Based on your many comments, I have drafted the following letter to President Obama. Please tell me if you have any changes or corrections. Once the letter is edited, I will post it again, and whoever wishes to do so will send it on October 17, two weeks from today.
The letter is called:
Teachers’ Letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
We assume you know that there are many thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of teachers, who are disappointed in your education policies.
We assume you know that some will vote for you reluctantly, some will vote for a third party candidate, and some will not vote at all. Our votes will make a difference.
Given the choice between you and Mitt Romney, who seems to view public education with contempt, we want to help you win back the hearts and minds of teachers.
Here are ways to do that.
Please, Mr. President, stop talking about rewarding and punishing teachers. Teachers are professionals, not toddlers. Teachers don’t work harder for bonuses; we are working our best now. Waving a prize in front of us will not make us work harder or better. We became teachers because we want to teach, not because we expected to win a prize for producing higher scores.
Please stop encouraging the privatization of public education. Many studies demonstrate that charters don’t get better results than public schools unless they exclude low-performing children. Public schools educate all children. The proliferation of charter schools will lead to a dual system in many of our big-city districts. Charters are tearing communities apart. Please support public education.
Please speak out against the spread of for-profit schools. These for-profit schools steal precious tax dollars to pay off investors. Those resources belong in the classroom. The for-profit virtual schools get uniformly bad reviews from everyone but Wall Street.
Please withdraw your support from the failed effort to evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students. The American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education issued a joint paper saying that such methods are inaccurate and unstable. Teachers get high ratings if they teach the easiest students, and low ratings if they teach the most challenging students.
Please stop closing schools and firing staffs because of low scores. Low scores are a reflection of high poverty, not an indicator of bad schools or bad teachers. Insist that schools enrolling large numbers of poor and minority students get the resources they need to succeed.
Please, President Obama, recognize that your policies are demoralizing teachers. Many are leaving the profession. Young people are deciding not to become teachers. Your policies are ruining a noble profession.
President Obama, we want to support you on November 6.
Please give us reason to believe in you again.
I am a teacher.
/signed,
Diane:
I completely agree on all points in your letter to President Obama, well done. I was in attendance representing my district during your presentation in Austin last weekend. I admire your work, thank you for leading the charge and infusing all of us with inspiration to continue to fight for quality in public education and supporting the teaching profession.
Ed Castillo
Stafford Municipal School District School Board
The president has no power to close schools or fire teachers. Education is handled at the county and state level. He does have the power of the DOE to appoint DOE head, and through the DOE set standards, policies and initiatives on the national level. I am disappointed that he hasn’t done more for education. DOE Duncan is a failure.
Diane, What email address or mailing address should we use?
Dear President Obama,
Thank you so much for being our health care hero and for caring about the common good of our democracy. The historic Affordable Care Act is fundamental to the growth of our economy, and most importantly, to the healthy growth of our children.
There is a direct parallel in the misguided voucher, privatization, and competition themes of the Romney campaign with regard to health care, and their approach to education. And if you could highlight these three parallels in your speeches in the next few weeks, you would have the support of every teacher, parent and grandparent in the country.
1. Vouchers don’t work any better in education than they do in health care. We need a universally good, fair and accessible to all public education system—just like we do in healthcare. School vouchers, like healthcare vouchers, are nothing but a broken promise. The well-funded schools will not take in students from poorly funded schools, any more than private health care companies will embrace people in poor health with pre-existing conditions.
2. Privatization in education—e.g. more charter schools, cyber schools and private corporations or states taking over schools—at the expense of providing equal and excellent education for all children in our democracy, does not work any better than vouchers.
3. The free market, corporate, profit focused takeover of education—with competition, privatization and a focus on testing and numbers at the expense of the growth and learning of our most precious resource—doesn’t work either.
We have tried more testing, more competition and more “choice” for three decades, and our student learning has suffered greatly. Let’s look to Finland’s example: Universal healthcare, well-resourced public schools, universal early childhood education (rather than our private, deeply segregated system for those with money), and support for teachers as a respected, well paid profession.
We need your support to raise these vital issues and parallels for the futures of all of America’s children. Thank you so much for being our healthcare hero. We need you now to be our education hero.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jill Sunday Bartoli
Emerita, Language Arts and Urban Education
Carlisle, PA
I wonder why, instead of calling for unity among workers, the proposed idea is to beg this corporate puppet for reforms. Barack Obama has shown his true colors for the duration of his presidency. It is not as though, given a second term (yes, these things are simply given), he will say “Now that I don’t have to worry about losing my seat, I can finally implement all of the changes I would like.” This isn’t going to happen. We call on all teachers – and all workers – to join together in the struggle against the financial aristocracy that is destroying our planet. Read the World Socialist Web Site.
Barack obama can you please come to valleywood middle school in grand rapids michigan??????????? you and michelle and ask for erica jackson
As a single mother I spent all that I had to become a teacher, and sadly I can’t pay the bills on $35,000. Maybe privatization would help teachers to be paid like nurses?? Regardless, I’m tired of being broke, and struggling on a terrible salary as a teacher. SO PRESIDENT I QUIT TEACHING!!! I give up, and I can’t live off this demoralizing income any longer. Teachers in Ontario, Canada make two and half times the income after ten years of experience with a master’s degree. What’s wrong with this country? Clearly, Obama thinks teachers are second class citizens or he would be doing something… it will be the downfall of this great nation. I’m going to be another statistic… so sad!!!!