Archives for category: Democracy
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Christine Langhoff: Boston Parents Mobilize to Fight Stealth Charters and Vouchers

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
3

Retired teacher Christine Langhoff reports that Boston parents are organizing to fight the new assault on public schools.”Unified enrollment” and the Gates Compact are both intended to confuse parents and put charter schools on an equal footing.

She writes:


Parents called a meeting on Sunday afternoon, organized on FaceBook, and with a few hours’ notice, some 150 people were in attendance. A previously scheduled School Committee hearing strected to 7 hours on Wednesday, as an overfilled meeting room spilled out into adjacent corridors with parents and teachers (many who are also parents) giving voice to their anger. The various excuses coming from the mayor and the superintendent’s offices have pacified no one.

/var/folders/hn/j1xzh16976b90xg7frzr8wbr0000gp/T/com.apple.iChat/Messages/Transfers/Image 12-15-17 at 12.44 PM.jpg

Here’s a parent’s report: https://schoolyardnews.com/parents-say-no-to-new-start-times-at-marathon-school-committee-meeting-e9489b794c94

Behind all of this is the Gates-funded Boston Compact, which seeks Unified Enrollment that would put charter and Catholic schools on the form parents must use for enrollment in public schools, and seems to be a piece of the transportation issue given as a rationale for all these schedule changes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ODfIL1gGu8DiHan87MPE2azE6IM3ynSN/view

Thomas Birmingham is credited in the lore of ed reform as the legislator who put Massachusetts on the shining path to glory with his 1993 legislation. It gave more state money to public schools, and grew out of a lawsuit about equity. It also allowed the first charters to open in the state. Now Birmingham is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Pioneer Institute, which is a proponent of directing public money to charters and religious schools. On Friday, Birmingham published an article in a Boston Catholic paper proposing that Catholic schools receive public money. He claims that because the Blaine Amendment was founded on anti-Catholic bigotry of the 1850’s, it should be overturned.

https://www.thebostonpilot.com/opinion/article.asp?ID=181036

Remember, the Catholic Church in Boston not only failed to protect children from sexual abuse at the hands of its pedophile priests, but in a conspiracy that led all the way to the Cardinal, they hid the truth, allowing rape and abuse to continue as they moved offenders from one parish to another. Perhaps in an era where Betsy DeVos seeks to destroy that wall between church and state in our public schools, it seems an opportune moment to push for public funding of Catholic education. The #MeToo movement ought to be a reminder that it is not.

Categories Boston, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, School Choice, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

Anika Whitfield: Democracy Won in Alabama

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
7

Anika Whitfield is a civic leader and pastor in Arkansas. She is active in Grassroots Arkansas, pushing back against state takeovers of public schools.

She writes:

“The people decided, the people voted and no money, no threats, no evil bullying, no voter suppression kept the people from speaking up against injustice, immorality and inequity. Tonight we saw votes roll in across a state where the mass media had convinced voters that a man, who had a record for breaking the law though he took an oath more than once to uphold it as a professional, would win an election because fear (false evidence appearing real) and deceit were the new order of the day. However, or if I could borrow a colloquial term, howsoever, the media and the pollsters were wrong. Victory came through the intentional votes of people of acute awareness in real matters that matter to real people. Victory came through the daily sweat, tears, sacrifices, and resources of people who were sick and tired of being sickened by tired people who do more harm than good with their false rhetoric and their hypocritical actions based in a distorted theology. People who call spades spades while delivering justice through the ballot spoke with a resounding voice in Alabama tonight. This wasn’t just about political parties. This was about stopping manufactured privilege and unchecked power. This was about putiting legs to “no more unchecked power,” “no more murdering truth on my street,” “no more hijacking Evangelical Christianity,” “no more bombing innocent people with your hands and your hate filled heart.” This was the beginning of the penning of a new song and a new day in America where we will truly begin to hear freedom ringing in the hood and in the workplace, in the courtrooms and on the Congressional floor. This was the page turner from the previous chapters of a horror story, to the triumphant victory over the cowardly villain and his weak-minded cohorts.

Democracy is winning and we ought to do more than just ride the wave. We ought to create some more waves so that more people can enjoy the ride with us. After all, until everybody is free, none of us are!

Congratulations Alabama voters, Senator-elect Doug Jones, and America for a beautiful moment in our history. Looking foward to more beautiful moments like this with more consistency!

Three cheers for Democracy at its best!!!

Categories Alabama, Democracy

Robert Kuttner: Democracy Won in Alabama, A Narrow Margin, But a Win Nonetheless

By dianeravitch
December 13, 2017 //
12

Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect sums up the Alabama election: Democracy held.

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Kuttner on TAP

The election of Doug Jones portends several hopeful things. First, it shows that under the right circumstances, 30 percent of white Alabamians will vote for a Democrat, even a pro-choice Democrat; and that black anger can be turned into black voter mobilization. We may have a biracial progressive coalition yet.

Second, it deepens the schisms in the Trump-era Republican Party. The defeat of Roy Moore made a fool of Steve Bannon, and forced Trump into one of his bizarre dances with the truth: He was against Moore before he was for him. Most obviously, the win gives Democrats one more crucial Senate seat.

But let’s not kid ourselves. This victory was a one-off, and everything had to break right for Jones. It took a GOP candidate not only as fringe as Moore, but one who is also an accused child molester; combined with Alabama’s other Republican senator, Richard Shelby, denouncing Moore almost on election eve and refusing to support him; and Mitch McConnell signaling that he’d refuse to seat Moore. And with all of that, Jones won by just 1.5 points—barely more than the margin of theft.

Even so, coming in the wake of the Democrats’ stunning blue wave on Election Day, this win continues the momentum, and the narrative of Democrats on the march and Republicans in disarray. As Trump becomes increasingly unhinged by a resurgence of sexual complaints against himself, combined with Special Counsel Robert Mueller closing in on Trump’s own obstruction of justice, it’s not a great time to be a Republican.

Most importantly, in a state that is one of the worst offenders when it comes to voter suppression, with a long history of denying voting rights to blacks, democracy held. Given all the threats of the Trump era, that is the best news of all. ~

ROBERT KUTTNER

Categories Alabama, Democracy

Thank You, Alabama, for Electing Doug Jones!

By dianeravitch
December 12, 2017 //
28

Thank you, Alabama!

You rebuffed not only Roy Moore, you rejected Trump and Bannon.

You rejected racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and all the other appeals to hatred and disunity.

Doug Jones brought together whites, African Americans, Latinos in a spirit of dignity and respect.

I have been hearing from family members tonight who say their faith and hope for the future is renewed.

Thank you, Alabama, and Thank you, Doug Jones, for renewing our hope.

Categories Alabama, Democracy, Hope

Steven Singer: The GOP Tax Scam and the Triumph of Plutocracy

By dianeravitch
December 2, 2017 //
46

The way the Senate Republicans rammed through a tax bill that affects everyone in the country without hearings or debates, without allowing Democrats to read the bill before the vote was taken, is an assault on basic democratic values.

Senator John McCain spoke eloquently during the health care debate about the need to return to normal order, where both parties work together, but even he abandoned what seemed to his principles.

There were no principles to be seen during the debacle in the Senate.

Steve Singer writes here about this rush to redistribute money to the wealthiest in our society, while telling baldfaced lies about its true purposes.

“I am no fan of the corporate Democrats who have taken over what used to be a progressive party. But we can’t blame them for this one.

“This scandal belongs entirely on the shoulders of Republicans.

“The Dems even offered a resolution to delay the vote so that legislators had a chance to read it. All 52 Republicans voted against it!

“This is what happens when the people lose control of their government.

“This is what happens when the rich control lawmakers with their money.

“There is no longer any doubt that we no longer live in a Republic. We no longer have any form of representative Democracy. We live in a pure plutocracy.

“The rich pay the representatives and the representatives do what the rich want.

“The wealthy are their real constituents. We are merely patsies told polite falsehoods to keep us in line.

“You have no political power.

“None.

“Governments get their legitimacy from the consent of the governed.

“You did not give your consent to give away more than a trillion dollars to rich douchebags who don’t need it. But Republicans gave it to them anyway.

“Therefore, our government has no legitimacy.

“We are an occupied people.

“We are the victims of a palace coup.”

There will be an election in 2018.and another in 2020.

We must take back our government.

Time to #Drantheswamp. It is full of snakes and alligators.

Categories Democracy, Economy, Fraud, Hoax

Yesterday in San Diego….

By dianeravitch
December 2, 2017 //
52

I spoke to the California School Boards Association yesterday, at its annual meeting in San Diego. I love San Diego. It is on the ocean and always beautiful, with a temperate climate. I had dinner the night before I spoke, with Cindy Marten, the superintendent of the San Diego district. As in the past, we had dinner at Miguel’s in Old Town. The one thing I have never been able to find in NYC is good Mexican food. When I first moved to NYC in 1960, after marrying a Native New Yorker, a friend told me that Texans in the city were always looking for Mexican food and always disappointed. In San Diego, I am never disappointed.

I spoke to a very large and friendly audience at the Convention Center. A few thousand people. I didn’t see any empty seats. When the video is released, I will post it. I was preceded by Marshall Tuck, who is running for State Superintendent and sure to have the support of the charter industry. We spoke in the Green Room, and he assured me that he would lead the fight to ban for-profit charters. The charter industry in the state is unregulated and unaccountable.

In my speech, I went through the history of NCLB and Race to the Top, and the damage they have done to students, teachers, and public schools. I then dissected the negative impacts of standardized testing and its utter uselessness as currently implemented. I pointed out that the achievement gap can never be closed with standardized tests because they are designed on a bell curve, and the bell curve never closes.

I then ticked off the many charter scandals in the state, the inevitable result of a total absence of supervision. I listed scam after scam. I reiterated the conclusions and recommendations of the NAACP report on charters.

My theme was the relationship between public schools, citizenship, and democracy.

When I concluded, I received a standing ovation.

Later, I was sitting in the lobby, waiting to meet a friend from Los Angeles and chatting with people who had heard me speak. One woman stepped up and said, “I walked out on your speech. It was too political. There’s no room for politics her.” She turned on her heel and left. I happened to be sitting with another member of the same school board, and I asked him, “What did she find ‘too political?’”

He said, “She’s a Trump supporter. You mentioned Trump in your opening remarks.”

That was true. I started by mentioning that Trump wants to cut federal funds for education by 13%, and he wants to shift $20 Billion to charters and vouchers.” These are factual statements. But the board member objected and walked out.

I can accept that people disagree. What I find hard to understand is an unwillingness to face plain and incontrovertible facts.

Anyway, I’m writing this on the airplane home. The CSBA was incredibly gracious. I met hundreds of people who are passionate about public schools. I’m looking to them to carry on the fight for better schools in their communities and at the ballot box.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Citizenship, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Testing

“Big Money Rules”: My Review of Two Important New Books

By dianeravitch
November 27, 2017 //
22

This is my review of two very important books: Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America” and Gordon Lafer’s “The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time.”

Both books are important for understanding the undermining and capture of our democracy.

Both books explain the theory and practice of destroying the public sector for ideology and/or profit.

Read the review for a better understanding of the roles played by the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, and ALEC.

Categories ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Corporate Reform, Dark Money, Democracy, Koch Brothers

My Speech at Oberlin, in Graphics: The War On Public Education

By dianeravitch
November 19, 2017 //
26

This fabulous graphic is a summary of my speech at the conference on “The State of American Democracy,” identified by the acronym SAD. The conference was sponsored by Oberlin College at the college in Oberlin, Ohio, and it will be held with different participants in three other locations over the next several months. I spoke about the “War on Public Education.” In my talk, I forgot to mention that more than 90-95% of charters are non-union, and that their primary sponsor is the Walton Family Foundation, which is anti-union. That was an important omission in an audience that is mostly comprised of progressives. Jonathan Alter, who is very knowledgeable about national politics, leapt up to defend charter schools and objected to being lumped in with the DeVos agenda, which includes both charter schools and vouchers; Jon loves KIPP. I cited Katherine Stewart, who said in her article in “The American Prospect” that religious extremists had made “useful idiots” of the charter movement.

Early in my talk, I asked how many of those in the room had gone to public schools, and about 90% of the 300 or so people raised their hands. That included the new President of Oberlin College, Carmen Twillie Ambar, who graduated from public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the first African American female president of this historic college.

This is the wonderful graphic that was created as I spoke, by a brilliant artist, Jo Byrne (seeyourwords.com):

devos

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Democracy, School Choice, Vouchers, Walton Foundation

At the NPE Conference, Dr. Charles Foster Johnson Explains How Pastors for Texas Kids Fought Against Vouchers and for Funding Public Schools

By dianeravitch
November 17, 2017 //
2

I forgot to include the link on this post, so I am reposting.

This was one of the best keynote speeches from the fourth annual conference of the Network for Public Education in Oakland. They were moving, inspiring, powerful.

Please watch Dr. Charles Foster Johnson of Pastors for Texas Kids explain how he got involved in the fight for public education and why men and women of faith communities must support public schools and protect separation of church and state.

Charlie Johnson is a wonderful speaker. He is working with his peers in other states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona, and Indiana. When he finished talking, he was swarmed by people from the South and Midwest, seeking his help and advice.

You will enjoy and learn from his presentation.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Democracy, Funding, Justice, Religion, Separation of church and state, Supporting public schools, Texas

Congratulations, Philadelphia! State Control Ends After Nearly Two Decades of Failed Privatization

By dianeravitch
November 17, 2017 //
1

Big news!

Today state control of the schools officially ends.

A concerted effort by parents and citizens of Philadelphia ended the city’s long and disastrous trial of state control. Paul Vallas, the Edison Project, charters, a steady stream of efforts to privatize the schools and hand control over to someone else. Meanwhile, the public schools were stripped bare, to the bone.

The state-controlled School Reform Commission voted to disband itself after 16 years of running the public schools into the ground. The city now reverts to mayoral control, and the parent groups won’t rest until the city has an elected board.

Congratulations, Philadelphia!

Time to return democracy to the cradle of our democracy.

From the Alliance on November 2:

“Members of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools celebrate the impending dissolution of the School Reform Commission. We thank Mayor Kenney and Council President Clarke for their leadership in bringing this state-imposed body to an end. State control of our schools has brought devastation to this city: precious funds have been diverted to non-public schools and over 30 neighborhood have seen their schools closed permanently.

“Since 2012, APPS members have attended every session of the SRC, including special meetings and Policy Committee meetings. We have spent those five years fighting and organizing against the reckless spending, lack of transparency and disregard for the public exhibited by the many iterations of the SRC. In 2014, APPS sued then-Chair Bill Green and the SRC in federal court for violating the public’s First Amendment rights when Green ordered the police to confiscate signs from members of the public—and won. The following year, we filed suit in Commonwealth Court to stop the SRC’s continual violations of the PA Sunshine Act. Our settlement resulted in significant changes in SRC policy, including posting the resolutions to be voted on two weeks before the meeting instead of only 72 hours, and allowing the public to speak on resolutions posted just before or during the meeting.

“We now have a unique opportunity to end the disenfranchisement of the people of Philadelphia. The stakeholders in our public school system—that is, every person who benefits from a thriving public school system—should have the same rights as those in every other district in the commonwealth to elect the officials who will be entrusted to represent them in matters of school governance.

“The dissolution of the SRC is not contingent on changing the City Charter. The Charter now provides for mayoral control, as it did before SRC. The Mayor can select an interim school board for a year, during which time the city should hold community forums, as it is presently doing for the Rebuild initiative, to hear from the people whose voices were shut out during the reign of the SRC about how best to create a truly representative body for the critical task of educating our children.

“Trading in one unelected, unaccountable board for another is not a progressive solution to the problems facing the district.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Philadelphia, Privatization, Vallas, Paul
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »