So, you are thinking, this filmmaker is biased. Yes, it is a film with a point of view. But am I right? Is this the story we are telling? The film is about the unknown. We are following Castillo’s first term in office. Your guess is as good as mine as to how this story ends. Like the film on Facebook!

There are huge challenges for anyone elected to office, and I believe the challenges are greater for someone whose job requires they punch in and out for a regular shift each and every working day. It is hard to juggle meetings with constituents while cleaning 16 hotel rooms. This story will give us a behind the scenes perspective of what it takes to succeed. What does our democracy really look like on the inside? Why aren’t there more low-wage workers in public office? Watch the trailer on Kickstarter!

Social change is never about one person. The film will follow the collective efforts to bring change that take place in Carmen’s community during her first term in office. What will the issues be? What are the forces that will come together to make an impact? Does it help community activists to focus on politics, or is it a waste of time?

This is also a film about cleaning hotel rooms. We never hear from those who do the hardest work, but in this film we will! And when there are hotel workers in Providence fighting for better working conditions, we’ll follow that too.

Documentary serves many purposes. One is to save a record of current struggles for generations to come. If we don’t document what we believe is important, then our stories will get left out of the history books of the future. I think this story should be included.

I hope this film will start a national conversation. We all complain that we get more of the same out of our politicians, and most of us are not happy about it. How would public policy change if more low-wage workers were elected to office?

Kickstart the film! I’ll be blogging about production in the months ahead.

Did you bike to work today? If so, tweet us your pictures to @RIFuture or share them with us on Facebook.

We’re meeting at Joslin Park on Florence St and afterwards there’s going to be a FREE BBQ for registered participants. We’re talking three hours of your time on a Saturday morning, and a free lunch. What a deal.

Bring the kids!

The report compares large urban school districts with New York, Chicago and Washington DC – three cities that have implemented strategies almost identical to Gist’s – and discovers “the reforms deliver few benefits, often harm the students they purport to help, and divert attention from a set of other, less visible policies with more promise to weaken the link between poverty and low educational attainment.”

Here in Rhode Island, the achievement gaps have increased as well as we’ve implemented the same agenda as New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. In fact, Gist is a protege of Michelle Rhee, the DC-area reformer whom the report was specifically critical of.

While Rhode Island and/or Gist were not cited, the report deals with almost every controversial decision Gist has made during her tenure: teacher firings, school closures, high stakes tests, charter schools, poor educator morale, poverty. It even addresses the rhetoric so-called “reformers” use to dodge questions about actual results:

Some reformers position their policies as higher minded than the policies advocated by others. Rhee and Klein advance a “no excuses” response to those who say poverty is an impediment to education, and frequently label those with whom they disagree as “defending the status quo” (StudentsFirst 2011). Others, such as Duncan, acknowledge the impact of poverty and promote a larger range of policies, while still emphasizing the same core set of reforms. But the question most critical for the millions of at-risk students and their families—and the nation as a whole—is not whether one group or another is “reforming” or “making excuses,” but what works and what does not.

7th Ward, New Orleans. (Photo by Bob Plain)

The RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity, whose funding sources I look into here, has a so-called “prosperity agenda” that calls for elimination of the sales tax. At first glance this would appear to be a reasonable direction to move our State. It is no secret the sales tax is one of the most regressive forms of taxation affecting the lives of low wage earners, and comprising a much larger percentage of their yearly income than that of wealthier residents of our State.

Taking a deeper look in 2012 the sales tax accounted for $824 million, 28 percent of our state budget. No where in the recommendation to eliminate the sales tax is there a mechanism by which to account for the loss of more than a quarter of our state budget which leads me to ask several questions.

The Center claims the lost revenue from elimination of the sales tax will be offset by increased business. This claim is intellectually dishonest and has been widely discredited. The lost revenue would clearly be made up with one painful cut after another to government services which would come as welcome prize for the Centers anti-labor benefactors.

Is it the position of the Center that a 28 percent reduction in the state budget will benefit individuals with developmental disabilities, elderly men and women, school children, and our state’s proud veterans? Will a 28 percent reduction in the State budget improve the lives of Rhode Islanders who depend on public transit to get to and from work, doctor appointments, and to conduct their daily lives?

When it comes to funding important priorities such as higher education, repairing infrastructure, supporting cities and towns, funding public schools, providing a safety net for those in need, and funding important public services count me as one citizen of Rhode Island who is not willing to play games with over a quarter of our state’s budget.

Although an intriguing concept with the potential to reduce the tax burden on working families there is no distinction made on how to replace the lost revenue associated with elimination of the sales tax. Policy grade- D-

I spoke on the House floor earlier today pointing out just how ridiculous this is and urging the Republican leadership to get back to the important task of getting our country back to work. Watch the video below and then leave a comment about what Republicans in Congress should be working on instead of another empty attempt at repealing health care reform.

The meet & greet, beginning at 1:30, provides a networking opportunity for volunteers and officeholders, and an opportunity for officeholders to discuss and coordinate their availability.  Maps will be available to show which precincts are shared.  The volunteer training, beginning at 3:00, provides the “how to” knowledge which volunteers will need, and will answer questions on requirements for the community organizing internship program. All are welcome to attend the training, whether they are considering volunteering for a few hours, or the fifty hours required to qualify for the internship program, as approved by the Roger Williams University: School of Law office of career development.  While any amount of time volunteered is welcome, all who properly log fifty or more hours, through a combination of promoting, setting up, or other work towards the neighborhood meetings, qualify as completing the Warwick Progressive Democrats’ internship program.

All interested in volunteering, as well as all Warwick officeholders who wish to be invited guests at a non-partisan neighborhood meeting, are welcome to attend. Party pizza (bakery style pizza) from Cosmic Pizza will be provided. Please RSVP here on facebook to help provide an accurate count:  www.facebook.com/events/575570709140366/

We also welcome you to like our facebook page:  www.facebook.com/pages/Warwick-Progressive-Democrats/600028130013952

This event is in the Warwick Public Library’s “Large Meeting Room” (directly off the main hall when entering the library) on Saturday June 1, from 1:30-4:00. (Meet & Greet 1:30-3, Volunteer Training 3-4.) We hope to see you there!

Jeremy Rix
City Coordinator, Warwick Progressive Democrats

Read his speech here, or watch it below (John McDaid of Hard Deadlines has a great piece on it here):

501c(4) a not-for-profit designation that is supposed to be used for educating people about “social welfare” but what they do as a practical matter is advocate for a political agenda.

The Washington Post has a good explainer video here, most important to know that you don’t get a tax break for donating to these groups, Instead, donors get something perhaps far more valuable: anonymity.

It’s why it took a Wall Street Journal reporter to uncover that some of the money behind pension politics came from an Enron hedge fund manager and why we still don’t know who paid for the rest of it.

It’s why the Providence Joural always referred to anything Ocean State Action touched as being “labor-backed.”

It’s why we have little idea who is paying Mike Stenhouse and Justin Katz to be the public faces behind a far-fetched proposal to eliminate the state sales tax. (Well, we know a little bit, thanks to the diligent research of Mike McDonald.) By the way, when Katz testified for this bill yesterday he did so for the 501c(3) wing of his anti-government group, not the 501c(4).

Click on the image for Facebook page.

Providence will join activists from around the world in ten days for the May 25 March Against Monsanto. Monsanto is the biotech giant that is bankrupting American farmers and destroying our food supply, all for its own profit.

Demonstrations in dozens of countries will draw attention to genetically engineered seeds and foods.  In Providence, we begin at 2pm at the State House, and wind through Providence Place Mall, City Hall, Kennedy Plaza, and end back at the State House with some live music, information booths, and guest speakers.

While Monsanto continues to claim GMO food is safe for consumption, research (and common sense) says otherwise.  One recent study has revealed high levels of toxicity in lab-made corn.  As the anti-GMO group Moms Across America to Label GMO‘s has pointed out, when food is covered in glyphosate, you certainly don’t want to eat it, or allow your children to eat it.  Exposure to glyphosate can (and often does) lead to intestinal pain, vomiting, erosion of the gastrointestinal tract, excess fluid in the lungs, pneumonia, clouding of consciousness, destruction of red blood cells, abnormal electrocardiograms, kidney damage and damage to the larynx.  And this is only one concern among many, regarding Monsanto’s impact on agricultural practices.

In March, Congress passed what has been called the “Monsanto Protection Act,” which protects GMO-producing companies from legal action.  It seems that this has only galvanized activists across the globe, and impassioned those who are paying close attention.

You can make sure you don’t buy Monsanto products with this new app, and here’s a list of companies to avoid.

If interested, check out the Facebook event page and get involved- however you can! See you there! Or check out the local Providence Facebook page and/or the global one.

Nearly 90 percent of local teachers want a new leader. But the Chamber of Commerce supports her. She backed the firing of Central Falls teachers, but she has the backing of the East Greenwich School Committee. Tom Sgouros and the Providence Student Union have twisted her in knots over high stakes testing; Travis Rowley and John DePetro think she deserves a raise.

This week I’ve been writing a lot about how there are two very different Rhode Islands: the suburbs and the cities. Deborah Gist’s management of public education has unequivocally exacerbated this divide. And more to the point, education has gotten worse not better under her leadership. Even by her own preferred metrics, student performance has decreased since she’s been in charge.

Her critics argue that her policies and philosophies are designed to apply the Grover Norquist approach to public education: slowly shrink it down until the best option is to outsource whatever is left over. This is what progressives fear about the so-called education “reform” movement, and it is what conservatives like about it.

It needs to be noted that she does not have coherent ideas for how to improve education in urban areas or how to improve teacher morale. (See my interviews with her on both issues here and here.) And these are the biggest issues facing public education in Rhode Island.

Teachers hate her. Even the Providence Journal, which loves to belittle issues as being driven by unions gives a nod in print today to the “rank and file” educators opposed to her (though it’s wildly unfair to their readers that the ProJo covered the business communities support for Gist more than teacher’s lack of it) You can’t get a lot done at the office with 9 of 10 employees wanting you fired. She’s the Bobby Valentine of Rhode Island public education: smart as hell, really engaging personality, great resume but just couldn’t get the team to play ball for her.

Urban education, on the other hand, is the single most important issue we need to work on to solve every nearly every vexing issue in Rhode Island. The same kids that aren’t getting an adequate public education in, say, Woonsocket, where schools are running out of money and not improving education, are growing up to be one in three people who accept public assistance, which makes CNBC think we’re a bad place to do business which, allegedly, the upper crust bases their real estate decisions upon.

On May 23, the state Board of Education meets to discuss whether or not to renew her contract.

While her policies have not been popular with the public, she seems to enjoy some support with Chairwoman Eva Mancuso and while was recruited to Rhode Island by Don Carcieri, Linc Chafee seems to have some loyalty to her. But eight days can be an eternity in politics.

You can sign a petition to “Dump Gist” here.