EduShyster has a great idea for a splendid holiday meal; she calls it “reform turducken.” What, you may ask, is that?
Here is her definition:
“Oe reformy idea stuffed into another and into another, all clad in an innocuously glistening exterior.”
In this case, the meal starts with the acknowledgement that great teachers matter; that teachers are underpaid; and that great teachers should be paid more.
How to pay great teachers more when the size of the pie is the same?
Ah, here is the secret:
“In fact the hater at the table (OK, it’s me) might point out that the entire thrust of our years-long-reform-a-thon is to figure out how to pay the majority of teachers less so as to free up dough for extra *stuffing*: the ever-expanding schmorgasboard of gizmos, test-preppery and achievement gap closure devices that our students so fiercely and urgently need. And don’t forget the gravy. A reformer can’t live by stuffing alone!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
…with emphasis on the michelle rhee ‘TURD’….
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Please don’t forget the gravy in this case “the gravy train” for all the corporate profiteers.. what is “thanksRheeform giving” without the gravy boat! In fact there is so much gravy that there is this new “rheeform” meal called gravy soup. Teachers and students are hungry for turkey and searching for knowledge in a sea of expensive corporate gravy that is loaded with salt and fat without the nutrition but is very very expensive and required! Those gravy manufacturers sure know where the money is at!
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Diane, we need you to speak to the issue of rubber rooms ( NYC) and teacher jails (LA) directly. So many veterans and whistle blowers are targeted and fired illegally we cannot believe the media refuses to report what we are put through,it is like there is a conspiracy to keep truth a bay. To make matters worse when teachers learn of fallen colleagues they tend to be intimidated . After all a trip to teacher jail means your career is likely To end sooner than later, reputations are ruined, and many of us are unemployable despite decades of unstained service.
I know of four teachers myself who were sent to an early grave because of the stress of being disciplined harshly for false allegation or utter nonsense, LAUSD has a a long history of corruption, which includes concealing child abuse, and I have plenty of evidence of that as well as of the a propensity for reprisals against teachers who abide a duty to report or stand up for students. As that variety of casualty, I did not lose nearly as much as teachers about to vest, people who spent their whole life teaching which means a lot of sacrifices when you work in LA hoods, which is where the Broadies have been installed and trained to build cases against innocent teachers—there is something so devestating about this for most of them. Depression, PTSD,anxiety disorders are all too common among inmates
I have been fighting back because that is my nature. I tend to be scrappy, but in my work now, I know that this injustice may never be corrected because teachers are not defended even by themselves. Teachers are expendable, and this is true with TFA shipped Ien mass by Wakmart Waltions to replace teachers who worked longer than they have been alive and RIFs that may be over 17, O00 large in LA alone
We are not afforded any kind of respect.
The whistle blowers in Atlanta broke the story about the cheating scandal. They were fired for that, and there were a few of them who were hitting the skids I found out in comments in articles that covered it. One teacher was all but homeoess after a year unemployed and fruitless searches for work. Teachers who exposed the truth never made those articles though, not even the ones I read recently covering the trial where teachers and other staff were convicted while the superintendent who got millions in bonuses was acquitted.
This is a travesty.in Atlanta –those teachers did not have a union,and the agencies they should have recieved assistance from were not willing to confront the false charges — mostly ethics violations for defaming cheating colleagues ( who all testified they only cheated to keep their jobs) for what they are: wrongful termination. Even whistle blower protection was unwilling to take their cases, stating teachers are held up to another standard. What standard are we talking about? I do not think we signed on to be martyrs . Some of us are taking bullets for our students and some of us are talking the fall for billionaires and corrupt educRAT$,
How would you feel if you were.NBC, teacher of the year, department chair and at a school so long the students you knew as a younger woman were colleagues and parents who respected you, you were very close to vested, looking forward to retirement and yeah, burnt out because you have 45 students in a class, an administration stafff that does nothing but disrupt and look for reasons to write up you and others on their poop list ?
All these years there has never been a memo in your file and there were administrators in the past you had conflicts with but none made up crap about you or orchestrated witch hunts. Then one day you end up in a cold dead office full of suits who cal you criminal and show you off like side show freaks in cubicles where you must sit quietly all day without technology or conversing? You never got to explain why you were gone to students. All your colleagues assume you are a sadist, wacko, or pervert because they share the public perception of teacher jails. A misconception you shared until you landed there.
The suits address the charges againszt you and other being detained as if they are irrefutable facts and your union rep is clearly not invested in your defense., due process or the evidence you have . You find out there are innocent teachers who have sat in LAUSD teacher jail for four years on absurd charges, Little, if any real investigation takes place, despite the nature of the claims, believe me dozens of tteachers will confirm that police are rarely called and CTC has not been informed of these allegations despite a law that Giov Browin passed that mandates district officials to reportb to CTC and parents. Brown even alluded to Miriamonte ES as the inspiration for the stricter version of a law in place . There was very little coverage of the this a couple monthes ago. But LAT added insult to injury by using a misleading headline that screams something about teacher dismissal laws .
No one can say youre not doing enough. Well, they may as a few do , but that doesn’t make them right. However, there are stories about these abuses that have been oppressed and shamed by way of Bloomberg and Deasy’s less than subtle assault on teachers. A clerk at CTC told me that LAUSD has a habit of trying to unload the dirty work on to the commission. Many, myself included, we’re reviewed and left in good standing. I did not defend myself. Why should I ? I did nothing wrong. Even the commission could tell that much based on the district’s dubious documentation
In the last year and a half, the local district (offices (8 ) have become places that house 100s of teachers in 2-3 2!)hour shifts . They are accused of what Deasy decribeages egregious misconduct , implying the worst. But id having anti-bacterial soapi a the classroom sink a firing offense? . Grabbing a wayward child ‘s hand to pull him back in line , asking for a transfer, teaching the myth of Adam and Eve , getting punched in the face by a student and disarming a violent student are a few of the reasons LAUSD incarcerates students . In NYC Franceesco Portelos iris sitting in an office because he stumbles across his administrator ‘s felonious theft of school fund. He has I compelling evidence . Though they agreed to end the rubber rooms, another NYC teacher assumesd her win at a hearing meant she will be returned to class . Instead she is sent to sit in an office, in Phillideplphia Hope Moffettt spoke out when promises to let her school remain open if test scores went up. Students made glorious gains. The kids wanted to save their school,l These remarks in aa meeting landed her in a basement. I believe housed teachers , wrongfully terminated teachers and many other really need an an advocate and the truth to come up. Most cam cut the losses of income, benefits and reputations , but realizing justice is a lie is something most of us will ever get over.
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I cringe whenever I hear “great teacher”. I am reminded of a veteran teacher questioning a reformy writer on C-SPAN. He commented on the writer’s frequent use of the phrase great teacher. Then he asked if, in the wake of all the reforms, there would still be room for good teachers.
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