I had a terrible weekend.

Just one day after we celebrated our nation's principles of independence and freedom, Scott Walker signed a bill that restricts the ability of women and their doctors to make private medical decisions. 

 

And you know, I have to say, this is déjà vu all over again: Walker thought he could sneak this signing through on a holiday weekend -- just like he did when he signed a bill that repealed pay equity protections for women.

 

It’s clearer than ever that Scott Walker doesn't value women as equal partners. 

 

Luckily organizers and volunteers all across the state are already talking with Wisconsinites about Walker’s terrible budget and doing the kind of targeted one-on-one voter contact that will hold him accountable for his shameless attack on women's rights.  

 

Can you commit to help funding our field program for the rest of the year by chipping in $6 or whatever you can for the next six months?

 

Scott Walker is marching full speed ahead with his radical War on Women, but we're not waiting until the next election to fight back. We've had boots on the ground in critical regions across the state for months, because we can't afford an off day when it comes to unseating this Governor, much less an "off year." 

 

As part of our 72 County Strategy to win in 2014, we've invested more resources than ever before at this point on the calendar. And because of the work of Democrats like you, we're already seeing the returns on our investment. Impressive wins by progressive candidates in the spring elections have rolled into ongoing canvasses and voter outreach to make sure the voters who will decide the direction of our state next year hear about the consequences of Governor Walker's agenda on their family's lives not just at election time -- but on an ongoing basis. 

 

Chip in $6 or whatever you can for the next six months and bring the fight to Scott Walker for the rest of the year:

 

http://secure.wisdems.org/Bring-The-Fight

 

With your continued support, I know we'll defeat Scott Walker and restore women's rights in Wisconsin.

A New Education Debate By Isaiah J. Poole

You may have seen stories about the poor quality of Washington, D.C.’s public schools. You probably have also heard about how Michelle Rhee was brought from near-obscurity to take over the city’s schools, overnight becoming a national symbol of dramatic education “reform.”

What you may not have heard is that after years of high-stakes testing and mass teacher firings along with school closings and reorganizations by Rhee and her successor and protégé, Kaya Henderson, many D.C. public schools are no better. In some cases, they’re worse.

That should give us all pause as we jump to change local and national education policies based on catchphrases that mask decisions that will do lasting harm to our children.

The Washington Post reported in June that test scores declined at 10 of the 18 schools that were reorganized under Rhee and Henderson between 2008 and 2010. Test scores are up in only six of those schools — two others have since closed. That’s a pretty poor record. As even Henderson conceded: “We have not always done reconstitution well.”

Track records like this one are fueling rising anger around the country over so-called reforms that offer lofty promises to justify the disruption of neighborhood schools, upended curriculums driven by standardized tests, widespread privatization, reduced budgets, and personnel policies that leave teachers feeling under siege, demoralized, and devalued.

The Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” initiative, intended to encourage a “common core” curriculum buttressed by testing and teacher “accountability” measures, is galvanizing opposition from both the right and the left.

“An Education Declaration to Rebuild America,” backed by a group of about 50 largely progressive education experts and academics, is the latest effort to bring some common sense to an often-fraught debate. It was released by the Education Opportunity Network, a new organization created through a partnership between the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign and the Institute for America’s Future, where I work. It has garnered support from more than 20,000 citizen endorsers.

The so-called education reform agenda, the declaration says, “imposes top-down standards and punitive high-stakes testing while ignoring the supports students need to thrive and achieve.”

The alternative, the declaration suggests, would — among other things — declare that public education is and always should be a public good, with both adequate public support and public accountability.

A child’s access to a good public education shouldn’t be determined by which side of the tracks the child lives on or the parent’s ability to work the system. Teachers should be treated as valued professionals, not as disposable widgets in a soulless machine. And the profession should be designed to attract our best and brightest.

National responsibility should complement local control. And reform should be “supports-based” rather than “standards-based,” focused on providing “every student with the opportunities and resources needed to achieve high standards.”

One of the successfully reconstituted D.C. schools might offer a partial glimpse at what this education declaration has in mind.

According to the The Washington Post, Scott Cartland was brought in to be the principal of a “chaotic and broken” Wheatley Education Campus in a low-income section of the city in 2008. Among other things, he poured resources into mental health and social workers and connected troubled youth with a community health organization. Teachers worked more closely with parents. One result: Reading and math proficiency scores at the school doubled.

A series of protests and grassroots organizing drives in Florida, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington state — just to name a few — amount to a demand for a new debate over education policy.

Consider the Education Declaration to Rebuild America a reset button that calls on our leaders to stop swinging the wrecking ball at public schools. It’s time to focus on what the children who attend public schools really need to succeed.

This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/new-education-debate-1371996355. All rights are reserved.