Peter Greene has decided to retire and thinking about his next career, other than Stay at Home Dad.
He wonders why failed Superintendents can always find a cushy job as a consultant.
He wonders why the sweet do-little jobs at think tanks are reserved only for charter lovers.
“It’s odd how this works. If I had only taught for two or three years, I would be qualified to run an entire charter school, or even serve as the education chief for an entire state. But as I understand it, having worked an entire teaching career instead of just a couple of years disqualifies me for that kind of work.
“I could set myself up as a consulting firm. That seems to be a pretty sweet deal. Take Antwan Wilson. Wilson spent just a couple of years in a classroom, but upped his skills by attending the Broad Fake Superintendent School and then worked several school administration jobs, then got himself hired for the Big Show in DC Public Schools– and then got himself booted for skirting the rules of the system. But that’s okay, because Denver schools, where he previously worked, hired him to be a consultant with a contract that pays $60,000 for 24 days of work (two days a week for twelve weeks)– plus per diem and daily lodging expenses. The fee is based on a $150/hour rate. And for those of us considering the consulting biz, here’s the kicker– the Denver COO justified the huge no-bid contract by noting that other consulting companies would have been way more expensive. From which we can deduce that $150/hour is the low end of the money that a well-connected consultant could make (meanwhile, substitute teachers in my district make $100/day). That would certainly help put my board of directors through college.
“I like traveling and speaking; maybe I can con people into hiring me to travel to where they are and to talk at them. It could be fun to work at a thinky tank and crank out position papers in my robe at home while my board of directors plays on the floor, but most of the thinky tank money is going to tanks that support ed reform. Hardly anybody is operating a pro-public education thinky tank. Whether you’re left-tilted (Center for American Progress, the Century Foundation) or right-tilted (Fordham, American Enterprise Institute), you have to be a fan of charters and choice and privatization and busting Those Damned Teachers Unions. NEPC hires actual scholars, and NPE, while they support the values I care about, does not have the kind of money involved in hiring a bunch of tanky thinkers.”
What’s a successful teacher to do?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well since the goal is to destroy public education , you can understand why failed leaders in charge get the best gigs in town. There is no desire to really do education its all about the money that can be made off of pubic education. We are in a very sad state of affair’s.
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“If I had only taught for two or three years, I would be qualified to run an entire charter school, or even serve as the education chief for an entire state. But as I understand it, having worked an entire teaching career instead of just a couple of years disqualifies me for that kind of work.”
Peter Greene nails it in two sentences.
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Congrats to all of you. We just got back home from Wake for John Mullins Dad. Also, we attended Kay Bedell’s memorial this am. She was on Country Fair Committee for 30 years.
Sent from my iPhone
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Work at Wal-mart. My son and my son in law both work there. Their salary is better than mine as a teacher with a master’s degree.
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A principle in the Rochester City School district makes $250,000. Subs make at least $200 a day. Teachers make a lot compared to other areas.
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I am in Utah. Teachers around here make app. $50,000. My son in law high school grad make $15,000 more.
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When first under fire an’ you’re wishful to duck,
Don’t look nor take ‘eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you’re livin’, and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier . . .
When ‘arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don’t call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She’s human as you are – you treat her as sich, (Kipling)
Of course, very meaningful to me because I actually grew up with people who killed Malay pirates at sea in the 19th century at age 10 as boy apprentices in the Merchant Marine -with a Martini-Henry rifle. Fortunately for me, though hardly ever mentioned in my formal schooling, I was read to and read many things about the world. And I learned something
Life is not fair. Especially for those who are low on the societal totem pole.
For the teacher in the trenches, there is little honor or security.
Your carefully hewn lesson plans will be erased or tossed the day after you retire.
If a new administration comes in you will lose your classroom and perhaps your assignment. By law, you have to accept any assignment you are qualified for. The only possible response is to vote with your feet and if you are lucky transfer within the same district to find a safe haven until retirement.
With luck, you might have a handful of disciples who will remember you as a good teacher and may even have the poor judgment or luck to become classroom teachers themselves.
Only God knows, really, how much of your heart and soul you have put into the job.
Sure, there are plenty who really go through the motions. It is the teacher’s disease. A form of shell shock that comes from years of stress and violent disrespectful students and of course the largest cohort, the slackers who will not do a stroke of work.
One learns to accept the fact that teaching is like going over the top at 2nd Ypres. Many will be lost and there is nothing you can do except light a candle for them and pray for their salvation.
The worst punishment, of course, will be given out by life itself to the recalcitrant learners those students in name only. Because of course by definition a student studies. Too many, however, are inert persons just passing through the system. Public education is taken for granted as a supply of fresh water. In my opinion, one of the chief goals of any teacher is teaching GRATITUDE for the opportunity to learn and study and number two teaching students that the fundamental rule of life and economics is SCARCITY. You only have so many hours of youth and energy to get your life’s path organized. So don’t waste them. And be prepared to roll with the punches.
In the final analysis, God helps them, said the wise man, who help themselves.
Ours is to do and do and do and then die and often not to ask why.
We do the best we can, where we are with what we have got.
One hopes to survive one’s tour of duty in the trenches but today, especially, one must accept that fact that the Hour of the Gun may come and you will be armed with an eraser and a ruler only.
And the man of faith is prepared every morning and afternoon to meet His Maker.
And the wise man knows no person is master of the line of his or her line. When Sergeant Death comes he comes.
There are worse things than dying in the saddle.
So tomorrow morning I will march to my classroom, stoically, hoping for the best, knowing anything I say or write could be recorded or posted on the Internet.
Knowing that the acceptable of today may become the heresy of tomorrow and excommunication is just around the corner if you offend the PC Inquisition or the Twitter Mob.
One only can do one’s duty and true to live and act as a man of honor (in my case; the ladies can also do as they choose -I don’t expect them to act as I do necessarily).
But, really, there is no use to worry or complain as long as the paycheck rolls in and know your death is insured (most teachers are worth more dead than alive).
When first under fire an’ you’re wishful to duck,
Don’t look nor take ‘eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you’re livin’, and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier
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“What’s a successful teacher to do?”
Teaching is one of the five most trusted professions so look for a job from that list.
firefighters
teachers
doctors and nurses
postal workers
armed forces
Well, I think that boils the list down to two choices: nurse (this is probably the best choice), a postal worker
Avoid the least trusted professions
Lobbyists
business executives
lawyers
TV reporters (especially on Fox and Sinclar) (HA! newspaper reporters are more trusted than TV reporters by a small margin)
elected politicians are almost equal to TV reporters in their ranking
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I’ve never understood why lawyers are least trusted. When people get into any sort of trouble, they call a lawyer first.
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Have you ever hired a lawyer? If you did and he or she didn’t cheat you, you are fortunate. I’ve hired lawyers that lied to me and charged $125 an hour for just thinking about my case while they were at home sitting on the toilet.
Some are honest and don’t cheat you but some are crooks just like Donald Trump is a fraud, a serial liar, a crook, a con-man and so much more.
Once burned by a crooked lawyer, those memories never go away.
Did you know that you can’t get out of paying a lawyer what he is owed (even if you go through a bankruptcy) and you can’t fire a lawyer without that lawyer’s written permission?
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After “reform” becomes the snake that ate its own tail, there will be opportunities for consultants to teach school personnel what a non-test driven school should be. Until then, do what you know, and that is writing. I now you write for the ‘Washington Post’ from time to time. Try to get a syndicated column in Pennsylvania or elsewhere. You could probably also run workshops in teaching writing. One of my retired teacher friends, had a busy, lucrative second career leading workshops and consulting with public school districts. However, she worked in the New York City area where districts had money to spend on teacher training. This may no be a lucrative endeavor for you in rural western Pennsylvania. In any case, best of luck with your next move. You have a lot of talent to share with the world.
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“it’s odd how this works”
Nothing odd about it: fraud pays.
And not just in education but virtually every sector of the American economy.
Just look at the bankers who defrauded the public during the savings and loan scandal, housing bubble and since.The vast majority were not just never prosecuted, but got to keep their ill gotten gains.The general public paid for the fraud.
Same thing goes for all the fraudulent stuff in education in recent decades.
And make no mistake: It WAS/IS fraud.
I am not just talking about people embezzling from charters– ie, fraud of the legal type.
There is also scientific fraud: TFA, with it’s claim to be able to train teachers in five weeks, the Broad “superintendent factory” that produced people like Deasy and the Apple iPad debacle, VAM, Common Core, standardized testing, the DC and Texas Miracles, etc.
There was never any scientific basis for any of this stuff to show that it would improve teaching and education. But deformers nonetheless pursued it, often knowing full well not only that there was no scientific underpinning for what they were doing but that it was likely to have very detrimental effects on schools, students and teachers.
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Yes and the “deformers” continued to go down this path of fraud because they wanted more money, and then more and as long as they keep getting away with it, they’ll keep claiming they are succeeding while they are not. All the claims and lies are part of the fraud.
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Peter just needs some Grit and a Growth Mindset, and he will be post-teaching Career Ready. He will need to get measured his corporate employment Value Added scores on some weeks long standardized tests. Measurement is the key to Growth Outcomes. He will need to buy some iPads to be 21st Century Blah Blah Blah. My advice, buy some Pearson (or National Inquirer) self-surveys and test prep materials, Mr. Greene. You’ll be on your way to $ucce$$ in no time!
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Peter could apply to attend Trump Unversity. It doesn’t matter if TU doesn’t exist anymore, because the Trump family will take his money and mail Peter a diploma.
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Alternatively, he could get a pre-owned diploma with low mileage from Craigslist
“Doctor of Fullofsophy”
I’ve got an FUD
From College of The List*
It’s really worth the fee
And really can’t be dissed
It’s got official seal
From Harvardprinceton U.
With Ivy League appeal
And lots of gold leaf too
I got it for a fifty
They wanted 75
The frame is really nifty
And really worth the drive
I hung it in my den
Above my other laurels
My MD from U Pen
And Noble Prize in Morals
It really comes in handy
When I apply to jobs
The thing is really dandy
And earns me bucks in gobs
My FUD is great
It takes them by a storm
‘Twas Rheelly just my fate
To work in Ed Deform
*Aka, Criagslist
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We can also buy (a fake) cover of Time Magazine with our mugshot on the (fake) cover to frame and hang on our bragging wall … if Trump can do it why can’t we?
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I believe stress causes all sorts of medical problems. It isn’t recognized in the medical community as a cause of disease. Do teachers get work compensation here if they fall
ill? I doubt it.
……………….
63 Teachers Overworked to death in japan in 10 year Period…Straights Times Singapore
…Figures for the number of cases of educators who died from overwork are not included under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s annual report on karoshi cases because they follow a different compensation system than those for workers at private institutions.
The Mainichi Shimbun said last Saturday that it obtained the figure through compiling data provided by the Fund for Local Government Employees’ Accident Compensation based on the applications it received at its branch offices across Japan’s 47 prefectures and 20 government-designated cities.
The data covered the deaths of teachers and local education board staffers who succumbed to brain or heart conditions or committed suicide over mental health issues due to overwork. Teachers covered in the data compiled included those who taught at the public kindergarten, elementary, junior high and high school levels.
According to the paper, in the academic years from 2007 to 2016, there were 63 certified cases of deaths by overwork out of 92 applications received.
Experts, however, say the actual number of certified cases could be a lot higher as many bereaved families tend to suffer in silence rather than apply for recognition and compensation…
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/63-teachers-overworked-to-death-in-japan-in-10-year-period?xtor=EREC-16-1%5BST_Newsletter_AM%5D-20180423-%5B63+teachers+overworked+to+death+in+Japan+in+10_year+period%5D&xts=538291&utm_source=google_gmail&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=addtoany
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Here’s a piece that says, “Teachers get disability for school-related stress”
https://nypost.com/2014/10/05/teachers-disability-pensions-pay-for-stress-of-the-classroom/
This is interesting. I wrote a post about this topic back in January 2014, and I was just clicking on all the links that led to stories about teachers and PTSD, and all the links were broken.
One was to a piece from the Chicago Tribune, one to The American Society for Ethics in Education, the third one to a study out of the University of Houston, and the fourth one was a link to the American Psychological Association.
What are the odds that four links to studies/news about the high risk of PTSD in the teaching profession would all vanish?
I wonder if Fox news or Alex Jones would report this as a conspiracy.
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Lloyd, If you have the original links try the Wayback Machine. You may be able to recover the lost items. That is a tip from Mercedes Schneider. I tried it once and it worked. I learned exactly when USDE changed the federal mission statement for education.
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Thanks, I was aware of the Wayback machine but didn’t think of it. If I recover them, I’ll have to take screenshots of them to prove they existed.
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“Could it be that our cultural disinterest in children extends to people who work with children? Could it be that most teachers are women?” Yup.
Greene’s ‘resumé’ of skills developed while teaching sounds a lot like the lists to be found in self-help articles of the ’90’s aimed at college-educated women who’d raised kids as stay-at-home moms during better economic times (the ’80’s) & needed an entry to the work force.
Among my friends of that generation, one succeeded by taking night courses in nursing for yrs (starting when her youngest was born), another did law school the same way. Two eventually succeeded as realtors (several others couldn’t get thro the rocky 1st yrs of inconsistent income). The rest– most– had to settle for part-time work in local businesses. [I also knew two who reversed: a female lawyer became a SpEd teacher, a longtime grocery entrepreneur became a history teacher. Not easy as Greene suggests; yrs of training reqd. The gal made it, the guy couldn’t hack the bureaucratic ppwk.]
Tho’ our area had plentiful entry-level corp jobs in the ’80’s, my ’90’s friends were trying to break in during the fall-out of dereg: scores of ppl we knew in elec & comm utilities & insur corps were being merged/ re-located to cheaper climes if lucky (experienced admin folks laid off). A major source of entry-level jobs for educated women dried up overnight. [Soon to come: admin jobs replaced by computer or outsourced to Bangelore, on-the-job training disappears.]
There was a brief window for women to enter well-paid corporate work in the ’70’s. Not straight from college, or teaching, or raising kids. But if you also had a few years’ work experience in some sort of business– or secretarial experience in that corp’s industry– you could get an entry-level tech job alongside the just-graduated male BA’s. Part of that was about affirmative action; equally important was that the big corps were all still here, bricks-&-mortar, & on-the-job training was part of their budget.
That was my path after a couple of yrs teaching 5 levels of hisch French– AFTER learning shorthand/ typing, after 1-1/2 yrs’ sec’l work, after 9 mos’ ‘probation’ typing my own tech work… (during which time I was reqd to train an experienced middle-aged male hire in corp procedures!) What really fried me: one yr later (by then others typed my work), I was reqd to train a 21-y.o. hired directly into tech level from college [BA History]… Grrr!
I wonder if things are much different now (male vs female) for educated folk attempting career change after yrs of teaching, or yrs at home raising kids.
Peter Greene: public-school teaching needs great men, thanks for all you’ve done toward the public good. Write a book! I would buy it in a heartbeat, you’re an original thinker & a great writer w/an excellent sense of humor!
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Just a thought: “…Hardly anybody is operating a pro-public education thinky tank…” Now there’s space just LOOKING for leadership: surely there are heretofore unthought of ways to find funding and sponsorship?
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I’m retiring this year too, thanks to 25/55 retirement plan. I’m moving to Ireland and buying a pub in the rural community where my father was born. I still love the kids but can’t wait to be out of the insanity that has taken over our public schools in NYC. Hope Peter finds something he can get excited about as well.
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Mary, I hope you find your bliss in Ireland. As a fan of “International House Hunters,” I see lots of young people and retirees from the US going overseas citing ‘quality of life’ as the main reason.
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Mary:
WONDERFUL just-the-opposite-of retirement plan! Most certainly many of us envy the part that you’re leaving the U.S. to live in Ireland!
My daughter lived there for 3 years (in fact, went to Trinity College for her Masters; cheaper there, as well). She loved it–felt safe, was happy, made lots of friends–but couldn’t stay after being “made redundant” (they even have nicer word for lay-offs there) from her bookstore manager job when the chain (much like Borders, here; their version of Barnes & Noble still survives) for which she worked closed down.
“May the wind be at your back,” & may your retirement be both bucolic & colorful!
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Sorry to see you go, Peter, though all the great colleagues of mine who retire end up looking, like, five years younger when I see them after they’re out.
There’s a lot of wisdom in your words. This entry is definitely one for me to bookmark,
I took a look at the “About Me” section of your blog and I’ll quote one of the things you wrote on there: “I’m not a super-teacher, and I don’t suck (most days).”
My guess is it’s exactly your humility and sense of humor along with lots of hard work that, in fact, have made you a great teacher all these years.
Of course, we’re all living within a daily tragedy now, a tragedy that tarnishes our nation from coast to coast.. All the qualities that have made you a good teacher are so profoundly lacking in our president, who is lazy, self-promoting blowhard whose humor is of the cheap, bullying variety. Is it any surprise that teachers (and, much, much more importantly, our students) are treated the way we are when we see a hack like Trump in the White House? Hell, one only has to look at the statistics for childhood poverty in our country. Teachers treated shabbily? My God,look what our country is doing to so many children!
Thank you, Peter, for all your hard work. I’ve always thought that, aside from a compliment from one of my students, there is no greater honor than hearing a few kind words from a colleague. Enjoy your family. I love the picture of you and your baby. Take care.
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I’ve seen this happen countless times: a superintendent “retires” and then gets a new gig with a groups he or she associated with, or did business with.
In Virginia, one particular superintendent “retired” from a school district, and then became the executive director of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, where he got a cushy salary and schmoozed, and did little else. After a couple of years, he was named the Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction. He recently “retired” from that job, and = no doubt – will find a cushy consultancy.
Or, consider Fairfax County, which a few years back hired as its new superintendent a person who led the development of ASPIRE, a merit-pay program in Houston that was funded (in part) by the Broad, Gates and Dell foundations, the very same groups that fund corporate-style school “reform.” And while researchers and test experts cautioned against the use of value-added models to evaluate teachers, this person called value-added models “proven methodology” that are both “valid and reliable.” None of that was true.
After three years on the job, the Fairfax superintendent left (“retired”) and took a job with Battelle. Battelle operates a number of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) “learning networks.” In Ohio, it partners with the Ohio Business Roundtable and the Gates Foundation. In Tennessee, it utilized Race to the Top funding to set up “ten STEM schools and six regional STEM organizations.” And it has partnered with the Gates Foundation to create STEM networks “in California and New York and emerging networks in Colorado and Kentucky.”
Battelle makes the same false claims as the Gates Foundation about STEM. It says that “a STEM workforce is critical in an increasingly competitive economy.” It scolds that “to remain globally competitive, we must commit to improving U.S. STEM education for all students.” And it wants that “workforce shortages will ultimately diminish U.S. competitiveness.” But it’s all malarkey. It isn’t true.
Or consider Albemarle County, Virginia, which touts itself as ‘innovative.” The superintendent there forced PLCs (so-called ‘professional learning communities) on teachers and morphed the high schools into STEM magnet schools. Yet, all the research shows that we already produce three times as many STEM grads as there are jobs.
The superintendent in Albemarle forced a badly-flawed technology software program on teachers. It was to be used to track student test scores, though it was sold as an “instructional” innovation. After more than $2 million and years of problems it was dumped. SchooNet was sold to Pearson. The superintendent — who was named to the state council for higher education (SCHEV) by disgraced former governor Bob McDonnell — is still withholding 268 SchoolNet-related emails from public scrutiny.
A few years back, when the central office in that locality instituted a survey – ostensibly on “leadership” – teacher comments provided some eye-opening information, which the superintendent tried to shield from a freedom on information act request, saying through the school board attorney that they were “privileged.” Virginia case law proved otherwise.
The comments were overwhelmingly negative, especially in the areas culture (climate) communication, and respect. Teachers said things – again and again – like the following:
“Albemarle County Public Schools does not listen to teachers…”
“…teachers are not listened to…our opinions have been requested and ignored…”
“…leaders seek input, but then usually, disregard the opinions of those not in agreement with the administration…decisions are made top-down before input is received.”
“decision making is so top-down — stakeholders are seldom consulted…”
“…teachers feel that their professional judgment is not valued…”
“most Albemarle administrators are arrogant…and remove themselves with any type of collaborative dialogue with teachers.”
“…they do not want to hear complaints, or you are labeled as a troublemaker…”
“the county asks its employees for input but these requests are superficial…the decision have already been made by the people ‘downtown’…”
“you ask people to think critically but we must toe the party line…”
“I see few examples of teachers being involved in decision making.”
“…my opinion is not important or honored.”
“…our opinions are disregarded.”
“Nobody really listens.”
*..”Albemarle county schools leaders seem to be increasingly inept and far-removed from the day-to-day realities of public education, Worse, they do not actively seek teacher input, and when they do get teacher input it is repeatedly ignored.”
“No one in the administration really wants to hear what the issues and problems are.”
“I’ve never been asked “What do you think?” I don’t know of anyone who has…”
“…teachers have very little voice.”
“Honesty, integrity and fairness are lacking.”
” “…this is the worst leadership the county has ever had.”
The Virginia Association of School Superintendents named this person the “superintendent of the year” a few years back. She is “retiring” this year, and will take a new job with the Virginia School University Partnership.
And speaking of the Virginia superintendents association, it’s a real classy group. VASS sells “partnerships” for $15,000 a year. One of its partners is Achieve 3000, whose mission is to help school divisions “meet the standards set by Common Core…to be prepared for college and career.” Its chief product officer was formerly a VP at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and a marketer at Pearson. It’s chief operating officer (COO) was formerly the COO at Pearson US School Group. Achieve 3000 partners with Teach for America and the Northwest Evaluation Association, which is also a VASS partner.
The Northwest Evaluation Association produces the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) program. Like the College Board, which claims that all of its flawed products (the PSAT, SAT, and Advanced Placement program) are now “aligned” with the Common Core standards, the Northwest Evaluation Association says that it has developed “a set of MAP assessments aligned to the Common Core.” There’s a serious problem though. The MAP program is largely worthless. A Department of Education study noted that “Although the MAP program is used extensively in school districts across the United States, there is no experimental evidence on its impact on student outcomes.” In its evaluation of MAP the DOE study concluded that “MAP teachers were not more likely than control group teachers to have applied differentiated instructional practices in their classes. Overall, the MAP program did not have a statistically significant impact on students’ reading achievement in either grade 4 or grade 5.”
This is the state of “leadership” and “innovation” in public education in Virginia. Is it really much different elsewhere in the country? Unlikely.
These are the kinds of people that teachers have to work for and under. These are the people who are ‘leading’ public education. Is it really any wonder that people are leaving the profession?
Linda Darling-Hammond has written that “If we value high-quality schools, we must attend to how we can recruit and retain talented, dedicated people who want to stay and do the vital work of educating our children to become informed and productive citizens.”
Well, you cannot achieve “high-quality” schools that “do the vital work” of developing productive citizens when public education’s ‘leaders’ are – to a large degree – clueless and uncommitted to what University of Chicago social scientist Earl Johnson called “the supreme end of education in a democracy…the making of the democratic character.”
Many of our most serious education problems are caused by insiders. Failed administrators and superintendents are failing American public schooling.
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democracy: “Many of our most serious education problems are caused by insiders. Failed administrators and superintendents are failing American public schooling.”
I totally agree. My experience is that most administrators and superintendents are the problem. Most that I knew didn’t ‘advance to higher positions’ but worked overtime to destroy moral through destructive practices.
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I don’t call them adminimals for nothing!
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“The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said today that Dr. Bror Saxberg will join the organization to “lead our efforts to improve and accelerate the use of learning science and ‘learning engineering.’” Saxberg had previously been Chief Learning Officer at Kaplan Inc.
Four years ago, Saxberg jointly wrote a book with educator and political scientist, Rick Hess, on how to integrate learning science and technology into better decisions and policies about learning. Called “Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age: Using Science to Reboot Learning,” the book emphasizes the need for “learning engineers,” their term for people who take a more systematic approach to understanding how we learn and putting those ideas into practice.
Jim Shelton, who leads CZI’s education program, announced the move on Facebook. “I couldn’t be more pleased”, he wrote. “By advancing and connecting cutting edge science with world-class design and engineering, we believe we can better enable researchers, empower educators, and help all young people achieve their dreams.”
Bror Saxberg came from Kaplan, Rick Hess is a career-long education reformer (and political scientist, apparently) and Jim Shelton came from the Obama Administration. Facebook and the Facebook billionaires, of course, require no introduction.
Ed reform is a lucrative career choice. Advocating for public schools is not.
Maybe Peter can “monetize” his blog 🙂
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This is the benefit of a small government and tax cuts..shrinkage of the middle class. Glad I’m retired. Teaching is no longer a decent profession due to the bad pay and the interference of ignorant politicians who pass despicable laws that destroy the professionalism of teaching.
……………………………………………………………..
Public Servants Are Losing Their Foothold in the Middle Class
Even as private employers have rebounded from the recession, the public sector’s ranks have withered, and pay and benefits have lagged.
…For generations of Americans, working for a state or local government — as a teacher, firefighter, bus driver or nurse — provided a comfortable nook in the middle class. No less than automobile assembly lines and steel plants, the public sector ensured that even workers without a college education could afford a home, a minivan, movie nights and a family vacation.
In recent years, though, the ranks of state and local employees have languished even as the populations they serve have grown. They now account for the smallest share of the American civilian work force since 1967….
Reducing state and local payrolls, of course, is a goal that has champions and detractors. Anti-tax crusaders, concerned about cost and overreach, have longed for a smaller government that delivers only the most limited services. Public-sector defenders worry that shortages of restaurant inspectors, rat exterminators, mental health counselors and the like will hurt neighborhoods. Pothole-studded roads and unreliable garbage pickup don’t entice businesses, either.
The 19.5 million workers who remain are finding themselves financially downgraded. Teachers who have been protesting low wages and sparse resources in Oklahoma, West Virginia and Kentucky — and those in Arizona who say they plan to walk out on Thursday — are just one thread in that larger skein…
Shala Marshall has taught for 17 years, has a master’s degree and has been a finalist for Oklahoma teacher of the year. Her adjusted gross income is $28,000, she said, and “I can’t support a family on that.”
“I was surprised to realize along the way I was no longer middle class,” said Teresa Moore, who has spent 30 years investigating complaints of abused or neglected children, veterans and seniors in Oklahoma.
She raised two daughters in Alex, a rural dot southwest of the capital, on her salary. But when she applied for a mortgage nine years ago, the loan officer casually described her as “low income.”
At 57, Ms. Moore now earns just over $43,000, which she supplements with a part-time job as a computer technician.
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It’s a tight-knit family, ed reform.
The US Department of Education sends public schools to EdSurge to determine which ed tech products to buy. But where does EdSurge gets its funding?
“EdSurge Inc. is an educational technology company that publishes newsletters and operates databases used by venture capitalists, teachers, school administrators and others.[1]
The company was founded in 2011 by Elizabeth Corcoran, a former executive editor of Forbes and a former technology reporter for The Washington Post, by Nick Punt, a former vice president at Inigral, a private social network for higher education, by Matt Bowman, a former Catholic school teacher, and by Agustin Vilaseca.[2]
As of December 2015, the company had raised $5.6 million in funding from investors including GSV Capital, NewSchools Venture Fund, Reach Capital, Catamount Ventures, 1776.vc, the Omidyar Network, the Women’s Venture Capital Fund, LearnCapital. and many angels.[3] EdSurge’s initial funding in 2012 was led by The Washington Post Company and NewSchools Venture Fund, along with angel investors including Allen & Company’s Nancy Peretsman and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Judith Estrin.[4]”
It’s a closed circle. A 12 billion dollar publicly-funded industry that has no real critics because everyone works for other members of the circle or may have to work for other members of the circle at some period in their careers. It doesn’t pay to question any of this, so no one does.
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So-called reformers “a tight-knit family…?”
You’re far too kind, Chiara; it’s more like an incestuous bunch of racketeers.
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“an incestuous bunch of racketeers” is correct,
and it seems that the kings-of-crime at the top of this incestuous pyramid are struggling to recruit enough racketeers because when one’s fraud is caught in one state and they pay the fine without no prison time (if they paid a fine before they fled that state), they end up repeating the same fraud in another state.
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Teachers treated shabbily? Look what TESTING is doing to so many children!
If the “nails” one selects to “strike”, determines the ones they miss…
For profit charters are the problem, testing continues.
Betsy is the problem, testing continues.
Low pay is the problem, testing continues.
Uncertain pension is the problem, testing continues.
Republicans are the problem, testing continues.
TFA dilutes the profession, testing continues.
Bla, bla, bla, is the problem, while testing continues.
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YEP!
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I saw them today at the convention
With pearls clutched in their hands
They were practiced at the art of deflection
Well you could tell by their test-stained hands…
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Peter Green has the wrong mentality. He needs the Deformer mentality.
“The Hunting of the Dollar” (after the Hunting of the Snark, The Vanishing, by Lewis Carroll)
They sought it with software, they sought it with hard-
They sought it with tests and with VAMs
They threatened the schools with a “Failing” card
They sought it through charters and scams
They shuddered to think that the cha$e might fail,
And Deformer, excited at last,
Went bounding along on the tip of its tail,
For the chance, it was nearly past.
“There is Thingumbob shouting!” the Billionaire said,
“She is shouting like mad, how she hollars!
She is waving her hands, she is wagging her head,
She has certainly found the dollar$!
They gazed in delight, while Deformer exclaimed
“It was always a desperate roll!”
They beheld her—their Betsy—their hero so named—
On the top of a White House pole
Erect and sublime, for one moment of time,
In the next, that wild figure they saw
(As if stung by a spasm) plunge into a chasm,
While they waited and listened in awe.
“It’s a Dollar!” was the sound that first came to their ears,
And seemed almost too good to be true.
Then followed a torrent of laughter and cheers:
Then the ominous words “It’s a Boo—”
Then, silence. Some fancied they heard in the air
A weary and wandering sigh
That sounded like “-jum!” but the others declare
It was only a breeze that went by.
They hunted till darkness came on, but they found
Not a penny or nickel or buck
By which they could tell that they stood on the ground
Where Deformer had drunk to his luck
In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
For the Dollar was Boojum, you see.
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Wish WordPress had an edit option
Correction:
They hunted till darkness came on, but they found
Not a penny or nickel or buck
By which they could tell that they stood on the ground
Where Deformer had drunk to her luck
In the midst of the word she was trying to say,
In the midst of her laughter and glee,
She had softly and suddenly vanished away—
For the Dollar was Boojum, you see.
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