(I didn’t get much sleep last night, and my ADD is always worse when I’m tired, so forgive any faux pas.)
I’m flipping through the channels this morning and land on CNBC with Dan Gilbert, the grand pooh bah wizard of rejuvenating Detroit. I only caught the last part of his schpiel, but what I was hearing made me sick. He spoke of bringing in “interns”. Interns? Yep, he’s bringing in young minds that can be manipulated into believing what they’re doing is innovative and exciting and the right thing to do….
…I find it more than mildly curious that 50-somethings are by appearances being ignored.
And it’s disturbing how the article below reads that the sharks are circling to see how much they can get away with–everyone is watching to see who wins the “tug of war” between the unions and the moneyed interests.
From the NYTimes article:
….Detroit officials have proposed paying off small fractions of what the city owes, they have indicated they intend to treat investors holding general obligation bonds as having no higher priority for payment than, for instance, city workers — a notion that conflicts with the conventions of the market…
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An obligation is an obligation. I don’t know why the city would be any less obligated to the workers who labored and were made a promise than to bond holders who were also made promises but did nothing to earn that but sit on their butts? In my view, EVERYBODY should be made to give a little. Everybody loses a little bit for the good of the whole.
Now I know folks will be saying that “investors won’t invest if they aren’t getting top dollar…” I don’t believe that if they are still making money for doing nothing that they are going to pass on that opportunity. Investing is a risk….why shouldn’t the investors share in the losses as well as the gains?
(Ironically, or not, I’m playing David Crosby’s “Hero” )
My other blogs on Detroit here and here . Note the link to Dan Gilbert profiteering off of the carcass of Detroit.
Background on the “Emergency Manager”
…but damn,he sure is trying with everything he’s got.
<sigh> I was all ready to rip into Gates once again… but I’m halfway through the article of Chronicles of Higher Education….and this one sentence that Gates “just wants to get more people through the system with college degrees so that it will lift them out of poverty…”
bwahahahaha. That’s rich.
Then, further down, they disclose that Gates Foundation is supporting the Chronicles of Higher Education financially. I think I’ve already read that somewhere, but alas, the brain didn’t bring it up…the article is clearly a promo by Gates…so yeah….
So…I’ll have to refer to previous blogs on Gates…
Here. Supporting Brookings Institute that dismissed Diane Ravitch
Here. Not content with just controlling education, but the food supply, as well.
Here.
Diane Ravitch has this up on the continuing guttering of public schools….now with Indianapolis in its sights.
This sentence pretty much tells you they’re up to no good:
Kloth’s been loath to share the NEO Plan with taxpayers through Indy’s media. He especially didn’t want this columnist to have a copy.
Keep out the press so that we can do our dirty work in the dark before the public knows we’ve taken their key to a better life away from them and given them junk instead.
And then there’s this:
Since African-American researchers were forbidden to participate in NEO, I did my own research.
And this:
African-American students have a greater higher risk of attending a low performing school in Indianapolis/Marion County than whites and Hispanics.
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Black folks should be all over this. A clever way to get Separate but Equal schools.
DSWright has this up on the latest manipulations by the Koch Brothers.
…be on the lookout for KBS–Koch Broadcasting Service–sure to be coming to a TV channel near you…
One of the commenters on Diane Ravitch’s site has this link up . An excellent timeline on what has been going on behind the scenes with *cough* education reform.
I really, really, hope that Barack Obama has changed his mind regarding this–as Diane Ravitch did when she came to realize that education reform was actually turning schools into for-profit centers.
From the link:
“When teachers are given powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional growth and recognition for outstanding achievement, we see increased student achievement in TAP schools,” Lowell Milken said in a December 2008 press release. “Chicago TAP schools are off to a strong start in continuing efforts to achieve these goals.”
Milken, unmentioned in most accounts, has a vested financial interest in school reform efforts and “fixing failing schools.”
That’s because Milken is a major investor in K12 Inc., a corporation traded on Wall Street that sells online schooling and curriculum to state and local governments. Milken invested $10 million in K12 Inc. in 2000, a stake that is now worth over $125 million, according to a July 2008 article in Forbes.
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Milken is full of it, to put it bluntly. Nobody who knows anything about teachers and education would ever make such an idiotic statement. Most teachers are in the profession because they want to see children learn, NOT because they want “career advancement”. Their professional growth comes with experience….there is no substitute for that and no amount of money can magically *poof* experience.
Truly, to say that a student’s achievement is the teacher’s achievement is, in my view, taking away from the student’s hard work. A good teacher is only part of the student-parent-teacher equation. ALL of them play an important role in how well the student does.
When I first went to college, I wanted to be a teacher. When I discussed this with my college advisor, she discouraged me from going that route–she said the jobs wouldn’t be there. I wonder what she knew and when she knew it?? Anyway, I decided to go into Communications so that I could make documentaries and still somewhat “teach”.
However, when I was on what was supposed to be a progressive jobs website, there was Teach for America. I applied, writing in my application how I had helped my daughter overcome dyslexia and learn to read. I wanted to teach in inner city schools, I told them, so I could help the little ones with such learning hurdles.
I was turned down flat. Not even an interview.
Knowing what I know now, it is obvious they were never interested in educating kids. They didn’t want folks who were passionate and truly wanted to help kids learn.
When you couple this with the military in schools, it’s truly scary, indeed, on what is happening to our schools. God help us.
Karen Francisco, of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, made a comment on Diane Ravitch’s blog that was outstanding.
It pretty much outlines what these creeps are getting away with–robbing the public schools of funds while laughing all the way to the bank:
Bakke’s company to operate two underperforming schools. In addition, an out-of-state real estate investment trust — EPT Properties — will continue to collect about $1 million a year for the charter school lease.
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…was on a sign protesting their continued more-for-us-less-for-you campaign. Thankfully, they were unsuccessful in their bullying tactics.
From the first link:
“From day one, we have said this legislation is arbitrary, discriminatory, and discourages investment in D.C.,” Alex Barron, a general manager for Wal-Mart whose region includes D.C., writes in a company statement. “It means most shopping dollars will stay in the suburbs, unemployment will remain in the double-digits in some neighborhoods and underserved communities will continue to have disproportionate access to affordable groceries.”
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I followed the last link to this:
The company’s hardball tactics come out of a well-worn playbook that involves successfully using Wal-Mart’s leverage in the form of jobs and low-priced goods to fend off legislation and regulation that could cut into its profits and set precedent in other potential markets. In the Wilson Building, elected officials have found their reliable liberal, pro-union political sentiments in conflict with their desire to bring amenities to underserved neighborhoods.
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I just can’t understand the thinking that losing Wal-Mart is a bad thing? Good Riddance to a big box store that pays poor wages, encourages employees to apply for food stamps, guts entire towns that were once full of independent small business owners, and imports cheap plastic crap from China, where again, people are paid low wages (which I know are beginning to rise, but still…).
Diane Ravitch has a blog up on the Indiana Charter schools playing the shell game of accountability. Now you see it, now you don’t…well, you never really did see accountability…
The financial profits aspect turns my stomach to no end…
And Gates Foundation being involved….well, there’s a red flag if there ever were a red flag. My blogs on Gates here and here and here and here, on the Gates Foundation and Brookings Institute that tossed Diane Ravitch aside when she began to question what was happening to public education.
Roberts says that times have changed and things are different now. Yes and No.
Yes we have our first African American president. I see African American professionals in many places. It was especially poignant to watch the coverage of the recent tragedy in Philadelphia–when the building collapsed. The mayor, the head of the fire dept., and another official were all African Americans. That was a proud moment.
But, No, racism has not been eliminated. Roberts should know this….in his own backyard of Laporte County, Indiana, was a case of someone spraying racial slurs on the sidewalk of an African American church about three years ago. There was snow on the ground, to make tracking easier….but somehow the culprits got away….
Voting Rights Act was put into place because of the stuff we’re seeing yet today…
…like the attack on ACORN…an organization that sought to get the poor and others registered to vote…
…Florida thwarting voters…
…so to say that everything is just fine and it’s okay to let these states once again do as they please is just plain wrong.
Saying racism is “over” is like saying that sexism has been eliminated because we see *some* women in positions of power. And those women don’t necessarily speak for women who stay home, out of the rat race, so to speak. So it’s not a fair representation of all thoughts. It’s also not a representation of actual progress. When women who stay home are acknowledged as contributing to society as much as a woman who brings home a paycheck; when rape is no longer seen as the fault of the woman; when domestic violence is acknowledged for its devastating effects on women, children, and society; when tenderness is no longer seen as weakness….only then will anyone convince me that sexism is no longer an issue.
And racism and sexism are created from the same mindset of power-over.
Eagle 
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