Norm in The Wave - The Choice Debates: Degrading the US Postal Service as a Public Institution

Published Jan. 13, 2017
http://www.rockawave.com/node/238993?pk_campaign=Newsletter

The Choice Debates: Degrading the US Postal Service as a Public Institution

By Norm Scott

School Scope has been exploring the school choice debate by comparing public schools to other public services and what that might come to mean in the context of the drive to turn government into the problem instead of the solution. Let’s look at the Postal service as a public institution and what has happened to it since the election of anti-union, anti-government Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The U.S. Mail traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation, elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and transformed in 1971 into the U.S. Postal Service as an agency of the U.S. government…. Wikipedia

Wow! Good old Ben. He saw that in a democracy, a national post office was necessary as a public service and it even pre-dates our constitution and the founding of our nation in 1789. Over the past 40 years, the post office, like the public schools, is another public institution that is under attack, using the standard op of diverting funds that leads to degrading services that leads to an ultimate death spiral that could take decades, but ultimately ends up giving people less choice by taking away the public option and leaving the entire field to private interests who can raise prices to whatever they will bear.

Wiki continues: The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but still competes against private package delivery services, such as the United Parcel Service (UPS) and has part use with FedEx Express.

We know that private postal services would not go places where they could not make a profit. Yes, the USPS has a mini-monopoly over mail boxes, and we hear the public schools charged with being a monopoly too. And Yes the USPS competes. But the key is that no public funding goes to the private UPS or FedEx like it does to charter schools. Imagine choicers saying their zip code doesn’t get good service and demand the government pay to use UPS.

Most of us like mail delivery by a mailman/woman who comes to your house or mailbox 6 days a week.  Or a post office in our zip code that is a neighborhood feature.

Was a public service like the postal service expected to show a profit? Not until the Reagan years according to Wikipedia:  Since the early 1980s, many of the direct tax subsidies to the Post Office (with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters) have been reduced or eliminated in favor of indirect subsidies.

Like the schools, a concerted attempt was made to privatize postal services since then by degrading the US Postal Service in order to open up venues for profit making companies. (I’ll get to the Staples operation in a minute.)

Wiki continues: (Note the BOLD)

 Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to be paid into an account to fully prefund employee retirement health benefits, a requirement exceeding that of other government and private organizations, revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced declining mail volume, prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.

Forcing the USPS to prefund the pensions, while looking progressive on paper, was actually a dagger to the heart.

Another classic privatization operation similar to the school choice op where money is funneled away from public into charters (and soon to come vouchers), thus starving the public institution until is becomes so degraded and inefficient, its foundation begins to crumble and its demise becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

One of the interesting recent stories is how the USPS outsourced package shipping to 500 Staples stores, leading to a boycott of Staples – teachers were asked not to shop there for school supplies by the union. Well, that deal hasn’t worked out and the USPS is pulling the plug on the partnership. The postal workers’ union successfully argued its case in front of the National Labor Relations Board – a Board that under Trump would be unlikely to rule in favor of unions.

For those anti-union folks out there, I have been a critic of the lack of democracy in so many unions but I avidly support unions because they are often the only organized bulwark standing in the way of unfettered, run-amuck capitalism, which is the very reason the Republicans have targeted them specifically. And watch what happens to wages and standard of living when they are gone. Sadly, I believe we are about to see that happen and the outcome for the majority of people other than the very wealthy will not be pretty.

Reading assignment for next time at the American Prospect, http://prospect.org/article/folly-trumponomics: The Folly of Trumponomics: It may produce a short-lived boom. Then, look out.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.com

Closing JHS 145 So Eva/Success Academy Can Get Entire Building

Arturo Toscanini

Dear Jim [Donohue], 
You and the other teachers, parents and the students, both current and graduates [JHS 145X - Arturo Tosconini School], knocked it out of the park. The next meeting will be at the school, but guess what, the DOE hasn't told us the date yet. Please stay tuned--when we get the date we would love you all to turn out. There were several local reporters there, along with Kate Taylor, who has taken an interest! The community is speaking up, and they're not happy with the DOE's "proposal."
--------Jane Maisel to teacher Jim Donohue for his heroic fight to save his school

Look Eva, I give up. You can have whatever you want in the future. I'll close any school you need. I got Carmen on the case. ... Bill de Blasio 

-- Ed Notes Fake News - but maybe not.

Eva wants this building

Are school closings politically motivated? Is the closing of JHS 145 a sop to Eva in an effort to blunt some of her opposition to de Blasio's upcoming election campaign - maybe even a little? A sort of bribe? You won't hear much of a peep in protest from the UFT. Did anyone see a UFT presence at last night's hearing to defend the school? If they did I will retract this part of the comment.

Testing expert Fred Smith on today's NY Times piece:

Plan to Close or Merge Schools -- JHS 145 in Bronx is pictured. Prof. Aaron Pallas quoted.

Regarding mergers: At this time, with all of school reorganizing by Bloomberg and renewing by deBlasio, what are the post-merger findings--Is there improvement (considering test data and other data) in School A and B, declines in both schools, or a mixed bag? My guess is that the picture is blurry or the data insufficient to draw conclusions, but the City will continue to merge without clear evidence of benefit.

Reporter Kate Taylor commented:

The schools to be closed are all low-performing, to be sure. In the 2015-16 school year, only 8 percent of the students at J.H.S. 145 passed the state reading tests, and only 3 percent passed the state’s math tests. Even so, it is not clear that they are necessarily the worst among the schools in the program. All of the six schools met at least one of the goals assigned by the city last year. Some are being closed for low enrollment as well.  

Aaron Pallas is  quoted in the article:

Aaron Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said, “The fact that the city thinks that it needs to do this for six out of the roughly 80 or so left suggests that things are not going as well as they’d like.”

At the same time, he said, “If these mergers and closures result in new schools that have a new kind of energy, perhaps different staff, perhaps a different culture, that may be better than trying to continue turning around schools that have been struggling for a very long time.”

Interesting that Aaron echoes some of the points made by the old Bloomberg DOE officials about closing and opening schools -- reality was that "successful" new schools were based on changing the student body. When you hear the word "culture" people think - teachers and admin -- but also if you reduce the % of struggling kids that can change the culture. If they redistributed some of the kids and left everything else alone, how would that work out? Like if the kids are having so much trouble why not move 20% into schools with the right "culture" and see what happens. There is "critical mass" in terms of schools.

I also question the kind of top-down "support" the schools get - at times with bad leadership -- and also maybe not a lot of input from teachers -- if they turned a school over to the teachers - why not try that in some of these schools? 

Now I am not against merging schools - after all, BloomKlein broke them up in the first place and it makes little sense to chop everything into so many little bits.

Back to Eva:

It is not only school closings that give Eva what she wants. She is aiming to take over the historic MS 50 building in Williamsburg, a school I worked in as tech support in the latter days of my career. (My frat brother, the late Lou Vidal, was the computer teacher there.) The charter front group uses PR to degrade schools in the public mind to open up space for Eva -- School District 14, covering Williamsburg and Greenpoint, is a complete "middle school desert," according to a report from StudentsFirstNY.

Pat Dobosz who is a Dist 14 community resident and retired teacher emailed:

Eva wants more school space and is making less of our D 14 schools. We have several schools that are up and coming and some are excellent. Eva is n many of our buildings and wants to increase the number of rooms she has. One school she is fighting to expand in is MS 50 that has shown academic improvement and is growing in population.

MORE's Marilena Marchetti has been on the JHS 145 case and sent this to the listserve about yesterday's school closing hearing:

This press release below is from Jim Donohue, a UFT member whose school JHS 145 in the Bronx could close. MORE proudly supported this school's fight to keep Success Academy out. As anticipated, Success is now vying to take over the entire school. They need our support at the March 22 PEP meeting where a vote on the closure will be made.....  it will be held at the HS for Fashion industries 225 W 24th Street in Manhattan.

Parent/Community activist Jane Maisel has also been on the case as per her quote opening this blog post.

Here is Jim Donohue's press release for last night's hearing.

History of the UFT Opposition Since Late 80s Plus My Prequel

This Saturday, January 14, is a MORE retreat from 12-4. Kit Wainer has prepared a history for people so they have a basis for going forward. This is one of the most concise histories I've seen -- it would take me 4 hours and 20 pages to cover the same ground.

I only have gotten to know Kit since we began working together in MORE 5 years ago. He came out of Teachers for a Just Contract and I came from ICE. Both groups didn't always mesh very well together and I was somewhat wary of working with Kit in MORE. But happily, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with such a smart, perceptive and most importantly nice guy - despite the fact he introduced me to Mike Schirtzer who I seem to be saddled with for life.

Before reading Kit's history, I wanted to provide a prequel so there is some pre-late 80s context for the various caucus genealogies.

There is no actual beginning and end of the many caucuses in the UFT over decades.

There are links going back to the 1920s.

There is a timeline -  caucuses split, combine, evolve. This is not necessarily 100% accurate as I'm too lazy to go find the relevant info  --

Update: Lisa Mars, LaGuardia's Failing Principal Gets Tenure!

Dr. Mars changed the admission criteria to favor academic grades over artistic talent in a school with an historical graduation rate of 98%.......Unfortunately, the 10,828 signatures and 300 pages of supportive comments on our petition fell on deaf ears. We just learned that in spite of failing grades for effective school leadership two years in a row, principal Lisa Mars has been granted TENURE!!! ... LaGuardia HS memo

The DOE outrages of supporting failing principals continues as cronyism reigns supreme while the UFT sits numb. Through the Rockaway Theatre Company I know a bunch of young ladies who are either current or former La Guardia students and they all have heard of the story of how Linda Mars, who came from the currently enrolled  school, Townshend HS.

LaG, despite its high grad rate, is in many ways a sort of trade school

Go sign the petition if you haven't. And contact PEP members if you are so inclined.

Petition update

Update: LaGuardia's Failing Principal Gets Tenure!

LaGuardia High

New York, NY

Jan 10, 2017 — Dear Friends,
As we begin 2017, we wanted to let you know the current status in our efforts to overturn the unfair and illegal admissions policies instituted at LaGuardia High School by principal Dr. Lisa Mars.

The goal of our petition is to convince the Department of Education to return the admission requirements to those consistent with the Hecht-Calandra Law and provide effective leadership for the school.

It seems the DOE is uninterested in the fact that:
· Dr. Mars scored a 1.00 on a scale of 1.00-4.99 on effective school leadership in the 2015-16 School Quality Guide. That's down from a 1.2 the year before!
· Dr. Mars changed the admission criteria to favor academic grades over artistic talent in a school with an historical graduation rate of 98%.
· Dr. Mars' policies effectively discriminate against students who come from socio-economically challenged circumstances or underperforming middle schools.
· Dr. Mars' policies foster an increasingly homogeneous environment in a school that has always been a beacon of diversity.

See for yourself:
http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2015-16/School_Quality_Guide_2016_HS_M485.pdf
http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2014-15/School_Quality_Guide_2015_HS_M485.pdf

How can the Department of Education allow this? Why would they spend tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars assessing school leadership only to ignore their own findings and grant tenure to a failing principal?

How can WE allow this?

If you are as outraged as we are, let your voice be heard and contact those who can save our school and preserve its legacy for future generations. A list of contacts is below. Here's a template letter that you can use to voice your thoughts: http://bit.ly/2j1RUs3

Chancellor of the NY Regents Board - Regent.Rosa@nysed.gov
Nan Eileen Mead (Regents Board rep) - Regent.Mead@nysed.gov
Gale A. Brewer (Manhattan Borough President) - gbrewer@manhattanbp.nyc.gov
Kamillah Payne-Hanks (Panel for Educational Policy) - KPayneHanks@schools.nyc.gov
Michael Kraft (Panel for Educational Policy) - MKraft2@schools.nyc.gov
Scott M. Stringer (NYC Comptroller) - action@comptroller.nyc.gov, (212) 669-3916, @scottmstringer

Thank you for your continued support,
The Save Our School Team
#BringFameBack

NY Times article:

The ‘Fame’ High School Is Known for the Arts. Should Algebra Matter There?

Students filled the halls of LaGuardia High School on Friday during a sit-in to call for the school to reaffirm its focus on the arts.CreditNina Grinblatt

Image

Students filled the halls of LaGuardia High School on Friday during a sit-in to call for the school to reaffirm its focus on the arts.CreditCreditNina Grinblatt

By Eliza Shapiro

• June 2, 2019
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[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

A dilemma is looming over one of America’s best public arts schools: Does a graceful modern dancer or a brilliant painter deserve a seat if they have middling grades in algebra or English?

The balance between arts and academics has become increasingly fragile at Manhattan’s LaGuardia High School. Long-simmering tensions boiled over on Friday, when hundreds of students staged an hourslong sit-in at the school to protest a perceived dilution of LaGuardia’s arts focus in favor of stricter academic requirements.

Students lined the hallways on two floors of the Lincoln Center area school, holding signs reading, “talented people are left behind” and “permit art,” many of which were later taped to the front door of the office of the principal, Lisa Mars, who took over in 2013. Dr. Mars did not come to school on Friday, but is expected to meet with a group of students on Monday. Some parents are also planning a protest outside the school.

“We’re not here to be the most perfect mathematicians, if I wanted to do that I would have gone to Stuyvesant,” said Eryka Anabell, an 18-year-old senior, referring to New York’s most selective public high school. “I’m here to discover myself as an artist,” she added.

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LaGuardia is also a so-called specialized high school, but is the only one of the nine that does not rely on a single standardized test for admission. It considers both auditions and middle school grades when selecting students.

Until now, LaGuardia has avoided the criticism the city’s other specialized high schools are facing for enrolling tiny numbers of black and Hispanic students.

The school’s racial demographics have been consistent since Dr. Mars became principal. About half of the school’s roughly 2,800 students are white, 20 percent are Asian-American and a third are black and Hispanic. All rising high school students in New York City can apply to LaGuardia.

Doug Cohen, a spokesman for the Department of Education, said students’ academic records are considered only after their audition at LaGuardia.

“LaGuardia has a long and proud history of both artistic and academic achievement, and the school’s admission policy has long included these audition and academic requirements,” said Mr. Cohen.

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Dr. Mars declined to comment directly.

LaGuardia students have also now joined a growing group of local teenage activists who have rebelled against problems at individual schools and systemic issues in the nation’s largest public school system.

Earlier this year, a group of students at the elite private school Fieldston accused the school of institutional racism and occupied a school building for three days. The action ended only when the principal agreed to meet many of the students’ demands. Some students at another top private school, Poly Prep, also staged a sit-in this year over what they considered a racist school culture.

At the same time, a growing coalition of public school students has called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to integrate New York’s segregated public school system, with rallies expected in the coming weeks.

Some LaGuardia students have said Dr. Mars’s push to admit students with higher grades works to disadvantage low-income and minority students who may have natural arts talent but did not attend high-performing middle schools.

“LaGuardia used to be a haven for artistically inclined kids, regardless of their socioeconomic status, regardless if they could do well on a multiple choice test, which is ridiculous to expect an artist to always do amazingly on,” said Nina Grinblatt, an 18-year-old senior.

David Bloomfield, a professor of education at Brooklyn College, said there is a valid argument for focusing more on academics at the school. “While quality arts education is the school’s core mission, it would be hard to attract students and parents without adequate academics,” he said.

But students say Dr. Mars has gone too far by enforcing a decade-old mandate that prospective students must have an 80 average or above in each of their middle school classes to be considered for admission, even if their audition was excellent. Some students and teachers say that rule was sometimes rightfully overruled by previous principals when a student was particularly gifted in the arts.

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LaGuardia’s teachers and alumni have challenged Dr. Mars’s policies over the last few years. The dance department accused Dr. Mars in 2014 of rejecting talented students with poor grades. An online petition signed by parents, alumni and staff that called on the principal to give priority to arts gathered more than 12,000 signatures.

Teachers have consistently given Dr. Mars negative feedback in response to survey questions about the school: Only 14 percent of instructors who filled out the form for the 2017-18 school year said the principal “understands how children learn,” and 19 percent said she “communicates a clear vision” for the school.

LaGuardia offers accelerated courses in vocal and instrumental music, drama, art, dance and technical theater. The school has produced a long list of famous alumni, including the fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, the singer Nicki Minaj and actors such as Al Pacino and Timothée Chalamet. The school, officially called the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, inspired the film “Fame.”

Beyond the admissions requirement, protesters say Dr. Mars has put too much emphasis on new Advanced Placement courses — a priority of Mr. de Blasio’s administration — that have cut into arts classes. LaGuardia recommends that each student take two AP courses.

“We are forced into Advanced Placement courses we don’t want to take so that the school can boast high enrollment statistics,” students wrote in a letter to the administration on Friday.

Students say that rehearsal time for the annual musical had been cut in half since 2017, and that pressure to excel on exams and arts simultaneously has led to widespread anxiety among the student body. LaGuardia’s graduation rate, college enrollment rate and standardized test scores are all above the city average and have been high since Dr. Mars took over. The school’s college readiness rate increased to 98 percent last year from 89 percent in 2015.

Students also said they have repeatedly asked for meetings with Dr. Mars and have been ignored or turned down.

“It’s not a secret that the student body has been disappointed in our leadership for a very long time,” Ms. Grinblatt said. She and her classmates had decided a sit-in would be a last resort if they could not make progress with the administration. Last week, she said, they agreed: “Everything else hadn’t worked.”

Follow Eliza Shapiro on Twitter: @elizashapiro.

Daily Howler on Mitt Romney and Betsy DeVos

Proponents of "education reform" also tend to control the narratives, and the supply of facts. The things you're allowed to read in mainstream newspapers will tend to align with their views.
Romney's op-ed column offers some strong examples of this unfortunate state of affairs. ....

Romney's claim is crazily wrong...
Persistently, the Romneys make gloomy claims of this type. The liberal world sits and stares.
Everyone, of the right and the left, has agreed to this rolling deception. The right pushes this claim for various reasons, financial gain among them. The left says nothing about this deception because manifestly the left doesn't care.

The Daily Howler

I love the Daily Howler's often long commentaries about the failures of our liberal tribe. Bob Somerby spent years teaching in an inner city school so when it comes to education he is especially sharp. While he doesn't take an absolute anti ed deform position he always makes point that no one else does. Here it today's post:

http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2017/01/romney-calls-bay-state-schools-number.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyHowler+%28the+daily+howler%29

Romney calls Bay State schools number one!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2017

Fails to list one basic reason: In Sunday's Washington Post, Mitt Romney offered a ringing endorsement of Betsy DeVos, Donald J. Trump's multi-billionaire nominee for secretary of education.

DeVos is a strong proponent of those policies which have long been described as "education reform." Just for the record, people who gain control of the language will often find success in the political wars.

Proponents of "education reform" also tend to control the narratives, and the supply of facts. The things you're allowed to read in mainstream newspapers will tend to align with their views.

Romney's op-ed column offers some strong examples of this unfortunate state of affairs. Consider this passage, in which Romney makes a claim which is virtually required by law within the mainstream press:

ROMNEY (1/8/17): It's important to have someone who will challenge the conventional wisdom and the status quo. In 1970, it cost $56,903 to educate a child from K-12. By 2010, adjusting for inflation, we had raised that spending to $164,426—almost three times as much. Further, the number of people employed in our schools had nearly doubled. But despite the enormous investment, the performance of our kids has shown virtually no improvement.

"The performance of our kids has shown virtually no improvement?" In major newspapers like the Post, the constant promulgation of such claims is virtually required by Hard Pundit Law.

Everyone has heard these claims a million times by now. That said, Romney's claim is crazily wrong, as we've endlessly noted.
For all major demographic groups, scores have soared since 1970 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the Naep), the federal testing program which Romney specifically cites in his column. That said, it's virtually impossible to learn that fact in the pages of major newspapers like the Post and the New York Times.

Globalism vs Nationalism: We Are Not the World - WSJ

The new nationalist surge has startled establishment parties in part because they don’t see globalism as an ideology. How could it be, when it is shared across the traditional Left-Right spectrum by the likes of Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, George W. Bush and David Cameron?

....thanks for sharing this excellent analysis [from the WSJ Saturday Essay]! It puts the whole "globalism" vs "nationalism" conflict in a helpful historical and international context.... comment from a listserve after I shared the article below.

This insightful piece on the growing nationalism around the world in response to globalism sparked my earlier sci-fi piece, FEXIT Vote Roils United Federation of Planets, which was making a point about the dangers of extreme nationalism. This is tricky ground but Author, Greg Ip, does a lot of good splainin'.

The link is http://www.wsj.com/articles/we-arent-the-world-1483728161 if you can't read it there try this link

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/selfstyled-patriots-v-globalists/news-story/ede228a05e5e735877f9471badddf23d

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We Are Not the World

• Greg Ip
• The Wall Street Journal
• 9:24PM January 7, 2017

Late on a Sunday evening a little more than a year ago, Marine Le Pen took the stage in a depressed working-class town in northern France. She had just lost an election for the region’s top office, but the leader of France’s anti-immigrant, anti-euro National Front did not deliver a concession speech.

Instead, Le Pen proclaimed a new ideological struggle.

“Now, the dividing line is not between Left and Right but globalists and patriots,” she declared, with a gigantic French flag draped behind her.

Globalists, she charged, want France to be subsumed in a vast, world-encircling “magma”. She and other patriots, by contrast, were determined to retain the nation-state as the “protective space” for French citizens.

Le Pen’s remarks foreshadowed the tectonic forces that would shake the world in 2016. The British vote to leave the European Union in June and the election of Donald Trump as US president in November were not about whether government should be smaller but whether the nation-state still mattered. Le Pen now has a shot at winning France’s presidential elections this spring, which could imperil the already reeling EU and its common currency.

Supporters of these disparate movements are protesting not just globalisation — the process whereby goods, capital and people move ever more freely across borders — but globalism, the mindset that globalisation is natural and good, that global governance should expand as national sovereignty contracts.

The new nationalist surge has startled establishment parties in part because they don’t see globalism as an ideology. How could it be, when it is shared across the traditional Left-Right spectrum by the likes of Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, George W. Bush and David Cameron?

But globalism is an ideology, and its struggle with nationalism will shape the coming era much as the struggle between conservatives and liberals has shaped the last.

FEXIT Vote Roils United Federation of Planets

Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam, Klingon for "Today is a good day to

die."

by Norm Scott reporting from Risa

Reports have reached our news desk here on beautiful Risa where the suns always shine of a threat to the entire galaxy.

A referendum on Planet Earth has led to a shocking outcome as over 4 billion people voted to FEXIT from the United Federation of Planets (UFP, commonly referred to as the Federation). The future of the UFP is now in danger, as other planets are also experiencing a rebirth of planetarianism, which may lead to the end of 100 years of peace in this quadrant of the galaxy. Some pro-Federation advocates are claiming the election was hacked on order of the Rutin, the Romulan leader who has been trying to destabilize the alliance from within.

Klingon delegate

At a recent UFP meeting, one of the Klingon delegates, particularly upset and threatening economic sanctions, told the Romulan delegate, "vavlI’ quv Say’moHmeH nuj bIQ vIlo’chugh, nuj bIQ vIlammoH," (If I use spit (mouth water) to clean your father’s honor, I only dirty the spit) causing the Romulan to slap her .

Founded in 2161, the United Federation of Planets  is was an interstellar alliance of more than 150 planetary governments, spread out over 8,000 light-years. It is was composed of planetary governments that agreed to exist semi-autonomously under a single central government based on the principles of universal liberty, rights, and equality, and to share their knowledge and resources in peaceful cooperation, scientific development, space exploration and defensive purposes. 

Members of the Federation are were united in various endeavors involving trade, exploration, science and defense. The Federation is was overseen by the Federation Council, which is comprised of representatives from member planets. The Council meets met on Earth and is was led by the Federation president, based in Paris. - (See more at: http://www.startrek.com/database_article/united-federation-of-planets#sthash.qshLNtUq.dpuf).

Before the UFP, the various nations of earth had to come together to see themselves as one planet, instead of the rampant nationalism that had been the cause of so many wars throughout history. To become Earthers.

In the early 21st century after the election of a demagogue who put an end to 231 years of democracy in the United States, one of the most powerful nations on earth, earth was roiled by decades of a massive economic worldwide depression and the equally massive impact of rising sea levels and changes due to global warming that ended in the deaths of a third of earth's population. Things began to deteriorate soon after most the USA was turned from a 2 party to a 1 party system, similar to the other leading powers, Russia and China. Worldwide chaos ensued after the use of nuclear and cyber weapons, leading to failures in electrical grids, pandemics and the fragmentation of nations. 

It was only after the threat of an alien invasion from planet UNOS after extraterrestrial life was discovered in the year 2090 that the fragments of remaining nations saw that uniting into one planetary system could save the planet. But the UNOS turned out to peaceful and were looking for new markets and were so advanced that they helped save earth from continuing chaos and in fact helped impose a planetary system on earth. The opening of space and the influx of aliens from many other planets invigorated earth's economy and the population began to rise again.

The Federation's founding was a remarkable achievement, given the wide variety of life forms from humans to Vulcans to Klingons, formally a bitter enemy of the UFP that joined the UFP after the peace treaty of 2199 after 30 years of war, thus bringing the galaxy closer to unity, though the Romulans remained a bitter enemy until 2217 when a new peace treaty brought them into the Federation, thus bringing peace to the entire galaxy and leading to an unprecedented period of prosperity, especially after the common currency, the Feuro was implemented.  But Romulan planetarianism was never dampened and they worked as enemies within the Federation.

Rising economic tensions and the growth of the age old nationalism that had ruled earth for over 600 years through 2100, have arisen once again on earth which itself is fragmenting into various geographical and political blocks.

Stay tuned.

Aim Of School Choice Is To Limit Choice - Norm in The WAVE

Published Jan. 6, 2017

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2017-01-06/School_News/Aim_Of_School_Choice_Is_To_Limit_Choice.html

Aim Of School Choice Is To Limit Choice

School Scope

By Norm Scott

I’m continuing my series of columns on the voucher/school choice issue which will come to the fore under the Trump administration especially with his educational secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos, a fierce opponent of public schools. The very concept of a public school system is under attack which connects to the general anti-government movement. Over this series I am attempting to point out the fallacies.

One of the major talking points we hear from “choicers” is that the public schools are a government monopoly. David S. D'amato, policy advisor at the libertarian Heartland Institute, wrote Americans have forgotten the destructive philosophy upon which the government education apparatus was built. The centerpiece of that philosophy is the fallacy that centralization and monopolization equate to quality and results.

Centralized? We have one of the most decentralized school systems in the world with each city, town or county in theoretical control of their own schools and budgets – not always a good thing in some places – but stay with me. Here in NYC the system is so big it could use some decentralization down to neighborhoods, but not the total balkanization where each school is an island and competes with the other nearby schools for the best performing students and the same funding. Ironically, it has been state and federal governments that have tried to use the choice movement to override local controls by force feeding charter schools and common core into communities. Thus we saw as a counter reaction, the growth of the optout movement that led to 20 percent - 225,000 students – whose parents refused to let their kids take the state tests last year.

Let’s talk about the “monopoly” charge that we often heard from the very people who ran the NYC schools for 12 years under Bloomberg – Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott, both of whom lined up a 100 percent with the choicers. There is much irony in Walcott’s appointment as chief of the Queens libraries, also a government monopoly, in essence, unless we want to count those little library boxes some people in the community have installed in front of their houses. I wonder how Walcott would react if we called for more choice in libraries – maybe give away some of his funding to any charter library operator who would get funding based on how many people came in to take out books. There just wouldn’t be enough money to be made so backers of the choice movement are not interested.

How about the government transit monopoly. Should we offer charter subway operators as an alternative? Take away some of the MTA budget to allow some competitor to build their own tracks? Maybe someone can get that right of way that so many people are enamored with to compete with the A train. Now we do have some private options but they cost more, unless subsidized by the hated government. What next? Will Uber ask for tax money because they offer people a choice?

Libraries, transit, police, fire, sanitation, schools are public services that are to be protected, not attacked and demolished. Sure, government has its problems and inefficiencies but it is subject to some degree of public accountability, though not nearly enough as there are too many slimy politicians who try to take advantage of their positions. Once we turn things over to private hands with a profit making motive, things tend to deteriorate over time. In fact, in the earliest days, the subways were built by private entities and they couldn’t maintain the system.

Rather than taking President Reagan’s dictum that government is the problem not the solution, we need to think about how to monitor and improve the concepts of democratically elected and managed government, which in the age of Trump won’t be all that easy.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.com where you have a choice to read it or not.