Summary: <br> <p>Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and <br> analysis from a Black Left perspective with Glen Ford and his co-host, <br> Nellie Bailey.<br> <br></p><br> <p>– A national poll commissioned by In The Public<br> Interest has found broad support for reining in the spread of charter <br> schools and for making them conform to the same standards as traditional<br> public schools. The poll also shows majorities oppose an over-emphasis <br> on standardized testing in the classroom. David Cohen, executive <br> director of the In the Public Interest, said the survey shows Americans <br> continues to have a high regard for public schools and teachers, despite<br> the propaganda put out by school privatizers.</p><br> <p>- Parents, teachers<br> and activists gathered recently, in Philadelphia, for a national <br> conference of the Opt Out movement, which seeks to end excessive <br> standardized testing in the public schools. We spoke with Dr. Denisha <br> Jones, a board member of United Opt Out, and an assistant professor of <br> Early Childhood Education at Washington DC’s Howard University. The <br> organization demands ““an equitably-funded, democratically based, <br> anti-racist, desegregated public school system for all Americans – one <br> that prepares students to exercise compassionate and critical decision <br> making.” Dr. Jones says none of this can happen if kids are spending all<br> their time taking tests.</p><br> <p>- Robert Gangi, executive director of <br> the Police Reform Organizing Project, in New York, has been monitoring <br> courtroom activity around the city. Gangi reports that the courts are <br> busy prosecuting Black and brown men on minor offenses, an indication <br> that the “broken windows” philosophy of policing is alive and well in <br> New York.</p><br> <p>- Earlier this month, a death squad assassinated <br> Honduran indigenous people’s leader Berta Caceres. Caceres was at the <br> top of the hit list for the Honduran regime that was installed in a <br> U.S.-backed coup, in 2009. She fought countless battles against land <br> grabs by multinational corporations. Her friend, Beverly Bell, a <br> co-founder of the group Other Worlds, says the regime and its backers in<br> Washington, killed Berta Caceres.</p><br> <p>- President Obama will visit <br> Cuba later this month. The President claims his trip is designed to <br> further normalization of relations and peace in the region. But <br> political analyst Eric Draitser, founder of StopImperialism.org, says <br> Obama has scaled back tensions with Cuba while escalating Washington’s <br> war against Venezuela.</p><br> <p><br> <br></p>
