Watching Captain Phillips recently, my wife turned to me and said “I’ve found someone who has a harder job than I do”. I pointed out that, that is because the pirates have found a legal way to steal your money!
The fight to protect our public schools is getting harder and harder by the day. It is also going on all over the country. As David Sirota points out, Colorado is in the same fight as we are:
Most recently, some of these billionaires make headlines financing Colorado ballot initiatives that seem altruistic in their ostensible goals of raising revenue for schools. Yet, the oligarchs make sure that the details of those initiatives quietly steer a massive chunk of the new education revenue away from public schools and into the coffers of privately administered charter schools – the ones that on the whole don’t provide better educational outcomes, but do serve those billionaires’ desires to undermine teachers’ unions.
Still another way to see what the local effects of oligarchy look like on a day-to-day basis is to behold the hideous school board politics of my hometown of Denver, where data show years of anti-public-school “reforms” have seriously harmed children. I first learned about this depressing situation a few years ago when my wife ran as a pro-public-school candidate for an unpaid school board position and suddenly faced a $200,000+ campaign against her, including an election-timed appearance from George W. Bush to rally the school privatization movement. It is a hard-to-believe situation – but it is, alas, very real.
Its happening in New Jersey where Big Chris Christie tried to bully a teacher with a “you people” rant but in the end, like all bullies, was proven to be a very small man.
The thing is, the public school profiteers, are starting to get cocky and have stopped hiding it and are attacking our public schools with a full frontal attack. The next Shot on the Bow is happening right here in Wisconsin and it is happening Tuesday November 19th.
On the republican side, we have an out in the open, voucher school champion who reports directly to convicted felon Scott “Scooter” Jensen who also leads the “steal public education” money brigade and is our very own Abduwali Muse, by being the front man for American for Children(a walmart heir funded voucher school front group whose sole purpose is to destroy public education). Jessie Rodriguez is the candidate of choice if you think public education is an expense not an investment.
Here she is taking her marching orders from Mr. Jensen:
Dominique Paul Noth Broke it down for us in detail:
In contrast, Rodriguez won her nomination in a hotly contested Republican primary on Oct. 22, thanks to the backing of voucher supporters from outside the district. Rodriguez is an outreach coordinator for Hispanics for School Choice, where her husband, conservative Journal Sentinel blogger Aaron Rodriguez, is secretary, and her brother-in-law, Zeus, head of the voucher-supported St. Anthony School, is president.
State Republicans encouraged her candidacy because it would insulate the party from criticism that it excludes women and people of color—and because she could bring in national voucher money.
The Scott Jensen-connected national voucher front group, American Federation for Children (AFC), poured some $45,647 into Rodriguez’s primary win, and it is rumored that they are poised to spend much more in unreportable issue-advocacy ads. The math suggests AFC paid more than $30 for every primary vote Rodriguez got.
In addition, the Jobs First Political Action Fund, a conservative Jensen-connected group that promotes Scott Walker’s phantasmal job numbers from a mail drop in Brookfield, pumped $24,000 into media buys against Coppola. And in November they added $18,000 more. That was just when curious fake emails erupted using Coppola’s name without permission, inviting her supporters to set up false bank accounts to “handle” mythical out-of-state donations (a scam that has been reported to prosecutors).
But will school vouchers win over voters in the south shore suburbs?
It amazes me that they would have someone so blatantly dishonest and unethical lead the charge for “education reform” who would trust their kids to this man?
NOT I!
If you feel its time to stop the bleeding of public education by the pirates, we can say NO more!
Elizabeth Coppola is running against her and she needs OUR support!
Visit her webpage here, her facebook page here and send her $5(or more) here!
Elizabeth Coppola graduated from Alverno College(and Monona Grove High School), where she was elected student government president. She also completed the seven-month Emerge training program for women interested in public service.
Coppola’s professional background includes managing 50 employees for Target Corporation. She currently works for the United Way, where she acts as liaison between the nonprofit group and 40 businesses. She’s volunteered for the Hunger Task Force, the Research Center for Women and Girls, and the office of the Milwaukee County Public Defender.
“Given my passion for serving my community and my work in both the non-profit and business sectors, I have the experience to best represent the people of the 21st District,” Coppola says.
