The Washington Post has a new national education writer, Laura Meckler. She published an excellent article yesterday about the big-time failure of Betsy DeVos to accomplish anything in D.C. as Secretary of Education.
Despite Republican control of Congress (for now), her budget proposals have fallen flat. She arrived with Trump’s promise to transfer $20 Billion from other federal programs to create a federal school choice program for charters, vouchers, and online schools. That went nowhere. She has repeatedly proposed a $1 Billion plan for school choice. Congress rejected it.
Her only victory was to get a big increase in charter school funding, now up to $450 Million. This despite the GAO report in 2016 warning of waste, fraud, and abuse in the charter industry.
DeVos has helped to galvanize the opposition to school choice and to energize supporters of public schools, who now recognize that charters and vouchers take money away from public schools, a traditional community institution whose doors are open to all.
She is such a toxic figure, her contempt for public schools is so evident, her arrogance and snobbishness so transparent, that she has alienated even some Republicans. Many rural Republicans treasure their local public schools. As Meckler shows, conservatives are divided over the DeVos effort to create a federal school choice plan. Libertarians fear (rightly) that federal funds will be accompanied by federal regulations.
From our point of view, as supporters of public education, DeVos has been the gift that keeps on giving. She remains deeply uninformed about education policy. Her solution to everything is School Choice. She is a champion of charters, stripping away their thin progressive veneer. She wants to roll back civil rights protections for everyone but accused rapists. She has removed protections for students defrauded by for-profit “colleges,” while stopping federal efforts to regulate the institutions that defraud students.
In short, if you care about public schools and civil rights and the ability of students to get a good education, she is a disaster on all fronts.
The fact that she became a national figure at the very time that Research converged on the negative effects of vouchers was fortuitous. Similarly, the growing national recognition that the charter industry is rife with waste, fraud, and abuse undermines her cause.
Now our goal must be to convince members of Congress, especially Democrats, to stop acting as the biggest funder of charter schools, whose aggressive expansion hurts public schools, you know, the schools that enroll 85% of America’s students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
She might be failing, but we still have to see her face on a weekly basis. I want to see her leave in disgrace…..SOON! She needs to be fully exposed for the true rat that she is.
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I will be so happy to see the whole Trump/Pence disaster show flushed down the toilet of history in 2020 and the GOP given a time out as well. Hoping against hope.
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Trump has accomplished one thing: He has utterly destroyed the principles of the Republican Party. They have none at all now, like Trump.
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I think it is a bit premature to state that Ms. DeVos has “failed”. She has two years remaining on her term (unless she resigns). Certain portions of her agenda, have not been approved by the Congress. The executive branch is charged with faithfully executing the laws of the Congress.
There just is no current enthusiasm for school choice initiatives at the federal level. The urban democrats follow the public school unions, slavishly. The rural republicans do not see the impetus to alter their public school monopoly.
There may never be any serious effort to provide the states with any financial support to enact school choice.
“It ain’t over, till it’s over” – Yogi Berra, athlete/philosopher
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Her only success so far is to roll back civil rights protections for all sorts of students.
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“The rural republicans do not see the impetus to alter their public school monopoly.”
Can I get some of the good stuff you’re ingesting Chas, please!
Really, though, “their (meaning Rethuglican) public school monopoly”. Where do you get such stupid notions?
And by the way, when it comes to the Ditz, the Fat Lady, indeed is singing.
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There are many articles around, stating that many rural Republicans do not support school choice. In many rural communities, the public school is the “anchor” of the community. Some school choice opponents on this blog, have expressed this sentiment.
Also, in rural communities, there are (currently) few non-public schools available. And home-schooling is not a viable option for many rural families.
If you an internet search, you will see how many rural Republican legislators, and urban Democrats have made “common cause” in opposing school choice. Each has their own reasons. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.
here is an excellent article:
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/02/21/gop-rifts-over-school-choice/
In Texas, the rural Republicans and the urban Democrats joined forces in killing school choice in the Lone Star State. see
https://www.mystatesman.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/how-rural-lawmakers-killed-school-choice-legislation-texas/3ADj4LG3TZ4mHOSHKUV2cM/
And public schools have a virtual monopoly on education in most rural areas of this nation. In Texas, non-public schools exist in only 6(six) of the state’s 459 school districts.
The dearth of school options in the remainder of rural America is just about the same.
If that is not a monopoly, what is?
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That is not a monopoly. That is a community institution. The police have a monopoly in those small towns. So does the fire department and the library. There are lots of public services that people treasure. You just don’t get it. I don’t think you ever will.
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I do not wish to argue semantics. When you have the “only game in town”, and there are no alternatives, that is a monopoly. If rural Texans are satisfied with the situation, then the monopoly is NOT a bad thing.
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No, Charles, public schools are not a monopoly. There are many, many choices. Even in states with voucher programs, the overwhelming majority of people still choose public schools for their children.
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“When you have the ‘only game in town’, and there are no alternatives, that is a monopoly.”
If you are referring to public schools, your definition for monopoly is totally WRONG!
Public schools are not AND SHOULD NOT be profit-generating, competing businesses.
“Market situation where one producer (or a group of producers acting in concert) controls supply of a good or service, and where the entry of new producers is prevented or highly restricted. Monopolist firms (in their attempt to maximize profits) keep the price high and restrict the output, and show little or no responsiveness to the needs of their customers. Most governments therefore try to control monopolies by (1) imposing price controls, (2) taking over their ownership (called ‘nationalization’), or (3) by breaking them up into two or more competing firms. Sometimes governments facilitate the creation of monopolies for reasons of national security, to realize economies of scale for competing internationally, or where two or more producers would be wasteful or pointless (as in the case of utilities).”
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/monopoly.html
The goal of public education is to offer an education to children that are not products churned out on an assembly line to be sold in retail stores or through Amazon.
Children are not slaves.
Children are not lumps of coal.
Children are not gallons of gasoline.
Children are not cars and trucks
Children are not items of clothing.
Children are not burgers sold by McDonald’s.
Children are not a slice of pie.
The local democratic, transparent public school districts spread across every state and territory are meant to be led by locally elected school boards that answer to voters and/or parents in each local area — not to a corporate board and CEO’s headquartered in a distant city in another state or even in another country.
And real CHOICE is built into those public schools with the offer of elective classes so students and/or their parents can be involved in deciding what classes outside of required courses, required by legislation and law at each state level, the child should take. Most elective choices are offered at the Intermediate and high school level. When funds are cut from local public school districts, those elective choices are often the first classes to go ending individual choice.
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Let me be more specific. In Texas, there are only 6(six) school districts in the total of 459, which have a non-public school option. (This excludes home-schooling).
In most of rural America, the scarcity of options is about the same.
Let’s keep the discussion focused on rural areas. see
https://www.k12insight.com/trusted/look-impact-school-choice-rural-america/
The fact is, that there is little support for school choice in most rural areas. Rural lawmakers can see this.
Why do you think that there are “many,many choices (sic)” for parents to choose non-public schools in rural areas?
You are a native Texan. There are no non-public schools in 453 school districts in the Lone Star State.
Do you some information to the contrary?
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Charles, why should a district with 95 students have more than one school?
Do you know what school spirit is?
Why am I wasting my time responding to you?
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Well stated Lloyd. Public schools often pool their resources to provide services to students that have different needs. This includes special education, vocational and magnet schools. That is in addition to all the course selections available in secondary schools. They do all of this diversification professionally and efficiently in comparison to private schools. They also hire professional teachers, not teaching temps for the job.
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The district I taught in for thirty years offered an alternative high school choice that met the needs of students that had challenges in their lives that got in the way of education. Students and family members had to apply to get into this high school that did not come with an 18 year old cut off date for HS graduation. In fact, I was told one student finally earned enough credits and passed all elements of the CAHSEE test and graduated at 22. The flexibility of the alternative high school allowed him to work full time to help support his parents and siblings, who lived in poverty.
“Beginning with the Class of 2006, students in California public schools were required to pass the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) to demonstrate competency in grade-level skills in reading, writing, and mathematics to earn a high school diploma.”
I’ve heard that California suspended the CAHSEE test after I retired in 2005.
Other CHOICES I was aware of beyond the list of electives was the partnership the high school had with local community and state colleges. Students that wanted to take advantage of this choice went to the library at lunch or after school to attend a class linked through a monitor and cable to the partner colleges. These courses came with credit that counted toward high school graduation and were accepted when those students started college.
All sports programs outside of PE classes are another CHOICE and studies show that at risk students that join a sports team also started to succeed in their academic classes. All team sports took place before or after school and on weekends. Those children make the choice to give up their free time and I saw them arriving on campus as early as 6 AM and staying to practice or compete sometimes until after the alarms were turned on for the buildings.
I was the advisor and teacher (for seven years of the thirty years I was a classroom teacher) for the high schools journalism class and student newspaper and every teen in that class made the CHOICE to take that elective. They came early Two or three hours before their first class of the day, worked through lunch and often stayed as late as 10 PM. This was their choice.
The same applied to Drama, the school’s student chorus and the schools marching band.
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Q Charles, why should a district with 95 students have more than one school?
Do you know what school spirit is?
Why am I wasting my time responding to you? END Q
Good questions:
School districts sometimes have multiple schools, to cover all of the grades. Some smaller districts may have transportation issues and need to disperse their facilities.
I know what school spirit is.
I cannot answer the last question.
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One school for every 12 students.
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Charles, rural schools with small student populations scattered over a large area often have K-12 classes in the same building. In fact, one teacher might be working with children from several grade levels at the same time but with different work for different grade levels. Across the hall could be a K-6 grade school classroom and 7 – 12 is in another one.
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Charles would like the children in that rural district to have the choice to attend an evangelical school or a yeshiva or a madrassa and certainly charter schools. Many of them in every community, no matter how few children there are.
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I have , by coincidence, been writing a history of the old high school that burned in my hometown of Bell Buckle, Tennessee. The story of this event highlights the fact that rural areas look to their schools as the unifying force of their communities. They fight for them tooth and nail. The story of the fire that took our school one April night still haunts the memories of people in our town. Most of the people who loved that old place love our school now, for it took a protracted political fig to keep it. Many of the people who look fondly on both our present school and the destroyed old institution in Bell Buckle are strong Trump supporters. The thing that unites them with his opponents is that both look to the unifying force in our Eastern Bedford County community: our school.
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“The urban democrats follow the public school unions, slavishly. ”
Yeah, right. The urban democrats have followed the unions so slavishly that they closed 50 public schools in Chicago and Broad is allowed to privatize LA schools. Just read back through posts here about the so called democrats who have led the charter charge.
How do you manage to not choke on your own pronouncements?
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There is a important corollary between this and the posting made immediately before this on the rising popularity of public schools. As you write, the gift that keeps….
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“She remains deeply uninformed about education policy. Her solution to everything is School Choice. She is a champion of charters. . . ”
Not only a champion of charters but also public funding (vouchers) of xtian fundie madrassa style schools. Her ultimate goal is an xtian caliphate for America. Destroying public education is an integral step in that process-gotta get rid of that commie heathen godless socialistic imbuing public school sector, at least that’s what she thinks her god tells her to do.
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Excellent, Duane. You have a nice deck of metaphors here.
The advice columnist and writer Dan Savage calls DeVos and her ilk “the American Taliban.”
Always a pleasure to see you here, sir.
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What’s worse for the United States than the Taliban, and that organization/person’s name starts with the same first letter as Taliban?
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From the end of the article:
“The lack of action in Congress has left DeVos to promote her ideas rather than any particular proposals. She casts parental choice as ‘education freedom’ and derides the federal government’s role.
‘My work in education over 30 years has revolved around time invested on the outside,’ she said in a July speech. ‘Outside the Department of Education. Outside the system. Outside Washington. I think that’s a good thing. Don’t you?’”
I’ll let you all answer that question.
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DeVos is a narrow minded ideologue. She is also presented as one of the least competent monsters in the swamp. She represents elitism, bias and sending public money to private entities. None of her issues resonate with average Americans. She lives in a vacuum disconnected from the lives of average working families. What she fails to understand is that most people value their public schools and want to improve, not destroy them. Public education built our nation, and most people support public education even in its current state. Regular people do not want a market based education revolution. That is what the 1%, libertarians, free market capitalists and right wing Christians want. Most regular families want, well resourced, quality, locally controlled public schools.
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I believe you are in error. If you think that most people support the public education monopoly, and support public education in its current state, you are wrong.
See this article from California. California is an ultra-blue state, perhaps the most liberal state in the nation. Even 50% of the liberals surveyed expressed support for school choice.
Here is the article
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Very odd, since there have been many votes about whether to introduce vouchers, and the public votes “NO” every single time.
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I think it is odd, too. I have given up on trying to understand California, a long time ago.
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Just be careful of those surveys and WHO is the money behind those surveys. Any survey question can be written so as to get an intended result. I believe in public education, I do not believe in vouchers or tax based education incentives, yet I pay to send my 2nd child to private school. It doesn’t mean that I support Choice….it just means that I am unhappy with the “reforms” (Common Core, over testing, AP/SAT mania, data collection etc) in my public school system and I don’t have time to wait for the system to change….again. Asked in a certain way in a survey, it could be construed that I am pro choice…..which I am not. And please don’t bring up your voucher rant….it’s old!
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I am reminded of a heated discussion in grad. school about Marxism and the idea that if you participated in the Marxist system which was inherently sexist (patriarchal), even though you appreciated that system’s overall principals, you were part of the problem. It begins to feel that every time we participate in the “survey” game, we may be promoting that which we are actually fully against.
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The Public Policy Institute of California, is an independent, non-partisan research organization. It is nationally respected. see
http://www.ppic.org/topics/k-12-education/
I have a background in statistics. I agree that polls can be massaged and manipulated, and questions can be phrased to skew the results.
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Charles,
Your crusade to convert the readers of this blog to your views on vouchers for religious schools and charters run by entrepreneurs and corporate chains is a big waste of time. Yours and ours.
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Many people are less supportive of “choice” when they see that it results in a finite sum of money divided up in such a way that nobody really benefits from cutting the pie in so many slices. The only other option would be to raise taxes to pay for more choice. This I understand would make conservative heads explode all over the country.
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My motive here is only honest discussion. I know I cannot convince anyone (here)to take up school choice. Nevertheless, I feel that there is a need to have an opposition voice.
I discuss education issues other places, like at my weekly Friday coffee clatch. The stuff I learn here, is invaluable.
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Open discussions with people of different perspectives are healthy. As far as public education is concerned, I am a fervent supporter because I have witnessed and participated in its benefit and, yes, even in its magic to some degree. I have seen students move from poverty to the middle class in a single generation mostly due to the education they received in a public school. To me public education is a valuable public asset and an example of democracy in action that must be defended. To me the benefits of public education far outweigh the problems. With privatization, IMHO, the reverse in true. The problems, waste and fraud far outweigh the meager benefits to a few at the expense of many.
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@RT: I find myself in agreement. I have nothing against publicly-supported/publicly-operated education. I went to public schools, and graduated from a public university. There are many fine public schools in this nation. If I had children, I would be proud to send them to the fine public schools here in Fairfax County VA.
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Charles,
Your “fine” public schools in Fairfax county wouldn’t be fine anymore if a Republican Governor had his way and had taken money from them to give to charters who teach the cheapest students and throw back the others. Your “fine” public schools would have been struggling if each one was forced to subsidize a co-located charter with the freedom to only teach the students they wanted to teach while forcing the public school to take their rejected students.
And before you insist “competition” is good, try to imagine if the rules on charters were reversed and it was the charter schools who were obligated by law to teach every student the public schools didn’t want to teach and were responsible for those children until high school graduation or until their parents moved out of the city. Imagine how the “competition” would work if it was charter schools who had to take the public school rejections and be responsible for them financially until graduation.
You’d be screaming foul that it wasn’t a fair “competition” if public schools had the freedom to send any child the decided was too much bother to teach to the local charter school which had to make room for him no matter what.
And yet you drop words like “competition” as long as it is the charters who get special rules in that competition.
There are parents just like you who think that their children’s soccer team shouldn’t have to follow the league rules to give each child equal playing time. Those parents like you want their child’s team to dump the kids who aren’t good players and believe that the other teams should be forced to accept those players on their team AND be forced to follow the rules to give those kids equal playing time on their team. But those parents think that their own child’s team should be able to dump the players they don’t want and only play the players who are good enough.
And those parents demonstrate that they have no moral compass when they throw insults and jeers at the teams that are defeated by their child’s “winning” team. Those parents demonstrate their own lack of ethics as they shout at the losing team that their team is so much better than theirs.
How sad that you want to enable more people like those parents who believe that their kid’s soccer team is “better” because those parents have designed a league where only their child’s team receives the special privilege of being able to send their worst players to other teams. The fact that the one team that has the privilege of not playing any child they don’t want to play while other teams are obligated to play all of them is not “competition”. It is corruption so a privileged small group can benefit.
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Just like Donald Trump:
DeVos, just like Donald Trump, has helped to galvanize the opposition to school choice and to energize supporters of public schools.
DeVos, just like Donald Trump, is such a toxic figure, her contempt for public schools is so evident, her arrogance and snobbishness so transparent, that she has alienated even some Republicans.
She is such a toxic figure, just like Donald Trump, her contempt for public schools is so evident, her arrogance and snobbishness so transparent, that she has alienated even some Republicans.
I’ve heard of the GAO before so I decided to larn more and found this info worth reading.
“How Does GAO Report Its Findings and Recommendations?
“GAO’s primary products are reports, often called “blue books,” and testimony before Congress. GAO also issues correspondence (letters), which are narrower in scope, of more limited interest, and do not contain recommendations. With virtually the entire federal government subject to its review, the agency issues a steady stream of products, usually over 900 separate products a year.
“The agency operates under strict professional standards of review. All numbers and statements of fact presented in GAO work are thoroughly checked and referenced. …
https://www.gao.gov/about/products/about-gao-reports.html
Just like Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump has also galvanized Democrats, liberals, moderate Republicans, and progressives to become involved in saving our Constitution Republic.
The most recent evidence of that was the recent anonymous Op-Ed published in the New York Times, and the book “Fear: Trump in the White House” by Bob Woodward.
Even Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George Conway III, a conservative Republican, is speaking out against Trump and George also belongs to a semi-secret Republican group working together against Trump.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/5/15740894/kellyanne-conway-husband-trump
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I don’t mean to be off-topic, but what do you all think of the Prince Ea viral videos about education? He is a rapper/poet with a large online following with 11 million Facebook fans alone. He and the people who support the videos say they are attacking the “system” and not the teachers, but the content of the videos say otherwise. The handful of teachers who have been critical in the comments have basically been told they can’t see the problem well because they are obviously part of the problem. I would think that if one is talking about the “system” and not the workers in that system, they would be spending more time talking about state and federal DOEs and politicians, but yet they spend all of their time talking about schools and districts without realizing how little control they have over things.
You may have seen a video a while back called “I Just Sued the Education System.”
His latest education video is “Before You Go to School, Watch This.”
He spends a bunch of time criticizing what and how teachers teach, school structure, how schools aren’t teaching things needed in life, etc. There is a trite ‘there are a few teacher gems out there” statement at the end.
I find this video discouraging to me, and I’m an elementary music teacher! My subject area colleagues are likely not the targets of such criticism. I also consume a lot personal development content, and a lot of these “thought leaders” love criticizing education. Again, though I don’t hear a lot of people trash talk their former music or art teachers, I still feel attacked on behalf of all of my other colleagues.
It’s amazing how people who charge $25,000+ to give a 45 minute keynote speech at a conference where they expect people to listen attentively in rows, hold questions for the proper time if they are even willing to take them, and not interrupt criticize teachers for expecting their students to sit quietly in rows, hold questions for the proper time, and not interrupt. I wonder where these convention audiences learned to sit so attentively????
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I have been discouraged every day that my children have attended public school. I am discouraged that the teachers choose to follow the common core curriculum even though they know it’s wrong. I am discouraged that teachers will keep small children sitting for hours so that they are “test prepped” continually. I am discouraged that children are not allowed free play. I am discouraged that teachers do fun activities to promote the big standardized test. I am discouraged that teachers will bully children into taking the test even if their parents have chosen to Opt out/Refuse. I am discouraged when teachers will offer fun activities to the children who take the test, but exclude the children whose parents have opted out. I am discouraged when teachers will make children “sit and stare” if they refuse to take the test. I am discouraged when teachers use Growth Mindset, Grit, and other SEL techniques to game better scores on the stupid test. I am discouraged when teachers tell me “I’m not willing to lose my job over a stupid test”. I’m discouraged that teachers tell my teenager that no one will accept her into college if she doesn’t take a crap load of AP classes/tests. I am discouraged when teachers push SAT/AP prep classes. I am discouraged that teachers try and tell me this same garbage…but I KNOW better and they get to listen to me for a few moments. Just think if you are a kid in this kind of system. I hate to say it, but teachers are part of the problem because they go along to get along. Maybe it’s not like this in your district, but in districts where test scores and competition rule the world, school is HELL for children and teens. These kids are angry, they are ticking time bombs and it’s no wonder that they don’t know how to handle emotional situations and resort to violence. Be Discouraged all you want, but the kids have a right to feel cheated and used.
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“I hate to say it, but teachers are part of the problem because they go along to get along.”
Thoroughly concur! GAGA Good German attitudes. Most folks don’t want to hear that but what you have stated about what those teachers do in the name of standardized testing is dead wrong, wrong, wrong.
“I’m not willing to lose my job over a stupid test”
It’s called not having any cojones to stand up to the powers that be that mandate the implementation of educational malpractices. Perhaps they should read a little Comte-Sponville to get a better understanding of things like justice, compassion, love or any other of the virtues that he discusses in “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues”. From that book:
“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]
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I’m sorry you feel that way. I can see how students can see the issues presented in the video and blame their teachers. However, knowledgable, voting adults know the source of the problem. The districts and the schools are merely implementing the awful policies their state government and the feds have passed this century. When an association of Florida’s school boards challenged a former head of the FL DOE, they were told “your job is to implement the laws of the Florida Legislature.”
It’s amazing that the members of one political party spent so many decades complaining about low-performing schools and have spent the past 17 years finally getting their way little by little. They are responsible for this test test test environment we have today. Now, these SAME people complain because you can only have two class parties a year, there’s no “show and tell,” kindergarten is the new 3rd grade, school assemblies are few and far between, etc.
By the way, it is possible to do one’s best to navigate a not so great system while trying to change it at the same time. Someone may not like the expectation that they must go through calculus to be accepted to the college of their choice when they don’t plan to go into a math-related field, and it is okay for them to work to change that. But in the meantime, they should still set themselves up to perform as best as they can while that rule in still in place. That’s what teachers are doing, albeit not perfectly.
So, your position seems to be having teachers and administrators risk losing their jobs by refusing to give tests or promoting the opt-out movement? Teachers should refuse to participate in initiatives that their administrators believe could be helpful to their students? You know when a teacher is found guilty of committing an ethics violation, they have to report this action against their certificate on EVERY certified teacher job application in every state for the rest of their career, right?
So, when the teacher encourages students to opt out and she is exposed and loses her job, will you be donating to her defense fund or a GoFundMe helping cover a month of rent? Likely not. You and others with this “teachers need to revolt” mentality will likely just call her a “brave soul” and merely offer your “thoughts and prayers.”
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Sorry, Discouraged. What teachers are doing is education malpractice and aiding and abetting of child abuse. The warehousing of children is against the law. Yes, I expect teachers to shut their doors and teach a full and rich curriculum and yes, I expect them to refuse to proctor standardized tests. It is exactly your mentality, that makes parents like me angry to the core. You are complacent and complicit and it’s wrong! Teachers need to “grow a pair” and do what’s right instead of just delivering scripted, skill set content/test prep and participating in this test and punish madness all because you want to keep getting a paycheck. I would certainly like to have the money that we are spending to send our son to a private HS to get away from this mess…but it’s called sacrifice to do what is best for our child. My taxes still pay for public education (including your salary), yet my child is not in public schools. SACRIFICE. Teachers claim that they get into education because they like working with children, yet they participate in the abuses imposed on those children. That’s how this angry parent sees it. Teachers need to quit being sheep led to slaughter.
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LisaM, are you a public school teacher? From your “angry parent” comment, I think you have never been a public school teacher.
I have … for thirty years and I resisted, protested, complained, was warned by friends that the district’s administration had me on a list to get rid of. I still resisted, protested and complain and I wasn’t alone.
But I’m a former US Marine, Vietnam Combat vet, and aggression is still a stronger trait for males. I also had another factor in my favor. I was a multi-award winning English and journalism teacher, and this was in my favor because it wouldn’t be easy to come up with a reason to fire me when my students had been winning regional national and international awards in writing for decades and I taught in schools, that according to test scores, are all failures.
http://www.mysplendidconcubine.com/teachingyears.htm
“While psychologists and psychiatrists often disagree sharply when they discuss whether behavioral differences between the sexes exist, many agree on one difference – that boys and men are still the more aggressive and violent.”
According to the most recent population survey released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the teaching gender gap is still alive and well. Male educators constitute just 2.3% of pre-K and kindergarten teachers, 18.3% of the elementary and middle school teacher population, and 42% of the high school level teaching staff. These numbers are down from 2007, but suggest a clear female majority in the teaching profession, especially in the earlier grades.
“In 2011–12, some 76 percent of public school teachers were female,”
And it hasn’t changed much: “The Nation’s Teaching Force Is Still Mostly White and Female” – August 15, 2017
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/08/15/the-nations-teaching-force-is-still-mostly.html
Then there is the fact that most of our priorities in life. and for almost all humans, have little to do with resistance against monsters like Arne Duncan and Betsy DeVos and being wiling to sacrifice shelter, income, food security and more of the basic priorities for life to make an “angry parent” approve of our actions.
These are priories mostly in common with everyone
survival for living
financial stability
You are asking public school teachers, out of your own anger, to throw away their lives and start over to end this insanity being forced on us from the top down because of a few hundred autocratic corrupt in so many ways billionaires.
You want public school teachers to fight while you stay home and encourage them to be destroyed financially and mentally because resistance like that is extremely stressful. You can’t sleep. Your mental and physical health suffers. I know, because it happened to me but I won because I stayed in the classroom until I was ready to retire after thirty years. I also paid a horrible price because of that lack of sleep and the stress that damaged me.
I think you are no different than the Vietnam War Protesters who never war a uniform or fraught in combat; that spit on US troops as they came home because those troops wouldn’t protest the war, and refuse to follow orders … because that came with a risk being shot dead on the spot or being compartmentalized and tossed in a military federal prison for 20 years or longer while having some of your citizen ship rights stripped from you because of being awarded a dishonorable discharge.
In short, you have no idea what you are talking about and your anger is not justified.
If you want to be a role model, then become a public school teacher, get in a classroom with your own students, and fight back. Make sure you teach in schools where the child poverty rate is 70-percent or higher like where I taught for thirty years. Then you will learn what I’m talking about. I wonder how long you will last before they crush you and toss you out with the trash. I wonder if you will recover from the damage by this system that is managed and controlled from the top by corrupt politicians and autocratic, corrupt billionaires who don’t care about your anger or what is right and fair.
Remember that racist who drove his car into a crowd of people protesting a white national rally in Chancellorsville and some in that crowd were killed or injured?
How many times have you been willing to put your life on the line and lose everything? If you are fortunate to survive, then you have to start your life over from square one.
Think of all those combat vets who came back without legs and arms.
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And this situation was created by the people who spend the past few decades talking about the supposed low quality of our schools.
I could suggest that your family “grow some” and refuse to pay your property taxes if you don’t wish to contribute to the funding of this system. But I won’t, because I believe keeping that roof over your family’s head is important too.
Again, you can do the work to try to change the system while doing what you can to survive it as it is TODAY. I vote a certain way, pay union dues, and pay membership dues to my state and national music education associations to help lobby for changing the evaluation system (Marzano/Danielson as well as VAM that contribute to the culture you describe, etc.) and supporting the arts while simultaneously doing my best to implement the reforms without destroying the integrity of my music program.
There are several schools in my state that have spent these first 3-4 weeks of school with substitutes because of the shortage. How is that helping our students?
Thank you for this exchange. I think I’m done. Good luck with your child and making the sacrifice to do what you feel is best for them.
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Diane – Please read the article in the current Vanity Fair on Betsy DeVos. Thanks !
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Please post the link. Thanks.
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