Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Somebody help me here. What's up with the 'Let-Trump-Win' strategy?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Somebody help me here. What's up with the 'Let-Trump-Win' strategy?:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Somebody help me here. What's up with the 'Let-Trump-Win' strategy?

As readers of this blog know, I am a Sanders supporter and have been among the loudest critics of Hillary Clinton and the regular Democratic Party for many years, especially around education reform issues.

I supported Fanny Lou Hamer's Mississippi Freedom Democrats when they tried to get seated at the '64 and '68 conventions. I was one of the thousands in the streets at the 1968 Convention when we faced a "police riot" and turned Chicago and Mayor Daley's Democratic machine upside down protesting the war and racism. The Democrats were definitely the war party back then and the party of racial segregation in the South. Hubert Humphrey was their candidate -- not ours.

Some say our protests handed the election to Nixon. I doubt it. But I'll own part of it.

So why am I having such a hard time understanding some of my die-hard lefty/progressive friends in Philly? (Long sentence coming. Hold your breath).

1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago

Why would you go into the Democratic Party behind Bernie Sanders' highly successful and dynamic campaign in the first place, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of young activists around key issues (Fight For 15), win significant battles (not all) with DNC regulars in the Platform Committee (including on the education plank), super-delegates, force the removal of the DNC chair, cheer ecstatically the speeches of the party stalwarts (Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker), and then announce to the press that, despite Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Somebody help me here. What's up with the 'Let-Trump-Win' strategy?:

Racial Tensions Flare as Schools Resegregate | US News

Racial Tensions Flare as Schools Resegregate | US News:

The New Segregation

School systems are more segregated than ever in this time of racial tension.

The racial tension and violence that roiled the country this month left politicians, policymakers and protesters of every stripe shocked and exasperated.

Two separate incidents caught on video of white police officers shooting and killing black men, one in Baton Rouge and the other in Minneapolis, resulted in the killing of five Dallas police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest and most recently the killing of three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers – all in a two week span.

“Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged,” President Barack Obama said during the funeral for the Dallas officers. “We wonder if an African-American community that feels unfairly targeted by police, and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other's experience.”

As the month’s tragedies rearranged life into a heightened racialized context, the president’s sentiments have been echoed many times over.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the GOP’s lone black senator, took to the chamber floor to deliver a moving speech about the number of times he’s been stopped by police for driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood.

“I do not know many African-American men who do not have a very similar story to tell no matter their profession,” he said. “No matter their income, no matter their disposition in life."

"We are in the midst of a lynching crisis," charged NAACP President and CEO Cornell Brooks during the organization’s annual conference.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.5 million member American Federation of Teachers, underscored that “the United States has not come to grips with pervasive racism – not even close.”

And perhaps that pervasive racism starts early, in schools.

After all, in some parts of the country schools are more segregated – and white students and students of color more isolated – than they’ve ever been.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office shows that from school year 2000-2001 to 2013-2014, the percentage of K-12 public schools that were high poverty and comprised of mostly black or Hispanic students grew significantly, from 9 percent to 16 percent. And the number of students attending those schools more than doubled, from 4.1 million to 8.4 million.Racial Tensions Flare as Schools Resegregate | US News:

State ratchets up legal case vs. ECOT online school, seeks court order to see records | cleveland.com

State ratchets up legal case vs. ECOT online school, seeks court order to see records | cleveland.com:

State ratchets up legal case vs. ECOT online school, seeks court order to see records

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state is seeking a court order forcing Ohio's largest online school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), to turn over records showing when students logged on to do schoolwork last school year and for how long.

ECOT earlier this month refused to provide log-in and log-out records to the Ohio Department of Education as the state audits the school's attendance. After finding evidence that many ECOT students spent just an hour logged in to lessons each day, the state is trying to determine if the $108 million it paid ECOT in 2015-16 was inflated.

Despite losing an attempt in Franklin County Court to block the audit, ECOT continues to refuse to provide the records. It has instead dug in its heels and told the state it won't provide them without a court order.

"They will need to file other paperwork with the court and make a request to the court that we submit the other data," ECOT spokesman Neil Clark told Ohio Public Radio.

The state is seeking such an order.

In a filing Saturday, the state asked Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer French to have ECOT provide the records for 1,500 students randomly picked by ODE so that the state can see how well ECOT tracked their schoolwork.

See below for the full filing.

ECOT said it has a 2002 contract with the state that does not require it to provide log-in data.

"ODE is continuing to play politics with this issue and mislead the public instead of sticking to the facts," Clark said.

Barring any changes, the next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 8.

The state requires students at e-schools to spend 920 hours each school year on "learning opportunities" that can include online classes, but also time spent offline doing research or on field trips.

State fights to see if $267M paid to e-schools is justified

The Ohio Department of Education and ECOT, the state's biggest e-school, had a fight in court this week over attendance records. Here's what's at stake.

The state says schools have to show students participated in those "learning opportunities," while ECOT says it only has to offer them.

In the past, the state has allowed ECOT to have a faculty member certify that students were offered "learning opportunities," but never required the school to show that students participated in them, beyond simply logging in regularly.

But House Bill 2, the state's new charter reform law that passed last fall and took State ratchets up legal case vs. ECOT online school, seeks court order to see records | cleveland.com:

Big Education Ape: Many ECOT students spend just one hour online for classes each day, state lawyers say | cleveland.com - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/many-ecot-students-spend-just-one-hour.html

Success in High School Doesn't Mean Good Grades in College - The Atlantic

Success in High School Doesn't Mean Good Grades in College - The Atlantic:

When the Value of High School Is Exaggerated

It turns out that students who take AP classes don’t actually get better college grades.

Jae C. Hong / AP

As more students pursue college, high schools are becoming increasingly bullish about enrolling students in advanced classes. These courses, the standard refrain goes, will prepare young people for the rigor of higher education and set them up for success as they embark on their college careers.

Not so fast, say a pair of researchers in a new Brookings Institution blog post. “We found confirmatory evidence that advanced high-school courses apparently do little to prepare students for success in college coursework,” write Gregory Ferenstein, a former TechCrunch reporter (who has also written for The Atlantic), and Brad Hershbein, a nonresident Brookings fellow and economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

The pair looked at thousands of high-school and college transcripts using the National Educational Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative survey of about 25,000 students that began in 1988. They found that, when they controlled for things like race, gender, socioeconomic background, and standardized-test scores, the courses that students took in high school had very little impact on college grades. In other words, if Tom took an economics class in high school, even an advanced one, and Joe did not, and then both young men enrolled in an economics course in college, they were likely to earn the same grade. Still, states are continuing to push more kids into advanced courses. “For some reason, the belief persists,” Hershbein said.

That belief may persist in part because earning a good grade in a college course isn’t necessarily a student’s reason for taking an AP class in the first place. A young person might take an AP class in high school so she can skip a similar course in college or bypass a subject entirely. But getting at what drives students to sign up for certain courses, advanced or otherwise, was beyond the scope of this research.

While the authors were able to look at the first college class students took in a subject, it wasn’t clear whether the students had received college credit for doing well on an earlier AP exam. So if a student took a chemistry class in high school and then took Chemistry 101 as a college freshman and earned the same grade as Success in High School Doesn't Mean Good Grades in College - The Atlantic:

First Few Weeks as a New Teacher: Things I Wish I Had Known

First Few Weeks as a New Teacher: Things I Wish I Had Known:

First Few Weeks as a New Teacher: Things I Wish I Had Known

In her book How to Survive and Thrive in the First Three Weeks of School, Elaine K. Mc Ewan elaborates on a teaching formula known as 3 + 3 = 33—something I wish I had learned about before I passed the 22-year mark as a teacher.

This simple equation is used by standout teachers to maximize time management and learning at any grade level. Simply put: Three weeks of teaching the three R’s (routines, rubrics, and rules) leads to 33 weeks of higher student achievement.

The start of the year provides an opportunity for students to participate in “on- the-job” training. We should not assume students come to our classrooms knowing what they need to know to succeed. Instead, like new employees, students must be made aware of essential survival skills that will ensure they can climb our classes’ ladder of academic achievement.
New teachers can avoid stress, self-doubt, and confusion simply by implementing a few essentials right from the start.

Assign Seats Before School Starts

This is a strategy I learned the hard way. Back when I was a new teacher, thinking I was being progressive I invited students to “sit wherever you want” on the rst day of school. To my horror, more than one student found themselves in the embarrassing situation of getting shunned or shooed away from a seat supposedly saved for a friend. My carelessness had resulted in some students feeling like unwelcome outsiders. At any grade level, it’s easy to assign seats before the year starts. Just First Few Weeks as a New Teacher: Things I Wish I Had Known:

Some districts step up competition for neighbors’ veteran teachers | EdSource

Some districts step up competition for neighbors’ veteran teachers | EdSource:

Some districts step up competition for neighbors' veteran teachers

To better compete in a time of shortage, a handful of districts have negotiated changes in their pay scales that are making it easier to recruit veteran teachers. Doing so isn’t adding to the overall teacher supply or winning friends in neighboring districts. But it is helping some districts solve a personnel crunch as well as provide broader job opportunities for experienced teachers.

The change in the rules is enabling districts to more closely match the pay of teachers who want to switch districts. Until now, teachers have been discouraged from transferring by a standard clause in most districts’ contracts that capped the number of years that a teacher would be credited as having worked for the purpose of determining their new pay. The cap had the practical impact of locking in employment of mid-career and older teachers.

Under the standard salary scale for unionized teachers, teachers receive annual “step” increases for each year they work and a boost in salary for education degrees and courses they take beyond their bachelor’s degree. But for transferring teachers, there has been a limit on the number of years – usually between six and 10 years – for which they would be given credit, depending on the district. So, for example, a teacher with 15 years experience earning $77,000 in one district would be credited for working the maximum 10 years and have to start at year 11, earning only $68,000.

In the past, districts liked the cap because it discouraged teachers from jumping ship after districts had invested in their training and served to contain costs, said San Jose Unified Deputy Superintendent Stephen McMahon. But a teacher shortage in some districts has prompted them to rethink hiring practices and to resort to signing bonuses, referral fees and housing subsidies.

Most districts’ teacher contracts already allowed districts to make exceptions to the pay scale to hire teachers for hard-to-fill positions, such as bilingual, special education and math teachers. San Jose Unified, the largest of 19 districts in high-cost-of-living San Jose, and Some districts step up competition for neighbors’ veteran teachers | EdSource:

What should we name the school? – Cloaking Inequity

What should we name the school? – Cloaking Inequity:

What should we name the school?

Are there so few Latina/o leaders worthy of having a school named after them?

Last week I was in Houston to give a lecture at Rice University for the Mi Familia Vota student fellows. It was a return to my roots. In my younger years, I worked for the Houston Independent School District’s Research and Accountability Department during the tenure of Rod Paige (before he went to lead the US Department of Education).

I was also heavily involved with grassroots politics— block walking, registering voters and a variety of other activities with the Tejano Democrats. So it was a blast from the past when later that evening, I had a chance to visit with the Harris County Tejano Democrats at their membership reception. At the event, I was having a conversation with one of the Tejana community activists and she mentioned that in May 2016 the Houston Independent School District (HISD) renamed seven schools that were previously named after confederate supporters of slavery. She was annoyed that Jefferson Davis High School name was changed to Northside High School.

The Houston Independent School District is now majority Latina/o (about 63%). Northside High School is about 85% Latina/o… and the best name HISD could come up with was Northside High School?! Granted, one of the seven name changes was to Yolanda Black Navarro, a Houston community activist. But really? Only one school was name after a prominent Latina/o? I did some quick math and it appears that only about 5% of HISD schools bear the names of Latina/os.

I suspect that in your community you may have a similar underrepresentation of Latina/o heroes/heroines in the naming of your schools. So, I What should we name the school? – Cloaking Inequity:

LEAD POISONED WATER IS THE TOPIC – “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” are song lyrics. | Reclaim Reform

LEAD POISONED WATER IS THE TOPIC – “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” are song lyrics. | Reclaim Reform:

LEAD POISONED WATER IS THE TOPIC – “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” are song lyrics.

Lead poisoned water in schools is a major problem in 2016. Lead poisoning during childhood causes permanent brain injury; this has been known for years and has beenproven repeatedly.

The Democratic National Convention tugged at our heartstrings by playing and emphasizing the beautiful song, written in 1969 by Paul Simon, “Like a Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”

That is the disconnect between reality and theater, the Theater of the Absurd, that calls itself a Democratic National Convention where issues are supposed to be openly discussed and a political platform is written. The actual platform fails to address fracking or funding for the permanent clean-up of lead poisoned water. Delegates mention this aloud to each other, but the official program has been imagery. The show must go on.

This is why people are disgusted with both presidential candidates and our present elected Democratic and Republican officials across America. They cannot be trusted as long as we and our children are being poisoned.

Infrastructures, that have been intentionally ignored for decades, and fracking are known causes of water poisoning. Clean water is ignored or merely given lip service by our own LEAD POISONED WATER IS THE TOPIC – “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” are song lyrics. | Reclaim Reform:

Russ on Reading: Do Away with Grades for Reading

Russ on Reading: Do Away with Grades for Reading:

Do Away with Grades for Reading

We should do away with grades for reading. Reading is a skill, not a subject. I do not like grades in general because they typically don't tell us much about how to improve learning and they can destroy the motivation of kids who get low grades. Grades do make some kind of sense, however, in content areas like social studies, science and math, because there is content to be learned and specific knowledge to be assessed.

Reading does not have a content, unless we artificially invent one for it. And when we invent content it often leads to bad instructional practice. For more than 50 years we have known that giving kids 10 vocabulary words in a list on Monday, having them look them up and write them in sentences, and them quizzing them on Friday, does not improve vocabulary knowledge. When I ask teachers why they still do it, the answer is often that they need some grades for the "Reading" section of the report card.

What goes into a reading grade? Typically these grades include, vocabulary quizzes, spelling tests, reading skill worksheet completion, homework completion, perceived student effort, and perhaps participation in reading group discussions. I ask that you notice that none of these things have anything to do with actual student reading ability. Under this system, it is possible, in fact, likely, that a student who is a poor reader could get an A and a strong reader could get an F. We have all had the strong student who Russ on Reading: Do Away with Grades for Reading:

For-profit K12 Inc. virtual charter school giant claims Common Core testing could hurt its profitability??? - Wait What?

For-profit K12 Inc. virtual charter school giant claims Common Core testing could hurt its profitability??? - Wait What?:

For-profit K12 Inc. virtual charter school giant claims Common Core testing could hurt its profitability???

Education Reform Speak is hard enough to understand, but when K12 Inc., the large online virtual school vendor, sought to warn investors about the dangers of the Common Core — a concept proposed and driven by the corporate education reform industry —the resulting explanation was nothing short of bizarre.

Here, K12 Inc. uses it 2015 Annual Report to explain how the Common Core and Common Core testing scheme puts the company’s profits at risk.

A big kudos to any reader who can figure out what K12 means in the following paragraph, which is taken directly from the company’s most recent annual report. Note the wording that the problem apparently lies in that many states are implementing the common core but failing to use the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core SBAC and PARCC testing programs.

FROM K12 INC. 2015 ANNUAL SHARHOLDER REPORT;

The transition to Common Core State Standards and Common Core Assessments could result in a decline in state test scores that might adversely affect our enrollment and financial condition
“Many states have adopted the CCSS, also known as the College and Career Readiness Standards, but are not choosing to use the assessments developed by two national testing consortia that align with the CCSS Curriculum. Instead, these states are electing to use existing or state-developed assessments to evaluate student performance. As a result, it has been reported in many states that students learning under the CCSS but continuing to be tested under the existing state proficiency tests have experienced sharp declines in test results. As managed public schools we serve [to] undertake this transition, and given the growing number of at-rick students enrolling in these schools, perceived academic performance could temporarily or For-profit K12 Inc. virtual charter school giant claims Common Core testing could hurt its profitability??? - Wait What?:

The DNC is Giving Trump the Greatest Gift of All – a Weak Opponent | gadflyonthewallblog

The DNC is Giving Trump the Greatest Gift of All – a Weak Opponent | gadflyonthewallblog:

The DNC is Giving Trump the Greatest Gift of All – a Weak Opponent

The latest polls have Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton by 15 points.

No, not a Fox News poll.

This is from Nate Silver, the FiveThirtyEight numbers wizard who correctly called both the 2008 and 2012 elections. He says if the race were held today, Trump would win the swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire, thereby assuring an easy victory.

Some will say this is just an inevitable boost in the numbers coming as it does right after the Republican National Convention. But need I remind you that theconvention was chaos? The speaking roster was dominated by Trump’s family and a never-ending cavalcade of D-list celebrities. It reads more like the cast of the next Celebrity Apprentice than the best and brightest of one of our nation’s two major political parties.

And don’t forget Trump’s own acceptance speech. They’re coming to get you and only I can save you! Trump 2016!

THAT’S what you’re saying gave the Republican nominee a boost!? It should have hurt not helped him!

But let’s put that aside for a moment. Clinton has never polled well against Trump.

Occasionally she has topped him in polls in the past, but rarely more than the margin The DNC is Giving Trump the Greatest Gift of All – a Weak Opponent | gadflyonthewallblog:

Democratic political infighting over education pulls the rug out from under black families

Democratic political infighting over education pulls the rug out from under black families:

Democratic political infighting over education pulls the rug out from under black families
The real bait and switch: Reformers’ selling school choice as justice

The U.S. Democratic political machine is in full gear this summer as special interest groups drive toward a common goal: Getting the party elected to the highest office in the land.

But the political action group Democrats for Education Reform has veered off the road, blasting negotiators who altered part of the 2016 Democratic Party platform in a nod to representatives who oppose charter schools and testing. (DFER called the changes “little more than a bait an switch,” and other like-minded reform groups followed suit.)

The “D” became silent in DFER when it shouted down the party platform. This strategic political act, showed to whom the group ultimately responds to, and please don’t say the children.

I applaud those who take principled stands. One has to respect Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for his non-endorsement of Trump under the bright lights of the Republican National Convention. Nevertheless, the political consequences of his very private stance are substantial. Cruz dealt a mighty blow upon a wedge deeply implanted in the foundation of the GOP. His calculation may very well have been to split the party. Nevertheless, Cruz knew what he was doing when he walked on that stage.

There are similar forces at work in the Democratic Party. Education reform is both wedge and hammer. The National Alliance of Public Charter Schools as well as the former Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach in the U.S. Department of Education and current editor of Education Post respectively offered strong rebukes to the platform changes. Their respective promotions of certain reforms are not bound by party affiliation so no problem there.

But when “Democrats” is in the name, there’s a different expectation. The name assumes a willingness to work within the political process. If DFER can’t differentiate itself from other like-minded groups then it should simply be For Education Reform. How is attacking Clinton during this hour any different than a Republican?

“We bring criticism of the platform as a family member questions the misconduct of a fellow family member,” responds Shavar Jeffries, president of DFER. “We bring criticism to push the party to be true to the values it has embodied historically. Others may raise questions to undermine the forward progress of the party; we bring criticism to accelerate it.”

But shouldn’t the push be placed on President Obama, who really Democratic political infighting over education pulls the rug out from under black families:

Have Obama’s Education Policies Weakened The Democratic Party?

Have Obama’s Education Policies Weakened The Democratic Party?:

Have Obama’s Education Policies Weakened The Democratic Party?

“I wanted kids who could be critical thinkers. They just want kids who can work at Walmart and the other big corporations that give them money.”

During the Republican and Democratic conventions, The Hechinger Report will publish a new story each day, examining what the party proposals might mean for the future of education. Our staff reporters will provide education coverage from Cleveland and Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA — Are you better off now than you were eight years ago? For the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), the answer to this perennial election question has to be a resounding ‘no.’

Over the last decade and a half, the union — which represents the city’s public school teachers, nurses, counselors and support staff — has been nearly halved, its ranks shrinking from 21,000 to 11,000. Come election time, that means 10,000 fewer members to go door to door campaigning, 10,000 fewer people paying union dues to finance political ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.

While teachers unions have long played a key role in getting Democrats across the country into political office, the PFT’s decline is the result of bipartisan policies.

Over the course of President Barack Obama’s eight years in office, a coalition formed among his administration, governors, many of whom are Republican, and big city education reformers. Together, they doubled down on former Republican President George W. Bush’s education policies, pledging to turn around long-struggling urban school districts like Philadelphia’s by holding schools accountable for their students’ test scores. If results didn’t improve, officials could tap federal funds for turning around schools, to either close a school or transform it into a privately operated, publicly funded charter school, the vast majority of which employ non-unionized staff. The Obama administration also, through its Race to the Top program, increased federal funding to promote the expansion of charters andtouted charters like Mastery, Philadelphia’s largest charter network.

Now, a third of Philadelphia’s public school students attend charter schools and the union has withered, in a state that will be a key battleground this November. In Ohio, another key state, three in 10 public school students now attend charters in Dayton and in Cleveland. As the Democratic Party gathers in Philadelphia for its convention this week, an open question is whether Obama’s education policies weakened a key element of the party’s political machinery — and whether Hillary Clinton, the presumptive presidential nominee, will continue those policies.

Despite the PFT’s huge membership losses, Hillary Linardopoulos, the legislative representative for the PFT, says that she doesn’t think of her union as weakened, but energized in the face of threats.

“It’s not that we have been weakened, but we have been under constant action,” said Linardopoulos. “Look at what was happening in my classroom; I realized that I needed to become more politically active, got engaged in the political battle against [Pennsylvania’s former governor, Republican Tom Corbett’s] reelection bid … And it wasn’t just me, our members saw so clearly what he had done to their working conditions and our students’ learning conditions.”

Linardopoulos points to recent Democratic victories in state and local elections as proof that PFT still is an important player.

“We fought to get a really progressive mayor, who campaigned on our platform of community schools,” said Linardopoulos. “Our members spent evenings and weekends making phone calls and knocking doors.”

“What I’m most proud of is our membership getting Helen Gym elected,” she added, referring to a local progressive activist who won a seat on the city council last year. “And thanks to the work of Helen and rank-and-file teachers, education has become an issue that has defined recent election cycles. We had well over Have Obama’s Education Policies Weakened The Democratic Party?:

Randi and Lily: Remarks at Democratic Convention

Randi Weingarten Remarks at Democratic Convention - YouTube:

Randi Weingarten Remarks at Democratic Convention

UPDATE! NEA President speaks at DNC! - Education Votes

NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia will be speaking on education and immigration tonight at the Democratic National Convention and we’ll be carrying the livestream right here! Lily is expected to speak around 7:00 pm Eastern. Check back here to catch the speech live.NEA President speaks at DNC tonight! - Education Votes:

UPDATE!

NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia spoke on Monday, July 25 at the Democratic National Convention. You can read the text of her speech below, and video will be posted as soon as it is available.

Muy buenas tardes, compañeros.

What an honor to be here representing the nearly three million educators of the National Education Association.

My story isn’t so different from my students’ stories: My mom is an immigrant. My dad served in the Army. My parents worked hard so that their six kids could have a chance to get ahead. And they were so proud when I became a teacher.

But today, too many students in our classrooms feel like they won’t get the chance I got, especially those from immigrant families. They tell us they’re afraid that their parents might be taken away, that they might be deported for not having the right piece of paper.

Hillary Clinton believes families should be together. She believes in our DREAMers. And she believes educators should be focused on education—not deportation.

Donald Trump sees things…differently. My mom says that if you can’t say something nice about somebody, at least make it funny. But I can’t make this funny. Donald Trump sees immigrants as criminals, drug dealers, rapists. He’d round up families and deport them. He’d build a wall.

We’re better than that. Our kids deserve better than that.

Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to divide people with walls of hate. She wants to build bridges to a better future for all.

Gracias.

Secret Emails Show Kevin Johnson Spying On, Attempting To Bankrupt Enemies

Secret Emails Show Kevin Johnson Spying On, Attempting To Bankrupt Enemies:

Secret Emails Show Kevin Johnson Spying On, Attempting To Bankrupt Enemies

The city clerk of Sacramento has released a trove of correspondencebetween Kevin Johnson and his cronies, over which the scandal-magnet lame-duck mayor of the California capital fought a long, dirty campaign in hopes of keeping it from journalists and legal adversaries. This latest document dump has nothing as tawdry as the abuse allegations leveled against the former NBA star and documented here and elsewhere through the years. But for anybody interested in the dark side of Johnson as an administrator and public official, there is plenty of fascinating material.

The emails come mainly from the early days of Johnson’s hostile takeover of the National Conference of Black Mayors—the mayor and his minions described their mission against the historic Atlanta-based non-profit as a “coup” when they launched it in 2013—and reveal lots of no-goodnik behavior from Johnson and his coup team, a clique of civil servants on the Sacramento payroll, staffers from Johnson’s huge web of nonprofit groups, at least three public relations outfits, volunteer hangers-on, and lots of lawyers from the firm of Ballard Spahr. (At least a dozen Ballard Spahr lawyers have worked pro bono for Johnson on NCBM litigation.) The records indicate that at some point Johnson changed his goal from running the NCBM to ruining it. Johnson’s team, for example, is found dispatching secret agents to spy on NCBM board members at hotels and restaurants while conspiring to sabotage a potential $2 million windfall for the NCBM scheduled to come just a few months before he filed to have the organization dissolved through the bankruptcy courts. The documents also appear to support detractors’ long-leveled allegations that Johnson mingled the NCBM’s mission with that of Michelle Rhee, his wife and fellow school-privatization demagogue.

The city clerk’s release of the documents completes a request made under the California Public Records Act in the spring of 2015 by Cosmo Garvin, a reporter for the Sacramento News & Review. Unlike the rest of the media in the state capital, Garvin covered Johnson tenaciously and aggressively. He knew Johnson was conducting business using Gmail accounts rather than his assigned government address, so he requested any records on the city’s public servers from those personal email accounts. On July 1, 2015, Johnson sued his own city and Garvin’s weekly newspaper to prevent hundreds of emails from being made public, claiming attorney/client privilege.

The Sacramento Bee, the local daily which has run interference for Johnson for most of his tenure in office, also originally sought these emails, but, as spelled out in Johnson’s complaint against the city and SN&R, was asked by the mayor to rescind the request and complied in cowardly fashion. The Bee gave Johnson’s bizarre, wholly unprecedented suit almost no ink. That left the relatively tiny SN&R to shoulder legal expenses by itself; ultimately some costs were defrayed through contributions to a legal Secret Emails Show Kevin Johnson Spying On, Attempting To Bankrupt Enemies:

Latest News and Comment from Education