User:Jon Awbrey/PATCH

May 23, 2011 — School Leaders Hoping For Update

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Patch -- School Leaders Hoping For Update

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School Leaders Hoping For Update, Feedback During Forum Tonight (May 23, 2011)

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight

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Three recent stories on the push to privatize schools:

Virg Bernero on the GOP Agenda for Education
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7vhjTiqpX0

The United Gates of America

• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/22/978218/-The-United-Gates-of-America

Rupert Murdoch, “Education Software Provider”
• http://www.businessinsider.com/rupert-murdoch-news-corp-education-2012-presidential-campaign-2011-5

Anyone with a working long-term memory knows where this agenda to “Starve Public Schools Out Of Existence” came from.

Good thing there's web search for the rest of us —

Richard DeVos Advocates “Stealth” Strategy Against Public Education
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-fTAhc4QC4

Blackwater In-Law DeVos Outlines “Stealth” Plot Against Public Education
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/04/972949/-Blackwater-In-Law-DeVos-outlines-stealth-plot-against-Public-Education

Strategy for Privatizing Public Schools Spelled out by Dick DeVos in 2002 Heritage Foundation Speech
• http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/3/12515/58655/Front_Page/Strategy_for_Privatizing_Public_Schools_Spelled_out_by_Dick_D

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_770258

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Mr. Ranger,

People of good sense are not fooled by the Educational Voucher Con any more than they are fooled by the Medical Voucher Con. That is why they reject these scams time and time again when they come to a vote, and that is why the Privatization Axis keeps getting sneakier, stealthier, and more deceptive year after year.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_812103

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The Facebook page, “Wear Red For Public Ed”, collects news and opinion about the state of public education across the national scene:

• http://www.facebook.com/wearredforpubliced

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_813225

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Mr. Reno,

You wrote, “It will be interesting to see what happens in Pennsylvania.”

I simply supplied an additional source of information and opinion about what is happening with public education on the national scene.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_813597

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Note 5

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In a related story …

Wealthy Families, Corporate-Backed Foundations Behind Push for School Vouchers
• http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2011/05/10778/wealthy-families-corporate-backed-foundations-behind-push-school-vouchers

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_813905

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Joshua Raymond wrote:

“I am not wealthy nor corporate-backed. As I mentioned in my post above, I just want options for gifted children who aren't having their needs met in Rochester Community Schools. The options suggested by some RCS employees have often been tuition-based schools which many parents, including me, cannot afford. Please suggest some options and not just another link.”

Mr. Raymond,

It may well be that every child is gifted in something — it might be art, or athletics, or astrophysics, or any one of a thousand other things. All the true teachers I have ever known were the sorts of persons who loved nothing better than seeing those gifts come to light. What constrains the administration and faculty of RCS from doing justice to all those gifts?

Do you think it's a lack of dedication or desire on the part of the administration and faculty? I personally doubt that.

Do you think it's that much ballyhooed austerity? I think that anyone watching the dollars in the air and where they are going will have to admit that austerity in general is one of the biggest of the Big Lies that we have seen in many decades.

Where private dollars go is determined by private interests — some of the links I shared are informative on that score.

Where public dollars go ought to be determined by the Public Will. Is that what we see happening in the current state of things?

That is the question that we ought to be asking here.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_815185

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Mr. Raymond,

I am not acquainted with a Public Will or a Philosophy of Education on the contemporary scene that promotes such attitudes toward the actualization of any human potential. There is simply no percentage in it, either for the individual or for society. The fact that some people feel that way does not elevate the attitude to the level of Public Will. The constraints on tailoring education to diverse individuals come from other considerations than the best educational philosophy and practice.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_815459

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Note 8

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What can I say?

Keep bashing your teachers. Keep listening to con men. Keep cutting funds to public education and expecting to get high quality education as a result.

Welcome to Michissippi !

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_816212

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Here is a post from the Facebook page of the Ferris Faculty Association:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ferris-Faculty-Association/146689847768

“We all know the struggles public schools face with declining per pupil funding. We have seen Governor Snyder's plan for the future. The following link is a fund raiser trailer for Greenhills, the school Snyder has his daughter enrolled in. They're fund raising because $20,000 per year per student is not enough to properly educate a child. This trailer shows what Snyder wants in a school for *his* children.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAfBHj9Lc8E

I'm guessing the Governor does not have a clue how to go about creating a high quality educational environment for all of Michigan's children, but the above information tells us that he does know where to get a few clues about the components of a quality education and how much it costs to achieve it. And one thing we know for sure is that he's not getting those clues from his bean-counter corporate buddies who are dictating their wish list of laws to the Legislature in Lansing.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_817410

http://shelby-utica.patch.com/articles/ucs-teachers-to-protest-education-cuts-today#comment_859798

http://ferndale.patch.com/articles/teachers-picket-state-cuts-at-woodward-and-nine-mile#comment_862203

http://shelby-utica.patch.com/articles/viewfinder-ucs-teachers-protest-education-cuts-today#comment_862208

http://birmingham.patch.com/articles/teachers-protest-at-schools-to-educate-parents-on-proposed-cuts#comment_862238

http://bloomfield-mi.patch.com/articles/call-to-action-teachers-appeal-to-parents-as-statewide-cuts-to-education-loom#comment_862288

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/teachers-across-rochester-protest-state-budget-cuts#comment_862422

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Mr. Reno,

What I oppose is those who would destroy our longstanding system of universal free public education. That system of education is one of the foundations of a successful democracy, and I believe that a democratic form of government is essential to any society that hopes to survive and even, with grace and luck, thrive in a complex world. There have been other fits and starts toward democracy that failed for the lack of well distributed education and information among the people who would rule. I will do what I can to weigh against destroying that system of education.

I did not invent the fact that others are pushing for a different route, the route of total corporate privatization of the entire public sector, including public education as one subsidiary of their intended incorporation. The pushers of privatization have stated their goals. They have numbered vouchers among their methods. They have been weighing heavily and steadily for what they want with all their wealth and all the power they can muster. And they have been doing all that for a long time now.

The only thing that has changed this time around is that their tactics have become more deceptive, less open and less forthright.

I oppose that deception, and so should you.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_818343

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Mr. Reno,

You are using the word “monopoly” in a very curious fashion that I have only recently heard. I cannot tell if your intention is supposed to be ironic or not.

Yes, all forms of government might be said to maintain a “monopoly” over those functions and institutions that are considered essential to their public purview. Now and again we see stories in the news of people who chafe against Uncle Sam's monopoly on the printing of money, and there was indeed a time in our history before that irritating but apparently necessary regulation on commerce was imposed. Oh well, at least they left us our coupons.

Perhaps you honestly do not know what a true monopoly is, or what a private corporate monopoly of our nation's educational system would look like.

I pray that we do not find out.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_818571

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Well, it took a bit of work to drag the truth out into the open, but at least we have established the fact that some people really do still believe in vouchers.

That is a kind of progress …

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_818919

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Mr. Meta-Reformer,

I confess that I sometimes get frustrated with the opinions that I read from a certain contingent on this blog. But then I stop and remind myself of all that I learned about biased samples in my years of statistical consulting. That tells me that the views expressed by these folks cannot possibly be representative of the community as a whole — or else there would be no teachers at all working in the local schools.

So buck up, there is hope yet …

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_821675

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Note 14

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(Oops, hit the wrong button … Reposting the above)

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_821704

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So It Was You !

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_821730

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Cheesy?

Let the record show that Ms. T brought Wisconsin into this.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_821962

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Linda Darling-Hammond • “The Service of Democratic Education”
• http://www.thenation.com/article/160850/service-democratic-education

<quote>
Precisely 100 years ago, nationally distributed tests of arithmetic, handwriting and English were put into use. Their results were used to compare students, teachers and schools; to report to the public; and even to award merit pay — a short-lived innovation due to the many problems it caused.

In the view of these brilliant managerial engineers, professionally trained teachers were considered troublesome, because they had their own ideas about education and frequently didn’t go along meekly with the plan.

As one such teacher wrote in “The American Teacher” in 1912:

We have yielded to the arrogance of “big business men” and have accepted their criteria of efficiency at their own valuation, without question. We have consented to measure the results of educational efforts in terms of price and product — the terms that prevail in the factory and the department store. But education, since it deals in the first place with human organisms, and in the second place with individualities, is not analogous to a standardizable manufacturing process. Education must measure its efficiency not in terms of so many promotions per dollar of expenditure, nor even in terms of so many student-hours per dollar of salary; it must measure its efficiency in terms of increased humanism, increased power to do, increased capacity to appreciate.
</quote>

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_822342

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Mike,

I am (he computes) 62 years old. My first experience with educational reform was when I had to help my little brothers and sisters with “The New Math” while I was still being trained on “The Old Track”. So I got to see the clouds of chalk-dust from both sides at the very outset. My high school and undergrad years were filled with curricular reforms going under a parade of Acronyms and Isms that I don't even want to try and remember. I have lost count of all the Crusades and Movements and Programmes and Revolutions and Reformations that I have survived since then.

There are no simple answers. Some things can be quantified, some things cannot. Reality demands competence and creativity, exactness and humanity. I do not know how we are judged in the end, but we learn to be whole human beings by interacting with other whole human beings, and there is no escaping that in the meantime.

I have known enough teachers to know that none of them ever goes into teaching to make the Big Bucks or to have an easy life. They all, so far as I know, start out with some hint of a calling, a true love of teaching, and trying the best they can. If they get ground into the dust somewhere along the way, that is a human tragedy, both for them and their charges, but there are forces beyond any isolated person's control, and it would be a gain for society if we inquired into what those are.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_822745

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Diane Ravitch • “Waiting for a School Miracle”
• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01ravitch.html

“Be skeptical of stories of rapid educational transformation.”

<quote>
Educators know that 100 percent proficiency is impossible, given the enormous variation among students and the impact of family income on academic performance. Nevertheless, some politicians believe that the right combination of incentives and punishments will produce dramatic improvement. Anyone who objects to this utopian mandate, they maintain, is just making an excuse for low expectations and bad teachers.
</quote>

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_824060

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Just sharing a tidbit from my daily newsfeed, as I do run across a lot of random readings that I find slightly more interesting and always a lot more coherent than my own rambling thought process.

I dimly remember reading a little of what Ravitch was saying in the early 1990s, I think when she was doing her bit for Bush 1.0.  That was probably tangential to my reading in the literature on Critical Thinking, and I don't remember thinking too highly of her point of view in those days.  It's only recently that I have run across her latest Op-Ed pieces, and she strikes me as that rare breed of person who is capable of changing her theories in response to the data of experience.  I always find thinkers like that worth another thought.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_824284

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I think the word is in the public domain. That is actually the very word I always use to describe off-topic posts in the Wikipedia Review meta-discussion forum that I occasionally moderate. And believe you me, the people there are very tangential.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_824472

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Mackinac Center For Public Policy • “State Needs Privatization”
http://www.educationreport.org/15050

<quote>
The Michigan Legislature should consider privatization in order to correct the state’s overspending crisis, a Center expert told the Lansing State Journal.

“There are all sorts of areas that the state should consider privatization,” Fiscal Policy Analyst James Hohman said. “You have to monitor everything to make sure you’re getting the value for the money. It’s not just a blanket privatization arrangement that will work for the state.”

Michigan’s public schools have found increasing success with privatization of noninstructional services over the last decade. Mike LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, recently wrote about privatization in the Michigan prison system.
</quote>

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_825421

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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

<quote>
Once a buzzword in Michigan state government in the 1990s, privatization now is coming back in a big way.

Touting his goal of reinventing government, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has proposed privatizing prison food and store services, dairy farm and plant nursery inspections and resident care in two veterans homes to bring state costs under control.

A far more sweeping measure would privatize the processing of Medicaid and day care aid applications in the state Department of Human Services, which union officials say would lead to layoffs of several hundred state workers. That measure, proposed by Republicans, has been passed by the Senate and now must be reconciled with the House budget.
</quote>

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_825489

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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

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_825943

http://bloomfield-mi.patch.com/articles/local-teachers-to-join-in-statewide-school-protests#comment_860052

http://birmingham.patch.com/articles/school-board-considers-changing-board-policies-to-address-66-million-budget-deficit#comment_860788

http://shelby-utica.patch.com/articles/ucs-teachers-to-protest-education-cuts-today#comment_860882

http://grossepointe.patch.com/articles/grosse-pointe-teachers-inform-parents-of-snyders-plans#comment_863210

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Democracy Demands Universal Free Public Education

The purpose of universal free public education is to promote the general welfare. In order to do that governments must (1) insure equal opportunities for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, (2) provide all citizens with enough education that the Republic as a whole has the best chance of surviving and prospering, and (3) enable citizens to exercise their civic rights and responsibilities with the information, the knowledge, and the faculties of reason that it takes to do so with the best chance of success.

Education is not a private commodity. Education is not a personal luxury. Education is a necessity of life in a democracy — if we intend to secure that democracy for ourselves and our posterity.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_831233

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In a democracy the state is just people.
Just people will constitute a just state.

TGIF !

TUFSO ! (Thank Unions For Saturdays Off)

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_837529

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Being a realist I believe that ideas are controlled by reality. The way that reality controls ideas is complex and subtle, but the end result of the control process is just one of two things. Ideas that represent reality will live, ideas that do not will die.

Enough about disembodied ideas.

What educators really care about is the body of ideas that lives in the hearts and minds of a given people, in other words, the culture of a given society.

A culture that represents reality, a people who make reality their friend — that culture and people will live. A culture that fails to represent reality, a people who make reality their enemy — that culture and people will die.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_837832

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Re: “Democracy Demands Universal Free Public Education”

Mr. Raymond,

The word “Universal” here is shorthand for the idea that Free Public Education must be co-extensive with the class of people who are learning to function as citizens in a democratic society. When you really think about it, that may be an example of Lifelong Learning, but that doesn't conflict with the fact that some lessons are more basic than others. You'll get no argument from me about the value of diversity, at least, in the play of ideas that we contemplate. But the survival of a society or a species depends on realizing that reality will sort out the People and the Creatures who don't take fact-finding seriously.

And when it comes to choosing what ideas to bet our lives on, we have to “Consider The Source”.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_846126

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Ms. Junker,

Thanks for reminding us of what should be obvious.

The pushers of privatization are spending a whole lot of money on advertising, lobbying, and phoney grassroots campaigns to divert us from the obvious. They don't spend that money without expecting to leverage a whole lot of money in return, because that is what private interests do.

The pushers of privatization are spending a whole lot of money telling us that we are living in a time of austerity. We're not supposed to notice the excess cash they have to spend on telling us there is no money.

Another couple of things that ought to be obvious:

1. Private corporations and public services operate on fundamentally different principles.

2. Private corporations and public services are manged to serve radically different ends.

Private corporations, goods, and interests have their place in serving a democratic society, a society where every citizen has an equal voice in deciding the direction of the public will. But private corporations, goods, and interests can never be allowed to become the masters of a Free, Equal, and Democratic People.

That ought to be as obvious now as it was in 1776.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_859656

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Snyder and his “Run It Like A Chinese Computer Company” cronies like to make a lot of noise about “Accountability” and “Transparency”, but those are just Big Bizness Buzzwords that Big Bizness Buzzards like to foist on everyone but themselves.

The fact is that vouchers are a pipeline for draining public funds into private schools, and once the money goes there the public abandons almost all the accountability and transparency that it expects and demands to exercise over its public schools. There is not much the public can do but wait for some outrageous scandal to break before the courts will give them leave to beg pretty please where the money went.

That is what the word “Private” means.

Given the exorbitant means at their disposal, private corporations have been very successful at protecting what they claim to be their “Right to Privacy” and their “Trade Secrets”,  even from the most ordinary forms of public eyeballing.  Indeed, the late-blooming idiocy of “corporate personhood” is threatening to give private corporations vastly more rights to privacy than any of us mere mortals could afford to defend.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_862825

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Here's a good article on the ongoing program by ALEC, DeVos, Koch, et al. to destroy public education:

Jim Hightower • “Billionaires' Front Groups Attack Workers, Public Schools, and Young Voters”

• http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/2680

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_872726

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Note 31

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This just in …

ALEC | Publicopoly

• http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=publicopoly

At least they are starting to be a little more blatant about *some* of their agenda …

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_878716

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Note 32

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Thank You West Bloomfield Teachers For Stepping Up To Put Kids And Communities First !

We'll be sure to remember your Self-Sacrificing Public Spirit next year when the Sacrifice-Sharing State comes back again for more cuts and concessions in its annual round-up of Sacrificial Goats.

Well, some of us will …

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight#comment_880569

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May 24, 2011 — Marleau, McMillin Update School Audience

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Patch -- Marleau, McMillin Update School Audience

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Marleau, McMillin Update School Audience on State Budget Cuts (May 24, 2011)

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/marleau-mcmillin-and-mull-speak-about-funding-cuts-to-rochester-community-schools

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Note 1

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Here's a good article on the ongoing program by ALEC, DeVos, Koch, et al. to destroy public education:

Jim Hightower • “Billionaires' Front Groups Attack Workers, Public Schools, and Young Voters”

• http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/2680

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/marleau-mcmillin-and-mull-speak-about-funding-cuts-to-rochester-community-schools#comment_875001

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Note 2

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You can link a horse to whatever, but you can't make him think.

Thass okay, I'll keep trying ...

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/marleau-mcmillin-and-mull-speak-about-funding-cuts-to-rochester-community-schools#comment_876817

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May 31, 2011 — McMillin Mentioned In CNN Blog

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Patch -- McMillin Mentioned in CNN Blog

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McMillin Mentioned in CNN Blog About School Funding
• http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding

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Note 1

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There's irony and then there's double irony.

The second irony is that the Party of ALEC has the same plans for privatizing corrections as they have for privatizing education.

At least it will make the transition easier for those among the poor peon population who are unlucky enough to fall into either institution.

In related stories …

Snyder Seeks Massive Concessions From Prison Workers
• http://michiganmessenger.com/49044/snyder-seeks-massive-concessions-from-prison-workers

Two U.S. Judges Plead Guilty To Selling Children To Private Prisons
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4q7p3ME95E

Pennsylvania Judge Convicted in Alleged “Kids for Cash” Scheme
• http://abcnews.go.com/US/mark-ciavarella-pa-juvenile-court-judge-convicted-alleged/story?id=12965182

Related tags at the Daily Kos —
• http://www.dailykos.com/news/ALEC
• http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Exposing%20ALEC
• http://www.dailykos.com/news/inmate%20labor
• http://www.dailykos.com/news/prison%20labor

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_818129

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Note 2

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“Scarce educational dollars” were made scarce by decisions in Lansing.

They were made scarce by the fact that the Governerd and the Republican-controlled Legislature decided to slush the available funds in other directions.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_818129

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Note 3

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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 you pesky peasants.

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

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_825815

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Note 4

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Mr. Ray,

I'm not sure what you are saying, but I'll take a few guesses and maybe we can clarify the issue over a few exchanges.

I don't think people of good sense are saying that privately funded education at any level is a bad thing.  That would be kind of silly.  In reality, there are probably only a few cases of schools and universities that are funded purely from private sources or purely from tax dollars, especially if you look into scholarship foundation monies.

The basic principle is this — Public Funds, taxpayer dollars managed by Constitution-Fearing government entities, are accountable to the constituents of those governments, by whose general consent they maintain their sole legitimacy.  That is a very different sort of accounting system from the kind that we find in privately-owned corporations.  There are Federal and State constitutional constraints on how those funds can be spent, if they are spent legitimately.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_826434

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Note 5

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I have been following this and several related discussions on the Rochester Patch:

Marleau, McMillin Update School Audience on State Budget Cuts (May 24, 2011)
• http://rochester.patch.com/articles/marleau-mcmillin-and-mull-speak-about-funding-cuts-to-rochester-community-schools

School Leaders Hoping for Update, Feedback During Forum Tonight (May 23, 2011)
• http://rochester.patch.com/articles/school-leaders-hoping-for-updates-feedback-and-solutions-during-budget-forum-tonight

McMillin: 'We Made Tough Choice to Bring Excellence Back to Classrooms' (May 5, 2011)
• http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-we-made-tough-choice-to-bring-excellence-back-to-classrooms

What I hear a lot in these discussions is that parents are focused on their own kids' education, which is a good thing. But con artists bent on destroying our system of universal free public education exploit that focus, turn it into a fixation on the false idea that taxes are something they pay for their kids only, and blind them to the fact that education is a public good that people with no school-age kids or even any kids at all pay to support. This is part of a long-running campaign by private corporations, their corporate-owned media, and their corporate-owned politicians to erase the very idea of the public good from the People's minds. And they have been spending all the Big Bucks they can muster to do it. Why? I'm guessing you can tell by the dollar signs in their eyes.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_847714

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Note 6

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Janet,

I don't see any conflict between the Public supporting the Public Good, which is why we have public-funded education in the first place, and the good of our local public schools.

I do see a conflict between a number of private interests that seek to destroy universal free public education and replace it with a kind of Toll Education, something parents will have to pay for child-by-child and minute-by-minute like their phone bills, with arm-&-a-leg roaming charges and no roll-over.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_847999

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Note 7

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On Private Truths —

Fight Brews Over Sarah Palin On Paul Revere Wikipedia Page
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/sarah-palin-fans-fight-over-paul-revere-wikipedia-page/2011/06/06/AGxtzHKH_blog.html#pagebreak

<quote>
Supporters of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin have taken to Wikipedia, where they have been trying all weekend to revise the page on Paul Revere to reflect her recent comments.
</quote>

Is it 1984 already?

Where the truth about Paul Revere depends on whether you went to a TEA Party School or Yer Average Party School, and what side has the most Astroturfers and Sockpuppets this week.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_849029

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Note 8

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Mr. Raymond,

I'm guessing that's a joke, since the proverbial People Of Good Sense do not blame teachers for *everything* that a child fails to learn, and I'm sure that no respectable school, public or private, would assume responsibility for the strange ideas that pass between some people's ears, not to mention across their lips into public spaces.

Like they say —

“People are entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.”

Governments derive their right to levy taxes on the condition that those taxes support the Public Good.  People want their taxes to be limited, so the amount of Public Good that can be achieved is also limited, more and more lately to the barest essentials that it takes prospective citizens to perform their role as citizens.  The People's contribution to the Public Good can be greater if the People will it to be so.

There are times when it takes a rather large effort to communicate the Will of the People to the people who are charged to represent that will.

This looks like one of those times.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_850545

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Note 9

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Mr. Raymond,

Anyone who knows the history of our current funding model for education knows that it has nothing to do with any philosophy of education that teachers prefer to practice under, much less Government Mind Control. It arose from the natural desire of parents to exercise local control over the quality of education in their areas.

When I first came to Michigan in the 1960s, many of the less well off districts actually did quite well with their education funding because they had businesses and industries that still paid property taxes — as opposed to seeking tax abatements on the threat of moving to China or Mexico or wherever — and the general population always passed millages adequate to the task. There was in addition a lot more money coming from the Federal level. The purse strings have shifted a bit since then, but people still want the power that came with them. That appears to be creating some tensions.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_850797

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Note 10

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Mr. Agenda,

The problem is that the Party of ALEC, DeVos, Koch, and the Mackinac Center has deliberately designed this very type of Shlock & Awe Shucks Blitzkrieg for the use of hired guns like Rick Snyder (MI), Scott Walker (WI), John Kasich (OH), Rick Scott (FL), Paul LePage (ME), Tom Corbett (PA), Chris Christie (NJ), and their entire misbegotten Hole-in-the-Head gang. There is nothing about these drive-by shootings that requires the perpetrators to stick around after the damage is done, but it will take every bit of work decent citizens can muster to repair the ruins of our States after they are gone.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/mcmillin-mentioned-in-cnn-blog-about-school-funding#comment_858153

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Jun 07, 2011 — Rochester Teachers To Demonstrate

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Patch -- Rochester Teachers To Demonstrate

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Rochester Teachers To Demonstrate After School Today 

• http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today

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Note 1

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In other news …

ACLU Calls for Department of Justice to Investigate Wisconsin’s Discriminatory School Voucher Program

• http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-calls-department-justice-investigate-wisconsins-discriminatory-school-voucher

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_855105

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Note 2

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Academic freedom, collective bargaining, peer review, and tenure are crucial to the life and vitality of a profession where character, citizenship, critical thinking, ideas, inquiry, and reason are the essence of the teaching. The profession had to fight for those values before, and it will have to do so again.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_856938

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Note 3

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Mr./Ms. Legislature,

Here is the story from The Rochester Citizen that went with the clip you posted:

“Copy and Paste Legislator” Tries To Disavow Legislation He Sponsored

• http://therochestercitizen.com/copy-and-paste-legislator-tries-to-disavow-legislation-he-sponsored-p568-1.htm

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_858949

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Note 4

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Here's a good article on the ongoing program by ALEC, DeVos, Koch, et al. to destroy public education:

Jim Hightower • “Billionaires' Front Groups Attack Workers, Public Schools, and Young Voters”

• http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/2680

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_872614

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Note 5

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Mr. Lennon,

The official ALEC website has sections that are public and sections that only registered members — corporate sponsors (who pay a lot) and legislators (who pay a token fee) — can read.  There are also lots of PDF brochures that anyone can download to get a hint of their agenda.

There are many sites on the open web and Facebook that are collecting and indexing the available data.  I'll go dig up the web links that I haven't used in a while, but here's a couple of handy Facebook pages that I have on the tip of my browser:

Democracy Watchdog Action Network

• http://www.facebook.com/democracy.watchdog.action.network

Support Bill Cronon

• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Bill-Cronon/163419837045434

Bill Cronon is a history professor who came under attack when he wrote an article about ALEC and the Mackinac Center, so the people who came to his defense began collecting data about these issues.

There exists already a rather large and gangly mass of information to wade through by yourself, but the folks who manage or frequent those pages should be able to tell you what they know about any specific questions you might have.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_875250

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Note 6

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Re: Groundhog Day

One of my all-time favorite movies !

As I recall — if you'll excuse the expression — it was about a guy who didn't care about much of anything at all, except maybe himself, but after many, many, many tries he finally learned to care about others.

Speaking of teaching, there's a lesson in that …

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_875399

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Note 7

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Mr. Reno,

That was an article from a local paper about our local representative.  But one of the main things that my teachers in systems taught me was to look at the big picture, the whole system, and to keep my eyes on the prize, the main objective of our collective endeavors.  So I make no apology for discussing the local situation in its broader context.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_876020

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Note 8

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Mr. Lennon,

Here is a link to a Facebook page that gives a list of Michigan Legislators and Elected Officials who are known to be past or present members of ALEC:

• http://www.facebook.com/notes/democracy-watchdog-action-network/michigan-elected-officialslegislators-known-alec-members-past-present/147992228604238

If read any of ALEC's own pages, you will see that they refer to their boilerplate bills as “templates”.  I think that speaks for itself.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_876049

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Note 9

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Mr./Ms. Unbelievable Acts of Our Legislature,

Thanks for posting that video clip of Representative McMillin's town hall meeting. I followed the links from YouTube back to the story from The Rochester Citizen that went with it, and here it is:

“Copy and Paste Legislator” Tries To Disavow Legislation He Sponsored

• http://therochestercitizen.com/copy-and-paste-legislator-tries-to-disavow-legislation-he-sponsored-p568-1.htm

The questions raised by several citizens at this town hall meeting, along with others that I have attended, seen clips of, or read reports of, are very pertinent to the community discussion on this and other threads, on this and other sites, even if we do not have all the answers to those questions yet. That is why we must keep looking for the answers.

Those are questions of who writes our laws, and who they copy their homework from, so to speak. Our representatives are elected to represent our concerns, our interests, our voice, our very will to the Legislature. That is their job, and we have the right to hold them accountable. In that representation each of us has an equal voice, an equal vote — we live by the rule of one citizen one vote, not one dollar one vote — and we have the right to demand respect for that rule.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_878603

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Note 10

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Thank You West Bloomfield Teachers For Stepping Up To Put Kids And Communities First !

We'll be sure to remember your Self-Sacrificing Public Spirit next year when the Sacrifice-Sharing State comes back again for more cuts and concessions in its annual round-up of Sacrificial Goats.

Well, some of us will …

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_880485

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Note 11

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Thank You Walled Lake Teachers For Stepping Up To Put Kids And Communities First !

We'll be sure to remember your Self-Sacrificing Public Spirit next year when the Sacrifice-Sharing State comes back again for more cuts and concessions in its annual round-up of Sacrificial Goats.

Well, some of us will …

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/rochester-teachers-to-demonstrate-after-school-today#comment_880498

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Jun 07, 2011 — Teachers Across Rochester Protest

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Patch -- Teachers Across Rochester Protest

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Teachers Across Rochester Protest State Budget Cuts (07 Jun 2011)

• http://rochester.patch.com/articles/teachers-across-rochester-protest-state-budget-cuts

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Note 1

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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

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/teachers-across-rochester-protest-state-budget-cuts#comment_858505

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Note 2

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Here is a post from the Facebook page of the Ferris Faculty Association:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ferris-Faculty-Association/146689847768

“We all know the struggles public schools face with declining per pupil funding. We have seen Governor Snyder's plan for the future. The following link is a fund raiser trailer for Greenhills, the school Snyder has his daughter enrolled in. They're fund raising because $20,000 per year per student is not enough to properly educate a child. This trailer shows what Snyder wants in a school for *his* children.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAfBHj9Lc8E

I'm guessing the Governor does not have a clue how to go about creating a high quality educational environment for all of Michigan's children, but the above information tells us that he does know where to get a few clues about the components of a quality education and how much it costs to achieve it. And one thing we know for sure is that he's not getting those clues from his bean-counter corporate buddies who are dictating their wish list of laws to the Legislature in Lansing.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/teachers-across-rochester-protest-state-budget-cuts#comment_862422

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Note 3

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Mr. Reno,

I've been seeing a lot of re-runs this Summer, too, and not all of them on TV.

There is the never-ending deja vu of the retro-channel program to drain public schools of public funds and funnel them into private schools, which the obscenely well-financed pushers of vouchers for untold seasons now have declared as their explicit goal.

But I did add an epilogue to explain the point of my message, for anyone who missed it the first time around.

There is nothing personal about the information I shared. I would not have bothered to go looking for it, but simply passed on what another source posted on Facebook. The video itself was published to the web by the people who ran the fund drive. It simply serves as an object lesson on the realities of the situation.

The rest of what you say I just can't make any sense of.

Part of the time you seem to be repeating, wittingly or otherwise, one of the points I was making, to wit, or not, the simple truism that you get what you pay for, if you are lucky.

The rest of what you say appears to be based on the same fundamental misunderstandings that I see repeated so often in this medium, misconceptions about the essential difference between the private sector and the public sector and why it won't work for the private to assimilate the public.

http://rochester.patch.com/articles/teachers-across-rochester-protest-state-budget-cuts#comment_864287

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Note 4

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Ms. T,

I suppose the word “sector” is a little misleading.  Let's see if we can clear up what we are really talking about.

We all have private selves and public selves, private roles and public roles that we perform.  We all serve private ends and public ends to some extent all the time.

So the way we tell the difference between private sector and public sector activities is more by the forms of governance,  management, or “rules of the game” that apply to our various activities.

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