April 17, 2015

Oregon Democrats Kill Health Bill Because It Included Abortion Provision. Shocked me.

I thought maybe Democrats around the country were learning that compromising with the extremist right was a dangerous thing. But this article mentions that Democrats have a "supermajority", and they still killed the bill.

From RH Reality Check:

Oregon Democrats Kill Reproductive Health Bill Because It Included Abortion Provision

An Oregon bill that would have codified the right to affordable, full-spectrum reproductive health care was killed by the state’s Democratic leadership last week because of a provision that would have increased access to abortion.

Backed by a coalition of progressive lawmakers and activists, SB 894, the Comprehensive Women’s Health Bill, appeared strong coming out of the gate in the Democratic-led legislature.

“I’m proud to be working with such a wide range of legislators and advocates on this issue,” state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-Beaverton), one of the bill’s chief sponsors, told RH Reality Check when the bill was introduced in February. “We’ve got Republicans and Democrats, men and women, and advocates from across the spectrum who care deeply about this bill.”

The proposal would have required all health insurance plans to cover a wide range of reproductive health services, including contraception, abortion, prenatal care, childbirth, and postpartum care, at low costs. It would also have allowed pharmacies to dispense a 12-month supply of birth control at one time, and reduced cost sharing and deductibles for abortion care.

But the language on abortion proved a sticking point even for the Oregon legislature, which has a Democratic super-majority and a track record of supporting abortions rights. Senators in the health committee failed to even give the bill a hearing date, killing it by default.

The cowardly way out...why they did not want to vote on it.

Aimee Santos-Lyons, director of programs for Western States Center, told RH Reality Check. The Western States Center backed the bill. “Senators didn’t want to be asked to vote on abortion and have that on their record. They find it a difficult issue to go public on.”

That's just shameful.

April 16, 2015

Angie's List head could challenge Pence after religious freedom battle. Quits job to fight law.

Oesterle quit his Angie's List job on Wednesday

Washington (CNN)Mike Pence's stumbles over Indiana's religious freedom law could soon land him in an expensive primary battle against one of the leaders of the backlash the governor faced.

Bill Oesterle, the co-founder and chief executive of Angie's List, the Indianapolis-based consumer review publication who once managed former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' campaign, says he is so frustrated with how "badly damaged" Pence left the state that he's returning to politics.

...And he's suggesting that he wants to take Pence on himself.

Oesterle quit his Angie's List job on Wednesday, telling TheStatehouseFile.com that he wants to "begin the long process of repairing that."

"I haven't figured out how I'm going to do that," Oesterle said. "That could involve helping somebody else run. That could involve working on legislative races. That could involve becoming a candidate myself."

More:

Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle released a statement rejecting the new RFRA deal.


Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle is seen at a news conference on the “religius freedom” law on March 30, 2015. He was was not present at the legislative news conference on Thursday, April 2, and says the deal worked out by lawmakers to address problems with the law is “insufficient.” (Photo: Charlie Nye/The Star)

Angie's List

Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle released a statement rejecting the new RFRA deal.

"Employers in most of the state of Indiana can fire a person simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning. That's just not right and that's the real issue here."

Read more from the statement and what this could mean for an expansion of the Indianapolis-based company's corporate campus on the Near-Eastside in Jeff Swiatek's full article.

A couple of paragraphs from Swiatek's article:

The Angie's List CEO has said he won't partner with the state in the expansion as long as the RFRA remains intact and protections against those in the LGBT community aren't put in place.

Other businesses that had been critical of the passage of RFRA, including Eli Lilly and Co. and Salesforce.com, showed up to express their support for the revision. Oesterle wasn't seen at the Statehouse announcement.

April 16, 2015

DeBlasio said they must stop enabling Moskowitz. But Cuomo to hold huge fundraiser for her.

I must give credit to Mayor DeBlasio. Here are his words during the campaign. I found them in a long video interview of Eva Moskowitz by Reason TV. It's about 4 minutes in.

DeBlasio: Time for Eva Moskowitz to stop having the run of the place. She has to stop being tolerated,enabled, and supported.

I don't want to post the totally one-sided video interview. It's sickening. But you can find it at the bottom of Mercedes' blog at the link above.

However look what he is up against. Eva and her Success Academy Charters have found their really Big Time Friend.


Andrew Cuomo at the charter school rally in Albany. (AP Photo/Tim Roske)

ALBANY—Eva Moskowitz said she would go to the president of the United States to help her students if she had to. For now, she's stopping at Andrew Cuomo.

Moskowitz, C.E.O. of Success Academy charter schools in New York City, helped organize a massive rally outside the state Capitol on Tuesday, where she said she was “delighted” to have the governor's support.

Cuomo spoke at the event, pledging his commitment to getting charter schools the money and facilities they need to “thrive,” while down the street New York City mayor Bill de Blasio fought what is shaping up to be a losing battle for his tax-the-rich pre-kindergarten plan.

“It's just nice to have friends and supporters,” Moskowitz said, when asked about Cuomo. “We have felt kind of alone in this fight.”

Yes, she really does have a powerful friend in her fight against public schools.

Governor Cuomo is partnering with Campbell Brown on April 20 to hold a huge fundraiser for the Success Academies.

Cuomo has been a huge supporter of Eva Moskowitz and her charter schools.

Of course her academies can not exist on just what they get from the New York taxpayers as the money is taken from public schools...and given to her school even though they don't keep low-performing students.

They need millions more from private sources.

Not long ago the school had a 7.75 million fundraiser with Erik Prince, Campbell Brown, Jeb Bush.

Members of the mega rich and politically powerful gathered together last night at Cipriani to distort the truth, bash unions, shower each other with praise and raise $ 7.75 million for education entrepreneur Eva Moskowitz and her ever expanding Success Academy empire. Indeed, Moskowitz who for weeks busied herself acting the helpless victim of evil Bill de Blasio ( while at the same time benefiting from a five million dollar anti de Blasio PR blitzkrieg ) announced that she intends to extend her empire in several ways. “ As of August, Success will have 32 schools and 9,000 students. Four years from now, Success plans to have 55 schools with 21,400 students, which, Moskowitz said, would make it the equivalent of the fifth largest district in New York State and half the size of the Washington, D.C. school system. “

.....Displaying their limitless love for the children of the urban poor were many leading representatives of the occupation that was instrumental in bringing the world to the brink of economic collapse: hedge funders. Indeed, Dan Loeb, of the hedge fund group, Third Point LLC, who is also chairman of the Success Academy board, hosted the event. Jimmy Lee, vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co.has this to say of Loeb: “Away from all the business press he gets, I think being chairman of his board and giving his time, not just his money, makes him a role model. You can tell he cares.” According to the report in Bloomberg, “ The event was filled with men and women in the hedge-fund industry, including Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital Management, Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Asset Management, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital and John Paulson of Paulson & Co. “

She still needs more millions. So now on April 20 Cuomo and Campbell combine to get those millions for her.

Save The Date: Andrew Cuomo, Campbell Brown To Raise Money For Success Academies at Cipriani on Monday April 20, 2015

In case you haven't gotten your tickets already:

Monday, April 20, 2015 Success Academy Charter Schools
Third Annual Spring Benefit. 6:30 pm. Cocktails and dinner. Business attire. Honoring Eli Broad. Chaired by Campbell Brown, Joel Greenblatt, Daniel S. Loeb, John Scully, Regina Scully. Tickets from $1,250.00. Tables from $15,000.00. Cipriani 42nd Street. New York. Contact: Julianna Harder. (212) 245-6570. Event address: 110 East 42nd Street, New York. Event web address: www.successacademies.org.

More incentive to attend:

CUOMO TO HEADLINE SUCCESS ACADEMY BENEFIT—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: Governor Andrew Cuomo will be the keynote speaker at Success Academy's annual spring benefit this April, according to an invite sent to Success employees this weekend. Cuomo and Success C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz officially became allies last winter, when Cuomo stepped into a battle between Moskowitz and Mayor Bill de Blasio, declaring he would ‘save charter schools’ at a massive Albany rally partially organized by Success. The event will be held April 20 at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan, and will be co-chaired by Success board members Campbell Brown, Daniel Loeb, Joel Greenblatt, and Regina and John Scully. http://bit.ly/1tT6Edx


NY Teacher has a suggestion:


Don't forget, Cuomo was scheduled to speak at the Success Academy Charter Schools Spring Benefit on April 20th; 6:30 pm at Cipriani (42nd St). If he does attend it would be a great place to demo/rally/press.


So does Norm Scott:

A massive protest in front of Ciprianis would be an appropriate response.

Moskowitz goes against accepted and traditional ways of treating children with the proper respect.

She and her teachers have set up an atmosphere in which children would rather have an accident rather than ask to go to the restroom during test prep and testing.

In spring 2013, a commenter on a website on Success Academy Cobble Hill, who described themselves as a parent of a former first grade student, wrote that their child developed problems with going to the bathroom at the charter school:

We were hoping for academic rigor. Instead we found a school that was overly strict, cold, and insensitive to the overall needs of the young children entrusted in their care. My son wet his pants for the first time since he was three years old because the school did not let him go to the bathroom when he asked. The school was incapable of recognizing that he had also developed anxiety around going down the hall to the bathroom.

The explanation of Eva Moskowitz is not very acceptable.

Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, disputed these reports, telling The Times that students are allowed to go to the bathroom during practice tests even though doing so isn't encouraged. These policies are in place, she explained to The Times, "to mimic the environment of the actual test."

"We have plenty of kids who don't always prepare adequately ... very occasionally there are accidents, and we get that it's uncomfortable for the student," Moskowitz told The Times. (my comment...how does one "prepare adequately" for not using the restroom in times of great stress??)

The Success Academy CEO also attributed the "accidents" to "the challenges of sharing space in public school buildings, which meant the restrooms were sometimes several floors away," The Times reports.

That's because the education leaders in New York allowed Moskowitz to move in and take over.

April 15, 2015

Governor Cuomo, Campbell Brown to hold big money fundraiser for Eva's Success Academy Charters

Cuomo has been a huge supporter of Eva Moskowitz and her charter schools.

Of course her academies can not exist on just what they get from the New York taxpayers as the money is taken from public schools...and given to her school even though they don't keep low-performing students.

They need millions more from private sources.

Not long ago the school had a 7.75 million fundraiser with Erik Prince, Campbell Brown, Jeb Bush.

Members of the mega rich and politically powerful gathered together last night at Cipriani to distort the truth, bash unions, shower each other with praise and raise $ 7.75 million for education entrepreneur Eva Moskowitz and her ever expanding Success Academy empire. Indeed, Moskowitz who for weeks busied herself acting the helpless victim of evil Bill de Blasio ( while at the same time benefiting from a five million dollar anti de Blasio PR blitzkrieg ) announced that she intends to extend her empire in several ways. “ As of August, Success will have 32 schools and 9,000 students. Four years from now, Success plans to have 55 schools with 21,400 students, which, Moskowitz said, would make it the equivalent of the fifth largest district in New York State and half the size of the Washington, D.C. school system. “

.....Displaying their limitless love for the children of the urban poor were many leading representatives of the occupation that was instrumental in bringing the world to the brink of economic collapse: hedge funders. Indeed, Dan Loeb, of the hedge fund group, Third Point LLC, who is also chairman of the Success Academy board, hosted the event. Jimmy Lee, vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co.has this to say of Loeb: “Away from all the business press he gets, I think being chairman of his board and giving his time, not just his money, makes him a role model. You can tell he cares.” According to the report in Bloomberg, “ The event was filled with men and women in the hedge-fund industry, including Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital Management, Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Asset Management, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital and John Paulson of Paulson & Co. “

She still needs more millions. So now on April 20 Cuomo and Campbell combine to get those millions for her.

Save The Date: Andrew Cuomo, Campbell Brown To Raise Money For Success Academies at Cipriani on Monday April 20, 2015

In case you haven't gotten your tickets already:

Monday, April 20, 2015 Success Academy Charter Schools
Third Annual Spring Benefit. 6:30 pm. Cocktails and dinner. Business attire. Honoring Eli Broad. Chaired by Campbell Brown, Joel Greenblatt, Daniel S. Loeb, John Scully, Regina Scully. Tickets from $1,250.00. Tables from $15,000.00. Cipriani 42nd Street. New York. Contact: Julianna Harder. (212) 245-6570. Event address: 110 East 42nd Street, New York. Event web address: www.successacademies.org.

More incentive to attend:

CUOMO TO HEADLINE SUCCESS ACADEMY BENEFIT—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: Governor Andrew Cuomo will be the keynote speaker at Success Academy's annual spring benefit this April, according to an invite sent to Success employees this weekend. Cuomo and Success C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz officially became allies last winter, when Cuomo stepped into a battle between Moskowitz and Mayor Bill de Blasio, declaring he would ‘save charter schools’ at a massive Albany rally partially organized by Success. The event will be held April 20 at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan, and will be co-chaired by Success board members Campbell Brown, Daniel Loeb, Joel Greenblatt, and Regina and John Scully. http://bit.ly/1tT6Edx


NY Teacher has a suggestion:


Don't forget, Cuomo was scheduled to speak at the Success Academy Charter Schools Spring Benefit on April 20th; 6:30 pm at Cipriani (42nd St). If he does attend it would be a great place to demo/rally/press.


So does Norm Scott:

A massive protest in front of Ciprianis would be an appropriate response.

April 14, 2015

Rule 1 when I taught: Never keep a child from going to the restroom. Seems that's changed now.

Eva Moskowitz and her Success Academy Charter schools are power players in New York education. She is known for moving her charter schools rent-free into existing public schools and taking the space she wants.


"We have a gap to close," says Paul Fucaloro, director of instruction. "I want the kids on edge, constantly."
(Photo: Yolo Monakhov for New York Magazine)

Once she even blamed accidents by the children on the fact that there weren't enough bathrooms to go around. She did not mention that was her fault.

The "Eva" Empire has expanded to the Bronx, bringing a Harlem turf war for school space into the borough. Eva Moskowitz, the City Council member-turned-charter school CEO, has opened two new academies from her charter school franchise, Success Charter Network, inside Public School 30 in Mott Haven, and PS 146 in Morrisania. And Bronx Success Academies 1 and 2 are already ruffling feathers with district school staffers.

....Staffers at the district schools say their new neighbors have booted them from classrooms and stairwells, while sharing the libraries, cafeterias and playgrounds.

...."Staffers at PS 30 say Bronx Success 1 sealed off the third floor to its staff and students - even taking over a stairwell - so Success students don't mingle with their district school neighbors.

"We are not allowed there," said one PS 30 teacher, noting the classrooms taken over by Success were formerly used for tutoring children with special needs. Now we have to do therapy sessions in the hallway."

This last week the New York Times had an article about their high scores and polarizing tactics.

One teacher complained that she was expected to announce all of her students’ scores on practice tests, by asking those who had scored a four to stand up, followed by those with a three and then those with a two. The teacher and her colleagues persuaded their supervisors not to make students with a score of one stand up, but those students were still left conspicuously sitting down, she said.

At one point, her leadership resident — what the network calls assistant principals — criticized her for not responding strongly enough when a student made a mistake. The leadership resident told her that she should have taken the student’s paper and ripped it up in front of her. Students were not supposed to go to the restroom during practice tests, she said, and she heard a leader from another school praise the dedication of a child who had wet his pants rather than take a break.

“I dreaded going into work,” the teacher, who now teaches in a public school, said.

Other former staff members also described students having wet themselves, in some cases during practice tests. Two former staff members who worked at Success Academy Harlem West, a middle school, in the 2013-14 school year, said that they recalled having to go to the supply closet to get extra underwear and sweatpants, which were always on hand, for students who had wet themselves.

More on this issue from The Business Insider last week.

In NYC's top charter schools, students are reportedly so scared to take a break they wet their pants


Students at Harlem Success Academy, a free, public elementary charter school in New York.

In a statement sent to Business Insider, a Success Academy spokesperson said, "Success Academy has students go to bathroom before a test, just the way parents do before a long road trip. Sometimes, as happens at schools across America, kids have accidents."

My comment on that: Some kids can't go when ordered to do so. Some kids do need to go during testing. When did Eva get to change the rules on that?

The Insider says the NYT is not the first to report such a problem.

In spring 2013, a commenter on a website on Success Academy Cobble Hill, who described themselves as a parent of a former first grade student, wrote that their child developed problems with going to the bathroom at the charter school:

We were hoping for academic rigor. Instead we found a school that was overly strict, cold, and insensitive to the overall needs of the young children entrusted in their care. My son wet his pants for the first time since he was three years old because the school did not let him go to the bathroom when he asked. The school was incapable of recognizing that he had also developed anxiety around going down the hall to the bathroom.

The explanation of Eva Moskowitz is not very acceptable.

Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, disputed these reports, telling The Times that students are allowed to go to the bathroom during practice tests even though doing so isn't encouraged. These policies are in place, she explained to The Times, "to mimic the environment of the actual test."

"We have plenty of kids who don't always prepare adequately ... very occasionally there are accidents, and we get that it's uncomfortable for the student," Moskowitz told The Times. (my comment...how does one "prepare adequately" for not using the restroom in times of great stress??)

The Success Academy CEO also attributed the "accidents" to "the challenges of sharing space in public school buildings, which meant the restrooms were sometimes several floors away," The Times reports.

That's because the education leaders in New York allowed Moskowitz to move in and take over.

The education "reformers" and the charter school magnates need to be accountable to the parents, teachers, and especially the students.

April 14, 2015

It's been difficult to write what is happening to public education in this country now.

I don't mean just difficult because of how it makes me as a retired teacher feel. I mean difficult to explain. Posts about how public schools are being dismantled for the profit of corporations are not exciting, often just plain boring. It's hard to find the right terminology to clarify issues.

The only people speaking out on this issue have been on the internet, mostly bloggers with an educational background.

Today someone I know told me that a neighbor of theirs was furious about all the testing prep going on. Her kids were nervous wrecks.

She remembered what I had talked about....how there were so many groups now telling parents how to opt out of the testing madness.

She told them to look up Opt Out and Opt Out FL and remembered a few other sites I had mentioned. Her neighbor told someone else and so on.

Turns out 4 very frustrated parents signed up to learn how to legally out their child out of the testing.

Now when I write about the harm being done I know it is only being read by a very few. There are ed bloggers at Twitter who are read by others. Maybe in the long run there will continue to be a takeover of schools by private companies who can then reap profits and determine the curriculum.

But there are many parents who are wiser and feeling better now that they plan to relieve the pressure on their children.

That is in itself a form of success.

April 14, 2015

Video. Walter Scott Passenger Speaks: 'He Didn't Deserve to Die'

Walter Scott Passenger Speaks: 'He Didn't Deserve to Die'

The mysterious man who was in the car with Walter Scott before a South Carolina cop shot him to death said Monday that he doesn't know why Scott ran from North Charleston Officer Michael Slager, "but I know he didn't deserve to die."

The man, Pierre D. Fulton, was publicly identified Monday as the passenger in Scott's car when Scott he was pulled over April 4.

He has been questioned by investigators but has refused all news interview requests. In a one-paragraph statement released Monday through his lawyer, Fulton called Scott a "dear friend" who had helped him "become a better man and showed me the value of hard work" over the last five years. He didn't elaborate.

"I'll never know why he ran, but I know he didn't deserve to die," Fulton said. "Please keep Walter and his family in your prayers and respect my privacy moving forward."

His lawyer said that would be his only public statement.

April 13, 2015

Disturbing that Florida AG held major fundraiser with Scientology's wealthy in Clearwater last year

Even more disturbing to me is that US Republican Representative David Jolly accompanied her.

This happened last year, but first I am hearing about it. I don't remember hearing or reading anything about it at all.

From the Tampa Bay Times, a newspaper that has done much research and many exposes on Scientology.

Pam Bondi's Clearwater fundraiser organized by Scientologists


Pam Bondi's Clearwater fundraiser organized by Scientologists 06/30/14 (Last modified: Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:43pm)

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who already has raised millions for her re-election campaign, can expect to pull in more dollars tonight at a Clearwater fundraiser where all six organizers are prominent members of the Church of Scientology.

....Bondi's "special guest,'' the invitation says, will be U.S. Rep. David Jolly, R-Indian Shores.

Hosting the event are Liz and Michael Baybak, owners of a 23rd-floor penthouse in the swank Water's Edge condos downtown. The tower, perched on a 40-foot bluff, affords stunning views of Clearwater Harbor to the west and, in every other direction, Scientology's many buildings.

....Other organizers are Brett Miller, who has been active for years in local Republican politics, and his wife, Dr. Jill Hagan, a Clearwater dentist; and Joanie and Steve Sigal, co-founders of a Clearwater marketing company, SJS Associates. The two couples also have contributed to local, state and congressional candidates, most of them Republicans.

.....Bondi is aware Scientologists are staging the event, said campaign spokeswoman Christina Johnson. She said Bondi first connected with Scientologists in 2010 when she and other elected officials toured some of the church's Clearwater facilities. Bondi spoke then to a group of Scientologists about human trafficking and the evils of pill mills, a topic that resonated because Scientologists sponsor what they tout as the largest antidrug program in the world.

Turns out the FBI investigated church work sites, "primarily in California, focusing on physical and mental restrictions and probing whether they constituted human trafficking. The investigation ended with no charges filed."

There is a lot of controversy about that anti-drug program called Narconon. Here are some Google links on a search.

Google links about Narconon.

April 13, 2015

Wow. This Joni Mitchell song has more meaning as the years go by. Circle Game.

Lyrics to the Circle Game.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him, "Take your time, it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down"

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came
And go round and round and round in the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came
And go round and round and round in the circle game
And go round and round and round in the circle game

Songwriters
MITCHELL, JONI

April 12, 2015

Hillary's strong position on women's rights.

http://linkis.com/www.upworthy.com/zNbCK