Archives for category: Education Reform
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How Successful Is TFA?

By dianeravitch
August 19, 2019 //
9

 

Teach for America is very successful at fund-raising. It has a very impressive board of directors, chaired by Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and one-time Republican nominee for governor of California. Another board member is Tennessee billionaire Bill Haslam, who most recently was governor of that state and a strong proponent of vouchers. And Greg Penner, a member (by marriage) of the anti-union, pro-charter Walton family serves on the board.

ProPublica posted TFA’s 990 forms filed with the IRS, and you can see for yourself how very, very successful TFA is. It has assets of about $360 million. Its CEO is paid $451,807.

TFA is a very successful business.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Funding, Teach for America

Florida Will Give $500 Million in Tax Cuts to 1% of Corporations

By dianeravitch
August 18, 2019 //
19

The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Republican-controlled legislature passed a tax cut of $500 million that will apply only to the state’s biggest corporations, excluding 99% of all businesses.

https://digitaledition.orlandosentinel.com/html5/mobile/production/default.aspx?pubid=7f2e94da-42a6-42b3-91be-f4782530a2d0&edid=d491e409-f75d-4016-8652-f74f7e2d6e68

The tax bill was quietly passed last year in response to intense lobbying by the state’s biggest corporations. At the time, it’s sponsors said the cuts were small and wouldn’t amount to much.

But $500 million would be enough to double the state’s funding of pre-kindergarten programs, which consistently rank among the bottom 10 in the nation. It’s more than the state spends to combat toxic algae bloom, which threatens the state’s fisheries; more than it spend to combat the opioid crisis; more than it spends buying conservation land and building beaches—combined.

The Republicans who control Florida’s government would rather reward the powerful than to invest in the future.

Categories Education Reform, Florida, Funding

Jan Resseger: Tax Cuts in Kansas Produce Civic Disaster

By dianeravitch
August 18, 2019 //
14

 

Jan Resseger describes the after-effects of former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s crash program to cut corporate and income taxes and expect an economic boom. The boom never came, but public services were strained to the breaking point.

Jan quotes liberally from Governing magazine:

Governing Magazine just published an extraordinary profile of Kansas state government—what was left of it after Sam Brownback’s tenure.  Last November when a Democrat, Laura Kelly, took office, the new governor found herself assessing the damage from two terms of total austerity. Reporter, Alan Greenblatt describes a state unable to serve the public:

“To students of state politics, the failed Kansas experiment with deep cuts to corporate and income tax rates—which GOP Gov. Sam Brownback promised would lead to an economic flowering, and which instead led to anemic growth and crippling deficits—is well known.  What is not as well understood, even within Kansas, is the degree to which years of underfunding and neglect have left many state departments and facilities hollowed out…. All around Kansas government, there are stories about inadequate staffing…. Staff turnover in social services in general and at the state prisons has led to dozens of missing foster children and a series of prison uprisings… During the Brownback administration, from 2011 to 2018, prison staff turnover doubled, to more than 40 percent per year, while the prison population increased by 1,400 inmates, or 15 percent.  Guards have been burned out by mandatory over time and by pay scales that have failed to keep pace with increased insurance premiums and copays, let alone inflation. With inadequate and inexperienced staff, the prisons began employing a technique known as ‘collapsing posts,’ meaning some areas were simply left unguarded.”

The consequences for other states that tried to cut their way to prosperity were equally calamitous.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Kansas, Privatization

Los Angeles: LAUSD Ponders Dumb Plan to Grade Schools

By dianeravitch
August 18, 2019 //
37

The reason that parents and teachers are giving Nick Melvoin a rating on YELP is in response to his plan to rate teachers, mainly by the test scores of their students.

Jeb Bush invented the template for grading schools from A-F, based mainly on their test scores. It became a convenient way to close public schools and turn them over to charter operators. It is an dumb idea for many reasons, because schools are complex institutions with many staff and many functions. Students are not randomly assigned.

In state after state, school grades reflect the proportion of needy kids enrolled. The lowest scores go to schools with high proportions of students who are poor, don’t speak English, and have special needs. Schools with the greatest challenges are wrongly labeled an stigmatized as “failing schools.”

So now Los Angeles is considering a school grading scheme in which most of the grades will depend on standardized test scores.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-13/lausd-schools-ranked

Even the Los Angeles Times ridiculed this bad idea.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-16/grading-los-angeles-schools

According to documents obtained by Times reporters, the proposed measurement system, which hasn’t come before the board yet, would include a rating for each school on a scale of 1 to 5, based mostly on test scores. In the case of elementary and middle schools, the scores themselves and students’ improvement on them would make up 80% of the ranking. In high schools, it would be 65%, and since the state’s annual standardized test is given in only one grade in high school, it would show nothing about whether any particular cohort of students is improving on the tests as they move from 9th to 12th grade….

But what’s wrong might not be the quality of the teaching or the running of the school. The reality is that students in some neighborhoods face considerably more challenges of poverty, family disruption and the like, and those issues often affect their academic performance and test results.

Charter schools and magnet schools draw their enrollment from parents who go out of their way to find out about different schools and who have the time and ability to sign up their children for possible acceptance. Even if those students are poor and enter school not yet knowing English, they tend to have a leg up on students whose parents are less involved, perhaps because they’re ill or working too many jobs. Neighborhood schools shouldn’t be made to look comparatively bad over factors they can’t control.

Why is Los Angeles copying Jeb Bush’s bad ideas?

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Disruption, Education Reform, Florida, Fraud, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Teachers and Parents Rate Nick Melvoin on Yelp

By dianeravitch
August 18, 2019 //
16

Teachers and parents have listed Nick Melvoin on Yelp as a business, and they are rating him. Nick is one of the leading charter advocates on the LAUSD school board. He was elected because of millions from the charter lobby and its billionaire allies.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/nick-melvoin-lausd-board-member-los-angeles

His ratings are terrible. If he were a teacher, he would be fired.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Parents, Privatization, Teachers

Economic Policy Institute: CEO Pay Soars, Worker Pay Does Not

By dianeravitch
August 18, 2019 //
62

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that CEO compensation has grown by 940% since 1978. Worker compensation, however, grew only 12% during the same period.

The report was written by economist Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe. Mishel led EPI for many years. The media always describes EPI as “left-leaning” because it is critical of economic inequality. It’s research is impeccable.

Categories Education Reform, Inequality

Steven Singer: Charter Schools Are Gobbling Up My School District

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2019 //
2

Do you want to understand why Pennsylvania’s charter school law needs to be reformed?

Let Steven Singer explain.

Singer teaches in Pennsylvania. In this post, he describes the dangers that privatization poses to his school district.

I work in a little suburban school district just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that is slowly being destroyed by privatization.

Steel Valley Schools have a proud history.

We’re located (in part) in Homestead – the home of the historic steel strike of 1892.

But today it isn’t private security agents and industrial business magnates against whom we’re struggling.

It’s charter schools, voucher schools and the pro-corporate policies that enable them to pocket tax dollars meant to educate kids and then blame us for the shortfall.

Our middle school-high school complex is located at the top of a hill. At the bottom of the hill in our most impoverished neighborhood sits one of the Propel network of charter schools.

Our district is so poor we can’t even afford to bus our kids to school. So Propel tempts kids who don’t feel like making the long walk to our door.

Institutions like Propel are publicly funded but privately operated. That means they take our tax dollars but don’t have to be as accountable, transparent or sensible in how they spend them.

And like McDonalds, KFC or Walmart, they take in a lot of money.

Just three years ago, the Propel franchise siphoned away $3.5 million from our district annually. This year, they took $5 million, and next year they’re projected to get away with $6 million. That’s about 16% of our entire $37 million yearly budget.

Do we have a mass exodus of children from Steel Valley to the neighboring charter schools?

No.

Enrollment at Propel has stayed constant at about 260-270 students a year since 2015-16. It’s only the amount of money that we have to pay them that has increased.


The state funding formula is a mess. It gives charter schools almost the same amount per regular education student that my district spends but doesn’t require that all of that money actually be used to educate these children.

If you’re a charter school operator and you want to increase your salary, you can do that. Just make sure to cut student services an equal amount.

Want to buy a piece of property and pay yourself to lease it? Fine. Just take another slice of student funding.

Want to grab a handful of cash and put it in your briefcase, stuff it down your pants, hide it in your shoes? Go right ahead! It’s not like anyone’s actually looking over your shoulder. It’s not like your documents are routinely audited or you have to explain yourself at monthly school board meetings – all of which authentic public schools like mine have to do or else.

Read the rest of the post.

 

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Pennsylvania, Privatization

Pennsylvania: The Political Contributions of the Owner of the State’s Largest Charter School

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2019 //
5

 

Pennsylvania’s largest charter school is the Chester Community Charter School. It is owned by Philadelphia lawyer Vehan Gureghian, who is a major donor to the Republican Party in the State. He was the biggest contributor to former Republican Governor Tom Corbett. What is surprising about his political donations is how little it takes to win the affection of the party in power. The Chester Community Charter School enrolls most of the elementary students in its district and even draws students from Philadelphia, despite the fact that it is a low-performing school on state tests. As you will see in one of the articles below, CCCS received a charter renewal through 2026, an extension not given to any other charter in the state.

The Keystone State Education Coalition posted this list of his political contributions. 

Blogger commentary: In an effort to gain a better understanding of the dynamics in Harrisburg, from time to time over the years we have published “Follow the Money” charts using data from the PA Department of State’s Campaign Finance Reporting website:

https://www.campaignfinanceonline.pa.gov/Pages/CFReportSearch.aspx

 

We’ll leave it up to our readers to draw their own conclusions regarding how such contributions may or may not influence policymakers as they go about the people’s business in Harrisburg.

 

The chart below lists over $470,000 in campaign contributions made by Mr. and Mrs. Gureghian for PA state offices from 2013 through 2019.

 

Highlights include $205,000 to the House Republican Campaign Committee, $37,000 to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, $30,000 to House Speaker Mike Turzai, $82,000 to Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman’s Build PA PAC, $85,000 to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and$16,000 to House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler.

 

While school district budgets, check registers and salaries are public information, charter school management companies like Gureghian’s CSMI are not required to provide any details on how they spend taxpayers dollars. CSMI runs Chester Community Charter School, the state’s largest brick and mortar charter. CSMI’s founder and CEO is Vahan H. Gureghian of Gladwyne, a lawyer, entrepreneur and major Republican donor –the largest individual contributor to former Gov. Tom Corbett. And though CSMI’s books are not public – the for-profit firm has never disclosed its profits and won’t discuss its management fee – running the school appears to be a lucrative business. State records show that Gureghian’s company collected nearly $17 million in taxpayer funds just in 2014-15, when only 2,900 students were enrolled.”

 

Over the years, Gureghian has spent well over $1 million on political contributions in Pennsylvania.

https://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/06/follow-money-contributions-by-vahan.html

 

“As previously reported by the (Palm Beach) Daily News, the buyers in this week’s sale are Philadelphia attorney and businessman Vahan Gureghian and his attorney wife, Danielle. Two weeks ago, they sold their never-lived-in oceanfront mansion on 2 acres at 1071 N. Ocean Blvd. for more than $40 million. That 35,992-square-foot mansion had been on the market for about four years. ….Vahan Gureghian is involved in a number of businesses, he said, including management and consulting in the charter-school industry through a company he founded, CSMI Education Management. His wife provides legal counsel for his business ventures, he said.”

Exclusive: Palm Beach mansion lost by developer in bankruptcy sells for $30.275M

Palm Beach Daily news By Darrell Hofheinz  July 12 Posted at 5:46 PM Updated at 6:32 PM

Mortgage-holder sells former home of Robert V. Matthews to couple who just sold a Palm Beach mansion for more than $40 million. As developer Robert V. Matthews awaits sentencing on felony conspiracy and money-laundering charges in Connecticut, the Palm Beach seaside mansion he completed in 2006 has changed hands for a recorded $30.275 million. The deed recorded today shows the house at 101 Casa Bendita was sold by Singer Island Tower Suite LLC, which took title in April via a bankruptcy judge’s order in Matthews’ Chapter 11 case. The seller is identified in court documents as an “assignee” of a Deutsche Bank affiliate owed $31 million from a mortgage it held on the property. Matthews moved out of the mansion with his wife, Mia, shortly after the bankruptcy court’s March 31 order. Matthews developed the long-troubled, never-finished — and since-sold — Palm House hotel-condominium at 160 Royal Palm Way, which is a focus of his federal criminal case in Connecticut. The six-bedroom, two-story residence on Casa Bendita has 15,849 square feet of living space, inside and out, on nearly an acre. With about 188 feet of beachfront, the property lies about a three-quarters of a mile north of Royal Palm way.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190712/exclusive-palm-beach-mansion-lost-by-developer-in-bankruptcy-sells-for-30275m

 

Following data is from the Pennsylvania Department of State Campaign Finance website: http://www.campaignfinance.state.pa.us/ContributionSearch.aspx

Selected State Level Campaign Contributions by Vahan Gureghian 2013 – 2019

 

Recipient Date Amount
TURZAI, MIKE FRIENDS OF 9/5/2013 $10,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 3/18/2014 $75,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 9/16/2014 $27,500.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 10/31/2014 $25,000.00
TURZAI, MIKE LEADERSHIP FUND 10/4/2014 $10,000.00
SENATE REP CAMPAIGN COM 4/14/2015 $25,000.00
SENATE REP CAMPAIGN COM 3/10/2015 $12,727.91
SCARNATI, JOSEPH FRIENDS OF 10/31/2016 $25,000.00
SCARNATI, JOSEPH FRIENDS OF 10/31/2016 $25,000.00
BUILD PA PAC 6/15/2016 $10,000.00
CORMAN, JAKE FRIENDS OF 10/26/2016 $10,000.00
SCARNATI, JOSEPH FRIENDS OF 11/9/2017 $10,000.00
BUILD PA PAC 6/22/2017 $10,000.00
CORMAN, JAKE FRIENDS OF 10/16/2017 $2,500.00
FUND FOR A BETTER PENNSYLVANIA 6/8/2017 $5,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 8/29/2017 $2,750.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 11/2/2017 $3,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 11/2/2017 $2,000.00
CUTLER, BRYAN FRIENDS OF 6/15/2018 $5,000.00
SCARNATI, JOSEPH FRIENDS OF 10/31/2018 $25,000.00
TURZAI, MIKE FRIENDS OF 9/12/2018 $10,000.00
BUILD PA PAC 6/4/2018 $25,000.00
BUILD PA PAC 7/25/2018 $25,000.00
BUILD PA PAC 10/17/2018 $10,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 4/24/2018 $5,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 5/1/2018 $20,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 7/20/2018 $10,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 9/18/2018 $10,000.00
HOUSE REP CAMPAIGN COM 2004, INC 10/26/2018 $25,000.00
SAYLOR, STAN CITIZENS FOR 5/29/2018 $5,000.00
BUILD PA PAC 3/29/2019 $2,000.00
CUTLER, BRYAN FRIENDS OF 4/3/2019 $1,000.00
CUTLER, BRYAN FRIENDS OF 5/28/2019 $10,000.00
$478,477.91

 

 

Mansion of embattled Palm Beach developer sells for $30M (Photos)

By Brian Bandell  – Senior Reporter, South Florida Business Journal Jul 15, 2019, 12:31pm EDT Updated Jul 15, 2019, 12:44pm EDT

Philadelphia businessman Vahan H. Gureghian paid $30.275 million for the Palm Beach mansion that belonged to embattled Palm Beach developer Robert V. Matthews. Singer Island Tower Suite LLC, part of DB Private Wealth Mortgage, sold the nearly 16,000-square-foot home at 101 Casa Bendita to Gureghian. The lender seized the home in April under orders of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Matthew’s personal Chapter 11 filing. DB Private Wealth Mortgage, part of Deutsche Bank, had a $27.4 million loan on the property. The bank provided a $25.67 million mortgage to Gureghian to help him buy the property. Matthews built the oceanfront home on the 0.88-acre site in 2006. The mansion has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two half bathrooms and a pool. Gureghian, the founder and CEO of CSMI, which invests in the charter school industry, can immediately occupy the home.

https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2019/07/15/gureghian-buys-palm-beach-mansion-for-30m.html

 

“The decision means staff and parents at the state’s largest bricks-and-mortar charter – already slated to receive more than $55 million in taxpayer funds this school year – won’t have to worry about its fate for nearly a decade, even if its test scores continue to fall far short of state benchmarks. It also guarantees that CSMI LLC, a for-profit education management company that operates the K-8 school with 4,200 students, will receive millions of dollars in revenue for nine more years. Chester Community’s extension comes as school districts across the commonwealth and nation are wrestling with the growth of charter schools, more privatization in education and the impact on traditional public schools. It also renews lingering questions about the intersection of politics, government and schools.

Reprise Dec. 2017: How Chester Community Charter School got a 9-year deal

Inquirer by Martha Woodall, Posted: December 22, 2017

For years, charter school proponents have been trying to change Pennsylvania law so that operating agreement renewals could be extended from five years to 10. They haven’t succeeded in Harrisburg. But that didn’t deter Chester Community Charter School. One year into Chester Community’s latest five-year agreement, Peter R. Barsz, the court-appointed receiver who oversees the financially distressed Chester Upland School District and wields nearly all the powers of a school board, took the unprecedented step of extending the Delaware County school’s term for five more years to 2026. Barsz contends that the move was designed to protect Chester High School: In return, Chester Community, which already enrolls about 70 percent of the primary grade students in the struggling district, agreed not to open a high school.

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/education/chester-community-charter-school-renewal-extension-under-scrutiny-20171222.html

 

“The Pennsylvania Department of Education is questioning the Chester Upland School District’s decision to renew its operating agreement with the state’s largest brick-and-mortar charter school through 2026 while the school was just one year into its current five-year term.”

Reprise April 2018: Judge, state question quick renewal for Chester charter school

Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Posted: April 20, 2018

The Pennsylvania Department of Education is questioning the Chester Upland School District’s decision to renew its operating agreement with the state’s largest brick-and-mortar charter school through 2026 while the school was just one year into its current five-year term. “If charters are going to be renewed right out of the chute, … they’ve already been approved before they’ve even performed,” said James Flandreau, a lawyer for the department, at hearings this week ordered by a Delaware County Court judge. “Certainly, one year is way too early to evaluate any charter’s performance.” Kevin Kent, a lawyer for Chester Community Charter School, said the court-appointed receiver and school district could reevaluate the charter school at any point. “Nothing’s been compromised,” he said. Peter Barsz, the receiver for the financially distressed district, testified on Thursday that he had reviewed audits and school performance records and had support from the district’s school board before approving the renewal request last year that allowed the charter school to operate through 2026.

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/education/judge-state-question-quick-renewal-for-chester-charter-school-20180420.html

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Pennsylvania, Privatization, Republicans

Pennsylvania: Governor Wolf Proposes Charter Law Reform, Charter Lobby Cries Foul

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2019 //
3

Three years ago, the Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale declared that the state’s charter law was the worst in the nation. The scandals and frauds were frequent, and many public school districts teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. But Republican Governor Tom Corbett and the Republican Legislature had no interest in reforming the charter law. A major charter owner was the single biggest contributor to Corbett’s re-election campaign and leader of his education transition team.

Democrat Josh Shapiro is now the state’s Attorney General, and the current Democratic Governor Tom Wolf announced that he intends to issue executive orders and propose legislation to reform the charter law to require accountability and transparency.

Unfortunately, the Legislature is still controlled by charter-friendly Republicans, who betray the families who elected them, whose children go to public schools.

Gov. Wolf announced a plan on Tuesday to improve financial accountability and academics among Pennsylvania’s charter schools, focusing on cyber charters and charter management companies, through executive actions and new legislation.

“Charter schools, like traditional public schools, should be high quality and they should be held accountable,” Wolf said. “But the laws currently don’t allow us to hold charter schools and their operators to the same standards as traditional public schools.”

Wolf called the state’s charter law “irresponsible” and “flawed.” He described the original intent of the law as “creating new and innovative educational opportunities” and said that some charter schools are doing this and doing it well.

“Unfortunately, this is not the case for all charter schools, especially among cyber charter schools,” he said.

On average, Pennsylvania charter schools have not improved student test scores in reading compared to public schools and have done worse in math, according to a study from Stanford University cited by Wolf. It also found that the academic situation was worse among the state’s cyber charters, which dramatically underperform compared to public schools.

The charter lobby was outraged! How dare the governor demand accountability! They think they should be unregulated and unaccountable. Their spokesperson said the governor’s efforts were nothing less than a “ blatant attack” on the charter industry. Never mind that the founder of the state’s biggest cyber charter is serving jail time for tax evasion on $8 million that were spent on personal luxuries. Never mind that the state’s cyber charters have never met academic standards.

Why reform failure and fraud?

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Pennsylvania, Privatization

Racism: The Horror That Trump Is Playing With

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2019 //
168

 

Last night I watched Anthony Scaramucci on CNN, who said to Erin Burnett that Trump is “not a racist,” but is “transactional,” meaning that he will say or do anything to get elected, no matter how vile.

I don’t agree. Only racists openly appeal to other racists for their support. Only racists stir up hatred toward others based on their race, ethnicity, or skin color. Anyone who appeals to racists by tapping into racist views is by definition a racist.

I receive posts from Andrew Tobias, who is an author who writes about politics and personal finance. He sent this last night, written by Michael Gerson, who was George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter and now writes for the Washington Post:

Bush 43’s Chief Speechwriter On Trump

Devastating:

The Return Of America’s Cruelest Passion
By Michael Gerson

I had fully intended to ignore President Trump’s latest round of racially charged taunts against an African American elected official, and an African American activist, and an African American journalist and a whole city with a lot of African Americans in it. I had every intention of walking past Trump’s latest outrages and writing about the self-destructive squabbling of the Democratic presidential field, which has chosen to shame former vice president Joe Biden for the sin of being an electable, moderate liberal.

But I made the mistake of pulling James Cone’s ‘The Cross and the Lynching Tree‘ off my shelf — a book designed to shatter convenient complacency. Cone recounts the case of a white mob in Valdosta, Ga., in 1918 that lynched an innocent man named Haynes Turner.

Turner’s enraged wife, Mary, promised justice for the killers. The sheriff responded by arresting her and then turning her over to the mob, which included women and children. According to one source, Mary was ‘stripped, hung upside down by the ankles, soaked with gasoline, and roasted to death. In the midst of this torment, a white man opened her swollen belly with a hunting knife and her infant fell to the ground and was stomped to death.’

God help us. It is hard to write the words. This evil — the evil of white supremacy, resulting in dehumanization, inhumanity and murder — is the worst stain, the greatest crime, of U.S. history. It is the thing that nearly broke the nation. It is the thing that proved generations of Christians to be vicious hypocrites. It is the thing that turned normal people into moral monsters, capable of burning a grieving widow to death and killing her child.

When the president of the United States plays with that fire or takes that beast out for a walk, it is not just another political event, not just a normal day in campaign 2020.

It is a cause for shame. It is the violation of martyrs’ graves. It is obscene graffiti on the Lincoln Memorial. It is, in the eyes of history, the betrayal — the re-betrayal — of Haynes and Mary Turner and their child. And all of this is being done by an ignorant and arrogant narcissist reviving racist tropes for political gain, indifferent to the wreckage he is leaving, the wounds he is ripping open.

Like, I suspect, many others, I am finding it hard to look at resurgent racism as just one in a series of presidential offenses or another in a series of Republican errors. Racism is not just another wrong. The Antietam battlefield is not just another plot of ground. The Edmund Pettus Bridge is not just another bridge. The balcony outside Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel is not just another balcony. As U.S. history hallows some causes, it magnifies some crimes.

What does all this mean politically? It means that Trump’s divisiveness is getting worse, not better.He makes racist comments, appeals to racist sentiments and inflames racist passions. The rationalization that he is not, deep down in his heart, really a racist is meaningless. Trump’s continued offenses mean that a large portion of his political base is energized by racist tropes and the language of white grievance. And it means — whatever their intent — that those who play down, or excuse, or try to walk past these offenses are enablers.

Some political choices are not just stupid or crude. They represent the return of our country’s cruelest, most dangerous passion. Such racism indicts Trump. Treating racism as a typical or minor matter indicts us.

Tobias writes:

Consequential times.

Help.

 

Categories Education Reform
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