This is the disheartening response from the White House to a reader who wrote to complain about the destructive effects of Race to the Top.
So a letter that explains the pernicious consequences of RTTT gets a response saying it’s just a wonderful initiative. It’s all about the kids. It’s succeeding. Hello?
We have been wondering together: Will the President listen? Here is the answer:
October 17, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Diane,
I mailed my letter this Saturday. I got this response via email. They must have had my email in their database. I suppose everyone will be getting this form letter. I handwrote a note saying I did not want a RTTT form letter. I suggested they save the paper, stamp and the staff person’s time and buy a book for a D.C. child instead.
Well, I guess they didn’t read my note or they didn’t really care.
Here is a cut and paste of the email letter I just received.
October 17, 2012
Dear Linda:
Thank you for writing. My Administration is working to ensure all America’s young people have educational opportunities worthy of their potential, and I appreciate hearing from you.
There is no stronger foundation for success than a great education. We must provide our children with the world-class schools they need to succeed and our Nation needs to compete in the global economy. Our classrooms should be places of high expectations and success, where all students receive an education that prepares them for higher education and high-demand careers in our fast-changing economy.
My Administration has made historic investments to strengthen our education system, including our Race to the Top program—the most ambitious education reform our country has seen in generations. Race to the Top focuses on what is best for our students by engaging state and local leaders and educators in turning around our lowest performing schools, developing and rewarding effective teachers, adopting meaningful assessments, and tracking the progress of our students.
To comprehensively reshape our educational system and better meet state and local needs, we also need to reform the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—a law that has helped advance accountability and expose disparities in opportunities and outcomes, but labels too many schools as failing and imposes too many unworkable remedies. Because America’s students could not afford to wait any longer for Congress to act, my Administration launched a new Federal-State partnership to provide States flexibility to advance educational reforms in exchange for a commitment to raise standards, improve accountability, and help teachers become more effective. The first round of States to receive flexibility was announced in February 2012, and while they are required to maintain a focus on underserved students, they can now move away from one-size-fits-all interventions and mandates and instead do what is best for students.
The future of America’s economic strength is determined each day in classrooms across our Nation. To be successful, we must cultivate a learning environment with an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective principal in every school. Supporting a strong teaching workforce and inspiring school leadership is a top priority for my Administration. In these challenging financial times for State and local budgets, we have worked to help schools keep teachers in the classroom, preserve or extend the regular school day and year, and maintain important afterschool activities. My Administration has also put forward a robust plan to strengthen and transform the teaching profession through a series of investments to help States and districts pursue bold reforms at every stage of the profession. This includes attracting top-tier talent and preparing educators for success, creating career ladders with opportunities for advancement and competitive compensation, evaluating and supporting the development of teachers and principals, and getting the best educators into the classrooms of the students who need them most.
Across our country, young people are dreaming of their futures and of the ideas that will chart the course of our unwritten history. A world-class education system will equip our Nation to advance economic growth, encourage new investment and hiring, spark innovation, and ensure the success of the middle class. Preparing our students for higher education and rewarding careers fulfills our promise to our Nation’s young people and strengthens America for generations to come. To learn more about my Administration’s work, please visit http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Issues/Education.
Thank you, again, for writing.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
Reply
This letter is just insulting and disgusting. Obama is using NCLB as extortion against the states to buy into his terrible RTTT policy. Honestly, how any educator could vote for this man (or worse, Romney) is beyond me. Jill Stein, Green Party, 2012.
For those who think we can live with Obama another 4 years and hold him accountable for out needs/desires, you’re dreaming. Election day IS the politician’s day of accountability. They don’t listen to us non-Billionaire teachers or citizens any other time. Do they?? If so, tell me when.
I wonder if everyone will get the same response.
Maybe I should write just to see.
But then again I’ve never gotten a response before so why now?
I don’t know if it’s any consolation, but my guess is that as soon as the flunky who opens the mail determines that the topic is education, the standard education response is sent out without reading further. I’m hoping (?) that the letters get sorted by topic and read by people further up the food chain.
Why would the letters coming Wednesday be regarded differently than my letter which they probably received yesterday. I mailed it Saturday from CT. I doubt they had it before Tuesday.
Expect the same letter. He is in a bubble and he doesn’t get it.
I’m sure I will get the same letter. I’m just saying I think this response is roughly the equivalent of an auto-reply. It’s still possible (how likely, I don’t want to venture a guess) that people higher up will read our letters and respond more appropriately.
I think that’s right.
They had to know this was coming, though. It’s a shame they couldn’t have created a special October 17th form letter that would have been more responsive, even if it said only, we know you’re upset and we’ll be reading your letters.
Another parent I know received the same letter. Like talking to a wall.
Great. So no one’s listening. Our kids are at stake and the politicians don’t care.
Surely the read our blogs, perhaps this one. Maybe they do know, and they just don’t care.
Could they be molding policy without even understanding the repercussions for our kids? Do they operate this way on every issue?
This just makes my point. Election day IS our day for accountability for the politicians. We have no other day to make those who survive it realize our shared will.
He doesn’t care what students, parents, or teachers think at all. Not one bit. He is going to force the Common Core Federal Standards, national tests tied to the CCFS, and a national data base ranking teachers based upon the scores from those CCFS tests. He is going to promote the charterization of the system, he is going to promote school closures and teacher firings (and cheer them on, as he did with the Central Falls firings) and basically bring about the kind of system that Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg and a whole bunch of hedge fund managers, Wall Street execs, tech companies, test prep companies and data tracking companies want.
That’s why I am not voting for him.
They can try and scare me with the “Oh, but you have to vote for him or we’ll get Romney!” jive.
It won’t work.
From Obama’s education policies to his bank bailout policies to his refusal to hold any bankers accountable for the ’08 collapse to his renomination of Bernanke at the Fed to his horrific HAMP mortgage relief program to his refusal to push for a private option in the health care bill to his imprisoning of Bradley Manning without charges to his drone bomb campaign in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and elsewhere to his “kill list” as reported by the NY Times to his aw-Awlaki rule that allows Obama to declare any American the target of an assassination anywhere at any time so long as the president believes he/she is a terrorist, there is simply NO WAY I could vote for this man.
If I could retroactively take back my ’08 vote, I’d do that too.
Well said. The sad part of this whole thing is that I read Obama’s policies back in 07 and realized how bad he could be for education. No one wanted to hear it. It’s not nearly as hard to get fellow educators to listen as we’ve all lived through four years of educational nightmares. Unfortunately, fear of Romney keeps most in line. I sincerely wish the Dems had run a contested primary.
I received the exact same letter. Disappointed.
Sending the form letter response to 1 parent is bad enough.
I received that letter too, but that does not mean we will stop sending him letters!! We can not give up just because we are receiving a canned answer.
Maybe they’re NCLB victims/survivors. You know the lack of critical thinking skills that is/will be the result of NCLB and RttT. Then again the office uses volunteers to sort and answer the mail. One benefit of living and teaching in DC was that I had a group of students back in 93 spend a Saturday morning in the WH sorting mail and stuffing envelopes. Not to excuse; just saying. On the other hand, perhaps one of these letters will make the daily cut and find its way into the President Obama’s hands. One can still wish, hope and dream. Can’t they?
Maybe WE should keep sending him the same letter(s)!
Obama’s education policy is no better than the Bush No Child Left Behind policy. I am disgusted by the vilification of teachers in this country, and Obama has done nothing to further the profession or education in this country.
I teach in New York. New York’s APPR system is a joke, but it exists in order for NY to get Obama’s RTTT funds–of which my school district got all of $27,000. Every student in NY now has to be tortured with more testing just so that their teachers can be evaluated so that districts like mine can get a lousy $27,000. Keep the chump change and let us get back to educating students.
I will not be voting for Obama. He lost my vote.
There does not seem to be enough real difference between the Democratic and GOP positions on education, except perhaps for unions and charter schools. But both of the conventional “sides” seem to believe in some form of the state control model for education including “teach to the test”.
IMO what is needed in the dialogue is a very different (third?) educational position based on a more say “left-libertarian” position that champions self-directed learning and a broader spectrum of schools and educational paths.
http://www.leftyparent.com/blog/2010/11/07/left-libertarianism-a-broader-political-spectrum/
What do we have to do to move this into the public eye? Do we have to get Kim Kardishian to paste them to her backside to get anybody in the mainstream media to notice? Okay, probably not the best idea, but how about sending them on to John Stewart and the Daily Show?
“Do we have to get Kim Kardishian to paste them to her backside to get anybody in the mainstream media to notice? ”
Unfortunately, yes.
Can we have a rally in Washington?
President Obama can’t say teachers don’t care!
Kathy1 did care – with all her heart and soul. Shortly after this post, she laid down to rest. Rest in peace, Kathy. http://wp.me/pWHfU-fV
Rest in peace my compatriot-at-heart.
Thank you, Kathy, for your service to the nation’s children. You and others like you are the true heroes in American education and soon the country will recognize it again. Rest in peace.
I sent a ltr also, but White House will not reply to individual ltrs now unless it becomes an embarrassment, gaffe, or viral youtube phenomenon. One way for us to get response is to all sign the same letter and have it hand-delivered to Prez by parental/teacher delegation led by our most prominent participant, Diane, with media notified in advance and two of us carrying a banner overhead saying what it is for TV visuals, with some schoolkids in tow, present it at a campaign stop or take it to white house.
Thats why its such a good idea to bundle the letters and have them all sent from one person. Have you had a lot of response? Robin
On 10/17/12 12:39 PM, “Diane Ravitch’s blog” wrote:
> dianerav posted: “This is the disheartening response from the White House to a > reader who wrote to complain about the destructive effects of Race to the Top. > So a letter that explains the pernicious consequences of RTTT gets a response > saying it’s just a wonderful initia” >
everyone who receives that form letter needs to send it back to the White House in another red envelope with another copy of their original letter. keep doing that over and over and over. won’t change anything, but someone is going to get awfully sick of us. of course, not nearly as sick as we are of the administration’s educational policies.
Good idea. I have 24 red envelopes left.
Did you expect a different reaction? The only difference between Obama and Romney is that Romney is honest about wanting vouchers… they both support parents who care about their kids but really don’t care much at all for the kids whose parents don’t care…
Maybe we should be sending this letter back to the White House with a failing grade to protest their failing policies. Clearly they are not listening to the professionals who are on the firing line (perhaps very literally) every day as they advocate for children.
Save the postage. Mark it up – Return to sender.
I am beginning to think the fundamental issue here is escaping us. We are fighting a war on the very core of our democratic society by trying to educate our adversaries. This is a not a problem that can be solved that way. I understand that it is in our very nature as educators to believe that if we are just logical enough we can convince the reform movement of it’s errors. I firmly believe they know they are wrong in so many ways and that they are lying because it suits their purpose. Marches of parents with students joining in support for their teachers would make the news. We need something that will raise this problem to a level that has to be dealt with. We need to make this the topic of discussion on CNN and every news station. The price of freedom is constant vigilance. We need to move past educating the people who are perpetrating this offense and reach the American people before the steady creep of “reform” re-segregates and privatizes the majority of public education.
Well said 25+years! We need marches of parents and students and teachers. More people need to understand what is at stake and the peril it puts us in. I agree with you. The reformists know their intentions are evil and they are lying! We need to inform and rally the people all over America like they did in Chicago.
Obama has just blown any chance he had for me voting for him. Granted, it was a slim one at best, but it wasn’t out of the question.
I am not voting for him either….looks like he doesn’t need us here in CT. It will all come down to Ohio. He doesn’t live in our world…he never will.
Please watch and listen to this video/song about Indiana’s current education situation… http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JfrKDoeG_Gk
So very upsetting. For the first time in my life I don’t know who I am voting for!??? What will it take for Obama to listen???
The White House response doesn’t surprise me at all, given the number of letters posted or linked here that said in essence, “I’m offended by your policies, but I’m still voting for you.”
That’s all President Obama needs to hear, to convince him that he can keep right on doing what he’s been doing without suffering any consequences.
I just voted by mail for Jill Stein. Reading Obama’s response to the letter-writing campaign convinces me that I did the right thing.
This is the same response I received for the letter I wrote in September. So sad.
He has underestimated us. I am not my union.
A formal petition, in my opinion, would have been more effective. Concise and to the point letters were mixed with stories that bordered on the level of masochism. Teachers have put their faith in unions who have sold us out , or refused to insist on enforcement of contractual rights that were in place.
I am also wondering about the “timing” of the mass letter appeal.
I got the same canned response. I informed his staff in a follow up letter that whereas I was undecided, they had shown such disregard for me that I had made one decision; I will not vote for them. Romney is not an option for me, I think he may be easier to effectively oppose. Enough is enough. I told the staffer reading my letter that the union is not necessarily the membership and we have a different opinion. Now to prepare to fight the next president tooth and nail, possibly from a new and less rewarding job.
I’ll be voting for Dr.Jill Stein as well. More letters need to be sent to individual congressmen and senators. Diane said that they really haven’t heard from us. So keep typing. 🙂
I sent mine by actual mail. I’ll let you know if I get the same letter in response.
Did anyone find it odd that these words were capitalized? “Administration” “Nation” “States” “Federal-State”
Maybe we should mark it up with edits and comments in a red pen, grade it, and send it back.
Classic. 🙂
This response made me feel very much like the little people in Czarist Russia must have felt after attempting repeatedly to deliver their list of needs to their Little Father, the Czar. The unrelated, except by topic, bureaucratic responses were assumed to mean the Czar was never reached as he was kept in a bubble by the bureaucrats.
Finally, as troops met peaceful protestors and arrested and brutalized many, the truth of rule disjoined from actual public need led to an horrific revolution. What is there not to understand? We are all at risk of watching America descend to a point where oppression extends itself at the risk of violence. I truly fear for us all as this disconnect of a plutocracy in the guise of democracy grows.
Obama is not hearing, for whatever reasons, what is actually said by those most impacted by the decisions being made that financially profit the few at the expense of the little people and their children. The systemic failure to even address public education’s needs is appalling. Our attempts at being heard by the President must continue and succeed; the failure to do so could be catastrophic.