Blogger Firedoglake deconstructs Arne Duncan’s flawed effort to explain why he castigated “white suburban moms.”
Duncan, he says, does not understand basic economics. Nor does he know that grading teachers has nothing whatever to do with improving schools. How many nations in the world are grading teachers by the test scores of their students? None that I know of. Instead, they have built a strong teaching profession that is judged by their peers and their expert supervisors, not by student test scores.
Firedoglake writes of the putdown:
It is the kind of condescending attitude one expects from education privatizers. But when confronted with such an amazingly arrogant statement Secretary Duncan only apologized for the “clumsy” phrasing, not the sentiment. Then he went on a long diatribe about economics and education that made it clear Duncan had not been properly educated on the subject.
[American children] are competing for jobs in India, China, Singapore, South Korea – that’s the competition we all need to come together and help our students be successful there. And the best way to do that is to grade teachers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I disagree with anyone who thinks the issue is “educating Arne”. Duncan has been “properly educated” on is subject — which is a series of fast-talking talking points, each of which has to be stopped and challenged. The entire Obama administration program, stripped of all its clichés, has been education as mindless prattle, vicious teacher bashing… etc.
Let’s not forget that this is a guy who spent 16 ears in America’s most elite private schools (University of Chicago Lab School; Harvard University) and then got to pursue a “professional basketball” career in Australia. Then, Arne returned to Chicago and was immediately groomed by Chicago’s corporate rulers to become the “Chief Executive Officer” of the nation’s third largest school system.
The ten-minute “Morning Joe” segment actually showed our Arne at his most mindless — speed talking his way past every barrier and repeating each cliché at least twice.
One of the things that could have been asked was if “making a difference” by choosing teaching is so important to communities, why has Arne spent the last decade (yes, it’s now a decade since Arne began attacking Chicago teachers by pushing Mayor Daley’s “Renaissance 2010” program and closing “failing schools”) teacher bashing. And why didn’t he spend a few years accepting the challenge of teaching before he accepted the job of being “Chief Executive Officer” of the nation’s third largest school system — and then become the CEO of America’s schools.
If the guy ever faced ten or fifteen minutes of serious questioning, rather than that silly stuff he was getting on “Morning Joe,” the video would go viral forever, and he would be forced to resign in shame — although he wouldn’t do it.
“Morning Joe” gave me flashbacks to Arne’s press conferences. No matter how well rehearsed he had been by Peter Cunningham, Arne would eventually have to face a question that he couldn’t cliché (verb here) around. At times I would have to push aside one of the corporate hacks who were always asking Arne the “Tell us one more time how cool you are, Arne…” questions. And he would always dodge the question, like he did on “Morning Joe…” or avoid answering it (if pinned down) by saying “I’ll get back to you on that…” Which was a Duncanism for F — You.
Thank you, George, for ‘saying’ what needed to be said. There are zero teachable moments to educate Arne Duncan. He has chosen his allegiances. He treats any person who proposes anything other than the educational reform ‘line’ with disdain. Arne chose to place himself far beyond redemption/education in any domain. He is, in effect, an educational zombie. Harsh words, I know. Let’s move on.
Isn’t it amazing that Duncan stereotypes suburban moms as white? Now that’s racist.
Arne is unqualified for the Secretary of State post. He transferred to the Chicago Public Schools from Mayor Daley’s City Hall as coordinator of Principal For A Day, a one day event. At the first opportunity, the mayor promoted Arne to the position of Chief Executive Officer of the entire school system. Please note, Arne did not possess the basic credentials to even teach in the system and he was promoted over a veteran African American educator who had both taught and served the students as principal. When Mayor Daley was challenged about such a reckless appointment by a pastor in Chicago, the mayor remarked, “He can learn on the job.”
Secretary of Education post. Sorry. Elaine
It’s not a matter of educating Arne. It’s been all over the mainstream media for years now that there is a glut of people with college degrees and a lack of decent paying jobs for them, including in:
The US: “millions of college graduates over all—not just recent ones—suffer a mismatch between education and employment, holding jobs that don’t require a costly college degree.”
http://chronicle.com/article/Millions-of-Graduates-Hold/136879/
China: “China’s Graduates Face Glut Mismatch Between Their Skills, Job Market’s Needs Results in Underemployment”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390443545504577566752847208984
South Korea: “Education in South Korea Glutted with graduates”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/11/education-south-korea
and “India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire” http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703515504576142092863219826
(Heads Up Arne: Singapore is a city-state, not a country.)
People like me have sent a lot of links to those reports to Duncan and Obama, so that they cannot claim they didn’t know. It’s just planned ignoring.
Our country needs to stop talking about a bogus competition with other nations and cease the “college for all” mantra and focus on providing decent paying jobs for our own workers, including all the underemployed college graduates right here at home.
I think that one reason college graduates are holding jobs that used to be performed by high school graduates is that the standards used to determine high school graduation have changed. When 30% of students dropped out of high school! those that stayed tended to be the more able and more determined. Those are the qualities that allows the high school graduate to do the job, not the piece of paper.
It’s not a matter of educating Arne. It’s been all over the mainstream media for years now that there is a glut of people with college degrees and a lack of decent paying jobs for them, including in:
The US: “millions of college graduates over all—not just recent ones—suffer a mismatch between education and employment, holding jobs that don’t require a costly college degree.”
http://chronicle.com/article/Millions-of-Graduates-Hold/136879/
China: “China’s Graduates Face Glut Mismatch Between Their Skills, Job Market’s Needs Results in Underemployment”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390443545504577566752847208984
South Korea: “Education in South Korea Glutted with graduates”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/11/education-south-korea
and “India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire” http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703515504576142092863219826
(Heads Up Arne: Singapore is a city-state, not a country.)
People like me have sent a lot of links to those reports to Duncan and Obama, so that they cannot claim they didn’t know. It’s planned ignoring.
Our country needs to stop talking about a bogus competition with other nations and stop floating the “college for all” mantra and focus on providing decent paying jobs for our own workers, including all the underemployed college graduates right here at home.
Reteach for America: President Obama set a goal that the U.S. should lead the world in college graduates by 2020. That means a 50% increase in the proportion of college graduates. What we need are jobs for college graduates and community colleges that are tuition-free so people can easily get the skills they want and need for a changing economy.
Amen!
That kind of increase in college grads is likely to condemn millions of Americans to a life of poverty while trying to pay back huge student loans on subsistence pay.
How can Obama and Duncan be so insensitive to all of the reports about how difficult it is for Americans with college degrees to be COMPETING AGAINST OTHER AMERICANS, NOT OTHER COUNTRIES, for the few jobs with livable wages that exist right here? Their failure to acknowledge and address that is unconscionable. I guess working for the oligarchy is about wearing blinders do the realities of the masses. The “college for all” mantra is the 21st century version of “let them eat cake.”
People can still earn a decent living working in trades, such as carpentry, plumbing, auto mechanics, etc., and yet those jobs are downplayed as if they’re not good enough in our society. We need to bring back vocational education, as well as the respect that working in the trades deserves.
Agree Reteach 4 America. In the mid 70’s only the top third of my graduating class went to college. Remedial courses were not offered on most college campuses at that time. The rest of my classmates went into successful careers as welders, electricians, hair stylist and other working trades. We need to bring back the importance of these services.
Obama and Duncan are clueless. They dine with wealthy people and have no clue about what is really going on in America. It really makes me sick.
“…And the best way to do that is to grade teachers.”
Could this be one of the most ridiculous “Ed-reform” quotes of all time?
We should have a contest.
And the winner is …
“And the best way to do that is to grade teachers.”
That statement after the first one of competitiveness is so completely inane, stupid, silly, foolish, stupid, fatuous, idiotic, ridiculous, ludicrous, absurd, senseless, asinine, frivolous, vapid; childish, puerile; informaldumb, moronic, ditzy, daft, or all of the prior listed together that even “after having taken acid to prepare oneself for times like these*” it can’t be fathomed. Perhaps the Dunkster is on a plane (double entendre intended) infinitely higher than any anyone has ever been on or come near. Either that or it is so absurd that it is on a plane lower than any anyone has ever been on (even while still in the womb).
*apologies to L. Black
Bwahahaha!!!!
Duncan is popular among political pundits. It figures he’d check in with his base when he gets into trouble.
Personally, I’m tired of stern lectures from Arne Duncan and the media celebrities on Morning Joe.
Are Chicago public schools better as a result of Duncan’s work? Are US public schools better as a result of Duncan’s work?
The ed reformer who is currently in Chicago was in Cleveland prior to Chicago. Is the Cleveland public school system stronger as a result of her work there, and if not, why was she placed in Chicago to enact the identical set of reforms there?
Paul Vallas has a long record. How many states and cities has he burned through at this point? Five? Are the public school systems better or worse as a result of his work? Are Philadelphia public schools an ed reform success story? Because it looks to me like Philadelphia public schools are imploding.
When do we grade ed reformers? I’d like to see some accountability.
It is all a shell game and smoke and mirrors.
If we don’t go after shooting presidents, we can’t go after education. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqo2c_SxQag
Just as political operatives regularly discuss voting blocks of all kinds (the Hispanic vote, the rural vote, young women voters, and so on), it is logical that Duncan and his colleagues, including Obama himself, would frame internal discussions on the Common Core with theories about how it would be received by various groups–that is how political people think.
When Arne Duncan said opposition to Common Core comes from white suburban moms, that wasn’t an off-the-cuff mistake. Arne Duncan’s gaffe was revealing the internal political analysis of the Obama administration.
This is the biggest and most powerful obstacle to Duncan. He had to take it on or he would be swamped. School choice has pretty much divided the parents in the urban centers, but not so in the suburbs.
The issue is
why are we competing for jobs there?
we are competing for Walmart jobs here.
Does Duncan think that Americans are stupid enough to fall for this nonsense? There are so many problems with his pretzel logic that it’s very difficult to believe he graduated from college, let alone Harvard, albeit with just a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
The premise of his argument is completely wrong –workers are competing against other workers in their own countries, not foreign workers, and all the countries he named are having the same problem of too many college graduates and not enough jobs that will pay them decent wages.
Then, the quantum leap to grading teachers is a non-sequitur.
It’s like saying, “We want to be globally competitive so our Florida oranges must be up to par in the world market, even though our primary market is the US and many other countries grow their own oranges. Regardless, we are going to grade all of the teachers in every American public school where farmers are taught English Language Arts and Math, based on the student’s test scores in those subjects. (Never mind that K-12 English and Math have little, if anything, to do with farming.)”
Apples and oranges…
As if that wasn’t crazy enough, we have an administration, which clearly does not value expertise and believes in placing neophytes in positions where they must learn on the job, that is basically saying all farmers should be going to college, too.
And now Duncan and Obama want to grade colleges based on the income students earn after graduating. How about if they grade colleges based on the ridiculous statements and damaging policies their graduates make in real life? And how about they encourage colleges to rescind their degrees for such people and require that the government fire those whose degrees are rescinded? Duncan would love the punitive approach, but he should be the first one whose degree is withdrawn and job is lost.
Cronyism.
This excellent comment fron FireDogLake’s post pretty much sums it up.
Whoops…here’s the comment.
“Public education in the US has been from its inception a creation of the owning class designed for social reproduction and the “education” of citizens in ways that best fit the needs of the nation, as the owning class defines those needs. A financed-based economy does not require the same sort of public education as a manufacturing-based one. As the US has evolved to the former, its owning class sees little reason to fund the system designed for manufacturing. They can now always get the necessary number of technicians from those segments of society that can afford private school, and they don’t need domestically-educated machinists, drafters, white-collar cubicle workers, etc. in anywhere near the numbers they did a couple of generations ago. Their old system of public education simply no longer serves their purposes, and they are taking it apart.”
Agree. And here is more of his comments:”There is a national well-coordinated campaign funded by Neoliberal billionaires and organized by conservative operatives who both want to distract from economic inequality and vilify public sector unions in hopes of turning an ever-growing amount of American life over to market forces. It is not about facts, or children, but spreading market fundamentalism into the public sector. It is essentially deregulating public education. And, much like deregulation of finance, there are a whole host of people who stand to benefit when public education is deregulated.”
These comments remind me of the documentary : Park Avenue:money, power and the American dream-Why poverty?
What is the solution ? Democrats and Republicans are the same.
How do we take back our Democracy?
Danielle, I honestly don’t know. It’s awful to feel so powerless. I recently attended a forum on the impact of high-stakes testing, which was organized by my state union. It was encouraging to hear from so many educators, parents, students and to know that awareness is increasing. However, unless we unite and become much more vocal, in much greater number, we’re going to be powerless in this game of power and money.
More and more, day by day, Arne Duncan is proving that as the federal face of American public education, he is an embarrassment to teachers, and parent, and students. He is, for lack of a better term, a clown.
“Grading teachers” (merit pay) does not improve schooling, and there’s simply no research to show that it does.
A recent study by some leading education researchers concluded that “There is also little or no evidence for the claim that teachers will be more motivated to improve student learning if teachers are evaluated or monetarily rewarded for student test score gains.”
See: http://epi.3cdn.net/724cd9a1eb91c40ff0_hwm6iij90.p…
And an-in-depth investigation into merit pay at Vanderbilt’s National Center on Performance Incentives found “no overall effect on student achievement across the entire treatment group…students of teachers randomly assigned to the treatment group (eligible for bonuses) did not outperform students whose teachers were assigned to the control group (not eligible for bonuses).”
See:https://my.vanderbilt.edu/performanceincentives/files/2012/09/POINT_REPORT_9.21.102.pdf
Moreover, jacking up student test scores will not bolster American “economic competitiveness.” That was the central theme of A Nation at Risk, which warned that American economic competitiveness was threatened by a “rising tide of mediocrity.” Has Arne Duncan forgotten about the economic boom of the 1990s, when more than 23 million jobs were created and all segments of the nation shared in the prosperity?
The World Economic Forum issues economic competitiveness rankings for the nations of the world each year. Complex and detailed, those rankings should lay to rest the absurd proposition that public education caused economic dislocation or that it alone is the key to future prosperity.
Over the last decades, the U.S. usually ranked #1 or #2. Two years back, (2011), when the WEF dropped the U.S. to fourth. four factors were cited for the decline: (1) weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, (2) weak (poor) corporate ethics, (3) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion) and (4) unsustainable levels of debt.
More recently major factors cited by the WEF are a “business community” and business leaders who are “critical toward public and private institutions,” a lack of trust in politicians and the political process with a lack of transparency in policy-making, and “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits, especially deficits and debt accrued over the last decade that “are likely to weigh heavily on the country’s future growth.”
There is nothing wrong with trying to improve public education in the U.S. But we tend to go about it the wrong way, and for the wrong reasons.
It’s certainly past time for Arne Duncan – and President Obama – to get it right. It’s also about time that the mainstream media stop reciting the “competitiveness” mantra and start doing some authentic, accurate reporting.
Diane can you please remove the link to the documentary. I only intended to post the title. Thanks
If we don’t go after shooting Presidents, how do we go after education? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqo2c_SxQag
How can any of you talk about the importance of trade jobs when you use it as a measure of failure? You educators have used the threat of blue collar work for a lack of a college education for decades.