Sabrina Stevens answers the question here.
Who worked to get children out of the factories and into school?
Who worked for a shorter work day for women?
Who worked to help poor people enter the middle class?
Not the Wall Street hedge fund managers.
Not the equity investors.
Not the big corporations.
One guess.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Teachers of course and community members who stood with teachers. And a Methodist preacher, John Wesley, who started Sunday Schools in England to teach the children who worked in the factories how to read and write so they could read the Bible.
It’s worth hammering over and over again that the “reforms” Rahm and his fellow corporatists advocate for our nation’s children are the antitheses of the policies in place at the best institutions of the country, where they send their children (e.g., the U of Chicago Lab School).
I always ask (when someone starts up on a “what is wrong with tests and accountability” rant):
If all this is so great;
Common core
Endless testing
teachers graded by student test scores
Narrow curriculums
Scripted lessons
etc.
Then why don’t they adopt these practices at _________ (fill in with private school they are familiar with…preferably the one they went to or sent their kids to!)
The reform advocate always responds that these schools don’t need these reforms.
Then ask, “But if these reforms are so great and helpful to all students, shouldn’t they adopt them?”
They usually shut up and go away at this point.
UNIONS!
Yes, labor unions, who also brought families “the weekend” around WWII when the 40-hr work week became standard practice.
Did I miss the posts about “business, religious, labor, and civic organizations to work[ing] together?”
At their best, unions demonstrate solidarity by bringing workers together to speak and act collectively to protect their rights and pursue the common good. … Some union actions can contribute to excessive polarization and intense partisanship, can pursue positions that conflict with the common good, or can focus on just narrow self-interests. When labor institutions fall short, … calls out for a renewed focus and candid dialogue on how to best defend workers. … This renewal requires business, religious, labor, and civic organizations to work together to help working people defend their dignity, claim their rights, and have a voice in the workplace and broader economy.
To see who really cares, look at what they push and put all their energy into. The number 1 bang for educational buck is into early childhood. You get an 8 to 1 ROI or 10% ROI annually on early education investment, depending on which Nobel Laureate you ask.
Meanwhile, the only ROI on teacher bashing is heartache and divisiveness.
If Student’s First/A.L.E.C./Rahm really cared, they’d be fighitng tooth and nail for early childhood like they are against teachers.
Who is working for academic excellence?? I have a few nominations:
E.D. Hirsch, Sandra Stotsky, Jim Milgram, Steven Wilson, Steven Wilson, David Klein, Elizabeth Carson. Just to name a few.
They focus on improving the quality of the curriculum in the schools.
The best way to help a poor child? Educate them.
When the focus shifts, we see children ultimately suffer.
Illiteracy is never good for any child.
^ You can’t learn to read on an empty stomach. And you can’t eat books, either.
Please take a look at “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”.
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/conation/maslow.html
If a child’s basic needs are not met, all the teaching and testing in world will not help that child reach their potential.
While a teacher never stops trying to do all they can for any student, don’t you feel it is actually cruel and negligent for policy-makers to minimize the role of poverty on the learning process?
Wow, Mom got through a whole comment without calling anyone a Marxist. That was special.