Look at the difference in funding for the WA state charter initiative. We're doomed.

[HiPointDem]

Major donors for and against Initiative 1240
The top five donors to each campaign:

FOR THE INITIATIVE:

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, $3.1 million

Alice Walton, Wal-Mart heiress, $1.7 million

Nick Hanauer, Second Avenue Partners in Seattle, $1 million

Jackie and Mike Bezos, parents of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, $1 million

Connie Ballmer, wife of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, $500,000

Top five's share of total donations: 78 percent of $9.3 million


AGAINST IT:

National Education Association, $250,000

Washington Education Association, $236,047

SEIU Washington State Council, $50,000

International Union of Operating Engineers, $20,000

Matt Loschen, retired Microsoft employee, $12,000

Top five's share of total donations: 86 percent of $658,616


$9 million v. < 3/4 of $1 million.

Saw two polls today showing charters as a win. That is kind of my gut feeling after talking to people -- most people don't have a clue beyond the sloganeering of 'choice' & 'bad teachers' & 'spending too much money'. I converted a couple votes by talking about the bigger picture, but that's farts in a money hurricane overall.

I hate bill gates. He's ruined this joint.

There is no way to win on anything political by playing the money game if you're not allied with big money. Which means there's no way to win on anything that matters to the *people* by playing the standard political game. The most important issue these days is figuring out how to fight that effectively. But from where I sit, it sure seems like most people will sell their souls in the end.

[iemitsu]

1. I hate Bill Gates too.

Everything you said in your post is correct, and depressing.
Three times Washingtonians have voted down the privatization of our public schools but the monied class wants their hands on the public purse. There has been no honest discussion of charter school realities. The facts that charters don't do a better job of educating students and that they promote segregation and drain needed resources from traditional schools, that really do take all comers, are well documented but the corporate elites (who are sponsoring this shit) don't care about good public policy they just want our wealth.
That's what an American philanthropist looks like.

[HiPointDem]

6. +1. To know what's actually going on, you have to dig, because the mainstream media ain't

Last edited Mon Nov 5, 2012, 04:39 AM - Edit history (1)

covering it. The Seattle Times, our local rag both support 1240 (& as one local blogger has documented, the Times is suppressing counter-evidence).

Most people don't have the time or inclination to dig.

I've found that rather than rebut the arguments in the false paradigm presented by the media (schools getting worse, 'bad teachers,' 'bad schools,' etc), which gets you bogged down in minutia (sp?), it's best just to cut to the chase: wall street, finance capital, education for profit, and your local tax dollars being siphoned away to support the global monied classes.

Yesterday I converted a romney voter on this issue. I was very surprised at how receptive he was to the global capital/privatization argument -- when presented as a loss of control over local resources and a triumph of big capital over local people.

But I have a bad feeling that 1240 is going to pass.

There is no way to fight this stuff except with boots on the ground, getting out & talking to people, sponsoring educational events at the local level, going in & talking to college kids, citizens' groups, etc. and recruiting more people willing to put some unpaid time in. And I really don't think it takes that much money, but it does take a good organization that's really dedicated to going to the grassroots.

No one with money is interested in creating such an organization. Not the major parties, not (apparently) what's left of the 'left'.

and (on edit) the far right is taking over the anti-corporate rhetoric that is properly the territory of the left. An anti-corporate video whose talking heads = ron paul, pat buchanan, edward griffin:

I am getting weimar vibes regularly these days.

[left on green only]

2. Sorry to say that I am not familiar with either side of your iniative.......

.....but here is something that will create a fair playing field once again: During a second term, President Obama will be able to "pack" the Supreme Court with liberal justices. Citizen's United is doomed to be overturned.

[defacto7]

3. I don't think it's that simple,

but I hope you are right that he has that opportunity. If he does get that chance, I'm sure he will "pack" the court.

[defacto7]

4. I also don't know the details of you're initiative,

but I do not trust education to be in the hands of private enterprise for one moment.

[MFM008]

5. 6 of us

voted against it.

[kashleen]

7. Add the Int'l Association of Machinists to the list

I'm an IAM member and they also recommend voting "no" as well. Not sure how much they have contributed....

Count my husband, myself and my son (with three school age kids) voting no on the prop.

[HiPointDem]

8. i hope it will fail. maybe i'm being unduly pessimistic because of looking at polls.

[HiPointDem]

9. someone even more cynical than i told me the reason the pot initiative & gay marriage initiative

are on the same ballot with charter schools is to bring out more conservatives -- to vote against the first two but vote *for* the last one, which is the most important one to the ruling class.

[Starry Messenger]

10. How did it go HighPointDem?

By the way, I was thinking of this thread listening to the radio yesterday. You know the story about George Lucas selling Lucasfilm to Disney? Guess who he's pledged to give the money to in his will.

[HiPointDem]

11. still waiting. let me guess -- the gates foundation? on edit: i see he has his *own* "education"

foundation.

like all the super-rich assholes.

[Starry Messenger]

12. Well the radio said the Gates foundation

Not surprised to hear he has his own outfit too.

[sulphurdunn]

13. Big money can buy

pretty much buy the table if it remains persistent and keeps raising the ante every time it loses a hand.

[HiPointDem]

14. +1. especially if it controls the information the other players get.

[sulphurdunn]

15. Absolutely! I forgot

to mention that money lets you mark and shuffle the deck, call the game and deal every hand.