Why do elected DEMs buy into the "utterly idiotic" assumptions of the school "reform movement"?

[Smarmie Doofus]

Or am I answering my own question by using the word "buy"? No other explanation for it that I can see.

From David Sirota via Salon. I like his lingo. Matches my mood. This is his best writing, I think.

>>>You know how it goes: The pervasive media mythology tells us that the fight over the schoolhouse is supposedly a battle between greedy self-interested teachers who don’t care about children and benevolent billionaire “reformers” whose political activism is solely focused on the welfare of kids. Epitomizing the media narrative, the Wall Street Journal casts the latter in sanitized terms, reimagining the billionaires as philanthropic altruists “pushing for big changes they say will improve public schools.”

The first reason to scoff at this mythology should be obvious: It simply strains credulity to insist that pedagogues who get paid middling wages but nonetheless devote their lives to educating kids care less about those kids than do the Wall Street hedge funders and billionaire CEOs who finance the so-called reform movement. Indeed, to state that pervasive assumption out loud is to reveal how utterly idiotic it really is, and yet it is baked into almost all of today’s coverage of education politics.

That, of course, is not all that shocking; after all, plenty of inane narratives are regularly depicted as assumed fact in the political press. What’s shocking is that the other reason to scoff at the Greedy Teachers versus Altruistic Billionaire tale is also ignored. It is ignored even though it involves the most hard-to-ignore facts of all — the ones involving vested financial interests.>>>>
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/getting_rich_off_of_schoolchildren/

[yourout]

1. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. But it's pretty much ALL of 'em.

At least at the national level.

Are they ALL crooks?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. Yep! The system is rigged, and we are fucked.

[MichiganVote]

3. +1. Absolutely.

[ReRe]

11. You took the key strokes right out of my fingers!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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[mick063]

5. Easy explanation

The GOP is a party of division. Many have been pushed into the Democratic Party with no where else to go.

Now, the Democratic Party ideology resembles the old Bush mantra. "Compassionate conservatism".

We are all fucked because of it.

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. I'm kicking this in the hope that someone will defend the integrity of the elected...

... DEMs aforementioned.

It's quite a commentary if no one here can even take a stab at making a plausible rationale for DEMs supporting Gates/Murdoch/WSJ/Walmart/Koch corporate takeover of public ed that doesn't involve..... well.... bribery. ( Is there a better word?)

[rhett o rick]

7. They stay out of these threads. nm

[senseandsensibility]

8. Great article.

I hope everyone on DU reads it.

[freshwest]

9. Is he discussing School Boards? In our state, it was the voters, in an amazing show of cupidity,

who voted for Charter Schools being allowed to start up here. No elected Democrat in my district supported this, but it was put in place by the process of a statewide initiative, after getting enough signatures to put it on the ballot and then it received the majority vote.

Those who wanted it were not politicans. They are citizens. How are they going to be stopped from making this choice? And should they be, even though I hate what they will do to the public schools?

None of it was done by fiat, in the dark or over anyone's head. It was voted in by the fundies and baggers. They hate the public school system and been carrying on about it for years on RW radio, despite success rates:

http://voices.yahoo.com/state-education-rankings-graduation-rates-high-6357074.html?cat=4

http://www.wacharterschools.org/news/wanews/WANewsIndex.htm

Why is this the fault of the elected Democrats in my area who didn't introduce this?

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. Sirota's referencing media, primarily. I'm asking about elected DEMs specifically.

I was not particularly clear in OP.

I'm talking about *national* DEMs ( Executive, House, Senate) all of whom seem to be on board with the billionaire ED "philanthropists" ... or at least conspicuously and suspiciously silent.

Clarified that in Post #2.

There seems to be a much greater diversity of opinion among local DEMs. A different dynamic seems to prevail. In NYC , at least 33 local DEM electeds signed a pledge to turn down money from $$$$ "reformers"; under pressure from activists, for sure; but still they signed.

But at the federal level... I hear NOTHING. From *anyone*. Except those who explicitly support the privatization agenda.

I'm curious: did the Washington State US Senators take a public stand on the charter vote? What about US House Reps?

[freshwest]

16. Nothing but the voter's opinion matters. None of mine supported it, nor did I see any reps do so.

The propaganda war goes on night and day, we even had an article posted on DU bitterly criticizing public school staff. All this goes into forming public opinion.

Although Bill Gates is well-known, his educational schemes are not that popular. His father tried to get an state income tax passed on those making large incomes, but the libertarians and the teabaggers voted it down.

They are voting down what we as Dems have stood for and try to get funded. We also have a lot of libertarians who want all the schools privatized, along with all other functions of government.

Screw the media, and what they say about Dems. We don't have a media voice, we don't have the money to buy air time or sponsor talk shows. We only have each other to talk to about these things.

As far as being 'silent' on the national stage, this is a voter issue which is not as juicy as it is being out to be, and the guy at Salon finding big names to blame in his region, certainly isn't talking for all of us.

The voters control these issues on the local level. The feds can't make them do what they want. This was a voter sponsored ballot initiative. No one promoted it or argued it officially - they can't do that here.

The US House reps and Senators can't get involved in state affairs, unless it's for their constituents on Federal matters. This was all orchestrated by private forces and voters, many of them libertarians, church goers and teabaggers. The accusations you made in no way apply to people I know.

[madfloridian]

13. There are very few national Democrats who don't support this ed "reform."

They are going right along with the dismantling of public education.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

12. .

[blkmusclmachine]

14. Complicity. Because they're in on it.

1 + 1 = 2

[Starry Messenger]

15. Lots of people think that rich people are smarter than mundanes.

That simply the fact that they "created" a fortune puts them on an intellectual plane above the rest of us. I don't think some politicians are above this fallacy either.

There is a labor wing of the Democratic party and a corporate wing of the Democratic party. We see the battles here everyday, but they are playing out in real life too, for the future of the party, and also for the control of our dwindling resources.

[The Straight Story]

17. Dems were pushing for similar things in the 90's. R's were against it then

Was called Outcome Based Education and it got the republicans and fundies all pissed off and upset.

When bush got in it was renamed and suddenly the r's were all for it.

They play us each election, both parties, on some issues.

Whip up fear over x to get elected, then implement x under new name and different code words.

Homeland security was an idea in the 90's, the right was not fond of it in the open even though they helped push for it.

The list goes on and on with both parties. They were for healthcare like romney introduced, then against it, but given enough power they will rename it and implement it. We were against it, but accepted it as better than nothing instead of using the majority to push for better.

It is a show in many areas (not all of course) and we just employ different actors from time to time - like changing the channel and the same show is on each one but different people play the parts and the dialogue is written slightly different.