dagblog - Comments for "#OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs"

Why not to forgive loans?

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 13:47:41 +0000

In reply to There is also a big debate

Why not to forgive loans?

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5d40a81be4b01d8c9782b727

the # 1 most popular story at

artappraiser — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 03:29:50 +0000

In reply to #OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs

the # 1 most popular story at the NYTimes right now: Entire School Board Resigns After Members Are Caught Mocking Parents on Livestream

Unaware their conversation was public, district trustees in Oakley, Calif., suggested that parents eager for schools to reopen merely wanted “their babysitters back.

By Maria Cramerm Feb. 20, Updated 7:34 p.m. ET

“Uh-oh.”

That was what one member of the board in charge of elementary and middle schools in Oakley, Calif., uttered Wednesday afternoon when she realized her online conversation with other members had been broadcast to the public.

The members had spent two minutes mocking parents, suggesting they wanted teachers back in school so they could have “their babysitters back” and go back to smoking marijuana.

The entire time, parents who had logged in for the regular twice-monthly meeting of the board had been listening. The response to the board members’ comments was swift and furious — another reminder of the rage and anguish many parents are feeling as school closures drag into the spring.

Thousands of people signed an online petition calling for the resignation of all four board members, who were heard laughing and jeering at parents. The mayor of Oakley, Sue Higgins, said that although she had no jurisdiction over the Oakley Union Elementary School District, she called on board members to resign, according to the local news site East County Today.

On Friday, the district superintendent, Greg D. Hetrick, announced that all four members, including the president, Lisa Brizendine, had resigned from the board of trustees. A fifth member had stepped down from the board in January, so the resignations left the board entirely without trustees.

Three members, Kim Beede, Richie Masadas and Erica Ippolito, said in a statement that they “deeply regret the comments” and were resigning to “help facilitate the healing process.” [.....]

The district has more than 470 employees and about 5,000 students in nine elementary and middle schools throughout Oakley, a city of about 42,000 people 40 miles northeast of Oakland.

Students in the district have been learning remotely since last March and, as in other parts of the country, parents are eager for information about their schools’ plans to return to in-person learning. Before the meeting, they had submitted letters to the board asking for more transparency, expressing their frustration and voicing concerns that their children were suffering as a result of remote learning.

On Wednesday, the trustees started venting to one another about the negative feedback they said they had been getting and began making jokes.

Ms. Beede complained about a woman who had lashed out at her on social media and, cursing, suggested she would go after her critic physically. [.....]

Greg Sargent on topic--but

artappraiser — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 21:52:04 +0000

In reply to #OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs

Greg Sargent on topic--but what if--

Opinion | Republicans think they’ve found Biden’s big weakness. But there’s a problem. https://t.co/qjUgf8dFm0
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 19, 2021

On the call, the vice

artappraiser — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 23:41:51 +0000

In reply to #OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs

On the call, the vice president painted a dire picture of the situation that millions of American women are facing during the pandemic. “In one year, the pandemic has put decades of the progress we have collectively made for women workers at risk.” https://t.co/W6cEMoMnFr
— John FitzGerald (@TheTweetOfJohn) February 18, 2021

There is also a big debate

artappraiser — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 03:53:11 +0000

In reply to #OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs

There is also a big debate going on about student loan forgiveness, especially within the Dem party. And it's seguing into judging "what kind of education system do we want?" Which is also on plenty of voters minds for many reasons, after they have been forced to have kids learn at home and have learned all about curricula issues. Lots of people taking a second look at what an "elite education" will mean and will be worth (or not worth much) in the new post-covid world. These two tweets summarize what i am talking about:

New - Biden completely rejects Schumer/Warren proposal to cancel $50K of student loan debt per borrower:

“I will not make that happen."

Says he doesn't want to forgive debts of borrowers from elite schools -- and money would be better spent on early childhood education. pic.twitter.com/oDwvCJveOm
— Michael Stratford (@mstratford) February 17, 2021

1. Who cares what school someone went to? Entire generations of working class kids were encouraged to go into more debt under the guise of elitism. This is wrong.

2. Nowhere does it say we must trade-off early childhood education for student loan forgiveness. We can have both. https://t.co/5oPKeMfV3r
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021

Yup, though nobody here cares

artappraiser — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:49:28 +0000

In reply to #OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs

Yup, though nobody here seems to care about it, it's clear this is an extremely sticky and important issue, real life stuff that could change votes and support

And here comes the clean up from Jeff Zients: "The President and Vice President think states should ensure teachers are being prioritized"
AND
"The President and the Vice President agree with the CDC guidelines that it’s not a requirement to reopen." https://t.co/vMNwyThIU1
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) February 17, 2021

Alex really did his homework

artappraiser — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 20:07:18 +0000

In reply to #OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs

Alex really did his homework on this!--

New NRCC Tom Emmer told staff as soon as he took over to go all in on schools: "It's the teachers unions that want to keep the schools closed. Dems are ignoring the science, and they're standing with their special-interest donors instead of the students." https://t.co/LOiINBsGvi
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 16, 2021

The politics have changed since circa 2009, when the school reform movement was at its height w/ broad bipartisan support, including from the Obama admin.

Now, support for unions is at a nearly 20-year high and teachers unions favorability has gone up a bit during Covid, BUT...
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 16, 2021

But the frustration over shuttered schools is real and Republicans think they can channel that anger into a grassroots uprising to drive a wedge between suburban voters and the Democratic Party.

"This is the suburban-parent revolt," said Corry Bliss.
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 16, 2021

Dems say this won't work because schools will (hopefully) be open before voters vote.

AFT Pres. @rweingarten told me it's "a reckless and irresponsible exploitation of the fear and frustration that everybody feels right now" and attempt to "deflect blame" from Trump+GOP.
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 16, 2021

The first real test will be in #VAGov, where GOPer @petesnyder has centered his campaign around "#OpenOurSchools."

"I think Virginia is the beginning of the nationwide earthquake on this," he told @akarl_smith.

It's not "conservative red meat,"he said just "common sense."
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 16, 2021

A lot more, with polling data, more voices and other perspective in here: https://t.co/LOiINBsGvi
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 16, 2021

P.S. Politics is ALREADY determining school openings more than science, according to a recent study from @BrownUniversity's @AnnenbergInst, which found correlation btwn in-person learning and the district's pres. vote share + strength of teachers unions.https://t.co/qAdW4QqXyH pic.twitter.com/OxjS9SjOWn
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 16, 2021