12/13/2023
Yvonne Siu-Runyan
May 6, 2017 at 1:47 pm
Joe,
Thanks for saying this out loud:
“Obama was wrong letting choosing arne Duncan and letting Billionaire Bill Gates dominate the scene” is my favorite argument not being made forcefully enough.
Reply
dianeravitch
May 6, 2017 at 1:50 pm
Joe Prichard,
Please send your email. I want to learn more about St Louis.
Reply
joe prichard
May 6, 2017 at 4:39 pm
A big problem in St. Louis is the stealth of the charter advocates. Given a choice between after having outrageous behavior pointed out, they do not bother to explain or defend, they simply ignore it, confident that no one will demand any follow up. I do not have much credibility, but it seems to be growing…I have the right to post threads at current affairs, a forum at the Post Dispatch, and I do so almost every day. I had a really civilized discussion on April 25th..”Report:: Vouchers would be a disaster–for rural schools” I frequently use material I discover here, sometimes directly, sometimes clicking your link to the original source. 28 responses is good for my threads.
Without telling me, the PD barred all direct responses to stories and editorials. The person who did so (Beth O’Malley) identified herself. I just learned that public radio does the same. I called and asked why, and they said no one in st. louis has anything to do with restricting me. (they still want my money). I suspect it has something to do with my ten years of dedication to trying to talk about education. I would really appreciate it if someone could call public radio or the Post Dispatch, and ask for an explanation of why my comments are barred. The pd is likely to offer a facebook is to blame explanation. There are great people to talk to in St. Louis. The elected members of the board still have monthly meetings, for the tenth year after losing power in a takeover, with three appointed members. The media praises the school for improvement, while not saying much about the loss of 10,000 students, mostly to charter schools for which not much is reported. My e-mail is [email protected] ,and I post under the name kjoe, and my avatar has me with Chuck Berry and his daughter Ingrid. Perhaps someone can discover what is so objectionable about my communication skills.
joe prichard
May 6, 2017 at 4:50 pm
One of the best people in St. Louis is Peter Downs. When he was elected to the board in 2006, the wheels were immediately set into motion to take over the schools, and remove all power from the elected board. A couple of weeks ago, I asked public radio why Peter’s negative review of Waiting for Superman had been removed…no reply (except a notice that my comments are no longer allowed)Peter writes about a lot of subjects, but he really zeroed in with “Schoolhouse Shams: Myths and Misinformation in School Reform”. “Written by a parent and school board member, who first embraced many of the ideas of the modern school reform movement, Schoolhouse Shams lays bare much of the mythology and misinformation that underpin many of the failed school reform policies of the last decade. Many of the top strategies of the highly publicized school reform movement already have been tried out in St. Louis with disastrous results. Along with demonstrating the failure of school reform prescriptions to improve education, the experience of St. Louis demonstrates that the ideological premise of the reform movement, that a focus on providing opportunities for private profit-taking will necessarily improve schools, is both wrong and conflicts with the ideals of democracy, accountability, and justice”.
dianeravitch
May 6, 2017 at 5:38 pm
Joe,
I have Peter Downs’ book. Do you have an email for him?
