Donald Trump Is Plotting to Make Himself Dictator

Donald Trump Is Plotting to Make Himself Dictator: His plan is to make the federal government his plaything, and many Republican elites are behind him.

NEA. Republicans Make Massive Cuts to Education Funding

 Republican Congressperson Kevin Kiley ( Rocklin) votes with extremist to cut education budget, 

I—and our students across the country—urgently need your help to stop extreme cuts to public schools.  Just as parents and educators prepare to welcome students back to school, several Republicans in the House have proposed the deepest and most drastic cuts to education in history. Their bill passed a key subcommittee last week and could be on its way to the House floor soon. It’s unconscionable!   Please write your representatives in Congress right now and tell them you oppose horrific cuts to education.  Write Kevin Kiley. ( Rocklin)  The House bill would:  Decimate funding by 80% for Title I schools, which help our most vulnerable students;    Wipe out as many as 220,000 educator jobs;   Block President Biden from enacting meaningful reforms to federal student debt programs; and  Completely eliminate federal funding for class size reduction, educator salaries, and the English Language Learner (ELL) program.  If they’re passed, these proposed cuts will hurt our students, especially our most vulnerable, at a time when they need more attention and opportunities, not less.   And, they will deepen educator shortages and increase class sizes.  If enough people make their voices heard, we can stop these cuts, preserve federal funding for our public schools, and give students the attention and opportunity they deserve.

No matter where we’re from or what we believe, we all want all our students—every last one—to get the great education that they deserve.   Let’s make sure our politicians know that we will make our voices heard. We will demand what our students need. And we will succeed.  In solidarity,  Becky Pringle  President

Republicans Propose Massive Cuts to Education

 House Democrats warned that hundreds of thousands of teachers could lose their jobs if legislation advanced Friday by a Republican-controlled appropriations subcommittee becomes law.

The panel's draft Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies funding bill for the coming fiscal year calls for nearly $64 billion in total cuts, a proposal that Democrats said "decimates support for children in K-12 elementary schools and early childhood education" and "abandons college students and low-income workers trying to improve their lives through higher education or job training."

The nonprofit Committee for Education Funding noted that the Republican proposal would impact "virtually all" education programs, hitting teacher funding, student aid, and more. The bill, one of a dozen appropriations measures that Congress is looking to pass by the end of September, would bring Department of Education funding to below the 2006 level, according to the group.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Friday that "we are witnessing a widespread attack on public education that should shock every American family."

"If left to their own devices," DeLauro added, "Republicans would gleefully take public education to the graveyard."

The GOP legislation would slash Title I grants to local educational agencies that serve children from low-income families by nearly $15 billion compared to fiscal year 2023 levels. Appropriations Committee Democrats said the massive cut "could force a nationwide reduction of 220,000 teachers from classrooms serving low-income students" amid a teacher shortage.

The legislation would also completely eliminate funding for a number of Education Department programs, including Federal Work-Study, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Promise Neighborhoods, and Child Care Access Means Parents in School.

"Disgraceful to say the least," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) tweeted in response to the GOP measure.

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. 

 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/republican-education-cuts

 

Fascist Economics in Florida Schools

DeSantis on Education

 

Desantis’ record on education resembles that of someone who was once insulted by a teacher and has been holding a grudge ever since. He has signed bills that weaken teachers unions, that attempt to outlaw honest teaching about race and gender and American history, and that undermine the existence of tenure and DEI programs on college campuses. He set his little fascist quislings loose on New College like rats given management duties in a restaurant kitchen, and he has proudly brought book banning back to the public schools. The unsurprising outcome of all of this is that fewer academics want to work in Florida’s universities, and Florida’s public schools are facing “the worst teacher and staff shortage we’ve ever seen,” with teacher vacancies doubling since Desantis took office. His response to engineering this decline of public education was to expand private school vouchers, which is kind of like burning down an apartment building and then offering people their choice of free apartments therein. If history is any guide, Florida’s future will bring worse K-12 schools, worse colleges and universities, angrier parents, teacher strikes, and a populace that is less educated. The classic ingredients of a thriving state!

 https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/fascist-economics-dont-work

Angry Parents Protest Religious Right Interference in Southern California School District.

 

Angry Parents Protest Religious Right in a Southern California School District Blake Jones  July 9, 2023 Politico Novice school board members get a hard lesson in politics in a region that could determine control of the House. Students have held protests, and irate parents and teachers are swarming the board’s meetings, feeling that their town, Temecula in Riverside County has become consumed by partisan warfare. , Watchara Phomicinda/The Orange County Register via AP Photo   TEMECULA, Calif. — Three Southern California school board members backed by a far-right pastor narrowly won election last fall in campaigns fueled by pandemic rage. Then they banned critical race theory and rejected social studies materials that included LGBTQ rights hero Harvey Milk. Now, they’re fighting for their political lives. After just six months in office, those officials face a recall effort on top of a civil rights investigation launched by the state’s Democratic-led education department. Students have held protests, and irate parents and teachers are swarming the board’s meetings, feeling that their town — the fast-growing, politically diverse suburb of Temecula in Riverside County — has become consumed by partisan warfare. “We don’t want culture wars. We don’t want Fox News appearances,” Alex Douvas, a parent of two kids in the district who previously worked for two Republican congressmembers in Orange County, told the board recently. “Our schools are not ideological battlegrounds. They’re not platforms for religious evangelism. These are institutions for learning and growth.” The religious right saw an opening to jump into the parental rights movement amid intense backlash about pandemic-era school closures and mask mandates. But those policies have all but disappeared in schools, and it’s proving harder to sustain that level of outrage over teachings on race and gender. The effort to ban certain books and challenge curriculum has split Republicans and polled poorly with independent voters nationally. Local Democrats see the strategy flopping — and are already looking to capitalize on it in a part of the state that has become a battleground for control of the House. Joy Silver, chair of the Riverside County Democrats, said she’s intensely focused on winning down-ballot races like school board seats “because the battles are taking place there.” In Temecula, the political agenda embraced by school board trustees Joseph Komrosky, Danny Gonzalez and Jen Wiersma has set off a different kind of public outrage than was likely intended. The booing and shouting at a recent public hearing grew so loud that the board president — who appeared to be wearing a bullet-proof vest under his sweater — cleared the room. “To the extent you keep it focused on parents and students first, not teachers, I think there’s room where you can push back on quote-unquote “woke” agenda issues, but if you go too far in the other direction and are trying to make that the only issue you care about, I think you’re going to see predictable backlash,” California GOP consultant Rob Stutzman said in an interview. “I look at something like Temecula, and to me it’s an eye roll.” https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/09/culture-clash-religious-right-california-00105259

Biden Appoints Elliott Abrams _ A War Criminal

 Why the hell did President Joe Biden nominate a one-time protector of war criminals to a top administration post?

On the Monday before July 4—a black hole day for news—the White House let drop the word that it was appointing Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The commission’s job is to oversee US government information programs designed to convey American diplomacy to the world. It keeps an eye on the US Agency for Global Media, which manages the Voice of America and similar programs. The commission essentially helps the United States present its idea of itself to the rest of the planet.

Why the hell did President Joe Biden nominate a one-time protector of war criminals to a top administration post?

On the Monday before July 4—a black hole day for news—the White House let drop the word that it was appointing Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The commission’s job is to oversee US government information programs designed to convey American diplomacy to the world. It keeps an eye on the US Agency for Global Media, which manages the Voice of America and similar programs. The commission essentially helps the United States present its idea of itself to the rest of the planet.

This is a task for which Abrams is distinctly unsuited.

Long a stalwart in neoconservative circles, Abrams was one of the many cheerleaders in the early 2000s for the disastrous Iraq War. A decade earlier, in 1991, as a player in the Iran–Contra affair, he pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress about the Reagan White House’s secret operation to arm the Nicaraguan Contras. In short: As a top State Department official, he engaged in a cover-up to hide the arguably illegal operation overseen by Oliver North. 

But Abrams most odious (known) action occurred several years previously. As a top Reagan official, he dismissed reports that the US-trained-and-equipped military had massacred 1,000 civilians—including many women and children—in the Salvadoran town of El Mozote in December 1981. This was the largest mass killing in recent Latin American history. But Abrams wanted to protect the Salvadoran army, which the Reagan administration was showering with guns and money, despite its well-established record of human rights abuses. Abrams trash-talked American journalists who reported on the massacre and claimed the horrific reports were “implausible.” He praised the military unit that conducted this awful action. He suppressed the truth to assist killers.

The Iraq War, Iran-contra, covering up mass murder—Abrams represents the worst of American foreign policy over the past four decades. 

The US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy can only have four of its seven members come from the same political party. That means Biden must appoint several non-Democrats. But why go with an apologist for war criminals?