Thanks for posting this.

While I’ve never supported Obama (or any Democrats for that matter) I never expected such open warfare on public schools.

This part is telling:

“Obama began his remarks in Washington, DC by welcoming President Bush’s former education secretary Margaret Spellings—a champion of the hated No Child Left Behind policy—and praising her for leading “a lot of the improvement that’s been taking place and we’re building on.””

Private charter schools for all, brought to you by the Democrats.

Up until now I was simply disappointed and angry with his bailouts and right-wing policies.
This puts him squarely into Ronald Reagan union busting territory. Chances of my household voting for him in another election just fell off the map.

I smell Rahm in this one. Though I am loath to blame Emanuel for such things because I believe that if he wasn’t doing his boss’s bidding he would have been fired long ago, this is just the sort of thing a chief of staff would become involved in. Whether or not he was involved, Obama sucks more and more daily. I have to keep reminding myself that it could have been McPalin.

Our system is so broken. :-(

Though Obama voted for it and continues to support it, TARP was Bush’s. Obama’s “bailout” was the American auto industry and it was a mere pittance.

I believe, like a lot of other people, that teachers are underpaid and underappreciated. However, I don’t think you can catergorize ALL of the teachers who were laid off as “dedicated professionsals.” If they all were, I think the school’s performance would be better.

I’d much rather see the lower performing teachers let go, but it may not be possible to do that in that district. In many districts it is very hard to get rid of a teacher who isn’t doing his or her job adequately.

Well, what were the facts?

Perhaps the Trustees were justified in taking this drastic action.

Private charter schools for all, brought to you by the Democrats.

Ding, ding, ding. More neoliberal bullshit.

Brings to mind The Selling of a President.

Who is this Obama fellow anyway, nothing I voted for.

Michael, gooood on you, for this thread.

Increasingly, it seems that we have elected a man who’s channelling Marie “Let-them-eat-cake!” Antoinette.

Two years and 9 months down the road, politically speaking, we have a remedy. :o)

To the contrary, I think this is through and through Obama with no assist from Rahm. Education is one of those issues for Obama where he’s happy to stick it to working people. He’s very much been a fan of Michelle Rhee in DC, along with Duncan. Obama’s all grown up on this one.

Looks like it was more of the same tired bullshit of hurting teachers’ ability to help students who aren’t doing very well in school by demanding more while cutting resources and then blaming the teachers for the decline in students’ performance.

Seriously, might as well have kept Spellings like he kept Gates if this is what he’s going to do.

Here is a much more complete account of this matter from the Providence Journal.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/central_falls_trustees_vote_02-24-10_EOHI83C_v59.3c21342.html

ding ding ding

Even if every teacher was a lousy bum, and they were replaced by Yale professors, I doubt education would improve without parallel improvement in health, economic stability, and safety in the community–through good social programs. Obama isn’t too interested in that kind of mutual accountability and shared responsibility for society however.

TARP, in my estimation has always been part of the smoke and mirrors strategy. Put something shiny out there for people to watch and that could be easily paid back by most of those involved. Which is why Paulson required all of the banks to accept portions of it. The big transfers have been behind the scenes via the Treasury and the Fed using ZIRP, TALF, primary dealer discounts, market maker discounts, the money pumped into banks via CDO purchases and a host of other money transferring tricks. More problematic than the bailouts themselves was the fact that they included governmental support of the fraud that lead to the problem and was effectively nationalized into being legal. The fact that we don’t have enough transparency to even know how trillions of dollars have been used nor is there any accounting that would eliminate the possibility that many billions ended up lost in the same way that the Pentagon deals with expenditures.

The only major problem with the GM bailout was that it had so few qualifications that the new head of GM makes almost as much as Blankenfeld. God’s work being very profitable.

Chrysler, on the other hand, should never have received a dime.

And “crickets’ for the failing banksters?

When are all the banksters going to get fired for failing the people, President Obama?

I would love to praise the financial institutions for such an act.

that would be the same Trustees who are ultimately responsible for student performance in the district.

scapegoating, pure and simple. and frustrated parents everywhere effing fall for it every time

I was appalled by Obama’s statement. In fact, Diane Ravitch who was an ed principle in the Bush administration was interviewed on NPR regarding her opposition to Obama’s Race to the Top legislation.. that ties in with this whole attitude of competition for money to schools based on the testing
model..and also includes incentives to create Charter schools.. She really nailed it. NPR had some clips of Rhode Island teachers who were fired and had been on the job for years, saying how you can’t blame everything on the teachers.. which is so true when the environment many kids come out of is a major challenge… Where there is so much unemployment, poverty, why doesn’t Obama get on the ground and help Main Street, instead of coddling Wall Street. Instead he attacks teachers and wants to be cheered. Reminds me of what is happening in DC with Michelle Rhee who has the backing of the Mayor. All this stirs up is anti teacher and union sentiment across the board.

The definitive statement of the concrete policies advocated by neoliberalism is often taken to be John Williamson’s[7] “Washington Consensus,” a list of policy proposals that appeared to have gained consensus approval among the Washington-based international economic organizations (like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank). Williamson’s list included ten points:

[snip]

Redirection of public spending from subsidies…toward broad-based provision of key pro-growth, pro-poor services like primary education, primary health care and infrastructure investment;

My bold

From wiki

You can’t blame this one on Rahm. This is standard operating policy in the Chicago schools, except they even fire the lunch lady and custodian. The charter schools movement is big in Chicago, was big under Arne Duncan, a big proponent of privatizing the schools, breaking local parental control, and busting the teacher’s union. Much of it involves a gentrification plan to move poor people out of desirable neighborhoods for the benefit of developers and rich people. In my neighborhood, we’ve had two schools built on city park land, one on the ‘cherished’ Chicago lakefront, with no viable plans to replace the lost recreational facilities.

Aren’t most charter schools run by the churches?
In any event it’s another privatization scheme.

This place sucks!

By the way, it’s interesting to hear the demand that “failing” schools be closed and every staff member fired, when a failing bank is given billions ASAP and the staff are awarded bonuses. The government is too corrupted by lobbyists and infected with right wing policy to act morally on issues like this.

It is great for the bankers to get millions on bonuses and salaries, after nearly destroying the economy according to our president, but teachers need to be fired.

We’re the administrators fired, was the school board dismissed?

Took a look at the article in this link. Wtf is this, the Jack Welch approach to education?

[U.S. Secretary of Education] Duncan is requiring states, for the first time, to identify their lowest 5 percent of schools — those that have chronically poor performance and low graduation rates — and fix them using one of four methods: school closure; takeover by a charter or school-management organization; transformation which requires a longer school day, among other changes; and “turnaround” which requires the entire teaching staff be fired and no more than 50 percent rehired in the fall.

Why not identify the lowest 5 percent of schools and give them what they need to help the students succeed?

Mmmmm. Mass firings and accountability for teachers in failing schools.

Mass bailouts and bonuses for the Goldman Sachs and banksters.

Plutocratic goodness in action.

We had one of those charter schools in my neck of the woods, with Yale and Harvard grads.. younger teachers.. and the school went under because of major problems..lack of standards, alleged test cheating..poor administration.
Not that all charter schools end up going belly up as this one did…

As is true of the Jack Welch approach to management in corporate America, these ideas sound great at first glance, but they only work in the short-term (if at all). Look at what’s happened to corporate America in the last 20-30 years. It’s not the best way to go for our schools.

Obama thinks he’ll get more votes as he cheers on the firings.. In the end, he will lose them. And let’s not keep blaming Rahm for everything Obama does that does no please us..
Obama picked Duncan from his Chicago clique.. and both are hand in glove when it comes to ed. policies..
Obama touts the competition model with race to the top, but notice he wants nothing of competition when it comes to health care..

This is the worst kind of PR stunt, presumably to curry favor with mythical swing right wingers. Does anybody seriously think that mass crucifixion of teachers will do anything whatever to solve our educ. problems? It’s absolutely absurd, esp., as GregB points out, when juxtaposed with the fate of our failed banking overlords. Obama is a complete disaster. No solutions. No change. No hope. Absolutely nothing. What a nihilistic fraud.

Why not identify the lowest 5 percent of schools and give them what they need to help the students succeed?

Interesting how when a business succeeds it is always because of good management skills but when school fails, whatever that means, it is because the teachers weren’t doing a good enough job.

Here’s an example of Michelle Rhee’s marching orders in DC:

We recently adopted a 5-yo boy from foster care out of state.
His dx is PTSD from severe physical abuse & neglect.
He came with an special education plan from his home state.
By fed law, the receiving state has to provide comparable services.

DCPS knew they were mandated to provide the special ed.
What did they do?
They contested the adoption & refused to recognize our child’s DC residency.
They stated that the school district was under no obligation to educate him.
This went on for nine weeks until our attorney filed for hearing. And of course,
we discovered that Congress reps children were attending our local school, without (naturally) paying non-resident tuition.

And now Obama show (once more) that the lobbyists, and elected reps are telling him what to do, and making life more comfortable for the haves.

The School Board knew this was coming and for quite some time. The low educational attainment did not sneak up on the School Board. And yet, after firing the educational officials, the School Board demonstrated its lack of cojones. To wit, they should have voted themselves out of existence.

If so, the State Educational Authorities would have stepped up and carried this burden further. Thus, the State would have required the adjacent and wealthier school districts to “open-up” their borders to the less wealthy school districts. And as long as these wealthier school districts refuse to do so, America’s economically disadvantaged will have to wear the stigma of the stupidity demonstrated by the “grown-ups”.

As to a poor school district assessing itself a higher degree of property taxes in order to pay for education, is nigh impossible, since they too have bought in to the Republican myth that “tax cuts create jobs”.

Of course, Obama and Duncan know all this, but then, maybe not since Obama has the Reverend Al Sharpton “consulting” as another of his educational consultants.

In this instance, Obama and Duncan have embarrassed themselves, despite their prior protestions against their DLC Storyline. In short, Obama has become a “regressive” Moderate and is–here in my part of the hinterlands at least, not known for being even a tad ‘notable’ when it comes to educational issues.

Jaango

It’s funny that someone above used the word bullshit. The data they are releasing to the media and Washington is just that…bullshit.

Ducan says that the average number of days a teacher is absent is 23 days. True? Yes but the majority of these days were mandated professional development. Some teachers were out 50+ days for training. Not out sick!
The media reports that 50% of all student are failing all their classes. Not true! Noboday internally can find this data. Where is it coming from. Even Biden admitted he didn’t have all the facts after slamming the school. Obama says the school isn’t improving. Not true. The school has seen a higher rate of gains than any tther urdan in the state. Read the RI commissioner’s report from last April. We were commended. Why the attacks now? Race to the Top money!

These clowns can’t get the data right on a public school…and they want more power over banks…they control the military! We are truly screwed!

notice he wants nothing of competition when it comes to health care

Nor does he support making the financial empires of Wall Street more diverse, completive and held to standards.

Competition is for the great unwashed.

Didn’t this happen a couple weeks ago?

When I first heard about it, it was reported as Union teachers that wouldn’t put forth extra effort without extra pay.

First reports didn’t have a “failing school” slant, but rather a “scummy Union” slant.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Michael Whtney and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Obama’s view of social politics and policies with regard to public education and organized labor have always been problematic for me. He is on record in favor of charter schools since at least 2006 and his Teach for America program is nuthin’ but a contract on America’s public school teachers and students. I’m very afraid of the implications of this statement today for his future support or lack of support for EFCA. I think that we should look at Obama’s statement on healthcare reform today as an indicator about where he really comes down on the responsibility of the state in the delivery of fundamental social services and the rights of the citizens of this country to those services.

This is VERY distrubing and I am ready ta hit the street over this one.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE STRUGGLE GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

You could see this kind of thing coming some years ago when the idea that low performing schools could be improved by subjecting them to financial penalties was first being introduced. Now that we’re going to see many more communities facing the same problems because of this economy we’re sure to see more stories just like this. The “solution” Republicans and right-wing Democrats are going to offer is a bust-up or beat down of unions and slick brochures for just-as-bad charter schools.

With the privatization of SS looming on the horizon can the destruction of public education be far behind? Moving further and further to the right with each passing day.

Can you imagine the kind of shit Obama will pull if he gets a GOP congress to work with next year?

This post seems like a meme in search of justification. (Maybe, like Obama’s out to betray us?)

The kids here were being let down, and unions can be intractable. Look, whatever food and shelter I received as a boy at home was provided by the union job (IAM) my Dad had, but no system if free from laziness of mind.

Imagine the impact on a peaceful society if so many high school children leave school not being able to read or do mact at a grade school level. And, most importantly, what about the lives of the kids themselves? Try and imagine if you were staring at this screen and the only thing that you could comprehend was the images.

Firepup Freedom Fighters:

We will get a real good look at where this administration under the University of Chicago School of Law Economics and Education will to take us when Obama delivers his healthcare plan today. This is not good folks.

Fire them all… Seems like Obama is really serious about turning the nation around. An institution that teaches “I pledge allegiance to the FLAG of United states”, it is a good idea to go out of business.

Step on it Mr. President. First you admit, quite honestly that government is a monopoly of violence. Now this! I beginning to regret opposing you.

I was DISGUSTED to hear BHO barf out his support of this crapulous firing of all the teaching staff. I haven’t supported most of what BHO’s done so far (with a few exceptions), but this really took the cake. FOR SURE: no vote for BHO evah again. What a crappy, shitty POTUS he is. And yes, I heard the NPR interview w/Diane Ravitch (former Bush appointee) exoriating this nasty support from BHO. What a crock.

I know many, many teachers, and it’s just not that simple. Many students, esp those from low income groups, simply do not get enough support at home. This is blaming teachers and admin for kids whose family lives can be incredibly dysfunctional and/or they may have illiterate parernts who cannot help the child when it’s needed.

This completely IGNORES the fact that educating children is a multi-pronged process, which ideally involves both the educational system and the parents. Generally students from middle income and higher families do better bc their parents are better educated and understand the need to spend a LOT of time assisting their kids with homework.

My roommate is currently coaching a neighbor of ours on just this process. Our neighbor is quite intelligent but doesn’t “get” just how much she needs to be involved in helping her kids w/their homework. Lucky for her, my roommie is there to coach her and help out w/her kids.

A huge segment of our population doesn’t understand this and/or they don’t have the personal knowledge and expertise to give their kids good guidance. It’s completely unfair to blame this simply on teaching staff, who are often precluded absolutely from adequately disciplining kids bc our society has devolved into parents going nutty at any perceived slight towards their kids. It used to be different in this country, where the teacher (sometimes unfairly) was to be obeyed at all times, and parents backed up teachers. Not anymore. Teachers really tred a very fine line in what they can do with kids in terms of disciplining them to study better.

My friends and family members all devote extra time after school hours to being available to coach kids on homework and such – all on their own time with no extra money. I know teachers who buy, with their own money, supplies and books and things to use in their classrooms.

I’ll stop now, but I feel very passionately about this issue, and I am absolutely HORRIFIED by BHO’s commentary on this. BHO has really gone beyond the pale on this one, and no, I don’t blame Rahm for this one. I place the blame soley and squarely on the shoulders of the POTUS. This is really bad, and to say I’m disappointed is the only way I can express myself without have the moderator here ban me for bad language.

Really, really, really crappy, bad, stupid, poor, ridiculous, horrible.

Primary this wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Perhaps the greatest contradiction in all of this is Obama’s oft-stated support for EFCA. Make it easier to unionize so – what? He can turn around and bust ‘em?

On Inauguration Day, I updated my “Obama ’08″ bumpersticker to read “Obama ’12.” It’s still on my car – but “Obama” will now change to “Kucinich.”

send faxes to white house
FIRE THE BANKERS NOT the TEACHERS!!

$90.00 an hour? About $187,200.00 a year at that rate. (I know it’s not that simple, and not a full time gig.)

TARP was gone and dead; killed in the House. Then Obama whipped and revived it in the Senate. TARP became as much Obama’s as it was Paulson’s and Bush’s.

Could you repeat that in other words?

Every time they are able to close a public school it creates more room for a shiny new charter school. While a minority of students may come out ahead if they are lucky enough to go to the charter school, in general students lose out in these proposals, but the elites who run these Charter schools win huge.

Charter schools are just the latest fad amongst the elite as a new vehicle to transfer public money into private hands. Charter schools are not bound by any standards, studies have shown they are increasing segregation, and they get to free money from the federal government.

Charter schools are a scam and a very effective one, because the parents of children lucky enough to get into these schools become advocates for the system because it benefits their children, regardless of the fact that the Charter school system as a whole is undermining the public school system for everyone else. I dont fault these parents for fighting whats best for their kids, but I do think it shows just how smart and underhanded the push for charter schools has been.

And Obama is leading the charge. This should come as no surprise, and a growing theme of his presidency is his overwhelming push to transfer public funds into private hands (Wallstreet, Insurance Industry, Nuclear Industry for starters).

I get what you’re saying, but it’s not that simple. However, I’ll stop now bc I’m seeing red (not at what you said, but at the POTUS).

I agree with you. Leadership starts from the top, if a football team loses, you first look at replacing at the coach not the players.

Speaking of Yale Professors, have you read the wonderul Ian Ayres (who teaches at Yale Law) book, Super Crunchers? He discusses a 30 year Education study that Uncle Sam conducted (it began in the 1960′s before there even was a Dept. of Education) called Project Follow Through? The study tested 11 different educational systems to see which best improved basic skills, cognitive skills and self-esteem. One method improved all three the best by a country mile, Zig Engelmann’s Direct Instruction (DI) method. At this link, scroll down and check out the graph.
http://www.projectpro.com/ICR/Research/DI/Summary.htm

DI is more akin to the B.F. Skinner-style behaviorism than the constructivist methods favored by Ed schools (that and the prepared scripts are big reasons teachers have never really been fans). At any rate, I think that before firing all the players, maybe the coach should try a different game plan first. If the teachers were using a constructivist lesson plans, try Direct Instruction (or if it happens they were already using DI, try constructivism).

Here’s a google books link to Ayres book (education chapter starts on p. 156)… Fun fact, the book Bush was reading on 9/11, “The Pet Goat” is part of the DI curriculum.
http://tinyurl.com/ygwzpp8

And here’s a 2004 New Yorker profile of DI creator Zig Engelmann, no Bushbot he. He made clear he’s no fan of Bush or the Iraq War.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/07/26/040726ta_talk_radosh

Citizen paz3:

What the fuck are you talkin about, Citizen, teachers unions that fight school boards for adequate resources don’t create failing schools. The entire system of public education is designed for both students and teachers to fail and then to institutionalize that failure nationally so that only the children of the wealthy will get an education suitable for an educated ruling class.

Agree completely with what you said. Follow the money is always the bottom line.

Some charter schools are quite good, but they nearly always benefit the elites, not the poor.

The poor end up with less in this equation and then the teachers, admin & unions get the blame.

It’s patent bullshit. Are there some teachers/admin who should’ve been fired but it’s hard to do so bc of union rules? Yes. But that’s not really the issue here, no matter what the POTUS tries to say.

Follow. the. money.

That’s all it’s about. The rich get richer, and the rest of us can get stuffed.

Who’s going to primary this colossal phony?

Step up.

Indeed. Agree w/you there.

Nope.. I said exactly what I meant. For the second time, I respect Obama for what he did/said. Good on him. I wish he did more of it.

Are you f’ing kidding me???

separate…but EQUAL………….sigh

Dr.Dean is in the house!

Does anyone imagine that any decent teacher is going to want to work in this school? Or even in this school district?

If the teachers were really the problem, I just can’t imagine that this is the best way to get better ones.

We are, hopefully. That’s my goal. Let’s see what we can do. May not work but at least we can work on that.

It’s not. It’s b.s. Follow. the. money. It’s about giving money to the rich elites to create charter schools, and a big eff you to the poor.

To fix the schools and actually hold people accountable means teachers get fired, schools get closed.

We cant pretend that the things we dont like personally means the president is somehow sinster or wrong.

As a parent, I want better teachers, NCLB didnt work so well–this system has to be fixed and not allowed to flounder because theres bad news about some teachers.

I remember bad teachers when I was in school. People need to be responsible and fired if they arent serving this generation of Americans as well as they should be.

Again with “primary” as a verb?

Calvin said it best, “Verbing nouns weirds language.”

Perhaps the air traffic controllers union next time. Nah, that one’s already been taken.

I’m sorry, those teachers were making 2x to 3x more than the median income of the people in their town. 72 – 78k plus benefits, plus 3 months off? In a school where 50% of kids are failing? And the union has the gall to fight over extending the day by 25 minutes? This is why public employee unions should be outlawed. I applaud Obama for supporting the decision to fire all these teachers. I’m sure the teachers who find themselves out of a job will very quickly realize that they were screwed over by their union. How many qualified people will be knocking down the doors to teach for half the previous salaries in this environment?

Unions only understand the threat of total annihilation.

posaune,

That’s terrible! I hope your son is all squared away now in his school. I’m not surprised that getting your lawyer to file a hearing was enough to get them to bend. The courts are rather, oh what’s the word, fanatical that adoptive children be treated the same under the law as biological children. I hope you shared your story (even if its all settled in your case) with national adoption advocacy groups (I guess they’d all be local if you live in the District). If this has happened to you, I bet its happening to other adoptive parents, and not everyone is savvy enough to hire a lawyer when the school district says no.

The Washington Post has a good editorial about the mass firing.

Actually no, when a business succeeds it is because of resources and management. Hold school employees to the same standard. If there is a poor teacher, like any other business, that is dealt with in the specific case. Failure to identify poor teachers and repair the problem is a failure of management.

So. My high school English teacher would smack me upside the head if I wrote “I h8 prop H8″ but it’s fully acceptable in this new medium.

Obama is a Trojan Horse built to demoralize and stop progressives.

Progressives are too NICE, there are no rules in the game of politics. Obama lied to get elected.

(Going after people like Blanche Lincoln with primary challengers should be a normal response to these people who have hijack the party of FDR)

Progressives need to learn to lie to get elected to CONGRESS! News Flash the current Congress is currently owned by Corporations and the Elites, we know the White House is own by Exxon, BP, Banks, Insurance Companies, etc.

Don’t judge Obama by his words judge him by his actions.

Drug Importation for the American people Obama says no
Public Option for the American people Obama says no
Individual Mandate for Insurance Companies Obama says Yes
Obama Guts Cobra
Excise tax on Union Health Insurance Plans Obama says Yes
More War! Obama says Yes
Don’t Ask! Don’t Tell! Obama will not repeal
Obama and Senate give Banks 13 trillion for their Bail Out
Obama and Senate give TAX PAYERS 15 Billion for their Bail Out
Now we must ADD OBAMA hates Teachers and Unions
Obama hates Public Schools, favors Charter Schools

The good news is the lying, begging, Candidate Obama who acts like a progressive will be back in 2011.

When Obama and these Senate Dems who deceive Progressives come crying, begging, and lying for our votes we need to whisper NO!

Thanks for the link.

With this news on top of all the other crap that this administration has dished out , failed to deliver on or simply all out rejected in the name of bipartisanship, I’m ready to call it quits. No more support for this empty suited president. No more contribution, No more holding up his name, No more working endlessly in getting out the message or vote. This is the straw that broke the camels back………………..We made history when we put him into office and now at least in my eyes and the eyes of all those that i come in contact with, History he will become.

To think that i whole heartedly bashed Hillary Clinton for the likes of this ……. self centered idiot has became extremely embarrassing. For me I voted out of desperateness, I held the hope and believed in his change, but NO MORE …… If someone fools you once its their fault, but you let them fool you twice it then becomes your own fault.

No idiot left behind. In the white house.

Wait just a minute.

I don’t call this union busting at all. The teachers were given a fair shake in terms of trying to reverse the negative trends in the high school (believe me, I live in CT and heard the full story). The teachers make an average of 72K a year in this school, in a community where the average income is around 30K. The test scores had improved 21% in language and a paltry 3% in math. So the administration wanted the teachers to spend an additional hour a day in the school and provide tutoring. The administration wanted the teachers eating lunch with their kids and fostering a positive relationship to help with better morale among the students.

The teachers said they would do this only for more pay. Criminatz!!!

The teachers were not performing. Sorry, but that’s part of the mandate. If I had such dismal results in my job, I would be fired. The superintendent took one of the four mandated actions for improving her school’s results. Plain and simple.

Obama had NOTHING to do with the firings. This is the law of the land now, passed by his predecessor.

Is it fair? When you look at the situation in context, absolutely. The teachers were given every option to keep their jobs. There’re a lot of good teachers out of work that would be happy to have the positions in this school for less than 72K a year and will be able to bring new methods.

I’m ready to abandon FDL for just pure and simple stupidity – reactionary crap that makes no sense. Do you want your children to learn or not??

Utter nonsense.

The stuff that comes out of Obama’s mouth I would expect from William Bennett or Newt Gingrich or some washed-up, 80′s republican “Yoda”. Remember when these right-wing clowns were sold by the media as “wise?” As real members of the intelligensia? Obama is a cutting-edge republican, circa 1990.

Please post links supporting your claim that the teachers were given a fair shake in trying to reverse the negative trends. Was it just the request for tutoring, or had they failed over a longer period of time? Were several of the poorest performers let go before the wholesale firing?

I think it’s justifiable to fire somebody for not doing their job, and if you’re a teacher with half of your students failing YOU are failing your student by not teaching them what is required.

doesn’t 4 principals sound like a lot to anybody else?

Good for Obama (and Rahm too).
Hopefully there will be more such firings.

B.K. Nordan, one of two trustees who voted against firing all the teachers, nevertheless delivered some of the harshest words of the evening to the high school’s teaching staff. Nordan, a graduate of Central Falls High School, now works as a teacher in Providence.

“I don’t believe this is a worker’s rights issue. I believe it’s a children’s rights issue,” Nordan said.

This is a much more complicated matter than the Obama bashers here want to admit.

Gallo wanted teachers to agree to a set of six conditions she said were crucial to improving the school. Teachers would have to spend more time with students in and out of the classroom and commit to training sessions after school with other teachers.

But Gallo said she could pay teachers for only some of the extra duties. Union leaders said they wanted teachers to be paid for more of the additional work and at a higher pay rate — $90 per hour rather than the $30 per hour offered by Gallo.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/central_falls_trustees_vote_02-24-10_EOHI83C_v59.3c21342.html

Another quick note about Charter schools as this issue is going to come up more and more.

In essence, the push for Charter schools is an attempt to privitize our education system, turning it into a for-profit industry. Just look how well thats serving the majority of americans with healthcare run by a for profit privitized health insurance industry, and then decide if you still think Charter schools are a solution, and not just another problem.

A lot more low/middle income folks will be hurt by the creation of charter schools than the small minority who are lucky enough to get in.

Article about Diane Ravitch in Today’s NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/education/03ravitch.html?hp

This gal was on NPR yesterday opposing Race to the Top initiative of Obama/Duncan and now defends public education..Used to be in Bush administration and did a huge about face to the dismay of Conservatives..

Yes, Privatization is exactly one of the big issues.. Ravitch hit on this as well.
Basically, education for profit…

Mofo, mofo, mofo!

There’s of course the rivalry between AFT and NEA and who’s aligned with whom. I don’t know where the administration stands, but the NEA is probably an organization they depend on more.

Did Obama fire any Bank Executives?

Becca656? I understand what you are saying,
but Obama never fights for anything like Public Option, Drug Importation, a bigger bail out for TAX PAYERS, etc. but he cheers when teachers lose their jobs.

Obama is biting the hands that got him elected

Your argument doesn’t hold water. Management gets to choose their workers but teachers don’t get to choose their students.

“I remember bad teachers when I was in school.”

I do too. The worst one I ever had was also the football coach.

This is beyond the pale.

Obama is wrong if he thinks he will gain political advantage by targeting the teachers unions. The union haters won’t vote for him anyway. And a lot of them don’t believe in pubic education in the first place.

In response to Becca656.

Perhaps, you should take a gander at my post @33.

Moreover, Charter Schools are for the most part utilized as a scam by the more wealthy among us here in the Sonoran Desert.

There is a provision in the law that permits you to ‘donate’ to a charter school and receive a tax deduction in return. Moreover, if you are a donor you are permitted to designate the student of your largesse. To wit, when two donors get together and decide that each of the students will get the largesse, this ‘process’ works as follows. That means that as a Donor, your student gets the largesse from you Donor-Buddy and your Donor-Buddy’s son or daughter gets your largesse. It’s called reciprocity and the existing law does not address or prohibit this reciprocity. As the law reads and at its inception, this Donor Largesse is to be targeted to the economically disadvantaged, and yet to this day, the economically disadvantaged do not receive this largesse. Consequently, the wealthy are taking care of themselves and the economicially disadvantaged are still not receiving any ‘benefit’ via the law. Of course, this law was crafted by Republicans to benefit the Republicans and their friends.

So, spare me the propaganda from the presumed trenches.

Jaango

Bye Bye democracy. I really mean it.

This is just another example of Obama’s basic authoritarian “torment the victims” ideology. fits in with making it a criminal offense to be too poor to buy health insurance while not providing any reasonable l alternative and praising Tom Coburn’s sending in spies to test doctors and patients dealing with Medicare.

Next thing you know, some city will fire its entire police department because the cops are complaining about low pay. Obama will approve and federal funds will become available to contract out police services to some umpteenth iteration of Blackwater that will come in and trample what’s left of the Bill of Rights. Since they are private contractors, the courts will say there’s no state action and no remedies for civil rights violations.

The taser controversy will disappear because Blackwater PD will throw them all away and indiscriminately use fully automatic weapons instead like they did against Iraqi civilians, including children, when they murdered them for target practice in Nissour Square in Baghdad because traffic wasn’t moving fast enough.

And Obama will give a speech praising Blackwater’s highly trained, responsible, and too big to fail professionals.

After all is said and done, the new police department will cost 5 to ten times more than the city would have paid its police department, if it had granted the raise.

Coming soon to a city near you.

Obama is a lying scumbag folks.

Did Obama fire any Bank Executives?

Obama did not fire these teachers. The local trustees fired them. Look at the article and see who these trustees are. It looks to me like they are the parents of minority students.

Moreover, banks have absolutely nothing to do with this.

Bye Bye democracy. I really mean it.

The trustees weren’t elected?

Charter schools also perpetuate the “American notion that ” inequality is good,

That’s 99% percent of what all this political Kabuki is to preserve the US obsession of keeping some people “better* (insert term of choice) than others.

Won’t fly. The manipulation of the law using in place structures is not democracy.I am speaking of a general trend supported by Obama. Whether Obama himself fired these people he in the past few days has suggested directly mass firings are a reasonable option.

The tests correlate most strongly with the socioeconomic status of the parents of the children taking them. These teachers had the misfortune of teaching in one of the poorest places in Rhode Island. Yeah, fire them all, buncha amateurs.

Got to put his Chicago boy Duncan in the spot.

The US spends more money per student in public education k-12 than any other nation in the world. The results:

Area Rank (out of 41)
Math 28
Reading 18
Science 22
Problem Solving 29

AND, I don’t blame the teachers. It’s a crummy system. They are as frustrated as the rest of us.

Health care is the same raw deal. The US spends 70% more per person than other industrialized nations. We don’t need to spend more money. We need to fix the system, and that includes getting more people covered, and not ruining peoples lives because of preexisting conditions, genetic disorders, job transfers/losses etc. Look to the COSTS vs the other Nations.

It’s the system people. The Government is a major part of the problem. And the Special Interests especially the crooks that run a lot of Wall Street and through the lobbies “our” Government.

Urge all to read (16). temptingfate was exactly correct on the Government actions TARP being only the tip of the iceberg on the greatest transfer of wealth in history. And Nathan Aschbacher(48) again correct. Obama raced back to DC to pass TARP. And last month he pushed through Bernanke as head of the Fed for his Wall Street buddies. Last year he had Jamie Diamon (CEO of JP Morgan Chase) at the White House 5 times. Blankfein (CEO of Goldman Sachs) 3 times.

Every Bill coming thru “our” Congress is written with loopholes “suggested” by the Lobby’s. Until this changes, every piece of legislation will include big payoffs for Special Interests. Sooner or later, that will crush us all.

Why not identify the lowest 5 percent of schools and give them what they need to help the students succeed?

Because the point of “reform” is to increase inequality.

And you know what? There will be a group willing to work for half of the replacement group. Does competence increase as wages are lowered?

Can you imagine the kind of shit Obama will pull if he gets a GOP congress to work with next year?

The Republicans are trying to pull Obama down through gridlock. This sounds to me to be a vast improvement over what Obama really wants to do.

Ok, who needs more proof? “He is who we thought he was.”, paraphrasing D. Green.

The real test will be whether the new teachers will be able to turn this school around. I’ll bet any amount of money that they won’t. The problem is social inequality and poverty. The elites don’t give a shit about the lower classes. They have no plan to help people. Bottom line.

Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes
They don’t tell the truth uh
Smiling faces, smiling faces
Tell lies and I got proof
The truth is in the eyes
Cause the eyes don’t lie, amen

Remember a smile is just
A frown turned upside down
My friend let me tell you
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes
They don’t tell the truth, uh
Smiling faces, smiling faces
Tell lies and I got proof

They have no plan to help people. Bottom line.

Yep just torment them for being poor and shut out.

I’m not sure we are exactly in disagreement. My argument was that problems like these are now simply about teachers failing to perform, whatever sorts of measures might be being used. Rather that the general dialog has nearly often failed to take into account all of the factors beyond their control. Resources and management support being two of them. I also agree that the makeup of a specific classroom matters but I was trying to focus on the issue that gets less attention. Given the actions in this case the first question should be how the poorest school in RI got the stupidest school board and why they are not accepting responsibility for their own failures first.

This has exactly nothing to do with “bye bye democrtacy” and a great deal to do with your confirmation bias.

These teachers were fired by a local board of trustees primarily consisting of minority women after negotiations broke down to fix this
failing school.

As I understand it, up to 50% of these treachers can be rehired. I hope the good ones are.

In response to #65:

To fix the schools and actually hold people accountable means teachers get fired, schools get closed.

That’s not what firings accomplish. Firings are a public relations stunt. You want to improve the schools? Make the parents rich enough to have some disposable income or spare time, and teach them the parenting tactics the rich parents are using.

bingo!

I think the point was that the Bankers screwed up, damaged the economies of this country and the world, then were bailed out and rewarded with massive record bonuses. The unimportant people paid the bills through lost jobs and upcoming higher expenses and taxes. This shows the priorities of “our” government.

One can only hope.

Costs money to keep the rich rich and the poor oppressed, stupid and poor.

That’s what those who say the Civil War was about economics mean..

Appreciate the quote and link, oldgold, but it doesn’t answer the key question: Were the poorest performing teachers put on notice and/or fired before teh wholesale firing?

Just because someone is a superintendent doesn’t mean they they know thing one about managing people. The way you turn around a poorly performing organization is by getting rid of the poorest performers first, and if the others don’t get the message, then you take more drastic action.

Until I have evidence that such intermediate steps were taken, I’ll have to agree that taking an action such as this, particularly in the middle of a school year, is Stupid Management On Parade.

The smartest decision these teachers and support staff could make would be to move as far away from this town as possible as quickly as possible.

We never picked Obama, he was vetted and approved by the powers that be , period.
Did he pull the Dean mike trick?
Did he limit Dennis’ time in the debates?
He was a politician without a trail now wasn’t he ?
Was his national record of a conservative or a liberal bent?

The best part is, we are blaming ourselves choosing him for President, when in fact he was chosen for us before the first vote was cast. Neat trick.

Obama is wrong if he thinks he will gain political advantage by targeting the teachers unions.

Obama thinks the teachers’ unions will support him anyway.

I almost cried the other day when my cleaning lady (single mom, going to community college) asked if she could take my discarded magazines and scientific journals home for her kids to read. She can’t afford books.

The districts where the rich kids live get computers to take home. (of course the spy cam is on :-) )

The real test will be whether the new teachers will be able to turn this school around. I’ll bet any amount of money that they won’t. The problem is social inequality and poverty. The elites don’t give a shit about the lower classes. They have no plan to help people. Bottom line.

Correct on all accounts — which is why this needs to be identified as so much public relations spectacle. There’s a SHORTAGE of good teachers, people, because we keep throwing out so many of our new ones (or they quit, which grants the same result).

Or create a charter school and select out the potential successes while eliminating those you believe will not succeed.

Although I am a union supporter in general, I think the school system had a point on this case. These teachers were paid very well and the school was failing. From what I read, they were being asked to do very little more and in fact were going to be paid for a lot of it. My mother was a teacher in Baltimore City for years and saw lots of union abuse. There were “reading specialists” who were assigned to assist teachers at 4 assigned schools. Mom said that the teachers complained that the person was at their school only 10 days a year. Turns out the specialists spent most of their time going to school where they had friends, or going to seminars over and over. Unions have been helpful in the past, but sometimes they need to bend.

Or learn to teach for a change. As to if Obama is going to loose Union votes.. its impossible. First, for one, the unions are collective bargaining body and as long as Obama makes a better LOOKING offer than his opponents, unions will fall in line with him like mindless drones – ironically the same kind these failing public schools create. Once in power he can do whatever he wants.

Aint Democracy great? People who think their votes can change the laws of economics and laws of power and that the govt gun can do good – deserve to have their dreams shattered. I am pretty sure they will enlist another Obama – hoping that this time, everything will change – but predictably nothing will.

Privatization of schools is the trend. Teaching the kiddies the three “R’s” is now a profit center. The University of California Regent Fund has $8 billion in cash, just cash on hand, and they raised tuition by over 30%. No wonder students are rioting.

Think Public Schools are expensive ? Just wait till Exxon runs them.

Exactly. So, if we can stop the parasites from robbing us they will starve. Why then are so intent in empowering them by making DC more powerful?

The neoliberal goal is to immiserate all of us. They are determined to jam their failed corporate ideology down our throats in every aspect of social and economic life. It’s a class war. Obummer is just the latest general in that war. First, the schools, then Soc Sec, and finally Medicare. They want us all begging and eating out of garbage bins.

A mass firing of the entire teaching staff of a high school by its trustees is a typical response by an incompetent supervisory board. It masks its own chronic failings by blaming workers, individually and collectively.

It is a board more than willing to project its guilt and incompetence onto its staff, and to take out its frustrations on the students and their families as well as teachers. It will be years before a competent, new, better trained, better prepared and more committed staff can be hired and can begin to work as a team.

This board’s action is the height of brutal, selfish, escapist folly. It is exactly the sort of action, whether corporate or public, that a Democratic administration should oppose with its empathy, its policy, its pocketbook and its quiet derision.

Shame and disgust – again and again – are well-earned by the Obama administration. His actions more and more resemble a George Bush who remembered his locution lessons and who found a decent tailor.

Or create a charter school and select out the potential successes while eliminating those you believe will not succeed.

Do we get to eliminate the students we believe won’t succeed, too? No, we don’t. We don’t have that option.

The sum effect of charter schools is to drain the “regular” schools of the students who have a shot at what little our society provides its members in the way of social-climbing. The incidental “plus” of charter schools are marginally increased opportunities for creative teachers in creatively-designed charter schools. In general, it’s predictable to expect that neoliberalism will impose its iron fist upon the public school system. But it isn’t necessarily a good thing.

I wonder if this is some sort of “dog whistle” message to black voters who wonder if Obama is any way interested in helping poor black people.

There is a long history of conflict between urban black communities and white teachers unions. Is this Obama’s way of signalling that he is on the side of black parents against the evil white unions?

The neoliberal goal is to immiserate all of us. They are determined to jam their failed corporate ideology down our throats in every aspect of social and economic life. It’s a class war. Obummer is just the latest general in that war. First, the schools, then Soc Sec, and finally Medicare. They want us all begging and eating out of garbage bins.

Well, they don’t really want that — but it’s their most profitable option, so garbage bins it is.

I am a strong liberal and support unions, but among the many great things unions do, they also make it very hard for employers to fire people who suck at their jobs. That is probably the main issue that makes people hate unions. From what I have heard, most of these teachers will probably be hired back. If it were easier to fire bad teachers, perhaps this mass firing would not have been necessary to get rid of a handful of really lame teachers. As someone who went through the public school system, I can assure you that many teachers are not very good at their job.

Or learn to teach for a change

You say it like it’s a science where a teacher takes a poor student, with poor parents, and a dysfunctional social situation and pushes a few buttons. A smart teacher cannot make a student that does not want to learn do so. A poor teacher cannot keep a smart, motivated student from learning. When I was in high school some of my best friends were teachers and some of my worst enemies as well. Yet there were others that enjoyed and like the teachers I did not and did not like the ones that I did. Which ones should have been fired?

Duncan is requiring states, for the first time, to identify their lowest 5 percent of schools — those that have chronically poor performance and low graduation rates — and fix them using one of four methods: school closure; takeover by a charter or school-management organization; transformation which requires a longer school day, among other changes; and “turnaround” which requires the entire teaching staff be fired and no more than 50% rehired in the fall.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/central_falls_trustees_vote_02-24-10_EOHI83C_v59.3c21342.html

This would be a perfect solution for them. Just teach children enough to be functional consumers, Don’t think them to think at all. Hmmmmm… we have a lot of that now.

George Carlin (in Education and the Owners of the country); says it best with humor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cz4vcQKWfA

Look at this
“A smart teacher cannot make a student that does not want to learn do so. A poor teacher cannot keep a smart, motivated student from learning. ”
Proves the total ineffectiveness of teachers.. so fire them all.

“When I was in high school some of my best friends were teachers”
And so in absence of govt paying these people salaries, you would seek their aid to your learning.

“and some of my worst enemies as well.”
And you would avoid the bad (for you) teachers and not pay them salaries, if others like them – they are free to hire them to aid their learning too.

The whole idea of govt schooling is anathema to human ethics – the power disparity is tremendous, the responsibility is absent and pretty much anything good that is coming out of it is purely coincidental. While everything bad is cultivated. Who wants this institution around anyway? Put govt schools in the ground and let people keep their money to spend on their kids and their favorite teachers.

Thus was born “Leave no child behind”.

the article you link to states that the trustees took action in response to Duncan’s mandate.

Put govt schools in the ground and let people keep their money to spend on their kids and their favorite teachers.

Or maybe they’ll just put their kids to work. Got to get the family out of debt peonage somehow.

Hang on.. I missed this one
“poor teacher cannot keep a smart, motivated student from learning”
OH YES HE CAN.

For one, he can consume days and weeks of the student’s life simply due to compulsory attendance laws. He can punish the student – humiliate him in class and with support of his less smart less motivated students. There are a million ways a poor teacher can actively prohibit a good student to giveup his love for education. I have seen this happen to bright young boys who were so derided in schools that they had given up on themselves, withdrew into idle sports and even some nefarious activities. Fortunately, their parents approached me and I was able to rescue them, quickly turning around their performance in schools. And no I am not a teacher, and I did not get paid for it (it wasn’t much work anyway).

You’re right,- that’s while every other country on earth with a public education system is eating our economic lunch.

You want to talk about debt? Why is it that the culture of debt blew out of proportions AFTER govt schools came into being,, huh? An average American in say the 1900s had a positive net worth. Today it is huge negative. You think this just happened? When your ilk and ideas screw up society, its always the other people’s fault isn’t it?

Do you know anything about any country? Seriously.. step out of your cocoon. Go live in China and India – to get to know how things operate there. I am sick and tired of hearing arrogant and ignorant Americans talk of things that simply aren’t so, just so they can feel comfortable in their wells of ignornance!

Proves the total ineffectiveness of teachers.. so fire them all.

Completely wrong. Proves that the process is not flawed enough to effect the outcome. A process refined by education and exploration.

The assumption that government education, including the old one-room school houses, is a failure because it somehow cultivates the bad is based upon your libertarian values which I probably only peripherally share. Private education available only for the elite is neither acceptable nor very North American. Seems to have worked like a charm in South America though.

If Obummer were REALLY serious about educational reform, he’d have a massive, coherent jobs program with the aim of full employment. No jobs=social pathology. Social pathology=failed schools. Jobs are the key. Good jobs that pay well and lift everyone’s boat. But you won’t get that. Obummer is not about deep thinking.

Actually in the late 1800 and early 1900 middle class and lower Americans were suffering financial catastrophe at the hands of what were more accurately named Robber Barons (Now we call them Masters of the Universe)

“Proves that the process is not flawed enough to effect the outcome.”

So essentially, you want proof that the system is Flawed.. not that it works. Well when your priorities are so upside down, I can see how you end up supporting tax-feeding assaulter of children’s minds.

It is amazing that the “scientific” folks seem to have a monopoly on deciding which case is correlation = casuation – seem to ignore the post hoc ergo propter hoc nature of their ideas. Like a teacher – I cannot open the minds of arrogant adults who are unwilling to learn, face facts, research and understand (in a way I sympathize with those teachers in case of those students). So I will do what I advocate them to do too.. focus on what can be saved. For now, that means everyone who has not swallowed “progressive” ideologies. Gandhi had something interesting to say on how names are chosen.. his theory seems to apply perfectly to “progressives”.

Regurgitated exactly – as you were taught in Public schools, but almost no economist holds true today based on economic data. (hint: No one has any evidence to hold up that public school teaching!) Ain’t that ironic?!

I don’t know which is worse — your hatred for the masses or your twisted view of their history.

You need to get fresh tin foil for your beanie.

Competent teachers do not yield a 50% failure rate.

I hope the good ones are rehired too. What they need to do is hire them back at reduced pay and totally cut out the parasitic teacher’s union. How much do you want to bet the teachers would take that deal?

You hit the nail squarely on the head, Earl. This is a classic example of a governance structure acting in a way to preserve confidence in the system (i.e., the school board’s existence) rather than provide stability and guidance. Obama’s shameless politics around this issue is appalling.

Yep. When rich people screw up drench them in more money to motivate them. When average or poor people come together to apply market principles, fire ‘em, put them on starvation wages. It takes torture to motivate average folks to work but 90% of the world’s treasure to motivate rich folks.

Yeah, the vile corporatists are always rewarded for their failures. Notice how that works?

When rich people/businesses screw up, they should fail. When rich public employee unions constantly fail with no regard for state/city budgets and service quality – they should be broken. The problem is that both of these groups have political power and influence. Asking for public salaries and benefits to be more in line with what they could make in the private sector is just common sense – and if those union members are fired, they will very quick realize this discrepancy.

The issues, promises and problems of public schools are many, varied and complex, but stating that this country should do away with all public schools just because of some “bad apple” (which occur in every organization, no matter what, including the vaunted private sector) teachers and administrators is just throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Our country got ahead because of public schools. If conservatives want this to be a third world country with the poor being illiterate and ground under, then I would have much more respect for them for just saying it straight out. Hiding behind platitudes about how much better off our nation was in the way back machine before the dreaded public schools came into existence is patent bullshit.

I don’t understand why conservatives appear to believe (and I have family & friends who have stated this to me) that public education is a huge disservice to this country, and that they shouldn’t have to pay for it. I’m not sure why conservatives believe that having illiterate, innumerate serfs to do the “dirty” work is such a great idea.

Some of the “dirty” work requires citizens to be not only literate but computer literate. Frankly, when I’m old, feeble & back in diapers (happens a LOT, folks), I would prefer to have to trained nursing assistants helping me, and that these folks know how to use a computer, read, reason, think for themselves, not be starving, and, frankly, not hate my guts bc I have a little savings & they don’t.

I guess conservatives live in the naive belief that they got theirs, so they’ll be just fine behind their gated communities, keeping the kids away from the trash serfs “out there,” and all will be fine, well & good.

And meanwhile, our economy will be just so wonderful with all the wealthy folks going to college and doing ALL of the “good” jobs that make LOTS of money.

Don’t. get. it. Does not compute.

Yes, there are issues with the public school system, but just privatizing it is not the answer.

And yes, BHO did NOT fire this school staff; it was the Board or the Trustees (or whomever it was who was “in charge”) who did it. But BHO stood up on his hind legs and brayed out support for this heinous action, and I totally disagree with it.

Those who believe that the public school system is a social evil rotting the core of our society need to take a better look at how schools operate and what educating our citizens means for our economy. thinking in black and white is a narrow-minded and short-sighted view of how our country and our economy works.

And yes: usually it is schools in the poorer areas that underperform, and as I stated in a prior post, the issues are almost always two-fold. Could the teachers have done a better job? Probably. But more importantly: do the families have educational criteria and know-how to assist in their children’s educational process? Mostly the answer is: no. To simply blame the teacher is short-sighted and not a wholistic view of the problem.

However, our conservative society has determined that assisting citizens to help themselves is somehow sinful, evil & verboten. What is often needed in these poorer communities are parenting skills opportunities. When these are offered, the children often do better. And the programs need not be expensive.

But gosh, gotta go pay off Big Daddy WarBuck$ so that we can ensure that cannon fodder US citizens, along with brown-skinned foreigners, get killed, and the obscenely wealthy CEO fat-cats get ever richer. Yeah, yeah: that’s the ticket….

Rich unions? What a crock. What are you smoking?

You have a sort of point. However, I would point out that most teachers are NOT making a salary that equal to what they could make in the private sector for similar work. That’s a conservative notion that doesn’t hold water.

Yes, the unions have a part in this, but simply demonizing teachers bc you don’t like the unions is b.s.

And corporations, these days, in case you haven’t noticed hardly ever have to take the blame for their mistakes. Not only the banking bail outs, but noice Carly Fiorina, currently running for Senator of CA. What a joke. I was all for her when she first got the CEO job at Hewlett-Packard, but she was a terrible CEO. A real diva who nearly ran that company into the ground. Yet she got forced out with such a hugely, giant golden handshake that she has enough of her own private funds to run for Senate.

Carly is about as big of an incompetent boob as I ever seen, yet I see no conservatives commenting negatively about her vast, great incompetence, plus the unfairness of the giant buckets of cash that she made at shareholders’ and staff expense.

so spare the me the inflamed rhetoric about the eeeevuls of the unions. yes, there are problems there, but we’re talking a pittance in comparison to corporate fat-cats, who are very definitely ruining this country.

Re the unions. You are simply wrong.

Why is is destructive for ordinary people to practice market principles and heroic for the rich and powerful to crush the market? You been drinking that right wing Koolaid

“Why is is destructive for ordinary people to practice market principles and heroic for the rich and powerful to crush the market?”

Bingo!!!!! Exactly. What’s good for the CEOs, is not at all acceptable for the likes of you & me. And conservatives would wail: but, but, but.. that’s different.

Bah humbug. What a buncha crap. Unions do have issues, I’ll agree, but it’s nothing in comparison to corporate welfare & corporate rip-offs. If conservatives ever clean up that Augean stable, then I’ll be willing to countenance really questioning unions. Gimme a break. Unions exist bc workers get screwed otherwise.

This kind of action (mass firing) is why we have unions. If the unions representing all teachers in Rhode Island organized a mass walk-out, what could school districts do? Go Ronnie Reagan and fire them all? Not going to happen.

They could do it for one hour, on one day, and the district in question would quickly be back at the table and offering every teacher, guidance councilor, and principle their jobs back.

LINK TO SIGN THE PETITION SUPPORTING TEACHERS DOES NOT WORK.

I think we need a mass firing of politicians. Let’s start with the Senate.

Precisely. Egad. Gee whiz, everything was so much better when the masses were huddled and starving, and the robber barons got it all.

Guh.

We definitely need a militant union movement (like in the old days), not the patsy corporate unions we have today. Unions today=corporations.

You have things turned on their damn head.

This Board of Trustees, made up primarily of minority women, took this drastic step to assist minority children get a better education.

This has nothing to do with masters of the universe or robber barons.

It has everything to do with the Obama Administration’s re-envisioning of No Child Left Behind, giving states and districts limited options to address failing schools.

Do you honestly think all, or even half, of the teachers in a school where over half the student population speaks English as a second language are so terrible at their jobs they should be fired?

You are either ill-informed as to how a truly free market would work, confused or being disingenuous.

Our private sector is monopolistic and predatory. All workers should have certain civil and equal rights. Unions serve to at least strive for those. The private sector strives to crush and eliminate them.

All that aside it is totally and completely unfair to place blame on teachers or schools’ for society’s failure to provide access to decent opportunity to education. Like not having to go to school hungry, or unlike my housekeeper’s family have books at home, to be safe from drug dealers and gangs.

The failure to graduate 12 years secondary school is about 30% nation wide. That is a disgrace and not teaching failure. It is the result of economic pressure, right wing disdain for education and military recruiting.

The latter is not minor. Thanks to NCLB the recruiters are in the middle and high schools offering money, GED and more education — and also nice travel benefits.

Quick! Sow doubt in minds! Make something up!

I appreciate the sentiment but also laughed when I read your comment.

I recently finished a book about labor organizing in the 1930s. You’d be amazed at how conservative and obstructionist the old AFL was when confronted with the new organizing tactics of the labor “radicals.”

Well it got TR riled up.

Guess my idea would be an invigorated IWW.

What have I made up?

I do so wish I thought this was a ridiculous scenario. But as a Chicagoan, from an old CPS family, and with a lot of ties in the Douglas and Washington Park areas, signs of possibilities just this radical have been worrying me since the election. Especially after the Duncan appointment.

The chance of a takeover like that should be effectively zero, but I’m afraid it’s at least a few percent.

Do you honestly think all, or even half, of the teachers in a school where over half the student population speaks English as a second language are so terrible at their jobs they should be fired?

I have no idea and neither do you. I will respect the opinion of the local Board of Trustees.
http://www.projo.com/news/content/central_falls_trustees_vote_02-24-10_EOHI83C_v59.3c21342.html

Finally a mass firing proposal that might actually solve a problem.

cassiodorus can answer for his/her self but one thing that you are making up is that a dedicated board of trustees fired all these people as a result of their own evaluations.,

The link you posted states clearly it was in response to the Arne Duncan memo that Obama praised so loudly.

Here you go. From
http://www.projo.com/news/content/central_falls_trustees_vote_02-24-10_EOHI83C_v59.3c21342.html

Duncan is requiring states, for the first time, to identify their lowest 5 percent of schools — those that have chronically poor performance and low graduation rates — and fix them using one of four methods: school closure; takeover by a charter or school-management organization; transformation which requires a longer school day, among other changes; and “turnaround” which requires the entire teaching staff be fired and no more than 50 percent rehired in the fall.

State Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist moved swiftly on this new requirement, identifying on Jan. 11 six of the “persistently lowest-performing” schools: Central Falls High School, which has very low test scores and a graduation rate of 48 percent, and five schools in Providence. Gist also started the clock on the changes, telling the districts they had until March 17 to decide which of the models they wanted to use. Her actions make Rhode Island one of the first states to publicly release a list of affected schools and put into motion the new federal mandate.

again blaming teachers for a system failure.

even obama does not understand systems influence on economic and eduational systems.

Not to disagree in the matter of the fired teachers —it’d be hard to stay in a smallish place that had treated one this way, let alone try to re-establish some kind of living— but I think this move is intended in part precisely to start a run on the town, so to speak.

Prolonged bad-mouthing is a well-known way to drive down commercial and land values, in preparation for a land grab. Considering the importance that families with children place on both schools and a degree of stability, the mass firing of teachers is like insult by sledgehammer, if not wrecking ball. Even if parents were not happy with the school, now all they have is uncertainty. A fair number will dislike that enough that they move also, at their next opportunity, and the culling process begins. Versions of this are well-known in Chicago.

I shudder to think how fast most readers of FireDogLake and other liberal/progressive blogs would rush to support suppression of a new IWW.

Anyway I saw on LabourStart that the modern IWW has a “wobweekend” coming up this month in Baltimore.

So we see that Obama hired Duncan, RI implemented Duncan’s policy and Obama praised the decision to fire everyone because it was his policy. Even Reagan wasn’t this far off the road.

By kicking them out, at the least, he is relieving them of blame in future.. right? If things really are as bad as some people have argued – bad students or students from unfortunate backgrounds – then things should not improve. What I am really looking forward to is the folks to swallow their words and admit they were wrong when private teachers teach these kids.

Makes me laugh – but history has proven again and again that the so-called do-gooders benefactors of the public have no shame and never apologize or learn from all evidence to the contrary. Its contrary to their understanding of how the world operates. Unions work for the poor workers – it doesn’t matter that the Indonesian kids thrown out of sweatshops have to resort to crimes and prostitution due to abject poverty they live in. We must keep American jobs here! Ah.. the compassionate unions.

Yep, flip cause and effect and fit everything to your favorite world view. Uncertain conditions! Yes, guaranteed bad schools are not driving parents away.. its those damn uncertain conditions.
And yes, Chicago and detroit weren’t ruined by UAW.. its corporate interests driving down prices of lands (that they themselves own..) in preparation for take over by eminent domain by the govt. Gee.. the corporations are so stupid they cannot tell what is theirs and what is not.

No. That isn’t what happened.

Duncan is requiring states to identify their worst schools [Bottom 5%] and then fix them using one of 4 methods.They are:

school closure; takeover by a charter or school-management organization; transformation which requires a longer school day, among other changes; and “turnaround” which requires the entire teaching staff be fired and no more than 50 percent rehired in the fall.

The Superintendent attempted to implement the transformation method.

Gallo and the teachers initially agreed they wanted the transformation model, which would protect the teachers’ jobs.

The negotiations for implementing the transformation model broke down.
The Board then voted to adopt the turnaround model on a 5-2 vote.
Those voting for it were: Leslie Estrada, Vladimir Ibarra, Anna Morales,
Sonia Rodriquez and Ana Rosada.

It was a local Board decision.

Hey! Oblahblah just had himself a PATCO MOMENT! Just like his hero!
Except…wait….the NEA votes…RELIABLY DEMOCRATIC!
So… that must mean it’s a PATCO/SOULJAH MOMENT!
Skeezy. Asshole. Deserves. This. Senate. Wadda perfect pairing. Not so good for us.
C’mon, Great Awakening!

I discover I am still able to be astounded by the real meanness of it all.

What can we, are we going to, do about it?

Still absent, oldgold, is any response to my request, waaaaaaaaay back at #117, for evidence the school district followed that most basic of management tenets, to weed out the poorest performers first, before making a wholesale firing.

This is clearly grandstanding by the trustees, because as others have pointed out, many, if not most of the teachers will be back.

How caring can the trustees truly be if they think engineering such drama in the middle of the school year will be a good thing for the morale of both students and teachers?

Laughable.

Would teachers have been fired had the mandate not been handed down by Duncan?

What would Oblah say to MLK if, by some miracle, the man strode fully fledged and in his prime into the Oval Office one fine DC Spring morning?

The Board then voted to adopt the turnaround model on a 5-2 vote.

Which came from Duncan’s office. Models do not spring from nothing and are provided via guidelines.
A few years ago this was not a guideline and would not have been suggested or contemplated.

Reagan 7.0.

Full disclosure: my dream, of course, is a libertarian socialist “society,” if you want to call it that. So yes, I agree many liberals would be against that, and would fight it tooth and nail. But I’m here because we need an intermediate phase before man can evolve into the dream! I dare not use the term anarchist since it is such a loaded term. But let’s face it, the IWW is definitively full of folks with those leanings.

No.

What is laughable about this? They had 4 methods. They ultimately
chose the 4th method.

They were not under any strict time line. They had 3 other alternatives.
They chose to do this now.

Read the post, thanks Michael for bringing this to light here at FDL.

I’m completely dumbfounded first, wildly incredulous second and greatly disturbed and angry at the district officials in RI and EQUALLY disturbed and angry at the president I elected for being involved in the manner he and his administration are.

This is sickening, and yes, this is facism. Overt, plain and ugly facism.

It’s time for we the people to demand change, such as a change of presidency and administration.

This is beyond the pale of a president or administration to support. This is the ANTI ’50′s Little Rock intervention in schools.

Obama will take a 20 point fall for this in the polls, and fast.

Stupidest move ever by a President.

Bingo.

This is a union issue thinly veiled as a performance issue on the part of the teachers.

Inner city schools are disasters because of the inner city and its circumstances, I applaud ANY teacher for even venturing to try and work in those conditions.

A pox on the Dept of Education, Duncan, The Trustees in this district and our President.

Worst, decision, ever, Obama.

Agreed, along with the union busting effort, a definite drive to privatize the poor, drive them out one way or another and rebuild the inner cities to remake them desirable for upper income habatation.

Say freaking what?

How is this facism?

How is this anti 50′s Little Rock?

Duncan sounds like he someone who cares about urban education.

His late father was a professor at the University of Chicago and his mother has run a South Side tutoring program for inner-city children since 1961. As a student in Chicago, Duncan spent afternoons in his mother’s tutoring program and also worked there during a year off from college. He credits this experience with shaping his understanding of the challenges of urban education.

GREAT comment, thanks.

Obama = scumbag. Yup.

I sucked it in when G W Bush was elected the first time and told myself that the country can survive 4 years and then elect someone with some sense and compassion. Then Damn he was elected again. Well we almost survived 4 so we can another. Now after the collapse of the economy and we get this authoritarian meanness toward the victims of failed governing and a failed economy my hopes wane. Just how bad will it get and how soon will it be before something really catastrophic takes down government. What will we turn to for stability?

What utter horseshit from becca656.

To take just a few examples:

The teachers make an average of 72K a year in this school, in a community where the average income is around 30K.

So I guess you’re suggesting that a professional educator in a position that requires an advanced degree and licensure should make no more than the average wage of the community in which he or she teaches. Best of luck with that concept. The community in question is a good example; it happens to be the poorest in Rhode Island, which is not exactly a powerhouse state economically. Chances are, a good number of such jobs as exist in the community are jobs for which no college degree or licensure is required, but you’re offended that people who require extensive training and licensing shouldn’t be paid accordingly.

In this regard, I’d like to introduce you to the concept of an “average”; you see, when you take an average of any heterogeneous population, you will have members that fall above the average and members that fall below the average. The fact that some fall above the average doesn’t tell you anything about whether the the degree to which that member falls above the average is out of whack. And, when you are talking about average income, which varies tremendously — often in direct proportion to the amount of training and education required for the job (see above) — this is particularly true.

The teachers were not performing. Sorry, but that’s part of the mandate. If I had such dismal results in my job, I would be fired.

Where is there any demonstration of poor job performance? Hint: There is none. There is nothing in any of the press reports demonstrating that the teachers were not performing their job duties. What you do have is a lot of children who aren’t doing well at school, which is not the same thing, but which is unsurprising in an economically blighted town.

News flash: Educational achievement is strongly correlated with the economic position of students’ families. You might have noticed that economically blighted communities have more than their share of social problems: drug dependency, crime, poor nutrition, poor sanitation. That these problems can adversely affect students’ performance does not seem to have occurred to you.

There is this myth that all you need in schools attended by children who are performing poorly is to hire cadres of superteachers and suddenly results will improve. No matter whether the students come from families where no support for their education is offered, where there is no literacy, or where there are fundamental problems (drug, alcohol abuse, etc.). The myth is ridiculous, and it has not been borne out by any research.

For instance, I’m an attorney. I take difficult cases, and I lose a lot of them, probably more than 50%. Does losing a lot of difficult-to-win cases mean that I have perfomred my job poorly? Or let’s take another example. Suppose that we say that we don’t consider a firefighter to havve performed his or her job adequately if a certain number of homes burn down despite his or her efforts — without regard to whether the homes were made of brick or matchsticks. In either case, it’s ridiculous to base an assessment of job performance solely on outcomes.

So the administration wanted the teachers to spend an additional hour a day in the school and provide tutoring. …

The teachers said they would do this only for more pay. Criminatz!!!

WTF? Please explain what is wrong with demanding more pay for more work and longer hours. And why firing the teachers is the way forward, rather than neogtiating a change to the existing contract, if punishing the union was not the motive.

Obama had NOTHING to do with the firings. This is the law of the land now, passed by his predecessor.

Non sequitur. The point of the post is that Obama injected himself into the controversy by lauding the firings. In so doing, he is also applauding a school district for taking the most punitive option provided in NCLB, even though he campaigned on the idea that NCLB was too fucsed on standardized test scores and too punitive.

There’re a lot of good teachers out of work that would be happy to have the positions in this school for less than 72K a year and will be able to bring new methods.

Yeah, right. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to work in the poorest school district in Rhode Island under a trigger-happy management. I’ll bet bright young superteachers will be breaking down the doors to try for those jobs!

More class war waged by our facist leaders comprised of the wedding of corporations and elected offals.

Damn I can’t wait for 2012 so I can vote against this asshole.

What an asshole. There was NO reason for him to say ANYTHING. He could’ve (and should’ve) just stayed silent, and if asked, just say it’s a local issue. The fact he decided instead to comment, and comment in support of firing ALL of them (I don’t care how bad that school performed in test scores, there’s NO WAY ALL those teachers were bad, no fucking way) shows his true colors once again.

This guy is a Republican. A right wing Republican in fact.

Just how successful was Duncan’s mother? Or the tutoring program as a whole? Do you have data?

The teaching of children does not succeed by threats and abuse. of child or teacher.

Duncan learned some bad lessons.

I wanted to correct you,Jaango.
The tax credit in AZ is for PRIVATE SCHOOLS. Charter schools are public schools with public funding. The best scams charter schools use are finding ways they can discourage the most challenging students from enrolling. The Tax credit for private schools was sold as a way for poor kids to go to private school. Instead, groups of wealthier families (and friends) support each others kids’ tuitions, at the expense of all our students.

Competent teachers CANNOT make up or overcome the inherent disparity in social inequalities of the inner cities.

End of story.

Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee (Wash. DC) are hacks. I guess Obama aligns himself with them directly, or indirectly, because he doesn’t know
anything about education. I don’t know of any state in the nation that makes it impossible to fire incompetent teachers. Administrators just have to play by the rules, and in a relatively short time, they can be rid of incompetents. “Tenure” means “due process” will be followed.
There are no incompetent teachers where there are competent administrators.

Disneyland and Walmart will come to the rescue and teach all of these kids at no cost to the taxpayer! Just watch!

It has EVERYTHING to do with the disparity of social inequality in the inner cities. It’s a class war. End of story.

Bring back the Wobblies!!!

And bless U. Utah Phillips, his voice is SORELY missed.

There will be no stability my FDL Friend until the marriage between corporations and our elected offals is broken, and the electeds begin once again to truly represent the voters.

Until then, it’s downhill, and the entire system and national structure is doomed to collapse upon itself, sooner or later. This empire is going down, faster than Rome. Well, granted, everything happens faster in these times, than it did thru out history. That’s the nature of evolution, be it species or technology, everything happens faster.

There is nothing in this story that indicates the Trustees were intiating class war upon the under priviledged. In fact, the details of this particular story suggest just the opposite.

We share a sense of the grim reality.

Thinking hypothetically, it could be that the people will turn to a tyrant or a coterie of tyrants who, as all tyrants do, rely on oppression through terror. So far our government is visiting terror mostly on those outside the borders. This kind of thing with the teachers suggests the focus is turning inward.

But if you fire all the teachers, you aren’t getting rid of bad teachers and rewarding good. You can’t tell me every single teacher, administrator, counselor and psychologist in that whole schools was incompetent. When you get rid of the good with the bad, it’s counterproductive. Everyone knows that NCLB has not worked, yet it, too, requires schools be turned over to other entities wholesale if the numbers don’t add up and spends a ton of money on tests that mean little in order to make those decisions. If they were serious about helping education, they’d repeal that nightmare and let that money be spent on actually educating children, not enriching the people who make up testing systems.

I few days ago the stockholders of Goldman-Sachs voted to reduce bonuses and increase dividend payout. The Goldman-Sachs board of directors said “No”.

I suspect the stockholders will have to vote, and may vote, to replace the board and possibly even the top execs at the company.

So, you ask who has been fired and here is one very big possibility.

No, it wasn’t Obama firing anyone, but then he didn’t own G-S and he didn’t fire the teachers either.

Remember too, saving the car companies was largely about saving jobs and though it wasn’t ‘sold’ this way, saving the banks saved a lot of jobs too.

Incidentally, since they’ve wiped out the school it seems they’ll be needing some new teachers to put in there. If they do then won’t the net effect be jobs gained less jobs gained => 0 ?????

saving the banks saved a lot of jobs too

Only if you believe that putting billions if not trillions into a small number of banks would lead to an improved outcome over prosecuting fraud and making a place for healthy, honest banks to flourish. There are plenty of articles that show otherwise but this one on why the solution isn’t working was up today on Naked Capitalism. Unlike some of the right leaning explanations, this one references people like Baker and Black. So, no, the bank bailouts are not universally accepted as having saved jobs.

Can we Primary Obummer??? This cretin is a fraud and for anyone to even suggest re-electing him is the sign of a masochist.

Has anyone noticed he smirks at us just like Baby Bush. God I get so PO’ed at that smirk. I just want to ring his neck and whipe that smirk off his face.

University of California Regent Fund has $8 billion in cash, just cash on hand, and they raised tuition by over 30%.

link?

retAZED@209

I stand corrected. Thank you!

My youngest is a sophmore at Carl Hayden.

Jaango

I cannot open the minds of arrogant adults who are unwilling to learn

Then think outside of the box, listen to them express their needs and help them fulfill their needs. Even if their fulfillment is to leave teaching or to move to another school or to become an administrator or to change grades or subjects or whatever they need.

Then, in a new situation, they will learn as anybody does, by experience.

With each passing day, I see the window shrinking for avoiding violent bloody revolution.

We get more polarized every day.

Idiots do things like fire entire school boards instead of weeding out a few bad teachers, and our scumbag President praises them.

An excellent public school system has been systematically dismantled for 30 years to be replaced by charter schools with curriculum agendas that include rewriting history.

Corporations that treat their employees like garbage are taking over everything and destroying our lives.

The right wing is determined to destroy everyone who disagrees with its agenda and Obama is OK with that because he also hates the left.

Here’s my message to the right: Keep it up and you will leave us no choice. We will defend ourselves until the right ceases to exist.

Many years ago I went to a teacher’s convention in CA.. The hardworking teachers in the poorer areas of their city felt like they acquired little support from the District in tutoring and giving extra help to students.. but they watched younger teachers get recruited to Beverly Hills and other snazzy areas, garnering 6 figure salaries. Now imagine the older dedicated teachers getting fired because Obama/and Ed. Secretary decide they are not pulling their weight in helping impoverished kids.. That’s exactly what many of the teachers in Rhode Island must be sensing.

bloody revolution my ass.

Obama is using his divide and conquer strategy. Get the parents worked up against the teachers. It’s disgusting.

Good luck to us all.

Forgot to mention this teachers convention took place right as NO Child Left Behind was implemented.. so these hardworking, dedicated, older instructors in impoverished areas were doubly pissed, that they got no real support,had to teach to the test, and watched their young colleagues breeze off to fancy districts with fat offers.

Where’s that Reverend from Chicago who Obama threw under a bus. I bet the guy is muttering “I told you so…” He probably knew Obama’s M.O.from day one.

bloody revolution my ass.

You’re blind if you don’t see it coming and you better start planning for it.

I find his automatic pilot flashing smile more nauseating.

“they will learn as anybody does, by experience.”

Who are you talking about? Idiots who think the average 1900s person was doing just as badly debt wise as today?

I understand that it is unfortunate part of human nature that things taught to kids – while their faculty to critically analyze the info- will continue to believe it and hold it as true – despite all evidence to the contrary. The myth of Robber Barons has been thoroughly demolished in economic literature, which takes facts and evidence from the past to establish their findings. But on here, adult progressives still believe it! Which goes to show that the less leniency shown to public school teachers, the better off society will be. Kick them ALL out. Even the good ones – they will make it. The rest need to flip burgers.

Salon.com article on Grijalva–not supporting Obama remake, but don’t hold your breath.
http://www.salon.com/news/healthcare_reform/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/03/03/grijalva

I don’t know if it’ll be bloody, but I do think it’s coming in some shape or other within the next 10-15 years. Seriously.

I don’t know much about the particulars of this Rhode Island mass firing. But two things strike me.
1) this will put more fear into teachers in all poorly performing schools & make them likely to “teach to the test” even more than they already do.
2) What about the schools feeding students into this high school? I have read many times that US students’ math & science performance falls most significantly with the transition years in middle school. They often score quite well in elementary school? How were these kids performing in middle school?

Although it may be convenient to blame Emanuel for just about everything that is wrong with this administration, it was Obama who made the decision to appoint Arne Duncan to the post of Secretary of Education.

The record in Chicago under Duncan is even more frightening than turning over public education to corporate hands. The city now has unenviable record of having the highest number of its high schools being run by branches of the military in the nation. All of the schools are located in poor neighborhoods where options for full-time employment upon leaving high school are negligible now that Illinois has been effectively de-industrialized and a career in the military may be seen as the only way to make a living.

Duncan has long been an advocate for privatizing a common good. From a 2009 article on Duncan at Common Dreams:

At a May 2008 symposium hosted by the Renaissance Schools Fund, the nonprofit financial arm of Renaissance 2010, entitled Free to Choose, Free to Succeed: The New Market of Public Education, Duncan typically compared his job running a school district to that of a stock portfolio manager. As he explained, I am not a manager of 600 schools. I’m a portfolio manager of 600 schools and I am trying to improve the portfolio. He would later add, We are trying to blur the lines between the public and the private.

The same article points out that (w)hen measured on a national scale, the record in Chicago looks a lot less impressive. In comparison to other major urban school districts (including Los Angeles, Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C.) in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or The Nation’s Report Card, Chicago fourth and eighth graders ranked, with only one exception, in the bottom half of all districts in math, reading, and science in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Also, that the Chicago Public Schools failed to make adequate yearly progress as mandated by NCLB.

Nothing angers or frightens me so much as the plan to privatize and militarize our schools.

So it sounds like you’re saying poor people deserve poorly paid teachers, who can be fired en masse regardless of their individual job performance. No doubt the best teachers will be flocking to jobs at those schools. And I’m sure the children feel great about attending a school where all their teachers can be disappeared from one day to the next. Way to build a learning community.

while you console yourslef that “it could have been palin” please also remind yourself that it could have been KUCINICH…

really, teachers lost their jobs because they refused to take on even MORE work and obama praises it?? glad I didn’t vote for him…join the green party!

Good one Obama. You look more like Cornelius Fudge or W every day.

So what – are they too small to succeed, or too poor to succeed.

Has Obama started the union busting yet?

undrgndgirl,
You must not get it, Obama is playing 13th demensional chess. His plan is to fire all the teachers, bust the unions and introduce a republican type education bill, so that he can pretend to be bipartisan. Then when he doesn’t get any republican votes he can say he tried and introduce a really progressive education bill (See Healthcare bill).

I am really suprised you don’t see the genius in his strategy.

Bingo! How can a high school be singled out as “failing” without attention being paid to whether the students entering it were prepared to do high school work? Could those kids read and do arithmetic at grade level when they were in 3rd grade? in 5th grade? in 8th grade? If not, take a look at the schools that “failed” them then.

My daughter majored in biology in college but took a course in education to satisfy her curiosity. As a practicum for that course, she went into a grade school in a nearby town with a demographic profile very similar to Central Falls’ to work with fourth graders who hadn’t learned to read. How did they get to be in 4th grade? How much further were they promoted after that?!

Rahm is the symptom, not the cause.

The entire system of public education is designed for both students and teachers to fail

After all, the proles only have to say “Do you want fries with that?” and give back the money the computer says to.

The right wing is determined to destroy everyone who disagrees with its agenda and Obama is OK with that because he also hates the left.

is part of it.