Education Week warns that voters should be wary of governors boasting about their success in education.
Jindal of Louisiana claims that his implementation of school choice increased graduation rates. But Alabama increased its grad rAte even more, without the same aggressive privatization. Funny that the governor of one of the nation s lowest perf morning states would offer it as a model.
Walker of Wisconsin says third grade reading scores went up because he busted the union. Not so fast, says EdWeek.
Jeb! boasts if fourth grade scores. Of course, holding back low-scoring third graders helped the fourth grade scores. But what about those eighth grade scores? Not so good. If the gains don’t persist, what good are they?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Will these “miracles” never cease?
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Yeah, if these “miracles” were for real, then where are these Lake Wobegone schools where all of the children are above average? Why do the same kids have to be drilled, tested, and remediated again and again and again? If the whole 4th grade really is reading at the 4th grade level, then the mission has been accomplished and nobody has to worry about them scoring at the 2nd grade level when they take next year’s tests.
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Wait, how could scores have gone *up*, when the tests were designed to make more kids fail? And aren’t we being told that this year’s tests aren’t comparable to previous years? I’m so confused.
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Those scores were pre-CC testing
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Trump has been the only one to even touch on ed issues when chiding another candidate for being pro CC. Amazed that no one has focused on education…costs, designs, CC, NADA.
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Does it matter if it’s true, though? I’m sure you all remember George W Bush ran on this exact agenda- 15 years later and it hasn’t changed at all. I have one child, the youngest, who has never known anything BUT this version of ed reform. Ohio has this entire ed reform menu already- literally every one of these “innovations”- unlimited charters, unlimited vouchers, Third Grade Reading Guarantee, teacher ranking, you name it. I would think we’d be first in the country by now.
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None of these governors knows much about education. They try to present bits of information that will make them seem like the state is doing great. The typical citizen isn’t going to fact check so a lot of them get away with empty political bluster. Some of them just lie; that’s the name of the game in politics.
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I;m not listening to any of them until they talk about this:
“Real median household income in 2014– $53,657–is 7.2% below median income in 1999. ”
We’re almost at full employment.
Stagnant wages aren’t caused by the “skills gap” and they aren’t caused by public schools or labor unions.
They need to talk about wages, and their role in this real decline and what they plan to do about it, and the answer isn’t “charter schools” or “the Common Core tests”. If they don’t know what to do about it (and they don’t) they should say that.
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Right! While everyone else is going up! (Except gas recently here in Michigan…but for how long lol, but are higher than ’99 prices.
I agree with the skills gap not causing wage stagnation or declining 100%. You can see it directly with teacher salaries either stagnant or on the decline. You see it with union automotive line workers, who are now capped in salary and start much less than they did years ago. You see it with skilled tradesmen. You see it with our doctors, dentists, and other health care professionals. It’s crazy.
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“The Mywayman” (after “The Highwayman”, by Alfred Noyes)
PART ONE
THE VAM was a torrent of darkness among reformy goals
The school was a ghostly galleon tossed upon rocky shoals
The Test was a ribbon of Pearson tying the Common Core,
And the Mywayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The Mywayman came riding, up to the school-house door.
He’d a half-cocked plan in his forehead, a shill of Gates for his spin,
A coat of the cleanest whitewash, and breeches of law within;
Though served with a Lederman wrinkle (the suits were up to his thigh!)
He rode with a jeweled twinkle,
His ed-u-bots a-twinkle,
His Tests and VAMs a twinkle, under the New York sky.
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark school-yard,
And he tapped with his Test on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the Test Lord’s VAM-eyed Super,
Elia, the New York Super
Planting a bright red “Opt Not!!” inside the “Opt out” lair.
And dark in the dark old school-yard a rusty swing-set creaked
Where Diane the Blogger listened; her curiosity piqued;
Her eyes were filled with sadness, her worry was plain as day,
For she loved the public schoolhouse,
The American public schoolhouse
Alert as can be she listened, and she heard the Gov’nor say—
“Hear this, my well-paid Super, I’m after a prize to-night,
And I shall make Opt-out parents fold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though parents should bar the way.”
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could hide his rage ,
He tried to mask what the case meant, but face read like a page
As the franks and beans from the dinner were mingling with his bile
He cursed its taste in the moonlight,
(Oh, putrid taste in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his reign in the moonlight, and galloped away to Long Isle.
PART TWO
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o’ the tawny sunset, before the rise o’ the moon,
When the Test was a Mobius ribbon, looping the Coleman lore,
An Opt-out troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
The parents all came marching, up to the Governor’s door.
They said no word to the Test Lord, they mocked the test instead,
And they nagged the Super and grilled her about everything she’d said;
All of them knew what the case meant, with Lederman at their side!
There were parents at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
Elia could see, through the window, the road that he would ride.
They had tried to get her attention, ‘bout many an invalid test;
They had written a letter to meet her, to discuss the VAMs and the rest!
“Now, keep good watch!” and they dissed her.
She heard the Governor say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though parents should bar the way!
She twisted her claims for the parents; but all their Not!s held good!
She waved her hands at the figures, she said were “misunderstood!”
She stretched and strained credulity, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The statute at least was hers!
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the Test!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the statute above the rest ,
She would not risk a hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to the Gov’s refrain .
The quote of laws! Had he heard it? Her quote of NY laws?;
Her quote of laws — from the distance? The “Rights of Parents” clause?
Down the ribbon of Mobius, over the brow with his bill,
The Mywayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The parents looked to their stymying! She stood up, straight and still!
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; her heart, it missed a beat
Then her fingers moved in the moonlight,
Her pen-stroke shattered the moonlight,
Shattered the tests in the moonlight, sealing the Gov’s defeat
He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who blinked
Bowed, with her head o’er edict, drenched with her own ink!
Not till the dawn he heard it, and his face grew grey to hear
How Elia, the New York Super,
The Test Lord’s well-paid Super,
Had watched for the Gov in the moonlight, determined his future there
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With Elia caving behind him and his testing vanquished nigh!
Wide-read- were his slurs on the Twitter; wide-spread was the parents’ vote,
When they opted out on the test day,
In droves and droves on the test day,
And he lay in the flood on the test day, with a bunch of ‘rents at his throat
And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the VAMmers roam like trolls
When the school is a ghostly galleon tossed upon rocky shoals,
When the Test is a ribbon of Pearson tying the Common Core,
A Mywayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A Mywayman comes riding, up to the school-house door.
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark school-yard,
And he taps with his Test on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the Test Lord’s VAM-eyed Super,
Elia, the New York Super
Planting a bright red “Opt Not!!” inside the “Opt out” lair.
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Well, DAM, I think you’ve finaly outdone yourself.
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Great play on a classic!
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SomeDAM Poet:
Most excellent!
I would urge those that like the original, and the version presented here, to listen to Phil Ochs’ take on THE HIGHWAYMAN.
I couldn’t help but sing along, with Ochs’ music, to our resident bard’s word craft.
😎
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Thanks all
Glad you enjoyed it.
I really like Loreena McKennitt’s version used here with scenes from the BBC’s Robin Hood.
The selective editing of the scenes was really excellent (Guy and Marian were actually enemies in the series)
Much like the poetic license that I took!
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Best yet! You are my hero!!!
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They need to be exposed.
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I listened to some of it.
I found out that the only thing wrong with the US economy is the quality of the US workforce. Once we have smarter, better educated workers wages will go up.
The real problem is US workers. They’re kind of lazy and dumb. Not US business practices, not corruption and capture in government, and certainly not anything having to do with anyone who has any power or money.
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Yes, don’t listen to SPINS!
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Fortunately, looks like Jindal’s kind of out of the loop, anyway, & with his poor showing, hopefully, his political career will end. Walker, too, is not doing well (Yay! Karma!).
Kasich could be a problem in the future–when I heard him speak, I found myself thinking,
“White Hat!”–he’s low, now, but a bunch of Reps I know are very impressed w/him (& they’ve been Walker people). Think Christie’s %ages still low, as well. Fiorina keeps looking better, & the fact that she’s a woman doesn’t hurt (& that she’s not a lying, education-killing elected official).
That having been said, Bernie 2016!
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