Peter Greene admits that Trump called him out.
Peter is rolling in dough because he is a teacher. He has a maid and a butler and a Lexus and a BMW. His school is flush with cash. When he is in school, he is careful never to teach anything to anyone, certainly not to the beautiful ones. If he makes a mistake and accidentally teaches something, he could be in trouble with the union. Oh, no!
It’s the most fundamental oath we take when we join the vast union-run government school conspiracy– whatever you do, make sure that you deprive students of all knowledge (especially the young and beautiful ones– it’s generally allowed to slip a few bits of knowledge to the older and ugly ones).
But I had done it. I had failed to deprive Susie of all knowledge, and now my union bosses will probably call me in for severe criticism, maybe even docking some of my conspirator’s pay. Of course it’s distressing– we just put a down payment on another home in the Hamptons (this one has a nicer view). I suppose we can sell off some of the jewelry.
Am I upset? Of course– I violated my most sacred teacher oath and accidentally taught someone, and we teachers take our oaths to interfere with education just as seriously as doctors take their oath to deny health care.
But now that we live in Trumpistan, under a leader who fully understands what we’re up to–well, we fought off the people who tried to prove we are denying students all knowledge by catching us with their tricky and insightful tests. But how will we deal with someone who has such keen insight into how the whole government school scam works as just a front for funneling tax dollars to make union teachers a special rich wing of the Democratic party? Now that Trump and DeVos have found us out and want a piece of the action, can even extra sacrifices to the Dark Lord help?
Collapse? No, no, I’m okay. I look shaky? Maybe I should sit down, but I’m not sick– I’m just flush with cash.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m retired and still flush with cash after having never taught anything. Gad. I never realized this truth until Trump said it. A new day is dawning for all of us flush $$$ teachers!!
Glad to finally know the truth. (&#&# &#T@))#)
I was shocked at the degree of waste I saw in one Title I school I taught in. Thousands of dollars spent willynilly on consultants, dad programs, common core “aligned” textbooks, smartboards, laptops for everyone…
None of these things made me a better teacher or my students any more willing to go to school everyday, so they could actually learn.
In all honesty, the vast sums of money I’ve seen spent would be much better on catered lunches.
Vast sums (tens of thousands) better spent on catered lunches?
PAID prep TIME would make more sense.
imagine thinking that kids would function better when given a lunch rather than a test
Now on sale at TeacherTs.com:
“Flush with cash”—Translate: I’m going to defund public Ed and hand it over to charters, vouchers and Tech Giants.
AlwaysLearning: exactly right
AlwaysLearning: Maybe we can start a new course at college: How to make and read political code, aka double-speak. BTW, all that money could have been used for supplies or for reimbursing teachers for years of out-of-pocket expenses. But I forgot–nobody made us buy those things. Silly me.
AlwaysLearning. You nailed it.
Diane, For comments at your website, about Arizona legislation by Gene Glass, I am getting: 404 Not Found
Oops! This page does not exist. Maybe you can try searching for it again.
I actually agree that the public school system is flush with cash and that our students are deprived of resources. Most of the money spent by Obama on education only benefitted corporations, charter schools, testing and tech companies. There are things I will miss about Obama, but his education policies won’t be one of them. You can read more of Obama’s record on public education compared to what a Trump administration might do here https://kafkateach.wordpress.com/2017/01/21/obama-versus-trump-on-public-education/
Maybe YOUR area is “flush with cash.” In Utah, we spend $6500 per student per year. We are at bare bones out here. Classes of 36-40 in academic subjects. One of our physical education teachers has 62 in a single class. One of our choirs has 70. Our ceramics class is 42 This is a grade 7-9 school. And relatively few administrators.
Tsk, Tsk, Threatened. Jesus only had a few loaves and fishes and look how much he got done! You should be able to do much more with all that available cash you have. 🙂
Well, I’m not Jesus by any stretch of the imagination. So I need a bit more than loaves and fishes.
GregB and Threatened Out West: Somehow, I’m reminded of the horses in Animal Farm? Hmmmm….. And while I’m at it, “somehow,” Trump’s speech reminded me of Melian Dialogues? I must be losing it.
I teach in Miami, Florida. My state is not known for its education spending but the budget for my district is almost $5 billion. They could double that budget and we would still have overcrowded classrooms with no supplies because the budget would be sucked up by the vultures working downtown and private contractors. Money helps, but misallocated funds do not help students. Obama’s Race to the Top program had a budget of $4.3 billion and not one penny helped an actual student. Meanwhile, D.C. contractors, testing companies and technology firms got rich.
Eight years ago on this day, I went to whitehouse.gov to see what the new administration had to say about education policy. As I recall, there was a statement about using longitudinal instead of raw data. Today, I visited whitehouse.gov to see what President D-ump’s education policy might be. Nothing. Zilch. Crickets. There’s foreign policy, military, law enforcement, energy… no education. What is his plan? There is no policy to stop me and my union comrades from Making America Communist Again. D-ump has just a deer in headlights Secretary of Education nominee (which explains a few things, deer being hyperskittish about grizzly bears). I’m glad at least no public schools have to take any blame for educating these spoiled fools.
LCT,
You hit on something!
Trump and DeVos went to private schools where they learned nothing about history, civics or social responsibility
“flush with cash”?
I follow public education very closely, but I didn’t go into K-12 teaching precisely because the salary wouldn’t have allowed me to live where we do, and we don’t live in any kind of fancy house.
That was a discouraging slam. Somewhat surprising, too, because he said almost nothing about K-12 education during the campaign.
Plus, what the hell does he know about K-12 public education?
NOTHING. He knows nothing. The lack of knowledge and curiosity in both Trump and DeVos is disturbing. And they both went to the supposed Holy Grail of schools–private.
Every time I drive past my sons’ schools and see the teachers’ parking lot, I get resentful and envious of all those Mercedes (they belong to the first year teachers), BMWs, Bentleys, and Ferraris. Not to mention their exclusive mansions in their colonies of gated communities. At least they employ custodial staff and lawn maintenance services. But they’re probably all illegals.
Ed reform is terrible for existing public schools and Trump won’t be any different.
It’s great for charter schools and it will be great for private schools but it offers absolutely nothing to kids in public schools.
That’s really the one thing that unites all the various factions- they’re all bad news for kids in public schools. Trump and DeVos are just more blatant about it.
The idea that we teach less content knowledge is especially true at the primary and elementary levels. But the finger gets pointed at the skills-based standards of Gates and Coleman and the test-and-punish policies of Duncan and King. Ed-school infatuation with constructivist nonsense and project based learning have also contributed to the general drain on content knowledge. Check out the new NGSS which are taking the same approach in the sciences.
Sample grade 1 standard:
Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.
Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include features that plants or animals share. Examples of observations could include leaves from the same kind of plant are the same shape but can differ in size; and, a particular breed of dog looks like its parents but is not exactly the same.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include inheritance or animals that undergo metamorphosis or hybrids.]
That’s right. My mother was a teacher and between my inheritance, and social security I can almost afford groceries. What a rich life!
He did not say teachers were “flush with cash.” He said the public school system was flush with cash. According to the Official White House website:
The President’s 2016 Budget provides $70.7 billion in discretionary funding and $145 billion in new mandatory funding for the U.S. Department of Education.
I would say our Federal budget is awash with cash based on those numbers and not enough of that money actually ends up benefitting students or teachers.
The USDOE budget covers P – 20 education for 75 million students.
as well as administrative costs.Not defending the wasted money
but the scale of the system is enormous and deceptive to simply list budget amounts.
Funding Highlights:
The President’s FY 2017 Budget provides $69.4 billion in discretionary funding and $139.7 billion in new mandatory funding for the U.S. Department of Education. The Budget supports the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which embraces many of the reforms the Administration has long supported to improve outcomes for all students. It also makes crucial investments that build on the Administration’s work to advance educational equity and excellence, support teachers and school leaders, and promote college affordability and completion. These include:
• Investing $15.4 billion in Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), to support efforts to provide equitable access to high-quality education and ensure strong support for improving low performing schools.
• Ensuring access to high-quality preschool programs for 4-year-olds with $1.3 billion in mandatory funding in 2017 and $75 billion over 10 years for the President’s landmark Preschool for All proposal.
• Creating a new Computer Science for All initiative supported by $4 billion in mandatory funding and $100 million in discretionary funding.
• Helping ensure equitable access to effective teachers and school leaders for low-income and minority students in high-need schools by investing $1 billion in mandatory funds for the new RESPECT: Best Job in the World program to support a nationwide effort to attract and retain effective teachers in high-need schools, and $2.8 billion in discretionary funding to support teachers and principals at every phase of their careers.
• Supporting access to a well-rounded education through the Student Support and Academic Enrichment block grant.
• Investing in the Stronger Together program, which encourages the voluntary development and support of innovative, ambitious plans to increase socioeconomic diversity through community-supported strategies.
• Funding for the Education, Innovation, and Research program for innovative preschool through 12th grade reform, and for the First in the World initiative, to advance innovative solutions and evidence for college opportunity and completion for high-need students.
• Supporting two years of free community college for responsible students through a $60.8 billion mandatory investment in America’s College Promise over the next ten years; this proposal will also provide low-income students who attend Historically Black Colleges
and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions with up to two free years of college or significantly reduced tuition.
• Improving the Pell Grant program by allowing students to take courses year-round to stay on track or accelerate progress toward a degree; increasing the Pell Grant by $300 for students taking at least 15 credit hours per semester to promote on-time completion; and lifting the restriction on providing Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals eligible for release.
See details:
Click to access budget-factsheet.pdf
Rage,
Your comment reads like press release from the US Department of Education. It’s strategies for “reform” are eerily similar to NCLB, same test-and-punish, rank and fire. Why are you writing this here?
RageAgainstTheTetsocracy: I suspect that’s why Trump thinks education is “flush with cash.” He;s like the person who sees the GROSS income in business as PROFIT, instead of understanding that GROSS doesn’t yet reflect overhead. He sees all that money but has no idea of what it pays for. Thanks for the info.
No harm intended, no support inferred, just an FYI.
Feel free to delete if you think it is inappropriate information.
The point was to show that most of the federal money is not earmarked for K to 12 public schools. That is, were not as flush with cash as would seem.
Most is earmarked for the consultants and corporations that have flocked to the education industry to cash in. Not for teachers and students.
That was my point.
Cheer up. We now have Betsy – “goodness to Betsy” who will put every aright.
She must know something. She has somehow acquired all that money so she must be smart like Trump. Like Trump is the operative word.
Betsy doesn’t need to know anything about IDEA, because she and her family have a cure:
“Neurocore, however, appears to be an investment that Ms. DeVos and her husband have a particular interest in.
The company’s website claims impressive outcomes: for example, that 90 percent of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder report improvement and 76 percent ‘achieve a nonclinical status.’ But Neurocore has not published results in the peer-reviewed literature…
On its website, Neurocore claims to use ‘data-driven, brain-based diagnostics and treatments’ to help children and adults. The company says it uses ‘data from quantitative electroencephalography’ to help diagnose problems and then treats them with ‘proven neurofeedback therapy.’
Neurocore, which charges about $2,000 for a recommended treatment of 30 sessions, has a deal with Prosper Funding, an online lending platform, to provide financing to clients. Neurocore also says that some insurance plans may cover treatments.”
I’m not sure if it’s a scam, or if she believes in this malarky. I mean, she might believe it works, given her education. She has no plans to divest of this company, either.