This is a first for me. I never posted anything from Breitbart, the website of the alt-right. But friends pointed me to this post there, which says that Trump soppoers oppose Michelle Rhee and Eva Moskowitz, because they both supported Common Core. Rhee even included David Coleman, the architect of Common Core, on the board of her “StudentsFirst” group, along with Jason Zimba, lead writer of the Common Core math standards. The most prominent Republican supporter of Common Core was or is Jeb Bush, whose former commissioner of education is on Trump’s short list.
Anti-Common Core activists say they supported Trump because he promised to get rid of Common Core. They prefer Williamson (Bill) Evers, who has a long history of opposing Common Core.
I know Bill Evers. I worked with him as a member of the Koret Task Force on Education at the Hoover Institution. He is a nice guy, not a foaming-at-the-mouth ideologue. He supports school choice and opposes Common Core. He worked in Iraq for the Coalition Provisional Authority as an education advisor. President a George W. Bush named him as an Assistant Secretary of Education. He is a libertarian, less likely to trample local control, and less problematic than some of the other names that have been mentioned.
Trump and his allies don’t seem to know that the federal government can’t get rid of Common Core. It was foisted on the states by Arne Duncan and Race to the Top, but the decision about whether to keep it, revise it, or abandon it belongs to the states, not the Feds.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’ll take this as good news. Thanks for letting us know. I’ve been 3 days sober since the election and now it might be 4.
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Take a stiff drink plenty more to come
The wife just made a coffee with Smbuca
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Thanks Diane for this Evers info. Slows down the angst a bit.
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Read Jonathan Chait to see that Trump most likely wants Eva Moskowitz. Don’t be fooled by any posts on Breitbart, the house propaganda organ of the Trump Presidency.
If someone can actually find anything pre-election where Trump supporters “oppose Michelle Rhee and Eva Moskowitz” I’d be shocked to see it.
My guess is that if it seemed like Trump’s supporters are overjoyed at this appointment — which I have no doubt they are — it hurts Eva Moskowitz’ PR efforts – not to mention being a complete slap in the face to the parents in her school who have been hearing nothing but ugly language from Trump for the last 6 months.
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I wonder how long Eva’s charters would survive without Eva.
Jonathan Chait is a great admirer of charters and Eva. He regularly goes after me on Twitter for questioning any charter. I have heard that his wife works for a charter school but I don’t know that for a fact.
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Never link to Breitbart, no matter what!
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FLERP…just checked it out for the first time ever…with trepidation. Yes, it is all the garbage we have heard…column on ‘ugly’ women and birth control by a young guy who writes many of their weird and imagined articles. Pure inaccurate and rude nonsense.
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Be careful. Its like a zombie virus
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UGH, the late Bob Grant, he was a hideous person, a pioneer of right wing hate radio. Racism and race baiting were part of his shtick. He would sneeringly refer to gays as the “double-gaited” ones, whatever that means.
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Is it a “kiss of death”?
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Breitbart is even more than before the PRAVDA of the Trump administration.
Would Breitbart need to print this article if the choice was Bill Evers – who may actually be somewhat reasonable? There wouldn’t be much of a story. In fact, this seems like a dog bites man story anyway so why would Breitbart bother?
My theory is that this non-newsworthy article is simply a set up. So when Trump nominates Eva Moskowitz or Michelle Rhee the propaganda will be that Trump “went against his alt right supporters” and showed independence.
It would be extremely hard for either of those women to accept an appointment by a man whose ugly rhetoric has enabled the alt right.
It’s an outright lie that “Trump supporters” would care one whit if Eva Moskowitz was appointed Secy of Education. He mentioned her name in the campaign and there was not one peep against it. She’s beloved by the right.
Let’s get real. This is propaganda. I have never seen a single derogatory thing written about those reform leaders by Trump’s supporters. They would all celebrate. This seems to be a plant so that the media will fall for the notion that one of these women going to work for Trump is anything but a complete endorsement of how he ran his campaign. He ran a racist and xenophobic campaign. And if one of those reformers accepts, it won’t be a sign that he regrets it at all. It will be their endorsement of it.
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^^What I mean here is that I assume that one of those women has been asked and wants badly to accept Trump’s offer. But both Moskowitz and Rhee know how much they would be reviled so the propaganda has to be that he is “going against” the alt right racists who he has pandered to for his entire campaigned.
Remember, Trump ALREADY said he would appoint Eva Moskowitz and there was absolutely no outcry. His supporters were all fine with it. She probably doesn’t want to accept unless she can control the narrative that it isn’t an endorsement of Trump’s nasty campaign.
And that’s the only purpose for Breitbart to run this piece.
Call me a cynic. But if one of those women is appointed, don’t be surprised at all. Especially when the media plays it as “look how great Trump is to stand up to the alt right”.
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i do not think Eva would take the job. She is used to being the head honcho at her sweatshop and is know to take orders from nobody. It would also set a bad precedent for all the teachers who work at her schools. (Eva makes working at her school a cult like commitment and to leave for anything else is deemed as treason in her world)
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Billy,
I don’t think there is a #2 in Eva’s organization. Also,she would lose a lot of salary. The Secretary doesn’t make $500,000 a year.
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I think you underestimate her desire for power. I think that’s far more appealing to her than a big salary.
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^^^”Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz met with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday at Trump Tower, a person with knowledge of the meeting told POLITICO New York.”
On Politico blog
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Sorry, Diane, but that’s a horrible compromise. What does it matter if he wants to do away with Common Core if he also wants to do away with public schools?
Talk about baby/bathwater. The enemy of your enemy is your friend is almost never true.
As far as I can tell “Common Core” consists of a standardized test. They wildly over-sold it as earth-shattering, like they do all their initiatives. Ohio has a version of it and our schools shouldered it like they shoulder every other ed reform mandate. They’re pretty resilient places, public schools.
Public schools will easily survive Common Core. They won’t survive another 4 or 8 years of committed privatizers no matter how much they claim to adhere to “federalism”.
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Chiara,
I would certainly not support anything that undermines public schools. It is up to the states to decide whether they want to keep Common Core, not the U.S. Department of Education.
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We tried to get it on the ballot in Massachusetts – a thumbs-up from the AG, but
turned away by the MA State Supreme Court.
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correct! The history and trajectory of education reform after A Nation at Risk is clear.
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They won’t nominate Rhee because she’s discredited and her husband’s problems are a political problem.
They adore Moskowitz in DC. They call her to Congress to expound on the lower classes all the time.
My bet would be Moskowitz. Not that it matters. It’ll be lock-step ed reformers in DC, as per usual. The echo chamber has no use for “traditionalists”. Not fashionable.
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Yep. And if so, her acceptance of it is nothing more than an endorsement of his racist, sexist and xenophobic campaign.
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How funny is it that Donald Trump is supposed to be this hero of the heartland and so many of his people come out of NYC.
It’s just nuts. This is the NYC Presidency. Who would have predicted that?
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Sessions and Cruz and so many others are not from NYC. So do you mean a (((NYC))) presidency?
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Some satisfaction that Chris “thank you sir, may I have another” Christie is being forced out with his cronies. Apparently,Christie prosecuted Trump’s son-in-law’s dad. The downside is the Trump family will be running the Whitehouse when Donald gets bored or is busy twittering.
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He wants he children to have secret clearance. Nobody voted for them, and the fact that so many voted for Trump is endlessly disturbing.
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From the Breitbart article, “the corruption and cronyism within the education reform swamp”. I’ve never heard it said better.
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TC,
Would a swamp creature drain the swamp?
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absolutely. Vouchers for all. Private schools will never have to be transparent. Problem solved
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I’ve often thought that since Trump’s “business” sense has apparently been founded upon a self-directed opportunism, he will see only logic in allowing any who would plunder and profit from public money to have their way.
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Probably not. Most likely a lot more ed reform swampiness and pterodactyls overhead.
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Common Core or not… we are in for scary public education times as vouchers are the “next greatest” thing under Trump as he seeks privatization of education. While Trump cannot just declare the end of common core, he certainly can organize the same kind of Duncanesque style of systematically starving schools of federal monies unless they do “x”, “y” and “z” and this could include vouchers (thumbs down), end of common core (yeah on this one) and further erosion of unions (ughh)! And of course the path to x, y and z will be systematically and steadfastly orchestrated as in Duncan’s administration for forcing common core and RTTT initiatives on the nation’s school systems.
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Can I get a voucher?
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What would you like for me to vouch for you? At your service!
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Can I get a drink?
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The ed reform “debate” on Trump isn’t about public schools at all.
It’s about HOW to replace public schools completely- they’re arguing whether Trump will hurt the movement by privatizing too quickly:
“To avoid choice becoming permanently polarized and associated with right-wing politics, scholars and advocates need to fight new programs that don’t promote quality and accountability. They need to advocate for policies that promote cooperative problem solving among school providers, including districts in cities where thousands of students still attend traditional public schools. They need to continue to support efforts to address equitable access for students with disabilities and other special needs. They need to also proactively maximize the effectiveness and accountability of any private voucher/scholarship and education savings account proposals.”
The only mention of public schools is how to avoid harm to the children in public schools while they switch to charters and vouchers.
In a way it’s good, right? That was the goal all along and now we’ll finally have a debate about it. Trump exposes what was going on anyway.
“Improving public schools” was never part of this. They’re quibbling over the details of how to wind down and eliminate public schools.
They’ll reach agreement with Trump. The only issue is one of regulation- greater or less regulation of a privatized system. The “privatized system” part has already been decided.
http://www.crpe.org/thelens/will-new-administration-love-school-choice-death?platform=hootsuite
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Great link Chiara!
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Isn’t Rhee a registered lobbyist? That should theoretically disqualify her from serving in a Trump administration.
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Rhee a registered lobbyist? Maybe for Scott’s Miracle-Gro
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Thank you for keeping us aware of what is currently happening with this dilemma from the election… I hope our children who rely on a relevant and developmentally appropriate public school education do not pay the price…
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To his credit, Bill Evers believes in the value of teaching history and dislikes the mutant concoction known as “social studies”. If anything proves the importance of teaching 20th Century history, it’s the fact that so few Americans recognize the parallels between the Trumpistas and the Nazis. You cannot re-cognize something unless you’ve “cognized” it at some prior time. That’s where good history lectures come in.
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Could not disagree more about Bill Evers. I guess you weren’t in CA in the mid ’90s.
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ponderosa–so true! “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” &–
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
-George Santayana, 1863-1952, Spanish-born, American-educated (he grew up in the U.S., & considered himself an American) philosopher, essayist, poet & novelist.
(I’ve been looking up variations on Burke’s 18th century quote–posted comments in earlier blog post about John Oliver’s show.) In any event, history is NOT to be dismissed
in the scheme of things! And, to that end, infinite thanks to Diane for sharing her know-
ledge of educational history through her books, writings &, of course, this blog.
Through reading her work, we have been enabled to fight the fight that we must.
Facts matter!
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