Tag Archives: Education

There was standing room only at the Impact Hub in Downtown Seattle on January 18th, as emcee David (Goldy) Goldstein introduced Andrew Villeneuve of Northwest Progressive Institute, and Geov Parrish, someone with a long history with radio, and then the star attraction of the evening, Norman Goldman. Over 225 people were there, and when Norman finished his talk, they spontaneously jumped up and gave him a standing ovation.

Mark Taylor-Canfield, an independent journalist who contributes to many liberal publications, did an excellent review of the evening and Norman’s talk, “Seattle Hosts Progressive Media Gathering – Is Radio Dead?” . Here is the link to read his story:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Seattle-Hosts-Progressive-by-Mark-Taylor-Canfie-Alternative_Conservative_Corporate_Corporations-140119-860.html

If you go to the Facebook Page for MoveOn Whidbey, you can read Norman’s responses to 15 questions submitted that evening: https://www.facebook.com/MoveOnWhidbey?ref=ts&fref=ts

For continuing information about what’s happening with the efforts to bring progressive radio back to the Seattle area, please go to the website for Progressive Radio Northwest, www.progressiveradionorthwest.org

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internship programs … exploited?

01/02/2014 Nativegrl77

AlterNet

Are Colleges and Universities Exploiting Unpaid Interns, Too?

By Casey McDermott, ProPublica

Over the past year, unpaid internships in business have drawn more scrutiny. But some schools — notably, their athletic departments — have sought out unpaid interns, too. READ MORE»

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Wall Street wants your schools. We’re fighting back

10/14/2013 Nativegrl77

Campaign for a Fair Settlement
a project of Action for the Common Good

Join the Tele-Town Hall

On Wed Oct 16th at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT interact in a discussion about communities around the country undoing corporate public school “reform”

Dear Carmen —

Wall Street bankers are stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from our kids every year. [1]

That’s not a misprint. As part of all the financial shenanigans they engaged in that broke our economy, they managed to entrap school districts around the country in “interest rate swaps” that were sold as ways to guarantee steady income for the critical job of educating our kids. Instead they turned out to be massive drains on school budgets, for example, costing Philadelphia $331 million [2] and Chicago $150 million (and another $36 million every year). [3]

In turn, that financial pressure on school districts (exacerbated by the drop in tax revenues from the Great Recession) has opened up opportunities for Wall Street banker-funded corporate takeovers of our public schools. For-profit charter schools, often online-only, have cropped up nationally, siphoning off critical public school investments, short changing our children’s future to line the pockets of private, usually out-of-state, corporations dedicated primarily to the bottom line.

Parents and teachers around the country have been desperately fighting back against this tidal wave of Wall Street-backed education “reform”. They know we need investment in our public schools so that every child has a quality teacher and access to a well-rounded education that includes history, music, arts, PE and vocational training, NOT investment in Wall Street corporations whose motivations have little to do with kids and everything to do with manipulating state regulation to protect their interests.

A key figure in this fight is prominent public school advocate, Diane Ravitch, whose new book, Reign of Error: the Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, shows how people are fighting back and winning. YOU CAN HEAR AND INTERACT WITH HER LIVE in a forum sponsored by the Our Schools network on Wednesday Oct 16th at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT. RSVP here.

Actor Matt Damon, the son of a public school teacher, says,

“[Diane is] America’s foremost historian in the areas of education policy, she’s a champion of public education, she’s a courageous speaker and she’s a truth-teller.”

She’s keenly aware of the impact that Wall Street’s stolen money and increased investments in for-profit education are having on our schools.

“We cannot have great, education by having one set of publicly funded schools (charters and vouchers) that pick and choose their students, kicking out the losers, excluding students with disabilities and English learners, and operating free of state laws, and a second publicly funded system, required to take all students, including those rejected or ejected by the other system. Great school systems aim for equity, as the Finnish scholar Pasi Sahlberg says, and get excellence.” [4]

Join a discussion with Diane Ravitch on Wednesday October 16th at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT and hear how communities around the country are undoing corporate “reform” and creating equity and justice in their public schools.

It’s time we started getting those hundreds of millions back.

In Solidarity,

Brian Kettenring, Executive Director, Action for the Common Good

[1] “Riding the Gravy Train: How Wall Street is Bankrupting Our Public Transit Agencies by Profiteering off of Toxic Swap Deals”, ReFund Transit Coalition, June 2012, page 4.
[2] “Too Big to Trust? Banks, Schools, and the Ongoing Problem of Interest Rate Swaps”, Sharon Ward, PA Budget and Policy Center, January 2012, page 1.
[3] http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/19251143-452/amisha-patel-banks-soak-cps-as-schools-close.html
[4] http://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/10/today-the-blog-has-had-7-million-page-views/

http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/

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Marissa Graciosa, Reform Immigration FOR America

09/26/2013 Nativegrl77

Tell your representative to show leadership and pass immigration reform now!

I’ve learned a powerful lesson in my years of organizing: you get what you ask for. With countless activists like you making calls, joining rallies and marches, and even risking arrest to ask for nothing less than a fair pathway to citizenship as part of immigration reform legislation, all we need now is for our representatives in the House to come forward and lead on the issue.

While our communities show true courage, our legislators in the House of Representatives are hiding. They are choosing political theater over working together to fix our broken immigration system. They are hiding from our demands for bold action to keep our families together.

It’s time the House followed our lead. We’re sending postcards directly to Congressional offices with images of our communities showing real leadership and a message demanding action. Send your representative a clear message: “Real leaders don’t hide. Pass immigration reform in 2013.”

We elect our members of Congress to lead, yet the House has failed to do so by refusing to take action. We must remind them that, as representatives of the people, they answer to us — and we challenge them to model the bravery and leadership that thousands are demonstrating in the streets every day by passing immigration reform this year.

We are closer now than we have ever been to passing real reform, and our representatives need to know that we aren’t backing down. Send your message now: step up and lead on immigration reform! Click here to send a postcard.

Standing strong,

Marissa Graciosa
Reform Immigration FOR America

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What’s an UNGA?

09/25/2013 Nativegrl77

President Obama delivered a speech at UNGA — the United Nations General Assembly — in New York City. The President expressed optimism at the prospects for diplomacy in solving a range of long-simmering conflicts across the globe:

“For decades, the United Nations has in fact made a difference — from helping to eradicate disease, to educating children, to brokering peace,” he said. “But like every generation of leaders, we face new and profound challenges, and this body continues to be tested. The question is whether we possess the wisdom and the courage, as nation-states and members of an international community, to squarely meet those challenges; whether the United Nations can meet the tests of our time.”

Find out more about President Obama’s UNGA trip.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks during his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, N.Y., Sept. 23, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

Speaker Boehner Has a Choice to Make

Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer writes about the fiscal debate and why it’s time for GOP lawmakers to pass a simple budget resolution that doesn’t defund Obamacare and focuses on keeping the goverment open and our economy moving forward.

Valerie Jarrett celebrates the anniversary of the Equal Futures Partnership, a coalition of countries who have committed to take action to remove barriers to opportunity and promote equality for women and girls in our countries.

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Countdown to Affordable Health Care

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius discusses another milestone on the road to affordable health care — less than 100 days until coverage.

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