Steven Singer participated in the Public Education Forum in Pittsburgh, where the leading Democratic candidates (and a few not-leading candidates) spoke to an audience of teachers, members of civil rights groups, and teacher unionists.
These are his ten take-aways from the day.
A few highlights:
The fact that it happened at all is almost miraculous.
Who would have thought Presidential hopefuls would care enough about public schools to address education issues and answer our questions?
Who would have thought it would be broadcast live on TV and the Internet?
And – come to think of it – who would have EVER thought it would happen in my hometown of Pittsburgh!?
But it did.
I was there – along with about 1,500 other education activists, stakeholders and public school warriors from around the country.
It was an amazing day which I will never forget.
Perhaps the best part was getting to see so many amazing people in one place – and I’m not talking about the candidates.
There were members of the Badass Teachers Association, the Network for Public Education, Journey for Justice, One Pennsylvania, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and so many more!
I wish I could bottle up that feeling of commitment to our children and hope in the future…
Here’s my top 10 most important lessons:
1) Charter School Support is Weak
When the forum was announced, Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform wrote a blistering memoabout how the charter school community would not put up with politicians listening to constituents critical of their industry. Allen is a far right Republican with close ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) who even used Donald Trump’s public relations firm to publicize her protest. But when we got to the forum, all it amounted to were a dozen folks with matching yellow signs trudging through the rainwho didn’t even stay for the duration of the forum. YAWN! Silly school privatizers, that’s not how you protest!
2) Michael Bennet Doesn’t Understand Much About Public Education
The Colorado Senator and former school superintendent really doesn’t get a lot of the important issues – even when they intersect his life. As superintendent, he enacted a merit pay initiative for teachers that resulted in a teachers strike. He still doesn’t comprehend why this was a bad idea – that tying teachers salaries to student test scores makes for educators who only teach to the test, that it demands teachers be responsible for things beyond their control, etc. Moreover, he thinks there’s a difference between public and private charter schools – there isn’t. They’re all bankrolled by tax dollars and can be privately operated.
But I suppose that doesn’t matter so much because few people know who Michael Bennet is anyway.
3) Pete Buttigeig is Too Smart Not to Understand Education – Unless He’s Paid Not to Understand
Mayor Pete came off as a very well spoken and intelligent guy. But he also seemed about as credible as wet tissue. He said a bunch of wrongheaded things. For instance, he said that “separate has never, ever been equal,” but he supports charter schools. Separate but equal is their business model.
It’s the kind of misunderstanding that only happens on purpose, and it’s not hard to see why. He’s taken so much money from anti-education billionaires like Netflix Founder Reed Hastings, no one else can trust him. How are we supposed to think he works for us when his salary comes from the super rich? You never recover from ignorance when it’s your job to be ignorant.
Read the rest of his post to see what he wrote about Warren, Sanders, Steyer, Klobuchar, and Biden.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bennet is the worst. Btw, he followed a desire for an increase in teacher pay with a call for a six-day school week that hasn’t received the reception he must have hoped for. Then, after his bold declamations against “private charter schools,” he was the one candidate to meet with the charter protesters.
But don’t take your eye off Bennet. He is dangerous. He has somehow managed to avoid blame for much of the damage from his policies as Denver Superintendent. If things don’t work out this time, he’ll surely be back.
and his most dangerous move may be maneuvering himself into the Sec Of Ed position
I liked Klobachur too. I find her trustworthy and consistent.
It is difficult to believe Joe Biden opposes the focus on standardized testing. How could that possibly be true, given his support of the Obama Administration efforts, every one of which was based on test score measures?
Arne Duncan traveled the country claiming he had a definitive measure of how much each teacher “adds” to each student. They went further even that that- they came up with a specific measure of how much K-12 teachers add to students FUTURE earnings, in dollars.
So is Biden saying the entire Obama ed agenda was invalid? It was all based on test scores.
“I have a plan,” said Mr. Buttigieg during his segment, proposing a program in which existing training programs at colleges and universities could give portable licenses so teachers can teach anywhere in the country, and if they commit to teach in a Title I school for seven years, their student loans are forgiven.”
Everyone loves public service student loan forgiveness, but it’s as if they don’t know it doesn’t work. The loans aren’t being forgiven. They made a commitment to these people to forgive their students loans and they haven’t followed through. I don’t think anyone should rely on it, because the borrower can’t get those 7 years back.
I think the program was designed to be so complicated and have so many conditions that it’s nearly impossible to get paid. It’s just something politicians say to pretend they’re addressing college costs. It applies to almost no one.
All of Buttigeig’s plans are like this-packed with conditions and exceptions and fine print.
I just don’t find him credible. It’s as if he was created by a group of consultants.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/08/29/public-service-loan-forgiveness-program-how-get-accepted-pslf/2143429001/
Obama and Congress enacted that plan. Trump and DeVos dismantled it and the students were stiffed.
But it wasn’t working even before Trump. I know tons of people who taught high risk for years who have never had their loans forgiven. Congress and both administrations are to blame for that.
It was great to see so many black people at the event in support of public education. We keep hearing that black families love their charters. It seems that black families, students and teachers appreciate their public schools.
It was interesting that both Buttigeig and Bennet used the same tired old homily about students and their zip codes. This phrase is right out of the privatizers’ playbook.
I agree with Singer’s view on the rest of the candidates. Bernie and Warren were outstanding and sincere. I thought that Steyer was saying a lot of positive things. Like Singer I kept thinking of ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ I was waiting for him to whip off his disguise and eat some of the people in the front row. I think I’ve developed an aversion to billionaires. Klobachur was better than expected, and I would like to know more about her record on public education. Biden did not seem come across as vested in this process. He seemed to have a bunch of talking points memorized, but he hadn’t really internalized them. Hence, the back tracking and confusion.
Rehema Ellis did not understand testing, but neither did the candidates. Nobody had a good answer, and I am sure the NPE reps were bursting at the seams to offer clarification. The whole standardized testing and accountability issue along with merit pay and VAM will continue to haunt us as politicians will continue to support it as “accountability.” We need a ‘Testing for Dummies and Politicians’ guide.
“He seemed to have a bunch of talking points memorized, but he hadn’t really internalized them. Hence, the back tracking and confusion.”
I’m not a Biden fan, but I think he’s being treated unfairly on school integration. The distinction he’s trying (and failing) to make is a real distinction. It’s true that there is a big difference between rules that mandate integration and the various local schemes. He’s right. His inability to get this across coherently is the problem, but he’s correct.
None of these candidates are proposing going back to “busing” type plans, yet Biden is the only one who is called on it.
I agree that Biden has been maligned. He was not incoherent. I wish he had apologized for the huge damage done by the failed Race to the Top, which made standardized testing the means and the end of education.
Singer’s comments about Biden were all the way at the end of his article. If what he says is correct, Biden sounds very incoherent in Singer’s report, and a possible disaster for the Democrats if selected.
I should also note that Singer’s mention about Bernie’s response to a question about federally subsidized breakfasts is another disaster in the making (not only should they subsidize breakfasts, but lunch and dinner too!). This kind of rhetoric may get a big rise in a partisan, progressive crowd, but it is a sure-fire recipe for re-electing Trump as it will backfire with the public at large!!
It’s final exam week and I have review sessions all day long today, so that’s all folks!
My comment was a disagreement with Steve Singer. He thought Biden was incoherent. I thought he was riffing. He rambled but was not incoherent. He was conversational and he did not start with a five-point plan.
I thought he was a very agreeable person. I would have liked to see the moderator ask him to reflect on what the Obama got right or wrong in its signature policy, Race to the Top.
That would have forced him to either praise it or criticize it, not to ignore it.
Thanks, Diane. I got the link to the source at the end of Singer’s article and will watch it next week during winter break. PS – I also published my first article in some time yesterday about AP physics and Diane Tavenner’s new book.
I fear Biden may not be up to the challenge of Trump’s vile assaults. I also heard that Trump may skip any debates. If the Democratic candidate is Biden, who knows what Trump will do?
We can expect that Trump will ridicule any Democratic candidate. He did that to the other Republicans when he ran against them, then did it to Hillary.
That is his style.
Whoever the candidate is must steel him or herself to ignore Trump’s invective and scorn.
I think Warren made a mistake to take the bait about his “Pocahontas” taunt, and to get a DNA test that showed there may have been Indian ancestry long, long ago.
Trump will still call her “Pocahontas.”
That is what he does.
Good summary, retired teacher.
I wonder if the reporters for The NY Times watched, the ones who wrote that people of color are devoted to charters. I bet not. From my private exchanges and from what I have seen on Twitter, at least one is hardened in her views.
I was impressed by Amy K, as many people were. She came across as a real person, unscripted and sincere.
You are also right that the misrepresentation of test scores was infuriating. Neither the moderators nor the candidates exhibited any understanding of what they were talking about. I’m suretheNPE delegation was eager to jump in and explain but that was not the format.
a great idea, TESTING FOR DUMMIES….but surely the word “dummies” more than fully covers the “and Politicians” addition
The most comprehensive article I’ve read (the comments don’t let me put links any more but found at Google News) seemed to give high marks to Bennet (without mentioning his 6-day school week) and Biden (without mentioning his opposition to testing). It was a charter friendly article.
THIS is what will be so painfully used in the Big Money controlled “news” outlets: not what all of the candidates had to say, but only what the acceptable centrists had to say
The candidate who would be the worst for public schools and public school students is Bloomberg, who wasn’t there. Not a fan of public schools, Mr. Bloomberg, a position that he certainly may hold- he’s entitled to his opinion- but one that will inevitably and surely harm the 90% of students who are IN the schools he opposes.
He would be a disaster.
I don’t have to tell any of you this, but go back and read Bloomberg on public schools.
He may have some trouble reconciling his hundreds of past statements with his reinventing himself as a supporter of public schools for political gain:
“In lamenting the quality of teachers, the mayor claimed they come from the bottom 20 percent of their class and not the best schools.”
There is just no way to spin that to mean anything other than “teachers are not very smart”. That’s what he meant and that’s why he said it.
And the “best schools” stuff? He’s a snob, on top of all his other problems. I’ve never seen anything that shows that teachers who attended selective or expensive colleges did better work than those who attend their local State U. This is just snobbery and there’s a ton of it in ed reform.
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/01/bloomberg-if-i-had-it-my-way-id-dump-half-of-nycs-teachers/
Chiara,
Thanks for digging up that old story.
This is one of Bloomberg’s unscripted moments, when he revealed what he really believes about schools:
“Education is very much, I’ve always thought, just like the real estate business. Real estate business, there are three things that matter: location, location, location is the old joke,” Bloomberg said. “Well in education, it is: quality of teacher, quality of teacher, quality of teacher. And I would, if I had the ability – which nobody does really – to just design a system and say, ‘ex cathedra, this is what we’re going to do,’ you would cut the number of teachers in half, but you would double the compensation of them and you would weed out all the bad ones and just have good teachers. And double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for the students.”
Of course, he was echoing the common refrain among the reformers of his time, the Chetty line about “great teachers” who can solve all problems, and the need to fire teachers who are not “great teachers.”
But he may have been right about his initial analogy to the real estate business: location, location, location. If you happen to live in an affluent suburb, the schools will be well-funded and never lack the resources they need. And because almost all the students come from affluent homes with educated parents who read to their children, take them to the library, take them to the doctor, and make sure they are well-fed, the teachers look “great” even if they are no different from those who are teaching in aging urban schools and dealing with kids who live in poverty.
BTW Bennet told the old tale about how a great kindergarten teacher can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the earning capacity of a student over his or her life. Wasn’t this one of Gates’ assertions behind VAM? I don’t know that there is any basis in fact in this claim.
Gates’s asserted this, but it was his wife who heavily and publicly pushed the idea: hire only great teachers, look for, identify and fire “bad” teachers
Gates pushed that idea too with his huge investment in the MET program (where he funded the videotaping of “great” teachers, whose performance would inspire new teachers, presumably); and his funding of value-added models in 7 districts/charter chains, which was judged a failure by evaluators.
Correction: It was Buttigeig, not Bennet that made the income statement. I didn’t take notes, and these two in the beginning melded together in my mind.
Just a note to David Kristofferson: Bernie’s response about school meals wasn’t an off-the-cuff, “you get a new car” remark. He was referencing the Universal School Meals Program Act of 2019 that he and Ilhan Omar introduced in October of this year. The bill calls for eliminating all student lunch debt, prohibiting school lunch shaming, providing free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack for all students, increasing the reimbursement rate to cover the cost of producing meals, providing a $0.30 per meal incentive for schools that buy local, and giving lower-income children an extra $60 per month during the summer to help cover meals while school is out of session.
I’ve noticed my more conservative friends still like the idea of kids eating, and will profusely praise people who pay off school lunch debt and condemn people who shame children for having debt. If they go along with reducing EBT, it’s because they worry about alleged abuses or able-bodied adults who could work, and choose not to, getting free groceries. I personally don’t see much abuse of EBT, but thinking from their perspective, I imagine you could persuade them that providing nutritious meals for children while at school–breakfast before school, lunch at school, snack & dinner if in an after school program–is preferable to giving their parents an EBT card simply because there’s no room for any of the alleged abuses to occur. Once you had universal school meals, it would quickly be accepted as something we provide to all students as part of public education.
It’s easy to give answers that will please a specific crowd, but we need to watch what backs up those answers in the candidate’s record (inc. fundraising record).
YES…