Panel: Addressing Racism - Strategies for Systemic Change | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Panel: Addressing Racism - Strategies for Systemic Change | Schott Foundation for Public Education:

Panel: Addressing Racism - Strategies for Systemic Change

A week after the 2016 election, activists, policymakers, philanthropic leaders and scholars came together at the Boston Public Library to reflect and strategize how to pursue educational & social justice after Trump's victory.

Speakers included:

• Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, Massachusetts State Senate
• Jocelyn Sargent, Executive Director, Hyams Foundation
• Rinku Sen, President & Executive Director, Race Forward (Moderator)
• Ted Shaw, Professor of Law, Director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill
• Gabriela Pereira, Student Organizer, YOUNG Coalition
• John H. Jackson, President & CEO, Schott Foundation

Click here to read a recap and see photos >

Panel: Addressing Racism - Strategies for Systemic Change | Schott Foundation for Public Education:

Webinar: How to Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Girls of Color

by psj / 50min

Wednesday, January 11, 2017 In this webinar, “How to Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Girls of Color,” we were joined by Dr. Monique W. Morris, author of Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools , and Aishatu Yusuf, who is currently working on participatory research aimed at interrupting school-to-confinement pathways for girls. Click here for a recap of the webinar. National

How to Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Girls of Color

11by psj / 1h

In our webinar earlier this month, “How to Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Girls of Color,” we were joined by Dr. Monique W. Morris, author of Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools , and Aishatu Yusuf, who is currently working on participatory research aimed at interrupting school-

100+ AAPI orgs sign on to joint statement opposing Trump

100+ AAPI orgs sign on to joint statement opposing Trump:

100+ AAPI ORGS SIGN ON TO JOINT STATEMENT OPPOSING TRUMP

"This is not business as usual, and we will not engage in business-as-usual tactics and strategies."

Over a hundred Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations, from community action groups to national civil rights orgs, have come together and signed on to a joint statement to resist the Trump administration. 

Just days into this nightmare presidency and Donald Trump is signing executive orders left and right that have millions of Americans legitimately fearing for their healthy, safety and civil rights. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders cannot stand by idly as this shit show of democracy ruins real lives and communities.

"We stand at a critical juncture in world history," the statement reads. "The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States represents a direct threat to millions of people's safety and to the health of the planet. As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders committed to equality, inclusion, and justice, we pledge to resist any efforts by President-Elect Trump's administration to target and exploit communities, to strip people of their fundamental rights and access to essential services, and to use rhetoric and policies that divide the American people and endanger the world."

The statement calls on all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to join the movement, refuse to legitimize or normalize Trump's administration, stand up to increased hate violence, and reject any of the administration's strategies that attempt to use AAPI as a wedge against other communities of color, among other principles.

Here's the full statement:

As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, We Will Resist

We stand at a critical juncture in world history. The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States represents a direct threat to millions of people’s safety and to the health of the planet. As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) committed to equality, inclusion, and justice, we pledge to resist any efforts by President-Elect Trump’s administration to target and exploit communities, to strip people of their fundamental rights and access to essential services, and to use rhetoric and policies that divide the American people and endanger the world.

Mr. Trump’s campaign used explicit racial appeals to win the support of disaffected white voters, promising to restore their economic and social standing by deporting millions of immigrants, building a wall, creating a Muslim registry, banning Muslim immigration, and punishing Black dissent. He also engaged in deeply misogynistic language and behavior throughout his campaign. He insulted all people of color; people with disabilities; and women – all of whom amount to the majority of America. In the global arena, he has signaled at a new nuclear arms race, promised to expand the use of torture, and disparaged the United Nations.

Since his election, Mr. Trump has chosen known white nationalists, corporate moguls, religious zealots, climate deniers, hawkish ex-generals, anti-Islam spokespersons, and anti-government crusaders to serve in his Administration. Right-wing extremists now dominate his party, which will control all three branches of the federal government and the majority of state legislatures, and are positioned to jeopardize the future of the Supreme Court for the next generation and beyond. Together this new realignment of forces seeks to turn back the clock on civil rights and environmental protections, to maximize corporate profits by privatizing the public sector, and to create a racially and culturally exclusive America.

This is not business as usual, and we will not engage in business-as-usual tactics and strategies.

As AAPIs, our lives are rooted in the long arc of U.S. history, which was born out of racial violence and has been shaped by the struggles for freedom of oppressed peoples domestically and internationally. Some of our ancestors first arrived in what is now the United States as subjects of European empire over 400 years ago. Some of us are indigenous to this country as our ancestors' lands were occupied and colonized by the United States as they sought to expand their global military and economic power. In the centuries since, AAPIs have faced indentured servitude, exclusionary immigration laws, bars to citizenship and land ownership, mass deportation, mass incarceration, war, sexual and gender-based violence, forced displacement, vigilante violence, surveillance, and racial and religious profiling.

Today our movements include Southeast Asian refugees organizing to end criminalization and deportation; Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs and South Asians fighting surveillance, profiling, war, and hate violence; women reclaiming their bodies against trafficking, domestic violence, exploitation, and criminalization; low-wage workers standing up against wage theft, poor working conditions, and abusive employers; Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders building a generation to fight against generational poverty caused by loss of sovereignty, militarization of lands and people, forced displacement, and criminalization; and trans, gender-non-conforming, and queer people putting their bodies on the line to demand a different, more humane world. We have always fought injustice, and we are resolute to continue doing so.

The majority of AAPI voters rejected Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Indeed, while Mr. Trump won the Electoral College – a problematic system with its own deep history rooted in slavery and racial inequities – he lost the popular vote. And with only 58% of eligible voters casting ballots in this election, the vast majority of American voters did not vote to elect Mr. Trump. He and his Administration have no mandate to govern.

For all of these reasons, we commit to the following principles and ask all AAPIs to join us:

• We will center and stand up for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members who are likely to face increased levels of hate violence, targeting, and policing. We will center and uplift the experiences and calls to action of undocumented immigrants, Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, refugees, women, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) community members. We will also support the organizing and resistance strategies of AAPI groups and our allies closest to the ground in local communities.

• We will defend all targets of bigotry, repression, and hate made by Mr. Trump’s Administration, or caused by the Trump Effect, with a broad principle of solidarity: “An attack on one is an attack on all.”

• We will refuse to legitimate or normalize Mr. Trump’s Administration, which has already violated the core principles of American democracy by using explicit appeals to racial and religious bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny to gain political power. We will reject ideas, statements, and policies that strengthen the incoming Administration’s legitimacy, including divide-and-conquer tactics or strategies that position AAPIs as a racial wedge against other communities of color.

• We will reject any attempts by the Trump Administration to use AAPIs to make a case for their legitimacy and diversity, and will not compromise our values and agency to gain a “seat at the table” in pursuit of narrow benefits. Nor will we conflate marginal visibility for genuine power and influence for our communities.

• We agree to be transparent about our engagement with the Trump Administration, and to be held accountable for our organizational strategies and decisions.

• We will raise awareness about how AAPI communities are affected by discriminatory and divisive rhetoric and policies, and will stand firm in opposing them.

• We will support those who assume personal and organizational risk to defend democratic institutions and practices including human, civil, and constitutional rights, against unjust laws and actions by the government, any group, or individual.

• We will seek unity in pursuit of shared goals, knowing that defending democracy will require various kinds of movements and tactics to weather the coming period of increased repression, and to build a more humane and sustainable world.

• We will work tirelessly toward an inclusive and democratic vision that ensures the safety, self-determination, and wellbeing of all people, and we will model this in our resistance and solidarity efforts.

To read more and see the full list of signatories, go here.

100+ AAPI orgs sign on to joint statement opposing Trump:

Over 2,740 Calvin College Alums Formally Oppose Alum Betsy DeVos for US Ed Sec. VIEW PRESS RELEASE AND LETTER HERE. | deutsch29

Over 2,740 Calvin College Alums Formally Oppose Alum Betsy DeVos for US Ed Sec. VIEW PRESS RELEASE AND LETTER HERE. | deutsch29:

Over 2,740 Calvin College Alums Formally Oppose Alum Betsy DeVos for US Ed Sec. VIEW PRESS RELEASE AND LETTER HERE.

PRESS RELEASE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OVER 2,750 CALVIN COLLEGE ALUMNI OPPOSE DEVOS NOMINATION

 

January 27, 2017

GRAND RAPIDS – Today, members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions will receive a letter outlining opposition to the nomination of Betsy DeVos for U.S.
Secretary of Education from alumni of her own undergraduate institution. The letter is signed
by over 2,750 students at and alumni of Calvin College, a small, Christian liberal arts college
located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The letter notes the value of the shared educational
experiences held in common by the alumni signatories and DeVos herself. It then outlines four
key concerns about DeVos’ qualifications for the position, summarized below:

1) We believe that the position of the Secretary of Education requires the individual to have
an intimate knowledge of the tools used by educators. In this regard Mrs. DeVos does
not qualify.

2) We believe we believe that any individual who is nominated to be Secretary of Education
should have a strong commitment to public education, which Mrs. DeVos does not.

3) We believe that Mrs. DeVos’ commitment to education is limited to her advocacy of and
financial contributions to religious and charter schools.

4) We believe that Mrs. DeVos lacks appropriate respect/concern for the federal guidelines
that make educational accessible to all.

This action began as a personal effort by Sara Moslener, a Calvin alumna who is now a
university professor in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Following coverage in the Calvin College student
newspaper, Chimes, interest in the letter grew rapidly, generating more far more signatures
than initially expected.

Many alumni shared expressions of pride in their affiliation with Calvin College in the process of
attaching their name to this initiative, and Mrs. DeVos’ family and the Princes, her family of
origin, have long been benefactors of Calvin College. However, letter organizer Sara Moslener
says, “My gratitude for their generosity to the college cannot excuse me from opposing an
educational platform that does not serve our country’s common good.”

For further information: Sara Moslener, saramoslener23@gmail.com

# #

TO VIEW THE 23-PAGE LETTER WITH OVER 2,750 SIGNATURES, CLICK HERE.

Over 2,740 Calvin College Alums Formally Oppose Alum Betsy DeVos for US Ed Sec. VIEW PRESS RELEASE AND LETTER HERE. | deutsch29:

 

All Democratic senators will oppose DeVos as education secretary

All Democratic senators will oppose DeVos as education secretary:

All Democratic senators will oppose DeVos as education secretary
After letting Ben Carson sail through his confirmation process, Democrats vow not to do the same for Betsy DeVos.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) said all of the Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will oppose Betsy Devos, President Trump’s nominee for education secretary.

Franken broke the news on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC on Thursday. The committee will vote on whether to confirm the Michigan-based philanthropist on Tuesday of next week, and Franken said Democrats also plan to find Republicans to oppose her.

This opposition contrasts with Ben Carson’s confirmation process, which he sailed through earlier this week, despite the fact that he has no experience with housing policy or working in government. The Senate Banking Committee, which includes 11 Democrats, unanimously approved his nomination. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in particular have been grilled by progressives, who demand to know why they voted in favor of Carson.

Opposition to DeVos has been different in a number of ways, however. Unlike Carson, who avoided disagreeing with senators during the confirmation, DeVos played it less safe and showed her lack of knowledge on education policy in a variety of areas. DeVos was not aware of a federal law protecting the rights of students with disabilities, did not appear to understand a question about measuring school quality, and suggested that schools needed guns to protect students from grizzly bears. The Wyoming school she was referring to did not actually use guns against grizzly bears. The state bans guns from its school campuses, and Wapiti Elementary instead uses a fence to keep bears away students.

DeVos says it’s ‘premature’ to commit to following Title IX guidance on campus sexual assault
She did, however, admit that sexual assault is bad.thinkprogress.org

Her grizzly bear comment received the most attention, but DeVos also refused to say she would enforce 2011 guidance that uses a preponderance of evidence standard in investigations of campus sexual assault. This standard allows a disciplinary panel to make a decision based on which party’s evidence has greater weight rather than requiring clear and convincing evidence. Advocates for campus sexual assault survivors have long supported the guidance.

DeVos also avoided making detailed remarks about LGBTQ rights during the All Democratic senators will oppose DeVos as education secretary:

Betsy DeVos Is Celebrated at Week-Long Pep Rally Sponsored by Group Whose Board She Chaired | janresseger

Betsy DeVos Is Celebrated at Week-Long Pep Rally Sponsored by Group Whose Board She Chaired | janresseger:

Betsy DeVos Is Celebrated at Week-Long Pep Rally Sponsored by Group Whose Board She Chaired

The timing of School Choice Week, which generally occurs late in January, is coincidentally auspicious this year for the woman who has funded its founding organization, the Alliance for School Choice, and who has also chaired the organization’s board of directors.  If crowds in matched t-shirts and yellow scarves have been parading around your town celebrating school privatization and Betsy DeVos this week, it’s important to realize it wasn’t a spontaneous rally.

In the Washington Post, Emma Brown describes the kind of rally you may have noticed and why it happened this week: “National School Choice Week, a celebration of charter schools, private schools, home schooling and other education options, could not have fallen at a more opportune time for DeVos. The annual effort, held this year between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28, includes thousands of events around the country that bring together people who largely see DeVos not as a threat to pubic education, as her critics have framed her, but as a champion of extending more choices to more parents.”  There was a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday and, according to Brown, 21,000 events were scheduled around the country.

Twenty-one thousand events promoting her pet idea must feel like a blessing to Betsy DeVos, whose confirmation as our next U.S. Secretary of Education will be voted on by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee next Tuesday morning, January 31, at 10 o’clock.  After all, she did poorly in her confirmation hearing on January 17-–flubbing a question about measuring academic growth or benchmark proficiency—one of the key controversies in the debate about test-based school accountability—and another about the federal government’s role in enforcing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It has Betsy DeVos Is Celebrated at Week-Long Pep Rally Sponsored by Group Whose Board She Chaired | janresseger:

DeVos doesn’t know the ABCs of public education - Wait What?

DeVos doesn’t know the ABCs of public education - Wait What?:

DeVos doesn’t know the ABCs of public education

This commentary piece first appeared in the Washington D.C. Capital HIll newspaper, The Hill.  You can read and comment on it at: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/education/315821-devos-doesnt-know-the-abcs-of-public-education

DeVos doesn’t know the ABCs of public education

Betsy DeVos leaves education advocates even more worried about the future of public education policy under Trump. Like much in Washington these days, there were two completely different and contrary narratives following Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos’ confirmation hearing last week.

Trump loyalists celebrated what appeared to be DeVos successful effort to keep from derailing her own confirmation, while public education advocates strengthen their belief that DeVos’ performance reiterated their worst fears about the pro-charter school champion.

But for her reference that guns might be needed in schools to fight off grizzly bears, the Republican Senate majority must be breathing a sigh of relief as they as prepare to confirm DeVos as the nation’s next election chief.

On the other hand, educators and education advocates are reeling from a combination of frustration, incredulousness and downright anger having watched a hearing that revealed that DeVos lacks the fundamental experience and basic understanding of the issues one would want and expect in the person chosen to serve as the Secretary of the United States Department of Education.

On a wide variety of issues of concern to educators, parents and those who support public education, DeVos appeared ignorant of the law, unwilling to commit to implementing federal law or simply unwilling to answer questions about her agenda should she be confirmed.

In one of the most illuminating moments of the evening, HELP Committee ranking Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) asked DeVos, “Can you commit to us that you will not work to privatize public schools…?”

Although DeVos fundamentally ducked the question, retorting that she would strive to find “common ground” that would give parents “options,” she made it extremely clear that she would remain loyal to the charter school industry and those dedicated to privatizing significant segments of public education in the country.

In response to the answer to her question, Murray DeVos doesn’t know the ABCs of public education - Wait What?: 

Top-down School Reforms without Community or Teacher Involvement (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Top-down School Reforms without Community or Teacher Involvement (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Top-down School Reforms without Community or Teacher Involvement (Part 1)

Examples of top-down mandates from district, state, and federal policymakers without significant teacher or community involvement are legion.

*Los Angeles Unified contracted with Apple to spend one billion-plus dollars for iPads for every student to use a newly-developed curriculum and eventually take Common Core tests in 2013. It belly flopped with lots of splashes offering little help to teachers and students.

*No Child Left Behind (2002-2016), a bipartisan law sailed through the U.S. Congress, got signed by President George W. Bush, and landed on state and district superintendents’ desks soon after. The U.S. Department of Education through individual states became a super-school board determining which local schools met or didn’t meet “adequate yearly progress” on standardized tests. Schools that failed could be closed if AYP went unmet for five years. After protests from teachers and parents about too much testing–an opt out movement by parents who pulled their children out of school during test days swelled–too much shaming of students and their schools gradually accumulated in the first decade of the century.It was clear to legislators and the President, Barack Obama, that the law had to be changed. Not until 2016, however, did the Every Student Succeeds Act shift authority for evaluating schools that succeeded and those that failed schools back to the states (see here, here, and here).

*State math, reading, and science standards since the 1960s come and go with minimal teacher and community involvement (see here and here).

So what?

In a series of posts I have raised questions about the concept of “failed” school reform by looking at the different clocks used to measure “success” of a reform, how time itself is a factor in making a judgment, the varied criteria used to make decisions about “failure,” and who uses these criteria to make the judgments. In this post, I want to point out how easy it is for a district school reform to be declared a “failure” by media, parents, and practitioners through errors that policymakers commit.And how such errors could have been easily avoided.

When policymakers decide to adopt a new computer-driven program promising math lessons customized to fit every student without substantial involvement of teachers and parents, the ingredients of a recipe for a “failed” reform are in the pot to be stirred. It is a story anchored in decision-makers ignoring the very people who have to accept and implement the instructional reform. It is a sad story because such a “failure”–like some of the ones mentioned in the beginning of the post–could have been avoided had policymakers been attentive to the Top-down School Reforms without Community or Teacher Involvement (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Choosing Democracy: Betsy DeVos and Blackwater

Choosing Democracy: Betsy DeVos and Blackwater:

Betsy DeVos and Blackwater

 By Marc Norton

Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who has been called “America’s most notorious mercenary” by author and journalist Jeremy Scahill, has emerged as an influential advisor to the incoming Donald Trump regime.

Prince is also the brother of Betsy DeVos, who is in the process of being confirmed as secretary of education — and an advocate for the privatization of public schools.

 The connection between these two reactionary political players is no secret, but is one of those barely-known facts that has remained mostly hidden in plain sight.  Despite significant press around the confirmation hearings for DeVos, the corporate media has not called the public’s attention to her relationship to Prince.  Plaudits go to the The Intercept for publishing an article on January 17 by Scahill about Prince's connection to Trump, and highlighting his connection to DeVos.

Prince’s biggest claim to infamy is as the founder of Blackwater, a private security firm that hired mercenaries to augment US military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, among many other places.  Blackwater, now transformed into a company called Academi, had an intimate relationship with the CIA, and was regarded by many as one of the CIA’s go to organizations when it wanted to contract out its dirty work.  Blackwater got into hot water more than once, particularly in 2007 when some of its mercenaries gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians, including a 9-year old boy, in Baghdad.

Scahill reports that trusted sources tell him Prince has been giving Trump advice on his staff picks for the Defense Department and the State Department.  Nothing like having friends in high places if you want work.

Prince is close to another Trump advisor, the racist Steve Bannon.  Prince has often appeared on Bannon’s Breitbart Radio.  Last July, Prince told Bannon that a Trump administration could and should create a new version of the Phoenix Program, the CIA assassination program during the Vietnam War that “neutralized” tens of thousands of alleged Viet Cong leaders.  The new assassination program would presumably target “radical Islamic extremists,” and who knows who else.

DeVos, while not a public advocate of murder like her brother, has worked for decades in an effort to undermine and assassinate public education.  A billionaire heir to the Amway fortune, she is a prominent Republican donor and fund-raiser.  Her political efforts have centered around campaigns to give parents taxpayer-funded “vouchers” so they can pull their children out of the public education system and send them to private schools, including religious schools.  She has also campaigned to expand charter schools, which are publicly funded but run by private companies.

She isn’t responsible for her brother, of course, but the two are closely linked politically, as described in a 2014 Mother Jones article — and there’s no sign anywhere that she has said she doesn’t approve of his actions.

DeVos hails from Michigan, where she is a political force to be reckoned with.  She has been credited with creating a network of charter schools in Michigan that are virtually unregulated, despite the abysmal test scores of their students.  Dick DeVos, Betsy’s husband, led and funded the successful campaign in 2012 that turned Michigan into a so-called “right to work” state, effectively outlawing the union shop.  That includes, of course, public schools.

DeVos was called the “the most ideological, anti-public education nominee” for the office of Secretary of Education ever by Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers. (See below)

The Erik Prince-Betsy DeVos connection adds another layer of concern to the prospect of DeVos running the Education Department.  It is becoming more clear every day that the Trump regime is a collection of the most reactionary set of scallywags ever assembled in Washington DC, which has seen its fair share of reactionaries.

Prince did his bit to get this latest bunch of scallywags into the White House, and to give the Education Department to his sister.  On November 4, just days before the election, Prince used Breitbart News to spread a fake story about the Anthony Weiner sex texting scandal, claiming that the New York Police Department investigation “found State Department emails.  They found a lot of other really damning criminal information, including money laundering, including the fact that Hillary went to this sex island with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.  Bill Clinton went there more than 20 times.  Hillary Clinton went there at least six times.”

Let’s hope that DeVos is not tempted to recruit her brother to run an assassination program against public high school principals.  Oops, I meant a “character” assassination program.

This article was first published by 48 Hills

Copyright © 2017 by Marc Norton

Marc Norton’s website is www.MarcNorton.us.

What you can do. 

Tell your senators to vote NO on dangerously unqualified Betsy DeVos.


 

In her hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last week, Betsy DeVos proved just how unqualified she is to serve as secretary of education. And in response, millions of you contacted your senators urging them to vote “no” on her confirmation. We have to keep up the pressure.


At the hearing, DeVos couldn’t answer basic questions, dodged controversial issues, and failed to say what she would do to support public schools and the kids who attend them. Her most ridiculous answer may have been that we should allow guns in schools to protect against grizzly bears (she really said that!), but her most frightening responses showed just how dangerously unqualified she is for the job.


Write a letter and tell your senators to vote NO on Betsy DeVos.

• She refused to commit to the basic premise that all schools that receive public funding should be held to the same standards of accountability.
• She didn’t understand the difference between student proficiency and student growth—showing she has no idea how to meaningfully assess student progress.
• She showed she has no knowledge of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and didn’t even know it was a federal law.
• She refused to answer when asked what she had learned from failures of the “choice” experiment in Detroit.
• She refused to commit to enforcing rules that protect students from fraud and predatory behavior by for-profit universities.

It was clear from her testimony that DeVos doesn’t care about what helps kids. She repeated her belief in “choice”—which to DeVos means defunding traditional public schools to pay for private school vouchers and for-profit, unaccountable charters.


Since her Jan. 17 hearing, there has been an outpouring of opposition from the American people: Millions of parents and community members have joined educators in signing petitions, calling their senators, and writing emails and letters. In more than 200 cities and towns, tens of thousands came together Jan. 19 to defend our public schools and services as part of the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools Day of Action. And hundreds of thousands across the country joined marches on Jan. 21 to protest President Trump and his agenda, including his nomination of DeVos. And it’s working. 


Thanks to all your efforts, the committee vote on DeVos was delayed a week to give senators more time to dig through her mountains of ethics paperwork. This gives us another week to contact our senators’ offices and tell them to oppose her confirmation.


Tell your senators to vote NO on dangerously unqualified Betsy DeVos.

Our public schools—which serve 90 percent of all our students—must be fully funded and given the resources and support they need to succeed. That includes promoting children’s well-being, especially in schools that serve kids who need extra support the most. It means ensuring kids have opportunities for engaging learning through project-based instruction and pathways like career and technical education, gifted learning programs and magnet programs. It means investing in our teaching force, so educators can reach their full potential and support student learning. And it means building cultures of collaboration between teachers and administrators, between schools and communities, so we’re all working together to lift up students.

Across the country, we are standing up to offer our vision, and to tell DeVos and Trump that we will not watch quietly while they undermine public education and vital services the American people depend on and believe in. But we have to keep the momentum we have going.

Join us by sending a letter to your senators and demanding they vote no on Betsy DeVos.

DeVos is the least qualified, most ideological nominee ever put forward to lead the Department of Education. She doesn’t believe in public education—as she has shown by spending millions of dollars to privatize schools in Michigan. The results of her policies have been disastrous for students and the schools they attend.

We must raise our voices loudly and clearly to defend our students and our schools. I hope you’ll join us by sending a letter to your senators today.

In unity,

Randi Weingarten

AFT President 

P.S. Watch this video of a Detroit student telling members of Congress why Betsy DeVos should not be confirmed. 

DeVos and Alliance for School Choice: Where the Ultimate “Choice” Means Vouchers to Private Schools | deutsch29

DeVos and Alliance for School Choice: Where the Ultimate “Choice” Means Vouchers to Private Schools | deutsch29:

DeVos and Alliance for School Choice: Where the Ultimate “Choice” Means Vouchers to Private Schools

For the past few years, I have been receiving mailers from Washington, DC-based, Alliance for School Choice (AFSC).

Alliance for School Choice is a nonprofit that promotes a particular kind of choice: publicly-funded vouchers to private schools.

The goal of these mailers is to get me to “enroll my child in a private school FOR FREE!”, thereby “put[ting]” my child “on the road to a better education!”

If I do not do so, I could be “letting” my child “get left behind.”

According to AFSC’s 2014 tax form (the most recent on file as of this writing), Michigan billionaire and voucher lover, Betsy DeVos, is AFSC chair.

Also noted on the AFSC tax form is that DeVos’ American Federation for Children (AFC) is the lobbying nonprofit associated with AFSC.

In fact, in a 2013 Philanthropy Roundtable interview, DeVos discusses her connection with AFSC and AFC:

The late John Walton and Dick started up what was then called All Children Matter, a 527 political organization, which I chaired. A number of other school-choice supporters also worked very closely with the Alliance for School Choice, a 501(c)(3), to educate the public about the need for greater educational choice. But it didn’t feel like a cohesive enough effort. Successful advocacy requires coordinating a lot of moving parts: identifying potential legislators, educating them about the issue, getting them elected, helping them craft and pass legislation, and then, once the laws are passed, helping them with implementing the programs to ensure they work for children.

We took a long, hard look at ourselves and determined that we could do this in a much smoother manner. It was clear that we needed a more cohesive effort. So a few years ago, we reorganized a number of the key players. We formed the American Federation for Children as a 501(c)(4). It is the umbrella organization that is affiliated with the Alliance for School Choice—still a (c)(3)—and AFC’s political action committee, the American Federation for Children Action Fund.

In 2014, AFSC’s total revenue was $9.2 million.

In 2014, AFSC spent $4 million trying to entice parents to use public money to send children to private schools:

CONDUCT MARKETING AND ADVERTISING PROGRAMS PROMOTING EDUCATIONAL CHOICE PROGRAMS BY TARGETING ELIGIBLE FAMILIES TO RAISE AWARENESS OF AND INCREASE PARTICIPATION IN EXISTING PRIVATE SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAMS AVAILABLE TO THOSE FAMILIES IN THEIR RESPECTIVE STATES SERVE AS AN ADVOCATE FOR ELIGIBLE FAMILIES WITH THE GOVERNMENT ENTITIES ADMINISTERING PUBLICLY-FUNDED PRIVATE SCHOOL 

DeVos and Alliance for School Choice: Where the Ultimate “Choice” Means Vouchers to Private Schools | deutsch29:

CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Teacher Sit-in For DeVos Senator

CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Teacher Sit-in For DeVos Senator:

IN: Teacher Sit-in For DeVos Senator

Todd Young was born in 1972 in Lancaster, PA. Today (Thursday) he's an Indiana senator with an office full of grumpy teachers.

Young's family moved him to Indiana, where he graduated from public high school and then went straight into the Navy, from there to the Naval Academy, graduated Cum Laude, got a commission in the Marines. Soccer star, intelligence officer, head recruiter in Chicago/Indiana area. Honorably discharged in 2000. Studied in London. Earned a law degree.

In the meantime, he also worked for the Heritage Foundation, worked for Senator Richard Lugar, and volunteered for Mitch Daniels gubernatorial campaign. He got the bug.


In 2010 he ran as a Republican for Indiana's 9th District with endorsements from luminaries all the way up to Dan Quayle. He defeated an incumbent. He had what was called a mixed record. In 2016, he decided to step up to a Senate seat. He won the GOP primary and trounced Evan Bayh in the general election to take Quayle's former seat (he's also married to Quayle's niece).

This "Marine unafraid to stand for conservative principles" had some help getting elected. The fight with Bayh drew a grand total of $38 million total in "outside money", with $24.3 million of that going to Young. 

Young now sits on the Senate HELP committee, the one deciding the fate of Education Secretary-in-waiting Betsy DeVos. Want to guess who helped swell the Young coffers justCURMUDGUCATION: IN: Teacher Sit-in For DeVos Senator: