Jeff Bryant: Is Tim Kaine a Sign Democrats Are Leaving the 'Education Reform Camp?'

....in reviewing Kaine’s education policy chops, what’s in his record may not be as important as what isn’t: the current education establishment’s policy checklist of standardization, high-stakes testing, allowing charter schools to sort students by income and ability, and keeping teachers under the authoritative thumb of test-based evaluations – there’s none of that.... The years progressives have put into organizing, voicing opposition to current education policies, and calling for new directions in education are likely having an effect on “this new Democratic Party” too. No wonder people who’ve enjoyed their cushy places at the top are nervous. --- Jeff Bryant

DFED - Democrats for Education Deform

Hmmm. On the surface there is something I like about Tim Kaine though I don't know much. His wife was Virginia education commissioner and supposedly not a heavy ed deformer. Despite claims that   supporters of Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders have substantially altered how public education is framed in the Democratic Party platform, I don't trust platforms, especially since Randi Weingarten is being given credit for some of the language in the platform. Ed issues were basically absent from any of the debates between Hillary and Bernie.

So I'm pretty disappointed that the pro-Bernie educators has very little impact on him in relation to education issues, which were practically buried in the primaries. As for Hillary -- there this comment from Michael Fiorillo who sent us the Jeff Bryant piece. 

We'll see... I'm inclined to think Hillary will betray us, since as a general rule that's what she does... Michael Fiorillo

Jeff Bryant is a reliable reporter on ed issues, lining up against the ed deformers so I find this an interesting piece.
http://www.alternet.org/education/tim-kaine-education-reform

Is Tim Kaine a Sign Democrats Are Leaving the 'Education Reform Camp?'

Kaine is not a fan of high stakes testing, charter schools, or other pillars of reform orthodoxy.

By Jeff Bryant / Campaign for America's Future

 An education “reform” establishment that has enjoyed the complete support of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush may be getting nervous.
The policy outline for K-12 education coming from the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign remains vague, but supporters of Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders have substantially altered how public education is framed in the Democratic Party platform, and Clinton has become more strident in her attacks on “for-profit” charter schools and vouchers that allow parents to transfer their children to private schools at taxpayer expense.

At [last month's] Democratic Party National Convention in Philadelphia, experienced reporters from Education Week noticed that although Clinton generally pledges “to pick up the policy baton from President Barack Obama … it’s tough to say how true that will be when it comes to K-12 education.”
A Politico education journalist at the DNC reported that Shavar Jeffries, president of Democrats for Education Reform, a policy group that has gotten used to getting its way in the Obama administration, said, “There was ‘anxiety’ within the education reform movement over the future of [the movement’s] priorities.”

When DFER threw an event at the convention, the EdWeek reporters noted the mood was more about “soul searching” than celebrating.
Clinton’s picking Virginia Senator Tim Kaine for her vice presidential running mate is not apt to ease the “anxiety” or “soul searching” reformers feel.
“To be sure, Kaine is not part of the so-called education reform camp,” writes education reporter Lauren Camera for U.S. News and World Report.
Camera correctly tags New Jersey Senator Cory Booker as someone who would have been more favorable to big supporters of the high-stakes testing and charter school expansions that come with reform orthodoxy. But Kaine’s education record diverges sharply from that.
As a mayor, a governor and a U.S. senator, Kaine has a “hefty education resume,” as Camera writes, which includes support for expanding access to high-quality early learning programs for children from birth to age 5 and increasing access to career and technical education programs and apprenticeships.
Education writers for Politico note Kaine’s work to provide federal student loans for some career education programs, his advocacy for LGBT students’ rights, and his support for improving emergency responses on college campuses and mental health in Virginia following the death of 32 people by gun violence at Virginia Tech in 2007.
But in reviewing Kaine’s education policy chops, what’s in his record may not be as important as what isn’t: the current education establishment’s policy checklist of standardization, high-stakes testing, allowing charter schools to sort students by income and ability, and keeping teachers under the authoritative thumb of test-based evaluations – there’s none of that.
In what may be the most revealing commentary about his education perspectives, an op-ed he wrote for his hometown Richmond paper, Kaine lays out an education agenda of increased personalization, relief from the testing mandates, richer and more varied curriculum, and support and autonomy for experienced teachers. (Hat tip: Bertis Downs.)
Education journalists covering Kaine also never fail to include mention of his wife Anne Holton, who serves as Virginia’s secretary of education. As education journalists at The Washington Post explain, Holton “has worked to reform a standardized testing regime that had been criticized as unnecessarily time-consuming and onerous.”
Holton, the reporters write, has blamed high stakes testing for intensifying the stubborn achievement gap in her state, rather than remedying it as fans of the reform approach say it will.
The article also notes Holton “has opposed the expansion of charter schools and other school-choice measures, and she has pushed for greater investments in public education, including teacher pay raises.”
None of this is what education reformers want to hear.
Kaine and Holton also deserve to be praised for “walking the walk” of progressive schooling by enrolling all their children in the public school system and sending them to racially integrated schools that were majority non-white.
Of course, there’s no guarantee Kaine will influence the education policy direction of a Clinton administration. Nor is this to say Kaine is perfect on education or even the most progressive of possible vice presidential candidates Clinton could have picked.
For instance, Kaine has expressed reluctance to support free universal public higher education, which has become a cornerstone in the populist agenda advocated by Bernie Sanders and his supporters. And as governor, Kaine presided over a period when Virginia made significant cuts to education funding; although, to be fair, this occurred in response to one of the nation’s worst economic calamities in its history.
Also, liberal groups have criticized Kaine for his support of big banks, Wall Street deregulation, and “free trade” – although, he flipped his position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership proposal shortly after becoming the vice presidential nominee.
But none of these factors should veer from the narrative of what is rapidly happening to education policy in the Democratic Party.

As my colleague Dave Johnson explains in his analysis of Tim Kaine’s change of heart on TPP, “Kaine had to change his position” (emphasis mine) on TPP after he was chosen because that’s more reflective of where the Democratic party is going rather than where it’s been.
“This is what happens when people organize and make their voices heard,” Johnson writes. “This is the power of the progressive movement. This is the new Democratic Party.”

The years progressives have put into organizing, voicing opposition to current education policies, and calling for new directions in education are likely having an effect on “this new Democratic Party” too. No wonder people who’ve enjoyed their cushy places at the top are nervous.

Jeff Bryant is director of the Education Opportunity Network, a partnership effort of the Institute for America's Future and the Opportunity to Learn Campaign. He has written extensively about public education policy.