``Duncan and Obama propose the expenditure of $4.3 billion dollars that will allegedly fund a “competition” between the states for federal grants. The hairsplitters among us (like myself) can only marvel at the grand disparity between the amount of money offered as a means of “incentivizing excellence” to every school in the country by the administration, and the hundreds of billions they handed the spectacular failures of the bankster-speculator classes last spring. But that’s not a point germane to the question at hand, say supporters of Duncan and Obama. Any dissent with this education question is quickly met with the admonition, “It’s about the kids.”
Ah yes, the kids, how best to serve them? Oh, with little things like charter schools and merit pay. Never mind that there is absolutely no evidence that charter schools perform any more effectively than regular public schools when both kinds of school are given every sort of material resource they need. Never mind the absurdity of merit pay, which will tie teacher compensation to high stakes test results, and which belie the truth that we’ve known for better than a century now: testing is only one form of assessment, and one that can only in a certain number of situations be reflective of the formative development of each respective learner.
No, oh, no, we’re going to continue with the social Darwinist farce, or “competition,” because we need to do for public education what the HMOS have done for public health and what the automotive industry has done for public transportation...''
I like this guy's bluntness and scarcasm. A little further down we read:
``What else do Duncan and Obama have in their bag besides a possum? “Another strategy involves inviting a great nonprofit to help manage a troubled school.” Well, we’ll see. But the only non-profits I’ve seen stick their feet in the door so far are those which have a noted aversion to organized labor, for example, here in Seattle, scabby business groups have attempted the use of the Technology Access Foundation to break up a collective bargaining unit out at Rainier Beach High School in the southwest corridor of the city. The only non-profits I’ve seen get involved in public education in Seattle have a similar agenda, whether it’s the so-called “Alliance for Education,” or any of the other little birdies from the Eli Broad Foundation who speak so glibly about Saturday schools or classes during the summer. We see their editorials in the Seattle Times all the time out here. God forbid any section of the U.S. Workforce be allowed to have two months off in succession..''
http://pdaillinois.org/site/?q=node/282
Then on NEA, which has finally come around a little recently with a letter against Race to the Top, I read this:
``As for the leadership of the NEA and the AFT, which ought to be rallying the troops big time at this point, let’s just say “Deer in the headlights.” AFT President Randi Weingarten, who never met a corporate ass she couldn’t kiss, says in the wake of the Obama education proposals that the “era of teacher bashing is over.” Oh really, Counselor Weingarten? Anybody who remembers Randi’s tenure in New York will recall her tepid underscoring of the Giuliani admin budget for city schools and her patronizing dismissals of the questions raised by the UFT’s Progressive Action Caucus,
whose supporters sought to put the concerns of alternative learning programs on the agenda during the NYC UFT election of 2001. And President Dennis Van Roekel of the NEA takes the line that Duncan and Obama want to “work with us, not do things to us.” Right, Dennis. As advocates of merit pay and charter schools, which have been used to bust unions, Duncan and Obama aren’t looking to do things to us. Very well, Dennis. God be with you, since we’re going to be working longer hours than you or He do. Amen.
The truth is that both national teacher union leaderships, like much of the rest of the labor leadership these days, have been taken in by one of the most dangerous enemies of working class power, old style multi-tiered business unionism. And before this Duncan and Obama mess has even reached high tide, we will deepen and consolidate a race and class stratified education system, under which students who have always done well in traditional or “standard” settings will thrive, and students who have needed special accommodations in order to succeed will be cut out of the picture, i.e., consigned to military schools or the vast numbers of unemployed shut out of the economy by the military banking complex. Schools will reflect the ongoing class stratification of society, just as they always have. Only the depths of denial among many teachers will become deeper. And so long as Weingarten, Van Roekel, and other business union hacks have their place “at the table” as consultants, that will be fine with them.'' (Michael Hureaux Perez)
http://pdaillinois.org/site/?q=node/282