Valerie Strauss describes John King’s stormy tenure as State Commissioner of Education in Néw York.
To learn about the style of the man who will replace Duncan, read this. A rabid advocate for Common Core, testing, and charters. A brilliant man who earned both a doctorate at Teachers College, a law degree at Harvard, and ran a no-excuses charter, apparently at the same time.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am speechless. There are no words. Obama is bought lock, stock, barrel, and kowtows to his donors, clearly, the 1%.
You are noticing this NOW? It was obvious to anybody who paid attention to him when he was running for president in the first place. I absolutely refused to back him at all when he was running, and didn’t volunteer for his campaign. I completely refused to vote for him in 2012, opting for third party candidate Rocky Anderson instead.
After all, he, like Cory Booker, was a tool for privatization interests from way, way back. Obama had ties to the pro-charter Joyce Foundation back in the 1990s.
As soon as Obama got into the White House, you see the change overnight in the attempted destruction of public education in the United States. Broad and Gates had a direct pipeline to the White House, and the rest is history.
“President Barack Obama has tapped John King Jr., a senior official at the Education Department, to run the department for the remainder of his administration.”
“… a senior official at the Education Department”…yeah, since he quietly exited New York after demonstrating being oblivious to the citizens of NY and unwilling to listen to the profession.
Other options, Kevin Johnson played B-ball, so that seems like the obvious choice. Or maybe a husband-wife team with Rhee. Or Kopp, Cami, or Skanny. Or maybe pick another John, Deasy or White.
Kevin Johnson wins pants..I mean hands down.
You sound like your mind is dirty. Go take a shower – preferably without underage teenagers.
But wait, if you did that and stole candy from a kid and slapped a nun then you too might be able to a governor or work with the Dept. of Ed. one day. All you need to do is check your morals and soul at the door.
Actually it is Kevin Johnson who needs to be pulled out of the gutter and serve some jail time:
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/09/26/alleged-sexual-assault-victim-kevin-johnson-speaks/
If he has a law degree that means he knows he is probably breaking child labor laws by allowing for-profit charters.
I see no difference between the current Secretary of Education and the incoming interim Secretary. So, big deal. Another disObamappointment.
I listened, this summer, to senator after U.S. senator complain about Arne Duncan blackmailing their states into Common Core. The only plausible explanation I can think of for changing the secretary of education is the same explanation for changing the name of Common Core in many states: rebranding. Apparently, the billionaire club wants Capitol Hill back on board. The resignation of John Boehner as speaker was just the start. The resignation of Arne Duncan is not the end. So, big deal. Go Bernie.
I asked Bernie at a town hall last week what criteria he would use to select a Secretary of Education and, unfortunately, didn’t get a direct answer. I wish I had the chance to ask again after this new development.
It sounds like King is just a workaholic, not necessarily brilliant. A work obsession would explain why he continues to favor policies that have failed on their merits, where the evidence is solidly against them. When you spend that much time working that hard due to a compulsion, any interference, any contraindicatory fact that raises it’s head is a threat to the flow of activity, to the compulsion’s rewards. It excludes any humanizing factors. Having a compulsion is not at all the same as being driven and guided by evidence, yet our work centric national ethos often rewards it just the same. In another setting, King might get the help he needs, as Sec of Ed, he’s the perfect reformy bull in the public education china shop.
I find this particularly well said.
yes and how much more of this reformy bull can we take?
In other words King (and others like him, like the man he replaces) has no “fidelity to truth”.
I am not impressed with his Ivy League credentials. If he was actually a teacher of 30 or 40 years standing, he might hold some sway, but then again, if he had that background, he wouldn’t be tapped for this job.
Why do politicians, especially Presidents, refuse to hire real educators for this important position?
Because their bosses, i.e., the moneybags, tell them to do otherwise
Diane- this is wildly discouraging. Thousands of people – parents, educators, leaders – all over the country have been making loud noise, and taking action, against inappropriate practices in education. And yet the person who stands for everything that is the opposite of what we know to be sensible and productive and effective education – will be RUNNING EDUCATION IN THIS COUNTRY! Has all the effort, energy, time, passion and research made ANY difference? What do you speculate is going to happen?
Please, give me some hope!
Kindergarten interlude,
Here is hope. In little more than a year, this crew will be gone, and I hope hope hope, we will have a President who appoints an educator.
If you get the attention of Bernie Sanders again soon… will you ask him that very question… “If elected will you hire a secretary of education who was an educator “??? 🙂
artseagal,
Not just an educator (because King and Duncan would probably both use that moniker) but a veteran teacher with at least 10 years experience in a public school classroom.
I wish it was that simple. For years our district suffered from principals that hadn’t been classroom teachers. We thought that was why they seemed so out of touch with the realities of teaching and the developmental nature of learning. And this was before the current ed. reform mess was in full swing. But we were wrong. In the past few years, two new principals were hired. Both have respectable teaching experience. One was even considered (by colleagues) to be a great teacher. But as principals, they have both been disasters. Disastrous disasters. All knowledge of classroom best practice, the realities of working with real live kids, the devastating impact of too much testing, etc., seem all to have no impact WHATSOEVER on these two. Our original hopes of “if only we had an administrator who has real classroom teaching experience, then things will change” have been dashed. There is something different at play here. Something really does seem to happen when people become administrators. Maybe there’s Kool Aid that must be ingested before receiving the admin certification.
Whatever it is, though, wishing for admins, policy makers, politicians, that have been real classroom teachers is not enough.
We need a revolution to overthrow the system these people become admins., policy makers, politicians, in.
In my most humble opinion, (and I know on this Blog there are many much more knowing than I,) the system itself is where change must occur. Personnel is secondary.
I feel like we’ve been circling and prepping for the next step for some time. It has been discussed and ranted about articulately on this blog. I am forever grateful to you for creating this forum. I feel vindicated when I read like-minded, equally outraged voices on this blog. (It was the first place I turned to at 6:30 on a Saturday morning when I heard the news about John King.)
But we haven’t yet moved forward with the real action of change. Is that something you have a vision for? Would you be/do you know anyone who can be, our leader forward beyond our blogging and writing and speaking at forums?
We need the revolution to begin.
And I, for one, would follow where you lead us.
Alice, I have had the exact same thoughts. We are doing so much talking, writing, thinking – but little is changing. I agree, action must be taken by all with leadership in place that includes influential, high level leaders who truly know what is best. Enter Diane Ravitch and many others who can lead this effort. Change must begin to come off the internet and into the real world. I’m not sure what that looks like, but maybe someone who does can write a list of what we can DO. Voting in local school board elections certainly is a start…
I felt that Don Armstrong’s solutions (posted on this blog today) are extremely plausible.
I’ve also wondered what happens to some of these former teachers when they get into administration. I think that the following classes must be taught in administrator school:
How to destroy communities without anyone realizing before it’s too late.
How to ignore the people who know what they’re doing.
How to break the law without drawing attention.
How to demoralize teachers.
The principal and VP in my school are wonderful. They have to walk a very thin line but manage to comply with the people to whom they report and keep the focus on what is best for the kids. Though they have to deal with a lot of nonsense, they encourage us, cheer us on and help us solve many a problem. At the end of our staff development day before school started, after some training and strategizing, our principal said that we must never forget that no matter what we do in our meetings, no matter what the curriculum is or the mandates, when you boil it all down we are responsible for caring for and loving these children and THAT is what it’s all about. Then she showed a moving video about a teacher who learned through a student of hers what was really important and and how her calling as a teacher can make all the difference in the world to a child. I am blessed to have this team as leadership in my school. That spirit really does make all the difference in the world – and it trickles down.
They are tired of paying for mass education, and having to pay tuition for their own ilk. I call them ilk because kind is too kind a word for what they are. So, they get an ROI on their “generosity.” Why not? They are so benevolent to the masses, don’t they deserve something in return? It isn’t as if we’re grateful for their philanthropy — so they should at least attach strings to their gifts and get an ROI as well.
THEY RUN THE WORLD. Whether they are democrats or republicans, it doesn’t matter. Their will be done. Obama may have pulled Arne’s strings, but if you look up Obama’s butt, surely a puppet master’s hand is moving Obama’s mouth.
I hope parent and student revolution can change things…cuz the teachers unions are on board.
How can John King’s tenure in NY be understood as any thing other than a failure? What are the actual things he did that his supporters identify as achievements benefiting education?
Like Cami, and Valez and Duncan, and Rhee and Rham, and now Richard Parson (the chair of Cuomo’s ed commission) and Deasy, and etc, etc, etc…. Where are the tangible beneficial results of their work?
Jeez, talk about a bunch of well paid lemons walking about!
Duncan out. King in.
The dance of the lemons continues.
😎
Flight of the lemmings?
I wonder how King will stand up to the onslaught of criticism coming his way. Arne must have seen the handwriting on the wall and decided to leave before things got really bad.
I almost feel sorry for John.
Almost, but not quite.
I HAVE wondered about the timing of Arne’s announcement. Is a scandal brewing and Arne is getting out while the getting is good?
Maybe Obama caught Arne cheating on him at lunchtime: playing basketball with someone else.
I think that Obama is out of touch with the plight of the public school system. He is too distant from it and relies on others to tell him what changes should be made. He made a bad choice in having his good friend Duncan as Secretary of Education and now it seems he listened to Duncan again and that is why he is just going ahead with King.
Obama has too much on his plate with the world crises going on and education takes a back seat in his agenda. Obama is not informed of the negative consequences due to the policy changes in public education; he also seems to be looking so exhausted in the last week and his decision making capacities perhaps are not as sharp as they should be from a lack of sleep.
I don’t believe that for one second. Obama prides himself on knowing what’s going on know matter how much is going on, on being wonkier than his paid policy wonks, on having his fingers in every pie. He knows exactly what he’s doing – this can’t be blamed on his advisors.
Yep. Typical arrogant neoliberal. A complete fake Democrat.
I don’t think Obama is out of touch with the plight of public schools. I don’t think he CARES about the plight of public schools. And neither do any of the rest of these creeps, from either side of the aisle.
He was a charter school shill from way, way back. Never, ever should have been considered for the presidency.
In refuting any notion that President Obama is unaware of what his policies entail, a key detail is his long term involvement with The Joyce Foundation in Chicago, a major liberal source and vector of ed reform toxins, and on whose Board he sat from 1994-2002.
His deep connections to the liberal wing of so-called education reform are of long standing (his long-time aide and mentor, Valerie Jarrett, was also on the Board), and have always been consistent. King’s appointment reaffirms that.
At this stage of his presidency, given the above, along with the President’s reputed command of policy detail, it’s ludicrous to think “If only he knew…”
What’s next? Obama appointing Dean Skelos (disgraced former GOP NYS Senate leader) to be Secretary of Labor.? (Skelos had a knack for getting his son a no-show job ) Or how about Eliot Spitzer (alias “George Fox”) to head up Commerce? Perhaps Alan Hevesi, who got in trouble for having state workers chauffeur his wife, can take over at the Transportation Department? We’ve got a long list of “winners” up here in New York State, many Democrats. Just watch as the Democratic Party implodes, promoting political hacks, celebrating toadies and kiss-ups and all the completely alienating everyday voters. Would YOU donate money to these idiots?
typo “….all the WHILE completely alienating…”
In a hurry, gotta go….leaving to drive my son to take the SAT, More standardized test fun. Yikes.
Hope your son isn’t as hungover as I was when I took the SAT-ha ha!
Just got home. He was incredibly resilient. Much better than me when I endured the SAT. I’m telling you, Duane, these high school kids now are great. I’m just so impressed by their positive attitude..my own son and the many students I work alongside every day. My high school back in the 1970s reminded me of the one in the film Dazed and Confused. That’s one of the reasons I get so ticked off when Arne and company continually trash our public schools. Our students and teachers ARE doing better…much better.
Actually Spitzer was a shrewd politician, he just couldn’t keep it in his pants.
I personally wasn’t interested in his sex life. I wish he were still governor of NY. He was after Wall Street when they found that gotcha moment.
I’d actually vote for him again. I’d choose competence with some personal
baggage over a person Being controlled who makes decisions which have been bought and paid for by special interests any day of the week.
Hail Mary.
Only in for the transition out. But deformers love a miracle. In fact they base their arguments on impending miracles. They are impending miracles, you can hear it in the faltering quiverings of their ideology.
I wrote “America ruins on Duncan” awhile ago, but it still works quite well with “DunKing”.
Good thing Obama didn’t select ‘Diane” to run DOE, cuz DuncRavitch wouldn’t work any way you look at it. And DuncDiane would be even worse.
“America ruins on DunKing”
“America ruins on DunKing”
The motto of reform
Where every school is dunking
And dough nut$ are the norm
or maybe I should spell it “DuncKing” to make it clearer to those not familiar with the brand
America should run from DunKing.
Unfortunately DunKing never had to run for office. Their appointments were sham-dunks.
DOE – Duncan + King = 0
No difference at all. Such a lost opportunity.
Undefined.
Duncan and King are each negative infinity.
This is a total affront to New York students, parents, principals, superintendents and any legislators who have been paying attention to the mess John King created here. He was universally disliked by all who had to suffer under his bad ideas and lack of response to any suggestions.
The New York State United Teachers, a union with 600,000 members, passed a resolution declaring “no confidence” in John King’s policies.
If we examine Obama’s choice of John King through the lens of common sense, we must drop our jaws in incredulity. But if we analyze his choice as reflecting his ruthless pursuit of policies that would actually collapse the infrastructure of the United States, including public education, then it makes perfect sense.
Obama’s choice of his basketball buddy, Arne Duncan, for Secretary of Education in 2009 was a calculated move. Duncan has spearheaded an unrelenting assault on public education during his tenure.
In 2011, Duncan pressured Obama to decimate The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations that protected our children from corporate and government data mining of personally identifying information. Our children’s information is now sold or given away routinely.
Duncan also created Race to the Top which was a scheme designed to get every state to adopt uniform Common Core standards by dangling grants in front of cash strapped governors. His top aide now admits that adoption of the Common Core was calculated and coerced.
It is absolutely mind-boggling that an advanced industrialized country would jeopardize the education and future success of an entire generation of students of that country based on the word of Bill Gates.
Bill Gates had this to say on September 30, 2013:
“It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.”
There are so very many mind boggling things going on in education today. None of it really makes sense. Take for example the fact that research proves that kindergartners who are forced to learn to read in kindergarten are no further along in reading by fifth grade than those who learn primarily through play in k. This fact is born out all over the country – in fact, all over the world – in formal research as well as in every kindergarten classroom. No data is needed. Just walk into a kindergarten classroom and watch for a while. You can see what is effective and what is not. Students are engaged, energized and excited where developmentally appropriate practices are being used. Where paper-based teaching and testing are happening, children are glazed over, literally nodding out and crying in frustration as they try to take a test. So – it is utterly mind-boggling that this is so plain and yet the research/reality is being flat out ignored by decision-makers who claim to want kids to succeed. We are living in a bizarre time with bizarre leaders. What is motivating them?
What is motivating them? These bizarre leaders have been given marching orders to implement Agenda 2030, which includes collapsing the U.S. economy by enforcing carbon emission reductions and dumbing down our education system. Bill Gates signed an agreement in 2004 with UNESCO to use Microsoft as a computer platform to disseminate a new curriculum world-wide pushing the UN agenda.
Five year old children do not need computers and they do not need Bill Gates. The Common Core is part of a global agenda, not initiated by the states.
NEW YORK, 26 September 2015 – More than 300 CEOs, Heads of State, UN and civil society leaders today attended the United Nations Private Sector Forum (PSF) to discuss the role of business in implementing the world’s 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Addressing the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reflected on the success of the past 15 years, noting her optimism for the implementation of the SDGs. She called for the world to build on this momentum and continue to work together to achieve these global goals for 2030.
On 25 September, Heads of State and Government engaged in a General Assembly plenary that gave final approval to the SDGs, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) in January 2016. The result of extensive inter-governmental negotiation and input from the private sector and civil society, the overarching purpose of the SDGs is to eradicate poverty and combine elements of economic, social and environmental action, including climate change.
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_85649.html