Of course he does.
Ryan AND Emanuel AND Obama AND Romney call it -- the nation-wide assault on teachers’ job security -- “reform.”
Of course they do.
Isn’t corporate-political-exploitation-bipartisanship crony-cozy?
Joseph Kishore of wsws writes:
The unanimity of the political establishment behind the implementation of such education “reforms” was highlighted by the intervention Monday of the Republican Party presidential campaign in support of Emanuel, a Democrat and former White House chief of staff for President Obama. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan explicitly declared his support for Emanuel’s hard-line stand against the teachers and insisted that “education reform is a bipartisan issue.”
We know how hard Rahm Emanuel worked to get all those Blue Dog Dems [at heart, Republicans, like Obama and himself] into power in 2010.
26,000 teachers are out picketing in Chicago this week. What the hell do they know what is best for education, for the kids, and for themselves the bottom feeding, scum sucking corporatists and their pimped out politicians slickly ask?
We know how hard Obama and his buddy Arne Duncan are working on dismantling the traditional public school system, sometimes very troubled, no question, and replacing it with a pro-corporate [not pro-children] charter school system that will launch the further devastation of teachers’ unions, teachers’ careers and the quality of education across the nation.
The CTU [Chicago Teachers’ Union] in Chicago was willing to support an evaluation process implemented earlier this year in which 25% of teacher ratings on “student growth” are measured by standardized test scores [certainly a high and questionable percentage]. The Chicago Public Schools are demanding in five years this be increased to 40%.
40%???? Opportunities for principals beholding to corporate investors to shed schools of more experienced and better paid teachers for corporatist profit-making.
Bryan Dyne of wsws interviewed a number of picketing Chicago teachers.
One striking teacher asserted that 2010 was when charter schools began being pushed hard in Chicago [Hello Rahm!] based on those golden “standardized tests”:
“Now they are expanding faster than ever, even though the same tests show that the charter schools do generally worse than public schools. All they do is take money from public education and give it to the corporations running charters.”
That charter schools’ tests scores are no better and even worse at times than those of public schools has been contended since the get-go of the charter movement. But at least the new parasitic corporatist honchos are raking in those tax-paid dollars, eh? WTG, Barack and Rahm and don’t worry. Romney and Ryan have your backs on this one.
Diana, another striking Chicago teacher gave her opinion of standardized tests to Dyne.
“We know what’s good for students, and it’s not tests. They aren’t based on real intelligence. There is no emotional analysis of a child. Part of my job isn’t just teaching history, but enabling my students to have confidence in themselves.”
Jaclyn, teaching for three years now, had this to say:
“Most of my day is spent on classroom management because I have 33 Kindergarteners. If I have a group of five, there are 28 working independently, some of whom have never been in preschool. So they don’t know about rhythms and routines. What would I do if I had 20 kids? What a dream!
Once again, think up/down, 1% vs. 99%, not Republican or Democrat. Think corporatists vs. working Americans. Think Republicans and Dems vs. working America.
As Timothy, a social studies teacher in the Chicago teacher’s picket line pronounced:
“Working people don’t have a party anymore. The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is Cocoa Puffs and Cocoa Crispies. It is the same cereal in a different box.”
Of course. All those teachers with seniority, higher salaries and tenure. How dare they in this day and age presume to have a decent wage, benefits and job security? This is America 2012. It is the corporate charter school “investors” and their lackeys who get to decide how best to decide if teachers are successful or if they should be kicked to the curb.
Timothy goes on with some really interesting disclosures:
“At Roosevelt High School they spent $24 million dollars. You know that they are planning a turnaround when they spend that type of money. Noble Street Charter Network is the one underwriting the renovating and then running the schools. They put connections for air conditioners in every room.
“Penny Pritzker is the chairman of the board for Capital Funds, Noble Street, AUSL, Teach for America, and the Renaissance Project. In the 1990s she owned Superior Bank and packaged bad mortgages. This led to the banking collapse in 2008.
“Education is a safe place to invest. Thanks to Clinton, the wealthy get a 39 percent tax credit for ‘investing’ in education. What’s safer than a taxpayer bailout?
“Something else that you need to know is that at Noble Street charters, students are fined. They have financial penalties for behaviors. They are pricing the students with the lowest test scores out of the schools.
“There is a case going on in the courts involving a student with multiple disabilities who had $400 in fines. She met all of the academic requirements, but she couldn’t graduate.
"The school made her work at the minimum wage to pay off her debt. I call that indentured servitude.”
Say what?
So many troubling revelations in the above remarks from Timothy. Most of us citizens, especially those of us without kids, are out of the loop on what is happening to America’s education system.
According to Joseph Kishore:
Many teachers on the picket lines have pointed to the devastating impact of budget cuts and poverty on the ability of students to learn. Schools have been allowed to fall apart, with many lacking air conditioning and other requirements of a decent learning environment.
Conditions of poverty and mass unemployment dominate large parts of cities such as Chicago. Over a third of Chicago’s children live in poverty and more than 80 percent qualify for free or subsidized lunches because their families are low-income.
It is the political representatives of the corporate and financial elite and the capitalist profit system who are responsible for these conditions, not the teachers. Over the past three decades, the public education system has been increasingly subordinated to the demands of big business.
CPS [Chicago Public Schools] is deliberately starving the most troubled schools—generally in the poorest areas—of funds for infrastructure improvement.
I mean we are talking about the welfare of America’s children. 1/3 of Chicago children live in poverty. Time to make a profit on their welfare! How low would the corporatists go? There seems to be no bar too low for them to crawl under.
Sociopaths know no boundaries. Greed addicts know no boundaries.
Remember when the Democrats used to have the backs of union workers? No more. Even union heads don’t have the backs of these teachers and those across the country seriously. Paralleling the betrayal of union leaders in general.
Kishore has this to say about the Obama administration:
The Obama administration’s pose of official “neutrality” in the strike is a fraud. Emanuel is Obama’s right-hand man. Since taking office, Obama has gone further than the Republicans in promoting charter schools and the privatization of public education. He has outdone his predecessor George W. Bush in scapegoating teachers and encouraging school closures and mass layoffs.
Public school systems nationwide, starved of funding as a result of the economic crisis, have eliminated more than 300,000 teaching positions since 2008. Obama has responded by tying meager federal funds to the elimination of restraints on charter schools and the implementation of test-based evaluation systems.
Kishore goes on to indict the betraying stance of the trade unions:
In this process, the trade unions—including the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—have been active participants. Whatever their occasional criticisms of Emanuel and other “reformers,” the unions have collaborated every step of the way. At every point they sacrifice the interests of teachers to maintain their political alliance with the Democratic Party.
The CTU put off the strike deadline until after last week’s Democratic National Convention to help the Democrats and Obama posture as friends of working people, even as Emanuel and CPS, with the support of Obama, were preparing strikebreaking operations and a witch-hunt against the teachers.
Since taking office in Chicago, Emanuel has launched one attack on teachers after another, beginning with the rescinding of a promised wage increase. The response of the CTU has been to retreat and seek accommodations. This has only encouraged deeper attacks.
Behind the backs of teachers, the CTU leadership of President Karen Lewis and Vice President Jesse Sharkey helped ensure the passage last year of Senate Bill 7, which restricts the right to strike and expands the use of standardized tests.
The same process is underway in the current strike. While Lewis told the crowd of teachers Tuesday it would be “lunacy” to think the contract would be settled that day, the union is scrambling to reach an agreement with the administration.
snip
For its part, the AFT [American Federation of Teachers] and its president, Randi Weingarten, have stated that they support the expansion of charters and merit schemes for teachers. The union has asked only that it retain a “seat at the table” in imposing these policies.
I saw a smiling but bland AFT Randi Weingarten last night on the NewsHour. She had all the passion for the Chicago teachers as a dead fish. She had the look of someone who has already made her sell out deal with the corporatists. [Think Obama mode--slickly talking the generalized talk, not walking the walk]
By the way, Green Party's Jill Stein is picketing with the Chicago teachers. Of course, corporate media won’t acknowledge that because there is a blackout on all things Green Party Stein. The betrayers and cowards. But what else is new?
FWIW, a CNN poll reveals there are 2% of registered American voters who are intending to vote for Green Party's Jill Stein for President in November. Maybe that seems a small percentage, but that means there are 2.4 million Americans of conscience who are willing to exit the "lesser evil" and "evil" bubbles. I expect that number will grow in the next fifty-something days until the election.
What did teacher Timothy say above?
"Working people don’t have a party anymore. The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is Cocoa Puffs and Cocoa Crispies. It is the same cereal in a different box.”
Actually, working people do have a party. It is the Green Party!
[cross-posted on correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
-------------
Indiana is moving to vouchers & charter schools, too. The sad thing is, charters started out with good intentions, but as we know, so goes the road to hell. Excellent article.
What everybody forgets about those "Good Old Days" of American Public education is that fully a third of the student body of any high school were shunted off into vocational education programs and another 20% failed several grades and dropped out to join the army, or get married because someone got somebody pregnant. There were no special education classes or any attempts to integrate "differently abled" students. The only students who took the SAT's were kids who really wanted to go to college, not the 65+% who now score low on achievement tests because their parents insist that in order to get a good job, their kids "have" to get into a four year college.
The teachers of the 1950's and early '60's were no more talented or dedicated than the teachers of today, in fact most of them were boring and chained to the standard curriculum, because they were just doing their jobs. Almost none of them pursued the real purpose of education, which is teaching their students "how to learn."
Don't blame the teachers. Blame an educational system that ignores the abilities and interests of lower aptitude students, as well as intelligent undisciplined kids with slacker attitudes and their overly indulgent but ultimately disinterested parents who demand that teachers provide the best education that their kids can get, just as long as they don't have to do anything but pay lower taxes.
As much as progressive Dems and Greens would like to change the educational system to benefit all students as well as teachers, the institutions of public education have always served as bureaucratic filters that reward the lucky and hard working kids who can survive the tedium, and relegate the rest to fend for themselves.
The teachers of the 1950's and early '60's were no more talented or dedicated than the teachers of today, in fact most of them were boring and chained to the standard curriculum, because they were just doing their jobs. Almost none of them pursued the real purpose of education, which is teaching their students "how to learn."
Don't blame the teachers. Blame an educational system that ignores the abilities and interests of lower aptitude students, as well as intelligent undisciplined kids with slacker attitudes and their overly indulgent but ultimately disinterested parents who demand that teachers provide the best education that their kids can get, just as long as they don't have to do anything but pay lower taxes.
As much as progressive Dems and Greens would like to change the educational system to benefit all students as well as teachers, the institutions of public education have always served as bureaucratic filters that reward the lucky and hard working kids who can survive the tedium, and relegate the rest to fend for themselves.
AMEN SISTER!
I have a brilliant friend who is asian. She took a temp job in the inner city. 25% of the kids were major problems and some of the parents were as bad. She quit. One can't scapegoat excellent teachers for all the world's problems.
I have a brilliant friend who is asian. She took a temp job in the inner city. 25% of the kids were major problems and some of the parents were as bad. She quit. One can't scapegoat excellent teachers for all the world's problems.
Great post. It is good to see someone cut through the smoke and BS about "reform."
Sound portrayal of how our value's are truly skewed. If we downgrade the teacher-student relationship, we ALL lose in a huge way. The Repubs feel that they are cutting every cost imaginable with their machetes swinging blindly wide. This is one area, as with critical Health care, if we short change people, it is definitely greasing the slope that threatens us now. And the future? You know what it means. Let's get this right; stop the vouchers and this crazy ass under sourcing. R>>>>>>>>>
Blaming teachers for our failing system of education has been a fashion for the past few decades. There are no stupid students; there are no average students either; all our students are geniuses; they are all special, but don't test them because you may hurt their feelings!
There are no stupid parents; there are no outdated curricula and outdated evaluation methods; there are only bad teachers! I seriously feel so bad for teachers. Excellent post, Libby.
There are no stupid parents; there are no outdated curricula and outdated evaluation methods; there are only bad teachers! I seriously feel so bad for teachers. Excellent post, Libby.
The MSM ignores the teachers' demands for changes that beneift students, not themselves. They will conitnue to encourage the falsehood that teachers are greedy and lazy bastards, parasites on the taxpayers who don't care about children. Then wonder why the schools aren't doing better. It is such a pure crock. Remember the much-acclaimed propaganda film "Waiting for Superman"? It promoted the lie that public schools ar failing and taxpayer-subsidized, for-profit charter schools are the solution. Viewers of tha film never knew that only 17% of of charter schools outperformed public schools. 83% were either worse or no better. And that's by the reviewers' own "teaching to the test" obsession.
Nations with better public schools than America all value teachers, select them carefully, subsidize their education, pay them well, and treat them with respect. But teachers in the USA are not respected because they aren't in it for the money, like eveyrone is supposed to be. They are suspected of having motives other than money-grubbing and climbing some corporate ladder. [r]
Nations with better public schools than America all value teachers, select them carefully, subsidize their education, pay them well, and treat them with respect. But teachers in the USA are not respected because they aren't in it for the money, like eveyrone is supposed to be. They are suspected of having motives other than money-grubbing and climbing some corporate ladder. [r]
This is exactly what the Conservative government did to the health system in Britain in the 1970s - they starved it of funds, hoping that patients and staff would become so frustrated that they would agree to a corporate privatized health system like they have in the US. Fortunately it backfired and the British Health Service enjoys more public support than ever, despite systematic government underfunding.
I can't see any American teachers voting for either Obama or Romney in November. They would have to be suicidal to do so. Hopefully Jill Stein can win back the votes of the rank and file at least.
I can't see any American teachers voting for either Obama or Romney in November. They would have to be suicidal to do so. Hopefully Jill Stein can win back the votes of the rank and file at least.
just phyllis, thanks for commenting. Yes, being single I was distrustful of the idea of charter schools from the get-go, but some friends with kids were very excited about the charters maybe improving the quality of their kids' education. I wonder. Did the charters really start out as good intentions or was it one more hoax. I think the latter. Maybe some of the corporate pols actually convince themselves they are doing the right thing in their lobbied bubbles, believing their own rhetoric or simply taking orders.
God knows, schools need a serious overhaul. Teachers and students need help. Teachers don't need gratuitous scapegoating to slash their salaries!
I remember McGraw Hill re No Child Left Behind. Bush gave the publishing contracts beginning in Texas and then nationally to that firm as vendor iirc since McGraw went back three generations as cronies of the Bush family. Bush was a super crony for sure.
This game of "humanitarian intervention" Obama is playing in foreign AND domestic policy like the race to the top pretense. It is bogus. It is a front for more corporate corruption. Nothing is sacred any more. Preying on kids is so despicable.
best, libby
God knows, schools need a serious overhaul. Teachers and students need help. Teachers don't need gratuitous scapegoating to slash their salaries!
I remember McGraw Hill re No Child Left Behind. Bush gave the publishing contracts beginning in Texas and then nationally to that firm as vendor iirc since McGraw went back three generations as cronies of the Bush family. Bush was a super crony for sure.
This game of "humanitarian intervention" Obama is playing in foreign AND domestic policy like the race to the top pretense. It is bogus. It is a front for more corporate corruption. Nothing is sacred any more. Preying on kids is so despicable.
best, libby
jmac,
I give you no argument about the problems and the failures of the public school system past and present. I spent eight years in the belly of the beast trying to give my all. Last two years were setting up an alternative school which had revolutionary successful moments and failures but I think is a great learning environment for kids though it was profoundly understaffed and underfunded. Alas I burned out from trying to do too much and my own psychological probs and needing to downshift from the teaching workaholism. Also my own issues with bureaucratic authority.
I think teaching is the hardest and the most challenging job in America if you rise to the challenge seriously. I never had such sacred incredible highs and such devastatingly frustrating lows.
I've had and worked with the "deadwood" teachers. I've had and worked with glorious ones and all those on the continuum, including myself bouncing around that continuum on a given day or given week. I've worked with ones who quit I thought prematurely because of the bullshit, not from the kids but from above too often. Sometimes from the slings and arrows of outrageous adolescents and teens. I always wondered why they gave the newbies the toughest teaching jobs. There wasn't more mentoring. To continue teach teachers in an ongoing way.
If no one has faced down a group of kids eager to use you as lightning rod or punching bag for their authority issues or to lasso all the negative attention they can from you away from the rest of the class who are asserting self control and respect, they don't get the emotional stamina alone it takes to teach, as well as an intellectual astuteness and an ability to prioritize what to communicate.
I always felt the teachers should have their own support groups accessible to them. They -- we -- were islands sandwiched between the kids and the authorities. The kids coming fast and furiously on an assembly line zipping by you. There were teachers who seriously taught and inspired and teachers who saw themselves simply as "judges" more than teachers and failed kids without getting that it was a reflection on THEM not the kids as I saw it.
There were kids with profound reading issues, some with cognitive problems, some with authority issues though those kids I always felt were the most interesting and spiritually together than the over-adapted ones. Having an overcrowded room of such kids and wanting to tend to each one of them sometimes made me feel like Holden Caulfield's image of all the kids falling off the cliff iirc and his despair he can't begin to catch them all.
I appreciate your take:
"Blame an educational system that ignores the abilities and interests of lower aptitude students, as well as intelligent undisciplined kids with slacker attitudes and their overly indulgent but ultimately disinterested parents who demand that teachers provide the best education that their kids can get, just as long as they don't have to do anything but pay lower taxes."
"... the institutions of public education have always served as bureaucratic filters that reward the lucky and hard working kids who can survive the tedium, and relegate the rest to fend for themselves."
Yes, jmac! You describe it all very well. We need to overhaul education in America but the charter path is worsening not helping it.
Thanks again for sharing so strongly on this subject.
best, libby
I give you no argument about the problems and the failures of the public school system past and present. I spent eight years in the belly of the beast trying to give my all. Last two years were setting up an alternative school which had revolutionary successful moments and failures but I think is a great learning environment for kids though it was profoundly understaffed and underfunded. Alas I burned out from trying to do too much and my own psychological probs and needing to downshift from the teaching workaholism. Also my own issues with bureaucratic authority.
I think teaching is the hardest and the most challenging job in America if you rise to the challenge seriously. I never had such sacred incredible highs and such devastatingly frustrating lows.
I've had and worked with the "deadwood" teachers. I've had and worked with glorious ones and all those on the continuum, including myself bouncing around that continuum on a given day or given week. I've worked with ones who quit I thought prematurely because of the bullshit, not from the kids but from above too often. Sometimes from the slings and arrows of outrageous adolescents and teens. I always wondered why they gave the newbies the toughest teaching jobs. There wasn't more mentoring. To continue teach teachers in an ongoing way.
If no one has faced down a group of kids eager to use you as lightning rod or punching bag for their authority issues or to lasso all the negative attention they can from you away from the rest of the class who are asserting self control and respect, they don't get the emotional stamina alone it takes to teach, as well as an intellectual astuteness and an ability to prioritize what to communicate.
I always felt the teachers should have their own support groups accessible to them. They -- we -- were islands sandwiched between the kids and the authorities. The kids coming fast and furiously on an assembly line zipping by you. There were teachers who seriously taught and inspired and teachers who saw themselves simply as "judges" more than teachers and failed kids without getting that it was a reflection on THEM not the kids as I saw it.
There were kids with profound reading issues, some with cognitive problems, some with authority issues though those kids I always felt were the most interesting and spiritually together than the over-adapted ones. Having an overcrowded room of such kids and wanting to tend to each one of them sometimes made me feel like Holden Caulfield's image of all the kids falling off the cliff iirc and his despair he can't begin to catch them all.
I appreciate your take:
"Blame an educational system that ignores the abilities and interests of lower aptitude students, as well as intelligent undisciplined kids with slacker attitudes and their overly indulgent but ultimately disinterested parents who demand that teachers provide the best education that their kids can get, just as long as they don't have to do anything but pay lower taxes."
"... the institutions of public education have always served as bureaucratic filters that reward the lucky and hard working kids who can survive the tedium, and relegate the rest to fend for themselves."
Yes, jmac! You describe it all very well. We need to overhaul education in America but the charter path is worsening not helping it.
Thanks again for sharing so strongly on this subject.
best, libby
Kathy, thanks for that! As I said to jmac, too often the newbie teachers are given the harshest assignments. The first year or two of teaching especially requires incredible stamina and resilience. I think there should be more nurturing and mentoring set up for newbie teachers so they don't burn out the first year and say, "This is nuts. I'm outta here!" It feels like the proverbial "no good deed goes unpunished" scenario. And when you see what corporate professionals are paid as compared to education professionals (which privatization is trying to rob teachers of that status of "professionalism" instead of celebrating and encouraging it and rewarding it! It is ultimately about stripping down salaries or eliminating jobs and overcrowding classrooms for profiteering once again.)
Thanks for your passion re your clear loyalty to your talented and brilliant friend and re this issue! best, libby
Thanks for your passion re your clear loyalty to your talented and brilliant friend and re this issue! best, libby
Roger, THANK YOU!!! It is bullshit. It is not REFORM.
Amazing how these men and women betrayers of an entire profession of people let alone betrayers of the kids of America doomed to learn in overcrowded classrooms with inexperienced and underpaid teachers over-focusing on standardized tests look in the mirror each day.
Privatization of prisons and schools and whatever else they can find to suck up more taxpaid dollars for their own coffers. best, libby
Amazing how these men and women betrayers of an entire profession of people let alone betrayers of the kids of America doomed to learn in overcrowded classrooms with inexperienced and underpaid teachers over-focusing on standardized tests look in the mirror each day.
Privatization of prisons and schools and whatever else they can find to suck up more taxpaid dollars for their own coffers. best, libby
inthisdeepcalm, thanks for commenting! :-) You really pinpoint the tragedy. You write:
"If we downgrade the teacher-student relationship, we ALL lose in a huge way. The Repubs feel that they are cutting every cost imaginable with their machetes swinging blindly wide. This is one area, as with critical Health care, if we short change people, it is definitely greasing the slope that threatens us now. And the future? You know what it means. Let's get this right; stop the vouchers and this crazy ass under sourcing."
THANK YOU! WELL SAID! Though I call out both the Republicans and the Democrats. The austerity mantra, after the banks and corporations have stolen so much taxpaid dollars, is such a colossal insult and so destructive to restoring ourselves culturally, educationally, economically, structurally, etc. Then the money pouring out to weapons and war to maim and destroy human beings for corporate profiteering, and the short shrift going for educating and health care, etc., for enhancing lives of our own citizens. As Maddow says, "It's an ethical freakshow of a universe!" best, libby
"If we downgrade the teacher-student relationship, we ALL lose in a huge way. The Repubs feel that they are cutting every cost imaginable with their machetes swinging blindly wide. This is one area, as with critical Health care, if we short change people, it is definitely greasing the slope that threatens us now. And the future? You know what it means. Let's get this right; stop the vouchers and this crazy ass under sourcing."
THANK YOU! WELL SAID! Though I call out both the Republicans and the Democrats. The austerity mantra, after the banks and corporations have stolen so much taxpaid dollars, is such a colossal insult and so destructive to restoring ourselves culturally, educationally, economically, structurally, etc. Then the money pouring out to weapons and war to maim and destroy human beings for corporate profiteering, and the short shrift going for educating and health care, etc., for enhancing lives of our own citizens. As Maddow says, "It's an ethical freakshow of a universe!" best, libby
Thoth, thanks for your passionate comment! I appreciate your take on it all. Anyone scapegoating teachers right now, I invite them to last in a classroom for a day and then talk to me! Like every profession there is a continuum of abilities and success rates, but vilifying the entire group of teachers in America is so craven and so destructive to the morale of the educational system and the morale of the citizenry and the morale of kids, themselves. Geeeez.
Appreciate this: "There are no stupid parents; there are no outdated curricula and outdated evaluation methods; there are only bad teachers!"
Good points! best, libby
Appreciate this: "There are no stupid parents; there are no outdated curricula and outdated evaluation methods; there are only bad teachers!"
Good points! best, libby
Donegal, great comment. I am so impressed with the energy and insights of this entire thread! Thank you for saying all you did!
You put it all so well:
"The MSM ignores the teachers' demands for changes that beneift students, not themselves. They will conitnue to encourage the falsehood that teachers are greedy and lazy bastards, parasites on the taxpayers who don't care about children. Then wonder why the schools aren't doing better. It is such a pure crock."
YES, THAT IS IT EXACTLY. And when the educational system worsens, you are right. They will blame their victims because that is the name of the game in this country. BLAME AND PUNISH THE VICTIMS! Confuse the citizenry. Distract them with bullshit. Then steal from them.
I did not see "Waiting for Superman" but I was stunned that some of my friends were so enthralled with it, and some of my friends were so angry about it. It shows the power of propaganda and selective presentation! The more I read about it the angrier I got. I remember our friend Oprah was such a big advocate. God she put her nose in a lot of destructive places, didn't she?
Thanks for the statistics:
"Viewers of tha film never knew that only 17% of of charter schools outperformed public schools. 83% were either worse or no better. And that's by the reviewers' own "teaching to the test" obsession."
Yes, we should look around at educational systems, the same as Michael Moore looked around at health care in other countries. I never knew why his revelations didn't impact more people and more policy. American exceptionalism once again. Don't tell us what to do. Let the rich and powerful presume to know so much.
New Yorkers got ENRAGED at Bloomberg for assigning a chancellor who had never had one minute of education in the education field. She was from the corporate sector. Cathy Black. One of the few things Bloomberg was made to backpedal. But when you think of the nerve of him and the corporatists. Yipes.
This is a BRILLIANT INSIGHT, Donegal:
"But teachers in the USA are not respected because they aren't in it for the money, like eveyrone is supposed to be. They are suspected of having motives other than money-grubbing and climbing some corporate ladder."
Remember when they went after Kerry for not being a war hero? They go after teachers for not being ENUF. Teachers who are in a very demanding profession which requires emotional sensitivity. Not all have it, but so many do. Considering the overwhelming demands of teaching, open and earnest people do feel frustrated and sometimes guilty they can't do enough. These rat bastards are playing on that. I am glad the teachers are taking to the streets. As I remember getting teachers to really get out and protest in my day, took a lot of motivation. Like the people against Walker, and OWS, there is a lot of integrity and outrage boiling!
To get patronized by both the Dems and the Republicans! And also to be patronized by their own union leaders.
You know when my job before my present one was outsourced about 7 or so years ago, I began writing a letter to my senator then, Hillary Clinton. Before I mailed it I googled and came across a picture of Bill Clinton in India iirc shaking hands with the vendors who were arranging the transfer of the outsourcing that had destroyed my job. I tore up the letter. I realized the Dems were not against outsourcing. "Globalization" mantra.
The job went to India, but later I heard it got switched to the Philippines. I guess India was charging too much an hour!
Anyway, again, I figured the Dems were encouraging outsourcing as much as the Republicans. As I write this Bill Clinton is on the tv announcing that those darn Republicans are only interested in deregulation. The commercial for Obama. Bill Clinton is the launcher of all our problems, getting rid of Glass-Steagall Act!
Thanks again, Donegal!
best, libby
You put it all so well:
"The MSM ignores the teachers' demands for changes that beneift students, not themselves. They will conitnue to encourage the falsehood that teachers are greedy and lazy bastards, parasites on the taxpayers who don't care about children. Then wonder why the schools aren't doing better. It is such a pure crock."
YES, THAT IS IT EXACTLY. And when the educational system worsens, you are right. They will blame their victims because that is the name of the game in this country. BLAME AND PUNISH THE VICTIMS! Confuse the citizenry. Distract them with bullshit. Then steal from them.
I did not see "Waiting for Superman" but I was stunned that some of my friends were so enthralled with it, and some of my friends were so angry about it. It shows the power of propaganda and selective presentation! The more I read about it the angrier I got. I remember our friend Oprah was such a big advocate. God she put her nose in a lot of destructive places, didn't she?
Thanks for the statistics:
"Viewers of tha film never knew that only 17% of of charter schools outperformed public schools. 83% were either worse or no better. And that's by the reviewers' own "teaching to the test" obsession."
Yes, we should look around at educational systems, the same as Michael Moore looked around at health care in other countries. I never knew why his revelations didn't impact more people and more policy. American exceptionalism once again. Don't tell us what to do. Let the rich and powerful presume to know so much.
New Yorkers got ENRAGED at Bloomberg for assigning a chancellor who had never had one minute of education in the education field. She was from the corporate sector. Cathy Black. One of the few things Bloomberg was made to backpedal. But when you think of the nerve of him and the corporatists. Yipes.
This is a BRILLIANT INSIGHT, Donegal:
"But teachers in the USA are not respected because they aren't in it for the money, like eveyrone is supposed to be. They are suspected of having motives other than money-grubbing and climbing some corporate ladder."
Remember when they went after Kerry for not being a war hero? They go after teachers for not being ENUF. Teachers who are in a very demanding profession which requires emotional sensitivity. Not all have it, but so many do. Considering the overwhelming demands of teaching, open and earnest people do feel frustrated and sometimes guilty they can't do enough. These rat bastards are playing on that. I am glad the teachers are taking to the streets. As I remember getting teachers to really get out and protest in my day, took a lot of motivation. Like the people against Walker, and OWS, there is a lot of integrity and outrage boiling!
To get patronized by both the Dems and the Republicans! And also to be patronized by their own union leaders.
You know when my job before my present one was outsourced about 7 or so years ago, I began writing a letter to my senator then, Hillary Clinton. Before I mailed it I googled and came across a picture of Bill Clinton in India iirc shaking hands with the vendors who were arranging the transfer of the outsourcing that had destroyed my job. I tore up the letter. I realized the Dems were not against outsourcing. "Globalization" mantra.
The job went to India, but later I heard it got switched to the Philippines. I guess India was charging too much an hour!
Anyway, again, I figured the Dems were encouraging outsourcing as much as the Republicans. As I write this Bill Clinton is on the tv announcing that those darn Republicans are only interested in deregulation. The commercial for Obama. Bill Clinton is the launcher of all our problems, getting rid of Glass-Steagall Act!
Thanks again, Donegal!
best, libby
Stuart, thanks for stopping by once again! Appreciate! How interesting that the Brits were able to stave off the ploy to starve the health system, the way the American 1% has successfully done in the US and are now doing to the education system.
I hope every teacher in America boycotts both Obama and Romney for their betrayals!!!
Jill Stein is out there pounding the pavement, on the right side of history. Obama and Romney, so not! I hope this Chicago deal comes back and bites Emanuel on the ass.
Jill is pushing to help kids who are drowning in education debt, too, and who are jobless. As well as helping the rest of us, too.
Pick an issue. They were all ignored at the legacy party conventions.
best, libby
I hope every teacher in America boycotts both Obama and Romney for their betrayals!!!
Jill Stein is out there pounding the pavement, on the right side of history. Obama and Romney, so not! I hope this Chicago deal comes back and bites Emanuel on the ass.
Jill is pushing to help kids who are drowning in education debt, too, and who are jobless. As well as helping the rest of us, too.
Pick an issue. They were all ignored at the legacy party conventions.
best, libby
I suspect the percentage for the Green party is higher than that and it would be even more so if they could get real coverage. these polls are being taken by the same scam artists that are trying to rig the system.
Also I saw one of the national teachers representatives on TV the other day, not sure if it was Randi Weingarten or not but she indicated some support for the strike but said it was separate from the rest of the country. This is only partly true since the rest of the country is headed for the same problems. she was probably a Obama supporter who ever she was and it was probably part of the effort to cover up the real issues and spin it.
Also I saw one of the national teachers representatives on TV the other day, not sure if it was Randi Weingarten or not but she indicated some support for the strike but said it was separate from the rest of the country. This is only partly true since the rest of the country is headed for the same problems. she was probably a Obama supporter who ever she was and it was probably part of the effort to cover up the real issues and spin it.
Same in Virginia. The oligarchy's grown tired of paying lip service to the idea of universal education for any but the elites.
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