Friend B.M. wrote:
I heard something amazing on the radio the other day. It was an editorial on KMUD, but the guy quoted Dick Cheney as saying, he thought they did pretty well, considering the conditions they had to work in. He doesn't seem to recognize they were the CAUSE of those conditions. Boy, talk about, DUH!
My reply:
If their goal was to embezzle the public funds and transfer public wealth into private hands, I think they did spectacularly well.
If their goal was to deplete the strength of American troops and demoralize them as well as maiming the best to disempower them against any future defense, while enriching and arming a massive private militia and have it stationed on American soil, I think they did quite well.
If their plan was to destabilize the Middle East, they did quite well with that, too.
If their goal was to entrench right-leaning governments all over the world like a domino effect, they have succeeded very well.
If their goal was to destroy America to weaken it at the core to open the way for a well-armed private militia to move in and take over the country, they again succeeded quite well in bludgeoning the leading world nation to its knees now powerless to defend ourselves.
Hitler succeeded in the precision removal of all people of Jewish descent by performing massive data collection programs during peacetime before invading a country. Like Hitler, the Bush cabal have initiated massive data collection programs in which they have destroyed the conservative notion of privacy on the pretense of national security. Now they know everything there is to know about us, and when their private militia arrives, they will remove the opposition with efficiency to rival no one.
It is you who are the fool for judging them to be idiots. They have succeeded stupendously well. They have paved the way for their old buddy Osama bin Laden to move in at a moment's notice. Their private militias will be able to march right in and overpower our spent troops in a heartbeat.
And they are still trying to squeeze more and more public funds into the private sector right up to the very last moment.
Get down off your high horse and acknowledge their successes. I've only mentioned a few.
In Peace, Bodhi
Showing posts with label Neil Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neil Bush. Show all posts
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Charter schools are an exercise in grass roots democracy
If democracy is for the people, of the people and by the people, then charter schools are also for the children, by the parents, and of the families. Charter school are not necessarily private schools. But they are an exercise in democracy in education. I don't understand why some passionate freedom fighters are so down on charter schools. Maybe they belong to the teachers union.
I have founded one charter school, and helped build up another. When my son was approaching middle school in Vallejo, I was working as a substitute teacher. I saw a hostile social environment in Vallejo middle schools where kids divided up into racial and ethnic factions and assaulted each other verbally and physically. I didn't want my son in that kind of environment, and I couldn't afford a private school, nor was there a private school that I would choose to send my son.
I got together with a dozen other 4th and 5th grade parents and we designed a middle school. We wrote a charter and was chartered by Vallejo City Unified School District. Everything was about families. The families volunteered over the summer and remodeled a church into a school. Parent volunteers ran everything. They hired the teachers, hired the administrators, worked in the front office, worked as playground monitors, tutored students, wrote grants, and worked in the after-school program. It was the greatest grass-roots demonstration of democracy that I have ever participated in.
As a founder of the school, and Secretary of the Board of Directors, I found that the school was not going the way I had hoped. There was no PE program, no gardening program, and I couldn't get the teachers to cooperate with recycling. Although there were none of the racial and ethnic conflicts seen in the public middle schools, it was too academic, not holistic, and not enough hand-on time for my tastes. I resigned my position on the Board and we proceeded to home school our kids for the next 2 years.
There is no need to criticize this charter school for Neil Bush's COWs, nor stealing public funds for private education, or Milton Friedman's economic theories. I was democratically outvoted on the Board over issues of PE and recycling, and so I resigned. The school, like any other public school, had to accept any child that came to enroll. This was not an exclusive private school. Therefore, there were the full spectrum of below level students, outstanding students, involved parents, slacker parents, and behavioral issues like any other public school.
The teacher's union was totally against it because the charter school teachers were given the option to be unionized by the CTU, another union, or no union. The Board provided a competitive package of benefits for the teachers, and a couple of teachers served on the Board. The teachers voted not to join the CTU. I really don't think this school deserves the unfounded attacks I hear from critics about charter schools in general.
I have become involved in a charter school here in my current home town. I helped write the recent re-charter proposal, and serve as the school nurse there. The local public school district is hostile toward the school yet accepted the re-charter proposal. As a public school, it must comply with the testing required by No Child Left Behind, but follows a curriculum based on the theories of Rudolph Steiner. These children are taught social skills, fine motor skills, cooperative team work, nutrition, and conflict resolution skills from the get-go. They don't focus on academics until 3rd grade. Therefore, the 1st and 2nd grade students tend to do poorly on the STAR tests. In contrast, the 5th - 8th grade students tend to excel on the STAR tests. This school is dedicated to teaching to the whole child, and complies with the testing of NCLB only because it is a PUBLIC SCHOOL.
Yes, some charter schools are private. The Edison schools are a corporation of privately run charter schools. And yes, the Bush government has corrupted the law and found ways to give public funds to select private schools. And to his brother Neil's company, Ignite! Learning. But that is a function of unethical neo-con corruption, not a function of charter schools. I'd appreciate if the critics would withhold their criticism of charter schools until they find out more of the facts.
I have founded one charter school, and helped build up another. When my son was approaching middle school in Vallejo, I was working as a substitute teacher. I saw a hostile social environment in Vallejo middle schools where kids divided up into racial and ethnic factions and assaulted each other verbally and physically. I didn't want my son in that kind of environment, and I couldn't afford a private school, nor was there a private school that I would choose to send my son.
I got together with a dozen other 4th and 5th grade parents and we designed a middle school. We wrote a charter and was chartered by Vallejo City Unified School District. Everything was about families. The families volunteered over the summer and remodeled a church into a school. Parent volunteers ran everything. They hired the teachers, hired the administrators, worked in the front office, worked as playground monitors, tutored students, wrote grants, and worked in the after-school program. It was the greatest grass-roots demonstration of democracy that I have ever participated in.
As a founder of the school, and Secretary of the Board of Directors, I found that the school was not going the way I had hoped. There was no PE program, no gardening program, and I couldn't get the teachers to cooperate with recycling. Although there were none of the racial and ethnic conflicts seen in the public middle schools, it was too academic, not holistic, and not enough hand-on time for my tastes. I resigned my position on the Board and we proceeded to home school our kids for the next 2 years.
There is no need to criticize this charter school for Neil Bush's COWs, nor stealing public funds for private education, or Milton Friedman's economic theories. I was democratically outvoted on the Board over issues of PE and recycling, and so I resigned. The school, like any other public school, had to accept any child that came to enroll. This was not an exclusive private school. Therefore, there were the full spectrum of below level students, outstanding students, involved parents, slacker parents, and behavioral issues like any other public school.
The teacher's union was totally against it because the charter school teachers were given the option to be unionized by the CTU, another union, or no union. The Board provided a competitive package of benefits for the teachers, and a couple of teachers served on the Board. The teachers voted not to join the CTU. I really don't think this school deserves the unfounded attacks I hear from critics about charter schools in general.
I have become involved in a charter school here in my current home town. I helped write the recent re-charter proposal, and serve as the school nurse there. The local public school district is hostile toward the school yet accepted the re-charter proposal. As a public school, it must comply with the testing required by No Child Left Behind, but follows a curriculum based on the theories of Rudolph Steiner. These children are taught social skills, fine motor skills, cooperative team work, nutrition, and conflict resolution skills from the get-go. They don't focus on academics until 3rd grade. Therefore, the 1st and 2nd grade students tend to do poorly on the STAR tests. In contrast, the 5th - 8th grade students tend to excel on the STAR tests. This school is dedicated to teaching to the whole child, and complies with the testing of NCLB only because it is a PUBLIC SCHOOL.
Yes, some charter schools are private. The Edison schools are a corporation of privately run charter schools. And yes, the Bush government has corrupted the law and found ways to give public funds to select private schools. And to his brother Neil's company, Ignite! Learning. But that is a function of unethical neo-con corruption, not a function of charter schools. I'd appreciate if the critics would withhold their criticism of charter schools until they find out more of the facts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
