Thanks to the warning issued by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, white suburban moms have been declared a terrorist threat, according to satirist Students Last.
“Citing national security concerns, “white suburban moms” have been classified as a terrorist group.
Time to get a belly laugh from the national madness!
http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2013/11/white-suburban-moms-not-very-bright.html”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m relieved to know Kerry has my back!
“Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist.”
Hmm…
Just click on “home” and it will take you to the post.
http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2013/11/white-suburban-moms-not-very-bright.html
Wasn’t it Condoleeza Rice and Joel Klein who tried to sell us that failing public schools are a national security threat (which for those who are uninformed, is likely who Kerry is standing in for in the allusion to national security and education – that is not taking a statement out of context and exaggerating it – they really said that).
One of the problems we have now with these dueling school systems is there’s now an us vs. them mentality – and we’ve moved so far along the path of public schools being punished by manipulated and unfair statistics that any sincere attempt at trying to move back and find a common ground is met with a wary eye – could you trust those who run the largest charter schools if they gave every indication they wanted to help public education (I don’t expect them to – but as a hypothetical it’s interesting).
This satirical post while harping on 2 real events, highlights some of the tactics that have been used in these battles – hyperbole and smear tactics while using the “data” of shuffling students who are likely to succeed and those who don’t as ammunition against public education and as propaganda for charter schools (where the parent hypothetically choosing the school will resolve all other inequities practically despite any other factor including the charter itself).
Indeed there is a national security crisis – there is all out class warfare being fought by proxy through our children. When we see that the enemy is us, will we change? And by us, I mean the hedge fund billionaires who have co-opted democracy believing they know better how to run communities from afar with donations and directives. Meanwhile, so long as they have more voice than your average citizen via their money, then they are the ones purporting to be running society and we live on their good graces.
Thank for articulating some of what I have been thinking, but did not know how to say.
Very well said.
Hmm, what’s that buzzing sound I’m hearing? I hope Obama hasn’t sent a drone to ge
Tinnitus!
(at least it is for me)
Class warfare, inequities, an us vs. them mentality, in short, the condition of the
“People” might be a feature of “Policy”.
“We may get some idea of how the Fathers regarded “the people” from an 1813 letter that Jefferson, one of the most democratically inclined crafters of the Constitution, wrote to John Adams. He hoped, he said, that “the natural aristocracy” of this country, of which he considered himself a part, “may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves wholesome control over their public affairs,” and hoped that “the mobs of great cities” and “the class of artificers as the panderers of vice” never have a say in those matters. Government was certainly not, and not meant to be, of or by the people, though it was surely for them, as any natural aristocracy would provide.” KIRKPATRICK SALE
The “Policy” of the “Crafters” was well disguised as a Democracy through a
Government established Public Relations system. Social conditioning by the
Public Relations system was mandated and written into law. The Public Relations
system was designed to cultivate a culture to inhibit disruptive thoughts and actions
towards the Government, otherwise known as Engineering Consent, or Opinion.
As Madison observed: All Governments rest on Opinion.
If the best interests of the “People” are served by the Public Relations system,
it would be evident in our Society or Economy.
If the best interests of the Aristocracy are served by the Public Relations system,
that would be evident in our Society and Economy as well.
When professed values collide with actions, would we not be wise to heed the
evidence of our senses instead of quibbles about who knows what and who holds
the “Moral High Ground”?
The “Abusive” testing is NOTHING untill it is given.
Placing the “Ball” in the hands of the Government, or the Parents, or (Fill in the blank)
hides the fact, the ball is in YOUR hands. For the Children or for the Money is
your Call. Your Actions, NOT words, distinguish you from the so called Ed-Reformers.
Wow…now the pundits are afraid of mothers. Egads…what a bunch of fools. What next? Drone attacks on the mothers/fathers/guardians of this country who won’t fork over their children to the coporate agenda?
The parody might not be far from the truth. Here’s why:
The Achilles’ heel of the deform movement is the new tests. The deformers surely understand this. The worst scenario for them is this: the egregious new PARCC and Smarter Balanced exams are given nationwide, are there is a repeat, on a national level, of the debacle in New York. These people know, of course, that one can design a test, manipulate raw-score-to-scaled-score conversions, and or set cut-off markets for proficiency in order to get whatever results one wants from a test. And it’s essential to their game plan that people buy into the notion that our schools are currently failing and that we therefore NEED centralized, invariant standards; tests; teacher, student, and school evaluation systems; databases of student responses; and computer-adaptive remediation curricula. But the fiasco in New York has shown them that the outcomes cannot be TOO dreadful–people just won’t buy into the legitimacy of tests that rank two thirds of kids as failing. So, the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth (Achieve, the Gates Foundation) has to walk a fine line: They need tests that show lousy outcomes, but not TOO lousy. Doubtless they are figuring out how to engineer that right now. They also will need to ensure that people not be able to look at the actual tests. This is where the war on terrorist soccer Moms comes in. I think that it’s close to inevitable that Achieve, the Gates Foundation, or their lackeys will get their wind-up toys in Congress to pass some sort of test security act–wrapped in lots of fine language about protecting kids and parents against evil-doers–with the purpose of making access to the actual test questions, before, during, or after the testing, completely off limits.
But I think that it’s also inevitable that the Moms and Dads and guardians in the country will DEMAND to see the test questions, and when those are FINALLY released, they will be shown to be ridiculous. They will be subjected to enormous scrutiny because of their huge impact on kids’ lives, and they will be found to be unacceptable. This is inevitable. Over the years, I have had occasion to examine, closely, many hundreds of state tests of standards. I’ve never seen one that would stand up to careful critique. Never. And the deformers have to know these. Surely they do. And that’s why they will make it akin to terrorism to get access to the tests to which children are to be subjected.
cxs:
set cut-off marks, not set cut-off markets
and the deformers have to know this, not and the deformers have to know these
Nailed this comment Robert!!!!!
“These people know, of course, that one can design a test, manipulate raw-score-to-scaled-score conversions, and or set cut-off markets for proficiency in order to get whatever results one wants from a test. ”
Exactly!!!!!