Stuart Egan, NBCT high school teacher in North Carolina, has connected the dots that link reformers, the Tea Party, and Betsy DeVos.
Stuart Egan, NBCT high school teacher in North Carolina, has connected the dots that link reformers, the Tea Party, and Betsy DeVos.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
UHG!!
Thank you, Diane!
The North Carolina post is great research, building on other work of bloggers. I think they missed Peter Greene, who has called attention to the political agenda of the National Policy Council, a 5019(c (3) for ultraconservative Republicans who want federal initiatives that favor Christians.
WE BELIEVE in limiting the size and scope of government to allow Americans greater freedom to reach their fullest potential.
WE BELIEVE the Founding Fathers created this nation based upon Judeo-Christian values and that our culture flourishes when we uphold them.
WE BELIEVE that this great experiment called America, a nation founded on the premise that “all men are created equal,” is worth defending.
I have looked overt the list of members this ultra conservative Republican belief tank/lobby.
Here are the names of the North Carolina members. You may already be familiar with them.
Virginia Foxx, Mark Walker, David Rouzer, Richard Hudson, Robert Pittenger, Mark Meadows, Renee Ellmers See very important links and discussion of the National Policy Council and members from 2014, including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. It is important to pay attention to the theocratic impulse from Republicans who are pushing the idea that the nation must assert its strictly Judeo-Christian heritage, exclude aliens and non-believers, and push for free market solutions to a lot of social problems.
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-hard-rights-planning-document-for.html?m=1
The Ed Dept got off to a rocky start with a tweet to celebrate Black History Month with a quote from the sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois. The tweet reads:
“Education must not simply teach work – it must teach life.” – W.E.B. DeBois
Critics quickly noted the error and that the misspelling was similar to the way Betsy DeVos spells her name.
The Ed Dept was quick to acknowledge the error with another tweet that read:
“Post updated – our deepest apologizes for the earlier typo.”
“De Billionaire Boys”
Betsy DeVos
Is one of de boys
She’s really de boss
Not one of DuBois
There was a recent Board of Education election for Albuquerque Public Schools on February 7, 2016.
There were four districts up and in each district there was a Tea Party member running on hateful anti-public education platforms. The local teachers union, The Albuquerque Teachers Federation (ATF) along with AFT New Mexico spent the six weeks of the campaign working tirelessly to ensure that their progressive and pro-public education endorsed candidates would prevent a Tea Party takeover of the BOE.
The good news is not one Tea Party candidate got on the Board and all four of ATF’s endorsed candidates won in incredible landslides. It was one of the largest turnout of voters ever. The Haters lost and the community came out for public education.
The Moral of this story is organize and get out to the doors. It is a lot of exhausting work, but so worth sending a message to the useless Tea Party. The wins in New Mexico helped take the sting out of the Devos confirmation.
Yay for Albuquerque!!
yaaaaay
YES, Sara!! THAT’s how it’s done. If you hadn’t commented on the Colorado parent’s post w/this as the solution, please do so, so that she is sure to read it & act on it.
Yes, WE can. And WE WILL.
Check this out. Of course, we all knew that merit pay wasn’t about increasing student achievement anyway. It was about reducing the cost of labor.
“Teacher merit-pay law hasn’t boosted student learning, Orange [District] says”
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-orange-teachers-pay-students-evaluations-20170213-story.html
This is FYI from the National Education Policy Center where you can read and view some testimony re:
“Cloaking Inequity: Are Charters the Answer for Ed? Testifying @NAACP Charter School Hearing”
Julian Vasquez Heilig
February 13, 2017
Charter Schools Diversity: Race, Ethnicity, Class, Culture, and/or Gender Equity and Social Justice Market-Based School Reforms Poverty School Choice
Are charters the answer for a nation’s long history of underserving the needs of poor children?
http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/are-charters-answer