"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Hamilton, Hillary, and Diane Ravitch

Just a week ago Diane Ravitch was pitching a petition drive by some Florida teachers urging Hillary Clinton to meet with Ravitch to get straightened out on education reform issues.  One petition signer left this comment at Ravitch's blog:
Ellen Lubic
I signed and added this comment.
“It is imperative that you, Hillary Clinton, learn more about public schools v. charter schools. Most educators are not voting for you due to your insistence that charters are viable to take funding from true public education. Ravitch has the facts and speaks for most of America’s highly trained educators. I am a university professor of public policy.”

I have also sent this petition to all my lists with my personal note urging all to sign.
Then this past weekend, as both unpaid and paid activists convened in DC under the watchful gaze of NEA and AFT to declare to each other how much black lives matter to educators, Randi Weingarten was in Orlando making sure the Democratic platform reflected Clinton's "no excuses" charter priority and to have more special needs and ELL children attend these deracinating and dehumanizing schools.   

Fast forward to yesterday morning, and Bernie Sanders was with Clinton in New Hampshire to pledge his support for Clinton and to claim credit for what he described as the most progressive Democratic platform in history.  Thank you, Hillary, for letting our blood, sweat, and tears soak up into a document that will soon disappear from sight forever. 

By afternoon, Clinton had made it back to NYC to the theater where the cast of "Hamilton" was performing for a dollar-studded audience that paid from $2,700 to $100,000 dollars to buy a seat and to hear Hillary deliver, in person, her dramatic news from New Hampshire following the play.  

And how appropriate!  Alexander Hamilton was "the political water boy for the crony capitalist one-percenters of his day," and here was Hillary in present tense exemplifying those same values, while "beaming," as Ravitch described her in a blog post today.  Yes, Diane, the recently-avowed Hillary supporter, bought enough seats for the whole family, grandchildren included. Note: Ravitch's son, Joseph Ravitch, is the co-founder of the Raine Group, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and major financial backer of Parchment, which is an online educational credentialing platform akin to Edu-Blocks.

How about all that information that Diane was going to provide Clinton when the teachers get enough signatures to convince Hillary's people to take a moment from her busy schedule to learn about the privatizing policies that she has embraced to keep the hedge funders' cash flowing to her campaign?

That will have to wait for another day, if it ever comes.  Diane was too thrilled about her day at the theater with Hillary and learning to appreciate fictional history set to rap music to ever let segregated public-draining charter schools ruin the glow from yesterday.  You might even say the more important encounter with Hillary has already occurred.  But keep collecting those signatures, teachers--both Diane and Hillary appreciate your passion.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous6:12 PM

    My hat is off to Ellen Lubic. Thank you for expressing this succinctly.

    Please read commentary on Hamilton for greater clarity on the play:


    http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/24/miranda-obama-and-hamilton-an-orwellian-menage-a-trois-for-the-neoliberal-age/


    ReplyDelete