Whitney Tilson is the very model of a modern major reformster. And now he wants to be mayor of NYC.
Tilson is a walking Great Story-- his parents are educators who met while serving in the Peace Corps. Tilson's father earned a doctorate in education at Stanford, which adds the story-worthy detail that young Whitney was a participant in Stanford's famous marshmallow experiment. That's an apt biographical detail. The original interpretation of the experiment was essentially that some children are better than others because they have the right character traits. More recent follow-up research suggests that a bigger lesson is that it's a hell of a lot easier to show desired character traits when you live in a stable environment.
Tilson became a big name in the world of value investing, and he has used his gabillions to fuel the charter school world. He helped launch KIP and Teach for America. He is nominally a liberal Democrat, but he has no love for teachers and some pretty clear dislike for their unions.
Well, he's not just a backer of Democrats for Education Reform--he's a founder who made a certain tactical decision
to put the D in DFER.
Leonie Haimson has a great quote from the film version of Tilson's magnum opus about ed reform, "
A Right Denied," and it's a dream of mine that every time somebody searches for DFER on line, this quote comes up.
“The real problem, politically, was not the Republican party, it was the Democratic party. So it dawned on us, over the course of six months or a year, that it had to be an inside job. The main obstacle to education reform was moving the Democratic party, and it had to be Democrats who did it, it had to be an inside job. So that was the thesis behind the organization. And the name – and the name was critical – we get a lot of flack for the name. You know, “Why are you Democrats for education reform? That’s very exclusionary. I mean, certainly there are Republicans in favor of education reform.” And we said, “We agree.” In fact, our natural allies, in many cases, are Republicans on this crusade, but the problem is not Republicans. We don’t need to convert the Republican party to our point of view…"
In public, Tilson has liked to portray himself and his very rich friends as scrappy underdogs, fighting against Entrenched Powers,
characterizing this group of exceptionally wealthy and well-connected folks as "outmanned, outspent, and outgunned," which sounds inspirational albeit unrelated to any reality I'm familiar with. He
shmoozes with his peers-- the wealthy and well-connected-- and heads up an annual
big money poker tournament to
raise money for Education Reform Now, the funding wing of DFER.
My candidacy is audacious, to be sure. I’ve never run for elected office, have little name recognition and
haven’t yet built out my team.
But there is a clear path to victory, given the current field of candidates and voters’ anti-incumbent, anti-establishment mood, as I outline in detail below.
I’m running to win, of course, but no matter what, I’m going to have fun. If my campaign gets any
traction, I’ll take a lot of fire, but that’s okay – I have thick skin, am not angling for higher office and
can’t be cancelled. Best of all, I don’t have to engage in any phoniness to maximize my chances of
winning. I’m just going to be who I’ve always been: a big-hearted realist who’s always looking for the
best ideas; a person who loves to engage in and fight for important things; and, most importantly, a
leader who isn’t afraid to speak uncomfortable truths and take on entrenched interests.
Well, sure. Retired guys should cultivate a fun hobby.
For those who do recognize Tilson's name, there will be some recognition of much of his nominally-Democrat, aggrieved and besieged rich guy approach.
Tilson identifies two problems holding NYC back. One is the "corrupt, wasteful and inefficient city government" which he calls "the blob," which has always also been a popular reformster name for all the people working in education who won't do what reformsters want them to do. Tilson also blames "far-left zealots" who want to tax and spend, say mean things about the country, focus on identity politics, engage in performative wokeness, think capitalism is evil and "focus on how the economic pie is divided rather than how to grow it."
But honest-- he knows he sounds GOP-ish, but he's really a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat located on the "sensible left." He's pro-union (well, he never used to be pro-teachers union, but whatever), pro- Social Security, pro-healthcare, including women's.
He has a list of six things to fix, with specifics (it's a 16 page letter). He'll cut crime by 50%. He'll fix the housing crisis. He'll cut "out-of-control" spending. He'll prioritize citizens over non-citizens. And he will, of course, improve schools. How exactly?
Ensure that there’s a high-quality teacher in every classroom and that every family has multiple
options for a great school, including high-quality charter schools, whose numbers shouldn’t be
capped at an arbitrary level.
In collaboration with parents and teachers, we will identify the schools that are failing our
children to the greatest degree, declare a state of emergency in each one and take drastic
measures to improve them.
Expand after-school and summer programs so all kids are learning year-round.
Our youth are suffering from an epidemic of anxiety, depression and self-harm due to social
media. To combat this, I will forbid smartphone use in all schools and ban social media accounts
for anyone under the age of 16.
Tilson is emblematic of much of the terrain of education reform and US politics in general. As a reformster, he continues to support right-wing and neo-liberal policies, and "Democrat" reform policies continue to look pretty much like right-tilted policies. As a mayoral candidate he could be running as full MAGA except that he is "deeply committed to full acceptance and rights for the LGBTQ+ community."
Tilson has committed to regular Zoom meetings with whatever voters want to join him. And he continues to maintain a big-time belief in himself and his ability to straighten out everyone else. And hell-- he's easy enough to look at.
Does Tilson have a shot? Who knows-- but as long as he's having fun I guess that's enough. And I don't know that any mayoral candidate would be good news for NYC schools. But if such an education candidate exists, he is surely not Tilson.
