Guest MINDSETTER™ Stewart: Why I Oppose Raimondo’s Free College Scheme
Friday, March 17, 2017
Far be it for me to rain on everyone’s parade but I think the notion of Gina Raimondo, the best friend education privatizers ever had on Smith Hill, offering free tuition is simply not worth it. Anyone who does not recognize this as first and foremost a desperate re-election ploy and therefore a bid to further damage public education in Rhode Island is totally missing the point. The legend has it that the gates of Hell were marked with a sign that said“Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here” and I do not see pearly gates on the horizon with this.
So let’s start with a basic fact, Rhode Island’s public education system, flawed as it may be, is one of the most robust and admirable in America hands-down. Which in corporate Democrat speak is translated to the word“jackpot”. Lest anyone forget, Raimondo’s husband, Andrew Moffit, is a charter school industrial player. His career began with a stint in the union-busting Teach for America, which engages in the sort of paternalistic missionary work of sending under-qualified and under-trained college graduates into urban public schools because, well, poor black and brown kids apparently don’t deserve qualified teachers who are looking for a lifetime career as opposed to a self-serving careerist looking for a resume stepping stone. Raimondo and Moffit have always seen public resources, such as the pension fund, as untapped wellsprings of capital for their paymasters in the 1%. Let’s not forget, the charter school industry is financed by the hedge fund sector Raimondo invested the pension in while Treasurer. These same hedge fund leaders like Paul Tudor Jones (a Raimondo backer, by the way) were responsible for causing the 2008 economic apocalypse. That in turn was built off a systemic level of predatory real estate loans in sub-prime mortgages that were viciously and deceptively marketed to black and brown folks nationwide. Public education for the 1% is a massive hindrance to their ultimate goal because it incidentally has manning it a white-collar union of college-educated professionals who are savvy enough to know a scam when they see it.
But besides those basic observations, what exact good has Raimondo done for our colleges while in office? She refused to say any kind words defending the second female president of Rhode Island College, Nancy Carrioulo, when she was ousted in a duplicitous and unsavory coup last year that stank of Smith Hill cronyism from the get-go (shows how far Gina’s faux-feminism will go). And then just coincidentally after that fiasco Richard Culatta, straight out of the pro-charter school Department of Education, was made a cabinet officer that is not held to traditional checks and balances because, surprise, he is working at the Rhode Island College Foundation. What exactly Culatta is doing remains opaque but, given how the Governor has of late gotten all gaga for computers, it seems logical to deduce he might be working to implement what is known as computer-based personalized learning. Don’t let that name fool you, however, it is much more creepy. Already in Florida we have students enter a classroom and sit in front of a screen for the entire school day as they are supervised by a proctor as opposed to a teacher. There are so many things that are wrong with this sort of anti-social arrangement. The school day is meant to be about a holistic development of the entire student, not just tapping on a keyboard, and the socialization that a child needs to properly develop psychologically and emotionally is fundamentally ripped away when they are in front of a screen all day. Oh, and that does not even begin the discussion about real physical impediments created by being on a computer all day, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strain, vision impairment, and other neurological factors science is still revealing to us regarding longtime exposure of youths to flickering screens. Does that sound like a good set of previous policies for education in Rhode Island?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOr what about the law-breaking Education Commissioner Ken Wagner, who in December violated state law and approved the expansion of Achievement First charter school in Providence, a move that City Councilor Sam Zurier said was a surefire way to “break” public education in the city? Raimondo has a confirmed “open door policy” with Wagner and it is blatantly obvious to anyone and everyone with their wits about them that she was supportive of such a move. Charter schools engage in advertising and recruitment practices that prey on the fears of the school-to-prison pipeline in black and brown communities, utilize brutal disciplinary methods, and take funding away from school districts to the detriment of special education and English as a secondary language students. Their teachers are unable to gain tenure and make far less than their public sector counterparts. They have a substantial level of corruption and malfeasance that no less than comedian John Oliver highlighted their massive flaws in a segment of his show Last Week Tonight. All this should dictate to voters that Raimondo needs to get away from public education immediately and go back to being a failed venture capitalist.
The real beneficial move for a public official to take at this point regarding public education, besides shuttering charter schools, would be to give debt relief to graduates. Rhode Island’s current economic doldrums are defined by the fact there is not enough demand in the local economy. Thousands of college graduates are currently living at home with their parents because they are living under crushing debt that eats up a sizable amount of their paycheck. If it were possible to offer debt relief, perhaps in exchange for a term of public service in unionized jobs, that would increase the amount of demand in the economy, meaning there would be growth. However, I highly doubt that the anti-public sector Raimondo would be able and willing to make a deceptive political grandstand out of such a notion and revive a tenure on Smith Hill that has been nothing but pathetic. Could maybe Seth Magaziner, our current Treasurer, use such a move?
Andrew Stewart is a member of the Rhode Island Media Cooperative, an organization created for freelancers by freelancers which you can join for free.
Related Slideshow: Winners and Losers in Raimondo’s FY18 Budget Proposal
Related Articles
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney: Pare & Elorza Still Have No Clue About the Fire Department
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Congressman McGovern: America Cannot Afford Trump’s Nuclear Arms Race
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Seyler: Critical Spending Requires Critical Thinking at CCRI
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Sen. Sheehan: Raimondo’s Free Tuition Proposal Makes RI an Educational Leader
- In Defense of Sean Todd: Guest MINDSETTER™ Jim Wright
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Steven F. Forleo: Trump is a Machiavellian Poseur
- Guest MINDSETTER™Taub: Senators Reed & Whitehouse Stab Israel in the Back AGAIN
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Lambrese: Opioid addicts deserve dignity, not death
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney: Bankruptcy for Providence?
- Guest MINDSETTER™Joe Allen: The Metric-Mania of Higher Education
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Rep. Ruggiero: Rhode Islanders are Doers
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Barden: My School Choice Story
- Dear President Trump, Build the Algonquin Pipeline: Guest MINDSETTER™ Morgan
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Taub: I Call Upon Mayor Elorza to Create the Prov Jewish Council
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Magee: RI’s Strong Defense & Undersea Technology Cluster
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Stokes: Black History Matters in Rhode Island
- Despite Rhetoric, School Leaders Stand with Undocumented Community Members, Guest MINDSETTERS™
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Sen. DiPalma: We Must Not Become the ‘Party of No’
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Ford: No More Reefer Madness - Legalize Marijuana
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Van Leesten: Governor’s Proposal Will Unleash Opportunity for All
- A Love Letter to the Right: Guest MINDSETTER™ Steve Forleo
- The Banality of Trump: Guest MINDSETTER™ Geoff Schoos
- This Less Perfect Union: Guest MINDSETTER™ Jim Wright
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Yarn: Hitting the Ground Running
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Stewart: Patrick Kennedy Should Learn from Family History