American Federation of Teachers

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August 2015

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Aug 31, 2015 1 note
Aug 28, 2015
#Katrina10
Aug 26, 2015
Aug 20, 2015
Aug 19, 2015 226 notes
Aug 13, 2015
Aug 11, 2015 24,940 notes
Aug 10, 2015 1,000 notes

July 2015

Jul 29, 2015
#cheer4usa #reachupla
Jul 27, 2015 2 notes
Jul 23, 2015 1,259 notes
Jul 20, 2015 406 notes
Jul 17, 2015
Jul 13, 2015 172 notes
Scott Walker’s Score Board

yougotschooled2016:

Scott Walker is running for president. Are we shocked? Probably not. What is shocking, is that after his track record running Wisconsin this man thinks he should be left in charge of the entire country. It might have something to do with the Koch confidence boost he’s been given. His last name might not be Bush, but that doesn’t mean that rich, white dudes (e.g., Charles and David Koch) won’t dictate his every move in a throwback to the Bush-Cheney years.

Now we could sit here and tell you what a jerk he is (who has that kind of time?), but instead we want to show you the negative effects Scott Walker has had on Wisconsin, and who’s paying the price for it.

To make this story even more interesting, let’s compare Scott Walker’s Wisconsin with its next-door neighbor Minnesota. It’s a tale of two states: Both economies grew from foundations in manufacturing, farming and mining, with strong histories of organized labor. Then came the 2010 elections. Both states, still reeling from the recession, elected new governors. Those two governors took these two states down two very different paths. No need to keep score at home, we’ll do that for you.

Today, Minnesota’s unemployment rate is 3.6 percent—far below the national rate of 5.7 percent—while Wisconsin’s job growth has been among the worst in the region and its income growth has been among the worst in the nation. Also, when Scott Walker said, “We showed that when we say ‘Wisconsin is open for business,’ we mean it,” the operative word was show. Last we checked, as soon as Wisconsin passed “right to work,” this 100-year-old Wisconsin company decided to move to Minnesota.

Since his election, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton turned his state’s budget deficit into a projected surplus of nearly $2 billion. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has swollen his state’s budget deficit to a projected $2 billion.

Meanwhile, Gov. Dayton has boosted the minimum wage, invested in public education and higher education, pushed for universal pre-K and supported workers’ rights. And, Minnesota has the most union members of any state in the Midwest.

And Walker? He has continuously slashed funding to public schools, is about to do it again, is dismantling the state’s public university system and has refused early education grants. And earlier this year, he signed a bill that makes Wisconsin the 25th so-called right to work state, which research shows, contrary to the hype, drives down wages and destroys good jobs. Why? To eviscerate Wisconsin’s labor unions (bring it, ISIS).

We’ve got news for you, Scott Walker: Trickle-down economics doesn’t work for the majority of us, and frankly, it never has—it’s only great for rich people. We want a healthy middle class, and we need a different approach that begins with a high-quality public education that gives future generations the skills they need to get good jobs with fair wages, helping everyone climb the ladder of opportunity. And you say you want that too:

What has made America amazing has been the fact that throughout our history, throughout the more than 200 years of our history, there have been men and women of courage who stood up and decided it was more important to look out for the future of their children and their grandchildren than their own political futures.

– Scott Walker, June 5, 2012

However, Scotty (Can we call you that? Whatever.), a crucial step in this equation is to enable more workers to form and join unions. If you want a strong middle class, then you can’t take out the unions that built it. If you want a job where your chances of dying are lower, unions help! If you want good jobs with higher wages, then workers need a voice. And you, sir, are not that voice for Wisconsin and should never be that voice for this country.

Game over.

Jul 10, 2015 7 notes
Jul 9, 2015 1,178 notes
Jul 8, 2015 2 notes
#unionpride
Jul 7, 2015 2 notes
Jul 1, 2015

June 2015

Jun 30, 2015 4 notes
Jun 30, 2015
#voiceforall
Jun 30, 2015
#overtime
Jun 26, 2015
#lovewins #marriagequality
Jun 26, 2015 443 notes
Jun 26, 2015 3,305 notes
Jun 25, 2015 3 notes
“No society that regulates firearms suffers from the absence of any liberty at all, save the liberty of lunatics to murder their neighbors as they choose.”—Adam Gopnik, “Charleston, and the Next Time” (via newyorker)
Jun 23, 2015 1,183 notes
Jeb’s Greatest Education Hits - The Remix

yougotschooled2016:

Jeb Bush had quite the op-ed in the New York Post this morning. It didn’t make today’s cover, or the homepage, but we’ve pasted it for you below. Jeb makes more than a few claims about his expertise in education, but clearly this needed some #Fact checking. Jeb’s greatest education hits just got remixed.



But, is Success Academy all that great?

#Facts



Let’s keep going.



How do kids get to attend these magical schools?

#Facts



Back to Jeb…



Wait, the voucher systems in Florida were a disaster. Take the McKay voucher for example:

#Facts



Were the vouchers even constitutional?

#Facts



What’s next, Jeb?



Let’s see how special needs students actually did in these charter schools:

#Facts



If they’re admitted at all…

#MoreFacts



But, back to Jeb on New York.



And by “unused public-school facilities,” you mean kicking the public school out of their space:

#Facts

Wait, how does Gov. Cuomo fit into all of this?

#Facts



Don’t worry, we’re almost done. Here comes the campaign pitch.



Last time we checked, your priorities are over testing and privatization.

Would you send your kid to a Jeb Bush school? 

#Facts

Jun 23, 2015 1 note
Jun 23, 2015
Jun 23, 2015 190,521 notes
Jun 22, 2015 582 notes
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Jun 22, 2015 218 notes
Jun 19, 2015 4 notes
“Nine people were shot dead in a church in Charleston. How is it possible, while reading about the alleged killer, Dylann Storm Roof, posing darkly in a picture on his Facebook page, the flags of racist Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa sewn to his jacket, not to think that we have witnessed a lynching?”—David Remnick on Charleston and the Age of Obama (via newyorker)
Jun 19, 2015 769 notes
Backlash Against Scott Walker’s War On The University Of Wisconsinthinkprogress.org
Jun 17, 2015 103 notes
Jun 15, 2015 2 notes
#DACAworks
Jun 15, 2015 3 notes
Jun 12, 2015
Jun 11, 2015
#affordablecollege
Jun 10, 2015 2,343 notes
Jun 8, 2015 239 notes
Jun 5, 2015
Jun 4, 2015
New Data Offer First Infuriating Glimpse At How The Richest 0.001 Percent Pay Income Taxes

think-progress:

Tax day doesn’t sting much if you live at the gilded edge, according to new data on how the top one-hundredth of one percent and the top one-thousandth of a percent of all filers pay their income taxes. People who make tens of millions of dollars enjoyed falling income tax rates and ballooning wealth for a decade as middle-class taxpayers floundered.

New Data Reveals How The 0.001 Percent Live>

Jun 2, 2015 1,047 notes

May 2015

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May 28, 2015 121 notes
May 28, 2015 33 notes
May 21, 2015
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May 21, 2015 1 note
May 19, 2015
May 12, 2015 1 note
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