Public school teachers have endured three years of sustained attacks, since Race to the Top unleashed the nutty idea that student scores on standardized tests are the key to teacher quality. This was ammunition to set off a sustained attack on teachers, especially those with experience, and on their unions, which defend them. Yesterday, the anti-teacher juggernaut came to a screeching halt in Minnesota. Governor Dayton vetoed legislation to strip teachers of any job protections. http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/150109845.html
The usual far-right forces mobilized with their deceptive message about wanting “great teachers.” They never explain how a state or district attracts great teachers by demonizing the ones they have now. Michelle Rhee’s Students First, a spin-off of ConnCAN called MinnCAN, the Republican party, and the Chamber of Commerce lobbied hard to remove teachers’ rights to due process. This is supposedly how you put “students first,” by making sure that their teachers live in fear of being fired after years of good service. Proposals of this sort are an intelligence test (or maybe just a test of the power of reactionary forces and adept lobbying): Do you really believe that students will learn more if their teachers have no right to due process? No one has ever explained the logic behind these absurd claims.
Governor Dayton showed what political intelligence and courage look like in a lean and mean season.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please let this be the beginning of logical reasoning again.
Yes, also the beginning of a return to decency in public discourse, and a revival of respect for teachers, and an end to expensive lobbying against public education by groups who have no genuine interest in improving education.
Diane, you might have mentioned the LATines is being boycotted by the LATU teachers and the Rigoberto Ruleas Jr. family since the suicide, they still need your support.
I will do that.
Diane, I don’t know if you’re aware of what is happening in CT right now. It’s disgusting! Excellent blog: jonathanpelto.com
YES! Thank you, Governor! Now can you please call ours here in Ohio? He needs a mentor. Badly.
And thank you Diane, for this story and all your stories. They at least make a difference in this teacher’s enthusiasm to keep giving it my all every day.
Henry C Hale, M.Ed. / NBCT
Worthington, Ohio
Diane,your blog is a vital lifeline for those of us living in Florida. After teaching for 23 years honorably with 2 teacher of the year awards to my name, I have to be afraid of getting a poor evaluation because my students are English Language Learners. A large percentage of my students are new refugees who escaped horrific circumstances in Burma, Malaysia and Nepal and had no previous schooling opportunities. Their number one objective was staying alive. They are just learning to read and write and have no literacy skills to transfer to their new language. Yet, teachers have to fear that their low FCAT scores will result in poor professional evaluations. This is creating a new complication in the fight against xenophobia.
Thank you for your blog.