Jeff Bryant has a warning for Democrats: Beware of corporate education reform.
Leave it to the Republicans.
Don’t promote privatization and charters. Don’t bash teachers. Don’t beat up on unions. You erode your base.
He points to Denver and Virginia. In Denver, a candidate for school board won, even though she was outspent nearly 5-1.
In Virginia, Ralph Northam made clear his opposition to charters.
Listen, Democrats.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Agreed. But Corporate Democrats do not listen, regardless of their electoral losses at all levels since the late 1990’s. As long as their corporate/Wall St. donors fund them, they don’t care what people need or want, including Medicare for All, public schools, free college, and jobs at living wages.
Until the corporate Democrats are driven out of the party, the Democrats will continue to lose, and deserve to.
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The tone in the school “debate” has changed. The public has become much more aware of the meager, often wasteful results of charters, They understand that charters are not “islands of opportunity,” and they see that the battle is more about access to public money than civil rights. The NAACP and other social justice groups have caught on the lie of “choice.” They have witnessed the destruction of communities that choice schemes have created. Democrats should understand that most of their voters are happy with their democratic and transparent public schools. ” As Education Week reports in its post-election analysis, in states where Democrats prevailed—including New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington—”long-simmering” battles over charter schools, funding, and testing will likely heat up as a result.” Many people understand that privatization is a war between working people and the plutocracy. The Democrats need to embrace public education for the public asset that it is. It built this nation, and with support it can build a better future for our young people.
Progressive young people are tired of the neoliberal Democrats ignoring their needs. They are talking about forming a third party if the Democratic party continues to be ‘Republican lite.” It would take decades to get a third party to build enough support to make any impact, and it may split the vote on the left creating more Republican domination for years to come. Democrats are at a crossroads. If they do not change, their party could become irrelevant.
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“The Douglas County school board voted Monday to end a controversial private-school voucher program and directed the school district to end a long-running legal battle that reached the nation’s highest court.
The board voted 6-0 at a standing-room-only meeting to rescind the program, which was put on a hold in 2011 by a Denver District Court judge before families could use it.”
Douglas County PUBLIC schools were suffering under ed reform leadership. The public schools have been slipping in rankings.
They want their public servants to go back to serving public schools. Seems like a reasonable demand.
https://chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2017/12/04/douglas-county-school-board-ends-controversial-voucher-program/
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It’s tough to continue to support Democrats in the hopes they’ll come up with some coherent public education ideas of their own, instead of adopting those of Jeb Bush.
The Obama Administration had 8 years. Public schools got hit every one of those 8 years and DC Democrats did nothing. Sometimes they cheered it on.
There were public school districts in Ohio who took RttT money and ended up in the red on it- the RttT programs were a net loss. Couple that with years of Kasich either completely ignoring the 90% of kids who attend public schools in this state with years of funding cuts and not only did they not improve public schools, they harmed the schools we have.
They don’t seem to have any ideas other than charters and vouchers and testing.
And scolding. They do a lot of scolding. I don’t think they see themselves as advocates. They seem to see themselves as advisers to the unwashed masses.
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How many Democrats will pay attention and learn?
The simple answer: those who think for themselves and have not sold out to the billionaire oligarchs funding the PSYOPs campaign to privatize everything that benefits the public.
After all, billionaires don’t need all of those public programs and the safety net the working class depends on, because the oligarchs already have most of the money in the world and they think everyone should be just like them (how many inherited their wealth and did not earn it) and if you can’t make it you are a loser and deserve to suffer and wilt into oblivion.
It is obvious that the oligarchs are not satisfied in just buying most of the elected members of the Republican Party. They want to own the majority in both major political parties.
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“Listen, Democrats,” indeed.
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I have been whispering, talking and screaming at the St. Louis Post Dispatch for more than a decade about these issues. I have no illusions that I got through to anyone, because the thing that has jolted them into reality is our bizarre, Trump junior governor Greitens. What an (impolite noun). But even if it is mostly a tribalism reaction–he is not a democrat, any movement towards reality is a good thing. I am still blocked from leaving comments after post dispatch articles as other readers are allowed to do…..so I leave it here…Kristen Taketa wrote a great report, emphasizing how much more the charters spend on administration than on instruction in Missour…..
Missouri schools are spending more on superintendent pay, other non-classroom costs
She is a good reporter.
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Current Democratic leadership thinks Wall Street is their base.
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Wall St. and Silicon Valley can help fund campaigns. If the Democratic party message is false, many progressives will not vote for them. Money alone will not win elections. Unlike Republicans Democrats are generally more discerning. Democrats need regular people like teachers and minorities to show up and vote.
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Well said.
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I keep writing to the DEMS and telling them to SUPPORT Public School Teachers and Public Schools rather than what they have been doing since Clinton and then Obama.
The DEMS forgot about us public school teachers and bashed us instead.
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The Dems took educators for granted the same way they took the African Americans, immigrants, and working class union members for granted… they’ve already lost the working class to Mr. Trump and may soon lose the rest of their “base” to a third party on the left if they don’t start speaking up for them. In one respect the Dems are no different than the GOP: they speak up for their donor base…. and the DNC donors are Wall Street and Silicon Valley plutocrats.
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Thanks Diane!
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