A Tale Of Two Marches by Dr. Michael Flanagan

On Thursday night I went with some of my colleagues to Washington DC in order to meet with the staffs of Senator Sanders and Senator Hassan and advocate for public education. It is important in this time of upheaval in American politics to advocate for public school students. The DeVos confirmation vote is scheduled for Monday and my fellow members of BATs and I wanted to make sure the voices of real teachers and parents were heard by at least two of the key members of the Health Education Pensions and Labor committee.

Our meetings with both staffs went well, in addition to pushing back on DeVos, we spoke about the threats to IDEA, the concerns of ESSA, a call for a Congressional conference in which real teachers and actual experts could show that the public schools are not “failing”, but that we are intentionally being failed in order for astroturf organizations like Students First, corporations like Pearson Publishing and Charter schools like Success Academy to siphon off public school tax dollars. We brought up the dilapidated working conditions of so many public schools, especially for those students and teachers in Detroit, the home of Betsy DeVos. We also brought up the fact that BATs has created an action group with a large social media reach that we could use to push progressive issues and target specific concerns of the HELP Committee members. BATs may not have the millions of dollars of the Eli Broad, Walton and Fordham foundations, but we have networks of intelligent, concerned and dedicated public school activists who are mobilized and ready to support actions. The meetings went well, and we will continue to cultivate those connections while making more appointments with politicians.

However, the reason I write this piece is not to discuss our efforts to advocate on the behalf of our teachers and their students. It is to describe a rather ironic circumstance. My friends in BATs and I usually stay at the Holiday Inn when we are in DC. It is right across the street from the Department of Education and we have organized several protests from that hotel. When we arrived there Thursday night, we were focused on our meetings with the Senators. So much so that we did not realize how many people, especially young high school aged kids, were walking around the hotel hallways and lobby. As we were in the elevator going down to dinner, three of us looked at each other, questioningly as we noticed the people riding down with us in the elevator carrying Bibles and wearing Christian themed T-Shirts. When we got to the lobby it became clear that the hotel was filled with students, chaperones and families who had been bussed in for Friday’s “March For Life” rally.

It was just five days ago that all of us taking part in this trip had marched in the “Women’s March”, in either DC or New York City. We were now woefully out of place, and both the irony and humor of our situation was not lost on us. Feigning panic I said; “good thing we are going to the hotel bar for dinner, as it will be like our 'sanctuary'". I had assumed correctly that the majority of these guests/marchers would not be spending time in a hotel bar aptly named the “21st Amendment”. I was correct in my thinking as the place was empty. As we had dinner and a few glasses of wine, we watched the packs of pro-life marchers walking back and forth, none even contemplating entering the bar. We made comparisons to the three of us, all supporters of a woman's right to control her own body, landing smack dab in the middle of a right to life event. It reminded me of the old Richard Pryor movie, “Bustin’ Loose”. That scene where he wanders into a KKK march accidentally. Or when the white college students from National Lampoon’s “Animal House” go to see Otis Day and the Nights play at the Black club, after they had recently performed at the frat house. “Mind if we dance with your dates?”. We sat in the restaurant, ate dinner and people watched from our sanctuary where, being the Irishman that I am, I postulated that it must be fear of the sin of alcohol that was preventing the incursion of the revelers on the night before the march. Occasionally someone would enter the bar, and ask us if we were there for the march, and we would reply something to the effect of “No, we marched last week.” There would be an inevitable awkward pause and in order to break the tension, I would ask them to take a picture of all of us. The next morning as we were heading to our meeting, and the pro lifers were all leaving for their rally, I was wearing my BAT Apple T-Shirt when a man who looked to be a pastor and was wearing a Christian themed T-Shirt said he liked my shirt. I replied thank you, but was glad that he did not ask me what the name BAT stood for. Suffice to say, it was a long elevator ride.

I know that the people in the hotel, and those attending the March For Life are not bad people. They were there, because they had been raised to believe the way they do. But to be honest, at one point I may have equated our situation to those of characters in a Walking Dead episode who were trapped in an abandoned building surrounded by the zombies that would eat our brains. After our meeting at the Capitol office buildings, we walked right into the end of the March for Life. They had marched from the Washington Monument to the Supreme court. As we were leaving and heading to the Union Station, which was packed, but strangely there were very few people on the train back to New York City, I tried to identify some similarities and difference between the two marches.

Of course it was easier to begin with the clear differences between the two events. The first was the age of so many March For Lifers. They were high school and college aged kids who had been given the day off and bussed in directly through their schools and churches. The Women’s Marchers had mostly saved and booked the travel themselves, they were not funded through outside organizations. The March For Lifers have been holding this same event for the past 44 years now, and this year the march was promoted by President Trump and Mike Pence was the keynote speaker. In contrast the Women’s March originated three months ago, born of the frustration of seeing a misogynist who bragged about sexual assault being elected President on a platform of repealing the ACA and appointing a Supreme Court Justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade. While there were plenty of celebrity speakers and some politicians who spoke at the Women’s March, it was a true grass roots event. The March For Lifers carried mass produced signs during their march, paid for with either tax free church money or through the deep pocketed funders of the Christian Right. The Women’s Marchers carried home made, often hysterical, signs speaking out on their issues. The March For Lifers grew up seeing pictures of aborted fetuses, and were taught at an early age to call people who support a woman’s right to chose, murderers and baby killers. The Women’s Marchers knitted pink pussy cat hats and demonstrated for women’s rights, and against the fascism of this fledgling administration. The one thing that was abundantly clear was that the people supporting the pro life march were well financed, compared to we who had marched in the Women’s March. The March For Life event had a good number of attendees, the Women’s March was the largest political demonstration in human history and was filled with people of all backgrounds and age groups,

The similarities were a bit more difficult to identify, but here is what I came up with: In both events, children played a key role. Both events drew entire families who are committed to their beliefs. Both protests were filled with passion, and people who sacrificed their time to peacefully advocate for their issues by exercising their Freedom of Speech. That is pretty much all I could come up with on the similarities part, and yes I know it sounds like I am reaching. But being a high school teacher I needed to include a counterclaim somewhere.  

I could say my point in writing this piece was to show that we as a people, even though we have drastically different opinions on the direction this country is heading, should all be able to protest, demonstrate and advocate for our beliefs. I could say that was my point, but alas, it is not. My point is that if you are planning to go to Washington DC, to march in the streets or just to speak to your politicians about education issues, you should research what event is going on there at the time, and try not to book a hotel filled with people who completely disagree with almost everything you stand for. And if you do accidentally find yourself surrounded by large groups of pro lifers in a crowded hotel, take shelter in the hotel bar. They will not follow you there. Also, if you attempt to blend in, in order to make it back to your room or something, just ask anyone who is standing next to you “are you here for the rally?”. Works every time.

BATS Statement on Immigration Ban

We are a country of immigrants. An immigration ban is, by definition, unAmerican.

That is the message from the board of directors representing the more than 60,000 members of the Badass Teachers Association. We want to make it crystal clear - we do not support Donald Trump’s immigration ban signed on Friday in Washington, D.C. It violates the principles on which this nation was founded. It is cowardly, xenophobic and racist.

Today this executive order has closed our borders to refugees and immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries. It has caused chaos as people coming here were held at airports and other entry and exit points.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security has even said that the ban includes people holding green cards which until now have made them legal permanent US residents.

The order temporarily bans refugees from around the world from entering the US. It has blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely and placed severe restrictions on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.

Trump may call it an immigration ban, but we know what it really is. It is an anti-Muslim ban. It is racism as national policy and we will not put up with it.

Many of us are public school teachers. Our classes are filled with students from all over the world. We offer sanctuary to those who have nowhere else to go. Whether they be refugees from Muslim countries ravaged by ISIS or those seeking asylum from African, European or other nations, we accept them all. They are all our students and we love them.

It is fitting that this order was signed on Holocaust Remembrance Day. It highlights what we, as teachers know - we have seen this before. Many of us teach about it in our classes.

“I teach my 8th graders about Anne Frank and how her family was denied refuge in the United States,” said Steven Singer, head of the BATs Blogging and Research Committee. “They often ask what would have happened if we had let her in, and I reply that she would probably be someones grandmother not the most famous victim of the Holocaust.”

"America is a nation of immigrants and that is what makes us great and will continue to make us great.  Banning immigrants based on their country of origin is unconstitutional and denying asylum to refugees is immoral.  We must be better than this."  Dr. Denisha Jones, BATs Board of Director Member.

"We are all daughters and sons of immigrants. We stand at the precipice of a new chapter in American tragedy akin to the Trail of Tears.  History will judge us harshly for what has transpired in the land of the free under the supposed banner of security.  This act, this executive order, flies in the face of what it means to be a decent human being.  We will fight for all immigrants.  We will not remain neutral with so much hanging in the balance." Gus Morales, BATs Board of Director Member

Denying refugees entrance into our country will not keep us safe. It will only ensure their deaths, and the blood will be on our hands. We have the power to help. Turning these people away is not the moral thing to do. It is the action of cowards and fools.

Trump ran on the slogan “Make America Great Again.” Immigrants are what made this nation great, if it ever was. We now see he has a different definition of greatness.

Like people of conscience everywhere, BATS will fight this ban. We will go to the airports and try to protect our immigrant brother and sisters.  We will show the students who were anticipating the arrival of their families members, who were fleeing terrorism and horror, that we support them. We will join with the ACLU and other organizations to support legal challenges to this ban. We will participate in peaceful protests and civil actions. And when we enter the classroom, we will make our students feel loved and safe.

BATs Meet with Sen. Sanders and Sen. Hassan Education Advisors - The Summary!

Last week a team from The Badass Teachers Association met with the education advisors to Sen. Sanders and Sen. Hassan (both serve on the HELP committee).  Here is a summary of what was spoken about at both meetings and the ASK from BATs.

For both meetings basic introductions occurred.  Representing Sen. Hassan was Brittany Weaver and representing  Sen. Sanders was Michael DiNapoli and Jenna Sablan.

We already know that these representatives have viewpoints about education that are mostly in line with those of BATs. But it became evident during the election that legislators still need a deeper understanding of the attacks that public education are currently under. As an organization representing  grassroots voices BATs felt the need to meet face to face and develop a connection for moving forward.  Executive Director of BATs Marla Kilfoyle stated strongly at the beginning of both meetings that we would like both Senators to lead the charge against the use of the “failing schools” rhetoric.  We made it clear, and stealing a line from Jitu Brown (national director of Journey for Justice Alliance), that WE HAVE BEEN FAILED.  

Summary of meeting with Sen. Hassan’s and Sen. Sanders’ Staffers

BAT Co-Director of Special Education Terry Kalb discussed IDEA focusing on the fact that the USDOE has been redefining the Federal law and in essence undermining it by standardizing education.  Terry discussed the impact at the local level and the push to standardize under guise of “Civil Rights”and equality.  Terry hammered home that rather than look at equity as the focus we are looking at equality of outcomes, measuring achievement without a leveled playing field.  Terry again exposed that on the NYS state tests for 3-8th grades, which were tied to RTTT funding, 95% of children with IEPs failed! Terry pointed out that the cut scores are manipulated and the exams are not appropriate and deeply flawed. She also pointed out that in some NY schools, children with special needs were made to personally refuse the assessments, even after  parents sent in a refusal letter.  Terry further explained that teachers are often not allowed to write appropriate IEP goals but instead have to standardize them to grade level expectations.   She pointed out that many parents, when using a voucher or attempting to enroll their child in a charter, have been told they must waive their Federal IDEA right to a free and appropriate education and the required IEP and services.  It was also discussed that in many places, young students with disabilities (pre-K) are being declassified for Kindergarten, leading to the inappropriate suspension of children with disabilities who no longer have needed supports in place.  There seems to be a dangerous misconception that children with special needs can magically be cured in a year of early intervention! Finally, Terry pointed out that we are losing veteran special education teachers due to rating teachers on inappropriate test scores, and teacher training schools are experiencing a big drop in enrollment for special education majors.

Melissa Tomlinson, Asst. Executive Director of BATs,  spoke about ESSA.  Melissa pointed out that ESSA allowed states to develop their own accountability measures and that states should push harder to make sure that assessments do not drive education in the state.  ESSA also claimed in page after page of the law that the Secretary of Education could NOT mandate or incentivize any program.  Melissa continued to point out that additional grants under Title 1 funds for state assessments were eight times more than what is allocated for direct help for disadvantaged students and  children at risk or in need.  Melissa spoke about social impact bonds and concerns we have for that.  Melissa continued to point out that there is already movement on the creation of voucher bills and once again raised concerns about lack of accountability for charters.  

Dr. Denisha Jones, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education and a member of the Board of Directors for BATs,  spoke about privatization and DeVos.  She framed her remarks on privatization by taking a national view that applies to the institution of education as a whole.  Dr. Jones eloquently pointed out that privatization threatens the ability for schools to serve as the “Great Equalizer” and provide all children regardless of the circumstances of their birth, an opportunity to learn and succeed.   She strongly stated that privatization creates winners and losers - we should not have losers when it comes to educating our children.  Dr. Jones exposed the illusion of choice in that charters/vouchers create a system where the school chooses the child, not the other way around.  She told the staffers in both meetings that what parents really want are strong neighborhood schools.  There was a connection made that many Democrats are concerned about privatization of many public services such as health care, prisons, and water, but they do not seem to oppose attempts to privatize education or recognize the dangers that privatization poses to public education.  Dr. Jones explained that equity should be the driving force of all that we do in education and is needs based.  However, she noted that the language of equity has been co-opted by privatizers to mean choice, charters, and vouchers. True equity does not involve neoliberal schemes to ensure a few get ahead at the expense of others.  Dr. Jones asked that Democrats return to their roots and work to improve public education for all.

Sue Goncarovs, Co-Director of BATs Meme Team, introduced the ASK.  The ASK that BATs presented in both meetings is that there be a legislative hearing on public education, centered around listening to professionals with experience and expertise in public education, and NOT INVITING those who have assisted in the corporate education reform disaster we have observed over the last decade.  Sue eloquently pointed out the detriment of Right to Work Laws, the ALEC agenda, and the neo-liberal agenda, that all paved the way for the current administration to finish off public education.

Dr. Michael Flanagan, Co-Director of BATs Action Team, made a closing statement about the power of  the BATs network and resources to help redirect the narrative about public education and what it does for our society.  

NY BAT, Luz Christina Ramirez Mooney shared her experiences as  an active member within the school district that she currently teaches.  She shared that she is extremely involved, and invested. in the school district that her two children are enrolled in. Luz Christina shared that she has  two children on the autistic spectrum and was horrified, four years ago, when her children came face to face with an abusive "sit and stare" testing policy that was implemented in the district her children attend.  The pressure from the federal and state governments to test every child was the driving force behind this practice. Her community came together, and elected school board members whose main, and primary objective,  is the needs of our most precious resource, our children. Luz Christina shared that today the school district no longer supports practices which abuse students.  Her community's experience is one example of the importance and power of elected school boards and how every community should have that fully intact as a sound example of democracy at work.

VA BAT Admin and BAT Blogger Cheryl Binkley ended each meeting with the strong statement that Democrats have a golden moment to take up two powerful causes to bring back their base and to begin to move to a more progressive platform - public education and the environment.  Democrats need to abandon the corporate reform movement and come back to their base, which favors strong civic institutions (like public schools) rooted in the democratic process.  

BATs Executive Director Marla Kilfoyle will be following up with both offices to try and secure a legislative hearing on public education, and continue discussions on how we change the narrative used by politicians about public education.   Here is a copy of our White House Conference on Education paper if you would like to share it.  http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2016/06/press-release-badass-teachers.html

Civil Rights Aren’t Just for Minorities – They’re For Everyone by Steven Singer

Originally posted at: https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/25/civil-rights-arent-just-for-minorities-theyre-for-everyone/

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s still shocking to me that so many white people seem to think civil rights are just a black issue.

As if they’re something that only concerns people of color.

White people can’t be the victims of discrimination? We can’t be mistreated on the basis of gender, religion, sexuality, or age?

Of course we can! And many of us are. But we are rarely discriminated against on the basis of our race. And somehow accepting that fact seems to turn us against the very idea of civil rights.

We act as if talking about civil rights is code for black issues. Many of us refuse to even admit that black people have legitimate grievances in this area, that they’re just needlessly complaining and looking for sympathy, that they’re trying to get something for free or get one over on us.

It’s pure bullshit. Black people are authentically aggrieved. They are the victims of a systemic racism that rarely even becomes visible to white eyes. And that same system either ignores whiteness or even privileges it.

The criminal justice system, alone, is rife with examples including racial profiling, stop-and-frisk policies, police brutality and the failed War on Drugs. Add to that voter ID laws, redlining, and credit scores. Add to that the use of bigoted and prejudiced textbooks, punishing non-white students more harshly than white students, underfunding public schools, and closing them down if they’re attended mostly by students of color.

Yet that doesn’t mean white people are impervious to civil rights violations. It just means that people of color are targeted much more often and are in much greater need of help than we are.

Yet many of us refuse to admit it. We refuse even though doing so actually puts ourselves at greater risk.

Think about it. If we ignore the civil rights concerns of those most victimized, who will be there for us when we’re targeted?

Take police brutality.

According to the Guardian’s The Counted, 1,092 Americans were killed by police in 2016. If we look at it proportionately, a much higher percentage of minorities were killed than white people. Specifically, Native Americans were killed at 10.13 per million, black people at 6.66 per million, while Hispanics and Latinos were killed at 3.23 per million. By comparison, white people were only killed at 2.9 per million.

So minorities were killed at much higher rates than whites given their smaller percentages of the population. However, if we look at the raw numbers, more white people were killed than any other group. Specifically, the police killed 574 whites, 266 blacks, 183 Hispanics/Latinos and 24 Native Americans.

So, yes, the African American community is right to be angry that they’re being disproportionately targeted by police. However, more than 500 white people were killed by law enforcement, too. That’s a troubling figure all by itself. Why are American police killing so many of us? Why is law enforcement so trigger happy in the USA?

It’s a problem for everyone. Police should not be killing such high numbers of civilians. In fact, in other countries, they don’t. Police kill more people in the U.S. in days than they do in other countries in years. Yet very few police officers actually serve jail time. Several officers went to trial in 2016, but only a handful were convicted.

This is a real problem, yet many white people dismiss it as a black issue – and an illegitimate one at that. As a country, we have a real concern with the way police are trained, protocol for when deadly force is allowed and how officers are held accountable. But we’re letting this issue fall through the cracks because it’s being delegitimized as a “mere” civil rights complaint.

Things have really changed in this country.

In 1963, when the all black 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed by four members of the Ku Klux Klan, the entire society took notice. Even whites who had been unsympathetic to the civil rights struggles of African Americans up to this point were disturbed at the murder of four children and the injury of 22 others. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called it “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity,” and it marked a turning point in our history. The fight for civil rights became a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, American struggle to secure equality for our brother and sister African Americans.

However, just two years ago when Dylann Roof was inspired by white supremacist Websites to kill nine people at all black Charleston Church in South Carolina, the response was… meh. Though it has been categorized as a hate crime, it has done nothing to wake up the society at large to the realities of modern day American racism. At most, it’s dismissed as an isolated event.

However, it’s not. White supremacists have long targeted African American churches as objects of their hatred. In 1991 it took a series of 154 suspicious church burnings for Congress five year later to pass the Church Arson Prevention Act, making it a federal crime to damage religious property because of its “racial or ethnic character.” More recently, a black church in Massachusetts was burned down the day after President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009.

For some reason, these continuing hate crimes fail to rouse the public at large. Perhaps the Internet culture and the perpetuation of so-called news sources that only support partisan confirmation bias has something to do with it. But it’s harmful to all of us.

When white people ignore the legitimate claims of black people, they make it easier for everyone to be mistreated. Often white people have acted as if prejudice could never be perpetrated against them, and when it’s cropped up, we’ve defined it narrowly to fit only the immediate group targeted. That’s an LGBT issue. That’s a Jewish issue. That’s an issue for people with disabilities. We rarely see them as they are – human issues.

In the age of Trump, violations of individual rights are popping up every day: journalists receiving felony charges for covering unrest at the inauguration, a Louisiana bill that makes resisting arrest a hate crime punishable by 10 years in prison, proposed laws in 10 states to criminalize peaceful protects – and on and on.

Nor is it partisan. Here are a list of human rights violations under Obama: drone strikes outside active war zones, ongoing use of massive civilian surveillance programs, failure to close Guantanamo Bay, harsh penalties for whistle blowers and no accountability for those they expose.

We live in an age where our rights are being eroded by ignorance, indifference, and the uncritical acceptance of prepacked political narratives. The powers that be use racism and prejudice to keep us divided so we’ll never mount an effective opposition.

Today as ever we need each other. We need to be there for our brothers and sisters in humanity. That starts with white people waking up to the harsh realities of black life in America.

How Defending Public Schools and the Environment Can Save the Democratic Party by Cheryl Gibbs Binkley

Originally posted at: http://3rdmillenniumteacher.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-defending-public-schools-and.html

There has been much speculation about the whys and wherefores of the recent election as to why the Dems lost and the Trumpers won, and there’s been much hand wringing behind the scenes (in between the can-you-believe-he-did-thats) about how the Democratic party will recover from the election. They are fragmented, they are mistrustful of one another, and they are scared.

Right now in Congress the Republicans are ignoring the Dems like they were mailroom boys, while there are 33 Republican Governors, and 25 completely Republican state capitals, with another 20 state legislatures partially controlled by Republicans.  Let’s face it, ALEC is having a field day with state laws! If you wanna see pillaging, look to the states for rampant slash and burn politics from absolutely buzzark Koch legislators who now control our states.

Though there are some not so talked about ways we got to this disastrous place (hint: it’s by being more like the Republicans than like Democrats), I’d really like to present a clear option for getting out of the uncomfortably tight container where way more than half the country are crammed into a fraction of the legislative space.  

All the people issues are good, and as soon as the Dems get back the state houses and Congress they can pay attention to all of them.  But health care and immigration are going to be projects that are not easily solved, though we know we will have to fix them both.  However, there are two other issues that can deliver the country on a plate to the party that realizes it.

Here’s the solution-- Take a firm and strongly progressive stand on Education and the Environment.

First Education-- Yes, Education, and not just free college and more preschools; though loan forgiveness and quality childcare are definitely part of the solution.

Good old fashioned Local Schools with more nimble contemporary services and curriculum are the key to a renewed faith in government in this country.  I know, pundits and politicians are shaking their heads and mumbling “Who gives a …. About K-12 education”   

Well, here’s who-- Every parent in the country, every young couple considering children, every grandparent in the country, every teacher, recent graduate, or college student, and every person trying to make a better life for their family. They all care deeply about schools.

Common Core and Excessive Testing, Neighborhood school closures, Charter school scams and failure of federal and states’ school policies have had people all across the country hopping mad.  After all, if we can’t give our kids decent schools what the hell are we doing in the US? And the Democrats kept telling everyone we weren’t giving the kids a good education. (Which was a long way from the truth in most places).

The dissatisfaction rank and file citizens had with Democratic Education Policy, which in most poor localities was indistinguishable from Republican education policy, was highly overlooked in strategies during the 2016 election.

By pushing Outrageous Standards & Testing and complaining almost daily that the citizens’ children were stupid, Democrats managed to irritate huge swaths of the usually laid back public, and push a lot of usually noncommittal voters away from the Democratic party, including a lot of moms.

The political and economic elites seemed not to notice that local districts build, maintain and run their local schools without very much help from the feds (about 9%), and for the last 15 years every nickel the feds gave up for schools was hooked to overworking Jenny’s teacher to exhaustion with data collection, and paying most of the money to testing companies; the largest of which was overseas. Never mind the ongoing unfunded mandates, which continued to drain and raise local property taxes.

Then by side-stepping the views of rank and file teachers, the DNC grabbed the union endorsements without committing to any real support of the public schools--until the apparent difference between goals of the Dems and Repubs on public schools seemed that Dems were going a little slower and were for Common Core, which Republicans had the good sense to bail on earlier.  As a result, rank and file teachers did not turn out in the record numbers they might have for Democratic candidates, and the always relied on teacher boots-on-the-ground had to be begged, borrowed and hired elsewhere for 2016.

Because the upper campaign staff of Clinton was deeply wedded to privatizing schools, it never occurred to them that ordinary people might know what was up and resent billionaires taking over their local schools. The campaign staff and DNC had come to believe their own myth that everyone wanted to go to a pseudo-private school like rich people. Even worse, the heavy reliance on test scores and school closures came off as little more than closeted racism, labeling poor kids in mostly brown neighborhoods and their teachers as inferior and in need of fixing by colonizing gentrifiers-- Which made even voters of color question why they were sticking with the Dems.

So, what now?

Democrats need to announce, develop and promote a public schools plan for developing the Preeminent School System in the world-- not unlike the plan for the interstate highways, or for putting a man on the moon-- and finally put the money and real educationally trained talent into developing it at local levels.

However, that plan cannot be a thinly veiled rehab of Gates-Broad-Walton’s high tech vision of segregated, teacherless, perpetually testing virtual schools. There can be money for the tech companies, and money for corporations who genuinely want to provide relevant services and products for the kids, but first and foremost the money for the creative design and implementation must return to using people who have actually been around children and adolescents, who have been trained in childhood development, behavior and motivation, and who understand the need for positive stable enough environments to provide healthy growth for all our young people.

The money must go back into our neighborhoods, towns, and rural counties if the plan is to succeed, and if people are to believe the government is working with them and for them.

It is true that we are going to face exponential change throughout society for the next 40 or 50 years, unless we kill the planet or create our own extinction first. For that reason, we need to dedicate ourselves to the future of our children, and with that effort the Democratic party can prove themselves again to be friends of the people, rather than the billionaire elites' more amiable buddies.

Speaking of killing the planet and our own extinction-- The other category of voters that the Democrats lost in the 2016 election is the young people and those who love nature. Many of the millennials have not and will not return to the Democratic party without a firm, visible, and actual commitment to the planet.  They are pissed, and who can blame them. Our leaders have run out the clock to 3 minutes to midnight and ticking. Between their strong commitment to a status quo fossil fuel industry, and their politics as usual in the primaries, they pretty much alienated most people under 35.

By making the centerpiece of Democratic goals and ideology a commitment to our interdependent planet, Democrats can be the heroes of the 21st Century, and can activate an entire generation of committed and activist voters who will assure their long-term survival as a party. Otherwise, they may be the first or second minority party if there is a planet.

As with Education, this must be a well-articulated, well-funded, and globally collaborative act of leadership that pushes the fossil fuel companies and new entrepreneurs to be come true energy companies and to provide the newer technological jobs for a renewed, sustainable, environmentally sound economy. It can be done with the help of our scientists, but it will take national and state leaders who are unafraid to break with the past and unafraid to buck the global-corporate billionaires, but perhaps even the billionaires will recognize that there are no global markets without a population of consumers and workers and a globe.

But here’s the rub, if the Democratic party does not rise to this occasion, to speak up and put forward plans that are diametrically opposed to what Trump and the Republicans are pushing, they will be a party with little to offer, at both the national and states levels, and we all will suffer the consequences of a damaged or destroyed future.

They have a narrative that will work, that will bring them back to power, and do good.

What do you say? Ready to take back the state houses and the Congress -- For our Children?