Steve Poizner, Gubernatorial candidate and charter school board member targets un-documented workers with racist speech at the conservative CPAC

Posted by: Danny Weil Posted date: February 24, 2010 In: Education | comment : 16

Co-founder and long time California Charter School Association board member and gubernatorial candidate, Steve Poizner targets un-documented workers with racist speech at the conservative CPAC

Charter Schools, segregation and capitalism: they all go together

I have written a great deal about the debilitating and dis-associative effect of charter schools.

“Charter schools, as I and many others have argued for years, are not only a return to Plessy v. Ferguson and a repeal of Brown v. Board of Education, they and those who promote them (the oligarchic shadow government of Gates, Walton Family, Broad, in tandem with the government et. al.) promise to destroy public education in entirety and this is the point: without a public we cannot grow the essential moral values such as solidarity, diversity appreciation, equitable opportunities and participatory democracy. Why? Simple, charter schools are privatized enclaves of a “pull-out” society and thus they work to vitiate the above values, not support them. They represent ‘hand to hand combat’ among society members in an effort to scramble for a decent education and due to the fact charter schools are laced to No Child Left Behind, they are factories of gloom; they don’t even provide a decent education” ((http://dailycensored.com/2010/02/11/charter-schools-segregate-but-more-than-this-they-also-feed-into-societal-dis-association-disunity-and-work-to-vitiate-the-values-we-need-to-build-a-coherent-movement-to-challenge-corporatocracy/)).

This has included issues of racial segregation and the return to Jim Crow policies that a recent UCLA report as well as a report from Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) have revealed (Schools without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools, and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System Education and Public Interest Center, [email protected], http://epicpolicy.org/publication/schools-without-diversity Feb. 9, 2010) ((UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, Civil Rights Project at UCLA (Feb 11 2010) talks about new Study, titled ” Charter Schools’ Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure” http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu)). The two studies, conducted independently using different data, different researchers, and different methods, both found that charter schools segregate by race and class.

I have also spoken of the charter movement, especially as can be seen in New Orleans, the grand daddy of all charter models, as an intentional “shock doctrine” plan put into place by Wall Street, venture capitalists, philanthropists and school privatization forces to assure that the burgeoning private charter retail chains can replace closing public schools to manage and contain the ‘sub-prime’ kids. What I mean by ‘sub-prime kids’ is that increasingly US capitalism needs less and less American labor, as surplus labor in the form of profits can be extracted overseas for 33 cents an hour in China, for example.

The transfer of the source of extracting surplus value from the workers to profit capital to third world countries, has meant we now have a surplus population in this country. These are American citizens who not only have no work, but probably will not unless economic and social policies change. They occupy the fringe economy, the sub-prime economy: those who must rely on Pay Day Loans, check cashing storefronts, Rent-To-Own furniture, car title sales, pawn shops and other usurious and exploitative credit schemes just to survive. These are families who live day to day in poverty. And they are families whose children are increasingly being targeted by for-profit and non-profit educational maintenance organizations (EMO’s) as ‘sub-prime customers’. According to the EPIC study noted above:

“The report finds that charter schools tend to be strongly concentrated in racial or ethnic terms compared to the districts that send students to those schools. The charter schools in the study draw their students from the extremes of family income, divided into either largely high-income or largely low-income populations. Additionally, more than half of these privately managed schools enrolled far fewer English language learners and students with special needs than did their home districts” (ibid).”

Charter schools are a numbers business, ask any EMO. Thus, the more children they can enroll the more state and federal monies the chains receive and this means “head count” is the big issue. It’s a volume game. When it is spread out like this on a spr4ead sheet then one can see that numbers the EMO’s look to ratchet up must, by economic necessity, come increasingly from from the population of working class and low income populations, especially in urban areas.

As the Second Great Depression continues unabated, more and more US citizens are falling into the economic working poor and poverty class. So not only do charter schools segregate by race, they also institutionalize a class system of education feeding off the most disadvantaged students found primarily in large urban areas. It’s the Wal-Mart business plan for both the students (consumers) and the teachers (associates). It is also the Arne Duncan Race to the Top policy that promise to rivet up the charter schools chains and the EMO’s that want to run them.

Outfits such as Green Dot (EMO), which took over the struggling Locke High School, a poor school that was in the Los Angeles Unified School District, is one example of these parasitic retail charter chains. There are countless of them as my postings on dailycensored reveals. These smooth talkers and operators, like Green Dot’s Ben Austin or Steve Barr (one of Arne Duncan’s favorite) say they can give the ‘lower achieving students’, the ‘sub-prime kids’, a chance that public school could never offer them. They call themselves ‘turnaround artists’ when all they wish to do is ‘turn a profit’ and contain children in inauthentic Petri dishes of drudgery and despair they call schools.

The California Charter School Association and its co-founder Steve Poizner

As I outline in my book, Charter School Movement: History, Politics, Policies, Economics & Effectiveness, Second Edition (http://www.greyhouse.com/charter.htm), one of the largest players in California’s ever expanding charter school landscape is and has been for years, the California Charter School Association. One of the co-founders and long time charter school association board members is Steve Poizner.

On February 19, 2010 Poizner, who is running for Governor, spoke at the reactionary right wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In his speech, he not only proposed reactionary tax cuts for the rich and wealthy transnational corporations along with budget cuts in basic social services, but he went on to rail against ‘public’ unions. What’s new? Charter schools and conservatives hate unions unless they represent them — say the National Association of Manufacturers or the US Chamber of Commerce or, yes, The California Charter School Association, all unions for big business and global capitalism. These ‘private’ unions of the ruling class interests are ok, for they represent the necessities of capitalism not those of labor, capital’s source of profit and costs.

Yet besides loathing working men and women and the public associations that represent them, Poizner is an immigrant basher and hater. In fact, the most vile and venomous portion of Steve Poizner’s speech at CPAC was reserved for the undocumented. His hateful rhetoric echoed speeches by Jim Gilchrist, founder of the vicious anti-immigrant group “The Minutemen.” In fact, Poizner is right up there with Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona.

Here’s the CCSA founder Steve Poizner tipping his hand (more appropriately his hood), at the event headlined by none other than Glenn Beck:

“And last, but not least — sometimes it’s unpopular to talk about it on the campaign trail — I don’t care. I’m going to be a truth teller. Last, but not least, we have to stop illegal immigration once and for all![Lengthy rabid applause from racist crowd]

We’re going to do two things; and I know there’s some people who think it’s just a Federal matter, but it’s not. The Governor can do a lot about it. First thing I’m going to do is turn the magnets off. There’s a lot of state programs that attract people to California illegally, and I’m going to turn those magnets off. And the second thing I’m going to do is I’m going to secure the border. If I have to send the National Guard to the border, that’s what I’m gonna do.” (Steve Poizner, Co-Founder California Charter School Association (CCSA) (http://solidprinciples.com/updates/poiznercpac2010.mp3).

Let the CCSA try to deny Poizner’s founding, influence and leading decision making for the California Charter School Association, they can’t. He was their co-founder and board member as late as 2008. Take a look at Poizner’s self-serving biography:

“Steve demonstrated his passion for local control of schools by co-founding EdVoice and the California Charter Schools Association, the state’s leading charter school association. Since his involvement in the charter school movement began, the number of charter schools in California have doubled” (http://www.stevepoizner.com/)

And of course if one is still leery of accepting the evidence of Poizner’s involvement in The California Charter School Association, a CCSA Press Release from 2008 was issued listing Steve Poizner as a Board Member
(http://www.myschool.org/AM/ContentManagerNet/Search/SearchRedirect.aspx?Section=Search&content=press_releases&template=/contentmanagernet/contentdisplay.aspx&contentfileid=430)

One can only wonder what Poizner’s close friends and fellow charter charlatans Jed Wallace, Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, Judy Burton, Ben Austin, and all the other CCSA cheerleaders will have to say about Poizner’s outrageous speech. Perhaps they share his sentiment. It’s doubtful though, for the newly arriving immigrants are all good for the charter school’s number game. It’s part of the business plan.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, let’s hold our breath to see if any of the corporate friendly opportunists including: Yolie Flores-Aguilar of LAUSD, Monica Garcia of LAUSD, Maria Casillas of Families in Schools, Jarad Sanchez of Alliance for a Better Community, Veronica Melvin of Alliance for a Better Community, Gabe Rose of Green Dot Public [sic] Schools/LAPU/Parent Revolution, or Shirley Ford of Green Dot Public [sic] Schools/LAPU/Parent Revolution will hold a press conference to speak up against this racist anti-immigrant speech by their close CCSA ally. It is doubtful, they need Poizner and Poizner needs them to get shoehorned into the governor’s seat. The philanthro-capitalists like Eli Broad, Gates, the Fisher Family (owners of the GAP), The Walton Family and other bottom feeding venture capitalists intent on turning education into a fringe economy for profits need Poizner too, for they are supporting and financing the charter school movement to which Poizner is engaged, lock stock and barrel.

If you wish to view more on the anti-immigrant, racist rantings of the would be Governor of California, Steve Poizner, you can go to the web-site of Mike Klonsky
(@mikeklonsky Poizner running for Gov. in Calif. gives racist anti-immigrant rant at CPAC. Founded Calif. Charter School Assoc. http://bit.ly/cZPYsq).

As human rights and civil rights activist, Robert D. Skeels who provided much in the way of research for this article notes:

“The UCLA Civil Rights Project and North Carolina studies have already shown corporate charter schools herald the return of Jim Crow. However, CCSA co-founder Steve Poizner may have shown the charter-voucher supporters’ true face a little earlier than their right wing billionaire backers might have liked. Anyone concerned with fighting racism and forwarding civil rights needs to join the struggle against the charter school industry (http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2010/02/racist-anti-immigant-speech-by.html).

Touché, Robert and thanks from all readers for your unbridled struggle and perseverance on these issues. Denying any person an education regardless of sex, creed, culture, gender, gender preference, linguistics and/or race should be a crime. The sad fact is that criminals like Poizner, ever ready to throw the most vulnerable of our children into the street while he raises money from his corporate backers for a run for Governor, are spearheading much of the charter movement and the privatization efforts here in California. To allow this throne sniffer to occupy any public post would not only be a farce, but it would constitute a public crime.

For anyone who was once beguiled by the charter school hoax this should now allow them a scent of the outhouse being built with taxpayer funds. Parents and their children should be fully aware of the deleterious effects of charter schools on communities and especially communities of color. Steve Poizner should not be running for governor, he should be in an orange jumpsuit with parole pending. The fact he is a powerful figure in state politics and a rampant racist and immigrant basher is evidence of his public crime and our social tragedy

You can see Robert Skeels blog at: http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/

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About The Author

Danny Weil

Dr. Danny Weil is a public interest attorney who has practiced for more than twenty years and has been published in a case of first impression in California. He is no longer active as a lawyer but has written seven books on education, has taught second grade in South Central LA, PS 122, taught K-1 migrant children in Santa Maria, California and Guadalupe, California, taught in the California Youth Authority to first and second degree murderers and taught for seventeen years at Allan Hancock Junior College in Santa Maria, CA. in the philosophy department.Dr. Weil holds a BA in Political Economics and Philosophy, a multi-subject bilingual credential in education (he is fluent in Spanish) and a PhD in Critical Thinking.Dr. Weil was one of 226 legal residents in Nicaragua, where he worked for the Ministry of Culture under the Sandanistas in1985.Dr. Weil is an expert in curriculum design for critical thinking at all levels of education, from K-adult. He is also an internationally recognized speaker on critical thinking and pedagogy, having written many books on the subject.Danny Weil is a writer for Project Censored and Daily Censored. He received the Project Censored "Most Censored" News Stories of 2009-10 award for his article: "Neoliberalism, Charter Schools and the Chicago Model / Obama and Duncan's Education Policy: Like Bush's, Only Worse," published by Counterpunch, August 24, 2009. Dr. Weil has published more than seven books on education in the past 20 years. You can also read much more about all aspects of the privatization of the educational means of production and the for-profit, predatory colleges in his writings found at Truthout.com, Counterpunch.com, Dailycensored.com, dissidentvoice.com and Project Censored.com where he has covered the issue of the privatization of education for years. He can be reached at [email protected] new book, an encyclopedia on charter schools, entitled: "Charter School Movement: History, Politics, Policies, Economics and Effectiveness," 641 pages, was published in August of 2009 by Grey House Publishing, New York, and provides a scathing look at the privatization of education through charter schools.He is currently a member of the Truthout Public Intellectual Project."The project is designed to provide a platform for the general public to think carefully about a range of social problems that affect their lives. It will also allow a generation of scholars to reflect on their own intellectual practices, discourses and understanding of what it might mean to embrace their role as public intellectuals" (http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=4349:the-public-intellectual-project).

Number of Entries : 430

http://rukiakuchiki.com/forum Ms Rukia Kuchiki
Thanks for the info, I’ll keep checking back for more stuff, bookmarked!
weilunion
Thanks for the info, I’ll keep checking back for more stuff, bookmarked!
Thank you, Ms. Kuchiki and do read Robert Skeel’s website.
Best
Danny
Anonomous
What did Steve Poizner say that was racist?
Maybe he gestured that it’s unfair for California taxpayers to pay roughly $10,000,000,000 (yes that’s billion, not million) per year for costs incurred by fellow human beings who broke federal laws and are not supposed to be here…if that’s racist you’re on a different planet.
weilunion
It is not what Poizner says, he hides his racism in legal rhetoric about immigrants, it is what he does and what his policies translate into.
It is clear, as it is to anyone who understands how the capitalist system works that divide and conquer is a strategy employed by seedy men like Poizner. When the economy tumbles due to corporate theft the fingers are pointed to the immigrants for taking jobs. It is an old game, go back to 1842 or any of Benjamin Frnaklin’s rants on the Germans to see the game plan.
Funny how amnesty was granted to the in pouring of immigrants in the 1980′s under the Alheimic Reagan regeime. Then and there, Reagan granted amnesty for the agribusiness corporations. Republicans and capitalists love cheap labor and immigrants when they can exploit them and this means exploitation to blame the economic whoes on their presence in the US.
It is also interesting to note that the El Salvadorean War, the Contra War, the massacres in Guatemala, the Argentinian dictatorship, the Brazilian dictatorship and the Mexican corruption of the 1980′s and 90′s forced refugees from Mexico, Central and South America into the US. The US, with Ollie North’s help and the Iran-Contra affair was responsible for 30,000 deaths in Nicaragua alone.
So, US foreign policy coupled with ‘free trade’ the libertarian mantra that redistributes wealth upwards, forced many of those in the South to come to the US. Subsidizing corn, as sugar was done in Haitti, has left farming decimated in Mexico and people moving to cities with no work.
Soon, you may think about becoming an immigrant in some other country and then, as I did, might have to confront the corruption and pain that goes with having to relocate and remake your life. The policies of your country just might force you onto the oil ridden shores of Mexico.
but as to Poizner, he is even more dangerous for his policies are purely neo-liberal with charter schools his ‘main drag’.
The fact that Meg Whitman calls him a liberal is staggerlingly funny if not so grotesquely untrue. Poizner is what he is and says and if California gets him you can be assured your tax money will go to militarizee the border and destroy public education along with basic public services.
But hey, that’s what they do in Haiti and Mexico, right so what to worry?
Danny
Anonomous
You didn’t address my statement…. IT IS NOT fair for the American taxpayers to pay around $10,000,000,000 for social services, schooling etc.. for people who trespassed into the country and are not legal citizens.(that’s the cost in California per year alone-Texas is around $5,000,000,000 per year) There’s no spin around it.
Steve Poizner is aware of the outrage of the citizens of this going on for decades….I think that is unfair and disgusting to label him or most people who take issue with the TAXPAYER COSTS of ILLEGAL immigration as racists….that’s what people call “playing the race card”. Why can’t people on that side of the issue understand this instead of “shouting racism”. Just because there’s a few redneck types out there who blog and show their hatred, most people who oppose this huge illegal immigration are NOT racists.
I can emphasize with people wanting a better life, but breaking the laws and putting a huge tax burden on the people is not the answer. Nothing is free…it’s paid for with citizens tax dollars that were intended for legal citizens of this country, irregardless of their skin color, country of origination, etc.
And then there’s the issue of jobs. There are 15 million legal citizens out of work in this country right now….and 8 million people here illegal who are employed. I now when people are desperate to earn a living they will underbid the going rate for an industry….therefore they are underbidding legal citizens…construction jobs, etc… and getting employed that way, which is bringing down wages. It is very expensive to live here in California, especially southern California….and a legal citizen can no longer get a one time good paying construction job because of the constant underbidding by more desperate PEOPLE (notice no distinction on race) because those jobs don’t pay as well anymore.
anonomous
P.S. I sincerely apologize for stating “you’re on a different planet”
I was being reactionary to your accusations of Poizner.
weilunion
Thank you for the apology it is rare.
the air is tight and thick now that the capitalist class has made shit out of our social landscape. Scrmbling for solutions is hard, and I respect your thinking.
So let me address some of it from my point of view which is also shared by others:
You didn’t address my statement…. IT IS NOT fair for the American taxpayers to pay around $10,000,000,000 for social services, schooling etc.. for people who trespassed into the country and are not legal citizens.(that’s the cost in California per year alone-Texas is around $5,000,000,000 per year)
First of all, the borders are historical, as you know. California and most of the southwest was once Mexico’s. Much like the brokewn down former Soviet Union as well as even countries that are disappearing, like Belgium, must come to terms with the reality of global capitalist relations. By seeking resources and cheap labor, global capitalism has taken the ‘nation state’ and turned it into a tool for international control. What I mean is that the World Bank and the IMF control the economics of the world with transnational corporations.
Given this, years and years of war and capital’s need for cheap labor has turned the US into Rome. Rome really is the example and I have a post on the US and Rome you can find under my name.
You pay this amount for social services for people in this country in violation of federal law due to capitalist politics. The wars and the cheap labor have come home to roost and you are right, you should not have to shoulder the burden of paying the cost for social services. The capialist class must do this for they caused the outsourcing and insourcing; they socialize the costs and they privatize the profits. Your example above is correct.
The working person pays for the spills in the Gulf, for the costs of cheap labor in the form of social services, since the capitalists pay no taxes with their off shore companies and their tax breaks.
Thus, the venom needs to be targeted at the class that caused this mess. The capitalist class, not the immigrant running from imperial wars or working at no-pay or low paid jobs. Divide and conquer is always how the capitalists work; they divide working people by race, sex or sexual preference and culture and then sit back and reap the spoils. You have more in common with the ‘undocumented’ worker than with the capitalist class and you must see this.
There’s no spin around it.
Steve Poizner is aware of the outrage of the citizens of this going on for decades….I think that is unfair and disgusting to label him or most people who take issue with the TAXPAYER COSTS of ILLEGAL immigration as racists….that’s what people call “playing the race card”.
If it was a legitimate dialogue, not a media staged event, then you would see that Poizner is stewing up hate not for your interests, but for the class he represents — the capitalist corporate class. He does not represent working people, look at his record and history – he is a tool or coin operated politician for the corporations that caused the breakdown of the financial system, the decimation of all that is public, the deregulation given to those with money and power, and the tax breaks for the rich. Poizner is like any other fool politician, he is using race and culture to divide Americans for this is how he thinks he can win. Believe me, none of the corporate politicians represent you, they represent those that pay them.
Why can’t people on that side of the issue understand this instead of “shouting racism”. Just because there’s a few redneck types out there who blog and show their hatred, most people who oppose this huge illegal immigration are NOT racists.
Due to the fact that the alliances one sees emerge are troubling. Nazi sympathizers, Klanners and businessmen in suits allie for the same purpose, to assure people do not see their common interests and the common struggle for human dignity. The mood of this country is very anti-immigrant and it is not aimed at Asians or those on HB1 visas working for the huge corporations, is it? No, it is aimed at the ‘Mexican’ or those down south. This can only be obvious to someone like yourself. Again, do not ally your interests with those in power, they never represented you and will not for they come from the same class of managerial elites and corporations that puts profits before people, destroying borders, security, people’s lives, culture, spilling oil over your oceans, invading other lands for resources, surely you can see this, can’t you?
I can emphasize with people wanting a better life, but breaking the laws and putting a huge tax burden on the people is not the answer.
No it is not, thus aim your rifle at those who caused and continue to cause social and financial breakdown — the transnational corporations that sent your jobs overseas, broke unions so that people do not have a living wage, imported cheap labor to compete with union labor and lowered your standard of living and turned the government into their collection plate.
Nothing is free…it’s paid for with citizens tax dollars that were intended for legal citizens of this country, irregardless of their skin color, country of origination, etc.
Quite right, and you are now experiencing, or let me say we are now experiencing, the blowback of decades of social engineering done for the corporations. Again, go back to Reagan and trace the clues at the scene of the crime. Agribusiness made this immigration possible, profited off of it and now left you the bill. ‘Capital’ only cares about the color of ones skin when it is time to rev up the ‘race’ card which they play first, in the case of Poizner by targeting ‘the border’, and then yell ‘why are you calling me a racist’ when they get caught. It is an old game, one used against Blacks and still is.
And then there’s the issue of jobs. There are 15 million legal citizens out of work in this country right now….and 8 million people here illegal who are employed. I now when people are desperate to earn a living they will underbid the going rate for an industry….therefore they are underbidding legal citizens…construction jobs, etc… and getting employed that way, which is bringing down wages
You are right, you see the symptoms well, anonymous but you, with all due respect, lack the analysis to put the symptons under the right ’cause’.
It is again, a crime scene left and now conducted by the large corporations who profit off of any color, any person, any resource for profit. This is their fiduciary responsibility that and assuring the government, meaning you, pick up the cost of their carnage be it environmental or be it social.
. It is very expensive to live here in California, especially southern California….and a legal citizen can no longer get a one time good paying construction job because of the constant underbidding by more desperate PEOPLE (notice no distinction on race) because those jobs don’t pay as well anymore.
Right, and thus many are returning to their country’s of origin. I will be traveling to Nicaragua in ten days and can tell you now the mass migration is over for the empire has collapsed. But their return means social dislocation, further unemployment in their own countries that are entirely held captive to the IMF and Wold Bank run by the corporations. Social disorder is going on right now in all of Central America for there is no life, no jobs, no money and the days of the ‘remasa’ are over — this was how Mexico supported its people, allowing those here to send money home. Now no money to send and yes, you are right no good paying jobs.
Capitalism has no interest in creating jobs, only profits. And it does this by keeping the cost of labor down or simply robtizing it. This is why it is a system in perpetual misery and despair for it is an oligarchy now, controlled by plutocrats and their sock puppet press and political hacks. What capialism does is create over production, we see that now, and then no demand. The last thirty years the system has fed off of financial scheme, 30% of the economy, and this now has collapsed so no credit, the government is broke for it is only a collection plate for the corporate elite, and no jobs. The system is literally collapsing.
The question now, anonymous, is will we hang together as working people, or hang seprately? The corporations now are citizens under their new judges ruling on the Extreme Court, they now have unlimited scope. For capital can cross borders with the push of a button, labor is jailed.
This is your country and one must follow the money. when you do, you see who is winning and who is losing. Almost 145 trillion now gone. Where did it go? And now, yesterday, ICE beat a man to death at the border of Mexico. He had five children (born in the US) and was coming back to live with his family after being deported. He left them now forever. Just to live.
Do you want state homicide at your borders? Militarization of every public space? This is no answer, ite is just more big business for the corporations who equip ICE and Blackwater with your tax dollars.
Best
Danny
Julie Vandegrift
After skimming this article and comparing the assertions to my personal experience educating my children in a California charter school, I’m not sure how the charter schools hurt minorities. Our charter school has mixed racial enrollment and a fair number of students with a variety of learning disabilities. The families who enroll their children in this school are simply seeking an alternative to local schools that don’t meet their needs for whatever reason. Knowing many of the famililes, most are NOT high income; in fact, many are suffering terribly in this economy. The graduates range from students who will not attend college, students who will enter community college, and students who qualify for academic scholarships at UC schools. Our school district offers alternatives for credit-deficient students as well as an independent-study program for students who are looking for that. In my view, charter schools offer further alternatives to meet the diverse needs of students and families.
While I am unfamiliar with the intricacies of public school funding, I have noticed that our traditional schools have state-of-the-art, spanking-new facilities with amazing sports facilities; this is in stark contrast to the charter schools with which I am familiar which tend to lease small spaces in strip malls, churches, or wherever they can find it. I laugh to think that anyone would think charter schools are some sort of country club alternative designed to cloister privileged students away from minorities or other perceived undesirables.
weilunion
Thank you for writing, Julie. You can see how charter schools hurt not just eductation, but our entire society by looking at the more than fifty articles or so I have posted at Daily Censored.
You can read how they segregate, how they privatize, how they refuse disclosure, how they make a ockery out of curriculum, teachers and students by going to Danny Weil, under Author Posts at this site.
I helped start a charter school at the border of Nogales and Arizona back in 1996. I was on the charter board.
Since then I have seen how the ruling elite of this country are cannibalizing education through the Trojan horse of charter schools.
As to brand spanking, conditions of schools: visit any major urban center in the US and see what thirty years of Reganomics and budget cuts due to forced debt has done to our inner city schools. They resemble garrisons not what you are metaphorically suggesting. In parts of the suburbs, sure where local property tax is higher and cuts shielded by crafty politicians you might find a few ‘soccer fields’. But in many states, notably the south, they now build elementary schools without playgrounds. Takes away from the constant monitoring and surveillance that the ‘tests’ provide — from K-work.
This is the situation for most American children, Julie. But we have a corporate press so when was the last time you heard about Race to the Top on TV or heard from Education Secretary Duncan? Probably not much, right?
That is due to the effect that education is off the table while both parties celebrate the money to be had, the profist to be made by tying charter schools with urban development and crisis exploitation.
but again, this is not reported in the corporate press, not even much among liberal press.
I invite you to read my work and that of others at this site.
Best
Danny
Julie Vandegrift
I am interested in reading more of your work to better understand your viewpoint.
Why can’t charter schools be a vehicle to challenge the entrenched power interests you mention? Charter schools (at least in California) must conform to the same testing and credentialing requirements as other schools. They are audited regularly, so I’m confused about how they “refuse disclosure”.
weiluniion
I am interested in reading more of your work to better understand your viewpoint.
Why can’t charter schools be a vehicle to challenge the entrenched power interests you mention? Charter schools (at least in California) must conform to the same testing and credentialing requirements as other schools. They are audited regularly, so I’m confused about how they “refuse disclosure”.
Hello, Julie I answer your question in both a thousand page book released last fall, as well as online in my articles.
What you do not see is charter schools are captivated by the very special interests you speak of using them against. They are vehicles for capitalist venture investment monies, testing companies, bond holders, gentrification advocates and retail charter school chains that will reduce students to commodities to be managed and then produced and teachers to clerks who will audit and trace student ‘progress’ from K-work with testing numerology.
The media would like to have you believe they are quaint settings for neighborhood learning when in all actuality, if you read my work, they are targeted at the urban poor who are the sub prime kids. They will be controlled factories of regimentation, teacher working at will 24/7, discriminatory policies, nepotism, corruption, hierarchical control and non-disclosure by corporate boards, entrenched interests. In short, Julie they are big business and the product they deliver is not education, it is training.
With no academic power and rights, teachers will be reduced to dispensaries of official knowledgge as they are now, not able to teach critical thinking or citizenship education for vital and vibrant democracy. Teir curriculums are born in the laboratories of corporate textbook companies, their teachers will be Walmart associates from Teach for America, certainly not teachers who have collective bargaining thus their turnover rate is high, 3-5 years.
If you are confused about full disclosure please read my articles you will find the issue in the titles. Too long to repeat.
The regrettable fact is the corporate press that will not even report what is going on in the fields of despair put together by Duncan and the entrepenneurial class to seize public schools at no cost and then turn them into labyrnths of profits, regimentatiion and control of students. As a result, with no dialogue or conversation Americans really do not know what is going on in the nation or what a charter school is. When you do hear about them you hear about them from the management elite who use their think tanks, Cato, The American Enterprise Institute, the Hudsun Institute, the Fordham Foundation and others, all connected to Wall Street and enchanted by the opportunity to make a bundle by transfering your taxes into their for profit schemes and then giving you a kit (curriculum) with a manuel (teacher), one size fits all, and a building to assemble it.
Julie, you must read other points of view on this issue for the corporate press is owned by some of the same billionaires and venture capitalists seeking to frame teachers as greedy villains, public workers re irresonsible and players who put their own interests ahead of kids, and sell you the privatized “Orrick” cleansing device called charter schools.
I write about all of it here at Daily Censored, Julie so best to find some titles that interest you and read the articles. Many of your questions will be answered and they will be couched in a language of analysis not one brought to you with commerrcials by Anderon Cooper or Glen Beck or Sean Hannity or anyone else who is paid millions to speak for the private corporate interest.
That you have not seen much in the press on Race to the Top the insidious plan by Obama to corporatize public schooling with charters and other techniques it is due to the fact both parties love the idea. For both parties feed from the same corporate hand, the issue is only who gets fed first.
So, now you can sit back and ask: ok, so we got corporate health care, corporate schools, corporate housing as public housing is now being give away to the same capitalists who caused the economic crisis so they can privatize them and then gentrify their neighborhoods; we got corporate military with contractors, we have a corporate energy policy and our senators and legislatures feed from both the public but mainly, the corporate trough.
Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, said the fascism is when corporate power and the state hold hands. Wheen the government becomes little more than a feeding tray to transfer and redistribute wealth to corporations by deregulations, tarrifs to subsidize them, laws that allow them to run unleashed on your front lawn, etc. The role of government is to enable profit acccumulation by large corporations.
do you think your kids will learn how to analyze like this or reason within various points of view with a testing regime controlling corporate run charter schools? No, Julie the teachers will be fired as they have been (see my article on teachers firing after they tried to teach Emmet Tillman to their students) if they do not follow the script given to them by the corporations and overseen by the corporate masters the new CEO’s of schools, once called principals.
so all the public language is sucked out of the discussion of schooling as it becomes a private business. Teachers become associates, principals become CEO’s, corporate boards now replace school boards, students become products to be fashioned for competition in the failing capitalist global order, teaching becomes ‘best practices’, funding is private at first and then big pay backs as your taxes are collected as nails and screws to assemble the whole mess.
Your children will receive a corporate education bathed in propaganda of American Exceptionalism. They will be trained like animals, not educated like human beings.
Best
Danny
Isaac
Hello Danny,
WOW…what great things exactly, have our public schools accomplished? Besides being wasteful and incompetent while turning classrooms full of helpless children into miserable progressive cowards, that is. What is it you do for a living? You wrote a book, which I am assuming was published? I hope for your sake this was a transaction where money was exchanged, it is moral after all, to recieve payment for your work. You believe capitalism is evil; i shudder to think where we would be today without capitalism. You believe it is wrong to teach American exceptionalism? Far worse would be to teach us that we are all, in the greatest country on earth, simply ordinary. You believe the entreprenneurial class is only interested in their own profits? What does your class teach, what has your class accomplished? That the success should be ours, though we did not make the effort, display our ethics, or produce a product or service? Do you believe the mind is evil, that ability is selfish, that only the greedy pursue wealth, and that they always do so only at the expense of the poor and the weak? I wonder what the poor would do without the entreprenneurial ambition that employs them. Beck and Hannity do indeed recieve payment for their time and ideas. What exactly qualifies you to decide what this payment should be, or whether it is moral to recieve payment at all? Your ideas are a dime a dozen, that businessman are parasites, that they would be nothing without the workers that support him, that it is at the expense of the workers that he enjoys his luxuries. I wonder if you have ever stopped to think who really depends on whom? While i do believe that true capitalism has not existed for a while, and that the system is now rigged from top to bottom, i will gladly take my chances with capitalism. I will gladly worship the dollar over the state, and the teachings of a capitalist over the teachings of those who believe in social justice. The belief that we must always place societies interests above our own, that we must only care about the collective leads only to misery and the point of a gun. I welcome your analysis and comment.
Danny Weil
Hello Danny,
WOW…what great things exactly, have our public schools accomplished? Besides
being wasteful and incompetent while turning classrooms full of helpless
children into miserable progressive cowards, that is.
Hello, Isaac, OK, so now you have made a claim; that public education has turned children into progressive cowards. But what you did not do is give any definitions for your terms, you failed to give any evidence for your claim, you failed to give reasons for your position. This is all poor reasoning. If you make claims then define your terms, tells us why you believe what youd believe so we can critically examine your point of view.
What is it you do for a
living?
You mean what do I do to make money or what do I do to live? Again, be clear.
You wrote a book, which I am assuming was published?
Yes, I will verify that I have written seven books over twenty years in education but you need not assume, verify by looking it up.
I hope for your
sake this was a transaction where money was exchanged, it is moral after all, to
receive payment for your work.
This is cute, and it implies for the reader that somehow I am either a hypocrite or do not believe in compensation. But it does not work with people who reason and I am thrilled you posted this for it gives readers an idea of show little reasoning goes into people’s comment these days. Perhaps this is the cowardice you were speaking of above or perhaps it is just an abdication of the need to provide reasons and evidence for your claims.
You believe capitalism is evil; I shudder to
think where we would be today without capitalism.
Well, you would probably have a system that put people befor3e profits, unlike capitalism that does the opposite but there is no guarantee; all freedoms must be fought for. But capitalism has now given you a lowers standard of living, money that is worthless, it has suited you and if you have children, up for debt peonage the rest of your life if the system does not change, it has allowed over 145 trillion to be liquidated in value, it has polluted the environment, destroyed communities, increased prison populations, destroyed working people’s unions, led to two trillion dollars in illegal wars, increased mortality rates for children, commercialized culture of functional illiterates, sent your jobs overseas and your manufacturing with it – best to shudder. You live in ‘Bates Hotel’.
You believe it is wrong to
teach American exceptionalism?
I do, for there is no such thing as American Exceptionalism it is the banshee cry of imperialists, petty nationalist, unpatriotic people who seek to brutally impose their social systems on others. The true history of the US can be read in Howard Zinn’s The People’s History of the US; there you will find the savage genocide of Native Aemricans, the colonization of the Philippines, Cuba, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and more. You will see the dictators we installed all at the behest of those who wished to profit off of stolen resources and cheap; labor all under the auspices of ‘American Exceptionalism” manifest destiny it is called. Rome had the sickness too. They fell quickly.
Far worse would be to teach us that we are all,
in the greatest country on earth, simply ordinary.
That is all we are, just simians in America, humans of the world. Your hierarchical thinking bespeaks the sad belief that America is somehow an oasis when in fact the two trillion you now spend on illegal wars is bankrupting your nation.
You believe the
Entrepreneurial class is only interested in their own profits?
Has to be, capitalism has one goal: capital accumulation not altruism. This is the legal fiduciary responsibility of all corporate executives and propriatators.
What does your
class teach, what has your class accomplished?
What class, my social class? Or the classes I teach at college? Be specific for if not you do not communicate.
That the success should be ours,
though we did not make the effort, display our ethics, or produce a product or
service? Do you believe the mind is evil, that ability is selfish, that only
the greedy pursue wealth, and that they always do so only at the expense of the
poor and the weak?
No, none of the above. I believe any socio-economic system that puts profits before people, as capitalism does, uses people as utilities in profit generation and thus exploits them. Its morals are clear: narcissm, commercialization of everyday life, go it alone individualism, I got mine you get yours, selfishness as a virtue, material acquisition as a religion, game theory and betrayal and distrust as people compete in a false scarcity society, the destruction of all bonds of social solidarity in favor of atomization and isolation, and basically a society permanently at class war. A very sick culture, one that believes wealth is money when wealth is community, friends and family the last thing capitalists re interested in.
I wonder what the poor would do without the entrepreneurial
ambition that employs them.
Yes, good for you for stating the myth. That without the rich the poor and working people could not survive. Do not you see the leisure class, the rich that do not work, are rich due to the ragged trousered philanthropists called working people who make them rich. You think labor needs capital, it does! But it does not need capitalists. We make the rich rich through our labor and grand subsidies we give them with tax breaks and handouts. Working people do not need the rich, the rich need working people. Go look at Argentina and the worker owned factories. No need for a managerial elite when workers can run their own enterprises. And make collective decisions as they do now.
Beck and Hannity do indeed receive payment for
their time and ideas. What exactly qualifies you to decide what this payment?
should be, or whether it is moral to receive payment at all?
The same thing that qualifies you to give your point of view. My passion and my positions. Hannity and Beck are wind-up toys for the corporations and if you cannot see this then it is too bad. But you are not alone.
Your ideas are a
dime a dozen, that businessman are parasites, that they would be nothing without
the workers that support him, that it is at the expense of the workers that he
enjoys his luxuries.
No, with 20 percent unemployment and ideal factory capacity not being used workers hardly enjoy anything in this society but low paying jobs. You do what you have been trained to do: identify your interests with those in power who give less than a thought to you. They use you, fill you up with rhetoric and ideas you cannot defined and then send you out on the telephone tree.
I wonder if you have ever stopped to think who really
depends on whom?
I have, and saw and see who builds this country – it is working people, the nurses, the teachers, the bricklayers, the service industry, the plumbers, the construction workers, the people who actually ‘work for a living’ not those who sit by the pool and wait for capital gains checks which they pay 15% taxes on while we pay 35-40 percent. Who do you think built your bridges, your computers, your cars, serve you in restaurants, cooks you meals when you eat out, make your roads wider etc.? Donald Trump?
While I do believe that true capitalism has not existed for a
while, and that the system is now rigged from top to bottom, I will gladly take
my chances with capitalism.
Good, you are in good hands for you are with those who will not only take their chances with it, they will take the body blows and eventual bankruptcy and perhaps theocracy that goes with it, so good luck.
I will gladly worship the dollar over the state,
and the teachings of a capitalist over the teachings of those who believe in
social justice.
Yes, we do worship a lot here in the US. God, Gold and Guns mostly. Worshipping is for the weak minded. Best to learn how to reason, to critically think and enter into different points of view and come up with your own independent thinking.
The belief that we must always place societies interests above
our own, that we must only care about the collective leads only to misery and
the point of a gun.
But that is not the belief I advocate. I advocate a belief in the ‘public commons’ that there is air, water, and resources we must share and thus must have a governance structure that finances it and distributes it justly. I certainly never advocated putting collective ideas over our own – what I did do is argue that those collective ideals, if taken seriously, will benefit our individuality not decimate it. For as long as competition, hand to hand combat marks the economic life of this country and the culture that goes with it, you not only will never be free you won’t even know you enslaved. That is the terrifying part.
I welcome your analysis and comment.
Thank you, you got it in fist fulls.
Thanks for writing and see my work on Rome and the US at http://www.dailycensored.com for more as to your questions.
Danny
Denny
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