Cory Booker sent a complicated message at his campaign kickoff in New Orleans at Xavier University, where he was sponsored by charter chain and spoke to students.
He told the audience that the power of the people outweighs the power of money.
This is inspirational indeed. It says that those of us fighting the power of the Walton family, the Sackler family, the Koch brothers, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the DeVos family, Paul Singer, and the many other billionaires attacking our public schools will WIN and the billionaires WILL LOSE.
We–the people–will defeat the powerful.
We will not let them close our public schools with their lies and propaganda. We will not let them turn other American cities into New Orleans.
We want every aspirant for the presidency in 2020–any party–to say where they stand on the issue of the future of public schools, the future of the teaching profession, and the future of collective bargaining.
Thanks, Cory, for reminding us that the power of the people can beat the billionaires and Wall Street, especially those privatizers and hedge funders now supporting your campaign. Itworked for Obama, but it won’t work for you. We know now about the privatization movement.
Tell us where you stand on privatization, the teaching profession, and unions. Or let us guess.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Cory Booker was so promising back in the day in Newark as mayor. He certainly captures the hearts of those who leads. The problem is he did very little. And then left. I would say to Cory Booker that actions speak louder than words. His words are inspiring but his actions or not.
…those “he” leads.
Cory Booker is a GOP plant/infiltrator in the Democratic party whose political career was bankrolled by the right-wing Bradley Foundation, in order to dupe blacks into supporting vouchers for “segregation schools,” as explained cogently by Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report. Booker also votes in support of Big Pharma. People should get the word out so more folks are onto his masquerade…
Cory Booker is not your friend…The New Republic.
…As Newark mayor, he accepted a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to implement a series of drastic reforms in city schools. According to investigative reporter Dale Russakoff, the people of Newark found out about it from Oprah: Zuckerberg and Booker appeared on the show to announce the grant. Most of the funds later went to charter schools. He’s long been a proponent of school vouchers, despite evidence that voucher programs don’t actually create better educational outcomes for students.
He also has close ties to Silicon Valley and Wall Street. In 2013, this magazine reported that Booker had been late to disclose the extent of his stake in Waywire, a tech startup he helped found during his tenure as mayor. There were other troubles; Waywire also employed Booker’s associates, and CNN’s Jeff Zucker’s then-14 year old child sat on its board. (Booker eventually stepped down from the startup.)..
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/139825/cory-booker-not-friend
Booker and Zuckerberg, Russakoff wrote in her book,wanted to turn Newark into New Orleans.
As LA Teachers Strike Over Charter Schools, Democrat Cory Booker Speaks at Pro-Charter Rally | gadflyonthewallblog
https://gadflyonthewallblog.com/2019/01/18/as-la-teachers-strike-over-charter-schools-democrat-cory-booker-speaks-at-pro-charter-rally/
Another reason NOT to support phony “progressive” Cory Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign, in addition to his taking much $$$ from Big Pharma.
AMEN!
As a striking teacher in LAUSD, an important part of our fight is pushing back against the privatization of once public schools. My fellow strikers are aghast at where Booker chose to begin his campaign and has lost all support with us. It’s time for Democrats to make the choice to unequivocally support public education. Warren, Harris, Sanders, & Brown are supporting the union. I’m hoping Booker is an outlier in the upcoming presidential race.
IMO, the Center for American Progress, which is funded by corporations and Bill Gates will unequivocally support billionaires. Corey Booker is their candidate. DFER has been called CAP’s sister organization.
The Intercept on 1-16-2018 analyzed CAP’s motivations as they relate to an issue other than education-not pretty. Andrew Perez (12-11-2018) posted papers that, if true, show CAP giving a substantial amount to right wing AEI.
We need to EXPOSE such faux Democrats wherever they go, seeking to make their case. How about demonstrations when they are meeting with “the people”? For ex, Sherrod Brown should be a lot better on privatization, and I think he might be persuadable, if he felt that we anti-privatizers are on the ascendancy. Are we? But Corey MUST BE EXPOSED as being the Senator from Pharma, Wall Street and Private Schools. How does that square with the MLK vision?
😱This is my response.
Horrors.
Speaking of billionaires & their toxic influence on public education, let’s not forget the Milken brothers, Lowell & Michael. The Milken Institute has been peddling their version of teacher evaluations & school turnaround programs for several years.
The Milken brothers are equal opportunity “philanthropists” courting like minded edu-reformers from both Democratic & Republican parties.
Arne Duncan’s DoEd gave them hundreds of thousands in grants to peddle their TEAM/TAP program. TN still outsources teacher evaluation system to the Milkens. Here are the Milkens honoring Arne:
http://www.milkeninstitute.org/blog/view/619
Here’s Lowell embracing Betsy DeVos:
https://www.milkeninstitute.org/videos/view/conversation-with-betsy-devos-secretary-u-s-dept-of-education-u-s-education-policy-discussion
And here is convicted felon, Michael generously sharing his private jet to fly Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin to CA. Michael was convicted of securities fraud in 1990 & spent 2 of his 10 yr conviction in federal prison. He’s has been trying to get a presidential pardon since he was released. Even George Bush would not pardon him.
Geez. I forgot to include the link in my earlier comment with the Milkens & Corey Booker.
https://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/conferences/global-conference/2018/speaker-detail/29970
Shallow evil, gold digging evil, duplicitous evil
Town and Country magazine isn’t just entertainment for the rich, it is their tool. In this year’s philanthropy issue, T & C wrote that Milken’s reputation had been redeemed. The donor class may think so but, the people with the pitchforks know that Milken turned his greed to Main St. schools when he was forced off of Wall St. T & C described pensions as an “intractable” problem, words right out of John Arnold the Koch’s mouths. The manufactured a pretend crisis for an item that is an average 3% of state budgets, far less than corporate welfare.
Which billionaire bought T&C?
T&C is owned by the privately held Hearst company.
There’s good reason why Milken wants a pardon and why no president would pardon him. As a convicted felon due to financial crimes, he cannot get his hands on government funds, but he did a lot of hinky stuff to try and do so anyways.
For example, he owned an online college and conned a reputable bricks and mortar college into letting him join with them, so he could piggy back off their success and get their regional accreditation by association and, hence, student financial aid. The other college, regional accreditors and the Feds were all onto him though, even though he tried to hide his involvement in a very convoluted scheme that was setup in order to hide his role and ownership of companies inside of other companies that were all related to his online college. His efforts were thwarted and, years later, he finally gave up and sold his college.
He did something similar when he bought up for profit child care centers across the country and then tried to add Head Start (with federal funding). He sent the child care centers’ low-skilled teachers to his online college for basic training (where I was their teacher). Many had no idea they were even IN college! Eventually, since he could not get the govt funding, he sold the childcare center chain, too. Milken may have just tried to circumvent a lot of laws that were not convenient for him, but he left many victims in his wake.
If Trump pardons him, it will probably be because Trump likes it when businessmen can get away with playing those kinds of games with the government and law enforcement officials…
Wasn’t he delivering a speech to the charter school association in New Orleans while the LA Teachers were at a strike rally trying to stop those same people from inflicting their horror on the public school system here? Unless he has completely changed his position, I am going to fight his nomination with every ounce of energy I have.
Cory Booker is funded by charter tycoons.
He is not a friend of public schools, teachers, or unions.
Wherever Booker appears, people should be carrying placards that label him a Republican.
Corey Booker is a DINO. Remember what he did un Newark.. he is no friend of the working class.
I sorry, the man speaks with forked tongue. I will never vote for this guy. Speaking at a charter school association when I am striking in the brutal rain. He consistently lies to the public. No. This man does not deserve one ounce of praise. He is slime.
Exactly. If the choice is Booker and Trump, I will write in Mickey Mouse. I will NEVER vote for either of them. Neither care about the rest of us.
It’s up to us to make sure this non-choice is not on the ballot. And we have to damage Booker so much that he will become toxic as a running mate.
#BookerHatesPublicEducation, let’s make it a thing.
Great idea. Teachers, social justice groups and other labor unions should work to undermine any of Booker’s presidential aspirations and send a message to the DNC that Booker is not wise choice. Booker is too polarizing.
We cannot let him make this about race, because it is not. It’s about deeds.
I LOVE this!
I think Democrats like Booker need to be put on notice by people who support public schools that by supporting the privatization efforts of charter schools to undermine public schools, he will be considered an enemy of public schools.
And I think Booker should be challenged at every town hall and at every interview to explain why he believes that “choice” must include private organizations getting public money to run schools for the students they want to teach. Booker could support “choice” WITHIN the public school system — with magnet schools or lottery schools that are part of the system. But if Booker insist that “choice” include schools privately run that can exclude students they don’t want to teach, then he no longer understands what a public school system is and obviously wants to destroy it.
Corey Booker and his backers, the Center for American Progress, own the charter situation in Michigan where 80% of charters are for-profit. Charters have been “brutal on Black families”. (Detroit News)
That’s a good one.
I like #RealDemocratsSupportPublicSchools
#RealRepublicansSupportTheirLocalPublicSchools
Diane,
The problem with that is that too many Democrats — even progressive ones — still seem to believe that charters that are non-profit and run by private organizations but get public funding are still “public schools”. So they can claim to support “public” schools and still talk about how great those “public” charters are.
In my opinion, the litmus test for pro-public education voters should be whether a politician supports the NAACP’s moratorium on charter schools — all charter schools — or not. If a politician isn’t willing to say “we need to put a moratorium on charters”, then it is clear that that politician still believes in the idea of a separate charter system that can compete with the public school system without having to teach all students or have any responsibility to the students once they are encouraged to leave.
At least one person who reports directly to Bill Gates, his founder of the New Schools Venture Fund, tells the truth about the charter school goal, “…brands on a large scale”. (Philanthropy Roundtable)
She’s not putting lipstick on the pig of philanthropy.
Booker is the obvious target now. We have to focus our energy on him because of every hypocrisy he symbolizes. If he goes down early, then it will send a message to others and we can focus on them, one by one. Diluting it with Real Democrats or Real Republicans means the issue will never get traction.
We’ve written so many times how public education is not on the radar of the Democratic Party when they send out fundraising pablum. Focusing on Booker and knocking him out, first as a presidential candidate, later as a senator, will put public education on the map.
#BookerHatesPublicEducation may be too long, but the hashtag alone, if we can make it viral, speaks volumes. We have to quit being a chattering group of advocates who only talk to each other.
NYC public school parent has an excellent point.
The charter industry has succeeded in portaying all charters as “public schools” when in fact their legal status is not that clear, even if the charter authorizer is a public school district.
What remains clear is that charter schools are privately managed. They drain funds from local public schools. Many engage in practices riddled with conflicts of interest. They expect all of the benefits of tax-supported public schools in addition to the mega-bucks from billionaire foundations and dedicated federal dollars, including federal money to finance facilities.
If any of the records of entities are treated by the courts as private information unavailable to the public, they are not public anymore than Halliburton, headquartered in Dubai is.
Yes — take a look at these quotes from an article in Chalkbeat about how for-profit charters are losing popularity:
“Shavar Jeffries of Democrats for Education Reform told Chalkbeat in a recent interview, “We’re categorically opposed to for-profit providers running schools.”
John King, the former secretary of education and founder of a charter school in Boston, expressed a similar view.
“I would distinguish between the role that high-performing PUBLIC CHARTERS can play in a strong public education system as opposed to vouchers and for-profit charters. I believe public dollars should go to public schools with public accountability,” King, who is currently president and CEO of EdTrust, told Chalkbeat.
“In New York, when we raised the charter cap in 2010 we banned new for-profit charters,” he added. “That seemed right to me. I would be fine with other states taking a similar approach.”
People who believe in public education can no longer allow Democrats and progressive politicians to blur the line so that they can claim they support “public schools” and INCLUDE non-profit charters in what they support.
I notice that very few Democrats have actually spoken out about the charter issue in the LA teachers’ strike. Those Democrats are happy to give teachers raises and say they support smaller class sizes.
But will they stand on record supporting the moratorium on new charters? Too many Democrats and even progressives are getting away with not having to take a position.
Many nominally non-profit charters are run by for-profit operators.
Yes, many people doing very well running “non-profit” charters.
What concerns me is that someone like John King can get away with saying “I believe public dollars should go to public schools with public accountability” and voters assume John King is “supporting public schools”, and perhaps he technically is “supporting public schools” but his definition of “supporting public schools” is very different than mine. Because he is still very pro-charter.
My take?:
Booker knows he has a snowball’s chance. However, he has agreed to ‘throw his hat in the ring’ at the urging of some other candidate, who promised a cabinet post. It is Booker’s job to make sure the Southern Black vote is siphoned away from a populist candidate that would actually try to reduce income disparity.
It seems the ‘powers that be’ are sure people are more likely to vote for someone that looks like them, rather than someone that thinks like them. So far, those ‘powers’ have been successful, but the kids I educated are now an important political force. I hope my lessons made some impact.
I was in D.C. over the summer. I talked with a resident who is Black. She was eager to tell me that Corey Booker was the billionaires’ man in the capitol, not hers nor her communities’ representative.
This is a politician that can look squarely into the camera and lie and deceive, without blinking an eye…the face of evil…reading the stolen resume…of a saint.
I don’t think he’s evil, but I do think he’s an overrated mediocrity who’s not smart enough to think outside the Reform box.
Booker is not dumb or evil. Nor is he a mediocrity. He is a smart, ambitious man who hitched his wagon to the plutocrats and Wall Street.
Until Democrat voters start making politicians pay a political price for their support for charter schools, there is no downside for them. Booker hasn’t paid any price politically so far.
No need to guess. Booker’s lousy record on schools speaks for itself.
IMHO, Cory Booker has bit the hand that feed him = destroy Public education where he has attended and successfully climbed on his career ladder today.
Yes, he will fell off from a broken ladder due to his own demise in his self-destroying American best Public Education to all young American generations.
Teachers, parents, students and all black democrat voters will unite to have Cory Booker tasted his own failure due to his intention to betray American Public Education as well as to betray his own race. Back2basic
One litmus test for support of candidates in 2020 (and this includes local and state-wide contests) should be their position on charters.
You can’t be a progressive and support charters, you just, well, can’t. And the argument about “non-profit charters” is, mutatis mutandis, similar to that on “non-profit hospitals.” Plenty of people make a lot of money off of purported “non-profits.”
Clear statements must be provided (or if necessary, extracted) from candidates re: where they stand (and where they’ve stood in the past).
I consider concurrence with the NAACP’s call for a moratorium on new charters to be the rock-bottom minimum for a candidate in 2020.
Yep. That is now my litmus test for every Democratic primary.
Cory Booker et al. are continuing what Pres. Obama got wrong: merging big business–the billionaire boys’ club–with public education. Big business has disrupted, yes–but it has not improved public education. The punitive model of testing–to federal DOE or Gates/Zuckerbergesque grants—to remediate–then to privatize with no-nonsense, no union schools–has devastated Newark and New Orleans students and teachers; Philly may be on the chopping block next. Am near retirement (34 years as a union-member public school primarily-Latin teacher in JAX) but still have lots of voting years left. I will NOT support those who don’t connect these dots–whether or not they’re Democrats.
How about #BookerLovesChartersandBigPharma OR–
#BigPharma&CharterSchoolsLOVEBooker$$$$$
I suppose many of these would be candidates forget that they have a track record of doing nothing for the people. He has been in bed with corporate America and could care less for the people of this country. Gave away the public schools and democracy with Facebook traitor with the support of Oprah who started her own school in South Africa because American children didn’t want to learn. so she hires sexual predators at her school etc etc etc. Don’t believe me research what was going on in her school. He became a senator only because a real senator developed cancer and died. The seat was open and the phony Governor gave him the position. It would be interesting if the people from New Jersey vote him back into office.so many of these oversized egos will crash and burn because the people are tired of poor leadership that only want to enrich themselves and Corey stands out as that type of individual . Even his words are ridiculous, he is no President Obama but he does surround himself with good writers
I have been tracking the St. Louis Post Dispatch regarding Coverage of Kamala since last Sunday. Absolute zero…except for a reporter named Raasch, who was excited about a poll that showed Trump tied for third place with 4 percent, with Sanders behind Biden who had 9 percent. Guess who was second with 8. He almost refused to mention her—-and if the Post Dispatch gives wild cheers and massive coverage for Booker……it will give me a clue about him. Not sure about Kamala on education….but she is probably smart enough to recognize the less obvious things which are going on.
Kamala supported Tony Thurmond and UTLA Strike