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Comments 7

1. Lori M. 3/29/2010

   Obama and Duncan need to broaden the focus on fixing problems that exist in education.  By focusing on one aspect of student success in learning (teachers), two very important components are left out:  home(family), and community.  I worked very hard for Obama.  I even took my one personal day I'm allowed, and got out the vote.  I will not be fooled again (in 2010 or 2012). Check out this video from Labor Beat:  "Pushing The Chicago Plan".
   
   
   http://blip.tv/file/2428857
   
   
   Damning to Duncan and Obama.  About 20 minutes long.  Well worth a look, maybe more than one look.

2. Roger Goppelt 3/26/2010

   I noticed on the news that many of the states that may receive the race to the top funds are right to work states. They allow teachers to work without joining the union. I think Obama may be the wolf in sheep's clothing that finally brings down teacher's unions. I think it's interesting that we spent 14 months on the healthcare bill; Much of that time was spent talking about getting a bill that was bipartisan. In the end a billl was passed that had over 200 ideas from the Republicans but not a single vote. The new race to the top has many Republican ideas. I doubt it will get adequate  funding.  We passed that change in the law that opens the door to allowing teachers to be judged based on test scores. Wisconsin didn't get a single cent ,but yet we rolled over for this major change. I predict that in the future the door will be wide open so we will see many stories of whole school staffs being fired like in Rhode Island. This will get worse as the Feds make promises of money but never deliver, but at the same time wring out many concessions from the teacher's unions. The next Wisconsin election may bring a person who will further cut school funding and then turn around blame teachers for poor test scores. The ultimate goal is to end public education and provide money for private school vouchers. There will be even less interest from teachers to want to teach in school systems where the potential to be fired and blamed for poor test scores is high. Would you want to devote going 4-6 years of college and then lose the value of your college degree by going into a situation where you have very little control over the quality of your raw materials, few resources, and little support, but then are being blamed when the results are good , but not great? I think the real issue is the lack of growth in real wages. The gap between rich and poor increases . The rich aristocracy blames the poor for their lot. Charles Dickens could write his novels about poverty today.

3. R. A 3/23/2010

   This is another poorly designed federal program that "blames" educators for all that is wrong with education in this country.  Arne Duncan is worse than George Bush because he should know better.  Why is education now a responsibility of the federal government?  I must sound like a Republican (I'm not), but the feds provide very little of our funding, yet are trying to run the entire system of education in each state.  Go back to Chicago, Mr. D.

4. John Fox 3/20/2010

   I am very unhappy with President Obama’s position on public education.  It is nothing more than a continuation of the Bush/Cheney policy that blames the public schools for things that are beyond their control and uses that storyline to justify privatizing.  It’s not much of  a surprise since the then Senator Obama adopted the Business Roundtable view of public schools and has brought that distorted vision along to the White House with him.
   
   What really hurts is that we all had such great hopes with the election of President Obama.  His using the Business Roundtable model to approach public education ignores facts like all schools do not have the same resources (that’s Money) to serve students.  Some student populations have farther to go than others because of their circumstances.  (wealthy households are an advantage to children since they typically provide more opportunities/experiences)  Many times “poor schools” are impoverished schools not slacker staffs.
   
   In my thirty-one years in public education the major factors that held students back from learning were their parents’ disinterest or inability to support them in their education and the students’ refusal to attempt the work or come to school.  President Obama called on parents and students to pick up their rightful responsibility.  This first of a kind message was negated by his following the Business Roundtable philosophy of holding school staff accountable for parents’ and students’ right to make poor decisions and communities’ right to under fund schools.  
   
   The Business Roundtable philosophy is now the Obama Administration philosophy.  It’s a philosophy that is born out an idea that business people are so intelligent they know how to do everything better than anyone else. This would seem to have been proven false in recent years even in their primary area of expertise as our economy and the world economy crashed.  It is also a philosophy to bust unions and spread the opportunity for more entrepreneurs to make a buck.  It all interferes with the difficult process of getting students the education they will need to be successful.  Educating your neighbors’ children is not easy.  There is a reason that our country has public education now and that is we had private education first and it wasn’t enough.
   

5. Marjorie 3/20/2010

   To whom it may concern,
   The ESEA bill is not helping education.  No Child Left Behind was one of the poorest things passed for education. They seem to make bills like this, but never consult with the people in the trenches! Every child has never completed their education through high school and some never will.  We can give children all the help, but if THEY DO NOT BRING THEIR CONTAINER TO TAKE IT IN, it will not help them. I saw that on a poster in a school many years ago. It is still true today. Teachers need to be evaluated in other ways, not with this law. Administraters should do their job and really know what is going on in the classroom.
   Thank you. M

6. Matt Friedl 3/20/2010

   Nope. ESEA is flawed.  Holding teachers accountable for standards is one thing which I completely support (assuming that classroom teachers are the driving force in establishing those standards.) However, holding teachers accountable for the assessment results from the students is entirely a different matter.

7. Jeffery W Johnson 3/19/2010

   I feel that Obama's "Blueprint for Reform" is even more heinous than Bush's NCLB. To basically leave intact many of the weakest parts of the NCLB in the BfR - over-reliance on test scores, still no or little funding for the law's mandates, the oversimplification of the school curriculum back into three main areas: reading, writing and arithmetic and the undercurrent of using the law as a punitive measure on the backs of our children.
   
   
   The law undermines the notion that our students are human beings with the fundamental right to an education that addresses THEIR needs, not the need to enhance statistics about our country's position compared to the rest of the world.
   
   
   We should be worried about multiple measures of our students' success administered with fidelity and integrity, not relying on a sole test score used to flagellate schools set up to fail by unrealistic expectations. 
   
   
   We are told to model for students what we would like them to do, but yet the federal government is setting up and modeling our schools to fail - is this what we're supposed to do with our students?

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