Tag Archives: education reform

Influential conservative group with ties to the Trump administration and Betsy DeVos calls for the “gradual, voluntary return at all levels to free-market private schools, church schools and home schools as the normative American practice.”

By Mark | February 15, 2017

I’ve yet to see a copy of the five-page document, but it’s being reported that the Council for National Policy, a group the New York Time calls “a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country,” has started circulating a policy paper on education reform in the United States. […]

Posted in Education, Uncategorized | Also tagged Bible, charter schools, Common Core, Council for National Policy, Department of Education, dismantling of public education, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, God in school, manifestos, public education, religion in schools, religious extremism, Richard DeVos Sr., school vouchers, Secretary of Education, separation of church and state, sex education, Steve Bannon, Ten Commandments, threats to public education | 5 Comments

Maybe now would be a good time for us to surround a local school, join hands, and let it be known that we intend to fight to preserve public education

By Mark | February 7, 2017

We got beat today. We just needed one vote to keep Betsy DeVos away from the Department of Education, and we couldn’t manage it. We waged one hell of an assault… occupying the offices of our Senators, jamming their phone lines, going after them with unprecedented enthusiasm them on social media… but it just didn’t […]

Posted in Education, Uncategorized | Also tagged Al Franken, Betsy DeVos, buying influence, buying politicians, Department of Education, for-profit charter schools, guns in schools, Holmes Elementary, public education, Secretary of Education, Senate, threats to public education, YCS, Ypsilanti Community Schools | 27 Comments

This is the galvanizing moment we’ve been waiting for… Democratic Senators are filibustering, teachers are outside the Capital protesting, and we’re effectively shutting down the offices of those who haven’t yet come out against Betsy DeVos

By Mark | February 6, 2017

[above: Photo by Evan Sutton from today’s protest in D.C. against embattled Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos.] The Senate vote on Betsy DeVos, the pyramid scheme billionaire turned anti-public education crusader who’s attempting to buy her way into Trump’s Cabinet, was supposed to happen today. And, the way things looked this morning, she was […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Betsy DeVos, buying influence, buying politicians, charter schools, confirmation hearings, Dean Heller, Deb Fischer, Debbie Stabenow, Department of Education, dismantling of public education, filibustering, for-profit charter schools, get the money out of Washington, John Hoeven, Pat Toomey, Patty Murray, protests, public education, Secretary of Education, Senate, threats to public education | 20 Comments

We’re just one Republican vote away from stopping Betsy DeVos from taking over the Department of Education

By Mark | February 1, 2017

Today, Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced on the floor of the Senate that they would not be voting to confirm President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Assuming neither Senator changes her mind between now and the vote, which is expected to happen as early as […]

Posted in Education, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Betsy DeVos, Dan Sullivan, Dean Heller, Deb Fischer, dismantling of public education, Jeff Flake, Jerry Moran, Kansas, Lisa Murkowski, Nevada, Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania, public education, school vouchers, Shelley Moore, Susan Collins of Maine, threats to public education, West Virginia | 16 Comments

The fight over the future of public education in America moves to the full Senate, as Betsy DeVos’s nomination for Secretary of Education passes out of committee

By Mark | February 1, 2017

The above photo was taken by my friend Al Hoff today outside an elementary school in Pittsburg. While I imagine it’s possible that someone could have hung the flag upside down by mistake, I suspect it probably has something to do with what’s happening right now in Washington relative to public education. [The upside down […]