What are the similarities between Mitt Romney and Rahm Emanuel? True, they have different party labels but their education policies are eerily alike. A writer in Chicago showed the contradictions in this brilliant and hilarious article.
Historians in the future (the future meaning maybe later this year or next, now that we live at warp speed and last week seems like 50 years ago) will puzzle out why President Obama decided to build his education program (Race to the Top) on the crumbling foundation of No Child Left Behind. They will also have to figure out why he decided to throw teachers and their unions (arguably his most ardent supporters in 2008) under the bus. And they will probably trace the trail to campaign contributions to Wall Street, which is likely to abandon him in 2012.
It’s not too late for him to change course. He could re-renergize his base. He could rekindle the love of teachers in a millisecond if he could stop the flawed ideas embedded in Race to the Top: that teachers should be judged by the test scores of their students, that federal programs created to help the poor should be turned into competitions, that public dollars should be handed over to private management as often as possible, that the federal government needs to create a data base for every student from cradle to grave, and that the best way to help students is to test them at the earliest possible age.
I get emails every day from teachers who say they are puzzled, they are angry, they are outraged by the Obama policies. They can’t vote for Romney, because he openly hates them and their unions.
Mr. President, if you or your staff read this, please take heed: Drop the Republican education policies. They haven’t worked for the past decade. They are ruining education and demoralizing teachers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane,
Thank you (again) for writing almost exactly what I have been thinking lately about the upcoming election. I certainly hope that someone from the Obama camp reads this post and takes it seriously. I was one of his most ardent supporters last time. Now I am resigned to the fact that I will most likely vote for him despite what his policies are doing to education since the alterantive is unthinkable. Sadly for me, it has come down to a choice between bad and worse in presidential candidates.
My sentiments exactly, along with 1000’s of teachers, especially in Chicago.
Diane,
Have you heard about the ‘master corp’ of teachers President Obama wants create with 1 BILLION$ in funding by offering these ‘masters’ 20K/year stipends to raise test scores?
Why doesn’t he listen to experts who know how to improve systems instead of
re-branding what will surely be a very, very expensive national merit pay system?
Why doesn’t he distance himself from the corporate style reform efforts?
Why is he doing things that have been proven over and over again to not work?
Can you send him a copy of your book?
Here is a link to the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/master-teacher-corps_n_1681599.html
The Obama administration has been promoting merit pay from the day it started despite clear evidence that it does not work
Obama and Duncan believe in competition and pay for scores. Evidence doesn’t beat ideology
Diane
He’s not changing. And so long as the NEA/AFT leadership and rank-and-file refuse to hold him accountable for his anti-teacher, anti-public education, pro-privatization policies, he’s not going to change. Why should he? They’ve already promised him their votes, they’ve already promised to help with the GOTV operation, they’ve already been won over by the “Lesser Of Two Evils” argument. There is no reason in the world why he should compromise on his corporatist values when the unions have given him everything he wants and needs from them. That’s why he treats unions and teachers with such disdain. He sees them as bootlickers. And he surely isn’t wrong about that.
One last thing – the DFER’s sure seem to like him:
http://www.dfer.org/list/issues/policy/
That tells you everything you need to know about where he goes in 2013-2016.
Diane,
Glad you’ve discovered Chicago’s best community affairs writer, Ben Joravsky. He’s been in the lead in countering Rahm’s assault on public education.
As always, your post hits the nail on the head. I was delighted when Mr. Obama was elected. I cried on election night when I considered the historical implications of that moment. In retrospect, I should have been crying for the fate of my profession. Where are our union leaders?
http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/
Jill Stein an alternative Presidential candidate to bad and worse choices???
http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/
Presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein.
Worth checking out as an alternative to the entrenched parties of the Wall Street funded two-party system?????
Obama is a neoliberal, that’s why. He isn’t really a Democrat at all but a right-wing Republican, hence his inexplicable support of right-wing policies like undermining public education. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has been financed by the same neoliberal and right-wing think tanks as Cory Booker.
It’s a wake-up call to anybody who cares about the future of this country that NEITHER political party cares about education or the future of children.
Yes, Obama is a neoliberal and that is why teachers should not vote for him. Dr. Jill Stein sounds like a fine alternative.
It is difficult to shed political party loyalties regardless of where one’s historical loyalty resides, but based on objective historical record it should be becoming obvious that the two major national political parties differ only in style. It is past time that educators, observers, and researchers put aside pinning hopes on who may sit in the White House to salvage what is left of schools. ESEA and federal funding for schools, regional centers, etc., etc. needs to be repealed. Federal data banks with statistics from assessment testing need to be defunded and discarded. Congress should investigate
foundations’ influence to grease the skids for public/private partnerships to take over schools by stealth with the inherent threat to do the same for other institutions with elected representation. Once schools are gobbled up, what is to stop the same march to destroy elected representation for cities, counties, states???
I am so sad and worried about the election. Sometimes I think about staying away from the polls in November and I want to cry. I know how important it is to exercise that right and I am always encouraging young people to register to vote. I remind them of the suffering others have endured in the not too distant past to provide us with a chance to have our voice heard at the polls. What a thrill it was for me on my 18th birthday to register to vote!!!! But I have never been so anxious about an upcoming election. Neither candidate is listening. What can be done? Do we just sit back and take it?
http://www.ontheissues.org/2012/Jill_Stein_Education.htm
Jill Stein on Education
NCLB was also sponsored by Kennedy who was Obama’s mentor. It wasn’t just a Bush administration “thing” nor do the Republicans solely “own” it. Obama never lied about what his educational policies were and it was obvious from the start. The campaign seemed more geared toward infatuating people and people were infatuated. He also had Duncan and his friends in Chicago who were deeply in the throes of educational reform for everyone to see. Hillary Clinton was the person who stated outright that NCLB needed to be gotten rid of but prejudice against a woman was stronger than a black man taking the presidency. If people feel lied to, they shouldn’t, they were’t looking and had no desire to look. It was out there. I still see people who want to believe that they can reason with Obama or don’t believe he is responsible for his educational policies. He is and it won’t go away until voters demand he change it. I’m not exactly sure how but I am hoping that people will get stronger and more forceful in their demands. It is important to take the money away from the elections. If he wins and corporate America has less to do with it, maybe there is a change for some change.