蜜桃影视

EDlection 2018:聽From coast to coast, 蜜桃影视 is profiling a new campaign with major implications for education policy each and every week. See our complete archive of profiles, previews, and interviews at聽The74Million.org/Election聽鈥� and get the latest snapshots sent straight to your inbox by signing up for聽蜜桃影视 Newsletter. (Also watch for our Election Night live blog Nov. 6!)

At an event hall in Houston, Beto O鈥橰ourke mounted a stage lined with shimmery white wedding tulle and took a crowd of supporters to church. A staple of retail politics, the August gathering was one of a series of town hall meetings that have characterized his bid for a U.S. Senate seat, this one focused on education. Equal parts folksy and self-deprecating, the three-term congressman kicked things off by hailing teachers as heroes.

鈥淎t a time when teachers are forced to face the pressure and the high stakes of standardized tests,鈥� educators should be celebrated for remaining on the job, he said, going on to press nearly every education hot button of the moment. He decried racial achievement gaps and called for 鈥渨raparound鈥� social services in schools, greater diversity in the teaching profession, and an end to racial disparities in student discipline.

In a shot aimed directly at his opponent, Republican incumbent and onetime presidential candidate Ted Cruz, O鈥橰ourke blasted the notion that teachers should be armed.

鈥淚 want those teachers focused on problems like Beto O鈥橰ourke, who was stuck in remedial algebra for three years,鈥� he quipped. 鈥淏ring him home to calculus.鈥�

As an audience of about 200 roared, O鈥橰ourke railed against Texas鈥檚 bare-bones school funding, sounded cautionary notes about evaluating teachers, and inveighed against educators trained outside the traditional system: 鈥淲e debase them by comparing them to retail salespeople by saying anyone can be a teacher after perhaps a week鈥檚 training.鈥�

In a sign of how closely voters nationwide are tracking his campaign, the has been viewed more than 20,000 times. Commenters, many thousands of miles away, pledged donations.

鈥淵ou are absolutely correct,鈥� Chicago Public Schools teacher Claudia Moreno-Nunez chimed in from afar. 鈥淧ublic education is under attack. Thank you for standing up for teachers!鈥�

Oddly, the topic of public charter schools, typically the marquee item on an agenda like O鈥橰ourke鈥檚, did not come up at all. Nor did the fact that O鈥橰ourke鈥檚 wife, Amy, directed an El Paso charter school as well as a civic and philanthropic push to increase the number of high-performing schools in the region, in part by attracting new charter school networks.

The O鈥橰ourke campaign declined 蜜桃影视鈥檚 interview requests, while Cruz鈥檚 campaign did not respond. But a review of O鈥橰ourke鈥檚 public statements about education policy suggests he has been threading the needle by staying silent about nonprofit charter schools while narrowly focusing his criticism on the for-profit variety, and seeking to distinguish himself from Cruz by decrying vouchers and other forms of private school choice.

O鈥橰ourke can walk this fine line, education policy watchers suggest, because teacher unions and other critics likely see Cruz as a larger existential threat.

According to press reports, when the O鈥橰ourkes met in 2004, Amy had just returned from teaching kindergarten at Colegio Americano de Guatemala. In 2007, she became superintendent of a new public charter school, La Fe Preparatory School, operated by an El Paso community organization. She left that job in 2012, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Currently, Amy O鈥橰ourke is the director of Choose to Excel, an initiative of the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development, or CREEED, a four-year-old group advocating for better educational attainment in the El Paso area. Choose to Excel鈥檚 mission includes engaging families, investing in teacher training, boosting the number of high-performing schools in the region, and increasing college graduation rates by raising the number of high school graduates who are ready for college.

Among the efforts she has participated in were a 2016 trip to visit IDEA Public Schools in Texas鈥檚 Rio Grande Valley and a that sought, among other things, to showcase El Paso to charter school networks that might consider the region for expansion.

Last November, 蜜桃影视 obtained emails from El Paso Federation of Teachers President Ross Moore asking the American Federation of Teachers to 鈥渂egin interfering with鈥� El Paso ISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera鈥檚 relationship with universities training district dual-language teachers, to cause problems in the bond market for the nonprofit IDEA charter network, and to 鈥渢urn members and other [district] employees against Cabrera.鈥�

Nonetheless in February, the National Education Association-affiliated Texas State Teachers Association endorsed Beto O鈥橰ourke, issuing a statement that made no mention of charter schools and detailed the many positions the union and congressman share.

鈥淏y contrast, Beto鈥檚 opponent has turned his back on Texans by engineering a costly government shutdown in 2013 and undermining public schools by collaborating with Betsy DeVos to create a costly voucher scheme aimed primarily at a privileged few,鈥� union president Noel Candelaria said .

Though Congress has little impact on what happens in classrooms at the local level, education is a top concern for voters, so on the campaign trail, O鈥橰ourke and Cruz are talking about issues that state legislatures and school boards have more control over.

Why campaign on education at all? Because the way candidates talk about K-12 issues telegraphs something about their ideology, say political scientists watching the race 鈥� and Cruz and O鈥橰ourke are good examples.

Cruz鈥檚 platform-topping issues 鈥� school vouchers and arming classroom teachers 鈥� are headline-grabbers that signal his opposition to gun control and his commitment to free-market principles, said Joshua Blank, manager of polling and research at the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

As far as O鈥橰ourke is concerned, given that it鈥檚 been 24 years since Texas elected a Democrat to statewide office, it鈥檚 perhaps no surprise he would pull out all the stops trying to get Latinos and a disaffected left flank to the polls.

鈥淓ducation is a very good way to convey your commitment to broader issues,鈥� said Blank. 鈥淲hen you talk about a more fair, robust education system, you鈥檙e really talking about access to opportunity. It鈥檚 really more about these secondary aspects.鈥�

Sherri Greenberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin鈥檚 LBJ School of Public Affairs, said O鈥橰ourke needs to send a signal to certain populations. 鈥淗e has to look at independent, suburban moms and potentially a Latino population that doesn鈥檛 vote but for whom this is important.鈥�

She added that O鈥橰ourke鈥檚 decision to reject donations from political action committees means he has to appeal to individuals for campaign funds: 鈥淲hen you look at what those smaller donors are motivated by 鈥� education is a core issue.鈥�

The fact that news media have not picked up on the role Amy O鈥橰ourke plays in El Paso鈥檚 educational landscape? 鈥淚t goes to the way [Beto] O鈥橰ourke is treated by the press that no one has asked about it,鈥� said Blank.

The congressman has little in the way of an education voting record to dissect. He has voted in favor of federal charter school startup funding and voted against reauthorizing Washington, D.C.鈥檚 private school voucher program in 2015. At the time, he issued a statement saying he opposed the measure 鈥渂ecause I think we should allow the District of Columbia to invest the amount included in this bill in the public education system, including teacher training and expanding other proven educational models such as聽charter schools.鈥�

Attorney Sandy Kress, an architect of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act 鈥� which mandated the annual student tests that O鈥橰ourke rails against 鈥� said he doubts that when it comes to education, either candidate is likely to disrupt the status quo. Neither Cruz nor O鈥橰ourke has shown any indication of interest in the centrist K-12 reforms of the Bush and Obama administrations.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 run as a Republican or a Democrat with a reform agenda,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t hasn鈥檛 helped for five or 10 years. In the general election, you鈥檙e not going to get any points for it. All you鈥檙e going to do is infuriate the establishment.鈥�

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