The Néw York Times says Hillary Clinton will be forced to choose between the Wall Street big donors and the teachers’ unions.
The real choice is between Wall Street money on one hand and millions of parents and teachers who are fed up with high-stakes testing and privatization of public schools, on the other.
Then it refers to the Democrats for Education Reform as a “left of center group,” even though its program is indistinguishable from that of Republican governors and it was denounced by the California Democratic Party as a front for corporate interests.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why is it always this way? When the NYT or any other major news service (pardon the stretch) choose up sides in this education war-game, they always pit wall street or big donors etc. vs unions.
The truth is that it is pit wall street or big donors etc. vs students, parents and teachers.
Using “unions as a team” is a Big Red Herring.
“Using “unions as a team”” works on most ignorant, brainwashed, propagandized Amurikens.
She’ll get elected saying she will side with teachers.
And then she will side with Wall Street once in office.
Hillary will probably speak on a panel with Randi Weingarten where she’ll say she wants to bust public education but Randi will keep that hush-hush. Randi will then campaign to help get Hillary elected, dismiss Hillary’s anti-public education comments as campaign rhetoric and then after the election act surprised when Hillary shows lack of support for public education by attending a rally sponsored by Families for Excellent Schools or some other hedge-fund backed charter school group.
Oh wait, that already happened with Randi and Cuomo/Hochul in NY didn’t it?
TAGO Mary!
I suspect she will take her marching orders from Robert Rubin, a man who is as big a crook as anybody who has ever come down the pike.
Isn’t Rubin the one who came up with the “brilliant” idea of allowing investors a HUGE return on any “investment” they make in charter “schools”?
I have no confidence that she will do the right thing
In my not so humble opinion, first she will equivocate as long as possible hoping that the public will get bored with the issue, as she has done for her whole career, and then she will quietly side with her prime benefactors on Wall Street.
We must keep urging Elizabeth Warren to run against her.
I like Warren, but she is on the side of Reform.
I think you are absolutely right. Can’t trust her. She’s too political.
Elizabeth Warren favors testing as the means for checking on the return on investment of federal/national investments in education. Unless someone can do some serious education to change her views, she will not help to end the “reign of error.” You can be sure that if she runs, a bunch of people will have formulated ready-to-use educational policies, stump speeches, one-liners, tweets, and the rest. Same for Hillary.
I would like to see Zephyr Teachout sit down with Elizabeth Warren and have a good discussion on education issues. Warren is on the wrong side of this now, but she seems open minded and smart enough to hear the truth on most issues.
She will side with the billionaires, don’t even worry about that. Bill Clinton signed all those free trade deals that gutted the U.S. economy. Bill Clinton also came up with that trick of no longer counting people out of work for a long time. That’s why our unemployment number is so artificially low. But he had a great personality….I really liked him.
Would the unions rather have a quick death with a Republican or a slow, sneaky death with a Democrat? I actually prefer all out destruction. Perhaps then, when the bottom 90% is wiped out, we can see some change. Americans only react when things get bad, really bad. Honestly, anyone who could vote Democrat again after the Obama debacle has real psychological problems. It’s always best not to vote. Don’t support those people.
Not including ‘discouraged workers’, or those no longer collecting unemployment,
in the official unemployment rate was established practice when Clinton took
office.
‘
The argument that only teachers’ unions and Tea Partiers are opposed to corporate education reform is one of the talking points that the reformers have been pushing.
It appeared today in Jonathan Edelman’s Daily Beast editorial as well as in the editorials of many other corporate reformers. Their intent is obvious and false.
Also take a look at the memo DFER sent claiming the polling supports their positions. No poll questions to be found and lots of careful wording and obfuscations.
I agree. I also don’t think it’s true that unions are the only people in the country who support public schools.
I don’t think ed reform politicians could go after public schools and still get elected, so they framed it as “unions versus reformers”.
It’s been almost eight years of “wanton destruction” of public schools under Obama. Nothing could have been worse than this. This has been the worst time ever in education! If those are our friends… I will never vote Democrat again! I am not alone. Clinton won’t win without people like me. I will take satisfaction when the Democrats lose it all.
Yes, it’s true that Obama has destroyed public education. But please don’t pretend that Bush was any friend of public education. I agree, don’t vote Democrat. But I hope that doesn’t mean you’ll vote Republican instead.
DER is so left of center it’s right of center. If John Podesta is Hillary’s campaign manager, teachers can forget about having a friend in the White House. Randi won’t be replacing Arne Duncan.
Bernie Sanders in 2016!
Bernie, an Independent, is the only one who would be good for kids. Period.
I like Bernie Sanders, too. I hope he runs in the Democratic primaries and wins. My fear, however, is that he’ll run as an independent and become the Nader of the election.
Exactly. John Podesta founded Center for American Progress (CAP). CAP’s education group spits out white papers on education that could have been written by Jeb Bush.
Is Hillary capable of pulling a Cuomo—saying one thing to garner support and votes and then doing an about face when elected? This is an issue of trust. Does Hillary live by any pledges she might make?
Wall Street for sure. I trusted deBlasio to stand up for public ed, and instead he chose a chancellor that is keeping much of the Joel Klein agenda. So much for bringing back the joy of teaching.
The NYT article suggests that Clinton might be different from Obama in that she may listen to both sides in this battle. But candidate Obama gave every indication on the campaign trail that he was listening to educators. Linda Darling Hammond was in charge of his education transition team, until she was thrown overboard to please the DFER donors.
Clinton, and the Democratic Party as a whole, is at a major crossroads. If the party abandons students and teachers in this election, after all we have been through the past seven years, it will be hard to come back any time soon.
Obama was a wild card. Unfortunately he bought into the Ed reform rhetoric. Appointing Duncan was catastrophic to all American students.
Ellen #DisappointedWithTheDems
He did NOT buy into it.
He IS the reform movement, with past and present supporters thrown in.
Obama always and historically has hated public education and worked hard to foster charters with his equally useless wife when they were on this board and that board and part of this and that think tank, all back in the Windy City.
Obama has not bought anything because he was never sold anything. If anything, he is the unctuous salesman trying to ffool the buying public that his education polices are wonderful.
But they suck.
Robert, you are probably right.
Ellen #TheResultsSpeakForThemselves
The NY Times’ article cited here refers to the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group Democrats for Education Reform as “left-of-center,” which defies rationality. It should be noted that when DFER held its first meeting in a swank apartment on Central Park South in New York City in 2005, its speaker was the young Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. He was on board with the charter/privatization agenda long ago, which is why he took DFER’s recommendation for Secretary of Education in 2008: Arne Duncan. All documented in Steve Brill’s “Class Warfare,” which is an admiring account of the hedge funders’ campaign to privatize public education.
Flos56, as I pointed out in an earlier comment on this thread, Obama was on the side of the hedge funders as early as 2005. He took great pleasure in confronting teachers, and he fully endorsed school closings and charter schools. When he appointed Arne Duncan, he went to a school in Chicago called Dodge Elementary and said that he admired Arne for having the “courage” to close the school and start over. A few years later, the school was closed again because the new staff didn’t raise scores either. Sadly, Arne’s ideas are also Obama’s ideas.
Yes, Diane. As usual, you could see the writing on the wall. Obama was definitely a disappointment on the education front.
Obama . . . Duncan. . . And the difference is?
One is a moronic idiot, and the other is an idiotic moron.
In a way, I almost feel Obama was chosen to do what GW Bush would not have been able to do as easily with public education.
Therein lies a big fat and dangerous rhino in the room that very few, including myself, were willing to look at.
I am now running from the rhino, who is charging anyone in his path . . . . .
And to add to your analysis, Diane, Obama saw to it that one of the richest women in the world, Pritzker, was on the Chicago BoE. Then he appointed her to his cabinet. He chose Rahm as his hatchet man in the WH. Obama, like Hillary and Bill, has always been in Wall Street’s pocket. He has surrounded himself with Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, the prime deregulatos, and with Immelt who was a corporate slave master. His views have been clear since he voted to enlarge the FISA bill after promising his constituency he wouldn’t. What mendacity!
Like Bill, his personal charm has carried him a long way, and has fooled most of the people most of the time.
Hillary however has zero charm…she should not even run. She is a liar and megalomaniac as with both Bengazi, Syria, and her personal server in the basement of her home, where she did the nation’s business in 100% secrecy. For that alone she belongs in the Federal pen.
I agree with teaching Warren the inside story of education privatization in hopes that she would be fair minded, for she is the only one besides Grayson of Florida who has the cajones to work for ‘the people.’ There are other decent Dems such as Sherrod Brown and Russ Feingold who would be far better candidates than lying Hillary.
So Ellen, Tell us how you really feel?
Kidding aside, you make a good case. It’s disheartening to hear how the majority of our politicians have been corrupted by big money.
Still, Hillary has been speaking out for the rights of women since way before she was First Lady.
Only time will tell who our next president will be and how they will approach such issues as education. Hopefully we elect someone who, at the very least, will rule with a modicum of common sense.
Ellen T Klock #RespectsTheOpinionOfOtherEllens
Addendum…let’s see Bernie Sanders run as a Dem!
Hillary was on the board of Walmart at one time. I doubt she will be any better than our current president. I am no longer voting for the lesser of two evils. I will vote for the Green party that doesn’t take money from big business. It is the only way to break the hold of money on politics. Maybe America will wake up, but I doubt it. They still believe one if the 2 parties represent them. We live in an oligarchy that could be reclaimed by the people if we choose to vote them out. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy
Quick, to the focus groups!
Hillary is so f.o.s that I’ll vote for a third party. The Republicans are a circus show and the Democrats are moderate Republicans. Why vote for either? The two party system sucks.
If it walks like a plutocrat,
and if it talks like a plutocrat,
and it if lies like a plutocrat
and if it panders like a plutocrat . . .
It must be a Dimocrap or Rethuglican.
I can’t imagine Hillary dissing the teacher unions.
Before we won power in the Chicago Teachers Union in 2010, we were reporting on all this stuff for substancenews.net.
I covered the AFT 2008 convention, which was held in July 2008 in Chicago. Barack Obama was already lying to the unions about his lukewarm “support” (we found him in one of the convention hotels raising money almost secretly with rich donors after telling the union he “couldn’t make it” to speak directly to us in his home town). Obama had been boosted by the unions into the national spotlight, but had already begun dissing us and stabbing us in the back (details in my coverage back in late 2008, culminating in the Arne Duncan front page New York Times story in early December 2008).
Hillary Clinton spoke live to the convention, and knows dozens — perhaps hundreds — of teachers. By name. Probably has been to their home.
As you know, she had been senator from New York and was actually friends with many of the New York AFT delegates, plus she knew people from other locals around the country and had for years.
So… We are at Chicago’s Navy Pier in the big convention auditorium. Hillary is on stage and giving a powerful speech to about 3,000 AFT delegates. It was a great, detailed, and warm speech.
Then… One of the best pure political moments I’ve ever witnessed first hand…
There were at least a half dozen Secret Service people surrounding her. After her speech, instead of leaving to the rear (you know how these conventions are; in fact, I think you spoke at that one, Diane), she walked to the side, down the steps and plunged into the crowd, hugging, kissing, shaking hands and mixing as she was mobbed by literally hundreds of delegates. I was there with my press credentials (David Berliner and others had stopped the AFT leadership from denying them to those of us from Substance) and got very close to the scrum. Hillary knew the names of dozens of those people, one of the most powerful political show I had ever seen. I’m still glad I have dozens of photographs of the event — and of the nervous Secret Service studs near her, but not stopping the show. (Secret Service women are much less conspicuous than the guys, by the way — and to my knowledge they’ve never gotten in “trouble” since the Obama White House began).
Anyway, that was July 2008. Hillary was already friendly with “Wall Street” — but Barack Obama had already betrayed those of us in his “grassroots” (some of us had helped put him in the U.S.Senate, remember) and lied to the AFT convention about how he couldn’t get together with the teachers — but could be right there at Penny Pritzker’s Hyatt Hotel with people who were paying $5,000 per couple to take their pictures with him… Then we elected Obama, Wall Street dictated the corporate education agenda, by December Sam Dillon was shillin’ (I could never resist the rhyme) on the front page of The New York Times as Obama announced his first major cabinet appointment — Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education!
Hillary might be as sleazy as Obama, but I can’t believe she would stop being able to make eye contact with the hundreds of teachers she knows, who are the vanguard of the thousands (or more) who have worked for her in New York and elsewhere over the decades. But we’ll soon know…
Sorry, George, I must disagree with you on this one.As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, you all must read Carl Bernstein’s book, A Woman in Charge, & the part about her making the Arkansas Teachers Union (or Assn–can’t recall if they’re NEA or AFT) the “villain.” (&–teachers from AK–why don’t you comment on this? I’m anxious to hear your thoughts!)
And, no, I don’t think we’ll “soon know.” In fact–just as with Obama–I don’t think we’d find out until after the elections. (I think all of us remember his pledge to “put on his walking shoes”–yeah, right–where WAS he in Wisconsin?! And proclaiming “National Charter School Week” the same week as it was “National Educators Week?”)
While I am happy with the A.C.A., it is unforgivable how he has treated America’s children, parents, teachers & communities, not only in his selection of Arne, bur in his retention of Arne. As someone above said, this administration has done more harm (almost irreparable) to the aforementioned than even the Bush administrations.
And I’m really tired of all this emphasis put on gender; I’d really like to see Bernie Sanders run (& he may be)–& win! BTW–he’ll be in Chicago on April 2nd. If anyone wants details, I’ll look it up & post them below.
When Wisconsin union workers encircled the Capitol, Obama was nowhere to be seen.
George,
Hill is a shill. She was on the board of Walmart ensuring great deals for the company and trade imbalances for the rest of us.
Ditch her . . . .
She is bright and articulate and rotten to the core. I really wanted to like her. She is charismatic. That’s about it.
Let us recall Marc Tucker’s Dear Hillary letter. She’ll be following it — to the letter. It is why we have CC and More today. Follow the Money.
Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Clinton/Bush.
What did Einstein say about repeating something to get the same result?
Let’s go Cruz vs Warren and really make a change.
Never mind, Wall Street & the Media will tell us who we should have…..;(
It’ll be really difficult for her in Ohio. Jeb Bush will be traveling the state bashing public schools and labor unions and what does she say? “Me too!” or “I’m an agnostic!”
Democrats better come up with their own education agenda pretty quick.
I don’t think they can continue to follow Jeb Bush’s and Scott Walker’s agenda when they’re running against Jeb Bush or Scott Walker. People are bound to notice they lifted the whole thing from Republicans.
Tom Wolf’s playbook is there for any national Democrat to read, if they care.
Chelsea Clinton is involved in a new initiative called “Serve a Year.” It’s to help get people to volunteer and work. She was on Jimmy Kimmel last night promoting the effort. My heart broke when I saw that one of the work opportunities is Teach For America. So, will her mom support this effort???
You can bet anything Chelsea Clinton gets involved in is vetted by the Clinton political machine.
Can anything be done to make a refusal to do an extended interview with Diane an issue ? Hillary should be required to give real answers to real questions…….would there be a better person than Diane to ask the questions of Hillary? Not just an it would be nice if you would do this….you do this or there will be serious consequences…….your place in support of public education will be called into question.
Republicans in Ohio are actually slightly better than national Democrats on public schools right now. They’re at least pretending to reform charter laws and they invited public school leaders and a teachers union rep to sit on the “are we testing too much?” committee. Hell, they’re SEATING a testing committee. That right there makes them better than national Democrats.
I never thought I’d say that but it is, in fact, true.
Clinton can run to the Right of John Kasich, I guess.
Republicans running on an anti-Common Core, anti-testing platform will have a good shot at earning my vote–and I’m a bleeding heart liberal.
Are the big money Democrats really against us in large numbers? With the likes of Scott Walker out there, unions will have no money with which to compete just our millions of voters. Who’s on our side? How do we grow that number of rational citizens?
I propose making Hillary swear to replace Arne with Linda Darling-Hammond.
Her husband is a notorious deregulator of Wall Street. She certainly has a feeling for it, like her husband.
Hillary will chose Wall Street. She will have to knock Obama out of the way first. Goldman is probably her favorite bank. I think Obama favors them also.
Obama surrounded himself with Goldman Sachs, his largest campaign bundler/donors, and Citicorp guys, as his advisors and Cabinet members from day One.
It may not matter what DC Democrats think or do about education. Democrats are losing at the state level. They’ve lost something like 800 state leg seats and 10 governors since 2010.
Most education law is made at the state level, and Democrats are irrelevant at the state level in more and more states.
Democrats may as well continue to parrot Republicans on education in DC. Republicans are running education in the majority of states anyway.
Chiara,
Dems lose at the state level when they try to imitate the other party. They don’t give people a reason to vote for them.
True, Diane.
Yes, and they are known as DemoGOPS, Demo-Republicans, and Demofrauds. . . . . Beware. I have better language, which I will reserve not for this blog . . . .
🙂
Sorreeeee…NO HILLARY 4 me. Vote 3rd party. We’ve been brainwashed into thinking there are only two parties.
Answer: WALL STREET. I know too much about the Billaries.
To all of voters who already make up mind to vote “2016” Presidential Candidate:
It is necessary to remind ourselves that:
1) Background of all candidates will surely reveal their intention without any doubt.
2) In martial art, the best skillful SAMURAI will fail or be killed by the stronger + skillful Samurai opponent.
In other word, the best “true caring for public Education” Presidential Candidate will fail or be defeated by the “corporate backer + FAKE caring for Public Education” Presidential Candidate.
The future of American younger generations will be affected by our current educated VOTERS whose CONSCIENCE, courage, intelligence, compassion, and civility are the priority in decision making a choice to vote for the RIGHT candidate as per the following QUOTE:
It is time for all of us to deeply think about:
“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles;
Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.
Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it.
Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency ask the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
But CONSCIENCE asks the question, is it RIGHT?
And THERE COMES A TIME when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is RIGHT.”
YES, because it is RIGHT
Please choose the RIGHT Presidential Candidate, regardless of their Party, BUT their background of their past “caring” action of civility towards society and Americans.
Back2basic
m4potw,
If what you say is true what did BHO relationship with Bill Ayers & the Rev Wright reveal to you?
I notice you are emphatic in your use of the word RIGHT…..
With only HRC as a choice it seems that all we can do is choose what is LEFT.
think about it.
Jim – Are you promoting Guilt By Association?
I’ve heard Clinton speak several times, once in front of the Buffalo Public School teachers sponsored by our Union (BTF) while she was still First Lady. Remember, it was Bush who started No Child Left Behind, not the Clinton White House.
All I’ve heard her say about the current educational situation was that she was in support of Universal PreK. I haven’t heard anything to make me feel she is anti-teacher.
She is definitely an individual who polarizes the political field, but everything her dissenters throw out is just speculation. Hillary is a smart cookie who knows how to play the political game. Love her or hate her, you’ve got to respect her abilities.
Ellen #VotingHillary
“Love her or hate her, you’ve got to respect her abilities.”
Just as one has to respect Dahmer’s uncanny abilities to consume human flesh, eh?!?!?
I certainly admire her combination of Saul Alinsky with Niccolo Machiavelli to defeat every foe and maintain her quest for power over the people.
I have as much love for Hill and Bill as I do roadkill.
SomeDAM Poet, do you feel a rap coming on?
#You’reIdiotic4VotingforHillary.
You might be right, The Real One, However:
Ellen #MyCountryMyVote
“The law expired in 2007. In 2008, President Barack Obama campaigned on freeing states from No Child Left Behind, which had been derided by states and teachers for being overly prescriptive, for using shoddy measures, and for encouraging teachers to teach to the test.
But the Obama administration could not get Congress to rewrite the law to its liking. ”
Didn’t the Democratic party control Congress & the Executive Branch in 2008? Wasn’t Edward Kennedy it’s champion in the Senate?
The Democrats passed the AHCA without Republican support, so why do you continue to insist that it is Bush who caused & continues the problem.
I’m always disheartened by seeing educated people believe propaganda because it fits their version of the truth, then watching them display disappointment at the outcomes they supported.
The Obama administration has been a disappointment, especially in regards to education.
The dems are divided, with some democrats more republican than the republicans (if that is at all possible). Congress, for both parties, has been not only dysfunctional, but destructive. Why do we keep re electing ignorant individuals who are bent on harming America in retaliation for perceived wrongs?
Ellen #I-HaveBeenWatchingCSpan
Hi flos56
I completely agree with you that I would also #VotingHillary if I were American.
Mrs. Hillary Clinton is very compassionate and generous in forgiving her better half’s mistake, and very humanity in NOT HARASSING “slut” Monica.
It is RIGHT to vote Mrs. Hillary Clinton for “2016” Presidential election.
It is my hope and my pray for the sake of American Public Education, and the stabilization of American work force that if Mrs. Hillary Clinton won the presidential election, she would appoint our beloved Dr. Ravitch to be Secretary of Education. Back2basic
I object to the use of the degrading term slut for Monica Lewinsky, or any other woman. Bill Clinton is well known for his promiscuity, a fact you conveniently choose to ignore. There are no double standards here.
To NJ Teacher:
Women or men who go after, or seduce a public known “”married”” person are called PROMISCUITY. There are only SCUM (for men) and SLUT (for women) who deliberately hurt the feeling of the other better half for their own material or pleasurable gain.
There is no double standard if it is a very obvious “political set up” from the intentional lawyer Ken Star in order to bring former President Clinton down without concern of individual dignity or family well-being of the victim.
However, thanks to the set up, female American can be proud of State Secretary Hillary Clinton whose character represents for NOT ONLY compassion and humanity, BUT ALSO intelligence and perseverance.
BTW, we are only human beings with emotion, so that I am easily opened minded to forgive victim’s mistake due to the intentional trap, BUT NOT to the intentional abuse of the power. Back2basic
My personal feeling is that Monica Lewinsky deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor for almost single-handedly saving Social Security from the claws of Wall Street.
Bubba was making moves toward the gradual privatization of Social Security – something that only a Democrat will be able to do – when the Monica scandal hit, which temporarily stopped his attempt to hand The Jewel In the Crown of privatizers everywhere over to Wall Street, and forced him to make nice with the Democratic Party’s more liberal wing; his self-preservation required him to leash the dogs and back off from going after the greatest legacy of the New Deal.
I thank Monica every time I see my mother’s Social Security check deposited in her account.
I agree. I am also against using derogatory names. In addition, the topic of Monica Lewinski is not relevant to our argument. My goal is to find out the positions of prospective presidential candidates, not mudslinging.
I, too, am very anxious to see where Sec. Clinton falls in this issue. In her last presidential campaign, she was the only person running who seemed to have an understanding of some of the “reforms” being hawked by the other candidates. For example, I remember her saying that teaching is a colleagueial endeavor, and merit pay for individuals would prevent teachers from sharing ideas and materials, thus rewards for departments, grade levels, or schools would be the only approach that she might endorse. Her comments seemed to make clear that the bonuses would be above and beyond regular pay, not a part of the salary schedule. I know that her ideas would not always be the same as her husband’s, but he recently said he was in favor of greatly limiting the amount of standardized testing done in schools.
I’ve been an Obama supporter in most areas, but have thought since he was first running that his ideas on education were unworkable and harmful to students and teachers. I can only hope that Sec. Clinton will will see the folly of the Obama administration’s educational policies and back parents, teachers, and students.
“I can only hope that. . . ”
And that’s all you’ll still have is hope. Hope and a nickel will get you a cup o joe.
Duane, in NYC, people used to say “that and 15 cents will get you a ride on the subway.” No more 15 cent rides, no more nickel cups of joe
NAFTA, which accelerated the outsourcing of labor and global labor arbitrage…
Ending Aid to Families with dependent Children (AFDC), which provided an income floor for the poor…
The Telecommunication Act of 1996, which further consolidated ownership of the media industry, and led to its terminal devolution into a propaganda arm for militarism and the 1%…
Revoking Glass-Steagall, which intensified the dominance of Finance over the economy, and freed it from meaningful regulation…
Yep, those Clinton’s really are on the side of The People…
My sentiments exactly Michael. Clinton #1 did absolutely nothing to reverse the damage to the middle class from policies foisted upon us during the Reagan years. He was a master triangulator and corporate appeaser. We certainly do not need a second act of the Clinton years.
Bill Clinton was a big supporter of charter schools and proposed various tax incentives to help them get started. Perhaps he believed in the original promise that they would enroll the students with the greatest needs, rather than cherry pick the easiest to educate. Al Gore led an initiative called “reinventing government” that sought to create public-private partnerships, the assumption being that the private sector was smarter than government. What he forgot is that the private sector seeks profit maximization.
Diane, we were all idealistic in the 1980s. At that time I thought the idea of charter schools was intriguing. How many of us predicted how corrupt the concept would become upon implementation?
Ellen #LearningTheHardWay
A lot can happen between now and the presidential primaries and party conventions, but the thought of another Bush-Clinton election is one of the most depressing things I can imagine.
Thank you for actually looking at the facts. The Clinton’s are as bad as the Bush’s it just seems that people sweep these things under the rug because the economy was so much better under Clinton due solely to the tech boom. Clinton ‘ s policies began the demise of this Country Bush accelerated the process and Obama put the final nail in the coffin. If anyone votes for Hillary not only have you not been paying attention but you deserve exactly what you have coming to you.
But what’s the alternative? I don’t love Hillary Clinton for lots of reasons, but I cannot imagine voting for a 3rd Bush after the last one ruined education and our country, and the current presumed candidate has made it clear where he comes down on education. So, who else? Ted Cruz is crazier than a road lizard. Scott Walker – god help me. He’s a racist union-hater with not an ounce of compassion for anyone but himself and his donors. Chris Christie??? The way he has handled Newark in and of itself is enough of a turn-off w/o factoring in all the corruption of retirement funds. Certainly not the Guv of the great state of Louisiana – he’s been our cross to bear for 7 years now, and even conservatives are ready to run him out of town. He has gutted both K-12 and higher education in La, and he’s tried every trick in the book to screw over public sector workers a la ALEC.
As a registered Repub. (you kind of have to be in La.), I am appalled at the monsters lining up for the Repub. pres. nomination. Truly abhorrent.
Not a great choice on any level. I’m going to have to hold my nose and vote for H. Clinton because there really is no other choice unless she bows out.
The Real One – I said the same thing when we “elected” Bush.
I wonder if people could draw attention to the money-in-politics capture ‘n corruption issue using a small donor boycott. If you look at campaign finance reports, US Senators get about 20% of their funding from small donors.
What if the small donors dropped out? Refused to fund this madness? I know we’ve always been told we have to donate to “counteract” the big donors, but obviously that isn’t working because we’re completely ignored.
Why are we sending these people money- 5 dollars, 10 dollars? They do the bidding of their big donors anyway.
This is a very low risk strategy. We literally have nothing to lose 🙂
I’d love for Joe Biden to come out and say that CC is a disaster, RTTT is a continuation of bad NCLB policies, and that to truly improve education we need to stop allowing the profiteers to take over and to let teachers teach. Joe is one of the few in the administration who will speak from his heart.
If not, Clinton will follow the money and it will be more of the same. She won’t get my vote, and neither will any pro-charter, pro-voucher Republican, but I am hoping she will at least have some resistance from the teachers in the trenches who won’t blindly vote Dem because they “support” education.
It is my understanding that Biden is completely in line with the charter school movement. Doesn’t his brother own or operate a charter school chain?
Hillary is a total corporatist, in bed with the .01% I can not get my brain around the fact that there are people out there who think otherwise. Please do some research. Start with Monsanto, move onto Goldman Sachs.