Arne Duncan's next four years as the Secretary of Education Privatization look like they'll be as bad as the first four as he ratchets up the pressure for Common Core, national standardized tests, more cities with mayoral control of schools, more charter schools, more school "turnarounds" and the like.
Looking at this agenda makes me wonder why very intelligent, very progressive people who care about education and public schools would support Barack Obama knowing what's coming the next four years.
I no longer buy the "lesser evil" argument.
Had Mitt Romney won and tried to push vouchers and other privatization schemes, people would have fought him on his plans.
Just as when George Bush tried to privatize Social Security, people fought him on that plan in 20005 and beat him.
But Barack Obama will not get the same kind of fight on Social Security privatization and public school privatization that Mitt Romeny would have gotten.
Just as it took a red-baiting Richard Nixon to go to China and "liberal" Bill Clinton to sell Dems on welfare reform and NAFTA, it will take the "progressive" Barack Obama to sell us out on Social Security, Medicare and public education.
And make no mistake, the sell out is coming.
Glenn Greenwald has already mapped out how it will work.
Get ready for an ugly four years.
At least this time I can keep my head up knowing I didn't vote for it.
Just for you I present this NYT link about Obama's narcissistic and delusional fantasies about his place in history:
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No wonder he is a total failure. He needs a team of shrinks instead of a team of historians.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteI also read and was struck by that article, but could not decide whether it was an indication of Obama's narcissism, or his cynical manipulation of what passes for the "left."
Perhaps both.
BTW, does anybody know how Jill Stein (and the other third party candidates) did in the presidential election? I haven't been able to find anything. I voted for her.
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