Will the NEA get a pledge from Hillary not to support non-union charters? Will Hillary agree to cut off federal funding of predatory for-profit charters? Will Lily get Hillary to speak out against misuse of testing? Will Hillary lay out a new vision for the federal role in education?
Hillary Clinton to Address NEA Representative Assembly
Presumptive Democratic Nominee will deliver remarks to annual gathering of 7,500 educators
WASHINGTON― Secretary Hillary Clinton, presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee, will address more than 7,500 delegates at the National Education Association’s 95th Representative Assembly (RA) in Washington, DC on Tuesday, July 5, 2016. In October, NEA educators recommended Secretary Clinton in the Democratic Primary.
The RA is the top decision-making body for the nearly 3 million-member NEA, and sets Association policy for the coming year. Delegates adopt the strategic plan and budget, resolutions, the legislative program, and other policies of the Association. Delegates also vote on proposed amendments to the NEA’s Constitution and Bylaws. NEA’s RA is the world’s largest democratic deliberative body.
NEA is the nation’s largest labor union, with its members representing one in every 58 general election voters. NEA households represent one in every 32 voters nationwide. NEA member households will be a robust and significant voting bloc during this fall’s election.
WHO:
Hillary Clinton, Presumptive Democratic Nominee
Lily Eskelsen García, NEA President
WHAT:
Will address delegates to the NEA’s 95th Representative Assembly
WHERE:
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
801 Mt. Vernon Place NW
Washington, DC 20001
WHEN:
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Preset: AM, time TBD
Remarks: AM, time TBD.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why would we want Hillary to oppose only non-union charters? We need her to support public schools, their students, their teachers, and their communities. imho
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I would love it if she said she was withdrawing all federal support for charters, but that is not likely. Stopping the for-profits and virtual charters would be a step forward. Withdrawing federal support from non-union charters would be huge, because 90% of charters are non-union. Why should a presidential candidate support non-union charters while seeking the active support of teachers unions?
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“Why should a presidential candidate support non-union charters while seeking the active support of teachers unions?”
Because she already *has* the support of teachers unions. With nothing asked in return.
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I just wish we had more power to make more demands that protected all of our charges and our once profession.
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Will the NEA get a pledge from Hillary not to support non-union charters? Will Hillary agree to cut off federal funding of predatory for-profit charters? Will Lily get Hillary to speak out against misuse of testing? Will Hillary lay out a new vision for the federal role in education?
Translation; Would Hillary do the right thing though the NEA won’t? These questions are rhetorical of course, so here’s another; Can we get a pledge from the fox not to support the slaughter of chickens? My thoughts and prayers are behind this effort.
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The time to get politicians to pledge to support your cause is before you endorse them.
What makes the NEA think they have any leverage at this point?
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Hillary will prevaricate, sidestep, and muddy her position on the issues that matter to us. She will tell us what we want to hear, and then do whatever she wants.
Triangulation, anyone?
Dan Senor, war hawk extraordinaire and spouse of Campbell Brown (she who hates teacher unions with a passion), thinks Hillary is wonderful. Alice Walton , whose fgamily has pledged $1 billion to charterize more public schools, also gave Hillary a $300K + donation.
I’ll bet that Hillary will make it Obama’s “third term” when it comes to the attack on America’s public schools.
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Right on comment. No $illary 4 me! Follow her $$$$$. There is more than Drumph and $illary.
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Hillary served on the Walmart Board in Arkanas.
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Sanders lost. HRC WILL be president of the United States. Sick and tired of Sanders groupies. The train has long since left the station.
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Actually we all lose and many concerns with Hillary and the endorsement were posted here and everywhere long before Bernie decided to run. Shillary will be no better than Obama. Watch your back.
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Did you see Bernie’s speech Thursday night. He is not going anywhere. He is an intelligent, passionate, truly progressive man. He’s not stupid enough to say that he’s waiting for the yearlong CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS by the FBI, which will result in indictments. He has not endorsed or conceded to queen $hiLIARy. The super delegates do not vote until July 25! He is going to move the neoliberal/republican-lite DNC platform in a truly progressive direction, while he bides his time for indictments! There will be hundreds of thousands of Bernie supporters in Philadelphia. This is far from over.
BTW: the Republicans are stupid, but not stupid enough to put tRump as their nominee. It will be either kasich, ryan, romney or some other dog whistle bigot, any of which could beat Hillary but would get trounced by Bernie!
So save the guilt trip and the scare tactic of the big bad Donald.
Get used to the sound of PRESIDENT BERNIE SANDERS!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntlvgHLE2_A
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Sanders is a FRAUD and couldn’t get elected anything outside of Vermont. Are you people here that clueless you couldn’t see what a sexist piece of filth he is and probably used by the other side to divide the Democrats since Trump is not particularly electable otherwise?
Sanders is the typical 1960s New Left misogynist, and the “left” was always worse in the sexism department than the right. Misogyny is his stock in trade, and misogyny is the ONLY reason he is refusing to do the right thing and throw his support to HRC, the next president of the United States. He would NEVER do this to a male opponent.
I have my disagreements on Clinton on the education issue, but I don’t think she is closed minded about it. However, I know sexist filth when I see it, and the Sanders keyboard warriors–not those that I know in real life–are largely misogynistic.
I was sick of Sanders a long time ago, after he took my donations until I soon realized how totally ridiculous and UNELECTABLE he is as a president or even as a candidate at all. He is not particularly bright but is a rigid ideologue who sees everything in economic terms like the Trotskyite he actually is. He has never been a Democrat and isn’t one now. He would give the same speech over and over, and then he was ILLEGALLY taking donor money on that personal vacation to the Vatican in order to try and get a selfie with the Pope. He went on national television and lied–by not dispelling a misconception–that he was having an audience with Pope Francis. Not only did he not have an audience–he and his wife basically stalked the pope and ambushed him when he was at the hotel elevator. That ended any positive feeling I would EVER have for this man.
Enough of my rant.
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Save the Hillbots!
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Our next neoliberal president http://www.salon.com/2016/06/28/clintons_pledge_to_forgive_student_debt_of_entrepreneurs_not_average_workers_will_benefit_the_elite/
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RE Student loans
This report pretty much lays out what happens when you privatize what should be a public program.
It deals with student debt but it could just as easily be said about education as well.
It is a giant flashing red warning signal.
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and the problem is not just privatization, but also a Department of Education that is acting like a parasite on students
“The government gets rich, too
The Department of Education has little incentive to fix the core problem. The loan program that began with the principal goal of helping disadvantaged students pay for tuition has become a moneymaker for the federal government.
The profit arises from the government’s ability to borrow money at a low rate and then lend it to students at a higher rate, thus charging students more than is necessary to recoup its costs.” — from the above report”
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People will hear Hillary say whatever they want her to say. She’s a master of the misuse of language. I’m sure she will definitely say something to the effect of supporting public schools (to her, charter schools are public schools). I’m sure she will decry the “misuse” of standardized testing (whatever the heck that means – any use is misuse) and she’ll probably say there’s too much testing. She’ll tell everyone how much she loves teachers (what she means, of course, is the right kind of teachers). She’ll say she’s opposed to privatization (meanwhile, John Podesta has been front and center in her campaign and Eli Broad is her good friend). Unless you’re listening carefully you’ll probably love what she says. But six months from now she’ll do what we all know she’ll do anyway and you won’t actually find anything in any of her speeches to the contrary except some vague hopey-changey sort of carefully parsed language that we’ve been hearing for the past eight years.
But then again, what does Lily care about truth? She promised to our faces 16 months ago that she wouldn’t accept any more Gates money.
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Go vote for Trump since you hate a Democrat so much. The fact is where WERE people like you when this privatization agenda started?
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“Go vote for Trump since you hate a Democrat so much. The fact is where WERE people like you when this privatization agenda started?” I have maintained a skepticism regarding just what was done to make sure the people who were elected to slow up the expansion of charter schools in st. louis. One of my kjoesharastuff you tubes, with judge Block’s name in the title discusses the murder of a former special education students. I am constantly critical of the Post dispatch for slanted and downright erroneous reporting of education issues. I will probably vote for Hillary with about the same level of enthusiasm I cast my ballot for HHH in 68 after MLK and Bobby Kenedy were murdered.
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edit—a skepticism regarding just what was done to make sure the people who were elected to slow up the expansion of charter schools in st. louis.were removed from office by the state.
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Susan,
HRC selected two employees of Madelyn Albright’s firm, for the DNC platform committee. Albright’s firm, reportedly, has Paul Singer as a client. Reportedly, Albright is a board member on the reincarnated campaign of Pete Peterson to undermine Social Security. Madelyn serves with David Koch on the Aspen Institute board. (Koch’s photo was in the website array until a couple of weeks ago). The Aspen institute education programs receive funding from Gates. Kim Smith founded the Pahara Aspen Institute. Read her bio. at the site. She co-founded New Schools Venture Fund ($22 mil. in Gates money) whose “marching orders (are) …to develop charter management organizations that produce a diverse supply of different brands on a large scale.” I mention Albright because she said there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women. Last week, I checked the website management photos for her firm, Albright Stonebridge. Guess how few women are on the top management team?
The money that Bill Clinton rec’d from, for- profit international schools, is in the millions. Legal professor, Jonathan Turley, wrote about it at his blog.
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It doesn’t matter what she claims as Hillary will say whatever Randi and Lily tell her to say. Then she will fly off the dinner with Eli and Bill. The knife goes back in sooner than you think. Be ready!
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Clinton’s statements on K-12 education are exactly what Obama said in 2008.
It’s just entirely meaningless- “world class, zip code, best and brightest, opportunity”
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/k-12-education/
I noticed lately Democrats have been dropping “public” completely- they often omit it. This stuff is so carefully crafted and vetted I wonder if it’s deliberate.
I think it’s pretty clear ed reform is backing vouchers now. Maybe that’s in the works for DC Democrats, too.
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Lawyers, business mega-$$$$$, and marketers are in charge. No more needs to be said.
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Chiara. You are correct about the move to drop “public” from discussions of education. This is the latest rehtorical move to position all forms of education that are “great” into one big bucket and to push the idea that “the operator”does not matter as long as that entity is providing “high quality seats” and there is a pipeline for “high quality teachers.”
This is the pitch recently used in Cincinnati to market the Phalen Leadership Academy franchise to several local foundations founded by ex-CEOs of major companies. They call their initiative “Accelerate Great Schools.” They hired Bellwether to recruit a CEO to sell the Cincinnati School Board on allowing one Phalen Leadership school (think warehouse for kids in front of computers). The Board did not fully tunderstand that this was really a franchise seeking rapid expansion to many other schools.
The “Accelerate Great Schools” CEOs hired a pitchman in charge of TFA recruiting and working for Mind Trust in Indianapolis. The new hire is expected to raise local money and to market “Accelerate Great Schools” to the Cincinnati School Board, Chamber of Commerce, social service agencies, city and neighborhood councils and so on.
You can see the “operator does not matter” principle in this invitation to apply for this job. Accelerate Great Schools had about $28 million raised before there was any public news about the project.
http://bellwethereducation.org/opportunity/chief-executive-officer-3
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Until educational unions change their own tunes, we shouldn’t expect change from governmental leadership.
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Californian, Kim Smith, is co-founder of Bellwether and New Schools Venture Fund. (NSVF-$22 mil. in Gates funding.) The NSVF “marching orders…to develop charter management organizations that produce a diverse supply of different brands on a large scale.” The charter school chain partnered with Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) had an advocate in Bill Gates. Gates went to Capital Impact Partners, regarding financing for the schools. Hastings calls for an end to democratically elected school boards, in a YouTube video.
Cincinnati leaders should consider whether they have the moral right to subject students and taxpayers to the control of Wall Street and/or Silicon Valley, both of which are known as predators in oligopolistic or monopoly markets. Do Columbus politicians have the right to destroy community democracy?
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Good thing I’ll be knocked out for surgery that day so I won’t be tempted to pollute my mind with listening to/watching (assuming it is live streamed) her duplicitous drivel.
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Best wishes on a speedy recovery!
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Thanks!
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I am not necessarily against charters. What I am against is the mis-education of children of color. For those who believe Hillary will say or do anything to help public education, I have some land in New York I am trying to sell.
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And how would Sanders or Jill Stein do? Oh, that’s right–they LOST or couldn’t win.
You can bellyache all you want about her, but if you just sit on the sidelines and say and do nothing to help the DP get away from neoliberalism, I guarantee the privatization agenda will continue.
Sanders never said much of anything about education other than pie-in-the-sky nonsense about “free” college–he was and is nothing but a FRAUD probably helped in part by the likes of Roger Stone, a Nixon-era dirty trickster who specialized in third party dirty tricks, in order to split the Democratic Party. It didn’t work.
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Susan – what’s your plan for getting the DP away from neoliberalism? What are you doing about privatization? How’s that working?
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No love for hiliary here! I would love to see pro-Bernie delegates turn their backs when she speaks at the NEA Delegate Assembly!
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Paul… I think a “stare down” is much better! I think the hope is that Sanders will be an ever-present force at the convention and that Clinton will have to make a lot of concessions she would not make normally. BUT… a lot of people think (given her m.o) that is will be just “lip service”. I am hopeful that the “Sanders Machine” is NOT GOING AWAY and will be growing with ever-more force throughout the next four years. Clinton will have to recognize that in reality (not super delegate reality… not super pac reality… not DNC reality ) that she was “handed” the democratic party nomination and that she is neither popular with “The People” nor is she able to reflect “The Will of The People” given her corporate backing. Her whole presidency (if it comes to this) will be one of extreme scrutiny at every turn thanks to Sander’s dogged persistence in restoring democracy. And it does not matter which party one belongs to … every citizen should want fair play in government so that ALL PEOPLE have a voice. The fight that Sanders brings is a fight for both democrats and republicans in that it is a fight for stability and fairness in government.
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Well, considering how quite a few folks here completely forgot about Randi Weingarten’s history the moment she said she wanted to divest teacher union money from hedge funds (a full decade or so into the reform movement proper, and probably at least 5+ years into hedge fund interest in the reformer/ privatizer agenda), Im sure that Hillary will make a few very qualified, clause-ridden, narrower-than-anyone-wants-to-see statements and we will all think that she is anti-Charter and pro-public school and all that.
Whatever. I’m more angered at the lack of historical memory about Wengarten. Hillary is a known quantity and one must vote for her in order to avoid, you know, real doom.
We need to become more like mobsters, with long memories and a deep desire to settle accounts, no matter how long it takes. That’s how you win politically and socially. Look at the right wing! They are still pissed off about the new deal and trying to roll that shit back!
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For pragmatic reasons it will; it must be Hillary.
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Kofoworola, agreed. There are two choices: Clinton or Trump. Those who want to vote for Jill Stein or write in Bernie Sanders can do so, but the choice will still be between Clinton and Trump.
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“Look at the right wing! They are still pissed off about the new deal and trying to roll that shit back!”
Like!
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I don’t think Hillary is anti-charter. I wish she were. I don’t think she understands that testing today is very different from 20 years ago.
But the choice is between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
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Hilary Clinton’s iniative on technology innovation fact sheet:
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2016/06/27/hillary-clintons-initiative-on-technology-innovation/
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Let’s see, from the article:
“BUILDING THE TECH ECONOMY ON MAIN STREET”
Can’t because Walmart put Main Street out of business.
“Build the Human Talent Pipeline for 21st Century Jobs:”
Sure that “pipeline” doesn’t flow into the Soylent Green Factories?
“Increase Access to Capital for Growth-Oriented Small Businesses and Start-Ups, with a Focus on Minority, Women, and Young Entrepreneurs:”
In plain English: A jobs program for the banksters
“Attract and Retain the Top Talent from Around the World:”
Because American shithead lazy workers can’t do the job.
Need I continue???
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Anyone who can read the phrase “Human Talent Pipeline” without retching has a stronger stomach than I do.
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From Chalkbeat Colorado’s article on Hillary Clinton’s visit to Denver:
Clinton proposes building on the Obama administration’s “Computer Science Education for All” initiative, doubling the investment in the government’s $120 million Investing in Innovation (i3) program, including a 50 percent set-aside for computer science education. The idea is to support efforts to scale successful instruction and lesson programs.
Another initiative would seek to expand the pool of computer science teachers through recruiting new teachers and giving more training to existing ones, with the goal of creating an additional 50,000 teachers in the field over the next decade. To pay for it, her administration would commit federal financial aid, assistant to professional development programs and support for private-public partnerships.
The Clinton Education Department would provide grants to support states, cities and charter schools on a number of initiatives. Among those mentioned were developing innovative schools, redesigning high schools to focus more on STEM, building higher education and private sector partnerships, and supporting so-called “makerspaces.” Denver’s DSST charter school network, in the midst of a significant expansion, gets a shoutout in the Clinton plan as a model of innovation.
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DSST is a chain of privately managed charter schools funded by the Charter Growth Fund, aka Broad, Walton, Gates.
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I am surprised by the bitter and angry tone of at least one of the posters. Repeated nasty rants aren’t necessary.
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Artistformerlyknownastitleonetexasteacher:
I get very disheartened by the vicious attacks on Hillary Clinton by posters to the blog. I seldom censor anyone. But there will be a choice between two people in November: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. One will be elected President. I will vote for Hillary. Not because I expect her to be good on education issues, but because Trump will be a disaster on every issue and incompetent to boot.
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Hear, hear. There is no wisdom in anger where the end result is Trump.
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The only person on this thread who has “repeated nasty rants” is a Hillary supporter. I suspect that’s who the artist is referring to.
As for the choice being only between Trump or Clinton, you know that is part of neoliberal manufactured consent, right? At least a third of the population (probably more) doesn’t want either of the above. But we have been so conditioned to think that There Is No Alternative that many of those people are willing to vote for a completely unacceptable choice simply because they perceive that to be the only alternative to a different unacceptable choice. But what would happen if that third (or more) of us shook off our shackles and got behind someone who really does support our interests?
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And what does it say about Hillary that the first defense for her is that she’s better than Trump? Most of humanity is better than Trump.
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Linda, like it or not: the choice is between Hillary and Trump. One of them will be President. End of story.
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Agree. The End. For all of us.
Now just the formality of an election.
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But: Opt Out and collective anti-reform resistance will continue. It will not simply wither up and go away with an election. There is MUCH to be said for the past years of effort on the part of anti-testing activists. If we can change the teachers’ unions? We can change the game.
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Dienne, there is no alternative. I am not a neoliberal.
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Dienne, there have been nasty rants from one Clinton supporter, and many nasty rants from Bernie supporters.
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Diane, what do you consider a “nasty rant”? Stating facts about Hillary? Like her history of warmongering? Her ties to Wall Street, Monsanto, private prisons, etc.? If that’s “nasty ranting”, then I guess I’ve done a lot of it, but I will continue doing it because it’s the truth. But I’m pretty darn sure I’ve never said anything of this caliber: “However, I know sexist filth when I see it, and the Sanders keyboard warriors–not those that I know in real life–are largely misogynistic.”
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Thanks Diane for not censoring either side in the “debate”
Everyone has the same right to express his or her opinion.
It is critical in a democracy for people to be able to say what they want, as long as it does not incite violence.
Though it sometimes takes a while, the truth has a way of eventually rising to the top of a mass of conflicting opinions.
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Here’s the Democratic Platform: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/dnc-platform-not-so-progressive Pretty weak sauce, and that’s only what they’re “promising”. Of course we know we don’t get most of what’s promised (and we do get plenty that isn’t promised). TPP here we come.
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Dienne, you might like this article by Thomas Frank (Listen Liberal):
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/feb/16/the-issue-is-not-hillary-clintons-wall-st-links-but-her-partys-core-dogmas
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The article is just a condensed version of LISTEN LIBERAL, which I’ve read and passed on to as many people as I can. But I’m confused about the headline. You can’t separate Hillary’s Wall Street links from her party’s dogma.
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Same questions and more for Randi Weingarten when, we can assume, Clinton walks across our stage at the Minneapolis AFT convention. No matter. If she makes promises to us there, that means little in light of her silence on these issues during the rest of her campaign, and, more, her associations and actions against people like us for decades, across this planet and across the USA. I only hope we, we delegates and AFT members, get to spend most of our time there doing the real work to organize ourselves for the fight for our children which will certainly be necessary before, during, and after these elections.
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Question for the Hillary supporters here. We know Hillary defers to DFER and CAP informs her pro-testing, pro-charter policies. We have seen the direct pay-for-play — John Podesta corrected Hillary when she went wobbly on charters because Eli Broad threatened to withhold money.
We also know Hillary is going to increase the federal role in teacher recruitment, certification and training (TFA for All?). Ugh. Hillary was behind NCLB but some may not know she pioneered test-based teacher evaluations in Arkansas, partnered with Walmart.
Diane admits she is against Hillary’s education policies, but is boxed in by Trump. (FYI, some House Republicans are theorizing Trump is trying to lose on purpose).
So here’s my question. If you have until November, why would anyone critical of Hillary publicly, openly commit to her now instead of demanding she earn your vote by listening and evolving on specific policies?
Bernie is out of the race, but he has already demonstrated that 1) corporate/PAC money was never necessary to compete at the highest level 2) 30-40% of Bernie supporters are currently vowing “never Hillary” and significant independents would rather vote for Trump than Hillary 3) enthusiasm for down-ballot Berniecrats is high (see Zephyr Teachout).
The NEA RA is a perfect venue for communicating this to Hillary’s campaign. Instead of saying “you’ve got my vote because Trump would be a nightmare”, why aren’t we banding together in numbers and saying “I’m not there yet because you have policies that hurt schoolchildren, but here’s how you can earn our votes”.
Beyond education, we see the same sentiment affecting the economic, environmental, military and healthcare debates in the exact same way. Without even needing to discuss ESSA or the failures of NCLB, we could make it much more simple to say “money out of politics now”.
So should educators use the next four months to make US elections a two way street, or should we lock in our positions now and continue this class war battle the same way we have for the last 15 years?
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The Democrats own the black vote, the gay vote, and the union vote–and they know it.
You’ll get nothing from Hillary and you’ll say thank you as she walks away from you.
The NEA should have raised this issue back when Bernie was picking up steam and threatened to back him if she didn’t make promises.
There’s a reason they didn’t: the greed and personal ambitions of NEA leadership.
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YES. We must focus on teachers’ union leadership and politics.
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“Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle”
Uncertainty in the air
Is present everywhere
The future way
Not known today
Tomorrow may be here
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The only way I could bring myself a bit of hope for a HRC presidency, is if Diane Ravitch was appointed Secretary of Education. Then, I’d need to hear that HRC’s appointment to Health and Human Services was not a Gates/Walton/ et. al. Foundation executive…then, that the Treasury and the SEC appointments were not industry insiders…then…
I know Trump would be worse but, “no hope”, for the next 4 years of a Democratic presidency is beyond dismal.
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Yes, to Diane as Secretary of Education!
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