Showing posts with label Betsy DeVos:wealthy voucher advocate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Betsy DeVos:wealthy voucher advocate. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
PUBLIC EDUCATION Made the US Great!
And Republicans are trying to destroy it!
We've seen what FOR PROFIT does elsewhere - healthcare managed by Vulture Capitalists SUCKS!
Betsy DeVos's FOR PROFIT SCHOOLS are FAILURES!
Don't sacrifice children for Republican Profits!
THIS IS CRITICAL INFORMATION!!! PLEASE ACT ON THIS IMMEDIATELY!!!
House Bill 610 makes some large changes. Please inform yourselves and act accordingly. The proposed changes to American public education are seismic and potentially devastating--particularly to minorities and children already at risk.
This bill will effectively implement the school voucher system, to be applied to children ages 5-17, and will begin the long-term process of defunding public schools.
In addition, the bill will completely eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which is the original legal basis of the nation's modern education system and, as such, has provided equal access for all to education, from K-12.
The 'Every Student Succeeds Act' (ESSA), signed into law by President Obama in 2015, is a big, comprehensive law that underwrites programs for struggling learners, AP classes, ESL classes, classes for minorities including Native Americans, Rural Education, Education for the Homeless, School Safety (e.g., Gun-Free schools), Monitoring and Compliance and Federal Accountability Programs.
In addition to dismantling ESSA, House Bill 610 also abolishes the Nutritional Act of 2012 (No Hungry Kids Act) which provides nutritional standards for school breakfasts and lunches. The bill does not stipulate any protections for special needs (SN) children, nor does it mention IDEA or FAPE.
Please keep in mind all the important protections that the existing law (ESSA) provides for children with disabilities:
ESSA:
-Ensures access to the general education curriculum.
-Ensures access to accommodations on assessments.
-Ensures concepts of Universal Design for Learning
-Includes provisions that require local education agencies to provide evidence-based interventions in schools with consistently underperforming subgroups.
-Requires States covered under Title I plans to address how they will improve conditions for learning, including reducing incidents of bullying and harassment in schools, overuse of discipline practices and reducing the use of aversive behavioral interventions (such as restraints and seclusion).
Please call your representative and ask him/her to vote NO on House Bill 610 (HR 610) introduced by three Republican reps.
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Sunday, December 18, 2016
Trump's Secretary of Education: Betsy DeVos
And now the Republican leader, President elect Donald Trump has elevated to top advisor a leader of the white supremacist movement renamed alt-Right.
Occupy Democrats
By selecting this unqualified ideologue, Trump just
declared war on public schools.
Shared by Occupy Democrats, LIKE our page for more!
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Progressive Breakfast: Betsy DeVos May Complete The Big Money Takeover Of Our Nation's Schools
MORNING MESSAGE
Betsy DeVos May Complete The Big Money Takeover Of Our Nation's Schools
...what DeVos represents in a very great sense is how rich people's grip on the nation's public education system has reached a choking point. No doubt, education policy led by Trump and DeVos will differ from the previous administration, but what's staying the same is how wealthy private interests will strongly influence policies. Grasping this essential truth matters a lot in the "nasty" politics of education today, where the real debate is not so much about charters and choice as it is about who is in control.
TRUMP TO INDIANA TODAY
Trump to tout Carrier deal in Indiana today. NYT:“…Trump is scheduled to visit a Carrier plant in Indianapolis after the company announced it would keep 1,000 jobs there, shelving plans to move them to Mexico. The details of what exactly Mr. Trump agreed to in the negotiations with the manufacturer remained unclear. “
Sen. Sanders slams deal in W. Post oped:“Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move abroad? In essence, United Technologies took Trump hostage and won. And that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across the country.”
Carrier’s ties to Mexico haven’t changed. AP:“At a news conference, the mayor of Santa Catarina, the Monterrey suburb where the Carrier plant is, said he had not heard from the company. ‘We haven’t received any formal notification from the company. In fact, we are working normally with them,’ Mayor Hector Castillo said, adding that Carrier has already constructed the shell of the new factory building.”
Conservatives may criticize Carrier deal. The Hill:“…if it turns out that Trump and Pence have offered any special concessions to Carrier — either at the federal level or the state level, given that the vice president-elect is still the governor of Indiana — then those free-market groups are likely to cry foul. ‘The particulars of this agreement haven’t been released, but our position on corporate welfare is well-known and that has not changed,’ said Brent Gardner, chief government affairs officer at Americans for Prosperity. The group is the major grassroots organization within the network of conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch.”
Trump to target NAFTA. The Hill:“‘We’re working out the fine-point details, but NAFTA is logical starting point,’ [Commerce nominee] Wilbur Ross told host Erin Burnett on CNN’s ‘OutFront’ Wednesday.”
GOLDMAN SACHS WINS
Goldman Sachs dominates Trump cabinet. Politico:“…Wall Street’s most powerful firm, Goldman Sachs, is dominating the early days of the incoming Trump administration. The newly picked Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, spent 17 years at Goldman. Trump’s top incoming White House adviser, Steve Bannon, spent his early career at the bank. So did Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers. Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, spent an hour schmoozing with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and could be up for an administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget…”
Bloomberg adds:“Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson was feeling happy Wednesday morning … ‘I can take glee in that — I think Donald Trump conned them,’ said Tilson, who runs Kase Capital Management … Shares of all the big Wall Street firms climbed Wednesday, with Goldman Sachs rising 3.6 percent, the best performance in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.”
“Trump Treasury pick made millions after his bank foreclosed on homeowners” reports Politico:“[Steve Mnuchin’s] company foreclosed on a 90-year-old woman after a 27-cent payment error. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo singled out the lender for squeezing superstorm Sandy victims. This month, the company’s successor, CIT Bank, was accused of discriminating against minority borrowers.”
NYT explores Trump’s challenge on the economy:“The middle class will see a big tax cut, but the wealthy will not. American businesses will pay much lower taxes, and as a consequence bring back billions of dollars from overseas. All this will create sustained growth of 3 to 4 percent a year and prevent the budget deficit from exploding … [Trump’s team has] promised economic growth targets that will be difficult to achieve given modern demographics, and committed to plans that even sympathetic analysts project will vastly widen the budget deficit … Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Ross suggested that the plans would not widen the budget deficit thanks to ‘dynamic scoring,’…”
GOP HAS NO IDEA WHAT TO DO ON HEALTH CARE
“GOP may stall Obamacare replacement for years” reports Politico:“…GOP leaders on both sides of the Capitol are coalescing around a plan to vote to repeal the law in early 2017 — but delay the effective date for that repeal for as long as three years. They’re crossing their fingers that the delay will help them get their own house in order, as well as pressure a handful of Senate Democrats — who would likely be needed to pass replacement legislation — to come onboard before the clock runs out and 20 million Americans lose their health insurance.”
Few want Obamacare repeal, in Kaiser poll:“… one-fourth of Americans (26 percent) wanting to see President-elect Donald Trump and the next Congress repeal the entire law … many of the law’s major provisions continue to be quite popular, even across party lines…”
Trump pledge on Medicare in doubt. The Hill:“His campaign promoted the article’s headline — ‘Why Donald Trump Won’t Touch Your Entitlements’ — on its website. But [his HHS pick Tom] Price does want to touch entitlements … Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), meanwhile, tweeted an image of Trump’s promise last year not to touch entitlements, including Medicare. Sanders asked if Trump ‘has any intention of keeping the promise that he made, or has he played the American people for suckers?'”
Dems poised to fight on Medicare. NYT:“Senate Democrats intend to press Mr. Price on this subject during his confirmation hearings. They see a wide opening for political gain, given the 57 million older Americans who rely on Medicare — including many white Midwesterners with financial worries who voted for Mr. Trump … A Medicare fight is also a potential political lifeline for Democrats in red states who could be in very tough contests in 2018.”
IVANKA TRUMP, CLIMATE ACTIVIST?
Ivanka Trump may tackle climate. Politico:“[A] source said Ivanka is in the early stages of exploring how to use her spotlight to speak out on the issue.”
States and cities should embrace “revenue-positive” carbon taxes, argues Heather McGee and Robert Reich in The Nation:“[We] need a Plan B that the Republicans cannot obstruct … a ‘revenue-positive’ approach, whereby polluters pay for carbon reduction either through a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system, and the revenue generated is directly invested in disadvantaged communities.”
Fuel efficiency requirements will stay in place. AP:“Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said that based on the agency’s technical analysis, automakers can meet emissions standards and fuel economy requirements for model years 2022 to 2025. The standards will nearly double new-car gas mileage, dramatically cut carbon pollution, maintain regulatory certainty for the auto industry and save U.S. drivers billions in gasoline costs … the agency plans to finalize the decision before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated in January.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
Incoming Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao was an awful Labor Secretary. The Nation:” Chao’s DOL … took an excessively deferential approach to businesses that were found to be mistreating employees, issued low fines for safety lapses, and ignored complaints from low-wage workers … criticisms of Chao’s management were confirmed and extended upon in a series of scathing reports by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office …”
House clears “Cures” bill while Warren fights in Senate. The Atlantic:“….the Republican-controlled Congress is likely to approve legislation that will invest more than $6 billion in public health and medical research over the next decade … But to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the bill is an enormous giveaway to pharmaceutical companies … the lower chamber overwhelmingly passed a new version late Wednesday afternoon, 392-26 … Biden won money for his cancer moonshot, and a coalition of lawmakers secured funding to send as grants to states fighting opioid addiction … The White House gave the final compromise its strong support … Public Citizen … said the bill still went too far in relaxing approval standards for drugs and devices…”
Pelosi wins leadership election. Politico:“Even after 63 House Democrats — almost a third of the Democratic Caucus — voted Wednesday against keeping her on as minority leader, Pelosi declared her political position is better than ever … [But] a sizable faction of her members have lost faith that Pelosi has the strategic vision needed to lead them back into power.
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more »
Monday, November 28, 2016
Progressive Breakfast: House Democrats: New Leadership, New Energy, Union members that backed Trump may get anti-labor laws in return
MORNING MESSAGE
House Democrats: New Leadership, New Energy
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) announced he would challenge [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi. Only one problem: Pelosi is virtually irreplaceable ... The obvious course isn’t a futile attempt to dislodge Pelosi, but a concerted challenge to Chief Whip Steny Hoyer, Pelosi’s number 2. Hoyer is everything young people hate about Democrats.
TRUMP "WORKING-CLASS" AGENDA MAY BUOY CEOS
Trump may swap corporate tax cut for keeping Carrier plant in US. WSJ:“Representatives for the incoming administration … have held wide-ranging policy talks with top-ranking executives at Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies Corp. … The discussions include the conglomerate’s plans to shift more than 2,000 jobs from Indiana to Mexico, but have covered other issues, including the company’s wishes for a tax overhaul … United Technologies … has large reserves of cash overseas—profits that corporations are waiting to repatriate to the U.S. until Congress cuts the level of tax they would pay…”
Union members that backed Trump may get anti-labor laws in return. NYT:“Why, after unions spent more than $100 million to defeat Donald J. Trump, did Mrs. Clinton win only narrowly among voters from union households … With Mr. Trump’s victory and with Republicans now controlling both houses of Congress, unions are expecting a series of stinging blows … many Republicans are eager to repeal an 85-year-old law requiring that contractors pay union-level wages on federal projects [and enact] ‘right-to-work’ legislation … Trump will most likely scrap most of Mr. Obama’s executive orders on labor…”
Trump will struggle to bring back coal jobs. NYT:“…even if Mr. Trump undoes Mr. Obama’s policies, many of those plants … are not coming back. Analysts agree that what Appalachia really needs is a diversified economy, a goal that has eluded Mr. Obama and state and local politicians.”
Education Secretary nominee Betsy Devos has the “worst record” of Trump’s possible choices, says Tulane economics professor Douglas Harris in NYT oped:“As one of the architects of Detroit’s charter school system, she is partly responsible for what even charter advocates acknowledge is the biggest school reform disaster in the country … The situation is so bad that national philanthropists interested in school reform refuse to work in Detroit … The DeVos nomination is a triumph of ideology over evidence…”
Barney Frank argues Trump’s financial deregulation risks another market crash, in Boston Globe oped:“The abolition of the law’s restrictions on granting mortgages to borrowers who are highly unlikely to repay means we will see successors to Countrywide, the mortgage-granting machine that gave us countrywide defaults. The removal of the regulations governing trading in derivatives means Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and others can return to the unrestricted dissemination throughout the economy of securities composed of bad mortgages … It will put Federal officials back to having to choose between letting a company go bankrupt — Lehman — with its disruptive effect, or bailing it out — AIG.”
Trump may revamp Fed. The Hill:“The right has grown increasingly irritated by the central bank’s policies since the financial crisis and may now be poised to finally push through long-stalled changes to overhaul its operations … ranging from tougher oversight to fundamental changes over how the Fed deploys its powerful tools to steer the economy … [And] there are two openings on the seven-member board of governors.”
NEW REVELATION OF STEVE BANNON'S RACISM
Steve Bannon may literally be a white supremacist. NYT:“[Former film collaborator Julia] Jones [said] Mr. Bannon occasionally talked about the genetic superiority of some people and once mused about the desirability of limiting the vote to property owners. ‘I said, “That would exclude a lot of African-Americans,”’ Ms. Jones recalled. ‘He said, “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”‘”
“In Sotomayor Hearings, Jeff Sessions Was Fixated on Discrimination Against White People” reports Mother Jones:“In that questioning, Sessions focused on two specific incidents in Sotomayor’s 17-year record as a judge. The first was a speech Sotomayor gave at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she said she hoped ‘a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male.’ The second was a case in which, as a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, she sided with the city of New Haven, Connecticut, which had thrown out a promotion test for firefighters because few minorities did well on it.”
DEM MAYORS READY TO RESIST
“Cities Vow to Fight Trump on Immigration, Even if They Lose Millions” reports NYT:“…officials in sanctuary cities are gearing up to oppose President-elect Donald J. Trump if he follows through on a campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants. They are promising to maintain their policies of limiting local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents … Trump has vowed to block all federal funding for cities where local law enforcement agencies do not cooperate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents … Some believe Mr. Trump could go further than simply pulling federal funding, perhaps fighting such policies in court or even prosecuting city leaders.”
Dem senators are a different story. The Hill:“While outgoing Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) didn’t want Democrats to work with vulnerable Republicans ahead of the 2016 elections, his heir apparent Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is signaling a willingness to let his members do what they need to do to survive in the next Congress.”
Senate Republicans may not scrap filibuster. The Hill:“Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who led a task force to review potential rule changes, said there isn’t ‘very much’ of an appetite to overhaul the filibuster … Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the chairman of the Finance Committee, argued the filibuster was one of the few tools within the government to protect the rights of the minority … GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) are [a;so] signaling they aren’t inclined to overhaul Senate rules…”
HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP ELECTION WEDNESDAY
Rep. Tim Ryan says he has a “shot to win” House Minority Leader. AP:“Pelosi, a 76-year-old liberal from California who is known for her fundraising prowess, says she has the support of two-thirds of her caucus … Tim Ryan said House Democrats’ ‘failure as a caucus has been not to focus on economic issues.'”
TNR’s Kyle Swenson presses Rep. Tim Ryan on his economic vision:“‘I think social issues are always part of a presidential campaign,’ Ryan replies. ‘We don’t have to run from our progressive social agenda because I think most Americans agree with us on most of it, like on gay rights or even the choice issue. But if they see you talking only about social issues, and their main issue is their pocketbook, their job, their economic anxiety, you just look like you don’t understand them.’ Asked for specifics on the economic message he’d like to see, Ryan points back to his own district and other former industrial strongholds. Ohioans have had to get creative about new industries…”
FEDS TRY TO SHUT DOWN PIPELINE PROTEST
Army Corps of Engineers tries to shut down Dakota Access Pipeline protest. CNN:“Protesters fighting pipeline construction must vacate property near the Cannonball River … by December 5 or face arrest … On Sunday, the Corps issued a new statement saying it wants a ‘peaceful and orderly transition to a safer location, and has no plans for forcible removal.’ But, those who choose to stay ‘do so at their own risk…’…Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II issued a statement blasting the Corps, but didn’t say exactly how the tribe would respond.”
“Rapid” melt of the Arctic. ABC:“‘While some changes, such as warming temperatures, are gradual, others, such as the collapse of ice sheets, have the potential to be not only abrupt, but also irreversible,’ says the Arctic Resilience Report … Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, described the phenomenon to Scientific American as being without a known precedent.”
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more »
Sunday, November 27, 2016
RSN: Betsy DeVos, Trump's Big-Donor Education Secretary
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FOCUS: Jane Mayer | Betsy DeVos, Trump's Big-Donor Education Secretary
Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
Mayer writes: "After choosing for his cabinet a series of political outsiders who are loyal to him personally, Donald Trump has broken with this pattern to name Betsy DeVos his Secretary of Education. DeVos, whose father-in-law is a co-founder of Amway, the multilevel marketing empire, comes from the very heart of the small circle of conservative billionaires who have long funded the Republican Party."
READ MORE
Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
Mayer writes: "After choosing for his cabinet a series of political outsiders who are loyal to him personally, Donald Trump has broken with this pattern to name Betsy DeVos his Secretary of Education. DeVos, whose father-in-law is a co-founder of Amway, the multilevel marketing empire, comes from the very heart of the small circle of conservative billionaires who have long funded the Republican Party."
READ MORE
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Thursday, November 24, 2016
This & that.....TRUMP PICKS BILLIONAIRE “KING OF BANKRUPTCY” TO LEAD HIS COMMERCE DEPT.
link.
The Intellectualist shared a link.
Fight for $15's photo.
Fight for $15
Average cost of Thanksgiving dinner tops $50 for 1st time, out of reach for minimum wage workers.
#FightFor15 via http://sfg.ly/1PCZjbu
Occupy Democrats's photo.
Occupy Democrats
By selecting this unqualified ideologue, Trump just declared war on public schools.
Shared by Occupy Democrats, LIKE our page for more!
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