Carol Burris wrote the following post. Marla Kilfoyle provided assistance. They asked me to add that there are dozens more exceptionally well qualified people who should be considered for this important post: they are career educators who believe in public education, not closing schools or privatization.
The media has been filled with speculation regarding Joe Biden’s pick for Secretary of Education. Given the attention that position received with Betsy De Vos at the helm, that is not a surprise.
In 2008, Linda Darling Hammond was pushed aside by DFER (Democrats for Education Reform) for Arne Duncan, with disastrous consequences for our public schools. Race to the Top was a disaster. New Orleans’ parents now have no choice but unstable charter schools. Too many of Chicago’s children no longer have a neighborhood school from the Race to the Top era when it was believed that you improved a school by closing it.
But the troubling, ineffective policies of the past have not gone away. Their banner is still being carried by deep-pocketed ed reformers who believe the best way to improve a school is to close it or turn it over to a private charter board.
Recently, DFER named its three preferred candidates for the U.S. Secretary of Education. DFER is a political action committee (PAC) associated with Education Reform Now, which, as Mercedes Schneider has shown, has ties to Betsy De Vos. DFER congratulated Betsy DeVos and her commitment to charter schools when Donald Trump appointed her. They are pro-testing and anti-union. DFER is no friend to public schools.
The DFER candidates belong to Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, an organization that promotes Bush/Duncan education reform, as Jan Resseger describes here. “Chiefs for Change,” you support school choice, even if it drains resources from the public schools in your district, of which you are the steward. In their recent letter to President Biden, Chiefs for Change specifically asked for a continuance of the Federal Charter School Program, which has wasted approximately one billion dollars on charters that either never open or open and close. They also asked for the continuance of accountability systems (translate close schools based on test results) even as the pandemic rages.
We must chart a new course. We cannot afford to take a chance on another Secretary of Education who believes in the DFER/Chiefs for Change playbook.
We don’t have to settle. The bench of pro-public education talent is deep. Here are just a few of the outstanding leaders that come to mind who could lead the U.S. Department of Education. Marla Kilfoyle and I came up with the following list. There are many more.
Tony Thurmond is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, California. Tony deeply believes in public schools. Prior to becoming his state’s education leader, he was a public school educator, social worker, and a public school parent. His personal story is both moving and compelling.
Betty Rosa dedicated most of her adult life to the students of New York City. She began her career as a bi-lingual paraprofessional in NYC schools, became a teacher, assistant principal, principal, superintendent, state chancellor, and now New York State’s interim commissioner.
Other outstanding superintendents include Joylynn Pruitt -Adams, the Superintendent of Oak Park and River Forest in Illinois, who is relentlessly determined to provide an excellent education to the district’s Black and Latinx high school students by eliminating low track classes, Mike Matsuda, Superintendent of Anaheim High School District and Cindy Marten, the superintendent of San Diego.
Two remarkable teachers with legislative experience who are strong advocates for public schools and public school students are former Teacher of the Year Congresswoman Jahana Hayes and former Arkansas state senator Joyce Elliot.
There is also outstanding talent in our public colleges. There are teachers and leaders like University of Kentucky College of Education Dean, Julian Vasquez Heilig, who would use research to inform policy decisions.
These are but a few of the dedicated public school advocates who would lead the Department in a new direction away from test and punish policies and school privatization. They are talented and experienced leaders who are dedicated to improving and keeping our public schools public and who realize that you don’t improve schools by shutting them down. Any DFER endorsed member of Chiefs for Change is steeped in the failed school reform movement and will further public school privatization through choice. They had their chance. That time has passed.
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Many of us are still mightily concerned about Biden’s pick for Sec’y of Ed. Erin Brokovich has the same worries re: a chemical industry insider being on Biden’s list for EPA picks. She asks, “Are you kidding me?”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/19/dear-joe-biden-are-you-kidding-me-erin-brockovich
And a congressperson who has received enormous contributions from the fossil fuel industry to be his liaison on climate change issues. Aie yie yie!
Better than Trump, but I suspect that we are going to have to be the loyal opposition to a lot of what comes from the Biden administration.
Whatever warts that Biden comes with, he is still lightyears ahead of trump and his “new family business” …….
Absolutely, Rex. Give me a skinned knee over colon cancer any day!
In case I think it is brain damage not colon cancer.
Bob Shepherd says: “And a congressperson who has received enormous contributions from the fossil fuel industry to be his liaison on climate change issues.”
It would be more accurate and fair to say that US Representative Cedric Richmond, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, will be heading up the White Office Office of Public Engagement, which includes outreach to grassroots organizations of all kinds, including criminal justice groups, Black Lives Matters groups, education groups, food safety groups, health groups and environmental groups.
To present Cedric Richmond as Biden’s “liaison on climate change issues” is very misleading. He is the liaison on grass roots organizations, and the environmental ones are just one of many.
Biden will have other people who actually do advise him and enact climate change policy, and they should be looked at closely.
Why don’t we know Cedric Richmond’s position on charters? He will be a very, very important advisor to Biden on education, too, since he will apparently be setting policy on education just like he does on climate.
Thanks very much for this, NYC! Much appreciated!
Bob,
Thank you for reading my long post and considering the points! I agree with your point about suspecting that we are going to have to be the loyal opposition to a lot of what comes from the Biden administration. But David Sirota too often searches for anything he can use to rile up progressives regardless of its importance (and this false meme implying that Cedric Richmond will be setting all environmental policy in the Biden administration comes from Sirota).
What I took from the Guardian article when I saw it was that a president does not need to pick cabinet candidates favored by the party that controls the Senate.
nicely put
This name has been floated, according to Politico.
TIM SHRIVER, the leader of the Special Olympics International Board of Directors and the co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), is in the mix to join Biden’s Education Department, as secretary or deputy secretary. Yes, yes, he’s also a Kennedy — brother to Maria and son of Sargent. “It’s not like he’s orchestrating anything but he’s been on phone calls and I know he’s been mentioned. He’s very excited about a President Biden administration,” said a close friend of Tim’s. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/transition-playbook/2020/11/18/house-math-complicates-cabinet-calculus-791754
I would add this. Biden’s education plan has a heavy emphasis on social emotional support in line with the objectives of CASEL
Begin quote from the Biden plan.
President Biden will INVEST in resources for our schools so students grow into physically and emotionally healthy adults, and educators can focus on teaching.
Double the number of psychologists, counselors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals in our schools so our kids get the mental health care they need….We need mental health professionals in our schools to help provide quality mental health care, but we don’t have nearly enough. …Teachers too often end up having to fill the gap, taking away from their time focusing on teaching. President Biden will make an unprecedented INVESTMENT in school mental health professionals in order to double the number of psychologists, counselors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals employed in our schools, and partner with colleges to expand the pipeline of these professionals.
End Quote
The plan more along these lines. The plan suggests that community schools with wraparound services are one means of providing support and may be in line for some modest federal funding.
I’m going to have to disagree about Betty Rosa. She has continued the failed implementation of Part 154 changes for our English Language Learners. The changes were pushed through by another Chiefs for Change alumnus, Angelica Infante Green (who has since moved on to ruin Rhode Island). Rosa, for the most part, has held on to dysfunctional business as usual.
NPE Action should send a letter to Joe Biden with their suggested picks to lead the DOE. If Biden truly wants to help the nation’s schools, he must select a DOE leader that supports the public schools most students attend. This is the time to step forward so that Biden understands what is at stake. Both DFER and Chiefs for Change are lobbying to maintain the failed status quo policies that continuously undermine public education. Biden also stated he would end the federal charter slush fund. If Biden truly intends to be the people’s president, he must select someone that believes in public education as a democratic public service, Public schools have been ignored for the past twenty years. Buildings are crumbing, and districts continuously lose funding from ever expanding privatization. We must restore faith in our public schools by investing in them. The selection of a pro-public education leader is paramount to building our public schools back better.
Off topic, but has anyone else noticed that the same mainstream media that just spend four years braying about Trump being the worst criminal, the biggest threat to democracy, the most constant liar and Russian asset is now pushing Biden to pardon him?
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/ncna1247986
If you were alive during the transition from Bush to Obama, you should be having a terrible sense of deja vu about now. And you should start understanding something about Republicans, Democrats and the media.
Off topic, but does the left wing media care that Trump is stealing the election, the entire Republican party is now in cohoots and will not recognize the election?
Do the people who were so proud of themselves for showing us that having 3 far right justices who would put their stamp of approval on Trump remaining president (apparently for life!) care?
Or are they still making up bogeyman the way they were when they said the most horrible thing ever for democracy would be a victory by a democrat who would choose 3 Supreme Court Justices?
I have a terrible sense of deja vu that the very people who insisted that Trump could pick as many federal judges and justices as he wanted because what is important is preventing any democrats from choosikng them are now saying that what is important is to talk about what Biden “might” do if Trump doesn’t succeed in remaining in power for life.
Don’t worry your little head about Biden, I’m sure Trump will figure out a way to remain in power with your blessing.
For goodness sake, NYCPSP. Dienne is not a Trump fan. She has her radar up just as we all do but her styling is different. You wear a blouse; she wears a blouse. Yours is Valentino and hers is Ralph Lauren. They are both blouses. Please try and find commonalities because, uhhhh, wow, they actually exist . . .
Robert Rendo,
For goodness sake, can you stop defending the indefensible?
People who refused over and over again to see the dangers of Trump who suddenly have their radar up about Biden sound just like Trump voters. And sorry, while you may have a lot in common with people who normalize Trump but are “very, very concerned” about how corrupt and harmful a Biden administration will be, I do not.
And it makes no difference if those people who normalize Trump but are “very, very concerned” about the very dangerous Biden admit they are Trump supporters or if they claim they are progressives who don’t trust Bernie or AOC or Noam Chomsky or Michael Moore (but do trust Australian Infowars contributors), because their opinions and reasoning are similar. Anyone who can’t see the danger of Trump but professes to have a huge concern with Biden – who may not even take office because of Trump’s machinations and corruption – is not someone to listen to. They can be found regularly on Infowars.
They also post links like this one to “prove” that we are the hypocrites and not them — despite the fact that they were the ones repeating right wing talking points about how Trump should never have been impeached because Trump was totally exonerated by the Mueller Report and the impeachment was based on “a nothing burger”.
Did you actually read the link? Or did you defend without actually seeing if the article actually backed up the claim that “the same mainstream media that just spend four years braying about Trump being the worst criminal, the biggest threat to democracy, the most constant liar and Russian asset is now pushing Biden to pardon him?”
The link was to an op ed written by a guy named Michael Conway, who was the former House attorney for the Nixon impeachment inquiry!! Yes, Nixon! Apparently, this guy who was relevant in 1973 is now the spokesperson for the views of Democrats, Republicans and “mainstream media” who are all in cahoots. I could read that on Infowars!
Robert Rendo, if you believe that article “proves” the attack that the loudest defender of Donald Trump on this blog is making about the stupidity and gullibility of us Biden voters, then I have no interest in discussing anything with you, either.
People who are disingenuous in their arguments should be called out. As should those who kept normalizing Trump while demonizing the Democrats.
Our democracy is in serious danger, and it is very possible our election will be overturned because of Trump. So pardon me for not believing the person who always defends Trump when she posts a link that does not come close to providing any evidence for the truly ugly insinuation that the Democrats and Republicans and mainstream media are conspiring to get — to screw over — America. FYI – that’s what Trump voters believe, too.
Robert, I respect your right to defend that very dangerous rhetoric that Trump supporters and Trump defenders on the left are constantly repeating. You have the right to legitimize all manner of ugly allegations and insinuations about the evil Democrats, because of what some guy who was active in the Nixon impeachment says. But it is very dangerous that the need for evidence is no longer required, as long as someone just “knows” it is true.
Sorry Robert, but someone who makes constant “what if” comments that justify, minimize, or try to obfuscate the Idiot’s actions is a supporter of the Idiot. Anyone who says the Idiot is no better or worse than Biden, warts and all, is delusional at best, I’ll let you infer my answer at worst.
Hi NYCPSP and Greg,
I do not support Trump or his supporters and I am not 100% aligned with Dienne at all. But I think it’s important as a critical thinker to listen to diverging opinions and mindsets and really try and understand where people are coming from . . . and that is NOT a “hold hands and cumbaya” value at all, which I generally don’t value. By understanding mindsets, it fortifies and outfits me more strongly to pursue my own advocacy and arguments. There is room enough in the non-Trump tent to allows people like Dienne to voice themselves without condemnation and false accusations.
For two people who are so intelligent and well read and who, yes, I actually respect, your reactions to her are highly emotionalized and one-dimensional. Have either of you taught or lead in the public schools and had to deal with different mindsets from students, parents, and staff, as I did for 26 years?
BTW and speaking for myself, despite the way you have addressed and articulated my thinking and motives, I don’t at ALL consider you alienated from me (nor I from you) or my enemy; you’re not even a vexation. But I do accept the fact that we are in the same camp and we mostly overlap. Our differences are something I can deal with through intelligent and fact-ridden debate . . . you know . . . the old fashioned way.
For me, critiquing the Democrats and remaining a civic participant is not the same thing as throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I can both support the DNC and still be critical of them, but I also have to scrutinize how and to what extent I continue to advocate on as a civic participant, which is why I sign petitions, join organizations, do grass roots work, donate money, and support progressives who do not believe in “incremental change as better than nothing”. Ahhhh, I’m such a heinous and rotten guy! Rotten to the core, I tell ya . . .
Anyway, read on to connect some dots and see how much the Democrats – WHO I SUPPORT – have drifted:
And yet, I still believe strongly that we can improve the DNC by oceans and galaxies if we put our minds to it . . . And not get distracted by internecine tensions . . .
Robert Rendo says:
“There is room enough in the non-Trump tent to allows people like Dienne to voice themselves without condemnation and false accusations.”
Exactly. So why is this poster making false accusations? And more importantly, why don’t you care about her false accusations but instead accuse GregB and me of making false accusations?
False accusations are bad. They are bad when they come from Trump supporters and they are bad when they come from the left.
I think I speak for GregB too when I say that we are both fans of Bernie Sanders and AOC – neither of whom makes false accusations. We are both not fans of Trump and his supporters who do make false accusations and we are not fans of those who proclaim to be on the left who make false accusations.
We responded to a post full of false allegations and you are chiding us by implying that because we don’t listen to false allegations, we don’t listen to progressives. We listen to progressives all the time. We just don’t listen to people who post falsely.
Democrats have drifted right, starting with Jimmy Carter. Republicans have drifted toward fascism. Neither of those facts have anything to do with you demanding that we “listen” to someone who insists that Trump did nothing wrong and democrats were evil and corrupt to impeach him who then makes false innuendoes and orders us to “start understanding something about Republicans, Democrats and the media.”
Robert, if you actually cared about “false accusations”, you would be one of the strongest critics of the person who makes false accusations attacking the democrats all the time
Instead, you attack those who call out the false accusations and accuse them of making false accusations!
Do you even realize you are doing that?
AOC and Bernie Sanders criticize the democrats without making false accusations about the democrats. That is probably why certain people who keep making false accusations didn’t listen to them during the election.
I am also a fan of Jamelle Bouie. He made excellent points in his article. But he wrote nothing about how Democrats should legitimize the people who speak falsely and don’t believe in evidence. Likely because he knows how dangerous it is to legitimize people who don’t believe in any truth but their own, whether those people are on the left or the right.
Please don’t be a hypocrite. If you care about “false accusations” then you would care about it when false accusations are made by those on the left. You would care about “false accusations” made against the democrats (including AOC and Bernie) because they finally had enough lies and chose to impeach Trump because of EVIDENCE.
No one comes close to Betty Rosa in her long-standing outspoken opposition to the various misuses of testing since NCLB. As a Regent and as Chancellor of the Board of Regents, she was one member of a body that operates by consensus and she helped steer it toward more reasonable testing policies.
And let’s not forget Dr. Rosa’s doubts, voiced early on, about the ill-conceived set of learning standards (cough) known as the Common Core. This did not endear her to charter-backed Governor Andrew Cuomo–who was pushing for these standards and core-aligned testing as a means to evaluate teachers.
She has always owned her beliefs and stunned reporters the day she became Chancellor in 2016. When asked what she thought about the opt-out movement, Rosa directly answered that as a parent she would opt her children out of the mandated statewide exams.
While other aspirants are polishing up their resumes and back stories as they bid to become the next Secretary of Education, Betty Rosa’s education, experience, courage and wisdom speak for themselves.
New York has renamed the Common Core as the Next Generation Learning Standards.
New York still complies with all of the NCLB/ESSA testing.
New York still uses tests for teacher evaluations. The Education Transformation Act of 2015 is still in place.
Regardless of her intentions, Rosa has not derailed the Regents reform agenda.
Nick,
See my reply to your other comment.
Carol Burris would make an excellent choice. She and I don’t see eye to eye on the issue of school reopenings, but I respect enormously many of the reasons for the position that she has taken, and she really understands the other issues and would be an outstanding advocate for poor kids, teachers, people of color, and public schools generally.
But given that list of transition advisors that includes a representative of John King Jr.’s Education Trust, I’m not optimistic.
Perhaps Dr. Burris, Dr. Ravitch, and responders could add to and edit this list of practical questions for candidates for President-Elect Biden’s search process!
Job Description and Interview Questions for Secretary of Education:
In Basket Exercise:
Read, Analyze, and Write a Brief for the President on: NPE BROKEN PROMISES: AN ANALYSIS OF CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSURES (scandal) 1997-2017
Review this attached analysis of VALUE-ADDED MEASURES algorithms proposed to correlate teacher evaluation and student performance. Write a Brief on the reliability and validity of this approach to teacher evaluation.
The President has asked you to utilize the “Dear Colleague” letter approach to affect change with a non-legalistic narrative. What are the most critical and essential topics you would propose for immediate consideration? Write a brief of one.
Questions:
We are sure you have read Dr. Ravitch’s Death and Life of the Great American School System, Reign of Error, and Slaying Goliath. Please summarize the premise and implications of these texts and implications setting a course for the next eight years.
What is your mission? Why did you decide to become a teacher?
What is the purpose of Public Education?
Please describe your background beginning with the school(s) in which you taught, grade level / content, and years in the classroom.
Please cite five education books AND five non-education books that have influenced your work and should influence federal education policy.
Lightening Round – please provide a succinct and first-thoughts response, and reaction, to the following:
Community Schools
Role of Assessment at the State Level
Segregated schools
Community College
Federal Education policy and guidance and OCR
Teacher shortage
Is there a role for charter schools (listen for: Al Shanker)?
Scenario:
You have been called to speak at a Congressional Hearing in early 2001. Many are familiar with the A Nation At Risk report and the Governors’ Summit on Education in 1989. 10 years later they are considering education policy (from which NCLB… evolved). Role playing the Hearing Committee, please respond: 1) Please describe your principles and guidance for federal policy, 2) What is your reaction to the concepts and requirements others have presented here on a the proposed No Child Left Behind policy.
Excellent questions!
I’m glad someone from outside the ed reform echo chamber is trying to be heard.
After twenty years and three consecutive Presidents of the US lock step following this narrow dogma I fear there’s no “pipeline” for alternative views to come up.
It’s all Jeb Bush, ed reform. We really only ever needed one ed reformer. Jeb Bush is proxy for the entire “movement”. Doesn’t matter if it’s Duncan or DeVos, they’re parroting Jeb Bush.
I have called Jeb Bush the puppet master of Ed Reform and Disruption.
Consistently, unequivocally, and indisputably.
I’d like to try tutoring to catch kids up after the pandemic but I’m afraid the ed reform echo chamber will get hold of it and turn it into some private contracting monster that’s all low quality and rife with fraud and exaggerated claims.
The tutoring that was part of NCLB was an absolute disaster and ed reformers ran that whole thing. It will be the exact same people running it this time.
Please . . . somebody mention a genuine public school educator (form former one) who is NOW conducting or analyzing research on what works with children and adolescents. And, let’s start putting money into the public schools OUTSIDE of the 95 corridor. Over 500 million children and adolescents across the nation need federal dollars for THEIR schools–real, public, community schools. STOP the theft of our public dollars going into the absurd charter movement! “Choice” is a ruse for “Please don’t educate every child–just those who’s caregivers are wealthy and White.” Let’s find an advocate for BIPOC youths! PLEASE, Democracy is in the balance when we ignore all of our public schools.
Evidence based practices are where it’s at.
I will add that regular educators such as teachers in the trenches should be solicited to work in Biden’s as well. Perhaps not for the SOE, but for those working for the SOE. There should be a national solicitation to ask people to interview for positions and give serious input into policy.
Yes, actual teachers and administrators! About 25 of them to work in D.C.
Charter schools, school funding, teacher and school accountability are state functions, additional school funding requires legislation.. .. secretaries of education must have political skills, remember your civics, it take 60 votes for cloture in the Senate, Duncan had the full, unequivocal support of the prez. Dems and Repubs, Secretaries set the agenda, and have authority w/ constraints, they can grant a COVID testing waiver, he/she cannot eliminate Grade 3-8 testing, can grant greater authority to states.
A key player is the teacher in the White House, Jill Biden.
Tuesday nite she was on a Town Hall with NEA/AFT members, great!! Guess Joe can’t nominate her …
Diane, how about a pool? We’ll all chip in a few bucks, half goes to the DNC in Georgia
New York renamed the Common Core the Next Generation Learning Standards.
New York still has the Education Transformation Act of 2015.
New York dutifully filled out its ESSA application.
In short, New York still has high-stakes Common Core testing.
Why are people applauding Rosa?
Rosa does not = the Board of Regents. She was one of 17 regents making education policy. Not a dictator.
She went from Chancellor of the Board of Regent to Commissioner of Education–a battle field position to direct operations of the NYS Education Department in a time of pandemia.
Who would make that exchange if they did not believe in bringing leadership to a monstrously unstable situation.
Who’s your better choice?
Well, on another occasion we can do a review of Rosa’s performance.
But I have read too many statements of her patting herself and the Regents on the back when New York education is still geared around standardized testing.
She’s not a dictator, but she’s also not a leader. Because she has not lead New York anywhere. We are still where Tisch/Steiner/King/Elia left us.
Who is a better choice? Well, I don’t think that there is a good person for the job as long as ESSA is the law. The conversation needs to be about changing the law (technically: ESSA is due for reauthorization) rather than who implements it.
“On Thursday morning, another coalition of education groups under the umbrella of the National Charter Collaborative sent an email announcing its top recommendations for education secretary: Geoffrey Canada, the founder of Harlem Children’s Zone; charter school founder and CEO Margaret Fortune; California Assembly member Shirley Weber (D); Santelises; Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.); Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); and education reform activist Howard Fuller.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/betsy-devos-next-education-secretary_n_5fb6820cc5b66cd4ad4264e6
As satisfied as I am that Biden won, I was under no illusion that he would change the destructive direction of federal education policy. Sadly, confirmed by this article, Betsy DeVos 2.0 is in the wings and the public education constituency is as weak as it’s ever been, in other words, nonexistent.
I hope this isn’t too late to be read, but your criticism of Dienne is unwarranted. Robert & I actually know Dienne. She is a Bernie supporter. Bernie got screwed royally by the DNC in 2016. & they weren’t too happy w/him in 2020, either. She is NOT–& I repeat–*NOT** an it45 troll. Not. One. Bit. & we sometimes disagree–because that’s what people do–but she is one of the brightest people we know. I KNOW most everyone here is angry–or VERY angry–about what great destruction Obama (& I can’t say just Arne, because right after Arne left, Obama appoints…John King–a double stab in the back for America’s children, educators, parents, communities, public schools.) She is just stating the obvious–what has happened will happen again–but maybe we can stop these harmful appointments in THISadministration. We sure as hell better try with all our collective strength! In fact, Shaun King just sent out a few emails about this. What about the promise to all the Black voters & people of color–not to mention the HUGE # of Native Americans who voted this time–who sealed Biden’s election? Isn’t it a slap in the face to Black voters to appoint Rahm (“16 shots & a cover-up;” closer of 50+ Chicago Public Schools–mostly in low-income neighborhoods {which is, perhaps, in part why we have more gang-related shootings than ever, which seemed to have happened since?}& an attempt to close Dyett High School, so valiantly saved by Jitu Brown & others who went on such a long hunger strike that someone could have died?) Emanuel to a Cabinet position? & now this proponent of the chemicals industry for the EPA?
We cheered when Obama won in 2008–I think Dienne even went to Grant Park. We thought NCLB was OVER, but, as you named it, Diane, Race to the Top was NCLB on steroids. Constant testing, more charter schools &, as you might recall, Obama’s & Arne’s shaming of Central Falls H.S. So–what/who next?! Paul Vallas?
Someone wrote on an earlier post–I think it was Left Coast Teacher (please correct me if I’m wrong) something like: “Education is badly wounded. Pressure must be applied.”
Absofrigginlutely spot-on. We MUST apply pressure. If the NPE (& it is us!) doesn’t put the pressure on, we’ll end up with someone worse than Arne. & the same for environmental groups to act, & the Medicare for All groups (Sec. for HHS). I have an instant pick for Sec. of Labor: Robert Reich (he is great, a great Bernie supporter, & a brilliant man). &, if VT could afford to lose Bernie (they have a GOP guv: they might lose another Dem in the Senate, which is untenable), he should be named HHS Sec.
Once again, my favorite Frederick Douglass quote: “Power concedes nothing w/o a demand. It never did & it never will.” There’s more, but that’s the gist, & it’s true…& we’ve seen it again & again (because history repeats itself–& those who don’t learn from it are doomed to repeat it!). Of course I voted for Biden. He is a real person, & so relieved to have one back in the WH (& I really like Harris). Of course he wasn’t my first choice–but he was the ONLY choice. So, Joe, if you don’t do the right thing, you will hear from us–this time.
Left Coast Teacher said it well. & that’s what Dienne is talking about!
(I’m sorry if this is too run-on &/or has grammatical errors–I’m very emotional about this. Also, Michael Moore is on Seth Meyers, so I’m multitasking, here.)
Well put, strongly put, perfectly put.
If there is not enough room in the tent for some diversity within all the lens selection out there, then we will continue to promote or advocacy nonetheless. Nobody here is pro-Trump, but most of us are pro-democracy, pro-humanism, and are willing to deal with complexities that come with the territory. I am hoping I can speak for all of us at some point. Better together than divided, and some of the articulation used here in this blog shows division, alas, when it comes to reacting to each other. It’s not, I have to assume, the vision of the host . . .
We do occasionally get a Trump voice here but their comments now are very hostile to democracy.
retiredbutmissthekids,
If I believed in the things the Republicans support, like so-called “small government” or “less regulation” or “vouchers so parents could choose religious schools”, but I was (like many Republicans I know who didn’t vote for Trump) very critical of a Trump supporter spewing a bunch of nonsense, imagine if someone told me to shut up and not call out the nonsense the Trump supporter was spewing because we’re on the same side? Would you agree that I should let them spew lies as long as we are on the same side?
Here is one comment you defend: “the same mainstream media that just spend four years braying about Trump being the worst criminal, the biggest threat to democracy, the most constant liar and Russian asset”
retiredbutmissthekids, the mainstream media did not do that. If anything, the mainstream media totally legitimized Trump and turned all criticism of him into a “he said, she said” story, where “both sides” had equally valid positions.
Some of us outside the mainstream media certainly recognized Trump’s threat to democracy although we were highly criticized by this very poster who insisted that the Mueller Report exonerated Trump and the impeachment charges were a “nothingburger”.
Here is another comment you defend: “you should start understanding something about Republicans, Democrats and the media.”
What do you think this means? What should we “start understanding”? The clear innuendo is that it is something very bad. I hope you and Robert Rendo can explain it to me.
What does it take for you to approve of my comments? How about if I write this:
Maybe it’s time for all of us to start understanding something about you, dienne77, Trump supporters and Infowars.
What I don’t understand is why you are fine with that sort of comment, but you object to the people who call out those sorts of comments telling readers that it is time for us to “start understanding” something about you, dienne77, Trump supporters and Infowars.
Because if I did keep posting nonsense like that, I should rightly expect to be criticized by most people (you and Robert would not, but I’d expect other people would.)
I repeat, AOC does NOT speak like that. Bernie Sanders does NOT speak like that. I am not criticizing the progressives and those who support them. I am criticizing those who use false innuendo and believe Infowars over Bernie Sanders and AOC — and those people are on the right and even on the left.
It is very, very dangerous to democracy to condone this just because it is coming from the left.
Without facts, without reason, allowing any nonsense to become “good arguments”, this country is lost.
I have great respect for the progressives who have the courage to defend their beliefs based on the facts and truth. But that does not mean that I condone those who use the same dishonest rhetoric as Trump supporters just because they are on the left.
^^^
retiredbutmissthekids, maybe this will help you understand my POV:
There are people who claim to strongly support public education, but say “the teachers’ union protects sexual predators”. There are people who claim to strongly support public education but say “teachers oppose re-opening schools during COVID because they are lazy and don’t want to work.”
There are ways to present criticisms of the teachers union or of those who want to keep schools closed during the pandemic that demonstrate that the person is actually interested in a discussion. And there are people whose only interest is in discrediting something they don’t like and they will say anything to discredit it. Those second types of people are not credible. And there is a real danger to giving those who spew rants like “the union protects sexual predators” legitimacy and credibility because “they just want public schools to be better just like you do”.
I respect many people who post here who have different points of view, but not those who spew nonsense to support those different points of view.