Confidential to anti-educationalist "reformers": If you're pretending not to be a right-wing stooge, be careful about hobnobbing with other RWS's

This video featuring 11-year-old Marcel Neergaard and his parents helped set in motion the revocation of StudentsFirst's "Educator of the Year" award to Tennessee's energetically homophobic State Rep. John Ragan.

by Ken

There's a certain entertainment value in the spectacle of right-wing stooges pretending not to be right-wing stooges. Some of them are better at it than others, naturally. Like term-limited outgoing VA Gov. Bob McDonnell, who until recently has had more success than he deserved at parlaying his stylish coiffeur and polished demeanor into an image of noncraziness -- as compared with, say, the state's attorney general, "Cuckoo Ken" Cuccinelli, who has made his political bones boasting of rather than trying to hide his insane right-wing extremism, to the frequent embarrassment of the governor. (Ironically, even as Governor Bob's future political aspirations are being burdened with burgeoning scandals, the Cuckoo Man, running to succeed him, is having to put on a show of non-craziness to broaden his electoral appeal. It's kind of like a lumbering giant brown bear trying to dance in a tutu and ballet slippers. But against a wisp of a candidate like useless slut-Dem Terry McAuliffe, it may be good enough.)

Former DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, a heroine of the educational-deconstruction racket that has somehow gotten itself called an educational "reform" movement, is no stranger to DWT. Back in October, for example, Howie wrote, in "GOP Education Policy: No More Pencils, No More Books, No More Teachers' Dirty Looks":

Eliminating public education and selling it off to their for-profit, corporate contributors is the entire basis -- implicit and explicit -- of conservative education policy. It's no coincidence that corporate shill Michelle Rhee is working for the most reactionary right-wing governors in America like Scott Walker, Tom Corbett, John Kasich and Rick Snyder and being financed by anti-public education fanatics like the fascist-oriented DeVos and Koch families. Their long-term goal, according to a People for the American Way report "is to make all schooling an activity supplied by private sources: for-profit management companies, religious organizations and home schools. The movement believes that targeted voucher plans, such as those in Florida, Milwaukee and Cleveland, give them a foot in the door en route to achieving this goal. While many of those who want to privatize education choose their words very carefully, others are more candid about their goals. The Heartland Institute’s Joseph Bast has urged others who share his group’s extreme agenda to be patient. 'The complete privatization of schooling might be desirable, but this objective is politically impossible for the time being. Vouchers are a type of reform that is possible now, and would put us on the path to further privatization.'"

What's really insidious this anti-educational hoax is that it has reached partway across the political spectrum to ensnare a portion of the center to slightly-left-of-center that traditionally thinks of itself as vaguely progressive -- especially in the business community, people who have somehow taken it into their heads that they have discovered the secret of education, when you'd be hard put to find any people who have less experience of or insight into what actually happens in the process of teaching and learning.

Basically their idea is to scapegoat teachers and advocate systems, relying heavily on standardized testing, that contradict almost everything that contributes to actual learning but can be expected to produce a new supply of little corporate tools. (I've written about this a number of times -- for example, "When we put the plutocrats in charge, we get their crackpot ideas on matters like education," September 2011, and "In NYS's education war, Diane Ravitch asks: 'Will we ever break free of our national addiction to data?'," February 2012.) The thing to remember here is that you not just crackpot ideology but a massive industry into which huge sums of money are poured, making it an obvious target for ideologues besotted with greed.

Rhee now runs an outfit ironically called StudentsFirst, yet another of those masterpieces of right-wing nomenclature which name a thing the exact opposite of what it actually is. And in that capacity, she just got caught in an embarrassing booboo: bestowing an organizational gold medal on a creepy-crawly Tennessee pol of amoeba-like primitiveness, State Rep. John Ragan, House sponsor of a creepy-crawly piece of legislation, introduced in both 2012 and 2013, which would have prevented teachers from talking about any aspect of sexuality unrelated to reproduction. It has been popularly known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, and it was a cause of consternation among segments of the population who felt themselves targeted, like the LGBT community. Happily, the bill died in both sessions, but the ever-hopeful Representative Ragan plans to introduce it again, on the "third time's a charm" theory.

Oh yes, the awkward StudentsFirst connection: In 2012 the group bestowed an "Educator of the Year" award on none other than John Ragan. HuffPost's Cavan Sieczkowski tells the story of what followed (links onsite):

Gay 11-Year-Old's Petition Against
Homophobic Politician Succeeds

The Huffington Post  |  By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 06/05/2013 3:34 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/05/2013 7:08 pm EDT

An openly gay 11-year-old boy's campaign against a homophobic Tennessee representative has succeeded.

Marcel Neergaard is a Tennessee boy who was home-schooled for sixth grade and even contemplated suicide due to severe anti-gay bullying, bullying that many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates say could have been fostered in public schools throughout the state if the "Don't Say Gay" bill had actually passed.

The bill, rejected in 2012, aimed at banning talk of sexual activity other than "related to natural human reproduction." It was resurrected by Representative John Ragan (R-Tenn.) this year as the "Classroom Protection Act." It included an amendment requiring school officials to inform parents if they have reason to believe the child might be gay. The bill also required schools to provide counseling for such students so as to prevent “behavior injurious to the physical or mental health and well-being of the student or another person.”

The proposed "Classroom" bill failed in March, but prior to that, back in 2012, Ragan scored a victory when he was honored with the educational "Reformer of the Year" award by StudentsFirst, a group dedicated to defending the interests of children in public schools and pushing for transformative reform.

Neergaard didn't think Ragan deserved such a title. So he started a petition on MoveOn.org to get the accolade revoked. And it worked. After getting more than 50,000 signatures, the bullied youngster's campaign caught the attention of StudentsFirst and today the group reneged Ragan's award.

"I'm very proud," Neergaard told The Huffington Post in an email Wednesday. "I want to make sure to thank all the people who signed my petition, because without them, it would not have been possible."

"I had my petition up for less than a week, and it actually worked," he added. "When I pressed the victory button [on MoveOn.org] I actually got my brother to put his finger over my finger, because he really wanted to push it."

StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee responded to the group's decision to revoke Ragan's award on Wednesday. As a mother of two daughters, she wrote, she realizes that a safe and nurturing school environment is a top priority. Not only did she rescind the recognition, but Rhee also denounced Ragan's bill as "ill-conceived and harmful legislation" that would have "cultivated a culture of bullying."

Tim Melton, Vice President for Legislative Affairs at StudentsFirst, made it clear that the group has never supported the "Classroom Protection Act."

"When it comes to this kind of legislation, StudentsFirst is clear that we stand strongly opposed to policies, statements, or actions that could create an unsafe or unwelcoming environment for any student in any school," he said in a press release sent to HuffPost. "In Tennessee and elsewhere, we remain committed to that and to working with parents, teachers, and administrators to ensure every student has a great teacher, parents have access to great schools, and that policymakers are making effective use of public dollars."

The New Civil Rights Movement's David Badash sought comment from StudentsFirst, asking "if StudentsFirst is asking Rep. Ragan to return the $6500 StudentsFirst donated to his campaign, and if StudentsFirst will make a public pledge to not donate to any lawmaker who opposes LGBT civil rights." He got this response from a spokesperson:

We appreciate you reaching out. The short answer to your questions is no and here's why, in Michelle's own words from the blog post:

StudentsFirst is a single-issue organization. That means we focus on improving education for kids, and nothing else. We're proud to have worked with legislators on both sides of the political spectrum and to have found common ground supporting meaningful reform policies. This oftentimes means we build relationships with and support legislators whom we fundamentally disagree with on other issues -- even sometimes on issues within the education policy arena.

As StudentsFirst continues our fight to ensure every child is given the best possible opportunity to succeed in school, we know it is also important to help educate lawmakers and our members about the importance of promoting safe school environments for our students.

Sounds swell, unless you look behind the pretty words to StudentsFirst's actual "single issue": to turn the educational system into a cash cow for entrepreneurs promoting the indoctrination of robotic capitalist toolettes. It's hardly surprising that they find themselves making kissy-face with the likes of Representative Ragan.

#

Read More

An Uneducated Society Can't Succeed-- Or Even Survive

In less than a month, if Republicans keep obstructing any progress, certain student loan rates will double, making a college education even more out of reach for the children of working class parents. This isn't the problem itself; it's a symptom of a much greater problem. The wealthy, greedy and far too entitled plutocrats who have been increasingly calling the shots in American politics-- owning one party outright and pretty much controlling the other one-- have decided free, high-quality, universal education isn't worth paying for. So while Obama was in North Carolina yesterday announcing that he would like to see "the nation’s classrooms transformed into digital learning centers and he is ready to ask federal regulators to use billions of dollars to pay for the broadband and high-speed Internet connections that will be needed to make it happen," the American plutocracy that financed his career, McCain's career and Romney's career already had a long-standing policy of easing out and discarding the whole concept of public education in America firmly in place.

Elizabeth Warren noted to her supporters that the Senate had a big test yesterday-- and flunked it. She pointed out that Senate Republicans filibustered a vote on the Reed-Harkin Student Loan Affordability Act-- legislation that would freeze federal Stafford student loan interest rates at 3.4% before the big July 1st deadline. A majority of senators voted to shut down Miss McConnell's deranged anti-student filibuster, but every Republican plus multimillionaires Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Angus King (I-ME), killed the amendment by defeating cloture. "Let me just make it clear," wrote Warren. "This wasn’t my own bill to help students more by lowering interest rates to 0.75%, the same rate the banks pay. This was a bill that would simply extend the current 3.4% rate for two more years... Are we really a country that wants to push our kids tens of thousands of dollars into debt to go to school? Or are we a country that believes investing in our kids-- from Head Start to college-- to put the conditions in place so that everyone has the chance to succeed?"

She probably knows the answer to that question. The deck is stacked against us-- which reminds me of a George Carlin video I haven't watched in a while, The American Dream:



Van Jones has a different way of expressing some of the same ideas-- and he did so for CNN this week. His point is societal, not just something that impacts students. "The approximately $1.1 trillion in student debt out there already," he warns, "constitutes a crisis for every one of us." Like anyone with a lick of sense, he understands why Elizabeth Warren's proposal to cut student loan rates to 0.75% is something that wouldn't just be great for students but for the whole society.

It is the only form of household debt that has continued to rise during the Great Recession. It is also the only form of debt that cannot be discharged under bankruptcy or even death, as parents who have lost children have discovered to their horror. It is preventing young people from buying homes and starting businesses.

In short, student debt is a $1.1 trillion anvil dragging down the entire U.S. economy.

Unfortunately, the conversation in Washington is not about big fixes, but simply how to avoid making matters worse by letting interest rates rise.

...A few weeks ago, Warren, D-Massachusetts, proposed groundbreaking legislation that would give students the same deal that big Wall Street banks get. This bill is good policy, and even better politics.

After all, why are we loaning money to mega-profitable international financial institutions at 0.75%, but demanding up to nine times more from our own young people?

By comparison, the otherwise ideal Harkin-Reid proposal for a two-year extension of the current 3.4% rate is simply not as ambitious.

Unfortunately, the proposals with the most energy behind them are worse than both these options. House Republicans, the Obama administration, and a number of senators are all pushing to permanently tie the rate for student loans to the government's borrowing costs.

It may seem commonsense, but the devil is in the details.

For instance, the Republican plan passed recently is just plain bad for students. Interest rates on July 1 would actually be higher than 6.8% for some borrowers, and vary wildly and unpredictably over the lifetime of the loan. The government would mark up the costs 2.5% to 4.5%, based on the type of loan. The profit would pay down a deficit young people did not create, instead of funding education.

The Obama plan, by contrast, has better terms for borrowers and would offer fixed-rate loans that will not suddenly spike in cost. But it lacks any cap on how high interest rates can go, and continues the worrying practice of the government profiting off student loans.

As for borrowers who already have loans? Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, has proposed allowing students to simply refinance their old loans at today's historically low rates. It is almost shocking that you cannot do this already. California Democratic Rep. Karen Bass' Student Loan Fairness Act would make repayment fairer and easier.

Young people should be rallying behind the Warren, Bass, and Gillibrand bills. But they can and should demand a whole lot more.

The problem is not just that the cost of borrowing could go up. The real problem is the skyrocketing cost of tuition that is forcing students to take on unmanageable levels of debt in the first place. It is in our leaders' own best interests to do something about that.

After all, millennials will make up one-third of eligible voters in 2020. It is no accident that the two best Senate bills were introduced by senators-- Warren and Gillibrand-- who have been rumored as future presidential candidates.

But at the end of the day, this is not a student issue. It is not a youth issue. This is a corrosive crisis that touches your life whether you know it or not. If you live in the United States of America, this is your issue.

I don't get out much. I just sit and blog all day. When I worked at Warner Bros. all the employees had been well-vetted and they all did their jobs well and if they started performing badly, there was an institutional policy of trying to help straighten them out-- like with free drug counseling, for example-- and then, if they weren't performing in a way that was conducive to a well-functioning, successful company, they would have to find another job someplace else. That rarely happened. Since leaving, I've realized how good I had it at Warner Bros. Everywhere else all I run into is grotesque incompetence and people who wouldn't last a week at Warner Bros. I've been spending a lot of time at the UCLA Medical Center in the last few months. Don't get sick. (This will make you sick and, I swear, isn't worth it.) Other than the doctors (fingers crossed) no one seems qualified to do their jobs at UCLA. It's as bad as going to a bank. The people who work there are uneducated, incapable of problem-solving, divorced from the joys of doing a good job, and, worst of all, a danger to the well-functioning organization. That, I've come to conclude, is because society doesn't want to invest in good universal education.

Read More