Mercedes Schneider is a close Jeb! watcher. She recognized that he was the godfather of many of today’s most damaging corporate reforms. He linked arms with Michelle Rhee to push for vouchers in Florida (but the voters turned him down). He begat the idea that schools should be given a single letter grade, based mainly on standardized test scores. He has been an enthusiastic cheerleader for school choice of all kinds, especially charter schools and for-profit charters. He cheered the Common Core standards more than anyone. He created an alliance between ALEC and his own organization, the so-called Foundation for Educational Excellence.
He started his presidential campaign with more money than anyone else. But voters didn’t want another Bush. They wanted a reality TV star.
We can hope that the dimming of his presidential prospects also dims the luster of his faux education reforms, which were always about privatization and profit, not students or education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Trust us. We know best.”
The Bush family mantra
Where did that get Jeb?
Sadly, Ms. Clinton’s wholehearted embrace of essentially all of Bush’s extremist policy positions for education means we’ll need to continue to fear the privatization camp.
I am hopefully optimistic that Ms. Clinton could be led into putting someone, even if she made the assignment naively or accidentally, in charge at the Dept. of Education who would be a true advocate for public schools. The question remains, who would that person be? Can we push someone to the forefront, and make this happen? I hear a lot of worrying, but have seen little call to action on this front.
What would make you think that Hillary would support public education? The only “public” education she has ever supported has been charter “public” schools.
The best scenario for public education is to slog it out with reformers at the local level. Elect a president who will get the federal government OUT of education. President Obama should have proved to you how dangerous the federal coercion of cash is to education. Yet most of you still can’t see past D’s and R’s.
She’s from NY most recently, so I doubt she’d appoint King. I could see her being convinced to appoint Diane Ravitch, Darling-Hammond, Farina, Berliner, or someone equally solid if advised by the right people. The same holds for Sanders—he doesn’t seem to know anything about public education, so I’d worry that he’d unwittingly pick a r(he)eformer without good advisors. Personally, I’d like to know who Pasi Sahlberg would advise.
This is a tough one for me. If the Feds had no involvement in schools, the South would still be segregated and Special Education would very likely not exist or only exist in a hodgepodge. Same for ELL—those students would be forced to sink or swim even more than now.
I grew up in the Deep South (Georgia) and remember my textbooks referring to the Civil War as The War of Northern Aggression and being taught that poo about rape not leading to pregnancy in HS health class. Other kids in similar Southern schools experienced nearly mandatory school prayer and Creationism instead of actual science. Heck, local control even practically guarantees that some states will continue having the worst outcomes for students because funding varies so drastically—take how Florida funds schools (or, doesn’t, smh), for example.
Local control is important, but must have reasonable limits. The Feds have an important oversight role that must not be lost—the DOE just needs to be run by actual educators and education researchers, not business people and former officers in the military. I am unaware of any other country that does not have effective Federal or national control of education to some extent. But, along with that control, when done well, comes equalized funding, training, and staffing. We need to find a balance here in the US and it starts by inviting teachers to the table and recognizing how many US schools are actually doing really well.
“Charter public schools” is false advertising, that should be reported to the FTC on its easy-to-use complaint form. In Ohio, the charter school assets, bought by the taxpayer, belong to the charter operators. That’s not public.
“The same holds for Sanders—he doesn’t seem to know anything about public education, so I’d worry that he’d unwittingly pick a r(he)eformer without good advisors.”
The latter worry is very likely unfounded.
It’s clear from what he says here (speaking to the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association), for example, that Sanders understands quite clearly that public schools are under siege by those bent on privatization, so it’s not likely he would pick a Rheeformer as Sec of Ed.
Should I be remembering the German “Democratic Republic” ?
Jeb’s campaign, if you can call it that, looked like he was having trouble staying awake. He seemed to be sleep walking. It is difficult to muster support for someone that looks like he is bored at being there. Now Jeb can go back to his specialty, destroying public schools and fleecing public institutions.
On public schools, though, do any of you really believe Clinton will be different than Jeb Bush or Obama or George W Bush?
I recognize she will be quite different on issues other than public schools, but the truth is there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference (other than slightly different rhetoric) between Republicans and Democrats in DC on public schools. None.
They have the same donors and the same rotating cast of ed reformers who all say the same things and they all hire and promote one another. It really doesn’t matter who is President. They’ll be running the show either way.
I’ll vote because I always do and I’m certainly not voting for Donald Trump so that leaves Clinton but it’s pretty depressing her basic message is “abandon hope, don’t even try to change this corrupt system, everything WILL stay the same”
Bernie Sanders is running this great ad where he clearly explains the source of the corruption and the thing about it is, every word is true. I don’t know what’s radical about simply reciting basic facts that are apparent to a lot of people.
It’s only radical b/c the media choose to portray it that way.
Vote third party.
Vote the Green Party’s Jill Stein. She spoke at the UOO conference this past weekend and confirmed why my vote for her in the last election was not a “wasted vote”. She’s also very down to earth, knows what is happening to public education and would do what she could to stop the privatization of public education.
As far as Jeb goes, what goes around comes around….He finally was held accountable…
1. Because he is a privileged tool, and people recognize the harm he has done to Florida, education and society. He couldn’t buy the nomination, though he sure tried to.
Now, the DNC is running itself ragged trying to rig Hillary’s nomination, and that is a shame and perhaps a crime. I hope Bernie runs independent when Hillary gets the nod, even though he said he wouldn’t; perhaps his supporters can convince him otherwise.
Oh, I really hope Senator Sanders will remember why he was an independent in the past. The Democrat party is the most destructive force in America; the Republicans run a close second.
Seems to me that Trump is correct when he says that Clinton has a lot of vulnerabilities that could
make her a long shot to win the White House.
Clinton has lots of vulnerabilities. Trump is frightening.