Peter Greene, who teaches in Pennsylvania, read an interview in “US News” in which Arne Duncan claimed that our students fall behind those in other nations because we are “not serious” about education.
Greene agrees with Arne that our country is not serious about education.
If we took education seriously, he writes, teachers would be highly respected and well paid.
“If we were serious about education, we would not allow our public school system to be hijacked and dismantled by rich and powerful amateurs.”
“If we were serious about education, our media would direct its questions about education to teachers…
“If we were serious about education, we would never entrust our nation’s educational leadership to men who have no training or experience in education at all and who only listened to other men with no training or experience in education at all. If we were serious about education, we would demand leadership by people who were also serious about education, and we would demand leadership based on proven principles and techniques developed by people who truly cared about the education of America’s students.
“In short, Arne, if we were serious about education, we would not have you and your cronies running the Department of Education and popping up as “leaders” in the national discussion of education and more than we would be asking Robin Williams and Justin Bieber to straighten out the war in Afghanistan. If we were serious about education, we would send the whole wave of privateers masquerading as reformers scuttling back to their hedge funds and corporate tax havens….”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bravo, Peter Greene!
LikeLike
Whoa! That is right on.
LikeLike
The privateers are making up to 39% return on their capital investment. They aren’t scuttling anywhere. They are raking in the profits. The tax code allows this rip off & until we investigate and stop what allows this investment to happen, public schools will continue to diminish while charter schools are being refueled & expanded. But this, of course, is the agenda.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hoge/anita104.htm
LikeLike
Excellent link – thank you. You saw over the horizon way before the rest of us got there!
And from that link:
“Subject & main researcher for the book, Educating for the New World Order. My story is told about an incredible journey into the devious & deceptive operations of our government to change the values, attitudes & beliefs of American children to accept a new world order. “
LikeLike
A mention in Diane Ravitch’s blog and a “Bravo” from Mercedes Schneider– I’m feeling pretty fortunate today.
Now if only I hadn’t mis-typed “any more than” as “and more than”…
LikeLike
You nailed it and deserve the recognition. Our typos keep us all humble. I read right over it; we get it.
LikeLike
Peter —
Thank you!!
Would you send your wonderful comments to our local newspaper?(Chambersburg PA)
Editor@publicopinionnews.com (no attachments)
With typo correction, of course 😉
LikeLike
Amen, Peter Greene! Must say, you are one “grumpy old teacher” I find quite engaging. Thank you for clarifying things for Arne!
LikeLike
Arne’s comment is right up there with the one about criticizing “arm chair pundits.” Arne Duncan is a prime example why education is not taken seriously in this country. Here’s a guy who never taught a day in his life, used his Chicago connections to make a meteoric rise to “CEO” of Chicago schools and became Secretary of Education because his basketball buddy got elected President. He became the nation’s “Top Educator” based on who he knows – not what he knows.
LikeLike
Your comment is “all net”!
LikeLike
BAM!!!! THANK PETER!!!!
LikeLike
Perfect.
LikeLike
This is wroth quoting again…AMEN. Arne should never have been Sec. of Ed. for this nation. I I may use sports terms, Arne is at best a third stringer.
“In short, Arne, if we were serious about education, we would not have you and your cronies running the Department of Education and popping up as “leaders” in the national discussion of education any more than we would be asking Robin Williams and Justin Bieber to straighten out the war in Afghanistan. If we were serious about education, we would send the whole wave of privateers masquerading as reformers scuttling back to their hedge funds and corporate tax havens.”
LikeLike
Peter Greene has hit every valid point. Whatever happened to common sense ? Was it bought and then hidden by the arrogance of the ignorant? We better get our act together before it’s way too late. Our children are being short-changed and cheated.
LikeLike
Great comment .Pete .If they were serious about education, they would listen to the teachers and invite us to the table to share our ideas and thoughts about what really will work in our schools. Teachers are the ones on the frontlines each day. We hear the stories and troubles of our kids .. We understand what would work .I don’t get why they don’t get….Teachers are doing the job, not Duncan…:
LikeLike
Ditto on the “bravo” to Peter Greene! I would add.. if we were serious about education we would look into the illegalities of what is going on and probably be putting Arne Duncan in jail along with a host of other “ed reformers”.. Rhee, Bloomberg, Klein, Broad, Gates etc….. And imagine all those who are “CEO’s” of charter schools and regional public school districts who are busy colluding and making deals with the business world off the backs of our nation’s students and teachers (and citizens for that matter who pay taxes which are funneled to corporate ed raiders)!
LikeLike
Bloomberg +
Klein +
Gates +
Rhee +
Duncan +
King +
Tisch +
Coleman =
3 years of
public school
teaching
experience
Thats not just,
not serious,
that’s embarassingly
ridiculous
LikeLike
Interesting mathematics. Must be something from the Common Core . . .
LikeLike
Its a higher order algebra problem:
3(Rhee) + 7X = 3
LikeLike
NYS Teacher: oh how the accountabully underlings of the leading charterites/privatizers are regretting that EduMetric Maxim by one of their high priests:
“Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.” [Dr. Steve Perry, “America’s Most Trusted Educator” channeling rapper Jay-Z]
3(Rhee) + 7X = 3.
It — all — adds — up.
Go figure [a numbers/stats joke].
😎
LikeLike
That’s one data set that they will not advertise.
LikeLike
A very inconvenieant truth.
Would make a great billboard in Times Square!
LikeLike
Ah, then we should definitely all sit at the feet of these masters. So much to learn from all that accumulated experience! The masking-tape-over-the-mouth technique, for example, and eating bees in front of one’s class.
LikeLike
I have a phobia of bees. How did I miss this side of Rhee? I suppose on an unconscious level, I knew all along.
LikeLike
I ought to write a piece called “Why I Agree with Peter Greene.” His blog is one of my regular “must reads.”
LikeLike
Peter Greene captured our thoughts and feelings about Arne Duncan and his conception of being “serious about education”. There is nothing with ehich to argue: Duncan is a ignorant hack, whose raision d’être is to be a mouth piece, a tool, for the ‘reformers’. We have known all this about Duncan for ever so long. There is nothing new one can say about this sad excuse for an educator. Yet, he remains the mouth piece, representative, agent for the failed Obama ‘s putrid excuse for an education policy.
Why does Duncan remain at the helm of the DOE? There is an old policy that the ‘boss’ , in this case, Obama, is responsible for the actions of his ‘agent’, in this case, Duncan. I would proffer that we start directing our energies at the federal level, through our senators and reps, to holding the President’s feet to the fire regarding his choice to maintain Duncan. Concomittingly, we must ‘hit the bricks’ at he local level and begin to move local policies and implementations toward real reform.
Anything less than continuous political pressure on local, state and federal levels will condemn us to taking pot shots at the most obvious targets, while the true wielders of power remain free to wreck havoc on public school education.
It is all fine and good and brings a fair amount of pleasure to skewer and attack Duncsn, Gates, Rhee and their ilk on this and other blogs. But, the far more demanding business of destroying these false gods, pseudo experts and leaders must be the next order of business.
LikeLike
If I may add a bit to one of your statements: “There is nothing new one can say about this sad excuse for a SUPPOSED educator.”
LikeLike
If we were truly serious about education, “nonprofit” charter schools would not have boards of directors made up of investment bankers and their ilk.
LikeLike
Follow
The Broad Center
@BroadCenter
.@neeravkingsland: It is only by giving up power that we can truly understand the heights of what educators & families can achieve #TBCForum
These people are nuts.
I got news for politicians. If they continue to “relinquish” public schools over to these private foundations and unelected boards they are going to find out what “giving up power” is like, on a very personal level, when they find themselves unemployed.
LikeLike
But Peter, Arne has all that experience. He, uh . . . let’s see . . . uh . . .
and all that scholarly expertise; see, for examples, his work on . . . uh . . . uh . . . .
OK. He plays basketball with Obama, and he does what he’s told by the oligarchy.
LikeLike
Thank you, Peter!!
And, to everyone else posted here, your comments are spot on. NYS Teacher….your higher order algebra problem is absolutely priceless!!
LikeLike
If we took education seriously we would not have a no talent like Duncan.
NYS Republicans are ready to ditch the Common Core. Where do I register to become a Republican?
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/01/8538872/testing-data-bills-face-competition-senate
LikeLike
Don’t get too excited. One of Flanagan’s financial backers is Michelle Rhee’s Students’ First. Flanagan’s bill about data collection is silent on parents’ rights to withhold data, which is why King and Tisch support it. The bill the assembly passed last year, which Flanagan refused to introduce in the senate, is the stronger bill.
LikeLike
Here is the Bill,
http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S6007-2013
there are limitations to parent’s ability to opt out due to the Federal law FERPA.
It appears that districts can opt out, which will satisfy the high income areas.
I assume that Michelle Rhee has money in many pockets. thanks for the update and being vigilant Nimbus
LikeLike
And…again…the Test…the Over-Testing….over and over…Burn Out..
Arne has not a clue……..none….zilch..zero….
“One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not.
This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”
― Albert Einstein
Goodreads.com
LikeLike
Peter Greene is right! We are sitting back allowing public education to be over-run by people who know nothing about learning and the human brain. They only know about money and the power it brings to them.
LikeLike