Jeb Bush attacked superstar Matt Damon because he put his kids in private school in Los Angeles.
Bush sent his own children to private school.
He went after Matt because Matt spoke up for public schools in 2011. Matt went to public school in Cambridge.
But everyone should support public education, no matter where their children go to school. Everyone pays for them. They benefit all of society.
Corporate reformers love to criticize private school parents who support public schools. They feel justified in sending their kids to elite schools because they believe in choice.
But they try to silence those who act on the principle that public schools are a public responsibility, and you are free to pay for private or religious education with your own money.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Same Ole, Same Ole …
People must be getting tired of this kind of rhetoric by now.
I know I am sick and tired. But then the DEFORMERS see $$$$$. This is the ONLY thing that motivates them…lowest form of human.
If you know that the water is polluted
and you are trying to clean it up.
does not mean that you have to drink it.
Exactly.
Kind of like roads. Or parks.
I might take my son to the country club on the weekends, but I still support public parks. And that is not a shortcoming on my part.
I might hire a piano teacher for my boys, but I still support public school band.
This is common sense.
Technology does not trump common sense. Or it shouldn’t.
I always thought true conservatives supported these common sense notions, but that they just had tighter purse strings than Democrats. Blue Dog Democrats and Country Club Republicans used to be the same folks, essentially, in their expectations of community. I wonder when that went awry and why.
I will just bet Matt Damon will handle the criticism with great élan.
I have defended public schools from the onslaught of private equity charter schools–in fact, quite vociferously in my local community.
I have decided to send my 13 yr old to a public charter high school instead of our public high school.
And, I have been labeled by some as a hypocrite.
As a former public school teacher in our middle and high schools, I know first hand that many school-wide, and classroom learning, environments are detrimental to learning. This is a huge problem that many urban school districts either cannot, or will not, mitigate or solve.
I simply cannot subject my child to these destructive to learning circumstances at a crucial juncture in her development as a student and as a person.
Fortunately, in our area there is a publicly founded charter high school with a very small enrollment adjacent to a state university. In addition, there is a Ivy League university nearby that has a relationship with my child’s new school.
There is also a private equity charter chain that operates in our area. I would NOT send my child to any of that chain’s schools and would send her to our public high school if that were the only choices.
So, this is my defense to the charge of hypocrisy. I am really thankful that such a good alternative is available (and she was accepted) to the madhouses (except for honors programs) that pass for public high schools in our area.
Isn’t interesting that no one talks about learning environments and who is ultimately accountable for the current state of madness in our urban schools?
Makes sense to me. My youngest’s public middle school is currently writing an application to become an ‘affiliated’ charter and I see no conflict (or hypocrisy) with that. It will mean more local control of programs and opportunities for faculty and students alike.
The problem here is with the vocabulary. The use of the word CHARTER alone is the cause of confusion. There must be a preliminary descriptor fully identify a school. INDEPENDENT, DEPENDENT or AFFILIATED, STATE or DISTRICT are words which define the type of charter. Brutus2011 and others… your friends would not label you a hypocrite if they understood the difference.
I can remember that when Poppies was president, I would drive home down Old Cutler Road in south Dade. If the timing was right, when I went by Gulliver Prep and the end of the school day, there, out in front of the school wqas a long, black limo, and some serious looking guys, all there to pick up the little JEBs.
Actually, it was find of amazing some of the things that happened when JEB came to town. He put together some real estate deals in a matter of months that others could only dream of. Of course it always helps when Poppie is VP or Presdident, not that JEB would ever use his influence!
Like our govenor, Rick, JEB is nothing but a carpet bagger who came into a town that drools over influence and money.
We have gotten along for decades and decades with no real conflict between public and private systems, just like we got along just fine with the original mission of publicly responsible charter schools.
That was because everyone understood the principles involved in public versus private and religious funding. And there never has to be a problem so long as the funding of public schools and the credentials of public school teachers remains high, which they have historically been in the past.
So where does the problem come in? Where is the cloven hoof?
Well, that is the very thing that corporateers and privateers are desperately trying to divert the public’s attention from.
So far as we are able, we choose the common good in our public lives, and the greatest good we can achieve for our own children.
As teachers, we try our mightiest for the greatest good for each student, and still the common good for all of them. There’s no hypocrisy in any of that.
Jeb Bush is the hypocrite, and nobody is listening to his opinions of Matt Damon’s moral failings, anyway. He’s doing this because they feel threatened by the “liberal messages” in Matt’s film, Elysium.
Spoiler alert. Matt reboots the automated core operating program of the oligarchy, to extend full citizenship to the people trapped on earth under the domination of the orbiting super-rich. There are long action sequences, with Matt’s exoskeleton suit versus everything they can throw at him, displaying a fair amount of spurting blood and transmission fluid. Cool tattoos, four stars, go see it.
Andrew Rotherham spreads this attack through TIME magazine and his website, eduwonk.
I posted the following comment, which it appears Andrew deleted.
(I apologize for the language, but Andrew also believes that teachers and their unions protect teachers who sexually abuse children (except Mrs. Johnson) and prevent the police from arresting the suspected criminals. When challenged for facts, Andrew went into bully mode, began name calling and said he did not have to provide evidence.)
HORSESHIT, Andy.
Why aren’t you arguing for every class to be capped at 20 with a teacher and aide, like your children get at Barcroft Elementary School. A school were the 30% above the poverty line shop at Harris Teeter to fund raise for the school, where the PTA (led by your wife) run school supply drives for the 70%.
“Dr” Deasy won’t provide that for LAUSD kids, but Matt Damon, like Leonie Haisman (sp), want that for ALL children.
You are the hypocrite, Andy, like Chris Christie yelling at teachers for not teaching and getting paid for 2 months while his children go to a private school with three months off.
Or just like Derrell Bradford whining about public schools wasting money on “bell and whistles” while he went to a expensive private school with lacrosse, squash courts, and a big auditorium.
Built in 2000, the 4,700 square foot Middleton Athletic Center has locker rooms for all Middle and Upper school students, a 2,500 square foot state-of-the-art weight room, an athletic trainer’s room, a video room, three basketball courts, and a wrestling room with two full-sized wrestling mats.
The synthetic grass at Tullai Field is the same playing surface used by NFL teams. All of our football, soccer, and lacrosse teams play on the stadium field, where we have hosted MIAA playoff games, NCAA lacrosse teams, as well as various lacrosse tournaments and clinics.
Blenckstone Field, our baseball diamond, is an immaculate all-natural field that is second to none in the area. All of our Middle and Upper School baseball teams play and practice on this field.
Thompson field is named in memory of David Thompson ’97. The field hosts soccer, football, and lacrosse games in the fall and spring.
A new multi-purpose field has been constructed at the south end of campus. The area will contain two soccer fields in the fall and serve as a practice baseball facility in the spring.
Tennis Facility
St. Paul’s has 10 har-tru courts and four hard courts for tennis. The har-tru courts are consider some of the best in the Baltimore area. Homeland Racquet Club operates a club program out of the facility, which has a beautiful clubhouse overlooking the courts.
Kinsolving Gym
Kinsolving Gym has great history as the School’s original indoor athletic facility. The gym is used by all the basketball teams for practice and for sub-varsity level games in the winter.
Kelly Gymnasium (Squash Courts)
The Squash team practices and plays matches in the squash courts in Kelly Gymnasium attached to the Middle School.
Other Practice Facilities
St. Paul’s ice hockey team travels to Mimi DiPietro Ice Rink in Baltimore for practice and games.
But, as I have typed here before, this is to be expected from a guy who condones the lies that teachers and their unions protect sex abusers of students and prevent the police from arresting them.
So,
F*&% you Andy.
good for you Phillip– I was worried Andrew Andy had given up blogging after la ‘affaire Bennett but I see that after a 5 day grieving period he is back and found something on which to focus his Ed Reform talking points– the pressing problem of where Matt Damon sends his kids to school (when it is actually completely understandable although AR does his incoherent best to make it as clear as mud.)
Here’s my comment on his EduWonk blog:
“Another public school parent weighing in: I will tell you the precise moment when I will perhaps re-consider my view of all these corporate “reform” strategies, testing, more testing, over-testing, misusing results of testing, Big Data collection and purveyance, Common Core standards, Value Added teacher evaluation schemes, more testing, as a troubling and pernicious development in the education of our nation’s public school children: when Lakeside in Seattle, Sidwell Friends in DC and other august and prestigious private academies decide they want their students to be signed up for this racket. Otherwise their children will remain separate and apart from the commoners’ children in the public schools, of course. It must be easy to dictate policies that only affect other people’s children. See also: http://bit.ly/1731XhS. By the way will there ever be an EduWonk update of the Tony Bennett (it’s really just not that big a deal”) post?”
http://bit.ly/19ajohR
good post, thanks!
sounds like this guy Rotherham could really use a “tuneup” if ya’ know what I mean.
Choice means you make choices, both financial and personal. Choice means you give something up in order to receive something else. You give up vacations, eating out, maybe you only own one car in order to choose and pay for private education that is different than the public option. Today’s model of choice is different. You don’t have to give anything up, because the government is going to pay for it. You don’t get anything different, because the government is controlling it. Both our school and church leaders need to stand up and own their institutions. Church members need to be willing to help and sacrifice in order to make that happen.
I liken it to the bride whose mother-in-law pays for the wedding and starts calling all the shots. The bride broods silently, yet consents because she doesn’t want to pay for it herself. In the end, the bride gets the wedding paid for, but it wasn’t what she wanted.
Agreed! As a Catholic school teacher, (who has nothing personal against public schools) I’m aghast that NCEA did all that promotion for CC. I realize that in some states with vouchers that the Catholic schools didn’t have a choice and I realize that textbooks and tests are catering to the CCSS, (the two main reasons that I’m aware of as to why my Archdiocese is using them) but NCEA as well as Catholic superintendents should have spoken up for the traditional education experiences that Catholic schools are known for.
If choice requires you give something up. Then how do you explain choice when it comes too abortion. The woman is making a sacrifice, she is being selfish.
Matt Damon explained himself very well in The Guardian interview:
“Choosing a school has already presented a major moral dilemma. Sending our kids in my family to private school was a big, big, big deal. And it was a giant family discussion. But it was a circular conversation, really, because ultimately we don’t have a choice. I mean, I pay for a private education and I’m trying to get the one that most matches the public education that I had, but that kind of progressive education no longer exists in the public system. It’s unfair.’ Damon has campaigned against teachers’ pay being pegged to children’s test results: ‘So we agitate about those things, and try to change them, and try to change the policy, but you know, it’s a tough one'”
That was a really good response by Damon. He probably wants his kids to have art, music, etc. and not spend the entire time in English and math practicing for the yearly bubble test.
My sister sent her kids to a charter school that’s more of a classical education school for that very reason. She told me that she wanted the type of education for her kids that she got at a regular public elementary school 20 years ago.
This was ten years ago but i couldn’t help committing. You think art and music are more important than English and math. We’re getting our butts kicked by Asian countries when it comes to math. You don’t see a problem with that.
The real point is being missed.
A majority of those who are making the laws about public education funding, especially at the national level, did not attend public schools. Nor do (or did) they send their children to public schools.
This is not some sort of slap at private schools, just a fact.
No different than the fact that those who are making our laws about health care funding, especially at the national level, do not have to worry about health care for their families or themselves because they have “carved out” (at taxpayer expense) their own health care system that pays for everything. Anytime. Anywhere. And they have it for life.
Close your eyes, for a moment, and try to imagine how quickly critical issues like high-quality education and health care funding and availability would be resolved if our representatives…every one of them… could only establish and receive the same level of education and health care for themselves and their families that was available to those that voted them into office. That, for instance, the public schools were the only place to send their children…or where their grandchildren would go.
Better still, open your eyes and try to imagine.
Damon wants his kids to learn art and music. Not spending too much of their time to learn math and science. How do you expect kids to get good jobs if they spend more time in art than math?
In my opinion, the core issue is the parents who, for whatever reason, choose to send their children to private schools but, since they are believers in public education, continue to pay their share of taxes to provide public schools for all. They are not sending their children to charters so the they take the funding which follows the student (ADA) away from the local public school. They pay double the amount without complaint, to be fair to all.
That is what Matt Damon is doing. It is what I, a lifetime educator who matriculated through public elementary/secondary/university education, chose for my son who had already mastered trigonometry by 7th grade, and who would have had no challenge in our local public schools. I paid twice as a single parent, and my son still graduated from a stringent academic private school after 11th grade and went on to earn 3 degrees concurrently at an Ivy League university by the time he turned 20.
There are many special circumstances like mine in which progressive parents who believe in public education must make this kind of decision.
Why waste time and energy questioning and castigating Matt Damon?
It is the greed merchant attitude such as that of Jeb Bush that is to be viewed as a detriment to the greater good, not the decision of the highly educated entertainer.
When I have argued in favor of the importance if choice for very string students, there have been a couple of standard responses: very stron (gifted) students do not really exist and if schools worry very much about those strong student’s education it will leave the other students further behind.
I am glad that you had the will and the resources to enroll your student in a school that was appropriate for your atudent’s education. I hope that we will get to a point that all students are able to enroll in a school that best fits their individual needs and aspirations.
As an educator and the mother of a very academically gifted student, it was always a painful conundrum for me as to private school for my child, but public for others. I was involved in national research on public schooling for special needs students, and also to this day, on ELL students, and I finally concluded that both ends of the teaching spectrum must be addressed, as well as directing most funding to somewhere in the middle.
My choice was easier than most in that I worked many additional hours, but could earn enough to provide my child with the education opportunities he needed. Add to that, he always also worked tutoring, and at summer jobs, and he accumulated school debt which he quickly paid off as a professional adult. Many other parents are not as lucky and need our help and political attention to give their children opportunities for a place of dignity in society.
I am always interested in your perspectives…even when you correct me, deservedly, on Shumpeter.
The public school systems of the country have often had to be forced to accommodate students out of the mainstream by acts of congress and orders of courts. Students out of the mainstream who do not have the protection of a court often have too seek out appropriate education outside of the public K12 system.
“very stron (gifted) students do not really exist ”
I must have missed that thread.
Not a thread, but a comment in a thread. Unfortunately it is difficult to search the comments, but I will see if I can find it.
Ang,
I think all this comment meant was just that there are those who insist that the more accomplished student, as identified with the Stanford-Binet as those over 150 IQ being called the “highly gifted” do not need special education nor special attention since they will ‘make it’ no matter what.
Of course, I disagree.
Google is great, here it is:
I’ve been teaching since 1993 and I have yet to meet a REAL “gifted and talented student”–you know, the type doing calculus at age 10, that sort of kid. These types of mythical kids are conjured up occasionally to provide false evidence that we can’t service everyone.
Jim Morgan
The link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/06/24/the-secret-of-achievement-firsts-success/comment-page-1/#comment-195032
Cannot imagine where this guy is teaching not to have ever met a “gifted” student. In LA in my son’s era, there were two schools that had classes for the highly gifted, one was Rio Vista in Toluca Lake, and the other was Sherman Oaks School in Sherman Oaks. They had students from all over the city who had IQs from 150 to off the charts. These children had varying gifts. My son was tutoring math in 4th grade and by 7th grade, at 11, tutored high school students in algebra, geometry, calculus, and trig. His best friend was preparing to be an Olympic swimmer (his parents were both professors, one of math, the other a geologist) and he was a remarkable musician. I saw the most amazing 7 year olds all in one room….driving the teacher up the wall. She served mainly as their guide as they taught each other. I took him out after 4th grade and put him back in public school until he entered an excellent private school in 7th grade and was the first student in 75 years to graduate after 11th grade. I have had the luck to know many students with this kind of giftedness.
Two years ago I had a 17 year old grad student in my university class. He had entered this major university at 10…not a good idea in my estimation, but I was not his mother. Jim Morgan is rather pathetic in his assessment…he needs to broaden his own education and learn about giftedness. Hope he is not doing any teacher training nor is a master teacher because he is full of it.
One random comment from an infrequent poster gets a sentiment attributed to the group?
(Standard response, I believe you said)
I will head back to Google and find some more comments about how G and T kids will be “alright” with whatever courses the schools are willing to offer.
The point is that while you perhaps can dredge up a few more random posts, I really don’t think it is a “standard response” on this blog that gifted children do not exist, or that they do not deserve services.
If you had to guess, what proportion of posts here argue that students with learning disabilities are being under served by public schools? What proportion of posts argue that gifted and talented students are being undeserved in public schools? I think Dr. Burris, principal of the year in New York and frequent featured poster here summed up the orthodox view on the blog that when you worry about the strongest students you leave the others behind. Students who are capable and interested in going beyond BC calculus while in high school must leave her school and find a math education somewhere else. I hope the student’s parents can afford it.
TeachEc…exactly.
Many principals say the same as Dr. Burris (who I believe also trained at UCLA under Dr. Madeline Hunter)…however I got lucky in that the creative public school principal at our local elementary school (love her dearly) helped me find an excellent high school math teacher who tutored my son and another boy whose parents were both educators, all through 5th and 6th grades, and we paid for this enrichment the same way parents pay for music lessons. (Both boys took music lessons as well and I did the research showing the connection between music and math ability.) It was the best solution for us. When my son entered private school in 7th grade, he had already studied, and mastered advanced algebra, etc. so that he could place out in the easier math classes and continue with the challenge of the most advanced math courses.
Highly educated parents generally know how to work with the school system, if allowed, to find solutions to their individual needs. However, there is the same sort of giftedness in children of color, inner city children, children from families who have not had the opportunity of advanced education, and do not have the skills or finances to expand the learning situation for their children.
This is the gap that ostensibly charters claim to fill. Why can’t line item funding for these gifted children be made available within public education as it is with special needs students? GATE classes and Magnet schools are only part of the answer.
To Ellen
Re:
“Why can’t line item funding for these gifted children be made available within public education as it is with special needs students?”
At least in my state..it is.
The gifted are not being shafted.
We have special classes and specially trained teachers.
We work closely with the parents and all local resources we dan muster to serve these children.
Especially those whose parents cannot help them at all.
Still waiting for the “standard response” that gifted children do not really exist.
You seem to have dredged up one direct quote.
Perhaps it is not a “standard response” on this blog?
Jeb Bush is not the problem. You claim he’s greedy because he wants poor kids to have the same opportunity as his kids. That’s not my idea of greed.
Poor kids will never have the same opportunity as Jeb Bush’s kids. Bush’s kids will go to an elite private school that no voucher will cover. Poor kids will get a voucher for a religious school where they will be indoctrinated by a semi-literate snake charmer.
Does Jeb think he is Jesus?
Movie star buys mink coat. . .why shouldn’t everyone have a mink coat?
Celebrity rides in a limo. . .why shouldn’t everyone ride in a limo?
If Über-wealthy people think poor people should have the opportunity to go to private schools, why are they not establishing scholarships?
Making a Jesus-like statement and then expecting everyone else to pay for it, at the expense of what they have built as a community is just totally silly. It does not even warrant discussion, in my mind.
This is craziness.
They also like to bring up the percentage of teachers (usually 20-30%) in places likes NYC, LA, and CHI who send their own children to private schools while the likes of Chris Christie tell audience members in town hall meetings that where he sends his own children is “none of their business.”
I’d bet Matt’s new movie, “Elysium” also got him angry…it does “1984” one better and shows the corporate destroyers for just the enemies of humanity that they are!
It a duty for every citizen to speak up on behalf of public education .It is not just important it is of paramount importance nothing matters as much to the future of our country. Education is not held in high regard it and is not a strongly held value by a wide swath of our public. That is issue number one for education reform. Therefore, let Matt Damon and anyone else hold forth on public education, and what it should be, how it should look and behave . There is no issue more vital to our national interest than education ,and it is truly not everything it could or should be.We regularly denigrate educators disregard the requirements for public education and pay lip service to what must our be our first order of business. We are are truly finished as a nation of outstanding international importance if we do not get this right . It is that vital. I welcome Matt Damon to the conversation. Mr Gates may be helping to hollow out public education,in my opinion , it is a technological fix with scant attention to valuing those who actually make the enterprise happen, where they traditionally come from, and how this talent is developed and nurtured. The Ivy leagues do not and will not be the source for classroom teachers , critics of the enterprise, but rarely in the trenches for the long haul( short stints as public service or experience).
Education is the #1 priority for all Americans not just those in classrooms.
YES!!!
The minute Damon departed from the course he’d recommend for the millions and millions of families who aren’t satisfied with their zoned school and who can’t afford to move or pay for private — some version of “tough it out and work to make your zoned school better” — this sort of criticism became completely fair game.
If reform insanity did not infect our nation’s public schools, perhaps Mr. Damon would be willing to send his child to a public high school. But I’m guessing (and his is only a guess) that policies that currently affect public schools that are pushed by Jeb and co. are not what Mr. Damon wants for his child, despite his good will towards public education. I teach in a Catholic school, but have nothing against public education and support it. I don’t think I even want to imagine our society without public education. Yet, the loss of public education is what seems to be happening right in front of our eyes; a scary thought indeed.
“If reform insanity did not infect our nation’s public schools, perhaps Mr. Damon would be willing to send his child to a public high school.”
Remember , it is a feature, not a bug of the school reform policies.
It looks like everyone fell for Jeb Bush’s attempt to deflect attention away from his own debacle over the deceptive and easy to manipulate A-F school grading system that he created and his master manipulator Chiefs for Change chum Tony Bennett.
We have to understand Matt’s parenting decisions, just as we understood Leoni Haimson’s, because they are based on the horrible circumstances that politicians, who’ve been in control of education for decades, created themselves. Just be glad that Matt and Leoni are still fighting to preserve public education.
And put the CCSI loving, test enamored Jeb back on the hot seat where he rightfully belongs, so Tea Partiers and swing voters can see who he really is, BEFORE he announces his run for president!
He WON”T be getting my vote!
There is just so much hypocrisy in the education reform movements. Jeb Bush and others like him have gone to private schools, send their children to private schools, so they don’t have to be “corrupted” by regular people and can keep their elite places intact. That is NOT democracy. Perhaps if civics, history, etc. were taught in schools again, our students themselves would understand what democracy is and how important the public schools are to its very survival. As the current students become adults our only hope is that they will return to the democratic ideals that made America great. But it is becoming more and more clear that history, civics, social studies are not being taught nor valued and that doesn’t bode well for our future……