Progressive Alliance Voter Recommendations : Candidates

Sacramento Progressive Alliance- Ballot Recommendations- Candidates

President	United States	Hillary Rodham Clinton (D)
U.S. Senate	California	Kamala Harris (D)
U.S. House	District 3	John Garamendi (D)
	District 4	Robert Derlet (D)
	District 5	Mike Thompson (D)
	District 6	Doris Matsui(D)
	District 7	Ami Bera (D)
California Assembly	District 6	Brian Caples (D)
	District 7	Kevin McCarty (D)
	District 8	No endorsement
	District 9	No endorsement
California Senate	District 6	Marika Yamada (D)
Natomas Unified Board	At-Large	Sue Heredia
Los Rios College Board	At-Large	Pam Haynes
Bond Issues	Davis Measure  H	Yes
	Sac City Unified – B	Yes

For recommendations on the propositions, see post below.

Dr. Cornel West Speaks at Sac State

Dr. Cornel West is an Honorary Co Chair of Democratic Socialists of America
Talk, Sept.29, 2016

Voters Guide : The California Propositions

Sacramento Progressive Alliance

Voter Guide with Voting Recommendations

in November 2016 Elections, with prominent YES co-endorsers


YES on 51-Authorizes a statewide facilities bond for K-12 schools and community colleges to upgrade and repair older classrooms. (Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO))


YES on 52-Maintains billions of dollars in federal matching funding to support health for low-income children and seniors. (Sacramento Labor Council (AFL-CIO), California Teachers Association, National Union of Healthcare Workers)


NO on 53-Right-wing measure requiring state approval of local bond measures, for schools, roads, other infrastructure.

NO on 54-Billionaire-funded measure that would institute waiting period for passage of legislation, giving lobbyists extra time to block.


YES on 55-Maintains tax on wealthiest Californians to prevent $4 billion funding cut to public schools and children’s health care. (California Teachers Association, California Federation of Teachers, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California, Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce, Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce)


YES on 56- $2-per-pack tax on cigarettes and electronic cigarettes to fund healthcare, tobacco-use prevention/control programs, and tobacco-related disease research. (American Heart Association, California Medical Association, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) of California)


YES on 57-“ …most significant revision of California sentencing laws in 40 years, would allow the state parole board to consider releasing inmates who have served their basic term for a crime the law defines as nonviolent.”-S.F. Chronicle. (Service Employees International Union (SEIU) of California, Equality California, California League of Women Voters, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU))


YES on 58- Current law restricts the instructional methods school districts can use to teach English and also limits the ability of English-speaking students to participate in language immersion programs. Prop. 58 amends the law to ensure all students can learn English as quickly as possible. (California Teachers Association, California Federation of Teachers, California School Boards Association, California Association of School Administrators, La Raza Roundtable de California)


YES on 59- Advises legislature to try to overturn U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited corporate influence in electoral campaigns. (California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, California Labor Federation)


NO on 60-Well-intentioned proposition would mandate condom use in pornography filming. The law would gives anyone watching said pornography to sue film performers, filmmakers, and film crew. Performers would also have to disclose legal names and home addresses.


YES on 61-Gives state government authority to negotiate lower drug prices, saving taxpayers billions. Drug companies spending over $80 billion on the “no” campaign. (California Nurses Association,

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) of California)


YES on 62-Repeals the death penalty in California. (California NAACP, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Amnesty International USA)


YES on 63-Bans large-capacity ammunition weapons, requires background check to purchase ammunition, and prohibit persons convicted of stealing a firearm from possessing firearms. (California League of Women Voters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California Medical Association, California Federation of Teachers)


YES on 64-Decriminalizes, taxes, regulates marijuana. (California Medical Association,

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California)


NO on 65-An attempt by plastic industry bid to undermine Prop. 67.


NO on 66- An attempt to undermine Prop 62.


YES on 67-State ban on plastic grocery bags. (Sierra Club of California, California League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council) 

Candidate recommendations to follow.

First Lady Michelle Obama goes after Donald Trump again

The importance of Hope !

Yes On Proposition 58

The Battle of Hastings: What’s Behind the Netflix CEO’s Fight to Charterize Public Schools? – Capital & Main

The Battle of Hastings: What’s Behind the Netflix CEO’s Fight to Charterize Public Schools? – Capital & Main

First Lady Michelle Obama Today in New Hampshire,

Federal Government Continues To Feed Charter School Beast Despite Auditor’s Warning

Federal Government Continues To Feed Charter School Beast Despite Auditor’s Warning

Donald Trump confirmed our worst fears about the kind of president he would be - Vox

Donald Trump confirmed our worst fears about the kind of president he would be - Vox

The Nightstalker- Trump

The Nightstalker: Donald Trump’s wandering, ominous presence at the debate called to mind a famous monster—though his pronouncements were more monstrous still.

Harold Meyerson

Trump was Menacing and Attacking

In the second debate- Donald Trump was Mean, Menacing, and Morose.  He attacked.
From the Sacramento Bee editorial.

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD- Sacramento Bee (excerpts) Oct 10, 2016.

Voters who wondered just how low Donald Trump would go in his race against Hillary Clinton got their answer on Sunday night.

From the run-up to the debate – in which Trump held a news conference starring women who say Bill Clinton abused them – to the debate itself, in which he encroached on Clinton onstage, called her names and threatened to have her jailed if he is elected, the Republican nominee made it clear who he is and what he stands for, which is, among other things, misogyny.

The debate opened with the candidates taking the stage and not shaking one another’s hand, a telltale sign of the state of this miserable campaign…

Trump was somewhat more composed Sunday night than in the first debate, but still interrupted, offered sophomoric solutions, and lashed out like a cornered and wounded animal, attempting to use President Clinton’s transgressions against women decades ago in a failed attempt to throw Clinton off her game. She remained composed.

The Republican presidential nominee threatened to retaliate against Republican officeholders who repudiated him in the wake of the “Access Hollywood” tape that became public on Friday. In the tape, Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women, while the host, Billy Bush, enabled him by laughing.

Instead of directly apologizing and taking responsibility for his words, 

Proposition 51 and School Facilities Funding

Whether or Not Voters Approve Proposition 51, Inequities in California’s K-12 School Facilities Funding System Are Likely to Continue

California Budget and Policy Center

Ballot Propositions · Education · October 7, 2016 · By Jonathan Kaplan

Earlier this week we released our analysis of Proposition 51, the $9 billion state general obligation (GO) bond for K-12 school and community college facilities on the November ballot. Our analysis shows the difficult choice faced by California voters who want to help students from low-income families. State bond dollars for K-14 education facilities effectively have been exhausted for several years, leaving local school districts without a key source of state support. So, there is obvious appeal in approving the new bond funds that Prop. 51 would provide. Yet, whether or not voters pass Prop. 51, inequities in the funding of California’s K-12 school facilities are likely to continue for at least the near future.

Prop. 51 would provide $7 billion in new state funds for K-12 school facilities. However, Prop. 51 would require that these funds be distributed according to current rules for allocating K-12 facilities dollars, unless voters approve changes to these rules in the future. In other words, the measure would essentially lock in place the existing facilities funding system, which disadvantages certain K-12 school districts. For example, under the current system state dollars are allocated to districts primarily on a first-come, first-served basis. This tends to reward school districts that are able to apply for funding more quickly and/or have more resources, such as larger districts with more staff.

On the other hand, if voters reject Prop. 51 and state bond funds remain unavailable, the main source for K-12 school districts to obtain facilities dollars would be local GO bonds. But here, too, districts that are less well-off face a disadvantage. This is because local property wealth determines the amount of money K-12 school districts can raise through local bonds, and districts with large shares of students from low-income families have significantly less property wealth per student, on average, than districts with large shares of students from families with higher incomes. As a result, K-12 districts in low-income communities generally can’t raise as much money for school facilities as districts in communities with higher-incomes.

CHILDREN'S HOPE -- COALITION 4 DEMOCRACY IN HAITI & THE AMERICAS

CHILDREN'S HOPE -- COALITION 4 DEMOCRACY IN HAITI & THE AMERICAS

The Trump Effect: Classroom Bullying ( NEA)

Educators Discuss How Trump’s Hate-Filled Words are Harming Our Children

WASHINGTON - October 03, 2016 - 

Today the National Education Association announced the launch of a digital and direct mail campaign to raise awareness about the harmful effects of Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric on America’s schoolchildren. Joined by Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Ohio educator Joy Bock, NEA President Lily Eskelsen García discussed the consequences of Trump’s divisive and derogatory comments in classrooms across the country during a tele-briefing this afternoon.

Educators, counselors and experts on bullying joined together on Monday to participate in events in the key battleground states of Iowa, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania sharing firsthand accounts of the “Trump Effect” in classrooms. Since Trump entered the race for president last year, educators have witnessed a steady increase in bullying and harassing behavior that mirrors his words and actions on the campaign trail.

“As educators, we teach our kids that kindness, collaboration and cooperation are important not just in school, but in in life,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “Donald Trump sets an example that teaches the wrong lesson. He calls women fat pigs, wants to ban Muslims from coming to the country, refers to Mexicans as criminals, and makes fun of people with disabilities. The rise in vitriolic speech in classrooms and the anxiety this causes for some of our most vulnerable students shows that Trump’s rhetoric is far more damaging than previously imagined.” Trump’s bullying was on prominent display just last week when he debated Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University. Clinton called him out for degrading remarks he consistently makes about women, including comedienne Rosie O’Donnell and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

Progressive Politics After Bernie

Progressive Politics After Bernie

Harold Meyerson

Defeat Trump : The Latino Vote is Important

By Dolores Delgado Campbell and Duane Campbell

Immigration issues along with the changing composition of the U.S. electorate will shape the 2016 Presidential and Congressional races, as well as many state races.

While working class non-union white voters in the upper Midwest appear to be abandoning the Clinton-led Democratic Party in response to immigration and neo- liberal trade policies, Latino voters are putting some traditional Republican and swing states in play, noticeably Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Texas.  In these states with a close electoral contest, the Latino vote may make the decisive victory.

The U.S. electorate in 2016 will be the country’s most racially and ethnically diverse ever. Nearly one in three eligible voters  (31%) will be Latino, African American, Asian or another racial or ethnic minority, up from 29% in 2012.  Much of this change is due to strong growth among Latino voters, in particular U.S.-born youth. Latinos will constitute an estimated 11.9% of the total electorate.

According to Pew Research, the projected number of eligible voters will be:

White – 69%; African American  12%; Latino 12%; Asian 4%.

(For a detailed description of the various national  groups within the Hispanic category  see  http://www.dsausa.org/dl_hispanic_heritage_month)

Latino millennials will account for nearly half (44%) of the record 27.3 million Hispanic eligible voters projected for 2016. (Pew, 2016)

Donald Trump began his campaign for the Republican nomination with an assault on Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the U.S. This was his strategic choice.  He has expanded his assault to encompass additional immigrant groups including Muslims and other Latino immigrants (but not Cubans).

Who’s Stealing Our Jobs? • NAFTA and xenophobia

Who’s Stealing Our Jobs? • NAFTA and xenophobia



Teaching lessons for school about trade, free trade, and prejudice.  From Rethinking Schools.

California Comeback: How a Ballot Measure Brought America’s Largest Public School System Back From the Brink – Capital & Main

Four years ago California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 30, the emergency ballot measure that Governor Jerry Brown and state education leaders had argued was needed to rescue public schools and community colleges from the fiscal free-fall of the 2008 Great Recession.

The good news, according to the California school teachers and officials, parents, college professors, health-care advocates and economic researchers interviewed by Capital & Main for this series, is that the initiative not only performed as advertised, but it may be the most spectacularly successful ballot initiative in the state’s notoriously uneven history of direct democracy.

Proposition 30 averted thousands of new teacher layoffs during the Great Recession.

By raising income taxes on the wealthy and the sales tax on everyone, Prop. 30 dramatically stabilized school funding in the wake of the recession, averting thousands of new teacher layoffs while beginning the work of restoring the jobs and programs lost during the first years of the crisis. It was also instrumental in allowing the state legislature to balance its budget for the first time in years without slashing social programs.

Debate is Over: Trump Lost

Rick T. Wilking/Pool via AP

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton smiles as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, Monday, September 26, 2016.

   Harold Meyerson

Hillary Clinton had to do three things in last night’s debate, and she did roughly 2.8 of them very well. First, she had to actually make sounder, and more appealing policy points than Donald Trump did. On the whole, she succeeded—though she still doesn’t really have a good comeback to Trump’s criticism of the past several decades of trade policy (that’s why I only give her a 2.8 of three). Second, she had to get under his skin, so he’d feel compelled to defend himself, which is to say, defend the indefensible. Third, she had to know when to let him go, to rant, to be Donald Trump, and not step on it by interrupting or trying to refute the absurd. On points two and three, she was brilliant. Getting under his skin, she handed him the rope. Letting him rant, she let him hang himself. (So, I might add, did Lester Holt, who obviously went into the debate believing that he’d let the candidates be themselves, largely free from his own interruptions, before the largest audience they’d yet faced—journalistically, absolutely the right call.)

The three issue areas that were actually discussed—as opposed to those that fell victim to Trump’s incoherence, which worked to Clinton’s favor—were the economy, our relation to the world, and the intersection of race relations and police practices. On the last, Clinton was clearly, and I thought effectively, reaching out to young minority voters—a group whose turnout she clearly needs to encourage. Her discussion of the massive over-incarceration of the past decades, and the ongoing racial bias that affects, and in many places, dominates police practices, threaded a needle: Showing her understanding of the urgency behind Black Lives Matter while at the same time making police reform sound unthreatening to moderate white voters—at least, those moderate whites who don’t believe, as Trump would have it, that we’re in a 1968 moment when cities are going up in flames. Trump’s one-note law-n-order shtick, by contrast, doubtless played well with his base, but there’s no way it put any new votes in his column. Clinton’s move to mine her potential base for more votes, by contrast, probably did enable her to win some friends and influence fence-sitters.

Donald Trump’s Week of Misrepresentations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths - POLITICO Magazine

Donald Trump’s Week of Misrepresentations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths - POLITICO Magazine

Why We Are Protesting in Charlotte

Charlotte, N.C. —

William Barber. Chair, N.C. NAACP.
 Since a police officer shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday afternoon, the ensuing protests have dominated national news. Provocateurs who attacked police officers and looted stores made headlines. Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard joined police officers in riot gear, making the Queen City look like a war zone.
Speaking on the campaign trail in Pittsburgh on Thursday, Donald J. Trump offered a grave assessment [1]: “Our country looks bad to the world, especially when we are supposed to be the world’s leader. How can we lead when we can’t even control our own cities?” Mr. Trump seems to want Americans to believe, as Representative Robert Pittenger, a Republican whose district includes areas in Charlotte, told the BBC, that black protesters in the city “hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not [2].”
But Charlotte’s protests are not black people versus white people. They are not black people versus the police. The protesters are black, white and brown people, crying out against police brutality and systemic violence. If we can see them through the tear gas, they show us a way forward to peace with justice.
On Thursday, I joined 50 Charlotte-area clergy members who were on the streets this week. Yes, a few dozen provocateurs did damage property and throw objects at the police, after being provoked by the officers’ tear gas, rubber bullets and military-style maneuvers. But as we saw, thousands more have peacefully demonstrated against the institutional violence in their communities.

The Left Under Estimates the Danger of Trump

antiracismdsa: The Left Under Estimates the Danger of Trump: By Arun Gupta (September 21, 2016) I know it’s the fifth anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, but there is little to celebrate at such...

Why The NAACP Moratorium On Charters Really Matters To Our Public Schools | Portside

Why The NAACP Moratorium On Charters Really Matters To Our Public Schools | Portside

Over 100 Education Groups Want To Kick Cops Out Of Schools | Huffington Post

Over 100 Education Groups Want To Kick Cops Out Of Schools | Huffington Post

Hillary Clinton At 39th Annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute P...

Why The NAACP Moratorium On Charters Really Matters To Our Public Schools | Huffington Post

Why The NAACP Moratorium On Charters Really Matters To Our Public Schools | Huffington Post

Sacramento Teacher / Community Forum

California Voters Do Not Reflect the Population

antiracismdsa: Dolores Huerta: A Legacy

antiracismdsa: Dolores Huerta: A Legacy: Ken Burt,  For Hispanic Heritage Month. See video link at the end.  Seventy-seven years ago, in March 1939, Juan Fabian Fernandez of N...

Public Education Forum- Sacramento

America has a teacher shortage, and a new study says it’s getting worse - The Washington Post

America has a teacher shortage, and a new study says it’s getting worse - The Washington Post

How Messed Up is California's Charter School Sector ?

Difficult to Believe.

Valerie Straus, 

Ohio and Utah are known in education circles for having extraordinarily troubled charter school sectors, and the same is true in  Pennsylvania, where Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a report this year and declared his state’s charter school law the “worst” in the nation.

But there is another place with a scandal-plagued charter sector that gets less national attention than it should: California, which has more charter schools and charter school students than any other state in the nation, and where one billionaire came up with a secret plan to “charterize” half of  the Los Angeles Unified School District.

There is a never-ending stream of charter scandals coming from California. For example, a report released recently (by the ACLU SoCal and Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm and advocacy group) found that more than 20 percent of all California charter schools have enrollment policies that violate state and federal law. A Mercury News investigation published in April revealed how the state’s online charter schools run by Virginia-based K12 Inc., the largest for-profit charter operator in the country, have “a dismal record of academic achievement” but has won more than $310 million in state funding over the past dozen years.

There was the scandal involving a charter school principal who also doubled as a National Basketball Association scout, traveling first class to basketball games around the country — and charging his travel expenses to his charter school. Don’t forget the one involving a charter school that closed in 2014 after state auditors found a number of issues, including indications that administrators funneled millions of dollars in state funds to the schools’ operator and her family and friends.

Black Teachers Matter | Mother Jones

Black Teachers Matter | Mother Jones

Yuba City teachers on strike

Yuba City Teachers on Strike

District’s Bad Behavior, ‘Take It or Leave It” -- Negotiations Blamed As Cause For Strike-

The 700 teachers in the Yuba City Unified School District (YCUSD) will be on strike as of Thursday, September 8, 2016 because the district prefers to hoard millions in state funding rather than resolve a crisis over competitive pay that will attract and retain qualified teachers in the midst of a teacher shortage.  The strike notice provided by the Yuba City Teachers Association (YCTA) to the district cited both the disagreement over finances and unfair labor practices as the causes of the strike. “The district’s own actions have put us in this crisis,” said YCTA President Dina Luetgens.  This Yuba City strike will be the first in the area since the Stockton strike in January of 1990. Luetgens noted the response to the strike date announcement from YCTA teachers and community members has been overwhelmingly positive and heartwarming. “We’re in this crisis because this district continues to ignore the desperate need to attract and retain quality, qualified teachers,” she said.  YCUSD teacher salaries are 13.4% below the state average. YCTA proposed a 13% salary increase to address the pay gap and the exodus of teachers leaving to neighboring districts for better pay and working conditions. The last, best and final offer YCTA received for the 2015-16 school year was essentially 0% on the salary schedule plus one-time pay for extra duties. This from a district that received $17 million in additional state funding that year, which is over a 15% increase in the general fund for 2015-16. Because of its healthy financial status, YCUSD transferred $3.5 million into other accounts, rather than making those funds available to teachers and students.   Luetgens says the district can afford the teachers’ proposal.  YCTA has also filed unfair labor charges against the district alleging bad behavior, including intimidation, and ignoring information requests or providing inaccurate or incomplete information.

Moonlighting Teachers Learn Hard Lessons from Uber – Capital & Main

Moonlighting Teachers Learn Hard Lessons from Uber – Capital & Main

Parent Revolution (pRev) Repackaging Itself — PS connect

Parent Revolution (pRev) Repackaging Itself — PS connect

Prop 30 Saved the Schools: Proposition 55 is essential

New Report Shows the Significant Impact of Proposition 30

Nearly four years since California voters approved Proposition 30, a new Issue Brief from the California Budget & Policy Center looks at what Prop. 30 has meant for the state’s fiscal picture and investment in key public services. This brief highlights how Prop. 30’s boost to state revenues has helped California reinvest in schools and community colleges and other systems while also increasing the state’s capacity to build its budget reserve and pay down debt.

Passed in November 2012, Prop. 30 raised the personal income tax rates for very-high-income Californians (single filers with taxable incomes above $250,000 and joint filers with incomes above $500,000) through 2018 and raised the state sales tax rate by a quarter-cent through 2016.

Overall, tax rate changes in Prop. 30 have boosted state revenues by $7 billion to $8 billion annually. The effects of Prop. 30 revenues, which predominantly come from California’s wealthiest residents, include the following:
Prop. 30 has helped California reinvest in preschool, K-12 schools, and community colleges. Prop. 30 and a growing state economy together boosted Prop. 98 spending (dollars provided through the state’s minimum funding guarantee for preschool, K-12 education, and community colleges) by more than half (52 percent). Prop. 98 spending has increased from $47.2 billion in 2011-12 to $71.9 billion in 2016-17. Due in part to this boost in spending:
Prop. 98 K-12 spending per student has gone up from $9,168 in 2012-13 to $10,493 in 2016-17 (inflation-adjusted), an increase of more than 14 percent.

Dear Mayor Emanuel: I Resign My Position as Principal of the #1 Rated Neighborhood School in Chicago | Portside

Dear Mayor Emanuel: I Resign My Position as Principal of the #1 Rated Neighborhood School in Chicago | Portside

Labor Day and Farm Workers

Arturo Rodriguez, 

While a few short years ago a $15 minimum wage seemed like a moonshot, today municipalities and states across the country are standing with workers and adopting a minimum wage that will ultimately lift 35 million hard-working American families out of poverty.

Earlier this year, the Obama Administration expanded overtime pay protections to more than 4 million working Americans.

And in California we are on the cusp on progress that builds on what the President has accomplished and paves the way for reforms that have the potential to put millions of working Americans on a pathway to the middle class.

Last week, California lawmakers passed first-of-its-kind legislation that allows farm workers to get paid overtime like all other workers.

To Fight the Right, We Need to Understand It Better

Bill Fletcher, Jr. ▪ September 1, 2016 

At a Donald Trump rally, Dallas, Texas, September 14, 2015 (Jamelle Bouie) 

It crystallized for me the other day when I was listening to a radio interview with Glenn Beck. With complete disgust and surprising nuance, Beck attacked Donald Trump and, in so doing, demonstrated the very real differences that exist within the right, differences that many of us on the left all but ignore. Beck called Trump a fake conservative; instead, he insisted, the Republican nominee is a populist, a socialist, and a nationalist. The “socialist” charge was surprising, but the others were predictable. What I found most intriguing, however, was Beck’s critique of Trump as a man who allegedly doesn’t believe in adhering to the Constitution. 

Too many of us on the left treat the right as a monolith. We spend little time trying to distinguish various right-wing currents, let alone disentangling the differences between neoliberalism and right-wing populism. And our failure to do so is hampering our efforts to fight back.

Over the last half-century there has been a demonstrable shift to the right among the political establishments of the global Northern capitalist states. With the global restructuring of capitalism, beginning in the late 1960s, and the rise of what has come to be known as neoliberal globalization, there came an assault on progressive movements and their gains over the preceding decades. Privatization, casualization, tax cuts for the rich, anti-worker offensives, and an increasing restriction on democratic liberties have added up to a slow-moving strategic defeat for the global Northern working class. The blunting of social movements, including but not limited to the women’s movement and the black freedom movement, has gone hand in hand with an increase in a polarization of wealth not only between the global North and the global South, but also within each.

To defeat the working classes of the global North, there had to be a combination of active repression and active disorganization. The active disorganization involved the promotion and toleration of various right-wing social movements that aggressively revolted against the gains of their progressive counterparts. The active repression included military and paramilitary-style repression of the left (varying from country to country), the militarization of law enforcement, and the rise of various forms of preventive detention and extra-constitutional imprisonment, along with mounting, if subtle, restrictions on the parameters for “acceptable” discourse under democratic capitalism (for example, in mainstream television debate). As a result, what was considered “left” kept moving rightward. That conservatives can get away with describing former President Bill Clinton as a leftist shows just how far we’ve come.

California Can't Go Back! : Proposition 55

Credentialism and Corruption: Vile College Presidents Edition | naked capitalism

Credentialism and Corruption: Vile College Presidents Edition | naked capitalism

Teacher Tenure and Due Process Protected

California Supreme Court affirms appeal court decision: “Vergara v. CA” is over

Statement by CFT president Joshua Pechthalt:

August 22, 2106—“We applaud the state Supreme Court’s affirmation of the appeal court decision,” said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers. “The teacher shortage facing California has been stoked by the Vergara case, the expensive publicity machine surrounding it, and the constant attacks by so-called reformers on teachers and public education. We can now turn closer attention to solving the actual problems we confront in our schools, such as securing adequate funding through Prop 55, reducing class sizes, promoting and strengthening peer assistance and review, and reinforcing collaborative district practices with a proven record of success. These efforts will result in a more positive climate to address the teacher shortage crisis, bring young people to teaching and encourage experienced teachers to stay in the classroom.”

Donald Trump: demonizing immigrants | The Briefing

Charter Schools: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

37 Times Donald Trump Should Have Apologized

37 Times Donald Trump Should Have Apologized

Back to School Shopping Lists - and State Budgets

Jeff Bryant

“You can exhale now,” the headline in Salon reassures, because “kids have more money than ever to spend on school stuff this year.”

The reason for Salon’s celebratory tone is that a national survey every year by the National Retail Federation finds that preteens preparing for a new school year have a record-breaking average of $80.31 in personal spending money. The author leaps from that nugget of information to conclude this is a sign of a stronger economy ahead. (Disclosure: I’ve written about education for Salon.)

But even if Salon’s analysis makes you breathe easier about the economy, you should understand those school kids aren’t going to keep their cash for very long, because their schools are going to need it.

Indeed, back to school supply lists are likely longer than ever before due to the simple reason that schools increasingly don’t have the funds to pay for items on the list. And because of persistently inadequate budgets that continue to dog our schools, you can be sure the longer your shopping list, the worse the funding situation is throughout your child’s school system.

Not only are school stockrooms increasingly bare of supplies, but teachers aren’t being adequately paid, class sizes are ballooning, programs are being cut, and school buildings increasingly forego required maintenance.

In states like North Carolina – where schools still get less funding than they did in 2008, despite an improving economy – money for necessary school supplies continues to be inadequate.

Trump and His Taxes

Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees - The New York Times

Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees - The New York Times

How Some California Charter Schools Illegally Restrict Enrollment

Report: Unequal Access

Download the full report (.pdf).

How Some California Charter Schools Illegally Restrict Enrollment

All across California, charter schools are implementing admissions policies that exclude students from enrolling. Like other public schools, charters must admit all students who wish to attend. By law, they may not discourage certain students from enrolling based on income, national origin, academic performance or other factors. These admission policies threaten to turn public schooling into a two-tier system where the students who need the most resources receive the fewest.

To realize charter schools’ promise of providing educational choice to all, the ACLU SoCal and Public Advocates released “Unequal Access: How Some California Charter Schools Illegal Restrict Enrollment,” a report that sheds light on exclusionary enrollment policies at 253 charter schools. See full list of charter schools cited.

These charter schools post enrollment policies or forms online that are clearly illegal or exclusionary. Other schools may also maintain similar prohibited policies that are hidden from the public view. The violations we found include:

• Exclusion Based on Academic Performance
• Discrimination against English Learners
• Pre-Enrollment Essays or Interviews
• Requirements that Discourage Undocumented Students
• Illegal Parent/Guardian Volunteer Requirements

Column: The Democrats must be the party of the 99 percent | PBS NewsHour

Column: The Democrats must be the party of the 99 percent | PBS NewsHour

How Black Lives Matter Activists Plan to Fix Schools | Portside

How Black Lives Matter Activists Plan to Fix Schools | Portside

Voting for Funding Schools _ Proposition 55

Current budget projections show that unless we maintain the current income tax rates on the wealthiest Californians, our schools will face nearly $4 billion in cuts. Under Prop. 55 the wealthiest Californians will continue paying the same amount they are now to protect public schools and vital services from deep cuts.

Funding from Prop. 55 will provide local schools the money they need to hire teachers and staff and reduce class sizes. It will help community colleges offer more courses and help keep tuition rates stable. And it will help improve access to health care services for low-income children so they can stay healthy and thrive.

Join the California Democratic Party, California Teachers Association, California State PTA, California Federation of Teachers, California Labor Federation, Children's Hospital Association and so many others and please add your name in support of our kids right now! Because our children and schools matter most.

Thanks for helping us do the right thing for California's children. 

Sincerely,

Tom Torlakson
State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Remembering Michael Harrington- Democratic Socialist

Maurice Isserman, 

In a lifetime of political engagement, Michael Harrington must have given ten thousand speeches, and of those, probably a thousand in New York City, where he had made his home since his arrival in 1949, age 21. He gave his final speech in the city 40 years later, in May 1989. Suffering from the cancer of the esophagus that would end his life in less than three months, he spoke that day to reporters and editors from the city’s union press. 

Dinah Leventhal, a 22-year-old activist, was in attendance. She was about to take on the job of youth organizer for Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the socialist group that Harrington helped found and led, and welcomed the chance to speak with him for a few minutes afterward. Mike reminisced about his own days as a young socialist organizer in the 1950s. “He said,” she recalled, that “he had felt an incredible degree of freedom and learned so much in those years”

He said I should make the most of it, being an organizer and traveling around, getting to see the country and getting to know what the country was all about.  He really loved this country, and thought that you had to love the country to be a radical, to be a socialist, and to want to change it.

Over the years, Mike met and worked with many important and famous people, including Dr. Martin Luther King, United Auto Worker president Walter Reuther, Ms. Magazine founder Gloria Steinem, U.S. senator and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, and Prime Minister Olof Palme, leader of Sweden’s ruling Socialist Party, to name but a few. The publication in 1962 of his landmark study of poverty, The Other America, helped spark the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty. He had another best-seller in 1972 with the unlikely title of Socialism, which sold over 100,000 copies in paperback and influenced many readers with its argument that the “real Karl Marx” was a radical democrat, not a would-be dictator. His last book, Socialism: Past and Future, came out shortly before his death. He was an editor of Dissent, a commentator on National Public Radio, a frequent contributor to leading opinion magazines like the Nation and the New Republic. As a public intellectual and a moral tribune, in the 1970s and 1980s, he had few equals on the left, or indeed across the political spectrum. Harrington, Senator Ted Kennedy would write, “has made more Americans more uncomfortable for more good reasons than any other person I know.”

Sac Sate's Program for Migrant Students (HEP) re established

Sacramento State has been awarded a five-year, $2.37 million grant to re-establish a High School Equivalency Program (HEP). The competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Migrant Education is designed to help migrant and seasonal farmworkers who are 16 years or older and are not currently enrolled in high school.

The goals are to help them obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma and gain employment, or go on to an institution of higher education, the military, or other postsecondary education or training. Service centers will be located in Woodland and Stockton, as well as at Sac State.

“HEP will provide a second family to migrant students who are typically left to figure out their future on their own, very much the way our College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) does for its students,” says Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen.

“HEP will ensure out-of-school youth are making progress, completing high school equivalency, and ultimately having better opportunities in the future. The work done by HEP benefits the individual, their families, and our society as a whole. We are very proud to have it back at Sacramento State.”