You can look back at the president as a candidate speaking before the unions making it clear about his support for charter schools, his support for things like performance pay. It was not a closeted agenda. And for people to act right now like they feel betrayed by this president only suggests that they were not paying attention when he was speaking." - Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. (July 7 National Public Radio's All Things Considered)
I heard Joe Williams speak earlier this summer. The statement above is in keeping with the speech he gave to us at the CEAFU conference. He doesn't go easy on his fellow Democrats when it comes to education reform, and with good reason.
Education's the fault line that could tear the Democratic party apart and the probably no one's more aware of the danger then the folks who are part of DER. But what can they do?
ReplyDeleteBlack voters are much more supportive of education reform then white voters and the Democratic party is toast as a national party without virtually uniform black voting support. Deal with the situation or have the situation deal with you, that's the dilemma facing Democrats.