“Wealthy Democrats, including Los Angeles home developer Eli Broad and New York investment fund managers Whitney Tilson and John Petry, have found common cause with Republicans in a push to apply principles of the corporate world, including free-market competition, to public education,” Stephanie Simon reports for Reuters. “With teachers unions bitterly opposed to such measures, Democrats in the movement say they must break their party’s ties to the unions if they’re ever to make progress.”
“So they are offering an alternative to the union dollars, spending freely to back fellow Democrats willing to buck the unions and advance their agenda,” Simon reports. “‘Education reform is really a fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party,’ said Derrell Bradford, who runs a political group in New Jersey that recently helped elect two union-defying Democrats to the state legislature.”
“The reform movement’s goals include shutting down low-performing public schools; weakening or eliminating teacher tenure; and expanding charter schools, which are publicly funded but often run by private-sector managers, some of them for-profit companies,” Simon reports. “Wealthy Democrats have joined Republicans in pouring millions into political campaigns, lobbying and community organizing to try to advance these goals nationwide. They can count on their side several influential Democratic mayors, including Newark’s Cory Booker and Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel.”
“The tug-of-war between the Democratic Party’s two education camps is playing out now in a heated primary race in the 46th State Assembly District, a sprawl of suburbs outside Los Angeles,” Simon reports. “From a field of five Democrats, teachers unions have backed Andrew Lachman, an adjunct professor of business law at Woodbury University. The California Teachers Association gave him $7,800 directly, campaign records show – and spent more than $130,000 on ads tearing down one of his opponents, Brian Johnson.”
“Johnson, who until recently ran a network of charter schools in Los Angeles, has the full support of the charter industry and the education reform community,” Simon reports. “Contributions from investors, philanthropists and Silicon Valley executives, including Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, have flooded into Johnson’s campaign. Independent groups funded by an overlapping network of donors have blanketed the district with mailers backing him.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
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A clearer picture of Steve Jobs’ thoughts on public education and teacher unions – February 21, 2007
Steve Jobs & Rush Limbaugh agree: U.S. public schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 20, 2007
Apple CEO blasts teacher unions, says US schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 16, 2007
There is so much embedded bullshit in this article as to question the sanity of the author.
1- The primary problems in education has absolutely nothing to do with the NEA and AFT- the two large national teacher’s unions. I’m no great fan of teacher’s unions, but their great sin to real Republicans and fake (DINO) Democrat- Republicans in Democratic clothing-is that they stand in the way of the privatization of public education so it can be milked dry for profit. That and the fact that they largely support one political party rain or shine.
2-Public education in the United States is one of the most over regulated, heavily meddled in and least accountable messes existent in these United States. Teachers are not allowed to teach, are not allowed to maintain discipline, are not allowed latitude to tailor methods and schedules to the needs of their students and classes and then are blamed for the results.
3- You cannot make chicken salad out of chicken shit. If a child comes unrested, poorly nourished, and ill prepared to learn they will perform poorly in the best private school money will buy. If the parents have not modeled responsibility, accountability, respect for others and and a value for knowledge, the teacher and school are put behind the 8-ball and the job is almost impossible with very few exceptions.
4-Despite the many problems with the institution of public education in the United States the primary challenge lies outside the school grounds of our nation. The environment the child is raised in is a greater predictor of success or failure than any other- period. Poor, unsafe neighborhoods populated with children from dysfunctional homes that do not nurture or nourish their children feed the perpetuating cycle of poverty, poor performance, crime and despair.
Ms Jobs and Mr Broad are but the latest rich do-gooders meddling outside their competence- the rest are just vultures looking to profit at the expense of children.