Tulsi Gabbard Says She Is Pro Charter And Pro School Choice

This is a long description because it is about one of the issues that I specialize in as an activist, fighting charter schools which are an agent of education privatization.

This video is Tulsi Gabbard giving an answer to a confused young man who starts our asking her if she is willing to support charters, school choice and paying teachers by performance and ends by saying that to do so would be fighting the elites, when it is just the opposite. It is billionaires who are behind charters and the school choice movement.

She starts out talking about how education policy is set in DC by listening to special interests and says she will listen to teachers and parents. Nothing wrong with that. But education policy and most importanly funding is set by the state and local school districts. Then she says there is a good charter in Hawaii that is bilingual. She even says parents have to come in and learn English. But here's the thing. Any specialized program or school can be implemented by the school district. You don't need to have private businesses operating them. And what she doesn't seem to get is that requiring parents to come in as a requirement to be in the school when they work two or three jobs is exactly how many charters keep certain socio economic groups out.

Then she says school choice is important twice, which didn't surprise me, since she is pro choice when it comes to health care. She told a cable news reporter that if a union member wanted to keep their private plan, they should be able to, not seeming to get that in order for Medicare for All to be low cost and comprehensive, we have to get rid of the private insurance system. Choice is a neoliberal term. It makes a public good or service into a commodity and not the right that it is. Every public school should be good and fully funded. Charters take away funding from school districts.

Her answer on unions and paying teachers more is good, though she dodged the question of paying teachers based on student performance, which is a terrible idea, since performance is based on many factors beyond how good the teachers are, most notably socio economic status. And paying teachers based on performance has led to cheating and the elimination of teaching other subjects that aren't included in standardized tests.

Overall this answer and her education page, which has no specific education plans for K-12 and just two pieces of higher education legislation, show that while she may be good on her signature issue of ending regime change wars, she is not up to speed on the issue of how the proliferation of charter schools and the entire school choice movement is defunding district schools and ultimately leading to the privatization of public education.

iMovie,