The American Federation of Teachers sent questionnaires to all the candidates. Three responded: Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, and Bernie Sanders. I previously posted Sanders’ responses. Here is Hillary’s.
Candidate questionnaire: Hillary Rodham Clinton
Today, almost 50 million students attend our nation’s public schools. Along with their parents, communities, teachers, paraprofessionals and other school employees, these students have been forced to live under test—and-punish policies that include sanctions and school closings, high-stakes assessments, and federalized teacher evaluations that are counterproductive and have taken the joy out of teaching and learning.
Q. What is your view of the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also
known as the No Child Left Behind Act)? What changes, if any, would you make to the law, and
why? Please include positions on:
• The federal government’s role in ensuring equity and access to resources for all children;
• The role of standards, assessments and accountability in public education;
• Ensuring that all students have access to a broad curriculum that includes art and music,
as well as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM);
• Professional development for school staff; and
• Community schools.
HRC: I have been working to improve and support our public schools for decades. Throughout my
career I have worked to ensure that every child reaches his or her full potential, and I know a
quality education is essential to reach that goal. When I was First Lady of Arkansas, I chaired
the Arkansas Educational Standards Commission where I worked to raise standards for
Arkansas’ schools, increase teacher salaries, and lower class size. I continued in this effort as
First Lady of the United States and as a Senator, working throughout my career to provide
dedicated resources and support to teachers and to recruit, support, and retain more outstanding
teachers. We need to attract a whole new generation to teaching because it is critical that our
students have well-prepared and well-supported teachers.
When the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted, I viewed it as a historic promise between the
federal government and educators. I hoped that it would lead to a greater sense of shared
responsibility for our schools’ success. Unfortunately, that promise was largely broken because
schools struggled to meet the mandates imposed by the law and the implementation at the federal
level was problematic.
I applaud Senator Patty Murray and Senator Lamar Alexander for coming together in a
bipartisan fashion to unanimously pass the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 out of the Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee to reauthorize NCLB. I believe this bill
addresses some of the real challenges with NCLB while retaining our commitment to high
academic standards, and to assessments that give parents and teachers the information they need
to know how students are performing and if and where they need help to improve. I believe that
this bill will correct for some of the real challenges that schools and communities experienced in
implementing the law and will ensure that principals, educators and local communities are lifted
up as full partners and innovators in improving public education. I also applaud the forward-
looking investments in education contained in the bill, including a new commitment to improving
early learning.One of the issues that I am most concerned about is testing. Tests are intended to provide parents and educators with an understanding of how well kids are learning. Having that
understanding is crucial. And it is important to remember that testing provides communities with
full information about how our low-income students and students of color are doing in
comparison to other groups so that we can continue to improve our educational system for all
students.
But I understand the frustration many parents and educators feel about tests. Teachers and
parents alike are concerned about the amount of time being spent on test preparation, and worry
that children are missing out on the most valuable experience in the classroom– a teacher
sparking a student’s curiosity and love for learning.
So I am mindful that we need to find the right balance—and that starts with bringing parents
and educators back into this conversation about how we ensure a robust and engaging
curriculum that engages students in the love of learning rather than narrowing our schools to
focus primarily on test preparation.
I do think that Senators Murray and Alexander struck the right balance in the Every Child
Achieves Act by continuing to maintain the federal requirement for annual statewide testing in
grades 3-8, but ensuring that accountability for improving schools will be based on multiple
measures of performance. And I think it will be critical for states and communities to continue to
strike the right balance and not layer test upon test. There must be room for invigorating
teaching and learning in the classroom.
Q. Do you support any of the current reauthorization proposals under consideration in the 114th
Congress?
HRC: I applaud Senator Patty Murray and Senator Lamar Alexander for coming together in a
bipartisan fashion to unanimously pass the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 out of the Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee to reauthorize NCLB.
Q. What role do you think the federal government can play in providing access to early childhood
education? What specific policy proposals would your administration pursue?
HRC: I believe we need to improve access to quality child care and early learning opportunities for all
children. Every child, regardless of parental income, deserves access to high-quality pre-K. I
think any discussion of improving our public schools must include universal access to pre-
kindergarten. I believe we can start to close the achievement gap by investing in programs that
increase children’s school readiness and academic preparation while making it easier for
parents to balance their responsibilities at work with their responsibilities to their children. We
know children’s brains develop more rapidly at this time in their lives than at any other and that
high quality interventions make a real difference in the outcomes of children from low-income
families. . In the months ahead, I look forward to laying out a significant agenda to improve
early learning in our country.
I have been highlighting the importance of early childhood education for more than forty years.
As First Lady of Arkansas, I helped bring the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool
Youngsters Program (HIPPY) to Arkansas. As First Lady, I hosted the first White House
conference on early learning and the brain, championed the program “Prescription for
Reading,” in which pediatricians provided free books for new mothers to read to their infants as
their brains were rapidly developing, and supported the Administration’s work to create Early
Head Start, which reaches children from birth to age three throughout country. As Senator, I co-
sponsored the Education Begins at Home Act, which expands the Parents as Teachers program
and other quality programs of early childhood home visitation. As a leader at the Clinton
Foundation, I led a national initiative called “Too Small to Fail” aimed at supporting parents to
improve vocabulary and brain development in the early years to close the “word gap” and
better prepare children for school. As President, I will continue my lifelong work to expand
early childhood and parent education programs.
Q. What are your views on private school vouchers, tuition tax credits, and charter school
accountability and transparency?
HRC: I strongly oppose voucher schemes because they divert precious resources away from financially
strapped public schools to private schools that are not subject to the same accountability
standards or teacher quality standards. It would be harmful to our democracy if we dismantled
our public school system through vouchers, and there is no evidence that doing so would
improve outcomes for children.
Charters should be held to the same standards, and to the same level of accountability and
transparency to which traditional public schools are held. This includes the requirements of civil
rights laws. They can innovate and help improve educational practices. But I also believe that
we must go back to the original purpose of charter schools. Where charters are succeeding, we
should be doing more to ensure that their innovations can be widely disseminated throughout
our traditional public school system. Where they are failing, they should be closed.
Access to an affordable and high-quality system of public higher education is critical to the
health of the nation—both to ensure that students reach their fullest potential, and to
enable the United States to continue to develop as a just society, a vibrant democracy and a
land of economic opportunity.
Q. Escalating tuition and fees are leading to a growing number of students leaving college with
overwhelming debt from student loans. This burden of rising costs and rising debt makes access
to higher education increasingly difficult for many students and their families. What is the role of
the federal government in ensuring that higher education is affordable and accessible?
HRC: First, too many young people are struggling under the burden of student debt and too many
families are struggling to pay the rising cost of college. Second, too many students are starting
but never completing college, which means they leave with debt but no degree. I will be offering
my own ideas for how to make college more affordable, how to make sure no one graduates with
crushing debt, and how to hold colleges accountable to help more students graduate. Among
other things, we have to do more to link student loan repayments to income and to help people
refinance their loans. And we have to think about both four-year colleges and community
colleges. I support President Obama’s free community college proposal. I will be talking about
ways to reduce the burdens on those entering four-year colleges too, as well as those who are
out in the world trying to start a business or a family. I intend to introduce significant proposals
on these subjects in the weeks and months ahead.
Q. There has been a nationwide pattern of disinvestment in public higher education such that per-
student funding dropped 26.1 percent between 1990 and 2010. What would your administration
do to remedy this?
HRC: State budget cuts are a primary cause of tuition increases at public universities and reversing
this trend is key to making college more affordable. That’s why I will make incentivizing
increased state funding of higher education a priority, and explore ways to make sure that the
federal government is actively partnering and working with states to address the problem of
college affordability.
Q. Career and technical education programs help ensure that postsecondary credentials and skills
are accessible to all—a necessity in today’s economy. In your view, what is the role of the
federal government in supporting high-quality CTE programs?
HRC: In the months ahead, I will lay out my ideas for a comprehensive proposal to train millions more
workers over the next decade. I am exploring a number of options to incentivize GTE programs
and help provide grants to train workers for the 21st century economy.
Q. What is the federal government’s role in requiring appropriate transparency and accountability
of for-profit institutions?
HRC: We have to do a lot more to protect students and families from unscrupulous institutions and
abusive debt servicers. There are a lot of non-traditional students who want to go back to school
to improve their lives, but don’t have access to much information or support to figure out how
best to do that. Money and time are both tight, with a lot of them trying to juggle family, jobs,
and school all at the same time. So they’re particularly vulnerable to exploitation and
deception.
All students need more guidance in making decisions about where to go to school. We should
protect them from institutions that will almost certainly not serve them well. The government
should stop funding colleges where almost no one graduates and where most students
accumulate a lot of debt but can’t get the jobs that would allow them to repay their loans. In the
months ahead, I will be laying out specific ideas and proposals on how to increase
accountability in the for-profit sector.
Having a high-quality healthcare system in the United States is a moral imperative, an
economic necessity and a fundamental right for all. Underpinning this right is a healthcare
system that reflects the needs of the patients, providers and community.
Q. What are your views of the Affordable Care Act? What changes would you make, if any, to
the ACA, including the excise tax on high-cost plans and the provisions on shared responsibility
for employers?
HRC: Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more than 16 million Americans have gained new coverage.
The reduction in the uninsured rate across the country has been staggering, down to roughly
12% for adults.
These statistics translate into real change in people’s lives. Families who no longer have to face
the threat of bankruptcy because of catastrophic health care costs. Parents who now have health
care when only their children were covered before. Women can no longer be charged higher
rates solely because of their gender. People with preexisting conditions can no longer be denied
coverage. Americans can make the leap of changing jobs or starting a business without
worrying about whether they’ll still be able to buy insurance — because now they know they can
purchase it on the marketplace. So this is a real accomplishment we should be proud of
As with any piece of major legislation, it’s not perfect and would benefit from updates and fixes.
One area of the ACA that I am examining is the so-called “Cadillac” tax. As currently
structured, I worry that it may create an incentive to substantially lower the value of the benefits
package and shift more and more costs to consumers. As President, I would work to ensure that
our tax code appropriately advances the health care interests of lower-income and middle class
families.
We also need to take steps beyond the ACA. We should crack down on the drug companies that
charge too much and the insurance companies that offer too little. And we need to tackling
rising out-of-pocket health care costs for consumers across the board.
Q. Do you support initiatives designed to move health insurance coverage away from an
employer-based model? If so, what would you propose as an alternative to the current system for
covering working adults?
HRC: I’ve long believed that progress on health care is only possible if there is a principle of shared
responsibility among every major actor in our health care system. Employers have always
played a critical role in ensuring working families have access to coverage — in fact more than
96% of firms with 50 or more employees already offer health insurance.
Q. Many licensed healthcare professionals, particularly RNs, are leaving hospital service
because of difficult working conditions, including excessive and unsafe workloads, understaffing
and mandatory overtime. What would you do to address these problems and to improve
recruitment and retention of nurses and other healthcare professionals?
HRC: I know that we must address the nursing shortage in this country and give nurses the training,
education, and support they need to provide the care patients deserve. We need appropriate
nurse-to-patient ratios in order to improve patient care and working conditions for nurses.
I have a history of working for America’s nurses. As Senator, I was proud to champion
provisions in the Nurse Reinvestment Act that provided significant resources to recruit and train
nurses, and I introduced the Nursing Education and Quality of Health Care Act.
I believe it is important that all American employees are safe and protected where they work In
particular, I believe that we need to consider the effects of ergonomic hazards in order to quickly
and effectively address musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace. I know that this is a problem
for nurses, who often suffer from back-related injuries as a result of having to move and lift
patients.
Q. Merger and acquisition activity continues to consolidate the U.S. healthcare system into the
hands of a few corporations, many of which are for-profit. What would you do to ensure
competition in the healthcare industry is fair and protects the American consumer?
HRC: The federal government plays a critical role in evaluating and enforcing health care mergers to
ensure that they do not stymie competition, burdening consumers with fewer choices and higher
prices. Anti-competitive and costly market consolidation in health care or other markets should
not be permitted. While the Affordable Care Act created incentives for providers to better
coordinate care and pass those savings onto consumers, we need to make sure that acquisitions
and integration of health care stakeholders will ultimately lower cost growth and increase
quality of care. To that end, in addition to providing necessary guidance to health care providers
about appropriate and beneficial ways to better integrate their services, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) should be funded and directed to be ever-vigilant in halting anti-competitive
health care arrangements through robust enforcement.
Q. What would you do to ensure that communities have access to public health services?
HRC: I believe we must take full advantage of the movement from volume to value purchasing of health
care to encourage much more of a focus on the value of prevention and the imperative of
population health. My record shows my dedication to this issue. As Senator, I led a bipartisan
coalition to fight for legislation to combat childhood obesity, helped pass legislation to provide
extra funding for flu vaccine and proposed legislation that would raise public awareness and
speed up production of the vaccine, and proposed legislation to combat diabetes, asthma and
HIV/AIDS. As the chairperson of the Superfund and Environmental Health Subcommittee of the
Environmental and Public Works Committee, I held the first-ever congressional hearing on
environmental justice, bringing much-needed attention to the fact that certain environmental
conditions cause health problems, which is often the case in low-income or underserved
communities. Following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, providers are being more
appropriately rewarded on their success in ensuring wellness and good health and not on
unnecessary, wasteful, expensive and, all-too-frequently, dangerous health care interventions.
By focusing on prevention and the necessity of population health, we have a real opportunity to
finally make long-overdue inroads in the public’s health.
An administration’s economic policy has far-reaching implications for the United States
and the world. It also says a great deal about a president’s priorities and general
philosophy about the federal government’s responsibility to its citizens.
Q. What are your priorities for revitalizing the economy, strengthening the middle class,
creating jobs and ensuring fair taxation? How would your plan help restore funding for
education, healthcare, transportation, public safety and many other services provided to our
citizens?
HRC: I want to make being middle-class mean something again. I’m going to take on four big fights in
this campaign: (1) building an economy for tomorrow, instead of yesterday; (2) strengthening
our families and communities; (3) fixing our broken political system; (4) protecting our country
from threats.
I will lay out a number of new ideas over the course of the campaign, including helping small
businesses create jobs, making college more affordable, raising workers’ wages and reducing
cost pressures on families, balancing work and family, helping workers get the skills they need to
get ahead in a changing economy, and making sure all our kids have the chance to live up to
their God-given potential.
Q. The United States has a $3.2 trillion infrastructure deficit according to the American Society
of Civil Engineers—and that’s just for repairs. What are the mechanisms (e.g., public, private,
infrastructure bank) through which we can fund the rebuilding of this country, including the
necessary renovation and modernization of our public schools, hospitals and public buildings?
HRC: Ordinary Americans can’t afford failing to invest in our infrastructure. If we don’t repair our
roads and bridges, and upgrade our infrastructure for the 21st Century, it’s harder for
Americans to get to work, and for our businesses to grow and compete. It’s time for us to invest
in America. That means Congress must make the investments we need in our roads and
highways and that means leveraging investment by the private sector as well. I will be laying out
my own proposals on how to leverage both public and private sources of funding and creative
financing mechanisms to address America’s infrastructure needs.
Q. What would your administration do to build and strengthen retirement security for all
working men and women, including protecting employees’ pensions? What is your plan for
sustaining and strengthening Social Security and Medicare?
HRC: Let me start by saying I’ve fought to defend Social Security for years, including when the Bush
Administration tried to privatize it. We need to keep defending it from attacks and enhance it to
meet new realities. I’m especially focused on the fact that we need to improve how Social
Security works for women. I also want to enhance benefits for our most vulnerable seniors. We
need to reject years of Republican myth-making that claims we cannot afford it and that the only
solution must therefore be to cut benefits.
I will continue to oppose Republican efforts that seek to privatize or gut Medicare.
We need a broader strategy to help Americans with their retirement security. I will have ideas
on that.
Q. What are your views on the privatization and contracting out of public services, including
school services and state and local government services?
HRC: I do not believe that we should be contracting, outsourcing, or privatizing work that is inherently
governmental in nature, including school services and state and local government services. In
the Senate, I helped secure a measure that became law that blocked the Bush administration
from downsizing the Federal Protective Service. I cosponsored legislation to protect city and
rural letter carriers from having their work contracted out by the U.S. Postal Service to private
firms and individuals. Lastly, I was an original cosponsor of the Honest Leadership and
Accountability in Contracting Act.
Labor unions give workers a collective voice in the workplace and are integral to the social
and economic health of our country. AFT members are interested in knowing your views
on the role of labor unions.
Q. Current federal laws and policies encourage and promote collective bargaining through the
National Labor Relations Act. What are your views on collective bargaining for the private and
public sectors? What is your view regarding agency fee and so-called right-to-work laws?
HRC: The right to organize is one of our most fundamental human rights. I believe that unions are
critical to a strong American middle class. Throughout my career, I have stood with all workers
as they exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively and was an original co-sponsor
of the Employee Free Choice Act. I’m talking to a lot of labor leaders and labor economists
about what the next president can do to support 21′ century organizing and collective
bargaining.
Q. As president, what would you do to: (a) prevent employers from intimidating and harassing
workers who support union representation, (b) ensure that workers are free to organize and
bargain in the workplace, and (c) protect the rights of American workers?
HRC: Throughout my career, I have stood with all workers as they exercise their right to organize and
bargain collectively and am an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. I actively
opposed anti-collective bargaining provisions contained in the Department of Defense’s
proposed National Security Personnel System and have voted in favor of collective bargaining
rights for TSA screeners. It is also vital that we modernize basic labor standards. Worker
protections and basic labor standards have failed to keep pace with changes over the past half
century. We need to raise wages and reduce poverty among working families, including raising
the minimum wage, eradicating wage theft, promoting collective bargaining, updating overtime
protections, ensuring that employers do not misclassify, true employees as “independent
contractors” to skirt their obligations, and leveling the playing field for women and people of
color.
Q. The federal government has direct responsibility for setting labor standards. There has been a
growing call for changes to those standards, including paid sick days, paid family leave and
higher minimum wages. What changes, if any, would you prioritize?
Experience shows that policies that are good for middle-class families are good for everyone—including businesses. These policies are pro-growth, and pro-family, and that’s a pretty good
twofer.
HRC: It is long past time for the U.S. to join every other nation in the developed world in having paid
leave, which is critical to ensuring that workers do not have to choose between caring for their
family and keeping a job. I’m not under any illusions that this will be easy. We had to fight for
years to pass the unpaid Family and Medical Leave Act, and the day my husband signed that law
was a day I’ll never forget. I look forward to talking about how we move forward on this.
I have fought to raise the minimum wage for many years, and I strongly support the fast food
workers and others who are out there asking for a living wage and a fair shot at success. A
higher minimum wage doesn’t just help those at the bottom of the pay scale, it has a ripple effect
across the economy and helps millions of American workers and middle class families. As we
work to raise the federal minimum wage, we should also support state and local efforts to go
above the federal floor where it makes sense to do so.
Q. More than 8 million public employees in 25 states currently have no OSHA protection or
entitlement to a safe and healthful workplace. Do you support universal OSHA coverage for all
public employees?
HRC: I believe it is important that American employees are safe and protected where they work In the
decades since OSHA has been enacted, we’ve made great strides in strengthening the safety of
work environments for our workers. But there are improvements that need to be made. In
particular, too few workers are protected by OSHA. That’s why in the Senate I was an original
cosponsor of the Protecting America’s Workers Act, which would extend OSHA protections to all
federal, state, and local public employees.
The AFT and our members are champions of fairness; democracy; economic opportunity;
and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students, their
families and our communities. We are committed to advancing these principles through
community engagement. Our members are interested in knowing your views on the
following important community issues:
Q. What policies would your administration pursue to ensure that all people—regardless of who
they are, where they live or where they come from—are able to climb the ladder of opportunity
and participate fully in our economy and democracy?
HRC: Today, there are nearly 6 million young people in America who are out of school and out of
work The unemployment rate for this rising generation is double what it is for the rest of the
population. It wasn’t like that in 2000. Young people were getting jobs, they were climbing the
ladder of opportunity. Millions more of our young people are underemployed because the jobs
that are available just aren’t sufficient. They don’t offer the kind of income and growth potential
that should be more broadly accessible. For young people of color things are even harder. And
if you don’t have a college degree or didn’t graduate from high school, most doors just aren’t
open, no matter how hard you knock.
That is why education at all levels — from birth through higher education — is so important to
helping all people climb that ladder of opportunity. I have worked hard throughout my career to
make sure that every child gets a chance to develop his or her mental capacity by developing
their brain from the very earliest age, because if your vocabulary is so far behind by the time
you’re five years old, through no fault of your own but because the adults in your life are so
busy, so stressed or don’t know how you build brain cells, by talking and singing and reading to
babies, then you enter kindergarten having heard 30 million less words than a child from one of
our families. And that’s very hard to overcome. It’s not that when you’re 18 you’re not trying,
it’s when you’re five you were already left behind.
Q. In your opinion, what are the elements of comprehensive immigration reform? How would
your administration’s stance on immigration reform fight back against inequality, promote
economic justice and increase wages for all workers?
HRC: I support comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) and a path to citizenship not just because it’s
the right thing to do, but because it strengthens families, strengthens our economy, and
strengthens our country. I was a strong supporter of CIR as a Senator, cosponsoring Senator
Ted Kennedy’s 2004 bill and supporting the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act in 2006
and 2007. In 2003, 2005 and 2007, I cosponsored the Dream Act in the Senate. I also support
President Obama’s DACA/DAPA executive actions. And if Congress continues to refuse to act,
as President I would do everything possible under the law to go even further.
Q. What are your views on campaign finance reform? Do you support a constitutional
amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision?
HRC: We have to reduce the influence of big money in politics. As I said recently, I support a
constitutional amendment to get unaccountable money out of politics.
Q. What would your administration do to ensure that voting in elections is free, fair and
available to all Americans? Do you oppose policies that restrict access to voting and voter
registration?
HRC: As I said recently, the assault on voting rights threatens to block millions of Americans from fully
participating in our democracy. We need to fix the holes opened up by the Supreme Court’s
ruling. Congress should pass legislation to replace those portions of the act that the Court struck
down, and as President I would work to ensure that all citizens have the information and access
they need to fully participate in our democracy.
Conclusion
Q. What do you think this nation’s priorities should be during the next decade? How would your
presidency advance those priorities?
HRC: I am committed to being a champion for everyday Americans and American families. That’s
what I’ve been devoted to my entire adult life, starting with my first job out of law school when I
went to work for the Children’s Defense Fund, all the way through to the work that I did as
Secretary of State promoting women’s rights, promoting the rights of people who would
otherwise be marginalized or left on the sidelines. And I know that although we have begun to
move forward again, it is still hard to imagine exactly how we’re going to get to the point where
people are not just getting by but getting ahead again and staying ahead. Because the deck is
still stacked in favor of those at the top.
We have to be focused on how we’re going to bring about the changes that will ignite
opportunity for everybody willing to work hard for it again. We have to build an economy that’s
innovative, sustainable, and producing good jobs with rising wages. We need to actually reward
workers with increases in their paychecks for the increases in productivity and profitability.
It’s also imperative that we give people the tools through education and job training, so that they
can make the most out of their own lives. And for me that starts at the very beginning. I have
been a child advocate and a child development proponent for my entire adult life, because it’s
what I really care about and believe in. Then we have to make sure that we are doing all we can
to empower our educators, to make sure that they have the support of parents so that they can do
the job they have been trained to do to help prepare our kids. And then we’ve got to make sure
that college is affordable.
One of the biggest stresses in anybody’s life is healthcare. I’m going to support and defend the
Affordable Care Act, and I will work to fix those parts of it that need fixing. But, we have made a
great step forward as a nation to provide a mechanism for people to get access to healthcare,
some for the first time.
We also have to address the unaccountable dark money in politics. I think the Supreme Court
made a grave error with its Citizens United decision. And I will do everything I can do to
appoint Supreme Court Justices who will protect the right to vote and not the right of billionaires
to buy elections.
Finally, we have challenges around the world. But we have to be confident and strong in
understanding that there are many ways to approach the problems that America will be
confronting in the world, and we must do so in cooperation with our friends, our allies, our
fellow democracies around the world. I am convinced that the 21st century can once again be a
century in which the United States leads and helps to set the values and standards.
– See more at: http://www.aft.org/election2016/candidate-questionnaire-hillary-rodham-clinton#sthash.vHjkBIqu.dpuf
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope Randi provided advice, tips and hints to all the candidates. #oustRandi
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An op ed from the conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks about Hillary’s latest speech laying out her economic priorities, worth a read.
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Hillary lost me with her first answer.. all tap dance and no substance
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Agreed.
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Agreed.
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Ditto
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You notice how Hillary repeatedly lauds Patty Murray (and Lamar Alexander) who led the charge of Dems to vote in favor of fast tracking TPP. I think Murray should be castigated for voting for TPP which most progressive economists like Krugman think will further kill American jobs and further diminish our workers rights and incomes.
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The president appoints all of the U.S. Trade Representatives. 12 have been appointed since 1976 when Carter was in the Oval office. 9 of them are Trilateral Commission members. Two TC members, Carla Hills and Robert Zoellick, were lead negotiators for NAFTA. They are lead negotiators for TPP.
Can we expect a different result? I guess we can expect it to be even more devastating since the TPP is expected to encompass 60% of all world trade. This should be front page news– not back room deals.
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Tap dance is a good metaphor, add awkward. No coherent message and a legacy of mis-steps.
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Politics 101 is a tap dance class. Bernie got a bad grade.
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Like!
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“We need to attract a whole new generation to teaching because it is critical that our
students have well-prepared and well-supported teachers.” – Hillary Clinton
Does that mean that Hillary thinks that all of us currently in the teaching profession are not well-prepared and students right now are suffering because of this?
Or does that mean that Hillary is loving the changes reformers have made to teacher preparation where Pearson is now in charge of certification in New York instead of graduate school professors? See instructions from NY state college below:
This webpage will help you complete the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) for New York State teacher certification. The edTPA process requires that preservice teachers desiring state certification complete a portfolio and upload required documents and files to Pearson, Inc. to be scored.
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That statement, “We need to attract a whole new generation to teaching because it is critical that our
students have well-prepared and well-supported teachers.” – Hillary Clinton
Left me with, one more person blaming teachers for the current crisis in education. Its not over crowded classrooms or lack of resources to support the every changing families…it is the teachers. We give up family time, holidays, weekends and whatever else. So if that is not “well-prepared” then I am not well supported.
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Not my vote unless I have to gag and pull the lever in the general election. Just more testing from Hillary and a lot of double talk.
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Compared to Bernie’s answers, this is all smoke and mirrors. If I don’t trust Randi, why would I trust Hillary?
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Exactly!
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She has actually begun to parrot Bernie on several issues. Of course, it’s only a shell of Bernie’s ideas, much of which will not be followed through if she got into office.
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I agree with all the comments made above. Hillary/Billary, who caused many families to now live on the streets (in LA we have over 13K homeless students< with their failed Welfare to Work program, speak out of both sides of their mouths. Yes, she is the candidate, but they still are a plutocratic twofer.
Vote for Bernie.
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Every word she says and writes, is sanitized by her PR folks and her lawyers. Does anyone want to have more secret dealings in the WH?
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If you think it will make any difference at all who makes it into the White House, whether it is Hillary or Jeb, you haven’t been paying attention. Bernie will not make it past the primary.
Hillary and Bush have the same handlers. They pull the strings no matter which puppet is on stage. The Trilateral Commission co-founded by Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller in 1973 has managed to dominate the executive branch of our government since 1976. The Council on Foreign Relations writes position papers supporting the TC agenda and keeps the main stream media from actually reporting any real news but rather fomenting disagreements about race, gender, religion and political parties, not to mention sports to keep people talking about stupid things instead of facts and figures about why our country is in a shambles and who is responsible for it and what would put us back on the right track.
Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer from Georgia, TC member groomed by Brzezinski for the presidency, said he didn’t know anyone inside the beltway, ended up appointing 18 Trilateral Commission members to his administration, including Brzezinski as his foreign policy adviser. The TC has remained comfortably ensconced in the executive branch since that time. Obama appointed 11 TC members to his cabinet. Brzezinski is one of his foreign policy advisers as well as being his former professor at Columbia University.
U.S. presidents get to appoint the World Bank president as well so that 6 of the past 8 World Bank presidents have been TC members. They also appoint the U.S. Trade Representatives so that 9 of the 12 reps are TC members. So TC members Carla Hill and Robert Zoellick who were two of the U.S. Trade Representatives under Clinton responsible for NAFTA are now negotiating the TPP in secret because we all know how well NAFTA worked out for America.
I just finished reading Technocracy Rising by Patrick Wood. He has been studying the members, positions papers, books, statements, agenda and goals of the Trilateral Commission since it was founded in 1973. He just realized the Trilateral Commission is following the Technocracy playbook, incremental step by step for the past 40 years.
Technocracy Inc. was dedicated to creating a new economic world order which would replace capitalism. Technocracy does away with a price based economy, including gold and fiat currencies. It is an energy based economy. Energy, or carbon credits, are to be measured, monitored and distributed equitably, in other words, rationed. M. King Hubbert and Howard Scott became incorporated as Technocracy, Inc. and published their plans in 1934 as the Technocracy Study Course.
Technocracy Project Requirements:
• Register on a continuous 24 hour per day basis the total net conversion of energy
• By means of the registration of energy converted and consumed, make possible a balanced load
• Provide a continuous inventory of all production and consumption
• Provide a specific registration of the type, kind, etc. of all goods and services, where produced and where used
• Provide specific registration of the consumption of each individual, plus a record and description of the individual (Scott, Howard et al, Technocracy Study Course, P. 232)(bold added)
The Common Core is all about data collection.
“The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.” – Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages, 1970.
He is advising Obama. Comforting thought, right?
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Excellent analysis and reminder of history. I am in complete agreement with you Dawn. People forget that the Tri Lateral Commission is still actively meeting and influencing world events. And that Jeb has targeted Wolfowitz to head the World Bank yet again…as Jeb uses ALEC also to advance Bush policies. Plus the Bush and Clinton Saudi connections. Kind of an Enron Revisited ongoing situation. Thanks for this report. Much to think about.
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No, it is not “history.” It’s part of the New World Order conspiracy theory that Dawn writes about so often. Some people thought this had died out years ago, but as long as people like Dawn can write about RWNJ conspiracy theories and people fall for them, they will never will die. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/524/is-the-trilateral-commission-the-secret-organization-that-runs-the-world
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I don’t usually cite Wikipedia, but I think their comments here are insightful:
“Criticisms
Skeptics of New World Order conspiracy theories accuse its proponents of indulging in the furtive fallacy, a belief that significant facts of history are necessarily sinister; conspiracism, a world view that centrally places conspiracy theories in the unfolding of history, rather than social and economic forces; and fusion paranoia, a promiscuous absorption of fears from any source whatsoever.”
and
“skeptics argue that conspiracism leads people into cynicism, convoluted thinking, and a tendency to feel it is hopeless even as they denounce the alleged conspirators.
The activities of conspiracy theorists (talk radio shows, books, websites, documentary videos, conferences, etc.) unwittingly draw enormous amounts of energy and effort away from serious criticism and activism directed to real and ongoing crimes of state, and their institutional background. That is why conspiracy-focused movements (JFK, UFO, 9/11 Truth) are treated far more tolerantly by centers of power than is the norm for serious critical and activist work of truly left-wing progressives who are marginalized from mainstream public discourse”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(conspiracy_theory)
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How much do you get paid to hide behind your funny name and mock me?
Why would you find it so important to try to slam my information as conspiracy as you always do if you did not have an agenda of your own?
Diane just ignores me. Why don’t you do the same?
Or since you have so much time on your hands, why don’t you read Technocracy Rising by Patrick Wood and try to refute him with actual critical analysis?
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Anyone can write on Wikipedia. I do not let my students use for research. The supposed facts you quote VV, are probably written by a revisionist history flack such as yourself.
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Addendum…if anyone bothers to read the link VicVo posted, it is written by a bigoted and ignorant proponent of the John Birch society. He does not understand that Dawn’s post is history as is his favorite mentor’s link which quotes the John Birch Society, albeit his link shows dangerous anti-democracy history.
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Dawn,
Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Debates have caused shifts in thinking. Look at the Republicans 4 years ago. Every other week someone else was on top.
The real problem is the endorsement. I wish the majority of teachers were as informed as you and other readers of this blog, but that is not what I have been seeing. So the best thing is for teachers to print and share Bernie’s answers and compare them to Hillary’s with their staff.
Once we can change the leadership in the AFT, it can be the start of something amazing.
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Hillary repeatedly lauds Patty Murray in her answers to this survey. Murray, just led the charge for Dems to vote for Obama’s fast track for TPP. Major Nobelist progressive economists like Krugman and Stiglitz feel that TPP will be the kiss of death for American workers and will force wages even lower, and create even more inequality and wealth redistribution to the top dogs.
Would hope that readers and writers on this blog would look at her words en toto…and not just to see how she pretends to feel about public education. She is a dangerous and devious candidate. Review her past record, and not only the parsed words that now come out of her two-faced mouth.
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Finally someone with their eyes and ears open! To the poster below with the RWNJ comment: you sir are a closed minded fool. The research and information is there for you to locate it and decipher it for yourself but instead you just ignore it and believe everything that is regurgitated to you by the MSM. Dawn is correct about everything in her post. Look up Agenda 21 that is the plan these sick individuals have in store for us.
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“I do think that Senators Murray and Alexander struck the right balance in the Every Child Achieves Act by continuing to maintain the federal requirement for annual statewide testing in grades 3-8, but ensuring that accountability for improving schools will be based on multiple measures of performance. And I think it will be critical for states and communities to continue to strike the right balance and not layer test upon test. There must be room for invigorating teaching and learning in the classroom.
What the answer should be by any candidate:
“Test score data should not be used in any fashion whatsoever for anything because there are too many errors,flaws and falsehoods in the process of making, giving and disseminating the “VAIN AND ILLUSORY” (as preeminent testing expert Noel Wilson states) results emanating in ABSOLUTELY NO VALIDITY for that data. Using INVALID TEST RESULT DATA is ‘doing the wrong thing righter’ and makes as much sense as pounding one’s head against a brick wall to get rid of a headache.”
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To understand why anyone, not just these three politicians should be saying the above I invite you to read and understand Wilson’s never refuted nor rebutted treatise “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
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Back to your smartie-pants self, Duane…thanks for all this clear enunciation of the real goals of education. You are so great…sometimes…oftentimes. I will be lifting this to send it to other colleagues. Keep it coming.
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Thanks, Ellen. I always learn from your comments so to repeat what you said “Keep it coming”!!
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With the exception of Duane Swacker, so many of the commenters here sound a troll-like dirge. Will someone actively pursue the Republican candidates to shed light on their plans for the tens of millions of school-age young Americans? Will anyone devise a plan to make Sanders’ nomination possible, or is this just anti-Hillary naysaying. What will we hear from the NEA vis-a-vis Hillary? With our many millions of well-educated members, active and retired, why don’t we hear specific, concrete suggestions for holding candidates’ feet to the fire. Diane, let’s try to hear all voices, or at least encourage different voices to speak out. So far, the vocal defeatists have been more than represented.
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Margaret, if I get education policy papers from the Republican candidates, I will post them. Fortunately, we can judge them by their deeds. We know that Jeb Bush will promote the destruction of public education because he did it in Florida, which is now overrun with charters and vouchers and for-profit entrepreneurs who open and close charter schools. Scott Walker has a clear record of hating public schools and universities. Same for Bobby Jindal and Chris Christie. If you think that public education matters, these are scary guys.
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Thanks, Diane. I was actually asking fellow educators to show more focus and strength re: Hillary Clinton, or any other viable Democratic candidate. So many comments reacting to her statements seem cynical and self-defeating. I am certain that the naysaying commentators must be aware of the demeaning policies of all of the potential Republican candidates. Accordingly, we of the NEA and the AFT, along with my state organization, NYSUT, must continue to remind the Democratic candidate(s) of our urgent demands re: the children of America’s public schools and their dedicated teachers.
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Very interesting post…I am currently working on a “point-counterpoint” with a classmate on Privatization in public schools. I am find very little information, without crossing over into Charter schools. Please suggest a couple more names! Thank you!
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Thank you Margret, that made my day!!!
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Hillary is the front runner of a well-oiled Democratic campaign machine. If the Clinton squad wasn’t encamped with DFER, the website for DFPE would be more than window dressing.
Democrats for Public Education has no bricks and mortar location, no fund raising at Act Blue, no posting since January, board members supporting charter school expansion, and only 4 donors. Answer -obvious.
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In the days ahead we will hear about her plans? So we are going on faith that we will like those plans. Also have to wonder why the majority of the questions do not deal with education but other issues. There are no specific questions dealing with Common Core State Standards or data mining of children and the unsafe storage of that data or use of that data. There is nothing about the developmentally inappropriate nature of CCSS. The talk of Universal PreK always includes the feel good comment about ” high quality” early childhood programs then they jump right into talk about academics. High Quality is never defined and if CCSS are any indication High Quality will be anything but High Quality. Why should government be providing for free day care? The list could go on and on. Lots of side stepping and talking about what she did and nothing real concrete about what she will do.
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I remember how upset NEA members were when their leader put out an early endorsement for Obama while Duncan was making more draconian decisions like hiring charter people for top level positions. The truth is Randi was behind the push to measure teachers via test scores because she, like politicians, like being handed donations, and Gates gave the AFT a large contribution.
For those that are not from NYC, Randi was responsible for displacing thousands of teachers from their schools and turning them into day-to-day subs at different schools instead of filling these open positions. So instead of a student having the consistency of one teacher throughout the year, they met a new one each week, or month depending on which way the ATR agreement was written for that year. ATRs were not allowed to go to regular hiring halls. That was only open to any one new to teaching. And last year a contract was approved that took away their right of due process even though they are due payers. ATRs have begged for their own chapter since they are nomads and year after year are denied.
The wind is blowing in the direction of the person who piles the biggest amount on Randi’s and Mulgrew’s palm. Teachers are so turned off to union politics, they no longer vote in elections, which for Randi and Unity is a good thing. Then the majority of votes come from retirees who are so far removed from what’s going on and this is what keeps them in power. Apathy is killing public ed…..and unless teachers wake up, they will see their pink slips the minute they become too expensive for the system.
As for the election… I had high hopes for deBlasio only to see him cave in. Under Chancellor Farina, many of the old “Bloomberg/Klein” guard are still on the payroll and many of those policies are still in force. deBlasio is too weak to demand better of Carmen who promised to bring back joy to the classroom yet defends principals for horrible behaviors. I would love to see Diane post about the principal from Dewey who Carmen protected but was finally removed due to the findings of an investigation.
Perhaps if we can get deBlasio back on track….but the State has put handcuffs on him and in order to keep mayoral control, he will allow this abuse to continue. This is why we need a stronger union leadership, and the only way to get that is for teachers to vote in the upcoming UFT election and throw Unity out the door!!
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schoolgal, I did post about Katherine Elvin, the principal who was fired for handing out phony credits to boost the graduation rate. The interesting question raised by a commenter here is why wasn’t she indicted like the Atlanta educators.
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Hillary does a great job
bobbing her head up and down as she bobs and weaves to avoid answering anything. I am sad that she is the first electable woman running for president.
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Hello all,
Very interesting that the AFT did not send a questionnaire to the Green Party candidate Jill Stein. The corporate owned Democratic and Republican parties and their cronies like to ignore the growing movement of voters (69% as of now) who say they want a 3rd party to vote for. The corporatists think their money can buy the silence of the most moral and ethical candidates and parties. Lets not let them silence Jill Stein! She is the only candidate staunchly against standardized tests and the Common Core. Jill is part of a law suit against the Commission On Presidential Debates (a for-profit company, NOT a real commission) that has kept legitimate 3rd parties out of the debates for years now. The lawsuit could change all of that! Find out more at: http://www.jill2016.com/
Dani Liebling
Brooklyn, NY
Proud member of the Green Party
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Thanks, Daniella for the information on Stein. I had asked if anyone knew that information in one of the other “candidate” posts and I didn’t get an answer although i haven’t looked in a while.
The AFT should have sent one to Stein and anyone else who has announced. But then that might have defeated the AFT’s leaders purpose of endorsing Clinton as Steins answers would probably have been even more succinct than Sanders (whom the leadership seems to be purposely avoiding).
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I love Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney and the idea of a third party that would have access to all debates. However, may I suggest that you research Agenda 21 before you pledge allegiance to the Green Party?
The Green platform of “environmentalism and social justice” is used to fool people into calling for their own destruction. Technocracy, a movement from the 1930’s which is being implemented now by the Trilateral Commission through the United Nations and various NGO’s, aims to replace capitalism with a carbon based system of currency based on energy – not fiat money and not gold. Agenda 21 is being adopted by your local town council right now. It is known as Sustainable Development or Smart Growth.
It is a system that will rely on constant surveillance and monitoring of energy usage per person per device per day. Energy will be controlled and rationed. Economic development will be sacrificed for the purpose of “saving the earth.” There are many goodhearted people who are unaware that when they root for the Green Party, they are actually aligning themselves with the agenda of David Rockefeller, Zibigniew Brzezinski, Bill Gates, and wolf in sheep’s clothing, Pope Francis.
Of course, we all love God’s green earth and want to protect it for posterity. However, regulations, rules and international intervention to prevent Americans from developing our own land, using our own resources for creative productivity is just wrong.
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Nader is the last person I ever cast a vote for. It’s been a long time since we were presented with an actual worthy candidate.
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I wish her answers were more thoughtful and less formulaic. I prefer Sanders, but in a pinch I would vote for her to block any of the Republicans. We cannot let them destroy what is left of public education. When Hillary was a senator in New York, she did not make any hostile moves against public education. She may even be less threatening than Obama.
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And this is why we are in the bind that we find ourselves currently in. Your vote should go to the person who best represents your visions, goals, and values not to the lesser of two evils. If we keep voting for individuals whom are not quality candidates in order to block another shitty candidate then we deserve exactly what we are getting in return. By the way, I think the destruction of Education award would go to the current administration. Republicans could only dream of dismantling Public Education on the scale in which we are seeing today.
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Disagree. Republicans would complete the dismantling faster.
After which, the 99% would whimper at the rude surprise that they’re forced to buy the Gates/Pearson/Zuckerberg schools in a box,.
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Patty Murray is a Democrat. Lamar Alexander is a Republican. They both worked equally hard, together, to get two terrible bills, which will wreck this country, passed through the senate: the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 S.1177 and Fast Track for the TPP.
There are so many treasonous snakes in congress. Political parties are meaningless at this point. Being anti-Democratic or anti-Republican is a waste of energy. Throw all the bums out. Get some new blood in congress that hasn’t been compromised and bought out.
I saw a great license plate that said “Re-elect No One”
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Hillary is a business as usual right wing democrat. By endorsing her the AFT has in effect said they don’t want to change anything!! That they are pro war and pro corporate America. I thought the AFT was about people and civil rights by endorsing Clinton over Sanders the AFT has shown their true colors. I cannot begin to express how deeply disappointing this is!!!
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What else would you expect? Everything that has negatively impacted teaching and learning in the last decade or so has happened under their watch. Where was the NEA and AFT when these things were occurring? Crickets…………………..
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It’s ridiculously self-defeating to moan & groan & say “Bernie won’t make it past the primary.” How did Ras Baraka & Bill diBlasio and numerous others manage to get elected? Do we just take it, once again putting ourselves in the position of “voting for the lesser of two evils?” As the wise Ken Previti has written, “voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil.” We’ve moaned & groaned for someone who really cares about the middle class and low income Americans–& that’s 99% of us. And, now, someone we wanted to run is running. So, instead of whining & predicting the future, START WORKING for Bernie. Contribute whatever you can (& he’s one of the few who provides an actual campaign address for mailing contributions)–it’s adding up (last I read, he had $15 million {to Hill’s $45 m}–money amassed in, actually, a very short time). Yes, WE have, yes WE can & yes WE WILL!
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Agree with you retired…but today our friend and colleague, Ken Previti published a paper asking us all to support the AFT endorsement and vote for Hillary. As much as I admire his usual wisdom, I gave verbal lashes for this advice and pointed the vast differences between Bernie and Billary. You can read his paper online at his blog site. You might voice your own distaste for a Clinton vote.
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If you are a Democrat and want to vote for Bernie in the primary, I fully support that choice. Certainly Bernie is speaking about some of the most important issues of our time and he is getting more turn-out to his appearances than other Republican or Democratic candidates thus far. However, when people speak critically about the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, it is not simply because I/we always want to say nasty things about the Democrats or that I/we are not excited to see the public recognizing the truth of what Bernie is saying (although I disagree strongly with many of his past votes and policies especially on foreign policy). The problem for many Green Party folks is this: Bernie is running within an extremely corrupt party. Due to the system of super delegates etc., it is extremely unlikely for him to win the primary (look it up). The DNC clearly wants Clinton and what they say goes. If it was one person one vote it might be different, but it is not. So, given that Bernie claims to be an independent, we wonder why he did not choose to run as one? If he did so, he would be able to run all the way to the general election. Yet, by choosing to run WITHIN the Democratic Party he has assured that his candidacy will end after the primary. In fact, Bernie has ALREADY pledged to fully support the Democratic Party nominee NO MATTER who it is. This seems extremely contradictory and troubling to many of us. We worry that this type of candidacy serves as a pacifier for disgruntled Democrats. They get to vote for Bernie in the primary and feel like they’ve done something historic. Yet in the end they will most likely stay loyal and vote for the extreme corporatist Clinton. Its a sheepdog tactic that has been successful many times over. It squelches dissent. In the Green Party we believe that in order to save the planet and bring about true social justice we can not wait for the Democratic Party to be democratized. Frankly, there is no time left. We must recognize that they are controlled by the 1% and that’s not going to change. We need a completely independent, truly democratic, and powerful party to take back our democracy and our power. We are building that party for the long haul. It can’t be about one election or one candidate. That will only continue to lead to all the problems we face. Jill Stein will be on the ballot in almost all 50 states in the general election. She will be able to get enough votes to win. If that is not enough qualification to be allowed into the televised debates what is?! Even if you are voting for Bernie in the Dem primary, I hope you would also consider the importance of helping Jill to get into the debates and to make matching funds etc. The country deserves to hear her! Because in November 2016 when you go to the polls, I hope you will be excited to have a true champion of democracy who is running in a moral political party to vote for. That will make a huge seismic shift toward the world we all want to see and you will be making history for sure.
Dani Liebling
Brooklyn, NY
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Sanders decided to run as a Dem to actually be on the platform to confront Hillary. Sadly, Jill, as Green and a small third party candidate, is left off the platform so her voice is stifled.
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