In 1975, New York City’s government teetered on the verge of bankruptcy. The city’s leaders appealed to the Gerald Ford administration for financial help. President Ford said no.
The New York Daily News published a headline on its front page that was immediately iconic:
FORD TO NYC: DROP DEAD
Today the same newspaper published an editorial with the same sentiment, this time directed at the parents of the 220,000 children who refused the state tests.
The editorial argues that the parents have been manipulated by the teachers’ union, which is not only false but implies that the parents are dupes.
The editorial claims that the state must stand by the Common Core standards, which (they say) were “developed over many years by the nation’s top education experts.” Would the editorial board please tell us how many years they consider “many,” like two? Would the editors please name the nation’s “top educational experts?” David Coleman of McKinsey? Jason Zimba of Bennington College? Representatives of the College Board and ACT? Are these our “nation’s top educational experts”? Who says so?
The editorial argues that the state must support Governor Cuomo’s demand that 50% of teachers’ evaluation be tied to student test scores, ignoring the research and experience showing that this policy has no basis in research or real life.
Has the editorial board read the statement of the American Statistical Association, which found that teachers affect 1-14% of the variation in student scores, while the family and home have a far greater effect?
Is the editorial board aware of the legal battle of Sheri Lederman, an exemplary fourth-grade teacher in Great Neck who was rated “ineffective” on student growth? Sheri received accolades from her superintendent, her principal, parents, and former students. Should respected and successful teachers like Sheri be fired and replaced by new and inexperienced teachers? Why?
The editorial piously says:
“Kids in struggling schools have for years been plagued by low expectations and too many lower-performing teachers.”
So the editorial wants readers to believe that the Common Core tests that failed 96% of English language learners, 94% of children with disabilities, and more than 80% of Black and Hispanic children are in their best interests. Never mind that the same tests, with their absurdly unrealistic passing marks, widened the achievement gaps among groups. Why does the editorial board think that students in “struggling schools” will fare better academically if most of them fail the Common Core tests year after year? How will repeated failure create higher expectations? More likely, it will produce among the children a sense of despair and low self-worth.
It may be comforting to the editors of the Daily News to think that their arch-enemy–the teachers’ union–is pulling the strings, but the reality is that parents across the state are fed up with the excessive emphasis on testing. They know it robs their children of the arts, science, history, even physical education and recess.
The union doesn’t tell them that their children are cheated by the obsessive focus on testing. Parents see it with their own eyes. And parents across America agree with parents in Néw York. A recent Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll reported that 67% of public school parents and 64% of the public nationwide think there is too much emphasis on standardized tests in school.
So who should we listen to about education? The politicians or public school parents? The politicians or statistical experts?
This is a battle that the Daily News and Governor Cuomo can’t win. If they keep fighting and demeaning parents, next spring there will be 400,000 students who refuse the tests. They will refuse not because their parents are dupes of the union, but because their parents are defending the best interests of their children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
More than an OMG. Reminds me of fascist regimes.
Earlier in the year Cuomo said the tests were meaningless. More recently he said the common core standards upon which the tests are based need to be fixed. Why would teacher evaluations be based on meaningless tests aligned to flawed common core standards. Daily News wake up…
They need a deluge of letters to the editor pointing out their faulty thinking.
Corporate Media = Corrupt Media
Never mind the DN – it can’t sell itself for a dollar and only survives as a corporate mouthpiece. While propaganda is powerful, people eventually see it for what it is.
When the driving force behind a news organization is its own survival and not some strong journalistic principles about serving their readers, they become superfluous, worthless, and untrustworthy.
DN is the prime example and that is why they both can’t sell themselves to another organization or profit from a strong subscriber base.
On point.
Reblogged this on stopcommoncorenys and commented:
On point.
Yes, the boogeyman of conservatives everywhere – teachers’ unions. Those evil, subversive teachers must, MUST I tell you, be secretly controlling the minds of parents. There are hypnotic beams coming from whiteboards. Chants and odd aromas drifting from deep behind the fortress doors of teacher lounges. A secret arsenal of old ditto machines converted into weapons of mass instruction, ready to be unleashed upon a hapless populace powerless against the Legions of Homeroom. Be afraid! Be very afraid true defenders of liberty! Even our heros Herr Walker, Jeb?, and King Kasich are powerless against glue sticks and #2 pencils! Grab your roll of Reynolds Wrap, make your hat, and join the Daily News in the struggle for the Constitutional right of Ignorance!
The image is etched in my mind. Get ready for the glue stick revolution.
Teachers are more educated than much of the population (Hopefully, the number of college graduates and those with advanced degrees will increase when they don’t have to be millionaires to go beyond high school.). However, they are so stupid that they are controlled by those evil teacher unions. You know, the mutinous groups who want to pay educators enough so they don’t have to work two jobs to pay back student loans and professional education opportunities. Those same devils want to replace or repair dillapidated schools and reduce class sizes so their puppets can actually pay individual attention to each student. Such devious organizations represent the devil’s minions who, out of their own pockets, pay for school supplies and, sometimes, set up food banks for hungry students who otherwise wouldn’t have food for weekends and holidays. Refusing to bow down to the angels of education–ALEC, Bill Gates, Jeb Bush, and other heavenly beings, their minions cannot be allowed to think for themselves. Imagine how much better our schools and country would be without those agents of evil in our classrooms treating children like developing human beings rather than manufactured widgets.
Conservatives? Last I looked there is a (D) next to Cuomo’s name and Obamas.
The reason we (teachers) are where we are is that we blindly supported candidates based on political parties. This anti-public education/anti-teacher movement is bi-partisan because a politician’s ideals only go so far as his/her wallet guides them.
Let’s get our heads out of our ***es and so labeling/supporting people based on which party they are in. Maybe then I won’t have to go to sleep wondering what new law is going to further destroy my career in the morning.
I really struggle to see the difference between conservatives and neoliberals when it comes to what big business wants. Money seems to be the only party when it comes to politics.
“The New York Daily Do’s”
The NY Daily News
Is really quite a paper
For cat and doggy do’s
It’s better than a scraper
LOL!
This editorial is one example of why billionaire owner Mort Zuckerman keeps The Daily News afloat even though it loses $20million/year. It gives him a bully pulpit to spread lies and distortions to its approx. 350,000 readers in a key city in a key state where very big money is in power. Zuckerman is one of the billionaire players of New York who signed on to billionaire Mayor Bloomberg’s illegal 2009 capture of a third term in office after New Yorkers had twice voted to limit all office-holders to two terms. The billionaires and their dishonest governor are losing ground on this battle to loot the public schools and kill teacher unions. This editorial is a desperate effort to use any assets they have to counter-attack and change the dismal fate awaiting their costly and useless testing project.
My first question was who owns the paper? Thanks for answering. Now it makes perfect sense. People have to start looking for the man behind the curtain.
Melissa, the Daily News is owned by billionaire Mort Zuckerman
He also owns US News
Not to mention quite a few US Senators…
How about if we all make a concerted effort to contact the Day News’ advertisers? We might leverage some support while getting the truth to an even larger audience.
If we are known merely as complainers, we’re just another one of “those” groups. But if we instead plan and take action every time the facts are ignored, every time our position is attacked with falsehoods and/or unsubstantiated claims; if we respond to each ad hominem attack not in kind but rather with more information–eventually, we will have the critical mass to turn the tide.
More of us can do something similar to what Steven Singer did. We can talk with our elected officials; we can encourage our local (& national) media to cover these issues more frequently and in a deeper way; we can write letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, and of course use our own blogs, websites, and social media accounts to educate others; we can form BAT chapters where none exist, or start local MeetUp groups…
I probably could think of more ideas, but it’s one a.m. and I would like to get my sleep!
I hope that fellow educators and other simpaticos will join in on this call to action. Regardless of how depressing or disheartening a situation may be, there always is something we can do to take a step forward, and I trust that we will do just that–individually and banded together. Let’s build a NEST: a Network of Educators Sick of Testing.
Desperation by CorpProfiteers MUST blame someone for ‘peeping their hole cards’ by parents who are knowlegeable and can’t be bamboozled by these liars. Just wait until Opt-Out becomes the name for an entire month or two months of forced-march testing.
They blame it on the Union? Sure, they may even burn down the ‘Reichstag’ to make their point. We are messing with their endless $B incomes as our exploited children are duct taped to #2 pencils Or computers.
Liars! Liars! Liars!
Beat me to the punch H.A. Hurley!
Lying liars will lie!!
Well we can see once again that we can’t put much stock in the Daily News.
Either they are clueless or the powers that be control them. How quickly they forget James Coleman’s report about the influence of parents on their children’s success in school. Parent’s attitude toward school is most powerful. Parents have greater influence over education including teachers Parents who value education and speak in a positive manner about education and especially about teachers will have children who succeed. Parents who realize that the teachers can’t do it all will do their part in providing positive experiences especially reading each day to their children. With older children they will take a genuine interest in their children’s homework. What can you expect when the children come to school hungry; come from a violent home; parents are incarcerated, or the home environment is not conducive to good health!
Ooops. I failed to mention parents who are caring won’t let their children be abuse- all part of opting out.
A relatively recent story in one of the nation’s major papers (NYT? WP?) covered a study suggesting that parents, often unconsciously, pass their math anxieties to their children via how they interact with the children. I’m pretty sure I tweeted the article a couple weeks ago.
Has anyone wondered why Mort Zuckerman and Gov. Cuomo and all the privatizers are so tied up in knots about the opt outers? Let’s face it, if it was just about evaluating teachers they could simply go ahead and use the tests to evaluate teachers regardless of whether students opt in or opt out. They have never shown one inkling of caring how legitimate such evaluations are, so why do they care whether the opt out kids are included or excluded? All they need to do is to have the governor continue to do their bidding as he has done for a while now. Nothing is stopping them.
But the so-called reformers are INSANE about trying to convince the parents who opt out that they are wrong and just being deceived by the teachers union. After all, who should a parent trust? The homework and actual exams their children take, which they see for themselves to be designed to make their children stupider? Or the “reformers” like Mort Zuckerman and the privatizers who are trying to tell these ignorant parents that their child is only as good as their test score.
It certainly is surprising that many parents aren’t listening to the people telling them their child is only as good as their state ELA and Math common core test score. At least, the ones who aren’t listening happen to be the college-educated affluent parents whose kids the privatizers covet the most. And it is truly driving them insane that the parents trust their own eyes despite the reformers telling them again and again that their own eyes are lying, but the privatizers are telling the truth.
The bottom line is that if you are a parent who believes your 3rd graders is only as good as the ELA exam and Math exam tells you he is, then by all means choose a charter school that believes just that! Why isn’t the Daily News editorial simply telling parents they can “choose” a charter school who believes your child IS his test score! After all, isn’t that what “choice” is all about?
Isn’t Daily news a Murdoch operation? Is this an offensive following the duck and recollect of a number of reform losses?
My child will never be subjected to these ridiculous esteem-lowering useless tests again. I am not influenced by the teacher’s union. I am influenced by the horrendous anxiety and self-doubt taking just one test caused my child.
Stay strong.
My kids won’t be taking them either.
It must be a beautiful thing to be an editorial writer and never need to cite evidence for your claims.
Please don’t gorget that Albert Shanker and the UFT bailed out NYC with pension funds that year and saved the city from bamkruptcy.
Zuckerman overlooks that point when defaming unions.
http://www.uft.org/your-union-then-now/back-brink-how-uft-saved-new-york-bankruptcy
A good summary of the flawed reporting. The Post is recycling content from press-packages sent to them by professional public relations firms working under contract for billionaires. The press packages are paid for by the “Common Core Funders Working Group.” The inaugural members of the group are: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the GE Foundation, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
Here is part of a 2012 pitch paid for by the “Common Core Funders Working Group.”
“Announced in 2009 and voluntarily adopted by many states, the Common Core State Standards offer a new blueprint for what students in virtually every corner of the country will learn in English language arts and literacy as well as mathematics.
The Common Core—with a reordering of instructional priorities in the key subject areas—represents a fundamental shift in American public education. States and local school systems are working overtime to implement the new standards. Meanwhile, advocates and critics are engaged in spirited discourse over whether the standards can effectively drive improvement in K-12 education.”…
“Although the widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards has been hailed as a major milestone in American education, the real work has just begun as educators focus on successful implementation and helping students achieve the standards.”
“The Common Core aspires to ensure students have the skills and knowledge to succeed in college and the workforce. They emphasize problem solving, analysis, writing, and critical thinking. They are internationally benchmarked and address what employers and universities say high school graduates need for success. Thousands of educators contributed to their development, and they represent a mainstream consensus for student learning in the 21st century.“
“Studies of high-performing education systems have shown that most, if not all, have high standards against which they measure progress. But adopting higher standards is just the first step in a series of coordinated efforts to enhance student learning. The standards specify the outcomes we seek for students—elevating the goals toward which our education systems are striving—but they do not provide the means to reach those goals. In order to improve student outcomes, the new standards must be translated into practice and carefully synchronized with many related reforms, such as higher-quality assessments and new educator performance evaluation systems.”
The pitch is much longer. It is filled with lies about the Common Core.
So what does the CCFWG hope to accomplish? Control the “messaging” about the Common Core, shore it up in the midst of growing and justified criticism.
How big it this “messaging” effort? The leaders of the “Common Core Funders Working Group” have enlisted over 215 foundations to help in their effort to keep “on message” so that the Common Core in implemented with “with fidelity,” “precision,” and according to a “systems plan” suggested by an expert at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. (You won’t hear much about the systems plan in the PR).
Among others engaged in the same messaging campaign are 25 philanthropies and groups known as “Fordham Institute Partners;” 35 philanthropies in the of the Education Funder Strategy Group; 14 philanthropies in the Growth Partnership Networks, over 200 members of the Education Funders group, and over 220 others who have joined the CCFWG. (My spreadsheet is groaning with this information.)
Gates, in particular, wants to control messaging abut the Common Core because it is one of his major investments. It is no secret that he paid for the development of these standards. By now he understand well that this whole initiative, including the tests, is so draconian it enlarges the failure rate in public schools. He does not care, nor do many of the billionaires supporting this agenda. Many want public schools to fail. That creates a larger market for “alternatives” including charter schools and anything bearing on technology and data gathering in education.
It is interesting that the drive for the Common Core comes from the billionaires boys’ club from both sides of the aisle. Their goal is control and profit. It is actually propitious that many of the ideological conservatives oppose the Common Core because they view it as an infringement of states rights, and they have a lot of power in Congress.
gorget should be forget. Time for an eye exam and a refresher typing course on the iPad!
How pathetic that all the pro Common Bore screeds in the lame stream corporate media are cut from the same small cloth, as if endlessly repeating the lie will work today as it has in the past. In a time defined by pervasive social media tools where citizens can communicate directly among themselves without the intermediary filter of the lame stream media, this propaganda anachronism is further proof that the corporate suits are completely out of touch with reality and with all but the least able of their targeted audience. Their lies and deceptions continue to work well as an organizing tool that enables the education of those being lied to by those who know and can provide the truth. Citizen to citizen. As it should be.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
So some of the “thought leaders” of the self-proclaimed “new civil rights movement of our time” are dissatisfied by grassroots resistance? They forget so so soon…
Many years ago, many in the “establishment” [or whatever other terms folks like] the NYDAILYNEWS belongs to asserted that while there may be a (probably minor) grievance here and there to fix, the real civil rights movement was controlled, if not directly taking orders from, the Russian communist party.
I don’t mean that they claimed there were a few communists or socialists or anarchists or unionists or ACLU-types or conscientious objectors or other disreputable rabble involved as individuals. No, the whole shebang was a well-organized plot by a foreign country with an ideology and goals that posed an existential threat to the USA.
Things could be fixed—sure!—if such communist [atheistic too?] firebrands as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would just work within the system and stop pushing sit-ins and blahblahblah.
Same old same old. Old wine in new bottles. Rebranded FUD [fear/uncertainty/dread].
And to make the very mild “teachers unions” the equivalent of the red tide overwhelming truth, justice and American way?
I read it as a canary in the mines sort of thing: the rheephormsters are beginning to lose. Like such members of the BBBC [BoredBillionaireBoysClub] like Bill “Petulant” Gates they react with all the grace and good sense and honesty and decency of a Donald Trump—
Lie by omission. Lie by commission. Rewrite history. Bully. Order. Fume.
And project all their fears and incompetency and failures onto others.
A clear sign the education establishment and its enablers and enforcers are finding the way to $tudent $ucce$$ a less certain means of ensuring a healthy ROI.
It has now dawned on them that they not only CAN lose, they ARE losing.
And it couldn’t happen to a… [I almost forget the Rules of the Road on this blog.]
Just my dos centavitos worth…
😎
Look for special interest “news” outlets to fire up their engines this year.
https://dmaxmj.wordpress.com/2015/09/06/seems-the-ny-daily-news-is-concerned/
Examine the owner: Mortimer Benjamin “Mort” Zuckerman (born June 4, 1937)[2] is a Canadian-born American media proprietor, magazine editor, and investor. He is the co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO of Boston Properties, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States. His personal net worth is estimated at $2.4 billion.
A question for the people at the editorial boards of the Post and Daily News. Do you even research anything before giving an opinion or do you just blindly bloviate with vitriol for teachers. Who has a better record of honesty? Teachers or politicians?
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The NY Daily News offers a perfect example of misleading propaganda designed to make fools of people.
The Daily News’s sentiment about the unions leading the charge is completely misguided. To the contrary, parents are lobbying strongly to the Board of Regents on its most important vote of this year — whether to keep or abandon the new teacher evaluation plan with the highest weight ever on tests — but the teachers unions have been noticeably and oddly silent. Neither NYSUT’s Karen Magee nor AFT’s Randi Weingarten has even publicly acknowledged this upcoming Sept. 16 vote.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the Opt Out movement for 2015-16 will be much larger than 400k.
In 2013-14 the Opt Out movement was about 60k
In 2014-15 it was 220k
If the growth ratio holds, the next Opt Out should be about 800k. Then the following year, it should be close to 100% of all students in NY State with the movement spreading like a wildfire to other states.
And we have a presidential election coming offering media exposure for candidates against the Common Core Crap and high stakes testing.
The Daily New should stick to publishing photos of the topless women in Times Square. When you count on titillating photos to sell papers, we can’t take you seriously.
Amazingly obtuse….
Can anyone explain the following two paragraphs as they make no logical sense to me:
” But, having signaled a serious rethink, the governor is likely to face two bad choices come January: abandon policies in which he rightfully invested tremendous political capital, or offer changes designed to placate foes without giving up the ghost.
The first would be bad for the kids. The second would likely fuel the very opt-out movement that Cuomo seeks to mollify.”???
I always have to look for the best quote:
“The teachers union, petrified about finally being subjected to serious evaluations, has played a skillful and cynical game in amplifying anti-Common Core anxieties among parents and legislators”.
The Union is totally for Common Core and Michael Mulgrew will “punch in the face” any parent that looks to take it away.
Too bad we can’t use some of these commentaries as an exercise in identifying propaganda techniques. Where can we send students to get a clear discussion of the issue that covers both sides? What a shame that we can no longer expect even an attempt at impartial coverage from the mainstream media. Do they really want the nation’s teachers to encourage students to develop their critical thinking skills?
Libraries and librarians are excellent at teaching this stuff.
And since librarians and libraries are recognized as so valuable, every school has one. Right? I wonder how long it will be before someone suggests libraries could benefit from those public/private partnerships where the public still pays but they are privately managed. How many fully qualified librarians do you think they would have? After all, it’s all on the internet. Right? (snark alert)
The Daily News knows that standardized testing, especially as millions of students are returning to school, is a hot topic. They didn’t run this story in November… It ran in September for a reason… So the NY Daily News could actually appear relevant. They need to sell papers because no one reads this rag anymore. Yet another example of a corporation trying to cash in while our kids get screwed.
Robert Rendo to NY Daily News:
Drop dead.
NY Daily News: Ta Gueule!
Bravo, c’est longtemps depuis j’ai vu ça! Bien dit.
Merci, Mademoiselle. J’ai trouvé la Une de ce journal d’être dégueulasse, comme d’habitude, et je suis determiné de livre bataille contre ces imbeciles . . .
What exactly is the reading level of the Daily News. I recollect that The Daily News was about fifth, the Times about ninth, and the Post somewhere in between. This was in ’69 and there were vocabulary lists at the News.
I suppose the editorial didn’t support it’s point of view. And I doubt the writer knows anything about public schools or their teachers. Did the writer take a poll to reach his/her conclusions or just take these old canard talking points and hack out an absurd essay?
I get the feeling they were paid to make these talking points.
It is quite clear that the editorial board of the Daily News doesn’t understand the political machine at work here. What’s worse is that they have no concept of how it is hurting public education and most importantly children! Any one who would like to understand the history of what’s happening here and its terrible effects should read the book, When Apples aren’t Enough! I will be sending the senior editor a free copy! Stand up for education and for the kids! They deserve it!
This is ironic & funny in that this editorial comes from a newspaper that writes it’s information at a 5th grade reading level! !
NY Daily News editorial board is either desperate in getting a gold mine or plain jerk like their rival media.
A comedian once said of the Daily News, “It’s kind of like having a random stranger read a real newspaper, throw it away, and then come back the next day and tell you all about it.”