Many of us have wondered whether President Obama hears the voices of teachers. Many have wondered whether he understands that educators–not only teachers, but principals and superintendents–despise Race to the Top and see it as a calculated effort to undermine professionalism and advance the privatization agenda. And many have wondered whether the President knows that he may be jeopardizing his re-election by turning off an important part of his base.
I would add to all this wondering that a lot of us will have to swallow hard, forget our passion for education, and vote for Obama. The alternative is too alarming to contemplate.
Mark Naison, who blogs regularly, has written an important column about these issues, which I reprint here:
How to Lose a Close Election
Virtually ever poll now has President Obama and Mitt Romney embroiled in an extremely close race. The President could very well win this election; but he could also lose. And if he does lose, I will have to go back to something I first started saying nearly three years- namely that turning off the nation’s teachers with educational policies which silence their voice, and put them under extreme stress, is not only bad for the nation’s schools, it could cripple the President’s re-election efforts.
Many of you have read some of my blog posts which made this argument, and have seen the “Dump Duncan” petition which I helped to draft which called on the President to remove his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, incorporate the nation’s teachers into Education Policy discussions, and stop requiring schools to ratchet up the number of standardized tests to receive federal funding.
But what you haven’t seen, or known about, is my private efforts to engage people close the president in conversation about teachers disillusionment, efforts which were totally unsuccessful. The President’s inner circle, from what I could gather, refused to bend on support for Race to the Top and Secretary Duncan. They were not only convinced that these policies would end up improving the nation’s schools; they felt that the political gains to be made in terms of support from large funders and influential journalists was far greater than any losses that would occur in terms of teacher enthusiasm, particularly since they knew the largest teachers unions would support the President no matter what policies he chose to implement.
Now, at crunch time, when it’s too late to change course, I can tell you that this judgment was a severe miscalculation. Not only have the President’s policies failed to narrow testing gaps by race and class, they have contributed to teacher morale in the nation to be the lowest it has been since pollsters began measuring this trait. But the political consequences may have been even more serious than the educational ones. Most teachers will probably end up voting for the President, but from what I have seen, in both New York and around the nation, they will not be manning phone banks, canvassing in their neighborhoods, travelling to swing states on the weekends and generally giving time, money and energy to assure the President’s election the way they did in 2008.
Many pundits attribute the Obama victory in 2008 to an incredibly strong “ground game” composed of huge numbers of volunteers, as well as paid staff, working to get out the vote in battleground states. Many of those individuals, including me, my wife, and many of my friends, were teachers, professors and school administrators. During this election, I know of few, if any educators putting in that kind of heroic effort, almost entirely because they are feeling betrayed by the President, indeed, by the entire Democratic Party, on educational issues, even though they support the President’s positions on reproductive freedom, gay rights, taxation and medical care.
There is no way of knowing whether the phenomenon I am describing is will be a “game changer” in this election. But based on what I have seen in 2008 and in this campaign, there is a chance it could be. And if it is, the Obama brain trust has no one to blame but themselves, because they have had ample opportunity to change course, and indeed have been pleased with by many of their supporters to do just that.
Mark Naison
October 22, 2012
Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/
To the general public, who are not present in classrooms, talk about “accountability”, “reform”, “high standards’, “parent choice”, “educational equity”, etc, all sound good. Human beings ae very easily taken in by pleasant-sounding words. Obama is a human being, not a saint (as some seem to have thought he was in 2008) (I never thought that), he is a politician, and it seems very popular among politicians of all parties these days to embrace the “education reform agenda” Mayor Villaraigosa here in LA, considered very liberal, is another one. (We are fortunate to have Brown as Governor, one of the rare politicians who has not fallen for that nonsense.)
Frankly, I don’ t consider Bill Gates an evil villain either. I think he sincerely believes he is doing good in education, but has been misled. (His foundation is also working on the world hunger problem, malaria, etc.) (Not that there aren’t some villains out there, like Michelle Rhee, and perhaps Arne Duncan as well.) But we should not demonize everyone who goes along with this stuff. To people who hve not worked in a classroom, it sounds good.
We have been losing the PR war, and I think need to do a better job of getting our message across. I will write about that some time, not now. One thing that woudl greatly help–would be if more parents became very involved and vocal about it,, speaking up in national media, opting their kids out of the standardized tests, etc.
One thing I am 100% sure would not help one bit though, is what some have been advocating here, refusing to vote for Obama. I can assure you that not one political commentator, not one politician or news reporter, would attribute Obamas loss to “teachers being mad at him about RTTT. Np one woudl think that but a few people on this board. (And I am not sure that some who have advocated that here might actually be Romney hacks, trying to bring down the Obama vote. And a Romney presidency would most likely be worse on education, and everything else. I think that if we speak up very loudly to Obama about this, there is some hope of change in his position. (I don’t guarantee it, just say there is some hope.) While I do not see any hope of a better educaton policy from Romney, only a worse one. (He has criticized Obama as “soft on teachers”.) Romney speaks so negatively about teacher unions–he might very likely try to bust public employee unions, including teacher’s, a la Scott Walker in Wisconsin. What would you folks think about that then,who withheld voting for Obama, helping Romney to win? How would you feel if environmental regulations are killed, because Romney doesn’t like anything interfering with business? Social security privatized? Roe v Wade overturned by a Romney Supreme Court? Do you really want to be responsible for that?
Anyone here vote for Ralph Nader in 2000, because you didn’t like Gore? (I didn’t like Gore much either, yet I voted for him. Until God himself runs for office, we have to choose between the politicians we got, those who really have a chance of winning.) If you voted for Ralph Nader rather than Gore, you made a wonderful statement, showing how “pure” you are, and you probably felt good about that decision. Well, that decision of yours gave us eight years of George W. Bush, who caused great havoc on the nation. Great thing that your statement of purity brought to all of us. (There is no doubt that in 200, if the Ralph Nader voters had voted for Gore, Gore would have prevailed by a long shot.) The Nader voters are to thank for giving us Dubya. Thanks a lot, purists!
Similarly, any liberal or progressive who does not vote for Obama in this election, is in effect voting for Romney,.
PLEASE—VOTE BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT! (But tell him to dump Duncan!)
(If in California, make sure to Vote Yes on 30 and No on 32. (One thing I also say, although the unions don’t like it, is to also vote yes on the PTA School Funding Initiative, 38. Most important to vote yes on 30 though, in a very tight race.)
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Short PS–
I also think it possible (note–not saying likely, but I consider it possible) that after-re-election, without him having to worry about being re-elected again, that B.O might be more open to hearing what we have to say, to dropping Duncan and his “reform agenda”, etc.
Why? Because quite unfortunately, the so-called “reform” message has become quite popular with the general public. (As I wrote before, this is quite troublesome, and wee need to figure out how to get our message across better to the public. That is a discussion for a different thread though.)
It is popular, unfortunately, all across the political spectrum. Do folks recall when Arne Duncan was travelling to schools on a highly publicized tour, accompanied by –Newt Gingrich (considered a very conservative Republican) and Rev. Al Sharpton (considered a very liberal democrat). The reform BS message seems to be bamboozling folks of all political stripes. In any case, it being popular, BO may have felt it necessary to keep on that course, or lose votes of independents, etc., accused by Republicans of being “soft on teacher unions”, etc.
After re-election–he will never run for office again, does not have to worry whether an action of his will be popular or not when he runs for re-election, etc. That will be over, and I think he might be more open then to hearing our message. (Again–not saying that is probable, but I think possible.) (Whereas with Romney, I don’t think there is any chance at all of him hearing even one word we have to say.).
Yes, there is a difference, and the lesser evil is better than the greater evil, no doubt.. A Gore presidency would likely have been much better than the GW Bush one was. I think every indication points to the fact that a Romney win tomorrow might be very bad for the country, possibly for eight years. We cannot risk that,. Vote for Obama tomorrow, if you have not yet voted