transparency of Massachusetts School Board where they must publish results of all negotiations

[akshatpradhan]

I thought this would be an interesting ballot initiative to introduce into Massachusetts

70% to 30% said yes to this initiative http://www.9news.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/04/colorado-school-board-open-meetings-results/18442933/

[jpokeefe]

Ya know, you let your email get too many and ...

Great idea. But why limit it to school union negotiations. How about any negotiations. Going to sell off your parking meters or invest in some hedge fund, those negotiations should be public as well.

Thanks!

Jamie

On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 4:15 PM, Akshat Pradhan notifications@github.com wrote:

I thought this would be an interesting ballot initiative to introduce into Massachusetts

70% to 30% said yes to this initiative

http://www.9news.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/04/colorado-school-board-open-meetings-results/18442933/

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/masspirates/planks/issues/4.

peace,

James

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[akshatpradhan]

I think you'll get push back trying to get hedge funds to be transparent about their negotiations. Making School Board results transparent is something small where everybody can relate. I hypothesize that you have to let people taste transparency before getting them to buy into more transparency.

[jpokeefe]

You point about starting small is good, though you will likely be get a better return by making negotiations with hedge funds transparent than with teacher unions. Best to be even handed about it and not just make it look like workers are the only ones who need to be transparent.

Jamie

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Akshat Pradhan notifications@github.com wrote:

I think you'll get push back trying to get hedge funds to be transparent about their negotiations. Making School Board results transparent is something small that everybody can relate too. I hypothesize that you have to let people taste transparency before getting them to buy into more transparency.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/masspirates/planks/issues/4#issuecomment-63531029.

peace,

James

James O'Keefe Captain, Massachusetts Pirate Party / masspirates.org w: http://www.jamesokeefe.org e: jokeefe@jamesokeefe.org m: 617-447-0210

Warning: This communication may be monitored and collected without consent, in secret, by the NSA, other intelligence agencies and corporations. Additionally, anything that you send me is likely to receive the same treatment. Please encrypt your communications well. They hate that. See https://prism-break.org/ for a list of tools you can use.

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

[masspirates]

Just because it's easier, don't make it right. Teachers unions get scrutiny for the same reason auctioning off the commons doesn't: Capitalist elite pushing always in the media the agenda of privatized "solutions" to all problems, real or manufactured.

Lucia

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Akshat Pradhan notifications@github.com wrote:

I think you'll get push back trying to get hedge funds to be transparent about their negotiations. Making School Board results transparent is something small that everybody can relate too. I hypothesize that you have to let people taste transparency before getting them to buy into more transparency.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/masspirates/planks/issues/4#issuecomment-63531029.

Lucia Fiero First Officer, Massachusetts Pirate Party / masspirates.org e: sutralu@gmail.com tw: @Bluelustreak fb: www.facebook.com/sutralu m: 617-462-7361

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[masspirates]

If we were trying to avoid pushback we wouldn't be in politics.

:-)

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 2:47 PM, jpokeefe notifications@github.com wrote:

You point about starting small is good, though you will likely be get a better return by making negotiations with hedge funds transparent than with teacher unions. Best to be even handed about it and not just make it look like workers are the only ones who need to be transparent.

Jamie

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Akshat Pradhan notifications@github.com

wrote:

I think you'll get push back trying to get hedge funds to be transparent about their negotiations. Making School Board results transparent is something small that everybody can relate too. I hypothesize that you have to let people taste transparency before getting them to buy into more transparency.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/masspirates/planks/issues/4#issuecomment-63531029.

peace,

James

James O'Keefe Captain, Massachusetts Pirate Party / masspirates.org w: http://www.jamesokeefe.org e: jokeefe@jamesokeefe.org m: 617-447-0210

Warning: This communication may be monitored and collected without consent, in secret, by the NSA, other intelligence agencies and corporations. Additionally, anything that you send me is likely to receive the same treatment. Please encrypt your communications well. They hate that. See https://prism-break.org/ for a list of tools you can use.

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/masspirates/planks/issues/4#issuecomment-63532752.

Lucia Fiero First Officer, Massachusetts Pirate Party / masspirates.org e: sutralu@gmail.com tw: @Bluelustreak fb: www.facebook.com/sutralu m: 617-462-7361

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[akshatpradhan]

I think it would take a lot of money to educate the public about transparency in hedge funds vs transparency in the School Boards. From the 70% to 30% vote in Colorado, it seems this would be an easy ballot to push through Massachusetts without costing you a lot of money in ads or education. Moreover, it would show MassPirates can institute change in a toxic political climate.

[masspirates]

I for one am not interested in more scrutiny for educators. They are under siege enough as it is. That's because education itself is under siege. It has been this way since Reagan and it gets worse every year.

I cannot support this idea unless it is universally applied, as James suggested. If any of you are interested in pursuing this, that's up to you. My energy will go elsewhere.

Lucia

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 5:21 PM, Akshat Pradhan notifications@github.com wrote:

I think it would take a lot of money to educate the public about transparency in hedge funds vs transparency in the School Boards. From the 70% to 30% vote in Colorado, it seems this would be an easy ballot to push through Massachusetts without costing you a lot of money in ads or education. Moreover, it would show MassPirates can institute change in the current political climate.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/masspirates/planks/issues/4#issuecomment-63556509.

Lucia Fiero First Officer, Massachusetts Pirate Party / masspirates.org e: sutralu@gmail.com tw: @Bluelustreak fb: www.facebook.com/sutralu m: 617-462-7361

DISCLAIMER: This communication may be monitored and collected without consent, in secret, by the NSA. See https://prism-break.org/ for a list of tools you can use to protect your privacy.

[akshatpradhan]

Hi Lucia,

I'm just a visitor to your github repository and I'm not really trying to pursue anything. I'm still perusing the political atmosphere to see which party fits me best. Transparency seems to be your Modus Operandi, and I saw this school board transparency ballot that I thought would be of interest to you. I wouldn't know how to apply transparency universally, but if you have an idea, I'm sure everybody would be interested in learning more. I did throw in my own personal observations that touched on campaign finance and political strategy and I apologize if that rubbed you the wrong way.

Cheers, ;Akshat

[masspirates]

Transparency can also be wielded like a club against people working in the public interest, in defiance of the will of the elite. I am really not concerned about teachers getting overpaid or getting better conditions at tax payer expense. I find that teachers are too often in the cross hairs of austerity, and would like to leave well enough alone. Yes, my mother was a teacher (among other things) and yes, my husband's family all worked for public universities and found themselves on the short end of the negotiating stick, so I have a personal bias, but I think it's fair for me to veto any proposal I don't support, don't you?

I am not interested in ticking off a success on our collective resume, like a prosecutor so bent on winning a case for the sake of his career he withholds evidence that exonerates and innocent man, merely because the crime was heinous and got a lot of press. Nor am I interested in making a victory for ourselves at the expense of such an easy target, easy because so much corporate money is intent on privatizing our education system. If I were interested in an easy "win", I would still be voting for the Democratic nominee in every race.

If my strident resistance to your ideas gave you the impression that I was annoyed, I will remind you that many outspoken women are perceived that way. It's not annoyance. It's merely disagreement., which I think I did without being disagreeable. Clarity was my goal, only.

As for "universally applied", I thought James was more than clear.

Cheers!

Lucia

http://thegrumpyvoter.ca/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/the.modern.school.teacher.jpg

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 8:20 PM, Akshat Pradhan notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi Lucia, I'm just a visitor to your github repository and I'm not really trying to pursue anything. I'm still perusing the political atmosphere to see which party fits me best. Transparency seems to be your Modus Operandi, and I saw this school board transparency ballot that I thought would be of interest to you. I did throw in my own personal observations that touched on campaign finance and political strategy and I apologize if that rubbed you the wrong way.

Cheers, ;Akshat

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/masspirates/planks/issues/4#issuecomment-63577185.

Lucia Fiero First Officer, Massachusetts Pirate Party / masspirates.org e: sutralu@gmail.com tw: @Bluelustreak fb: www.facebook.com/sutralu m: 617-462-7361

DISCLAIMER: This communication may be monitored and collected without consent, in secret, by the NSA. See https://prism-break.org/ for a list of tools you can use to protect your privacy.

[akshatpradhan]

Thank you Lucia, this is an interesting discussion. I was wondering, what ballot question would you propose and how much do you think it would cost to get people to approve it?

Also, I was thinking more about how you would lose a Hedge Fund Transparency ballot question. Hedge funds could buy some expensive and well-made emotional TV ads calling your ballot an anti-american job killer. They have more money than you.

[jpokeefe]

Either approach will come up against very powerful interests.

Truth is we aren't in the business of putting forward ballot measures. Just to get one on the ballot requires over 60,000 valid voters to sign your petition in a very limited period of time. Your raw signature count is likely 50% greater than that. Either you need hundreds of volunteers to gather signatures, or you pay signature gathering companies, not all of which are on the up and up. Either way, the cost for an effort with a high probability of failing is high. It also puts all of our eggs in one basket.

We prefer to diversify and iterate by running candidates for local and legislative offices. If a few don't get on the ballot, it isn't a lot of effort down the drain. With that approach, we can learn better what works and use that knowledge for next year's campaign.

I have helped with four ballot measures and know people who have run successful and unsuccessful initiative campaigns. I have been a candidate for state-wide office twice. Keeping campaigns local is more what we are about for now.

As always thanks for the ideas! Please keep them coming.

James

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 5:21 PM, Akshat Pradhan notifications@github.com wrote:

I think it would take a lot of money to educate the public about transparency in hedge funds vs transparency in the School Boards. From the 70% to 30% vote in Colorado, it seems this would be an easy ballot to push through Massachusetts without costing you a lot of money in ads or education. Moreover, it would show MassPirates can institute change in the current political climate.

[akshatpradhan]

Thanks Jamie!