Mitchell Robinson, professor of music education at Michigan State University, sends out a warning that Michael Bennett is pure Corporate Reformer.
Robinson reminds us that Bennett has more in common with Secretary Betsy DeVos than he wants you to know.
Michael Bennet, US Senator from Colorado and presidential candidate, had what the pundits this morning are calling “a moment” at [the second] Democratic Debate on CNN. Let’s hope that moment ends immediately.
Ironically enough, Bennet’s big moment came as he waxed poetic about “America’s public schools”, a topic that has received a depressingly minuscule amount of attention. Because while Bennet can point to his experience as Superintendent of the Denver school system for 4 years, his record in that position could well serve as the trailer for a dystopian movie of the disastrous impact of the corporate education reform agenda on the public schools of one of America’s most vibrant urban centers.
In case you don’t know much about Bennet–and really, how could you?–here’s a little primer…
- Like our current Secretary of Education, Sen. Bennet never attended a public school himself. He attended the posh St. Alban’s school as a child; “the kind of go-to prep program that serves a lot of DC’s political elite.”
- Although he had no educational background in teaching, or experience in public schools, Bennet was appointed Superintendent of Denver’s schools from 2005-09, the position that launched his bid for US Senator. While in that position, Bennet was a huge charter school cheerleader
- He was a proponent of “school co-location,” a practice in which charter schools are “located” in space within an existing public school building–and a practice that often creates damaging tensions in school communities.
- Bennet also forced through a contentious teacher merit pay system that left veteran teachers feeling demeaned and devalued. This punishing strategy was drawn directly from the venture capitalist/investment manager playbook–which should come as no surprise given Bennet’s background as…you guessed it: a lawyer and investment manager. Bennet’s merit pay ploy also contributed to the lingering discontentment among Denver’s teaching force, leading to this year’s teacher strike in Denver.
- Bennet also pursued an aggressive school closing campaign, with devastating results:
No decision was more controversial or fraught than the one to close Manual High School, a northeast Denver institution with a storied legacy that had struggled immensely in the preceding decade. Bennet was attacked for ignoring the community’s wishes and inadequately planning for what would happen to hundreds of displaced students, many of whom would never finish high school.
Bennet seems to have realized that his record as a pro-charter, anti-teacher corporate reformer may prove to become a drag on his candidacy for president, and has attempted to distance himself from the Trump/DeVos education agenda–such as it is–with a public statement criticizing the Secretary, calling her nomination “an insult to schoolchildren and their families, to teachers and principals, and to communities fighting to improve their public schools all across this country”.
Given the alignment of Bennet’s education policy positions with those of Ms. DeVos, this is an exceedingly narrow needle to try to thread:
- both Bennet and DeVos are big supporters of charter schools, and enemies of teachers unions–Bennet was a disciple of hedge fund guru Phillip Anschutz, the founder of a billion dollar anti-education foundation and owner of the publishing company “behind the anti-teachers’ union movies ‘Won’t Back Down’ and ‘Waiting for ‘Superman’”–as a result, Denver now has more charter and “innovation” schools than traditional public schools
- both Bennet and DeVos favor “school choice”, a policy that has been toxic in both DeVos’ home state of Michigan, and Bennet’s adopted state of Colorado
- both Bennet and DeVos are ardent supporters of alternative certification programs, like Teach for America, that provide a “fast track” to the classroom for uncertified and unqualified applicants, and replace veteran teachers with short-term “edutourists”
- both Bennet and DeVos are proponents of “portfolio school districts,” an approach to school organization and governance that’s proven to be a disaster in New Orleans and many other communities
- both Bennet and DeVos have targeted teachers’ pension funds as a means of destabilizing school systems and hastening the glide path to privatization
Former Denver Board member Jeanne Kaplan started her own blog with a warning that Bennett and his successor Tom Boasberg had made minuscule progress academically, but had succeeded in inflicting maximum disruption on the children and public schools of Denver. Worse, Bennett engaged in risky financial investments that were damaging to the district’s finances.
She wrote:
Fifty seven charter schools (57), seventy five percent (75%) housed in taxpayer owned or leased facilities. Fifty two percent (52%) of taxpayer approved new schools money going to two Charter Management Organizations (CMOs). Forty percent (40%) of schools non-union. These are the outcomes Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg must be looking at when he repeatedly declares education reform is a success in Denver. He certainly can’t be looking at the academic outcomes.
My name is Jeannie Kaplan. I had the honor and privilege of serving on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education for 8 years, from 2005 through November 2013. Michael Bennet was superintendent, having been selected in June of 2005. Mr. Bennet served until January 2009 when he was selected to be the junior Senator from Colorado. His replacement was and continues to be Tom Boasberg, Michael’s childhood friend and former DPS Chief Operating Officer.
I believe today as I did when I first ran for the school board that public education is a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy. I am starting a blog to explore and hopefully shed some light on the complicated issues challenging public education today. I am going to be writing about my passion, public education, with a focus on Denver Public Schools. I will try to provide a voice for a side of this debate that is often overlooked by the main stream media.
Let us hope that Michael Bennett stays below 1% in the polls and fades away. He is not a spokesman for public schools. He is a spokesman for the corporate reformers who want to privatize public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s a rule in ed reform. Public schools, and public school students, may only be mentioned when comparing them unfavorably to private and charter schools and students. It’s inherently self-serving, right? They only serve charter and private schools, so they make the work they do the only worthwhile work. Everyone who serves public schools or public school students is part of the “status quo” or greedy and self-interested. It’s impossible to value public schools or public school students on the merits.
I don’t even think they hear themselves. There seems to be no recognition at all how relentlessly negative they are towards the schools and students they don’t support. DeVos can stand in a school she values (private or charter) and bash public schools when there’s one a mile down the road. Apparently those kids don’t merit an advocate.
“U.S. Department of Education
#EducationFreedom Scholarships could bring resources to families, including assistive technology, educational aides, and additional special education services & therapies”
This is so deceptive by the US Department of Education. The vouchers they spend every workday selling will be governed by state law. They have no earthly idea what will happen if they get their ideological wish list fulfilled and apparently no one cares.
“Win/win!” “No tradeoffs!” “Everyone gets everything they want!”
If they can’t sell vouchers honestly maybe these public employees should think twice about selling them at all.
I don’t think DeVos and Company have put a LICK of work into the 90% of kids in this country who attend public schools in the last two years. Why is the public paying for this? There are 5000 lavishly funded private ed reform groups. We also need an entire federal workforce devoted to private and charter schools?
Bennett has been eliminated from the next round of debates. Obviously, the public is not buying his prep school, hedge fund mentality or ice water that runs in his veins. Good riddance, although I am sure he will reemerge in some other unsuspecting community as an “educational leader.”
Well, that’s good news.
He is still a Senator.
And Colorado has Jared Polis as Governor, who is the Democrat still standing who admits his love for privatization.
He even appointed a rightwing voucher advocate, a former congressman, to his education task force.
perhaps there is now a little hope that Bennet has been exposed enough in this idiotic run for President: may another candidate step up to challenge his seat on the very platform of his transparently botched school reform and the great harm he has done to teacher pension funds
Thank you for telling the truth about Michael Bennet and his educational outcomes and philosophy. I have been silent in part because I hope he “stays below 1% and fades away.” His disdain for public education is palpable. The similarities between DeVos and him/TomBoasberg are often indistinguishable. And as the nation withdraws from much of “education reform,” Denver plows ahead in large part to bolster his failed legacy.
I think Michael Bennett is already a ‘dead duck’. Since a “lame duck” is an elected official who lost an election to be elected again and will soon be gone, I think “dead duck” is a suitable term for someone that doesn’t have much of a chance to be elected to any post in in the next election.
The New York Times reported on August 1, 2019, “Only 8 Candidates Have Qualified for the Next Democratic Debate”
Eight candidates have already met both qualification thresholds and are guaranteed a spot onstage. They are:
They should pare it down even further by getting rid of Cory and Beto! Kamala should also go except that she provides a certain entertainment factor when she “tells it like it is”.
I suspect that the Party will pare it down with more restrictions as we get closer to the primaries. Near the end, there will probably be between 3 to 5 candidates running in the primary and one to run against Trump in the general election.
But, wait a minute, this can’t be true! Michael Bloomberg and his foundation “…are investing in places that are committed to raising standards and improving achievement levels, and we’re seeing some encouraging results. For example, Denver has nearly closed the gap in tests scores with the rest of the state. They are proving, just like New York did, that city students can perform at the same level – or higher – as their more affluent neighbors.”
Yay. Bennett needs to GO AWAY forever. Bennett has done a lot of HARM.
Sickening that politicians actively and with fervor do Harm to public education for campaign $$$$$.
Wish I could move to Finland. Can’t stand ALL the stupid labels used here for everything…makes no sense.
Diane, no argument here against the evils of Mr. Bennet on education, but what about other more serious candidates who are no better on education? With 2 debates down, and exactly zero serious questions on K12 education, we need a voice to call out other deformer candidates. Corey Booker scares me to death given his record from Newark. Even Elizabeth Warren leaves me very uncomfortable despite her meaningless promise to appoint a teacher as Secretary of Ed. We cannot afford another Democratic president who unleashes another Arne Duncan on our public schools.
Completely slanted Electrablog article. Sounds as though rash judgments made without one on one conversation with this candidate (which I was lucky enough to do and found him open and credible and deeply interested in public education) has some willing to take long distance word for it and do name calling and castigating. The elitist claim is silly. Do we discount Diane because she went to Wellesley and Columbia? Or Hillary because she went to Yale? Or Obama because he went to Harvard? Sounds to me (and from the NPE ratings giving Biden the best grades) like the Hillary redux with singular support here in 2016 and with the DNC calling the shots. If screaming Tom Perez is the decider, that will be another sure win for Trump. We have a long way to go so I hope some minds open up and folks do not rely on the impact of early mind bending input.
Please read Jennifer Rubin’s OpEd today in the Washington Post about the need for more “sane” elections. She recommends as the two most reliable candidates, Michael Bennet and Amy Klobuchar, both of whom I too recommend (though I also respect Warren, Bernie,Castro, and even Kamala, at this point). We need well rounded and well trained, experienced legislators, with a record of winning their elections, to be realistic candidates to beat Trump. I have faith that intelligent voters can figure this out with their own research and listening carefully to candidates, not at wild debates as the past few have been (due to crummy interviewers IMO), but in smaller one on one venues (Chuck Hayes is very good at this). I spent four hours in a meetings in LA with both Bennet and also with Klobuchar, and had about 10 minutes private one on one time with each. They both were open and responsive and gave full, not canned, answers. Please stop all this vindictive raging at Dems with often misinformation or others biased opinions. It is self defeating.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times recommends Cory Booker as the candidate. The good news about Bennett is that he doesn’t have enough support to make it to the next debate.