Litter as metaphor

In an Elderhostel class I once taught on environmental issues, I asked the class to list the three biggest environmental problems.  (FYI--Elderhostel is a program in which retirees take short courses and have a good time socializing.)  I was surprised that over half the class included litter in the top three.  I explained that while litter is unsightly and annoying, compared to air pollution, or global climate change, or population increase, it is really rather minor.

I’m not so sure about that any more.  It may be a good indicator of how little we humans care about our planet.  If you are willing to toss out beer cans and Burger King containers, you probably don’t give a damn about cutting back on your carbon footprint or buying locally-grown food either.

I read that the search teams were having trouble locating the wreckage of the Malaysian plane because so much junk is floating in the ocean that it is hard to pick out airplane debris.

People sometimes label slobs as “pigs.”  If you have ever raised pigs, you know they always crap in just one corner of their pen.  They are actually fairly clean animals.  We aren’t.

Repealing the 15th Amendment

While I don’t think anyone has actually proposed that--yet--the result of a number of recent laws certainly have that end result.  I have heard the argument made that voter I.D. is necessary to prevent fraud.  I know that is a bogus argument, but at least it is a rationale that makes some sense.

On the other hand, when a state passes laws shutting down polling places (North Carolina) or restricting Sunday voting (Ohio), there can be only one purpose, and that is to suppress the vote.  

Just think--one of the two major parties in this democracy is attempting to win elections by restricting the suffrage of certain groups--young people, African Americans, Latinos.  I am fully aware that we did that in the past with literacy tests, poll taxes, whites only primaries, and ultimately violence and lynching and murder, but I really thought those days were past.  

You might want to take a closer look at what states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and North Carolina are doing.  Go to <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/us/new-gop-bid-to-limit-voting-in-swing-states.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0>. 

Second Amendment opposed by Georgia legislators

Recently the Georgia legislature passed “stand your ground” legislation that also allows people to carry concealed weapons into bars and unsecured areas of airports.  But guess where guns are not allowed.  In the Capitol where the legislators sit.  

Payroll Protection Act

One of the things I dislike most about right-wingers is their penchant for labeling their policies by the opposite of what they do.  For example, the “Keep Tuition Affordable” legislation before the Pennsylvania legislature does anything but.  The “Right to Work” proposals are really the “Right to Work for Less.” 

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch Brothers’ political committee, is attacking the foundation of American prosperity.  The proposal they are pushing in Pennsylvania, the “Paycheck Protection Act,” will result in diminished paychecks for millions of workers as unions are busted.

According to the speaker at last night’s 9/12 meeting, taxpayer money is used to divert union dues and voluntary political contributions to unions through payroll deductions.  Everyone has payroll deductions--income tax, pension plans, United Way contributions, and so on.  We are talking about a few taps on a keyboard--that is the taxpayer dollars being spent on public employee unions.  Those deductions are also the result of negotiated contracts agreed to by both workers and management.

This is not about tax funds.  It is completely and totally about breaking public unions, which is precisely what is happening in Wisconsin, where Scott Walker pushed similar legislation.  The Koch Brothers, of course, won’t say they are trying to bust unions--they are public-spirited billionaires who are trying to help us out.

When I mentioned the Koch Brothers to one of the speakers, she denied that the Brothers ran Americans for Prosperity.  How stupid do they think we are?

Incidentally, in the 2012 election, the ten biggest unions spent a combined total of  $153,473,251.  The Koch Brothers alone spent $412,670,666.  

Taking on "Americans for Prosperity"

A few days ago I mentioned that I planned to attend a “town hall”  sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, the front group for the Koch Brothers.  The meeting was held at the Beaver Meadows Rod and Gun Club, and it was organized by the Carbon County “9/12”  group, a very conservative political organization.  Linda thought I shouldn’t go alone, made some phone calls with her friend Edie, and 22 of us--labor union sympathizers and anti-Koch Brothers activists--showed up with signs saying “Stop the Koch Brothers--Pennsylvania is not for sale” and “Billionaires speak--Workers are silenced.”

We were not allowed to take the signs into the meeting, and we had to sit in the back behind a ribbon because we weren’t 9/12 members, although the advertisement in the paper implied that all would be welcome.  

One difference I noticed immediately was that the meeting opened with a prayer invoking the name of Jesus, who was asked to bless the 9/12ers.  Edie added to the prayer “and labor union members everywhere.”  Our Carbon County Democrats for Change includes Jews, Buddhists, Christians of various persuasions, and at least three atheists I know of, so we don’t do the prayer thing.

There was a great deal of tension in the room, although I thought our group behaved better than some of the conservatives.  Two large men dressed in black walked around the room and warned us not to catcall, although one of them actually turned out to be rather nice.  The meeting also had cake available, which was excellent.  Finally the leader of the 9/12ers, Sandy Dellecker, was welcoming and friendly, and I find myself liking her.

Tomorrow:  The payroll deception bill explained.

Limits on N.S.A.

The Administration will soon propose legislation to end N.S.A.‘s collection of every phone call made by Americans.  Phone companies would not be required to retain data.  N.S.A. could only obtain specific records after a judge’s approval, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which never met a N.S.A. request it didn’t like, will be revamped.

We’ll know more when the actual proposal is made public, but at least we are moving in the right direction.  Thank you, Mr. President.  And thank you, Edward Snowden.

Dictator Obama?

I get so tired of Republican nonsense.  Among the more stupid things they are saying is that Obama is a dictator because he has been issuing some executive orders.  Really.  Just for the record, here are some comparisons of Presidents and the executive orders they issued:

Truman  907

Eisenhower  484

Kennedy 214 (in three years)

Johnson          325 (in five years)

Nixon 346

Ford 169 (in two years)

Reagan           381

Bush 166 (in four years)

Clinton             364

George W.       291

Obama           168 (in 5 years)

Please, Republicans, shut up.

Bloomberg kowtows to China

Bloomberg is a company that publishes financial news and sells terminals used by banks around the world.  The terminals provide most of the company’s $8.5 billion annual revenue.  

In 2012 Bloomberg’s news division published an article on the Communist Party chief in China that the Chinese government did not like, and sales of the terminals declined in that country.  Now, according to a report in the business section of the Times on March 21, the news division has been reined in.  Profits are more important than objective and investigative journalism.  The chairman of Bloomberg, Peter Grauer, said that the size of the Chinese economy means “We have to be there.”  

Another profile in cowardice by American corporate leadership.

The end of Carbon County Magazine

For a number of years I have been a contributor to my friend Al Zagofsky’s on-line publication, “Carbon County Magazine.”   The writers, almost all of whom have been from Carbon County, included historians, artists, poets, politicians, and philosophers.  My own articles were sometimes nostalgic, frequently nature-oriented, occasionally introspective, and always much longer than the postings for “Sajeonogi.”  

Now Al is moving to West Sacramento to be closer to his daughters, and he is closing down the publication.  Carbon County is losing a resource, and I am losing an editor and friend.  It also occurs to me that I should have advertised the magazine long before it closed down.

Nonetheless, if you would like to see the last issue, just go to <http://www.carboncountymagazine.com/>.  I think you will enjoy it.

Spring

The crocuses are up, vegetable seeds are arriving, and grackles and red-winged blackbirds are back.  The only remaining snow is in the woods on the north side of the mountain and in drift locations.

It was such a nice day I decided to clean out the chicken coop.  To test whether I could take the truck over the back yard, I drove into the trailhead parking lot across the road from our house to see how soft the ground was.  I promptly got stuck.  Really stuck.

I collected some boards to put under the wheels, but as I was placing them, a young guy in a truck pulled over and asked if I needed a tow.  He had a chain which we hooked to my truck and in less than a minute I was out.

I offered him money for beer, and he absolutely refused to take any.  He jumped into his truck and off he went.   I didn’t get his name, but I’m pretty sure he was a Democrat.

Koch Brothers in Carbon County

Ok, not the actual Koch Brothers, but their minions.  A very large ad in the Times News earlier this week advertised a “Town Hall” for March 27, 6:30, at the Beaver Run Rod and Gun Club, 676 Stewart Creek Road, Lehighton. 

The “town hall” is sponsored by the AFP (that’s American’s for Prosperity, the Koch Brothers PAC legalized by the “Citizens United” decision of the Supreme Court that said corporations were persons) and the Lehighton 9/12 Project, the group that believes that local property maintenance ordinances are a U.N. plot.

The Koch Brothers, by the way, are the second and third richest Americans, billionaires who are destroying American democracy by buying elections.  

The Thursday meeting is to drum up support for the “Paycheck Protection” Act, which would override contracts allow automatic dues deductions from employee paychecks.  The Right always tries to fool people by giving their most repressive measures positive sounding names.  The right name is the Paycheck Reduction Act.

I plan to be at the “town hall” next Thursday.  I assume since the meeting was advertised in the paper with no membership requirements or entrance fees, anybody is welcome.  I have a sign that says “Middle Class, Not Millionaires.”  I’ll just cross off millionaires, write in billionaires, and I’m good to go.  It should be fun.

Honest Bureaucrats

One of the more refreshing developments in the Watergate scandal was the honesty and integrity of bureaucrats.  R. W. Thrower, who died March 8, is a wonderful example.  Mr. Thrower was the head of the I.R.S. from 1969-1971.  

According to his obituary in the Times, he did a number of good deeds in his short tenure, one of which was to revoke the tax-exempt status of private schools that excluded blacks, and another was the Tax Reform Act of 1969, which eliminated some loopholes from the rich.  Did I mention he was a Republican?

When various White House staff members demanded audits of the tax returns of anti-war activists, journalists, civil rights leaders, and every Democratic senator up for re-election in 1971, he asked for a meeting with President Nixon.  He was sure the President was not aware of what was happening.

In response to his request he received two responses:  first, a memo telling him a meeting with the President was not possible, and second, a phone call from John Ehrlichman telling him he was fired.  

Redeployment

I want to plug Phil Klay’s collection of short stories about soldiers in the Iraq war.  After reading it, you will understand why Iraqi veterans have such a hard time adjusting to life in the States, and just how horrible--and absurd--that war was.  Stories such as “Frago” and “Unless It’s a Sucking Chest Wound” ought to be required in high school English classes.  

The author was a Marine who served in Iraq during the surge.  The book, titled Redeployment, is published by the Penguin Press and came out earlier this year.  If your local library doesn’t have a copy, ask your librarian to order it.

Rev. Fred Phelps Sr.

The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., the minister of the Topeka Baptist Church who picketed military funerals, is on the edge of death.  His view was that God is punishing America for tolerating gays and lesbians by killing our military men and women.

His son Nathan has spoken out on behalf of gay and lesbian groups, which most have bothered old Fred no end.  I once had thought it would be nice to picket the Rev. Phelps funeral, but he wouldn’t be aware of it anyway, and it would give him more publicity.  It's best to let him quietly rot.

Crimea and Jerry Knowles

The vote in Crimea to join Russia was lop-sided.  Perhaps that was partly a result of  Russian troops and the way the question was worded, but it is clear that a majority of the Crimean population thought it would not get a good deal from the new government in Kiev and really wanted to be part of Russia.

It is time we worried less about the election in Crimea and more about the elections in the United States.  I live in Pennsylvania, where a clear majority of voters in the 2012 election supported Democratic candidates for the U.S. Congress but only elected 5 of the 18 seats because of a Republican gerrymander.

I live in Pennsylvania where Jerry Knowles, running for the state House of Representatives, and Charlie Dent, running for the U.S. Congress, have no opposition in the primary or the general election.  I live in a country where the Republicans in Ohio just made it more difficult to vote, an action which will have the effect of suppressing the Democratic vote.  I live in a country in which corporations are people, and the Koch Brothers are allowed to spend millions to sway elections.

The vote in Crimea, compared to our elections, seems to have been reasonably fair.

Gun Crazy

I’m not referring to the 1949 film noir classic.  Nor am I referring to the 1992 movie starring Drew Barrymore entitled “Guncrazy.”  I’m referring to the people who run the N.R.A.  That organization has called upon its members to oppose President Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General.

It seems that the nominee, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, has supported a ban on assault rifles and limits on ammunition and has called for safety training courses for gun owners.  The N.R.A. has now put out the word “to oppose confirmation of President Obama’s radically anti-gun nominee.”  

These people are willing to have more children die rather than impose some common sense regulations.  They are willing to do this to enjoy the continued financial support of the weapons industry. Their ignorant members can’t even see that they are being manipulated.  And enough Democratic senators are so afraid of losing the November election that they are caving. 

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

In 1992 the U.S. Senate ratified a UN-inspired agreement entitled the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  The treaty obligated nations to ban arbitrary killings, torture, and imprisonment without judicial review.

The Clinton administration in 1995, worried about Haitian refugees at sea, said the treaty did not apply to people under U.S. jurisdiction outside the U.S. borders.  The Bush administration, notorious for permitting prisoners to be tortured and jailed outside the U.S., agreed with this interpretation.

Two officials in the Obama administration’s State Department said such a position could not be defended, but both of those officials are no longer in office.  This week the Obama administration said it agreed with the Clinton and Bush interpretations.  

As an official with Amnesty International put it, “Now the cosmetics have changed, but the failure of leadership is the same.”  

For the full disgusting story, visit <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/world/us-affirms-stance-that-rights-treaty-doesnt-apply-abroad.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0>.

Heffley's Newsletter

I don’t get Doyle Heffley.  He has a blurb in his newsletter about a Drug and Alcohol Awareness Expo he’s sponsoring to educate us on how to combat drug use, and at the same time he is pushing a bill to privatize the state Wine and Spirits Stores.  He must know that such a move will increase teen drinking and alcoholism.  

He touts a Sportsmen’s Expo in Mahoning, but he has co-sponsored a bill to reduce the power of the Game Commission to protect endangered species, and he supports fracking in state forests.

He says he enjoys the outdoors, yet he has sponsored a bill to exempt fish hatcheries built more than 20 years ago from the environmental regulations which protect our streams and creeks.

Like I said, I don’t get Doyle Heffley.  

Agnotology

I suppose I should be writing about the irony of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who railed against the perfidy of Edward Snowden, now complaining that the CIA hacked her Senate staffers’ computers.  Some targets are just too easy, so instead I’ll be discussing the new field of agnotology.  

My spellchecker thinks that word is a mistake, but it’s a neologism for the study of the production of ignorance.  One of the big experts is Dr. Robert Proctor of Stanford.

Some examples of the production of ignorance?

  

Big tobacco putting out a memo in 1969 saying “doubt is our product,” and then proceeding to attack the data on the dangers of smoking.

“Death panels” in the run-up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Global warming as a theory.  Also evolution, and, by the way, the earth is approximately 6000 years old.

Almost any item on Fox News.

Here’s one from the U.S. Supreme Court from the Citizens United decision:  The 14h Amendment reference to “persons” actually meant corporations.

If you’d like to read more, Google “Hiltzik agnotology” and you’ll get there.  I want to thank my friend Kim for sending me Michael Hiltzik’s article the L.A. Times.

The Crash of 2016

My friend Jeremy lent me his copy of Thom Hartmann’s The Crash of 2016 (N.Y.:  Hachette Book Group, 2013) and ordered me to read it.  The book details how extreme conservatives in this country with the help of Fox News, the U.S. Supreme Court, and billionaires like the Koch Brothers are ending the democracy of which we were once so proud.

The book contains one of the best dramatizations of income inequality I’ve seen:  

Imagine walking into a classroom of kindergarteners and finding that just one kid is in possession of nearly all the toys.  Just one kid has thousands of toy cars, army men, and building blocks piled up like Scrooge’s money bin, filling half the classroom; one or two of the kids have a dozen or so toys; and the rest of the class of kids have to share just one dinky, old rag doll.  No one could possibly think that’s a healthy way of distributing toys to a kindergarten class.  That one kid couldn’t even play with all his toys.

Would we call that kid a toy creator?  Would we tell all the other kindergarteners that they can only play with toys when that one student decides to share them?

Of course not.  Yet that’s exactly what we do with billionaires in our economy.

Chickens in California

Anyone who keeps a small flock of chickens can tell you that while chickens are not very bright, they do have individual personalities. Our turkens, for example, are out in all kinds of weather.  Our barred rocks are placid and gentle.  Some of our Rhode Island reds follow us around.  Our leghorns are skittish, but I believe that is true of all leghorns.  Our Americanas are so dumb that I sometimes have to physically put them in the coop at night.

Under California law all eggs sold in the state must be laid by hens that can stand up, lie down, and extend their wings without touching another chicken.  This seems to me a minimal standard egg producers must meet to improve the quality of life of hens.

Chris Koster, the Attorney General of Missouri, has filed suit in federal court to overturn the California standards.  He says California law violates the interstate commerce clause.  People who raise chickens also have a familiarity with chicken manure, and I can tell you this is a chicken shit lawsuit.

St/. Patrick's Day parade in Jim Thorpe

I’ve marched in quite a few parades, but this was the first one where the spectators came out with trays of shot glasses full of Irish Whiskey for the marchers.  They even had waste cans to collect the empties.  It was a cold day, and that Irish whiskey was just what we needed.

Linda and I carried the banner for the Carbon County Labor Chapter.  We were preceded in the parade by the “Patchtown Players,” a group who dresses in period costumes from the era of the Molly Maguires, right down to a lit miner’s lamp and corsets on the women.  They represented labor in the 1800s; we marched for labor today.

It was a great day for labor, for fun, and for the Irish.

I must tell you one odd thing.  We left Jim Thorpe by way of Lentz Trail.  The cops had a sobriety checkpoint on that road, but they were checking the cars coming into Jim Thorpe.  I don’t think they were clear on the concept.

The 20th Century

I finally finished Twentieth Century, a history by J.M. Roberts published by Viking.  It took me quite some time; the book is 856 pages long.  What I took from the book are the amazing developments of the past 100 years.  In 1900 much of the world was divided into empires--British, French, Spanish, Ottoman, Portuguese, and others. Monarchies were more common than democracies.  Most of the world’s population could look forward to a short life of hunger, disease, and pain.  Women were second class citizens even in the most advanced countries.

In the 20th century the world became interdependent as never before.  Television and the internet were world-wide.  Men walked on the moon.  The population was four times larger in 2000 than in 1900.  We had developed a truly global economy.  We were destroying our environment.

In the 20th century barbaric actions took more lives than ever before.  World War I and II killed millions.  Toward the end of the 20the century barbarism in Rwanda and Kosovo were clear evidence that ethnic prejudice still retained its power. At least seven nations had nuclear weapons.  

Dr. Roberts wrote his history before the World Trade Towers were destroyed, before the U.S. engaged in torture, before Facebook and Smart Phones, before the Arab Spring, before the clear evidence of global climate change.  What will the world be like in 100 years from now, when my grandson Gavin is 94?  I am not optimistic.

Proud to be Irish, Proud to be Union

Look for me in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Jim Thorpe on Sunday.  I’ll be marching with the Carbon County Labor Chapter contingent, along with the Patchtown Players.  I’ll be carrying a sign that says “Proud to be Irish, Proud to be Union.”  

If you are wondering if I really am Irish, remember that on St. Paddy’s Day, everyone is Irish.  And if you are wondering if I am really union, let me list them--Bethlehem Municipal Workers, Teamsters, UFCW, and California Faculty Association, affiliated with the AFL-CIO.  

Solidarity forever. and the union makes us strong!

H.I.V. baby cured

“Early Treatment Found to Clear H.I.V. in  2nd Baby” was the front page headline in today’s New York Times.  Evidently an aggressive drug treatment administered within 30 hours after birth can cure babies born with H.I.V.  Clinical trials with up to 60 babies will begin soon, but researchers are optimistic.

In an age where Kashmiri students are expelled for rooting for a Pakistani cricket team, where gun sales are arranged on Facebook, where an attorney is rejected for the federal judiciary because he defended an accused criminal, where the Texas Tea Party is proud that it pushed the Republican Party to the extreme right, there are still men and women who are quietly working in labs and hospitals to make our lives and the lives of tiny babies better.  

It’s something to think about when you are in despair over the stupidity and cruelty that seems to be so pervasive in our times.

Austerity and its results

The periodical Dissent recently reviewed two books on austerity as the answer to the current recession.  Mark Blyth, author of Austerity, defines the term as a “the policy of cutting the state’s budget to promote growth.”  Robert Kuttner, in Debtors’ Prison, labels austerity as “Agony Economics.”  Both authors make the point that austerity as government policy in a recession is a disaster.

 What’s amazing is that John Maynard Keynes explained all of this in the Twenties.  After World War II, we practiced Keynesian economics, and it worked.  Then along came Reagan and his ilk, and we moved away from Keynesian economics to a fixation about the national debt.  (Amazingly, the debt under Reagan exceeded the combined debt of every president from Washington to Reagan.)  The Republican answer to our current  recession is to cut government spending, which is the very thing that makes the recession worse.

Over six years after the crash of ’08 we still need about 8 million jobs to move the U.S. economy to pre-recession levels.  In Europe, which has been practicing austerity even more than the U.S., unemployment in Greece, Spain, and Portugal is over 25%.

The economy is still sputtering, the middle class is hollowed out, wages are stagnant, and what are the Republicans worried about?  The deficit.  It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

Spheres of influence and the Ukraine

Large and powerful countries, such as China, the U.S., and Russia, are rather touchy about what goes on in bordering areas.  They will usually act to preserve power in those areas, and generally other nations will be reluctant to interfere in any meaningful way.  Thus China has annexed Tibet, and although you will occasionally see a car with a “Free Tibet” bumper sticker, the U.S. has not interfered in any meaningful way.

On the other hand, if Cuba seized Guantanamo, a base taken in an early 20th century spasm of imperialism, the U.S. would react, and the rest of the world would stand by.

That brings us to the Crimea.  Russia will not allow the Crimea to fall into the hands of people it feels are threatening to its well-being.  If it believes the government in Kiev presents a threat, it will act, as it has.  

So what can the U.S. do?  Pretty much what it has been doing.  Bluster, condemn, put some money into the Kiev government.  

Some Republicans like McCain are demanding more.  Let me point out that not only does Russia possess nuclear weapons, but it also has a delivery capability.  I assume that neither Putin nor Obama is in favor of a full-blown nuclear exchange.  (I’ve always liked that “exchange”--sounds like Christmas presents.)  On the other hand, no one expected the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand would lead to a world war.  Let’s hope Obama and Putin learned their history lessons.

Academy Awards

Which is the better team--the New England Patriots or the Boston Red Sox?  Who was the better artist--Van Gogh or Franz Kline?  Those are silly questions, because you are comparing two different sports or genres that really cannot be compared in any sensible way.

That’s why I never watch the Academy Awards.  I saw “Gravity” and “Philomena.”  Sandra Bullock and Judi Dench were both wonderful, but they were in two completely different films playing two different roles that don’t compare.  For that matter, how do you compare “Twelve Years a Slave” to “Dallas Buyers’ Club”?  How can one of those be better judged more worthy than the other?

Thus the selection of “Best Film” or “Best Actress” or best anything is subjective and arbitrary.  It’s not like the Denver Broncos playing the Seattle Seahawks. 

Tomorrow:  the Ukraine and Russia.

Dave Camp's Plan

Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, last week unveiled a plan to “improve” the tax code.  He proposed to lower the tax rate by eliminating certain deductions, among them the one for state and local taxes.  

Why target this particular deduction?  He said, “This deduction redistributes wealth to big-government, high-tax states from small-government, low tax states.”   Blue states, like New York, California, and Massachusetts, try to help their poorest and most vulnerable citizens, and they tend to have higher taxes.  Red states, like Texas and Mississippi, tend to be low tax states, because they have no safety nets, lousy health care, terrible prisons, and crappy educational systems.  

Republicans not only want the federal government to end social programs, but they also want the states to do so as well.  What miserable people they are.

By the way, Camp’s plan would also lower the corporate rate from 35% to 25%.  

Financial Recovery Act

At the Progressive Summit in Harrisburg today I attended a session on the “Financial Recovery Act.”  This was an act passed under Corbett on a party line vote that allowed the state to take over districts that were in “severe financial distress,” such as Harrisburg or York or Duquesne.  A state official was sent in to recommend a plan to the school board.  If the school board accepted the plan, it was allowed to continue to operate, although its only power would be to raise taxes.  If it did not accept the plan, it was dissolved, and a state official was appointed to run the school district.

It gets worse.  If the district does not meet a certain level on test scores--a level no other school district in the state has ever met--the official is authorized to place the students in cyber or charter schools and dissolve the public school system.

I guess we can be thankful that only four districts have been placed under this Act’s provisions.  All of them are poor districts with heavy concentrations of black or English as a Second Language students.  None of them have high real estate values.  None have political clout. 

Our speaker explained the four step process.  First you cut the money to the districts.  Then you blame the teachers for the low performance by the students.  Then you kill the public school system.  Finally, you privatize the educational system.

Governor Corbett has received considerable campaign contributions from charter and cyber school advocates.  (Incidentally, so has our own Rep. Heffley.)