Academic expert tells State Board of Education to reject Relay Graduate School of Education plan - Wait What?

Academic expert tells State Board of Education to reject Relay Graduate School of Education plan - Wait What?:

Academic expert tells State Board of Education to reject Relay Graduate School of Education plan

Professor Lauren Anderson is the Chair of the Education Department at Connecticut College, and a member of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Connecticut. In this piece, first published in the CTMirror, Anderson addresses the Signiant and serious problems with the proposal to allow the corporate education reform company, Relay Graduate School of Education to set up a program in Connecticut.

You can read and comment on the persuasive commentary piece at: http://ctviewpoints.org/2016/11/01/ct-can-do-better-for-minority-teacher-candidates-than-relay-gse/

Professor Anderson writes;

Without question, Connecticut needs more teachers who see themselves in their students (and vice versa), who have roots in the communities where they teach, and who are well positioned to instruct in ways that are academically challenging and culturally, linguistically, and community-responsive.

The pipeline into the profession for teachers of color is too often obstructed and unwelcoming, and change is imperative. We know, for example, that professional learning experiences, whether pre-service or in-service, situated in colleges and universities or K-12, are too often laced with micro-aggressions —repeated racialized slights —that are neither micro nor slight on their own or in accumulation.

We know, as well, that working conditions for teachers of color are too often more stressful than supportive, and that robust mentoring remains too rare. And then of course there is the challenge of staying afloat financially on a teacher’s salary, particularly in an era of rising housing costs and student loans.

Confirming the complexity of the challenge at hand, a recent Central Academic expert tells State Board of Education to reject Relay Graduate School of Education plan - Wait What?:

CENSORED–Column by editor of Liberty U newspaper, suppressed by president Jerry Falwell. |

CENSORED–Column by editor of Liberty U newspaper, suppressed by president Jerry Falwell. |:

CENSORED–Column by editor of Liberty U newspaper, suppressed by president Jerry Falwell

Joel Schmieg

By Joel Schmieg

As a former male athlete, I know exactly what high school guys talk about when they think they are alone. It absolutely can be vulgar and objectifying to women. But here’s the thing — I have never in my life heard guys casually talk about preying on women in a sexual manner.

Trust me, I hated the way the guys talked on the field during practice or in the halls at school. It was downright dirty. Some would call it “locker room talk.” In other words, guys talking about the things they supposedly did with their girls. The conversation never turned to the things they were going to do to a girl.

While I do not condone premarital sexual activity, guys talking about the things they do with their girlfriends is part of today’s culture. On the other hand, when a guy talks about what they are going to do to a girl, that is when it is no longer locker room talk, but pre-meditated sexual assault.

Some examples of this kind of talk are “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.” This is not a joke. Men do not casually say things like this. This is not locker room talk. Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to excuse the terrible things they or others have said.

If a high school male was heard talking like this, I would hope appropriate action would be taken. This might involve counseling and some sort of punishment. Not because punishment would magically fix what he said, but to ensure he understands the severity of what he said. So he understands that sexual assault is not a joke. So he understands that women are to be cherished, not spoken of as property.

But when an adult in his late 50’s says things like “when you’re a star, they let you CENSORED–Column by editor of Liberty U newspaper, suppressed by president Jerry Falwell. |:

Who’s Behind the Big Money Takeover of San Diego County Schools? - San Diego Free Press

Who’s Behind the Big Money Takeover of San Diego County Schools? - San Diego Free Press:

Who’s Behind the Big Money Takeover of San Diego County Schools?

Rick Shea versus Walmart and Company

By Dr. Gregg Robinson, President, San Diego County Board of Education,Dr. Jim Miller, Vice President, American Federation of Teachers Guild, Local 1931

Somebody is trying to buy control of San Diego’s education system and few in the local media seem to have noticed until Sunday’s San Diego Union-Tribune finally covered it.  The Voice of San Diego has been quiet on this front, perhaps because, as the SDUT article reports, its co-founder Buzz Woolley is part of the action.  He and his fellow corporate education reformers have San Diego in their crosshairs and are spending big money to drive their agenda.  

As Jeff Bryant recently reported at OurFuture.org, there is a huge amount of money behind this new corporate effort to “disrupt” public education:

As education historian Diane Ravitch explains on her personal blog, “Public education in California is under siege by people and organizations who want to privatize the schools, remove them from democratic control, and hand them over to the charter industry.”

Ravitch points to Eli Broad, who made his money in the home building and insurance industries, Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, and Michael Milken, of junk bond industry fame, as members in a group of “billionaires” who push legislation to expand charter schools and limit regulation of the industry.

The big money, top-down campaign to expand charter schools in California is well documented in a recent series of articles by Capital & Main. One article in the series adds the Walton Family Foundation, the philanthropy related to the family that owns the Walmart retail chain, to the list of charter “power brokers” who invest billions in creating and expanding these schools.

Big money from these foundations and philanthropists, according to the report, pours into the charter industry to direct fund charter schools, pay for “academic studies” that promote charters, and create “grassroots” organizations that make charter school advocacy look like a parent-led movement.

To influence policy, these same organizations finance “powerful political lobbies such as the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA)” and “contribute millions of dollars to school board elections in order to replace those perceived to be anti-charter with pro-charter board members, as seen in recent elections Who’s Behind the Big Money Takeover of San Diego County Schools? - San Diego Free Press:

 

Georgia has something on its mind — and a lot of people think it’s a really bad idea - The Washington Post

Georgia has something on its mind — and a lot of people think it’s a really bad idea - The Washington Post:

Georgia has something on its mind — and a lot of people think it’s a really bad idea

Georgia has something on its mind — and a lot of people think it’s a really bad idea.

The idea is in the form of a constitutional amendment that is on the Nov. 8 ballot. Called Amendment 1 and proposed by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, it would allow the state to take over a certain number of “chronically failing public schools” and put them in the new state-run school district that would be modeled after those created in Louisiana and Tennessee.

Supporters say the new district would help improve troubled schools and provide new accountability to public school districts. Opponents say that the districts in the two other states have actually done poorly and that Amendment 1 is intentionally worded to promote the idea that the new “Opportunity School District” would really just be a way of taking some traditional schools and turning them into charter schools.

Opposition to the idea appears to be growing, not just among Democrats but also among some Republicans, and news reports from Georgia say the amendment could lose. An Atlanta Journal Constitution poll in October found voters siding 2 to 1 against the district.

Here is a podcast about the issue, one in a series called “Have You Heard” by Jennifer Berkshire and Aaron French. Berkshire is a freelance journalist and public education advocate who writes the lively EduShyster blog, where she discusses the serious consequences of corporate school reform. French is the creator of Education on Tap, a podcast produced by Teach for America.

Here is the transcript:

It is always hard to explain complicated issues to voters, especially when you don’t have much money.

Take Georgia, for example. Governor Nathan Deal wants to change the state constitution to allow the state to take over low-scoring public schools and hand them over to charter operators. It hasn’t worked anywhere else, but no matter. The amendment is being sold as a way to help kids and improve schools, when it is a transfer of public schools to private management. It is privatization of public schools and squelching of democracy.

How do you reach voters?

Here is one way: Someone hired an airplane to fly over a University of Georgia football game flying a banner that said:

“No School Takeover. Vote NO on Amendment 1.”

Georgia Has Something on It’s Mind: When voters in Georgia go to the polls, Georgia has something on its mind — and a lot of people think it’s a really bad idea - The Washington Post:

Election Inflections: Mega-Donor Bill Bloomfield’s Journey From GOP Champion to Charter School Rainmaker – Capital & Main

Election Inflections: Mega-Donor Bill Bloomfield’s Journey From GOP Champion to Charter School Rainmaker – Capital & Main:

Election Inflections: Mega-Donor Bill Bloomfield’s Journey From GOP Champion to Charter School Rainmaker

Over the past two decades, businessman Bill Bloomfield has poured millions of dollars into political campaigns, becoming one of California’s most prolific donors. A supporter of Republican presidential candidates George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain – he served as McCain’s national volunteer director – he has also used his personal wealth to back former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the unsuccessful gubernatorial effort of GOP candidate Meg Whitman.

In 2012, Bloomfield funneled $7.5 million into his own race against the venerable Congressman Henry Waxman, who prevailed despite his opponent’s spending spree. In 2014 and 2015, he bankrolled the campaigns of two state Senate candidates, contributing more than $2 million to help propel them to victory.

Bloomfield has continued to spend big in this year’s election cycle, but much of his money –more than $2 million and counting – has gone to the independent expenditure committee of the charter school powerhouse EdVoice, which is backing incumbents and office-seekers who support an aggressive expansion of charters in California. EdVoice’s IE has contributed nearly $9 million to pro-charter candidates this year – part of a blizzard of spending by California charter school advocates that now stands at more than $23 million.

Bloomfield has put his considerable financial resources squarely behind the charter school movement.

CLICK TO TWEET

Bloomfield, former CEO of a commercial laundry equipment firm previously known as Web Service Company, and founder of an Internet hosting company, is not as well known as other deep-pocketed charter school advocates such as Eli Broad and the Walton family. But he’s become one of the charter movement’s biggest spenders, and California’s fourth-largest political donor.

Bloomfield has also played a pivotal role in the rise of a new breed of California Democrats who frequently align themselves with big business. He was a champion of – and a major contributor to – several ballot measures that changed the face of California politics. The first, 2008’s Proposition 11, set the stage for far-reaching state-level redistricting, and was followed two years later by another measure, Prop. 20, that extended the changes to congressional districts. In 2010 voters also approved Proposition 14, which created open primaries, with the top two vote-getters facing off in November regardless of party affiliation.

The top-two system promoted by Bloomfield and others has been a boon to powerful special interests that traditionally backed Republican candidates but found that strategy becoming increasingly obsolete as the GOP lost influence in California. And while Bloomfield has positioned himself as a moderate reformer working to counteract special interests and partisan gridlock – he even joined the board of a respected watchdog group that monitors the influence of money in politics – critics see a different pattern.

To them, Bloomfield’s choice of candidates and issues — including his financial support of pro-charter efforts – exemplifies little more than a pragmatic conservative strategy in a liberal state. “He has figured out how to be a Republican in the bluest state of them all,” says Karen Wolfe, a California parent and founder of PSconnect, a community group that advocates for traditional public schools. “If you are looking for the best illustration that the charter movement is really just an effort to deregulate and shrink government, you see Bill Bloomfield.”

Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political consultant, agrees. “I think he is part of a larger group of Republicans in California who have realized there is little sense in investing in the Republican Party because they are so in the minority. They realize it makes more sense to put money into Democrats who are likely to adopt the ideals of Republicans.”

Over the years, Bloomfield has invested in a variety of social causes, starting with the anti-smoking billboard he and his father erected on Santa Monica Boulevard in Westwood in 1987 that’s been keeping a running tally of smoking-related deaths annually ever since. As described in his detailed personal website, he helped open the West Coast office of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and he’s a board member of California Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog group that advocates for political transparency. (While a recent investigation by California Hedge Clippers, a coalition of community groups and unions, concluded that Bloomfield was among a group of wealthy Californians who, in 2012, used the dark money networks California Election Inflections: Mega-Donor Bill Bloomfield’s Journey From GOP Champion to Charter School Rainmaker – Capital & Main:

Bill Gates backs climate denier Judge David Larson for Washington State Supreme Court position | Seattle Education

Bill Gates backs climate denier Judge David Larson for Washington State Supreme Court position | Seattle Education:

Bill Gates backs climate denier Judge David Larson for Washington State Supreme Court position

Municipal Judge David Larson

Gates is so blinded by his desire to have charter schools in our state that he doesn’t seem to be concerned with the qualifications of an individual who will potentially participate in setting policy affecting education in in his home state.

The Washington State Supreme Court made the decision that charter schools are unconstitutional in Washington State but Mr. Gates and others are determined to privatize the state’s public school system by any means.

Supreme Court Judge Charles Wiggins is one of the judges who decided in favor of the plaintiffs who challenged the constitutionality of charter schools in Washington State.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen along with Steve and Connie Ballmer, all major contributors to the charter school campaign, Initiative 1240, have contributed over $500,000 as of last week to the Political Action Committee (PAC) called Citizens for Working Courts Enterprise Washington to defeat Judge Wiggins.

Michael Davis, president of Enterprise Washington, the pro-business group behind the PAC, thinks that the court has “become too activist in their decisions”.

The Seattle Times endorsed Larson but what else would you expect? Bill Gates paid for the Seattle Times Education Lab section and they have become Gates’ mouthpiece.

So who is Municipal Judge David Larson?

According to the Seattle Times, Larson is very concerned with education so much so that Bill Gates backs climate denier Judge David Larson for Washington State Supreme Court position | Seattle Education:

Report More Charter Schools Could Threaten Public Education / Public News Service

Report More Charter Schools Could Threaten Public Education / Public News Service:

Report: More Charter Schools Could Threaten Public Education

A new report says 40 percent of the nation's charter schools are part of corporate chains or franchises. (in.gov)

INDIANAPOLIS – What began as an experiment to create innovation through charter schools has become a movement to privatize public education, according to a new report.

Stan Salett, the study's co-author, and the president of the Foundation for the Future of Youth spent more than four decades in public education and helped launch the nation's Head Start and Upward Bound programs. He said in the past two decades, a small group of billionaires, including News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch, who once called public schools an "untapped $500 billion sector," have worked to assert private control over public education to make money.

"And that's what's at play now," he said. "You've got a lot of money on one side going in to create a privatized school system that becomes part of the new marketplace for hedge funds and Wall Street investors."

The Independent Media Institute study found 40 percent of the nation's 6,700 charter schools are part of corporate chains or franchises. Salett said many charters do good work, and are operated by and accountable to their communities. But the report recommends a national moratorium on their rapid growth until the industry's governing structures and business models can be assessed and improved.

The study outlines how public tax dollars follow students who enroll in charters, taking money away from already struggling public systems. Salett said most major U.S. cities are now divided into private and public tracks, and argues the future of one of the nation's few institutions where people from diverse backgrounds come together is at risk.

"Different language backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, racial backgrounds," he added. "The aim of public schools has always been to create a place where the so-called 'melting pot' can occur."

Salett said companies frequently mix nonprofit and for-profit wings to win taxpayer subsidies, further boosting profits. He said some charters also have successfully lobbied to eliminate democratically elected boards, public oversight and accountability.Report More Charter Schools Could Threaten Public Education / Public News Service:

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