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American Prospect: Tim Walz Is the Best Choice for Kamala’s Veep

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2024 //
20

Ten days ago, a friend suggested that Tim Walz would be Kamala Harris’s best choice for her VP. My response was: “Tim who?” I looked him up on Google, and I was intrigued. He is Governor of Minnesota. He grew up in Nebraska. He taught public school for 20 years. He believes in community schools. He believes in public schools.

Then I saw Jen Psaki interview him on MSNBC, and I became a believer. Without being asked about education, he volunteered that vouchers were a terrible idea, and he was well informed about why. He had read the research.

I was pleased to see that Ryan Cooper of The American Prospect agrees with me.

He wrote:

With Kamala Harris abruptly taking Joe Biden’s place as the next Democratic nominee for president, speculation about who will be her running mate has naturally exploded. Some reporting has the choice being narrowed down to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and perhaps Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

I am neither capable of nor interested in trying to predict which one she will pick. However, I do believe there is a better choice that fits all the apparent criteria: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

First, the other contenders have some significant downsides. As David Klion writes at The New Republic, Shapiro is one of the worst Democrats in the country on the Gaza war. He supports legal prohibitions on the BDS movement, joined in the cynical Republican dogpile on University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, repeatedly implied that all the protesters against Israel’s war are antisemites, and in general supported Benjamin Netanyahu’s psychotic violence for the last nine months. To be fair, Shapiro had also said that Netanyahu is “one of the worst leaders of all time” who is leading Israel in the “wrong direction.”

Biden’s support for Israel’s war has badly split the Democratic Party, and alienated key youth and minority constituencies. It is vital for Harris to at least paper over this crack (and, one hopes, actually force an end to the war should she become president). She seems to realize this, and sources close to her are leaking stories to reporters about how she would likely take a different tack on Gaza.

Picking Shapiro would immediately reopen that wound in the party coalition. Many activists would immediately start attacking her vociferously, deflating the rare moment of party goodwill and optimism that has built up.

Sen. Kelly is not so incendiary as Shapiro, but he has one massive black mark on his record: Back in 2021, he refused to support the PRO Act, a sweeping overhaul of labor law that would make it easier to organize and add some actual punishments for companies that break the law. One of the reasons so many employers routinely infringe on their workers’ rights is that when they do, the typical punishments are tiny fines or being forced to put up a sign. Even Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) supported the PRO Act. Picking Kelly would also mean Dems have to win a special election in 2026 to keep his Senate seat, while he would otherwise not be up until 2028.

Unions are not only a core Democratic Party constituency and source of campaign cash and precinct walkers, as Hamilton Nolan argues in his recent book The Hammer, they are absolutely vital for rebuilding a source of institutional ballast in the party that isn’t a handful of ultra-rich donors, and, indeed, for protecting American democracy over the long term. Kelly reversed course and endorsed the PRO Act on Wednesday, but this belated conversion makes his sincerity somewhat questionable.

Buttigieg is great on TV, but he has also never held even statewide office, and his tenure at the Department of Transportation has been marred by severe problems in both the airline industry and at Boeing. That’s not really his fault, but also probably not something Americans want to be reminded of.

Of the named contenders, Roy Cooper is perhaps best on paper. He’s a white guy from a swing state, he’s term-limited out, he’s been elected repeatedly in this otherwise Republican state that some think could swing Democratic this year with him on the ticket, and best of all, he’s got an excellent surname. However, he’s also a bit old at 67, and doesn’t have a very inspiring record—mainly he has been trampled underfoot by feral Republicans in the state legislature, who have all but abolished democracy at the legislative level with extreme gerrymandering. That’s not his fault, but it also doesn’t give him much of a record to boast of.

So let’s consider Walz. Demographically, he’s just what the party apparently thinks it needs: a straight, white, cis man from the Midwest. He’ll also be term-limited out in 2026. Though he doesn’t exactly look it, he’s also on the younger side—almost exactly the same age as Harris, as it happens. He’s also quite a good attack dog on TV.

More importantly, he’s had the best record of any recent Democratic governor. (Some might argue for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but she’s taken herself out of the veepstakes.) By way of comparison, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, blessed with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, recently canceled a congestion pricing scheme that had been in the works for decades, flushing perhaps a billion dollars down the toilet in the process. Meanwhile, Walz, with just a one-vote majority in the state Senate, has signed a legitimately sweeping set of reforms. As I detailed in a Prospect piece some time ago, these include a major expansion of labor rights (including a first-in-the-nation ban on employers compelling employees to attend anti-union meetings), a new paid family and medical leave system, protections for abortion and LGBT rights, legal recreational marijuana, restored voting rights to felons, universal free school breakfast and lunch, and more.

That reform package isn’t some kind of radical craziness far out of the Democratic mainstream. It amounts, more or less, to a state-level version of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Picking Walz would signal that Harris is serious about her plans to take another big policy swing, should Democrats win control of Congress, and likely inspire rank-and-file Dems to work even harder on her behalf.

The choice of running mate is often discussed in terms of campaign strategy—how the candidate might pander to certain regions or demographics, how the media might react, and so on. But as we are seeing right now, there is also the possibility it will be a very consequential decision. Just as Harris is taking Biden’s place in the campaign, her vice president might have to take over in turn. Tim Walz has shown he has what it takes.

Categories Accountability, Censorship, Democracy, Education Reform, Elections, Minnesota, Vouchers

Umair Haque: Code Red for Democracy!

By dianeravitch
July 29, 2024 //
21

Umair Haque, an economist, warns us that democracy is in deep trouble and only one force can save it. We the people.

He writes:

Code Red for American Democracy

The last week or two’s felt like a lifetime. It’s been body blow after body blow for democracy in America.

The Supreme Court ruled Trump was effectively already something like a dictator, enjoying “presumptive immunity.” A lunatic tried to assassinate Trump, and the far right promptly blamed it on the center and left, despite the assassin being a Republican. Meanwhile, Trump announced Vance as Vice Presidential pick. And all that came on the heels of the media carrying water for Trump, while trying their very best, it seemed, to take down Joe Biden, time and again, this time with character assassination of every stripe and form.

A lifetime.

So what does all this add up to? 

Code red. 

If this moment feel severe, historic, let me assure that it is.

Democracies rarely and barely face as much and as many troubles as all this.

Let’s now simplify some of the above. The range of forces arrayed against democracy by now includes: billionaires, a supine press, lunatics, crackpots, pundits, the judiciary. And even that’s an incomplete list. That is a long and powerful list of forces inimical to democracy.

And on the other side awaits what we can all now openly call fascism.

Are These the Final Stages of American Collapse?

It’s been a decade or so since I began predicting American collapse. And we went through a familiar cycle, many of you right along with me. I’d bet that even many of you who are long time readers might have been skeptical, then grudgingly accepting, and by now, your hair’s on fire.

By now, it’s hard to deny.

My prediction, in other words, was all too prescient, and I take no comfort from that. I warned precisely because I didn’t want this to happen.

But you might wonder: what happens next? Where are we, precisely?

America’s now in a very bad place.

Let’s now put some of the above even more formally. 

  • The Supreme Court’s mounting what amounts to a rolling judicial coup, assigning the Presidency unassailable powers.
  • The press appears uninterested in providing people facts, information, or basic knowledge with which to make informed decisions, focusing on personal attacks on Biden and other forms of tabloid journalism.
  • The GOP’s effectively been transformed into an instrument of Trumpism.
  • Project 2025 is its agenda, and it involves essentially creating a totalitarian state, or at least the beginnings of one. Who’s going to check, after all, that people are obeying all these new rules which cause them to lose their basic freedoms? 

I could go on, but the point should already be clear.

All these are forms of institutional collapse. Pretty advanced and severe institutional collapse. Democracy’s a fragile thing, and each of its institutions must work in tandem to provide it the sustenance and support it needs. Those institutions, at their most basic level, are the rule of law, the press, political “sides” not being against openly authoritarian, their bases accepting basic democratic norms of peace and consent and the transfer of power and so forth, aka civil society, and of course, leaders not openly aspiring to dictatorship.

You can think of all that as kind of a checklist for the basic health of a democracy.

And the frightening thing in America right now is that almost none of that checklist can be ticked off anymore. Almost none of democracy’s institutions work anymore. Some work partially, some barely, and many, not at all.

Worse, you can see the sort of degeneration before your eyes. Take the example of the press. A few weeks or months ago, even, its behavior today would have been unthinkable to many. Hundreds of articles attacking Biden, while portraying Trump as a hero, a martyr, a glorious and noble figure? Today, as we’ve discussed, the media’s enabling the strongman myth before our eyes, perhaps “obeying in advance,” as Timothy Snyder, the scholar, calls it.

The point is that the rate, scale, and pace of collapse is increasing swiftly. Institutions which are fundamental to democracy’s functioning are simply ceasing to function before our very eyes.

Democracy’s Last institution, and Why It’s the One Which Matters Most

All of that leaves us with one remaining institution. Have you guessed it yet?

The people.

This isn’t some kind of idealistic paean. I’m just going to tell it like it is, as a scholar and survivor of social collapse.

When the people are united, all those other institutions can fail, and democracy, in the end, can still survive. We’ve seen recent examples of just such a thing, in Poland, for example, and arguably, a very close call in other parts of Europe.

All of that brings us to Biden. Should he drop out? Shouldn’t he? This is politics as sport. Don’t fall for it. The truth is that it doesn’t matter very much. Whomever comes next? They’ll face precisely the same brutal abuse and hazing by media as Biden has, and most likely, even worse, since they’ve done it to everyone from Carter to Hillary to Al Gore and beyond.

The point isn’t the candidate. It’s the people.

Right now, America’s in a very perilous—and very singular—place. If those who are sane, and thoughtful, and on the side of democracy unite in its defense, then they will win. They’ll win decisively, in fact. At 60% turnout, it’s an easy victory, at 70%, it’s a landslide. The numbers are clear. 

The questions are unity, and motivation. In that sense, you might say, the candidate counts, but that’s an evasion. Like I said, whomever the candidate is—they’ll be portrayed as weak by a media that’s now dismally attached to the strongman myth. Weak, feminine, incompetent, inexperienced (never mind Trump being a reality TV star), shallow, inept, not an orator to rival Cicero, not as fearless as Alexander the Great, not as wise as Sun Tzu, and so on. 

The candidate counts, but only in a weak sense. And that weak sense is: are Americans willing to grit their teeth, roll up their sleeves, and unify, whomever the candidate is? Enough of them, on the side of democracy and sanity? If they’re not, then it’ll be always and altogether too easy to divide them—there’ll always be some kind of foolish myth, some kind of fatal flaw, that the press, pundits, and the enemies of democracy will cook up, and spit out, over and over again.

So are Americans on the side of democracy willing to stop playing this game of fatal flaws? And say enough is enough: whomever the candidate is, we back them? In European politics, we call this, simply, voting for your party. The GOP, by the way, excels at it, too. The Democrats, never having built a party of great solidarity, or a modern party organization, rich in networks and communities, are poor at it. So people in America, on the center and left, don’t vote for the party. They look down on it, in fact. But there is nothing to be contemptuous of here: this is precisely how Europe and Canada built social democracies to begin with.

The Myth of the Fatal Flaw, or Democracy’s Greatest Test

In other words, this is democracy’s greatest test.

It goes like this.

When the chips are down—this down—and every institution has failed, welcoming fascism with open arms, every institution save one, will the people themselves remember they are that crucial institution?

You see, this is what fascism hopes to terrorize people away from realizing. To give up on their power, and instead succumb to fatalism—that’s why it’s so loud, explosive, violent, threatening, always intimidating, never shutting up, always promising the worst. Because it’s trying to terrorize the people into submission, giving up on their own unity and togetherness, and thus ceding it all in advance. We’ll discuss all that more tomorrow.

This is democracy’s greatest test. On the one side, fascism. Now behind it, every institution that should be preserving democracy. Save one, the people. And the people, in situations like this, find themselves easily divided, because all this is frightening, upsetting, destabilizing, even terrifying. Finding themselves demoralized, the people give up, focusing on the very Fatal Flaws that a failed media and those in league with the fascists trumpet over and over again.

But in truth none of these are Fatal Flaws. Sure, Biden’s old. Would you rather have an old guy or a dictator? Easy choice—if you’re thinking rationally and sanely. But if you’re scared out of your wits, then maybe, suddenly, all that clear thinking goes foggy. 

The next Fatal Flaw? Let’s rewind, so you really understand this. Al Gore wasn’t “likable.” Hillary was “difficult.” Carter wasn’t manly enough. Howard Dean was a “weirdo.”  Doesn’t matter—do you get the point yet? There’ll always—always—be a fatal flaw.

In fact, I can point out plenty in advance, and you should be able to, too, now that I’ve taught you how to think about all this. Kamala will probably be “unlikable,” too, like “Al Gore,” or “distant,” or even more “difficult” than Hillary. Gavin Newsom will be “slick” or too “polished” or not enough a “man of the people.” Anyone remotely to their left will be a socialist, etcetera. See how simple this is once you get the hang of it?

So this test of democracy, the greatest one of all? It’s never really about the candidates. Because nobody is perfect. Least of all politicians. This test is about the people, who must be willing to brook some degree of imperfection, and come to their senses, instead of being frightened into searching for an unattainable degree of perfection because…

That’s The Only Thing That Can Win.

That’s the reason we’re told to search for Unattainable Perfection, isn’t it? Anything less is Doomed to Lose. And yet the fact—the fact—is that united, the people can’t be defeated. That sounds trite, but let me remind you, we’re talking about statistical realities. Even in the most extreme social collapses, the majority never support the extremists, which is why they are extremists. Hitler had to seize power, the Bolsheviks had to revolt, Mao had to “re-educate” a society, and so on. The people united cannot be defeated.

But that unity is hard—incredibly hard—to come by. Because the more destabilized a society gets, the less of it it has. And so a kind of vicious cycle sets in, what in complexity theory we call an dynamic system: destabilization destroys unity, which intensifies destabilization.

That is how extreme minorities collapse societies. And it’s why despite the majority not backing the fanatics and lunatics even in the most extreme social collapses, we see social collapses. Because the unity of the majority in the thinking, sane center doesn’t hold.

So. This is democracy’s greatest test of all. When the chips are this down, so far they’re in the abyss, can the people remember that united, they can’t be defeated? That through unity, the preservation of democracy is assured—but in its absence, all history’s horrors and follies recur, like a waking nightmare?

Understand my words, my friends. I say none of this lightly. I predicted American collapse. I can tell you what happens next. But that’s not the part you need to know. It’s that you still have the power to change it.

Categories Accountability, Bigotry, Character, Citizenship, Civics, Courage, Democracy, Discipline, Disruption, Education Reform, Elections, Equity, Ethics, Extremism, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to Read, Funding, Home Schooling, Propaganda

Governors Roy Cooper and Andy Beshear: Real Democrats Support Real Public Schools!

By dianeravitch
July 29, 2024 //
17

Back in February, long before President Biden stepped back and Vice-President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for President, two red-state Governors spoke out against vouchers. Both are Democrats who understand the importance of public schools for their communities. They are Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina, whose gerrymandered legislature has a Republican supermajority, and Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, whose legislature is controlled by Republicans. When Beshear ran, he picked a teacher as Lieutenant Governor.

The two Governers wrote this article in USA Today:

In North Carolina and Kentucky, public schools are the center of our communities. We’re proud public school graduates ourselves – and we know the critical role our schools play in teaching our students, strengthening our workforces and growing our economies.

We’ve seen record-high graduation rates of almost 90% in our public schools. North Carolina and Kentucky rank in the top 10 for National Board-certified teachers, one of the highest recognition teachers can earn.

In Kentucky, we’ve seen significant improvement in elementary school reading, even with setbacks from the pandemic like many states experienced. In North Carolina last year, public school students completed a record 325,000 workforce credentials in areas like information technology and construction. The bottom line? Our public schools are critical to our success and an overwhelming number of parents are choosing them for their children.

That’s why we’re so alarmed that legislators want to loot our public schools to fund their private school voucher scheme. These vouchers, instituted in the 1950s and 1960s by Southern governors to thwart mandatory school desegregation, are rising again thanks to a coordinated plan by lobbyists, private schools and right-wing legislators.

Voucher programs chip away at the public education our kids deserve

This is their strategy: Start the programs modestly, offering vouchers only to low-income families or children with disabilities. But then expand the giveaway by taking money from public schools and allowing the wealthiest among us who already have children in private schools to pick up a government check.

In North Carolina, the Republican legislature passed a voucher program with no income limit, no accountability and no requirement that children can’t already go to a private school. This radical plan will cost the state $4 billion over the next 10 years, money that could be going to fully fund our public schools. In Kentucky, legislators are trying to amend our constitution to enshrine their efforts to take taxpayer money from public schools and use it for private schools.

Both of our constitutions guarantee our children a right to public education. But both legislatures are trying to chip away at that right, leaving North Carolina and Kentucky ranked near the bottom in per-pupil spending and teacher pay.

Public schools are crucial to our local economies. In North Carolina, public schools are a top-five employer in all 100 counties. In many rural counties, there are no private schools for kids to go to – meaning that those taxpayer dollars are torn out of the county and put right into the pockets of wealthier people in more populated areas.

Governor Roy Cooper, North Carolina

In fact, in Kentucky, 60% of counties don’t even have a certified private school. This has caused rural Republicans in red states like Texas and Georgia to vote against voucher schemes that would starve their rural schools.

Governor Andy Beshear, Kentucky

Private schools get taxpayer dollars with no real accountability

As governors, we’ve proposed fully funding our public schools, teacher pay raises to treat our educators like the professionals they are and expanded early childhood education. We know that strong public schools mean strong communities. Families in Kentucky and North Carolina know that too. In North Carolina, nearly 8 in 10 children go to public schools.

Our public schools serve all children. They provide transportation and meals and educate students with disabilities. And they’re accountable to taxpayers with public assessments showing how students and schools are doing and where they need to improve.

But private schools that get this taxpayer money have little to no accountability. They aren’t even required to hire licensed teachers, provide meals, transportation or services for disabled students. They don’t even have to tell the taxpayers what they teach or how their students perform. North Carolina’s voucher system has been described as “the least regulated private school voucher program in the country.”

Studies of student performance under school voucher programs not only showed that they don’t help them, but that they could actually have harmful effects. Results from a 2016 study of Louisiana’s voucher program found “strong and consistent evidence that students using an LSP scholarship performed significantly worse in math after using their scholarship to attend private schools.” In Indiana, results also showed “significant losses” in math. A third study of a voucher program in Ohio reported that “students who use vouchers to attend private schools have fared worse academically compared to their closely matched peers attending public schools.”

We aren’t against private schools. But we are against taxpayer money going to private schools at the expense of public schools.

The future of our nation goes to class in public schools, and all Americans must be on guard for lobbyists and extremist politicians bringing similar plans to their states. Our segregationist predecessors were on the wrong side of history, and we don’t need to go back.

We are going to keep standing up for our public school students to ensure that they have the funding they need, and that teachers are paid like the professionals they are. It’s what’s best for our children, our economy and our future.

Roy Cooper is the governor of North Carolina. Andy Beshear is the governor of Kentucky.

Categories Childhood, Education Reform, Equity, Funding, Kentucky, North Carolina, Privatization, Rural Schools, School Choice, Separation of church and state, Students, Supporting public schools, Vouchers

Randi Weingarten: The Moment We Are In

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2024 //
3

The American Federation of Teachers held its annual convention in Houston. Its president, Randi Weingarten, delivered this speech about the perils of the present time and the importance of unions.

Read the pdf of the speech here:

RWSpeech 1Download

She began:

These are unprecedented times. First and foremost, I want to thank President Biden. He’s been a great president, a great public servant and an incredible patriot. We owe him a debt of gratitude.


Of course I’m starting with a primary source. I don’t think they’ve banned Charles Dickens—yet. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. …” Those words were written more than 165 years ago, but today they feel very Dickensian.


Today, our union has never been stronger, and a revival of labor activism is sweeping the nation. Wages are up, inflation has cooled, the Biden-Harris administration has created more jobs than any other in history, and America’s economy is the strongest in the world—powered by America’s workers.


Yet…


Fear, anxiety and despair have taken hold across our country, driven by disinformation, shifting demographics, loneliness and a pervasive feeling that the American dream is slipping further and further out of reach. Our students and our patients are coming to us with greater and greater needs. Academic freedom and the right to peacefully protest have come under attack. From floods to famines to fires, climate catastrophes are worsening. Hate crimes, particularly anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish hate, are climbing. And gun violence still haunts us.


Let’s be clear: Political violence is never justified; not on Jan. 6 and not against political candidates. And while the calls to condemn political violence were encouraging, billionaires and demagogues are still capitalizing on fear to stoke division, defund public education and public services, decimate healthcare and dismantle our democracy—all to cement their power. And the Supreme Court’s extremist majority is aiding and abetting them, rewriting the Constitution in terrifying ways.

Operatives like Christopher Rufo, who work on behalf of billionaires like Betsy DeVos, openly admit their scheme—to create distrust in public education and in their political enemies so they can enact their extremist agenda.


These aren’t the first unscrupulous operatives we’ve faced. We’ve been outspent, been bet against, and had our union’s obituary written more times than we can count. Michelle Rhee tried to sweep us away. Scott Walker tried to legislate us out of existence. Billionaires backed the Janus case to try to bankrupt us. A red wave was supposed to crest in 2022 and wash us away.
Mike Pompeo tried to vilify us, first claiming that America’s school teachers teach “filth,” and then calling me the most dangerous person in the world—more dangerous than Vladimir Putin.

Why? Because I am your elected leader.


But we’re still here. In fact, we’re thriving. I guess that old saying IS true—what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And, in our case, bigger.
The AFT had 1.4 million members when I became president in 2008. Since then, we’ve been through two recessions, a pandemic and all the crap I just described.


Despite everything that has been thrown at us, since our last convention, the AFT has added 185 new units and more than 80,000 new members.
And today, the AFT is 1.8 million members strong!


Who are the newest members of the AFT? Four airport ground crew workers in Bangor, Maine—and 450 teaching assistants at Brown University. Nine licensed practical nurses at PeaceHealth in Oregon, and 910 diagnostic imaging techs in Michigan. Bus drivers in Farmington, Ill., and faculty and staff at universities in Kansas and Hawaii. Healthcare workers at Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin. Librarians in Ohio, doctors in Maryland, charter school educators in Massachusetts, paraprofessionals in Minnesota. And thousands more who just want a better life, including—after a 50-year fight—the 27,000 educators and school staff in Fairfax County, Va.
Why do they join the AFT? Because the AFT believes in improving people’s lives. Because the AFT believes in our communities and our country. And because the AFT believes in you.


This growth is essential. America’s middle class has risen and fallen as union membership has risen and fallen. That’s why we—indeed, the entire AFL-CIO—are working to grow.


Our unions help us win better wages and benefits. Our unions give us real voice at work. It’s how the United Federation of Teachers negotiated groundbreaking paid parental leave and lower class sizes. It’s how Cleveland got their new policy prohibiting students from using cell phones during the school day. United Teachers Los Angeles won sustainable community schools. And the Chicago Teachers Union is negotiating for healthy, safe, green schools.

It’s about the value of belonging.

Please open the PDF and finish reading this terrific speech.

Categories Accountability, Bigotry, Budget Cuts, Democracy, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Elections, Extremism, Funding, Gender, Harris, Kamala, Teachers, Trump

A Prominent Democrat Denounced Vouchers on National TV!

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2024 //
23

I wa despairing because no prominent candidate has mentioned education. Kamala Harris spoke about public schools and teachers when she addressed the AFT yesterday in Houston. I expected that. She went to public schools and has always supported them, and that’s what a candidate says to a nation Union of teachers.

But on Jen Psaki’s show on MSNBC, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota denounced vouchers and book bans. I had never seen him speak. He was excellent! Please watch.

Categories Censorship, Character, Community Schools, Democracy, Education Reform, Elections, Freedom, Freedom to Read, Funding, Vouchers

Carol Kocivar: Democrats Vs. Trump on the Future of Public Education

By dianeravitch
July 22, 2024 //
7

Over the past decade, the Republican Party has unleashed a furious attack on public schools. The public has been inundated with absurd claims about “bad teachers,” which has diminished the number of people entering the teaching profession and driven out experienced educators. Other crazy claims: the public schools are unpatriotic, teach “critical race theory (which few teachers ever heard of), sexualize students (which may properly be attributed to the media and the Internet, not the public schools), etc.

Attacking the public schools is a central component of the privatization movement, which has used these canards to promote charters and vouchers.

Thankfully, Carol Kocivar, former president of the California State PTA and a writer, has created a template comparing Biden and Trump on the future of public schools.

She compares their budgets, their policies, and their priorities. You might want to send this to your friends and share widely. Trump would kill public schools, as his former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recommended.

Kocivar begins:

A great divide: Public education vs private

In the presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, education didn’t come up even once, as EdWeek has noted. It’s an astonishing omission because the candidates have deep philosophical differences about education in America. These differences can change not only how schools are funded but how important topics are taught. At stake is what our children learn about democracy as well as about their rights and responsibilities as citizens.

This post reviews the differences between the candidates on education based on their records as well as their stated intentions. In a nutshell, Biden’s record and campaign statements point to incremental change and increased support for traditional public schools. Trump’s record and campaign statements point to reduced funding for public education along with programs to subsidize private and religious education.

Please open the link to compare the education plans of the GOP vs. the Democrats.

Categories Education Reform

Arthur Goldstein: An Open Letter to Michael Mulgrew, President of NYC’s Union

By dianeravitch
July 18, 2024 //
1

The United Federation of Teachers worked closely with NYC Mayor Eric Adams to persuade municipal union workers to give up Medicare and accept enrollment in a for-profit Medicare Advantage plan.

Many municipal retirees opposed the changeover. Unhappy retired municipal workers formed an organization which they called the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees. They concluded that the quality of their healthcare would decline if they accepted enrollment in a Medicare Advantage plan. MA might not accept their preferred doctors, and they would run the risk of being denied permission for treatment that their own doctor recommended. The retirees fought the city and their unions to block the switch to MA. They won in the state courts, and they won control of the retirees’ sector of the UFT.

Following the retirees’ victory in the courts and in the union elections, Michael Mulgrew announced that he would no longer support MA. Now the retirees are asking for the active help of the UFT.

Arthur Goldstein, retired high school teacher, wrote the following open letter to Michael Mulgrew, president of the UFT.

He wrote:

Dear President Mulgrew:

As you know, we’ve been fighting for years to preserve our health care. The recent Retired Teacher Chapter election showed a healthy majority of our members want to continue with our current premium and co-pay free Medicare/Medigap plan. We were all encouraged that you dropped your support of the Medicare Advantage plan into which the city wishes to place us.

That said, we are still in trouble. As you know, Mayor Adams is fighting for the MA program, and appealing our recent victories to the NY State Court of Appeals. As you are no doubt aware, they are the highest court in the state and have the power to overturn our thus-far unbroken string of victories. 

There are two ways we can prevail. One would be to win in court. Since UFT now opposes this plan, we need an Amicus brief from UFT. That’s quite important. If you oppose this plan, you need to demonstrate this to the court, and show that UFT is a force to be reckoned with. Mayor Eric Adams is, in fact, our contractual adversary, and we need to treat him as such.

This, of course, is not our only court battle. Mayor Adams also wants us to pay co-pays with our Medigap plan. That is unprecedented, and co-pays have a way of increasing endlessly. We need to halt this now. 

I heard you say at a meeting that co-pays were intended only as a temporary stopgap measure. Given your statements about how the city is interested only in saving money at our expense, I think it’s fair to assume we can no longer trust the city to make any such measures temporary. Therefore, UFT needs to file an Amicus brief in our battle against additional expenses for retirees on fixed incomes. As you know, many of our retired brothers and sisters in DC37 are just getting by as is.

In 2016, MLC effectively suppressed the HIP rate, via so-called HIP/HMO Preferred. This resulted in additional costs for 40% of enrolled city employees. Obviously, it’s an error to tie this to the base rate, because I’m sure you want our members, and all city workers, compensated at the highest rate possible. This needs to be corrected, and we need your support to do so. I’m sure you don’t want retired UFT paraprofessionals paying co-pays, higher deductibles, and/or premiums. We will need UFT support in the upcoming Campion case so as to preclude this.

Our other avenue of protection is via the legislature. As you know, there are bills, set to be reintroduced, both in the city and state protecting Medicare and Medigap for retirees. Union support could make the key difference, particularly in the state. I’m told the state bill would have passed but for “union opposition.” I don’t know who in the union opposes this, but the recent RTC election shows our retirees overwhelmingly support it. In fact, I’d argue the overwhelming majority of city retirees do as well.

This brings me to my final point. Since unions, for whatever reason, have not been in the habit of protecting our current health care, the group NYC Retirees was formed. This group, entirely on donations, has been protecting us in court for years. The recent election demonstrates that UFT retirees support the goals of this group.

Therefore, it’s high time the UFT, perhaps through COPE, made a sizable donation. This is clearly the will of our chapter, and it’s time we honored that will with something more than words. 

Sincerely, 

Arthur Goldstein, Vice Chair RTC

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Health, New York City, Teachers, Unions

Watch This for the Best Giggles of the Day!

By dianeravitch
July 13, 2024 //
2

This is a compilation of very funny clips and tweets, collected by Jay Kuo.

Some made me laugh out loud, especially the one with the bear.

Categories Education Reform, Humor

Jay Kuo: Two Democratic Senators Call for Special Counsel to Investigate Justice Clarence Thomas

By dianeravitch
July 12, 2024 //
10

Many stories have appeared in the past few months about the lavish gifts bestowed on Justice Clarence Thomas by his billionaire “friends.” The press focused on his failure to disclose those gifts. To me, the more compelling question is why Supreme Court Justices and other federal judges with life tenure are allowed to accept any gift with a value in excess of $25. A Christmas card? Sure. More than that, no. When I worked in the U.S. Department of Education as Assistant Secretary of Education, the federal ethics rules were strong and clear: federal officials could not accept any gifts. You could not allow anyone to buy you lunch. Period. Why shouldn’t the same standard apply to federal judges?

Jay Kuo writes on his blog The Status Kuo about a move by two Democratic Senators to seek accountability for Thomas. Kuo is a graduate of Stanford and earned his law degree at Berkeley.

He writes:

We’ve all felt the frustration. A series of bombshell reports revealed last year that Justice Clarence Thomas has been bought and paid for many times over the last two decades. He accepted gifts from his billionaire friends who, directly or indirectly, had business before the Court. He flouted every ethical duty and law requiring him to report these gifts, and he apparently even failed to report significant income he received in the form of a large forgiven loan.

The Senate has been stonewalled in its efforts to investigate Thomas, not only by Republican senators closing ranks to protect him, but also by Thomas’s billionaire allies such as Leonard Leo, who has so far refused to cooperate with investigators. Leo likely knows he can run out the clock by forcing Democrats to file suit in federal civil court, where his judicial allies are well placed to protect him in any event.

There has been no opportunity to impeach Thomas, of course, with the House currently in Republican hands. And pressure upon Chief Justice Roberts to address collapsing confidence in the Supreme Court has resulted only in a set of unenforceable ethical guidelines and a refusal by the Chief Justice to even meet with Democratic Senate leaders…

Early last week, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting a special counsel to investigate possible violations of law by Justice Thomas. We only learned of the letter on Tuesday of this week after the senators went public with their request. 

The upshot of this request is that Thomas is now on notice. Not only his lack of ethics as a justice but his actual criminality is on the table and could receive a much closer look. It opens a front against the Supreme Court’s conservative majority that did not exist before, and the stakes are now much higher.

In today’s piece, as a refresher I’ll walk through some of the many ways in which Justice Thomas has apparently violated federal ethical and tax laws by accepting gifts and failing to disclose them. I’ll then focus on what the two senators are asking for and why some billionaires might be a bit antsy. Finally, I’ll discuss the political ramifications of the special counsel request and Attorney General Garland’s response. 

A justice on the take

It’s been over 15 months since ProPublica dropped the first bombshell story of Justice Clarence Thomas’s deep corruption: luxury vacations, super yacht cruises, private jets and exclusive resorts, all paid for by his pal with the Dickensian, villainous name of Harlan Crow. 

Contrary to federal disclosure laws, Thomas reported none of this.

ProPublica followed up shortly thereafter with damning accounts of how Crow also held the pursestrings of Thomas’s extended family. Crow’s company, it turns out, had purchased the home of Thomas’s mother, and she still resides there rent free. Crow ordered and paid for expensive improvements on the house—a carport, roof repair, new fence and gate. And he assumed the property’s tax bill, which the Thomases used to have to pay.

Thomas disclosed none of this.

Then another bombshell. ProPublica reported in August of last year that Thomas had more than one sugar daddy. Four other wealthy men, whom Thomas met after becoming a Supreme Court justice, had showered lavish gifts upon him for years, including:

  • 38+ destination vacations
  • 26 private jet flights
  • 12 VIP passes to pro and college sporting events
  • 2 stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica
  • 1 standing invite to an uber-exclusive golf club

And that’s just what could be uncovered from public records and their investigation. As I wrote at the time,

According to ethics experts who spoke to ProPublica, for items like costly tickets to sporting events, there is simply no way to characterize that other than as a gift with a clear dollar value, often in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. The same goes for luxury vacations that took place at hotel resorts rather than at people’s homes. 

Then we learned that Thomas’s corruption went even further than fancy, millionaire lifestyle gifts or perks for his family. According to a report by the New York Times, which was later confirmed through a Senate investigation, a wealthy friend of Thomas, who had loaned him the money to buy his dream RV, forgave the quarter million dollar plus loan on it. As those familiar with tax law know, a forgiven loan is taxable income unless somehow exempted, but Thomas apparently never reported it either. 

Months of efforts to get the Justice and his billionaire friends to cooperate with Senate investigators resulted only in a revised financial declaration by Thomas, which still appears to omit several gifts. Many other things remain unexplained, including any credible reason for failing to disclose the gifts and any explanation of the unreported taxable event of the loan forgiveness on his RV.

Categories Education Reform

Jim Hightower: We Can’t Let the Supreme Court Destroy Our Democracy

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2024 //
30

Jim Hightower, activist Democrat and former elected official in Texas, says it’s time for “Do-It-Yourself Democracy.” We can’t sit back and let Trump’s Supreme Court whittle away our rights and laws.

He writes:

It’s July 4th week!

Sure, do a few 12-ounce elbow bends and set off some sparklers in celebration of our people’s democratic values. But wait – why are we celebrating the Spirit of ‘76, but meekly accepting the recent tsunami of autocratic, plutocratic dictates from a sextet of extremist, right-wing, partisan lawyers? 

These six unelected Republicans, put on the Supreme Court by a tiny group of billionaire-funded political operatives, are routinely imposing their anti-woman, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-worker, anti-environment, theocratic agendas on the vast majority of us who want none of the above.

Start with the fact that they are liars. Each one duped senators into giving lifetime appointments to them by loudly promising that they would never even consider rewriting the fundamental laws and legal precedents that form the egalitarian fabric of American society. Nor, each insisted, would they ever dream of being a part of a cabal working to turn the judicial branch into a repressive force routinely eliminating democratic power in order to erect a government of-by-and-for right-wing elites.

Then they proceeded, case-by-case, to do exactly what they swore on their honor they would not do. And now, with yesterday’s Trump v. United States edict, the six have haughtily attempted to rewrite the Constitution and 248 years of our People’s history by proclaiming, on their own whim, that America has an imperial presidency with executive authority to act with impunity.

We the People do not have to put up with their imperious crap. 

They’ve turned the Supreme Court into a political operation – so it’s the duty of us grassroots democracy champions to fight their usurpation, not only in the presidential race, but carrying the fight into every political forum. Don’t wait on national “leaders” – they lack the guts for standing up to runaway power. 

And while no individual can fix our democracy, a movement can. I think of a small hardware store here in Austin that had a can-do attitude, offering to help customers handle even the biggest tasks. The store’s slogan was “Together, we can do it yourself.” 

We’re collecting actions that grassroots people can take, and are collaborating with longtime friends and allies to light a fire under the butts of Democratic Party leaders. We’ll keep you updated on those efforts, but to start, here are two groups to join up with.

Share

Demand Justice has been advocating for the Judiciary Act, which would expand the court by four seats. They’re asking people to call their representatives, and to join their rapid response team. 

We’ve long been a fan of Lisa Graves (you can watch our 2022 Chat ‘n’ Chew episode with her here), and she’s teamed up with the folks at Court Accountability for a new round of intense actions called Justice Can’t Wait. They’ve shared with us a list of things you can do:

  • Share the Justice Can’t Wait updatedwebsite.
  • Raise awareness of the seeds being planted by Trump and his allies to deny the results of the 2024 election if it doesn’t go their way. Trump has refused to commit to accepting legitimate election results if he does not win, and his allies are laying the groundwork for election denial through lawsuits and false claims about election fraud.
  • Urge Congress to pass reforms clarifying the Insurrection Act, which Trump plans to invoke to deploy the military against the American people, on his first day in office.
  • Share Stand Up America’s Supreme Court Voter website, which aims to educate and mobilize voters on the impact the next president will have on the future of the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • Educate Americans on the economicthreats that the extremist Project 2025 poses. Economic concerns “consistently rank as top issues among likely voters,” and people need to understand the likely consequences and chaos for our economy and American families if Project 2025 affiliates are able to carry out their dangerous agenda.
  • Join United for Democracy in calling on Congress to rein in the out-of-control Supreme Court.
  • Drive home that this is Trump’s Supreme Court. Trump installed the corporatist majority that has taken away women’s fundamental freedoms and stripped away protections for Americans’ health and safety. Even after Trump led an insurrection, the Court that Trump built is now tipping the scales to help him win again in November and protect him from accountability for his actions.  
  • From the Hightower staff: And let’s not forget how the Supremes view actual bribery: as nothing more than a tip or a token of thanks for a job well done. They’re basically creating loopholes to legalize their own corruption!
Categories Civil Rights, Courage, Democracy, Education Reform, Justice, Trump
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