I guess it has been accepted now that it is bipartisan policy.

Didn't take too long either.

I must have used the wrong search terms or PA forums did not show up.

That David Meckley is getting a whole lot of power.



Thanks for the link.

From Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan:

"Gov.-elect Wolf knows that schools across Pennsylvania have been starved for resources over the last four years and our children are being put at a disadvantage. As a result, district like York have been forced to the brink of financial collapse. Gov.-elect Wolf will make education his top priority by working to restore funding cuts and providing adequate resources so school districts can deliver on the promise of a high-quality public education for all Pennsylvanians."

Very disturbing.

I wonder if Obama and Arne Duncan realized where their policies might lead when they called for more charter schools?

I would love to hear some statements from Democratic politicians.

Where's the outrage? I feel like I am talking to myself mostly. I think it's shocking.

http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_27208369/york-city-schools-receivership-decision-expected-today

"The Court does not have the authority to consider whether the Petition is in the best interest of the District and the citizens of York County," he wrote.

Outside the courthouse Friday afternoon, a couple dozen York City students and staff members gathered for a protest while drivers honked their horns in support.

William Penn High School senior Ashlee DeSantis, who has organized several protests, said that when she heard the news, "my heart just broke."

She's mostly concerned that Meckley will move forward with plans to convert schools into charters, and the district could lose beloved staff and programs. Though she's a senior, she said, she's concerned for future Bearcats.

This charter school privatization is going on all over, escalating. Hospitals used to be non profit, that's been changing for some time. Re education, Seems there's little cognizance and organized national opposition. Privatize everything for profits, roads and public works now too. Some kinder care places in Wisc. are being investigated for fraud by corp owners. Some places are sleazy, cheap outlets in mini malls next to Subways, convenience stores, with no caf or bus driver, kids parked in front of computers.

I got a good look at Arne Duncan at a 'reinvesting in higher ed' conference in Denver a couple years ago shown on CSPAN. It was him, one tech prof from a NE university, and 2 reps from the Discovery Channel and Netflix. They were goofy, almost acting high, b/c of all the computer, entertainment contracts and $ involved.

There's an excellent post on DU today, 'One Area where America is more Racially Divided than before Barack Obama Took Office'. Research studies about multi-factor re-segregation of school kids in the South, North and West, dramatic changes for low income black and Hispanics since the 1990s.

for a charter school. If the local districts refuse to ok them, they just can apply to the state board which is almost 100% reformers.

Private schools which receive public money for vouchers are not regulated at all.

I can not understand why people don't care when they are confronted with facts. I can understand their confusion if they just listen to main stream media. Nothing but spin there.

New Orleans, Atlanta, LS. Some banker/ hedge fund type proclaimed the billions involved! some years ago. A real free for all. On DU I've read of a NY congresswoman and her WS husband in on it, like TV journalist Campbell Brown and husband, and Bush brother Neil. It's so awful. How can our great public school system ever be restored? like unions and jobs? I know how FL is wide open for business, for profit education, pill mills, whatever. Va. is also very unregulated as each year goes by.

I've spent a lot of my life in FL and love it, can't believe what's happened to that beautiful state in the last 10 years esp. with Jeb and Skelator. Have/had relatives in Ft. Laud, Miami, Space Coast, JAX, Naples. So many wonderful times there, in all places including the Keyes & Key West, gorgeous area.
I just love your Kitty, what a Face!

It was in the beginning a fairly good idea if implemented correctly. But the corporate reformers have taken it over for profit and greed.

Charter schools are an economic sham

Thanks for the rec.

I've about given up. I've been concerned for almost 20 years now, and it's gotten worse every single year. I've been speaking up. I've been ignored, patronized, and thrown under the bus.

I guess public education isn't important enough to the public. It's not sexy enough to spend time and attention on. Or so it appears.

unaware from media spin, overworked, distracted or just apathetic. Unbelievable and very dangerous, like killing unions.

I think people just depend on the MSM to drive the conversation, and the only thing tptb have to say about education is that public schools and public teachers are bad. They've been repeating this for decades, and it's just become part of conventional wisdom on the part of some.

Too many are conditioned to accept that conventional "wisdom" without thinking or looking further.

And, of course, it's not a "hot" topic like, for instance, whatever a celebrity "talk" host said, or whatever a politician said, or pitbulls, or whether or not one celebrates xmas, or says "merry xmas" or "happy holidays," etc.

The loss of our country's public schools is pretty much a non-topic here.

being in the 'business' of public ed has gone mainstream in the repug party, with corp media and some Dems on board.

Here's an excerpt from the Libt platform from the '80 election, where Koch was VP candidate:

“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”
“We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”
“We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.”
(Courtesy of Sen. Sander's website, http://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers )


It was an idea that a (3-12-97) Dan Perkin's - Tom Tomorrow cartoon said came from 'rabid conservative' 'right wingers' who were seeking to 'gain a short term political advantage' from advocating it. He mockingly likened it to a 'well-orchstrated campaign against Little League Coaches' and 'a firm stand against cute puppies -- and butterflies!' But somehow, within a few years, scapegoating public ed and teachers went from a kooky fringe idea that Perkins spotlit and mocked to a 'mainstream' 'unstoppable' 'commonsense' idea. But that didn't happen due to a groundswell of public opinion or widespread activist organizational demands from the majority of the American public. It's just repug corporate birchers with tons of money and free time to act, trying to drive us back to the gilded age.

In PA, we won one of the few bright-spot victories for the Dems in '14, tossing out the swinish Corbett. A big factor in the victory was the active defense of public ed against repug attacks. The first two points in this link describe the successful political moves around this issue, and #6 contains info about the GPS coalition (Great Public Schools, not Roves' creepy outfit.):
http://yinzercation.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/top-10-education-justice-wins-of-2014/
Hopefully without need for a ton of lobbying work, the new Dem governor will shut down the repug move in York, instead of saying there's nothing that can be done.

I don't know what the ratio is on this site of people who were public school educated vs. private school educated, or who send their kids to public vs private schools, but when a family is looking at moving into a community, one of the first and most important issues for them still is about how the school district is, is it healthy, functioning, in good shape, well-funded. Even childless residents and empty nesters benefit from good, functioning public schools, it's good for their community's stability, and property values, even ignoring the long-term social benefits of having an educated population. (Conversely, the right wing likes an uneducated Fox news fan population.) And the people in the community are still going to pay taxes on their homes for education, whether the money goes to good public schools or gets sucked away by parasitic for profit charters, the public is never going to get their tax dollars back, even if the right wing gets their way and eliminates public schools. So there's no financial incentive for the public to back the crazy fringe idea that American kids shouldn't be educated.

This post is already long winded, I know, but here's a couple of thoughts about your observation in post #21. You are effective. The large amount of info you post makes a difference in the fight for public schools, whether you see it or not. Info you put out spreads, in ways you don't always see. You can't see how much effect your efforts have had in staving off the elimination of public education, like George Bailey could only see the difference his actions made when he stopped existing in 'Its a Wonderful Life'. And your posts ARE public education.

Sometimes when people see a top notch posting performance, year after year, it is daunting. They don't want to put their two cents in, because they feel they'd be saying something you already know, like telling Einstein something about theoretical physics. They might feel they'd look like a jerk weighing in. There's nothing that can be done about that, it would be stupid to advocate that you be less hard-working, knowledgeable, or effective. That's just one way of explaining what's going on, and how it might be different from the perception you have in post 21.

Sometimes the lack of acknowledgement of posts on the issues here comes from the nature of computer interactions, I think. There are some very admirable post-ers here who post and post, but never interact with others. Computers alter interpersonal relations, change the social construct of relations between people. Some get super isolated, and think 'you put out info, I read it. We interacted.' They paid tribute to your work in their mind, by taking their time to read what you took time to write. They are on a quest to absorb as much info as possible for our side, and to input info to the site from their areas of primary concern. And they don't take the time to hit the rec button, let alone write to you to say they think you gave them good info. It's easier and easier to do things that way, a cyber speed up that's occurring everywhere all the time. People are getting re-wired via technology to constantly absorb input, or constantly type unrelated output. But that doesn't reflect on your work, it doesn't mean you're typing into a void. And not everyone here comes from a field of work where they were interacting with a lot of people face to face in real time every day for decades, like a teacher or activist does.

Some of the nay-sayers on your posts aren't batting for the other team, they don't feel they have anything of value to offer, feel that they can only interact with others by being the devil's advocate, the only way they're able to get attention or feedback that acknowledges them is to take an adversarial opposing stance. You saw it in school with the younger kids, I bet. Bad attention is better than no attention for some people.

The bottom line is the bad side hasn't destroyed public education. They've had success, but they've had a lot of failed initiatives too. It's like the gop in '09, they lost the Senate House and Presidency, faced being on the losing end of a supermajority. Sure, they screamed whined and cried about it, but they kept plugging away. A few short years later, they reversed their political fortunes, despite the overwhelming suckiness of their 'cause'. We may appear to be in the same position now that they were then, but we have a far better and much more easily marketable cause to offer the American Public.

Have a very happy, successful and prosperous 2015, mad.

Needs to sue the corporation to get the control back. Otherwise they are fucked. Hopefully Gov Wolf has a plan to forcibly remove Charters USA by refusing to release the funds allocated for public school.

when this topic comes up.

The property taxes paid to build those public schools.

The home owners in the area.

The small businesses in the area.

The rental properties in the area.

Will the property owners be reimbursed ?

NO they will not.

Our taxes should not be used to pay for buildings owned by private corporations.

They are doing it with sports stadiums, not to this degree, but tax dollars support many stadiums around the country.

Our corrupt ineffectual government is allowing this to happen.

This is intentional.

They are robbing us blind !!!!!!!!!!!!!