Today, the US Senate voted to confirm John King as Secretary of Education by a vote of 49-40.
The only Democrat to vote no was New York Senator Gillibrand.
King was opposed by many New York parent groups because of his unwillingness to listen, his unyielding devotion to the Common Core, test-based teacher evaluation, high stakes testing for children, and the corporate reform agenda.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I wrote to both my US senators for Michigan (both Democrats) to vote against this nomination. Heard nothing back from either. And they toed the party line. When it comes to education, party affiliation means nothing anyway: there are too many on both sides of the aisle completely in the sway of the moneyed interests behind deform.
Thanks for the info…. Sherrod Brown’s off my campaign contribution list.
Brown didn’t vote. Apparently, public school privatization wasn’t worthy of his attention.
Senator Brown is totally in line with former Secretary Duncan and President Obama on education policy. His form letter responses to my communication have used every Reform cliche you can find.
A while ago, I sent info., about Gates’ Bridge International Academies, to Sherrod Brown’s office. The reply was that his office was appreciative b/c they had not been previously aware of the info. Like Christine L. suggested earlier, the info. was probably welcomed as a stock/investment tip.
If anyone should understand the perils of charter schools and supporters like King, it is a Senator from Ohio… especially a Democratic Senator in a state ruled by John Kasich. Very disappointed in Sherrod on this.
God bless Senator Gillebrand.
I just wrote to Chuck Schumer to tell him how disappointed I was in him and that as a registered New York Democrat he can NO LONGER count on my vote. Disgraceful!
Perhaps Schumer took out his scale and weighed the corporate interests and reformster money verses the children of New York, and decided lining his pockets with the former takes precedent over our children.
Shame on you, Chuck Schumer.
You keep on towing the monied interests, and the citizens of New York will all remember your heinous vote…to ensure you are towed out of office the next time you run.
Be sure to look every single one of our public school children in the eye when you see them, and apologize to them.
And try to explain why you voted for a monster to run education in the United States. Maybe you can say that you did it for the kids, as the hapless Tisch said, stroking her pearly whites, in her parting confession. Maybe Tisch promised you a political contribution you just couldn’t say no to.
As a man who prides himself on caring for his family, you have clearly demonstrated that the children of other New Yorkers…the children of our entire nation…mean little to nothing to you. Cattle to be traded, sold, and parlayed.
You are, Mr Schumer…part of the nightmare unleashed on our nation.
Godspeed to your riddance.
There are a whole lot of reasons Schumer should not get anyone’s vote. He is the most corrupt, craven Democrat in the Senate. He’s bought and sold by Wall Street, AIPAC, and every other lobby that will wave a big check in his face. The fact that he’s going to become the next majority or minority leader should tell us a lot about who the Senate Democrats really serve. Despite the public rhetoric dominating the headlines, there’s little difference between establishment Dems and Reps.
Chuck Schumer is just another whore . . . . Years ago, he walked right up to me in Union Square in Manhattan, and grabbed my hand to shake it to introduce himself when he was running for office. I was not even walking in his direction.
I had no inclination towards his predatory and harassing solicitation. He was toxic then as he is toxic now.
He is a true shanda for society . . .
Robert,
I went straight to another tab and looked up the word “shanda”, which you used in your comment. A link led me to a site labelled “Yiddish Phrases”. What a nice way to start my day….I love so many of those words. Unfortunately, this all comes at the expense of having to think once again about that creep, John B. King. It’s like a low budget sci-fi movie…..just when you think he’s gone the monster re-emerges.
As I climb out of my car, in the dark, and schlep my stuff into the school building this morning, at least I will be able to take some consolation from the people on this blog, who see King for what he is really is. Chuck Schumer be damned.
Yes, John, and look who appointed him . . . . . Another shanda.
Vote was almost entirely along party lines with Republicans unanimously making another anti-Obama stand. However, Kirsten Gillibrand was the only Democratic Senator to break rank and vote nay. Go KG.
Now it’s our turn to vote.
This is a symbolic vote. King serves at the pleasure of his lame duck boss, and when it comes to education they don’t get any lamer than President Obama. Most of you can’t imagine yourself not voting for the Democrat nominee. When you vote for Hillary Clinton, will you be voting to reaffirm King’s nomination? That won’t be a symbolic vote.
Problem is FL Teacher, Obama is not a lame duck until after the Nov election. All POTUS appointments until then are about the election. Note which nominees the Republicans block & who they don’t. Both parties prefer the status quo of privatizing education. Republicans won’t energize their voters by opposing King because he represents their dogma of privatize & monetize public anything.
Obama could have energized Democratic voter turn out if he selected someone who minimally met the criteria of his base. Progressive Democrats are vehemently opposed both to privatized education and the corporate capture of federal regulatory agencies. Duncan & King are emblematic of both. His appointment signals to Democrats that further discussion about public education is off the table.
Sadly, neither Democrats nor Republicans want to confront corporate capture of DoEd. Then they’d be forced to face DoEd’s student loan scam, Ohio & Chicago charter school fraud, or expose DoEd’s bail outs of fraudulent for-profit universities.
The person I’m most disappointed in is Sen Elizabeth Warren. She told King that she would not vote for him unless he showed willingness to deal with the student loan scam in DoEd. As a person who has been fearless in confronting Wall St, the captured SEC & Treasury agencies, she let this one slide.
I was surprised that even Senator Jon Tester (D) from Montana voted yea…”Tester (D-MT), Yea” from the link above. I thought given his proposed amendment (which failed to pass) to move from annual standardized testing to every other year or even 3 times (Elem, middle, high) meant he was for common sense U.S. Dept of Education policy.
************ The below is excerpted from:
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/montana-and-bozeman-officials-react-to-senate-vote-ending-no/article_bacf2a47-277b-5d17-bb15-f5e8225f39de.html
“The U.S. Senate took a landmark vote Wednesday [Dec 2015] to pass the Every Child Succeeds Act, sending the president a new public school law that shifts power and responsibility for improving classrooms from the federal government to the states, a change celebrated in Montana.
The Senate vote was 85-12 to replace the widely criticized No Child Left Behind Act, which for 13 years required high-stakes testing and punished schools if they failed to bring 100 percent of children up to grade level in reading and math by 2014.
Virtually all schools failed. Critics said the No Child law sought to “shame and blame” public schools, and one likened it to the federal government demanding that states eliminate 100 percent of crime.
Sen. Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat and former teacher, voted for the Every Child Succeeds Act and hailed its passage, saying now states will decide how to identify schools that aren’t performing well and how to improve them.”
*************Jon Tester is a former school teacher and school board member from Big Sandy, and Montana’s senior United States senator.
************* and below info on the proposed Tester amendment (which failed to pass) to the Dec 2015 ESSA law which did pass and replaces No Child Left Behind.
http://action.saveourschoolsnj.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16868
“I ask you to sign on as a co-sponsor of and support S. 1025, the Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act, which limits required state standardized tests to one in each grade span, to give students more time to learn and teachers to teach.
Before the 2001 No Child Left Behind legislation, federal law required students to be tested just once in reading and math during each of three grade spans corresponding to elementary, middle and high school (3-5, 6-9, and 10-12). We should return to that sensible approach.
No Child Left Behind brought an avalanche of testing as schools, fearing sanctions, narrowed curriculum and turned many classrooms into little more than test-prep factories. This problem is most acute for schools serving the most disadvantaged students.”
Senator Durbin might as well not have replied to my emails:
Dear Mr. Hendee:
Thank you for contacting me about the nomination of Dr. John King for Secretary of Education. I appreciate hearing from you.
President Obama nominated Dr. King to the post of Secretary of Education on February 11, 2016. Dr. King currently serves as Acting Secretary of Education, a position he assumed in January 2016. He also serves as the Department of Education’s principal senior advisor. Prior to this position, Dr. King served as the State Commissioner of Education in New York.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted in favor of confirming Dr. King as Secretary of Education. I will keep you thoughts in mind should his confirmation come before the full Senate.
Thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator
This is actually the template all members of Congress use to respond to constituents: “I will keep your thoughts in mind should this issue…” I wrote thousands of letters like this when I was a staffer.
GregB:
I don’t doubt it. But I’ve also received letters from Senator Durbin talking about the importance of testing to assure equity and so on, revealing his misconceptions about education. He has offered his opinions on other issues, too.
This is letter is more bland and noncommittal than those other replies.
Warren folded, I guess:
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voted in favor of passing King’s confirmation out of committee, but she said she will not vote aye on the floor unless he provides more “direct answers” about how he intends to overhaul the department’s efforts to protect student loan borrowers from what Warren called “fraudulent colleges” and “shady institutions.”
“I believe he’s smart and capable but I still have questions about how he plans to change the culture at the department,” Warren said.
I’d be interested to know what needs changing about the “culture of the department” in order to get them to protect student loan borrowers. Maybe the Senators could have revealed that publicly.
I’d sure like to know if the US Department of Ed has a “culture” where it’s okay to rob 18 year olds who don’t know any better.
Oh, well. What’s another million or so victims of fraud to add to the list.
See my above message to FLTeacher:
“Sadly, neither Democrats nor Republicans want to confront corporate capture of DoEd. Then they’d be forced to face DoEd’s student loan scam, Ohio & Chicago charter school fraud, or expose DoEd’s bail outs of fraudulent for-profit universities.”
The LAST thing Dems want is to spotlight education corruption the day before IL & OH primaries.
DNC/POTUS understand that Warren is the key to Democratic turn out. They’ve been handling her with kid gloves & maybe she got some private concessions from King to fix the loan mess. Her silence on the POTUS endorsement has broad implications for HRC.
Interestingly, the Sanders campaign has been going directly at Rahm in Chicago for his education positions. This ad has attached Rahm to Clinton’s coat tails- something she’s trying to avoid. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/03/14/cps-principal-takes-swipe-at-mayor-emanuel-in-ad-for-bernie-sanders/
There is no other person I can think of in the Democratic base who can solidify the disgust of corporate Dems than Rahm. THose are the folks HRC needs to win. We’ll see if this works for Sanders in IL today.
Sen Warren is all in when it comes to red herrings and straw men. But when it
comes to walking the walk…?
“Watch their Votes”
Watch their votes
Not their lips
Silent notes
Flops and flips
Bernie was on the education committee who could have stopped King. Bernie doesn’t even seem to understand about charter schools. Beware of the Hillary bashing and hero worshiping of ole Bernie. Remember what you got with Obama.
Heck, Bernie abstained or was absent, campaigning. He is clueless on education issues. Sadly, I think he’s very likely to be advised by r(he)eformers if elected.
Bernie’s positions on public service by restoring functional competency our regulatory agencies & govt institutions is closer to Elizabeth Warren than to HRC’s. Getting at this is the CORE of our problems with Dept of Ed corruption & privatization.
Warren’s op ed on restoring agency rules is a backhanded swipe at HRC’s theme “getting thing’s done” through incrementalism. She also takes a swipe at the administration & Republicans for not doing enough to empower the agencies overseeing Wall St.
Here’s what she says in an important op ed in the NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/opinion/elizabeth-warren-one-way-to-rebuild-our-institutions.html?_r=0
“WHILE presidential candidates from both parties feverishly pitch their legislative agendas, voters should also consider what presidents can do without Congress. Agency rules, executive actions and decisions about how vigorously to enforce certain laws will have an impact on every American, without a single new bill introduced in Congress.
I’m slightly more confident that Sanders will appoint a Sec of Ed who would work to support public education & end corruption in DoEd than any other candidate from both parties.
jcgrim: I’m less hopeful. Warren voted for King. There are no good candidates on education these days, unfortunately. I anticipate David Coleman or John King will have a major role in either candidate’s education administration unless our side gets heard more. We need a Berliner, a Ravitch, or a Hacker in the department of Ed, but I’m sadly not holding my breath.
HRC may be less inspiring, but she’s much more likely to swing the way of public opinion if it gets noisy enough. She’s astute enough to already have people paying attention to the Opt Out movement and to the resistance to John King. Bernie seems oblivious and far too likely to be misadvised because of it. We need to be educating him now if we want to have any input in the future.
If you’re in Ohio remember to vote to support your public schools:
http://www.jointhefuture.org/join-the-future/march-2016-school-levies-and-issues
The Senate will do whatever they do, but we all have local schools and we can support them with or without DC’s help.
Speaking of Rahm here’s Charlie Pierce on Bernie’s attack:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a43005/rahm-emmanuel-2016-issue/
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
Aaaaaaaargh! I was hoping this wouldn’t happen. Of course Delaware Senators Carper and Coons voted yes…
New Yorkers: please call Senator Gillibrand and thank her for her “no” vote: DC Phone: 202-224-4451
Can we all please open our eyes to Gillibrand’s Survival vote. When has she ever done anything without Uncle Chuckie’s approval? The Senate knew they had the votes and Schumer gave Gillibrand permission to vote No to build her political capital. Nothing more, nothing less. Obviously, none of this is verifiable, but she is no friend of ours. Are we really to believe she went Lone Wolf on this on her own?
How has she helped us prior to this confirmation “vote”?
No thanks-just like T Mac stated-she had approval from ChuckyCheese. I’m surprised he didn’t say he voted yes with a heavy heart! Waiting to see him on Sunday morning tv – in front of a school- doing an interview-he’s a joke- most of the zombies in NY will continue to vote for him
Another example, in my opinion, of how the corporate mindset is ruining our country. I do not know if Bernie could, can fix it but my vote is for him.
Tonight reading the “NATION”, one of the more intellectually astute publications I was struck by the same kind of thinking as many on this blog have written.
They faulted him for not knowing or doing more on this subject or that.
Frankly i know of no one who is an expert on everything. We ALL can, should learn. The exciting part of life itself.
I hope you keep observing him and reporting on his decisions. We should keep the pressure on him and let him know people are taking note of his actions.
Very disappointing. Here’s what I heard back from Senator Bob Casey (PA):
“Thank you for contacting me about President Obama’s nomination for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. John King, Jr.
After former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced his resignation in late 2015, Dr. King, who at the time was Deputy Secretary of Education, became Acting Secretary. On January 11, 2016, President Obama officially nominated Dr. King to the permanent position of Secretary of Education, a position subject to Senate confirmation. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), of which I am a member, held a nomination hearing, which I attended on February 25, 2016 for Dr. King. On March 9, 2016, the HELP Committee held a nomination vote and I voted in favor of Dr. King’s nomination. Dr. King was confirmed by the Committee in a vote of 16-6. He is committed to working closely with me to ensure that the needs and concerns of all Pennsylvanian’s are heard and addressed at the Department of Education. Dr. King’s vote before the full Senate has not yet been scheduled.
Dr. King began his career teaching high school social studies in Puerto Rico and Massachusetts. He has served at the Department of Education since January 2015, as Deputy Secretary of Education and as Principal Senior Advisor, where he worked on preschool through 12th grade priorities. Prior to joining the Department, he served as the commissioner of education for the state of New York, overseeing all elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools and students in the state. Since being elevated to his new position, I have had several conversations and meetings with Dr. King and believe he is well suited to be Secretary of Education. His experience at all levels of education will be particularly helpful as we begin to implement the recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. I am particularly impressed with his passion for early childhood education and ensuring that students with disabilities are able to excel and succeed at the same level as their non-disabled peers.
Though we may disagree, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.”
Kim,
As a PA resident I am also very disappointed.
Casey’s response reveals how superficial his knowledge of John King’s actual track record is; and on that scant basis he votes to hire him!
Doesn’t Casey know that King’s tenure in NY culminated in the largest state-test opt out ever.
Doesn’t he know John King’s complete teaching experience amounts to three years, and took place primarily in a small charter school with high suspension rates?
How does this qualify him to administer to a nation of mostly public schools?
How many other public policy decisions does Casey (and other elected officials) make with a similar lack of insight?
I got a very detailed letter from Senator Tom Carper (DE):
https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/senator-tom-carper-de-explains-why-he-voted-yes-for-john-king-as-u-s-secretary-of-education/
Carper must have cut and pasted together his letter. He claimed “strong moral character” of a nominee, influenced him. He couldn’t have watched the cringe-inducing Congressional hearing with King, where he is unable to identify right from wrong, relative to the side businesses of executives, in the Dept. of Education. Carper also must be unaware of the corrupting influence of charter school campaign contributions on politicians. And, his head must be in the sand, about the charter school fleecing of taxpayers and the abysmal performance of charter schools. (KnowYourCharter.com)….Or….
I won’t be voting for Schumer ever again. This is the last straw.
Schumer’s kids went to progressive public schools. Apparently, good public schools are not important to the pseudo democratic politician.
Is it too late to replace Hillary with Kirsten?
Chuck Schumer is an absolute tool.
This is Elizabeth Warren yesterday:
“Secretary of Ed is one of the toughest jobs, because for yrs @usedgov has put student loan companies & for-profit colleges before students.”
Wow. “For years” the US Department of Education has put student loan companies and for-profit colleges ahead of students? Has anyone told the students? They’re very young and they’re borrowing A LOT of money. That might be valuable information for them to have.
We must be talking about tens of millions of people who were harmed. One would think 100 Senators could do something about that. I guess not. I guess Congress is completely and utterly helpless and we all just have to “hope” these public employees start putting students first. I don’t know why they would- they haven’t “for years” but maybe “the culture” Warren talks about will magically change.
How can they be so tough on public schools when they don’t even police their own department?
Neither Democrats nor Republicans want to confront corporate capture of DoEd. Then they’d be forced to face not only DoEd’s student loan scam, but Ohio & Chicago charter school fraud, & expose DoEd’s bail outs of fraudulent for-profit universities.
This is about the election & HRC winning OH & IL. She needs young people to turn out & vote for her. HRC can’t afford to let them learn that the very agency tasked with protecting their interests is actively enabling the banksters to crush them under years of school debt.
It’s the Republicans like Alexander who should be ashamed, as well. Why not make for-profit universities such as the fraudulent Trump University a campaign issue? The moderates in the party are scrambling to stop the odious Trump from winning the nomination & this could resonate with their moderate base. Could be that there is no moderate Republican base left, but it could potentially peel off some of his support.
Very disappointing.
1) There nothing stopping the next president from keeping John King on as Sec. of Ed. There is a precedent for keeping on cabinet people from prior administrations, even across party lines. Watch for this. King seems to have gotten fairly strong support from across the political spectrum. This suggests a placement in the next admin.
2) It should now be abundantly clear that our challenge against the reformers is their success at gaining support from both the right and the left. This has been done via a dominance of narrative, coopting both the language of free-market capitalism (for the right) and the language of movement politics/civil rights (for those on the left). This has happened in plain sight and is the center of the reform movement’s success. The warm embrace of King is further evidence of this.
3) The big lesson for us here is that King should have been politically destroyed in New York. Our side, in NY, thought it was enough to let him expose himself as an incompetent and a fool. We didnt want to do the dirty work of ruining him. That would have required strong labor action via NYSUT and a strong and ceaseless counter-narrative against him, making him a laughing stock. We must abandon the belief that simple exposure is enough to do these folks in. It’s not. Turns out, if we want to win, ever, it will require levels of gamesmanship, thinking, organizing, that will be unlike anything organized teachers have seen in at least 2 generations. Us being right is not enough. We have to be willing to throw some punches and try for some knockouts.
King’s assention is a big, bold, loss for us. It also has the potential to be very instructive.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
We need to ask both Hilary and Bernie if they would keep King on as Sec. of Ed.
mathcs,
The possibility that either Hillary or Bernie would keep King is frightening. I don’t think we can get an answer from either.
“jcgrim
March 15, 2016 at 8:50 am
See my above message to FLTeacher:
“Sadly, neither Democrats nor Republicans want to confront corporate capture of DoEd. Then they’d be forced to face DoEd’s student loan scam, Ohio & Chicago charter school fraud, or expose DoEd’s bail outs of fraudulent for-profit universities.”
The LAST thing Dems want is to spotlight education corruption the day before IL & OH primaries.”
Well, sure and it’s been apparent for nearly a decade that half of Congress are working on behalf of for-profit college companies. They have held hearings, issued subpeonas, investigated- nothing ever happens.
But Senator Warren said that the USDOE puts the interests of lenders and for-profit colleges ahead of students. If that’s true, shouldn’t young people be warned so they can ignore advice from the USDOE? If the department is captured, it’s captured. Young people shouldn’t rely on it. She should get the word out to young borrowers before more of them get ripped off. It’s unfair NOT to tell borrowers this is happening.
Wasserman-Schmidt, Chair of the Democratic Party, advocates in Congress, for payday lenders.
Agreed. I’ve decided that, for now, Congress & the Senate are hopeless for making substantive change. After the1990’s Clinton impeachment the Republicans ended any vestige of legitimacy for congressional checks & balances. Lobbyists run the place & decide who get investigated & who does not. Look at all of the powerful officials called to congressional hearings who openly ignore requests to appear before investigative committee or demand & get their own terms for appearances.
I’m working in my local elections to change things from the bottom up. Building on the ground resistance is my goal. It was parents & civil rights activists who forced congress to write IDEA for kids with disabilities. They did it one locality at a time.
Obama clearly made his preferences known years ago. Likewise the Dems in Congress. Now the pro-public education forces begin to catch on. Certainly took them long enough.
If Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Carper and Bernie Sanders had voted against John King’s confirmation, only an additional 5 Democrats would have been necessary to take a stand for public education.
I just called Sen. Gillibrand’s office and thanked her, then called Sen. Schumer’s and told them he has lost my vote. I specifically requested why he voted that way and they had no answer.
What a sad sad day for education!!!!
If your senators also voted in favor of John King for Secretary of Education yesterday, please call or email them to share your dismay/disappointment/frustration/anger.
Yeah, yeah, I know it’s barely a drop in the ocean of all that needs to be done to address the mess we’re in. But I couldn’t help myself. I wrote a letter to my Senator who voted for King. (Feel free to copy my letter and sign your own name…)
Mr. Schumer,
I am dismayed and disheartened at your vote in support of John King’s appointment to Secretary of Education.
I am aware my representatives have much larger agendas than a single issue I may feel passionate about. But your decision to vote in support of a man who openly and proudly forced destructive sweeping changes on the public schools of New York State is a terrible misrepresentation of the best interests of your constituents.
You have made a terrible mistake, if the welfare of this State’s children is your concern.
I would be happy to engage in a meaningful conversation with you, should you be interested in why your vote was such a serious mistake.
Your constituent,
A sad day for public school educators and children.
Our narrative and the important information about public schools and the ills of privatization is not getting heard. When you get Bernie and Warren voting for King – I feel they do not have the full information that they need. How can we get the information out there? I do understand though because it takes me awhile to explain to family and friends about ed reform and all its various problems – but once they hear it they usually agree.
I am a democrat but HRC and Bernie have not said they would get rid of common core. Look who Bernie just voted for!! However, Cruz and Trump have both said they would get rid of it first thing. This issue matters to me most. I would even vote Republican to get rid of the common core for good!!
admin, please don’t vote for Trump or Cruz. They would get rid of Common Core and also get rid of public education. Be wise.
Hi Diane, it is so hard to see where candidates really are on this issue! This article was in the news today which gives a little more info/insight on each of the candidates.
http://www.alternet.org/education/2016-candidates-take-confusing-or-disappointing-stances-charter-schools