Hillary Clinton and the other Democratic candidates are vying for the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers. The fix is probably in, because the leader of the AFT is a Hillary supporter, but questions remain. Per usual, no one actually knows where Hillary stands on issues critical to teachers, such as the charter school (read “corporatization”) movement. As with TPP, Hillary is busy listening because apparently she hasn’t been around long enough to know anything about these issues.
But sometimes reality leaks through:
Ann O’Leary, the campaign’s top policy adviser, told the New York Times earlier this year that Clinton would be engaging with leaders on both sides of the debate more than [the] Obama administration has: “both the teachers union and the reformers will really feel like they have her ear in a way they haven’t. (Emphasis added)”
Here are the pertinent definitions of “reform” from my American Heritage Dictionary:
1 obsolete : RESTORE, RENEW
2 a) : to restore to a former good state : bring from bad to good
b) : to amend or improve by change of form or by removal of faults or abuses
c) : to put or change into a new and improved form or condition
3 : to put an end to (an evil) by enforcing or introducing a better method or course of action or behavior
<~ the abuses of political patronage>
4 : to induce or cause to abandon an evil manner of living and follow a good one : change from worse to better
Notice a common thread there? Now, one could argue that the terms “reform” and “reformers” have been so misused in our times that they no longer necessarily have positive connotations. The press often dutifully calls someone a reformer if that person or entity calls itself a reformer. But the fact is that the word is used as a term of self description precisely because it still has a positive connotation. There’s an imbalance between the neutral (or, nowadays, pejorative) term “teacher’s union” and the positive term “reformers” that tells us all we need to know. Once Hillary is safely elected, Arne Duncan need have no fear that a Clinton presidency will try to undo his “reforms” or stop the corporatization of our public schools. It’s a bi-partisan push, and in this day and age, that’s all you need to know to tell you that you need to hide your wallet and duck for cover.
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