Archives for category: Democracy
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“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

Dark Money Billionaires Lick Their Wounds after Defeat in Massachusetts and Look for New Targets

By dianeravitch
November 16, 2017 //
7

I was tempted to give an entire day to this post about the Dark Money group deceptively called Families for Excellent Schools.

The “families” are financiers, billionaires, and garden-variety multimillionaires. They enjoyed great success in New York, where they made an alliance with Governor Cuomo and launched a $6 Million TV buy to promote charter schools. Under pressure from Cuomo, the state legislature compelled the City of New York to provide free space to charter schools and to give Eva Moskowitz whatever she wanted.

Then, Families for Excellent Schools opened shop in Massachusetts, where they launched a multimillion dollar campaign to increase the number of charter schools.

Parents, teachers, the teachers unions, Rural and suburban communities turned against charter schools. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren joined the opponents of charter schools. Before the vote, the backers of Question 2 were revealed in the media (though not all of their names), and the referendum to expand the charter sector went down to a crashing defeat.

After the election, things went bad for FES.

“This September, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance fined Families for Excellent Schools a comparatively nominal $426,500. But it also forced the charter group to reveal its donors — a who’s who of Massachusetts’ top financiers, many of whom are allies of Gov. Charlie Baker — after it had promised them anonymity.”

In addition to the fine, FES was banned from the Bay State for four years.

One of the big donors to FES was the rightwing, anti-union Walton Family, which gave FES more than $13 Million between 2014 and 2026. The chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education gave FES nearly $500,000.

Now FES is trying to redefine itself.

Here is a suggestion: support the public schools that enroll nearly 90% of children. Open health clinics in and near schools. Invest in prenatal care for poor women. Lobby for higher taxes for the 1%.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Dark Money, Democracy, Education Industry, Hoax, Massachusetts, New York City, Privatization

The Economist: Dark Money and Local School Board Races

By dianeravitch
November 13, 2017 //
16

The Economist magazine published an article about an alarming phenomenon: the large amounts of money entering local school board races, much of it from mysterious political action committees, often from out-of-District and out-of-State sources.

Races in Denver, Douglas County, and Aurora County in Colorado attracted at least $1.65 Million.

Last spring’s School Board Race in Los Angeles was the most expensive in U.S. history, at $15 Million. Billionaires like Reed Hastings and Eli Broad make clear that they will spend whatever it takes to install true believers in privatization. In most such races, you are likely to encounter the same names, whether it is Hastings, Broad, Bloomberg, or members of the Walton family. You are likely to see other names associated with hedge funds or other parts of the financial industry. They have two goals in common: they love charter schools and they don’t like unions.

The intrusion of this kind of money into school board races is a danger to democracy. School boards are supposed to reflect the wishes of the local communities, not the purposes of out-of-State billionaires in search of willing puppets.

How can a local citizen, a parent or community leader, have any chance of running for school board if their opponent has a kitty of $100,000-300,000 to millions of dollars? I recall visiting a city where I was told that, in the past, a candidate could run by raising $40,000. Those days are over. That’s not good for democracy.

Categories Accountability, Colorado, Corporate Reform, Dark Money, Democracy, Denver

Philadelphia: The End of a Failed Experiment in State Control Should Begin an Era of Public Control of Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2017 //
8

Since 2001, Philadelphia’s public schools have been controlled by a “School Reform Commission” that has failed again and again to improve public education.

In this article, parent leaders call for a new vision for public schools.

They write:

“Over a year ago, we launched the Our City Our Schools campaign to end the 16-year-long failed experiment of the state-controlled School Reform Commission (SRC). The SRC was set up in 2001 in a supposed attempt to bring in more state funding, but instead led to dozens of school closures in black and brown neighborhoods, increased school privatization, failed for-profit consultants like Edison, and an austerity budget that has hurt students, parents, school staff, educators, and the city at large..

“Regaining local control is a huge step forward on the path toward true, democratically based community control of our schools.

“While we celebrate the mayor’s leadership, the question of how our schools will be governed is critical. For the last six months, Our City Our Schools and supporters have pushed for a transitional task force that could study successful school governance models and gather broad public input on what comes next — from an elected school board like those in the other 499 districts in Pennsylvania to the mayoral-controlled board of Philadelphia’s past…

“We can return a voice to the people who know our schools best. In ending the 16-year state takeover, we can define who are the true stakeholders of the Philadelphia schools. For too long, our schools have been treated like a business where decisions are made by people seeking to profit off of our children’s education. In this new era, we need to return power to the people who work, teach, and learn in neighborhood and charter schools every day, the parents who volunteer to fill budget gaps, and the community members who have supported their neighborhood schools for decades.

“We can end the era of conflicts of interests. The most important focus for any school board should be the thriving health of students, teachers, staff, and their schools. With local control and accountability, we can vet new board members for conflicts of interest and end backroom deals.

“Our next school board must push forward a progressive agenda for our schools. Our next school board must see quality education from locally based schools as a key racial and economic justice issue of our time. The SRC failed to stand up against a state legislature that continues to use our schools for its racist and privatizing agenda. Is the next school board ready to lead the fight for more equitable school funding across the state, for Philadelphia-based corporations and developers to pay their fair share toward our schools, and for an end to massive giveaways to private school managers?”

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Education Reform, Philadelphia, Privatization

Why Progressives Should Applaud Anti-Trump Republicans Like Jeff Flake

By dianeravitch
October 25, 2017 //
58

I celebrated Jeff Flake’s denunciation of Trump. Some readers said we should not compliment Flake because he is a conservative, he voted for almost every Republican Proposal, his policies are no better than Trump’s.

Then I read this article that articulated what I believe and said it better than I did. Democracy establishes ground rules for discussion, debate, and disagreement. Democracy means battling for your ideas in the marketplace of public opinion. Democracies do not threaten to jail the candidates who lose. Presidents (in the past) do not sneer at those with whom they disagree, do not belittle them, do not demean them, do not taunt and smear those who do not grovel at their feet.

“It’s easy to roll your eyes at Republicans. Besides their run-of-the-mill odious policies which would starve the poor and oppress anyone who isn’t straight and white and male, they nominated Donald Trump. Then, when he continually proved himself unfit for office, they either remained silent or defended him. Many still do.

“But now a few brave souls are speaking up, and whether those of us in the resistance like it or not, we need them.

“The latest Republican to speak out is Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who, in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, announced he would not be seeking re-election in 2018.

“Politics can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity,” Flake said. “I have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr President, I will not be complicit.”

“Hear. Bloody. Hear…

“Democracy is a contest of ideas, but that contest only works if we agree on the rules beforehand. Trump violates the basic norms of American democracy, degrading them to a point of no return.

“He threatens the media, questioning whether networks critical of him should have their licences revoked. He embraces fringe elements (such as neo-Nazis) and normalises their attacks on our multicultural society. He defines patriotism not as a defence of the ideals our country aspires to, but as a racial and cultural purity test. He freely threatens nuclear war on social media. And don’t forget, he campaigned on locking his political opponent up.

“These aren’t American ideals. They’re authoritarian tactics.

“The danger of Trump isn’t that he’ll cut taxes for the wealthy, or fail to pass gun control, or roll back some civil rights protections for LGBT people. Any Republican president would do the same, and that’s something the American left would have to fight no matter which GOP candidate had won the White House.

“Even if Trump is defeated in 2020, we’ll have to fight these same battles the next time we have a Republican president. That sucks, but it’s not the same as having a proto-fascist as president. After all, if Trump succeeds in destroying our democracy, we’ll have no chance of winning any future progressive battles. That’s the whole point of fascism.

“Trump presents a unique risk to our country, to civil discourse, to the American experiment, which has existed since 1788 when the Constitution was ratified. We’re not fighting for a progressive agenda right now. We’re fighting for the soul of America and the continued existence of democracy on these shores.”

I disagree with Jeff Flake on every issue, every policy. But I admire him for standing up to Trump and denouncing his attack on democracy itself.

Read on.

Categories Democracy, Education Reform

The AFT Is Leading Effort to Bring Water to Puerto Rico, While Federal Government Moves at Snail’s Pace

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2017 //
1

The American Federation of Teachers is joining with other concerned citizens to bring water to the people of Puerto Rico, a vital mission that seems to have been forgotten by the Trump administration.

Randi Weingarten sent out the following information:

“Responding to the water crisis unfolding in Puerto Rico, AFT, Operation Blessing, AFSCME, and the Hispanic Foundation launched Operation Agua today to crowdsource contributions and provide a reliable source of safe drinking water to families across Puerto Rico.

“More than a month after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, most Puerto Ricans still have no reliable source of safe drinking water. When I was in Puerto Rico last week, I saw with my own eyes children collecting water in streams that were likely severely contaminated. We know people are collecting water from runoff or even drinking from toxic Superfund sites. And even the water coming out of the tap is unsafe because there is no electricity to run treatment facilities. The federal government has failed the people of Puerto Rico and we need to continue to fight to get the federal response this disaster requires. But we must also continue to do what we can to care for Puerto Rico children and families. Our campaign isn’t a substitute for federal action but a necessary intervention to get as much clean water as quickly as we can to people.

“Operation Agua’s initial goal is to purchase and distribute 100,000 individual water filtration systems for households and classrooms and 50 large capacity clean water devices to a network of non-profit organizations, union offices , schools and other community based groups to provide stable and reliable sources of safe water.

“A single $30 contribution provides an in-home purifier that requires no electricity and filters and provides more than 10 gallons of safe water per day to a family. $5,000 delivers a disinfectant generator that can disinfect 150,000 gallons per day—enough safe water for hundreds of people.

“Here’s more information about Operation Agua and how organizations and individuals cane become sponsors.”

Categories Citizenship, Democracy, Justice

Steven Singer Was Blocked by Facebook for Writing This Post: ”School Choice Is a Lie”

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2017 //
20

Steven Singer was blocked by Facebook for a week because of the post you are about to read. This post “violated community standards.” Steven Singer was censored by an algorithm. Or, Steven Singer was censored by the Political Defense team that tries to prevent any criticism of charter schools and TFA. This team swarms Facebook and other social media and complains that a post or tweet is “offensive” and the machine blocks the offending post.

This is the post by Steven Singer that has been blocked. This is the lie about “school choice” that DeVos and ALEC and charter promoters don’t want you to read.

He writes:

Neoliberals and right-wingers are very good at naming things.

Doing so allows them to frame the narrative, and control the debate.

Nowhere is this more obvious than with “school choice” – a term that has nothing to do with choice and everything to do with privatization.

It literally means taking public educational institutions and turning them over to private companies for management and profit.

He adds:

There are two main types: charter and voucher schools.

Charter schools are run by private interests but paid for exclusively by tax dollars. Voucher schools are run by private businesses and paid for at least in part by tax dollars.

Certainly each state has different laws and different legal definitions of these terms so there is some variability of what these schools are in practice. However, the general description holds in most cases. Voucher schools are privately run at (at least partial) public expense. Charter schools are privately run but pretend to be public. In both cases, they’re private – no matter what their lobbyists or marketing campaigns say to the contrary.

They take money from public schools that serve all students and give it to privatized schools that choose their students and expel those they don’t want.

Charters and vouchers are the Walmartization of public education. They introduce corporate chains to run what used to be neighborhood public schools. The only difference is that everyone may shop at Walmart, but not everyone who applies will be accepted at a choice school. The school does the choosing, not the family.

Steven reinforces what I wrote in Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. “School choice” is a hoax, a lie. It is promoted by rightwing ideologues and by Democratic politicians hungry for funding by the financial sector, which sees schools as an emerging industry. Don’t be fooled.

School choice is privatization. And privatization is very bad for those who are not chosen. And very bad for our democracy.

Categories ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, For-Profit, Lies, Privatization, School Choice, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers
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