Jeff Bryant writes that corporate reformers are feeling nervous these days. As you know, none of their promises has come true anywhere, after 15 years of their strategies. They are uneasy about Hillary Clinton, and their fears have grown deeper since she selected Tim Kaine as her running mate.
If she had chosen Corey Booker, there would be champagne corks popping in the penthouses of reform leaders.
Instead, she picked Kaine, who sent his children to public schools in Richmond and who has never been a supporter of school choice, charters, or high-stakes testing. Nor is his wife Anne Holton, who was Secretary of Education in Virginia until her husband was picked to run for vice-president. Anne Holton’s father, Governor Holton, enrolled his children in Richmond’s public schools, and she went to desegregated schools. Her tenure in office was marked by opposition to charter schools.
He is not as progressive as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, but he is a friend of public schools.
As Bernie Sanders said of Kaine, “He is more conservative than I am, but on his worst day he is 100 times BETTER than Trump.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Didn’t you mean “on his worse day he is 100 times BETTER that Trump.”
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Yes, Mary Kim.
I fixed the error
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And Kaine is 10,000 times better than Pence.
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Amen — from a former Hoosier teacher.
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Don’t you mean 100 time BETTER than Trump????
> > He is more conservative than I am, but on his worst day he is 100 times worse than Trump >
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If HRC chose me for VP, it would not make a damn bit of difference. They could proclaim, “She is a public school teacher in an urban district.” The powers that be would cough up more cash to to ensure their goals are met. In the meantime, the teachers on the barricades are hemorrhaging blood.
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Such a shame. Public money intended for education going to media companies and PR people:
“Forget Don Draper. Forget Peggy Olson. The newest era of advertising may live within your public school district.
Schools will start soon, but where you live doesn’t necessarily determine where you go to school anymore. Families can choose where to go to school — private, charter or public school. The aim behind providing this choice? Proponents say it will force all schools to better themselves.
Whether it has done that remains controversial. But it has given birth to a new reality for public schools: with education competition, comes the need for education marketing.”
What’s the word for this again? “Monetize”, right? Create another publicly-funded income stream to private companies.
I can’t wait for the exaggerated claims and slick marketing. We’re already getting it in Ohio with the cybercharters. They use this bogus “parent satisfaction” metric that they collect themselves and they imply it’s from some government agency.
I guess we’ll have to take a portion of our dwindling public school budgets and allocate it to hiring adults in advertising. This free market vision in education is turning out to be profitable.
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A free market…for privileged consumers.
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Do VP’s have any effect on ed policy?
Joe Biden’s brother makes a living selling for-profit charter school franchises to replace existing public schools, but that would be consistent with the President’s vision on public schools I guess.
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Chiara
The influence of the VP depends on the relationship with POTUS.
I suspect JFK never sought advice from LBJ.
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Speaking of Education policy, who might be chosen as Secretary of Education, Diane? Can you image Dr. Ben Carson from Trump. Unfortunately, I can. Who might HRC choose? I would recommend you, but who would you recommend?
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I think Linda Darling-Hammond would be a great choice.
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ciedie aech
July 28, 2016 at 12:57 pm
A free market…for privileged consumers.”
If they’re wondering why so many parents are getting ripped off by the cybercharter chains in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, they might look into the ed reform advertising industry. Yet another new sector for lucrative adult careers.
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Hurrah for Kaine, for Hillary and for the DNC. And boo for Booker.
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I have such low expectations for DC and public schools I’ll consider it a win if we stay even with Clinton. At least that will stop the bleeding of existing public schools under the Obama Administration.
We don’t need a whole lot from them- a cessation of overt hostility towards public schools is all that’s required. Other than that they just have to do the job-required minimum and the career people probably do all that work anyway.
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I think Bernie meant Kaine is 100 times better than Trump on his worse day. By the way, Richmond even named a school after Linwood Holton. It is one of our better elementary schools. Our superintendent has a daughter there. Glen Bannerman, 84 year old professor from Union-PSCE gives his thumbs up on Kaine as does Renata Jones who retired from RPS.
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Mary, that was an error and I fixed it.
Bernie said that Kaine on his worst day was 100 times BETTER than Trump.
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It will be nice to have a VP who doesn’t have thinly-veiled contempt for existing public schools. I was angry that the President chose an Indiana public school for his last campaign appearance. Our schools don’t exist for politicians to drop into for campaign appearances. They can’t spend 8 years bashing public schools and then show up for the photo op when it’s time for “heartland outreach”. At least be consistent.
Indiana public schools aren’t any better off since Obama and his ed team arrived in DC. They said they would improve public schools, not conduct a sophisticated public-private marketing campaign to gut them. The President wasn’t straight with people on his objective. Pence doesn’t pretend to support public schools. People knew what he was about when they elected him. Democrats are worse- they use them during campaign cycles.
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Andrew J. Rotherham, founder of Bellwether Education Partners, previous advisor to President Bill Clinton, and previous member of the Virginia Board of Education believes Hillary Clinton will be commited to the corporate education reform agenda.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-07-20/the-death-of-democrats-on-education-reform-is-likely-exaggerated
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Politico reports that Andy Smarick, a partner at Bellwether Education Partners, has been elected president of the Maryland State Board of Education, a board that includes Chester Finn and others who favor charter schools. Bellwether teamed up with the 74 to cover the Republican and Democratic conferences, “cover” included some hospitality. More from The Baltimore Sun: http://bsun.md/2at7muF
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RaisetheBar, I read Rotherham’s article as fearful that the reformers might be abandoned. I doubt she will totally reverse course, but I don’t think the reformers will have as open a door as they had under Obama-Duncan.
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Perhaps not, but I know he supports the TPP and “right to work” laws. Both of these benefit corporations and the wealthy.
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Both Tim Kaine and his wife have been active in social justice and equity issues in Virginia for many years. Kaine seems to be a social liberal, and an economic conservative. Clearly, he and his wife understand and value the democratic value of public education and its role in producing an informed electorate.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/07/22/meet-tim-kaines-wife-a-longtime-child-welfare-advocate-and-virginias-secretary-of-education/
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Kaine was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years. I doubt that he is an economic conservative.
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Good news for the reformers. Molly Knefel reported today at Truthout about a Camp Philos event at the DNC convention, with Ann O’Leary, senior advisor to Hillary for America, present. The spirit of Diane Ravitch was present, in the form of a reformer mentioning Ravitch’s name, in chastisement of Knefel to “be honest”, speculating that Knefel wasn’t press, as identified but, instead, union or, there to channel “Ravitch” ideology. It must have been a familiar group that an outsider was questioned.
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Can you please stop claiming that centrists are progressives? Part of my fury is that the label progressive has been usurped by the corporate democrats who are anything BUT progressive – just like school reformers corrupt the term “civil rights.” It perpetuates the propaganda and renders the word meaningless.
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Agree. If Sen. Sherrod Brown is a “progressive”, why does he want the US Dept. of Ed. to send $71 mil. of taxpayer money, to Ohio to privatize public schools? Wall Street makes a 10-18% return on charter school debt. Charters are right-wing profit taking by Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Charters are the agenda of the Waltons. There’s nothing “progressive” about privatizing the most important common good.
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Much worse news for the reformistas would be if Clinton promised to appoint her fellow Wellesley alumna, Dr. Diane Ravitch, as Secretary of Education.
I’m not a one issue voter, but that kind of move to protect our public schools from the invasion of the hedge funder snatchers could perhaps convince a lot of Sanders supporters who are educators that they can vote in good conscience for Clinton. Neither Randi nor Lily are appropriate to that role, despite the homage they paid her during the primaries. The reformistas would claim Randi or Lily were in the bag for the unions.
Diane, would you be willing to serve?
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Christine,
Part of my strength is my absence of ambition for office or money. If I pursued anything, any appointment, I would be just another careerist. If the president asked me, I wouldn’t say no but then I live frugally in terms of ambition. All I want at this stage of my life is to live in harmony with my conscience, to speak truth as I know it, and to look in the mirror each morning with no disappointment other than a few wrinkles
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Which is why you would be perfect!
Though I don’t see how you could continue your blog, and all of us would suffer for that! 😕
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Dr. Ravitch,
Your paragraph is beautifully written and, your life’s work is testament to the words.
I agree with Christine. I could, once again, have faith in the Democratic party, if you represented the public, in a government position.
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Dearest Dr. Ravitch:
You are the beacon of light and hope for all conscientious retirees to follow your footstep. I am 64 now. I will soon be 65 and I would follow your ideal.
I prefer “to live in harmony with my conscience” as you perfectly say.
In Chinese story of three Kings, I admire the ‘KHONG MINH” who is the best scholar in that story. After peace settled, he asked his King to allow him to retire in an isolated and a small piece of land = frugality. All of other high ranking officials were enlightened with materialistic and promotion rewards.
My parents taught me through all stories and fables with wisdom, strategies and psychology with critical analysis skills. I am grateful to learn that from you at my age.
May God bless you with enlightenment.
Very respectfully yours,
May King
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Thank you,
May
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The last sentence of this blog, did you mean to say on his worst day Kaine is a hundred times BETTER than Trump. You put the word “worse”
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As you may know by now, Diane fixed that sentence. With all the massive reading and typing that Diane does, she’s entitled to 20 or 30 mistakes in the course of a day. I’d be flat on the floor gasping for breath.
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Thanks Diane!
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