I wrote this article for The New Republic.
https://newrepublic.com/article/142364/dont-like-betsy-devos-blame-democrats
It explains how Democrats set the stage for DeVos’ anything-goes approach to school choice by their advocacy of charter schools. Charters are the gateway to vouchers. We have seen many groups like Democrats for Education Reform try to draw a sharp distinction between charters and vouchers. It doesn’t work. Once you begin defaming public schools and demanding choice, you abandon the central argument for public schools: they belong to the public.
The political side to this issue is that the Democratic Party sold out a significant part of its base–teachers, teachers unions, and minorities–by joining the same side as ALEC, the Walton family, and rightwing conservatives who never approved of public schools.
Their pursuit of Wall Street money in exchange for supporting charters helped to disintegrate their base. To build a viable coalition for the future, the Party must walk away from its flirtation with privatization and support the strengthening and improvement of our public schools.
Please share this article widely.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Another reason I re registered in June 2016!
Productive and richly sourced article, Diane…thanks. The billionaire debutante who now runs our education system is clearly defined in her incompetence. You captured the disaster and this should be required reading for all voters.
Only issue I take are your kind words re Jeff Sessions, who I suggest should be first in our current administration to be impeached for lying to Congress. In no way can we trust Sessions to run the most important agency in our government, the Department of Justice, and not to be the AG, the most powerful position next to the Presidency.
Ellen, editor’s idea.
Our unions have also been complicit as they recruit and take in charter school educators.
That is a profoundly sad statement . It also is self defeating . Charters are only as they are because they are able to manipulate the labor force and the legislative process.
What makes you feel that you are entitled to the benefits of collective bargaining while other workers should be denied and we are talking in the same union. . The surest way to defeat the privatization movement is to organize and empower it’s work force .
Here is an article that shows some of the struggle. I have no problem with teachers being unionized. I do have a problem when the basic tenant of charter schools is not criticized. They ALL take funding away from traditional public schools.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/teachers-unions-ramp-up-recruitment-efforts-at-charter-schools-234958
“A union leader in Chicago called last fall’s UNO negotiations an “important marker of what is possible for charter school educators,” while a progressive blog tracking the fight called it “a nightmare for neoliberal ed reformers.”
Did you read your own article. It is simple we will organize the non union sector or we will perish . The union movement expands, becomes a broad based social movement or it perishes. Unions can no longer hide in a corner hoping to secure meager benefits for their own members, while the world crashes around them. As public worker is pitted against private worker and the unorganized. As construction workers are pitted against environmental activists … ….
“Alliance’s top leaders responded by issuing this public statement: “We acknowledge the rights of our teachers to undertake this effort. We also recognize that our teachers are under no obligation to participate.”
That is a classic transcending all union busting industries. as well as this
“A fact sheet, also on the site, warns teachers in all-caps that, “ONCE UNIONIZATION OCCURS, IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO REMOVE THE UNION.”
and this
“The state labor board has asked Alliance to cease-and-desist from any unlawful interference, and to restore the union’s access to Alliance email servers. Separately, Alliance is also being audited by state lawmakers after accusations that the charter operator is using public funds to pay for its anti-union efforts.”
Apparently your opposition sees it different than you .
“At the core of their message to educators, Suitor said, is an argument to preserve the structure of Alliance’s schools, which boast some of the state’s highest test scores.
“The high level of autonomy and flexibility is part of the model of providing personalized support and instruction,” Suitor said.
Nationally, charter advocates are making the same argument: that a union-free environment has fueled the success of many schools. ”
So there is no reason that charters should be destructive for public schools once all profit motive is removed including FROM THE SUPPOSED NON PROFITS. They were not envisioned as a replacement for public schools turning public schools into an underfunded dumping ground. The costs that are squeezed to provide that corrupting profit come from labor savings remove that advantage and the scoundrels run away, Eva included.
The hedge fund libertarians, the Campbell Browns, the Walton’s are not interested in Unionized Charters. Organized to defeat them and the rest of the plutocracy .
From the first charter law in Minnesota, some involved with charters including yours truly have urged unions to create charters. In fact, the NEA did this for a while.
The charter movement includes people across the political spectrum (like many other social movements). Some are vigorous anti union. Some are quite comfortable with unions helping to create and representing people working in charters.
Another option has emerged from the charter movement – the “teacher led” school idea in which the majority of members of a school’s board of directors are educators who work in the school. This idea emerged, in part from farmer cooperatives. Some of these teacher led schools are organized as cooperatives.
National and local teacher unions have joined with charter advocates to discuss and create public schools on this model.
http://sunthisweek.com/tag/teacher-led-schools/
Joseph Nathan
I doubt many here would have objections to charters if they followed the models you mentioned. Unfortunately most charters are for profit rt wing operations aimed at the destruction of public schools for a multiple of reasons from Union Busting to greed and profit. If you are a neo liberal you are not a democrat no matter what you call yourself .
Joel Herman Yes–and from a market-mentality, public schools are “unfair competition;” so on that argument, they are on the block. But of course THAT’s not the whole picture, though the market-mentality is willfully blind to it.
Joel Herman,
All workers should be in unions, and charter school teachers should be encouraged to unionize, for the reasons you give.
However, the dilemma is that, unless charter schools are integrated into public school districts (while retaining their purported “autonomy”), those same unionized (private) charter schools will continue to leech funds away from real public schools.
Meanwhile, the current union mis-leadership (whose contracts with charters are uniformly inferior to those with public school districts) will then be encouraged to do nothing about charter metastasis if they see those teachers as a source of dues.
Which will happen first: the Overclass walking away from their charter project when a handful of charters unionize, or the continuing attacks on public education across many fronts, regardless? Given current labor law and labor consciousness among most Americans, the so-called reformers can open charters a lot faster than the unions can organize them.
As of now, I think the latter is more likely. Unions have to walk a political tightrope, encouraging charter school teachers to unionize, while opposing the opening of new charters and demanding the shut down of exploitative ones.
A new model is emerging in which teachers make up the majority of the board of directors of a public school. This was inspired in part by farmer coops – in which farmers joined together and then hired people to help them carry out their business affairs.
This idea has gathered support from district & charter folks interested in empowerment of educators to carry out what they think makes sense. It also provides new public school options for families.
More info here http://hometownsource.com/2016/05/25/joe-nathan-column-new-funds-for-teacher-governed-schools-open-the-door/
Joseph Nathan,
I am a big believer in worker cooperatives, and think they are a possible alternative to our current dysfunctional and cruel labor markets, but I hope you’re not going to try to convince us that charter schools follow that model, or that the handful of teacher-managed charters are representative of the industry, its supporters or its intentions.
Because they’re not.
Glad to hear you support work cooperatives. Some charter schools are organized as cooperatives. Certainly not all, certainly not the majority. But some.
The idea is that the teachers who work in the school will “own” it, making all critical decisions.
http://edvisionscooperative.org/about/history/
And there is growing interest in this approach.
I think you should change “some” to “a few,” to reflect the reality that these teacher-led school cooperatives, while a very good idea, are irrelevant to the issue of charters as a vehicle for privatization.
The Overclass promoters of charter schools may perhaps allow handful of these schools to exist, as a false sign of pluralism in so-called reform, when the real idea is for them to sink their fangs in those $600 billion-dollar-a-year public education honeypots, and monetize the kids.
After all, kids are data, and data is for sale.
As NEA Today wrote, “Teacher-Led Schools: They’re Here And More Are On the Way”
http://neatoday.org/2015/02/12/teacher-led-schools-theyre-way/
The number of “teacher led” schools in both the district & charter sectors of public education is growing. For many of us interested in empowerment of educators and greater student success, this is an encouraging development.
And the tragedy of the Trump election is that the fear of Trump and his ties to Russia completely obscures the issue of corporate control of our political system.
Thank you.
It’s also a convenient cover for why the Democrats lost to the most unpopular Republican presidential nominee ever, and why they have allowed the Republicans to have control of the state apparatus in two thirds of the country.
BTW, the above reply was suggested by Dmitri, my Russian control agent.
“BTW, the above reply was suggested by Dmitri, my Russian control agent.”
I love it. Thank you! 😉
Michael Fiorillo
We can talk about what a disaster the Democrats since Bill Clinton have been . We can talk about the appropriateness of pushing NATO eastward. Bill ,Hillary and Barrack can spend eternity in hell for all I care and I have stated that for quite sometime. To the point that Diane once told me to go vote for Trump.
That does not change several other facts .
The Republicans(TRUMP) are exponentially worse for .
Americas people of color.
Separation of church and state and thus freedom of religion.
Educational funding
Segregation
Crushing the American Worker up and down the wage scale
Civil Liberties .
First and forth amendment rights.
Voting rights
Women’s rights .
… ….
Dmitri colluded with members of the Trump campaign to release damaging information about Hillary Clinton and the corrupt workings of the DNC that showed the influence of corporate money on our politics .
Dmitri was not an equal opportunity employer denying the same benefits to Trump and the Republicans who were far worse . Making no pretense of buying our legislatures and paying to disenfranchise voters so as to secure the oligarchy.
If you claim that the constant drip of negative news and information revealed in headlines at opportune times had no effect on the election.
Than you are saying that we might as well have no elections because everybody has made up their minds prior to the campaign .
This election was stolen from the undeserving Democrats by a mere 70,000 votes across three states. Probably cost control of the Senate as well. Were there failings that enabled it to get even close yes . But to assert that less than 1% of the vote across 3 rather large states and several others was not swayed by this constant drip of negative headlines and Comey (another Republican dirty trick orchestrated by Giuliani )is so patently absurd that one would have to be born without a brain stem to believe it.
The end result will be untold suffering for millions, perhaps hundreds of millions when Climate change is taken into account. So tell Dmitri that he can go F@@k himself.
And today we learned from Brennan, and some weeks ago from Comey, that the FBI knew that the Russians were interfering with the US election process in mid October, and certainly they should have announced this widely BEFORE the election. Today they claim they did announce it on the same day as the ‘popular’ and disgusting, now infamous, Billy Bush/Trump tape with the voice of Trump bragging how he could grab women by their private parts and also kiss them, uninvited and with abandon, because he was so famous.
Ostensibly, the media chose to focus on the prurient rather than the political…repeatedly. And now we have the conundrum of Trump…impeachment and all.
OK, I get it: Russia stole the election by getting Racists (who had formerly voted twice for Obama) in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (states that traditionally vote D in presidential elections) to vote for Trump (who is Hitler, except when he’s an incompetent bumbler and figure of scorn).
An independent investigation may still prove that Trump’s people were actively, consciously conspiring with Russia to sway the election. But as of yet, there has been no evidence provided to support this charge of treason. Don’t you find it a little strange that not a single, solitary soul has come forward to provide evidence – not opinions or “assessments” – of treason to the Republic?
I’m not talking about involvement with sleazy Russian businesspeople on sleazy business deals/money laundering (which is probably to be expected from these types), but conscious, active collusion with Russian state actors to undermine the election. Provide evidence, please, or tone things down, as you would in a classroom with a student making claims that are wildly overstated and unsupported by the known facts.
Meanwhile, though Trump’s poll numbers are the lowest of any President ever at this stage of his term, the Democratic Party is even lower in the polls, so while the “Putin is going to steal your babies and drink your blood” meme has helped the Obama/Clinton wing maintain control of the Democratic Party apparatus, and gives late night comedians material for their monologues, it’s a political loser that is likely to insure continued neoliberal control of the Democratic Party and Republican control of the State.
It’s folly, political folly, any way you cut it.
“Russian Mind Control”
Dmitri’s in control
He tells me how to think
Controls my very soul
And now my soul is pink
Dmitri hacked my brain
With malware and with virus
I really can’t explain
But feel like Miley Cyrus
With wrecking ball in tow
And wreckage in my bed
The KGB, you know
Is really in my head
Michael Fiorillo
There is plenty of evidence,do you think it is normal for there to be over 18 known contacts between members of the Trump team and Russian operatives leading up to an election. Oh yes McKaskill met along with a bipartisan group of congressman , with the Russian ambassador to discuss adoptions. 45(lol) years ago.
Circumstantial evidence is capable of sending you to the chair and there is more smoke here than a pyroclastic blast. But I am not here to analyze the piss on the bed sheets in Moscow.
I suspect that the two of us equally loath the Clinton /Obama democrats . There is no question that they have abandoned the base of the party relying on Identity politics instead of progressive economic policy .
But the average American voter can not tell you who his congressman is and you think that the constant negative drip, headlining every news hour and news paper , released at strategic moments had no effect on the election . I have a bridge in down town Manhattan I would love to sell .
Ronald Reagan another scumbag colluded with a foreign power to delay the release of American hostages . Possibly costing Carter the election. I was no fan of Carter , but American workers still have not recovered from Reagan who crippled the labor movement.
I suspect you feel you are above the fray with little or nothing to lose . But millions of Americans will suffer tremendously. His cuts to foreign aid alone may cause millions to die overseas . Good job Mike
Joel Herman,
Yes, there’s plenty of evidence, none of which you seem capable of specifically referring to.
As for the ending to your comment, I’m neither above the fray, having fought school privatization in NYC for twenty years, nor responsible for what Trump does (since i grudgingly voted for Hillary), so I suggest you take your sanctimony and pleasure yourself with it alone in bed.
Michael, could you please say more about what you’ve done in NYC for the last 20 years? This is intended as a respectful question. You and I often disagree but I understand that you are an educator.
As someone who has been an inner city district public school aide, teacher and administrator, as well as PTA president, I appreciate that educating is challenging and rewarding. I’m interested in what you’ve been doing.
Thanks for considering this question.
Joe Nathan,
I have taught high school ESL and English in Queens for twenty years, in a school that is 100% immigrant English Language Learners from all over the world. Before that I was an organizer and rep for Local 802 of the NYC musicians union, a carpenter/cabinetmaker, and before that a scuffler doing many different jobs, including bartender, bicycle messenger and slaughterhouse laborer, among others.
I was also (literally) the first person in the UFT to publicly warn against the dangers posed by charter schools, when NYS passed its charter school law in 1998. i foresaw how they were going to be hijacked by the Overclass in its own selfish interests, as has been the case.
I have been the union rep in my school, served on union committees, and have been active in opposition caucuses in the UFT and run on their election slates.
Thanks for the background, Michael.
What do you think of the idea of worker cooperatives? I don’t know if they have functioned in urban areas, but they are a long tradition in rural America. Farmers banded together to give themselves more bargaining power.
Some educators have adapted this idea to set up public schools the majority of whose members are educators who work in the school. They are in charge of salary and working conditions, selecting accountants and other people who work for them, the curriculum, instructional strategies, etc. etc.
I actually think public school parents and kids should demand more from lawmakers than just a promise not to attack their schools.
I think public schools are worthy of affirmative support and positive policy ideas.
Where ed reform really falls down is not cheerleading charters and vouchers- it’s been clear for a long time they prefer those schools. Where they really fall down is NOT offering any kind of positive benefit to public school kids and parents.
It seems like there’s a political opening there. if some politician has the courage to take it up. That politician could offer public school kids and parents real improvements to existing public schools.
What would a politician who really supports public school sound like? What would they offer parents and kids? Maybe we should start thinking about that because obviously no one in government can be bothered with it.
Try an experiment. Put charters and vouchers aside for a moment. What do PUBLIC schools need? What value do we expect these people to add? What could they offer to make our schools better, if indeed they wanted to make them better?
This is the discussion none of our lawmakers are having and so we should force them step up with something better than standardized testing and a Chromebook.
Our schools and kids are more valuable than the crap they’re offering. They can do better.
Beautifully written, with no namely pamby language. Thank you for ending with the phrase “good schools” instead of the rhetoric that positions educators as “losers” unless they insist on “great schools now.”
Great schools are rare. So are great teachers. A good nation should have good schools. Unrealistic expectations like NCLB mandate 100% of all kids would be “proficient” by 2014 are demoralizing
I agree. That absurd NCLB mandate for 100% proficiency was said to be “aspirational.” That was after the fact. As I recall, nobody could find a definition of “proficiency” within the law.
In LA, the billionaires info vehicle, LASR, tells us today that the charter owner, Refugio Rodriguez, who stole the election in 2015 from the incumbent Bennett Kayser, and who previously had founded the 16 PUC charters and who thus became a multi millionaire, is to be the new PREZ of the LAUSD BoE..
This bypasses others who have been on this Board longer or are not charter puppets, but who are teacher/administrators, like Scott Shmerelson, and who fights for public schools. Rodriguez, who has no aversion to dishonest means, now can lead the district into the pocket of his supporter, Eli Broad, and turn over to Eli and his Great Public Schools Now 501c3, another 50% of the LAUSD public schools to charterize/privatize them for profit.
The remaining approximately 40% of students left to the public schools to educate, will then be the hard to teach, special needs, and ELL students.
In a short time this district will be probably be forced into bankruptcy since they must maintain paying off the huge debt accrued over the Broad/Villaraigosa/John Deasy/Cortines years. This debt manifests the deranged tech decisions of Deasy with his tech failures, and the multitude of lawsuits he incurred due to his punishing innocent teachers plus parents and students after law breaking by a few teachers, and sexual harassment charges of a superintendent. Also, in the wings is the ‘class action’ Mark Geragos lawsuit being pressed by literally thousands of unfairly fired teachers. If they win, LAUSD will be a memory.
With the $14 Million spent by these billionaires to elect their two puppets, Melvoin and Gonez, in the recent election, they will assure that they have a clear field to buy up all assets of the second largest school district in the nation, for pennies on the dollar, when bankruptcy proceedings occur.
These corporate vultures have planned carefully and have activated their greedy success through legal, but IMMORAL means. This is what a Right Wing SCOTUS has done to American education.
Anyone who is not fighting actively to disassemble Citizens United and all this endless dark money, should lose their right to vote, IMO.
BTW…not to let the LA Times off the hook, I spoke with Jim Newton (former writer/editor of their OpEd page) last week after a talk he gave, and he agreed that Eli Broad should not be able to pay for the LA Times articles on education as he has been doing for some years. This is far from a ‘free press’ and violates the First Amendment.
I cannot believe the US Department of Education is now on Day Two of their “public schools suck!” campaign.
I really resent paying public employees to attack public schools. No one hired them to run this political campaign. The least they could do is do this on their own time and their own dime.
I hope they aren’t kidding themselves they’re serving “children”. They deliberately exclude public school children and parents and since 90% of people use public schools, they should be clear that they serve 10%.
DeVos told two stories of public school graduates yesterday. Both stories were about public school failures. This is deliberate.
This is federally funded propaganda. They are bashing every kid in every public school in order to promote their agenda. It’s outrageous and they should be ashamed to accept a public paycheck.
and where, I always wonder, are the teachers’ unions with THEIR many, many stories illustrating public school student success after public student success
There are a lot of those articles from both unions, actually. Unfortunately, they are generally only in the teachers unions’ magazines, and not in the mainstream press.
Do the unions not put these stories out there? Or does the press reject them???
Reblogged this on Mark's Text Terminal.
If the Democrats continue to lie about their support for public schools, union members should threaten to throw support behind third party candidates. Democrats count of union members to be good little sheep and vote for the lesser of two evils. If Democrats continue to run neoliberals for president, union members should look elsewhere to place their support.
Yes, but to be a credible threat, union members would actually have to mean it. Obviously they haven’t meant it so far as they went scurrying back to Clinton in fear of Trump. So long as Democrats are the “lesser” evil no matter how evil they are, we will continue to have evil Democrats. Nothing will change until enough Democrats stop fearing Republicans and start demanding Democrats who will serve the people.
Agreed. That is why unions, parents and social justice groups should form an alliance and put the duplicitous Dems. on notice now. Either move to the left or die!
Agree with you both. Just today, I was notified that in California (after our State Dem Convention last week) our legislators have formed a Progressive Caucus to do exactly as you suggest.
dienne77
I agree in principle . However I would far prefer to be throwing tomatoes at Clinton than dealing with an authoritarian thug aligned with Christofascists and Oligarchs at home . As well as foreign authoritarian thugs who think it appropriate to beat peaceful protestors on the streets of DC.
Joel – yes, it sure would be easier if Clinton had been elected. We could all go back to playing Pokemon Go and watching Dancing with the Stars and pretending that all is right with the world while we go on bombing brown people and locking up black people. Boy how I yearn for the good old days. But now with this Trump character in office, people actually have to get up off their backsides and decide what they really stand for. Oh the humanity!
dienne77
Never watched dancing with the stars and what is this Pokemon thing .
The truth is the Democratic party was coming apart at the seems before the 2016 election . The progressives in the party had had enough . Cuomo was challenged in NY . Sanders ran against Obama .
He never would have entered the race if Barrack had not been a disaster . The Trans Pacific partnership ripped the party apart with progressive forcing all but 26 house dems to oppose Obama and yes the number probably would have been double that if push came to shove.
There were demographic dynamics in the party that made it impossible for the Socialist Jew from Brooklyn to win once he hit the south. Especially when the Black caucus was married to the Clinton machine. IE. John Lewis seeing the Goldwater girl at the March on Washington but not the civil rights activist locked up for fair housing.
Yes Hillary would have done less harm as god awful as she was and the opposition that rallied for Sanders would have been there to fight her tooth and nail.
Trump ,Pence and the Republican right will turn the clock back a century. It has been 25 years since Reagan and how has that worked for Americans .
35/37
Here’s some photos of the US Department of Education hard at work today, promoting private schools and bashing public schools:
https://twitter.com/matt_barnum?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
This is what we’re all funding with our tax dollars. If you have a kid in a public school take note- these people don’t work for you and they don’t work for your kid.
Jeb Bush is a horrible profiteer. He wants access to public money. Destroying traditional ways to prepare teachers is not intended to improve education. It intends to turn teaching into a McDonald’s job. Bush should take a look at Vasquez Heilig’s latest research. The big take away is charters are not worth the disruption and the money spent on them. Public schools are better.https://dianeravitch.net/2017/05/19/cloaking-inequity-what-naep-reveals-about-charter-schools-vs-public-schools/https://dianeravitch.net/2017/05/19/cloaking-inequity-what-naep-reveals-about-charter-schools-vs-public-schools/
Actually, he’s a very good profiteer. He’s a horrible person.
Nails it!
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The Democratic Party stabbed the American people in the back, repeatedly, when it comes to public teachers and the public schools that belong to the American people.
Yes. It is communities, kids and the nation’s future made to suffer by a party driven to build a stash of money from hedge funds, the tech industry and Walton heirs. The party’s elite like the President of the Center for American Progress won’t relinquish the marriage to the powerful rich. Winning elections is irrelevant.
I looked at the Democrats on the education committee and only two of them attended public schools.
The fact is these people don’t have much in common with most of us. They don’t live in lower or middle class neighborhoods, they don’t socialize with lower or middle class people and most of them have never gone anywhere near a public school in any real “skin in the game” way.
Fewer and fewer of them go to public COLLEGES, let alone public K-12.
Do we really think US Senators are hanging out with lower and middle class people in their day to day lives? They don’t know anything about how we live anymore.
They were all crowing about skilled trades last week. Do you think there is a single Senator’s kid who will enter the trades? No. My middle son is an electrician. He works in industrial settings. It’s hard, dirty, physical work. Factories are hot and noisy. I’m proud of him for finding work he’s good at- he chose a trade- but his representatives are clueless if they think it’s the same as going off to college. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re simply too far removed from the things they legislate on.
We need to reform campaign finance, and limit spending the way they do in Scandinavia. Billionaires and multi-millionaires live a vacuum, but they are the ones with the connections to bring in the big donors. The system is rigged against the regular people.
We should adopt the system used by more advanced nations to only allow a month of electioneering, and all of the expense of the campaigns to be paid for by the government (with small portions taken from our income tax), so that dark money does not go into buying candidates.
This would be the death knell for Citizens United.
The thing is it’s got to be a package deal: Democrats need to once again embrace all of our public assets and services, as well as labor unions. Democrats opened the door to privatization and, despite taking union money, started shutting the door on unions.
It was under Bill Clinton that we first started seeing Democratic politicians privatizing public services, complaining about unions and promoting non-union businesses and workers, including charters and TFA, such as when Mayor Daley privatized public parking and brought Wal-mart to Chicago despite public protests over their lack of unionized labor.
Democrats need to reassess where they stand now or risk losing their base to the apathy and 3rd party votes they engender by no longer representing the working class. One conservative party that represents the rich is more than enough. We want Democrats to go back to being both socially and fiscally progressive –and to stop being GOP lite!
Bill Clinton signed the New Market Tax Credits into law. He set the stage for all the public-private “partnerships” which made charter schools a profitable revenue stream. https://medium.com/@NYArteacher/getting-rich-on-charter-schools-with-the-clintons-new-markets-tax-credit-5a830390fe9f
Both Clintons functioned Right of Center. Hillary was/is not only Eli Broad’s friend, she was his attorney, and she has spoken and written of her support for charter schools. Read Ken Derstine’s explicit and well researched report on this subject…it is online.
I will not be redundant about Bill’s many Right Wing actions during his term in office, but the demise of Glass Steagal and his cooperation with Phil Gramm, Robert Rubin, and the Dem and Repub deregulators to kill off this FDR law of the land brought us the Great Recession of 2007.
Here’s Donald Trump’s budget and how it affects working class people:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/05/trumps-education-budget-takes-aim-at-the-working-class/527718/
Donald Trump has no direct experience with working class people, and it shows.
We should probably hire people to represent us who have some clue about how ordinary people live. Virtually none of these people do. It’s a problem that won’t be solved with clever messaging and it predates Donald Trump. 3/4’s of Congress can’t come out of the Ivy League anymore. They represent like .00001% of people. That won’t work.
Diane wrote: “…To build a viable coalition for the future, the [Democratic] Party must walk away from its flirtation with privatization and support the strengthening and improvement of our public schools.”
If they don’t, we could follow the French example and start a new movement, a movement to support democracy and public education, which are two mutually dependent principles, as Thomas Jefferson and John Dewey noted.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Article sure to “tick off” many but reflection is good and hope it leads to change.
It was the disastrous policies of former president Obama, and the equally disastrous choice of Hillary Clinton to be the Dems nominee for president, which gave the USA, Donald Trump. The Dems gave us this president, and the president nominated Ms. DeVos.
Not so quick Charles . He had a little help from his friends . I would love to hear what you consider Obama’s disastrous policies . I have a very long list. But honestly i doubt our lists would align.
So the GOP are innocent little lambs? President Pence would be just as toxic as Trump when it comes to policies regarding education, health, the SCOTUS, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Thomas Frank details the failings of the Democratic party but he did vote for Hillary when faced with the alternative. So did Noam Chomsky.
Obama seems like a decent human being and I thought he was a pretty good President but he treated the rank and file labor union members who supported him terribly.
He screwed them, and many of them voted for him not once but twice.
I’m not a union member but if I were I don’t think I could support Democrats or Republicans. Both Parties screw them.
It’s amazing how a polished veneer can make someone seem like a decent human being.
Obama was in the pocket of the hedge fund pro-charter folks since the time he was a new Senator.
Obama was in their pocket before he was elected to the Illinois state legislature; his political relationship with Valerie Jarrett, a reliable broker for Overclass interests in Chicago, demonstrates that.
The man was a highly polished, though fundamentally banal and empty, Trojan Horse for neo-liberalism from the very beginning of his career. Even the cup of coffee he had as a community organizer was little more than a branding and networking-with-the-powerful scheme.
Some things can’t be forgiven. Other things can’t be forgiven without acknowledgement of wrong doing. The first was the Democrats complicity in harm to children, evidenced by Gates’ testing tyranny. The second is the Center for American Progress’ Nov. 2016, Forbes article, after the loss of 1000 elections, including the presidency, that expanded Gates’ plan to higher ed.
I can vote for individual politicians like Kucinich who recognize charters as a multi-billion dollar boondoggle but, I can’t vote for Democratic politicians who lack moral courage.
Statement from National Alliance for Public Charter Schools about the Trump administration’s proposed education budget. While appreciative of increased support for creation and replication of charters is quite critical of budget cuts in other areas. I agree with this statement about a number of proposed budget cuts. This statement says, among other things:
“We are dismayed by the deep cuts proposed to other programs within and beyond the Department of Education. The proposed $54 billion in overall cuts to non-defense discretionary spending—over $9 billion coming from the Department of Education alone—would have long-lasting, far-reaching negative consequences for children, families, communities, and our country as a whole.
“While we appreciate and welcome the Administration’s commitment to charter public schools and the public school students they serve, we urge the Administration and Members of Congress to consider all the ways the federal budget impacts public school students—both district and charter school students. We call on Congress to raise the budget caps on non-defense discretionary spending to avoid lasting negative impact to our children and the future of our nation.”
http://www.publiccharters.org/press/national-alliance-statement-white-houses-proposed-fy18-budget/
Hollow, while Wall Street takes 10-18% from contractor school debt. Hollow, while states like Ohio, waste billions on contractor schools with 70% truancy rates.
Hollow, while contractor schools flaunt their special treatment, like cherry picking and counseling out students, and refusing transparency of finances.
Hollow, while administrators of contractor schools make half million dollar salaries.
Hollow, while “charters” deceive calling themselves public. (See Pahara drivel)
Hollow, while campaign donations from charter operators corrupt politicians and governments….
Oh, Joe the entire DC ed reform discussion has been about charter schools and vouchers.
For months. Ever since Trump was elected ed reformers have talked about nothing else. Public schools were never even considered. Go read anything by any of your fellow reformers. Public schools are an afterthought if they’re mentioned at all.
This “movement” you’re part of utterly ignores 90% of public schools.
Are you really surprised the US Department of Education and the US Congress follow your lead and now also ignore public schools?
We went from having an ed reform “movement’ that is openly hostile to public schools to having a federal government that is openly hostile to public schools. That wasn’t an accident.
Here’s a statement from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, issued yesterday, which explicitly criticizes the proposed Trump education budget for its impact on both district and chartered public schools:
Statement from National Alliance for Public Charter Schools about the Trump administration’s proposed education budget. Please note that the statement, while appreciative of increased support for creation and replication of charters is quite critical of budget cuts in other areas.
I agree with this statement about a number of proposed budget cuts. This statement says, among other things, “We are dismayed by the deep cuts proposed to other programs within and beyond the Department of Education. The proposed $54 billion in overall cuts to non-defense discretionary spending—over $9 billion coming from the Department of Education alone—would have long-lasting, far-reaching negative consequences for children, families, communities, and our country as a whole.
“While we appreciate and welcome the Administration’s commitment to charter public schools and the public school students they serve, we urge the Administration and Members of Congress to consider all the ways the federal budget impacts public school students—both district and charter school students. We call on Congress to raise the budget caps on non-defense discretionary spending to avoid lasting negative impact to our children and the future of our nation.”
http://www.publiccharters.org/press/national-alliance-statement-white-houses-proposed-fy18-budget/
Empty words and crocodile tears, intended to deflect valid criticism of charter supporters dishonesty and opportunism.
They’ll fatten off Trump’s education budget and point to this meaningless, misdirecting statement, as Mr. Nathan has predictably done, when the the rubble starts becoming unavoidable.
Dupes, opportunists, and monsters: that’s who continues to direct and ride the gravy train of so-called reform.
And yet in the last 3 days I’ve been in 3 district schools where we’re helping them increase the number of dual credit courses that are being offered to students.
Lot’s happening in the schools with educators eager to help make youngsters.
Also at the Mn legislature last night where we’ve help generate millions to help support college in the high schools courses and increase # of teachers of color in Minnesota.
Honored to be a part of those efforts – coalitions of students, families, educators from both district & charters.
Charter operators will flourish in the DeVos-Trump era. Federal money will be diverted from public schools that accept all students to charter schools that pick their students.
Most charters are bound by state laws that require open public lotteries if more students want to attend than have space. Meanwhile, you continue to defend magnet schools that screen out students on the basis of test scores.
Glad to have spent 45 years working to expand public school options that are open to all youngsters – regardless of how well they do on tests.
Delighted to be working here in Minnesota with district & charter educators, along with community members to increase funding for dual credit courses offered in high schools, assistance to help more people of color become teachers, make it easier for people with teaching degrees in other states to become teachers here, increased support for community school (school & social service agency collaboration), etc. etc.
Beyond the cyber world, lots of collaboration focused on helping more students succeed.
Like I said, Joe, it’s all deflection and misdirection, and while you’re pretty good at it, the audience on this blog is on to you.
Yes.
Diane, Outstanding article! Erich
Let’s get this debate out In the open.
The Democrats put on a public face that we are all in this together, but when they clearly side with GOP initiatives, policies and goals for public education, they need to be called out.
It is pretty clear WHO in the Democratic Party supports Education Reform. Follow the money. It fits a very familiar pattern.
In a word…money.
In a bigger concept: What MOST benefits the more affluent members of the Democratic base.
It is here that many Democrats put the comfort of the comfortable ahead of the needs and aspirations of the many–failing to live up to their own notion of moral superiority.
Every Democratic candidate running for office who has some purview over public education needs to come clean about what they support and why.
There are lots of reasons why running against the Democratic Ed Reformers is daunting–most primary is the fact they wrap themselves up in all the other social issues that EVERY Progressive supports. It’s only in the areas of Economics and Education that we can see how THEIR agenda differs from the other Social Progressives.
Thanks Diane for highlighting this.
I hope Progressives can broaden their coalition on Education and bring in a wide spectrum of voices, races and economic classes into this essential debate about what truly is a social justice issue–
–And not a co-opted social justice issue.
Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time – Harry S. Truman
Like!
Reblogged this on MY TWO CENTS.
Well done. A shot in the arm after a long, long day in the classroom. Thanks.
Well-written, succinct and pointed article. I love it that you referred to the use of “coded” language.
If I may, let me add something at the end of what you said. You said: “Some did it because “choice” has centrist appeal. Others sold out public schools for campaign contributions from the charter industry and its Wall Street patrons. Whatever the motivations, the upshot is clear: The Democratic Party has lost its way on public education. In a very real sense, Democrats paved the way for DeVos and her plans to privatize the school system.”
It wasn’t necessary but I would have added that some “bought” the lines that public schools were in failure mode, teachers were all bad, and unions were anti-child/education. These have been (R) propaganda for decades. I think even Betsy Devos believes them, though for her own “reasons.”
I don’t think we can press the double-speak issue enough in our time. It’s a horrible reality, but (in most cases) the Republicans are in bed with the privateers, and the privateers are in bed with the marketers and their slick “branding” propaganda machine–I rarely hear a Republican speak without being able to translate the “code” they use. “The Freedom Caucus.” “Choice.” In today’s headlines, the judge in a North Carolina case had to quash new gerrymandering (again) that the Republican North Carolinians refer to as “redrawing” district lines. They are like that stupid drum-banging bunny. They don’t quit.
“I don’t think we can press the double-speak issue enough in our time.”
In other words, double-speak is lying plain and simple!
Those who use that double speak, i.e., lie, disregard one of the most important aspects of living in society, one of the most important aspects of enlightenment thought and of the scientific mindset and method. Society needs a fidelity to truth attitude in order for that society to prosper via honest human relations and thought. When a society begins to devolve into a “double speak” mode, that so society begins to disintegrate into a dog eat dog, every man, woman and child to defend for themselves without the social trust that a fidelity to truth attitude can guarantee.
Are we at that point in the US? I believe we have been for a while, most of my lifetime. Can it be reversed? I truly hope so! First we must know what a fidelity to truth attitude is. From Ch. 2 “Fidelity to Truth in Educational Discourse:
“Now, let’s delve into Comte-Sponville’s concept of “fidelity to truth.” What is meant by fidelity to truth, that of being faithful/true to truth? Preliminarily and primarily, Comte-Sponville states “All fidelity is—whether to a value or to a person—is fidelity to love and through love.” Since he considers love to be the greatest and hardest to achieve virtue that statement rightly precedes all his other thoughts on the subject. We can follow that up with the consideration that fidelity is the “will to remember” truthfully and that fidelity “resists forgetfulness, changing fashions and interests, the charms of the moment, the seductions of power.” Fidelity to truth means “refusing to change one’s ideas in the absence of strong, valid reasons, and. . . it means holding as true. . . ideas whose truth has clearly and solidly established.” At the same time fidelity to truth means rejecting discourse that has been shown to have errors, falsehoods and invalidities. However, “Being faithful to one’s thoughts more than to truth would mean being unfaithful to thought and condemning oneself to sophistry.” To be unfaithful to truth, to be in error, then is to reject that which makes honest communications, policies and practices cogent and a human good, a virtue.
• Speech and/or writing accurately describes policies, practices and outcomes (discourse).
• Using the correct/intended meaning of a word in light of the context.
• Discourse serves to enlighten and not obscure meaning.
• Discourse is free of contradictions, error and falsehoods.
• The “control of belief by fact” (S. Blackburn).
• Discourse is based in skeptical rationo-logical thought processes in which a “scientific attitude” holds sway.
• Discourse based on/in faith conventions is eschewed and rejected outright due to separation of church and state constitutional concerns.
• Discourse of expediency based on the rationalizations of “Everyone is doing this”, “It is dictated by the State Department of Education” or “NCLB mandates that we have to do this” is firmly and rightly rejected.”
“Not just Education”
The pattern of Deform
Has made the purpose plain
To privatize is norm
And money is the game
Why just blame Democrats, who deserved to be blamed!
Blame the GOP. Education reofrm is a BIPARTISAN success.
Also, blame Randi Weingarten, the UFT and AFT and Randi’s brand name flirting and stroking of the reformers for the past 15 years. It never really mattered to her because no matter what happened to her teachers, there would always be a fresh body to pay those union dues and keep at least the AFT’s operations afloat.
Diane, I thoroughly enjoyed your piece. I want to thank you for your continued reflection on education. You have always been honest and transparent concerning your ideas, including when you have changed your mind concerning previously held beliefs. Yesterday, I posted a piece that is complimentary to yours (although not as well written) for the March For Public Education Blog. I would love your thoughts: https://medium.com/march-for-public-education/i-blame-obama-for-betsy-devos-387a569604ea
Amazing synchronicity, Mama Brown. We are on the same page.
Many Democrats want our votes, but stick a knife in our backs, by failing to support public education. In our LAUSD school board election, Barbara Boxer and John Legend BOTH came out in support of the charter candidates. (Not Bernie though.) Boxer ought to be ashamed of herself, and John Legend has supported charter candidates in the past. I am amazed how people can be progressive in so many areas, but fail to see the ultimate goal of most charter supporters is privatization and vouchers for religious schools. Just look at who supports this, then ask yourself if these are the people who share your goals for social justice or progressive causes in other areas. If not, then perhaps you should wonder why you are aligned on this one issue.
as noted in previous posts, Rosa Parks spent part of the last decade of her life trying to set up charters in Detroit. The late Kenneth Clark, author of the “doll test” used in the US Supreme court, called for creation of new public schools by unions and other community groups, outside the control of local school boards, in 1968.
There are a variety of people across the political spectrum who support the charter idea – many, like me and Ember Reichgott Junge, author of the original charter bill in Minnesota – who support chartering and oppose vouchers.
“Charter school” is euphemistic language to obfuscate the reality of contractor schools.
ILL-Annoy readers–& yet another DINO-inspired bill (passed in Senate–all Dems–I mean DINOs–voted yea, save 2 who were no votes). This is going on to House Committe e TODAY, Wed., 5/24–11:30 AM–SB 1. I STRONGLY URGE you to go to my.ilga.gov BEFORE 11:30 AM. & fill out a Witness Slip as OPPONENT. Go to House, then Committee Hearings, & you’ll see Appropriations-Elementary & Secondary Education & click–the bills will be listed–on the line that has SB 1, scroll all the way to the right to the Witness Slip icon–click that on, & fill out the slip. For every line asking you to identify yourself, simply type in “self.” Check the box “Record of Appearance Only.”
Click on OPPONENT.
Also, go to Illinois General Assembly to find the committee members & CALL THEM–tell them you want them to OPPOSE–this bill wants Evidenced-Based Formula used to change the school funding formula (didn’t work in tiny Vermont, & they threw it out–waste of precious education resources to try it (like NCLB & RTTT) at all in a state the size of IL. Last kicker–the bill (hidden w/in its 511 pages {it’s on pp. 277-281}) ELIMINATES dedicated state special education funding to school districts, taking away $9,000 per teacher, other sp.ed. personnel. This would kill sp.ed. AND gen.ed.–more students w/o services, kids in reg. classes w/o help, taking time/attention away from other students (w/ONE teacher in the classroom). Also–would increase class size.
A disaster in the making–it MUST NOT PASS HOUSE.
GREAT article! And here’s the challenge for all of us who value public education— AND democracy: we need to find a political means of achieving the agenda you lays out at the conclusion of the article if the Democratic Party does NOT take on the fight against privatization. If we’re left with a choice between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in 2020 it will mean that two generations of children will have attended public schools where standardized testing is the basis for measuring “learning”… and there will only be a few teachers left who have any memory of what came before….
“Institutional Memory”
When all the vets are gone
And everyone’s forgotten
The test becomes a song
That’s sung by Johnny Rotten
There’s a first year general ed teacher right across the hall from me. 1st graders. She was appalled by the tests and so upset at how terrible the kids felt. She already recognizes the deficiencies in the mandated test driven curriculum. And she’s not at all alone.
I don’t think teachers will ever forget the true nature of the craft just as I don’t think they’ll lose the ability to call “skunk” when they smell one. I think teaching is inherent to some people.
The people setting policy aren’t teachers. They’ll try to get those crying kids to “git sum grit” and will, in the end, fail miserably in the public’ eye. I believe there will be a backlash and it will be severe.
I hope you are right!
I said awhile back that the parents would end up saving us. Then along came the Opt Out movement.
DeVos is now front and center and she’s just way too over the top terrible. No way to disguise it. I’m seeing a LOT more media exposure and negative press than we ever had under Bush and Obama. I’m thinking (hoping) that, with this once concealed and now finally uncovered information, the parents will push back even harder. You don’t screw with parents’ kids.
“To build a viable coalition for the future, the Party must walk away from its flirtation with privatization and support the strengthening and improvement of our public schools.”
No doubt, but I’d change the wording from “flirtation” to “serious, possible marriage ending affair”. These guys have been relentlessly crippling us for almost two decades, now.
“”Your cheatin’ Heart” (apologies to Hank Williams)
Your cheatin’ heart
Will make Pence Veep
You’ll whine and whine
And count your sheep
But sheep won’t come
The whole night through
Your cheatin’ heart
Will tell on you
When Trumps come down
Like falling rain
You’ll toss around
The word “insane”
And yet, repeat
The things you do
Your cheatin’ heart
Will tell on you
Your cheatin’ heart
Will pine some day
And crave the votes
You threw away
The time will come
When you’ll be blue
Your cheatin’ heart
Will tell on you
When Trumps come down
Like falling rain
You’ll toss around
The word “insane”
And yet repeat
The things you do
Your cheatin’ heart
Will tell on you
SDP,
Luv Hank Williams!
That was awesome, Poet. I can hear the cows mooing in the background.
Love Hank, too.
The cash cows?
lol…and the bleating of the sheep about to be shorn
You mean the bleating heart Liberals?
Starting my day off beautifully, Poet. Thanks!
🙂
Way too tired today to go through 96 comments to see if this was discussed….
When is your next article on how union leadership paved the way for people like Betsy??
Randi could have easily withheld her early support for people like Bloomberg and both Obama’s 2nd term and Hillary until changes were made to RTTT and all that Duncan and King stood for!! The new act of Congress has done little for Education.
It’s amazing when other lobby groups withhold support and all of a sudden things change, like Obama becoming in favor of Gay Marriage. Unions are losing strength because political action money has not made any gains for public education. But Pearson and the charters benefited greatly under RTTT as well as TFA with no pushback from unions.
Hope you are considering telling the truth about union leaders as well.