Jonathan Pelto has collected a long list of posts by bloggers around the nation, reacting to Duncan’s amazing statement that “white suburban moms” are opposed to Common Core because they were disappointed to discover that their child is not so brilliant after all.
This is one of those remarks that just does not fade away and can’t be explained away as a misquotation or taken out of context.
The meaning was all too clear.
Arne Duncan has a low opinion of American students and thinks their parents are pampering them, and to add to the insult, he thinks it is time they were all taken down a peg or two, along with the esteem in which parents hold their local community public schools.
As the World War I poster famously said, “Loose lips sink ships.”
This ship is a leaky rowboat.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There is a deeper meaning to Duncan’s response to people who are battling Common Core. Here is the entire quote:
“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary,” Duncan said. “You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on, ‘My child’s going to be prepared.’ That can be a punch in the gut.”
This quote goes deeper to the fact that what is being taught in the Common Core is not going to be based purely on academics. The tests are changing. Just because you moved to a wealthier school district so your child could get a “good” education, your child will fail the new tests. If your school doesn’t teach the new standards, your teachers will be punished because the students are failing the tests. “You’ve bet everything on” the fact that you worked really hard to buy that house in the suburbs with good schools, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Your kids will fail the new tests if your school only teaches academics.
Click to access ILN%20Knowledge%20Skills%20and%20Dispositions%20CCR%20Framework%20February%202013.pdf
Common Core is a power shift away from local control. It will standardize education by creating a de facto national curriculum. And then, a national test to measure those standards. Your neighborhood school must change.
Duncan is actually saying, your schools in wealthier school districts must change too, because this business model of schooling needs accountability to what we want them to teach.
What is “pretty scary” is that Duncan has another agenda in mind when he blurted out this statement about white suburban moms.
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EXACTLY, Anita! He is attempting to foment distrust of the suburban public school system, so that parents will say,”My child’s school is failing–hie thee to the nearest charter!”
That is what it’s all about. Unfortunately, Arne, we’re too smart for you. Several writers have asked if this was a “clever ruse” on Arne’s part. Transparent (how refreshing!) stupidity is more like it!
Just like in Brooklyn, we will NOT allow you to CHARTERIZE OUR EXCELLENT SUBURBAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
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It was easy for Duncan to create a ‘ disruptive force” in order to close many schools in the URBAN ( poor) public school districts
and open charter schools.
There were some areas of protest in parts of the country but t since these schools were severely underfunded ( some say this was planned) lacked resources, and needed to be reformed, most parents were told that charter schools would be an improvement over public schools.
Even though there was a media black out of coverage about the corporate education reform movements intention to privatize public education.
There was minimal, occasional national coverage by TV ( corporate) news about a large number school closings in some urban areas throughout the US.
This corporate takeover in urban SD was so easy for Duncan.
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Now he moves into the suburban public school districts….
I wondered what would happen when he tried to push his charter school agenda into the suburban districts that are successful and not failing.
The parents and administrators have been outspoken about their disapproval of interference in their PUBLIC schools.
They are protesting any changes and do not want to give up local control of their schools.
Their protests, along with social media ( since there still is not enough news coverage of this issue) ….will not allow Duncan to destroy suburban public education. There voices will become louder.
The Common Core standards and the RTTT were designed with the goal of privatizing public education, just like the NCLB.
By making his negative comment about suburban moms, he may have ignited the protest.
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Since most Federal and State congressmen know nothing about education, I have been writing emails and sending links of articles about education to a few senators to inform them.
Especially any senators that are on the education committee…..because if all they hear about is the corporate Ed reformers, then they will vote for charter schools and vouchers, and thus give the corporate ed reformers what they want.. This is a bipartisan issue.
Congress needs to hear the truth from citizens, about the corporate Ed reformers agenda to destroy public education in America and the planned withholding of funding….and about addressing poverty effects on school children.
When a large number of citizens contact the congress expressing their opposition to an issue ( Like Obamacare, and opposition to using military strikes against Syria), there was a response from congress. Let them hear our voices.
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Folks, don’t forget to sign the petition! We need 100,000 signatures.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-arne-duncan-secretary-education/w0DYCDDm
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He definitely has shown his true colors. I really don’t understand what he thinks he is achieving by backing these ridiculous ideas for education.
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Friends are selling Bumper Stickers— contact me for further information.
We are hoping that a Fascinating White Suburban Mom who travels in Washington , DC will put one of these bumper stickers on her subaru, and that it will be seen by the drivers of all of those really high end cars in DC.
Marge
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Obama’s overall approval rating is now at an all-time low, caused by an 8% drop in approval among suburbanites since October.
No report on whether all suburbanites, or just WSMs were polled.
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“The drop in Obama’s approval rating comes entirely among suburbanites,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Compared to the October CNN poll, positive views of Obama held steady among people who live in big cities and rural areas. But in the suburbs, his approval rating was 45% a month ago but has dropped to just 37% now.”
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The buck stops at the White House.
Too bad we all didn’t vote for Jill Stein.
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IMO – This sitting President has been a HUGE disappoint, particularly regarding his policies on education, and his appointment of a non-educator for the Department of Education.
So much for “hope and change”. If the President is concerned about his legacy, he better get to work pretty fast to repair the damage he’s done to our educational system with his “reforms”.
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Larry Summers was quoted this week as defending his teacher daughter and saying that “Blaming teachers” will not fix the systems.
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Professor Rotella from Boston College writes in the Boston Globe “opinion page”. Globe is gated but you should be able to get it here: http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/11/22/secretary-duncan-speaks-his-mind-for-once/NZ8AhKjzyoUNIUSHItPKwN/story.html
Or, just google “Rotella” Arne Duncan speaks his mind”
Rotella clearly describes the Orwellian nature of “speak” by using the description of Lego talk — like stringing phrases together (Sarah Palin does something similar but hers is even more jumbled where Arne’s is just parroting what they taught him in the billionaire boys club that it was OK to say these things but he misses the logic so he strings phrases together — he has his own transformational grammar).
The article by Rotella gets to the issue of low income vs more affluent school neighborhoods but he doesn’t really clinch the deal and backs off a little from the
point; he also tends to say that the education profession obfuscates and so does Arne Duncan so a “pox on both their houses” which is not a useful rhetorical argument in this case.
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Are any of us sure that Arne was College & Career ready ?
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If I may change your wording a bit:
Are any of us sure that Arne is College & Career ready ?
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LOL!!! Your wording is much better!!
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He wasn’t career ready because he never made it to the NBA.
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If I may re “loose lips sink ships”: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is the Captain Uncourageous of the Ship of Fools called “$tudent $ucce$$.”
Or as he would have said in an earlier era, “The best thing to happen to shipbuilding is when the Titanic hit an iceberg.”
😡
I for one applaud his making public what is usually kept out of sight within the inner circles of the leading charterites/privatizers.
“A Secretary of Education is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself contemptuous of white suburban moms.”
A mangled quote from Mark Twain, but—I think he would heartily approve!
😎
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Is there any truth to the rumor that much like New York Commissioner of Education, Arne also has body guards ?
I guess Fantastic White Suburban moms are indeed a force to be reckoned with if that is indeed the case!!
Marge
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There is an agenda here. Don’t miss the point. Ask yourself this question. Why are children in wealthy white suburban schools failing the test when their entire education curriculum is preparing their students to go to college? The tests are changing. The focus is away from teaching and learning to training.
This agenda was set out in the Department of Labor, Secretaries Commission for Achieving Necessary Skills, SCANS. The Common Core & College Career Citizenship standards are just a continuation of that agenda. ASPIRE, Work Keys, Engage are part of ACT’s new workforce diploma, National Career Readiness Certificate, which includes “soft skills.” BTW, it was ACT that developed Common Core before the CCSSO & NGO copyright.
Of course students are failing the test. The “punch in the gut ” is how the system is changing away from academics.
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Believe me, I GET the point !!
Marge
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Don’t know about the bodyguards, but commish King likes to compare himself to another King, who actually promoted civil rights. It is time for parents, teachers, and administrators to fight for the “civil rights issue of our time”: local control of education, parental rights to keep their children’s educational data private, and repeal of RTTT (state by state) and NCLB. Do any politicos or media types want to join us?
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Another Twain quote that speaks of Arne:
“We are always hearing of people who are around seeking after the Truth. I have never seen a (permanent) specimen. I think he has never lived. But I have seen several entirely sincere people who thought they were (permanent) Seekers after the Truth. They sought diligently, persistently, carefully, cautiously, profoundly, with perfect honesty and nicely adjusted judgment- until they believed that without doubt or question they had found the Truth. That was the end of the search. The man spent the rest of his hunting up shingles wherewith to protect his Truth from the weather.”
The weather has been turning bad lately.
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It is looking remarkably like China’s Cultural Revolution to me. I don’t think anyone with any sense would repeat that debacle. It took them years to recover from that agenda and Obama and his buddies are trying to institute it here. Come on people, we know better than that! This is America. The Chinese must be horrified by it and are also laughing at us, at the same time. It just makes them that much more competitive against us because they are actually continuing to educate their citizens. Without confusion or excuses.
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Jonathan–you forgot NYC Educator’s “Secretary of Stupidity.”
As always, a gem from NYCEd.
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I was a white suburban student and graduated magna cum laude (Phi Beta Kappa) from SUNY at Buffalo. I have three daughters who were also raised in suburbia and they graduated from college. Who do you think works and pays the taxes which pay your salary, Mr Duncan?
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We fascinating suburban women pay taxes and vote. Mr. Dunce an has been elbowed one too many times while playing basketball — he has forgotten that our taxes pay his salary. Conveniently Commissioner King has also forgotten who pays his salary.
Marge
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Please sign and share my petition to remove Duncan as U.S. Secretary of Education. We need the petition to go viral. Obama, Duncan, and all other government officials who have sold out to the corporate reformers need to know that this is not a black, white or hispanic issue. It is not an urban, suburban, or rural issue. It is an issue of what is appropriate for our children. They need to understand that they will be held accountable for what they say and that we will not sit idly by as they attempt to trivialize our concerns and gloss over them.
http://wh.gov/lBfnJ
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Hello – I signed the petition. I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand why we continue to allow ourselves to be treated like mindless puppets. Each and every day, parents send their child to school. They trust us as teachers and administrators to treat their child as we would want our own child treated. The child that is coming to us is the very best that parents are sending us regardless of their color of skin or zip code. It is our responsibility to provide each and every child with every opportunity to learn and to feel joy and comfort while in our care. We soothe away their worries and wipe away their tears. We encourage them and tell them we can teach them, and that not everyone learns everything at exactly the same pace because we are all very individual in our backgrounds and learning styles. We ask the children and parents to trust us, and they do. Please tell me why we would continue to follow along a path that is harmful. We know how the testing is demoralizing children. We know that they are getting physically sick and vomiting on their test papers . We know that many more of them are frequent fliers to the nurse’s office , yet we continue to follow along a crash course. Why would anyone in their right mind even buy a ticket when being told the airplane is literally being built as we speak. What a gross injustice to each and every one of us as thinking, caring human beings. Fear is the mind killer. Step up. Why would we allow ourselves to maltreat children? That old saying—-” would you jump off of a bridge just because someone told you to–” plays over and over in my mind. If we know better, and we do— why would any of us allow ourselves to be placed in a position where we knowingly maltreat innocent children? Why?
I apologize in advance for any spelling, or punctuation errors in the aforementioned text– but I am typing this with my little finger on a very small screen at 3:30 in the morning.
Marge
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The corporate education reform movement’s plan to takeover public education and open charter schools has bipartisan support.
I came across this response to Duncan from the right:
http://michellemalkin.com/2013/11/18/a-brown-skinned-suburban-mom-responds-to-common-core-bigot-arne-duncan/
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