Elizabeth Warren issued a stark return to the past in her education plan released Monday. Much anticipated, the plan is more than reminiscent of the old initiatives that led the country to a massive decline in educational attainment that we’ve only recently begun to reverse.

Her leading supporters in the teachers’ unions cheered. Randi Weingarten of the militant American Federation of Teachers called the plan boosting federal involvement in education and attacking charter schools “transformational.” Her praise is being rewarded with a visit by Warren to the Chicago picket lines where hundreds of public school teachers were forced to strike and 300,000 students have no choice but to be out of school.