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CAT Tracks for October 13, 2010
HOUSE OF CARDS |
Smoke and mirrors...
Tip of the iceberg...
Whatever...
The "education reform" movement - which never was about REFORM - will not stand!
Real "reform" costs money...a helluva lot of money...that governments (state and federal) will never spend.
The Bush administration knew exactly what they were up to when they launched No Child Left Behind. They had a plan...a plan that Republicans had pushed for years without much success. The plan was to privatize public education, enabling them to skim off millions and billions in profits.
Silly, you say? Paranoid?
Remember when they tried to privatize Social Security...allegedly for the good of the working stiff? Let the lowly working man/woman "play the stock market"...like the rich and famous? Lucky that fell on deaf ears...
Speaking of Wall Street...and the deregulation of same. All the CEOs that made off with millions and billions...legally and illegally. That certainly went well...
Did I mention the banks...and their housing schemes that put so many into foreclosure and bankruptcy?
Don't even try to tell me that the rich and famous are "in it" to improve the quality of life for one and all. This ain't no feel-good movie with a happy ending. Ain't a "Musketeer" in the bunch, much less three...
It's all about the rich getting richer and the poor getting screwed!
Do you REALLY think that the rich and famous, living in their mansions, sending their kids to private schools REALLY care about what's happening in the ghettoes...losing sleep over all those brown and black and (poor) white children attending public school in decaying buildings...taught by public school teachers...good, bad, or ugly.
They don't give a rat's butt...
It's all about the money!
Yes, the Bush Administration had a plan...
Pile on the unfunded mandates, demonize public schools and public school teachers, set impossible goals and wait for the public to demand "reform"...offering the "charter school option". That's when the - well, can I use the term "scalawags"? - that's when the scalawags would step in to save the schools, relieving them of millions and billions of dollars in the process...all the while catering to their clientèle who wanted to escape from rubbing elbows with the brown and the black and the (poor) whites.
Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong!
Then came the sorry Democrats...
Obama, Duncan, et al.
No ba, ba, ba...uh, no backbone. Afraid - or incapable - of developing their own plan. Simply change the label from NCLB to RttT.
And, worst of all...
STOOOOOPID DEMOCRATS!!!
They ain't even in it for the money. Unlike the Bush Administration, Obama and Duncan decided to go on a spending spree...
During the second-worst period (so far) in American economic history - after the rich and famous looted the national treasury, aided and abetted by Republican deregulation - the Obama Administration pours money into a "money pit"...reforms that have been proven as failures.
And the sorriest and stooooopidest thing about it...the Obama Administration has nothing to gain and everything to lose.
I mean...if the "reforms" were to work, the Republicans would simply SCREAM "We told you so!!!" in the next election. And, who could argue...it WAS their plan!
But...
Since there is no chance of that - Superman ain't here, (s)he's not comin'...not in a million years - Obama will instead go down in history as a one-term failed president...as thousands upon thousands of public school teachers (and their relatives and friends) sit on their hands in 2012 instead of knocking on doors and making phone calls like they did in 2008.
DAMN...deep breath, Ron!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Okay, okay...I need to just stop. I've released enough of my "ire"...I think I can settle down now and resume my "Saturday reading".
Well, maybe a final word...
President Obama:
As you preach your gospel about public school teachers...how they all deserve to be fired!
Well, in my humble opinion, that goes for other "public servants" also.
What goes around, comes around...
CAT Tracks Editor's Note:
About the article...
...that triggered my outburst.
New York changed their "standardized test"...raising "expectations" for student achievement. Then...thousands upon thousands of students failed, making them eligible for the "special tutoring" required by NCLB. Instead of spending money, instead of hiring a "Superman" or two, they intend to change the rules and simply NOT provide the services.
Oh, that's right...
We already have a plan for raising achievement...
...sanctioned by no less than the President of the United States of America!
And, it's free!
Just fire the damn teachers!!!
Hell, it will even SAVE MONEY when we get rid of that "job for life" thing and hire a bunch of transients for half price, work them ragged for a year or two, let them go as "failures", and then buy a new bunch.
And...
Don't overlook the BONUS!!!
Those new hires won't dare join the teachers' union...not after we fire all the leaders as "failures" and refuse to hire any new teacher who joins the union. I mean...that in itself would show the "newbie" was DUMB, unworthy of a job, and should be fired. "You joined the union knowing we could (would) let you go at the end of the year without giving a reason? What were you thinking???"
What's that?
Do I hear the voice of Ronald Reagan in the distance?
"There you go again."
Oh...
I did say I was going to stop.
Hey...
Enjoy your reading!
I've got a book calling my name...
From the New York Times...
State Is Likely to Ease a Rule on Extra Help for Students
By SHARON OTTERMAN
The New York State Board of Regents is set to excuse school districts from a requirement to provide extra help to all students who fail the state’s standardized exams, a number that grew by hundreds of thousands after the state made the exams tougher to pass this year.
The vote by the board, which is scheduled for early next week, would cover more than 125,000 students in New York City alone. City officials, however, played down the issue, saying it would not change their requirement that schools come up with plans to address the needs of all their struggling students.
John King, the state’s deputy education commissioner, said Tuesday that the loosened restriction was intended to reduce the financial burden on districts at a time of shrinking budgets. It is also part of a move by Albany to give districts more flexibility in following a policy that, since 1999, has mandated academic intervention for children who fail the standardized tests.
When the tougher standard on math and English tests for third through eighth graders was announced this summer, Mr. King said, “districts around the state had already passed their budgets, and there was a question of whether the Regents were in the position to essentially impose a new, unfunded mandate.”
Students who would have failed their English or math exams even under the old, easier standard will still receive extra help, usually in the form of tutoring or counseling. The vote would relieve districts of the requirement to provide help to the large number of students who would have passed under the old standards but failed under the new. The relief would last a year.
Shael Polakow-Suransky, the city’s deputy chancellor for performance and accountability, said that while budget cuts meant there would be no extra money to pay for help for the struggling students, schools were expected to improve instruction and have more flexibility in their planning time. “I don’t think the Regents’ vote will have much impact one way or other,” he said.
But some city elected officials and advocates expressed concern that schools would use the leniency as an excuse not to provide help to children who need it.
“I don’t want to see school districts let off the hook here,” said Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate. “We had a seismic change, and so far, what we have seen is an attempt to minimize the meaning of it.”
Mr. de Blasio released new data from the city on Tuesday that gave a clearer picture of who exactly those children were. Of the 239,000 city students who failed the English test, 108,000 would have passed last year. Of the 196,000 city students who failed the math test, most, 125,000, would have passed under the easier standard. Surprisingly, the newly failing students were spread relatively evenly throughout the city’s 32 school districts, which vary widely in income and race. Between 20 and 30 percent of students in many districts were in the category.
Bob Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, said an informal survey of 14 rural and suburban districts found that about half planned to use the state’s flexibility to not offer academic intervention to students who would have passed in 2009.
“Most had said early on they were going to do whatever they could, so I’m surprised,” he said, adding that his association supported the move as a way to avoid more painful cuts, like teacher layoffs. There were also, he said, “significant doubts” in the state about the effectiveness of the mandated tutoring policy.
One group, the Coalition for Educational Justice, planned a rally in Brooklyn on Wednesday to ask the Regents to reconsider.
The exemption for the newly failing students for tutoring and intervention was passed on an emergency basis in July, and Mr. King indicated that he expected the Regents to approve it again next week. That sentiment was echoed by Merryl H. Tisch, the Regents chancellor.
“I just think that at the end of the day the focus on these districts to move their kids to meet the new bar is going to be significant and intense,” even without the mandate, Ms. Tisch said.
