Friday, November 18, 2011

Blue Jersey:: Vampire Charter Schools, Wealth, and Democracy

Blue Jersey:: Vampire Charter Schools, Wealth, and Democracy:

Vampire Charter Schools, Wealth, and Democracy

Check out this post from Daily Kos. It's about the very wealthy in California being dissatisfied that their own neighborhood didn't have its own school district and was mixed in with the great unwashed of the surrounding area, forming a charter school without the approval of the district, and then taking taxpayer money to run their own elite little school district. Like one quarter of US charter schools (!) this charter school doesn't participate in programs providing free or reduced price school lunches for kids. While those programs have been, um, found to have certain problems in Elizabeth as of late, to not participate at all is like saying "no poor kids allowed."

Could a vampire gated school happen here?

I'm no expert on education policy. But I know a few things. I pay a lot of property taxes, which isn't great. But the one saving grace is that we have good schools - though we've been hurt by Chris Christie's aid cuts. I feel better


Frank Lautenberg Hits Up Social Media for Marriage Equality

Frank Lautenberg - Can you hear us now?

Facebook, Twitter: Today Sen. Frank Lautenberg went big on social media to repeal DOMA. I'm sure he'd love it if you shared this to your facebook and helped spread the word on Twitter.

Snapshot looks like old home week. Front row left, wearing white slacks, are our friends Marsha & Louise, whose story of family-minded commitment and love is compelling, are also plaintiffs in Lambda Legal and Garden