The Fight Over Education in Washington

[groovedaddy]

Congress is unlikely to take up its school financing bill, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, until next year. But teachers unions and other forces of the status quo are already trying to subvert the measure by discrediting President Obama’s signature education initiative, the Race to the Top, which requires the states to make reforms in exchange for federal grants.

The grant program has focused the country’s attention on school reform and has angered the unions, especially by pushing the states to take student performance into account in teacher evaluations.

The attacks picked up in earnest this week, when a coalition of civil rights groups that included the National Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P. signed onto a statement that attacked not just Race to the Top, but the very idea of using competitive grants to spur reform.

President Obama came out swinging on Thursday, before the National Urban League in Washington. He pledged to protect Race to the Top, even if it meant using the veto pen. He seemed particularly incensed by the baseless claim that Race to the Top had shortchanged minority children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/31/opinion/31sat2.html?th&emc=th

[adnelson60087]

1. After the NYT editorial endorsement of the Iraq invasion,

you'd think (hope) they would have the sense not to just blindly follow Administrative agendas. This piece is loaded with derogatory terms such as "forces of the status quo", "subvert", "the NEA...retrograde union".

Why don't the damn politicians ask us, professional educators, what we need to be successful? Oh that's right...the answers we'd likely give require real investment in society and not corporate coffers. Seriously, when was the last time groups of classroom teachers actually spearheaded efforts to improve the nation's schools? I cannot remember and I'm in my 40's. Since the 80's, it's been business leaders and corporate powers driving this bus, ignoring the many inconvenient potholes such as poverty, lack of societal importance, and parental involvement among others.

[LWolf]

2. "Teachers unions and other forces of the status quo."

Framing matters.

My union better be working to discredit Obama's "signature education initiative." It's a harmful piece of shit that does nothing to help and does not offer us the opportunity to implement change we can believe in.

My union is "retrograde?" Bullshit. Rejecting harmful change is not "retrograde." Offer change we can believe in and we'll embrace it.

RTTT IS the status quo. The status quo since NCLB has been all about denigrating public education and teachers, privatizing, and union-busting. While the "No Child Left Behind" title will be dropped from ESEA, the destructive intent behind it is expanding and picking up steam in Obama's version.

Baseless claim? Bullshit. Seven Civil Rights groups made that claim.

What a baseless hit piece.