FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2, 2015
More information contact:
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education http://www.nysape.org
US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Steps Down – New Yorkers Declare John King No Better
The announcement of John King to replace Arne Duncan as US Education Secretary is bad news for the nation, according to NYS Allies for Public Education, a coalition of more than 50 parent and educator groups throughout the state.
“Throughout his term in New York, John King was notorious for his complete disconnect from parents, teachers, and school officials. His blatant disregard for concerned parents and educators fueled opt outs to historic numbers. Our only hope is that this bizarre move by the White House will have the same effect across the country, spreading the Opt Out movement to every corner of the nation,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out.
“Former NYS Commissioner of Education John King helped create an educational disaster for New York and our children are still feeling the devastating effects,” said Eric Mihelbergel, Erie County public school parent and co-founder of NYSAPE.
“John King was relentless in pushing the inappropriate Common Core standards, flawed curriculum, defective exams, and an invalid teacher evaluation system on our schools, all of which caused more than 200,000 parents to opt out of the state exams last spring,” said Lisa Rudley, Westchester County public school parent.
“King was a catastrophe as New York’s Education Commissioner. Throughout his administration, his policies were on a constant collision course with parents, teachers and good sense,” said Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent and teacher.
Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, and co-chair of the Parent Coalition to Protect Student Privacy explained, “John King stubbornly refused to listen to concerns of parents, Superintendents, and legislators on the need to protect student privacy, and under his leadership, New York was the only state in the country in which it took an act of the Legislature to compel the state to pull out of inBloom.”
Marla Kilfoyle, a teacher and public school parent on Long Island, pointed out: “King left in disgrace in December 2014, with no political capital remaining and few supporters left. A year before the state’s teachers voted ‘no confidence’ in him and called for his removal by the Board of Regents.”
“The fact that Obama would choose to double-down on the test-driven agenda that King espoused, when polls show voters rejecting these policies in increasing numbers, indicates just how unwilling this administration has been to acknowledge the depth of parents’ opposition to Common Core and high-stakes testing,” said Nancy Cauthen, NYC parent from Change the Stakes.
Jessica McNair, Oneida County public school parent and educator concluded, “This new distressing development makes it even more important that NCLB must be revamped as soon as possible by Congress to take power out of the hands of the Department of Education. Otherwise, John King will continue to wreak damage on our public school children and their schools.”
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No words…
Yep
King is a liar. In the infamous Poughkeepsie town hall, he claimed that his kids’ Montessori school teaches the Common Core. Subsequent posts to this blog proved this a lie.
Here’s the Poughkeepsie town hall:
Here’s a couple lies debunking John Kong’s “my kids private Montessori school teachers the Common Core” lie:
He later claimed that “special interests” had taken over this town hall, and so he was cancelling the town hall. One of the parents at that town hall was furious and wrote this:
“On October 10, 2013, SED Commissioner John King spoke at the Spackenkill School District in Poughkeepsie, NY. This was the first of several forums on the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) that NYS adopted on July 19, 2010.
“It has been widely seen in social media that Dr. King’s presentation was not well received by the audience. However, his perception of what transpired is not shared by those in the audience. He is quoted in Newsday as saying, “The disruptions caused by the ‘special interests’ have deprived parents of the opportunity to listen, ask questions and offer comments. Essentially, dialogue has been denied.”
“Au contraire. If you take the time to watch the video (http://youtu.be/swWm9b_LUAU), you will see that Dr. King dominates the first hour and 40 minutes. At that point, audience members were allowed to speak for a whopping 23 minutes. Between speakers, Dr. King was defensive and tried to control the “dialogue”. A dialogue is supposed to be a two-way conversation where both sides speak and are listened to. The audience did their part by listening to him. King failed to do his part.
“What “special interests” is he talking about anyway? Parents and teachers are not special interests. Pearson, inBloom, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, et al, are special interests and their interests are money, not children. He tries to depict the audience as having been infiltrated by an angry mob with an agenda. If you take the time to watch the video, you will see that the entire audience was filled with parents and teachers who have legitimate concerns for their children. Their frustration and yes, anger, were delivered to the man it belongs to.
“Some have expressed concern about this anger – that it may come across as unseemly or unprofessional. I say that their anger can be defined as “righteous anger”. In John 2:13-22, Jesus shows his righteous anger toward the “money-changers” doing work in his Father’s home. This is the way many of those adversely affected by the reform movement feel. The work we do is sacred. What could be more sacred than working with children? In Matthew 18:6, Jesus talks about the special care given to children; woe to those who would harm one hair on their heads.
“The parents in the audience were angry, very angry. It is justified and righteous. Dr. King has harmed a lot of children with his dictates and mandates. He has aligned himself with the “money changers” and they have assembled themselves in one of our sacred places – our schools. He has violated a trust that we have in education and he needs to suffer the consequences.
“Dr. King is a failure and if he were evaluated with one of the tools in which we evaluate our teachers, he would rate as “ineffective”. Please join the many parents from across the state who will be demanding King’s resignation this week. Please call Governor Cuomo’s office (518-474-8390) and demand his resignation. Take back the schools from the corporations and give them back to our teachers and students. They deserve it.”
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John King is also a manipulator with his use of words. When it was brought up that his own kids were flourishing in a private Montessori school, he didn’t call it a private school; he called in a “non-public school”… as in “non-public schools are part of the community of schools in New York state”… as if the having the words “public” and “school” back-to-back in the description would subliminally make those parents find a common bond with him.
And of course, no discussion of John King would be complete without the parody of his reaction to the parents’ resistance to Common Core:
I guess the old adage applies. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
Lovely . . . .
Stalking vampire Arne Duncan is now replaced with Creature from the Black Lagoon John King . . . .
Bubonic plague replaced by e-bola . . . .
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose . . .
The powers that be truly don’t give a &$@! about the will of the people. They have their money, fancy degrees and political positions (which they overstep) and therefore, they KNOW they’re right. It doesn’t matter that 220,000 students in NYS opted out or dozens of public school advocates out-debated and out-reasoned King at the sham townhall meetings…it’s hard for me to teach my students about democracy in this oligarchical, soft dictatorship sham of a republic. Such a travesty. TJ rolling in his Virginia grave.
THIS is the true Lemon Dance, the cacophonous game of musical chairs of the failed, incompetent placeholders of “reform” cycling through America’s schools leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. They are straw men and women whose sole purpose is to deposit the seeds of parasitic policies in every district, to spread the plague of all things reformy.
“. . . incompetent placeholders of “reform” cycling through . . . ”
YEP, shows the paucity of thought that these supposed best of the best, the bestest, embody. Scratch my back and I’ll scratch your. . . !
Even though this may be temporsry, call your Senator today
How do you spell “The Peter Principle?”
According to my online source either Duncan or King.
They say you have to hit rock bottom before you turn an addiction around. Attention all reformers and edu-fakers addicted to testing – John King is your rock bottom.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Who might Bernie nominate for Dept. of Ed. if he gets the chance?
That’s something I need him to answer before I can get excited about supporting him.
I doubt whether any official in the Dept. of Education would be any better. You don’t really think that Arne thought of things on his own, do you?
Bingo.
I don’t think this is bizarre. I think this is a crime the reveals Obama—once again—for who he really is. Hardly anyone ever blames Obama for what’s happening to public education. Instead, people he appoints get all or most of the blame.
Obama is doing the bidding of the oligarchs. He is a shill. He is the Manchurian candidate.
Definition of Manchurian candidate
a candidate running for office who publicly supports one group to win election, but uses his executive or legislative powers to assist an opposing group; it should not be confused with a sleeper agent who has been brainwashed into working for a political party
Obama and wife are PURE scum, but so are almost all other pols in DC.
Oh come on!
Lets not pretend that we didnt see this one coming!
Suspend the shock and horror. He was on track for this job the moment he left NY.
Did anyone here think that Obama was going to reverse all of his educational thinking and appoint someone we would be ok with?? Ridiculous.
People like Duncan, King, Tisch, Elia, etc etc etc etc….they are all seen as real leaders in a national movement to reform education. We are literally the only group that sees them as the empty shills that they are. Nobody else does! Obama thinks King is really sharp, really competent, and someone who lead the first wave of ed. change in NY. King’s Poughkeepsie debacle, insofar as any Federal level people know about it or care, is evidence to them of the hard challenges he faced.
We need to realize that the earnest reformer side literally sees things differently than us. They don’t see a failed NYS commissioner. They see the leader that began the process of changing education in NYS in the face of the (once) most powerful teachers union in the country.
Lets stop being shocked for a change and start to anticipate and understand what the hell we are facing here. They are playing a game that is going after every single thing, to the smallest detail, of what we hold dear professionally. Lets try to grasp that and stop with the mouth-agape thing.
The amount of money, planning, thinking, and energy being devoted to privatizing education is enormous. We face a movement that has the full-force energy of the right (privatizing!) and the deep, entrenched commitment of the monied wing of the left. This is very very difficult for us because of the Ed reform movement a real estate across the political spectrum. That makes this very unique in many ways. Our only hope is to be willing to be smarter, more creative, have more endurance, and literally lay it all on the line.
Shock at this move by a reform-minded president is indicative that we are not really getting some basic things here.
NYSTEACHER…I think you nailed it. As hard as it is to admit, we are just spinning our wheels right now.
No, we are building a revolution.
LOVE YOU, Diane!!!!
You are Diana, the goddess of the hunt, and we will defend ourselves via a hunting revolution by fighting bad politics with good politics, the latter consisting of truth and real science.
I’m stealing your line . . . Hope you don’t mind.
Diane,
I love your optimism. I just can’t share it from my vantage point. Meanwhile, the NEA will endorse Hillary in 5.., 4.., 3.., 2…, 1…without so much as asking its membership.
Shock? Horror? Mouths agape?
We are not getting some basic things?
“We” (teachers) are the only group? Are you forgetting the parents behind the most powerful grassroots political movement in recent NYS history?
I’m not reading the majority of these comments this way.
There is a lot more outrage and criticism than naivete.
In retrospect, if Diane had polled us about Arne’s “future” successor last week, John King would have won hands down. Did anyone really think that Obama was going to appoint Carol Burris, Diane, or Anthony Cody?
The only effect King will have over the next year will be to fuel the national opt out movement with his arrogance and dismissiveness. He was Cuomo’s sock puppet in NY and will be Obama’s until 2017.
Are we anything more than a group of well meaning slactivists spinning our wheels? Probably a fair question. Getting sold out by our state and national leadership has left us high and dry. Political orphans for sure and not a billionaire friend in sight. But its always darkest before the dawn and worst case scenarios rarely play out.
The privatization movement may seem like a steamroller now. Five years from now they will have moved on to the next shiny thing after realizing that their ROI is nowhere near what they imagined. They will also lose out in the battle of intensity v. duration. VAM will be crushed in the courts and Common Core has already become a toxic brand. Congress will eventually re-write the ESEA in our favor as fighting the testing monster will prove much easier at the state level. The political captains of the charter movement like Cuomo and Bush will fade into oblivion and the forces of democracy will win out. Reformers have been blinded by their own greed and power, never stopping to realize that parents love their children too much to let this go on much longer.
If we keep the faith and act in the best interest of all children we cannot lose to a bunch of greedy self-serving quasi-carpetbaggers.
NY Teacher,
You see things very clearly and your optimism is much appreciated and refreshing. My read of things almost always can be defined as “not-too-cautious cynicism,” and your read of things certainly balances my view out. We agree on the very basics: that we have been deeply abandoned by our leadership in the face of existential threat. Your sizing up of our opposition more clearly reflects the reality of their power and limitations. My very vocal criticisms and doubts are always done with the hope that someone will give me hope. You have.
All I’d say is that we as teachers need to realize that opt out, while strong, smart, and successful, is not US….teachers. We, as yet, have had no organic, clear, and effective response to reform other than to scream that we are right. This troubles me. Opt out, sooner or later, will find its limitations, and we as teachers cannot and shouldnt expect it to fully maintain the burden of carrying our interests forward. At some point we will need to organize/reorganize ourselves effectively and mount our own offensives against reformers. This is where my concerns are. I am afraid that so many of us working teachers don’t know what we are facing and the hard work that needs to be done. We need to reclaim NYSUT. We need to be willing to collectively stop, in every way, participating in the testing that parents are opting their kids out of. We need to be willing to mount sustained collective action.
Thanks again.
Pete
NYSUT/UFT abandonment of the rank and file must be reversed. Making that happen will not be easy. Mulgrew and Magee care more about their political ambitions than our membership. They must be sent packing. Teachers have a fundamental choice: compliance? or defiance? Only the former will preserve our profession. A statewide wildcat strike seems less than possible. I wish there was a clear path to reclaiming our union.
I agree that the parent opt out will have its limitations, especially with the NYC reluctance. Do not overlook the tsunami of outrage that will be unleashed when the common core Algebra I and common core ELA passing rates are finally divulged.
However our best hope lies in the legal system. The Lederman ruling will be huge and should open the floodgates of litigation. APPR /VAM/State growth bands don’t have a legal leg to stand on. Without the use of tests scores to threaten and intimidate, the Regents Reform Agenda will collapse. Tisch will be booted and those three extra BOR votes will fall into line. Cuomo does not have to get indicted to be politically crippled and this will be his last term. Keep the faith Pete. Wrong rarely wins over right, and in the immortal words of James Marshal Hendrix:
“Castles made of sand slip into the sea, eventually.”
“People like Duncan, King, Tisch, Elia, etc etc etc etc. . . ”
Hell, those folks aren’t the best of the best, they’re the bestest of the bestest! Or is that the beastiest of the beastiest?
“We, [teachers] as yet, have had no organic, clear, and effective response to reform other than to scream that we are right.”
There has always been that organic, clear and effective response available, it’s just that teachers are to timid, choosing to be dominated by fear and lacking the moral fortitude to do the right thing and refuse to be a part of the standards and testing regime. That “organic, clear and effective” course of action has always been there and only a few of us have actually fought these malpractices and refused to be the “good German”.
Prudence seems to dictate not rocking the boat but when what one is doing causes harm to the most innocent of society, the children, then one has to have the courage to insist that justice prevail over expediency:
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than [self] interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville
AFT has endorsed Hillary and the NEA is getting in line with their endorsement. They both endorsed Obama and gave him some of my dues money. Why are we giving people that hate teachers and public education (which this appointment clearly shows) union help? They hate us. Stop trying to be an elite and start fighting these criminals.
“Built-in Failure”
Built-in failure is really success
Shuttering schools is opening chests
Coffers filled with public jewels
For which the Wall Street vulture drools
“Race to the bottom”
It used to be
Incompetency
Would land a DC post
But now, I see
Catastrophe
Is what is needed most
I’m going to be my name sake and go ahead and say there is nothing to that will hinder John King from being Sec. of Ed for the next year and two months. He’s riding out Obama’s presidency. If Obama wasn’t going to change with Duncan then why would he change with King?
However, if the pressure is on, then there is a good chance this will be his only tenure as Sec of Ed. and he will be a lame duck at that. The real focus of every mobilizing education agent should be the next presidency. That’s when you will have the greatest amount of influence for change.
John King wondered aloud why more people didn’t embrace the spinelessness of his worldview. This guy is a true hack who could only have been appointed as head of NYSED through extreme acts of cronyism. http://b-loedscene.blogspot.com/2013/10/fresh-ground-pepper-in-your-sorbet-sir.html
Why is education the one area that Democrats play dumb? In education we are aligning ourselves with the worst of Republican beliefs. Why ?
I am being sarcastic here. Finally, we see Cuomo’s mission in State Ed. He loves recycling. Every bozo over and over.
NYS Teachers:Bumper sticker for Groundhog Day should read:
King King King
Keep voting same people in -then we deserve this abuse. Vote out everybody, clean sweep.
Cuomo and corporate lackies may have to teach and sub. Plenty of jobs open. Teachers and admin never left a month or two into year, they would stay for the children’s sake but no more. Teachers do not have a business degree.
They have been trained to be sensitive to the needs of children.
But now:
No loyalty. Corporate Thinking. Data, tests and more data
We have been told in the new eval plan teachers will have to include 60 points on check list to get full points in 40 minutes of observation. I challenge that person to come in with a nonscripted lesson in younger grades and succeed.
Gov. CUOMO: Can’t get subs anymore because of your policies.Teachers can’t volunteer to have observers or student teachers because of test score evals. Have not seen your statement to colleges with this huge concern. Waiting for breaking news from Ms. Elia on how she will fix your broken Humpty Dumpty system. Oh wait : You figured it out. All the John King’s men.
I believe in recycling, but you put all past failures+ King in mix. Your new commission is another fiasco. Recycle same people + throw in one to two new names to throw people off.
Let’s rename same failed plan. You are intelligent if you accept this from advisors. Voters need to question your line of “thinking”. Governor think for yourself- you have g
been getting bad advice.
Reblogged this on stopcommoncorenys and commented:
Musical chairs for the education oligarchs is a shameful game indeed.