Arne Duncan Spits on Teachers

Ah, Labor Day. The long September weekend that politicians love to use for hackneyed shticks, and for buttering up their base before an election. And that was Arne Duncan, Obama's education secretary, who came out and called teachers America's "unsung heroes."

Oh yes, he was full of praise for American educators (of which I am one), of the hard work we do, the sacrifices we make...stop, I'm getting all weepy. I feel as if he gave me a great big hug.

Wait, after the hug, what's that sticking out of my back. Yup, that's a shiv.

Arne Duncan, and his boss Obama, may be even WORSE than Bush when it comes to the destruction of public education. They are not only buying into the Republican talking points about how much American public schools suck, they are also furthering the meme that teachers' unions are responsible for ruining public education.

This is bullshit, but framing is what's important in politics, and we are getting our asses seriously framed. Teachers, via their unions, are the new "welfare queens in Cadillacs" that Reagan used so effectively against the poor, and the social programs that supported them. And now, as back then, those welfare queens' political allies, the Democrats, run from that framing as fast as they can. What teachers, and our unions need to do is change that framing, if we are to keep our standard of living, AND save public education in America.

First, some myth debunking. There are some strong memes in the media that are just false, and it's time to regulate:

1. Unions are ruining public schools - This is false. Teachers' unions are collective bargaining organizations. They bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions. They do not set education policy, choose curriculum or dictate instructional strategies. They simply work for their members to get a better deal. This is like saying that the police unions cause more crime, or the firefighters' union causes more houses to burn down.

2. Unions keep bad teachers on the job - Again, false. In my state, principals do the hiring and firing. Site-based management is the way most public schools operate. Do some principals hire and keep bad teachers? Sure, and if those bad teachers are union members, the unions will fight for their pay, benefits and rights. That is what unions are supposed to do! However, it is up to the principal, and district administrators to hire and retain qualified staff, or to remove them if they can't do the job.

But (at least in my state) there is no "tenure." Tenure is a myth. Seniority counts when there is a RIF (reduction in force - a layoff), but there are no shark skin-suited union thugs surrounding the desk of a snoozing "bad teacher" to protect their job.

3. Unions suck an inordinate amount of money out of the system - I wish! I'd get a piece of that maybe. No way, unions get what they can for their members! That's their job! They BARGAIN for the collective group, and I earn a decent wage because of the good job they do. And I earn every penny, as do the amazing, caring and talented professionals I work with.

No no no, HERE'S what sucks an inordinate chunk of public cash out of the system - private testing companies. In the case of testing; before NCLB, it was a 300 million dollar per year enterprise. After NCLB? Over one billion dollars per year. I know for sure my district could have used a chunk of the 700 million dollar difference.

Here's what my frickin' union should do - take a baseball bat to the state legislature, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and get me the most money, and largest benefit package they can. That's what they are supposed to do! Teachers' unions, I hate to break it to you folks, are LABOR ORGANIZATIONS, not child advocacy groups. My union is not supposed to give a shit about how kids score on a test, they are supposed to worry about ME. That's what I pay dues for.

But the reality is, my union does give a shit about our students, and their achievement. We have bargained away quite a bit so that students come first. What did we get in return? Demonization - first by Bush, now by Obama.

We have been framed as the ones responsible for destroying public education. But that is also a fraud, public education is not the disaster it is made out to be. It has problems, to be sure, but again, the framing is against us.

Again - debunking:

1. America's education system is broken - Really? How so? This is easy to say, and easy to prove as long as you are fine with a Sean Hannity talking point. But those who say that just pull random measuring sticks out of their pockets, find a fail, and yell "teachers suck!" into the microphone. America's education system does more, for more people as a percentage of population, than any other system in the world.

Point out any enterprise, and I will find plenty of failures for you. How are those wars going? How's the banking industry these days? Geez, hows about the US Senate? Certainly we can't criticize there, eh?

2. American students continually come up short against other nation's students in standardized tests - Apples and Oranges. The test scores from China? Their honor students! India? Maybe 30% of the wealthiest kids get to go to school at all. Compare them to our top 30% in wealth, and we'll at least be at par, and mop the floor with them in some measures. No no no, when WE test kids, we test everybody - the poor, the migrant, the disabled. And we put them on a university track. Our system takes to poor and puts them on a track to wealth. Not even most European school systems are as egalitarian as ours. I challenge anyone to find a population as large, as diverse and as mobile as ours, then test EVERY school-age kid, and then compare. I guarantee American students will kick ass.

3. Standardized testing shows that our schools are failing - Bullshit! They show a slice in time, not the failure of a school, or worse, a kid. Here's the thing, testing is valuable to a teacher. We need data to show achievement, to show what comes next. Or, to tell us what needs to be retaught, and to whom. This is standard practice in education. An all or nothing, make or break test as part of a student's continuing education makes no sense. It should be a data point that allows learners and teachers to chart progress - to tell if a particular student is ready to move on, or go back for more instruction and practice.

The idea that test scores show failing schools is a POLITICAL idea, not a valid statement based in pedagogy. A politician contracts with a private corporation to provide an assessment, and states publicly that EVERY student of a certain age needs to pass this test on a certain date, or teachers and their unions suck. There is NO research to validate this action, and volumes of research to show that the results will be bad. The incentive is now in place to get kids to pass a particular test by a certain date, instead of becoming literate, college-bound critical thinkers.

Our system of standardized testing, encouraged by the Bush administration, is designed to show failure, not success. It is supposed to show that public education is bad, because conservatives want to privatize it. They want cheap labor, not economic mobility, so ruining public education doesn't bother them. And, they want that huge pool of state money, the education budgets, to flow to their corporate overlords.

So, we get why Republicans want to destroy public education. But that begs the question, why do supposed liberals (the Democrats) like Duncan and Obama want to stick the shiv in the backs of teachers and their unions?

One reason is, that we're a pain in their ass. Unions represent many workers. We are a large constituency, with opinions and demands beyond just a few more coppers in our paychecks. Dealing with us is nowhere near as easy as just taking a check from that CEO, and then a seven-figure job from him later when you are done doing his bidding in government.

Another reason is, at the state level, education spending is usually the highest item in a state's budget. Unions DO put upward pressure on wages, and that does not help governors in tight economic times. And when the conservative talking points on teachers and unions win the day, it is easy to throw us under the bus. After all, what self-respecting Democratic governor is going to let Maoist, Stalinist, Nazi, teachers' unions bring down the state government? And as for the federal government...well, Obama never met a Republican talking point that he didn't fall over himself to validate.

Besides, where else are teachers and their unions going to go? Since the Democrats have adopted most of the Republican views on public schools, we have no option in a two-party system. We either vote for a Republican who says up front that we are scum, or for a Democrat who sends Arne Duncan to play kissy-face as the bus rolls over us. No no no, Arne Duncan insults us because he is disingenuous. He and his boss want to continue to pound on teachers to build conservative "cred." The further shame is that Obama still hasn't realized that no matter how bad he treats his base, Republicans still won't like him.

And the real shame is, that for a fraction of the money spent in Afghanistan, hell, a fraction of the money that Obama is about to cave in and give to the ultra-rich in continued Bush tax breaks, American schools could be a utopia. Or at least a hell of a lot better funded than they are currently.

So, Arne Duncan - keep your praise. Change your bosses mind, and then change your actions to really benefit America's students, and I will praise you. Until then, you are a Republican stooge with a "D" on your lapel who works to destroy teachers, and public education.

Obama, What the Hell...Fire Allen Simpson, NOW!

So, by now you should know about what Allen Simpson said. Yup, we're all tit-suckers.

He said this in an email, addressed to the Older Women's League (OWL), who testified before the "cat food committee," or, the bipartisan deficit commission. When pressed on the unfairness of cutting Social Security, Simpson basically said: Social Security is a cow with 310 million tits.

He said this to a women's organization! Obviously, a sexist comment. How many liberals would Obama have fired if they had pissed off a women's organization with a sexist comment? Many, if Glenn Beck had complained about it.

But what is much, much worse than the obvious insensitivity to a women's group by bringing in the tits reference, is the clear disdain he has for every working American.

Really, you mother fucker...you're gonna' call ME a "tit-sucker." Me, who has worked hard for more than 30 years, who 'played by the rules' and PAID INTO SOCIAL SECURITY THE ENTIRE TIME, as well as my employers, with the compact that I will receive a benefit when I'm 65 years old. EVERY American, most who have done like me, are "tit-suckers"? Allen Simpson has said this to every single American, regardless of how hard or little they worked.

Allen Simpson, who as a senior Republican Senator helped cause the mess we're in. His name is on some of the IOUs that are in the Social Security "trust fund." Simpson had no problem keeping his rich buddies' taxes low, while writing those IOUs to pay for wars and more tax cuts. And, he apparently had NO INTENTION of every making good on those IOUs when he wrote them, judging by his actions now.

His intention certainly is to make working Americans pay for his spending largesse, and to transfer the wealth of working Americans to the off-shore accounts of the richest ones. He is openly stating his intention to ROB the money you and I have paid into SS all of our working lives, and pass it on to the rich in the form of permanently lowered taxes.

And this summuma' bitch is calling US "tit-suckers"?

There is no bigger tit-sucker than Allen Simpson. He plans to milk a single teat from the SS udder, fill the bucket with OUR money, and give it to his friends. He is a hypocrite, liar and thief. And on top of that, he spits in our faces; insulting us while he robs us.

This type of insult is FAR worse than any 911-conspiracy taint that may have rubbed off on Van Jones. This is FAR worse than the cluster-fuck that was the Shirly Sherrod aborted scandal.

So, Mr. President, what does it take for a conservative to get fired? I'm beginning to think that Allen Simpson could eat an "anchor baby" on C-SPAN, and the only response would be Gibbs saying: "...while the White House does not condone cannibalism, we value the efforts..." You fire liberals at the drop of a hat, "before Glenn Beck goes on air," but you support the most loathsome conservatives who actively work to DO HARM TO YOUR BASE!

This is horrible politics, because it furthers the Fox News meme that liberals are always wrong, but conservatives are always right. And more specifically, you are now backing Allen Simpson's view that working Americans are greedy trough-snouters, instead of decent people who deserve a little insurance against extreme poverty in their dotage. You join him in spitting in our faces.

You kept Geithner, and joined with the bank CEOs against the American people. You actively killed the public option, and joined with the insurance industry CEOs against the American people. Your justice department ignores the criminals who did massive harm to Americans, yet you yourself claim the right to assassinate Americans arbitrarily. Why do you hate us?

Why do you show, through your actions, such disdain for the millions upon millions of people who supported you, and your clarion call for change. My god, show some, ANY semblance of siding with the ideals of Americans who are moderately to the left of Ronald Reagan. At least balance the actions of the White House a little by firing Allen Simpson.

Simpson is a bad man. He is in his position to destroy Social Security, and berates every working American, every day, by keeping his position. He has made clear his opinions of the hard working people of this great country - we are squirming piglets trying to gain sustenance from what he wants to steal. You are now firmly on his side, which is against us - every one of us (310 million of us, according to Simpson).

Keeping Simpson shows that you are against working Americans. Good luck in 2010 and 2012 with that strategy.