G. F. Brandenburg, a fearless blogger who taught math for many years in the schools of D.C., writes here about the hypocrisy of reformer rhetoric.
He writes:
If you look at the lingo used to justify all the horrendous crap being imposed by “Ed reform”, you’ll see that it’s all couched in lefty-liberal civil rights language. But its results are anything but. Very strange.
He takes, for example, the flowery language used to recruit college students to join Teach for America. They are led to believe that their presence will reduce the achievement gap and bring us closer to the day when all children, regardless of zip code, get an excellent education.
He writes:
GFB: However, the way TFA works in practice is that the kids who need the most experienced, skillful teachers, instead get total newbies straight out of college with no teaching experience, no mentoring, and courses on how to teach whatever subject they are they are assigned to. Their five weeks of summer training are mostly rah-rah cheerleading and browbeating. Their only classroom experiences during that summer are a dozen or so hours teaching a handful of kids, **in a subject or grade level totally different from whatever they will be randomly assigned to**.
What underprivileged students do NOT need is an untrained newbie who won’t stick with them. If anything, this policy INCREASES the ‘achievement gap’.
He then proposes 17 ideas that would actually improve the lives of children and their education. Begin, he says, by getting non-educators out of the drivers’ seat.
Get people who don’t have actual, extensive teaching or research experience out of the command and control centers of education except as advisors. So, no Michelle Rhee, Andre Agassi, Arne Duncan, Billionaire Broad at the helm.
Read his other good ideas, and add your own.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s not just the edudeformers and privateers who spread/use lies to their own personal advantage. What about those GAGA Good German teachers and administrators who implement the many educational malpractices without any resistance whatsoever even though when you talk with them they admit that the practices that they implement aren’t right and have a deleterious effect on the teaching and learning process.
Oh, but you’re being way too harsh on those teachers and admins. They’re just doing their jobs, and providing for their families. Yep, that’s why I call them GAGA Good Germans:
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville [my additions]
That 17 point program gave me chills. Just imagine how good our schools could be and how well our teachers and children would do working off that blueprint. My only addition would be to link vocational education to German-style, community-based apprenticeship programs. That was the best idea candidate Bill Clinton had and it was immediately forgotten when he was elected.
After reading through Brandenburg’s list of suggestions, I found many meritorious suggestions. In fact, most of what he suggests stem from common sense and what I experienced for most of my career. Educators should be handling issues associated with education. They are the people that have the expertise and training to deliver quality instruction.
The past fifteen years in education have seen a total capture of education by corporate influences. Our current policies make no sense and do nothing to “reform” our schools. In one of Peter Greene’s recent posts, he writes about how craven Trump rips away the civil rights pretense of “reform.” Trump is an unapologetic opportunist that states,””There’s a bunch of money locked up in the government monopoly,” Let’s crack open that market so that companies have a chance to make some money.” Trump is actually a lot more honest than those that hide behind the veil of civil rights. Our current system is not interested in improving schools and instruction. While there still may be a few naive people clinging to civil rights rhetoric, our current system is about providing corporations access to public money. That is our reality, and there is no pretense about it.
At the same time I have been watching Henry Louis Gates’ documentary on black America from MLK on PBS, ‘Still We Rise.” Gates showed how the criminal justice system has been harmful and exploitative to the black community, and how hard it is for incarcerated people to get back on their feet. While he discussed de facto segregation, he did not talk about charters. What he did mention was that integration is extremely helpful to black children. Both he an Oprah stated that they always attended integrated schools. In the context of Gates’ documentary, it seems charters are another exploitative ploy to keep black people in a separate and unequal world. What is even worse, powerful white corporations get to enrich themselves by keeping black people “in their place.” IMHO, this is wholly exploitative and undemocratic. We should not be spending public money to create separate and unequal schools.
You hone truth down to the bone: Trump is an unapologetic opportunist that states, “There’s a bunch of money locked up in the government monopoly…”
I feel as if there’s a real opening for public school advocates. Ed reform increasingly abandons the field on public schools. They’re so focused on vouchers and charters with the Trump win that they’ve really revealed this huge hole- there are no advocates FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Holes tend to get filled. There’s an opening. It will be interesting to see if public school advocates fill it. I bet that happens.
There is an opportunity only if citizens stand up and fight for our children. Otherwise, the corporations and politicians will continue to steam roll over our public schools. After all, there is money to be made doing it.
This is a really good piece about how labor unions should give up on DC:
https://onlabor.org/2016/11/16/guest-post-trump-sunk-cost-fallacies-and-the-next-labor-movement/
In my view, the same is true with public school advocates. It isn’t a surrender- it’s a recognition of reality. DC is just no longer relevant to ordinary people. We waste our time and energy focusing there.
If there’s going to be any renewed interest in public schools it will come from the state or local level- we just saw this in Georgia and Massachusetts.
First. It is a wonderful list. Thanks to Diane for giving it a larger audience, including me.
About the DC schools: In case you missed it, DC schools are getting a Broadie from Oakland, CA, arrival February. He is Antwan Wilson, a hop skip and jumper superintendent, from Denver to Oakland, CA (in 2014) now on to DC where, according to Politico he has “pledged to maintain the policies of his high-profile predecessors, Michelle Rhee and Kaya Henderson.
my heart goes out to Wash. D.C. teachers
Trump’s new charter and voucher leader:
“DeVos and her husband played a role in getting Michigan’s charter school law passed in 1993, and ever since have worked to protect charters from additional regulation. When Michigan lawmakers this year were considering a measure that would have added oversight for charter schools in Detroit, members of the DeVos family poured $1.45 million into legislators’ campaign coffers — an average of $25,000 a day for seven weeks. Oversight was not included in the final legislation.”
This is only a big secret in the ed reform echo chamber. People who live in Michigan know ed reform has huge problems, just like people in Ohio and Pennsylvania know it.
They are promoting the ABSOLUTE WORST of ed reform by lining up behind DeVos.
The assumption is public schools will be further marginalized and weakened or ignored now that ed reform has moved far Right, but I think the opposite could easily happen- people could really rally around their public schools now that the intent to eradicate public schools is official, announced policy.
But it won’t come from DC. They’re a lost cause. Gone. Relevant to no ordinary person.
It will be up to each state to defend its public schools.
Slightly off topic but a heads up for legal eagles and for persons who know a lot about special education.
This case seems to call for a policy, perhaps national, that would allow charter schools to extract more funds from “traditional” public schools for special education. Perhaps also more charter schools just to serve special education students.
No. 15-827 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States ———— ENDREW F., A MINOR, BY AND THROUGH HIS PARENTS AND NEXT FRIENDS, JOSEPH F. AND JENNIFER F., Petitioner, v. DOUGLAS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT RE-1, Respondent. On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ———— BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE NATIONAL CENTER FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION IN CHARTER SCHOOLS AND NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER https://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/15-827.htm
The research cited in the footnotes and the cost analyses for special education by state are part of the argument for a national policy.
Also there is much rhetoric about high quality….ONLY found in charter schools where is a true-blue commitment, never a characteristic of “traditional” public schools.
I am no expert on special education, but I can tell you what is happening near where I live in northern Florida. School districts have established their own charters to serve special populations. I know IDEA has specific rules about special education, and these rules contribute to making the service expensive. They may have student-teacher ratios, space and certification requirements that are the minimum level of support under the law. If special education and/or alternative students are placed in a charter, there must be a cost cutting reason that only these types of students are in the charter run by the public school district.
Just another example
Truth is no longer relevant!!!!
God help us.