David Safier

by David Safier The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) just released an 80 page study, Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2013. I haven't had a chance to read its data and conclusions about online schools yet, but here's part of the information NEPC put out about the study. In the 2010-2011 school year, 52 percent … Read more

by David Safier

I think Tim Steller got it right in today's Star when he said the TUSD Board should reject the proposed course: "9th-Grade Culture, Identity and Transformation: A Culturally Relevant Viewpoint." The only reason I'm not sure Steller got it right is that I don't know what the hell the course is. Neither does Steller. Neither, apparently, does the Board. I'm not sure the folks at TUSD do either.

According to an earlier article in the Star, this is supposed to be a one semester course "to teach students to appreciate and value differences among people and the importance of sensitivity to other cultures." See if you can find a semester's curriculum — or even two weeks' curriculum — in any combination of the following words: appreciate; value differences; sensitivity; other cultures; culture; identity; transformation. I can't. There's no there there.

I suspect TUSD is designing this non-class while looking over its shoulders at two
masters — the "special master" who has been assigned by a federal judge to oversee the new
deseg program and those "special bastards" up in Phoenix — Huppenthal and his legislative cronies — who want to make sure nothing at TUSD stirs
up the brown people. Unless TUSD has something very special up its
sleeve, it's designing a course that promises everything and delivers
nothing.

by David Safier

The movement against gun violence is fortunate to have a deep pockets backer like Michael Bloomberg. The push for sane gun regulation is vital and it has strong backing from voters, but without Bloomberg money, along with funds flowing into Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly's Americans for Responsible Solutions and similar groups, the advertising campaigns to counter NRA's influence couldn't happen, nor could the events in D.C. and elsewhere involving people whose lives have been directly affected by gun violence. Take away the money, and you get a valiant, passionate movement that can't get its message out.

Fortunately, we have some deep pockets on our side, and small donors help add to the funds needed to publicize and promote political, educational and social agendas. But the money on the other side is almost limitless.

Koch Brothers Plan More Political Involvement for Their Conservative Network, says an article in today's NY Times. At the Brothers' recent confab, they promised to double down on their efforts to buy elections and legislation.

Many of those efforts [to lure Hispanic voters] will emanate from the Libre Initiative, a Hispanic-oriented conservative group for which the Koch network plans to expand financing this year.

[snip]

[T]wo trusted Koch employees were placed on the board of Americans for Prosperity, the brothers’ flagship grass-roots organization. A new tax-exempt group, the Association for American Innovation, is being set up to manage turf disputes among the many different state-level groups that receive money from the Koch network.

And so on. And the Koch Brothers are only one of a slew of huge-bucks donors pushing a similar political agenda.

Then there's education. Michelle Rhee's "Students First" just got $8 million from the Walton Foundation (the Walmart family) to pursue her conservative "education reform" agenda. ("Michelle, you lie, you cheat, you're our kind of people!") How many progressive education groups get an $8 million money drop like that? Yet Rhee's group is only one of many conservative nonprofits with almost limitless funds to further their agendas.