Charter Schools, Private Schools, Public Schools and Unions

Mr. Hunter ignores private schools in Cambridge. Are they not separate and unequal? In private schools and charter schools teachers unions cannot force teachers to pay union dues. Is that why unions oppose charter schools? Private schools accept taxpayer benefits too. Hunter argues against himself saying "60 percent of Massachusetts charter schools—including the three Cambridge charters—have no parents serving as board trustees.



As a parent, you want the best for your child. But, as a community, we have to decide what is best for all the children." Which is it? Having no parents on the boards is good or bad? Removing unruly students is good for the community bad for the unruly student. One more counter productive argument. Hunter fails to mention education outcome by public school students compared with charter schools. Is that unimportant? 

[My response to comment]
Don't want to deny disruptive students education. Why should they be allowed to prevent educating the rest of the class? Should disruptive students be allowed to threaten and to intimidate teachers without accountability? Why are students with learning disabilities provided extra resources but when hiring diverse populations, e.g., persons with disabilities public schools exclude such persons? Why are politicians and police in Cambridge and elsewhere permitted to ridicule, to humiliate and to harass persons (not just students) with disabilities? In the USA "we" just isolate and exploit such students for business purposes of the human services industrial complex. Free and "equal" education is hallmark? Why do some persons get extra taxpayer resources than others? "Privatizers' have a better record of producing skilled students with abilities, unlike too many high school grads who need remedial education at community colleges. Blame Wall Street, not unions and mendacious politicians. Keep the guilty above scrutiny. Maintain the status quo dumbing down the population. Bring on the idiocracy.  


http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20160601/NEWS/160609475/?Start=1

Guest column: We don't need a dual system of education in Cambridge
By Dan Hunter
Posted Jun. 1, 2016 at 2:02 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge MA Editorial Insults Persons With Disabilities

Do not know the source material for this editorial. (Editorial: Prisons and mental illness, Aug. 7, 2015, CAMBRIDGE Chronicle) But it makes unsupported statements which conflate crime, homelessness and psychiatry. The conclusions are extremely offensive to anyone ever accused of mental illness. There is no evidence of any causal connection between crime, violence and a psychiatric diagnosis. It is a pervasive misguided belief by journalists, lawyers and politicians. The drug industry supports the psychiatric industry promoting these literally fantastic beliefs. It is great for increasing the client base and income of those industries. But it remains unsupported by facts. It is one method of institutional demonizing of persons with disabilities which this editorial makes worse. Stop the insults.

[From editorial]
Massachusetts is at last beginning to come to grips with the fact that its prisons and jails are crowded with people whose “crimes” are inseparable from their mental illnesses. 
[. . .]
The state’s efforts will focus on individuals whose mental health issues are the underlying reason behind their imprisonment.
[. . .]
80 percent of the prisoners are held for crimes directly traceable to drug addiction or mental illness.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150807/NEWS/150807985

Editorial: Prisons and mental illness
Posted Aug. 7, 2015 at 10:39 AM 
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Misguided Editorial Standards

"Accused subway pusher Naeem Davis said he was off his meds for bipolar disorder and hearing voices." (CHUCK BENNETT, "Homeless crazies can’t be rounded up – until they attack," New York Post, December 10, 2012) Why is there no focus on the psychiatric drugs which are a known cause of suicidal thoughts and violence. Even the drug-company-controlled FDA requires a black box warning label. Are all journalists under the spell of the pharmaceutical industry, keeping people ignorant? When will psychiatrists be prosecuted for causing violence?

In addition the editors have their statistics backwards. Persons accused of mental illness are less violent than non diagnosed civilians. But psychiatrists make all human activity into mental illnesses. Under current psychiatric standards all criminals are mentally ill. Who needs due process protections and criminal courts if psychiatrists can identify the guilty people?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/homeless_crazies_can_be_rounded_BZYb2rbTraTJ8tcFDKAzHJ

Homeless crazies can’t be rounded up – until they attack
Laws keep future stabbers & subway pushers on street
New York Post
By CHUCK BENNETT
Last Updated: 3:11 AM, December 10, 2012
Posted: 1:11 AM, December 10, 2012

Cambridge Chronicle Editor Leaving Paper

[This letter was published in the print edition of the Cambridge Chronicle on Thursday November 15, 2012, Page A13.] 

Cambridge Editor Leaving Paper

Scott Wachtler is not the first Editor of this paper to recognize the apathy of Cambridge voters toward misguided government priorities. (Scott Wachtler, "So long, Cambridge -- thanks for the stories," Cambridge Chronicle, November 1, 2012) His unique perspective as editor of the local paper gave him access to public officials, readers, and voters. Cambridge voters do not care about corruption. Not all voters, but many of them. Cambridge was a different city before rent control was repealed in 1995. More voters attended City Council meetings and more voters spoke out about abuses of power, negligence, waste of taxpayer funds, and corruption. Seventeen years later the demography of Cambridge is changed. Fewer working class voters. (I know, Harvard University professors see themselves as working class.) 

When concerned citizens confront officials with violations of state laws and city ordinances, the typical response from public officials is "Will you shut up!" Today Cambridge residents prefer to give money than to confront abuses of government officials. They do not want to get involved. Wealthy academics and academic wannabes dominate the population in Cambridge in 2012. One study showed that only 25 percent of the City population has been in the city for more than 5 years. The few citizens who do care about corruption are derided, ridiculed and humiliated by public officials, journalists (with exceptions), and wealthy citizens. It is revealing that critics of the Cambridge Chronicle ask "Are you trying to be like the Herald?" The Boston Globe does not do reform of state and local government unless or until corruption is exposed by other media. The Kennedy cult Democrats run Massachusetts for many years. Kennedy supporters are more highly concentrated in Cambridge and at the Globe, than elsewhere in the Commonwealth. 

Middlesex County government was dissolved due to corruption. In the 1940s Cambridge was so thoroughly corrupt the form of city government was changed to the current Plan E. But that did not end the problems. It all depends upon who runs the government. In England they have a term "rotten borough" for jurisdictions like Cambridge, that are corrupt no matter what is done to combat it. 

Wachtler was up against more than the usual resistance to scrutiny by public officials. Cambridge voters do not want honest government. They prefer easy access, relaxed rectitude, and optional law enforcement. One journalist revealed after some hard hitting reporting of government negligence, his boss told him, "We have to live with these people." He did not want to offend "these (government) people." Like Scott he left that media venue. 

A few years ago Walter Cronkhite lamented at Harvard University's Kennedy School that once the salaries of journalists were raised to high levels the quality of reporting dropped. Journalists now earning millions of dollars a year want to get invited to dinners given by and for the people they used to cover when reporting. So they write positive stories and eliminate the negative. One other journalist explained the reason they do not criticize officials in government, at corporations and universities is because they do not want to offend their "sources." It is not a good time for journalism or for free expression in the United States.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1831585841/So-long-Cambridge-thanks-for-the-stories#axzz2B0Qapwhb 

So long, Cambridge -- thanks for the stories 
By Scott Wachtler swachtler (at) wickedlocal.com 
Cambridge Chronicle 
Posted Nov 01, 2012 @ 08:00 AM

Letter To Editor, Tawas, MI

Tawas City is on Lake Huron in Northern Michigan - opposite the "thumb of The Michigan mitten".
This is a letter to the editor.

Letter on Immigration

Orange County California Newspaper
This is a very good letter to the editor. This woman made some good
points. For some reason, people have difficulty structuring their arguments when
arguing against supporting the currently proposed immigration revisions.
This lady made the argument pretty simple.
NOT printed in the Orange county Paper ............ ........
Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either
deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with the
philosophy they're pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great letter to
the editor that should have been published; but, with your help it will
get published via cyberspace!
From: 'David LaBonte'
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC
Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to 'print' it myself
by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined.
Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange
County Register:


Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is
made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the
Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated
the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of
entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like
Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of
immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of
Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand
in a long line in New York and be documented . Some would even get down on
their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the
laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made
learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even
changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved goodbye to their birth place to give their children a new
life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate
into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare,
no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and
craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.

Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father
fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany
, Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans
ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from.
They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan .
They were defending the United States of America as one people.
When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for
the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people
of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented
one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about
picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It
would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to
be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They
stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.



And here we are in 2009 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same
rights and privileges only they want to achieve it by playing with a
different set of rules; one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee
of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what
being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on
Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil,
hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that
has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I
think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those
waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it
happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration
bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just
(signed) Rosemary LaBonte

Orange County California Newspaper

NOT printed in the Orange County Paper...................

From: 'David LaBonte'
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed.. So, I decided to 'print' it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:

Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times.. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.
Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan. None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as one people.
When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans.. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are in 2009 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules; one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.

(signed) Rosemary LaBonte