CNN says that Senator Bernie Sanders will deliver a major address on education on Saturday.
He will call for a flat ban on for-profit charters.
He supports the NAACP’s call for a moratorium on new charters.
Most important is this:
The Vermont independent also will call for a moratorium on the funding of all public charter school expansion until a national audit on the schools has been completed. Additionally, Sanders will promise to halt the use of public funds to underwrite all new charter schools if he is elected president.
That would mean elimination of the federal charter slush fund, which has wasted nearly $1 billion on schools that never opened or that closed soon after opening. This program, called the Charter Schools Program, was initiated in 1994 to spur innovation. It is currently funded at $440 million a year. Secretary DeVos used the CSP to give $89 million to KIPP, which is already amply funded by the Waltons, Gates, and other billionaires and is not a needy recipient. She also has given $225 million to IDEA, part of which will be applied to opening 20 charters in El Paso.
If Senator Sanders means to eliminate CSP, that’s a very good step forward.
Every other Democratic candidate should be asked what they will do about the federal charter slush fund.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
YAY.
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To All
Take The Jeanne Allen Challenge.
What’s that, you ask?
Yesterday, was Friday, the end of National Charter Schools Week, and Bernie Sanders had to go wreck it with his call for charter school transparency. (and also for an end to for-profit charters)
In response to Bernie and the charter critics whom he emboldened to claim this as a victory, charter promoter Jeanne Allen just made a pretty bold challenge, and I’m thinking about taking it.
Perhaps you should, too.
Could you imagine if thousands os people across the country took the same challenge, and then reported back their results on Jeanne Allen’s Twitter, or to the Ravitch blog or elsewhere on line… and The Jeanne Allen Challenge was revealed as the great bluff that it is?
You could sign on to Twitter, and reply to Jeanne Allen’s tweet thusly,
“Hey, Jeanne, I took *The Jeanne Allen Challenge at the office of Acme Charter School Academies, Inc, not too far from my house. They called the cops on me. Go figure!”*
OR
“Me too, Jeanne, I went to the office of the Ronco Charter Academies, Inc,, the new charter school currently co-locating on my child’s public school campus — a co-location that is wreaking havoc on my child’s education —- and took your challenge, and they called security, and told me that they’re going to try to ban me from my own child’s campus, with which this charter is, again, co-locating.”
Without further ado, here’s that challenge:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Jeanne Allen @JeanneAllen
There is no more transparent public school than a charter. Try this – walk into your local public school and ask for their budget, their results, their tax return. Do the same at the closest charter school you have. Compare the results. Rinse, wash, repeat.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
This is a little reminiscent of Gary Hart challenging reporters to “put a tail on me to see if I cheat on my wife. You”ll be very bored.” If people take up the challenge, it will have the same outcome.
First, a little bit of history regarding charter transparency.
Here’s what happened with NY State Comptroller Tom Di Napoli took The Jeanne Allen Challenge with Eva Moskowitz Success Academy schools:
https://www.courthousenews.com/Charter-School-Claims-State-Cant-Audit-it/
(SPOILER ALERT: Eva & her schools failed The Jeanne Allen Challenge, with then end result being that Eva and her schools WON this lawsuit, but FAILED The Jeanne Allen Challenge.)
Also, here’s what happened when activist Robert D. Skeels took The Jeanne Allen Challenge with the charter organization Parent Revolution:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/10/trigger-happy-parent-revolution-refuses.html
(SPOILER ALERT: Robert had a result similar to Di Napoli’s when he took The Jeanne Allen Challenge.)
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Who is the Sara Katz who replied to Jeanne Allen’s tweet and said:
Sara Katz@sararkatz
Bernie’s request for transparency from charters receiving federal $ is hardly radical, nor is it a complete condemnation of charters. Continuing to polarize the conversation around charters vs. noncharters just keeps us from moving toward a system that supports for both models. https://twitter.com/JeanneAllen/status/1129448315773423618 …
“..a system that supports for BOTH models….”
I hope Sara Katz is wrong about Bernie’s ideas being about Bernie’s position on K-12 education being about keeping “both models.” I hope Sara Katz has nothing to do with the Bernie campaign and is just wrong about this.
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Don’t know who Sara Katz is.
The charter shills are freaking out in Twitter.
I thought his language was clear.
No new charters.
No public money for charters.
We need to support one system of public schools, not two.
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Feel the Bern
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Dang. I just said the same thing. Great minds run on the same paths!!
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Democracy’s win against education oligarchs has traction as evident in a La Piana interview (5-7-2019). The interviewee is a person of color whose prior work experience was in an “education reform adjacent” organization. Her perspective is, “Charter management organizations and an entire network of supportive organizations all grew out of one organization’s ‘movement’, 20 years ago. Missionaries came from outside of the community to fix Black and Brown children. Everyone leading those organizations feels supremely satisfied with the lofty missions they have….the degree of explicit and implicit racism tied to the dynamic …was atrocious…The organizations were partnerships with Black and Brown communities but all of the decision makers were White and couldn’t convey the relevance of race.” The book she recommends is Decolonizing Wealth which she describes as “calling out philanthropy…for being one giant plantation driven by a colonial missionary model”. She quotes the book author as describing the situation as propping up colonialism and perpetuating the system that generated White donors’ wealth….
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Just got my support! Hooray! (Assuming the address is as advertised).
This isn’t just good because Bernie is doing it. It is fantastic because there absolutely needs to be an honest discussion of charter schools — including so-called “public charters”. Candidates should not be allowed to get away with using the same rhetoric about supporting “good public schools” that DFER uses and then pretend that includes charters overseen by outside entities that are only “public” because taxpayer money supports them.
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Agreed. Whether Bernie gets the nomination or not, he is willing to learn. Hopefully, it will force other candidates to stop “don’t ask, don’t tell” game Democrats play with regard to privatization. It opens the door for more discussion with other Democratic candidates.
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I do worry about this DFER-approved language: “until a national audit on the schools has been completed.”
With so-called non-profit billionaire supported charter networks like KIPP and Success Academy, a financial audit hides the real corruption going on. It is like saying saying “let’s audit how the Yale University athletic department spends its money” which would not reveal that a very rich parent can donate one million dollars to the athletic department and get his mediocre tennis playing kid designated as an athletic recruit and get admitted. Just because the money donated is spent “legitimately” does not mean that the practices used to shed students (or in the case of Yale, admit them) is not unethical.
Financial audits are what DFER wants because financial audits hide the real corruption — now many students who win the lottery are either discouraged from enrolling in the first place or encouraged (through truly despicable means) to leave because the charter only wants to teach kids who make them look good. Financial audits hide attrition.
When Bernie says “we demand audits to see what their true attrition rates are and which kids get pushed out, which students are held back multiple years until they are pulled out”, then he won’t be speaking the language that DFER approves of.
Financial audits are something DFER is fine with. Auditing a charter’s practices and enrollment and attrition rates is what DFER rabidly opposes because they know it would quickly reveal the real fraud — that the claim that “successful” charters are willing to teach any at-risk kid who wins the lottery is a blatant lie.
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Agreed. An audit won’t reveal a lot of the other problems associated with charters.
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Step-by-Step the longest march will be one
https://genius.com/Pete-seeger-step-by-step-lyrics
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YES!!!
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Hurrah, good on Bernie and he’s for universal health care. Please USA, come to your senses and elect Bernie in 2020.
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We must get rid of the Orange-faced, Yellow-haired pea brain.
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You should see the smile on my face. I am going to mail another check to Bernie 2020 in a couple days, a bigger amount than usual, and in the attached letter make it clear that the donation is a response to THIS. Bernie is the real deal!
Thanks to Diane Ravitch. Thanks to all the teachers and students who are the most important part of his nationwide grassroots 2020 campaign team. The billionaires are going to get Berned by their greed. I know Bob can feel the Bern. I feel the Bern! Can you feel it?
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The websites of Fordham-sponsored schools in Ohio should not be permitted to make the false statement that they are public schools. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled charters are not public.
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I really wanted to celebrate this, but I will be skeptical until I hear Bernie Sanders actually say that high performing non-profit charters push out students that they don’t want to teach and demand that those charters open their enrollment and attrition records so we know how many at-risk kids are being humiliated or suspended by non-profit charters whose goals are bragging rights and not teaching every child who wins their lottery.
So will Bernie do what HRC did in South Carolina and say these words or something close to them:
“And here’s a couple of problems. 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.
So I want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system — not outside of it — but within it because I am still a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy and it is a path for opportunity.”
Is Bernie brave enough and independent enough to say that? We don’t need more tired rhetoric that ignores the very elephant in the room that the DFER Democrats and progressives seem to be desperate to ignore. There is no point in talking about “audits” if a candidate cannot say the words “charters push out kids they don’t want to teach and that puts an extraordinarily high financial burden on the public schools that have to teach all students.”
If Bernie does what the DFER folks want and avoids mentioning high attrition rates and suspension rates but instead keeps his focus on DFER-approved topics like “for-profit charters” and financial audits only and bashing DeVos and throwing in the usual statement about how many good public charters there are, then this is just PR by another progressive candidate who does not want to challenge the DFER agenda.
DFER is fine with bashing DeVos and is fine with opposing for-profit charters. Financial audits don’t scare them. The thing that DFER will not and cannot allow is any candidate mentioning that non-profit charters push out high numbers of at-risk students and thus they put incredibly high burdens on the public school systems that have to teach all the students those non-profit charters decide are not worth teaching. DFER lives by the falsehood that charters do a better job and don’t push out kids.
I remain hopeful that Bernie will do what HRC did (just once) and call out the problems with charters but if he can’t or won’t, that speaks for itself. If Bernie keeps going on about “public charters” and how great some of them are and just mentions financial audits and keeps away from the subjects that DFER doesn’t want candidates to mention, then I will be gravely disappointed. I will keep my fingers crossed. Is Bernie an apologist or a real truth-teller? I hope it is the latter.
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I repeat: Hillary Clinton? What is that? Never heard of it.
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Well, Sanders may or may not say this: “And here’s a couple of problems. 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.”
What he won’t do is have his assistant assure his upset donors that this was just campaign rhetoric and walk back the statement.Now the public doesn’t need to guess about a Sec of Ed appointment. ‘Will she or won’t she appoint a Sec of Ed who was qualified? was always the in the back of my mind with CLlnton.
What Sanders can do as president re: charter school exclusion practices is to appoint a Sec of Ed who will reinstate the IDEA compliance regs and allow Civil Rights enforcement. Arne Duncan dismantled compliance & was planning to force more children with significant disabilities to take grade level tests. Duncan had his thumb on all compliance & civil rights actions thereby signaling to his charter chain friends that they had free reign to discriminate.
Warren has made it clear she will appoint an educator as Sec of Ed. She, more than anyone, understands the apparatus & functioning of government agencies. The good news is we have 2 candidates who are explicit about strong, unwavering support for public education. No other Democratic candidates are close.
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If you are afraid to even speak criticism that will upset DFER, then you are complicit with their agenda. Period.
There are lots of former teachers who are completely in the tank for DFER and FYI — DFER calls Eva Moskowitz an “educator” and DFER calls the folks who run KIPP and Achievement First “educators”.
I love Elizabeth Warren, but I will not be complicit in excusing Democrats and progressives who have not yet proven they want anything different than what DFER wants.
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If Bernie already has proven to DFER that he supports their agenda –which he did by campaigning heavily for a DFER Democrat to take over the Virginia Governorship and turn Virginia into a pro-charter state — then he doesn’t need any assistant reassuring DFER. Bernie’s actions in fighting hard to make sure that Virginia was the “public charter” friendly state that DFER wants says it all.
I repeat — I am HOPEFUL that Bernie will not support the DFER agenda but if Bernie won’t say anything at all critical of DFER and campaigns for their candidates, that says a lot.
I’m asking very little from Bernie. Speak out specifically about why “good public charters” are not as advertised because being “good’ because you only teach the students you want to teach is something that public schools are much, much better at doing.
If a progressive candidate is afraid to talk about how “public charters” push out students, then there is something else going on that isn’t good.
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I do not feel the Bern.
I want to read a transcript of what he actulaly says in addition to reading all of the campaign talking points in this link. I see a lot of wiggle roomin the list of talking points. Even so, the statement is more detailed and stronger than any other I have seen from any candidate.
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Yes, I won’t jump on the bandwagon either. Let’s see what comes out of today’s “major address on education”.
But it doesn’t even matter. The DNC and Clintonites (unfortunately they still wield influence behind the scenes) will make sure that Sanders doesn’t come close to getting the nomination. The process is rigged. . . but what is new in that statement.
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Duane E Swacker: I agree the process is rigged. Monied interests do not want Bernie.
What do you think will happen to Warren?
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I don’t know what will happen to Warren (and you are correct to use “to”). At this point I don’t pay any attention to it all unless the topic of discussion involves education.
It is good to see that finally the topic-education is becoming (hopefully) a determining factor in elections.
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Duane,
How is the process “rigged”?
I don’t understand why you believe these evil and corrupt “Clintonites” supposedly “rigged” the process against Hillary Clinton to make sure Obama won the nomination, and then they “rigged” the process to elect Clinton.
I think the process is “rigged” against women far more than it is “rigged” against any white male. White males can make ugly racist remarks in interviews and get passes. But for a female, their words will be taken out of context to make them look bad.
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Thoroughly agree that “the process is “rigged” against women. . . ”
The main problem with what I consider the status quo of the Dims is that they are neoliberals who have abandoned progressives (all the while throwing a few “bones” of assurances and then not following through). Clintons, Obama, the DNC, and the other longstanding national politicians have thrown the little gal under the bus far too often. That’s just how I have perceived it over the years.
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Yes about the DNC, Duane. That is why our election integrity group has prepared a letter to go to the top progressive candidates (Bernie, Warren, Tulsi–who, by the why, is really being suppressed–no media on her)–the person sending the letter may choose to send it to one or all–stating that the candidate must challenge any Dem primaries in any/all states where there is suspicion of election fraud (not voter fraud, about which IQ45 has repeatedly mentioned–that is extremely rare). Election fraud is purging registered voters from rolls (as seen in the NYC Dem Primary), caucus improprieties (Polk County, IA & Nevada), ballot stuffing, closure of polling places whereby people are forced to stand in lines too long to bear in stifling heat
(Arizona), the disconnection of the security device in Ohio machines, &–last to mention, but so many more that I can’t list them all here–rampant fraud in Broward County, FL. In Chicago, the Chicago Board of Elections was sued (lawsuit was later dismissed, but the CoBE was ordered to have election looked at & evaluated by an independent firm, which made recommendations for future elections (& pointed out all the incidences which had to be cleaned up).
In other words, the ask is that, before many support these candidates, they need to pledge to have the candidate or their campaign challenge any & all cities, towns, counties,etc. whereby fraudulent electioneering occurs.
& for all those who worked SO VERY HARD leading up to 2016–we do NOT want a repeat of what happened at the 2016 Dem Convention–the silencing/suppression (utter & total disrespect, & I am not referring to so-called “Bernie Bros.” (if they even exist; I’d never met any, & I did work in a number of cities) of Bernie delegates (& the extremely unfortunate, uncalled for cancellation of Nina Turner’s speech) & capitulation & concession.
And–last but not least–NO early endorsement of a candidate by the NEA & the AFT & especially NO endorsement w/o the input of the rank-&-file, meaning the entire national membership, state-by-state.
I’ll be posting the link to the letter as soon as I get it…
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You’re a far more reliable source for election shenanigans than the vast majority. You’ve been doing the nitty gritty work during the past elections and for that I say Thank!
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retiredbutmissthekids,
Excellent points about election fraud!
“NO early endorsement of a candidate by the NEA & the AFT & especially NO endorsement w/o the input of the rank-&-file, meaning the entire national membership, state-by-state.”
I agree with this and I truly do not understand why the NEA and AFT are apparently just as corrupt and awful as the DNC. But I don’t believe that a PR campaign by progressives to convince the public that the teachers’ union is a corrupt entity that should never be supported is a good way to reform it.
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Feet the BERN!!!
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It would be good if we had a president who supported public schools and public school students.
The last two presidents haven’t, and the current president has absolute contempt for them.
It would be a nice change after what is now going on two decades of either neglect or outright hostility at the federal level. It’s really pretty nutty that 90% of the public either attended public schools or has children in public schools and three consecutive presidents worked or work against them.
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One more reason for the abolishment of the Dept of Education. There is no constitutional empowerment for the federal government to be involved in education. (See Art 1, Sec 8, US constitution).
Education can and must be a state/municipal responsibility. 90%+ of the funding for K-12 education is state/municipal. It should be 100%. Then the states could tell the feds to “get out” of our responsibility.
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So AGREE with you, Chiara.
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I would add that Obama, too, had contempt for public schools. But he was slick enough to let Arne Duncan do the trash-talking, while publicly remaining aloof.
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Possibly, or, Obama understood where to find big campaign dollars, like CAP does.
Instead of “contempt”, it may be hostility to those who made him feel like the rich’s lackey.
Knowing Obama’s thoughts when he betrayed the people of Flint would clarify.
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Flesch-Kincaid Readability Levels
IQ45’s 2016 Presidential Announcement Speech: 4.1
Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Presidential Announcement Speech: 10.8
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wow, that is amazing…Bernie speaks fluent brooklynese in his unreconstructed accent.
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Mayor Pete speaks many languages, and one of those languages is Rheeform. From the Answer Sheet, “Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind., recently said during an appearance at Northeastern University that charter schools “have a place” in the education world and can be “a laboratory for techniques that can be replicated.”
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Yes. Concerning. He needs to be educated on this issue.
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Mayor Pete isn’t talking about charters, vouchers or virtual schools. He is in favor of more funding for poverty level schools.
…………………………….
Sixty-five years ago today, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and unanimously overturned decades of legalized segregation that embedded white supremacy into America’s education system.
The justices recognized that separate but equal has no place in a fair society. Separate is inherently unequal.
And in the decades that followed, our nation embraced a belief that every child, regardless of their skin color, deserves access to the same quality education.
But in our lifetimes, that belief stands threatened, as many disparities grow worse by the year.
The number of Black and Brown children attending schools designated as “intensely segregated” has more than tripled in the sixty-five years since Brown v. Board of Education was decided.
Segregated schools are not a relic from our past — for too many kids, it is their present. Experts find that this results in less experienced teachers, higher teacher turnover, failing facilities, and fewer classroom resources.
As president I’ll work tirelessly to reverse this trend, starting with boosting teacher pay targeted to districts that need it most: schools with the most economic and racial inequity and with the most students on free and reduced-price lunch.
This is an issue that will require everyone to get involved. We must work to change the makeup of our state legislatures, county commissions, and local school boards. We must remain vigilant and question our judicial nominees at all levels. And, perhaps most importantly of all, we must vote in every election.
Only by our insistence, and strong action, can the dream of equality in education come nearer to reality.
Pete
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My concern about Mayor Pete is that he may be already being co-opted by the deep-money folks who supported Obama. There was a recent article about how a group of former Obama ambassadors were working together to raise funds for Buttigieg, who is also good friends with Jeff (FB) Zuckerberg.
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Yes. Pete is a gifted speaker but he is a Democratic establishment candidate.
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Can and should the federal government tell states how they are allowed to spend state tax money? If so, this would have implications far beyond charter schools.
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That septuagenarian socialist has no chance of securing the Dem nomination for the presidency. The man is not a “has-been”, he is a “never was”. The only chance the Dems have of mounting any kind of serious challenge to Pres Trump, will be by nominating someone who is at least perceived of being more centrist.
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Charles: “The man is not a “has-been”, he is a “never was”. Great description of Trump. You just got your politicians mixed up.
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Charles–read Duane’s & my comments above.
2 words: election fraud (even more accurate than “rigged,” but the rigged word most certainly applies to Superdelegates & the outlandish behavior {ahem, Debbie Wasserman Schultz & the person who replaced her who now works for…Fox News!!!}) of the DNC leadership.
Had Bernie/his campaign challenged the states’ Dem Primaries, he would have, at that point, won the nomination.
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If only HRC had challenged the election fraud that allowed Barack Obama to win the nomination in 2008.
If only John Edwards wasn’t robbed of his rightful nomination by the fraudulent DNC in 2004. He would have easily defeated the unpopular George W. Bush.
That “rigged” primary process has been in place for quite a while and clearly the right wingers and progressives who kept insisting that Barack Obama was not a legitimate President because he won a “rigged” primary were correct.
Had HRC/her campaign challenged the states’ Dem primaries she would have won the 2008 nomination.
Heck, if Howard Dean had challenged the corrupt primary process, he would have won the nomination back in 2004. Or maybe Wesley Clark would have won.
Maybe it is time to say that while the process was not what favored Bernie, it was not put in place in 2016 for the sole purpose of defeating Bernie. It was the process that had existed for a while and other candidates won and lost without the losing candidates trying their best to defeat Obama and elect McCain/Palin by saying the process was “rigged”.
And now that process has changed. Is it fair now? I sure want to hear people going on record right now as to whether the process is fair.
Because you have to live with that if Bernie or Elizabeth Warren wins. You have to live with saying that they won using a corrupt process that wasn’t fair. You have to live with everyone believing that Bernie only won because the primary was rigged for him.
Are you willing to take that chance? Are you really so certain that the primary process is so rigged that you will go on record as saying that Bernie only won because the process was rigged in his favor?
Or is this something where if Bernie wins, the process is not rigged, but if anyone else but Bernie wins, then the process is rigged?
That is certainly the Donald Trump view of elections.
How much do you believe that the process is rigged? Enough to stand by those words even if the candidate you want to win turns out to be the nominee?
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Go Bernie.
I hope each of you send your messages to Bernie in support of Public Schools and Public School Teachers via his surveys, text message, twitter, any way possible.
I also tell the DFERS that they are SO WRONG and did harm. They also need to know we do not support the Common Gore and high stakes testing.
And THANK YOU, Diane, for your blog.
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My concern about Mayor Pete is that he may be already being co-opted by the deep-money folks who supported Obama. There was a recent article about how a group of former Obama ambassadors were working together to raise funds for Buttigieg, who is also good friends with Jeff (FB) Zuckerberg.
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My fear also is he is another neoliberal with impressive, progressive rhetoric. Been there, done that!
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I prefer Bernie or Warren. They state exactly what they stand for and don’t vary. Bernie has been fighting for the same battles for decades. Both of these people are in the trenches fighting.
Pete has stated that there is nothing written about where he stands on his web page. He is brilliant but what will he do?
Obama was also intelligent but I believe he spent too much time trying to get along with the GOP. We know about his bad education beliefs and don’t need to comment further on that.
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We won’t be fooled again.
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Even Obama noted that he would have been considered a moderate Republican just a couple decades ago.
Except there was nothing moderate about Obama’s education policies. They were extreme even by Republican standards:
“No (Republican) Camel Left Behind (NCLB)
The Bushy camel head
Was poking in the tent
And look at where that led:
Obama’s government
And now we have the butt
Of camel in the tent
We’re really in a rut
With stinky camel scent
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So far the only “straight talking” candidates for me are Bernie and Warren too.
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explains a lot
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@Eleanor: Your fears are well-justified. Money is the “mother’s milk” of politics, and also the poison. The big-money people are indifferent whether they corrupt a politician who is Rep or Dem. Their greed knows no bounds. Just another pol to be bought, like so much prime beef.
Many people on all sides of the political spectrum, are advocating for public financing of campaigns. Pay for the campaigns out of the public purse, and shut out the big-money donors who buy up the politicians.
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oh well….do not hold your breath waiting for the press to nail down Joe Biden on this issue. Arne Duncan? who?
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Then, I hope the unions do not leap to endorse him. They should hold off and endorse the candidate that supports strong public schools, and they should make him/her work for the endorsement.
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how overwhelmingly depressing if the teachers’ union leaders quickly jump up to board the Biden bandwagon: if that happens, masses of teachers will not be represented at all. Again.
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Mandated arbitration is the topic of a court case of alleged statutory rape at a private school in California. Reportedly, the school’s arbitration process was used in an attempt to silence the civil suit and it prevented a process of legitimate discovery of evidence (a court hearing provides the plaintiff with a means to get e-mails, etc.)
Presuming that charter schools force arbitration, it’s one more way that statistics about wrongdoing can be manipulated to favor corporate and non-public schools and, it is a way that community members lose their rights.
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46 responses…not a word about Kamala. I would at least like to hear some hostility regarding how she is a phony whatever regarding people who make their livings in classrooms. Did she say something offensive about Barr or Kavanaugh?
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The proof is in the puddin
The proof is in the puddin
And not the hope of change
Cuz promises are wooden
But actions re-arrange
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I didn’t know that Warren once taught special education at a public elementary school.
…………………….
RollingStone : Elizabeth Warren Pledges to Hire a Public School Teacher as Her Education Secretary
The Massachusetts senator says Betsy DeVos is the “the worst Secretary of Education we’ve seen”
May 11, 2019
WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren may be best known for her public flaying of inept financial executives and aggressive policy ideas aimed at the banking industry, but the Massachusetts senator is setting the pace among the 2020 contenders when it comes to education.
On Monday, Warren pledged that, if elected president, her secretary of education would be a former public school teacher “who is committed to public education.”
In an email blast, she said that Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s current education secretary and a long-time advocate of charter schools and foe of teachers unions, was “the worst Secretary of Education we’ve seen” and that the people she’d surrounded herself with “are up to their eyeballs in conflicts of interest.” (Several of DeVos’ lieutenants previously worked at for-profit education companies.)
Warren, who once taught special education at a public elementary school, went on to say that her ideal candidate for education secretary — the nation’s top public education official overseeing everything from a $1.2 trillion portfolio of student loans, to civil rights for students, to funding for K-12 schools — would be someone with “real teaching experience. A person who understands how low pay, tattered textbooks, and crumbling classrooms hurt students and educators. A person who understands the crushing burden of student debt on students and young professionals and who is committed to actually doing something about it.”…
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elizabeth-warren-pledges-to-hire-a-public-school-teacher-as-her-education-secretary-834784/ – Elizabeth Warren Pledges to Hire a Public School Teacher as Her Education Secretary
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Love Warren too, & have always!
I could just imagine her onstage w/IQ 45.
“Nevertheless, she persisted.”
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Bernie’s message is live stream now.https://www.facebook.com/weartv/videos/1380949675381346/
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Why I’m going on Fox News
Pete Buttigieg
4:36 PM (1 hour ago)
There’s been a lot of debate recently about whether Democratic presidential candidates should go on Fox News. Tomorrow night, I’ll be participating in a Fox News town hall with Chris Wallace, and I want to tell you why.
First, let me be clear: I strongly condemn the voices on Fox and in the media that uncritically amplify hate and the divisive sort of politics that gave rise to this presidency. Their goal is to spread fear and lies, not serve as honest brokers with the American people.
But just because many of these opinion hosts don’t operate in good faith, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t Fox viewers tuning in in good faith. If we unilaterally decide that they shouldn’t hear my or other Democrats’ messages, then we shouldn’t act surprised if they have a distorted view of what we believe and who we are.
If we ignore the viewers of Fox News and every news platform that doesn’t share our worldview, we will surrender our ability to speak directly to millions of American voters. If we don’t show up, the conservative media will tell our side of the story for us. They will continue to fully claim American values like freedom, security, and democracy as property of the GOP.
From the beginning of this campaign, I’ve said that I would meet voters where they are. And that means sometimes moving beyond the echo chamber of like-minded voices. Because this primary season is not just about winning the Democratic nomination, or even just winning in 2020—it’s about reclaiming our values and winning an era.
It will require a direct and respectful conversation. It will take courage from all of us. Are you ready to join me?
If so, please consider making a donation to help build this campaign.
Our message is the right one for all Americans. So we will compete everywhere and change the conversation.
See you tomorrow.
Thank you,
Pete
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Bernie is recognizing that US intervention in Latin America is causing problems that Trump doesn’t see. Bigoted Trump blames the immigrants who are rapists, drug dealers and criminals for wanting a better life. People are leaving their countries because of US policies.
……
‘I Did My Best to Stop American Foreign Policy’: Bernie Sanders on the 1980s
May 18, 2019
In an interview, one of the leading candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination discusses his long-held opposition to war and his support for socialist leaders.
Bernie: Do you know that the United States overthrew the government of Chile way back? Do you happen to know that? Do you?…
My point is that fascism developed in Chile as a result of that. The United States overthrew the government of Guatemala, a democratically elected government, overthrew the government of Brazil. I strongly oppose U.S. policy, which overthrows governments, especially democratically elected governments, around the world. So this issue is not so much Nicaragua or the government of Nicaragua.
The issue was, should the United States continue a policy of overthrowing governments in Latin America and Central America? I believed then that it was wrong, and I believe today it is wrong. That’s why I do not believe the United States should overthrow the government of Venezuela…
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Thank you for the above comments , Senor Swacker & NYCPSP.
In terms of your later comments, NYCPSP, I don’t disagree w/you RE: “rigging” only for Bernie. Yes, the manipulation of elections has been around since–oh, I don’t know–the beginning of elections? It’s just that I happened to get involved in/learned-studied-worked-on, etc. after the 2016 Dem Primary in ILL-Annoy (which has been somewhat less Annoying due to recent election results). The real experts on election fraud have been watching this forever; the founder of our Chgo. election protection group & the state group
have been involved in this in 2003 (& some before). Therefore–you’re right. (Although I know your John Edwards reference was tongue-in-cheek!)
For those who want to know more, I strongly recommend that you look into the writings/search for Jonathan Simon, the Executive Director of Election Defense Alliance
(founded in 2006, so after the Chgo. people got started on their group), the purpose of which is to “restore observable vote counting as the foundation of American democracy.”
Read his book, Code Red: Computerized Election Theft & the New American Century, Election 2016 Edition. You can readily look up earlier books, papers & studies/research as listed in the back of the book. (Also highly recommend Greg Palast: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits; How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, Seven Stories Press, 2012,
& his documentary (from last year, I believe), The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
This past year, Palast also covered several elections in GA including, I believe, the voter suppression RE: GA gubernatorial race.
BTW–ain’t talking about Russia, here!
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