By Anthony Cody.
One of Hillary Clinton’s first campaign appearances was this week at Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa. There was a roundtable of hand picked questioners, one of whom lobbed this softball: (minute 50 on this C-SPAN video).
Diane: I think we are very blessed to live where we do. Where education starting very young through high school, this community college, college. We have all these opportunities and we are fortunate here. I worry that not all of America gets to experience this treasure we have. And I think the Common Core is a wonderful step in the right direction of improving American education. And it’s painful to see that attacked. I’m just wondering what can you do to bring that heart back to education? What can we do so that parents and communities and businesses believe in American education and that teachers are respected and our schools are respected and our colleges are respected? And we offer a quality education to all Americans throughout the United States?
Hillary Clinton responded:
Hillary: Wow. That is really a powerful, touching comment that I absolutely embrace. When I think about the really unfortunate argument that been going on around Common Core, it’s very painful, because the Common Core started out as a bi-partisan effort – it was actually non-partisan. It wasn’t politicized, it was to try to come up with a core of learning that we might expect students to achieve across our country, no matter what kind of school district they were in, no matter how poor their family was, that there wouldn’t be two tiers of education. Everybody would be looking at what was to be learned and doing their best to try to achieve that. I think part of the reason Iowa may be more understanding of this is you’ve had the Iowa Core for years, you’ve had a system, plus the Iowa Assessment tests. I think I’m right in saying I took those when I was in elementary school – the Iowa tests. So Iowa has a testing system based on a core curriculum for a really long time, and you see the value of it, you understand why that helps you organize your whole education system. And a lot of states, unfortunately, haven’t had that, and so don’t understand the value of a core, in the sense of a common core that then – yes of course you can, y’know, figure out the best way, in your community to try to reach.
But your question is really a larger one. How did we end up at a point where we are sooo negative about the most important non-family enterprise in the raising of the next generation, which is how our kids are educated. There are a lot of explanations for that, I suppose. Whatever they are, we need to try to get back into a broad conversation where people will actually listen to each other again, and try to come up with solutions for problems, cause the problems here in Monticello are not the same as you’ll find in the inner cities in our biggest urban areas – that’s a given – we have to do things differently. But it should all be driven by the same commitment to try to make sure we do educate every child. That’s why, I was a senator and voted for Leave No Child Behind (sic) because I thought every child should matter.
It was interesting to watch Clinton’s emotional state, since she began by describing the issue as painful. She seems most genuinely animated when describing how the a testing system based on a core curriculum “helps you organize your whole education system.” That is exactly why macro-managers like Clinton (and Bill Gates) are so fond of these tests. Those of us whose lives are being organized and sorted out for us have a different perspective on these tests.
We also might not be surprised to find other reasons Clinton might be fond of the Common Core. Here is the list of the biggest contributors to the Clinton Foundation, and the first on the list is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (Eli Broad is a longtime supporter as well, as he backed Hillary Clinton back in 2008.)
Clinton has struck a populist note recently, much as Barack Obama did in 2008. But those of us whose hopes were kindled by Obama seem to finding it harder to light the fire this time. And if this statement about Common Core is any indication, we are not going to hear much in the way of populism where education is concerned. Common Core tests? Essential for “organizing your whole education system.”
It would be great if politicians like Clinton were forced to go beyond the pitying dismissal of concerns as unfortunate “politicization.” It is almost like they think we should just be quiet and let them organize everything for us, with their handy tests.
The numbers of students opting out has caused a bit of a disturbance in the force. Critics of testing have been given a rare moment to air concerns, so we can make sense of children engaged in acts of civil disobedience across the nation. Hillary Clinton may need to school herself a bit more on “Leave No Child Behind,” and the real story of the Common Core, if she wants to move teachers, students and parents off the sidelines.
What do you think? Do you feel Clinton’s pain?
Ray Brown
I have heard through the years, the older one gets, the more conservative one becomes. That ain’t me, by a long shot!! My family was democratic all their lives and this second time Obama ran, I voted Green Party for the first time.
I can’t stand Clinton, her support of CC, her war mongering speeches in the past, and her supporting of her husband’s NAFTA. Her rich buddies tell everything. If someone in the Democatic party doesn’t run who is a true “progressive” , I will throw my vote away again and vote Green Party out of protest. I will never vote for war, or CC.
What a joke! I got about a week ago a blog from AFT with pictures of all the republicans running, and the only two democrats were Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton on the list. They asked me who I would vote for. I didn’t turn it in, and was offended by the selection. Even a Green Party candidate was not on the list, only sorry old Joe and Clinton.
What is happening to our educational unions? No wonder were in the mess we are in today! It’s time we change to viable unions like the ILWU , Teamsters, or other great unions before we teachers are all mowed down.
Ray Brown, recently retired bilingual resource specialist from the Oakland Unified School District.
David Spring
I am not surprised by Hillary’s support for NCLB and Common Core. In our book, Weapons of Mass Deception, we cover the start of the high stakes testing movement in the 1980s. Hillary Clinton was one of the first and biggest promoters of this scam way back in Arkansas in the early 1980s and has continued to support it ever since. If someone is wise enough to oppose Common Core and high stakes high failure rate testing, I cannot see them voting for Hillary. Just as I cannot see anyone who is opposed to endless trillion dollar wars voting for Hillary.
Don Corley
As a recently retired elementary educator (30 years), I can assure I will not vote for any candidate supporting NCLB/RTTT or Common Core. I experienced the destruction these items have caused in public education – the narrowing of curriculum, the punitive focus on schools, teachers, and teachers’ unions, and the ultimate discouragement and disdain of teachers that has resulted.
Education will be the number one issue for me in the 2016 election. To me, Ms. Clinton is a symbol of the elitist groups who would never send their own children to public schools and see no harm in turning them over to greedy corporations who can then use them to make a profit. Her statements in Iowa show that she has no idea how these policies are harming our children and devastating teachers.
I am hoping for a much more progressive, in-touch candidate to enter the race. If not, it will be the Green Party for me also.
ira shor
Exactly right, that was a scripted “softball” question written and rehearsed to make it sound like an ordinary person was leading the embrace of CCSS and the testing, to which a properly pained Hillary sympathized and agreed. Manipulation posing as communication. Hillary is posing as whatever she needs to win, and the two teacher union leaders Weingarten and Eskelsen will be her chief mouthpieces to get teachers to vote for her.
johna
Clinton’s positions are not based on ignorance, rather on ideology, personal history and from those who finance her campaign. Moreover, as Ira Shor posted above, “”…Weingarten and Eskelsen will be her chief mouth pieces to get teachers to vote for her”. Our options are not pretty: attempt to modify her position via citizen pressure and vote for her, as the least of the evil choices; or, alternatively, not to vote, or vote for a yet unknown third party candidate. If we believe that it will be a catastrophic disaster for a Republican to gain the White House, then the first option is the viable one. If we are to have a smidgen of a chance to have Clinton modify her positions on education, then she must be made aware in a manner she can’t escape that there is a wide swath of voters who have deep feelings that oppose her and who have “walked the walk” and opted their kids out of testing. Only when she can’t avoid parent and educators who will hold her accountable for her regressive ideology will there be a chance to sway her course. As Cllinton makes her way across the country holding her small meetings, we must make our presence visable and our opinions vocal and perhaps even heard. It would be a sign of good faith if Clinton brought on board an education advisor who was not a ‘deformer’ and could remove her blinders. I am neither going to hold my breath nor bet my teachers retirement that Clinton will change her postiion. The thought of holding my nose and voting for her makes me sick at heart. Such sickness has become the rule rather than the exception.
Ray Brown
To Johna,
Maybe I’m an ultimate pessimist, but I dont think a leopard ever changes her spots, Oh, I’m sorry, I offended a beautiful sleek leopard. I meant a venomous snake is always venomous. Clinton has her rich buddies who don’t give a damn about us teachers. The parents are already protesting CC and she could care less. She is a snake who knows where her base is, and it is not with teachers or the common man. I could never trust anything she says…Never!
johna
I agree. I don”t think Clinto is going to change her ppots. I wanted to offfer a couple of possibilities. What I do believe iis that Clinto must be confonted by educators, teachers, students and community people at every opportunity. This will not be playing patty-cake. It must move away from ‘niceness’. Resistance, confrromtations and the like must occur on the local level. We have been failed by our unions and most of our elected officials. Of course the final option is to withold our vote. I wish like hell that Bernie Sanders would make a run and confront Clinton in formal settings. I am perrimistic at best. We are left to our own devices and as I wrote above, our devices are on the local and state levels But that, too, requires time, organization and funding. The resistance is real and growing like a prairie fire,and it will not be denied.
Ray Brown
To Don,
I agree with you completely, I also could not support any candidate who believes in NCLB, RTTT, or CC. Even if a candidate agreed with my other major issues, but not ending CC, I could never vote for them. It’s gotten that bad for me. As a recently retired teacher of 31 years in our profession, I have lived through the destruction of our profession and the horrible damage it has done to our students and teachers. I will not vote for any snake like Clinton and Joe Biden and with their history of supporting Obama and Duncan, I could never trust those two. I have seen the caustic destruction they have done against our fellow brothers and sisters in teaching and our wondeful children.
cathy harvey
i would vote only if they stop common core
Ray Brown
Cathy, it is better to vote, even for a third party, as a throw away vote, just to show these democrats, with a small “d” in their names, that even if a damn republican gets in next time, they better listen to us next time or they will continue to be flushed down the toilet until they learn that the 1% are only a minority, and with all their rotten money, they don’t outnumber teachers or any other person in the middle class. If a damn republican gets in, it would only be the same BS of Clinton and Joe Biden, the same old destruction of teachers and the middle class and our wonderful students. The same-old-same-all.
Ray Brown
Pingback: what a joke! Clinton is no “Liberal” or “progressive! She is a fake, and loves CC. She has no pain about CC. Read Ira Shor above or David Spring, also above, and you might learn something. But, alas, I hardly think you will.