In an article about the retirement of veteran Democratic Congressman George Miller, a favorite of hedge fund managers (DFER) and other supporters of high-stakes testing and privatization, politico.com used language that showed a partisan bent.
It wrote:
“EDUCATION
Miller exit leaves hole in ed leadership
By MAGGIE SEVERNS and LIBBY A. NELSON and STEPHANIE SIMON 1/13/14 4:04 PM
“Rep. George Miller’s departure coincides with that of Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Senate education committee. Will their replacements be reformers or establishment-oriented Democrats?”
So a Congressman who is supported by Wall Street billionaires and by advocates of privatization is a “reformer,” while those who fight for equity of funding and support for teachers and public schools are “establishment-oriented Democrats”?
Are Duncan and Obama “establishment-oriented Democrats” or are they “reformers” fighting “establishment-oriented Democrats”? If the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education are not “establishment-oriented Democrats,” who is?
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to refer to a combination of the Obama administration, the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Foundation, the Dell Foundation, the Arnold Foundation, Rupert Murdoch, Art Pope, Democrats for Education Reform, ALEC, and a galaxy of other powerhouses as “the establishment” or “the status quo”?
This is called “framing the narrative.”
Is politico.com supported by Walton, Broad, and Gates, or are they merely innocent dupes of the billionaire-funded status quo?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is USDOE funding Politico? Consider the slant discussed here regaridng Duncan’s “white moms” comment:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2013/11/19/politicos-simon-twice-claims-arne-duncan-apologized-clumsy-phrasing-whit
TY. Too TRUE. Thus, very sad and bad. And yes, the marketers are framing the narrative and the narrative is lie.
The Nation is framing him as practically the best progressive since Che Guevara: http://www.thenation.com/blog/177903/george-miller-congressman-who-refused-accept-inequality
Progressive? Google “George Miller” and “DFER”
DFER is aggressively funding anti-public education candidates across the nation and is a major sponsor of legislation for charters.
Miller is one of their heroes. They have held fund raisers for him (one in NYC was $1,200 per person) and named him as their “reformer of the month”
What can I say? The Nation is the best media money can buy!
Freedom is slavery
War is peace….
I’ve been reading for quite a while that Politico is changing its direction, so this is not surprising to me, though disappointing. Reform by the people and groups you mentioned is reform for more profits–that’s it.
Politico has been “center”-right for a long time.
Politico — the Mad magazine of politics!!
It’s the billionaire boys club at work again, I’m afraid. Stephanie B. Simon was a superb reporter working stories on the privatization of public schools, and Silicon Valley’s and Wall Street’s pieces of the pie. Then she was hired by Politico, and her stories have changed. Similar thing happened to the NYT Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Mike Winerip, who early on did a great piece on the scam that is K-12 Inc’s so-called ‘virtual schools.’ Really K-12 is just peddling incredibly overpriced software and a few overloaded teachers to answer questions. NYT offered him full-time work, and put him on the baby boomer beat (?) and now he is writing its Motherlode blog — dispensing advice to parents. Gates $$ have totally shifted Ed Week’s reporting — it seems they aren’t even bothering to re-write the press releases fro the privatizers. PBS has done only a little reporting on the privatization of education. Rachel Maddow is silent. And on it goes.
Michael Winerip was the best reporter in terms of exposing the sham of high-stakes testing and charters. He didn’t change his tune. The NY Times canceled his superb weekly education column. He now covers “boomers,” whatever that means.
Politico is neo-liberal on Education. Obama’s is chiefly influenced by neo-liberal Judge Richard Posner (a next door neighbor of BIll Ayers who lives within a two minute walk of the President’s house), DFER, and his best friend who told me “who do you think you are kidding, only seven to eight percent of those kids (who live in poor neighborhoods) have a chance any way (when I asked him about the Chicago school closing).” Politico takes what Arne gives them on education and prints it. It is their propaganda tool. Arne’s best friend started the first charter in Chicago, used his influence to get him the CPS CEO job, and again used his influence to get him the Secretary of Education job. Arne’s best friend is my boss, Chairman of the Board of the school where I currently teach. The President’s best friend (I taught his kids) and the Secretary of Commerce are heavily invested in the Nobel Charter chain of Chicago. The President’s chief of staff, Ms. Jarrett, fully supports neo-liberal Education policies. You need to see Politico as their media outlet: whatever they (Politico) prints on Education comes from this inner circle: the ___ School “mafia.”
his best friend who told me “who do you think you are kidding, only seven to eight percent of those kids (who live in poor neighborhoods) have a chance any way (when I asked him about the Chicago school closing).” /endquote
Oh.My.God. So…it’s ALL about who will be making the $$$?? Am I reading that correctly?
What about a good education laying the foundation towards democracy and well-rounded adults?
What about the contributions, albeit small, that these kids can give their communities with good educations? Why does everything have to be measured by the big things in life and not valuing the little things in life? I mean, we touch others’ lives in so many little ways…that we aren’t even aware of…
Right on. This line of commentary is so removed from the notion of public education that one has to look– as with any nonsensical politicalspeak– for the actual agenda motivating the ‘narrative’. Those narratives translating ‘educational achievement’ as landing a good-paying job would belong to the camp which attempts to distract gov’s failure to compete in the global market by displacing blame onto the public school system… Or perhaps Arne’s friend meant what it looks like he meant: why put money into poor kids, they’re going nowhere anyway?
Hope you don’t mean ‘the school where you used to teach’ Paul. And Valerie Jarrett is a wealthy real estate broker who Barry made his spokesperson. That is one more appointment to show where he actually stands…neo liberal, pro corporatist.
Thank goodness for Lee Fang who can’t be swayed, it would seem.
I’m going to watch Christie’s state of the state tonight to see if he turns to his go-to political tactic, which is berating teachers.
I read that ed reformer Cerf will be helping Christie distract from his corruption troubles.
Get ready for some public school bashing! I think it will follow the usual ed reform script: charter, charter, charter, voucher, closed off with a rousing chorus of how public schools suck.
It’s been interesting to watch ed reformers move from how teachers are stupid and lazy to how ALL workers are stupid and lazy. Expect Christie to hit on how dumb the US workforce is. That seems to be the new talking point.
Christie seemed rather restrained in this regard, merely throwing up some classic ed-reformer talking points (longer school days/year to ‘compete in the global market’)– fluff, of course, since his history is to defund rather than increase school funding. Perhaps he was simply trying to move the discussion away from universal PreK, which would require more teachers/ facilities/ $$. At least w/longer school hrs/yr, he imagines he can squeeze unions into accepting a hefty discount on those added hours.
I wouldn’t call Obama & Duncan “establishment -oriented” Democrats. I’d call them Republicans. They & their neo liberal buddies are DINO’s.
Diane,
FYI: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/01/09/16charters.h33.html?tkn=TQMFrlXUwPunCmzV0kgHtm9A4q2clvcgPoJK&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1&intc=EW-QC14-ENL
Bob Weiss
Vice President for Administration
Meadows Foundation Inc.
3003 Swiss Ave.
Dallas, TX 75204
(214)826-9431 xt. 8109
bobweiss@mfi.org
Thanks, Bob Weiss. Charters are draining resources from public schools and leading to the creation of a dual school system, both funded by the public. One gets to choose the students it enrolls, the other must find a place for all students, including those kicked out of the charters. This will be ruinous for public education, and will enrich the profiteers who have seen the charters as an emerging growth industry. It is actually sickening when you consider what is happening in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Chicago, Wisconsin, and many other places.
This is Arne Duncan’s speech to “parent leaders”. The entire thing, and I mean entire thing, is a compilation of quotes from Amanda Ripley. I guess I should be thankful he expanded his reading list beyond Tom Friedman.
I’m embarrassed. While Duncan insists that US kids should get more challenging material, he relies on ONE SOURCE (and not even a very good one) for his entire educational approach.
I wouldn’t accept this from my 5th grader. The faddishness and celebrity and gimmicks of this ed reform stuff is just appalling. Is this cribbed garbage what they consider “rigor”?
http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/remarks-us-secretary-education-arne-duncan-national-assessment-governing-board-educati
There is a reason that DC insiders refer to Politico as “Tiger Beat on the Potomoc.”