Joe Biden Has a Golden Opportunity to Strengthen Public Education

The following is an excerpt of an article that was originally published on EdPolitics.

Click to read the full article online.

After years of federal policy malpractice, the nation is eager for a fresh agenda for public schools.

By Jeff Bryant

January 19, 2021

In picking Connecticut Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona to be his nominee for U.S. secretary of education, President-elect Joe Biden appears to have made a Goldilocks choice that pleases just about everyone. People who rarely agree on education policy have praised the decision, including Jeanne Allen, CEO of the Center for Education Reform, a nonprofit group that advocates for charter schools and school choice, who called Cardona “good news,” and education historian Diane Ravitch, who also called the pick “good news” because he does not seem to be aligned with advocates for charter schools and vouchers. Sara Sneed, president and CEO of the NEA Foundation, a public charity founded by educators, called Cardona an “ideal candidate,” in an email, and hailed him for “his emphasis on the need to end structural racism in education and for his push for greater educational equity and opportunity through public schools.”

But as Biden and Cardona—should he be approved, as most expect—begin to address the array of critical issues that confront the nation’s schools, there’s bound to be more of a pushback. Or maybe not?

After decades of federal legislation that emphasized mandating standardized testing and tying school and teacher evaluations to the scores; imposing financial austerity on public institutions; incentivizing various forms of privatization; and undermining teachers’ professionalism and labor rights, there is a keen appetite for a new direction for school policy.

Due to the disruption forced by the pandemic, much is being written and said about the need to “restart and reinvent” education and a newfound appreciation for schools as essential infrastructure for families and children. With an incoming Biden administration, Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, and the influence of incoming first lady Jill Biden, a career educator, we may be on the cusp of a historic moment when the stars align to revitalize public schools in a way that hasn’t happened in a generation.

Read the rest at EdPolitics.

Jeff Bryant is a writing fellow and chief correspondent for Our Schools. He is a communications consultant, freelance writer, advocacy journalist, and director of the Education Opportunity Network, a strategy and messaging center for progressive education policy. His award-winning commentary and reporting routinely appear in prominent online news outlets, and he speaks frequently at national events about public education policy. Follow him on Twitter @jeffbcdm.

Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr

Announcing the Launch of the Bridging the Gap Initiative

Bridging the Gap is a pilot program designed to support college students from very different walks of life to cultivate the will and the skill to communicate effectively across lines of difference.

In response to the deep divisions we see across our country, and in higher education more specifically, this program provides training and the opportunity to practice developing a deeper understanding of the “other.”

The goal is not to seek watered-down compromises or a kumbaya belief that there are no real disagreements. But rather, Bridging the Gap believes deeply in people, believes the brave work is sitting face to face with those we disagree with and staying firm in our values and open to their humanity at the same time. 

We envision a transformed culture where the heroes are the bridge builders. With Bridging the Gap, these skills are also then applied to issue and policy challenges where we take a multi-stakeholder approach to understanding uses such as criminal justice and where diverse groups of students are charged with developing blueprints for reform on those issues.

Watch the trailer:

Enjoy watching the full documentary film about the process here. You can also read more about Bridging the Gap in USA Today and on Philanthropy.com. 

In America, Business Profits Come First Over the Pandemic

The following is an excerpt of an article that was originally published on Newsclick.

Click to read the full article online.

Blaming the deadly virus surge on individuals and their risky behavior ignores that the real fault lies with a government that chooses to prioritize the health of businesses over that of humans.

By Sonali Kolhatkar

January 10, 2021

Los Angeles, California, is now considered one of the worst COVID-19 hotspots in the nation. LA mayor Eric Garcetti assessed grimly that there is one new infection every six seconds and a death every 10 minutes from the virus. Hospitals are turning away ambulances, and health facilities in LA County are quite literally running out of oxygen. But last spring, as the pandemic was first declared, the city was an early adopter of mandated mask wearing and benefitted from California enacting the first statewide shelter-in-place order that helped curb the worst spread of the virus. So, what happened?

There is a possibility that the deadly surge in cases may be a result of a new, more transmissible strain of the virus circulating in the area. But more likely the spread is the result of the message that authorities are sending of a premature return to normalcy. As social media platforms are filled with angry Angelenos blaming and shaming one another for brazenly vacationing and flouting social distancing guidelines, in truth, the burst of infections is the price that officials are willing to pay for ensuring that corporate profits are protected.

California’s latest shelter-in-place order is quite different from its first one. Whereas in March 2020 the state ordered all non-essential businesses to remain closed, in early December, at the peak of the holiday shopping season, all retail stores were allowed to remain open, even as outdoor parks were closed. So outraged were Californians by the obvious double standards that state officials caved and reopened parks—instead of shutting down retail stores.

Predictably, infections at malls soared as shoppers, eager to salvage Christmas, rubbed elbows with one another in their rush to fulfill holiday wishes. After all, authorities had okayed such actions, so they must be safe, right? Rather than enact strict rules to prevent such congregating, some Californians rightfully terrified of the disease simply blamed the shoppers. Even LA County health services director Dr. Christina Ghaly told the Los Angeles Times, “If you’re still out there shopping for your loved ones for this holiday season… then you are missing the gravity of the situation that is affecting hospitals across LA County. Though they may seem benign, these actions are extremely high-risk.” LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said to Angelenos, “stay home,” but has refused to consider shutting down non-essential businesses.

In other words, officials kept retail stores open but then chastised residents for shopping. There are two ways to interpret the muddled messaging. If authorities are allowing all businesses to remain open, surely it must be safe to frequent them. Or, authorities are being driven by financial stakes, not public health, so surely it is not possible to trust them.

Read the rest at Newsclick.

Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

Photo by Marco Verch Professional Photographer, (CC BY 2.0), via Flickr

House GOP Recited Trump’s False Vote Theft Claims—Even After Historic Attack on Congress by His Supporters

The following is an excerpt of an article that was originally published on Big News Network.

Click to read the full article online.

The 2020 presidential election may be over. But Trump’s lies and doubts linger.

By Steven Rosenfeld

January 9, 2021

It was past midnight on Thursday, January 7, when the House began its debate on whether to accept Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes.

Earlier on Wednesday, allegations of illegal and fraudulent voting in Pennsylvania and other swing states where President Trump lost led his supporters to storm the Capitol. The mob came after a Trump rally, where the president recited numerous falsehoods that long have been debunked.

It was a stunning spectacle. More than a dozen Republican congressmen rose and condemned the violence. Then, as if the cause of the rampage lay elsewhere, they opposed certifying Pennsylvania’s votes by reciting many of the same allegations that Trump uttered that day—atop innuendo that Democrats had widely cheated.

“To sum it up, Pennsylvania officials illegally did three things,” said Rep. Ted Budd, R-NC. “One, they radically expanded vote by mail for virtually any reason. Two, they removed restrictions when a ballot could be sent in. And three, they removed signature verification on those very ballots.”

Budd did not mention that Pennsylvania’s Republican majority legislature had approved the election reforms that laid the ground rules for 2020’s election. Nor did he note that the Republican National Committee had pushed Pennsylvania’s Republicans to vote with absentee ballots—and hundreds of thousands did.

Instead, Budd and other Republicans said that the election was illegitimate because Democratic officials—such as Pennsylvania’s secretary of state—issued rules to make it easier for voters and election officials to manage in a pandemic. They said the Constitution had been violated because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had agreed with those steps. Only state legislatures could set election rules, they said, making a novel argument that ignored decades of election law and court rulings.

“I rise in support of this objection and to give voice to the 249,386 men and women of Ohio’s 6th Congressional District,” said Rep. Bill Johnson, R-OH, “who have had their voices silenced by the rogue political actors in Pennsylvania, who unilaterally and unconstitutionally altered voting methods to benefit the Democratic candidate for president.”

“Secretaries of state and state supreme courts cannot simply ignore the rules governing elections set forth in the [U.S.] Constitution,” he fumed. “They cannot choose to usurp their state legislatures to achieve a partisan end, Constitution be damned.”These representatives were joined by others who said that Trump’s mob was “shameful,” “unacceptable” and “un-American.” Yet they went on to recite many of the same claims that Trump made before his mob acted. These claims filled the 60-plus lawsuits brought by Trump and his allies since the election—claims federal and state judges have overwhelmingly rejected as baseless and lacking in evidence.

Read the rest at Big News Network.

Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, the American Prospect, and many others.

US Capitol by Richard Ricciardi, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0), via Flickr


Special Report: Decades of Inequality Shadow Voter Turnout in Rural Georgia

The following is an excerpt of an article that was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

Click to read the full article online.

Decades of Inequality Shadow Voter Turnout in Rural Georgia

A small-town voter drive reveals why only trusted family, friends and local leaders can boost turnout in the Senate runoffs.

By Steven Rosenfeld

December 15, 2020

Commerce Street, once the heart of downtown Hawkinsville, Georgia, is easily overlooked. A visitor following state highways through the Pulaski County seat would glance at a row of faded brick buildings, awning-covered storefronts and dusty windows. Parking and getting out feels like stepping into an old postcard. In the sunlight’s glare and morning quiet, you might not know that Black businesses were once barred from the street. Or that the Ku Klux Klan held some of its largest rallies in America nearby. Or the street’s cluster of Black-owned businesses as a small-town triumph.

But quick assessments are out of sync with the rhythm of life and pace of change here. Below buildings painted in pastels, antique-style streetlamps and blue banners labeling Hawkinsville as a “Historic River Town” are two barbershops, a Southern bar and grill, a Caribbean takeout restaurant, clothes and gift shops, a small accounting firm, and a tobacco vape store. Most intriguing of all is what lies below the street’s largest sign, “The Newberry Foundation.”

The Hawkinsville African American Heritage Center is a Black history museum with a faded pine board saying “COLORED ENTRANCE” above its door. Next to it is the Plough and the Pew Reading Room, a ballroom-size space with a dozen large tables and shelves of leather-bound books. Its volumes range from Jet magazine, to the Journal of Negro Education, to The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. A block away is the county courthouse and its large Confederate monument.

On a recent Saturday before the December 7 registration deadline and the December 14 start of early voting, this crossroad of past and present rural Georgia was the setting for a voter registration drive for the upcoming Senate runoffs on January 5. That contest will determine which political party holds the Senate’s majority and with it, the fate of legislation proposed by President-elect Joe Biden. While the biggest concentrations of Democratic voters surround Atlanta, voting rights groups believe that rural communities of color could tip the balance or cement Democratic wins, if they voted.

A small colorful caravan drove to the center of Pulaski County, where the early unofficial results showed that 4,081 of its 5,687 registered voters cast ballots in the November 3 election. Most were white voters backing Republicans. Like the 1960s’ Freedom Riders, whose buses crossed the South to register voters, the registration drive had a similar task: engage and turn out voters.

Read the rest at BillMoyers.com.

Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, the American Prospect, and many others.

Map of the results of the 2020 Georgia Senate elections, by TheSubmarine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The IMI Journal—October 2020 Edition: Voting in a Pandemic—The COVID-19 Election

The two big challenges of the moment that we face are to make sure that everyone’s vote is counted, and getting the federal government to develop a real plan to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. And increasingly, the two issues are intertwined.

We are bombarded on a daily basis with faulty and misleading information about COVID-19 from federal agencies and the White House. The Department of Justice is a bubbling pot of misinformation about the election and voter fraud, and the all-too credulous media refuses to dismiss the lies out of hand.

IMI’s projects like Voting Booth and Local Peace Economy and writers like Sonali Kolhatkar have not let up in this crisis. Steven Rosenfeld’s recent article explains why Attorney General Barr has no legal authority to interfere in the 2020 vote count, as much as the Trump administration might wish. The failure of government at all levels to address the COVID-19 crisis has inspired many a community to find ways to provide mutual aid. April M. Short’s article on community fridges has been read by a wide audience—and helped spread the idea of finding ways to help support the fundamental issue of hunger.

Please support this work now and keep us going into the election and its aftermath—and during the COVID-19 crisis, which has no clear end in sight.

Have you kept up with our most recent stories?

How BlackRock Is on Track to Infiltrate a Biden Administration

Max Moran – Economy for All

In Trump’s America, There Is Death Before Due Process

Sonali Kolhatkar – Economy for All

The Terrible True Cost of Milk, Cheese, Butter and Ice Cream

Reynard Loki – Earth | Food | Life

Latest Election Stunt Proves Uber and Lyft Are Their Own Worst Political Enemies

Steven Hill – Economy for All

Please support our work now if you haven’t already this year.

Thanks from Jan Ritch-Frel and the rest of the IMI team.

The IMI Journal—September 2020 Edition: D-Day for Democracy: Media Makes Sure Our Votes Are Counted

500,000 mail-in votes in Wisconsin might not have been counted in November—that is, until our reporting helped identify what could charitably be called a “clerical error” in that state’s Republican-created ballot application process with enough time for voters to be educated about it. Wisconsin’s electoral votes, by the way, were determined in 2016 by fewer than 25,000 votes. Voting organizations in September have a clearer idea of whose absentee votes are most likely to be rejected—younger voters, at as much as triple the average rate. Poll workers and voters can expect bottlenecks almost as soon as precincts are open—the more we know about these potential Election Day issues, the better the public can prepare for them.

These are just a selection of the recent articles Steven Rosenfeld has done for IMI’s Voting Booth project. Supporting democracy isn’t just about sending money to candidates running for office—this country needs skilled reporting that can spot problems in real time. Those two things need to go together for the process to work.

Voting Booth has prevented so much error and malfeasance in our election systems—and we are asking you to step up and support this work at a critical moment.

If you aren’t up to date with the important work being done by our other writers, please catch up with their recent work!

Dems Mock the GOP for Denying Climate Science, But They Are Still Addicted to Fossil Fuel Funders by Sonali Kolhatkar

Our Food System Is Broken and Inhumane, but It Can Be Fixed by Reynard Loki

Europe Is Perversely Causing the Destruction of U.S. Forests in the Name of Fighting Climate Change by Danna Smith

Community Fridges Are Popping Up Across America for Mutual Aid Amid the Pandemic by April M. Short

Online Charter Schools Are Not a Solution to Education in a Pandemic by Florina Rodov

Thanks from Jan Ritch-Frel and the rest of the IMI team—help us prevent the worst from happening.

Voting Booth Now Has Its Own Web Magazine

Announcing VotingBooth.media Website

The Independent Media Institute’s Voting Booth project has a new website that will feature the latest news and trends about how people will vote this fall—and how their votes will be counted and verified.

The website, VotingBooth.media, is reported and edited by Steven Rosenfeld. It will continue to feature in-depth reporting but introduce shorter takes on the latest news and trends, such as:

IMI will continue to produce a selection of Voting Booth articles in-house. Thanks for reading, and please support the work we do—we are here to educate, inspire, and help people make better decisions.

The IMI Journal—August 2020 Edition: COVID-19 Reveals America’s Inequality

The Trump administration’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic is clearly the worst by any country on the planet. Corporate media have blanketed us with daily coverage about each idiotic, corrupt and despotic decision that the White House has made along the way. If that’s all you were paying attention to, you might think that Trump was the sole author of a death rate many times higher than the rest of the world.

But there’s a bigger truth, one that the corporate media simply haven’t told us: a catastrophe may well have happened if there weren’t a Trump administration. Privatized health care, wealth inequality and systemic racism are the soil from which this pandemic has sprung, and the devastation we are seeing fits with a pattern of how the U.S. has failed at responding to three other major pandemic outbreaks since World War II, especially considering how much Americans pay for health care.

I have to admit I had thought it was mostly Trump’s fault until I worked with IMI contributor Marshall Auerback on his recent essay making this persuasive case for a wider perspective. The consequences are that change isn’t just a matter of pulling the lever for a president who will have a competent public health strategy—it’s about chiseling away and finding ways to resolve the big social challenges of our times.

IMI’s mission is to produce important journalism that can shift attitudes and provide powerful insight to help the public and policymakers make better decisions. We work with dozens of publications to get the work read by large audiences, we distribute our media in full through email, and then we work hard to connect our authors with multimedia interview opportunities to talk about their work.

Please channel your frustrations about our times and your hopes for a better future through IMI—your donation will make this world a better place.

And if you aren’t up to date, please catch up with our recent work!

Primaries and Elections in 2020 Show That Vigilance and Planning Are the Best Medicine to Prevent a Disaster in November

Steven Rosenfeld – Voting Booth

The Hoopla Over the Kamala Harris VP Selection Obscures the Many Young People of Color Who Are Winning Offices Nationally

Sonali Kolhatkar – Economy for All 

Trump Administration Plan Puts Endangered Species on Path to Extinction

Reynard Loki – Earth | Food | Life

How Donald Trump Has Constructed a Legal Infrastructure of Fascism

Bill Blum – IMI 

Community-Based Farms Rise to the Occasion as Big Food Supply Chains Stall

Elizabeth Henderson – Earth | Food | Life 

If Biden Wins, Get Ready for Trump to Punish America

Thom Hartmann – Economy for All

Why 5G Is the First Stage of a Tech War Between the U.S. and China

Prabir Purkayastha – Globetrotter

Thanks from Jan Ritch-Frel and the rest of the IMI team—please join our cause to produce media that can change the world.