I just saw a tweet from the politics editor for the Daily Beast. She heard Bernie Sanders speak in Ohio today.
She tweeted this:
“@woodruffbets: Sanders: “I believe in public education and I believe in public charter schools. I do not believe in privately controlled charter schools”
Readers of this blog know that all charters–whether they are privately controlled, whether they operate for-profit or not for profit–call themselves “public charter schools.”
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, led by Nina Rees–former education advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and later to Michael Milken–does not differentiate between “public charter schools” and some other kind.
Please, someone who works in the campaign, let Bernie know that all charter schools call themselves public charter schools because they get public money. Religious schools that get public vouchers do not call themselves “religious public schools.”
Help me understand what Bernie meant.
The
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good question Bernie, who I support, needs to answer. My guess is he’s not fully informed.
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“I do not believe in privately controlled charter schools.” It is obvious what he meant. He was talking about the extremely lucrative for-profit charter school industry. Of course they call themselves public charter schools and don’t want to differentiate themselves from charter schools that are not managed by for-profit charter school management companies. They don’t want to shed light on the fact that there is tremendous personal enrichment involved in this sector of charter schools. I’m from Florida. What is happening with the for-profit charter school industry here is criminal. The largest one, Academica, employs at least 3 state legislators. Many others are paid lobbyists for other operators or owners of for-profit charter schools.
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Kayla,
Does that means he supports KIPP, Achievement First, Success Academy, Uncommon Schools, and other nonprofit, “no excuses” charter chains?
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I would say that is a logical conclusion.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article59914131.html
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Sadly, that is exactly what he meant. Without looking into the facts….
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agree
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I believe he clarified his response in this evenings town hall. He is against private charters, he is against vouchers and any other program that takes money away from public ed.
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That is not a clarification, as there is no such thing as a private charter school.
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Rratto, I am not aware of any private charters.
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I believe he meant Charters run by private corps using public $
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here is the video of his statement this evening https://youtu.be/Fd6nvy1AKQA
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yes — “privately run” charters — the classic definition of a public charter came from Dr. Ray Budde whose obit and a synopsis of his charter school concept is therein – http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/us/ray-budde-82-first-to-propose-charter-schools-dies.html?_r=0
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he actually said he didn’t believe in privately run charter schools
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But does he understand the complexity behind what he says?
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Richmond, VA has a public charter school. It is part of the school system, but it has a bit more parent control. Kids get in by lottery. Yes, there are special ed. kids at the school. Maybe this is what he’s talking about.
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Wow – the entire state of Virginia only has 7 charter schools! Florida has over 650 because hand-picked legislators control the legislature and steer millions to charter schools. This year the state of Florida awarded $75 million for capital funding to the 650 charter schools and $75 million for capital funding to the over 3,900 public schools! Good for Bernie Sanders for exposing the money drain from real public schools.
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Why don’t we consider everything Senator Sanders said tonight. The follow up question from a journalist on stage with him was whether he would support public monies going to support private charters, the journalist claiming that some 80%,of African-American parents want charter schools and support school choice. The Senator responded that it was his belief that it was public education which brings all social and ethnic groups together and which made our country great in the past, and that he was not in favor of taking public monies away from the public schools. He finished with remarks to the effect that teachers should be more respected and paid better for the important work they do. Hillary was not asked the same question but it is hard to believe her answer would be any different.
The only difference that matters is that Bernie is not funded by Wall Street hedge fund operators who we know love all forms of charte schools because of the profit motive which drives them.
It is hard for me to believe tha a democratic socialist who speaks so convincingly about the horrors of privitization in the prison system and other parts of our government believes it is his mission as President to satisfy the hunger of the hedge funds for more and more charters.
Feel the Bern!
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The Koch brothers, who Bernie despises, are trying to privatize public education. I agree with your interpretation.
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Agreed. I run Bernie’s volunteer organization in Los Angeles. My son went to an LAUSD affiliated dependent charter with teachers who belong to UTLA. Diane Ravitch is just wrong this time. There is such a thing as a public charter that is publicly run. Here it is. Read for yourself. http://www.westwoodcharter.org/sites/default/files/users/pdfs/2014-15/Petition-Westwood-Renewal-Term-2013-18.pdf
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Lauren, you may well be correct about the schools you mention, but it’s largely irrelevant: publicly-controled charter schools are so few in number (there just as window-dressing and for PR purposes?) so as to be outliers, and meaningless in terms of affecting education policy.
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Michael, I completely agree with you. He may be being vague on purpose. He apparently has a problem with both for-profit and not-for-profit charters as long as they are not district run and subject to an elected body of which there are so few. It is not a popular stance to say you are anti-school choice.
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If we allow the so-called reformers to define what “choice” is, then we’ve already lost, since so-called education reform does not include the choice to have a adequately-funded, well-resourced local public school.
When you accept the premises of your opponent and use their language, the debate has been lost. One of our jobs is to take back the word “choice” from the edu-privateers.
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How can we get him to clarify? This seems like a reversal from his previous position. Is any candidate anti-charter? It feels like neither candidate supports education policies that are anti-charter schools or anti-common core and testing.
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This is all I needed to hear. This is his press conference on public education, yesterday morning in Chicago.
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Thanks, Irami, for posting the video. That was great.
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Yes, Irami – thank you.
Growing up next door to Sander’s state I have long, long been a fan of his. Stitching together, however, his latter day positions on education I do think he has a poor idea of what we in large urban cities have experienced on the ground with the violence done to democracy via school privatization. I think he just has no idea.
In fact, I have encountered very few politicians who do. I attribute this to the severe segregation by SES that has occurred in the past 30 years. “None” of my SES peers in LA (“none” is not strictly speaking true, but “very few proportionally” is) *send* their kids to public schools: they just do not know. And those who do, send their kids to, and only because of this to, the relatively well-off public schools (me included). The true extent of the crisis in under funding public schools is just not known and felt by the political class personally.
There’s a video of Sanders out trick/treating with his grandkids: where do they go to school? If it’s a public school are they made to eat disgusting sugar-infused packaged “Breakfast-in-the-classroom” at the expense of actual learning in the classroom? If it’s a public school is there toilet paper in the bathrooms; do they reek of filth? Because a lot of them do, but when they do, the political/middle class don’t send their kids there.
So — I don’t find it surprising that Sanders doesn’t actually really know what’s going on in Education, or that he’s ill-advised.
I repeat the call and request for someone, anyone from deep within his campaign to get onto this. It is a glaring omission in his platform.
BTW conversely, I think basically the only ones of my own middle-class SES who _do_, therefore, really know what’s going on inside the public schools for the middle to lower classes, is you teachers. You’re alone in what you’re saying, because you _are_ alone.
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Bernie supports conventional public unionized schools, but he has stated that he supports PUBLICLY HELD and RUN public charter schools. He is AGAINST privately managed charters, whether they are foror not-for-profit. He cringes at Eva Moskowitz.
Hillary will simply maintain Obama’s policies, even if they are now left up to the states under the ESSA.
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Not many of these exist to say the least. Be careful about uncritical acceptance of Bernie’s education policies.
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the American media, for the most part, simply do not have the sophisitication to ask anything beyong simplest questions……it is rare to find a reporter who knows much more than the general public, and they have pressure from bosses to keep it simplisitic….and inoffensive to people who matter.
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the American media, for the most part, simply do not have the sophistication to ask anything beyond simple questions……it is rare to find a reporter who knows much more than the general public, and they have pressure from bosses to keep it simple….and inoffensive to people who matter.
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Hillary seems to understand education a lot better than Bernie. Bernie seems to not know that charters are mostly a scam whatever you call them. Beware of the new shiny object long on rhetoric and short on specifics and knowledge. Last time Obama fooled you-the most destructive force ever in public education. Hillary bashing can lead to hero worshiping that may lead to no good end.
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Gail said: “Hillary seems to understand education a lot better than Bernie. Bernie seems to not know that charters are mostly a scam whatever you call them.”
The implication you made here is that Hillary DOES know “that charters are mostly a scam whatever you call them.”
No need to even bother with the rest of your post.
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What does Hillary mean by accepting the endorsement of Rahm Emanuel?
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http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/02/24/ohio-democratic-town-hall-bernie-sanders-private-charter-schools.cnn/video/playlists/iowa-democratic-town-hall/
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Those who subscribe to high stakes testing, common core and privatization schemes undermine both the principles and purposes of public education !!! The learning of children must be predicated on the principles and purposes of learning theory, human development and [clinical] psychology…..and the understanding of and for children that they provide, as well as the “love of learning [for a lifetime] that they can provide when they are both understood and applied with a compassion for those children !!!!
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There was a time here in NYC when charters were run by teachers and parents until people like Eva and Klein saw the profits from tax dollars. Many of those charters were forced to close to make way for the Wall Street controlled chains. Remember the charter located in City Hall to make way for Bloomberg’s friend’s charter that fell flat on its face! Bernie has no idea that public charters have a new definition. Please email him and set him straight.
Btw, Eli Broad was a big contributor to Hillary and know she stands with DFER.
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As long as school holds the title “charter” instead of specific district subject to exactly the same accountability like other district schools, it still remains charter, and should be considered differently from public schools. I have never seen any such establishment officially turn into certified district school(not ISD) in any city or local county of state. To make “public charter school” a real public school, then that school must receive exactly the same scrutiny as other public schools in terms of accountability. If that’s not the case, then, it’s pretty much safe to say that these establishments are indeed treated differently due to state-granted special status(“pro-private” corporation) and immunity.
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Ken, Westwood Charter in Los Angeles is subject to the same accountabiity. I fight the corporate “education reform” movement, and I sent my son there. This is what Bernie means when he says public charters. Read the charter here and see for yourself.. http://www.westwoodcharter.org/sites/default/files/users/pdfs/2014-15/Petition-Westwood-Renewal-Term-2013-18.pdf
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So much politics, so little time. Glad to be connected to the river for the next week and disconnected from the political world. There is a beauty in the river:
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Those who organize schools around the principles of high stakes testing, common core and privatization do a disservice to public education and its purposes !!! The learning of children must be predicated on the principles and purposes of learning theory, human development and [clinical] psychology and the understanding of and for children they provide, as well as developing in children “the love of learning” !!! An understanding of these principles and understandings applied by those who have a genuine compassion for children is what education is really about !!!
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I think Sanders’ website and sound bytes support a consistent and clear position on charters. (Thanks Irami for posting) I cannot understand how anyone who cares about education can support a candidate like Hillary Clinton, when her money is sourced from the very centers of power behind the education reform movement (Walton, Gates, Broad.)
I think what Sanders represents is a resistance to the venture capitalists that are hiding their agenda behind public philanthropy. (See Louisiana, Maryland, NYC)
When they say Sanders is a one-issue candidate, they forget the ways economy intersects with education, healthcare, jobs, agriculture, land use, etc. Privatization shapes education in the same ways it shapes so many other areas of our lives. If this was challenged, the definition of charter schools as we know it would change, too. But, the root of this is much deeper.
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Very nicely said, tcedre
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Hear, hear!
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Here you go. Bernie clarified it for all those that wondered. http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/02/24/ohio-democratic-town-hall-bernie-sanders-private-charter-schools.cnn/video/playlists/iowa-democratic-town-hall/
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He says he has a problem with privately controlled charters, that does the job for me.
By the way, how awesome is his childcare answer!
Here is the video:
[video src="http://pmd.cdn.turner.com/cnn/big//politics/2016/02/24/ohio-democratic-town-hall-bernie-sanders-private-charter-schools.cnn_cnn_iphone_cell.mp4" /]
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Awesome, Irami. I agree that childcare answer is totally, totally awesome.
In fairness, it is a lot easier to be awesome on that issue than on K12; the waters have been so muddied in K12, as we all know. But it’s still pretty straight-forward in 0-4.
I hope he can somehow be gotten to about the K12 debacle. I agree what he’s saying is “good enough” for now, but I do wish he were better informed. Which translates, at this point, to better-advised because I don’t imagine he has a ton of time at the moment to be bootstrapping a terribly sophisticated understanding of this complex arena.
The distinction between ‘”public” charter’ and ‘”private” charter’ strikes me as tortured, too. The effort only illuminates his weakness here. But it’s not terminal; just needs reaching.
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I’m a Bernie supporter but I really don’t understand the opposition to demanding that Bernie clarify himself and/or learn about charters. He has said two rather contradictory (or at least very unclear) things – that he’s opposed to “private” charters but that he supports “public” charters. I think we have a right to understand what he means by those terms and I don’t think we can assume anything. Does he mean “for-profit” vs. “non-profit”? If so, does he understand how easy it is to profit off a “non-profit”? Does he mean privately controlled vs. publicly controlled? Or what? And if he doesn’t understand that the majority of charters, including “public” charters are privately controlled – and that all charters pull money from the public schools, then he needs to be educated and we should expect him to re-evaluate his position.
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Agreed, but I’d actually rather hear some specifics about PUBLIC schools.
“Support” is meaningless. Obama said he “supports” public schools too, then he hired people straight out of the charter “movement” and his administration hires spent 7 years trashing public schools and promoting charters.
This “agnostic” stuff is baloney. They get in there and then hire a bunch of people who are downright hostile to public schools, but adopt this veneer of “science” and “data”. Ed reform is a disaster in my state, and they’re all working as hard as they can to ignore it.
While the Obama and Kasich administrations were focused on expanding charters, and all of DC was ga-ga over charters, Ohio PUBLIC schools dropped 12 slots in national rankings. It’s outrageous. It’s a complete refusal to do their job.
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Sanders voted against funding charter schools. Clinton voted in favor of funding charter schools.
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Exactly. I sent letters to his campaign and to his brother…what in the world is he talking about????
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