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Mike Klonsky: What Donald Trump Thinks About Education

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
16

Mike Klonsky says that most people have no idea what Trump’s ideas are about education. He keeps saying he wants to get rid of Common Core. “It’s a disaster,” he says, but somehow I would guess that he has never seen the CCSS standards and has no idea why they are “a disaster.” Maybe because the people he is courting don’t like them.

 

But Mike pulls together a number of statements that Trump has made about education. While they don’t add up to a coherent perspective or ideology, there is more to his approach than abolishing Common Core.

Categories Albuquerque, Common Core, Education Reform, Politics

John Kasich Claims He Saved the Cleveland Schools

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2016 //
43

I am having a bad week. I watched the Democratic debate last night and the Republican debate tonight. My brain hurts. Who thought it was a good idea to put the candidates and the public through a marathon of endurance?

 

Tonight the Republicans all praised charter schools. Donald Trump loves charters. So do all the other Republicans. They all dismiss public schools. They agree that this is a great nation, the greatest nation in the world, but they don’t give the teachers and educators of our public schools any credit.

 

Most surprising, however, was John Kasich’s boast that he worked in a bipartisan way to reform the schools of Cleveland. Does anyone fact check? The federal government reports that 100% of the students in Cleveland are poor. On NAEP, Cleveland is one of the lowest performing urban districts in the nation. It has made meager gains during Kasich’s time in office.

 

I wish some journalist would ask the Kasich campaign for evidence of the reform in Cleveland’s schools for which he claims credit.

 

I have no particular animus towards Kasich. All of the candidates tonight showed no insight into any aspect of American education.

Categories Education Reform, Ohio, Politics

Bloomberg Will Not Run for President, Blasts Trump

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2016 //
20

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that he will not enter the Presidential race, for fear of tipping the election to Donald Trump.

 

Bloomberg had laid the groundwork for a billion-dollar campaign, self-funded, according to the New York Times. A Bloomberg campaign video is included in the story. He had done extensive polling, hired a staff, had selected a likely running mate, and had offices ready to go in different states.

 

In a forceful condemnation of his fellow New Yorker, Mr. Bloomberg said Mr. Trump has run “the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people’s prejudices and fears.” He said he was alarmed by Mr. Trump’s threats to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the country and to initiate trade wars against China and Japan, and he was disturbed by Mr. Trump’s “feigning ignorance of David Duke,” the white supremacist leader whose support Mr. Trump initially refused to disavow.

Categories Politics

Washington Monthly: The Day the Music Died for the GOP

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2016 //
73

This is a good insider look at the GOP crackup. It is a good read by Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly. 

 

The party has no good choices. Neither Rubio nor Cruz will back off. Trump will run away with the nomination, despite the fact that party leaders see him as an internal tapeworm who will ruin the party.

 

I don’t think any of the three top GOP choices is qualified to be president. They are extreme in their views; not a moderate among them. Not a one who can work with the other party to solve problems.

 

Say this for the Democrats: Both Hillary and Bernie are qualified to assume the presidency. Both have experience, and both are intelligent and thoughtful.

 

 

Categories Politics

Donald Trump Scares Me

By dianeravitch
March 4, 2016 //
144

I watched the GOP presidential debate last night and found it very depressing.

The main event was the effort by Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to pierce Trump’s armor and rattle him. The more they poked at him, the more belligerent he became.

Given the wide lead Trump has, he is likely to be the candidate of the Republican party. This is horrifying. To watch him makes me feel frightened for the future of our country. I also listened to him speaking (I think in Maine) i the morning.

He is crude, egotistical, bullying, self-centered, and vulgar. He boasts nonstop about his wealth and power and success. When he spoke to a crowd, he was egomaniacal. His subject is Donald Trump. He is an expert on himself.

In both venues, he made a crude sexual reference. In the morning, he said that Mitt Romney begged for his endorsement in 2012 and would have gone on his knees had Trump asked. The audience roared. During the debate, he made a reference to his male anatomy.

I have been wondering whether Trump is the epitome of the worst of our culture. Is he the product of a culture that worships money, admires avarice, and glories in porn and “the real housewives of…”

I think so. He is the quintessence of a degraded popular culture. Washington, Jefferson, Addams, Lincoln and so many others would be appalled.

I can’t imagine him as president. We would be the laughing stock of the world. I imagine him insulting other nations, isolating us in the world. I can’t imagine him with his touchiness and temperament in charge of the nuclear codes.

His behavior is revolting. His braggadocio is appalling. His egomania is disgusting. The idea of Trump as president is too horrible to imagine.

Categories Politics

Ohio Resident: John Kasich Is No Moderate

By dianeravitch
February 21, 2016 //
22

The mainstream media has been trying to portray John Kasich, a compassionate conservative who cares about everyone, not just corporations.

 
This resident of Ohio disagrees, in a comment posted here:

 

 

Let’s remember that Kasich eliminated the tangible personal property tax last year. This tax on businesses helped fund school districts (along with other entities dependent on levies such as park districts), and a lot of school districts are hurting as a result.

 
It wasn’t so much that years ago state Republicans decided to do away with this tax in the name of making the state “more business friendly,” it’s that they intentionally did not take action to find another source of support for the entities that would be affected. There was push back, and a freeze on what had been the gradual phase-out of this tax was put in place.

 
Kasich lifted the freeze and ended the gradual phase-out in one motion. Poof — an important revenue stream was gone!

 
One result will be school districts asking for higher levies, as mine is about to do. The effect is money from my and my neighbors’ pockets will go to fund a tax break for businesses. And even if the levies all pass, there will still be cutbacks, just not as severe.

 
This is similar to what happened when Kasich did away with the Ohio estate tax. Local governments lost a fair amount of revenue, and local services were cut and taxes were raised to make up the difference.

 
When Kasich gets teary-eyed and starts talking about America’s strength being its people, how it is up to all of us, he is really saying, “When I am President, all of you are on your own.”

Categories Corporate Reform, Education Reform, Ohio, Politics

The Rhetoric of Sarah Palin

By dianeravitch
February 14, 2016 //
8

This is an very engaging analysis of Sarah Palin’s use of words, her rhetorical flourishes.

It turns out that she relies on Latinate phrasing:

“Here, “politics being kind of brutal business” defines the circumstances under which the action occurs. It looks like a construction that will be familiar to anybody who took Latin in school: the ablative absolute.

“An ablative absolute in Latin is a particular kind of clause that, according to one definition, “modifies the whole sentence as an adverb modifies the action of a verb.” An example, courtesy of The Latin Library: “His verbis dictis, Caesar discedit.” Translation: “With these words having been said, Caesar departs.”

“In fact, a lot of what Sarah Palin says sounds like it’s been poorly translated from the Latin. With her “he who” and “one who,” she’d sound almost Ciceronian if it weren’t for the holes in her logic and the way those complicated sentences sometimes dribble off into vaguely sinister, possibly offensive nonsense.”

Categories Humor, Politics

David Gergen Is Woefully Misinformed

By dianeravitch
February 11, 2016 //
50

David Gergen said on CNN tonight that young people voted for Bernie Sanders because Hillary criticized charter schools. Yes, he actually said that, on the Erin Burnett show. He said that young people like charter schools, and they were angry that Hillary opposes charter schools.

 

To begin with, there is no evidence whatever that young people want charter schools. If they are old enough to vote, they aren’t in school, and very few went to a charter school.

 

But it makes no sense to say that young people voted for Bernie because Hillary doesn’t support charter schools. Bernie has come out in opposition to charter schools. Is that why young people voted for him? Hillary made a 30-word statement that accurately stated that some charter schools don’t serve all kinds of children; her top aide for education “walked back” the statement and insisted that Hillary does support charter schools.

 

Will we have to endure this kind of nonsense from now until November?

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Politics

Don’t Be Fooled: Marco Rubio is No Moderate

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2016 //
10

The Republican field of candidates is scary on many issues. On education, there is no debate because they all agree with privatization of public education and getting rid of unions.

 

For some reason, the media has taken to calling Marco Rubio a “moderate.” He is supposedly the “establishment” candidate. If this is true, it shows how extremist the Republican establishment is.

 

This article in the Daily Beast describes Rubio’s views. The author John Favreau believes it will be easy to defeat Rubio because he is so extremist. I hope he is right.

 

Because Trump and Cruz have moved the goalposts on what it means to be bat-shit crazy in a primary, the press will confuse Rubio’s moderate temperament with moderate policies, of which he has none. Rubio was once described as the “crown prince” of the Tea Party. He has a 100 percent rating from the NRA. He’ll appoint justices who will overturn the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision. He opposes abortion with no exception for rape or incest. He opposes stem cell research and doesn’t believe in climate change. He’d send ground troops to Syria and trillions in tax cuts to the rich.

 

Does anyone detect a difference between Rubio and Cruz?

 

Rubio’s ascent must be depressing for Jeb! Bush, because Jeb! was Rubio’s mentor.

Categories Education Reform, Politics

9-Year-Old Student: “Will Donald Trump Deport Me?”

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2016 //
18

In a guest column on EduShyster’s blog, student-teacher Mary Sypek describes her lesson with a class of fourth-graders. They are 26 children from 22 countries. She is teaching them about American government and the Constitution. Karin asks her, “Will Donald Trump deport me?”

 

What should she tell him?

Categories Education Reform, Politics
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