Valerie Strauss found many ironies in Donald Trump’s decision about where to give his big education policy speech.
To begin with, he parroted Jeb Bush’s line about public schools as a government monopoly. He mocked him in the debates, now he steals his lines.
Next, he made his speech in Ohio, which has been celebrated for the public exposure of numerous charter school scandals. The biggest charter operators have the worst schools and donate the most money to Republican politicians.
And amazingly, he chose a for-profit charter as his venue, which recently was given an F by the state for poor student growth.
Another irony: the absurd idea of rating schools with a humiliating letter grade was devised by none other than “low energy” Jeb Bush, who has not endorsed Trump.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To answer the question in the title of the post: because that’s how to “succeed” in America: Lie, Cheat, Steal–All in a Day’s Work, the new mantra of the Ed Privateer movement.
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Because he doesn’t know about Ohio’s charters and doesn’t care.
He’s heard that charters are super-duper over and over and over in the circles he runs in, and assumes it applies across the board.
As usual with ed reformers, I’m not so much struck by the incessant, constant promotion of charters- I think they’ve made their preference clear- but by the complete and utter OMISSION of public schools.
It’s remarkable. It’s as if they believe the whole country has rejected and abandoned public schools. It seems clueless to me, like they live in an echo chamber.
They get up there with these elaborate choice schemes and feel they have to offer NO benefit to kids in public schools. Those kids and schools have simply disappeared.
Amazing, coming from so many highly paid political professionals.
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Ohio ed reformers don’t just OMIT public schools.
Their policy directives for public schools are an endless string of negatives- they are so far into the echo chamber they don’t see this themselves. They just pile mandate on top of mandate. There’s never a pay off. Drug education, bullying, endless data collection, new report card schemes, new teacher measurement schemes, all coupled with funding cuts.
This “movement” has nothing to offer kids and parents in public schools and they don’t even pretend to offer anything! They don’t feel they have to, I guess. Our schools are the unfashionable “default”- we have to accept whatever garbage they throw at us and be grateful they remembered us at all.
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“They pile on mandate after mandate…”
Truer words were never spoken. It’s day 6 of our school year and I’ve already had to fill out multiple forms and attend multiple meetings that have nothing to do with my classroom. It’s both exhausting and a waste of our most precious resource: time.
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They need to take a fad hiatus. Forced, if necessary. They just dumped Common Core on these schools with no additional funding. No sooner had we submitted scores than the mandate machine revved up again and it was off to the races again.
Go on vacation. Please.
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Why did Donald Trump give his education speech in a state with multiple charter scandals?
Because nobody outside of the anti-reform movement cares about charter scandals.
Charters are failing and having scandals almost by the hour. Yet the charter model remains valid and very much in the public narrative as a positive. Even HRC has left a wide door open to show her love to charters. The fundamental idea remains quite valid.
Again, all about that thing where we can have all the facts, studies, arguments, and weight on our side…..but we still seem to never reach critical mass.
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Where is Elizabeth Warren on charters? Her state is conducting a referendum this November on lifting the cap on charters, allowing them to add 12 a year forever. This will hurt the state’s public schools. It is being financed by Wall Street, Warren’s nemesis. #whereiswarren
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Activists have been trying to pin her down to no avail so far. It doesn’t help that her ed staffer is Josh Delaney, former TFA. Many staffers on Capitol Hill are funded by TFA infiltrators.
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Christine,
Keep reaching out to Warren. She has to be upset that Wall Street is trying to undermine public schools in her state. She went to public schools. She has a copy of Reign of Error. I met her and gave it to her a couple of years ago.
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I will and I’ll pass the word, too.
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Doesn’t sound like Warren supports public schools. She is as pro-charter as Obama. She seems too smart to not understand the facts, so no doubt she believes in “reform” and will continue to support it whole heartedly. I’m so glad Hillary chose Kaine, who at least isn’t as co opted as Elizabeth Warren seems to be. I have to say, I am sadly disappointed — this is her state and her non-stand means she believes in reform but hopes not to make union teachers mad at her. That’s worse than Obama because the corporate reform of education is against everything Warren claims to stand for.
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I doubt HRC will be the “savior” of public schools, but I believe she will be more reasonable than Obama, but, of course, it depends on whom she selects as head of the DOE. She has to be better than Trump who is reading from the “public school demolition handbook.” Peter Greene reported that HRC’s education advisors are the following:
There’s no miracle here.
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I have no reason to think this other than gut, but I DO think Clinton will be more responsive than Obama on public schools.
I think he outsourced the entire area to Duncan and walked away.
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Me, too. Two words: Tim Kaine. And his wife.
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The only “savior” that could possibly be envisioned is large, smart, coordinated, powerful organized teachers unions.
Organized teachers currently occupy the public space of public education. They are numerous, inter-state, and all share the common interest of opposing Ed reform and charters.
Strong, national, collective labor action is the only hope. The only hope to seize the narrative. The only hope to “disrupt” what is beginning to look very much like a sweep of privatization.
What stands in front of this are short-sighted, non-creative, traitorous union leaders like Randi Weingarten, the entire NYSUT leadership team, etc. Also, the fact that a huge bulk of teachers are simply not up to such a task.
So, beyond that, the writing is on the wall.
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I agree with you, NYST, but I think we also have to educate and mobilize the parents, in every state.
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“the fact that a huge bulk of teachers are simply not up to such a task”.
They join a huge bulk of organized labor and the American people who are not up to the task. All looking for things to be handed to them.
The American labor movement has the bloodiest history in the Western World men and women were beaten and died to empower the labor movement . The largest battle on American soil since the civil war 1.2 million rounds of ammo fired, was fought in the hills of West Virginia. 985 miners were imprisoned for several years till a congressional inquiry forced the reversal of the sentences.
We can not get our members to even appreciate that history, no less participate in the future. We have members who would vote for Trump and set us back to a place worse than the Mine Wars. It has to happen work-site by work-site and school by school. Teacher to Teacher and Worker to Worker. The problem is not the leadership. The membership is getting the leadership it deserves.
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Hillary will be more reasonable on education than Obama because she is depending on unions as part of her base. Obama while campaigning got booed at NEA convention and stuck to his guns, then never supported them. Remember protests in Madison in 2011? Obama never showed as Scott Walker was pounding unions into the ground.
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No need to remind me (Prilosec please). Remember announcing the stimulus at the Caterpillar plant that broke the UAW, picking Charlotte the city with not one union built or staffed hotel for the 2012 convention. All topped off with a end term push for TPP… Are you sure Bush ever left office in 08, the man behind the curtain can not be the one who promised hope and change. Been voting lessor evil for quite a while.
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Joel,
The choice of a right to work state for DNC convention is 2012 was startling. Tea Party governor and legislature too.
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Oh please. Unions were part of Obama’s base too. He campaigned on the Employee Free Choice Act and his comfy shoes. Then he turned around and screwed the unions. What makes you think Hillary won’t do the same?
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Well, Obama family dog Bo must have eaten Obama’s comfortable walking shoes, because Obama promised that he would wear them and join the picket lines if collective bargaining was threatened.
Then, a couple of years later, when Wisonsin Governor Scott did threaten collective bargaining for public unions, as well as cutting their benefits, Obama was nowhere to be seen.
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Jon Pelto in Ct promised to send Obama a pair of walking shoes but didn’t get an answer.
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Sadly nothing.
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Perhaps she can be instrumental in stopping some of the bleeding of public education by creating some regulations and accountability for charters and some protections for public schools. They should also have some burden to prove that what they are offering is supported by evidence, especially for the cyber programs. If taxpayers truly understood how reckless the states have been with tax dollars, they would revolt.
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Not hardly. She is as bad as Obama on this issue. Tim Kaine is 1,000,000 better on this and I wish the Bernie supporters on here realized it.
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Where is Warren? She’s on record supporting charters. I’m not aware of any time that she’s ever withdrawn that support.
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I have been asking the same thing about Elizabeth Warren. Apparently, she is as co- opted by billionaires in the reform movement as Obama.
And unlike Hillary Clinton, Warren has no excuse for not reading up on this. Massachusetts is HER state and there is an important referendum coming up.
Her silence is actually an endorsement of the reform movement loud and clear. It’s ironic that she has no concern for education.
Maybe that is because she has no children and public schools and the kids who go there hold no value or interest. Not worth reading up and learning something.
This is why I was thrilled when Hillary chose Kaine and not Warren. FYI – Kaine actually knows about charters and public schools. We see now that Warren believes the education reform movement can do no wrong.
I suggest that those of you who aren’t strong Hillary supporters because she isn’t as anti-charter as you believe take a look at Elizabeth Warren’s sell out of public schools during the most important election in her state. Tim Kaine was far better than Warren on this issue. Warren can’t even take a stand against a billionaire-funded initiative in her own state?
She did some good things, but Warren seems no different than Obama/Arne Duncan.
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One problem is that there is a rift in democratic party that the party does not want us to focus on. The rift is between those that support traditional public schools and those that support charters. The charter group includes most of Silicon Valley and lots of wealthy hedge fund managers. The latter group is trying to make the party more conservative, and they frequently side with the conservatives on some issues like blocking minimum wage bills and promoting charters. Bernie supporters and his populist movement have been trying to push the democrats to the left. One of the reasons democrats avoid discussing K-12 is they know it is a hot button issue that can cost them money, votes or both. All the democrats want to side step the issue.
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Voters naively believed that Elizabeth Warren wasn’t afraid to stick up for things that might make the billionaire donors unhappy. I sure did.
Obviously, I was wrong. Warren is more co opted than Hillary on this issue. And FAR more co opted than Tim Kaine, who seems to actually value public schools. We who believe in public education should be thrilled that Hillary chose him and not Warren, which would have insured Obama II had they won.
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If Clinton wins, she will set the tone with her DOE choice.
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It’s a horrible cycle in Ohio, too, because Ohio funds charter schools by pulling state funding from public school students. Our kids get less state funding because the state takes more from the public students than the state funded in the first place.
You’re left with wondering why we should follow these state directives if the state allocates less and less funding to each public school student. I’m to the point where I wish they’d all just leave us alone and spend 100% of their time on “choice” instead of 90%. They’re not funding us anyway. We’re picking up the slack locally.
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Commentary on charter school scandals has become as effective as commenting on furniture stores that have weekly going out of business sales. Pretty soon it will all seem like business as usual. People will forget there was a time when schools weren’t all on commercial cable with ads for $200 Nike shoes and jerseys every 15 minutes.
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What would have been wrong with spending a year focusing on the giant and enormously complex Common Core roll-out?
Is there some bar in ed reform to doing one or two things WELL? Is that forbidden? Are they paid by the fad or something? Is there some reason they’re determined to keep public schools in a constant state of chaos? Who runs a system like this? Did they get this from a Ted Talk or something?
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There’s actually a big charter funding case in Ohio courts right now. If ed reformers get their way, every public school in the state could be affected by it.
Obviously not of interest to ed reformers, since the echo chamber are pretending it isn’t happening.
We’ll find out how it affects public schools purely by accident, after it’s rammed thru. We’ll be stuck with the downside of yet another experiment.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/09/ecot_court_case_clawbacks_deat.html
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Our current system is totally corrupt, and Ohio is a laboratory of bad ideas. Profit and cronyism lead the way. Charters should be a local issue stemming from an identified need in the community. Instead, we have dark money from outside billionaires dominating with a goal of profit and crushing teachers unions that somehow offend them. I think a good place to start is with a local public vote, free of outside money and influence. If the community rejects the notion, it should be tabled. Instead, corporations buy all the representatives that then impose the new bad idea on the citizens and deny them democratic participation. This is not how democracy should work. Money tips the scales, and it is hurting our young people and public schools. Shameful!
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Ohio has also had a revolving door of state superintendents for Kasich’s 2 terms.
It’s chaos because they made it that way. They just don’t care if this stuff is done well. They check boxes to meet the fashionable ed reform dogma and every single ed reform group gets each and every demand. They never say “no”, because why should they? They’re just dumping it on public schools anyway. It’s off their desk!
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The vocational ed focus will be a disaster. There’s no additional funding for it and it’s another poorly thought out fad that was cooked up in think tanks and foisted on schools.
It’s a shame, because I support vocational ed. These people can’t run it. They’re incompetent. They may actually discredit vocational ed. We’ll be worse off.
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I’m dreading the echo chamber computer science initiative. They’re all head over heels again.
They must know we’re barely funding existing classes, right?
It’s like lemmings rushing off a cliff, carrying our kids and our school funding. I want an adult to say “no” to ONE of these. Show me they can do it. If they will reject ONE new directive from the echo chamber I will personally congratulate them.
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Why isn’t the AFT endorsed candidate asking the questions raised in this article? Where was Hillary and what was her response when Trump was celebrating privatization from the steps of a failed charter school ? I am not aware of any response. What good is she to public education if she can’t articulate how absurd it is for Trump to give his big ed speech in the state and at the school that he did?
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Hillary dares not tick off members of the charter lobby as they write big donor checks.
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Retired teacher, nobody in politics currently can afford to tick off anybody who writes big donor checks.
This would argue for public funding of elections, as well as overturning the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, via legislation, or via appointing Supreme Court justices who do not hold that corporations are people.
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I agree 100%. What we have today is a perfect storm of hungry politicians trying to fill their warchests and corporations looking to buy influence. Democracy is a casualty in the deal!
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Where is Elizabeth Warren during the biggest election in her own state in which the billionaire ed reform business is funding an anti-public schools ballot question?
Take a look at Tim Kaine’s record on public education. Hillary’s first decision was choosing him as VP. If your primary issue is the corporate assault on public education, Kaine is a far better candidate than Warren.
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In 2015, led by our special Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, the State of Texas passed a similar measure to put letter grades on every school building in the state. I thought it was a bad idea then and it is still a bad idea.
https://davidrtayloreducation.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/the-scarlet-letter-again/
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David, letter grading a school with a single letter is a very malicious idea. If your child came home from school with a single letter grade, you as a parent would be outraged. Now imagine how invalid it is to give a single letter grade to an institution that includes many people, many programs. In NYC, restaurants get either an A (passed inspection), a “pending,” or failed. It appears that more than 95% get an A. Not because they are excellent, but because the measure is whether they are clean and safe.
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I agree.
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