Peter Greene responds to the NEA resolution. Calling for Arne Duncan to resign. he first deals with the debate on Twitter, about who would replace Arne Duncan. The assumption behind the discussion is that President Obama has no idea what Duncan has been doing and that when he finds out, Duncan will be ousted.
Then he takes on the NEA resolution.
Greene quite rightly points out that Duncan is doing exactly what the President wants. Were he to leave, which is unlikely, he would be replaced by someone as committed to high-stakes testing, privatization, closing schools, and undermining the teaching profession as Duncan. A likely replacement: Ted Mitchell, the newly appointed Undersecretary of Education, was most recently the CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, the epicenter of privatization and anti-public school activism. Then there is always Michelle Rhee, whom the President and Duncan have lauded.
I can personally vouch for the fact that Duncan is doing exactly what Obama wants. In the fall of 2009, I had a private meeting with Secretary Duncan, just the two of us, no staff. It was very pleasant. He was charming, pleasant, and took notes. I asked him, “Why are you traveling the country to sell Race to the Top accompanied by Reverend Al Sharpton and Newt Gingrich? Why Gingrich?” His answer: “because the President asked me to.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s because Obama wanted a bipartisan face to the destruction of public schools and teachers’ unions. Maybe Barack can complete a TFA internship when he’s done ruining our country.
Interesting article in the Washington Post. I can’t believe some of the hateful and misinformed commenters about this article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/05/why-many-democrats-turned-against-teachers-unions/#comments
I meant to say hateful and misinformed commenters about teachers’ unions.
It all could be a charade, where everyone comes back together, kisses and makes up, and people think that those are the only sides in this issue. It is a shakedown of Randi, because they know from the Bloomberg Era, that she caves easily and is not a fighter for the union, not a labor leader, but an attorney with the knack of compromise, no matter what it does to the members or the kids. They will make up over drinks at the Harvard Club.
Nah, he’ll be basking in the Hawaiian sunshine on one of the lanais at his Pritzker mansion.
Are “protesters” and “truth tellers” only beginning to speak/write the name of the grand “architects” of this mess? Don’t you love that word “architect” when used with the common core, reform, etc.?
The saddest part of all is not knowing who to “blindly” trust. One used to be able to trust a democrat regarding education. Now? Bipartisan destruction of unions, public schools, and the running of America by the billionaires is rampant. I don’t know who to vote for anymore. I am embarrassed to write that in the senatorial race in NJ I didn’t even vote knowing Booker was a shoe-in, and sadly, he is a closeted republican. He was horrible for Newark, and he will be horrible for NJ. When he and Christie share the same donors what more can be concluded?
Have the republicans stooped so low that they are running around in democrat clothing to fool the uninformed/ignorant? <– I include myself in that; sometimes I would just vote down the party line, but not any longer.
I don't know who the grand architect is/was in the scheme to get rid of the public schools and turn all that tax dollar revenue over to privateers/profiteers, but I know for sure that Obama is in on it. As the top man in America, his hands are very dirty.
The worst of it is all the doublespeak they use to trick people into believing its all about the children. They are not only dismantling schools, they are dismantling peoples' lives, livelihoods, neighborhoods, and children's futures, all the while they are unscathed.
When we catch on to one lie, they start up another. When one gimmick stops working, they are on to the next. And, they are patient. This has been ongoing for what now – 20 years?
Katrina was an opportunity for them to do it all in one fell swoop, and even tho the results are less than stellar, they continue to point to it as a great success. You know what? Even they don't believe themselves, but they are soulless and motivated only by greed. And, their kids won't get caught up in the nonsense.
How they have so far and wide managed to involve every level of politician to go along with the charade is a a nod to their tenacity, temerity and ingenuity. Their evil greed is bottomless, and well funded.
The president cannot name a person because he never took the time to try and understand real education issues. But real educators certainly can name a host of experienced people capable of replacing Duncan! How about John Kuhn????????? That is just for starters…
Oh yes.. I forgot.. we teachers do not know from anything even though we work with students day in and day out.
He understands education issues perfectly well. That’s why he picked Linda Darling-Hamilton for his transition team. He knows what educators (and the general public) want for education, but he also knows where his bread is buttered and how his “education” vision will help butter said bread.
I think Duncan had his position waiting for him before Obama had his, The ex CEO of Avis said in his book years ago that 40 companies run the country and the President is the “towel boy”, just look at Bill Clinton and all of the carnage that he left behind, and he speaks at Teacher conferences, like he was the incarnation of Martin Luther King, the grand illusion.
I encountered a version of this political agenda-setting in email correspondence with the Institute of Education Sciences about their many reports that just seemed to me a form of propaganda–what you might call “putting lipstick on a pig.” Two policies surfaced.
First, IES pays attention to studies that are the subject of press publicity, offering a review of these and publicity for them if they meet or exceed several tiers of criteria, the most stringent a randomized experiment with at least one control group.
Second, IES promotes studies relevant to Obama’s agenda, with some of these efforts coordinated among the various regional labs. For example, three regional labs have been enlisted to “study” the use of student learning objectives (SLOs) for teacher evaluation. I have just reviewed these research reports. Not one provides any context for this practice beyond RttT.
Report 1. A literature review seemed to me designed to add a gloss of scholarly credibility to pay-for-performance plans and marketing materials for SLOs distributed through the Reform Support Network, a loose network of consultants and agencies operating with grants to promote RttT policies nationwide.
Only two peer reviewed publications even addressed the use of SLOs, and only in the context of pay for performance plans. But the overall review included about three dozen references, almost all of these descriptions of teacher evaluation plans or marketing materials for SLOs as a solution to the problem of rating teachers of “untested subjects.”
Report 2. A review of state education websites for references to “alternative growth measures” including SLOs was so poorly reported I had to rearranged data to grasp trends. The most telling are buried in the report; namely, that only two or three states seemed to be concerned about the reliability, validity, and relevance of tests required in the SLO process, now being used in over 25 states for high stakes decisions.
Report 3. This report reviewed the use of SLOs in four districts dubbed “early adopters” of SLOs for teacher evaluation and pay-for-performance. Not much information from participants, survey responds rate of about 65%. There were far more negatives reported in a discussion of some particular problems. Main conclusion, teachers can be trained to comply with the evaluation system, learn to set their objectives and learning “targets” at thresholds likely to earn a bonus, and they will teach to the tests that have the greatest promise of yielding scores that qualify the teacher for a bonus. References on request, all published in 2013 or 2014.
I think this is consistent with Obama’s approach to economic and foreign policy as well. He really isn’t keen on rocking the boat. The current state of the GOP has certainly played a part, but he has made some fairly poor/cynical decisions without congressional involvement (e.g. the surge in Afghanistan, Race to the Top, the negotiation of TPP, failing to seriously investigate the Bush administration and/or financial sector, etc.). In any case, it’s our job to give politicians throughout the United States a reality check.
The false assumption is that he will be replaced. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? NYSUT called for the head of Commissioner King with no result, after my local state Senator, who is not taking credit.. I will put Peter on my A List. Now BATS is taking credit for the NEA resolution. Virtual power and real power are different things, one without media or money or politicians.
There are no short cuts. We just have to build that movement of teachers, students, parents, and community organizations that keep fighting the privatizers on every front. Common Core. Charterization. Closing urban schools. Debasing and demoralizing and “evaluating” teachers. Pushing our children’s parents harder and harder up against economic, social, health walls of debilitation. Busting unions. Stealing our history from us. Etc. etc. Getting rid of individuals who are cracking the whip may feel good, and here and there give us a short breather, and make us feel like maybe we do have some power (which is important). But getting ourselves derailed from the long, hard work of movement building by putting our eggs in the baskets of self-proclaimed “leaders” (political candidates, for example), or focusing our attention on getting rid of one or two of them, can be a dangerous diversion from the real, long-term work. (This is one of the things I’ve learned over and over again in my so-lucky six decades of social justice activism — and which I feel especially compelled to pass on today.)
Oh, any dissent is immediately treated as “self-interested, protecting the status quo”, anyway.
No one can dispute this policy under the terms they’ve set up. To criticize it at all is to reveal oneself as “protecting the status quo”.
Hundreds of people go out in the street in Chicago and Philadelphia and that is just more PROOF that they’re right 🙂
They can’t lose. You get that, right? If the policies are popular, they’re right. If the policies are unpopular, they’re ALSO right. I read the various ed reform lobbyists Twitter feeds and they will sometimes post a poll that ed reform in popular (they’re right!) and a poll where ed reform is unpopular (they’re also right, but ed reform is HARD and people are lazy and resisting it!).
Both things prove their essential rightness 🙂
No wonder people are frustrated. There’s no way to criticize this.
I don’t think Obama wants to get rid of Duncan, but even of he did I believe his replacement would have to be confirmed and DC is madly in love with ed reform.
There’s no real dissent or criticism in DC on this. Who are we kidding? Reading the NYTimes and the Washington Post one would think every public school in this country is a charter school. Public schools have simply disappeared as a subject of discussion. They re-appeared briefly when they were selling the Common Core but that was obviously completely politically motivated. The moment the testing period ended we went back to a 24/7 diet of how bad public schools suck. I thought I’d get whiplash watching how quickly they went back to using public schools as punching bags the moment the CC testing ended. For about 20 minutes there they were doing a great job!
Sure, take on Duncan now that the election is over and Obama is a lame duck!!
When did these unions stop representing teachers and started representing politicians and CEOs?
The NEA resolution narrowly passed. But still it represented the voice of the bulk of the membership calling for Duncan to resign. Of course Duncan represents Obama’s policies. And of course Obama’s policies are representative of at least a significant wing of the corporate elite. I don’t think lefties need to lecture the NEA delegates on that. The point is that teachers, members of the largest union in the country, want and end to this administration’s corporate reform policies and have made their anger felt. Who Obama might choose to replace Duncan, when and if he resigns, is of little import. What is important is what WE do.
On the President’s schedule today he was to have a luncheon with specially selected teachers and Duncan. I wonder what this is all about.
Sorry, Diane, but wasn’t it very, very recent that you wrote a long piece lauding the recent NYC teacher’s contract which sold out ATRs, INCREASED the use of standardized testing, and created merit pay? I can’t tell you how many hard-line teacher activists you lost with that decision. Posting a piece by someone with an opposing opinion wasn’t enough. You need to take back what you said if you want those of us who are true activists to support you in the future.