Arizona voucher bill defeated by SOS coalition. A great red-state win for teachers.

Gov. Doug Ducey and his Koch brothers network of "dark money" bazillionaires have set their sights on saving Arizona’s expanded voucher law – the one that a grassroots group and 100,000 Arizona voters put on hold last year via referendum. -- Citizen Times

Arizona voters Tuesday, overwhelming rejected, 65%-35%, a massive expansion of the state's private school voucher program which drained millions from public schools and give it to rich parents to fund their kids' private school tuition. A vote for the measure would have removed all preconditions for students to get vouchers. 

Vouchers were first approved in 2011 to provide alternatives for students with special physical or emotional needs that their parents said could not be met at either traditional public or charter schools.

Proposition 305 was placed on Tuesday's ballot through the efforts of grassroots organizers in Save Our Schools Arizona and the more than 100,000 people who signed petitions to block the 2017 expansion championed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, Betsy DeVos and the Koch Bros.  Their goal was nothing less than the total elimination of the state's public school system as we know it. 

According to Tucson.com:

All that energized those who contend that vouchers effectively siphon money from public schools, with private schools free to take — or reject — who they want. Organized as “Save Our Schools,” it took advantage of a provision of the Arizona Constitution that holds up enactment of any new law if foes can get 75,321 valid signatures within 90 days after the end of the session, giving voters a chance to ratify or reject the legislative action.

They actually got far more and weathered a legal challenge by voucher supporters who tried to keep the measure off the ballot.

Now we need to do the same thing here in Illinois. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES ... No chances for Trump

DFER Pres. Shavar Jeffries

“DFER congratulates Betsy DeVos on her appointment as Secretary of Education, and we applaud Mrs. DeVos’s commitment to growing the number of high-quality public charter schools. -- Press Release

Lee Saunders, chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee

"We underestimated the amount of anger and frustration among working people and especially white workers, both male and female, about their economic status." -- New York Times

Donald Trump

 “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” -- Washington Post

Frayda Levin, chair of Americans for Prosperity

“In creating the Koch network, I don’t think that we ever envisioned that we would be supplying staffers to this semi-free market, semi-populist president." -- Politico

Stephen Bannon's former co-writer, Julia Jones

 Ms. Jones, the film colleague, said that in their years working together, Mr. Bannon occasionally talked about the genetic superiority of some people and once mused about the desirability of limiting the vote to property owners.

“I said, ‘That would exclude a lot of African-Americans,’” Ms. Jones recalled. “He said, ‘Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.’" -- New York Times

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

“I like to compare this to conscientious objector status.We are not going to use our resources to enforce what we believe are unjust immigration laws.” -- New York Times

#NewsOneNow w/ @rolandsmartin NOW #FidelCastro:There were competing legacies.He fought against discrimination&stayed at the #HotelTheresa. pic.twitter.com/HmFMjxsARQ

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) November 28, 2016

Is the Gov. From the State of Koch too big to jail?

I wonder why there's no mention of the Koch Bros. in S-T's coverage of Gov. Walker's crooked campaign fundraising tactics. Walker is after all, the Gov. from Koch.

Remember when a prankster called Gov. Walker  posing as David Koch and mentioned "special interests" the governor didn't flinch. He didn't have to be told in whose interests he was working. Koch had bankrolled his campaign and contributed over $1 million to the Wisconsin Governor's Assoc. The Koch-funded Wisconsin T-Party were his campaign workers.

Prosecutors are now on his trail but teacher-bashing, union-busting Walker may be too big to jail. He's one of Limbaugh Party's main hopeful's for White House run in 2016. NYT reports:

...the Club for Growth become “a hub,” according to prosecutors, for coordinating political spending by the Walker campaign and an array of outside groups. These ranged from the Republican Governors Association to Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group co-founded by the billionaire industrialist David H. Koch and financed by the political network overseen by Mr. Koch and his brother Charles.

Back in 2011, I had to hand it to Walker for truth-telling in a to talk with supporters at the stodgy, tie-only Union League Club. A group of protesters had donned business attire and sneaked inside the meeting, greeting Walker with chants of, "Union busting -- it's disgusting!" before they were finally escorted out by security. But Walker was clever enough to retort:

“I found it amusing to be referenced in the same vein as Rahm Emanuel, the mayor, but, really, some of the reforms he’s trying to do here echo the things we try to do in the state of Wisconsin and I give him credit for that despite the fact I’m a Republican and he’s a Democrat." 

Couldn't have said it any better, myself.

PARENT ENGAGEMENT

CPS parent volunteers

Latest from CPS -- All parent school volunteers will now be required to be fingerprinted. Accurate Biometrics has been given the $650,000 contract (no board approval required) to do the fingerprinting and parents will have to travel to one of their four centers in the city to have it done. 

According to Brother Fred, 

Accurate Biometrics' President is Peggy Critchfield. Her previous experience in security work was running the ice pro shop at Marshall Fields. She was Marshall Field's crystal buyer before that. Her other major client is Teach for America.

When asked if parents would also be required to assume the position and take the perp walk? CPS Liar-in-Chief Becky Carroll offered no comment.

ELECTION NOTES

Yes, election victories are possible even in this era of Citizens United, ALEC, the Koch Bros. and Bloomberg billions. Aside from the de Blasio landslide victory in New York, there was the victory of the grassroots school board campaign in Bridgeport. The campaign, led by the Working Families Party, won out over the corporate-backed forces who were pushing a horrific school privatization and corporate reform initiative.

Vallas is toast in Bridgeport

The victory means that the nine-member school board will now have a five-member voting bloc that opposes charter-hustling, union-busting Supt. Paul Vallas.  The election victory should pave the way to finally get rid of Vallas much in the way the D.C. mayoral election got rid of Michelle Rhee in 2010. The bad side is that he may decide to return to Chicago. That's probably only fair since we sicked him on the rest of the country in the first place.

An election-day stumble took place in Colorado where Amendment 66, a ballot initiative to fully fund public education, reduce class size and institute full-day kindergarten, went down to defeat.

Ironically, the measure was supported by Bill Gates, and Michael Bloomberg and opposed by the Koch Bros. Corporate contradictions. Yes they exist and are worth noting.

BELAFONTE

Harry Belafonte

Speaking of the Koch Bros., despite their gazillions, they may have bitten off more than they can chew when they attacked veteran civil rights hero Harry Belafonte. Harry spoke truth to power, as usual, and called out the Brothers Koch on the final Sunday of the N.Y. mayoral campaign. The Koch's poured money into the campaign of de Blasio's opponent, whatshisname.

“They make up the heart and the thinking in the minds of those who would belong to the Ku Klux Klan. They are white supremacists. They are men of evil. They have names. They are flooding our country with money.

Perfect.

The Koch Bros. flack, Rob Tappan responds:

 “It is unfortunate that he and others choose to make such false comments about Charles Koch and David Koch, who have devoted their lives to advancing tolerance and a free society — where every individual is judged on his or her individual merits and they are free to make decisions about their lives.”

Hilarious.