Journalist Jennifer Berkshire and historian Jack Schneider wrote a warning in the New York Times to the Democratic Party about education. Democrats, they say, used to have a big advantage over Republicans on the education issue, but that advantage has almost disappeared. They say that Democrats have erred in celebrating education as the most important, if not the only, route to economic success. Meanwhile, they ignored trade unions, which dwindled under red state assaults and corporate attacks, and tax policy, which favored the rich.
While I don’t disagree with their analysis, I have a different take on why Democrats lost the education issue. Not only did they ignore growing economic inequality, but Democrats abandoned their historic devotion to public schools (attended by 90% of American students) and adopted the Republicans’ long-standing belief in choice, competition, testing, and accountability.
Thirty years later, it is indisputably clear that those policies do not improve education, do not increase opportunity for those who are at the bottom, and do not reduce economic inequality.
Under Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, the Democratic platform sounded remarkably like the Republican Party on education. Clinton and Gore pledged to create a national system of standards and tests. Their Goals 2000 legislation of 1994 laid the groundwork for George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind, which had bipartisan support. The Clinton administration created the federal Charter Schools Program in 1994, which allocated a few million dollars to help start new charters; it has now grown into a charter slush fund of $440 million annually, which is strongly supported by Republicans and for which there is no need, given the many billionaires who subsidize charters.
Race to the Top was the culmination of the Democrats’ complete merger with Republicans on education policy.
The Democrats lost their primacy as the party of public schools because they embraced Republican ideology, and they ignored the causes of economic inequality, which testing, standards, and choice could not fix.
Berkshire and Schneider write:
The warning signs are everywhere. For 30 years, polls showed that Americans trusted Democrats over Republicans to invest in public education and strengthen schools. Within the past year, however, Republicans have closed the gap; a recent poll shows the two parties separated on the issue by less than the margin of error.
Since the Republican Glenn Youngkin scored an upset win in Virginia’s race for governor by making education a central campaign issue, Republicans in state after state have capitalized on anger over mask mandates, parental rights and teaching about race, and their strategy seems to be working. The culture wars now threatening to consume American schools have produced an unlikely coalition — one that includes populists on the right and a growing number of affluent, educated white parents on the left. Both groups are increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party.
For the party leaders tasked with crafting a midterm strategy, this development should set off alarms. Voters who feel looked down on by elites are now finding common cause with those elites, forming an alliance that could not only cost the Democrats the midterm elections but also fundamentally realign American politics.
The Democrats know they have a problem. One recent analysis conducted by the Democratic Governors Association put it bluntly: “We need to retake education as a winning issue.” But reclaiming their trustworthiness on education will require more than just savvier messaging. Democrats are going to need to rethink a core assumption: that education is the key to addressing economic inequality.
The party’s current education problem reflects a misguided policy shift made decades ago. Eager to reclaim the political center, Democratic politicians increasingly framed education, rather than labor unions or a progressive tax code, as the answer to many of our economic problems, embracing what Barack Obama would later call “ladders of opportunity,” such as “good” public schools and college degrees, which would offer a “hand up” rather than a handout. Bill Clinton famously pronounced, “What you earn depends on what you learn.”
But this message has proved to be deeply alienating to the people who once made up the core of the party. As the philosopher Michael Sandel wrote in his recent book “The Tyranny of Merit,” Democrats often seemed to imply that people whose living standards were declining had only themselves to blame. Meanwhile, more affluent voters were congratulated for their smarts and hard work. Tired of being told to pick themselves up and go to college, working people increasingly turned against the Democrats.
Today, as the middle class falls further behind the wealthy, the belief in education as the sole remedy for economic inequality appears more and more misguided. And yet, because Democrats have spent the past 30 years framing schooling as the surest route to the good life, any attempt to make our education system fairer is met with fierce resistance from affluent liberals worried that Democratic reforms might threaten their carefully laid plans to help their children get ahead.
Please read the rest of their article.
Parents being able to earn a living wage is a big factor. Students with stable housing and nutritious diets can learn more easily.
Preach it, Ms. Fan!!!!
John Podesta serving the billionaires and his self-interest.
CAP’s new VP of Ed. is from Lumina. Watch the attacks on public universities amp up.
Actions would be worth a whole lot more than a message.
Duh! Got to have a message before you act, though.
Both parties work for big money and big business. Lobbyists are writing laws and the tax code. Democracy cannot function when so many wealthy interests control policy.
Democrats made a terrible decision to abandon labor. Labor should be their base. As a result, it is difficult for Democrats to have a decisive victory. Close elections are contributing to rancor and dirty politics. Democrats seem to have their head in the clouds while the Republicans are stealing their lunch.
Democrats are waffling too much on education. I cannot get too excited by most of the Democrats. In recent elections I am voting more against the grim reaper Republicans than voting for the Democrats. I still vote for the Democrats in the hopes they will soon have an epiphany, but I am tired of being disappointed when the rhetoric fails to match the same tired, old, trickle down economics. Democrats should value public education as it has helped build this nation and fought its conflicts. Public schools are democracy in action and our best hope for a harmonious, cooperative more equitable future in my opinion.
If the Democratic Party wants to keep some semblance of a republic and democracy in the Untied States, they have to change dramatically to fight the Traitor Trump led, MAGA vampire fascist Republican Party’s endless message of lies, hoaxes, conspiracy theories and trolling.
The first step should be to bring back the Fairness Doctrine and apply it to not only the traditional media but to social media sites too. Freedom of expression/speech should not include the freedom to lie without being challenged. The Fairness Doctrine never stopped anyone from being free to lie. It just required the media to offer the other side a chance to respond to those lies at the same time.
Very true about the Fairness Doctrine; once it was dumped, there was an explosion of far right wing talk radio across the country. Think Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mike Savage and all their clones vomiting up their vicious evil bilge 24/7. ABC 770 in NYC became an all right wing filth hole in the 1980s-90s. It used to have a couple of liberals or moderates but they were flushed out in favor of the Hannitys and Limbaugh types. It was/is unbalanced in its format, in favor of the unhinged right wing garbage.
Diane, you’re absolutely right on this–you literally wrote the book on it–and Dems could fall behind in the strength of support. In other words, Republicans, misguided into believing all sorts of wrong things about what’s really going on in teaching about history and race, etc., often get fanatic about their misplaced opposition, while Democrats are generally Luke-warm in support. And it’s hard for Democratic supporters of good public schools to get behind Clinton-Obama policies or candidates who support those policies. Our public schools need a large infusion of cash, support for free inquiry, support for unions, and an end to subsidizing phony privatization schemes that benefit privateers & maybe religious groups, but hurt kids and our culture generally. We can’t have a successful republic–let alone democracy–with out good public schools available to all, K though college.
Why aren’t more Democrats pushing back against the lies that the right fabricates about public education? Just because left learning people believe that individual differences should be respected does not mean that they believe in a lawless society and open borders. I think our diversity is part of our strength, not something to be afraid of.
Republicans are wrong to portray public schools as anti-American. That’s nonsense. Where I worked, I found the public schools to be rather patriotic. Our national holidays and public servants were celebrated and respected on a regular basis, even though we didn’t try to whitewash our past. We tried to teach our young people the truth and acknowledge our shortcomings.
The astonishing success of the little St. Peter’s University basketball team has captured the admiration of sports fans abd even some, like me, who don’t pay much attention to basketball.
Their T-shirts say “Black Lives Matter” on the front, and on the back, the word “Racism” has a big X on it.
Hey, Republican governors, legislators, and members of Congress, will you try to ban their T-shirts?
Just try!
I am not a big sports follower either, but this team is “The Little Engine That Could.” For this tiny school from Jersey City to have gotten this far is quite remarkable.
Jack, I agree with you—completely. In DC, both Republicans and Center for American Progress Democrats used to talk about the Bush-Obama bipartisan education agenda. DC think tanks from left to right held joint conferences about education policy where they agreed about the program of standards, testing, accountability, charter schools. No dissenters: NCLB and Race to the Top were the same approach. Occasionally, someone might ask why none of the efforts made much difference. They cherry-picked data to crow about nonexistent success. They demoralized teachers, stoke the joy of learning, but remained obsessed with test scores. The fact that NAEP scores have been flat for a decade didn’t undermine their slavish devotion to testing, more testing, more accountability. Charters paved the way for vouchers, yet Democrats remain devoted to charters, no matter how they harm public schools or how many scandals.
“Stripped away the joy of learning,” not stoked
When the Democrats embraced the spurious claim that public schools are “failing,” they joined hands with Republicans. I await a candidate who celebrates the role of public schools in building our society. For the evidence, read my book “Reign of Error.”
Wasn’t that candidate supposed to be Biden? Wasn’t Cardona supposed to be the public school messiah? I’m still waiting for the education campaign promises to suddenly and magically appear. Sure, Covid got in the way and the economy was/is a mess, but what did public schools do when they opened up?….the USDE decided it was in the best interest of the children to test them to death. If I have to vote the lesser of 2 evils, I will now vote for whoever serves my best interests and to heck if they aren’t a Democrat.
LisaM, I completely understand your frustration and quandary when it comes to voting. But the reality is, there are only 2 viable political parties nationally, D or R. When it comes to education, the 2 parties seem to be in synch but not when it comes to many other issues, especially SCOTUS selections. Trump put 3 right wingers on the court and it looks like Biden’s choice will be approved (HURRAH!). That is why I will vote D, even though the Ds, such as Obama, are/were pathetic on education. There are more issues at stake than education, many, many more. Your vote counts and if you vote Green or whatever, then that ends up being a vote for a GOP gargoyle who will be for school privatization anyhow. Sorry for being preachy. Biden is not as bad as Obama, in my opinion, when it comes to education. Biden has certainly taken the right stance when it comes to the disaster in Ukraine.
Sorry Joe, but I disagree at this point. There is no Democracy here in the USA. The tax paying people don’t matter anymore. Wall Street/big business and Silicon Valley are all that matters. I should have moved to Denmark 8-9 yrs ago when I had the chance. In 4-5 yrs we will be free to leave and my inclination at this point is to leave…..where? I don’t know yet. I’m pretty disgusted with both political parties and how the far right and far left factions are pushing utter nonsense. The only way to live serenely in the US without suffering PTSD is to just ignore everything by watching nonsense/reality TV while drinking copious amounts of alcohol (not my style).
Biden didn’t inspire me but I had some hope (squashed again) and I voted for him over trump. Maybe Biden is handling Ukraine well and he’s the G-d of statesmanship? I don’t know? It’s awful what’s happening in Ukraine but I just can’t stomach filling my days with more war gloom and doom when we have so many problems here that need tending to. I’m disgusted with politics and politicians.
LisaM,
Why aren’t the progressives speaking out? There is no will for even the most progressive politicians to make the issues in education that are important to you a major talking point. But the Democrats do support public schools and teachers’ unions.
Why do you keep saying that students are being “tested to death” when that isn’t the case? I have a kid in a NYC public school who isn’t being “tested to death”, nor do any of my friends with kids in lower grades complain that their kid is being “tested to death”.
I really despise that kind of vague attacks which reminds me of the same vague and dishonest attacks about how my kid’s public school has been taken over by CRT that is teaching white kids to hate themselves. It is nonsense.
If union teachers feel pressured to raise their students’ test scores, why even bother to have a union in the first place? I don’t know any NYC union teachers who were fired because their students scored too low on a standardized test, but maybe that happens in other states like NJ all the time.
My parents didn’t care that I had to take Iowa tests every year and I don’t care whether or not my kid has to take standardized tests or not if they don’t mean anything. In NYC, the DOE is even moving away from those standardized tests meaning anything for middle school and high school admissions.
I am telling you that from a parent’s perspective, “eliminate all standardized testing” is not a winning message for the Democrats. If you don’t believe me, just look at what happened in traditionally Democratic cities when there was talk of abandoning admissions tests for some public magnet schools.
But “Support public schools and union teachers” is a winning message.
I don’t remember the Green Party promising to end all standardized testing – I think there is a bit of a double standard here.
Public schools have become a national punching bag. Blaming the public schools for the failures in our society has become a sport, our-failing-schools is a word which Lou Dobbs et al (amongst many) would pronounce (with a snarl) whenever he/they would discuss educational issues. Chris Christie would describe NJ schools as failure factories, A TOTAL LIE AND FABRICATION! Overall and on average, the public schools are great and they are doing their job. Of course there is always room for improvement and some schools in very poor and impoverished areas have serious problems. That does not mean that public schools should be abandoned but rather that they should be better funded.
Fortunately, Democrats have ready guides to this. All they have to do is read The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Reign of Error, and Slaying Goliath by this lady–maybe you’ve heard of her–D. Ravitch.
“It is the ultimate moral crime
to target for misery, pain and
death those least responsible
for the offenses of their
tyrannical rulers.”
The bipartisan charade of blaming
the other, in the name of republic
or democracy, has relocated
justice, such that the only
place it can be found, is in
the DICTIONARY…
haaaa. I don’t agree, but very well said, NoBrick!
LOVED your intro to this piece, Diane! Nailed it.
Neoliberal fail. First, attacking unions and privatizing everything sucks the life out of working people, and blaming and shaming working people for their downfall just pours salt on the wound. Then, attacking unions and privatizing everything fails to deliver on the nuts and bolts of the neoliberal promise to offer anyone a way out.
Jennifer & Jack pinpointed the core conceit of the neoliberal era & the harm it’s caused to millions of people. Our shared values & caring shifted to what Elizabeth Popp Berman calls an “economic style of reasoning,”
Nothing represents this flawed thinking better than our failed COVID response around school openings. Promoted by dark money funded economist Emily Oster, she claimed her research showed COVID was not spread in schools & thus, were safe to reopen. No one critically examined Oster’s research until the damage was done.
Abigail Cartus, Ph.D, MPH & Justin Feldman, Sc.D, MPH explain this reasoning as one that “emphasizes individualism, market-based choice, and efficiency, while deprioritizing concerns related to injustice or collective well-being. Since the dawn of the neoliberal era in the 1970s, the economic style of reasoning has been an important ideological tool in the effort to expand corporate power”.
Democrats have looked to economists for solutions to societal problems, treating experts in medicine, public health, education, and child development—as often wrong or self-interested. They risk becoming irrelevant if they don’t prove to be responsible guardians of our public schools.
“Democrats abandoned their historic devotion to public schools (attended by 90% of American students) and adopted the Republicans’ long-standing belief in choice, competition, testing, and accountability. ” YES!
I admit that I had doubts about Joe Biden. No more. Go, Joe!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/12/ukraine-reveals-russian-warship-go-fuck-yourself-postage-stamp
This is one of Biden’s best most impassioned speeches. I am rooting for Biden, but like Rodney Dangerfield he “can’t get no respect” from the press, other politicians or the polls. I hope they all can see Biden as a statesman after this speech along with all his efforts to unite NATO and support Ukraine.
Me, too.
It was only a week ago that Jennifer Berkshire was marveling at the sweep of moderate and progressive supporters of Public Schools in New Hampshire. Democrats may need a new message on education. But to assume that the Youngkin victory was about parental concerns over education, is as absurd as thinking the DC trucker convoy was about vaccine mandates and masks.
Joel, I noted that dysfunction. People who support public schools are likely to vote Democratic. The “parent rights” campaign is a ploy.
Did I do something wrong? I quoted an excerpt from your story about Democrats needing a new message about education. No one ever really explained the re-blogging procedure. I wrote you once and asked how big your staff was, and you seemed grouchy about that. I had trouble realizing you could do so much. I admire your work. Tell me what I did wrong. I don’t know how to get rid of the white space on my blog. I won’t quote you anymore. So sorry. At 86 I sould probably be doing other things.
Nan, we’re you addressing this comment to me. If so, I am confounded. I told you that you can reblog anything I write here. What did you do wrong? Nothing. Was I grouchy in saying I have no staff? I’m sure I said it because it’s true, but I typically say it with pride. No grouchiness.
Dear Nan, Diane was joking about her staff. She does her Herculean work on her own. Warm regards, Bob S.
Democrats need a new message about a lot of things. For example, the United States is the only democracy in the world that doesn’t have universal health insurance. Americans have 195 billion in private medical debt across 23 million people (almost 1 of every 10 adults). 16 million Americans owe over $1,000 in medical debt. 3 million owe over $10,000. Now, $1,000 might not sound like a lot to you, but to poor people in the US, and most of these debtors are poor, it’s an enormous amount, and poor people often have to choose between paying it or eating and paying rent. Many can’t get dental care that they desperately need–it’s just way, way out of their financial reach, and many don’t get medical help that they need because they can’t afford it. Medicare doesn’t even pay for most medical tests, and tests are the means by which you do preventative medicine and catch problems before they get severe.
We’re the only developed nation in which this is so, and it’s entirely shameful. This is the case in the U.S. because the poor and lower middle classes have ZERO influence on our politicians, who live in a separate universe from them.
Oh, and btw, the U.S. is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development, made up of wealthy democracies around the world. It’s the only one of these without national health insurance, and per capita health care costs in the United States are the HIGHEST in the OECD and TWICE the OECD average, while with regard to every standard measure–longevity, infant mortality, and incidence of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, the U.S. is either the worst performing or close to the worst performing.
Twice the cost for the worst healthcare and the highest personal healthcare debt.
Why? Because HALF of our healthcare dollar goes into the private profits of the healthcare RICOs that own our politicians.
Because of high deductibles, even most insured Americans are one healthcare emergency away from a devastating medical bill that they can’t pay. And many, after paying into their insurance all their lives, suddenly find themselves with a medical issue, and their insurance rises so high that they can no longer afford it.
This is obscene. The wealthiest country in the world can do better by its people.
Meanwhile, in an Alternate Fact universe near you. . . .
Trump at his most recent rally: “Energy is so expensive today. A gallon? You take a look at your, forget about it. The pump. You take a look at a barrel now. It will be two dollars. It could be, people are saying it’s going to go up to three—Think of this.”
Utterly clueless.
Bob you relieve me of much typing. I sent the last laptop to an early grave two finger pounding on the keys. But one thing I beg to differ with you on. The reason we are the only Nation in the OECD with no National Health insurance is not because of politicians but because of the American people. In fact Trump is not the problem the 46% of Americans who voted for him are willfully “clueless”.
Thus you go to a State like White Virginia with one of the lowest median wages ,highest poverty rates and some of worst health outcomes in the Nation and 70% of voters vote not just for Trump but for Republicans. Republicans who oppose
everything from medicaid to Unions. Perhaps its the 3% of Blacks that they are afraid will be getting over on them. Or it must be the 1.5% of Hispanics taking their jobs, assuming they are all undocumented.
Okay enough bashing the hopelessly ignorant. West Virginians are not alone. It would be easy to simply bash them. The biggest push back against the Warren and Sanders proposals came from appeals to Union workers who have some of the best health insurance in the Nation . All the “moderate Dems ” . joining the big Pharma/Insurance assault. ” What about those great Union Plans” What was left out of the assault on M4all was, if these Union members can keep it . Along with the drop in Union market share (which continues in-spite of the hype )has come the loss of that health insurance for millions and a substantial transfer of costs to other Union workers. Mirrored in the much larger non Union sector.
“In America we give just enough to just as many as necessary to prevent change” (Zinn). And as long as you can convince the hopelessly ignorant that they have more than the next guy (preferably a minority) they will empty their pockets for you. (Johnson) .
Public schools have an enormously deep hole to climb out of in order to re-brand their long list of bad ideas and failed policies. The combination of politically forced errors and unforced errors by the super-woke will be nearly impossible to undo.
Test-threaten-punish reform
Common Core standards
Race to the Top
Top-down micromanagement
Scripted lessons
Data driven instruction
Constrained curricula
SEL/DEI
PBIS
Toothless Codes of Conduct
Identity politics
Pandemic missteps
Invasion of the Chromebooks
Blanket anti-testing stance
Seriously bad messaging
Student centered methodologies:
Discovery. PBL. Constructivism.
Reading this informative post struck something of a parallel chord within UK politics.
(Just to clarify I am by inclination a far-left UK socialist-enough to give most Americans concerns if not nightmares. Additional note: UK socialist are probably the most argumentative dysfunctional political grouping ). I will tell you a tale.
When UK’s Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, won the 1997 General Election amidst the celebrations were cries of dismay from one Far Left-Leaving grouping that he was a sell-out. They only gained traction during the Iraq debacle. When the Conservatives returned to government in 2010, this Far Left grouping known as Momentum led by Jeremy Corbyn won control of Labour.
Whereas the broad aims of this movement were laudable, their ineptitude at gauging public moods in the long game were near criminally incompetent. Anyone be they politician, commentator, journalist of grouping in the public were attacked with a vitriol comparable to MAGA (without guns). If you were not for them, you were against them and there was little attempt to win hearts and minds only loudly whine about how unfair ‘The System’, ‘The Media’ and anyone else was against them. They also revelled in Conspiracies.
Thus in seems as if the Democrats have managed to mix the failings of two of Labour’s eras. A bad mix of moving too close to the Opposition’s policies, while later suggesting an underlying that failure to embrace a policy indicated a personal failing. The remote Momentum movement gifted one of the more inept fellows Boris Johnson to became a Prime Minister with an historic majority. In short people felt Labour had not connected with them, was acting in a political elitist manner (You don’t understand? You must be a right-wing moron).
For all of his myriad faults Blair did early on grasp the idea that in a Democracy winning and holding a narrative at voter base was vital. From there you could build. Regrettably his Hubris Radar was often switched off….. but that’s another story.
On at least Education The Democrats currently seem to have a knack of grasping the worst of all choices. They would do well to study the fate of Corbyn’s crew, who by their ineptitude let the British people down.
I think Democrats’ attitude on public education pretty much reflects on their current platform and their worldview. Thomas Frank is right about their problems in Obama era and 2016 election. They saw exactly what he describes in his book “Listen Liberal” (2016). I assume most teachers who are dealing with ongoing assault on public education will likely vote Democrats, but I’m not sure that will remain the same if they keep prioritizing elites/silicon tech/professional class over public workers and small businesses as their key voting blocs. Public education is already under assault long before this pandemic and anti-CRT/Education gag order, and some teachers are leaving. In some states like Virginia, parents who traditionally vote for Democrats are now having a difficult time discerning their votes, thanks to mis-prioritization of agendas(e.g., economy, healthcare, housing) and never-ending culture war that is affecting their children’s learning. With Biden’s continuous struggle for lower approval rating, an upcoming mid-term election bodes ill for them.