Given a theme as dramatic and consequential as America’s financial collapse, many filmmakers have risen to the challenge of going behind the headlines to tell important stories and make critical points that need to be shared if we’re to learn anything from the crisis. Below are some of those important movies and documentaries. Please share your own favorite financial-themed films in the comments below.
http://billmoyers.com/content/six-films-on-the-financial-crisis/
John Kiriakou: What Does G4S Know About the Orlando Nightclub Massacre? – Truthdig
Much has been made in recent weeks of Omar Mateen’s background. The perpetrator of the Orlando, Fla., massacre was alternately a “radical Islamist,” a deeply closeted gay man, a wife abuser, a mental case, everybody’s best friend in high school and a loser. The list goes on. But what the mainstream media—and the government, for that matter—have not talked about is the fact that Mateen was employed at the time of his crime by G4S, a London-based company that is one of the largest mercenary firms in the world, with intelligence contractors deployed in war zones and hot spots around the globe.
This could be a coincidence. Or it could be something more sinister. Was Mateen some sort of Manchurian candidate, for example?
For now, nobody is talking.
The public, however, has a right to know what is going on in the shady world of intelligence contracting.
Read more here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_does_g4s_know_about_the_orlando_nightclub_massacre_20160627
Opposition to the Common Core now has bipartisan support in Washington State
Opposition to the Common Core now has bipartisan support in Washington State
From Truth in American Education:
bipartisan-logo
Washington State GOP Supports Student Privacy, Opposes Common Core
The Washington State Republicans passed a student privacy resolution at their recent state convention last month in Pasco, WA. They also passed language opposing Common Core into their state party platform. Opposition to Common Core has crossed party lines, and is truly a bipartisan issue in Washington State. Last year, you may recall, the Washington State Democratic Party passed a resolution opposing Common Core.
Here is the resolution language which was written by our own J.R. Wilson.
Student Privacy Resolution…
From Truth in American Education:
Washington State GOP Supports Student Privacy, Opposes Common Core
The Washington State Republicans passed a student privacy resolution at their recent state convention last month in Pasco, WA. They also passed language opposing Common Core into their state party platform. Opposition to Common Core has crossed party lines, and is truly a bipartisan issue in Washington State. Last year, you may recall, the Washington State Democratic Party passed a resolution opposing Common Core.
Here is the resolution language which was written by our own J.R. Wilson.
Student Privacy Resolution
Whereas, privacy rights of students and parents are not forfeited upon public or private school enrollment and attendance or providing home based instruction;
Whereas, non-cognitive factors include, but are not limited to, such things as attitudes, beliefs, attributes, feelings, mindsets, social and emotional learning, metacognitive learning skills, motivation, grit, tenacity, perseverance, self-regulation…
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Students’ rights in charter schools: There aren’t many
A series of court rulings suggests that students who attend charter schools do not have the same rights as public school students.
Quick, reader: If you dramatically scale up schools in which students have fewer rights than students who attend traditional public schools, with what do you end up? If you answered *more students with fewer rights,* congratulations! You have won the opportunity to learn more on this important, yet little discussed topic. Our expert witness today: one Dr. Preston Green, a professor of law and educational leadership, who has been monitoring a series of court rulings regarding the rights of students in charter schools. Or make that the lack of rights. Dr. Green warns that both state and federal courts have issued rulings stating that students in charters do not have the same due process rights as public-school students. So what does this mean for cities like Los Angeles where a dramatic expansion of charter schools is on the table? *Half of the publicly-funded schools in Los Angeles might be legally permitted to ‘dismiss’ students without due process.* says Dr. Green. *We have to ask ourselves if such a scenario is acceptable.*
I asked Dr. Green to explain some recent court rulings on student rights, and how they relate to the larger debate over whether charter schools are public or private entities. Take it away, Dr. Green. Court is in session…
From edushyster at edushyster.com:
Signing their rights away
A series of court rulings suggests that students who attend charter schools do not have the same rights as public school students.
Quick, reader: If you dramatically scale up schools in which students have fewer rights than students who attend traditional public schools, with what do you end up? If you answered *more students with fewer rights,* congratulations! You have won the opportunity to learn more on this important, yet little discussed topic. Our expert witness today: one Dr. Preston Green, a professor of law and educational leadership, who has been monitoring a series of court rulings regarding the rights of students in charter schools. Or make that the lack of rights. Dr. Green warns that both state and federal courts have issued rulings stating that students in charters do not have the same due process rights as public-school students. So what…
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WWMDMS – 3/11/16 | from the BustED Pencils blog…
WWMDMS?
(What would Matt Damon’s Mom say? Listen in to find out!)
Can you believe some some people now want to measure such things as joy and determination with standardized tests? Really? Joy and a standardized test? How about authentic assessment? What say you Nancy?
http://bustedpencils.com/wwmdms/wwmdms-31116/
It’s “easy being GREEN” for Dr. Jill Stein | BustED Pencils
Feature Interview: Dr. Jill Stein,
Green Party presidential candidate
“Presumptive Nominees” Trump and Clinton. But what about Stein? Wait till you hear her powerfulideas on public education!
Fully Leaded Education News: Trump the bully Activist of the Week: Emily Kaplan (blogger for Defending the Early Years) — Not just teaching, but making public all things troubling about schools! What Would Matt Damon’s Mom Say (WWMDMS): You have to listen to what Nancy Says about Donald Trump? GASP!! Moment of Zinn
http://bustedpencils.com/episode/episode-18-easy-green-dr-jill-stein/
Nurturing Your Writing Plus Shareworthy Reading and Writing Links June 26
“If you want your writing life to thrive, you must tend and nurture your writing practice with care and intention. You cannot simply throw a few seeds in the proverbial dirt and hope for the best. You must create the right environment in which your writing can grow. You have to establish a regular practice of weeding and watering, and make sure your tiny seedlings get enough sunlight and warmth. You might even need to talk to them kindly to encourage them to grow.”
The house may need new shingles and paint, but at least we have some cheerful flowers to brighten the door.
Last week, Deborah published Weeding and Words, a lovely post in which she used weeding her garden as an apt analogy for editing her writing. Like Deborah, I have been spending some time tending to domesticated flora, and – though I am much less ambitious than she when it comes to gardening – I am very much enjoying the experience. This being my and my daughter’s first spring/summer in our new home, we are starting small – some hanging baskets for the front door, a tiny vegetable garden in the yard, and a modest planter of annuals on the back stoop.
This little, raised-bed garden was my daughter’s idea, but it’s kind of growing on me. (Pun intended!)
It occurred to me as I was lugging the watering can from baskets…
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Six Clinton delegates on the Platform Committee who voted against a $15 minimum wage.
When 70% of the US economy is based on “consumption” and with the middle class shrinking year after year since the 1970s, why on earth would endorsing stepped inreases in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour be unacceptable to these six DNC party leaders? Smh…
State Says Los Angeles Schools Must Spend More on Poor Students and English Learners
Telecommunications manufacturer David Welch and his organization, Students Matter, the group that brought the original anti-teacher-tenure lawsuit Vergara v. California, and Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor whose Partnership for Educational Justice has been bringing copycat anti-tenure lawsuits across the country, allege that schools are failing to serve their poorest students because tenure is protecting tired, old, lazy teachers and assigning such teachers to the schools that serve children in poor neighborhoods. Never mind that what seems to be happening instead is that very poor children are being assigned the least experienced teachers. And never mind that a shortage of dollars in big city school districts really does seem to be a primary problem.
A year-old report from Bruce Fuller and other researchers at the University of California at Berkeley explains that in Los Angeles, “Sacramento cut spending on K-12 education by one-fifth statewide in the years following 2008—in the wake of the Great Recession. The impact on LAUSD (the Los Angeles Unified School District)… was immense, losing approximately $2.7 billion between 2009 and 2013. But the state has instituted a new Local Control Funding Formula for the purpose of supporting the education of poor children and children learning English. And it turns out there are serious questions about how the new money is being spent by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which needs to address years’ of unmet needs.
The California Department of Education just sided with Public Advocates, a California public interest law firm, which had filed a complaint against LAUSD on behalf of the Community Coalition of South Los Angeles, a complaint charging that the school district is not investing, as required by the new state funding formula, enough new dollars in the education of very poor children and English learners. The complaint says the district has claimed to be increasing spending on vulnerable students while it has instead been counting special education expenditures as though they were providing additional funding for poor students.
Here is the California Department of Education’s recent finding, according to Ed Source:
Telecommunications manufacturer David Welch and his organization, Students Matter, the group that brought the original anti-teacher-tenure lawsuit Vergara v. California, and Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor whose Partnership for Educational Justice has been bringing copycat anti-tenure lawsuits across the country, allege that schools are failing to serve their poorest students because tenure is protecting tired, old, lazy teachers and assigning such teachers to the schools that serve children in poor neighborhoods. Never mind that what seems to be happening instead is that very poor children are being assigned the least experienced teachers. And never mind that a shortage of dollars in big city school districts really does seem to be a primary problem.
A year-old report from Bruce Fuller and other researchers at the University of California at Berkeley explains that in Los Angeles, “Sacramento cut spending on K-12 education by one-fifth statewide in the years following…
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Five Myths Reformers Want You to Believe about Teachers
Five Myths Reformers Want You to Believe about Teachers
By Emily Talmage, educator/writer
Teachers are no strangers to having stories told about them in order to move political agendas forward. During the era of No Child Left Behind, tales of lazy and incompetent teachers helped pave the way for strict accountability measures. Now, as ESSA marches forward with its plans to commodify, digitalize, and outsource education, a new set of myths has begun to circulate. Here are some of the most common fables you’re likely to hear.
Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" 