Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality | Congressman Mark Pocan

Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality | Congressman Mark Pocan:

Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), David Cicilline (D-RI), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Jared Polis (D-CO) and Mark Takano (D-CA), Co-Chairs of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, today sent a letter to members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) urging them to closely examine Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos’ views on issues affecting LGBT students and parents during her confirmation process.

“It is unfathomable that the next Secretary of Education would oppose basic protections for LGBT students and roll back the progress we have made to ensure all students feel safe and supported in our schools,” said Rep. Pocan. “Ms. DeVos’ history of opposing equality for LGBT individuals is deeply troubling, and the public deserves to know whether she will work with us to improve lives or continue to advocate an extremist agenda that bullies our students.”

The letter specifically highlights the millions of dollars DeVos and her family have contributed to organizations and candidates that oppose equality for LGBT families and actively promote dangerous practices like “conversion therapy.” Rep. Pocan and his colleagues called on Senate HELP Committee members to demand Ms. DeVos denounce these inhumane positions and stand up for policies to protect LGBT students and parents before being confirmed.

Below is the text of the letter and you can find a digital copy of the letter here.

Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

            As Co-Chairs of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, we write to express our deep concern with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the Secretary of the United States Department of Education, Betsy DeVos. While Ms. DeVos’ stances on a number of public education issues raise concerns, we cannot hold our silence regarding her opposition to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. 

Betsy DeVos’ career has been marked by repeated attempts to undermine the rights of the LGBT community. She and her family have donated extensively to groups which promote the idea that students who identify as LGBT must undergo “conversion” therapy and have also affiliated with groups that oppose anti-bullying legislation. The next Secretary of Education must represent all students in our country. Anyone who promotes such fervently anti-LGBT viewpoints is wholly unqualified to serve as the Secretary of Education. 

            Since 1998, Betsy DeVos and her family’s foundations have donated at least $6.1 million to Focus on the Family, a right-wing organization which has spent millions of dollars attempting to defeat marriage equality amendments at the state level. Even more troubling, this organization supported by the DeVos family promotes “conversion therapy,” opposes the right of LGBT parents to adopt children, and has referred to transgender individuals as “mentally ill.” This organization has even gone so far to oppose anti-bullying policies and opposes basic workplace protections for LGBT individuals. The DeVos family’s support for anti-LGBT groups and policies extends beyond just this organization to many other groups known for their anti-LGBT activities, such as:

• $1,000,000 to the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, which has claimed that the overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act amounted to a “fatwa;”
• $15,000 to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has opposed adoption with same-sex couples;
• $433,750 to the Council for National Policy, a highly secretive group that is led by extremists like Focus on the Family’s James Dobson among other extremists; and
• $13,498,000 to the Heritage Foundation, which has stated that “Despite activist judges’ opinions, the majority of Americans continue to affirm the reasonable conclusion that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

The DeVos family does not stop with contributions to intolerant organizations as they also support anti-LGBT politicians. For example, the DeVos family - including Ms. DeVos - were top contributors to Michigan State Representative Andrea LaFontaine, who sponsored legislation allowing adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBT parents and deny them the ability to adopt a child.

            The LGBT community has made significant and long overdue advancements when it comes to equality in education. During President Obama’s tenure in office, the Department of Education took important steps to combat bullying and ensure that Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, appropriately reflects the rights of transgender students. It is imperative that the rights of LGBT students are adequately protected moving forward.

            As you move to consider the nomination of Betsy DeVos, we strongly encourage you to seek out answers regarding Ms. DeVos’ stance on important education equity issues, including her views on protecting LGBT students from bullying and discrimination in K-12 and higher education spaces. We are particularly troubled by Betsy DeVos’ past support for inhumane “conversion therapy” treatments and believe it is imperative that any Secretary of Education nominee denounce such practices before being confirmed.

            As Members of the LGBT community, we know our schools must be a safe place for all children. As you consider the nomination of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, we strongly encourage you to stand up for the civil rights of LGBT students and ensure the next Secretary opposes any action to roll back our progress toward equality.Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality | Congressman Mark Pocan:

 

Charter School Industry’s reach expanding even before Trump… - Wait What?

Charter School Industry’s reach expanding even before Trump… - Wait What?:

Charter School Industry’s reach expanding even before Trump…

President-elect Donald Trump is a HUGE fan of charter schools.  His nominee for Secretary of Education, billionaire Betsy DeVos, is even more supportive of the privately owned but publicly funded corporate entities that run charter schools.  DeVos has spent hundreds of millions of dollars championing charter schools, public funded vouchers for private and religious education and the inappropriate Common Core standards.

Charter schools are counting on the Trump administration to dramatically accelerate to privatization of public education in the United States.

But even before Trump and DeVos take office, the charter school industry has been enjoying unprecedented growth thanks to Presidents Bush and Obama and their corporate education reform allies like governors Dannel Malloy and Andrew Cuomo.

In a report issued late last year by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the charter school industry bragged that as of 2014-2015 there were 17 U.S. cities in which charter schools controlled at least 30% of all students.

While there were more than 6,700 charter schools in the country enrolling approximately 3 million students (about 6% of all students), the charter school industry’s saturation rate is much higher in a group of poorer urban areas.  While charter school reached was 30% in 17 school districts in the United States, the percent of students attending charter schools was more than 50% in three school districts, New Orleans, Detroit, and Flint, Michigan

According to their report,

“The districts across the country where at least 30 percent of students are enrolled in charter schools are: New Orleans (92 

Charter School Industry’s reach expanding even before Trump… - Wait What?:

‘After School Satan’ club starts in Mormon country — thanks to Christian groups

‘After School Satan’ club starts in Mormon country — thanks to Christian groups:

‘After School Satan’ club starts in Mormon country — thanks to Christian groups

Christian evangelicals only have themselves to blame for a new After School Satan club that has popped up at Vista Elementary School in Taylorsville, Utah.

According to the Salt Lake Tribue, the club was approved after other Christian based clubs sprung up at the school, Patheos explained.

“If you are going to invite religion into schools you have to invite everybody,” said Chalice Blythe of the Utah chapter head for The Satanic Temple. “You can’t just say one is good and the other is bad.”

The school was forced to send home a letter to parents explaining that there was nothing they could do about the club and that it was legal and the school had no “discretion on this issue.”

Blythe explained that these clubs don’t actually worship Satan. Instead, they work to teach children the importance of science, critical thinking and understand the world around them.

“Kids naturally have that ability to be curious and question things,” Blythe said. “We’re basically just saying we should bolster that.”

Moises Esteves, a spokesperson for Child Evangelism Fellowship, thinks that the club is a misguided attempt by “very confused folk.” He went on to call it nothing more than a publicity stunt, “compelled by their despise of God and despise of anything Christian.”

Blythe explained that the club is perfectly transparent about what they’re doing.

“We have nothing to hide and we legitimately feel we are offering a really good curriculum for kids,” he said.

According to the national website for the club, the group thinks that keeping religion out of school is the best route.

“But the worst case scenario, when religion is allowed in the schools, is an environment in which one religious voice enjoys the exclusive benefit of delivering its teachings to the children, promoting the understanding that their religion is endorsed by the school, or otherwise has special privilege within their community,” the site reads. “The Satanic Temple does not advocate for religion in schools. However, once religion invades schools, as The Good News Clubs have, The Satanic Temple will fight to ensure that plurality and true religious liberty are respected.”‘After School Satan’ club starts in Mormon country — thanks to Christian groups:

As Need for Foreign Languages in School Grows, Access Continues to Shrink NEAToday

As Need for Foreign Languages in School Grows, Access Continues to Shrink:

As Need for Foreign Languages in School Grows, Access Continues to Shrink

Recently, Katrina Griffin’s students took on a hot-button topic: Should parents control how much video games their children play? They debated the question at great length, making fierce, fact-based arguments, aimed at swaying their peers.

And they did it—in German.

Consider what you’ve heard about the slow death of foreign languages in schools, and what you may already have heard or read: the number of language students enrolled has been declining for years, as has the number of language teachers.

Now, consider what Griffin heard in her own classroom: “A pretty heated debate! And it was in the target language,” she says.

Griffin and other educators are showing how to reverse the decline of U.S. language instruction. They are making language interesting and relevant to students, while also teaching them the critical 21^st-century skills—collaboration, communication, presentation, and yes, proficiency in a second (or third) language—that will make them must-hire and give-them-a-raise employees someday.

The facts are these: Just 22 percent of elementary and secondary students in the U.S. take language classes or programs, according a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. According to “The State of Languages in the U.S.: A Statistical Portrait,” among elementary schools, the percentage teaching language fell from 31 percent in 1997 to 25 percent in 2008, despite evidence that an early start provides an edge in acquiring language proficiency. Among middle schools, the percentage dropped from 75 to 58 percent.

Source: The State of Languages in the U.S.: A Statistical Portrait

In Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, more than 30 percent of K-12 students were enrolled in language. In As Need for Foreign Languages in School Grows, Access Continues to Shrink:

The Obama Administration's Imprint on K-12 Policy: A Roundup - Education Week

The Obama Administration's Imprint on K-12 Policy: A Roundup - Education Week:

The Obama Administration's Imprint on K-12 Policy: A Roundup

Race to the Top

By Alyson Klein

Policy Push: A $4 billion grant competition created through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 may be President Obama’s highest-profile K-12 policy initiative. The Race to the Top program awarded 11 states and the District of Columbia five-year grants, ranging from $75 million to $700 million, in exchange for embracing a basket of education policies promoted by the administration. Those measures included teacher evaluations tied to student test scores, dramatic steps to produce school turnarounds, enhanced data systems, and college-and-career-readiness standards common to a significant number of states. (In practice, only the Common Core State Standards counted in the actual awarding of the grants.)

Impact: Some experts argue that the program’s biggest successes came before the money was even allocated, as dozens of states considered or made changes to teacher-evaluation systems, standards, turnaround practices, and other policies in order to be competitive for the grants. Still, an October 2016 report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences found no hard and fast evidence that the program had had an impact on state policy or student outcomes.

Going Forward: Though the Obama administration pushed to have Race to the Top enshrined in law, the program fell out of favor with Congress—the Every Student Succeeds Act actually bars any future administration from enticing states to pick certain standards, tests, or educator-evaluation systems. Still, some Race to the Top-inspired policies continue. For instance, 36 states plus the District of Columbia continue to use the common-core standards.

Federal Education Law

By Alyson Klein

Policy Push: The Obama administration inherited a broken No Child Left Behind Act and spent considerable energy pressing for a revision of the main federal K-12 law. In its second term, the administration worked to ensure its education priorities were reflected in NCLB’s successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Impact:

• NCLB Waivers: In 2011, with Congress still unable to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan offered states waivers of key mandates of the law, such as the requirement to set aside money for school choice and tutoring. In exchange, states had to embrace certain education redesign priorities, such as dramatic The Obama Administration's Imprint on K-12 Policy: A Roundup - Education Week:

What's the 'Trump Effect' in schools? Here's how 2,000 teachers explain it. | KUOW News and Information

What's the 'Trump Effect' in schools? Here's how 2,000 teachers explain it. | KUOW News and Information:

What's the 'Trump Effect' in schools? Here's how 2,000 teachers explain it.

• On Mar. 1, fans of Andrean High School in Merrillville, Indiana, chanted "Build that wall!" and held up signs evoking Donald Trump at a basketball game against Bishop Noll Institute. Less than a week earlier, fans at a high school basketball game in Ad

  JONATHAN MIANO/THE TIMES

A kindergarten teacher in Tennessee says that a Latino child asks every day, “Is the wall here yet?” He was told by classmates that he will be deported and blocked from returning home by the wall proposed by presidential candidate Donald Trump.

That's one of 4,796 comments made in response to a Southern Poverty Law Center survey of teachers across the country. The center, an advocacy group that works on civil rights issues, says the 2,000 K-12 teachers who responded to the survey show that hate has spread into schools, and has inflamed racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom.

The online survey, conducted from March 23 to April 2, asked questions about the impact of the presidential campaign on schoolchildren. According to the report, "The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on Our Nation’s Schools," the teachers' answers show “an increase in the bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates.”

“We’re deeply concerned about the level of fear among minority children who feel threatened by both the incendiary campaign rhetoric and the bullying they’re encountering in school,” says Southern Poverty president Richard Cohen. “We’ve seen Donald Trump behave like a 12 year old, and now we’re seeing 12 year olds behave like Donald Trump."

The tension and fear certainly compound the burden of immigrant students who are already struggling with language barrier, after-school job and family caregiving work. In recent weeks, fans have taunted players — especially Latino players — with "Trump! Trump!" and "Build a wall!" at high school sporting events in Iowa and Indiana.

The survey is not meant to represent the nation because respondents were not randomly picked. They are the center's email subscribers and visitors to its website, where the survey was published, thus they are likely to be teachers who are concerned about the issue or face these problems in their schools.

Nevertheless the 4,796 comments are illuminating. A significant number of What's the 'Trump Effect' in schools? Here's how 2,000 teachers explain it. | KUOW News and Information:

Obama's Impact On America's Schools : NPR Ed : NPR

Obama's Impact On America's Schools : NPR Ed : NPR:

Obama's Impact On America's Schools

When President Obama took office in January 2009, the country was on edge, the economy in free-fall. The federal education law, known as No Child Left Behind, was also in need of an update after earning the ire of teachers, parents and politicians alike. In short, there was much to do.

In time, that update would come, but President Obama's education legacy begins, oddly enough, with his plan to bolster the faltering economy.

Race To The Top

In the summer of 2009, Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that a small piece of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a.k.a. The Stimulus, would be used to create a competitive, $4.35 billion grant program for states. They would call it Race To The Top.

The administration used the money to encourage — Obama's critics would say coerce — states to embrace its education policies, including charter schools, college and career-ready standards and evaluations of teachers using student test scores.

The money arrived as many states had been brought to their knees by the Great Recession. Governors and state education agencies didn't just want the extra money — they needed it, and agreed to big changes in hopes of winning it. While the grant program was voluntary, forty-six states and the District of Columbia applied.

Common Core

Race To The Top was a boon for the common standards movement and, specifically, for the controversial Common Core State Standards.

While the learning standards in English and math were not developed by the Obama administration, the Education Department made the adoption of new college and career-ready standards a key component of applying for the grant money. States didn't have to adopt, but they knew that doing so would help their cause. Obama didn't create the Core; he fast-tracked adoption.

His administration also used $350 million to bankroll two testing consortia, PARCC and Smarter Balanced, that would develop standardized tests aligned to these new standards. Initially, most states signed on to one or the other, but, after years of blowback from Common Core critics, the consortia have hemorrhaged members, with many states keeping the Core but choosing their own tests.

Today, the Common Core standards, or something very like them, are still used by the vast majority of states, though President-elect Trump has made clear he'll do all he can to short-circuit the standards once and for all.

Teacher Evaluations

By 2011, it was clear that the key requirement of the No Child Left Behind law, that all Obama's Impact On America's Schools : NPR Ed : NPR:

Trump’s Pick for Education Could Face Unusually Stiff Resistance - The New York Times #DumpDeVos

Trump’s Pick for Education Could Face Unusually Stiff Resistance - The New York Times:

Trump’s Pick for Education Could Face Unusually Stiff Resistance

DeVos hearing delayed: Call the HELP committee members today - Network For Public Education #DumpDeVos

Nominees for secretary of education have typically breezed through confirmation by the Senate with bipartisan approval.

But Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for the post, is no typical nominee. She is a billionaire with a complex web of financial investments, including in companies that stand to win or lose from the department she would oversee. She has been an aggressive force in politics for years, as a prominent Republican donor and as a supporter of steering public dollars to private schools.

Her wealth and her politics seem likely to make her confirmation hearing unusually contentious, and possibly drawn out.

The hearing, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday of this week, was postponed until Tuesday after Democrats complained she had not completed an agreement with the independent Office of Government Ethics that outlined a plan to deal with potential conflicts of interest. The ethics office has said it has not completed its review of Ms. DeVos, which is required before the office can make any agreement. A spokesman for Ms. DeVos said she had responded to a first round of questions from the office last weekend.

On Thursday, Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the committee that will hold the hearing, said she and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the panel’s Republican chairman, “have some concerns about missing information” on the financial disclosure forms that Ms. DeVos has filed with the Senate. Ms. Murray would not specify what they were looking for, because those disclosures are not public, but said they had asked Ms. DeVos for additional information. Ms. Murray said she had “pushed very hard” not to hold the hearing until Ms. DeVos had completed her agreement with the ethics office.

“This is a candidate with extremely complicated financial dealings,” the senator said. “We have to know, if there are conflicts of interests, how those are going to be resolved. If we don’t have that, it’s incumbent on all of us to say we cannot vote for that.”

Some Republican committee leaders, including Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, have said they will hew to a tradition of not holding hearings until the ethics office signs off on the nominee.

But a spokeswoman for Mr. Alexander said his panel — the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — had “no rules” about a need for an ethics review, and that the chairman intended to hold the hearing on Tuesday regardless.

Mr. Alexander also said he would limit senators on the panel — 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats — to five minutes of questions each, after opening statements by him and Ms. Murray.

His office noted that Rod Paige, President George W. Bush’s first education secretary, had a hearing eight days before his ethics review was complete. But Mr. Paige, a school superintendent when he was nominated, did not have nearly the same wealth or financial investments as Ms. DeVos.

Mr. Alexander’s office said the committee would not hold a vote on Ms. DeVos’s nomination until her ethics review was complete.Trump’s Pick for Education Could Face Unusually Stiff Resistance - The New York Times:

Samuel Abrams, Expert on School Privatization, Condemns Business Strategy of Betsy DeVos | janresseger

Samuel Abrams, Expert on School Privatization, Condemns Business Strategy of Betsy DeVos | janresseger:

Samuel Abrams, Expert on School Privatization, Condemns Business Strategy of Betsy DeVos

President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos are all devotees of the privatization of public education. That’s the reason it is so fascinating to read Samuel Abrams’ analysis of their ideas about federal education policy.  Samuel Abrams is the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. And just last year he published Education and the Commercial Mindset, a book about the failure of Edison Schools and the challenges faced by KIPP along with some other charter school networks.

Abrams is not an ideologue and in the book as he concludes his in-depth examination of KIPP schools, he doesn’t reject the idea of charter schools out of hand—nor, unlike many other critics, does he reject the punitive, behavior-modification discipline that dominates many of these schools. But he cautions there are no quick or simple ways to solve the problems poverty poses for our children, our schools and our society. Here is how he concludes the book: “Organizations like Achievement First, KIPP, and Mastery do great work despite the force of poverty, but their dependence on a finite supply of generous philanthropists, tireless teachers, and students as well as families capable of abiding by rigid academic and behavioral expectations limits their reach. These organizations have led the way in showing what can be accomplished for a subset of students by granting administrators significant autonomy, extending the school day, providing intensive remedial help, and raising expectations. The next step is to make these strategies work for all students in disadvantaged communities. Such replication would necessitate substantial public investment to hire additional staff. The result would ultimately comport with the community school concept, with afternoon programs in art, music, crafts, sports, and homework help as well as associated medical, dental, and counseling services. This paradigm would be all the more successful if schools were granted the freedom to Samuel Abrams, Expert on School Privatization, Condemns Business Strategy of Betsy DeVos | janresseger:

The Myth of “Failed” School Reform, Part 2 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Myth of “Failed” School Reform, Part 2 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

The Myth of “Failed” School Reform, Part 2

In 1990, Seymour Sarason published The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform. A decade later, Diane Ravitch’s Left Back:A Century of Failed School Reforms hit booksellers. Now, not a week goes by that failures of public school reform are dissected, tallied, and trotted out as exhibits for wannabe reformers. The next two posts re-frame school reform as looking at different clocks to show that the concept of reform  “failure”  has to include who makes the judgment and when.

Clocks?

In some upscale hotels over the registration desk, clocks show times across the globe.  Different time zones alert travelers to what time it is in the city they wish to call.

There are such clocks for school reform also. Different reform clocks record the different speeds of reform talk, policy adoption, what happens in classrooms, and what students learn. Were these clocks in public view, policymakers, administrators, practitioners, and researchers would see that changes in policy talk and action have occurred but at different speeds, some far too slow for impatient reformers to notice. Framing reform as being recorded by different clocks gives a glimpse into the myth of reforms constantly “failing.”

The myth, of course, has a history. It is anchored in commission reports (e.g., Nation at Risk), books (e.g., Left Back), and studies (e.g., Spinning Wheels) over the last century that document flurries of curricular, organizational, and instructional reforms. The myth also comes from the feverish rhetoric of The Myth of “Failed” School Reform, Part 2 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

CURMUDGUCATION: Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers

CURMUDGUCATION: Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers:

Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers

It's kind of curious. So many people are suddenly talking about vouchers again, and the only real reason that we are is because we're looking at the possibility of a Secretary of Education who just loves them and we're all trying to figure out what could come of that (Spoiler alert: nothing good). Wise researchers like Jersey Jazzman are reminding us where the voucher money ends up (Spoiler alert: in religious schools) and even some charter fans are expressing reservations.

Into this conversation leaps (strolls? glides? saunters? scampers?) Mike Petrilli (Fordham Institute) to say, "Hey, maybe you need to take another look at cool, modern voucher systems!" Okay, what he actually says is "Vouchers have changed. Maybe your position should change, too" at the Flypaper, Fordham's blog.

Petrilli starts by roping in a reference to his earlier piece in which he argued that reformsters are still one big happy family, and can they please not get all split apart all over the place just because Herr Trump has nominated the DeVonator to USED? Because if you haven't noticed, reformsters are kind of worried about holding their coalition together in the Age of Trump.

We all support giving parents the power to choose schools other than those assigned to children by their local district; the question is how wide their range of choices should be. 
Which is one of those reformy statements that triggers me to ask why nobody ever talks about the CURMUDGUCATION: Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers:

Is Donald J. Trump’s leadership approach a threat to democracy? – Cloaking Inequity

Is Donald J. Trump’s leadership approach a threat to democracy? – Cloaking Inequity:

Is Donald J. Trump’s leadership approach a threat to democracy?

Is Donald J. Trump‘s leadership approach a threat to democracy? Julian Vasquez Heilig joins John C. Scott on Power Talk Radio 1210 AM

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Want to know about Cloaking Inequity’s freshly pressed conversations about educational policy? Click the “Follow blog by email” button in the upper left hand corner of this page.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

Click here for Vitae.

See also ‘School Choice’ Education Secretary Not What Latino Students Need and  Network for Public Education DeVos/Trump toolkit and KEVT 1210 AM John C. Scott Show: Will Trump blow up public education? and Five Questions You Should Ask about Secretary of Education Nominee Betsy Devos

Is Donald J. Trump’s leadership approach a threat to democracy? – Cloaking Inequity:

Lily Eskelson along with 2000 angry parents & teachers urge Zuckerberg not to hire Campbell Brown -- and to curtail the propagation of fake news NYC Public School Parents:

NYC Public School Parents: Lily Eskelson along with 2000 angry parents & teachers urge Zuckerberg not to hire Campbell Brown -- and to curtail the propagation of fake news:

Lily Eskelson along with 2000 angry parents & teachers urge Zuckerberg not to hire Campbell Brown -- and to curtail the propagation of fake news

More than 2000 concerned parents and teachers signed our petition urging Mark Zuckerberg NOT to hire Campbell Brown to head his new “news team”.  They live throughout the country in 46 states and DC, and  in 10 different countries plus Puerto Rico.  Many commented that they would boycott Facebook unless Zuckerberg reversed his decision.The message they signed onto is below --- as well as the signers' names and outraged comments.

Now,  I just received a copy of an email sent to Zuckerberg from Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the President of the NEA as well -- which is below.

From: Lily Eskelsen <leskelsen@nea.org>
Date: Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 1:34 PM
To: Mark Zuckerberg <zuck@fb.com>
Subject: From the NEA President on how to change everything

To Mark Zuckerberg:

I’m reaching out to you, personally.  I’m sure you’ve seen the on-line petitions of educators denouncing the hiring of Campbell Brown by Facebook as its head of news partnerships.  It’s not hard to understand why.

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/30/campbell_brown_charter_evangelist_how_the_former_anchorwoman_became_the_face_of_education_reform_partner/

Here’s the thing.  At the National Education Association we’ve been trying to break through all the empty rhetoric of “failed public schools” and “the only solution is privatization” and “educator unions protect the status quo”… and, well, you get it.

No, we don’t have the billions that helped fund Campbell Brown’s crusade against public schools and organizations like mine, but we do have important answers to what we know will improve schools – if only someone would think to ask a teacher!

My years working with homeless children were my inspiration to run for an NEA office.  My union was the only organization that was going to see a leader in a 6^th grade teacher from Utah.  I represent millions of hard-working teachers who leave the classroom at the end of the day andNYC Public School Parents: Lily Eskelson along with 2000 angry parents & teachers urge Zuckerberg not to hire Campbell Brown -- and to curtail the propagation of fake news: 

The Anti-Trump | The Merrow Report

The Anti-Trump | The Merrow Report:

The Anti-Trump

Billionaire Charles Feeney has finally completed what he set out to do: He has given away his fortune.  In all, he’s donated $8 billion, keeping only about $2 million for himself and his wife, Helga, who now live in San Francisco.  Jim Dwyer of the New York Times wrote a glorious profile of Mr. Feeney early this month, and I urge everyone to read it.  You will discover how he made his money and why he decided to give it away.  Unlike Donald Trump, he did not insist upon having his name on buildings (and his money has helped build more than 1,000 of them!).  He hasn’t wanted his name in lights, unlike a certain New Yorker.  Moreover, Mr. Feeney gave away money that he himself had earned, in sharp contrast to Mr. Trump, who solicited donations from others and then donated the money in his own name.

Most of Mr. Feeney’s gifts have gone to to higher education (especially Cornell, his alma mater), public health, human rights, and scientific research).

For most of his time as a philanthropist, Mr. Feeney insisted on anonymity (unlike another New Yorker we know). Recipients either did not know where the money was coming from, or, if they did, they were sworn to secrecy.

I’m one of the beneficiaries. His gift saved my career.

It was 1994, and I was basically broke, with two films nearing completion but no money to finish them.  I was employed by a small non-profit in South Carolina but working in New York City. That organization managed our grants, took care of payroll for the three of us, and filed final reports to foundations (although I wrote them).  For these small tasks, the organization took 20% of every grant, off the top.  I thought that was way too much, and I was able to persuade one foundation to write a 15% cap into its grant.  I used that as leverage to get the rate down for other grants, but only after a protracted and nasty battle.

Winning that battle was a mistake, because I soon lost the war, one that I hadn’t even The Anti-Trump | The Merrow Report: