My first impulse was not to write about the debate last night. But then a reader contacted me to ask why I hadn’t written anything. I oblige.
The debate was about foreign policy, supposedly, but the candidates still managed to restate their talking points about education.
I was hoping they wouldn’t mention education because neither of them says anything that is accurate. They are out of touch with what is happening in the schools and seem to have no clue about what is needed.
Mitt Romney still claims credit for the Massachusetts reforms, even though they were enacted 10 years before he was elected, and even though his own education platform today rejects the Massachusetts reform strategy of more funding, higher standards for teachers, and improved standards and assessments. His reform strategy today can be summed up in one word: privatization. Also, attack teachers unions and any certification for new teachers. And no new federal aid to reduce student debt in higher education. Also, he wants the banks to regain control of student loans because they were making huge profits before Obama took it away from them.
President Obama, thank God, did not mention the much-loathed Race to the Top, but he said that his policies were working, which is absurd. He talked about gains and results, and no one but Arne Duncan seems to know where those gains and results are. The biggest results of Race to the Top are the demoralization of the nation’s educators and the steady advance of privatization. The biggest result of the Common Core standards is an explosion of new testing, reaching all the way down to kindergarten and even younger. Our children shall eat, live and breathe tests, from birth to the end of their education, and the massive data warehouses will track their every move.
When educators vote, they will have to look at other issues, not the one they know best. Neither of the candidates has a realistic vision of the damage that their policies–actual and proposed–are doing to the nation’s schools and children.
Hmm…for the absolute sorry state we find ourselves as educators, I never thought of how I am now free to vote for whomever I please, for both candidates are either intentionally or unintentionally focused on destroying my career and the current and future educational experiences of my students and my own children.
A silver lining, indeed!
… both candidates are either intentionally or unintentionally focused on destroying my career …
You still have a choice between borrowing money from China to destroy teachers’ careers or doing it solely with private funds. And Romney seeks to distance himself from GW Bush policies (rather than RttT as “NCLB on steroids”) At least GHW Bush didn’t obstruct Massachusetts from doing good things.
You also have the opportunity to ask candidates who share the Democratic ticket with the President whether they share his (delusional?) support for RttT. Will they maintain silence regarding “The Research on Turnarounds Doesn’t Show What Arne Duncan Thinks It Shows?”
… solely with private funds …
Oops. Unless Romney’s support for vouchers translates into coercive federal guidance on state support for vouchers; then again, there is the DC voucher program–so Romney isn’t entirely off the hook for wanting to use government money to support privatization. But it doesn’t seem to be at the scale of RttT.
Teachers “…still have a choice between borrowing money from China to destroy teachers’ careers or doing it solely with private funds.”
Touché, sir. Vive la Liberté!
Thank you for the summary. This should be sent to every American citizen who plans to vote.
High Stakes Testosterone …
‘Nuff Said …
Romney’s quote: “I love teachers.” Romney loves Big Bird too. He will kill them both off without a second thought. Notice how Romney has never declared his love for off shore tax havens, tax codes that benefit the wealthy, privatization of public services.
Beware of strange men offering up love as a way to manipulate and control you- isn’t that one of the red flags of a dysfunctional relationship?
He loves teachers. Charter school and private school teachers…
I’ve been trying to get a handle on each of their education platforms myself. But being as education has always been a soundbites only campaign issue, it’s been very difficult. I’m still waiting for a candidate who’s plan is to ask educators what they need, instead of prescribing fixes from on high.
Try Jill Stein of the Green Party. I believe she will and does listen to us educators.
You left out the best part. The last line when the moderator said, “Gentlemen, I think we can all agree we love teachers….” Both candidates are lying!!
Rita Solnet wrote about it on her FB page and one of the comments summed it up best:
“They love teachers the same way an abusive husband loves his wife!”
I find it totally patronizing when people say the love teachers, call us “heros,” blah blah blah…
Unlike some “experts,” I’m a professional educator who actually has credentials in the field of education and continues to study it. I just want to be empowered to practice my profession; that’s the “reform” I want.
May I please teach now?
You can only teach once you have PLT”s, All give the exact same exams, all use identical powerpoint presentations, and read from the same script. Then, you’re free to teach away! Ugh… I hate these fools so much. I just want to be able to teach science the way I know how, based on 20 yrs of experience.
What’s a PLT?
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=ZfL4xKQeSfo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZfL4xKQeSfo
Whoops – wrong clip. Yet oddly fitting…
Please delete.
Here’s the one I was thinking of:
► 0:48► 0:48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rpO75ZFQ0
Jun 28, 2012 – 48 sec – Uploaded by G2PicturesUK
Academy Award winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to …
Oh my… That was a little too realistic… Makes me want to puke… But thanks for sharing.
We were so pissed off about the “love” crap, we wrote an editorial about it http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/10/not-our-usual-fare.html
That was powerful. I wish we could find a way to get Obama (and every American) to read it.
““They love teachers the same way an abusive husband loves his wife!””
Too funny, and too true.
Politicians need to make up stuff and BS but Obama on Education is infuriating!… so commonplace, tired, worthless…
(And just as he ‘tossed’ Big Bird and Jim Lehrer, Romney ‘gratuitously’ tossed teachers’ unions!… kinda funny were it not toxic…)
O is very ignorant and annoying on education, but Romney cannot be trusted at all!)
So, thank you to Diane!:
My first impulse was not to write about the debate last night. But then a reader contacted me to ask why I hadn’t written anything. I oblige. The debate was about foreign policy, supposedly, but the candidates still managed to restate their talking points about education. I was hoping they wouldn’t mention education because neither of them says anything that is accurate. They are out of touch with what is happening in the schools and seem to have no clue about what is needed. Mitt Romney still claims credit for the Massachusetts reforms, even though they were enacted 10 years before he was elected, and even though his own education platform today rejects the Massachusetts reform strategy of more funding, higher standards for teachers, and improved standards and assessments. His reform strategy today can be summed up in one word: privatization. Also, attack teachers unions and any certification for new teachers. And no new federal aid to reduce student debt in higher education. Also, he wants the banks to regain control of student loans because they were making huge profits before Obama took it away from them.
President Obama, thank God, did not mention the much-loathed Race to the Top, but he said that his policies were working, which is absurd. He talked about gains and results, and no one but Arne Duncan seems to know where those gains and results are. The biggest results of Race to the Top are the demoralization of the nation’s educators and the steady advance of privatization. The biggest result of the Common Core standards is an explosion of new testing, reaching all the way down to kindergarten and even younger. Our children shall eat, live and breathe tests, from birth to the end of their education, and the massive data warehouses will track their every move.
When educators vote, they will have to look at other issues, not the one they know best. Neither of the candidates has a realistic vision of the damage that their policies–actual and proposed–are doing to the nation’s schools and children.
Neal H. Hurwitz NY, NY
Is it kind of interesting how some people always belittle education degrees and talk about how education majors come from the bottom of their high school class, but then say that teacher certification is a “hurdle” to getting more teachers in the classroom?
That is a pure-gold statement. I will have to use that one, if you don’t mind.
Absolutely
Thank you, Diane. Arne Duncan has a corporate approach to education. Although President Obama cares about opportunities for children, he mistakenly trusts and relies upon Mr. Duncan. Our leaders set the tone and the climate. With that being said, it is the decision-makers (local school leaders and teachers) closest to the classroom/students who can ultimately do the most immediate good or damage.
Blaming Duncan while ignoring Obama is naive in the extreme. Duncan is OBAMA’S pick, and he was picked because Obama AGREES with it. He said so even when he campaigned for president in 2008. He is a neoliberal, not a real Democrat, and, if you had paid attention at all in the debate last night, he trashed teachers’ unions.
I should have written “Obama agrees with him” rather than “it.” Obama is unacceptable on this issue alone, but there are many other issues where he is wrong and not in accordance with traditional Democratic Party issues. He is a fraud.
No! Him really is an it!
Name-calling and fabrications have no place in debate, Ms. Nunes. Nor do they contribute to critical thinking.
My ultimate point was that the local school districts make the most difference -positively or negatively. Some have great leaders and teachers who are dedicated to a student-centered mission. Unfortunately, some are just self-serving members of the “good ol’ boys club.” again, unfortunately, it appears that the trend in any arena has been that regulations, laws and policies have been designed based on that lowest common denominator – the folks who are not honoring themselves and others.
You really hit the spot. As educators, need to vote with other issues in mind because the Duncan plan needs to be undone. But the Romney ideas (in any area) are ridiculous.
As a former DCPS teacher from 2008-2012, this system stressed me out so much so that now I’m on 6 different medications. Teaching is the least respected profession in this country, which is sad considering teachers go to college to earn a degree to teach, pay this high price tuition, get a teaching position, deal with the day to day issues with students, raise other peoples children, pull money out of our pockets for supplies, trips, food, absorb their problems, deal with an administration that says things like “you teachers ain’t shit”, and the likes of all I just stated. And yes, someone of position told me and another teacher to our face that “you teachers ain’t !@#$. The way I see it, the school system overall is doomed to fail….is that what the people up top want? I think so. Some things are set up to fail and unfortunately teachers are too. I was set up.
Reblogged this on Thinking in the Deep End and commented:
As I said, our children are NOT hamburgers.
“Neither of the candidates has a realistic vision of the damage that their policies–actual and proposed–are doing to the nation’s schools and children.”
Thank you, Diane, for stating the obvious here. While some remark that Romney cannot be trusted at all as regards education, I find that puzzling. I loathe his ideas, but at least one knows what they are. Obama, on the other hand, is disingenuous, secretive, and quite frankly, says one thing about education and does another.
I don’t like either of their positions, but at least in the case of former, I know what I have to duck and hide from.
Precisely. I’d rather have an enemy I can confront face-on, than a traitor who stabs me in the back.
The education situation with testing and tracking has been underway since the Clinton administration as highlighted in the infamous “Dear Hillary” letter written by Marc Tucker, founder of the National Center for Education and the Economy and a driving force in sacrificing our children to the plutocracy. For the record, I am a Democrat and a granddaughter, daughter, sister, and niece in a family heavily stacked with educators from the primary to post secondary level.
There is not a doubt in my mind that education is on the move to be privatized, in a for profit model or the ubiquitous not for profit, profiteering model. There are those who would argue that education is about to become part of a New World Order but that seems a stretch since the only unifying trait between nations appears to be disdain for the working class.
Good thought provoking post, thank you.
Have you seen this?
Here is a serious article from a news satire site that decided that it needed to yell the truth about something. Romney & Obama’s love of teachers?
http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/10/not-our-usual-fare.html
Not Our Usual Fare
We know you come to this site for a laugh but some things are just NOT funny. Here’s a non-satirical editorial from Students Last.
————
How nice to be told by the presidential candidates, during their last debate, that they “love teachers.” Too bad it’s bullshit, like the flowers a woman gets the day after her abuser gives her a black eye. And it’s not just the candidates who are “loving” teachers to death. America itself has, at least as of late, quite the abusive relationship with teachers – claiming to love teachers but repeatedly disrespecting them in a myriad of ways. What teachers need is fewer meaningless words and a helluva a lot more deeds of respect.
The origin of modern ‘education’ in the US (and all around the world) is the ‘Prussian Schooling System’..
Unfortunately this system of indoctrination really works.
Also… this.
So I’m guessing you never heard of John Dewey?
Dewey has done no favors to this country’s education system – for going on eight decades now we’ve followed a lot of his mantra, only to be less effective, less focused, and too quick to jump on any bandwagon that elevates students to the throne of their own “education.”