Mark Naison and I agree. When the Democratic Party joined the campaign to impose high-stakes testing, accountability, and privatization, it attacked a key element of its own base. He says it began with Bill Clinton’s advocacy for standards, testing, and accountability. Then, the Democrats threw their support behind George W. Bush’s disastrous No Child Left Behind. Then Obama brought in Arne Duncan to bribe the states with $5 billion for the disastrous Race to the Top program, which demoralized teachers, made them scapegoats, and closed thousands of schools in impoverished communities while favoring privately managed charter schools. I argued in The New Republic that the Democratic Party paved the way for Betsy DeVos and her crusade to replace public schools with anything other than public schools. Charters under private management are the gateway drug leading to vouchers to replace public schools.
Mark wrote that Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.
He writes:
Ever since the Clinton Presidency, the Democratic Party has been an advocate of top-down school reforms whose goal has been to make the nation more economically competitive and reduce inequality. Not only have these policies failed to achieve their stated objectives, they have destabilized communities where Democrats have traditionally found support, created widespread distress among teachers and parents, and given credence to the conservative critique of the DP as the province of technocratic elites who impose policies on people without really listening to them
Every Democratic politician who has promoted the following education policies, I would argue, has been complicit in the Party’s decline
1. Promotion of national testing and test based accountability standards for public schools.
2. Closing of schools which are deemed “failing” and removal of their teachers and administrators.
3. Preference for charter schools over public schools, especially in high poverty areas.
4. Support for programs like Teach for America which de-professionalize the teaching profession.
These four principles have been pillars of the Democratic Party’s education policies on a national level, pushed by President Obama and supported by virtually every major Democratic politician in the nation including figures on the left of the Democratic Party such as Elizabeth Warren, Patti Murray and Al Franken.
What have been the results of these policies?:
1. They have inspired a national parents revolt against excessive testing
2. They have produced a sharp decline in teacher morale and inspired the creation of teacher activist groups like Save Our Schools, BATS, and the Network for Public Education
3. They have promoted an mass exodus of the most talented veteran teachers and led to a sharp decline in the percentage of Black teachers in cities like Chicago, New Orleans, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles, where teacher temps from programs like Teach for America have become the predominant labor force in the newly created charter schools.
4. They have accelerated the gentrification of the nation’s major cities and diluted the political power of working class people, immigrants and people of color.
5, The have accelerated the shrinking of the Black and Latino middle class, and the weakening of the nation’s unions.
If you are looking for an explanation of why the power of the Democratic Party has declined sharply in a state and local level during the past eight years, the promotion of these disastrous education policies has to be part of the explanation.
No better example can be found of the Party’s adherence to the voice of billionaire contributors and technocrats over its traditional constituency into working class and middle class Americans than its disastrous foray into School Reform.
And unfortunately, the current leadership of the Democratic Party shows no willingness or ability to change course on these issues
All very true. But we have to understand that education is but one piece of the larger picture of the destruction of the middle class that the Democrats have been complicit in. The destruction of the social safety net through welfare “reform”, for instance. The re-criminalization of people of color through “three strikes”. The devastation of labor through NAFTA and other “free trade” policies. The repeated protection of the banks who have repeatedly crashed our economy. The refusal to re-instate Glass-Steagall or prosecute any bankers. The continuation (and escalation) of the “war on terror”. The protection of the oil industry and promotion of fracking. Etc., etc., etc. It’s all part and parcel of the neoliberal strategy backed by the Clintons and the Obamas.
And yet, I was demonized for refusing to vote for more of the same.
I agree with your first paragraph but respectfully disagree about voting for Hillary. Chomsky, Sanders, Reich, Thomas Frank (in effect) recommended voting for Hillary since the alternative was/is 1,000 times worse. Supreme court and the lower courts: Trump has already appointed a far right winger to the SCOTUS and may be appointing 3 more righties to the SCOTUS in the next 3 1/2 years. Hillary would have appointed people like Sotomayer, Kagan, Breyer and Ginsburg. That is significant and crucial. Thomas Frank had the same criticisms of the Democrats but he voted for Hillary for obvious reasons.
So in other words, we can whine and complain about what the Democrats have done, but we have to suck it up and keep taking it because … Republicans.
Sorry, no thanks. I personally reject both of the above. And until more people figure that out, we’re going to keep getting Trump and his ilk. Give people a choice between a Republican who calls himself a Republican and a Republican who calls himself a Republican, people are going to choose the former every time. But if there’s a choice for a genuine progressive, people will choose him (or her) instead. If you want more Trump, keep supporting the corporate neoliberal Democrats.
You are right. Adding- it’s increasing difficult for the Dem hierarchy (CAP and Podesto) to convince voters to vote Dem. by threatening the alternative- the scorched earth policy of the Republicans. Last year, the richest 1% shifted $4 tril. from the nation to themselves.
Yet, no Dem. politician extrapolates the data to highlight for the American people how little they will end up with in a few years. The message doesn’t serve the richest 0.1%, so the Dems won’t craft it as a talking point.
Joe
Like
Clarifying prior comment, you are right, Joe.
And the Democrats wonder why they can’t win elections. When both parties are so similar in outlook, people will probably gravitate to the party that seems more certain in their opinions. The Republicans, if nothing else, truly stand for something. The “something” they stand for is odious, but without the Democrats offering a clear alternative, what does a voter do?
The shared Democratic/Republican policy toward public schools is indicative of their shared economic ideology, which basically determines their overall approach to most issues.
We might add the continual executive orders that circumvented the constitutional role of the legislative branch. The refusal to implement or enforce laws concerning immigration and education. The over reach in regards to the environmental and other basic rights including freedom of speech, religion and gun rights. In addition, many lost confidence in the party that seemed to be mired in scandal and corruption. To many, this seemed that the left had a strong disrespect for the rule of law.
The poor performance on national security in regards to terrorism was concerning. There were reports of treason committed by Obama and Hillary in Bengazi and in the use of a private e-mail server.
The continued violence, protests and threats of impeachment do not help the democratic cause. The threat to end the electoral college concerns most state that are smaller in size. Don’t forget that our republic nearly failed because of this issue and it is still true today.
I come from each a family that supported the Democratic Party for at least four generations. I had an uncle that served as a delegate for Mondale. My spouse and son voted for Obama. Today they have all jumped ship. My aunts, uncles, parents, cousins, siblings, husband and children have all shifted to republicans. They were farmers, social workers, teachers, councilers, and railroaders (traditional working class). They were union members and actively envolved in politics. My dad ran for governor. Step by step, action by action, they felt that the Democratic Party no longer represented their values and needs. At first, they felt like traiters but now they no longer question their votes for the Conservative party.
I agree with you that education is not the only issue and currently both parties are in collusion against public education. Because this is so, either party would do except for…….
“There were reports of treason committed by Obama and Hillary in Bengazi and in the use of a private e-mail server.” Enough said.
Let me suggest something to you:
If you are saying that Donald Trump and the Republican Party represent the “values” and “needs” of your family, then there is absolutely nothing the Democrats should do to win them back. Because they will lose me and every voter who supports them.
I’m glad your family is fine with giving the richest American an enormous tax break paid for by “better and cheaper Trumpcare insurance”. I’m glad your family is fine with the Republicans desire to turn Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security into a voucher system. I’m glad your family believes that more than 10 Benghazi investigations over 8 years revealed corruption but insist that any investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia that the FBI and CIA have deemed worthy of investigation should be shut down because the always truthful Trump told the American people and your family that 4 months is enough.
Your family has the right to believe everything then believe. No doubt your family’s fervent hope is that their children grow up with the “values” of Donald Trump. And if the Democrats ever try to appeal to those Trump values your family demands they have in order to get their vote, then they will lose mine. I want Democrats to appeal to the values of Americans who understand the difference between right and wrong.
And if your family embraces Donald Trump as the vision of all that they value, I hope the Democrats’ continue to profess values that your family despises.
By the way, the values of the Pope must also turn off your family since he stands for everything that Trump opposes.
I would love to know what they see as the virtues of the current Republican party.
Hear, hear, Dienne!
Re: voting, I just became aware of FairVote election reform ideas like ranked choice voting. Any thoughts?
I don’t think that the Democratic Party hobbled itself by supporting Ed reformers. It probably gained them a good chunk of case all told. Thy lost some…..SOME….organized teachers. That’s all. Basically those of us that pay attention.
The Democratic Party’s hobbling of itself is a decades long story that probably begins in 1968 or so. It’s a story of the failure of progressive politics and the undoing of the New Deal. It’s really a convo that’s beyond the scope here.
It should just be made plain that Dems support of Ed reform doesn’t even rise to the level of a “cause” or “reason” for the Democratic Party’s deconstruction and plunge into irrelevancy. It was and remains simply an opportunistic, go with the way the wind is blowing, positioning that has likely provided some $$.
We give education as a policy topic and ourselves way way way too much narrative placement by seeing the Dems support of Ed reform as somehow part of the party’s implosion.
I think education policy is more important than the Democratic Party would like to admit. There are families with children everywhere. Everyone knows teachers. When they turn a cold shoulder to teachers it is visible to all and shows they don’t care about any given community. No, they can’t just take hefty donations from Silicon Valley or Wall Street billionaires to attack public education and think no one will notice just because it’s covered up by the media. Schools are everywhere. Children are everywhere. It’s important.
The Dems care less about electoral wins than they do about serving the richest 0.1%. The Republicans can get wins and serve the richest 0.1%.
1000 seats lost and no change in message from CAP.
“Schools are a microcosm”
Wherever go the public schools
Forever goes the Nation
To privatize the public rules
Is basic situation
That’s right, Poet.
I agree NYSTeacher. The ed piece is complex, & few Dems pay close attention. ‘Accountability’ sounds OK & they gloss the details. Parents are closer to the ground, BUT: those in well-off suburbs are not threatened w/charters. If they even think beyond nose-level [‘what’s req’d’ for my kid to get into college’], they see the wave of stds & tests as a yet another ed-fad that will pass, meanwhile most of these kids are at hi pt of bell-curve; test-challenged kids in those districts have portfolio & SpEd work-arounds. Meanwhile, lo-income Dems bought into accountability & welcomed charters, & only very recently are facing the reality of school-choice policy. Thatwill take time to digest before they demand better.
It strikes me as very like rising consciousness about healthcare, but a few decades behind. My family of origin was self-empl small biz. It took my intelligent, fiscally-conservative Mom 35 yrs (’70-mid-00’s) to see the light. In ’70’s tho’ healthcare ins steeply rose, she was still talking less-govt/lower-taxes/ ‘adjust yr expectations’ [seeing things from a Depression-era perspective]. In ’80’s she got shrewd, & qualified for what must have been one of the last available longterm-healthcare-ins policies… still from POV caveat emptor, make the right investment, sauve qui peut. By the time Bush was ensconced, she saw the full social picture healthcare-wise, & by Obama yrs had them all pegged as bought-off pols w/unconscionable morals.
And that’s just the 35-yr conscious-raising of one intelligent lady. And that was healthcare, which directly affects everyone, whereas w/ed, the childless & those who’ve already raised kids can be swayed against the public good more easily. We may be in for a long haul.
The Repubs have convinced the middle class that the reason they are hurting is because of all the entitlements for the poor not the tax breaks that have been given to the wealthy and corporate America. Just take a look at the proposed health care bill. Until the Dems come out strong against this narrative and offer new solutions they will continue to lose ground.
The Democrats are not only not coming out strong against this narrative, they are supporting it. That was the whole justification for welfare “reform”, after all. And why we continue to cut programs and subsidies for the poor, including Obama’s cut to the heating subsidy in the middle of one of the coldest winters on record.
Sadly it is human (& animal) nature to fight over the crumbs when the pie is shrinking & sadder still that politicians use that narrative to gain votes. I used to think Democrats were better than that, but in retrospect, it seems they only capitalized on the general willingness to share that comes about during very bad or very good economic times.
Required reading for members of the Democratic Party: “Listen, Liberal,” by Thomas Frank.
When you finish that read Michelle Alexander’s “Why I Can Not Support Hillary Clinton. ” in the Nation.
How ever unlike Dienne that was not in a general that could see 3 or 4 Supreme Court appointments at stake.. Short of flooding the court or a missile that is a multi generational disaster.
Bill Clinton is still a superdelegate. Now Barack Obama is one too. In 2020 the DNC will force Corey Booker on us, and Trump will be a two term POTUS. The Democrats need to give back the Party to the people. One person one vote. And until there is purer democracy within the Party, issues like gerrymandering will be lost causes.
Yes, “Listen Liberal” is an excellent discussion of the collapse of the Democrats.
Also read Demcracy in Chains which continues the discussion of Jane Meyer’s Dark Money.
Working my way back up to Giroux a few Dramamine pills is all it takes to be able to get over Trump long enough to read.
http://www.alternet.org/education/manufactured-illiteracy-and-miseducation-long-process-decline-led-president-donald-trump
Cross posted the article itself at: https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/96-How-The-Democratic-Pa-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Democratic-Lies_Democratic-Party_Education_Educational-Crisis-170626-107.html#comment664348
With this comment: Millions of CITIZENS want real education for this nation, and for their own children. TEACHERS (millions and millions) who KNOW WHAT REAL LEARNING LOOKS LIKE, want candidates who are informed about THE GOAL OF SCHOOLS, to create learners who can do work, who can think!
Maybe Al Franken, Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders could win these votes , if they actually read the TRUTH… like at the RAVITCH BLOG or the NPE newsletter. http://networkforpubliceducation.org/newsletters/
There been NO DISCUSSION in the MEDIA, about the legislative take-over of the public school systems, and the ongoing destruction — the privatization of our public education by the state legislatures that Diane Ravitch covers at her site and by the NPE — and which my series here https://www.opednews.com/Series/PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.html?f=PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.html re-posts with commentary that ties it all together.
Important points. Until the Democratic (or any other) party adamantly and unbendingly takes up the PUBLIC SERVICES PROTECTIVE stance there will be little change.
I think so too. It is PAINFUL to listen to Democrats try to distinguish their policies from those of Republicans as far as public education.
They have retreated so far! They’re currently begging Republicans to allow them to lightly regulate charter schools and they’re defending basic civil rights protections as far as private school vouchers. I listen to them and it’s all bargaining DOWN. The idea that they could put forth some positive platform for public education after they have traded away just about everything they supposedly stood for is ludicrous.
It’s ALL loss. They want credit for this bargaining process but they must realize all they’re doing is negotiating the terms of privatization.
We have two choices- we have one political Party that is actively opposed to public schools and another Party that are “agnostics”. What we don’t have are advocates for public schools. If you have passionate advocates for charters and vouchers on one side and people who are committed to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on the other side, public schools will get killed and they ARE getting killed.
I don’t think they care. House Democrats just rubber stamped a CTE bill. It’s probably terrible and none of the money will go to existing public schools, but hey! They can say they did something the last 6 months, so we’re all supposed to run out and vote for them.
No one feels passionately about “agnostics” and no one crawls over broken glass to vote for people who cannot even articulate what exactly they support other than reciting these vague promises about “great schools!”
Democrats support “great schools”. 5000 highly-paid political professionals and hundreds of millions of dollars on campaigns and that’s all they got to offer, these dumb slogans.
CAP is not agnostic. Read its policy plan in Forbes, “It’s Time for A Quality Alternative to College Accreditation” (published after Hillary’s loss- Nov. 2016). Sen. Rubio introduced the same student outcome measures for higher education in his legislation in March. The Forbes article was co-written by a former employee of New America which is funded by Gates.
Actually, I think it makes sense for Dems to push any kind of accountability they can onto fed ed funding for charters & vouchers– or, push a retreat from stds/assessmts accountability from public schools. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. No taxation without representation. These are common-sense ideas that taxpayers can understand– that cut thro the choice propaganda.
The rich blather about grit, competitive boldness and risk taking but they’re too cheap or unimaginative to start their own political party. Their takeover of the Democratic party cost the nation its decency and future. The leeches are manipulative, immoral thieves. And, those who serve them betray this and future generations.
Michael Bloomberg was allowed to glom onto the Democratic Party when he knew he couldn’t succeed with his own national political party. CAP should be dumped down the drain with its supporters- Gates and Walton heirs.
You know how far Right the ed reform “debate” has gone?
They’re now debating whether charter schools should be regulated AT ALL.
Public schools aren’t even on the radar. The decision has apparently been made we’re all going charter and now Democrats are begging for some regulation of privatized systems, and losing. They’re losing even that.
They don’t have a public education platform. They have (losing) efforts to mitigate a far Right platform.
They’ll fold on vouchers. They’ll fold on vouchers because Republicans will sweeten the pot with charter funding, and public schools will go under the ol DC bus once again.
They’re busy negotiating the terms of their latest surrender and it wouldn’t matter that much, except NINETY per cent of children attend the schools they have abandoned.
There will be collateral damage in this surrender. Public school kids. They’re already the sacrifice Democrats and Republicans are willing to make to get their privatized systems.
If public schools and colleges and universities LOSE every year you are in power than you are one of two things- you are a lousy advocate for public education or you are not an advocate for public education at all.
If DC has so many thousands of “public education advocates” then how come public education keeps losing? How can they defend this record? They’re either terrible at their jobs or public education advocacy is not in fact what they went there to do.
Dems WON’T capitalize on the 3 busiest days in Capitol switchboard history-opposition to Betsy DeVos. Nor, will they exploit the obvious opportunity presented by the exponential growth of the Network for Public Education because then, they would have to send the big money boys packing. Instead the Dems hang out at the margins, parsing out for themselves, issues like vouchers while continuing to lie and deceive by calling contractor schools,”public charter schools”.
Obama said once in an interview that he opposed vouchers because they don’t “work”
That is not a commitment to public education. It’s an announcement that he will jettison the whole idea of public education without a second thought if some expert convinces himself a privatized system “works”.
They don’t support “public education”. They support private education providers being paid with public funds. That’s not the same thing, folks! That’s actually the definition of “privatization”. That’s a contractor system. They dress it up in “equity” language but it’s government contractors.
I think we’ll deeply regret this decision and make no mistake, it is a decision. They chose private contractors over public entities and public entities will bear the brunt of this decision for the next 20 years it takes to eradicate and replace them all.
Someone should have asked Obama to furnish an example of a great privatized system in the world. It doesn’t exist! Chile and Sweden should be templates for what not to do. Every attempt at privatization causes a disinvestment in the common good, winners and losers and increased segregation. In our country it also represents a gigantic loss for democracy and local governance. Privatization is another massive loss of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy.
We agree – so how do we stop the devastation at this point?
We don’t. The devastation will continue and be thorough. Perhaps in a generation or two the idea of public schools will re-emerge as a positive in the pubic conversation, but the fact remains that any public good lost to privatization rarely, if ever, returns.
Those were always the stakes here. That truth was always legible. That’s why it was always insane when our unions didnt stand up aggressively, and when people accommodated reform/privatizers ideas. Privatizers play for keeps. That was always a given.
There is no bright side here. There is actually very little ground left to fight over and where it exists, our side can’t put up the required resistance. Christ, our side still does studies about insanely obvious things….we catalog all the failures of the reform movement thinking that somewhere it’s adding up….we thought opt-out was the big stand. Randi Weingarten still holds her position. Technology in the classroom is still seen as a wonderful thing by most teachers. The language of school reform and privatization is now the norm politically on the right and “left.” Please.
We’re shot.
Agree … agree …. agree …. The last 20 years will go down in education history as The Great Public School Massacre.
But still…. those of us left in the classroom … fight on and pray for a miracle.
We all have to fight on or muddle through, whatever the circumstance may be. I do not think tech outsourcing and other privatization of public education will win in the end, though. I think it’s a bubble. It’s dot com bubble number two (or three?). It’s a very big bubble.
A bubble?
Just like the “bubble” of the oil industry?
The model we have to look at here is the privatization of the commons we saw during the gilded age…..the era of land grabs, oil rights, etc. Last I looked the oil and gas industry is still pretty private.
Education is one of the last country-wide commons. There is no such thing as “re-commoning” that we study in American history. Much like westward expansion, once we expanded into the land, there wasnt much left for the Natives. Maybe public school will survive in “public school reservations” in the future? Probably not tho. Privatizers are voracious.
They are voracious in fact. But I think eventually the public will wake up to the fact, the fact, the fact that all the websites and apps being sold as replacements of teachers are junk. How much longer can scam outfits like ECOT continue to get people to sign up?
I disagree that ed privatization resembles either westward expansion which cannot be reversed [not even close to a parallel] or the dot.com bubble [which was not publicly-funded]. Privatization will be gradually turned around as evidence mounts that it costs taxpayers more and delivers less.
Take private prisons, as a parallel phenomenon. We are a ways off from turning it around, but the evidence is mounting. Here’s a snip from a NYT 2011 article “Private Prisons’ Cost Benefits Debated”:
“…Despite [an Arizona] state law stipulating that private prisons must create “cost savings,” the state’s own data indicate that inmates in private prisons can cost as much as $1,600 more per year, while many cost about the same as they do in state-run prisons.
“The research, by the Arizona Department of Corrections, also reveals a murky aspect of private prisons that helps them appear less expensive: They often house only relatively healthy inmates.”
“It’s cherry-picking,” said State Representative Chad Campbell, leader of the House Democrats. “They leave the most expensive prisoners with taxpayers and take the easy prisoners.”
Sound familiar?
Privatization must be fought on every front, & the way to fight it is thro $-&-cts/ benefit analysis. It’s part of the national debate on voodoo economics, corporate welfare pd by diminishing middle class, etc. It may take until DC is attacked by torch-&-pitchfork-bearing peasants– or maybe– just maybe– the healthcare crisis will help make the current admin the last gasp of the modern-day robber barons.
“But still…. those of us left in the classroom … fight on and pray for a miracle.”
Praying ain’t gonna do a damn bit of good! Only action.
Quit playing the edudeformer and privateer game of standards and testing, of SLOs and CBEs and data mining. Refuse! You know it’s all wrong and harms the children. Where are your ethics in regards to justice for the most innocent in society?
The vast majority of teachers (and I won’t include the adminimals with this thought) are the ones who brought this on themselves by Going Along to Get Along, and now it’s your turn to be turned upon. Hell, you might as well go down fighting than dying in a whimper.
I agree with you and Mark Naison. With DeVos at the helm, I’m extremely concerned that public education will suffer greatly.
I’ve mentioned that I don’t see enough opposition from school administrators, teachers, classified staff and parents. Public education is the back bone of our country and with the current leadership, is under attack.
The irony is that DeVos may be what saves public education because under Duncan and King, there was almost no pushback against a very similar (though secretive) stance toward public schools
“With DeVos at the helm, I’m extremely concerned that public education will suffer greatly.”
How much more greatly will it suffer under DeVos than it did under Duncan? At least DeVos doesn’t really even pretend to be supporting or protecting public education like Duncan did. It’s much easier to fight an enemy that’s honest about what they’re doing (and who’s a “bad guy” to begin with, unlike when “our guy” does the same things). People are mobilizing against DeVos. Most of those same people cheered for Duncan. In that regard, DeVos has been good for education.
Its more important now than ever to point out the faux outrage of Democratic party leaders about DeVos because if the same or similar people (eg, Cory Booker) reclaim control, there is no reason to believe that they will do anything different than Obama did with Duncan and King.
There is NO, NONE, ZILCH opposition from the adminimals and teachers, the ones who should have been refusing to participate in the mass destruction of public education. When one acquiesces to bullies and ne’er do wells that are the edudeformers, privateers, federal and state educrats, well expect to have the crap beaten out of you until you within a breath of death and then they will put the pillow over your heads and say “Sweet Dreams” to you.
Reading all these comments makes me wonder what the purpose of Diane’s blog is anymore if everyone has just decided there is nothing to be done.
What I would like to do is to have someone convince Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to FIGHT for public education.
Those of you who have given up on the Dems haven’t identified a single politician who would meet your criteria to lead this new pro-public education party. And I can name a Democrat who Sanders and Warren should be loudly supporting who is in danger of losing an election — Bill de Blasio. And I’m not talking about them deciding a week before the election to support public education the way they did last year in Massachusetts when they were late-comers to fighting Question 2.
de Blasio has been fighting the fight for 4 years with little national support against exactly those co-opted Democrats who would be happy to privatize the entire system if their big donors told them to support that.
Where are Sanders and Warren to step up and fight for the Mayor and his ideals for public education? Why are they allowing the one truly progressive Mayor to be characterized in the same nasty way that Hillary Clinton was.
By the way, for all your nay sayers, I am not as convinced as you are that Hillary Clinton was the same as either Bill or Obama. I think we lost a great opportunity to have someone smart enough and curious enough to understand the issues. And while so many of you are utterly convinced that Hillary Clinton ran for President in order to enrich her personal bank account by pleasing the billionaire Wall Streeters, I THINK (unlike you all, I don’t profess to “KNOW”) we just lost a very important chance to make changes in the Democratic Party. Clinton ran for President to make a difference, period. And she has always shown the curiosity and workaholic ethic that led her to be interested in the complexity of the issues — something I’m afraid Bernie Sanders with “I support public charters” never showed. I like what Bernie stands for philosophically, but I didn’t delude myself that he was going to suddenly turn around and became more interested in education.
Who are these new progressive politicians to lead to the promised land outside the Democratic Party? I would support them. The way I support national Dems like Tim Kaine who aren’t pro-charter.
“…something I’m afraid Bernie Sanders with “I support public charters” never showed.”
You do realize that Hillary also supported “public charters” [sic], right? She’s best friends with Eli Broad, for heaven’s sake.
“She’s best friends with Eli Broad, for heaven’s sake”
You use the Trump tactics, don’t you? “Best friends?” You sound like Trump claiming Obama is best friends with terrorist sympathizers.
Keep shooting yourself in the foot. I know you feel justified that Trump is President doing all the same things Hillary Clinton would have done. No difference. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, in my opinion. You will fall for whatever easy rhetoric you hear.
Warren, Sanders and Clinton all supported “public charters”. The ONLY difference between them is that Hillary went on record saying most of the schools “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or if they do, they don’t keep them.” And Bernie never did.
At least I felt confident Hillary Clinton was curious enough to understand the problems with charters — something not one person in the Obama administration ever acknowledged. Something Bernie Sanders himself didn’t acknowledge.
Why didn’t you comment on Mayor de Blasio, which was the point of my post? It’s almost as if you are here to bash all Democrats who have a chance of winning.
Sanders and Warren won’t ever stand whole-heartedly for public education and organized teachers (without enormous clauses and asterix). Why? Because the narrative war has been so thoroughly won by the reformer/privatizers side that there is literally no constituency outside of a shrinking demographic of working teachers etc on our side. The genius of the reform movement has been its appeal to both the left (via language of liberation and social justice) and the right (via language of corporate efficiency and financialization). This dominance of narrative was and remains such a juggernaut that organized teachers and public education supporters have been quite literally befuddled and dazed in its wake. The purpose of winning a narrative is to create a political environment where the options for policy makers are so narrowed as to render the only viable positions those that are being pushed by the winner of said narrative war. This is 101 level stuff here that our side has spent decades forgetting it. By keeping the door open for reformers and privatizers, even the most progressive politicians like Warren and Sanders only have ground to gain….support, money, a consistent language of social justice, etc.
If, on the other hand, they position themselves to support public education and organized teachers wholeheartedly and without asterix and clauses, they only stand to narrow their support and lose ground. It’s just us you know. That’s it. Our side is retiring out, dying off, and walking away daily. We’ve lost. (And please don’t point to the growing numbers of people supporting public Ed organizations….they don’t and won’t match those supporting Ed reform and privatizing entities….and they certainly can’t match them $$ wise)
This site remains valid as a place where those of us with a historical conscience can indelibly let it be known that we went down with the ship standing firmly in the wheelhouse. That’s very important. Yes, we persist in the fight, but it’s not at all a winning one.
“The genius of the reform movement has been its appeal to both the left (via language of liberation and social justice) and the right (via language of corporate efficiency and financialization).”
I think there is not even the presence of caring about liberation and social justice in public policy and governance.
Corporate efficiency and financialization of everything is widely taken for granted as the new normal.
I am not prepared to say: “We’ve lost.”
I do think that we cannot get very far in changing the new status quo by allowing our imaginaries to focus so much on the last election and with an exclusive focus on issues in public education.
Anyone who still has the energy and savvy to say NO to pretend supporters of public education needs the good work of Diane and other bloggers who are not yet ready to throw in the towel.
Nobody said there was any actual presence of giving an F about social justice or liberation. All I said was that the reform movement was quite smart to harness the LANGUAGE of social justice and liberation in order to gain the support of lefty-ish folk and dem politicians who beed that LINGO to make like they are different than republicans. Nobody here is foolish enough to think anybody really cares about that sheeeeit.
Sheeeeeit.
I’m glad that you still have fight in ya. I do too. I just think its best to know the score in the 4th quarter
Yes, and it certainly didn’t hurt to have the first African American president and his mouthpieces Duncan and King pushing the school “Reform” as a civil rights issue theme.
It made ( and still makes) it very difficult for anyone to criticize “Reform” without the risk of being called “unsupportive of civil rights” (or worse)
The fact that African American organizations reinforced the theme made opposition to “reform” for people like Sanders and Warren virtually impossible.
At my request, the local library ordered Gordon Lafer’s book, “The One Percent Solution”. Every library in the nation should have the book on its shelves. Every American should read Chap. 4 about schools
My deduction from reading is that the national Dem. party is intentionally furthering ALEC’s agenda. And, part of the service they provided was white-washing Bill Gates. Paraphrasing Lafer, the most substantive right in which we believe we are entitled is a decent education for our kids. “For those interested in lowering citizens’ expectations of what we have a right to demand from government, there is no more central fight than that around public education”.
Wow, it’s amazing how people go overboard to defend Sanders and Warren and go overboard to attack Hillary Clinton.
For the record, Hillary is the only Democratic politician I have heard outside of Mayor Bill de Blasio who said about charters: most of the schools “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or if they do, they don’t keep them.” Every other pseudo Democrat professes concern about “for-profit” charters. Hillary noted what is terribly wrong with the non-profit charters that claim success.
So did Bill de Blasio. And he holds some power as Mayor of NYC (same as Bloomberg). So why haven’t progressives rallied around him? Why isn’t he viewed as a Democrat speaking the truth about education reform? He’s fighting for tremendous resources for the public schools teaching the most disadvantaged kids. And getting attacked for not turning them all into high performing scholars but still standing firm. And the Democrat party haters act as if he is invisible.
You have the Mayor of the largest city in America on your side.
^^Also, I believe it is disingenuous to give Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren a pass on their “I’m for public charters” stance.
“The fact that African American organizations reinforced the theme made opposition to “reform” for people like Sanders and Warren virtually impossible.”
I disagree. The Black Lives Matters and NAACP called for a moratorium on charters. Not “for-profit” charters. ALL charters. So Warren and Sanders had every reason to support that and demonstrate just a tiny bit of curiosity as to why they would be opposed.
They chose not to. Hillary did. Now Hillary might have been just as enabling of the “we don’t need no stinkin’ oversight” pro-charter movement as Obama was. But at least she cared enough to actually think and learn. That’s more than I can say for Bernie and Warren. Just once I would like to hear some indication from one of them that they understood the issues. And given that both BLM and NAACP took up this issue, their complete disinterest in the issue speaks volumes. It isn’t corruption, it is just not caring.
There are Democrats like de Blasio and Kucinich who work for the 99%. They deserve all of the support we can give them.
The supposition that other politicians , “don’t care” about ed. privatization is difficult to sell. They don’t have to scratch the surface very deep to understand, that it provides the KEY winning strategy for the party. And, it’s an easy, compelling PR package to craft. We shouldn’t discount the fact that the politicians would have to oppose America’s richest man and, all of the sharks he attracted with his money/bait of potential corporate riches. That’s a powerful inducement for Dem. politicians to ignore schools.
While he was President, Obama told the American people if we wanted something done it was in our hands not his. If that doesn’t say oligarchy, I don’t know what does. But, Obama owed it to us to be clear and say democracy was gone at the national level and in many state and local areas.
Both Sanders and Warren have tried to avoid the issue. Vermont has had a unique hybrid system of public private partnership that predates the charter movement. It probably makes Bernie wary of blanket statements about the evils of charters. Warren has to face DFER and the hedge fund crowd. While she could come out (at the last minute?) in opposition to charter expansion, I’m not quite sure she is ready to buck the moneyed class who seem to support the charter idea. As much as I think they are not being quite honest about their positions, I think they can be influenced through strong constituent lobbying.
RE: NYC school parent 6/27 9:49am– right! Thanks for mentioning that there are indeed narratives countering the privatization agenda on our side of the aisle, namely civil rights groups specifically calling out charters as being harmful to social justice.
Not only BLM & NAACP in Aug 2016, but also, the month before that, the letter to Reid & McConnell from the Journey for Justice Alliance, a coalition of nearly 40 organizations of parents and students of color in 23 states, and 175 other national and local civil rights, youth and community organizations, which spoke against the accountability-testing blitz in pubschs, called for more community schools w/rich & varied curriculum & wrap-around services– “we don’t want them closed or privatized”– & specifically called for a moratorium on “the federal Charter Schools Program: “We don’t need more schools. We need better ones.”
“Those of you who have given up on the Dems haven’t identified a single politician who would meet your criteria to lead this new pro-public education party.”
Yes, I did and I voted for her as president.
Jill Stein was at Putin’s head table at the same time as Flynn. Google the pucture. The Russian Green Party denounced Stein for failing to denounce Putin’s human rights abuses, like murdering critics and journalists.
I was responding to NYCpsp’s statement. That is all. I identified a person who was to my liking that I voted for as NYCpsp requested.
As far as the failure to denounce human rights abuses, I don’t know and at this point don’t care. If however, it comes time that Stein runs again, I would take that fact in as part of my analysis of/for whom I would vote. Tis all that can be done at this point in time.
I prefer Bill de Blasio to Jill Stein but she does have the correct position on education as far as I can tell. Thank you.
‘I am not prepared to say: “We’ve lost.”‘
Nor am I, Laura Chapman, nor am I. What Margaret Mead said about a small group of people, what Frederick Douglass said about power conceding nothing w/o demands, what Diane says about never giving up & what most of the commenters say here every day–SomeDam, Senor Duane, Dienne 77, Krazy TA, Yvonne, Ciedie, Joel Herman & too many more to mention here, but I, for one, salute you.
Special thanks to you, Laura & to Mercedes for your recent, excellent, more than helpful posts on 50CAN (helped me expose a group in my state that is, w/o a doubt, pro-privatization-kill-off-all-the-public-schools–w/o your info., so many people just would not know what’s going on right under their noses). And how can one fight if the enemy is not known?
Thank you many times over, Diane for this “site to discuss better education for all.”
For ALL. And all of us,here, will keep fighting to make that so.
It really IS all about the kids.
For the future of the country, we can’t afford to lose this fight. We have no less an obligation than those, who before us, made great sacrifices for American democracy.
“The One Percent Solution”, by Gordon Later establishes that everything we believe in as Americans, is at stake.
The battle is against the divine right of kings, about which Lincoln warned.
It’s also about our jobs too. I don’t like doing the whole “it’s all about the kids” thing. That narrative opens up a huge door for reformers to exploit. It also then puts organized teachers at a disadvantage because now the assumption is one of altruism. My altruistic reasons for teaching are frankly nobody’s business. Everyone should assume that, like every other goddamn profession including being a doctor, my main reason for choosing it is that it’s a way to turn my skillset into some kind of living, with a surplus of funds a goal.
We do this with no other profession. This constant highlighting of the altruistic motives. That does nothing except open doors for people to criticize and damage the living we are trying to make. Imagine if we constantly talked about doctors motivations as “all about the patients.” We don’t do that. We all know that prosperity is a part if being a doctor. They want to get paid. Note that NOWHERE in the current debate on healthcare is there a discussion about doctors making less and removing any of their protections. Why? The AMA would never allow it or allow the narrative to become about their altruism.
Begging to differ, the same specious misogynistic ‘highlighting of altruistic motives’ has been used for a century to keep the nursing profession at barely-living wages while normalizing ‘prosperity is part of being a doctor’!
Perhaps the altruistic meme was one developed for traditionally female professions as if we don’t have to eat as well.
Correct, rbmtk, but at the same time one has to be able to recognize where the danger lies and that is with each individual teacher and adminimal who Goes Along to Get Along. Until the those supposed professionals stand up for their profession, as some of us have done over the years and paid the personal and financial price, they will lose, other than to be the low quality catchment for the “dregs” of the students rejected by the privateer schools.
Today, Huffpo reported about a Hillary speech, “Libraries are essential in the fight to defend truth and reason…Librarians are the first line…”
In contrast, were Hillary’s comments about the value of public schools and teachers more muted?
How many votes did the libraries bring to Hillary’s campaign as compared to school parents, teachers, administrative staff, support staff?
Democratic Party failure.
Hillary Clinton talking about charters during the campaign pointed out that most of the schools [charters] “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or if they do, they don’t keep them.”
It might be nice if Sanders and Warren were rushing to support “public charter schools” in order to completely negate the very important issue that Hillary Clinton raised. Can you imagine if Bernie Sanders had done what Hillary did and say “charters don’t take the hardest rot take kids, or if they do, they don’t keep them” and that means that your tax dollars are rewarding PRIVATE organizations who can save money by choosing only the cheapest students to teach” ?
Bill de Blasio has also pointed out that the highest performing charters are getting to be high performing by suspending inordinate numbers of 6 year olds and losing high numbers of students. Where are the rest of the supposedly progressive democrats like Bernie and Warren who should be reinforcing this every single time. Instead they focus on “for-profit” as the bad ones and “public charters that are high performing” as wonderful additions to education. And the point that Hillary Clinton and Bill de Blasio makes gets completely ignored.
(correction) ….It might be nice if Sanders and Warren were NOT rushing to support “public charter schools”….
Hillary had every possible advantage in getting the nomination and she ran as the Democratic presidential candidate. We can argue whether the loss was or was not her fault. But, ultimately she had the biggest platform to tell the public that America’s most important common good was being privatized to enrich oligarchs. Bernie coulda, woulda, shoulda speculation contrasts with his work since the election to help people suffering from Hillary’s loss. I appreciate both he and Warren. The highest visibility person willing to speak out against one of the 3 most dangerous oligarchs in the world is Diane Ravitch.
I appreciate Bernie and Warren’s work, too, since the election. I just don’t understand why it can’t include making it clear that public education is something valuable.
Instead we Sen. Warren’s statement opposing Betsy DeVos:
“Unlike the successful, thoughtful, and innovative education policies we have implemented in Massachusetts with regard to public charter schools, the policies Mrs. DeVos has bankrolled have drained valuable taxpayer dollars out of the public education system in Michigan and left kids worse off….”
How long before Massachusetts has more of those “successful thoughtful public charter schools” with the full approval of Warren? I wish just once Warren would have to explain exactly what she means by “successful” and whether she has even noticed that BLM and the NAACP have concerns even about the “successful” ones whose disciplinary policies exclude many students.
All American politicians should be shackled and forced to read, “The One Percent Solution: How corporations are remaking America one state at a a time”. Then, every time the politicians begin to vote against the 99%, a cattle prod should be administered until they stop.