Lifting the Charter cap or 39% Federal Tax Credit?

Don’t think for one minute that this is about the test scores of “poor urban children” and the “miracle” of charter schools! It is about New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) investors!  That is why the Boston Foundation and the ­New Schools Venture Fund, “headquartered in Oakland, California” are involved. All the way from California, they are venturing out here to Massachusetts to support the Boston Foundation to eliminate the “charter cap.” WOW! Now, “non-profit” should not be confused with charity, the Boston Foundation and the New Schools Venture fund represents large corporations, institutions, foundations and large “non-profits” who make up that “coalition of education reformers who are “pushing to eliminate the cap on charters in the lowest-performing districts.”  

The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) is a non-refundable TAX CREDIT that provides investors with a 39% FEDERAL TAX CREDIT.  Investors must retain their interest in a qualified equity investment throughout a seven-year period, or risk forfeiture of that interest. The tax credit enables community development entities (CDEs) to raise private capital to acquire, construct, renovate or lease academic facilities in partnership with charter school operators.  The NMTC expired on December 31, 2011, and after heavy lobbying from that “coalition of education reformers” which included here in Boston

Boston Community Capital - Roxbury, MA

Brooke Charter Schools - Boston, MA

Charter School Financing Partnership LLC - Boston, MA

Community Day Charter School - Lawrence, MA

Massachusetts Charter Public School Association - Boston, MA

Match Charter Public Schools - Boston, MA

Disappointedly, on April 17, 2013, President Obama signed a permanent extension of the NMTC without placing the safe guards that would prevent a corporate greed “get even more rich” scheme. These ed reform poverty pimps want to bring public schools into their portfolio of charter segregation academies!  Don’t be hoodwinked, removing the charter cap in Massachusetts isn’t about poor urban children receiving a quality education at all, this is about poverty-pimp “investors” making and keeping their money!   

http://www.novoco.com/new_markets/resource_files/advocacy/charter_schools_urge_extension_111212.pdf

Commentary on

Charter schools in Boston score higher on key tests Globe 5/22

Dispatch from Stonehill: So – When Is There Going To Be A Republican Senate Debate?

”..One only needs to check the Mass politics hashtag to sample the relentless idiocy that some New England conservatives promulgate in the name of loathing liberals, and little else.” - Chris Faraone. Mar 13,13

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Markey said what!? about slavery!!

“I want to go to the United States Senate in order to fight for a constitutional amendment to repeal Citizens United. The whole idea that the Koch brothers, that Karl Rove can say we’re coming to Massachusetts, that we’re coming to any state in the union with unlimited amounts of undisclosed money is a pollution that must be changed, and the constitution must be amended. The Dred Scott decision had to be repealed; we have to repeal Citizens United.” MORE

Sen. Elizabeth Warren talks about Wall Street accountability

“We need to understand whether our (financial) regulators are using every tool in the tool box to hold these big banks accountable,” Warren said.

“You know they sure do it for regular folks. The district attorneys, the U.S. attorneys – they’re out there after everybody and they take them to trial. They take them to trial, they often say, to make an example of them.”

The same level of scrutiny and dogged pursuit of malfeasance hasn’t been extended to the banking industry, which, in many instances, has gotten off scott free, according to Warren. “It seems like the big U.S. banks, they just get a free pass, and I wanted to ask the regulators why that was so.”

It all comes down to accountability for the nation’s financial industry, she said. “You can’t come into people’s neighborhoods and just tear them up. You can’t sell terrible mortgage products that cause people to lose their homes. You can’t come into our economy and just wreck it – cost people jobs, cost people their savings, cost people their retirements – and then say, at the end, ‘We’re too big to touch,’ ” Warren said.

Without accountability, she said, “there’s nothing to stop them from doing it again and again. We’ve got to stop that.”

source, “Sen. Elizabeth Warren talks about Wall Street accountability, military cuts and more during swing through Western Massachusetts,” on masslive by The Springfield Republican.

Horace Mann, first secretary Board of Education 1837

Horace Mann was appointed secretary in 1837 of the newly created board of education of Massachusetts, the first such position in the United States.

There he began the work which was to place him in the foremost rank of American educationists.

Mann targeted the public school and its problems. His six main principles were:

(1) the public should no longer remain ignorant;

(2) that such education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public;

(3) that this education will be best provided in schools that embrace children from a variety of backgrounds;

(4) that this education must be non-sectarian;

(5) that this education must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society; and

(6) that education should be provided by well-trained, professional teachers.

Mann worked for

• more and better equipped school houses,
• longer school years (until 16 years old),
• higher pay for teachers, and a
• wider curriculum.

source

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Neil Heslin and I are supporters of the real 2nd Amendment, not the imaginary 2nd Amend -Sen Chris Murphy

Sen Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Piers Morgan with Neil Heslin, the father of slain first grader Jesse Heslin of Newtown CT:

“I’m a supporter of the Second Amendment just like Neil is. But Neil and I are supporters of the real Second Amendment, not the imaginary Second Amendment. The Second Amendment has always allowed the people, through their elected leaders, to decide what weapons are reserved for the military and what weapons can be in the hands of private citizens.”

On the heels of a Sandy Hook hearing in Hartford, Conn., which featured mixed reactions and emotional outbursts, on Tuesday “Piers Morgan Tonight” invited Neil Heslin back to the program to share his candid reaction and pained perspective.

Having lost his son Jesse during the mass shooting in Newtown, Heslin testified on Monday, expressing his feelings that assault weapons have no place in civilian hands.

Met with shouts insisting that the “Second Amendment shall not be infringed,” tonight Heslin clarified his position exclusively to Piers Morgan:

“I’m in favor and I support the Second Amendment, and I’m not in favor of taking anybody’s weapons or guns from them,” he told the host. “I am in favor, and I do want to push for stricter regulations on certain type of weapons, as I said, like the military style weapons and the assault type of weapons.”

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Neil Heslin was interrupted while testifying to CT legislative committee, was he heckled?

Neil Heslin:  Why… anybody… in this room, needs to have one of these assault-style weapons or military weapons or high capacity clips. And not one person can answer that question, or give me an  (he’s interrupted,

many people speaking all at once and the cacophony is mostly unintelligible except ” …shall not be infringed” can be heard.)

CT Legislator:  Please, please, no comments while Mr Heslin is speaking, or we’ll clear the room. 

Heckle: n. Interrupt (a public speaker) with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse.

Neil’s perspective is that there is no need for an assault-style weapon like the .223 Bushmaster that was used to massacre his son and 26 other people in 10 minutes, that cannot be served with a different gun that’s   less lethal.

It’s also clear the audience attending the hearing reasonably believed their interruption was invited — that Neil’s rhetorical question was not rhetorical, and that he welcomed an answer.   

Usually at legislative hearings, one person testifies at a time to a panel of legislators, as opposed to engage in a debate with the audience. That said,  the crowd’s interruption was not done with the intent to be rude, even though it was out of order. 

The Bushmaster design is based on the M-16 military issue weapon with two features removed; burst and automatic. The gun has a high velocity muzzle-speed and bullets that ‘tumble’ in the targets’ bodies creating maximum bodily damage.  The gun is designed to be lethal. 

Neil cannot imagine a need for “assault-style weapons or military weapons or high capacity clips” that could not be met with other less lethal weapons like hunting rifles, shotguns and handguns. 

Here the crowd was right, it is not about needs, it’s about rights.

At the same time, pro-gun enthusiasts who are in favor of civilian ownership of military-style semi-automatic weapons believe Americans have a birth right to own military-style semi-automatic weapons and that birthright  it is documented in the US Constitution and cannot be regulated.  They are wrong. 

There are lots of weapons civilians cannot own like machine guns, hand grenades and land mines all of which could be used for self defense but have been made illegal for civilian use.  Supreme Court Justice Scalia who wrote the Heller v DC decision, that guarantees the right to own a handgun in the home for self-defense, has said as much — there is room in our Second Amendment right for gun regulations.

More:

Father of Newtown victim heckled at CT state legislative hearing | CT Post

Gun rights advocates shout at Newtown victim’s dad | CBS News

Video: No, the father of a Sandy Hook victim wasn’t “heckled” | Hot Air

Outrageous: How the left-wing media lied about Newtown ‘hecklers’ |  twitchy.com