Democrapublican posturing and Betsy DeVos: the Overview | Reclaim Reform

Democrapublican posturing and Betsy DeVos: the Overview | Reclaim Reform:

Democrapublican posturing and Betsy DeVos: the Overview

Will Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos’ opposition vote unity by Democrats succeed? Unity? But what about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ involved?

After U.S. Secretaries of Education Spelling, Duncan, and King, will there be any other Secretary of Education who will support public education for all? Will Democrapublicans support public education for all?

Democrapublicans vote their pocketbooks, their future career shifts into well-paid corporate advisory committees that do no require attendance, their received donations for their own “foundations” and campaigns, and other self-serving methods of ill-gotten gain. They vote and smile for photo ops during their posturing periods. 

What politicians of either major political party give a damn about our children, our teachers, our schools or our futures? Very few. Democrapublicans in a corrupt system certainly don’t care when money and power can be gained.

There is a Democratic unity opposition-posturing and blustering for purposes of deceiving the public that has been forced to beg for each issue vote; this has become the reality of today’s bipartisan corruption as government. Corruption as government is brought to you by huge corporate interests whose public/private partnerships have become household names and daily conversations. The multinational investors who are the Education Industrial Complex finance Democrapublicans. 

There are REASONS people mourn that there is ONE corporate PARTY. Democrapublicans. Tim Kane, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate who lost, has voted for each of Trump’s nominees up until the show of party unity against DeVos.

Prior to the last election, I was told in public by a Democratic Party official in Brevard County, Florid that she and several other people had attended a rally with Tim Kane as the speaker. We were told that he was just a “regular” guy like all of us. Photo ops were generously granted by this regular guy. People posted their photos with him on Facebook. What proof of his regular guy authenticity was offered us?

It’s nonsense to say that Tim Kaine is a regular guy because he posed with his open collared shirt and rolled up sleeves while sporting a big smile. I doubt that Benedict Arnold rolled up his sleeves while wearing an open collared shirt and smiling for engraving-ops Democrapublican posturing and Betsy DeVos: the Overview | Reclaim Reform:

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaire charter backers clash. Broad vs. DeVos

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaire charter backers clash. Broad vs. DeVos:

Billionaire charter backers clash. Broad vs. DeVos

Billionaires DeVos vs. Broad

Power philanthropist Eli Broad is urging senators to vote against confirming fellow billionaire and right-wing school "choice" advocate, Betsy DeVos.

The growing grassroots resistance to Trump's choice for Ed Secretary has split the charter/voucher movement and its wealthy backers. Broad, who wants to charterize 50% of L.A. public school students in the next few years, favors tighter, top-down control and regulation of charters.

According to EdWeek:

In comparison to DeVos' philanthropic work, the Broads belong to a class of donors that prefer a much more managed approach to school choice, investing in charter school models that can scale up and measure their performance. They are strong supporters of charter management organizations—nonprofit networks of charter schools (think KIPP)—whose rapid growth has been propelled by the federal government and a handful of wealthy donors. 

Eli and his wife Edythe Broad are among some of the most influential backers of charter schools nationwide. Their foundation has given over $150 million to charter schools nationally. Of that, $79 million has gone to charters in Los Angeles. He's also used his money to influence local school board elections in favor of pro-choice, anti-union candidates.

He's also a big Democratic Party campaign donor who personally bankrolled many of Arne Duncan's ed initiatives and currently is underwriting Education Post, the pro-charter, anti-teacher union project run by Duncan's former assistant, Peter Cunningham.

But Broad has no real problems with Trump or the Republicans. In 2013 he was exposed for secretly funding a right-wing, anti-union group connected with the Koch Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaire charter backers clash. Broad vs. DeVos:

NEA - NEA calls on Senate to thoroughly vet President Trump’s nominee

NEA - NEA calls on Senate to thoroughly vet President Trump’s nominee:

NEA calls on Senate to thoroughly vet President Trump’s nominee

NEA President: Supreme Court nominee has troubling record on education, workers’ rights

President Donald Trump today announced he would nominate Neil Gorsuch as associate justice of the Supreme Court. The following statement was issued on behalf of NEA President Lily Eskelsen García:

“Nearly every issue that impacts students and educators finds its way to the Supreme Court. The court makes critical decisions about protecting students’ rights and public education funding in addition to educators’ ability to negotiate collectively for wages and benefits.

“We have significant concerns about President Trump’s judgment in choosing a nominee. That’s why the U.S. Senate must thoroughly vet the nominee’s views, integrity and record. An independent Supreme Court is an effective check on any abuse of executive power. It is especially important now, considering the president’s willingness to strip away people’s rights with the stroke of a pen.

“As educators, we have concerns about Judge Gorsuch’s record. He has ruled against students with disabilities who seek public education, and he has consistently sided with big business at the expense of working Americans.

“We call on the Senate to diligently perform its duty to thoroughly vet the nominee to ensure the Supreme Court will protect all of us.”

Follow NEA Public Relations on Twitter at @NEAmedia

Keep up with the conversation on social media at #ProtectUsAll

# # #

The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing nearly 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers. Learn more at www.nea.org.

 NEA - NEA calls on Senate to thoroughly vet President Trump’s nominee:

GoFundMe Campaign to Buy a “No” Vote on DeVos from PA Senator Pat Toomey | deutsch29

GoFundMe Campaign to Buy a “No” Vote on DeVos from PA Senator Pat Toomey | deutsch29:

GoFundMe Campaign to Buy a “No” Vote on DeVos from PA Senator Pat Toomey

No kidding.

As of this writing, 678 individuals have raised $11,111 via the GoFundMe link entitled, “Buy Pat Toomey’s Vote”:

Betsy DeVos has donated $55,800 to the campaign of United States Senator Pat Toomey.

Incidentally, despite all evidence to the contrary, Senator Toomey thinks that Betsy DeVos would be a great choice to lead the Department of Education.

Betsy DeVos has never set foot in a classroom, did not send her children to public school, cannot distinguish between proficiency and growth, and thinks that guns should be allowed in schools in the event of grizzly attacks. That fictitious grizzly is about as qualified as Ms. DeVos to run the Department of Education.

If Betsy DeVos can buy Senator Toomey’s vote, we should be allowed to do the same.

If, of course, Senator Toomey does not wish to accept any funds raised*, all money will be donated to Camp Sojourner, the Pennsylvania Arts Education Network, and the Children’s Literacy Initiative.

*or if this tongue-in-cheek fundraising page somehow constitutes a bribe, despite being eerily identical to the actions of Ms. DeVos.GoFundMe Campaign to Buy a “No” Vote on DeVos from PA Senator Pat Toomey | deutsch29:

  Betsy DeVos

John Thompson: When the Choice Roadshow Came to Oklahoma, Led by Dr. Perry | Diane Ravitch

John Thompson: When the Choice Roadshow Came to Oklahoma, Led by Dr. Perry | Diane Ravitch's... - Linkis.com:

John Thompson: When the Choice Roadshow Came to Oklahoma, Led by Dr. Perry

John Thompson is a historian and teacher in Oklahoma:

Oklahoma School Choice Week: The “Red Pill” Targets a Red State

The OK School Choice Summit featured Sen. Mark Loveless who, in part, promotes charters and vouchers as a means of spreading chaos in public school systems. His donor, Betsy DeVos’ the American Federation for Children, was also well represented. DeVos sees school choice as a path to “greater Kingdom gain.”

https://nondoc.com/2017/01/18/school-choice-sen-loveless/

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/betsy-devos-education-trump-religion-232150

There had been about 20 anti-corporate reform protesters at the summit, so even though I had registered for the event, I was apparently supposed to be denied entry. By the time I arrived, the police outnumbered the protesters. As some protesters chatted amiably with the summit volunteers, I schmoozed with some pro-reform political leaders who let me walk in with them.

https://freepressokc.com/school-choice-summit-features-firebrand-speaker/

At the time, I didn’t realize that we who opposed the expansion of charters and vouchers could not be tolerated because we had supposedly swallowed the “blue pill,” and that made us irredeemable.

Ordinarily I get along with conservative Christians by not questioning the religious beliefs of people who support people like DeVos, who see charters and vouchers as a means to “advance God’s Kingdom.” That is one reason why I was completely unprepared for what I’d see when Dr. Steve Perry gave the summit’s keynote address.

Okay, I know I’ve failed to fully grapple with the hate that drives many corporate reform supporters, as well as Trumpism as a whole. I assumed that the summit organizers probably knew how Perry became famous by condemning unions as “cockroaches.” But, surely the audience wasn’t conversant with the research of former Connecticut Deputy House Majority Leader, Jonathan Pelto, and they didn’t know that Perry’s charter school would sentence “even the youngest students in the building, to sit at the cafeteria’s ‘Table of Shame.’”

I’ve long known a lot of the charter supporters in the audience, and I didn’t think they would approve of his desire to:

Drag sorry principals and teachers out into the street. Kick open the doors in our communities and collar lazy parents. Line ‘em all John Thompson: When the Choice Roadshow Came to Oklahoma, Led by Dr. Perry | Diane Ravitch's... - Linkis.com:

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: We're Not Done Yet

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: We're Not Done Yet:

DeVos: We're Not Done Yet

The HELP committee approved her, and then two members of that committee who voted "yes" to send her on to the full Senate indicated that they would vote No to her appointment to the USED Secretary post.

So. We're not done yet.

Contact your Senator. If you know they're voting against DeVos, thank them and let them know that you support their choice (because you can be sure they're getting pressure from Important People who think they should change their minds). If you know they're voting for DeVos, keep the pressure on anyway. Let them know that there is a price they're paying for that support. Make them know that the vote is costing them something.

And if you're not sure, contact them anyway. Often. By phone. By fax. Repeatedly.

Congressmen and their staffs are reporting that they've never taken such an electronic hammering. The numbers being reported are staggering-- five figures, six figures.

She may still be approved, but we have already won a victory. We have already made the Trump administration pay a price, made them use some of their juice to make this happen. The roar of opposition has jarred loose many of the people who have been anti-DeVos silently. Good lord-- Eli Broad, charter booster and reformster extraordinaire, came out against DeVos today. If DeVos takes the office, she and Trump and the GOP Senators who put her there will know, despite their bluster, that we are paying attention, watching, looking over their collective shoulders.

A DeVos defeat would be extraordinary, virtually unprecedented. And it could still happen.

So here's the link to FaxZero, the suddenly-famous service that will send up to five free faxes a day without any need for a sign-up or an account-- and they already have Senate fax numbers programmed in and ready to go. And here's the link for emails and phone numbers.

The vote is now expected as early as Friday morning, so send something tonight before you got to bed, tomorrow before you go to work, and any other spare minute you have during the day. If they are going to foist this unqualified menace on us, make them feel like they are climbing up a steep hill in a heavy hailstorm to do it.Maybe-- just maybe-- we can make some history. But there is no doubt that we can make some noise while we make ourselves felt in Washington.  CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: We're Not Done Yet:

Defeat DeVos- Call Your Senator Now

PA: Gutting Teacher Sick Leave

100+by Peter Greene / 14h

In Pennsylvania, while folks were busy working to head off the appointment of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, the State Senate's education committee was passing a bill to strip sick and bereavement leave from teachers (as well as sabbatical leave). SB 229 is a re-introduction of SB 584 from the previous session. It would end the state requirement for a minimum number of sick and bereavement

What About Rural Charters

17by Peter Greene / 15h

In a recent panel discussion , Nine Rees, the head honcho of the National Alliance of Public [sic] Charter Schools observed that " It is actually quite hard to expand charter schools in a lot of rural communities because there's no political base of support for those kinds of changes ." And then she was on to other stuff (I'm working my way through that video and will have commentary on the whole

County school boards can’t solve charters’ zoning problems, court rules | EdSource

County school boards can’t solve charters’ zoning problems, court rules | EdSource:

County school boards can't solve charters' zoning problems, court rules

In a decision with statewide implications, a state appeals court ruled that the board of the Santa Clara County Office of Education lacked authority to override local zoning rules to locate a charter school that it had approved.

The Jan. 24 ruling by the San Jose-based 6th District State Court of Appeals takes away from charter schools the option of asking county school boards to make it easier to locate their schools, especially in high-cost, densely developed urban areas like the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Most charter schools get their charters from school districts. But county school boards can grant charters on appeal, and they are allowed to authorize charters directly under special circumstances.

The charter-friendly Santa Clara County Board of Education gave Rocketship Education, a national network of a dozen charters known for its online learning, its start by granting eight charters through the appeal process and through direct approval of six schools in San Jose. Rocketship navigated local zoning regulations to build schools in all but one location, where the city master plan designated the site as a park. It turned to the county school board, which in 2013 issued what appears to have been the first – and now will probably be the last – exemption from a local zoning law.

San Jose Unified, which had denied charters to Rocketship, and a neighbor sued the county office and the charter school, saying nothing in state law permits county offices of education to override local zoning laws. Both the trial court and a three-judge panel of the court of appeals County school boards can’t solve charters’ zoning problems, court rules | EdSource:

Special education advocate Bev Johns is threatened. | Fred Klonsky

Special education advocate Bev Johns is threatened. | Fred Klonsky:

Special education advocate Bev Johns is threatened.

Me and Bev Johns at a state conference of the Illinois Council for Exceptional Children.

My friend Bev Johns is a leading advocate for children with special needs in Illinois. Lately I have been reposting her information on my Facebook page warning of changes to the delivery of services to Illinois students with special needs that would not be in those students’ interests.

Apparently this has upset some of the state’s vested interests.

This morning, Bev sent me this email exchange:

Dear Bev, 

 Thank you for all you do for our kids with special needs. We are living in times when powerful, monied interests regularly resort to threats in order to silence thoughtful, child-centered and proven positions on education.

Please know that I have your back and consider you an invaluable ally in the fight for special education in Illinois. Please let me know what, if any, steps you would like me to take in response to these irresponsible silencing tactics.

Also, please feel to share this email. 

 All the best to you and yours. 

 Mary Fahey Hughes, Founder and Director, 19th Ward Parents for Special Education

—————————————

This morning I received an email from JUNO saying complaints had been received. I have sent emails to the EXACT SAME lists for over 2 years, and immediately remove anyone requesting that (I believe I have received only 2 such requests over the last 2 years).

On January 28, Kevin Rubenstein sent an email to all members of IAASE (the Illinois special ed administrators), signed by the leaders of IAASE, detailing their involvement in the Evidence Based (Vision 20/20) proposal to Special education advocate Bev Johns is threatened. | Fred Klonsky:

Massachusetts said NO to more charter schools, Connecticut should as well - Wait What?

Massachusetts said NO to more charter schools, Connecticut should as well - Wait What?:

Massachusetts said NO to more charter schools, Connecticut should as well

At the same time that Governor Dannel Malloy is instituting the deepest cuts in Connecticut history to Connecticut’s public schools he is diverting more than $110 million dollars a year in taxpayer funds to Connecticut’s privately owned and operated charter schools.

Malloy and his operatives now want to expand this outrageous money grab with a plan to increase the number of charter schools in Connecticut and implement a new funding proposal that would see an additional $40-$50 million a year diverted to the private corporations that own Connecticut’s existing charter schools.

Connecticut’s elected and appointed officials should take a deep pause and look to Massachusetts for an indication of what happens when a state adopts this so-called “money follows the child” funding system.

Last November the charter school industry in the Bay State tried to push through a state-wide ballot initiative that would have allowed more charter schools to be opened in the Commonwealth.

To fund their effort the charter school industry pumped more than $24 million dollars into their political campaign.

The cash came from large corporate education reform “dark money” groups that refuse to release the names of their donors, wealthy hedge fund owners, Massachusetts corporations and out-of-state contributors including the Walton family of Wal-Mart fame and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  (See Wait, What? post Charter School Industry raised more than $24 million in 2016 record breaking defeat In Massachusetts).

But in this case, the massive outpouring of money couldn’t buy the Massachusetts said NO to more charter schools, Connecticut should as well - Wait What?:

Betsy DeVos 'is unprepared and unqualified' to be Education secretary, charter school booster Eli Broad says - LA Times

Betsy DeVos 'is unprepared and unqualified' to be Education secretary, charter school booster Eli Broad says - LA Times:

Betsy DeVos 'is unprepared and unqualified' to be Education secretary, charter school booster Eli Broad says

ELi Broad, the prominent local philanthropist behind a massive effort to increase the number of charter schools in Los Angeles, is protesting the appointment of Betsy DeVos as secretary of Education.

Broad sent a letter to U.S. senators Wednesday, asking them to vote against President Trump’s nominee.

“I believe she is unprepared and unqualified for the position,” Broad wrote. “Indeed, with Betsy DeVos at the helm of the U.S. Department of Education, much of the good work that has been accomplished to improve public education for all of America’s children could be undone.”

Betsy DeVos is a billionaire Republican fundraiser based in Grand Rapids, Mich. Before Trump announced her nomination, she spent her dollars and connections promoting school choice, in the form of both vouchers and charter schools.

School vouchers use public money to fund private — often religious — schools, and charter schools are publicly funded, but can be privately run.

Broad has contributed heavily through a political action committee to local school board candidates who support charter schools, and his philanthropic group is backing an effort to increase their growth in Los Angeles, which already has more such schools than any other city in the U.S. 

But despite their agreement on charter schools, Broad thinks DeVos’ views are too extreme. “We must have a Secretary of Education who believes in public education and the need to keep public schools public,” he wrote.

During a contentious confirmation hearing last month, DeVos drew ire for her apparent lack of basic understanding of some key education laws. Before the hearing, Broad wrote, he questioned her support for “unregulated charter schools and school vouchers.” Her performance reinforced his doubts. 

On Tuesday, the Senate education committee voted along party lines to advance her candidacy.

But her confirmation might be in trouble. On Wednesday, two Republican senators on the education committee who voted for DeVos to get through committee said they would vote no on the Senate floor. One more Republican defection would mean DeVos doesn’t get the job.

DeVos’ nomination has put Democratic charter school supporters in a hard spot because Betsy DeVos 'is unprepared and unqualified' to be Education secretary, charter school booster Eli Broad says - LA Times:

Supreme Court Nominee Gorsuch: Is “Constitutional Originalism” a Cover for Conservative Judicial Activism? | Ed In The Apple

Supreme Court Nominee Gorsuch: Is “Constitutional Originalism” a Cover for Conservative Judicial Activism? | Ed In The Apple:

Supreme Court Nominee Gorsuch: Is “Constitutional Originalism” a Cover for Conservative Judicial Activism?

I hear President Trump was going to make the announcement of his Supreme Court nomination during the Super Bowel half time show – afraid of massive demonstrations  by 300 pound guys in shoulder pads – settled for prime time bumping favorite TV shows.

The Democrats have to decide: political strategy, a game plan, and, the question of the candidate himself.  The New York Times editorial opines the choices.

In spite of the accolades heaped on the nominee I have doubts, serious doubts.

The nominee defined himself as an “originalist” in the footsteps of Justice Scalia.

What is “originalism?”

One definition,

Originalism, in which the meaning of the Constitution is interpreted as fixed as of the time it was enacted, and non-originalism, in which the meaning of the Constitution is viewed as evolving with changes in society and culture.

Another,

“…  there is an identifiable original intent or original meaning, contemporaneous with a constitution’s or statute’s ratification, which should govern its subsequent interpretation. The divisions between these theories relate to what exactly that identifiable original intent or original meaning is: the intentions of the authors or the ratifiers, the original meaning of the text, a combination of the two, or the original meaning of the text but not its expected application.”

How do we know the intent of the framers of the Constitution? From April until September of 1787 the fifty-four  delegates, all white men, mostly wealthy, including slaveholders from the Southern states. drifted in and out of the sessions. They argued, threatened, proposed deals, traded this for that, and, eventually produced a heavily compromised document.

The large states and the small states, the slave states and the free states, farmers and plantation owners, lawyers and fools cobbled a constitution..  In order to gain passage compromises were crafted: in the 3/5 compromise slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person in the computation of population to determine the number of representatives for each state. Although many of the delegates found slavery reprehensible the question of slavery is absent form the final constitution.

(Read Paul Finkelman, Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Supreme Court Nominee Gorsuch: Is “Constitutional Originalism” a Cover for Conservative Judicial Activism? | Ed In The Apple:

Universal Public Education and the Common Good | janresseger

Universal Public Education and the Common Good | janresseger:

Universal Public Education and the Common Good

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to be our next U.S. Secretary of Education has been a wake up call.

You may disagree with some of the particulars raised by the Senators who have been debating the DeVos nomination, but the hearings have diminished talk about the smaller issues and highlighted one thing: our universal public education in the United States is a primary civic institution of great value.

In Tuesday’s hearing, when the Senators on the HELP Committee took a vote and decided to send the DeVos nomination on to the full Senate for consideration, just about everybody talked about the public outcry—the volume of phone calls, e-mails, unusual requests for meetings, crowds and rallies pushing the Senators to protect public education. Many Senators declared their insistence that our education secretary at least value the public schools, understand the terms of the debate that has been sweeping around public education now for two decades, and realize that the U.S. Department of Education’s fundamental mission is protecting the rights of children who have historically been marginalized. It became clear that the party loyalty of some of the Republicans on the committee was being tested by the outcry of their constituents, and it became clearer yesterday afternoon when Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski promised they will vote against the DeVos confirmation when the full Senate votes.

The federal policy debates about public schools over the past twenty years have been largely shaped by our society’s computerized capacity to produce and analyze huge data sets—the test scores produced by the mandates of No Child Left Behind—and a drive by many policy makers to increase schools’ accountability for the test scores of their students. Data have demonstrated that schools in poor communities, on average, do not “produce” the same kind of high test scores as the schools in very wealthy enclaves, and the Bush and Obama Universal Public Education and the Common Good | janresseger:

DR. WILLIAM BARBER AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE- SOMETHING TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT - Perdaily.com

DR. WILLIAM BARBER AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE- SOMETHING TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT - Perdaily.com:

DR. WILLIAM BARBER AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE- SOMETHING TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT

If you have found yourself profoundly depressed since the election and assumption of the presidency by Donald Trump, you should have been at Occidental College on Wednesday night- it would have given you hope. The Reverend Dr. William Barber II not only laid out in painful detail what put Trump in the White House, but also took the time in the clearest of possible terms to lay out what we the people could do about it now by coming together and asserting our majority status in what still remains for the present a putative democracy.

Barber thesis is that endemic racism is not only alive and well, but is literally the only force powerful enough to get poor White voters in 95 of the poorest counties in the United States and elsewhere in the South to vote against their own economic self-interest.

Instead of these poor voters wondering why some of those pushing Trump or prior Republican candidates make as much as $97,000 an hour, while fighting a $15 an hour minimum wage, the "gift" of racism is that it is able to deflect the blame of poor White explotation by the obscenely rich to the usual Black, Latino, Muslim, and Jewish suspects, which continues to succeed in the 21st century by offering equally poor and downtrodden working class Whites the consolation prize of feeling at least nominally superior.

What this has left us with in this latest election- and many of the ones proceeding it- is the voting reality that this profoundly poor racist motived13 Southern states voter core has given conservative Republicans and now Trump an almost insurmountable 171 electoral college leg-up in winning presidential elections, when one realizes that Republicans then only need to accumulate another 99 electoral votes out of the remaining 37 states.

But in North Carolina, Barber didn't stop at just pointing out the racist fear motivated model that has kept putting conservatives and now Trump in power. His Moral Mondays and other programs coordinated with litigation networked across racial and state lines to engage a multi-racial and ethnic have-not majority that has finally given constitutional "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" a substantive new reality reflected in a new Democratic governor and other elected officials.

This has been accomplished, while waging successful judicial confrontation and reversal of what had been the systematic gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

What I found to be a clear vindication of Dr. Barber's DR. WILLIAM BARBER AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE- SOMETHING TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT - Perdaily.com: