If Jeb Bush Is Elected…..

34 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

1. Arthur Camins says:

   June 30, 2015 at 1:08 pm

   It is quite clear that the Republicans talk “equal opportunity,” but want to unleash on education the same market forces that have exacerbated inequality and segregation over the last several decades. It is less clear to what degree the Democrats represent a clear alternative. This is especially true with respect to promotion of charter schools. See: Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arthur-camins/post_9646_b_7638398.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education

   http://www.arthurcamins.com

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Ellen Lubic says:

     June 30, 2015 at 2:17 pm

     And here is an article today from Ed Source about Jeb’s favorite Dem billionaires, Broad (with his henchmen Deasy and Austin) and Welch, and with help from the Waltons and the Netflix whacko, to file these anti teacher union lawsuits nationwide.

     ___________________________________

     Supreme Court to hear case challenging compulsory fees to CTA

     Jun 30, 2015 | By John Fensterwald |

     COURTESY OF GREG SCHNEIDER (WWW.GREGSCHNEIDER.COM)
     Rebecca Friedrichs, lead plaintiff in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.
     The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a lawsuit against the California Teachers Association that will determine whether teachers and other public employees must pay fees to unions that represent them.

     A victory for the plaintiffs in Friedrichs v. CTA would threaten the financial strength and bargaining clout of the CTA and other public employee unions by making all union dues voluntary. Ten California teachers and the conservative teachers group Christian Educators Association International filed the lawsuit.

     The teachers assert that mandatory fees violate their First Amendment rights.

     “This case is about the right of individuals to decide for themselves whether to join and pay dues to an organization that purports to speak on their behalf,” Terry Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, which brought the case on behalf of the teachers, said in a statement Tuesday. “We are seeking the end of compulsory union dues across the nation on the basis of the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.”

     In a joint statement with the presidents of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, CTA President Eric Heins said, “We are disappointed that at a time when big corporations and the wealthy few are rewriting the rules in their favor, knocking American families and our entire economy off balance, the Supreme Court has chosen to take a case that threatens the fundamental promise of America – that if you work hard and play by the rules you should be able to provide for your family and live a decent life.”

     The lawsuit asks the Court to overturn its 1977 ruling in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, in which the Court said that states could require public employees who decline to join a union to pay “agency” or “fair-share” fees. Along with covering the local union’s costs of negotiating workplace conditions, pay and benefits, a portion of the agency fees goes to the CTA and the National Education Association to cover lobbying and other expenses in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

     Twenty-five states, including California, have laws establishing compulsory union fees. Laws in two dozen “right -to-work” states prohibit them. By 2013, two years after legislators rescinded Wisconsin’s mandatory fees, a third of that state’s teachers had stopped paying dues.

     Because of the Abood ruling, teachers already don’t have to pay the share of dues that goes to political purposes, such as supporting candidates for school boards and the Legislature and, in California, initiatives like Proposition 30, which established temporary taxes. About 30 to 40 percent of the approximately $1,000 in dues that California teachers pay annually funds political activities. Each year, about 29,000 teachers – less than 10 percent of teachers in the state ­– sign a declaration to get a rebate for that money.

     The court in Abood determined that states, as employers, have an interest in negotiating with a financially viable union serving the interests of workers. They can establish fair-share fees to prevent “free riders” – workers who get all of the benefits of representation without sharing any of the costs.
     However, Rebecca Friedrichs, a 27-year elementary teacher in the Savanna School District in Anaheim, and the other plaintiffs argue that agency fees violate their free speech rights. States, they argue, shouldn’t force them to pay fees to a union whose positions on issues like tenure, class size, teacher evaluations or merit-based compensation they don’t support.

     Pell said there are indistinguishable differences between what is and isn’t considered political speech under the Abood ruling. “Everything the union does is political,” he said in an interview last year.

     As a fallback position, attorneys for the teachers asked the court to require that unions ask employees to affirmatively opt in every year to pay agency fees, instead of having to opt out of automatic dues collection.

     The court in Abood determined that states, as employers, have an interest in negotiating with a financially viable union serving the interests of workers. They can establish fair-share fees to prevent “free riders” – workers who get all of the benefits of representation without sharing any of the costs. The CTA also argues its positions reflect the views of the majority of its members, who elect the leaders who represent them.

     At least four of the nine Supreme Court justices must agree to take a case. Last year, Justice Samuel Alito appeared to invite a re-hearing of Abood in writing the majority opinion in Harris v. Quinn, a narrow decision involving Illinois health-care workers. Alito referred to the “questionable foundations” of the Abood decision. In response, attorneys for the teachers asked federal courts in Califorina to put Friedrichs on a fast track so that the Supreme Court could take up the challenge of Abood. The courts responded by moving the case forward without holding a full trial and oral arguments on appeal.

     GOING DEEPER
     All briefs and motions in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, SCOTUSblog
     Article in SCOTUSblog on relation of Abood v. Detroit Board of Education to lawsuit, January 2014
     Previous EdSource Today articles on Friedrichs v. CTA: here and here.
     In a brief filed last month defending the state law on compulsory fees, California Attorney General Kamala Harris cited the expedited proceeding as a reason the Supreme Court shouldn’t take up the case. She said Friedrichs makes a sweeping assertion that all bargaining is political without citing specifics or establishing a record on which to rule.

     “Even if there were some reason to revisit Abood, this case would not be a good vehicle for doing so,” Harris wrote.

     Three times in the past 16 years, California voters have defeated initiatives to eliminate the compulsory fees deduction or prohibit unions from collecting a portion of dues for political purposes. Worried that the conservative Supreme Court majority might overturn Abood, the CTA’s leaders have looked ahead. Last year, at its conference for local union presidents, the CTA shared a 23-page presentation on Friedrichs with the fatalistic title “Not if but when: Living in a world without Fair Share.”

     However, as last week’s 6-3 Supreme Court ruling upholding a key provision of the Affordable Care Act showed, a willingness to revisit a case does not necessarily foreshadow a decision to overturn it.

     —————————————————

     John Fensterwald covers education policy. Email him or Follow him on Twitter. Sign up here for a no-cost online subscription to EdSource Today for reports from the largest education reporting team in California.

     LikeLike

     Reply
   • retired teacher says:

     June 30, 2015 at 2:57 pm

     Your article addresses the decline in interest in solutions for society while instead promoting individual gain. My favorite quote is, “what is moral or sensible for an individual does not make for sound or just education policy for a society.” We seem to be low on the “collective spirit” these days. As for moral choices, our leaders seem to have lost their moral compasses. Morality seems lost in the frenzy to disrupt and profit. While Americans seem to embrace the concept of “choice,” except for women in red states, the impact of their choice has too many negative consequences for the collective society. Public schools become more impoverished, and research has shown that people tend to choose to go where others are like them, ie, increased segregation. I totally agree that choice or forced choice as in many urban areas is not systemic solution to improvement, and the government continues to be complicit in promoting unsound policies.

     LikeLike

     Reply
2. brackenkaren says:

   June 30, 2015 at 1:15 pm

   I will say it over and over until the day I die. If parents leave their kids in the public school system they will regret it one day. I know there is an element that absolutely has no choice but that is where neighbors come in. We need to reach out and help each other get our kids out of the public school system and into home school. If you home school today can you take 1 more child of a single working mom that has no family or friends to help out. Can retirees donate time to create a consortium or take in just 1 child and home school. There are many good programs (FPEUSA, Ron Paul has a good program) all non Common Core and teacher led. If you really want to you will, if not you will make excuses. Sell the big house, sell the second car, get basic cell phones for the kids (if you must), no more eating out, no more trips to Disney. Make your priority your kids. They grow up so fast and there will still be many years ahead of you once they have gone through their education for you to sit back and enjoy your life. It does not matter who becomes President unless they shut down the US Dept. of Ed and remove the US from the UN the agenda cannot be stopped. We need to take charge of our own kids. Stop looking for a politician to do what parents should and can do. If we had a mass exodus from public school for just 1 year the system would implode. Then parents make their demands. 1. shut down the US Dept. of Ed 2. get out of the UN/UNESCO Then and only then we might consider sending our kids back. But to me compulsory education is contrary to the healthy growth and development of children. You had these kids it is YOUR job to educate them and raise them not the school and not the government. Now if for whatever reason you must send your kids to public school be the parent they HATE to see coming. Observe classes, demand to see tests and all teaching materials, OPT OUT of high stakes tests (including NAEP), refuse the use of a computer for your child (you want books and paper/pencil tests), refuse all free meals, free medical services (including measure/weight/BMI), Do not feed the College Board-refuse AP, SAT, PSAT,CLEP (in one year they will be out of business if we stop feeding this beast) http://www.starvethebeastusa.com

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Joe says:

     June 30, 2015 at 1:59 pm

     Good grief, what planet do you live on, what galaxy, what universe? You hate public schools because of some bizarre nonsense about the UN, flying saucers, black helicopters and evil leftist munchkins. OK, you didn’t actually mention UFOs, black helicopters and evil leftist munchkins but the day is young. Starve the beast? Sounds like that far right wing nut Grover Norquist who hates government (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, wage insurance). So you will replace all the public schools with home schooling?!? You are delusional and that’s a complement.

     LikeLike

     Reply
     • Raj says:

       June 30, 2015 at 2:32 pm

       This is the diatribe I have seen here before. It had moderated a bit for a while but it is coming back. “far right wing nut”, “GOP clown car” indeed. If some one does not like what some one states just point out the differences/disagreements or simply ignore it. Above all keep the discussion going. Isn’t that the point of this blog?

       LikeLike

     • dianeravitch says:

       June 30, 2015 at 3:37 pm

       Raj,

       Freedom of speech is the rule here. You are not the monitor of everyone else’s comments.

       LikeLike

     • retired teacher says:

       June 30, 2015 at 2:36 pm

       Her solution regarding education reminds me of Ron Paul’s comment against healthcare for all. He stated that in the old days neighbors would look after each other, and help each other out when they got sick. Again, this is a lovely, nostalgic notion, but it does not address or solve the problem.

       LikeLike

     • Ken Watanabe says:

       June 30, 2015 at 4:34 pm

       Raj,
       No matter what position you take, you certainly are NOT in a position to claim neutrality. It really amazes me to see someone coming here giving a talk about it.

       LikeLike

     • KrazyTA says:

       July 1, 2015 at 9:23 am

       Ken Watanabe: but remember, when someone is supremely qualified to rule on everyone else’s computer expertise, then that person’s word is law. No matter the subject. No matter the context.

       I guess my time is up…

       😎

       LikeLike

   • TC says:

     June 30, 2015 at 2:51 pm

     That seems a little isolationist. But yes, the regulation and data collection needs to be dialed back.

     LikeLike

     Reply
3. Edd Doerr says:

   June 30, 2015 at 1:16 pm

   Spot on, Diane. And of course Jeb is just like the rest of the GOP clown car regarding public educftion. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • FL Teacher says:

     June 30, 2015 at 2:06 pm

     I am definitely NOT going to vote for Jeb Bush, but has the DNC been better for education? It’s the current President, a DEMOCRAT, who has done more damage to education than the GOP managed to EVER do.

     LikeLike

     Reply
4. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

   June 30, 2015 at 1:29 pm

   In addition, let’s not forget that the United States might end up with another Bush War or more than one.

   President H. W. Bush – The Persian Gulf War (1990-1991). This Bush also launched Operation Restore Hope in Somalia under which the United States assumed command in accordance with Resolution 794. Fighting would escalate and continue into the Clinton administration.

   President George W. Bush – The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. What did we get from this Bush—Trillions added to the national debt, NCLB and the endless war on terror.

   If Jeb Bush becomes President in 2016 where will he start the next Bush War—Pakistan, Syria, Iran, North Korea, China or all five? And what would be the acronym for his education policy—POEC (Profit Off Every Child) or TTTD (Test Them to Death) or STTF (Step on Teachers and Trample them Flat)?

   Do we really want or need another burning BUSH living in the White House?

   LikeLike

   Reply
5. Gordon Wilder says:

   June 30, 2015 at 1:51 pm

   Indeed. Eduction plus a LOT more would be “jebb-ordized” if he is elected.
   “Bush whacked” yet once again.
   AND
   he is not the only one. Most any Republican, I hate to say that, would be bad not only for education but for the country.
   There is another thing to really take into consideration.
   ANY president elected will probably make at least 2, maybe 3 appointees to the Supreme Court. There is now a 50/50 divide with Stevens being the swing vote. SO, choose the president wisely. The Court as you all know is a life time appointee. The next persons appointed will make a humongous difference for our future, not only in education.
   Dare I say it:
   Bernie Sanders, our best hope.

   LikeLike

   Reply
6. Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:

   June 30, 2015 at 2:11 pm

   Add to the Jeb Bush scenario the SCOTUS very soon voting on basically whether or not a union member of a municipal job has to pay the complete array of dues or can opt to pay only for union bargaining time and skills. If the Court votes in favor of choice, unions will shrink in their clout and financial power, and will no longer be able to run ad campaigns or make political contributions they way they used to.

   This will also leave corporate America free to contribute even more unlimited funds to PACS and ALEC.

   Fun, fun, fun as the American sheeple can no longer cling to apple pie, mom, and baseball for hope. People not belonging to unions do not understand – really do not understand – how unions built and sustained the middle class in this country and prevented it from remaining another Edwardian England with a hideous caste system and virtually no real opportunity to become mobile.

   Not that the AFT or NEA are particularly union-like in their behavior (they are more like “compromisers” and “team players” these past 16 years!). Now poor Randi Weingarten is pleading with others for this not to happen, for, of course, she might miss her $400,000 something annual salary.

   Randi, you lived by the devil, you danced with the devil, and now you might fold by the devil . . . . along with your AFT.

   This would never happen in France or even corrupt Peru, where working people strike en masse and give acute pangs of pain to the ownership class, because it’s now become the only language they would ever seem to understand.

   Just remember what Picketty warned us about if we don’t turn this around.

   LikeLike

   Reply
7. Ellen Lubic says:

   June 30, 2015 at 2:30 pm

   This was published today by Schools Matter. It is a well researched article by educator/writer Ken Derstine and it shows why the choice between Jeb and Billary is no choice at all. Read all the links and you see how tightly connected the Clintons are with Eli Broad, the prime Rheeformer.

   ——————————————————————————–
   Eli Broad and the Clintons
   Posted: 30 Jun 2015 07:08 AM PDT

   By Ken Derstine

   June 28, 2015

   The Broads and the Clintons at the pre-ball dinner hosted by Eli Broad at the Inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009. Click here (left and right) to view the full slide show from the event.

   For some people, sleep seems incidental. If you’re one of them, I envy you. Bill Clinton, who I have known since he was governor of Arkansas, sticks out in my mind as someone who does exceptionally well with very little rest.

   While he was president, he invited me to stay at the White House. It had been a long day and I was tired, so I went to bed a bit early. At 11:30 PM, I woke up to a knock on the door. The president’s usher poked his head in and informed me the president was in the solarium and wanted to chat. There wasn’t much I could say except, “Sure.”

   President Clinton came in, sat down, and began talking about everything–the Russian election, the Taiwan Strait, Israel, and why Kentucky was the best of the Final Four in that spring’s college basketball playoffs. We ended up going to bed not long before dawn.

   From The Art of Being Unreasonable by Eli Broad
   John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2012 p. 40, 41

   During his presidency, Bill Clinton started the controversial practice of inviting political supporters to spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. Nearly 1000 White House guests gave more than $10 million in the 1990’s towards his reelection campaign and later to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential bid. One of the contributors was Eli Broad who gave more than $162,500 . From January 1, 1995 to December 31, 1996 Broad gave $100,000 and listed his corporate affiliation as Truman Arnold Companies . Truman Arnold Companies is a $2.2 billion Texarkana, Texas petroleum marketing company . Clinton’s assistant District attorney, Webster Hubbell, who was convicted on corruption charges in 1994, was on the payroll of Truman Arnold and Sun America, Inc., “ a California financial services company controlled by Eli Broad, a close Clinton friend who, like Rapoport and Arnold, stayed overnight at the White House.”

   Eli Broad started accumulating his riches from a real estate company that he began with his wife’s cousin on borrowed money in 1957. Riding the crest of the expanding real estate market after World War II, particularly with the growth of suburbs around urban areas, Broad began building his millions, later to be billions, when he acquired Sun Life Insurance Company of America in 1971. In 1999, he sold SunAmerica to the American International Group (AIG) for $18 billion. For those who see accumulating wealth as the measure of a man, Broad became an icon fulfilling the American Dream’s Horatio Alger myth of the self-made man becoming incomprehensibly rich.

   Fortunately for Eli Broad, his myth could remain intact during the real estate and financial market crashes in 2008 because his affiliation with his real estate business and financial company was years in his past. He stepped down as CEO of Kaufman & Broad in 1974 and CEO of SunAmerica in 2000. AIG was given $182 billion in taxpayer funds in 2008 to prevent the company, and the financial system, from collapsing during the financial market collapse brought on by the real estate market collapse.

   In 2000, Broad and his wife Edythe created the “philanthropy” The Broad Foundations. The “philanthropy” became a means for the Broads to bring their Horatio Alger myth to the arts and to education, having no background in either, and, along with other major “philanthropists” like the Gates Foundation and the Walton Foundation, he begin the reshaping of public education in the United States to fit a neoliberal agenda in the interests of the financial oligarchy the 1% is trying to form in the United States.

   Bill Clinton’s all night White House meeting with Eli Broad, occurred as Clinton, under the guise of a progressive agenda, was advancing a neoliberal agenda during and after his presidency. Though he claims many of the reactionary laws during his Presidency were due to Republican intransigence, the Democrats controlled both legislative bodies during Clinton’s first term when most of these reactionary laws were passed. He continued with the policies of the Reagan years that were a counter-reform undermining the gains of Roosevelt’s New Deal and the Civil Rights movement of the ‘60’s. Corporate and financial interests had given these concessions because of fears that labor unrest in the 30’s and urban unrest in the 60’s would lead to a political movement that threatened the interests of the 1%. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 benefited Clinton’s many White House guests and others in the 1% and have led to historic levels of wealth for the 1% even as it has impoverished the 99%. Clinton’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 led to an expansion of Reagan’s “War on Drugs” which creation a prison population that is the largest per capita in the world and an expansion of the death penalty for the low-income population. His Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 , known as “welfare reform”, was to lead to an explosion of homelessness and low-income or no-income families falling into a poverty not seen since the Great Depression. The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) opened up corporations to low-wage workers in the developing world and gutted manufacturing in the United States. It is under these conditions that Eli Broad launched his “philanthropies”, including the Broad Superintendents Academy in 2000, to train and insert superintendents in school districts all around the United States who would advance a privatization of public schools agenda. Based on the right-wing economic theories of economist Milton Friedman corporate education reform began a fascistic agenda designed to reshape public schools financially and ideologically for the one percent.

   Playing a central role in promoting Clinton’s neoliberal agenda was the Democratic Leadership Council . Formed in 1985 after the defeat of Walter Mondale and the reelection of Ronald Reagan, it became the think tank for many of the rightwing neoliberal policies promoted by Clinton. Clinton was head of the DLC in 1990 until he became President in 1992. A key player shepherding the neoliberal agenda during the Clinton Presidency and after was Bruce Reed who became head of the Democratic Leadership Council in 2001.

   On March 22nd, 2010, a New York Times article described his history.
   “Mr. Reed was policy director when Mr. Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, was chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. Mr. Reed also served as deputy chairman of policy for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign, then worked in the White House for all of the Clinton administration.
   As head of the Domestic Policy Council, he had a leading role in overhauling welfare in 1996 and in developing initiatives on education, crime, health, tobacco and more. In 2006, back at the Democratic Leadership Council, Mr. Reed and Rahm Emanuel, now the White House chief of staff but then a congressman and Mr. Reed’s friend from their years in the Clinton administration, wrote a book called “The Plan: Big Ideas for America.” It was intended as a platform for the Democrats’ takeover of Congress that year.”

   Files in the National Archives show that Reed was heavily involved in developing the Clinton neoliberal education agenda. Files from 1997 – 2000 in 133 folders in 9 boxes “ includes material pertaining to national standards and testing; the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the 1999 efforts to reauthorize the act; 100,000 teachers and class size; charter schools and vouchers; education events and forums; social promotion; Goals 2000; Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally (HOPE) Scholarships; Pell Grants; the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999 (Ed-flex); education funding and budgets; and various school and teacher issues.”

   In the final months of the Clinton administration, another controversy erupted over favoritism for wealthy supporters of the Clinton’s neoliberal agenda. Hillary Clinton played an active role in efforts to give tax breaks to private foundations and wealthy charity donors at the same time as donations were being solicited for Bill Clinton’s presidential library. Bruce Reed, who was Clinton’s chief domestic policy advisor at the time, dismissed the controversy saying, Clinton “wanted to give a break to working people for putting a few more dollars in the plate at the church. Not for any other far-fetched reason.” Months before proposing the tax breaks, Clinton White House officials had proposed holding a September, 1999 conference to celebrate “philanthropy heroes” who had donated large gifts. The list included “Microsoft’s Bill Gates and his wife, Dell computer founder Michael Dell and investors George Soros and Eli Broad”.

   In July of 2005 Hillary Clinton was appointed by the Democratic Leadership Council to define the party’s agenda for the upcoming 2006 and 2008 elections. Reed assured an interviewer on NPR that she was on board with the neoliberal agenda but her appointment had nothing to do with a political run for President in 2008.

   Despite his endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election, Eli Broad was thrilled with the election of Barack Obama. The 2009/2010 Annual Report of the Broad Foundation (page 5) says,

   “The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned.
   With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments—charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards—the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted.”
   Arne Duncan had been on the board of the Broad Foundation until he became Secretary of Education ( 2009/2010 Broad Report page 25 ) and, according to this Report brought five Broad Residents and alumni with him to the Department of Education. Also on the board ( 2009/2010 Broad Report page 25 ) the Broad Foundation is Larry Summers who served as top economic advisor in the Clinton and Obama administrations. Among the many former officials in the Clinton administration joining Obama’s administration was Bruce Reed who became Vice President Biden’s chief of staff. On March 22, 2010 he also was appointed executive director of President Obama’s bipartisan commission to reduce the national debt.
   On November 13,, 2013, Bruce Reed left as Biden’s chief of staff to become the first President of The Broad Foundation. The website Inside Philanthropy said this appointment made him “one of the powerful people in education philanthropy.” In an interview in the Los Angeles Times on March 13, 2014, about his agenda with the Broad Foundation, Reed gave the standard boilerplate of corporate education reform. This is someone who has never taught a day in his life at any grade level nor had any background in pedagogy or education.
   After announcing her run for President on April 12, 2015, Hillary Clinton met with the leadership of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association in June. She sought to distance herself from her support of No Child Left Behind when she was a Senator in 2001. While she was an early critic of standardized testing, her position seems to shift by which way the political winds are blowing. Given her history with the Broad Foundation, can there be any illusions that she will continue the neoliberal attack on public education? It has been reported that 181 Clinton Foundation donors lobbied the State Department when she was Secretary of State. The two top donors were leaders in corporate education reform: The Microsoft/Gates Foundation ($26,000,000) and the Walmart/Walton Family Foundation ($10,500,00).
   Nor can the union leaders be trusted to represent the interests of their members. Randi Weingarten in particular has a history with the Broad Foundation going back to 2002 . This collaboration has continued ever since .
   In the 2009/2010 Annual Report (Page 10), the Broad Foundation said,
   “ Teacher unions have always been a formidable voice in public education. We decided at the onset of our work to invest in smart, progressive labor leaders like Randi Weingarten, head of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City for more than a decade and now president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). We partnered with Weingarten to fund two union-run charter schools in Brooklyn and to fund New York City’s first incentive-based compensation program for schools, as well as the AFT’s Innovation Fund. We had previously helped advance pay for performance programs in Denver and Houston, but we were particularly encouraged to see New York City embrace the plan.”
   In 2010 she collaborated with the Gates Foundation to develop a teacher evaluation system based on standardized tests, testifying before Congress three times in support of the effort. A recent study noted the increasing convergence of the goals of Bill Gates and Eli Broad. Randi Weingarten has been collaborating with both . For several years, she has been a leader in the Clinton Global Initiative conferences that bring together corporate and union leaders to foster collaboration in promoting a neoliberal agenda nationally and internationally.
   Unless the 99% gets its act together and launches a serious political challenge to the two-party system with a party with a program that represents the interests of the 99%, the November 2016 election will once again be a choice between the lesser of two evils. The problem is the evil just keeps getting worse.

   Also see:
   NEA Affiliates Take Steps to Support ‘Opt Out’ Movement
   Education Week – June 29, 2015

   You are subscribed to email updates from Schools Matter
   To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. Email delivery powered by Google
   Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Kuhio Kane says:

     July 2, 2015 at 6:56 pm

     Great thing to post here, Ellen. I agree. Obama or Jeb. They are of the same cut of cloth in terms of public education. if we are to speak of presidential hopefuls here, then let’s not forget that it’s the banks who determine presidencies. The choice is conditioned upon a crooked Electoral system and what’s best for corporate profits.

     LikeLike

     Reply
8. Dienne says:

   June 30, 2015 at 2:52 pm

   If education is your only concern, there will be very little daylight between a Hillary presidency vs. whatever nut might win the GOP primary. Republicans tend to prefer vouchers, although Democrats have been going that way lately too, just calling them “tax credits” or some other nifty new name. Democrats tend to prefer charters, which Republicans don’t mind either. Republicans tend to be more open about privatization, Democrats tend to do it more stealthily. Republicans will holler about gubmint overreach with things like standards and tests, but then they’ll implement nearly identical standards and tests, just stamped with the name of the state instead. Both parties are all about top-down abusive mandates and neither will listen to teachers, parents or students.

   I think we have a pretty good chance if Bernie gets the nod (although he, too, will be beholden to his funders and he, too, is a skilled politician). But Hillary has told us many times who she is and we’d be wise to follow Maya Angelou’s advice and listen to her.

   I realize there are other issues to consider besides education, but with the exception of the nomination of Supreme Court justices (which I acknowledge is a big deal), I don’t think Hillary will be much different than the GOP on most other issues either.

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • teacherbatman says:

     June 30, 2015 at 11:45 pm

     I think you underestimate Bernie. But any way we want to look at it, he’s our only hope.

     LikeLike

     Reply
9. artseagal says:

   June 30, 2015 at 3:06 pm

   Jeb is bad… and then there is Hilary…

   http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/06/eli-broad-and-clintons.html

   LikeLike

   Reply
10. Chiara says:

    June 30, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    I don’t think it matters. Republicans dominate at the state level and the state level is where 90% of it happens.

    Democrats “relinquished” so completely on public education they’re almost irrelevant.

    When they lose the White House they’ll be completely irrelevant but it won’t much matter! They adopted the entire GOP platform on public education anyway.

    LikeLike

    Reply
11. Chiara says:

    June 30, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    With the Arne Duncan Waiver Precedent it could actually be really bad because Bush will do the same thing Duncan did- issue waivers based on whatever he wants to put in at the state level. No one in DC will object because they all support the Bush-Obama-Bush approach anyway and not doing anything insulates Congress politically.

    You could have a situation where Congress “relinquishes” completely, not that they haven’t already.

    LikeLike

    Reply
12. Eugene Gant says:

    June 30, 2015 at 4:40 pm

    I wish what Ex-Gov Bush believes were not true but clearly he not interested in the wellbeing of ALL people and the education of ALL children in the United States. He is so far out touch from reality and common every day people that he cannot grasp the true understanding of education and what it will take to maintain this country in a leadership role of the world. Jeb Bush’s driving force is money and power — neither one does he know how to use for the good of the people. Jeb Bush totally lacks any common sense.

    LikeLike

    Reply
13. SomeDAM Poet says:

    June 30, 2015 at 4:54 pm

    As Scotty liked to say “Captain, she can’t take much more”

    Everyone though he was talking about the engines, but he was clearly referring to the Bushes.

    LikeLike

    Reply
14. michaeltdesing says:

    June 30, 2015 at 6:47 pm

    Diane,

    Thanks for mentioning my comic.

    I am constantly stunned by the brazen disregard of fundamental logic by many of our elected leaders. At least from a cartoonist’s point of view, it makes things easy to parody! Usually, I would have to resort to hyperbole, but sometimes I almost lean towards understatement just because the truth is so obscene.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • dianeravitch says:

      June 30, 2015 at 6:50 pm

      Michael, it is hard to satirize stuff that is so dumb

      LikeLike

      Reply
    • teacherbatman says:

      June 30, 2015 at 11:46 pm

      Not a lot of room for logic when you’re full of greed and fear.

      LikeLike

      Reply
    • KrazyTA says:

      July 1, 2015 at 9:50 am

      A recent posting on this blog re Mike Miles, “almost-former” Supt. of Dallas ISD—

      Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2015/06/24/mike-miles-compares-his-three-year-tenure-in-dallas-to-camelot-starring-him-as-king-arthur/

      Nothing, absolutely nothing, could top the self-parody this rheephormster engaged in when he publicly imagined himself King Arthur. Riffing off his own self-serving fantasy—

      “I royally screwed up. I’m a flash in the pan. I couldn’t create anything morally and practically sustainable. When the going gets tough, I’m outta here!”

      😳

      michaeltdesing: thank you for your cartoons, if for no other reason than that the self-proclaimed leaders of the “education reform” provide you and the rest of us with material that will last, well, how long is forever?

      “Run, boy!” [access the above link and its associated links]

      😎

      LikeLike

      Reply
15. drext727 says:

    July 1, 2015 at 2:57 am

    Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.

    LikeLike

    Reply
16. April Featherkile says:

    July 1, 2015 at 3:37 am

    I am an Independent and Conservative. Please do not label the Common Core debate as something caused by Republicans. They were the first in Washington state who protested. This is a bipartisan issue. I have changed my mind drastically regarding charter schools and hail Diane’s efforts to get the word out. I have joined many parents and grandparents in protesting at the 2 school district boards, several principals, 6 legislators (state and federal), marched with the BATs and handed out educational materials and showed videos at the open air market. As a member of our county’s women Republicans group, our committee studied this issue for years and educated many on the issue.
    Common Core is a political issue with me—and I would never vote for Bush

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • michaeltdesing says:

      July 1, 2015 at 7:05 am

      April, if it makes you feel any better, it’s a Democrat in NY who has become the agent of chaos. My strip is going after every elected official who is pushing this agenda forward, not the membership of any specific party.

      The universality of this struggle is here: I have one specific leader in mind when I put together a strip, but I’ve received many comments where people see this as reflecting their specific situation and their specific leadership, throughout the country. This is bigger than party lines.

      LikeLike

      Reply
      • KrazyTA says:

        July 1, 2015 at 10:55 am

        Yes.

        Hold everyone’s feet to the fire.

        No exceptions. No excuses. Don’t dampen your gunpowder for anybody.

        In other words, the opposite of the self-proclaimed “education reform” crowd with their double talk & double speak & double standards.

        😎

        LikeLike

17. retiredbutmissthekids says:

    July 2, 2015 at 12:12 am

    I would hope that Bernie would be “beholden” to his funders, who would be mostly we, the 99%! His campaign e-mails end with “Paid for by Bernie 2016 (not the billionaires).”

    Also–lest we forget–how’d the result of the 2012 election work for us? It was determined that people would vote for Obama, as the destruction of public education would occur at a slower rate than with Romney. But, then, we didn’t have much of a choice. Everywhere, it’s “the lesser of 2 evils.” As the wise Ken Previti has said, “The lesser of 2 evils is still…evil.” Do you all seriously think that Hillary would do better than Obama?
    (Perhaps she would appoint Stand on Children’s Jonah Edelman as Ed. Secretary! {You all know Jonah–the Alex Keaton-like son on the show “Family Ties,” w/the 2 liberal, former hippies & their conservative, WSJ-reading son– of Hillary’s liberal friend, Marian Wright Edelman [Children’s Defense Fund], & dad Peter, liberal, pro-war on poverty attorney & author.})
    Enough of the annointed, corporate-paid-for candidates. To quote Duane, w/his Wilson/testing diatribe, I say NO!
    This time, in 2016, we DO have a choice. As a wise former student of mine told his classmates, “Quit your whining & start your working!”

    Bernie…2016. Yes, WE can! And WE WILL!

    LikeLiked by 1 person

    Reply