Arne Duncan issued waivers to 43 states to allow them to avoid the sanctions of the No Child Left Behind Law, passed in 2001, signed into law in January 2002. NCLB is an utter disaster, recognized as such by everyone except the people who had a direct hand in writing it. It requires that 100% of all children in grades 3-8 must be “proficient” on state tests of reading and mathematics or the school will face dire consequences.
In no nation in the world are 100% of all children proficient in reading and math. Congress’s mandate was a cruel joke on the nation’s public schools.
In order to get Duncan’s waiver, states had to agree to Duncan’s terms. One of them was that the state had to create a teacher evaluation system based on test scores. Washington State initially agreed, but as the research accumulated showing that this strategy was not working anywhere, the legislature refused to pass such a system.
Duncan revoked the waiver he had in his lordly manner extended. Now almost every school in the state is a failing school and must spent at least 20% of their federal funding on private tutoring or allow students to transfer to “non-failing” schools, if they can find one.
This article by Motoko Rich in the New York Times shows the ugly consequences of Duncan’s policies have been on the public schools of Washington State. Schools that have shown dramatic improvement in recent years are now declared failures. Duncan says the state must suffer the consequences of its failure to follow his orders.
This man is not fit to be Secretary of Education. He is a promoter of privatization and high-stakes testing. His period in office has been marked by massive demoralization of teachers and educational stagnation (his own term). From his actions, it appears that he doesn’t care for public education and hopes it will be replaced by privately managed charters and vouchers. His action in this case has caused harm to the students and teachers of Washington State. The headline of the article says he put schools “in a bind.” It would be more accurate to say that Duncan has rained chaos on the schools and children of Washington State. The sooner he is out of office, the sooner we can turn to realistic ways of helping children and schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In Aug 2011, Duncan called NCLB “a slow motion train wreck,” yet he his holding states hostage to it via his erroneously-named “flexibility waivers.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/education/08educ.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Also, Duncan’s leveraging power via his “waivers” has iced any need to outright kill NCLB. On the contrary, it has ensured his keeping NCLB on life support.
Both grading teachers using student test scores and Common Core are showcased in these “waivers.”
I wreckon Dunkin wants the train-wreck to wreck faster.
NCLB is a good weapon also created by those who wanted to privatize public education. Why would Duncan get rid of his most powerful tool to force schools to comply? Let’s see what happens once the suburban schools start flunking (30-40% pass rate) PARCC and common core tests. What will Duncan say then? Most teachers just don’t get it, or they are too optimistic to see truth. Schade!
Sadly, the problem is not Duncan himself, it’s the Democratic Party, which did not spearhead “No Child Left Behind,” but, once it was put in place, said through Duncan’s mouth, “You don’t have to comply with NCLB so long as you do things which are practically as bad as NCLB.” It’s a Scylla or Charybdis choice, which is to say it’s no choice at all.
But hey, does Duncan have a great jump shot or what?
Not practically as bad. The waivers are actually worse than NCLB, and I thought I would never say that something is worse than NCLB. I wish legislators in my state would just stand up to the feds, tell them to take their money and shove it, and pay completely for our own education. Utah spends more in standardized testing than it gets in federal money. I’ll bet that’s the case pretty much everywhere.
I feel the same way about NC.
Although, unless we he new members in our general assembly there would be no way the state could sustain our schools.
The trash compactor analogy comes to mind. Being pushed from the right and the left.
President Obama does not care. He agrees with Duncan, and most of you teachers will vote Democrat anyway. Your unions, because they collect your dues no matter what, do not care either. The teachers and the public school children have been sold out by the entire political class. Everywhere you look, you see Democrats helping Republicans destroy public education. Politicians see education as the perfect foil for their ineptitude. The politicians not only get to rake in BILLIONS for themselves and their big donors, but they also get to blame the negative effects of urban and rural poverty on the teachers. Win win for them; lose lose for you and the children of America.
Obama is a private school fella…pure and simple.
Agree completely. 100%. Absolutely.
Democrat or Republican–they are all out to take our money for themselves.
The only recourse is to start electing 3rd party candidates.
I agree with you regarding Democrats at the federal level. But not at the state level here in Michigan. On education policy in Lansing, there is a clear divide between the two parties.
Very well said, FL Teacher!
But the vast majority of Americans don’t see Duncan as a disaster for schools. They see him as a hero, struggling against the evil teachers’ unions and other opponents of reform. And the word “reform” is enough to convince the public that what Duncan wants is good.
And I’m not talking about Americans who vote Republican, I’m talking about tote-baggers, NPR Liberals who would never ever send their children to one of the schools that is operated on the Duncan corporate model.
It’s like the Patriot Act, Who would vote against the Patriot Act. Well, anyone with a brain. Same thing with reform.
I’m sorry, Mr. Powell, but the vast majority of Americans don’t know who the hell Arne Duncan is.
test now, privatize later. Eventually there will be no public schools. There may be privately -run militarized charter schools…I suggest that everyone here save their pennies so that their kids can at least go to a private Catholic school. Yes, the superstition is nauseating, but at least the kids can get a good, well-rounded education. They can just ignore the nonsense. The country’s school system is dividing quickly between haves and have nots. Public schools soon will be not where you want your kids.
So legislator Steve Litzow thinks adults (smarter legislators, teachers) put their interests above children’s by not agreeing to force WA teachers to use state standardized test scores in teacher evaluations? Clearly this fool from a rich district in Seattle has no concept of the impacts the mandate would have on low income schools. If your job depends on student test scores, those well-funded schools in the suburbs are going to be the place to be. Very little poverty, kids with music lessons and sports opportunities, good nutrition, medical care – why teach the poor ones who won’t score well because they haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months at the homeless shelter, or need glasses, or haven’t had a proper meal since Friday’s school lunch? Those that do will lose their jobs within a couple of years, encouraging rapid turnover, ensuring those kids will only be taught by brand new teachers who will quickly burn out.
If he’s so concerned about adult interests being put above children’s perhaps he should stand up to the Feds and say no more NCLB. Perhaps he should make sure the WA State legislature fully funds K-12 as per McCleary instead of whining about the judicial branch finding them in contempt. And perhaps he should not be so hasty to grant Boeing it’s massive tax cuts – meaning even less money for K-12 – even as they move more jobs out of WA State to give to non-unionized, low-paid, unskilled workers in places like South Carolina and Missouri. (You won’t catch me flying in any of the new Boeing planes – scary stuff going on there!)
As for State Supe Randy Dorn? He can stick it. He hasn’t supported teachers. He has kowtowed to the Feds, sucked up to state legislators, and has honestly done very little for WA students. His only saving grace is that he stays out of the public limelight – unlike his predecessor – thus he doesn’t get caught saying controversial things.
It’s worse that you make it out to be. NCLB also required subgroups to hit proficiency levels. One of the subgroups is “Limited English Proficiency”. Yes, they require that a group, which is defined by not being “Proficient” be Proficient. How’s that for a Catch-22?
Special ed. students, as well, Bill, are a counted sub-group. Arne has said that the bar must be set higher for sped. kids–that is, a child in 8th Grade who is reading at a 5th Grade level should, well, be reading at an 8th Grade level, no matter what disabilities he/she has to contend with. Individualized education plans are being tossed in the garbage (in fact, something that is against the federal sped. laws) for–test prep, test prep and MORE test prep, as the 8th grader MUST take the 8th grade “standardized” (in quotes, because these–mostly Pear$on– te$t$ are neither valid nor reliable–in reality, these tests are what should be in the trash!).
The end result is that you have an entire school &/or district failing to make the required AYP–all based on the test scores of the LEP &/or sped. subgroups. It happened at my middle school, and the school was turned around–teachers had to re-apply for their jobs, the hiring was gamed and now–years later–the school STILL has not made AYP in any year since!
But–let’s keep doing what we’re doing even though it doesn’t work–that’s the mantra of the business world.
It’s also Einstein’s definition of insanity.
Yep. And if your gifted sub group is too high above the next highest or the bottom, you are a school of focus unable to meet growth.
Nobody can win at this game.
You are so right, retiredbutmissthekids! Many children with autism have limited verbal skills by the nature of their disability, so psychologist IQ test them using a non-verbal test. This is how they are qualified (forced) to take the high stakes tests. So, why isn’t the test a non-verbal test?? Quite the contrary, it is a verbal, highly verbal test. Any surprise why they don’t do well? Talk about invalid and unfair to evaluate me on an invalid test!
They make tests that no school can pass and then they say we need to privatize the schools. Once you know why they are doing it, it makes sense. There is no need to debate the policy. This is the final phase of a very long-term plan to privatize education. Even if kids and teachers pass the tests, they will just raise the bar until they can shout “failing.” Test now, privatize later! I saw this coming ten years ago. It is almost finished. I don’t see any way to stop it at this point. Most of public too uneducated to understand.
Charters fail more than actual public schools, and do all they can to hide the numbers. Yes. public education is on the chopping block thanks to greedy, unscrupulous Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians (anyone else?). Just like the unions are on the chopping block, just like the middle class is on the chopping block.
In my experience, parents who are told the truth about charters choose something else. It is our job as public school supporters to make sure that truth gets out, and protect and support our public schools.
Yes, Arne Duncan needs to go the way of Rahm Emanuel, Eric Holder, Hilda Solis, Kathleen Sibellius, Tim Geitner – who am I forgetting? What an exodus! Clearly this administration is yet another in a rather long line of inept presidents, inept at everything except making the rich richer.
There is still hope, but how much more stupidity can we take before the damage can’t be fixed.
I don’t share your optimism, but some people have to believe in a happy end. Time will tell. What could the parents do anyway? Most of the parents I know opted out and now send their kids to private schools. That is all they can do. The poor are stuck…
The worst part is all these teachers I see trying to align to common core and “win” the game, when they don’t understand that the game can’t be won (even by suburban schools). These teachers are forced to participate in their own destruction (both school and career). Many teachers I know just can’t wrap their minds around it. They don’t or are unable to see the truth. They are unfortunately going to learn the “hard” way.
I agree.
The “poor” can still vote, mike, and they still have pride in their lives and can tell a farce when they see one. And the charters I see are, in truth, no improvement over our actual public schools, though they’re trying to starve everyone else out to make that happen.
What could the parents do? Walking away from the charter debacle is a powerful statement. They don’t have to go private, just don’t go charter.
I’m not an optimist, but apathy and demoralization are two things we don’t have time for.
So, here we are in Bill Gates home state and he can’t buy mandatory high stakes testing tied to teacher evaluations. Let me tell you the absolute FUN of being in the political crossfire. Here it is: our state highlights just how crazy fun this is. Washington State originally agreed to rate teachers using student test scores as a required component. But the Legislature decided instead to let districts choose whether to use the scores because they knew….or they learned….they’d never eat lunch on their Olympia per diem again if they did that. Smart people those liberal legislators. State elected Super, Randy Dorn, gets to declare how what’s happening in this state is “crazy.” What a maroon, sez Bugs Bunny. This Race-to-the-Top fan can’t seem to get a good content quote in the press here.
The fact remains – putting the interests of Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and all the rest of the corporate deformers FIRST ain’t gonna fly in Washington State. And everyone here knows it. They know it. This is NOT about students…it’s about busting organized labor in this state and putting the interests of privatizers above students. Think Wisconsin. Think Michigan. We all know what this is about and the Democratic controlled House won’t betray students and teachers. With any luck we’ll make the changes to the state Senate and get school funding legislation passed AND fatal stabs at Common Core until it’s deader than dead, ditto for high stakes testing and tying tests to teacher evaluations all in one fell swoop. Along the way we’ll get the Reproductive Parity Act, legislation on gun background checks and – this just in – a group of Senate Democrats said last Thursday that they will introduce legislation next year aimed at ensuring women can access contraception in Washington, even if those women’s employers object to paying for certain types of birth control on religious grounds. We laugh at the Supremes Hobby Lobby decision and we fight it again here…on our ground. And we know that Notorious RBG will love us for it. That ‘ol Ruth. She loves our spunk. We’re coming back to your court, Ruth. We’ll be back.
It’s just burning deformer behinds, let me tell ya. They’re all hoping this next election gets them the votes. We’ll just see, won’t we? Between our state and the rest of red Amerika that’s onto the Common Core scam, it’s a long game. My work is to pound the deformers to the dirt. And I am doing it almost every day. Next week? Big reception at my house with big players in my area to raise money. Oh…and by the way. Our state legislature is now in contempt of court for failing to fully fund K-12 public education. Three crossover Dems in our state’s Senate did that last session. Then you get utterly stupid public comments form lawmakers like pretend Democrat, Rodney Tom, who literally said LAST YEAR that “We should never have a conversation that we need new revenue for education.” So, he announced suddenly last spring he wouldn’t run for re-election.
Watch our state to see the continuing drama unfold. Will the State Supremes order remedial sanctions? Imprisonment is one. Can’t wait to see which party’s legislator goes to jail first. $2,000 per day in fines, another (for the whole legislature or for individual members, not sure). I’ve spent good quality time with Rep. Frank Chop this past spring, locally, on the deck at the home of a woman running for a vacated House seat. More time than the average lobbyist gets. Frank’s mother was a public school teacher. He’s an ally for public schools, students and teachers. The house won’t turn over. The senate is in play. It may be a squeaker but if we win….whee! Then corralling the cats begins in earnest. We’ll be back to state political trifecta status…just you watch.
What an inspiration you (and your State) are. And I mean that in a most complimentary way.
What Donna said, Warrior Woman. Yes, WE can. Yes, we DID.
And, yes, we WILL!
Speaking of promoters of privatization, everyone out there getting excited about Hillary Clinton….think again.
Bernie Sanders in 2016!
I hope 2016 will be about corruption and capture. Wouldn’t that be great? Both political parties, on defense. Issue? “Are you all hopelessly corrupt?”
I think voters would re-engage for that.
Agreed, GST–please fuhgeddabout Hillary–read Carl Bernstein’s book (2007, I believe, &, once again, the title escapes me). The infamous “we need a villain,” while Bill was gov., & the tussle w/the Arkansas Teachers Union. (BTW–where are you Arkansas teachers? Haven’t heard/seen any comments from you on this blog, & would love to read what you have to say on this subject, as you’d know far more than me.)
Duncan’s ineptitude is responsible for destroying the lives and livelihoods of so many of our nation’s students and teachers. I just do not understand how he can go home at night, hug his kids and continue to inflict his extremely harmful policies on other people’s kids – aka our nation’s kids!
Narcissism makes it easy for him.
“America ruins on Duncan” (TM)
“America ruins on Duncan”
“America ruins on Duncan”
The motto of reform
Where every school is flunkin’
And dough nut$ are the norm
cross-posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Here-Is-Proof-that-Arne-Du-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Consequences_Diane-Ravitch_Disaster_Duncan-Arne-141005-779.html#comment514808
with this comment:
If I may use a quote from Diane’s piece because it say the reality of the assault on the INSTITUTION of Public Education not merely the ‘schools.’
“This article by Motoko Rich in the New York Times shows the ugly consequences of Duncan’s policies have been on the public schools of Washington State. Schools that have shown dramatic improvement in recent years are now declared failures. Duncan says the state must suffer the consequences of its failure to follow his orders.”
As long as Bill Gates is pulling the strings, Obama and Duncan will dance..
Rich’s article also included an error: she attributed the issuance of waivers to a decision the President made “two years ago” to bypass a gridlocked Congress. In fact, the administration began issuing waivers to states as part of the Race To The Top (RTTT) program that was initiated in 2009 using $4 billion of ARRA funds as an incentive. These waivers were offered on the condition that States adopt the Common Core and incorporate student test scores into performance ratings of teachers. See my post on this for more information on this: http://waynegersen.com/2014/10/05/failing-schools-label-preposterous/
http://www.petition2congress.com/15685/dump-arne-duncan/
Obama got credibility in the 2008 election by trotting out Linda Darling Hammond as a top advisor on education. And as soon as he was elected, he ditched her and instead tapped a guy who made his name by expanding charter schools in Chicago.
Looking back, the people should have been much more outraged back then, but this whole thing has been a slow motion train wreck. And Arne’s blunders are not nuanced either, they are big and bold. Take for example the assertion that our students are not college/career ready because 40% of students need remedial courses.
This column showed that Duncan’s claims were way off: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/17/burris-arne-duncans-pathetic-lies-about-our-students-and-our-public-schools/
But even if it were true that 40% of students needed to be more prepared for college, there is no evidence proving new standards helps this. What would help would be targeted support in the inner city schools to remove learning obstacles. The practice of prioritizing low performing schools for support and intervention has been proven successful in places like Finland.
But Duncan has done the opposite, using federal dollars to label and blame low performing schools, and threaten their teachers. The best teachers in my school left when they heard test scores would be attached to their evaluations – they went to schools that had higher performing students.
Ah yes, the bait and switch. I fell for it, sadly enough.
Amen to that!
I am so sick of hearing teachers and public education put down. Only a very few teachers don’t do their jobs. the rest of us are dedicated to work with parents and students to help them succeed!
arnie duncan can go back to his cubicle when the new president hits the office in less than 2 years..bye bye arnie we hate to see you go and oh yeah dont let the door hit your ass on the way out
“The show that never ends”
Administrations change
But policies remain
The puppets rearrange
But masters stay the same
No one has seemed to notice that a large percentage of voters who agreed with Bush about the goals of NCLB were, themselves, adults who were and are incapable of passing 4th grade reading and math tests.
We have been attacked from the interior by easily fooled voters. They prefer to believe rather than know, to dictate rather than think, to judge rather than understand.
Excuse me while I go somewhere to scream.
Deb,
“We have been attacked from the interior by easily fooled voters. . . ”
Please explain as I don’t understand what you are getting at.
Thanks,
Duane
We needed proof????
I think new job title for Duncansteiner is the Secretary of Private Education Deform Industrial Complex(PEDIC).
From Diane’s and other comment discussions titled “Here is proof that Arne Duncan is a destructive force in American Education”, this retired instructor with 40 years of teaching experience and current researcher for approximately the same time, does not agree with Diane’s introductory comment on NCLB. The comment was: “NCLB is an utter disaster, recognized, as such by everyone except the people who had a direct hand in writing it. It requires that 100% of all children in grades 3-8 must be “proficient” on state tests of reading and mathematics or the school will face dire consequences”. My dissenting discussion on her comment on NCLB is based upon national(NAEP), classroom, K-12 to University level research and personal teaching/learning experience completed in California. Based upon a 22 year study(1978-2000) involving a sample size of 400 classes, 20 plus instructors, and 10,000 student( 90% minority-black and Latino) in four levels of math, general math to algebra 2, the mean learning rate was approximately 7-9 times the norm reference value of the Stanford learning rate of 9.1%/year(documented) .
One of the major factors in the program’s success, which included many other innovations, was to evaluate and promote at entry and exit ALL students by PROFICIENCY at each math level. In math and the other STEM disciplines, the lower level discipline skills are applied at the higher levels and DEMAND that these pre-requisite skills are known to a high level(proficiency) before the current course level success can be learned, effectively. A strong argument could be made that a major reason why the USA is not meeting industry’s needs for a sufficient number of effective STEM discipline employees is the failure of K-12 to promote students by grade to grade or level to level by proficiency, as mandated by the NCLB law!
Therefore, the NCLB mandatory proficiency promotional concept defined by the NCLB chairman, Edward Kennedy and president Bush 2 in 2002 is in idea with a very worth while achievement goal to meet. If a proficiency model can be defined, developed implemented, and evaluated for ALL students in the math and English and other discipline areas not only for the NCLB grades of 3-8, but in all grades beginning at the K level through high school graduation, research and common sense suggests that many of our social, economic, and productivity problems would be lessened, significantly.
Here is a model that could possibly meet the NCLB goal of proficiency for ALL students, as students move from grade to grade. The NCLB law has no mention nor restriction on age for promotion. Therefore, if the current attendance, grade to grade, promotion model was separated completely from ACADEMIC grade level promotion, a student could move from grade to grade by the traditional attendance/age model, separately from academic grade level promotion. In this way the NCLB law mandate of promotion by academic levels could be met for ALL students- just as in the traditional college model promotes many students in specific disciplines by proficiency. For example, a K-12 student could be in 3rd grade by age/attendance, but would be placed, taught, evaluated and promoted by proficiency level, which could be academic levels 1,2,3,4, 5, etc. based upon proficiency achievement.
The academic promotion model time line could be by grading period, semester, testing, or teacher recommendation. In this way, there would be only one program in each discipline and no formal remedial nor advanced course work in each discipline would be required. The model places the responsibility for learning promotion upon the student with the teacher, parent, and others, as the support system for the student. In the model, all students would now be at approximately the same academic background level, lessening academic remedial review, student discipline disruptions, and K-12 costs/student. For example, classroom K-12 research suggests that when students are all at the same academic level, promoted by proficiency, class size can be increased to 35-40 students/class with no reduction in student achievement, as student- student and instructor interactions and student achievement is maximized, as documented by the Pyramid learning- retention model. Of course, to achieve an effective academic promotional class, school, district model, the teacher would need more effective teaching tools that are now available including diagnostic-prescriptive, norm and criteria tests, learning textbooks, a new form of block scheduling, computer- optical reader printouts, to name a few.
In addition, students, teachers, parents counselors, district and school administration, the school board, and public must all be on the same page with the program, tools, standards, and other specifics. Also, a new type of report card following the NAEP and NCLB evaluation criteria, including the proficiency requirement for grade promotion may be required.. Finally, a new graduation diploma certificate will be needed to define at what level the student achieves with proficiency on leaving the K-12 system in each discipline upon graduation.
Possibly, the best way to proceed in developing such a model is to start with a few pilot classes or a school to refine and correct problems before expanding to other classes, disciplines, schools, and districts. Since all students, including the educationally disadvantaged schools and students would be promoted by proficiency in the model, the need for affirmative action and other equivalent programs for entrance to post secondary education would no longer be needed. The reason being that the student, school, and post secondary levels, would know empirically the student’s proficiency readiness, regardless of social-economic-ethnic-gender situation, defining if and when the student was prepared to begin college work or not at their institution. In addition, many public universities would no longer need their remedial math and English programs. Currently, in the California’s 22 CSU campus’s, approximately 40% of all entry level students in the past required remedial instruction work in either math, English or a both before beginning college work. Successful implementation of the model would be a big saving to the potential college student( in time and money), the university, and the public tax-payer. The adult school and community colleges should develop similar proficiency level programs and certifications similar to the K-12 program for students who at the time were not academically prepared to to begin college academics. If a FREE adult schools had a similar academic proficiency program model, as K-12, all students based upon interest and ability, regardless of age, financial situation, and other conditions would have an academic CHOICE to achieve their academic goals and at a low cost. In addition, local industry with specific academic and vocational needs may buy into the model idea with financial and concept support to meet their specific needs for entering or current employees. Truly a win -win situation for most everyone: the student, parent, K-U, industry, the public tax-payer, and society in general
Additional details with documented support and research related to the above discussion is available from the retired instructor and current researcher. I welcome comments, positive and negative.
Sincerely, Eric Kangas ekangas@juno.com
Ekangas2014,
There is no nation in the world in which all students are proficient. NCLB is a complete disaster. It has benefitted the testing corporations, not students or the quality of education.
WV’s teacher evaluation system (implemented in S.Y. 2013-14) included test scores. We are still waiting for evaluations to be finalized on October 10th.
I think Diane Ravitch is right on as always and the people blogging, based on her article are so correct. Motoko Rich wrote a wonderful article on the fatuous state of Duncan’s policies in education. He mentions the disaster Duncan has caused to education. The only thing I would like to comment on is that Duncan and Obama are two peas in the same pod. Even when Obama and Duncan are far gone, we have to make sure we don’t vote for a republican or democrat who are one and the same. (More peas in the same pod.) The NEA or AFT cannot afford to just pick a democrat that lies to us, like Obama, and says he will fix NCLB, like Obama said. It was vague and our unions ran to support him. Now look what we got, something far worse. The teamsters held back their vote to see what they would get in a concrete fashion. When the democrats act as republicans in education, we need to step back and get concrete answers to our questions. If not, we could get someone far worse than Duncan, even if that seems hard to believe now. If no democrat will help us then maybe we should turn to a third party and hold up giving money to a democrat that acts as a republican. For the first time in my life, I voted for the Green Party in the last election and it felt good. It was a bit sad to have to change from a democrat (My entire families party through all the years they were in this country have always been staunch democrats), but I did it. When I see all the damage Obama and his right hand henchman has done to education, Duncan, it did however, have a rewarding side to vote for a third party. The democrats and our unions need to wake up if they want people like myself to ever support them again. If the unions don’t wake up, then maybe we should turn to a better union like the nurses union or teamsters for support and kick any bums to the curb.