Progressive Breakfast: Massive Charter School Failure Exposes Thousands of Students

MORNING MESSAGE

Jeff Bryant

Massive Charter School Failure Exposes Thousands of Students

A massive charter school closure in Ohio leaves thousands of students in the lurch, and the state holding the bill. This failure prompts hard questions about accountability in this business model, but how many school-choice zealots, like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, will ask them?

Trump Says Open To Solution For DREAMers

Trump says he is open to a path to citizenship for ‘Dreamers’. NYT:“President Trump said on Wednesday that he is open to a path to citizenship after 10 to 12 years for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, days after rejecting a bipartisan plan with that as its centerpiece. Mr. Trump once again seemed to undercut his administration’s message, telling reporters at the White House that he would allow the young immigrants, known as Dreamers, to ‘morph into’ citizens over a period of time. The reporters had gathered for a briefing from a senior official detailing the administration’s plans to stick to a restrictive immigration agenda when the president dropped in unprompted, shortly before departing for Davos, Switzerland, pre-empting the official. ‘Over a period of 10 to 12 years,’ Mr. Trump said, ‘somebody does a great job, they work hard — that gives incentive to do a great job. Whatever they’re doing, if they do a great job, I think it’s a nice thing to have the incentive of, after a period of years, being able to become a citizen.'”

Trump Cabinet Advances Own Agenda

Trump sets his Cabinet free to shape an agenda. Politico“While the Obama administration infamously micromanaged policy from the West Wing, the Trump White House has given Cabinet secretaries and agency chiefs almost total freedom to do what they want, according to two close advisers to the White House. Since the start of the year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has quietly opened the door to sharply limiting Medicaid; DHS has revoked a special immigration status for Salvadorans; and the Department of Interior has moved to open up federal land to offshore drilling.”

Merkel Decries ‘Poison’ Of Right-Wing Populism

Germany’s Angela Merkel decries right-wing populism, protectionism at Davos. DW:“Angela Merkel has told WEF delegates at Davos that her government would get right-wing populism “under control, but it is a poison.” The chancellor insisted that protectionism would not answer the world’s problems. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the rise of right-wing populist parties in Europe was ‘a poison’ and that nationalist policies risked fracturing international ties.
Merkel said she hoped that support for such parties would not rise further and that her government was doing all it could to get the populist wave ‘under control.'”

Gender, Class Stymie U.S. Innovation

How talented kids from low-income families become America’s ‘Lost Einsteins. The Conversation:“Innovation is widely viewed as the engine of economic growth. To maximize innovation and growth, all of our brightest youth should have the opportunity to become inventors. But a study we recently conducted, jointly with Neviana Petkova of the U.S. Treasury, paints a very different picture. We found that a child’s potential for future innovation seems to have as much to do with the circumstances of his or her family background as it does with his or her talent. We concluded that there are many “Lost Einsteins” in America – children who had the ability to innovate, but whose socioeconomic class or gender greatly reduced their ability to tap into the social networks and resources necessary to become inventors.”

DC Charter School Board Official Is White Supremacist, Advocates Rape

‘Feminists Need Rape’: DC Charter School Board Official Exposed As White Supremacist, Rape Advocate. Crooks and Liars:“John Goldman was a Senior Manager of Finance, Analysis and Strategy for the Washington, DC Public Charter School Board. But today Goldman was suspended pending investigation after photos surfaced of him at parties with known neonazis and white supremacists as the pseudonymous “Jack Murphy,” self-proclaimed liberal-turned-conservative in the age of Trump. ‘Murphy,’ it seems, was a foe of Richard Spencer. Still it appears they share some fundamental beliefs, though Murphy/Goldman claims he was a Democrat who now has a man-crush on Trump. Apparently former Democrats can be white supremacist men’s rights advocates too! John Goldman has now admitted that his online alter ego is ‘Jack Murphy,’ but remains unapologetic about his stated beliefs and why he holds them.”

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