Archives for category: Florida

Billy Townsend is a Florida blogger who specializes in exposing grifters, especially in education. He calls his blog “Public Enemy #1.” He served on the Polk County school board and has been relentless in pursuing the scams perpetrated by Governor DeSantis and former state Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, now president of New College, a position for which he is uniquely unqualified. Someone on Twitter noted recently that the university presidents appointed by DeSantis won’t have to worry about plagiarism charges, because few if any of them have ever published a peer-reviewed article or book.

Chris Rufo is the attack dog of the far-right, who literally manufactured and sold a public panic attack over “critical race theory,” a concept debated in law school classes. As a result of his publicity campaign, any teaching about race and racism in American schools became suspect, enabling some states to suppress honest discussion of those subjects. Most recently, Rufo hounded Harvard’s President, Claudine Gay, until she resigned over charges of plagiarism.

Townsend writes here about Rufo’s inflated academic credentials:

In the least surprising revelation ever, Christopher Rufo does not have a Masters of Arts degree from Harvard, as he once claimed in his Manhattan Institute bio. He has, instead, a Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) from Harvard Extension School.

Indeed, this anti-woke grifter is continuing to misstate his educational credentials, even after very very quietly correcting one aspect of his misstatement — as I’ll show you in a moment.

As anyone who remotely follows Rufo knows, this is the kind of credential misstatement he would summon the New York Times to pursue if the person doing the misstating was black or a woman. And the useless NYT would dutifully obey. I’m sure they will find a way to avoid this particular misstatement.

But Rufo’s fellow trustees can and should confront him with this at the next meeting.

Rufo claims undergraduate achievement he did not earn

Harvard instructs graduates of Harvard University Extension School to spell out “Harvard University Extension School” on resumes and bios because its sees a meaningful distinction between “Harvard University Extension School” and Harvard’s traditional graduate schools…

Selectivity of admission is the core difference in these Harvard graduate programs. It’s a lot easier to get into “Harvard University Extension School” than traditional Harvard.

Thus, Rufo’s conflation of degree credentials claims a level of achievement in admission that he did not earn.

It misrepresents the quality of Rufo’s undergraduate performance, suggesting that it was strong enough to earn admission to Harvard’s highly selective graduate schools. It was not.

Rufo’s misleading claim dilutes Harvard’s brand, which is why Harvard cares about how graduates claim this credential, I suspect. I’ve posted Harvard’s direction in how to refer to the extension school below.

The “never admit” grifter admits to something

Is this a big deal? Rufo, a bombastic Bad Ken 99.9 percent of the time, seems to think so. He very very quietly acknowledged that his Manhattan Institute bio misstated his education credential by very very quietly having it altered.

In doing so, Rufo violated the #1 tenet of the modern “conservative” and “anti-woke” grifts — the #1 tenet of Rufoism: always loudly refuse to admit or acknowledge anything damaging to the grift. And yet, here Rufo is admitting….

Billy Townsend goes on to portray Rufo’s bio—before and after—on the Manhattan Institute website, where he is a senior fellow. And he shows that Rufo’s misleading claim to am MA at Harvard persists on the New College website, where DeSantis named him as a trustee as part of the governor’s plan to turn the progressive liberal arts college into the Hillsdale of the South.

Townsend writes:

Ride it while it lasts, Chris

Ironically, considering the time and effort I’ve spent on these two Rufo articles, I’m thoroughly uninterested in him. He’s just another grifter, a little farther down the grift value chain than young Austin Hurst, who I introduced you to earlier today.

But they’re essentially the same person — lazy bros trolling for rich guy money by owning the libs. Rufo’s need to overstate both undergrad and grad school credentials is a pretty good example of that.

Rufos, like Zieglers, always come and go. This one will too.

Townsend then quotes a Harvard document explaining how graduates of the Harvard Extension School should refer to their degrees, advice that Rufo ignored until he was caught.

I urge you to open the link to read the material I did not reproduce here. It’s fascinating.

Billy Townsend, by the way, is a graduate of Amherst College, whose admission standards are as rigorous as those of Harvard.

Categories Accountability, Character, Cheating, Cruelty, DeSantis, Ethics, Extremism, Florida, Fraud, Hypocrisy

Here Are the Books Removed from Classroom Shelves in Orange County, Florida

By dianeravitch

December 28, 2023 //

Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel reported the list of banned books.

Please scan the list and let me know which you think should never be banned. Are there any on the list that you think should not be in any 3-8 classroom? Any that should not be available in high school?

Here is a list of the 673 books removed from teachers’ classroom shelves in Orange County for fear they might violate state law and rules on “sexual conduct:” Some might be returned to shelves after further review.

“In the Belly of the Beast,” Jack Henry Abbott
“The Pool Was Empty,” Gilles Abier
“The Poet X,” Elizabeth Acevedo
“With the Fire on High,” Elizabeth Acevedo
“Call Me By Your Name,” Andre Aciman
“Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight,” Peter Ackerman
“Half of a Yellow Sun,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Changes,” Ama Ata Aidoo
“River of Darkness,” Rennie Airth
“Say You’re One of Them,” Uwem Akpan
“Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda,” Becky Albertalli
“The Upside of Unrequited,” Becky Albertalli
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Sherman Alexie
“The House of the Spirits,” Isabel Allende
“In the Midst of Winter,” Isabel Allende
“The Blood of Flowers,” Anita Amirrezvani
“Wintergirls,” Laurie Halse Anderson
“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” Jesse Andrews
“The Haters,” Jesse Andrews
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou
“Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas,” Maya Angelou
“Lucy in the Sky,” Anonymous
“And Eternity,” Piers Anthony
“On a Pale Horse,” Piers Anthony
“Four Plays,” Aristophanes
“From Blood and Ash,” Jennifer L. Armentrout
“Storm and Fury,” Jennifer L. Armentrout
“City of the Lost,” Kelley Armstrong
“Mosquitoland,” David Arnold
“Damsel,” Elana K. Arnold
“Infandous,” Elana K. Arnold
“Red Hood,” Elana K. Arnold
“What Girls Are Made Of,” Elana K. Arnold
“Oryx and Crake,” Margaret Atwood
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood
“The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel,” Margaret Atwood
“The Testaments,” Margaret Atwood
“Alias Grace,” Margaret Atwood
“Hag-Seed,” Margaret Atwood
“Madd Addam Trilogy,” Margaret Atwood
“The Blind Assassin,” Margaret Atwood
“The Clan of the Cave Bear,” Jean M. Auel
“The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters
(Earth’s Children, #1-3),” Jean M. Auel
“The Tale of John Barleycorn: From Barley to Beer,” Mary Azarian
“My Friend Dahmer,” John “Derf” Backderf
“Six of Crows,” Leigh Bardugo
“Dance Nation,” Clare Barron
“Wise Young Fool,” Sean Beaudoin
“Herzog,” Saul Bellow
“The Color Master,” Aimee Bender
“The Seven Rays,” Jessica Bendinger
“Glimpse,” Stacey Wallace Benefiel
“The History Boys,” Alan Bennett
“Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife,” Linda Berdoll

“Best in Show,” Laurien Berenson
“Dark Eye,” William Bernhardt
“Friday Night Lights: A Town A Team And A Dream,” H.G. Bissinger
“Geektastic,” Holly Black
“Red Glove,” Holly Black
“I Was a Teenage Fairy,” Francesca Lia Block
“Sex on the Brain,” Deborah Blum
“Forever…,” Judy Blume
“Midwives: A Novel,” Chris Bohjalian
“Bronxwood,” Coe Booth
“The Best American Short Stories 2015,” T.C. Boyle
“The Road to Wellville,” T.C. Boyle
“The Darkest Minds,” Alexandra Bracken
“The Dark Garden,” Eden Bradley
“The Mists of Avalon,” Marion Zimmer Bradley
“Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood,” Ann Brashares
“The Last Summer of You and Me,” Ann Brashares
“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” Ann Brashares
“Electric Girl,” Michael Brennan
“The Demon’s Surrender,” Sarah Rees Brennan
“Monkey Man,” Steve Brewer
“Over the Edge,” Suzanne Brockmann
“Candy,” Kevin Brooks
“Angels & Demons,” Dan Brown
“The Bridges of Madison County (musical),” Jason Robert Brown
“A Secret Splendor,” Sandra Brown
“Above and Beyond,” Sandra Brown
“In a Class by Itself,” Sandra Brown
“Lethal,” Sandra Brown
“Seduction by Design,” Sandra Brown
“Send No Flowers,” Sandra Brown
“Unspeakable,” Sandra Brown
“Doing It,” Melvin Burgess
“The Neon Rain,” James Lee Burke
“The Glister,” John Burnside
“Running with Scissors,” Augusten Burroughs
“Summer and the City,” Candace Bushnell
“The Carrie Diaries,” Candace Bushnell
“Kindred,” Octavia E. Butler
“Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation,” Octavia E. Butler
“El Gigante Solitario,” Mary Cappellini
“Xenocide,” Orson Scott Card
“How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity,” Michael Cart
“The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories,” Angela Carter
“Kisses From Hell,” Kristin Cast
“Chosen,” P.C. Cast
“Marked,” P.C. Cast
“The Big Sleep,” Raymond Chandler
“The Big Sleep; The High Window; The Lady in the Lake; The Long
Goodbye; Playback; Farewell, My Lovely,” Raymond Chandler
“Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell My
Lovely / The High Window,” Raymond Chandler
“The Year of Living Awkwardly,” Emma Chastain
“Pieces,” Stephen Chbosky
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” Stephen Chbosky
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower YA edition,” Stephen Chbosky
“The Lady and the Unicorn,” Tracy Chevalier
“My Wicked Wicked Ways,” Sandra Cisneros
“The Tesla Testament,” Eugene Ciurana
“Chain Of Iron,” Cassandra Clare
“Chain Of Thorns,” Cassandra Clare
“Queen of Air and Darkness,” Cassandra Clare
“The Red Scrolls Of Magic,” Cassandra Clare
“Little Bee,” Chris Cleave
“The Girls,” Emma Cline
“Ready Player One,” Ernest Cline
“Scooter Girl,” Chynna Clugston-Flores
“Disgrace,” J.M. Coetzee
“Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List,” Rachel Cohn
“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” Rachel Cohn
“Finding Yvonne,” Brandy Colbert
“The Goats,” Brock Cole
“American Gangster,” Max Allan Collins
“Brules: A Novel,” Harry Combs
“The Lords of Discipline,” Pat Conroy
“Captain Marvel,” Gerry Conway
“Coma: A Novel,” Robin Cook
“Leviathan Wakes,” James S.A. Corey
“Heroes,” Robert Cormier
“Scarpetta,” Patricia Cornwell
“Three Complete Novels: Postmortem, Body Of Evidence, All That
Remains,” Patricia Cornwell
“Postmortem,” Patricia Cornwell
“Nearly Gone,” Elle Cosimano
“A Veil Removed,” Michelle Cox
“The Bondwoman’s Narrative,” Hannah Crafts
“First Semester,” Cecil R. Cross II
“Running Loose,” Chris Crutcher
“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” Sijie Dai
“Esperanza Rising,” Julie Danneberg
“Cendrillon,” Luc Darbois
“Sir Apropos of Nothing,” Peter David
“The Westing Game,” Beatrice G. Davis
“Never Cry Werewolf,” Heather Davis
“Corelli’s Mandolin,” Louis de Bernieres
“Gates of Paradise,” Melissa de la Cruz
“Sunset Boulevard,” Zoey Dean
“Tall Cool One,” Zoey Dean
“American Beauty,” Zoey Dean
“The Feeling of Falling in Love,” Mason Deaver
“The Girl Before,” J.P. Delaney
“The Inheritance Of Loss,” Kiran Desai
“This Lullaby,” Sarah Dessen
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Junot Díaz
“Blade Runner (do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep),” Philip K. Dick
“Don’t Get Caught,” Kurt Dinan
“Strangers She Knows,” Christina Dodd
“These Shallow Graves,” Jennifer Donnelly
“Room,” Emma Donoghue
“The Cases that Haunt Us,” John E. Douglas
“November Blues,” Sharon M. Draper
“Panic,” Sharon M. Draper
“House of Sand and Fog,” Andre Dubus III
“A Stolen Life: A Memoir,” Jaycee Dugard
“Submarine,” Joe Dunthorne
“Paso a Paso,” José Antonio Echeverria
“The Circle,” Dave Eggers
“Perfect Chemistry,” Simone Elkeles
“The Authority,” Warren Ellis
“Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison
“The Gathering,” Anne Enright
“The Painter from Shanghai,” Jennifer Cody Epstein
“The Round House,” Louise Erdrich
“Sophomore Undercover,” Ben Esch
“Like Water For Chocolate,” Laura Esquivel
“Middlesex,” Jefferey Eugenides
“The Horse Whisperer,” Nicholas Evans
“Sleepless,” Thomas Fahy
“Ask the Dust,” John Fante
“Bad Days In History,” Michael Farquhar
“The Comedy Writer,” Peter Farrelly
“White Oleander,” Janet Fitch
“Madame Bovary,” Gustave Flaubert
“Dark Places,” Gillian Flynn
“Sharp Objects,” Gillian Flynn
“Separation of Power,” Vince Flynn
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” Jonathan Safran Foer
“The Carnival at Bray,” Jessie Ann Foley
“The Guest List,” Lucy Foley
“The Pillars of the Earth,” Ken Follett
“World Without End,” Ken Follett
“Come Back,” Claire Fontaine
“If I Stay,” Gayle Forman
“Just One Day,” Gayle Forman
“The Jane Austen Book Club,” Karen Fowler
“Joy Special of the Day,” Elaine Fox
“You Hear Me?,” Betsy Franco
“Palo Alto,” James Franco
“Dime,” E. R. Frank
“Cold Mountain,” Charles Frazier
“The Likeness,” Tana French
“Anansi Boys,” Neil Gaiman
“The House of Bernarda Alba,” Federico García Lorca
“Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” Gabriel García Márquez
“Love in the Time of Cholera,” Gabriel García Márquez
“Annie on My Mind,” Nancy Garden
“Killjoy,” Julie Garwood
“Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert
“Howl and Other Poems,” Allen Ginsberg
“Girl in Pieces,” Kathleen Glasgow
“Fat Kid Rules the World,” Kelly L. Going
“Bee Season,” Myla Goldberg
“Kenang-Kenangan Seorang Geisha (Memoirs of a Geisha),” Arthur Golden
“Memoirs of a Geisha,” Arthur Golden
“Sister Mischief,” Laura Goode
“A Reliable Wife,” Robert Goolrick
“Forever for a Year,” B.T. Gottfred
“The Handsome Girl & Her Beautiful Boy,” B.T. Gottfred
“The Nerdy and the Dirty,” B.T. Gottfred
“Tomorrow Girls,” Eva Gray
“An Abundance of Katherines,” John Green
“Looking for Alaska,” John Green
“Will,” John Grayson
“Paper Towns,” John Green
“Sex Plus: Learning, Loving and Enjoying Your Body,” Laci Green
“The Quiet American,” Graham Greene
“None Of The Above,” I.W. Gregorio
“Changeling,” Philippa Gregory
“The Other Boleyn Girl,” Philippa Gregory
“A Time to Kill,” John Grisham
“The Firm,” John Grisham
“John Grisham Value Collection: A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Client,”
John Grisham
“From Where I Watch You,” Shannon Grogan
“Water For Elephants,” Sara Gruen
“The Freedom Writers Diary,” Erin Gruwell
“Snow Falling On Cedars,” David Guterson
“A Map of the World,” Jane Hamilton
“We’ll Always Have Summer,” Jenny Han
“The World’s Strongest Librarian,” Joshua Hanagarne
“Fly Away,” Kristin Hannah
“The Art of Fielding,” Chad Harbach
“Jude the Obscure,” Thomas Hardy
“Chocolat,” Joanne Harris
“The Lollipop Shoes,” Joanne Harris
“The Silent Wife,” A.S.A. Harrison
“Plainsong,” Kent Haruf
“The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood,” Gwen Harwood
“Necropolis,” Jordan L. Hawk
“Second Skin,” John Hawkes
“The Girl on the Train,” Paula Hawkins
“Catch-22,” Joseph Heller

“The Collected Plays,” Lillian Hellman
“Demian the Story of Emil Sinclairs Youth,” Hermann Hesse
“Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend.,” Hermann Hesse
“Siddhartha (Dual-Language),” Hermann Hesse
“Siddhartha: A Novel,” Hermann Hesse
“Skin Tight,” Carl Hiaasen
“The Island,” Elin Hilderbrand
“Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition,” Katie Rain Hill
“Here Comes Santa Claus,” Sandra Hill
“Royal Assassin,” Robin Hobb
“The Dress Lodger,” Sheri Holman
“Watch Me,” A.J. Holt
“November 9,” Colleen Hoover
“Heart Bones,” Colleen Hoover
“Hopeless,” Colleen Hoover
“It Ends With Us,” Colleen Hoover
“It Starts With Us,” Colleen Hoover
“Layla,” Colleen Hoover
“Losing Hope,” Colleen Hoover
“Regretting You,” Colleen Hoover
“Verity,” Colleen Hoover
“Confess,” Colleen Hoover
“Ugly Love,” Colleen Hoover
“Impulse,” Ellen Hopkins
“Burned,” Ellen Hopkins
“Collateral,” Ellen Hopkins
“Crank,” Ellen Hopkins
“Fallout,” Ellen Hopkins
“Identical,” Ellen Hopkins
“Love Lies Beneath,” Ellen Hopkins
“People Kill People,” Ellen Hopkins
“Perfect,” Ellen Hopkins
“Tilt,” Ellen Hopkins
“Tricks,” Ellen Hopkins
“I Never,” Laura Hopper
“The Changeling,” Kate Horsley
“The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini
“A Thousand Splendid Suns,” Khaled Hosseini
“Taken at Dusk,” C.C. Hunter
“Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley
“M Butterfly,” David Henry Hwang
“Icy Sparks,” Gwyn Hyman Rubio
“A Widow for One Year: A Novel,” John Irving
“The World According to Garp,” John Irving
“Never Let Me Go,” Kazuo Ishiguro
“Bit of a Blur,” Alex James
“Fifty Shades Series,” E.L. James
“Green River Killer: A True Detective Story,” Jeff Jensen
“No One to Trust,” Iris Johansen
“All Boys Aren’t Blue,” George M. Johnson
“Truly Devious 3-Book Box Set,” Maureen Johnson
“The Graduate,” Terry Johnson
“Choice Words,” Peter H. Johnston
“The Recognition of Sakuntala,” Arthur William Ryder Kalidasa
“Scent of Danger,” Andrea Kane
“Confessions of a Not It Girl,” Melissa Kantor
“The Big Bad Wolf Tells All,” Donna Kauffman
“Milk and Honey,” Rupi Kaur
“The Sun and Her Flowers,” Rupi Kaur
“Summer in the City of Roses,” Michelle Ruiz Keil
“Street Dreams,” Faye Kellerman
“Mr. Ding’s Chicken Feet,” Gillian Kendall
“The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend,” Kody Keplinger
“YOU: A Nove,” Caroline Kepnes
“On The Road,” Jack Kerouac
“The Book of Longings,” Sue Monk Kidd
“Four Past Midnight,” Stephen King
“Dolores Claiborne,” Stephen King
“Lisey’s Story,” Stephen King
“Night Shift,” Stephen King
“The Drawing of the Three,” Stephen King
“The Wastelands,” Stephen King
“Under the Dome,” Stephen King
“Prodigal Summer: A Novel,” Barbara Kingsolver
“Confessions of a Shopaholic,” Sophie Kinsella
“Shopaholic and Baby,” Sophie Kinsella
“Fear the Hunters,” Robert Kirkman
“Miles Behind Us,” Robert Kirkman
“Don’t Say a Word,” Andrew Klavan
“Primary Colors,” Joe Klein
“Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs,” Chuck Klosterman
“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” Maia Kobabe
“City of Night,” Dean Koontz
“Twilight Eyes,” Dean Koontz
“The Bear Went Over the Mountain,” William Kotzwinkle
“Born on the Fourth of July,” Ron Kovic
“The Pirate,” Jayne Ann Krentz
“The Poppy War,” R F. Kuang
“Dark Triumph,” Robin La Fevers
“Grave Mercy,” Robin La Fevers
“The Namesake,” Jhumpa Lahiri
“I Know This Much Is True,” Wally Lamb
“Search for Safety,” Paul Langan
“Survivor,” Paul Langan
“Liar,” Justine Larbalestier
“My Sister Rosa,” Justine Larbalestier
“The Splendid and the Vile,” Erik Larson
“Recipe Box,” Sandra Lee
“Furyborn,” Claire Legrand
“Mystic River,” Dennis Lehane
“The Grass Is Singing,” Doris Lessing
“Another Day,” David Levithan
“Dexter Is Delicious,” Jeff Lindsay
“Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” Malinda Lo
“The Dirt on Sex,” Justin Lookadoo
“Character, Driven,” David Lubar
“The Bourne Identity,” Robert Ludlum
“The Robert Ludlum Value Collection: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne
Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum,” Robert Ludlum
“Brave New Girl,” Louisa Luna
“Game,” Barry Lyga
“I Hunt Killers,” Barry Lyga
“Boy Toy,” Barry Lyga
“A Court of Frost and Starlight,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Mist and Fury,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of of Wings and Ruin,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Silver Flames,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Wings and Ruin,” Sarah J. Maas
“House of Earth and Blood,” Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Thorns and Roses,” Sarah J. Maas
“Fall on Your Knees,” Ann-Marie MacDonald
“Easter Rising,” Michael Patrick MacDonald
“Guyaholic,” Carolyn Mackler
“The Hike,” Drew Magary
“Son of a Witch,” Gregor Maguire
“Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” Gregory Maguire
“Wicked: Memorias de una bruja mala,” Gregory Maguire
“The Natural,” Bernard Malamud
“Nectar in a Sieve,” Kamala Markandaya
“Slightly Single,” Wendy Markham
“Blue is the Warmest Color,” Jul Maroh
“A Game of Thrones,” George R.R. Martin
“A Dance with Dragons,” George R.R. Martin
“A Feast for Crows,” George R.R. Martin
“A Storm of Swords,” George R.R. Martin
“The Mystery Knight,” George R.R. Martin
“The Official A Game of Thrones Coloring Book,” George R.R. Martin
“A Clash of Kings,” George R.R. Martin
“Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling’s Disgustingly Dirty Joke Book,” Jackie Martling
“Paper Dollhouse,” Lisa M. Masterson
“Strange Intimacy,” Anne Mather
“Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour,” Morgan Matson
“The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn,” Robin Maxwell
“The Good Lord Bird,” James McBride
“Perfect Fifths,” Megan McCafferty
“Second Helpings,” Megan McCafferty
“Freedom’s Choice,” Anne McCaffrey
“All the Pretty Horses,” Cormac McCarthy
“No Country for Old Men,” Cormac McCarthy
“Outer Dark,” Cormac McCarthy
“Man o’ War,” Cory McCarthy
“Sold,” Patricia McCormick
“The Revolution of Little Girls,” Blanche McCrary Boyd
“The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” Martin McDonagh
“Sophomore Switch,” Abby McDonald
“Amsterdam,” Ian McEwan
“Atonement,” Ian McEwan
“On Chesil Beach,” Ian McEwan
“Duquesa by Default,” Maura McGiveny
“Beautiful Disaster,” Jamie McGuire
“The Memory of Running,” Ron McLarty
“Lonesome Dove,” Larry McMurtry
“Everything You Want Me to Be,” Mindy Mejia
“Talking in the Dark,” Billy Merrell
“Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined,” Stephenie Meyer
“Pretty Woman,” Fern Michaels
“The Real Deal,” Fern Michaels
“The Authority,” Mark Millar
“Circe,” Madeline Miller
“The Song of Achilles: A Novel,” Madeline Miller
“Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (The Signet Classic Poetry
Series),” John Milton
“Paradise Lost,” John Milton
“Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and
Being a Human (A Graphic Novel),” Erika Moen
“All My Friends Are Dead,” Avery Monsen
“Watchmen,” Alan Moore
“Camp Confidential,” Melissa J. Morgan
“The Year of Secret Assignments,” Jaclyn Moriarty
“The Center of Everything,” Laura Moriarty
“Seikai 1,” Hiroyuki Morioka
“The Bluest Eye,” Toni Morrison
“Beloved,” Toni Morrison
“Paradise,” Toni Morrison
“Song of Solomon,” Toni Morrison
“Kafka on the Shore,” Haruki Murakami
“Heart of Stone,” C.E. Murphy
“Dead End,” Jason Myers
“Street Love,” Walter Dean Myers
“Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks,” Lauren Myracle
“Rhymes with Witches,” Lauren Myracle
“Shine,” Lauren Myracle
“L8R G8R,” Lauren Myracle
“The Infinite Moment of Us,” Lauren Myracle
“ttfn,” Lauren Myracle
“TTYL,” Lauren Myracle
“yolo,” Lauren Myracle
“The Art of Hana-Kimi,” Hisaya Nakajo
“Skin,” Donna Jo Napoli
“Linden Hills,” Gloria Naylor
“The Men of Brewster Place,” Gloria Naylor
“The Women of Brewster Place,” Gloria Naylor
“Like a Love Story,” Abdi Nazemian
“Getting Somewhere,” Beth Neff
“On the Volcano,” James Nelson
“Suite Francaise,” Irene Nemirovsky
“The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen
“We Are All Made of Molecules,” Susin Nielsen-Fernlund
“Holding Up the Universe,” Jennifer Niven
“Breathless,” Jennifer Niven
“Everlasting,” Alyson Noël
“Evermore,” Alyson Noël
“Night Star,” Alyson Noël
“Where I end and You Begin,” Preston Norton
“Sweat,” Lynn Nottage
“Plague in the Mirror,” Deborah Noyes
“Back Roads,” Tawni O’Dell
“Beasts,” Joyce Carol Oates
“The Assignation: Stories,” Joyce Carol Oates
“We Were the Mulvaneys,” Joyce Carol Oates
“Panic,” Lauren Oliver
“Before I Fall,” Lauren Oliver
“When the Emperor was Divine,” Julie Otsuka
“Ars Amatoria,” Ovid
“Metamorphoses,” Ovid
“Where the Crawdads Sing,” Delia Owens
“Choke,” Chuck Palahniuk
“Invisible Monsters Remix,” Chuck Palahniuk
“Lullaby,” Chuck Palahniuk
“In Order to Live,” Yeonmi Park
“The Dogs of Babel,” Carolyn Parkhurst
“Learning Tree,” Gordon Parks
“Bel Canto,” Ann Patchett
“The Patron Saint of Liars,” Ann Patchett
“Honeymoon,” James Patterson
“Private,” James Patterson
“Sail,” James Patterson
“Sam’s Letters to Jennifer,” James Patterson
“Sideways,” Alexander Payne
“A Day No Pigs Would Die,” Robert Newton Peck
“The Leftovers,” Tom Perrotta
“Out Stealing Horses,” Per Petterson
“Prague,” Arthur Phillips
“Fishtailing,” Wendy Phillips
“A Spark of Light,” Jodi Picoult
“Handle with Care,” Jodi Picoult
“Picture Perfect,” Jodi Picoult
“The Pact: A Love Story,” Jodi Picoult
“The Storyteller,” Jodi Picoult
“The Tenth Circle,” Jodi Picoult
“Nineteen Minutes,” Jodi Picoult
“A Year and a Day,” Leslie Pietrzyk
“Thirst No. 1,” Christopher Pike
“Thirst No. 2,” Christopher Pike
“Thirst No. 4,” Christopher Pike
“Thirst No. 5,” Christopher Pike
“Into White,” Randi Pink
“It Doesn’t Have to Be Awkward: Dealing with Relationships, Consent,
and Other Hard-to-Talk-About Stuff,” Drew Pinsky
“Yes Please,” Amy Poehler
“Tinisima,” Elena Poniatowska
“Behind the Shadows,” Patricia Potter
“The Whistling Toilets,” Randy Powell
“The Cabin,” Natasha Preston
“The Cellar,” Natasha Preston
“Caves Graves,” Natalie Prior
“Jane Swann’s Way,” Marcel Proust
“La Belle Sauvage,” Philip Pullman
“Burning Glass,” Kathryn Purdie
“The Family,” Mario Puzo
“Gabi, a Girl in Pieces,” Isabel Quintero
“The Elegant Gathering of White Snows,” Kris Radish
“The Fountainhead,” Ayn Rand
“Modern Love,” Andrew Rannells
“Punkzilla,” Adam Rapp
“Beautiful,” Amy Reed
“The Cute Girl Network,” M.K. Reed
“Such a Fun Age,” Kiley Reid
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” Taylor Jenkins Reid
“Stop in the Name of Pants!,” Louise Rennison
“Stone Fox,” John Reynolder
“Wide Sargasso Sea,” Jean Rhys
“The Vampire Armand,” Anne Rice
“The Witching Hour,” Anne Rice
“Life,” Keith Richards
“Juliet Takes a Breath,” Gabby Rivera
“Redeeming Love,” Francine Rivers
“The Atonement Child,” Francine Rivers
“Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal,” Mary Roach
“Birthright,” Nora Roberts
“The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters,” Elisabeth Robinson
“Normal People,” Sally Rooney
“Jack of Hearts (and other parts),” L.C. Rosen
“Portnoy’s Complaint,” Philip Roth
“The Casual Vacancy,” J.K. Rowling
“The God of Small Things,” Arundhati Roy
“All of Us with Wings,” Michelle Ruiz Keil
“Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens,” Bill Russell
“The Dead-Tossed Waves,” Carrie Ryan
“Leviathan Wakes,” James S.A. Corey
“And They Lived …,” Steven Salvatore
“Bait,” Alex Sanchez
“Once a King, Always a King,” Reymundo Sanchez
“Option B,” Sheryl Sandberg
“The Fool’s Run,” John Sandford
“Vampire, Interupted,” Lynsay Sands
“Push,” Sapphire
“Blindness,” José Saramago
“Jesus Land: A Memoir,” Julia Scheeres
“Uses for Boys,” Erica Lorraine Scheidt
“The Reader,” Bernard Schlink
“The Beginning of Everything,” Robyn Schneider
“Bully,” Jim Schutze
“The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue,” V.E. Schwab
“The Gift of Forgiveness,” Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
“Living Dead Girl: A Novel,” Elizabeth Scott
“Lucky,” Alice Sebold
“The Lovely Bones,” Alice Sebold
“Naked,” David Sedaris
“Peony in Love,” Lisa See
“Writing My Wrongs,” Shaka Senghor
“Equus,” Peter Shaffer
“Skin and Bones,” Sherry Shahan
“Demon Apocalypse,” Darren Shan
“Forbidden Knowledge,” Roger Shattuck
“Tweak,” Nic Sheff
“The Stone Diaries,” Carol Shields
“Sea Glass: A Novel,” Anita Shreve
“Alichino,” Kouyu Shurei
“The Food Chain,” Nicky Silver
“If I Was Your Girl,” Ni-Ni Simone
“Wilder,” Andrew Simonet
“The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping with Chicks,” Jen Sincero
“The Silence and the Roar,” Nihad Sirees
“The Primal Blueprint,” Mark Sisson
“Prep: A Novel,” Curtis Sittenfeld
“You Think It, I’ll Say It,” Curtis Sittenfeld
“Stay In Line,” Teddy Slaterguess
“A Thousand Acres,” Jane Smiley
“The Way I used to Be,” Amber Smith
“Joy in the Morning,” Betty Smith
“Tree Grows In Brooklyn,” Betty Smith
“The Geography of Girlhood,” Kirsten Smith
“Betwixt,” Tara Bray Smith
“Anatomy of a Boyfriend,” Daria Snadowsky
“Sadar’s Keep,” Midori Snyder
“No Visible Bruises,” Rachel Louise Snyder
“MARS,” Fuyumi Soryo
“Summer on Wheels,” Gary Soto
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” Muriel Spark
“It Happened to Nancy,” Beatrice Sparks
“At First Sight,” Nicholas Sparks
“Message in a Bottle,” Nicholas Sparks
“Nights in Rodanthe,” Nicholas Sparks
“The Guardian,” Nicholas Sparks
“The Rescue,” Nicholas Sparks
“The Wedding,” Nicholas Sparks
“Small Town Girl,” Lavyrle Spencer
“Everyone likes Eggs,” Jerry Spinelli
“Star (French Edition),” Danielle Steel
“The Gift,” Danielle Steel
“East of Eden,” John Steinbeck
“Still Missing,” Chevy Stevens
“Earth (the book) A Visitors Guide to the Human Race,” Jon Stewart
“Every Last Word,” Tamara Ireland Stone
“Marcelo in the Real World,” Francisco X. Stork
“Until the Twelfth of Never,” Bella Stumbo
“Sophie’s Choice,” William Styron
“We Should Hang Out Sometime,” Josh Sundquist
“The Kitchen God’s Wife,” Amy Tan
“The Valley of Amazement,” Amy Tan
“American Colonies,” Alan Taylor
“Just Friends,” Billy Taylor
“The Spectacular Now,” Tim Tharp
“Concrete Rose,” Angie Thomas
“The Loners,” Lex Thomas
“Picking Cotton,” Jennifer Thompson-Cannino
“Blankets,” Craig Thompson
“First Time,” Meg Tilly
“Sigh, Gone,” Phuc Tran
“Milk Glass Moon,” Adriana Trigiani
“Stuck in Neutral,” Terry Trueman
“The RattleRat,” Janwillem Van de Wetering
“Red Thunder,” John Varley
“Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything,” Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
“Y: The Last Man,” Brian K. Vaughan
“When We Make It,” Elisabet Velasquez
“The Covenant of Water,” Abraham Verghese
“Shojo Beat,” Viz Media
“Dicey’s Song,” Cynthia Voight
“All I Want is Everything,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“Don’t You Forget about Me,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“Tempted,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“You Know You Love Me,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“It Had To Be You,” Cecily Von Ziegesar
“Slaughterhouse-Five,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
“Black White and Jewish,” Rebecca Walker
“We All Looked Up,” Tommy Wallach
“A Thousand Country Roads: An Epilogue to The Bridges of Madison
County,” Robert James Waller
“The Bridges of Madison County,” Robert James Waller
“The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls
“Stargazing,” Jen Wang
“Salvage the Bones,” Jesmyn Ward
“Numbers,” Rachel Ward
“Something Worth Saving,” Sandi Ward
“The Graduate,” Charles Webb
“Girl Boy Etc,” Michael Weinreb
“Chasing Harry Winston,” Lauren Weisberger
“Little Altars Everywhere: A Novel,” Rebecca Wells
“A Certain Slant of Light,” Laura Whitcomb
“The Professor and the Madman,” Simon Winchester
“Happiness Sold Separately,” Lolly Winston
“A Man in Full,” Tom Wolfe
“The Interestings,” Meg Wolitzer
“Turkish Delight,” Jan Wolkers
“Brighter than Gold,” Cynthia Wright
“Native Son,” Richard Wright
“Blu’s Hanging,” Lois-Ann Yamanaka
“Revolutionary Road,” Richard Yates
“Armageddon Summer,” Jane Yolen
“The Sun Is Also a Star,” Nicola Yoon
“Everything, Everything,” Nicola Yoon
“Nothing But Your Ski,” Cathy Ytak

Compiled by staff writer Richard Tribou. Source: List obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project and confirmed by Orange County Public Schools.

Categories Academic Freedom, Accountability, Censorship, DeSantis, Extremism, Fascism, Florida, Freedom to Read, Literacy, Literature

Orange County, Florida, Removed 673 Books from Classroom Shelves

By dianeravitch

December 28, 2023 //

Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel reported the banned books list in Orange County. I haven’t read most of them, but several of the banned books that I had read were very surprising to me.

The next post will identify all the books on the list.

Postal wrote:

A total of 673 books, from classics to best-sellers, have been removed from Orange County classrooms this year for fear they violate new state rules that ban making “sexual conduct” available to public school students.

The list of rejected books, which the district began compiling during the summer, will get another review from Orange County Public Schools staff, so some could eventually be put back on shelves. But for now, teachers who had them in their classrooms have been told to take them home or put them away so students cannot access them.

The books run the gamut, from John Milton’s 17th-century epic poem “Paradise Lost” to John Grisham’s 1991 New York Times bestseller “The Firm.” John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” and John Irving’s “The World According to Garp” made the list, too.

The list also includes popular novels by Stephen King, Sue Monk Kidd and Jodi Picoult, classics like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” “Jude the Obscure,” and “Madame Bovary,” and award-winning books like “A Thousand Acres,” “Beloved,” and “Love in the Time of Cholera.”

The books that surprised me most were:

PARADISE LOST

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

MADAME BOVARY

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Do you think teenagers will rush to read Milton’s Paradise Lost or Flaubert’s Madame Bovary now that they are banned?

The next post will have the full list.

Categories Censorship, DeSantis, Extremism, Florida, Libraries, Literacy, Literature

Thom Hartmann: Do Not Be Fooled By These GOP Scams

By dianeravitch

December 26, 2023 //

113

Thom Hartmann explains the lies, hoaxes, And scams that Republicans use to deceive middle-income people to vote for them, against their self-interest. He shows how Jeb Bush tilted the election of 2000 in favor of his brother George.

This is a must-read.

Hartmann writes:

The GOP — to keep the support of “average” American voters while they work entirely for the benefit of giant corporations, the weapons and fossil fuel industries, and the morbidly rich — have run a whole series of scams on voters ever since the original Reagan grift of trickle-down economics.

Oddly, there’s nothing comparable on the Democratic side. No lies or BS to justify unjustifiable policies: Democrats just say up-front what they’re all about:

Healthcare and quality education for all. Treat all people and religions with respect and fairness. Trust women to make their own decisions. Raise the pay of working people and support unionization. Get assault weapons off the streets. Do something about climate change. Clean up toxic waste sites and outlaw pesticides that damage children. Replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.

Nonetheless, the media persists in treating the two parties as if they were equally honest and equally interested in the needs of all Americans. In part, that’s because one of the GOP’s most effective scams — the “liberal media bias” scam — has been so successful ever since Lee Atwater invented it back in the early years of the Reagan Revolution.

For example, right now there’s a lot of huffing and puffing in the media about how the Supreme Court might rule in the case of Trump being thrown off the ballot in Colorado. They almost always mention “originalism” and “textualism” as if they’re honest, good-faith methods for interpreting the Constitution when, in fact, they’re cynical scams invented to justify unjustifiable rulings.

Thus, the question: how much longer will Americans (and the American media) continue to fall for the GOP’s scams?

They include:

— Originalism: Robert Bork came up with this scam back in the 1980s when Reagan appointed him to the Supreme Court and he couldn’t come up with honest or reasonable answers for his jurisprudential positions, particularly those justifying white supremacy. By saying that he could read the minds of the Founders and Framers of the Constitution, Bork gave himself and future generations of Republicans on the Court the fig leaf they needed.

The simple fact is that there was rarely a consensus among the Framers and among the politicians of the founding generation about pretty much anything. And to say that we should govern America by the standards of a white-men-only era before even the industrial revolution much less today’s modern medicine, communications, and understanding of economics is absurd on its face.

— Voter Fraud: This scam, used by white supremacists across the South in the years after the failure of Reconstruction to prevent Black people from voting, was reinvented in 1993, when Bill Clinton and Democrats in Congress succeeded in passing what’s today called the “Motor Voter” law that lets states automatically register people to vote when they renew their driver’s licenses. Republicans freaked out at the idea that more people might be voting, and claimed the new law would cause voter fraud (it didn’t).

By 1997, following Democratic victories in the 1996 election, it had become a major meme to justify purging voting rolls of Black and Hispanic people. Today it’s the justification for over 300 voter suppression laws passed in Red states in just in the past 2 years, all intended to make it harder for working class people, minorities, women, the elderly dependent on Social Security, and students (all Democratic constituencies) to vote.

The most recent iteration of it is Donald Trump‘s claim that the 2020 election, which he lost by fully 7 million votes, was stolen from him by voter fraud committed by Black people in major cities.

As a massive exposé in yesterday’s Washington Post titled “GOP Voter-Fraud Crackdown Overwhelmingly Targets Minorities, Democrats” points out, the simple reality is that voter fraud in the US is so rare as to be meaningless, and has never, ever, anywhere been documented to swing a single election.

But Republicans have been using it as a very effective excuse to make it harder for Democratic voters to cast a ballot, and to excuse their purging almost 40,000,000 Americans off the voting rolls in the last five years.

Right To Work (For Less): back in the 1940s, Republicans came up with this scam. Over the veto of President Harry Truman, they pushed through what he referred to as “the vicious Taft-Hartley Act,” which lets states make it almost impossible for unions to survive. Virtually every Red state has now adopted “right to work,” which has left their working class people impoverished and, because it guts the political power of working people, their minimum wage unchanged.

— Bush v Gore: The simple reality is that Al Gore won Florida in 2000, won the national popular vote by a half-million, and five Republicans on the Supreme Court denied him the presidency. Florida Governor and George W. Bush’s brother Jeb had his Secretary of State, Kathryn Harris, throw around 90,000 African Americans off the voting rolls just before the election and then, when the votes had come in and it was clear former Vice President Al Gore had still won, she invented a new category of ballots for the 2000 election: “Spoiled.”

As The New York Times reported a year after the 2000 election when the consortium of newspapers they were part of finally recounted all the ballots:

“While 35,176 voters wrote in Bush’s name after punching the hole for him, 80,775 wrote in Gore’s name while punching the hole for Gore. [Florida Secretary of State] Katherine Harris decided that these were ‘spoiled’ ballots because they were both punched and written upon and ordered that none of them should be counted.

“Many were from African American districts, where older and often broken machines were distributed, causing voters to write onto their ballots so their intent would be unambiguous.”

George W. Bush “won” the election by 537 votes in Florida, because the statewide recount — which would have revealed Harris’s crime and counted the “spoiled” ballots, handing the election to Gore (who’d won the popular vote by over a half-million) — was stopped when George HW Bush appointee Clarence Thomas became the deciding vote on the Supreme Court to block the recount order from the Florida Supreme Court.

Harris’ decision to not count the 45,599 more votes for Gore than Bush was completely arbitrary; there is no legal category and no legal precedent, outside of the old Confederate states simply refusing to count the votes of Black people, to justify it. The intent of the voters was unambiguous. And the 5 Republicans on the Supreme Court jumped in to block the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court (in violation of the 10th Amendment) just in time to prevent those “spoiled” votes from being counted, cementing Bush’s illegitimate presidency.

— Money is “Free Speech” and corporations are “persons”: This scam was invented entirely by Republicans on the Supreme Court, although billionaire GOP donors — infuriated by campaign contribution and dark money limits put into law in the 1970s after the Nixon bribery scandals — had been funding legal efforts to get it before the Court for years.

In a decision that twists logic beyond rationality, the five Republicans on the Court — over the strong, emphatic objections of all the Democrats on the Court — ruled that our individual right to free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment also includes the “right to listen,” as I lay out in detail in The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America and they wrotein Citizens United:

“The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it.”

Without being able to hear from the most knowledgeable entities, they argued, Americans couldn’t be well-informed about the issues of the day.

And who was in the best position to inform us? As Lewis Powell himself wrote in the Bellottidecision, echoed in Citizens United, it’s those corporate “persons”:

“Corporations and other associations, like individuals, contribute to the ‘discussion, debate, and the dissemination of information and ideas’ that the First Amendment seeks to foster…”

“Political speech is ‘indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation rather than an individual.’ … The inherent worth of the speech in terms of its capacity for informing the public does not depend upon the identity of its source, whether corporation, association, union, or individual.”

They doubled down, arguing that corporations and billionaires should be allowed to dump unlimited amounts of money into the political campaigns of those politicians they want to own so long as they go into dark money operations instead of formal campaigns. What was called “bribery” for over 200 years is now “free speech”:

“For the reasons explained above, we [five Republicans on the Supreme Court] now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”

— Cutting taxes raises revenue: As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman notes, the idea promoted by Reagan, Bush, and Trump to justify almost $30 trillion in cumulative tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations is “The Biggest Tax Scam in History.”

Reagan first pitched this to justify cutting the top income tax rate on the morbidly rich from 74% down to 25% in the 1980s, and it was reprised by both George W. Bush and Donald Trump for their own massive tax breaks for their well-off donors and peers.

The simple fact is that America went from a national debt of over 124% of GDP following World War II to a national debt of a mere $800 billion when Reagan came into office. We’d been paying down our debt steadily, and had enough money to build the interstate highway system, brand new schools and hospitals from coast to coast, and even to put men on the moon.

Since Reagan rolled out his tax scam, however, our national debt has gone from less than a trillion in 1980 to over 30 trillion today: we’re back, in terms of debt, to where we were during WWII when FDR raised the tippy-top bracket income tax rate to 90% to deal with the cost of the war. We should be back to that tax rate for the morbidly rich today, as well.

— Destroying unions helps workers: In their eagerness to help their corporate donors, Reagan rolled out a novel idea in 1981, arguing that instead of helping working people, corrupt “union bosses” were actually ripping them off.

Union leaders work on a salary and are elected by their members: the very idea that they, like CEOs who are compensated with stock options and performance bonuses and appointed by their boards, could somehow put their own interests first is ludicrous. Their only interest, if they want to retain their jobs, is to do what the workers want.

But Reagan was a hell of a salesman, and he was so successful with this pitch he cut union membership in America during his and his VP’s presidency by more than 50 percent.

— Corporations can provide better Medicare than the government: For a corporation to exist over the long term, particularly a publicly-traded corporation, it must produce a profit. That’s why when George W. Bush and friends invented the Medicare Advantage scam in 2003 they allowed Advantage providers to make as much as 20 percent in pure profit.

Government overhead for real Medicare is around 2% — the cost of administration — and corporations could probably run their Advantage programs with a similar overhead, but they have to make that 20% profit nut, so they hire larger staffs to examine every single request to pay for procedures, surgeries, tests, imaging, and even doctors’ appointments. And reject, according to The New York Times, around 18% of them.

“Advantage plans also refused to pay legitimate claims, according to the report. About 18 percent of payments were denied despite meeting Medicare coverage rules, an estimated 1.5 million payments for all of 2019.”

When they deny you care, they make money. If they ran like real Medicare and paid every bill (except the fraudulent ones), they’d merely break even, and no company can do that. Nonetheless, Republicans continue to claim that “choice” in the marketplace is more important than fixing Medicare.

With the $140 billion that for-profit insurance companies overcharge us and steal from our government every year, if Medicare Advantage vanished there would be enough money left over to cut Medicare premiums to almost nothing and add dental, vision, and hearing. But don’t expect Republicans to ever go along with that: they take too much money from the insurance industry (thanks to five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court).

— More guns means more safety: Remember the NRA’s old “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”? They’re still at it, and there’s hardly a single Republican in America who will step up and do anything about the gun violence crisis that is uniquely experienced by our nation.

Bullets are now the leading cause of death among children in the US, and we’re literally the only country in the entire world for which that is true. And a child living in Red state Mississippi is ten times more likely to die from a gun than a child in Blue state Massachusetts. But as long as the NRA owns them, Republicans will never do anything about it.

— The media has a liberal bias: This canard was started by Lee Atwater in an attempt to “work the refs” of the media, demanding that they stop pointing out the scams Republicans were engaging in (at the time it was trickle-down). The simple reality is that America’s media, from TV and radio networks to newspapers to websites, are overwhelmingly owned by billionaires and corporations with an openly conservative bent.

There are over 1500 rightwing radio stations (and 1000 religious broadcasters, who are increasingly political), three rightwing TV networks, and an army of tens of thousands of paid conservative activists turning out news releases and policy papers in every state, every day of the year. There are even well-funded social media operations.

There is nothing comparable on the left. Even MSNBC is owned by Comcast and so never touches issues of corporate governance, media bias (they fired Brian Stelter!), or the corruption of Congress by its big pharma and Medicare Advantage advertisers.

— Republicans are the party of faith: Republicans claim to be the pious ones, from Mike Johnson’s creepy “chastity ball” with his daughter, to their hate of queer people, to their embrace of multimillionaire TV and megachurch preachers. But Democrats, who are more accepting of people of all faiths and tend not to wear their religion on their sleeves, are the ones following Jesus’ teachings.

Jesus, arguably the founder of Christianity, was emphatic that you should never pray in public, do your good deeds in private as well, and that the only way to get to heaven is to feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick, and love every other human as much as you love yourself.

Republicans, on the other hand, wave their piety like a bloody shirt, issue press releases about their private charities, and fight every effort to have our government feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick, or even respect, much less love, people who look or live or pray differently from them.

— Crime is exploding and you’re safer living in an area Republicans control: In fact, crime of almost all sorts is at a low not seen since 1969. Only car thefts are up, and some of that appears to have to do with social media “how to” videos and a few very vulnerable makes of autos.

New FBI statistics find that violent crime nationwide is down 8 percent; in big cities it’s down nearly 15 percent, robbery and burglary are down 10 and 12 percent respectively.

But what crime there is is overwhelmingly happening in Red states. Over the past 21 years, all types of crime in Red states are 23 percent higher than in Blue states: in 2020, murder rates were a mind-boggling 40 percent higher in states that voted for Trump than those Biden carried.

— Global warming is a hoax: Ever since fossil fuel billionaires and the fossil fuel industry started using the legal bribery rights five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court created for them, virtually every Republican politician in the nation is either directly on the take or benefits indirectly from the massive infrastructure created by the Koch brothers and other fossil fuel barons. As a result, it’s almost impossible to find even one brave, truthful Republican who’s willing to do anything about the climate crisis that is most likely to crash not just the US but civilization itself.

— Hispanic immigrants are “murderers and rapists”: Donald Trump threw this out when he first announced his candidacy for president in 2015, saying, “They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. They’re rapists.” In fact, Hispanic immigrants (legal or without documentation) are far less likely, per capita and by any other measure, to commit crime of any sort than white citizens.

— Helping people makes them lazy. The old Limbaugh joke about “kicking people when they’re down is the only way to get them up” reveals the mindset behind this Republican scam, which argues that when people get money or things they didn’t work for it actually injures them and society by making them lazy. The GOP has used this rationalization to oppose everything from unemployment insurance in the 1930s to food stamps, Medicaid, and housing supports today.

In fact, not only is there no evidence for it, but studies of Universal Basic Income (UBI), where people are given a few hundred dollars a month with no strings attached, finds that the vast majority use the extra funds to improve themselves. They upgrade their housing, look for better jobs, and go back to school.

If the morbidly rich people behind the GOP who promote this scam really believed it, they’d be arguing for a 100% estate tax, to prevent their own children from ending up “lazy.” Good luck finding any who are leaving their trust-fund kids destitute.

— Tobacco doesn’t cause cancer: Back in 2000, soon-to-be Indiana Governor and then-Congressman Mike Pence wrote a column that was published statewide saying, “Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill.” Pence’s family had made money off tobacco for years with a small chain of now-bankrupt convenience stores called “Tobacco Road,” but he was also being spiffed by the industry.

Similarly, George W. Bush pushed the “Healthy Forests Initiative” as president after big contributions from the timber industry: “healthy” meant “clear cut.” Bush also had his “Clear Skies Initiative” that let polluters dump more poison into our air. And the Trump administration, after big bucks and heavy lobbying from the chemical and Big Ag industries, refused to ban a very profitable pesticide used on human food crops that was found to definitely cause brain damage and cancer in children.

— For-profit utilities produce cheaper and more reliable electricity than government-owned and -run ones: This one goes back to the Reagan era, with Republicans arguing that the “free market” will always outperform government, including when it comes to generating and distributing electricity. In fact, each of us has only one wire coming into our homes or offices, so there is no possible competition to drive either improved performance or lower prices among for-profit utilities.

In fact, non-profit community-owned or government run utilities consistently produce more reliable electricity, serve their customers better, and charge lower prices. And the differences have become starker every year since, in 1992, President GHW Bush ended federal regulation of electric utilities. It’s why Texas, which has almost completely privatized its power grid, suffers some of the least reliable and most expensive electricity in the nation when severe weather hits.

— The electoral college protects our democracy: There was a time when both Democrats and Republicans wanted to get rid of the Electoral College; a constitutional amendment to do that failed in Congress by a single vote back in 1970. But after both George W. Bush and Donald Trump lost the White house by a half-million and three million votes respectively but ended up as president anyway, Republicans fell newly in love with the College and are fully planning to use it again in 2024 to seize power even if ten million more people vote for Biden this time (Biden won by 7 million votes in 2020).

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Republicans are now defending billionaires buying off Supreme Court justices and most recently Lever News found that they’ve been spiffing over 100 other federal judges — who regularly vote in favor of the interests of corporations and the morbidly rich — in addition to Alito, Thomas, Roberts, et al.

Republicans are also claiming that:

— Trump isn’t a threat to our democracy and his promises to be a dictator are “mere hyperbole.”
— Letting Putin take Ukraine won’t put Taiwan and other democracies at risk.
— Ignoring churches routinely breaking the law by preaching politics while enjoying immunity from taxes is no big deal.
— Massive consolidation to monopoly levels across virtually every industry in America since Reagan stopped enforcement of our anti-trust laws (causing Americans to pay an average of $5,000 a year more for everything from broadband to drugs than any other country in the world) is just the way business should be run.
— Teaching white children the racial history of America will make them feel bad, rather than feel less racist and more empathetic.
— Queer people are groomers and pedophiles (the majority in these categories are actually straight white men).
— Banning and burning books is good for society and our kids.
— Ending public schools with statewide voucher programs will improve education (every credible study shows the opposite).

I could go on, but you get the point. When will America — and, particularly, American media — wake up to these scams and start calling them out for what they are?

I’m not holding my breath, although you could help get the ball rolling by sharing this admittedly incomplete list as far and wide as possible.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Budget Cuts, Bush, Jeb, Civil Rights, Corruption, Democracy, Democrats, Elections, Extremism, Fake, Florida, Hoax, Hypocrisy, Inequality, Lies, Privatization, Propaganda, Republicans

Maurice Cunningham on the Rise and Fall of Moms for Liberty

By dianeravitch

December 21, 2023 //

Maurice Cunningham, a retired professor who is a specialist in dark money in education politics, surveys the meteoric rise and fall of the rightwing group Moms for Liberty in The Progressive. First, the recently formed organization gathered plenty of publicity as a fearsome force censoring books, accusing teachers of “indoctrinating” students, attacking anything in the schools that acknowledged the existence of gay students or families, and opposing teachers unions. The Moms launched with a big budget, more than anyone could gather at a bake sale. But came the school board elections of 2023, and their candidates took a shellacking. Recently came news that one of their prominent co-founders, Bridget Ziegler, was caught in a sex scandal—a threesome—and the organization was publicly humiliated.

Maurice Cunningham wonders how this checkered organization will survive.

He writes:

On June 30, 2023, a Washington Post headline declared “Moms for Liberty didn’t exist three years ago. Now it’s a GOP kingmaker.” On November 10, 2023, after a raft of school board elections across the country, the Post ran another headline: “Voters drub Moms for Liberty ‘parental rights’ candidates at the ballot.” Moms for Liberty (M4L) not only didn’t make any kings, it didn’t even make many school board members. What happened?

The pre-election headline reflected the messaging skills that M4L has carefully honed to make itself more palatable. By November, however, the reality on the ground became clear.

To learn the origins and context of this group, open the link and read on. The article doesn’t mention the Ziegler sex scandal. Cunningham wrote about that in an article in the Tampa Bay Tribune, but it’s behind a paywall. The Moms are on a downhill slide as a result of their election losses, followed by Bridget’s bisexual tryst. Her ex-friends removed her name from the Moms website.

Categories Bigotry, Censorship, Cruelty, Dark Money, Democracy, DeSantis, Elections, Extremism, Failure, Florida, Freedom to Read, Gender, Hypocrisy

Florida: One Transgender Girl

By dianeravitch

December 17, 2023 //

An anonymous tipster called the superintendent of Broward County schools in Florida and told him that a trans girl (born male) was playing on the Monarch High School girls’ volleyball team. The superintendent suspended the principal and assistant principal of the high school, as well as the student’s mother (who worked in information technology), and members of the athletic staff—five in all.

The student has identified as female since second grade. As punishment for allowing her to play on the girls’ volleyball team, in defiance of state law, the Florida High School Athletic Association fined the school $16,500, ordered the principal and athletic director to attend rules seminars and placed the high school on probation for 11 months; further violations could lead to increased punishments. In addition, the association barred the girl from participating in boys sports for 11 months. It’s easy to predict that she will not play on the boys’ team.

The students at Monarch High School have walked out twice to protest the loss of their principal, who was well-liked and accessible.

What a frenzy because one student played on the girls’ volleyball team and was not an unusually strong player. Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Diaz succeeded in humiliating this one child. What brave men they are!

The following story by Brittany Walkman appeared in The Miami Herald.

When Daisy was 10, she stood in front of a microphone in a green dress, her long hair pulled back in a purple headband.

“Living in Broward County has given me the sense of safety,” she said to the Broward County School Board members, who were honoring LGBTQ History Month, “knowing that the school board has my back.”

Daisy, a transgender girl, seemed to be growing up in an era of unprecedented acceptance.

That was 2017, two years before Gov. Ron DeSantis would take office. In a short time, she crossed a cultural chasm.

Schools in Florida — and even Broward, the most Democrat-leaning county in the state — have been remodeled under DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature.

In the years Daisy aged into her teens, taking estrogen to affirm her identity as a girl, Florida’s schools became a cultural battleground, with legislative spears lobbed at the books students read, the classes they take, the history they learn, the topics they discuss in classrooms, the bathrooms students like Daisy use, the gender-affirming healthcare they receive, and the team sports they compete in.

Though transgender people are a small fraction of the population – an estimated 0.8 percent, according to the U.S. Census, and 2.3 percent of Broward’s student body — they’re an outsized target, much to the disappointment of LGBTQ advocates.

“These attacks have not come from real issues,” said Nic Zantop, deputy director of Transinclusive Group, a South Florida service and advocacy organization. “These are manufactured issues.”

Daisy’s presence the past two years on a girls’ volleyball team at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek now threatens the jobs of her mother, information management systems employee Jessica Norton; and four others at her school, including Principal James Cecil.

They’re under investigation by the school district for potentially violating a state law prohibiting a person born with male anatomy from playing on female sports teams.

When Daisy’s family sued Florida over the law two years ago, it drew little attention — in stark contrast to last week’s events, when her plight exploded across national headlines.

Even the Democrats on the Broward school board — known for embracing LGBTQ causes — remained silent about her last week. Only her classmates offered support, staging two days of walkouts.

“It was very heartwarming to see that the generation that follows us understands acceptance, inclusiveness and diversity,” said Michael Rajner, a longtime LGBTQ activist who serves as chair of the Broward County Human Rights Board. “I can’t tell you how proud these students make me.”

Daisy’s family declined to be interviewed for this story.

Jessica Norton identified herself publicly on Monday as the athlete’s mother. The Miami Herald is using a pseudonym for the student to protect her identity.

‘I’M A GIRL’

When she learned to talk, Daisy gave voice to it. “Mommy, I’m a girl.”

The Nortons weren’t sure what to think, Jennifer Norton recounted in a social media post in 2017, when she was honored with a diversity award.

“What started out as us thinking we had a gay son turned into something much more,” Norton wrote.

When it came time to find a pre-school, Norton said “we chose the school that made the least comments about the pink sparkly flip flops that I let her wear.”

Daisy adopted a feminine name, and started using it in second grade. That year, she played soccer on the girls’ team.

A doctor diagnosed her with gender dysphoria, an internal dissonance between one’s biological sex and gender identity.

Daisy played girls’ sports for years, the lawsuit says, and her social life revolved around it: basketball, softball, soccer and — fatefully — high school volleyball.

Her family — parents Jessica and Gary, a brother and a sister — embraced her as a girl.

In one family photo posted on social media, her older sister wears a shirt that proclaims, “My sister has a penis. Get over it.”

Another shows family members celebrating Pride Month at Walt Disney World, wearing clothing with rainbows. Norton added the hashtags #ProudMom #ProudDad #TransIsBeautiful.

Norton joined the PTA to make sure her daughter wasn’t bullied. She was looking forward to Monarch High.

“I recently was hired at the high school she will eventually attend and will be working with the teachers and staff to bring awareness to the school about transgender students and their rights,” she wrote when she was honored as a transgender advocate.

Daisy registered at school as a girl, with a birth certificate to prove it. (Florida allows birth certificates to be amended.) She used the girls’ restrooms, girls’ locker and changing rooms, all without incident, court filings say.

She’d avoided male puberty by taking testosterone blockers starting at age 11 — a gender affirming care that included later putting her on estrogen, the female hormone, for life, her parents’ lawsuit said in court pleadings.

She delighted in dressing up each Halloween in elaborate Katy Perry outfits, and finally came face to face with the pop star at a concert one year.

“She is not a boy,” her lawyers wrote.

IN BLACK AND WHITE

Daisy might have avoided the turmoil that upended her life if Broward school leaders had paid attention to what she was telling them in court.

Her family sued the school district, governor and state Board of Education, among others, in the summer of 2021, when she was still in middle school.

They knew the law was about to take effect, and said Daisy planned to play soccer on the girls’ team in middle school. She also dreamed of playing high school volleyball, her lawyers wrote in lawsuit pleadings.

They thought the new law violated her civil rights. In March of this year, when Daisy was a freshman, her lawyers put it clearly: “Throughout this litigation, Plaintiff has played on a girls’ team with the threat of enforcement hanging over her head, day in and day out.”

Nevertheless, Daisy’s participation in several years of girls’ sports passed without consequence.

Until last week.

Just after a federal judge dismissed the Norton lawsuit — leaving open the possibility for it to be amended — someone tipped off Broward schools Superintendent Peter Licata on Nov. 20 that Daisy had broken the state law. Licata has not identified the tipster.

The state Department of Education said it ordered the district to “take immediate action.”

Florida Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Democrat who sat on the Broward school board, blamed the vagueness of the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act for what happened at Monarch.

“Many education laws are made that are not executable and create implementation disasters,” she said.

Zantop said because the laws are nuanced, “in many places, we’ve seen maybe even over-compliance, going beyond what laws require. … I would like to see all our school officials pushing back, sticking up for their students.”

Broward schools spokesman John Sullivan said Licata, selected for the job in July, was unaware of the lawsuit, and it had no bearing on his actions. He hadn’t known Daisy had played girls’ volleyball there until he was notified in November, Sullivan said.

Others at the school district — Norton, for example — did know. The school district’s investigation, Sullivan said, will uncover “who knew what, when.”

COMPLICATED ISSUE

In the court of public opinion, the quandary of transgender athletes transcends political leanings.

A majority of Americans believe athletes should be required to play on the team that corresponds to their birth gender, according to recent polls by the Pew Research Center and Gallup,

The federal government’s approach, under Democratic President Joe Biden, would disallow one-size-fits-all bans in public schools like Florida’s.

But it would allow male-to-female transgender youth like Daisy to be prohibited from playing on girls’ teams in some circumstances, particularly competitive high school or college teams.

Schools would be required to minimize harm to the student. The proposal is still being studied. Florida opposes it.

Nearly half the states in America filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Norton lawsuit, on the Florida Board of Education’s side.

So did a Christian group and a sports advocate who opposes transgender female participation. The Christian Family Coalition, a non profit that said it lobbied heavily for passage of Florida’s law, argued that “persons born biologically as males have intrinsic and irreversible biological and physical advantages over persons born biologically as females in terms of skeletal mass, muscle mass, and lung capacity.”

Florida education officials argued that even if the transgender athlete in question isn’t a very good player, the fact that a biological female is potentially displaced from a team is enough to warrant the law.

While some sports bodies have adopted compromises like allowing an athlete to play if testosterone levels are sufficiently reduced, Florida enacted a broad ban that doesn’t take into consideration whether the person experienced male puberty.

Legislators rejected a bill that would have adopted testosterone-based criteria like that of the International Olympic Committee.

Florida’s law applies to public middle and high schools, colleges and universities.

Though he ruled against the Norton family, U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman acknowledged that Florida’s broad ban might be unfair to Daisy.

Altman, an appointee of former President Trump, said he tried his best to “honor” her pronouns in his rulings, and “acknowledge[d] that the statute creates a difficult (and perhaps unfair) situation for D.N., who identifies as a girl in all respects and who may be prohibited from playing on the teams of her choice.”

He said she could try out for a boy’s team, or play co-ed sports. He went on, in his Nov. 6 decision dismissing the case: “Our job isn’t to decide whether a law is good or bad, smart or silly, fair or unfair. We don’t even get to say whether we like the law—whether, in short, we would’ve voted for it if we had been in the legislature. Our job is to apply the law as it’s been expressed through the will of a democratically-elected legislature and the signature of a democratically-elected governor— unless (of course) the law violates some more fundamental (call it constitutional) law.”

And on that note, Judge Altman said, it doesn’t. The family has until Jan. 11 to amend its lawsuit.

NOT A ‘MISTAKE’

A fifth grade transgender girl followed Daisy to the microphone that day in 2017. She got the giggles and had to compose herself before praising her school and the district for making sure she wasn’t seen as “a mistake.”

She said her school read “I Am Jazz,” by transgender girl Jazz Jennings, a former student in Broward schools, a book that was pulled from the shelves in seven Florida counties in the last two years.

It is one of the most commonly banned transgender-themed books in America’s schools, according to PEN, a non profit authors’ advocacy group.

Florida now leads the nation in banning books at school, according to PEN. Nearly a third of the books banned nationwide last school year had characters with LGBTQ identities, according to PEN, and 6 percent had a transgender character.

Daisy said she’d had the support of her teachers when she’d transitioned. “It was the best time of my life,” she said in the televised meeting, flanked by her parents. “I got to be who I was born to be. … I know I’m one of the lucky ones.”

Though she was open about her trans status back then, her lawyers argued in recent court filings that she feared being outed in high school, where it wasn’t commonly known.

Her coach, Alex Burgess, said she didn’t stand out physically. He had no idea she was ever considered a boy.

“It’s not like she was some superstar athlete, to that extent. She was just one of my players,” he said Monday. “She was just sweet and innocent. It was just, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but I just can only imagine what she’s feeling.”

She’d feared being outed by a person suing under the new state law, her lawyers wrote in filings. Instead, it appeared to be the school district’s launching of an investigation — and transferring her mother and four others to off-campus jobs — that inadvertently exposed her gender history.

On Nov. 28, the day the news broke, Daisy’s mom changed her Facebook profile photo to a meme: “Life. What a f***ing nightmare.”

Daisy hasn’t returned to school since.

Staff writer Jimena Tavel contributed to this report.

Categories DeSantis, Florida, Freedom, Gender

Jason Garcia: DeSantis vs. the First Amendment

By dianeravitch

December 16, 2023 //

Jason Garcia is an investigative journalist who persistently exposes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on the Constitution and dubious dealings.

In this post, he details DeSantis’s determined efforts to silence those who disagree with him.

“Don’t Say Gay” is the centerpiece of his attack on the First Amendment, but the attack radiates out to anyone who takes issue with DeSantis, like the Disney Corporation, which had the temerity to defend its free speech rights. The result: DeSantis took control of the entity that runs Disney World and engaged in a public battle with the state’s biggest employer.

This may impress some voters but it must frighten other corporations. Imagine an elected official empowered to take charge of your business because you disagreed with his extremist policies.

DeSantis’s war on the Disney Corporation should frighten every big corporation. How dare he?

Florida is the state where freedom of speech goes to die.

Categories Accountability, Censorship, Democracy, DeSantis, Florida, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Read

Florida GOP Set to Abandon Jeb Bush “Test-and-Punish” Reforms

By dianeravitch

December 13, 2023 //

No wonder Jeb Bush wrote an opinion article defending his so-called reforms, especially high-stakes standardized testing.

The Republican-controlled Legislature is moving to dismantle the structure that Bush created when he was governor. Some legislators wanted to cancel recess but the outcry from parents made them drop that idea.

Leslie Postal of The Orlando Sentinel, one of the best education writers in the nation, writes here about the seismic changes in Florida:

The Florida Senate backed away Tuesday from plans to end the state’s recess requirement after objections from “recess moms” but moved ahead with proposals to scrap key, and controversial, parts of the Republican education agenda.

The Senate’s fiscal policy committee agreed by an 18-0 vote to end policies ushered in by former Gov. Jeb Bush more than 20 years ago. Those include requirements that high school students pass two exams to graduate and that third graders pass a reading test to move on to fourth grade.

Under the bill approved by the GOP-dominated committee, students would no longer have to pass an Algebra 1 and a language arts exam to earn high school diplomas. But the 10th-grade language arts exam would count as 30% of a student’s final grade in 10th-grade English classes, just as the algebra exam already counts as 30% of the final grade in Algebra 1 classes.

The bill also would allow third graders who failed the state reading test to be promoted to fourth grade, if that is what their parents thought was best.

Jeb Bush’s allies objected to the changes and said they would water down standards. It’s not yet clear whether DeSantis will go along. Moms for Liberty also objected.

But Republicans in the Senate have pushed and supported the measures, and two committees have now approved them.

Senate President Senate President Kathleen Passidomo introduced the proposals in a memo she sent to senators last month that was titled “Learn Local – Cutting Red Tape, Supporting Neighborhood Public Schools.”

The idea, she said, was that after the Legislature expanded school choice (HB 1) earlier this year, making many more children eligible for private school scholarships, it should look in its 2024 session to remove regulations on public schools, which serve the bulk of the state’s students.

In the memo, she called the ideas “bold,” “controversial” and, she conceded, ones that might “not make it across the finish line.”

Many of the Senate’s suggestions have broad support from school superintendents, administrators, teachers and parents.

Representatives from the Broward, Orange and Seminole county school districts all showed their support Tuesday, for example.

Simon noted that Florida’s new standardized test, FAST, is a “progress-monitoring” exam given several times a year starting in pre-Kindergarten.
“We’re able to find those students much earlier on in the process,” he said, making the current third-grade rule unnecessary.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Closing schools, Corporate Reform, Disruption, Education Industry, Failure, Florida, Play, Standardized Testing

Bridget Ziegler Refuses to Step Down from Sarasota School Board

By dianeravitch

December 13, 2023 //

Conservative firebrand Bridget Ziegler insists she will stay on the Sarasota school board after the other members passed a resolution calling on her to resign. The board doesn’t have the legal power to force her removal. Only DeSantis does.

Ziegler is co-founder of Moms for Liberty and a national voice for traditional family values. She has led the crusade to censor books about sexuality and racism. She is an outspoken critic of homosexuality.

Students were not allowed to attend the meeting because of the nature of her activity: three-way sex with her husband and another woman.

Hypocrisy is not a crime.

Maybe now Bridget will stop denouncing gays. Or is that too much to hope?

Categories Accountability, DeSantis, Extremism, Florida, Hypocrisy

Florida: SAT Scores Are Awful

By dianeravitch

December 13, 2023 //

When you hear Jeb Bush or Ron DeSantis boast about the success of education in Florida, don’t believe it. Laugh out loud. Fourth grade reading scores are high, but could it be because low-scoring third graders are retained? Eighth grade reading scores are at the national average on NAEP—nothing to brag about. Florida’s SAT scores are embarrassingly low for a state that brags about test scores. Apparently those impressive reading scores in fourth grade ebb away as each year passes.

Scott Maxwell, opinion columnist for The Orlando Sentinel, called out the fraudsters by pointing to Florida’s pathetic SAT scores.

New rankings show Florida students are posting some of the lowest SAT scores in America.

We’re talking 46th place. Down another 17 points overall to 966, according to the combined reading and math scores shared by the College Board.

Florida trails other Southern states like South Carolina and Georgia. We trail states where more students take the test, like Illinois and Indiana.

We somehow now even slightly trail Washington, D.C. — a district long maligned as one of the supposedly worst in America, where all students take the test.

This should be an all-hands-on-deck crisis. Yet what are Florida education officials obsessing over?

Pronouns. And censoring books.

While other states focus on algebra and reading comprehension, Florida’s top education officials are waging wars with teachers about what kind of pronouns they can use and defending policies that have led to books by Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston being removed from library shelves. We are reaping what they sow.

But perhaps the most disturbing thing about Florida’s current crop of top education officials isn’t just the misguided policies they’re pushing, it’s the way they behave. Like it’s all a joke. Like Twitter trolls.

They’re calling names, mocking those trying to have serious conversations about education and generally reveling in owning the libs.

A few months ago, Orlando Sentinel education reporter Leslie Postal spent weeks trying to get public records about a newly hired state education employee. Postal just wanted to explain to taxpayers how their money was being spent. But state officials refused to answer questions.

So Postal wrote up the piece, and Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz shared the piece on Twitter (now X) with a two-word comment: “Cry more!”

For those of you who don’t speak troll, “Cry more” is a response used by some social-media users — usually those juvenile in age or intellect — to mock someone who is unhappy. The folks at Urban Dictionary, who revel in all things trolly, define “Cry More” as a “phrase used in online games when someone is getting owned, and they b*tch about it.”

The game in question here, mind you, was the Sentinel’s two-month quest to get answers about how the state was spending tax dollars. And the response from the state’s top education official was: “Cry more!” What a role model for students.

That’s just one example. Last week, after I wrote a column about rampant book-censorship in the state — with one district shelving 300 titles — State Board of Education Member Ryan Petty responded (at quarter ’til 1 in the morning): “Just dumb. This passes as journalism.” Followed by a clown emoji.

OK, for argument’s sake, let’s say I’m the dumbest clod to ever set foot in the Sunshine State. Petty still wouldn’t answer any of the direct questions posed in both the column and on Twitter. Specifically, if the goal isn’t widespread book-banning, why won’t his education department provide a definitive list of what books it believes students shouldn’t have access to in school?

Petty opted for emojis over answers, because that’s what trolls do.

The responses on Twitter to Diaz and Petty — both appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis — were about what you’d expect. One user told Petty: “My ninth grader could have crafted a more articulate response.” Several users responded similarly to Diaz’s “Cry More!” post, questioning his ability to maturely discuss policy and referring back to a Miami Herald investigation into student claims of “inappropriate behavior” by Diaz back when he was a teacher; claims Diaz said were bogus smears.

None of this did a thing to address this state’s education issues. Yet that’s where we are in Florida these days, mired in culture wars and trolling each other.

We also saw something similar last week when Diaz refused to directly answer questions from Orange County Public Schools about whether teachers were allowed to honor the requests of transgender students who wanted to be addressed with different pronouns — if the teachers wanted to and if those students also had their parents’ written permission. (Think about how bizarre it is that schools must even ask that question … in the so-called “parental rights” state.)

In his response to the district, Diaz offered a theatrical and condescending response that referred to “false” pronouns but which school officials concluded didn’t actually answer the question in a straightforward manner. Just more troll games … involving a population of teens more prone to self-harm and suicide, no less.

As far as the SAT goes, the test certainly has its share of legitimate critics. But it’s still one of the best apples-to-apples metrics we have for student learning.

Yet hardly any Florida media organizations even covered the October release of the new SAT scores that showed Florida’s poor showing. Why? Because we’ve been trained to follow the bouncing-ball, culture-war debate of the day.

So we see plenty of coverage about Florida supposedly ranking No. 1 in “educational freedom” by partisan political groups and scant addition to real education issues.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like hard numbers more than political posturing or magazine rankings. So do others who actually care about and study education.

Paul Cottle, a physics professor who authors a blog that focuses on STEM education, noted Florida’s increasingly cruddy SAT scores back in October when they were released — when everyone else was focused on the debate-of-the-day.

Cottle noted that Florida’s math scores for 4th graders were solid but that the SAT scores for graduating seniors were so bad, they suggested something was going awry for students before Florida schools sent them into the real world.

Cottle called the showing “a sad state of affairs.”

He’s right. Yet we’re getting precisely the educational environment and results that our culture-warring politicians are cultivating — an environment where trolls thrive, even if students don’t.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, DeSantis, Education Reform, Florida, Fraud, Standardized Testing

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Bridget Ziegler Refuses to Step Down from Sarasota School Board

Florida: SAT Scores Are Awful

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Rufo claims undergraduate achievement he did not earn

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Ride it while it lasts, Chris

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