I have not endorsed a candidate, and I will vote for anyone nominated by the Democratic party to run against Trump. He is the worst, most ignorant, most unqualified president in our history, and we cannot have four more years of his vile policies.
I am expressing my views about the candidates in the Democratic primaries and will continue to do so.
I am not a one-issue voter but I sincerely hope that Democrats have a candidate who will reverse the ruinous education policies of the past four decades. Our nation has invested in standards, testing, accountability, and choice with nothing to show for it.
Many states today spend less on education than they did eleven years ago, and millions of teachers are not paid or respected as professionals. Many states cut taxes and cut their education budgets yet expanded privatization by charters and vouchers, diverting even more money away from the public schools that most students attend.
At the present moment, the leading candidate is Joe Biden.
Biden is a very likable guy, to be sure, who knows how to connect with regular people.
NPE Action has found nothing problematic in his donors or affiliations, no evidence that the billionaires or DFER are pulling the strings.
He has been in public life for many decades and has made some bad decisions and cast some bad votes in his past. He should come right out and say so.
Joe Biden is very proud that Barack Obama selected him as his Vice-President, and that the Obama-Biden ticket won twice, in 2008 and 2012.
I voted for them both times.
But I loathed Race to the Top, Obama’s education policy. Does Joe Biden?
Race to the Top failed by every measure.
States collectively spent billions of dollars to comply with its directives while failing to invest in students and teachers.
Because of RTTT, we got more privately managed charter schools; more high-stakes testing of students; evaluating teachers by test scores of their students; closing hundreds or even thousands of public schools because their test scores were low (almost all—maybe all—of them in impoverished communities of color); and Common Core standards.
None of these policies has been successful unless you are a believer in disruption for its own sake. The states that adopted Common Core spent billions of dollars on new tests, new textbooks, new computers, new teacher training, new everything. The charter schools open and close with regularity, introducing instability and scandal. Some of the few states that resisted Race to the Top and Common Core (like Nebraska) actually outperformed those that followed Duncan’s agenda.
The national upshot: NAEP scores have been flat from 2007-2017. If we were “racing to the Top,” we didn’t get there.
The very idea of a “race” implies a few winners and a lot of losers. This is the wrong concept to apply to K-12 education, where our goal should be to enable every student to find a path to a successful life.
I want to hear Joe Biden talk about Race to the Top.
I want to know how he feels about spending $440 million this year to fund corporate charter chains.
I know he has said that he opposes for-profit charters, but every candidate says that.
I want to hear him state clearly whether he embraces the Obama education policies or renounces them.
I want to hear what he will do to rebuild America’s public schools and restore their prestige as the gateways to opportunity.
He announced his plan at an AFT event in Houston. He has always been a friend of organized labor.
He is opposed to vouchers. He opposes DeVos and Trump, like every other Democratic candidate. He wants to invest in pre-K and in low-income schools, all to the good.
But where does he stand on the central tenets of Race to the Top?
is he ready to lead us out of the maze in which federal education policy has been stuck since the Reagan years?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“He wants to invest in pre-K and in low-income schools, all to the good.”
Is it to the good? Not from anything I’ve heard so far. I’ve heard no specifics other than “high-quality pre-K”, which is usually code for academic, sit at a desk and do worksheets with no play or naps junior bootcamp. And how does he want to “invest” in low-income schools? Charters? TfA? State takeovers? Consultants? Ed Tech?
Until I hear details, color me unimpressed.
Many pre-K programs today are “Pay for Success” schemes including preschool cyber instruction. It would be interesting to know what type of preschools Biden would support.
Diane, here’s a definitive message I envision and that you may have already written: a clear explanation addressed to all Democratic candidates of what a pro-public-education position consists of, including clarifying why the past neoliberal/bipartisan policies are misguided, ineffective and harmful. It would need to be comprehensible to people who have no clue — because sorry, but I’m pretty sure many of them don’t.
Of course your books do that, but I mean commentary-length, not book-length.
Many education advocates could theoretically do that, but as it’s been said, you already had a seat at the table, so your messages are listened to, and you have a great store of wisdom and knowledge. Make it an open letter and convey it directly to each candidate — maybe get it published in major media somewhere, though I think you’ve been boycotting the NYT.
To bring up something that caused a major sh*tstorm a few months ago and that demonstrates the need for this education: Elizabeth Warren held a rally in Oakland on May 31. She was movingly introduced by a former Oakland teacher. A Warren-admiring teacher in the rally audience was surprised that the introducer never mentioned the Oakland teacher strike that had been huge news only weeks earlier, and Googled the introducer. Turns out the introducer had been a charter school teacher. The Oakland school landscape has been ravaged by “reformers” and the charter schools they’ve imposed by force, so having a charter teacher speak for Warren in Oakland was a very problematic message (even though the individual herself is reportedly a fine person who worked to unionize her charter school and has done other good works). The research also brought out the fact that Warren’s education adviser has a Teach for America background and apparently came to the position through a TFA program to insinuate its people into influential policy positions.
All this indicates that Warren needs educating (at best — that’s assuming she’s not actually deceitful, which I don’t believe). Certainly all the other candidates do too, except apparently for Sanders, who has already heard you.
Here’s a little (California-focused) commentary on the problems with charter schools, designed for the previously uninformed, for everyone’s inspiration.
Excellent comment!
Good luck if you or others can get him on record regarding Race to the Top and the Gates-funded Common Core, or why charter schools are not really public schools.
Remember that RTT required states to have laws allowing charter schools in order to “compete” for RTT funds.
Then there was a requirement that states have standards in common with other states, meaning (in effect) no funds from RTT unless you have the Gates-funded Common Core.
I doubt that Biden has any reliable knowledge of the damage done to public education from Obama’s policies as forwarded by Arne Duncan and others. If he has TFA people in his orbit or relies on policy briefs from the Center for American Progress, educators are in going to need to need to be in his face about the need to support real public schools, not the fhose privately managed.
I was an officer of the Special Education Community Advisory Committee during the rollout of RTTT and remember bringing information downloaded from the fed website about how it worked to a special meeting for parent leaders held by Ramone Cortines, then Superintendent and his CFO, Megan Reilly. When people started asking specific questions, he claimed there was little information about how funds would be distributed, I got the floor and offered my handouts to him. He and Ms. Reilly looked like fools. No one in administration bothered to check or didn’t want us to know. Cortines gave me one of the best “daggers” looks….
I also remember hating for RTTT discriminating against disabled children. School districts were allowed to take “up to” 50% of the IDEA funding for general funds use IF they were compliant with the law. LAUSD (and probably many more districts) claimed the full 50% – screwing our kids. Title I & English Learners pots were untouchable, but districts were allowed to rob disabled kids. It was a pig-in-a-poke to me.
The hope with LAUSD’s special education dept was to create trainings and programs that would continue after the funds were gone. Of course that never happens because there is nothing to ensure the trainings would continue once funding disappeared. 2008 was the death blow for compliance, parent/teacher training, advocacy awareness and many other offerings that once were standard. A long-time special education 1:1 aide in LAUSD tells me that trainings offered when she first started (20 years ago) have not been provided for many, many years. Teachers aren’t getting the support they should. RTTT made it ok to divert funds from special education and it’s been the practice ever since.
Biden … 🤮! He needs to retire.
Everyone thinks he’s running for President, when actually he’s just Biden his time till retirement.
I’ll vote for Biden against Trump if I have to, but to me he represents the very same status quo that Hillary did, the one that failed to inspire enough voters to get off their butts and keep Trump out of the White House. I think we need better than that.
EXACTLY! People are sick and tired of choosing “the lesser of 2 evils”. The 2016 election was the epitome of a lack luster and uninspiring campaign effort by the Dems. ” We the People” are tired of slogans and we want some action in our favor for a change. Either candidate that won in 2016 should have been embarrassed by the numbers…….polling %’s AND voter turnout. A win by either was a loss for our Nation….and that’s what the numbers show and that’s what we are living with now. And just and FYI, I voted HRC knowing she would have been nicer and more tactful while screwing the common man in order to keep her corporate friends happy. Joe Biden = HRC….I want more….Feel the Bern!!!
“I voted HRC knowing she would have been nicer and more tactful while screwing the common man in order to keep her corporate friends happy.”
Oh please, what outrageously dishonest propaganda about a woman who has done more for the “common man” (ever hear of Child Health Plus Insurance?) than Bernie Sanders. I happened to like Sanders’ ideas better, but can we stop with the outrageous lie that all the other candidates are entirely owned by some corporate interests and plan to “screw” the common man.
FYI, Bernie Sanders fought hard to make sure a DFER Democrat would be empowered to turn Virginia into a charter friendly state like California. That is a fact. Virginia remains pro-public school only because one of those supposedly evil Democrats who you hate defeated Bernie’s handpicked candidate. That is a fact.
Bernie also refused to endorse Cynthia Nixon over one of the most co-opted anti-public school Governors Andrew Cuomo. Ask yourself why Bernie would come out fighting for a DFER Democrat in the Virginia primary and refuse to do the same for a pro-public education candidate like Cynthia Nixon running against one of the most corporate Democrats in this country.
I say that not to bash Bernie because he is fighting for the right things. But it is possible to choose a candidate in the primary whose PRIORITIES most align with yours while understanding that the other candidates are perfectly acceptable second choices if it turns out that the majority of primary voters support them.
Did Bernie Sanders “screw” public school parents in Virginia and NY? He did not. Just like HRC would not have “screwed” anyone even if her priorities led her to similar types of compromises that are a necessary part of governing.
The Democrats lost in 2016 because of voter suppression efforts that were targeted toward African-American voters — both actively making it as hard as possible for them to vote and propaganda that told them that making that extra effort was unnecessary because there was no difference and HRC planned to “screw them over”.
Calling any of the Democrats in this primary “the lesser of two evils” is quite racist because it acts as if the racism and xenophobia of Republicans is of little consequence. It acts as if there is little difference between the evil of the Republican Party and Democrats who express a variety of views which include progressive politicians supporting charters and conservative Dems being pro-public education.
“Oh please, what outrageously dishonest propaganda about a woman who has done more for the “common man”…”
Yes, by starting needless wars and military engagements that have devastated entire countries and destroyed the young men and women who serve our country as soldiers.
By endlessly supporting Wall Street, repealing regulations, supporting privatization, standing in the way of single-payer healthcare, dismantling public education, calling a third of the country “deplorable” and another third “superpredators”.
And so much more.
I can – and have – many times – linked to back up for all of that. All you’ve got is CHIP, which was, what, 1997? And that’s if she even gets credit for that – it’s odd but when people talk about the bad aspects of the Clinton presidency, people like you are quick to point out that Bill, not Hillary was the president. Funny how she gets credit but not blame for the things the men in her life have done – an odd kind of feminism, that.
Anyway, tell me what Hillary’s done for “the common man” since.1997.
“Anyway, tell me what Hillary’s done for “the common man” since 1997”.
What did Bernie do, including 1997 and earlier?
But I LOVE how you credit her with all the evils — starting wars!! single handedly dismantling public education!! “Calling 1/3 of the country “deplorables” which unwitting reveals all that you believe when you chime in every time there is any criticism of Trump to insist that we should focus on the evil and corrupt Democrats — all of them! — instead.
HRC was noting that half of Trump voters — the ones who STILL do not mind the entirely ugly and racist way that he governs — were fine with it and even attracted to it.
Anyone who believes that there are still rabid Trump voters who are not, deep down, racist, is likely white and probably somewhat racist themselves. Look in the mirror.
Your dismissal of any candidate that African-American voters in the primary support is getting really questionable. I get that you don’t seem to have any value for their opinions and I have no doubt that if their support helps Biden win the primary, you will work hard to convince as many people as you can that there is absolutely no difference between Biden and Trump.
If you don’t see the enormous difference between HRC and Trump — if you don’t see the enormous difference between Biden and Trump — then you are very likely white and the issues where they are very different are ones you don’t care one bit about. Not many African-American progressives shouting about how Trump is no worse than Biden or HRC. That’s because the differences are on issues that you are perfectly happy to sacrifice because they don’t affect you.
” Anyone who believes that there are still rabid Trump voters who are not, deep down, racist, is likely white and probably somewhat racist themselves.”
I believe that there are well educated people who listen to Fox ‘news’. They proclaim that Trump isn’t a racist and that racism is a dirty label put on Trump by the Leftists who support ‘fake news’.
They are racists. Fox News spews racism throughout. If they are “listening” to it regularly, they are racists.
Even Shepard Smith has called out Trump’s racism. The viewers who proclaim that Trump isn’t racist are listening to Sean Hannity, not Shepard Smith. At some point, you can’t excuse the people who listened to Hitler and supported him as not being antisemitic because they decided that what Hitler said was not antisemitism but merely telling the truth about Jews.
I agree with you that the people who still adore Trump tell themselves he isn’t racist because the racism doesn’t really bother them.
I also want to know where he and every other Democratic candidate stands on how to achieve equitable funding. In particular how to reduce, or preferably eliminate, reliance on local property taxes to fund education. This is at the root of maintaining inequity and disunity. It ensures that people compete for scarce resources rather than getting together to fight for high quality education for everyone.
Given your commentary about Joe Biden and given his recently announced education plan for the 2020 election, I do not see how he merits a grade of B- from the NPE Action 2020 Presidential Candidate Project.
You’re right. He merits an F. If he’s elected, expect Obama all over again.
And “Obama all over again” would still be 1,000,000x better than the awful Trump.
But I doubt he would be that way since Obama was supporting charters when even progressives like Bernie Sanders thought they were fine and were voting for Obama’s education programs.
It is a different time, and just like Bernie has significantly better views on public education than he did back in 2017 when he was campaigning for a DFER Democrat, so do other candidates. Biden may be Obama 2.0, but even that would be better than Trump. And Biden can’t do it if he isn’t getting support from the progressives in Congress who might finally speak out and join with moderates who are pro-public education for better policies.
Doesn’t Biden’s brother own a charter school chain?
Would you believe . . . Yes?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/deutsch29.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/frank-biden-his-for-profit-charter-chain-mavericks-in-education-and-more/amp/
I would still totally vote for Biden. The entire world has to see that there are consequences for being Trump, as well as for letting Trump be Trump.
I would be happy to have our commentator Lloyd oversee that process.
Yes. Mavericks in Florida.
I really hope Biden’s team answers Diane’s thoughtfully articulated question. Education is such an important issue, it’s crazy that she even has to ask. I want an answer. I’d also like to know if VP Joe stands with or against us teachers when we go on strike. A Democratic president did nothing when the teachers of Wisconsin occupied the Madison Capitol rotunda. Silence can be devastating. Education can’t survive another demoralizing Arne Duncan. A campaign platform of ‘let’s return to the good old days’ will not do.
Put yourself in Biden’s shoes – would you answer? On one hand, you have voters clamoring to hear your answers, but at the same time telling you that they’ll vote for you anyway because anything is better than Trump. On the other hand, you have donors who want to be satisfied that your policies will sufficiently favor them and who certainly don’t want to hear any mish-mash about public anything. What would you say? If I were Biden, I’d say exactly what he’s been saying – as little as possible.
Until we have an “or else” to hang mealy-mouth candidates with, this is the treatment we will continue to receive. My “or else” is that I don’t vote for anyone who doesn’t make it clear that s/he represents me. If someone has a better “or else” that will actually be effective, I’m all ears. “I’ll vote for you, but I’ll hold my nose” isn’t really much of an “or else”.
I hope your “I won’t vote for” is in reference to the Democratic primary and not the general election.
FYI, the point of a primary is that you vote for the candidate who is closest to you on the positions you care about THE MOST.
Very few voters are going to have a candidate who perfectly aligns with them on every single issue.
Your kind of thinking would say that every single union member who wants to keep their health insurance must refuse to vote for Bernie Sanders because he is absolutely going to make them give it up. That is his policy and it happens to be a reasonable one and I support it. Nevertheless, not all union members will and if they listen to you they will absolutely refuse to vote for Bernie because he isn’t offering a 100% alignment with every single thing they want. Make sure all union members know that they should absolutely refuse to vote for Bernie if they don’t want to give up their union health insurance because you insist that “or else” is wrong.
It isn’t “holding your nose” to vote for a candidate who is offering many policies that will make this country much better than it is now. Of course, if you feel it would be “holding your nose” to vote for a candidate who would make this country less racist, end Citizens United, and help enact gun control because they don’t have the exact correct position on whether union members can keep their health insurance, then by all means tell voters not to vote for any candidate who isn’t exactly aligned with them 100%. Because if Bernie wins the primary, you better hope that people reject your very dangerous thinking and vote for him despite not being 100% in agreement in every approach he has to governing.
Arthur – No. You know we’re going to get screwed in the primary just like we did in 2016. The DNC would rather lose to Trump than win with a real progressive. I am highly skeptical that we will be allowed to have anyone to the left of Kamala Harris. I’m sick of being treated like a vote taken for granted. General or primary, I do not vote for people who don’t represent me. That just rewards the current treatment we’re getting and guarantees more of it. If the Democrats want my vote, they need to earn it. Otherwise, I can only assume they’re happy with Trump.
NYCPSP – TL;DR
Dienne,
Your vote belongs only to you and you obviously will do what you choose, even if it means abstaining because the candidate is not the one you preferred.
My vote is mine. I want it to count. I will vote for any Democrat against Trump. ANY NOMINEE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS PREFERABLE TO TRUMP.
Who are “the Democrats”?
Would that be the African-American voters who are reliable voters in the southern state primaries?
What does their preferred candidate need to do to “earn” your vote, dienne77?
This is a democracy. There is something patently dishonest about those who would be delighted to see Trump win to punish the voters who don’t agree with them — usually African-American voters.
Can you imagine if other voters followed the advice of dienne77 and said “if I vote for Biden in the primary and he doesn’t win, I will attack Bernie the most dangerous and evil man who will take away everyone’s health insurance and screw over union members and I will fight with every fiber of my being to defeat Bernie because I wanted Biden and the people who voted for Bernie should be punished because I know better and those voters did not EARN my support for their evil, evil candidate who I hope loses to Trump.”
Can you imagine if Bernie voters were all held hostage by Biden and Harris and Elizabeth Warren voters and they all insist that they would work to defeat any candidate in the general election if their chosen candidate did not win?
No candidate — including Bernie — can win the general election if that is the attitude that dienne77 insists that voters should adopt.
If your candidate doesn’t EARN enough votes in the primary, that’s because we are a democracy. If you decide that having 4 more years of Trump is no big deal just like you did in 2016, that’s on you. And it is ugly to blame African-American voters for the fact that their candidate won the primary and you’d rather screw them over and help defeat their candidate than allow their candidate to replace the awful Trump.
What happens if all of Biden’s voters follow the philosophy of dienne77 and say “if Biden does not win the primary and Bernie does, I will absolutely not vote for Bernie”?
What happens if all of the other candidates’ supporters all agree that dienne77 is correct and everyone who voted for a different primary candidate should adamantly refuse to vote for the winner of the primary and they should also make sure to repeat every right wing talking point to undermine the democratic nominee if it is not their first choice candidate?
How did helping insure there were two right wing Supreme Court Justices for decades “send a message” to the primary voters who voted for HRC instead of Bernie? All it did was make it harder for progressives to win.
How about a re-authorization of the NDEA, and nullification of ESEA? Sandra Stotsky
Very charitable assessment of Joe Biden as a likable guy. I disagree. He’s terrible on education and everything else. Horrible candidate and the only Dem sure to lose to Trump.
Above all else, Biden is a fake. He flips and flops more than a fish on the dock.
The fact that Democrats can’t see that is just pathetic.
The Answer is Blowing in the Wind
Where does Biden stand
On other, this and that?
On loose and shifting sand
That blows across the flat
The folks running the DNC are well aware of that, but it’s all about keeping the donor class, their true constituents, happy.
Once they are through trawling for our votes, we just become an afterthought, with Bernie appearing to be the lone exception.
“Biden is a fake”??
Tell that to organized labor. I seem to recall from when he ran for President decades ago (when he was caught plagiarizing speeches) that he was the candidate offering some of the more progressive ideas.
Biden is one of my bottom choices, but calling him a fake is ridiculous. He supports what he supports and he has changed some of his opinions during the course of his long political career just like Bernie Sanders. This notion that I see repeated by some progressives that the Democrats are all lying is ridiculous. Candidates sometimes support more conservative policies on some things and more liberal ones on others and they sometimes change their views.
Biden should be one of our bottom choices because his views on the issues we think are most important do not align with ours. Period. There are other Americans — including many African-Americans — who do support him. Let’s stop smearing the Democratic candidates whose views are all far closer to one another than they are to even the most moderate Republican. We should point out when their policies are wrong and that is a very valid reason not to support them in the primary. But to call them “fakes” attacks their character, and that is exactly why the Republicans win — because low-interest voters decides that they’d rather vote for a right wing Republican whose policies they hate than someone who they don’t trust and since all the Dems are fakes and untrustworthy, the Republicans win.
Is [Biden] ready to lead us out of the maze in which federal education policy has been stuck since the Reagan years?
Biden in the Desert?
Moses he ain’t
Nor is he a saint
Bidness he is
The usual biz
Flounder
Like fish on dock
The Biden talk
Is flip and flop
And hip and hop