Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning"
"Dedicated to the premise that no matter what 'experts' say, trends in Education really are fleeting; and that the ONLY goal of all school employees should be to work with parents to help their students become better people in June than they were in September."
Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Newly obtained tax records shed additional light on the web of “dark money” organizations tied to President Donald Trump’s top judicial adviser that were used to funnel millions to organizations that boosted the Supreme Court nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS HERE –
This article was co-reported by OpenSecrets and Maplight.
Whitmer’s spending priorities: Roads, education
Michigan teachers quitting at record rate
But the vice president of the Michigan Education Association, Chandra Madaferri, says most of the teachers leaving are coming right out of school.
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This week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced he will once again enter the Democratic primary for president. In terms of campaign finance, Sanders is one of the more outspoken politicians in his opposition to the Citizens United decision, PACs and “dark money” in politics. He rejected corporate PAC donations in 2016, inspiring most of the 2020 Democratic field to declare the same. |
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If money is speech, women spoke loudly in 2018. As the 2018 election was the most expensive midterm by a large margin, female donors gave more than $1.1 billion towards the ‘Year of the Woman’ elections. |
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Spending by groups that don’t fully disclose donors has exceeded $2 billion since the 2006 election cycle. Direct dark money spending by groups funded entirely by anonymous donors hit nearly $150 million reported to the FEC for the 2018 election cycle alone. |
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Which party does Wall Street give more money to? Democrats or Republicans?
The answer can vary depending on the election cycle. In 2018, bankers and hedge fund managers joined a number of industries in shifting giving towards Democrats. |
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https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/somp2-wall-street-other-major-industries-trending-left |
Teachers with the Chicago Teachers Union hold picket signs in 2012. (Flickr/TMT-photos)
Denver public school teachers went on strike Feb. 11, for the first time in 25 years, to push for better pay. The teachers union in Oakland, California has announced plans to strike after failing to reach an agreement with the school district on higher wages, smaller class sizes and other issues. In January, teachers in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school district, went on strike for the first time in 30 years to force district leaders to work with their union to address some of the same concerns.
While many educators credit their unions for helping them secure higher salaries and better working conditions, union critics accuse these organizations of hurting students by shielding low-performing and problematic teachers from disciplinary action or dismissal. At the national and state levels, teachers unions have become a powerful force, influencing both legislation and elections.
The two main teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, are among the biggest labor organizations in the United States. Together, they represent about 5 million employees, officials from the two organizations told Journalist’s Resource.
Below, we’ve gathered a sampling of research that offers insights into the work of teachers unions, including their impact on teacher salaries, student achievement and teacher turnover.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS HERE – https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/teachers-unions-salaries-students-research
Wisconsin’s new governor, Tony Evers released a budget plan on Tuesday that confronts the school privatization agenda of former Governor Scott Walker and what remains a Republican-dominated Wisconsin Legislature. Wisconsin has been a leader among the states which have favored the expansion of private school tuition voucher programs and charter schools.
For the Associated Press, Scott Bauer quotes Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald: “Republicans in the Legislature have spent years helping build the voucher program… We will not support a budget that includes this proposal.”
Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Voucher Program launched the nation’s experiment with school privatization nearly three decades ago. Whether or not Evers succeeds in curbing what has been Wisconsin’s persistent expansion of vouchers and charters, his budget proposal names many of the ways Wisconsin’s expansion of school privatization has violated the public interest.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‘s Molly Beck describes Evers’ plan: “About 28,000 students…
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"That all citizens will be given an equal start through a sound education is one of the most basic, promised rights of our democracy. Our chronic refusal as a nation to guarantee that right for all children.... is rooted in a kind of moral blindness, or at least a failure of moral imagination.... It is a failure which threatens our future as a nation of citizens called to a common purpose... tied to one another by a common bond." —Senator Paul Wellstone --- March 31, 2000
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