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Showing posts with label TRUMP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TRUMP. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Before You Must Go (The Whole Trump of You) | The Jose Vilson

Before You Must Go (The Whole Trump of You) | The Jose Vilson
BEFORE YOU MUST GO (THE WHOLE TRUMP OF YOU)



By the time this publishes, you’ll officially only have four hours left in your presidency. “Good riddance” isn’t strong enough.

For you and your cabal of fascist, racist, sexist, imperialist, homophobic, classist, seditious sycophants, I would wish your souls the agony you’ve bestowed upon the world over multifold. When the substitute teacher across the hall from me yelled your name in triumph at my Latinx and Black kids, you smirked that your name could inspire such terror. When another adult used your name in an assembly to let students know to fear him, he got explicit permission from your own ill-wrought bullying and calls to violence. When an administrator clamps down on some of the strongest advocates for kids because of their explicit anti-racism, they’re using the loopholes and laws already in our policies to displace the already marginalized, creating conditions in schools where justice feels further and further away.

Yes, having that much power revealed much of who you always were, a cultish following flanking you through every move. Every time you lied about a pandemic, every family you intentionally separated, every bit of land you stole from Native American/indigenous peoples for profit, every woman of color you targeted with a tweet or a snide comment were a framework for the millions of lives you’ve made worse for having put your hand on a Bible you never read on Capitol steps you allowed your followers to smear with feces. Time went four years forward, yet seemingly a century back.

You and your administration bragged about not starting any new wars abroad, but the walls rose against the United States to keep us CONTINUE READING: Before You Must Go (The Whole Trump of You) | The Jose Vilson

CURMUDGUCATION: What Donald Trump Means To Me

CURMUDGUCATION: What Donald Trump Means To Me
What Donald Trump Means To Me


I have followed Trump's career for decades. As anyone who has been paying attention knows, and as some folks insist on being shocked and surprised to discover on a regular basis, he really is that bad, and has always been that bad. I cannot think of a single human virtue that the man has ever displayed, and he is not even particularly good at many of the human vices that he wields like a toddler with a twisted light saber. He is a shambling mountain of human awfulness. The closest thing to an excuse that might be offered in his defense may also be simply the capper of his awfulness--unlike other odious politicians like Mitch McConnell or Mike Pence, he is incapable of being any better. 

He has always been that bad. In writing, conversation, casual discussion, Trump has always been my go-to example of the personification of the worst in humans.

So nothing in his Presidency has shocked or surprised me. In fact, I've sometimes lost patience with people who clutch their pearls and declare, "Oh my goodness! How could he do such a thing?!" Likewise, the repeated insistence that "this time he's pivoting to a new style" and "this time he's made the mistake that will really sink him" have gotten no sympathy from me. If you are doing such a bad job of paying attention, you deserve to be alternately surprised and disappointed, because one of the human vices that Trump enacts poorly is guile and sneakiness. This is what his CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: What Donald Trump Means To Me

Friday, January 15, 2021

Sara Stevenson: Our “Lord of the Flies” Moment | Diane Ravitch's blog

Sara Stevenson: Our “Lord of the Flies” Moment | Diane Ravitch's blog
Sara Stevenson: Our “Lord of the Flies” Moment




Sara Stevenson was a middle school teacher and librarian in Austin, Texas, for many years. She wrote this post in response to the current crisis, which reminded her of Lord of the Flies.

She begins like this:

Several editorialists have compared recent events to the 1954 classic and bane of high school students for decades, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. As a former high school English teacher, I taught the novel about a group of British school boys, early teens and younger, whose plane wreck lands them on a deserted island with no adult supervision.

Watching the images of the Trump mob assaulting the Capitol, the parallels with the novel stood out sharply, especially images of Jake Angeli, the face-painted “warrior” in a Viking hat, also known as QAnon Shaman.  

In The Lord of the Flies, when the boys first realize there are no adults, they are jubilant. Soon the boys choose CONTINUE READING: Sara Stevenson: Our “Lord of the Flies” Moment | Diane Ravitch's blog

Monday, January 11, 2021

Dr. John H. Jackson: The Malice of One and the Silence of Many: January 6th is the Emblematic Expression of America's Historic Tension | Schott Foundation for Public Education

The Malice of One and the Silence of Many: January 6th is the Emblematic Expression of America's Historic Tension | Schott Foundation for Public Education
The Malice of One and the Silence of Many: January 6th is the Emblematic Expression of America's Historic Tension


The violent attack on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021 was a stark reminder of America’s historic tensions and struggles. The storming of the Capitol came amid a Pro-Trump protest, by a predominately white and male group of domestic terrorists. Their white privilege assured they could go beyond the police barriers of perimeter and enter the Capitol Building. In the end, many people were injured and five killed, including a Capitol police officer.

What happened is reminiscent of this nation’s historic struggles with race, racism, power, and privilege. For instance, over 150 years ago, a group of southern, Confederate flag-carrying insurgents led the nation into a Civil War. Years later, America is once again met with a similar group of Confederate flag-toting individuals who would rather have no America than exist in an evolving one.

While the pretext for the Capitol riot was to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the protesters’ words proved that this was less about their candidate losing an election and more about their collective sense of losing their America.

While there is a clear history of violence on American shores, scores of elected officials claimed that the events on Jan. 6 did not represent America or the people of America. While I firmly believe there are indeed more people committed to love and justice in America, what happened at the Capitol last Thursday — as well as the violence that greeted Black Lives Matter demonstrators in D.C. this summer — is evidence of society's clear hierarchy of human value and tolerance for white CONTINUE READING: The Malice of One and the Silence of Many: January 6th is the Emblematic Expression of America's Historic Tension | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok – radical eyes for equity

Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok – radical eyes for equity
Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok



While it now seems like generations ago, in the spring of 2008, I joined other faculty at Furman University in an organized protest labeled “We Object.” Through the university’s connections with FU graduate and former governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford, George W. Bush was invited to speak at commencement.

Recent university tradition was to have two students speak, but did not include outside speakers. None the less, students and the community (overwhelmingly conservative) seemed to welcome the opportunity to have a two-term Republican president speak to graduates.

The protest took many forms, including reaching out to the media, posting an official “We Object” statement, and wearing a “We Object” shirt, revealed from beneath professor’s gowns during the speech.

I did not yet have tenure as an assistant professor, but I was active in the organized resistance that included a wide range of reasons why professors CONTINUE READING: Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok – radical eyes for equity

Saturday, January 9, 2021

NEA calls for immediate removal of President Trump - Education Votes

NEA calls for immediate removal of President Trump - Education Votes
NEA calls for immediate removal of President Trump



Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), leaders of their respective caucuses, normally don’t agree on much. But they are of one mind when it comes to Donald Trump’s last-ditch attempt to stop Congress from certifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and the insurrection fueled by Trump’s seditious rhetoric. Totally unacceptable.

January 6 “will live forever in infamy,” Schumer said. “This temple to democracy was desecrated, its windows smashed, our offices vandalized.” 

“The voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken,” McConnell said. “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.”

To protect our democracy, NEA is joining Democratic, Republican, business, and civil rights leaders in calling for Trump’s immediate removal from office.

“Our nation is based on a promise that every single person—Black, Latino/a/x, Asian, Native, White, regardless of wealth—can pursue a better tomorrow. That promise is in jeopardy because President Donald Trump and his allies refuse to accept the will of the people and have endangered Americans and American democracy,” said NEA President Becky Pringle.

In government and social studies classes, NEA members teach students about the Constitution and the duties of citizenship. They teach that our elections depend not only on citizens to exercise the right to vote, but also on our willingness to accept the results of elections. They teach that interested parties can and often do challenge election results. But once the challenges have been examined, those on the losing side concede defeat because they prize our democratic traditions over any single Election Day win or loss.

More fundamentally, we teach our children—even before they begin formal schooling—this basic concept of fair play: In any competition, someone wins and someone loses. Conveying this concept is challenging when our children are getting a lesson from some elected “leaders” in what NOT to do: Throw a temper tantrum, discredit the process, attempt to delay the inevitable, and if none of that works, sow as much discord as possible before you exit the field.

NEA has developed materials to help you talk to kids about the violent attempt to stop Congress from certifying that President-elect Joe Biden won the election. Check them out!

Friday, January 8, 2021

Betsy DeVos Resigns, Citing Trump’s Support for Insurrection | Diane Ravitch's blog

Betsy DeVos Resigns, Citing Trump’s Support for Insurrection | Diane Ravitch's blog
Betsy DeVos Resigns, Citing Trump’s Support for Insurrection



With only a few days left in Trump’s term of office, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos resigned. She says she objected to his rhetoric in inciting the insurrection of his devoted loyalists. This is certainly an anti-climax. DeVos had to clear out anyway, but by resigning now she avoids the painful decision about forcing Trump to resign by the terms of the 25th Amendment. Whether she resigns or stays is irrelevant. Whether she uses her position to force the ouster of a malevolent, incompetent president does matter. She opted out.

The Washington Post reported:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos submitted her resignation Thursday, citing the president’s role in the riot on Capitol Hill.
“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” she wrote in a letter to President Trump. The behavior of the “violent protestors overrunning theh U.S. Capitol” was “unconscionable,” she wrote.


“Impressionable children are watching all of this, and they are learning from us. I believe we each have a moral obligation to exercise good judgment and model the CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Resigns, Citing Trump’s Support for Insurrection | Diane Ravitch's blog

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Coup? | JD2718

Coup? | JD2718
Coup?



A friend grew up in another country’s capital. There was political tension. One morning the tv was buzzing. There were tanks out the window. Good, he thought, no school.

He was right – there were some days off. The coup succeeded. Officials were fired. Leaders were executed. And life resumed.

By the way, the coup plotters were homegrown. Locals. But they were trained by a foreign power, a beacon of democracy. And they acted because the government had created a link to the other, evil, great power.

It seems, as I think about coups over the last 75 years, an awful lot of them were instigated, or even orchestrated, in Washington DC. But none of them took place there. And I thought none ever would. Until today.

Frankly, I was surprised by Trump’s video statement – because he told them to go home. This could have been much worse.

No credit, to him, of course. It is not clear to me what consequences he faces. But I’m guessing it’s a lot clearer to him. He’s a bully. And most bullies are cowards.

I watched too much tv today. TV news is addictive. I’m glad I usually skip it. But today…  I’m about to CONTINUE READING:  Coup? | JD2718

Friday, January 1, 2021

Fred Smith: The Night Before New Year’s | Diane Ravitch's blog

Fred Smith: The Night Before New Year’s | Diane Ravitch's blog
Fred Smith: The Night Before New Year’s



Fred Smith, assessment expert (retired from the New York City Board of Education) and part-time poet, published this poem today in the New York Daily News.

The night before New Year’s: A Message from Your President!

By FRED SMITH 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS – DEC 31, 2020

  ‘Tis the eve of the new year and in his White House

Sits a lame duck-tailed bad man with unsmiling spouse.

“This may be my last chance before my thoughts drift

To give all those who miffed me one parting gift. 

Whether I liked them or hated, they can’t escape blame,

They’re bound to be “Fired” in my blazing endgame:

To my faithless AG and once true legal goon,

I leave Barr to flame out in a hot air balloon. CONTINUE READING: Fred Smith: The Night Before New Year’s | Diane Ravitch's blog



Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Trump Executive Order on Private School Vouchers Denounced as 'Last-Ditch Effort to Claim Victory' in War on Public Education | Common Dreams News

Trump Executive Order on Private School Vouchers Denounced as 'Last-Ditch Effort to Claim Victory' in War on Public Education | Common Dreams News
Trump Executive Order on Private School Vouchers Denounced as 'Last-Ditch Effort to Claim Victory' in War on Public Education
"Trump fought against funding for public education for months, then does this as he begrudgingly signs [the] Covid relief bill."




Public education champions are denouncing President Donald Trump's new executive order that enables states to use funds from a federal block grant program to provide vouchers to qualifying households to offset some of the costs of private school tuition, homeschooling, or other educational expenses during the coronavirus pandemic, even as critics say the move is more of a symbolic endorsement of school privatization than a serious attempt to subsidize in-person learning.

Trump's executive order, which he signed on Monday, empowers the secretary of health and human services to "allow funds available through the Community Services Block Grant program to be used by grantees and eligible entities to provide emergency learning scholarships to disadvantaged families for use by any child without access to in-person learning."

As Politico reported Monday night, Trump's move comes after school choice provisions sought by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Republican lawmakers were excluded from the coronavirus relief bill the president signed on Sunday.

The White House spun the executive order as an attempt to provide more flexibility to parents amid what Trump called "the public education system's failure to provide in-person learning options." Trump neglected to mention, however, that his administration has failed to create the conditions for a safe reopening of public schools.

Rather than attacking public schools while pushing for privatized alternatives—as CONTINUE READING: Trump Executive Order on Private School Vouchers Denounced as 'Last-Ditch Effort to Claim Victory' in War on Public Education | Common Dreams News

Trump’s School Choice Executive Order: A Big Nothing | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Trump’s School Choice Executive Order: A Big Nothing | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog
Trump’s School Choice Executive Order: 
A Big Nothing



On December 28, 2020, President Donald Trump issued this executive order to purportedly allow federal Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funds to be used to finance “emergency learning scholarships” (school vouchers) “to disadvantaged families for use by any child without access to in-person learning” 

This executive order will go nowhere. 

First, there is no time for the Department of Health and Human Services create an application process specific to this school voucher purpose and to process new grant applications for states or entities and for those states or entities to establish processes to identify and distribute funds to qualified individuals and for those individuals to locate private schools or other qualifying services, either before the school year ends (we’re a semester in) or before the Trump presidency ends.

Second, even if states and other entities are allowed to redirect current CSBG funding toward Trump’s eleventh-hour voucher flash-in-the-pan, doing so would mean just that– taking money designated for other purposes– which is bureaucratically easier said than done in justifying the reallocation, actually redirecting the money, and establishing a process for its disbursement for a new purpose– and, again, the clock is running out on both the 2020-21 school year and the Trump presidency.

This school choice executive order appeared on December 28, 2020, the day after Trump signed the latest COVID relief bill, which did not include the school voucher funding exiting US ed sec Betsy DeVos wanted. Also on December 28, 2020, DeVos publicly lamented the CONTINUE READING: Trump’s School Choice Executive Order: A Big Nothing | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers



Someone wrote an executive order, dated December 28, and signed Donald Trump’s name to it, declaring that the emergency conditions created by the COVID make it vital to use federal funds for vouchers. Don’t waste a minute! Scoop up federal funds and put your child in a substandard voucher school!

We know that Trump didn’t write the executive order because he’s at Mar-a-Lago nursing his grievances.

It appears to have been written by Jim Blew, who works for her and used to work for the Walton Foundation. Even if Trump refuses to concede, DeVos knows it’s over and she will use her last days in office to throw money out the door to find vouchers for private and religious schools.

Andrew Ujifusa of Education Week tweeted that the program Trump wants to use for vouchers is part of HHS, the Community Services Block Grants, and it does NOT make individual grants. Shows how desperate Betsy is to funnel money to vouchers as the sun sets on her days in CONTINUE READING: Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order
Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order



Today the White House (if Donald Trump wrote this thing, then I'm the Queen of Rumania) issued an executive order "expanding educational opportunity school choice" to create "Emergency Learning Scholarships for Students."

It instructs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (that would be Alex Azar) to use funds from the Community Services Block Grant program top provide "emergency learning scholarships" (the EO doesn't use the V word). These vouchers may be used for 

1) tuition and fees for private or parochial school (if you can find one that the voucher will actually cover tuition for, and the school is doing face-to-face, and they're willing to accept your child halfway through the year)

2) homeschool, microschool, or learning pod costs (curious to know how many disadvantaged students have managed to get into learning pods, like, say, this one at a country club)

3) special education and related services, including therapies

4) tutoring or remedial education

Note that the EO doesn't offer any instructions about oversight. So if you want to hire your out-of-work high school dropout brother-in-law as your child's tutor, that'll be fine.

The argument in favor of this is that January 20th is coming and the administration wants their CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order

Friday, December 25, 2020

Ed Notes Online: Fred Smith with his annual The Night Before Xmas—2020

Ed Notes Online: Fred Smith with his annual The Night Before Xmas—2020
Fred Smith with his annual The Night Before Xmas—2020



Fred Smith has done it again for 2020 with is yearly Xmas specials. 
Here are his previous years, each with a different theme.
I first met Fred, a testing expert who used to work for the NYCBOE, when he contacted me about getting ICE members to assist in gathering data for his exposures of the evils of testing. Over the years, his involvement with groups like GEM and Change the Stakes has grown.

Fred is also a statistician for the NY Jets - don't blame him for their absence from the Super Bowl for almost 50 years.

Fred Smith convincing Jets dancers to boycott field tests - he's the one in the middle

The Night Before Xmas—2020
 
'Twas the night before Christmas and in the Snow House
Sat a duck-assed old fat man with botoxic spouse. 
This may be my last chance to go through the list,           
And give gifts to people who’ve made me real pissed.    CONTINUE READING: Ed Notes Online: Fred Smith with his annual The Night Before Xmas—2020


Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Choosing Democracy: No More Children Locked in Cages- Separated from Their Families

Choosing Democracy: No More Children Locked in Cages- Separated from Their Families
No More Children Locked in Cages- Separated from Their Families




WASHINGTON (AP)  President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response.

Separately, Biden picked a Harvard infectious disease expert, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And he announced a new role for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.

If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra, will be the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a $1 trillion-plus agency with 80,000 employees and a portfolio that includes drugs and vaccines, leading-edge medical research and health insurance programs covering more than 130 million Americans.

Biden’s selection of Becerra and Walensky was announced early Monday in a press release from the transition office. People familiar with the decision had confirmed the picks to The Associated Press on Sunday night. Biden also announced other top members of his health care team, though some posts remain unfilled.

Becerra, as the state of California’s top lawyer, has led the coalition of Democratic states defending “Obamacare” from the Trump administration’s latest effort to overturn it, a legal case awaiting a Supreme Court decision next year.

A former senior House Democrat, Becerra was involved in steering the Obama health law through Congress in 2009 and 2010. At the time he would tell reporters that one of his primary motivations was having tens of thousands of uninsured people in his Southern California district.

Becerra has a lawyer’s precise approach to analyzing problems and a calm demeanor.

But overseeing the coronavirus response will be the most  CONTINUE READING: Choosing Democracy: No More Children Locked in Cages- Separated from Their Families

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too | Common Dreams News

Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too | Common Dreams News
Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too
"50.8 million children who attend real public schools need a secretary of education who will be their advocate, not an advocate for privatization."


Demanding an end to the failed policies that have dominated the United States for more than two decades, a coalition of public education advocates has put forth what they consider to be the top five guiding principles the incoming Biden administration should adopt if the president-elect wants to fulfill his "promised commitment to our nation's public schools."

"We need a public education champion who rejects efforts to privatize public schools, whether those efforts be via private school vouchers or charter schools."
—Network for Public Education

"50.8 million children who attend real public schools need a secretary of education who will be their advocate, not an advocate for privatization," tweeted Carol Burris, a retired teacher and the executive director of the Network for Public Education (NPE), which led the effort to demand pro-public leadership in Biden's Department of Education. 

In order to build a stronger and more just public education system, NPE penned a letter—which readers may sign—urging the Biden administration to pursue the following objectives:

  • Rebuild our nation's public schools, which have been battered by the pandemic, two decades of failed federal policy, and years of financial neglect;
  • Reject efforts to privatize public schools, whether those efforts be via vouchers or charter schools;
  • End the era of high-stakes standardized testing—in both the immediate future and beyond;
  • Promote diversity, desegregation (both among and within schools), and commit to eliminating institutional racism in school policy and practices; and
  • Promote educational practices that are child-centered, inquiry-based, intellectually challenging, culturally responsive, and respectful of all students' innate capacities and potential to thrive.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, state CONTINUE READING: Defenders of US Public Schools Call on Biden to Ditch Trump's Disastrous Education Policies—and Obama's Too | Common Dreams News

Monday, November 23, 2020

What American teachers are telling their students about what Trump is doing – Raw Story

What American teachers are telling their students about what Trump is doing – Raw Story
What American teachers are telling their students about what Trump is doing




Civics is a fundamental part of every American primary school curriculum. Yet there is no living American who has experienced a political moment as polarized as this one, where even teachers cannot speak of Trump or Biden without accusations of impartiality from either direction.

Particularly now, as America’s democracy itself is straining under the weight of a wanna-be authoritarian, teaching civics seems like a severe challenge, remaining neutral impossible. It is hard to explain this to children — and yet, our teachers must.

Nareissa Smith, a lawyer and former law professor who taught four classes about civic fundamentals in October, two to students from Grades 2 to 5 and two for students from Grades 6 to 8, told Salon that her students were afraid that Trump would attempt to subvert democracy even before he actually did so.

“I will tell you that before the election, the students in my ‘Making Democracy Work’ course, in some of our exchanges, they were very, very afraid that he would be doing exactly what he’s doing now,” Smith told Salon. “Their questions were more like, ‘Well, you know, what, if he doesn’t [leave]? Can he just stay?’ There were a lot of questions around that. So if I were doing the course now I would approach it not in a partisan way, but I would approach it by saying that I will go back to the law, and say the concession is a nicety, but CONTINUE READING: What American teachers are telling their students about what Trump is doing – Raw Story