A reader asks: did Deval Patrick sell out?
I feel ashamed for Deval. I am one of his many, many progressive supporters, and we’re all baffled by how he got into this situation. I worked harder for his election than I did even for Obama, and I never doubted his integrity or strength.
Through all the vicious attacks on him during that first campaign, he stayed steady and clear. Remember the white-woman-in-dark-parking-lot ad? I left work every day and went straight to unlock the little campaign office in my own town, as more and more volunteers came forward and signed on. It got very ugly; there were smear attacks on his family members. Even in Massachusetts, after Romney and Celluci, he seemed like a long shot. But Deval brought out the best in my community, and turned it blue again.
On the morning after the election, I came in to my classroom and told my diverse and hopeful students, “The American Dream is For You.” They cheered. A couple of them even cried. Remember, this was before Obama ever ran for president.
Later, after I had chaired a citizens online task force on ethics and lobbying reform, I sat next to him at our summary report meeting so he could answer our recommendations (for the cameras) by saying he’d veto the state budget if the legislators didn’t send him his groundbreaking (we thought at the time) ethics and lobbying reform with it.
After the meeting, I confronted him with his failure to get the state version of the Dream Act implemented (he’d actually tried the executive order route, but had to withdraw it). I told him about my students, and he really did tear up. His determination and frustration were real.
State Speaker DiMasi had been indicted for kickbacks on state contracts for the insurance and education data warehouses. He was convicted, but the investigation went no further. Edubuisiness had a lock on the state DOE, until Deval stood up to the Boston Globe and appointed a progressive PTA leader (Ruth Kaplan) to the board.
Then, when he ran for re-election, Deval let K12 and other for-profit education companies run a fundraiser for him at the Children’s Museum. K12 now has a thriving online charter business operating out of Greenfield, and Deval is supporting Mosaica Boston’s forced takover-turnarounds of Boston Public Schools. A memo leaked from his Secretary of Education once argued they had to bow to an illegal charter school placement, against the will of the community, or the Globe would attack them.
I swear I don’t understand how he could sell out public education for their measly political support. Like Obama, he got his chance by being admitted to a luxurious prep academy, so maybe he just can’t untangle his own conflicts about private schools, and it clouds his understanding. I know he isn’t a coward. I know he has a fine mind, and I still believe his life is dedicated to the same mission as my own. I just can’t believe his is a calculated betrayal of the public trust we placed in him, in the face of this dangerous hour for the future of democratic governance.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yesterday the Jersey Jazzman posted a wonderful blog on he good guys get caught up. http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-progressive-education-narrative.html
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During Governor Patrick’s reelection campaign, the teachers’ unions worked very hard to support him, especially since the Republican candidate made no bones about his intentions with teachers. But one of his first acts in second term was to work on gutting our collective bargaining rights. We were so disappointed, and worse, felt we had been deliberately betrayed.
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When your focus is on yourself and not a quality education for the children, do you expect parents to rally behind you and support you?
When you begin to focus on academic excellence in the schools, parents will support you.
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I know it’s an old saw, but teacher working conditions ARE student learning conditions, and vice versa. Focusing on myself (in the professional sense) means focusing on how I can do my job better.
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Parents do support me, in educating my students with dedication and focus. My community, in return, cherishes me, and doesn’t want to see me without access to medical care after a lifetime of service. They don’t want to see teachers like me churned to make way for online hoaxes, or to free up taxpayer funding for religious sects to harvest.
Your formulation that teachers may not try to care for ourselves at all
would just be sick, and “elections” and “politicians” constitute the thing we call “democracy”.
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Look, I’m trying to give you feedback from a “mom”‘s perspective. If you want to bring more parents to your defense, you can either take the advice or leave it.
When parents are out here, seeing the failures in public ed and watching the unions focus on politics and pensions, we miss the focus on academic excellence.
The messaging IS important.
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Hi, MOM,
My focus is on my students. That means that I put in about thirty hours a week to prepping and correcting, beyond my school day. It also means that I stay current with my profession and its concerns, because that’s what’s going to inform how I set out to improve myself in the classroom. So I read the literature about pedagogy, I stay active in my local (but not the district where I work) politics, I write to my civic leaders, and tell them what’s going on in the profession so that they know at least one of their constituents is concerned with truly teaching children. I keep my colleagues up to date with the research I read, and we engage each other in an ongoing discussion about how to reach students, not how to raise their test scores. And most parents do support me. So what’s wrong with feeling betrayed when, after I’ve done all that, and I helped a politician who portrayed himself as a friend to teachers, he turned around and set out to dismantle my job security and make it harder for me to continue what I’ve done? As much as I love my students, am I not able to also look out for my colleagues, my family, and myself?
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So you (and, you seem to imply, other parents) will ONLY support teachers if we become monks? I am really tired of the “superman” philosophy out there. Teachers need to be able to stop worrying about putting food on the table, or about losing their jobs in order to balance a budget that pays six figure salaries to the higher-ups. I have seen teachers win these wonderful teaching awards, and when you read the fine print, they’ve lost their marriages and families. Society should not expect that of our teaching corps.
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Welcome to the real world. This is what many of us deal with everyday. Most people living in this economy have no job security, guaranteed benefits or pensions. Some are lucky to have jobs at all.
I do understand that one of your concerns is with your salary, benefits and pension. But no matter how much you earn, that doesn’t equal a quality education for students.
Parents want to support teachers because they are the ones who are taking the responsibility to educate their children. Their focus is on academics, not on your take home pay.
I do think parents want the teachers to earn a fair wage and have good working conditions. But their main focus will always be their children. It’s the mission of the school, to educate the children.
If the focus from teachers and the unions is FIRST a quality education, I think that message would be better received.
However the messaging from the union leadership always seems to be about the teacher’s compensation package. In addition to that, we see the political posturing by union heads with almost NO focus on the problems in the classroom.
Parents want to LOVE the teacher in that classroom. They want to be their biggest cheerleader. BUT they need to know that those students are also THEIR priority.
I think individually, that may be the case for most teachers, but that is NOT the message the union leadership gives.
IF they allow themselves to become political pawns in order to focus on salary packages, parents look around and wonder where their child fiits into that equation.
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Frankly, I am offended by your insinuation that teachers only focus on themselves and not on the students. Of COURSE I focus on the students. I spend untold, unpaid hours planning and grading lessons, reading essays, contacting parents, tutoring students, attending debate tournaments and other things to help students. So does every other teacher I know. I love what I do, and I would never want to do anything else. I have 225 students in history and geography right now.
But, despite desperate planning, I will probably never be able to send my own children to college. I don’t have enough money to save enough for their college funds. That’s what this emphasis on “stack ’em deep and teach ’em cheap” has gotten us. I can dream for other people’s children, but not my own.
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MwA,
Allow me to put this in a socially acceptable fashion. Your statements about teachers caring more about themselves than their students is patently false. It is excrement of a bovine origin. You really are ignorant (in the true meaning of the word) about public school teachers and what goes on in our public schools. Reich, oops, I mean right wing xtian talking points just don’t cut it.
Duane
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Duane, your intolerance for those who think differently and wish to add differing opinions to a thoughtful conversation speaks volumes. If you wish to not engage in a challenging discussion that offers a different perspective, that is your choice. However I’d expect a more tolerant and respectful response.
I do not appreciate this outright attack on teachers in this country. I’m watching good teachers become frustrated, angry and even looking for employment outside their current public school.
I’m also seeing parents who are equally frustrated by the poor quality of education their children are receiving.
Unlike the average dope walking around having NO idea that the core problem in education does NOT come from the individual teachers, I’ve done the research and see some of the root causes. I do realize that right now, the teacher IS the target. The scapegoat in a system that I see, sets them up for failure.
Instead of listening to other perspectives to find better ways to help teachers, I’m afraid your intolerance for those with other opinions will prevent you from looking at all of this with an open mind. That’s unfortunate.
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Your representation is the union leadership. That is who speaks for teachers. My comments are directed to those who represent teachers. I thought that was clear.
I would also suggest to individual teachers that the message be more about the quality of education than their own personal interest when it comes to fighting this battle.
You are free to take any position you like, but your marketing right now frankly SUCKS. If you can’t see that, then you are bound to fail in any efforts you put forth.
If you are going to get defensive due to honest feedback on what the public perceives right now, then you are missing an opportunity to change the public perception.
For God’s sake, you have a HOLLYWOOD movie out there that’s getting parents fired up against what is going on in public ed.
YES I fully understand the commitment teachers make, as a whole, and their dedication to the students. I get it which is why I haven’t given up on teachers and understand exactly where the problems lie.
BUT your average person who sees kids failing miserably in the “system” will see the movies, they’ll hear the leadership only talk about how they hate Romney and LOVE Obama then focus on your pension.
IF you think you can win public opinion that way, have at it.
When the ship sinks, remember…I told you so!
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I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. You THINK a bureaucrat is going to “fix” education?? How many more DECADES do we have to go through reform after reform after reform.
They care about their RE-ELECTION!!!!! They care about their political careers and I’ve seen the most principled politician sell out for…..their re-election bid.
When you put MORE faith in Governors, Presidents and bureaucrats RATHER than teachers, students and parents, you’ve jumped in bed with the enemy.
When will you guys realize this?
Stop feeding the monster that is out there to destroy you. Stop giving them MORe power.
Put the power back in the hands of your local community, parents and schools.
It may not be perfect, but at least you have a fighting chance.
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I believe many of us are on to the fact that “..government of the people, by the people, and for the people..” is being lost. Nowhere is it more apparent than in education.. Big ed reforms are being railroaded through by so-called education philanthropies, dictating policy for our schools, to serve corporate interests for both profit and control of our populace. Elected officials are the enablers. Teachers, students and parents, exploited pawns. I mourn the fate of America.
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Perhaps Patrick (like Obama, Duncan, and other generally liberal politicians) have little/no personal experience regarding life in low-SES-area schools, particularly inner-city schools.
They (like myself) probably grew up in the suburbs (or attended private schools) and their children (like my children) attend suburban or private schools. If the suburban/private school experience is one’s frame of reference for school reform, it’s reasonable to believe that a (perhaps the) major problem in the school is poorly-performing teachers. Or, that school bureaucracy/regulations are a major problem so that eliminating the bureacracy/regulations via charters will improve the schools. In my suburban high school (and in my children’s suburban high school), these were probably the biggest problems. Of course, they were not important problems — the schools performed extremely well, the students had high test scores, and pretty much everyone graduated/went to college. The weak-teacher and bureaucracy/regulations problems were minor issues with little adverse impact that required, at most, minor tweaking.
Of course, life in the low-SES-area inner-city schools is nothing like life in the suburban/private schools. Student behavior (chronic absenteeism and minor but endemic classroom misconduct) constantly disrupts instruction. Many students are reading far below grade level, making coherent academic instruction virtuall impossible. Many students have significant health problems and/or are often hungry. Discharging teachers and eliminating bureaucracy/regulations will not address these problems; it will probably make them worse,
But, if the politicians are thinking about life in their (or their children’s) suburban/private schools, then the corporate school reforms make sense.
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This post about Deval Patrick is so interesting, as is the Jersey Jazzman post about needing a narrative. I think, though, that the narrative shouldn’t be a story about why the reformers are wrong and misguided (which they are) but about what concrete things we as communities (teachers, parents, administrators, ctizens) can do for our schools that are so much more effective and that result in serving ALL students.
I’m not a teacher. I’m a mother. I believe that we MUST save our schools. I have kids in school, and I cannot wait for this whole debate to play out over the next decade. My kids are in school now, as are millions of others. I KNOW that poverty is the biggest problem we have, but I cannot wait while everyone debates that and disagrees about it. Solving poverty is the perfect solution, but what can we do to find the good solution now? We cannot ignore poverty like the reformers say we can. We can do our best to compensate for it in schools. We know some things work. Longer school days. Summer remediation programs. More social workers and counselors on site. Teachers, help me out here! We should be listing the things that work and providing examples.
I don’t live in a poor area. I live in an area that is economically diverse. My children’s elementary school has a very low percentage of children on free and reduced lunch (under 10%), but the middle school has about 50%. Many students there are also working below grade level and are developing their English skills. I embrace the diversity and the opportunity for my daughter to go to school there. I do not embrace the effects of Race to the Top, school “grading” by the state, end all and be all standardized tests, teacher evaluation based on comparison and competition, and a relentless focus in everything on how much the bottom 25% of students improves. The inevitable result is that the fantastic teachers at this school, who have giant classes, simply cannot continue to focus on those not in the bottom 25%. Those families then leave. This cycle is destroying our schools.
We cannot persuade by anecdote or anger. We can persuade by spelling this out and providing concrete solutions that can be implemented now by the amazing teachers we have in our public schools (and I mean truly public schools, not Trojan horse charter schools). Oh how I wish we could solve the poverty problem today, but we won’t, and we need to deal with it in schools in the meantime. We need a plan, not a reaction.
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