tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post6026583943372817329..comments2024-03-15T22:56:09.636-07:00Comments on Jersey Jazzman: Education "Reform" Is a Right-Wing MovementDukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16535645107179796099noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-73137225091767965542017-11-14T17:38:39.538-08:002017-11-14T17:38:39.538-08:00Why is Andrew Cuomo so chummy with Moskowitz and L...Why is Andrew Cuomo so chummy with Moskowitz and Loeb? Please everybody, do not vote for Cuomo for President in 2020. StellaBluehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08071919541813999063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-47122130522927510012017-10-25T05:25:19.526-07:002017-10-25T05:25:19.526-07:00Hi JJ, Duke, whatever,
I think your readers might...Hi JJ, Duke, whatever,<br /><br />I think your readers might be interested in this free e-class: Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data. University of Washington<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPnZfvKID1Sje5jWxt-4CSZD7bUI4gSPSjcghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02125479155068030956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-73404852128712604872017-10-25T05:14:52.954-07:002017-10-25T05:14:52.954-07:00"Charters do self select their kids.
Charters..."Charters do self select their kids.<br />Charters kick out the problem kids (or problem parents).<br />Charters do solicit private money.<br />Charters do skim kids away from the public school.<br />Charters (some) do make money."<br />Kids get a "better" education in charters (e.g., segregated from those 'other' kids)<br /><br />I'm not going to address each of these antediluvian "innovations" of the charter movement individually. Parents have the right to decide what is best for their children. <br /><br />However, each idea that you casually dismiss as "so what?" comes with an historical backstory that hides the ugly effects of segregation, exclusion, and deliberate resource deprivation on vulnerable populations. It was southern segregationists & free market fundamentalist Milton Friedman who found common cause following Brown v BoEd. <br /><br />Southern segregationists were bigots who viewed black kids as subhuman & Friedmanites were (are) sociopaths who view the poor & disabled as disposable. It's ironic that arguments in 1954 for segregation are the same made today by charter champions deceptively cloaked in civil rights language. As Chris Hedges said once (not exact quote)The rich say they care about the poor. What they don't like is the smell of the poor. <br /><br />Conveniently brushed aside are any discussion from charter fans about their systemic failure to educate and deliver FULL INCLUSION for children with significant disabilities, physical disabilities, medical and health disabilities, or behavior disabilities. For 42 years public education has been successful in an endeavor to teach equity & fairness. <br /><br />Has it been perfect? no- but it has taken 42 years to get to a place where persons with disabilities are seen as full members of school communities. <br /><br />Systemic rot, greed, corruption, bigotry, and cruelty are a few inches under the surface of education privatization. The billionaires & politicians forcing their 19th century ideology on vulnerable communities don't give a damn about the thousands of kids they are deliberately & systemically leaving behind. <br /><br /> <br />The question is this: is this the type of education system we want in the US?jcghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02125479155068030956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-65521352165035886562017-10-09T18:39:19.769-07:002017-10-09T18:39:19.769-07:00Brian, I am so glad you commented. Because you are...Brian, I am so glad you commented. Because you are exactly the person I want to address in my next post.<br /><br />Stand by...<br />Dukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16535645107179796099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-9694227807793577702017-10-08T17:43:48.643-07:002017-10-08T17:43:48.643-07:00Everything you said in this post about charters is...Everything you said in this post about charters is accurate:<br /><br />Charters do self select their kids.<br />Charters kick out the problem kids (or problem parents).<br />Charters do solicit private money.<br />Charters do skim kids away from the public school.<br />Charters (some) do make money.<br /><br />All of that misses the point though.<br /><br />The kids who get them into a charter and are able to stay with it get a far better education. That's the most important thing: at risk kids who would otherwise waste away in underfunded, overcrowded, dilapidated government schools, get a chance to make it out of the multi-generational poverty.<br /><br />I believe in public education. I believe in charter education. I believe in home education. I believe in education as a path out of poverty, and am in favor of almost anything that will helps achieve that. There are different of routes to that goal because humans are different from each other. Don't get so wound up in public school politics that you forget about the kids who are succeeding in charter (and home) schools.<br /><br />And, please don't make education partisan. Just because others disagree with your prescription for public education doesn't make them cruel, heartless, greedy, or mean. Usually people on both sides of an issue have goodwill; they just value different things and so they come to different conclusions. Education is no different. Demonizing those who disagree does not promote dialogue or solutions.<br />Brian Villanuevahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14372144072813376916noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-62654304560684685342017-10-04T18:53:32.429-07:002017-10-04T18:53:32.429-07:00(3 of 3)
JJ: "When the voters of Boston were ...(3 of 3)<br />JJ: "When the voters of Boston were given the chance to decide on whether they wanted to see charters expand, they overwhelmingly said no (especially in communities of color)."<br /><br />The question on the ballot was not whether we wanted to see charters expand. It was a specific proposal for expansion that some considered potentially too rapid. Indeed the single most influential politician who opposed the ballot question, was Mayor Walsh, the charter school founding board member, who had is own, competing plan for charter school expansion... differences in timetables and funding mechanisms but still an expansion.<br /><br />One should also keep in mind that the ballot question's principal opponents found it necessary to oppose the measure by disseminating an array of vivid falsities (I would be glad to offer a series of examples if you doubt that), perhaps believing that a truthful account might not win adequate public support. <br /><br />JJ: "There is nothing remotely liberal about privatizing schools, demonizing unions"<br /><br />How do you reconcile your implicit argument there with liberal labor leaders like those I've cited above helping start charter schools?Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03647198428780707207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-63162903851349213152017-10-04T18:51:41.023-07:002017-10-04T18:51:41.023-07:00(2 of 3)
JJ: "First, consider what the Succes...(2 of 3)<br />JJ: "First, consider what the Success Academy formula for 'success' is: privately-controlled schools, fueled by public money with private donations mixed in as an additive. Combine this with the clear differences in student populations and the wage free-riding and you've got a big problem with resource inequities between SA and the NYC public district schools."<br /><br />You don't make a persuasive case that terminating private donations to charter schools would benefit anyone. And you fail to recognize that the education reforms instituted by liberal Democrats here in Massachusetts, for example, had both increasing total education spending, and also lessening funding disparities between schools statewide as key elements, alongside development of charter schools, etc. <br /><br />As former labor lawyer and Senate President Tom Birmingham, whom I mentioned above, wrote:<br />"The Education Reform Act is a complicated piece of legislation containing many innovative initiatives, including the creation of charter schools. But for all its complexity, the Education Reform Act can be reduced, in essence, to two propositions: We will make a massive infusion of progressively distributed dollars into our public schools, and in return, we demand high standards and accountability from all education stakeholders. This grand bargain is the cornerstone of education reform.<br /><br />"Our fidelity to these two core principles helps explain our extraordinary achievements. Throughout the 1990s and in the first years of this century, support for public education was the top priority of state government and our budgets reflected this. From 1993 to 2002, state spending on public schools increased 8 percent per year, for a total of over $2 billion."<br />https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/06/14/education-reform-act-reaches-mass-has-more/GMHHU8FdXLwR46qtAM7TgL/story.html<br />Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03647198428780707207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-71437907166735967592017-10-04T18:49:53.434-07:002017-10-04T18:49:53.434-07:00(1 of 3)
Is your argument so very different than a...(1 of 3)<br />Is your argument so very different than asserting that 1) William Ruckelshaus conspired with Republicans in Congress to pass the Clean Water Act; 2) the Walton Family Foundation gives generously to dozens of water protection nonprofits; and 3) nasty remarks have been made by several individuals known to pour water in their tubs on a regular basis. Therefore we left wingers should chronically emulate our Woodstock predecessors' wallowing in mud? <br /><br />Here in Massachusetts, legislative leadership on behalf of education reform has been provided by folks like Senate President (and former labor lawyer) Thomas Birmingham, Senator Michael Barrett, Rep. Marty Walz, all good Democrats, with subsequent charter school expansions supported by both Republican and Democrat governors, including Deval Patrick. <br /><br />Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch of South Boston, former president of the Ironworkers Union is co-founder of the Boston Collegiate Charter school, and Boston's Mayor Walsh who served as a Laborers Union president, and head of the Boston Building Trades until his election as Mayor, was a founding board member of the Neighborhood House Charter School.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03647198428780707207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-53742884938263440332017-10-02T08:34:23.969-07:002017-10-02T08:34:23.969-07:00Privatization of public resources and union-bustin...Privatization of public resources and union-busting, two of the fundamental aspects of so-called education reform, are inherently right-wing, no matter the grossly dishonest use of social justice rhetoric ("the civil rights movement of our time, etc. ad nauseum...) used by the grifters working this billion-dollar hustle. <br /><br />Consistent with the dishonesty they've shown in the past - these people lie about literally everything - the ones who still want to be thought of as liberals or progressives pretend to be outraged by Trump/De Vos' behavior, but that won't keep them from cashing the checks.<br /><br />The hypocrisy and opportunism are truly repulsive, worsened by the mainstream media's continuing to allow these fraudsters to polish their reputations, while they smash and grab public education.Michael Fiorillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02120229151713643775noreply@blogger.com