I got an e-mail recently from Senator Bernie Sanders’s education advisor. She said she reads the blog and wondered if we could talk. I said sure but I was not ready to endorse anyone in the Democratic primaries.
I asked for and got her permission to share that this conversation occurred. As everyone knows who ever gave me confidential information, I never write or speak about what I was told in confidence.
We set a date to speak on the phone since I am in New York and she is in D.C.
She called and conferenced in the campaign’s chief of staff.
Here is what happened.
I told them that I was upset that Democrats talk about pre-K and college costs—important but safe topics—and skip K-12, as though it doesn’t exist. Every poll I get from Democrats asks me which issues matter most but doesn’t mention K-12.
I expressed my hope that Bernie would recognize that charter schools are privately managed (in 2016, he said in a town hall that he supports “public charter schools but not private charter schools). No matter what they call themselves, they are not “public” schools. They are all privately managed. I recounted for them the sources of financial support for charters: Wall Street, hedge fund managers, billionaires, the DeVos family, the Waltons, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, ALEC, and of course, the federal government, which gave $440 million to charters this year, one-third of which will never open or close soon after opening. (See “Asleep At the Wheel: How Athens Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for a Ride,” Network for Public Education).
I proposed a way to encourage states to increase funding for teachers’ salaries. I won’t reveal it now. I think it is an amazingly innovative concept that offers money to states without mandates but assures that the end result would be significant investment by states in teacher compensation, across the board, untethered to test scores.
I recommended a repeal of the annual testing in grades 3-8, a leftover of George W. Bush’s failed No Child Left Behind. I pointed out to them that all the Democrats on the Education Committee in the Senate had voted for the Murphy Amendment (sponsored by Senator Chris Murphy of Ct), which would have preserved all the original punishments of NCLB but which was fortunately voted down by Republicans. I suggested that grade span testing is common in other developed countries, I.e., once in elementary school, once in middle school, once in high school.
We had a lively conversation. Our values are closely aligned.
They are in it to win it. I will watch to see if Bernie moves forward with a progressive K-12 plan. No one else has.
My options are open. My priorities are clear.
Let’s draw a line in the sand. We will not support any candidate for the Democratic nomination unless he or she comes out with strong policy proposals that strengthen public schools, protect the civil rights of all students, curb federal overreach into curriculum and assessment and teacher evaluation, and oppose DeVos-style privatization (vouchers, charters, cybercharters, for-profit charters, home schooling, for-profit higher education).
Silence is not a policy.
Democrats support public schools.
I feel confident that I write for many of us who value your thoughts, engagement, and commitment: THANK YOU!!
Yes. Yes. At least Sanders and staff had the savvy to go to the most informed source about what federal policy might do and where the focus has not been in this century. I get the same old pitches from the Democratic Party preschool and student loan debt with not an ounce of clarity about the shameful charter school industry.
Absolutely! So exciting!
Agreed!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Dear Diane, Thank you for educating the Sanders campaign about the best policies for k-12 education. I too have been worried about his lack of attention to our public schools. The next time you talk to them please let them know that people like me are hungry for his support for public k-12 schools.
Well, that the Sanders campaign contacted Diane Ravitch for input on education policy speaks very, very highly of Senator Sanders.
Imagine this wonderful scenario: Sanders becomes President, and Diane Ravitch becomes Vice President or Secretary of Education.
Imagine Diane Ravitch replacing Betsy DeVoid. There seems to be a kind of Peter Principle at work in education bureaucracy whereby clueless folks like DeVoid and Duncan rise to the top. Imagine, after those rapacious dolts, having someone with the brilliance, compassion, knowledge, skill, and moral compass of Diane Ravitch in the office!!!
One can dream. . . .
Real experience in the job. That would be a complete change and so extraordinarily welcome.
LOL
I don’t think Diane will want to be VP, … but she might accept if asked to be the DOE’s Secretary of Education.
Diane Ravitch would make a superb Vice President. But yes, I would love to see her become Secretary of Education. There is no person in the country more qualified for this job.
I’m not saying Diane wouldn’t make a great VP or even a better President, but honestly, I don’t think she’d want either of those jobs because of the health and/or age related stress that comes with the White House.
If she was VP and something happened to Sanders, that means she’d be elevated to the hot seat, a seat that comes with immense pressure and pressure is not good for staying healthy. I know for a fact that if I suddenly became President of the United States, my lifespan would lose about 25 years. That mean’s I’d probably croak before I finished my first term.
Instead of being known as the Tweeting President, they’d call me the Meditating Moon Man or something similar. I’d be sitting on top of that desk in the Oval Office in the lotus position meditating all the time to manage my anger from blowing up the GOP and all corporate Democrats. I’d probably be on the phone to AOC all the time asking her advice on how she stays calm.
I think Secretary of State would be a safer position health-wise.
Actually, Lloyd, recent presidents have done very well in the longevity department, not that I would recommend it as a way to extend your life. The medical care has got to be top notch.
I guess being a president is not as stressful as we imagine.
For a president, the stress only lasts for four to eight years. If they live to be 94 like George H. W. Bush, that means he wasn’t president for ninety of those years and he was born into a wealthy family and was never poor. GHW Bush always had the money for the best health care even before he was president for one term.
Imagine the stress a classroom teacher deals with and the ones that stay in the classroom are bombarded by this stress for decades.
“Here’s another – the later you retire, the earlier you will die. A variation on this theme is the ‘fact’ that, in some jobs, average life expectancy after retirement is just 18 months. We’ve seen it said of teachers, prison officers, surgeons, and others.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18952037
I also read that some doubt that this 18-month average is real for teachers, but I knew several teachers who all taught longer than thirty years like I did and retired around the same time I did and they were all dead within two years. One survived but he had open heart surgery within two years and had to change his lifestyle drastically. I taught a few more years after he retired before I left and I ran into him one day and he told me I was right and he changed his lifestyle to be more like mine.
So far, knock on wood, I’m still here almost 14 years later but I was the only teacher I knew who stopped drinking and changed his lifestyle drastically back when I was 37 (seven years after I started to teach) and became a vegan and started a regular exercise routine. The others who are all gone now made fun of me and said we’d see who lived longer. But you can’t tell someone you won when they’re gone.
Imagine how great it must be to only have to work for four or eight years and then end up with a retirement that pays you several hundred thousand annually along with the best health care in the world and your own Secret Service protective detail for life.
Early retirement: check! This makes for artists and scientists too who work on their craft till death. Of course, military and police people might be exceptions.
I compared deaths by firearms once and it was obvious it was safer in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan during those wars than on the streets of the United States.
For instance, U.S. combat troops were in Vietnam for almost 19 years from 1955 – 75 and lost 58,220 troops or about three thousand a year compared to tens of thousands of firearms deaths in the United States annually.
“Gun violence in the United States results in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries annually. In 2013, there were 73,505 nonfatal firearm injuries (23.2 injuries per 100,000 persons), and 33,636 deaths due to “injury by firearms” (10.6 deaths per 100,000 persons).”
And the Guardian reports “Gun deaths in US rise to highest level in 20 years, data shows.” – published in December 2018. Why isn’t MAGA Man bragging about this?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/13/us-gun-deaths-levels-cdc-2017
I think you explained how recent presidents live so long — the best health care in the world and a great retirement income even if they weren’t wealthy when they became president and no reason to worry that some extremist nut case shooting them or a family member thanks to the Secret Service detail guarding them for life.
Just because someone ages at a faster pace doesn’t mean they also end up with poor health.
In addition, most presidents are intelligent and even if they make bad lifestyle choices and eat an unhealthy diet like Bill Clinton did cause him to end up having heart surgery in 2004, they are smart enough to wake up and change their lifestyle and eat healthier food.
There is one exception. I don’t think MAGA Man Donald Trump, the first illegitimate President of the Untied States thanks to help from Russia, is smart enough to change his bad habits: like lying all the time and snatching young women by the “P” word. After all, it’s just what locker room men do, and eating only McDonald’s and KFC while drinking gallons of Diet Coke daily while avoiding all exercise.
I love your repeated charaterizations of DT.
Lloyd, Donald really needs you on his 2020 reelection team.
The Secret Service would have to strip search me and do an anal cavity search every time I entered the White House.
And you’d still find a way…
Yea!
:o)
There is this lethally poisonous frog that I know of and it is the oil in the frog’s skin that will kill you really fast. It is a super lethal toxin.
I would encourage you to have them also reach out to parent coalition for student privacy and those fighting personalized learning.
Depersonalized learning programs almost always instantiate the hype curve–lots of initial excitement and investment followed by complete collapse. https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/a-warning-to-parents-about-online-learning-programs/
Yes, please!
Privacy issues, third party data recipients, ed tech. Bernie’s team MUST understand how k-12 funds are bleeding and student data is triangulated to recreate records to serve the corporate/political/military agendas.
Thanks Diane.
Your conversation with the Bernie Sanders campaign is huuuuge! Hopefully we can see some real movement on public education, not only from Bernie but from all the candidates. This year the trend seems to be the other candidates are following Bernie’s lead on a number of issues. Thanks again, and let’s hope the other campaigns contact you as well.
I’d also encourage his staff to read this.
https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/toll-college?fbclid=IwAR2L2N-jXcgtJrjh-IFTLNlpsI0jgMT2DKt-BQTVuLV2hyiO_zOL9ov4wBw
“Betsy DeVoid” PERFECT! Consider that stolen for widespread use. Looks like Cory Booker is just spinning his wheels and is gonna have a really tough time justifying his past positions and affiliations concerning his blind eyed (corrupt) support of deform. I’m betting against him waking up to reality and doing a 180.
There’s also the problem about how Booker got his wealth and, his ties to Gina Raimondo, the hedge fund loving governor of R.I. who chairs the DGA. Don’t give money to the DGA unless Raimondo vacates the position.
Raimondo’s husband and Cory Booker were roommates in law school.
I love these little details which say it all.
Did I say Betsy DeVoid? I meant Secretary of the Deparment for the Privatization of American Education Ditzy DeVoid.
Probably most important article to read.
https://www.waituntil8th.org/blog/2019/3/6/lies-you-have-been-told-about-educational-technology?fbclid=IwAR3POkKGf1s-rEFeS3shFGzxcYD5TtXCgIdqMEW5VixVkvXHvq_H3FiF6tI
Thanks for the link. The waituntil8th.org blog authors should take a look at what the state employees of SETDA (funded by Gates) are doing…fostering public private partnerships, promoting digital learning, ….
And this
https://truthinamericaneducation.com/education-reform/five-problems-with-standards-based-grading/?fbclid=IwAR0dR_Ct3SO9fW7pti6Kz1TeYpxBGJQ8rYfL5X1gvFDfd59JR822mMbMbW0
A superb piece that gets under the hood and reveals the underlying problems with standards-based Ed Deform. The devil is in the details. I have been writing about these very problems for years. Unfortunately, most politicians who make decisions about education funding and policy don’t think about these matters this carefully. Thanks for sharing this.
I don’t think the problem is not considering things carefully.
The problem is most politicians surround themselves with and leave the decisions to fakesperts, TFA staffers in the case of Education. (What is Bernie’s Ed advisor’s background by the way?)
But that certainly does not give the politicians a pass. They certainly know better, or at least should.
Politicians should be held directly responsible for the decisions and policies made by those they have appointed.
The advisor may be Donni Turner https://twitter.com/donniturner
Doesn’t seem to be an educator.
At 10 minutes into this video she talks about what she does for senator Sanders https://videos.files.wordpress.com/Uu7bIx9S/donni-turner-bti-export-4_hd.mp4
Let me explain, SomeDAM, what I meant about thinking about these matters carefully. Many of the issues with the Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] in ELA and with high-stakes standardized testing cannot be explained in a sound bite. For example, some of the ELA standards are so vaguely worded and so broad that operationalizing them sufficiently to make them reliably and validly testable isn’t possible. Some of the other ELA standards deal with some small component (e.g. effect of figurative language on mood) of some much much broader topic (figurative language in its many varieties) and so narrow, absurdly, the topics that educational publishers and teachers will cover (It’s as though one reduced the study of the Civil War to comparison of the relative sizes of Union and Rebel cannonballs). Still other ELA standards involve standard-specific problems. For example, there’s a middle-school standard that requires students to be able to explain “the functions of verbals” in sentences. Well, clearly, the writers of this standard had no notion how much prior work in syntax would be required to get students to that point (work not required by the standards in earlier grades) and had no notion how complex the functions of infinitives and gerunds are. They can function as any of the following: subject, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, predicate nominative, retained object, subjective complement, objective complement, or appositive of any of these. And I haven’t even mentioned the functions of bare infinitives and the complex uses of participles in verb formation. And, at any rate, learning traditional grammar has almost no bearing on syntactic competence in either speech or writing. Nor does doing so reduce the number of errors in student writing and speech. Other standards are based on prescientific folk notions, like the existence of three distinct modes of writing (informative, persuasive, and narrative). Still other standards are based on faulty pedagogy (e.g., the notion that learning context clues will have a significant impact on vocabulary acquisition). And many significant topics in ELA aren’t treated at all in these standards (that’s a very, very long list). I could go on and on and on in this vein. But the bottom line is that the problems require a GREAT DEAL of explanation, and no politician or education policy wonk is going to take the time to hear any of this. Instead, such people will simply accept on faith that David Coleman’s puerile bullet list is an example of “higher standards” when, in fact, it is a compilation of a few prescientific folk notions about learning in ELA put together by people with no relevant expertise. That these “standards” weren’t laughed off the national stage when they were first promulgated is a shocking indictment of the level of training of those in charge of administrating ELA instruction.
“For example, there’s a middle-school standard that requires students to be able to explain “the functions of verbals” in sentences. ”
Giimme a break.
The writers of these “standards” clearly didn’t understand enough about English syntax to know how complex that is–how much study of traditional grammar is necessary as a prerequisite. And, ofc, though formal syntax is an interesting study in and of itself, it has very little practical use. It certainly has nothing to do with the ways in which people are built to learn standard usage.
I can say the same thing about math standards: it happens at various point, as I am reading the standards, and say “Do these people understand how complicated that thing is”. I had a hard time my college students to understand some of the concepts and then explain to me the way the CCS wants, say, 4th graders to explain what they are doing.
These morons call for third graders to understand “the concept of the variable.” That level of abstract thinking is way beyond most at that age. Stupid.
The folks who put together these “standards” basically just picked up without any reflection some junk from existing state standards, and they clearly didn’t have the education in literature, composition, rhetoric, language acquisition, reading, or anything else that they would need to do the job properly. Furthermore, these terrible “standards” include no mechanism for correction, over time, by people who actually have relevant expertise.
There are many, many other significant issues with these “standards.” It’s as though Coleman and crew wrote new standards for the US Navy that warned about the possibility of sailing off the edge of the world or as though the write new standards for medicine based on Galen, some folk remedies, and the 1958 edition of Gray’s Anatomy. It’s amateurish work. And, the “standards” become the de facto curriculum and stop all innovation in ELA pedagogy and curricula cold. If it’s not on the bullet list, it won’t be treated. It’s as though they drew a circle around a few items in the vast possible design space of ELA curricula and said this you may teach and nothing else. Furthermore, the ELA standards are simply a vague list of skills. They almost completely ignore descriptive knowledge and specific procedural knowledge in ELA.
Bob
I think you may be giving politicians far more credit than they deserve if you believe they will understand — or even read — what you just wrote.😀
I think that when talking to politicians it might be better to just say someghing like “Common Core was a tale told by an idiot full of standards and testing and signifying nothing”
Well said, SomeDAM. Precisely!
Functions of verbals or functions of variables
Six of one, a half dozen of the other
Too few people recognize the extent to which bullet lists of vague skills (that’s what current “standards” are) stop informed innovation and development in curricula and pedagogy cold. Again, one has to look under the hood and attend to the details. In this piece, I provide a clear example of just how this happens: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/on-developing-curricula-in-the-age-of-the-thought-police/
Diane Kudos. As I read this thread, however, I couldn’t help but think I’d just like someone in office who can be distinguished from sewage. <–did I write that? But high on my list of “yes” is that the person understands the sacrosanct relationship between democracy and public anything, especially education. Thank you for keeping us advised. CBK
I agree with what you are saying but would also like to make sure that their understanding goes beyond being “sacrosanct. ” Too much that is considered sacrosanct has become handy slogans to pull out for effect. I want them to realize the nitty gritty details of what being a public good means. No one owns it or can hide it from anyone. Everyone is responsible for and entitled to the benefits from public ownership. My tax dollars are not being sucked up by a private interest who then decides how much public good they will dispense and at what additional cost.
Imagine a President and a Secretary of Education with a moral compass!!! There is a deep longing for that among the people of the United States. Can Bernie win? Absolutely, and that’s why. The people of this country have a strong, frustrated desire for a truly compassionate and able democratic leader. Bernie Sanders fits the bill.
Feel.
the.
Bern!!!
At long last, Bernie’s posse contacts Diane, hooray, good start, been waiting too long for Bernie and Campaign to get serious about the education war underway. Can I pls suggest that Diane add “small class size” to the list of needs? Leonie has been out in front of this for years. The most impt single reform govt can do to help students learn more from the bottom up the economic ladder is to dramatically reduce class size. Bernie has to learn this and add it to his talking points.
Ira,
You can be sure that Leonie Haimson has already chastised me for not putting reduced class size at the top of the list. But rightly or wrongly, I don’t see that as a federal issue or mandate. Most states right now are failing to fund education, have teacher shortages, are lowering standards to hire ill-qualified teachers, and refuse to pay the teachers they have a decent middle-class salary.
The #1 federal priority embedded in the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act is funding schools in need. The feds have found it easy to pass u funded mandates but refuse to fund those mandates. The prime example is special education. When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Act, it promised to pay 40% of the cost. The feds have never paid more than 12% of the cost. The government owes billions of dollars to local school districts for individualized services it promised to pay for, but did not.
And this
https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2019/04/dont-be-fooled-by-this-proposal-to-end.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR1_msoWJAlhcHw2urF3wHNRu9WD54u6tJ1SmCRX5fZEG0WOAnnxwvfIDEQ&m=1
I didn’t think I could be more enthusiastic about Bernie Sanders than I already was. I was wrong. I am jumping up and down with joy right now! Everything we discuss here on the great blog is just like everything Bernie talks about, in that it used to be considered too radical. But it’s not extreme to expect equality and justice in public education.
So well put, LeftCoastTeacher. My feelings exactly.
👍👍
That’s wonderful and thank you for advocating on behalf of public school students.
I’ve never understood why charter advocates and voucher advocates are permitted in this “debate” but public school advocates are excluded. Apparently there is no in America who at all values public schools, and we’re all desperate to “flee” to the preferred charters or private schools. That this effectively excludes +/- 90% of students and families doesn’t seem to penetrate the ed reform bubble.
My big fear is whoever wins the primary hires exclusively from the echo chamber. I want someone who values public schools at the table. We have had three anti-public school administrations in a row and it shows. These people are entrenched. Their views have utterly dominated for 20 years, which is the span of entire careers.
yes. yes. yes.
Imagine charters re-envisioned according to the original conception, as innovation workshops within public school systems, led by teachers, with strong unions and district accountability and free of blood-sucking private management.
I swear the US Department of Education are afraid to say anything positive about a public school or public school student.
It’s ludicrous. They’ve effectively excluded our students and families from a “debate” that is supposedly “about” public education.
To read the USDOE website and the rest of the ed reform platforms one would think 10% of US students attend public schools and the students who do remain in public schools are all drug-addicted, violent low performers. It’s capture.
Thank you, Chiara!!! Exactly right.
The ones who are really addicted are the ones making the decisions : addicted to standards, tests and “free market” (sic) mumbo-jumbo.
Yes.
The first question Diane should ask is “Have you ever worked for TFA?”
And if the answer is yes, the second question should be “what do you think of TFA?”
If Bernie’s Ed advisor actually reads this blog, I would encourage her to read this
“The Maestro”
Chetty picked his VAMdolin
At Nobel-chasing speed
Duncan played the basket rim
And Rhee, she played the rheed
Coleman played his Core-o-net
Moskowitz, the lyre
Billy Gates played tête-à-tête
With Duncan and with higher
Sanders beat his cattle drum
Devalue Added Model
Pseudo-science weighted sum
Mathturbated twaddle
John King played the slide VAMbone
But Maestro was Obama
Who hired the band and set the tone
For current grizzly drama
(William Sanders, an economist, applied his
“cattle growth model” to students to create
teacher VAM.)
And for her late night reading pleasure, there is much more where that came from
http://damthology.blogspot.com/
The first step to kicking addiction is admitting you have a problem.
wonderful!!!! lmao!!!
I give credit to Sanders’ campaign for seeking advice from an authentic education expert. NPE is a legitimate voice in the discussion on public education. You and Anthony Cody had to foresight to understand that scholarship is wisdom, but activism has the potential to transform scholarship into real policy. It is impossible to discuss K-12 education and not be political today. NPE is filling the information void since the infusion of cash into privatization twists much of the information coming from the federal and many state governments.
Bernie Sanders is considered to be “the most honest man in politics.” He has been on the side of social justice since the civil rights era. It is too early to get into a discussion on endorsing candidates. I hope the unions realize this too Teachers should listen carefully to all the candidates and eliminate any Democrat that plays the “don’t ask, don’t tell” game that many Democrats try. We should reserve support for candidates that support traditional public education.
Do we know who Bernie’s education advisers are? It matters not one wit who calls you if they are deformers in disguise. How many congressmen have former TFA on staff? Let’s look for genuine experience in the public realm.
Eduspies
Deformers in disguise
Are really edu spies
Repeating edu lies
Very good points from you both. TFA needs to be exposed to those who equate it with the Peace Corps. It is anything but.
Any discussion of the Democratic candidates should include Joe Biden’s brother and his charter chain:
“Before the songs, chanting, and heartfelt tears, the ceremony next door to a strip mall begins with speeches. A thin, deeply tanned man in a pinstriped suit is among the first to take the microphone. He’s not famous — not exactly — but his receding hairline, rectangular face, and overeager grin are naggingly familiar. “This is a hope factory,” he begins. “This is a spiritual experience.”
He stands in the lobby of what could be any office building in Florida, beside a reception desk festooned with red, white, and blue balloons.”
Biden’s brother’s chain of charter schools came out of the White Hat charter empire in Ohio. That was the largest public financing scandal in Ohio history, in raw numbers of money flushed down the toilet.
Biden’s brother actively lobbied to have for-profit operators take over public school districts in Pennsylvania. The videos are on you tube.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/mavericks-charter-schools-dont-live-up-to-big-promises-6385627
Chiara,
THANK YOU for this one. Hah…now why does that NOT surprise me.
I have no evidence, but I suspect that Biden probably invested in his brother’s charter chain. No wonder he wrote a good review for Arne Duncan’s book.
Here’s the way to run a charter: Start a separate management company and buy a building–an old KMart, for example. Lease it to the school at twice the mortgage payments. Give contracts to your management company, at inflated rates, for stuff like janitorial services and procurement. Gut the building and put computer cubicles around the walls and buy some instructional software form a company like K12. Make teachers buy their own supplies. Pay exorbitant salaries to the “school leaders” in the management company. Since the instruction is all online, you don’t need real teachers, and you can have really high student-to-teacher ratios because the teachers serve mostly as proctors. Collect the per-pupil allotment from the state that would have gone to the local school district. Exclude students with disabilities and English language learners by various means, such as requiring entrance essays. Keep all spending on students and teachers at an absolute minimum because anything you don’t spend goes into your own pocket.
Tell investors that you are not in the school business but in the real-estate business because you are–you are using taxpayer funding to build equity.
You have the charter formula down pat. Tax payers still should be asking where the $1 billion went. Imagine what the $1 billion could do in a democratic, transparent public school operated by actual educational professionals, not business con artists.
Oh, and I left off, hire your relatives.
Trump would hire his relatives and a few porn stars too.
LOL. Or he would have to write a bunch of 30,000 checks, after the fact, to some of his employees.
He’d have one of his lawyers write the checks and refund the lawyer later … if he felt like it. MAGA Man has a long history of not paying his debts. That established habit explains why he goes through so many lawyers like playing a game of musical chairs without the chairs because the lawyers never stay long enough to sit down.
While this is good sign, the proof is in the pudding.
As we saw in California recently with the stacking of the charter “reform” committee with charter cheerleaders by Newsom (and no, there is no difference between Newsom and his chief of staff), politicians will say anything to get elected, but actions are something else entirely.
I will believe in change when I see it?
in a connected way, teachers/parents/public-school-activists in Denver made a huge fuss about electing the first openly gay Governor, calling him a true “progressive,” but only seemed to notice after the fact that this same Governor is a poster child on the DFER homepage…
DFER, sister to CAP, the people who made all of the unforced errors that produced the disaster in 2016, who played a part in the prior 1000 legislative seats and governorships lost. Media still seeks comments from the inept minions of Bill Gates who remain in power within the Democratic Party, pretending that they speak for liberals.
Out with CAP, in with Bernie!
I’m still waiting for a Democrat to give this speech: http://www.arthurcamins.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-K-12-Education-Speech-We-Need-from-Democrats.pdf
I hope your conversation pushed them in that direction!
Great piece. Indeed, that would be nice to hear for a change.
Me too, Arthur. I agree with Bob Shepherd.
I am thrilled to hear this. It speaks very well of the Bernie Sanders’ campaign that they are looking closely at education issues that are not “safe” – like taking a strong stance against what Bernie incorrectly called “public” charter schools and against testing whose sole purpose is to show how terrible public schools and their teachers are (and thus help convince parents to leave and choose charters).
I hope Bernie starts talking about this — perhaps connecting it to the NAACP’s hearings and proposal to put a moratorium on charters. If Bernie starts, it will force the other candidates in the primary to take a stand, too, and their adoration of charters and their billionaire supporters would hopefully become a campaign issue that would turn voters off.
I think this happened in the Virginia Democratic primary for Governor, where Northam or at least his supporters made public education a BIG issue, forcing the other candidate in the primary to address it too and educating the public as to the other candidate being a DFER democrat getting big money from the pro-charter movement. I’m not sure Northam would have won the primary had Northam’s support of public education and his opponent’s support of charters an issue.
It’s a winning issue and I hope Bernie embraces it. Maybe if he did, Elizabeth Warren would stop listening to her “reformer” staff and do a little homework herself and realize she better up her game on K-12 issues. And (in my dreams) the other candidates would follow.
Essential truth: IT IS A WINNING ISSUE. If Bernie truly figures this out and starts speaking out clearly and honestly against school privatizing in all its forms, he will likely see a wondrous jump in his polling numbers.
Wow, thanks Diane for your continuing efforts to preserve and strengthen the real public schools and to end the privatization movement. If Bernie starts talking about the need to protect our public schools from the dangers of charters and vouchers, maybe some of the other candidates will get the message, too. One can hope.
Will the other democratic candidates recognize the influence of the leadership of NPE in fighting for democracy through fighting for public education?
I hope so.
Our latest report, “Asleep At the Wheel,” got lots of attention. DeVos brushed it off as biased (in favor of public schools), but the documentation of the failure of the Charter Schools Program is irrefutable. The data are clear. The federal government funded nearly 1,000 charter schools that either never opened or closed soon after opening. That was a waste of nearly $1 Billion. This slipshod non-oversight happened on Margaret Spelling’s and Arne Duncan’s watch because the period studied was 2006-2014. No doubt it has continued under DeVos.
“Let’s draw a line in the sand. ”
Yes, lets do that.
Walk, not talk”
Politicians
Need to walk
With striking teachers
Not to talk
And promises
Of comfy shoes
Are emptiness
We should refus
SomeDAM Poeto is my little Spanish cousins, by the way
You should have written this earlier today, when I went out with my son for a walk, and felt like talking, but ran out of breath due to last Monday’s open hear tsurgery. So I was silent for the rest of the walk, and actually just feeling my son’s strong body, hearing his strong voice gave me the confidence that we can walk back without stopping, and hence I realized that without talking you may feel the people you are with better.
So yeah, let’s have Bernie and Donnie walk with teachers and listen. Have the teachers invite them, but not to give yet another speech, which would necessarily reveal how little they understrand about education, but just walk with them.
let’s have Bernie and Donnie walk with teachers and listen
yes!!!
I spoke to Heather Gautney, a professor at Fordham, who was executive director of Our Revolution and is now Senior Policy Director for the Sanders’ campaign.
Had a look at her website. She’s a pretty impressive person! I’m going to have to order a couple of her books.
Ah, here she talks informally in 2016
More formal couple months ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O17-SJRlWmc
Is that you that had open heart? Hope for the best recovery.
Yes. Thanks, Roy.
Wow, Mate. A speedy recovery to you!!!
I LOVE the basic idea but am concerned that we will not endorse anyone who does not agree to that specific education ideal. I want it too but Trump scares the you know what out of me in so many ways.
Too many teachers would not vote for Hillary because they so very much – as did I- endorse Bernie.
CATASTROPHE. PLEASE do NOT make the same mistake twice.
Endorse and voting are not the same. You can end up voting for someone with explicitly nedorsing the candidate. Endorsement has a pricetag, the candidate needs to earn it. Voting might be done out of political necessity.
It’s like eating a quick hamburger at McDonalds. With it, you may not recommend McDonalds to others, but you donot want to starve to death either.
Was it those McDonald’s hamburgers that led to the open heart surgery? I am mightily impressed with your already being “on the road.” Not being able to talk and walk does lead to better listening, but I hope you don’t resort to surgery to practice the art of listening. Besides your voice is so important to these discussions. May you heal quickly and completely.
Thanks, speduktr. I am not a great meat eater, but cheese, sweets probably contributed to the single bypass, the cause for valve problem unknown, might be inherited. I have learned my lesson, and I’ll be a good boy for the second 60 years of my life.
I am “on the road” because the recovery is amazingly fast—probably due to the great surgeon (who had huge practice in this capitol of Southern food), plus my kids’ presence and help after taking a week off from college.
I will vote for any Democrat who is the candidate vs Trump.
Plan to become a socialist. We have very little in special education and when we become socialist the disabled will be eliminated because they have to be equal to a non disabled student and get only what a non disabled student gets. Like Obama Care that bars any mental health counseling and services to people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and/or dementia that are considered medical and you can have medication and hospitalization. If a psychologist dares to provide counseling to a person with Alzheimer’s and/or dementia and Medicare finds out then Medicare will go back a year and the next Medicare check to the doctor will be missing all the money paid to the doctor for the past year. We have socialize medicine now with Obama Care wait until they get into the schools.
What are you babbling about – are you alleging that if the United States supports a real social safety net for its people (and that is not socialism because the U.S. will never be a pure socialist state), disabled students will be “eliminated” as in executed?
If that is what you think, you are ignorant and must be properly educated. To start, there is a BIG difference between pure socialism and Democratic Socialism as AOC explains:
Where do you get this stuff? I lived under communist healthcare for 30 years. I do notr recognize any of the stuff you mention. Have you ever been to Europe to see how socialzed healthcare works?
The good thing about this is that the issue of public education illustrates the bankruptcy of the idea that there can be no good thing that is done by government for he good of all the public. Modern assertions that a thing is bad because it is “th gubmnt ” need to be challenged.
Roy,
Anti-government sentiment is not a modern idea. It’s fundamentalist, backwoods kneejerk sentiment. It used to be associated with ignorant people who hate the government but love their Social Security checks and the TVA and other benefits.
The modern assertions I refer to are the statements by today’s neoconservatives who seek to lay all ills at the door of government in order to mask any failures of the private system. Their ruse is to disperse failure so there is no accountability for it.
Most of it’s not even real anti-government sentiment.
Most of these people have no problem accepting government help as long as it is for themselves and their friends.
But where they have the problem is help for someone else.
This attitude is very prevalent on Wall Street, where the big Banks and investment houses expect to be bailed out when they make risky and even fraudulent investments, but don’t want the government regulating the very actions that led to the risky and fraudulent behavior. Capitalism in name only.
The attiitude is also very prevalent in the American Southwest, where ranchers and oil, gas and mineral extraction companies gladly take mining and grazing permits from the government at close to zero cost but are constantly complaining about the government telling them what they can and can not do on PUBlLICLY owned lands, including those bordering national monuments and parks.
The biggest fake capitalists are people like Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs.
Why?
Why?
You got me.
There is no logic to it.
Only goofy philosophy: Objectivism
I just didn’t know who these people were and what they have done.
Interestingly, Dimon has recently called for steeper progressive taxation. He’s at least wise enough to understand that the current trend toward bifurcation into haves and have nots is not sustainable.
Jamie Dimon is CEO of JP Morgan Chase which committed billions in fraud and got bailed out by the uS government as part of the TARP program.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/jamie-dimon-billion-dollar-secret-jp-morgan?verso=true
Of course, no one at Dimons company was prosecuted but the company did pay about 13 billion in fines for the fraud. Dimon not only got to keep his job but actually got a $20 million bonus (undoubtedly for keeping his colleagues at JP Morgan out of jail. You see, Dimon had friends in the Obama Justice Department)
Blankfein is CEO of Goldman Sachs ,which also committed billions in fraud and was also bailed out by the government and paid billions in fines (but again no jail time for anyone)
http://fortune.com/2016/04/11/goldman-sachs-doj-settlement/
Both of these guys pretend to be capitalists adding value to their companies when the reality could not be further from the truth. They get paid for overseeing failed/ fraudulent companies that were saved by the US taxpayers when they should have been shut down for the billions in fraud that were committed.
Dimon and Blankfein should both have been investigated to determine what knowledge they had of the fraud that occurred under their very noses.
If the system were based on merit, at the very least, these two clowns would have lost their jobs long ago or more likely, never have got the jobs to begin with.
I don’t know why but the original comment I wrote was rejected. I had the same problem when I attempted to leave a comment on another site a moment ago. Mayby my computer has been hacked.
Anyway. I want to make sure to point the finger at the proper president responsible for TARP as it was originally intended.
“The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was a U.S. economic program designed to ward off the nation’s mortgage and financial crisis, known as the Great Recession. Signed on October 3, 2008, by President George W. Bush,”
https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/troubled-asset-relief-program
Obama’s administration changed the terms and required the bailout money to be paid back. G. W. Bush didn’t do that. His administration just gave the money away, but not all of it. As soon as Obama was president he froze the handouts and changed the rules. What rules, there were none under Bush?
“The Treasury is authorized to spend $475 billion of the TARP (In July 2010, the financial regulation overhaul reduced TARP’s spending cap to $475 billion from the original $700 billion.). It has created 13 different programs, to which it has promised $459 billion.
“The government committed bailout money to 978 recipients. Those recipients have received a total of $441 billion. A total of $390 billion has been returned.”
https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/
These people play with hundreds of billions of $ as kids do with pennies.
“play” is the key word
Bob
It’s hard to take anything Dimon says seriously.
He’s a BS artist.
The Democrats lost their voice
They lost their voice on Wall Street
In talks with Jamie Dimon
It made them hoarse to oft repeat
“I really love your diamond!”
They sold their voice to Wall Street.
Best example is Trum, who criticizes government, becomes head of government, and starts destroying, one by one, those things the givernment did for the common people.
Diane, this is FABULOUS. FABULOUS. FABULOUS. Good NEWS!
I have read and reread my comments hoping it is clear and not too overboard.
I don’t talk much about my husband much. We like our privacy.
But I think I need to disclose so that you know his background and that his opinion is based on first-hand experiences as both a public school teacher, who worked as a science and math teacher in the INNER CITY of Toledo, Ohio for 8 years and who also worked as an aerospace engineer for Ball Aerospace in the Star Tracker Group for 25+ years … I don’t remember. He retired from Ball and was called back to work on projects for several years until he got tired of having to go through top security clearance … not easy. The work was fine; the clearance is a royal pain. Plus, he always worried and just got tired of all the worrying. Now he does his thing with others who work on personal projects (like scrambling and filtering SPAM and systems that track us), because they need to “think and create good stuff.” He still receives professional journals, develops original algorithms, and write letters to companies that “screwed” him because of their lame software and the difficulty talking to someone who knows something to solve the problem. He knows we are being “cluster “f******”” by bad systems in place. As an aside, I just experienced one of these “CFs” when trying to make a plane reservation online. There was a glitch in the software.
Because of my husband’s work experiences as well as knowledge, he knows the limitations of electronic classrooms … and knows those tests are just $$$$$ makers for the few.
He is appalled at all those tests students take, as I am.
He knows that the classroom teachers KNOW more about their students who they interact with on a daily basis much more than any test can provide. Like me, he also wants to know the standard error of measurement and reliability indices re: those tests. These two most BASIC and important factors are crucial when interpreting any number, let alone a high stakes test. And there’s even more to consider besides error measurement and reliability. What about those test items themselves … which are BAD as well know. Those high stakes tests are INVALID to start.
He is also appalled that politicians, business folks, and no nothings like Bill Gates (who has contempt for) are so greedy and arrogant that they think they can tell teachers what to do. My husband said that teaching is harder than dealing with attitude determination systems to capture and measure starlight to navigate in space, and one never knows whether or not the “attitude determination systems will work until that space craft is actually up there. Attitude determination systems can be tested/simulated on Earth, but there are variables in space that cannot be fully simulated because of celestial mechanics and gravitational forces in outer space.
If any politician and people like Gates, including Gates would like to speak to my husband about the limitations of standardized testing, and technology in the classroom, I am sure my husband would be happy to do so. He’s so sick of “arm-chair” teachers who have not a clue, but still speak as though they know. As an aside, he like me calls the “Common Core” the “Common GORE,”
We both agree: Arkansas’ Mistake became this Nation’s Mistake.”
Actually, this is one saying my husband came up with and I asked him if I could use it.
He said, “Spread it around. It’s true.”
When I told my husband that Pearson is headquartered in England, he hit the fan. When I told him about a woman in her 80’s I know who hates kids and who signs up with TEMP agencies to grade short answer responses for Pearson, he hit the fan.
Last night, as I was savoring reading the book, Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic Voyage to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon and read a paragraph to him, My husband told me. “Public School Teachers have a much harder job. Teachers deal with souls in an every changing classroom landscape.”
He also said, “Teachers are FIRST RESPONDERS with their boots on the ground. Why doesn’t the public understand this rather than just blame teachers?” Then he said, “Good thing politicians don’t understand math and science and are mostly confused by science and math, or we would never be able to explore space.” I AGREE.
Btw, get this: Some lawyers are now telling physicians how to do their jobs. Two of the female physicians I know (in frustration), told me ghastly information re: lawyers telling them what to do … like lawyers know … NOPE. Lawyers cite precedent. Lawyers don’t even need to do research in the stacks anymore. And still they charge so much $$$$$. Good GAWD.
Go BERNIE!
Economists are trying to insert themselves into every aspect of work and life. They think they can calculate everything. Teachers know how that worked out with the fake evaluations through VAM, a mysterious, capricious algorithm. Numbers don’t lie…until they do.
Insurance companies are also calling the shots in medicine. They expect outcomes to be consistent. As we know, illness can sometimes defy logic. Then, the insurance companies take the decisions out of the doctors’ hands.
Green Party, Republican Party, Democratic Party, name your political party. It would make America Greater if all political parties passed a policy that proclaims their party will only endorse a presidential candidate supports public schools and protecting public schools against the growing threat of privatization.
But, America will not be Great enough unless the Nation’s unions also passed a policy to only endorse a presidential candidates with the right stuff: a committed to public education and its defense from the existential threat of its privatization.
The two large teacher unions (NEA & AFT) will be holding their conventions this summer and we’ll see if they will pass a policy of only endorsing presidential candidate committed to public education and its defense from the existential threat of its privatization.
The AFT was the 2nd largest contributor to Rep. Susan Davis, a DFER, K-12 privatizer. She won her district by 30 pts. The question is why didn’t the AFT find a person to run against her in the primary?
Love this! Thank you for continuing to spread support for our K-12 schools. I myself am a Sanders supporter, but as you said the conversation of K-12 is largely left out. Thank you for using your platform once more to steer more conversation to K-12 public education!
Has anyone figured out how BSanders is going to come up with the money to pay for his socialist policies? And how he is going to get his crack-brained ideas through the congress?
Charles-
Your GI Bill benefits smack of socialism. Your alma mater reflects socialism.
Trump’s brain set the standard so low, you’re in a glass house throwing stones.
The Veterans Administration is part of our defense effort. The US Army is a socialist enterprise, based on your definition.
I went to a public university, paid for by citizen’s taxes.
I am not throwing stones at anyone.
Just keep in mind, that a government that is powerful enough to give you everything you want, is also powerful to take from you, everything that you have.
Charles,
You just explained why no religious school should take government money for tuition.
As you wrote, “Just keep in mind, that a government that is powerful enough to give you everything you want, is also powerful to take from you, everything that you have.”
The best protection for religious liberty is the separation of church and state.
The Veterans Administration is not part of the Department of Defense. They are two separate agencies only related by the fact that the VA is treating the veterans (who were injured physically and/or mentally in one of more of the wars the country fought through the DOD, but there is actually a different medical option for military personnel who retire from the military. It’s called TRICARE.
Not everyone who serves in the US military ends up fighting in a combat zone. In fact, most of the military trains and supports combat troops.
Military retirees Can Receive Care at VA Facilities – Retirees are eligible for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical care on a space-available basis. There are many limitations and eligibility requirements. VA medical care should not be relied on as your only source of health care. .For instance, if a retired military person never served in combat and does not have a combat-related disability, the VA may not accept them..
All military retirees that served twenty years or more have to pay a deductible amount of $150 per individual (no more than $300 per family). Tricare Retired Reserve – Retired Guard or Reservists and their family members can purchase Tricare Retired Reserve until they reach age 60, there is an enrollment fee, and copays for treatment.
Retired military who are under 65 years of age, and their families, are eligible for TRICARE health coverage. When a military retiree or spouse reaches 65, they are eligible for Medicare and TRICARE for Life medical coverage. TRICARE for Life is specifically for Medicare eligible military retirees.
https://www.military.com/military-transition/retirees/health-care-changes-after-retirement.html
The Department of Defense (DOD) provides health care for 9.5 million military service members, retirees, and family members through military treatment facilities (MTFs) and a self-funded, self-administered insurance program called TRICARE.[1
Read more: https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/tricare-the-militarys-health-care-system/#ixzz5kvpTG3pL
Follow us: @AAF on Twitter
For 2019, Defense spending through the DOD makes up 52 percent of Discretionary Spending.
Veterans Benefits through the VA makes up 7 percent of Discretionary Spending.
Another nine million veterans are served each year by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Health care facilities are made up of 1,062 outpatient sites and 172 VA Medical Centers.
The DOD and VA are funded through discretionary spending. Discretionary spending has no established funding source.
Social Security, for instance, is mandatory and is primarily funded by payroll taxes assessed on wages in the United States. The employer pays 6.2% of income, and the employee chips in another 6.2%. The self-employed, being both employer and employee, pay 12.4% of income into the program. This tax was designed to fund only SS but there was no provision to stop Congress for “borrowing” the money and spending it on other items through the general fund.
“This tax was designed to fund only SS but there was no provision to stop Congress for “borrowing” the money and spending it on other items through the general fund.”
So what did they spend it on, for example?
Congress borrowed the money ( They didn’t steal it. They promised to pay it back and wrote IOU’s) and then moved the cash to the General Fund.
Those IOU’s made up about 15-percent of the total government debt in 2016.
“Did Congress spend the proceeds of the special bonds held in the Social Security trust fund? Of course! They spent this money on all the various operations of the federal government. Some people get riled up about government spending on obscure projects they think are worthless, but the reality is that these “wasteful” projects represent a very small portion of the overall federal budget.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lets-debunk-this-social-security-myth/
“As you can see, if you add up the debt held by Social Security and all the retirement and pension funds, almost half of the U.S. Treasury debt is held in trust for your retirement. If the United States defaults on its debt, foreign investors would be angry, but current and future retirees would be hurt the most.”
https://www.thebalance.com/who-owns-the-u-s-national-debt-3306124
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember MAGA Man Donald Trump telling his supporters that he would get rid of the National Debt by defaulting on it …. (like he did six times through six different bankruptcies when he failed really BIG at business and caused U.S. banks and any partners he had to lose about one billion dollars — the reason why U.S. banks stopped loaning MAGA Bankruptcy Man money).
Please do not put words in my mouth. Religiously-operated schools and colleges have students that are receiving public money. Students go to Notre Dame on the GI Bill. Students go to Catholic University of America with BEOGs. Students go to Brigham Young Univ on ROTC Scholarships.
Providing financial assistance to student s attending religiously-operated schools, is NOT an establishment of religion.
Religious liberty is alive and well in the USA, 17 years after the Zelman decision.
I do not know of any religious school that accepts government money to pay for tuition. Religiously-operated schools accept students, and the students/families have received government money.
There are thousands of religious schools that receive public funding for tuition—in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, and elsewhere. Huffington Post compiled a list of 7,000 voucher schools, most of them religious, most of them evangelical, most of them teaching creationism and teaching bigotry towards other groups. As such “schools” proliferate, children are indoctrinated into religious views at public expense. Our society is damaged by this stupid policy and is hurtling back a century in time when children were taught religion instead of modern science and history.
The U.S. remade as a 3rd world nation, which is the colonialist vision of Charles and David Koch, Gates and others who are the richest 0.1%.
To fight oligarchy, Bernie in 2020!
Charles-
Uhhh… Erik Prince’s view about the U.S.Army, socialism, Blackwater, capitalism? What’s the name of the program, rivaling the GI bill, that for-profit military contractors provide for their employees?
Hypocrisy is in the DNA of Republicans.
Diane R: Amen to that!
Charles, in 2016, per capita healthcare cost in the US was over $10,000, and the country spent 17.6 percent of its GDP on healthcare. In the same year, the other countries in the OECD, all of which have universal, single-payer coverage, had per capita costs of a little over $4,000 and spent, on average, 8 percent of GDP on healthcare. THE COSTLY SYSTEM IS OURS because half our healthcare dollar is siphoned off into profits earned by the healthcare racketeers in the USA. We are the only OECD country where a brilliant young adjunct professor with asthma will die because she doesn’t have health insurance and can’t afford inhalers and checkups (see the story in yesterday’s Atlantic Monthly). I don’t know where you get this crap. You pay for a decent social safety net with steeper progressive taxation. That’s what the European Social Democracies do, and those Scandinavian Social Democracies are always at the top of the list of the happiest places on Earth.
Scandinavian social democracies do not support the most expensive military establishment in the world and fight endless wars.
The question should never be, “How will we pay for health care for all?” But should be, “How are we paying for our military and our endless wars?”
The U.S. does not have an established tax base to fund its military establishment and wars. In fact, the reason Social Security is at risk is because Congress borrowed and spend all the money workers paid into SS since FDR to help pay for the military establishment and all those wars we never win. What Congress could not pay (military spending) for ended up feeding the deficit and growing the national federal debt.
The United States fought in Vietnam for almost 20 years (1955 to 1975) and the only thing that war did was kill millions of people and destroy the health of even more people with the spraying of Agent Orange. In the end, the communists we were fighting won and they still rule that country.
The Afghan War is still raging (2001 – 2019) and no one is winning. Well, maybe the Taliban are winning and we are losing. According to PBS.org, this war costs more than $100 billion annually.
The Iraq War raged from 2003 to 2011 and Iraq is still not stable. According to Rueters, the “Iraq war costs U.S. more than $2 trillion: study. NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said”
Charles
What to do with Congress may be a valid point. But please help me. The American people are not paying for healthcare now.
I had an employer-provided Cadillac plan. But please tell me who paid for it. If not me.
The question is not who pays for it. It is being paid for by the American people right now. Paid for in deferred income from employers. Paid for as Public expenditures ultimately from tax dollars. Well maybe not; as the debt fairy was going to take the party away 40 years ago.
MMT may not be so wild a theory after all.
Exactly, Joel. This is the key fact that those pushing for Medicare for All need to explain to the American People. YOU ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR HEALTHCARE TWICE AS MUCH AS IS BEING PAID BY PEOPLE IN INDUSTRIALIZED DEMOCRACIES THAT HAVE UNIVERSAL, SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEMS. The other major difference is that health outcomes, here, ARE WORSE.
The question of how we are going to pay for it is framed by the right as though these would be NEW expenditures. They are not. We are already paying for it. Medicare for All would not introduce new expenditures. It would change who is paying those costs. It would take the burden off the average taxpayer and place it on the wealthy via steeper progressive taxation.
This is incredibly encouraging and exciting. Really hoping he comes out with a great policy proposal. There are a lot of schools in Vermont that blur the line between private and public, so that’s why he was probably doing that too. They are quite different from what is commonly recognized as charter schools.
Bernie is so much better than Biden. The proof- his campaign is talking to democracy’s hero- Diane Ravitch.
agreed
End the practice of privatizing profits and socializing costs (Chomsky).
Tax the philanthropists.
Hello,
I am a teacher in WV, and I have recently become aware of your blogs. I am a huge fan! Your recent report (re: Bernie Sanders) intrigues me. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on how to increase teacher pay, but more importantly, my big bandwagon is eliminating testing in 3-5.
We have huge issues in our state right now, with a bill that was introduced this past legislative session (SB 451), written by a (homeschool mom) Senator who advocates school choice, ESAs, and Charters.
I am wondering if you would do a piece about our state’s situation. Maybe do some fact digging!? We suspect that ALEC is in on her bill, since she is associated with them. Corruption has run amok here!
Thank you for your work! I would love to meet you someday. If I were not so busy teaching, I would love to investigate more of these things myself, as it is all infuriating me!
Rachel Kubic
4th grade teacher
Ranson, WV
Rachel,
If that state legislator belongs to ALEC, you can be certain she is introducing legislation written by ALEC. She just wrote in the name of her state.
To learn more about the ALEC education agenda, go to ALEC Exposed:
https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Privatizing_Public_Education,_Higher_Ed_Policy,_and_Teachers
Rachel,
In addition to the Koch’s ALEC, Bill Gates should be on your radar.
He and his Microsoft co-founder spent $500,000 to defeat the re-election of Washington state judges who rendered verdicts favorable to public schools. The founder of 4 Gates-funded ed organizations stated the goal of charters, “…brands on a large scale.” Gates and Z-berg are investors in the largest for-profit seller of schools-in-a-box.
West Virginia has 7 state department of ed employees at SETDA.
The organization receives funding from Gates. It promotes digital learning, public-private partnerships,…. A former director said SETDA lobbies at a federal level. IMO, SETDA is a variation of ALEC. ALEC is elected state officials working with industry, destroying democracy.
SETDA’s website reads like state employees fronting for industry, also undermining democracy.
Love this one, Diane. You rarely disappoint. While I feel I am more the anarchist, and questioned my union(s) alignment with Obama 2.0, and Hillary Clinton to early too strong too soon, it feels like the nation is at a turning point. Will we abandon Democrats who operate as lesser-evil Republicans but demand no challenges from within and working class voter loyalty just cuz-or are they ready to step up? Half of me hopes that their apathy, weakness and willingness to preserve their gravy train won’t drive people to the streets to make change, the other half of me wants people in the streets now to ensure change. For now, Sanders is my guy, and I stay off the streets. I do have a couple baseball bats, and two dogs. Flaming bags of poo can be readied.
Middle school is hectic and teaching there is demanding, so it’s not every day I wind up spending a whole day thinking about politics while I am at work. Today was that day. I can’t get you outta my head! This is YUGE! Thank you, Diane. Thank you, Bernie 2020.
By the way, Bernie is doing something big on April 27. I don’t know what it is yet, but well, please go to his site and find out how to be a part of it.
Hear ,Hear ! Awesome article and Bernie is the best solution for clear adult policies as president.
The other issues I would also bring up:
Grade inflation – the huge pressure by administrators either overtly with a required passing percentage or the infamous “scholarship report” or the sub rosa method of more scrutiny of one’s teaching of the passing numbers are low .
Results I have seen is that most teachers just pass students who try and behave reasonably . The grades become more authentic as the income levels rise from where the students live ! So zip codes ARE correlated with educational outcomes.
Tracking – as done decades ago this must be brought back with safeguards , group students BY ABILITY!
This way the “slow” students will not be left behind and the “fast” students will not be bored !
Special Ed students – unless they are high functioning it is counter productive to mainstream these students . Many do not have the intellectual ability nor the social skills to thrive in and with average ability students . It does them and other students a disservice.
Publish how “standardized tests “ are graded , the equation used to curved the grades .
Maths – A total bottom up structural reconstruction of math education ! I have seen too many students , when I have taught physics who could not do basic arithmetics ,let alone algebra or basic trigonometry.
In 2016, Bernie won primaries in Wisconsin, Mich., Indiana and West Va. The following is optimistic for Bernie’s candidacy.
Michigan has a new Democratic governor, in part because of DeVos backlash. West Virginia teachers are leading a wave against the richest 0.1% in their state. Indiana was set to throw out Pence before he moved to the V.P. slot. Wisconsin is turning the corner against the Koch’s Scott Walker. Add in Pennsylvania, which has a strong grassroots pro-public ed movement.
Bernie can win in 2020. He doesn’t need Fordham’s Ohio (don’t buy the Ohio product, Miracle Gro, the firm’s management supports the right wing). Nor, does Bernie need Jeb Bush’s Florida, a colony that cuts out the common good to aid oligarchy.
I got this fundraising survey from the Sanders campaign a few days ago:
https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/em_issues_survey_april/?source=em190409-1-30&t=2&akid=994%2E101458%2EvHxIWr
If you open the link, you’ll see there is NO mention of K-12 education. So, I wrote an email in return:
“The most important issue of ALL to me is public education, from Kindergarten to 12th grade, yet it is missing from your survey.
Public education is under attack. The same billionaires Senator Sanders constantly rails against are dismantling our public schools daily: the Kochs, the Waltons, Bill Gates’ octopus of reform, Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, Mark Zuckerberg, all have their fingers in the pie. It’s not just happening in a few places like Arizona, Florida or Ohio, where charter schools and vouchers are threats to the continuance of public schools; it’s happening here in my home state of liberal Massachusetts.
I haven’t heard the Senator voice any concern about the goal of privatization of this cornerstone of our democracy, yet it’s at the top of the list of worries of public school teachers everywhere. I wish the Senator would meet with Diane Ravitch, who lives in Park Slope, NY. She has enormous knowledge on this issue. An endorsement from Dr. Ravitch would deliver millions of votes to the Senator. We teachers are just holding our breath for a champion of public education. It ought to be Bernie Sanders.”
So, maybe your receiving a call from Sanders’ team is just a coincidence, or maybe his staffers pay attention to the email they get.
Either way, WE WIN!
You did it, Christine!
As Sanders’ campaign slogan says:
We, not me.
Sanders’ response is likely based on an accumulation of e-mails.
Michael Moore acknowledged he’s heard that public education is under attack. But, he has skirted discussion about the oligarchy’s privatization.
I spoke to MIchael Moore directly about the privatization assault. Once, I accosted him at a Leonard Cohen concert at the Barclays Arena in Brooklyn. He asked for my email and I heard nothing more. Then I was interviewed for Fahrenheit 9/11. He knows.
I sure hope so! I wouldn’t want to think I’m the only one out advocating for our schools with the candidates.
Here’s the email I used, in case anyone thinks this is a good strategy:
info@berniesanders.com
AOC took a stand against charter schools. She took a stand against DINO, Hakeem Jeffries. She should be rewarded with donations.
Bernie is responsible for the predicament we find ourselves. He gave us Trump; he gave us DeVos. No way he gets my vote.
I would argue that instead the Democratic Party establishment that pushed for Clinton and sidelined Bernie, who could actually have won the election, were the ones who “gave us Trump.” But they had help from the Russians and from the disaffection of rural, working-class Americans who know that something is wrong but aren’t sure what it is.
Oh, Bob. A photograph!
Wearing a pair of kid socks I picked up off the floor. I highly recommend this whole grandchildren thing!
I hope those socks were clean. It would be itchy if you came down with athletes ears. And I can see why wearing socks over our ears might serve two purposes: warmer ears during cold weather and muting the sound of Trump’s lies.
WRONG!
Bernie didn’t give us Trump.
Russia, with help from some of Bernie’s supporters-voters, gave us Trump, because Bernie’s voters were bitter and wouldn’t drop their bitterness so that helped taint the election.
But if it was not for the Russians, Trump would have lost. The evidence is overwhelming.
I remember Bernie working to help elect Hillary after he lost the primary and I remember Bernie making a plea to his supporters to forgive and forget and help elect Hillary Clinton.
This may not be read (so late to the party, but I wasn’t in town & offline for 3 days), but I noticed that Bob had a new picture & wondered why. Then, after Diane’s comment, I zoomed it–LOL, grandchild’s socks on your ears! Let’s not forget to laugh!
Great news that a legit person working for Bernie campaign actually talked to you, Diane.
As for Biden vs. Bernie–there’s no comparison, here. Biden’s time has come & has passed, & just what is it that makes him such a great candidate? (Nothing. Unlike Al Gore
{dare I say this?}, Biden did nada. Also, being in the Obama Admin. & seeing what fresh hell Obama had wrought upon public ed. by appointing basketball bud Arne, & what Arne did, Biden could have spoken out…or even noticed. That having been said, his charter school cheerleader brother does not help him–guilt by association, here.
Bernie could have beaten Hillary in every primary (& caucus) all over the country–I’m involved in an election protection group, which I became involved in after the 2016 ILL-Annoy Dem Primary–there was massive & provable election fraud (no, I am NOT talking about voter fraud, about which 45 is always whining {that is extremely rare). To have done something about this, though, requires action from the candidate himself/herself &/or his/her campaign–citizens/election groups can sue or file protests, but that does not result in investigation into such fraud, nor result in a change of election results. Anyway, that having been said, Bernie has been the one candidate to consistently stay on message, which did result in a change (in a very big way) to the Dem platform–serious looking at health care in this country, questioning (A.O.C.!!) the status quo & passage of good-for-people bills in states where there has been legislative turnover
(IL, for example &–just look at Chicago, & not just the mayoral, but the changing-of-the-guard in numerous aldermanic elections, all done through pavement pounding, grassroots work.)
So, like Bernie, I’ll say again what I’ve said before–yes, WE can. AND WE WILL.
P.S.–Good health to you, Mate!!
Public education reform must be on the platform. K through 12. I am so excited to hear somebody pushing Bernie Sanders on this. We need to change how and what we teach as well as how we evaluate. The curriculum is stale and outdated. Methods too. Funding and the distribution of taxes needs to be heavily looked at. There are so many issues that it’s too much to write in one comment. Thank you Diane!
Just noticed today Bernie updated his Education statement. He added some stuff about billionaires and privatization. Here’s what the bottom part of the page reads now
With the vast challenges facing our education system, billionaire philanthropists, Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers are attempting to privatize our education system under the banner of “school choice.” We must act to transform our education system into a high-quality public good.
• We must make sure that charter schools are accountable, transparent and truly serve the needs of disadvantaged children, not Wall Street, billionaire investors, and other private interests.
• We must ensure that a handful of billionaires don’t determine education policy for our nation’s children.
• We will oppose the DeVos-style privatization of our nation’s schools and will not allow public resources to be drained from public schools.
• We must guarantee childcare and universal pre-Kindergarten for every child in America to help level the playing field, create new and good jobs, and enable parents more easily balance the demands of work and home.
• We must increase pay for public school teachers so that their salary is commensurate with their importance to society. And we must invest in high-quality, ongoing professional development, and cancel teachers’ student debt.
• We must protect the tenure system for public school teachers and combat attacks on collective bargaining by corporate profiteers.
• We must put an end to high-stakes testing and “teaching to the test” so that our students have a more fulfilling educational life and our teachers are afforded professional respect.
• We must guarantee children with disabilities an equal right to high-quality education, and increase funding for programs that combat racial segregation and unfair disciplinary practices that disproportionately affect students of color.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/reinvest-in-public-education-and-teachers/
That is great!
I think I am making a difference.
Yes, thank you!
To be honest, this is exactly what Bernie did NOT do last time. Hope they get it fast on education, it’s a steep learning curve. But they are talking to the right person now.
Yes. Certainly a big step forward for a leading presidential contender! We need to keep working to dispel the idea that two publicly funding school systems serves the needs of all students. Good work!!
Sonds great. He has become votable again. He is a bit vague about the fate of charter schools, though.
Doesn’t seem great progress to me with 10% of the Nation’s public school children privatized. That fact is ignored in Bernie call for taking rich folks money out of public education reform.
Public education in the Common School sense was built on the pillars of state education systems made of system of public schools that are free, nonsectarian and universal.
Privatizing destroys the pillar of being state education systems being universal. With two states without charter laws, the Nation’s education systems are composed of systems of education that are two competing systems for enrollment funding; one publicly, and the other privately managed.
These two subsystems are in competition for enrollment. The lie/promise that the charter supporters used for ending public monopoly and creating systems of competition between public schools and privately managed charter schools was promised to lift up and improve both publicly funded school systems. It has not.
Twenty-five years of funding two separate systems has brought instability to both systems, with charters closing before a school year ends, or sometimes not even starting up as promised. And, in both cases parents having to scramble to place their children.
There are at least two underlying flaw in the privately managed charter school reform. First that privatizing of public schools resulted in a transfer of governing from public governance to private management.
Second flaw in the charter laws of the states is commitment to competition. That means that charters grow at the expense of reduction in the enrollment of nearby public school districts.
Charter schools are an existential threat to nearby public schools and none of these remarks by Bernie’s folks recognize that reality and the harm growth in privatization is doing to the public school children of the Nation with 10% of the Nation’s publicly funded K-12 students under private management.
He may be vague because of the kind of hybrid system of public education they have developed in VT. Again, we need a Vermonter to speak to this issue. They have found a system that works for their largely rural population.
Vermonters can have the state pay for their K-12 education pretty much as they choose, even in a foreign nation – Canada. Due to its geography, students are not required to attend school in the area they reside. I read about one student who was in training as an Olympic skier and choose to attend school nearer to a training mountain than his home address would have allowed. Some towns have no schools of their own due to small numbers of school aged kids. A bit further south, in New Hampshire, two of my nieces attended a private high school in their town because there was no public one. The town paid tuition to the private school for the small number of students it enrolled.
This wouldn’t work everywhere, but again, it’s a case for why decisions about schooling are kept local.
This time around let’s hold candidates and winners accountable. The Obama years did little to stem charter growth and Race to the Top was harmful.