Congratulations, Governor McAuliffe of Virginia for protecting the children and public schools of Virginia from predatory privatizers. For standing up to Trump, DeVos, and the corporate reform movement inside the Democratic Party, I add you to the honor roll of this blog.
Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed legislation intended to remove the authorization of charter schools from local school boards. He also vetoed legislation to permit virtual charter schools.
“Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe Thursday vetoed legislation sponsored in the House of Delegates by Del. Steve Landes that would have allowed the state Board of Education to create regional charter school divisions.
“The Senate version of the charter schools bill was introduced by Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg.
“Also Thursday, the governor vetoed for the second year in a row legislation sponsored by Del. Dickie Bell that would have created a statewide virtual school program that would have provided Virginia students a full-time online education program.
“The charter school legislation would have allowed eligible school divisions to establish regional charter schools governed by a regional board. Landes said the legislation was narrowly drawn and would have included at least one school in the regional division that failed two of the last three years to reach state accreditation. Landes said logically, two neighboring school divisions could partner on a regional charter school at the elementary, middle or high school level.
“Under current Virginia law, the creation of charter schools is left to each individual school board. Only nine charter schools exist in Virginia.
“In announcing his veto, McAuliffe said: “establishing regional governing school boards that remove authority from local school boards and their members, this legislation proposes a governance model that is in conflict with the Constitution of Virginia.”
“The governor said “public charter school arrangements are already available to divisions at the discretion of the local school board, which makes the ultimate decisions about the establishment, renewal and dissolution of charter schools with its division.”
“Obenshain responded to McAuliffe’s veto saying he [Obenshain] has been “a passionate advocate’’ for charter schools. He said the schools offer “a lifeline for escaping a handful of failing school divisions.”
“The senator said the governor’s veto leaves Virginia behind other states. “With charter schools recognized nationwide as a bipartisan educational solution to improve our children’s futures, Virginia remains far behind.”
“Obenshain noted that Virginia has nine charter schools supporting 2,000 students while Florida has 500 charter schools.”
Be it noted that Governor McAuliffe is a close associate of the Clinton family. His vetoes on these bills give a morsel of hope that there might once again be a mainstream in the Democratic Party that recognizes the power and importance of public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
May the Grassroots keep McAuliffe in office for the sake of Virginia’s Public Schools.
Well-done Governor McAuliffe! Jefferson would be proud. And Virginia is going FORWARD, Privatization is where democracy and education go OFF the CLIFF. Also, the note gives a picture of why “reformers” want to return power to the states–because when the Federal Government is out of the picture, then reformers can gain power in each individual state and then, from that power-place, wrench power from local school boards and create a nation of vouchers and private education charters where parents HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE.
And BTW, we need to change their “reformer” mantra. They certainly are not reforming PUBLIC education, which is often the assumption they want to convey. They only want to eliminate it as “monopoly competition” for private corporations; and then take the public money to support their private corporations.
McAuliffe (who is 60) is an interesting guy…he is a gun owner and hunter who supports careful background checks, was head of the DNC in the early 2000s and was by far the most successful Chair in years, ran Bill and Hillary’s presidential campaigns (her’s in 2008), and he did well in business. He seems to be an anachronism as a centrist Dem since his goal seems not to become a billionaire and/or DFER, and he supports not only public schools but also Planned Parenthood, but he also seems content to run his state of Virginia and not to be in line to run for Prez. However, his name does come up for that role possibly in 2020.
My choices are however, the more progressive senators, Kamala Harris and Al Franken who are both about 10 younger than McAuliffe. Harris is public schools all the way through UC law school, and Franken did go to Harvard, but he shredded DeVos at her hearing. Any of these three would be excellent candidates for Prez…and there are a few other young Dems (under 60 is young to me) who also should be considered.
Hillary, Bernie, Biden, and Elizabeth can be their senior mentors/advisors…but winning the Presidency in 2020, which is vital to saving our country from the Repubs devolution and greed, is for the younger and very capable Dems.
This is the moment to start making choices and informing the country and the world that we have a plethora of really well trained, well educated, and true populist Dems to run our nation. (Drumpf is already electioneering, but he should probably be impeached and even imprisoned by 2020).
Yes, FLERP, Poet, Duane, I do have strong opinions.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/terry-mcauliffe-governor-virginia
People can change
His business experience was paving driveways. You saw my first choices for Prez. Harris and Franken.
Unlike Oklahoma where if your local board denies a charter you just go to the state – who admittedly, does not have the capacity to handle it.
Last month, the Norman School Board unanimously rejected an application from Le Monde International School,
“This is no harm to the district, whatsoever,” said board member Bill Price, who voted for the charter school, which plans to open in 2018.
Norman Superintendent Joseph Siano told the state board his district could lose close to $1 million in funding if the charter school were approved.
State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who voted in favor or the Seminole charter application, voted against Le Monde. She said she had concerns that the state Department of Education did not have the resources to oversee the new charter school.
“I suggest that we don’t have the capacity to walk alongside a group of parents that aren’t quite ready to do this and they would drain the resources that we have,” Hofmeister said. “This is something I would love to see, but I have questions about capacity.”
Oklahoma State Board OKs second non-urban charter school
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-state-board-oks-second-non-urban-charter-school/article/5542822?custom_click=rss
While I agree – most local boards of education or administrations don’t understand immersion – square peg in their round hole – the district should have worked with the parents to make this work. This is not an uncommon issue where its easier to just punt a successful program either because of costs or the effort involved to make it work. Ed-reformers would rather just punt.
Now the school is going to be set in a path that will more than likely result in a failure. First mistake – getting in bed with the devil.
Fundraising. The revised application states The Walton Family Foundation has “pledged” $325,000 to Le Monde if its application is approved by NPS.
ALEC has been pushing the importance of bypassing local boards for years. They want charters authorized by as many entities as possible, which skim 3-10% per pupil off the top.
Republicans used to believe in local control. No more. Free markets and deregulation beat local control.
This is an excellent sign. A lot of activists would have written McAuliffe off as part of the neo-liberal Democratic establishment. Elected officials are listening. Now is our time to push them on school privatization–and push the whole party before 2018. We should all send him a thank you note!
Thank you, Governor McAuliffe, for standing up to DeVos. This act of “listening” to the people, and protecting the future of education is a high priority in this day and age with so many political issues and “fake news” existing. As much as this is a celebration and an act of respect to the future of education in this country, this is only the first step. More work- consistent work– needs to be done in order to keep furthering the impact and power of education in this country. While DeVos without a doubt is able to ruin public education with focusing on charter schools, education in the U.S. has not always been up to standards with the rest of the world. Though our last Secretary of Education is incredibly more eligible for this role than DeVos, one can argue that in the last several decades education has been focused on but still doesn’t rank at the top of the polls of countries with subject efficiency. While the debate of efficiency and growth is argued, I think growth should be the focus, but that being said, the U.S. is still falling behind. What else should we do to better educate our youth? Set by example.
Zachary,
US education is not falling behind the rest of the world! Please read “Reign of Error.” The test scores on international tests do not predict anything about the future. As a nation, our scores have typically been in the middle or in the bottom quarter. Yet we have surpassed all those with higher scores.
A nation thrives because of macro policies, not because of test scores.