Peter Greene reflects here on the likely outcome of this election for the nation’s public schools, which enroll nearly 50 million children.
If Trump is elected, we know what to expect:
Trump’s burning dumpster of a campaign has finally managed to toss out a few words about public education, but we saw the writing on the wall when he selected Mike Pence as his running mate. Pence’s position on public education has always been clear: bust it up, sell the parts, and let some corporate types make a bundle “educating” a select few students while the rest go searching the rubble of the crushed public education system for some possible piece of their future. Oh, and get rid of teachers and their damned unions.
Trump’s education proposal is short but simple:
More school choice (a.k.a. “open the corporate charter floodgates”).
Merit pay for teachers (a.k.a. “we’ll pay them just what we think they’re worth and they’ll like it”).
End tenure (a.k.a. “You’re fired whenever the mood hits me”).
If Hillary is elected, we can expect more of the Obama style of reform. He deduces this from the advisors who are close to her, mostly from the Center for American Progress.
Bottom line: Trump will run over the schools like a steamroller, flattening them along with their teachers. He endorses vouchers, charters, online charters, anything goes.
Clinton is likely to be akin to Obama/Duncan in advancing charter schools and testing.
The good news, he says, is that the action is now at the state level:
First, remember that the new version of Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the law governing education in this country, throws much of the power back to the state level. The U.S. Department of Education and Congress are still arguing about it, which means there is ample opportunity for states to enter that spirited discussion. Now is an excellent time for folks to get involved on the state level, to provide encouragement to our state leaders to do at least some of the right thing.
We can pay attention to the state-level elections, and get organized right now to find and support people who will help stand up for public education in every state.
In 2008, we just couldn’t wait to see what President Obama would do about public education. In 2016, there is no real question about what our next President is going to do. The question that matters this time is: What we are going to do about it?
Hello Diane: Ralph Nader was interviewed over the weekend on C-SPAN’s http://www.bookTV.org. Nader was on a panel where he briefly discussed his new book: “Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think.”
His talk, he said, was an exhortation to others to get involved in making change–and mentions several changes that were made in this country with just a few people who wouldn’t quit, like with car/driving safety (remember his work: “Unsafe at Any Speed.”).
FYI: On that program they posted 15 books that Nader recommended for viewers to read. I was glad to see that yours was mentioned on that list.
From AMAZON:
Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think (City Lights Open Media) Oct 11, 2016
by Ralph Nader/Paperback/$11.80 $13.95 Prime
Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on October 11, 2016.
This just in from EdWeek: See Who’s Been Tapped to Lead Trump’s Transition Team for Education
By Andrew Ujifusa on September 19, 2016 7:21 AM
Donald-Trump-Tight-Blog.jpg
“Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has picked Williamson M. Evers, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and Gerard Robinson, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, to be on his presidential transition team for education, according to multiple sources.
Evers served as an assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Education from 2007 to 2009, and also was an adviser to former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in 2007 under President George W. Bush. Robinson served as Florida’s education commissioner from 2011 to 2012, and has also served as Virginia’s education…”
https://outlook.live.com/owa/?realm=live.com&path=/mail/inbox/rp
There are more issues at stake than education and Trump is much worse on the other important issues as well. Not to mention that Trump is a horrible and despicable human being who encourages and panders to the worst instincts in the population. He will set this country back by decades and leave wreckage and destruction in his wake.
“He will set this country back by decades and leave wreckage and destruction in his wake.”
Horse manure!
This country will survive either Clinton or Trump, both being obnoxiously, historically bad candidates. Hell we survived Tricky Dick, Unca Ronnie and Georgie the Least (and while it’s almost impossible to get worse than that last son of a bitch, the process has given us two candidates who would be).
Live your life in fear Joe but don’t try to pawn off that paranoia onto everyone else.
Excuse me, but where did I say that this country would not survive Trump? Trump will leave destruction and wreckage after his administration and we will survive it much worse off, as we did after Bush the dumber, for example. If we can avoid a car accident, why not? We still haven’t fully recovered from the damage that Bush and Reagan did to this country. So you think birtherism is just a fun thing of no consequence? You don’t know me well enough to say that I live my life in fear. The fact that I fear a Trump presidency is a far cry from saying that I live my life in fear.
Duane,
I say this with knowledge and thought: Donald Trump is the least qualified person ever to run for the presidency of this nation. Ever. In comparison with Trump, Richard Nixon was a great statesman; he was certainly well-informed, whereas Trump knows zip about international affairs. Senator Mitch McConnell said famously that Trump would be okay if he could get someone to help him out with foreign and domestic issues. Would you feel okay about rounding up 11 million people (how many years would that take? how many billions of dollars?)? About reviving torture and compelling the troops to use it? About a Supreme Court that rolled back Roe v. Wade
What ifs make great conversations but have little to do with reality.
Here’s my prediction: Hillary wins larger than Raygun did against Carter.
That said, I also thought Unca Ronnie had no chance whatsoever, but then I was quite a bit younger and more inexperienced in the stupidity of the American electorate.
All of the media has a vested interest in a projecting a close race-it sells. And that is what the lame stream media cares about, ad revenue and the tighter they can make the race seem the more the media can extort from the candidates and others willing to and/or capable of bucking up that kind of jack.
The supposed “closeness” of the race is just that simple: Lame Stream Media’s desire for more and more jack!
Duane,
I watched 60 Minutes last night (rarely do). They went inside a 200 nuclear missile sub that alone could end civilization. They interviewed the general who would take the command from the President to fire nuclear missiles. To the general, the command comes direct from the president, is unquestioned, and is made and executed in a matter of minutes. The other military officer in charge of coordinating a strike looked like she was stressed to the max.
The entire nuclear arsenal is completely under control of just the President. No congressional oversight, no debate before a declaration of war, no second chance.
Now consider Trump. A man with impulsive tendencies and little self control. A person prone to anger and hatred. A candidate who incites violence and overreacts to perceived attacks. Fear is justified if he is elected.
Hillary stretches the truth and plays with words. She is cool and distant with a cerebral, elitist demeanor. But she is not insane. Trump is insane. I am not ready to be incinerated.
Trump is impulsive and vengeful. Scary to think of him controlling our nuclear arsenal.
“But she is not insane. Trump is insane.”
I’m glad you cleared that up, Vale Math (at least for yourself.)
The 60 minute piece sounds like an excellent bit of managed journalism, eh!?!
We’ve been living with that nuclear genie out of the bottle for all of my life (61 years). And you know what we’ve managed to kill, mangle and destroy countless hundreds of thousands of individuals, millions indeed, without resorting to nuclear weapons. Perhaps one day a few more hundred thousand deaths will happen through the use of nuclear weapons. But in the meantime let’s just continue slaughtering innocents by the hundreds using “smart missiles”.
That 60 minute piece could not have occurred as it did without the full support and the ultimate control of the content by the military. It’s no expose, actually nothing new to glean, just a packaging of a very old problem meant to produce a new scary fear producing angst around which to rally the patriotic* citizenry.
From Brother Ambrose:
PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.
In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
Duane: Our democracy is really taking some hits. Perhaps we are expecting too much of it.
Also, I’m not a psychologist, but I do know how juvenile it is that someone cannot take criticism, or in Trump’s case, just disagreement. When that occurs with Trump, he goes after the person who criticizes or disagrees; and probably already has an enemies list, like Nixon, who was moderate by comparison, and at least had political experience. I’m not qualified to say whether Trump is clinically insane, though my guess is, if not, he’s at least borderline.
On the other hand, to put such power in the hands of someone like Trump–by what we already know of him–a disturbed, self-absorbed lowlife teenage personality, and a throwback to everything bad about the past–to me IS insane. He doesn’t even understand the difference between doing business (making “deals”) and being involved in political leadership. And he’s not running for president–he’s running for dictator–in his mind, he knows no difference. I’d as soon choose a bum on the street to fly my 747.
And education? He never got one. If I were his teacher, I’d be so terribly ashamed to have been even a small part of it. What does it say of US that we would even THINK of someone like him as our president.
Catherine,
I think it is called narcissistic personality disorder.
Dianne: Sounds like an on-target description to me.
Senate race in Missouri: great campaign ad:
Jason Kander is running for Senate seat n Missouri.
He is a Democrat.
In this campaign ad, he assembles an assault weapon while blindfolded.
I just deleted a very nasty email from a Trump troll. She contends we need a president with NO experience. No knowledge of government. Where do these people come from? What rock have they been under?
Yes. There is no check or balance.
It was a fascinating segment. This exchange should give any rational Trump supporter or Johnson/Stein voter pause:
“David Martin: So who in the United States government has the authority to order the use of nuclear weapons?
General Cecil Haney (STRATCOM): Only the president of the United States has that authority.
David Martin: Does Congress have to approve?
Cecil Haney: No, Congress does not have to approve.
David Martin: So these really are the president’s own weapons.
Cecil Haney: It’s our nation’s weapons, with the president’s authority. Yes.”
I suspect this CBS segment was a not-so-subtle warning from our military leaders that voters need to carefully consider their vote in November. About as overtly political as the Pentagon gets in an election. Will voters listen?
Vale Math,
Give it up. Duane won’t change his mind.
Perhaps that information is new to you, not me. Been living with that fact since I was a child in the 60s.
Military personell in uniform are expressly forbidden from attempting to influence elections. Why should I listen to what the Pentagon, i.e., military personell have to say?
I will be so glad when this election is over and we can get back to talking about “a better education for all” here.
Duane,
Trump has all appearances of a severe personality disorder. There is nothing to clear up as it is pretty clear.
All journalism is “managed”. Yes, I do believe the military was trying to say something. They have families, too. And I suspect more than one general maligned by Trump is concerned.
Yes, wars are terrible. The loss of innocent lives bothers me, too. But that does not make me want to vote for Trump, just the opposite. I believe he lacks empathy.
Patriotism is also good people believing our nation, while not perfect, can be better and will always try.
Duane,
Yes, military tries to at least appear neutral. That is what made this segment so startling. I’d encourage you to watch it. You might not change your mind, but it may present an interesting perspective.
I think Clinton is more tuned in to what public schools really need than any other recent candidate and that she has and will listen to us as well as act on our advice. Just my opinion. Trump? His model is pure destruction.
Oh, I wish I could be so naive.
I agree with Greene’s analysis of the political situation. If Hillary wins, she will probably continue much of Obama’s failed “legacy.” If Trump wins, I shutter to think about it. Greene ends his post with a challenge to us as to what we will do about it.
We will continue to struggle; we will continue to point out the flaws in the anti-democratic farce know as reform. If we want to have an impact, we must unite with like minded people such as the NAACP, BATS, unions etc. to apply pressure to legislators and be politically active. We will have take an deliberate interest in local elections and work to displace corporate loving representatives and support local candidates supporting public education. We will sign petitions to get an amendment to the Constitution to shut down Citizens United. We have to remember we are many, and they are few. United we stand; divided we fall.
If he gets rid of the DOE, does it matter what he thinks about education?
Shouldn’t we get rid of the DOE?