Friday Open Thread
Charter school supporters, both within and out of Washington State, are pouring large sums of money into the races for Supreme Court justices via a Stand for Children PAC. It's the usual suspects of Connie Ballmer (Steve's wife) and Reed Hastings (owner of Netflix and a huge charter supporter in California.) This from the News Tribune:
Seattle Schools is teaming up with Pacific Northwest Ballet (this is announced as though it is new but apparently has been going on a long time.) The program is just at one grade level.
Schools/teachers/parents can apply on their own. PNB lists these schools: Arbor Heights (partner since 2008), Broadview Thomson K-8 (partner since 2008), Daniel Bagley (partner since 1999), Graham Hill (partner since 1999), Highland Park (partner since 2008), Leschi (partner since 2010), Pinehurst K-8 (partner since 2009), South Shore K-8 (partner since 2010), Thurgood Marshall (partner since 2013).
No director community meetings on Saturday but there is a free Princess Bride Quote-Along at Seattle Center's Movies at the Mural. Starts at 9 pm.
What's on your mind?
In the past 10 days, Stand for Children’s political action committee has spent about $86,000 on digital ad buys and another $30,000 on phone calls supporting Zempel, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission, which tracks campaign spending.Of course they don't; again, there's your courage of convictions especially in election reasoning. I do want to note that Cyrus Habib, who is running for lieutenant governor, does credit "public schools" for his education in his tv ads.
The education reform group recently endorsed Zempel over Madsen in part because of its concerns over last year’s charter school decision, spokeswoman Deborah Jaquith said.
Yet the pro-charter group’s ads, which appear online, don’t mention the charter school case.
Seattle Schools is teaming up with Pacific Northwest Ballet (this is announced as though it is new but apparently has been going on a long time.) The program is just at one grade level.
The Discovery Dance program provides standards-based dance education using adapted curriculum so all students, including students with special needs, can enjoy equitable access to all the fun of dance class.One, sounds great but two, I thought our principals pretty much had their hands full with both curriculum mandates and space.
Discovery Dance is free to participating schools. Each participating school is highly involved in planning and implementation of the program. Teachers are key in planning lessons that relate to classroom curriculum, principals and staff are instrumental in providing communication home to families and coordinating space and in-school opportunities for students.
Schools/teachers/parents can apply on their own. PNB lists these schools: Arbor Heights (partner since 2008), Broadview Thomson K-8 (partner since 2008), Daniel Bagley (partner since 1999), Graham Hill (partner since 1999), Highland Park (partner since 2008), Leschi (partner since 2010), Pinehurst K-8 (partner since 2009), South Shore K-8 (partner since 2010), Thurgood Marshall (partner since 2013).
No director community meetings on Saturday but there is a free Princess Bride Quote-Along at Seattle Center's Movies at the Mural. Starts at 9 pm.
What's on your mind?
Comments
--GL
--GL
NAACP calls for moratorium on charters:
https://cloakinginequity.com/2016/07/29/breaking-news-naacp-calls-for-national-moratorium-on-charters/
-(former) Franklin parent (kiddo is off to college next month)
....hahahaha!
--GL
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/10/politics/pam-bondi-donald-trump-donation/index.html
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is denying that a $25,000 donation from Donald Trump is in any way connected to her office's decision not to pursue action against Trump University, despite dozens of complaints in Florida, her spokesman said.
Bondi, who endorsed Trump in March, received the donation in 2013 via a political action committee raising money for her re-election.
http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2016/06/02/texas-gov.-abbott-received-35000-donation-trump-dropping-trump-university-investigation/
The Associated Press is reporting that Texas Governor Greg Abbott received a $35,000 donation to his gubernatorial campaign from Trump, sometime after dropping a probe into Trump University, back in 2010, when Abbott was still the Texas Attorney General.
-McClureWatcher
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/07/30/no-new-charter-schools-naacp-draws-line-sand
In the education market, charter schools are often sold as a way to help black and brown children.
But The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) isn’t buying it.
In fact, the organization is calling for a halt on any new charter schools across the nation.
-McClureWatcher
Diane Ravitch reports:
"Mike Pence is the most far-right candidate nominated for a national office in modern times.
He addressed the annual meeting of ALEC, the American Legislative Executive Council, of which he is a member, and declared that he supported ALEC “before it was cool.”
https://dianeravitch.net/2016/07/30/mike-pence-alec-is-a-model-for-the-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-2581426
https://cloakinginequity.com/2016/07/29/are-charter-schools-neither-civil-or-right-assessing-the-intersection-of-voting-rights-and-educational-equity/
Call Summit and demand from them the name of the firm that game them you and/or your child's personal information. It was very likely a 3rd party marketing firm that bought or rented or leased the data from another source. Possibly SPS, but who knows. There is probably a code of some kind of the letter you received. Then call the marketing firm and demand to know where they sourced their data from. I believe they are required to tell you, though you might have to be persistent and talk with multiple people before you find the person who actually knows.
I've done this before, more than once, and the results are interesting, and sometimes unexpectedly revealing. I'd be surprised if SPS is giving out this data, but if so, we should all know about it. Please!
Ed Murray has adopted the "inequity" theme to close down Community Councils. He has no problem cloaking inequity to gain greater power. As Danny Westneat pointed out- if Community Councils were so powerful...why have we seen the greatest growth in a hundred years?
No doubt, Murray would try and garner the power to appoint school board members- and do so in the name of equity.
I still think it would be useful to know if SPS gave this data to Summit, either directly or indirectly. Since I didn't get a mailing, I have no way to dig in and find out, but anyone who did get a mailing can.
Does Summit qualify as "non-commercial"? or for "educational purposes"? Details like this are important, and can help shape public opinion.
It's a lot easier if you're the recipient of a mailing, because they typically have a code of some kind that allows them to be traced clearly back through the system(s) to the origin of the data.