The Center for Media and Democracy keeps a careful watch on the activities of ALEC, the ultra-conservative organization of state legislators. One of ALEC’s model law is a “parent trigger” bill.
The new film “Won’t Back Down” pulls together the threads of corporate backing for the privatization of public education.
A friend just informed me that Bill Cosby has joined the board of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst. This is a coup for her in her efforts to demean our nation’s teachers and promote the privatization of American public education.
He is clearly uninformed about what she is doing. If you know how to contact him, do so. This is not in character for him.
Sharon Higgins, Oakland parent activist, suggests some reading for Molly Ball, who wrote about Michelle Rhee “taking over the Democratic Party.”
Yesterday I responded to an article in The Atlantic claiming that Michelle Rhee was actually a “lefty” and was “taking over” the Democratic party.
I responded to the article.
Others have said that the writer, Molly Ball, was sending out an automated reply, but I got something slightly different.
What she says here is that she doesn’t understand why a Democrat would not support for-profit charter schools; or work closely with Governor Chris Christie to strip teachers of tenure and seniority; or work with Governor Rick Scott to promote privatization of public schools; or work with Governor Mitch Daniels to push vouchers through the legislature; or accept an award from the rightwing American Federation for Children in company with Governor Scott Walker.
What she says is that there is no difference between Democrats and Mitt Romney on education.
I hope that President Obama makes clear what the differences are.
Here is our exchange:
Hi Diane, thanks for the feedback. My intent with the story was not to mediate yet another round of the education-reform debate, but to illustrate the political inroads Rhee and her ideas have made, while noting, as you do, that they remain quite controversial. To answer your rhetorical questions, I don't see why a Democrat can't do any of those things. Best, Molly ________________________________________ From: Diane Ravitch [gardend@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 6:05 PM To: Ball, Molly Subject: From Diane Ravitch re Rhee Would a Democrat work to promote a for-profit chain? Would a Democrat work with Republican governors Rick Scott, Chris Christie, and Mitch Daniels? What part of Rhee's agenda differs from that of the most rightwing Republicans? What Democrat would have accepted an honor from the far-right voucher-loving organization American Federation for Children, which simultaneously honored Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker? Nothing that Rhee advocates has ever succeeded. Neither charters nor vouchers nor merit pay nor evaluating teachers by test scores has any evidence of improving education. Diane Ravitch
I have not decided how I will vote.
I will not vote for Romney.
How I cast my vote will be decided in the next few weeks.
This teacher has decided:
I am one of the thousands of stunned teachers, and life long Democrats who was amazed by the actions taken by the current Democratic leadership in the war against teachers. I was one of the teachers who was fired, then rehired at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.
Without warning, bad evaluation, or cold reasoning I was made the pillar and brunt of national jokes and political finger wagging.
The greatest hurt came when this president, on national news, commended the “bravery” of the superintendent when she fired the entire staff of the high school.
Without knowledge or background on the extreme level of poverty, crime, or lack of funding, President Obama called me a bad teacher.
This is the direction of the war against teachers. Along with Arne Duncan and of course the teachings of Rhee I have seen first hand the devastation caused by amateur educational reformers.
Replacement Teaching Fellows from 60 day certificate factories have lasted as little as 24 hours, some I find crying in the bathroom. Promised money disappears into administrative accounts, and the blame for kids that can’t see the light of day for the crushing poverty they live in rests with teachers.
So, for the first time since I walked the blocks for McGovern I will not vote for ta Democratic president.
Do you happen to know a billionaire? Or maybe someone with lots of millions?
Not just any old billionaire, but one who cares about supporting public education. One who thinks it is wrong to hand out children over to entrepreneurs. One who knows the difference between the free market and the commons.
I ask because of this comment that I received from a teacher in a northeastern state. I have edited it to obscure the identities of all involved, which was the condition for using it:
As I said, he’s developed an interest in education but he’s hanging with the wrong guys, and i told him as much. His real interest is in the chess game of politics, which is fascinating, especially when you have the resources to play for real.
Between the AFT and NEA we have millions of people on street level. Save Our Schools has thousands more folks. Where do we find super rich folks who can help us pay for someone like James Carville to craft our multi-level consistent message and actually get it out there? I’m asking you because I’m hoping you’ve run across them in your travels.
Sharon R. Higgins is an Oakland parent activist. She diligently follows the money. Check out her website Charter School Scandals.
She sent the following comment:
Any article about Michelle Rhee published by the Atlantic Media Company should disclose Rhee’s extremely close ties to AMC’s CEO and owner, and his wife (David and Katherine Bradley).
The Bradleys hosted Rhee at their Massachusetts Heights home three times between January 2008 and March 2009, and it is extremely likely that there were additional times after that.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/36893/fund-and-games
It was also Katherine Bradley who, in 2010, ponied up the $100,000 fee for Anita Dunn’s PR to help improve the image of the intensely disliked Michelle Rhee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/us/07rhee.html
An article in The Atlantic by a political reporter named Molly Ball claims that Michelle Rhee is “taking over” the Democratic Party.
It curious that Rhee owns the party but was not invited to speak and explain her views. So many speakers ridiculed Mitt Romney because, they said, he likes to fire people. Funny, Rhee likes to fire people too. When she ran the DC schools, she invited a PBS camera crew to watch her fire a principal.
I wrote to the author of this article. You should too. Post a copy here if you do. Her email address is in the article.
This is what I wrote:
Gary Rubinstein, who teaches math at Stuyvestant High School in New York City, went to a preview of “Won’t Back Down.”
He had some trepidation because he had heard the speculation about its content.
But being an intrepid movie goer, he decided to watch it for entertainment value.
He reports that it is not a very good movie.
He critiques the many inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the movie.
This parent trigger law, unlike any in the real world, requires the approval of a majority of both parents and teachers.
The teachers in the movie are unhappy because their union contract will not permit them to stay after school to help kids who need help.
The principal is a cheater with enrollment data, but the teacher who knows it doesn’t report him.
At the happy ending, after the parents and staff have dumped the one terrible teacher and their awful union, they create their own non-union charter school. This is unlike the real parent trigger laws that have been promoted by charter chains trolling for new business, by Michelle Rhee, Jeb Bush and ALEC. Apparently none of the corporate sponsors makes an appearance.
If you see it, let me know what you think.
A reader comments on the conflict between what reformers say and what they do:
Ironically, sometimes, what corporate sponsored “reformers” say they want is the exact opposite of what they really want.
For example, this week on Twitter, Arne Duncan was promoting student involvement in mock elections and said, “Watch the MyVoice National Mock Election 2012 PSA series, and get involved!” However, this is a man who believes in, and personally benefitted from, mayoral controlled education, which has meant recinding the democratic rights of citizens to vote for and elect their local school boards and, instead, turning education over to mayors who appoint puppet boards and Superintendents –which is how he got his job as CEO of schools in Chicago. (As rightwing ALEC promotes.) Of course, Duncan got appointed to his current position due to cronyism and a Congress that had a majority of Democrats at the time, so he really believes in voting only when it might be to his advantage (such as re-electing Obama).
Other times, what corporate sponsored “reformers” really want is deeply entangled in the language they choose to use to describe what they say they are against.
For example, Gates, Rhee and Duncan have claimed repeatedly that teachers are not “interchangable widgets”, in order to combat unions, seniority and lane and step pay schedules. However, when it comes to teaching children, they think it’s fine to use teachers as “interchangable widgets”, such as when they promote Teach for America, which has placed people like Rhee, who had a bachelor’s degree in government, in a classroom teaching 3rd graders, who are not very likely to be studying much, if anything, about government.
This TFA placement practice still exists today, according to Barbara Veltri, author of Learning on Other People’s Kids: Becoming a Teach for America Teacher,
“most corps report that they are teaching out-of-field and in Special Education classrooms, where they arrive with about 5 hours of training”
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/category/teach-for-america/
I think the Common Core mandate on informational texts paves the way for using more teachers as “interchangable widgets” in classrooms. For example, English curriculum is likely to include reading books about people and events in history, which will make it easier to justify the placement of out of field teachers (not just TFAers), such as those with degrees in history teaching English classes –like Tony Danza.
Diane Ravitch's blog 