group in Colorado seeks to reclaim education

[ellenrr]

Welcome to RAVE. The RAVE caucus in Colorado has been created in a determined effort to unify Colorado through education and action as we reclaim and improve our public schools. We are parents, students, teachers, AFT members, NEA members and citizens of Colorado. We speak truth to action and we are clear in our goals to take down corporate education reform and bring authentic teaching and learning back to Colorado’s public schools. We recognize that federal mandates designed to privatize public education, along with corporate money and corporate ideology, have become the guiding forces within our public schools and many organizations that profess to support public schools. We, the citizens of Colorado, can reclaim our public schools as we organize as one and move forward with integrity and with students at the forefront.


http://corave.org/2014/04/20/rave-re-igniting-association-values-for-educators/

[merrily]

1. Yet, in a hollywood movie, funded by rwingnut, taking back a school

consisted of making it a charter school.

Snark aside, very sincere good wishes to the RAVE caucus. Between the Republicans and the Democrats and all the private money being collected for the "cause" charter schools for decades, it sure has its work cut out for it.

Sadly, so does the City of Boston. That is especially sad to me because Boston, home of the first official pubic school in the US. (I am sure there have been people teaching groups of kids without taking money from them for the teaching since time immemorial. Hence, my use of the term "official.&quot

There was a scandal about John Connolly, one of the many mayoral primary candidates, being backed by big bucks from a charter school favoring organization in California. When it came to light, he promised to stop spending their money in the primary, but I don't know who, if anyone, held him accountable. Moreover, he and Walsh were the primary winners anyway and I don't know if Connolly repeated the promise in the general.

Now Mayor Walsh, however, was also in favor of charter schools. So were all but one or two of the field of about 25 Democratic primary candidates.

I think Boston controls them a bit more than other jurisdictions, though. Or so one of Connolly's campaign workers tried to explain to me over the phone.

[ellenrr]

2. Same thing in New York city, and in Newark...

and I'm sure dozens of other cities.
Public education has become the cause celeb of the right-wing. (one of them anyway).

In New York city Mayor de Blasio was castigated as being "anti-charter" altho he approved 14 of 17 charter applications.
His charters-uber-alles opponent Eva Moskowtiz was backed (predictably) by BIG bucks.

In Newark, where I am involved, the mayorality election on May 13 - the biggest issue is the Superintendent of schools "One Newark Plan" - which is the plan of the privatization forces.

[merrily]

5. I don't imagine Booker was anti-charter, was he?

[ellenrr]

6. No he's pro-Charter. He is Wall Street's guy

[merrily]

7. I knew that in general.

Kind of gave himself away when he chastised Obama for being too anti-business while supposedly campaigning for Obama.

I just did not know if maybe, by some slight chance, he might have been for public education anyway, given, you know, how well his own public school education worked for him.

[AllyCat]

3. I'm reaching the point I don't want to support

ANY candidate that wants charter schools. So many affronts to our democracy , so few decent candidates.

[merrily]

4. I did that in the Boston Mayoral primary--and it wasn't easy.

Out of almost 25 candidates (only one of whom was a Republican, LOL), only two were not supporters of charter schools. The candidate labeled the most liberal by some commentators actually ran a charter school, if I remember correctly.

I voted for one of the two public school advocates, but they just did not have the funding or enough of an organization to pull ahead of better known frontrunners. So, I had zero choice in the general but to choose the one that seemed to have less backing from charter school advocates. Besides, he was considered a union guy, so that clinched it for me.