You might find it interesting to read a conversation I had with Sara Scribner, a teacher who writes for Salon.
Archives for the month of: September, 2013
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
Tim Clifford is a teacher in New York. In this article, published on WNYC’s blog “Schoolbook,” he reviews my book Reign of Error.
Tim focuses on the book’s solutions, which he describes as “womb to dorm.”
Tim recounts the research-based proposals that I offer, and concludes:
I don’t know about you, but I long for a public school system like this. Imagine a system in which students are healthy and start out on a level playing field. Imagine teaching reasonably sized classes in a school that emphasizes a rich curriculum over endless test prep. Imagine being respected rather than scapegoated, and working in an environment of professionalism and collaboration. Imagine being more concerned with the progress of your students than the points you’ve earned on the Danielson rubric.
Imagine coming home on the second day of school and posting to Facebook how much you love your job and how you look forward to each and every day.
It can happen, but it will take the vision of people like Diane Ravitch and the courage of politicians, union leaders, and other stakeholders to make it a reality.
Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed Rebecca Fishman Lipsey to the Florida State Board of Education. Lipsey describes herself as “a lifelong educator,” based on her long service to TFA.
Meanwhile, TFA leaders continue to pop up in service to the nation’s most reactionary governors, including Jindal in Louisiana, Haslam in Tennessee, and McCrory in North Carolina. All these governors are bent on privatizing public schools and funneling public dollars to entrepreneurs, private schools, for-profit corporations, and religious schools. Scott’s Florida is overrun with for-profit charters and scandalous real estate transactions involving charter entrepreneurs. Will Lipsey abet Scott’s goal of monetizing public education in Florida?
Here is the press release.
“Lipsey, 32, a former New York City public school teacher from Aventura, has held multiple leadership roles with Teach for America from 2006 to 2012 and served as the executive director of Teach for America in Miami-Dade from 2008 to 2012. From 2004 to 2006, Lipsey was a fourth and fifth grade public school teacher in New York City. Lipsey is currently serving as the chief executive officer of Radical Partners LLC. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and master’s degree from Bank Street College of Education.
“Governor Rick Scott said, “With an exceptional career in education, Rebecca is committed to student success and accountability, and it is clear she will be a tremendous advocate for all Florida students. Rebecca will help continue to ensure we are holding students to high standards in Florida and giving them the support they need to succeed in college and their career.”
“Rebecca Fishman Lipsey said, “As a life-long educator, I am deeply committed to what is best for children and could not be more humbled to bring my experience to the table. Having worked closely with principals, parents, educators and students from diverse backgrounds, I know that it is possible for all students to succeed.”
“Lipsey succeeds Kathleen Shanahan and is appointed for a term beginning January 1, 2014, and ending December 31, 2017. The appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.
Jared Polis, the multi-millionaire (or billionaire) Colorado congressman, went after me again last night on Twitter with rude, insulting comments. I guess he doesn’t like me.
I was beginning to feel sorry for him. To see a public figure acting in such an embarrassing way on Twitter is, well, embarrassing. I wish I knew how to help him.
Not only did he, in his rage, post a comment on this blog, but he also posted one on the blog of Jason Stanford in Texas. Jason reprinted the exchange, as a follow-on to his original post, here.
Congressman Polis can post here as often as he wants. I will even allow him to post his insults towards me, which I usually don’t allow, just because I don’t think you should come into someone’s home and hurl insults at them.
But if he does come back, he should know he is welcome. I hope he will try to curb his tendency to abusive language. Maybe some of the blog’s early childhood experts can offer suggestions about the best way to respond to temper tantrums.
How many times have we read stories that Chicago faces a huge deficit? I can’t recall it was $600 million, or some other figure.
But the huge deficit, plus “underutilization,” gave Mayor Rahm Emanuel the change to make history:
He closed the largest number of public schools in history, at one fell swoop (50).
But now he is going on a spending spree, building new schools and pledging to spend at least $90 million for new construction and upgrades.
What happened to the budget crisis? Did the deficit disappear?
Were the schools really underutilized?
There must be a simple explanation.
Maybe a reader from Chicago can translate what this means.
The extremists in the North Carolina legislature and in the governor’s mansion have decided that the state’s public education system must be subject to market pressures.
That means they want public money put into private hands, as much as possible.
North Carolina was once the most progressive of southern states. It is now among the most regressive, competing with Louisiana in a race to the bottom.
Please note that the lawmakers did not put the decision about vouchers in the hands of the electorate.
No state referendum on vouchers has ever passed, and they know it.
Being fearful to say out loud what they are doing, they call vouchers with a deceptive name, as do their supporters in other states. They call them “opportunity scholarships.”
One state official is responsible to oversee the nearly 700 schools that are eligible to receive voucher students.
The campaign for vouchers was funded by extremist groups, from inside and outside the state.
Please note that in the latest TIMSS international tests, students in North Carolina’s public schools took the test and were rated as one of the highest performing entities in the world.
Want to know about vouchers in North Carolina?
Read these outstanding and objective articles by Lindsay Wagner of the NC Policy Watch. Here, here, and here.
Who is footing the bill to privatize public dollars? Follow the money. North Carolina has its own Art Pope, who handsomely funds libertarians who agree with his views; this very conservative and politically important multi-multi-millionaire is now state budget director. Art Pope was profiled by the New Yorker magazine because of his outsize influence in changing the face of the North Carolina Republican party.
And then there is all the out-of-state money that has helped elect a reactionary legislature.
The voucher promoters–who represent the most reactionary elements of our society–are always able to find and pay people of color willing to make ridiculous claims that they are doing the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by helping to destroy public education that serves all children. Think of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, which is handsomely funded by the Walton Family Foundation (whose stores do not allow unions and pay minimum wage to their employees). And North Carolina has its own cheerleaders for local billionaires, falsely laying claim to Dr. King’s campaign for public responsibility, not privatization.
And lest we not forget: the governor’s senior education advisor is Eric Guckian, a distinguished leader groomed by Teach for America.
Jonathan Pelto is trying to find out who this Jared Polis is.
He took to Twitter to call me an “evil woman” and compare me to the Koch brothers as someone doing great harm to public education.
It was puzzling to me. I have met him twice. The last time I saw him was three years ago.
We know he is a member of Congress from Colorado, we know he sold his family’s greeting card company for $780 million, we know he calls himself a “progressive” and a “new” kind of Democrat.
But what does that mean?
According to Pelto’s research, Jared Polis is anti-union and anti-teacher, even though the Colorado Education Association endorsed him the first time he ran.
Why does he call me “evil”?
I know he founded some charter schools. I think he considers any critic of charters to be “evil.”
Strong words.
That must be it.
Another parting shot from the lame-duck Bloomberg administration.
Students will no longer be guaranteed a seat in their zoned neighborhood high school.
Bloomberg has wanted an all-choice system for years, and this is his parting shot.
Students list their choices, but the high school or the computer makes the decision.
Most students now travel from 45 minutes to an hour to get to their assigned “choice” high school.
Parents are not happy.
They still like the idea of a neighborhood high school.
Meanwhile, my insider at the DOE tells me that the officials at the DOE are in a quandary.
Few of them are educators. All they have ever done is to close established schools and open new ones.
Then after five years, they close the “failed” new schools, and open another to replace it.
The one complicated thing they don’t know how to do: Help struggling schools get better.
Bill de Blasio has a monumental task confronting him assuming he is elected mayor.
He will be like the guy following Humpty Dumpty, trying to re-assemble a school system that has been broken into 1500 pieces, lacking any supervision, management, or vision.
In New York and other states, parents, teachers, and principals often feel as if they are on a runaway train.
Someone controls their public schools, and it is not the local community.
The state has a super-heavy hand, and decisions are handed down with no consultation.
Hearings are held, but no one hears or listens to what the public says.
Who took the public out of public education?
How did this happen?
Peter DeWitt, elementary school principal in New York, has written a brave and pointed column about the politics of education in New York.
Who is in charge?
Not you. Not us.
Them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 