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→Jun 26, 2011 — Reform At Expense Of Our Schools
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==Jun 26, 2011 — Brenda J. Pickett • Reform At Expense Of Our Schools==
==Jun 26, 2011 — Reform At Expense Of Our Schools==
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• http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/12/22/waiting-for-superfraud/
• http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/12/22/waiting-for-superfraud/
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Comment 8 (Reply)
The CPAs who run our Statehouses these days love any quantity they can measure to the 5th decimal place — they couldn't care less if it has anything to do with genuine learning, much less the qualities of caring, character, citizenship, creativity, critical thinking, and culture that they have no clue how to run through their strainers. So they'll measure what's easy to measure and ignore the rest, dragging us back to the 1-dimensional mentality of behaviorist pigeons and rats that professional educators left in the decimal dust 30 or 40 years ago. But hey — What they don't know don't count as knowledge.
Or maybe it's time for Real Teachers to wash these Amateur Bean Counters out of their hair.
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Comment 9
The main thing that everyone needs to understand is that what you see happening in Benton Harbor, Detroit, and Pontiac will be coming your way sooner or later if not already arrived. It has nothing to do with black vs. white, left vs. right, liberal vs. libertarian, or any of those old-fangled diversions. It goes beyond education, public safety, public services, and even beyond the public sector to the very ideas of community and the common good.
If you don't comprehend the reality of that yet, then you owe it to yourselves to find out about the corporate ideology groups that fly under the banners of ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), the Broad Foundation, the DeVos family, the Koch brothers, MCPP (the Mackinac Center for Public Policy), plus a complex web of derivatives and spin-offs almost beyond counting — but have mostly been flying under the radar of public attention for decades now.
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==Jun 27, 2011 — Karmel Puzzuoli • We All Benefit From Government==
==Jun 27, 2011 — We All Benefit From Government==
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Comment 3
It is well past time we woke up to the fact that the wool being pulled over our eyes in the realm of public education extends to the entire sphere of public infrastructure and public services, all the things that the American People simply cannot afford to abdicate to the agents of private corporate profit, not to mention foreign national interests. Just by way of a hint, here's a recent article —
Dylan Ratigan • “America for Sale : Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?”
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/america-for-sale-is-goldm_b_877285.html
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In Chicago, it's the sale of parking meters to the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. In Indiana, it's the sale of the northern toll road to a Spanish and Australian joint venture. In Wisconsin it's public health and food programs, in California it's libraries. It's water treatment plants, schools, toll roads, airports, and power plants. It's Amtrak. There are revolving doors of corrupt politicians, big banks, and rating agencies. There are conflicts of interest. It's bipartisan.
And it's coming to a city near you — it may already be there. We're talking about the sale of public assets to private investors. You may have heard of one-off deals, but what we'll be exploring with the Huffington Post is the scale and scope of what is a national and organized campaign to shift the way we govern ourselves. In an era of increasingly stretched local and state budgets, privatization of public assets may be so tempting to local politicians that the trend seems unstoppable. Yet, public outrage has stopped and slowed a number of initiatives.
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Comment 4
When democracies run into problems,
They solve them by democratic means,
Or else they cease to be democracies.
We either believe in democracy or we don't. That belief may be a kind of faith, but it is based on reason not fantasy. If you believe in democracy then you deal with the problems of society by working within the framework of democratic principles.
If you believe in democracy then you don't go jumping on the first excuse to toss democracy aside. That is one of the first resorts of all dictatorships to get their feet in the door, because there are always lots of problems to serve as convenient excuses for martial law. And if there aren't enough troubles to throw the People into a state of crisis, then it's the easiest thing in the world to create a bunch more.
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A number of voices in the air these days are trying to sell us on the idea that we have a choice between Big Government and Small Government. A shrewd buyer would be wise to ask why they are trying to sell us that.
A number of voices in the air these days are trying to sell us on the idea that we have a choice between Big Government and Small Government. A shrewd buyer would be wise to ask why they are trying to sell us that.
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==Jun 28, 2011 — Marshall Schools Make Cuts, Dig Into Savings==
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BCE -- Marshall Schools Make Cuts, Dig Into Savings
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Marshall Schools Make Cuts, Dig Into Savings To OK New Budget (June 28, 2011)
• http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110628/NEWS01/110628001/Marshall-schools-make-cuts-dig-into-savings-OK-new-budget
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Comment 1
The Governor and his Privateers are starving the Public Sector in Michigan out of existence for a reason, so that private corporations can complete their hostile takeover of all public services. They stopped being content with tax abatements, bailouts, bribes, incentives, kickbacks, and worker concessions a long time ago — they want nothing less than the automatic funneling of tax dollars directly into their private corporate bankrolls without the annoying interference of all us pesky commoners.
Mackinac Center For Public Policy • “State Needs Privatization”
• http://www.educationreport.org/15050
Lansing State Journal • “Going Private? — Snyder, Republicans Put New Focus On Merits Of Privatization”
• http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110515/NEWS04/105150528/GOING-PRIVATE-Snyder-Republicans-put-new-focus-merits-privatization
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