Speaking of Viola Davis on the Ellen show....disappointing.

[madfloridian]

There has been discussion at education forums and at Twitter about the fact that Viola appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show this week. Ellen gave her a large check for a charter school in Rhode Island.

Davis is a graduate of Central Falls High School in RI at which all the teachers were fired for low scores. Yet she was fundraising for a charter school instead.

We have some very uninformed stars on TV who do not do their homework.

An Ironic Story

Viola Davis, the film star who appears in the anti-union, pro-charter movie “Won’t Back Down,” recently appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

Davis is a graduate of Central Falls High School in Rhode Island. This is the school that was targeted for closure in 2010, where there was a pitched battle between the district/state leadership and the teachers in the school. When Davis won an Academy Award in 2010, she gave a shout-out to her alma mater, Central Falls High School, and that gave the teachers there a big boost.

So now she is a star in a movie that encourages parents and teachers to “seize control” of their public school and turn it into a privately managed charter school. This is known as the “parent trigger” and is advocated by the rightwing group ALEC, which developed model legislation to encourage privatization of public schools.

When she appeared with Ellen, she was fund-raising for the Segue Institute, a charter school in Central Falls, not for the high school that educated her. Ellen gave her a check for $10,000 for the charter school.

There is a very interesting post by Diane Ravitch in the comments section which shows how TV defines what is too controversial.

dianerav
September 26, 2012 at 10:38 am

I had an agreement to go onto Ellen’s show in 2003, when my book about censorship (The Language Police) was published. At the last minute, the show canceled because I was too “controversial.” Apparently bashing unions is not controversial.

Ellen's show is pretty enjoyable as a rule, but it seems now she has no qualms about promoting a rightwing propaganda movie that will do much harm to public education.

After all I can't blame her...the DNC publicized the film at the convention. They put their seal of approval on it.

There are many of us posting at Twitter about the harms of these reforms. We have to be careful at Democratic forums about our posting.

Twitter

[Divine Discontent]

1. seems hopeless when our own side is attacking the public schools

I watched that dreadful new "comedy" on ABC about aliens moving into an entire new division of houses, and then one alien couple moves out and humans move in, and the kids get a sight of the alien kid undisguised, and see he's alien, and when trying to tell his dad about it, the dad said, "he's just a little weird", and the boy shoots back, "I go to public school! I know weird!" That irked me. There is clearly a huge attack going on with teachers and TPTB, and they want the destruction of the DOE.

Just encourage those younger teachers and their allies like me not to give up standing up for them. When Obama won in '08, and I was in the California state capital Obama HQ and everyone around me was going crazy with joy, except for a few dozen of us, people asked why I was so sad. I said how can Obama be winning the presidency, and winning California and yet, Californians are voting soundly against Gay equality? It was surreal. But, things are changing, and have been ever since that day. There are things all of here at DU2 know Obama capitulates upon, and he reminds me of Pres Clinton giving in on Welfare, but, the alternative is absolute hell - as those 8 years under Shrub were a worldwide travesty... Just don't give up the fight, is all I can say to each and every one still here! :)



Get it here----->>>>>
http://www.zazzle.com/rmoney_mitt_romney_bought_paid_for_bumper_sticker-128366635954577112?rf=238107662556833486

[madfloridian]

2. Well, as someone said...there are many good reasons to vote for Obama.

Education is not one of them.

Most of us will vote for him, and I will vote for Bill Nelson. I would rather not be so angry about the harm done to good teachers.

[Divine Discontent]

3. ugh.. can't even begin to think of Connie McGillicuddy beating Bill Nelson. Shame it's even close.

But, hopefully, both Obama and Nelson pull away in the final weeks to a clear lead that discourages the GOP voters. At minimum, we have to secure the Presidency and Senate, and hopefully we will. Wish our prospects were much better on the House seats, but things might swing our way. Glad to see Grayson will be getting back in Congress it appears.

[No Elephants]

5. No words.

[madfloridian]

4. Producer of Won't Back Down has op ed defending the movie.

It is at Huff Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-barnz/wont-back-down_b_1921517.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

I notice that also today Michelle Rhee had a long op ed in the WP defending her "reforms" and jumping all over the Chicago teachers' strike results.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michelle-rhee-chicago-teachers-strike-underscores-shift-among-democrats/2012/09/27/481961c2-08bb-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html

At least they are going on the defensive. Maybe we annoyed them enough.

[No Elephants]

6. Nice of Huffpo to give him bandwidth to publicize this film, wasn't it?

[No Elephants]

7. Perhaps Bill and Hillary Clinton could have gotten into college and made something of themselves

if they had not been victims of public school education.

I'm guessing that public education in Arkansas was not considered even among the best public education in the U.S. at the time.

Still, I hear he gives a hell of a speech. And long time journalists say he is the smartest President they ever met.

Tragic.



My own sister was also a victim of public school education, and in a very poor little town, too.

After going through college on several scholarships, she was graduated summa cum laude from Barnard, in the top three in her class, where I am sure she competed with students who had every educational advantage money could buy. And she said she had always wanted to go back to see if she could find out exactly where in the top three she fell. (I am sure she thinks she was #!, LOL).

Turned down a full scholarship to grad school--tuition, living expenses, the whole nine--because she wanted to get married soon after graduation.

Oh, the humanity!

Thank heaven people want to make giving kids an education a for profit enterprise, for the kids's sake. What saints!

[Enthusiast]

8. "We have some very uninformed stars on TV who do not do their homework."

Disappointing on several levels.