Kerry Bentivolio-- Republican Teacher Of The Year?

The Koch brothers and other right-wing plutocrats working towards undermining democracy in America have targeted and demonized public education and the teaching profession. Their selfish-- and nationally dangerous-- obsession is now Republican Party policy. Science is the enemy in their dark, foul world of unrestrained greed and avarice. They don't want their taxes paying to educate your kids. Educate your own damn brats. In fact, what they want is to privatize education so they and their ilk can make some money on it as well-- the same way they're privatizing the military with mercenaries who shoot American soldiers in Afghanistan, the same way they've set about wrecking the post office and the prison system on behalf on their big campaign donors, the same way they're privatizing highways, utilities and national security. Romney himself is advocating for larger, less educable class sizes (the focus of the ad above), not to mention backing Ryan's budget, which could cut education spending by 20%. And say what you will about Obama-- as we often do here-- he has worked tirelessly to prevent teacher layoffs due to state budget cuts, sometimes successfully but more often blocked by congressional Republicans.

Education historian Diane Ravitch analyzes the new Gallup poll on education and finds that after years of this concerted effort by the right-wing, "the corporate reform movement has succeeded in increasing support for vouchers, but that the American public continues to have a remarkably high opinion of the schools and teachers they know best despite the concerted efforts of the reformers to undermine those beliefs. This is an instance where evidence trumps ideology. The reformers have not yet been able to destroy the bonds between the American people and their community’s schools...

• When asked to evaluate the schools in their own community, 48% give them an A or B, which is the highest rating in 20 years.

• When asked to evaluate the school their oldest child attends, an astonishing 77% give it an A or B. This is the highest rating in 20 years. Only 6% give it a D or F. This question elicits the views of informed consumers, the people who refer to a real school, not the hypothetical school system that is lambasted every other day in the national press or condemned as “obsolete” by Bill Gates.

• When asked whether they have trust and confidence in teachers, 71% said yes. Americans continue to respect and admire teachers, despite the nonstop public bashing of them in the media.

And then there's Republican reindeer rancher and former school teacher Kerry Bentivoglio, who so alarmed the GOP when he decided to run for Congress in Michigan's Oakland and Wayne counties (MI-11) that they ran a write-in candidate against him. It turns out they knew something about Bentivoglio that none of the rest of us did-- why he was fired as a public school teacher last year.

On the first day of school last year, Kerry Bentivolio told students in his English class at Fowlerville High School that he had one goal: to make each one of them cry at least once.

Bentivolio, now the Republican candidate in Michigan's 11th Congressional District -- which includes western Wayne and Oakland counties-- also told the students that they were "just a paycheck to me," according to a description of incidents in his personnel file.

The Free Press obtained his records under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. Bentivolio didn't return calls Tuesday.

Bentivolio's declarations earned him a verbal reprimand from his assistant principal and a formal letter demanding that he correct his behavior.

Nine months later, school administrators reprimanded him for intimidating and threatening students by grabbing their desks and yelling in their faces or for slamming his fists on their desks.

Similar incidents occurred throughout the school year, according to the written reprimand dated June 7 and signed by assistant principal Myriah Lillie. "Most students reported that they felt threatened and unsure of what you would do," she wrote.

A day later, faced with an aggressive teacher-improvement plan, Bentivolio reached a settlement with the district and resigned.

He wrote on evaluations, reprimands and the teacher-improvement plan that the allegations against him were untrue and "politically motivated."

Bentivolio, a Milford Republican, tea party activist and farmer who raises reindeer for exhibitions in which he dresses as Santa Claus, became the beneficiary of U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter's colossal election screwup when he failed to qualify for the ballot because of fraudulent petition signatures. Bentivolio was left as the only Republican on the ballot and easily won the primary against write-in challenger Nancy Cassis, a former state senator from Novi.

He has complained bitterly that mainstream Republicans sought another candidate to run against him when he was left as the only name on the ballot. Among them was Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who said Bentivolio's views-- including turning border control over to the U.S. Marines-- were too extreme. After Bentivolio won the primary, Patterson said he'd support him for the November election.

Students told their parents that Bentivoglio was constantly trying to brainwash them with his extremist political views. Republicans and public education-- not to mention Science-- just do not mix. Help us keep Bentivoglio out on his reindeer ranch by supporting Dr. Syed Taj for Congress-- right here.