Write Rachel

My letter to Rachel Maddow, the best chance on Microsoft-NBC to get someone on screen to counter the media blitzkrieg from the oligarchs.  Please copy this one, or write your own today to Rachel@msnbc.com:

Dear Rachel:

During this week's wall to wall promotion of "Waiting for Superman" and the corporate solutions emanating from that film (the ones by Gates, the Waltons, and the rest of the "Billionaire Boys Club" (Ravitch, 2010)), I and millions of others are waiting, instead, for some coverage of the public educators' and parents' position regarding the agenda of total compliance charters, evaluations based on test scores, end of tenure, constant testing, etc.

We know that we can't count on 99% of reporters to know shit from shinola about ed issues, but we know, too, that you are very savvy and have a very savvy staff.  Can you please schedule one (just one) guest this week to counter the Microsoft-NBC message?  Some potential guests?  Diane Ravitch, David Berliner, Rick Ayers, Monty Neill, Deborah Meier, Linda Darling-Hammond, Henry Giroux.  I have a long list of possibilities.

For a primer on the WfS film, see points here at Common Dreams.org by Rick Ayers.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/27-10

For a primer on the bigger issue of present-day deform, Ravitch's book, Death and Life of the Great American School System. . .  Ravitch remains a conservative, but she is aghast at what she sees today as reform. Her blog at Ed Week:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/

Thank you very much.