A reader asked me to post Congressman Jared Polis’ comment as a separate post. I agreed to do so, along with my response. I also recommend that you read his exchange with Jason Stanford, which I posted earlier. Stanford suggested that it was over the top to characterize someone as “evil” because you disagree with them. Stanford says there truly is evil in the world (think terrorism, think mass murder), but I don’t fit the characterization. I refuse to engage in name-calling with Polis other than to say that he is trying to intimidate and bully me, and I will not be intimidated, neither by his title nor his money nor his intemperate language. I will be speaking in Denver on Wednesday night. I welcome him to attend. And watch his manners in public.

Here is this morning’s exchange:

Jared Polis
September 23, 2013 at 3:02 am
I emailed a similar response to Mr. Stanford and asked that he post it in response to his piece:

The piece by Mr. Stanford is a bizarre defamation of me and my beliefs. Improving our schools is my passion and the main reason that I am in public service. I served six years on the Colorado State Board of Education and ran because I was sick and tired of teachers being vilified. Educators are the champions on the frontline every day and when I started serving on our State Board of Education in 2000 they were being demonized by our Republican then-governor’s policies.

After serving on the State Board of Education for several years, I saw unmet needs for our new immigrant population and among homeless youth, so I founded two charter schools which both continue to operate, Academy of Urban Learning and New America School. New America School works with 15-21 year old English language learners. Academy of Urban Learning works with at-risk youth, dropouts, homeless youth, and youth in transitional housing. I served as Superintendent of New America School for two years and left to run for Congress because I believe that we need to replace No Child Left Behind with a federal education policy that actually works. If I hadn’t run for Congress I would likely still be working in public education.

I have met many other charter school founders and teachers and haven’t met any who believe that charter schools are some silver bullet that “fixes” public education. They play an important role in serving at-risk youth, for instance most of the New America School students wouldn’t be in school at all if it wasn’t for New America School.

I continue to champion our public schools in Congress. I serve on the Education and Workforce Committee and if you look through most of my bills that I am the lead sponsor on they relate to education. Whether it is fully funding special education, improving computer science education, or improving literacy programs, I spend most of my time in Congress advocating for kids.

I strongly disagree with setting some public schools against others. I believe that we all need to get along and not sow dissent. Whether a public school is run by a district, a state, or its own board shouldn’t matter. I support ALL teachers and will continue to oppose efforts to set some public schools against other public schools. We are all in this together and we need to support our teachers and ensure that all children have access to a quality public education.

Yours in solidarity,

Jared Polis

Reply
dianerav
September 23, 2013 at 8:58 am

I have met many members of Congress and the Senate over the years.

I have never met anyone as arrogant and rude as Jared Polis.

When I met with the Democratic members of the House Education Committee in 2010 to talk about my book—there I was, a former member of the George H.W. Bush administration, admitting that NCLB was a failure, that the Republican agenda of testing, accountability, and choice was wrong, that the Democratic agenda of equity was far better–Mr. Polis was unspeakably rude. After my 15 minute summary, he threw his copy of my book across the table and called it “trash.” He said he wanted his money back. I was stunned. I had never encountered such behavior in the halls of Congress, or anywhere else for that matter. Another member of Congress reached into his wallet and gave him $20, or whatever the amount was. He then berated me.

A few days ago, apparently outraged that Randi Weingarten retweeted Deborah Meier’s review of my new book–which I can safely assume he has not read–he tweeted that I am an “evil woman,” doing “harm to public schools,” and likened me to the Koch brothers. He later deleted his initial tweet, but has continued to write insulting tweets to me.

I know that I cannot compete with Mr. Polis in terms of money–he is said to be a billionaire, or close to it, having sold his family greeting card business for $780 million and then sold “Proflowers” for many more millions.

But I did learn one important thing from my family: manners. Jared Polis has no manners.

And I learned a few other things while earning a Ph.D. in the history of American education at Columbia University: free public education is a pillar of a democratic society. Mr. Polis, having founded two charter schools, thinks that public schools are inferior to charter schools. He does not defend or protect them in Congress. He is a champion for charter schools and privatization.

I welcome him to express his views, as my blog is open to all, even those I disagree with, so long as they are civil. When people disagree with me, I do not call them “evil.” I do not insult them. I wish I could say the same for him. He should grow up.

Diane