school on campus but nearly half its charters are rated D or F.

The people of Muncie are divided about whether this is a good idea.

Ball State thinks it will burnish the university’s reputation. The heads of businesses and law firm like it. Legislators say “it’s a done deal.”

This is how democracy dies. One step at a time.

Categories Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Indiana, Privatization

Some Good Counsel for the President on Presidents‘ Day

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2018 //
14

 

On February 13, the New York Times published a great full-page ad that consisted of quotes from previous presidents and other eminent people. It was titled “Mr. President, in anticipation of Presidents‘ Day consider the following words of counsel and caution.”

The ad contains  57 quotes. The article was summarized in Forbes, including some of them.

I could not find a link to the ad.

Here are some of the quotes.

1. Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough. President Franklin D. Roosevelt

2. Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may Be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of things. President John Adams

3. Let us not seek the Tepublican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.  Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past, let us accept responsibility for the future. President John F. Kennedy

4. Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

5. The freedom of speech may be taken away—and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. President George Washington

6. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. President Harry S Truman

7. I would rather the man who presents something for my consideration subject me to a Zephyr of truth and a gentle breeze of responsibility rather than blow me down with a curtain of hot wind. President Glover Cleveland

8. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President…is morally treasonous to the American public. President Theodore Roosevelt

9. How can we love our country, and not also love our countrymen. President Ronald Reagan

10. We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant. President Jimmy Carter

11. No person was ever honored for what he earned. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. President Calvin Coolidge

12. He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. Benjamin Franklin

13. Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. President John Quincy Adams

21. Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. President Thomas Jefferson

23. This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in. President Theodore Roosevelt

30. Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. Albert Einstein

36. There is nothing new in the world e  pet the history you do not know. President Harry S Truman

40. It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. President Herbert Hoover

41. When you single out any particular group of citizens for secondary citizenship status, that’s a violation of basic human rights. President Jimmy Carter

44. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

45. A people who values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. President Dwight D. Eisenhower

50. Leave the matter of religion to the Family altar, the church, and the private school. Keep the church and the state forever separate. President Ulysses S. Grant

52. No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. President Abraham Lincoln

54.You can give a man an Office, but you cannot give him Discretion. Benjamin Franklin

56. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. President Harry S Truman

57. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

 

 

Categories Character, Citizenship, Courage, Democracy

The New York Times Editorial Board Aligns with DeVos and Koch Brothers on Education Policy

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2018 //
57

 

The New York Times is a  great newspaper. It is the most influential newspaper in the world. It has great reporters and opinion writers.

But, sadly, the New York Times has one glaring deficiency: its editorials on education echo the greedy, free-market views of Betsy DeVos and the Koch brothers.

One person, Brent Staples, has written almost every education editorial for many years. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago. He is a brilliant man with a libertarian blind spot. Perhaps he studied under Milton Friedman or one of his mentees.

Whatever the case, the editorials of the Times sound as if they were written by the public relations staff of Charles Koch or Betsy DeVos.

New York Times: The time has come to decide which side you are on: those who care for the common good or those who believe in me first.

Note to the New York Times: defend democracy, not the plutocrats and privatization.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Democracy, Koch Brothers

BREAKING NEWS: Arizona Parents and Educators Win Legal Ruling vs. Koch Brothers

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2018 //
20

Great news!

SOS Arizona scored a significant legal victory over the billionaire Koch brothers in court.

After the legislature passed a bill expanding vouchers, SOS Arizona collected enough signatures to force a referendum on the expansion. Republicans intend to keep expanding until every student in the state is eligible to leave public schools.

The Koch brothers know that Arizona is ground zero in the fight to destroy public schools so they hired a legal team to knock the referendum off the ballot. They are afraid to submit their plan to the Democratic will of the voters. The Koch’s even got the legislature to pass a bill denying the tight of parents to sue, but it was too late.

“In a six-page ruling made public Tuesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret Mahoney ruled that the law in effect last year when a referendum on voucher expansion was filed did not give individuals the right to challenge petition drives.

“Mahoney acknowledged that lawmakers voted to create an individual challenge option last year, but that change took effect on Aug. 9.

“The petitions demanding a public vote on voucher expansion were turned in on Aug. 8. Quite simply, Mahoney said, there is no legal basis for the challenge to those petitions.

“The judge also rejected the contention by voucher supporters that some of the petitions had to be thrown out because the required signature of the person notarizing the document did not precisely match the name on the notary’s official stamp. Mahoney said the law doesn’t require that.

“Mahoney also rejected the contention that some petition circulators made false statements to would-be signers about what the voucher expansion law would do if allowed to take effect, including that it would be the rich who benefit. The judge said voucher supporters, in filing suit, did not identify who made such statements, to whom they were made, how they were false, and whether the person who heard the comments relied on the statements in signing the petitions.”

The lawyer for the Koch brothers vowed to appeal.

The Kochs are terrified of democracy.

A Note from SOS Arizona:

“Judge dismisses lawsuit against Save Our Schools Arizona

“We want you to be the first to know: the dark money groups that sought to prevent Arizona voters from having a say on Proposition 305 in November have gone down in defeat in Arizona Superior Court.

“In her ruling, the Honorable Margaret R. Mahoney dismissed the lawsuit “in its entirety.”

“Join us in savoring this victory, which began when we turned in your petitions and your signatures on August 8, 2017.

“While many battles remain and our opponents will likely appeal the ruling, let’s take a moment together to enjoy this huge triumph.

“Thank you for all you’ve done and will continue to do!

“The Save Our Schools Arizona Core Team”

Beth Lewis, Chair
Alison Porter, Campaign Manager
Cathy Sigmon, Treasurer
Dawn Penich-Thacker, Communications Director
Melinda Iyer, Managing Editor
Sharon Kirsch, Director of Research & Training
Allegra Fullerton, Field Manager

Please help with a contribution. Send whatever you can afford. I did. I hope you will too.

Donate

Categories Arizona, Democracy, Education Reform

Congressman Joe Kennedy’s Eloquent Response to Trump’s SOTU

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2018 //
65

 

Congressman Joe Kennedy responded to Trump’s State of the Union speech, speaking from a public high school in Fall River, Massachusetts.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/rep-joe-kennedy-iii-gives-democratic-response-to-state-of-the-union/

13 minutes.

Worth watching to remember what this country is supposed to be.

Categories Democracy

How Bill Gates Financed the Common Core from A to Z

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2018 //
71

Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, President Obama,  and others who promoted the “Common Core State Standards” like to say that they were developed by the states, by governors, by teachers, by people at the grassroots.

Not so.

This article by Lyndsey Layton in the Washington Post explains that Bill Gates financed the CC from start to finish.

It was, as she writes, “a swift revolution,” though some might say a coup.

Gates put up an unknown huge sum. Some say $200 million, others think the total might be as much as $2 billion.

Two points need to be considered.

One, Gates and others wrongly assumed that the biggest problem in American education was its variation, its diversity, its lack of uniformity. Gates made several speeches about the need for uniform standards, comparing them to standards for electricity, allowing anyone to plug in an appliance anywhere. It never occurred to him that children are not toasters and teachers are not merely deliverers of content. He seemed to completely ignore the close correlation between family income and academic performance.

Two, the Common zcore Standards moved so rapidly that they became toxic. Trump ran against them, though he probably didn’t know what they were. In a few years, they will be forgotten, obsolete. Standards for electricity may be national and stable. Teaching and learning are dynamic, dependent on the social conditions of families and children, as well as changing knowledge of teaching and learning.

All that money down the drain.

Categories Common Core, Democracy, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

“Big Money Rules”: My Review of Two Books about the War on the Public Sector

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2018 //
10

This is a review of two important books.

One is Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth for America.”

The other is Gordon Lafer’s “The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time.”

Categories ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Democracy, Koch Brothers

Linda Lyon: Why Our Public Schools Matter

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2018 //
9

 

Linda Lyon is the president of the Arizona School Boards Association. She is a retired officer in the U.S. Air Force. She served her country in the military and continues to serve it by her participation in defense of public schools.

Colonel Lyon made this stirring video about democracy and public education. It is short and powerful. Please watch and share with your friends via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Show it to your PTA, the school board, the town council, the League of Women Voters, and every other group committed to strengthening the common good.

This video was sponsored by the Network for Public Education and produced, directed, and edited by Michael Elliott, a professional cinematigher

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Education Reform, Network for Public Education
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