Arne Duncan and Bill "the Gambler" Bennett Lovefest on Wolf Blitzer

[JCMach1]

Video is from the situation room: http://www.cnn.com/video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_freevideo+%28RSS%3A+Video%29#/video/politics/2010/03/09/sot.duncan.bennett.tsr.cnn


-See Bennett congratulate Duncan for going after unions.
-Screech in delight as Duncan spouts right-wing talking points on education.

It doesn't get any worse than this folks. :grr:

Anyone else see this?

[Jim Sagle]

1. We'll be seeing three more years of it.

[lutefisk]

2. omfg

:puke:

:eyes:

:hi:

[leftstreet]

3. Good God

:mad:

[sandnsea]

4. Supporting teachers to reach high standards?

Are right wing talking points??

Whatever.

Go ahead and let another Republican stir up a bunch of shit. Did people just forget that that's the only thing Republicans do?

[JCMach1]

5. They were virtually point by point in agreement...

and the last time I checked Bennett was still a scumbag

[sandnsea]

9. Wow. You're easy.

Yeah, they agreed on high standards and helping teachers perform better.

Bait.

Then Bennett went off on his union tangent which you bought right into.

Hook.

Duncan rejected Bennett's characterization and pointed out the areas of agreement between the administration and union. Bennett continued his anti-union rant. Duncan turned his head towards Blitzer and said nothing.

Bennett reeled you in.

Unbelievable how easy it is for Republicans to divide the Democratic Party.

[Enrique]

7. Bennett is in it for the $$$$$$$$

the big bucks from his for-profit charter schools, though Blitzer won't tell you about that conflict of interest.

High standards my fucking ass.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. He needs it to fund his gambling habit

[sandnsea]

10. I was complaining about his K12 program years ago

Long before anybody around here even knew what he was up to.

The only area Duncan agreed with was high standards. You disagree that there should be high standards at schools?

[JCMach1]

12. the devil is in the detail... high standards and then?

Shutting the HS in the poorest district in RI?


Duncan and Obama's approach has wholeheartedly 'sold them out'... Detroit, RI, Vouchers and Charter schools, pushing aside the Unions.

Meanwhile, no one is listening to the students, teachers, and parents.

Were parents in Detroit clamoring for charter schools?


Obama's education policy has been one big clusterfuck.



Time to lift people up, not shut them down!

[sandnsea]

14. Speaking of the CNN video specifically

Duncan said nothing after Bennett's RI rant.

When he agreed with something Bennett said, like high standards, he said so.

When it became clear that Bennett was just going to use the time to stir up crap and try to get in a spitting match, Duncan disengaged.

As to Obama's education plan, if unions don't want to be a part of the local efforts to implement reform plans, then I'd say it's the unions that are pushing themselves out of the way.

When more parents apply for charter lotteries than places are available, I'd say that's the parents speaking loud and clear.

[JCMach1]

16. It seemed to me that Duncan nodded at Bennett's specific mention

of RI at the end of his spew... granted to it could just have been a nod to Wolf that he was finished.



What is more telling is what Duncan said before Bennett's spew I am paraphrasing:


Our evaluation system for teachers is broken- he wants to replace this with a merit system.

Worst teachers should be replaced- of course a 'no brainer', but this is often just as much the of poor administrators as opposed to the unions.

follow the 'best ideas' in education- unfortunately, the only message politicians are listening to are the Charter School people and their lobbyists.

[sandnsea]

18. I've read and seen ALL of the plans

You're cherry-picking.

Student outcome is only to be one part of teacher evaluation.

If administrations need removing, then teachers should be working with the local RTTT initiative to propose a means of removing administrators. When they don't, they are their own worst enemy.

If politicians were only listening to charter schools, then 3 or the 4 means of turning around schools wouldn't be charter alternatives.

Way too much hysteria and not enough cooperation. Just like with the health care bill.

[JCMach1]

19. Not hysteria, Obama has been consistent even since the beginning of his campaign

about where he stands on education. It was one area even then I was 100% against. It does nothing to address the real issues of education in this country.

-We have essentially two systems in this country for education separate and unequal cut along class and race faultlines. If you live in a wealthy area your funding is much higher and vice versa. Even in states that wrestled with this like Texas in the 1980's (thanks to Ross Perot of all people), so called Robin Hood strategies for school funding have largely gone by the wayside. Until funding is equalized across every state, the results will be much the same.

-The U.S. is a huge country and diverse. Why is a common testing scheme (NCLB) any sort of advantage? If you have ever taught in a school system with these testing schemes, you would quickly learn that you had to teach to the test. That's a quick way to dumb down the curriculum and destroy the development of critical thinking skills for the college bound and cutoff vocational classwork for those wanting to enter the world of work.

-Politicians left and right have seized on testing schemes as a political solution because they are easy. They always give you a number. Labeling schools then becomes a way to 'seem' to be doing something about education. In reality, the labeling only increases the separate and unequal systems. Any parent who has the means would shift areas rather than stay in a D/F schools. Those students (who on the average would be more likely to perform better) would then shift.

-Charter schools and vouchers are another easy political solution as it shifts blame to corporations. And wow (just like they are beginning to try with public schools) if a charter school fails all you have to do is close it down! Then, just shift and start the cycle over... There are also huge issues with accountability ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3517977 However, as you can have that nice photo-op with the 'innovative' curriculum it seems like you are doing something for education.

Until politician face unfair funding, real curriculum issues (i.e. best left-up to the stake holders) education is going nowhere fast in the U.S.

[JCMach1]

11. He currently heads up K12 online Charter schools... so every failed public school

means $$$ in his pocket.

[sandnsea]

15. He's actually resigned from that organization

Because of the conflict of interest.

But I was trying to get somebody to care about what he was doing with K12 online schools as far back as 2004, and nobody paid any attention.

Now a group of teachers and parents create something like a cultural school or music school - and Bill Bennett's K12 school is thrown out as an example of why there can't be some variations in the methods of education?? That makes no sense.

Liberals have been arguing for alternative means of educating kids for decades. Charter schools provide the method, and now liberal teachers don't want it. It's crazy.

[JCMach1]

17. that's a good thing at least!

Leaves him more time for Vegas I guess. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. A true story about Bill Bennett

By Reed Hundt

When I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. Eventually Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller, with the White House leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, put that provision in the Telecommunications Law of 1996, and today nearly 90% of all classrooms and libraries do have such access. The schools covered were public and private. So far the federal funding (actually collected from everyone as part of the phone bill) has been matched more or less equally with school district funding to total about $20 billion over the last seven years. More than 90% of all teachers praise the impact of such technology on their work. At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. Well, I thought, at least he's candid about his true views. The key Senate committee voted almost on party lines on the bill, all D's for and all R's against, except one -- Olympia Snowe. Her support provided the margin of victory. On the House side, Speaker Gingrich made sure the provision was not in the companion bill, but in conference again Senators Snowe and Rockefeller, with White House support, made the difference. The Internet has been the first technology made available to students in poorly funded schools at about the same time and in about the same way as to students in well funded schools.

http://www.sfschools.org/2005/10/tpm-cafe-true-story-about-bill-bennett.html

[EFerrari]

13. "This would be a great town except for all the goddam vampires."

-- Lost Boys