The Democratic party is discovering that unions–which have greatly shrunken due to the attacks by right-wingers like Scott Walker and Rick Snyder–are part of their base. They are also discovering that school privatization is not an issue that belongs in the Democratic toolkit.
The 2020 candidate with the biggest school choice problem, writes Ed Kilgore at New York magazine, is Cory Booker.
Kilgore writes that Booker
might be able to explain away his reputation for being a reliable friend of Wall Street as a matter of virtual constituent services given the financial industry’s importance to New Jersey and to the city of Newark where he served as mayor for seven years. But a more concrete problem involves his long history of support for any and every kind of school choice, including not just the charter public schools the Clinton and Obama administrations supported, but the private-school vouchers that most Democrats stridently oppose. What makes this history a fresh concern is the fact that Booker was once a close ally of the DeVos family, the Michigan gazillionaires and education privatization champions who gave the world Donald Trump’s secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Kara Voght has the story:
In 1999, when he was still a city councilman, Booker worked with a conservative financier and a New Jersey Republican mayor to co-found Excellent Education for Everyone, a group dedicated to establishing a school voucher program in the Garden State. The following year, Dick DeVos—the Republican megadonor, school choice evangelist, and husband to the nation’s 11th education secretary—invited the 31-year-old Newark councilman up to his home base of Grand Rapids, Michigan, to speak in defense of a ballot measure that would lift the state’s ban on school voucher programs …
Booker’s association with the DeVos couple continued as he progressed from City Council to Newark’s mayoral seat in 2006 to the US Senate in 2013. In the mid-2000s, Booker and DeVos served together on the board of directors of Alliance for School Choice (AFC), the precursor to the American Federation for Children, which DeVos eventually chaired. Booker twice spoke at the AFC’s annual School Choice Policy Summit: once in 2012 as a mayor and again in 2016 as a senator.
Let me be clear. If Booker is the Democratic candidate against Trump, I will vote for him. I will vote for anyone on the Democratic line against Trump. I will not vote for Booker in the Democratic primary. His support for charters and vouchers is unacceptable to me. I am an education voter. I am also a voter who wants to see higher taxes on the 1%, both a wealth tax (as Elizabeth Warren proposes) and a higher marginal tax rate for those who receive more than $10 million a year (as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez proposes). Booker is unacceptable to me because he will protect Wall Street and the billionaires while supporting school choice, like Trump, DeVos, the Waltons, and the Koch brothers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here’s hoping that Booker is sidelined in the primaries. Too many people do not realize his record on education and think he’s some kind of progressive. Eliminate Booker in the beginning, we don’t need any more Race To The Top garbage. There are precious few politicians that are good on education, it appears that 98% of them, D or R, have been bought off by the billionaire school choice/privatizers crowd.
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yes; may Booker find his campaigning/primary experience one filled with an endless barrage of angry voices having gained a public platform where they can hold him accountable for the pain he has caused
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Amen. (just helping our your prayer, Cedie)
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Teflon, except for Wall Street and privatizing. Then like sticky flypaper or Gorilla glue.
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I agree with Diane that it is more important to free us from Trump than rejecting any Democratic candidate. I will reject Booker in the primary and hold my nose and vote for him as the candidate of lesser harm, if he should get the nomination. I hope that union members and other organized labor groups will not allow education to be a non-issue in the primary. Booker needs to be held accountable for his alliance with DeVos and the Waltons. His position on education needs to be very clear. It would help if he would stop trying to sell Newark as a success story. The minimal gains made in reading in the city were largely due to gentrification.
Joe is right too. We need to reject standardization and any test and punish schemes. Enough is enough. Teachers need to be free to teach and do their best for their students as professional teachers.
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I’m hopeful that a Booker candidacy can be another opportunity to expose Ed Reform.
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I hope so too. Even dear, old Jimmy Carter was taken in by Booker’s charm. He hopes Booker will run for president. I wonder if Carter would think so highly of him if he knew about his alliance with privatization groups and his association with hedge funds and Big Pharma.
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cosign
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“But a more concrete problem involves his long history of support for any and every kind of school choice, including not just the charter public schools the Clinton and Obama administrations supported, but the private-school vouchers that most Democrats stridently oppose”
The ed reform problem is bigger than that, in my opinion.
Support for charter schools is one thing. Being unable to point to anything of value they have contributed to PUBLIC schools is another.
If Booker or Emanual or Obama or the rest could say “I support charter schools but here’s what I did for PUBLIC schools” or even “here are my positive ideas for public schools” they’d have a much better argument.
But they can’t. Because they haven’t. They don’t even TRY to appeal to public school supporters, or parents, or students. They mostly refuse to address us at all, preferring instead to defend, promote or cheerlead charters or vouchers.
Go read any ed reform site and look for something positive re:PUBLIC schools. You will not find anything.
I personally think it’s an echo chamber effect. Their small world consists of charter and voucher advocacy so they simply don’t show up AT ALL for public schools.
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What is worse is that Booker get to Stanford after attending a good public New Jersey high school. He also has a skeleton in his closet from an incident at a party when he was fifteen. He wrote in his college paper that he tried to groped a girl that had kissed him. Will this adolescent act come back to haunt him, if he should run?
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Here’s the link. https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/09/bookers_stance_on_kavanaugh_leads_to_blowback.html
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Did you read the link? I think they used to call it heavy petting. How many 15 year old boys have tried to “grope” a date? Both boys and girls are figuring out their sexual feelings at that age. Did none of you ever get groped and not know what to do or how to react? Did all of you feel violated? That’s not to say that boys cannot get sexually aggressive (or vice versa). We just need to be careful how we deal with sex and teenagers.
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There is a big difference between groping and attempting to rape. Only Fox is (and should be) willing to compare the two. The next big scandal will be “Allegedly, he tried to kiss a girl twice. What a hypocrite.”
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I agree. In the hands of Republican strategists, who knows? I clearly remember the chant of “lock her up,” when there were no charges.
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And the complete omission of public schools becomes more apparent when they travel to places OTHER than cities run by ed reformers.
It’s mostly public schools in Iowa. Booker can promote charters and vouchers all he wants but he’s essentially completely irrelevant to the schools most children actually attend in that state.
I don’t think people where I live “oppose” charter schools. However. They would probably rightfully point out to the echo chamber that there are PUBLIC schools here. They understandably would probably prefer a discussion of the schools their children actually attend and when they DO get that discussion it is going to revolve around ed reform’s actual “achievements” in those schools, which consist of cutting funding, narrowing options within schools, and testing students.
Maybe that’s why ed reformers pretend public schools don’t exist. The track record there is terrible 🙂
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One of the things Rahm Emanual “discovered” as mayor of Chicago is that there are strong PUBLIC schools in Chicago. That’s in his essay.
Good Lord. He wants credit for this amazing discovery? This shows how incredibly open minded he is?
They were there before he blew into town and they’ll be there long after he decamps for a job at a hedge fund. Not that he had anything to do with it. He was busy opening charters.
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The DEMS better watch out. The DFERS are so wrong. The DFERS do not support public schools and public education …. ARE THEY NUTS?
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Our problems do not lie with the Politicians but with the Billionaires that want the Educational funding. Just look at our current presidential campaign “advisers”, they would do anything; promise anything to get the MONEY! A few years ago, Murdock was able to place his puppets in the New Jersey Education Department with a small grant! Big money talks and Big money wants the Education funding.
Our fight, not only for Education but for Democracy itself, must start with the “Citizens United” decision!
Back in 2010 President Obama stated:
“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections”
Nine years ago, Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen were trying to find a way to legislate around the Supreme Court decision. What happened? Did they get bought out too?
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Read Dale Russakof’f’s “The Prize” about Booker’s love affair with charters in Newark, NJ. He’s glib and slick, always with his eyes on the media and foundation boardrooms.
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I know my comment will be off topic but it does relate to Besty DeVos.
Her brother Erik Prince, a former U.S. Navy Seal, has moved his new, or started another one, mercenary outfit to China.
“Erik Prince: Blackwater founder’s new company to build ‘training centre’ in Chinese state where Muslims suffer persecution”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/erik-prince-china-reeducation-centres-xinjiang-uighur-muslims-blackwater-frontier-services-group-a8757871.html
In addition, Eric Prince sold Blackwater soon after his first mercenary army had a lot of bad press, and he started a new mercenary outfit in the United Arab Emirates.
“Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.”
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I am a registered Democrat. I will “NOT” vote for the likes of Cory Booker, even if it means voting out Trump. Trump has been a god send for education. We would be in a worse situation now if Hilary Clinton had won. Every day, people are waking up to the problem with “education reform/privatization” simply because it has been exposed as another public service that the rich are inserting themselves into to siphon off tax dollars. In my 25 years of being a public school teacher, it has been the Democrats, yes the D.E.M.O.C.R.A.T.S, that have done more damage than anyone.
I still remember the debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama when Romney “praised” him for his Arne Duncan appointment and said he would leave him right in place should he win. All with a smirk that went ear to ear. All Obama could do is look at his podium. Also, Romney come right out and said what he plans to do. No mincing words. Vouchers, charters, grading public public schools, closing them down, etc. The Democrats did all of that, while telling us they had our back.
I suppose people are going to tell me I’m wrong and I shouldn’t be a single issue voter. But this is not a single voter issue. If a politician has no problem privatizing public education, then they are no friend to the 99% in any other area of politics. I might not like the republican platform, but they are at least honest about what they want to do to public education.
Ok, I lied, one more point. In the last election, it was clear that many could not hold their noses and vote for another Wall Street Democrat. That paved the way for people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez getting elected. The only way to shake the Democrats is to let them know that we are done voting for the Cory Bookers of their party.
Democrats better be on notice.
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Registered Democrats are allowed to vote in Democratic primaries. When the 2010 Democratic primaries for president come alone, vote in those primaries to make sure Cory Booker never makes the ballot.
This is how AOC became a member of the House of Representatives. She went door to door and worked hard to win the Democratic primaries in her district and it worked. From everything I’ve read, she unseated a totally corrupt corporate Democrat who was the third or fourth most powerful elected Democrat in the country.
AOC had to win her primary to get on the ballot. Her district is 75-percent non-white. She presented incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley the first primary challenge he’d seen in 14 years ,,, and she BEAT him.
The primaries are the key to keep Booker off the ballot.
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Exactly. AOC did the hard work of getting people to vote for her in the primary against a very powerful opponent. It’s really impressive and I hope serves as a blueprint for other progressives.
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Some states, including my state of Virginia, have open primaries. Any registered voter may vote in any primary, regardless of party affiliation.
I intend to vote for the candidate who most closely matches my view on the various positions, regardless of party.
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“The closed primary system in California was amended in 2000 when Senate Bill 28 implemented a “modified” closed primary system, which permitted voters who declined to register with any political party to vote for a party’s candidates in a primary election if authorized by that party’s rules and duly noticed by the Secretary of State.”
But most voters do not take the time to vote in the primaries. That’s the problem. I think primaries are more important than general elections.
For instance, “MNore than 57.6 million people, or 28.5% of estimated eligible voters, voted in the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries that all but wrapped up Tuesday – close to but not quite at the record participation level set in 2008.”
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/10/turnout-was-high-in-the-2016-primary-season-but-just-short-of-2008-record/
Compared to the turnout for the 2016 general election:
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.)
https://splinternews.com/here-is-the-final-popular-vote-count-of-the-2016-electi-1793864349
Almost 130 million people voted in the general election vs 57.6 million in the primaries.
Maybe there should be a law that says if you don’t vote in the primaries, you can’t vote in the general election.
AOC won the 2018 primary with only 15,897 votes, but in the general election, she had 110,318 votes.
I don’t think a lot of voters in this country realize how important the primaries are. In fact, I think the primaries are much more important than the general election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez#Primary_election
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I think people don’t vote in the primaries because they are listening to the polls, and if they hear that their candidate is comfortably ahead, they just stay home.
I think the polls are a big mistake. They shouldn’t be allowed.
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Candidates sometimes use polls to suppress voter turnout.
When Michael Bloomberg ran against Bill Thompson, a popular African American elected official, his campaign put out the word that Bloomberg was 15 points ahead in the polls. Bloomberg won by 4-5%. We will never know how many people didn’t vote because it seemed to be a hopeless blowout.
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Yeah, so that’s also a reason to stay home: if the polls that the candidate is too far behind.
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I agree, no election polls. No! Election Polls!
There also has to be drastic campaign finance reform that cuts out big corporate billionare money. In fact, ALL campaign should to totally restricted to door-to-door canvassing and televised debates.
No flyers. No TV ads. No social media propaganda campaigns. No one like Limbaugh or any of the other Alt-Right talking head idiots spouting off their full of lies opinions of candidates.
And bring back the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE; apply it to all of social media too.
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Allowing only door to door would be ideal, but not sure if it could be easily enforced. But allowing only email ads and maintaining webpages for the candidates (so no TV, no radio, youtube) might be feasible.
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“The primaries are the key to keep Booker off the ballot.”
And that’s where you will hear “But he is the only one who can beat Trump, so vote for him.”
Voting is complicated: Do I vote considering my views or what is best for my country? Do I vote what is best for my country now or what will best serve my country 20 years from now?
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Charles, are you sure, your views are best for your country?
My view is that this country should have free healthcare and higher ed asap. But would a candidate promising such a change be best for the country now?
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All union members should pester the DNC, and send the message that Booker is the wrong person for today’s world. We have to defeat him in the primary.
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I’m aware of the primaries. And they are a total sham. I guess we’ll have to see how the new rules shake out, but I’m not that optimistic. Have we forgotten what happened in the last primary so quickly?
“totally corrupt corporate Democrat” – They’re all corrupt. They’ve basically been saying for the past 20 years that “you can have you progressive candidate, but it will cost you your public education system.”
Why couldn’t Clinton just support public education? Why can’t Bernie Sanders come out definitively for public education? Why can’t the DNC make it part of their platform? Because they are all corrupt.
If they can’t do what is right, then maybe they need 4 more years in time out to think about it. Public education can survive another 4 years of Betsy Devos. It can’t survive another Race to the Top.
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Primaries are not a total sham or AOC wouldn’t be a member of the House of Representatives today.
On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez received 57.13% of the vote (15,897) to Joe Crowley’s 42.5% (11,761), defeating the 10-term incumbent by almost 15 percentage points.
Then in the general election, Ocasio-Cortez won the election with 78% of the vote (110,318) to Pappas’s 14% (17,762). Her election was part of a broader Democratic victory in the 2018 midterm elections, as the party gained control of the House by picking up at least 40 seats.
128,080 people cast votes in the general election compared to 27,658 in the primaries. Those two numbers should be much closer to the general election count.
I still think the primaries are more important than the general election because, through the primaries, the voters actually have much more of a choice of who they will vote for in the general election.
AOC proved that fact without a doubt.
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No, they are not all corrupt. All elected Democrats are not corrupt. Many of them are but not all of them
All elected Republicans are not corrupt. Most of them are but not all of them.
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Clinton did support public education. In fact, she is one of the very few Democrats or progressives who has recognized this idea:
“Most charter schools — I don’t want to say every one — but most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them. And so the public schools are often in a no-win situation, because they do, thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.”
This seems like a no-brainer and an obvious thing, but I can tell you that this idea is absent from the speech of politicians like Senator Warren and Sen. Sanders. Charter schools don’t teach every kid and public schools do and don’t get the resources they need.
This message needs to be repeated non-stop because policies are different when you accept that statement as true.
Substitute health insurance companies for charter schools and you can see how absurd it is that any progressive or democrat supports them.
“Most private health insurance companies — I don’t want to say every one — but most private health insurance companies, they don’t take the hardest-to-keep healthy kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them. And so public health insurance is often in a no-win situation, because they do, thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s health needs.”
No progressive politician would ever cite a private insurance company known for dumping sick kids and marvel over how much healthier the kids they insure are than the ones in Medicaid. So why are those politicians doing it with charter schools? There is absolutely no excuse.
I think AOC is one of the few who has not bought into the lie that those “good” public charters are such marvels.
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Lloyd, that’s a very interesting quote from Hillary.
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Yes, Hillary did criticize charters during the 2016 campaign. But she got so much pushback from her financiers that her chief education advisor Ann O’Leary quickly wrote an article retracting what hillary said. O’Leary is now Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff.
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Exactly Diane. Right after Hillary said that, she couldn’t walk it back fast enough. Also, I remember her visiting Long Island and speaking to Newsday (A rather pro testing and school choice editorial board). She was asked about optout and she said that she would have her grandchildren take the tests. A total slap in the face to the entire optout movement in New York. The optout movement has done more to put the breaks on education “reform” in New York than any other organization.
And Lloyd, if the primaries weren’t broken, then why did the DNC capitulate after the Bernie Sanders primary? Until I get to see the new primary rules in action and see how the super-delegates and the DNC organization as a whole behave, the process to me has no credibility.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/25/democrats-rules-superdelegates-sanders
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Bill,
Quite right. HRC went into the heart of Opt Out territory and said she wanted her grandchildren to take the tests. Highly unlikely since they are too young to be in school and sure to go to an elite private school where the tests are not offered
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Yes HRC walked back what she said – presumably because she didn’t want to disappoint her funders.
That does not explain why we have never heard Sen. Warren, Sen. Sanders, or as far as I can tell, any prominent progressive politician except perhaps AOC or Bill de Blasio making those points.
Which is worse? Stating a fact publicly and then shutting up because you get push back from your funders?
Or not bringing it up at all, either because what happens to public schools don’t matter one bit to you in your progressive bubble, or because you are far too lazy to learn about an issue that is obviously important in America. Or because you DON’T think public education matters very much. It just isn’t important enough to care about.
At least HRC said it once. Where are the progressives saying it at all?
I despise Cory Booker’s stance on education, but at least I know he cares enough to take a position. I’m tired of the wishy washy progressives who obviously don’t think supporting public education should be part of the progressive agenda. It would take all of 20 minutes for them to learn about the issues. And they can’t be bothered. Or they don’t want to be bothered because they don’t really like public schools very much.
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I’m thinking that AOC may be one of the few elected reps that can speak out and not worry about being cut off from BIG funding sources. She is a Congressperson and runs for election every two years and is in a better position to reach the much smaller population she serves. Senators, governors, and presidents don’t feel secure enough to win elections without huge sums of money that will also leave them rich because they probably never spend all of the campaign contributions.
Once that money faucet is flowing, they become addicted to the cash and fear having it shut off. Hopefully, AOC and others like her in the House of Representatives will never be tempted to even turn that faucet on.
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