Steven Singer reviews the decision by the Colorado Democratic party to tell the “Democrats for Education Reform” to stop calling themselves “Democrats.” DFER, he writes, is neither “Democrat” nor is it advocating for “education reform.” It is a group of wealthy hedge fund managers who pour large amounts of money into election to promote standardization, profitization, and privatization. They are clueless about the value of public schools and about the needs of students and teachers. They don’t care. They have money and they do what they want, without regard to collateral damage.
He writes:
Henceforth, “Education Reform” shall be Education Sabotage – because that’s really what it is.
It is about deliberately obstructing goods and services that otherwise would help kids learn and repurposing them for corporate benefit.
Likewise, I propose we stop using the term “School choice.” Instead, call it what it is – School Privatization.
Anyone who uses the older terms is either misguided or an enemy of authentic education.
Perhaps this seems petty.
They’re only words, after all. What does it matter?
It matters a lot.
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
We cannot effectively fight the forces of segregation, standardization and privatization if we have to constantly define our terms.
Professor Maurice Cunningham of the University of Massachusetts, who specializes in the deployment of Dark Money to promote school privatization, has suggested the term “Financial Privatization Cabal.” Great term, too many syllables.
We could just call them the “Privatizers,” because that is the word that represents the common goal of DFER and Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, and the other thieves of language and the common good.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“We could just call them the “Privatizers,” ”
I prefer “Privateers” as it connotes a certain illegitimacy, at least to their victims, to what they are doing.
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“What’s in a name?”
Privatizers, Privateers
Piratizers, Pirateers
“School reformer” lends respect
To people we should just reject
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Exactly.
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“Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language.”
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I like privateer too. It reminds me of pirates, which is an apt description of the corporate vandals.
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YES. Think of how things would change if every single time the words “school reformer” were written they were alternately written as “school privateer.”
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This is a great post that confronts the misleading, euphemistic terms of “reform” and privatization. For too long Democrats have ignored the nefarious, anti-democratic wing of the party that undermines public education. They have taken hedge fund money and ignored the fact that their goal is to privatize a key public institution. The Democratic party needs to wake up to the fact that most Americans support strong public schools, not corporate schools. The Democrats’ problem is bigger than the use of language. Their problem is they are trying to appease everyone while collecting Wall St. cash. They need to realize that their duplicity is costing them votes. While money is important, votes win elections.
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thieves of language
There are so many.
Growth as nothing but an increase in test scores.
Personalized means computer algorithms determine what you learn.
Charter schools are public schools.
Reform means disrupt the purposes of education and use students as if guinea pigs.
Innovate means disruption with a creative flair, like transforming teachers into learning sherpas.
The Cloud means a warehouse full of computers.
Social Impact Bond means a financial product designed to yield profits for investors from projects that they can control to assure profits.
And so it goes. I thought that Diane had a collaborator on a book with this kind of word mischief and thievery…in addition to the one in progress.
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IMO the thing to ask DFER is what they have done for children in public schools.
This is a real problem for ed reform. Their public school agenda is either overwhelmingly negative or non-existant.
I wonder about it because so many of them aren’t “education people”- they’re political professionals. What is the thinking? They really managed to convince themselves that everyone is as opposed to the continued existence of public schools as they are? They thought public schools were being “wound down” so it simply wouldn’t matter that they offer nothing of value to public school families? I’m genuinely curious what the plan was.
Was it some kind of strategy? “We’ll spend 2 decades bashing and weakening public schools and at some point the public will flee to our charter and private schools”?
How do you simply omit 90% of families and call that a “public education platform”? It’s nuts. To anyone outside the echo chamber – so, again the vast, vast majority of families- it’s baffling and inexplicable.
They can’t point to a positive contribution to any kid anywhere in a public school yet they want majority policy influence and political power on public education in a country where 90% of kids attend public schools. Why should they get it? They don’t serve 90% of families. In fact, the record is they HARM 90% of families. Why would we support that?
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“The limits of my money mean the limits of my world.” — Any Billionaire
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Hey Poet, I wrote another poem. I’m on a roll. This one’s no joke, straight from the heart. Here ’tis:
I
Hate
Annual
Testing.
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You can read this yourself, by the way. They don’t hide it. The Obama Administration’s official policy was 1. choice schools and 2. testing for public school students.
If you’re a public school family only # 2 applies, so we get….tests. Yippee! We’ll crawl over broken glass to vote for that!
Go right now and try to find a positive plan for any public school on any ed reform website. Other than “privatize” they offer nothing. Most of the time public schools aren’t even mentioned UNLESS it’s to use them to make one or another comparison with private or charter schools. This is how they see our schools and our students- as a tool to promote charters. As the “default”. As the schools no one has to think much about because the Best and Brightest have already determined they’re slated for replacement.
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Myth is a peculiar thing. Like symbolic language, out of which it is built.
The Structuralist school of anthropology argued that myth is the means by which
we organise our world.
At the end of the day, it is always some form of anxiety that is being avoided through mythic construction.
The limits of my symbolic language mean the limits of my myth.
We cannot effectively continue the myth if we have to constantly define our
symbolic language.
They’re only myths, after all.
The spoof is in the putting.
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The US Department of Education boldly pretends public schools don’t exist:
“She attended the national championships for high school robotics at Cobo Hall to promote STEM fields.
DeVos was all smiles at the robotics competition as she met young students from Ann Arbor. She spoke of the importance of STEM and access to education, but when Local 4 asked if she had plans to visit any Detroit public schools, some of which are within walking distance of Cobo, the secretary of education said she wasn’t visiting any schools that day.”
There are no public schools in Michigan anymore as far as these people are concerned.
They hold entire three day events that are supposedly about “public education” but they exclude anyone from public schools.
It’s ludicrous. They’re going to end up as irrelevant, which is the best thing that could possibly happen for public school students. They’re already irrelevant in West Virginia and Arizona and Oklahoma, and more will follow. Because someone had to pay (positive, productive) attention to public schools, and it sure as heck wasn’t gonna be ed reform.
A 90% hole at the center of ed reform wasn’t going to stay empty. Someone will fill it and that someone is- teachers. The last line of defense after all these big shots simply refused to do their jobs.
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The DFERS are SO WRONG. I wonder why they called themselves Democrats rather than “phonycrats.”
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The usual reformer hoax, pretending to be something they are not. Either they are not Democrats or not reformers. Certainly not reformers, and certainly know nothing about education.
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Is Obama not a Democrat then? Cory Booker? Rahm Emanuel? Andrew Cuomo?
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“What is a Democrat?”
What is a Democrat?
Where do they stand?
When will they go to bat?
Lending a hand?
Who is a Democrat
Why do they hedge?
How can they push the cat 🐈
Over the edge?
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Democraps . . . .
Democruds . . . .
Demo-lition
Demons….
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Because hedge fund managers are at the helm of the deceptively self-labeled “Democrats for Education Reform”, and because hedge funds managers are the pirates of the financial world, you have to ask yourself just what their interest is in schools, because their only interest is money. Well, in the vehicle of charter schools they have found a way to divert a steady stream of public tax dollars into their funds. How bad is the diversion? Well, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a report which warns that, because of their lack of financial accountability to the public “CHARTER SCHOOLS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS POSE A POTENTIAL RISK TO FEDERAL FUNDS, EVEN AS THEY FALL SHORT OF MEETING GOALS” because of financial fraud and the artful skimming of tax money into private pockets, especially hedge fund pockets.
If nothing else is required of charter schools, one thing must be required so that charter schools are accountable to taxpayers and inform taxpayers as to how taxpayer money is actually being spent; that one key thing is: Charter schools must be required to file the SAME detailed, public domain financial reports under penalty of perjury that public schools file.
Charter schools will cry that this is “too burdensome” — yet public schools file such reports. What would the outcry be if public schools were “freed” of this “burden”? Why, the outcry would rattle the very heavens! So, why is it that private charter schools are allowed to get away with taking public tax money and not have to tell the public on an annual basis how those public tax dollars are spent?
Charter schools bill themselves as “public schools”, but Supreme Courts in states like New York, Washington and elsewhere are catching on to the scam and have ruled that charter schools are really private schools because they aren’t accountable to the public because they are run by private boards that aren’t elected by voters and don’t even have to file detailed reports to the public about what they’re doing with the public’s tax money. Of course, if they have to do that, the public and the media will see what the charter school scam is all about, and charter schools will fade away.
Forget every other strategy to stop charter schools: If you can force them to file the SAME detailed, public domain, annual financial reports under penalty of perjury that public schools file — and why not? — the public school industry will dry up and move on to other privatization scams in other areas to divert public money into private pockets.
Financial accountability is something that can be “sold” to American taxpayers. Go to it!
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Diane,
Is it possible to start a new organization called Democrats for Public Schools? (DEPS) Or Democrats Against Privatizing Public Schools? (DAPPS)
Is there anyone with the deep enough pockets to give such an organization the resources to garner the same attention that DFER gets?
There are certainly many Democrats who support public education. But perhaps the ones who are wishy washy need to be put on the spot.
Are you DFER Democrats or DAPPS Democrats?
And that question would be asked of moderate or conservative Democrats like Tim Kaine and Ralph Northam, and asked of progressive Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Tom Perriello.
It is time to CHOOSE. And every Democrat and every candidate running in a Democratic Primary needs to choose.
Where do they stand on public education? Are they DFERS or DAPPS?
Then voters in the primaries can know exactly what sort of Democrat they are getting.
(For example, Andrew Cuomo has the DFER endorsement and seal of approval, and Cynthia Nixon has the DAPPS endorsement.)
For too long this organization that represents a handful of billionaires and the co-opted staff and politicians they own has been given disproportionate attention.
And it’s time to start a competing narrative. DAPPS. Democrats Against Privatizing Public Schools. Politicians can be DFER or DAPPS but not both and they should be forced to choose.
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That organization already exists, NYCpsp. It’s called The Network for Public Education! I hope you’re already a member!
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You are absolutely right! I didn’t mean to ignore NPE! I’m very sorry.
I was just hoping that there was a way to associate Democrats with public schools instead of educational reform, and force Democratic politicians to take a stand one way or another.
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Cynthia Nixon will force Democrats to take a stand on charter schools and privatization in New York. Her campaign has national resonance.
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NYCpsp: I think you have a good idea there. Already elected Dems are not likely to say they belong to the N.P.E. (most of them probably don’t even know what it stands for), but they SHOULD identify themselves as Pro-Public School Dems (all the rest are D,I,N.O.s= Democrats in Name Only). When Cynthia Nixon does force Dems to take a stand, they can, indeed, give themselves a name, & people other than readers here (who all know what’s going on, precisely because we read it here & probably live it) will clearly know who the Pro-Public Dems are & which of them aren’t, & will vote for those who clearly name themselves as Pro Publics (easily called D.P.P.s` Dems Pro Publics).
And, indeed, Cynthia can be their leader.
Honestly, & sadly, having been working w/an election watchdog group for almost 2 years now, most people still don’t know who to vote for or what candidates really stand for when they’re running (I live in Crook County, so called because that’s just what it’s been for decades, &, now, because of Citizens United, there are so many ads on TV that people {even otherwise very educated people: my friend, who is extremely intelligent & very educated, wanted to vote for a candidate who’d been kicked off, put back on, kicked off again, then put back on, during early voting–when the candidate was off–& she was very angry about not being able to vote for her because she voted early [another reason to not vote early, aside from paper ballots being available only on election day–“paper is safer”]}. This candidate was not the best; she had many issues; my sister didn’t vote for the best, most honest & transparent candidate…because of a tv ad that was played over & over, stating that he was a crook–his male opponent was actually the one who is considered a crook–& he lost.) TMI, but, point being: people will vote for candidates as a result of what they see on tv ads or hear on the radio because they don’t read/research the candidates (masses of people justdon’t have the time, but even those who do–such as my retired friend–don’t, & they believe tv ads.
Grrr.
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