Dear Kamala,
You are an exciting candidate, and I am thrilled to help in any way I can to see you become President of the United States. I admired President Biden and his courage in selecting you to be his Vice-President.
Now I see you in the campaign trail, happy and spreading joy. Quite a contrast to Trump, who is always scowling, angry, and promising to wreak vengeance on his enemies.
I have one piece of advice: Please do not choose Josh Shapiro as your Vice President. I know he is popular in Pennsylvania, and you need Pennsylvania.
But Josh Shapiro is a supporter of vouchers. Vouchers are a hoax. Their boosters are right-wing foundations who oppose abortion, gun control, and climate action. Vouchers hurt public schools. Vouchers are the pet project of Betsy DeVos, Charles Koch, the Bradley Foundation, the Olin Foundation, and Texas evangelical billionaires Wilks and Tim Dunn. Another huge voucher supporter is multibillionaire Jeff Yass, the richest man in Pennsylvania, who has spread money to other states to promote vouchers and is rumored to have encouraged Shapiro to push vouchers.
Vouchers are bad not only because of their supporters but because they fail to help poor kids. In fact, the evidence from evaluations in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and D.C. demonstrate that vouchers damage the academic outcomes of poor kids.
Most students who use vouchers are already enrolled in private schools. Why should the state subsidize families who don’t need the money but would be happy to have it as a gift from the state?
I know you don’t have a lot of time for reading these days, but I urge you to read anything that voucher researcher Josh Cowen has written since 2022. In that year, he declared that vouchers had failed and were hurting the kids they were supposed to help. His new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, lucidly describes the origins of vouchers in the fight against desegregation in the 1950s and their utter failure to help “poor kids escape from failing schools.”
You have a great list of potential VPs. Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania should not be on that list.
Thank you,
Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Since the election of the Republican nominee is a threat to the world, I support the choice of the candidate who will be the best for winning this November. Since fighter pilots and astronauts are effectively celebrities and Americans vote celebrities into office, I find Arizona Senator Kelly appealing for getting undecided voters.
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My husband also believes Kelly is the best choice in the field of contenders. He is from a swing state, a bona fide American hero, and he has a compelling family story.
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If Trump wins Pennsylvania, there’s a 90+% chance that he wins an electoral college majority. HINT: that means he will be President again. I know you are totally subservient to K-12 teachers unions, but blithely disregarding the importance of Pennsylvania is what Trump wants.
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I agree that Pennsylvania is super important. Pennsylvania has lots of Democrats in the east and some right wing folks in rural areas. Prior to our misguided neoliberal economic policies that decimated the working class, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of American democracy, always leaned to the left. Pennsylvania voted for John Fetterman, a Democrat that had a stroke, when he couldn’t even talk. The left showed up for him. Black voters are important to the commonwealth. As a former Pennsylvanian, I think Black voters will be energized by Harris entering the race. They will show up and help stop the right wing. I believe that at its core, Pennsylvania is more blue than red.
Shapiro is beholden to right wing billionaire Jeffrey Yass who reportedly gave him $6 million dollars for his campaign to inflict vouchers on Pennsylvania. Shapiro has too much baggage, IMO.
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Doris, I am not subservient to teachers’ unions. I am a supporter of American public schools. I oppose privatization of public school funding.
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I think Harris must seriously consider a VP with a military history that’s more impressive than Vance, which shouldn’t be all that difficult. The only thing Vance can honestly brag about is surviving Marine Corps boot camp.
My choice: Mark Kelly, a former NASA astronaut and Navy combat pilot married to Gabby Giffords.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore is my second choice, an Army combat vet and Rhodes Scholar
3rd choice: Pete Buttigieg. a former navy intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan for 7 months who was exposed to dangerous situations a lot, and he is also a Rhodes Scholar.
And Shapiro didn’t serve.
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I don’t know. Pennsylvania is pretty darn important, and the veep will have no authority on policy.
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Obama enticed voters with Linda Darling Hammond and then gave us Arne Duncan.
A journalist who was interviewed last night perceives that the campaign of the Republican nominee is most frightened by Josh Shapiro.
Being well known celebrities helped Reagan and Trump get elected.
Difficult to know what to wish for.
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There are other potential nominees with excellent records of supporting public schools: Roy Cooper of North Carolina; Andy Beshear of Kentucky; Tim Walz of Minnesota. Maybe Mark Kelly of Arizona. I say maybe because I know the records of the others more than Kelly.
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Yeah but the question is Pennsylvania.
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I live in right wing North Florida where there are lots of right wing extremists. We still have lots of MAGA maniacs, but I am sensing less enthusiasm for Trump now that he is a felon. I see more people ridiculing the cartoonish Matt Gaetz as well. More people are speaking up against some of right wing claims including the goal to destroy public schools. Parents are asking questions about a M4L candidate, and I have been trying to warn them about what they M4L stand for and just got called “an idiot” on social media. I try to give them facts. By the way Florida will spend close to $4 billion on vouchers this year. What a waste of public money! https://accountabaloney.com/2024-25-florida-voucher-funding-approaches-4-billion/
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Wow! $4 billion for vouchers.
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I know we’ve been burned in the past. Candidate Obama told teachers he opposed high stakes testing, and Candidate Biden opposed charter schools when addressing teachers. It’s hard to trust a politician. Candidate Harris just recently gave a speech to the AFT, however, in support of unions and opposition to Project 2025, which would suggest she will not choose a DeVos acolyte. Take her words as you will. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/25/kamala-harris-speech-teachers-union
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And while I’m blasting into the neoliberal past and discussing Democratic politicians who, with friends like those, who needs enemies, Antonio Villaraigosa recently announced another run at California governor, and Governor Newsom pledged party unity with him. I want to be clear. I will not lend my support to anyone who has tried repeatedly to ruin my life as an educator. Villaraigosa is a nonstarter. There needs to be no more privatization hungry, corporate libertarians in the party of labor, the party of the people. Eli Broad is dead. Let his pet politician find a new gig.
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Well said, LCT. I am tired of the duplicity of the corporate Democrats and the party accommodating their undermining of public education. Cardona was selected because the corporate Democrats knew he’d play ball with the charter lobby. It’s slap in the face of legitimate public educators.
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I hope the AFT extracted some concessions from Harris before they voted to endorse her.
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Actually, the two billion is for the entire privatization bundle, but vouchers are ever increasing.
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If Harris chooses Shapiro, I bet she could lose Michigan. He served in the Israeli military and with all that’s going on in Gaza, she’ll lose the Arab vote and others who don’t like genocide.
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Nah.
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Thank you!!! From PA
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Can a candidate ‘redeem’ themself from past actions?
Howabout if the teacher makes him write on the blackboard/whiteboard
for all to see: “I will support and promote public education.”
Would this work??
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I agree that Shapiro would not be a good choice.
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I think that now, Harris’s consideration of her vice president would be, more along the lines of who can best, help her beat Trump in the elections, after all, gaining control of the executive branch is the, primary concerns for the, Democrats now, and, Harris would not have the, extra attention I think, to pick someone as her running mate who will, benefit the future outlook of the U.S., she would be more focused of choising a running mate, who can, help her, win the, needed votes, to not allow Trump to, get back into, office again.
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who can best, help her beat Trump in the election
YES
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I am hearing that a lot of young people like Gov. Beshear from Kentucky. So I took a look and he is amazing — has the Pete Buttigeig ability to ignore the biased questions put to him by the media and instead focus on what is important. His take downs of Vance have been brilliant, and Beshear’s standing up for trans people DESPITE being in conservative Kentucky shows how it is possible to turn the right wing culture attacks against them.
The problem with Josh Shapiro is that he has made extremely divisive statements that has turned off young voters concerned with the Israel Palestinian situation. There is no good reason to divide traditional Dem voters or have them stay home by choosing someone like Shapiro (and his religion has nothing to do with it.)
I recently heard Illinois Gov. Pritzker’s name mentioned. I thought that also sounded like a bad idea, but my kid tells me that young people actually LIKE Pritzker! I was shocked because I don’t pay attention to Illinois and thought he was some billionaire neocon, but apparently he is quite progressive.
I don’t think Josh Shapiro is going to guarantee Pennsylvania. What will guarantee Pennsylvania will be the liberal media not demonizing Kamala. If they start up their usual shenanigans, Shapiro as VP is not going to help one bit. If they don’t, a good VP who reinforces her case is what she needs, no matter what state they are from.
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Thank you for this, Diane.
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A two-woman ticket, Harris/Whitmer or Harris/Warren, would further galvanize the stay-at-home Dems and so be best from a functional perspective. The governor of Massachusetts is the most liberal Republican in the country, so she wouldn’t replace Warren with a troglodyte, and at any rate, the people of the liberal state of Massachusetts would, when the go to choose their next Senator, choose a Democrat.
But if that is not to be, clearly the SMARTEST choice would be Buttigieg. He would also galvanize the base. He would bring out the worst in the Republicans, creating a backlash against them. The man is freaking brilliant. He speaks eight languages!!!! He is a combat veteran. And he’s a Dad. And he absolutely slays his opponents any time he is interviewed about them, meaning that he is incredibly quick and articulate. I suspect that his is by far the highest IQ of any person in contention. Genius level.
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But traditionally, of course, Americans have looked at candidates and said, “I really want the dumb one.” Reagan. Bush Jr. Trump.
A really smart person like, say, Adlai Stevensen, has that to overcome with the American electorate, which seems to have a thing for dunces and buffoons.
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Agreed!
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Agreeing about Buttigieg’s abilities.
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I am so pleased that some others see this.
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Great post, Diane!
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Here in NC we have had great support from Gov. Roy Cooper in pushing back against school vouchers. He has spoken out strongly for keeping our public dollars in our public schools. If our elected officials do not support public schools, they are aiding and abetting the undermining and destruction of our public school system. Thank you for this article. We saw how destructive it is when national leadership does not stand up and protect this public good! Thank you Diane for your unwavering support of our public schools! Public Schools DO THE PUBLIC GOOD! Yevonne Brannon, Public Schools First NC
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Thank you, Yevonne, for your steadfast leadership of the fight to strengthen public schools in North Carolina. Governor Cooper has been wonderful. It’s disgraceful that the NC General Assembly gerrymandered the state to keep the right wingers in control. Even more disgraceful was the turncoat Trish Cotham, who ran as a Democrat, then flipped parties to give Republicans a supermajority in both houses, then supported vouchers and a ban on abortion. Both of which she pledged to oppose when running for election.
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shared this on parents supporting Teachers LAUSD
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