Friday, April 18, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Bill Moyers: Public Schools for Sale?
DIANE RAVITCH: Well, you know, what really makes my juices flow is when I see billionaires picking on teachers. When I see billionaires who have never gone to public school, have never sent their children to public school, or their grandchildren, if they have them, proclaiming how schools should run and how teachers should teach.
I find myself outraged that our public school system is not being strengthened and improved. I don't want it to stay the way it is. I'm not defending the status quo. When I see a status quo that's controlled by the wealthiest people on our country in alliance with the political power in our country, it makes me want to rail against it. And I'm railing against it as best I can.
BILL MOYERS: You end your book in fact by avowing that, “…the public is not yet ready to relinquish its public schools to speculators, entrepreneurs, ideologues, snake-oil salesmen, profit-making businesses, and Wall Street hedge fund managers.” How can you be so sure?
DIANE RAVITCH: Well, it's because I see what's happening at the ground level. I-- working with other people in education, with parent activists, with educators, I helped to found a group called the Network for Public Education. We have parents, we have teachers, we have students, high school students, they're organizing all over the country to fight back.
In Providence, Rhode Island, it's the Providence Student Union. In Texas, it's the, what I call the moms against drunk testing. And they actually have a longer name than that. And there are parent groups in Ohio, in Indiana, in Louisiana, the Mama Bears in Tennessee.
In Florida, which is one of the keystone states for this kind of what I call corporate reform, where Jeb Bush basically owns that state. He tried twice to get across something called the parent trigger, where parents could take a vote and 51 percent of them could turn their school over to a corporation. And the parents of Florida, despite the fact that Florida has an all-red legislature, stopped that bill now twice. So I see parents of Florida and all over this country saying, we don't want the corporations taking over our schools. So it's the grassroots that I'm counting on. It's democracy that I'm counting on. Now can democracy beat big money? We'll find out later.
BILL MOYERS: You spoke recently in Austin and the title of your speech was “Why We Will Win."
DIANE RAVITCH: I was speaking to the Network for Public Education.
BILL MOYERS: That’s your group.
DIANE RAVITCH: My group.
BILL MOYERS: Gathered from all over the country.
DIANE RAVITCH: They came from-- 400 people came from all over the country, they paid their own way, we had no corporate sponsorship, we had no foundation money, we actually raised money amongst ourselves to play scholarships for the kids to come, the high school students who came. So there are two reasons we're going to win.
Number one is because everything that these reformers, these so-called reformers, are doing is failing. The charter schools are not outperforming the public schools. And the voucher schools don't outperform the public schools. Despite not taking the kids that they don't want, vouchers do not outperform public schools.
Evaluating teachers by test scores, which is one of the big principles of these corporate reformers, has been a disaster. There are many cities and districts that have ended up firing the teacher of the year. There are many teachers-- we are having, in fact, a huge crisis in teaching because so many teachers are leaving the profession. There’s almost a full-frontal attack on the teaching profession so that whereas it used to be 20 years ago that the average teacher had 15 years experience, it's now down to one or two years experience.
Teachers are leaving the profession, because they hate this being evaluated by test score business, because it’s-- what the research shows now overwhelmingly, is that it’s inaccurate, it’s flawed, and good teachers are getting bad evaluations, because they’re teaching kids with disabilities. Or if they’re teaching kids who are gifted, they also get a bad evaluation, because the kids are at the ceiling, they can’t go any higher. So, everything that these guys are pushing has actually failed already. They’re not making schools better. And you can't fail your way to success. But that's only one reason why we're winning.
The other reason is we're organizing. Students are organizing, high school students are organizing. Teachers are organizing and saying they will not give useless tests. We have superintendents speaking out. There's one on Long Island who said, when the test scores come in, I'm throwing them out. They're garbage.
We have students in college organizing against this corporate takeover. So I see all these things happening. Whether it's Tennessee or Louisiana, state of Washington, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and I feel very hopeful that democracy will win out over big money.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
One of the first great series of books I loved: cult of poldark
I even had a couple of letters from Winston Graham when I was kid. It was great to know that people like that existed.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
25% of Americans Unaware That Earth Revolves Around Sun
Nothing better to know we have nuclear weapons.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Robert Taylor 2-5-14 School Board meeting.
I can vouch what he is talking about is a national goal. Education money is the modern day gold rush for all those that can get their hands on the public's money. The poorer the district the more these people, who have never given the people in these districts the time of the day, come out of the woodwork "to help." It is a tough job they have. They have to convince parents the people who spend multiple hours a day could care less about their kids while the ones who won't go near them has nothing but love in their hearts.
This is follow up: http://www.parthenon.com/GetFile.aspx?u=%2fLists%2fThoughtLeadership%2fAttachments%2f4%2fParthenon%2520Perspectives_Investing%2520in%2520Education.pdf
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Louie on TAXI basically explains the essence of capitalism
A figure just at the point that he goes "ugh", but he still pays it; but not so big that he goes "ugh" (and pays it)
Friday, January 31, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Martin Luther King Day and the passing of Pete Seeger-We shall overcome
The passing of one of the giants
Sunday, January 26, 2014
SCOTUS Hears Case With Potentially Huge Consequences For Public Sector U...
The continue attack to cut wages of workers all through America.
The highest paid pizza maker in America
One more reason to say let's go Seahawks. Two millionaires yucking it up and denying their own people health care. Who doesn't enjoy a slice of sweatshop pizza. Let's go Seahawks.
It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - James Stewart - George Bailey's Speech to...
I'm sorry but my experience is I'm going to dig up Jimmy Stewart and vote him to represent me in government. How do you do that?
Saturday, January 25, 2014
After talking to a local pol I felt a little like Jimmy Stewart
They seemed a lot more accepting of corruption than I am. What the hell's wrong with me? I actually believe. "While I'm not licked." Great stuff.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon: "Gov. Christie Traffic Jam" ("Born To ...
A must for all the Springsteen and windbag Christie fans.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Rachel Maddow: NJ Bridge Scandal Was Political Revenge, But Maybe Not fo...
Shocking politicians against their own constituents.
Rachel Maddow: NJ Bridge Scandal Was Political Revenge, But Maybe Not fo...
Shocking politicians against their own constituents.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Friday, January 3, 2014
FAMILY GUY- STEWIE GOES BILL O'REILLY
Link here what is being spoofed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_HyZ5aW76c&list=RDHGZtaoWT96E
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Conversations with Great Minds - Peter Schweizer - Large Corps & Large G...
Just finished reading his book extortion. Parts of it very interesting. My one criticism is that Schweitzer is a little to easy to let off the people paying the money as he goes after the people who take it in. He then doesn't say much about those that fail to cover what really goes on in Washington either.
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