Donate to CAP? Are You Serious?

I'm on the email solicitation list for the Center for American Progress, a "progressive" think-tank in Washington. And, apparently, they want my money - badly:

We need the Center for American Progress.

During my time in Congress, CAP provided the fuel that powered our hard-fought victories on issues like health care, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and women’s health. Their side had money, and our side fought back with facts—and those facts came from CAP. Progressive champions at the local, state, and federal levels rely on CAP’s expertise, analysis, and communications reach. Every single day.

We all need CAP. But right now, CAP urgently needs our support.

[Instructions for donating]

We can’t do it without you. 

Thanks for all your support. 

Best,  

Tom Perriello  

Counselor for Policy, Center for American Progress 

President and CEO, Center for American Progress Action Fund 

Dear Tom:

I actually do give to several "progressive" causes. But as a working teacher, I will not give one damn dime to the Center for American Progress. Because you people are as responsible for pushing anti-union, anti-teacher, poorly-researched, reformy nonsense as any right-wing group in Washington.

Why would I, as a working public school teacher and union member, support an organization that:

- Wants to implement test-based teacher evaluations, even as they acknowledge that the statistical models those evaluations are built on have high rates of error?

- Engages, in the words of John Thompson, in the "'Sister Souljah' tactic of demonstrating its independence from Democratic constituencies by beating up on educators"?

- Issues reports with policy recommendations in which "Very little in the way of supporting data is presented to justify [the report’s] claims"?

- Downplays the serious problems with the between-district inequitable distribution of resources?

- Advocates for increased class sizes on the basis of cost without comparing it to the cost of other policies?

It's bad enough we have to deal with education reforminess on the right; we really don't need it from the left as well. If you need money, go ask for more from Bill Gates or Eli Broad; they love the sort of stuff you're selling.

Best,
JJ

CAP? Those are our kind of "progressives"!