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Sunday, April 22, 2012

porcupine backs into a cactus - Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers

porcupine backs into a cactus - 
Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers 

porcupine backs into a cactus



Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER


Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers

Just Like Michelle Rhee's
 Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better) 
we support:

  • Promoting voucher programs that drain public schools of resources by using taxpayer dollars to subsidize private school profits, and specifying that those schools must remain unregulated.
  • Offering private school vouchers with “universal eligibility” (using taxpayer dollars to subsidize private schools for the rich and others); “means-tested eligibility,” (using poverty as the first domino in an effort to privatize public schools ; and “universal eligibility with means-tested scholarship.” (Here, “scholarship” means using taxpayer dollars to pay private school tuition and/or profits.)
  • Creating a scheme to deem public schools “educationally bankrupt” to rationalize giving taxpayer dollars to almost completely unregulated private schools, rather than addressing any problems.
  • Setting up low-income students for failure in college by incentivizing early graduation for students in need of a complete high school education.
  • Certifying individuals with no education background as teachers, a move that would weaken the quality of education, that fails to recognize there is more to teaching than knowledge of a subject, and that would undermine the role and competitiveness of professional teachers.
  • Eliminating tenure for teachers in favor of “performance,” allowing districts to fire older teachers in favor of lower-cost young teachers.
  • Undermining teacher’s unions.
Other Astroturf lobbying groups love Stand ON Children First

Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER©
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