Nina Turner for Sen. Sanders: Unregulated Charter School Growth is Hurting Our Communities

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1. Linda says:

   September 4, 2019 at 10:16 am

   Go Bernie!- for those who don’t know Turner, she is a former member of Ohio’s House of Representatives. She is black. The establishment Dems who ran Hillary’s campaign denied her the formerly promised time to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

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2. dienne77 says:

   September 4, 2019 at 10:21 am

   This is what I mean when I’ve said that Bernie is not nearly far enough left (although I’m the first to admit he’s the best we’re going to get and he has my full support).

   It’s not “unregulated” growth of charters that’s bad. It’s growth period. For that matter, the existence of charters at all. I don’t want charters to grow more slowly or under more controlled circumstances. I want charters to go away completely.

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   • LeftCoastTeacher says:

     September 4, 2019 at 8:16 pm

     Agreed. We want — scratch that — we NEED thirty years of inanely thoughtless, shortsighted, neoliberal pro-charter legislation dating back to the Clinton administration and pro-testing legislation dating back to the Bush Jr. administration to be overturned. It won’t happen overnight. But having a president like Bernie Sanders who portends to nominate a secretary of education trusted and empowered to not stop the bleeding, but at least stop the cutting with Senator Sanders’ Thurgood Marshall Plan will be a YUGE step in the right direction. He will be a great, FDR great 46th president.

     Love this post, the video, and the comments.

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3. carolmalaysia says:

   September 4, 2019 at 10:33 am

   Feel the Bern!!!

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4. retired teacher says:

   September 4, 2019 at 10:38 am

   This is a good video that highlights Bernie’s Marshall plan. I saw a recent interview with Bernie in which the interviewer ask him how he is different from Warren. Instead of talking about the Marshall Plan, Bernie skirted the issue and said, “They were similar, but it’s up to the voters.” It was a missed opportunity. Bernie should use TV time to sell his Marshall Plan as it totally separates him from the pack. So many public school parents are angry and frustrated with test and punish and charter school drain. Parents want to hear about a benefit to public schools instead the loss, upon loss of the past twenty years. If Bernie promotes his Marshall plan, he will be reaching out to millions of voters in a way no other candidate can. The mainstream press, owned by corporations, are not going to promote it. It has to come from Bernie’s campaign. The Marshall Plan makes Bernie unique. Go Bernie!

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5. Bob Shepherd says:

   September 4, 2019 at 10:47 am

   Imagine this: a president committed to providing the resources needed to give the most vulnerable among us an opportunity to realize their potential and live dignified lives.

   Wait. You don’t have to imagine this. It’s a distinct possibility, awaiting realization.

   Feel the Bern.

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6. Linda says:

   September 4, 2019 at 10:58 am

   AOC- “Racism is a powerful political tool to dismantle public goods and civil rights… Racism is used as the unspoken cudgel against the working class.”

   AOC and Turner sharpen focus on what underlies the Walton and Bill Gates’ school privatization motive. The tactical plan, religion, achieves the goal. Gates-funded Bellwether Education Partners, May 2019, laid it out for us, “Education reformers…must look to…engage churches…” Whether Bellwether has its sights on underfunded churches or billionaire-supported Catholic and evangelical churches, the objective remains the same.

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   • ciedie aech says:

     September 4, 2019 at 1:39 pm

     looking UNDER the reform rock…

     Reply
7. carolmalaysia says:

   September 4, 2019 at 3:42 pm

   Pete Buttigieg on DeVos, Charter Schools, and the Federal Role in Education – Politics K-12
   Education WeekAugust 28, 2019  by Evie Blad

   In an interview with Education Week, the Democratic presidential candidate and South Bend, Ind., mayor spoke about Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, teacher pay, charter schools, and the federal role in education.

   What do you see as the role of charter schools? Do you think that the federal government should support them or play any more of a greater role in oversight?

   I think that we want to see considerably more oversight, but a lot of that I think should happen at the local level.I think that the promise of charter schools has been that ideas can be piloted there that will then benefit the overall system and find their way into traditional public schools. But I’m skeptical that we’re going to gain a lot through expansion of charter schools when we still have such severely underfunded traditional public education. And that’s where the focus of our efforts is going to be, especially when you also see a risk that often the development of charters comes at the expense of the very traditional systems that we’re trying to build up and support. That’s also the reason why I believe that we need to move away from for-profit charter schools altogether.

   And would you take any action to make that happen? Or do you just believe that it would be good to see [a move away from “for-profit” charter schools] at the state level?

   We’ll lay out more in a forthcoming release, but I do think that we need to take steps to stop the expansion of for-profit [charter] schools and that we need to find ways to encourage a comparable level of accountability and transparency, with federal nudges, for state and local jurisdictions…

   http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2019/08/pete-buttigieg-devos-interview.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cb_bureau_national&intc=eml-contshr-shr-desk

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   • dianeravitch says:

     September 4, 2019 at 5:11 pm

     Every Democrat running for president should be asked whether they would continue to fund the federal Charter Schools Program, which spends $440 million a year to start new charters. It is Betsy DeVos’ Private Slush Fund. Her two favorites are KIPP and IDEA.

     Don’t be fooled when candidates say they oppose “for profit” charters. Many “nonprofits” are operated by for profits.

     Mayor Pete is advised by former Secretary John King, who started his own “no excuses” Charter, and by Jim Shelton, who worked for Duncan on Race to Top, for Bill Gates and ran Chan-Zuckerberg.

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     • LeftCoastTeacher says:

       September 4, 2019 at 8:20 pm

       And he’s funded by Reed Hastings, the scourge of California.

8. Linda says:

   September 4, 2019 at 5:02 pm

   A story from the Manhattan Institute, an organization linked to the Koch’s, was posted in Summer 2017, “A New Kind of Catholic School”. As expected the write-up provided a glowing tribute, no doubt because the school operates as a small employment agency with students doing jobs like filing and data entry for companies. Each student works 5 school days out of the month with their pay going back to the school.
   The school branched out into Ohio and gets as much as $6,000 per student from Ohio taxpayers.

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   • Linda says:

     September 5, 2019 at 7:12 am

     The difference between a government subsidized religious cult and
     education vouchers?

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9. Harlan Underhill says:

   September 5, 2019 at 2:25 am

   At least the Pope is supporting efforts to reduce global warming.

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10. retiredbutmissthekids says:

    September 5, 2019 at 2:26 am

    Elizabeth & Bernie are going to have to agree that one will stay in & one will not, otherwise, I’m afraid (& so are so many of us) that Biden will win the nomination (&, it may happen anyway, with Tom Perez leading the same-old-same-old DNC ship of fools.
    The 2 of them will continue to split the Progressive vote, even if/when Gabbard drops out & gives her less than stellar %age points to (word is it will be) Bernie, + campaign money she’d collected. Still, this won’t be enough. Although so many of us will vote for whoever gets the Dem nom.(I most certainly will), I still think that we’ll have a repeat of 2016–not enough Dems (& esp. not Independents & Green Party people) will GOTV, not enough people believe “paper is safer,” so will vote on Election Day, instead of voting on these unreliable, hackable machines, & so on. Sorry for all the doom-&-gloom.
    Nina (love you!) if you are reading this, please get Bernie & Elizabeth talking.

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11. Fred Smith says:

    September 6, 2019 at 7:23 am

    If we make opposition to charters a litmus test, Bernie passes by far more than any of his rivals. He’s more than that. He’s the leading democrat when it comes to staying true to his principles. In fact, look at how many in the field have adapted their positions leftward. And let’s get down to it: He’s better than Warren.

    I clearly see the media shaping the campaign to secure the nomination for her, as they push for a two-way contest between Warren and the fading Biden, which she will win through selective reporting that fosters her “surge” and newly crafted policies. (Elizabeth’s sudden progressive re-imaging cannot erase her stay-in-line support for Hillary over Bernie only three years ago.) I wouldn’t start hedging my bets against Bernie, however, allowing this media-fulfilling prophecy to occur. Warren is Bernie Lite and Bernie-come-lately.

    Feel the Bern. Make sure we won’t get fooled again.

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    • Linda says:

      September 6, 2019 at 12:48 pm

      The person the richest 0.1% fear most is Bernie which explains the behavior of corporate media and establishment Dems like ThinkProgress (part of CAP).

      Elizabeth Warren can be VP.

      Reply