Category Archives: ALEC

Choice-i-fication

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Edushyster has another amusing blog up on the fiasco of schools-as-profit-driven-edumucation-centers for Choice-i-fication. (hat tip Diane Ravitch)

From the Reuters link:

Ahead of elections next year, politicians of all stripes are questioning the role of such firms, accused of putting profits first with practices like letting students decide when they have learned enough and keeping no record of their grades.

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Letting students decide when they’ve learned enough??  Seriously??   They should be hanging their heads in shame for their irresponsibility.   I would have quit my sophomore year in high school if it would have been allowed…things were not going well and it would have been easier to give in.  This is especially true for the young–who don’t have enough experience to determine what is best for them.  For me, I will always regret that I didn’t take the college prep courses in high school.  I could not see that my circumstances might change in the future and I would be able to go to college.  Allowing these young folks to decide when they’ve learned enough is criminal, in my view.

And then there’s the unintended consequence:

Sweden replaced one of the world’s most tightly regulated school systems with one of the most deregulated, leading to scandals like the 2011 case of the convicted paedophile who set up several schools quite legally.

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I have no words.

What I don’t understand is near the end of the article, they say they don’t want to go back to the old way, which left parents with no choice.  WTH?  Given the choice between the new way and the old….I personally would take the old.  For-profit schools are not schools…they are centers for making kids look busy with a poor imitation of knowledge.

Mother Jones: Hypocrisy of Bill and Melinda Gates

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Diane Ravitch has a blog up with a link to Mother Jones article on the hypocrisy of Bill (and Melinda) Gates.   It’s a really great read on how slick Billy operates.

Washington State Judge rules against Charters

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Well, this is welcome news–a judge has ruled that public funds cannot be used for charters under private management.  Yes!!  A win for public schools!

The History of Land Grabs

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This post by Gene Logsdon is powerful.  It’s personal, too, as I thought of losing my home and how devastating that was…

Logsdon mentions the Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith; I couldn’t find the exact author Logsdon mentions for the Highland Clearances, but I found this and this that seem to be the same subject.

It was stunning to read Logsdon’s piece on it and how often this has been used as a tool for the wealthy to grab even more for themselves.  I thought back to the years I was growing up and how farmers were portrayed as backwards, slow, less sophisticated…and now I wonder at this being planned..

Feminist scholars made  a connection between the Puritan Salem witch hunts and wealth.  They stated that the women who were hanged were either poor which means low regard in the community, or they were single wealthy women whom owned land.  This was significant then because women could not outright own land–they had to inherit it from their fathers or husbands.  So the women owning land were a huge threat to the status quo.  Land means power…and it came with rights not afforded to the ones without land.

Also, there was a prejudice against the single status of the wealthy women, because women who were married and wealthy were able to escape the noose….while the single ones were not.

The portrayal of farmers as hayseeds, something to look down upon reminded me of what they did with the women after World War II. (as a side note~ I found this amusing blog on the war propaganda.)  It’s really stunning how much public opinion can be swayed against our better instincts and interests.  One of the things I have read from the Depression survivors is that they didn’t go hungry because many were still in the country and could raise their own food.  Now we’re “citified” and don’t have the resources to raise our own food….thereby more dependent on the food stamp program.  Ironic, isn’t it??

In addition, I have to wonder at the web of how much this has contributed to climate change–not only adding more toxins to the environment by industry, but by cutting us off from the land–harder to see how we are destroying the environment when we don’t feel as connected to it, eh?

U.S. wetlands in danger

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80,000 acres have been lost. 

“While they comprise less than 10 percent of the nation’s land area, they support 75 percent of our migratory birds, nearly 80 percent of fish and shellfish, and almost half of our threatened and endangered species. We can’t sustain native wildlife for future generations without protecting and restoring the coastal wetlands that support them,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.

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A commenter from Florida says 60% of their wetlands have been lost.

A depressing aspect is that some would like to attach a monetary value to the wetlands.  In my view, there isn’t any way to adequately do such a thing.  It’s priceless.  When it’s gone, we are too.  And when I say “we”  I mean every living thing–the fish, the birds, the no-see-ums…all those things that are connected.

And this article doesn’t even take into account the pollution of plastic, mercury, and other toxins to the remaining wetlands.

…our “kidneys” are failing because of our neglect and lack of proactive life changes.  It’s so haaard to make adjustments. /snarky and whiny, for sure.

 

Shrimp season canceled

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According to this report, the shrimp season has been canceled due to warmer than normal waters.    And then I wonder how many other fish have been affected…especially those that eat shrimp in their diet.

The comments were sobering, of course:

Its like watching a disaster movie in super slow motion.

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Yep.

What they really think of the old

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Fred Klonsky has a Chicago Tribune cartoon depicting retirees as dogs that need to be muzzled.

Kind of says it all, doesn’t it?

Klonsky also has a blog up on Moral Mondays.  Update here.

This from Diane Ravitch on how to starve people so they’ll accept whatever crumbs you feel like giving them…

And in my corner of the world, Glenda Ritz continues to fight for her publicly elected position that received more votes than Pence.

Charter Schools:  it’s all in the family.