Veteran journalist John Merrow attended the Public Education Forum in Pittsburgh.
In this post, he reports his views about the candidates.
Which ones did best, which ones were disappointing.
And which one was the biggest surprise of the day and, in his estimation, “the biggest winner of the day.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This just shows that Merrow hasn’t changed a shred or learned a thing. He’s still impressed with fluff and rhetoric. He pays attention to what people say, not what they don’t say or what they actually do. Preschool! Yay rah! Free college! Great! Teachers are great! Hear, hear!
What do these candidates mean by “preschool”? Merrow doesn’t care. What should education look like in K-12? Doesn’t care either. What about the fact that Biden was the vice president to the biggest charter cheerleader in history and his own brother is heavily involved in charters? Well, he says all the right things, so who cares about that either?
Merrow is easily dazzled by BS, hence his love affair with Michelle Rhee.
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“impressed with fluff and rhetoric.” So often the EXACT reality where Merrow and so many like him are concerned. Bandwagon policy.
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““No man has a right to touch a woman unless she can say ‘yes.’” Slams hand in fist. “Those men are cowards.””
Says Creepy Uncle Joe? OMG, words fail. But videos don’t: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v54tSMNZw4o
He makes not apologies for his record on race.
$60K for teachers’ salaries. New York and other big city teachers will be thrilled….
Is Merrow really listening to this guy? Or does he think Biden is some kind of feel-good motivational speaker?
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Biden said $60K as a minimum for teachers. That is a major raise for most teachers. The average teachers’ pay is about $55,000. About half the teachers in the nation make less.
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There is an old political tradition of kissing babies. I didn’t see any claims on this video that Biden was accused of sexual abuse or rape or any of the #MeToo offenses.
Be fair.
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Diane, please. If a Republican were petting young girls and sniffing women the way Biden is on that video, you would use the word “creepy” (at least). Many, many women have complained that Biden made them uncomfortable in his “friendliness” toward them or their daughters.
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Oh, and Amy Klobuchar, the “big winner” of the day, thinks that teachers are responsible for student absenteeism.
“Let’s have someone with an education background as Secretary.”
Sure, sounds great. I hear Michelle Rhee isn’t doing much these days. Notice, she didn’t say anything about a public education background.
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Your comment about Klobuchar is unfair. Her mother was as public school teacher. Her children attended public schools. Why do you sneeringly say that she would choose Rhee for Secretary?
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Because of the way she phrased it and because she’s a raging neoliberal. An “education background” is a very broad, general term. It could mean someone in ed tech or ed consulting. It could mean a charter or voucher proponent. It could mean any manner of rephormer. Heck, even Arne Duncan had an “education background” (one that consisted of destroying Chicago Public Schools, but that’s still an “education background”).
The minimum any candidate needs to do to convince me that they support public education is to make it clear when they are talking about actual public education.
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Your disdain for Amy was not shared by any of the bloggers who watched or attended the forum.
They did not see her as a neoliberal but as someone who was sincere, who spoke from her heart, who was not programmed, and who showed that she cared about passing legislation to make a difference, not just empty rhetoric to pander to the crowd.
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BTW, Diane, it concerns me that you seem to be implying that we owe any of these candidates some kind of deference or presumption of good intent. No, we don’t. It is up to them to convince us to buy what they’re selling, the same as any salesman. If someone knocks on my door wanting to sell me a vacuum cleaner, it’s not up to me to grant them any assumptions. It’s up to them to prove their vacuum cleaner to me or I’m simply not buying. Same with any political candidate of any stripe.
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Klobuchar may have performed well for the program. She is not, however, one who has been concerned for making a difference. She is known to be hostile and abusive toward her staff. As a county attorney in Minnesota she oversaw the cover-up of police murders and violence. (Before that she was a high-power corporate attorney.) Her presidential campaign is strongly supported by Senate Republicans. She wants to “modernize” the military. She’s opposed to Medicare for All, free public higher education and college loan forgiveness. If you look at her website it’s all neoliberal, empty sloganeering – just what we were fooled by with Obama. Her whole career has been about protecting the status quo, which is what she would continue doing as president.
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Armageddon redux: how one treats one’s staff matters. It reveals how one deals with issues and people. Klobuchar has failed the test.
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Merrow was surprised by the lack of response for Buttigieg. While Mayor Pete is a bright, “smooth talker,” teachers are not impressed or fooled by him. We do not need more of the same corporate based education with nothing but, test, punish and collect more data for public education. While he spoke of wrap around services and other positives, teachers do not know if this is just campaign fluff. If we can judge a person by the company he keeps, Buttigieg does not appeal to teachers as they have already had to deal with the disruption from Chetty and King. Teachers need support they can trust.
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“Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar opened eyes and won hearts with her stirring performance. She was, in my view, easily the biggest winner of the day.”
I know she’s not a front runner but no one should be surprised Klobachur was popular in a public school forum. She has a lot of experience and she’s very popular in her state.
Public school students would do just fine under an Amy Klobachur administration.
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I think it’s great that apprenticeships are currently fashionable, but it worries me too, because you all know what happens. They latch onto these things as cheap quick fixes and, frankly, ruin them.
The US Department of Education calls literally anything an “apprenticeship” – the word is supposed to mean something and it doesn’t mean “a low wage job instead of high school”.
A lot of these are just junk and kids are going to be tricked into entering them. I wish just one of these people had spoken about who is looking out for the students when these schemes are hatched. They’re young. Don’t get them into a bad deal.
I heard DeVos talking about trades and it’s just nonsense. Welders don’t make 60k a year with a 9 month certificate. Could they possibly find someone who knows what they’re doing before they burn thru 500 million dollars on low quality, cheap garbage? It isn’t supposed to be yet another private sector subsidy. It’s supposed to actually serve the students.
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Merrow’s report reinforces how much of a double standard the forum treated candidates.
Elizabeth Warren was grilled on her position regarding charters and asked to defend it.
Amy Klobuchar did not even have to give her position on charters, let alone defend it!
It’s as if the AMA was holding a candidate forum on Health Care, and Warren and Bernie were grilled on how they would pay for Medicare for All and Amy Klobuchar got up and simply talked about how she loved all doctors and nurses because her mom was a nurse and she was going to give more money to hospitals. Did any candidates except the ones who were the most pro-public education actually have to defend the positions they took?
Or did I miss it? Was there a single time when any of the rabidly pro-charter Democrats who adamantly refuse to endorse the NAACP’s moratorium on charters were asked to defend their position about why they believe the NAACP’s position is absolutely wrong??
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Amy Klobuchar is not rabidly pro-charter.
The only rabidly pro-charter candidates are Michael Bennett and Cory Booker.
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Please point me to the section of Klobuchar’s website that gives her position on charter schools. She mumbles some words about supporting public education, but as we well know, by “public” many politicians mean “public” [sic] charter schools. Is Amy one of those? Has she been asked? Has she volunteered that information? Or do we have to elect her before we know what we’ll get?
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I hope someone will ask her the questions about charter schools. Check the NPE Action website. The only charter billionaire who has given her money is Laurene Powell Jobs (all the others have not), but that may be because of Amy’s support for STEM. The charter billionaires have clustered in Mayor Pete’s corner. Of course they are also supporting Booker.
https://npeaction.org/npe-action-2020-presidential-candidates-project/
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I can’t oppose anyone for what they didn’t say.
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I don’t know WHAT her position is! That’s my point. Do you?
I would absolutely vote for Bennett and Booker if one of them ends up being the nominee and runs against Trump. And I would vote for Amy Klobuchar. There are many things I like about her.
But when I cast my vote in the primary, it seems that the least I can expect is to know the candidate’s position on charter schools and expect them to defend it with something other than DFER talking points.
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That’s not right.
Read the NPE Action summary: https://npeaction.org/amy-klobuchar/
Klobuchar is not getting the big money from the DFER crowd. They are going to Buttigieg, Bennett and Booker.
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Klobuchar received $5400 from Laurene Powell Jobs in 2018 when she was running for Senate (Jobs supported many candidates that I supported too).
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Yes, I definitely would never expect (nor want) anyone to oppose Klobuchar for what she didn’t say. I am just frustrated that she isn’t forced to make her positions clear. She got away with saying a lot of vague platitudes while Elizabeth Warren was asked to defend her position. No one ever has to defend “I want to support teachers” — even Republicans can say that!
Missed debate tonight, so maybe Klobuchar clarified her position a bit. But I am only voting in the primary for candidates that have endorsed the NAACP moratorium and Klobuchar should have to state her position and defend her position if she believes that the NAACP is wrong and she is right.
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^^Oops, sorry, I did read the NPE link which was helpful.
But I don’t like candidates who talk about only supporting “good” charters because they generally define that as charters that get tens of millions of extra money and drum out low performing students. I’m not saying that is Klobuchar’s definition, but I would like more clarity if she rejects the NAACP’s moratorium.
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I am surprised that John Merrow was surprised that Pete Buttigieg is not favored by teachers and students. I was surprised he was not surprised by how warmly everyone reacted to Joe Biden. We’ve been blessed with many knowledgeable reviews of the event, and this one stands out as different than the others. I have to say that a friend of Diane Ravitch is almost always a friend of mine, but in my humble opinion, Merrow does not show the same depth of understanding of public education issues that others usually cited here show. And I agree with much of what Dienne commented, as usual. That’s it for me for now, enjoy the debate tonight, everyone!
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