Friday, October 23, 2009

Advocating Public Education Roundup 09W43

Save Public Education from the right wing forces of privatizationThe most important thing in this update is The California Campaign to Save Public Education being held this weekend at UC Berkely. For more information go to the event's website, or read SW's excellent article discussing the conference: Organizing the fight for public education.

Dr. Danny Weil, editor of School Vouchers and Privatization: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary Education Issues) exposes the nefarious and reprehensible activities of Green Dot/LAPU/Parent Revolution as pure astroturf in: Say you want a revolution?: Parents Revolution, 'Astro turf' organizations and the privatization of public schools

On 4LAKIDS Scott Folsom's Blog review: THE BROAD REPORT, Mr. Folsom gives a good outline of the subject matter found on Sharon Higgins standout new blog THE BROAD REPORT. Sadly he ends the piece with this comment in reference to this valuable resource: "While not exactly evenhanded – or even fair-and-balanced..." As if the manipulations of the ideologically charged billionaire discussed in Ms. Higgins blog are somehow either of the things Mr. Folsom mentions! Let's be clear, the wealthy overclass sees this opportunity to utterly dismantle and privatize what Professor David Lloyd terms "the second commons," consisting of public institutions like schools, libraries, parks, and more. These neoliberal vultures, discussed in Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, have all the resources (the state, media, finances, etc.) at their disposal. Pulling punches or watering down our message as PUBLIC education advocates would be suicidal. If anything, THE BROAD REPORT is far more even handed and "fair and balanced," than the Green Dot, Alliance, Bright Star public relations firm posing as the Los Angeles Times, and the information Ms. Higgins provides is invaluable to public education advocates and activists.

This one is scary: Bill Gates reveals support for GMO agriculture. So the convicted predatory monopolist from Redmond supports frankenfoods as well as frankenschools. CMO, EMO, and now GMO! If he or his company was ever capable of writing stable or secure code, I'd make a comment about him going back to what he knows, but given the inferior quality of his products, maybe he should just withdraw into obscurity. We'd all be so much better off!

Caroline Grannan continues finding great things to share: Is teaching a profession -- or a temporary missionary project?

My recent expose on one of Green Dot's uglier sides gets republished on the renowned Dissident Voice website: Dissident Voice : Code Words and Green Dot’s Pandering to Westside Racism.

Another Dr. Danny Weil piece looks at two of the horrors comminted by Los Angeles CMO/EMO corporate charters: Charter Schools, the repression of free speech and authoritarian autocracy: the new but old, educational reform.

Crooks and Liars has a short entitled We're Back to Faith-Based
Education - Charter Schools Will Work If We Hope They Do.


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