tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85872080739349669452024-02-25T16:13:12.272-05:00BPS Education OdysseyOne parent's journey through the Boston public school system: good, bad and interesting experiences, thoughts along with important issues which all parents should be aware of. Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-9198771296424067052017-03-28T20:06:00.001-04:002017-03-28T20:06:03.002-04:00The Trumpcare Battle Was A Win For The People, By the People <span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Please consider the following your public service announcement if you have never read my blog or met me!</i> Though I am primarily an optimist, because of my years of experience in politics, especially since so much corporate money has been allowed to buy our elections, I am, sadly, somewhat jaded now. I'm also *that lady,* you know, the one who will get in people's faces, <i>mostly</i> figuratively, and will say what no one else dares to say and tells it like it is.</span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aka "Obamacare" absolutely needs fixing,</i></b> but we also must examine why health insurers and pharmaceutical companies are allowed to continue gouging people without any oversight by our elected officials as part of the review of possible fixes. That said, this is not an article about the ACA or American HealthCare Act (AHCA), please keep that in mind.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No offense to the Democratic leadership, but I have to say the following:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The truth is that Democrats, whether in office or just involved with committees like the DNC, did not lead the fight to save the additional 24 Million people who would have lost health insurance coverage under the Republicans' American HealthCare Act (AHCA) aka "Trumpcare" by keeping their Affordable Care Act (ACA) aka "Obamacare." Many of the Democratic politicians, and the DNC - a few exceptions i.e. Senators Sanders (not a Dem!), Warren, Representatives Schiff, Swalwell, Lieu and a few others, quite honestly had been dragging their feet on everything since the astonishing defeat of Clinton by Trump. What was mostly happening right after the defeat of Hillary was a continuation of the <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/opinion/308850-press-you-cant-blame-bernie" target="_blank">finger-pointing and divisiveness</a> among Democratic (and Dem leaning) voters instead of trying to figure out what really happened. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While many voters were fighting and snarling, others got to work. The day after Hillary's defeat the real groundswell of activism that has now taken the nation by storm began. On November 9, 2016 the first event page was created for a march on Washington scheduled for the day after Donald Trump's inauguration. By the next morning, November 10th, over 10,000 people had already signed on to take part in the event which coalesced into a nationwide, then worldwide, movement known as the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/12/politics/womens-march-on-washington-planned/" target="_blank">Women's March on Washington</a>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Women's March was amazing to take part in here in Boston, and from all accounts, everywhere it took place - not just in America, but across the world in what was the largest global protest in history. Additionally, all of the marches were peaceful and there were no arrests. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Women's March was phenomenal and allowed everyone with concerns and issues regarding Trump to have a voice and stand together all at once. It should be noted that it was not a Democratic movement - people from every political group took part together peacefully. Amazing political pundits across the nation, Dem politicians suddenly found their voices and quickly jumped onto the bandwagon once they realized how much energy there was behind the movement. That latter point is what has led us to my rant here today.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Since politics is one of my interests, and has been since I was young, I was watching very closely from the first day to see how long it would take for the Democratic party elite, politicians, groups and the usual suspects to jump in and attempt to take the lead in this amazing movement. It didn't take long, especially once celebrities started signing up to speak and perform. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I want to give major kudos to organizers, especially those in D.C., who were able to retain most of the control at the march and afterward.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From the Women's March through to the present, it has been amazing to watch the amount of civic engagement which has sprung up with and without any planning. From Trump's first week in office, especially starting with the first travel ban, we have seen that the American people are fired up and ready to fight for our beliefs and country, within a moments notice. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Part of the reason for the energy is, in my opinion, only partially due to Trump's agenda and the horrible things we all learned about him throughout the campaign. It has actually been building for years; Trump was just the final catalyst. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We the people have been held hostage for years, by the partisan nature of both parties. We have watched as time and time again, those we elect get to the office they are elected to, at local and federal levels, and seem to forget whom they work for, who put them there, and who they will answer to for their choices. And we the people end up screwed in one form or another, all while we watch the same politicians head back to their offices despite their broken promises. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Don't get me wrong, unlike the man currently inhabiting the White House, we the people also need to admit that our own complacency, lack of interest in anything beyond our small bubble, and yes, laziness, factored into our country's descent to where we are now. We the people failed to bother to learn about the complexities of the laws and regulations, policies and decisions, being made in our name. By doing so we the people allowed our politicians to do what they wanted regardless of the final impact on our neighbors, ourselves and the country. And we the people ourselves seemed to have forgotten that those in public office, whether locally or nationally, really serve at the pleasure of... the people, inclusive of the President. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">We the people are not customers or clients of this country or politicians; you do not get to decide what we want without our input; and you do not get to ignore our demands. We the people are the employers, and this is a wake-up call for all of you in political office: you all serve at the pleasure of us, the people of America - and yes, that includes Donald Trump.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As evidenced by recent actions across the nation, we the people have remembered the above and everything is changing. The Republicans pulling Trumpcare on Friday before it could go to a floor vote in the House is the latest win for the resistance. Contrary to the messaging I am hearing from the majority of the media and politicians, the resistance's Trumpcare win was not our first win. It was the first legislative win, yes, but it was only the latest win with regard to Trump and GOP agendas. Casually dismissing the earlier wins and ongoing battle are condescending and dangerous for those who continue to do so. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most of the winning, along with the continuing battles and those to come, are happening due to the intense activism of the "regular" people. People from every race, culture, background and level, who have dropped everything to rush to airports to protest illegal immigration bans, come together to fight for the protection of every person, whether you are a refugee, immigrant, LGBTQIA, child, adult, senior or however you self identify. We are even fighting over the right for Transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify as, for fucks sake - something which was settled until Trump ordered the withdrawal of the previous guidance on same. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This activism by the resistance has kicked our politicians into gear, the GOP quite reluctantly. Though when the time came with Trumpcare, the Democrats and some Republicans finally seemed to get it that we the people are serious and would support actions opposing it - just as we will with regard to the SCOTUS issue. So it would be nice if all of our politicians would be honest in giving credit where credit is due and not tout the win as a Democratic party win. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>This was a win by the people, for the people.</b> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Taking backhanded credit for it, attempting to raise funds for your personal campaigns, gloating about the "Democratic" win, are not acceptable. We the people had to push all of our politicians to either stand with us and do what we the people want done, or realize that we are not going away and will remember your decisions at the next election. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And to the Republicans who control the House and Senate, let's be clear: your continued obstruction of an independent investigation into Russia's attack on our democracy and possible Trump team collaboration, and your insistence on jamming through all of the GOP agenda items and Trump's nominees will be the "death spiral" of your career as politicians. Accessories after the fact may be only the beginning of the charges once we the people have our voices fully heard. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are many battles still ahead of us in this war to save the American democracy. I urge everyone to continue to resist, stand up and fight back, especially those in Republican states. I honestly don't care what your political affiliation is, if you really love America, then it is time to stand together for the fundamental values, beliefs and rights that have made USA the world leader when it comes to democracy.</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">email me</a> or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></i>Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-20248623502850700252017-02-26T17:49:00.000-05:002017-02-26T17:55:45.238-05:00It's Not About Bathrooms or Terrorists: It's About Distraction<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's not about bathrooms for Transgender people. It's not about the likelihood (or lack thereof) that people from certain nations may be terrorists. Also, it's not about how many "bad dudes" may be in our country from Mexico or other countries. (I would argue that the baddest dudes I've seen recently are actually from the USA.)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All of the above, every last one of them, are important in and of themselves and we should not ignore addressing these issues by pushing back on Trump's decisions. However, what all of these issues have in common is that they play to fear, ignorance and prejudice and for Donald Trump, that is his base. They also lead to most decent people doing all they can to protect those being discriminated against which keeps us busy - and distracted.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These are purposely set fires meant to inflame the "opposition," aka residents who did not vote for Trump. This concerted effort by the administration of our country has several goals. A few of those goals are:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To fulfill Trump's promises made on the campaign trail;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To help Republicans to achieve things they have tried to do for years with no success;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To push the white nationalist agenda while enriching corporations/wealthy over middle-class and low-income people.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">However, the most important goal that all of these actions have is to distract us from the fact that our elections were </span><a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf" target="_blank">tampered with by a foreign government, Russia.</a><span style="color: #4c1130;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As if that isn't bad enough by itself, the Trump administration especially does not want us focusing on the possibility that they were in contact with Russia while it was happening and did nothing to stop it. This is not the behavior of a president or a patriot, it is the behavior of traitors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">None of these actions is acceptable and the fact that the Republicans did not stand up immediately and call for an independent investigation should make them accessories after the fact.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"> </span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We must not let Trump's theatrics distract us from the Trump Russian election issue. We must continue to push for an independent investigation with a special prosecutor. Even a joint Senate and House intelligence committee investigation is not acceptable as it has already been proven that </span><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-enlist-intelligence-officials-key-lawmakers-to-counter-russia-stories/2017/02/24/c8487552-fa99-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.ebc8d8849a47" target="_blank">Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)</a>, </span><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, have been working with the Trump administration to try to quash "Russiagate".</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am not going to ask folks to set aside work on other issues, because I have faith that most of us can fight for more than one thing at a time. I AM going to request that no matter what else you do, that every day you find a way to advocate for an independent investigation and special prosecutor to look into the Trump Russia connections and that you ask your family, friends and networks across the country to do the same. It will take all of us, working together, to counteract the purposeful distractions and resolve the Trump-Russia questions once and for all.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am planning on making it a priority to push anyone I need to in anyway I can for an independent investigation into Trump-Russia daily. However, I will also be fighting against the attacks on transgender and immigrant/refugee people, our education system, healthcare, environment, a free press and so much more. I hope everyone I know, regardless of your political stance, will stand with me against hate, prejudice and for all that we the people believe our country should be.</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">email me</a> or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></i></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-30733072400101275282017-01-25T22:15:00.002-05:002017-01-26T16:14:06.838-05:00#Resist, Rest, Repeat: Viva la Resistance America<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Trump Presidency Day 6</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Note: This was originally posted in a political action group per a request that I elaborate on a reply to someone feeling overwhelmed and drained. Now I am sharing this in the hope of helping everyone - especially those who are newer
to political action- combat the inevitable feelings you may be experiencing
due to the past few days onslaught of Trump's executive orders and alternate perceptions (as they are NOT facts.) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After such an amazingly uplifting experience at the Women's Marches, we </span><b style="color: #4c1130; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">must not</b><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> become so disheartened that we give up.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I hope
others who have been doing this for awhile will share their
advice via the comments (if you give permission I will then add it with credit to you) so that we can share and utilize the experience and
knowledge we have acquired. This is important to ensure that we do not lose folks due to feelings
of despair, pointlessness or, especially, burn-out!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">First: we <b>CAN</b> win, but
it is going to take time. It's a marathon not a sprint. However, together we can
make it a relay marathon because sometimes you need to fight for something else
(or work, take care of family or you know, sleep!) and need someone else to grab that torch. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Also you need to recognize
that losing one battle doesn't mean you have lost the war. The most important tool in this oncoming war will be keeping people involved whether they
have an hour a week or are available every day. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boston Common from Beacon Street<br />
Boston Women's March January 21, 2017</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: red;">Without the people we lose.</span></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #351c75;">If
we do not work together and strengthen our collaborations: we will have minor
wins but will possibly lose the overall fight.</span><span style="color: #4c1130;"> </span></i></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We cannot afford to lose. Period.</b></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There will be days that we
may not seem to be making much headway or that you feel hopeless or like
"why bother no one cares." Been there done that. I am here to tell you, people care. We are right here. Even if you are the only one fighting for your cause in a
room stacked against you, you can win, but only if you take care of YOU too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">From my original post on that thread:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've been an activist
since I was 15 but more so as a mom because my kids have special needs. I
actually spent 11 years Chairing Boston's SNPAC (Special Needs Parent Advisory Council, the 1st of its kind but now required under special ed laws and often called "SEPACs") 100 hours per week
(it was insane) under an adversarial administration. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have been a social
justice, public & special education advocate for 24 years and politically involved
since that first foray into the realm when I was 15 (Goddess this makes me seem ANCIENT! I'm not! 😀)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Here is my advice:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1) As galvanized and
energized as you feel, do NOT spend every spare minute on this or even
reading/watching the news. It will drain you faster than a 2 year old with ADHD who
doesn't sleep (I have 3 kids with ADHD whom I love so trust me, it doesn't take
long and I barely sleep even now that they are older.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">2) Find something you
like to do that relaxes you (preferably with no chance of seeing the horrors we
are now witnessing): reading, dancing, photography, exercise, favorite shows,
writing* or whatever.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_0zhrGYi3eN4yLb_RVNRAxXng2jyA4vCrdu9mQs4Yvh5rDFRnCmotq-pq2GtNL85X_-mc-ztRjCHe2ne3MYttOa3PnqvFwnMpGf8EqH9bDDj73fDbIKSjXNeBLekdweBIy-iHn2D5YA/s1600/Bubbles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_0zhrGYi3eN4yLb_RVNRAxXng2jyA4vCrdu9mQs4Yvh5rDFRnCmotq-pq2GtNL85X_-mc-ztRjCHe2ne3MYttOa3PnqvFwnMpGf8EqH9bDDj73fDbIKSjXNeBLekdweBIy-iHn2D5YA/s200/Bubbles.jpg" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 19.2px;">I enjoy photography so this is one of my escapes!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Take some time each
day to do whatever it is.</span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b><span style="color: #674ea7;">Folks with kids: for
</span><span style="color: red;">YOU</span><span style="color: #674ea7;"> not for the kids- seriously.</span></b></span></i></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk59aKEzyG8MZL4_UOSNeyN9CY9Z7mZIqFJjEQhCbCoS5lfg-JaJRCASEg1uezL7LNMcZDqOm273jvGiBiif9OimrSnJTZ0jFM3yQPBaDvMJZdevuCrDJp1n66I-27sXOVWk1onyLlDw/s1600/Skyline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk59aKEzyG8MZL4_UOSNeyN9CY9Z7mZIqFJjEQhCbCoS5lfg-JaJRCASEg1uezL7LNMcZDqOm273jvGiBiif9OimrSnJTZ0jFM3yQPBaDvMJZdevuCrDJp1n66I-27sXOVWk1onyLlDw/s200/Skyline.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDoqZFP03eXLykXprQ2aBXrNAdkvUderQY4zUbccqmsiXk1ufRKk1TSaKWQyeITAPvqgwyRHtXl7jqGR40vMUbbtfD47II_0eTBlxLm_fBeFReIswPAbkm90yf35sEdbbI7xz70PYow/s1600/Swans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDoqZFP03eXLykXprQ2aBXrNAdkvUderQY4zUbccqmsiXk1ufRKk1TSaKWQyeITAPvqgwyRHtXl7jqGR40vMUbbtfD47II_0eTBlxLm_fBeFReIswPAbkm90yf35sEdbbI7xz70PYow/s200/Swans.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">3) We tend to spend
more time with like-minded folks, so if you don't already have someone you can
just rant or vent to: find someone! I am thankful I have a few people I can call
up and start venting who just listen or vent with me often without even asking
"what happened?" as usually they know exactly what I am off
about which means not having to explain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">4) If you are really
new, please reach out to people who have been doing this for awhile. Don't be shy, most are
happy to help others learn not only how to resist, fight and organize, but also
how to cope with everything and breathe (super important!!!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">5) Verify whatever you
see or hear if it is not from a source you trust completely. Research it, read up on it, and especially with all the fake crud flying use fact checking sites like <a href="http://factcheck.org/">factcheck.org</a> or </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://politifact.com/">politifact.com</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why is this
important? Lots of actual #fakenews out there and with the internet and social
media I've seen people freak out completely and wear themselves down only to
find out that the info was incorrect, was just someone's perception instead of
an actual fact or someone's idea of a joke (trolls) - which can then totally
piss you off (also tiring.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Even if from a source
you trust, recognize that behind everything is a human, we are fallible and
therefore can inadvertently make a mistake and pass on incorrect info. The good
guys will generally admit it was a mistake and correct it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">As a former paralegal
and having played too long in these waters, sans the immediate ability to fact-check we now have, I tend to dig a bit before jumping no matter who it is from. I also
have political and education institutional knowledge so can sometimes just help question
things or give irrefutable facts to disprove apparent misinformation. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">6) Don't be taken
advantage of please! During a recent major campaign there was a deputy director who
told people that if they didn't go door knocking or help in some way with the
campaign then they couldn't have a lawn sign. Not acceptable. He was reported
by several people. Why did he do that? Having a lawn sign helps the campaign
(whether for a person or position) more than door knocking sometimes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Most pros will <i>never</i> do something this dumb, but it's a clear example which I can give you, not to scare you - just so you understand that though you may be 1000% behind a cause, if you are
a volunteer - which most of us are - you should never feel bullied or that
because you are new you shouldn't question things.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Most causes have paid
organizers whose job is measured by how many engagements they can gain for the group (online, phone, in person etc) so occasionally you may cross paths with
someone like I mention above. Even those who are <i>just</i> doing their jobs well
can turn people off from a group or cause by being too pushy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Right now a lot of organizations and groups are
jumping to get everyone signed on to something because most haven't seen this level of national outrage and the willingness to fight, well, <b>ever.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Look into
the group and even if it's a cause you care about, if for some reason (again we are
all human) you don't feel you fit with a specific group please don't give up. Find
another one or start your own volunteer group.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVZNi6PW1yAnhs6bmlCkJIMq5C_u0Flqf17pFnNoyxPVe-ZxJeMZJxiw5RTkHsKcoivAAq8TzwFi25X6v_PDBvxTT5wMa-rmCdIvoGsrpe3BnuWNzGTNlAQGPN_gbwLsh2TfcG7YcHA/s1600/WM+signs002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVZNi6PW1yAnhs6bmlCkJIMq5C_u0Flqf17pFnNoyxPVe-ZxJeMZJxiw5RTkHsKcoivAAq8TzwFi25X6v_PDBvxTT5wMa-rmCdIvoGsrpe3BnuWNzGTNlAQGPN_gbwLsh2TfcG7YcHA/s400/WM+signs002.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One side of the sign I carried.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">7) Right now especially we are all in a heightened state of re-activism *guilty myself*. This can lead to you getting extremely frustrated with others who seem to not care or not to be as involved as you are. This is normal, but it also drains you.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are at all like me you will feel like screaming at the top of your lungs "what the hell is WRONG with you people!? Can't you see our country is UNDER ATTACK by the PRESIDENT and our elected officials ARE NOT STANDING WITH US?" *ahem* or something similar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Do what you can to try to educate and activate people who may have time to give. Some folks honestly are overwhelmed with their own stuff and we need to respect that. If others are open to it, asking them questions to find out if you can help them in any way with why they may not be involved.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Again, people are the most important resource we will have in the resistance, but we must recognize that not all will join us and some are against us. </span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u><br /></u></span>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u>IGNORE TROLLS - just don't even engage - their main goal is to get you fighting with them to distract you from the real fight! In person: walk away; via social media: mute, block, report via the platform's tools.</u></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, if</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> after you have exhausted all of your best efforts, and hopefully <i>before</i> you scream something like the above, they are still sucking your soul out of you: move on. There are more people to educate and activate who will join us, which is a much more positive use of your time. (Also, utilize #3 - it can help really!) </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7sd3rs3g_jGjSELuzllAcEOXqKA0k4pqSFn0KtvFkzaHLiAsXrglTUboL0IWXvYZrvodMEEjZgNdJ_Z58XncqNx5opOI-ThPuf8cCet6RJ8H1CBZhTUhHKq46Nvoo-B5Qrshasmynw/s1600/WM+signs002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"></span></span>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The greatest lesson I have learned is to not only know when you </span><b style="color: #4c1130; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">must</b><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> stand for what you believe, but more important is knowing when there is no point to a skirmish which will not have a major impact on the war.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For your information:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have found that many do not understand <b>why</b> we marched because to them it didn't accomplish anything. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(It did - but that's a whole other post!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Or they do not believe that the rights of people in the United States of America can <i>really</i> be taken away <span style="font-size: x-small;">(yet another post!) </span>and still don't believe it, on day 6. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The saddest of all (to me), is because they:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">supported Trump - and will hold to that forever (or until Trump does something that impacts them which they cannot deny);</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">believe it will not impact <b>them</b>; </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">believe misinformation or lies previously relayed to them through whatever source;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">like <b><i>some</i></b> of Trump's ideas;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">are against a group(s) because of their own biases, beliefs or misinformation relayed to them; </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">think the marches were stupid; or, </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">quite frankly, they really don't care about helping others. </span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtzjfUc5s06yYHaFG9q_LaJ9gmZnHUJ3Z2YdsRy6PDdtGnpoe5nye52H21a7trZRQhTZ2lL45VYqQ_6I9cCk9QGg3SZt5xdzILNob5YUlpm6SM2TYdvPzAceoVQk3z_6WbRuefqrZKA/s1600/WM+signs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtzjfUc5s06yYHaFG9q_LaJ9gmZnHUJ3Z2YdsRy6PDdtGnpoe5nye52H21a7trZRQhTZ2lL45VYqQ_6I9cCk9QGg3SZt5xdzILNob5YUlpm6SM2TYdvPzAceoVQk3z_6WbRuefqrZKA/s200/WM+signs.jpg" width="91" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The last one may sound harsh, but some people only care about themselves. It takes all kinds to fill this world, right? Live and let live but move on from them!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I share these tips with the hope that they can help you because if you don't take care of you and your
family first you may end up feeling defeated & hopeless. This is not what you want to happen. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The actions taken by Trump and even the reaction to his agenda is beyond anything I've ever seen & it will take ALL of us to ensure that Trump does not destroy the United States via Executive Orders in the shortest time possible.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Solidarity Always,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Karen</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 25.68px;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: normal;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" target="_blank">email me</a> or follow me via Twitter: </span><a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="line-height: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a><span style="line-height: normal;">. </span></span></i></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-58919260131792957462016-06-27T22:14:00.002-04:002016-06-28T10:43:34.230-04:00Boston City Council Hearing FY17 Budget Testimony<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #351c75; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Below is the transcript of my prepared testimony for the</i></span></span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"> June 27th, 2016</i><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"> Boston City Council (BCC) Ways & Means Hearing on the Boston Public Schools' <a href="http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/162/MemoAmendment%20to%20FY17%20Budgetupdated.pdf" target="_blank">FY17 Budget Amendment</a> which will add $4.68M to the previously submitted BPS budget for FY17. This was the last hearing prior to the City Council vote on the FY17 city budget on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. </i><br />
<i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Please note that I was testifying in both my role as one of the Co-Chairs of the <a href="http://www.citywideparentcouncil.org/" target="_blank">Boston Citywide Parent Council (CPC)</a> and as a BPS, public and special education advocate and extremely proud parent. The first part of the testimony is from the email sent by the CPC Executive and Budget Committee to all Boston City Councillors on Friday, June 24th, 2016. The rest is my own testimony. </span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNaGUIaSJYf4PyRa18_w9AoB3uy9w11HYeg3gdAnTMAo9tLokwNLNh61dcCBHnEoydYYErQ99XQgMtMHbQnTb-FvHViFkhVTuMMZ5vqtiQvyvuCUDxJqOvpTwCht9QyCUqP57ml2mIyg/s1600/BCC+hearing+6-17-16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNaGUIaSJYf4PyRa18_w9AoB3uy9w11HYeg3gdAnTMAo9tLokwNLNh61dcCBHnEoydYYErQ99XQgMtMHbQnTb-FvHViFkhVTuMMZ5vqtiQvyvuCUDxJqOvpTwCht9QyCUqP57ml2mIyg/s640/BCC+hearing+6-17-16.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Good
Afternoon:</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">First, the
Citywide Parent Council would like to reiterate our gratitude to the Mayor for
adding $4.7 million to the current budget proposal. <o:p></o:p></span></span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Video of the BPS School Committee hearing to vote on the additional money can be viewed <a href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/cable/video_library.asp?id=17647" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However,
much of the additional money has been allocated to fund positions in the
Central Office and does not offset the <b>$26m reduction that will have
significant and very real impacts upon building level budgets at schools in
every City Council district in this city.</b></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In light of
these cuts, we urge you to <b>reallocate the Mayor’s $4.7 million directly
to support students and families at the building level</b>. </span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have
prepared the following recommendations for your consideration:</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">Recommendation
1</span></b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">$2.2m for
partial restoration of Weighted Student Funding cuts for students with Autism
and Emotional Impairment.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">Recommendation
2:</span></b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">$1.2m to
support the rollout of the Excellence for All Program. </span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"></span></b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">Recommendation
3</span></b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">$900,000 to
completely reverse <b>ALL</b> cuts to the District’s Early Learning
Centers</span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"></span></b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">Recommendation
4</span></b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">$375,000 to
support Superintendent’s initiative to improve student safety</span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i></i></span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The following is my own additional testimony:</i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Ideally, we
would ask that our City Council demand that the mayor go further and add the
additional $26M necessary to restore all
the cuts his decision on the BPS budget has made. If the mayor will not agree
to the additional funding, then we would ask that you vote NO on the budget. To
do so would be showing all of our current and potential BPS families that our
city council highly values our Boston students. Of course, it would also revert
us back to last year’s budget which would be horrific for our students and
schools.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mayor Walsh
is correct, this is the largest BPS budget ever. However, what he fails to
mention is that, since the founding of public education in this country right
here in Boston, every year we have added to the school district budget. In
fact, his (now) 1.8% budget increase is well below many prior years’ budget increases
for BPS when you look at our history.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For several
years I and others have asked for a fully transparent BPS budget – an itemized,
line-by-line breakdown to see where every cent is going that BPS receives. To
date, we have never received such a breakdown. This needs to change.</span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Without a
doubt, we need to explore more deeply how to reallocate funds when it comes to
the BPS budget. However, this year’s reallocations have led to cuts that will
harm our students. The cuts that have been made are not the cuts that <b>needed</b> to be made. The programs,
services and changes to programs directly impacting students, especially those
with social-emotional needs or on the Autism Spectrum, did not <b>need</b> to be where we cut this year. </span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I
fear these cuts will end up costing the city far more than we may save in the
short-term.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A compromise
I would like to suggest that may be more palatable to all of our students,
families, schools, BPS, city council, and possibly even Mayor Walsh,and which
may lead to less likelihood of repeating the cycle of bleeding our schools dry, is to:</span></span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Require that BPS reallocate the funds
as outlined in the CPC’s recommendations above;</span></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Advocate to Mayor Walsh for the city
to provide “soft-landing” money to schools for the next year to address the
cuts which impact BPS students directly by working with the city council education
committee, CPC and SpedPAC leaders to identify the school cuts needing said
funding (other than those outlined above);</span></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Require that BPS provide a complete
line-by-line budget breakdown on its website; and,</span></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Request that BPS and the mayor’s
office, with CPC and other officially recognized BPS groups (SpedPAC, DELLAC)
designees as full team members, delve into the BPS budget to identify areas
where reallocations are needed or should be made to ensure that every possible
dollar truly benefits our students and gives them a high quality education.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Thank you for
your consideration of our requests and my suggestions.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Karen
Kast-McBride</span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Proud BPS
parent and CPC Co-Chair</span></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">PLEASE be sure to email, call, visit, tweet, message, snapchat, instagram - whatever works best for you - the Boston City Council members also regarding the importance of increasing funds to BPS! </span><a href="http://bpseducationoddyssey.blogspot.com/2016/06/boston-city-council-members-reject.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;" target="_blank">Email and phone contact information, along with a template email, </a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 17.12px;">means you can do this quickly! BCC will vote Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - meeting starts at noon.</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Usually I do not read my testimony, as many times I create it on the spot, but I did read the majority of the first portion because it was the ask of the CPC and at that point I was testifying as the CPC Co-Chair. Even when I write my testimony before a hearing or meeting, I do tend to go off-script in order to address things I hear while at the hearing. This time was no different during my own personal testimony...</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Councillor Linehan had commented earlier in the hearing that $20K per student should be more than enough to educate them, also implying that it was actually too much to be spending. This misconception that $20K per student is spent directly to benefit each student is one of my biggest pet peeves - though Mayor Walsh's consistent reiteration of the (very wrong) "93,000 seats" for BPS students has taken the number one spot! </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you would like to see the video of the hearing the City of Boston Cable Office should have it up within the next day or so (usually.) In the meantime, my testimony is available <a href="https://youtu.be/HEjpBH1YxXg" target="_blank">here.</a></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" target="_blank">email me</a> or follow me via Twitter: </span><a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="color: #1f287d; font-size: small; line-height: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">. </span></i><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-74221938317639478032016-06-22T08:06:00.001-04:002016-06-22T14:29:08.840-04:00Boston City Council Members - Reject Mayor Walsh's FY17 Budget<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">UPDATE: <span style="line-height: 19.32px;">According to Boston City Council President</span><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"> </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=3807" href="https://www.facebook.com/wutrain" style="cursor: pointer; line-height: 19.32px; text-decoration: none;">Michelle Wu</a><span style="line-height: 19.32px;">: No BPS or General Boston budget vote today. Budget version 2 will go to committee and there will be a hearing on revisions Monday, June 27 at 11:00 a.m. (Boston City Hall 5th floor). The final vote will be on June 29th.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;">What does this mean? </span></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="color: #351c75;">More time to spread the word and ask family, friends, neighbors, groups and everyone you know to email, call, visit and use social media to demand that our Boston Public Schools be, at the least, level funded! </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Time to plan our next steps for Monday and next Wednesday!</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Because this will now only allow one vote prior to the June 30th budget deadline, City Council is more likely to pass the budget, so we must take action!</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="display: inline; line-height: 19.32px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">If you are interested in getting involved in next steps since we now have more time, please</span> <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" style="color: #1d2129;" target="_blank">email me!</a><span style="color: #1d2129;">!</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At last night's Citywide Parent Council (CPC) meeting we decided to put together a draft email for all Boston residents to use to ask City Councilors to reject the FY17 Boston budget at today's hearing. Below is everything they need to email the Councilors:</span></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the email addresses for all City Councilors, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a subject line to use (to ensure they are recognized as the same ask) </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and the template email for folks to personalize before sending. </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Please remember to DELETE items in RED and any of the notes below before sending!</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>If you have questions, feel free to <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" target="_blank">email me directly</a>.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You will also find below</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A great graphic created by John Lerner which shows the percent spent by cities and towns on education out of their budgets. This disproves the "Boston spends more than anywhere else on education" mantra by Mayor Walsh et al.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">List of the City Council Hearings (which I edited to get rid of old meetings) showing the two potentially scheduled city council votes on FY17 budget.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Don't know who your City Councilor is? <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.cityofboston.gov/myneighborhood/&source=gmail&ust=1466682664278000&usg=AFQjCNEqSzEKP5Taw5IAsyCK00XK_00G5Q" href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/myneighborhood/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Find out now!</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you want to watch the hearing and vote you can do so <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/live.asp&source=gmail&ust=1466682664278000&usg=AFQjCNF-fgP5fKFYom7IWSs4eLcdG4hrbg" href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/live.asp" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">online</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Follow along on Twitter and Facebook. Make sure to follow the city councilors, and those who are always on top of the budget issues:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/KrissyCabbage" target="_blank">Kristin Johnson</a>,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/kennycooks" target="_blank">Kenny Jervis</a>,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/wheresmyporsche" target="_blank">Heshan Weeramuni</a>,</span><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/GoogieBaba" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mary Lewis-Pierce</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" target="_blank">me</a> (though my posts will be sporadic)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/2016%2520Elected%2520Officials_tcm3-52825.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1466682664278000&usg=AFQjCNGWZjCp_CJjUvLMmtgXJ9zmWVCb1A" href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/2016%20Elected%20Officials_tcm3-52825.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">List of city council members which includes phone numbers</a> - if you have family, friends etc who don't like technology! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Please:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1) SEND YOUR EMAIL first!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2) SHARE WIDELY! Ask everyone you know to email and call RIGHT NOW and - if possible - stop by city hall in person before or during the hearing which will be held in City Council chambers on the 5th floor of Boston City Hall. </span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>City Council Email Addresses to copy and paste into your address line:</b></span></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664278000&usg=AFQjCNE0FStnvK-AJyXjgvYvHXAv6-X7rQ" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Michelle Wu<span style="color: #0033cc;"><br />Ayanna.Pressley@boston.gov</span></span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664278000&usg=AFQjCNE0FStnvK-AJyXjgvYvHXAv6-X7rQ" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Michael.F.Flaherty@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A.E.George@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mark.Ciommo@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Josh.Zakim@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">TJackson@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">matthew.omalley@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Timothy.McCarthy@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Andrea.Campbell@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Frank.Baker@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://goog_134143581&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNGOvBhB1sGuiBsKauvOn9P9Xg-HlA" href="http://goog_134143581/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bill.Linehan@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<a href="mailto:Salvatore.LaMattina@boston.gov" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Salvatore.LaMattina@boston.gov</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Subject line:</b> </span>Reject Boston’s FY17 Budget Until BPS Funded Correctly</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dear Members of the City Council,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am a Boston resident who is extremely concerned that our Mayor is devaluing our students and their futures despite the wealth of our city. First, I want to thank you for refusing to pass Mayor Walsh’s FY17 budget at your June 8, 2016 hearing. You clearly heard the voices of all of the students, families and community members regarding the harmful effects the BPS budget cuts will have on our most vital resource: the students who are the future of our city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, as you are no doubt aware, since your vote on June 8<sup>th</sup>, Mayor Walsh has added an additional <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/162/MemoAmendment%2520to%2520FY17%2520Budgetupdated.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1466682664279000&usg=AFQjCNEE3kp3Mg_LlzZ7wSPtNexw67Oolg" href="http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/162/MemoAmendment%20to%20FY17%20Budgetupdated.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">$4.68M to the BPS budget</a>. Unfortunately, though appreciated, with the exception of a small percentage (approximately 36%), the majority of these funds will never reach the school level, our students directly or offset the detrimental and, in some cases, potentially harmful cuts impacting all of our BPS students. Even with this sudden influx of $4.68M, which is still about $25M short of the funds necessary to level-fund our BPS schools, the Mayor is clearly not prioritizing our students or their education.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the long run, many of the choices now being made for BPS to the tune of “we don’t have the funding” may lead to many costly, and potentially precedent setting, legal cases which will cost the city far more than what we are demanding now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So today, as you prepare for your second vote on the FY17 budget, I am writing as a resident<span style="color: red;">(, voter, BPS parent and Citywide Parent Council member - Feel free to also insert your school and/or other affiliation or anything else you think important to personalize this AND DELETE THIS COMMENT and anything you do not use!) </span>to ask that YOU prioritize our students and BPS schools by once again rejecting the FY17 budget until Mayor Walsh, at the very least, funds our Boston Public Schools to ensure that we maintain the current level of supports our students had during the 2015-2016 school year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I expect every one of you who represent Boston to join me, my fellow residents, BPS students and families to insist that Mayor Walsh again dig into the city’s purse to restore the cuts that are already negatively impacting all of our students, especially those with language and special education needs. Anything less is ethically and morally reprehensible and unacceptable in an elected official.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thank you.</span></div>
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<i style="color: black; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>. </span></i></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-80744872089723087002016-01-19T01:17:00.002-05:002016-01-19T01:17:56.277-05:00Walsh's Woe: Boston Public Schools Families Protesting State of the City 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgJIjvyOHDZOxZ4UP0tIYeDOnMQj5TA6-k-7iWYAylrD56CLjrPGnl-Sk7tUmvhwPZJsq0EXmTT-p_I6WuwwO0FqY8WvymJG50s5BMT3xecolye2xIXXza68RdfRhefs9kBHxPRE6uw/s1600/12540602_10208452901670497_9023604822221758669_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgJIjvyOHDZOxZ4UP0tIYeDOnMQj5TA6-k-7iWYAylrD56CLjrPGnl-Sk7tUmvhwPZJsq0EXmTT-p_I6WuwwO0FqY8WvymJG50s5BMT3xecolye2xIXXza68RdfRhefs9kBHxPRE6uw/s640/12540602_10208452901670497_9023604822221758669_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, if you are a resident of Boston or a Boston Public School community member you <i>may </i>have heard that there is going to be a <a href="http://bpseducationoddyssey.blogspot.com/2016/01/boston-families-and-students-to-protest.html" target="_blank">protest</a> tomorrow afternoon before Mayor Walsh's <a href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/stateofthecity/" target="_blank">State of the City</a> address. The protest, already making news on Twitter using the hashtags #SotcProtest #SOTC16, has been getting a bit of <a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Mayor+Walsh,+protest,+state+of+the+city+boston+2016" target="_blank">news coverage</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why are the #handfulofparents protesting? Short answer: BPS budget "shortfalls*." Bet you are thinking, I heard Mayor Walsh has said he did not cut the budget and in fact is generously giving BPS another $14M to bring the BPS budget to a whopping $127B total! And rumors are that Mayor Walsh will be announcing a bit more money to add to that! Geez, BPS families and students sure are asking for a lot! What is the issue - you should really be able to educate every student with that kind of money! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.5636px;">This protest is about the "shortfalls" to our BPS budget and despite Mayor Walsh's request that BPS "trim down" central administration which ALWAYS seems to trickle down and negatively impact ALL of our students and schools more than the central administration. Even with</span><span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"> the central office trimming down, that doesn't stop the bleeding that happens at the school level - and quite frankly, if nothing changes then pretty soon BPS will bleed out completely. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shortfalls - however they happen and no matter what we call them- translate to actual <i><b>cuts</b></i> at the school level. Cuts which eliminate positions, services and programs like:</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nurses: It is rare to have a BPS school with a full-time nurse - better hope those students don't need emergency care except during that nurses' hours at the school; </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teachers: Why do we need science, math, language, history or special education teachers? STEM? Eh, whatever, city students don't need that stuff - we are preparing them to WORK, what do they REALLY need to know to press a button or say "Welcome to Walmart"?!; </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Libraries and/or Librarians: students only need to read the items which will be on the MCAS/PARCC - so really no need for literature or fictional reading!;</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Programs: Art - they can draw, sing, dance or play instruments at home! Sports - what obesity problem? Specialty programs - all they need to pass high stakes testing is ELA, Math, a bit of Science and we TELL those teachers WHAT to teach them for those! </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Supplies: computers? paper? toilet tissue? bottled water? Pshaw - the teachers that DO remain are getting paid so well, they can buy it!</span></span></div>
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<i style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The above is brought to you by me channeling my inner non-BPS parent 1% corporate ed reform political donor - to my regular readers, I apologize!</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe now you are beginning to think, well... maybe there is something wrong here (at least, I hope you are!) - students need more than just Reading, Writing (oh yeah, no cursive in schools anymore!), Arithmetic and testing. Wow, Boston is a very rich city, why do the public schools have to keep eliminating so much? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">That, dear reader, is the 127 billion dollar question! The answer: declining federal and state funding for education, costs taken out of the BPS budget for students who attend other schools, and rising costs all contribute to the issue.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mayor Walsh is correct, <i>he </i>did not cut anything from the BPS budget. And yes, we are thankful he has actually kept the "shortfall" from being worse by allocating that $14M to the budget - thank you Marty! Without it the "shortfall" would actually be $64M instead of the $50M it still is with these added funds. Of course, this latest "shortfall" is in addition to the prior two years "shortfalls" totalling $140M. And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do we want? After all, the BPS budget takes up a huge portion of the city budget, do we think Mayor Walsh can give even more? Well, another short answer: yes, and no. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the city can afford to give huge tax breaks to General Electric to entice them to make Boston the home of their headquarters and propose putting the city into debt to bring the 2024 Olympics, and let's not forget Indy Car racing; well, shouldn't there be a way to add more to the most important resource for our city, state and country: the education of every single student in Boston?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Additionally, we are asking that Mayor Walsh commit to, at the minimum,the following: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Join in solidarity with Boston’s students, families and community members to aggressively advocate for our Boston Public Schools at state and federal levels;</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through strategic planning and ambitious revitalization, reduce the BPS budget shortfalls of $50 million this year and $140 million over the last three years;</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Invest in fully-resourced community public schools with wraparound services for Boston's children;</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Work with the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">true stakeholders</span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Boston Public Schools: students, families, educators and community members to fully audit BPS’ budget in order to assess community needs and address inequalities; and,</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Collaborating with the true stakeholders, demand democratically controlled public schools through an elected Boston School Committee.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3RN_CksjRRxgTeV_KdxluQACOeOeHcVJJPxNNlTKScNsMQuIj0d5Upmj7JxKHbfj6xcK52ffUoTaLwbwY_jon4y-fBpnzZB6ozas5Zz29yNsY_CBNgPrdZoixi_wdSBdsSx2YzwxQ4w/s1600/handfulofparents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3RN_CksjRRxgTeV_KdxluQACOeOeHcVJJPxNNlTKScNsMQuIj0d5Upmj7JxKHbfj6xcK52ffUoTaLwbwY_jon4y-fBpnzZB6ozas5Zz29yNsY_CBNgPrdZoixi_wdSBdsSx2YzwxQ4w/s320/handfulofparents.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">Who are we? W</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">e are the true stakeholders of BPS and come from all walks of life to take part in this movement to invest in our students and Boston Public Schools. We are every race, religion, economic and education level; whether we are for or against the Boston Compact, charter or traditional Boston public schools, love or dislike our elected leaders - we are all in agreement and solidarity where it counts the most: "Shortfalls" are still "cuts" at the school level!</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.5636px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please join us before Mayor Walsh's</span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;"> #SOTC16 for the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1672743813000768/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;" target="_blank">#SOTCProtest</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;"> at 4:30 p.m. to demand that Mayor Walsh and our elected officials collaborate aggressively with us: the students, parents, educators and community members fighting to ensure that every single BPS student has the education and schools we deserve! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">It will be cold, so <a href="https://t.co/inAsnbYZV2" target="_blank">Mary Pierce</a> and I bought quite a few hand warmers!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINkMUA91xLij1E99ycWs_r4TKj5N1Pfm4J-8L0LdEa0LrRROgq-NUEJYEKE7PMmNnVZIh57k_29EGpgeKW5OCFqR9wVcL3WS7nEIufuInTB4ANysAKkddiAHuLPScRdSmESaODvce9A/s1600/handwarmers2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINkMUA91xLij1E99ycWs_r4TKj5N1Pfm4J-8L0LdEa0LrRROgq-NUEJYEKE7PMmNnVZIh57k_29EGpgeKW5OCFqR9wVcL3WS7nEIufuInTB4ANysAKkddiAHuLPScRdSmESaODvce9A/s320/handwarmers2.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">Please dress warm, grab some caffeine, make a sign - or use one that my daughters and I made - and join me and the awesome students, families, educators and community members! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">And yes, Bospoli, Mapoli - especially our Boston City Councilors, Massachusetts </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">Senate and House of Representatives </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.5636px;">Boston Delegation members, Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito - we would hope YOU all will stop by to speak with us, otherwise, the next protest may be at your big event!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>. </span></i></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-4194047858477441632016-01-18T13:11:00.001-05:002016-01-18T13:13:01.180-05:00BOSTON FAMILIES AND STUDENTS TO PROTEST MAYOR WALSH’S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: January 19, 2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">BOSTON FAMILIES AND STUDENTS TO PROTEST MAYOR WALSH’S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Boston, MA—On January 19, 2016, a broad-based coalition of public education stakeholders made up of families, students, educators, community members and groups representing public schools throughout Boston will come together at Mayor Walsh’s 2016 State of the City Address to protest budget shortfalls which negatively impact all of our Boston Public Schools. We are protesting the Walsh administration’s failure to aggressively advocate for adequate funding and to make the investments needed to create success for every single student in all of our Boston Public Schools.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DATE: Tuesday, January 19, 2016</span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TIME: 4:30pm</span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LOCATION: Intersection of Westland Ave and Mass Ave Under BSO sign</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We are demanding that Mayor Walsh, at a minimum, do the following:</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Join in solidarity with Boston’s students, families and community members to aggressively advocate for our Boston Public Schools at state and federal levels;</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Through strategic planning and ambitious revitalization, reduce the BPS budget shortfalls of $50 million this year and $140 million over the last three years;</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Invest in fully-resourced community public schools with wraparound services for Boston's children;</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Work with the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">true stakeholders</span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Boston Public Schools: students, families, educators and community members to fully audit BPS’ budget in order to assess community needs and address inequalities; and,</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Collaborating with the true stakeholders, demand democratically controlled public schools through an elected Boston School Committee.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Boston, the stakeholders have come together to build a new vision for our public schools and our children—one that champions great public schools as the heart of our neighborhoods and ensures that every student, regardless of zip code, receives the highest quality education available. Our stakeholders have developed a community-driven movement for the benefit of all of our students and we will hold all of our elected officials accountable to us as their constituents and voters. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To follow this action on social media search #SOTCProtest</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Check our our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1672743813000768/" target="_blank">Facebook event page</a>.</span></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Karen Kast-McBride</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mary Lewis-Pierce</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="tel:%28617%29%20877-2871" target="_blank" value="+16178772871">(617) 877-2871</a></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="tel:857-891-3271" target="_blank" value="+18578913271">857-891-3271</a></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="mailto:Karen.Kastmcbride@gmail.com" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Karen.Kastmcbride@gmail.com</span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="mailto:lewispierce@gmail.com" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">lewispierce@gmail.com</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-30665516110192866022015-12-01T21:03:00.001-05:002015-12-01T21:03:49.182-05:00Confessions of a Public School Parent <span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Boston Compact, Charter School legislation, possible school closures and the Mayor who left ALL Boston's children behind once he took the oath of office. School, citizen groups, weird City of Boston "partner" events, reaching out to others in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, New York - all places being decimated by education reform, reading articles and digging into data on DESE and other sites. This is what my spare time - time when I could relax or do something totally selfish with - essentially revolves around or something similar for the past 23 years. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Confession: my youngest is now in high school and I feel like I have failed my children. I failed them by allowing those who won't even put their own children into a public school to determine how my children would be educated. I failed them by not pushing back more against their use as guinea pigs in the edu-experiments that have encompassed the past 20 years of public education in my beloved city. I have failed them by allowing them to be nothing more than data-points to those who swore their focus was the children of Boston and ensuring they would receive the best education. I failed them by not screaming louder or opting them out of the insane MCAS sooner. All of these things are how I also feel I have failed ALL of our Boston students. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To my children: I'm sorry. I loved school, okay - not the early hours, but when I went to Boston Public Schools, despite what was written about how horrible our education was, I got an amazing education. An education that, contrary to the popular myth pushed by education reformers, actually taught me how to ask questions, research, think critically, write everything from a resume, correspondence, legal documents, this blog and read for knowledge as well as enjoyment. My education gave me the drive to continue as a scholar throughout my life. This is what I want for all of you - the children I gave birth to and those that may not even know me, for school to be a place where you love to learn, even if you don't like the hours. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Grades are subjective and standardized tests are just standards others have decided on or the "norm", well, my kids are not and never will be the "norm" so their scores on these tests mean almost nothing to me. In my opinion, the true success of a school and district is not how many of the students can pass a single test measure, but how many of the students that they educated not only go on to have successful lives, but continue to spend their life learning and never stop. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite my feeling of failure, or maybe because of it, I will continue to fight against those who see our students as nothing but a data-point or dollar sign. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right now, that includes elected officials like Mayor Marty Walsh, Governor Charlie Baker and many others who seem to be paying off campaign debts by selling off our students' (and the city's) futures. And they are backed by big money and corporations hiding behind the foundations and groups that are purportedly non-profit: Gates, Walton, Broad, Democrats for Education Reform, Families for Excellent Schools, Stand for Children. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gates has already funded the Boston Compact through the Boston Schools Fund and the Boston Compact folks are in talks with the Walton Family Foundation for more funding. All of these organizations have the objective of opening more charter schools as one of their primary missions. And yes, I have been tweeting about all of these concerns and questions to all of them.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many concerns surrounding the Boston Compact, not the least of which is the lack of transparency and lack of any of the true stakeholders being part of the group. If you want to learn a bit more you should really read <a href="https://publicschoolmama.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/speaking-for-myself-only/" target="_blank">Public School Mama's blog</a> and the links in her posts!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Call me crazy - rightfully so, because who else but a crazy person would believe that one voice or a small group of voices can indeed make a difference? I'll own my craziness because despite everything, I also know I have succeeded in some ways because I see it throughout BPS and my children do have the desire to continue learning. I didn't do it alone, and every day I am thankful to the staff and educators, and yes, BPS district personnel, City Councilors and Mayor Menino, and most of all the awesome students, parents and groups that helped ensure that my children became lifelong learners. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We still have a lot of work to do, but luckily I know there are many community members, parents, students, families, educators and groups who are also fighting to ensure that every student truly receives the best education we can give them and to light the spark necessary to continue their learning for the rest of their lives. I may also be a dreamer, but I truly believe we can accomplish our goals. So, to the many parents, students, families and community members feeling fatigue or, like myself, feeling like you may have failed your students, I thank you for fighting on despite the constant barrage of education reform initiatives and compacts designed to decimate public school districts. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you want to learn more about the current issues many are concerned about such as </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">what the Boston Compact, Mayor Walsh and Governor Baker's education proposals could mean for Boston</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I hope you will join me tomorrow evening, Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. at the </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">District B-2 Police Station </span><span style="background-color: white;">2400 Washington St,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Roxbury, MA 02119 (Dudley Square).</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-19654846431912886262015-10-18T20:15:00.000-04:002015-10-19T19:27:11.677-04:00How I Really Feel - Testimony Before Joint Ed Committee Regarding Charter Schools<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My own <a href="https://youtu.be/gRRNNVBgK7w">testimony</a> before the Massachusetts Legislature's Joint Education Committee at the hearing regarding lifting the cap on charter schools on October 13, 2015. I hope all of our legislators read this, and more importantly, read and watch <a href="http://bpseducationoddyssey.blogspot.com/2015/10/impact-of-charter-schools-on-public.html">Tabitha's testimony</a> at the same hearing as she is a BPS student and students are the true consumers of our education system.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCWhSpKMwQF7hUNCWDVFxzNNNsm8KAjpQVnGYjvDwAUzFvq5lAvhYKQYBXSw335toqM6fUlaC2S0fjbttgYlDeLuN88qGyY8L2cAGJt7VlQHkGUNNZZZbxWnHlx4eXsj6KtkRNk6-gA/s1600/Me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCWhSpKMwQF7hUNCWDVFxzNNNsm8KAjpQVnGYjvDwAUzFvq5lAvhYKQYBXSw335toqM6fUlaC2S0fjbttgYlDeLuN88qGyY8L2cAGJt7VlQHkGUNNZZZbxWnHlx4eXsj6KtkRNk6-gA/s320/Me.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear
Senator Chang-Diaz, Representative Peisch and Joint Education Committee
Members:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My
name is Karen Kast-McBride and I am a proud Boston Public School parent, advocate and Citizens
for Public Schools Board member. I want all parents to have choices in where
they educate their children, but is it true choice if the choice is only for a
select few - students who will most likely succeed no matter which school they
attend? Is it really school choice if it is only open to those who do well on
tests, sit still, behave and do not have language or ability barriers? Is it
true choice when children with language or special needs are punished for their
inability to conform? It is not choice, it is segregation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both
of my daughters go to Boston Public Schools which have seen budget cuts of
$300-500,000.00 per year for the past ten years. Over six years the Irving
Middle School received over $3,000,000.00 in cuts while the Irving populations
of SWD (37%), ELL (17.2%) and High Needs (75.1%) increased – quite a few of
whom were pushed out of charter schools. The Irving has the highest number of
Emotionally Impaired SWD outside of a special education school - students who
have been traumatized or have severe emotional and psychiatric needs, and has
the highest number of students in foster care in Boston (possibly the state), which
generates a slew of new issues to address. Despite all of these factors, the
Irving has become the most highly chosen stand-alone middle school in Boston
and increased students’ success rates on mandated testing, and more
importantly, their overall success in school and life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unfortunately,
our true public schools are bleeding - due to budget cuts which consistently
increase as federal and state education funding dwindles and charter schools
take larger portions of our BPS budget which is <b>not</b> fully reimbursed as many charter proponents claim. By the way,
charter schools are allocated 3-4 times the amount my daughters' schools
receive per-pupil. I would be happy to explain the difference in per-pupil
dollars allocated to a BPS school vs. the amount allocated to charter schools <i>for the same type of students,</i> <b>just ask me.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
decisions you make regarding education drastically impact the thousands of
students I represent along with their public schools. Both of my daughters are
students with special needs, both have IEPs, and both have IQs in the 98th
percentile - so like many of our special needs students, the schools are
challenged to address both their gifted and special needs. All of these
students are amazingly smart and will go far, but need some help which their public
schools give them. I have watched many of these students not just get through
and pass an arbitrary test, but truly flourish and become lifelong learners
with strong voices who are now becoming the leaders in their communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are
you willing to make a decision that could lead to these students being unable
to progress and flourish as they already have because their schools can no
longer sustain quality educational programs? Are you willing to allow charter
schools to continue their practice of not accepting or pushing out students
with disabilities or language needs? I would be happy to educate you on why any
vote to lift the cap on charter schools may actually be in direct violation of the
special education laws which guarantee students with disabilities access to the
same quality educational opportunities as their non-disabled peers, <b>just ask me.</b> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The conversation
regarding lifting the charter cap is premature until we truly invest in our
traditional public schools instead of draining funds out of them and into charter
schools which:</span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">practice selective enrollment
as well as pushing out students who don't test well;</span></li>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">claim 100% of their
graduates go on to college without clarifying that of the many 9th graders who
start at their schools</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> few are left to
graduate</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">(a
traditional public school would be closed due to those results), and most who do
graduate are white, contrary to the marketing done which claims charter schools
are successful for students of color; and,</span></li>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">let’s not forget, there
is no transparency regarding the money charter schools take in - whether public
or private – as they refuse to open their books to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">auditors</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">of all levels. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
valiant steps your colleagues have taken since last year, such as review of the
foundation budget, attrition, graduation and suspension rates in charter
schools, and much more still need to be done prior to any legislation going
forward on lifting the cap. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I
am not asking you to eliminate the charter schools which already exist, I ask
that we address the issues we are all aware of with this education model prior
to even discussing allowing more to open. Last year, after meeting with
concerned students, families and educators, many of your colleagues made a
promise to concerned students, families and educators to review all of the
issues prior to considering lifting the cap on charter schools again. I ask
that that promise be kept and that you focus your energies on doing more to
ensure the success of our traditional public schools which should be your first
priority. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I
ask that you <b>vote NOT to pass the Governor’s proposal (HD 4191) and any
other legislation which would lift the cap</b> <b>and H385,</b> until all of the issues above are addressed. I also
ask that you <b>vote NOT to pass H444/S327.</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>I
also ask that you <b>vote to PASS</b> <b>Bills S326, H485, H490, S295, H380, S321
and H467.</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please stand
up for students like my daughters, stand for the students whose parents can't
even take a minute to call or email you, stand against the pro-charter school
lobbyists, corporations and those who would use tax dollars to further their
own wealth without any true concern for these children who cannot stand up for
themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Respectfully,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Karen
Kast-McBride</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:</span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 18px;">Call, email, write and visit your state <a href="https://malegislature.gov/People/Search" style="color: #1f287d; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Senator and Representative</a>;</span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;">Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:</span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;">Contacting me via <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" style="color: #1f287d; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">email</a> or Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="color: #1f287d; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@bpsnightmare</a> </span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">and </span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KeepCharterCapMass" style="color: #1f287d; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts"</a> and follow </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/KeepTheCapMass" style="color: #1f287d; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@KeepTheCapMass</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; line-height: 18px;">on Twitter</span><span style="color: #351c75; line-height: 18px;">.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-75020286286450859212015-10-18T18:59:00.000-04:002015-10-18T18:59:26.064-04:00Impact of Charter Schools on Public Schools - Testimony of a BPS Student <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Shared with permission, below is the text of Tabitha Kast-McBride's testimony regarding the impact of charter schools on her education as a Boston Public School student. She gave this testimony to the members of the Joint Education Committee at the Massachusetts State House on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - after waiting more than eight hours to testify. You can also view the video of Tabitha's testimony <a href="https://youtu.be/fuklkAL4EKU">here.</a></i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHIX5-RTgArsBQFkOJjGC5Cy96z7LdBIPM6miJWEjIYIkgGqtd-0Yj2ov2lfQi5hGaz-d6sQvCcNQr07Zj5cKjX292OV7mzHGHe2ke2SNg3tBzXhgl9GXFwZPXacpPSYP_Z1-A77iRIw/s1600/Tabi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHIX5-RTgArsBQFkOJjGC5Cy96z7LdBIPM6miJWEjIYIkgGqtd-0Yj2ov2lfQi5hGaz-d6sQvCcNQr07Zj5cKjX292OV7mzHGHe2ke2SNg3tBzXhgl9GXFwZPXacpPSYP_Z1-A77iRIw/s320/Tabi.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Dear
Senators and Representatives of the Joint Education Committee:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Hello! My
name is </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Tabitha Kast-McBride. I am 17 years old and currently a
student at Tech Boston Academy – a Boston Public School. I would like to speak
about the impact charter schools have had on my education in a real public school
as a student with special needs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you hear about learning disabilities or mental health,
often, the symptoms go unrecognized, sometimes until it’s too late. Some people
don’t find out their kid has a learning disability or a mental illness until years
have passed. Public schools offer testing, guidance, and more for students like
me. Most students with special needs have an Individual Education Plan (IEP)
that gives them access to the help they need. Currently I go to a school that
has a program that helps students who are emotionally fragile, many who have
the same issues like I do with anxiety and depression. Our school has a small
class for us, counselors, psychologists, specially trained staff and a special
area we can go to get extra help or take a time out if needed. We are not dumb
either, many of us have high intelligence and the ability to not only learn but
excel, but our brains just don’t work like most peoples do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have many friends who have come from charter schools to
BPS, and they tell me that they don’t bother to help students like me and
definitely do not have these types of programs for students with special needs.
<i>The charter schools ignore the problems, which is NOT okay.</i> Worse they often
eliminate students IEPs or won’t write one, but then punish students for things
that are due to their disabilities, which is not allowed in REAL public schools
because of the rules they have to follow. Ignoring any type of disability
whether a mental illness or a learning disability, will not make it better or
go away. Because the charter schools ignore students’ problems, punish them for
the things they can’t help then eventually tell them they can’t go there
anymore, many of these students end up even worse. And no one punishes the
charter schools for all the damage they do to these students which I think is
really wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More charter schools will mean more students that don’t have
access to the help they need and more students taught to have a fixed mindset
instead of a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is basically when you think your
intelligence stays the same throughout your life. A growth mindset is when your
intelligence grows. In charter schools they teach you what you need to pass the
tests, if you don’t do well on the tests they tell you to go to a BPS school
and they give you work upon work and don’t bother to help you if you are
struggling. If you struggle you fall behind. When you fall behind you start to
think negatively and might even give up completely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was really
upset to hear that the Governor wants to pass a law to open more charter
schools and <i>I am really against it!</i> I have always gotten a good education at my
BPS schools, even though we keep having things like music, art, even my
favorite class Applied Science, cut out because BPS can’t afford them due to
charter schools taking so much of our money even though they don’t have to
follow the laws my schools do. I am asking you to KEEP THE CAP on charter
schools, help fix our REAL public schools and make it more fair- If my school
needs to follow the laws and only gets a certain amount of money per student,
the charters should have to follow the same laws AND only get the same amount
my school would for their students. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please vote
to pass Bills S326, H485, H490, S295, H380, S321 and H467. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sincerely,</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tabitha Kast-McBride</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:</span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 18px;">Call, email, write and visit your state <a href="https://malegislature.gov/People/Search" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Senator and Representative</a>;</span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;">Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:</span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;">Contacting me via <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">email</a> or Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@bpsnightmare</a> </span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">and </span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KeepCharterCapMass" style="color: #1f287d; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts"</a> and follow </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/KeepTheCapMass" style="color: #1f287d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@KeepTheCapMass</a> <span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">on Twitter</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">.</span></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0Massachusetts State House, Boston, MA 02108, USA42.3587596 -71.06380300000000742.3572931 -71.066324500000007 42.3602261 -71.0612815tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-19053152863099368232015-07-27T23:34:00.001-04:002015-07-27T23:34:54.414-04:00David vs. Goiliath: How Big Money Is Being Defeated by Unfunded Citizen Activists in Boston<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boston, MA July 2014: For months, years really, the public was fed misinformation. There were campaigns, and millions of dollars were poured into countless political coffers. There were non-profit organizations, (Stand for Children, Families for Excellent Schools and others) whose purposes were supposedly to help income-challenged families and students advocate for their schools, but were really fronts for those trying to destroy those schools and profit off of public funds. Then there were millions more spent on flashy campaigns crafted to make the public believe that only education reformers and charter schools would solve the public education "crisis" we supposedly face in America. This was our Goliath (aka Democrats for Education Reform, Massachusetts Charter Public School Association et al.) Unfortunately for Goliath, David gave him a beating he didn't see coming. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was accomplished in much the same way the colonists of Boston achieved their goal of freedom from England: by organizing, coordinating, planning and never backing down. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First it was just a few "naysayers" at meetings and on the social media fronts - easily and clearly dismissed by the paid lobbyists and those funding them. Very soon though those few became many, students, parents, educators and concerned residents, who worked together, each contributing selflessly to the cause. Utilizing raw data, pure and provable facts, and their many talents, these activists held meetings and attended the meetings of those who wished to acquire public funds to bolster private treasure chests. They researched, blogged and utilized social media - especially Twitter. They rallied, knocked on doors, coordinated meetings with legislators and leaders, and worked with real public education groups to inform, educate and activate others across the state. All of this was done without one single cent. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On July 16, 2014, much to the dismay of the education reform groups heavily invested in the campaign to lift the cap on charter schools, the Massachusetts Senate voted against the Bills before it which would have decimated our public education system. Score 1 for David.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boston, MA: Again, for over a year residents were fed misinformation. There were secret documents, citing "confidentiality," which residents were not allowed to see, millions of dollars spent to be chosen as the USOC's city of choice for the 2024 Olympic bid and to market it to the citizens. There were lightly veiled threats that without the Olympics our public transit, highways, infrastructure and other public needs would not receive the upgrades necessary. This was all being done by politicians and Boston2024, a group that made the decision to push for the Olympics bid without ever having asked the residents of Boston beforehand if they wanted the Olympics in Boston. The fact that Boston2024 had several incestuous relationships with the political leaders of Boston and Massachusetts certainly did nothing to assure residents that anyone was truly watching out for the needs of the city or its citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As soon as the push to bring the 2024 Olympic Summer Games to Boston was out in the open, citizens across the state started raising questions about the lack of public input and dialogue. They asked about the money needed to get the state prepared to host such a large scale, albeit short time-frame, event and the impact which the event would have on residents livelihood and neighborhoods, etc. Groups formed: No Boston 2024 and No Boston Olympics became the "face" of the skeptical residents who demanded answers. Soon Boston politicians joined in on questioning Boston2024's lack of transparency, refusal to listen to the concerns of so many, and they too pushed for answers and the truth.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boston 2024 and the politicians who were part of the plans from the beginning, felt the heat of the uprising that grew. Then there were the polls which continuously showed that the people of Boston and the entire state, did not support the bid for the 2024 Olympics. Despite the revamping of Boston 2024, and the release of the original bid documents submitted to the USOC, the poll numbers never moved. Yet still, those hyperbolic and clearly malcontent naysayers not only continued to object, but also expanded their ranks.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On July 27, 2015, the USOC made the decision to pull the bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics in Boston. Much to the dismay of Goliath, he was again beaten by David. David 2, Goliath 0.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some would argue that a first of its kind Olympics debate on TV, the failure of Governor Baker to signal his support, and then a traitorous statement by Boston's Mayor Walsh refusing to sign a contract which would put taxpayers on the hook for the expected overruns the Olympics historically have, is what led to the Bid’s withdrawal. Surely, this did play a small part in the USOC’s decision. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, anyone who believes that the above are the only reasons for the downfall of Boston2024's bid, is sure to continue the trend we see across the country. That where political leaders, corporate sponsors and those wearing the guise of "community groups" discount the clear voice of the people who elected those political leaders, the workers who assist the corporations in acquiring their billions, the families and "little people" who live in this country, who are clearly fed up with what is going on, is sure to be part of their downfall.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are only two examples of how citizen activists are working to protect their beloved schools, cities, public services (transportation, infrastructure etc) and their rights and freedom from those in power. Those in power seem to have forgotten who they are truly answerable to, not those who strive to line their own pockets with the money of the hardworking majority. And despite Mayor Walsh's claim that <i>“The opposition for the most part is about #10peopleonTwitter and a couple people out there beating the drum beat.”</i> clearly the multiple polls show that to be false.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe it is time that some of our politicians - here and in D.C. - wake up and start working for those who elected them. Much like the small actions that took place before the "shot heard 'round the world" and the defeat of tyranny from England, I believe these latest defeats to those with deep pockets are just the small skirmishes leading to something much bigger. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will always put my money on the "Davids" of the world, especially the residents of Boston and Massachusetts, because we are educated, informed, outspoken, demanding and willing to put our talents, sweat and yes, if necessary, money, into protecting our people and our cities. Of course, as has been shown many times over, Massachusetts residents, and especially those of us lucky enough to live in Boston proper, also tend to be a bit of a rebellious bunch too!</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I look forward to continuing to advocate, collaborate and educate with all the great residents of Massachusetts. For though this battle is over, the war is not yet won!</span><br />
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-19334501734859942992015-04-19T18:34:00.001-04:002015-04-19T18:34:22.584-04:001st Quarter Massachusetts Education Recap 2015<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though quiet for awhile now, I have not been absent or ignorant of what has been happening in my beloved school district and the state. Unfortunately, having to search for and then get up to speed in a new job, and because it has been a hard year for my daughter and that, along with high school applications and auditions for my younger daughter, has led to my silence over the past few months. Whether you considered it a nice break (yes, I know some did), or missed my voice and insights - plus the knowledge gained over 22 years as a Boston Public School parent - I am here to say I am back to help keep folks informed and educated. We all need to be aware of what is going on, because if we aren't I daresay by the time my youngest graduates, Boston Public Schools will become the Boston Charter School District, standardized testing will be the only thing our students do in school and the Olympics will be on the way here.</span><div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since I last posted a lot has happened, but the most important to me are as follows: our new Governor, Charlie Baker, took office, a new Education Secretary was appointed, <a href="http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/baker_secretary_of.html" target="_blank">James Peyser</a>, who is a champion for charter schools - no conflict of interest there, right? and a new Superintendent for Boston Public Schools, <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/03/walsh-backing-educator-chang-for-superintendent/5AnpNJaaGqchSGdHoSXJUI/story.html#" target="_blank">Tommy Chang</a> from LA, was selected. Each of these on their own is concerning to me, but put together with a Boston Mayor who has made it clear that the only campaign promises Mayor Walsh will keep are those to the Unions and big money donors, it is downright alarming. I'm still waiting to be called for that <a href="https://twitter.com/BSACbuzz/status/396405611505942528/photo/1" target="_blank">Charter School Accountability Task Force</a> Mayor Walsh promised the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) and Boston Educational Justice Alliance (BEJA) he would establish to happen. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trend toward further privatizing our public schools continues in our state legislature, where talk of charter schools and lifting the cap on them continues despite the clear voices of thousands of families across the state having already told elected officials that this conversation is premature until we fix the issues with our public education districts by investing more in them instead of draining funds out of them and into schools that: selectively enroll and push out many students who don't test well, schools which claim 100% of their graduates go on to college without clarifying that of the many 9th graders who start at their schools <a href="http://edushyster.com/?p=4943" target="_blank">very few are left to graduate</a> from their 12th grade classes (a traditional public school would be closed due to those results) - and most of the students who do are white, unlike the marketing done by charter schools claiming they are successful for students of color or from low-income families. And let's not forget, there is no transparency regarding the money charter schools take in - whether public or private - they tend to refuse to open their books to <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2015/03/27/1-charter-schools-should-be-publicly-audited.html" target="_blank">auditors</a> of all levels. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And of course, let's not forget the <a href="http://www.citizensforpublicschools.org/fact-sheet-on-bill-for-a-graduation-test-moratorium/" target="_blank">battle waging across our state and the nation</a>: MCAS, Common Core and PARCC assessments being used to deem a student able to graduate and public schools failing by a "deeply broken system" (Mitchell Chester re: MCAS) and before most students have had more than a year or two of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/education/common-core-in-9-year-old-eyes.html?_r=0" target="_blank">Common Core</a> curriculum taught in their schools. This <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/k-12" target="_blank">testing</a> battle has been heating up and gaining momentum not just across this rebellious state, but the <a href="http://unitedoptout.com/" target="_blank">entire nation</a>, and it seems, much to ed reformers horror everywhere, that legislators from city to federal levels are starting to realize that families are fed up with their students being taught to take tests so are <a href="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/opt-out-movement-accelerates-amid-common-core-testing/ar-AAbaxn4" target="_blank">opting their students out of those tests</a> and the legislators are now making moves to change the way tests are being used to assess students, educators and schools. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Never fear my ed reform readers, for if the legislators fail you again here in Massachusetts, the education reform groups like <a href="http://www.familiesforexcellentschools.org/" target="_blank">Families for Excellent Schools</a>, <a href="http://stand.org/massachusetts" target="_blank">Stand for Children</a>, <a href="http://www.masscharterschools.org/" target="_blank">Mass Charter Public School Association</a>, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and the many others backed by the ed reform conglomerates like the <a href="http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/educationreform" target="_blank">Walton Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/12/how-microsoft-will-make-money-from-common-core-despite-what-bill-gates-said/" target="_blank">Gates</a>, Broad et al, are diligently working toward putting in place a <a href="https://www.wbur.org/2014/07/29/charter-school-advocates-may-seek-ballot-question-in-2016" target="_blank">Ballot question for 2016</a> (and funding the campaign work necessary to push it through of course) by selling you the same old lie: that our public education systems do not work and we must privatize our public schools. After all, if you don't buy what they are selling, how can they make the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/04/why-hedge-funds-love-charter-schools/" target="_blank">$500 Billion dollar profits</a> they gain from their New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) they invest in in the name of helping our low-income, urban and students of color?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Isn't it interesting that despite the horrible conditions our public school students endure here in Massachusetts (you know, those rowdy demanding educated parents and students, teachers unions, groups like <a href="http://www.citizensforpublicschools.org/" target="_blank">Citizens for Public Schools</a> that fight to protect our public schools, schools built before WWII, allowing students from low-income families or with language and special needs to attend our schools), our public schools in Massachusetts still rank <a href="http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=7846" target="_blank">1st in the nation</a> on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 5th year in a row? Huh, imagine what we could do with more funds invested in them?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Does this mean we are perfect? No, we still have a lot of equity, opportunity and achievement gaps to overcome, especially in an urban district like Boston. But when has <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2015/03/28/must-read-revelations-of-a-disillusioned-reformer/" target="_blank">defunding something</a> we are trying to fix ever been the right solution? Great example of this is our latest winter and what happened with the MBTA - for years multiple experts and groups told the legislature and voters that we needed to maintain, upgrade and invest in our public transit system, yet no one wanted to spend their money on a system that is integral to the future of our state's economy because "I don't use the T", and so, many had no way to get to work and lost wages. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Similarly, we hear the same type of argument from folks: "I don't have children" or "My children go to private schools, why should I pay more money for public schools I do not use?" The simple answer: funding public education, like our transit system, is integral to every single voter in Massachusetts as it impacts our future, economically, socially and as a true democratic state and nation. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, no, the Olympics coming to Boston is NOT the answer to either our transit or our education needs - in fact, it will drain even more from our citizens and their families, so I hope you haven't bought into that lie!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All in all, it has been a busy few months for Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh, and those who assisted them into office. And it seems no matter what the constituents want, both of them will insist on continuing to ignore the voters of Massachusetts in favor of the corporations, lobbyists and education reform operators who pull their strings. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unfortunately for them, I am happy to report that unlike just two short years ago, more families are becoming aware of the differences between our traditional public schools and "charter public schools," more educators and <a href="http://unitedoptout.com/state-by-state-opt-out-2/massachusetts/" target="_blank">families are saying that standardized testing</a> is not the answer to what ails our public education systems, and more citizens are standing up to voice their objections to the privatization of our public education system. And the voices of these educated citizens are being heard by the legislators at the city, state and <a href="http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/04/senate-proposal-cuts-duncan-off-at-knees.html?m=1" target="_blank">federal</a> level. It really might be time for Governor Baker's and Mayor Walsh's advisers to clue them both in that they may very well be assuring that they each only have one term in their respective offices. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best evidence for why we all need to pay attention to what is happening with our public schools comes from the ultimate consumers of education services: our students, so please be sure to read EduShyster's article <a href="http://edushyster.com/?p=6611" target="_blank">"Students say the darndest things."</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-90867855291389753252014-06-09T20:12:00.000-04:002014-06-09T20:12:00.622-04:00Massachusetts Public Education: Are Students Really Winning?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRnNhEAekJEd45YFcNzUNkjyZrE-3tURsKms84p3rBFCx2C69V37pI9VligCjN9OMaEX_sAlb4MxRJTMZ54Sfd2xrBms5QHfNAbHPHI3_F3oPAm9eqTL6GsCN82KI7wW_eDzuweKAkw/s1600/0117SchoolChoice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRnNhEAekJEd45YFcNzUNkjyZrE-3tURsKms84p3rBFCx2C69V37pI9VligCjN9OMaEX_sAlb4MxRJTMZ54Sfd2xrBms5QHfNAbHPHI3_F3oPAm9eqTL6GsCN82KI7wW_eDzuweKAkw/s1600/0117SchoolChoice.jpg" height="131" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right now in Massachusetts the battle over public education, and the tax dollars (and tax credits!) associated with it, is coming to a head in the form of legislation, <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/House/H4108/History" target="_blank">H4108: And Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement</a>, at the state house which would raise the cap on charter schools. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Terms like "school choice", "poor and under-privileged students", "failing schools" and more are thrown around to scare the general public into believing that our traditional public schools are failing our children and the only solution is to open more charter schools. Unfortunately, for some reason our local mainstream media outlets continue to perpetuate the misinformation campaigns through multiple articles which utilize data to prove their case, even after that same data and the </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/24/the-bottom-line-on-charter-school-studies/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">reports they reference have been proven to utilize faulty data and analyses</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and show </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>no significant difference in performance by charter school students over traditional public school students.</b></i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you are a parent, family member, friend, community member, student or concerned citizen here are some things you should be asking regarding the education that your favorite student(s) are receiving right now:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When there is no significant difference in the test scores for charter school students vs. public school students, then why are there so many corporations, political groups, politicians and individuals pushing for more charter schools instead of investing in our traditional public schools? <i><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/04/why-hedge-funds-love-charter-schools/" target="_blank">Hint: the public education industry is approximated at $500Billion dollars</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why are we allowing our tax dollars to become corporate profits for some of the richest companies in the world (who receive tax credits, breaks also) instead of investing them into our traditional public schools? </span><a href="http://educarenow.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/the-sacrifice-of-our-children/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><i>Read: Sacrificing Our Children</i></a><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When it has been proven that charter schools are not actually educating the students who have significant needs, those who live in poverty and/or with language and disability needs, how can we even compare the two drastically different populations and claim one is doing better than the other? <i><a href="http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.copaa.org/resource/collection/7D72B914-2EC7-4664-9124-A32598DA1ABE/Charter-Schools-and-Students-with-DisabilitiesFINAL.pdf" target="_blank">Charter Schools and Students with Disabilities Report, Pgs 26-34</a></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why are we allowing one type of assessment system that utilizes <a href="http://edglossary.org/high-stakes-testing/" target="_blank">high-stakes tests</a> to determine our schools and students' success levels which feeds into education policies</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">? <i>For more info regarding high-stakes testing, check out <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/k-12/high%20stakes" target="_blank">Fairtest</a>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why are we allowing politicians, corporations and billionaires with no education background to determine the best methods to educate our children without listening to the stakeholders' voices?<i> Read: <a href="http://superintendentlps.blogspot.com/2014/05/all-change-is-not-growth.html" target="_blank">All Change is Not Growth</a></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why are so many sitting silently by and allowing our legislators, and those who finance their campaigns, to push agendas and make decisions that allow our children to be used as guinea pigs? </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hint: Most of the educational policies being pushed as "education reform" have <u><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/03/superintendent-on-school-reform-it-is-not-working/" target="_blank">never been proven to increase educational outcomes for all students.</a></u></i><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why do we allow our politicians to make decisions that are better for corporations than for the constituents who voted for them, and why do we keep voting them back into office? <i>See the <a href="http://billmoyers.com/2014/03/28/charter-schools-a-marketplace-for-profits-or-ideas/" target="_blank">interview with Diane Ravitch</a> and then <a href="http://dianeravitch.com/articles/" target="_blank">read her blog!</a> </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who really wins when we allow public education to become a profit tool and tax credit for the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart), which has specifically targeted Boston Public Schools as one of their "target districts" to <a href="http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/grantees/public-charter-startup-grant-initial-criteria" target="_blank">start more charter schools</a>, and others like it who won't even pay their own employees a living wage? It is not our students who win, and the winners laugh all the way to the bank.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Think corporations and those who run them care about your children or their education? Think again. Our students education has been <a href="http://westroxbury.patch.com/groups/karen-kasts-blog/p/the-facts-about-charter-schools-that-no-one-tells-you" target="_blank">co-opted</a> and is now seen as another way for shareholders, companies and foundations to make a profit at the expense of our children's future, especially for those who live in poverty, with language or disability needs, and many of our children of color. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"College and Career Readiness" is a term that sounds great, but is used primarily to push for more charter schools, high-stakes testing and - the new favorite: school autonomy by those who want families and politicians to buy what they are selling in order to acquire more public funding that will increase their profits. These savvy corporate players know that every parent dreams of their child's future which college and careers are a part of, so it is easy to take advantage of this by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/private-equity-and-venture-capital-look-at-public-schools-2012-8?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=moneygame-contributor" target="_blank">corporate education reform backers</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But is that really all you want for the children you love? I bet you are saying "No, it isn't." As someone who loves that child, you want the world for them: maybe they will invent the newest "big thing," maybe they will become a teacher, lawyer, doctor, engineer, city planner, or do something in the public sector where they help our city and country become better - maybe even President. You most likely want your students to be able to make good decisions and choices, be happy, experience love, have a family of their own - whatever that may look like, be involved in their community and engaged as a citizen and live life successfully as a well rounded person. And yes, this includes being ready to access either higher education or careers once they finalize their K-12 experience, but how can students do that if most of what they are taught revolves around the importance of taking tests? </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWe4FQ-TSnp0o_krwZu3tQ-jmcXkjAuI64VZ8-PWd02dGuz4DDNCI5AoDIsMS77mpfUIUmRnojwBGRBmR7CnXX6jotKPcf2gqvq_qJ48IGhqIfAATYxB6B3WAKk8Y0hJUEwwxa10_RYw/s1600/PTUU+students+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWe4FQ-TSnp0o_krwZu3tQ-jmcXkjAuI64VZ8-PWd02dGuz4DDNCI5AoDIsMS77mpfUIUmRnojwBGRBmR7CnXX6jotKPcf2gqvq_qJ48IGhqIfAATYxB6B3WAKk8Y0hJUEwwxa10_RYw/s1600/PTUU+students+4.jpg" height="75" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Additionally, what are the odds that your child will actually attain the goal of "college readiness" by graduating high school at a charter school here in Massachusetts? Not as high as they would be at your good old traditional public schools because charter schools have <a href="http://bluemassgroup.com/2013/03/charter-school-attrition/" target="_blank">higher attrition</a> and <a href="http://bluemassgroup.com/2013/05/raise-the-cap-on-traditional-public-schools/" target="_blank">suspension</a> rates and <a href="http://www.btu.org/hot-issues/charter-schools/mta-study-looks-at-charter-school-success" target="_blank">lower graduation rates</a> than our traditional public schools. Unfortunately, you won't read about or hear these facts through any of our major Boston news sources. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luckily, we have alternatives for news like </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Edushyster whose article <a href="http://edushyster.com/?p=4943" target="_blank">"Charter Cap 'n Gown"</a> highlights the issue of graduation rates in Boston charter schools. Facts to think about: h</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ere in Boston, Codman Academy Charter School had only <i>6 boys graduate</i> </span><a href="http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/grad/grad_report.aspx?orgcode=04380505&orgtypecode=6&" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">out of the 19 students who graduated</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> in 2013 </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(9th grade incoming class of 53 students)</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">; City On A Hill had <i>only 4 boys graduate</i> of the </span><a href="http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/grad/grad_report.aspx?orgcode=04370505&orgtypecode=6&&fycode=2013" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">31 students who graduated</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(9th grade incoming class of 130 students)</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">; and Match Charter School also had <i>only 6 boys graduate </i>out of the </span><a href="http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/grad/grad_report.aspx?orgcode=04690505&orgtypecode=6&" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">23 students who graduated</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(9th grade incoming class of 72 students.) <span style="font-size: x-small;">More data to come on this VERY soon!</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Corporate education reform is brought to you by those who helped bring about our latest recession: the hedge fund managers, investment brokers, corporations and the big banks involved with them. What "readiness" seems to mean for the corporations is ensuring that they have someone ready in the future to work for them and increase their profits. While they are pouring money into education reform, political and media campaigns designed to make you believe their front-men are looking out for your children's best interest (<a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/26_01/26_01_sanchez.shtml" target="_blank">Stand for Children</a> is a good example of this), they refuse to pay their own employees a <a href="http://www.massjwj.net/" target="_blank">living wage</a>, yet continue to reap the profits associated with loans, tax credits and helping to sell products needed for MCAS or PARCC, and by the way, very few of their own children are affected by any of it as they attend private schools. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Education in the US has historically been about educating the citizenry and ensuring democracy along with giving every child the ability to live the "American Dream." Unfortunately, for those of us immersed in education policy, what we have seen, over the past 10 years especially, is that what backers of corporate education reform and bills like H4108 really want to ensure is their own bottom line by "educating" our children to conform, be complacent and make these foundations and shareholders richer.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of the above was only further solidified a week ago, when despite my attempt to get away from the entire education debate by relaxing a bit, that hope was dashed while watching NECN Business on Sunday. Paul Guzzi, President of the <a href="https://bostonchamber.com/tag/charter-schools/" target="_blank">Boston Chamber of Commerce</a>, and Peter Howe, NECN Business Editor, insisted that the Massachusetts House of Representatives passage of H4091 which would allow the proliferation of charter schools to continue with no increase in true accountability and oversight is the best answer for students in "horrible situations" who attend "terrible school districts" - primarily meaning Boston. Both Mr. Guzzi and Mr. Howe urged the Senators, who now have the </span><a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/House/H4108" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">bill in their hands as H4108</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, to also vote to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts. If you are like me, you are asking yourself: why are the business leaders of Boston pushing for more charter schools? I bet you know the answer!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The education of our students is the biggest responsibility we as parents, family, community members, and citizens have, yet </span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">we</b><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> are failing our students every day that we remain silent and allow their education to be co-opted by businesses, corporations, organizations and billionaires who only see the profit they can make using our children now and in the future. </span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We</b><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> are failing our students by continuing to allow politicians to make choices based on campaign dollars instead of the welfare and future of our students, families, cities, states and the nation. <b>We</b> cannot afford to fail our students any longer.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Students, parents, families, educators, city and school leaders, politicians and citizens across the state and the country are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvRgdiUTVv4" target="_blank">coming together</a> to insist that all of our students receive the quality education they deserve by investing in all of our students and schools equitably and fairly. Many of us in Massachusetts are emailing, calling, meeting with and visiting our state legislators to ask that they </span><u><b><span style="color: red;">vote NO on </span></b></u></span><a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/House/H4108" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">H4108</span></b></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> and work with us to ensure more equitable funding formulas for all of our public schools, better oversight of charter schools to address all areas of concern, and to stop the over-testing of our children. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Each of us alone has power when we raise our voice, collectively we can be truly unstoppable and </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">the time to raise your voice, as a parent, as a family member, as a student, community member, politician or educator to ensure the educational rights of all of our students is <u>NOW</u>.</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> This is not something you can put off if you want to ensure that your children, and all of our students, do not pay the ultimate price while those pushing the corporate agenda of corporate education reform turn our tax dollars into private profits.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Call, email, write and visit your state <a href="https://malegislature.gov/People/Search" target="_blank">Senator and Representative</a>;</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Contacting me via <a href="mailto:karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" target="_blank">email</a> or Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" target="_blank">@bpsnightmare</a>, Mary Lewis-Pierce via <a href="mailto:lewispierce@gmail.com" target="_blank">email</a> or Twitter </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/GoogieBaba" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">@Googiebaba</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">, and/or Kristin Johnson via <a href="mailto:krissycabbage@gmail.com" target="_blank">email</a> or Twitter </span><a href="https://twitter.com/KrissyCabbage" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">@KrissyCabbage</a>!<br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Also, if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KeepCharterCapMass" target="_blank">"Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts"</a> and follow </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/KeepTheCapMass" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">@KeepTheCapMass</a> <span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">on Twitter</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">.</span><br />
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-10158508458483335482014-05-20T23:57:00.001-04:002014-05-20T23:57:31.116-04:00Open Letter to Massachusetts Representatives Regarding House Bill 4091 "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement"<div style="background-color: white;">
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/House/H4091" target="_blank">House Bill 4091</a> will be voted on by the Massachusetts Representatives during their session beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, 2014! Please <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dH-eeOdSUc04vGr9sj-THfTJkGj5RJjWAXj_yu_bv6Y/edit" target="_blank">email your Massachusetts Representative</a> with the title Vote NO on H4091! </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Representative:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Education reform, as developed over twenty years ago, initially had the right idea: ensure that every child, regardless of need, ability or socio-economic status was truly being educated. Many of us applauded that finally schools and districts would be held accountable for educating our special education and ELL students to ensure that they were not, as was the norm, just being pushed through the schools without actually being educated. Many also applauded the idea of creating a few schools where innovative ideas for educating all students could be piloted without the normal red-tape that often made it impossible for our educators, administrators and district personnel to try something new, especially since the idea was that then the "best practices" from these "innovation schools" would be shared and used in ALL of our schools to enhance our students' education and ensure that every student received a top-quality education. These are just two of the premises of the original education reform law here in Massachusetts. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first sign, for many of us, that something had gone terribly wrong with education reform came when MCAS was introduced and we were told that by 2014 if your 10th grade student failed to pass this test they would not receive a diploma but instead, a "Certificate of Attendance" even if they passed every other requirement for graduation. FYI - my own son was in one of the "pilot" 4th grade classes for MCAS, my middle child is in 10th grade this year and just finished taking the 2014 "no opt out" 10th grade MCAS. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the creation of MCAS, the public was told that this one test would determine whether a school was succeeding or failing, which seemed irresponsible to me - how can one measure adequately assess anything or anyone? As a parent and advocate I am well aware that it takes multiple measures and tools to assess whether a person has special needs or is gifted - and the usual process is to schedule the student for 2-3 sessions of testing or observation in order to ensure that the "snapshot" of that student is as accurate as possible in determining need and not just the result of a bad or good day - so how can we possibly assess something as complex as a school, made up of multiple types of students, as succeeding or failing based on one measure?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quickly, other signs that our education reform laws and regulations had taken a twisting turn toward something never envisioned followed, more each year, and each time, much more worrisome to many of us: </span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have watched as our schools have become test factories, our educators and students becoming so stressed about how their performance would be evaluated based on a single assessment system, that some of our best educators often leave public schools after only a few years, taking with them the experience that we need our staff to have in order to educate every student; and how our students (and their families) have become so stressed out about testing that we are now dealing with epidemic levels of depression, anxiety, self-injurious behaviors and more in our student populations;</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have watched as many families who are able to move out of Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, et al to the suburbs because of the lack of support for our urban public schools, often deemed "failing" due to one test score, by our elected officials;</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have also watched as the "innovation" schools, aka charter schools, which in the beginning took sweat, tears and hard-work to raise any funding necessary in order to open one, have become yet another way for billionaires and their foundations to utilize tax breaks and reap more profits using our students and schools to suck tax dollars away from the neediest communities - despite the high suspension, attrition and low graduation rates at these "innovation" schools;</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have watched as more and more of our federal and state education funding is tied to initiatives that are untested and unproven which force schools and districts to jump through hoops for short-term funding with no long-term plans for continuation beyond the 3-5 year grant period (even if the practices did work) while foundations like the Waltons, Gates', Broad and others reap the benefit of a 39% tax credit (New Market Tax Credit which can double their investment!) at the expense of taxpayers as well as students across the country. Often, these same initiatives (MCAS vs. PARCC; state frameworks vs. Common Core) are eventually deemed to not be the answer to education issues as promised, yet our elected officials continue to vote the newest idea into law without full understanding of exactly what they are voting on or regard for the possible ramifications they will have.</span></li>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today many of you are trying to determine whether to vote to pass H4091 </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement" during Wednesday's scheduled vote on same. The purpose of H4091, despite the nicely worded title, is primarily to lift the cap on </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the amount of charter schools</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> allowed to exist in Massachusetts and open the door to allow those behind corporate education reform to increase their own profits. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the main concerns many have with H4091 is that it still does not address any of the equity issues which have been brought to the attention of all of our Representatives and Senators. Despite assertions that the previous bill's proposals, as H425 (recommended ought NOT to pass by Joint Education Committee in March 2014) and later as H3984, would address the reimbursement and some of the equity issues, neither went far enough in addressing the concerns, inequities and segregation issues brought to your attention previously. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In essence, H4091 is the failed H425 bill,</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> but not only does this new iteration of the bill not address the issues which the compromise proposed by Rep. Holmes and Sen. Chang-Diaz attempted minimally to do, but in fact, H4091 has the potential to do much more to harm all of our students as an end result of it being approved.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other areas of concern include, but are not limited to:</span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Further decimation of a district's budget by allowing payments to charter schools to exceed 18% of the district budget;</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Allowing school boards/committees to include people who also sit on the board of a charter school (including founders and CEOs) - this is a clear conflict of interest by any definition of the term;</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead of protecting our students and public schools and allowing some form of autonomy to our individual districts and schools, H4091 seems to be written to limit the oversight of a school committee or board (most of which are elected members by the residents of that city aka your constituents) in several areas, not the least of which occur when a school is under review as possibly under-performing and in the school committee's oversight of spending on behalf of a school designated as under-performing and turned over to a "receiver;" </span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In essence this bill will increase the power of the Commissioner of Education without ensuring that stakeholders have a voice in what happens with a school or their district; and,</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Requires that districts "<b><i>shall</i></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"> <span lang="EN"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i><u>prior to consideration of any other disposition of the identified excess capacity,</u></i> make a good faith offer to sell or lease<b> </b></span><b style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>in whole or in part</i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">at fair market value the identified excess capacity to a commonwealth charter school" which has several ramifications for all of our Massachusetts school districts. With this language in place districts' could be forced to sell or lease to a charter school company despite the possibility of better offers elsewhere. <span style="font-size: x-small;">Across the country such leases have already caused countless issues for many school districts as often the bulk of the cost for maintenance and upkeep in lease agreements with charter schools are still the responsibility of the school district the charter school is leasing space from which is why <a href="http://couriernews.suntimes.com/news/26324966-418/elgin-city-council-tables-leasing-agreement-for-charter-school.html#.U3wMWvldV8E" target="_blank">Elgin City Council tabled entering into such an agreement in April, 2014</a>. </span></span></span></span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As H4091 was only released Monday night, many of us are still in the process of fully reviewing all of the possible ramifications of this proposal. Despite the short time for review, it is absolutely clear that "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement," H4091, is more likely to have the opposite effect by further widening the gaps we see in achievement and opportunity while also re-segregating our students not only by race, but also ability levels, language and special needs with what appears to be less oversight and more public funding paying to privatize our public education systems.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I strongly urge you to vote NO on H4091 and look forward to working with you to ensure that</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">all of our students receive the high-quality education they deserve without </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">further eviscerating our traditional public schools.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Karen Kast-McBride</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To my readers: </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please check out the </span><a href="http://www.questboston.org/press-release-52014.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Press Release from QUEST</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">members regarding H4091 and </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">please help us defeat this procedural end-run by calling and emailing your Representatives today. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will be live-tweeting from the State House with the hashtag #KeepTheCap if you would like to follow what is going on!</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>. </span></span></i></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-10984358346482517182014-03-24T10:38:00.004-04:002014-03-24T10:38:54.622-04:00Massachusetts Families and Students to Protest the Joint Education Committee Proposal to Lift the Cap for Charter Schools<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 25, 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Massachusetts Families
and Students to Protest </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the Joint Education Committee Proposal to Lift the Cap for
Charter Schools</span></b></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Boston, MA—On March 25,
a broad based coalition of public education stakeholders made up of families,
students, educators, community members and groups representing schools
throughout the Commonwealth, will come together at the Massachusetts State
House to protest the </span><a href="http://www.dotnews.com/2014/chang-diaz-charter-school-compromise-reached-ahead-deadline"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">announcement made Saturday, March 22, 2014</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> that a compromise negotiated by Sen. Chang-Diaz and Rep. Russell
Holmes will allow the cap on the number of Charter Schools to increase in
Massachusetts under Senate Bill 235/House Bill 425 “An Act to Further Narrow
the Achievement Gap.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">DATE: Tuesday, March 25<sup>th</sup>, 2014</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">TIME: 4:30pm</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LOCATION: Massachusetts State House (front steps)<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Too often, public schools are subject to budget
cuts and privatization partially due to the opening of charter schools. While it is widely accepted that charter
schools are also public, charter school administrators themselves argue that the
schools are private entities*. We are
not “anti-charter” or seeking the elimination of charter schools. Rather, we
are requesting that our elected officials work with us to ensure that the multiple
inequalities and issues already identified within the current charter schools
in Massachusetts be thoroughly examined and addressed <a href="http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/adequate-funding-for">prior to any
legislation going forward</a> allowing the opening of more charter schools in
Massachusetts. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are requesting that the Joint Education
Committee, at a minimum, do the following:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Remove charter school language entirely from Senate Bill 235/House
Bill 425 “An Act to Further Narrow the Achievement Gap;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Prior to any consideration of raising the charter school cap read the
soon-to-be released audit from the State Auditor’s Office regarding charter
school finances and practices;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Work with constituents to draft a more comprehensive proposal
regarding the charter school cap. This
proposal must address the inequalities already identified, include clear and quantifiable
accountability measures that are put into place prior to such legislation being
proposed, and explore more equitable or separate funding methods that do not
bankrupt our public schools.</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In Boston, the stakeholders have come together to
build a new vision for our schools and our children—one that champions great
public schools as the heart of our neighborhoods and ensures that every
student, regardless of need level, receives the highest quality education
available. Our stakeholders have </span><a href="http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/adequate-funding-for" style="font-size: 11pt;">developed a
community driven movement</a><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> for the benefit of our students.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This is in order to hold all of our elected
officials accountable to us as their constituents and voters. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Campaign donors, foundations and corporations
are not advocating for our children, but for their own bottom lines.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">As a result, they will continue to back
charter schools, privatization and testing.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Our state legislators must not back them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We, have come together to do the real student and
parent engagement necessary in our city and state. On Tuesday, we will be
letting those who continue to make choices against the best interest of <b>all </b>of our students and the wishes of
their constituency know that this practice will not be tolerated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>*</b> <a href="http://laschoolreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/13-09-30-CCSA-Amicus-brief-Final.pdf"><i>People of the State of California vs. Eugene Selivanov and Tatyana Berkovich
</i></a><i>Amicus Brief and </i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2399937"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Having it Both
Ways: How Charter Schools Try to Obtain Funding of Public Schools and the
Autonomy of Private Schools</span></i></a><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Contact: Karen Kast-McBride, Community
Organizer<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (617)877-2871<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Karen.Kastmcbride@gmail.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-46810374483418022842014-01-03T19:46:00.001-05:002014-01-03T19:46:21.391-05:00Calling all 6 - 9th Grade Students: Your Voice, Your Future<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are you a sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth grade </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boston</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">student, or have one in your life? </span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Want to be able to share your vision for Boston's future and possibly help the new mayor make those visions a reality? Want to meet a surprise celebrity guest, </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">have some fun, </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">enjoy entertainment, refreshments and an ice cream social while sharing your thoughts with Mayor-Elect Walsh?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the answer is yes, than what are you waiting for? Get signed up now for the first of its kind Inaugural Youth Summit hosted by Mayor-Elect Marty Walsh this Saturday afternoon, January 4th</span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">! </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Youth Summit will be held </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">at </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Roxbury Community College in the Media Center, 1234 Columbus Ave., Roxbury,</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you need transportation or want </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">more information, please call 617-357-5777 x215. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.984375px;">Click </span><a href="http://bostoninaugural2014.org/event/boston-2014-youth-inauguration-summit" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.984375px;" target="_blank"><b><i>here</i></b></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 17.984375px;"> to RSVP! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">goal of the Summit is for Mayor-Elect Walsh to hear the hopes and
dreams of Boston’s youth and inspire our youth to achieve those dreams and play a
part in Boston’s future by becoming involved themselves. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mayor-Elect Walsh realizes </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that our youth are our future leaders and citizens, so he hopes to see many of our awesome Boston students on Saturday!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have to admit, with a celebrity guest, all the socializing, entertainment and refreshments, it definitely sounds like a fun event for sixth through ninth grade students to be attending on Saturday after being out of school for a couple of weeks, and possibly cooped up due to the snowstorm! (I am kind of jealous - maybe this should be the format for all school committee meetings? Hint Mayor-Elect Walsh!)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know this will be a fun event for Mayor-Elect Walsh also </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and kind of wonder if he</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> requested that the committee have an ice cream social. What? I am pretty sure he hasn't had much time to enjoy ice cream since his campaign started, and let's face it, listening to our youth has got to be more relaxing than what he has been doing for the past year!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whether you are a student who is just curious about the event and come for that reason, or are concerned about things like education, the environment, making sure your voice is heard, jobs, or you have ideas and suggestions that can help move Boston forward, make sure you come to the youth summit on Saturday. Only you can make sure that Mayor-Elect Walsh knows what the youth of Boston want to see happening in their city, now and in the future!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My own daughters, 12 and 15 years old, were very involved throughout the election process so will be at the youth summit Saturday. They have a lot of ideas to share with Mayor-Elect Walsh regarding Boston's future. Of course, I am 90% sure that the promise of food, meeting other students, fun and the ice cream social factored into their decision to go also!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Want to see if friends are going or connect with others who are attending? You can check out the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/588265391228310/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming" target="_blank">youth summit event page on Facebook</a> too!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, if you are the parent or friend of one of the students who decides to attend and want to hang out and wait for your fabulous student, please consider volunteering to help out, that's what I will be doing! <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Otherwise I am sure my girls will think I am "watching" them - which no teen ever wants their parent doing while they socialize!) </span></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, please mark your calendars now for the Walsh Transition Committee's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/213857425463004/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming" target="_blank">Youth Public Hearing</a> on Thursday, January 9, 2014, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">English High School, in the Auditorium, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">144 McBride St. Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at bpsnightmare@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></i></span><br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-72613086915528337622013-12-17T20:47:00.001-05:002013-12-17T20:47:34.191-05:00Boston Truth’s Light Shines for Public Education<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At a time when our public school students are continuously taking
high-stakes standardized tests which are used to judge our public schools,
students and teachers as "failing" by the results of those tests;
which most often lead to the closing of said "failing" schools and
the handing over of that same school facility and funds from the local public
school district's budget to "school management corporations" that
re-open the schools as "in-district public charter schools”; or
alternately are utilized to deny a student a diploma; while supposedly
showcasing the "success" of corporate backed charter schools who do
not take <i>all</i> students while taking funds from the local school
district at 2-3 times the amount allocated for per-pupil costs of students
staying at the district public schools; a time when here in the United States
foundations like <a href="http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/educationreform">The Walton
Foundation (Walmart)</a>, <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/US-Program/College-Ready-Education">The
Gates Foundation (Bill and Melinda)</a>, and <a href="http://www.broadeducation.org/index.html">The Broad Foundation (Eli and
Edythe)</a> finance the attack upon public education throughout the
nation, the recent <a href="http://www.reclaimpublicednow.org/home">National
Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education</a> on Monday,
December 9, 2013, was a breathe of fresh air. </span></div>
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<i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, maybe</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> not so much to the privatization peddlers who
hawk their wares and policies through fear, intimidation and multi-million
dollar sponsored "research" and "news articles." But for
those of us who never bought the lies; who dug into the raw data behind the
manufactured "proof" and reports; have been fighting for and
defending public education for decades; educators, youth, families, advocates
and community members pushing for investment in our public schools to
ensure </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">all</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> students access to a quality education beyond how
to take a test, for us, this was a wonderful day! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bostonedtruth.org/">The Boston Education Truth
Coalition</a> (BETC or Boston Truth), a youth-led coalition made up
of students, educators, families and other community members who are
directly affected by public education, which officially formed this past
summer, sponsored the Boston event, <i>The Future of BPS: A Town Hall to
Transform the Public Education Agenda for Boston,</i> which was held in
Cardinal Hall at Madison Park High School in Roxbury<i>.</i> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The town hall agenda was preceded by dinner and an opportunity for interactive activities including: a photo-booth to share why public education is important to you; art activities where you could draw or write what you would see inside your dream school, what a quality school looks like, and a complete the sentence "On our way to better schools...", which could then become part of the ongoing "school bus" and "the school all students deserve" art projects which the coalition plans to have at all future events. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Despite it being a cold and crummy night, over 250 attendees came out from
every neighborhood of Boston, which further substantiates what became evident
during the recent elections: the right of <i>all</i>
students to a high quality public education is the civil rights issue of our
time as it affects the majority of people nationwide. The diversity of Boston
was clearly evident among the youth, families, educators, community and labor
(union) members who attended along with those in charge of public education,
such as Boston Public Schools Interim Superintendent, John McDonough, elected
officials and their representatives and Fran Lawrence, the Executive Vice President
of the <a href="http://www.aft.org/index.cfm">American Federation of
Teachers (AFT)</a> (a sponsor of the Reclaim the Promise campaign). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The formal agenda started with a video clip of the </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b66c6OkMZGw" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1990 visit to Madison Park
High School</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> of Nelson Mandela, in honor of his accomplishments and life-long
emphasis on the importance of education. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>"Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use in
order to prepare our youth for their role as leaders of tomorrow."</i> Nelson
Mandela states to the crowd filling the MPHS auditorium in 1990. This comment,
along with Nelson Mandela's other remarks regarding students dropping out and
his charge to the youth to take it upon themselves to ensure that they receive
the highest education possible, seemed to affect attendees just as strongly
today as it did those who attended the 1990 event, as these issues are just as
relevant today.</span></div>
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After a moment of reflection the official event got under way with,
appropriately for a youth-led coalition, Alex Roman, a member of Boston Truth
and the <a href="http://www.byop.org/">Boston-area Youth Organizing
Project (BYOP)</a>, getting everyone to chant along with him:</span></div>
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"Everywhere we go - people want to know</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">why we're here - so we tell them,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">we are the *students/parents/teachers - the mighty mighty
students/parents/teachers</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">fighting for justice - and an education"</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*each separately</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alex definitely brought everyone together - even our city leaders were
chanting along with Alex! This fabulous "ice-breaker" was followed by
introductions of a few representatives of the diverse coalition membership:
Melonie Griffiths, a BPS parent and <a href="http://www.massjwj.net/">Jobs
With Justice (JWJ)</a> Organizer; myself as a BPS parent and <a href="http://bostonparentsunion.wordpress.com/">Boston Parent Union (BPU)</a> representative;
and Jessica Tang, a <a href="http://www.btu.org/">Boston Teachers Union
(BTU)</a> representative. Each representative had a role which included
acknowledging politicians and education leaders, the introduction of a video of
interviews of some of the coalition members, and the introduction of Fran
Lawrence, AFT EVP, who spoke about the nationwide fight to reclaim the promise
of public education while standing united together. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Carlos Rojas, another youth member of Boston Truth as well
as the <a href="http://www.simforus.com/">Student Immigrant Movement
(SIM)</a>, <a href="https://youthonboard.org/about-youth-board">Youth on
Board (YOB)</a>, and the <a href="https://youthonboard.org/basc">Boston
Student Advisory Council (BSAC)</a>, then gave a brief overview of the history
of the Boston Education Truth Coalition and the <a href="http://bostonedtruth.org/principles.html">"Principles That Unite
Us"</a> which were created through multiple community meetings over
the past couple of years, sometimes utilizing the increasingly popular <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/charrette">charrette</a> process
which ensures all voices are heard. It should also be noted that the
principles have been and will continue to be an evolving document through
future meetings, town halls and other discussions, such as those that took
place Monday night. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each one of the eight principles was introduced by student and youth
members, who had posters stating the principle, which they read along with a
brief description of it, and also spoke individually about what that particular
principle meant to them personally. All of them did a great job in front of a
huge audience, which is daunting enough, especially when sharing your personal
feelings - they truly are the "mighty mighty students!" </span></div>
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After all of the above took place, attendees took part in facilitated
discussions regarding the principles and each person was asked to give input on
what was needed to help BPS ensure a quality education for all students. The
goal was to continue to add to the principles with what was shared as well as
synthesizing all the comments for presentation at a public hearing being held
the next night at English High School by Mayor-Elect Walsh's Education
Transition Committee. Over the next hour each group discussed their thoughts on
three questions:</span></div>
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What is BPS doing well?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where does BPS fall short?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do we want to propose to BPS?</span></div>
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The small group discussions were facilitated by youth members of the coalition
while other coalition members took extensive notes. Looking around it was clear
to see that the level of engagement was high as animated conversations were
taking place at every table. At the end of the hour allotted for these
discussions, a few of the facilitators reported back regarding what their group
felt were the main issues to be shared with the coalition, BPS leadership, all
legislators, and of course, Mayor-Elect Walsh's Education Transition Committee
the next night. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Attendees then volunteered to come up and share their reflections on
the night, ideas and comments. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The event came to a close with Alex, Jessica, Melonie and myself
thanking all who attended, explaining the next steps, and urging all attendees
to continue to speak up, share their suggestions, get involved with their
schools and the district, their local representatives, community and elected
leaders and the coalition and/or its member groups.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though there were many adult "big-wigs" in attendance, I
believe the event was such a success primarily because it was our ultimate
stakeholders, the students and youth who attend our schools, who are leading
the movement here in Boston. The parents, families, educators, community and
labor members, though important in their own right, can never give the same
perspective as our students who have the experience of being the guinea pigs of
corporate education reform and are already paying the price daily.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One thing that I found concerning: not one of our Boston School Committee (BSC) members attended the event. The members were personally invited <a href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/cable/video_library.asp?id=3342" target="_blank">via hand-delivery by Deross Jordan, BSAC/YOUNG member,</a> in conjunction with his verbal invitation and the opportunity to dine with him if they came a little early. I was fairly certain a couple of them would not attend, but am disappointed in all of the BSC members , because this was an opportunity for them to hear from so many of the stakeholders of BPS and have some truly meaningful conversations with many who will probably never attend a BSC meeting. Hmmm, maybe that exact prospect is why they failed to show up?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since the formation of Boston Truth, and especially since Monday night,
I have heard from a couple of people I know that they believe the principles
are dictated by the BTU, AFT and other educator and union based groups. Though
the unions and others are in agreement with the principles, and indeed did have
a voice in developing them, the assumption that the principles are dictated by
them is false, and to continue to promote that fallacy dismisses the voices of
thousands of invested students, parents, families and other community members
and the time they gave to develop them. Those who continue to believe that
the principles are dictated by the AFT, BTU, et al; that members and supporters
of Boston Truth, and other groups like it across the country are "just
union sympathizers," may never believe otherwise no matter how much of the
truth is shared with them. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take heart though! Since Monday night I have heard from so many
people who wanted to share how wonderful the event was and how it inspired
them, inclusive of BPS administrators and politicians. All week I have
continued to see the affects of the event as, through email and social media,
new voices are joining with us. At Tuesday evening's public hearing, and
Saturday's Town Hall, both held by Mayor-Elect Walsh, the majority of voices
continued to speak up to reclaim the promise here in the birthplace of public
education. The tide has turned, and will continue to gain strength and momentum
as each day more people become involved and sign onto the principles that unite
us. They join in to reclaim not only the promise of public education, but also
promises made by our elected leaders. We are united across the city, state and
country, and unlike those who would dismiss us, our numbers grow daily.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was personally most inspired by the youth whose voices were evident
throughout the principles as well as the night. As I said during the
acknowledgements: <i>"If it weren't for our students, our youth, none
of us would be here."</i> I have watched the youth groups and
movement in Boston flourish over the years, but having the opportunity to work
with them as part of the coalition, and spend a lot of time with them thanks to
my own daughter getting very involved with BSAC, I see that they are no longer
being ignored as they once were (speaking from experience); that those in
positions of power are starting to listen and work with them, at least the
smart ones are!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the 20 years I have been a BPS parent, I have been actively
involved with some of the most dynamic groups around: each of my children's
school parent and site councils; especially the original Boston Special Needs
Parent Advisory Council (SNPAC) and the Citywide Parent Council (CPC). I have
to admit that, other than when lobbying at both the state and federal level regarding
special education laws and, in 2002, fighting to retain funding for all the
citywide PACs as Chair of SNPAC, Monday night's event was truly one of the most
inspiring and empowering events I have attended!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I urge those who read this, no matter your role in the community, to at
the very least <a href="http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/boston-truth-students?source=c.url&r_by=8602913" target="_blank">sign the Boston Truth petition</a> to our elected
officials and get involved with your local school and community group. If you
want to become involved with Boston Truth, please sign up for the email group
or feel free to contact me directly.</span></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Event slideshow: beginning to end! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" target="_blank">@BPSNightmare</a>.</span> </i></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-47322664317422601832013-11-04T18:11:00.001-05:002013-11-04T18:11:11.125-05:00Two Candidates, One Choice: But Not An Easy One<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Full disclosure: I have worked closely with Councilor John Connolly on a couple of education issues previously. If you are a frequent reader of my blogs you will remember I did an <a href="http://westroxbury.patch.com/groups/karen-kasts-blog/p/bp--final-thoughts-on-the-quality-choice-plan" target="_blank">extensive assessment</a> of his "Quality Choice Plan" (QCP) for education in Boston Public Schools (BPS) last October; until that time, John and I were friends and he would generally return my calls and answer my emails, since then and another incident where I questioned something his chief of staff Ann Walsh said at an External Advisory Committee (EAC) meeting, not so much though. Marty Walsh I only met during this historic mayoral election process and have really gotten to know since the preliminary. Also, though education is my primary issue that affects how I vote, I also have other concerns: public safety, Veterans, health care and other issues. So take my opinions and research for what they are worth to you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The mainstream media has said that John Connolly and Marty Walsh are so similar that it is hard to differentiate enough to make a choice, and on the surface that may appear to be true, but once you stop looking at only what they <i>claim they want to do</i> and start looking at their track-records and character, there is a very distinct difference. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are a number of ways to find out the track record and where candidate's stand on particular issues, besides their own websites and social media sites, when they have worked in the type of government roles both our candidates for mayor have. Unfortunately, because Boston City Council does not put everything online in a concise and comprehensive way, Mr. Connolly's record of voting was also frustrating and daunting to get a true handle on. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully, the same is not true of the state house, so you can assess Marty Walsh's record of sponsored and co-sponsored acts <a href="https://malegislature.gov/People/Profile/mjw1" target="_blank">here</a> and also a list of votes on other legislative actions through Project Vote </span><a href="http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/15238/martin-walsh/?p=1#.UnbOKfmsiM6" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">right here</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luckily a local writer for the Boston Dig put together a few articles outlining John Connolly's record of votes and sponsored bills while on the city council. This accounting is accurate: I verified it myself via the online list of council meeting minutes, my own record of meetings I attended or watched, and via multiple news sources. Please check out the compiled records via the articles here:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bostonbastard.com/2013/10/29/john-connollys-city-council-record-2008-2009/" target="_blank">John Connolly's City Council Record 2008-2009</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bostonbastard.com/2013/10/31/john-connollys-city-council-record-2010-2011/" target="_blank">John Connolly's City Council Record 2010-2011</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bostonbastard.com/2013/11/02/john-connollys-city-council-record-2012-now/" target="_blank">John Connolly's City Council Record 2012 - Present</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you would like to see Mr. Connolly's history via the council's own records, they can be found via the <a href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/cityclerk/rollcall/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Roll Call Votes pages </a>(56 to be exact) and the <a href="http://www.cityofboston.gov/cityclerk/citycouncil/meetings.asp" target="_blank">Meeting Minutes pages</a> though you will need to note that there is a link for meetings prior to 2011 as they are on a different system. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Okay, so now we know get an idea of where the candidates stand on most of the key issues, along with what they have accomplished while in office. But that doesn't tell me everything I need to know, so I went into OCPF records for both candidates to look at where their campaign funding has come from, both in prior campaigns as well as this one. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ocpf.cloudapp.net/Filers/Index?q=14361" target="_blank">John Connolly's OCPF Reports 2005-Present</a> </span><br />
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<a href="http://ocpf.cloudapp.net/Filers?q=Martin%20Walsh&cat=C" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Marty Walsh OCPF Reports 2002 - Present</a><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>NOTE: There is a drop-down box on the right side of the grey menu bar - to see prior campaigns select "Periodic Reports")</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Please be sure to also click on "Related Reports" which takes you to the IPAC funding reports </span><span style="color: #351c75;">(Independent PAC payments on behalf of a candidate) which will show you the "outside money coming in from we don't know where" (<a href="http://www.necn.com/11/03/13/Boston-mayoral-candidates-meet-voters-be/landing_politics.html?blockID=856753&feedID=4212" target="_blank">John Connolly on NECN November 3, 2013</a>). Quick campaign finance lesson: though candidate's must itemize and report exactly where each individual donation comes from including name, address, occupation of a donor and donation amounts are limited to $500 max per individual ($250. if you are a lobbyist) and no <a href="http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/chap55.htm#6A" target="_blank">corporate/business donations</a> are allowed, IPACs do not have the same <a href="http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/chap55.htm#18A" target="_blank">reporting requirements</a>, so the money they spend on behalf of candidates can indeed come from "we don't know where." </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">I found it interesting that Marty Walsh never tried to hide that outside money and people from out of state were helping his campaign via "Work for America" and other groups, while John Connolly did not clarify that his own campaign benefits from outside money via DFER and Stand for Children who also paid for ads, mailers, phonebanks and canvassers, some of them also people from outside Boston being brought in to campaign for him. </span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And this leads to my last factor: who I trust more to lead the city I love. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It would make sense for me to just pick the man I have worked with for years, who called me friend, and who, despite it all I still think is a nice enough guy to know. However, in the past year I have seen a side of Mr. Connolly that started to make me question whether he was actually a good representative for Boston even before he announced he was running for Mayor. Because of how Mr. Connolly responded when asked questions about his plans (whether on education or his mayoral campaign): avoiding not only me, but many parents and advocates who questioned his plans; his office failing to respond to his constituents questions whether via email or social media venues; his reactions when questioned or challenged; his lack of responsiveness to one of the students he claims to be on the side of until her <a href="http://westroxbury.patch.com/groups/karen-kasts-blog/p/a-boston-public-school-students-email-to-john-connolly-mayoral-candidate" target="_blank">email to him</a> was posted on a news website, and even when <a href="http://westroxbury.patch.com/groups/karen-kasts-blog/p/email-response-from-john-connolly-to-bps-students-email" target="_blank">he did respond</a>, he never actually addressed her concerns. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Additionally, knowing that the groups backing him are pro-corporate education reform and who backs them, and having read all his policy plans for the city, I worry that Mr. Connolly will help those groups accomplish their goals of turning our public schools into profit centers for their backers. I was happy to see that at least Mr. Connolly has now agreed:</span><br />
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<li><i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"To meet with the Boston Student Advisory Council (</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BSAC) three times a year, every year he is mayor, to discuss charter accountability, as well as any other public education issues BSAC brings to him. </span></span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that he</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> "will also include BSAC and YOUNG in his decisions and work around the Charter School Compact. </span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Furthermore, BSAC/YOUNG, and Boston Truth along with adult stakeholders, will be involved in creating a Charter Accountability Plan if John is elected."</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> </span></i></li>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I only met Marty Walsh because of the mayoral campaign, initially while I was working on Rob Consalvo's campaign, but about a week after the primary Mr. Walsh called me personally. Mr. Walsh told me he really needed my support. Well Mr. Walsh, this lady's support isn't quite that easily attained. As a friend who was in the room said after the call was done: "Every other person Marty Walsh called probably said yes right away, but not you! YOU proceed to grill him on issues and his votes for 20 minutes and even then say 'I will consider it, but we need to talk more!' Priceless." </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since that call Mr. Walsh and I have had multiple conversations about his plans and ideas and the concerns I and others have regarding the privatization of schools, government, city and other services as well as </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">his record as a Representative</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. The very next time we really spoke was actually because my 12 year old daughter, who spends too much time with me at education related meetings apparently and was very involved in Rob's campaign, stated that she wanted to meet with Mr. Walsh to discuss his education platform. Her request led to a meet and greet at my house, though I made it clear to the Walsh campaign staff that even then I was still not sure how I would vote. Mr. Walsh came specifically to speak with my daughter, but also answered a few questions by friends who also attended, and clearly told my daughter that he would invest in not only her school, but all of our BPS schools. Since that time he has also listened to not just myself, but countless other families, students and </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will gladly share the many other conversations I have had with Mr. Walsh if you are interested, feel free to email me if you like. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Mr. Walsh has also agreed:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>"To commit to not allow the charter cap to be lifted or raised until he establishes a Boston Charter School Task Force. Students, including YOUNG coalition members, parents, teachers, administrators, experts and other community stakeholders should all be part of the Task Force. The role of the task force will be to:</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>·</i><i> </i><i>Design a Charter Accountability Plan and oversee its implementation</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>·</i><i> </i><i>Monitor for-profit corporate interests in the city and the Commonwealth</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>·</i><i> </i><i>Monitor the cap on charter schools and make recommendations on any activity pertaining to it"</i></span><span style="color: #500050; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everything I listed above and more factored into my decision, which I made in the past two weeks, but was solidified through the latest agreements with BSAC and YOUNG. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because of his honesty and straight-forward way of dealing with everyone, the character he has shown despite numerous attacks on him, his willingness to listen to the concerns and the way he has handled criticism of his policy ideas even from those not old enough to vote, I am now supporting Marty Walsh for Mayor of Boston. I hope you will all join me in voting for Mr. Walsh tomorrow!</span><br />
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-57575243220075115322013-11-04T17:35:00.004-05:002013-11-04T17:37:27.190-05:00Fact-Check John Connolly: Boston's Not for Sale! Or Is It?<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The past two days of more political spin has left me wondering if people really buy it. I don't, because I realize that Mr. Connolly has been accepting outside money for several years thanks to the Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) - both the national group as well as the Massachusetts group recently. Also, I wonder if the <a href="http://www.necn.com/11/03/13/Boston-mayoral-candidates-meet-voters-be/landing_politics.html?blockID=856753&feedID=4212" target="_blank">spokes-Mom in NECN's story</a> has asked Mr. Connolly "who are they" regarding the donors as well as what DFER, Stand for Children and all their contributors who helped pay for quite a bit of Mr. Connolly's campaign expect in return from him as she asked during the news segment of the groups backing Mr. Walsh's campaign? I also wonder if the Connolly supporters even realize that Mr. Connolly has actually been getting funding for his campaigns from outside Boston since 2011? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At any rate, my fact-checking shows pretty clearly that despite how Mr. Connolly would like to spin the latest news regarding the new "One Boston" political committee that has bought media time for Mr. Walsh, the reality is that he is doing the same thing. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, if Boston IS indeed for sale, now you need to ask yourself: which groups are more likely to care about what actual Bostonians care about? Those funded by a group whose purpose is to help give voice to the average working American regarding issues important to them such as </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">good jobs, affordable health care, education, retirement security, corporate accountability and real democracy</span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> as </span><a href="http://www.workingamerica.org/about" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Working America</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> does, or those being funded by the investment groups and foundations like </span><a href="http://stand.org/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Stand for Children</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (see the </span><a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/26_01/26_01_sanchez.shtml" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">article about SFC's dramatic change in focus</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">) who are very similar to those who helped lead our country into the financial crisis of 2008? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You get to voice your choice tomorrow - make sure to get out and VOTE! </span><br />
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<span class="gD" email="john@connollyforboston.com" name="John Connolly" style="color: #222222; display: inline; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">John Connolly</span> <span class="go" style="color: #555555; vertical-align: top;"><a class="acP" href="http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1311182&ctx=mail" style="color: #222222; vertical-align: top;" target="_blank">via</a> bounce.myngp.com </span></div>
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<span class="hb" style="color: #777777; vertical-align: top;">to <span class="g2" dir="ltr" email="karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com" name="me" style="vertical-align: top;">me</span></span></div>
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Dear Friends,</div>
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Just last week, an anonymous SuperPAC <a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/353698614184247296/8344612657122246656" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">bought a half million dollars worth of television ads</a> on behalf of my opponent. We don’t know who’s behind this shadowy special interest group. We don’t know what they expect in exchange for all that money.</div>
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We just know that this is wrong. And moms, dads and kids from across Boston aren’t standing for it.<a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/353698614184247296/8416670251160174592?v=LuyAsiicN_4" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">See what they had to say at our rally yesterday:</a></div>
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<a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/353698614184247296/8416670251160174592?v=LuyAsiicN_4" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><img alt="" height="304" src="http://www2.myngp.com/Uploads/460/images/moms%20vs%20machine.png" width="500" /></a></div>
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They’re right. Boston is not for sale. </div>
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Please stand up against these special interests by voting <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_49471118" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tomorrow</span></span>, <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_49471119" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">November 5</span></span>. Use your vote to send the message that outside anonymous money has no place in our election.</div>
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Sincerely,</div>
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<img alt="" height="108" src="http://www2.myngp.com/Uploads/460/images/JRC%20Signature.jpg" width="118" /></div>
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John R. Connolly<br />
Boston City Councilor At-Large<br />
<a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/353698614184247296/8488727845198102528" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">ConnollyForBoston.com</a><br />
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P.S. <a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/353698614184247296/8560785439236030464" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Please click here and sign up to volunteer on Election Day.</a><br />
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Paid for and Authorized by The Connolly Committee</div>
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The Connolly Committee<br />
P.O. Box 320550<br />
Boston, MA 02132</div>
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Contribute Now to January 2011: Boston City Councilor John Connolly</h2>
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by DFER Reformer of the Month</h3>
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DFER's mission is to encourage a more productive dialogue within the Democratic Party on the need to fundamentally reform American public education. Each month, we identify one candidate who is standing up for meaningful reform and innovation, and we help demonstrate the broad base of support for his or her efforts. Please give as generously as you can.<br />
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January 2011: City Councilor John Connolly<br />
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It’s exciting to see dramatic changes in Boston. In the 90’s, the Hub was an original incubator for ed reform ideas. But charter schools eventually hit their cap and statewide complacency set in, and the wheels fell off the reform truck.<br />
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<a href="http://s709.photobucket.com/albums/ww100/strausbaker505/?action=view&current=connollycrowd.jpg" style="color: #002782;"><img align="right" alt="John Connolly and Friends" src="http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww100/strausbaker505/connollycrowd.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></a>In the last few weeks, though, Mayor Tom Menino has been talking tough about a new teachers contract that would extend the school day, give principals more hiring leeway, and tie teacher pay to student performance. It’s spurred a debate Boston really hasn’t seen before.<br />
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These changes are on the table today because of the work of a Boston City Councilor, John Connolly. John, who chairs the city’s education committee, orchestrated an eight-hour hearing on the 255 page union contract. He called parents, students, community organizers, and education experts to testify about the importance of a longer school day. In the process, he completely reset the agenda.<br />
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John is a dyed-in-the-wool ed reformer. He grew up in Boston and went to Harvard, where he wrote his thesis on charter schools. He even taught at a charter school before running for a seat on the council.<br />
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Here’s the rub: Connolly is up for reelection this year. Don’t think for a second that the deep-rooted special interests in Boston will just let this happen. What John needs right now is money. Contribution limits are low in Boston, so every dollar goes an especially long way.</div>
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<a href="https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/26609" style="color: #002782; text-decoration: none;" title="View John Connolly's ActBlue page">John Connolly</a></h3>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-10036672728071749702013-10-29T16:37:00.002-04:002013-10-29T16:37:37.895-04:00Email Response from John Connolly to BPS Students' Email<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVCr3XNXr5V5dkBTFFp7J1mvJE3eedMcXhjDHnMH0MyrMgdvyrk1e7uyqfuDRp4ZJ57nXsHsJn1uBRnA4ZvxiMf7RNurhplsnD06DG9mxfa-JENukPpCyFxmYVJT3tcVQfUKbx_VJ3zw/s1600/JC+Condon+mtg+10-18-12.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVCr3XNXr5V5dkBTFFp7J1mvJE3eedMcXhjDHnMH0MyrMgdvyrk1e7uyqfuDRp4ZJ57nXsHsJn1uBRnA4ZvxiMf7RNurhplsnD06DG9mxfa-JENukPpCyFxmYVJT3tcVQfUKbx_VJ3zw/s320/JC+Condon+mtg+10-18-12.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">As you may recall, on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, one week after Rhianwen had sent John Connolly, mayoral candidate, an email with her concerns about his positions regarding education in Boston, I posted that email as part of </span><a href="http://http//westroxbury.patch.com/groups/karen-kasts-blog/p/a-boston-public-school-students-email-to-john-connolly-mayoral-candidate" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">an article</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"> on the Patch. I did so because Rhianwen had not received even a courtesy response to her email from the man who claims he will be the "education mayor" and that he "will bring students in so their voices can be heard" if he is elected.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">Roughly 12 hours after posting the Patch article, Mr. Connolly did finally respond to Rhianwen, which she received when she got on the computer Thursday night. I did text Mr. Connolly on Friday to ask that I be allowed to post his response here, as I am a fair person. To date I have received no response to that request, but again, because I like to be fair, I am posting it now for all to read:</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">Dear Rhianwen,</i></span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;"><br /></i>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">Thank you so much for reaching out to me. I apologize for the delay in getting back to you, but the campaign keeps me very busy plus I try to spend some time with my three kids, including my new baby Mary Kate, so sometimes I fall behind on emails. Thanks for your understanding.</i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;"><br /></i>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying your school year at the Irving and that you are doing well. I am running for mayor because I believe that every student deserves a great education and I will work incredibly hard to ensure that students with an IEP, ELL students, all of your friends at the Irving, and children all across the city have access to a great school. The ELT and other great programs at the Irving seem to be working well for you and your classmates and I want to make sure that every young person in Boston loves school as much as you do.</i><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.</i><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">Best Regards,</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">John</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">I will leave it up to each of you to decide whether Mr. Connolly's response answered Rhianwen's concerns or not.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">I can be reached via email at bpsnightmare@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter: </span><a href="https://twitter.com/BPSNightmare" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">@bpsnightmare</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">.</span></span>Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-12207688718215688092013-10-23T22:35:00.000-04:002013-10-23T22:55:40.464-04:00A Boston Public School Student's Email to John Connolly, Mayoral Candidate<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During Tuesday night's<a href="http://wgbhnews.org/full-video-second-boston-mayoral-debate"> mayoral debate on WGBH</a>, John Connolly made the statement: "I will bring students in so their voices can be heard." This reminded me to ask my daughter Rhianwen if she had received a response to her email sent to Mr. Connolly a week ago. She has not. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Background: Rhianwen is 12, an extremely smart, loving, giving and thoughtful child who has known Mr. Connolly through my volunteer work in Boston Public Schools, especially the Roslindale Pathway, since 2009. Rhianwen has also attended the majority of school SPC/SSC and pathway meetings as well as the school committee, school choice community and EAC meetings for the past two years. Hence, my 7th grader knows far more about education policies and issues than most adults do. Over the past 7 months, Rhianwen became very involved with the mayoral race, working on a mayoral campaign herself. Rhianwen is not shy and has always spoken up about issues that concern her or to defend something or someone when necessary as she is fiercely protective and loyal. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of the above said, Rhianwen is also a child with special needs, who struggled for years to pass from one grade to the next and constantly would tell us that she was "dumb" and "stupid" no matter what we tried to tell her and what other successes she experienced. Since 1st grade Rhianwen has been receiving at least 45 minutes per day of services, every single day of school. Toward the end of 4th grade things started to change and she was able to really start showing, via her work, how smart she is (which everyone knew, but it was not evident via tests or classwork consistently.) This came about because Rhianwen has always worked hard and tried to do her best, but also thanks to help from the fabulous teachers and specialists at both the Mozart and Irving public schools. Over the past year Rhianwen has finally begun to experience more consistent success in school with her academics, yet even now she struggles </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">with organization and writing, so she does not really like writing all that much.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Given the above, you can imagine my surprise last Wednesday night when she stated that she had written an email to John Connolly. I asked her to share it with me, so I am now sharing it with all of you:</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">From: </span><b class="gmail_sendername" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">rhianwen</b></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Date: Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 9:33 PM</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Subject: MY VOICE HEARD</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">To: </span><a href="mailto:info@connollyforboston.com" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">info@connollyforboston.com</a></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Hello Im hopeing this goes straight to John Connolly him self. Im a 12 year old kid in Public schools and I want to be heard Now Mr. Connolly please do not make my schools go into the dump for one I love my school how it is and I know you want to raise the charter cap thingy but please I want to tell you how important Public schools are to me. They are where I have my friends my help because I am on an IEP and I don’t want no charter schools to take away my love of my schools now. Please Don’t take away my education because I want a successful future and with no public schools no city year and stuff like that it will be harder for me to work. I got to the Washington Irving Middle School. Please don’t take the one thing I care about so much away from me. To contact me email me at <removed to avoid spam></span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am very proud of Rhianwen, for many reasons, not the least of which includes showing more civic engagement than many voters in Boston have so far, for even thinking to send an email to Mr. Connolly, for taking the time out of fun endeavors like Webkinz, Minecraft and Skyping with her cousins to look up his website, get the email address and then putting herself out there: that she has an IEP, her thoughts and feelings about her school, her education, her future and charter schools and his stance regarding them and her understanding that more of them will impact her school and education. Sometimes my daughter literally takes my breathe away, this is one of those times. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, given his schedule, maybe Mr. Connolly has yet to see this email himself. Maybe someone, whether it was Mr. Connolly or a staffer, saw the last name and dismissed the email thinking it was from me (as I have questioned Mr. Connolly quite frequently about his education policies.) Maybe Mr. Connolly did see it and thinks I put my daughter up to it, though clearly he should know better. However, given the "voices heard" similarity </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to Rhianwen's email subject line in</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Mr. Connolly's answers last night, I suspect he has in fact read her email. So, why no response?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No matter what the endless possibilities are that Mr. Connolly or one of his staff may have contemplated, I think that his lack of response to a BPS student who reached out to him about her concerns regarding his mayoral education goals and platform speaks volumes about the reality behind the campaign rhetoric Mr. Connolly has been stumping on. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Semantically, he <i>may</i> have "heard" my daughters voice when she wrote the email to him, but what does it say that she has received absolutely no response from Mr. Connolly or even a courtesy email from the campaign? </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Does this seem like the action of a person who claims he <i>"has fought to give parents and students a voice in the Boston Public Schools"</i> as his website claims?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Actions speak louder than words, campaign ads or stump speeches Mr. Connolly. Shame on you for not responding to Rhianwen. </span><br />
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-355590136261877872013-09-24T00:30:00.002-04:002013-09-24T00:30:17.889-04:00It's JUST a Preliminary....But Seriously Folks, Every Vote Counts - Don't Be Silent Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxAcNnQrA57q53L5CClTk2vGhCW4ubb6BeWydIrueLmXah6w_7KCXDgWzcukBv67ZQX13ygZIZ7KUrtDy54lmAcTaJ8HMK7GhtJvQt79ek8tBtqelejrOQtR9_zVl3ym6V2vzTInPMWA/s1600/my-vote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxAcNnQrA57q53L5CClTk2vGhCW4ubb6BeWydIrueLmXah6w_7KCXDgWzcukBv67ZQX13ygZIZ7KUrtDy54lmAcTaJ8HMK7GhtJvQt79ek8tBtqelejrOQtR9_zVl3ym6V2vzTInPMWA/s200/my-vote.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even more than the November 5th election date, today's preliminary election for Boston Mayor and city council is when everyone should get out and vote. It is really the only time when we as voters have the strongest ability to truly voice our choice for whom we want to represent us. No matter who you are voting for, I say this: GET OUT TO VOTE! After tomorrow, the outcome could effectively eliminate your real choice as an option, but at least you will know that you did get to vote your true choice of candidates first - and that is something you can be proud of.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the first time in 20 years, the Mayor's race is a wide-open field with no incumbent to defeat, and the same is true for many of our city council seats. In January we will not only have a new Mayor, but almost a completely new city council in Boston, which quite frankly is a bit unnerving. These factors, and the important issues that have been at the forefront of all of the candidate forums, house parties, meet and greets, at dinner tables, school yards, spontaneous gatherings, on the phones and at the doors, show that our city is truly at a critical turning point in history. The results of this preliminary election could potentially change Boston in so many ways. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are any number of issues which people care about: public safety, transportation, casinos, city services, of course - education and many more. Whatever your main area of concern is, the issue that motivates you, please make sure to make it to the polls to vote. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite what the mainstream media and campaign machines are saying via articles and polls, my experience watching elections and especially as someone who has actually personally talked to thousands of Bostonians through my own volunteer work before this election madness and since, as a volunteer and adviser for several of the candidates, is that the predictions are not reflecting the candidates Boston voters are really planning on voting for and actually supporting. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The polls that have been done during this latest election blitz have been designed to get the results the pundits want. Of course, this is all done for a purpose: to rig the election in favor of those chosen by many of the same groups and companies that led us to where we are in America today: the 1% who reap the most profit while our citizens struggle daily, entire public school districts are closing down, and families are homeless. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These same "king makers" count on the fact that if the polling reflects a poor prediction for a particular candidate, then that candidate's regular support base will either stay home or instead vote for one of the other candidates who seemingly have a better chance of winning the election. After all, if the polls say that the one vote you cast won't matter, why cast it? Guess what? The backers, the interpreters of the poll data, the pundits and especially the candidates' who are the darlings of these aforementioned folks, count on that as it has been an effective tool in the past. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, there is also the misleading campaign literature and advertisements by candidates, which when people compare them with their actual professional experience and record of achievements, amounts to nothing more than the proverbial house of cards. Add in the campaign workers who have been imported not just from the suburbs, but from all over the country, who tout certain candidate's misrepresentations with a smile, and instead of a true picture of some candidates, you can almost see the actual players behind them - those who they will be beholden to once in office - those who will try to make our city their newest source of profit one way or another.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I am here to tell you a secret the alleged <i>political experts</i> are terrified will get out: YOUR ONE vote counts MORE than any poll conducted by those who would steal your voice and choice from you. Each one of us who decide to get out and vote for OUR chosen candidate, despite what the polls might say about their chances, disproves the predictions and add to the likelihood that the results of our election will more closely resemble the collective voice of BOSTON residents - not those paid to influence them or those who will tear our city apart without a second thought. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, please, don't let the polls, misrepresented records and supposed achievements spouted via campaign literature and ads, the endorsements by mainstream media, corporate backed groups, or the outright lies of certain ordained "front-runners" fool you. Don't allow the people and groups behind the polls decide for you: instead, go with what YOU know from your own research and those of us who are living here in Boston with you. Let it be OUR voices that are heard at the end of the night. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Big Papi recently said, unfortunately due to a horrendous and cowardly act that has already changed our beautiful city: "This is OUR city. And nobody going to dictate our freedom." </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't let others dictate what our city will become. Show those who would profit off our city while bankrupting our future that Boston voters understand their rights and what true freedom really is.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @RebelInBoston.</i></span><br />
<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-8248995914295463682013-06-26T16:52:00.000-04:002013-12-17T15:27:02.526-05:00The Facts About Charter Schools That No One Tells You<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a lot of talk about charter schools and raising the cap to allow more of them to open in Massachusetts. Boston is ground zero for the charter school "education reform" conglomerates, individuals and organizations, like the newly formed "<a href="http://www.bostonforward.net/who-we-are.html">Boston Forward</a>" group, which are greedily counting the <a href="http://jonathanturley.org/2013/03/16/charter-schools-and-the-profit-motive/">millions of dollars</a> to be made off of our students if this is allowed to happen. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This situation has led to a lot of questionable push-poll results being passed off by our larger media news sources as </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">charter school</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> "facts" which are further confusing the argument for the public even after those "facts" have been proven incorrect or unsubstantiated.</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Add in a Mayoral race filled with many candidates, most of whom are willing to sell out our students for campaign funds by spouting the "raise the cap" chant (only three are against raising the charter school cap), and you may understand one of the reasons why education has become a major focus of the elections in Boston. If you think the Mayoral and City Council races aren't a big deal right now, you may really want to start paying attention, because they are! </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other than knowing that charter schools are an "alternative" to "regular public schools" most people do not fully understand: how they are funded, </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the student populations served, their actual </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">graduation rates</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and the differences between them except for their separate "lottery" admissions procedures</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. This became more obvious to me through a number of conversations in several venues so my inner-educator-activist kicked in to write this article that I hope will help families and the broader community understand why so many people, education advocates and organizations that care about educating <i>all</i> of our students are saying "don't lift the cap" on something that, in theory, sounds good.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Funding:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many people think charter schools are privately funded, which is false. The money that pays for students to attend a charter school comes out of the sending district's budget. Here in Boston, for each student that attends a charter school instead of one of the BPS schools, the charter school receives $15,527.00+ per pupil from the BPS budget, which is $4,000.00 more than the base per pupil funds allocated for BPS' own students. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then there is the transportation of charter school students </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">per </span><a href="http://www.doe.mass.edu/charter/tech_advisory/07_2.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Massachusetts state laws</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> which dictate that charter school students can be transported city-wide on BPS buses or vehicles paid for out of the BPS budget. Meanwhile "regular" BPS students are restricted to transportation only within their zone in elementary and middle school. In high school our BPS students are given MBTA passes and expected to get to and from school on their own. </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Exceptions to the zone-based and T-pass transportation for BPS students is generally for students with special needs when their IEP indicates the need.</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> There will clearly always be busing in Boston even with a new "Home Based" assignment model as we must transport students with disabilities (SWD), charter school and private school students. The larger cost to BPS will be for transporting our own students with special needs according to my discussions with John McDonough, then CFO of BPS who is now our Interim Superintendent, but there is clearly an amount of funding which will be in our budget to pay for transporting charter school and private school students across the city. The only way to change this practice regarding charter and private school transportation is to lobby our state legislators to change it via the law.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Additionally, there are other funds which a sending school district may end up allocating to charter schools (at least the *"in-district" ones) such as: additional equivalent per-pupil cost of a service if the charter school </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">chooses not to
purchase a discretionary central support service</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">from the sending district. A sending district may also end up agreeing to</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> provide non-discretionary
services as BPS often does (including but not limited to: transportation, employee benefits,
facilities, payroll, safety, food service, and other central office services)
as *"in-kind" support for the charter school. </span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*Though "in-kind" means that no money is given </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">directly</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to the charter school, instead the sending district provides personnel/services/benefits, the costs for those in-kind services are paid for out of the budget of the sending district. This also means that certain district personnel or services are at least partially, if not totally, unavailable to do their job for the district itself.</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition to all that I outline above, in the <a href="http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/meeting/boston-school-committee-meeting-103">recent agreement with Unlocking Potential</a> (aka <a href="http://www.unlocking-potential.org/">UP a self-described "school turnaround organization"</a> which is taking over the Marshall) that the Boston School Committee members voted to approve on November 7, 2012, BPS will provide the following:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BPS agrees to identify
which centrally-funded supports would typically be provided by the Office of
Special Education and Student Supports (OSESS) to a BPS school with UP’s projected
enrollment, including but not limited to any allocation of staff and service
providers. The full value of these supports will be </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">added as non-restricted
funds to UP’s budget annually</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Non-restricted funds mean that UP may use those funds for anything, not necessarily special education services. </i></span></span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UP shall establish
and maintain a separate bank account <i>under its </i></span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">exclusive control</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> which BPS agrees to transfer any funds not allocated or
budgeted for salaries or stipends into at least two times a year. The transfer will be based upon the difference between
the total Lump Sum Budget provided by BPS to UP Academy and an estimate of the
amount of funds UP Academy anticipates spending on stipends and salaries.</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UP has the <i>sole
discretion</i> to select the staff for any and all positions at the school. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UP may select staff without regard to seniority within the particular union or
past practices between the Boston School Committee and any bargaining unit. </span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UP, through its board of trustees, shall <i>manage its staff independent of the school committee</i>. Except as outlined in the Application and Charter, <i>UP is exempt from the provisions set
forth in the applicable collective bargaining agreements</i>. Staff shall
execute an election to work agreement containing the working conditions every
year. <i>UP may develop its own staff evaluation guidelines and evaluation
instrument(s)</i> in accordance with all current laws and regulations. </span></li>
<br />
<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UP
may involuntarily excess members of the BTU, Guild, and BASAS bargaining units
as well as any other staff members and t</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he
provisions in any relevant collective bargaining agreements regarding excessing, seniority and transfer shall not apply
to UP except that members of the collective bargaining units shall continue to
accrue seniority.</span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>UP shall be operated and managed by its Board
independent of the Boston School Committee.</i> As written in the agreement: <i>"</i></span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><u>The parties expressly
acknowledge that UP is an entity independent of the Boston Public School
Department </u>and that Boston Public School Department shall not be liable for the
acts or omissions of UP, the Board, its officers, agents or employees except to
the extent consistent with the law, including the provisions of M.G.L. c. 71,
§89 and regulations promulgated in connection therewith."</i></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition to all of the above, charter schools<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> also get millions in venture philanthropy dollars each year. So, as you can see, charter school funding has a huge impact on our BPS budget that goes well beyond just the base per-pupil and transportation funds.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, through the above information, you can clearly see that though many people believe that "In-district charter schools" are controlled and overseen by the public school district in which they are operating, this is false. According to the agreement with UP, even if the BPS Superintendent or School Committee believes that UP is not serving the best interest of BPS students, they must go through a complaint procedure first with the Board of Trustees of UP, and if dissatisfied with the Trustees' findings, then initiate a complaint to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. It does not sound like BPS has any more control over the "in-district" charter schools than they do over the Commonwealth charter schools to me!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Admissions:</u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Charter schools state that they have a "lottery" system regarding admissions. When applying to schools for my oldest daughter we did apply to a couple of charter schools because they had sent us literature. During my discussions with the admissions personnel I revealed that my daughter had special needs and would be going through the normal evaluation process. Why did I do that? I wanted to be sure they could handle her needs as I was fairly certain she would need some minimal special education services and supports. I was then politely but firmly "discouraged" from completing the application process by the admissions personnel. Though my inner advocate wanted to respond a totally different way, in the end I chose to </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">refrain from submitting the applications, which those who know me may find shocking. For me it came down to this: if they don't want my daughter because she </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">might</i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> have special education needs, then they don't deserve to have her as their student at all. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(FYI - she tests as post-graduate grade level in everything except math which is her disability area and her IQ is 148 - only 2% of world population has an IQ of above 140).</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I soon found out from several other parents that the experience I had was not an anomaly as they had similar experiences. As I had also started asking questions about the lottery process, I learned that the "lottery" consists of charter school personnel reviewing student data and records to select those students who, though they may not have high MCAS scores, are children with high-average to superior intelligence according to other measurements including IQ scores when available. Those students then emerge as the "winners" of the "lottery" and are invited to attend the charter school. Additionally, through record reviews personnel are able to determine which children with special needs have high or *low-incidence disabilities or language needs which also determines which of our ELL and special needs students "win" the "lottery".</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>In the world of special education, "High-incidence" are the most common special needs which are primarily able to be addressed in a general education classroom with possibly </i></span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a second staff member assisting the student in the classroom or </i><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">some pull-out services; "low-incidence" are the more significant disabilities with more educationally intensive and costly needs and can mean they need more pull-out services, substantially separate classes, though if done right a true full-inclusion program can educate both types of students together. </i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which leads to the next difference between charter schools and our "regular" public schools: populations.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>School Populations: </u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has become clear through several sources, such as the <i><a href="http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.copaa.org/resource/collection/7D72B914-2EC7-4664-9124-A32598DA1ABE/Charter-Schools-and-Students-with-DisabilitiesFINAL.pdf">2012 Charter Schools and Students </a></i></span><i><a href="http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.copaa.org/resource/collection/7D72B914-2EC7-4664-9124-A32598DA1ABE/Charter-Schools-and-Students-with-DisabilitiesFINAL.pdf"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">with Disabilities </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Preliminary Analysis of the </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Legal Issues and Areas of </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Concern</span></a></i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">prepared by The Center for Law and Education (CLE) with the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA), our own BPS district numbers and Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE), that despite claims to the contrary <i><u>charter schools are not educating the same population of students as the Boston Public School District does.</u></i> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As noted above, charter schools are able to select which students they will educate and multiple sources of information including utilizing the raw data from school profiles on the MADESE site without any interpretation, have and continue to prove that the charter schools claims of serving the same students as BPS does is false. Utilizing the raw data from the MADESE site which has profiles of every "public" school in the state, my friend and I put together a </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bpseducationoddyssey.blogspot.com/2013/06/data-comparison-of-bps-vs-charter.html#zRgxZTmUD4LCmXuU.99">snapshot of the top 5 (who has highest #s) and bottom 5 (who has lowest #s) for each type of school in Boston (BPS, In-District Charter, and Commonwealth Charter schools)</a> based strictly on MADESE data not "selective choice" as some may suggest. There is no interpretation of this data at all, we are just showing the actual numbers themselves for comparison. There is more to come very soon and every school WILL be included!</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our major news media outlets are constantly hyping that charter schools are much better at educating students than the "regular BPS schools", but now you can clearly see that the information they have been stating as "fact" are actually "spin". Hopefully, if you hung in this far, by now you can clearly see for yourself that the pro-charter groups and reporters are spreading misinformation, as</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> there are drastic differences between the types of students who are being served in charter schools versus regular BPS schools which makes a huge difference in comparing who does a better job.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are a few other little known facts about charter schools which should be extremely concerning to us all: </span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Charter schools have a worse graduation/retention rate than our BPS schools do! As it has already been laid out quite well in an article by another blogger in March, until the school by school comparison my friend and I are preparing is finalized, I will direct you to that article: </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bluemassgroup.com/2013/03/charter-school-attrition/">Charter School Attrition</a>.</i></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Charter schools have a higher rate of suspension that our BPS schools do, see the article here: </span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bluemassgroup.com/2013/05/raise-the-cap-on-traditional-public-schools/">Raise the Cap on Traditional Public Schools</a>.</i></li>
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<li><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Charter schools' "teach to the MCAS" method of educating students does not set the students up well for SATs as proven through MADESE data again: </span><a href="http://bluemassgroup.com/2013/05/charter-school-achievement-gap/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Charter School Achievement Gap</a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently, Boston students organized a press conference and rally at the state house which I will write a bit more about in another article, but if you would like to see a brief synopsis of the press conference and rally despite the lack of credit given to those awesome students, please check out <a href="http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/2614">this article</a>. This was a student initiated movement, contrary to the title and focus on what the adults had to say. The students of the <a href="https://youthonboard.org/">Youth On Board</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bostonstudentadvisorycouncil">Boston Student Advisory Council</a>, and other groups give me great hope for the future, and should not be ignored as they are the true experts on all of this right now because their education depends on them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will be writing much more on this topic as the battle, and yes, it is a battle, to save our public schools is heating up. In the meantime, if you would like to read more about the truth behind education "reform", check out some of my favorite bloggers:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://edushyster.com/">Edushyster:</a> <span style="line-height: 18px; text-align: center;">Keeping an eye on the corporate education agenda, in Massachusetts and beyond. "Ed" combines facts and wit throughout the articles.</span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></i></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://momandmama.wordpress.com/">Mommy On the Floor</a>: has just started writing about charter school issues, but has many great articles beyond charter schools!</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would love to connect with those of you who are as concerned as I and others are about the charter school cap being raised, so please contact me via email bpsnightmare@gmail.com or Twitter @bpsnightmare.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-81754759381949158512013-06-07T22:07:00.001-04:002013-06-10T10:02:53.150-04:00Data Comparison of BPS vs. Charter Schools SWD, ELL Populations<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: purple;">This is a snapshot of top 5 (who has highest #s) and bottom 5 (who has lowest #s) for each type of school in Boston based on MADESE data not "selective choice", there is no interpretation of the data at all, just showing the actual numbers. There is more to come very soon and every school WILL be included!</span></em></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comparison of BPS public schools vs. Boston Charter Schools</b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Student Populations of </b></span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Students with Disabilities (SWD) & </b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">English Language Learners (ELL)</b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>ALL data for these charts came directly from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (MADESE) - raw numbers used! </b></span><a href="http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/</span></a><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5 Highest schools per each population and school type:</b></span><br />
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<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5 Lowest schools per each population and school type:</b></div>
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587208073934966945.post-37374706108681285272013-06-06T17:25:00.000-04:002013-06-09T16:37:29.736-04:00Say No to Outside Influencing of Our Children's Education through Boston Political Races<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our elections in Boston right now have the potential to lead our city into the same fate as that of Chicago where 49 public schools are closing, if the wrong person is elected Mayor, or those elected as City-Councilor, Senator, etc for that matter. Big corporations, "education reform" organizations and individuals from OUTSIDE our city and state are trying to buy candidates by investing in their campaigns, indirectly funding workers for campaigns, ads, literature and events. Certain candidates are, and have for years, taken what they could from these groups and ignored their own constituents while assuring them they were actually going to work for their best interests. Yes, this happens often, I am far from naive, but it needs to stop.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My dear readers and friends - I am calling on ALL of you to help me help our great city (and our awesome state) by working with me to ensure that our children, ALL of them, do not end up with the same fate as the children of Chicago and other cities! I am asking YOU to take a stand and insist that if a candidate will not sign on to the <a href="http://robconsalvo.com/consalvo-all-candidates-for-mayor-should-support-peoples-pledge/">"</a><a href="http://robconsalvo.com/consalvo-all-candidates-for-mayor-should-support-peoples-pledge/">People's Pledge for Boston"</a>, introduced by <a href="http://robconsalvo.com/about/">Rob Consalvo</a>, which would be a promise by the candidate to keep undisclosed outside special interest money out of the 2013 Boston mayoral (and city council et al) race, that you will not vote for them. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you know me, are a friend on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or drive by my house even, you know who I will be voting for in September! His call to keep outside interest money outside of the election is yet one more reason why I am in Rob's corner along with his promise to ensure all of our children a quality education no matter what their needs are along with the many accomplishments, not just for his district, but across the city. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The quote below, from the Washington Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/23/the-rev-john-thomas-no-act-of-god-caused-chicago-schools-closings/">"The Rev. John Thomas: No Act of God Caused Chicago Schools Closings"</a>, sums it up for me: </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #351c75; display: inline; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/17px "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>"They are gone because of decades of very deliberate decisions by public officials, corporate interests and ordinary citizens that have eviscerated the neighborhoods of Chicago, displacing people with the demolition of public housing, gutting communities with foreclosures and the elimination of jobs. The schools are gone because they have been replaced by charter schools, the darlings of politically well-connected school reformers making a profit on tax money while public officials eliminate the inconvenience of teachers unions."</i></span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #351c75; display: inline; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/17px "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My fear, a valid one given the lurking special interest groups looking to invest big money into the campaign(s) of those who endorse raising the charter school cap, is that Boston IS the next Chicago. My question to YOU is: do you REALLY want to be one of those "ordinary citizens" who sat back and didn't even do something as simple as phone, email, social-media pressuring of candidates - or do you want to live up to your Boston roots (whether born or transplant) of resistance to outside influences dictating our children's future?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Want to know who got paid by whom and what the issue is regarding lifting the charter school cap here in Massachusetts? </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Resources:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Education "Reformers" and the issues:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">EduShyster: <a href="http://edushyster.com/the-liftin-o-the-cap/"><i>The Liftin O' the Cap</i></a> - a great resource on charter schools, reformers et al with a witty writing style, so check out "Ed"'s other articles!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">ReThinking Schools: </span><span style="color: #000066; line-height: 26px;"><a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/26_01/26_01_sanchez.shtml">For or Against Children?</a> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #000066; line-height: 26px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WBUR: <a href="http://www.wbur.org/2013/05/31/education-reform-mayor"><i>Charter School Advocates Eye Investment In Mayor's Race</i></a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Be sure to read the comments!</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; line-height: 1.45;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who got paid:</span></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://momandmama.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/save-money-live-better-open-a-charter-and-break-the-unions-part-i/">Save Money. Live Better. Open a Charter and Break the Unions Part I</a></span></i><br />
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<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://momandmama.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/save-money-live-better-open-a-charter-and-break-the-unions-part-2/">Save Money. Live Better. Open a Charter and Break the Unions Part 2</a></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><i>I can be contacted at bpsnightmare@gmail.com and please consider following me on Twitter: @bpsnightmare.</i></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10618838814261741637noreply@blogger.com0