Arthur Goldstein, veteran NYC teacher, traveled to Pittsburgh for the Public Education Forum, which will be live-streamed by MSNBC.
Outside he sees a group of protestors from the charter industry, complaining that public schools get any notice at all. Six percent of America’s children are in charters. Almost 90% attend public schools.
Goldstein remembers the many events where the charter industry monopolized Oprah, NBC’s Education Nation, “Waiting for Superman,” etc. and no public supporters were invited as the speakers sneered about them.
Now the charter industry has Betsy DeVos, the nation’s top education official, singing their praises. So why protest a gathering where they have two spokesmen (Booker and Bennett) but are not the sole focus of attention?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is “paid free speech.” The charter claque.
an interesting world to analyze and perhaps understand the need to regulate — free speech vs. paid astroturf speech
In answer to Goldstein’s question- – the privatizing industry represents the interests of oligarchy (and, those the wealthy put in place to establish theocracy) whose goal is to preserve entitlement and privilege.
Good question: “Why protest a gathering where they have two spokesmen (Booker and Bennett) but are not the sole focus of attention?”
One answer: The greedy corrupt deformers must be scared they are going to be cut off from the flow of public money. Their billionaire-funded protest shows how desperate these frauds are.
During the decades the public faucet filled their bank accounts, most of these deformers probably did not save any of that money as they lived the high life, and if they lose that flow, they will end up broke and lose their socioeconomic position among the top 10-percent.
I went to my student’s bat mitzvah today and was only able to catch Bennet, Buttigieg, and Warren. Sure hope there’s going to be a replay available.
Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar, even Biden were outstanding.
Warren through Biden was the top YouTube video when I searched for Pittsburgh Educational Forum Democratic candidates. It was an important event to hear. The audience member from NPE Action who asked the last question was eloquent. Glad I didn’t miss any of it.