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President Trump wants to siphon billions of dollars from public schools to fund private and religious school vouchers. Its an idea thats bad for kids, public education and our democracy.

Today, vouchers are used by less than 1% of the nations students. Trump and his Education secretary, Betsy DeVos, want to change that. Trumps new budget proposal would make historic cuts to federal education spending, while diverting $1 billion into voucher programs a down payment on his oft-repeated $20-billion voucher pledge. We believe the presidents plan would deal a terrible blow to public schools and to the 90% of Americas children who attend them, while doing almost nothing to benefit children who receive vouchers.

Although our organizations have sparred and disagreed over the years, such is the danger to public schooling posed by Trumps embrace of vouchers that we are speaking out together on this issue. The Trump-DeVos effort to push vouchers, or something equivalent through tax credits, threatens the promise and purpose of Americas great equalizer, public education.

At a time when low-income children make up the majority of public school students, we as a country must do more to support families, teachers, administrators and public schools. Trumps plan would do the opposite.

Public schools have never fully recovered from the Great Recession. Research, common sense and our collective experiences working with children, families and schools tell us that we must invest in, not cut back, public education. That means providing high-quality preschool for kids, and the social, health and mental health services they need. It means making sure students are reading at grade level by the end of third grade; that they have powerful learning opportunities, including career and technical training that can prepare them for college and work; and that they are guided by well-supported teachers and other education specialists. It means addressing the federal governments deep underfunding of special education and building a culture of collaboration among teachers, administrators, parents and communities.

The Trump-DeVos budget and voucher plans, while still lacking in details, would eliminate more than 20 education initiatives, including after-school and summer programs, career and technical education, teacher professional development and funding to lower class size. Public money would go instead to schools that lack the accountability and civil rights protections of public schools. DeVos alarmingly fueled these concerns during a congressional hearing last week, when she repeatedly declined to say the Department of Education would withhold vouchers from schools that discriminate, including against LGBT students or students with disabilities. She similarly sidestepped questions about accountability.

We believe taxpayer money should support schools that are accountable to voters, open to all, nondenominational and transparent about students progress. Such schools district and charter public schools are part of what unites us as a country.

Champions of an essentially unregulated, free-market approach to K-12 education, including DeVos, counter that theirs is a better path to helping students in need. But the facts show that where vouchers have been put into practice on a meaningful scale, they hurt student learning.

In April, the research arm of the Department of Education released a study of the federally mandated voucher program in Washington. It showed voucher students did worse in math than similar public school students, and it adds to a growing body of education research that concludes that vouchers may harm rather than help student achievement. In fact, the results of voucher tests, compared with other reforms, are the worst in the history of the field, according to Kevin Carey, education policy director at New America.

Administration officials have suggested what amounts to a back door way to increase the reach of vouchers: tax credits for corporations and the rich who contribute to third-party voucher funds. The nations School Superintendents Assn. looked at states where such credits are already in place and found that, in some cases, the donors have been able to make a profit off the backs of taxpayers and ultimately kids. And what Carey calls the shell game of moving money through these funds makes it difficult to account for how the money is spent.

The Trump administrations perverse priorities are increasingly clear: Impose the biggest cuts to federal education funding in memory and slash support to poor children and families by cutting Medicaid, food stamps and other programs, all while cutting taxes for the rich. It is an agenda that betrays millions of families seeking a better life, and one at odds with what this country stands for. Public schools are a fundamental engine of opportunity in this country. We will stand together to defend them.

Jonah Edelman is chief executive of Stand for Children, which advocates for quality public education. Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

View original post here:
School vouchers don't just undermine public schools, they ... - Los Angeles Times

The United States may soon be backing away from one of the world's most ambitious efforts to fight climate change. President Donald Trump is expected to announce this week his final decision on whether the US will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.

But whatever the decision, and whatever the fallout, the mere suggestion of pulling out has raised a difficult question: How can we build sustainable, long-term climate change policy when every democracy around the world changes leaders, and ideology, every few years? There are a few options, and broad deals like the Paris Agreement might actually be the antidote.

"It's one of the reasons that problems like nuclear arms control and like climate change are so challenging, because of this characteristic of democracy of changing government at regular intervals," said John Holdren, a former senior science advisor to President Barack Obama and a professor at Harvard University. "Our preferred political systemwhich I continue to think is better than the othershas drawbacks and this is one of them."

Experts have said that the US choosing to withdraw from the Paris Agreementa process that could take up to four yearsdoesn't mean a death knell for the deal globally. But it would have consequences, and would also mean a shift in priorities domestically. Without an international treaty to hold us to account, and with climate change not a priority for the current administration, the US could regress on environmental policy.

"This is not the only time this has happened."

Holdren and other experts I spoke to said this is an issue that climate change experts have long identified, and the US isn't the only nation that struggles with creative lasting policy changes under a government that is constantly changing hands. Canada spent nearly a decade dragging its feet on climate change policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Australia has seen climate change alternate between a top priority and an afterthought as different parties cycled through power. It's a common refrain.

But hearty, multinational treaties like the Paris Agreement may actually be a good example of how to protect our effort to stop climate change from the whims of domestic politics.

"The Paris Agreement anticipated the very possibility that we're seeing now," said John O. Niles, a climate policy expert and the director of the Carbon Institute, a research group that promotes carbon management. "It's a rock and that rock can't be broken by a single government withdrawing. It was designed that way."

Read more: Are We All Screwed If the U.S. Leaves the Paris Climate Agreement?

Niles, who helped coordinate scientific strategy for more than a dozen nations leading up to the Paris Agreement, told me that this kind of broad, multinational treaty is an example of policy that can withstand the ebb and flow of changing leaders.

Polls have also shown that the majority of Americans, including most Republicans, do not want to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. This grassroots support could have great influence even if our current administration ignores it, according to David Victor, a global policy expert at the University of California San Diego and the author of "Global Warming Gridlock," which looks at roadblocks to diplomatic progress on climate change.

"This is not the only time this has happened," Victor told me. "When the federal government is inactive on a politically-important topic, it becomes politically very popular to focus on it in the states. They swing in the opposite direction."

Victor said state and local governments may very well double-down on climate change policy to mitigate the fallout from the feds, and pointed to California Governor Jerry Brown, who is heading to China next week to discuss climate change policy. Other nations could end up reacting in a similar manner, either stepping up to take the US' place as a global leader, or putting diplomatic pressure on the US if Trump pulls the plug.

Having a congress that is willing to pass strict laws on climate change would make a lot of headway, too (it's not very simple to just overturn a law), and Holdren said voters will have this in mind during the midterms.

None of these strategies are a silver bullet and Victor told me most economists believe the planet overall is going to "under-mitigate and over-adapt," to climate changemeaning we will make some progress, but not enough, and will end up having to deal with the consequences.

"One should hope that on major issues of international collaboration and agreement that the consensus would be maintained from administration to administration," Holdren told me. "But as we all know, that's not necessarily true."

Ultimately, democracy's greatest asset is that it is up to the people to choose our own fate. If the people don't care about climate change, this is where we end up.

Excerpt from:
Is Climate Change Policy Incompatible with Democracy? - Motherboard

Mayor Bailey prepares to answer a residents question.

On Wednesday evening, May 30, Coronado residents Casey and Kathryn Blitt, along with Gregg and Cathy Anderson, sponsored a community forum in the Nautilus Room of the Coronado Community Center.The purpose of this meeting was to increase understanding about the use of a historic local home as a transitional home for women who are transitioning out of a recovery home for sex-trafficked women.

A previous community meeting was held on March 1st in the Winn Room at the Coronado Library,but peoplewere turned away that night because the Winn Room was filled to capacity.

Former Mayor Casey Tanaka deftly moderated this secondforum. He opened the meeting by welcoming all, introducing a panel that included Mayor Richard Bailey, GenerateHope Chief Executive Officer Dan DeSaegher, GenerateHope Founder and Director of Services, Susan Munsey, a representative from Tony Atkins office (Coronados state senator, who represents Coronado in Sacramento), and a representative from Todd Glorias office (Mr. Gloria represents Coronado in Sacramento as our state assembly member.)

Tanaka noted that GenerateHope would not be making a presentation as they did at the March forum, but were available to clarify informationand answer questions.

I conducted an informal poll before the meeting started. I asked people in the audience if they arrived in support, opposition, or undecided. This random sampling included 52 of the approximately 130 people in attendance. The number of people in support or curious was essentially equal to the number of people in opposition. Of those in opposition, five of those were vocally frustrated by what they perceived as a lack of transparency by Coronado City Council.

It should be noted that one of the questions posed during the forum asked for a show of hands as to how many in the audience were actual residents of Coronado. Easily 90% of the audience raised their hands. This brought comments of Okay, well thats good, by those sitting next to me who had indicated opposition.

Mr. Tanaka invited audience members to come to the podium to ask their questions within a 30 second time period. If their questions would take longer than 30 seconds, Mr. Tanaka encouraged them to get back in line for another turn.

For the next hour and a half, at least ten people were lined-up at the podium at any given time. Some of those in opposition to the concept had done plenty of research; three in particular came up to the podium three or more times.

There were many people who spoke in support of the concept and applause was often heard as people expressed their reasons for supporting GenerateHopes efforts.

At times, the forum teetered into the emotional. DeSaegher and Munsey both had moments where their compassion for thevictims was evident. Responding to such concerns such as if the girls might needed translators, could they dress themselves, they would be inherently more promiscuous than others, the GenerateHope executives struggled with how to answer.

In response to one such comment, Munsey said, that was below the belt to characterize these victimized women that way. DeSaegher reminded the audience that most of the girls could look like our own daughters (more sex-traffickedgirls are of Caucasian descent than any other ethnicity).

Emotions ran high on the other side as well. At one point, a friend of a resident who is strongly against the concept, suggested that this resident was getting a little feisty. In response, F them! was clearly heard. It was uncertain who was the them being spokenabout.

The main concerns of the opposition were:

The main points of those in support:

We live in a democracy and these three Constitutional concepts come into play on this issue:

Federalism is the concept written into our Constitution that separates the power of the Federal government and the State government.

Under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, Federal Law supersedes State and Local law. The Federal Government trumps the state and local government.Mayor Bailey noted this fact during the questioning.

For example, the equal protection clause would stop racial segregation in a city, even if the majority of the residents wanted racial segregation, because the U.S. Supreme Court stated in 1954, in Brownv.The Board of Education, that separate is inherently unequal.

Finally, we have a system of checks and balances. A law was passed allowing transitional housing at the Federal level. Our California state and local Coronado governments (the legislative branch) brought their housing laws in line with the Federal Governments statute.

The executive branch of our state government, the governor, signed this bill into law.

The judicial branch of California has heard challenges to this law. Indeed, other California cities have challenged this law all the way to the California Supreme Court. These challenges have not been successful.

We have active, engaged citizens in Coronado; and for the most part, Wednesday evenings forum was civil, yet vibrant. Did everyone feel satisfied? No. Will Coronado remain an example of democracy? Yes.

See the rest here:
Democracy in Action: Transitional Housing Use Questions Aired at Community Forum - Coronado Times Newspaper

Times Now

Hurriyat leader condemns Major Gogoi's actions, calls it 'shame on democracy' Times Now Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Wednesday condemned the actions of Major Leetul Gogoi and challenged the award being offered to him by the Army. Mirwaiz Farooq called it a 'shame' on Indian democracy that Major Gogoi was being appreciated ... and more »

Link:
Hurriyat leader condemns Major Gogoi's actions, calls it 'shame on democracy' - Times Now

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Tuesday used a commencement address at Brooklyn College to lament the current state of democracy in the United States.

After criticizing some of his usual targetsCEOs and the top onepercent on the wealth scaleSanders saidthat "directly related to the oligarchiccommunity that we currently have is a corrupt political system, which is undermining American democracy."

The senator never mentioned President Donald Trump by name in the speech at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, but he made clear his feelings about the administration.

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"Unbelievably, at exactly the same time as they are throwing people off of health care, making it harder for kids to go to college, they have the chutzpah to provide $300 billion in tax breaks to the top one percent," Sanders said, in areference to the American Health Care Act, a GOP replacement plan for Obamacare that is backed by Trump.

While the senator painted a dark picture of America at the moment, he also called the college graduates to action.

"Now in response to these very serious crises, it seems to me we have two choices. First: We can throw our hands up in despair. We can say the system is rigged, I am not going to get involved. And that is understandable; but it is wrong," Sanders said, before adding that the students had the obligation toaddress economic, social and environmental issues. "You do not have the moral right to turn your back on saving this planet and saving future generations. The truth is that the only rational choice we have, the only real response we can make, is to stand up and fight backreclaim American democracy and create a government that works for all of us."

Sanders has stayed at the political forefront after failing to secure the Democratic presidential nomination, losing out to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who of course was defeated by Republican nominee Trump. He inspired young voters, but his groupOur Revolutionaimed at helping progressive candidates win electionshasn't really landed a major victorythus far, Politico reported this week. Still, many polls have found Sanders is the most popular politician in the country, and it's rumored he's already thinking aboutanother presidential run in 2020.

The rest is here:
Bernie Sanders Laments American Democracy Under Trump, in Brooklyn Commencement Speech - Newsweek