Winning Progressive

This is part 2 of our progressive voters guide to initiatives that will be on state ballots this November.  Part 1 of the guide is available here.

If you live in a state with one of the ballot initiatives, please get involved by speaking with your family, friends, and colleagues; by volunteering; and by writing a letter to your local newspaper editor.  If you live out-of-state, please contribute what you can to support the efforts of the progressive organizations who are working on these initiatives.

Worker’s Rights

Michigan Proposal 2 – vote Yes on the the “Protect Working Families” ballot proposal, which would grant both private and public sector employees a state constitutional right to bargain collectively through labor unions, and to negotiate and enforce collective bargaining agreements.  At a time of continued assault on the rights of working people, Proposal 2 would provide working Michiganders with protection from right-wing attacks, and would be a strong statement in favor of union rights.

* Protect Working Families

* Contribute

* Volunteer

* Facebook page

* Michigan newspapers

Michigan Proposal 4 – vote Yes on the “Home Health Care Amendment” to help improve the quality and availability of home health care services. The proposal would amend the state constitution to create the Michigan Quality Home Care Council, which would create a registry of qualified home health care providers, run background checks on providers, establish job training programs for home health care providers, establish wage and condition of employment standards for providers, and grant providers a limited right to collectively bargain over wages, benefits, and working conditions.

* Keep Home Care Safe

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* Volunteer

*Facebook page

* Michigan newspapers

California Proposition 32 – vote No on Proposition 32, which would vastly restrict the ability of working people and labor unions to engage in political advocacy.  The proposition is billed as an effort to get special interest money out of politics in California. But the reality is that while the proposition would stop unions from spending their members’ dues on political action and restrict campaign contributions from “special interests,” it includes a long list of exemptions that allow hedge funds, investment firms, real-estate developers, insurance companies, and other corporate interests to continue buying elections at will.

* No On 32

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* Facebook Page

Campaign Finance

Montana Corporate Contributions Initiative, I-166 - vote Yes on ballot initiative I-166, which: (1) would establish a state policy that corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights, (2) calls for restoring Montana’s ban on corporate campaign contributions (which was struck down in June 2012 by the U.S. Supreme Court), and (3) urges the state’s Congressional delegation to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would overturn Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions that establish that corporations have a free speech right to spend unlimited amounts on campaign contributions.

* Stand With Montanans

* Contribute

* Volunteer

*Facebook page

* Montana newspapers

Education

Idaho Propositions 1, 2, and 3 – vote No on Idaho propositions 1, 2, and 3, which seek to approve anti-teacher legislation passed by the Idaho legislature in 2011.  Proposition 1 would forbid teachers from collectively bargaining about anything except wages and benefits.  In other words, teachers would no longer be able to raise their voices about classroom size, funding for classroom supplies, student safety, etc.  Proposition 2 would link teacher pay to standardized testing.  Proposition 3 would try to divert students and funding away from public schools by requiring local school districts to spend money providing laptops to students who pursued on-line schooling.

* Vote No on Props 1, 2, and 3

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* Volunteer

* Facebook page

* Idaho newspapers

Oregon Measure 85 – the Corporate Tax “Kicker” Funds for Education Initiative – vote Yes on Oregon Measure 85, which would provide that certain higher than expected tax revenues from corporate taxes would go towards K-12 education funding, rather than being refunded to corporations.  Under Oregon law, the Governor must, every two years, estimate the amount of tax revenue the state expects to receive. If actual revenue from corporate taxpayers exceeds the estimate by more than 2%, the excess amount is refunded.  Measure 85 would provide that such excess amounts are, instead, dedicated to K-12 funding.

* Our Oregon

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* Volunteer

* Facebook page

* Oregon newspapers

Washington Charter School Initiative 1240 – vote No on Initiative 1240, which would start chipping away at public education in Washington State by allowing 40 charter schools to be formed over the next five years.  Washington is currently one of only eight states in the US that has no charter schools.  Initiative is the fourth attempt by charter school advocates to bring charters to the state of Washington.

* No on 1240

* Contribute

* Volunteer

* Facebook page

* Washington newspapers

For this weekend’s reading list we have articles on the Chicago teachers strike, charter schools, tax rates and economic growth, social mobility, and taxpayer subsidies to professional sports teams.

Two Visions For Chicago’s Schools – education expert Diane Ravitch details the differences at stake in the Chicago teacher’s strike between the education “reformers’” strategy of charter schools, testing, and busting teacher’s unions, and teacher’s efforts to strengthen our public education system.  For an explanation from a Chicago teacher of why he is striking, check out this article.

Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945 – a study by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service finds no correlation between the top marginal income tax rate or the capital gains tax rate and economic growth, but finds that the top tax rates are correlated with income inequality.

Promoting Social Mobility - a forum debating whether early childhood intervention can help reduce economic inequality and, if so, the best methods and programs for achieving such results.

Charter Schools: Finding Out the Facts – an overview of research regarding the performance of charter schools, which finds mixed results and that, on the whole, charter schools perform no better than the public school system.

In Stadium Building Spree, U.S. Taxpayers Lose $4 Billion – an accounting of how tax free municipal bonds used to finance the construction of a rash of new professional sports stadiums will cost U.S. taxpayers $4 billion while the value of professional teams has doubled over the past decade.

For this weekend’s reading list, we have articles on public support for cuts to military spending, the growing number of children in foster care after their parents were deported, the continued strength of Social Security, how public-private partnerships on infrastructure projects are too often a rip off of taxpayers, and the continued privatization of education in Philadelphia and other urban school districts.

If you have any feedback on any of these articles, or would like to recommend an article for next weekend’s reading list, please let us know in the comments section below or at the Winning Progressive Facebook page.

Public Overwhelmingly Supports Large Defense Spending Cuts – An in-depth survey of public opinion shows that the public favors cutting an average of $103 billion per year from military spending, which is far larger than either political party is currently proposing.

Shattered Families – a report on how there are currently at least 5,100 children in foster care in the US because their parents have been deported, and how increasingly aggressive deportation efforts could increase that number to 20,000 within five years.

What the 2012 Trustee’s Report Shows About Social Security – an in-depth review of the Social Security Board of Trustee’s 2012 report on the status of Social Security.  The report confirms that Social Security remains fully solvent until 2033, would be able to continue paying 75% of benefits after that, and can remain fully solvent until for the next 75 years with only relatively minor changes.

The Wall Street Racket Looting Your City, One Block At a Time – how the “public-private partnerships” that are frequently used to finance infrastructure projects are far too often end up sapping away needed public resources so that the private investors can continue to profit.

The Remaking of Philadelphia Public Schools: Privatization or Bust – a critical look at the City of Philadelphia’s plan to close 64 of its public schools over the next five years and to funnel at least 40% of the system’s students into charter schools, which seems to be part of a growing privatization of education in urban school districts.

For this weekend’s reading list, we have articles about an investigation into charter schools in Miami, the misguided nature of Wall Street’s resistance to sensible regulation, the bad economic ideas that dominated conservative thought in 2011, the Ryan-Wyden plan to undermine Medicare, and why it is so difficult to regulate painkillers.

If you have any feedback on these articles, or would like to recommend an article for next weekend’s reading list, please let us know at Winning Progressive’s Facebook page.

Cashing In On Kids – an interesting investigative series by the Miami Herald about how for profit companies that manage charter schools in Miami-Dade county are making large profits off of taxpayer dollars while their charter schools take few poor or special needs students.

The Remarkable Political Stupidity of the Street – Robert Reich explains how Wall Street’s efforts to undermine sensible and fairly moderate financial regulations puts the banksters at risk of far more stringent regulations later.

The 10 Worst Economic Ideas of 2011 - Austerity, regressive taxes, cutting Social Security and Medicare, capping federal spending, and the other bad economic ideas that dominated far too much of the political conversation in 2011.

Ryan-Wyden Premium Support Proposal Not What It May Seem – How the recent premium support proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) would weaken traditional Medicare, shift costs to senior citizens, and not really save money.

The Champion of Painkillers – how the non-profit American Pain Foundation is actually financed by the pharmaceutical industry and works to successfully challenge stricter regulation of the distribution of pain medications, overdoses of which cause more than 15,000 deaths per year.

For this weekend’s reading list, we have articles about the need to engage in cost-benefit analysis of domestic homeland security spending, how the media encourages the fact-free nature of conservative political discourse, a collection of articles about the impacts of private foundations on education policy, and the right wing effort to smear climate scientists.

If you have any feedback on these articles, or would like to recommend an article for next weekend’s reading list, please let us know at Winning Progressive’s Facebook page.

Terror, Security, and Money – an article about how there has been virtually no cost-benefit or risk assessment carried out in evaluating the more than $1 trillion in domestic homeland security spending since September 11, 2001.

Inside the GOP’s Fact-Free Nation – an overview of how the conservative media amplifies and encourages the fact-free approach to politics taken by much of the Republican Party today

The Best Resources for Learning About the Role of Private Foundations in Education Policy – a blog post from Larry Ferlazzo that compiles a list of articles providing a critical view of the role of large foundations in promoting charter schools and other education “reform” policies

Climategate: What Really Happened? – an article by Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones about the right wing’s attempt to smear climate scientists

For this weekend’s reading list, we have articles on the courageousness of the House Progressive Caucus budget proposal, the importance of the moral vision set forth in President Obama’s recent budget speech, why we should rename Earth Day, how charter schools unload the students with the most needs onto public schools, and new aggressive enforcement of our nation’s labor laws.

If you have any feedback on these articles, or would like to recommend an article for next week’s reading list, please let us know at the Winning Progressive Facebook page.

The Courageous Progressive Caucus Budget – the Economist’s Democracy in America blog notes that the House Progressive Caucus’s budget proposal – which eliminates the deficit by 2021 with military spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy, is the truly courageous budget proposal.

Obama Returns to His Moral Vision: Democrats Read Carefully! - George Lakoff praises President Obama’s focus on explaining the moral vision behind progressivism in his recent The Country We Believe In speech on the budget.

Let’s Rename Earth Day – A somewhat humorous suggestion at Climate Progress that we rename Earth Day to something that better reflects the fact that environmentalism is about protecting the ability of the planet to sustain human life, not just about protecting the Earth.

Stacking the Odds in Favor of Charter Schools – a story from Ben Joravsky at the Chicago Reader about how it is unfair to compare the performance of charter schools to neighborhood public schools because the charter schools unload the students with the most needs and problems onto the public schools.

Labor Case Board Against Boeing Points to Fights to Come – a NYT article about how Lafe Solomon, the acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, is aggressively enforcing our nation’s labor laws, which are supposed to protect worker’s rights to collectively bargain over their wages, benefits, and working conditions.