AOC and the Squad’s List of Left-Wing Accomplishments Is Quite Long

  

AOC and the Squad’s List of Left-Wing Accomplishments Is Quite Long

 

BY

BRANKO MARCETIC

As with any elected official, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad should be criticized when needed. But left-wing vitriol is unwarranted: it ignores the Squad’s many progressive accomplishments and their legislation’s aid to activist campaigns.

JACOBIN. 

WE POST THE JACOBIN PIECE HERE.

HTTPS://WWW.DSANORTHSTAR.ORG/BLOG/AOC-AND-THE-SQUADS-LIST-OF-LEFT-WING-ACCOMPLISHMENTS-IS-QUITE-LONG

It’s tough being a member of the “Squad” these days. Once the darlings of the American left, the group of progressive and socialist House members that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and others are as likely to be savaged these days from the Left as they are from the Right. Popular YouTube commentators regularly denounce them as “sellouts,” protesters interrupt their meetings calling them warmongers, and even committed socialists question what the point of the Squad has been.

The lion’s share of this ire has been trained on Representative Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who’s faced relentless criticism since winning office from all sides, sometimes over substantive issues (once failing to show up for an Amazon union rally, casting a vote that denied railworkers the ability to strike), sometimes over remarkably petty ones (conciliatory rhetoric, the positioning of her hands while being arrested).

Much of this was crystallized in a recent critical analysis of Ocasio-Cortez’s record in New York magazine by Freddie deBoer, who charged she has drifted “from radical outsider to Establishment liberal,” making mere “token gestures of resistance to solidify the illusion that she is a gadfly,” and argued that her and the rest of the Squad’s entry into Congress has been entirely fruitless.

Read more.

https://jacobin.com/2023/08/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-the-squad-left-criticism-policy-accomplishments

 

Photo

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking in front of the US Capitol, 2022. (Nathan Posner / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

It Took a Village in Georgia

  

It Took a Village to Try to  Seize the American Presidency 

 

On the NS blog 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/it-took-a-village-to-try-to-seize-the-presidency

 

With 19 indicted conspirators and 30 unindicted conspirators, there are now almost as many Republicans caught up in Fulton County’s wheels of justice as there are Republican candidates for president. At some point, we may want to indict those candidates (among whom only Chris Christie and, lately and reluctantly, Mike Pence have noted that Trump appears to have broken the law), too. On the charge of contributing to the erosion of American democracy, any number are guilty as sin.
by Harold Meyerson 

Congressman Kevin Kiley Supports Massive Cuts to Schools. Do You?

 

Americans are still recovering from the ripple effects of the pandemic, particularly our most vulnerable populations. Students still have a vast array of social, emotional and academic needs as they head back to school, and workers are re-entering a changing workplace. On top of that, the need for accessible healthcare is only growing. Now is not the time for Congress to make massive cuts to the programs we depend on, but that’s exactly what many Republicans are trying to do. It’s up to us to spread the word to make sure our communities know what’s at stake.   Click here to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper; you can potentially reach thousands of people with this simple action that takes just minutes of your time. Here’s what you need to know about the House Republicans’ appropriations bill. It would:  Cut $63.8 billion from public K-12 education—a 28 percent decrease from 2023 funding and the lowest possible funding for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill since 2008.  Cut Title I funding by 80 percent, which could force a nationwide reduction of 220,000 teachers from classrooms serving low-income students. This would make our already unsustainable nationwide shortage of educators even worse.  Eliminate programs for English language learners (Title III), supports for educators (Title II-A), social and emotional learning grants, Promise Neighborhoods and Magnet Schools.  Cut funding for community schools—schools that serve not just students but their families.   Decimate funding for job training, cancer research, health initiatives for mental health, addressing the opioid crisis, eliminating HIV/AIDS, and more.   Continue the Republicans’ attacks on women’s health by cutting programs to support maternal health, eliminating programs that provide contraception and health services, and adding amendments to push their draconian agenda to ban abortion and make reproductive healthcare harder to access.  It’s up to us to spread the word and show lawmakers that the public refuses to allow our educational institutions to be attacked by political extremists. At the AFT, we’re working to ensure that every child has what they need to thrive. Our Real Solutions for Kids and Communities campaign is all about focusing on students’ loneliness, learning loss and literacy. But our communities must understand who is trying to cut vital education and community programs—because it takes resources to support educators and school staff.  We need your help to do that. Please write a letter to the editor and spread the word. In unity,  Randi Weingarten  AFT President

School Funding

50 Years Older and Deeper in Debt

The Shaky Foundations of U.S. School Funding

By Stan Karp

Illustrator: Boris Séméniako

Reproducing Inequality Instead of Eradicating It

The process of remaking school funding in the United States begins with understanding how the current system reproduces inequality instead of eradicating it.

In most countries the right to education is enshrined in the national constitution and supported by a centralized, national funding system. The patchwork U.S. system of local property taxes and 50 separate state funding systems makes it an outlier. As with voting rights, the lack of strong federal protections provides room for less transparent and less equitable state and local systems. 

https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/50-years-older-and-deeper-in-debt/

  

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? 

The Coming Crisis in Public Educati

The Coming Public Education Crisis 

A fiscal calamity awaits public schools once pandemic-related federal assistance ends.

Justin H. Vassallo  Spring 2023A teacher interacts with students virtually in an empty classroom at Hazelwood Ele[1]mentary School in January 2022 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images) 

Of all the social inequities that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted in the United States, the crisis of public education is among the most intractable. Reports of staffing shortages and declining enrollment—twin problems especially acute for poorer districts contending with slashed budgets and meager classroom resources—have persisted even after the introduction of vaccines for children. With most state funding tied to student enrollment, shrinking attendance means smaller budgets to meet fixed operating costs and fewer funds to attract and retain talented educators. A fiscal calamity awaits public schools once pandemic-related federal assistance ends in September 2024.

Left unaddressed, the crisis portends the return of the “K-shaped” economic recovery—in which the well-off see strong gains and those already struggling experience more instability and income loss—that economists warned about in the early days of the pandemic. The actions of congressional Democrats and other party officials have been discouraging. In late 2021, House Democrats abandoned a proposed $100 billion for modernizing school infrastructure during negotiations over President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation. (The subsequent Inflation Reduction Act did not include meaningful provisions for education.) Absent a political reckoning that extends federal funding to restore programs and classroom resources to pre-pandemic levels, let alone make significant improvements, schools could face a new round of disenrollment at a moment when they are already struggling to recover the approximately 1.4 million pupils who withdrew during the first year of the pandemic.

 

 

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-coming-public-education-crisis/

 

Organizing for Education

 

JUL 24

What We’re Up Against: The Historical Context for the Right’s Authoritarian Playbook on Education  Instructors: Loretta Ross and Dr. Nolan Cabrera

JUL 25

What's Working: Organizing Models to Advance Education in Local and National Arenas  Instructors: Jesse Hagopian and Dr. Michael Benitez Jr.

JUL 26

How We Advance our Vision: Forging Legislative Strategies and Building Relationships to Empower Our Base  Instructors: Park Cannon and Deepa Iyer

JUL 27

How We Win: Harnessing Art, Messaging, and Narratives Instructors: Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Erika Alexander

Chipmaker’s Scramble to Build Marred by Mistakes and Injuries

Chipmaker’s Scramble to Build Marred by Mistakes and Injuries: TSMC’s $40 billion semiconductor facility in Phoenix, an open shop that resisted signing an agreement with labor unions, has been tainted with accidents, alleged wage theft, and costly setbacks.

Anti Union $40 Billion, financed by U.S. Taxpayers. 

Poverty and the Moral Majority

 Moral Poverty Action Congress is underway, and California is in the house!

The PPC’s Moral Poverty Action Congress kicked off this past Monday. This gathering—the convergence on the nation’s capital of PPC groups from dozens of states, ours included—is a crucial opportunity for us to build on our work, raise our voices, strategize for the coming year, and meet with lawmakers, ensuring that the voices of poor and low-wealth individuals are well-represented in the upcoming election and beyond. 

 

Here are just a few highlights:

• On Monday, Bishop Barber helmed a discussion with economists and public health policy practitioners on poverty; you’ll find a recap of that event below.
• The next day, PPC activists visited more than 400 legislative offices. Our state’s delegates visited all 52 California congresspeople and two senators.
• Bishop Barber and PPC activists raised their voices in front of the Supreme Court. Several shared personal stories of struggles with low wages and lack of health insurance and mourned loved ones lost to poverty. 
• Congresspeople Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) participated in a press conference on the reintroduction of the Third Reconstruction Resolution. At least 11 more reps were in attendance, including Ro Khanna, who represents a swath of the South and East Bay.

Meanwhile, a timely Religion News op-ed by Bishop Barber and Rev. Theoharis lays bare the violence that poverty inflicts on millions. It opens with the tragic story of Bertha Montes from Los Angeles, who died after being denied a request for help at her job at McDonald’s and was forced to work while she was sick. The piece outlines the extensive evidence of policy harm and the mission of the Moral Poverty Action Congress.

 

We’ve been posting about the Congress on the CA PPC Facebook page, and you can check the national PPC website for updates and replays.

 

Finally, let’s not forget that the Congress is also a vital step toward our 2024 campaign, which will include actions at statehouses nationwide, our nonpartisan Get Out the Vote effort and the third Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.

Teacher Banned from Teaching About Racism

 In February, as part of Black History Month, a high school teacher in South Carolina had to stop using Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir “Between the World and Me” in a lesson plan about systemic racism — because teachers are prohibited from making students feel uncomfortable about their race or gender in the state. 

Students complained after Mary Wood, who teaches Advanced Placement Language Arts at Chapin High School in Chapin, South Carolina, included the book in a lesson intended to guide students through participating in civil debate, local news outlet The State first reported. 

Wood’s lesson plan was a part of preparing for Advanced Placement tests and involved watching two videos about systemic racism, reading Coates’ memoir and doing research with a variety of sources. Then, students were meant to write essays on their understanding of the book and make an argument about whether they agreed with Coates that systemic racism is a problem in the U.S. 

“This wasn’t one side or the other,” Wood, who has been teaching for 14 years, told HuffPost. “I wanted them to develop their own understanding.”

Students complained that the lesson made them feel ashamed to be white and were successful in blocking the section on systemic racism entirely. 

“Hearing (Wood’s) opinion and watching these videos made me feel uncomfortable,” one student said in their complaint. “I actually felt ashamed to be Caucasian. These videos portrayed an inaccurate description of life from past centuries that she is trying to resurface.”

In 2021, South Carolina Republicans included a provision in the state budget stipulating that taxpayer dollars may not be used to teach lessons suggesting that any race or sex is inherently “racist, sexist, or oppressive whether consciously or unconsciously” or that cause anyone to feel “guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his race or sex.” 

“If the goal is to undermine public education, they’re doing a good job of it,” Wood said of the lawmakers who passed the policy. “You cannot talk about glitter and rainbows and still get students to engage with differing viewpoints.”

Once the lesson, which Wood had taught the previous year without issue, was axed, she said she kept her head down and proceeded with an improvised lesson plan using AP tests from the past.

“I was mortified professionally and I felt my hands were tied,” she said. “I certainly didn’t want to use anything self-selected.”

“If the goal is to undermine public education, they’re doing a good job of it.”

 

Poverty Action:

 

Four days away… The Moral Poverty Action Congress begins on Monday in Washington D.C., and California will be in the house! The Congress is a vital step toward our 2024 campaign, which will include actions at statehouses nationwide, our nonpartisan Get Out the Vote effort and the third Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. It provides a crucial opportunity for us to build on our work and strategize for the coming year, ensuring that the voices of poor and low-wealth individuals are well-represented in the upcoming election and beyond.   We’ll be posting about the Congress on the CA PPC Facebook page, and you can check the national PPC website for updates and livestreams. There’s still time to make a donation toward this event. Every dollar helps!

Rename SCUSD Schools

 

RENAME RACIST SCHOOLS RE

antiracismdsa: 16 migrants from Texas flown to Sacramento, droppe...

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Why Democrats Rescued the Deal

Why Democrats Rescued the Deal: Today on TAP: More Democrats than Republicans voted for the Biden-McCarthy deal. Here’s why.