We Took Over Fox News For One Day. How Will They Respond? - DailyKos

[WillyT]

We took over Fox News for one day. How will they respond?
by Rian Fike
Sun Mar 28, 2010 at 06:44:39 AM PDT

<snip>

Yes, I am exaggerating our "takeover" of Fox News.

No, I have never seen anything like this.

The teachers of Florida owned Fox News yesterday in one small but very important corner of their world. Today on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace is holding a debate between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio. Fox opened the floor for questions, and we flooded their boards with an issue that both candidates want to ignore. The teachers of Florida are mobilized, and we are getting loud.

We WILL decide the Fl-Sen race, and our domination of Fox News yesterday is strong evidence.

Over 95% of the responses were about Florida Senate Bill 6, which would base half of a teacher's salary on standardized test scores and make it illegal for a teacher to receive any compensation for advanced degrees or years of service. 99% of those responses were outraged about this Jeb Bush based power grab that is meant to break our unions and soak up millions for the testing industry.

How will Fox News respond?

I will be using comments from the teaching community in Florida, as posted on a reddit I started for my diary about this issue yesterday.

I think there should be performance pay for dentists too. Dentists shouldn't get paid a full salary if their patients come with stained or chipped, or missing teeth. They should also be penalized if their patients have cavities. Doesn't matter if their patients drink too much coffee, smoke, use their teeth as bottle openers, refuse to floss or don't own a toothbrush. The dentists should still be held accountable.

Let's even go as far as merit pay for politicians. They lose part of their salary for every unhappy member of their district, every member on welfare, every member on food stamps, every member who breaks the law. Think they would pass that one? Sounds absurd? It's just as absurd as merit pay for teachers.

The bill is a hot potato for Republicans, even though half of the teachers who are demanding their support are non-Democrats. They swear they are against big government, but Jeb Bush has them following the bread crumbs into a state-controlled mandate for all schools in Florida.

I teach middle school. In one of my classes I have 4 new Haitian students. They speak no English at all. I have 1 new Filipino student who speaks almost no English. I have 1 new Venezuelan student who speaks no English. I also have 12 Hispanic students at varying levels of language acquisition. I also have 6 students with diagnosed learning disabilities. That leaves 3 students who speak English fluently AND read on grade level. I spend an extra 10-15 hours per week working feverishly to come up with lessons to help all of these students. They were ALL required to take this year's FCAT (State mandated test) regardless of their English language ability.

I teach in Florida, and I have not had a raise in 2 years; my pay was actually decreased by 1%. I spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of my own money on school supplies and resources. I don't have enough textbooks, regardless of language ability. Last year I had so many students that there weren't enough desks, let alone textbooks, due to the budget cuts and loss of teachers.

It is past time for teachers to fight back.

<snip>

Much More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/28/851724/-We-took-over-Fox-News-for-one-day.-How-will-they-respond

Go Teachers!!!

:yourock:

:kick:

[JNelson6563]

1. Awesome!

:toast:

[djp2]

36. It time for a March....

A Million Teacher March on Washington!

[LWolf]

2. This is the most positive article addressing the current

war on public education I've seen in well over a year.

Thanks for posting!

:kick:

[KittyWampus]

3. Both my parents were teachers. It makes me sad to think how things have changed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. It's about time

Teachers all over the country need to wake up.

[LWolf]

20. I'm wide awake.

:grr:

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Well, sadly, my friend

we are the minority.

[LWolf]

40. Yes.

:(

[xxqqqzme]

37. Teachers are awake - it is the rest of

the country that needs to stand up and support them. Most people do not know 'public' education is being privatized. It us dire here in California. I don't see how it will be stopped.

I am not a teacher, have never been a teacher in public education but I see the dismantling all around me.

[freebrew]

39. Teachers here need to wake up.

Mid-Missouri, 80% of the teachers and administration are far right repubs.
They listen to Faux,Limpballs and the rest of the clowns.
They aren't going to wake up. It's too late for them.
The administration makes 6 figure income, they pay support staff < $20,000.
Teachers earn anywhere from $25K to $35K. Not a living wage in this area.

Go figure.

[katandmoon]

5. K&R for teachers.

[FLyellowdog]

6. As a retired Florida teacher, I find this whole thing disgusting.

But what can you expect from a republican state...maybe these people will finally wake up.:crazy:

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. It is absolutely shameful the way things are going.

x(

[teacher gal]

8. BRAVO!!!!!!!! n/t

[wtmusic]

9. This bill is totally FU'ed.

"Districts may not use time-served or degrees-held in setting pay schedules. Instead, student outcomes would have a potentially significant effect on compensation. Effective teachers would be paid more, while those that are unsatisfactory or in need of improvement would be paid less. The State Board of Education would define student learning gains in rule."

Unlike any other job, where experience and education are huge factors? :crazy:

[Catshrink]

10. Did you read this?

"I teach middle school. In one of my classes I have 4 new Haitian students. They speak no English at all. I have 1 new Filipino student who speaks almost no English. I have 1 new Venezuelan student who speaks no English. I also have 12 Hispanic students at varying levels of language acquisition. I also have 6 students with diagnosed learning disabilities. That leaves 3 students who speak English fluently AND read on grade level. I spend an extra 10-15 hours per week working feverishly to come up with lessons to help all of these students. They were ALL required to take this year's FCAT (State mandated test) regardless of their English language ability.

I teach in Florida, and I have not had a raise in 2 years; my pay was actually decreased by 1%. I spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of my own money on school supplies and resources. I don't have enough textbooks, regardless of language ability. Last year I had so many students that there weren't enough desks, let alone textbooks, due to the budget cuts and loss of teachers.

It is past time for teachers to fight back."

Compare this teacher to one teaching honors students -- is that a level playing field? Let me put it a way you might understand. Let's say you're teaching a band class. You have 10 students who can't string two notes together, 5 who are required to be in band but but have no interest, 3 who have never touched an instrument, and 6 who are adequate for the level of class. A test is administered to them expected them to play several songs they haven't seen before and you are judged on how well they play them. You don't know what those songs are but you need to have prepared your kids to read the music off the page and comprehend phrasing, timing, etc. Half your salary depends on the kids performing to some arbitary standard that you have no part in crafting.

Do you get it now?

[teacher gal]

15. kick n/t

[wtmusic]

17. Yes, I get it.

Standards can work, however. Here's how.

Friends who teach high school in a Title 1 (lowest achieving) school in CA are held to NCLB standards like everyone else. The problem, as you just described it, is they're handed students with a mixed bag of experience, languages, abilities, interests, etc. etc. etc. Teachers are supposed to speak three languages, teach five different levels, deal with family-related behavioral problems, with scant resources, and get everyone to somehow pass this test. Add to it a pressure to pass everyone to avoid dropouts and preserve the schools' precious ADA.

Impossible.

Now - take away yearly testing, and replace with comprehensive entrance and exit exams for elementary, middle, and high school. Teachers' performance is based, in part, on not how well students perform on the exit exams, but an average of the difference between entrance/exit exam scores for their particular subject matter - how much the students have learned in that school's program. The school's performance and corresponding fed funds are an average of the teachers' performance.

No one advances without passing their exit exam, PERIOD. By law. High school teachers are not saddled with kids who can't form a sentence or perform simple division.

Throw away the ridiculous bullshit about ignoring experience and qualifications. Like any company does, administrators should be able to consider these qualifications when evaluating a job application.

*However*...

also throw away the idea that teachers can't be easily and promptly fired for gross incompetence (you know what I'm talking about). Streamline the termination review process, but make it easy for administrators to love teachers who do a good job and help get their evaluations up.

I like this idea. In fact, I wish I had thought of it - but it was thought up by teachers in a Title 1 CA high school.

[Catshrink]

19. That's far more reasonable than a "one-size-fits-all" exam

[exboyfil]

23. I like it too

In addition I think teachers should have more authority to remove kids who are discipline problems (even permanently). I don't like the Big Brother aspect of it, but perhaps video cameras in all classrooms is a possibility. When the teacher gets bonked with a sharp object when his/her back is turned, lets go to the tape to see who threw it.

[loudsue]

11. JEB BUSH is a VERY important element here.

Mark my words, that asshole will steal the next election....or the one after that...just the way his brother did, and we're going to be right back on the "sell America to the IMF" train.

On edit: His low profile on the national level is not an accident or an oversite. Those assholes are as deliberate as hell.

[truedelphi]

13. I hadn't been thinking about him in a while.

And glad my breakfast was already digested when I saw your post, and now feel ill.

I hope to heck that he pays for his crimes. I suspect a lot of unsavory thigns have happened because of him. And I am sure you are right about his low profile.

[protocol rv]

18. Sorry, but is Jeb Bush related to the Iraq Bush?

I'm not American, are those two Bushes related?

[WinkyDink]

22. Google would indicate so.

Yes. Brothers. You might want to read further on the 2000 election.

[loudsue]

27. Yes. Jeb Bush is the younger brother of the George Bush who was our previous president,

and the son of the president George H.W. Bush, the man who was president before Bill Clinton.

Our last 5 presidents:

Ronald Reagan
George H.W.Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama

Welcome to the U.S.A.!!!

[teacher gal]

28. Indeed he is a very important element in

all this. I really feel for people in Florida. As for the teachers, I think their salaries are among the lowest in the nation.

I never thought it was any accident that the Central Falls case study in firing the entire school staff occurred at a school in Rhode Island where teachers make unusually high salaries. For veteran teachers I think it was reported to be about $72,000. Of course this made the story all the more sensational. After 6 years of teaching I was making 29,000, after 12 years it had gone up to 43,000. Now I have chosen to resign and do something else six years short of retirement. I just couldn't take it anymore but oh do I admire the teachers who can hang in there until retirement.

The Bushes, Gates, Broad, etc.......they march across the American landscape like some Attila the Hun, ravaging ordinary people and having their way.

[lark]

38. It's a sure thing

The Bush's and their rich crony power structure has ruled America for a long time and are not about to give it up now. They let Obama win to saddle the Dems with their malfeasance in taking all the money out of the system and giving it to a few rich bankers & Wall St. types. Next time, they will be back to the vote rigging they used to steal the other elections.

:nuke:

[laughingliberal]

12. I love this

Let's look at all professions going that way. Doctors are expected to achieve optimal health in all patients regardless of the original condition of the patient. Lab tests didn't come back to normal within a certain time frame? Sorry. It's all the doctor's fault.

[teacher gal]

14. kick n/t

[Catshrink]

16. kick

[WinkyDink]

21. If private/charter/ teachers think breaking the public schools will improve THEIR fates---Hahahaha!

[NotThisTime]

24. All this talk about teachers really does miss the point, what about the ADMINISTRATION?

Yes, some teachers aren't so good, and I'm not in favor of keeping them (as I often share), however our public experience in two different districts each time showed that teachers and administration if anything don't talk and it had serious consequences as a result... All this standardized testing and having it dictate what and how things are taught is totally unrealistic. Children learn in a variety of ways, it's not one size fits all, this is a public problem of great proportion... This goes straight to the system itself and the goes straight to management on every single level....

[tonysam]

26. Teachers have utterly NO power

There is a gross power imbalance in public education. Principals (and other administrators) have ALL the power, while teachers have none. One asshole principal can literally destroy a teacher's career, and the teacher will most likely NEVER work in teaching again, no matter HOW much in the wrong a principal is. It doesn't matter. Senior administrators and shyster attorneys for school districts will merely rig the dismissal hearings to help the principal, should the principal find himself or herself into trouble. Teachers almost never can appeal dismissals because of the great legal expense.

School districts are run like the military. If you're a teacher, you do what you're told, regardless of whether it is legal or it makes sense. So if a principal or other administrator tells teachers to cheat on standardized tests, they must cheat. If a principal or other administrator is caught cheating, if the teacher reports the principal, he or she risks losing his or her career.

It's one sick, twisted system.

[Hannah Bell]

30. nor will it improve the fates of the children, or the electorate in general.

nor will it reduce the taxes of the rank & file.

it benefits the rich exclusively.

[glowing]

29. If there are going to be Federal Mandates on teaching, wouldn't it make more

sense to roll every teacher onto a Federal Govt pay check? Collect taxes and distribute more evenly, bring pay grades up in rural small areas, pay living wages in wealthy districts, provide adequate resources to ALL schools, and stop cutting off arts/ sports/ before & after school programs. AND then a biggie.. get rid of the school boards in their present form. Create Regional Directors with educational backgrounds (not the all too current moral brigade intent on "selecting" history and sciences they feel are acceptable for their biased opinions and the money men who feel that teachers are the one's who "couldn't succeed so they teach it"). If the citizens want educational standards to become better, we need to change the way we deliver the mandates. Budget cuts means that children are shorted very badly.

Also, because so many families have to work, its time for Day Care to become a Federally funded free item that is safe #1 and #2 prepares the little one's for K-12. AND its time for tuition at our Public Universities to be free.. If a child wishes to go to a private college, then tuition in the amt of the Public University cost would be provided and the rest would be pd for thru loans/ grants like it is now... AND to make the costs for the same no matter where the University is. The in-state/ out-of-state differences in tuition is outdated. Do we not try to tell our children to broaden their horizens, yet keep them in the same state because its the only option for affordability?

If we want a modern United States education, then it has to change. AND the children who aren't going to go to college should be provided with technical/ guidance structure that prepares them to work after graduating from high school.. or thru highschool. What is the point of graduating from school, if it doesn't provide the skills one would need to work and be a productive member of society that pays their bills and their taxes which allows the govt to function?

[Earth Bound Misfit]

31. K and R for teachers. n/t

[Reader Rabbit]

32. This is heartening!

We need to get this kind of unified action going across the country!

[Chemical Bill]

33. Merit pay for politicians? I like it! n/t

[Roland99]

34. Finally, I think that's an argument that might finally start sinking into peoples' heads!

[DirkGently]

35. Thank you

This new (and continuing) attack on teachers is a disgrace.