This has been online for a while now, but it is great to read this now as we go into the final stretch of this school year. Yes – teachers do love their students and education is still a noble profession.
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Can We Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory ?
The War on Public Ed, schools, teachers, students, parents/families/cities is raging on all fronts. They, the Corporate State Elite and their Machiavellian Agenda, are Winning. Years of planning, preparing, and a war chest that is in the billions/trillions if need, they are all but assured of victory. For them its just a matter of time before they can stand on the deck of another air craft carrier and declare victory ( like Bush II did ). The resistance was slow to recognize they/we were being warred upon. When we awaken to reality, it was almost too late. Now, we are slowly awakening and resisting. The only issue/question that remains: Can We Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory? – Dr. James Avington Miller Jr. The War Report on Public Education
by Dr. James Avington Miller, Jr
The War on Public Ed, schools, teachers, students, parents/families/cities is raging on all fronts. They, the Corporate State Elite and their Machiavellian Agenda, are Winning. Years of planning, preparing, and a war chest that is in the billions/trillions if need, they are all but assured of victory. For them its just a matter of time before they can stand on the deck of another air craft carrier and declare victory ( like Bush II did ). The resistance was slow to recognize they/we were being warred upon. When we awaken to reality, it was almost too late. Now, we are slowly awakening and resisting. The only issue/question that remains: Can We Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory? – Dr. James Avington Miller Jr.
The War Report on Public Education
An URGENT Appeal From Tennessee – Voucher Sharks Are Circling
I am reblogging this piece from TREE – Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence. Please read the whole article. What they are doing to our most at-risk and needy students is criminal.
The students, teachers, and parents of Tennessee need your help to tell legislators NOT to turn their backs on our students with special needs, and to say NO to opening the door to fraud.
Thank you for reading and taking action. Thank you for protecting our children from harm.
Voucher Sharks Are Circling
On Tuesday, the House Education Instruction & Programs committee will consider an additional voucher bill that is broader in scope and more devoid of accountability than any voucher proposal Tennessee has seen before.
30 Seconds of your time can say NO to this legislation.
House Bill 138 has NO limit on number of vouchers available. NO requirements at all for participating education providers, and NO testing or reporting requirements. An eligible student under this bill is any Tennessee child with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) providing for special education services. Currently, 120,000 students in Tennessee meet that standard. Make no mistake, this vision – over a hundred thousand available vouchers with no meaningful standards or oversight – is not an outlier. It’s the ultimate goal of voucher advocates, and it’s where they hope any voucher law will ultimately take Tennessee.
This bill states that a parent of any child with an IEP, in exchange for a promise to not enroll the child in public school, may have BEP funds deposited into a bank account the parent controls. The parent is to use the funds to educate the child in some fashion, whether by enrolling in private school, purchasing an online learning program, hiring a tutor, or some other means. This bill specifically states that there will be NO regulations or standards applied to a participating educational provider. Private schools accepting this voucher are not required to be accredited or have any operating history. A provider need not actually provide the services called for in the child’s IEP. The bill calls for NO testing or reporting of educational results. ZERO accountability. And this lack of accountability runs counter to all of the laws that have been passed in recent years requiring testing and accountability for our public schools. Why would our legislators allow our tax money to be spent without any accountability, after spending years trying to establish accountability in our schools?
It’s staggering to think of the abuse, waste, and inadequate education that this bill would produce if it becomes law. The proposal is modeled after a similar law in Florida, which has produced rampant fraud and educational malpractice. “It’s like a perverse science experiment, using disabled school kids as lab rats and funded by nine figures in taxpayer cash: Dole out millions to anybody calling himself an educator. Don’t regulate curriculum or even visit campuses to see where the money is going.” [*Disclaimer – this article contains graphic and offensive language and behavior used by the private schools that received taxpayer funds under Florida’s program.]
We need your help TODAY to speak up against this outrageous proposal. Take 30 seconds and CLICK HERE to tell legislators NOT to turn their backs on our students with special needs, and to say NO to opening the door to fraud and misuse of Tennessee education dollars on a monumental scale.
The Other PARCC – Parents Advocating Refusal on High-Stakes Testing – A MUST WATCH AND SHARE
This is a brilliant web film. This will make you cry. This will make you angry. But will it make you do something?
From film maker Michael Elliot:
“The PARCC Testing begins tomorrow, and the children of New Jersey and all over the country begin struggling through these assessments. The question must be asked by parents everywhere, how long will it take and how much damage will be done, before this ill fated reform agenda is defeated. How long?
Please watch the film, comment and like and share… Lets make our voices, the voices of parents, teachers and children, heard.”
A Special Guest Posting from The Walking Man – Dr. Jesse Turner – “An Ode to Education”
From the Walking Man – Dr. Jesse Turner
An Ode to Education
I Love Public Education
I cried the first time my Mother left me at your door,
I would learn to love you with every morning cookie and container of milk,
I would love you more with every song we sang within your hallowed walls,
I found your love in every teacher’s smile in your halls
I loved the reverence and respect you showed our flag every morning.
When the evil darkness of assassination
took the life of President Kennedy ~ you were there,
You calmed us, and helped us understand that although things could never be the same ~ our nation would be mended,
You kept us warm during the winters from 9:00 to 3:00 ~ when there was no heat in our old cold-water flat,
You were there when they murdered our heroes Martin and Bobby, to help us wipe away our tears,
You ensured that although they were taken from our world ~ these men would remain in our hearts forever,
You gave us hope through the riots and the protests,
You gave us color when there were no crayons in our homes,
You gave us poetry to ease our pain,
You gave us poetry to celebrate our lives,
You gave us history to give us roots,
You gave us geography, the stars and the moon landing ~ just to let us know we had no boundaries,
You taught us mathematics and science,
But most of all you gave us literature,
You gave us a love of books,
You handed us a little more of our dreams every single day,
You were there, year after year, as we spent our summer vacations under the cooling spray of fire hydrants ~ dancing in the streets,
As every summer ended we longed for another school year to begin,
You were beaming with pride at every graduation,
My loves still grows
I am confused by:
A nation’s leaders ~ who bash public schools at every opportunity,
An American media ~ that ignores 150 years of noble service to our nation’s children,
I find myself distraught ~ by the titans of industry, who blame you for every social ill, while they drink from the cup of plenty, time and time again,
I am troubled by their mantra of testing will save us,
I am saddened by their infatuation with fictional heroes like Superman, and homage to those with no real classroom experience,
I am bewildered by leaders who say teachers are the essential ingredients to success, and then in their next breath say our teachers are not good enough.
All I am I owe to you,
I can’t remember one single standardized test,
I do remember teacher after teacher telling us those tests were no measure of who we really are,
I remembered loving Mr. Bass’s reminders that poor boys and girls could be anything they dreamed,
His boys and girls were more than test scores,
We were his endless possibilities,
Yes, I love public education,
I love public education enough to fight for it,
I love public education enough to stand up for it,
I love public education enough to take it back from the
The billionaires club,
The politicians,
The policy makers,
The ones who only see test scores,
The ones who count numbers not tears,
The ones who refer to America’s children as “Data”
Yes, I love public education; enough to walk to Washington DC again in 2015.
Forever in your debt,
Jesse Turner
You are all invited to take part in Jesse’s 400 mile walk from Central CT to Washington DC beginning this June 11th. Jesse be walking to protest the education malpractice that is demoralizing parents, teachers, and turning our children into human capital.
He will be walking 400 miles in 40 days.
Please check out his FaceBook Event page.
Poetic Justice 