I will NOT vote for that right-wing, war mongering, nativist, corporatist candidate. Their history of accepting huge sums of money from bankers, hedge fund managers, and C.E.O.s is, in my eyes, far less problematic than their abject record of vilifying immigrants, criminalizing the poor, and accelerating the neoliberal dismantling of public institutions like schools.
Oh, and I would NEVER vote for any of the G.O.P. troglodytes that are her supposed opposition either.
#NotReadyForImperialism
First published January 13, 2016 on K-12 News Network
“charter schools comprise a divisive and segregated sector” — Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G., Wang, J. (2011)
Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's (VAPPE) grassroots campaign to repeal the 1992 charter school laws imposed on California by corporate reactionaries Donald Fisher and Reed Hastings has been moving forward. In addition to their online petition, they've established a contribution committee, grown their endorsements, setup online fundraising, and have submitted their final ballot proposition language.
Recently VAPPE picked up a major political endorsement in the Green Party of San Diego County. In general the Green Party, unlike the Democratic Party, has been very astute on the grave dangers of charters, vouchers, and all other school privatization schemes proffered by the plutocrat class. Green Party Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein is a stalwart defender of public education. The following are quotes from two different interviews, as well as a video of Dr. Stein and Kshama Sawant discussing the scourge of charter schools.
Public education is another example where there has been a complete scam [regarding privatization]—charter schools are not better than public schools—and in many cases they are far worse. They cherry-pick their students so they can show better test scores. The treasure of our public schools system has been assaulted by the process of privatization. (Phone interview on 2016 presidential race by OnTheIssues.org , Jul 6, 2015)
Unfortunately, charter schools draw down on funding for our public schools, and they siphon off the more capable students and their families. At the same time they concentrate the real social problems in the public schools, which is guaranteed to collapse our public system from within. The advantages of charters ought to be features of all public schools: family engagement, additional resources and budget, and so on. (2011 AmericansElect interview questionnaire with Jill Stein, Dec 21, 2011)
VAPPE also picked up support of the brilliant Sharon Higgins of The Perimeter Primate, Charter School Scandals, and The Broad Report. Higgins was one of the first to bring to public consciousness the fact that the largest chain of taxpayer funded charter schools in the United States is run by a shadowy religious cult — the Gülen Network. I've used Higgins research extensively in documenting the ties between Gülen friendly Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board members elected with big money from the corporate charter school industry and their billionaire backers. Both political opportunist Monica Garcia, and charter school profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez have deep ties to the secretive Gülen religious cult.
VAPPE lists their significant endorsements as follows:
This email was sent out to those who signed VAPPE online petition:
You have signed the petition in support of repealing the California Charter School Act of 1992.
We have officially filed the text of the initiative with the CA Attorney General's office and requested a title and summary to allow us to gather the necessary signatures to place this on the ballot for November 2016. The link to the text of the proposed intiative at the Attorney General's office can be found here at this link: https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/15-0114%20%28Repeal%20Charter%20Schools%29_0.pdf?
We will need to gather approximately 400K signatures.
There are volunteers working hard throughout the state to make this happen. But we will still need to raise funds to gather all the necessary signatures. Please make a donation to this campaign - every little bit will help.
Make your check out to:
Repeal Charter School Laws
Send your check to:
Repeal Charter School Laws (FPPC# 1378057)
Attention: Diana Mansker-Treasurer
7753 Laurie Way
Sacramento, CA 95832This campaign recipient Committee is registered with the CA Secretary of State's Office: http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1378057
Please help us save our public schools from the greedy profiteers!!
Thank you for your support,
Kathleen Carroll
Voices Against Privatizing Public Education—Repeal Charter School Laws Committee
Support this movement, it represents an important united front against the billionaire's privatization project.
First published on tumblr on July 28, 2013
From the Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations group on Facebook. The photograph is from a LAUSD public school with a Proposition 39 charter colocation on its campus. The privately managed charter corporation, with its extra funds donated by right-wing plutocrats, has resources to provide arts and other activities for students that public school students are denied. Here a performance at the charter school in which the children listen to a song about loving everyone—while the public school children look on through a chain link fence.
School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 is the tacit reinstitution of Plessy v. Ferguson. Join the struggle to end the lucrative charter industry and return education to the realm of public commons governed by the public.