This is a curious and entertaining article by Andy Smarick, a prominent Reformer who has made his way in the education industry by working in think tanks, in an occasional government post, opining here and there, and currently serving on the Maryland State Board of Education.
The big takeaway: the corporate reform movement has fractured and fallen apart.
That’s the good news.
But the fragments are splitting off into hit teams to continue their attacks on public schools and the teaching profession.
Portfolio districts! (De)Personalized learning. Never give up, as long as billionaires open their wallets.
Andy will be remembered, for a while anyway, as the coiner of the phrase, “relinquishment,” his advice to public schools. Time to give up! Relinquish your right and power to enroll students with public funding. They didn’t.
As long as the money is there, there will always be Reformers!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
link to article?
Darn! I did it again!
https://www.educationnext.org/unified-education-reform-team-no-thats-ok/
Found it: bit.ly/SmaricKallOK He lost me at “(t)he annual conference circuit, once marked by boundless energy and optimism, seemed depleted.”
Perhaps the Andysters need to switch up their circuits– NPE, the BATs, Schott, PAA, Netroots Nation….all routinely mount vibrant informative substantive conferences year after year, attended by real teachers and parents and students from all over….
but none of that will further consultants Andy and Andy’s main concern: bellweathering the various storms and keeping on keeping on…and don’t worry somebody’ll still write them checks for their expertise. Verily.
Smarik is trying to paint a happy face on Mr Hyde.
Whether Smarik admits it or not, fragmented Deformers will be able to do a lot less damage than they did in coordination.
And it is at least possible that some of the billionaires who have been financing people like Smarik might just grow tired of being piñatas and either scale back their infestments or get out of the bidness of Deform entirely.
Let’s hope that “divided they fall” is a truism. “Reformers” are scrambling in different directions, and this is good for public schools. “2018 revealed that the gas tank of “reform” had run out of gas” I certainly hope this is the case, but there are still lots of billionaires buying and shaping education policy. Gates is determined to impose “personalized learning” on public schools, and many cash strapped districts will take the bait. At least, after in fails, the structure of public schools will hopefully still be there to pick up the pieces and carry on. Charters will be harder to disband or absorb into public systems. Those making profits will fight to keep their turf. Private companies will not give up easily. We can see how difficult it is to get a “Medicare for All” bill through Congress. All those profit making companies are not about to let go of their cash cow.
By the way, here’s the link: https://www.educationnext.org/unified-education-reform-team-no-thats-ok/
Scurrying rats on the sinking ship comes to mind.
Note to Mike Petrilli: I apologize profuesly to any rats who may have been offended by my comparison of them to Deformers.
Titanic Deform
Deform is like Titanic
With iceberg in it’s sight
It’s “Full speed!” and “Don’t panic!
The ship is water tight
..Or cockroaches when lights are turned on. You can add my profuse apology to Mike Petrilli, too.
In case I was not clear: my apology was to the rats.
Well said, Poet. You made me chuckle yet again. Thank you! I additionally apologize to viruses, locusts, donkeys, vultures, and all other parasites and scavengers as well. Still waiting for the other side to apologize to grizzlies… which brings me to having to apologize to elephants. Betsy is the elephant in Petrilli and Smarick’s room.
“Celebrate that bright, enthused, and civic-minded citizens are building a new one” is Orwellian for “Celebrate that ignorant, rapacious, and profit-seeking plutocrats are doing the same things with different strategies.”
Smirking Smarik
Smarik is smirking
Thinks he has won
Failure is lurking
Despite his aplomb
That is why I support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her call for a 70% tax rate for the wealthiest Americans.
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is floating a 70 percent top tax rate — here’s the research that backs her up
“Some studies indicate she’s aiming too low.”
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/4/18168431/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-70-percent
Money buys power. Power corrupts. The more money one has, the more power they buy. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.
The first step to fix this klepto-cancer, is to take away the money from the corrupt until they are just upper middle class and no longer filthy rich.
Yes! The top marginal tax rate was at 70+% during the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter administrations.
The Democratic “leadership” is doing everything they can to make sure Ocasio-Cortez does not succeed on this, the Green New Deal, single payer or anything else she supports.
They are actively trying to isolate her from like-minded members of Congress (of which there are a few)
It’s actually pathetic even by their usual low standards.
It’s the old corporate Democrat guard vs the New Democrats and the former are not going to go silently into the night.
We REALLy need term limits for these people.
Bet those DEMS who are trying to isolate Ocasio-Cortez are DFERS.
With all the smart competent people with fresh ideas, we should not be stuck with the same corporate sticks in the mud decade after decade.
Ostracization of Ocasio-Cortez goes right to the top.
I must admit to being wrong in my initial reaction to Ocasio-Cortez.
I thought she would be all talk and avd to the powers that rule the Democratic party.
But she has already shown incredible courage in the face of opposition from people like Pelosi.
I am not surprised that Pelosi feels threatened by her.
She is a force to be reckoned with, not least if all because she is so smart and social media savvy.
And can dance.
If DFER is part of the plot, presume they are joined by the organization called its sister, the Center for American Progress (the Podesta/ Tanden ship funded by Gates).
I hope more progressives keep coming until the corporate Democrats take a backseat. Ocasio-Cortez recently said, “Lobbyists shouldn’t be writing laws.” So true, but neither should a government work with billionaires and corporations to destroy its public schools.
I rarely talk up politicians, but my respect for Ocasio-Cortez grows daily ( and respect t for those who oppose her drops even lower, if that is possible)
Here’s what Ocasio-Cortez said to Sixty Minutes
“Sometimes we take for granted exactly how radical ideas like Social Security, the VA, and public schooling really are: that we will care for our elders, provide healthcare, and educate all children in America free of cost at the point of service.”
I am simply amazed at how wise she is, especially for someone so young.
I think Pelosi is going to lose big time in this battle. She has met more than her match.
There is no limit to how far our level of respect can drop because there are negative numbers like a minus 3,5 billion for Trump.
SDP, your comments on AOC echo mine. Do you have mind-reading abilities in addition to your poetic wit?
Ohio U.S. Congressman, Rep. Steve Chabot, is running ads saying he plans to privatize Medicare- no doubt the scheme is linked to Charles and David Koch.
The DMC didn’t learn their lesson after the last election. America didn’t want to vote for HRC. They didn’t like her platform, her ties to big business, her talking out both sides of her mouth (just an FYI….I voted HRC because it was better than the alternative). They will continue to push the likes of the Pelosi crowd and hope that the new order will flame out and go away. The older Democrats are just as filthy dirty and greedy as the Repugnicans…..and they know that when Trump goes down, they will also be implicated in the whole mess.
“The DMC didn’t learn their lesson after the last election. America didn’t want to vote for HRC. They didn’t like her platform, her ties to big business, her talking out both sides of her mouth (just an FYI….I voted HRC because it was better than the alternative).”
I disagree.
A majority of Americans did vote for HRC over DT, by almost three million votes. Trump won the election because of the US Electoral College (EC) that no other democracy has, an EC I’m convinced the GOP has discovered how to manipulate especially if they have help from Russia, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites that use sophisticated logarithms that focus on minority groups to demoralize them and keep them from voting. The Russian focus, we now know, was on black Americans, and it worked.
“Black voter turnout fell in 2016, even as a record number of Americans cast ballots”
“The black voter turnout rate declined for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, falling to 59.6% in 2016 after reaching a record-high 66.6% in 2012. The 7-percentage-point decline from the previous presidential election is the largest on record for blacks.”
None of the other ethnic minority vote ratios dropped as significant as did the black voter turn out. That drop by itself, probably was the reason Trump won in three important battle ground states that he won by less than 80k votes. Without those states, he would have lost.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/12/black-voter-turnout-fell-in-2016-even-as-a-record-number-of-americans-cast-ballots/
As for HRC’s talking out of both sides of her mouth, lets compare her lies in the 2016 Presidential debates to Trump’s lies to see who was the master of talking out of both sides of her/his mouth.
“13 times Trump was dead wrong at the debate, and 2 times Clinton was”
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/debate-fact-check-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-229527
A similar ratio holds up on all the other fact-check sites that covered the debates.
Hillary Clinton’s flaw is that due to decades of misleading propaganda and lies to make her look bad she is now damaged goods.
How many investigations did the Republican Party conduct against HRC and how many times did she come away without even one guilty plea or verdict? Those endless investigations are the propaganda campaign to discredit her even if there is no evidence of guilty from all of the allegations.
The Nazi propaganda tactic to keep repeating the same lies works and causes many to believe those lies are truth even though there is no evidence or court verdicts to back up those lies that became truth, and this is a tactic Trump has used most of his life for more than fifty years and uses even more now that he is in the White House.
There is another flaw that HRC has. She doesn’t seem to know how to defend herself against this endless repeating propaganda.
Lloyd,
Worth noting is that Russian fake social media accounts targeted black voters or suppress their vote.
Remember Trump’s appeal to black voters: “What have you got to lose” by voting Trump?
Linda, Chabot is truly the lowest form of scum in Congress. Can’t believe they elected him again after the first time he lost his seat. He aspires to be the dullest knife in the drawer.
Lloyd…sure she won the popularity vote. There were many voters who didn’t cast a vote for president at all OR chose to vote Jill Stein. There were many people who voted for HRC because it was the only choice they had….not because they wanted to (that was me). Yes, HRC would be better than what we have now, but the fact remains is that she was not well liked. I didn’t like her as a pseudo president when Bill was in the White House and I certainly didn’t like when our countrymen were being killed and she blew it off on some stupid movie? I don’t give a rat’s butt about the emails!! HRC is a corporate democrat and a presidency under her would have kept big business flowing….she at least would have thrown the little man a previously gnawed on bone for good measure. We NEED different leadership and Nancy Pelosi is old order. The DNC just keeps pumping out what “the people” (we the tax payers) don’t want. This is bad if we want to have a Democrat as President shortly.
I agree that HRC and BC are both corporate Democrats. After all, corporate Democrats still control the party and as long as they control the party, they will continue to do crap that many Americans do not like, but the GOP is much worse by a wide margin.
When given a choice between a corporate Democrat and someone like Trump or Reagan, or both Bushes, the corporate Democrat gets my vote every time.
Clinton received 65,844,610 votes, or 48.2% of the total vote.
Trump received 62,979,636 votes, or 46.1% of the total vote. (That’s a difference of 2.86 million votes.)
The remaining 5.7% of the vote (3,753,143) went to other candidates, like Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Evan McMullin.
VOX.com did the math to see if third-party voters gave the election to Trump.
“In Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, one could plausibly blame third parties for the outcome. In Michigan, Clinton lost by less than a percentage point, a deficit she could have recovered from with half of Stein’s votes. Again in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Clinton lost by one point, Jill Stein’s votes would have covered her loss. Had Clinton won all three states, she would have won the election.” … (There’s more to this analysis)
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/11/13576798/jill-stein-third-party-donald-trump-win
I have to say, I am cautiously optimistic over the last week.
My “thing” for long has been that campaign-reform et al ‘get the money out of politics” legislation needs to be #1 for re-grouped Dem platform. Our ed ailments & every other public-good-ailment– indeed, our galloping rich-poor gap & decimation of middle/working classes– all flow from the pusillanimous response of US govt to twin challenges of automation & globalization since ’79, which can be nutshelled as: dereg everything, & biggest pieces of shrinking pie to those left standing– to them shall flow the clout to maintain & increase pie-portion via purchasing govt policy.
But I’d back-burnered it: my googlenewfeed for yrs includes a campaign-reform topic which has been mostly empty, other than [duh] observations that elected reps not likely to shut off funding spigots in order to [gasp] actually rep constituent druthers.
In just a few days, I’ve watched (a)Warren speak first to this issue upon indicating a 2020 run for presidency, and (b)first words out of Pelosi’s mouth upon assuming Speaker role right along same lines, in the interests of “re-establishing citizen trust in their democratic institutions.” I know that any House bills along these lines will die immediately in Senate. What I hope for is a steady line of proposed legislation– w/this issue 1st at bat– putting Rep-majority Senate on defense, having to say “No” again & again to positions supported by majority of populace. Thus teeing up an appropriate Dem platform for 2020.
Teachers can never have any trust in the Democrats if DFER and the corporate Democrats keep lying to them. Some teachers even voted for Trump because they mistrusted the Democrats. Of course, they jumped from the frying pan into the fire, but they were gullible along with #45’s other sheep.
Do teachers listen to DFER? How did they influence teacher thinking about Dems in the 2015 campaign? Asking seriously – I should know, but don’t.
What I’m saying is I see Dems coming out of box with a solid issue – get the corruption out of govt. (Nothing teachers want can happen w/o it.) Pleasantly surprised: I had expected anti-Trump as the easy go-to, which would just continue the mutual lib-conservative demonizing polarization. This issue has universal appeal; Trump used it constantly. (Surely even teachers who voted for Trump can see that “drain the swamp” was a bait& switch scam.) Warren backs up feel-good talk with examples & proposals, & Dem House hopefully will do same, pronto. Another hopeful trend: in the absence of campaign reform, a sort of litmus test: candidates who refuse corp donations, instead raising large-volume small grassroots donation.
Your suggestion that they (Dems) try to keep the Senate saying no sounds good. They will have to plan though and probably give the Senate something to say yes to at times.
As much as possible teachers and their unions have to pound the idea of teacher autonomy and greater respect for teachers, a soft of full press, sustained.
Perhaps she is negotiating, but 70 percent sounds a little high, or maybe it is not. They need to be left with something after they make their money. Still Ocasio-Cortez seems to have been ready to fight; interesting person so far.
70 percent is low, but I think she did this on purpose since 91-percent would send shock waves through the greediest 1-percent that might destroy the planet.
“Eisenhower’s Tax Policies Invested in the Future, Not the Few
His Administration’s Push For High Taxes and High Public Investment Helped Build the Mid-Century Middle Class”
… “During the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, from 1953 to 1961, the top income bracket in the United States climbed to a marginal tax rate of 91 percent. Taxes on corporate profits were two times as great as they are in 2017, and that’s before the current proposal to cut that rate to 21 percent. The tax on large estates rose to more than 70 percent. Businesses operated under a relatively high tax burden, and they employed a labor force in which one-third of the workers were unionized and bargained with executives as equals. Corporations served a diversity of stakeholders as opposed to stockholders. The result was a booming economy that benefited most Americans.” …
http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/12/19/eisenhowers-tax-policies-invested-future-not/ideas/essay/
I’m curious. Who are the “bright, enthused, and civic-minded citizens are building a new” grift?
Short version: clients/friends of Andy and Andy at Bellwether ThinkTanksRUs
Chester Finn who has the appearance of a weasel (he looks like Mitch McConnell’s brother), is on Maryland’s state board of education. Sad for the state’s citizens. Finn refers to himself as a “public servant”. The article about his ascent in the field of education (Non-partisan Education Review) tells the tale of a direct opposite of a public servant.
I live in MD. It is awful for children in our schools. The private schools here are over flowing with those fleeing the common core, standardized testing, PL, data collection etc. I have 1 child who will finish public HS, but we pulled child #2 and put him into a private school….best money we have ever spent. We have Finn, Smarick, Pondiscio sitting…with Petrilli as a mouth piece. We have a big problem and another 4 years with the Governor who appointed them.
Finn is quite clearly in it for the money.
He gets paid quite hansomely as so called Emeritus President of Thomas B. Fordham Instutute.
The President (Petrilli) got about $300k in 2015 (the last year I could find a form 990 for) and Chester Finn got about $200k.
I’m not even sure what Emeritus is supposed to mean in this context other than getting paid for not doing the job you used to have.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/311816446/2016_11_EO%2F31-1816446_990_201512
If you look at the forms for both the Institute and the Foundation, the assets are$44 Million.
Without heroes like Dr. Ravitch, the self-serving privatizers wouldn’t be on the defensive.
Thank you, Dr. Ravitch.
Diane has tipped the teetor totter toward teachers, even though the Deformers weigh tons more.
She used the lever principle.