Blogger and educator and parent Rachel Levy sends out an SOS:
Virginia public education could really use your help today on twitter (& elsewhere if you can). Today is Governor McDonnell’s k12 education reform summit. he has included some good people and some stakeholders but more telling is what’s on the agenda, who isn’t there on panels, and who is there on panels.
I’ve written a blog post and also submitted it as op-ed/letter to the editor at the Richmond Times Disptach. Here it is: http://allthingsedu.blogspot.com/2013/08/on-governor-mcdonnells-education-reform.html
The hashtag (& lots of people there are plugged in) is #vak12reform. Please use that to push back and ask questions.
Please help if you can.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And the spin is on. Test scores fall by 30% in NYC. Will Bloomberg be held accountable?
m.nydailynews.com/1.1417474
Virginia has a practice of hiring teachers- especially in the arts- on part time contracts: (0.2, 0.5, etc), with reduced benefits. I know of a teacher in the state’s largest district, who was hired at 0.67, with no planning time or lunch! She worked (taught) the same number of minutes as full time teachers in my district in a neighboring state.
Seems some states have had a tough time letting go of oppression- “we can’t have slaves… Then we’ll abuse our public employees”.
Why do you need my help, Rachel? You don’t. Behind all the flag-waving of Diane Ravitch I must respond to the foot draggers and whiners who call themselves educators.
You use the terms “education reformers”, “billionaires boys club”, anything that disparages those crying for change. I find most of Diane’s people as a bunch of miss-fits who are losing the debate over school change.
I wish your Governor McDonnell the best for his summit, where the outcomes can only help any of my 14 grandchildren.
Dick Velner – Parent, Teacher and Curriculum Principal.
Whoa, that was a fairly nasty attack on Diane Ravitch. Very unwarranted and very unfair, not to mention not true and not accurate. There is most definitely a billionaire boys’ club (Gates, Dell, Broad, Koch brothers, the Waltons and many more) of so called reformers who have undue, unfair and unaccountable influence over our educational system and not for the better.
It appears that Dick enjoys a fair amount if whining himself.
What’s does a curriculum principal do?
Aren’t you whining about whining Dick? Misfits you say?
The Rachel Levy makes valid points which are all too often part of the “ed reform” agenda at these conferences… LEAVING OUT THOSE WHO ARE CURRENTLY IN THE FRONT LINES of education whether they are teachers, students, administrators of families of students. One must question the “why” behind this – it is highly suspect. Seems odd to have a conference and ignore “the players”. There is a DISTURBING comment by this author though… she says:
“Are you discussing the fact that the teachers in our state are among the lowest paid in the country relative to our affluence?
Whose affluence.. the community where you teach… yours? This makes no sense at all and seems biased. If I chose to work in a poor/working class community where the majority of students are title one, I should get less money?? I hardly think so. Public school teachers whether they teach in wealthy or poor communities have their different challenges and one works no less hard than the other (I am sure) but THE CHALLENGES are different. If you believe in economics first and foremost, bottom line counts for everything and perhaps teachers in a community with a higher tax base should get higher salaries. I work in a poor community and chose to do so. Public education is SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT EQUITY. Your comment appears classist and it really irked me!
It’s about “cost of living”. Have you checked real estate and gasoline prices in NOVA (Northern Virginia) lately?
How can a young college educated teacher, paying back student loans ever hope to be a homeowner in this region?
Yes. I plan on teaching in Northern Virginia when I finish school and the one thing I am worried about in the long term(besides loans) is being able to buy a house. As it stands, a lot of educators in that region commute in from West Virginia or Prince Williams making their commute up to an hour or more both ways which is not good when it comes to stress levels, general health, and time.
I’m sorry @artseagal I think you have misunderstood. Overall, Virginia is one of the wealthiest states in the country but has among the lowest overall average teacher salary, meaning they could afford as a state to pay their teachers more. See the link in my post.
Correction, again, among the lowest average teacher salary, not one of the lowest and @4equity2 makes a good point, too.
If Dick Velner believes the followers of this blog to be misfits, foot draggers and whiners, then why does he spend time on this site in the first place? Interestingly, the “reformers”; the ones crying the loudest for change and implementing their ideas regarding education seem to be the people who are the least educated about as well as truly involved in education. Mr. Velner appears to either be one of these reformers or has drunk the reformers koolaid and needs to do some research himself.
Dear Alabama Teacher;
I follow Diane’s blog because I want to consistently challenge my thinking. I have answers only for myself and to listen to the views of others can only help myself. I look at my own experience to conclude that public education is in deep trouble and change is the only answer.
Dick Velner – Parent, Teacher and Curriculum Principal
The teachers of America know all about change. That’s all we have…changes to changes without the change being fully implemented.
And then there is the other CHANGE ala Chiefs for CHANGE….Bennett, Huffman, White, etc.
All kids of change out there Dick! Catch up!
“I look at my own experience to conclude that public education is in deep trouble and change is the only answer.” What you just wrote means absolutely nothing…. Again, why are you here? You might try to expand rather than challenge your thinking.
So you expect misfits and whiners to “challenge your thinking”?
Perhaps you are too busy admiring the emperor’s new clothes to think.
That change is needed is not the debate- rather WHAT needs to be changed.
Thank you for alerting me to this summit. One of the things that depressed me to no end as I was listening to it was the woman from Florida droning on about the great results Florida’s letter grade system of schools has had. I could not believe the twisting of evidence of facts, particularly as she didn’t mention the sheer number of times the system by which the schools are graded has been tweaked by politicians, et al, and thus the lack of any validity that such grades truly have. Moreover, there was no mention of the Tony Bennett scandal, which I would think would need to be addressed by any proponent of school grades in the current situation.