This is pathetic. House Democrats formed a caucus to support public schools. To date, it has only 11 members. One of them, Jared Polis of Colorado, is one of the biggest supporters of charter schools in Congress. He started two charter schools himself. His family sold the Blue Mountain e-card business for $500 million. He is a favorite of DFER. A couple of years ago, Polis called me “an evil woman” on Twitter because of my advocacy for public schools.
Surely there must be more than 11 elected representatives in the House who support public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You confirmed my initial reaction. We need actions and sincere commitment, not more disingenuous grandstanding and hyperbole.
The caucus must be an arm of DFER.
Maybe we need a ‘Bernie type’ House member to make a public call for action??
Raul Grijalva is a true friend of public schools. He is from Arizona, where public schools that serve large numbers of Hispanic kids are underfunded while charters proliferate and make tons of money for their owners.
Agree with Diane about Grijalva. Only legit name I saw on the list. Note how they are all representatives where charters and DFER ideas flourish. As for Larisa’s remark, it strikes me that Jimmy Carter was the last president whose collective children and grandchildren attended public schools.
I plan to call my newly elected Congressman Pramila Jayapal, who is a strong public school supporter.
Atta girl.
Grassroots is the way. At “our Revolution” us Bernie supporters are at work supporting grassroots candidates in local elections, including on school boards. From the BOTTOM UP, is the way to do it, is the mission of the publisher at the site where I write.
WE must do it… there is no one coming to reduce us.
Yes, Susan, exactly. I decided quite awhile ago that the way to go was to support the local candidates, as you said, school boards on up.
As a fellow member of Washington’s 7th Congressional District, I’ll be doing the same. I had a long and detailed discussion with our new member of Congress, Representative Pramila Jayapal, and I can assure you that she COMPLETELY understands what is going on with this issue.
Rep. Jayapal made it crystal clear that she is a fierce and determined defender of our nation’s public schools, understands the extreme threat of vouchers and charters to our nation, and has pledged to resist it strongly. She went on to tell me that she sees this effort to undermine, discredit and phase out public schools as just ONE of many examples of a well-funded effort to PRIVATIZE every possible program and service that has been universally provided by the public sector for decades.
All we need are about 200 to 225 more members of Congress who have the intelligence, insight and integrity of Ms. Jayapal. That would give us a dramatically different nation tomorrow—regarding our K-12 public schools AND everything else currently under attack by a vastly wealthy, out-of-touch, ruling elite.
It will be difficult to locate representatives, who support public schools. Many of them send their children to elite, private schools.
See
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/08/a-public-school-paradox/495227/
And so many, including President Obama, apparently, seem to believe that it is actually their job to SAVE our children from having to attend that unspeakable entity: “public” schools.
Jared Polis is an interesting Congresman. He voted for tax cuts for the wealthy and congressional pay raises. He has never taken a position on gun control and was notably absent from the House Democrats sit-in protesting inaction on guns after the Orlando nightclub shooting. So much for gay rights for others. He invested in the start up of six charter schools, probably for a tax dodge, then walked away and let three of them fail. He advocates for computer-based education, privatization of public schools, and test-based accountability. I don’t know why Liberals keep voting for him. He’s a Republican!
Log Cabin Republican lite.
Or a Blue Dog “Democrat,” which amounts to the same thing.
hear, hear
Liberals in Boulder keep voting for him because he’s so stinking rich, nobody could defeat him. He bought his seat, defeating a strong, pro-labor Democrat, and it’s his now. He’s also a top money raiser for the Democrats, even though as you accurately note, he’s actually a Republican who happens to be openly gay. He’s passionate about Latino immigration, though. And gay rights…sometimes. I think he knows global warming is real. He sponsors local art prizes for students. He’s really awful, but unfortunately, he’s ensconced.
Boulder, Trust Fund Capitol of the U.S.
The pestilential grip of free market ideology on our politicians is staggering. With overwhelming evidence that it has been failing most Americans since St. Ronnie signed into law the very first tax cut for the wealthy on a foggy Simi Valley morning in August of 1981 (With the Orwellian title of “Economic Recovery Tax Act”), pols on both sides have been continuing to drink the Kool-Aid of Hayek and the Chicago School. As a result, the resultant billionaire class, through their 501c3 and 501c4 tax deductible organizations, have been the real Black Hand or Invisible Hand calling the shots in our government. Jane Meyer’s meticulously and extensively researched book, “Dark Money,” should be a textbook for how the delusions of right wing arrogance and thinking have created the conditions for utter serfdom and wage-slavery. We are many, they are few, sure. But let’s all of us pool our money together, we still don’t match them, not even close.
Well stated! Universities must have been captured by free market ideology over the last thirty years. Robert Reich is one of the only economists that has seen through the market scam and the income inequality produced in devotion to the “free market”.
I shouldn’t have written ‘delusions,’ billionaires know EXACTLY what they’re doing and their immense wealth has totally warped and distorted their collective sense of what is truly democratic for them, ‘freedom’ equating with using wealth to bribe pols to draft and enact rapacious legislation that solidifies their power at the expense of true participatory democracy and the livelihoods of others.
I wish that Milton Friedman had never been born. His theories have caused profound and ongoing problems in this country.
Economist, Dean Baker, also writes in the same vein, as Reich.
UnKochMyCampus. org
Polis, whoever, coalition of the willing. Somebody has to say no to Dr. Evil and the fembot for dept. of ed.
Over in the Senate, Elizabeth Warren has a letter for Betsy DeVos’ confirmation hearings:
Click to access 2017-01-09_Betsy_DeVos_Letter.pdf
Thank you so much for posting this! It’s good to see that some Senators still have good staffers. My only very minor complaint is that none of Diane’s writing are cited.
What, give DeVos’s folks time to have pre-figured pat answers, eh! Sounds like capitulation on Warren’s part.
Nothing about the unpaid fine.
This isn’t even a slo-pitch pitch. It’s a kick-ball pitch.
But, but BUTT look who we could get….
I read in The New Yorker, that son-in-law elect, Jared K, recommended Michelle Rhee and Eva Moscowitz for Sec’t of Education.
YEP, another spoiled rich kid who thinks he knows all recommending other rich folks who think they know all.
Duane, this is very much a common practice. I think the specificity is actually a good thing and have confidence that Sen. Warren will not go easy. You can also be sure that the caucus is meeting to divvy up questions and one or more of them will be ready with the a question on the fine (as will she since some Dems have already made this an issue).
Actually, it prevents (or limits at least) the nominee’s ability to say — gee, I haven’t considered that issue — and so cannot respond. If her handlers have a clue, they will have helped her prepare responses for most of these questions anyway — but at least now she cannot beg off on the grounds that she hasn’t thought about it, and therefore cannot respond adequately “on the fly”
To date, it has only 11 members. One of them, Jared Polis of Colorado, is one of the biggest supporters of charter schools in Congress.
Why would Polis join this caucus?
Can you say “1984?”
You mean the good ole days?
No, 1984 as in Orwellian doublethink. For example in “1984” the Ministry of Peace oversees war and atrocity.
Shoulda added smiley face to my remark. Never thought I would have cited the apex of the Reagan administration as the good ole days.
The same reason, the Podesto Group (disparagingly described as an influence-peddling firm), had as CEO, during the election campaign, a self-described former GOP political operative and deputy campaign manager for former Gov. Jeb Bush? John Podesto, Hillary’s campaign manager, founded the Podesto Group with his brother.
John Podesto worked closely with the Walton-funded CAP (Center for American Progress), supposedly, with the intent of electing Hillary.
Because “charter schools are public schools.”
I’m not surprised at all. Public schools aren’t fashionable. I would say public schools need better marketing except I don’t really believe schools should spend time and money on that, so instead I would suggest we get better representatives in Congress.
More specifically public-school protective representatives in Congress and, additionally, better teachers’ union leaders as well; as a nation, we have all been sold out to the theory that “school choice is a Civil Right.”
Economists seem the be fashionable with politicians, so I would ask congress- can they really say they’re “creating jobs” if they spend all their time privatizing entities and employment that was formerly in the public sector?
Wouldn’t the idea of a market economy be to create NEW added value instead of private sector entities just gobbling up the public sector?
if you have 100 dollars in value in the public sector and you skim 10 dollars off that and “create” a “business” with the other 90, it’s still 100 dollars. All you did was move it around.
Bill Gates’ education innovation is nothing more than banal cost cutting, wrapped in data mining for profit opportunities, IMO.
Good summary.
When Jeb Bush started pushing online learning into public schools, the claim was it would be cheaper. Of course state lawmakers were thrilled with that- schools are expensive.
They realized (I think) that’s not effective marketing to parents so they switched to “individualized” which you must admit sounds much nicer than “cheap education for low and middle children” 🙂
The worst forced privatization scheme comes from Paul Ryan who wants to “privatize” Medicare. The reason Medicare was created in the first place is because seniors cannot fairly compete in the market. The rates will be outrageous. He wants to destroy a defined benefit that works and put seniors in the position of spending twice as much for less than half the care. Ryan is delusional!
The privateers lure parents in by using loaded words they want to hear. The latest scam is “personalized” learning. It promises to be extremely wasteful for students, and much cheaper minus teachers. It is all data all the time, but it is called innovation! http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2017/01/research-on-cbe-and-personalized.html
Another glaring piece of evidence pointing to the, by now, clear fact that people who are for public education and organized teachers within our government are RARE.
Democrats, Republicans….both parties are fully and near-completely colonized by the ed reform agenda.
The election of Trump did nothing to this equation.
Public education and organized teachers have been under eliminationist, existential threat for more than a decade.
The onslaught went deeply unchecked by our unions and by those of us who traffic in the mythology of the pendulum and “things won’t be that bad” type of groundless optimism.
And to think that a year ago we thought that all we had to do was shut down testing via Opt Out. The bigger annihilation is coming into focus…..
Teachers and unions have been too naive and trusting. Many of the rank and file do not realize that the wealthy have assembled a whole network of foundations and “think tanks” whose main goal is to destroy public education.
WELL SAID!!!! I am sick and [flippin’] tired of the delusional state of our OWN colleagues under the “That’ll Never Happen” mindset. Are you kidding me???? If there are any vestiges of a truly PUBLIC education system left after 4 years of Trump, it’ll be a miracle. Let’s face it, they just want the [flippin’] money we make from our salary, benefits, (and in some cases) pensions. [Flip] everyone and everything else. These people are bona fide repugnant slime passing themselves off as dignified. It’s sickening. But what’s worse, as with the ominous election of Trump, the everyday masses of Americans just eat their anti-public propaganda as gospel. ‘Murica.
A huge majority of working teachers have no idea what is happening, nor will they, even when they are applying to be a greeter at Walmart.
The heroin-drip of reaping the rewards of labor gains, diminishing humanities requirements in order to obtain a nonsensical degree in education, and a growing culture of political disengagement among said folk have done sweet work of essentially rendering unconscious the victim before their throats are cut.
NYSTEACHER
And it is up to us to be the ones to shake them into reality . That language may not be pretty, in fact it has to be down right confrontational. Some thing that labor has refused to do .
“When unions spend resources to build member power, amazing things can happen. The Chicago Teachers Union is nearly everyone’s favorite example of a union that has turned itself around and built real power in the workplace. That didn’t just happen—once their rank-and-file caucus took power, CTU members made conscious efforts to use their dues income to build member power. They created an organizing department and spent money to staff it with good organizers. They doubled their money for member training.
The CTU wasn’t just transformed through a change of mindset by its leaders and activists—they put their money where their mouth was, and it paid off.
Now is the time for unions to spend. The highest priority for spending during these precious months must be worker leadership, development, and education”
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19789/labor_has_a_narrow_window_to_build_power_before_trumps_agenda_takes_hold
On that note I had a shop steward once tell that he doesn’t discuss
religion or politics . Right after Wisconsin, A sure fire route to disaster.
I’m curious about the reason Donna Brazile’s, Democrats for Public Education (DFER), never registered at Act Blue. (Act Blue’s management welcomed and defended DFER’s inclusion at its site.) One, of the 11, in the Caucus, is Mark Pocan. He was a co-chair of DFPE.
The answer to, “why so few”, is the same answer to why Congress won’t pass a campaign finance law- the oligarchs don’t want it.
This is one of those ‘issues’ that need more indepth research and maybe WaPo editorials. Or NYTimes. Or whatever.
I am so tired of ‘sell out’ neolib dems.
Nothing to research. Its all legible, plain, and known.
Its the new normal.
This is what happens when hyper-privatizing capitalists get ahold of a narrative that has essentially zero real opposition. A new normal is created.
It is now normal to assume public school is a broken, toxic entity, caused in big part by overpaid, unionized teachers, and that private money and companies can obviously do better.
Democrats, Republicans, and all betwix and between, breathe that air now.
Nothing to research here.
We are all sick of the neolibs. Voters are sick of them too, and that is why a lot of them voted for “agent orange.” Little did they know they were voting for the free market on steroids. We all have to resist, organize, demonstrate and litigate.
You will not be getting editorials about this from the NYTimes, or, especially, the Washington Post.
The WaPost has been over-the-moon enamored of Michelle Rhee for years. They still are.
I read in The New Yorker, that son-in-law elect, Jared K, recommended Michelle Rhee and Eva Moscowitz for Sec’t of Education.
Public education is dead !
Not sure that they would have been any worse than Betsy DeVoss.
But they all spell doom for public education, and it gives us more of an insight to Trump and company. As if we needed it. 😔
I thought the Democrats were forming a carcas.
Hmmm. I’m trying to picture that:
carcas noun
1. one of the seven eunuchs who served in the court of King Ahasuerus. Esther 1:10.
Might we say that many a dimocrap is a carcas?
Most clever.
Sigh….PATHETIC is RIGHT!
DFERS don’t “get” it. HUBRIS abounds.
There is nothing pathetic here. The Democrats, it seems if you really study especially their recent history, are NOT on the side of the public commons. They are corrupt and rotten if you analyze this paltry number of 11 who defend public education . . . . In Europe, all sorts of parties side with public education with the exception of Sweden and England.
The Democrats are not a real party any more, and it’s probably one of the major reasons why Trump has won. Don’t defend your working class people, and they will desperately try something else that gives them the illusion – not the audacity – of hope.
Obama is a failure. Pelosi and Reid were failures and frauds. Cuomo is a failure. Sherrod is a joke, as is Jerry Brown. And your union president is the worst. And these people call themselves “Democrats” ????
It serves the Democrats right. May they rot. They are just as bad as the GOP. America will be great again if forms multiple varieties of different parties who can compete with the status quo.
All hope is not lost.
The billionaires decided that public education needed to be eliminated. They have done and will continue to do everything they can to achieve this goal. Their money buys power and they’ve got way too much of both.
“We are many, they are few, sure. But let’s all of us pool our money together, we still don’t match them, not even close.”
That’s the biggest problem, here. All the “Chip in”s still only amount to a fraction of what the big money players are investing. And even if they did, we’d still need to get the ear of those who’ve already been bought.
I so want to be positive, but this assault has been going on for two decades and now they’ want to bring in the heavy artillery. Our best hope of defense is the parents. And in order to get that support, we need to somehow find a means of keeping them informed in mass numbers on a consistent basis.