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Virginia: These Candidates Will Fight for Public Schools!

By dianeravitch
October 25, 2017 //
3

National attention has rightly focused on the gubernatorial race between Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, a moderate Democrat, and Ed Gillespie, a Trump Republican. Northam is a military veteran, a physician, and an experienced government official who will defend the rights of all Virginians to justice, healthcare, public education, and a safe environment. Gillespie is a former chair of the Republican National Committee and GOP hack who will protect Confederate statues, privatize public schools, and enact the Trump-DeVos agenda.

If Northam is elected, he needs allies in the state legislature. If he is not elected, Gillespie needs a legislature to block him when he tries to transfer public funds to religious, private, and for-profit schools, as he has promised to do.

Here are candidates for the legislature who will fight for Virginia’s public schools. Please vote for them, volunteer for them, donate to their campaigns:

Debra Rodman: http://rodmanfordelegate.com

Schuyler VanValkenburg: https://bluevirginia.us/2017/09/schuyler-vanvalkenburg-vows-to-keep-right-wing-assault-from-gutting-virginias-public-education-system; https://www.vanvalkenburg4va.com

Jennifer Carroll Foy: https://www.jennifercarrollfoy.org

Elizabeth Guzman: http://elizabethguzmanforvirginia.com

Hala Ayala: https://ayalafordelegate.com

Shelley Simonds: https://www.simondsfordelegate.com

Morgan Goodman: https://goodmanfordelegate.com

Kelly Fowler: https://www.voteforfowler.com

Please vote. Every vote counts.

Vote for delegates who will improve our public schools.

Your vote could be the single vote that wins the election!

Categories Democrats, Education Reform, Supporting public schools

Senators Lamar Alexander (Piano) and Tim Kaine (Harmonica) Demonstrate True Bipartisan Harmony

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
17

Senators Lamar Alexander and Tim Kaine demonstrate true bipartisan harmony as they practice for an appearance with the Buck Mountain Band to perform as “The Amateurs” at the 17th Annual Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, which occurred yesterday.

It is only 15 seconds.

Enjoy!

Categories Democrats, Republicans

Peter Greene: When Democrats Echo DeVos

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2017 //
35

Peter agreement has noticed a Democratic think tank in D.C. that sounds like an echo chamber for Betsy DeVos. It is called the Progressive Policy Institute, and back in the 1990s, it inspired many of the Clinton administration’s flirtations with privatization.

It’s back, and it sounds like a np mouthpiece for a Betsy Dezvos. Even DFER and other charter-loving Dems have tried to distance themselves from the Trump administration. But not PPI.

Its spokesman on education is David Osborne, and he adores privatization. He is yet another non-educator who wants to reinvent schools. And of course, he loves charters. Like ALEC, like the Walton family, like the whole privatization industry, he loves deregulation without accountability.

Peter writes:

“You may not have heard of the Progressive Policy Institute lately, but they’ll be coming up more often as their Education Honcho releases his new book. PPI is worth paying attention to, if for no other reason than the organization provides Exhibit #1,635 of Why Teachers Can’t Trust Alleged Democrats….

“I have not read the book (and it’s not high on my list), but I am curious where he stands on the charter characteristics of non-transparency, non-accountability, and generating profits for private corporations and individuals. Nor do I see any signs of Osborne grappling of what happens to “undesireable” students in a charter world in which no charter has to take a student they don’t want (a serious issue in New Orleans).

“There’s a whole world of charter mis-information here, coupled with the tone of someone who has no interest in a serious conversation about any of the issues that charters raise. That’s all just another day at the education debates.

“No, what I want you to notice, and remember as this group pops up, is that these are self-labeled progressives, folks with long and strong Democratic ties. The GOP is no friend of public education, but at least they never pretend otherwise. But here’s evidence once again that when it comes to education, some Democrats are completely indistinguishable from the GOP.”

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Linda Lyon: The Fight to Save Public Education and Democracy in Arizona

By dianeravitch
September 3, 2017 //
10

Linda Lyon is a retired Air Force colonel and President-Elect of the Arizona School Boards Association.

She writes here about the forces massing against the parents and educators who oppose vouchers. Betsy DeVos’s organization American Federation for Children has jumped into the campaign, smearing Arizona’s Teacher of the Year. What a disgrace! DeVos vs. democracy.


During the last legislative session in Arizona, lawmakers approved a full expansion of vouchers to all 1.1 million Arizona students against very vocal opposition. In response, Save Our Schools Arizona conducted a grassroots petition drive with over 2,500 volunteers collecting over 111K signatures to get the issue on next year’s ballot.

To fight back, privatization proponents have recently ramped up their “take no prisoners” war on public education in Arizona with attacks on Arizona’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, Christine Marsh. According to The Arizona Republic, the American Federation for Children (AFC), (“dark money” group previously led by Betsy Devos), recently “unleashed robocalls” in the Phoenix area targeting Marsh. In a related effort, a Republican state legislator, Rep. David Livingston, R-Glendale, also filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Isela Blanc, D-Tempe, accusing her of disorderly conduct.

What is the egregious violation these women are accused of? According to voucher proponents, (during the drive to gain petition signatures for an anti-voucher referendum), both circulated petitions without a box at the top of the petition checked. The box, according to state law, is required to be checked prior to petitions being circulated, to reflect whether the circulator is a volunteer or paid petition gatherer. In Livingston’s complaint and in AFC’s robocall, Blanc and Marsh respectively, are accused of “falsifying petition sheets” by marking the boxes after the signatures were collected.

I understand the law is the law, but I’ve circulated many petitions and I can tell you that not one signatory has ever given a damn about whether that little box was checked. They don’t care who is circulating the petition, just that it is legitimate and for a cause they care about. The “box” in question likely matters to someone, but certainly not to the voting public.

Yet, AFC chose to reach into Arizona to demand Marsh “come clean on who altered” her petition. “I’m calling from the American Federation for Children with an alert about an election scandal in this district,” the call said. “Christine Marsh, candidate for state Senate, circulated a petition sheet which was later falsified and filed with the Arizona Secretary of State, a felony. Christine Marsh won’t say whether it was she or someone else who broke the law by tampering with the document. Christine needs to come forward with the truth. Christine, stop hiding behind the 5th amendment and come clean.”

Always one to cut right to the heart of the matter, Marsh told The Republic “she was ‘incredulous’ that an out-of-state special-interest group was spending money in her race 15 months before the election.”

I personally know Christine Marsh, am very proud to have had her representing our state, and understand why AFC and the pro-privatization lobby is threatened by her. Christine has taught English Language Arts for almost a quarter century and she still thinks she has the best job in the world. She is passionate about her students’ success and is a great example of the type of excellent teachers we have in our public district schools. She doesn’t do it for the money, but because she absolutely loves the students. She is also a vocal advocate for her students and public education and is not afraid to speak out to combat injustices. She is now running for the AZ Legislature (a job that will pay even less than she makes as a teacher), because she knows that is the only way she’ll have a chance at affecting real change.

Categories Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Democrats, Education Industry, Privatization

Mike Klonsky: Voucher Deal Shows Democrats Stand for Nothing

By dianeravitch
August 30, 2017 //
68

Mike Klonsky assesses the Illinois funding bill, which set aside for $75 million for vouchers, and declares it is a total sell–out by Democrats.

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2017/08/il-voucher-vote-reversal-shows-dems.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+mikeklonsky+(SmallTalk)&m=1

“The passage of the IL school funding bill, which included $75M for private school vouchers, is being hailed as a “model of bi-partisanship” and “compromise” by both Gov. Rauner and Speaker Madigan. It was neither. It was instead, an exercise in duplicity on the part of state Democrats and a lifeline for a Republican governor who had become totally isolated and ripe for a 2018 election defeat after his initial veto of the same school funding bill.

“Democrats demonstrated once again that they’re a party that stands for nothing and that their campaign slogan of a “Better Deal” as opposed to resistance, is little more than a call for more opportunism. It’s a recipe for disaster in the upcoming elections where Republicans shouldn’t have a leg to stand on.”

The die was cast, writes Mike, after Rahm met with the local Cardinal and with DeVos.

“There was no “compromise” to be made since the voucher deal between Chicago’s mayor and Cardinal Cupich, had been in the works for months, specifically since Rahm’s closed door meeting with Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos back in April. Monday’s two House votes were mere Madigan-choreographed theater.”

Categories Democrats, Education Reform, Funding, Illinois

Jeff Bryant Interviews Becky Pringle of NEA on the Disillusionment of Progressives Re Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
August 23, 2017 //
22

Those of you who read this blog regularly have often read insightful articles by Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network.

In this post, Jeff interviews Becky Pringle of the NEA about charters, vouchers, and other efforts to withdraw support from public schools. They were both at Netroots, a gathering of politically active progressives.

Are progressives waking up to the dangers of privatization?

In the Democratic primary in Georgia, a candidate who supported the creation of an “opportunity district” was scorned by fellow Democrats. In Virginia, a Democratic candidate who had been pals with prominent charter supporters lost the primary for governor.

Read the article and listen to the podcast.

Jeff begins like this:

Every year Netroots Nation is arguably the most important annual event in the progressive community and a barometer of what’s on the minds of “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.” At this year’s event in Atlanta, the headline-making happening was Democratic primary candidate for Georgia governor Rep. Stacey Evans being shouted down by protestors holding signs saying, “Stacey Evans = Betsy DeVos,” “School Vouchers ≠ Progressive,” and “Trust Black Women” (Evans’ opponent in the primary is Georgia Rep. Stacey Abrams, who is African American.)

Protesters circulated leaflets comparing Evan’s past votes on education-related bills to positions DeVos espouses. This included her support for a constitutional amendment in 2015 that would allow the state to convert public schools to charter school management, her support for a “Parent Trigger” that would allow petition drives to convert public schools to charters, and her support of a school voucher program.

Message: Progressives support public schools, not charters or vouchers. If ALEC supports it, it is not progressive.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Democrats, Education Industry, Privatization

A Message to the Democratic National Committee

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2017 //
49

I support individual candidates I believe in. I do not send money to the DNC. I often get emails asking which topic concerns me most, listing a dozen topics but not K-12 education (free college is usually on the list). I write back and say, “Not a dime until you support public schools and oppose privatization.”

A reader posted this comment:

“In the year running up to the POTUS election I received a call almost daily from the DNC about Dems taking back the Senate, or winning NC for Hillary, or the evil republicans (a point I have been well aware of for 50 yrs). I told them I was not sending one dime to the DNC for 1 reason: Arne Duncan. Several volunteers said they’d heard the same from other people.

“You would think the DNC would have listened to their most loyal voters as they lost state house after state house to Republicans (the count is now 32 states in Republican control).

“Instead the DNC abandoned us.They thought they could helicopter in at the last min & win the election. After all, in their mind we had “nowhere else to go” (from Thomas Frank, Listen, Liberal!).

“After Devos was appointed, Arne Duncan tweeted “Miss me now?” That tells me all I need to know about the DNC.”

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Privatization

Jeff Bryant: The Democrats’ Growing Divide and Confusion Over “Reform”

By dianeravitch
August 19, 2017 //
53

Jeff Bryant assesses the confusion within the Democratic party over “education reform.”

Some Democrats (too few) have realized that preservation of public schools are part of the party’s fundamental agenda. Others (like New York Governor Cuomo, Colorado’s Congressman Jared Polis, and Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy have embraced charter schools and other parts of the rightwing agenda).

The bottom line, however, is that teachers in public schools and union members can’t be expected to turn out to vote for politicians, regardless of their party, who share the agenda of Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump.

So, no matter how uncomfortable it may be for elected officials like Cuomo to acknowledge, their advocacy for charter schools mirrors the views of ALEC, the anti-union Walton family, the Koch brothers, and DeVos.

Trump said that there are “many sides” to the events in Charlottesville. Charter advocates would have us believe that privately managed schools should be embraced by Democrats; they would have us forget that more than 90% of charters are non-union.

The reality is that public school teachers and their unions are a core element of the Democratic party base. If the Democrats abandon their base, they can’t win elections. The hedge fund managers may fund their campaigns, but they can’t turn out the vote.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, Privatization

The New Republic: DeVos Is Making “School Choice” Toxic for Democrats

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2017 //
48

Graham Vyse, an editor at The New Republic, shows how Betsy DeVos has created a fissure within the Democratic party over school choice.

By her passionate advocacy for charters, vouchers, and every other alternative to public schools, she has put pro-school choice Democrats like Cory Booker into a bind. Booker has vociferously supported both charters and vouchers, yet as a Democrat with hopes for the future, felt compelled to vote against DeVos. It is somewhat amusing to watch him and others try to put distance between themselves and DeVos when she is carrying out the same ideas they have publicly espoused. Any Democrat who is aligned with DeVos on any part of her repugnant agenda should change parties.

“The ground definitely is more fertile,” said Preston Green, an education professor at the University of Connecticut. “I think President Trump’s support of choice does make it difficult. It might make people think twice about it, and especially DeVos’s selling of it…. You’re definitely starting to see a shift.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s education agenda and criticism from civil rights groups “might have made it easier for those who oppose charters to oppose them more vociferously.”

Brookings Institution fellow Jon Valant made a similar case in February, writing that “the Trump administration’s support of charters and choice may be distracting from—and contributing to—an emerging political threat to school choice programs, especially charter schools: renewed skepticism from Democrats.” In other words, with her extremist position on school choice, DeVos may be harming the very movement she helped build.

The recent report by the NAACP calling for regulation of charter schools is another straw in the wind, a very large straw, suggesting that the Democrats’ embrace of school choice is politically hazardous.

DeVos is a gift to those of us who have warned for years that privately managed charters is a decisive victory for privatization and a significant step away from democratically controlled public education.

The message of her tenure in office is that school choice is a radical rightwing strategy that defunds public schools.

She gives Democrats a new opportunity to separate themselves from the favorite cause of the Walton family, the Koch brothers, and the Republican party.

As the recent Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia showed, candidates who support public schools without qualification can energize their base of teachers and parents. Democrats who favor any form of privatization will be unable to call upon that base.

If Democrats hope to win back a significant share of House seats in the 2018 election, they must put support for public schools at the top of their agenda. That’s where the voters are.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Democrats, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Jeff Bryant: Why Democrats Should Unite For a Charter Moratorium

By dianeravitch
July 8, 2017 //
75

Jeff Bryant argues cogently in this article that Democrats should unite on behalf of a charter school moratorium.

If the Democratic party wants to revive its base–labor and civil rights–it should heed Jeff’s sound advice.

Charters and school choice were never a natural fit with the public philosophy of the Denocratic party, which recognized the power of government to advance the common good, because charters are typically non-union, typically more segregated than the district they are in, and are aligned with the privatizing philosophy of the Republican Party.

It is passing strange to see any Democrat lending support to a policy championed by Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, the Walton family, the Koch brothers, and every Republican governor.

Read the entire article. Here is an excerpt:

“Democrats know that success for their party relies on bringing labor and civil rights advocates together on key issues.

“Faced with disastrous Donald Trump, labor and civil rights advocates are rallying in common cause behind health care for all, a living wage for every worker, a tax system where the wealthy pay their fair share, tuition-free college, and an end to senseless, never-ending wars.

“Here’s another rallying point labor and civil rights agree on: A moratorium on charter schools.

“This week, the nation’s largest labor union, the National Education Association, broke from its cautious regard of charter schools to pass a new policy statement that declares charter schools are a “failed experiment” that has led to a “separate and unequal” sector of schools that are not subject to the same “safeguards and standards” of public schools.

“To limit the further expansion of these schools, the NEA wants a moratorium on new charters that aren’t subject to democratic governance and aren’t supportive of the common good in local communities.

“The NEA’s action echoes a resolution passed earlier this year by the national NAACP calling for a moratorium on the expansion of charters and for stronger oversight of these schools. These declarations also align with a policy statement issued last year by the Movement for Black Lives, a network Black Lives Matter organizers, calling for a moratorium on charter schools.

“Now that labor and civil rights groups have come together in a unified call for a moratorium on these unregulated, privately-operated schools, prominent leaders in the Democratic party can champion this issue knowing they have a grassroots constituency that supports them.

“Democrats in states where charters have been the most controversial – such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and California – should be especially interested in leading on this issue for a number of reasons.

“A Shared Concern For Basic Rights

“First, in most communities, unregulated charters are segregating students and undermining democratically governed public institutions.

“In their calls for a charter school moratorium, NEA, NAACP, and the Movement for Black Lives express a basic concern that these privately-operated schools are not subject to the same legal constraints as other public institutions, including federal and state laws and protections for students with disabilities, minorities, and school employees.

“The statements share a belief that charter schools have become counter-productive to a school system intent on serving the needs and interests of all students, and they argue that charters are reversing the progress achieved by civil rights milestones like the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

“All three organizations maintain that charter schools, as currently conceived, undermine local public schools, particularly those that are in communities that are already marginalized by racial prejudice and economic inequities. These organizations insist that charters must not be financially supported at the expense of local schools.

“Each statement shares the concern that charter schools are not subject to the same transparency and accountability standards as public schools, and they argue that making charters subject to a democratically elected local authority is the way to bring these schools back in line with responsible governance.

“Charters: An Idea Gone Awry

“In a press release announcing its new charter school policy, the NEA declares that charter schools have evolved far from their original intent to serve local communities as “incubators of innovation” and have instead become a force undermining local schools “without producing any overall increase in student learning and growth.”

“NEA’s contention that charter schools are an idea gone awry has widely held support.”

“The original vision of charter schools as laboratory schools, where teachers would have a stronger voice, has evolved to a more politically conservative vision that views charters as competitors of public schools in a market where only the schools with greater advantages can survive.”

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats, Education Industry, Privatization
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