Education Post announced a competition for videos celebrating the glories of school choice. There will be prizes of $15,000 each to the lucky winners.
Education Post is funded by Eli Broad, the Walton Family, Michael Bloomberg, and sundry other billionaires.
It is led by Peter Cunningham, who served in the first term of the Obama administration as Arne Duncan’s Assistant Secretary for Communication, P.R., etc.
On the presumption that it was part of the Democratic center, it supposedly supports charters (partial privatization), not vouchers. That was then. This is now.
Read Peter Greene about the contest.
But a closer look makes this contest even more interesting. First of all, instead of focusing only on charter schools, this contest is to promote a broader agenda:
There is no “one size fits all” school or educational model that works for everyone. That is why it is important for students and families to have the freedom to choose the pathway that best meets their needs, whether that is a different public school, charter, magnet, private school, virtual/blended, or homeschool.
That moves us away from the strictly-charter advocacy and into something more closely aligned with, well, the agenda of Betsy DeVos. Plenty of charter advocates have cast a leery eye on voucher systems– but this contest loves it all. And EdPost is promoting it.
Whose contest is this, exactly?
Well, the main address on the site is that of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the Florida-based group that, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, was going to provide a platform to help launch Jeb Bush to the White House. FEE has actually changed its name, at least in some places, to ExcelInEd, a group that includes all the same players and still calls itself the Foundation for Excellence in Education in the fine print on its site. I bring ExcelInEd up only because they are nominally the launchers of this contest. Mostly I am just dying for them to open an Ohio branch so that we can call them EiEiO. FEE/EiE is one of the older, more well-entrenched reformy groups with a Who’s Who of deep-pocketed donaters including Gates, Walton, Broad, Kellogg, Bloomberg, Schwab, News Corporation and Dick and Besy DeVos.
Also sponsoring the contest? American Federation for Children, Betsy DeVos’s advocacy group. AFC is a dark money group that has been working hard to push privatization of education in this country (for the children).
Also? EdChoice, the advocacy group previously known as the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the group launched by Milton Friedman.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Isn’t it awkward for Democrats though? They’re all running against DeVos state level in Ohio. Apparently they think opposition to privatization is quite the vote getter or I wouldn’t be getting all these campaign emails opposing it 🙂
You just marvel at the disconnect. I think it adds to the general cynicism around government. What are they? What do they believe? Nothing? Everything?
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Isn’t it possible that the Democrats running for office in Ohio ARE opposed to Betsy DeVos and privatization?
Just because Andrew Cuomo identifies as a Democrat does not mean there is no difference between him and Bill de Blasio.
And it DEFINITELY does not mean that progressive voters should refrain from voting for de Blasio because he is a Democrat just like Cuomo.
I have identified with the Democratic Party for nearly 50 years and I was never under the illusion that every Democrat was the same nor that the bad behavior of one Democrat should turn me against a Democrat fighting for the right things.
I don’t understand how Republicans got voters to think this way about the Democrats but it definitely is what has helped keep them in power despite offering programs that are repulsive to a majority of Americans.
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You persist with this notion that somehow lefties are deluded by the right wing. The fact is, however, that Democrats have done this all on their own by supporting right-wing policies, especially on education matters. I don’t need any right-winger to tell me that Obama/Duncan/King’s RttT was a right-wing wet dream. I don’t need any right-winger to tell me that Rahm Emanuel closed 50 schools in one day. I don’t need a right-winger to tell me about Booker, Cuomo, or the other legions of “reform” supporters among the Democrats.
Of course not all Democrats are the same. Yes, there are some that are more progressive than others, and if you say that de Blasio is really one of those, I guess I’ll take your word for it. Not being a New Yorker, I’ll never get the chance to vote for or against him anyway. But even the more progressive Democrats have been tepid, at best, about the Democratic Party approach to education. Few have spoken out against their fellow Democrats.
If the Democrats want to convince me that they’re not right-wingers, it’s entirely up to them to do so, and it’s very simple: stop acting like Republicans. Don’t vote to protect Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. Don’t vote for more and more military intervention and a higher and higher military budget at the same time you’re slashing funds for education, healthcare and social programs. Stop pushing education “reform” and start genuinely supporting public education. Start standing up for true single-payer healthcare and stop telling me it’s a “pie-in-the-sky pipedream”. That’s not right-wing influence. That’s me (and millions of other lefties) paying attention to what the Democrats themselves are saying and, more importantly, doing.
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dienne77, you seem to have missed my point entirely.
How can we get democrats to start standing up for those things if we insist that all democrats are pretty much the same instead of strongly supporting the ones who are different and distinguishing them from the co-opted ones?
“But even the more progressive Democrats have been tepid, at best, about the Democratic Party approach to education. Few have spoken out against their fellow Democrats.”
Hello?? Compare how much Tim Kaine has supported public schools and fought “public” charters with how much Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have! We need more Tim Kaines! We also need a lot more Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrens but that’s not going to help public education very much unless we also have more Kaines.
“Stop pushing education “reform” and start genuinely supporting public education.” deinne77, why don’t you take a close look at the Virginia primary to see which Democrat believed in education “reform”?
I know I sound like a broken record. I appreciate you grudging acknowledgment that there might be a few Dems worth electing with your comment: “if you say that de Blasio is really one of those, I guess I’ll take your word for it.”
It’s shocking the Democrats can’t win when so many progressive voters have become completely cynical about anyone with the D. next to their name! The right wing delights in that cynicism and has helped to foment it. Cynicism = apathy = don’t vote.
PS – Bernie is appearing at a de Blasio rally next week. Hooray! Now you don’t have to take my word for it. Although Bernie did appear at Hillary rallies so maybe that is scant evidence that de Blasio is a real progressive….
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Why must you always make it about Kaine vs. Sanders/Warren? I’m the first to admit that Warren is absolutely lousy for education. Sanders has been – I think deliberately – more of a cipher about education, which gives me a bad feeling about him too as far as education goes. I just don’t think Hillary was any better – and, I think, probably worse – for education despite choosing Kaine for her VP. Hillary has a very strong record for education “reform” during her days in Arkansas, she’s best friends with Eli Broad, she put John Podesta in charge of her campaign, and she’s endorsed by DFER – all of which are very bad signs. Had she been elected, I just don’t think she would have let Kaine loose on education policy. The world will never know, of course.
The main plus for Sanders was that he seemed to understand and condemn the economic set-up that is neoliberalism. He seemed to understand that breaking up the banks, reining in corporations and instituting true single-payer healthcare were (and still are) necessary steps, not “pie-in-the-sky pipedreams” of deluded lefties. If Sanders’ stated economic vision were ever to come to pass, the country would be far better off in all respects, including education, because all Americans would be better able to participate in the American Dream. When average people fare better economically, then other areas benefit as well.
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FYI:
Warren’s education aide is from TFA.
So is Tim Kaine’s education aide.
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dienne77,
I agree with you about Sanders! I know you don’t believe me but that’s exactly why I voted for him in the primary. I was just very pleasantly surprised when I took a closer look at Hillary later to find that she was more progressive than I had thought. You are right that we will never know and you have a point that her record on education wasn’t stellar. (Although I object to the “best friends with Broad” thing because it feels like something the alt right would say.) But did you see that video of her appearance talking about charters? What she said was one of the best things I have ever heard any Democrat say about charters and I include de Blasio in that. I wanted to have a Democrat who would speak clearly and sensibly to make the case for public schools and I thought Hillary did that better than any pro-public school defender I have ever heard, bar none. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was amazing. It was so superb that I was willing to take a chance that she was not going to be another Obama (who never – even when he pretended to be pro-public school in the campaign – made a good case for public schools.)
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” (Although I object to the “best friends with Broad” thing because it feels like something the alt right would say.) ”
Hillary herself describes a very close, long-term relationship with Eli Broad. “I looked up one day and Eli was in my living room, and my life has never been the same.” The Clintons and the Broads have been friends for over 30 years and Hillary was Broad’s lawyer for quite a while. Broad was one of the people that Bill Clinton allowed to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom.
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dienne77,
Again I believe you missed my point. I know Hillary Clinton was friendly with Broad — you can even call it “best friends” although given how many people slept in the Lincoln Bedroom she sure has a lot of “best friends”.
But being best friends with someone does not mean that you give up your own principles entirely to do their bidding. Unless you are completely without any ethics or morality of your own. And while I realize people insist Hillary was exactly someone with no ethics or morality, I don’t buy that for one minute. She was a politician but, IMO, as good or better than many Democrats.
I’m going to link again to the video I implore you to watch. Not because it will change your mind. But THIS is how Democrats should be talking about public education. Hillary Clinton is being questioned by a pro-education reform, pro-charter, pro-voucher interviewer and didn’t let him take some moral high ground about helping all the poor children with school choice.
Watch from 36:10 to 39:19. It is worth watching all 3+ minutes because every time you think she is done, Hillary makes another good point that shows the insincerity of all the “we’re in it for the children” talking points that the reformers use.
I’m not asking you to watch to make you change your mind about HIllary. I’m hoping that OTHER progressives — even one! — would talk like this about public schools and charters. I want to hear progressives making a GOOD case for public schools instead of their mealy-mouth support of “public charters” that is less than helpful.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?400357-1/hillary-clinton-town-hall-meeting-orangeburg-south-carolina
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I’m old enough to remember when charter supporters shouted down every dissenter who said charters would lead directly to vouchers.
Now that it’s occurred will they admit they were wrong? Or do they just smoothly transition to supporting vouchers and roll on?
In 5 years the whole echo chamber will be promoting backpack vouchers and they’ll have completely adopted Milton Friedman while still running against those evil Republicans and their privatizing ways. It’s REALLY cynical.
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Cynical, yes, Likely? Shockingly yes.
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I;m waiting for the first small town that has nothing BUT a religious voucher school and the public school students have to bus miles. That won’t happen though- they’ll simply move and then we’ll have 1 religion towns! How great will that be! Maybe we could partition the country off into religious sects- that way no one ever has to compromise with anyone because why bother? Just choose a school like a restaurant, sort of like that, except you have to live close to the restaurant you choose and some of the restaurants will close so you won’t have any choice at all.
They don’t seem to know how fragile this is for smaller places, that public schools aren’t like weather, in the background, a given. We could lose them and they would be missed.
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Joni Mitchell said it best.
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Till it’s gone”
I sincerely hope we don’t wind up here.
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Just to pitch them in the trash like everyone has decided they have no value!
The arrogance is breathtaking. The unintended consequences will be breathtaking too, but DeVos will be long gone by then- back to her fleet of yachts and her cushy lifetime tenure in “the movement”.
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Cunningham’s response on Greene’s post:
Peter CunninghamOctober 26, 2017 at 8:50 PM
“Would it surprise you to know that we teamed up with the AFT a few years ago to fund a media critic? Or that we had a union leader on our payroll for a while writing blogs about teacher issues? Did you know that we often publish people we disagree with just to encourage open dialogue? And that we frequently share articles from all kinds of folks who disagree with us on a lot of issues like Rachel Cohen? So the fact that we’re promoting a video contest on choice sponsored by a right-leaning think tank isn’t really that big a deal. Most of our funders are pretty left-leaning: Laurene Jobs, Bloomberg, Gates, Zuckerberg — and even Broad — who is no longer a funder of ours but is a long-time Democratic contributor. Anyway, thanks for sharing the news about the contest. You should enter. You might win.”
I suggest we flood his contest with 2 minute videos saying why we choose public schools!
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Hilarious (but not in a ha-ha way) that he still thinks (or pretends to think) that Gates et al are “pretty left-leaning”, unless one thinks that saying you support gay rights and women is what makes one “left-leaning”.
Many union leaders are also pretty questionable as far as being “left-leaning”, which is almost painfully ironic.
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That’s what happens when the so-called Left (Ha!) ignores economics and goes all-in on Identitarian politics. You get twaddle like this, and Trump…
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“so a cool $70k”: In other words, chump change for them intended for a few willing chumps. He doesn’t realize that his brand of “left-leaning” education is a lot closer on a circular scale to the far right hucksters who claim to be “religious.” I recently read an essay by Mark Twain in which he made the distinction between “Professing Christians” and “Professional Christians,” the latter having only an understanding of interests, not ethics. I think there’s analogy in there for those of us, like Peter, who can see through Cunningham’s penchant to sneeringly “protesteth too much.”
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No ordinary public schools need apply. You heard DeVos. We’re all trapped and suffering from malaise. We don’t know it but that’s because we’re kind of dumb so she has to spend 25k to come from DC and tell us personally.
Say you attend a Mandarin-immersion, boys-only classical non-profit blended learning charter school located on a barge in Boston Harbor and you might have a shot. But the teachers can’t belong to a union or they’re “self interested”
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I don’t think any of those billionaires are “left-leaning.” They all support privatization and the destruction of public schools.
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Depends on if you’re looking from the front or back.
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Yeah, or in a mirror.
Or an alternate universe.
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There is no such thing as “left leaning”. It’s another empty phrase made up by the wealthy, like “school choice”, “citizens united” or “must see TV”. You’re either left or right on any particular issue or set of interconnected issues.
If you’re standing on your yacht and leaning toward a sinking rowboat, you’re not standing on the rowboat.
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If I may be presumptuous and share one of my favorite stories that, I think, underscores all of our comments: When I was in college in New Orleans, I used to drive buses and limos for a tour company to pay for college. Once I chauffeured a wealthy German—I was personable and spoke German, so I got the gig—who had purchased properties all around the world as investments and tax shelters. He proceeded to tell me that he had recently bought a large ranch/estate in Paraguay. Knowing that many Nazis fled there and basically ran the country, I was suspicious. He then went on to tell me that he had recently purchased it. He told me about a visit to his estate when he was invited by a neighbor to dinner one night (his neighbor lived about 20 miles away). A car was sent to pick him up and he described how, when they entered the property, they drove for about three miles down a lane lined perfectly with trees and entered a large opening to the mansion. He was greeted and brought into a large foyer, three stories high. In the back of the room was a life-size portrait of Hitler with a Nazi flag on each side. He told me he gulped, started sweating, and couldn’t believe it. It was the worst night of his life since WWII. “You know,” he said to me, “In Germany I’m a strong supporter of the CDU (the conservative party led today by Angela Merkel). They say I’m on the right. But when I go to Paraguay, I’m waaaay to the left.” After he departed that evening, he decided to sell his property. But he got to know the staff, so he kept the property, increased their pay and benefits, and never again had anything to do with his “neighbor.” I can’t help but remember that story every time I read “right-leaning” and “left-leaning.” Not related to this discussion, but hope it brings a smile to some of you.
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“Old Reformer”
Old Reformer had a group
EiEiO
And from his group we got some poop
EiEiO
With a poop poop here
And a poop poop there
Here a poop, there a poop
Everywhere a poop poop
Old Reformer had a group
EiEiO
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And the DEMs are STILL scratching their heads and behinds, wondering, “What happened?” and still getting It wrong.
Cunningham is a mouthpiece for the charter industry, the common gore industry, and the testing industry … ALL about $$$$$. He is earning money and paying his and others’ dues. Question is: Are this country’s citizens smart enough to see the big, fat scam?
Cunningham is your typical “inside the Beltway DEM.” Save us from politicians and big money.
$$$$$ talks and bs walks in this “for profit” country.
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