In this post, Ed Berger explains the collaboration among stakeholders that is needed to defend our community public schools from marauders and vandals. He identifies the vandals.
The vandals all have the same goal: Destroy public schools. They call it “reform,” and anyone who stands up to them is called “a defender of the status quo.” They forget that they are the status quo.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Louisiana is undergoing a siege on our public education system. I have contacted many legislators with information, but they all are dead set on their reformy path ahead.
Jindal is using the Recovery School District as a model for his promotion of The New Orleans Miracle. It is not a miracle at all. More than 70 schools that have become charters in the RSD after 6-7 years are still scoring F’s and D’s on their ratings. The RSD scores second to last in all the school districts in Louisiana. The teachers, I think, are afraid to speak out strongly. The head of the Education Committee, Sen. Conrad Appel, is dead set on pushing ahead with so called reform. So, how has reform done for you in the RSD, Sen. Appel? You won’t even consider their scores. According to him, he only wants to help the children. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
If all the parties are not involved nothing will really change. I left teaching with a heavy heart because when I applied to be a city wide coordinator of my special education specially and suggested that a needs analysis with the teachers should be the first step in further training for the teachers, I was shot down by my interviewers. Though this was thirty years ago, I imagined what the future would possibly look like. Though I never thought that it would get to the point that public education might be on the cutting block only to be replaced with private charter schools whose number one goal appears to be profit and children closer to number ten. Special education children seem to be taking an unbelievable hit with this so called “reform” when they do also have a great deal of potential but have to have the right environment and specially trained teachers.
Unless we educators present a plan to change the system, we will fail. Simply marching up and down shouting slogans is not sufficient. Remember, the ranking and sorting of kids happened in the classroom long before the “test”.
I just sent the real history of Dave “Lefty” Lefkowith to those in Louisiana. Now go have some fun destroying their credibility as that is what you have to do. The citizens of Louisiana seem to have had enough and that is good. This is a war, think of it as such, they declared it, now it must be dealt with on the level they have taken it to as they do not want to be reasonable there is only one option and that is to attack with the truth. They cannot stand the truth. The truth is the silver bullet.
Look! Over in Sacramento! It’s a self-promoter. It’s an education deformer. It’s the Defender of the Status Quo America’s Newest Superhero http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/08/defender-of-status-quo-americas-newest.html