Let me confess: I once thought Cornel West was way too radical. His politics were too extreme. Boy, was I wrong. Yet another bad judgment call on my part. Either the times have changed or I have changed. I now think that he makes sense.
As I watched this brief video clip of Cornel West facing down a panel that included Newt Gingrich, I found myself agreeing with everything he said. He called out progressives for their complicity with the far right and their silence in the face of intolerable abuses heaped on the weakest members of our society.
When he got to the part about the privatization of public education, I was cheering. His point was that we have to educate all the children, not just a favored few. We as a society are responsible for all our children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It seems as though way too many people have forgotten the basic principles of democracy, the sorts of things I learned in my Government and History courses back in the 50s and 60s when Texas was still a Democratic State.
And this is where I’m almost tempted to say that public school teachers in the Mean Time really must have failed somehow. Unless the Incredibly Dimwitted Insurgency Of Trolls — you do the acronym — we encounter in Social Mediocrity these days all got their mis-education somewhere outside of public schools.
Now, it’s just possible that they learned this stuff once but have since had it washed from their brains by tides of wingnut media sludge, but maybe some dat-&-stat person should do some investigating and splain us WTH happened.
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“Now, it’s just possible that they learned this stuff once but have since had it washed from their brains by tides of wingnut media sludge put out by not only the Failing Lame Stream Media but also Social Mediacrity”
Not a dat & stat fac, just da facs jackson*!
*My high school chemistry teacher’s favorite term. “Hey, Jackson, what does NaCl stand for?” “Whoa, Jackson, that experiment just got a little out of control!” (as he reached for the fire extinguisher) What a character!
Of course we wouldn’t want any “characters” teaching these days would we??
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Dr. Ravitch,
it’s good to give yourself permission to grow; I think we emerge particularly as we have new epiphanies the more times we travel around the sun! I also have noticed that extreme left, outspoken folks are calling out some real truths. It’s not the norm for most moderates to accept either extreme, of course. But as the center has shifted right, the far left is less extreme but seems more so because of the shift. I’m watching the same thing in my own city at the city government level. It comes back to our discussion the other day about which person in the room is leadership drawn to and likely to go along with.
In many ways, we are not far removed from who we were on the playground. Having taught preschool I recall watching the way the children would group themselves. Who was left out? Whose ideas prevailed? Who did folks follow? “All we like sheep. . .”
( a perfect opportunity exists here to go Bible on the right, for those who need to. .. like a Protestant in the south. . .Isaiah 53:6-8 fits here).
In the giant preschool playground of life, whom will we follow? Why?
Thanks for this post. I love philosophy majors. Married one. Both parents were.
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Non nobis solum nati sumus.
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“Non nobis solum nati sumus. (Not for ourselves alone are we born.)” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
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To philosophize is to think without the benefit of proof-Andre Comte-Sponville.
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I’ve watched Cornell West over the years on Bill Maher with the same response that you had. His views seemed “out there.” Last time I saw him on the show he was very critical of Obama, and I agreed with him. I think he hit it out of the park this time as he nails how Wall St and banks are controlling the financial blood of the nation, and it is destroying opportunities for everyone else. It is passive money that just sits there, other than the investments in privatization that are allowing them to use taxpayer money to destroy middle class jobs while they get tax credits and write-offs as well as profit. The president continues to be part of the problem as he talks about the middle class, but supports corporations.
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I am agreeing with John Awbrey that we learned some things in the 50s and 60s…. “Let me confess: I once thought Cornel West was way too radical. His politics were too extreme. Boy, was I wrong.” on the east coast I was enough of a radical that I went to Moscow and Leningrad (that is what it was called then) yet I am also a “traditionalist” when it comes to old Yankee values and curriculum and public schools. I was also a bit older than the students at BU when I was full time on that camps us but it was in the anti-war era…. Those issues have never been “solved” to be put away…. have to re-examine … plus we have changed and look at things in a different way .
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For-profit education is working out great:
“The change in the types of schools students attended – particularly the shift toward for-profits – explains by itself between one-third and one-half of the increase in loan defaults over the decade, Yannelis and Looney calculated.
“Part of the story is certainly that there was an increase in disadvantaged students, particularly during the recession, and that increased the instance of default and delinquency,” Looney said. “But that’s not the whole story. The institutions themselves matter.”
Students at for-profit colleges only account for 11 percent of the total higher-education population, but 44 percent of all federal student loan defaults, according to the Education Department.”
Congress has been studying this since 2010. There have been experts, reports, Congressional hearings, and on and on and on. They don’t lack “data”. Yet they do nothing to stop students getting brutally ripped off. They do nothing to stop it because half of them take money from for-profit colleges. I don’t think it’s complicated-it’s not ideology or a lack of bipartisanship or any of that -it’s just plain old fashioned corruption. Support of for-profit education is actually bipartisan. Both sides agreed it’s okay to rip off needy, desperate people, so that makes it “a good idea”.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/10/these-are-the-schools-driving-americas-student-loan-crisis/
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looking at default rates and who has gotten them, I believe, is definitely the best way to figure out future approaches.
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They’ve had information on default rates for years. Nothing happens.
I wonder why?
“House Education Committee Chairman Rep. John Kline, who saw a dramatic upsurge in campaign contributions from for-profit colleges in recent months, is pushing legislation that would help the industry preserve its access to federal student loans.”
The committee chair. It’s just blatant and completely shameless. When they’re called on it they say “it’s bipartisan!” which is true, so as long as it’s “bipartisan” it can continue forever because who is going to oppose this? Republicans and Democrats are complicit in it so neither will call out the other. That’s the beauty of “bipartisan” – it allows terrible ideas to go unquestioned, forever.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/23/for-profit-colleges-contributions-house-regulations/2579041/
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Good thoughts.
So our only hope is for Brewster’s Millions to become reality. . .someone who doesn’t want more money, and maybe even doesn’t want to win.
?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPdTXRjIKQ
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Talk about radical – unions help kids: http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2015/09/study-area-union-membership-can-predict.html
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And he called out Obama’s duplicity, without saying it explicitly.
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Cornel West for President!
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As Jim Morrison once presciently said (in “The End”): “The West is the best, the West is the best. Get him there* and he’ll do the rest”
*to the Oval Office
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Yes
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Cornel West makes a lot of sense. After reading his new book, which he touched on all these issues, I’m reading more books by West. Many black people were angry at his criticism of Obama but every public official, by the nature of their jobs, are open for this type of scrutiny. One thing thT I really agreed with and that’s thT in America we are too concerned with self enrichment and forget about other people. We are a nation that judges according to capital accumulation instead of altruism and community service.
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As a wise man once said, people should be judged by the content of their character, not by the content of their bank account.
“Meaningful Content”
Folks should judge by content
Of character —not bank! —
Excluding poor from big tent
Is really rather rank
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Why don’t we just take all American income and put it in a great big pot. Then, we can let the progressives decide who needs it most and give them everything they want first. Then, if there is any left over, those who actually earned it can keep it. I’m sure Cornell will be thrilled with this idea.
There are easy solutions for the ineffective charter schools. You can:
1. Exercise retainers on these contracts such that the charter school doesn’t receive say 10% of the funding during the first 2-3 years until they show they are effective. Since presumably charters are in it for the long haul and any business requires running a loss at the beginning, the large operators shouldn’t have a problem with this since they will eventually receive that money. Federal contracts do this all the time at differing amounts.
2. You could also take the strategy of Obamacare where a minimum amount is required to be spent on instruction (e.g. teacher wages). If operators could not afford #1 or were not-for-profit, they could opt that 90%+ of their funding is spent on teacher wages.
If you only allow operators with long track records, you squeeze out any new players. Oligopolies love that model. However, there are legitimate concerns with new charters just like any new business. This isn’t to say they could do any worse than some public schools, but there must be transparency. Detailed data, as in VAMs, must be published across a variety of groups. Do they show progress for all students? For low-scoring students? For disadvantaged students? For disabled students? What electives are offered? States would be wise to focus on the reporting requirements so that parents and taxpayers could easily compare. This was a major reason for Common Core in the first place (comparison and common standards) and it should work for charters.
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Virginiasgp, I deleted your personal attack on Carol Burris. She is an experienced educator–a life spent as a teacher and principal in New York–and I won’t let you slime her.
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It must be very limiting to live in a world where you’re so afraid of ideas different from your own that you have to distort such ideas into a wild caricature straw man to attack. Open your mind a little – I think you’ll be happier. You can start by reading Robert Reich’s new book that’s coming out at the end of this month, SAVING CAPITALISM. Communism isn’t the only choice if we the people decide to reject what we have now. Capitalism is composed of various building blocks that are, by definition, determined by the government. It’s not a matter of “government” vs. “free market” – the government creates the market. And as it stands now, the government has been co-opted by very rich individuals and corporations that have influenced the government to create a market that strongly favors their interests at the expense of the rest of us. It’s not a natural phenomenon that the most powerful get such a ridiculously large slice of the pie and the rest of us get the meager crumbs we deserve. Anyway, read the book and open your mind.
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Suggestion 3- Gates, Broad and Walton, put money in escrow, to cover their promise of jobs. It would incentivize them to create American employment.
Suggestion 4- Stiffen personal penalties for corporate executives who collude to suppress wages, like those in Silicon Valley who are charged with manipulation of the labor market, for software engineers, (while hypocritically talking about better paying jobs resulting from higher levels of skill).
Suggestion 5- Cut the unnecessary costs of charter school investigation and enforcement, by eliminating them. Added benefit, no taxes, meant for education, ending up in the pockets of Wall Street.
Suggestion 6-Tax credits for teachers who join unions. “Economic mobility and intergenerational mobility is better where unions are strong”, as documented by economists Richard Freeman and Eunice Han.
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Dienne: thanks for this; I hope you don’t mind but I copied the part about the book and pasted it into a parent email/blog….. one man yesterday was very discouraged and I thought it would be helpful for him to see what you wrote.
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jeanhaverhill – don’t mind at all. Please spread the word. I have some issues with Reich, but this particular book is a must-read for Americans these days. It dispels, in very clear, layman’s terms, so many of the myths that drive the economy these days, especially the “government” vs. “free market” debate.
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Another book is “Waking the Frog” by a Canadian who says we cannot fix climate change issues with the “free market” principles… and of course I keep remarking on Schumpeter Peterson who says the “disruptive” change route is the only way to go and applying Friedman etc… so tiresome!!!
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Dienne, no need to read the current attempts by washed-up cabinet officials trying to make a quick book. There’s an oldie but a goodie by Adam Smith called “The Wealth of Nations”. You might have heard of it. I’ll have to grab the exact points but it describes in great detail the critical factors that affect wages such as level of training required, value of work, etc. Those same principles determine wages today.
I work in IT. Our main job is to automate tasks to make them more efficient. No need to have 10 paper clerks when an online system is more convenient to the users and much more cost efficient. Those previous paper pushers can now be freed up to do other work. However, note that I often prefer talented, skilled workers. I would rather hire 1-2 really good ones than 10 less skilled workers. In fact, sometimes I could give those 10 workers a year and they still wouldn’t figure it out. That is the conundrum we are in today. Many workers simply will never participate in the knowledge economy because they don’t have the aptitude.
Which brings us to the lower end jobs. Those are driven strictly by labor supply. These jobs often require less training. When the economy is humming and there is a shortage of workers (1990’s?), those lower end jobs pay much better. Fast food workers were getting $10+ in the late 90’s. While manufacturing jobs can be outsourced (trade is a good thing), domestic service jobs cannot. The only thing that can hurt those wages in a good economy is uncontrolled immigration. Your progressives support the very policies that drive wages down by advocating open borders.
Some profess this nonsense that outsourcing overseas is the culprit. These are aggressive ignorants. China has lost manufacturing jobs as automation reduces labor requirements. The only thing unions do is accelerate the flow of jobs overseas and/or the automation of those domestic jobs. They would be automated eventually anyway but they accelerate the process.
If you look up Charles Murray’s work, you’ll see a case for giving handouts. Not carte blanche but to assist those who could never earn high wages regardless of how much access to education they have or how much “poverty alleviation” they receive. Not sure why you don’t latch on to that.
In the end, we owe it to everyone to give them the best shot at an education they can receive, incentivize them to pursue the most valuable careers, and assist them in acquiring grit/discipline. But there will always be a need to keep those who “cannot” from falling through the cracks. Not at the level you envision, but it is a given.
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you seem to think that no one here knows of Smith …. or you think we haven’t heard of Charles Murray? You might find that there are many who know of the work and outright reject the information; it is the wrong paradigm. You seem to think that people are “commodities” or something … there is another perspective of the value of human beings. There are many who have read Richwine’s thesis and rejected it no matter how much he praises Murray or Murray praises him. And there are those of us who read Neall Fergusson or others in the ilk and find the fallacy in their arguments — whether it be Thatcherism or Reagonomics. Fergusson is known for writing about these issues you bring up and, although it is not my field of teaching, I try to keep informed when people are selling or marketing their own particular version of the “truth”. Fergusson has been known for making the statements you prefer I guess such as — “Weekly earnings are up by more than 8 per cent; in the private sector, the figure is above 10 per cent. Inflation is below 2 per cent and falling.’” That passage would seem to convey that wages had grown sharply and stayed well above the rate of inflation. In fact, the opposite is true. As the FT concedes, “Real wage growth was negative from 2010 until September 2014.” Ferguson defended fiscal austerity on the basis that it produced higher wages, when in reality it produced lower wages.
As I mentioned this is not my field of teaching — but when it comes to who I believe in this view of our government and economy take Robert Reich, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Angus King (Independent — Maine) …. Even if Elizabeth Warren were wrong about some detail of speculation I would still support her because she has an integrity and a sense of the worth of a human being that is expressed in values that i can support. You remind me of the professor (about my age) who started out studying psychology in college and found that they were just watching rats press buttons 3 days a week instead of learning about the different theories of man/humanity…. this society has gone way over board in the educational psychology based on Pavlov and Skinner — and the pigeon and rat psychology. There are many different views of mankind and I reject the views that you seem to hold dear.
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this was not my field of teaching but I did have the good fortune of attending classes with some good AP civic education/history teachers who clued me in on differences between classical republicanism etc. and such philosophies as the benthamite views….”Bentham at first believed that enlightened and public-spirited statesmen would overcome conservative stupidity and institute progressive reforms to promote public good (and hopefully civic virtue). When disillusionment set in, he developed greater sympathy for democratic reform and an extension of the franchise. He believed that with the gradual improvement in the level of education in society, people would be more likely to decide and vote on the basis of rational calculation of what would be for their own long-term benefit, and individual rational decision-making would therefore, in aggregate, increasingly tend to promote the greater general good. He also wrote a highly entertaining Handbook of Political Fallacies 1824, which deals with the logic and rhetoric of political debate.” Thanks to the AP history teachers …. helping me to widen my view beyond a narrow field of “conservative ignorance”.
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Milton Friedman is the work you really want to read – “Free to Choose”. Now, yes it is about giving individuals freedom which I wholeheartedly support. But more than that, it is about choices being equivalent to information. Let’s look at details.
1. In Katrina, some folks packed up their trucks with generators and headed down to New Orleans. They sold these generators for huge profits because the government couldn’t assist fast enough. All the progressives howled in horror. But why? The folks down in New Orleans who paid higher prices needed those generators. They could not find them otherwise. If the sellers could only charge normal prices, they would never have packed up their trucks and headed down there. It is much more expensive to hand deliver than to ship by tractor trailer via Wal-Mart. And it led others to replicate that process by coming from other states to sell generators. The price (information) showed how valuable the generators were and distributed them to the ones who could obtain the most value.
2. Some jobs require a lot of skill. Some jobs are more preferable. In general, teaching has always been preferable to trash collection. Even though much less training is required for trash collection, nobody really wants to do it. Historically, teachers have been prized and survey after survey shows teacher receive internal satisfaction from their jobs. They know they help kids. This will necessarily lower the wages of teachers and raise the wages of trash collection beyond what their training would dictate. But the market determines the price of each. If teachers feel they are no longer rewarded sufficiently, fewer will enter and the price will have to rise to fill those jobs. The price/wage gives us information on what that job is actually worth.
My father just incented my daughter to read Animal Farm (she’s 8 and loved it). He wants to teach her the principles behind the book. The notion that somebody can sit behind a desk and determine what the wage should be is ludicrous. You can give workers protections from physical harm. You can ensure that employers pay overtime correctly. But if you think that by allowing unions to artificially restrict supply and inflate wages that you are helping any of the workers, you are nuts. There are clearly others outside the union who would fill those jobs at lower wages but they are not among the “chosen few” who get to work there at inflated wages. Thus, fewer people get jobs. The employers work even harder to automate the work. Consumers pay more for those products. In the end, everyone loses.
The wages of higher end workers is fine. And among the 1%, most of those folks are self-made. Thus, this notion that there is a oligarchy that protects its wealth generation after generation is silly. Yes, we have a problem among the less skilled and lower aptitudes. That will require safety nets. But the solution for them is mainly to 1) grow the economy as fast as possible to create demand for labor and 2) reduce illegal immigration so that domestic service job wages rise. Ironically, expanding and changing legal immigration rules to allow more high aptitude/skilled workers into the country will expand the economy and reduce competition for those lower-skilled jobs. But the progressives thirst for votes among the poor immigrants outweighs the best interests of the poor in this case.
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Virginia, Milton Friedman is so yesterday. His extreme libertarianism is not found in any modern society today. It benefits the haves and harms the have-nots. That is not an ideal for a just society. It is an ideal for a greedy society.
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So Dienne, as you already clearly know, I’m a little slow and need a lot of help to figure out how all this economy/gov’t stuff works. As I recall there were these ,monoliths in the late 90’s IT sector called Microsoft, Apple and IBM (some came and went but had historically been large and dominant). Some folks thought social networking would be a good idea and thus Microsoft grabbed that market all for itself with the help of its government handlers. In fact, Microsoft used its browser dominance to prevent other players from entering the search market. If ONLY the little guys in Stanford and Harvard dorm rooms stood a chance against this crony capitalism. But all of us are just left to pick up the crumbs from the corporations who have a stranglehold on all economic opportunity.
Oh, WAIT just a minute. I seem to have forgotten how it really played out. Microsoft gained market share with Internet Explorer but has now lost its majority. Two college students created the most successful advertising firm in the history of the world (google) out of their college dorm rooms in Stanford (over Alta Vista and others with a strong lead). And a guy at Harvard interested in comparing coeds via a computer program leapfrogged past MySpace to create the dominant social networking platform we have today. In fact, by Zuckerburg creating the Facebook platform, other small entrepreneurs can quickly create apps and grow wildly successful and rich. Those entrepreneurs couldn’t have done that without the single standard/market that Facebook provides.
So stop with all this nonsense about oligarchies. Most companies don’t survive past 20 years. They either die from the lack of innovation (most singers only have a few hits too) or are gobbled up by other successful firms. Common Core has created a market for small entrepreneurs to add value and make money. Have you seen how many software vendors produce products to support individualized learning aligned to Common Core? Take a look at the RFPs from your local school division. Yes, some larger players are in it but most are small firms. They had zero chance before a unified curriculum was created. Now there is more innovation and greater productivity growth.
I will submit that the low aptitude workers have almost no shot at capturing this high-skilled market. But low aptitude workers need a booming economy and restricted labor supply, not unions restricting both artificially.
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If Smith was alive today, he could reconcile, for us, capitalism and, the fact that the U.S. financial sector, which drags down GDP, appropriates such a big chunk of money from the U.S. economy.
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Linda, before I reply to this assertion, please explain more. How does the financial sector “appropriate” such a big chunk of money “from the US economy”? How does the financial sector bring GDP down?
If you don’t mind, can you describe your background in economics? Could be as an entrepreneur or via college courses?
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“Then, we can let the progressives decide. . . ”
As long as only I can decide who the progressives are that decide, then I agree!
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“Why don’t we just take all American income and put it in a great big pot. Then, we can let the progressives decide who needs it most and give them everything they want first. Then, if there is any left over, those who actually earned it can keep it. I’m sure Cornell will be thrilled with this idea.”
Oh, gosh — did the Fox News portion of the afternoon start already?
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Yes. All conservatives can now start yelling at the TV.
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I’ve always admired Professor West!
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LOVE Cornell West as well as The Black Agenda Report. Google both.
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He speaks truth to power with passion and wisdom. All to rare these days.
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This is a couple of years old now but I doubt things have gotten any better. But thanks for posting, Cornel always speaks with passion and conviction based on facts, and it was good to see it.
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The Wall Street Journal posted a video, from Independent Journal Review, of Martin O’Malley singing, “This Land is Our Land”, directly in front of Wall Street.
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That was great. He’s actually a very good singer and guitar player
here’s my version. I think Woody would approve.
“This Scam is Your Scam”
This scam is your scam This scam is my scam
From California to the New York island;
From the clear-cut forest to the oil-spill waters
This scam was made for you and me.
As I was walking that ribbon of Wall Street,
I saw above me that endless dee-ceit:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This scam was made for you and me.
I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the oily-tar sands and the Dimon “mis-steps”;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This scam was made for you and me.
When the light came shining, and I was cheating,
And the Whale deal caving and the profits fleeting,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This scam was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No De-frauding.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw some people,
By the relief office I seen some people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there laughing
This scam was made for you and me
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that Fiefdom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This scam was made for you and me.
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Como siempre, fabuloso.
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Thanks Duane
I would change one thing, however
“I saw below me that Goldman valley”
By the way, I bet William Black would also approve.
Too bad he was not put in charge of cleaning up the fraud on Wall Street back in 2008 (or earlier)
Like West, Black is one of the smartest, most honest and ethical people our country has.
It is shameful that he has been ignored completely by those in power.
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We’re honored to have, at this site, the poet laureate of Diane’s living room.
“Fiefdom highway”, imagery of Grapes of Wrath.
“As they stood there hungry, I stood there laughing”. The picture that came to mind was the Enron traders, making jokes about grandmothers paying inflated amounts, for the energy for their homes.
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Listening to West was REFRESHING. He is not afraid to call Obama out for his destructive ways. He lays bare the bull and greed driving policy and destroying the fabric of this nation.
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Cornell West has been low enough on my “must read” list for the last twenty years that I’ve checked him out a few times, but never really read him. He just moved to the top of the list.
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Lucky for you, you haven’t fallen behind much if at all, unless you’re a rap fan. His last noteworthy book was published in the early or mid 1990s.
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Dr Cornel West will be speaking at 3 campaign rallies with Bernie Sanders on Sat Sept 12…in Columbia (Benedict College), Florence (Civic Cnter) and Rock Hill ( Winthrop Univ). A partnrship that could, I hope, lead to further collaboration between the two regarding education issues.
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Diane, thank you for posting that clip. Cornel West is the prime example of an individual’s consistent voice and message finally breaking through to an audience which ignored him for too long. Watching Newt Gingrich nod in agreement to the power and logic of his argument made my day
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YES – public education is about a concern for all children and not a concern about profit. However, the limitations and control systems that govern our public schools force me to look elsewhere. The best schools, the ones that have the FREEDOM to exhibit compassion to kids are found in the private non-profit sector – not the government or the corporate sectors. Private non-profit schools can respond to parental concerns, can allow their teachers to teach from their expertise, can integrate the motivating values of their communities, and much more. I wish they would exhibit as much motivation to defend their educational contributions as do charter schools!
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