Our blog poet was recently inspired to write about Arne Duncan’s truly terrible ideas about education.
Worst ideas all the way down
Duncan’s worst idea
Is resting on another
And what is very clear
Is that one had a mother
“Duncan’s Views on Testing”
(The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
We’re only for the Good tests,
And really hate the Bad
And certainly, the Ugly tests
Were always just a fad
“America ruins on Duncan”
“America ruins on Duncan”
The motto of reform
Where every school is flunkin’
And dough nut$ are the norm
“The Duncan-Kruger Effect”
The Duncan-Kruger Effect
Is rife with school “reform”
Where thinking has been checked
And chutzpah is the norm
The Era of Arne Err”
This decade, let’s be clear,
Is “Era of Arne Err”
No education here
Just testing, VAMs and fear
21st Century Medicine”
He dragged them kicking and screaming
The kids and all their teachers
Cuz Arne‘s into bleeding
With testing and with leeches
“The Arneanderthals”
The school “reform” was hatched
In agency of ads
And policy was snatched
From prehistoric fads
“Duncan’s Speechwriter”
Putting words in Arne’s mouth
That’s my job, and man I’m proud
Speech about “surburban mom”
Man, that really was ‘da bomb’
“Duncan Cover”
Duncan Cover
Not a drill
It’s all over
Fetch your will
Arne’s coming
Through the err
Tests are bombing
Everywhere
VAM is flying
Teachers scream
No denying
Duncan’s scheme
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Some Dam:
Your Arne Blitz
Makes me schvitz.
“America ruins on Duncan”
The motto of reform
Where every school is flunkin’
And dough nut$ are the norm“
You’ve outdone yourself this time SDP. Leave it to the prose!
Wasn’t there something recently about the GOP reducing nutritional standards for school lunches?
……………………………
This comes from research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.
Support for school nutrition policies helped kids avoid gaining excess weight.
Implementing nutrition policies at middle schools limited unhealthy weight gains in students.
The effect was strongest in children who started at a healthy weight, highlighting that nutrition policies can be an effective obesity prevention strategy in schools.
Almost one-third of children and adolescents nationwide are overweight or obese. Just like in adults, excess body weight puts kids at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, and other diseases. Researchers have been testing strategies to help children maintain a healthy weight into adulthood.
Most school districts in the U.S. are required to write wellness policies that set goals for nutrition education and physical activity. However, school districts may lack the expertise and funds to fully implement these policies…
Assistance with nutrition policies included helping schools choose healthy foods for their cafeterias and providing alternatives to food during classroom celebrations. Interventions to increase physical activity included fitness challenges and integration of exercise into classroom lessons…
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/school-nutrition-policies-reduce-weight-gain#.XD92KD1cDxo.gmail
Send
https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-fascist-politics-treat-children-as-disposable/
Children have become another disposable commodity. So sick.
Yvonne Siu-Runyan: That was so sickening that I couldn’t read it all. What has this country come to when people and children are no longer valued? In this era, the white wealthy are the privileged who count.
Diane, where is Betsy Devos in all of this and is she supporting the teacher strike in LA?
Of course Betsy does not support the strike.
A teacher held up a sign today that said “Austin Beutner is LA’s DeVos.” I borrowed it from him for the cameras.
If what you want is someone who will simply carry out your plan, however harmful it might be to ordinary people, then you look for a mediocrity, someone who is not so bright, someone who will read the words written for him and then go play basketball.
In other words,
The best tool is a fool.
Bill knew this. So does Putin.
Duncan was particularly useful for promoting national standards so that makers of educational software–Education Deformers in the impersonalized learning biz–would have a single bullet list to key exercises and test questions to, enabling them to sell their products “at scale.” He was their useful fool, their bobblehead.
…love some dam poet – he always lightens the load as one reads through the regretable actions of the reform crowd…also technically he is a great poet – he fits words together in amazing ways …and the song parodies are great..love you some dam poet ! Keep it going…we need your humour…
Arne Duncan was hired by Obama in December 2008- Both political parties are responsible for the demise of our educational system.
I can’t think of one Congressman who has stood up against any of this.
I’m simply disgusted.
Absolutely wonderful. This wasn’t LOL. I actually found myself smiling as I read this verse. Nice at 5 in the morning.
Roncalli, a Catholic school, has received $6.5 million in taxpayer voucher money from the state of Indiana. Two guidance counselors have filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.
Shelly Fitzgerald was suspended from her job at Roncalli because of her marriage in a same-sex relationship. She had worked there for 15 years and had been married for four.
This is the state where Pence was governor. His wife just took an elementary art job at a school that discriminates.
………………………………
Roncalli discrimination complaints could change Indiana’s voucher law
Arika Herron, Indianapolis Star Published 6:01 a.m. ET Jan. 15, 2019 | Updated 12:52 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2019
The proposal by Rep. Dan Forestal, D-Indianapolis, comes in the wake of discrimination charges lobbed at Roncalli High School.
With the Indiana General Assembly back in session, one state lawmaker says he still intends to introduce legislation that would block public dollars from going to private schools that engage in discriminatory hiring practices.
The proposal by Rep. Dan Forestal, D-Indianapolis, comes in the wake of discrimination charges lobbed at Roncalli High School, a Catholic school overseen by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Forestal said he wants to see strings put on the state’s voucher program, which uses public dollars to offset to cost of tuition at Roncalli and other participating K-12 private schools…
The school and Archdiocese have said in public statements that employees must support the teachings of the Catholic Church, including marriage being “between a man and a woman,” and that the expectation is clearly defined in employee contracts.
Roncalli has been one of the biggest recipients of voucher dollars in the state, receiving more than $6.5 million in public funds over the past five years, but it’s just one of 68 schools governed by the Archdiocese.
Nearly 8,300 students across central and southern Indiana used the voucher program to attend those schools last year — more than one-third of all Catholic school students in the state. The Archdiocese said the voucher program has been a useful tool for expanding access and parental choice to families who otherwise may not have been able to afford it.
“We will continue to advocate for parental choice and religious liberties to be upheld in ways that empower people to make choices regarding their child’s education that are aligned to their values and beliefs,” said Gina Fleming, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis…
Check out this story on IndyStar.com: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/15/roncalli-discrimination-complaints-could-change-indianas-voucher-law/2575186002/
SomeDAM, you are the poet-laureate of this website! You’ve done it again!
DUNCAN COVER . Now that’s especially clever. 🙂
That is a good one.
Looks like the Obama and Trump job opening for Secretary of Ed. was taken directly from the script of Zoolander.
“He’s(she’s) got to be extremely
dim-witted.
You know the profile,Jacobim.
A beautiful, self-absorbed…
simpleton who can be manipulated
and molded like Jell-O.
Or cookie dough.
Or Play-Doh.
Any kind of dough.
The point is,
we need an empty vessel…
a shallow, dumb, vacuous moron.”
Isn’t this a bit phony? Pence stands by Trump who has paid off women, had numerous extra-marital affairs, cares nothing about children being separated from their parents and then put in cages nor is concerned about how much the poor are suffering. I wonder if Pence is concerned about the attacks against Islam? HA. He is a religious zealot who can do a lot of damage.
……………………………………
Vice President Says Outrage Over Wife Karen Pence’s Discriminatory School Is ‘Offensive’
Mike Pence’s wife took a job teaching art at a school that bans LGBTQ families and individuals, HuffPost first reported Tuesday.
By Carla Herreria
…Vice President Mike Pence defended second lady Karen Pence’s decision to take a teaching job at a school that discriminates against LGBTQ individuals and families, suggesting that the uproar over it is an attack on Christianity.
During an interview with the Catholicism-focused Eternal World Television Network on Thursday, Pence said that the attacks on the Immanuel Christian School, which bans LGBTQ employees, students and families, were offensive to his family.
“To see major news organizations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us,” Pence said.
“We’ll let the critics roll off our backs,” the vice president continued. “But this criticism of Christian education should stop.”..
“It’s disturbing Second Lady Karen Pence would put her stamp of approval on an institution that actively targets LGBTQ students at one of the places where they should feel the safest,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said in a statement.
Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vice-president-karen-pence-criticism_us_5c40d866e4b027c3bbbf5166
Pence is a public hater of LGBT people. He wanted to pass a bill to protect “religious freedom,” that would allow anyone to discriminate against LGBT based on their religious beliefs. Then every major corporation in Indiana threatened to pull out of the state. And he backed down.