Where is the war on teachers taking us?
As the zero-tax absolutist, and anti-referendum zealots (who are willing to outright lie about property tax Armageddon) continue to control the levers of government, it is worth considering what outcome we hope to achieve by underfunding and running public education into the ground in America. What lurks around the corner for a country that has declared the classroom teacher a menace to society?
Here is a glimpse of that future. This is from Huffington Post, but it could be from wherever a teacher is talking about their life choices.
Nothing I have ever done has brought me as much joy as I have received from teaching children how to write the past 14 years. Helping young writers grow and mature has been richly rewarding and I would not trade my experiences for anything.
That being said, if I were 18 years old and deciding how I want to spend my adult years, the last thing I would want to become is a classroom teacher.
Classroom teachers, especially those who are just out of college and entering the profession, are more stressed and less valued than at any previous time in our history.
They have to listen to a long list of politicians who belittle their ability, blame them for every student whose grades do not reach arbitrary standards, and want to take away every fringe benefit they have — everything from the possibility of achieving tenure to receiving a decent pension.
Read the whole thing, but here is something that might resonate here as some local politcos turn on the PR machine to drag Christina School District through the mud over standardized test scores.
During the coming week in Missouri, the House of Representatives will vote on a bill which would eliminate teacher tenure, tie 33 percent of our pay to standardized test scores (and a lesser, unspecified percentage for those who teach untested subjects) and permit such innovations as “student surveys” to become a part of the evaluation process.
Each year, I allow my students to critique me and offer suggestions for my class. I learn a lot from those evaluations and have implemented some of the suggestions the students have made. But there is no way that eighth graders’ opinions should be a part of deciding whether I continue to be employed.
Hey, the game’s out there, and it’s play or get played. That simple.
Can’t expect one side to just lay down.
I take it that you are responding to “anti-referendum zealots…willing to outright lie…”
If so, I’m glad that you feel comfortable enough to reveal your character in such a transparent way. That’s something of a virtue.
I think we both know the stakes in play, cupcake. Virtue? Not a safe bet on either side. Be prepared. Buy lube.
“just lay down…buy lube.”
Hey, fella, I think you have this place mixed up with your favorite porn site.
You are a proud liar, and disgusting to boot. Got it. On your way now.
You should see the Appo haters these days. The school board approved a bunch of cuts a month ago (like the day after the referendum failed) delaying the purchase of new textbooks, keeping some buildings closed for another year, etc. Then they went to work to wring another couple 300K out of the budget.
This week, they announced that they were going to cut a bunch of other things, including the end-of-year staff picnic. On FB, the idiots are now screaming that they cut textbooks before their picnic. It then devolved into “DSEA dirtballs” and “This is why I’m voting against the next referendum”. Ugh.
If our Omar here is any indication, they are a pretty unsavory bunch of angry a-holes.
The a-holes have an agenda – destroy public education and teacher unions and replace them with the people who crashed the economy. The private sector realized that there was government money to be had in education which explains charter schools.
Remember the good old days when the charter school motto was about being incubators that would try out new programs and then feed into public schools. That then morphed into “Charter schools offer a better education for less money”, but then the results of charter schools came out, so they had to drop that propaganda and move onto “Parents have the right to Choice!” All of it was nonsense, but it allowed the private sector to tap into all of that government money – which was always the mission.
Urban areas have been dealing with this for years, and Mike O. and I have been warning suburban communities that this crap was heading their way. When referendums continue to be voted down, programs (textbooks, TAG, etc.) will be lost. When those programs vanish, charters start to pop up. Once that happens districts lose more programs and the charter creaming begins in force.
And for those who think public education is the pits: http://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/
jason and LG–I think you are way too early to begin egging on the crowd you refer to as an unsavory bunch of angry a-holes. Appoquinimink will be rolling out soon their plan in entirety for the concise, thoughtful, trim but not austere, reasonable and heavily compromised May 9th referendum. This is one I can agree to wholeheartedly, and am impressed it’s even more “tight”, then I would have threshold. If folks want to bombdive on a lousy hot dog/hamburger or slice of roasted pig (that an employee hauls from home to grill) at an end of the year picnic—when every other item is donated as in pot luck–than that is just a miserable human being. How many companies have company picnics–and at Dorney Park? Really. Those companies don’t have to report out those costs. But Appoquinimink being honest, and using public funds is reporting out the mere sheckles it costs to underwrite the meat for their hardworking employees at the end of a school year, is going to be a punching bag for a quick joke? Don’t fan their flames OK? What information were people given yet? Nay-sayers haven’t seen or understood–those cuts are in ADDITION to educational cuts previously rolled out, and weren’t priortized in some fashion. It’s a laundry list to work thru—not numbered. Like packing your lunch instead of buying–but meanwhile your house is up for sale. Appoquinimink truly heard the community this time in a very played out drama that shocked all sides. But please, I WAS a NO VOTER first round—I am a DEAD SERIOUS YES VOTER this round, in seeing the resultant, earnest endeavor of the school district, personnel and board REALLY go back—and listen to make this something a community finds palatable. It was an unchartered course, in worrisome economic times, and managing growth mixed w/ labile state/federal funding for the district. Numbers and economic tolerance are bit more “dialed” in this round, in hearing from district residents. It is fair, pragmatic, and sustaining–but w/ some tough compromises—until the economy shakes loose a bit more. Please don’t instigate the downers, it only adds to the perpetuation of myth and rhetoric. This is a GREAT referendum for these times—and is so badly needed in this community.
Pandora: I don’t think dipping into the cash stream was always the agenda, at least not for the people who started the movement because they don’t like the one-size-fits-all model.
But I agree that the movement was hijacked some time ago. My once-strong support for charters has withered to great skepticism; I don’t think any charter should be granted for reasons other than a desire to try new academic approaches, and we need much better standards for their economic backing as well.
In short, mea culpa. I was guilty of looking at the few successes while the failures were piling up. The pile finally got too big for me to ignore.
Joanne, it seemed to me that there were two types of “no” voters. Those like you, who had concerns, and those with a very different agenda (destroy teacher unions, etc.). The trick now is to make sure that all the people in your camp vote yes.
This could be a bit tricky since the loudest “no” voice swayed people into believing the old chestnut of waste, fraud and abuse. They not only ran against the referendum – they ran against the status quo. I’m not seeing how a scaled back referendum changes that group’s message. Not saying it can’t be done, but that spin of “waste, fraud and abuse” message came through loud and clear. Good luck.
It is a little funny to hear Joanne ask me not to encourage the “downers” that she enabled last time. Like it or not, those people were hiding behind Joanne’s principled stance and now have her imprimatur on their reputations. So while Joanne may have changed direction, those vocal opponents that could say that they stood with former school board members to oppose the last referendum, now stand on that platform to oppose the next.
I hope the opponents of the the last one make more calls in support of the referendum this time. Otherwise, we’ll be removing lightbulbs in my kid’s French class to save money.
No mea culpa necessary, Geezer. When charters first came on the scene I didn’t have a problem with them. As they’ve evolved and grown I have a big problem.
If you hop over to Kilroy’s you’ll see the latest debacle – Pencader may close before the end of the school year. How is this possible?
We all need to take a step back and realize that most parents aren’t capable of making an educated choice when it comes to choosing a school for their child – mainly because the schools (all schools) aren’t required to give the necessary information that would result in an informed/educated choice.
I know Pencader parents whose first choice was the Charter School of Wilmington. To me, that’s like saying “Our first choice is Harvard, but if we don’t get in there we’ll go to DelTech.” That is not a slam at DelTech, which I think does amazing things. It’s a slam at charter school propaganda that leads parents to believe that all charter schools are created equal – and always superior to public schools. And now that Pencader is closing (maybe before the end of the school year) I’m hearing that many of those parents are choosing Moyer. WTF?
But I don’t blame the parents. They are, and have been, being fed lies. It’s tragic. Yet another system designed to take advantage of the people who need advocacy the most.
I agree with LG. As I predicted, the malice filled genies that Joanne made common cause with last time don’t want to go back in the bottle.
Re-read Omar’s first comment and there you have it in a nutshell. No mention of students, no teachers, no schools – just an angry guy with a chip on his shoulder thinking that his “side” is at war with some other “side” in a proxy fight to prove.. what? Who knows?
just an angry guy with a chip on his shoulder thinking that his “side” is at war with some other “side” in a proxy fight to prove.. what? Who knows?
I know.
Well yes. Destroying teacher unions, etc is a big part of it, but I think his mania is deeper. The whole world is a zero sum game to some people. If anyone “gets” something (like a teacher getting a decent retirement, or a classroom getting a computer) they think that they’ve lost something.
The notion of “community” is an anathema. The simple crazy mindedness of the wingut worldview effects everything.
For the “angry guy with chip on shoulder,” it’s not really even about education or taxes. That is just the PR hook he is using to advance his larger goal. Damaging teacher unions is just part of the larger goal of weakening unions overall, which would be a major coup for his politics and his career.
The state GOP has this idea that their electoral failures are due to union support for Democrats, therefore damaging unions will somehow improve Republican electoral fortunes. And of course the Chamber of Commerce types are always up for anything that damages unions anywhere.
Sorry, J, but I think it’s bigger than one or two (or twenty) crazy people.
In the city we’ve watched our schools be (deliberately) destroyed and when we’ve approached our public school district their solution is charters! I can’t find Mike O’s comments right now (spring cleaning has taken a hold of me!) but he was sounding the alarm for suburban communities a year ago.
If I may humbly suggest… please move beyond the individuals. This is much, much bigger than them.
No jason and geek–Joanne made no common cause with their stand. My outreach was “rewrite this referendum”. The fringe and HELL NO voter is going to be there regardless. If I had any imprimatur status, as you suggest to those bottled up genies–remember, Major could also put the genie back in the bottle. If Genie isn’t going back in, then you have your fringe voter. I’m looking to my fellow “not this time–please reconsider and rewrite” voter, who really did weigh out what this district has done, and is capable of doing, before joining in as an unchecked slam dunk YES voter. I am very optimistic this community is made of more of those type of citizens, than the fringe that gets under your skin. And hey, any of those folks who really struggled with their vote in this district who did call or contact me, are welcome to check in again. Those people are very principled, generous, thoughtful, high road type voters who wanted to hear “the other side”, non-hijacked stand. And that range was from parents, employees, district residents, and senior citizens.
Sorry, JC, those nuts made common cause with you. I guess we’ll have to see if the damage can be undone, but the nuts have an uncanny ability to motivate their fellow nuts for low-turnout elections (Christine O’Donnell won almost all of Appo).
I wonder whether there will be residual impact from those nuanced signs that your friends erected last time.
Ya know I love ya, LG, but Appo’s referendum was really, really high so I can see both sides – yours and Joanne’s, not Appo Truth’s. IMO, Appo Truth took advantage of legitimate cost concerns, when their main point was union busting and undermining public education.
Joanne could be a formidable ally. Use her to achieve your goal. Otherwise, be prepared for charters like CSW and NCS to move in. Basically, grasshopper, learn from my mistakes.
I’m not very optimistic that Joanne Christian being on the side of the angels this time can really make a difference. The morons and lunatics get off on the animus. They’ll double down on the lies and dishonest attacks because that’s what they do. (See comment number 1 above (of which there would be scores like it by now, even raunchier, but I showed that guy the door)).
JC’s belief that they’ll all be swayed by the numbers and act in a reasonable civic minded way is just silly.
Sorry to say it, but there is it. We had a shot at funding the needs of a growing district and blew it.
Wrong, J.! Don’t get all defeatist on me. There’s a lot more at stake than a Facebook page. Fight! – and after you’ve fought maybe you guys could throw some love our way? The city is facing a 2,200 seat charter headed our way. Kids are kids. Joanne agrees with you – you’d be foolish not to use her. Then… maybe… you could help us?
Yes, Jason, that is about the size of it. The Appo Truthers and Citizen Appos of the world have sold the idea of drowning the district in a bathtub using Joanne’s good name as a shield.
The intimidation is already starting.
Omar Little is dead.
From Wikipedai:
a young boy from Michael’s crew, Kenard, follows Omar to a Korean-owned convenience store. Omar sees Kenard walk in, but seeing just a little boy, pays no attention to him. Kenard shoots Omar in the side of the head, killing him. This brings closure to some of the foreshadowing in Season 3, as Kenard was the young boy Bunk witnessed imitating Omar at the Barksdale stash house shootout.
Great scene from a great show.
Jason, LG, stop making this about Appo. It’s bigger than Appo. Jeebus, have you read any of my education posts?
jason and LG the problem I have with your position is that you are castigating Joanne for not supporting a referendum she thought was inappropriately large because then other people used her non-support as fodder …
but consider … last year on this site and at kilroy’s both pandora and kilroy opposed the portion of the Red Clay referendum for building the new suburban elementary school and openly fought hard to defeat it.
I disagreed with them on that referendum, but the fact that they fought against it does not make them culpable for all the people who always vote “NO” on school referenda.
Nor do you have it right, jason, about the second try. Red Clay, Christina, Brandywine, Appo, and multiple downstate districts have long history of first going for an ambitious referendum, losing, and then bringing something scaled back to the voters and winning it on the second go-round. Many school boards and district officials in these districts often plan for a two-part process from the start, asking first for what they’d like, and then for what they need.
I appreciate your insights Steve, but the level of animus that the opposers brought to this gave it a very high stakes feel. I hope I’m wrong and Joanne is right, but my sense is that the anti-public education forces in Appo were strengthened by their “win.”