This arrived last night from a friend in the Bay Area:
Most of the Democratic presidential candidates are here in the Bay Area this weekend. Elizabeth Warren held a huge rally in Oakland, and she was introduced by a representative of Great Oakland Public Schools, a billionaire-funded anti-teacher, pro-charter, pro-“reform” operation. I’m pointing this out with some hope that someone has access to set her straight.
If you recall, Warren pledged to appoint a teacher as Secretary of Education. Someone from TFA?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Also check local elections. We have one TFA on the school board and another is running, as a Democrat. The local Democratic party is considering endorsing himself because he volunteered as a campaign worker for another Democrat running for a different office.
Laura H. Chapman Cincinnati, OH
Not cool! Not cool at all!!
Warren did not have anything to do with a charter school lobbyist; see below https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/07/curious-case-elizabeth-warren-and-charter-school-lobbyist-who-wasnt
Brita, I don’t want to hear this from you or any of Warren’s supporters and/or apologists.
I want to hear what she thinks from Elizabeth Warren and I want to hear that her public school platform is equal to or tougher than the one Bernie has already published for the public.
The message must be from her and in her name only!
How is it that so many Democrats are so woefully ignorant on education?
Warren and Sanders sit on the Senate Education Committee (HELP, Health, Education, Labor, Pensions)
Wow. She should have known and have known better!
I think maybe you should ask why they are willfully ignorant? Follow the money.
Because it is all about the Benjamins baby. The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican. Bernie is the one that is pro union and has the extensive educational plan in support of public schools and teachers. Warren talks like a Progressive and votes like a Republican. She is just another Trojan Horse like Obama. You need to get your union leadership in line so they endorse Bernie instead of another union busting, pro charter Democrat like Obama, Warren, and Hillary.
https://berniesanders.com/a-thurgood-marshall-plan-for-public-education/
Yup!!
It is clear you are some alt right woman-hating Trump supporter, posting from your basement. Bernie Sanders would disavow your ugly lies but Trump would love them.
I will call you out every time you pretend to be a Bernie supporter trying to trash Elizabeth Warren. You are trying to do to Elizabeth Warren what you did to HRC and I certainly hope the only people responding to your propaganda are other Trump-loving trolls like you.
It’s not going to work this time, you woman-hating Trump loving troll.
Bernie despises you, dkmich. You stand for the far right agenda that Bernie despises and your hatred of Elizabeth Warren makes me clear that the far right is very afraid of a powerful woman who stands up to Wall Street.
This is discouraging news. I thought Warren was a straight shooter. It is unfortunate that we continue to have the same cat and mouse game with Democratic candidates. Teachers are too weary of the “game” to go through another election cycle with a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about K-12 education. We need specifics about their policy, and we have to insist on it. Words matter, and we need them to clearly define theirs.
Kudos to Bernie for quickly learning about privatization and its impact on public schools. Bernie is a rare politician. He does not play games, and he is unafraid of the charter lobby.
He learned a lot since 2016 when he made a (nonexistent) distinction between “public” charters and private charters.
I certainly hope that Bernie has learned, but I can’t help noticing that there is a lot of similarity between his new education platform and the kind of remarks that Sen. Warren makes about appointing a “teacher” as Secretary of Education. When you limit yourself to vague statements and are unwilling to criticize directly the people who pretend to be offering what your platform supports, it makes me question the definitions. Warren can appoint a TFA teacher as Secretary of Education and embrace Great Oakland Public Schools because she is embracing public schools! For all we know Bernie would think that is fine.
We keep assuming that Bernie’s definitions of what he is criticizing and supporting are the same as ours, but I would be a lot more confident of that if he directly criticized any of the organizations that claim to have the same “progressive” mantle that he does.
I am concerned that while Bernie says he supports the NAACP moratorium, he fails to make any case as to why he would do so except for some vague allusions about having oversight, which leaves a lot of wiggle room just like Warren saying she will appoint a “teacher” leaves a lot of wiggle room.
For all any of us know, Bernie thinks that the SUNY Charter Institute is the ideal oversight agency and his support of the NAACP moratorium is just about helping every state have a SUNY Charter Institute to do oversight before they expand charters.
This is a chance to EDUCATE the public. This is a chance to debate why Great Oakland Public Schools does NOT embrace the same K-12 agenda that Bernie does. This is a chance to educate the public about why democratic ed reformer organizations are not progressive and why oversight agencies like the SUNY Charter Institute are corrupt and not the kind of “progressive” oversight Bernie would embrace for all states.
But since Bernie has not directly criticized these kind of DFER-approved education reform and oversight organizations, it is truly hard to know whether he has the same belief that Sen. Warren does and supports them.
Progressive politicians should be criticizing these organizations by name. If Bernie started calling out organizations like DFER, Great Oakland Public Schools, charter chains like KIPP and Success Academy, TFA, and other ed reform destroyers of public schools, I believe that would immediately force all the candidates to show their hands as to whether they will embrace those organizations or stand with public school parents.
Sen. Warren can be introduced by Great Oaks Public Schools and get away with it because there is no reason for anyone who supports Bernie’s platform to believe that Great Oaks Public Schools isn’t something Bernie also supports. I bet if you asked Sen. Warren, she would be surprised and probably thinks Bernie also thinks Great Oaks Public Schools is a perfectly fine organization.
In fact, we don’t really have any evidence that Bernie doesn’t agree with Warren that Great Oaks is a grand organization unless we decide that the “correct” way to interpret Bernie’s K-12 platform is to assume that.
I’m tired of “assuming”. I’m tired of “assuming” that when Warren says “teacher” she means experienced non-charter public school teacher and not a TFA-er. I’m tired of “assuming” that when Sanders says he supports the NAACP moratorium that means he doesn’t believe that only the “bad” charters and not “good” ones like KIPP and Success Academy will be affected. I’m tired of “assuming” that Bernie doesn’t believe that the SUNY Charter Institute is the ideal oversight agency and his support of the NAACP moratorium is just about helping every state have a SUNY Charter Institute to do oversight before they expand charters.
This is Bernie’s chance to make a good case why he is different than Sen. Warren. Bernie should say “Sen. Warren embraces education reform organizations like Great Oaks Public Schools that actually do great harm to public education by offering up privately operated charters to take public money out of the school system to teach only the students they want to teach. That is wrong.”
That would lead to a very good discussion about public education.
^^^Oaks = Oakland. Sorry for typos.
Very well said, Retired Teacher!
You are right in wanting candidates to state their position on Education. The Pro-Charter people are probably powerful and influential, trying their best to get to any promising candidate, which Warren is. I have often wondered if candidates can outrightly avoid such candidates.
She is a worthy candidate and it would be a win for Education is she would give her support on that issue. I will wait and see how she shapes up and suspend any decision on her presently.
Thank you for this information #Scratched
If anyone is hip to issues related to Dark Money, Warren is. Who knows how this happened. I seriously doubt that she is in the charter camp, and if she is, I suspect that this is because she doesn’t, yet, know enough about it.
I’ve given a few speeches in my time. I didn’t always choose or even know the person who introduced me, and I certainly did not know everything there was to know about that person.
I am definitely NOT, here, criticizing the fact that this post was made. It’s important to call this stuff to the attention of the candidates. Thank you, Diane!
Perhaps she just skimmed through the mostly excellent book Cutting School by Noliwe Rooks and only read the final pages, which weirdly focuses on two TFA alums as examples of how education policy reform should “trickle up.”
This is concerning. Meanwhile, Politico and the other MSM continue to run hit pieces on Bernie Sanders. As the candidates reveal their education positions, I have been discussing them with fellow teachers at my school. (You’d be surprised at how many are uninformed about the candidates’ ed platform.) Once the field winnows down a bit, we need to have a graphic organizer showing where every candidate stands on public education.
Right now, Bernie has the most coherent, detailed plan. It seems to be the best one for public education and teachers. Biden’s plan is partly plagiarized and offers a tepid “competitive salaries” statement. Without a guarantee on salaries, districts will rush to embrace even more costly and junky EdTech.
Yes, it’s truly stunning (but not surprising) all the hit pieces against Bernie that have appeared across the media. If they are not bashing Bernie then they are ignoring him as if he were a non person. Even the Bill Maher show ignored Bernie during a discussion of the Democrats running for the presidency. Bill and his guests talked about Biden and Pete Buttigieg but not Bernie. Bernie is 2nd right after Biden in the polls and he gets NO mention?!?! This happens on other shows too, Bernie is disappeared.
I’m not seeing Bernie being ignored, just to note. I guess you’re talking about broadcast and I’m much more focused on print (print is imperfect but has far more depth, put it that way). (Full disclosure that I’m a print journalist.)
Wasn’t Warren an early cheerleader of charter schools?
I understand that there’s a lot of money to be gained by supporting Ed Reform policies, but what doesn’t make sense to me is that the first candidate to say that he or see is putting an end to high stakes standardized testing would earn an enormous number of VOTES! Why can’t anyone see this?
Why, indeed! This would be an EXTRAORDINARILY POPULAR position. This and opposition to the Common [sic] Core [sic].
It also seems obvious to me that kicking teachers in the face like that is a bad idea just because teachers (and their relatives, supporters etc.) are a large voting bloc.
I think that about the newspaper editorial boards that have also demonstrated contempt for teachers over many years. Even if you genuinely think teachers are contemptible, doesn’t it seem self-defeating to show it so openly?
“teachers (and their relatives, supporters etc.) are a large voting bloc.”
Not really. I’ve never seen any sign that would enable one to say that they are a “voting bloc”. And if anything at all about that bloc is that it is quite a conservative bloc.
Absolutely agree, Duane. It’s one of my most frustrating observations over the past four years. Parochial school teachers generally don’t care about independent school teacher who don’t care about public school teachers. And within the public school environment, it’s even more stratified. I remember having a conversation with one of my son’s teachers years ago who remarked that I wouldn’t believe what opinions were held by teachers “who didn’t need the job” because their husbands were wealthy. Anti-union union members.
I’ll correct it to large number of voters, if not necessarily a bloc. If you don’t agree, look at the teacher strikes in various states.
Could we agree that parents of school aged children are a large voting bloc?
Can’t agree on that one either, Ohio Teacher, based on my small sample of discussions with other parents at school events. Education isn’t a political concern of theirs, and what little concern they have ends when their children graduate.
I’ve written this here a number of times before: education as a political issue only matters to the small community gathered here. Until a politician pays a big political price for being on the wrong side of our issues, education will continue to be relegated to a minor, insignificant issue in the great, grand scheme of things.
Teachers do not vote in lock step. In my former district, teachers were Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Many were Trump supporters.
Election results to this point prove you right, GregB.
We do not vote for political leaders who are everything we want. If we start doing that, we get political leaders whose sins we forgive because to do otherwise would be to disgrace our belief in the good of the whole politician.
To give them credit, some conservative voters support trump because he is giving them enough of what they want. They do not really like the man for one particular reason on other, but one of their policy interests is being served. Some like trump for the anti-abortion stance of the two recent appointments to the court, others for the rich man tax cut. No one will defend the idiocy, the wild tweets, the yoyo foreign policy, or the lack of morality in the personal life. Maybe he is an SOB but he is my SOB. Their logic is like an America during the Cold War that accepted Mobutu Sese Seko or Pinochet.
Many on this site have pointed out that we need anybody but trump. For education, this is unfortunate, because of the number of times we have been sold out. The political leaders who are honest know that you never get all you want. They know they can depend on teachers, who are often horrified at the attitudes of trump, no matter what the teacher organization says. They know they will lose the votes of teachers who support trump (many of my fellow teachers support anyone who will oppose abortion). So how do you use education to get more votes?
One of the few times I have to vehemently disagree with you as you write “but one of their policy interests is being served.” It is not their policy interests, it is their greed, bigotry, and inflated sense of privilege that is being served. All their “policy interests” can be traced back to those motives. All of them.
How about your position that any Trump supporter is evil. Pure blind Manichism. Democrats are just as evil as Republicans.
I did not call them evil. I called them greedy, bigots, and as having inflated senses of privilege. You fit the bill. And I think you meant Manchinism–the doctrine that anything that fools the base is acceptable.
Greg is correct.
Republicans wouldn’t willingly sacrifice anything for people who are outside of their families and friends… and, probably not even for them. Their “charity”, if any, is always accompanied by an expectation of some reward, for example, groveling gratitude, strokes to their self importance, etc.
That is inaccurate, I think, GregB. There are many Trump voters among working-poor & lower-middle-class who see Trump as the first politician to try to turn around the severe effects of global trade on their working lives. Most are ill-informed on the nuances, & see Trump’s dog&pony show at the border & trickle-up tax cut & tariff tough talk as trying hard to make good on campaign promises.
Anyone who sees Individual-1 as “the first politician to try to turn around the severe effects of global trade on their working lives” is an idiot, does not pay attention to current events or history, and deserves what they get. I have great Schadenfreude watching them get hoisted by their own petards. Just like I do when climate change deniers are devastated by floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and droughts.
Greg: what I meant referred to the interest they have particularly in the abortion issue. Made trump supporters would voter for a man who supported outlawing abortion if he mandated their own torture. Others would vote to impale babies on pitchforks if the politicians will deregulate the economy.
It’s been pointed out (as it was here by Bob) that event organizers probably chose the introducer and Warren may have known nothing. The introducer, Sonya Mehta, was presented as a former Oakland kindergarten teacher. She was a charter school teacher who has been associated with GO Public Schools and currently works for a slick-looking operation that supposedly promotes relaxation and healing for teachers. And, notably, not someone associated with teachers’ unions.
A key point is that even if Warren knew nothing about this, the party — whoever set up that introduction and everyone else in such roles — needs to understand (and fast and powerfully) that these associations with the “dark money” billionaires and the charter/”reform” sector are toxic.
Yes. The message must be sent. I just unsubscribed from her emails with the message that I cannot, in clear conscience, support someone who is connected in any way to the anti-public school charter industry. Whether or not her campaign was aware of the announcers connection at the time is irrelevant—they need to ramp up her stance on public education. With all the teacher strikes in this country lately, candidates need to have a strong policy and not some namby/pamby position on education.
If she didn’t bother to check little details like who’s endorsing her, she wouldn’t have the bandwidth to be president. But I’d be WAY surprised to learn that’s true. #sheknew
Bernie’s platform on k-12 public education is now crystal clear. No one else’s is. Does Warren support public schools or charters? She hasn’t said, she of all candidates is perfectly able to articulate detailed positions on specific subjects. Voters shouldn’t have to read tea leaves about something as important as education. If you want a job you have to be honest and forthright in your interview. Do you support or oppose the Civil Rights Movement by opposing charter expansion? Yes or no?
I should have edited out a couple of errors in my comment, speaking of clarity. Oh well, you get the idea.
You are right on that, she speaks with great clarity and persuasiveness, so she is able to make her position on Education Crystal clear.
Warren opposes charter schools. Here it is in print. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/elizabeth-warren-for-profit-charter-schools-are-a-real-problem?fbclid=IwAR33PBLaAH8fTo3DdUq486v-7jPGaJ2RicsMrt49CKohSr5QP0_8m0tE9wk
Will Warren endorse the NAACP-Black Lives Matter call for a charter moratorium? Will she call for an end to the federal Charter Schools Program Slush Fund?
Glenn, that says Warren opposes for-profit charter schools. That’s only a tiny part of the issue.
If she embraces corporate reform it would contradict every kind of progressive messaging she’s been espousing. Her campaign had better start doing their homework.
The best way to help Elizabeth Warren is to send messages to her campaign and tweets about why she should not align herself with the Dark Money forces of DeVos, Walton that support TFA, Charters, Vouchers.
Yes, everybody please do this.
Someone get to her campaign manager & set up a meeting/correspondence w/Diane &/or Carol Burris.
They need to be schooled in the same way that occurred, recently, w/Bernie.
So right! Convince her to assign campaign staff to read this blog. It’s the best place to get the real pulse of public education with its millions of voting teachers and families — the real pulse, not the corporate PR. Diane has the ears of Bernie’s campaign manager and AOC, and should have the ears of Warren’s staff as well. I gather AOC and Warren were Game of Thrones buddies. Let’s make them Blog of Schools buddies. By the way, did you readers see AOC speak from behind the counter about the indentured servitude wages of food service workers? She’s the real deal. Warren is great too; she just needs to communicate with us more.
Issue 2 in Massachusetts, a referendum about charter schools, should have made Warren and her team aware.
and we can HOPE that every issue teachers are having these days will come up in one way or another on the debate stages: may she have to answer directly to many things she is currently skirting
In 2016, dark money flood Massachusetts for Question 2 (which would drastically expand the number of charter schools in Mass), so much so that the state government (OCPF) fined the Yes on 2 group out of existence. I was strong campaigner for No on 2, because I’m public school parent and teacher, and proud member of the Mass Teacher Association. Senator Elizabeth Warren was a strong ally with the public school teachers and parents who voted No on 2, and while it’s not good to have TFA* people introducing her at a speech, don’t draw big conclusions of this one thing.
*unless they have moved on and are not proponents of TFA any more. I have seen a great number of new teachers at the public schools talk about how much better public schools are compared to charter schools, and how much better teacher unions are compared to the stories the media has run.
https://cvcalblue.org/event/oakland-town-hall-with-elizabeth-warren/ Looks like the Oakland event was organized by these guys. GO now has a heavy presence in the Central Valley, so their possible link to CVCAL wouldn’t surprise me. The event and choice of speakers was also likely sanctioned by the mayor’s office (Schaaf is pro-charter, along with her TFA Ed advisor David Silver). I agree with CarolineSF that Ms. Warren probably had no knowledge of who the introductory speaker was, but agree that the optics are bad. Once again, it illustrates how GO has managed to completely infiltrate and take over the education landscape, claiming to support a progressive agenda while hiding behind all that Walton $$$.
I’m not free to do this publicly (banned from public political comment by my employer), but if i were, I’d be barraging Warren and CVCAL with tweets and comments about this before she commits political suicide.
Yes to your last comment (as well as to your 10 AM comment, carolinesf, & what I wrote after Diane’s comment).
Let’s not give up the ghost yet. Warren is too good on everything else &, according to CNN, she’s been surging in the polls.
I’d be in too much hot water with my Eli Broad purchased school board reps and superintendents and my Common Core idolatrous administrators if I weren’t doing this with an anonymous username. It’s still pretty nerve racking, what with the lack of true privacy on the web, but Diane is trustworthy and it’s well worth it to me.
Warren’s top education advisor is out of TFA, which had a policy and legislative track leading right to DC. She fought hard with Corey Booker to keep annual high stakes testing in ESSA. We’ve been trying to get her to listen to us here in MA but either she is not doing her homework or she really believes the false civil rights rhetoric of the corporate reformers. I don’t trust her on education.
Warren’s advisor should take note of the opinion of the NAACP, BLM, ACLU and SPLC concerning privatization of public education.
I meant to say that TFA HAS a program that places former recruits in DC. It’s still in operation, and her advisor comes out of that program.
https://www.teachforamerica.org/life-as-an-alum/alumni-resources/capitol-hill-fellows
Does that outfit run the Gates-funded, Senior Congressional Education Staff Network (Aspen Institute) which was created to provide a “safe space” for policy development, presumably away from constituents?
Ms. Ravitch,
I have faithfully read your blog and sincerely supported your efforts for public schools for quite a while. I have bought several of your books and have great respect for your ideas. However, I vehemently disagree with your use of this headline about Elizabeth Warren. You are implying sinister connotations that have not been proven nor even been addressed yet by Ms. Warren. You nor the person who wrote to you have any idea the basis of the introduction or how it was set up.
With an atmosphere of dishonesty and day to day attacks on innocent folks that may disagree with powerfully corrupt people, I beg you not to engage in this sort of rhetoric.
Leslie Desimini **I am educator (adult education and ESL now), my mother was a high school English teacher, my grandmother was an elementary school teacher and my great-grandmother was a one room school house teacher. I deeply believe in public education – my life is rooted in it.
>
Leslie, I disagree. It is absolutely appropriate to call out Warren forcefully on this issue while she still has a chance to pull herself away from the “reform” hucksters and fully support teachers and public education. Those who are not in the Bay Area may not fully grasp the fact that Oakland just went through a teacher strike and is a badly troubled district after many years of welcoming “reform” policies with open arms. Presenting someone from the charter/”reform” sector as an “Oakland teacher” is a slap in the face to Oakland public school teachers, and a toxic error by whoever set it up. As I’ve said, I agree that Warren may not have been aware of any of this, but she needs to be made aware. We can’t be wimps on this.
Leslie,
New Orleans recently closed its last remaining public school. That is the end of local control through democratic process and, it emboldens further attacks on Main Street democracy.
Warren’s refusal to take on the Wall Street hedge funds of DFER and the tech tyrants backing privatization, weakens her candidacy.
Check the credentials of her senior ed policy advisor. Why yes, TFA is all over it. Also an organization funded by Gates. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadelaney?fbclid=IwAR0ysK3KBhdQuGnQ58NuLv1qaSuRXIoBc_YqtI3p7DOZv6nc_j4kv92qn6U
I talked to Senator Warren two weeks ago and asked her about her support for charters. She said directly that public money should go to public schools.
I think she needs to say that in public and say that charters are not public schools.
Candidates like Cory Booker and Michael Bennet say that they “support public schools,” but they mean charters.
I agree. I should have asked her if she views charters as public schools.
Bruce, exactly.
DeVos and Jeb Bush day that any school that gets public money, even religious schools, are ”public schools.” We can’t let Democratic candidates pull that trick.
Booker does not support public schools. I am a retired Newark Public Schools teacher.
That doesn’t mean a hill of beans – most Democratic candidates pretend that “public” [sic] charters are public schools. When candidates use that mealy-mouth language the very next question needs to be “do you consider charter schools to be public schools which should be funded by public money?”
I too feel a concern…. Hopefully once she knows better…She will do better…
What about Biden a pro advocate for privatization???
To everyone who pointed out that Warren’s ed policy adviser is out of TFA, that’s a really important point and should be emphasized to her (and to him, the ed policy adviser, too) in any way we can get through. TFA is toxic.
Warren’s ed policy may be tied to that of the Center for American Progress (Gates funded). CAP’s former VP of ed policy was TFA.
Current CAP staff members include a person from Jeb Bush’s education organization.
The NYT and WaPo always publish CAP ‘s comments to counter points made by the political right. They label the organization as though it speaks for the left. By doing so, they make sure the rich remain in control of the national agenda regardless of party. It is the method that has been used to move policy to the right abandoning a voice for the true left.
Why CAP?
This should be about DFER. DFER is the organization that is never criticized by any progressive politician.
It seems illogical to assume that Warren — who has always been a champion for the little guys versus Wall Street — would care what CAP thinks.
It is far more likely that Warren would embrace the DFER agenda on education.
When progressive politicians start criticizing DFER, Great Oakland Public Schools, Success Academy Charter Schools, SUNY Charter Institute by name, we can know that those progressive politicians do not currently believe those organizations aren’t offering exactly what those progressive politicians embrace — “good” public charters with strong oversight and accountability, just like the NAACP wants.
When it comes to K-12 public education, why is CAP cited instead of DFER?
When DFER’s top management gets quoted by msm as counter point to every right wing policy and gets a voice in every Democratic Party decision, then, CAP’s step sister organization will rise to a greater level of scrutiny.
carolinesf,
I agree. But this would be an easy fix if Warren’s ed policy was any different than Bernie’s.
Bernie could be calling out Warren because we are assuming there is a clear difference between his K-12 platform and Warren’s embrace of Great Oakland Charter Schools and other “public schools” and “teachers”.
But while I definitely hope there is a real difference, I’m not that convinced there is a difference. I would love if Bernie directly addressed this, because it might force Bernie to be absolutely clear about whether he still has the DFER belief that oversight agencies like the SUNY Charter Institute are doing a great job and that’s the definition of “accountability” Bernie’s platform embraces.
It would be possible for Elizabeth Warren to say she supported the NAACP moratorium on charter expansion until there is more accountability, while pointing to states like NY and California as places that have terrific accountability.
And that’s the problem.
CAP (Center for American Progress) has established itself as a supposedly liberal “think tank.” Think tanks are propaganda operations presenting themselves as scholarly research (that’s true even of those I may agree with) and are sources of information and commentary for mainstream media, so CAP is widely cited. DFER is a single-issue operation, and most mainstream media haven’t even heard of it.
What confuses me is that CAP also seems to be the antithesis of everything Elizabeth Warren has spent her career fighting with regards to oversight of Wall Street.
So it seems to me that any attempt to associate Warren with CAP as setting her agenda would be an attempt to smear her as somehow untrustworthy so that no matter what Warren says in the future and how much she clarifies her position on education, the supporters of other candidates can trash her as an untrustworthy candidate.
In my opinion, this is about DFER and I’m still waiting for any progressives — Warren, Bernie, Biden — to criticize DFER.
I am, too. Haven’t heard flip about DFER from anyone. It’s time to take them to task.
DFER is inside baseball and not well known. They’re unlikely to even know it exists.
But it is misleading to imply that CAP has anything to do with Elizabeth Warren’s education policy. So why try to associate her with CAP since the likelihood that Warren takes her marching orders from CAP seems small and something that is being used as a character attack on her by those who prefer other candidates who also are DFER supporters and have actively fought to elect DFER candidates over pro-public school candidates. Frankly, I’d prefer a politician who was introduced by an ed reformer when she made a speech than a politician who actively campaigned for a DFER candidate to defeat a pro-public education candidate. Did Sen. Warren fight to elect a DFER Governor over a pro-public education one?
It’s far more likely that DFER does have something to do with Sen. Warren’s policies and so far no progressive politician is willing to criticize DFER. The belief that somehow CAP is more well known than DFER (which is inside baseball since the average person doesn’t know either of those) is not an excuse for why no one will criticize DFER or any charter chains or ed reform leaders by name.
But in my ideal world, progressive candidates need to explain their view of DFER and “public” charters and whether they support them or they support public schools instead of pretending there is a middle ground that allows them to support public schools and the ed reform and charter CEOs whose main agenda is to undermine public schools.
I hope that Senator Warren will release a K-12 education program that states her views clearly on testing and privatization and collective bargaining rights.
Up-to-Date RCP Average Poll data:
Sanders leads Warren with 16.5 percent to her 9 percent. Warren is in the #3 position but Kamala Harris is breathing on the back of her neck at 7.5 percent. Biden is still in #1 spot at 35 percent … but I think that could change dramatically after most of the other Democrats running in the primaries drop out.
If Warren drops out, Sanders will probably get her 9-percent taking him to 25.5.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html
What would a Sanders for president and Harris for VP ticket look like?
The rest of my comment is shifting away from Sanders and Warren.
Yesterday, I saw a headline from FOX (didn’t bother to click the link to read the rest of that real FAKE news) and FOX claimed Trump’s polling data approval rating was higher than ever.
To discover where FOX FAKE NEWS found even one poll that favors Trump, I turned to
Real Clear Politics that updates polling data daily for a lot of polls and averages them.
The RCP Average today shows Trump’s approval rating is 43.7 to a 53.3 disapproval with a spread of 9.6. That gap between his approval and disapproval stays about the same. Sometimes it is above 10 and sometimes a bit below ten.
I suspect a FOX boot-lick searched the list to find a poll that covers trump. The bootlick that has a filthy, moldy, scratched, infected tongue had to scroll down the list to find the one-and-only-lonely poll that regularly favors Trump.
That would be Rasmussen showing Trump at 51 percent to 47.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html?mobile_redirect=true#polls
Does anyone know if Rasmussen belongs to FOX, the Koch brothers and/or ALEC?
Rasmussen is VERY conservative and is always way ahead on any poll on Trump. Pay it no mind
The Federalist Society and TFA- both funded by the wealthy- both serving the agenda of the richest 0.1%.
A comment that follows the article,”TFA Seeks Help Promoting Itself on Capitol Hill” (Deutsch 29 blog, 7-28-2015), identifies the harvard education school graduate who is Warren’s ed advisor.
Is Warren gullible enough to assume that billionaire predators like Gates and Walton heirs, promote privatization because of altruism? Is she blind to the fact that there are special placements for Ivy Leaguers, providing them with experience and putting them in the orbit of politicians in hopes they will be tapped to influence policy? If the answers to the questions are false or true, it reflects a problem.
I believe it is absolutely imperative that we call out progressive primary candidates when their campaign is doing something that makes us believe that their beliefs are pro-ed reform and pro-charter. This posting is exactly the kind of post that should be made. Diane Ravitch’s tone was perfect, illuminating this issue so that it is brought to public attention.
But I see something in a few posts here that reminds me of what happened in 2016 — this assumption of corruption on the part of Elizabeth Warren and the set-up for a belief that no matter what she says to clarify it, people will insist she is corrupt because she was once introduced by someone from Great Oakland Public Schools.
It’s a double standard where Bernie gets a pass and the female candidate is assumed to be corrupt because of some association with someone from an organization so that all her policy positions are assumed to be lies in service to trying to fool progressives into believing she is really progressive when she is really corrupt and untrustworthy. Stop it already.
And anyone who has already decided that Warren can’t be trusted on education issues and rejects any clarification in her position simply because she was introduced by an ed reformer at a rally has a double standard.
Bernie has done some really anti-public schools things — the very worst was that Bernie worked incredibly hard to turn Virginia into a pro-reform state by endorsing the DFER Democrat who was embraced by the pro-charter folks and trying to defeat the pro-public school candidate.
I didn’t like when Bernie did that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe that he has changed and now believes in public schools. Even if Bernie never apologized for endorsing the DFER candidate who wanted to turn Virginia into DFER’s model “public charter” state, New York.
When people decide that women can’t change their mind but men can, and that every position a woman has ever held in the past must be scrutinized, but a man’s anti-gun control position gets a pass because he was just doing what his constituents wanted (which is never an excuse they allow a woman), then something else is going on.
When the far right begins their trashing of Elizabeth Warren’s character, will progressives join in, or call it out as lies?
Let’s give Sen. Warren the same benefit of the doubt that Bernie is given when he has a misstep. We should rightly criticize both Warren and Sanders (and the other candidates) when something like this happens and demand they clarify their beliefs. But when they do clarify their beliefs as (hopefully) Sen. Warren will be forced to do, we should not still claim that they aren’t to be trusted anymore just because they previously had a misstep like having the wrong person introduce them at a rally.
^^did not mean this to post as a reply — sorry about that.
My view is that she should be given a chance to realize that this is a big mistake, rethink, repent, recant, get rid of the TFA taint unless that dude has renounced it. But I am NOT OK with saying we should let this slide. I wasn’t aware of that issue with Sanders and am paying attention to the Warren issue because it’s local. And no, I’m not being sexist and am strongly predisposed to choose a woman.
Again, to be clear: Oakland teachers just went through a strike. This is a huge thing. Bringing out a non-union charter teacher to represent after that is a painful, decisive slap in the face. If this indicates Warren’s real views, we need to know it. If it doesn’t and she made a mistake, she needs to own up and fix it. I vigorously reject the notion that we should sweep this under the rug. It’s not a small mistake.
Yes, and I hope you didn’t construe anything in my comment as believing that this should be “swept under the rug”.
On the contrary, I love that primary candidates are being challenged on these education issues.
I absolutely agree with you that Warren should clarify and I want to know whether Bernie would also come out strongly against Great Oakland Public Schools.
If Bernie immediately said “Elizabeth Warren was endorsed by a representative of a group — Great Oakland Public Schools — that represents everything I oppose”, Warren would probably have to address this misstep immediately.
But Bernie did endorse a DFER candidate against a pro-public schools one in Virginia, and he never had to publicly disavow that or admit that mistake. I think both candidates should be apologizing for being wrong.
Or if Sen. Warren believes that the education reform ideas that are promoted by Great Oakland Public schools are the same as hers, she can say that and the voters will judge her appropriately. But no more wishy washy positions.
Commenters in this thread identify Warren’s ed advisor as a TFA Capitol Hill Fellow. A commenter at Deutsch 29 blog identifies him as part of Teach Plus which receives funding from Gates.
Commenters in this thread also identify organizers of the Warren speech as GO. If it is the same organization as the one funded by Bloomberg ($420,000), there are legitimately more questions to ask of Sen. Warren than of Sen. Sanders about their education policies.
In addition to Bloomberg, GO also received funding from the Parent Teacher Alliance. The long established PTA organization wrote the following about the connection between the California Charter Schools Association and the Parent Teacher Alliance, “PTA demands cease of all use of PTA trademarks… (in the) campaign for candidates for LAUSD School Board.”
I am happy to ask ALL candidates those questions. I just don’t like the double standard where some candidates get a pass and others have tiny missteps turned into “so corrupt, we can’t believe anything she says anymore since she is obviously lying to us about being progressive when she is secretly a CAP-loving sell-out”.
Why did Bernie Sanders refuse to endorse Cynthia Nixon, who was running against one of the most co-opted ed reformer Governors, Andrew Cuomo? And is it for the same reason that Sanders campaigned so hard for another DFER Democrat who was just as pro-charter as Cuomo? It’s easy to throw public education under the bus when you just don’t care about it as much as other issues.
I actually think that is what politicians always do and making those choices doesn’t make them “corrupt” or mean that the OTHER ways that they are progressive isn’t important. But somehow such considerations seems to only apply to some politicians (often male) and never to others (often female).
When Bernie is judged the way that women are judged instead of given a pass for the compromises he makes: “oh he knew that Cuomo would win and didn’t want to make him mad”, then perhaps the days of this double standard will end.
There is something wrong when a woman getting introduced by an ed reformer in a speech is assumed to be totally corrupt and a tool of CAP, but the guy who refused to endorse Andrew Cuomo’s progressive challenger and also worked hard so that another big state would have a DFER-endorsed Governor like Cuomo instead of one who supported public education is given a pass, just doing what he needs to do as a politician.
I am thrilled that Diane Ravitch reported on this and I believe Warren should be challenged on her position on K-12 education. But Warren should be judged with the same standard that Bernie is given. It is wrong when one candidate is allowed to make compromises and mistakes without being subject to character attacks designed to make people believe he is just another greedy dishonest politician pretending to be progressive to get votes who cannot be trusted, but the other one is not.
Please provide more details. As is often the case, the organization’s website does not make any of these claims visible. I want to be informed when I contact the Warren organization.
Cathy, read all of Diane Ravitch’s books and then you will have a war chest full of facts to educate open-minded people. But know that you can’t educate someone with a closed mind.
Is Warren open-minded enough to learn – that is the question?
Cathy, just this point is compelling:
Oakland Unified just went through a strike and supporting the union teachers would be a strong statement. Instead, a former nonunion charter teacher did the intro — which in itself is a strong statement, and NOT a pro-public-education or pro-teacher one. You can just Google her (Sonya Mehta) and confirm that without having to do any research on GO Public Schools or other organizations.
Her CV also shows association with GO Public Schools (Great Oakland Public Schools). If you want to know more: GO Public Schools has been a huge pusher of charter schools and other education “reform” tactics such as tying teacher pay to test scores. Oakland has embraced all this with open arms and GO Public Schools has been a powerfully dominant force in the district — and the district is now in financial disaster and still suffering from low performance and achievement gaps — so GO Public Schools’ influence is certainly not associated with success.
But if you’re not comfortable talking about that because you can’t confirm every dotted i and crossed t, JUST the fact that a (former) nonunion charter teacher instead of a union public school teacher was chosen to do the intro is damning. And you can confirm that just by Googling Sonya Mehta.
I emailed her campaign. I told them they need to address the issues you raised before I can fully support her campaign. Let’s see if any sort of message gets through.
As if you wouldn’t vote for whomever the Democrat nominee is.
I wouldn’t. More importantly, I wouldn’t help campaign for “whomever”. “Anyone but Trump” is a losing platform anyway. We are in dire enough straits to require real change.
LCT,
I will vote for anyone but Trump.
I will also vote for any Democrat who gets the nomination. I will oppose them vehemently in the nomination process if they are wrong on education policy. My preference is Sanders or Warren, but if another should get it, I will vote for her/him and strenuously oppose them on education policy and any other issue on which they are wrong the day after she/he are elected.
Agreed.
Are you kidding me, LCT? Any one of the 20+ Dem candidates would be better than 4 more yrs of Trump. I would vote for Biden whole-heartedly w/fingers double-crossed even tho he’s probably the most neoliberal: after 4 yrs of Trump, a neolib w/loads of domestic & foreign political experience & a tinge of old-timey Dem values actually represents “REAL CHANGE” from demagoguery/ moves to curtail Constitutional checks & balances, alienation of long-time allies, pro-Russian foreign policy positions, jawboning against free press & justice dept, cozying up to libertarians & Evangelicals, apptg Cabinet members against the missions of their Cabinets & nominating reactionary originalists to SCOTUS. [I’m sure I’ve left something out.]
A small nudge of this cruise ship back in the right direction would be a REAL CHANGE– & baby steps are most likely dr-recommended for beginning to heal polarizition.
If you say you’ll vote for any Democrat before the primaries and the convention are done, you give too much ground too early. Billionaires are counting on that. The more of us who insist issues matter, the more they do. Don’t compromise unless you have to.
I look back on my above reply at 11:39 pm on June 2 and realize that I was being defensive and therefore a little insolent. I apologize.
I won’t, but you’re right that most people here will. I don’t see what motivation the Democrats have to reform if there’s no “or else”. If we’ll mindlessly vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is on the belief that a bad Democrat is better than any Republican, we’re just going to keep getting bad Democrats. 2016, however, should have been a wake up call to the Democrats that people won’t continue to vote for bad Democrats. Should have been. Instead, though, they spent three years blaming da Russkies. Which means another bad Democrats in 2020, which means four more years of Trump. Unless the Democrats wake up and soon.
Yep.
Who are these powerful “Democrats” you refer to?
VOTERS vote for candidates in the primary. During the last primary, most of the African-American vote went to HRC and not Bernie and that is why she won southern states that helped her become the nominee.
Are you now telling voters that if certain candidates don’t win, you’ll refuse to vote for them?
Can you imagine if there was a movement in the African-American community to threaten not to support any candidate but the one they decided was not the “good” one?
You really are so sure of Bernie’s appeal to racist white voters that you think he can win if there was a strong movement among African-American voters to say don’t support this “wrong” candidate who so many white racists love?
I want to know all the candidates who are so “wrong” to you that you’d rather have Trump picking 3 more Supreme Court Justices and filling more federal judgeships, just like you did in 2016.
You really should list the ones who you will do your darnedest to defeat so Trump will win so we know the ramifications of voting for the candidate we prefer instead of the one that you prefer.
Please post now so we know.
Biden?
Harris?
Booker?
Warren? I assume she is now added to the list.
Please post the candidates you have put on your blacklist so we know that if we vote for them and they win, you’ll work hard to defeat them.
That seems like the least you could do. How can we know in advance which candidates we aren’t allowed to support no matter how much we like their policies, knowing that a whole group of people will work to destroy their candidacy in the general election if they win the primary?
Do you know how repulsive I would find it if Biden supporters told us that they’d help elect Trump if Biden doesn’t win the nomination and Bernie or Warren won instead of Biden? I’d tell them they were traitors to everything democracy stands for.
I wouldn’t admire them for sticking to their principles that if a “wrong” candidate wins, then they are happy to help Trump undermine them and won’t vote for them.
Those aren’t “principles”. That’s a childish temper tantrum because the majority of voters in a primary don’t see the world exactly as you do and you are angry that more of them didn’t listen to your threats so you want to punish everyone who didn’t vote for your candidate.
In a democracy, the voters will decide. Fight for your candidate in the primary, but recognize that probably near 50% of the voters won’t get their first choice and encouraging them to throw temper tantrums and refuse to support the eventual nominee is why Democrats lose.
By the way, if HRC had won, we’d probably have a Supreme Court that had repealed Citizens United already and the road to a more progressive USA would be happening. Instead we’ve been set back tremendously.
Supreme Court and federal judge appointments.
Dienne,
I will vote for any Democrat Against the fascist in the WH.
I may hold my nose, but I will vote for any Democrat rather than our would-be tyrant.
Four more years of this crooked crew will spell the end of America.
Dienne77, ‘fixing’ the Dem Party is a worthy goal, but will surely not be advanced by sitting out the next election because they’re not fixed yet [4 more yrs of Trump so they learn their lesson?] Meanwhile in reaction to Trump, the House has been replenished w/ younger, more-progressive, less-neoliberal (not to mention more feminine) Dems– why not reinforce the trend by voting Dem right down the ticket? I don’t get you.
How SAD…really SAD. Too bad Warren’s vision wasn’t more.
At least we know. Thank,ps, Diane.
We need to keep pressing political candidates. Also get them to state what the do not stand for as well as promote.
I for one am sick and tired of the gop, the DFERs, and the neo-liberals.
We need a govt. for ALL the people, including outstanding public education run by educators (not politicians and technocrats), universal healthcare, free higher education, minimum wage raised, affordable housing, and repaire, re-use, recycle.
Good grief, it’s THAT SIMPLE.
Support public schools.
Maybe she will wake up and realize she was fooled.
Unfortunatly there is big press on the virtues of charter schools churned out by te 74, Brookings and others based on not credible studies from the pro-charter CREDO researchers who traffic in statistical fictions like “days of learning gained.” Here is an example of the press, with survey and polling data shaped to portray big support for charter schools among goups democrats want.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/05/21/democrats-views-on-charters-diverge-by-race-as-2020-elections-loom/
Diane, you need to get a meeting with Warren (or her staff) ASAP!
I wish I knew how.
If you hang out anywhere in Iowa for long enough, you’re bound to run into her 😉
Stay on her case on Twitter. You never know.
Why? You already have Bernie Sanders in your corner, and you can trust him to do as he says. Warren is a Trojan Horse like Obama. She talks like a progressive and votes like a Republican. If teachers don’t support Bernie, they deserve what they get.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/reinvest-in-public-education-and-teachers/
Warren doesn’t “vote like a Republican”.
I’m assuming you are the same right wing troll who insisted HRC was also a Republican to make sure that the far right wing fascist Trump won.
I like Bernie but I know you do not. Bernie supporters don’t need to lie.
The people who need to lie are Trump supporters and right wing Republicans like you who can’t wait until Trump decides to end Social Security and Medicare and give that money to billionaire real estate moguls.
You deserve Trump. The rest of us do not.
I personally admire Senator Warren and I hope she quickly clears the air and affirms her support for real public schools.
In 2016, she supported “No on 2,” to help those opposed to charter expansion in Massachusetts, a referendum sponsored by the Waltons and other billionaires.
With her help, and that of Senator Sanders, the referendum went down overwhelmingly
I write about the victorious “No on 2” campaign in my new book “Slaying Goliath,” as one of the great victories of the Resistance, and Warren stood up for public schools.
Because it is all about the Benjamins baby. The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican. Bernie is the one that is pro union and has the extensive educational plan in support of public schools and teachers. Warren talks like a Progressive and votes like a Republican. She is just another Trojan Horse like Obama. You need to get your union leadership in line so they endorse Bernie instead of another union busting, pro charter Democrat like Obama, Warren, and Hillary.
The only thing worse than a racist Trump supporter is a lying racist Trump supporter who pretends to care about anything but Trump when he posts his lies trying to get people to believe Elizabeth Warren — the woman who Trump supporting MRA trolls hate — is corrupt.
It’s all about the benjamins when alt right women-hating men who can’t get a job post their women-hating message hoping that the man they idolize – Donald Trump – will win.
I assume others have informed you you were misinformed. This got huge attention on FB’s #PresidentWarren Group.
No, I was not misinformed. Sonya Mehta worked in a non-union charter school and was associated with GO Public Schools, the pro-Charter, anti-union, anti-teacher Organization in Oakland.
No, Wendy. It was a massive mistake to have a charter teacher represent teachers — what in the world were the organizers thinking? Oakland has been warmly welcoming to charter schools for the entire history of charter schools, and now has owned up to the fact that the district is being ravaged by charters. Plus Oakland just went through a teacher strike and the ravages of charters were a big issue in that strike. It was a stab in the back to public school teachers to have a charter teacher introduce her — what in the world were the organizers thinking? It’s also a huge red flag that Warren’s education adviser is from billionaire-backed pro-privatization Teach for America. Will she see the light and remedy these huge mistakes in time?
As I’ve said, I really don’t think this discussion should be about Sonya Mehta as an individual — the issue is using a charter teacher to represent Oakland teachers — any charter teacher, saintly or not. But I did discover that she’s featured in a promotion for GO Public Schools, so it’s not inaccurate after all to describe her as someone promoting GO Public Schools.
Warren needs to do her homework.
I taught for 42 years in PA public schools. I like what Warren has fought for in the senate, but if she is for charter schools, which exist to break teacher’s unions and reduce teacher’s pay she will not get my vote.
Warren is pro-public schools and supports striking teachers, Warren opposes charter schools and vouchers. She has criticized Betsy Devos extensively. If you favor public schools, Warren is the candidate to support. Sonya Mehta is not a lobbyist. She works with a group that works for teachers’ health. Mehta’s group, The Teaching Well, has worked with Oakland’s charter schools in that regard, but also with Oakland’s public schools. Mehta is not a lobbyist or an advocate for charter schools. Casting Mehta’s introduction of Warren as a secret code for her tacit support of charter schools is nonsense. It’s propaganda. Don’t let yourselves be distracted from the real issues and the candidate who actually supports public schools, Elizabeth Warren.
Glenn,
Let’s see what Warren says about K-12 officially. Her senior education policy advisor is TFA. The person who introduced her in Oakland spent five years teaching ina charter school. She was a senior fellow at “GO Public Schools,” the aggressive charter organization in Oakland. Those are facts. Warren must speak for herself.
It’s not nonsense, Glenn. This is not about Sonya Mehta and I agree that she’s not a lobbyist, though she did appear in a promotion for Great Oakland Public Schools, a billionaire-funded pro-charter, anti-public education, anti-teacher operation.
This is the backdrop: Oakland has been warmly welcoming to charters for the entire history of charters, and now is recognizing how badly they’re ravaging the district.
And Oakland weathered a recent teacher strike, and charters were a huge issue.
And there’s a history of Democratic candidates voicing progressive-sounding views on public schools and teachers and then stabbing them in the back — most definitely including Obama.
Given that, this choice was fraught, symbolic and extremely touchy. As is the fact that Warren’s education adviser comes from anti-public-education, anti-teacher, pro-charter Teach for America. Everyone paying attention is waiting for Warren’s campaign to give more signals on public education.
Some further info on who Sonya Mehta is, her personal beliefs on education, her support for striking Oakland teachers, and how this story has been spun the wrong way. https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-how-internet-insinuation-becomes-campaign-fact/?fbclid=IwAR04uZ7GpAGdCMOOveY7XIl2v2QpS1SjQktoNQvBbrrorqApoqVbwVpKx2c
From the author of the above article: “One thing I hope is clear is that the issue is not what Ms Mehta’s positions are; the issue is that one cannot reach a conclusion about what EW’s positions are based on who introduced her when we do not know who invited her and why and what they did and didn’t know about her.”
I think you might have gotten this one wrong Diane. Read this article Rebecca Solnit: How Internet Insinuation Becomes Campaign Fact
On the Curious Case of Elizabeth Warren and the “Charter School Lobbyist” Who Wasn’t
Rebecca Solnit is a great writer, but she isn’t versed enough in education issues to write this authoritatively. People who are well versed are working to fill in her understanding as we speak.
Also, people need to stop using this poor woman’s name and making it about her.
One thing that’s correct: It was wrong to call the woman a lobbyist.
Here are things Solnit needs to know: Charters are now radioactive, especially in Oakland. Great Oakland Public Schools is radioactive. Teach for America is radioactive.
A teacher who was at the rally was surprised and suspicious that the introducer (I’m not using the poor woman’s name; she was blindsided by all this) never mentioned the very recent strike. Googling her revealed the five years teaching in a charter school (again, that’s now radioactive in Oakland) and the appearance in a promotion for the Walton-funded, anti-public-school, anti-union, anti-teacher, privatization-pushing GO Public Schools (also radioactive), and that all blew up — and this was totally predictable if someone did enough legwork to understand the landscape.
The fact that Warren’s education adviser is from Teach for America (which was discovered in researching further) is also a huge, waving red flag.
All this with the background that Obama promised to support teachers, unions and public schools, and then stabbed them in the back. When Warren says she supports public schools, is she counting charters as public schools? Does she support TFA? When she says she’d appoint a teacher as education secretary, is she counting a TFA or charter teacher? We need to know the answers, and the lack of understanding of the nuances revealed in the choice of an introducer at the Oakland rally raises questions about what they are.
It seems like Warren can repair these problems but may not recognize that she needs to — but she does need to.
(Sorry ’bout the job, TFA education adviser, but the choice may be to vocally renounce and denounce TFA or find another job — which is not hard with all that billionaire funding for anyone who promotes TFA and other “reform” operations.)
Read my comment above. I said Warren was introduced by a former charter school teacher (five years), who was connected to GO Public Schools, an aggressive charter promoting organization. I did not call the teacher a “lobbyist.” I stand by what I wrote. The focus should be on Warren, not the teacher, and why she thought it smart to be introduced by someone connected to the charter industry in a city that has been ravaged by charters and that just had a teachers’ strike, protesting charters, among other causes.
Diane, this is pretty disappointing, coming from you. You are passing on a smear and your very good and very well earned reputation is now backing that smear. Sorry you got caught up in this. Rebecca Solnit did a good job tracking down the attacks on Warren, of which this is a part. CommonDreams has the article. The URL:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/07/curious-case-elizabeth-warren-and-charter-school-lobbyist-who-wasnt
Who smeared whom?
Click to access Sonya-Mehta-Bio.pdf
Donors:
https://www.surgeinstitute.org/donor-listing/
There was no smear, except for the error by a blogger who described the teacher as a “charter lobbyist,” which the blogger corrected. Rebecca Solnit is a great writer and committed feminist, but she doesn’t know squat about education issues, and her post reveals her ignorance and also heaps epithets on people who legitimately raised questions.
Here’s the key background about the Oakland situation. https://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-warrencharter-school-flap.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1KYlR4Z_ofmKl3D2dJn7ZuB7Z7Gj-83ffskl5aL9OZTpJx8zBoyaOFV3s