Today is the Birthday of One of My Favorite Poets

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
17

Happy birthday, Gerard Manley Hopkins.

When I was a student at Wellesley College, I would sometimes take solitary walks around Lake Waban and think deep thoughts. As I walked, trampling the leaves, I would often recite out loud Gerard Manley Hopkins’ beautiful poem, “Spring and Fall to a Young Child.”

This description of Hopkins appeared on Garrison Keillor’s “The Writers’ Almanac.” Today is a big day, because it is also the birthday of Beatrix Potter (“The Tale of Peter Rabbit”), Jacqueline Kennedy, Karl Popper, and Earl Tupper, the inventor of Tupperware.

Today is the birthday of English poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844) (books by this author), born in Stratford, Essex. He won a poetry prize in grammar school and then received a grant to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied Classics and continued to write poetry. His academic record was outstanding, earning him the approbation of one of his masters, who called him “the star of Balliol.”

While he was at Oxford, Hopkins (who had been raised in the Anglican Church) converted to Roman Catholicism. His experience was so profound that he decided to become a Jesuit priest in 1868, and he burned all his poetry, feeling it was not befitting his profession as a clergyman. He did continue to keep a journal, however, and in 1875, he returned to poetry. He was living in Wales, and found its landscape and its language inspirational. When five Franciscan nuns died in a shipwreck, he was moved to write a long poem, The Wreck of the Deutschland.

Once he was ordained in 1877, he worked as a parish priest in the slums of Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow. He lived in Dublin from 1884 until his death of typhoid fever in 1889. Overworked, exhausted, and unwell, he wasn’t happy there, and his poetry reflects his unhappiness. Called the “terrible sonnets,” they show the poet’s struggles with spiritual and artistic matters.

Most of his poetry wasn’t published in his lifetime, and it was so innovative that most people who did get to read it didn’t understand it. As he wrote in a letter to Burns, “No doubt, my poetry errs on the side of oddness …” But it influenced such 20th-century poets as W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Charles Wright.

Here is one of my favorite poems, “Spring and Fall to a Young Child”:

Márgarét, are you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Categories Literature, Personal

David Dayen: What’s in Mitch McConnell’s Corporate Bailout Bill

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
6

David Dayen writes a post called Unsanitized for The American Prospect. Here is today’s report:


First Response
The HEALS Act — a $1 trillion piece of legislation so comically in hock to corporate interests that one of the initials in the acronym stands for “liability protection” — was released yesterday. This was done in a super annoying format where separate committee chairs released their own titles (Finance; Appropriations; Small Business), but you can mostly piece everything together.

Here’s what we’ve got:

Unemployment: Increased unemployment insurance immediately falls from $600 a week to $200. This extension runs until the end of the year. Combined with what the states offer, that’s on average a cut from $921 to $521 (around 43 percent), according to an analysis from the Century Foundation. Allegedly, after two months, states will figure out how to individually replace 70 percent of lost wages and offers that, with a cap of $500 from the government in that equation. The cap means that everyone will have lower support from unemployment under this plan.

I highly doubt that states will figure this out, given the technical hurdles and the underfunded systems (which do get a $2 billion boost here), and in that instance they just stick with the $200 a week addition. Also everyone gets a note saying they are required to take a suitable job if offered. Also the federal stipend counts as income for purposes of determining eligibility for other federal benefits.

This only affects those on standard unemployment, not “Pandemic Unemployment Assistance” for freelance and gig workers and independent contractors. That was already extended to the end of the year in the CARES Act. However, the HEALS Act tightens eligibility to make it as hard to stay on assistance as possible. The whole thing is appalling.

Second stimulus: This is pretty much exactly the same as the CARES Act, with $1,200 for adults and $500 for dependents (not just children, in a switch from CARES), up to $75,000 in personal income (based on last year) and then a sliding scale that phases out completely under $100,000. One cheerful note: “The rebates are protected from bank garnishment or levy by private creditors or debt collectors.” This is something near and dear to us at Unsanitized, as we broke the news that creditors, including banks, could grab stimulus checks to offset old debts. It’s gratifying that Congress is finally getting around to making sure survival money goes to survival.
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Business tax credits: The “employee retention tax credit” sounds boring but this is a pretty large bonus for businesses that could cost as much as $100 billion. It was in the CARES Act but this provision allows more companies to use it. There’s also a tax credit for hiring unemployed workers and a “safe and healthy workplace” tax credit for expenses like testing, PPE, and cleaning supplies (this is Lysol’s big moment; move over, Amazon).

Health care: There’s $118 billion in new money for hospitals, testing, contact tracing, treatment, and vaccines. The Medicare Part B premium for 2021 would be frozen. Telehealth waivers would be extended to facilitate contactless medical care. There’s a bunch of what seems like for-show assistance to nursing homes, including “strike teams” and better reporting. A good health rundown here.

Schools: As previously reported, there’s $105 billion for education, split between K-12 and higher ed with a substantial portion of it only for those schools that reopen in the fall. Amazingly that’s all the money there is for state and local government, and I’d gather all of it covers increased costs for social distancing measures. The $150 billion previously released in the CARES Act, which previously was only for increased COVID costs, can now go toward covering revenue shortfalls, with many restrictions. But that’s not new money. The House Democratic Heroes Act had nearly $1 trillion for state and local government.

Random appropriations: Includes $20 billion for farmers, $29 billion for defense (a slush fund for defense contractors and the F-35), a $1.8 billion earmark for a new FBI headquarters that just so happens to be near a Trump hotel, $10 billion for a very sketchy “airport improvement program” (I think they’re just paying off airports to stay open), and about $3 billion for tenant rental assistance, a drop in the ocean of what will be needed. There’s also $5.3 billion more to use the Defense Production Act to require certain manufacturing.

Coupons!: Expensing of restaurant business meals goes up from 50 percent to 100 percent. Because you want to be doing business in the middle of a restaurant during the pandemic.

Small business grants: There’s a “Second Draw” PPP loan enabled for smaller businesses (under 300 employees) with a 50 percent drop or more in revenue during the crisis. There are also new “Recovery Sector” 20-year loans at a 1 percent interest rate, also for hard-hit industries. Section 113 of this title makes 501(c)(6) organizations eligible for regular PPP loans; this is the K Street bailout that’s also in the House bill. The math is weird, but it looks like $157 billion in new money, on top of the remaining $120 billion-plus. (There’s already massive lobbying over these plans to pry them open for bigger businesses)

Liability protection: This has been well-documented, it’s a five-year blanket release from a “flood” of business liability lawsuits that don’t exist.

Student loans: After the deferral deadline in the CARES Act runs out on October 1, you can only defer student loan payments if you have no income. Otherwise there’s a 10 percent income-based repayment option.
The Trust Act: we reported last week that a Mitt Romney-created process to inevitably cut Social Security and Medicare would be in the bill. It is.
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Here’s what’s missing: There’s no extension of the eviction moratorium, no money for the postal service or the November elections, no hazard pay for essential workers, no OSHA standards for workplaces, no money to shore up pensions, no funds for people who lost employer-sponsored health insurance, no increase to food stamp benefits. And none of the $1 trillion in new money for state and local government.

It’s in some ways a waste to lay this out, as now we move to the negotiating stage. But all of the above being off the table frames the corners of the debate. Nearly the entire framework of the Heroes Act was thrown out. Democrats have some leverage because rank and file Republicans really don’t want to pass this bill at all. But what will they be able to claw back as a result? And doesn’t that put the CARES Act in a different context, as whatever emerges is likely to be very inadequate?

One final indignity: the Republican baseline may include (it’s completely unclear) the repeal of leverage requirements for banks put in place under the Dodd-Frank Act. This is a straight handout to Wall Street. What’s notable here is that this was the signature contribution to Dodd-Frank from endangered incumbent Susan Collins, who I’ve been told argued against this but was rebuffed. There’s no way McConnell does this if Collins had a chance of winning; you don’t strip a Senator’s biggest policy achievement of the last decade in the middle of a tight election if you think she’s going to win. The signal I get is that McConnell knows he’s beat, and the strategy for the next six months is just to steal whatever’s not bolted down on behalf of corporate America.

Categories Education Reform

Randi’s Address to The AFT on America’s Three Crises: “Nothing is Off the Table”

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
28

Open the link here to read Randi Weingarten’s speech to the AFT Convention.

Here is a summary from the AFT:

Weingarten’s State of the Union address zeroed in on the three crises facing America—a public health crisis, an economic crisis and a long-overdue reckoning with racism. She detailed how these crises are being made worse by President Trump and emphasized the urgency of the November elections, not only to defeat Trump but to elect Joe Biden and reimagine America.

“Activism and elections build the power necessary to create a better life, a voice at work and a voice in our democracy. Activism changes the narrative, elections change policy, and, together, they change lives,” said Weingarten.

Weingarten honored the 200 AFT members who have died in the line of duty, and the hundreds of thousands who have protected, cared for, engaged and fed our communities during the pandemic. But those efforts have been met with reckless inaction by the Trump administration and some state officials who have failed to provide either a plan or adequate resources as community spread has skyrocketed.

While safety and education needs are front and center in many of America’s 16,000 school districts, and states such as New York have curbed the virus and published strong reopening plans, Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have embraced virus denialism and waged a weekslong campaign to force reopening with threats and bluster.

In her speech, Weingarten unveiled a resolution passed by the AFT’s 45-member executive council backing locally authorized “safety strikes”—on a case-by-case basis and as a last resort—to ensure safety amid the absence of urgency by federal and some state officials to tackle the coronavirus surge.

“Let’s be clear,” Weingarten told delegates. “Just as we have done with our healthcare workers, we will fight on all fronts for the safety of our students and their educators. But if the authorities don’t get it right, and they don’t protect the safety and health of those we represent and those we serve, nothing is off the table—not advocacy or protests, negotiations, grievances or lawsuits, or, if necessary as a last resort, safety strikes.”

Weingarten said the union’s members want to return to school buildings for the sake of their kids’ learning—and the well-being of families—but only if conditions are safe. And that requires planning and hundreds of billions of dollars in resources the Senate and the administration have refused to provide.

Categories Education Reform, Teachers, Unions

Mercedes Schneider: Thanks to ProPublica, You Can Follow the Money

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
6

Mercedes Schneider was absolutely delighted to learn that ProPublica created a search engine so that anyone could learn where the federal $660 billion or so was spent.

Mercedes is a master at following the money, and she guides you here to show that you can do it too!

She writes:

During the coronavirus pandemic, with the federal government offering Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to businesses and nonprofit organizations, ProPublica has once again delivered a marvelous search engine enabling the public to easily investigate which companies and nonprofits have received federal money in the form of loans ranging from $150K to $10M, including charter and private schools and other education organizations.

Public schools were not eligible to apply for PPP, but that did not stop charters, which claim to be public schools (but aren’t) from taking what they could get, without regard to need.

One can use the ProPublica PPP search engine to verify, for example, that Democracy Prep Louisiana Charter School received between $350K and $1M on April 28, 2020, from Sterling National Bank in order to retain zero jobs.

Mercedes also noted that the elite private school Sidwell Friends in D.C. (where the Obama girls attended school) received a forgivable loan of $5-10 million.

PPP was a vast sum of money ($660 billion). Those on the know feathered their nests. But public schools, faced with demands to reopen and diminishing state taxes, were not eligible. Public schools received $13.2 billion from the CARES act, which Betsy DeVos ordered them to share with charter schools and private schools. The charters got vastly more money than public schools, first from the CARES act, then from the $660 billion PPP.

Smells fishy. Looks bad. Are charter schools public schools? If they are, they should not have sought and received PPP.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Funding

Laurie Roberts: Charters in Arizona Scored Nearly $100 Million. That’s Ridiculous.

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
7

Laurie Roberts is a columnist for the Arizona Republic who has written frequently about frauds in the charter and voucher sectors. When I was writing Slaying Goliath, I found her reporting and her sharp to be invaluable. She read Carol Burris’s article about the Network for Public Education study of charters that double dipped in two different pots of federal funding, and she thought that their greed was ridiculous.

As Congress considers the next economic stimulus package, it’s worth mentioning that America’s charter schools snagged at least $925 million in emergency funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to an analysis by Network for Public Education.

In Arizona, 100 charter school operations bagged anywhere from $40 million to nearly $100 million in emergency funding, the analysis of U.S. Small Business Administration records shows.

That’s a lot of stimulation, economically speaking. Especially when you consider that the losses at publicly funded charter schools are largely a figment of the federal government’s imagination.

Unlike small businesses that saw their operations fall off a cliff when COVID-19 hit, Arizona taxpayers fund Arizona’s charter schools.

Charters already getting state, federal aid

Not only have charter operators received their regular per-student allotments of state money, they are eligible for a share of the hundreds of millions of dollars in CARES Act funding that is being pumped into public schools to cover added costs due to COVID-19 and budget shortfalls.

So, what losses?

The Arizona Charter Schools Association sent me a statement saying charter schools were concerned this spring that the coronavirus would lead to state budget cuts, requiring them to lay off teachers.

“Charter schools have not only faced questions about the uncertainty of the state budget, but also seen steep declines in charitable fundraising and programs such as before-and after-care – which are important revenue sources for our schools and students,” the statement said. “These federal funds have provided financial assistance to eligible recipients, as Congress intended.”

No word on how many of those schools returned the money when those state budget cuts didn’t happen.

Roberts notes that more than 400 charter schools had the decency not to apply for money they didn’t need.

But:

Among the 100 charters that went for the windfall was – surprise! – American Virtual Academy. The management company, which runs Primavera Online School, snagged somewhere between $2 million and $5 million in PPP money.

This is the same company whose CEO, Damian Creamer, managed to pay himself a combined $10.1 million in 2017 and 2018 out of taxpayer money set aside to educate students. Never mind that fewer than a third of his students couldn’t read or do math at grade level or that nearly half were dropping out.

Creamer’s education technology company, StrongMind, also scored a $2 million to $5 million forgivable loan from the PPP program, according to The Arizona Republic’s Lily Altavena. Meanwhile, Verano Learning Partners, which was founded by Creamer and lists the same address as American Virtual and StrongMind, snagged a PPP payout of $150,000 to $350,000.

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Network for Public Education, Privatization

North Carolina: Parents Sue to Invalidate Voucher Program

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
14

Parents in North Carolina filed a lawsuit against the state’s voucher program on grounds that it discriminates against them because of their religious beliefs. Through the voucher program, the state sends public funds to religious schools that do not accept the children of these plaintiffs because of their religious beliefs. Therefore the plaintiffs argue that the voucher program encourages religious discrimination.

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the private school voucher known as the “Opportunity Scholarship Program” established in 2013 by the North Carolina General Assembly.

Major tenets of the lawsuit are:

“The Program sends millions of taxpayer dollars to private schools without imposing any meaningful educational requirements. As implemented, many of the Program’s funds are directed to schools that divide communities on religious lines, disparage many North Carolinians’ faiths and identities, and coerce families into living under religious dictates and The Program as implemented funds discrimination on the basis of religion. Families’ ability to participate in the Program is limited by their religious beliefs and their willingness to cede control of their faith to a religious school,” The Program as implemented funds discrimination on the basis of religion. Families’ ability to participate in the Program is limited by their religious beliefs and their willingness to cede control of their faith to a religious school.

This is an interesting approach. Typically, litigants claim that they are denied access to public funds because of their religious beliefs. In this lawsuit, the litigants say they are denied access to publicly funded religious schools because of their religious faith and that the voucher program should be held unconstitutional because it discriminates against them and their children on religious grounds.

Categories Accountability, North Carolina, Religion, Vouchers

DeVos Aide: We are Not Likely to Waive Mandated Testing in 2020-21

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
37

Jim Blew was hired by Betsy DeVos for a key role at the U.S Department of Education, having worked at the far-right Walton Family Foundation, which has a strong commitment to privatization, charter schools, Teach for America, and union-busting. He told education writers that the Department of Education was not likely to grant waivers for next spring’s annual federal testing, despite a year of confusion and disruption in schooling.

The American people are likely to tell Betsy DeVos and Jim Blew and the other public-school haters to pack their bags this November and clear out by January 20, 2021. Someone appointed by President Biden will decide whether to inflict the detritus of NCLB on the nation’s students. If the public votes wisely, the whole wrecking crew will be ousted, blown with the wind, so to speak.

An assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education said Friday that his agency’s inclination is not to grant states waivers from federally mandated tests for the upcoming school year like it did in the spring.

Speaking on a video call with reporters at the Education Writers Association’s National Seminar, Jim Blew, the assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy analysis, stressed the importance of testing beyond accountability. And he expressed support for a recent statement from the Council of Chief State School Officers about the importance of assessments for learning; that July 20 statement said that “even during a pandemic” assessments “serve as an important tool in our education system.”

In March, as schools shut down in-person classes around the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos quickly granted waivers to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico from having to administer certain annual exams as required by federal law. But concerns about the pandemic’s impact on the 2020-21 school year have grown, as have sentiments in some quarters that states should get those waivers again, in order to focus on other educational needs…

During a question-and-answer session with reporters, Blew pointed to CCSSO’s statement and said that with respect to testing, “Accountability aside, we need to know where students are so we can address their needs.”

Blew then indicated it would be premature to grant waivers at this time from testing and said, “Our instinct would not be to give those waivers” from the exams, which are mandated under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the main federal K-12 law. “There are so many benefits to testing and it allows for some transparency about how schools are performing and the issues we need to address, that our instinct would be to decline those waivers,” Blew added.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Biden, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Standardized Testing, U.S. Department of Education

Randi on the Senate GOP’s New Coronavirus Relief Bill

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2020 //
11

The AFT keeps close watch on legislative action. I thought you might want to read what Randi wrote about Mitch (The Grim Reaper, as he calls himself) McConnell’s bill in the Senate. There’s not nearly enough funding to enable schools to open safely, and Republicans managed to stuff a voucher package into what is supposed to be a coronavirus relief bill. Would someone tell these Republican senators that the overwhelming majority of their constituents send their children to public schools? At a time of fiscal crisis, why do they want to take money away from public schools and give it to religious schools? Has anyone ever told them that every state voucher referendum has failed? Do they know that the latest referendum in Arizona went down by 65%-35%?

Randi writes:

Mitch McConnell finally released his bill today. I’m sure you’re not surprised, but the bill is bad. Simply put, it doesn’t match the scale of the crisis. I’m getting ready for the AFT convention, which starts tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure you heard about McConnell’s bill tonight.

What McConnell is proposing for education is woefully inadequate given the expenses schools will face to reopen safely. It also falls dramatically short by ignoring what schools actually need to reopen safely and, instead, prioritizes the president’s political agenda, tying the funding to in-person instruction and pushing for private school vouchers. And there is no money for states and no protections for healthcare workers.

Can you believe it? The GOP is actually using the pandemic to try to pass vouchers, because they couldn’t get them passed before. To rub salt in the wound, while this proposal includes no protections for workers on the frontlines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it does include a nice bailout for corporations and other employers to limit their liability if employees get sick on the job.

The Senate needs to hear from you right now. Send a letter to your senators and tell them that McConnell’s bill is bad.

While we’re going to be focused on our convention for the next few days, we still need to keep up the pressure on coronavirus relief legislation.

For those who are interested in our convention, it’s going to be exciting. We’ll have Joe Biden, Lin-Manuel Miranda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a panel on Black Lives Matter, Diane Ravitch, Anand Giridharadas, and more.

You’ll be able to watch the programming on our website. And tomorrow night, I’ll be doing a Facebook live town hall with Dr. Anthony Fauci at 6:45 p.m. EDT.

I know we’re all busy, but I just want to thank you for consistently taking action. We’ve driven tens of thousands of emails and phone calls to the Senate. Let’s keep it going and stop McConnell’s bad bill.

In unity,

Randi Weingarten

AFT President

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Funding, Health, Privatization, Vouchers

Tennessee: Governor Lee Listens to Dr. Birx, Ignores Her Warnings

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2020 //
24

This story appeared in the Washington Post. This refusal to follow medical advice will continue to spread the disease and cause unnecessary deaths. The world is watching our rudderless response to the pandemic and feeling sorry for us. Why ask a doctor for her best advice in a dire situation and then ignore it?

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) said Monday that he has no plans to close bars and curb indoor dining — minutes after White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx recommended those measures at a joint news conference with the governor.

Saying that the coronavirus situation in Tennessee was at an “inflection point,” Birx said Monday that diligence and targeted business restrictions statewide could have an effect on a par with a stay-at-home order.

“We can change the future of this virus in this state today,” she said. “If we continue to social-distance, if every mayor throughout this great state would mandate masks, close the bars and substantially increase indoor dining distancing, together we can get through this.”

But when Lee took the microphone later, he said there are currently no plans to close bars or limit dining. Some mayors can shutter businesses on their own, but the vast majority of Tennessee’s county health departments fall under Lee’s purview, the Tennessean reports.

“I’ve said from the very beginning of this pandemic that there’s nothing off the table,” Lee said after a reporter brought up the issue. “I’ve also said that we are not going to close the economy back down, and we are not going to.”

“But I appreciate their recommendations and we take them seriously,” he said, after thanking Birx for visiting his state and saying there were “productive meetings” about education plans and strategies to encourage mask-wearing, among other topics.

Lee has also declined to issue a statewide mask order, though he promoted their effectiveness Monday, and Birx said Monday that she believes the governor has a “sound strategy” and supports local officials taking the lead. Birx appealed to the mayors of rural counties in particular to mandate face coverings, saying that a majority of counties in Tennessee require them but that “we need 100 percent.”

On another front in the battle against COVID-19, the head of Baltimore’s Intensive Care Unit died of the virus.

Joseph J. Costa, chief of the hospital’s Critical Care Division, died about 4:45 a.m. Saturday in the same ICU he supervised. He was attended by his partner of 28 years and about 20 staff members, who placed their hands on him as he died. Costa was 56.

Categories Baltimore, Health, Ignorance, Science, Stupid, Tennessee

Reagan Foundation Asks Trump Campaign to Stop Using Reagan’s Name

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2020 //
44

The Washington Post reported that the Ronald Reagan Foundation asked the Trump campaign to stop using the former president’s name for the Trump campaign.

Reagan Foundation to Trump, RNC: Quit Raising Money Off Ronald Reagan’s Legacy.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, which runs the 40th president’s library near Los Angeles, has demanded that President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) quit raising campaign money by using Ronald Reagan’s name and likeness.

“It was simply handled with a phone call mid-last week to the RNC, and they agreed to stop,” Reagan Foundation chief marketing officer Melissa Giller said in an email Saturday.

What came to the foundation’s attention — and compelled officials there to complain — was a fundraising email that went out July 19 with “Donald J. Trump” identified as the sender and a subject line that read: “Ronald Reagan and Yours Truly.”

The solicitation offered, for a donation of $45 or more, a “limited edition” commemorative set featuring two gold-colored coins, one with an image of Reagan and one with an image of Trump. The coins were mounted with a 1987 photograph of Reagan and Trump shaking hands in a White House receiving line — the type of fleeting contact that presidents have with thousands of people a year…In the 1990s, both Reagan and his wife Nancy signed legal documents that granted the foundation sole rights to their names, likenesses and images. Of course, there are countless photos and videos of Reagan that are in the public domain. But the foundation claims power to block them from being used for commercial purposes and political endorsements.

Categories Trump
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