TEV 16-5E April 1 Issue

116-5Ewww.VoterEducation.net

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April 1, 2016 No. 16-5E

We Don’t Have a Turnout Problem . . .We Have a Civics Education Problem

Reading on a phone? Do it this way.

R e p u b l i c a n s A r e i n t h e W a y ! V o t e T h e m O u t !

R e p u b l i c a n s A r e i n t h e W a y ! V o t e T h e m

Kartik Krishnaiyer

The Democrats Turnout Problem In Florida Is Serious And Could Get Worse

by Kartik KrishnaiyerThe Florida Squeeze

Florida Democratic Turnout is Down — Democrats cast approximately 700,000 fewer ballots in Florida this Presidential Preference Primary (PPP) than Republicans did. This is despite the fact that Florida has more registered Democrats than Republicans and minority turnout was impressive in Florida, with over half the ballots in the Democratic PPP being cast by persons of color. But while minority participation is up and that’s a good thing for democracy, Democrats are lagging behind Republicans in creating enthusiasm and turnout mechanisms.Minority Turnout — Minority voter turnout cannot be taken for granted either as we learned in 2014 when Charlie Crist did not win the Governorship, thanks in large measure to President Obama punting on immigration reform. That decision done in accord with the Democratic

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We Must Resume Teaching CivicsBy Richard Dreyfuss

What Happened to Civics? — I have tried for years to find those words that could make you feel the dread I feel about one fact of American life: we do not teach civics in our public schools anymore.When you really think about that sentence, you begin to un-derstand the selfishness, greed, denial, decay and the belief that the people are the audience, not the performance of America.

We Don’t Teach America — America is a miracle and the whole world knows it except Americans be-cause we don't teach it.We Don’t Teach Our Kids —Do you think that the rest of the 21st century will be some kind of cake-walk? No you don't. But our kids aren't taught to bal-ance a checkbook, how to hammer a nail, to cook or

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establishment’s desire to placate the conservative electorate in Louisiana, Alaska and Arkansas was major factor in why Hispanics in 2014 were only 13% of the Florida electorate as compared to 17% in 2012. The Democrats lost all three Senate seats the immigration punt was designed to save AND got beat here in Florida, a state which would likely have been won without it. This demonstrated that sacrificing minority votes for whiter more conservative ones does not work either.

Spin the Statistic — In 2008, Republicans did cast more ballots in their PPP than Democrats – but just 200,000 more and the GOP Primary was a binding contest awarding delegates (half as many as 2012 and 2016 it should be noted though due to a violation of RNC rules) unlike the Democrats where a prohibition on campaigning in Florida was instituted and delegates were not counted based on the primary, thus creating a disincentive for voter turnout. So this election cycle the GOP more than tripled the advantage in ballots cast vs. the Democrats in a contest that WAS binding unlike 2008. That’s a stunning statistic that I would love to hear Florida’s Democrats try and spin.An Enthusiasm Problem — Democrats have an enthusiasm problem and turnout problem on the left. Hillary Clinton whether her die-hard backers want to believe it or not generates little excitement among the types of people that have been needed to turn out to win Democratic elections in this millennium. Bill Clinton, when he was elected, benefited in many ways from a depressed turnout and an electorate that was sick of the GOP — first for controlling the White House for too long and second for the perceived excesses after the Congressional takeover of 1994. While Donald Trump’s polarizing language might provide the impetus for fear-based turnout in 2016, it cannot be counted on. Chances are quite good that Clinton as a nominee will not stimulate the type of excitement President Obama did, and given the massive dropoff in Democratic Primary turnout relative to GOP turnout in the Florida PPP we have empirical evidence now that enthusiasm is lower among Democrats than among Republicans.State of Denial — A state of denial exists in some quarters about this obvious reality. The country has moved left on economic issues over the course

of the last decade, but the Democratic Party instead of embracing the themes of the Sanders insurgency has opted to try and script the process and play business as usual. Voters are showing their dissatisfaction with the Democrats by not turning out and even if Clinton wins because of a weak GOP nominee the current malaise WILL impact down ballot races. It is worth reminding our readers at this point that the Democrats hold a smaller percentage of state legislative seats nationally today than any time since the 1920’s.I would love to hear from our readers and others active on the left as to what needs to be done to create excitement and turnout for 2016 other than simply demonizing Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. We’re all ears! —Kartik Krishnayer

http://thefloridasqueeze.com/ featured-writers/kartik-krishnaiyer/

sew, or what due process is or why we have it. So how easy would it be to change it to “selective” due process.The Problem — I am trying to save my country. My line in the sand is refusing to think, “There's nothing I can do.” I can see something that others don't: how diminished we've become to one another.

• We are raising up the cheap, the profit-only values.• We punish only the nickel and dimers, and we

never demand accountability.• There is 100 percent agreement today that when

a public official speaks, he or she is inauthentic.• You can fix Wall Street and the banks, and they

will come back with subtler thievery.

You can keep complaining about taxes too high or low, instead of thinking about what we need. If you do, you can watch potholes bloom and see heroes — cops, teachers and fireman — living beneath the pov-erty line.We want our kids to be devoted to the nation; what reasons do we give them if we don't tell our tale? That we're south of Canada?I Rest My Case —A few weeks ago I addressed the Bar Association of the state of Maine. I asked, “How many people here — judges, lawyers and professors — practice law in the courts of Maine without going to law school?” No one raised their hands. I said, “I rest my case. You all know the necessity of the bar exam.

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[CIVICS, continued from page 1]

[Continued on page 3, CIVICS]




My Profession No Longer Exists

Increasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply quitting be-cause they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J. Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse, N.Y.:

[Emphasis and paragraph leads added — ed.]

Mr. Casey Barduhn, SuperintendentWesthill Central School District400 Walberta Park RoadSyracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

I Regret — It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of this school year, end-ing my more than twenty-seven years of service at Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that may be of-fered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest stu-dents and educators on the planet.

My Profession — I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university, and this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and movie viewing. Rarely

You all know that you must learn the arcane rituals of the courtroom. And yet, you cannot transfer that sensibility to citizenship, which is far more complex than lawyering. "Don’t Know the Difference — We refuse to see the 800-pound gorilla sitting in our living room: If we don't teach who we are, why we are who we are and why we came to be who we are, we can solve every current political problem and it won't mean a damn thing because we will still have no firm foun-dation to stand on and know what is right from wrong. That's why good men do evil things, because they don't know the difference.We Get an “F” —There are basics we must teach our children, and we don't teach them.We fail.We are the first generation of Americans to get an “F” in the most fundamental principle of our coun-try: our future is more important than our past.But We Are Bound — We are a nation bound by ideas only. We have no common ancestry or religion or commonly-agreed-to caste or class system. We are bound by those ideas born in the Enlightenment and actualized in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights: the protec-tion of individual liberties and that the people have the right to be protected by law, the same for all. If each new generation of Americans is not taught those ideas, and taught with rigor and pleasure, we are not bound.What’s Missing? — What are the curricula that are absent, without which we will die as a nation and certainly as a moral exemplar? They are the pre-par-tisan tools of civic expertise: reason, logic, clarity of thought, critical analysis, raising up the values of dissent, debate, context and civility. We must tell the tale of the achievement of the Enlightenment which we alone actualized in our founding documents. Why? — We are not re-inventing the wheel here. These ideas are 3,500 years old, taught by the Greeks to their young. But of course we don't teach these inescapably necessary tools that allow us to maintain and comprehend this complex political process. That's because either

• we've done pretty good so far, • there's not enough time in the day, or • it's way too difficult for our kids.

If any of what I've just said is true, then God save the United States, because we're not. ###

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[Continued on page 4, I QUIT]




ceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the detriment of education for years to come.

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic “assessments”) or grade their own students’ examinations. The development of plans, choice of lessons, and the materials to be employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom.

Eroded Planning Time — Teacher planning time has also now been so greatly eroded by a con-stant need to “prove up” our worth to the tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materi-als and “artifacts” from our teaching) that there is little time for us to carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and seek personal improvement through indepen-dent study.

Evaluation Driven — We have become increas-ingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Pro-cess has become our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America, which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

My Profession Has Left Me —After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profes-sion, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a timeout has been called, my teammates’ hands have all been tied, the goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, “Words Matter” and “Ideas Matter”. While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don’t feel that those cur-rently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean.Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. ContiSocial Studies Department Leader

have I engaged in any of these activities without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a lecture or a presentation.

With regard to my profession, I have truly attempted to live John Dewey’s famous quotation (now likely cliché with me, I’ve used it so very often) that “Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.” This type of total immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching “heavy,” working hard, spending time researching, attending to details, and never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic.

Devalued — I now find that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day and “data driven” education seeks only conformity, standardization, testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy, experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and particularly not at Westhill.

Our Leaders Have Failed Us — A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass. In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its membership by failing to mount a much more ef-fective and vigorous campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle.

Finally, it is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been exac-erbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing to call open forum meetings to dis-cuss these pressing issues, or by so constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a conveying of information could take place.

Lack of Leadership — This lack of leadership at every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence and a dramatic and rapid decay-ing of morale. The repercussions of these ill-con-

[I QUIT, continued from page 3]




Why We Must TryBy Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

Instead of “Yes we can,” many Demo-crats have adopted a new slogan this election year: “We shouldn’t even try.”We shouldn’t try for single-payer system, they say. We’ll be lucky if we prevent Republicans from repealing Obamacare.We shouldn’t try for a $15 an hour minimum wage. The best we can do is $12 an hour.We shouldn’t try to restore the Glass-Steagall Act that used to sep-arate investment and commercial banking, or bust up the biggest banks. We’ll be lucky to stop Republicans from repealing Dodd-Frank.We shouldn’t try for free public high-er education. As it is, Republicans are out to cut all federal education spending.We shouldn’t try to tax carbon or speculative trades on Wall Street, or raise taxes on the wealthy. We’ll be fortunate to just maintain the taxes already in place.Most of all, we shouldn’t even try to get big money out of politics. We’ll be lucky to round up enough wealthy people to back Democratic candi-dates.“We-shouldn’t-even-try” Democrats think it’s foolish to aim for funda-mental change - pie-in-the-sky, im-practical, silly, naïve, quixotic. Not in the cards. No way we can.I understand their defeatism. After eight years of Republican intransi-gence and six years of congressio-nal gridlock, many Democrats are desperate just to hold on to what we have.And ever since the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision opened the political floodgates to big corpo-rations, Wall Street, and right-wing billionaires, many Democrats have concluded that bold ideas are un-achievable.In addition, some establishment Democrats - Washington lobbyists, editorial writers, inside-the-beltway operatives, party leaders, and big contributors — have grown

comfortable with the way things are. They’d rather not rock the boat they’re safely in.I get it, but here’s the problem. There’s no way to reform the system without rocking the boat. There’s no way to get to where America should be without aiming high.Progressive change has never hap-pened without bold ideas champi-oned by bold idealists.Some thought it was quixotic to try for civil rights and voting rights. Some viewed it as naïve to think we could end the Vietnam War. Some said it was unrealistic to push for the Environmental Protection Act.But time and again we’ve learned that important public goals can be achieved - if the public is mobilized behind them. And time and again such mobilization has depended on the energies and enthusiasm of young people combined with the de-termination and tenacity of the rest.If we don’t aim high we have no chance of hitting the target, and no hope of mobilizing that enthusiasm and determination.

The situation we’re in now demands such mobilization. Wealth and in-come are more concentrated at the top than in over a century. And that wealth has translated into political power.The result is an economy rigged in fa-vor of those at the top - which further compounds wealth and power at the top, in a vicious cycle that will only get worse unless reversed.Americans pay more for pharmaceu-ticals than the citizens of any other advanced nation, for example. We also pay more for Internet service. And far more for health care.We pay high prices for airline tickets even though fuel costs have tumbled. And high prices for food even though crop prices have declined.

"While many of you are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, you see the top 25 hedge fund managers

making more than all of America’s (158,000) kindergarten teachers combined (emphasis added) —and,

often paying a lower tax rate.”—Hillary Clinton. [Politifact rates this as true.]

That’s because giant companies have accumulated vast market power. Yet the nation’s antitrust laws are barely enforced.Meanwhile, the biggest Wall Street banks have more of the nation’s banking assets than they did in 2008, when they were judged too big to fail.Hedge-fund partners get tax loop-holes, oil companies get tax subsi-dies, and big agriculture gets paid off.Bankruptcy laws protect the fortunes of billionaires like Donald Trump but not the homes of underwater home-owners or the savings of graduates burdened with student loans.A low minimum wage enhances the profits of big-box retailers like Walmart, but requires the rest of us provide its employees and their fam-ilies with food stamps and Medicaid in order to avoid poverty - an indirect subsidy of Walmart.Trade treaties protect the assets and intellectual property of big corpora-tions but not the jobs and wages of ordinary workers.At the same time, countervailing power is disappearing. Labor union membership has plummeted from a third of all private-sector workers in the 1950s to fewer than 7 percent to-day. Small banks have been absorbed into global financial behemoths. Small retailers don’t stand a chance against Walmart and Amazon.And the pay of top corporate execu-tives continues to skyrocket, even as most peoples’ real wages drop and their job security vanishes.This system is not sustainable.We must get big money out of our de-mocracy, end crony capitalism, and make our economy and democracy work for the many, not just the few.But change on this scale requires po-litical mobilization.It won’t be easy. It has never been easy. As before, it will require the energies and commitments of large numbers of Americans.Which is why you shouldn’t listen to the “we-must-not-try” brigade. They’ve lost faith in the rest of us.We must try. We have no choice. ###


616-5E

Results of Palm Beach County March Presidential Primary and Municipal Elections

(R)

(R)

(D)

(D)

(R)

(R)(R)(R)(R)

(D)(D)

(NP)

(R)

(D)

(R)

(D)

Authority to appoint an internal auditor.

Repeal of special act creating the civil service code for City of Delray Beach employees.

(D)

(NP)

(R)

(R)

(NP)

(R)

(D)

(R)

(I)

(R)

(D)

(NP)

(R)

(R)

(D)

(R)

(R)

(D)

(R)

(NP)

(R)

(D)

(NP)



(NP)

(R)

(NP)

(D)

(R)

(NP)

(NP)

(R)

(D)

(D)

(D)

(NP)

(NP)

(D)

(D)

(R)

Underground utility project general obligation bonds.

(R)

(D)

(R)

(D)

(NP)

(D)

(R)

To address various housekeeping and administrative issues.

Clarifying various personnel matters.

To address council terms, vacancies, and meeting procedures.

(R)

(D)

(D)

(D)

(D)

(NP)

(D)

(D)

(D)

(D)

(D)

(D)

(R)

(NP)

(D)

(NP)

(R)

(D)

(R)

(D)

Inclusion of the equestrian preserve area within the charter.

Village canvassing board.

Certain land uses in the equestrian pre-serve are prohibited.

(D)

(D)

(R)

Property tax exemptionsto new businesses.

(R)

(NP)

(D)

(R)

Quote:“Really great issue Dan!!! I can’t wait to send to my precinct to-morrow.” —Precinct Leader J.C.




2016 ELECTION DATES TO RE-MEMBER

Mark Your Calendar:Early Voting Period:

Saturday, March 5 to Sunday, March 13

Book Closing Deadline (New Registration and Party Changes):

Tuesday, February 16

Absentee Ballot Request Mailing Deadline:Wednesday, March 9

Primary Election:Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Presidential General Election:Tuesday, November 8, 2016

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Paid for by The Voter Publications, Inc. Not coordinated with any candidate.

Assistant Editors: Robert Terpstra, Nancy Morse, Geoff Kashdan

Staff: Erin Ernest, Olivia Povedano, Edward Odette, Marie Isaacson, Andres Marquez

Spanish Translation: Julia Cisneros Fitzpatrick CT, ATA

Joe PublicFolksinger Rod Macdonald

Joe Public smokes two packs a daydrives home from work on the inter-

state highwayafter drinking three beers, cell phone in handhe’s doing 80 in his oversized vanbut Joe Public’s not afraid of dyingfrom tobacco or drinking or even his drivinghe’s got the radio on, the reception is clearhe’s hearing all the things he should fear.

Joe Public is afraid of al-Qaedathey’re coming to get him, sooner or laterJoe Public is afraid of terrorit keeps getting closer in the rear view mirrorand all those illegals crossing the bordercrawling through the desert, coming for his daughterJoe Public’s got a lot on his mind. Joe Public makes 35 thousandhas two kids in high school, trying for collegehe walks in the door and their music is playinghe can’t understand a thing that it’s sayingbut Joe’s not afraid that his kidswill find the handgun where he keeps it hidhe’s afraid of the United Nationsgun laws, gay rights and peace demonstrationsso he went to Home Depot bought duct tape and plasticin case the real enemy does something drasticlike mailing him anthrax and causing a panicor requiring everyone to learn to speak SpanishJoe’s ready for freedom to happenwhen the government comes to take away his weaponsJoe Public’s got a lot on his mind.

Joe Public got asthma at 40his health insurance costs more than his mortgagethe state stopped testing cars for emissionsJoe’s glad ‘cause he would’ve had to fix hisbut Joe’s not afraid of pollutionthinks less regulation is the only solution and don't get him started on health carehe says "everyone knows it's a socialist nightmare"he's down with the troops, he supports every missionthat'll keep his gas under four bucks a gallonbut why do they hate us, I don’t understandwhen we never ever did nothing to them Joe can't wait for the next electionto re-elect the guy who took away your pensionJoe Public's got a lot on his mind

http://www.rodmacdonald.net/


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TEV 16-5E April 1 Issue