If you ever find yourself writing a sentence in which Donald Trump is the subject, maybe don’t start it with “surely.”
With regard to education that means everyone telling you what a Trump Administration will or won’t do really has no idea about what they’re talking about. President-elect Trump doesn’t either, at this point. Behind the scenes he is bringing in some competent hands, folks like Townsend McNitt and James Manning, but they are just getting their sea legs. Obviously look for choice to be a theme. But, also, The Department of Education has a lot of political appointees, more than most agencies, so if you’re looking to see where the Steve Bannon-types land and establish a power base, keep an eye out there. And obviously, Vice President Elect-Pence is going to have a lot of influence here and has pretty established views on education policy from his time as Indiana’s governor. Also keep an eye on Newt Gingrich. In a minister without a portfolio kind of role he is a recipe for a lot of this.
On choice, everyone might settle down a bit. If Trump mishandles the issue it could end any semblance of bipartisanship on issues like choice and make charter schools completely toxic politically. And plenty of people on both sides want that exact outcome. Choice could be a place for productive bipartisan agreement or it could be a flashpoint depending on both how the incoming administration handles the issue and how people respond – especially people who are favorably disposed toward choice but have little use or love for President-elect Trump
Union leaders are not happy about the election. A lot of complaining about Randi Weingarten on this score behind the scenes, relative to how the Clinton – Sanders endorsement decision went down and so forth. Keep an eye on that, it’s been getting louder the last few days. The teachers’ unions stroke of luck on Friedrichs ended what would have been a lot of recriminations about that case and it could open up again soon (Friedrichs-like cases are on the move in the federal judiciary).
In general terms it seems like Trump is likely to make some sort of play around infrastructure that private sector labor might like. Public sector labor, more closely associated with America’s culture wars and the currently out of fashion elites than its working class, looks to be in for a bumpy ride. But, you know who else is a New Yorker besides the President-elect? Chuck Schumer, the dealmaking incoming Senate Minority Leader. Reports that Randi Weingarten, whose base is also New York, had tried to surgically attach herself to his leg in the wake of the election could not be confirmed….but, per the good advice above, surely there are many twists and turns to come. Here’s one take, that seems rosy to me, on how things could play out.
Also on choice, more evidence the money argument moved votes in Massachusetts. My early take on this here. History rhymes, repeats, or something.
Elite opinion admits of only one answer: People are more stupid and bigoted than we ever imagined. Without denying that there’s plenty of stupidity and bigotry to go around, I think it’s more a matter of elite incompetence. Elite opinion heard the rebels’ complaints, but instead of acknowledging what was valid, it rejected the grievances in every particular and dismissed the complainers as fools or worse.
The elites weren’t deaf. They were dumb.
I’m all for CNN dumping some of its commentators, the assault wave upon assault wave of pundits was hard to take during the entire election. It was like D-Day but for political nerds. But, I hope Van Jones isn’t* shown the door. Check out his post election conversations with voters.
Update: This pretty key word was missing from the version originally pushed live. Next time the publishing template asks me if I want to revert to the earlier version I’ll pay attention.
Everyone believes in “choice” in education. It is privatization and grifting that we oppose.
Ah, bury the led on the charter failure in Massachusetts.
So, who did the people in charter areas believe- their own eyes or Rotherham et. al.