Comments

1
Just a thought. If an alternative to your product is offered and lots of people choose the alternative, maybe your product isn't as good as you think it is.

Want to beat back privatization? Be the better alternative.
2
@1, True Dat.
3
Privatization is done to perpetuate White Privilege ( so they can talk shit about Us POCs without fear of being beat the fuck down . . . .)
4
Wasn't the Washington Policy Center behind "No Child Left Behind" years ago? They made a number of the largest Assessment Companies billions and began decimating our school systems. This money is just going to help speed up the process and fund "For Profit" Charter schools, of which Betsy and her husband have a vested interest. Pathetic.
5
@3 yep.
6
@1 Republican-ism in a nutshell: Underfund a public service, then say, "look, the public service is failing, here's the privatized version." They've done this with public schools for years, in part to privatize, but largely to break the teacher's unions.

So it's not fair to compare fully funded schools vs. poorly funded ones. Though ironically, the fully funded charter schools are still underperforming when compared to poorly funded public schools.
7
@6, and that's what Trump's doing with the ACA -- kick it down, then point to how it's failing.
A standard Republican trick.
8
This NYT article takes issue with that view, at least in regard to charter schools.
9
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.” -- P. J. O'Rourke (and he's quasi on their side)
10
Shorter @6...I don't know how schools are funded.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wherewestand/blo…

If your schools suck, it's your state and local governments fault. Washington state scores within the top 10 nation wide pretty consistently.

@3. If you feel like theres a racist conspiracy your averting with the threat of violence, you might consider medication for that.
11
Charter schools *sound* like a good idea, but they are not. I looked into this extensively about 3 years ago. There are a couple of pretty good research studies that showed that while a handful of charter schools outperform a generic public school, on average charters perform slightly worse than public schools. And charter schools are self selected and cherry pick their students, so they should be doing way better than public schools, who are obligated to take all students and cannot turn any student away.

Privatizing schools just gives public tax money to religious schools and profiteers, guts public schools, and does nothing to improve education. Lose, lose.
13
DeVos spoke at a gala for the Washington Policy Center, and reportedly helped the group raise $900,000 dollars that evening.

Well, that's good news. Money squandered on the Washington Policy Center won't go for actually implementing these horrid policies.

Better yet, the headquarters of the Washington Policy Center is firmly within Seattle, so some portion of that 900 Grand will make its way into Seattle's tax coffers. Cha-Ching!

(Why Seattle, home to every liberal, big-government policy in the history of ever? Well, in this day and age, you just can't post policy papers from a storefront office in Kettle Falls, or wherever. You just *have* to be in the city where the good bars are. Trust us, we know this is good policy for Washington state, it's in our name after all...)
14
there are services vital to the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that are too important to be profit centers, and are appropriate to be public utilities. internet, power, clean water, health care, education.

in closing, fuck trump.
15
Nothing like 50 Years of one Party Democratic rule, in the City, County and State. (yeah, kids, that's over half a Century).

The Washington State Senate is currently controlled by Republicans. Has been for years.

Also, too: 50 years is not "over half a Century."

I'm sure we can trust all of the other facts and numbers you cited, though.
17
But just look over your shoulder before recent times. 50 years my bad again. Overlooking my post such trivial crap I thought would have been lost in my main points that you can at seem to comment on.

Was that merely poorly-punctuated and ungrammatical stream-of-consciousness drivel, or were you perchance attempting to write poetry? Because all you're doing now is showing that you are yourself an obvious failure of whatever educational system produced you.

Putting it another way, if you can't get the most obvious facts and simple math right, why should anyone believe anything else you claim is true?
17
@10 Did you perchance graduate from an underforming strip mall school? If so, you might consider grammar and spelling for that.
19
@10 Er, OK. You might find it shocking but conservatives tend to bitch more about paying for schools than liberals. They say things like, "we fund them enough... all the money goes to the bureaucracy, blah blah blah." They never give examples of those cost sinks; lord knows it isn't going to teachers. It's not going to equipment. It's not going to facilities. Where would the great privatization cost savings come from? Not paying pensions? Not paying benefits? Awesome, more people needing more public service to teach their kids!

When I lived in Vermont, a city wanted to secede from the state because of the way the state evenly distributed tax money to schools. Since they had proportionally more rich people than rural areas, they expected more money to go to their schools. With schooling, everyone seems to expect the best possible outcomes for the least amount of money, but they're willing to screw everyone else in the district or state so long as their own school is fine.
20
#15: Also, I think Dan Evans and John Spellman would be surprised to learn they were DEMOCRATIC governors.
21
DeVoid and moron Tdumbp are the most galling examples of the total failures of our nation's private schools.
22
I attended public schools, and got a perfectly acceptable education - certainly better than if I had attended the local Catholic school (as my sister did. She has beautiful hand writing and cannot spell cat). Also, her school was run by an alcoholic priest, and they had an unacknowledged drug problem (which is finally what drove my parents to give up on Catholic schools and put her in a public school)

We (society) complain about the bureaucracy and the teacher's union, and everything else under the sun, but no one ever seems to look at the role mediocre or hostile parenting plays. Bad parents screw up a classroom because their kids need more attention, or have a bad attitude about school, or are traumatized by their home environment.

Charter schools aren't going to do squat to help that particular problem. All it is is a welfare scheme for wealthy people who lack life skills so they are leeching off of the educational system. Like Ms Devos
23
@23 also, the general stagnation and/or decline in household income. I-devices removing what little attention span children have don't help, either.
24
@17. Good point. Your and you're are the foundational structure on which I based my argument which I tediously constructed with my thumbs on my phone. You win.

@Catalina. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article…

You are treading on dangerously thin ice my friend. If you hold society accountable for their children's educational upbringing, whats next? Admitting that their life choices affect their success? Gasp!
25
A bit off topic but a serious question: I was in Bellevue for the protest. I generally avoid the east side as Bellevue is just one souless mall. We walked through the old downtown, the expansive downtown park, and down several more blocks. I did not see a single homeless person--not one. Is Bellevue enforcing some kind of city ordinance against homeless sitting in public property? Are they just being sent to Seattle? WTF?
26
@19. Your experience in Vermont is actually more common than you think. And while it's gross that some elitist POS think it's reasonable to demand special consideration because of the size of their tax contribution, it underscores and undermines a different issue falsely put forward by bleeding hearts. That our schools aren't funded equally. More often then not, they are. http://www.heritage.org/education/report…

Catalina's point about parenting involvement is probably the most important factor in educational success as well as a host of other societal ills.


27
@25 It has "long been known" that Bellevue rounds up the homeless and drives them across the bridge whether it be King County jail or just dump them off. Besides that, Bellevue fucking sucks. It is one huge panopticon of technofascist class supremacy.
28
@27: No technofascist class supremacy, just folks that can write code.
29
Muffy dear, I went to school in Iowa, back in the bronze age. The town was lilly-white, and mostly railroad and stock yard jobs, along with some manufacturing (pipes, playground equipment, etc) and even back then there were kids who came to school each morning that the teachers had to put together so that they could learn. (they hadn't eaten, or they didn't have sufficient clothes - stuff like that. They kept a stockroom with coats and shoes and food)

Those kid's parents never came to parent-teacher conferences or school programs (and in Iowa, everyone came to school programs. There were only three TV channels. People were starved for entertainment). I don't know their story - if they were working all the time, or drunk all the time, or what. But there was a lot of poverty, the effects of which the private schools never had to deal with - just like they largely don't deal with kids who have special needs.

Now that it's turned into methtown, I'm sure it's worse - and the funding for the schools has probably not gotten any better. I'm glad I went to a public school, because it made me realize that not everyone lived the "Leave It To Beaver" life that I did.
30
@catalina. Thank you for sharing your experience (no sarcasm, I promise). It's lucky you are 1) intelligent enough to have drawn a lesson out of that experience. 2) from a family that placed value on education as a foundation for success. 3) educated by teachers who cared enough to make personal efforts in caring for their students.

I value public schools immensely. I send my children to public school. I don't see charter schools in my area as a viable alternative to public ed. BUT... i am involved and invested. My kids could go to the worst school in the state and I garuntee they would still get a proper education. That said, if I was in the worst school zone in the state I would appreciate having the option of another choice.
31
@29: But those were private schools back in Petticoat Junction and Hootervillie. Don't conflate them with charter schools, as private schools don't get tax revenue.
32
I mean in Mayfield, excuse me.
33
Raindrop dear, are you into the sherry already? It's barely noon! Please pay attention.

I am a product of public education (Council Bluffs Community School District, University of Iowa/Washington). I went to the schools where the teachers took care of all the kids.

My older sister (the one who can't spell to save her life, but has lovely handwriting) is a product of the Saint Albert School District (drunk priest, drug problems, no spelling curriculum) who was moved to the CB school district when my parents saw how grim it was, and who struggled to catch up in public school.

Charter schools are just a dumb Republican fad. Like being pro-life, or hating the gays.
34
@26 Quoting the Heritage Foundation isn't really going to be all that convincing, but look at the quality of the facilities in rich and poor neighborhoods. And look at the abilities of parents to contribute extra to the facilities in rich and poor neighborhoods. And then, with a straight face, say everything is equal.

But as the many pieces on the web that counter that Heritage piece note, it looked at large-scale funding while ignoring funding disparities within individual districts. "The answer is that his analysis aggregates spending figures to the regional and national level, thus obscuring disparities within states or within districts."

Also amusingly, one of the big supporters of that Heritage piece is Richard Spencer, who said "Richwine is helping policy analysts take a step closer to racial reality." In other words, good job: You're backing the white supremacist position on education.
35
@33 Plus it's a way to break the teacher's union while funneling yet more government funds into the pockets of their donor class. Why are we trusting the people responsible for boondoggles like Trump University to finally deliver a quality for-profit product this time?
36
#27 Beautifully and truthfully said. Thank you.

They don’t want anyone around that won’t pretty up their neighborhood and a soulless practice it is.
37
Want to beat back privatization? Be the better alternative."

Okay, then how about:
- our state fully fund education as prescribed by the state constitution; we are STILL fighting in court over this

- as the the "average" spent, that much money is not spent per child. But, you see, we have homeless students - SPS has over 3500 - ELL students, Special Ed students.

See you can have smaller class sizes - like charters and private - when you don't have to serve all kids.
And, you see, charter school and private schools do NOT take all comers. In fact, one major issue with DeVos' wants on choice is that she will not answer the question about discrimination against some children like gay or trans kids. Do you want your tax dollars going to groups that discriminate? I don't.

Charter schools, on paper, have to take all comers but they have figured out ways to NOT have to serve homeless, SPed and ELL students. You know, the more high-need, high-cost students. And they then go to traditional public schools who have to take ALL comers.

Do traditional public schools need better management of public dollars? Sure but so do all government entities.

Educate yourself about the realities of public education in this country before you decide for the most massive overhaul ever.

One last thing - we got men to the moon and back - who were educated in public schools.
38
@35The point of the study wasn't that all things were equal. It was that equal funding is spent on each child. And the heritage center is a conservative think tank. Last I checked that's not quite white supremacist...but by all means keep trying to lower that bar so in the future nothing outside your immediate sphere of political thought penetrates into that thick head of yours.

Most of the studies I read and cite are Pew or Brookings btw. Are those considered white supremacist too?
39
@35 But if you look at the details, you'll find that they aren't looking district by district... oh whatever. If you believe all kids receive equal funding, groovy. It's purely some failing of some schools in some districts to take those equal funds and, say, buy new textbooks. You see that all the time in white-majority suburbs, correct? Or is it some coincidence that only inner-city schools have issues with out-of-date materials and poorly maintained facilities, which has an enormous impact on that whole "equal funding" thing. It's all very confusing, this equality thing.

Anyway, white supremacists love that study because it says black people get as much money as white people, and their failure to have similar outcomes is a sign of racial inferiority. What other conclusion can be drawn?
40
#15: Also, I think Dan Evans and John Spellman would be surprised to learn they were DEMOCRATIC governors.

Gov. Evans didn't just found a new state institution of higher learning -- making him a dangerous pinko by the standards of modern Republicans -- he founded the Evergreen State College. There's no way modern Republicans will claim him as one of their own.

Muffy dear, you're missing a couple of key points. The first is that the Heritage Foundation is a grifting propaganda mill, just like the Washington Policy Center, and so nothing they produce should be accepted by adults in serious conversation. The second is that while not all conservatives are racists, all racists are conservatives. Hence the connection between the Heritage Foundation's "findings" and the "intellectual" product of white supremacists; the former often serves the purposes of the latter.
41
One of the best ways to improve schools would be to have free access to birth control and abortion for every woman. Less unwanted children = better schools.
42
@41 sad but true. It would help other problems as well.
43
@41: Not totally free. A nominal $25 or so fee to cover administrative costs is appropriate.
44
Or maybe, just maybe, people could stop shitting out so many unnecessary children? Imagine the quality of education if more than just a mere 30% of the kids in the class lived in solid homes where parents stressed education and helped them achieve more out of life than getting high?
45
I have friends who are teachers, each one of them spends their own personal money on classroom supplies. And asks their friends or community for assistance with supplies. Not only are they poorly paid, but they spend their own money on necessary items that should already be provided by the school. This is essentially creating a localized extra tax on people who give a fuck.

And yet Devo$ and Her Wealthy Friends want to take more money away from public schools.

The pattern here should be obvious... use taxpayer money to partially fund private (for-profit) education that their rich children can go to, ... while gradually impoverishing public schools that only the poor can get into... creating an increasingly large class barrier.

With public money.

That alone should be absolutely galling to everyone here.
46
You know what would improve parental involvement in their children's education: A universal basic income... Such a social guarantee would allow everyone to have the peace of mind that they wouldn't go hungry, and they wouldn't become homeless. Thus able to establish a baseline for all people, a table of equity on which we could all stand. With the lower tiers of Maslow's pyramid ensured, everyone could focus on other needs, like giving their children the attention they need, and proper schooling.

We are the richest nation on Earth... and the richest nation in history. There is no reason we cannot do this. We certainly have the money. It's just the political will to stop giving money to rich people.
47
@46: Can you point to any reasonable economic argument on how a 'universal basic income' would be funded in a free market?
48
A nominal $25 or so fee to cover administrative costs is appropriate.

I'll go with completely free, as $25 won't cover the paperwork costs, but could prevent a rape victim from getting an abortion. (Or is that your actual agenda?)

Put another way, it would be interesting to calculate just how much future suffering and misery could be bought by requiring your suggested $25.
49
@47 - Sorry if this comes a bit late, I've been busy.

Here are is one source.
Here is another from 2006

Please wait...

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