I received the following letter from two BAT teachers who heard that Michelle Rhee is planning to speak in Birmingham and intends to portray herself as “a civil rights leader” in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is well-known that Dr. King worked closely with labor unions–not against them–to improve the lot of working men and women.
It may have been forgotten by now that when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, he was there to help sanitation workers who were trying to organize a union.
Dr. King understood the importance of building coalitions, not setting group against group, parents against teachers.
The BAT teachers wrote the following commentary about Rhee’s pending visit to Birmingham:
Why Alabama Doesn’t Need Michelle Rhee
by BATs – Marla Kilfoyle and Terri Michal
The corporate reform agenda Michelle Rhee represents is NOT about Civil Rights!
Michele Rhee does not promote educational equality for the African American community. She and her StudentsFirst organization profits while schools in predominantly urban minority communities are being closed around the nation. It is beyond comprehension that Rhee would speak during any celebration of the Civil Rights movement and that she be considered to speak at the 16th Street Baptist Church where 4 young girls were murdered in a bombing spurred by hate and prejudice. Let’s consider what Rhee has done to further civil rights – nothing. In fact, Rhee along with Rep. Jay Love and Charlotte Meadows (a former StudentsFirst Lobbyist) helped to push for passage of the Alabama Accountability Act which opened the door for Charters in the state. The problem is that these charters are not designed to elevate the poor and/or minority. In fact the Southern Poverty Law Center is currently challenging the law because it contends that transfers are inaccessible to Alabama’s poor families. Low income parents can’t afford private school tuition even with the new tax credit but to make matters even worse, it siphons off money that should be spent on resourcing and assisting failing schools in these communities and transfers it to the private sector.
Let’s look at the effects Michelle Rhee and her Corporate Reform agenda has had in other urban communities around the United States:
INCREASED ACHIEVEMENT GAP IN D.C.
The most disturbing effect of Ms. Rhee’s reform effort is the widening gap in academic performance between low-income and upper-income students, a meaningful statistic in Washington, where race and income are highly correlated. On the most recent NAEP test (2011), only about 10% of low-income students in grades 4 and 8 scored ‘proficient’ in reading and math. Since 2007, the performance gap has increased by 29 percentile points in 8th grade reading, by 44 in 4th grade reading, by 45 in 8th grade math, and by 72 in 4th grade math. Although these numbers are also influenced by changes in high- and low-income populations, the gaps are so extreme that it seems clear that low-income students, most of them African-American, generally did not fare well during Ms. Rhee’s time in Washington. Washington’s high school graduation rate is the lowest in the nation. Rhee closed more than 2 dozen schools.*
CHEATING AND BUDGET SCANDAL THAT DEMEANS STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN D.C.
March 2011 USA Today reported on a rash of ‘wrong-to-right’ erasures on standardized tests and the Chancellor’s reluctance to investigate. With subsequent tightened test security, Rhee’s dramatic test scores gains have all but disappeared. Consider Aiton Elementary: The year before Ms. Rhee arrived, 18% of Aiton students scored proficient in math and 31% in reading. Scores soared to nearly 60% on her watch, but by 2012 both reading and math scores had plunged more than 40 percentile points.*
One of the first things that happened during Rhee’s time in D.C. was that she announced that there was a multi-million dollar shortfall in the education budget. Shortly thereafter, she fired 241 D.C.P.S teachers, citing the need to make huge budget cuts. After the firings, the monies were suddenly found. Rhee and her CFO, Noah Webman, said that the problem with the missing millions was “accounting mistake.” Once the lost money was restored to the education coffer’s books, Rhee went on a hiring spree, filling many vacancies with….you guessed it!…Teach for America teachers. Later, Webman said, under oath, in a hearing with the DC city council, that he and Rhee had devised the “accounting error.” Currently, one of the teachers fired is pursuing a fraud charge against Rhee. This past April, a DC judge has said that there is evidence enough for the case to move forward.* Furthermore, Rhee’s history as Chancellor of D.C. has left children, predominantly children of color, in a school district that has the lowest graduation rate in the country.
DID NOT PROVIDE STABLE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTS FOR OUR MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN
Ms. Rhee appointed 91 principals in her three years as chancellor, 39 of whom no longer held those jobs in August 2010. Some chose to leave; others, on one-year contracts, were fired for not producing results quickly enough. Several schools are reported to have had three principals in three years.* Child psychiatrists have long known that, to succeed, children need stability. Because many of the District’s children face multiple stresses at home and in their neighborhoods, schools are often that rock. However, in Ms. Rhee’s tumultuous reign, thousands of students attended schools where teachers and principals were essentially interchangeable parts, a situation that must have contributed to the instability rather than alleviating it.*
FINANCING PUBLIC SCHOOL CLOSINGS AND PRIVATIZATION OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Rhee flies around the country donating money to politicians. She does not promote educational equality for the African American community. She and her StudentsFirst organization supports charters and voucher systems. This educational agenda has supported the closing of urban schools, predominantly in African American communities (Chicago, Philadelphia), instead of providing resources to keep these community schools open as Beacons of Light for kids that live in these neighborhoods.
*CITATION
John Merrow – “A Story About Michelle Rhee That No One Will Print” http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6490
The bottom line, our urban communities CANNOT be improved by closing our schools, firing our teachers, and diverting funds to private organizations. They also CANNOT be improved by hiring Teach For America teachers, who are usually underqualified and unprepared to teach to the whole child, or through increased testing. (Testing IS NOT teaching!) What can help? Programs like The Leader In Me* that debuted at A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina and is now being implemented worldwide or Alabama’s own Better Basics* program that is currently implemented in only 43 schools in central AL despite its successes. We invest more than 8 million dollars a year in Alabama on testing alone…Isn’t it time we invest in our STUDENTS?
*CITATION
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Schools:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1861074,00.html
Better Basics:
http://betterbasics.org/programs/
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was thrust into the public eye when, in 1963, a bomb exploded killing four innocent black girls. The members of the black congregation were targeted because of the color of their skin. This was a turning point in the civil rights movement.
Now, 50 years later, Michelle Rhee wants to be a part of a panel discussing civil rights and education that is taking place in the church . Michelle Rhee knows nothing of civil rights. This must be stopped. Please contact Rep. Terri Sewell at (205) 254-1960 Twitter @RepTerriSewell and Mayor William Bell at (205)254-2283
His Executive Secretary’s email is kelli.solomon@birminghamal.gov It seems they have no twitter account. There is NO direct way to get in touch with the mayor. Governor Bentley may be contacted by twitter @GovernorBentley and by phone (334) 242-7100
Marla Kilfoyle is a teacher, an activist, and one of the founders of the Badass Teachers Association. She lives in Long Island, New York.
Terri Michal is an activist, the founder of SOS Support our Students and an Administrator at Badass Teachers Association. She lives in Huntsville, AL. You can contact her at somewhere_itn@hotmail.com
Does no one see the irony in a “Badass” teacher writing a Baptist Church?
changemaker…
Urban Dictionary definition of BADASS:
1. having extremely favorable qualities
2. pertaining to a person or thing that is rugged, strong, and/or ready to show these qualities
3. person who is perceived to have the qualities of definition 2
4. A general term used to describe behavior that is fearless, authentic, compassionate, and ethical.
5. Well above the social standard for “normal” behavior.
Synonyms: toughy, strong-willed, powerful, hard-ass, authentic, fearless, compassionate, ethical, smooth, chivalrous, courageous, heroic,
The name BADASS will liberate many more than it will offend. There is NO other word that fits American teachers better than badass. Every citizen in the United States needs to be a riled up and empowered civically active badass at this time in history.-We are the change we have been waiting for!!
And who is the author of this Urban Dictionary?
No real Badass refers to themselves as a Badass.
The way the term is being used shows bluster, not strength, and is embarrassing.
Michael is right. It’s cringeworthy.
There are a lot of Baptist Badasses.
Funny Harlan! 🙂
Endearing comment! 🙂
We were very respectful in our letter to the church, we abbreviated it. I hand delivered it myself. What Dr. Ravitch was kind enough to print was an open letter to the public to raise awareness. Even if we did put ‘badass’ in the letter…I think it would be equally ironic that someone named ‘changemaker’ would take nothing away from this article except the word badass. What change would you like to make? The name of an organization or the future of our students?
Michelle Rhee has no shame!
Such a narcissistic sociopath who is the product and the generation calling all the shots. No ethics, egotistic, all knowing, no ability for empathy, no respect for intellect and experience….her mother knew all of this and stated this in the Frontline piece.
Civil Rights?
She will probably even go to a tanning salon to REALLY play the part.
Sick!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/mitt-romney-dyed-face-brown-fake-tan-univision_n_1900707.html
Situations like this make me wonder if the reformers are right. Maybe graduates of public schools are not of quality. How in the world can people like Michelle Rhee capture so much positive publicity and the public be duped into believing she has their back?
Maybe the billionaire’s media is too effective – beating out the critical thinking skills that our citizens should possess. Maybe our publicly educated citizenry just aren’t as good as our country’s media?
I’ll opt for there being a powerful media.
You may have a point ‘ME’ that the current generation of younger people can’t think critically. MY evidence that the public schools have failed in their self-professed mission of teaching “critical thinking” is that President Obama was elected and then REelected. What I suspect is that when a public school teacher talks about “critical thinking” she really means ‘critical of capitalism.’ The notion of ‘critical thinking’ in the older sense of logical thinking, of being able to see through propaganda, of being able to assess the validity of the logic in an argument has been totally lost, first in the colleges and universities, and then via the education schools, in the teaching cadre of the public schools. There’s a 1948 text book by Werkmeister titled CRITICAL THINKING that develops the older sense of what the phrase used to mean.
I would wager that most teachers in the public schools are fundamentally ignorant about logic, and have never even dipped so much as a pinky into Aristotle.
Harlan, please remember the rules of this blog. If it were mine, you’d be off in a second, after this one, “I would wager that most teachers in the public schools are fundamentally ignorant about logic…” You can parse name calling vs using a descriptive phrase all you want, but calling anybody “fundamentally ignorant” about anything is name calling.
Now name calling is something inappropriate which I have done, but this is not an occasion of it. It is a simple question of fact which I raise in my ongoing effort to understand the sources of the virulent attacks on the public education system. I do not understand the myth of its “failure,” the attacks on its personnel. The CCSS for ELA presuppose a rhetorical and logical sophistication in its implementers that I wonder how many teachers in elementary and secondary have. It is the common stuff for teachers of English in colleges. AP English Language know that stuff too. No intention to insult, just an inquiry about how well teachers are prepared to actually teach the skills adumbrated in the ELA CCSS. When Rendo tells me to crawl back into my petri dish, now THAT is name calling, as if I were some noxious bacterium, or when he asks me whether I’ve gone off my meds, as if I were some psychotic schizophrenic babbling crazy delusions that were totally detached from reality, now THAT is name calling. I don’t mind it. I’m not insulted. Even when ratto talks about the tinfoil hat crowd, or Linda calls me a narcissistic attention seeker, it doesn’t bother me. I have accepted the role of crazy clown here, RWNJ, when really I’m just seeking the reality behind the politics. I doubt ANY of us could have passed the medieval trivium (see Sr. Miriam Joseph’s book), even though the USA leads the world in technological innovation. The violence of your shaming reaction combined with its misidentification of what I am supposed to have done wrong suggests to ME that maybe I hit a nerve, got close to a truth. Is that the secret of the hostility of Jeb Bush, Arne Duncan, Rhee, ad infinitum, that they think teachers just don’t know very much, are just not intellectual enough? Sometimes I feel like the little boy in the story who pointed out that the king was naked, but everyone else was pretending he wasn’t. Is what I said so obvious that I can’t speak it? Are you a Catholic congregation, with Diane as your priest, and have I said “as far as I can tell, it’s just wafer and wine, whatever you say.” Have I inadvertently stumbled on the secret of the public school teacher?
Mark Ahlness,
This has been an issue before, and this time in my case, he has managed to paint me as a racist, which is absurd. He is articulate and he has style, but Harlan is also instigative and alarmingly immature . .
If only he were to edit his writing in such a way that would make the point he desires (after all, he is entitled to his POV) without, as you said, him belittling or insulting others.
I alas, have stooped to his level sometimes, and from now on, I am going to regulate myself accordingly.
It may be that he loves all this attention . . . . . . .
It may be that he loves all this attention . . . . . . .Yes….wish he could refocus his energy.
I am disgusted by how you judge mental generalizations. Obviously you never truly read Aristotle. If you did, you would note that he was in favor of an aristocracy of philosopher-kings running government. I assume you think Romney was a better fit for the country, however even you can’t be naive enough to believe him a philosopher. To paint all teachers with the same brush is shameful. Most are dedicated, caring PROFESSIONALS with, clearly, more education than you have been afforded.
Harlan, you are right: you did strike a nerve with teachers and did discover one of their secrests.
HU: “I do not understand the myth of its (public education’s) “failure, the attacks on its personnel.”
You don’t understand? Really?
HAVE you been reading the Ravitch blog? Have you been processing any of the discourse here? Have you been listening carefully and faithfully to what we have all been saying about the attack on teachers in public schools?
HU: “You’re not in favor of lynching Korean-Americans are you, however strongly you think their actions have damaged the schools?”
Harlan, you did not technically name call in your note to me in that particular comment, but your phrase choice and its semantics scream out the obvious. . . If I were to poll 100 literate people, I would venture to say that a large majority of them would conclude you were assigning me racist attributes even though you were posing it as a question.
I admit I did the same with my laboratory metaphor, and I should not have gone to that level. I stand corrected, in all sincerity to you and readers of the blog.
I never mentioned anything about Korea, Korean Americans, or lynchings. Do I really have to take the time here to spell out that I don’t approve of Michelle Rhee being literally tarred and feathered literally, but a metephorical application would be appropriate? Do I come off as that simplistic?
I realize in hindsite that I should have either not responded to the absurdity of your comment, or I should have pointed out that you are on the border once of again of violating blog rules. Instead, I think I might have violated them myself.
So I have learned a valuable lesson here and in a sense, have gained from the non-wisdom of my elders.
How sad . . . . .
All u say is bull
Take heart, Mr. Underhill, pretty soon you can discuss Aristotle with first graders–as per CCS!
I have such harsh words for Michelle Rhee that I could not possibly express them here in this forum.
Thank you, BATS! I was horrified when I learned of Rhee’s impending visit to Alabama.
Hijacking the Civil Rights Movement: The latest in a series of desperate slime ball moves by the Ed Deformation Gang.
It is disgraceful for Rhee to have anything to do with Civil Rights. Everything she is and does is a transgression against those who are sincerely committed to Civil Rights. If anyone there can hold an alternate, honest rally right outside — block the street, if need be — that would be wonderful. Heroes did not die for equality to have it mocked by the likes of this person.
And maybe it is time to believe in ghosts, if we don’t already, because I can think of many 16th Street Baptist Church child-loving spirits who will rise up before Michelle Rhee and silence her shameful performance before it ever begins.
Thank you Dr. Ravitch, once again, for your support. You inspire BATs daily! Also, thank you to John Merrow who provided most of the data for her reign of terror in DC. She should be run out of Birmingham!
No, Maria Kilfoyle.
She should be run out of the United States . . .
I know you are just being hyperbolic because of your emotion.
If you meant the words literally, it would raise questions about citizenship, charges, and so forth. Mob rule is not something you really endorse is it. In the old days, she might in fact have been run out of town, tarred and feathered, on a rail by mob action.
Oh, I’m just being silly, aren’t I? You’re not in favor of lynching Korean-Americans are you, however strongly you think their actions have damaged the schools?
Harlan,
Please . . . I beg you . . . Go back onto your medication if you’ve gotten off of it.
I am no racist. I am anti-Rhee. I hope you know the difference.
Rhee is a fraud and dangerous narcissist. She is brazen on top of that.
If you cannot fulfill my plea or choose not to interpret my sentiments accurately, then consider crawling back into the petri dish you came from . . . .
Plum Island eagerly awaits you.
Harlan…stop…get a grip…this has nothing to do with her heritage. Please don’t insult us…it’s her message, lies and her manipulation that is deceitful. She could be any skin color, religion, age, etc and she would still be a self promoting, lying, sociopathic fraud. Why defend her over hard working, dedicated, professional teachers?
A champion of civil rights would not profit on the backs of our most vulnerable,innocent, children.
Exactly.
Why Michelle Rhee is not being investigated (I used this verb and not “audited”) while Beverly Hall was pounced upon is an outrage and crime in itself.
Rhee is no hero for civil rights. She is perverse in her usage of the phrase.
Here is a link to an excellent article by Bruce Dixon reposted from Education Notes that compares and constrasts Beverly Hall to Michelle Rhee and the implications behind this dichotomy:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/hall_vs_rhee.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-was-atlantas-beverly-hall-indicted.html&usg=__Qh2lohjVyPNkyeYHv9isNkXqhzE=&h=333&w=444&sz=54&hl=en&start=317&zoom=1&tbnid=37y24jlG–Kq-M:&tbnh=95&tbnw=127&ei=9QYYUuj8OK6-4APq0oCwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drobert%2Brendo%2Beducation%26start%3D300%26um%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&sa=X&ved=0CEwQrQMwEDisAg
Rhee should be investigated and it seems strange that everyone doesn’t know about her crimes against public Ed. Maybe that’s our next frontier, the uncovering and bringing to justice these destroyers of our public school system. BAT, you rock!
Absolutely nauseating. Who on earth thinks she is doing anything to help the minority community? She is ruining the schools that are actually run by the public and helping to turn them over to profiteers ripping off minority communities. This is a joke. I hope people run her out of town or boo her out of town.
Yes . . .
The villagers did the same to Frankenstein, who unlike Rhee, was innocent. Rhee is the new equally hideous monster who is anything but innocent. . .
Hi Diane,
I saw this article on Slate.com and thought it would be something you were interested in. It was written after Steve Ballmer resigned from Microsoft. The name of it says it all, “The Poisonous Employee-Ranking System That Helps Explain Microsoft’s Decline.” “Reformers” want to use the same concept of ranking employees and firing those on the bottom of the rankings. Somehow, this is supposed to improve education? When, as the article says, it is universally derided by employees of Microsoft, and they have quotes employees talking about sabotaging others’ work just so that they could be ranked higher? How is this an idea that makes sense to anybody?
Students First is promoting teacher town halls in a few cities in the next few weeks. I think as many teachers need to go and speak out.
I think you’re right, Educator–educators and parents DO need to turn out–in droves–to protest. I also believe that she’s doing this to counter the release of Diane’s book. Suffice it to say she–and her ilk–are scared!
Unlike Rhee’s book, Diane’s will be a best seller, with staying power.
Michelle Rhee is the Elmer Gantry of the teaching profession. Perhaps I should have taken a swipe at her on this latest chapter on merit pay, but she’s just the lap dog of Bill Gates and Eli Broad. I did cite you, Diane, on the chapter on charter schools. How can anyone top what you wrote on charter schools in The Death and Life of the Great American School System? Keep up the much needed work! You’re the best! John Trotter.
http://themacemanifesto.com/2013/08/22/the-mace-manifesto-part-three-exhaling-rants-chapter-thirty-five-merit-pay-for-teachers-more-bullshit-from-bill-gates-eli-broad-and-arne-duncan/
When they ran her out of DC, she ran to Sacramento, married the mayor and is pouring the Kool-Aid from behind the scenes in our City schools . . . YIKES!!!!
Southern Poverty Law Center is challenging the Alabama Act that provides $3500 for “voucher” to private (e.g., non public, charter)… quote is from Cohen at the SPLC.
quote: “The reality is that thousands of children in Alabama…, most of them African Americans below the poverty line, are trapped in failing schools and cannot take advantage of the ACT because the cost of private schools is prohibitive and because the few public schools in adjacent counties that will take these students are not accessible… What’s more, the failing [i.e., public] schools will deteriorate further as money meant for public education is funneled into tax breaks for families with access to successful public and private schools,” Cohen quote from the Southern Poverty Law Center
“Students in the schools declared “failing” by the state are overwhelmingly poor; nine in 10 students in failing schools receive free or reduced lunch, making it difficult for their families to send them to successful private schools.”
THIS is the consequential validity of Duncan’s (Obama’s ) policy. The Southern Poverty Law Center understands….. Up and down the east coast the states are calling the students “failures” and “flunking”…. this is an effort to purposely harm students and destroy public schools. It is harmful to students and it is a purposeful policy by the politicians and the mandarins they have running the state education departments.
—————————————————————————————————-
footnote *Alabama Act, provides a $3,500 tax credit to help offset the cost of tuition and fees charged by private (read Charter) schools . Southern Poverty Law Center is suing because the law violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because it impermissibly creates two classes of students – those who can escape because of their parents’ income or where they live and those who cannot. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on behalf of eight students who in Wilcox, Russell, Barbour and Marengo counties.
Diane, please come to Birmingham and I’ll go with you as Rhee speaks at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. I’d love to see her face when she sees you in the audience.
I prefer to debate Rhee and hope that will happen. Working on it. Meanwhile, go hear her speak, listen respectfully, and ask questions.
Yes! We wish you could be here Diane!! Cathy, know that we are planning an event on the evening of the 12th. There will be a protest, even if she doesn’t speak at the church, wherever the town hall meeting is, that’s where we will be. If she does speak at the church, we will be there too!
Dear Ms. Rhee,
In the words of the immortal Jimi Hendrix:
“Castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually”
Look out girl cause the tide is rising.
OMG, that was brilliantly executed. It was not mealy mouthed nor was it impudent. Let’s face it, Michelle Rhee could pi** off a preacher, and she like every one of of these BRoadies, she has an imperious quality, an ability to loon benign lying glibbly, and so much venom when it comes to tainting teachers, it is like a cult. the conditioning is systematic. Bullies pretty much. They are those disrupters and they are corrosive. Just astonishing how lawless Broad’s drones are. They are apparently oblivious about protocol, empathy, academic freedom, civil rights, Miss Manners and not so common decency. Something has gotta give in LA soon. These folks on top of the white chalk criminal food chan as well as all those nepotists in in middle management are just too much.there teachers applying for food stamps. RiF positions. Are being filled with TFA, who rumor has it swiftly rebel themselves when confronted by the untenable conditions in the hoods. Deasy’s Dungeons go in shifts, and we cannot get an accurate count of the. Susual ties from our union, which has aggressively betrayed us. Now our union ismaking noise about the evaluation, serving the BOE…during a meeting. It is fairly obvious they want to play us. But we see how contentious relationships were cultivated and know why. We trusted our unions with too much. We need to tell them what is best, they serve us. Notice how they do not listen to teachers any more than the district.
I am no longer there, but I cannot leave the troops at the mercy lf those who have none. I can’t , not knowing what I do. This is war. They divide and conquer. We collaborate!
www,hemlockontherocks.com
Diane, Please keep us posted about any debate between you and Rhee. That would certainly be worth the price of admission. It will never happen, I am afraid. These folks like Gates and Broad (and their lap dogs like Rhee and Duncan) don’t want the exposure. In Georgia, I have challenged Mark Elgart, head of AdvancEd and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), to a public debate for several years now. I have said at any time and at any place, I will debate him about the capricious and arbitrary application of SACS’s so-called standards. SACS, to me, stands for Still Advocating for Cronies and Superintendents. Diane, I am glad that I came across your blog fairly recently. I believe that you are the strongest voice out there when it comes to “standing in the gap” for the teachers. At MACE, our mantra is that you can’t have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions. By the way, Rhee came to Georgia a little while back and the Georgia General Assembly had her to speak to it. The legislators sat in rapt attention, soaking up her snake-oil message. It was enough to make you want to chew tobacco, to quote my mother. Sickening. You guys have a good weekend! John Trotter.
I can’t thank you enough, Dr. Ravitch, for picking up our story. Education is the single thing that will save our schools from these reformers. The very thing that they fight to minimize and control is the only thing that will awaken and mobilize, if that statement doesn’t raise a red flag I don’t know what will. What is happening in the world of education reform is not only wrong, it is dangerous to the future of our country. The reformers may have billions of dollars, and they may be able to buy many politicians and media venues, but what they will never own is our spirit, our minds and our voices. We have the strongest weapon of all, but it seems we have forgotten it’s power. We must draw inspiration from those that have stood against the powerful Goliath in years past, and with great courage and conviction, stuck him down. We must continue in our struggle to educate everyone we meet about the truth behind our education reform movement. So many times in the past the American people have succeeded in creating change with nothing more than truth, the pen, our voice and the strength in numbers. I encourage everyone to write letters, make phone calls, write op ed pieces for your local papers, blog, etc. TALK and TAKE ACTION you know the Reformers are…..