"School Choice and the Fear of 'Those People" #EducationPolitics

Rigid, compliant behavior is the main focus of many charter schools in poor neighborhoods. Photo Credit: johngirton.me via Compfight cc

 

Please read this provocative and informative essay written by Brett Dickerson about charter schools in light of the bill passed by our red, republican controlled, state legislature.

“School Choice” is more about the deep fear of “those people” than proponents will admit. 
“Those people?” They are The They – the ones who you fear will corrupt your children if they sit in the same class with them.
“Those people” are the ones who just can’t wear the same uniform or school colors as your son or daughter, because, well, if they do, they and your kid may start thinking that they are peers.
Can’t have that.

Para quoting an old saying, know who is driving the wagon before you hitch your horse up to it.

RedEye

If you can read this, thank a Public School Teacher

  "The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad... Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy. I must never forget these same young people could be the thieves and murderers of the future. Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day, lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow."
--Ivan Welton Fitzwater

Teaching is the most noble profession on earth, and the most undervalued in the United States of America.  During National Teacher Appreciation Week many public school teachers find themselves under attack and being treated like they are the enemy of the state.  Some might say the attack on public school teachers is sexist, since the majority of teachers are women.

Although the majority of public school teachers are white women, the majority of public school students are black/brown/poor.  The real problem in education aren't the teachers, unions, or a lack of testing and parental involvement, it's the poverty.

In my local system, trained, certified public school teachers are being replaced by untrained, non certified teachers, in predominately African American Schools.  Why?

 Using the logic of the Huntsville City Board of Education, University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban should only use his youngest, most inexperienced players when his team plays a Top Ten opponent.
 Anyone who pays attention to education knows that the most persistently poor-performing schools are those in impoverished neighborhoods.  For example, there are nine schools in the Huntsville system where more than 90 percent of students receive free-reduced lunches.  According to an analysis by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, none of these schools have reading and math scores where all grades (three through eight) are equal to or above state average.
By comparison, of the five schools where all grades are above state average, free-reduced lunches range from 4 to 25 percent.
But in spite of this, the Board of Education plans to hire 110 Teach for America teachers over the next three years and put them in schools in poor neighborhoods.  These are recent college graduates, most of whom got degrees in something other than education and will receive a five-week crash course in how to teach before being sent off to work in the city’s most challenging schools.
I don’t believe this is the way Coach Saban thinks. 

It's not the way Coach Saban thinks, Coach Saban want to WIN.  That's why we pay him the big bucks.  Maybe if we funded public schools like we fund our state college football programs our public school students could be winners too.  It pays to be a State University Football coach in Alabama.  Public School Teachers, not so much.

If you want to appreciate public school teachers, Occupy your local School Board meetings.  We elect Public School Boards who hire/fire the Superintendents, who hire/fire the Principals, who hire/fire the teachers, and grant tenure.

Educators are the Hope of the Republic.  The Only Hope.

Two of Today's Must Reads are from my tenure at Left in Alabama before I got the boot for being uppity, be sure and read the comments.

Please, Black Parents Get Involved

Teaching vs Educating

Occupy Education

Redeye's Week in Review~edited

If you are not a millionaire you shouldn't be a republican.
Isn't it funny how the republican status quo is using the poor to wage a war against the middle class and to get out of paying their fair share of taxes? There are some republicans who argue the poor should pay the same if not more taxes than the rich, and to ask the rich to pay their fair share is "punishing them for being successful" and, that tax cuts for the rich increase revenues and create jobs. Uh, if that were true the Bush tax cut for the rich wouldn't have resulted in a multi trillion deficit and 22 million jobs lost.

It's getting to the point where it's hard to shovel the gop hypocrisy.
Republicans are pro life and pro war.
They are pro life and anti welfare.
They are pro life and anti public education
They are pro life and pro death penalty.
They are anti government but want to tell you how to live, how to die, who to marry, who you can have sex with, and who to worship.

The ALA GOP is up in arms because the democratic candidate for Attorney General quipped how can anyone be a Christian and a republican. I guess the same way they can not be rich and be a republican. Either they don't know the rich are getting richer and the rest are getting the shaft or they don't care. I don't know which is worse.

The war against public education and public school teachers escalated this week with a full court press in the media.

We are seeing a concerted and organized effort to make the new film "Waiting for Superman" the means of defining the discussion on education. When combined with the corporate sponsorship and interconnections with NBC's Education Nation effort, it is perhaps worthwhile to examine some of the interconnections which are tying all this together.

Let the media tell it, public schools for all should be replaced with charter schools for a few. Public school teachers/unions and tenure laws are the reason public schools are failing. The National Education Association says they don't make the state and federal budgets and that charter schools aren't the cure all, as a matter of fact they are the problem.

Despite the heavy promotion of charter schools in Waiting For Superman, research shows that they are no panacea. (Read the full statement of NEA President Dennis Van Roekel on the movie.) Improving lower-performing schools does not require a silver bullet, but a multi-faceted approach that involves teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, and community members. This holistic approach has yielded results in places like Putnam City West High School in Oklahoma City, where educators have engaged parents and the community to boost the graduation rate of Hispanic students by 70 percent; and Denver, where the teacher-led Math and Science Leadership Academy is taking a collaborative approach that focuses on mentoring and professional development to boost student achievement; and in Las Vegas, where a teacher empowerment program has led to remarkable gains, including at Culley Elementary School, a “high achieving” school where only five years ago, less than a quarter of students were at grade level.

The media is ignoring the elephant (pun intended) in the room. Charter schools' growth promoting segregation.

"We don't want the Race to the Top to become a race to the past," said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, alluding to the era of enforced segregation.

Of course if they really wanted to fix the economy they would invest in public education instead of bashing public education.

Last week, the Republicans released their so-called “Pledge to America.” This pledge contained more glossy photos than policy proposals, much like $290,900 taxpayer funded mailers my opponent, Congressman Lance, sent out in August. Their entire promise to America is that they will systematically undo what Democrats have done in Congress during the past two years. No new ideas, no proposals to actually help the millions of Americans struggling everyday.

In America being a macho man and a professional homophobe is big business,

In America being a macho man and a professional homophobe is big business, one that jeopardizes the lives and mental health and wellness of thousands of gays and lesbians. Regardless of whether the allegations against Long are true or not, his prosperity gospel of gay-bashing and robber baron profiteering at the expense of poor black people is another indictment of the moral injustice that happens on "God's" watch.

Is there a Psychiatrist in the House?
The more I read the latest of Glen Beck and Teabagger's insane babblings and what they are about the more I think that they might need to see a good head shrink. And to think they represent those on the right's values and ideals. Scary! Or are Americans that stressed out that they are just not thinking straight these days.

Under the radar, California just took a huge step in ending the drug wars.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Thursday signed into law a bill that decriminalizes the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. The bill reduces simple possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction.

Rham Emmanuel is out Pete Rouse is in as Chief of Staff to President Obama. Let's HOPE it's some change we can believe in. Will Press Secretary Robert Gibbs be next? God I hope so.

Have a great weekend!