A reader commented on an earlier discussion with these thoughts:
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“”Does anyone else feel like we are basically being ignored?” – 2old2tch
While I applaud the sentiment and aspirations of this letter I am saddened with the weak tea rhetoric and carefully qualified points in academic insider language. This is how academics exchange views at conferences. Arne Duncan is not an academic and he has yet to show any respect for or interest in anything academics have to say.
Offering a long list of research citations is great if your are publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. Otherwise they indicate a false belief in the authority of the research, which the reform movement has largely ignored and dismissed all along. This high flown rhetoric doesn’t stand up well to Duncan’s canned talking points outside of academia.
A non-academic reading this might well ask: So what exactly are they saying? What exactly are they asking for? Where’s the beef?
Can we get a plain-spoken English translation, something like: You are destroying public schools and the teaching profession. Standardized testing is out of control, cruel, and useless in determining success of students and teachers. Your “Race to the Top” creates losers as well as winners. These programs have been tried over and over and always fail — why are you still promoting them?
If the purpose was to convince other academics then it serves that purpose well, a preaching to the choir moment. If the purpose is to impact and change wrong-headed policies then the audience should be much broader and the language much less academic and their tone much more forceful. That’s how the game is played today.
“Does anyone else feel like we are basically being ignored?” – 2old2tch
“Yes.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here is a quick way to get high impact, plain English summaries.
Go to http://www.mountainmaninsights.org
On the navigation bar, click on Mountain Man Insights.
At the top: Search Topic: schools
Then click on Search.
These “schools” Mountain Man Insights will make an instant connection with any interested parents or teachers!
Boy, how true!. How about: The Obama/Duncan policies are just plain stupid. They are abetting the privatization of public education for the benefit of the greedy charlatans such as Rhee, hedge fund types, Milken (convicted felon), Frank Biden (brother of V.P. Biden), etc.
Neither Romney nor Obama. Green party candidate, whoever that was, as a protest vote. I voted for candidate Obama in 2008. President Obama has nothing in common with candidate Obama. Duplicitous liar in my opinion and no different than Romney et al.
Obama’s policies on education are disappointing, Romney’s (and most Republicans) are dangerous. Voting for Romney is a vote for complete corporate control of government – health care, retirement, education. The “free marketers” believe in a mythical environment that does not exist. We have a degree of market forces at work with some positive results, but the “reformers” would create a country in which the steady state is a few wealthy individuals have access to education, health care, and retirement, while vast majority live a subsistence existence. That dismal condition is the norm on history. A strong vibrant middle class and the resulting democracy takes effort and policies that support education tor all.
Wow! You’re soooo smart!
So tell me, what would President Romney (or McCain) be doing by now with education that would be better than what Obama’s doing? (For the record, I was deluded in ’08 and voted Obama; wised up and voted Green in ’12.)
Yes, Harlan, but what *would* we have been facing? Unless you can answer that, how can you say any of us made the wrong choice?
“No one can answer that” There you go. Enough said. Thank you.
BTW, how would Romney have “reduced debt”? Would he have raised revenue? Curtailed the military or the national surveillance budgets? Given less corporate welfare? Bwahahaha! Sorry, silly questions. So he would have done so by cutting spending on the backs of the poor, working class and lower middle class who have already been cut to the bone. Tell me exactly how that would be any better than what Obama’s done?
On top of cutting equally or more than Obama, Romney would have implemented social conservative policies affecting women and minorities that would take us back to the 1800s. Forget about abortion, not even contraception would be available. Affirmative action? Fergetaboutit. And, while Kagan and Sotomayor are hardly close to liberal, they’re a lot more palatable than the nightmares Romney would have appointed.
So until you can tell me specifically about how Romney (or McCain) would have been better, I’m not going to beat myself up over the choices I made.
Winning this corporate war against the public sector requires many things, including many kinds of discourses. We do need plainspoken declarations like, “Testing is not teaching. Testing is junk science. Testing enriches Pearson and Gates while impoverishing teachers and students. Teaching is an art and science best designed by professional teachers for their students and in the conditions of their locale. College and career readiness are not equivalent. 4-yr college is where more affluent kids go; vocational careers, the military, unemployment, and comm coll is where less affluent kids go. Poverty and Inequality are the biggest factors determining school outcomes and have always been. Privatization is not about improving learning or teaching; it’s about seizing the budgets and buildings of public schools for corporate use while breaking down the wages of teachers….” and so on. Many have posted such thoughts here and elsewhere in plain English. We also need to hear from scholars who post research materials and data, who debate policy and history.
“. . . vocational careers, the military, unemployment, and comm coll is where less affluent kids go.”
You left out prison!
Ira shor: well said! But whenever I read “belly-aching” comments by non-educators, I feel like they are reacting out of a false anger/jealousy for what they perceive to be the “teaching” career. They don’t understand that teachers pay into their own pensions (in my case mandatory 7 percent from each paycheck); they don’t under that this pension money is not set aside by the state exclusively for our pensions and can be used willy-nilly; they do not understand that a teacher’s job is 24-7 between before and after school conferences, correcting homework, lesson plans and now wasted time culling useless data.. no we don’t work a 7 hour day then go home early and do whatever; no we do not have a guaranteed life time job thanks to our unions; no we are not miracle workers who can make up for all the adverse problems created by poverty… the “corporate ed reformers” seem all too happy to promote the image of the “bad, lazy, stupid teacher”… and if you have years of experience and are approaching retirement.. “corporate ed reformers” are even more on your case because your loss of your job is their gain.. hiring inexperienced TFA teachers who stay for a few years and never really USE the benefits of a long-term teacher!
” they don’t under that this pension money is not set aside by the state exclusively for our pensions and can be used willy-nilly.”
Well in Missouri it most definitely is set aside by law for the teachers retirement. Evidently, it’s considered one of the best retirement funds in the nation. Guess I’m lucky and sorry for you in your state.
But then again I can’ collect any SS that I paid into from the time I was 16 till 38 (when I started teaching) as that would supposedly be “double dipping”. Then give me my SS payments back with interest.
Your SS benefits are just supposed to be reduced by some amount depending on how many years you paid into the system. The rules don’t strip you of all SS benefts — or are you saying that the amount of your benefit is lower than the amount of the reduction applied against it, this effectively cutting it to zero?
“thus effectively cutting it to zero,” not “this effectively cutting it to zero.”
No, actually I cannot touch any SS. There are something like five states whose teacher, fire fighter and/or police funds are separate entities and we can’t touch SS. There has been efforts to get this repealed at the federal level but there has never been enough support. Many teachers work second jobs that pay into SS but in those five or so states we can’t get any benefits. Hell, I paid in for 22 years and can’t get anything, even just my payments with interest.
You certainly know your situation better than I, but I’d recommend seeing an accountant if there’s any doubt, given what’s at stake.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retire2/wep-chart.htm
The Social Security rules depend on which state you are. In Utah, we pay into and qualify for both. Which is a good thing: in the name of pension “reform,” we have all lost a lot of money toward retirement. I’m paying into 3 pension funds: state retirement, Social Security and a personal retirement fund. I’m 40, and I hope that I will have ONE of those funds available when I’m able to retire.
Man am I missing something on this thread or am I flashbacking? Having a hard time following it.
How did this post end up at this point in the conversation?
An offensive poster was deleted after several posts that were attacking others on a personal level and with foul language. That may possibly explain any disconnect.
A certain poster has repeatedly used this space to attack other readers in scurrilous language. This violates one of the three cardinal rules of the blog. He is outta here.
Looks like you’ve also deleted Harlan’s cross-examination of me about the causes of climate change. The world thanks you for that.
FLERP,
He overstepped the bounds.
Thanks for the info, I was quite confused as to why things were showing up where they were showing up.
Dang, if it’s HU, I won’t have a good sparring partner anymore.
A good rule of thumb for everyone who views this website: write on this blog as if you were a visitor in Diane’s home discussing the critically important topic of a “better education for all.” So IMHO, we’re guests with both visiting privileges and the obligation to conduct ourselves with some decorum.
I am guessing but I presume that like me, almost everyone who views the postings here wants to be informed, not entertained [and disgusted] with the online version of “contempt/judgmental tv” [e.g., Jerry Springer].
For example, I had never heard of Noel Wilson before Duane Swacker brought him up. Diane’s ‘Rules of the Road’ created a space on the net where I learned something new and possibly significant.
Let’s keep it that way.
Thank you, Diane, for keeping it real.
Not Rheeal.
🙂
KrazyTA,
I always enjoy your posts! You wrote: “I had never heard of Noel Wilson . . . . Diane’s ‘Rules of the Road’ created a space on the net where I learned something new and possibly significant.”
To me Wilson’s work is not just “possibly significant” but THE most significant work in educational policy analysis in the last 30 years if not more. It really is that important. And I am trying my Quixotic best to get the message out. Yes, it goes against the very grains of what most believe to be “good and proper” educational practices. Perhaps that is why it is so radical in both senses of the word-“Relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough” and “One who advocates thorough or complete political or social reform.”
Corporate reform was political long before it was applied to education.
http://www.upworthy.com/what-a-snarky-in-yo-face-comedian-had-to-say-to-one-politician-about-life-in-a-working-family-2?c=upw10
Why can’t we just go back to the “good old days?” All we need is a plan! Gee, Wally, I sure wish my high school still had a wood shop. Schools need a purpose too….and I wish it wasn’t just test preparation.
http://archive.org/details/Benefits1950
Hummm. The lesser of the two evils? I voted for Obama twice. It is amazing to me that in all the conversation about reducing the federal government that NOT ONCE has the bureaucracy of the Dept. of Education been mentioned. Did I miss it?
This one is not deep, but it summarizes the big picture well (maybe to help those who have no idea what is going on):
http://www.asbj.com/MainMenuCategory/Archive/2013/June/The-Last-Word-June-2013.html