A few people have written to say that I should ignore Trump and focus on education.
I have explained that it is impossible to do that because Trump wants to destroy public education. He has chosen a Secretary of Education who has no experience in public schools, never attended them, never sent her children to them, views them with contempt. She is an evangelical Christian and a billionaire. She wants to use the schools to spread her religion. She has spent millions of dollars on political candidates who share her views. She will inflict immense harm on public education, which is a central feature of our democratic society.
Trump himself is a product of military school and private school. His own children attended a private school (The Hill School) where the tuition is $50,000 a year. He doesn’t want that kind of elite education for other people’s children. He wants federal education funds to be used to put children into charter schools, cybercharters, and religious schools.
No high-performing nation in the world has privatized its public schools. Every child should have access to a great public school, no matter where they live or what their zip code. Every child should have access to a school with small classes and experienced teachers; to beautiful facilities and an excellent curriculum; to schools with arts classes staffed by arts teachers; to libraries with qualified librarians; to schools that value play, imagination and creativity more than test scores; to schools and teachers dedicated to the development of every child.
In the Trump-DeVos era, public education won’t be wiped out completely, but it will certainly be seriously weakened. Education spending will be flat or reduced, and public schools will be forced to cut funding, lay off teachers, lose electives, and increase class sizes. Public schools will be starved because they will have no priority in the Trump years. The absurdity of this approach to federal policy should be obvious since there is no evidence to support it and clear evidence from Chile and Sweden that free-market policies fail in education. Trump and DeVos could look closer to home–Detroit, Milwaukee, New Orleans, D.C.–to see that school choice produces segregation and inequity, not better education.
Trump is a menace to democratic values (small d). By his appointments, Trump has shown his disdain for science, knowledge, research, evidence, and even for the people who voted for him. He is a demagogue. Period.
Let me be clear: If you admire Trump, this is not the blog for you. I will be unsparing in my critique of education policies that harm children, teachers, or public schools. It is impossible to think or talk about a “better education for all,” when we have a president who believes in privatization, disparages science, and cares not at all for equity or excellence.,
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Having lived in Michigan a good part of my life, I know the West Michigan evangelical cabal … and, for what it’s worth, Betsy’s bro is Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater. These people are self-centered and cruel. Religiously, DeVos is a Christian Reconstructionist – hoping to bring to America the evangelical version of Sharia Law. And the bottom line for all them – how to put more money into their own pockets, and if others can’t make it, it’s because they have character defects or god has willed their failure. DeVos opposes public education for two reasons: 1) it’s public, and 2) it’s education. She must not be allowed to get her hands on America’s future.
seconded
When the evangelical mega churches get vouchers or set up charter schools, the communities’ traditional denominations will suffer the final blow to their existence. The leadership of Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc. churches, should observe the handwriting on the wall and protect their faithful and their commitment to God and Christ’s teachings, by opposing evangelical church dominance. They should join with minority faith leaders like Jewish rabbis in opposing vouchers and charter schools. Convincing one’s self that evangelicals will teach religious tolerance is foolhardy.
Many Orthodox Jews favor vouchers.
There are different Jewish denominations, even within the Orthodox, and the Orthodox are only a small segment of the American Jewish population. (Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared, are Modern Orthodox.) Most of the Orthodox Jews who favor vouchers do so because they prefer to send their kids to yeshivas, which are segregated, not co-ed and focus on religious studies. The Orthodox also tend to have many kids, so that can be quite expensive.
Many in other Jewish denominations, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist, do not favor vouchers. They constitute the largest population of Jews in America and they prefer to send their children to public schools. Their kids attend religious schools on a part time basis, such as after school and on the weekends.
And just as there are different “denomonations” of Judaism, even Orthodox Judaism (if Ivanka Trump were Haredi she’d look very different in public), so not all evangelicals are alike, and I suspect that many, if not most of those who see white evangelicals as a monolith are indulging in their own willful ignorance. According to the Pew Research institute, 16% of white evangelicals who voted voted for Hillary Clinton. As for Christian Reconstructionists, a.k.a. Dominionists, neither term is a synonym for evangelical. There’s always been a tendency in Reformed Christianity to want to subordinate society to biblical standards, starting with Calvin’s Geneva, but Dominionism takes that desire to lengths not seen since Calvin’s Geneva or Puritan New England. The movement’s founders were R.J. Rushdoony and his son-in-law Gary North, and anyone who wants to toss around those terms should first read up on the movement for as long as they can stand – some of what this movement stands for can curl your hair.
Betsy DeVos may be a Reconstructionist after all, but until I know more about that claim it seems to me like so much crying wolf.
Not that there isn’t a wolf at the door – Trump and the Trumpistas are wolfish enough to make me sick at heart, and it’s a struggle for me not to fold up in despair. I just want to point out that this is no rerun of the government-aid-to-parochial-schools controversy that took place in the early 60’s. It’s
worse, and it deserves as close a look as we can take at it. Thank you again, Dr. Ravitch.
Well said…I share your view. Laboutin shoes have never– will likely not in future– crossed the threshold,of a public school. Not only did I teach adults acquiring diplomas (not GEDs) but like Bob, attended one of best high schools in nation. Needed a threat to parents to be freed from auto-enrollment in Christian H.S. My Classmate started a foundation to entice alum to donate $ to give current kids advantages we took for granted during the years Thornton.had highest tax base in nation. Then a dive as auto parts moved out, crippling schools. Now, to step off soapbox into snowscape du jour.
Your thoughts echo those of a relative who lives in Grand Rapids. She noted that she has generally steered clear of politics, but that the DeVos nomination is a terrible idea.
Right on!
I applaud your rationale about exposing Donald Trump, a cancer on our country. I depend on your insight each time I read your blog.
You are my hero, Diane! Keep singing! We need your voice!!
Sincerely,
Lisa (a huge fan and follower)
Sent from my iPhone
>
Charter schools have been an abject failure here in NE Ohio. When I taught in the public schools as a special ed. teacher, we routinely received children who re-enrolled in our school from charters who could neither read nor write- at all! These were 5th grade students who, when asked to respond to a writing prompt, basically submitted gibberish. I had this experience time and again. It is a reality, not demagoguery or hyperbole. Charter schools basically warehouse special ed. children. The charters in our area were dismissive of parents who voiced concerns over their child’s inability to perform basic tasks. This was an inner city school; a district where, it is said, “parents do not care about their children,” which is non-sense. I could tell you a lot more, but time and space prohibit this.
Most charter schools are not about education, but simply a financial device to funnel public monies into private hands.
One addition those vouchers will be used to subside the education not only at Religious schools but those elite private schools and schools like New York Military Academy. Where the wealthy send there uncontrollable brats to get them out of their hair . Kind like getting a little something back from the taxes you avoid paying.
Edit: subsidize and kind of
When this blog focuses on Trump’s inhumanity, it serves to unite communities. It rallies parents, grandparents, teachers and other advocates for education. It enables the hope, that children of the 99%, can be protected. But, most importantly, it is inextricably linked to a firewall that is being built, against the rampant, personal greed that threatens America’s future.
Trump’s election brought a new chair to Ohio’s Republican party. She’s reflects the next generation, from the richest 0.1% families. Arrogant plutocrats, demanded an end to “community organizers flying the plane”. With the new pilots, the United Colonies of America are hurling toward the demise that Picketty predicted. The fight against that future has courageous leaders like Diane Ravitch.
As a public intellectual and educational authority, you MUST continue to speak out and educate! I rely on you to provide resources and commentary that I pass on to others!
I agree completely, Diane and thank you for your explanation. Trump represents such an existential threat to the entire concept of free, universal, K-12 public education that your emphasis on him and his abysmal choices for his cabinet is absolutely justified and most commendable. Please keep it up as needed in this challenging period ahead. Together, we can all mitigate the very worst parts of this man’s illegitimate and terrible “presidency.”
I agree. You cannot ignore Trump. Politics is linked to what happens in education and the two must be looked at together.
________________________________
Spot on! Keep blogging!! He is a menace to public education!
Trump is going to effect everything we do in education. His appointees will destroy public schools They will attempt to change what we teach. They will attack teachers and their unions. They will destroy the teachers pensions and other opportunities for full careers which will kill the profession. They will bleed public schools dry as they fund their hedge fund backed Charter Schools.
Donald Trump has already & will continue to cause NOTHING but CHAOS in everything he touches. We have just lived through decades of systemic destruction of public education, harming our children and crippling our beloved profession. In disbelief, we could never fathom that it could get any worse – well, it has, MUCH WORSE! It is the END with Trump, DeVos and an army of endless money grubbing Billionaires.
We better FIGHT & FIGHT LIKE HELL!
Smart, educated, decent, stable, kind, ethical, caring, brave, motivated, fearless, honest, mature, protective, selfless, dedicated….adults in America MUST SPEAK UP!
This is no longer about Dems & GOP. This is about the MOST harmful man with endless power & BILLIONAIRES who has a LONG HISTORY of getting what he wants, when he wants it & RETALIATES with laser precision.
We better FIGHT & FIGHT LIKE HELL!
Thanks you Diane & all those who will not give up to do the right thing.
Thank you Diane. I appreciate the knowledge you share with our community.
Brava!!
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
I couldn’t agree more….keep sending out your posts!!!
If you have school-age kids you should read this and be very worried. Of course, if you voted for Trump you won’t. To you Ravitch isn’t the most learned education expert in the land, she’s a shill. Yes, a shill for the word ‘public’ in the phrase ‘public education’. Instead, a rich socialite, reactionary woman who never stepped foot in a public school and who thinks it’s okay to give your tax money to religious institutions, will be your child’s spokesperson. In your hatred and ignorance you have consigned your children to a lesser education. I hope they thank you appropriately one day. Those who know better will certainly be thanking you for eliminating their child’s competition.
“I have explained that it is impossible to do that because Trump wants to destroy public education.”
But so did Obama. At least, that was the effect of his policies. And Hillary would have continued those same policies.
Anyway, I don’t have a problem with your discussing Trump in relation to specific policies or appointments, etc. My problem has been the hysteria surrounding Trump and the alleged “Russia hacked the election!!!” meme. Any skepticism of such hysteria is automatically met with accusations of being a “Trump troll” or “in love with Putin” or some other juvenile accusation.
The fact remains that there is no evidence for Russian involvement in the U.S. election at all. All we have is the word of various intelligence agencies that have very long and ugly histories of lying, manipulating, infiltrating, assassinating, overthrowing and just generally being wrong (WMD in Iraq, anyone?). These intelligence officials and reports have given us no evidence, just a lot of “trust us on this”. Sorry, I don’t trust people with a history of lying. Guess I’m strange that way. I’m certainly willing to believe the story, but I need to see evidence first. And, no, that doesn’t make me “hostile” to the notion or “terrified” of it, just skeptical.
In any case, even if it is proven that the Russians hacked the DNC server, this does not mean that they hacked the election (meaning, that the Russians manipulated the vote tallies in any way). Not even the intelligence services are making that claim. If anything, whoever hacked the DNC emails did us a favor by letting us know of the corruption and cronyism at the highest level of one of the only two parties allowed to control our elections. The emails were genuine – there is no evidence that anything in them was forged or altered. In fact, the only “evidence” for forgery came from a fake “Hillary speech to Goldman Sachs” that was (a) never part of the Wikileaks release and (b) created by a Hillary fan ( https://theintercept.com/2016/12/09/a-clinton-fan-manufactured-fake-news-that-msnbc-personalities-spread-to-discredit-wikileaks-docs/ ).
By all means, we absolutely should oppose any harmful policies that the Trump administration tries to pass, just as we should have been doing for Obama and should have continued doing had Hillary been elected. But please stop being fooled by the propaganda (or “counter-propaganda” as it’s being called). Please read Glenn Greenwald, even if you don’t like him. His pieces are carefully documented and supported. If you can argue with his facts, I’m all ears. But “he’s a “Trump stooge” or a “Putin lover” is just ridiculous considering the vast evidence against such accusations in his own writings.
Those who understand McCarthyism recognize what’s happening here. Any dissent or even skepticism is being labeled “Russian propaganda” as an attempt to silence dissent and marginalize critics. And it’s a very dangerous game. At this point, the only way that Trump could prove that he’s not in league with the Russians would be to escalate tensions with Russia. Any attempt to work with the world’s only other superpower will automatically be seen as being “in bed with Putin”. Do we really want to put someone as unstable as Trump in such a position?
Trump is #Putinspuppet and he proved it during his campaign.
Of course, Putin is a wonderful fellow. Even Joe McCarthy would have loved him. He has accumulated billions of dollars. His best friends are all billionaires but if they turn against him–as the owner of Yukon, the privatized state oil company did–then he takes away their billions and locks them in jail for years. He orders dissidents to be murdered, by lethal injection or poison or an old-fashioned gunshot to the head.
He once said that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century. He hates NATO and would dearly love to break it up. Trump has already said that he has no allegiance to NATO.
What do you think that Trump saw or heard when he met with the CIA? Something pretty persuasive. He came out acknowledging the role of the Russians but insisted that what they could not have influenced his victory.
Maybe the CIA should arrange a private viewing for you.
Dienne,
Make no mistake. Greenwald doesn’t endorse Trump at all. He said that Trump’s use of twitter as the most credible source is extremely dangerous to our democracy.
Dienne,
You are making claims about Hillary Clinton that Bernie Sanders didn’t make. Your characterization of her — which by the way other Americans believed because of the Russians but they needed people like you on the left to confirm — is nothing like what Bernie Sanders believes she is.
You don’t trust the CIA. You don’t trust Bernie Sanders. You just know she is corrupt and the entire DNC is corrupt so whatever.
That’s how Hitler came to power. People ignored who he was for their own reasons or anger. The desire to get rid of money in politics and politics for the powerful is important and I agree with you and would join you in the fight. But only if we live in a democracy.
That’s why investigating Watergate was so important — it was a blatant attempt to use illegal means to thwart democracy and the campaign knew about it. Did Trump’s campaign have any contacts with Putin?
The irony of the Hillary-haters knowing she is corrupt because of speeches and not actions, while giving a pass to what is obviously a very special relationship between Putin and Trump based on billions in debt, Trump’s business dealings with Russians who seem to make their own laws needs to be brought to light.
For me, it’s very difficult to weed through the politics to find your education postings. I used to read every post. Now I give up and tune out of a lot of what you post. I hope I’m not missing anything important especially with state legislatures reconvening.
Absolutely!!
If Diane and other bloggers do not speak up against Donnie Boy Trump and Pretty Betsy DeVos then who will. People who love Trump would love to shut up Diane and others who do the same work. Donnie Boy does not like people who tell the truth. Truth, ethics, and morality are words Donnie Boy cannot spell or know what they mean much less live up to the meanings.
20 January will be a very sad day in America.
Diane, I follow you with great zeal but rarely post. You are an excellent source for keeping us aware of how terrible things are for public education. I am a retired teacher but have grandchildren currently in public schools and I fear that they will be hurt, along with so many other children who are being cheated by Trump, DeVos and all their supporting cast in the destruction of public education. It’s scary time for education in America and we need you to help us through it all and, hopefully, someday defeat the war on our children in public schools. Keep on sharing with us because we need you to help us wade through all the “stuff” going on. Thank you!
Thank you, Lucy.
We will outlive him, outlast him, outthink him, survive him.
Oh my gosh, I love your comment. It is so appropriate and I’ll make that my mantra to calm me down during the next few years when I am totally frustrated by what’s happening.
I dearly hope you’re right, Dr. Ravitch. But it took a world war to unseat the strongmen in Germany and Italy.
“WWII to defeat him” Which nation is going to fill the role that the U.S. had, in defeating Hitler?
I cannot imagine how one writes about education policy without discussing the President of the United States, particularly when that President, even before he has assumed office, has signalled his motive to destroy public education as it has existed in our country since Horace Mann.
So I don’t know how people who desire to separate policy analysis from the actions of policy makers can possibly be serious–or expect to be taken seriously.
Neither do I, markstextterminal.
Keep on, Diane. I thank you.
Trump’s pick of Betsy DeVos is disastrous, not only because of her stance on religion in schools, but also for her support of charter schools – have you and Keith Olbermann both forgotten that, Dr. Ravitch? For both these reasons she’s a perfect example of a fox put in charge of the henhouse.
Put in charge of it by you-know-who, who is no good for a free and informed society, as your post explains. He loves the uneducated – not them but their state of uneducation – and he seems to want to keep them in that state throughout their voting life.
Dr. Ravitch, I think your political flip-flop, or Damascene conversion, is mostly media hype. You were always for the integrity of education, whether the chief threat to it came from the left or from the right.
Phenomenol blog post!!!
About 30 years ago, Patrick Shannon, in response to educators who said they didn’t want to get involved in politics, stated that teaching is a political act by its very nature. Those words ring even more true today. For the past 8 years, Diane has had no compunction about calling out Obama on his many faux pas, education and otherwise. Why would we expect her to not follow suit with the president-elect? Especially given the impending fiasco he will inflict across the board, not just in education. So Diane, please do continue to…”rage, rage against the dying of the light…”
Well put, Priscilla!
Agreed. Great comment.
The New Republic weighs in on DeVos as Secretary of Education:
“When it comes to the Democrats’ alternative agenda, Ravitch has a few ideas in her most recent book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. One of the most important recommendations is often given short shrift in education debates: ‘Provide the medical and social services that poor children need to keep up with their advantaged peers.’ Why not have doctors, nurses, or health clinics in every school to keep students healthy? Why not have enrichment programs after school and over summer vacation, when the risk of the ‘summer slide’—losing academic gains from the previous year—is particularly pronounced for the most disadvantaged students?
Democrats can tout policies like these as part of a broader anti-poverty agenda. And once and for all, Democrats can let the GOP own testing tedium and teacher-trashing. Make Republicans the sole defenders of schooling as a market commodity, not an enlightened egalitarian ideal. Actually give the American people a clear alternative. That is the ‘school choice’ we really need.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/139071/can-democrats-save-public-schools-trump-devos?utm_content=buffer51c58&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
I think you should s tick to the knitting of public education is all about.
None of your readers will ever support Trump and Co.
“None of your readers. . . ”
But some will be accused of being THETrumpster’s and by extension Putin’s play things.
“But some will be accused of being THETrumpster’s and by extension Putin’s play things.”
I for one am happy that the US could have good relations with Russia. It should also have good relations with China. It doesn’t matter who leads these countries. The leaders are not the country.
Excellent commentary, Máté. Thanks!
Mate,
I hope that Putin doesn’t want to reoccupy Hungary. Or Poland. Or Romania. Or Latvia. Or Lithuania. Or Estonia.
Well, bad things happen to small countries exactly when the superpowers’ politicians act tough against each other. That’s exactly when walls are built, Olympics are boycotted, weapons get moved closer to borders as paranoia settles in, and at the end, the differences are settled in a war on third party territory, not on homeland, while endlessly arguing, which one is right or wrong.
Mate,
So if we back off, Putin can move back into Hungary? It is quite a prize. Not our problem. Why should we care. I was starting college in 1956 when many young Hungarians arrived after the failed rebellion. I hope we accept many more next time.
“So if we back off, Putin can move back into Hungary? ”
Why is this a straightforward implication? Are we the maintainer of peace in Eastern Europe, and without us, Putin would run it over?
In any case, maintaining an appropriate dialogue is not backing off at all. That Trump doesn’t seem to entertain the knee-jerk American fear of the Russians is a good sign, but if Putin and Trump become too friendly, they may decide to go out to have a beer and divide up the World among themselves.
So no paranoia or friendship, please.
Past US Cuban politics is a perfect example of irrational politics, and it may very well be that Cuba has more to fear from Trump than Hungary from Putin.
Also, at this point the US is causing more anxiety in Eastern Europe than Putin by trying to move nuclear weapons there, causing my parents’ generation to recall the missile crisis, but now in the “other direction”.
Romania was an ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but it never hosted nuclear weapons during that period. Stationing tactical US nuclear weapons close to Russia’s borders is likely to infuriate Russia and lead to an escalation. The stationing of Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962 was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/us-moves-nuclear-weapons-from-turkey-to-romania/
Reportedly, similar efforts are under way in Hungary. At least this is what many people told me in the summer. Hungary so far refused, but you cannot trust politicians not making a deal against the people’s wishes.
In the 60s when my family moved to Illinois, Nike missiles were stationed on the western border of our town. I remember a Sunday drive by the station in hopes of seeing the missiles. Apparently, they periodically checked to make sure they could raise them out of their bunkers (they didn’t look like silos, rather like bulkhead doors). Sunday, after church, must have been the time, at least for awhile. I wasn’t old enough at the time to realize they made us a potential target. Stationing nuclear weapons near Russia does seem like a stupid idea. I thought we had enough long distant fire power to destroy the earth without sitting in their backyard.
With all due respect to Clifford Boldt, “I think you should stick to the knitting of public education is all about (sic). None of your readers will ever support Trump and Co.”
As a nationally respected authority on public education, speaker, and author of multiple books, this is one of Diane’s platforms. One can no longer talk about public education without talking about Trump and DeVos. Their policies on vouchers, privatization and indoctrination threaten to destroy public education for all. If that happens, we will lose the very values upon which our nation was founded in the first place, and with it, we will lose our democracy.
I hope you continue to call out Trump on his education policies and thank you for the exhausting work you do. Thank you for being our voice.
Eight years ago, the nation wanted to congratulate itself on breaking a color barrier, and electing a black man. Even though teachers in Chicago were alarmed to hear that Arne Duncan (and not Linda Darling-Hammond, Obama’s ed advisor during the campaign) was his pick for Secretary of Education–most American educators wanted to see Duncan as a moderate choice, and went with the program.
People in my graduate classes (I was in a doc program around Ed Policy at the time), and my fellow teachers, wanted to see Duncan as progressive. I attended a banquet for Teachers of the Year, shortly after he was confirmed, and he made a speech calling public education the “civil rights issue of the new millennium.”
The next couple of years were painful–a recognition that Obama was taking education advice from the uber-wealthy Democrats for Ed Reform. Policy went from terrible and punitive to worse than terrible and more competitive. And it took time perceive this and to get organized to counter the “surprise” that Obama had outsourced his ed policy to a cadre of hedge fund managers. In the summer of 2011, the first Save Our Schools rally was organized. By then, a great deal of harmful policy–the whole RTTT package, spread in bits and pieces around the country–had been passed.
Writing about Trump and education policy NOW–before he takes office and his grotesquely dangerous Secretary of Ed is confirmed–is precisely the right thing to do. In fact, any education writer who in NOT intensely focused on Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos, vouchers and charters (which are degrees of the same initiative) and genuinely public education has their head in the sand.
Thank you, Nancy.
We learned after the fact that DFER recommended Arne Duncan to Obama.
nflanagan,
Awhile back, you wrote, at this blog, about NNSTOY and Gates funding. Updating, the organization received $1 mil.
I’d describe the current site as Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
You’re right, Linda. I have written more about NNSTOY accepting $ from Gates and promoting reformy policies, including the link below. What NNSTOY does is highlight TOYs–they’re behind a bill to require that a TOY be consulted before passing any education bill. Well, hey–I’m a former TOY, but TOYs (especially early after receiving the award) have no special policy knowledge. In fact, many of them get used by well-heeled education initiatives as spokespersons because they have an impressive title and a fresh face.
Don’t get me wrong–TOYS are almost always incredible, creative practitioners. But Ed Policy World is a different place, and it’s easy to get wrapped up in thinking you’re supporting something valuable (like Arne Duncan as “civil rights leader”) when you’re being fooled by grant-funded rhetoric or partisan allegiance.
Now, NNSTOY has asked its members not to write negative things about the incoming administration, linking State TOYS to resistance against Trump. Read more here:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2016/11/safetypin_thanksgiving.html
All true and more. Like the rest of Trump’s nominations, DeVos’ main qualification is her hatred of the department she is to head. Such people are being installed (billionaires and generals) to dismantle social programs which took generations to build and further enrich themselves and Wall Street. DeVos was responsible for the laws enabling charters in the State of Michigan, which have the highest percentage of for-profit management groups in the nation, she threw millions of dollars into the pot to effect the shutdown of the Detroit Public Schools (174 years in the making) and its redesign into a charter-friendly, business-ready operation which was shorted of adequate funding and under the thumb of a Financial Review Commission of big businesses.
DeVos’ anti-democratic ideology is thorough-going. Look up Andrew Kuyper, her acknowledged inspiration, who specifically opposed the French Revolution’s principles of liberty, equality and fraternity–principles upon which the US was founded. These people represent a social counterrevolution.
Keep at it, Diane! We cannot ignore Trump. Most people ignored what Obama and his neo-liberal minions on both sides of the aisle did to public education and that’s why we have so many sub-standard, minimally regulated, privatized boot camp charters now. It can only get worse if we ignore the GOP, since they’ll be running the show in all three branches of government and that’s the party where Milton Friedman’s neo-liberal economics and concepts of vouchers and privatization originated.
Now Trump wants federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements, as if they’re his personal employees. That is an end run around potential whistle blowers.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/275001-trump-calls-for-federal-employees-to-sign-nondisclosure-agreements
Welcome to the new American autocracy, where you must pledge your loyalty to our authoritarian leader –who believes that by law he never has any conflicts of interest.
Anyone who still thinks that Putin’s meddling in our election is a hoax, there is plenty of evidence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/top-us-cyber-officials-russia-poses-a-major-threat-to-the-countrys-infrastructure-and-networks/2017/01/05/36a60b42-d34c-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html
Even Trump admitted to the Russian involvement after attending an intelligence briefing the other day, though according to his crystal ball, that didn’t effect the election results
It doesn’t get much scarier than this. We absolutely must do all that we can to resist!
It’s your blog; write about what you want and feel is necessary to share for good of the country and our public schools.
Thank you, Diane, for all of your comments inside and outside of “education posts.” I live in Orin Hatch where news is steeped in propaganda. I am thankful for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Salt Lake Tribune (mostly), PBS and you. I am thankful for facts and your views based on history.
Should have read “I live in Orin Hatch land…” and, I should have added…where legislators’ actions do not reflect education as a priority.
Donna: We need to call Orrin Hatch and talk to him. He needs to realize that DeVos’ vouchers for fundamentalist Christian schools, or Catholic schools, will do huge damage to Mormon kids. If those kids can even get into those schools, their faith will be denigrated, because neither fundamentalist Christian schools, nor many Catholic schools, consider Mormons to be Christian. And it won’t just be Mormons, either, but many other minority faiths.
Dear Threatened Out West,
Your message is poignant. I will call, write, connect to my networks to carry your message to Mr. Hatch. Thank you.
The consensus among clergy in the ELCA, a mainstream “liberal” denomination, is that Mormons are not Christians. It’s not just the fundamentalists.
“Mormons are not Christians. It’s not just the fundamentalists.”
In fact, they are. Just hear what they talk about on Sundays, what books they read—not to mention which religious group is first to help after hurricanes or floods, indicating, Mormons don’t just preach compassion but act. My impression is, Christians are notoriously unreliable in defining who is Christian and who is not—it sometimes takes centuries before they accommodate a persistent group that wants to belong.
What is the ELCA?
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The ELCA is a “mainline” church body; the word “evangelical” is in its Reformation sense (“evangelisch” in German), not in the American sense (“evangelikal” in German.
Sorry about the lateness of this reply, but I never saw the ist of replies on this blog until today and since it was an accident, I don’t know how I’ll find it again 😦
Reform Jews also preach compassion and act on it, but does that make them Christians?
What makes Mormons not Christians is not their good deeds but their doctrine. They incorporate Jesus Christ into the official name for their church, but their teaching about God (who in Mormon teaching used to be a man but was “promoted” to godhood, as any Mormon man might be, and who still has a physical body), about Jesus (Jesus is a deity other than God and is the brother of Satan. Mormons and Christians also differ on sin and salvation, and anthropology. The differences between Mormon doctrine and historical Christianity is so vast as to dwarf any differences within the Christian confessional tradition – of religions in which Jesus figures, only Valentinian Gnosticism diverges so widely from Christianity, even more so than Islam.
Yeah, these are gigantic differences about the non-verifiable world which warranted their prosecution and has justified their exclusion. My understanding is that the greatest outrage is the Mormon claim that Jesus visited America.
Luther, Husz were similarly treated for their differing beliefs. But we got used to those permissive differences and they don’t look so sizeable in the perspective created by half a millennium.
http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/religion-miscellaneous/difference-between-mormons-and-christians/
Keep at it, Diane! We have to relentlessly — relentlessly! —focus on what Trump’s minion’s are up to, especially in regard to We the People’s public’s schools, and what castaway5555 posted above is so succinctly right on the mark: “DeVos is a Christian Reconstructionist – hoping to bring to America the evangelical version of Sharia Law. And the bottom line for all them – how to put more money into their own pockets.” Amen.
It always makes sense to identify the root of the problems, and just staying at the public school level would not be effective. So Trump is at a pretty good level for attack. But, imo, the real root of the problem is how the billionaires manipulate policies. I think it’s worthwhile to really try to see how this manipulation works exactly. Yeah, we hear about money given to politicians, but what would be useful is to read about the billionaires’ reasoning, philosophy and what they tell politicians.
Something along the line of “Here, I donate $1 million to your campaign, and in return, I want you to support Success Academy. This means that you should say …. and give interviews only to …., but never say explicitly…..”
Or: Gates says “I want the Foundation to set up a fake online newspaper Chalkbeat with reporters in the following states where public education is badly supported:…. It’s crucial that Chalkbeat’s support of reformists like us is not apparent. At the same time, I want the foundation to start channeling more and more money to NPR, and support broadcasts about charter schools. Again, this needs to be done cautiously, so that listeners won’t suspect a thing. Here is my concrete advice….”
Since we see leaked videos about charter schools, interviews with ex Success Academy teachers, it would be great to start seeing leaked data, reports, videos on billionaires’ locker room talks.
Now that Trump is president, his business dealings and practices are getting exposed. The same should happen with the other billionaires: their weird narcissism or downright messianic views of themselves. Let’s try to find unhappy ex Walmart executives, people who sued Walmart, Microsoft, etc. Let’s expose the secret culture of the billionaires by quoting them directly.
Diane, you rock!
If we lose public education, we will lose our democracy.
Most of the funding that supports public schools comes from the states and not the federal government. In California, for instance, about 10 percent of the public money that supports California’s public schools comes from the federal government.
How much of an impact the administration of Littlefingers Donald Trump has in the destruction of the highly successful public education system in the United States will depend on how many states cave to the blackmail and bribery that Besty DeVos will use to achieve her draconian, greed-is-great, your child will be brainwashed into my religious the-earth-is-flat dogma agenda as she ushers in an age that may rival the Catholic Church’s Inquisitions during the Dark Ages of Europe.
Lloyd, let’s not forget that deep blue New York caved in to Obama-Duncan for RTTP monies and because of it the students, teachers and parents have been suffering ever since.
Obama-Duncan stripped local school boards of authority over testing and teacher evaluation.
Obama gave us Duncan and King on a national level.
The Democrats have a pretty terrible record on education. Patty Murray insisted that some of the worst aspects of NCLB be kept intact in the new law.
I agree that Trump and DeVos are scary on education. But, there is too much revisionism going on her. The Democrats have been awful both in New York and nationally.
Fed Up Teacher, I don’t think we are forgetting the destruction caused by the Obama administration and the DFER people. We are just focusing on what trumpism is likely to do. While we can’t ignore how DFER ends up interpreting the trumpist policy, right now we have to focus on what is going to happen if we are not on top of things. Sometimes the call to remember what the Democrats did sounds like a call to do penance and let the Republicans have a running start on continuing the destruction. ” The Democrats did these horrible things, so why shouldn’t we let the Republicans double down on the worst of Obama’s policy?”
I have heard from several foreigners that Americans seem to be the first ones to enumerate their country’s faults in the face of any compliments. We are the first to point out our sins, but the “Make America Great Again” meme really grates on my nerves; my first reaction is when was that? That being said, we have and still do, for many, represent a “beacon of hope” and a chance to better oneself through hard work. There are certainly plenty of people who can attest to that. I don’t think Trump represents any of the values that created that sense of opportunity nor do any of his policies promote making that promise/hope a reality for the everyday American he pretended to represent. I think Obama found it much harder than he thought it would ever be to turn his dreams into reality and from my point of view took the wrong path on some policy decisions, especially education. Trump has done nothing and said nothing that would make me have the slightest glimmer of hope that he has any intention of being a president for the people. I am not going to waste my time bemoaning Obama’s mistakes at the expense of resisting Trump.
Bravo!
Bravo.
Hi Diane,
Love your blog. I too deplore Trump and DeVos. My only quibble with your post is that you cite the fact that Ms. Devos is an “evangelical Christian” as, seemingly, one of the reasons that we should oppose her nomination. Being an evangelical Christian myself, I take exception to this.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you, John Duffy,
I respect other people’s religions. I don’t respect when people try to push their theology on others. My philosophy is live and let live. My religion is not better than yours.
The reason Betsy DeVos should be opposed on grounds of religion is because she’s a theocrat. Not because she’s an evangelical Christian.
Thank you, Diane…please keep up the important work you do…We cannot become complacent…You keep us informed, and I rely and learn from you….But take care of yourself…You do not carry the weight of this on your shoulders…Your health and well being should be priorities…blessings
WATCH THIS. IT NAILS TRUMP. https://www.facebook.com/gq/videos/10155623514558098/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
I don’t know, Susan. Dick Cheney scared me more. George W was scary too, but I really was worried what would have happened if he had choked on that piece chicken bone, and Cheney took over.
As your video suggests, I somehow think that if Trump behaves too crazy, he’ll be removed. Nobody would have removed Cheney.
I think the difference is that Trump simply cannot hide his crazy ideas. He’ll even tweet them.
Mate, you are very naive.
Why aren’t the Republicans taking the time to vet Trump’s appointees? Why would they break all precedent for the last 40 years and rush through nomination hearings if they had any plan to be a check on his power?
It almost makes you believe that the Russians are blackmailing Mitch McConnell. It is beyond shocking that he trusts Trump more than any previous President do the degree that he is happy to relinquish the Senate’s oversight.
Why would he check Trump in the future if he can’t be bothered to follow precedent right now?
“Why would he check Trump in the future if he can’t be bothered to follow precedent right now?”
I can think of two contradictory reasons.
1) Right now, all the GOP sees is the good deals they get with these cabinet nominations. The wakeup call will come later.
2) They want to destroy Trump, they want to let Trump to expose himself, and possibly, they want the far right to fail which was getting stronger recently. There’s no other way to influence Trump fans, but let Trump dig his own grave. So the GOP lets the Trump cabinet act out their fantasies for now, and they trust that Congress will have enough power to intervene when things get too out of control.
But I do agree, I am naive, and this is why I am not a politician or CEO. 🙂
It is time to finally ignore “school reform” & all the failures that waste so much of teacher’s time & energy. Let’s start over with what we know. See Red Queen-Human Development Centers-(http://redqueen.me)
Please don’t listen to them Ms. Ravitch. We need you sooooooooo much! TY for all of your hard work. This parent, loves and appreciates ALL of your hardwork! xoxo
Sorry, the ELCA is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the USA’s largest Lutheran church body. “Evangelical” here refers to the Lutheran Reformation, not to American pietism. (German has two words for evangelical: “evangelisch” for the Reformation sense and “evangelikal” for the American sense; the ELCA is “evangelish.”)