Cheri Yecke hearing - Can't wait for a transcript.

[Morning Dew]

Did she just give a 9/11 reason for dumping cooperative learning in MN? Something to the effect that people like Jeremy Glick and Tom Burnett were noted for independence in their actions.

Good Grief.

Did anyone see this? What did I miss here?

[myrna minx]

1. I am at work, so was unable to see the hearing.

I wouldn't be suprised if Yecke would state something like: "If you don't appoint me, the terrorists have won." :eyes: She makes my skin crawl.

[keep_left]

2. Yecke rejected in committee 6-4...

I just heard this. The vote, of course, was along party lines.

By the way, Yucky, as I call her, is even worse news than most people know. Despite the hints very early on that her confirmation would be problematic, she made no effort at all to be conciliatory. If anything, she became even more strident.

Not long ago, Yecke appeared on the truly extreme KKMS 980-AM, a freeper/fundie talk station. (Its sister station is 1280-AM "The Patriot": more accurately, "The Fascist" or "Seig Heil on the Dial"). The show she was on was "In Focus with Joyce Harley". Harley is a Stepford-sounding fundie host (think Rexella Van Impe, if you're familiar with the Van Wimpys and their fundie TV show); she has a regular feature on her show called "Education Wednesday". It's a nonstop attack on public education, with every nutcase anti-education group going on unopposed with every kind of conspiracy theory you can imagine. One of the worst of the groups is the Maple River Education Coalition, who are regular guests.

Believe me, public education supporters made sure that our representatives knew about this. Yecke's ideas are just truly insane and unencumbered by any facts whatsoever.

[truthspeaker]

3. she's also a CREATIONIST, for pete's sake

Putting a creationist in charge of education is like putting a polluter in charge of the EPA.

[keep_left]

4. Yes, and her "Rising Tide of Mediocrity" book is a piece of work...

too. It's completely unreadable. All the excerpts that were printed in the paper are nothing but statements of opinion. It's like the freeper message boards, extended to a couple hundred pages!

My feeling is that Pawlenty had to suck up to the crazies in his party. We already know he goes to a freeper/fundie church, one that soft-pedals the freeper message in a fairly sophisticated way. (This was covered in a City Pages article last winter, if my recollection is correct). I think Yecke was chosen because she was seen as a stealth candidate. The problem was, she had lots of enemies, because she had just finished destroying the Virginia school system.

"Yucky" is kinda like that old Motown song: "they smile in your face, all the while they wanna take your place, the backstabbers...". That's how people from Virginia described her. She'd listen and smile and do all the right PR stuff, then she would ignore all her constituents and vote for the most anti-Enlightenment, reactionary stuff you can imagine.

You can read more about this kind of thing here:

http://www.america-tomorrow.com/bracey/EDDRA/

All public education supporters should have that site bookmarked, and be reading his books!

[Nobody]

5. Seems that a lot of people have forgotten

that Yecke was in charge of the school system ranked 50th out of 50. Last place. Dead last. The worst in the nation.

--on edit: fixed type

--second edit: forgot to put the on edit note in

[cothomps]

6. Wow...

What the heck happened in Minnesota?

Although I had my share of issues with Ventura, I do remember the education stuff coming out of the office of Mae Strunck to be pretty sensible.

Now Minnesota gets this wingnut to run the schools? Thank goodness her nomination was defeated in committee...

Which leads to a better question: who is the DFL looking to nominate for governor in the next race?

(Sadly enough, I was somewhat of a Tim Penny fan. I know, I know getting out of the "Democratic Tent" somewhat. ;-) )

[keep_left]

7. Well, of course what happened...

was that idiot Minnesotans elected Tim Pawlenty, who chose "Yucky". FFI, see the post about MN being a "battleground state". People from the suburbs are the big demographic in this whole thing. They don't seem to get it that if they keep going to freeper churches and supporting the fundie/freeper-controlled GOP, not only will they not have their top-rated suburban public schools, but their middle-class lifestyle will disappear as well. They're complete suckers for "family values", "culture wars", and all the other strategies that are used to keep them distracted as the far right destroys their way of life.

And as regards Tim Penny, he was (and still may be) on the board of the Center of the American Experiment, MN's own corporate-funded far-right think tank. He is WAY outside the "Democratic tent". He also wrote a moronic book several years ago that praised the religious right.

On Yecke: she was defeated in committee, but her nomination still has to be put to a full vote.

[cothomps]

8. Thank You....

And as regards Tim Penny, he was (and still may be) on the board of the Center of the American Experiment, MN's own corporate-funded far-right think tank. He is WAY outside the "Democratic tent". He also wrote a moronic book several years ago that praised the religious right.

Wow. I didn't know that - I was only familiar with Tim's work as a DFL Representative.

(I did see that he is also in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute: http://www.hhh.umn.edu/people/tpenny/)

Okay - he's lost me. ;-)

[Viking12]

9. Penny was also a fellow for Cato

another indication that he's WAy otuside the Democratic Party.

[keep_left]

10. Thanks for reminding me...

I totally forgot about the Cato connection. Remember what Cato is. It was founded by Koch Industries, the country's largest refinery company. They're just vicious polluters, anti-labor, and want to turn the country into something out of an Ayn Rand novel.

Penny's work with the Humphrey Institute isn't necessarily bad (it's just a public policy school at the U of M), although the DFL types that are associated with the Humphrey school are way too DLC, wimpy, and ingratiating with people who in fact want to destroy dissent in this country. On the other hand, Humphrey is in some way associated with the Center for School Change, who are apologists for even the most spectacular charter school failures (e.g. test scores in the toilet, books not getting to students for six months, teachers not getting paid, etc.).