NPR released a new poll showing that, despite the loud mouths attacking public schools, most parents like their public schools and teachers.
They like their schools despite the hundreds of millions, if not billions, invested in promoting school choice, charter schools, vouchers, and privatization.
This poll suggests that Democrats should go after people like Ron DeSantis and other politicians trying to harm a civic institution that most Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, appreciate.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“This poll suggests that Democrats should go after people like Ron DeSantis and other politicians trying to harm a civic institution that most Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, appreciate.”
First those Democrats would have to believed they were right. Unlike Republicans who say they are right even when they know they are wrong.
You have 2 of 3 Democrats running for Governor in NY. One is Republican fat free the other Republican 2% fat free. Both running on cutting taxes , one makes a barely existent crime problem his central theme.
“When given the choice between a Republican and someone acting like a Republican the people will chose the real thing every time.” Truman
Haaaa!!! Love this quotation from Truman, Joel!
Yes. Phi Delta Kappa has conducted an annual survey of parental attitudes, and they’ve all been very positive toward public schools and teachers, I believe.
How many times have the Democrats failed to properly combat the growing malignancy of the Republican Party’s fascist, lying, misleading, manipulating tactics?
I think the answer is 100% of the time. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Actually, it is time to hold Dems feet to the fire for their role in promoting and enabling the whole ed reform movement. As atonement, they should embrace full funding of real public schools for their platform — no more stealth privatization to benefit their private equity friends. Charter and vouchers have never survived an actual democratic vote. If Dems want a winning issue, this would be it.
Republican attacks on public education is an excellent wedge issue for Dems to split that voters. They should go hard on Republicans for trying to destroy public schools, link them to DeVos & other Republican barbarians.
That is, if the Democratic leadership chose to actually engage in politics. Dems were all in on public ed when DeVos was Sec of Ed but suddenly it’s not an issue now that she’s gone/not gone.
In this Murmuration PAC, Inc poll there is consensus among both R’s and D’s that all aspects of American history should be taught, including the legacy of slavery and racism and how it impacts our institutions, laws, and society to this day. The question was broken into 2 choices and written with nuance so responses could be interpreted as relatively representative of the distinct groups they measured. https://murmuration.org/static/2022-Murmuration-Benchmark-Poll-Memo.pdf
I don’t know anything about Murmuration PAC, INC. A couple of red flags on this polling group: 1. They’re PAC with a political agenda that is not revealed. 2. They don’t show their sampling methods or reliability data. 3. We don’t know their funders. 4. All of the poll questions are relatively nuanced, don’t seem to be push poll questions except for the school choice question.
They found “choice” as a brand is popular across both R’s and D’s. The question on school choices was short, no distinctions or nuance around public v private schools, school privatization, funding, charters & vouchers. School “choice” as an idea was polled, allowing someone to get an outcome they wanted.
Murmuration is owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s daughter Emma. He is an avid supporter of charters, and has occasionally supported vouchers. The question on the poll was vague. Bloomberg just gave $750,000,000 to expand charter schools. Then he gave another $200,000,000 to two NYC charter chains—the harsh Success Academy, which has sky-high test scores and sky-high attrition rates; and the Harlem Children’s Zone, which is wildly overfunded and has average scores.
I do not trust a Bloomberg poll on a topic about which he is passionate.
Almost 90% of the students in the US are enrolled in public schools, even in states with charters and vouchers. That means that most Republican parents choose public schools.
The Democrats would be very stupid not to support public schools in the coming elections.
There was an interesting Marist poll this week that included the question, “If this year’s election for Congress were held today, which party’s candidate are you more likely to vote for in your district?”
Among households with children under the age of 18, 60% answered “Republican.” 32% answered “Democrat.”
Given the fact hat 75% of Republicans believe, contrary to all evidence, that the election of 2020 was “stolen,” and that most Republicans in Congress agree, this does not bode well for our democracy.
In the days of LBJ (pre-Vietnam), and RFK, these folk such as DeSantis or Cruz would have been sitting targets and swept away during a coffee break or ‘Any Other Business’….. Trump simply would not have happened except as an Independent Quirk and a figure of ridicule by all sections of the professional press.
(1) The wealth gap, driven by men like Koch, has increased, pitting better paid workers against poorer workers. Koch created the opportunity and used his wealth to influence media and politicians toward his views. (An organization that fights against Koch’s network is UnKochMyCampus.org.)
(2) An alliance formed between evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics. Pat Buchanan’s site, in a posted Ryan Girdusky interview, describes the right wing’s scheme. The alliance backs the GOP. Jefferson warned, in every age, in every country, the priest aligns with the despot.
Out of fear, the Democrats’ messaging about abortion and LGBTQ issues avoids connecting them to the religious sects’ attempts to take liberty away from Americans. The research at the Scielo site, 3-3-2021, “The new official contents of sex education in Mexico: laicism in the crosshairs”, is broader than the title indicates and provides insight.
Media choose to falsely portray the politicization of the Catholic Church as liberal, highlighting the outlier, Pope Francis, instead of informing the public that the right wing steers the American branch of the Church’s political efforts. Pope Francis has warned the public about the Church’s colonization of the U.S. right wing. Steve Bannon, John Eastman, Leonard Leo, William Barr and Koch’s Paul Weyrich provide example of politicized religious.
In Indiana, Catholics take credit for school privatization legislation. Media report that the VP of EdChoice in Kentucky is the associate director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky. In some states the Catholic conferences cohost school choice rallies with the Koch’s AFP.