Teacher Tom: Doing Deep Democracy

Teacher Tom: Doing Deep Democracy

Doing Deep Democracy

I was hanging out on one of our swings chewing the fat with some of the kids. I can't remember what we were talking about, but I'd just said, "I guess I forgot," when Roko earnestly replied, "You know, Teacher Tom, "When you get older you forget more stuff."

The following day, I was a sitting in a circle of children heatlessly arguing about Star Wars. Roko was there and when one of the other kids insisted I was wrong about some detail, I answered, "Well, I saw the first movie a long time ago, when I was a teenager. Roko told me that when you get older you forget more stuff so maybe I just forgot."

Roko nodded, "It's true."

Cecelia, who has just finished her first year of kindergarten, didn't agree, "No, the way it works is you go to another school and another school and every time you go to another CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Doing Deep Democracy

Inefficient, Ineffective, and Absolutely Necessary: The Case for Elected School Boards – Have You Heard

Inefficient, Ineffective, and Absolutely Necessary: The Case for Elected School Boards – Have You Heard

Inefficient, Ineffective, and Absolutely Necessary: The Case for Elected School Boards

Inefficient. Ineffective. Outdated. Outmoded. Unrepresentative. Sure, local school boards are deserving of all of these criticisms (and more), but they are also seedbeds of local democracy at a time when democracy is under attack. Special guests: school board member and scholar Rachel White, and school committee member Roberto Jiménez Rivera.

Episode transcript is here. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon or donate on PayPal.

Have You Heard · #112 Inefficient, Ineffective, and Absolutely Necessary: The Case for Elected School Boards

Inefficient, Ineffective, and Absolutely Necessary: The Case for Elected School Boards – Have You Heard

San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy | tultican

San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy | tultican

San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy

By Thomas Ultican 4/16/2021

A new political PAC, “Campaign for Better San Francisco Public Schools,” demands that schools be opened for in person classes immediately. They also make two dubious claims, “The election process for choosing the Board of Education is not meeting the needs of San Francisco” and “Many large cities successfully use an appointment process to choose a Board of Education.”

San Francisco Democrats Embrace the Open Schools Now Agenda

Neoliberal forces especially from the Republican Party have been campaigning for schools to be opened immediately for more than a year. Republicans see it as a wedge issue that could help them win back suburban women. Carl Hulse’s New York Times article noted that “congressional Republicans have begun to hammer relentlessly on President Biden, Democrats and teachers’ unions to open schools quickly.”

Surprisingly, San Francisco Democrats have joined with the former president’s open-schools-now campaign. Mayor London Breed has even sued the school board trying to force them to reopen schools. Breed explained,

“Families right now aren’t able to plan for their futures. They can’t decide whether to accept a job offer because they don’t know when they’re going to be able to once again have their kids returned to the classroom. This is paralyzing our city and our residents, and I know that this is a drastic step, but I feel we are out of options at this point.”

Seeyew Mo, a computer scientist who uses his skills to develop political CONTINUE READING: San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy | tultican

CURMUDGUCATION: Democracy Is A Pain

CURMUDGUCATION: Democracy Is A Pain

Democracy Is A Pain

Kevin Williamson took to the National Review website earlier this week to argue against democracy. 

The proximate cause of Williamson's question--Why not fewer voters?-- is much of the debate about voter suppression in Georgia which, he says, "begs the question and simply asserts that having more people vote is, ceteris paribus, a good thing." (Yeah, I had to look up ceteris paribus, which means "with other conditions remaining the same")

Why shouldn’t we believe the opposite? That the republic would be better served by having fewer — but better — voters?

Williamson goes on to make an attempt to argue his proposal, bringing up the idea of "qualifications." But he can't help bringing in the real heart of his argument:

One argument for encouraging bigger turnout is that if more eligible voters go to the polls then the outcome will more closely reflect what the average American voter wants. That sounds like a wonderful thing . . . if you haven’t met the average American voter.

And there it is. There are Certain People who just shouldn't get a say.

As Heather Cox Richardson pointed out the next day, Williamson's argument is not a new one, having CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Democracy Is A Pain

Widespread Attacks on Voting Rights and Attempts to Privatize Public Schools Together Threaten Democracy | janresseger

Widespread Attacks on Voting Rights and Attempts to Privatize Public Schools Together Threaten Democracy | janresseger

Widespread Attacks on Voting Rights and Attempts to Privatize Public Schools Together Threaten Democracy

In Friday’s NY Times, columnist Jamelle Bouie reflected on Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock’s first speech on the Senate floor:

“Warnock is the first African-American to represent Georgia in the Senate and only the second elected from the South since Reconstruction. His presence on the Senate floor is historic just on its own.  It represents progress—and yet it is also evocative of the past. A Black lawmaker from the South, urging his mostly white colleagues to defend the voting rights of millions of Americans is, to my mind, an occasion to revisit one particular episode in the history of American democracy: the fight in Congress over the Civil Rights Act of 1875.”

Bouie summarizes what was in this bill, proposed by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner in a Reconstruction Congress right after the Civil War: “As originally written, Sumner’s bill would, ‘Secure equal rights in railroads, steamboats, public conveyances, hotels, licensed theaters, houses of public entertainment, common schools, and institutions of learning authorized by law, church institutions, and cemetery associations incorporated by national or State authority; also on juries in courts, national and State.'” In 1871, the bill was repeatedly blocked in committee, but Senator Sumner reintroduced it in modified form in 1873: “This revised bill added a clause that stated that ‘no citizen of the United States shall, by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, be excepted or excluded from full and equal enjoyment’ of ‘common schools and public institutions of learning, the same being supported by moneys derived from general taxation or authorized by law.'”

School integration held up the bill’s passage, however, and when it finally passed in 1875, “It did so without the schools clause.” “It was the schools clause that proved especially CONTINUE READING: Widespread Attacks on Voting Rights and Attempts to Privatize Public Schools Together Threaten Democracy | janresseger

DEREK BLACK: Old ideas, not new ones, are the key to education — and democracy - kappanonline org

Old ideas, not new ones, are the key to education — and democracy  - kappanonline.org

Old ideas, not new ones, are the key to education — and democracy 

Protecting public education requires us to return to the ideals on which our country was founded. 

Public education as we know it is in trouble and, with it, so is our democracy. Rather than seeing it as a solution to segregation, inequality, and division, many now claim that the idea of public schooling itself is the problem. “Government schools,” as some pejoratively call them, deny families freedom and ought to be abandoned for the private market.   

Fully appreciating the danger of this rhetoric and the policies it is producing requires us to look backward, and beyond schools themselves to the history of the nation’s major democratic and constitutional developments. The nation, in its infancy, built its concept of democracy around public education, and, following the Civil War, public education — alongside the right to vote — became the cornerstone of the recovery of the war-torn nation. For that reason, those who would overthrow democracy have sought to attack public education, particularly during Jim Crow segregation. The lessons found in this history, more than the heated rhetoric of the present day, should inform our current approach to strengthening our schools.  

Founding gifts 

Two hundred years ago, our founding fathers gave us two gifts, both of which were relatively unknown to the world at the time. The first was democracy — what they called a republican form of government. The second was public education. These gifts were inextricably intertwined. 

A republican form of government would allow everyday people to govern themselves through elected representatives. Our founders knew what it was like to live under a king, and they wanted something radically different for themselves, their families, and the generations that would follow. Of course, by denying African Americans, women, and many poor whites the right to vote, the founders failed to live up to their lofty ideals. But those ideals, though flawed in their initial implementation, were compelling enough to take root and bear fruit for generations to come.  

The nation, in its infancy, built its concept of democracy around public education.

CONTINUE READING: Old ideas, not new ones, are the key to education — and democracy  - kappanonline.org

Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy? | Ed In The Apple

Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy? | Ed In The Apple

Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy?

Last week I researched my blog topic, the role of the Congress in counting the electoral votes, a pro forma process; I reread the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and posted the blog.

“Will Republican Senators and House Member ‘Objections’ Prevent the Election of Biden/Harris? Why January 6th Will Be an ‘Interesting’ Day,” (Read here)

Little did I know …..

Wednesday morning, as usual, I donned my dri-fit winter biking clothes pedaled around the almost deserted roads; awaiting my steaming black coffee; and turned on MSNBC. The media announced the Ossoff-Perdue race – the democrats won both Georgia seats and will control the Senate – barely. Senator Schumer will be the majority leader and control the Senate calendar and the bills that come to the floor.  I pumped my fist, “Yes.”

The combined meeting of Congress gathered and I settled in to watch the constitutional process, it looked like a long day with thirteen Republican senators and over 130 Houses members “objecting.” 

The insurrection exploded.

Watching a momentous moment in history from your easy chair is  CONTINUE READING: Teachable Moments – The Insurrection on the Capitol: How can we “teach” students to be warriors of Democracy? | Ed In The Apple

Democracy and Education | tultican

Democracy and Education | tultican

Democracy and Education

By Thomas Ultican 12/19/2020

Democracy and free universal public education are foundational American ideologies. They have engendered world renowned success for our experiment in government “by the people”. Two new books – Schoolhouse Burning by Derek Black and A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire – demonstrate that these principles which were integral to the American experiment are shockingly under serious attack by wealthy elites.

After his father Fred died in 1967, Charles Koch took a disparate set of assets – a cattle ranch, a minority share in an oil refinery and a gas gathering business – and stitched them together. Today it is the second largest privately held corporation in the world. In the excellent 2019 book, Kochland, Christopher Leonard states, “Koch would eventually build one of the largest lobbying and political influence machines in US history.”

Both the introduction to A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and the “Through History’s Eyes” chapter of Schoolhouse Burning mention the same quote from Charles Koch. In 2018, the Koch network held its annual three day gathering near Palm Springs, California. It was a 700-person confab of some of the richest people in America. Black wrote,

“Charles Koch told the audience that ‘we’ve made more progress in the last five years than I had in the last 50…. The capabilities we have now can take us to a whole new level…. We want to increase the effectiveness of the network … by an order of magnitude. If we do that, we can change CONTINUE READING: Democracy and Education | tultican

Andrea Gabor: We Need Civics Education! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Andrea Gabor: We Need Civics Education! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Andrea Gabor: We Need Civics Education!

Andrea Gabor, the Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York, writes here about the importance of civics education, especially in a time when democracy is under attack by a defeated president and the leadership of the Republican Party.

Put Civics Back in the Classroom, Right Now

Has there ever been a better time to resume lapsed efforts to teach young Americans the structure and purpose of U.S. democracy?

By Andrea Gabor

The presidential election seemed to mark a revival in American civic engagement. A record two-thirds of the electorate voted. Candidates raised at least $3 billion in small-dollar donations, and historic get-out-the-vote efforts had an impact in Nevada, Georgia and elsewhere.

Yet large numbers of Americans appear to believe President Donald Trump’s baseless charges of election fraud. Civic life and discourse have been eroded by the normalization of lying by elected leaders, the CONTINUE READING: Andrea Gabor: We Need Civics Education! | Diane Ravitch's blog 

Choosing Democracy: Its Over: Democracy Won !

Choosing Democracy: Its Over: Democracy Won !

Its Over: Democracy Won !

We want to thank the many people who helped us avoid a catastrophic coup. 

It looks like the worst may be over. Monday likely was decisive. Trump was handed another legal slapdown in his effort to disenfranchise millions of confirmed voters with evidence-free claims. Local organizing in Michigan pushed-back against wayward electorates — ending with Michigan officially certifying election results. And the General Services Administration officially announced its transition to President-elect Biden. 

On that last point, many news sources missed the critical timing. Emily Murphy, the administrator, made the announcement first. She explicitly said she made it without input from the White House. Only after the GSA made its announcement, Trump tweeted that "I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done." It's the closest to a concession we may ever get.

We started Choose Democracy to be prepared if it was necessary for a national resistance to a coup. As an effort, we're not anti-Trump or pro-Biden. We teamed up across political spectrums to be pro-Democracy and stop a coup. Democracy has been severely tested, and is the worse for wear, but it never reached a breaking point that required a large-scale national mobilization. 

We are thankful for the fast-paced local resistance to initial coup efforts. The most dramatic was the organizing work in Michigan after the biggest post-election scandal erupted: two Michigan electorates attempted to thieve millions of votes from majority Black Detroit. Hours of heated testimony organized by mostly black organizers in Wayne County made them switch back (well, before they unsuccessfully tried to switch back again, again).

Michigan's win by organizers was public, but it wasn't alone. From our perspective, one of the biggest stories only got glancing attention: PA's Election Integrity Commission. Before the election, a nebulous commission was proposed by the GOP. It claimed to be prepared to root out fraud. As a GOP-led commission it held the right to subpoena anyone, would start before the election, and, arguably, had the ability to seize uncounted ballots. Organizers on-the-ground — including CONTINUE READING: Choosing Democracy: Its Over: Democracy Won !

CURMUDGUCATION: Schooling For Democracy (Or What Is Education For)

CURMUDGUCATION: Schooling For Democracy (Or What Is Education For)

Schooling For Democracy (Or What Is Education For)

I just read a piece that doesn't necessarily say anything new, but puts it all in a useful frame. Let me show you the first paragraph:

There’s no such thing as a “good school” in the abstract. Every school serves a particular community, in a particular time and place, with its own needs and desires. A good school in rural Montana might not be a good school in Midtown Manhattan, just as a good school in 1920 might not be a good school today. This doesn’t mean that we can’t define school quality. It does, however, mean that we can’t define quality without first considering the needs of a school’s time and place.

This is from the Phi Delta Kappan, a publication I don't always trust (hell, they give a platform to William Bennett), written by Jon Valant, a fellow at the Brooking Institution, a place that often demonstrates why economists should stay the heck away from education policy. "Good schools for a troubled democracy" has the hallmark of Brookings writings, a sort of odd atonality tied to the sensation that perhaps within Brookings they never actually read any of the mountains of prose about education policy. 

Valant's thesis is that "the school system we have today in the United States--and our conception of a good school--is mismatched to the needs of our time." This will make more sense if you don't think of yourself as included in "we" and "our." His basic framing of modern education history is what makes this piece worthwhile. 

Valant focuses on the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, the infamous Reagan era hit job on public education. While Valant notes that the report did mention the needs for education to create better citizens, "the rhetoric of economic ruin and international competition drowned out the message." 

According to the logic of the times, the nation’s most pressing need — and, consequently, the most urgent task for our public CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Schooling For Democracy (Or What Is Education For)

NANCY BAILEY: Education Unity? Save Democratic Public Schools!

Education Unity? Save Democratic Public Schools!

Education Unity? Save Democratic Public Schools!

Congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris! How refreshing to hear a President speak of uniting the country and saving America’s democratic institutions.

One of the largest institutions is the public school system, run by local school boards, supported by the states, with oversight and administration by the federal government.

President Biden could reach out to Republicans and Democrats regarding public education by recognizing the greatest threat to democracy involving schools that we have witnessed for years, the corporate influence, and the takeover of the institution itself.

Understanding the stakes of losing this great institution is imperative. Both the Democratic and Republican leadership has been complicit for years in undermining the public’s wishes when it comes to CONTINUE READING: Education Unity? Save Democratic Public Schools!

When Jesus Needs A Visitor's Badge: Church-State Issues In Public Education | Blue Cereal Education

When Jesus Needs A Visitor's Badge: Church-State Issues In Public Education | Blue Cereal Education

When Jesus Needs A Visitor's Badge: Church-State Issues In Public Education

A “Hall of Separation”

That’s a horrible title and I wish I could stop thinking it’s not.

As you probably know, given that it’s pretty much all I talk about these days, I’ve been researching Supreme Court cases involving issues of church-state separation in relation to public education. My hope is to have something ready before the entire system collapses and any benefit one may derive from it is no longer relevant.

Given the state of the 2020 elections as I post this, I’m probably way too late.

Nevertheless, I’ve been wrong before. Democracy may cough and bleed its way through another generation or so in some form, in which case I may sell as many as eleven copies of this lil’ liber sui generis. A few people may even find it helpful, enlightening – or at least mildly diverting.

Who am I kidding with all the humility? So far, it’s bloody brilliant and everyone will want seven copies just to show off.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share three of the books I’ve been reading as I continue researching my own. While the cases I’m including aren’t exactly obscure or difficult to document (most reached the Supreme Court, after all), the issues involved are often less universal than most “landmark” cases. Plus, as the subject suggests, most involve religion on some level. That means that while my trademark wit and brilliance will no CONTINUE READING: When Jesus Needs A Visitor's Badge: Church-State Issues In Public Education | Blue Cereal Education

Teacher Tom: What We Can Learn About Democracy From Children

Teacher Tom: What We Can Learn About Democracy From Children

What We Can Learn About Democracy From Children

Every year, right after Easter, one of the children always raises their hand to tell us about the exciting thing that happened at their house over the weekend. "The Easter Bunny came to my house and laid eggs!"

Then, after a moment's pause, someone always replies, "The Easter Bunny doesn't lay eggs. Chickens lay eggs. The Easter Bunny paints them and brings them to your house."

At this point, the conversation shifts into a debate, complete with raised voices. Factions emerge, sides are chosen, tempers might even flair. You see, the Easter Bunny is an article of faith and as we know, public disagreements about faith can often be quite heated. As their teacher, I have no interest in quickly wrapping up these debates because, after all, this is part of how a self-governing society works, and a self-governing classroom is the gold standard for a play-based educator. We have to be able to discuss everything of importance, together, even if it sometimes gets loud. Even if it isn't always polite. Even if it means that we have to set aside our plans in order for us to have the important discussions we need to have. And my job is simply to make sure everyone was heard and to, if necessary, prevent violence.

Some years, these Easter Bunny debates really rage, often CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: What We Can Learn About Democracy From Children

100th Episode: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door – Have You Heard

100th Episode: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door – Have You Heard

100th Episode: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door

Our long-awaited book, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, is finally (almost) out. To celebrate its publication, and the 100th episode of Have You Heard, we asked an expert—a former lobbyist for a conservative free-market think tank—to read the book and tell us what we got right & wrong. His main takeaway: our predictions about the future aren’t bleak enough.

Complete transcript of the episode is here. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon or donate on PayPal.

Want a free, signed copy of Jack and Jennifer’s forthcoming book, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door? Sign up to host a virtual book group with 10 or more of your friends and colleagues and we’ll send you one!

Have You Heard · #100 A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door

100th Episode: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door – Have You Heard

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door Website - https://www.wolfattheschoolhousedoor.com/

“There’s no more time for tinkering around the edges.” — Betsy DeVos, 2018 “Rethink School” tour.

 

If America’s public schools don’t survive the COVID-19 pandemic, it won’t just be due to the virus. Opponents of public education have long sought to dismantle our system of free, universal, and taxpayer-funded schooling. But the present crisis has provided them with their best opportunity ever to realize that aim. Books like Jane Mayer’s Dark Money and Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains sounded a clear warning about the influence that right-wing plutocrats increasingly exert over American politics. Now, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door takes their analyses a step further, addressing an urgent question: Why is the right so fixated on dismantling public education in the United States? 

Education historian Jack Schneider and journalist Jennifer Berkshire trace the war on public education to its origins, offering the deep backstory necessary to understand the threat presently posed to America’s schools. The book also looks forward to imagine how current policy efforts will reshape the educational landscape and remake America’s future. A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door offers readers a lively, accessible, yet scholarly view of a decades-long conservative cause: unmaking the system that serves over 90% of students in the U.S. With Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, and COVID-19 posing unprecedented threats to our already besieged public schools, the book could not be more timely.

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