Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont just posted a letter, now circulating on Twitter, stating his opposition to Question 2 in Massachusetts, which would add 12 privately-managed charter schools a year forever.
He wrote “Wall Street must not be allowed to hijack public education in Massachusetts. We must defeat Massachusetts Ballot Question 2. This is Wall Street’s attempt to line their own pockets while draining resources away from public education at the expense of low-income, special education students, and English-language learners.”
He writes that charter schools already siphon away $450 million from public schools. If Question 2 passes, the hedge fund managers and corporations will take away another $1 billion from public schools.
The statement by Bernie Sanders and the earlier statement by Senator Elizabeth Warren will certainly put an obstacle in the path of the billionaires supporting privatization and pretending to be progressives.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bernie gets it. Warren gets it. The NAACP and Black Lives get it…
And the Bern-man doesn’t mince words either:
http://www.wcvb.com/news/bernie-sanders-weighs-in-on-charter-school-debate-in-massachusetts/42331102
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“Wall Street must not be allowed to hijack public education in Massachusetts,” Sanders said in a statement. “This is Wall Street’s attempt to line their own pockets while draining resources away from public education at the expense of low-income, special education students and English language learners.”
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Jonathan Kozol chimes in also against Question 2:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2016/10/27/kozol/MGo99xSE2n8JslSsVXZnFJ/story.html
Ed reformers argument about “quality” is discredited by the fact that they promote charter expansion in EVERY state, even states where charters are a disaster.
If this were actually about “quality” would the Obama Administration have made charter expansion a condition of receiving federal funds in all 50 states regardless of ‘quality”?
Their lock-step support of any and all charter promoting laws is arbitrary- it has nothing whatever to do with “quality”.
This campaign happens to be in Massachusetts but they run the same campaign in every state- if they don’t have “quality” they just switch to “choice”.
The other consistent theme is no effort or attention paid to the strengthening PUBLIC schools. You can’t call yourself “public education advocates” if your sole focus is on expanding charters and vouchers. You’re charter and voucher advocates.
It sounds like Bernie has been doing some homework since the primary. He seems to have a better understanding of the issues and their implications for vulnerable students.
If only he had made that argument during the primaries, he could have educated the American public and forced Hillary to choose a position.
Now that Trump is tied in the national polls, and ahead by a point, the issue may be moot, as Trump will turn federal funding into a voucher subsidy.
Hillary probably would have figured out a way to talk her way around the issue. If Bill Clinton had not impulsively jumped on Loretta Lynch’s plane, she would have been in charge of the email case, not Comey. After that incident, Lynch withdrew from the investigation.
I love Bernie, but he kinda cheated on the homework: looks like John Oliver did Senator Sanders’ homework for him. We might look the other way, though.
I don’t care who schooled him. He has digested the facts. Isn’t that what we want?
Yes! I am thankful for John Oliver, for Diane Ravitch, and for anyone and everyone else knowledgeable and famous enough to successfully and correctly inform our politicians, besieged by corporate lobbyists full of misinformation. The charter school episode of Last Week Tonight on HBO was a YUGE event!
Show me the state or city where ed reformers OPPOSED charter expansion. That state or city doesn’t exist.
If this were about “quality” wouldn’t they be picking and choosing where they promote expansion of these charter systems? They push the same thing everywhere. The only requirement is “choice”.
They simply ignore the states and cities where this ISN’T working.
Too bad he left out Silicon Valley, they actually profit the most, and their tendrils of wealth spread across the globe. So many people are looking at the wrong villain these days – screw the politicians and traders, it’s the devil they are in business with that needs scrutinizing.
To put it another way, if ed reformers are supporting charter expansion in Massachusetts because of “quality” then why do they also support charter expansion in OH, MI, PA and FL?
It’s not “quality” in those states. They support charter expansion everywhere. They know PA, MI and OH have completely unregulated charter sectors, yet none of them have called for charter expansion to be halted in these states- in fact, they’re still pouring money into opening more and more charters while cutting public school funding.
Here’s arne duncan cheerleading charter expansion in Michigan:
“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says public schools in Detroit have improved in the last four years. Duncan was in Detroit today with Governor Rick Snyder. They toured a traditional public school and a school in the state’s Education Achievement Authority.
The EAA is a controversial state-run authority meant to turn around failing schools. Based on his tour today, Duncan says the EAA shows promise.
“Obviously, long long way to go, and there’ll be bumps in the road and hurdles. But my only goal is to see every child be successful,” said Duncan. “I think the only way we get there is if, again, the EAA is successful, the Detroit public schools are successful, charters are successful. We just need great public schools across the state and across the country.”
Duncan says Detroit is “ground zero” for school reform in the country. He told a crowd of students, teachers, and staff that he sees more progress every time he visits.”
They did nothing in the EAA to support public schools and Detroit already had 40% charter enrollment. “Quality” had nothing to do with it-it was pure ideology.
They do the same thing in Ohio. The only city the President mentions is Cleveland and that’s solely because Cleveland is an ed reform privatization project. He actually only mentions ONE charter- ICAN, because that’s a solid charter. Cleveland Public Schools don’t even exist to these people. It’s as if they’re already gone.
I’ll just give you America’s lead charter cheerleader himself. Here’s Mr. Duncan making expansion of ANY charter school a condition of federal funding:
In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Arne Duncan writes:
The NUMBER of charter schools. Not one word about “quality”. Notice Duncan has no numerical requirement for the NUMBER of public schools.
This is an ideological belief. It’s “expand charters and measure public schools” – that was the belief system and unsurprisingly, that’s exactly what we got. More charter schools and endless, endless rankings and metrics and scores for public schools.
Public schools got the raw end of this deal. They got all the mandates and none of the support. That’s what will happen in Massachusetts because it happens in every state ed reformers parachute into.
The worst betrayal of public schools is what ed reformers did with the Common Core.
They set public schools up to fail. They pushed those tests and cut support at the same time. They misled every single public school student who trusted them and sat for a 9 hour exam. There was no “support” that came along with Common Core. All they cared about was public schools providing data so they could continue bashing public schools and diverting funds.
Public schools have to get smarter. Get the funding first. If you meekly provide what they demand without securing what you need you won’t get what they promise. Put it in the bank FIRST. Then tell students to provide the data.
I am so grateful for the public debate about privatizing Massachusetts’ public schools through Question 2. This is the debate we are not really getting in other places. The hedge funders back the politicians likeliest to help them–or scare those who would be on our side to the point of paralysis–with little discussion or even awareness among the public. In California, the charter cap was lifted long ago by Reed Hastings.
Any direct info on Bernie saying this? I only see it on one web site.
I think he’s too knowledgeable on the topic to buy this hedge fund manager profiteering BS.
I saw the letter on Twitter but don’t know how to copy it. It is on his letter head.
John,
Here is a link about Bernie’s opposition to Question 2. I will try to find a way to copy his letter in full.
http://bluemassgroup.com/2016/10/bernie-sanders-opposes-question-2/
Hence why I supported Bernie for President!
Bernie’s endorsement of No On 2 has buoyed the fight here in MA. More than 207 school committees, 30 mayors, other local elected boards and officials are on record against raising the cap. Jonathan Kozol has this reflection published in the Boston Globe (mirabile dictu)!:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2016/10/27/kozol/MGo99xSE2n8JslSsVXZnFJ/story.html?event=event25
The Swift Boat PR group running the charter industry campaign continues to lie and distort. The latest manuever is to say that only 9 school districts across the state will be affected. They’ve also accelerated a guilt inducing campaign aimed at (mostly white) suburban voters that a No vote will mean “trapping minority children in failing schools”. A dark money advocacy group is calling itself Advancing Obama’s Legacy Ballot Committee. Over the weekend, flyers landed in peoples’ mailboxes claiming that Obama had endorsed a Yes On 2 vote.
Mary Lewis Pierce has the story: https://publicschoolmama.com/2016/10/31/a-trick-and-a-treat/
And, as we know, charters increase school segregation. John Oliver has an important piece on the rise of segregation in our schools:
Did you notice that publicschoolmama said that Bernie endorsed 2? Huh?
Maybe she has revised an error from an earlier post, but I just looked at it and it says (copied & pasted):
“But here’s a treat. Guess who endorsed No on 2 for real? Bernie Sanders!!!
(aka the man who was ROBBED of the presidency!)”
HRC could still weigh in on this… or DAPL… or any number of elections where a bona fide liberal is in a close race… if she took a firm position on these issues it might motivate someone who’s determined to sit out the race to vote for her and it certainly wouldn’t compel any average person to vote against her…