Nancy Bailey writes here about the long-term damage that corporate reformers (the Disruption movement) have inflicted on two generations of students.
If only students could sue them for ruining their schools! If only teachers could sue them for ruining their profession! If only the public could sue them to disruption their schools and communities!
She begins:
Frustrated by public schools? Look no further than the corporate education reformers and what they have done to public education.
Education Secretary DeVos and her corporate billionaire friends have been chipping away at the fabric of democratic public schools for over thirty years!
The problems we see in public schools today are largely a result of what they did to schools, the high-stakes testing and school closures, intentional defunding, ugly treatment of teachers, lack of support staff, segregated charter schools, vouchers that benefit the wealthy, Common Core State Standards, intrusive online data collection, and diminishing special education services.
Big business waged a battle on teachers and their schools years ago. The drive was to create a business model to profit from tax dollars. Now they want to blame teachers for their corporate-misguided blunders! It’s part of their plan to make schools so unpleasant, parents will have no choice but to leave.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Long term damage, “We’re All Scabs Now”, is an article by Claire Fallon at HuffPost.
She didn’t mention TFA’ers as the government-subsidized scabs that they are but, she should have.
As author Jack London, who is credited with coining the term scab, wrote, “It’s not good to give most for least.” Of course that’s not an accurate description for TFA’ers who intern as TFA’ers in order to start political and business careers from 3rd base.
YES. TFA = scabs. If only they could see that before they take a veteran teacher’s job.
Why start with DeVos? Why not Bush and the NCLB team? Why not Obama and the RttT team? Duncan did far more damage because, aw shucks, he was “our guy” and we let him get away with it.
Agreed. The Obama administration showed nothing but contempt for public schools. History will not be kind to the disrupters, from Reagan’s “A Nation at Risk” to the clueless heiress in the Ed Dept. right now.
Yes, I think we should always use the phrase “both democrats and republicans” when we discuss privatization. Here’s a provocative question-What if Michael Bloomberg secures the democratic nomination? Should a person choose the lesser of two abusers or not enter into a relationship with either?
I will vote for anyone running on the Dem line against Trump.
Even Bloomberg, who is not a Democrat and was horrible on education policy as mayor.
Anyone is better qualified than Trump. Even my dog or my cat.
I would gladly vote for Mitzi.
LCT,
Don’t tempt her. She would be a great candidate. She’s got integrity. She’s smart. She is kind. She loves to play with other dogs but she likes people better.
I agree. And Duncan continues to promote the same failed agenda.
Rahm Emanuel was on Bill Maher last night He praised TFA as an example of young people “giving back.” I could hardly stop myself from yelling at the TV.
Unfortunately, the billionaires have most of the money and a lot of the rights too. I keep thinking there should be some type of civil rights lawsuit hiding within the corporate reform hoax. We need the right lawyer to find it.
It’s hiding in plain sight!
It being the state sponsored discrimination against all students, although gravely affecting some, via mental capabilities in the standards and testing malpractice regime (and no standards are not curriculum goals and objectives.) A discrimination that should be ruled unconstitutional as no individual controls their upbringing and inherent mental capabilities. The state is not allowed to discriminate via age, gender, race, disability, etc. . . . Why is it okay for the state to discriminate against a student’s mental capabilities?
So-called mental capacities. Mental capacities as defined by the elite “best and brightest” (ahem).
I used to work with adults with disabilities, most of whom were diagnosed as “mentally retarded”. One guy in particular would come out with the most profound things some times. His cognitive processes were definitely different and in some ways limited, but, as his mother put it, “he’s slow but he’s not stupid.”
Commenter Elizabeth Burton reported in a different thread that the Koch’s gave money to CAP around the time it was formed. CAP was created in 2003. Does that timing line up with the beginning of Bill Gates’ biggest spending to corporatize and privatize schools?
CAP’s founder John Podesta can be seen in a video on a dais with Jeb Bush and Chester Finn asking donors to support privatizing political candidates.
The money that is given to Ms DeVious for the State Schools is actually used for repairing her yachts .
Bloomberg is as bad or worse than DeVos. His education profiteering cannibalizes the kids of the middle class and poor.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.