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.
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