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August 18th, 2014

8/18/2014

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NEO-LIBERALISM AND NEO-CONSERVATISM HAVE DECLARED WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE US AND AROUND THE WORLD.  CLINTON AND OBAMA ARE THE FACE OF NEO-LIBERALISM AND CONGRESS IS CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS.  TAKE BACK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!


I will talk a few days about neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism and women.  Yesterday I shared a piece from an International Women's meeting in Europe--- for openDemocracy 5050  from the Nobel Women's Initiative conference.  I also want to remind people that Maryland League of Women Voters leaders knew all the candidates in Maryland's race for Governor ----Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur -----were neo-liberals.  It is critical to take back these organizations tasked with protecting labor and justice. 

If you listened to Tom Friedman and other neo-liberal economists over these few decades after Reagan/Clinton neo-liberalism joined the Bush neo-conservatives you would have heard that US sweat shops in developing worlds were good for those poor peasants.  Now that US corporations are being pushed out of these developing worlds and coming back to the US under the guise of job creation----they will bring these same conditions.  Do you know that many low-wage workers in the US both domestic and immigrant do not bring home much more than the developing world's $10 a day after wage theft and fraudulent independent contractor status is laid on them?  Indeed-----and Maryland leads in these policies.


THIS IS NEO-LIBERALISM AND NEO-CONSERVATISM.....IT IS NOT DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN AND IT KILLS WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND FAMILIES.


If you are going to push women back into poverty and out of the workforce in a meaningful way the first thing to do in a formerly first world where women gained freedom and independence because they were able to work and graduate to high positions is pretend they are winning in the race to the bottom.  Women paid more in part time jobs as women become the majority of part time workers.  As job creation becomes service industry this means poverty jobs.  Just a quick look locally I have noticed a change in banks in Baltimore---it seems that the once abundance of women bank management behind desks now looks to be all men.  I seriously have seen no women in my M and T banks except as tellers.  When jobs are made scarce you will see that mentality that men need the jobs because they are the breadwinner come back and that is what is happening.  Is it bad to remove financial freedom from women in the US?  Well, let's look at the rate of domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment growing in the US -----the growing sex traffic of women in the US to see abusing women comes with neo-liberalism.

  IF NO RULES/RULE OF LAW AND NO PUBLIC JUSTICE EXIST-----WOMEN LOSE.


This Is The One Area Where Women Earn More Than Men
  • Alison Griswold

  • Nov. 7, 2013, 9:28 AM


There's one area where the gender wage gap is irrelevant and even reversed. Women consistently earn more than men in part-time jobs, which women are also more likely to have.


_______________________________________________


Look below at the article written by Korean women rights groups to see the history of subjugation of women in that country to see where neo-liberalism is taking the US.  We are pummeled with news that women are graduating from college in higher numbers than men but we do not get the big picture.  First, college grads represent a large percentage of the 36% unemployed in the US and women more so than men.  So, women may be graduating in larger numbers but they represent those students with large student loan debts as well.

What we see is a gender change in careers that have been mostly female and paying the most to that of men.  Nursing and teaching are two careers that have paid well for women and these jobs are being taken more and more by men.  Then there comes the pay inequity within the same job categories.....women paid less.  What this all represents is the movement of women out of the workforce and into what will be increasingly part time or unemployed status....just as the Korean women state in the article below.  That is what neo-liberalism does----it marginalizes women and creates the poverty for women that dis-empowers.
  Now, Republicans have always pushed policy for women in the home----the problem is that with neo-liberals pushing 80% and more of Americans into poverty------women become trapped and abused----as in all third world countries. 
So, when neo-liberals place women pay equity on their policy stance as they knowingly push everyone into poverty with a loss of Rule of Law and Equal Protection and Trans Pacific Trade Pact moving US citizens to third world status----THEY ARE HANDING YOU PROPAGANDA. 


THAT IS WHERE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ARE TAKING WOMEN AND THEY ARE SIMPLY PROVIDING STATS THAT MAKE IT SOUND LIKE WOMEN ARE DOING GREAT.


ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.



Graduating to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation

(2012) AAUW

Foreword
Women are paid significantly less than men are in nearly every occupation.



Because pay equity affects
women and their families in all walks of life, it is not surprising that many women consider the issue
important. Many business leaders also believe that pay equity is “good business,” because it improves
morale and productivity. Yet progress in closing the gap between men’s and women’s pay has been slow
and, in recent years, has stagnated.
For more than 130 years, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) has advocated
for gender equity in education and the workplace. During this time, women have gone from a small
minority on college campuses to a majority of the student body. Today, women make up half the workforce,
but they continue to earn less than men do throughout their careers.

Why does this gender pay gap persist? This question is a focal point of AAUW’s research and advocacy
work. Graduating to a Pay Gap finds that women working full time already earn less than their
male counterparts do just one year after college graduation. Taking a closer look at the data, we find
that women’s choices—college major, occupation, hours at work—do account for part of the pay gap.
But about one-third of the gap remains unexplained, suggesting that bias and discrimination are still
problems in the workplace.
At AAUW, research informs action. As an organization of college-educated women, we believe that
the pay gap among college-educated workers and its ramifications—starting with higher student loan
debt burden immediately after college graduation—are of great importance. AAUW is proud to share
research that you can trust. We hope this report will inspire you to join us in taking action to eliminate
the pay gap.
_________________________________________

Keep in mind that the media presenting all of this news knows what the goal of neo-liberalism is---they know women will be targeted for impoverishment.  Yet, they pretend it is just that nasty stagnant economy!!!!  Neo-liberals pretend Republicans cause the stagnant economy ----Republicans pretend its the Democrats---when it is neo-liberals working with neo-cons deliberately creating the stagnant economy because they want US citizens to overwhelmingly become impoverished....third world.


Student Debt Weighs Down Women More. Blame The Wage Gap

by Jessica Glazer

April 06, 2014 5:18 AM ET NPR


When Kristine Leighton graduated from a private college five years ago with a degree in hospitality, she owed $75,000 in student loans. Each month, she paid the minimum amount of $450 and lived at home with her parents on Long Island, N.Y.

At first, she was working at a hotel for $10 an hour; money was tight. Even after she got a job in Manhattan making $75,000 a year, she still couldn't afford to move out. She funneled her earnings into car payments, credit card bills and debt, and a monthly commuter train pass. The loan payments left little extra money for things like an emergency fund.


______________________________________

Women are not choosing to stay home----they are being pushed out of the workforce and marginized into poverty careers and part time.


Global markets allow corporations to profit from a small number of very rich in nations around the world while keeping the majority of people in each nation in poverty.  That is what the Clinton Foundation has worked to do after his pushing of NAFTA and breaking Glass Steagall to grow global corporations and empire-colonialization.


You do not create an environment of suspended Rule of Law, corporate rule, and pervasive fraud and corruption, war and violence from poverty if you have good intentions.



The Mythical ‘Choice’ of the Stay-at-Home Mom

The fact that so much anger erupts at any perceived slight tells us many women are not truly choosing to be home with the kids



By Judith Warner @judithwarner  Time

The mood has shifted considerably on last week’s Ann Romney–Hilary Rosen fracas, with poll results showing that most women don’t really care about what Washington insiders have to say about Rosen’s word choice or, for that matter, how Romney chose to spend her time once she had children. Women are shrugging off political attempts to rekindle the tired old “mommy wars” debate, and are getting on with their busy and complicated lives.

I was shocked, nonetheless, by the degree of rage contained in some of the e-mails I received in response to my column last week. I was also deeply surprised this week when a readers’ panel I participated in on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show on the 1899 Kate Chopin novel, The Awakening, devolved, very quickly, back to Rosen-and-Romney talk once again.



The proximate cause: disagreement over the character of Edna Pontellier, a wealthy young New Orleans woman stifling within her loveless marriage and unstimulating, toil-free life (I believe I can say “toil-free” without unduly again stirring the pot: Edna’s children and home are cared for by ample domestic help), who, after experiencing an emotional and sensual “awakening” through infatuation, escapes her husband and children by taking her own life.

Some readers around the country, and I, distanced ourselves from Edna’s “selfishness” in abandoning her children. Others felt we owed much greater compassion to a woman who had such a stark lack of choices. All of which somehow looped back to Rosen and Romney, and maternal stay-at-home loneliness and despair. Diane Rehm, the radio talk-show host, and Jane Holmes Dixon, suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, recalled the stifling isolation they’d felt as mothers 50 odd years earlier; they could strongly relate to Edna, as could a number of listeners.

It quickly became clear that the link between this more-than-a-century-old fictional character and these moms writing or calling in to express their solidarity with Edna was simple: misery. It was feelings, current or remembered, of depression, of the sense of a vital loss of self and of a deep maroonedness. Rehm and Dixon, who have known each other for many decades, remembered how important it had been to be able to get together way back then and talk their way through all these feelings. It is still a great unifier of stay-at-home mothers today.

This reality, I think, fuels much of the anger, the desire for recognition, the demand for respect we’ve heard so often of late from this minority of mothers — only 30% of whom, in the U.S., are home full-time with children under 18. Recent research has shown that this group is considerably less happy than working mothers, and less contented than part-time working mothers in particular. Working moms are healthier and less depressed, the American Psychological Association reported late last year. Why they feel this way isn’t hard to imagine. Stay-at-home mothers give up their financial freedom, and with it many feel their sense of agency slip away. Their position of equality with their husbands is by necessity somewhat eroded. They lose the sense of strength that comes from knowing that, come what may, they can keep themselves and their children afloat economically. They lose intellectual stimulation (assuming that they were lucky enough to have it in their jobs anyway), the easy companionship and structure of the workplace, and recognition from the outside world. And if they don’t have the money to outsource domestic jobs, their freedom from paid work comes at the cost of repetitive thankless tasks — laundry, cleaning and the like — that test their patience and can chip away at their self-worth. The pleasure in this life of course is time with the children, but school-age kids leave a void that many find hard to meaningfully fill.


In the past, women lived constricted lives because society didn’t afford them much by way of choice. Today, our society in theory offers them a plethora of choices — so many, “that they’re overwhelmed by the stress of so many choices,” as Maureen Dowd said in her New York Times column this week — but in practice, far too many of these choices are false. A woman who ends up staying home with her kids because her work pays so badly that she can’t afford decent child care really has no choice. Ditto for a woman who has a special-needs child requiring constant medical visits and attention and whose husband earns more than she does, making her the natural, if not necessary, primary parent. The woman whose 55-hour-a-week job combines with her husband’s equally demanding career to produce a level of busyness that makes having a connected family life all but impossible unless one of them (the lower-paid one, of course) stays home isn’t really free in her choices either. How many women, after all — or men, for that matter — are in the enviable position of being able, like Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, to leave work at 5:30 p.m. in order to make it home for a nice dinner with their kids? If more could, we’d probably see women’s workforce participation sharply increase — economy permitting.


If women were truly choosing to be home full-time, I think there would probably be a whole lot less emphasis on the hard work involved in doing so and a lot more talk about the privilege that choice would then clearly be. The fact that so much anger — masking so much unhappiness — erupts at any perceived slight to stay-at-home mothers’ efforts should tell us that the condition of full-time motherhood is one we should talk about a great deal more — not through Hallmark-worthy platitudes, but with concern and an eye toward change.

____________________
This is why neo-liberals and neo-cons are working hard to privatize all public agencies charged with oversight and accountability.  No data is being generated from US universities that now dismantle sociology and humanities that created this data.  In Maryland, all of our data is questionable as we find time and again that stats reported one year are found to be skewed and/or false a few years later.  Create the headline with faulty data say neo-liberals and then bury the fact that the data was found false.

Whether women in the military, women on college campuses, women in marriages, women being used in sex traffic----these are US women being attacked and it all has to do with increasing poverty and suspension of Rule of Law, Equal Protection, and Bill of Rights by neo-liberals and neo-cons.
When neo-liberals in Congress pretend to try to fund these programs but it is the 'republicans' that keep them from doing it ----tell them

TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD FROM LAST DECADE WOULD PAY OFF THE ENTIRE NATIONAL DEBT AND MAKE GOVERNMENT COFFERS FLUSH WITH MONEY-----JUST RECOVER THE FRAUD!



US: Soaring Rates of Rape and Violence Against Women
More Accurate Methodology Shows Urgent Need for Preventive Action December 18, 2008


The National Crime Victimization Survey, based on projections from a national sample survey, says that at least 248,300 individuals were raped or sexually assaulted in 2007, up from 190,600 in 2005, the last year the survey was conducted. The study surveyed 73,600 individuals in 41,500 households. Among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increases. Except for simple assault, which increased by 3 percent, the incidence of every other crime surveyed decreased.

"The numbers in this survey show an alarmingly high rate of sexual violence in this country,"
said Sarah Tofte, researcher for the US Program at Human Rights Watch. "This should serve as a wake-up call that more must be done to address the problem in the US."

The projected number of violent crimes committed by intimate partners against women increased from 389,100 in 2005 to 554,260 in the 2007 report. By comparison, the number of violent crimes against men by intimate partners went down.

"Domestic violence is often a hidden crime, and these numbers are a stark reminder of how serious and widespread this problem is," said Tofte. "The Obama-Biden administration should make prevention and protection against all forms of domestic and sexual violence a top priority."

The National Crime Victimization Survey is conducted every two years, with data gathered in phone calls made to a sample of households across the United States. Due to criticism from experts in the subject, the survey's methodology was adjusted in 2007 to capture more accurately the incidence of gender-based violence. The authors say in the report that the higher numbers may reflect the new, more accurate methodology rather than an actual increase. Two major shifts were to describe types of sexual assault to those being interviewed, and to replace "computer-assisted telephone interviews conducted from two telephone centers" nationwide with interviews "by field representatives either by telephone or in person."

"The new numbers
indicate that previously, the government significantly underestimated the number of individuals affected by domestic and sexual violence in this country,"
said Tofte. "Authorities should urgently adjust public policies, law enforcement, and provision of support services accordingly."

Human Rights Watch is currently investigating and monitoring the criminal justice response to sexual violence. The organization's recent work includes investigating the backlog in untested DNA evidence collected in rape cases in the US. In Los Angeles City and County alone, there is a combined total of at least 13,000 untested sets of evidence, known as rape kits, sitting in storage.

Human Rights Watch's national recommendations include:

  • The Obama administration should appoint a special adviser on violence against women in the US;
  • Congress should restore full funding to the Office on Violence Against Women;
  • The Department of Justice, through the National Institute of Justice, should authorize comprehensive studies that more accurately track sexual and domestic violence in the US, especially among individuals who are least likely to be surveyed by the National Crime Victimization Survey;
  • Congress should increase funding for sexual and domestic violence prevention, intervention, and treatment programs;
  • Congress should amend the federal Debbie Smith Act, a grant program designed to eliminate the rape kit backlog, but that states can and have used for other kinds of DNA backlogs;
  • The US should ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to prevent, protect against, and punish violence against women.
________________

Below you can see what is coming to the US----Korea was taken neo-liberal after the Korean War in the late 1950s and shows the progression as it hit full-scale in the 1990s---Reagan/Clinton.  Koreans use the term 'irregular worker' for part time. This is long but please glance through because you will read in this history of Korea's takeover by neo-liberals exactly what is happening today.  It is women and children who's wealth fell the most in the last decade of corporate fraud---women are the majority of job losses----and the majority working part time in the US.  Indeed, women now make up a majority of the poor.  Given that women in the US make up a little over 50% of the population----the numbers in poverty are very high.

This is why you have women hitting the political races who are neo-liberals pretending to feel the pain of women driven into poverty by neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism.

HILLARY AND OBAMA REPRESENT THE TWO GROUPS KILLED BY NEO-LIBERALISM AND THAT IS WHY NEO-LIBERALS ARE PUTTING BLACK, HISPANIC, AND FEMALE FACES ON THEIR CANDIDATES.


Remember, less than 10% will be allowed to escape poverty as administrators of this global corporate mess.  Don't vote for a candidate because of race or gender!  Your chances of remaining in that 10% is slim to nothing.

NEOLIBERALISM THRHOUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN
Joo-Yeon Jeong & Seung-Min Choi, PICIS*


There is no place on Earth where neo-liberalism has not poisoned. It has allowed a handful of private interests to control as much as possible of social life in order to maximize personal profit. It has poisonous effects especially in the Third World, where imperial powers continue to pirate natural and human resources to fill the pockets of transnational capitalists. Initiated by Reagan and Thatcher, for the last two decades, neo-liberalism has become the dominant economic and political trend for much of the leftist (so they identify themselves) governments as well as the right.

However, as women fighting against global capitalism and its new phase, as women yearning for a better world where we will not be exploited and abused, we must go a step further into looking into this 'neo-liberalism' through the experiences of women. And it is not just about how women linearly experience it - we must go into the depths to manifest how neo-liberalism operates in a very gender-biased way.

WOMEN WORKERS AS SCAPEGOATS


In Korea, the process of being absorbed into global capitalism began earlier than the economic crisis, during the economic 'hyper '-development era of military dictatorship of Park Jung-Hee, with quite a bit of help from the US. Fluctuating together with global economic crises, the Korean economy started to show signs of a recession from the early 90s, as rate of profit decreased. Thus, capitalists started to adopt policies of introducing flexibility to the labour market. It was 'experimented' on women workers first before taking full force on the entire working class at the end of the millennium.

Jobs where women were predominant started to be transformed in the 1980s, beginning in the form of dispatch labour and eventually expanding to generalisation of irregular labour. However, this process was mainly targeted at women workers and the male-oriented labour movement did not give much importance to it, even though women worker's movement consistently called for the address of the issue.

Although the incorporation of Korean economy into the global capitalist system had already started around a decade ago, Korean people came to experience its destructive nature during and after the economic crisis of 1997. The structural adjustment program of the IMF shook the labour market and massive lay-offs were implemented. In particular, women workers were laid off first, and the working conditions of women workers fell to the ground.

The methods that the management used was subcontracting or abolishing those production lines and business sectors where women were predominant. Women in these places were usually typists or clerical assistants, who were considered not important and cumbersome, and thus provided the logic and justification for the lay-offs. Many companies would lay-off these women, and instead employ workers from dispatch companies - thus providing the management with ways in which to decrease labour costs and evade provision of insurances and benefits. Or in the case of banks, the same worker would be reemployed, but on a contract basis as irregular workers, again to decrease labour costs. Another method of laying off women workers or transforming them into irregular workers, was targeting foremost women who were married to someone in the same workplace, and also those who were pregnant or were on their maternal leave. They provided the management with strong justifications based on patriarchal values of 'women's place is at home'. This process of unjust and discriminatory lay-offs at the onset of the economic crisis saw the deterioration of maternal protection and women worker's rights in general. The achievements that the women worker's movement had accomplished over the last couple of decades were undermined.

"FLEXIBILITY" OF WOMEN WORKERS


The massive lay-offs that occurred after 1997 was obviously not 'inevitable' on the part of the management,
but was a calculated process of increasing the rate of profit through flexibility of the labour market. Because the need for lay-offs did not come simply from decrease in production, workers who were laid off were re-employed, but as irregular workers. And because flexibility measures were implemented foremost on women, women were also absorbed again in masses into the labour market, but this time as irregular workers with low wages and low protection.

Attaining flexibility of women workers was backed up by the patriarchal ideology of 'male as breadwinner'1 . Through this ideology, women workers are considered not really as workers, but as 'assistant income providers', the ideology that contributes to devaluation of women's work. And this in turn provided the justification for the primary lay-offs of women and transforming women's jobs into irregular jobs - a justification that quelled the possibility of resistance from the working class. Recently, capitalist institutions and mainstream media elaborate that the rate of women's employment is increasing faster that the rate of men. On one hand, this is due to the increase in absolute number of jobs-irregular jobs for women, but also due to the fact that women do not have much choice than take up highly unstable jobs without any hesitation to earn a living, whereas men can afford to be more 'selective'.

Now, the percentage of irregular workers is risen to higher levels than regular workers. In analyzing a census on the economically-active workforce implemented by the Korean Statistical Office in August 2001, the Korea Labor & Society Institute (www.klsi.org) estimated the number of irregular workers to be 7.37 million, constituting 55.7% of the total workforce2.According to studies made in 2000, out of entire irregular workers, the percentage of women is higher than that of men at 53%, and within the entire women workforce irregular workers take up 70%. These official statistics exclude specially employed labour (for example, the type of jobs that capitalists characterise as self-employment) such as private tutors, insurance sales, golf caddies etc., so if these jobs are included, the rate of irregular women workers will definitely rocket.

Irregular work pertaining to capital's flexibility measures has brought deterioration of working conditions and impoverishment for workers of both genders. But it has affected women workers more severely. At the moment, most of irregular women workers are employed in small enterprises of less than 10 employees. It has driven women's work into the ditches and has also increased mental stress from lack of self-confidence and the fear of losing their jobs. One feminist scholar was interviewing irregular women workers and told of how the interviewees were in constant fear of being seen throughout the interview. Many social psychologists point out that the increase of irregular work and the mental stress that comes from it is becoming a serious social problem that is bound to affect the whole society.

Moreover, with the automation of production lines and transfer of factories in capital's constant search for cheaper labour, many women workers who had originally constituted a large proportion of the workforce in the manufacturing sector are now being absorbed into the service sector - in areas such as the so-called 'entertainment' businesses and as domestic workers. The service sector has rapidly expanded over the last few years in Korea, and many women are being employed as narrator models, telemarketers, and as servers and entertainers in bars. These jobs are not only unstable, low waged and physically strenuous, but they also enforce the use of 'femininity' and sexuality to raise sales, making women more vulnerable to possibilities of sexual abuse and exploitation. Also, because the service sector has always shared a very thin borderline with the sex industry, it is not very surprising that more and more women workers, both young and aged, are being drawn into the sex industry. For example, many married women in their 30's and 40's are employed in the so-called 'telephone rooms (jeon-hwa-bang)' and are forced to have phone sex with men. Many other married women were employed as 'pager women', who are paged to come to bars to 'entertain' men. This became a very heated issue when Daewoo Motors unionists went to a bar, paged women, and came face to face with familiar faces. When Daewoo workers were laid-off, the wives had to find jobs to sustain their families and the only ones available were as 'pager women'. The ruling elite and the conservative media are enthusiastically deploring the moral collapse of Korean women, but the reality is that it is the capitalist system that is corrupting the people.

The situation is not much different on the international arena. Neo-liberal globalisation has paved the way for increase in migrant women workers, international trafficking and enforced sex work in the Third World. In Korea, many women from the Philippines and Russia come to Korea as domestic workers and 'entertainers', and then are tricked into providing sexual services to Korean men and the US military.

WIDENING GAP BETWEEN WOMEN


Neo-liberal globalisation has also impeded the widening of gap between different classes of women. The living standard between women in the developed countries and those in the Third World is now incomparable, as is the situation inside Korea. Rich women of the bourgeoisie can afford to wear fur coats that cost tens of million won, shop in department stores in their imported cars, buy US produced baby food, send their children to expensive private English language schools so that they are reproduced as the minority elite who rule the world of globalisation, and employ women from South-east Asia as housemaids. This is how the minority of women in Korea live, and furthermore, they are not living on the wealth that they had accumulated themselves, but on the wealth accumulated by their husbands. And this in turn is the wealth accumulated from exploiting women workers in Korea and elsewhere in the Third World. In contrast to the minority of women who enjoy the outcome of neo-liberal domination in a good part of the world, majority of women cannot find a proper job no matter how hard they try, and when they do find a job, it is an unstable job in slave-like conditions that can get snatched away from them. They cannot afford domestic help or a nanny - they work for long tiring hours outside and then come home to find piles of dishes to be washed and children to be fed. Also, studies by women's organizations have found that domestic abuse has increased, as husbands and fathers who have lost jobs turn to expressing their anger at their daughters and wives, and resort to violence.

CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL BACKLASH


To quell mass resistance against economic globalisation that has brought about increase in unemployment, decrement of public services, downfall in wages and deterioration of quality of life, the ruling elite has manipulated cultural conservatism to solidify its dominance over society.
Cultural conservatism in Korea is represented by Confucian patriarchy. The economic crisis of 1997 saw the rise of this ideology that came together with the capitalist form of 'male as breadwinner' model, and acted to cover up the oppression of women while highlighting the need for women to make more sacrifices for the sake of saving the crumbling economy. In the meanwhile, unemployment of men was highlighted as a serious social problem. Thus the role of women was limited to that of 'comforting' the suffering man in the family, while the sufferings of women both as wage workers and non-wage workers were ignored. The Korean mainstream media and the conservative ruling elite alike have neglected the seriousness of women suffering from sexual abuse on the basis that women should have perseverance, but has spotlighted those desperate women who left home after losing all hopes as destructors of family values. Women who had replaced their husbands as the breadwinners end up in the sex industry, after being rejected from any other type of work, but then are stigmatised as being morally corrupt. The severity of unemployment of male youths appear in the news everyday, whereas female students are not only ignored but are blocked altogether from the labour market. Many right-wing sociologists and economists actually suggested that marriage for women should be more emphasized by the government so as to block women from entering the labour market - and thus lowering the official unemployment rate. The media focuses evermore on the fantasies of marriage, and the 'marriage business' is now enjoying its 'Belle Epoque'.

A CRITIQUE OF KIM DAE-JUNG'S POLICIES ON WOMEN


Kim Dae-Jung's government has been portrayed as being democratic and pro-feminist in and outside of Korea. There were high hopes for this president with his long history of fighting for democracy, and from the beginning, many civil and women's organizations decided to give him 'critical' support. However, his promise of establishing a ministry specific on women's issues was replaced by the Special Committee On Women's Affairs with no legislative powers, much to the disappointment of women's groups. As his presidential term is coming to an end, he did launch the Ministry of Gender Equality during the first half of this year, with a prominent figure from a major women NGO seated as the Minister. However, the policies that the Ministry is adopting are those that will hardly benefit majority of women suffering at grassroot levels.

This was recently manifested in the revisions that were made to the maternity clauses in the Standard Labour Laws in June. The Ministry had announced that it will expand public childcare so as to decrease the burden on working women. With support from major women NGOs3, the Ministry proposed revisions to maternity-related clauses in the Standard Labour Laws, and the clauses were changed for the first time since 1953. There were basically two major improvements - maternity leave was increased from the present 60 days to 90 days, and prohibition on employment of women in hazardous workplaces was expanded. This may seem like a big step, but the fact of the matter is, these laws came in exchange for further flexibility of women's labour. In exchange for increase of maternal leave, the Ministry also agreed to abolish the clauses restricting overtime work and night work, paid familycare leave and menstruation leave.

In a situation where 70% (or perhaps even higher and ever increasing) of women workers are irregular workers, how many women workers will actually benefit from the revision? The majority of working class women are outside legal boundaries. The Ministry and women NGOs argue that they will fight for the application of the laws to irregular workers, but without questioning the neo-liberal characteristics behind the legislation, there is really no chance that this will actually take place. Many women activists had fought hard for these laws for the last decade and they are congratulating themselves in finally achieving their objective, but in the meantime, a vast majority of women workers have fallen into the ditches of irregular work and the demands of the majority have been neglected to benefit a few. Capitalists have learnt to 'sacrifice' a few laws for the sake of obtaining further flexibility. Despite the argument that these revisions will open new opportunities for women, without questioning the essence of Kim's government and its support for neo-liberalism, the revisions that were recently made will only expedite the flexible usage of women workers and thus further deteriorate the working conditions of irregular women workers. The Ministry and the NGOs do not realize that the laws, along with others that were made during the recent years4 , are all in compliance with neo-liberalism.

It has only been one year since the Ministry of Gender Equality took off, but those benefiting from it are middle-class, elite women, and only the minority of women workers who are lucky enough to be in a regular job. The presidential elections take place next year. Despite that the Ministry is conforming to neo-liberal policies and trying to confuse the workers about the essence of its policies, it does have some significance amidst the severely patriarchal political scene of Korea - which may well be undermined by any of the major right-wing political parties that take office - including the ruling New Millenium Democratic Party of Kim Dae-Jung, which still receive a lot of support from NGOs. This will merely lead to more lack of hope for state-led labour policies.

FIGHTING AND ORGANISING


Neo-liberalism was not something that hit Korea suddenly in 1997, but is a historical development of capitalism that has gradually taken form during the last few decades. It had been women workers who had felt the effects of globalisation first and thus were the first ones to resist. It was the women workers of Korea, who fought militantly during the 70s and early 80s for a democratic union and worker's rights. Women workers formed the foundation for the modern labour movement, although this fact often tends to be forgotten. During the late 80's, the Korean economy reconstructed itself into focusing on export-oriented heavy industries, whose workers were predominantly men, and women workers were left behind.

The onslaught of neo-liberal globalisation and the impoverishment that came with it was also felt first by women workers. Just after the economic crisis, the women worker's movement moved a big step forward when independent women's trade unions began to beformed5 . The unions came out of the need to address the specific issues of women workers that could not be properly dealt with in a general union -organising irregular workers, the unemployed, domestic workers and those women who worked in small companies where there are no unions. The percentage of women participating in unions still remain at a meagre 5%, due to the fact that general unions do not accommodate workers who are not regular workers. It was only in 1997, when the IMF enforced austerity measures and structural adjustment programs also affected male workers, that the people's movement in Korea fully realised the destructive nature of neo-liberalism. From then on, flexibility of labour has become the main target of struggle for the working class. Spotlight was finally thrown on the fact that neo-liberalism attack women workers foremost, but unfortunately the longtime demands and struggles of women workers are being put aside, as the struggles against 'irregular labour' is again being organised in a male-oriented fashion.

The establishments of these unions are very significant in the history of the Korean labour movement and also in the women's movement. Just as the strategies of capitalists change, the organisation of the working class also much change to resist effectively. The essence of neo-liberalism and its gender-bias cannot be resisted through the traditional method of organization concentrating on male, regular workers from big enterprises.

However, these newly formed women's unions still have further developments to make and many obstacles to overcome, in their struggles against national and international capital. The unions must question the role of neo-liberal globalisation and its strategy of incorporating flexibility measures into the labour market, for a full understanding of the situation of women workers and organizing of more radical struggles that go into the fundamental core. And at the same time, the worker's movement of Korea must go through structural changes to accommodate the ever increasing irregular workers, and must also make more effort into overcoming the patriarchal values that are still prevalent inside people's movement. Many women activists and unionists have started to address the issues of gender discrimination and sexual violence inside the people's movement, which up until now had been covered up. Over the years, many fervent and militant women activists have had to leave the movement because of discrimination and violence. It was always considered women's fault, or victimized women were forced to 'forgive' for the 'greater cause'. Many women activists, workers and unionists are uniting themselves and are calling upon the movement to tackle the problem of hierarchy, discrimination and violence.

TOWARDS ORGANIZING GLOBAL RESISTANCE OF WOMEN


As we have seen, neo-liberal globalisation affects all areas of society, to attain flexibility of the labour market solely for the interests of transnational capital. In the case of Korea, this process of enforcing structural adjustment and flexibility has devastated the lives of the people, especially women. Capitalist industrialisation has brought about the rise of the women's proletariat and neo-liberal globalisation has further feminised the proletariat while at the same time impoverishing the proletariat into the verge of slavery.

This is not a matter of women merely being affected 'more' - we must look at the mechanisms of neo-liberalism that operate in a gender-biased way. Indeed, neo-liberal globalisation itself feed upon gender discrimination and effectively use traditional patriarchal values to exploit women further. Patriarchal ideologies act to crush any attempts of women to politicize and form resistance.

However, the essence of neo-liberalism is slowly being manifested and women have begun to fight back. Feminisation of labour and feminisation of poverty signify increased exploitation of women, but precisely because of that, provide the possibility for organization and resistance, nationally and internationally. Women must now go forth as subjects in uniting the people in our fight against neo-liberal globalisation. Instead of being incorporated into a ready-made movement of men or middle-class elite women, instead of taking the problems of discrimination for granted, women workers, farmers, indigenous peoples, migrants and other grassroot peoples of the Third World must form a broad solidarity. We must analyse globalisation from women's perspective, plan strategies that conform with the particular needs of women, propose alternatives that include women as equal subjects, keep to the principle of internationalism, and unite with other oppressed groups in the mass resistance in the fight against neo-liberalism - and go beyond in creating a world based on equality.

* Joo-Yeon Jeong & Seung-Min Choi are with the Policy & Information Center for International Solidarity (PICIS), Korea. This paper was presented at the International South Group Network (ISGN) Asian Workshop on Women and Globalisation, 22-24 November, Manila.

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June 11th, 2014

6/11/2014

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WHAT IS A 'VIABLE' CANDIDATE IN MARYLAND?  WHAT CONSTITUTES 'DAMAGE' TO A CAMPAIGN?  THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED IN A FEDERAL COURT CASE AGAINST RIGGED ELECTIONS IN MARYLAND.  THE VIOLATIONS ARE SO STARK THAT PROOF OF VIOLATIONS WILL BE EASY.

FOR 80% OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY----LABOR AND JUSTICE----WE HAVE WATCHED OVER TWO DECADES WHILE GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS WON ELECTIONS AT EVERY LEVEL-----MY ELECTION RUN SHOWS WHY!


IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT IT IS THE MARYLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL THAT SHOULD BE SUPPORTING CINDY WALSH IN MY CASE BEFORE THE FEDERAL COURT FOR THESE ELECTION VIOLATIONS-----BUT DOUG GANSLER IS TOO BUSY PARTICIPATING IN THE VERY SYSTEM THAT IS BREAKING THESE LAWS.  IT'S CALLED BANANA REPUBLIC POLITICS.

I want to focus on one media outlet in Maryland because it is the face of election rigging and the staff make no bones about it.  The problem is doubled when that media outlet takes on a status of 'public' radio when in fact it is run by Johns Hopkins and Hopkins is a corporation.  WYPR is a corporate radio station receiving public money and it overtly skews election coverage in the favor of the global corporate economy and protection of the massive fraud and corruption in the state----driven by Johns Hopkins.

This morning Frazer Smith-----WYPR's political 'analyst' gave us yet another totally meaningless poll on the governor's race----this time the Washington Post.  The Post had to lower the standards of that poll so much just to have any polling in this governor's race-------7% and 11% margin of error for democrat and republican----that it now calls into question if the Baltimore Sun poll even really used a 4.4% margin of error in its poll.  Remember, it costs very little and takes very few people to conduct a real scientific polling event.  A handful of people working for a few hours can call a thousand people randomly to meet the requirements of an evidence-based poll.  When media has to skew these standards to such a degree.....moving the republican candidates higher by 11% for example if the error is on the negative side------the democratic candidates by as much as 7% shows no movement in candidates in the governor's race at all.  They are deliberately moving the margin of error----added to non-random cohort of people polled to give a GREAT BIG PROPAGANDA SHOW AS ELECTION POLLING.    If a media outlet allows this kind of information on its program-----you are listening or reading a news outlets that has no journalism.

Let's return to the next problem that comes from an election filled with people no one wants to vote for---creating the environment of people not wanting to vote. 

AS WYPR LITERALLY SHOUTED TO ALL LISTENERS----IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE CANDIDATES WE PLACE IN FRONT OF YOU----DON'T VOTE.

That is indeed the goal of these captured elections---to frustrate voters to the point of apathy as exists in Baltimore, they are now extending it statewide.  Then elections will be third world where people are paid to come to the polls to make it look like a candidate has the people's support.  This is Baltimore's election process.  All of those millions of dollars  in social services and the threats of closing senior centers or pushing small businesses out of business-----real Tammany Hall politics.-----that are used to get people to the polls for the captured candidate.  If you think for one minute that my campaign would not be the front-runner had I received just a small percentage of media and 501c3 coverage-----required by law----you do not know the stakes of this 2014 election for governor.


THIS IS WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING IN THIS ELECTION AND CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR WILL TAKE THIS TO FEDERAL COURT AS OVERT ELECTION RIGGING.


Let's look at the court case that Maryland media and 501c3s think will be their defense and which I will use as my own:

In 1998, the US Supreme Court ruled in Arkansas Educational Television Commission vs Forbes that government-owned public broadcast stations may also exclude candidates from debates, as long as the decision to exclude candidates is not based on their views, but rather on their viability-----often determined by the percentage of voters that may support the candidate.  The court ruled that the Arkansas Educational Television Commission was permitted to invite only major party candidates, or candidates with 'strong popular support' to participate in its 1992 presidential debate.  Since then, candidates from Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura have fought for access to these media forums and won.

You see where the words used most in Maryland media in their rights to exclude----a campaign is not viable or only major party candidates need be included.  Only, none of the vehicles they would use to determine these criteria are valid and openly skew these determinations.  I want to point out as well that Arkansas if Clinton country and you see it was Clinton's public media outlet fighting to limit access to elections and this was in 1998.  So, Clinton was back then setting the stage that would be used by neo-liberals to silence 80% of the democratic base---labor and justice.


The other piece with this ruling is that it is directed at third party candidates and not campaigns within party races.  So, Maryland media is very careful to include all republican candidates in election coverage no matter the campaign money raised or polling data because-------that is how election coverage must meet the standard of doing no damage to a candidate's campaign.  They ignore these same standards because they think no one will contest this----largely because the Maryland Democratic Central Committees are captured by O'Malley/Johns Hopkins political machines-----right now Maggie McIntosh heads the state democratic party.  So, it is this democratic structure that should be fighting for the right of all democratic candidates to be heard.  Since neo-liberals do not want labor and justice heard----the natural protector becomes the one violating these laws the most.
  So, to allow all republican candidates, most not polling at all, into all election discussion places the requirement that all candidates receive the same treatment.  To pretend that Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur are major candidates with polling around 10% is not defensible and all Maryland media outlets----especially the 501c3 ones know this! 

Remember, this is a FCC ruling-----looking only at media outlets.

THIS IS WHY THE CLINTON MACHINE/NEO-LIBERALS HAVE CONTINUED TO HOLD ELECTION CONTROL ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AND IT ALL INVOLVES ELECTION VIOLATIONS AND RIGGING.

Citation. 523 U.S. 666, 118 S. Ct. 1633, 140 L. Ed. 2d 875, 1998 U.S.

Brief Fact Summary.

Forbes (Petitioner) was running for political office and was denied the opportunity to participate in a television debate.

Synopsis of Rule of Law. The First Amendment does not compel public broadcasters to provide access to programming for third parties.



Facts. Arkansas Educational Television Commission (Respondent) decided to broadcast a political debate amongst the top congressional candidates. One hour was allotted for the debate in a question and answer format. Respondent acquired enough signatures to be on the ballot after Petitioner issued the initial invites. Respondent requested that he be allowed to participate, but Petitioner still refused.

Issue. Because the government owned the television station was it obligated to open the debate to all candidates?


What 501c3s must adhere to are the IRS laws regarding non-profits and how they may or may not participate in elections.  This does indeed overlap the 501c3 media events as well and I believe it is this law below that has all the Maryland major venues including all the republican candidates in forums and debates-----

THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DAMAGE ANY ONE CANDIDATE'S CAMPAIGN WHILE PARTICIPATING IN ELECTIONS.


This is pretty cut and dry----keeping Cindy Walsh from all of the early 501c3 events and media coverage is what keeps a candidate from being viable----it is not that their platform was not viable.  The actions of those participating in Maryland elections makes the candidate unviable-----not the voters choosing not to support the platform.  Now, is the Federal Court so corrupt as to look beyond so many election violations and systemic corruption of Maryland election system as some tell me will be the case? 

IT WILL BE REALLY, REALLY HARD FOR ANY FEDERAL JUDGE TO RULE AGAINST MY COMPLAINTS ------THE APPEARANCE OF CORRUPTION WILL BE UNMISTAKABLE.

We must get these court cases on record so that when Rule of Law is rebuilt----we will have the cases established.

Violations of the election law requiring 501c3 organizations to invite all candidates to debates or forums as the only way to eliminate bias or showing opposition to another candidate.

What Does "Participating in a Political Campaign" Mean?
Organizations with 501(c)(3) status cannot participate in political campaigns.

What is a political campaign? In general, the IRS rule refers to campaigns between people who are running for offices in public elections. These can include: candidates running for president of the U.S.; candidates running for governor; candidates running for mayor; and also candidates for lower elected offices such as school board officials, city supervisors, and county trustees.

What is "participating?" Your organization cannot participate in a campaign, directly or indirectly, on behalf of or in opposition to a candidate. If your organization takes a stand in any campaign, supporting or opposing one or another candidate, this violates the prohibition.


I want to look at the 'only 3 candidates in the democratic race for governor' per the establishment----Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur-----and then look at the other 3 democratic candidates left out-----Walsh, Smith, and Jaffe.  I am only representing myself in this election, but it is good to see why these 3 candidates are selected out of the race----AND IT IS INDEED THEIR PLATFORM.

EDUCATION-----BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR ALL SUPPORT THIS EDUCATION REFORM, ERGO, THEY ARE 'VIABLE'.

The citizens of Baltimore will note that neo-liberal O'Malley and neo-conservative Johns Hopkins brought to the city a new school superintendent----or CEO----a candidate from Milwaukee----home of education privatization on steroids. This report shows you how bad this system in Milwaukee has become and I want to be clear-----this will not only be for poor students-----it will take all of public schools. Remember, the goal of TPP is to kill the middle-class and move everyone to the status of poor!

Report: Charters Creating Two-Tier Education


Tuesday, 10 June 2014 11:26 By Samantha Winslow, Labor Notes | Report

As an antidote to the “grow grow grow” mentality of the elected officials and business leaders pushing charter schools, a recent report by University of Oregon professor and political economist Gordon Lafer outlines what’s wrong with privatization of public schools.

The report, titled Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, focuses on the model of Rocketship, a national charter elementary school organization that hopes to expand its Milwaukee footprint to eight schools by 2018.

City officials have even considered carving out the lowest-performing parts of the city’s schools for charters to operate, similar to the New Orleans “recovery district.” Milwaukee’s Chamber of Commerce and Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett are among the charter chain’s supporters, raising millions to help it grow.

Rocketship’s investors, who are tech industry heavyweights, claim altruistic intentions: they care about the kids! But they’re also profiting from the expansion of charter schools, a market for their own products and services.

Case in point: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, on the board of Rocketship, is also an investor in a company called Dream Box, which runs software the schools use for math applications. In the public sector this type of self-dealing is often prohibited, because schools should be choosing the service or product with the best track record, not the one that will enrich investors.

So it’s no surprise that businessmen like Hastings find investing in charters much more appealing than paying more taxes to support public schools.

Two-Tier Schools

Lafer points out that the charter companies’ self-proclaimed cutting-edge learning models offer anything but advanced instruction.

In Rocketship’s “blended learning,” for instance, students learn basic literacy and math with an emphasis on test preparation, receiving online instruction in the schools’ computer labs. Other academic subjects, arts, and music are left out of this education model.

The teachers at such schools are often inexperienced, with an average 30 percent teacher turnover from year to year—twice the Milwaukee school district average. A non-union workforce is part of the incentive for school districts to switch to charters, though some charter teachers have begun to unionize.

50 to 1

While it claims a 29 to 1 student-teacher ratio, which includes non-certified, lower-paid instructors, Rocketship has actually redesigned its instructional model, shifting the ratio closer to 50 to 1. Company leaders explained bluntly that they were changing the schools’ structure to extract more money for expansion.

Even as they skimp on teachers and dumb down the curriculum, Rocketship and other charters brag of their mission to serve low-income black and Latino students. In reality they are further segregating America’s schools, creating two tiers: one for the affluent, where students get exposure to the arts, languages, sports, and one-on-one instruction, and the other where they are taught the basics, and spend most of their time in front of a computer.

At the 60-year anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, separate is still not equal. Lafer proposes that all schools receiving taxpayer money be subject to the same accountability and transparency, and that they be governed democratically, such as by elected school boards where parents and community can have oversight.

Read the whole report here.


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ENVIRONMENT----BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR WILL ALLOW GLOBAL CORPORATE ENERGY TO CONTROL THE STATE AND WILL TURN AN EYE TO GROWING ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS LIKE THE PORT OF BALTIMORE.....ERGO, THEY ARE 'VIABLE'.


'UNTIL CERTAIN CONDITIONS ARE MET'------Oh, Mizeur is not against fracking-----she is just pretending to be!



Sen. Ron Young (D-Frederick) and Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery) have introduced the Shale Gas Drilling Safety Review Act this session “to ensure our communities get the answers they deserve and to ensure the General Assembly has a say in the ultimate decision,” Young said in the release.

The legislation would prohibit MDE from issuing a permit for fracking of a well for the exploration or production of natural gas until specified conditions are met.


__________________________________________
HEALTH CARE----BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR ALL SUPPORT THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AND THE MOST PRIVATE, PROFIT-DRIVEN STATE HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE NATION......ERGO, THEY ARE 'VIABLE'.

Thanks for this acknowledgement that Gansler, Brown, and Mizeur are not progressive on health care as they pretend. Remember, neo-liberalism is never progressive....the Maryland exchange is one of the most private, profit driven in the nation with most people in Maryland falling into Medicaid and Bronze----preventative care.  Consider over 80% of Marylanders falling into this Medicaid-level care at the same time Medicaid has been gutted of funding and is being made into a third world clinic care model.  Longevity will drop dramatically in one generation with these draconian health policies.

Let's be clear----Brown is already pushing the Connecticut health system to replace this failed Maryland system.  Connecticut is home of all the insurance corporations behind this health care reform. So, Brown is going to 'look' at the Vermont model?  OH, REALLY??????

BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR----BUILDING THE STRUCTURES FOR ENDING PUBLIC EDUCATION, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND HANDING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC OVER TO CORPORATE CONTROL AND THIS MAKES THEM 'VIABLE'.


Cindy - We just posted this on the Healthcare-Now Maryland website.
http://www.mdsinglepayer.org/candidates-for-governor-respond-to-survey-walsh-supports-single-payer/
Eric Naumburg



Candidates for Governor Respond to Survey; Walsh Supports Single-payer
June 10, 2014

Responding to a Healthcare-Now! of Maryland health care survey, gubernatorial candidates Del. Heather Mizeur, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Cindy Walsh all indicated that they believed that health care was a basic human right.  They all agreed that it was the responsibility of the state to ensure that all Marylanders received the health care they need. There were differences, however, regarding a single-system.

Neither Brown nor Mizeur would say that they favored a single-payer system and that they would support single-payer legislation and, if passed, sign it into law.  Only Walsh unequivocally supported single-payer calling for “expanded and improved Medicare for all”.  In his response, Brown expressed support for universal healthcare and the Affordable Care Act.  He indicated that he would be watching the experience of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care single-payer model as he considered options to build a better Maryland.  Mizeur favored studying a single-payer system.   If it was shown to be fiscally responsible, she would push for passage of single-payer after 2017 when the federal government allows for innovation waivers.

The health care survey was sent to all of the candidates from both parties running in the June 24th primary.

By Rich Bruning


__________________________________________

Here are the platforms that emphasize government corruption and promotes politicians as 'public servants' and not CEOs.  Sound familiar to Cindy Walsh's campaign?  YOU BETCHA-----

THIS CANDIDATE IS 'NOT VIABLE'!




Ralph Jaffe for governor

April 26, 2010

My name is Ralph Jaffe. I am a political science teacher. When I first started teaching in 1964 I told my students that Maryland was one of the most corrupt states in the Union. Fast forward to 2010 - nothing has changed. This is why I am now a candidate for governor in the September 2010 Democratic primary. I want to put a stop to the moral bankruptcy in Maryland politics and replace it with a new word, ETHICS.

My platform is based on 5 principles.

#1 - I will not accept campaign contributions because they are disguised bribes.

#2 - I will have no dealings with paid professional lobbyists.

#3 - I will serve one term only. This way I'm not in the campaign for power, fame, or personal wealth, but rather I want to be a good public servant.

#4 - I will tell the truth all of the time, not some of the time.

#5 - I will serve free. I will set aside the $150,000 annual salary of the governor for the purpose of trying to hire a combination of three teachers, firefighters and/or police officers.

These 5 principles must be adhered to if we are ever going to get true, ethical politicians. I am not a politician; rather, I am a teacher. Electing me as the next governor in the state of Maryland would mark a major step in the movement to compel future politicians to comply with the above stated principles.


Yes - thisi s a peaceful revolution to get rid of money and corruption out of politics. I'm asking you to join this movement and make this goal a reality. Please call me at 410-764-2409 and help bring about true, ethical reform in our political system.

Ralph Jaffe, Democratic candidate for Governor


__________________________________________

Charles U. Smith for governor

Charles is a perennial candidate but his message is very relevant especially these days-----he is a strong advocate for the Veterans Administration and veterans health care.  This is his primary policy issue and he speaks very knowledgeably of the changes to the VA that is leading to the decline in care.  Maryland leads in dismantling VA and the worst record in VA operations so......

THIS CANDIDATE IS NOT 'VIABLE'





Both Harris and Mikulski knows that the VA in Maryland is being dismantled and the doctors have been outsourced to private health facilities with this health care reform.  The goal in Maryland is to end the public health care with the VA and simply send them to the state health system where they will be categorized as Medicaid-level care.  It is a huge thing to work to deny health coverage to veterans and neo-liberals and neo-cons are a tag team in dismantling the VA and sending veterans into these private state health systems
.  Having to listen to these pols lie over and over is just what third world nations with manufactured 'elections' do.

Sen. Mikulski and Rep. Harris React to More Veterans Affairs Findings June 10, 2014 By Dagger News Service

MIKULSKI EXPRESSES OUTRAGE ABOUT VA FINDINGS DETAILING ORGANIZATIONAL FAILURES RESPONSIBLE FOR DELAYING VETERANS ACCESS TO CARE

From the office of U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski:

U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today expressed outrage on the findings of an audit by the Veterans Administration (VA) detailing organizational failure and dysfunction within the VA that has led to lengthy delays in veterans’ access to health treatment and care:

“I am outraged at this colossal organization failure at VA which has put lip service ahead of the health and well-being of our veterans. We must get to the bottom of delay and denial at the VA.

“When it comes to Maryland, this report outlines both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the average wait time for new primary care patients is 81 days. This is unacceptable and clearly shows that more must be done. The good news for Maryland contained within this report is that for existing VA patients, the wait time to see a doctor is as low as four days. Additionally, the audit did not find any evidence of wrongdoing or deceptive or duplicitous behavior on the part of employees in Baltimore.

“This week I will vote in the Senate to pass bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders and John McCain that makes a significant down payment on reforms needed to address this crisis immediately. Our veterans who have fought on the front line shouldn’t have to stand in line for the care and benefits they have earned and deserve.”

The Veterans’ Access to Care Through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014, legislation introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and supported by Senator Mikulski, would address patient wait times at hospitals and improve accountability at the Veterans Affairs administration. Specifically, the legislation would give veterans access to private doctors, community health centers, Department of Defense medical facilities and facilities funded by the Indian Health Service. It would allow veterans living more than 40 miles from a VA hospital or clinic to access more convenient private care.

The bill also would provide for the hiring of new medical personnel in an expedited manner at hospitals and clinics that lack enough doctors, nurses and other medical staff to provide quality care in a timely manner and ensures dedicated funding is available to hire health care professionals. And at a time when new construction is needed for VA health care around the country, this legislation allows VA to lease 26 new medical facilities that would expand access to care.

In addition to these provisions, this bill would allow the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to terminate senior VA employees for poor performance. This would also require the Secretary to provide Congress a justification for any removal within 30 days and offers terminated employees the ability to appeal to the Merit System Protection Board within seven days of termination, providing them the protections from retaliation and discrimination they deserve.

Lastly, the bill takes another step in ensuring our service members are prepare for their transition to civilian life by requiring public higher institutions to give veterans residing in their state in-state tuition while using the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

In May, Senator Mikulski used her oversight position as Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee to call on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate and potential criminal wrongdoing. A copy of that letter is available here.

Rep. Andy Harris Releases Statement in Response to New Department of Veterans Affairs Audit

Audit Says VA Maryland Health Care System Has Fourth-Longest Average Wait Time for New Patient Primary Care

From the office of Congressman Andy Harris:

Congressman Andy Harris, M.D., a Navy veteran and physician who worked in both the military and veteran health systems, has released the following statement in response to news that the VA Maryland Health Care System has the fourth-longest average wait time for new patient primary care, according to a new nationwide Department of Veterans Affairs audit. The audit, released today, found that the Maryland system, which includes the Baltimore and Perry Point VA hospitals as well as the Loch Raven VA Community Living and Rehabilitation Center, had an average wait time of 81 days for new patients. The wait is more than five times the 14 days the VA had set as guidelines for patients to see a doctor.

“The report is no surprise, as the number-one complaint my case workers receive is problems with the veterans’ administration. Wait times of this length are completely unacceptable, which is why we need to allow our high-priority veterans to opt out of a failed veteran health system.”


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June 10th, 2014

6/10/2014

0 Comments

 
PLEASE BE AWARE OF ELECTION PRACTICES AND HOW YOU CAN REBUILD FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN MARYLAND!  THE ENTIRE ELECTION SYSTEM IN MARYLAND IS RIFE WITH VIOLATIONS AND ELECTION RIGGING----IT IS NOT ONLY THE NEO-LIBERALS RUNNING AS DEMOCRATS----IT HAPPENS IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AS WELL WITH NEO-CONS RUNNING AS REPUBLICANS.

CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND IS WAITING UNTIL AFTER THE PRIMARY ELECTION BECAUSE IF I DO NOT WIN-----I WILL BE CONTESTING THE ELECTION RESULTS AS WELL AS THE ELECTION VIOLATIONS.

I will be back to general policy issues in a few days-----this may seem boring, but election law is critical..... please take the time to see why we never have the candidates in elections for whom we want to vote.  Media and 501c3s think they can select whom they place in front of an audience----but they cannot.  My case will make this election primary invalid if anyone other than Cindy Walsh wins the democratic primary.



THE PEOPLE IN POWER DID NOT WANT VOTERS GOING TO MY PLATFORM AND CAMPAIGN WEBSITE.  THIS IS WHAT MAKES THESE DEBATE/FORUM CRITERIA ILLEGAL FOR MEDIA----THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY CENSURING BECAUSE OF A CANDIDATE'S PLATFORM AND THE SUPREME COURT SAID IN A FCC LAWSUIT THAT THIS IS ILLEGAL.



I referred yesterday to the June 3, 2014 date to register with a political primary for the primary election later in the month.  The general election allows a voter to cross party lines to vote for any candidate.  If your 501c3 organization waits until after June 3 this year to introduce a candidate it may very well be that they want to be sure you stay with the party with which you are registered------it may be that they want to be sure that the time to network for a candidate is limited by those few weeks before an election.  As statistics show, most people have made up their minds a few weeks before an election so a campaign only then being introduced will rarely be able to sway voters to leave their current choice.  In any case, knowing the candidates at the beginning of a primary is what any organization promoting election education would want to do.  Reminding people of the candidates before the primary election will then spur participation. 

Giving one example, WEAA and Marc Steiner Show has been contacting me for two weeks.  I announced to all media outlets, labor and justice organizations my candidacy back at the end of February and made clear I wanted time with their election coverage.  I hit public media hardest because they are required by law not to damage any campaign by selectively leaving out platforms they do not like.  Marc received several requests from my campaign over 3 months and ignored all requests until-----you guessed it-----after that June 3 deadline.  His staff contacted my campaign once a few weeks ago with dates for an interview all just a few weeks from the primary election.  HE KNOWS HE HAS DAMAGED MY CAMPAIGN. HE IS WAITING UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON SO AS TO MAKE MY CANDIDACY 'UNVIABLE'.  I have copies of all my communications.  Who will think a campaign is serious if they are unheard of throughout the race?  YOU BETCHA!  This is happening to me this election but it happens every election as candidates with platforms that work against the movement towards global markets and corporate control of government are left out.  The platform issue of stopping Trans Pacific Trade Pact and the dismantling of public structures building the stage for corporate control of government is deliberately left out.  This is why Marylanders do not here of or know of TPP or the negatives of moving neo-liberal/neo-con policies forward.

THIS IS ELECTION CAPTURE AND RIGGING AND IT IS ILLEGAL.


If your republican or democratic party structure is not working to allow all platforms a place in these primaries----they are operating against election law.


Changing Party Affiliation

Changing party affiliation affects only the Primary Election. Only the Republican and Democratic Parties are running in the Primary. The Voter can vote for whoever they want in the General Election.



A campaign is made unviable when from the beginning of an election the candidate has no avenue with which to share a platform or gain name recognition.  Today I want to talk about 'POLLING' in Maryland.  It is a laugh out loud event!


'According to Maryland's State Board of Elections, there are 3,167,846 "Eligible Active Voters on the Precinct Register" for the Primary Elections as of 8/29/2010. 1,944,620 are registered as Democrats 915,506 are registered as Republicans


The methodologies of the two polls were significantly different. Unlike the St. Mary’s poll, The Sun's poll used live callers and concentrated on 500 likely voters rather than all registered voters. The college’s automated poll surveyed 954 registered voters and had a margin of error of 3.17 percentage points.  The Baltimore Sun poll has The survey has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Now, consider the fact that Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland was not in any of these polls so there is no way for me to have polling numbers.  Yet, all of the media outlets claim that only candidates who poll at a certain number can participate.  Consider as well that the polls in Maryland surrounding elections have no statistical value----they are not relevant data because they do not meet any guidelines for accuracy.  St Mary's College poll was the poll using the most scientific data collection and that was small. 

So, we would go to the St Mary's poll to even begin considering the real voter sentiment.

The Baltimore Sun poll----the Gonzalez polls and others are marketing firms contracted to conduct a poll and as we know----marketing is about selling your product or candidate.  These polls are purely marketing scams that make people believe a candidate is in the lead.  Election officials know that the psychology of elections is that more people vote for the person they see in the lead....ergo---make sure Brown appears as the front-runner. 

Keep in mind this poll was at the end of April after months of concentrated media attention for the 3 democratic candidates and not a word of Cindy Walsh in any venue.


Undecided voters dominate in new gubernatorial poll

April 23, 2014

|By Michael Dresser“Undecided” continues to hold a commanding lead in both the Democratic and Republican primary races for governor, according to a new poll released Wednesday by St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

The poll, an inaugural venture by the Southern Maryland college’s political science department, shows little movement in the race since previous  surveys. The results suggest  that voters have not tuned in to the June 24 primary contest.

Among the Democrats, the polls showed Lt. Gov. Anthony G.  Brown  with the support of 27 percent of  registered primary voters. Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and Del. Heather R. Mizeur of Montgomery County lagged behind at 11 percent and 8 percent respectively.

While Brown maintained a strong margin over his rivals, two Democrats said they were undecided for every one that backs the lieutenant governor in his bid to succeed term-limited Gov. Martin O’Malley.

The 54 percent undecided level on the Democratic side was eclipsed by the uncertainty among Republicans.  Almost seven in 10 said they had not made a choice.

 Among those that have picked a candidate, Larry Hogan, a former Ehrlich administration official and founder of the conservative group Change Maryland, led with 16 percent. Harford County Executive David R. Craig trailed with 8 percent.  The severely underfunded campaigns of Del. Ron George of Anne Arundel County and  Charles County business executive Charles Lollar were  stuck below 4 percent.

Susan Grogan, professor of political science at St. Mary’s, said she doesn’t see much excitement about the race among voters.

“I would suspect we’re going to have a very low turnout,” she said.

The poll strongly tracks previous surveys  of the race and shows little sign that any candidate is gaining significant ground. For instance, a poll released by The Baltimore Sun in February showed Brown with 35 percent, Gansler with 14 percent and Mizeur with 10 percent.  On the Republican side Hogan polled at 13 percent and Craig at 7 percent.

The methodologies of the two polls were significantly different. Unlike the St. Mary’s poll, The Sun's poll used live callers and concentrated on 500 likely voters rather than all registered voters. The college’s automated poll surveyed 954 registered voters and had a margin of error of 3.17 percentage points.



___________________________________________

As you see with the Baltimore Sun and those attaching to polling firms doing its polls-----they use the term 'likely' voter.  This is the same element of arbitrariness that goes into any calculation in Maryland.  'Likely' rather than random means------we created bias and are going to capture data in the way we want to see the results.  So, you not only have an extremely small number of people polled (cohort), you use a system that deliberately skews the results you are collecting.

The St Mary's College poll was small as well but at least it started from the premise of 'random' data collection.  Any data collection platform with a margin of error over 3% is known to be useless-----unless you are simply marketing a candidate.  Again, St. Mary's at least comes closer to the least worst margin of error.

CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR WILL SUBPOENA ALL POLLING METHODOLOGY FROM ALL SOURCES TO DETERMINE THE BIAS.

You do not have to be a rocket scientist to know if you have two million democratic voters and poll 500----and then introduce the bias of 'likely' voters-----you have nothing.  This is how each election Maryland simply uses these poll results to promote the selected candidates and the organizations participating in these elections via forums and debates use these trumped-up poll results to pretend a candidate is or is not viable.


Gonzales Research conducts surveys of registered voters – nationally, statewide, and in local jurisdictions.  Each of the surveys listed here is in the public domain, but we ask that Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. of Annapolis be credited if any of the surveys are cited in a story or column.
Please select a category of Survey.

Recent Polls
Maryland Statewide Polls
Maryland Regional Polls
District of Columbia Polls
National Polls



Gonzales Research &
Marketing Strategies, Inc.
558 Bay Dale Court
Arnold, MD 21012
Tel: 443-458-5034
hilary@gonzalesresearch.com



The Disadvantages of a Small Sample Size

By A. E. Simmons, eHow Contributor


Sample size should be taken seriously when conducting surveys and experiments. Researchers and scientists conducting surveys and performing experiments must adhere to certain procedural guidelines and rules in order to insure accuracy by avoiding sampling errors such as large variability, bias or undercoverage. Sampling errors can significantly affect the precision and interpretation of the results, which can in turn lead to high costs for businesses or government agencies.


  1. Sample Size
    • To conduct a survey properly, you need to determine your sample group; this sample group should include individuals who are subject to the survey's topic. For example, if you are conducting a survey on whether a certain kitchen cleaner is preferred over another brand, then you should survey a large number of people who use kitchen cleaners. The only way to achieve 100 percent accurate results is to survey every person who uses kitchen cleaners; however, as this is not feasible, you will need to survey as large a sample group as possible.

    Disadvantage 1: Variability
    • Variability is determined by the standard deviation of the population; the standard deviation of a sample is how the far the true results of the survey are from the results of the sample that you collected. You want to survey as large a sample size as possible; the larger the standard deviation, the less accurate your results will be, since smaller sample sizes get increasingly further away from the entire population.

    Disadvantage 2: Uncoverage Bias
    • A small sample size also affects the reliability of a survey's results because it leads to a higher variability, which may lead to bias; the most common case of bias is a result of non-response. Non-response occurs when some subjects do not have the opportunity to participate in the survey. For example, if you call 100 people between 2 and 5 p.m. and ask whether they feel that they have enough free time in their daily schedule, most of the respondents might say "yes." This sample -- and the results -- are biased, as most workers are at their jobs during these hours. These people will not be included in the survey, and the survey's accuracy will suffer from non-response. Not only does your survey suffer due to timing, but the number of subjects does not help make up for this deficiency.

    Disadvantage 3: Voluntary Response Bias
    • Voluntary response bias is another disadvantage that comes with a small sample sizes. If you post a survey on your kitchen cleaner website, then only a small number of people have access to or knowledge about your survey, and it is likely that those who do participate will do so because they feel strongly about the topic. Therefore, the results of the survey will be skewed to reflect the opinions of those who visit the website. If an individual is on a company's website, then it is likely that she supports the company; she may, for example, be looking for coupons or promotions from that manufacturer. A survey posted only on their website limits the number of people who will participate to those who already had an interest in their products, which causes a voluntary response bias.

      _______________________________________
    The Baltimore Sun using 'likely' voters to bias the process also stated a 95% confidence level with a 4.4% margin of error.  With 2 million democrats that led to a cohort of 500.  If the poll met the standard of at least 3% margin of error it would have had 1066 democrats polled......twice the sample pool.

    THE LACK OF RANDOMNESS MAKES THIS POLL INVALID.


Now, how hard is it to take a list of registered democratic voters and randomize for demographics based on socioeconomic and political district?  Not very hard at all.  Calling 1066 people randomly can be done by a handful of people.

So, St Mary's College provided the closest polling numbers that are statistically relevant.  Now, when they said they polled almost 1000 people I can assume that is total----maybe 500 democrats and 500 republicans.  I will have to see if that 1000 was for each party or total and check the randomization procedure.

THEY HAVE A RANDOMIZED POLL WITH MARGIN OF ERROR CLOSE TO THE NECESSARY 3% AND A COHORT POSSIBLY LARGE ENOUGH FOR A RESULT.  THE LARGER THE COHORT THE MORE STATISTICAL VALUE.


MARYLAND ALWAYS GIVES POLLING DATA THAT HAS NO STATISTICAL VALUE AND IT IS ALWAYS SKEWED IN WAYS THAT FAVOR THE OUTCOME FOR WHICH THE RICH WANT ----MEETING THE PROPER TERMS OF STATISTICAL VALUE IS NOT HARD.....IT JUST GIVES RESULTS THAT THEY DO NOT WANT TO PUBLICIZE.


It is no coincidence that the latest polls do not show St Mary's College but these invalid marketed polls.



'The sampling rate must be more than 5 percent to accumulate a sample base that is comparable'-----5% of 2 million democrats = 100,000 people.  This is a sample size that gives accuracy.



  • Determine Sample Size 
    Confidence Level:    95%
        
    Confidence Interval:  3% margin of error
     Population:      2 million democrats
         
    Sample size needed:
        1066




Factors that Affect Confidence Intervals

There are three factors that determine the size of the confidence interval for a given confidence level:

  • Sample size
  • Percentage
  • Population size


Sample Size

The larger your sample size, the more sure you can be that their answers truly reflect the population. This indicates that for a given confidence level, the larger your sample size, the smaller your confidence interval. However, the relationship is not linear (i.e., doubling the sample size does not halve the confidence interval).

Percentage


Your accuracy also depends on the percentage of your sample that picks a particular answer. If 99% of your sample said "Yes" and 1% said "No," the chances of error are remote, irrespective of sample size. However, if the percentages are 51% and 49% the chances of error are much greater. It is easier to be sure of extreme answers than of middle-of-the-road ones.

When determining the sample size needed for a given level of accuracy you must use the worst case percentage (50%). You should also use this percentage if you want to determine a general level of accuracy for a sample you already have. To determine the confidence interval for a specific answer your sample has given, you can use the percentage picking that answer and get a smaller interval.


Population Size

How many people are there in the group your sample represents? This may be the number of people in a city you are studying, the number of people who buy new cars, etc. Often you may not know the exact population size. This is not a problem. The mathematics of probability proves the size of the population is irrelevant unless the size of the sample exceeds a few percent of the total population you are examining. This means that a sample of 500 people is equally useful in examining the opinions of a state of 15,000,000 as it would a city of 100,000. For this reason, The Survey System ignores the population size when it is "large" or unknown. Population size is only likely to be a factor when you work with a relatively small and known group of people (e.g., the members of an association).


The confidence interval calculations assume you have a genuine random sample of the relevant population. If your sample is not truly random, you cannot rely on the intervals. Non-random samples usually result from some flaw in the sampling procedure. An example of such a flaw is to only call people during the day and miss almost everyone who works. For most purposes, the non-working population cannot be assumed to accurately represent the entire (working and non-working) population.

_______________________________________________

When Gallup and others say that it does not matter how large the population-----1000 people polled will cover it they are full of it.  When I hear that they polled 1000 people to find an entire nation's opinion on a matter-----China has billions for example----you know you are getting propaganda, not polling.

For a question of voting you may not need to reach the 5% of population sample-----or the margin of error of 3%-----but you must be aware that a 4.4% margin of error with candidates polling at 10% is huge.  So, the polls above used by the
Baltimore Sun could have most of the politicians at the lower end barely polling.

When my campaign was told over and again that the requirements to be in these televised debates was -----first the University of Maryland College Park forum told me 15% polling was their cutoff-----then the Maryland League of Voters used 10% as their cutoff-------and then Maryland Public Television told me the cutoff was 5% of polling.  The numbers kept dropping because all of the candidates in the races----whether democrat or republican were not meeting any of these polling criteria.  Yet, this polling criteria kept Cindy Walsh out every time.

Remember, Cindy Walsh for Governor was never on the polls for democratic candidates, but all republican candidates were on these polls.


Why have all republican candidates in polls/debates, and forums, and only the 3 democratic candidates seen over and over?

THE PEOPLE IN POWER DID NOT WANT ANYONE GOING TO MY PLATFORM AND CAMPAIGN WEBSITE.  THIS IS WHAT MAKES THESE DEBATE/FORUM CRITERIA ILLEGAL FOR MEDIA----THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY CENSURING BECAUSE OF A CANDIDATE'S PLATFORM AND THE SUPREME COURT SAID IN THE FCC LAWSUIT THAT THIS IS ILLEGAL.





Opinion poll methods can make a difference in accurately predicting elections Identifying likely voters crucial to accurate polling

  By Steve Israel Times Herald-Record Published: 2:00 AM - 10/28/12

Which poll should we believe? Gallup, which has former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading President Barack Obama by 5 percentage points as of this past Friday? Or CBS News, which has Obama up 2 points? Just how do you know which poll to trust — or if you should trust any poll?

“The real question might not be why are polls so different,” says Lee Miringoff, “It's why are most of them even remotely similar?” Miringoff speaks to students at the Marist Institute for Public Opinion on Tuesday.


After all, how on earth can polling 1,000 Americans — or fewer — predict who 132 million voters will elect just nine days from now?To learn the answers to these and other questions about polls, we interviewed four of the top poll experts in the country: Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, which conducts the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll; Don Levy, director of the Siena (N.Y.) Research Institute; Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup; and Paul Lavrakas, president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, the oldest professional organization devoted to survey research.
What's the reason for taking a poll?According to one of the oldest modern polling organizations, Gallup, the goal of a poll is to "come up with the same results that would have been obtained had every member of a population been interviewed."

The theory is that when you choose 1,000 or so people at random, it's the same as randomly sampling a much larger group.



So how are people polled?The most common method is to get a representative sampling of the population by using "random digit phone dialing," according to Levy of Siena. Area codes are chosen to correspond to a cross section of the population, weighting the calls to represent population.

"So we have a lot more from the Bronx, than, say, Poughkeepsie," says Miringoff, who notes that the NBC NEWS/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll calls 1,400 to 1,500 people.

A computer then randomly chooses the last two digits of those numbers.

After that, polling gets a bit more complicated. For instance, since women and old people are more likely to be home to answer phones and respond to a survey, their responses must be weighted to represent their portion of the entire population.


Different polls, different pollstersThere are three varieties of polling methods, says Lavrakas.

The first, and he says, most accurate is that telephone interview conducted by real people. Gallup, Pew, Marist and other established pollsters use this method.

The second is the automated method, in a which a computer asks a set number of questions and has no way of verifying whether the respondent is a 15-year-old nonvoting Obama supporter or a 50-year-old hard-core Romney Republican. Rasmussen Reports uses that method.

The third, and newest polling method — Internet polling — is the most unreliable, says Lavrakas, who notes that the Associated Press will not report the results of Internet polls.


Polling in the Internet age

Every time you look up, there seems to be a new poll released, often within minutes of an event like a presidential debate — thanks to the immediacy of the Internet. But instant doesn't necessarily mean accurate, says Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup. Instant polls don't have enough time to determine whether those polled actually represent the voting population. So while the public may have more access to more polls, the immediacy of the Internet hasn't actually altered the way traditional pollsters like Gallup work.

"It doesn't change what we're doing at all," says Newport.


Finding undecided voters

While specific questions vary by polling organization, these are basic questions a pollster asks, says Lavrakas. He notes that the pollster must always use the name of the candidate.

If the election were held today, who would you vote for? If the response is "I don't know," the next question is: "Are you leaning one way or another?"

That would be followed by "How confident are you that you would vote for the candidate?"


What determines a likely voter?Again, specific questions vary by poll. But questions like these are asked:

Do you know where your polling place is?

On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you'll vote?

And then they choose "the likeliest of the likely," says Levy of Siena.


The push poll

Legitimate pollsters dismiss push polls, which are really campaign tools disguised as polls.

Levy explains that a hypothetical push poll can sound like this:

First, the caller asks who you might vote for.

If the answer is Obama, the next question might be:

Knowing that Obama is actually a Muslim, does that make you more or less likely to vote for him?

And knowing that he wasn't born in America, does that also make you more or less likely to vote for him?

"They attempt to manipulate the respondent to validate a particular point of view," says Levy, who stresses that legitimate pollsters never conduct push polls.


Why so much variation this year?One reason might be the way the polls are conducted, say our polling experts.

Rasmussen tends to be more conservative, say the three experts, because it uses automated calls to only landline phones, which tend to attract replies from older voters who are generally more conservative.

Gallup, Marist and Siena also reach cell phones, which tend to attract younger voters.

So why the gap between Gallup and the other polls?

"It may not define likely voters as well," says Miringoff.

But the bottom line is even the pollsters don't know.

"The real question might not be why are polls so different," says Miringoff. "It's why are most of them even remotely similar?"


Another wildcard

You might think that the margin of error in polls — usually "plus or minus four percentage points" — refers to the spread between candidates. Think again. It means each number for each candidate could be 4 points higher or lower. So if a poll has one candidate leading 52 percent to 48 percent, that doesn't necessarily mean the race could be tied. It means one candidate could actually have 56 percent, while the other could have 44 percent — a 12 point spread.


What the poll doesn't tell youAll of which may explain why the race for president is so difficult to call. On top of the variables in polling, there's this:

"People are less certain as to what they're going to do," says Lavrakas. "So the polls are less reliable. Right now, I think either candidate could win the election."




0 Comments

April 03rd, 2014

4/3/2014

0 Comments

 
PLEASE STOP THIS CYCLE OF POLITICIANS THINKING THEY CAN IGNORE RULE OF LAW.  IT WILL END YOUR STATUS AS CITIZEN.....WHICH IS THE GOAL OF NEO-LIBERALISM.

You know what we say to Supreme Court ruling that allows corporate and wealth to send tons of money into campaigns?

LET THE RICH MAKE THE MEDIA RICH MAKING THEIR CORPORATE POLS RICH --------just educate in your communities for people to stop listening to these campaign advertisements that almost always have little truth.  Community centers, public schools, public justice organizations should all be educating the public as to the need to dis-empower these campaign strategies!



I will end for now my look at public justice in Maryland with a fitting topic......election law and free and fair elections.  My candidacy is based first on getting elected as Governor of Maryland but as important is highlighting how fraudulent and corrupt Maryland elections have become and much of it involves how candidates are allowed to get their campaign platform out to the public and get name recognition.  As you see below, there are pockets of Maryland's system that work and gaping holes where it doesn't.

I know that the same thing is happening in your neck of the woods so please fight the dismantling of democracy and democratic structures!




Regarding Doug Gansler and Maryland elections:


I would like to take one last day for now to speak to rebuilding Rule of Law and public justice in Maryland.  Today I will look at free and fair elections and election violations.  These are a good topic for Dan Rodricks show with Doug Gansler.

The first question has to do with eligibility to run for Governor of Maryland.  As Maryland Attorney General these two terms Doug has served at a period in America that needed justice for the largest looting of the US Treasury and American people pockets in US history.  The Bush/Obama Administrations are already labelled as the most corrupt in US history.  Doug Gansler has time and again signed off on settlements for fraud that all know were parking tickets and then found ways to make sure any penalties paid by corporations made it back to them through 'gifting' or development.  Meanwhile Doug famously says 'I see no fraud and corruption' as Center for Public Integrity ranks Maryland at the bottom for corruption and lack of transparency and other government watchdogs do the same for fraud.  A state does not have the honor of being ranked as one of the most criminal in the nation without the State Attorney General 'seeing no fraud and corruption'.  All government officials take an oath of office to serve in the public interest so turning your head to fraud and corruption is aiding and abetting these crimes.  THIS IS A FELONY.

Now, as a candidate for Governor of Maryland I am due equal access to public forums and debates put forward in Maryland by all 501c3-4 non-profits and democratic party machines.  I have many invitations across America but this is what I see quite often and most of it is illegal.  When the Baltimore Education Coalition has a debate of candidates for governor and does not invite Cindy Walsh for Governor-----the candidate from Baltimore----they have broken election campaign laws.  Who was part of that debate?  DOUG GANSLER FOR GOVERNOR.  Now, it is his job to stop this debate until it represents all democratic candidates.  I'll let the republicans put forward their own beef.  I was told the worst offender of this non-profit equal participation for candidates law are Maryland public media-----Maryland Public Television and Maryland Public Radio.  Both of these are 501c-3s getting taxpayer money that break these campaign laws every election-----AND DOUG GANSLER DOES NOTHING.  THIS IS HIS JOB.  Doug does not get to enforce only the laws he wants------THIS IS A RULE OF LAW ----EQUAL PROTECTION country.

So, we have political forums and debates happening across Maryland deliberately violating laws and doing so because they think they are protected from justice.  The second category of violations are the stealth debates and forums designed to circumvent the election laws by pretending a private non-profit is not behind these events.  Morgan State University has a public forum sponsored by 'a group of individuals' as does the Maryland NAACP, and the State Democratic Party has its statewide debates as 'Brown invites Gansler and Mizeur for a debate', another circumvention this time by the State Democratic Party.  The Young Democrats of Maryland had a debate and forum failing to invite Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland-----an illegal act.  Doug Gansler charged with enforcing election laws was there.

The last point has to do with campaign contributions and war chests collected by politicians who just 'cannot see fraud and corruption'.  When Doug Gansler selects how he will enforce law to protect corporate industries from billions of dollars in fraud and prosecutions......does that warrant a few million in industry contributions to his campaign?  Sounds like a good deal for these corporations and for Doug Gansler. 

THIS IS CALLED PAY-TO-PLAY and it is illegal. 
So, we have felonies right and left for one candidate for governor who seems able to receive time in Maryland media and with State Democratic Party machines.......but not for the candidates who are not felons and promote Rule of Law.  This is what makes Maryland and right now, the US, a second world heading for third world nation.  Rule of Law and Equal Protection does not allow selective enforcement of laws----this happens in Iran and Kenya.

You probably will not hear me on Maryland 'Public' Media this election cycle-----state tune for Cindy Walsh in court over election violations happening during this campaign hopefully in the capacity of Governor of Maryland!  One thing I do have is a private non-profit called Citizens Oversight Maryland that has more readership than public radio and many of the private non-profits excluding me.

These corporate neo-liberals in Maryland that control the democratic party work to make sure this control stays with wealth and profit candidates like Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur.  That is why these are the candidates you hear.  The citizens of Maryland are being subjected to the worst of social conditions created by suspended Rule of Law and dismantling of democratic structures but people of color will feel it most.  So, when institutions like Morgan State and Maryland NAACP work to keep my campaign out of this election debate......I being the only candidate who will actually protect black university funding and civil rights and liberties.....you see the corruption.  

NEO-LIBERALISM = TOTALITARIANISM = THIRD WORLD SOCIETY.  America does not have to be about winners and losers and doing anything to win.  It is a democracy with a US Constitution that gives all citizens the same rights and protections!





The Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.  Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances.  For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not be prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner.

On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.
Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 05-Mar-2014


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Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland has received many invitations to debates across Maryland this primary season.  The system is not completely corrupt.  You will see the major Democratic Party vehicles in Central Maryland/Baltimore are the ones violating election law and it is no coincidence that this is the area most filled with fraud and corruption in the state.

I introduced myself to the Young Democrats.  They have a requirement to see all candidates are invited.



Gubernatorial candidates make their cases to Young Democrats
Convention held in Annapolis



March 22, 2014|By Scott Dance and Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun

Maryland's Democratic candidates for governor made their cases to the party's youths Saturday, but for some, like Baltimore high school student Eric Brown, the race is still a tossup.

Brown criticized all three candidates. Of Attorney General Douglas Gansler, the Reginald F. Lewis High School senior said he liked hearing straightforward albeit long answers to questions. Del. Heather Mizeur? "She's an idealist," Brown said. And Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, he said, "had a hard time telling us what he's done."

The three candidates appeared at the Young Democrats' annual convention in Annapolis, answering questions from the young audience that focused largely on issues including higher education, jobs growth and marijuana policy. In a straw poll, Brown edged out Mizeur, with Gansler a distant third.

Each made the pilgrimage as their campaigns prepare for the June 24 primary that will decide which of them will be the favorite in the general election, in which Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin among voters.

Given a large number of students in the audience, each of the candidates weighed in on college affordability.

Mizeur suggested that the state step in where the federal government has backed off in support of financial aid, and possibly consider a "pay it forward" model adopted in Oregon in which students agree to pay a portion of their future salaries rather than paying tuition up front.

Asked about a Baltimore Sun editorial board proposal to cap tuition increases at 5 percent, instead of the 3 percent that Brown's campaign has pledged, and use the extra money for scholarships for needy students, Brown said his campaign was open to the idea.

"We have pivoted more and more to the need-based scholarships than ever before, but we need to continue to pivot there," Brown said.

Alicia Joynes, a Baltimore candidate for the Democratic State Central Committee and a 2008 Morgan State University graduate, asked Brown and running mate Ken Ulman, the Howard County executive, what their stance was on unfair program duplication affecting historically black colleges. The parties in a lawsuit on that issue are currently in court-ordered mediation.

"I don't think that policy is best made through the courts, so I'd like to see that removed from under the supervision of the court," Brown said. "We need to incentivize within our university system collaborations so that Towson and Morgan can collaborate on delivering a business school or whatever the program may be. ... What we don't do is look to the courts to settle matters. If this thing is not mediated by the time Ken and I take office, we're going to do everything we can to take it outside of mediation."

Gansler backed a "need-blind" admission process used at universities like Harvard and Yale in which students are accepted on their merits, and then financial aid packages are used to make it possible for all to afford tuition.

When one attendee challenged him for being conservative on business issues, Gansler also defended a proposal from his campaign to lower the state's corporate tax rate while collecting more from large corporations by enacting a tax policy known as combined reporting, saying it would support job growth in the state.

Much of Mizeur's education focus was on a push for universal pre-kindergarten, while she received the loudest crowd support for her calls to legalize marijuana. Attendee Dominique Hazzard called Mizeur "a breath of fresh air."

Ian Bonanno, a senior at Northern High School in Calvert County, said he thought it was clear Mizeur and Brown brought out supporters in large numbers, whereas a smaller and quieter crowd was present for Gansler's portion — circumstances perhaps reflected in the straw poll results.

"I think Heather was able to make the biggest impact," said Bonanno, who plans to volunteer for her campaign but is undecided on how he will cast his vote in June.

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Below you see how a general invitation to all candidates for governor is easy to do.  It is not partisan, it is inclusive, and it does not violate election laws.  Doug Gansler will probably not be there.




 On Wednesday, March 26, 2014 3:53 PM, Erik Gulbrandsen <etgulbrandsen@gmail.com> wrote:
On Friday, May 2, Kent County Democrats will host a "Meet the Candidates" event at our Headquarters, at 357 High St. The event will be an open house from 5 to 8 pm, coinciding with Chestertown's First Friday festivities. We hope you will join us for a great opportunity to meet potential supporters.

Let me know if you plan to attend, or if you have any questions. We also look forward to making your campaign signs, stickers, and other materials available at HQ throughout the cycle, so bring us some of your swag and we'll make sure it gets displayed prominently!

Erik Gulbrandsen
KCDCC Treasurer
410-371-0323


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The last point for now has to do with the consolidation of media in Baltimore and Maryland with the Baltimore Sun now having City Paper and all small regional news journals and the Daily Record going out of business.  We have no public media as that is corporate as well.  Now, I have for years commented in the Baltimore Sun as in all media in the area responding to Thomas Schaller and the columnists for the Sun at every turn.  Yet somehow the comment section for Schaller is disabled and no one can comment to his opinion pieces that are always neo-liberal/Clinton.

It doesn't matter if these columnists shout out for O'Malley, Hillary, Biden, or Cuomo-----they are all neo-liberal.  We hear Maryland is Clinton Country because she is the neo-liberal/neo-conservative darling----the mother of global corporate tribunals and Trans Pacific Trade Pact (TPP) that no one wants.  So, the citizens of Maryland are not for Hillary----the neo-liberals supporting global corporations and markets are.  Maryland media does not want this in the comment section going into 2016 elections and they are blocking me.

Free and fair elections must have avenues for all candidates for elections able to share their platforms and discuss the issues.  Voters need to know who the candidates on the ballot are when they go to vote.  In Maryland, if you are not part of the crony political machines.....whether democrat or republican.....you will not get name recognition.  

RULE OF LAW WILL REQUIRE THE STATE AND CITY TO PROVIDE PUBLIC ELECTION FORUMS AND ISSUE DEBATES FOR ALL CANDIDATES.  A democracy requires that all citizens have access to issues and opportunity to join the political discussion.  Maryland has neither.


THOMAS SCHALLER AND BALTIMORE SUN----STOP BLOCKING COMMENTS AGAINST NEO-LIBERALS LIKE HILLARY CLINTON.



Your move, Governor
As his governorship comes to an end, Martin O'Malley can retire or seek higher office


 

Thomas F. Schaller

12:14 p.m. EDT, April 1, 2014

Is Martin O'Malley running for president in 2016? Should he?

The answer to both questions seems the same: Sort of.

Maryland's governor will finish his second term in January, the same week he turns 52. After serving as Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor, his career in elective politics may end at a very young age unless he runs for the presidency.

    

The major obstacle in Mr. O'Malley's path to the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination is Hillary Clinton. In fact, as the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination, she's every Democratic hopeful's obstacle. When the Sun polled Maryland Democrats in February, they preferred Ms. Clinton to their own governor by a 10-to-1 margin, 59 percent to 6 percent.

And don't bet on Ms. Clinton repeating in 2016 the strategic and tactical errors that ruined her 2008 presidential bid. Fool her once, shame on her. Fool her twice — not a chance. If she runs, she wins.

Ms. Clinton has yet to declare her candidacy, and maybe she'll opt not to run. Presuming she does seek the nomination, however, she has a small problem: She needs to actually beat somebody to claim it.

Victory by acclimation will be less satisfying for the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state than vanquishing a decent challenger. A contested primary is in her best interest.

Enter Mr. O'Malley, the Larry Holmes of 2016. If he's smart, Maryland's governor will declare his candidacy later this year — but before Ms. Clinton does — and then start raising money and a few eyebrows by serving as her sparring partner-to-be. Just as Muhammad Ali sharpened his boxing skills by sparring with Mr. Holmes, Mr. O'Malley can help Ms. Clinton stay sharp as she prepares for the general election.

He is ideally suited to the task.

Remember: Mr. O'Malley endorsed Ms. Clinton over Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary, a decision that partly insulates him from backlash from Camp Hillary. He's wonky in a way that will make the former first lady — who in 2008 was the policy steak to Mr. Obama's rhetorical sizzle — look dynamic. His lack of foreign policy experience will accentuate her international and diplomatic cred.

And with all the administrative problems of the Obamacare rollout, both nationally and here in Maryland, Mr. O'Malley is more likely to be on the defensive about health care than she. (Hard to believe the Hillarycare disaster was more than two decades ago, isn't it?)

Which is not to suggest Mr. O'Malley's job is to take an embarrassing political dive. He's stronger than Ms. Clinton on issues related to economic populism and inequality, which may force her to talk about these issues more cogently.

What possible benefit is there for Mr. O'Malley to play the role of primary sparring partner? That's pretty obvious: the vice presidential slot on the Clinton ticket.

He is ideally suited for that role, too.

If she runs and wins the nomination, Ms. Clinton could select a woman or racial minority to be her running mate. But the safe move is probably to choose a white male. Mr. O'Malley qualifies, and he would balance the ticket in other ways: Younger, a governor, a Catholic. Progressives will also be cheered by Mr. O'Malley's successful efforts to move Maryland leftward on issues ranging from gay marriage to college tuition to the death penalty.

Mr. O'Malley doesn't put any additional states into play for the Democrats: One of only three states where Mr. Obama's 2012 winning margin exceeded that of 2008, Maryland is already solidly Democratic. But so what? Most states are so reliably blue or red that vice presidential candidates are no longer expected to deliver their states' electors anyway. (Mitt Romney didn't carry Paul Ryan's Wisconsin, which not long ago was a swing state — third closest margin in 2000, closest in 2004.)

Mr. O'Malley wowed nobody with his address to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. If he wants to move to the next level, he must prove he can deliver a rousing speech, raise gobs of cash and artfully skewer the Republicans. Or he could quietly retire to private life.

Your move, Governor.


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You know what we say to Supreme Court ruling that allows corporate and wealth to send tons of money into campaigns?

LET THE RICH MAKE THE MEDIA RICH MAKING THEIR CORPORATE POLS RICH --------just educate in your communities for people to stop listening to these campaign advertisements that almost always have little truth.  Community centers, public schools, public justice organizations should all be educating the public as to the need to dis-empower these campaign strategies!

FIGHT THIS BY REBUILDING PUBLIC SPACES FOR POLITICAL ISSUES AND DISCUSSION!


Supreme Court ruling could affect governor's race


The Supreme Court today struck down restrictions on the total that any person can contribute to all federal candidates for office.

By Erin Cox The Baltimore Sun 12:38 p.m. EDT, April 2, 2014

Maryland’s heated primary race for governor could get another twist if Wednesday's Supreme Court decision also strikes down the state’s cap on how much residents can donate to state political campaigns.

Minutes after the Supreme Court struck down aggregate contribution limits in federal races, Jared DeMarinis’ phone at the Maryland Board of Elections began ringing off the hook.

“Everyone wants to know: What does this mean?” said DeMarinis, director of campaign finance and candidacy.

“This one does have a direct impact on Maryland,” he said. “Maryland has one of the more restrictive aggregate limits in the nation.”

DeMarinis is still thumbing through a 40-page ruling to determine whether it could invalidate Maryland’s $10,000 per-person cap on political spending. 

Limits about how much each candidate can receive from a donor remain in place, but the ruling could possibly allow donors who have already reached their aggregate limit for the election cycle to begin putting money into as many races as they want.

“The impact that this has is great, and because it's an election year, these questions need immediate answers,” he said.

The Board of Elections can’t unilaterally undo a law, but it could tell donors who have already reached the cap they are now free to donate more without facing state enforcement.

DeMarinis said he and lawyers with the attorney general’s office will review the ruling and issue a letter of guidance to donors and campaigns by April 11. 




0 Comments

March 06th, 2014

3/6/2014

0 Comments

 
MARYLAND HAS DELIBERATELY MADE IT DIFFICULT FOR ANY CANDIDATE NOT RISING FROM THE POLITICAL MACHINES -----WE ALL KNOW ARE CRONY-----TO GET ANY CAMPAIGN COVERAGE.  FROM MEDIA TO PUBLIC FORUMS, ONLY THOSE CONNECTED TO CRONY GET THE AIR/FLOOR TIME AND IN MARYLAND THAT MEANS NEO-LIBERALS.  ALSO, ELECTION POLICY IS

GANSLER, BROWN, AND MIZEUR ARE ALL NEO-LIBERALS THROWING A FEW PROGRESSIVE BONES!




Regarding corporate WYPR being the go-to place for MD Election coverage:

As someone taking WYPR to all of the election agencies and public media oversight for failing to provide free and fair election coverage that statement is LOL!!!  WYPR provides Montgomery County with strong election coverage while blacking out all other state elections and coverage.  They do indeed break with the requirements of public media in providing fair and balanced election coverage.

When I moved to Maryland several years ago and saw a crony and captured political system with no public airing of issues I first went to Maryland Chapter of League of Women's Voters.  I noticed they had debates that included all the candidates on the tickets for all parties and each candidate was able to state what the issue surrounding their platform would be.  This is recorded on video and then the League solicits all of Maryland media outlets to play and/or link to the League of Women Voter's site with these debates.  


ALL MARYLAND MEDIA REFUSES TO PLAY OR LINK TO THESE DEBATES THAT ALLOW ALL CANDIDATES FOR MARYLAND OFFICE STATE THEIR PLATFORM AND ISSUES.  EVEN ALL OF MARYLAND'S 'PUBLIC' MEDIA.

As Frazer Smith stated, if you do not have a campaign war chest you will not get your campaign word out in Maryland.  What we know about Maryland is that we do indeed have a highly educated public and we do have citizens overwhelmingly for campaign finance reform.....the flooding of airwaves turns people off.  As Maryland works toward having all campaigns be public financing, we work as well for a state public system of debate forums for people and candidates.  THIS IS WHAT MUST HAPPEN TO REBUILD FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN MARYLAND.

MY PLATFORM SHOUTS LOUDLY TO DO JUST THAT AND AS GOVERNOR.,.....YOU HAVE THE RESOURCES TO BUILD THOSE PUBLIC FORUMS FOR DEBATE ON ISSUES AT EVERY LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT.

Did you notice that the Baltimore City Paper used to have an entire issue dedicated to elections and airing each candidate's platform but stopped in 2010 just as Wall Street took control of all of US media----making the US ranked with Romania in free press?  Now, they have been put out of business with the consolidation into Baltimore Sun.....which does not play League of Women Voters debate forums or link to them.
 

BEST PLACE FOR CANDIDATE COVERAGE-----GO TO THE MARYLAND ELECTIONS WEBSITE FOR THE CANDIDATES WEBSITES/FACEBOOK PAGES!!!!


So, for real democratic election coverage start with the group below.  They aren't perfect, but they do try.

 The League of Women Voters  

Mission:

 The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

Making Democracy Work

League members from around the state get a briefing at Union Station before visiting Congressional Offices.

The League of Women Voters is dedicated to providing well-researched and unbiased information so that all voters may become better informed. Browse this website or use the Search Box to learn more about issues, events, and your elected representatives. You can also:

    
During Elections, the League of Women Voters assists people to become more informed participants in their community and their government by

    producing Voters Guides;
    assisting at voter registration drives and providing information about voting;
    and hosting forums for candidates.

The LWV also

    researches issues such as transportation, housing, environmental concerns, campaign reform, etc. then produces Fact Sheets;
    conducts community forums on local, state, and national issues;
    distributes informational brochures and pamphlets;
    and provides information about government on the national, state, and local levels.


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As a candidate the first thing one does after paying filing fees and getting your campaign committee together is to meet Maryland campaign requirements.....the first being to connect to campaign finance reporting systems.  Right away you notice......even Maryland's Board of Elections is out-sourced to a private contractor ----in this case PCC Technology Group-----to do the work of election oversight.


Now, as we are seeing with the Maryland Health Care Exchange debacle, the State of Maryland needs a strong ITT/technology department as a public entity.  We do not need to outsource every public IT job to the highest bidder.  The state and localities need to hire public employees that do IT work.  This level of privatization of public work is ridiculous.  The amount of money lost to fraud, corruption, and incompetence pays for good public sector jobs.


WE FOUGHT ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES BECAUSE WE FEARED PRIVATE CORPORATIONS AND NO PAPER BALLOTS WOULD MEAN FRAUD....AND INDEED, THAT IS WHAT WAS SHOWN TO HAPPEN.

Campaign Finance Reporting and Management System (CFRMS)



On August 23

, PCC Technology Group demonstrated the public site for the online, browser based campaign finance reporting system. The demonstration included registering a political committee with
electronic signature capabilities and verification. Additionally, SBE and PCC have completed functional requirement documents for the filer software and administration management and look forward to those demonstrations shortly. Ms. Mack asked about the impact of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee’s recommendations will have on the new system, to which Mr. DeMarinis responded that minor changes would be needed.


__________________________________________


As a candidate who knows that if the Trans Pacific Trade Deal (TPP) is passed none of the campaign finance laws would be in affect because.......global corporate tribunals would be writing all laws that WE THE PEOPLE will not be able to contest and US Constitutional laws would be lost with sovereignty.

If an organization is not shouting out against TPP and education the public about TPP-----THEY ARE SUPPORTING TPP.

Maryland has a strong movement on campaign finance reform and most citizens support getting big money out of politics.  Yet, Maryland media only considers a candidate in reporting that has a war chest.....SEE THE DISCONNECT?

I'M GOING TO OUT ALL OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS BELOW SUPPORTING THIS GOOD BILL FOR HAVING NOTHING ON THEIR WEBSITES ABOUT TPP.  THIS MOVEMENT MEANS NOTHING IF TPP IS PASSED.

It appears that all of the pols supporting it so far are neo-liberals who are working to push TPP-tied policy forward.  Remember, when a pol supports public private partnerships.....corporate welfare that hands all public policy writing and control to corporations.....and they love connecting the state and localities to all kinds of Wall Street financial instruments leveraging Maryland's future for decades handing the public over to Wall Street control-----


THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND ALL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES ARE SILENT ON TPP AND SUPPORT THE ABOVE.  BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR.


MD Campaign for the Free & Fair Elections Amendment


 

Maryland Campaign for the Free and Fair Elections Amendment
Coordinated by Get Money Out - Maryland (GMOM) Charlie Cooper President, 410-624-6095


 
Proposal to:

    Co-sponsor the GMOM Rally Jan. 21, 2014, 11 A.M. Lawyers Mall, Annapolis to oppose “corporate personhood and “overturn Citizens United on the 4th anniversary of that tragic Supreme Court ruling. Following the rally, participants will make lobby visits with senators and delegates.

    Sponsors of last year’s rally expected to sponsor this year’s, with more to be added, include:
    Get Money Out - Maryland, Progressive Maryland, Common Cause Maryland, Maryland Public Interest Research Group, Maryland United for Peace and Justice, MoveOn.Org Baltimore Council, Progressive Democrats of America – Maryland, Maryland Nonprofits, Fund Our Communities, Prince George's Peace & Justice Coalition, Peace Action Montgomery, Generations for Peace and Democracy, Progressive Cheverly, Howard County Peace Action, Pax Christi, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, United Workers, Pledge of Resistance.
    -
    Endorse the binding resolution bill [See CONFIDENTIAL drafts of full bill and letter attached]
    to be introduced by Sen. Jamie Raskin (and championed by Del. Sheila Hixson in the House, with co-sponsors Dels. Mizeur, Hucker et al.). It calls for an Article V convention of the states to draft an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to do 3 things:
        Overturn Citizens United and regulate money in politics
        Reserve constitutional rights exclusively to natural persons (not corporations)
        Guarantee that every individual citizen has the constitutional right to vote (for the first time) in order to roll back growing efforts to suppress the freedom to vote.

Why endorse this bill

When policy outcomes are controlled by who invests most in Congressional campaigns, large corporations and the wealthiest use their influence to dominate our politics. They enact policies that further increase their wealth and power in opposition to the public interest. Revenue, effort and resources are redirected away from jobs, education, housing, health care, infrastructure, environmental protection, renewable energy and the needs of workers, seniors, children and families.

Background: Supreme Court Decisions Undermining Democracy

    “Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United.” - President Barack Obama

    “Money does not equal free speech. We’re going to work as best we can to try to rectify that.
    It may take a constitutional amendment. Because this Supreme Court as currently constituted equates money with free speech and that fundamental difference prevents virtually any kind of meaningful legislation from happening. That means we’ll continue to have a system that is polluted with money…” - Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President at its 2013 Convention, September 9th

    “No sensible reform is possible until we end this corruption… We will never get your issue solved until we fix this issue first… Yours is the most important issue, but mine is the first [that] we have to solve before we get to fix the issues you care about.” - Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig

--

The Citizens United v FEC decision by the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for unlimited campaign expenditures in elections, which corporations and the extremely wealthy have used with devastating impact in the last few elections. This misguided decision reversed decades of campaign finance regulation at the state and federal level, turning our public elections into private auctions. With regard to voting rights, Supreme Court justices in the Bush v Gore decision declared that there is no individual right to vote in the Constitution and in its aftermath, there has been a concerted attack upon the right to vote across the country. These legal travesties require remedy if we are going to preserve representative democracy and create a more perfect union.

Why We Must Amend: To Preserve and Defend Democracy in America

American democracy is under assault by the most powerful economic forces and the wealthiest individuals the world has ever known. Our country is being called a “flawed democracy” by some, and even a former Democratic President said outright, “America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy.” This is America in 2013, and we must take action to reverse course before our country falls into even darker days.

The right to vote is being gutted in states around the country. The rising tide of campaign cash places free and fair elections in jeopardy. The wounds initially opened in our democracy by Bush v Gore have only been further expanded by a Supreme Court recklessly demolishing the walls of separation between wealth and state. They have arrogantly handed down decision after decision that defends the right of corporations to influence our elections but derides the right of everyday Americans to participate in them, and now they are considering going even further with McCutcheon v. FEC.

If it is not the fate of representative democracy to die face down in a pile of campaign cash, suffocated under the boot of a lobbyist-driven dictatorship of outside interests, then we must discover a way to revive our democracy. Ever since the founding of our country, Americans in every generation have overcome overwhelming odds to create a more perfect union, including the Abolitionists, the Suffragists, and the Civil Rights Movement which came before us. Now it is our turn.

As was the case with those Progressive movements, our goal is to amend the U.S. Constitution to make America more democratic, more inclusive, and more accountable to the people. We must amend, because the Supreme Court overturned federal campaign finance law with Citizens United v FEC and rejected state level attempts to preserve anti-corruption laws with American Tradition Partnership v Bullock. That means no law passed, at either the state or federal level, can be protected without an amendment, and the only authority superior to the Supreme Court is the U.S. Constitution, so we must amend.

Every generation of Americans has amended the Constitution (with the exception of the current one), which has been amended 27 times in our nation’s history. While Congress has ultimately proposed all previous amendments, 4 out of the last 10 Amendments as well as the Bill of Rights used state level campaigns calling for a convention to force Congress to act. Therefore, most amendments to the Constitution come from states issuing a call for an amendment and pushing for a convention of the states to do so, if Congress will not act. Historically, if you want an amendment, this is how to do it.

Congress is broken. We have been told by Democratic members in leadership that there’s no way 2/3rds of Congress will vote to propose an amendment to fix our elections. Congress could not even pass something as decent and simple as the DISCLOSE Act when they had Democratic majorities in both houses with a Democratic President. Yet, when asking what we could do for them, multiple members of Congress said, “Free us from fundraising.” It appears that they see the problem, but they cannot find their way to the solution.

The good news is that democracy is still alive at the state level, where state legislators are responsive to their constituents and similarly concerned about the threats to our democracy. Nearly 90% of Americans are deeply concerned about the corruption of our federal government, and the dysfunction in government just surpassed the economy as the number one issue to most Americans. While Congress is broken, state legislators in Maryland can take action with other states to drive toward a solution.

As was the case with the 17th Amendment (direct election of U.S. Senators), there were powerful institutional forces that would prevent the Congress from ever taking action – it’s difficult to get 2/3rds of Senators to throw away their own method of selection. But with pressure from state legislatures across the country and a populist movement forcing their hand, the people were able to wrench the 17th Amendment out of Congress and then ratify it into the Constitution. It will likely take a similar strategy for us to win.

Whether proposed by Congress or proposed via a convention of the states, any amendment would need to be approved by 75% of the states prior to being added into the Constitution.
With 20 state legislatures controlled entirely by Democrats and 27 controlled entirely by Republicans (3 are split), only the most popular proposals supported by a vast majority of the population across lines of partisanship will make it through this political gauntlet.

Of course it is hard to amend the Constitution, as it should be, but guaranteeing the right to vote and getting money out of politics are fundamental reforms the vast majority of Americans support. The majority of Americans agree elections should be free of the corrupting influence of excessive spending by outside interests, fair enough that any citizen can run for public office, and that every American should have the right to vote. It is just this kind of issue that can unite Americans across political divides and create a movement to amend that will ultimately prevail.

The right of the people to choose our own elected officials, write our own laws, and determine the fate of our country together should be enshrined into the U.S. Constitution.The perverse doctrine that artificial entities have inalienable rights and that systemic bribery is a form of protected speech must be explicitly rejected. We must reclaim representative democracy in this country, for ourselves and for all future generations of Americans.

Our generation’s greatest responsibility is to get private money out of public elections and enshrine the right to vote in our nation’s most sacred document. It’s time to use the tools of democracy – all of them – while we still have the ability to do so in order to fix the problems we face. Only once we have freed our elections and government from the corruption currently plaguing them, and have restored the right of the people to choose the course of our country, can we begin effectively fixing the myriad of other fundamental problems we face.

Many people joining our efforts around the country, as well as those working with the Maryland Campaign for the Free and Fair Elections Amendment, cite climate change as their driving motivation, recognizing that environmental problems cannot be solved without removing the corrupting influence of fossil-fuel companies on our government. But whether it’s economic justice, workers’ rights, women’s rights, civil rights, social justice, or any of the many other Progressive campaigns and causes, we must stand united against the privilege of the world’s wealthiest individuals who dominate our political discourse and drown out the voices of everyday Americans.

To win on these issues in the long term, we must reset the rules of the political game. Powerful economic forces and corporations have used their economic clout to rig our laws to benefit only the 1% to the detriment of the rest of us and the future of our country. Amending the Constitution to restore free and fair elections and guarantee the individual’s right to vote will give us a fighting chance.

The one unifying demand of reformers nationwide should be to end the corruption in D.C. and to save our democracy. When we achieve the historic feat of amending the Constitution, we will know that we all participated in creating a more perfect union. We can do this, and the tools of the internet provide us with a powerful arsenal, but ultimately, we as Americans must take action before it is too late.
--

Process and Strategy: The Two Ways to Amend the Constitution

As public concern and anger build about the destruction of our democracy, so does agreement that the only effective means to reverse Citizen’s United and the perversion of “corporate personhood” is by amending the U.S. Constitution, which can be done in two ways:

a) REQUEST that Congress pass such an amendment, which this Congress is free to ignore, so far has, and always will according to nearly all progressive observers, in and out of Congress. Thus far, on record as supporting an amendment to overturn ‘Citizens United’ are 108 members of the Maryland General Assembly, 15 other states, 350 U.S. cities and towns, 125 members of Congress and a clear majority of the American public. However, Congress is the source of the dysfunction, so this is like asking cancer to cure cancer. Congress could not even pass something as simple and decent as the DISCLOSE Act, so cannot and will not fix it according to most informed observers. Even members of Congress themselves who ask that we “free them from fundraising,” state plainly that “the current Congress [or leadership] is incapable of proposing an amendment.”

b) REQUIRE: When 2/3rds of the states (currently 34) demand a ‘convention of the states’ for the purpose of proposing such an amendment, Congress is forced to assemble the convention (also known as an Article 5 Convention.) Already over 30 states – representing the entire political spectrum - have active campaigns underway to pass a state resolution calling for a convention to propose anamendment for Free and Fair Elections, overturning the ‘Citizens United’ decision, and eliminating ‘corporate personhood.’ Maryland could lead the way, as it did on the Living Wage, along with Vermont and Iowa as most likely to pass the “binding resolution” among at least 10 states introducing one in 2014.

c) RATIFICATION: Once an amendment is proposed, whether by a 2/3rds vote of both houses of Congress or by 2/3rds of the states (currently 34) calling for a convention, it must then be ratified by 3/4ths of the states (38).
--

For reference, here is the text of Article V in the United States Constitution:

Article V: The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress....

While use of a convention of the states to propose an amendment is unprecedented, state-level campaigns to call a convention helped add 4 out of the last 10 Amendments and the Bill of Rights.
So historically, most amendments to the Constitution have been added by utilizing this strategy.
--

Historical Perspective: Previous Amendments, Movements and Conventions

Our Constitution has been amended 27 other times, and at least once by every generation of Americans. In the past 100 years, America has amended the Constitution 9 times, once in as little as 100 days. The Founders explicitly gave citizens the ability to amend the Constitution and used it themselves to establish the Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution.

Three amendments passed as recently as in the 1960’s. In 1971, just four months after Congress submitted it to the states, the 26th Amendment (allowing 18-year-olds to vote) was ratified in just four months. The most recent amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1992, more than 200 years after it was first presented in the US House of Representatives by Representative James Madison of Virginia.

The 17th Amendment (for direct election of Senators) was proposed by Congress in 1913 only after the states were within one state of the 2/3rds needed to call for a convention of the states. Also, Congress proposed the 21st amendment (repeal of prohibition), 22nd amendment (term limits for the President), and 25th amendment (clarifies Presidential succession), only after many state legislatures had called for a convention of the states for each of these issues.

The amendment power of the states included in Article 5 is a core component of the Constitution, meant to be used when our federal legislators no longer represent the nation’s citizens. In the
“final argument” of the Federalist Papers (no. 85), Alexander Hamilton said the Article V amend-ment process was the means by which the states would rein in an out-of-control or corrupt federal government.

Even though a convention of the states has not yet occurred, there is a strong precedent for a single issue convention to propose amendments, as there have been over 700 state applications, but never 2/3 on a single subject, which would have compelled Congress to call a convention on that subject.

There have been over 233 state level conventions to amend state constitutions and none has ever exceeded the scope of their mandate (although the ultra right-wing John Birch Society likes to promote the conspiracy theory of a “runaway convention”).

Furthermore, a convention would only propose an amendment that would then need to be ratified by 75% of the states, 20 of which are controlled by Democrats and 27 of which are controlled by Republicans (3 are split). Only proposals that enjoy widespread cross-partisan support, such as voting rights and getting money out of politics, will make it through that incredibly narrow political gauntlet, and anything 75% of the states want in the US Constitution probably belongs in there anyhow.

Whether it’s through Congress or a convention of the states, it is clear that we must amend the U.S. Constitution if we are to preserve representative democracy for future generations of Americans.


_______________________________


This is what strong citizen action can do----protect free and fair elections.  Maryland is heading toward online voter registration which is not a bad thing, but hacking can undermine this process and we know how easily accessed these public systems can be.

The population most connected with having a hard time registering are the poor and working class.....both not having easy access to computers or online registration.  The next being troops overseas.  We need to monitor this process to be sure it is not compromised by hacking and false voter registration.

THE FACT THAT THE PUBLIC HAS TO WATCH AS PUBLIC FUNDS ARE CONSTANTLY SPENT ON THESE POLICIES NO ONE WANTS----AND THEN WATCH THEM DISMANTLED---SHOWS WE HAVE A DYSFUNCTIONAL SYSTEM

Pencils Ready? Maryland to Return to Paper Ballots for 2016 Election

Maryland state election authorities are shopping for a new paper ballot system to have in place by the 2016 presidential election.
Posted by Deb Belt (Editor) , November 22, 2013 at 11:34 AM

Maryland voters will switch from touch screens to using paper ballots for the 2016 presidential election.



After a short experiment with electronic voting machines, the state of Maryland has decided to move back to paper ballots for the 2016 election, reports the Washington Times.

The state decided to switch back to paper ballots after long-standing voter outcry and fear that computer based voting may lead to some ballots not being counted, the newspaper said. Maryland’s electronic voting machine has been controversial ever since its first institution in 2002.

Voters raised a ruckus in 2004 after the state moved to electronic voting machines that eliminated paper ballots and still raises suspicions, reports WJZ TV. But the switch to paper ballots was delayed until now because of limited funding.

Local election officials are already expressing uncertainty about what could go wrong when the state switches from an electronic voting system to using paper ballots, says the MarylandReporter.com.

“This is a big transition for us,” said Montgomery County Board of Elections Deputy Director Alysoun McLaughlin told the website. “Everything from set up, to warehouses, to the voting experience is based around touch screen [voting] machines.”

State officials told the website they plan to run mock elections prior to the 2016 elections.


___________________________________


The top reason Maryland voters give for not coming to the polls is -----there are no candidates for whom I would vote.  Indeed, the democratic party in Maryland is controlled by neo-liberals.  This sentiment soars in the City of Baltimore.  How do you change that sentiment?  

YOU REBUILD ALL PUBLIC STRUCTURES THAT GET THE GENERAL PUBLIC IN THE DISCUSSION ABOUT PUBLIC POLICY AND YOU HAVE LOTS OF PUBLIC FORUMS FOR ALL CANDIDATES GETTING THEIR PLATFORMS OUT.

So, if the problem is no candidate for which people want to vote-----all of these laws below are nice, but window-dressing as the structure for public engagement is gone.  That's why early voting always has no one coming to use this policy.  GOOD POLICIES BUT THE ELEPHANT IS MISSING.

I ask.....why does Maryland have a primary in June when primaries are the most important part of the election?  Do we really want two candidates in a general election having more than the three months to say the same thing over and over?  OF COURSE NOT.  IT MAKES NO SENSE TO SHORTEN THE PRIMARIES WITH LOTS OF CANDIDATES.  So, we need the primaries moved back to September.  The reason given for this move is to give troops more time to register for elections.  I DO NOT THINK THIS IS A PROBLEM....



Early Voting, Absentee Ballots, and Provisional Ballots in Maryland

By Mike Unger  


Early voting, absentee ballots, and provisional ballots are all available in Maryland, but they are all very different. An absentee ballot is a ballot cast in advance of the election because the voter is unable to make it to the polls, while a provisional ballot is cast at a polling place when there is a question as to the voter's eligibility. Early voting is permitted at selected sites throughout the state.

Absentee Ballots

Any voter registered in Maryland can vote by absentee ballot. Simply submit a request to receive an absentee ballot. For the 2010 general election, the deadline is Tuesday, October 26, 2010. Your request must be received by 8 p.m. if you mail or deliver the application or 11:59 pm if you fax or email it.

After you receive your absentee ballot, read the instructions. You will need a No. 2 pencil to vote. You will be voting a paper ballot and must completely fill in the oval to the left of your choice. Do not vote for more candidates than the number specified in the contest heading. If you wish, you may vote for fewer candidates than specified. Do not sign your name or make any other mark on your ballot.

Write-in voting is only allowed in general elections. A general election ballot has spaces for write-in votes. To cast a write-in vote, fill in the oval to the left of the space for the write-in vote, and write the last name and first name (or first initial) of the person in the appropriate space.

You must mail or hand deliver your absentee ballot to your local board of elections. You cannot email or fax your voted absentee ballot or take your voted ballot to an early voting center or a polling place.

If you hand deliver your ballot, you must deliver it to your local board of elections by 8 p.m. on election day.

If you mail your ballot, you must mail it on or before election day and it must be received by your local board of elections by 10 am on September 22, 2010 (primary election) and November 12, 2010 (general election).

Early Voting

Anyone registered to vote in Maryland is eligible to vote early. For the general election, early voting centers will be open starting Friday, October 22, 2010 through Thursday, October 28, 2010, except for Sunday, October 24th when early voting centers are closed.

Early voting centers will be open from 10 am until 8 pm each day of early voting. Anyone in line at 8 pm will be allowed to vote.

Find your early voting polling place

Provisional Ballots

Provisional Voting is a safeguard to help ensure that no eligible voter is denied the right to vote. If there is a problem verifying a voter's eligibility, he or she can cast a provisional vote that which will be counted if local election board can verify that the person is eligible and registered to vote. Reasons that a person might cast a provisional ballot include:

    Name is not on the precinct's voter registry because voter moved within the state of Maryland and did not update voter registration. (Provisional ballots must be cast in the voter's current voting precinct to be counted)
    Identification is required and voter is not able to provide it. ID is required when this is the first time the person has voted in Maryland or the voter has not previously met identification requirements. Identification must be supplied before the first Monday after the election for the provisional ballot to be counted.
    Records indicate that you received an absentee ballot. If you have not voted already, you may cast a provisional ballot. It is illegal to vote twice.
    Your right to vote was challenged by a poll watcher. Poll watchers, who are registered voters designated by a candidate or political party to watch the polls, may challenge your identity. If this happens, the voter must swear out an affidavit affirming his or her identity, and the poll watcher swears one citing the reason for the challenge.
    If poll hours are extended by court order, those voting after the regular close of polls must vote by provisional ballot.

    To find out if your provisional vote was counted, call 800-222-8683 ten days after the election.

____________________________________

This is indeed the case.  Since Maryland has no public oversight of any agency, one has to be worried about fraud and corruption in this registration process.  IT IS CRITICAL THAT WE ALL SHOUT OUT FOR FREE AND FAIR DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS NOW----TPP WILL KILL THE NEED TO ELECT PEOPLE AS CONTROL OF LAW-MAKING WILL GO TO GLOBAL TRIBUNALS.



'Michael Greenberger, the University of Maryland law professor who serves as director of the Center for Health & Homeland Security, says the identification system currently in place is not an effective way to authenticate a voter; in fact, it's vulnerable to fraud'.




Experts worry about election fraud threat
Maryland online registration, absentee ballots raise alarms


    

State House

The money spent on at least two referendum campaigns will likely be in the millions. (August 18, 2012)
Dan Rodricks

5:00 a.m. EST, February 6, 2014

By now, just about everyone connected to the Internet is familiar with this process: Required to fill out and sign a form of some kind, you ask for and receive a hyperlink via email. You open the link, find the form you need (perhaps a pdf), download it, print it, fill it out and mail it off.

That's a common practice, though increasingly old-school by today's online standards. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly risky about the transaction; few would think twice about conducting business that way.

But while integrity is important in all transactional realms, it rises to precious when we're talking about voting.


And that's why a similar process, new this year and slated to be part of Maryland's primary election in June, has some civic-minded computer security experts sounding alarms about the potential for fraud.

A small group of them, including three researchers based in other states, has also warned Maryland's Board of Elections about vulnerability in the state's online voter registration process. In fact, more than two years ago, they found the Maryland system to be susceptible to "large-scale, automated fraud" and said so in a letter to the board.


The concerns of these experts, however, have not led to major changes. Online registration has been available since before the 2012 elections. The new plan for absentee ballots — making them available electronically to any Maryland voter who requests one — is in place.

Regarding the latter, here's what the Board of Elections website says:

"Election officials can mail or fax your ballot to you, or you can download your ballot from the States website. If you want to download your ballot, make sure you provide your email address. ... We will send you an email when your ballot is ready. The email will include your ballot tracking number and a link where you can print your ballot and instructions. You must enter the ballot tracking number to access your absentee ballot."

This is what has security experts concerned. They say there is no way to know for certain that the person requesting the absentee ballot is the one filling it out and mailing it in.

Michael Greenberger, the University of Maryland law professor who serves as director of the Center for Health & Homeland Security, says the identification system currently in place is not an effective way to authenticate a voter; in fact, it's vulnerable to fraud.

Therefore, he says, "bad actors" could impersonate real voters, have the tracking numbers sent to them by email, then fill out and return ballots to local election boards without any meaningful check for fraud. Voter signatures are not checked against those on file, Greenberger points out.

A member of the Maryland Commission on Cybersecurity Innovation and Excellence, Greenberger advocates dropping the current plan and going old-school — that is, mailing absentee ballots to "brick and mortar addresses."

The other major concern was the potential for fraud in online registration.

The three experts who wrote to the board about this in 2012 were David Jefferson, a computer scientist based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; J. Alex Halderman, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan; and Barbara Simons, a retired IBM computer scientist and an expert on electronic voting.

They are part of network of vigilant computer security experts who independently assess state elections systems and report their concerns.

"We have identified severe security vulnerabilities in Maryland's online voter registration system," Jefferson and his colleagues wrote state elections officials in September 2012. "These problems leave the system open to large-scale, automated fraud, and make the Maryland system among the most vulnerable of all the states' new online voter registration systems."


The letter said, in boldface: "Given the grave potential for harm, we urge the State of Maryland to take immediate defensive steps to safeguard the online voter registration system or else shut down the system."

That statement was reiterated in a follow-up letter last February.

In an interview Tuesday, Jefferson said he and his colleagues have never received a response.

For its part, the elections board says the system has been adequately tested by an independent consultant who found it to be secure. Teams of testers tried to hack into the system but couldn't, says Nikki Charlson, deputy administrator of the board. And, she says, there are additional measures in place to alert officials to any unusual transactions during the three-week absentee voting period.

Del. Jon Cardin, a candidate for attorney general in the June primary, serves as chairman of a House of Delegates subcommittee on election laws. He is well aware of the concerns that were raised about the new absentee system when the General Assembly considered and approved it last year. On balance, he says, the legislative mandate to make voter access as convenient as possible outweighed the security concerns. He says the system will continue to be scrutinized for any irregularities.

OK, I guess we'll see.

Here's hoping, for the sake of our precious democracy, this works better than the state's health insurance exchange.

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July 10th, 2013

7/10/2013

0 Comments

 
THE SAME CORPORATE FOUNDATIONS FUNDING THIS EDUCATION PRIVATIZATION ARE FUNDING ALL MEDIA AND CONTROL THE MESSAGE!!!!



We see below that 3 new charters are opening in Baltimore after several closed for lack of performance and many more are still open with lack of performance.  The key word here is 'LACK OF PERFORMANCE BY MOST CHARTER SCHOOLS IN BALTIMORE'!  We watch on our local news WBAL an interview with City Neighbors Charter President MacDonald telling us they have lots of families on waiting lists wanting to attend a charter.  Carol Beck of Supporting Public Schools of Choice says the support for more charters is there.  WHERE IS THIS SUPPORT?  We need a disclaimer for Carol Beck's group as it seeks funding from the ABAG.....Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers....the shadow government of private non-profits controlled by wealthy donors writing public policy.

Below you see the charter group talking to this funding agency and you will note that Southwest Charter has poor performance and wanting to select its students and the Transformation schools have mostly been converted to charters for no reason.


'In recent years, Baltimore City Schools has considerably expanded its choice offerings, including the creation of many new charter and transformation schools. Baltimore now has 29 charter schools, 15 transformation schools, and 5 schools with similar operating contracts - together these schools compose 25% of the District’s schools and serve 17% of its students. Please join the Education Funders Affinity Group for a briefing on charter and transformation schools by Carol Beck, Director of Supporting Public Schools of Choice. We will also be joined by Erika Brockman, Executive Director of Southwest Baltimore Charter School, and Chris Maher, Chief Academic Officer for the Friendship Schools, who will discuss their efforts to operate successful schools. We will discuss policy issues, demographics and student performance data, and also address the ways that the funding community might support the District’s expanding portfolio of schools'.


You will never hear a parent or student on any local media decrying these charter schools because first, the media won't allow it, but also there is fear of speaking out and losing an ability to access ever changing schools locations .......you have to be admitted to city schools by lottery.....school choice.  IS THAT INTIMIDATION OR WHAT?  So, public schools are closing right and left in the city center neighborhoods and charters are opening as the only resource making parents desperate for a school and a need to compete for slots.  Regardless of how many times school officials tell you that these lotteries are open......THEY ARE SELECTIVE AND SELECTING PEOPLE OUT OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

  Every family with which I speak decry the closing of their public schools and being forced to travel to charter schools that are not doing any better than the school that was closed.  THERE ARE A FEW CHARTERS PERFORMING WELL.....THIS IS NOT A CHARTER-HATING WEBSITE.  WE SIMPLY WANT THEM TO BE THE EXCEPTION NOT THE RULE!

The charter CEO from City Neighbors in the report below is always in the news stomping for charters.  She works for the 1% in the city pushing charter expansion.  If you look at City Neighbors charter school performance below you will see they failed abysmally in one school and performed unsatisfactorily in the other.  THE MEDIA CONSTANTLY ALLOW PEOPLE TO SPEAK WHO HAVE NO HISTORY OF PERFORMANCE.....THEY SIMPLY REPRESENT THE SCHOOL PRIVATIZATION MODEL SO HAVE A VOICE.  Her schools are failing to provide adequate achievement yet she wants to expand her brand.  It's like the Interim school board CEO whose charter had to close because of poor performance now is head of the school board and their spokesperson.  THE MEDIA PROVIDE VOICE TO ONLY THE PEOPLE PERFORMING BADLY.

We see below a reminder about more public schools closing .....adding that to a decade of school closings and Baltimore looks a lot like Chicago.  This education reform model is in fact coming from the same source.....Wall Street.  Why are people on waiting lists for charters?  There are no public school openings for families that are seeing their neighborhood schools close.  There is no CHOICE.
 So you see all of the media working to set the stage for expansion of charters all with information that does not portray the facts.

There is also an expectation that the schools that are being refurbished with this $1 billion school building financial instrument will all become charters as that is what New York City did with all the schools it refurbished.  CHARTER SCHOOLS AND THE STRUCTURAL CHANGES NEEDED ARE BEING IMPLEMENTED EACH YEAR!

If you look at the private foundations funding this privatization of public schools.....the Casey Foundation (UPS), Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and Broad Foundation......all of which fund public media by the way....you see from where Obama and Arne Duncan comes and it has nothing to do with the democratic party.  All of Maryland's democrats are neo-liberals!


This is a neo-liberal policy and your Third Way corporate neo-liberal is approving all of these policies.


Chicago School Closings And The Joyce Foundation: The Obama Connection


By Steve Horn | July 9, 2013



President Barack Obama left, talks with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel right, after arriving at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

The Windy City is is undergoing a tumultuous historical moment, with the uprising of the Chicago Teachers Union occurring alongside the ongoing restructuring and privatization of the Chicago Public Schools system.

Most recently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel oversaw the closing of 50 public schools, many of which will be replaced by charter schools. A bulk of the 550 laid-off teachers will be replaced by Teach for America contractors, many of whom teach in charter schools.

“Statewide enrollment in charter schools has surged from 6,152 students in 2000 to 54,054 this school year — with most of them in Chicago — according to the Illinois State Board of Education,” an April Chicago Tribune editorial explained. “The first charter school in Illinois opened in 1996. Now there are 132 campuses operating under 58 charters.”

A thus-far underreported story of the retooling of CPS concerns a foundation close the epicenter of it all: the Joyce Foundation.

Joyce is a major liberal foundation. President Barack Obama sat on its board of directors from 1994 to 2002, as did Valerie Jarrett, his former senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement .

A look at major organizations dedicated to restructuring U.S. education turns up a slew of current and former upper-level Joyce staff and board members.

Between 1995 and 2012, the Joyce Foundation spent $135.58 million on education reform.

“They’re really in bed now with conservative elements nationwide,” said Mike Klonsky, a Chicago public schools activist and professor at DePaul University, in an interview with Mint Press News. “Anything that has to do with corporate-style school reform, you’ll probably see Joyce’s name in it.”

A Mint Press News investigation reveals the veracity of Klonsky’s statement — and then some.

In the sphere of school privatization, Joyce mirrors Milwaukee’s Bradley Foundation, a key foundation of the Republican Party referred to by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as the “Bradley Empire” in a November 2011 investigation.

In his book, “The Gift of Education: Public Education and Venture Philanthropy,” Kenneth Saltman, Klonsky’s colleague at DePaul, describes the activity of Joyce and allied foundations in the sphere of education reform as “venture philanthropy” — transforming a once-public education system into a for-profit market.

“Such a view carries significant implications for a society theoretically dedicated to public, democratic ideals,” Saltman explains in the book’s introduction. “This is no small matter in terms of how the public and civil roles of public schooling have become nearly overtaken by the … perspective [of] public schooling as principally a matter of producing workers and consumers for the economy and for global economic competition.”

With assets of over $900 million, Joyce has helped in applying “shock doctrine”-type “venture philanthropy” to CPS, with tight-knit ties to the highest levels of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration.

Nuts and bolts: Mayoral takeover as launching pad for reform Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — derided as “Mayor 1 Percent” by some activists and “One-Term Mayor” by others — formerly served as White House chief of staff under Obama.

Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, is the former CEO of CPS. Duncan’s federal policy agenda — notably the Race to the Top program — is Emanuel’s agenda in Chicago.

To understand the origins of that agenda, rewind to 1995, when Chicago joined numerous major U.S. cities in granting full control of the public school system to the mayor. Other members of that club included Boston, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., New York City and Los Angeles.

Photo of a September 2012 protest against school closings and budget cuts in Chicago, Ill. (Photo/Shutter Stutter via Flickr)

”I think the reason for the crisis in American education is that no one was accountable,” Duncan, then CEO of CPS, said in a 2002 article published in The New York Times. ”Mayors could throw rocks and criticize, but they couldn’t really do anything about it. If you have a mayor who says he’s in charge of the schools, he’s the one on the line, and he has to get results or he’ll be voted out.”

Mayoral control, though described by Duncan in terms of “accountability” because of the ability to quantify things like standardized test scores, is key for advocates of reconfiguring K-12 education systems.

“This is when the role of power philanthropy really began to play its role,” said Klonsky. “They were very much worried about this democratic movement. It was too broad, too difficult to control and there were too many radicals involved in it. Thus, they were afraid of how it would play out politically.”

Put most concisely, the mayoral takeover in Chicago served as a launching pad for the modern school reform movement in the Windy City.

The Chicago Public Education Fund and its Obama-run precursor Not long after the mayoral takeover took place, the Chicago Public Education Fund was created. The fund is a public-private enterprise bankrolled in part by Joyce. Its precursor was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which launched in 1995 and morphed into its current form in 1999 via $2 million in seed money.

Obama, well before his rise to national fame, served as the chair of the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. He also sat on the board of the Joyce Foundation.

“[A] group of corporate and civic leaders in the Chicago area believed they could help their home city do a better job educating its students, so they put their minds, financial assets, and talents together, and the result was The Chicago Public Education Fund,” the right-wing organization Philanthropy Roundtable wrote. “The Fund’s strategy is to serve as a catalyst and investment partner … to invest dollars and ideas into high-impact programs that will improve student achievement and school leadership system-wide.”

An ode to “venture philanthropy,” Joyce invests somewhere between $1 million and $2 million of its assets in the Chicago Public Education Fund, according to its website. Joyce was the key funding stream behind the fund’s launch.

“Joyce… was one of the first foundations to commit significant dollars to The Fund,” Janet Knupp, former CEO of CPEF said in an interview with Philanthropy Roundtable. “They played a critical role in helping us forge relationships with larger foundations across the nation. They saw the value of our work on a local level but had enough of a national reach to start connecting us.”

The fund’s connections to power centers are illustrative:

– CEO Heather Anichini once worked in the CPS Office of Planning and Development under Duncan, leveraging that gig to become vice president of Teach for America.

– Jesse Rothstein, former chief economist at Obama’s Labor Department, sits on the fund’s External Advisory Council.

– Alice Phillips, who lobbied on the fund’s behalf in 2006 and 2007, formerly worked alongside Loretta Durbin — wife of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — as a lobbyist for Government Affairs Specialists Inc.

– Penny Pritzker, once a member of Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and now his secretary of commerce, served on the fund’s board of directors and the Chicago Board of Education.

– Elizabeth Swanson, now the deputy chief of staff for education to Emanuel, formerly served as executive director of the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation, which is overseen by Pritzker’s family. Earlier, Swanson led the CPS Office of Management and Budget under Duncan.

Arne Duncan: ‘Tapping into’ CPS restructuring with teacher incentive fund As CEO of CPS, Duncan “tapped into” President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy. He subsequently rebranded it as “Race to the Top” when he took over the U.S. Department of Education.

“Pushing competitive market approaches and armed with unprecedented funding and support from the president, he is possibly the most powerful education secretary ever,” The Christian Science Monitor wrote in an August 2010 article.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, speaks to the U.S. Conference of Mayors 81st winter meeting in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

A cornerstone of Duncan’s agenda as CPS head was the Recognizing Excellence in Academic Leadership/Teacher Advancement Program, funded by a five-year, $27.5 million U.S. Department of Education grant.

The program fit under the umbrella of Bush’s No Child Left Behind: standardized testing, “teacher accountability,” charter school promotion and the creation of an online charter school market. Its origins center around right-wing financier Lowell Milken’s System for Teacher and Student Advancement program, now overseen by his National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, founded in 2005.

The Teacher Advancement Program, or TAP, “was launched in 1999 as a comprehensive school reform that restructures and revitalizes the teaching profession by providing teachers with powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional development, a fair evaluation system and performance-based compensation,” the program’s website explains.

The now-extinct Chicago Teacher Advancement Program website explicitly states that the program is modeled after Milken’s program. Furthermore, Milken’s website lists the Joyce Foundation as a financial supporter of its national TAP system. The Chicago Teachers Union, then run under different leadership, signed the original contract to take part in TAP.

“When teachers are given powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional growth and recognition for outstanding achievement, we see increased student achievement in TAP schools,” Lowell Milken said in a December 2008 press release. “Chicago TAP schools are off to a strong start in continuing efforts to achieve these goals.”

Milken, unmentioned in most accounts, has a vested financial interest in school reform efforts and “fixing failing schools.”

That’s because Milken is a major investor in K12 Inc., a corporation traded on Wall Street that sells online schooling and curriculum to state and local governments. Milken invested $10 million in K12 Inc. in 2000, a stake that is now worth over $125 million, according to a July 2008 article in Forbes.

“If it were a school district, K12 Inc. would rank among the 30 largest of the nation’s 1,500 districts. The company, which began in two states a decade ago, now teaches about 95,000 students in virtual schools in 29 states and the District of Columbia,” The Washington Post reported in a November 2011 investigation.

Duncan now oversees the federal Teacher Incentive Fund, which “supports efforts to develop and implement performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems in high-need schools,” according to its website. It’s the funding arm for Race to the Top and served the same function for “No Child Left Behind.”

Yet another player is Deane Mariotti. According to her biographical sketch, she “led [the] joint effort with the Chicago Public Schools to secure the … Teacher Incentive Fund” while working as manager of program investments for the Chicago Public Education Fund in 2007.

In fall 2010, CPS received another five-year Teacher Incentive Fund grant, this time worth even more: $34.1 million. It did so, once again, with the helping hand of the Chicago Public Education Fund.

In a clear depiction of aligned interests, the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy — funded by the right-wing Devos Foundation and Koch Family Foundations and a key proponent of “emergency financial managers” of cities in fiscal trouble, such as Detroit and Benton Harbor — praised Chicago’s TAP system and “merit pay” for teachers in a September 2008 policy briefing.

The prominent liberal group Center for American Progress — run by John Podesta, who served as co-chair of Obama’s transition team after he won the 2008 presidential race — also praised “merit pay” in a May 2009 report funded by Joyce. One of the co-authors of that report, Raegan Miller, is now the vice president of research partnerships for Teach for America.

Revolving doors, interlocking directorates: Joyce’s K-12 restructuring machine The government-industry revolving door and what sociologist G. William Domhoff coined as the “interlocking directorate” are the name of the game with Joyce. Joyce’s ties go straight to the commanding heights of power of CPS and national K-12 school restructuring.

The executive director of Joyce, Ellen Alberding, serves as a case in point of how intricately the web is wound.

Alberding was personally invited to an Obama-led event convened in June 2009 to “highlight innovative non-profits programs that are making a difference in communities across the country.” She also sits on the advisory board of Obama’s Skills for America’s Future initiative, which was launched in June 2011. Prior to being named secretary of commerce, Pritzker also served on the advisory board.

Alberding also sits on the board of directors of Advance Illinois, a powerhouse pro-charter school and school restructuring think tank.

Alongside Alberding on Advance Illinois’ board sits Obama’s former chief of staff, Bill Daley, who has tossed his hat in the ring to run for governor of Illinois in 2014. Dennis Hastert, former speaker of the U.S. House, also sits on Advance Illinois’ board, as does Timothy Knowles, who simultaneously serves on the board of the Chicago Public Education Fund.

Advance Illinois took $1.37 million from Joyce from 2010-2012, according to Joyce’s annual reports. Its policy director, Benjamin Boer, worked as an interim project manager for Obama for America during the 2008 election cycle.

The group’s lobbyists work for Taylor Uhe LLC, which is co-owned by Mark Taylor and Rob Uhe. Taylor formerly served as legal counsel for the Democratic Party of Illinois, while Uhe formerly served as chief counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

John Luczak, former Joyce Education Program Director, left his gig to became a co-owner at Education First. One of the clients Education First highlights as a success story is Advance Illinois.

“Over the course of nearly a year, Education First, together with … the Joyce Foundation … researched effective practices and staffed a steering committee and launch team of prominent Illinois leaders,” the Education First website says. “Education First also prepared the organization’s first major report, a case-making analysis of why Illinois education performance must improve dramatically if Illinois and its residents are to prosper.”

That report, titled “The State We’re In: Advancing Public Education in Illinois,” served as Advance Illinois’ launching pad on Nov. 18, 2008, just two weeks after Obama was elected president. The report and the public relations pageantry surrounding it followed the “tobacco playbook” — the tactic of using of industry-funded research to promote industry objectives.

That’s because the Hill & Knowlton, the multinational firm that did PR on behalf of Big Tobacco during that industry’s zenith, also did the groundbreaking PR for Advance Illinois, a press release announcing its entrance into the public square demonstrates. Hill & Knowlton also did graphic design work for that initial report.

Luczak’s successor at Joyce’s education program was Angela Rudolph, now policy director for Democrats for Education Reform’s Illinois branch and vice chair of the Illinois State Charter School Commission.

Rudolph, wearing her Democrats for Education Reform hat, aided in spearheading a media blitz called “Put Students First” in fall 2012 to fend off the nascent Chicago Teachers Union strike.

Despite a campaign clearly meant to discredit teachers and unions, Rudolph told Catalyst Chicago in a June 2012 article, “What we have been most troubled by is this notion that we are anti-teacher or anti-union. We are a Democratic organization and one of the cornerstones of the Democratic Party is unions.”

The “man behind the curtain” in that PR campaign was Ben Schaffer, the owner of Media Mezcla and media consultant for Howard Dean’s 2004 run for president, according to a web domain search for the “Put Students First” website.

Rudolph’s successor, now head of Joyce’s education program, was Butch Trusty, who before coming to Joyce in May 2012 worked at The Bridgespan Group, a Bain Capital offshoot. Obama’s 2012 Republican Party opponent in the presidential race was Mitt Romney, a former upper-level executive at Bain.

Though most famous for its Romney ties, Bain actually gave far more money to Democratic Party candidates for elected office before the 2012 election than it did Republicans.

Teach for America’s ‘scabs’ and principal (CEO) development Just over a month after the 50 CPS school closings and firing of 550 teachers, the Chicago Board of Education announced an increase from $600,000 to $1.58 million in spending to hire 570 Teach for America teachers. Klonsky told Mint Press News that Teach for America contractors serve as de facto strike-breaking “scabs”  – usually unknowingly.

“They’re providing the non-union teachers for the charter schools and they’re almost like a scab organization,” he said. “What you do is you close public schools and fire hundreds of teachers like we’re doing here, then you open neighborhood charter schools and bring in Teach for America 5-week wonders who work cheap and last for about two or three years. Then they’re gone and another batch comes in.”

The Joyce Foundation gave $23.77 million to Teach for America in its first 20 years in existence, according to The Washington Post. It is one of 10 foundations whose funding accounted for over half of Teach for America’s budget during that time period. Joyce gave Teach for America another $400,000 grant in 2012.

The Chicago Public Education Fund also has lended a modest amount of money to Teach for America. Between 2000 and 2005, the fund gave just under $400,000 to the organization, tax filings reveal.

Since 2001, the Chicago Board of Education has doled out close to $6.6 million in contracts and hired 1,931 teachers from Teach for America, Board of Education contract records show. During that same period, thousands of CPS teachers got pink slips.

The rubber meets the road in the relationship between the Chicago school restructuring movement’s goal of creating CEO-type school principals and Teach for America’s Principal Leadership Pipeline, which was launched in September 2007. The Principal Leadership Pipeline was a collaboration between CPS and Teach for America, financed by the Chicago Public Education Fund and the Pritzker Family Foundation.

“CPS will recruit high-performing Teach For America alumni to attend a school leadership program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and then enter into a one-year residency under the tutelage of a principal at a Chicago elementary or high school,” a press release announcing the program’s launch explains. “After the residency, the new principals will then take the helm of some of Chicago’s most challenged schools…Over the next five years, Teach For America could have as many as 50 school leaders in the pipeline, a group that would reach some 15,000 Chicago children a year.”

The program arose out of the Public Education Fund’s “Great Principals Blue Ribbon Task Force,” formed in 2005. Its members included Pritzker and Duncan.

“A consensus has developed over the last few years that a principal is the most important person in the school building,” Pritzker said. “Just like a [CEO], the principal sets the tone, creates the culture, manages the team and ties it all together by articulating a shared vision for what the organization ought to be. So if we get the principal right, other things can fall into place.”

Battle for the ‘right to the city’ Pauline Lipman, an education policy studies professor at University of Illinois-Chicago and author of the book “The New Political Economy of Urban Education,” says that what’s taking place in Chicago — the heart and soul of the Democratic Party — is fundamentally a battle over the “right to the city.”

The concept, she explains in her book, was coined by French sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre.

“[T]he city’s vitality is its diversity of people, ways of living, and perspectives — and thus its potential as a creative space of vibrant democratic dialogue and debate,” she wrote in the book’s conclusion. “Education is integral to a movement to reclaim the city… It is also a cry for education that develops our human potential, that prepares us to be subjects of history — to read and write the world.”

It’s a battle for the “right to the city” in Chicago, then, pitting the moneyed interests of Joyce and Friends against the Chicago Teachers Union and grassroots activists. The weeks, months and years ahead will determine who comes out on top.

Thousands of public school teachers rally for the second consecutive day outside the Chicago Board of Education district headquarters on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 in Chicago. (AP/Sitthixay Ditthavong)


______________________________________________



City schools unveil 10-year renovation planTwenty-six buildings to close; more than 100 to be rehabbed
Baltimore's Northwestern High School is one of 26 school… (Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina…)

November 27, 2012|By Erica L. Green, The Baltimore Sun

In the next 10 years, Baltimore's school system will have a leaner, modernized look under a proposed $2.4 billion facilities plan that calls for closing 26 school buildings and upgrading 136 others in a large-scale face-lift of Maryland's oldest school infrastructure.

The plan, announced by CEO Andrés Alonso on Tuesday, would orchestrate the relocation of some schools to different buildings; others would cease to exist.

The first schools affected are four recommended to close at the end of the current school year: Baltimore Rising Star Academy, Garrison Middle, Patapsco Elementary/Middle, and William C. March Middle.

"There will be many difficult decisions, but all will place students in better buildings than they are in today," Alonso said in a news conference attended by the mayor and other political leaders. "Big picture: The plan is right for kids and necessary to take their progress to the next level."

The revamped system will allow for a more efficient use of space, Alonso said, adding that "every single one of those buildings will be equal to the need of our students."

But as news spread across the city, parents and educators in schools that could face closures grappled with the uncertainty of their students' futures.

"I'm totally shocked," said Dana Jones-Hines, who has a junior and a freshman at Northwestern High School, which is recommended for closing in 2015-2016. "I had anticipated my kids graduating from here. I am just mind-boggled right now."

The school board is expected to vote on the 10-year plan in January, and will also have to approve any school closures slated in a given year.

School board members who attended the news conference held at Calvin M. Rodwell Elementary School -- a school at 119 percent of its rated capacity and slated for a renovation -- supported the plan.

Board President Neil Duke said that the plan's announcement wasn't the time to "take a victory lap."

"A decade is too long," Duke said. "We have to hustle, folks."

"This is a day of reckoning," echoed School Board Commissioner Bob Heck. "This is our shot. There's no question about that."

The four schools recommended for 2012-2013 closures had building utilization rates between 20 percent and 50 percent, and have also struggled academically, school officials said. Fewer than 1,000 students will be affected by this year's proposed closures, officials said, and teachers will be shifted around to accommodate students who disperse to different schools next year.

The view from Garrison

As students and staffers at Garrison Middle School poured out of the building into a chilly afternoon after the final bell at 4:05, the community was just starting to digest the news.

Debra Powell, a special education paraprofessional, said the news shocked and unnerved her a bit -- she's two years from retirement and expected to finish her career at Garrison. Still, it wasn't a complete surprise.

Since joining the staff a year and a half ago, she'd heard rumors this might be coming.

"I guess I just didn't believe it would ever really happen," she said.

Powell was guardedly positive about the choice of Garrison. Although she said it is much safer than in the 1980s, when her nephews attended it, she also said it lacks the variety of after-school programs that students deserve.

"If [the closing] ends up giving them more opportunities, we have to accept it and move on," said Powell, who expects to be assigned to another school next year. "We have to be sure that their education continues so they can reach the goals they have."

Officials and advocates said the sacrifices that school communities face will mean facilities better suited to serve students in the 21st century -- from basics such as drinking water and temperature control to state-of-the-art amenities like technology hubs and culinary kitchens.

"There are not many moments in your life when you realize you are standing on the edge of something great," said Sherelle Savage, a parent advocate with the Baltimore Education Coalition, who spoke through tears at the news conference.

She said her "budding artist" and her "chef in the making" lack the facilities to hone their skills in their schools. Her youngest son, she said, is among the lucky students in his school because his classroom's windows open.

"Our buildings are in crisis," Savage said.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lauded the plan as a "tremendous day for our schools," saying it built upon the legacy of her late father, a former state delegate and dogged champion for education.

"The decisions that have to be made to close some schools are going to be rough all around," Rawlings-Blake said. "Everyone has an emotional attachment, a historic attachment, but we have to have a stronger attachment to these [students]."


________________________________________________

Bobbi Macdonald, president of the City Neighbors governing board, which plans to open a second school in August, said she recently heard a principal complain that City Neighbors is taking his "best" families away. "My response was, 'Look at your program,' " said Macdonald, also co-chair of the Coalition of Baltimore Charter Schools. "If every school looks at their program and makes sure they are creating the best school they can imagine, we won't be worrying about which families are going to which schools."





CHARTER SCHOOLS / # OF STUDENTS  /  TEST RATING (1=LOW) 
BY EDUCATION .COM


Kipp Harmony Baltimore, MD 21215  Charter / K 125                       NO RATING
 
Collington Square Elementary School Baltimore, MD 21213   Charter / PK, K-8 599          1
 
Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary School Baltimore, MD 21205  Charter / PK, K-8 280          1
 
Southwest Baltimore Charter School Baltimore, MD 21223   Charter / K-4 258            1

Baltimore Freedom Academy Baltimore, MD 21231   Charter / 6-12 564                  1
 
City Neighbors Hamilton Baltimore, MD 21214   Charter / K-3 87               1
 
Bluford Drew Jemison Stem Academy West Baltimore, MD 21223   Charter / 6 82              1
 
Baltimore Liberation Diploma Plus High School Baltimore, MD 21216   Charter / 8-12 170          1
 
Baltimore Community High School Baltimore, MD 21224   Charter / 7-10 159                1

Connexions Community Leadership Academy Baltimore, MD 21216  Charter / 6-12 337     2
 
Bluford Drew Jemison Mst Academy Baltimore, MD 21213  Charter / 6-8 365            2
 
Imagine Discovery Charter School Baltimore, MD 21207  Charter / K-4 552              2

Baltimore Antioch Diploma Plus High School Baltimore, MD 21218  Charter / 8-10 172          2

City Springs Elementary School Baltimore, MD 21236  Charter / PK, K-8 572           3
 
General Wolfe Elementary School Baltimore, MD 21231  Charter / PK, K-5 204        3
 
Inner Harbor East Academy Baltimore, MD 21202   Charter / PK, K-6 312          3
 
MD Academy of Technology and Health Sciences Baltimore, MD 21209  Charter / 6-12 370    3

Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School Baltimore, MD 21202  Charter / PK, K-4 201      3

Naca Freedom and Democracy Academy II Baltimore, MD 21214    Charter / 6-9 124       3

Rosemont Elementary School Baltimore, MD 21216   Charter / PK, K-8 430             4

The Green School Baltimore, MD 21213  Charter / K-5 139                4

Baltimore International Academy Baltimore, MD 21236  Charter / K-7 323           4

Afya Public Charter School Baltimore, MD 21213  Charter / 6 206            4

Hampstead Hill Academy Baltimore, MD 21224 Charter / PK, K-8 586               5

The Crossroads School Baltimore, MD 21231  Charter / 6-8 152            5

City Neighbors Charter School Baltimore, MD 21206   Charter / K-8 198           5
 
Patterson Park Public Charter School Baltimore, MD 21224    Charter / K-7 564    5


Northwood Community Academy Baltimore, MD 21218   Charter / K-5 260            5

Independence School Local I   Baltimore, MD 21211  Charter / 9-12 103          5  

Midtown Academy Baltimore, MD 21217  Charter / K-8 182           7
 
Kipp Ujima Village Academy Baltimore, MD 21209   Charter / 5-8 374             NO RATING

Coppin Academy Baltimore, MD 21216   Charter / 9-12 333           7

Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women Baltimore, MD 21209  Charter / 6 121        7

Empowerment Academy Baltimore, MD 21216   Charter / PK, K-8  237           8

____________________________________________________

Waiting lists long for city's public charter schools Maryland Charter School network estimates 12K students on waiting lists

UPDATED 7:40 AM EDT Jul 10, 2013

BALTIMORE —There is a long waiting list for students trying to enroll in public charter schools.

A recent survey estimates the numbers are close to 1 million students nationwide. It's also a local concern for charter school operators.

The public charter school movement has really taken off in Maryland over the past decade or so. At last check, more than half of the state's 46 charter schools are in Baltimore City.

The Maryland Charter School Network estimates that there's a waiting list of more than 12,000 students hoping to find seats. Even though a handful of new schools are set to open in the fall, they won't be able to handle a growing backlog of applications. The Baltimore City charter school operators meet once a month to compare notes on topics such as waiting lists.

"This year, all of the languages have wait lists. We have close to 198 students on the wait list, but for Spanish Emerson, we have 100 students," said Kona-Facia Nepay of the Baltimore International Academy.

One example is Bobbi MacDonald. A longtime charter school operator, MacDonald believes she knows why the numbers are going up.

"There's not one great way to have a public school. The kids deserve many different options, and families want that. I have three schools up in northeast Baltimore, at City Neighbors (Charter School). We could open four more schools this fall based on our wait list," MacDonald said.

A group called Supporting Public Schools of Choice is trying to help operators find a solution.

"Baltimore School District has actually embraced the idea of having a portfolio of options, which means a variety of schools for all different kinds of needs -- kids on the verge of dropping out, kids that are very young, and everything in between," said Carol Beck of Supporting Public Schools of Choice.

But there are a few exceptions in schools, which until now have been able to balance enrollment.

______________________________________________

Here you see another corporate foundation.....Broad Foundation

'After creating shareholder wealth by providing vital homebuilding and retirement savings services through the two Fortune 500 companies he created—KB Home and SunAmerica, Inc'
.
Now what do we know about Home-building and Retirement Savings these few decades?  IT IS WHERE THE MOST FRAUD HAPPENED.  I am not accusing this foundation of such....but we know they are a school privatization group.  Below you can see they are part of what is becoming a national chain.



Uncommon Schools Wins 2013 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2013

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Uncommon Schools is the winner of the 2013 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools and will receive $250,000 to support college-readiness efforts for their students, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced today.



Uncommon Schools is a network of 32 public charter schools across Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, serving more than 7,900 students. More than 78 percent of students are low-income, and 98 percent are African-American or Hispanic. Uncommon Schools students are outperforming their low-income and African-American peers in the states where they operate, and they have closed income and ethnic achievement gaps four times as often as other large charter management organizations across the country.

The Broad (rhymes with "road") Prize for Public Charter Schools is an annual award to honor the public charter school system that has demonstrated the most outstanding overall student performance and improvement in the nation in recent years while reducing achievement gaps for low-income students and students of color.

The winner was announced by Roberto J. Rodriguez, special assistant to the President for education, at the 2013 National Charter Schools Conference in Washington, D.C. to an audience of more than 4,000 public charter school leaders.

A nine-member review board of prominent education researchers, policy leaders, practitioners and executives from around the country evaluated publicly available student achievement data on 27 large established charter school systems. They selected the top three public charter systems—Achievement First, KIPP Foundation and Uncommon Schools—and ultimately found that Uncommon Schools had the best overall student academic performance between 2009 and 2012. The Broad Foundation did not play a role in selecting the winner.

"While we congratulate Uncommon Schools for their progress in raising student achievement and their steadfast commitment to ensuring that every child—regardless of family income or background—deserves a world-class education, the real winners are the students who are served by these and other high-quality charter management organizations," said Rebecca Wolf DiBiase, managing director of programs for The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. "It is our hope that the success of Uncommon Schools serves as an example for traditional public schools and others in the charter sector of what is possible."

At the core of Uncommon's philosophy is the belief that a student's family income shouldn't determine his or her opportunities in life. Uncommon Schools all share key attributes: a college-preparatory mission; high standards for academics and character; a highly structured learning environment; a longer school day and longer school year; a focus on accountability and data-driven instruction; and a faculty of committed and talented leaders and teachers.

Among the reasons Uncommon Schools won the 2013 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools:

  • In 2012, 100 percent of Uncommon's seniors took the SAT exam. These seniors achieved an average SAT score of 1570—20 points above the college-readiness benchmark of 1550 established by the College Board.
  • In 2012, in 84 percent of available comparisons (elementary, middle and high school reading, math and science), proficiency rates for Uncommon's low-income students ranked in the top 30 percent of their respective states when compared to low-income students in the rest of that state, according to The Broad Prize methodology. By comparison, The Broad Prize-eligible CMO average was 39 percent.
  • In 2012, in 89 percent of available comparisons, proficiency rates for Uncommon's African-American students ranked in the top 30 percent of their respective states when compared to African-American students in the rest of that state, according to The Broad Prize methodology.  By comparison, the eligible CMO average was 57 percent.
  • In recent years, Uncommon closed 56 percent of achievement gaps between its low-income students and the state's non-low-income students across the available comparisons, compared to the eligible CMO average of 13 percent. Uncommon also closed 56 percent of achievement gaps between its African-American students and the state's white students across the available comparisons, compared to the eligible CMO average of 12 percent. 
As the winner of The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools, Uncommon Schools will receive $250,000 to support low-income student college-readiness efforts of its choice, such as scholarships, speaker series or campus visits.

In selecting the winner, The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools review board examined publicly available data since the 2008/09 school year collected by RTI International, a leading global research institute. The review board considered student outcomes, scalability, size, poverty and demographics, and selected the charter management organization that it believed showed the most outstanding overall student performance and improvement while reducing achievement gaps. No formula was used. For more information on the methodology and review board, visit http://www.broadprize.org/publiccharterschools/FAQ.html.

Charter management organizations eligible for the 2013 award operated a minimum of five schools for at least four years, had at least 1,500 enrolled each year since 2008/09 and served sizeable percentages of low-income students and students of color. Organizations cannot apply for the award nor be nominated. For a list of eligible organizations, visit http://www.broadprize.org/publiccharterschools/eligible.html. The list of organizations eligible for the 2014 award will be released this fall.

The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools is the sister award to The Broad Prize for Urban Education that is awarded to traditional public school districts. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation launched both awards to help schools and school systems across America learn from innovative public school systems producing the strongest student outcomes. The Broad Foundation will release data summary analyses on all organizations eligible for the award next month, followed by the research-based best practice findings from a site visit to Uncommon Schools this fall.

"Uncommon Schools is a shining example of great public charter schools changing the course of children's lives," said Nina Rees, CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. "By narrowing the achievement gap for low-income students and students of color, Uncommon is driving learning at an accelerated rate for thousands of students. I commend their work and encourage all public schools to learn from their success."

Founded by entrepreneur Eli Broad and his wife Edythe, both graduates of Detroit Public Schools, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is a philanthropy that seeks to ensure that every student in an urban public school has the opportunity to succeed. Bringing together top education experts and practitioners, the foundation funds system-wide programs and policies that strengthen public schools by creating environments that allow good teachers to do great work and enable students of all backgrounds to learn and thrive. For more information, visit www.broadeducation.org.

Note: to request photos of the event, contact kdenne@broadfoundation.org.

SOURCE The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation




0 Comments

June 17th, 2013

6/17/2013

0 Comments

 
Regarding the statement that scores on standardized tests are going up for poor students:

Below you see an article that does a good job explaining why this data is skewed and presents little useful information. As we talked about with the Baltimore Teacher's Union failure to support these reforms there are very few that think this data is real or meaningful. I looked at a WYPR report on Common Core that suggested these standards were developed by teachers and educators.

'The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSS0)'. Now, we know that all of education reform is being written by ALEC.....corporations and politicians working for them so when someone says that teachers had input it is just like Mayor Rawlings-Blake telling us that there will be a public task force to replace school board members when we hear from those people they are having no input....it was already decided. So, we know the same institutions that gave us the education reform in the late 1980s that took America from first in the world quality schools to last in the world are again writing this education reform. It involves education businesses and is only meant to create a market for profit.

When WYPR pretends that the Common Core was written by teachers and that the scores on tests for underserved students are higher they are working with Johns Hopkins in managing the idea that education reform in Baltimore is working...ie, all the charters and Teaching to the Test. As the article below suggests there are ways of making data say what you want and whether it is amplifying insignificant gains that are more likely to be margins of error, or having those students most likely to score low be absent the day of the tests....we know that all of Maryland's data is never authenticated unless a Federal investigation outs the complete lack of oversight over any government and corporate operation. If you talk to students, parents, and teachers they all hate what is being done in the classrooms because it does not improve achievement and because it creates an environment of students not liking education. We discussed just recently the high absenteeism in underserved students in Baltimore because of these school choice/Teaching to the Test formats. How can you have record amounts of school absenteeism and have a gain in achievement? It is ridiculous.

What's Wrong With Standardized Tests
Submitted by Fair Test on May 22, 2012 - 9:26pm


The good news for the American people is that parents, teachers, and communities are mobilizing against this failed policy that is moving hundreds of billions of education dollars to these businesses and consultants making and implementing these policies....that was the point after all. Profits in education businesses are soaring! With the Federal funding of these programs drying we now need to take back control of local and state education policy and school boards who are stacked with corporate appointed administrators. The sad thing about all of this is that we did indeed need reform....the education policies of the late 1980s did dumb down the education system. I think all teachers and administrators will say they embrace some aspects of this reform....but making these policies the whole of the education experience is not the right approach.

Underserved students see themselves in front of computers and not allowed to have recesses as they plow through Teach for the Test day in and day out. Again, performance gains are minimal and the education experience is hated!


Why Common Core standards will fail
By Jay Mathews,February 22, 2012  Washington Post

Virginia, take a bow.

While Maryland, 44 other states and the District are spending billions of dollars to install new national standards for their schools, Virginia has stuck with the standards it has. Mounting evidence shows Virginia is right, and the others wrong.

Common Core standards are the educational fashion of the moment, but your child’s teacher can name many similar plans that went awry. I was impressed at first with the brainpower and good intentions behind the Common Core standards, launched by non-government groups with the support of the Obama administration and governors of both parties. I thought the change would elevate instruction and end the distressing difference between what defined student proficiency in Massachusetts (pretty high) compared with Mississippi (quite low.)

But I have been talking to Brookings Institution scholar Tom Loveless, a national expert on this topic, and read his latest research paper: “Predicting the Effect of Common Core Standards on Student Achievement.” He reviewed the research. He assessed the chances of the Common Core standards making a difference. It turns out this is another big disappointment we should have figured out long ago.

As Loveless notes, there are three main arguments for having all public schools teach the same subjects at the same level of rigor and complexity. First, students will learn more if their learning targets are set higher. Second, students will learn more if the passing grade for state tests are set higher. Third, students will learn more if lesson plans and textbooks are all made more complex and rigorous through required high standards.

Loveless analyzed all available research and found that none of those arguments holds enough validity to risk all that money and effort.

The notion that high-quality standards correlate with higher student achievement was disproven long before Loveless wrote his paper. His Brookings colleague Russ Whitehurst showed in 2009 that states with weak content standards, as judged by the American Federation of Teachers and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (not ideological bedfellows), had about the same average scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests as states with strong standards. Loveless investigated the possibility that strong standards might predict future achievement gains. They don’t.

Similarly, states that required students to have higher scores on their state tests in order to be judged proficient did not have stronger NAEP scores than states that grant proficiency status even to students who miss half of the questions. Loveless notes that states that made their tests tougher to pass did show improvement in NAEP scores, but that is likely the result of a phenomenon that does not depend on better standards. States are likely to raise the minimum proficiency score only after they see their scores going up, not before.

The idea that common standards might create efficiencies and motivations that raise achievement is disproved by what has happened in the many states that created their own standards. Those states still have some schools scoring very well and others scoring miserably. That variation has not declined, defying happy talk from Common Core advocates.

Our way of thinking about standards has always been wrong, Loveless says. We speak of them as a system of weights and measure, as benchmarks to which schools must adhere. But that’s not it. “Standards in education are best understood as aspirational,” Loveless wrote, “and like a strict diet or prudent plan to save money for the future, they represent good intentions that are not often realized.”

I have interviewed hundreds of teachers who significantly raised student achievement. Not one has ever said it was because of great state learning standards. Good curriculums help, but high-minded, numbingly detailed standards don’t produce them. How teachers are trained and supported in the classroom is what matters, even in states as enlightened as Virginia.


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Common Core State Standards What are the Common Core State Standards? By Derrick Meador


The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSS0). This effort included governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, 2 territories, and the District of Columbia. The state-led development did include collaboration with teachers, school administrators

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It is the use of these tests and evaluations in determining passing or failing for both teachers and students that the Baltimore Teacher's Union has shouted out against as have teachers all across the country.  Most agree that using data to determine strengths and weaknesses in the classroom is not a bad thing....it is now TAKING ALL THE TIME IN CLASSROOM AND THAT IS NOT GOOD!!


You cannot develop a relationship with students and get them to embrace education when you are using these policies that penalize for lack of performance.

Those that follow education policy know that all of this education data is more likely to be sold and used by global education businesses ------that is towards what these policies lead!!

 What's Wrong With Standardized Tests
Submitted by Fair Test on May 22, 2012 - 9:26pm


Are standardized tests fair and helpful evaluation tools?

Not really. On standardized exams, all test takers answer the same questions under the same conditions, usually in multiple-choice format. Such tests reward quick answers to superficial questions. They do not measure the ability to think deeply or creatively in any field. Their use encourages a narrowed curriculum, outdated methods of instruction, and harmful practices such as grade retention and tracking.

Are standardized tests objective?

The only objective part of most standardized tests is scoring, when done by an accurately programmed machine. Deciding what items to include on the test, how questions are worded, which answers are scored as "correct,” how the test is administered, and the uses of exam results are all made by subjective human beings.

Are test scores "reliable"?

A test is completely reliable if you would get exactly the same results the second time you administered it. All tests have "measurement error." This means an individual's score may vary significantly from day to day due to testing conditions or the test-taker's mental or emotional state. Scores of young children and scores on sub-sections of tests are particularly unreliable.

Do test scores reflect significant differences among people?

Not necessarily. The goal of most tests is to sort and rank. To do that, test makers make small differences appear large. Questions most people get right or wrong are removed because they don’t help with ranking. Because of measurement error, two people with very different scores on one exam administration might get similar scores on a retest, or vice versa. On the SAT, for example, two students' scores must differ by at least 144 points (out of 1,600) before the test’s sponsors are willing to say the students' measured abilities really differ.

Don't test-makers remove bias from tests?

Most test-makers review items for obvious biases, such as offensive words. But many forms of bias are not superficial. Test-makers also use statistical bias-reduction techniques. However, these cannot detect underlying bias in the test's form or content. As a result, biased cultural assumptions built into the test as a whole often are not removed by test-makers.

Do tests reflect current knowledge about how students learn?

Not at all. While our understanding of the brain and how people learn and think has progressed enormously, standardized tests have remained the same.  Test makers still assume that knowledge can be broken into separate bits and that people learn by absorbing these individual parts. Today, cognitive and developmental psychologists understand that knowledge is not separable bits and that people (including children) learn by connecting what they already know with what they are trying to learn. If they cannot actively make meaning out of what they are doing, they do not learn or remember.

Do multiple-choice or short-answer tests measure important student achievement?

These kinds of tests are very poor yardsticks of student learning. They are weak measures of the ability to comprehend complex material, write, apply math, understand scientific methods or reasoning, or grasp social science concepts. Nor do they adequately measure thinking skills or assess what people can do on real-world tasks.

Are test scores helpful to teachers?

Classroom surveys show most teachers do not find scores from standardized tests scores very useful. The tests do not help a teacher understand what to do next in working with a student because they do not indicate how the student learns or thinks. Nor do they measure much of what students should learn. Good evaluation provides useful information to teachers.
How has “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) affected the use of standardized tests in the U.S.?
NCLB has led to a huge increase in testing.  It requires state testing of every student in grades 3-8 and once in high school, more than twice previous federal mandates.  NCLB also led to an explosion of other standardized exams, including “benchmark” tests often administered 3-10 times per year.  U.S. students are now the most tested on Earth.

What is high-stakes testing?

High-stakes tests are used to make important decisions such as student promotion or graduation, granting teacher tenure, or sanctioning schools for poor performance. Twenty-six states now have graduation tests; some states and districts have tests for grade promotion. NCLB attaches sanctions to test results. Even though NCLB has failed to improve schools, policy makers continue to expand high-stakes test uses such as “value-added” teacher evaluation.

What happens when tests become high stakes?

High-stakes testing often results in a narrow focus on teaching just the tested material (test preparation). Other content in that subject as well as untested subjects such as social studies, art and music are cut back or eliminated. High-stakes testing also produces score inflation: scores go up, but students have not learned more. Their scores are lower even on a different standardized test. This undermines the meaning of test results as well as education.

What are other consequences of high-stakes testing?

Attaching high stakes to test results increases cheating and other efforts to boost scores without improving educational quality. This can be done by arranging for low-scoring students to be absent on test day or pushing them out of school, often into the prison pipeline.

Are there better ways to evaluate student achievement or ability?

Yes. Good teacher observation, documentation of student work, and performance-based assessment, all of which involve the direct evaluation of real learning tasks, provide useful material for teachers, parents, and the public. Many nations that do the best in international comparisons, like Finland, use these techniques instead of large-scale standardized testing.

►Other FairTest fact sheets and reports provide details and research evidence to support the points in this fact sheet.

If you are concerned about the harmful consequences of standardized tests, please sign the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing at http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution. And see our website – http://www.fairtest.org - for more ways to fight test misuse and overuse.



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As all Baltimore residents know there is a plethora of private non-profits handling eduction in our schools and they partner with private for-profits like this Brick 4 Kidz below.  This is a private company no doubt owned by a global corporation that is being marketed around the world and here in the US.  It does nothing of value other than take the education role of the teacher and hand it to these programs that occur during the school period or as after-school programs.  Then taxpayer money and private corporate donations that are written off by corporations move money to that private for-profit business.  IT IS PURE SCAM, AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EDUCATION QUALITY!

BALTIMORE IS FULL OF THIS EDUCATION SCAM!

Educational Franchise Businesses Are Practical and Profitable


By Sooraj Surendran

Education in India is a field of great scope for potential business opportunities like educational franchises. India houses the largest section of youth population. They are always on the look out for quality education with world class training systems. This offers great possibility for new educational ideas to enter the Indian market and become accepted. This is where the idea of franchising becomes relevant.

Kids Zee, British Academy for English School, Arihant Institute and NIIT are fine examples, which do good business in the education field. They have branches all over the country. This happened only due to franchising.

There are many benefits of opening an education franchise business in India. The best thing of spending in an education franchise is that you will be able to work on a business which has been established already. This saves investors and business people from too much strain and struggle to sell their product in order to gain the attraction of customers. If people are familiar with the education firm and the brand, they will be willing to purchase your services. It has been established that starting an education franchise business have a high success rate, at least 70% chances of survival.

Full Support from the Franchiser is another attractive feature of the business. Franchisers provide full support to investors in an education franchise. As a franchisee, an investor will be supplied with all the necessary equipments, training objects, instruction manuals, and all the needed help from the franchiser. This will surely help in starting a business in the education sector. This indeed will be a great help to an investor.

Moreover, the marketing benefits provided for the franchisees or investors will include the diverse marketing campaigns by the parent company or the franchiser. Every now and then, franchisers also present training to their franchises to assist them runs their new venture successfully. This will help the investors expand other marketing strategies better. The franchisers have ample experience and knowledge on how to run and manage business profitably. They are ever ready to help franchisees and entrepreneurs who are ready to franchise their business.

Financial assistance is easy for a franchisee business. Quite frequently franchisers sponsors new franchise owners directly or by organizing loan for them by means of lending institutions. Considering all the pros and cons of the business, there is no doubt an education franchise will be a profitable business.

Educational franchise is a very profitable business these days. Click here to know more about franchise for kids

BRICKS 4 KIDZ

Bricks 4 Kidz classes provide an extraordinary atmosphere for children, where we learn, we build, we play… with LEGO® bricks. Programs are built around our proprietary model plans, designed by engineers and architects, with exciting themes such as space, construction, and amusement parks.  Our specially designed project kits and theme-based models provide the building blocks for the Bricks 4 Kidz approach to educational play. At Bricks 4 Kidz, we believe that kids learn best through activities that engage their curiosity and creativity.

We offer activities for children ages 3-13+, including:

After-school enrichment classes

Week-long summer camps

Birthday parties

Preschool classes

Kidz Night Out

Our programs provide a safe, relaxed learning environment where initiative is invited and self-expression is celebrated.  Model building provides opportunities for problem-solving and helps kids develop an appreciation for how things work. All this takes place while kids are having fun and socializing in a non-competitive atmosphere.

GOALS

  • Introduce engineering and architecture principles
  • Explore math and science concepts
  • Increase general knowledge through discussions related to each model
  • Develop social/emotional skills such as patience, teamwork and communication in the process of completing a project
  • Enhance self-esteem by solving problems and completing projects
  • Improve fine-motor skills as children manipulate small components
  • Utilize multiple learning modalities to engage visual, kinesthetic and auditory learning styles
  • Teach important classroom skills such as organization and following directions
  • Foster an appreciation for how things work



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Below you can see where our government has become nothing more than privatized private contractors and that these education departments only strategize how to grow profits.  PERIOD!  This is not a democrat/republican thing.....this is a politician as corporate profit-maximizer!!!  THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS CREATED THIS ENVIRONMENT WHEN THEY HANDED THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OVER TO CORPORATE INTERESTS!

VOTE YOUR DEMOCRATIC INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE AND RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!!


Private Collection Agency Recovery Rates Fall Short of ED Projections

Cynthia Wilson March 15, 2011
Posted in Department of Education Collections .


For the first 15 months of its current student loan debt collection contract, the U.S. Department of Education’s 22 private debt collection agencies have recovered $3.8 billion, 41 percent more than collected during the first 15 months of the previous contract.

The recoveries, which include all revenue streams such as approved litigation accounts and pending rehabilitated loans, are surprising given that the agencies began their collection efforts when the unemployment rate peaked at 10.2 percent in October 2009, the highest in 26 years and more than double the unemployment rate in September 2005.  In January, the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent, but is still well above what some economist say will be the new normal.

Nonetheless, the Department of Education (ED) was expecting more.

  “The current default recovery rates are not what we projected,” an ED spokeswoman told insideARM.com. “Although we are collecting more funds, we are not meeting our own internal goals and expectations for recoveries. We continue to analyze the data and look for ways to improve the department’s recovery efforts.”

ED had hoped to generate more collections through competition when it attached new incentives to the current contract, awarded in 2009.  Top performers — which are determined by a weighted average of contractors’ performance in total dollars collected, total accounts serviced and total administrative resolutions — now receive a greater share of the accounts when they are divvied up each quarter, boosting the agencies’ potential revenues and bonuses.

Since the incentives were introduced a year ago, the collection contractors’ performance rankings have been as unpredictable as the stock market, particularly among the unrestricted contractors where it’s rare to see any one company earn the top performance ranking two quarters in a row.

While quarterly performance rankings determine placement volumes, monthly results usually are a precursor to the likely winners each quarter. At the end of January Van Ru Credit Corp. climbed five spots to finish first in the ED performance rankings with 93.46 points, while Continental Service Group, d.b.a. ConServe, earned second place with 87.27 points. Collecto Inc., d.b.a., EOS-CCA finished third among unrestricted contractors with 85.50. Pioneer Credit Recovery, the top performer among unrestricted contractors last quarter and overall leader in the dollars collected category, fell to sixth place in January.

Of all the contractors, only small business contractor Collection Technology Inc. (CTI) has earned the top ranking for more than three consecutive quarters. CTI, of Monterey, Calif., ended January with 94.11 points, followed by Coast Professional with 89.42 points. Immediate Credit Recovery finished third with 83.03 points.

CTI has maintained its lead by winning at least two of the three categories, the most important of which is dollars collected which the ED assigns 70 points. The ED awards 20 points to the winner of the total accounts serviced category and 10 points to the winner of the administrative resolutions category.  The other agencies are scored against the top performers.

In the unrestricted category, Van Ru won the dollars collected category, but no others. The two other top three finishers also earned their rankings because of their performance in the dollars collected category, but neither was the top performer in any category.

Of the $3.8 billion the collection agencies (17 unrestricted and five small business firms) have recovered to date, more than $894 million is categorized as collected, which includes rehabilitated loans. Loans are considered rehabilitated when 10 or more consecutive payments have been received.

Performance Rankings for January 2011

Unrestricted (Large) Firms Score (Jan. 2011) $$ Collected (Jan. 2011)
Van Ru Credit Corporation 93.46 $11,105,721
ConServe 87.27 $9,223,902
EOS-CCA (Collecto Inc.) 85.50 $8,830,543
West Asset Management 85.10 $6,715,923
ERS 84.77 $9,227,308
Windham Professionals 84.45 $7.967,086
Pioneer Credit Recovery (Sallie Mae) 83.91 $9,974,561
Diversified Collection Services 81.08 $8,413,561
FMS Investment Corp. 80.34 $7,392,741
Allied Interstate (iQor) 78.65 $8,353,481
Financial Asset Management Systems 76.23 $8,860,694
GC Services LP 75.06 $7,736,451
NCO Group 73.83 $8,430,820
Account Control Technology 73.51 $7,104,993
Premiere Credit of North America 71.62 $6,763,313
CBE Group 67.92 $6,735,197
Progressive Financial Services 66.86 $6,171,562
Small Businesses Score (Jan. 2011) $$ Collected (Jan. 2011)
Collection Technology, Inc. 94.11 $4,881,491
Coast Professional 89.42 $4,040,513
Immediate Credit Recovery 83.03 $3,204,259
Delta Management Associates 73.24 $2,486,788
National Recoveries 70.12 $2,696,023

Posted in Department of Education Collections .





0 Comments

May 13th, 2013

5/13/2013

0 Comments

 
I want to remind people that the information you receive on mainstream media is so skewed as to suspend believability.  They are now open to propaganda in our corporate, mainstream news.  I know, you say it has always been skewed and captured but it is now third world crazy and sadly we see the one media outlet having over the years given a reasonably fair, balanced, and true journalist approach ......NPR/APR.... is now leading the propaganda.  I pick on public media because taxpayers support most of local programming while the national media NPR is self-supporting because of the money charged for their programs.  It is important to keep public media free and fair and that starts with holding them to their charter of having most funding come from individual donors.  In Baltimore/Maryland WYPR is full of corporate advertizing, Marketplace is simply a corporate infomercial, and the news we get is all propaganda.  So, who is supporting WYPR?  We will be writing to Federal agencies for an investigation.  Please take a look at your local station and do not allow them to air NPR/APM corporate journalism.

WE MUST HAVE FREE PRESS IN ORDER TO REBUILD OUR DEMOCRACY!!!!!

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!  RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!!

Regarding WYPR's failure yet again to announce all of the registered candidates for the coming election:

Did you hear NPR in all its totalitarian bravado give us the UK's Cameron leading the crusade for the UK/US axis of empire? It was truly a blast from the past for those old enough to remember the Chinese Revolution and Hitler's propaganda machines. This is the same thing....corporations as government will lead to totalitarianism. Pakistan's citizens will be satisfied with the elections we are told as they drag the same failed leaders and finance conspirators from the dust and prop them back into place.
As you see by the definition below the US is in the throws of a totalitarian takeover. You see this in the capture of elections, media, suspension of Rule of Law, and dismantling of all democratic institutions like justice, education, corporate regulation and oversight.

When Cokie Roberts on NPR tells us that Obama has been scandal free as he suspends international law with drone killings, builds a surveillance society that ignores all privacy, allows tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud these few decades just stay in the hands of the thieves......WE ARE BEING TOLD TO SUSPEND DISBELIEF!!!!!

Remember, public media must have a major portion of its funding from individual donors.......what we are seeing is a complete funding by corporations and their non-profits, ergo.....this NPR programming. We are working to see that NPR/APM be classified as commercial and taken off the public media circuit!!! I went to the national headquarters for NPR in Washington and tried to talk with a public relations person and was told they do not see the public (I have for decades stopped in when in DC and seen plenty of people). I then tried to leave a written letter to the CEO of NPR and I was told I could not leave any letters or packages at the building. I was told on the side as I questioned people on the way out that NPR was receiving all kinds of death threats and bomb threats.....THAT SOUNDS LIKE STATE MEDIA NOT WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC INTEREST!!!


Totalitarianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life whenever necessary.[1]

The concept of totalitarianism was first developed on a positive sense in the 1920s by the Italian fascists. The concept became prominent in Western anti-communist political discourse during the Cold War era, in order to highlight perceived similarities between Nazi Germany and other fascist regimes on the one hand, and Soviet communism on the other.[2][3][4][5][6]

Aside from fascist and Stalinist movements, there have been other movements that are totalitarian. The leader of the historic Spanish reactionary conservative movement called the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right declared his intention to "give Spain a true unity, a new spirit, a totalitarian polity..." and went on to say "Democracy is not an end but a means to the conquest of the new state. When the time comes, either parliament submits or we will eliminate it."[7] The political and societal goals and practices of militant Islam have also been labeled as totalitarian ("Islamofascism").

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Regarding Basu's used of faulty poverty figures:

Basu uses the figures of 17% poverty in America. This figure comes from a a data set that increasingly uses second world parameters as first world parameters are dropped. So, if you want to view poverty as a level on par with Mumbai, India where there are no quality of life standards....then America has 17% poverty. If you used first world developed country standards we just read an international Human Rights announcement that has the US tied with Bulgaria at the bottom of developed nations for child poverty. We know child poverty in America is above 30%.....we know that more than 50% of America are now people of color and most of that demographic is at poverty. We know that most of the middle-class has fallen to poverty and that was well over 40% of the population, and we know seniors who were victims of the massive financial fraud are increasing the poverty statistics and as the add for AARP tells 'we are 50 million strong'. So why does Basu and a public media use data from a Mumbai-style analysis? Remember my talk about unemployment figures? Where Third Way corporate democrats in the leadership are trying to make 40% un/underemployment the norm by stating it at 7.5%......this is the same thing. They are lowering the standards of living for Americans to that of second world countries by keeping the poverty line at $10,000 a year. The Living Wage has $30,000 a year/$15 an hour as the poverty line.....see now how many actually fall under the poverty line.

If you look at Mumbai you know their standards do not include health care, transportation, education, child care, food and housing as has a first world country. Well, if you take all these parameters out of the US calculation for poverty....you get $10,000 a year as the poverty line. When you have corporations capturing politics as it has with the capture of the democratic party by Third Way corporate democrats starting with Bill and Hillary Clinton, you have a government that preys on people and views citizens as 'masses. THIRD WAY = THIRD WORLD



Principal criticisms of the official poverty measure include:

  • Its "headcount" approach identifies only the share of people who fall below the poverty threshold, but does not measure the depth of economic need;
  • It does not reflect modern expenses and resources, excluding significant draws on income such as taxes, work expenses, and out-of-pocket medical expenses, and excluding resources such as in-kind benefits (e.g., food assistance);
  • It does not vary by geographic differences in cost of living within the contiguous United States;
  • It is not adjusted for changes in the standard of living over time; and
  • Its strict definition of measurement units—"family"—as persons related by blood or marriage does not reflect the nature of many households, including those made up of cohabitors, unmarried partners with children from previous relationships, and foster children.


Economists question 'official' poverty
statistics used for US mayors' report

By Tony Favro, USA Editor
1 April 2007: In 2006, the US Conference of Mayors formed a task force to address “persistent poverty and middle class erosion” in American cities. The Task Force on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, chaired by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, worked over a year to craft an action plan. In March 2007, the Task Force released a set of recommendations. While the report makes a convincing argument for a national strategy, its figures probably understate the true extent of poverty in the US.

The poverty-fighting proposals by the U.S. Conference of Mayors include:
• Increased investment in high-quality public education, including universal preschool.
• Increased investment in high-quality, life-long workforce training.
• Public incentives to create more banking opportunities in distressed inner cities.
• Increased public investment in the infrastructure of poor urban neighbourhoods.

The recommendations could cost US$23 billion annually to implement.

While the US Conference of Mayors’ report makes a clear and convincing argument for a common national strategy to alleviate poverty, its calculations are based on the official federal poverty rate. The report notes that “more than 37 million people are officially poor today” in the US [italics added]. Many economists believe this “official” number seriously understates the true extent of poverty in the US.

US poverty measurements
The current method used by the federal government to calculate poverty thresholds was designed in the early-1960s as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Essentially, It is a measure of severe deprivation – the minimum amount of money needed for subsistence. Poverty thresholds are absolute dollar amounts (e.g., $10, 210 for an individual; $20,650 for a family of four). The thresholds vary by family size, but not by geography. In other words, the same dollar amounts officially define poverty in both low-cost-of-living rural areas and high-cost big cities. Poverty thresholds are adjusted periodically using the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation.

The overwhelming consensus of economists, policy analysts, social scientists, and mayors is that the official federal poverty measure is seriously outdated. Most analyses find that a revised poverty calculation would increase the number of Americans classified as poor. Therefore, a major barrier to redefining poverty thresholds is political. US presidents are reluctant to have official poverty numbers revised upward during their terms in office. Another barrier is financial, since expenditures for many federal programs are tied to the official poverty rate – the more poverty, the more the federal government would have to pay into these programs.

The Canadian model
In Canada, America’s neighbour to the north, poverty thresholds are not absolute income levels as they are in the US. They go beyond measuring only society’s most impoverished and most economically deprived and encompass a broader range of economic hardship.

Poverty in Canada is determined by a Low-Income Cut-Off Line, the point at which individuals or families must devote 60 per cent of their annual income to basic necessities such as food, clothing, rent, transportation, insurances, child care, school supplies, and household supplies. Each metro area in Canada has a different Low-Income Cut-Off Line to account for regional differences in the cost of living.

The conceptual and fundamental differences between the American and Canadian poverty measures are striking.

For example, if we used Canada’s Low-Income Cut-Off Line to measure poverty in Rochester, New York – a typical mid-size American city – the poverty rate would not be 25.9 per cent, as officially defined by the US government, but 38.4 per cent.

Using the Canadian standard, New York City’s poverty rate would not be the official 21.2 per cent, but 38.2 per cent.

In San Jose, California – the center of Silicon Valley and the symbol of wealth and power in the US – the poverty rate would leap from 8.8 per cent to 20.9 per cent, when calculated according to the Canadian method.

Conclusion
It is clear that the official federal US poverty measure is woefully outdated.

The application of Canadian methodology to the US situation is not merely an academic exercise. It illustrates that poverty in America goes well beyond the stereotypical image of the homeless vagrant or the drug addict. The new face of American poverty often includes the restaurant dishwasher, office clerk, deli worker, maintenance worker, single working mother with children, and, in some high-cost-of-living cities, the nurse, the firefighter, and the school teacher.

The federal government’s reluctance to acknowledge the extent of economic hardship in the US doesn’t make poverty disappear. As the US Conference of Mayor’s report makes clear, it simply pushes the problem down to the local level and turns financially-strapped mayors into beggars for more federal support.


IF THE ENTIRE WORLD KNOWS THAT THE POVERTY LINE IN AMERICA IS $30,000 AND IT IS AS HIGH IN OTHER DEVELOPED NATIONS.....WHY DO WE ALWAYS GET THE $10,000 FIGURE ? 

BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE FREE MEDIA.....LOOK FOR THE REAL NEWS!


  What income, in the U.K. is considered to be 'below the poverty line'?

Apparently, in the U.S. it is $32,000. See the last answer to this question:-

From UK.ANSWERS.YAHOO.COM

I don't really understand how such figures are reached because a single man on that figure would be coping completely differently from a married man with 3 children. Also, I know we cannot compare with America because they don't have free health care and other things which help us financially but I just wondered what was considered 'poverty' here. My guess is, that whatever the figure, there will be an astonishing number people in the U.K. 'living in poverty'.

The poverty line in Australia for this year, is $43,500 for a family of 4 . It is $26,600 for a family of 2. That figure is about equal to the aged pension, so any aged pensioner with no extra investment funds is living pretty much on the poverty line - doesn't surprise me.

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Regarding Basu's insistence in using faulty unemployment figures:

I spoke earlier about the unemployment stats that are widely distributed and held accurate by all leading economists.....unemployment in the US is close to 25%, not the 7.5% that Basu's insists giving us. It is close to 40% if you take into account people working part time wanting full time....all employment issues. So why does Basu stick with the number representing only those currently seeking employment?

The massive corporate fraud that brought the economic collapse had a purpose beyond moving massive amounts of money from the middle/lower class to the top earners. It had as its goal weakening the government and citizens with debt so as to advance their plan to restructure American society/government. That is what using austerity to pay debt rather than simply enforcing Rule of Law to recover tens of trillions in corporate fraud comes into play.....'we have create small government because there is no money'! The problem with small government is the first services to go when you have Third Way corporate democrats in the leadership are all agencies that protect the people from corporate malfeasance....LIKE WE NEED THAT RIGHT NOW! Believe that this was all a long held plan from the Reagan years moving towards the path to empire-building.

What does this have to do with unemployment figures? Well, Wall Street and corporate America are working to move US labor on par with second and third world developing worlds and high unemployment makes for desperate workers willing to take less and less.....which is what is happening. So ignoring the 20% that have temporarily stop looking pretends they do not exist. The economist Krugman calls this level of unemployment the 'new norm'. So stating the unemployment number as 7.5% when it is 25% sends that 'new norm' message. It says.....we don't intend to bring employment back to old levels so forget about it!!!! The second issue is what corporations call 'efficiency' in labor that maximizes profits but creates a system that works employees beyond existing labor laws, doing the work of 1.5 - 2 people, cutting the need for workers....ergo, 25% unemployment.

So, Basu is supporting the corporate exploitation of labor figures rather than using the real numbers so as to put pressure on politicians to get corporations hiring. The people's goal is to return to workplace labor rules that protect people from excessively long days, unannounced and unreasonable schedules, required breaks, sick days, and vacation times.....you know.....FIRST WORLD QUALITY OF LIFE AND WORK!!! We do not want people working for poverty wages in conditions mirroring the Asian sweat shops these corporations ran overseas and that is towards where Basu's economics takes us. We would expect a public interest media to harp on the 25% unemployment and 40% with part time workers' figure over and over making politicians skirm with the outrage of US citizens!!

We know these unemployment figures will continue to get higher with not on these 'efficiency' goals, but with the ever increasing use of undocumented and green card labor....yet another policy to cheapen the work force with exploitation.

WE WANT CITIZENSHIP NOW FOR IMMIGRANTS MEETING GUIDELINES.....NO PATHWAY THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. WE DO NOT WANT EXTENDED NUMBER OF GREEN CARD WORKERS AT THE TOP OR BOTTOM OF THE INCOME SCALE UNTIL EMPLOYMENT FIGURES HIT THE 4% (the real 4%, not the Basu 4%) WE HAVE HAD FOR DECADES.




What is The Real Rate of Unemployment in the United States?
Posted by Larry Doyle on August 13, 2010 8:06 AM |     

 Pinterest Just what is the true rate of unemployment in our country? Our headline U-3 rate is currently 9.5%. Our U-6 rate, more broadly defined, is 16.5%.

Many people are aware of the differences between U-3 and U-6; however, renowned economist John Williams takes our analysis to an entirely new level. Williams is far ahead of the curve in his work.

William is likely not a regular on the Washington cocktail circuit. Why’s that? He goes far deeper in his work and exposes inconsistencies, if not worse, in government statistics. Let’s learn more about Williams and his work at Shadow Government Statistics:>>>>

Walter J. “John” Williams was born in 1949. He received an A.B. in Economics, cum laude, from Dartmouth College in 1971, and was awarded a M.B.A. from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business Administration in 1972, where he was named an Edward Tuck Scholar. During his career as a consulting economist, John has worked with individuals as well as Fortune 500 companies.

Formally known as Walter J. Williams, my friends call me John. For nearly 30 years, I have been a private consulting economist and, out of necessity, had to become a specialist in government economic reporting.

One of my early clients was a large manufacturer of commercial airplanes, who had developed an econometric model for predicting revenue passenger miles. The level of revenue passenger miles was their primary sales forecasting tool, and the model was heavily dependent on the GNP (now GDP) as reported by the Department of Commerce.

Suddenly, their model stopped working, and they asked me if I could fix it. I realized the GNP numbers were faulty, corrected them for my client (official reporting was similarly revised a couple of years later) and the model worked again, at least for a while, until GNP methodological changes eventually made the underlying data worthless.

That began a lengthy process of exploring the history and nature of economic reporting and in interviewing key people involved in the process from the early days of government reporting through the present.

For a number of years I conducted surveys among business economists as to the quality of government statistics (the vast majority thought it was pretty bad), and my results led to front page stories in the New York Times and Investors Business Daily, considerable coverage in the broadcast media and a joint meeting with representatives of all the government’s statistical agencies. Despite minor changes to the system, government reporting has deteriorated sharply in the last decade or so. (LD’s emphasis)

What does Williams think about the inherent bias and changes in government models and results generated? He is not bashful in asserting:

Have you ever wondered why the CPI, GDP and employment numbers run counter to your personal and business experiences? The problem lies in biased and often-manipulated government reporting. (LD’s emphasis)

So then what does Williams view as the true rate of unemployment?




Regrettably, boys and girls, by Williams’ measuring stick, unemployment in our country is currently close to 22%.

What do you think about these relative measures? Whom do you feel truly captures our current economic health? My personal opinion is that our overall economy feels like unemployment is far closer to Williams’ measure than that produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For those who prefer pictures to words, what does unemployment look like in terms of our changing economy? Thanks to a friend for sharing the following:

As another friend of mine has told me numerous times, “Larry, it is a privilege to work.”

He’s right.

LD


___________________________________________________



The Death of Truth: Chris Hedges Interviews Julian Assange

Submitted by admin
May 12, 2013 - 12:31pm This interview is a joint project of Truthdig and The Nation magazine.

Corporate totalitarianism is spreading rapidly, and it’s not just Assange or Manning they want. It is all who dare to defy the official narrative.

London - A tiny tip of the vast subterranean network of governmental and intelligence agencies from around the world dedicated to destroying WikiLeaks and arresting its founder, Julian Assange, appears outside the red-brick building on Hans Crescent Street that houses the Ecuadorean Embassy. Assange, the world’s best-known political refugee, has been in the embassy since he was offered sanctuary there last June. British police in black Kevlar vests are perched night and day on the steps leading up to the building, and others wait in the lobby directly in front of the embassy door. An officer stands on the corner of a side street facing the iconic department store Harrods, half a block away on Brompton Road. Another officer peers out the window of a neighboring building a few feet from Assange’s bedroom at the back of the embassy. Police sit round-the-clock in a communications van topped with an array of antennas that presumably captures all electronic forms of communication from Assange’s ground-floor suite.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), or Scotland Yard, said the estimated cost of surrounding the Ecuadorean Embassy from June 19, 2012, when Assange entered the building, until Jan. 31, 2013, is the equivalent of $4.5 million.

Britain has rejected an Ecuadorean request that Assange be granted safe passage to an airport. He is in limbo. It is, he said, like living in a “space station.”

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March 05th, 2013

3/5/2013

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IS IT REALLY PUBLIC COMMENT AND SUPPORT WHEN EVERYBODY FEELS THREATENED WITH JOB LOSS OR SCHOOL ACCESS IF THEY SPEAK OPENLY?  NO, IT IS THIRD WORLD TYRANNY FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!


The meeting held to discuss education reforms in Baltimore Schools as regards special education was as I said typical of all public policy meetings.  A government official comes to tell us where the policy is moving, reflects all criticism, and then leaves.  I was pleased to hear most of the 'stakeholder' as we all are called now were vocalizing concerns more loudly and moving towards more engagement on the issues.  As I said yesterday Alonzo's representative told us that the answer for all of the problems expressed by teachers, parents, and advocates was a team of Teach for America coming to these classrooms.  As Baltimoreans know Alonzo, Rawlings-Blake, and O'Malley have brought this organization to town to initiate the move from public to private schools by upending the public teachers unions and placing these Teach for America into school leadership positions where they will move further towards the goals of privatization. 

I appreciated one comment from the advocacy group that stated as much......very brave as these organization's leaders are all made to tow the line or their jobs will disappear.  This shout out let's you see how disgusted everyone is with what is happening.  Let's remind people, absolutely no one I've spoken with supports what is happening......parents, teachers, advocates, and academics like myself.  It is only moving forward because it is a corporate plan to attach all schooling to business interests and it is led by Alonzo here in Baltimore.  The mayor, Rawlings-Blake gives the Baltimore School system to the state and O'Malley and he appoints these privatizers like Alonzo and the Baltimore school board.  It all can change by electing the right person as mayor.....NOT ANY OF THE CURRENT CITY COUNCIL PEOPLE THAT'S FOR SURE!!!

The advocates point was this:  how does Teach for America help with achievement when the ones sent to her......and she has a substantial program in the city.......when they all seem to be little interested in teaching; they seem to be in this process as a stepping stone to another job so have no commitment to the students; they all seem to have a goal of education law; and she noted that Teach for America appointments all seem to work a few years and are moved up into principal positions.  CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC IN ANY OF THIS?  ANYTHING AT ALL? 

Of course not.  What Teach for America is does is move college grads through what is now being considered 'public service' before they start their careers.  When Obama touts public service and sends billions of taxpayer money to fund these public service programs.....this is what he has in mind.  It simply trains future business people for careers they have been tracked towards.....in this case education law.  During this 'public service' their jobs are to corporatize the school.....make each public school operate like a business.....Alonzo's and Wall Street's goal.....and then be off to a career in business, maybe education law for example.  Since O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake are working towards the goal of privatizing K-college Wall Street needs lots of lawyers who are ready to litigate for domestic and international education businesses.  These principal positions give them on-the-job experience of all that needs to be considered in education legal issues.  THAT IS THE ONLY PURPOSE OF THESE EDUCATION REFORM POLICIES.....IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EDUCATING STUDENTS! Can you imagine Teach for America in special needs classrooms?  The most skill-oriented teaching experience?  It is criminal.

The other topic was equally important and I was glad to hear it spoken loudly and strongly....the failure to place any emphasis on bettering the education experience for minorities and the underserved....special needs as well.  The stats all show this WALL OF SHAME that is Maryland education policy.....this the one of the richest states with the worst of disparity......that's what wealth inequity gets you.  Remember, the people at the top of earnings have almost all lied, cheated, and stolen their way to the top so they are not interested in anyone's welfare.  STOP  RE-ELECTING YOUR THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRAT FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!!!!  RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!!!
   
This is what we know about the Maryland stats:  THEY ARE ALL SKEWED TO MAKE MARYLAND LOOK BETTER THAN IT IS!!!!!!  THE DATA HAVE NO VALUE.  One of the advocates held up the Education Week rag that is published by the ALEC businesses writing Obama's education reform.  It ranks states by how well they are working towards privatizing public education and indeed, O'Malley is quite the team player....it is how you get to run for President!!  The data that creates the newspaper headlines O'Malley will use in his national  political runs....SPENT MORE MONEY ON EDUCATION......MARYLAND RANKS #1 IN THIS AND THAT......MOST SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITIES....ALL KABUKI THEATER.  As I showed with the Maryland PIRG report ranking Baltimore a B+ on transparency, all of these rankings are based on a curve and on uncomparable national data.  I will talk more on that tomorrow.  Today I just wanted to be sure to say that NOBODY SUPPORTS THIS EDUCATION REFORM BEING PUSHED BY JOHNS HOPKINS HERE IN BALTIMORE AS THE ELITE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE 1%.

Because I cannot copy the content of this PDF I will encourage all of you to simply enter this topic sentence in google to bring up this file and read what is REAL ANALYSIS PROVIDED BY ACADEMICS WHO ARE NOT CAPTURED AND SHARED WITH THE CITIZENS OF CHICAGO BY MEDIA NOT CAPTURED.  It is good to remember that with Rahm Emmanuel's election as Mayor of Chicago this rampant Third Way corporate pol will take Chicago in the same direction as Baltimore.....the WRONG DIRECTION!
!  The important terms in this article are 'democratically led elementary schools' vs 'turnaround schools'.  Baltimore parents will recognize they are victims of these 'turnaround schools'.

"Chicago's Democratically-Led Elementary Schools Far Out-Perform Chicago's Turnaround Schools"

PLEASE GOOGLE!!!!



Spinning the Numbers on Turnarounds: School Improvement Grant Controversy Brews

By Anthony Cody on March 27, 2012 12:08 PM   Education Week

It has been said that "numbers tell the tale." But at the Education Writers Association forum on School Improvement Grants in Chicago Saturday, I saw the same numbers being used to tell some very different stories -- raising serious questions about efforts to improve schools by closing them or giving them "turnaround" treatments.

Chicago has long been the epicenter for school "turnarounds." Going way back to 1997, this city has had strong mayoral control of its schools, and has experimented with school closures, reconstitutions, and the latest version, turnarounds. Former Chicago education CEO Arne Duncan brought this approach to the federal level through Race to the Top and an ambitious $4.5 billion School Improvement Grant program, targeting the lowest 5% of schools across the country.

Early in the day, we heard from Jason Snyder, the man in charge of turnarounds at the Department of Education. He shared numbers that we heard from Secretary Duncan last week.

In year one under the new SIG: ▪ Nearly one in four schools saw double digit increases in math proficiency. ▪ Roughly one in five schools had double-digit increases in reading proficiency. In nearly 60 percent of SIG schools, the percent of students who were proficient in math or reading went up in the first year. So here is our first chance to play the numbers game. The actual data was not released, so we have to make some inferences here - but can we tell if these are "positive results" as Secretary Duncan suggested?

It appears that regarding math, more than 75% of SIG schools did not increase by more than 10%. In reading, roughly 80% of schools failed to increase by 10% or more. Note that we are not told how many schools decreased - which is certainly possible.

But what does it really mean to say that nearly 60 percent of SIG schools went up in the first year? That sounds pretty good - but does it stand up to scrutiny?

Imagine a sort of Punnett square of possible outcomes for SIG schools. (see the image at right) We have four squares. One indicates math and reading are both up. One shows math is up but reading is down, one shows math is down but reading is up, and one shows math and reading are both down.

I assume that the nearly 60% number describes the schools that fall into any of the three boxes other than "math and reading both down."

If the data shows that nearly 60% of the schools have seen increases in reading or math, then we must have more than 40% in the red box, indicating reading and math are both down.


If we take a sort of null hypothesis, that these scores are moving randomly, then we would expect 25% in each box. In that case a full 75% of the schools should show improvement in math, reading, or both. What we seem to be seeing is that SIG schools are improving at a pace less than random chance would provide. The real question is not "how big is the boost these schools are getting?" The question is are they really improving at all? Or is this just a game of spinning numbers to try to make things appear better than they are? The claim has been made that this is a success story -- but I am struggling to see that. It is hard to tell with the very limited data we have been given. If I have made any erroneous assumptions, please help me out here! (note: I sent a request for clarification on these numbers on Sunday but did not hear a response until today. As a result I have posted an update below.)

Next, I want to take a look at two dueling reports that were shared at the meeting.

The initial report that was shared and referred to often in the day is a glossy, well-funded study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research. The report summary states:



This report finds that four years after undergoing dramatic reform efforts such as turnaround, very low-performing elementary schools in Chicago closed the gap in test scores with the system average by almost half in reading and two-thirds in math. The improvements took time to develop; test scores were not significantly better in the first year of reform, but grew larger over time. This report chose to compare the turnaround schools to a comparison group of schools with similar performance issues at the time of the turnaround.

Within the report, we find that in the year prior to the start of the turnaround process, the turnaround schools were 0.46 of a standard deviation below the system average in reading. After four years, they had risen to 0.26 of a standard deviation below the average. Math achievement went from 0.53 below to 0.2 below average.

The report found that the seven high school turnarounds had no effect at all - the number of students on track to graduate was similar to non-turnarounds.

Another report was also mentioned at the conference, though copies were not distributed. This one was done by a group called Designs for Change, and is entitled Chicago's Democratically-Led Elementary Schools Far Out-Perform Chicago's "Turnaround Schools."

This report compared Chicago's 198 non-turnaround elementary schools to the 12 that have been "turned around" under the guidance of the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), and highlighted the 33 that had outperformed the system-wide average. (These 210 schools are all neighborhood schools that are more than 95% free and reduced lunch).

Designs for Change director Don Moore explained the rationale for this comparison group:

The reason that we emphasized the superior achievement of the top 33 democratically-led-led schools, as compared with the 12 turnaround schools. is that the democratically-led schools were, by and large, never given special resources or flexibility and were almost never acknowledged publicly for their accomplishments or studied to see what made them so successful in student achievement and retaining teachers. Several had major facilities problems, compared with the complete makeover given to turnaround schools. Doing so much better with so much less in the way of money and other advantages indicates that democratically-led schools have much greater potential for wide-spread expansion and impact. In contrast, the turnaround schools were repeatedly featured by the school system and the press as being the models for other schools to follow--even though the top-achieving turnaround school (Howe) was out-scored by 52 democratically-led schools and even though the turnaround schools receive $7 million in extras resources over their initial five-year AUSL involvement. We wanted to document the potential that the top democratically-led had demonstrated, without substantial extra resources, but by following the practices and exhibiting the social cohesion that our previous research had indicated was the key to creating a high-poverty high-achieving school (see Designs for Change, "The Big Picture"). According to the Designs for Change report, the schools that have approached improvement with patience, working to build community support and teacher stability, following principles of democracy and inclusion, have made gains far beyond those being seen at the mayor's "Turnaround schools," which have been showered with resources.

One hundred-ninety-eight of these extremely high poverty Chicago elementary schools on which the study focuses are led by elected Local School Councils, consisting of six parents, two teachers, one non-teaching staff member, two community members, the principal, and (in high schools) a student. ...the vast majority of Local School Councils quietly oversee school policy and carry out their official duties of evaluating the principal, approving the budget, and monitoring the School Improvement Plan ... and are active in building school and community partnerships. The report offers us portraits of some of these schools. Here is one:

Gallistel Language Academy (1,444 students in three buildings, 93% Latino, 96% low income). 70% of students Meet or Exceed ISAT Standards in Reading. 79% Meet or Exceed ISAT Standards in Math (83% following previous state policy about when English Language Learners had to begin taking the ISAT). Gallistel's LSC hired a new principal in spring 2000, who has unified the school. Gallistel is intensely over-crowded. 400 to 600 Gallistel parents, teachers, and students have testified at school system facilities hearings each year over the past several years, asking for major repairs. The main building is plagued by electrical outages, leaks, and widely varying temperatures. Despite these obstacles, 75% of Gallistel teachers have remained at the school for at least four years. We also get a picture of another world for the "Turnaround Schools."

Through Chicago's Turnaround School strategy, all of the current staff of a Turnaround School are fired, and almost all aspects of the school's operation are tightly controlled by either an independent "Turnaround Specialist" that contracts with the Chicago Board (thus far in Chicago, the Academy for Urban School Leadership or "AUSL") or by a department of the school system administration called the Office of School Improvement. These leadership groups have near-total authority to select staff, define the school's learning program and oversee other important aspects of students' learning experiences (such as discipline), based on a contract or series of contracts that was supposed to last five years. Turnaround teachers remain unionized. These turnarounds have been in operation for as long as five years, so we now have some data to see what has worked, and what has not.

This study focused on three areas. It looked at student reading scores, teacher turnover, and the resources provided to the different schools. We get a detailed comparison of the standings of all 210 schools, and some facts emerge.

  • 33 schools were above the city-wide average for all of Chicago's 480 elementary schools. All 33 high-achieving schools are led by elected Local School Councils who chose their principals and have unionized teachers, typically teachers with substantial experience.
  • 14 of the 33 highest-scoring schools were more than 90% African American.
  • 16 of the 33 highest-scoring schools were more than 85% Latino.
No Turnaround School scored above the city-wide average. There are only three Turnaround Schools among the top hundred schools. Heavy investment in the turnarounds was part of the plan. These schools got a fresh start, with staff that was specially trained. The report looks at the promises made at the outset, and compares those to the results we are seeing.

AUSL has repeatedly stated that if they were given complete control of a school for five years, they would "reset" or completely transform the culture of a Turnaround School. As a result, they argued, a new cadre of "turnaround-ready teachers" would be in place to sustain improvement long-term and that AUSL staff could substantially transition out of the school after five years. The "Turnaround schools" were low-performing schools, in need of this "dramatic" intervention. What happened to similar schools not lucky enough to get this?

...13 non-Turnaround Schools started at a lower average score than the Turnaround Schools, but ended with a higher average score. And unlike the Turnaround Schools, these 13 schools had characteristically not received any substantial extra resources during the period for 2006 to 2011. Further, they had sustained their larger Average Yearly Gains for 5 years, rather than 1 to 5 years. They indicate that democratically-controlled non-Turnaround Schools that began in the same reading achievement level as the Turnaround Schools can out-perform them. The report also looked at levels of teacher turnover.



Chicago's Turnaround Schools had the opportunity to choose an entirely new staff, and to staff Turnaround Schools with teachers AUSL said, were "turnaround- ready." Chicago's Turnaround Schools also had dramatic improvements in their facilities and extensive AUSL staff who worked to support teachers. AUSL carried out a one-year clinical preparation program for about half of their teachers. So how did this investment in new staff pay off?



...only an average of 42% of the original Turnaround Teachers who taught in the six Turnaround Schools in 2008-2009 were still teaching there four years later in 2011-2012. This creates a constant need in Turnaround Schools to identify new teachers and makes the goal of fundamentally changing a school's culture more difficult. In contrast, an average of 71% of the teachers in the four profiled Comparison Schools who taught in 2008-2009, were still teaching in the same school in 2011- 2012. As noted in Section 1, two of these four schools face severe facilities problems, which is an established incentive for teachers to leave. The Turnaround schools received significant additional resources - roughly $7 million per school -- to support the change process. The Academy for Urban School Leadership collected revenues to manage the schools, and extensive renovations were carried out at the school sites. These funds were not available to the 198 schools that were democratically run.

The Designs for Change report offers a several conclusions, including these:

This study indicated that the high-poverty schools achieving the highest reading scores were governed by active Local School Councils who chose their principals, and had experienced unionized teachers. Related research indicates that high-poverty schools with sustained test score improvements tend to carry out a specific set of practices and methods of organization. These effective elementary schools have dedicated strong Local School Councils, strong but inclusive principal leadership, effective teachers who are engaged in school-wide improvement, active parents, active community members, and students deeply engaged in learning and school improvement. A separate research study came out last week indicating the heavy toll teacher turnover takes on student performance, especially at high-poverty schools. A constantly changing staff creates turmoil, and damages collegial relationships that are central to school success. When teachers leave, students and teachers who stay behind are affected by the instability. Reform that is built on "forceful intervention" and "dramatic change" faces a real challenge if stability and continuity cannot be established.

No Child Left Behind was based in part on the "Texas Miracle" that George W. Bush touted when he came to office. Schools in Texas had supposedly figured out how to beat poverty by setting the bar high - so that was written into the law of the land. Unfortunately the miracle turned out to be a mirage, produced by holding students back and other manipulations. Now we have another national strategy that may be similarly drawn from a rather questionable model.

The Department of Education's Jason Snyder said it was important to have humility. But humility is hard to detect in a program that demands that teachers be fired or schools closed as a condition for receiving scarce funding. This approach of forceful intervention is steeped in the arrogance of technical expertise, because the authors insist they know what must be done, and those who have failed need to be removed in order for success to occur. We have now reached the point where promises of future growth must be replaced by reports of accomplishment - and that is why the numbers have become so important to understand.

The education reporters who shared the room with me Saturday are getting schooled in the toughest kind of reporting - making sense of competing claims. Numbers may not lie, but they are sometimes spun in ways that make the truth hard to see.

Update: The Department of Education has provided more information regarding the data shared by Secretary Duncan last week. This post in the Department of Ed's Homeroom blog provides the following new information:

In the first year of the program, initial data show that roughly one in four schools had double-digit increases in math proficiency, and one in five schools had double-digit increases in reading proficiency. Just as encouraging, many more schools reported substantial, double-digit gains in proficiency in year one than reported double-digit declines in proficiency. In math, more than 25 percent of SIG schools reported double-digit gains in proficiency, compared to 7 percent of schools that reported double-digit losses. The picture is similar in reading. Close to 20 percent of schools made double-digit gains, more than double the 8.5 percent of schools that had double-digit declines. Given the difficulty of school turnaround efforts, few anticipated that a substantial number of schools would in fact make advances in achievement in the first year. But for the vast majority of SIG schools, gains in proficiency in math or reading in the first year of the program are far more common than not. The preliminary data indicate: In 63 percent of SIG schools, math proficiency increased, compared to 33 percent of schools where math proficiency declined--meaning that increases in math proficiency were almost twice as common as declines. In 58 percent of SIG schools, reading proficiency increased, compared to 35 percent of schools where reading proficiency declined. This clarifies a number of the questions I raised, and corrects some of the assumptions I made based on the very incomplete information provided by Secretary Duncan last week. In particular, Secretary Duncan said "In nearly 60 percent of SIG schools, the percent of students who were proficient in math or reading went up in the first year." In this new statement from Jason Snyder, we find out that we have 58% of schools where reading has increased, and 63% where math has increased. More importantly, we are told, by comparison, how many schools declined, which was not disclosed before. We still do not have the data from which these numbers have been drawn, but at least we have more than we had before.

Update: Jason Snyder has sent a response to the questions raised in this post, which I have shared here.

What do you think? Have you experienced a school turnaround or reconstitution? Are we seeing numbers spun here?


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THE KEY HERE IS HOW DO YOU DEFINE EQUITABLE.  IN MARYLAND THE ANSWER IS VERY LOOSELY.  YOU CAN SEE WITH SCHOOL FUNDING HOW ANY SANE DEFINITION SCREAMS 'NOT EQUITABLE'!  SO THESE POLS WILL PAY NO ATTENTION TO THIS POLICY RULE.

The National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion
developed the following working definition of inclusive education:
“Providing to all students, including those with significant
disabilities, equitable opportunities to receive effective educational
services
, with the needed supplementary aids and support services, in age appropriate classrooms in their neighborhood schools, in
order to prepare students for productive lives as full members of
society.”


I JUST WANTED TO SHOW THIS REPORT BY A LOCAL RESEARCH GROUP THAT ACCESSED WHAT WAS IN 2005 THE STATE OF SPECIAL ED IN BALTIMORE CITY SCHOOLS.  FLASH FORWARD TO MY DISCUSSION TODAY AND YOU HEAR THE SAME ISSUES ONLY DEEPENED BY CUTS IN FUNDING AND RESOURCES DUE TO TIERED PER-PUPIL FUNDING.  WHAT WE SEE MARYLAND/BALTIMORE TRYING TO DO IS MEET A COURT DEADLINE ON REQUIREMENTS BY CREATING HEADLINES THAT POLICY IS MOVING US FORWARD AS REGARDS SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION.  I AM POSITIVE THAT BOTH PARENTS AND TEACHERS WOULD TELL YOU OTHERWISE.


Special Education in the
Baltimore City High Schools:
Perspectives, Challenges, Recommendations

At stake: the education due every student; the taxpayers’ dollars to support it;
the viability of Baltimore City’s work force


PUBLISHED BY
The Abell Foundation
111 S. Calvert Street, Suite 2300
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
www.abell.org
DECEMBER 2005


Yet there is no denying that not enough is being done for the city’s special education students. The data and interviews with BCPSS high school staff reported on here suggest an urgent need for more and better professional development for special and regular education teachers, additional qualified staff and service providers, a better student assignment process, wider adoption of research based programs in reading and math, and better preparation for
students for life after high school. For example,

• BCPSS school staff reported that they often choose certain instructional practices because they don’t have the training or resources to do what they believe would be best for children; they often do not know which teaching models and programs in math and reading have shown to be effective; and the district’s focus on inclusion limits their ability to use pullouts and self-contained classrooms when appropriate.

• While BCPSS staff were supportive of the idea of inclusion, they said that there were insufficient resources and staff training for the student inclusion model, and they were
concerned about additional behavior management problems due to inclusion.

• Staff at schools believe that Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and other paperwork requirements are repetitive, too time-consuming, and ultimately not very
useful documents. The problems suggest that staff need better information about the availability of services, more extensive training on IEP documentation, and a new
understanding of the rationales for required paperwork.

• The problems caused by staff shortages are compounded by the difficulty in finding special education staff with a broad range of content knowledge, high teacher turnover,
and absenteeism. BCPSS’ staffing plan may also be contributing to the problem. Of the 15 BCPSS high schools with 50 or fewer special education students, 10 have only a halftime or one full-time special education teacher.


• In several BCPSS high schools, interactions between regular and special education teachers geared toward improving instruction seem limited to classroom visits by special
educators once or twice a week and meetings as needed. Most school staff thought that this was insufficient and that there should be more collaboration school-wide and
especially between special educators and general educators since “general educators are doing most of the heavy lifting” when it comes to teaching students with disabilities.

• Special education students’ transition from middle to high school is challenging. The difficulties include moving to more inclusive, general education classrooms in high school; a high school selection process that does not yet encourage special education students to apply to the full range of high schools; and the inefficient transfer of student records and other paperwork.

• BCPSS school staff reported that there are almost no transition services to life after high school, and it appeared that schools are taking few concrete steps to address this need because staff are overwhelmed by the task.

_______________________________________________

I WANTED TO USE THIS ONE SCHOOL AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE CITY OF BALTIMORE WILL GO ABOUT MEETING THE COURT REQUIREMENTS AS TO IMPROVING EDUCATION STANDARDS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN.  IF YOU LOOK AT KIPPS PROMOTIONAL FOR INCLUSION SPECIALISTS ETC YOU THINK THIS SCHOOL IS DOING A GREAT JOB FOR ITS KIDS.  IF YOU LOOK AT THE REPORT THE CITY GAVE TO THIS SCHOOL YOU WOULD THINK SO AS WELL.  LOOK AT WHAT THE PARENTS GAVE AS THEIR OPINION ON THIS AND REMEMBER WHAT TEACHERS ARE SAYING.

KIPPS IS A NATIONAL CHARTER CHAIN AND IT HAS A BAD REPUTATION NATIONALLY FOR EVEN ACCEPTING SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN....IT IS A PROFIT-DRIVEN PRIVATE SCHOOL.  UNLIKE REAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS THE PUBLIC CANNOT SEE THE INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE DATA BREAKDOWN PER CATEGORY OF STUDENT AS CHARTERS ARE PROTECTED FROM PUBLIC ACCESS.  SO THERE IS NO WAY TO KNOW WHAT THIS SCHOOL IS ACTUALLY ACHIEVING AND THE REPORTS RELEASED BY THE CITY USE THE SAME SKEWED STATISTICS..........87% OF KIDS SCORE HIGHER THAN LAST TIME FOR EXAMPLE MEANS THE SCORES WERE LOW AND NOW THERE IS A STATISTIC TICK UPWARD.  IN MOST BALTIMORE SCHOOLS WE HAVE COME TO SEE THESE NUMBERS FALL FROM YEAR TO YEAR. 



THE POINT IS THAT IF THE CITY WANTS TO MEET A FEDERAL REQUIREMENT, ALL IT NEEDS TO DO IS USE THIS DATA AS SUPPORT.  THIS IS WHY ALL OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS THESE EDUCATION REFORMERS ARE GIVING ALWAYS PROVE TO BE UNTRUE!!!

Parent Satisfaction –

Climate Survey           Not Effective



Effective Academic Programming for Students with Disabilities                                      Effective


Kipp Ujima Village Academy and KIPP Harmony Academy 

are also local charter schools that have been serving students in Baltimore, with and without special needs, since 2002. With an inclusion specialist given to every grade level and 1-1 planning time, it's hard not to imagine the plan working. According to Natasha Schibanoff, Dean of Student Support Services at KIPP Harmony, the school has "solid data to support that all students can make beyond 1.5 years of growth in one year. [Our] IEP goals are directly aligned with the rigorous accelerated curriculum because Special Education services are not to only catch students up, but to provide appropriate measures of support to achieve beyond grade level."




The Problem With New Orleans’s Charter Schools
Oct 6, 2010 4:00 PM EDT

...........when you look at which individual schools have the lowest percentages of disabled students, almost all of them are charters. In fact, four of the highest-performing RSD charter schools in terms of school-performance scores have some of the lowest disabled-student enrollment figures in the city: Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School for Science & Technology, 3.29 percent enrollment; KIPP Believe College Prep, 5.41 percent; KIPP Central City Primary, 6.67 percent; and Martin Behrman Elementary School, 7.31 percent.
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February 25th, 2013

2/25/2013

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STATISTICS AS SPIN!!!!!!!  MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS KILLING US WITH MISINFORMATION.



I wanted to revisit for the day the outright misrepresentation we are being exposed to every day as journalism no longer feels any need to verify or even weed out information sent to it.  PLEASE SHOUT OUT TO THESE MEDIA OUTLETS AND POLICY GROUPS THAT KNOWINGLY GIVE FALSE INFORMATION!


Below you see a variety of topics each with its own mission....to make incumbents look good when they are absolutely horrible.  Attorney General Gansler is running for governor and needs to tout as an accomplishment something that was not only a failure.....but a lie.  Funds have not been distributed.....they were simply placed in the state coffers.  I remind you of PIRG -MD and its unbelievable attempt to color Baltimore as a city of transparency by outright grading on a curve.....I've never seen anything presented with such a skew towards hiding political failings.  They admitted they did indeed skew the data.  The education success game is high as O'Malley intends to use his education successes in his campaigning.....only none of it is true......it is all skewed data.  Below he is touting an improvement in Maryland's scores that take a very small percentage of all students taking the AP tests....20% for most counties, then he is saying of those 20% there were 17% that made a passing score.  DO YOU KNOW HOW SMALL A GROUP OF STUDENTS THAT IS? IT IS ALL BUNK.  What we know is that this education reform is wasting far too much money on administrative changes that have no value.  Lastly I show our State  Treasurer Kopp who must have the most skeletons in her closet of anyone I know given she has had that position for years.  What she does below is try to defend herself from a columnist's bad revue of her performance but making what I know is an outright lie. She defends pension funding as adequate by referring to the unusually high rate of return we've had these past few years as proof returns will meet expectations.  She doesn't inform people that the bond market is superheated and ready to implode so all of the gains will be lost......just as with the subprime loan market.    THESE POLS ARE SHAMELESS AS THEY LEAVE THESE PENSIONS IN INVESTMENTS EVERYONE KNOWS ARE GOING TO BUST AND BURN.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!!!!

I WILL SPEAK ON EDUCATION THE REST OF THE WEEK.
_____________________________________________

This headline is not only misleading and false.....it is a political advertisement for Gansler and his running for Governor....courtesy the Baltimore Sun.  We all know that the homeowners who were victims of fraud received a $1,900 sum totaling some millions of dollars.  We know that Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition outed the banks and Attorney General Gansler for having made very few mortgage modifications as of late last year.  Well over $700 million simply went into the State general fund.

Government watchdogs all report that the banks have done little to no mortgage adjustments to satisfy the settlement terms.  What we are seeing is Obama's taxpayer funded housing program of $70 billion designed to do the exact same thing as this bank settlement being the funds used for mortgage refinancing.....not the banks money.

Here in Maryland what we do see are these banks giving home-buying incentives to new homeowners as those in Baltimore's Enterprise Zones.  Since Gansler allowed the banks to pay fraud penalties as community donations these last few years....writing fraud off as charity .....it is not hard to imagine that these home-buying incentives are being slated towards fraud payments.

All of this is important in defining Rule of Law.  People have equal protection and Gansler is the man charged with that duty.  Yet, time and again the people being defrauded never get justice!



Marylanders have received $1.1 billion from Mortgage Settlement so far



Deatrice S. Besong is pictured at her home in Upper Marlboro. Bank of America, her servicer, has agreed to reduce her mortgage principal. (Algerina Perna, Baltimore Sun / December 6, 2012)

By Steve Kilar The Baltimore Sun 9:58 a.m. EST, February 21, 2013

Maryland homeowners have received over $1.1 billion in assistance from the National Mortgage Settlement, according to a report released Thursday by the settlement’s court-appointed monitor.

Just over 14,000 homeowners in the state, between March 1, 2012 and the end of the year, received help from the settlement with five major mortgage servicers that were accused of abusive foreclosure practices. The average amount of relief, including mortgage modifications and short sale assistance, was $79,082, the monitor’s report said.

Other forms of assistance that the banks can count toward the settlement are principal reductions, deficiency waivers and refinancing.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial entered into the settlement last year with 49 states’ attorneys general and the federal government to resolve the accusations of consumer abuse, which included “robo-signing,” the practice of creating foreclosure documents in an assembly-line fashion without verifying their accuracy.

“Not only have thousands of families who remain in their homes benefited, entire neighborhoods, cities and counties have also benefited as the reduction in foreclosures has helped stabilize home prices — a necessity for economic recovery in Maryland,” said Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler in a statement Thursday.

About $957 million was projected to reach Maryland residents through the settlement, Gansler’s office said. The report released Thursday does not include funds allocated in the first two months of 2013 nor does it incorporate payments that are expected to be made this summer to some borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure, according to Gansler’s office.

Nationally, $46 billion in relief has been allocated by the banks to more than 550,000 borrowers, according to Thursday’s report, the monitor’s third update on the settlement’s progress.

The monitor’s newest report is available here.

THIS IS THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE THAT NO DOUBT PROMPTED THE ARTICLE ABOVE!!!!


Editorial What Mortgage Relief? Published: February 24, 2013
  • New York Times
A year ago, when the nation’s biggest banks settled with state and federal officials over claims of foreclosure abuses, the public was led to believe that the deal would allow millions of hard-pressed borrowers to escape the threat of foreclosure. It still hasn’t happened.


A third progress report was issued last Thursday by the monitor of the settlement, which, among its terms, required the banks to grant $25 billion worth of mortgage relief, much of it by reducing the principal balances on troubled loans. The report showed that through the end of 2012, 71,000 borrowers had their primary mortgages modified, versus 170,000 who received help on their second mortgages, including home equity loans.

Both types of assistance can help struggling borrowers — to a point. But as Jessica Silver-Greenberg reported in The Times, housing advocates say that in many cases, banks are not helping with troubled primary mortgages, which often leaves the homeowners facing foreclosure. Instead, the banks are forgiving the second mortgages, which allows them to say that they have met their obligations under the settlement.

In other words, banks are structuring the debt relief in ways designed to tidy up their balance sheets, rather than to keep as many people from losing their homes as possible. Banks often do not own the primary mortgages; they only service them for investors who own them. But they do often hold second liens on their books. In general, the holder of a second lien gets nothing when a home is worth less than the mortgage balance or is sold in foreclosure. But by forgiving the second liens, the bank at least gets credit for “helping” the borrower.

In the report, the settlement monitor, Joseph Smith, said the banks still had much work to do on the borrowers’ behalf. We’ll believe it when we see it.
____________________________________________
PIRG-MD VERIFIED THAT THEY DID GRADE THIS ON A CURVE MAKING IT APPEAR IT WAS BETTER THAN IT IS!!!  These states failed yet because they all did poorly, the B+ meant that Maryland failed less than a few others.

REMEMBER THIS:


THIS STUDY WAS RELEASED SIMPLY AS A HEADLINE THAT WILL BE USED FOR POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH REALITY.  LOOK AT THE CITIES HAVING THE HIGH GRADES......ALL OF THEM ARE KNOWN TO BE SOME OF THE MOST CORRUPT.  PIRG DID THE SAME A FEW YEARS AGO WITH DATA THAT CONFLICTED WITH THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY STATE STUDY OF CORRUPTION AND TRANSPARENCY.  I ASKED PIRG HOW IT COULD GET RANKINGS SO MUCH DIFFERENT THEN THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY------

THEY SAID 'WE USE A CURVE TO RANK THESE DATA' WE DO NOT SET A BENCHMARK TO BE MET.

In scientific research terms......THEY ARE LYING!!!


Baltimore gets B+ in spending transparency Grade given by Maryland PIRG Published  11:50 AM EST Jan 25, 2013
  • WBAL TV Baltimore

BALTIMORE —Baltimore City gets a B+ when it comes to spending transparency, according to the Maryland Public Interest Research Group.

The organization graded the nation's largest cities on how effectively they allow the public to track budgets, contracting, subsidies, grants and other requests.

Get a copy of the report here

Baltimore was praised in the report for its searchable and downloadable checkbook, its level city spending information and its service request center that allows residents to notify city officials of issues that need to be fixed.


Baltimore scored better than many other cities with significantly larger budgets and populations.


New York City, Chicago and San Francisco received A's.
________________________________________________

Those of us wanting REAL advances in education have a problem with the current course of reforms and this is one.  The public is receiving all kinds of success hype that is just that.....hype.  I do not want to detract from the hard work of students and teachers, but it is this reliance on test scores that has many educators pulling hair.  What this article states is that of those students taking the test.....11% underserved scored well.....29% overall.  First, the increase is so small as to be a statistical anomaly.  Second, what they aren't telling you is the number taking the test.  'OF THOSE TAKING THE TEST'.  What percentage of the total population of Maryland students took the test?  Politicians are deliberately seeking a headline and what most feel is unjustified shouts of success.  It's like George Bush shouting the War With Iraq is Over after 3 days.

The reason this misrepresentation of statistics is important is that for those seeing these reforms as wrongheaded, these headlines are harmful.  Many educators see the problems with achievement as basic revenue and resources sent to K-12.  These education reforms send copious amounts of money to things that do nothing to improve funding and resources in classrooms and THAT IS THE PROBLEM.


Record number of black students in Md. passed AP tests State still leads country in percentage of students passing tests in 2012


By Erica L. Green, The Baltimore Sun 9:10 p.m. EST, February 20, 2013

More African-American students in Maryland's Class of 2012 successfully passed a rigorous Advanced Placement exam than ever before, as the state continued to lead the nation in the percentage of students deemed college- and career-ready, according to data released Wednesday by the national College Board.

The 11.4 percent of black students who earned a score of 3 or better on an exam still comprises a small fraction of the 29.6 percent of all Maryland seniors who passed a test. But it is among the highest percentages in the nation, reflecting the increased access and success for black students on the exams.

Maryland maintained its longstanding rank as No. 1 in the nation in the proportion of students passing the exams in 2012. The state significantly outpaced the nation, where 19.5 percent of students scored a 3 or higher, and also noted the largest percentage increase of students passing the tests in the past decade.

The data were released in the College Board's "Annual AP Report to the Nation." The report provides a state-by-state report on the number of students who take Advanced Placement courses, which are offered in dozens of subject areas, and pass the assessments. Students earn a score of 1 to 5, with 3 considered passing.

Some colleges accept passing grades as credit, and students who pass the tests are said to have higher college grade point averages, do better in intermediate level classes and have higher college completion rates.

Over the past decade, the number of Maryland students who take the exams has more than doubled, which state schools Superintendent Lillian M. Lowery praised as "parents and students really stepping out there, ready to take these risks.

"We believe that every child should have access to the most rigorous curriculum possible," Lowery said. "Not everyone is going to do well on the assessments, but at least they are being introduced to college and career-ready" work.

She attributed the increased pass rates to high-quality training for teachers and hard work by students.

The state was among a few in the country in which both the number of students taking the tests, particularly among minorities and other underserved populations, and pass rates increased. "The good news is, we have not suffered at all because we have opened access," Lowery said.

College Board officials said the gap in the number of underserved populations who have access to the rigor of Advanced Placement courses remains a national struggle, though in Maryland the variations are less prevalent.

Officials said that while one in four Advanced Placement students in the nation are underserved minorities, the proportion of those students who have the potential to excel in the classes still lags in some subjects. For example, two out of 10 Native American students with the potential to excel in AP math classes enroll in them, and three out of 10 African-American and Hispanic students do.

Maryland also had the highest percentage of students in the nation taking math and science assessments, state officials said.

Lowery said she would like to see the gap between minority students and their peers shrink significantly, particularly with the passage of the Maryland Dream Act, which will allow more minority students to attend college by extending a tuition break to some illegal immigrants who graduate from high school in Maryland.

"We would hope to ... continue to grow at all levels, and among all ethnicities," she said.

State officials noted that Hispanic students also saw progress on the exams last year. They accounted for 8.8 percent of Maryland's 2012 graduating class and 8.3 percent of the seniors who scored 3 or higher on the exam.

All 24 Maryland school systems have at least 20 percent of seniors taking the tests, according to state officials, who highlighted some districts — Anne Arundel, Calvert, Frederick, Howard and Montgomery counties — for having at least 30 percent of their graduating classes pass an exam.

erica.green@baltsun.com

By the numbers

Number of Maryland seniors who took AP exam in 2012: 26,640

Percentage of Maryland's seniors who passed AP exam in 2012: 29.6

Percentage of seniors who passed AP exam nationally: 19.5

Percentage of African-American seniors in Maryland who passed AP exam in 2012: 11.4

Percentage of Hispanic seniors in Maryland who passed AP exam: 8.3

_________________________________________________

We want to say this to Ms Kopp....not as a conservative pundit but as a progressive/labor pundit....we know that state and city pensions were thrown into the stock market just before the crash in 2008 after being moved from a then safe bond market.  This was deliberate as pensions, both private and public, were used to prop the falling market to give connected investors a profit right to the end while pensions were left to take the brunt of the crash.  Kopp will remember this.

Flash forward to present and again it is public/private pensions in what is now the collapsing market....municipal bonds ready to implode from all of the movement by pols of government debt to credit bond markets and due to the heavy investment of pensions in the European sovereign debt market....all of which is about to crumble.  So don't think these high returns will last and Kopp knows this.

It is Kopp who plays the propagandist in stating the high returns prove sound figures for future gains.  As she knows these figures are so inflated because of this bond bubble and will crash with the market.  What people with pensions need to know is that you have a class action lawsuit over the malfeasance in 2008 and what will be this soon to occur collapse!!


State pension returns are on target 9:00 a.m. EST, February 19, 2013  Baltimore Sun


In her recent column, Marta Mossburg opines that the state pension system's assumed rate of return of 7.75 percent is unrealistic, pointing to last year's earnings of 0.36 percent as proof ("On state pensions, 'Everyone else is doing it' is no excuse," Feb. 13). Interestingly, she failed to mention the system's 20 percent earnings in fiscal year 2011 and 14 percent in fiscal 2010. That data didn't fit her narrative.

Ms. Mossburg and other critics of the pension system seem to have difficulty acknowledging the reality that the assumed rate of return is based on a long-term horizon. Since the system is charged with pre-funding benefits during the working life of public employees, the board appropriately looks at the rate of return as an average over that period, which is typically 25 years or more.

When determining the rate of return, the board and its investment advisors do not expect the system to match it year after year. In some years, the earnings far exceed the assumed rate, and in other years we fall short, as evidenced by the figures I mentioned above. However, when averaged over the working life of the typical employee, the board has done well in setting the rate. The latest data (as of January 31, 2013) shows that the system has earned 7.97 percent on average over the last 25 years and 7.69 percent over the last 10 years, one of the worst periods in history. The board will review this data later this year during its annual actuarial review.

As I stated in my column to state retirees — which Ms. Mossburg cites, but unfortunately mischaracterizes — we take the long view. Benefits are paid out by the system over the long-term, requiring a long-term investment horizon and funding strategy. Read it here and see how it squares with Ms. Mossburg's portrayal.


Nancy K. Kopp, Annapolis

The writer is Maryland State Treasurer and chairs the board of trustees of the State Retirement and Pension System.
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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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