A letter signed by numerous parents, educators and scholars was sent to the US Senste, opposing John King for the post of Secretary of Education.
The signatories were especially concerned about King’s enthusiastic embrace of Common Core, his rushed and flawed rollout of CCSS, and his devotion to testing.
The letter was written primarily by Nikhil Goyal, a young man of 20 who has already written two books about education and spoken in many settings, about the need to transform education in fundamental ways. .
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ignorance – Kentucky Style
Now as a candidate for the KEA president position, I have had my first caucus with some of the convention delegates who will choose the next KEA president in early April in Louisville.
It was a dismal revelation: KEA continues to keep its members in ignorance about the pension crisis, because KTRS keeps KEA in ignorance, and KTRS is kept in ignorance by the secrecy of its investment agreements with the big hedge fund firms; and the curiosity that might cause members to doubt the position of KEA leadership, doubt that might be caused by a funding level that clearly, undeniably continues to fall – just isn’t there. KEA/JCTA leaders persist in believing that the lowest-funded teacher pension plan in the United States – at 37% funding – has sustained no harm; yet they are at a loss to show how that damage – the low funding level (equivalent to technical insolvency) – can be reversed.
Nor do teachers want to hear about the dire condition of the pension. Teachers continue to live in blissful, selfish ignorance – all this after nearly three years of TRELF beating its head against this wall attempting to raise awareness.
Dismal, ignorant, and perfect conditions for Wall Street to take advantage of us. It is no wonder they have targeted us; it is no wonder they consider us on a level with Cletus Spukler (the bucktooth yokel of The Simpsons).
Buy the KEA a copy of Kentucky Fried Pensions, a thoroughly researched book, written by a financial expert.
MY NAME’S NOT ON THE LIST BUT I SIGNED IT! WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT?
Joan Davidson, former school board president, PALOS VERDES PENINSULA UNIFIED IN SOUTHERN CA! OUR GROUP = RESTOREPVEDUCATION
HOPE THAT THIS DIDN’T HAPPEN WITH OTHER NAMES!
I wonder that how many senators in the senate are “GOOD” friends to Gates’ foundation. If they are the majority of the senate, then all signatures will be valueless.
At first, it is bizarre enough to see conservative party approves D. Trump to be Presidential candidate. Now, it is stranger to see conservative seniority tries to sabotage Trump who skillfully gains the support from people who enjoy jokes and lies from the entertainer, Mr. Trump (he won 5 big primaries).
In the same vein, J. King would be approved to be Secretary of Education who just loves to be submissive at the cost of people’s children, definitely not at the cost of his own children’s career and success. Back2basic
Join me in retweeting & tell your US Senators. I did.
John King will be confirmed without the merest pause or hiccup.
The time to address King’s rise was when he was in New York. While he made a real mess of things, that moment was not capitalized on. He was allowed to stay alive politically. Now this. Our job in NY was to annihilate him and make him politically untenable. We simply allowed him to look foolish. That clearly was not enough. His Poughkeepsie embarrassment was just that….some embarrassment. Our job was to explode his political existence. Imagine if he had to deal with a mass teacher walkout? Imagine if he had to face an aggressive and smart NYSUT that had as its goal his poliical annihilation every day.
As usual, we wait until things have gone way too far down a road and then we take “action” that is simply the lightest end of political participation and engagement. And we expect it to make a difference.
We are so so so far past the letter writing and petition part of the fight against the reform movement. The fight against the reform movement will not be sustained by activities that should be a basic level of citizen engagement.
Why is anyone wasting valuable time and energy on John King?
The political fight for sanity in public education level must now be fought
at the STATE level under the new ESSA.
Just look to California if you want to see how far off the tracks we can be driven at the STATE level.
The faux re-birth of the “progrssive” Andrew Cuomo and the shift in power on the BOR may work to our advantage IF we focus our political will on the present and leave John King on the trash heap of failed, has-beens: King, Rhee, Brown, Duncan, et. al.
It’s good they wrote the letter because there was absolutely no debate or veering from the ed reform agenda at that hearing.
Some of the Senators dutifully repeated complaints or concerns they may have heard from constituents, but King’s response to every complaint is like Duncan’s – Duncan and (now King) simply say they agree with the concerns on over-testing and the rest and that’s the end of discussion on it.
There’s no debate on any of this in DC. They all start with the basic assumption that the current Obama ed reform agenda not only should be pursued but must be pursued as quickly as possible.
As far as I can tell the only “debate” they’re having in DC is on vouchers, and vouchers are what? Maybe 1% of public school students, if that? Most of what they “debate” isn’t even relevant to the vast, vast majority of public school students. As far as public schools, Senators could have skipped this hearing completely.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?405068-1/education-secretary-nominee-john-king-confirmation-hearing
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
And Bernie Sanders has said…………………I would assume……absolutely nothing. Hillary is no longer a senator….I wonder if activists could badger the democrats to give Diane a chance to address their convention
One can hope that Dr. Ravitch will be invited.
YES YES!
If any of the naysayers are doing something – anything, the rest of us could join in on, please share. For everyone else, I urge you to speak up. In anyway you can – to colleagues, write letters, create you own chorus.
And if you want to do one small thing today, you can still sign a petition. It’s not that I think this will stop the confirmation. But silence is the voice of complicity. I wasn’t silent in New York but my voice was drowned out. And we all know where NYSUT was…
It’s never a bad thing to speak truth to power. Even when you may not have a direct impact at that moment, you never know how far the flap of your butterfly wings will travel. I, for one, cannot teach in New York State and this country without trying some small thing every day to stay sane. You don’t have to do anything, but I’m not sure what positive effect it has to speak ill of those who keep trying.
Just in case you’re interested:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/102/056/568/stop-john-kings-appointment-to-secretary-of-education/
My comment was hardly a “naysaying” comment. It was a broad observation. Thats all. I would encourage everyone to sign this petition and to continue pressuring our representatives. I was trying to say that that level of action SHOULD BE STANDARD AND CONTINUAL….not the central strategy of our side. I would expect that everyone is making themselves heard via their representatives. I would expect that everyone with a stake in the game signed petitions. Its basic citizenship.
My criticism was in the “too little too late” nature of these things in general on our side. Very clearly, what is called for is substantial labor action….and this has been necessary for YEARS. So, my simple suggestion would be to pressure your local teacher union representatives as well as your state level ones….continually….in meetings, in letters, etc etc….to be MORE AGGRESSIVE and then as an individual to be WILLING TO PARTICIPATE in what aggressive labor action means. The reason, for example, NYSUT leadership is so dreadful and weak and not smart is because they face no real consequences. Likewise for “leaders” like Weingarten.
At bottom, I see UNIONS and LABOR ACTION on a MOVEMENT level as our only real vector for winning against the reform movement. Unfortunately, this is the one thing fast receding from the scene….of that I am hyper-aware.
It just scares me to think that folks don’t realize how far down the road we are…..basic civics stuff doesn’t register anymore. All the evidence shows this.
This is great news . I have been tweeting this message all last week . I will write a letter too and encourage others to do the same . See you in April
Reportedly, Elizabeth Warren sent a “blistering letter” to the Dept. of Ed., yesterday, about the for-profit university loan issues. In the past, she has raised the point about the US Dept. of Ed. as a lap dog instead of a watch dog.
I wonder if Elizabeth would champion the idea of Diane Ravitch being allowed to address the convention.
What a great idea!
Diane, would you support a letter writing campaign urging inclusion of Diane Ravitch speaking at the convention?
Yes, please.
Does Elizabeth Warren ever share her thoughts on the privatization of public schools? Can she be led to talk about it?
Talk is cheap. And so are “blistering letters”.
The greatest single thing that Warren could do for this country right now would be to endorse Sanders, who, for decades has been consistently supporting many of the issues that Warren claims to back.
The political games that these people play (jockying to further their career) are simply disgusting.