Pennsylvania Department of Education Sets Property Tax Limits

November 29, 2017

(TRIBUNE-REVIEW) - Pennsylvania school districts will be able to increase property taxes by at least 2.4 percent in the 2018-19 school year, though a select few in the Pittsburgh region can go as high as 3.9 percent, if they choose.

The state Department of Education set the limits.

This chart shows the tax-increase limit for each district in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties and other select districts in the TribLIVE coverage area included:

Districts can exceed their limits only with approval from voters at a referendum or through referendum exceptions from the state. Exceptions are available only for school construction debt, special education spending and retirement contributions.

The statewide base is down slightly from 2.5 percent for the 2017-18 school year. Adjusted limits for most districts went down by the same amount.

The limits are set as part of the state's Taxpayer Relief Act, Act 1 of 2006. The statewide index is based on the statewide average weekly wage and the employment cost index. It is then adjusted for each school district, with poorer districts being able to increase property taxes more than wealthier ones.

The decision to increase property taxes, if at all, is up to each district's school board.

Since 2006, the statewide base has been as low as 1.7 percent in 2013-14 and 2011-12, and as high as 4.4 percent in 2008-09.

School boards must decide by Jan. 25 if their districts will not raise taxes by more than their indexes. If not, they have to make a proposed version of a preliminary 2018-19 budget available for public inspection.

Districts seeking referendum exceptions to raise taxes higher than their indexes have to seek approval from the Department of Education by March 1.

Chicago Public Schools Raising Property Taxes Eight Percent; About Half the Increase Will Go Toward Teacher Pensions

October 10, 2017

(Chicago Sun Times) - The Chicago Public Schools will raise city property taxes this year by $225 million, officials said Wednesday.

CPS’s share of property taxes will total $2.929 billion in 2018 — up 8.3 percent from 2017’s $2.704 billion. The difference will cost the average homeowner another $177 a year. More than half the increase to taxpayers — $154 million — will go to teacher pensions.

The increase — combined with last year’s $250 million tax increase — means that city taxpayers have ponied up about half a billion dollars just for schools since 2015, and $1.06 billion in total tax hikes.

Still, CPS still has to come up with $146 million more toward a $784 million pension-fund payment due next June, CPS finance official Walter Stock said at one of three public hearings held Tuesday. That’s despite winning more pension money from the state as part of a landmark school funding reform bill that recently passed.

When that law passed in August, Mayor Rahm Emanuel made no apologies for the $125 million in new taxes it would permit the appointed Board of Education to raise on its own, without involvement from the elected City Council.

The school board also will generate more money, as it has every year since 2011, by raising property taxes to the cap allowed under state law, and through a capital improvement tax. That accounts for the other $100 million of the $225 million increase.

A quiet provision in the new state law also required CPS to allocate more money to its privately managed charter schools. Late last week, when it revised its budget with updated figures from state funding reform, CPS pegged that number at $37 million more dollars.

The Gatekeepers of the Mainsteam Media are Oppressing the People

Brilliant Overton Window Explanation
Duke Conan



The media is the enemy of the people. They are elitist. This form of social tyranny must come to an end.

Postmodernist Depravity and the Normalization of Pedophilia

The demise of Western Civilization: "Gender fluidity" as a harbinger for Postmodernist Hell

May 30, 2017

(Zoya Klebanova, Sott.net) - Traditional values refers to those beliefs, moral codes, and social mores that are passed down from generation to generation within a culture, subculture or community. Their subject matter usually includes that of family, community, religion, and art. And, although each culture has its own definition of traditional values, there appear to be universal principles that are based on experience, and that were created in order to maintain the integrity of societies comprised of a wide range of people with different personalities and interests and to prevent a descent into social chaos.

Taking it further, this visceral knowledge is, at least in part, shaped by evolution. It is also shaped by various psychological and psychopathological phenomena via the interaction between our subjective consciousness - individually and as a species - and the 'real world' throughout time.

Essentially, since the dawn of man people understood that human behavior could attract or repel "the wrath of the gods".

"It appears that in earlier history, man understood that he had some control over his own destiny and the fate of society through his righteous behavior. Theoxeny was a moral standard. Every person was seen as having the potential to either help or hinder prosperity and health for all. Even if some could give more than others, everyone had the privilege and the duty to contribute their best. Every person's actions counted and their actions were responded to with justice through other people and the universe.

But a pathology took hold, and though it could not completely change the nature of man or take away his ability to choose, it influenced society and altered humanity's course because of our acceptance of it. As awareness declined, good intentions were subverted and our integrity as a species diminished. Humans have become a species tuned in to entropy, and what we choose and express will become our fate. We have given up our personal responsibility to each other as hosts and guests and therefore will end up being our own destruction."

On May 17, 2016, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced to the Parliament of Canada "an Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Bill C-16)":

"The bill is intended to protect individuals from discrimination within the sphere of federal jurisdiction and from being the targets of hate propaganda,^[3] as a consequence of their gender identity or their gender expression. The bill adds "gender identity or expression" to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the list of characteristics of identifiable groups protected from hate propaganda in the Criminal Code. It also adds that evidence that an offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on a person's gender identity or expression constitutes an aggravating circumstance for a court to consider when imposing a criminal sentence.^[4]

"A bill meant to enshrine the rights of transgender people by adding gender identity and expression to human rights and hate crime laws".

Simply put, Canadians who disavow gender theory could be charged with hate crimes, fined, jailed, and compelled to undergo anti-bias training when Bill C-16 passes.

Watch Jordan Peterson's speech at the Senate on many serious problems with Bill C-16.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN3clJBg4h0

Peterson isn't the only one who thinks that this Bill is outrageous. For example, a member of Vancouver's Rape Relief and Women's Shelter says:

"Transgender rights bill threatens 'female-born' women's spaces... If you were born a female, you are doomed."

Interestingly enough, even Theryn Meyer, a South African-Canadian political commentator, blogger, YouTuber, cultural critic, and a transgender woman, was compelled to address the Senate and express her concerns over the Bill. According to her, it isn't intended to protect minorities, but instead abuses the Law and the communities it allegedly protects, and all for political gain.

Adding insult to injury, a bill recently passed by the Canadian House of Commons, infamously known as the "Pronoun Bill", and employs vague wording, deems it a federal offense to refuse to address an individual using their "preferred pronouns."

It is shocking to see how Canada, with its long tradition of relative political sanity, has fallen victim to the radical and pathological thinking of Postmodernists. And Canada isn't the only nation to suffer from this malady.

What we are seeing now seems to be the final stages of the gradual implementation of something called the "Overton Window".

"The Overton window is a political theory that describes the range of ideas the public will accept as a narrow "window". According to the theory, an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within that window rather than on politicians' individual preferences. It is named for its originator, Joseph P. Overton (1960 - 2003), a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. At any given moment, the "window" includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office."

"Overton described a method for moving that window, thereby including previously excluded ideas, while excluding previously acceptable ideas. The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous outer fringe ideas. That makes those old fringe ideas look less extreme, and thereby acceptable. The idea is that priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison."

Certain policies are gradually being passed in Western democracies in order to manipulate public opinion and make policies that would normally be seen as despicable and unacceptable, acceptable, especially if they are presented as representing "tolerance" and "progressive values".

It appears to be a perfect tool in the hands of pathological types to gradually normalize torture, various forms of moral degeneracy, and even pedophilia. The popularity of people like Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, or movies like Fifty shades of Grey seek to normalize increasingly 'out there' and extreme sexual behaviour, and this process of moral decline in the West seems to be a largely unconscious one.

The bottom line is, the Overton window can be used to legalize anything, including pedophilia. In fact, steps towards that have already been taken:

• Fears Grow Over Academic Efforts to Normalize Pedophilia
• Pedophilia Rights Convention in Baltimore
• Pedophilia Deserves Civil Rights, Says New York Times' Op-Ed
• Q&A: Rutgers Law Prof Who Says Pedophilia Is Not a Crime

Margo Kaplan - Pedophile Apologist

But what does this have to do with Postmodernism?

Ernest Gellner, in his prescient Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, discusses three ideological positions of our contemporary world which, at the present moment, have been sharpened into weapons of psychological and physical violence: Islamic Fundamentalism, Postmodernist Relativism, and what he terms 'Enlightenment Secular Fundamentalism'. His discussion of Postmodernism, its origins, development, adherents, and practices (if they can be called such) is invaluable and allows the reader to quickly recognize the psychological dilemmas of what are today called the neo-liberal left. Gellner writes:

"Postmodernism is a contemporary movement. It is strong and fashionable. Over and above this, it is not altogether clear what the devil it is. In fact, clarity is not conspicuous amongst its marked attributes. It not only generally fails to practice it, but also on occasion actually repudiates it...

The influence of the movement can be discerned in anthropology, literary studies, philosophy... The notion that everything is a 'text', that the basic material of texts, societies and almost anything is meaning, that meanings are there to be decoded or 'deconstructed', that the notion of objective reality is suspect - all this seems to be part of the atmosphere, or mist, in which postmodernism flourishes, or which postmodernism helps to spread...

Postmodernism would seem to be rather clearly in favour of relativism, in as far as it is capable of clarity, and hostile to the idea of unique, exclusive, objective, external or transcendent truth...

[Postmodernism] is a movement which denies the very possibility of extraneous validity and authority. Admittedly, it is specially insistent in this denial, when the contrary affirmation of such external validation comes from fellow-members, non-relativists within their own society... ex-colonial guilt on the other hand inhibit stressing the point to members of other cultures. The absolutism of others receives favoured treatment, and a warm sympathy which is very close to endorsement."

One of the most interesting things Gellner has said is this:

"The relativists-hermeneuticists are really very eager to display their universal, ecumenical tolerance and comprehension of alien cultures. The more alien, the more shocking and disturbing to the philistines, to those whom they deem to be the provincialists of their own society, the better. Very, very much the better, for the more shocking the other, the more does this comprehension highlight the superiority of the enlightened hermeneutist within his own society. The harder the comprehension, the more repellent the object destined for hermeneutic blessing, the greater the achievement, the illumination and the insight of the interpretive postmodernist"

which shows how Postmodernist doctrine can eventually lead to the normalization of just about anything, including something as repellent as pedophilia. The more extreme and degrading to the average person and greater society the acceptance is, the more "enlightened" and "progressive" the Postmodernist thinks himself.

Listen to Jordan Peterson and his warning regarding following Postmodernist principles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPojltjv4M0

There is little doubt that Postmodernism and the processes it uses to induce and reinforce "habits of subconscious selection and substitution of thought-data" is simply Nihilism {the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.}. Hervey Cleckley's book Caricature of Love also highlights the fact that, at its root, the "gender fluidity" movement is pure psychopathy in action.

Another seer of our society who saw and attempted to warn us all was Andrew Lobaczewski. From his book Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes):

"During stable times which are ostensibly happy, albeit marked by injury to individuals and nations, doctrinaire people believe they have found a simple solution to fix such a world. {Gender fluidity} Such a historical period is always characterized by an impoverished psychological world view, a schizoidally impoverished psychological world view thus does not stand out during such times and is accepted as legal tender. These doctrinaire individuals characteristically manifest a certain contempt with regard to moralists then preaching the need to rediscover lost human values and to develop a richer, more appropriate psychological world view.

Schizoid characters aim to impose their own conceptual world upon other people or social groups, using relatively controlled pathological egotism and the exceptional tenacity derived from their persistent nature. They are thus eventually able to overpower another individual's personality, which causes the latter's behavior to turn desperately illogical. They may also exert a similar influence upon the group of people they have joined. They are psychological loners who feel better in some human organization, wherein they become (1) zealots for some ideology, (2) religious bigots, (3) materialists, or (4) adherents of an ideology with satanic features. If their activities consist of direct contact on a small social scale, their acquaintances easily perceive them to be eccentric, which limits their ponerogenic role. However, if they manage to hide their own personality behind the written word, their influence may poison the minds of society in a wide scale and for a long time."

Speaking of schizoidally impoverished world views...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP-lpEOVcmY

In contrast to Western societies, Russia under Vladimir Putin has taken definite steps towards protecting its people from this kind of Postmodernistic filth. Despite Western media propaganda, Russian policies are not aimed at increasing the influence of the Orthodox Christianity or persecuting of gays, but rather making sure that Russian society and the values on which it has been based over countless generations is safeguarded for future generations. Jordan Peterson explains:

"If there are no sacred values, man is a blank slate. Anything whatsoever can be written on a blank slate. If there is a universal human nature, however, some ideas are wrong, and their implementation will result in catastrophe. The evidence is before us, in the form of the millions who were sacrificed to the values of 20th century totalitarians. Everything cannot be simply questioned and re-organized, in a purely rational matter. Thought itself must have its master...

What, therefore, must be sacred, at minimum? The Mother, the Father, and the Individual. It is the duty of each society, and each individual, to respect these figures, in mind, thought, and action. When this is done properly, the great forces of being are kept in equilibrium, and the individual, society, and nature all thrive. Otherwise, hell breaks loose, and swallows the little heavens that could otherwise be found on earth."

To learn about additional examples of Postmodernist depravity, read the following articles by Pierre Lescaudron:

Tim Allen Says Having Conservative Views in Hollywood Is ‘Like ’30s Germany’; Anne Frank Center Demands Apology From Tim Allen for ‘Nazi Germany Comment’

Trump has been losing his grip on rural America. According to the Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll, the Republican president's popularity is eroding in small towns and rural communities where 15 percent of the country's population lives. The poll of more than 15,000 adults in "non-metro" areas shows that they are now as likely to disapprove of Trump as they are to approve of him. In September, 47 percent of people in non-metro areas approved of Trump while 47 percent disapproved. That is down from Trump's first four weeks in office, when 55 percent said they approved of the president while 39 percent disapproved. The poll found that Trump has lost support in rural areas among men, whites and people who never went to college. He lost support with rural Republicans and rural voters who supported him on Election Day. [Reuters, October 9, 2017]



Tim shared about his experience at Trump's inauguration and reveals why we should all be paranoid about our privacy being compromised by the government and other major companies. The early '30s of Nazi Germany were all about policing ideologies and shutting down anyone who dared to oppose. That's what Allen was referring to. He didn't say anything about Nazis or concentration camps.

March 17, 2017

(TIME ) Tim Allen said he enjoys going on “both sides” of the political spectrum as a comedian, but compared rhetoric in Hollywood surrounding President Trump to Germany in the 1930s.

“You’ve gotta be real careful around here,” he said during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “You get beat up if don’t believe what everybody believes. This is like ’30s Germany. I don’t know what happened. If you’re not part of the group, ‘you know what we believe is right,’ I go, ‘Well, I might have a problem with that.'”

Allen, who hesitated before confessing he attended Trump’s inauguration, is one of the few celebrities in Hollywood who has been outspoken about his conservative views. During the 2016 election, he lent his voice to an ad for Republican candidate John Kasich.

In November, Allen told Fox News host Megyn Kelly: “What I find odd in Hollywood is that they didn’t like Trump because he was a bully. But if you had any inkling that you were for Trump, you got bullied for doing that. And it gets a bit hypocritical for me.”

March 21, 2017

(Yahoo Celebrity) - Actor Tim Allen recently appeared on episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live and made some controversial remarks about being a conservative in Hollywood.

The Last Man Standing actor told Kimmel, “You gotta be real careful around here, you know. You’ll get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody believes. It’s like ’30s Germany.”

The comedian instantly received a backlash for his glib comparison, with the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect issuing a strong rebuke on its Facebook page.

Steven Goldstein, the executive director of the center, wrote, “Tim, have you lost your mind?  No one in Hollywood today is subjecting you or anyone else to what the Nazis imposed on Jews in the 1930s — the world’s most evil program of dehumanization, imprisonment and mass brutality, implemented by an entire national government, as the prelude for the genocide of nearly an entire people. Sorry, Tim, that’s just not the same as getting turned down for a movie role. It’s time for you to leave your bubble to apologize to the Jewish people and, to be sure, the other peoples also targeted by the Nazis.” #NeverAgain #Antisemitism”

Comments at Facebook:

The Overwhelming Majority of K-12 Teachers in Public Schools are Highly Politicized and are Solidly in the Liberal Camp Ideologically

“It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy, exposed to the ideology of the enemy. In other words, Marxist-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students without being challenged or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism, American patriotism. The result? The result you can see. Most of the people who graduated in the sixties, dropouts or half-baked intellectuals are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, educational system. You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them. They are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their minds even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you cannot change the basic perception and illogical behavior. In other words, in these people the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To rid society of these people, you need another 15 years to educate a new generation of patriotically-minded and common sense people who would be acting in favor and in the interests of the United States society.” [1985 Interview of Yuri Bezmenov, Russian-Born, KGB-Trained Subverter Who Defected to the United States]

February 10, 2017

THE DAILY SHEEPLE - Betsy DeVos was confirmed as the United States education secretary. The aversion teachers unions have to DeVos is on display. Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, went as far as to say that the day DeVos was confirmed was a “sad day for children.”  But the AFT isn’t an innocent party in the politics game. It invested heavily in Democratic politicians like former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In the 2016 election cycle alone, the AFT spent over $19 million in Washington, and Hillary Clinton was their top recipient.

The former Democratic presidential nominee, the ATF wrote at the time, “shares our vision for America,” which includes blind support for teacher tenure — a policy that forces schools to keep bad teachers in classrooms and that DeVos vocally opposed long before Trump picked her as his education secretary. So it isn’t a surprise that organizations like the ATF would be so adamantly opposed to her nomination.

But despite the rhetoric, the Department of Education was created as a promise to teachers unions, meant to “fix” the problems created by state governments running public education at the time.

The agency was never supposed to exist, as even Democrats disliked the idea at the time. As Reason Magazine’s Anthony L. Fisher explains, then-President Jimmy Carter created the department in 1979 as “a favor to a large and powerful special interest group,” and not “a necessary reorganization to allow the federal government to ‘meet its responsibilities in education more effectively, more efficiently, and more responsively,’ as then-President Jimmy Carter put it.”

DeVos may have undeniable ties to the Republican party, but her policies scare union leaders because they would allow for institutions to use public funds to run schools where staff members aren’t required to be unionized — not because either party is willing to put an end to the federal government’s control of public education.

Despite the fuss, DeVos isn’t the witch opposition leaders claim she is. But Democratic leaders aren’t the supporters of equality in education they claim to be either. The truth is that freeing education from the hands of bureaucrats would be the only answer to this problem, rendering both sides useless when it comes to setting an agenda.

Department of Education: Doing More Harm Than Good

The department was first created as a bureaucratic “fix” to state-run education, allowing the federal government to intervene in the educational affairs of individual states across the country. But instead of accomplishing what it set out to achieve, the department has, instead, used copious amounts of public funds to create and maintain bureaucracies that create and enforce regulations, including rules that hurt minorities who choose to attend for-profit “career” colleges or career schools — institutions that cater to the low-income population.

After all, if the federal government is going to offer student loans to the poor, why should it discriminate against those who opt for a technical school? Does Washington have something against offering low-income students an opportunity to have hands-on experience related to their career interests? Or perhaps they aren’t too fond of welders?

On average, the country spends over 23 percent of per capita income on its students, and yet it is clear that spending so much taxpayer money on education over the years has resulted in little to no improvement in quality.

In 2015, America ranked 17th in educational performance out of forty countries. It ranked 2nd in general ignorance regarding voting patterns, social statistics, and other subjects.

When it comes to overall performance, private schools still beat public schools. This is a fact politicians all know about since most public school supporters opposing DeVos have children or grandchildren enrolled in private institutions.

So why are we still debating who should head the Department of Education as opposed to how soon we could put an end to it?

Educating or Indoctrinating? Facts are Stubborn Things

Over the 30 years of its existence, the Department of Education has exerted a great deal of influence on K-12 education, mostly because public schools are only able to receive federal funding if they “follow certain federal guidelines.”

Teachers applying these standards are also the product of this influence, having been in the public education system before running off to college themselves.

In an article for the Mises Institute, professor of communication at the University of South Florida Loyd S. Pettegrew writes that the overwhelming majority of K-12 teachers working today in the public school system are highly politicized, with K-12 English classes becoming “ersatz social studies classes with biased content taught by moralizing pedagogues.”

He quotes David Labaree, professor in Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, who claims that “education schools are solidly in the progressive camp ideologically.”

But now that the Department of Education will be run by partisans of different political ideologies, is it fair to contend that education standards may shift, allowing for different political ideas to take over?

When progressivism became a powerful force in America, the U.S. government became a powerful interventionist machine — domestically and abroad. The central tenet of progressivism, historian and author Thaddeus Russell writes, is that “the American national government is responsible for the reform and uplift of those ‘we’ deem to be living below ‘our’ standards, and that ‘they’ must be protected from their oppressors.” President Carter was a proud progressive who claimed he had seen the “lives and the hopes of people enriched beyond all expectations by actions of the Federal Government” during the inauguration of the then-newly minted Department of Health and Human Services.

He believed that the federal government has a role in ‘changing people’s lives’ as it sees fit, thus the creation of a federal bureaucracy tasked with the goal of overseeing the education of all American children.

 As with anything else in government, these agencies aren’t nonpartisan institutions. They are run by people — people with agendas and political preferences.

Unless we’re willing to succumb to the standards defended by current and future administrations, having and supporting a federal education department should not be a priority. Abolishing it would still not be enough since education departments run by state governments would remain in place. After all, public schools in America have, for the past decades, worked to make students comfortable with the idea of living in a “Big Brother police state control grid.” This is just the type of “schooling” the youth requires to stay obedient throughout their adulthood, never questioning the government’s official narrative.

Instead of giving in to conformity, what we must remember is that unless parents are willing to surrender their children’s education entirely to what the government deems appropriate, choice is what should guide personal education policy. And more choices are only possible when there’s freedom to experiment. Having a powerful education department in Washington D.C. overseeing every single aspect of every child’s education is the very opposite of freedom.

Andrew Breitbart Tweet Before Death Adds Fuel to Online Speculation of D.C. Child Sex-trafficking Ring

Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart died on March 1, 2012. He collapsed and died while taking a nighttime walk near his home. Given his young age -- he was 43 -- and the unexpected manner in which he died, the Los Angeles County coroner's office conducted an autopsy to determine a specific cause of death. In the early afternoon of April 18, 2012, Michael Cormier, an autopsy technician at the Los Angeles coroner’s office, drove himself to Kaiser Permanente Hospital complaining of heart and stomach pain and diarrhea. The doctors suspected a heart issue or an ulcer and recommended he follow up with his regular physician. Two days later, Cormier asked his wife to call 911. An ambulance took him Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where he died several hours later from massive organ failure. While he was at Providence St. Joseph, an unidentified family member called and recommended that the hospital check Cormier for poison. A screen test found a significant amount of arsenic in Cormier’s system, and the hospital contacted the Los Angeles Police Department. In the early stages of the investigation into Cormier’s death, the police wouldn’t rule out an accident, suicide, or something more nefarious, and the coroner deferred the cause of death pending further toxicology results. Cormier’s death made national news when numerous right-wing blogs linked it to the death of Andrew Breitbart. “According to early reports, Michael Cormier was ‘seemingly healthy,’ yet ‘suddenly stricken’ with a fatal condition—just like Andrew Breitbart.” The blogs were already speculating that Breitbart—who had announced shortly before his death that he had acquired deeply damaging video footage of President Obama—had been assassinated by the president or his supporters. Cormier died on the day the coroner’s office announced Breitbart’s cause of death as a heart attack. [Source]

Breitbart's Coroner Dies from Arsenic Poisoning on the Day His Office Announced That a Heart Attach Killed Breitbart

November 28, 2016

The Washington Times - Andrew Breitbart is making news even in death.

Social media speculation of a sex-trafficking ring in the nation’s capital has burned up social media sites for weeks. Complicating matters is Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s decision not to comment on anything WikiLeaks-related for months.

Explosive claims by Internet sleuths, which were prompted after reading stolen documents belonging to Mr. Podesta, have been derided as “viciously phony” by Fox News’ Howard Kurtz. A tweet by Mr. Breitbart shortly before his March 1, 2012, death is now being cited by online researchers as proof that they are onto something big.

“How prog-guru John Podesta isn’t household name as world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs escapes me,” Mr. Breitbart wrote Feb. 4, 2011.

The conservative icon’s death at age 43 was attributed to “heart failure.”

Knowledge of the late conservative’s tweet sent Google searches for “Andrew Breitbart” skyrocketing Sunday night as news spread to members of Twitter, Reddit, GAB, Voat and other social media platforms.

“One of America’s best an most respected independent journalists at the time; he is making a very bold claim about John Podesta — back then — based on his own research,” former Huffington Post contributor David Seaman wrote on GAB Sunday night. “This is years before WikiLeaks came out.”

Mr. Seaman and others claim Mr. Podesta and his associates spoke in code in numerous documents released by WikiLeaks. One example includes a Feb. 9, 2014, email with the subject line “Did you leave a handkerchief.”

“Hi John, The realtor found a handkerchief (I think it has a map that seems pizza-related. Is it yorus [sic]?” a woman identified as Susaner asked. “They can send it if you want.”

Such wording led online sleuths to investigate Mr. Podesta’s connections with D.C. power-player James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong. The Democrat fundraiser and pizza place owner, who is mentioned in 16 different WikiLeaks documents, had a public Instagram account that featured sexual innuendo and bizarre images of children.

Accounts for Comet Ping Pong employees, which are now set to private, featured nudity involving men with slices of pizza strategically placed over their genitals.

“From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we’ve come under constant assault,” Mr. Alefantis, 42, told The New York Times on Nov. 21. “I’ve done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized. […] It’s endless.”

The editorial board of The Washington Post also lambasted social media sleuths on Nov. 25 in an op-ed titled “‘Pizzagate’ shows how fake news hurts real people.”

“The allegations against Comet Ping Pong, reported by the New York Times, are absurd on their face and detached from any gossamer thread of fact,” the newspaper wrote. “They took root in the dark crevices of the Web and took flight thanks to social media platforms, whose witless ‘who, us?’ posture in the face of misinformation and outright lunacy is a civic embarrassment. …”

“Like 93 percent of Washingtonians, the restaurateur happened to support Ms. Clinton for president; he has some prominent Democratic friends, past and present,” the Post continued. “Mr. Alefantis’s name surfaced in leaked email from Mr. Podesta’s account, published by WikiLeaks, in which the two men discussed holding a Clinton fundraiser. As far as anyone knows, there is no more logic than that as to why Mr. Alefantis and his restaurant became targets. The First Amendment is a bulwark of democracy but provides no protection for defamatory allegations published in knowing disregard for the truth. Mr. Alefantis is more than entitled to sue for defamation and libel, if he can find the purveyors of the garbage heaved his way.”

Mark Phillips and Cathy O'Brien Lecture - Transcript
from ArchiveTC Website
recovered though WayBackMachine Website
Circa 1996



INTRODUCTION

Detroit Public School Teachers Call-in Sick: It's for the Children's Sake!

"How does a district allow a debt to reach 750 million? Clearly alot of incompetence at the top. This is counterintuitive though in the fact that the stated number one goal of teachers is to educate our children. They deserve their pay and I'm sure there will be emergency funding in the state and government level to insure that teachers are paid their basic salary. They shouldn't use children as a bargaining tool. You are being paid until June 30th. Do your job until then." - Larry at Yahoo News

Sick-out by teachers shuts nearly all Detroit public schools

May 2, 2016

AP — Nearly all of Detroit's public schools were closed Monday and more than 45,000 students missed classes after about half the district's teachers called out sick to protest the possibility that some of them won't get paid over the summer if the struggling district runs out of cash.

The latest in a series of sick-outs shuttered 94 of 97 schools for the day as 1,562 teachers heeded their union's call to stay home. The move by the Detroit Federation of Teachers came after Detroit Public Schools' transition manager said the district would have no money to continue paying teachers this summer without further funding from the state.

The state had approved $47.8 million in emergency money in March to keep the 46,000-student school system operating, but that amount only pays the district's bills through June 30. Detroit Schools also would be unable to fund summer school or special education programs after June 30. The state Legislature is considering a $720 million restructuring plan that would pay off the district's enormous debt.

It wasn't immediately clear how many of the district's approximately 3,000 educators chose to have their bi-weekly pay spread out over 26 weeks. Some say they live paycheck to paycheck and need the money to get through July and August, before the next school year starts.

"We have already put the work in," said Kimberly Morrison, 54, a reading and recovery specialist and 20-year district employee. "If I don't get my pay, then somebody else — who I owe — won't get their pay."

Kindergarten teacher Famata Legemah, 54, says it's difficult for her to save enough during the school year to make do over the summer because "there's not a whole lot left over."

Morrison and Legemah were among a few hundred teachers who picketed Monday morning outside the district's administrative offices.

"There's a basic agreement in America: When you put in a day's work, you'll receive a day's pay," Detroit Federation of Teachers Interim President Ivy Bailey said in a statement. "DPS is breaking that deal. Teachers want to be in the classroom giving children a chance to learn and reach their potential.

"Unfortunately, by refusing to guarantee that we will be paid for our work, DPS is effectively locking our members out of the classrooms."

Teacher strikes are illegal under Michigan law. Sick-outs earlier this year caused tens of thousands of students to miss class.

Dejuan Parkman, who has four children in the district, joined the protest. Parkman, 42, was able to get his mother to watch the kids Monday, but said he might have to take time off from his catering business if more sick-outs are held.

"It's real scary," he said. "What are we going to do if the teachers shut down the schools? I'm not mad at the teachers. You can't pay the teachers their money? That's not right. They have to pay their utilities, pay their mortgages and car notes."

Steven Rhodes, the district's state-appointed transition manager and a former bankruptcy judge, also said the teachers "have to be paid for the work that they do," but without more help from the state that might not be possible. He said he understood the frustration and would like to do something about it.

"No one can guarantee what the Legislature will do," Rhodes said. "The alternative is so unimaginable."

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday that he hopes to see action this month and "clearly before the middle of June" by lawmakers.

"We need to get something done here," Snyder told reporters in Flint. "A legislative solution is the best solution compared to the alternatives of ending up in court in some fashion."

Monday's sick-out was not constructive, especially with the Legislature considering the restructuring plan, he added.

"That just probably raises more questions and challenges to legislators," Snyder said.

New Science Standards Forcing State Schools to Teach Human-induced Climate Change

West Virginia Votes To Block Science Standards Because They Teach Global Warming

Feb 29, 2016 

Think Progress - Beginning this summer, public school students in West Virginia were supposed to learn about human-induced climate change three times — in sixth-grade science, in ninth-grade science, and in a high school elective course on environmental science. Now, it’s unclear whether students will learn about climate change at all.

That’s because the West Virginia House of Delegates voted last Friday to block new science standards from being implemented for at least another year, due to the fact that they mention climate change as a man-made problem. Proponents of the delay, which was introduced as an amendment to a larger education bill, argued that the new curriculum would have presented the science of climate change without properly reflecting both sides of the global warming debate.

“In an energy-producing state, it’s a concern to me that we are teaching our kids potentially that we are doing immoral things here in order to make a living in our state,” Delegate Jim Butler, (R) told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “We need to make sure our science standards are actually teaching science and not pushing a political agenda.” Butler also worried that the new curriculum would “expect students to believe” in global warming and “prove it with evidence.”

Also speaking to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Delegate Michel Moffatt (R), who introduced the amendment, worried that students would “twist” the climate science curriculum to conclude that “all fossil fuels are bad.” And Delegate Frank Deem (R) speaking in support of the amendment, said that “there’s nothing that upsets [him] more than the idea that it’s a proven fact that climate change is man made.”

Adopted in 2015, the new science curriculum, which was based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), has long been a divisive issue for the second-largest coal producing state in the country. In early 2015, the West Virginia Board of Education approved new education standards based on the NGSS, but included changes to the cirriculum that gave added weight to the idea that there is a debate surrounding climate science. That move produced a swift outcry from proponents of science and climate education, and led the West Virginia Board of Education to reverse its changes and return to the original NGSS version.

Those standards were officially adopted by the board in April, but included a few changes meant to appease climate change doubters, like mentioning “natural forces” in a list of things that could be driving climate change. The standards were supposed to go into effect beginning July 1.

Proponents of the NGSS argue that climate change, when taught, is often left out of general curricula, relegated instead to specific classes that aren’t required of all students. And around the United States, the way that climate change is taught in schools varies widely. A recent survey published in Science found that while three out of four teachers spend at least an hour on climate change instruction, two-thirds of instructors fail to teach the clear connection between human activities and climate change.

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE), which promotes the teaching of both climate science and evolution in school curricula, denounced Friday’s vote.

“West Virginia’s children, like children everywhere, need to learn about the science of climate change,” NCSE’s executive director Ann Reid said in a statement, “since it is they who will have to live in a world that we have been warming. For their sake, West Virginia’s Senate needs to reject the proposed repeal of the state science standards.”

The bill now goes to the Republican-led West Virginia Senate. Republican Senator Dave Sypolt, who is chair of the Senate Education Committee, told ABC News that he has no problem with the bill as it is currently written.

“As it stands right now, I have no problems with it at all,” Sypolt said. “I’m going to work it and send it right through.”

Carbon Dioxide is Generally Regarded as a Safe and Non-toxic, Inert Gas

While convenient to use the term 'carbon emissions', it's not accurate to conflate it with 'CO2', carbon dioxide. CO2 is a vaporous (invisible) gas, NOT soot or dust or grit -- in other words, not an air pollutant. The Supreme Court, under the Clean Air Act, made a huge mistake in allowing the EPA to control it, and it needs to be reversed. The enormous hoax, promulgated by the anti-capitalist, that we can manage climate by keeping fossil fuels 'in the ground' is so heavily entrenched in the dogma of our public schools that the little skulls of 'mush' are already seriously tainted.  It'll take generations to straighten this mess out.

The term ‘carbon pollution’ is unscientific and misleading

February 20, 2014

JustFactsDaily - “Language is power,” and “with careful selection of and modification to language,” wrote Evie Loveband in the journal Idiom, any one person “has the power to control the debate and rewrite history.” This truism spurs endless debates over terminology in the political arena: Are we talking about an “unborn child” or a “fetus”? Is he “gay” or “homosexual”? Are we eating “lean finely textured beef” or “pink slime”? Should we “give amnesty to illegal immigrants” or “legalize undocumented workers”?

Ultimately, many language choices are subjective, but some cross the line from preference to deceitfulness. In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell wrote about people who use words “in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.”

Such is the case with purveyors of the term “carbon pollution,” a phrase that conflates carbon dioxide with noxious chemicals like carbon monoxide and black carbon. Carbon dioxide or CO2 is the primary man-made greenhouse gas, but it is also a natural substance that is essential for life. Additionally, it is colorless, odorless, and nontoxic at many times the concentration in earth’s atmosphere. In fact, nature produces considerably more CO2 than man.

Thus, for reasons detailed below, referring to CO2 as “carbon pollution” is highly misleading.

First, the phrase “carbon pollution” is scientifically inaccurate because there are more than ten million different carbon compounds, and the word “carbon” could refer to any of them. Some of the more notorious of these compounds are highly poisonous, such as carbon monoxide (a deadly gas) and black carbon (the primary ingredient of cancerous and mutagenic soot). Using a phrase that does not distinguish between such drastically different substances is a sure way to misinform people.

Second, the term “pollution” conjures up images of smoke pouring from smokestacks and sewage flowing into rivers, which are markedly different from CO2 emissions. Those who use the word “pollution” for CO2 draw no distinction between these scenarios, which again encourages a false impression.

Some of the more prominent users of this verbiage go even further to foster the idea of CO2 as a toxic contaminant. For example, while referring to CO2 as “carbon pollution,” President Obama criticizes “polluters” who “emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air that we breathe.” In stark contrast, the academic book Carbon Dioxide Capture for Storage in Deep Geologic Formations explains that:

Carbon dioxide is generally regarded as a safe and non-toxic, inert gas. It is an essential part of the fundamental biological processes of all living things. It does not cause cancer, affect development or suppress the immune system in humans.

Fueling the deceitful impression advanced by Obama and others, major media outlets, such as Politico, NBC News, and the New York Times, publish articles and commentaries that refer to CO2 as “carbon pollution” with pictures of billowing smokestacks, such as these:

 
The fact is that none of the smoke in these pictures is CO2, because CO2 is invisible except under extreme pressures and temperatures that cause it to transition from a gas to a liquid or solid. Such conditions are far outside the range of anything found in smokestacks.

Some argue that it is acceptable to call CO2 a pollutant because of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that allowed the EPA to regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act’s expansive definition of pollution. Such rationale, however, is not a license to use these words in ways that create misleading impressions.

Furthermore, why would anyone who honestly wants to inform people employ an ambiguous and unscientific phrase like “carbon pollution” in favor of a clear and scientifically accurate term like “greenhouse gas”? Only those who simply echo what they hear or those wantonly pushing global warming-related taxes, regulations or similar polices would use such verbiage.

In sum, those who refer to carbon dioxide as “pollution” blur a critical distinction between noxious pollutants and greenhouse gases. Moreover, media outlets that consciously engage in this practice blur a critical distinction between journalism and activism.

Media Smearing Teachers Who Don't Follow the Script to Indoctrinate Our Youth

Hey US science teachers, leave those climate myths alone

As most readers are aware, and stated in posts a few hours after (ClimateGate) CG broke out, Mike’s Nature trick was first uncovered by UC here. [Source]

Bill Gates, Common Core and Agenda 21

The imposition of federal Common Core standards, which were developed using money from the loudest and wealthiest corporate school reform proponent, Bill Gates, and are suspiciously promoted by Exxon-Mobil (Rockefeller-owned), will exacerbate the high-stakes testing problem. Corporate school reform folks can’t wait for Common Core tests to be implemented so that they can claim that more public schools are “failing.” They will swoop in with fancy plans for new, for-profit charter schools and start stuffing their pockets with public funds that were supposed to be used educating our children. [Source]

Top Ten Scariest People in Education Reform: # 5 – Bill Gates

This is the fifth in a countdown series of introductions, a list of the top ten scariest people leading education in America.  For numbers 6, 7, 8,  9 and 10,  click here.

WhatIsCommonCore.WordPress.com - The biggest philanthropist on earth comes across as the epitome of sincere, nerdy nice-guy.  And he probably is very nice and very sincere. But does sincerity trump truth?

The truth is, Bill Gates’ herculean attempt to fund and market Common Core to Americans, and to circumvent the voting public on educational issues, is dangerously, dangerously misguided.

Thus, not everybody is happy in philanthropy land. The biggest philanthropist in the world got behind the unproven experiment of Common Core. Using money rather than the voice of the American voter, pushed it into schools, circumventing any vetting by legislative, educator or parent groups.

Gates’ astronomical wealth has persuaded millions that Common Core is the solution to education problems, the argument from everywhere, approved (by him) and beyond debate. But let me repeat the fact: regardless of whether the standards are horrible or glorious, the truth remains that whenever unelected philanthropists are permitted to direct public policy, the voting public gets cut out of the process. 

It’s happening all over the U.S., but not just in the U.S. The Gates-directing-world-education effect is happening everywhere.

Since Gates has no constituency, he can’t be un-elected; so it’s not the the wisdom of experienced educators, but simply one man’s money that is directing implementation of  the controversial Common Core. His  money has bought, besides technology, work groups, and a seat at the policy making table, extreme marketing success.

He’s got control of the education opinion factory. When Common Core was debated at the Indiana State Capitol, who showed up to advocate for Common Core?  Stand for Children, which Bill Gates funds.   

He also funds Common Core advocates: 

• the League of Education Voters, 
• the Center for Reinventing Public Education and 
• the Partnership for Learning. 

Gates owns Editorial Projects in Education, parent of Education Week magazine.

No wonder, then, even educators don’t seem to know the full truth about Common Core. They’re reading Education Week and  the Harvard Education Letter.  Translation: they are reading Gates’ dollar bills. (By the way: want to make some money selling out your fellow teachers?  Gates is searching for a grant recipient who will receive $250,000 to accelerate networking of teachers toward acceptance of Common Core.)

Wherever you see advocates for Common Core, you see Gates’ influence.  

• He gave a million dollars to the national PTA to advocate to parents about Common Core.  
• He gave  Common Core developer NGA/CCSSO roughly $25 million to promote it (CCSSO: 2009–$9,961,842, 2009– $3,185,750, 2010–$743,331, 2011–$9,388,911; NGA Center: 2008–$2,259,780.)  
• He gave $15 million to Harvard for “education policy” research.  
• He gave $9 million to universities promoting “breakthrough learning models” and global education.   
• Gates paid inBloom $100 million to collect and analyze schools’ data as part of a public-private collaborative that is building  “shared technology services.” InBloom, formerly known as the Shared Learning Collaborative, includes districts, states, and the unelected Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).  
• The list goes on and on and on.

It’s hard to know exactly how much money Gates has put toward the promotion of Common Core because of the chameleon-like wording of  educational granting areas. 

For example, he gave $3 million to Stanford University and $3 million to Brown University for “college and career readiness.” (The average person wouldn’t know that college and career readiness is a code phrase defined as common core by the Department of Education.)

Sometimes he’s promoting “support activities around educational issues related to school reform” for the CCSSO (common core developer) and other times he’s “helping states build data interoperability,” which not everyone would recognize as Common assessments’ bed-making.

According to Gates himself, he’s spent $5 billion to promote his vision of education since 2000.

He really,  reeally believes in Common Core.  So it doesn’t matter that Common Core is an experiment on our children that’s never been tested and has been rejected by countless top education analysts. It doesn’t matter that Common Core is an un-American, top-down, nonrepresentative system  that state legislatures didn’t even get to vet.  Bill Gates wants it.

And not just in America– he wants global education standards.

Gates’ company, Microsoft, signed a cooperative agreement with the United Nations’ education branch, UNESCO. In it, Gates said, “Microsoft supports the objectives of UNESCO as stipulated in UNESCO’s constitution and intends to contribute to UNESCO’s programme priorities.” 

UNESCO’s  “Education For All” key document is called “The Dakar Framework for Action: Education For All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments.”  Read the full text here:  http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf

So Gates partners with the U.N.’s educational and other goals via UNESCO’s “Education for All”, which seeks to teach the same standards to all children (and adults) on a global scale.  Why is this a problem?  It supercedes local control over what is taught to students, and dismisses the validity of the U.S. Constitution, all in the name of inclusivity and education and tolerance for all nations.

At this link you can learn about how Education For All works:

“Prior to the reform of the global EFA coordination architecture in 2011-2012, the Education for All High-Level Group brought together high-level representatives from national governments, development agencies, UN agencies, civil society and the private sector. Its role was to generate political momentum and mobilize financial, technical and political support towards the achievement of the EFA goals and the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). From 2001-2011 the High-Level Group met annually.”

The six goals of “Education For All” are claimed to be internationally agreed-upon. On the linked Education and Awareness page of the U.N. website, we learn:

“Education, Public  Awareness and Training is the focus of Chapter 36 of Agenda 21. This is a cross-sectoral theme both relevant to the implementation of the whole of Agenda 21 and indispensable”   http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/susdevtopics/sdt_educawar.shtml

Did you get that?  Education is indispensable for the U.N. to get its agenda pushed onto every citizen worldwide.  They just admitted it out loud.  They want a strong hand in determining what is taught worldwide.

So then we click on Chapter 36.  In 36.2 it says we should “reorient” worldwide education toward sustainable development.  (No discussion, no vote, no input needed on this reorientation plan, apparently.)

Chapter 36.3 says:  “Both formal and non-formal education are indispensable to changing people’s attitudes…. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development…  To be effective, environment and development education should deal with the dynamics of both the physical/biological and socio-economic environment and human (which may include spiritual) development, should be integrated in all disciplines, and should employ formal and non-formal methods.”

The take-away?  What does Bill Gates agree to in his Microsoft – UNESCO partnership?

• Environmental education will be incorporated in formal education.
• Any value or attitude held by anyone globally that stands independent to that of the United Nations’ definition of “sustainable education” must change.  Current attitudes are unacceptable.
• Education will be belief-and-spirituality based as defined by the global collective.
• Environmental education will be integrated into every subject, not just science.

The stated objectives (36.4) include endorsing “Education for All,” and “giving special emphasis to the further training of decision makers at all levels.”

Hence the need for people like Gates to influence the training of decision makers.  When asked what matters most to him, Gates said: education. His version of education as reported by The Huffington Post:

“I’d pick education, if I was thinking broadly about America,” Gates responded. “It’s our tool of equality.”  Is it coincidence that equality and redistribution are also concepts that Linda Darling-Hammond, Chaka Fattah and Arne Duncan are promoting in the federal Equity and Excellence Commission?

How committed is Bill Gates to the United Nations having a say in American education?

In his annual letter, Gates emphasized the importance of  following the United Nations’ Millennial Goals and measuring teachers more closely.  One of those UN Millennial goals is to achieve universal education.  Also, Gates helped create Strong American Schools (a successor to the STAND UP campaign launched in 2006, which was an outgrowth of UNESCO’s Millennium Campaign Goals for Universal Education). It called for U.S. national education standards. (link 1) (link 2)

Also,  Gates’ Foundation funded the International Benchmarking Advisory Group report for Common Core Standards on behalf of the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and ACHIEVE, Inc. titled, “Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education.” This report showed the United Nations is a member of the International Benchmarking Advisory Group for Common Core Standards. (link)

It appears that Bill Gates is more than a common core philanthopist; he is a promoter of global sameness of education as defined by UNESCO and the U.N.

That’s scary.

Houghton Mifflin Harcout Partners in Common Core 

From their Website: Making a successful transition to the Common Core State Standards is as much about the tangibles—comprehensive, personalized curricula; tools and skills for analyzing data effectively and productively; informed staff and leader development; and parental involvement—as it is about the intangibles. It will require the positive energy generated by working together to achieve a common goal and the momentum that carries you from implementation to assessment and beyond. In Houghton Mifflin Harcourt you have a trusted partner to rely on as you take on this opportunity, a partner who will share the responsibilities that come with achieving all that the Common Core promises. We have created a wide range of content, curricula, and services to support school leaders, teachers and educators, parents, and especially students with this transition—because ultimately your energy is focused not just on implementing the Common Core standards, but on realizing their intent: guiding all students to 21st-century college and career readiness.

Check out the Executive Leadership and Board of Directors for confirmation that big corporations are profiting from Common Core.

Linda K. Zecher President, Chief Executive Officer and Director 

Linda K. Zecher joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in September 2011 as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, bringing a strong track record of business transformation and results.  Her extensive sales, marketing and technology experience contribute to her ability to successfully lead HMH’s transformation into a global leader in educational content and media.  Previously, she served as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's $8 billion Worldwide Public Sector organization, where she led a team of nearly 2,000 sales and marketing professionals serving government, education and healthcare customers in more than 100 countries. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2003, Linda held leadership positions with Texas Instruments, Bank of America, PeopleSoft, Oracle and Evolve Corp. Zecher currently serves on the board of Cradles to Crayons and has also served on the U.S. State Department’s board for overseas schools, the Emily Couric Leadership Forum, the Intelligence and National Security Association board, and James Madison University’s board of visitors.

Eric Shuman Chief, Financial Officer 

Eric joined HMH in 2009 as Chief Operating Officer and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in late 2011 following the appointment of CEO Linda Zecher. He brings a long track record of leadership and results in media and content, and deep experience in business model transformation.  Prior to joining HMH, Eric served as Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Lifelong Learning Group, a division of The Thomson Corporation specializing in training, skills assessment, and higher education publishing. Previously, Eric was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Thomson Learning, and Chief Financial Officer for Thomson Newspapers. In those capacities, he led several business integrations, restructurings and significant mergers and acquisitions, spanning fifteen years with Thomson. Eric holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston College.

William Bayers Executive, Vice President and General Counsel 

Bill joined Houghton Mifflin in May of 2007 as Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel and was made Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel in March 2008. Previously, he served as Vice President and General Counsel of Harcourt Education Group. Bill oversees all legal, regulatory and corporate matters for the Company. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Dr. Tim Cannon, Executive Vice President, International Operations and Global Strategic Alliances 

Tim's career in business, organizational and IT strategy spans nearly three decades. Before joining HMH, Tim was Senior Director of Business Strategy for Microsoft's Worldwide Public Sector organization, where he oversaw the development and execution of business strategies to better serve Government, Education and Health customers and partners worldwide. Prior to that role, Tim was Senior Director of Business Strategy for Microsoft’s U.S Public Sector. He has also held leadership roles at companies like Digital Equipment Corporation and Oracle, and helped many large organizations cope with the dynamics of change by implementing responses to maximize shareholder value. Tim is the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Florida.

Brook Colangelo, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer

Brook joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in January 2013 from the White House, where he held the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) since 2009. With over ten years’ experience in technology strategy and implementation, Brook joined the White House team in 2008 to spearhead the Obama-Biden transition project. Prior to that, he held several senior IT leadership roles, including within the Democratic National Convention Committee, The American Red Cross’ Hurricane Recovery Program and QRS Newmedia. Brook holds an honors degree in Political Communications from The George Washington University.

Mary Cullinane, Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs 

Mary is HMH’s first Chief Content Officer. She has led the transformation of the company’s content development capability, bringing a unique combination of education and business experience. Prior to joining HMH in 2012, Mary spent ten years spearheading Microsoft′s education-related innovation programs and initiatives worldwide, including its national 1:1 access programs and its groundbreaking School of the Future in Philadelphia. With another decade of experience as an educator, Director of Technology and administrator in the public sector, Mary is a recognized thought leader in the area of education reform and the effective use of technology. She has testified before the U.S. Congress, and co- authored the book What Next?, which documents lessons learned during the building of the School of the Future. Mary holds a Master of Public Policy and Administration from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from The College of New Jersey. Mary is a member of the board of the Boston Children's Museum.

John K. Dragoon, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

John joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April 2012. Previously, he served as Chief Marketing Officer and Channel Chief of Novell, where he led the company's Marketing and Partner programs for over seven years. Prior to joining Novell, John served as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Product Management at Art Technology Group (ATG). Before ATG, John served as Vice President, Operations at Internet Capital Group, where he served on the board of nine partner companies and guided strategy, marketing, business development, financing and product development. John also spent more than 16 years at IBM, where he held a number of marketing and sales positions. He holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BS from Union College. 
 
Gary Gentel, President, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Consumer Publishing 

Gary joined Houghton Mifflin in October of 2003 as Corporate Vice President and Director of Trade Sales and was promoted to Interim President of the combined Trade Group in July 2007. He was given the permanent position in December of that year. Previously, he served as President of Candlewick Press—a children's publisher based in Cambridge, SVP of Trade Sales at Scholastic Books, and SVP and Publisher of The Grosset and Dunlap Group at GP Putnam's Sons—now a division of Penguin Books. Gary started his publishing career as a Sales Representative at Random House in 1980, rising to VP of Children's Sales by 1990.

James G. Nicholson, President, Riverside Publishing 

Since 2010, Jim Nicholson has served as President of Riverside Publishing — the professional and educational assessment arm of HMH.  Prior to his current position, he served as Riverside’s Chief Operating Officer, where he was responsible for the company’s strategic planning and product development, overseeing the integration of the Edusoft® Assessment Management System.  With more than 20 years of experience in educational publishing, Jim previously held senior leadership positions at Pearson, including Vice President of Finance for its Literacy business unit.  He holds an MBA from DePaul University and a BS from Indiana University.

Lee Ramsayer, Executive Vice President, U.S. Sales 

Before joining HMH, Lee served as Senior Vice President of sales for Monster’s Government Solutions sector. While at Monster, Lee built a dedicated sales team that addressed workforce and economic development in regional economies, and also drove change management and new strategy development sales and system integration partnerships. Prior to Monster, Lee served as General Manager, Government Sales and Consulting Services for Microsoft. In this role, Lee led the development of Microsoft’s strategic approach to state and local governments including the development of go-to-market strategies. Lee currently serves on the board of Innovate Education, a national organization focused on STEM education.

Lesa Scott, President, Heinemann 

Lesa Scott is President of Heinemann, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt dedicated to the development of professional resources and educational services for teachers – from kindergarten to college.  A former science, social studies, and health teacher, Lesa’s career in education spans more than thirty years. She left the classroom to market and sell textbooks for Laidlaw Brothers Publishers, subsequently rising to sales and marketing leadership roles at Scott Foresman Educational Publishers, McDougal Littell and Scholastic.  Lesa received a BS and MS in education from Arkansas State University and completed post-graduate studies at Texas Women’s University.

Dr. Nicole Melander, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy 

Nicole joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in January 2014 as Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy. Previously, she served as the Chief Technology Officer of Achieving the Dream (ATD), a national reform network dedicated to community college student success and completion. Prior to joining ATD, Nicole held education and technology leadership positions at Deloitte Consulting, Microsoft and Oracle. In the academic world, she taught on the topics of collaboration technology and social media for business at American University where she won the campuswide “Teaching with Technology Award."

Lawrence K. Fish, Director and Chairman of the Board

Lawrence K. Fish has served as a member of the board of directors since August 2010 and Chairman of the Board since January 2011. Mr. Fish served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (“Citizens”) from 2005 to 2008 and before as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, from 1992, of Citizens. Mr. Fish is a member of the Corporation (Board of Trustees) of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves on the boards of Textron Inc., Tiffany & Co., and NBH Holdings Corp. He is also an Honorary Trustee of the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. Mr. Fish’s extensive experience in the areas of finance, marketing, general management and corporate governance enables him to provide the Company with effective leadership on the board of directors.

Sheru Chowdhry, Director

Sheru Chowdhry served as a member of the board of directors from March 2010 through March 2012 and rejoined the board in June 2012. Mr. Chowdhry joined Paulson & Co. Inc., a hedge fund, in 2004 as a Senior Vice President and has been a Managing Director and Head of Distressed & Bankruptcy Research since 2008. Previously, he was a research analyst at DebtTraders Inc., covering distressed and bankrupt securities, and an investment banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at JP Morgan Securities. Mr. Chowdhry’s financial expertise and significant experience with debt and equity capital markets render him a valuable member of the board.

L. Gordon Crovitz, Director

L. Gordon Crovitz has served as a member of the board of directors since August 2012. From 1980-2007 Mr. Crovitz held a number of positions with Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal culminating in his role as Executive Vice President for Dow Jones and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He was co-founder of e-commerce software company Press+ in 2009. Mr. Crovitz serves on the Board of Directors at Minneapolis Star Tribune, Business Insider, Blurb, Dunn & Bradstreet and Marin Software. He is on the board of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars. Mr. Crovitz’s management roles in the publishing industry and extensive experience as a director enables him to provide the Company with valuable guidance.

Jill A. Greenthal, Director and Chair of Nominating, Ethics, and Governance Committee

Jill A. Greenthal has served as a member of the board of directors since June 2012. Ms. Greenthal has been a Senior Advisor in Private Equity at the Blackstone Group since 2007, working closely with the company’s global media and technology teams to assist in investments in those sectors. She also currently serves as a director of Akamai Technologies, Michaels Stores and The Weather Channel Companies. Prior to 2007, Ms. Greenthal was an investment banker and partner at Blackstone and Credit Suisse First Boston. Ms. Greenthal has extensive experience in the media industry and in advising technology and media companies, which enables her to provide valuable guidance to the Company.

John F. Killian, Director and Chair of Audit Committee

John F. Killian has served as a member of the board of directors since January 2011. Mr. Killian was Executive Vice President for Verizon and served as Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer from March 2009 through October 2010. Prior to becoming CFO, Mr. Killian was President of Verizon Business from October 2005 until March 2009, the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Verizon Telecom from June 2003 until October 2005, and the Senior Vice President and Controller of Verizon Telecom from April 2002 until June 2003. Mr. Killian serves on the board of directors at ConEdison Inc. and is a Chairman of the Board of Providence College. Mr. Killian brings extensive financial expertise to the board, as well as significant management and leadership experience.

John R. McKernan Jr., Director and Chair of Compensation Committee

John R. McKernan, Jr. served as a member of the board of directors from August 2010 through June 2012 and rejoined the board in September 2012. Mr. McKernan is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McKernan Enterprises, Inc., in Portland, Maine. He is the former Chairman of Education Management Corporation, a provider of post-secondary education in North America, where he served as Chief Executive Officer from September 2003 until February 2007 and continues to serve as a director. Mr. McKernan is a director of BorgWarner Inc. and served as Governor of the State of Maine from 1987 to 1995. Mr. McKernan is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges and serves on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce. Mr. McKernan brings to the board superior leadership capabilities, knowledge of the legal and legislative processes and significant prior experience as a director.

Jon Miller, Director

Jon Miller joined the board of directors in May 2013. Mr. Miller served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Media Group at News Corp. and was its Chief Digital Officer from April 2009 to September 2012. Previously, Mr. Miller was the Founder and Partner at Velocity Interactive Group, an investment firm focusing on internet and digital media, from its inception in February 2007 to April 2009. Prior to founding Velocity, Mr. Miller served as the Chief Executive Officer of America Online, Inc., or AOL and previously as Chief Executive Officer and President of USA Information and Services. Mr. Miller is a trustee of the American Film Institute and The Paley Center for Media. Mr. Milller serves on the boards of TripAdvisor, Radio Télévision Luxembourg and Shutterstock. Mr. Miller has extensive experience in the internet and digital media industry, which enables him to provide valuable guidance to the Company.

E. Rogers Novak Jr., Director

E. Rogers Novak, Jr. has served as a member of the board of directors since November 2012. He is a founder and managing member of Novak Biddle Venture Partners, an early-stage venture fund focused on investment opportunities in businesses focused on education, security, big data analytics, and business-to-business-to-consumer. Roger formerly served as Lead Director of Blackboard which was acquired by Providence Equity Partners. Roger currently serves on several private company boards and is a member of the External Relations Council for the Department of Homeland Security’s Predict project. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for Kenyon College where he sits on the Budget, Financial and Audit Committee and the Information Resources Committee. From 2008 to 2011, Roger held a seat on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association and was their Treasurer and a member of their Executive Committee from 2009 to 2011. Mr. Novak’s significant prior experience as a director, especially in the education technology sector, render him a valuable member of the board.

Linda K. Zecher, Director

Linda K. Zecher joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in September 2011 as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director. Previously, she served as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's $8 billion Worldwide Public Sector organization, where she led a team of nearly 2,000 sales and marketing professionals serving government, education and healthcare customers in more than 100 countries. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2003, Linda held leadership positions with Texas Instruments, Bank of America, PeopleSoft, Oracle and Evolve Corp. She currently serves on the U.S. State Department's Board for Overseas Schools, the Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation Advisory Council, and the Emily Couric Leadership Forum. Linda is also a former member of the Intelligence National Security Association, the Virginia Piedmont Technology Council, and James Madison University's Board of Visitors.  

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CCS: A Cash Cow For Corporate Education Raiders 
David Coleman is one of these consultants (see Schools Matter and Susan Ohanian) and the “chief architect” of CCS. Like many of the most well-known Ed Deformers (e.g., Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Walton Family, Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Mike Bloomberg), Coleman had virtually no real experience in the classroom. In fact, according to Schools Matter, his only pedagogical experience was a little tutoring he did while an undergrad at Yale, where he studied English. After this, he went on to work in business, making a lot of money with the Grow Network, which was bought by McGraw-Hill in 2005. In 2007 he left McGraw-Hill and co-founded the nonprofit Student Achievement Partners, which played a leading role in creating the Common Core Standards. He now leads Student Achievement Partners in their work helping teachers and policymakers to implement the Common Core State Standards.