Democrats left K-12 education out of their new "Fair Shot" agenda. Should be aware of protests.

[madfloridian]

It's a good thing that Democrats came up with a plan for the fall. They call it their "Fair-Shot" agenda.

A ‘Fair Shot’ Agenda For Education

President Obama has warned Democrats they’d better worry about upcoming elections, saying, according to a report in The Hill, “poor turnout could lead the party’s candidates to get ‘walloped.’”

Rushing to the rescue recently was a national plan from Senate Democrats called “A Fair Shot for Everyone,” that “focuses on ensuring that every American who works hard has a fair shot to succeed.”

In rolling out their agenda, Democratic Senate leaders loaded their messaging with pledges of support for “the middle class” and “one set of rules that will help create middle-class security, fairness, and opportunity.”

But they left something out.

But there’s an issue rife with populist discontent that Democrats have left out of the Fair Shot agenda: K-12 education.

It stands to reason that if you want to see what would turn people out to vote, you might want to look at what turns people out for street protests.

Here is the Fair Shot plan from the DPCC website.

It's quite a good plan. However it fails to take into account the fact that teachers, parents, and students are rising up around the country against the Democratic/Republican plan for privatizing education.

In fact the only mention of education is that it be free (public education has always been free). Then it is tied to creating the type of manufacturing jobs that will help our country grow.

..giving everyone a fair shot at an affordable education and creating the types of 21st century manufacturing jobs that will help our economy grow, we can create an America that's ready to compete and lead.

That's a good thing, but a real in-depth education is about so much more than that. It's like the Democratic agenda has changed the meaning of education and learning.

I believe our party needs to pay attention to rallies and protests around the country that speak out against the current education agenda.

One of the largest was in Oklahoma.

Monday 25 to 30,000 in Oklahoma protested school funding at state capitol.

An estimated 25,000 teachers and others from across the state, many wearing red shirts and waving signs and banners, swarmed the state Capitol on Monday to demand more money for public education.

“We are being asked to do more and more in education every year with less money,” said Debra Robins, one of about 140 teachers from Newcastle Public Schools who rode buses to the midmorning rally. “We need the help. We love what we do. We love teaching, but we want to be able to do it right.”

Chicago teachers have protested for years. Rahm is closing neighborhood schools at a fast rate, and often opening charter schools to take their place.

Protesting school closings


Picture courtesy of Fight Back News

Still in shock over a proposal to shutter 54 public schools, hundreds of teachers and their supporters gathered in Chicago's Loop on Wednesday in a massive, hours-long protest that included more than 100 citations being issued but no physical arrests.

Teachers, support staff and custodians -- many grouped with the schools they represent -- descended upon Daley Plaza at 4 p.m. for a rally. From there, the sonorous crowd -- with chants of "save our schools," with drums banging and with signs criticizing the mayor and his administration -- snaked its way south on LaSalle Street toward Chicago Public Schools headquarters, at 125 S. Clark St.

"People are very upset about this as if their voices are never heard," said Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. "This is another reason why we need an elected, representative school board. We need to wrest mayoral control. It is a mess. It has caused this."

There was a strike by Portland teachers in February.

Protests are planned Friday in Brooklyn over new rounds of testing for Common Core

A search on the terms teachers, protest, brings more hits.

Unfortunately the new fall agenda for the Democrats addresses none of these issues.

[madfloridian]

1. Excellent rant about ed reform.

http://www.citywatchla.com/8box-left/6705-something-in-me-snapped-today-no-more-education-reform

The writer says she refuses to use the term education reform anymore.

I'm going to call it what it is. Corporate control of education.

And here's why. In every instance, every plank in the platform, every element of this effort can be traced back to cash--flowing into the coffers of very rich corporate entities and individuals.

They say they want "excellent teachers," and by this they mean they want to get rid of union teachers and replace them with uncertified, pensionless staff handling up to 50 kids at once who receive their education from handheld devices or monitors.

They say they want "school choice," which usually means less choice: families can't choose their neighborhood schools that the city has underfunded to the point of death throes, pouring its available money instead into privately supported charters.

And amen to this part. It makes the point I made in the OP, that no one is listening to our objections.

Enough little bits of reality have popped out that folks are starting to notice. The stranglehold grip on the narrative held by the corporate education controllers is beginning to weaken. Because we can all see with our own eyes that it isn't actually civil rights for kids to have their school closed or subjected to a turnaround. It isn't actually higher order critical thinking to bubble in bubbles. And it isn't education and it isn't reform to work toward the dismantling of public schools in our city and our country.

I do think this post set a record for just how quickly a post on education can drop out of sight.

[lunasun]

3. +1 !! exactly

[liberal_at_heart]

2. Democrats sure as hell won't get my vote with that kind of agenda.

[madfloridian]

4. What worries me....

is that so many teachers are fearful of losing their careers that they might not be motivated to vote. It's a fixable situation that is being ignored. There may be time to at least try to save public schools....at least try. When you are urging people to GOTV you need to get public school advocates on board.

[BuelahWitch]

5. K&R!

[Junkdrawer]

6. These teachers get it...

The destruction of Public Education has to be up there with the dumbest short-term advantage things ever done to this country.

The victims are too busy blaming the ignorant for their plight to see this.

[Octafish]

7. Well, if we were to actually fund education there'd be a problem.

That'd be an educated populace.

And if we want things to keep "moving forward" in the manner Wall Street and War Inc have grown accustomed, that'd be a real problem.

[Junkdrawer]

8. We're running on the fumes of a once-relatively-intact public education system....

It won't be until the lion's share of these folks retire that the full stupidity of our "education" policies will be widely seen.

Sawing off the branch we ALL sit on...

[Octafish]

10. Absolutely Agree.

And that's why defunding and de-prioritizing public education is so troubling for Democrats who believe in democracy. Ignorance only benefits the slaveholders.

[Starry Messenger]

9. k&r