Daybook- July 13, 2016
Raise your hand if you're in favor of Charter Schools
I'm listening to the Tribal Relations Committee (of the MT Legislature) live on 21-5, and I just saw a fascinating presentation about how Charter Schools can greatly benefit education and cultural development for Native Americans. I confess: I've always been in favor of trying any and all kinds of educational alternatives, including vouchers and Charter schools.
Less than 20% of the thousands of Charter Schools nation-wide (serving some 3 million students, nationally) are sponsored by any sort of "corporate chains", of which Gates and Walton are the best-known. Most are single-building, locally owned and controlled, and often part of an existing school district or other local authority.
There are only two in Montana (because of the fanatic opposition of local politicians supporting Mr. Feaver and the MEA/MTA). The one I'm familiar with is Bridger Alternative High school in Bozeman, which was started as a school for those not doing well at the high-pressure Boulder High. It will remain a public school, under the control of the Bozeman School Board. But by having its own charter, it can set its own policies and standards.
Paris Gibson Education Center in Great Falls occupies a similar position, although they had very different educational philosophies and practices 20 years ago - who knows what they are doing, now, although Paris is certainly flourishing with almost no bad reviews.
Monopolies are always bad, whether they are public or private. And that is why, even under "totalitarian Communist rule", countries like the Soviet Union and other bureaucratic states are more or less run by consensus - that is, policies which all can live under, and keep arguing for particular changes. It's only when the discourse and collaborative thinking is blocked that they become real tyrannies - something which is now the case in Montana - both in education, and in politics generally.
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Ronald Reagan's Welfare Queens are running the nation's schools....
I'm watching a PBS program called "180 Days," a year in an American High School" - in this case, DC Met, an "inner city" high school in the Nation's capitol.
And I just received in the mail, our local School District's brochure to promote a controversial major bond issue of nearly $100 million, which is about 150% of the District's yearly budget. "Low interest rates" seems to be the main reason to do all of this now, in one piece, rather than spreading it out over a decade or so. Of course, bonding allows them to pay it off over 10-30 years, plus interest, which usually doubles the original "sticker price." And there are always representatives of the local banking monopoly, D.A. Davidson, and in this case, it's the present Mayor, former City Manager, plus two other bank executives on the School Board. If you don't think any of these have anything to do with the kind of "borrowing" in this deal, you need a wake-up call, which is what this is intended to be.
Am I trying to make a comparison, here, between the worst public schools in the country (located in Washington, D.C.) and our own local top-ranked public schools, serving one of the most important nuclear-armed missile complexes in the country? If the safety of the country (not to mention the rest of the world) depends on those who have custody of this massive war crime waiting to happen, then we damn well better have 1st rate schools, right? And spend whatever it takes to maintain them.
Everything is to military specs. A good part of the $30 million+ to be spent on my alma mater, Great Falls High School, is to implement a comprehensive ROTC curriculum and "harden" the school to more resemble a secure military or prison facility. Believe it or not, this is popular in a city like Great Falls. Some of us have been warning against the militarization of the public schools (and the rest of civic life) for many decades, now. And we have been punished severely for doing so. So the "lesson" which has been learned is not to question authority, and if you feel strongly about something, or have information which is important, but is being ignored, you'd damn well better learn to keep you mouth shut. Friends and family are at risk, as well, so "take care of your own" and don't let them get out of line....
The amount of fear of "saying the wrong thing" or "offending authority" is palpable everywhere - not just in politics. Another symptom, no doubt, of "the war on Terror" - which completely ignores the greatest Terrorists of all - those who threaten a nuclear holocaust against any and all "enemies." That would be us, and our "Minuteman" nuclear strike force at Malmstrom AFB.
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Not just Charter Schools... Charter Government
Remember Gayle Morris, the former Mayor of Great Falls and County Commissioner whose life was destroyed by the Lawton Machine? When I ran for County Commissioner, it was for the seat that he had been forced to vacate, and I talked with him a lot about many different local issues.
Trained as a Special Ed teacher, and originally from Belt (where my father's family also "traded"), Morris had an alcohol problem, and was following a more or less religious "cure". I believe he started a weekly "Mayor's Prayer Breakfast" as well.
One of Morris's favorite issues was something called "Charter Government", in which the County would have a separate charter apart from the regular County government and its prescribed rights and duties under Montana law. At first, it didn't make much sense, but as I moved deeper into the local democracy movement, and community sovereignty, I came to see it as vital to our survival (against corporations and others who have been empowered to loot us at will under corporate-written laws and policies). I believe, if I remember correctly, that Butte-Silverbow's consolidated local government has one - I guess it would have to, if only to define how it is different from "the standard model."
As Mayor, Morris ran afoul of the Lawton Machine, which was then consolidating its power and control over city budgets and expenditures. This was long before the disastrous "Electric City Power", but there were already a number of cases where Lawton projects had served all the local corporate and financial interests, while often dis-serving the regular citizens in their use of city services. The "shit cooker" would be the most obvious (and never mentioned) example of a Lawton Folly.
This was a sewage treatment plant which actually cooked raw sewage with natural gas burners, stinking up the whole Southwest Side (and lower North Side, where I live, when the wind was right). Rumor has it that when Lawton was Assistant City Manager in Billings, he secured a similar plant for them. It took them two years to shut it down and fire Lawton (with great references to the City of Great Falls!). It took us more than 20 years to finally listen to some environmental engineers and replace it with the anaerobic digester which produces as much natural gas as the previous plant consumed. The complaints against the smell were never answered, and attributed, no doubt, to "environmental extremists."
Because of mis-management and probably some unnecessary contracts, the municipal golf courses have been in crisis for more than 20 years. (Lawton arrived around 1989-90). I testified at one hearing where Lawton was trying to hire another "consultant" (from Florida) to tell us how to run our golf courses. The golf community, here, is well-organized and dedicated to maintaining affordable, pleasant activities for retirees and working-class people in general. They did their research, and had all the facts and numbers of what should be done to fix the golf system in an affordable way.
Lawton and the City Commission, largely privatizers, wanted to sell them off or make them into private clubs. After all the testimony, Lawton went on insisting that the consultants be hired - that he was in charge, etc. I was the only one to take on this dictatorial stance to his face, and some of my golfing friends were amazed that I had done so (never being known as a fighter). I said, "Well, what's he going to do, shoot me?"
I've been in Great Falls a lot longer than Lawton, and if I figure correctly, he's here somehow pretending to "represent" my mother's side of the family - Nelson's, Moses Lake (where my grandfather Nelson did some construction business). When I heard he was from there, it made a lot more sense. But none of his projects which have destroyed or diminished our local public services and sense of ourselves (for me, it's always been the Library) make any sense, and wouldn't have (I hope) to any of my relatives.
Cont. 10-6-16
Now, John Lawton works at the real power center of "public finance" - selling municipal bonds which usually double or triple the cost of any public works. And our present Mayor was an officer in the same company. There are two other bankers on the School Board, and the recent "manufactured consent" to borrow nearly $100 million through these banks (which charge a commission) can be seen as a continuation of the Lawton strategy to bankrupt local government in order to promote "economic growth" and tax-free income for the "individual investor". Presumably Lawton got this job due to his faithful service to the local oligarchy as City Manager.
The "Municipal Bond" racket is the main reason our public infrastructure (including education) is a shambles, since every project (mostly unnecessary or padded with "frills") ends up costing twice or more what was budgeted. Now that interest rates are at historical lows, those with liquid capital are desperately looking for something, anything, which pays interest and is "safe" from depression or other defaults. It doesn't matter to them how the money is spent, or what kind of education system we have, while the essential stuff is held up as a scare tactic to make sure all bond issues are "approved" by the voters).
Adminstrators and teachers have learned how to pander to the bankers and technocrats, as well as the National Security State, while ignoring or suppressing anything seen as "leftist" or "radical."
The present favorite targets in Montana would include peace and anti-nuclear activists (cowards and traitors) and "radical environmentalists" (anyone who opposes fossil fuels, stripping public lands of timber, and GMO and chemical-drenched Factory Farms).
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