The Louisiana blogs, which these days are the only place in that corrupt state to read honest and probing discourse, are buzzing with rumors that their state commissioner John White will soon leave for a job with Arne Duncan.
If true, he will not be missed. Jindal will find another reactionary ideologue to take White’s place and pursue the governor’s radical privatization agenda.
Why would Duncan want White? When Jindal chose White, Duncan called him “a visionary leader.” White would help Duncan prepare the nation for mass privatization. Sad to say, White and Duncan are on the same page. ALEC beams, as do all the other rightwing extremists to see this Democratic administration advancing its agenda–or doing nothing to impede it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How much crazier can Obama get? That is the question. Knowing his background anything might happen as if you have not seen that already in his terrible policies. Obama is anything but a liberal as he is really by policy a right wing republican and those fools scream when they get almost everything they want.
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I still don’t believe Obama comprehends that he is being used by the privatizers. If you are not a teacher you ojust don’t understand education.
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Obama can’t be that obtuse! Can he?
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Obama is thrashing and rightfully so.
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Albatrosses of a feather flock together …
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I think history will not be kind to Obama.
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Well, considering how kind history has been to Uncle Ronnie Raygun, as Joaquin Andujar used to say “Ya neva know!” The Obomber is further right than Tricky Dick Nixon.
But the bull in the china shop is the family called Bush. The evilist of spawn of the last 100 years.
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Depends on who writes history. Then it depends on who rewrites history. If liars figure and figures lie, how can an honest person figure who is the liar? That takes us to the teaching and importance of reading and researching what we read. That takes us to the teaching of higher level thinking skills, common sense, and intuition.
That takes us to education and the importance of who controls education. That takes us back to the beginning.
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Agree!
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if Arne Duncan hires John White for any position, it will be a position for which he is not qualified. The average school custodian is more qualified to advise about education that is John White.
Some people had great visions in the 1960s, created by taking LSD, that were less destructive than what John White has imposed upon Louisiana.
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You are right on, Ken. School janitors DO INDEED KNOW MORE THAN any DEFORMERS….neo-liberals and the right wing are both well…
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“The average school custodian is more qualified to advise about education that is John White.”
That is correct. Well said.
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The only thing worse than John White destroying education in Louisiana is the possibility he will have the nation as his game board.
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Ahhh! But isn’t that what is best for those that would be king? We are living a time when the king and both sides of the isle are not wearing clothes. And the children point a finger and shout look they are not wearing clothes, as each of their schools are shut down and they are shuffled to unknown places and planned for futures, by people who are so unread and ignorant that they do not even know they are not wearing any clothes!!!!
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Let’s hope the gig involves a confirmation hearing. Cripes! Can you imagine the damage he can do at the national level? Again an urge to use bad language.
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From the Louisiana Voice article:
“In White’s case, the Peter Principle could be traced from White’s minimal classroom experience as a Teach for America alumnus as well as his having attended an academy to train school superintendents whose credentials are questionable at best. That academy, the Eli Broad Academy consists of all of six weekends of classes spread over 10 months.”
Arne Duncan was on the Board of the Broad Foundation until he became Secretary of Education. The 2009/2010 Annual Report of the Broad Foundation said,
“The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned.
With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments—charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards—the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted.”
http://tinyurl.com/6w5sps2 (Page 5; also see page 10)
It’s in house operation!
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There is no position in education for which John White is qualified not even as a teacher. While I would love to see him gone, the thought of someone even worse is even more horrifying. And that is exactly what our evil dictator will do. He will find the most conservative nutcase he can to do his dirt for him. He may even be grooming Chas Roemer, the President of BESE whom he arranged to be elected over Donald Songy, the retired superintendent of one of the most successful and well run school systems in the state and an ideal candidate. I suspect Chas wants to be Governor behind Jindal. (His daddy was also governor and briefly ran for President.) Of course he would work even harder than White to dismantle the public schools. His own kids are safely ensconced in parochials.
Meanwhile, Jindal has frozen the public school money for the 5th year while he finds a way to fund the vouchers besides public school money which has been declared unconstitutional. What we expect is a reappropriation of a big piece public school money to the General Fund to fund them. And another breakaway school district effort, which will re-segregate the East Baton Rouge system is plowing its way through the state legislature.
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White said that some of the money for his unfunded programs will come from “cutting stipends and funding for teacher professional development. ”
I just want to be sick over his thinking those funds are not important.
What little there is of them.
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This is why NCLB might be better than anything Obama-Duncan-Emmanuel come up with… be very careful what you wish for! The best bet might be to keep NCLB until the public gets the message that any “reform” that includes standardized testing as the primary metric is flawed… NCLB IS helping in getting THAT message across…
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“The best bet might be to keep NCLB until the public gets the message that any “reform” that includes standardized testing as the primary metric is flawed… NCLB IS helping in getting THAT message across…”
That’s one warped and twisted (in a good sense) way of thinking. The only problem is that in the meantime NCLB still is the instrument to show “public schools are failing” crap. And in the meantime many, many students have lost years of learning from distorted “train for the test” education. So NO, NCLB needs to go. And now that NCLB’s perverted machinations are reaching the wealthier districts the complaints are rising loudly.
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My concern is that too many people think RttT, which is NCLB on steroids, is the best replacement for NCLB… If THAT comes to pass the privatizers will win…
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Maybe it’s a good thing; if someone like him gets even greater, nationwide exposure, perhaps it will shed even more light on these corporocratic shenanigans.
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If true, this represents and opportunity to expose the vast lies of corporate reform. White has a very public record of failure and corruption in addition to his abject lack of qualifications. He is leaving Jindal’s side just as the agenda there is at greatest risk of collapse under it’s own weight. This is the LEMON DANCE of corporate reform, of incompetent Broad Foundation leadership. A recent example is Brizzard being rescued from Rochester by Rahmpulstiltskin. He was brought to Chicago just before his impending eviction from Rochester not because he was qualified, but as a Trojan Horse for the reform agenda. The constant churn of so called leaders is meant to distract from the ongoing implementation of the policies they leave behind.
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My old teachers used to query me after failing an exam. They would ask me if failure hurt. When I said it did, they replied “good.” They explained that they were now less worried about me, they would tutor me, and they were sure that when failure hurt enough I would study and prepare. Perhaps the public at large needs a bit more pain, but……I know I’ve had enough and I am sure my teaching colleagues have too.
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ARRGGHH!! The “F” word rears its ugly head again. The most pernicious of words, that “F” word! What does it mean to a student when you label them with the “F” word?–Nothing good.
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i had an occasion last week to do a presentation at the retreat of the Goucher College faculty members who do their Foundations course – mandatory seminar with various topics as a transition to college. The subject of grading came up. I am ever more of the opinion that there should be only two grades
– meets/exceeds expectations/standards
– does not YET meet/exceed expectations/standards
taking that approach fundamentally changes how we think about what happens in schools. We do need some guidelines and targets. but our goal should not be to rank and sort, but to help all to succeed. This is at least theoretically a democratic republic, or what in political science terms is labeled a liberal democracy. That means ALL should have the opportunity to succeed, and our education should be framed with that in mind.
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Ooh, maybe he will be on a special team to investigate the cheating scandal in D.C. schools. Somebody has to do it, might as well be him.
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I doubt that he could competently investigate the lint in his own navel.
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John White is becoming an embarrassment to the rheeformers, the Broads, and Jebbie’s Tribal Council.
Strings will be pulled to let little-boy-White escape ACCOUNTABILITY. LIke other CHIEFS, he will fail up the reform ladder!
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Another fool added to the USDOE’s ship of fools.
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And if Jindal becomes President, I will move out of the U.S. The name America will mean nothing anymore.
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The news from the Obama Administration on education not only gets increasingly worse; it also gets increasingly bizarre.
This is the Bizarro World version of the federal Department of Education. It really is.
Or, as the Obama Administration and their dwindling band of apologists and rationalizers might put it: John “Bobby Jindal Lackey” White, Obama and his supporters might argue, demonstrates the president’s sincere commitment to bipartisan values.”
It’s so disgusting.
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