I don't have any school-aged kids who I need to think about sending back to school next month. But my closest friend is an elementary school teacher in Compton. I'm worried about him, although neither the school district nor his union has said anything definitive about preparing for school. Yesterday, reporters Howard Blume, David Lauter and Nina Agrawal reported for the L.A. Times about the whole reopening idea.
We wrote a post on Saturday-- published Sunday-- Are Democrats Going To Finally Get Behind Public Education For Real-- And Leave Charter Schools To The Republicans? that needs some updating. The education forum in Pittsburgh that the Democratic presidential candidates took part in has led to a valuable evaluation published by ElectraBlog.
This week I left my house for something that isn't part of my normal routine. While I braved rush-hour freeway traffic-- something I have avoided for at least a decade-- my friend drove straight from work to meet me at the Broad in downtown Los Angeles (DTLA), where it costs $8 to park-- every 15 minutes. My friend had to drive from Compton where he teaches elementary school.
I recall a high school teacher of mine-- at James Madison High School, the same Brooklyn high school where Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Bernie Sanders, Cousin Brucie, Chris Rock, Chuck Schumer and Carol King went-- telling me-- or maybe the whole class-- that democracy pretty much sucked... but was better than any alternative system of government.I can't count the number of times I've seen a Trump voter talking, when I've had to bite my tongue rather than go down a path that leads to... these morons shouldn't be allowed to vote.
by Dorothy ReikPresident, Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica MountainsIt should be a given that all schools must be created equal and that they must provide the same great education to all of our children. That is why I am opposed to "public" charters-- and "magnet" schools. Let's remember the genesis of these schools-- they were created in response to forced busing.
Public education is a great egalitarian experiment. All children of all races, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, and of varying abilities have access to a public education in America and in Oklahoma. Sadly, tragically really, the political ruling class has tarnished this noble experiment by benign neglect or with malicious intent. They have failed Oklahoma, K-12 education, higher education, Oklahoma’s educators, and most tragically Oklahoma’s children.Oklahoma’s teachers are 49th nationally in salaries and haven’t had a pay raise in ten years.
Last month Digby introduced me to another extraordinary woman running for Congress, this one in Michigan, Ellen Lipton. Ellen's district is the 9th, from which Sandy Levin is retiring. This is a safe Democratic district in the suburbs north of Detroit (PVI is D+4 and Hillary beat Trump there 51.5% to 43.7%.
