Dear Commons Community,
The New York Times has an article on Hillary Clinton’s dilemma on education. Essentially it posits that she is caught between the teachers (AFT/NEA) and the Wall Street financial community.
“…Hillary is being pulled in opposite directions on education. The pressure is from not only the teachers who supported her once and are widely expected to back her again, but also from a group of wealthy and influential Democratic financiers who staunchly support many of the same policies — charter schools and changes to teacher tenure and testing — that the teachers’ unions have resisted throughout President Obama’s two terms in office.
And the financiers say they want Mrs. Clinton to declare herself.
“This is an issue that’s important to a lot of Democratic donors,” said John Petry, a hedge fund manager who was a founder of the Harlem Success Academy, a New York charter school. “Donors want to hear where she stands.”
The growing pressure on education points out a deeper problem that Mrs. Clinton will have to contend with repeatedly, at least until the Iowa caucuses: On a number of divisive domestic issues that flared up during the Obama administration — trade pacts, regulation of Wall Street, tax policy — she will face dueling demands from centrists and the liberal base of the Democratic Party.
Her allies believe that with no strong primary opponent to force her into the open, Mrs. Clinton has plenty of time to maneuver before taking sides. But advocates will be using what leverage they possess to draw her out sooner.”
The article concludes with insights provided by AFT President Randi Weingarten:
“Mrs. Clinton will at least not have to establish credibility on the subject.
Her involvement with efforts to overhaul education dates back at least to the early 1980s, when her husband named her co-chairwoman of an Arkansas committee that called for a teacher-competency test, smaller classes and a higher dropout age. As a senator, she voted for No Child Left Behind in 2001, but later attacked the law, saying it was failing children.
Her association with Ms. Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers began when Ms. Weingarten was a local union leader in New York and Mrs. Clinton was the state’s junior senator. Yet her incoming campaign chairman, John D. Podesta, has been a charter school supporter.
In an interview, Ms. Weingarten suggested that those she termed “the so-called education reformers” were most worried that the agenda they have pushed for with the Obama administration, and in places like Chicago, “does not work.”
But she rejected the idea that Mrs. Clinton would set policy based on anything other than “her experience and the evidence.”
“She has been versed in these issues for a long time, and will give everyone a fair hearing and a fair shot, but she will look at it through the lens of what’s good for kids. Period,” Ms. Weingarten said. “Anybody who thinks otherwise just doesn’t know her.”
This is an important issue for Mrs. Clinton. She will take her time making any decision and will likely take a middle road strategy.
Tony
