Faux Democrats March On

From somewhere deep in Bill Gates' pocket, disgraced and unelected lame duck New York Governor David Paterson decided to take even more money away from public schools and give it to charters.  Apparently, the governor felt the draconian cuts we were already experiencing were insufficient.  In my school, I saw young teachers being excessed as a result of these cuts, and it was heartbreaking.

But for Governor Paterson, that wasn't enough.  Nor was it enough for the Wal-mart family or hedgefund managers who dictate what happens in American education.  Not only do charters not get cut, they get more.  Clearly, to the politicians the charter lobby owns, the 3% of kids who attend charters are more important than the 97% who do not.  Watch out for Andrew Cuomo, headed your way in a November election.

It's vital that teachers unite and send these people a message.  Don't believe the demagogues who claim that ruining our schools, demoralizing teachers, and revolving kids' lives around test scores is "for the kids."  Kids need smart, independent teachers--not a bunch of frightened automatons subject to being fired at the drop of Eli Broad's hat.  Kids need decent, clean facilities.

And our kids are not little robots who run around back and forth taking tests to make Michael Bloomberg look good.  Make no mistake--the widespread proliferation of charter schools is aimed squarely at the destruction of public schools, which are a real drag on the tax bills of billionaires.  For many uninformed Americans, reducing the tax bills of billionaires is our prime directive.

We're teachers.  It behooves us to know better.  Paterson can still do damage, but come November let's send a message that he and all his ilk are unacceptable and will feel our wrath.   In fact,  let's hope against hope the AFT sends Bill Gates that same message when he shows up as their honored guest.

Here's a Quarter, Go Buy a Congressman

It's now common knowledge that Charter Schools tried to buy NY State Assembly candidate Steve Baher for $200,000.  200K here, and 200K there, and they own the entire legislature.  It's not enough to own Barack Obama and Andrew Cuomo.  After all, there's just so much the President can do to push their agenda.  If they had legislatures statewide they wouldn't need to pimp out Arne Duncan on his race to see how high cash-strapped states can jump. 

Is there anyone out there who really believes these hedge fund guys are worried about the welfare of our children?  More likely they're tired of paying taxes to support education.  After all, if the public school system were to collapse entirely there'd be no change whatsoever for the children of Michael Bloomberg, Joel Klein or Barack Obama.  They talk a lot about public schools, but you wouldn't catch their kids attending on a bet.

It's interesting they always act so concerned about the schools they long ago deemed not good enough for their children.   If we really wanted better public schools we'd mandate that people who control school systems send their own kids there.  Maybe then they'd find ways to devote the hundreds of million dollars NYC took to reduce class size to reducing class size.  Maybe instead of bashing unions, which have historically enabled a middle class, they'd be encouraging them.

Stranger things have happened.  But our political system is so thoroughly corrupt, our free press so incurious and one-sided that all we hear about is the one politician who didn't take the money.  Who knows how much it costs to buy Andrew Cuomo? How much is David Paterson?  Did they get a discount when he chose not to run again?  And how much was the President of the United States?

More importantly, what will it take to get politicians who represent we the people rather than merely they the hedge fund gazillionaires?

Has Paterson Come to His Senses?

In the long run, probably not.  But his latest emergency budget includes no cuts to education.  That's significant for those of us who spend time reading the tea leaves, but it's likely he'll opt in the end to screw the kids, screw the teachers, and screw working people.  That's kind of the attitude here where 30 billion for Afghanistan is a given, but 23 to save teacher jobs is a boondoggle.

Let's hope he wakes up in the middle of the night to see the ghost of Education Past rattling chains and asking him how the hell kids are going to learn without teachers.  Let's hope he figures, what do I have to lose?  Then maybe he'll do the right thing.

I really would like to see a politician do the right thing.  I used to think people who voted for Ralph Nader were out of their minds.  Now I think they just wised up before I did.

Well, fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, I can't get fooled again.

Didn't make a whole lot of sense when GW said it.  For some reason, it seems to apply here.

Rules? We Don't Need No Stinking Rules

Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson are sorely disappointed at NY State's failure to win "Race to the Top" funds.   They could've used the money to plug the state's budget gap.  Only the rules specifically say the money cannot be used to plug budget gaps.  It can only be used for "innovation," like finding new and more creative ways to fire teachers, break contracts, and open charters for Eva Moskowitz.  You'd think they'd salivate at such a prospect.  Instead, they wallow in misery for not having raised the charter cap--something they'll undoubtedly revisit.

Unfortunately for Mike and Dave, the legislature insisted on giving parents a say in whether or not charters invaded the schools their children attended.  As few parents want their kids to have less space, fewer libraries, classes in cafeterias, or separate and unequal learning conditions, that did not bode well for the pro-charter crowd.  Thus, Mike and Dave needed to shove charters down the throats of unwilling parents, and failed to raise the charter cap.

Certainly they will try to raise or eliminate the cap again in their quest for more money.  It's kind of remarkable that Mayor Mike needs any more money.  Didn't he defy the voters' term limits law specifically because he was the only individual on God's green earth who could steer us through the budget crisis?  I don't recall his stating that the only way to do so was by trampling the will of public school parents.  Perhaps that was not the catchiest of campaign slogans.

Once again, rules are for the little people, and neither the mayor nor the governor feels they should be constrained by them.  The hell with the rules, the hell with the parents, we're in charge and we can do what the hell we like.

Now that's leadership.

Are There No Prisons? Are There No Workhouses?

Someone I met yesterday told me an interesting story. She and her husband have three kids, and they make less than three thousand dollars a month. One of the very few benefits of living on an income like that, apparently, is Medicaid. This is particularly helpful to them because they have a young daughter with leukemia. The treatment is brutal and it seems once they get through with one thing, they move onto another.

And somehow, even though Governor Paterson's cuts haven't been approved yet, Medicaid is paying less. I know a dentist who told me they've cut payments to the point where she can't even pay her supplier. And the woman with the sick child just got a bill for three thousand dollars her family doesn't have. Worse, it appears more may be coming.

A comment yesterday suggested the New York State plan that covers sick kids only works until the kids get really sick, and once that happens they're on their own. Just about every other industrialized country in the world covers its people. We, on the other hand, spend all our money fighting pointless wars and bailing out banks.

Here in the US, we have laws to protect credit card companies from losses when people go bankrupt. But we have none to protect people from losing all they own due to catastrophic medical emergency.

The guy in the picture might as well be running this country. I hope our new leader does better by us.