Mark Naison wrote the following post:
In Newark and Buffalo, attempts to promote charter schools over public schools, and suppress the voices of educators and community residents have stripped the “Civil Rights” rationale from School Reform in the most naked way. In each city, an authoritarian white leader- in Newark Cami Anderson, in Buffalo, Carl Palladino- have attempted to stifle community input into education policy while seeking to intimidate some of their city’s most respected Black educators. In each instance, officials of the Obama Administration and the US Department of Education, who constantly claim that replacing public schools with charter schools advances the interests of children of color, have been conspicuously silent.
Let us be perfectly clear- what Cami Anderson and Carl Palladino are proposing mirrors what the Obama Administration is recommending for schools in the nation’s cities, yet large portions of the Black and Latino communities in Newark and Buffalo are up in arms about what is being done to them, and how their voices and opinions have been rendered irrelevant or viciously attacked.
Rather than facing that contradiction, and standing up for democratic governance of public schools, officials of the Obama Administration remain silent.
At its best, this is opportunism. At its worst, it is a short sighted and hypocritical failure to recognize that their policies are not only flawed, but may be undermining the very objectives they claim to promote.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Claim to promote” The last three words are so key to this piece!!
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In Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka has reached out to Obama and from what gets published….crickets. Nothing. No reply, no response, no help to stop the madness. Scami Anderson is pulling illegal stunts left and right, and the Star Ledger writes about her as if she is education’s darling (like Rhee was, right?). Rick Hess thinks the anointed/appointed Scami Anderson is right, and her detractors, the people, parents/students she is harming, should be silenced. The trumped up bogus charges she is bringing against teachers time and again work against her, and yet, she is the golden girl. She doesn’t go to meetings, she doesn’t address the short supplies and lack of appropriate food at Barringer H.S., she doesn’t address all the teachers in rubber rooms, she doesn’t address assigning teachers outside of their certifications, or the “One Newark” app that sent children from the same families to different schools far from their neighborhoods…… it goes one and on. Hespe is a parrot, Christie tells the parents to sit down and shut up because HE IS THE DECIDER. Now, Christie’s bid for president has him speaking out of both sides of his mouth – he cannot be for forcing PARRC and Common Core on the kids and teachers one moment, then decreeing its bad the next when he is pandering to potential voters. Christie’s record in Newark is abysmal. I live in NJ; my taxes have gone risen from $2,400 in 2000 to $9,000 now, for a small, old home. He says he hasn’t increased property taxes, and indeed did place a 2% cap to cripple efforts to raise funding for schools, and all of this in the name of “the civil rights issue of our time” because its all about the kids. Christie, Hespe and Anderson have done nothing but make students’, parents’, teachers’ and residents’ lives worse. His bridge gate scandal has cost the taxpayers 7.5 MILLION dollars in fees. Obama is on his way out and will get some sweetheart deal somewhere. He doesn’t care about the kids, clearly. He doesn’t pay any mind to Mayor Baraka when he pleads for relief.
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Bravo Donna! This is brilliant!
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Brava Donna!! I will save your comment for future reference.
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Obama is part of the problem, not the solution. He leads with blinders on. He has been especially absent on issues of education. He turned education over to Arne Duncan and then washed his hands. In fact, Rahm Emmanuel, is his hit man in Chicago, sent there to destroy public schools so he and Rahm can cash in on some of Chicago’s gentrifying neighborhoods. I guess civil rights don’t inspire him the way cold, hard cash does.
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“Civil Rights”
I have a right to that
I’m owed it for my trouble
And as for tit for tat
Responses must be civil
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The Gates/Walton/Koch axis loathes democracy, They work against American progress with the complicity of the President and a number of governors. At the end of 2013, Microsoft and Walmart, combined, reportedly had, almost 100 bil. in offshore profits(Mother Jones). They rigged the system so that the middle class has to cover their taxes
and they’ve robbed the American people of the rewards of their productivity.
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So true! Thank you.
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I have never been so disappointed in a president I voted for twice!!! I wrote to President Obama expressed this and asked why he has turned his back on public ed. Guess what?! … no response! Sad times in education leadership. Great post!!!
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Lots of Americans have been duped by his “hope and change” rhetoric, myself included. I have written to him as well…twice. He is just another unethical corporatist.
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“Hope and Chains”
Regimes change
But core remains
To rearrange
The Hope and Chains
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Obama’s mind blindness and demonstrated lack of empathy for America’s children who are incarcerated in this punishing Hell of Common Core is disturbing . His new personality is opposite from his earlier one when he was a community builder and a fearless leader with passion for those unfortunate and disadvantaged in our society. His behavior and personality characteristics have gone from Borderline (empathic – puts needs of others first) to Narcissistic (callous – puts own needs first.) His emotional desensitization and robotic behaviors have the characteristics of PTSD/Dissociative Disorder. Maybe he has joined the ranks of too many others in Washington who are functioning in survival with their primitive brain (Reptilian Brain) with projected “helplessness” and coping mechanisms from childhood? Survival functioning with dissociation Reptilian brain brings out bullying behaviors to those who are inferior and submissive behaviors to those who are perceived as superior. Traumatic stress in mainstream society from decades of economic insecurity and distrust in leaders has now led us into a new authoritarianism that is dark. America has become a Dr Jekell Mr Hyde, which is the nature of PTSD/Dissociative Disorder. Why are our elite Harvard medical researchers so silent when we need them?
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I would argue that, if you go back to 2006 thru 2008, there were many shouting from the roof tops that what we are seeing from President Obama is exactly what we would get. He was characterized by many as a bully who acted In a self-centered, self-deprecating manner. His henchmen (Duncan, Emmanuel, Holder) were well known for their bullying tactics. Read Obama’s self-professed favorite book, Rules for Radicals by Saul Alynsky. It’s all about saying one thing and meaning another!
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http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/24869-henry-a-giroux-thinking-dangerously-in-an-age-of-political-betrayal
Henry Giroux has pointed out political betrayal and government dysfunction leading to this dark pedagogy that is now pervasive. Good work Henry!
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Paladino is arrogant enough to try and threaten the Office of Civil Rightshttps://thebuffaloexchange.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/buffalo-should-be-ashamed-and-terrified-by-school-board-majority/
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Obummer sold out to the deformers from the get go. He will go down as one of the worst presidents for public education.
He will be on Bill Gates payroll when he finishes in two years.
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When he said he wanted to “fundamentally transform America” he was serious! This was not rhetoric! He meant it! And we have allowed him to do it!
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The revolving door works both ways. Obama hired the former president of the Gates and Walton Foundations for a leadership position in the executive branch.
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“Where is the Obama administration?”
It’s exactly where its funders want it to be, and doing what the Overclass hired it to do when it chose a political chameleon/trojan Horse to misdirect voters
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“At its best, this is opportunism. At its worst, it is a short sighted and hypocritical failure to recognize that their policies are not only flawed, but may be undermining the very objectives they claim to promote.”
good piece, BUT : obama is not an opportunist. he’s deceptive for sure, couching his agenda to further the privatization of public ed with orwellian double-speak (“race to the top”). and his policies are not flawed, they’re doing what they are intended to do : SABOTAGE public ed. He’s advancing a clearly bipartisan agenda that’s been gathering steam over the last 20 years–Obama will go down in history as the president who outdid bush in undermining public ed. and duncan’s his flunky.
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Pres. Obama could ask his Silicon Valley friends to persuade their politicians to regulate political activity, by tax exempt groups. ……wait,…… oligarchs use the system of tax avoidance that they created, to further game the system, for their greater concentration of wealth. Never mind.
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In my opinoin Cami is able to operate because she has the backing of our current governor. We have to take another path to deal with her. She should be held liable for her actions and taken to task in the court system for theif of services to the students and parents of the City of Newark. This will have a lasting impact on her and any one else that might plan to come here with bad intentions.
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The situation in Newark is a strong example of the dangers of centralizing budget and decision making at the state, rather than local, level. Any time that funds leave local communities and move to the state level there is a marked loss of agency for locals. A more centralized arrangement allows Christie to decide the education agenda. If you don’t get in line and agree with his vision, then you aren’t going to get your money. In addition, there is always money lost when it moves from the local to the state level. Carve outs for various special programs and accounting tricks can leave local governments with a significantly diminished return on their tax dollar. In my home state of California, we sometimes see returns as low as 25 cents for every tax dollar sent to the state. While there are sometimes noble, redistributive intentions behind these diminished returns, they are often the result of political games being played at the state level. This kind of short changing is unfair to our struggling students and their families.
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