Archives for category: Democracy
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San Rafael, California: School Board Candidate Shamed for Taking TFA-LEE Cash, from Walton and Bloomberg

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2018 //
6

In San Rafael, California, a School Board Race has been roiled by charges that one candidate took money from Leaders for Educational Equity (LEE), the little-known political arm of Teach for America.

LEE is funded by the usual out-of-State billionaires, including Alice Walton and Michael Bloomberg.

Other candidates wonder why this one guy became the favorite of out-of-State billionaires.

Good question.

These billionaires don’t give money for no reason. They expect something in return.

It’s a very good sign when citizens raise questions and follow the money.

The money is poisoning our politics.

Exposing it is necessary to save our democracy and prevent the billionaires from buying whatever they want. Including school boards and democracy.

To learn more about the billionaire raid on local school board, read this report from NPE Action: Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Bloomberg, Michael, California, Corporate Reform, Democracy, Teach for America

Amy Lueck: How High Schools Shaped the U.S. and Built Communities with Shared Values

By dianeravitch
October 29, 2018 //
25

Amy Lueck writes in this article about the role of the high school in shaping American society and building a sense of community, an understanding that these children are OUR children.

She begins:

In 2016, shortly after she was appointed to the position, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared American public schools a “dead end.” Instead, DeVos advocates for “school choice,” code for charter schools, vouchers, and other privatization efforts.

Families who have watched their local schools struggle might agree with DeVos, but her characterization is still troubling. It reflects a distrust of education as a communal goal, not just an individual one. That’s a big change from the objective of American public schools during their first two centuries. Far from being a “dead end,” for a long time the public school—particularly the public high school—served an important civic purpose: not only as an academic training ground, but also as a center for community and activity in American cities.

From curricular offerings to extracurricular activities, shared milestones to cultural traditions, high schools have been remarkably consistent across the country and even across generations. Many Americans can remember the awkward school dances that memorialized the best (and worst) music of the day. Or bumping past different teenage archetypes on their way to classes. Or the pep fests and rallies they may have loved, or loved to hate. Football games that captured the attention of entire towns.

Public schools have also perpetuated racial and economic inequity. But the high school still galvanized a shared, American society. It helped people aspire toward greater equality together, and it used education to bring together diverse interests and people to forge social bonds of support. That effort shaped the American city of the 19th and early-20th centuries. High schools can continue to do this, so long as they can resist being dismantled.

She traces the history of the high school, and the departure of affluent white families for the suburbs, which has affected desegregation and funding.

She concludes:

As Americans face a new era of educational reform and broad societal change, they might do well to heed a lesson from the first two centuries of public education: As an institution, the fate of the high school cannot be detached from the community of which it is a part. Like all educational institutions, it is inextricably wrapped up with the goals and values of the town, city, and nation in which it is located, reflecting and perpetuating them.

Those values include Americans’ attitude to the very schools that would pass them along, too. If, as a nation, we decide that the public schools are a “dead end” for students, we should not be surprised if they become so—and along with them, the cities, towns, and communities they once built together.

Yes, we are trying to hold on to something important: community, democracy, the common good. Are we prepared to junk them in exchange for “choice?”

Categories Democracy, School Choice

Jan Resseger: The Good News About Resistance to Fake Reform

By dianeravitch
October 28, 2018 //
11

Jan Resseger sums up the many reasons to be optimistic about resistance to corporate education Reform.

Among them are the teacher walkouts this spring.

And much more.

The Reformers are no longer making grandiose claims. The evidence is in. They have no secret sauce. Just money. Lots of it.

Summary: Democracy beats billionaires.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud

I Endorse Kendra Horn for Election to Congress in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
October 26, 2018 //
0

The issues are clear in the contest between Republican Congressman Steve Russell and his Democratic challenger Kendra Horn in the Fifth District of Oklahoma: He is a Trump supporter; she will protect health care, education and Social Security. Mitch McConnell already made clear that last December’s tax cuts for the rich and corporations blew a huge hole in the deficit and the Republican party plans to make significant cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Democrats must gain control of the House to block cuts to our nation’s social safety net.

If you care about American public education, vote for Kendra Horn.

If you want to protect our citizens from policies that make the rich richer and everyone else suffer, please vote for Kendra Horn.

The future of our democracy is on the ballot. Please vote.

Categories Democracy, Oklahoma

Disgrace in San Antonio as Charter Vultures Destroy Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 22, 2018 //
27

This article by Tom Ultican tells the sordid story of rich elites who have cynically decided to destroy public education in San Antonio.

They have cumulatively raised at least $200 million to attract charter operators to San Antonio, a figure which includes funding by the U.S. Department of Education and local plutocrats. The lead figure is a very wealthy woman named Victoria Rico, who sits on the boards of multiple charter chains. Rico and her friends have decided to re-engineer and privatize public education in San Antonio. Rico is working closely with Dan Patrick, the State’s lieutenant governor, who loves vouchers, hates public schools, and was the Rush Limbaugh of Texas before winning election to the State Senate.

Was there a vote taken in San Antonio? No. Was the public asked whether they wanted to abandon public education? Of course not. The titans don’t believe in democracy. They know what’s best for other people’s children.

They have hired a superintendent, Pedro Martinez, who was “trained” by the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, which encourages school closures, privatization, and top-down management. Martinez has worked in school districts but was never a teacher or a principal and apparently knows nothing about pedagogy. Martinez is a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, which promotes privatization and technology in the classroom. He is also a big fan of the faux Relay “Graduate School of Education,” which specializes in charter teachers training new teachers for charter schools and has no professors or research programs.

As a native Texan, this whole deal made me physically ill. It stinks to high heaven. Everyone facilitating this private takeover of public schools should be ashamed of themselves.

They are not “doing it for the children.” They are doing it for their own egos. There are more failing charter schools than failing public schools. What right do they have to destroy the public schools of San Antonio? Who elected them? They have won plaudits from Betsy DeVos, the Koch brothers, and ALEC. They should be held accountable for their assault on democracy. I noticed that the Texas philanthropist Charles Butt refused to participate in this unholy cabal; he prefers to invest his fortune in supporting public schools.

I take this opportunity to name Victoria Rico, Pedro Martinez, and all their rightwing enablers to the Wall of Shame.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Corporate Reform, Democracy, Education Industry, Fraud, San Antonio, School Choice, Texas, U.S. Department of Education, Wall of Shame

If You Care About Freedom and Justice, Thank Reporters

By dianeravitch
October 20, 2018 //
32

This is a talk by Timothy Snyder, historian at Yale, about why the press matters.


Dear Reporters, Investigative Journalists, Fact Checkers, Columnists, Bloggers, First Amendment Practitioners and Supporters,

The acknowledged cold-blooded murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and critic of the Saudi regime should outrage everyone who values the First Amendment and the rule of law. Columnists and editorial writers have noted how President Trump’s attacks on journalists and facts and love of authoritarian heads of state have helped to create the poisonous atmosphere that allows haters of a free expression to feel licensed to intimidate, imprison and kill.

If you haven’t yet seen it, take a few minutes to watch Yale Holocaust historian Timothy Snyder’s talk, “Reporters, the Heroes of Our Time,” which was posted in March 2018, but is most timely at this time: “Without the people who seek facts, we can forget about justice, freedom, and equality”:

The attachment has links to many of his talks on events since the 2016 U.S. election.

Sincerely,

Erich Martel

Retired Wash., DC high school history teacher

(1969-2011: Cardozo HS, Wilson HS, Phelps ACE HS)

ehmartel@starpower.net

Categories Democracy

Arthur Camins: Education is Everyone’s Business, But Not a Commodity

By dianeravitch
October 20, 2018 //
5

Arthur Camins explains why we all have a stake in the success of public schools.

I wish I had a dollar for every parent who has said, “I’d love to sent my child to a public school, but …” The but is invariably related to real and perceived deficiencies in zoned schools and by race and class prejudices insidiously driven and reinforced by persistently unaddressed planned inequity. The sequel to the but is always a justification for opting out of public schools and enrollment in a charter or private education. Some parents add, “I’m the product of public schools. I support public schools, but I’m not going to sacrifice my children.” Such are the inevitable responses to our country’s acceptance of inequality and scarcity as unalterable. The sum of thousands of these personal choices for some children– increasingly supported by tax revenues– undermines the education of all children. The blame is not on parent choices but on the politicians who refuse to address inequity, while funding policies that undermine public education. If we want a different outcome, we need to vote for politicians who represent different values.

Education in the United States is contentious. It always has been because personal and societal decisions are inextricably interwoven. Now, we are at an inflection point in which consequential questions about education are hotly debated. Consider these for the November elections.

Whose business is the education of students in the United States?

Who should get to make decisions about where, what, with whom, and how children learn?

If our nation values democracy and the common good, the answer to both questions is:

Of course, every parent cares about where, what, with whom, and how their children learn. However, decisions about education affect everyone, not just school attendees and their families. Their education is everyone’s business– but not in the mercantile sense of the word. Other people’s children grow up to be our neighbors, co-workers, and citizens (who vote or do not). Their subsequent behaviors and decisions as adults touch us all, whether or not we have school-age children. That is why decisions about education– a common good– should be made democratically on behalf of all children and not just by individual parents.

Unfortunately, the idea that education is a common good, not a commodity, and should be governed democratically is under assault.

Should decisions about education be made by and for all of us through locally elected school boards? Or, by unelected private boards? Is education literally the business of the eight families who have collectively spent over $35.5 million to influence the outcomes of local school board elections? Is it the business of would-be entrepreneurs out to make a buck?

Once again, if our nation values democracy and the common good the answers are clear:

Yes, no, no, and no.

Read on as Camins explains why Education is our responsibility, not to be handed off to the private sector.

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Equity, Supporting public schools

Mitch McConnell as “The Gravedigger of Democracy”

By dianeravitch
October 8, 2018 //
86

The New York Review of Books published a fascinating and alarming comparison of the Weimar years with our contemporary world order, by Christopher Browning, a historian of the Holocaust, Europe, and the world wars.

He reviews the similar policies—-isolationism, trade Wars, hyper-nationalism, militarism, suspension of basic freedoms, purge of the civil service, elimination of free trade unions, hyperpolarization of politics, openly racial policies—and the deterioration of democratic norms. He points to Paul von Hindenburg as the gravedigger of a fragile German Democracy.

When he turns to the American parallel, he points to Mitch McConnell as the culprit.

“If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obama’s first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnell’s unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the “steal” of Antonin Scalia’s seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. The extreme politicization of the judicial nomination process is once again on display in the current Kavanaugh hearings.

“One can predict that henceforth no significant judicial appointments will be made when the presidency and the Senate are not controlled by the same party. McConnell and our dysfunctional and disrespected Congress have now ensured an increasingly dysfunctional and disrespected judiciary, and the constitutional balance of powers among the three branches of government is in peril.

“Whatever secret reservations McConnell and other traditional Republican leaders have about Trump’s character, governing style, and possible criminality, they openly rejoice in the payoff they have received from their alliance with him and his base: huge tax cuts for the wealthy, financial and environmental deregulation, the nominations of two conservative Supreme Court justices (so far) and a host of other conservative judicial appointments, and a significant reduction in government-sponsored health care (though not yet the total abolition of Obamacare they hope for). Like Hitler’s conservative allies, McConnell and the Republicans have prided themselves on the early returns on their investment in Trump. The combination of Trump’s abasement before Putin in Helsinki, the shameful separation of families at the border in complete disregard of US asylum law (to say nothing of basic humanitarian principles and the GOP’s relentless claim to be the defender of “family values”), and most recently Michael Cohen’s implication of Trump in criminal violations of campaign finance laws has not shaken the fealty of the Republican old guard, so there is little indication that even an explosive and incriminating report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller will rupture the alliance.”

Do read it all. It is supposedly forbidden in Internet discussions to compare anyone to Hitler (“Godwin’s Law”). But when a historian makes the comparison, we should pay attention.

Categories Democracy

“Democracy”: Kavanaugh as Judge

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2018 //
32

A reader called Democracy is troubled by Kavanaugh’s record as a judge, whose ideology trumps facts and evidence. Yesterday Trump told a political rally that Democrats are interested only in “power and control,” and “we’re not going to let them get it.” I think this is called “projection,” especially from a President whose party controls two of the three branches of government and is now seeking to control the third branch, thus eliminating the checks and balances envisioned by the Founding Fathers to prevent tyranny.

Democracy writes:

Kavanaugh has lied about sooo many things. He lied about his drinking. About blacking out. About “Devil’s Triangle” and “boofing.” About being a Renate alumnus. About the geographic locations of the houses where he and Dr. Ford lived.

But he also lied about being a neutral arbiter of the law. As Steve Pearlstein noted in The Post six years go in a case that involved EPA pollution regulations.

“But in reading the 60-page opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, you’d have no clue of this historical, political, economic or health context…You’d have no idea that hundreds of dedicated, highly trained scientists, analysts and statisticians at the EPA might have spent more than a decade devoted to the extremely complex task of figuring out how much of the ozone or sulfur dioxide in the air in Rhode Island originated in Indiana.

“You’d have no idea that legions of government lawyers and economists might have spent a decade listening to, and negotiating with, state officials, industry groups and environmental advocates on an equitable formula for reducing pollution in the least costly way….You’d have no idea that, in earlier decisions, the same court had found it a reasonable formula resulting in reasonable compliance costs, but sent an earlier version back to be reworked because it didn’t make the air clean enough.”

Instead, what you get is 60 pages of legal sophistry, procedural hair-splitting and scientific conjecture….You find a judge without a shred of technical training formulating his own policy solution to an incredibly complex problem and substituting it for the solution proposed by experienced experts…You find an appeals court judge so dismissive of the most fundamental rules of judicial restraint that he dares to throw out regulations on the basis of concerns never raised during the rule-making process or in the initial court appeal.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-judicial-jihad-against-the-regulatory-state/2012/10/12/d9eb080c-13ca-11e2-bf18-a8a596df4bee_story.html?utm_term=.f29b265feb33

This is what judicial “restraint” looks like to conservatives like Kavanaugh. Just make things up. The same thing Scalia did in DC v Heller, when he basically rewrote the Second Amendment.

Kavanaugh also lied about his knowledge of the sexual proclivities of Alex Kozinski, ousted form the federal courts for sexual harassment and prolific use of pornography on federal court property. In fact, Kavanaugh hired Kozindki’s son as a lwa clerk, even though he didn’t have the kind of academic record that usually accompanies such a hiring.
As The Guardian reported,

“The decision to hire Clayton Kozinski, son of the now disgraced judge Alex Kozinski, smacked of the kind of cronyism that is rife in federal courts. It was especially common for Kavanaugh, who not only had a reputation for hiring ‘model-like’ female clerks, but also the children of powerful friends and allies…The move also marked the culmination of a decades-long professional and personal relationship with Alex Kozinski – the first high-profile judge to be forced to resign in the #MeToo era – that had helped launch Kavanaugh’s career…serious concerns about whether Kavanaugh lied under oath have also been raised – publicly and privately – on a topic that has received far less attention in the national spotlight: his insistence that he was shocked when he discovered last year that Kozinski, his mentor and friend, sexually harassed more than a dozen clerks in decades on the bench.”

“People who knew Kozinski have privately – and in some cases, publicly – challenged that statement, saying Kozinski’s abusive behavior, which ranged from kissing clerks to showing them pornography at work to making sexist remarks, was known throughout the judiciary. There were also public signs of his inappropriate use of pornography at work…Individuals who knew Kozinski and spoke to the Guardian on the condition that their names be withheld, for fear of retribution, described Kavanaugh’s testimony as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘unbelievable’.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/01/kavanaugh-clerk-hire-casts-light-on-link-to-judge-forced-to-resign-in-metoo-era

What the nation saw with Brett Kavanaugh’s arrogant, aggressive, abrasive, lie-filled Judiciary Committee statement, was what Kavanaugh truly is, especially when he’s alcohol-fueled.

Republicans don’t care about truth, or the Constitution, or women’s rights or voting rights, or the environment. They care about raw power and money, and they will subvert all – every one – of the republic’s core democratic values to get and keep them, even if it means using Russian intelligence agencies to do so.

Republicans are – in fact – a clear and present national security danger.

Categories Accountability, Democracy

Jeff Bryant: How the Rich Get Richer by Destroying Public Schools

By dianeravitch
September 18, 2018 //
26

I think we are beginning to understand the real purpose of Corporate Reform. The 1% and their minions repeat ad nauseum that school choice will fix all education problems, lift the poor out of poverty, and no new taxes are needed. Indeed, they have pushed for tax cuts and cheered on deep cuts to public education. We are watching a generation of defunding public schools, refusing to invest in teachers’ salaries, and a massive transfer of resources from the public sector to private institutions.

Jeff Bryant explains it here.

“Recent news stories about wealthy folks giving multi-million donations to education efforts have drawn both praise and criticism, but two new reports by public education advocacy groups this week are particularly revealing about the real impact rich people have on schools and how they’ve chosen to leverage their money to influence the system.

‘The Education Debt’

“The first report, “Confronting the Education Debt” from the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools examines the nation’s “education debt” – the historic funding shortfall for school systems that educate black and brown children. The authors find that through a combination of multiple factors – including funding rollbacks, tax cuts, and diversions of public money to private entities – the schools educating the nation’s poorest children have been shorted billions in funding.

“One funding source alone, the federal dollars owed to states for educating low-income children and children with disabilities, shorted schools $580 billion, between 2005 and 2017, in what the government is lawfully required to fund schools through the provisions of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

“The impact of not fully funding Title I is startling, the report contends, calculating that at full funding, the nation’s highest-poverty schools could provide health and mental health services for every student including dental and vision services, and these schools would have the money to hire a full-time nurse, a full-time librarian, and either an additional full-time counselor or a full-time teaching assistant for every classroom.

“State and local governments contribute to underfunding too by keeping in place tax systems that chronically short schools, particularly those that educate low-income students, mostly of color. Two school districts in Illinois are highlighted – one where 80 percent of students are low-income and gets about $7,808 per pupil in total expenditures, while another, where 3 percent of students are low-income, spends $26,074 per student…

“In the meantime, while the nation’s education debt expands, the accumulated wealth of the richest Americans continues to grow. During that time period the federal government was shorting schools billions, the personal net worth of the nation’s 400 wealthiest individuals grew by $1.57 trillion, the report notes.

“There is a direct correlation between dwindling resources for public schools and the ongoing political proclivity for transferring public dollars to the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations,” the report declares. “The rich are getting richer. Our schools are broke on purpose.”

This is the context for Bryant’s discussion of the NPE Action Report, “Hijacked by Billionaires.” The 1% buy control of state and local races so they can advance their tax-cutting, budget-cutting ideas and promote school choice.

“What motivates these wealthy people from exerting their will in the electoral process varies. They are bipartisan politically. Some are directly connected to the charter school industry. Others have expressed disdain for democratically controlled schools and argue, instead, for school governance to transfer to unelected boards. Some are motivated by their hatred of teachers’ unions. While others believe strongly that public education needs to be opened up to market competition from charters.

“But what billionaire donors all have in common, the report authors write, is their devotion to blaming schools and educators for problems posed by educating low-income children. Instead of using their political donations to advocate for more direct aid to schools serving low-income kids, wealthy donors “distract us from policy changes that would really help children,” the report argues, “such as increasing the equity and adequacy of school funding, reducing class sizes, providing medical care and nutrition for students, and other specific efforts to meet the needs of children and families.”

Their one unifying idea is lower taxes.

His third example is a new book about how predatory elites subvert democracy.

“Rich people are playing a double game,” writes Anand Giridharadas in his new book ‘Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.’ “On one hand, there’s no question they’re giving away more money than has ever been given away in history … But I also argue that we have one of the more predatory elites in history, despite that philanthropy.”

Categories Billionaires, Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Education Industry, Funding, Inequality, Inequity, Injustice, Philanthropy, Privatization
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