Democrat v. Democrat

It sure looks like the old splits in the Democratic party on education are reemerging.  That’s not surprising given the timing – open seat presidency in 2016 creates a vacuum  – as well as policy differences and politics.  Richard Whitmire and I take a look at that in USA Today this morning.

Most non-New Yorkers know only two things about Bill de Blasio, the city’s new progressive mayor: Heeats pizza with a knife and fork, and Al Roker attacked him for sending students to school in a snowstorm.

But parents should know a third: He’s waging a Democrat vs. Democrat battle over education issues that could spill into the 2016 Democratic presidential primary and into your community.

Entire op-ed here.

4 Replies to “Democrat v. Democrat”

  1. The link above is bad. Here’s the piece: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/26/de-blasio-charter-schools-education-common-core-column/5847593/

    Success schools don’t accept any new students after the very first day of third grade. I’ll leave it to others to speculate what’s behind their high attrition rates, but their failure to serve children simply based on their age, and the assumption that they won’t test well, destroys Success’s argument that they ought to have free public space. If you want to deny access to so many kids “hungry for public school options” despite having available seats in classrooms, then you can pay for your own space (and hope everyone continues not to notice that you’re violating the state charter school law).

  2. Non unionized schools are bad because they can’t launder campaign contributions thru ‘union dues’

  3. Rotherman and Whitmire present a strong and compelling case against a straw man caricature of those opposing their corporate education reform ideas. At one point, I almost believed this was a serious article when they wrote “At the heart of this confrontation is a fundamental philosophical divide over what constitutes a common school.” But then they sum up those critical of Moskowitz and her Success Academy model by saying that “[her] critics believe in traditional school districts and unionized teachers.”

    Her critics believe that education is a public good that deserves to be provided sufficient funds to do the job. Moskowitz and many other “successful” charters are able to get the results they get with piles of private money. Then, they take the “results” they achieved and compare it to schools that do not get those funds, causing more and more public schools to be shut down and further concentrating the most difficult children to educate in whatever remaining public schools exist.

  4. “But parents should know a third: He’s waging a Democrat vs. Democrat battle over education issues that could spill into the 2016 Democratic presidential primary and into your community.”

    Yeah, right. Wake me up from eternal slumber should education matter AT ALL in the 2016 elections.

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