This just arrived in the morning email
It is a question for a multiple-choice test.
Write your own.
Here goes:
I am part of a small group of educators (hoping to grow teacher and parent awareness – via our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NJ-Educators-United-to-Protect-Public-Education/350194368424508 – where – among other articles – we have been transcribing and posting YouTube “homerun” statements that you have made via speaking venues).
Anyway, here are my simple thoughts and a sample standardized question:
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Does history repeat itself? You bet!
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/duncan-katrina-was-the-best-thing-for-new-orleans-schools/
http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/mike-fiorillo-on-duncans-katrina.html
“The following paragraphs are in response to a post at GothamSchools after Sect’y of Education Arne Duncan remarked that ___________ was the “best thing” for the __________ school.
‘This despicable statement by Duncan represents a common motif among Democrats and Republicans alike, and validates Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine thesis, namely, that ruling elites create or opportunistically use crises to implement policies that would otherwise be blocked. In the case of New Orleans, it’s the wholesale privatization of the school system, with the schools being turned over to large charter school chains…Where were these people when the urban schools were suffering from decades of neglect and under-investment? They certainly weren’t teaching in them, or sending their children to them. Why are they only now proclaiming their “passion” for education, which is based solely on their lust to dominate and control them, driven by an agenda that, PR rhetoric aside, is about their will to power and profit?’”
Proposed Standardized Test Question: Take out the words “Katrina” and “New Orleans” from the above excerpt and fill in the blank:
a.) State Takeover; Camden
b.) School Closings; Chicago
c.) All of the above
While I am a believer in optimism in the face of difficulty, the reformers have taken this to a new, unholy level:
I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
— John D. Rockefeller
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Rahm Emmanuel said “Never let a serious crisis go to waste”…. and when a hurricane or an economic failure doesn’t conveniently create a crisis… you can make one up!
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I cringe every time I hear Duncan’s Katrina statement. It stings still.
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I cringe whenever he speaks or appears on the news. Other than basketball and Barack’s buddy, what has he accomplished?
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Rockefeller has it right. This common in business. I always used it. The problem is that the educrats are clueless. They have had lots of opportunity and have ignored it or helped the other guys at the expense of the public. Just that simple.
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