A few days ago, longtime DailyKos writer Laura Clawson tried to paint Hillary Clinton as a champion of public education, using remarks that Hillary made in a recent interview with Roland Martin, a journalist for TV One (a little-known cable network partially owned by NBCUniversal):
But the original idea, Roland, behind charter schools was to learn what worked, and then apply them in the public schools. And, here’s a couple of problems. Most charter schools — I don’t want to say every one — but most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them. And, so, the public schools are often in a no-win situation, because they do, thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.
So, I want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system— not outside of it — but within it, because I am still a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy, and it is a path for opportunity.
But, I am also fully aware that there are a lot of substandard public schools. But, part of the reason for that is that policymakers and local politicians will not fund schools in poor areas that take care of poor children to the level that they need to be. And, you can get me going on this…I mean, the corridor of shame right here in South Carolina, you get on there and you can see schools that are literally falling apart. I’ve been in some of those schools. I have seen the terrible physical conditions. That is an outrage. It is a rebuke to who we are as Americans to send any child to a school that you wouldn’t send your own child to.
(Hillary Clinton quote as published by The Washington Post; emphasis and proofreading mine)
Remember, this post is not about Laura Clawson or her political views by anyone’s imagination. This post is about Hillary Clinton’s own remarks about one of the biggest threats to America today: charter schools. I’m going to make two key points about Hillary’s remarks about charter schools:
- Hillary’s reference to “hardest-to-teach kids” is textbook race-baiting— I’m going to be flatly honest here...when Hillary and other anti-public education politicians in both major parties refer to “hardest-to-teach kids”, they mean “black kids” and/or “Hispanic kids”. To put that another way, charter schools are, by and large, effectively designed to create a taxpayer-funded education system of “separate but equal”, which is exactly what the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka landmark decision. This time, Hillary isn’t even trying to hide the fact that separate isn’t truly equal. In fact, Hillary’s claims about charter schools rejecting or not keeping “hard-to-teach kids” are “not supported by the evidence” that the fact-checking website FactCheck.Org examined.
- Hillary contradicted herself on the current state of traditional public education— Hillary said that traditional school systems are, because of charter schools and even worse programs supported by the anti-public education movement (such as school vouchers), not getting the resources or help that they need to educate every single student who attends a traditional elementary or secondary school. However, Hillary also said that she wants parents “to exercise choice within the public school system”, which is one of the biggest reasons why traditional public schools aren’t getting the necessary resources and funding to educate America’s future.
One point where I do agree with Hillary is her remarks about “substandard public schools”, in which she refers to public school buildings that are literally crumbling or otherwise physically obsolete. I would like to see the Democratic presidential candidates advocate for concrete plans to rebuild America’s infrastructure and public schools.
Make no mistake about it, Bernie Sanders is no progressive when it comes to public education, as he voted for No Child Left Behind as a member of the U.S. House, and he supports Bill Gates’s Common Core State Standards (CCSS). However, Bernie opposes standardized testing, and, Bernie’s views and ideas on K-12 education as a whole are clearly the lesser of two evils, compared to Hillary’s right-wing education agenda. No teachers’ union endorsement will mask the fact that Hillary is a leading opponent, not champion, of public education in this country.