Outgoing Administration Admits Charters are not Public Schools

The latest executive order by troglodyte Trump tacitly admits that charter schools are *NOT* public schools. We all knew that, but it's nice when the vile privatizers tell on themselves. *

While it is good to see DeVos and Trump on the way out, there's little to hope for with Biden. It's already been announced that right-wing, neoliberal hatchetman Bruce Reed will be Biden's Deputy Chief of Staff, and the choice of seemingly apolitical Miguel Cardona is probably for a reason.

At the end of the day Biden was part of the second worst administration for education. The damage doltish Arne Duncan did prior to Trump is what opened the door for DeVos in the first place.

DeVos = Duncan + Dominionism *

Please consider reading, signing, and sharing SaveIDEA.org today!

Betsy DeVos is trying to use the current crises to impose IDEA waivers, robbing students with disabilities of their right to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). Students with disabilities, their families, educators, special education (SPED) advocates, and SPED organizations are encouraged to read and sign.

The organizers are also looking for testimonials and anecdotes from parents.

Please consider reading, signing, and sharing SaveIDEA.org today
http://saveidea.org

Also featured here: Save IDEA! Sign This Petition to Betsy DeVos!

Judge Finds Contemptible Betsy DeVos Guilty of Contempt

from Salon:

A federal judge on Thursday held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education in contempt of court for violating an order on student loans. 

The judge had previously ordered the Department of Education to stop collecting on loans owed by students of a now-defunct for-profit college. But, despite the order, the department admitted it had erroneously collected on the loans of more than 16,000 borrowers — and many of those payments garnered from borrowers' federal tax refunds or wages, according to a court document obtained by Politico. . . . .

Judge Astounded by Betsy DeVos

DeVos is the perfect Secretary of ED for Traitor Trump--she's incompetent, corrupt, and contemptuous of the law:

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos faces potential sanctions or a finding she’s in contempt of court for continuing to collect on the debt of former students at bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc., going so far as seizing their tax refunds and wages.

“I’m not sure if this is contempt or sanctions,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim told lawyers for the Education Department at a hearing Monday in San Francisco. “I’m not sending anyone to jail yet but it’s good to know I have that ability.” . . .

DeVos Provides Evidence of Devolution

The brittle crone billionairess, Betsy Devos, went before a House committee this week to answer questions regarding her bullish support for a 12 percent cut to the federal education budget that has been proposed by the sado-conservatives now in charge at the White House.

Included in the cuts are after-school programs and mental health services for America's poorest communities.  Because the program previously have had so little money spread so thin, DeVos said, we may as well just kill the whole thing.  After all, as Trumpian reason goes, if a most people are starving, we should go ahead and eliminate food for the ones that we're feeding. 

If you're still uncertain about where the Trump/Devos ed budget registers on the inhumanity meter, it also zeroes out federal funding for Special Olympics.  All of it.  By the way, the entire $17.5 million federal commitment to Special Olympics would pay for 5 Trump trips to Mar-a-Lago.

We should prepare for more of this kind of brazen cruelty masked as fiscal responsibility.  After all, this week, we saw, too, the opening salvos in a new war to be waged in the courts, this time, to take away health care away for millions of Americans and to allow insurance companies, once again, to make insurance unaffordable for those with pre-existing conditions.  Does the Trump Party really believe that an effort to kill Obamacare will make its likely preservation the default choice among the populace, rather than the hugely popular option of Medicare-for-All? Probably.

Meanwhile, the spiriting away of the Mueller Report by Trump's AG has left much of the Resistance in a stunned whimper.  I am wondering when Barr's well-choreographed castration attempt will register among the vast majority of citizens who we might have been expected to be marching on the White House for a lesser crime against justice just a week ago.

If you want a larger future that is not ruled by a smaller past, it's time to force all of that generalized disappointment and sadness into a righteous anger that the moral universe demands.  The voting that culminates next year has to begin today.  See below.

Indivisibles,

Last night, in a stunning, reckless, and baseless two-sentence letter, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice announced it won’t defend any part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This is the Trump administration’s clearest attempt yet, not just to sabotage, but to completely annihilate the ACA -- and in doing so, unleash chaos on our health care system and on millions of Americans lives.

We’re pissed. And we know you are too.

→ It would jeopardize Medicaid expansion in 37 states.
→ It would end protections for preexisting conditions.
→ It would end coverage for young people who’d otherwise be able to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.
→ It would end required coverage of preventive care -- like cancer screenings, vaccines, birth control, blood pressure tests and more.

And so, so much more.

Look, we know we don’t need to tell you what’s at stake -- you’ve been fighting this fight with us for the last two years. But, we’ve got three things we can do right now to beat back these latest Republican attempts to take away our healthcare, and we need your help. We’re making an urgent appeal to ensure our movement has everything it needs to respond in full force. So, if you’re ready to pitch in $5, $10, $25, or more to help fund this work, click here. Otherwise, read more about our plan below. Contribute >>

So, what happens now? To be clear, the Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land. Republicans have tried repeatedly for 9 years to repeal, undermine, and sabotage the ACA, and this is just one more attempt at that. It was because of grassroots pressure that it exists today. What’s important to remember is that this fight is now in the courts -- and there are plenty of stakeholders ready to do the job that Trump’s DOJ won’t (check out our resource with more on the upcoming legal battle here). 

Right now, there are three meaningful things that you can do to protect health care for millions while this makes its way through the courts:

1. Pressure House Democrats to use their oversight and investigatory power to hold the Trump administration accountable for their sabotage. Call them and demand that they ask the tough questions -- ask them what they’re doing about Trump’s attack on our health care right now.
2. Keep calling to get your members of Congress to commit to building on the success of the ACA and lay the groundwork for a single-payer system. Yes, ask your representatives to cosponsor Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare For All Act (we’ve got a call script!), but go a step further. Demand your members of Congress lay the groundwork now for what comes next: that means holding hearings, hearing from experts, working through the policy debates, building consensus, and drafting legislation so that it’s ready when we take power. Your continued pressure can ensure that they do this.
3. Organize, organize, organize to reverse the radical, conservative transformation of our judicial system (read: win in 2020). Right now, that means asking your senators to fight like hell to block additional Trump appointees to district and circuit courts. It also means knocking doors to take back power in the Senate and the White House to ensure that our district and federal courts are occupied by qualified judges dedicated to safeguarding our rights and promoting justice -- not advancing partisan political goals.

The good news is that our team is working day in and day out to put resources and tools in the hands of Indivisibles across the country to build local power and do just that: hold members of Congress accountable for oversight, demand bold policy alternatives to Trump’s hateful agenda, and win in 2020. 

The not-so-good news is that we’re working against the clock, and the administration isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Your contribution can help us fight back. If you can pitch in $5, $10, $25, or more right now your dollars will go directly toward our efforts to ramp up this work. 

Right now, we’re:

→ Launching a $25,000 rapid response digital ads campaign to make more people aware of Trump’s latest attempts to destroy the ACA and mobilize more folks to take action and get involved on their home turf.
→ Rolling out a state-of-the-art membership management platform for Indivisible groups, allowing them to better engage with their members, organize their events, and build long-term power.
→ Putting the final touches on our new click to call tool to make it easier for people to get connected to their members of Congress and get the right information to make the most strategic ask with a single click of a button.
→ AND we’re planning major campaigns to double down on oversight efforts, protect communities under attack by the administration, and strengthen our democracy.

Two years to the week after their unsuccessful first attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act in the House, Trump and Republicans are still in relentless pursuit of your care. And they’ll do whatever it takes, no matter how lawless -- and no matter how many people it hurts.

We. Will. Fight. Back. And we will win.

In solidarity,Indivisible Team

Clueless Crone, Betsy DeVos, Hires Consultant to Study Morale at ED

Outside the billionaires' bubble that insulates Betsy DeVos from the real world, there are employees at the U.S. Department of Education who are depressed, pissed off or, otherwise, upset over the many ways Betsy has made life at ED worse under her misleadership.

And remember, we're talking about worse than life under Arne Duncan!  In fact, the positive vibe has dropped from 65% to 43%, which is not too far off from reflecting the approval of Obama (58%) and Trump (42%).  

Here's some of the reasons that ED folks are bummed, with links:

A whole lot of the people who work in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education are there because of their commitment to effective public schools. In contrast, DeVos, who came to office with no experience with public schools — as a student, parent, teacher, or administrator — has shown hostility to public schools and repeatedly demonstrated her lack of understanding of education policy issues.

DeVos, whose family wealth makes her a billionaire, has held major financial stakes in for-profit education. While seeking to revive the fortunes of predatory for-profit colleges, DeVos has snidely denigrated students and allowed her Department, which she has staffed at senior levels with former for-profit college executives, to impugn students’ integrity.

While DeVos spends much of her time at her luxury homes in Florida and Michigan, the Department is moving to sharply curtail teleworking by career employees. The Secretary has taken a hard-line approach to the employees’ union, issuing a unilateral collective bargaining agreement that stripped workers of numerous benefits and protections — a move the Federal Labor Relations Authority said appeared to be unlawful.

In addition, under DeVos, the Department, like the entire Trump administration, is trashing civil rights protections, especially for LGBTQ people. The DeVos Department has also sharply weakened protections for victims of campus sexual assault.

Why is morale low at the DeVos Department? Come on.

Proposed Borrower Defense Rule Shortchanges Defrauded Students, Ends Accountability for For-Profit Colleges

    

For Immediate Release

July 25, 2018 

Proposed Borrower Defense Rule Shortchanges Defrauded Students, Ends Accountability for For-Profit Colleges

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Education released a draft proposal to overhaul the Obama Administration’s Borrower Defense to Repaymentrule. The revision would alter how students secure loan forgiveness when institutions fail to deliver promised requisite skills and knowledge. Under the new proposal, student borrowers would qualify for corrective action only when they could document institutional misrepresentations related to the program of study. Further, borrowers would be required to prove that institutional misrepresentations were made with knowledge, intent or a reckless disregard for the truth. The draft also further insulates bad institutional actors from accountability—making it harder for defrauded students to gain relief and taxpayers to recoup the losses caused by the abusive behavior. 

If finalized, the rule will take effect July 2019. 

In response, Ashley Harrington, a Policy Counsel with the Center for Responsible Lending Counsel released the following statement: 

“This proposed draft reads more like a roadmap for institutions seeking to abuse students and avoid accountability and transparency rather than a plan to protect students and taxpayers. It ignores the pleas of more than 100,000 students, consumers, and taxpayers, as well as 31 state attorneys general who directly urged Secretary DeVos to stop shielding institutions and private companies.

“Under this rule, the Department goes further than any proposal discussed at negotiated rulemaking, proposing that relief be limited to borrowers in default in addition to very limited access to relief. A better solution to this growing financial burden would be preventing as many defaults as possible and holding institutions to a higher standard. Millions of consumers and billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake. Early and effective intervention would spare borrowers the multiple ramifications of loan default, particularly to their credit scores and resulting higher costs for future credit.

“The previous Borrower Defense rule was created to protect students and taxpayers from deceptive practices like that of ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges that abruptly closed their doors after widespread abuses put them on the brink of bankruptcy and jeopardized the futures of thousands of students. This proposal shortchanges borrowers and will only inflate the growing $1.5 billion student loan debt crisis.”

###

For additional information or to schedule a media interview, contact Charlene Crowell: charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

Florina Rodov: The Truth About Charter Schools

“[W]hen teachers aren’t unionized, they’re exploited — and when teachers suffer, so do kids.” — Florina Rodov

This amazing piece by Florina Rodov on Shondaland is a must read. Taking place at one of the seedy charter corporations here in Los Angeles, the story Rodov tells is all too familiar to all of us that are anti-privatization activists. Much of the mistreatment of faculty and students mirrors the accounts in Professor Horn's Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through "No Excuses" Teaching. Hat tip to Leonie Haimson, whose Tweet regarding this essay caught my eye.

An excerpt, but please go and read the whole work:

"But I soon realized there was a gulf between charter school hype and reality. Every day brought shocking and disturbing revelations: high attrition rates of students and teachers, dangerous working conditions, widespread suspensions, harassment of teachers, violations against students with disabilities, nepotism, and fraud. By the end of the school year, I vowed never to step foot in a charter school again, and to fight for the protection of public schools like never before."

My Interview with Sean Stone on Watching the Hawks-Part 2

by Doug Martin

Here is segment 2 of my RT TV interview with Sean Stone on “Watching the Hawks,” where we discuss DeVos, Walton, Trump, teaching social justice and history in the classroom, and Indiana school privatization.  It starts around 19:11 in the video. 

My Interview with Sean Stone on Watching the Hawks-Part 1

by Doug Martin


Here is segment 1 of my RT TV interview with Sean Stone, Oliver Stone’s son, on “Watching the Hawks.”  It deals with my book Hoosier School Heist, national school privatization, etc., and starts around 14:43 in the video.