July 30, 2012 – RI Future

July 30, 2012July 31, 2012

Doherty Disses DISCLOSE Act, Backs Citizens United

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I don’t know what’s worse for Rhode Island: that Republican congressional candidate Brendan Doherty is so conservative that he doesn’t support legislation that would help bring a bit of transparency to political advertisements or that he actually takes money from Citizens United, the namesake of one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever and the worst thing to ever happen to campaign finance.

Unfortunately for Rhode Islanders, we don’t get a choice as both are true.

“It’s much worse than we thought,” said Bill Fischer, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party, in an email press release. “Standing with Citizens United is disturbing enough, but to also publicly pronounce your opposition to basic campaign finance reform is simply alarming. Brendan Doherty has bought into Citizens United’s mission hook, line and sinker, all for the lowly price of $10,000 and he’s indicated that he is standing with the more extreme flanks of the Republican Party, another sign he is far removed from the political positions of most Rhode Islanders.”

Doherty has been trying to parse himself as a moderate Republican. But his continued opposition to health care reform and his anti-working class and anti-women positions make this harder and harder to believe … now that we know he doesn’t even support the DISCLOSE Act, maybe he doesn’t even support the American people’s right to know who is paying for the propaganda they are watching on TV.

“Doherty’s ‘I’m a moderate’ position is about as thin as an outdoor skating rink in the Mojave Desert,” added Fischer. “The more Mr. Doherty talks frankly about the issues, the more voters of the First Congressional District are going to find out Brendan is a conservative in moderate’s clothing.”

July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

Viola Davis Shills for Charter Management Model

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Education expert Diane Ravitch is right to be disappointed in Rhode Island’s best known former public school student Viola Davis.

Both RI Future and Ravitch both wrote about parent trigger laws this morning, ALEC model legislation that allows parents to privatize public schools – here’s Ravitch’s piece and here’s Russ Conway’s. Ravitch notes that RI’s own Viola Davis, famous around the country for almost winning an Oscar and famous here in Rhode Island for growing up in Central Falls, will star in a new propaganda film about parent trigger laws.

Here’s what Ravitch writes about Davis:

It’s sad to see Viola Davis involved in this sneaky push for privatization. I remember when she won the Academy Award in 2010 and announced that she was proud to be a graduate of Central Falls High School, right at the time that all the corporate reformers were gloating about the threat to shut it down.

It should come as little surprise though that DAvis is shilling for the corporate education model … earlier this month even more famous Hollywood actor Meryl Streep, who beat out Davis for the Best Actress Academy Award, recent gave a grand total of $15,000 to the Segue charter school in the runner-ups hometown of Central Falls. According to the Projo, Davis “had introduced Streep to Segue and mentioned that the school was in dire need of a new building.”

July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

Progress Report: Plastic Bag Ban in Barrington; Projo on Gemma, Social Networking, GoLocal Goes for Local Sports

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downtown from providence river — Downtown Providence from the Providence River. (Photo by Bob Plain)

When the American autopsy is finalized, it could turn out that the little things finally nail our culture’s coffin shut. Mr. Coffee machines, ATM cards, electric can openers and plastic grocery bags are potentially far more nefarious than factory farming, too big too fail banks, food-borne illness and the mountains of non-biodegradable garbage we’ve created.

Probably not, but good for the Barrington Town Council in any case for taking on what in the future will seem like a real no-brainer: banning plastic grocery bags. The Council could vote on the proposal at a meeting tonight, according to ecoRI.

It was the invisible hand of the marketplace that gave us this non-biodegradable form of temporary storage and long-term pollution and it’s right that the public sector step in and help to encourage more wise use of our resources.

Though, as the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity humorously points out: “the American Progressive Bag Alliance spokeswoman argues, ‘Paper bags are worse for the earth.'” Who is the American Progressive Bag Alliance, you may ask (because the local right-wing propaganda machine sure didn’t tell you?) They represent the plastic bag industry, of course…

Here’s a tip for translating Orwellian language in politics: when you hear someone talk about freedom and prosperity, they probably aren’t talking about your freedom, or your prosperity.

The Projo finally covers Anthony Gemma’s fake Twitter followers and Facebook friends in its print edition. We liked its web version better in which they credited RI Future with breaking this story way back in March. But then again, we didn’t mention that they actually took on the same issue in the last election … though they reported then there was no way to prove or disprove Gemma’s outlandish claims about his social networking prowess…

Also in the Projo’s Political Scene piece this week: they mention again about all the legislators who are declining raises. About Rep. Scott Guthrie, they write, “As recently reported here, Berman tells Political Scene that there is just one lawmaker, Rep. Scott Guthrie, D-Coventry, who accepts no legislative pay.” Interesting choice of words given that the Projo was beat on this story by at least two Rhode Island news organizations. Maybe it should read: as reported here more recently than elsewhere…

Speaking of the local daily being behind the curve … Ian Donnis reports that the Projo (which I should note I actually love dearly and is easily one of my all-time favorite newspaper) is now encouraging its reporters to take advantage of social media. I hear they are also suggesting reporters use laptops rather than tele-type machines and drive automobiles to assignments rather than traveling by horseback…

Ian’s right, there are no shortage of Projo reporters who are fun to follow on Twitter … one he left off, IMHO, is education reporter Jennifer Jordan. Personally, I’m looking forward to more of the paper’s staff to join the fun on Twitter (did anyone hear the rumor that Apple is considering buying Twitter, btw?) especially members of the editorially board – the state’s paper of record ought to have someone on the left who can to counterbalance conservative Ed Achorn. If its interest is in fostering a healthy marketplace of ideas that is…

Anyone notice that GoLocalProv seems to be making a big move into local sports coverage? say what you will about publisher Josh Fenton, and he and I have certainly had our disagreements (or, more accurately, he’s threatened to sue me!!) but he is a tremendously bright businessman and he seems to be the first to take advantage of the lack of local sports coverage. Nice work id’ing another info niche, Josh … and thanks GoLocal for naming my brother-in-law Steve King, a former Henricken, Brown U. and NHL hockey player as one of the best athletes in West Bay history.

Speaking of props for the Plain/King clan … thanks also to Ted Nesi for giving a nice shout-out to our daily Progress Report this weekend … Likewise, Ted’s Saturday Morning Post is a great place to gather what he calls scooplets. For example, this weekend he informed his readers that Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick could end up an Obama SCOTUS selection. Also interesting to note … both Ted and I use the “Speaking of…” lede to transition from item to item. Probably we both picked it up from Bill Reynolds’ “For What It’s Worth” column … Reynolds is the godfather of this genre of journalism in Rhode Island and his Saturday morning column gave birth to my love of the written word, reporting and being a local blowhard…

July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

ALEC’s Parent Trigger Laws

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After reading about how ALEC could enter the education debate in Rhode Island, I read this headline with particular interest: “U.S. mayors back parents seizing control of schools.”

Hundreds of mayors from across the United States this weekend called for new laws letting parents seize control of low-performing public schools and fire the teachers, oust the administrators or turn the schools over to private management.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday unanimously endorsed “parent trigger” laws aimed at bypassing elected school boards and giving parents at the worst public schools the opportunity to band together and force immediate change.

Mayor Taveras, it’s worth noting, is part of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and a member of the Jobs, Education and the Workforce committee.

Parent trigger laws, popular with education budget hawks, allow parents to wrest control of public school from elected officials and either shut them down or outsource operations to a private charter school company. Lately, such laws have caused controversy in California and there’s a new movie about the concept, in the same vain as Waiting for Superman coming out in the near future. The parent trigger act is piece of ALEC model legislation (cached ALEC doc). RI Future correspondent Aaron Regunberg wrote about parent trigger laws this weekend for GoLocalProv.

Giving parents so much control over a school’s destiny is, frankly, nuts, as Diane Ravitch put it. Parents, of course, don’t own the public schools and more than picnickers own Central Park .

A parent trigger — a phrase that is inherently menacing — enables 51 percent of parents in any school to close the school or hand it over to private management. This is inherently a terrible idea. Why should 51 percent of people using a public service have the power to privatize it? Should 51 percent of the people in Central Park on any given day have the power to transfer it to private management? Should 51 percent of those riding a public bus have the power to privatize it?

Public schools don’t belong to the 51 percent of the parents whose children are enrolled this year. They don’t belong to the teachers or administrators. They belong to the public. They were built with public funds. The only legitimate reason to close a neighborhood public school is under-enrollment. If a school is struggling, it needs help from district leaders, not a closure notice.

Let’s hope this idea receives the reception in Rhode Island it deserves.