Rachel Maddow will ask questions at the Democratic debate tomorrow. Please email her and urge her to ask a question about the forgotten subject: K-12 education. Will the candidates continue the disastrous Bush-Obama policies?
Join with the Network for Public Education and send Rachel an email.
Network for Public Education Action needs your help. We’ve come up with a list of 8 questions every presidential candidate needs to answer. Parents, teachers, and students need to know where candidates stand on our issues.
We’ve created an action campaign asking Rachel Maddow, the host of the next Democratic presidential forum, to ask one of our 8 questions. Voters should know how the candidates feel about crucial issues like high-stakes standardized testing, student privacy, and equitable funding. With a couple of clicks, you can send her an email, and let her know education policy needs to be part of the discussion.
You may have seen Network for Public Education President Diane Ravitch’s recent article in Salon. In that piece, Diane cautioned that in 2012 the subject of K-12 education was largely ignored. She said:
The media and citizens at public forums must not let that happen again. Education is central to our future as a nation; it is also the single largest item in every state’s budget. Yet the candidates for the 2016 race in both parties are talking only about pre-kindergarten and higher education, skipping right over the important issues that face millions of children and educators in public schools today.
Diane has done her part to elevate the conversation about our public schools — now it’s up to us! To get these questions asked, NPE ACTION NEEDS YOU!
We’ve made it super easy. Just follow this link, and with a couple of clicks you can let Rachel Maddow know how important K-12 education issues are to you.
Thanks for all you do,
Robin Hiller
Executive Director, Network for Public Education Action
Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address or to stop receiving emails from Network for Public Education, please click here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m not sure that making education part of the Dem debate will lead to anything productive. At best we will hear splitting-hair rhetoric about how schools need to get better and will vaguely be pro-public education with all the rhetorical doors open for reformers and charters to be happy as well.
There will be no hard stand against privatizers, reformers, or charters. Maybe some lip service to less testing.
At the very outside probability, Bernie would take the opportunity to come out strongly against privatizers/reformers, but probably not….Hillary will say things, as I said before, that will sound strong but will actually be vague and leave all doors open for reformers to be comfortable enough to open their pocketbooks.
The Dems, while obviously the only choice for our national health and future, are no particular allies to us working public school teachers. I’d just assume they not talk about education so I can vote for them with a clear conscience on the rest of the issues outside of education. ALOT of potential and probable disappointment here.
At worst it can lead to some people who are teachers and would generally vote Dem to not vote at all, and that’s no good. Republicans can’t win this next election.
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I agree. “Great schools!” “We love teachers!”
Partly this is a function of the limited federal role in K-12 schools. It’s just fact that in our system most of these decisions are made at the state level, and Democrats have less and less influence at the state level because they govern fewer and fewer states. I actually think some of the urgency in DC towards retaining a strong federal role is motivated by this fact. They really need to retain a strong federal role or they’ll be increasingly irrelevant on K-12 schools unless they start winning at the state level. The people to ask are governors and state lawmakers, and education IS already a huge issue in state races.
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“At worst it can lead to some people who are teachers and would generally vote Dem to not vote at all, and that’s no good. Republicans can’t win this next election.”
This is my fear. If Bernie Sanders does not satisfy in this arena, many educators will miss the bigger picture and not vote for him. Voting based on one issue is a mistake, even if it is a hugely important issue. It’s pretty easy to see that Bernie is the most pro-education candidate. Even if he doesn’t do what we want, he’s clearly the best we’re going to get at this time.
We must pressure the candidates to speak up, but not self-destruct in the process…
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Done. Thanks NPE!
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Please. Maddow has shown that her alliances lare with DFER and not public education. I agree with her on many issues, but she has been awful when it comes to defending public education. She and her good friend Cory Booker benefited from well-funded public school systems that were good enough to propel them to their successes, yet are now actively dismantling (Booker) or silently complicit (Maddow) in the erosion of public education.
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Liz,
I’m waiting to see if Rachel says anything about education. I’m ever hopeful.
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Exactly: as a long-time friend of the deceptive, simultaneously insipid and sinister Booker, and a faithful loudspeaker for Obama, any questions Maddow asks are likely to be based on the premises of so-called reform.
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Maddow is an Obamabot, so it’s unlikely that she will go there.
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I actually think Clinton is going to move away from Duncan. I think she’s been around a long time and she has her own well-developed ideas about education. That doesn’t mean we’ll like them, and ed reform so dominates DC it won’t be a huge break, but my sense is she wouldn’t be going through all this trouble to be Obama II on education. I think he is the worst President for public schools in my adult life- public schools aren’t exactly thriving under his devotion to the “ed reform movement” dogma- so she really can’t go anywhere but up.
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At this point we don’t know what deals Clinton made with her Wall Street backers. We don’t even know if she made any deals with Randi before the endorsement because we haven’t heard anything of substance from Hillary on this subject. Every major group has gotten something in return for an endorsement. We are the exception.
I think this is the main reason many teachers aren’t head over heels with Hillary. We have gotten to the point of not trusting any pol. Obama misled us. deBlasio kept the old guard at the NYCDoE. It doesn’t seem to improve. No one, not even Diane, has been pushing for PAR as an alternative to evaluate teachers. And that’s something that needs to be brought to the forefront if teachers are ever to be evaluated in a fair and just manner while still keeping their due process rights in place. Until there is national outrage and some sort of national protest–not letter writing–but a National Day of Outrage by teachers and parents, nothing will change. This has to come from Randi and Lily. And even right to work state schools would get on board.
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Don’t forget President Bill Clinton signed the New Markets Tax Credit in law, enabling investors to double their money in ten years by investing in charter schools and education non profits.
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Don’t know about Clinton (and actually don’t care :-), but I meant “It’s unlikely that Maddow will go there” ( that she will bring up the issue) knowing that it is likely to reflect poorly on her hero, which she is paid by her employer to support.
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Even if she did bring it up, she would probably phrase the questions differently than we would like. I think this is why this post is not generating the excitement. Teacher apathy is at an all time high in this country and even with the way public school teachers are treated, they still won’t be activists. And this is the way Randi wants to keep it because it keeps her in control.
I was at the first SOS march. I emailed President Obama and made phone calls. But I didn’t find many NYC teachers who also followed through, and that has to change. None of these events were even a blimp on the UFT’s radar. In fact they stood aside and let the legislature vote for Cuomo’s draconian education measures instead of organizing any effort to stop it. We are our own worst enemy.
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You’re right. If Maddow does bring up education, she will probably say something like “Do you agree with President Obama that there is too much testing in schools due to poor implementation by teachers of Obama’s research-based plan to improve schools?”
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By the way, wouldn’t it be nice to see a real journalist like Amy Goodman ask the questions for a change? (instead of pundits like Andersen Cooper and Rachel Maddow)
But of course, that is about as likely as that the Democrats will allow Lawrence Lessig to take part in the debates and talk about how Congress and candidates like Clinton are bought and paid for by those with deep pockets
To anyone who is not following, the Democrats just changed the rules so that Lessig will not qualify for the upcoming debate.
“Democratic” the party is not.
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To Diane Ravitch, You may not realize that you are the ‘thin thread’ that saves Public Education from suffocation or drowning by Privatized Charter Schools. I am 84 and not ‘agile’ on e-mail. I wrote a note (question) for Rachel Maddow to ask … but not sure it reached you… there are too many ‘layers’ in your message for the respondent to know how to follow. Repeat – I hope you (Rachel Maddow) received my letter. Jenefer Ellingston, Wash. DC
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“schoolgal
November 5, 2015 at 10:36 am
At this point we don’t know what deals Clinton made with her Wall Street backers. We don’t even know if she made any deals with Randi before the endorsement because we haven’t heard anything of substance from Hillary on this subject. Every major group has gotten something in return for an endorsement. We are the exception.”
I think you skepticism is completely justified. On the other hand, I’m not sure how reliable anything she says will be anyway, so it’s almost all reading tea leaves, by everyone which to me leaves it nearly wide open. I think most of what happens will be determined by which people she hires and no one will know that until after the election anyway, and that’s assuming she wins. I wish politicians were reliable and predictable but they really aren’t. That could mean “good” and it could mean “bad”.
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The Obama Administration is conducting a review of their Ohio grant to build new charter schools. They sent a letter where they state that the grant was intended to benefit low income children, which was a claim made in the state’s grant application but Ohio charters have expanded well beyond that original justification:
“In fact, the average Ohio charter school doesn’t have the same level of poverty as the average Ohio 8 district. The average economically disadvantaged rate is 82.2% in a charter school. The average rate in an Ohio 8 district school is 87.1%, or about 6% higher. Ohio’s urban districts have greater challenges than its charters, yet still outperform most of them, even in Youngstown. Akron, for example, has all of its buildings listed as economically disadvantaged.
Only 37% of charters are listed as having greater than 95% poverty. Just over half of all Ohio 8 buildings have greater than 95% poverty.
In addition, barely more than ½ of all charter school students come from the Ohio 8 anymore. Children from every Ohio district – including the state’s highest performing districts – went to charters last school year. This characterization of the demographic makeup of Ohio’s charters is demonstrably false.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/05/the-not-to-be-believed-letter-sent-by-u-s-education-department-to-ohio/
Why wouldn’t they know this?
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Why is NPE asking Maddow to ask ONE of eight questions? How namby pamby is that?
Demand all eight be given to the candidates before hand to answer in a written form. And then maybe have Maddow allow one of the choosing of the candidate to be answered. Even the choice of which to answer says a lot.
Oh, what are those eight questions?
TESTING: Will you end the federal mandate for annual high-stakes testing?
SCHOOL CLOSURES: Will you put an end to school closures based on test scores? PRIVATIZATION: Will you put an end to the privatization of public education?
FUNDING: Will you ensure public schools are equitably funded?
EQUITY: Will you ensure that all students have equal access the services and resources they need?
TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM: What is your position on the deprofessionalization of teachers?
DEMOCRATICALLY CONTROLLED SCHOOLS: Will you ensure equity in education without eroding democratic control at the state and local level?
STUDENT PRIVACY: Will you defend student privacy?
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Duane, I would love Rachel to ask all 8 questions but realistically I would be happy if she asked one. That’s better than none
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Has NPE sent the questions to all, not just the Democratic candidates? If nothing else it can put them on record as addressing the very serious issues involving public education or if they don’t respond, that they don’t care enough.
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I attempted to add some thoughts of my own…..It looked like the letter would not go through. Fair enough.
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Today, I received a funding request from the campaign of Ohio Democratic candidate for Senate, Ted Strickland. Strickland is the co-founder of the Democrats for Public Education (DFPE) façade organization. The solicitation letter identified multiple issues. The privatization of public education wasn’t among them. Ohio’s current Democratic Senator, Sherrod Brown, has the subject on his radar. But, Strickland is silent. Shame on him.
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