Peter Goodman, a political analyst who is close to the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, concludes that the November elections are looking increasingly bleak for President Obama and the Democrats. It is beginning to look like Democrats could lose control of the Senate, which would leave Obama with little more than veto power.
This could have serious consequences. Credit Obama with two excellent Supreme Court appointments–Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. With a Republican Senate, there would be no more. A Republican House and Senate would spend two years rolling back whatever Obama has done.
The election will turn on motivating core constituencies and getting them out to vote.
One of the most loyal Obama blocs has been teachers. To say the least, they are angry and alienated by Arne Duncan’s policies.
There are three million teachers who may sit on their hands on Election Day because of the misguided policies of Race to the Top.
Goodman says that if President Obama has any hope of winning back the teacher vote, he must fire Arne.
That would be a start. But he also would have to fire Ted Mitchell, who was just confirmed as Undersecretary of Education. Mitchell is a prominent proponent of privatization, charters, and for-profit colleges. Almost all of Duncan’s assistant secretaries share his love of high-stakes testing.
Would Obama fire his basketball buddy? Not likely. But what if he could find a new job for him in another agency or make him an ambassador? If control of the Senate is the prize, firing Arne might not be such a bad idea.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a member of No Common Core Maine, I brought this very same point to the Democratic speaker of the Maine legislature, Mark Eves, a few weeks ago, after the GOP greatly strengthened it’s anti-CCSS platform. (Which was the result of a floor amendment by another No Common Core Maine member.) I haven’t had a response yet.
I fear this is another sign of Democrats who can’t or won’t face the fact that Obama has been nothing by a cover for the corporatization of our government. From Rham Emanuel to Arne Duncan, to Keystone XL, to many other projects, the Obama administration is simply the governmental agents of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
The real question isn’t about Obama’s loyalty to Arne Duncan; these guys will throw each other under the bus in a nonsecond for the right price. The real question is whether Obama’s loyalty to Bill Gates and Robert Rubin is greater than his loyalty to America.
How’s that view of the bus’s transmission for you?
LikeLike
Now, if you could all just come to see that Obama’s policies in every other area of life are as equally flawed as is his education policy, that would be the beginning of wisdom. In a sense your position on Obama is your own high stakes testing. So far you’ve flunked.
LikeLike
I wish you conservatives would stop yelling at the TV and turn off Foxnews. The most amazing case of denial is the insistence failed “free market” trickle on policies have worked. Unbridled, pure “free” markets lead to society collapse, exploitation of resources, and slavery. Read your history. Libertarianism is a sociopathic ideology, born out of convenience, and sustained by privilege.
Believe it or not, everyone who questions our society and economic system is not a socialist, or communist, or Marxist, or traitor, or unAmerican, or evil. We don’t need another McCarthy.
DeGrasse Tyson has been running an excellent series called “Cosmos” Sunday nights. Last night was one of the best. Not only did he warn about the destruction of our world by our own hands and human ignorance, he suggested our economic system is failing. His assertion is our modern economies evolved in a time when resources were viewed as unlimited and the Earth infinitely resilient. But humans have intelligence as an adaptation for survival – not much else relative to other animals who see better, run faster, swim longer, produce more offspring quicker, and are hardier.
So why do conservatives deny reasoning, critical thought, and USING our survival tool of intelligence? Why suppress the voice of educators and scientists? Clearly, our economic system is failing. Too many people are going hungry, live a subsistence life, and are denied access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Too much wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few. These trends strongly correlate with the decline of organized labor and the rise of Reagan-esque deregulation and globalization. Economists seem stuck and unable to innovate ideas to improve the economy. But to be fair, it is a new field. It is not “socialism” to look around and say “we can do better”.
LikeLike
Thank you MathVale for your response to Harlan. You beat me to it. Libertarianism was a social construct of the wealthy to maintain their power by presenting the illusion that the proles could rise to their status while making darn sure that would never happen. We have decent living conditions because we banded together and wrested concessions from the robber barons, otherwise there would be no 40 hour work week, no safety regulations, no clean air and water standards. Harlan, read Hobbes Leviathan. Government is often necessary or else anarchy results. Libertarianism isn’t freedom, is is mass misery. Together we can build a better life. Once again, MathVale, thanks for your response.
LikeLike
I generally admire DeGrasse Tyson, but if he suggested that modern economics views resources as unlimited and the earth infinitely resilient, he was mistaken. Economics is all about scarcity and the impact it has on our lives.
LikeLike
Without having watched the show, I would guess that Tyson was talking about economies (as Mathvale first says above), not economics or economists. And I would assume that he was specifically talking about the fact that most if not all economic activity today relies on a supply of fossil fuel that not long ago, for all practical purposes, was regarded as essentially unlimited. Just a guess — I probably should watch it to see if I’m right.
LikeLike
TE, Neil de Grasse Tyson is smarter than you.
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/19/creationists_now_losing_their_minds_because_neil_degrasse_tyson_explained_electricity/
LikeLike
Possibly, many are.
It is still the case that economics is all about dealing with scarcity.
LikeLike
Methinks you do protest too much, MathVale. (English teacher type quiz: Identify the allusion and explain how it applies to MathVale’s post)
Reaganomics actually worked. Its wisdom is what we are missing now. The amount of ignorance of economics exhibited by liberals, and their consequent policy choices, rises to the level of un-American, Marxian, socialist treason, in my hyperbolic opinion. Chief example: President Obama.
LikeLike
Or, it’s more intellectual and reasonable to consider policy areas on their own merits. Obama’s policies in the health care area have turned out mostly positively, as has his policies in other areas. I can call Obama an abject failure on education without saying the untrue equivalent on other policies. You would have us paint Obama with a broad bush for your obvious partisan reasons. No dice.
LikeLike
For you, Harlan, the main reasons to distrust and dislike Obama are because of the few decent, “halfway” steps he’s taken, such as “The Affordable Healthcare Act” (a.k.a. “Obamacare”)
Most of us on these pages are angry or disappointed with President Obama because he ran as a progressive but has governed as a pro-corporate centrist/moderate conservative, just to the right, quite seriously, of such long-disappeared Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford and even Richard Nixon. (Yes, Obama’s policies are even to the right of Nixon’s policies—-despite the respective IMAGES of both men and their presidencies.)
You, Harlan, wouldn’t like Obama unless he publicly declared he was entirely wrong in the past, denounced everything good he had ever done and said he was now in favor of all right-wing, Tea Party policies and would work to undo whatever good he had once done, like the AHA.
Oh, but you’d probably want Obama to also say he was going to replace Arne Duncan with Former DOE Secretary, William Bennett and “double-down” in his commitment to charters and constant standardized testing.
THEN, I suspect you “might” be happy but you still might not be satisfied as long as his surname remained “Obama” and his skin color remained what it is.
Isn’t that right, Harlan?
LikeLike
Ah, the race card. His skin color has nothing to do with my judgement on his policies. You rabid liberals seem to always resort to yelling “RACIST” when someone disagrees with you. Actually, the administration is doing the same thing, probably in an attempt to stir up race conflict and hate in order to divert attention from the total failure of everything the President has attempted in the run up to the 2014 congressional elections. If enough voters can be energized by cries of “racism” of “war on women (i.e. no free contraceptives), of resegregation of society, perhaps no one will notice how President Obama’s and the Democrat policies have hurt their core constituency more than anything an Republican has ever done.
And I even find your name calling of ‘racist’ as totally hypocritical. You don’t care a hoot about racial equality only bashing conservatives. Evidence, your attitudes toward Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams,
Thomas Sowell, Sen. Scott, Ben Carson, et. al. Any black conservative is a threat to liberalism, because they provide examples of African Americans who have figured out the lies you tell them. It could dump your whole enterprise, couldn’t it, if patriotic black Americans in any numbers discovered how much you want to keep them down in order to profit from their blind votes.
Don’t think I don’t know what you are doing.
However, you ARE right that he would have to recant and repent to satisfy me. This he will never do.
You are deeply mistaken about the positive effects of the ACA. You’ll see, as the provisions kick in. Total repeal is the only answer.
LikeLike
Puget Sound Parent nailed it. Harlan, when you categorically reject a politician’s policies, no matter what they are, it isn’t because of “judgment”. It’s because of something else.
LikeLike
You are entitled to your own conclusions about my motivations, of course, but I assure you it isn’t from any racist impulse. Sure, I’m conservative politically, but that doesn’t equate to old-time Jim Crow racism, which was, if you remember dominated by Democrats. I just don’t like most liberal or progressive policies. If it were racism that motivated me I would be able to say I treasure Clarence Thomas, Tomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Senator Scott, and my favorite person of color and achievement, Dr. Ben Carson. I still have hope that this forum is DIFFERENT from the national media dominated political posturing designed to increase racial division to keep the African American vote.
So, feeling I have disposed of the racism charge (again), and assuming that you are an honest person, If you care to say anything more, I’d like you to mention even ONE policy President Obama has adopted and promoted that is a “good” policy.
LikeLike
in the comment above, “I would not be able to say”
LikeLike
Harlan, you’ve exposed the hypocrisy of the Left.
LikeLike
Harlan, you’ve exposed the hypocrisy! Well done.
LikeLike
And yet Mr. Goodman did nothing when teachers marched on Washington demanding an end to RTTT. And, he applauded the Gates initiatives. For the UFT to now call for Duncan’s resignation is too little too late. This is what happens when you disrespect the people you claim to represent because Randi, Gates and Duncan have had a close relationship despite the dismantling of public ed. They gave Obama an early endorsement without demanding a Duncan resignation. This president is committed to RTTT and has made it clear he doesn’t support public ed.
We lost control of Congress during Obama’s first term in office and did nothing then to turn the tide. And, the majority of Democrats support privatization now that they are getting their pockets lined by the likes of ALEC.
LikeLike
Peter Goodman’s blog posts are in general a proxy for the views and policies of Unity Caucus, which controls the UFT and AFT, so it appears that Weingrew has come to the conclusion that ol’ Arne has outlived his usefulness.
No matter, he’ll be replaced by someone who’s a little less politically radioactive, but who intends to pursue the same privatization agenda. Whoever is selected from the ranks of edu-privateers, rest assured Randi will collaborate with them.
It’s what she does.
LikeLike
Here’s a litmus test for you: Do you support approval of the Keystone pipeline which would create jobs and lower energy costs and thus promote economic growth, or do you still adhere to the crony capitalism of wind and solar and phony environmentalism?
In supporting Obama, public school teachers are placing themselves on the wrong side of everything. Can one have any sympathy for you if you are stabbing yourself in your own back?
Stop smoking the hookah of socialism and wake up and smell the fresh fields of free market capitalism. Teach individualism and self-reliance even though you yourselves as government bureaucrats are not good illustrations of it. You owe it to your students.
LikeLike
Phony environmentalism? Please.
LikeLike
Actually, keystone will raise the price of gas in red states due to the loss of the interior discount. Should be fun to watch.
LikeLike
There is no such thing as “free market capitalism”. Someone is going to control the markets and that will be whoever the most powerful player(s) is/are. Currently we have fascism, which is the power of government being used in the service of corporatism. Socialism – the power of the people – is the only check left on that power, if the people will stand up and assert their power.
LikeLike
Economists use the concept of perfect competition in much the way physicists use the concept of a perfect vacuum: It greatly simplifies the analysis, allowing us to get things approximately right. Of course some markets are more competitive than others, but entry is a powerful force.
LikeLike
Except that economists, especially those of the neoliberal stripe, have gotten very little right for at least 30 years now.
LikeLike
I think that you meant command and control of entry to markets is a powerful force, correct?
LikeLike
You might talk to AOL about that, or GM, or IBM, or Yahoo, or Kodak, and even my local coffee shop.
LikeLike
or Pearson or Microsoft
LikeLike
Microsoft is rapidly losing market share. I would think about Cengage before Pearson.
LikeLike
I would think about both. These companies have their fangs in EVERYWHERE. Often, it isn’t even obvious that they are there, for they have many, many partnerships, equity stakes, joint ventures, collaborations. Ed Defprm will, of course, be HUGE for Microsoft. These people are good long-term strategists and can afford to be because of their monopoly position. Pearson and Microsoft are collaborating on computer-adaptive educational software tagged to the new national bullet list, BTW.
LikeLike
You might use your Commodore to post the entry to MySpace using Wordstar (like George Martin). People can look at it using IE 5.0.
LikeLike
Or you might be a small company with a new textbook product trying to get it listed in a state run by education department officials who worked for Pearson before they took their current jobs and will work for them again when they leave those jobs.
LikeLike
or the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth, also known as the CCSSO.
LikeLike
For example, TE, you might talk to the guys who created WordPerfect and Lotus 1, 2, 3 about how someone wanted to enter their markets and happened to have a widely used operating system and so told computer manufacturers, if you want to continue shipping my OS, you have to include on every PC you ship a FREE copy of my Office software, which resulted in both WordPerfect and Lotus going under and a monopoly in Office software for the company that leveraged its monopoly on PC operating systems
LikeLike
At my house we have OSX, Linux, and Windows machines. Students here are increasingly using Chrome books.
LikeLike
and how long did that take, TE?
LikeLike
How long did what take?
LikeLike
or that same startup educational publishing company trying to sell its product in a state that has a curriculum portal owned and operated by Pearson or McGraw Hill and an absolutely impenetrable bureaucracy to navigate, at enormous cost, in order even to begin to get the product considered for inclusion among the offerings on that portal
LikeLike
How long did it take with the Texas board of education?
LikeLike
sorry, TE, I would love to take some time to debate this with you, but I need to get back to reading the 3,000 pages of state adoption criteria written by Pearson for its cronies in state department x that just happen to be a description of the Pearson product line.
LikeLike
I am eminently interruptible right now as I am grading final exams.
LikeLike
Wrong word there. In the fog of grading.
LikeLike
the fog of grading. LOL. I love that!
The poet Theodore Roethke wrote that after a while, a stack of ungraded papers started to smell like rotted meat.
LikeLike
Harlan — have you always had strong political convictions? Or was that something you came to later in life. I’m being serious.
LikeLike
The pipeline would not lower the price of a gallon of gasoline one bit and its construction would create some temporary jobs. Not worth the environmental risks. Let it go out through Canada instead.
LikeLike
Harlan, if the jobs promised are actually temporary and the energy costs rise because it’s largely designed for export, will you come back here and admit you fell for Rush Limbaugh’s sucker play?
The worst crony corruption we see each year is oil industry subsidies, giving billions in taxpayer cash to ExxonMobil for “reseach and development” while you are gouged at the pump regardless of who’s president.
But to put fossil fuel in the atmosphere knowing your kids will have to deal with the raised temperatures is sad. Do you know they will read posts like yours in the future and wonder why we didn’t build out clean renewables for them?
I am self-reliant and got solar panels only to see the Koch brothers lobbying for government fees on them. So don’t fall for the personal responsibility BS when it’s really just all about profiting off other people’s misery.
Education….the antidote for corporate shilling on talk radio.
LikeLike
Harlan, this is not a forum for debating environmental policy and energy logistics.
LikeLike
It’s all connected, Bob.
LikeLike
>the crony capitalism of wind and solar and phony environmentalism
Funny wording. Even some conscientious conservatives know these two don’t go hand in hand. It doesn’t make sense.
Never heard the story that free market empowers ordinary teachers. That’s just a false sense of force(like Abenomics) to me.
And what do you mean by public school teachers as “government bureaucrats”? They are not the same as Japanese public school teachers who are classified as civil servants(subject to the poor national government/MEXT), are they?
LikeLike
You mean the immense number of jobs being created in the rapidly growing solar industry versus the trickle of jobs from one pipeline? At least I know you have no sense of current reality, or of basic logic. I offer no further response, because, frankly, I would be wasting my precious time.
LikeLike
Oh yes! I forgot that Harlah has 19th Century views on energy use and production too.
(Hey Harlan…were you absent that day in class when the rest of us learned that the exhaust that comes from car tailpipes is toxic, and that it can kill you in an enclosed area? Do you think it’s “okay” or “no problem” to emit this poison gas into the air we all breathe?
Or do you somehow think that only the children of “the liberals” would suffer any adverse health effects from all of this?
You’re absolutely brilliant, Harlan. Has anyone but yourself ever told you that?
Also, the Keystone pipeline has been shown by EVERY objective analysis to produce very few full-time, long-term, well paying jobs in the energy industry.
In fact, Keystone will likely cause a net loss in overall jobs, due to its implementation, due to losses in agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and construction, among other areas.
Keystone would have ZERO effect on reducing energy costs since the heavily polluting oil, coming from Canada, would be bound for foreign ports; the USA is simply the place where they have to lay down the pipe to move the toxic, polluting sludge to ships and refineries—causing even more pollution and toxicity during that process—but doing absolutely nothing to reduce energy costs in The United States of America.
Because of the damage it causes to exisring communities and businesses, and the environment, Keystone will deter economic growth for the economy as a whole.
Funny, Harlan, for someone who pretends to be a believer in “individualism and self-reliance” why would you enthusiastically support a gargantuan global corporation, subsidized to the tune of more than $50 BILLION annually—like the oil and gas giants—and yet claim that you want to “smell the fresh fields of free market capitalism?”
Why is it “crony capitalism” only when wind and solar are involved but never when it’s oil or coal? (Especially when the former two do not harm human health or the planet, cost virtually nothing once systems are put in place and will last as long as the sun and while the latter two are finite and increasingly expensive to extract as more and more of it is used up, and absolutely harmful to human health and our planet.
And yet you would call solar and wind—which last forever, cost much less over time and do almost zero environmental harm—“phony environmentalism”?
When I was in college one of my professors cited a study back in the seventies as to why certain people were backing construction of a new nuclear power plant in their area.
The area was already relatively prosperous, so contrary to what you might think, “jobs” were not the main reason local residents wanted this nuclear reactor built.
The main reason most residents wanted to see the nuclear power plant constructed was due to their perception of its opponents.
“I just hate hippies and know-it-all college types telling me what to do. That’s all. I don’t like those kinds of people so if they are against it than I figure it’s gotta be a pretty good thing and I’m all for it!”
For too many people—and I suspect you might be one of them—it’s all about surface impression, image valance, and what they subconsciously identify as “tribal loyalty”.
You, Harlan, have made it clear that your “thinking” about any issues is all about who you’ve chosen to like or dislike; and then you work backwards from there.
It’s disgraceful. It’s obtuse. But, unfortunately it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from your strange perspective on everything from schools, to energy production, or to anything else regarding issues and public policy.
But it is also sad. If your head wasn’t so clouded by all of this prejudice, fear and myopia, you might have it in you to be a genuinely good guy who people would find it easy to like. Really.
LikeLike
Is that what it all comes down to that should motivate me? A desire to be liked? Why so personal when we are both seeing truth?
LikeLike
‘seeking’ truth, above.
LikeLike
PSP, you’re trying to teach Harlan irony. Good luck.
LikeLike
I sometimes think we have all been manipulated by Good Cop/Bad Cop.
LikeLike
Obama has great loyalty to himself and his pocket. It is clear through the disaster he has wrought upon this nation, who woulda thunk anyone could be worse than Bush, that his goal is purely to destroy the backbone of this nation. As he wipes the floor with the middle class, spouting the rhetoric that his supporters want to hear, we sit, watch, and wait.
How much more will be taken away from us before we do more than elect Republicans in backlash?
It is not just the dismantling of public education that is destroying our nation. Arne Duncan is merely a symptom of a much greater disease. Is the ACA about caring for our citizens or forking over huge amounts of money to the insurers? Is Penny Pritzker an appropriate secretary of commerce? Is the TPP something that will enhance our daily lives?
LikeLike
Obama has great loyalty to himself and his pocket. It is clear through the disaster he has wrought upon this nation, who woulda thunk anyone could be worse than Bush?, that his goal is purely to destroy the backbone of this nation. As he wipes the floor with the middle class, spouting the rhetoric that his supporters want to hear, we sit, watch, and wait.
How much more will be taken away from us before we do more than elect Republicans in backlash?
It is not just the dismantling of public education that is destroying our nation. Arne Duncan is merely a symptom of a much greater disease. Is the ACA about caring for our citizens or forking over huge amounts of money to the insurers? Is Penny Pritzker an appropriate secretary of commerce? Is the TPP something that will enhance our daily lives?
Is supporting Obama something that we want to do again, Duncan or no Duncan?
LikeLike
Many elections in the US are decided by razor thin margins. For that reason, the Democrats should sit up and think hard about who turns out to vote before they continue down this destructive path of corruption and lies that is leading to the closing of the public schools that are not failing, have never been failing and are not broken and never have been.
In 2012, Daily Kos came out with this headline: Educators Have No Political Party, and then had this to say: “Educators have no political party to support because no political party supports educators, public education, or teachers unions.”
In 2012, there were about 3.3 million full time teachers working in public education and another .4 million in private schools.
About a third of teachers are registered Republicans, half Democrats and the rest Independents.
Politifact.com reported that it was mostly true that voters with higher education levels are more likely to vote Democratic and cited: Based on the 2008 exit polls of Georgia, Virginia (where Sabato works) and nationally, whites with a college degree supported Barack Obama at a higher rate than whites without a college degree, Kondik said.
In addition, Politifact says: The Pew Research Center released data in August 2012 about GOP gains among working-class white voters that found: “Lower-income and less educated whites also have shifted substantially toward the Republican Party since 2008.”
Well, all teachers are college educated and almost 60% have Masters Degrees, and in 2012, 46% of college grads votes Democratic while 54% of those who weren’t college grads voted Republican.
But, what about voting by education level:
Among all eligible adults, 60% of voters with a HS degree or less didn’t vote but among college grads only 16% didn’t vote, and 31.7% of American adults age 25 or over are college grads split about even between males and females.
According to the 2010 Census, about 205 million Americans were age 25 and over meaning that 65 million are college educated and 3,3 million are public school teachers. ir 4.6% of eligible voters.
What happens to the Democrats if teachers stay home? And we aren’t even counting the mothers who are waking up to Arne Duncan’s lies about Common Core testing and are angry.
Gallup.com reported that “Women More Likely to be Democrats, Regardless of age.”
25% GOP
41% Democrats
26% Independent
So the question the Democratic leadership should be asking themselves, is how many mothers and grandmothers have discovered their lies about the public schools, the deliberate and malicious act of stereotyping and demonizing public school teachers and the Machiavellian tactics behind Common Core testing?
And women are more connected online socially then men. In 2012, Pew found that women use every major social media Channel more than men (except on LinkedIn).
For instance Facebook: Pew found that 76 percent of online U.S. adult females use Facebook, compared to 66 percent for online males …
Can the Democrats afford to alienate millions of teachers (and more than 70% are women), mothers and grandmothers? If this demographic stays home, the Democrats lose and the GOP will love it.
LikeLike
Since the neoliberals took control of the Democratic Party, there are no real major policy differences between the two major parties anymore. Fire Duncan? Oh, please. Obama was in this charter/privatization scam long before Duncan came on the scene when he was a board member of the pro-charter Joyce Foundation back in the 1990s.
You fire Duncan and you might as well as Obama for his resignation.
LikeLike
“ask” Obama for his resignation
LikeLike
Yes, Duncan is a symptom. Obama is the disease.
LikeLike
clearly so. Duncan is just the windup toy.
LikeLike
True.
It’s obvious that the neo-liberals have grabbed control of the Democratic Party, while the neo-conservatives gained control of the GOP back when G. W. Bush was president, and the neo-ideology is one coin with two faces—this ideology originated from the same source, the university of Chicago.
Maybe we should learn to be suspicious of anyone from Chicago and especially anyone who went to the University of Chicago.
LikeLike
Not everyone who went to or teaches at the University of Chicago is a “freshwater” economist or Straussian neo-con. Deplorable as those people are. Harvard is also full of these greedy horrors — supported by the same amoral, right-wing gazillionnaires who have highjacked education.
LikeLike
What you say is true. Not everyone. But still too many and those Straussian neo-cons are a cancer that continues to spread in both political parties. They just don’t give up and lying to the public to achieve their political goals is a major strategic method they use. They call it the noble lie and they think that the majority of people are too stupid to be allowed to make decisions so the noble lie is used to manipulate voters—fool them into voting for the wrong candidates.
LikeLike
I agree. Secretary Duncan refuses to listen to teachers/educators and has pushed his agenda. This agenda includes more testing and blaming teachers for low tests scores.
I doubt he has visited schools with the majority of students that are second language learners, that live in poverty and schools that have inadequate libraries, no counseling, no music or art.
I challenge him to teach a class of these students for a week. Perhaps then, he’d think differently.
LikeLike
I’d guess the Obama platform on education for 2014 will again call for universal soothing platitudes.
LikeLike
change you can believe in again!
the audacity of continuing to hope!
freedom is slavery!
war is peace!
And, of course, the Ed Deform motto: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
LikeLike
More Tests for Tots!
Race to the Top! (the dummies always go for the sports metaphors)
Teaching, There’s an App for That!
Pearson, not Persons!
Personalization through Regimentation and Standardization!
Innovation through Centralization and Thought Control!
Learning Is Mastery of the Bullet List!
Learning Is Stairmastery!
Out-grit the Singaporeans!
Teach for Awhile, because It Looks Great on that Application for a Job in Investment Banking
Assessment Is Summative Stack Ranking!
LikeLike
“Out-grit the Singaporeans!”
Words to live by.
LikeLike
Excellent. May I cross post on my FB page? Full credit assured!
LikeLike
Please feel free to cross post anything on this blog, with credit
LikeLike
Obama’s speech on race in 2008: “Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.”
And yet his very policies are creating more such schools.
LikeLike
Obama’s polices will inevitably, ineluctably create segregation of a kind that we have not seen in our schools since shortly after the Civil War.
LikeLike
Anyone who thinks that there is any substantive difference between the two criminal organizations, the Dimocrat and Repugnican Parties, now serving as windup toys for the U.S. oligarchy is either asleep or a hireling.
Arne Duncan is the Robert McNamara of U.S. education. His name will live in infamy.
It is long past time to dump the Secretary of the Department for the Regimentation, Standardization, Centralization, Dehumanization, Distortion, Narrowing, and Privatization of U.S. Education, formerly the USDE.
LikeLike
I agree. Having taught in the inner city, these reform policies will only further alienate disadvantaged kids, take away their motivation and increase their loathing of schools and teachers. So sad. What these students need are more support services and smaller class sizes…not more policies and standardized tests. Many schools do not provide tutoring and provide one guidance counselor per 500 kids. If state standards were kept in place and these other measures were improved upon, we’d arrive at improvements in a kinder and more humane manner. Today, there are no pretend kitchens or toy trucks in Kindergarten. Research tells us that this kind of play is important work for our children… Especially disadvantaged kids who need play to develop stress management skills necessary for persistence and resilience …to take this from them is a tragedy. Why are we implementing systems from a Communist country.? Why not implement more of what is working in Finland ? I believe academic instruction in reading doesn’t begin until age 7. Still, kids thrive intellectually by age 15…even disadvantaged kids.
LikeLike
Or reject any ideology or belief system with “neo” as a prefix?
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist… 😉
LikeLike
Time for a respectable disagreement.
I love your posts, Bob Shepherd, but we don’t agree on this one. It is particularly dangerous to say—especially in front of a young, impressionable person who might take it LITERALLY: and I certainly hope that YOU don’t mean that, literally.
Please. Think it out. And let’s be exceedingly careful with our language.
Reproductive rights: No difference? Really?
Global Warming/Climate Change: No difference? Really?
Environmental Policy: No difference? Really?
GLBT Rights: No difference? Really?
Health Care/Medicare: No difference? Really?
Student Loans: No difference? Really?
Social Security: No difference? Really?
And I could go on and on and on. And I think you know that.
Beyond policy, let’s look at the SPECIFIC people in each party: the Democrats have Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Boxer, John Lewis, Alan Grayson, Ed Markey, and so many others including at least 50 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Does the Republican Party have one—just one—progressive member? Or even one single, solitary moderate in the House, Senate or among the nation’s governors?
While the majority of the Democratic Party may have sold out, clearly not all of them have. we have to remember this because they are our “base” that we can work from.
Beware the sweeping generalization, something I learned to recoil against in my very first year of college.
While I fully share your frustration and anger with the people who are currently in charge of the Democratic Party, let’s not overlook those elements in the party that fully agree with people like us and who can help lead the way to a more promising tomorrow.
LikeLike
I have fought for LGBT rights all my life. I have a president who up until very, very recently defended DOMA in court and said again and again that these were matters “for the states to decide,” meaning that they did not rise to the level of fundamental rights. I have a president who has done NOTHING serious to end global warming, a president who has been, in Noam Chomsky’s words, “the worst President for Civil Rights in U.S. history.” Worse than Andrew Jackson? Well, given the long-term effects of the surveillance system that BO is putting into place, probably. I have a president who did NOTHING to further a discussion of a single payer healthcare system in the United States, even though all technologically advanced states that have such a system have better health outcomes at half the cost. Instead, he created a system that was an enormous windfall for the insurance companies. This is the president who wants to privatize our school system, who has rammed the Common Core down our throats. Don’t get me started. Sometimes, the ones who are supposed to be on your side but aren’t are much more dangerous.
LikeLike
Yup, just like Nunna daul Tsuny .
LikeLike
MY father, TE, was Cherokee. I was well aware of the meaning of what I wrote.
LikeLike
Indeed what you wrote was a damming claim.
LikeLike
It reflects my great fear, TE, for the future, given the ever-increasing centralization of power, command, control, surveillance. People forget that these powers will be in the hands of ANY FUTURE GOVERNMENT of this country. I have a grandchild. I care about his freedom, and his children’s children’s freedom. I suspect that when terrible powers are created, eventually they will be used to terrible ends. Andrew Jackson is my go-to example of a monster. This is a monster we know. But what rough beast is now being born? Did you know that under this president we now have an army division stationed on U.S. soil whose mission is civilian crowd control? Few citizens do. It’s a clear violation of posse comitatus. I wouldn’t have known about this myself if I had not happened to hear an hour-long radio debate between its commander and someone from the ACLU. But this is the only mention of it that I have heard or read about anywhere. And there are many, many such bits and pieces now being created. Powers that any future government, however corrupt, in whatever extremities, can use. Power corrupts. Such breathtaking powers as are now being created and put into centralized hands can lead to evils of kinds that we have seen before, but on even larger scales.
LikeLike
I honor those dead and dispossessed, TE, many of whom were my ancestors, by having such concerns for the future, by not forgetting what can happen.
LikeLike
Puget Sound Parent,
You are mistaken to include support for Social Security as something that differentiates Obama from the Republicans.
Obama has made it clear from the beginning that he seeks cuts to Social Security, via the so-called “Grand Bargain” developed by billionaire austerian Pete Peterson. It’s my personal opinion that the Overclass’ decision to support him in 2008 was based on their hope that he could effectively divide and disarm the Democratic Party so that Social Security could start on the road to dismemberment and eventual privatization.
It was only the clinical insanity of the House Republicans, unable to take yes for an answer and in a perpetual racial panic at having an apparent Black man in the White House, that prevented those cuts from taking place.
Sometimes political gridlock is the best alternative.
LikeLike
All of the progressive positions on the issues you list will lead to and are leading to a less bright future for civil society and the country. But Bob is correct in saying that too many Republicans go along with the progressive-corrupt agenda. There IS a real difference between those multi party progressives and the tea party movement, which holds out hope of reversing at least some of the more dangerous and destructive progressive fiscal policies, and for the social issues, the libertarian element in the tea party movement says ‘live and let live.’
LikeLike
Lloyd pointed out something VERY important.
Elections are, indeed, decided by very narrow margins. And on the issue of Ed Deform, if Obama doesn’t have a Saul on the road to Damascus moment, he and his party will most certainly lose.
These people sense the groundswell of furor about the Deforms, but they still haven’t any notion how pervasive it is. They spend far too much time in echo chambers, and they are paid very handsomely to misinterpret the signs.
But there will be payback at the polls. Of this there is no doubt.
Look for these people to move to delay the full implementation of the new Commoner’s Core College and Career Ready Assessment Program (C.C.C.C.R.A.P.) until AFTER the next presidential election. Even the deformers, as dense as they are, sense the danger there to the the BUSINESS PLAN for K-12 U.S. education. For when those new tests hit nationwide, there is going to be an educational policy supernova the like of which the world has never before seen. That’s when the villagers grab their shovels and pitchforks and track the deform monster to its lair.
LikeLike
One of the reasons why they do not understand how pervasive the opposition to Ed Deform is results from the very success of their campaign of PR, bribery, and threat. Many, many people who fully recognize the problems with the amateurish “standards,” with the C.C.C.C.R.A.P. tests, with VAM, with letter-grading systems for schools, etc., are currently AFRAID of speaking out. The intimidation campaign has been very, very successful. All across this country, teachers and administrators and curriculum developers are living in FEAR of losing their jobs if they voice the slightest disagreement with the slightest part of the deform package.
And that just adds anger and frustration to their principled, reasoned objections to the official state Common Core religion.
LikeLike
I agree with this– Many, many people who fully recognize the problems with the amateurish “standards,” with the C.C.C.C.R.A.P. tests, with VAM, with letter-grading systems for schools, etc., are currently AFRAID of speaking out.
Even so, it is to easy to forget that a large segment of professionals in education are feeding at the trough of (what was it/) $300 billion in discretionary funds that Arne has been using in about the same way that Gates has.
Many of these people have a vested interest in promoting the flawed policies because they are building resumes and getting paid as shills for the policies. Case in point Susan Furman, President of Teacher’s College compensated by Pearson for serving on their board, something like $98,000 a year in US dollars all during the era of Arne’s set up for corporate everything.
Then there is sludge factor. A case in point is the long long silence of the American Association of Statisticians in relation to the use of VAM for rating teachers.
Another case is that of employees and hired hands creating reports for USDE regional laboratories. These labs and networks can only survive by forwarding the agenda, play nice, push the agenda, not bite the hand that feeds them.
That is to say nothing about the interlocking directorates, revolving doors, blatant and subterranean efforts to privatize public education at least some of these efforts seeking legitimacy by tapping the institutional credibility once enjoyed by scholars in education working a places like Stanford, Harvard, Vanderbilt, and the University of Wisconsin. Now all of these institutions have multi-year and externally funded “projects,” institutes, centers, graduate programs that reinforce the imperatives and intermediate steps in the race to demolish public education K-12. Some are now moving along to teacher education. Ihope that the bright lights out there multiply.
LikeLike
There are many, many of these Vichy collaborators. My favorite is a fellow who for decades went around the country preaching the gospel of how formative assessment should replace summative standardized assessment who TURNED ON A DIME when he saw were the money was coming from and is not a very loud-mouthed shill for the Common Core and the CCCCRAP tests. These Vichy types are everywhere, and being one of them pays very, very handsomely.
LikeLike
The most horrific shills, in my book, are the teachers’ union leaders who made their organizations into propaganda ministries for the CCSSO. These should have been the institutions working to protect their members and their members’ students from Deform. But they completely sold out at the very beginning. Disgusting.
LikeLike
But we MUST VOTE and for voters in California I have found at least one who is running for a state wide office who is clearly against what’s going on—only one so far and another who is a “maybe”. But we have to be careful about wolves in sheeps clothing. Obama was a wolf masquerading as someone who supported teachers. Then soon after he was in the White House, he dumped the sham and got rid of his first Secretary of Eduction and replaced her with Duncan the devil. And it seems that most of his appointees to cabinet positions are also devils. Look at the growing scandal coming out of the VA.
Here’s my one recommendation for California:
http://www.lydia4schools.com/AVisionforEducation.html
Lydia A. Gutierrez
Superintendent of Public Education in California
On her sites, she says” “Those who can, teach
Those who cannot write Common Core Standards”
I’m having trouble finding where the other candidates for other offices stand and that takes a lot of time usually running into dead ends. I ended up in an e-mail conversation with one candidate who revealed herself as a supporter of Common Core. She will not get my vote.
Even if you only vote for one candidate, VOTE, and write in that one-candidate’s name for every other slot to send a LOUD message.
That’s what I’m going to do for slots where I can’t find anyone who is clearly against what’s going on in this fake ed reform war against Public Education.
I’m discovering that most of the elected representatives in California—at least on my ballot—drank the Common Core Kool aid poured for them by the Obama White House and Arne Duncan.
LikeLike
Both of her opponents favor Common Core, so she should do well.
LikeLike
That all depends on how many voters know about the Machiavellian politics behind Common Core testing.
LikeLike
The disease is legal campaign finance payola, and education is but one symptom. Think about wars of choice, ongoing pollution in the face of climate crisis, the grand healthcare ‘compromise’ that 60% are unhappy with. Think about factory food, or media that leaves all the important stories out of the news, think about letting all the energy of sun and wind and tides go uncollected to protect big oil’s profits.
In NY, we have an Obama ally for governor who is being faced with major protests at his appearances. After seeing his polls drop to a Republican opponent calling for a COmmon Core opt out, Cuomo told teachers the “most pressing” education issue is the “impact of Common Core scores on the teacher evaluations.”
So even if he was to do the right thing, his hands are tied by Obama/Duncan’s mandate for RTTT accountability. Firing Duncan would be a symbol that Obama is actually seeing dozens of states protest, offer anti-CC bills, or bring legal action. But Obama would have to actually change policies to win people over.
If you were watching closely, Obama got elected in 2008 by exploiting popular educators like Linda Darling-Hammond. After touting her on the campaign trail, it was a quick switcheroo once elected to Arne Duncan, a non-educator. And the same thing happened with populist economic advisors touted like Austan Goolsbee, only to ditch him for Rahm Emanual and a parade of Goldman Sachs alums.
We are going in circles, wasting years talking about specifics like education when campaign finance corruption is the larger root cause. It’s legal, and expanding quickly under this aggressive Supreme Court, and enables the corporations to pick off populists for corporatists in both parties, fixing the results no matter who wins.
The Republicans are only opposing Common Core, meaning both parties are for charters, standardized tests and privatization.
LikeLike
If Obama fired Duncan, it would only be to put another Vichy Ed Deformer collaborator with better social skills in his place.
LikeLike
An article in the NYT yesterday regrading Obama’s plan to “shake up his cabinet”. No specific mention of Arne. We can only hope.
LikeLike
The Citizens United ruling opened the doors for a new level of corruption that was previously unimaginable. Even well intentioned candidates are left with no choice but to pander to corporate and institutional power brokers. Money used to just talk; it opened doors and leveraged opportunities. Now money enslaves any politician seeking national office.
LikeLike
Are there any states that are particularly teacher friendly?
LikeLike
Good question. I assume that you mean states within the banana republic that used to be referred to as the Land of the Free.
LikeLike
Can someone answer Teri’s excellent question, please? This is something that young people thinking of entering the profession need to know.
LikeLike
Perhaps Vermont? I honestly don’t know.
LikeLike
Good question Teri- Not necessarily friendly but no common core in Virginia and it pays better than NC ( so does most everywhere). There are 5 states that refused it but one is Texas and they have other issues. Alaska and Minnesota and Nebraska round out the group but I do not know a lot about them. I will say that North Dakota has tons of money for education and everything now with it’s new found oil resources so at least it is friendly to everyone financially.
LikeLike
I think it’s bigger than Obama and bigger than “Democrats”. Republicans here locally are disgusted too.
I think people believe our politicians are bought and paid for and they don’t work for us. They believe “government” is an exclusive club composed or politicians, donors, campaign people and the people who move from the private sector to government and then back again – the revolving door.
Can you really blame them?
“Still, it got Sarbanes, a Democrat from Maryland (and the eldest son of the state’s former senator, Paul Sarbanes) thinking — obsessing, really — about the role of money in politics. As he spent more time in Congress, he watched the insidious influence of money. “There is a lot of discussion about how money is targeting elections, but what tends to be neglected is the influence on the governing that takes place afterwards,” he told me the other day. “I may raise enough to beat back a super-PAC, but what dependencies does that create?
“I’m not talking about quid pro quos,” he added. “I am talking about human nature. When you need to raise a lot of money, part of you is always thinking, ‘What would my patron think?’ ”
I believe (although I don’t know, of course) that this has become blatantly obvious to people and is now impossible to ignore. The feeling is they don’t work for us, or at least that’s the feeling here, among both Democrats and Republicans.
LikeLike
I also think Democrats have a problem with their governors, honestly. Perhaps I’m missing a couple, but why would anyone crawl over broken glass to vote for Walker, Kasich, Corbett or Snyder’s opponent in a governor’s race since Democrats have exactly the same education policies as Republicans at the state level, too?
This isn’t just a federal issue. I can’t tell the difference between Duncan’s ed policy and that of Governors Snyder or Walker or Kasich. What does the Democrat run on in those races? “I oppose the Scott Walker ed policy, although it is identical to that of the Democratic President”?
Look at Quinn or Cuomo or Malloy. What’s the difference? Vouchers? Vouchers affect a very small number of people. Is that what Democrats are running on? “We’re identical to Republicans on education except for vouchers”? Whoop de doo. Are we supposed to be grateful for that?
LikeLike
Yes, we in New York definitely have a governor problem. That is why many teachers are voting Green. We don’t really care what our union tells us to do, because they clearly do not have their members in mind. They and Working Families party will support Cuomo. We say no mo Cuomo.
LikeLike
Working Families Party is currently on the fence regarding Cuomo.
Internal differences have caused a split. If Cuomo gives them their public campaign finance program, that may be enough to win their support. Even if they reject his Cuomo (as they should), finding a suitable last minute candidate will not be easy. They make their decision at the end of the month
LikeLike
Here is a way to answer the question. It is an important one. It could start as a relatively simple project for crowdsourcing. It should not cost a lot but requires some savvy. Models can be found in index-based reports and ratings common in the world of lobbying and churned out by the Fordham, Brookings. OECD and other “belief” tanks. This would be a great project for NEPC.
Concept: Create an index to rate state policies and practices for “teacher friendliness.” Use simple grades, following the ALEC model.
Start with the most powerful and relevant indicators, determine how they will be documented from the most reliable sources one can identify. To the extent possible, the information should be readilly available and be comparable across states.
Some of this information may be in the stats of the National Center of Education Statistics, organizations such as ASCD, NEA, AFT, and in recent scholarly journals. e.g., percentage of school funding devoted to instruction (not just overall per-pupil stats); percentage of districts in the state, and number of states where teachers have collective bargaining rights. More tricky but feasible are check lists to capture the gist of policy positions voiced, and enacted by governors and legislators, known inflows of money for private versus public schools, and so on.
I can’t spend the rest of the day thinking about this, but something like a scorecard, well done, and with a National Press Club Launch, could become pushback and also serve as a guide for teachers.
Here is the rub. If the best and brightest are drawn to the teacher friendly states. A surplus of applicants may have huge spill-over effects that are counter-productive.
Might be really to interesting to develop an international index as well, rating countries by their teacher friendy policies.
LikeLike
I like this idea…. but based on my experience there are intra-state differences that often outstrip inter-state differences and, to no reader’s surprise— the districts with the best educated and (therefore) most affluent boards are the ones who tend to be the most “teacher friendly” in terms of academic freedom, funding and time for staff development, abundance of teaching resources, support for students with learning challenges, and respect for the hard work teachers do. I believe those dimensions all require more funding and are often AS important as salary. If a district had “all of the above” teachers would not be lured to a district with “none of the above” and $10,000 more per year in compensation. This is a point the “reformers” miss when they talk about performance pay— which they would assert is more teacher friendly than the rigid step-and-track system.
LikeLike
“If a district had “all of the above” teachers would not be lured to a district with “none of the above” and $10,000 more per year in compensation.”
How true!
LikeLike
I know the perfect place to send him —Finland —where he could view first-hand how race to the top should look. The president has been dogged by is lack of managerial experience — he does not know how to hire well or fire well. With good managers, working with personnel is nothing personal—he never seems to know who to keep on the bus, who get rid of on the bus, and who not to allow on to the bus. And so his administration always falls short of implementation, whether it be health care, the veterans administration, education, or the bank bailouts. When ever he has an opportunity to select some with a progressive agenda — e.g. E. Warren —he blows it for someone connected to the corporate infrastructure. Being an outsider I think he feels that only insiders can get the job done—again whether it be banks or insurance companies or firms like Pearson. Combine this thinking with his inability to hire and fire well and you have a toxic mix of bad policy and bad implementation.
LikeLike
I’ve been watching a series called “Borgen” which describes the political machinations in Denmark… and seeing how coalitions are cobbled together in this drama makes me wish we had a parliamentary system of government instead of the two party system we have. The only way we can get out of the oligarchy we are living in now is to have a strong left-wing party emerge and end up with a three way split when the electoral college votes are counted in 2016. This would throw the election into the house where each state delegation would get one vote and in the wheeling and dealing that happens afterward we MIGHT get a different set of choices about issues like education, energy, the environment, and financial regulation. Far fetched, I know… but something like this needs to happen or our bought-and-sold politicians will continue being bought by lobbyists and continue selling us the same stories the lobbyists have been wanting us to hear for years.
LikeLike
They are quietly eliminating the electoral college:
http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/scheme-to-bypass-electoral-college-quietly-advances/
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/
LikeLike
Teachers are not that easily misled. Duncan is doing Obama’s bidding. It starts at the top. Anyone who believes differently doesn’t understand politics and chain of command. Firing Duncan is not how to get the teacher vote. Having decent, well researched policies and actions, that support teachers and students versus powerbrokers and profiteers is the solution. Common core-ruption must end.
LikeLike
As a democrat who twice voted for Obama, he has done immense damage to the democratic party…
As a concerned citizen who believes in true democratic values that have been the foundation for this nation, I will remember the horrific policies he has shoved onto the American people, the destructive secretary of education who is an embarrassment to this gat nation, and also remember those other politicians who supported his destructive educational policies and attack on public education during the next election, and this will be a prominent factor when I cast my ballot against them.
LikeLike
Obama has been shifting some of his appointees. I have my fingers crossed, but am not hopeful.
It is a natural reaction to dig your feet in when faced with opposition, even when you know you are in the wrong. And I’m not even sure that Arne realizes his mistakes.
Obama has placed his trust in the wrong people. Either they are in it for the wrong reasons or they are stupid beyond belief.
Take your pick.
LikeLike
This is not about misplaced trust. Our President sold us out.
LikeLike
Voted for Obama twice, but now when his emails arrive asking for money, I just hit the delete button. I am thoroughly disappointed and disillusioned in his lack of care and concern for public school education It is impossible to believe his words of hope and change, when he dismisses public school teachers and parents, without any regard. And for every form letter response I receive from Congress members echoing Arne Duncan’s talking points about our need for common core, that future candidate has also lost my vote.
I truly think the Democratic party has no idea the harm they have done to their party by allowing President Obama’s policies to destroy our schools.. Teachers, working or retired, have great patience and understanding, but when politicians reach a certain point of arrogance, we also know how to be the teacher that needs to get a point across to the difficult student.
LikeLike
Based on affiliation alone, it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad. Obama is a republican in democratic clothes when it comes to which side he sits on the education debacle. If you’re against the common core, you’re a tea partier according to some reports. The ideas are wrapped in rhetoric, twisted words, outright lies. Some of the stuff I’ve read starts out purporting to want to help kids, parents, etc., until you find the meat in the sandwich and realize you’re being duped. Scary stuff.
LikeLike
President Obama is part of the problem. I am not a Republican making this claim, but an Independent calling out that our President is no friend of education.
LikeLike
I would like to see educators and retired educators start fielding candidates for public office, so that I have a real choice.
LikeLike
For what its worth the NYT reported yesterday that Obama plans on reshuffling his cabinet. Could Arne be on the chopping block? Time for a new puppet?
LikeLike
Why would Obama fire someone who he hand-picked to hire, and who is doing his job 100% to the directive he was given, and is acheiving all of his objectives?
LikeLike
Because it would send a strong signal that one of Obama’s signature policies has been a failure . . . oh, wait, that also doesn’t make sense.
LikeLike