WATCH: John Oliver unloads on Donald Trump and his shady ‘university’ — and it is epic

WATCH: John Oliver unloads on Donald Trump and his shady ‘university’ — and it is epic:

WATCH: John Oliver unloads on Donald Trump and his shady ‘university’ — and it is epic

nday evening, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver devoted the opening segment of his show to the widening scandal over Donald Trump’s fraudulent Trump University — and his commentary rivaled his Drumpf episode.

After touching upon Trump’s racist comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s decision to release documents on the get-rich-quick school, the host took a deep dive into revelations about the so-called “university” and its “hand-picked instructors.”

“Trump University wasn’t even a university. Which makes you wonder what the fuck was in Trump Steaks?” Oliver said before suggesting the steaks might possibly have been possum meat.

“But the name was just the beginning,” he continued. “Because, remember how he had ‘handpicked instructors?’ Well, according to his own depositions, he did not personally select instructors for live seminars, and he was unable to recall the names of key faculty members.”

Oliver added, “According to the sworn testimony from several former employees, many instructors and mentors had no experience buying and selling real estate. In fact, one had previously worked as a salesman for Lowe’s, while another had been district manager for Buffalo Wild Wings.”

After pointing out that a former employee claimed the school was in the business of selling “false hopes and lies,” Oliver conceded that Trump University did have some similarities to real schools, puckishly adding, “Every university has sold some of its students false hopes and lies. It’s just that most of the time they call it a ‘theatre arts degree.'”

After detailing high pressure techniques found in the Trump University “typo-ridden playbooks” —  telling salespeople to not let prospective students walk because, “Money is never a reason for not enrolling in Trump University; if they really believe in you and your product they will find the money. You are not doing any favor by letting someone use lack of money as an excuse,” — Oliver unloaded on Trump.

“’Lack of money is not an excuse’ is not what single parents need to hear, it is what Donald Trump needs to hear when a fifth company of his inevitably files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,” he exclaimed.

Noting that prospective students were also promised an opportunity to have their WATCH: John Oliver unloads on Donald Trump and his shady ‘university’ — and it is epic:

American is becoming a majority-minority nation. It’s already happened in our public schools

American is becoming a majority-minority nation. It’s already happened in our public schools:

Tomorrow’s Test

For the first time, there are more students of color than white students in our public schools. How we confront this change will determine the fate of this generation—and the country.

f you want to know what America will look like in a generation, look at its classrooms right now. In 2014, children of color became the new majority in America’s public schools. Over the last 20 years, the number of Hispanic public schoolchildren has more than doubled, and the number of Asians has swelled by 56 percent. The number of black students and American Indians grew far more modestly—but the number of white students fell by about 15 percent.

The majority-minority milestone has arrived in our public schools early—a consequence of white children’s overrepresentation in private schools and the relative youthof America’s black and Hispanic populations. It is not a fluke. It is a preview of a transforming country. 

Demographers predict that non-Hispanic whites will make up less than half of the country’s population by 2044, if not before. This change will affect not just our workplaces and our institutions but entire communities the country over. It will also transform our politics—in fact, it already is. Donald Trump’s success in the Republican primaries testifies to the growth of white-identity politics based on a fear of an historical “other” upending the established order.

We live in a country where minorities frequently face worse outcomes than their white counterparts and where racial fault lines cut deeply through our public life. Right now, schools and school systems across the country are confronting a question that our society at large will need to answer in the coming years: Do Americans have the will and understanding to build a more inclusive, and less deeply segregated, nation? InAmerican is becoming a majority-minority nation. It’s already happened in our public schools:

The Washington Teacher: No Ballots For You: WTU Prez Liz Davis Sabotages Union Elections!

The Washington Teacher: No Ballots For You: WTU Prez Liz Davis Sabotages Union Elections!:

No Ballots For You: WTU Prez Liz Davis Sabotages Union Elections!

By Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice President

Statements or expressions of opinions herein 'do not' represent the views or official positions of DCPS, AFT, Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) or its members. Views are my own.

Disclaimer: I am not a member of the WTU Contract Negotiations team.

Here we go again. Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) elections were supposed to be held in May 2016 and we are almost at the end of the school year with no ballots in sight. Ballots for union officer’s elections HAVE NOT BEEN MAILED TO UNION MEMBERS despite a WTU election timeline, which required them to be mailed on May 31^st.  It is important to note that even that even the May 31^st date is delayed as Officers-elect are required to be installed at the May meeting.

For those of you have been around six years or more – you may remember that former WTU President George Parker did not adhere to the union elections schedule in 2010. This delayed union elections until November 2010 and AFT, WTU’s parent organization imposed a “limited administratorship” to take over union elections for The Washington Teacher: No Ballots For You: WTU Prez Liz Davis Sabotages Union Elections!:

(D) (R) “Make Illinois Great Again”: Lies, Theft, and Posturing | Reclaim Reform

(D) (R) “Make Illinois Great Again”: Lies, Theft, and Posturing | Reclaim Reform:

(D) (R) “Make Illinois Great Again”: Lies, Theft, and Posturing

Illinois is a microcosm of every state. The austerity programs in the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world are insane behaviors. The wealthiest is the poorest? This is lunacy.

Yet we are all exposed to this schizophrenic magical thinking every day. Democrats (D) and Republicans (R) cook-up this concoction while adding their own artificial ingredients and chemically dangerous preservatives.

Illinois State Senator Daniel Biss (D) is a cook/concoctor whose goal is re-election at the expense of all we hold fair and just.

Close schools, force children to take expensive and educationally worthless state mandated high stakes tests, force even dying children to undergo these preparations and tests, give American tax money to a foreign testing/text company which avoids fair American taxes, declare children with special needs as not having special needs, do not feed the poor, declare that people who have no state certification in teaching are more competent to teach than experienced and certified teachers with credentials, arrest and imprison people with mental illnesses and/or low intelligence, scapegoat underpaid teachers for causing the financial crisis of states and banks, keep the homeless homeless, legalize paying employees an unlivable wage for years as highly profitable corporations make billions of dollars each year, hand over hard earned taxes from people to corporations as incentives to continue underpaying employees, pass laws (unread by lawmakers) that are thousands of pages long and written by corporate funded foundations and institutions, run prisons (D) (R) “Make Illinois Great Again”: Lies, Theft, and Posturing | Reclaim Reform:

High Test Scores Do Not Prevent Closure Due to Fraud: Atlanta’s Latin American Charter | deutsch29

High Test Scores Do Not Prevent Closure Due to Fraud: Atlanta’s Latin American Charter | deutsch29:

High Test Scores Do Not Prevent Closure Due to Fraud: Atlanta’s Latin American Charter

Between my time as both public school student and public school teacher, I have been involved in numerous fundraisers. But never have I had to ask for money to keep my school open because an administrator cleaned us out.

In March 2016, the Latin Academy Charter School in Atlanta did just that: In the face of being stiffed for over half a million dollars by a former school manager, the schoolwas trying to figure out how to raise $250,000 to keep it open throughout the summer of 2016.

There was even word of an anonymous donor willing to shell out a conditional $1 million to keep the school operational.

But it didn’t work.

How would one run a campaign to keep the school afloat after the previous administration robbed it blind? Kids in matching uniforms holding signs, “Help us recover from an obscene fraud. A quarter-mil will do.”

A sad story for the 200-plus students affected. And for their families. And for the community.

Latin Academy Charter School had been subject to independent audits; however, it appears that the 2015 audit was overdue in 2016 (this is mentioned in one of the High Test Scores Do Not Prevent Closure Due to Fraud: Atlanta’s Latin American Charter | deutsch29:

Coming June 24, 2016, from TC Press:

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

Save Our Schools March – SOS Coalition Event @ Lincoln Memorial & Howard University!

Save Our Schools March – SOS Coalition Event @ Lincoln Memorial & Howard University!:

People’s March for Public Education & Social Justice

The planning for the 2016 SOS Coalition People’s March for Public Education & Social Justice is well underway. Below are the details for July 8th-10th, but the big news is thatthe march and rally will be at the Lincoln Memorial and the SOS Activists Conference will be at Howard University! Our coalition of grassroots groups, union organizations, and activists is growing, so join the mass gathering of children and adults who are rallying and marching in support of education and social justice this summer!

Meet us in DC, and celebrate democracy by living it!
Haga click aquí para versión en español

July 8^th ~ Rally & March at the Lincoln Memorial

• 10:30 a.m. – Pre-rally festivities on the big stage and in the crowd
• 12:00 p.m. – Rally
• 2:30 p.m. – March to The White House & Lafayette Park

Speakers and performers include:
Diane Ravitch, Jonathan Kozol, Rev. William J. Barber II,Jamaal Bowman, Denisha Jones, Ruth Rodriguez, Bishop John Selders, Youth Dreamers, Jesse Hagopian, Gus Morales, Brett Bigham, United Opt Out, Julian Vasquez Heilig, Yohuru Williams, Lisa Rudley, Jitu Brown, Dyett Hunger Strikers, Tanaisa Brown, Barbara Madeloni, Sam Anderson, Mike Klonsky, Michelle Gunderson, Jeremy Dudley, Barry Lane, Family von BATs, The BAT Band, Terry Moore, DC Labor Chorus…and more!

July 9^th ~ SOS Coalition Activists Conference at Howard University

Join us in strategizing for continued activism in our home communities and beyond at The Save Our Schools Activists Conference: New & Experienced Organizers Working for Public Education & Communities. Attend activist workshops for individuals and groups (including families and youth) so we can return to our communities as leaders, organizers, participants, artists, and/or performers. This event is designed for new, emerging, and seasoned activists, and it includes numerous activities and sessions for children and youth!

Speakers and collaborators at the event are local, national, and international organizers of all ages who will facilitate our work in developing campaigns in hometowns via grassroots work, social media, the arts, and a deep commitment to the voice of the public being heard. Workshop topics and facilitators include:

• The Need For Black & Latino Community Control – Sam Anderson, NYC Coalition for Public Education, & Ruth Rodriguez
• Using the Power of Your Voice to Promote Social Justice & Unionism – Sonya Romero
  
• The Struggle for Democratic Schools with Deb Meier, Jonathan Kozol, & Mike Klonsky
• Youth Organizing Youth – Tanaisa Brown & the Newark Students Union
• Moving the Opt Out/Test Refusal Movement Forward – Melissa Tomlinson & Cindy Hamilton
  
• Special Education Advocacy – Julie Borst, Nancy Bailey, & Terry Kalb
• The Dyett Hunger Strikers
• Lessons Learned from Dreaming – The Youth Dreamers
• NEW LENS – The Student Led Film Group from Baltimore
• Collaborative Community Fighting & Winning Against Privatization – Michelle Fine
• TFA 5 Years Later – David Greene, Chad Sommer, Emma Howland-Bolton, Julian Vasquez Heilig, & Tina Andres
• Broadening the Aims of Opt Out – United Opt Out National Admins
• Testing, Assessment, and Accountability – Monty Neill from FairTest
• Activist School Board Members and Unionists Working Together for Social Justice in Schools and Communities – Bess Altwerger& Erika Strauss Chavarria
• Black Lives Are More Than a Score – Jesse Hagopian
• Global Education Reform – Mercedes Martinez, Jose Soler, and Alto Al SIMCE
• History Lessons for High Impact Actions – Troy Grant
• Social Media and the Education Revolution – BATs Admins
• Social Justice Teaching – Michelle Bollinger
• Equal Opportunity Now: Fighting to Defend Public Education in Detroit and Across the Nation – Nicole Conaway & Tania Kappner
• Hip Hop Advocacy – Jeremy Dudley (Dudley aka Origin)

Activities for children include:

• Making Your Voice Heard: Spoken Word Poetry – Newark Students Union
  
• Martial Arts as Social Justice – Ricardo Rosa & Tracey Drum
  
• Yoga in Every Classroom! – Julianna Dauble
  
• Let’s Write a Song for Our Schools Together – Terry Moore & Becca Ritchie
  
• “That’s not fair!!” – Rick Meyer & Bess Altwerger
• Cooperative Games and Sports
• Artful Resistance, Reading, & Response
• Read Aloud for Social Justice

July 10^th ~ Coalition Summit Work Session

This is an opportunity for coalition organization members, as well as new and experienced organizers, to convene over a breakfast planning session. This will be a working session where we will debrief and begin planning and organizing the next steps for the movement.

Are you eager to help us do the work to save our schools? Join us! Save Our Schools March – SOS Coalition Event @ Lincoln Memorial & Howard University!:

Education Reformers Get Smart | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Education Reformers Get Smart | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Education Reformers Get Smart

Education reformers have adopted "Would you believe...?" tactics and strategies from the Mawell Smart play book to "sell" the academic benefits of the Common Core State Standards and the efficacy of standardized assessments that are aligned to them.

When it comes to ensuring that students will be "ready" for college and careers, the PARCC web site confidently explains...

"The PARCC CCR Determinations in ELA/literacy and mathematics describe the academic knowledge, skills, and practices in English language arts/literacy and mathematics students must demonstrate to show they are able to enter directly into and succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing courses and relevant technical courses in those content areas at two- and four-year public institutions of higher education.

The CCR Determination will provide policymakers, educators, parents, and students with a clear signal about the level of academic preparation needed for success in these postsecondary courses. It will provide a strong indicator of college and career readiness that can be used to set performance goals at any level and show progress towards those goals.

Finally, students who attain a CCR Determination in ELA/literacy and/or mathematics will have a tangible benefit – direct entry into relevant entry-level, credit-bearing courses without need for remediation at Education Reformers Get Smart | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Parents & Teacher union-backed candidates form majorities on Big 3 suburban school boards - City & Region - The Buffalo News

Teacher union-backed candidates form majorities on Big 3 suburban school boards - City & Region - The Buffalo News:

Teacher union-backed candidates form majorities on Big 3 suburban school boards

Christine Cavarello is a PTA mom, proud graduate of Kenmore East High School, and concerned about how changes in education affect children and their love of learning.

She’s on the steering committee of two local groups leading the opt-out movement to shift the focus of education from testing to learning.

In short, she’s the perfect candidate to win the endorsement of teachers – and she did.

She will join the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School Board on July 1.

Cavarello is one of 35 candidates out of 38 endorsed by teacher unions in Western New York who won election to a local school board last month, according to New York State United Teachers (NYSUT).

Candidates endorsed by teachers unions in Erie County’s three largest suburban districts – Ken-Ton, West Seneca and Williamsville – won by overwhelming margins. In the last five years, 75 percent of candidates with teacher endorsements won election in the three districts. That includes two elections where Williamsville candidates ran unopposed, so teachers made no endorsements.

So union-backed candidates form the majority on those big three district boards.

Local teachers’ unions have always endorsed candidates for School Board. But with high-profile fights about the future of education in New York State, new attention is being given to union-endorsed candidates.

Changes in education – from the shift to a more teacher-friendly chancellor and Board of Regents, to how the state handles Common Core standards, high-stakes testing and school and teacher accountability – will be felt at the local level. And each School Board must approve teacher evaluation plans and teacher contracts with their teachers.

Cavarello said the teachers union support was a big factor in her win.

“I think that says a lot about what’s going on – not only in the district, but education in general,” said Cavarello, a lifelong district resident. “I know teachers everywhere feel like they’re not really being listened to. Corporations, the governor and all these people who don’t know about education are telling us what we should be doing. We need to be listening to the teachers more because they’re the experts in the classroom.”

But teachers aren’t the only ones who have a stake.

“We think teachers are obviously incredibly important to the education process and Teacher union-backed candidates form majorities on Big 3 suburban school boards - City & Region - The Buffalo News:

Charter Schools 25 Years Later—and What to Expect in the Future

Charter Schools 25 Years Later—and What to Expect in the Future:

Charter Schools 25 Years Later—and What to Expect in the Future

The charter movement has since expanded to include 43 states plus the District of Columbia, and over 2.5 million students—or about 5 percent of the total K-12 public student population.

Arianna Prothers, Education Week June 4, 2016

Charter schools are 25 years old. My, how time flies.

Yesterday, Education Week printed an interview with Ember Reichgott Junge, the Democratic state senator who sponsored the charter school legislation first signed into law in Minnesota.

School reformers have always sold charter schools as exciting and groundbreaking schools, but, as most know, and as you can see from Reichgott Junge’s interview, charter schools, in general, never lived up to the hype.

Charter School Corruption

First, Reichgott Junge speaks a lot about how charter schools continue to need Charter Schools 25 Years Later—and What to Expect in the Future:

Join Me in a Webinar on June 8 at 8 pm to Discuss the Save Our Schools March and to Raise Money for Those Who Need Aid | Diane Ravitch's blog

Join Me in a Webinar on June 8 at 8 pm to Discuss the Save Our Schools March and to Raise Money for Those Who Need Aid | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Join Me in a Webinar on June 8 at 8 pm to Discuss the Save Our Schools March and to Raise Money for Those Who Need Aid

I have been invited by organizers of the Save Our Schools March to lead a webinar on June 8 at 8 pm to discuss the future of education reform and our movement to steer it in a direction that supports students and educators.

We will also talk about the Save Our School March, which will happen in Washington, D.C., on July 8 and 9. You can learn more about the march here: http://bit.ly/1sG1oKy

Please join me in conversation this week. We hope to raise enough money to help students and adults who need aid to join us in D.C.

Please register for An Evening with Diane Ravitch on Jun 08, 2016 8:00 PM EDT at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8824328855840974852

Diane will be speaking about her vision for real education reform and sustainable community schools on a Peoples March Webinar at 8:00 PM Eastern July 8th.

On July 31 2011 Diane Ravitch electrified the more than 7000 teachers parents and students gathered for the first Save Our Schools March in DC. Diane continues to be a national leader in the movement to reshape and infuse Public Schools with the principles of Equity, Community Involvement and Voice and Teacher Respect Diane Ravitch is a co-founder and President of the Network for Public Education. She speaks, blogs, and advocates for and with educators, parents and students across the country for Public Schools and Social Justice.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Share this: 

Join Me in a Webinar on June 8 at 8 pm to Discuss the Save Our Schools March and to Raise Money for Those Who Need Aid | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Susan Ochshorn: Please, Mr. Gates, Help the Children! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Susan Ochshorn: Please, Mr. Gates, Help the Children! | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Susan Ochshorn: Please, Mr. Gates, Help the Children!

Reactions to the mea culpa of Sue Desmond-Hellman, the CEO of the Gates Foundation, continue to roll in. Sue D-H admitted that “mistakes had been made” in the education arena and promised to listen to teachers. Many who have read the memo think that the foundation still doesn’t understand why its promotion of test-based teacher evaluation is failing or why the Common Core is meeting so much resistance.

Susan Ochshorn hopes that the Gates Foundation will listen to early childhood education professionals.

At the bottom of the totem pole of influence are early childhood teachers. None of these stewards of America’s human capital weighed in on the design of the Common Core standards. They were back-mapped, reaching new heights of absurdity, including history, economic concepts, and civics and government as foundations for two-year-olds’ emergent knowledge.

Most importantly, the standards make a mockery of early childhood’s robust evidence base. Young children learn through exploration, inquiry, hypothesis, and collaboration. Play, the primary engine of human development, has vanished from kindergarten and first-grade classrooms, replaced by worksheets, didactic learning, and increasingly narrow curricula, in keeping with standards’ focus on literacy and math. Policymakers are talking about bringing rigor and the Common Core down to four-year-olds.

If all lives have equal value, the core belief of the Gates Foundation, then our most vulnerable kids must have access to the kind of education enjoyed by those with greater resources: teaching and learning that nurtures creativity and innovation, attuned to the whole child. Too often, they’re subject to rote, passive, and joyless assimilation of knowledge. Collateral damage of your initiative—all in the name of higher test scores.

What if the Gates Foundation undertook a course correction, and put education back in the wheelhouse of educators?

Ochshorn points out that poverty is an enormous barrier to school participation and engagement. She briefly reviews the research base that establishes the harmful effects of poverty (an idea that Gates has derided in the past).

It’s hard, indeed, to be deeply engaged when you’re hungry or homeless—or traumatized by the growing number of adverse childhood experiences that plague our little ones. (As an oncologist, you have a deep understanding of physiological damage.) Moreover, it’s challenging for educators to do their job, no matter how well they’re prepared. The schools in communities of concentrated poverty are segregated institutions starved of investment, places fit for neither children nor teachers.

The results of a recent survey of teachers of the year, conducted by the Council of Chief State School Officers, are illuminating. When asked about the barriers that most affect their students’ academic success, family stress, poverty, and learning and psychological problems topped the list. Anti-poverty initiatives, early learning, and reducing barriers to learning were the teachers’ top picks for investment.

The Gates Foundation has done remarkable work across the globe. How about taking some of your formidable resources and bringing them on home to America’s children and communities?Susan Ochshorn: Please, Mr. Gates, Help the Children! | Diane Ravitch's blog:

OSPI Candidate Statements on the Seattle School Board’s Request to Pursue Alternative to the SBAC | Seattle Education

OSPI Candidate Ron Higgins’  Statement on the Seattle School Board’s  Request to Pursue Alternative to the SBAC | Seattle Education:

OSPI Candidate  Statements on the Seattle School Board’s  Request to Pursue Alternative to the SBAC

We’re asking the OSPI State Superintendent candidates their position on Seattle Public Schools pursing alternative assessment frameworks under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The following letter was sent to each candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Their responses will be published on June 5th. -editor. Hello Candidates, My name is Carolyn Leith and … Continue reading →

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Seattle Public School Board votes to pursue alternative to SBAC under the Every Student Succeeds Act

  In a five to one vote with Stephan Blanford giving the lone “No” vote, the Seattle School Board passed a resolution in favor of requesting the state to provide an alternative … Continue reading →

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OSPI Candidate Ron Higgins’  Statement on the Seattle School Board’s  Request to Pursue Alternative to the SBAC

In a five to one vote with Director Stephan Blanford giving the lone “No” vote, the Seattle School Board passed a resolution ,sponsored by Directors Sue Peters and Rick Burke, in favor of … Continue reading →

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Chris Reykdal’s  Statement on the Seattle School Board’s  Request to Pursue Alternative to the SBAC

In a five to one vote with Director Stephan Blanford giving the lone “No” vote, the Seattle School Board passed a resolution ,sponsored by Directors Sue Peters and Rick Burke, in favor of … Continue reading →

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David Spring’s Statement on the Seattle School Board’s  Request to Pursue Alternative to the SBAC

In a five to one vote with Director Stephan Blanford giving the lone “No” vote, the Seattle School Board passed a resolution ,sponsored by Directors Sue Peters and Rick Burke, in favor of … Continue reading →

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Erin Jones’ Statement on the Seattle School Board’s Request to Pursue Alternative to the SBAC

In a five to one vote with Director Stephan Blanford giving the lone “No” vote, the Seattle School Board passed a resolution ,sponsored by Directors Sue Peters and Rick Burke, in favor of … Continue reading →

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 Seattle Education | For the news and views you might have missed - http://wp.me/NbRQ