Education Reform Billionaires For Hillary Clinton.

I have been getting some hate mail from my fellow teachers and I suspect from our union leadership on my previous post about who supports Hillary Clinton.  Their main complainant is that the only alternative is Donald Trump and he is pro charter school and school choice (vouchers).  While I agree that Donald Trump's education agenda is terrible for the public schools.  If he were to somehow win the presidency, the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) education agenda (not Hillary Clinton's) would deadlock Congress and the Donald would have no choice but to comprise his education agenda if he is to get things done.

By contrast, if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, she will disregard the DNC education agenda and support the education reformers that have had Barack Obama's backing.  Besides the $48.5 million dollars she has received from hedge funds she also is supported by the education reform billionaires as well.  Already Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and the Walton clan has donated loads of money to Hillary's campaign.  Moreover, they have strongly and publicly support Hillary Clinton.  Does anybody really believe she would ignore their demands? 

Hillary Clinton has said she would continue Barack Obama's policies and if that includes education then it will be a another 4 years of hurting public school education as the Republican agenda would be closer to what education reformers want and I can see Hillary Clinton and the Republicans having common cause when it comes to education policy.  I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it.

Why Hillary Clinton Is Untrustworthy When It Comes To Public Education.

I have been hearing how Hillary Clinton is the "lesser of the two evils" when it comes to whom I should vote for.  According to my fellow blogger nyc educator, he will be holding his nose and vote for Hillary Clinton simply because Donald Trump is worse.   If one looks at the education planks of the two parties, its obvious the Democratic party plank is pro public school while the Republican plank is pro charter and would allow vouchers which would dismantle the public school sector.  However, experience has shown that the elected President usually disregards their party's plank and imposes his or her own policies.  Just look at what President Obama did to the public schools during his eight years as President?  He bribed states in using hastily developed high-stakes Common Core based testing and teacher evaluations using "junk Science" that has resulted in massive teacher shortages nationwide.  Moreover, he is a charter school supporter and education reformer that has hurt the public schools by diverting scarce resources to the charter schools without the accountability demanded in the public school sector.

Now back to Hillary Clinton. after the Democratic National Committee unveiled their education plank, Eli Broad, one of the most powerful education reformers in the country was concerned.  However, according to the Wall Street Journal, Hillary Clinton s husband Bill Clinton quickly reassured Mr. Broad that the DNC's agenda was not Hillary's and she will continue to support the charter school sector.  Now it seems that the deep-pocketed Hedge Funds who support and fund charter schools and education reform organizations have contributed,  according to a Wall Street Journal article,  to Hillary Clinton's campaign $48.5 million dollars in Hedge Fund donations compared to $19,000 for Donald Trump.  Do you really think that Hillary Clinton will not support the charter schools given the massive amounts of money the hedge fund community has given to her campaign and their close relationship with Eli Broad?

If Hillary Clinton becomes President of the United States do you really believe that she will abandon the charter school sector?  The answer is a loud no and that means that for every dollar that goes to the charter school sector, that's a dollar taken away from public schools and with a charter friendly supporter as President, look for the non-accountable charter school sector to continue to bloom at the expense of the public school system.

If you really trust Hillary Clinton to safeguard public school education then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Democratic Platform Is Pro Public School But What About Hillary Clinton?

I was pleasantly surprised that the Democratic party's education plank veered sharply away from the education reform narrative under President Barack Obama and his basketball playing buddy Arnie Duncan.  The Democratic party education agenda originally mirrored the destructive Obama agenda but the final education plank was far different, It included:

• Support for the traditional neighborhood public schools
• Allowing parents to "opt out" their children from high-stakes tests.
• Eliminate the use of those tests to evaluate teachers.
• Charters should not destabilize or replace traditional schools.
• Only high quality public charter schools should be funded.
• Charters must represent the demographics of the community.

The entire platform can be found Here.

Sounds good right?  Unfortunately, there is a problem, the Democratic platform is not the President's platform and Hillary Clinton, despite her friendship with AFT President Randi Weingarten is very close to many hedge fund managers who are the source of funding for the for profit charter schools and some of her closest advisers are part of the education reform movement and believe in teacher accountability by high-stakes testing.  What would Hillary do as President?  The answer is unknown.

The real problem is that Hillary Clinton is considered dishonest and untrustworthy by 67% of the voters and she and her husband has way too much baggage to dismiss.   Be it her email issue, Benghazi, her secret paid speeches to Goldman Sacks, and of course her skirt-chasing husband.  While she may not be a crook as Donald Trump likes to say, it certainly appears she believes she is entitled to do as she pleases and the rules don't apply to her.  That's why what she would do as President when it comes to education policy is unknown.

Hopefully, Hillary's friendship with Randi Weingarten and the blowback the Obama administration has received as parents and even States rebelled against the Obama imposed high-stakes Common Core tests which forced the resignation of the Education Secretary, will result in the Democratic party's education plank to become policy.  Only time will tell, assuming Hillary is the new President .