Here is a great article in The New Republic by staff writer Graham Vyse, asking the crucial question, “Can Democrats Save Public Education from Trump and DeVos?” It acknowledges that the Democrats paved the way for the school choice agenda of the far-right by touting privately managed charter schools for the past eight years.
So the question now is whether Democrats will really fight for public education or will they continue the pretense that privately managed charter schools are “public?” Will they continue to endorse charters and oppose vouchers? Can you be half-pregnant?
As the Democrats aped the Republicans on key social issues, like education, they lost their unique identity. Now there are only 14 states with Democratic governors. If they keep pretending to be Republicans, there will be even fewer.
Andrew Cuomo of New York has used the same language as Trump, referring to community public schools as a “government monopoly,” and he endorsed legislation to compel the city of New York to give free space to charters, even those that are able to pay rent, like Eva Moskowitz’s fabulously wealthy charter chain. Dannell Molloy has been a champion for charter schools in Connecticut and gives them preference over public schools. Jerry Brown in California opened two charter schools when he was mayor of Oakland, and he recently vetoed legislation to ban for-profit charter schools.
Will they fight the privatization agenda, now that it is the Trump agenda?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Doesn’t matter. The NY DOE and it’s lockstep Mayor do what they want anyway. The law be damned, King DiBlasio knows best.
If NYC votes in a Mayor that doesn’t allow for unlimited charters it will send a message across the Nation.
Mass. just voted down a measure to undo the cap on charters after millions were spent to defeat those against charters.
NY has to pave the way.
CA is hopelessly attached to developer Eli Broad of Kaufman/Broad homes development who decided he was the King of CA and that there was millions to be pocketed by opening charters.
Do the Democrats even want to save public education from Trump and DeVos? Forget Cory Booker who is in the bag for charter schools. The only positive thing you can say is that he’s not as vicious, nasty and bullying as Christie. Will the Democrats move further right after the triumph of Trumpism?
Joe
You are so correct Corey Booker is in the bag on more than charters. Pray for Trump to blow up the economy rapidly, for this bunch of trash that has infested the party of the people is deplorable in its own manner . With the rare exception of the minority on the left, you can not count on them to fight for teachers workers or the poor . It is a kabuki game designed to make it look like their is an opposition party . There will always be just enough democratic votes to cross over and pass right wing legislation.Thus giving cover to the rest assuring big money cash flows.
There is no opposition to the agenda of the oligarchy ,corporatocracy. Democrats will not shut it down to save anything.
The Republicans have a slim majority . The Democrats had a supper majority . Watch the difference.
I can not wait, for you know who to respond.
No matter their designation as Democrats, the truth is that those in the DEMOCRATS FOR REFORM camp have never been protectors of liberal values. We can work to expose their false narratives, but more importantly we must now produce, follow, and repeatedly compare DFER “leaders” to leaders willing to not only fight loudly for public schools, but to call out the charter school hoax.
My father, who was a lifelong Republican,WWII and Korean War vet, a fiscal conservative, and a social moderate, would not have recognized the neolib Democrats of today. They are to the right of what he was.
Sadly, the Neo-liberal Democrats gave the Republicans the cover and the rope to tie around public education’s neck..
It will have to be a different kind of Democrat who will ride to the rescue. The others are too complicit in the fate that Trump/DeVos now have in store for it.
Those who rescue Public Education are the true future of the Democratic Party, and its only hope to survive what is coming down the pike.
A Michigan Viewpoint …
http://bridgemi.com/2016/12/betsy-devoss-michigan-legacy/
This may be hard to swallow, but the truth is that the Neo-liberal DEMs turned their heads on the middle class as well as our great PUBLIC SCHOOLS and their TEACHERS.
Agree with Geronimo.
What is/are the LESSON(s) we here in the USA need to LEARN?
We need Democrats that reject neo-liberal economic policies. The free market is not a solution to anything. It is merely a descriptor of an economic relationship, and it has no answers for us. If we know that public schools provide incredible value to our people, we must fight for them, and pressure our policymakers to support them.
Democrats are part of the problem.
They are the problem. Dismal Democrats empower Republicans.
FYI, you’ve got some problems with line breaks in some of the text that you’re cutting and pasting.
Unfortunately, I had to type that out myself, because I was summarizing information that was in tables from different sources.
“I wrote the above this morning”
Really? Because it seems like you wrote it at least 10 years ago and have been pasting it into comments ever since. E.g.:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/341994.shtml
“29) By arguing for “saving” the Dem Party or Repub Party, you are encouraging people in the illusion that staying inside this society’s traditional institutions will allow ordinary citizens to make far-reaching & fundamental changes in the way society is organized.
30) This simply cannot be. Our society is the way it is, precisely because it has been organized to function in the interests of a narrow slice of the population at the top. By definition, a “traditional” institution in this society (like the Dem party, the Repub Party, or the media) is PART of the very machinery that permits society to function like this. These institutions work to maintain the social order — not to change it. They are against meaningful change.
. . . .
16) But your idea of taking over the Dem Party — & presumably using it as a force for defending the interests of ordinary people against the depredations of the giant corporations — is diametrically at odds with the true corporate nature of the Dem Party.”
“The evidence that supports what was written is mountainous.”
You might consider describing some of that evidence, rather than just cutting and pasting “what was written.”
Allen,
Will this working class party bring Trump supporters into the tent?
Obama neglected education and was misguided in his choices of sec of ed. As a mostly urban educator, I can say many do not (well intended or not) understand the complexities of our social fabric displayed in the schools and classrooms. Until those who keep making ed policy communicate with teachers and understand the dynamics of communities, deal with community building , and desire to create non business models, we will be a failed system. For many frustrated parents who work hard, charter schools seem as though they harbor the American Dream. All that glitters is not gold and we see this in the failures and inability to handle our children in any significant way. Unlicensed teachers, refusal to deal with Spec Ed students, and lack of transparency is no panacea. Democrats- will they understand the true challenges of education or will they ignore children and become like the Republicans? There is an elephant in the classroom.
Diane,
On the contrary, Obama expended much energy on his education agenda. Unfortunately, you happen to disagree with his goals of expanding charter penetration of the educational market place, accountability for teachers, closing “failing” public schools and TFA undermining of traditionally certified faculty.
The Obama Administration defended public education yesterday, but they’re all so weak and wishy-washy- like they’re ashamed to support it.
National Democrats are just bad advocates for public schools. It’s all these meaningless slogans and broad statements.
“King, who served as New York’s education commissioner until joining the U.S. Dept. of Education in 2015, stopped short of discussing the Trump administration’s priorities, but said he supports investing in “public education.”
“Public education is fundamental for the long-term success not only of our economy, but of our democracy,” he said. “So we’ve got to be very attentive as a country to how we are ensuring that every child, regardless of zip code, regardless of race, has access to the full range of opportunity.”
He “supports investing in education”. What politician DOESN’T say that? They ALL say it. It means absolutely nothing.
You’re right. Rep. Keith Ellison, who is up for Democratic Chair, introduced a bill, last year, to get funding for charter schools. He chooses not to recognize privatization when he trots out the hackneyed, “I’m for public schools.” As long as the Dems give the U.S. Dept. of Ed. license to deceive the American people, by referring to charter schools as public, the Democratic Party is unredeemable.
I can’t find a single piece on what Trump and DeVos plan to do for PUBLIC schools.
That’s how little our schools are valued in DC- no one even MENTIONS them.
The plan is to abolish government monopoly schools. There is no shortage of articles.
You understand how laughable that is? Bill Gates had to defend his company from charges of anti-trust and, the Waltons operate as monopolies in many of their markets.
Linda,
Abigail’s tongue was firmly planted in her cheek when she wrote that.
I think there’s a big difference between state and local Democrats and national Democrats. National Democrats have abandoned public education. State and local Democrats have not.
It’s part of the disconnect, the “out of touchness”- I don’t think they understand their own constituents anymore because their lives are NOTHING like the people they serve.
Where is the evidence to support your claim that state and local Democrats differ from national Democrats? For example, DFER Booker has not changed his stripes in his ascent from mayor to senator. Is it different in Ohio?
Abigail,
The distinction is between the base of the Democratic Party, which remains pretty much the same as I have always known it, and the so-called leadership, which began to detach itself from the base in character and conduct, except extremely cynically when it needs money or votes, after 1968. That was when the leadership stuck its tail between its legs and started trying to play catch up in the Republican game.
My recent evidence for believing the hearts and minds of the party remain in the same place comes from my experience with all the people I got to know during the efforts to recall GoverNerd Snydely Ricklash and the repeal of Michigan’s Emergency Malefactor Law.
Chiara is correct. While the Democratic Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown should choke on his hypocrisy, while talking about the need to “unite Americans based on shared values”, while he spends taxpayer money on educational inculcation by the heterogeneous values of charter school operators, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Turkish,… Brown should also, have a hypocrite’s choke, when he opposes privatization of Social Security on the grounds that it is a plot to enrich Wall Street, while charter schools are a similar plot to enrich Wall Street. At the level of Ohio state representatives, there were/are candidates running against privatization. The Warren Co. Democratic Chair, described the conflict as a “rift within the party”.
Simple fact is that the Dems in control of the few remaining blue states are the last line of defense for public education, public schools, and teachers. The whole game.
Problem is that most if not all of these same Dems have spent the last 10 years trying to dismantle public education, public schools, and organized teachers as part of their broader neo-liberal economic platforms.
They differ from their Repub counterparts only in how they deploy their rhetoric. Dems use the lingo of social justice, liberation, advancing technology, and broader efficiency. Repubs just say “government school” and that the private sector can do better…more blunt with less nonsense. Only half-assed lefties and our union leaders ever bought the Dems line of bullshizzle. Those of us fully-assed on the left have always seen very little daylight between the two. Some folks imagined that HRC would have stood up for “public education” against privatization because she said some things in that regard. Believing that took some gymnastics of the mind.
We are in a bad way right now. The game is nearly up.
This is what we get when we spend a decade not recognizing that the existential threat to public education is at our door and NOT manifesting and insisting on a culture of absolute and complete resistance. Instead we sat at tables, consented to things like Common Core, and let the bag go. We told ourselves that a parents’ movement will save us.
Saviors only exist in fiction. Here in reality, we have to save ourselves.
The thin blue line of Dem state governors and legislators will likely not hold.
Sadly you are probably .
correct
Wrong attitude. The GOP was down and out in 2008 and strategized to make a comeback. Witness the fruit of that strategy today. The Dems should imitate the GOP. Heck, half the country voted for Hillary. We could be much further down!
2008 was a Black Swan event(except for the dozens of economists who saw it coming) of “Biblical Proportions” . The GOP was never down and out . They were merely down and instead of a knock out they were delivered a helping hand,by a party who essentially had littler commitment to the causes they espoused. . We had a President who should have re-instituted the WPA (figuratively) agreeing to tax cuts and appointing a Debt Commission.
No, ponderosa, half of the country did not vote for the Hillary. A quarter of the voting population at best did so just as for THE Trumpster.
That’s the kicker. So many people stayed home.
Until the day we do have a viable workers’ party, I think it behooves ourselves to try to influence and infiltrate the Democratic party. The GOP is a true radical far right wing movement that denies climate change, promotes religious fundamentalism, is anti gay rights, anti abortion and anti science. You do have to deal with the fact that a huge segment of the population is very conservative and views Obama as a hard left lefty liberal quasi socialist. That’s laughable but this is the USA after all. Obama is as far from socialism as you can get but he is liberal on social issues and he did appoint two liberal leaning justices to the supreme court. He did not appoint Scalia justices to the SCOTUS, that is big.
If Bernie had been elected I would have had some hope. Now, in my opinion, very questionable.
Democrats in Chicago have been attacking public schools since the 1980s. Obama and Arne Duncan were not accidents.
“Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.” So said Eugene V. Debs. Just think how different this election would have been had Obama shown up in Wisconsin when we had a good shot at removing Walker; had Rahm and other DINOs stood with teachers and union workers instead of against them; had the DINOs actually fought for workers rights the last 8 years instead of mouthing platitudes while moving forward with the TPP. Oh well. I think the train has left the station, and even if the Dems somehow stop privatization through vouchers, I don’t see how, in their weakened state, they can stop the anticipated Republican budget cuts for everything but the military which will devastate already vanquished urban school districts.
The attacks on public education have been deliberate and from both sides of the aisle. Under Obama the climate has been hostile to public schools while they have incentivized charter expansion with tax credits, write-offs and many legislators in corporate pockets. Public education got nothing but test and punish along with VAM.
Communities have not actively pursued charters. Most charters are the result of the 1% and corporations trying to gain access to public money. The only difference between the left and the right is the Democrats try to hide behind civil rights.
I may agree with your premises , but short of a Black Swan event beyond the power of the “establishment” to control. The dynamics are not changing. Certainly not in our life times. As I have said before, Jack London’s dystopian novel did have a good ending. if you were willing to wait 300nyears.
FOund an interesting article…
May 16, 2012 at 10:00 AM
http://old.seattletimes.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2018219588_wednesday_politics_wrap_charte.html
Can a Democrat support charter schools?
Posted by Joni Balter
What is a Democrat? No, really. Can one be a Democrat and favor charter schools?
No, says, Nicholas Carlson, chairman of the 1st Legislative District Democrats, in a pointed email to Guy Palumbo, a Democratic businessman running, gasp, against a fellow Democrat, state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe.
Here is an excerpt from the email, first reported on the Washington State Wire:
“Finally — and I cannot stress the importance of this enough — anybody who supports charter schools in the 1st Legislative District is a Republican, not a Democrat. This is an extremely sensitive issue to us because the Northshore School District, which dominates the legislative district, is one of the outstanding examples of public education in Washington. Only a Republican would want to destroy it. As far as we are concerned, your views are incompatible with the Democratic platform.
“Accordingly, I demand that you cease campaigning as a Democrat immediately. Failure to comply will result in a coordinated and very damaging response using all the tools at our disposal.”
So is Carlson going rogue, or is there a secret litmus test disqualifying supporters of charter schools from Democratic support? No, says state Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz.
“We are a big-tent party on the issues of gay marriage, guns, and choice. We have pro-life Democrats in our party. We are certainly a big-tent party on the question of charter schools.”
One Democratic name comes quickly to mind, state Rep. Eric Pettigrew, who co-sponsored a bill that would introduce charter schools in Washington.
Additionally, several moderate Democrats were considered potential supporters of the legislation if it came for a vote in the House.
“Politics is the art of the possible. ” -Otto Von Bismarck. Can a minority party, with only 14 state governors, stop the steamroller? Maybe, possibly. The American public are anxious about the future of their children. They should be. If the public-government-monopoly schools can deliver excellence, nothing is to be feared.
Will people continue to accept mediocrity? Maybe. People put up all sorts of things.
The Dems should articulate their reasons for continuing with failing public education, and denying choice to parents. If they make their case, nothing will change.
Public schools are excellent. The proof is the workers that they educate, whose labor achieves productivity gains, covering Wall Street’s 2% drag on the economy. Labor’s failing is continuing to work, without receiving any share of the rewards for their productivity gains. If Bill Gates was any kind of man and, if he cared one whit, about America’s prosperity, he would fight in his weight class and take on the parasites from the financial sector. Instead, the tech industry and Wall Street plot to kill the golden goose, out of personal greed. After privatization occurs, watch the productivity of the labor force plummet, as a result of “mostly truant” students at unregulated on-line charters, poorly educated students from religious cult schools, and Gates’ schools-in-a-box.
I would hesitate to tar all of the US public schools with the same brush. I will gladly concede, that SOME public schools are excellent. I live in Fairfax county,VA, and the public schools here are great, uniformly. Many of the parents work for the US Government or in the high-tech sector. Fairfax has more internet servers than any county in the USA. We have a special license plate (Internet capital of the world). I work in the high-tech sector, and I am a product of public schools. Over the river in our nation’s capital, things are not so rosy. Only 79% of DC school-age kids attend their miserable public schools. Our soon to be ex-president sends his children to Sidwell Friends school (private) because he can afford to do so.
See this article:
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/dc-schools-29349-pupil-83-not-proficient-reading
Q The public schools in Washington, D.C., spent $29,349 per pupil in the 2010-2011 school year, according to the latest data from National Center for Education Statistics, but in 2013 fully 83 percent of the eighth graders in these schools were not “proficient” in reading and 81 percent were not “proficient” in math.
These are the government schools in our nation’s capital city — where for decades politicians of both parties have obstreperously pushed for more federal involvement in education and more federal spending on education.
Government has manifestly failed the families who must send their children to these schools, and the children who must attend them.END Q
And you say “Public schools are excellent”, Pray tell me, where do come by this conclusion?
D.C. Public schools are not representative of public schools across the nation. They have very low test scores. Half the kids in D.C. Are in charters. Almost 2,000 have vouchers. None of these sectors are excellent. Test scores in DC voucher schools are no different from the public schools.
High SES public schools have high test scores. That does not mean the schools themselves are excellent. Most public schools are diminished by the anti-knowledge ideology that guides them. A Japanese-style coherent curriculum would increase achievement, especially for the low SES kids who get little intellectual capital from home. If our public schools heeded the lessons of E.D. Hirsch, they would be much more defensible against the haters.
Ponderosa,
I was on the board of E.D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Foundation and I am certainly a strong believer in a knowledge-rich curriculum. I believe that it is important to realize that strengthening the curriculum is necessary but not sufficient. If kids come to school hungry, homeless, and in need of eyeglasses or dental care, those needs too must be addressed.
Q D.C. Public schools are not representative of public schools across the nation. They have very low test scores. Half the kids in D.C. Are in charters. Almost 2,000 have vouchers. None of these sectors are excellent. Test scores in DC voucher schools are no different from the public schools. END Q
-Agreed DC Public schools are not representative of our nation’s public schools. Most US public schools are much better than DC schools, Very few are worse.
In 2016, 48,439 children attended DC public schools. 38,905 attended charter schools (Source OSSE)
see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/02/17/enrollment-at-d-c-public-and-charter-schools-continues-to-increase/?utm_term=.aad7bee60383
In April ,2016, about 6,400 families received vouchers, and exercised school choice. See
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/27/white-house-wont-veto-dc-school-voucher-bill/
The Obama administration has consistently opposed school choice, and the SOAR program in WashDC. All the while, President Obama sends his children to Sidwell Friends (A private school, run by the Quakers)
I would like to see data on the test scores of DC school children who attend public, charter, and private/parochial schools.
(Continuation) Why do you conclude that DC area school children whose parents participate in the opportunity scholarship (voucher) program, do not score higher on tests, than children who attend the DC public schools?
Here is a Dept of Education report from 2009
Click to access 20094050.pdf
That says that they do.
This is from the final report of the evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (i.e., vouchers):
The ndings
• The study found no conclusive evidence that the OSP affected student achievement overall, or for the high priority group of students who applied from “Schools in Need of Improvement.” On average, after
at least 4 years, students who were offered scholarships had reading and math test scores that were statistically similar to those who were not offered scholarships ( gure 1). The same pattern of results holds for students who applied from Schools in Need of Improvement (SINI), the group Congress designated as the highest priority for the program. Although some other subgroups of students (female and higher achieving students) appeared to have higher levels of reading achievement if they were offered a scholarship, those ndings could be due to chance.
Click to access 20104032.pdf
Students who received vouchers had a higher graduation rate, but a very high attrition rate, for a variety of reasons.
Only 27% of the students in the “treatment” group actually used their OSP vouchers for the full four years.
Bottom line- The schools that Gates, and other rephormers send their own kids to, reject the rephorm schemes. The West Virginia legislature rejected charters, damning them as a two-class system. At the Deutsch 29 blog, read about Harvard professor, Roland Fryer’s call for a two-tier system and check out the grant from Gates, on Fryer’s c.v. What do you think happens to the charter’s money flow, from the richest 0.1%, once those people, like the Walton’s and Gates, get the privatization they want? Answer- they turn off the spigot.
Exactly, and we end up with a decentralized system with no oversight free to reject whomever they like. Who is it now that guarantees that every child will get an education?
Q If kids come to school hungry, homeless, and in need of eyeglasses or dental care, those needs too must be addressed. END Q
If you are a schoolteacher, and you know of a student who is in need, I suggest you contact the Masonic Angel Fund. (I am a Freemason, proudly).
I suggest you contact your local Masonic lodge, and express your needs . You will find them very supportive.
See
http://www.masonicangelfund.org/
We even have “Laptops for Kidz” (sic) . Our organization gets used computers, and strips them for parts, and assembles functioning computers, and provides them FREE to children who cannot afford a computer.
The Grotto (another Masonically-affiliated group), provides FREE dental care to children (primarily special needs).
http://www.hfgrotto.org/
The Freemasons were very instrumental in establishing the first publicly-supported schools in America.
http://www.msana.com/historyfm.asp
I hope you are ready to open medical clinics at thousands of schools.
Q I hope you are ready to open medical clinics at thousands of schools. END Q
The Freemasons do not run medical clinics. The Masonic Angel Fund, and the Grotto, and other Masonically-affiliated charities, support children in many different ways. (Everyone knows about the Shriner’s hospitals)
I wish that more teachers knew of the resources available through Masonically-affiliated charities. Maybe readers of this blog will find out!
Estimates are that 1 in 5 American children live in poverty. Quantitatively, how many children are served by the resources of the Mason-affiliated charities? Are the Masons planning for the U.S. situation, when public schools no longer exist and schools are for-profit, receiving no tax dollars? Scan the comment posted below, at 10:39.
Remember that the number of kids living in poverty has decreased significantly over the past years.
On the other hand, what amazes me is how many the kids from the poverty areas walk around with the latest in cell phone models. SOMETIMES the problems with hunger etc are caused by irresponsible financial behavior of parents. NOTE THE EMPHASIS.
This year, Dr. Figlio published his research about the Ohio voucher program and, surprised the Fordham Institute, with the unexpected finding that vouchers are a failure. Fordham wrote the paper’s foreword, citing a finding that wasn’t in the paper. Fordham then wrote a commentary for media, citing that absent finding. Apparently, those with the desire to claim the benefits of school competition, will ford any stream.
The masonically-affiliated charities in the USA disburse about $2.6 million dollars per day to individuals. (Over 85% of the disbursements go to individuals who have no connection to Freemasonry, such as the children in the Shriner’s hospitals)
I wish that more NGOs (non-government organizations) would step up and assist children in constructive ways.
I do not get your scenario. The Freemasons were instrumental in starting some of the first tax-supported schools in the American colonies. The great reformer, Horace Mann, was a Freemason.
One of my neighbors is a Freemason. A fine human being who’s become a good friend of mine.
I don’t question the philanthropic nature of the Freemasons and I’m glad to hear that their scope is as broad as you’re reporting. The area where I have a problem is here:
“I wish that more NGOs (non-government organizations) would step up and assist children in constructive ways”.
So do I. Unfortunately, many don’t and some come with some serious strings attached (eg Gates Foundation).
I don’t think anyone’s questioning the good will or reach of the organization, cemab47. It’s just that these are very large scale problems and systems such as the nations’ public school systems are able to circumvent the unknown factors of good will, largesse, and “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” through the use of tax dollars, agreed upon by law. And the push to repeal those laws is getting stronger, preceded by those who would just bend or ignore them on a regular basis with no repercussions from any governmental agency.
A person who has been involved in running a low income housing organization in Chicago for most of his adult life explained to a volunteer group the difficulties most charities serving the poor have been facing since the 2008 crash. Charitable giving has never recovered and many are struggling to survive. While we are supposed to be a generous people, no “Go Fund Me” campaign is going to solve the problems of poverty.
If Trump revises the tax code to eliminate tax deductions for charitable giving, the situation of those relying on charity will be far worse.
Does anyone else here see a sad parallel between Dem Party “leadership” & union “leadership?” That is to say, akin to what Jon Awbrey said, above, at 12:06 PM–“the distinction is between the base of the Democratic Party which remains pretty much the same as I have always known it, and the so-called leadership, which began to detach itself from the base in character & content…after 1968.”
The core problem–in both cases–is for true blue Dems (NOT DINOs) & for rank-&-file to throw the bums out! However, more easily said than done, but it’s vital that we not agonize (& stop the uber analyzing–think that’s all said & done) & organize. Follow Bernie’s suggestions–get out there, run for local public office (good people have, indeed, won), join & work in organizations (esp., in these times, those that work on voting protections & integrity). This adage may be old, but it’s more applicable than ever, “Think globally, act locally.”
Oh–& some good news (if only temporary) from today’s Chicago Tribune, “Lone Bidder to Open Chicago Charter School Withdraws Application.” (&, no, it wasn’t a Gulen-run school!) The first paragraph:
“Chicago Public Schools won’t be advancing any plans for new privately operated schools after the sole remaining applicant for an additional charter campus abandoned an effort for a shuttered South Side building.” (This “shuttered” building was the former Morgan Elementary School–one of the 50 of the mass-closures in 2013.)
Giving the Medal of Freedom to an oligarch like Bill Gates and his wife, is a slap in the face of veterans and all Americans. Democracy weeps.
YEP!
But the oligarchs have to scratch each other’s backs to get the pee-ons off of those backs.
When money talks; ethics, morals and integrity walk.
I’m very concerned that the Dems are going to put education on the back burner for practicality’s sake if not for that of ideology.
They’ve supported the Gates/Coleman, Walton, Broad, Murdoch, Obama/Duncan (the shills) agenda for eight years. Why change now? DeVos might take it a little too far for some, but the Dems are going to have a LOT of issues besides education to deal with for at least the next four years.
I worry that they’ll just drop the ball on this one…as they have for the past 8+ years.
The Aspen Institute’s involvement in education began with Bill Clinton’s presidency. Gates funds the Institute’s education programs, like the Senior Congressional Education Staff Network. David Koch was on the Institute’s board until this summer, when his photo was removed from the array of board members. Gates funds Aspen Pahara. The founder of that organization, Kim Smith, also founded Bellwether, TFA and New Schools Venture Fund. All have received money from Gates. The NSVF ($22 mil. from Gates) described its “marching orders”…” to develop diverse charter school organizations to produce different brands on a large scale”. Bill Gates, the man not his foundation, is an investor, along with Pearson, in the largest seller of the, schools-in-a-box, product, which has, reportedly, been promoted by the World Bank to the exclusion of public education.
Talk about being in the crosshairs…
They did not drop the ball gitapik. On the contrary, the Obama administration was successful in advancing its education agenda.
True. Bad choice of words on my part. One of the few bipartisan efforts of our time, unfortunately.
To answer the question of the title of the post: NO!