Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Lane Filler of the editorial board of Newsday on Long Island in New York, the epicenter of the opt out movement. More than 50% of eligible students (grade 3-8) on Long Island opted out of the ELA tests.
She understands some basic issues in education, but she is tone deaf about why so many parents are refusing the tests and about the push to replace public schools with privately managed charter schools. Neither she nor Bernie understand that some “nonprofit” charters are NINA (nonprofit in name only), or that all charters claim to be “public” schools, even when they exclude students with disabilities and ELLs. Nor do they question the displacement of real public schools by corporate charter chains (what I call the Walmartization of public education) or the gold rush to monetized public education. I was hoping to have a 1:1 talk with her to discuss these issues, but it hasn’t happened.
Transcript of what Hillary Clinton told the Newsday editorial board
Common Core and opt out
Filler: So, New York and Long Island don’t just lead the country in property taxes, that’s not our only calling card. We’re also now the national leader in the rebellion against higher educational standards and teacher accountability. I don’t know how much you’ve been following this. But on Long Island, more than half of students refused to take standardized tests last week. So, do you support tough national standards like Common Core, and judging teachers partially based on the test results of their students? And these are two very specific things.
Clinton:Do it right. Do it right and I would say I think we need better and fewer tests that are used for what tests should be used for, first and foremost as to how to improve the educational outcomes for individual children, for classes of children, and for schools of children.
Filler: Should they be used at all to determine whether teachers are being successful?
Clinton: I think given the state of where testing is right now, I don’t think they’re good enough to make that determination.
Filler: But if they were very, very good?
Clinton: Well, that’s a big hypothetical. Right now I have to say, no. I do think it’s fair to say, and the federal government just passed a new education law. And in that education law, I don’t know that a lot of people on Long Island may have been aware of this, it still requires yearly testing from third grade…
Filler: We tell them all the time.
Clinton: …to eighth grade and in high school. And it also continues to require, which was a demand on behalf of Civil Rights groups, and disability groups, that it disaggregate data so that there can be a clear picture, because in the past, we had a lot of schools that you know, they pushed kids out on test day. They also did terribly with non-English speakers, or kids with disabilities, or whatever, minority group-wise, and so you weren’t really understanding whether or not they were educating all the children. So we have to do a better job of explaining why a common set of standards is really in the interests of the parents who are opting their kids out. Because remember, it is parents who are opting their kids out. And the parents are feeling like what is this about. This doesn’t have anything to do with educating my child. So clearly, we haven’t done a very good job of explaining it.
Filler: And the opt-out thing is a little separate from, let me ask you this way: The tests are flawed, let’s say and the roll-out was flawed. And yet given all that, if your granddaughter was 12 right now, would you tell Chelsea to have her take the test, or not take the test?
Clinton: You know, I would probably take the test, but that would be just without any specifics about what was going on, and what had happened during the year, and I mean without all of that. And I think actually in the city, where my granddaughter lives, the opt-out is very much lower. In fact, at least it was last year, I don’t know what it is this year. This whole issue… Look, here’s how, let me tell you how I think about education, because every kid deserves a good teacher in a good school, regardless of the zip code the kid lives in. And we’ve been having a lot of debates and arguments about education now for more than a decade.
Filler: For more than a century.
Clinton: Well, more than a century, but historically there’s been a big uproar about what works, what doesn’t work, what the expectation should be. How do you teach disadvantaged kids. There’s a lot of turmoil within public education. And I am a stalwart supporter of public education. I think it still remains one of the foundational institutions of our Democracy. So I don’t want to see it be discredited, undermined, dismissed in any way. We have got to have early childhood education, especially starting with low income disadvantaged kids, if we’re going to prepare kids to succeed when they get to elementary school.
Filler: Is that a priority on a Federal level?
Clinton: It is.
Clinton: It’s a big priority for me. And you know, I’ve seen only early results so I don’t want to extrapolate from them, but there seem to be some very positive early results in New York City about universal pre-K, because it’s not just the sort of academic environment, it’s the social environment. It’s giving kids a chance to learn how to work in groups. It’s giving, you know, kids who needed, maybe more structure, so there seems to be some positives coming out. We’ll follow that closely. But everything that I’ve seen and I’ve worked in this field for a long time since I was at the Children’s Defense Fund, what I did in Arkansas, is that quality pre-school programs can help to level the playing field for poor kids, for disadvantaged kids. Okay, so then when you get kids in school, we have been having this battle about what works and what doesn’t work, and who gets to make that decision and really this new Federal law basically turned a lot of the authority back to local communities.
And it did so on a nearly unanimous bi-partisan basis because a lot of members of Congress were just getting barraged by people saying this doesn’t make sense. We can’t figure out what they’re doing from year to year. Because there was so much pressure on districts and teachers and there were so many fads, you know try this, try that, let’s do this now, that it just became a confusing array of mixed signals. And there is very solid research about how you help little kids learn to read, help them with numeracy, help them develop the skills to be a student, and we should get back to those basics. We know that if you have a longer school year and a longer school day for disadvantaged kids, it gets better results. If you have more help in the classroom, particularly if the classroom has a lot of kids who are poor kids and remember this is the first year that it’s been recorded, that we have a majority of poor kids in our public schools. They are coming to school with all kinds of issues and problems. We’ve taken nurses out of school. We’ve taken social workers out of school. We have disconnected the school from the larger community, so let me end with this, saying you know I think our schools need some more TLC. What do I mean by that? We’ve got to invest more in good teaching. Yes, we need accountability measures, but let’s connect them to what the teachers are facing. When you are a teacher in a poor school, and you have enormous behavioral problems, when you have kids coming to school hungry, when you have kids who are homeless, you have a tougher job than the kids who show up in Chappaqua where I live.
And so let’s get our heads straight about how we support the most challenged classrooms to do better. I started a school when I was Senator, I worked with 100 Black Men, we started something called The Eagle Academy. Because there is some evidence that same sex schools and high school for poor kids, is a good choice that should be available to them. I had to fight to get the Department of Education to let us go forward with that, to support charter schools that were public charter schools but wanted to try this. So I’m really evidence-based. I think there are some, we need to experiment even with, if we can do it right, with boarding schools for poor kids. There’s just a lot I’m excited about, if we actually get back to looking at what works.
Filler: A lot of this experimenting you’re talking about sounds like some of the things that different charters had some success with. Is there a big place for charter schools in your vision?
Clinton: For good ones. For good ones.
Filler: Okay. Well, no one’s pro-bad schools.
Clinton: Well, I’m going to tell you, that’s not always true. I am for good schools. I was one of the earliest supporters of public charter schools, not for-profit charter schools. I have a problem with them. But public charter schools. Back literally in the ’80s, you know, I was speaking out about this and I’ve been to great public schools that educate poor kids and I’ve been to lousy public schools. And I’ve been to great charter schools that educate poor kids. And lousy charter schools. So, what I want to do, again, just like you were talking about Common Core and to set some standards, we need to have a common set of standards by which we judge all the schools, all the public schools, traditional, charter, magnet, whatever we call them.
And I’m very excited about this, because there’s a real role in doing this, if we learn. Remember the original idea behind charter schools was let’s loosen some of the restrictions, but then once they try things, let’s migrate them back into the public schools. And that migration hasn’t been as fruitful as I think it could be.
Diana I respect your opinion but have to disagree with you, profoundly disagree, on this. Bernie has said over and over that he is AGAINST the privatization of public schools. I don’t know how he can be any clearer on this. He is against for-profit corporations taking over our public schools. He does not have ties to big money. He has not worked for Wal-Mart, he has not been bff’s with Eli Broad. Eli Broad by the way, is financial manager of one of her super-pacs. We are better off with Bernie than with anyone else and to hint any differently betrays our cause.
Deb,
Bernie said in the town hall forum in Ohio, on CNN, that he supports public charters, not private charters. He says the same on his website. What is a “private charter.”
Please everyone, read Jeff Sharlett’s book The Family, about the DC FAR Right religious legislators. There are many pages devoted to both of the Clintons. Hillary prayed with this group for years and is very supportive of Sessions, Coe, Brownback, and others who are her religious friends. She also describes her view of education, and it supports theirs, plus charter schools, stances on abortion, etc. It is important reading right now to see how she has manipulated the truth of her inner behavior in order to placate Dems, and women.
Hillary Clinton’s loyalties ultimately lie with the RheePhormers.
Connect the dots:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/alice-walton-donated-353400-clintons-victory-fund
Sign the petition and share: https://goo.gl/D5AZDG
Here is exactly what she said in this interview about her long term support of charter schools….
“Clinton: Well, I’m going to tell you, that’s not always true. I am for good schools. I was one of the earliest supporters of public charter schools, not for-profit charter schools. I have a problem with them. But public charter schools. Back literally in the ’80s, you know, I was speaking out about this and I’ve been to great public schools that educate poor kids and I’ve been to lousy public schools. And I’ve been to great charter schools that educate poor kids. And lousy charter schools. So, what I want to do, again, just like you were talking about Common Core and to set some standards, we need to have a common set of standards by which we judge all the schools, all the public schools, traditional, charter, magnet, whatever we call them.”
So she supports “public” charter schools…just like Eli Broad.
These are paid for by the public, but are run privately and generally with NO public oversight. She seems to have NO understanding of the vast difference of true public magnet schools run by local Boards of Education, and those Broad/Walton/Tilson etc.non profit schools run for and by Free Market profiteers, who are raping real public schools for taxpayer funding.
In the LA Times today it was announced that one of these just won a court award of over $7 million from LAUSD because they were not ‘given’ a FREE location by the BoE and the District to run their charter school.
Diane wrote in part: “Neither she nor Bernie understand that some “nonprofit” charters are NINA (nonprofit in name only), or that all charters claim to be “public” schools, even when they exclude students with disabilities and ELLs. Nor do they question the displacement of real public schools by corporate charter chains (what I call the Walmartization of public education) or the gold rush to monetized public education. I was hoping to have a 1:1 talk with her to discuss these issues, but it hasn’t happened.”
Diane, I think it’s important to qualify the assertion that Bernie Sanders doesn’t get the above. Has anyone asked him those points directly?
But he has a website that makes his positions on education and just about everything else available to the public. Here’s the link to some of his statements/positions/voting record on education issues near & dear to our hearts: http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-education/#k-12-education
I think we would mostly agree with his views on vouchers, NCLB and high-stakes testing, with his views on funding schools equitably, and some other issues in K-12 alone and early-childhood ed and post-secondary ed.
Where some of us would like to change his thinking would likely include Common Core and charter schools.
If someone cares to provide information from Hillary Clinton’s campaign (or Trump’s or Cruz’s) that suggests anyone else is closer to the anti-deform movement’s viewpoints than Bernie Sanders, I’d be interested, but not so much that I’ll do that leg-work myself, for reasons I believe I’ve already made clear and which boil down to: no one is stronger overall that Sanders on balance, and I see no reason to believe that anyone else is better than Bernie on public education issues overall. My suggestion for those in a position to get his ear or that of his education advisors would be to make the best arguments possible to get him to revise those views where he’s wrong. I can’t presume he’s ignorant but it’s likely he knows less than some of us on these specific points. He likely knows more than many of us about banking and much else.
Excellent article on Hillary by Robert Parry…from Truthout today.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35578-is-hillary-clinton-qualified
Diane, have you reached out to the Sanders campaign? He’s in NY right now, and it would be great if he made a statement about privatizing public schools at his rally tomorrow in Washington Square Park!
I’m ticked about Sanders and his lack of understanding re: charters and education. But this is priceless: “my granddaughter who lives in the city” Seriously $hill, you’re grandchild won’t be attending any NYC public school ever ,except to vote in an election. Cripes!
It is worse than that. EVERY private school is perfectly free to give their students the NY State tests, just like public schools. Very few do, but there are some private schools in NYC, like Epiphany, that have opted in to the state tests, as well as some parochial tests.
But I doubt that Chelsea will be sending her kids to one of the very few private schools that opt in to the state tests. And someone should ask Hillary whether she will object strongly to allowing her grandchildren to grow up without knowing whether they can pass the same standardized test that public school students take. (Not one specially designed for private school kids so that it is meaningless).
“…the federal government just passed a new education law. And in that education law, I don’t know that a lot of people on Long Island may have been aware of this, it still requires yearly testing from third grade…”
Does she think parents on LI are idiots and that we are unaware that the new education laws requires the same testing as the old one? Why doesn’t she find out why half of the children on LI refused the ELA test? With opt out numbers this large you would think she would want to find out.
“So we have to do a better job of explaining why a common set of standards is really in the interests of the parents who are opting their kids out. Because remember, it is parents who are opting their kids out. And the parents are feeling like what is this about. This doesn’t have anything to do with educating my child. So clearly, we haven’t done a very good job of explaining…”
This sounds like Commissioner Maryellen Elia and other reformers. Obviously they think that parents don’t understand that these tests are the best thing to improve education. Maybe if they just repeat the same thing slowly and over and over again parents will understand how fabulous these tests are. UGH!! How stupid do they think we are?
I hope someone at the next debate asks Bernie and Hilary about the opt-out numbers in NY and their views on K-12 education, including the common core, standardized testing, publicly funded charter schools….
This interview is actually more than Hillary being tone deaf on education. It’s really bad. Nowhere does she clearly state anything except a general acceptance of common core-like standards. In no way did she state a position opposing privatization.
One is left after reading the interview with a few logical possible conclusions, none of them good:
1) Hillary is wildly under-informed on education issues.
2) Hillary is deeply informed but knows that her actual positions will cost her votes in NY, so she blurs them as best she can.
3) She is neither under-informed or deeply informed and plans on simply continuing with the Obama admin agenda.
Outside of the above 3 possible conclusions, there is nothing more to expect or conclude about Clinton’s education agenda.
The clearest take-away however is that there is NOTHING in Clinton’s statements OR the possible conclusions one could come to about her education policy that could, would, or should lead the president of any national or state or local teachers’ union to endorse her.
I cannot articulate the level of vitriol and loathing I reserve for Randi Weingarten and AFT, UFT, and NYSUT leadership.
But I will vote for Clinton in a general because the other side is cataclysmically, historically, epically, insanely bad.
https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/20/charter-school-champion-hates-bernie-sanders-prefers-hillary-clinton/
Spot on analysis of the information currently available.
This line in the interview should scare the …. out of anyone who knows the phony stats that make news because they are from Harvard and Raj Chetty .
Chetty has never resisted defining a “good school” by the test scores it produces. Hillary is saying nothing at all insightful about “good” neighborhoods and “good” schools because she is not challenged by the interviewers. Not a mention economic inequity.
” I’m a big fan of the research led by \[Harvard University economics professor\] Raj Chetty and his team that shows what a difference it makes in the lives of disadvantaged kids and families to be in a good school that has more opportunities, a good neighborhood that can give the family a chance to really be much more upwardly mobile and we have gone backwards. There’s no doubt about that. “
@ Laura,
Yeah, she says she’s seen “lousy” public schools. I wonder how one tells a lousy school from a good school that just happens to have a high proportion of very troubled students. Or is there such a thing as a good school with a high proportion of very troubled students???
” I’m a big fan of the research led by \[Harvard University economics professor\] Raj Chetty
In other words, “I’m a big fan of chetty picking”
“Chetty Pie”
To bake a Chetty pie
You pick the ripest cherries
Enticing folks to buy
The Chetty data queries
NYSTEACHER, your 1, 2, 3 analysis above is absolutely perfect.
If was Raj Chetty who testified as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the Vergara law suit to undermine both teachers tenure/due process, and also to kill off teachers unions. The judge (Treu) used Chetty’s contrived and admitted fantasy stats to determine that the case resolved for these plaintiffs who Eli Broad and his billionaire Silicon Valley partner in crime, David Welch, nurtured financially for years to keep them in the fold so as to press this case which has now been cloned into similar cases in many states. The case has been appealed, and it will surely be decided by SCOTUS.
So much for any valid heft on Chetty’s part, IMHO.
At least the opt-out movement is getting education into the news and causing some disruption of over-testing and test-based accountability. However, neither Clinton, nor any of the other candidates seem to be paying much attention (with the notable exceptions of universal pre-school and expanding access to college) to the many things we could be doing to improve education overall and inequity in particular.
There is a better way to improve education: Invest and Trust: http://www.arthurcamins.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/The-Better-Way-to-Improve-Education.pdf
We could:
• Adopt equitable school funding formulas with revenue from graduated state and
federal income and corporate taxes with increases on the most privileged.
• Mediate the effects of income-related disparities through government-supported
services such as universal health care and pre-school.
• Provide funds to reduce class-size.
• Provide time for teachers’ collaboration and professional growth.
• Fully fund services for special education and English language learners.
• Provide support for substantial clinical practice and supervised apprenticeships in
university-based teacher preparation programs.
• Enact laws that require employers to pay workers a living wage.
• Fund job-creating investments in infrastructure and research.
These strategies are not a menu from which to choose. The must be done in concert.
http://www.arthurcamins.com
In the best of all possible worlds, your suggestions would gain traction. In the current corporate climate, your useful ideas will be dismissed as there is no profit in them.
Well, I won’t claim to be optimistic about defeating corporate dominance across too many areas of public life. But, I also refuse to be cynical. The successes of opt-out movement, the push for a $15 minimum wage, and the enthusiasm for Sanders’s message about pushing back against growing inequality are all signs of hope. All of these happen when people refuse to be quiet and refuse to give up fighting for what could be.
Hillary is a DFER. No DFER 4 me. Remember her history re: standards and testing in Arkansas and then brought this hair brained idea to the nation, no less. What’s happening and what has happened have nothing to do re: young people learning. The DEFORMS are about PROFITS for the few while lambasting public school teachers. Look who are the ones who are profitting! Certainly not public school teachers and the students. So many horror stories … In the name of rigor, grit, accountability and the rest of those meaningless words AS they are SPUN and USED to cloak the truth (privatization public education FOR PROFITS) by the deformers.
ESSA is ridiculous! We’ve been snookered. When will we learn?
Good article on DFER, worth sharing: https://t.co/cmK9ZKFlxV
THANK YOU CHRISTINE for giving us this invaluable link to Lisa Graves in depth article on DFER which shows the incestuous connection of the ALEC players, from the hedge fund guys to the Koch brothers to the Waltons to Gloria Romero and her then henchman, Ben Austin (who now works full time for Eli Broad, and with his pal John Deasy, to spread Vergara lawsuits everywhere). From Austin’s time double dipping at Green Dot (while working in a govt. job in LA for Villaraigosa) working with the charter’s exiled in disgrace chief Steve Barr who is now running for Governor of California along with another Broad tramp, Villaraigosa, and on and on. Mind boggling. You need a flow chart to understand what goes on in California.
This Graves article is a lesson everyone who reads and writes here MUST memorize. https://t.co/cmK9ZKFlxV
My very first article here was on how California was the most incestuous and unhinged state in the Union…and that was over three years ago. Thanks Diane for publishing it…and the follow ups on Ben Austin, John Deasy, and others. We have endless fodder here for discussion. Hillary (and some other Presidential candidates) are only part of the filth with which we contend.
Christine, I so appreciate your helping me keep the name of self serving hedge fund greed meister, Whitney Tilson, in the public view, and that of the political whore, Gloria Romero, who, as a California legislator, used Ben Austin’s design for a parent trigger act (paid for by the Waltons, Broad, the Wassermans, etc.) to form bad law with him in the form of the 2010 Parent Empowerment Act which Austin segued into using through his then ‘black ops’ org, Parent Revolution, to shut down public schools and convert them to charters. And also keep in mind that the Gulen Queen, Caprice Young, who ran CCSA, works closely with Austin and PRev is in this mix of very bad characters. You can read about much of this in archives at the LA Times and in the Orange County Register.
All these folks, from Eli Broad and Carrie Walton Penner, to every billionaire name you read here, are connected at the hip. They are so well organized and so well financed that I cannot imagine how we can ever stop them. I often feel that I am spitting in the wind after writing about all of it for over three years, with so little response from colleagues and the public. Really love you, Boston colleague, with all your comments being ‘right on’……
Hillary demonstrates a partial understanding the issues. She supports effective schools as, I believe, most people do. I don’t think she gets the distinction between for profit and NINA schools. Most charters today seem to be about ROI less than finding solutions for social and academic problems. She claims she supports evidence based solutions. Where is the evidence to support the need for so many charters that assault local communities with sales pitches and unfounded promises of “miracles?” When we scratch the surface of the pro-charter groups, we find that they get success by cherry picking students. There are no miracles. Does she realize that charters are harming public schools as they duplicate services while they increase segregation? Lots of problems with large class sizes have to do with expanding charters or the systematic defunding of public schools by compromised policymakers. Charter expansion equals defunding public schools. Does she know about all the waste, fraud and squandering of resources associated with charters?
Two other comments struck me as red flags. Does Hillary honestly believe that a boarding school will be a healthy move for poor children? I am reminded of two failed experiments buoyed by colonial thinking: the Australian Maori children’s project and America’s failed Native American boarding schools. Is it really an evidence based idea to separate young children from families and culture? The second comment that concerned me was her stated support for the Common Core, the need for a national set of standards. This one size fits all mentality is right out of the reform playbook. She seems to be out of step with the fact that most communities are rejecting this notion in favor of local control.
“Hillary demonstrates a partial understanding the issues.”
I disagree, Retired Teacher. Her friends are hedge fund managers. She got $225,000 for speaking at one of Jeb!’s edubusinesses. Her son-in-law is a founding partner in a hedge fund, and the marital ties have introduced him to many of the “right” people. I think she has a complete understanding of the issues.
“Beyond the glamour, being part of the Clinton family has provided Mr. Mezvinsky with another perk: access to wealthy investors with ties to the Clintons.
When Mr. Mezvinsky and his partners began raising money in 2011 for a new hedge fund firm, Eaglevale Partners, a number of investors in the firm were longtime supporters of the Clintons, according to interviews and financial documents reviewed by The New York Times. Tens of millions of dollars raised by Eaglevale can be attributed to investors with some relationship or link to the Clintons.
The investors include hedge fund managers like Marc Lasry and James Leitner; an overseas money management firm connected to the Rothschild family; and people from Goldman Sachs, including the chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein. Some of the investors in Eaglevale have contributed campaign money to the former president and Mrs. Clinton, who is widely expected to run for president again in 2016. Some have also contributed to the family’s foundation.”
Many of the people you mention, like Lloyd Blankfein, should have been indicted for all the fraud surrounding the too big to fail banks. Obama, Hillary and Bill, and others of their Dem-DFER ilk, protected them. The link to the Mezvinsky family mentions CalPERS, the largest retirement management firm in the country. They have been in major trouble for losses caused by terrible decisions made by their leadership based on the advice of these hedge fund touts.
Now they may be cutting the retirement benefits of teachers and others whose money they have collected and managed for many decades.
And folks worry that Bernie is a Democratic Socialist….wowser. Such a threat is this guy who wants everyone to be able to have a free education and free health care, and food and shelter.
It is his adversaries who Mdm. La Farge would be shouting,
“off with their heads” while the DFERs would be shouting back “let ’em eat cake”…beware the guillotine, DFERs.
“Many of the people you mention, like Lloyd Blankfein, should have been indicted for all the fraud surrounding the too big to fail banks”
His friends don’t call him “Bankfine” for nothin’
“Bankfine is mighty fine”
When bankfraud is your tale
Lloyd Bankfine saves the day
He keeps you out of jail
And lets you keep your pay
She claims she supports evidence based solutions. Where is the evidence to support the need for so many charters that assault local communities with sales pitches and unfounded promises of “miracles?”
Maybe she meant
“Eva dense based solutions”
Eva dense based solutions
Are really something swell
They’re based on Eva’s notions
About a school from Hell
Where children say no word
Unless they’re spoken to
If ever they are heard
It’s “out the door with you”
Where children are berated
For getting something wrong
For many years they’re fated,
To never sing a song
Where score on standard test
Equates with student value
The “smartest” are the “best”
And pampered, let me tell you
But “dumbest” just get booted
By artificial means
‘Your Johnny wasn’t rooted”
In classroom seat, it seems”
Eva dense based solutions
Are based in Rhee-ality
Eva dense based delusions
As everyone can see
Politicians are uninformed about education, period. That’s how we got Arne Duncan and John King to head the Ed department. How much classroom teaching experience for them? They don’t understand that teachers know the common core and that the Common Core isn’t it. Politicians abrogate their responsibility by having charters. In the process they waste more money. They’d rather give money to their buddies than cut class size so teachers can more time to the children who need it. Perhaps Hillary will appoint Diane Ravitch to the Secretary of Education job but does Diane need the aggravation?
More likely she will appoint Randi Weingarten to be Sect. of Ed since Randi supported her so early on in the name of the union…but so many members have written here repeatedly that this endorsement did not reflect their positions. Most teachers seem to be supporting Bernie, not Hillary.
Again, I suggest everyone read Jeff Sharlett’s book The Family to find out how Hillary comported herself in DC and who her real allies were early on…including Sam Brownback and his Right Wing religious cohorts. She was open in those earlier days in her support of charter schools, and religious inculcation in schools.
I am retired and most of the people I’ve known, who have been though these battles, on and off picket lines for years, support Hillary, depends on who your friends are. We were all idealistic once. Hopefully, she or Bernie will be the President and also have a cooperative Congress. Otherwise nothing will get done. Aside from foreign affairs, presidential power is extremely limited.
Not true. I’ve met a state assembly person in CA who knows education issues better than 99% of the teachers I’ve met.
Dear Ponderosa…bet the Ca. Assembly legislator was Ben Allen from Santa Monica who was prez of their BoE.
Hi Diane, Did you know the acronym you used, NINA, at one point in our history stood for “No Irish Need Apply”. Many stores had these letters in their windows toward the end of the 19th century when so many immigrants were coming to our shores. Words do not express the appreciation I have for the work you are doing with your blog. Thank you from an educator for 53 years! I hope you have the opportunity to talk with Hillary and Bernie; they desperately need to understand the insight you bring to this vital topic! Best wishes as you continue your blog! Jay
Thank you Jay, I was not aware of that acronym.
we have to do a better job of explaining why a common set of standards is really in the interests of the parents who are opting their kids out.
“NY Parents Need the Common Core”
It’s all misapprehension
‘Bout test and Common Core
Parental comprehension
Has really hit the floor
Our simple explanation
Has tended to confuse
Our standard for the Nation
Is something they could use
My opinion is we need estrogen, rather than testosterone, in positions of power world wide, including the White House. In 1992 the Clinton’s were in a Philadelphia Diner the day before the election for breakfast. A Philadelphia high school teacher and her husband were invited and they were seated between them, the teacher next to Hillary. Hillary asked what teachers need to do their job. The teacher told her. In everything I have heard Hillary say since she repeats exactly what she was told as part of her goals for education. If you are a teacher you know what they are. This does mean she is perfect. We expected a real educator to head education from Obama. We must make sure Hillary actually appoints one. Bernie is a wonderful man with very nice ideas. Idealism, a characteristic of his campaign, is to be commended. However, when it borders on chauvinism, it can be destructive, as it promotes unattainable goals.
You’re half-right, @bpollock42: we likely do need estrogen rather than testosterone. Now ask yourself: which candidate for the Democratic nomination is running on the ability to face down “America’s enemies” and has a track record of supporting American military action at every turn? Which one is running diametrically opposed to that sort of thing?
Bernie is the feminine/feminist candidate; Hillary wants us to know how big her balls are. There’s nothing wrong with either, but let’s make sure we’re identifying these people accurately – by their policies and commentary, not by the outward shapes/bodies they inhabit.
Voting for HRC is a vote for another imperial presidency. In Sanders, we might have the first post-WWII POTUS capable of toning that down and moving away from American exceptionalism.
Well said Michael PG…agree with you 100%.
Bernie is the true feminist and Hillary continues to be a corporatist and a war monger. If she wants the educated community to vote for her, she MUST publish her Wall Street speeches as well as those to her other insider pals, with her views on religion in schools, segregation, abortion, and other Deformer ideas and goals. Let the world see what she says to each group. SO very tired of hearing her emulate Bernie’s issues and change her views with each new poll.
And we need answers about the world’s despots and tyrants, like the Saudis and UAE billionaire leaders, who donate vast sums to the Clinton Foundation. This soft Newday interview has little value in assessing who she really is.
Obama had to compensate for black stereotypes by being ultra-white. Clinton has had to compensate for female stereotypes by being ultra-male. A gay president would have to compensate by being ultra-straight. Maybe Bernie can be more black and female and gay than any of them (though he may have to compensate for Jewish stereotypes by being ultra-goy).
Note both the interviewer’s questions and the answers:
Unfortunately, too many in mainstream media and too many politicians keeps pushing false equivalences:
• Critique of the Common Core State Standards means “rebellion against higher educational standards.”
• Resistance to high-stakes is the same as resistance to accountability.
• Opposition to charter schools means opposition to innovation and opportunity.
These are phony arguments meant to quash legitimate dissent. Too few politicians, even when they challenge these false equivalences, offer alternatives.
http://www.arthurcamins.com
Agree. The questions shape the responses and reinforce the status quo with standards, one-sided accountability, and stereotypes of public schools as mired in stodgy tradition, never offering choices and so on.
Yes these are phony arguments, and Clinton’s answers are equally uninformed. Which shows the degree to which politicians, journalists, and, I may as well add on, Bill Gates styled philanthropists, don’t know what they are talking about.
Jonathan,
Maybe some are uninformed, but many know exactly what they mean, even if it is not what they say. That is, they have goals other than systemic equity. For many, charter schools are intended as a release valve meant to provide a path to success for the “strivers” aka the “deserving poor.” Many of the supporters of charter schools have given up on equity and systemic change for all. For others charter schools are an investment opportunity.
http://www.arthurcamins.com
Arthur,
Yes. Well said.
The interview responses boil down to testing and charters along with a vague endorsement of pre-k, which makes her focus exactly the same as what we have now.
“Laura H. Chapman
April 12, 2016 at 3:56 pm
Agree. The questions shape the responses and reinforce the status quo with standards, one-sided accountability, and stereotypes of public schools as mired in stodgy tradition, never offering choices and so on.”
Clinton repeats the conventional wisdom that charter schools should instruct public schools on “innovative practices”
I can’t think of a single “innovative practice” Ohio charter schools are using. Can you?
I give Clinton credit for entering a public school. I notice the GOP candidates are apparently forbidden from mentioning our schools lest they be branded “supporters of the status quo” 🙂
What a bizarre state of affairs, where public employees proudly OPPOSE public schools. It’s insane.
I just can’t believe NEA endorsed Hillary so early. Sure people thought Bernie could be a long shot, but there was no time given for him to even state a case. Even if he was unable to be interviewed by NEA, supporting ANY candidate too early is a mistake. Surely if Hillary is more pro-charter than Bernie…they should have waited to weigh the pros and cons. Democrats have been brainwashed into thinking Hillary is their ONLY choice. For me, having grown up in suburban public schools…I’ve learned something very important. You never decide before getting all the facts, you never assume you have only one choice, and you certainly never base your decision on the decisions of others.
I’m very much undecided as I’m still gathering information on the candidates. ESPECIALLY when it comes to education. Education shapes our future leaders, neighbors, public servants, etc. Education needs attention…and NOT in the form of destroying our public schools. Charters will face the same problems as public schools, make a profit, and/or shape our children to step backwards a few decades back into segregation ideals.
I don’t want people like that around MY children. It’s a rise in selfish behavior that leads to less sense of community and acceptance.
off my soap box…
The idea that the old-days’ status quo referred to broken, miserable schools full of gangs, violence and selfishly inept teachers has been adopted by educational “reformers” who simply wish to invade states, cities and district and subsequently suck all public coffers dry. THIS is the new, although never publicly recognized, status quo. http://www.ciedieaech.wordpress.com/2015/10/12/changing-the-status-of-the-status
Hilary may not be totally current on opt out but she has been a strong supporter of pre-school-12 public education since her governor’s wife days in Arkansas, and she demonstrated in New York as a senator for two terms that she knows how to legislate. She wrote the book on “It Takes a Village To Raise a Child.” Considering that pre-school-secondary education has so-far not been an issue and she clearly need more information I thought the interview was positive for Hillary. I believe the NRA endorsed her from am an educator-blogger and a minority supporter for Hillary. (Older white male.) I believe the NEA has endorsed her on the basis of prior performance but so far they has not been very public about it. Bernie is too wraspped up in free college tuition to spend much time on ES. When DOE controlled testing was excluded from testing in early ESSA I believe he authored the amendment that put it back in. Bill Knaak
On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 1:01 PM, Diane Ravitchs blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Lane Filler of > the editorial board of Newsday on Long Island in New York, the epicenter of > the opt out movement. More than 50% of eligible students (grade 3-8) on > Long Island opted out of the ELA tests. She ” >
Certainly Hillary needs more schooling on schooling. She seems to at least know how important teachers are and be somewhat wary of high stakes testing. Bernie-who knows-long on rhetoric and short on policy. Remember Obama was supposed to be so great on everything. Look what he got us.
Please read the comments on Diane’s earlier post “Teachers Divided Between Clinton & Sanders,” & do take notice of them (I cited numerous past posts about VT education.)
And–BTW–see the video of NYSUT loudly booing Clinton (it should be on YouTube, or does someone have the link?) IMO, most teachers are for Sanders in the primaries. Where they’re divided is in the gen. election–many won’t vote Dem if she wins, even at the peril of the resulting election of the GOP candidate.
Agreed. She is, at minimum, aware that there is real dissent and debate. Bernie, as wonderful as he is, doesn’t seem to even know the words Opt Out.
This interview serves as a perfect example when the interviewee should have said “I don’t know enough about the subject to have my own opinion. Let me tell you this, because you still seem to want to ask me questions on this subject: I know so little about public education that I change my position every time I talk about it to somebody convincing or at least loud enough.”
These candidates are awful on this subject.
Maybe we need to look at the candidates as if they were judges. Would they be able to read all the information out there, investigate and make intelligent decisions based on knowledge once they have a better understanding of the subject? Or will their decision-making ability be waylaid by other factors than the issues put before them? Clinton has so much money from Wall Street that there is no way she is able to make a decision without factoring Wall Street money in whether she admits this or not! A presidential candidate must have a wealth of understanding on many subjects but I would also want a candidate who can make a fair and honest decision on subjects that they learn anew by exploring that subject in depth to truly learn about it.
Of course there are games played by phony charters sneaking under the radar to prtend to be public. And these must be exposed.
Given that HRC has a good grasp of educational issues, I just hope she takes a good hard look at the test itself and how it is structured into an archaic system of education. Changing one word from “test” to “Assessment” is critical. Give the system under Common Core some other thoughts:
Given that is not the nature of human beings to be at the same place at the same time academically and the range goes from sever cognitively disabled to highly academically skilled, are standards guidelines for success or deadlines for failure? Are students punished for being at a different place or is failure a positive learning experience?
Given Dr. Howard Gardner’s proven Theory of Multiple Intelligences, does Common Core allow for each child to follow their pathway to successful achievement of proficiency?
Given Dr. Gardner’s theory, how does Common Core allow students to demonstrate learning in the way they do it best?
Given that kids’ ability to adapt to a setting varies as do kids’ attention span and other characteristics, how does Common Core allow for an assessment setting conducive for each child?
Given that assessment is only as good as the information gathered and its application to the education of the child, how does Common Core allow for immediate feedback to teachers?
Given that our culture is widely diverse, how do we assure standards are authentic to grade levels?
Given that standards must be guidelines for success, how do we show student progress throughout the year?
Let me be clear. I support accountability and the effort to assure all children succeed.
To accomplish this Common Core must be changed forward.
I think Sanders basically needs to study public education in more depth and he will se the reality… because the way he has carried himself politically throughout his life shows dedication to “We the People” whereas Clinton’s views depend upon which corporate entity “butters her toast”! I have every confidence that Sanders – if presented with the myth vs the reality would most assured be a lot different than Clinton on public education issues – including charters…(and there sure has been a lot of myth promoted by slick PR from the “corporate ed reformers”) I most definitely would not place Clinton and Sanders in the same light. Clinton will do what Wall Street interests “spin” on public education while “seeming” to care… Sanders has proven himself more than just capable of listening … he actually cares and the truth will come out.
Bernie strongly opposes the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB): “I voted against NCLB in 2001, and continue to oppose the bill’s reliance on high-stakes standardized testing to direct draconian interventions. In my view, NCLB ignores several important factors in a student’s academic performance, specifically the impact of poverty, access to adequate health care, mental health, and nutrition. By placing so much emphasis on standardized testing, NCLB ignores many of the skills and qualities that are vitally important in our 21st century economy, like problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork, in favor of test preparation that provides no benefit to students after they leave school.” Instead of NCLB, Bernie has called for a more holistic method of education that gives teachers more flexibility and students more support systems: encourage an environment with task-based assignments to determine students’ progress.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website FeelTheBern.org, “Issues” , Sep 5, 2015
“By placing so much emphasis on standardized testing, NCLB ignores many of the skills and qualities that are vitally important in our 21st century economy, like problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork, in favor of test preparation that provides no benefit to students after they leave school.”
He is stirring reform language about 21st century skills for 21st century economy into his anti test speech. He is a confused cook, no doubt. He should have kept quiet and let us imagine, what he’d cook for us.
I promised Randi I would write about this, but will not do to tomorrow. Like you I was struck by her lack of understanding of some key issues. But then, she does not as a parent have much experience of public schools: Chelsea did go to public schools in Little Rock, but that was well before the imposition of all the testing nonsense. From 1993 when the family arrived in DC she attended Sidwell Friends. The only President to have a child in DC public schools in the past half century was Jimmy Carter.
Ken, I have been struck by how little most elected officials know about schools. They speak in bland and vague generalities.
I’ve been thinking, Diane, that I can’t ever remember presidential candidates talking much about education. The only time it seems to come up is when someone needs a scapegoat for failures in other policy areas. Then its because public schools are doing a poor job of educating “the future leaders of America.”
George W. Bush talked a great deal about education. He said he had a plan based on the Texas miracle: test every child every year. Honor the schools that raised scores, embarrass those that don’t. He called it “No Child Left Behind.” But in the last, education was not a big issue in presidential campaigns because the federal role was very limited
Diane, you say
“Ken, I have been struck by how little most elected officials know about schools. They speak in bland and vague generalities.”
Let me see is this vague generality when you stated a few days ago that New York State has “Extreme Inequity” in school funding resulting in below average NAEP scores even though they spend about 80% more than the national average.
I have looked into it and find that inequity is minor in New York City and is of minimal consequence in the rest of the state.
I do not understand why the rules are different for you and the politicians. Please look in the mirror more often.
Hillary is willing to sell out public schools to the highest bidder, just like in every other issue. The woman has zero integrity.
@Kirstie: That’s unfair. I know for a fact that HRC has exactly one iota of integrity. And not any more than that.
Kristie,
AMEN! Hillary has indeed ZERO integrity.
Look at her record of deceit. Just remember she oversaw the standards and testing regime in Arkansas, and then brought that awfulness to the nation, as a part of a larger scheme to privatize public education.
As women, WE CAN DO BETTER than Hillary. I do NOT want our first female President to have her ethics; she has none. For Hillary, everything is about Hillary and her dynasty.
Also, does the AFT give money to candidates?
I think Hillary Clinton is an exceptional choice for president in many ways. But when she talks about education, it’s the same old DEFORM/RheeForm talking points. Same goes for Bernie (who I voted for my primary, but not out of enthusiasm for him over Clinton). It’s very depressing.
I don’t want to get my #BernieOrBust readers in a rage, but I don’t think either of them has a good grasp of what is happening to public schools today; they don’t understand Common Core and the resistance to it (Bernie says on his campaign web page that he opposes repeal of Common Core). Neither has a sure understanding of charter schools and their role as agents of privatization. Neither seems to know that equity funds seek to monetize public education for the benefit of investors. Neither gets the new era of cruel and inhumane testing. This is not a good sign, because it means we will all have to fight harder to stop the privatization steamroller.
“This is not a good sign, because it means we will all have to fight harder to stop the privatization steamroller.”
This sounds depressing, but then again, politicians do not (and cannot) know stuff very well and accurately. The hope is that they surround themselves with experts in all areas, though.
This is why getting into the adviser circles of either candidate would be more important than worrying about the candidates’ current knowledge on education. Imo.
And this is why a candidate’s ideas about moral, social and other basic issues may be more relevant for “electability” than experience and expertise.