CAT Tracks for September 2, 2010 COMPENSATION GAP

Ever so often, I am speechless...

I read the first two paragraphs of the editorial below, felt anger, felt the urge to rant, but it's just not going to happen today.

After spending the past few years tilting at the windmills occupied by ignorant U.S. Presidents and lesser politicians, a national teacher-bashing fueled and fanned by the media, lapped up by a teacher-hating public...that began when George W. Bush (he who could not speak proper English) led the nation to war against Afghanistan, Iraq, and the "Achievement Gap", well...I'm spent.

George W. Bush...blaming teachers, labeling teachers as racists, citing the soft bigotry" of low expectations, well...the assault has taken its toll.

Barack H. Obama hijacking the blame train as his own, installing Arne Never-Taught-A-Day-In-His-Life Duncan as the nation's United States Secretary of Education...bribing states and school districts during the hardest economic times since the Great Depression to impose unproven educational policies on millions of children and their would-be teachers, causing disruption and harm that will stunt the academic growth of both rich and poor...and all those in between. Well, I am numb...beaten down, unable to summon even a faint voice of reason to stem the tide of national insanity.

And the latest unproven gimmick inflicted upon professional educators through the aforementioned federal bribery scheme (aka Race to the Top)..."Value-Added Modeling" (aka VAM). This "voodoo assessment" will supposedly ferret out the bad teachers who are allegedly failing today's spoiled-rotten youth who spend their time in and out of school texting, sexting, and otherwise ignoring their teachers...while their enabling parents take up the chant provided by the eager-to-be-re-elected politicians..."Fire the teachers, fire the teachers, fire the teachers!"

The mob rules...

And VAM is the weapon of choice. It will supposedly cut through all the subtleties, all the impossibilities, of measuring the immeasurable...the impact of a teacher in the classroom...the impact of the "extenuating circumstances" outside the classroom. And, throwing raw meat to the frenzied mob...media facilitators like the Los Angeles Times publish "data" to expose the miscreant teachers...to brand them with a scarlet letter or three. (I'm figuring the old "A" for adultery doesn't really work and should be updated with an "ABC" for Reading/English teachers, a "123" for math teachers, or an all-inclusive "3 R's" to cover all y'all...including the custodian who "had to go" because student test scores were bad this year.)

Expert researchers (including those employed by the United States Department of Education) warn of the pitfalls of VAM...and other means of measure. Experts warn that there are outside variables that have great impact on what a teacher - the good, the bad, or the ugly - can accomplish inside the hallowed halls...things like poverty, family structure (or lack thereof), drug use, addiction to all things electronic...whatever.

But...damn the experts, full speed ahead.

Bears repeating...

"Fire the teachers, fire the teachers, fire the teachers!"

And with the dust swirling but failing to obscure the pliable peasants with their torches and pitchforks assembled at the school house doors...comes the editorial below.

What might be termed the "Compensation Gap"...the difference between what CEOs (aka the Boss) of businesses make compared to their lowly employees (aka the worker bees.)

I mean...if there is one major instigator behind the attacks on public education and public education employees, it is "Big Business". I mean...business CEOs like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and the Waltons have been the major torch bearers...providing leadership and one-liners for their lesser minions, the billionaires leading the millionaires, supported by Chambers of Commerce from sea to shining sea.

These CEOs routinely dismiss complaints by teachers that it is difficult if not impossible to "measure" what they do in the classroom as nothing more than "excuses for failure". CEOs say that the proof is in the data...bad test scores, bad teacher...extenuating circumstances be damned. Do the math!!!

And, then, along come some mathematicians...determined to look at the compensation of those who occupy the business world rather than the education world. These mathematicians simply want to examine numbers that already exist..."hard data" provided by the company to its stockholders and the IRS...not some nebulous concoction developed by some "education guru" determined to facilitate teacher-bashing...readily available numbers.

Well, on second thought, that might not be true...since the CEOs will do their best to hide the numbers! They don't want the working stiff to know how much the boss makes. (Oh, should the workers go on strike for higher wages, the CEOs will readily broadcast the workers' salaries, inflating same with any benefits that they can belatedly drum up.)

But...

Their own pay? TOP SECRET! And...THEIR benefits? Don't even think about it!!! (Hey...It's lonely at the top...one needs her/his creature comforts.)

Business folks think it's just fine to determine a teacher's worth...think it's easy to measure "performance"...based upon their students' test scores (test scores that have no consequence for the students.) As far as CEOs are concerned, it's just like churning out products on an assembly line.

But...

To take the pay and benefits of CEOs - things that are (legally required to be reported on company documents) and compare them to the pay and benefits of employees (which WILL be reported on company documents)...and compare the two...and report the "compensation gap"???

Oh, HELL NO! say the CEOs. Well, make that the lawyers hired by the CEOs.

I mean...CEOs don't have time to do the math. They are too busy bashing teachers who make less than the CEO paid his chauffeur last year.

But...

The rant just wouldn't come. (Yes...a tune from my youth, by one of my favorite groups - "Three CAT Night" - arose from the depths of my soul...to soothe my feeble brain. The words fail me now, something along the lines of "Oooh, I may be weary, old CATs they do get weary, hearing that same old funky mess...")

Maybe it's because even the New York Times seemed outraged at the absurdity of it all. I'm used to be the devil's advocate. (WHOA...where did THAT come from???!!! Let me clarify... I'm used to taking the "opposite view"...opposite of what the devils out there try to pass off as "the truth". Forget the devils... I definitely consider myself on the side of the angels!!! Whew...)

Even the New York Times' editorial was short. Guess they were speechless too!

So...

Sleepless and rantless in Cairo...

Enjoy a brief moment in which CEOs take center stage...and squirm in the spotlight...offering lame excuses...as they cry "UNFAIR!"

And...

As you read the editorial, maybe you will hear the sound of a rising chant building in the background...

"Expose the CEOs, expose the CEOs, expose the CEOs..."