Betsy DeVos, Religious Extremist: Watch This Video Before It is Deleted | Diane Ravitch's blog

Betsy DeVos, Religious Extremist: Watch This Video Before It is Deleted | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Betsy DeVos, Religious Extremist: Watch This Video Before It is Deleted

Betsy and Dick DeVos funded the Student Statesmanship Institute in Michigan, which literally indoctrinates young students into what it considers a “Biblical world view.”

This video lasts for several minutes. Don’t stop watching at pauses. It is likely to be deleted soon. Save it if you can.

Listen to the leader praise Lenin, Hitler, and Stalin for their ability to brainwash the young. Watch the students chant their allegiance. Hear the leader express the hope that the young people indoctrinated into Biblical values will one day fill the Michigan legislature, both chambers.

Do not be fooled. DeVos and her family are funders and patrons of the Religious Right. They are intolerant. Did she defend federal protection of the rights of transgender students? I doubt it. The students in this video are taught certainty, not respect for the views of those who are different.Betsy DeVos, Religious Extremist: Watch This Video Before It is Deleted | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Oscar Sunday. | Fred Klonsky

Oscar Sunday. | Fred Klonsky:

Oscar Sunday.

There is no overstating how unprepared Americans are to retire. Nearly half of private-sector employees — some 55 million people — do not have an employer-provided retirement plan. Most of them are low- to middle-income earners who will end up relying on Social Security for between half and all of their income in retirement.

And yet, as early as Wednesday, House Republicans are expected to pass a measure to thwart efforts by California, Illinois and other states to establish basic retirement savings plans for employees at companies that do not offer such coverage. In California, for example, participating employees would have a small percentage of pay deducted from their paychecks, unless they opted out. Those amounts would be pooled and managed by investment professionals chosen by the state in a bidding process; the plan would be overseen by a board of government and business leaders appointed by the governor and the Legislature. NY Times

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Grillot told how he tried to subdue the shooter when he thought he had run out of bullets, only to be shot in the chest and hand.

He said he was “grateful to be alive” and that he was “just doing what anyone should have done for another human being”.

The US embassy in New Delhi has strongly condemned the shooting, saying: “The United States is a nation of immigrants and welcomes people from Oscar Sunday. | Fred Klonsky:

Unlikely allies: some homeschoolers fighting to kill school choice bill | The Texas Tribune

Unlikely allies: some homeschoolers fighting to kill school choice bill | The Texas Tribune:

Unlikely allies: some homeschoolers fighting to kill school choice bill
Rural conservatives and homeschoolers are joining forces with public education advocates against Senate Bill 3, which pushes private school choice. Their state senators are not all on the same page.

 Nicki Truesdell is a product of homeschooling and would never enroll her four younger children in a public or private school. Corrine French has spent the last five years serving on the board of a rural public school district in North Texas.

Both are terrified a "private school choice" bill will pass this legislative session.

The longtime friends say they were surprised to find themselves on the same side of an education policy fight as state senators consider a bill to give parents debit cards to pay for private school and homeschooling, using taxpayer money. The polarizing issue has brought together unlikely allies, with some homeschoolers, rural conservatives and public education advocates fighting what they see as an encroachment on their schools.

Texas senators with rural constituents are not necessarily on the same page. Several have expressed support for some version of Senate Bill 3, and the two Republican senators who voted against last session's private school choice bill are keeping mum about whether they will continue to oppose a bill that is particularly important to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Patrick has been fighting for a voucher-like bill since his first session as a state senator in 2007. Two years ago, he rallied senators to a successful 18-12 vote for a similar bill. That bill died after the more politically moderate House did not take it up for a vote.

SB 3 would create two public programs subsidizing private tuition and homeschooling expenses, with one program available to families of any income. Truesdell, a leader of a statewide grassroots group called Texans for Homeschool Freedom, has organized thousands of parents on social media to oppose any private school choice bill.

"I'm a lifelong conservative. I've voted Republican all my life. To find myself on the opposite side of the Heritage Foundation and the opposite of [U.S. Sen.] Ted Cruz — it's very shocking and concerning to me," Truesdell said.

She and the organization's more than 6,000 members fear state-funded homeschooling would ultimately take away their freedom, opening the door to regulation of their textbooks and curricula. Texas law currently considers homeschooling to be private education and imposes just a few basic regulations.

"If it's state-funded and state-approved materials, it's not homeschooling," Truesdell said.

She and about 10 others broke away from the Texas Homeschool Coalition when they realized the state's main homeschool group was vocally supporting Senate Bill 3. Jeremy Newman, the coalition's director of public policy, said the bill represents an extension of parental rights and protects homeschool students from burdensome government regulation.

French, on the other hand, is a member of the nonprofit Texas Association of School Boards, which views voucher-type legislation as a financial attack on public schools. French also does most of her organizing online, fielding emails and Facebook messages from people in her circle confused about the issue.

A board member of Valley View ISD 60 miles north of Dallas, she homeschooled her six children alongside Truesdell's kids for about 11 years. But after a divorce six years ago, she realized it would be difficult for a single parent to educate so many teenagers. She enrolled them in public schools, which meant she saw her homeschooling friend less. 

At a Halloween party at their church last October, Truesdell and French brought their kids, ran into each other, and reconnected. French had been sure her conservative friend would join many national homeschooling leaders in supporting private school choice. She avoided bringing up the topic with Truesdell, fearing a conflict. "Who likes to get into an argument?" French said.

Truesdell gingerly eased into the subject. They ended up chatting for two hours in the church, oblivious for the moment that their children were ready to head home.

"We just found it interesting that on such a divisive topic, a homeschooler and a public schooler actually did agree on this issue," Truesdell said.

Few choices in rural areas

Even if the two friends wanted to use state money for private school tuition as Unlikely allies: some homeschoolers fighting to kill school choice bill | The Texas Tribune:

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on Why America Is Already Great - The Atlantic

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on Why America Is Already Great - The Atlantic:

Buffett and Gates: America Is Already Great, Thanks to Immigrants
Two of the world’s three richest people extol the virtue, and relevance, of optimism in the age of Trump—and predict a comeback for fact-based discourse.

Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, and Warren Buffett, the third richest, are—not entirely coincidentally—two of the most unremittingly optimistic men on the planet. So when I met the two of them in New York recently to talk about the state of humankind, and about the future of American democracy, I had a clear understanding of my mission, which was to pressure-test their sanguinity at every turn.

I tried, and failed, though not completely. Both men appear to doubt some of President Trump’s innovations in rhetoric and policy. Both men have warm feelings about immigrants, and also about facts, and so are predisposed to react skeptically to recent developments in the capital. When I asked whether they believed America needed to be made great again, Buffett nearly jumped out of his chair: “We are great! We are great!” And when I asked about the Trump Administration’s problematic relationship with empiricism, Gates said, “I predict a comeback for the truth.” He went on to say, “To the degree that certain solutions are created not based on facts, I believe these won’t be as successful as those that are based on facts. Democracy is a self-correcting thing.”

On immigration, both men were emphatic: In explaining the success of the American experiment, Buffett said, “You had a welcoming attitude toward immigrants who then did wonders for this country.”

Despite their ephemeral worries, Buffett and Gates are both believers in the inexorable nature of progress, not only because they have been treated kindly by fate, and not only because they have concluded that America’s fortunes cannot be reversed during a single four-year presidential term, but because they have overseen a rather remarkable experiment in data-driven philanthropy. The work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, underwritten in part by Buffett’s support (in 2006 he pledged to donate $31 billion), has saved untold millions of lives. (The only person who could plausibly be credited with saving more lives in this period is President George W. Bush, who dramatically expanded the U.S. war on infectious disease during his two terms in office.) They have also overseen a remarkable experiment in peer-pressure-driven philanthropy: Their “giving pledge” encourages the world’s richest people to do as they have done, and commit much of their fortunes to good deeds. So far, they have gotten 157 pledges, which isn’t enough, but it’s something.

The impetus for this joint interview was the release of the annual letter issued by Bill and Melinda Gates on behalf of their foundation. The letter this year was addressed to Buffett, to whom Bill and Melinda Gates are profusely grateful. (Full, very MSMish-sounding disclosure: My wife works as an adviser on gender Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on Why America Is Already Great - The Atlantic:

How Betsy DeVos Could Fail | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

How Betsy DeVos Could Fail | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

How Betsy DeVos Could Fail

Betsy DeVos has been Secretary of Education for less than three weeks, but her tenure as the custodian of federal education law and policy promises to be as stormy as her confirmation process.  According to this summary from The Washington Post, Secretary DeVos managed to, in a few weeks, insult teachers at a middle school, bashed protesters, claimed she would be fine if her department was shut down by Congress, complained about critics wanting to “make her life a living hell,” did not participate in a scheduled Twitter chat for teachers, suggested that schools are supposed to be able to compensate for all home problems, needed U.S. marshals to protect her during a school visit, demonstrated little understanding of the Common Core State Standards, and signaled her number one priority is any form of schooling other than traditional public schools.

Additionally, insider accounts says that DeVos was opposed to the immediate roll back of Obama administration guidelines protecting transgender students, but she was bullied by Attorney General Jeff Sessions into supporting the decision.  In an interview with Axios, Secretary DeVos confirmed that she would not mind if Congress put her out of work by ending the department, and she confirmed her enthusiasm for different “models” of education:

“I expect there will be more public charter schools. I expect there will be more private schools. I expect there will be more virtual schools. I expect there will be more schools of any kind that haven’t even been invented yet.”

It was in an interview with columnist Cal Thomas that DeVos complained about protesters and where she suggested that lack of “character education” was partially to blame for lagging achievement in schools.  In her appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, she joked that she was “the first person” to tell Senator Bernie Sanders that there was “no such thing as free lunch” – despite the ironic fact that federal law does actually provide free lunches for millions of public school students – and she accused the American Professoriate of more or less brainwashing our students.

It is therefore understandable if advocates for American public education are terrified.  Betsy DeVos is absolutely, almost religiously, dedicated to “disrupting” the public school system, and her record of political advocacy shows that she has little regard for the impacts of her preferred reforms and sees them as a goal unto themselves. With the force of federal education law and spending behind her, and with a Congress eager to abet her efforts, there is a great deal of disruption that she can manage.  Stories from New Orleans and Detroit as well as other cities where charters and privatization have had significant impact with little oversight should serve as cautionary tales for teachers, parents, and How Betsy DeVos Could Fail | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

This is a provocative, revealing movie you must see - Lily's Blackboard

This is a provocative, revealing movie you must see - Lily's Blackboard:
This is a provocative, revealing movie you must see

If you are committed to shutting down the school-to-prison pipeline, “13th” is a must-see documentary.

The film is up for an Academy Award (and if there is any justice, it will win) for its provocative, revealing, look at how the United States, with only 5 percent of the world’s population, came to incarcerate 25 percent of the world’s population.

Director Ava DuVernay connects the dots between slavery, Reconstruction, convict leasing, the Southern Strategy, the law-and-order regime that emerged during the Civil Rights Movement, the crackdown on nonviolent drug offenses and the rise of the prison-industrial complex.

The film even examines the influence of ALEC, the group whose corporate members write model bills to suit their profits, then pass them along to state legislators who turn those model bills into laws. Aside from promoting mass incarceration, ALEC has also pushed voucher legislation.

The one aspect of this complex issue DuVernay’s film did not examine was something many of us are familiar with: zero-tolerance policies, the assigning of explicit, predetermined and often severe punishments to specific violations of school rules, without taking into account the situation or context.

The film looks at mass incarceration through the lens of the 13th Amendment:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

It’s the clause in the middle, the film explains, that has pushed our prison population to more than 2.3 million people—nearly 1 million of whom are African American.

“That number includes people in 1,800 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 942 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in U.S. territories,” a report by the Prison Policy Initiative says.

The film explains how people are frequently incarcerated not because they’ve been convicted, but because they are This is a provocative, revealing movie you must see - Lily's Blackboard:

Without Progressive Opposition, Trump Will Win in 2020 and Beyond | gadflyonthewallblog

Without Progressive Opposition, Trump Will Win in 2020 and Beyond | gadflyonthewallblog:

Without Progressive Opposition, Trump Will Win in 2020 and Beyond

“You maniacs! You Finally did it! Oh damn you all to Hell!”

This was Charlton Heston at the end of “Planet of the Apes.”

But it could just as easily have been progressives everywhere after the Democratic National Committee voted for corporate shill Tom Perez to lead the party over bonafide change agent Keith Ellison.

What the Hell is wrong with you, DNC?

Perez supports the TPP, he’s a friend of the big banks and the donor class – AND he was part of the disastrous, dirty, LOSING Hillary Clinton campaign.

Don’t you get it? We lost against a reality show TV clown, Donald Trump, and you’re just repeating the same mistakes!?

And don’t give me this Russia hacking crap. Yes, they probably helped Trump win by exposing DNC emails. But they were real DNC emails. Democratic operatives actually wrote that stuff.

You will never convince me that it was enough to turn the election. If we had had an actual progressive running (Cough! Cough! Bernie Sanders!) it wouldn’t have mattered.

This was a choice between a corporate candidate and Donald Trump and people chose Donald. F’ing. Trump!

That’s on you.

And what is the first thing you do to fight back? You vote for another corporate Democrat to lead the party to oppose him!?

You maniacs! You Finally did it! Oh damn you all to Hell!

The Democratic Party is all but dead now.

Trump will walk into a second term in 2020 – no matter how terrible he continues to Without Progressive Opposition, Trump Will Win in 2020 and Beyond | gadflyonthewallblog:

SKrashen: Self-selected free voluntary reading: The missing link in language education

SKrashen: Self-selected free voluntary reading: The missing link in language education:

Self-selected free voluntary reading: The missing link in language education

S Krashen (www.sdkrashen.com; twitter; skrashen; facebook Stephen Krashen)

 ECIS ESLMT conference

Two views of language/literacy development

A.  The comprehension hypothesis: we acquire language when we understand it.

1.  grammar, vocabulary = RESULT of language acquisition

2.  pleasant immediately

B.  The skill building hypothesis: first learn about language, practice rules

1.  grammar, vocabulary learned first, then you can use the language

2.  delayed gratification (that never arrives)

3.  Superiority of methods based on comprehensible input: http://skrashen.blogspot.com/2014/08/comprensible-input-based-methods-vs.html

Second/foreign language acquisition: TPR, Natural Approach, TPRS

Intermediate second/foreign language acquisition (sheltered subject matter teaching)

Literacy: success of whole language over heavy phonics methods

Special case of the comprehension hypothesis: the reading hypothesis - the source of our reading ability, writing ability (writing style), vocabulary, spelling, grammar)

The case for free voluntary reading

SSR = sustained silent reading The Fiji Island study (RRQ, 1983): Elley & Mangubhai

Grade	ALM	SSR	Big Books
4	6.5	15	15
5	2.5	9	15

year 2: larger differences, readers better in writing, listening and grammar

Richard Wright: “I bought English grammars and found them dull. I felt I was getting a better sense of the language from novels than from grammars."

Predictors of performance on the Spanish subjunctive by English speakers

Predictor	Beta	p-value
Study	0.0052	0.72
Residence	0.051	0.73
Reading	0.32	0.034
subjunctive study	0.045	0.76

From: Stokes, Krashen & Kartchner, 1998

UK Study: Sullivan and Brown: Predictors of scores on vocabulary test given at age 42

1. Reading at age 42 counts, independent of reading at 16 or younger & previous vocabulary.

2. Fiction counts: high-brow and middle-brow, but not low-brow

3. Reading counts even when control for subjects' & parent education, parent occupation

Sullivan, A. & Brown, M. 2014. Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University of London

Compelling Comprehensible Input:  So interesting not aware of language, sense of time, sense of self diminishes = Flow (Csíkszentmihályi): the end of motivation

Case histories: language acquisition never the goal, but a by-product. It was the story.

1.     Paul: Cantonese & English speaker, acquired Mandarin from cartoons and lots of TV shows, movies, with no particular motivation to acquire Mandarin. (Lao, C. and Krashen, S. 2014. Language acquisition without speaking and without study.  Journal of Bilingual Education Research and Instruction 16(1): 215-221; http://sdkrashen.com/articles.php?cat=6)

2.     Fink (1996/6) 12 former dyslexics. 9 published creative or scholarly works. 11 learned to read between 10-12, one in 12th grade.  “As children, each had a passionate personal interest, a burning desire to know more about a discipline that required reading … all read voraciously, seeking and reading everything they could get their hands on about a single intriguing topic."

2nd/foreign language education in terms of compellingness: traditional > TPR > Natural Approach > TPRS

The END OF MOTIVATION: It's the story that counts

Language & literacy development = by-product

The extreme pleasure of self-selected reading

"perhaps the most often mentioned flow activity in the word (Csikzentmihalyi, 1991)

-resident of Italy - when he reads, “I immediately immerse myself in the reading, and the problems I usually worry about disappear” (Massimini, Csikzentmihalyi, & Della Faye, 1992.)

- A reader interviewed by Nell (1988): “reading removes me ... from the irritations of living ... for the few hours a day I read ‘trash’ I escape the cares of those around me, as well as escaping my own cares and dissatisfactions.

- Somerset Maugham, in Nell (1988): “Conversation, after a time, bores me, games tire me, and my thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing resources of a sensible man have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as the opium-smoker to his pipe ...”

Nell: reading before you go to sleep - level of arousal increased during reading, declined just after reading below original level

- 24/26 pleasure readings read in bed “nearly every night” or “most nights” (p. 250).

“Even if I read for only five minutes, I must do it - a compulsion like that of a drug addict!”  

 “My addiction to reading is such that I almost can’t sleep without a minimum of ten minutes (usually 30-60 minutes) of reading” (Nell, p. 250).

Develops Knowledge: Stanovich & colleagues: those who read more know more about SKrashen: Self-selected free voluntary reading: The missing link in language education:

Newsletter: Privatization vs. The People | PopularResistance.Org

Newsletter: Privatization vs. The People | PopularResistance.Org:

Newsletter: Privatization vs. The People

A snapshot from the future: You drive your kids to school, go to work, the hospital or a movie and you are charged for every mile of road you use through an EZ Pass. The road has been developed and maintained by a bond funded by wealthy investors at very high interest rates. The investors are the first on the list to be paid, since the city needs to keep a strong bond rating in order to borrow more from investors.

Bruce Dixon, editor of Black Agenda Report, writes, in “EZ Pass — Tip Of The Road Privatization Vacuum Cleaner,” that trade associations and lobby groups are working toward ‘pay-to-use’ roads in the near future. Roads will be privatized or become public-private partnerships. If we are unable to pay, we cannot use the roads or may even lose our license. Dixon points out that under the Obama administration toll lanes were allowed on more existing highways to advance toward privatized roads.

This is the essence of privatization today: turn a public good into a profit center for Wall Street. US economic policy has created a wealth class that is grotesquely wealthy and under-taxed so it has the money that the government needs to provide public services. This forces the government to borrow money from or sell a public service to the privateers or to create a public-private partnership (disguised corporate welfare and crony capitalism) in order to provide essential services.

This model was applied during the Obama years on a mega-level to health care. Rather than treating universal health care as a public service and expanding and improving Medicare to cover everyone, Obama worked with corrupt healthcare profiteers – the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and health care investors – for a law that benefited them. We described Obamacare as “the biggest insurance scam in history” in 2013, predicting it would lead to increased premiums, out-of-pocket costs and deductibles and decreased coverage while making the medical industry wealthy – this is exactly what happened.

The Market Rules While Public Services Are Cut

Under Obama and previous presidents, the market was king while public services were diminished or disappeared. Obama is infamous for his triad of trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trade in Services Agreement. The common theme of all three was privatization by granting greater power to corporations, making it impossible to regulate them, and turning public services into profit centers for big business.

The TPP and TTIP both seem to be dead. It is unclear what the fate of TiSA will be under President Trump, but we must not allow it to be completed. Last week Trump said he wants no more multi-country trade deals and will pursue one-on-one negotiations where the US can demand terms from a smaller country and easily walk away if the country refuses.

by Annette Dubois

TiSA is a grave danger. It is an agreement of 52 nations (including all of Europe) and from numerous leaks we know the thrust of TiSA is privatization of all services. Services are 80 percent of the US economy and include the postal service, education, health care, etc. TiSA creates a one-way street to privatization with incentives to Newsletter: Privatization vs. The People | PopularResistance.Org:

solidaridad: Schools Matter: Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives

solidaridad: Schools Matter: Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives:

Schools Matter: Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives

“PLEASE don’t forward this email. simply state it in your own words.”—Yolie Flores Aguilar

This email was addressed to some 60 individuals, including myself, on February 4, 2017. While its authenticity is not absolutely certain, I have researched the email addresses in the email body and they all seem legitimate. The content is consistent with the language that these charter school executives use both in public and internal conversations.

Yolie Flores Aguilar was an employee of the infamous Gates Foundation (of ALEC and Discovery Institute donation fame) while she sat on the LAUSD Board. She brought a resolution to give away new schools built with taxpayer dollars to privately managed charter school corporations.

Here Flores colludes with several well paid charter executives to avoid public mention that her resolution (inappropriately named Public [sic] School Choice) was essentially a real estate bonanza for the lucrative charter school sector. Marco Petruzzi and Ben Austin of Green Dot/Parent Revolution, Judy Burton of Alliance, Mike Piscal of ICEF are the big names in this secret missive. The lot of them have been plagued by scandals, but most of them are still profiting mightily from the charter industry.

Flores is currently running for U.S. Congress. If she's capable of this sort of duplicity and malfeasance while on a school board, imagine her in another position of power to further serve her corporate masters. Arch-reactionary Betsy DeVos would love to have more neoliberal Democrats that support her school privatization agenda of charters-vouchers. DeVos already has corporatists like Corey Booker in her thrall, Yolie Flores would be no different.

The second document should help authenticate this email chain. It's an email from Dr. Danny Weil with Yolie Flores Aguilar's <itsyolie@sbcglobal.net> email address in the to field. I recall she had a blog by the same name (i.e. "itsyolie"), and remember seeing emails from her from that address back in that era.

---

Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives by Robert D. Skeels on Scribd

Dr. Danny Weil email with Yolie Flores Aguilar's <itsyolie@sbcglobal.net> email address by Robert D. Skeels on Scribd

 solidaridad: Schools Matter: Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives: