Educators Push Back Against Obama’s "Business Model" for School Reforms

[proud2BlibKansan]

It’s back-to-school season. As millions of children around the country begin a new school year, the Obama administration is aggressively moving forward on a number of education initiatives, from expanding charter schools to implementing new national academic standards. We talk to Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, and Lois Weiner, a professor of education at New Jersey City University.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/3/educators_push_back_against_obamas_business

[nosmokes]

1. Education ain't a profit driven bidness.

Not every damn thing in this green world is meant to support stockholders and the wealthy. And while a 'business model works great for a business, it doesn't work for those things that aren't a business. You cannot fire under achieving students or lackadaisical parents.

[MichiganVote]

2. They want your kids to be retail service drones America. And they are lying to get it.

[Chisox08]

3. Karen Lewis was my high school chemistry teacher

If she leads the teachers union like she taught her classes Daley and his union busting cronies is in a world of shit. She was on of those teachers who cared for her students and her subject.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I met her in July and was very impressed.

You are very fortunate to have had her as a teacher.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Wow, that is cool.

She seems like an incredible person and leader.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I was really impressed with her

She held my hand the whole time she talked to me and thanked me for taking the time to talk to her. As if I had honored HER.

[Starry Messenger]

12. Excellent!

:D

[DailyGrind51]

6. First, it was implemented with healthcare with "managed care" and HMOs.

And, we all know how well that worked out, don't we?

[ibegurpard]

8. education privatization

that's next on their "reform" agenda

[Catshrink]

9. Two "money quotes" from the transcript linked to in the OP:

The money quote #1:

LOIS WEINER: Well, I think it’s important to understand that there are—No Child Left Behind is part of this global project to deprofessionalize teaching as an occupation. And the reason that it’s important in this project to deprofessionalize teaching is that the thinking is that the biggest expenditure in education is teacher salaries. And they want to cut costs. They want to diminish the amount of money that’s put into public education. And that means they have to lower teacher costs. And in order to do that, they have to deprofessionalize teaching. They have to make it a revolving door, in which we’re not going to pay teachers very much. They’re not going to stay very long. We’re going to credential them really fast. They’re going to go in. We’re going to burn them up. They’re going to leave in three, four, five years. And that’s the model that they want.

So who is the biggest impediment to that occurring? Teachers’ unions. And that is what explains this massive propaganda effort to say that teachers’ unions are an impediment to reform. And in fact, they are an impediment to the deprofessionalization of teaching, which I think is a disaster. It’s a disaster for public education.


The money quote #2:

LOIS WEINER: Well, that’s part of the—you know, that’s part of the thinking here, that teaching really is not—does not have to be a skilled profession, because we’re not going to teach—we’re not going to educate kids to do anything more than work in Wal-Mart or the equivalent. They only need a seventh or an eighth grade education, at most a ninth grade education, and so we don’t need teachers who are more than, as Grover Whitehurst, a former Undersecretary of Education, said, "good enough." That’s all we need is teachers who are "good enough" to follow scripted curriculum and to teach to these standardized tests. And if you only need teachers who are good enough, you don’t have to pay them very much. And that’s the project. And regardless of the rhetoric, regardless of the intentions of some of the people who are supporting these reforms, people like the Education Trust, whose work I respect, I think it’s important that we look at something beyond the intentions and the rhetoric, and we really look at this project as being a project that’s global in its nature.

[w4rma]

14. People who promote the lie that unprofessional, revolving door teachers teach better (or the same)

as professional well-educated and trained teachers are either propagandists or idiots.

[madfloridian]

15. "Deprofessionalize teaching" Cheaper that way.

They really are doing it, too.

[inna]

10. Wow, the transcript of the interview is a MUST read. If anyone has any doubts/questions as to

what exactly is taking place in education right now.... Well, it's probably worse than you thought it was, that's all I'm going to say.

The only question *I* have is... Where's public outrage?

[Catshrink]

11. People don't know about it...

it's sub rosa for the most part. Parents might be getting a sense of it this year - they have in my school when they see that their kids' class sizes have increased from 25-ish to 35+. That has gotten their attention. They ask "is this going to change?" And at our school the teachers reply "not with the current Legislature" and some add "and the efforts to privatize education."

Generally speaking though, people without school age kids are almost completely in the dark, those with maybe a bit more, depending on their level of involvement.

[Catshrink]

13. I heard the repeat of the program this morning.

Wow! I sent the link to all my teacher buds. Word needs to get out but most teachers have their heads in the sand I think.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. First item on our agenda:

Wake up teachers.

[Catshrink]

17. Agreed.

Hey, why hasn't this thread been moved?

[madfloridian]

19. Shhhhh

:)

[wcast]

20. That is the truth!!

In speaking with our PSEA President 4 or 5 years ago, he made a great comment. He said that half of our people (teachers) vote, and of them, only half vote for the recommended candidate. Is it any wonder that educators have little clout? Most teachers teach because it's their passion, and they don't recognize the political nature of the job. But we have been under assault for 30 years, and the pressure keeps getting ratcheted up.

I have 17 years in as a teacher,and I don't know if I'll be able to make another 17. I love what I do, but I am not respected or valued, and my job is seen as a waste of taxpayer money. At a recent school board meeting, one of the board went on a rant, and stated that teachers were not the cream of the crop. No offense of course. I'd like to think this attitude was outside the mainstream, but it is not.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. Well you have friends here

DU teachers are indeed well informed.

[ibegurpard]

18. k&r

[NuttyFluffers]

21. k&r. because an educated populace is all that supports a democratic republic

and education is a profession; a professional does not do what you ask, but does what is good for you whether you like it or not. there's a reason doctors don't operate out your heart or liver just because you ask, it's about professional ethics.

edit: this is in relation to turning education into a cheap labor commodity. it can never be that, and those who think it can be are doomed to live through tyranny.

[LWolf]

23. That's a great read.

I'm checking in too late to give it a rec, but it has my whole-hearted approval.

Some that stood out for me:

JUAN GONZALEZ: —say that the charter schools that they’re creating, the small schools that they’re creating, are doing a better job, by the testing model of educating children, especially minority children, than has occurred in decades past under the existing public school system. What’s your response to that?

LOIS WEINER: My response to that, first of all, is that I want to see the evidence. And what’s really incredible and disastrous is that this enormous social engineering that’s going on to transform—I would say destroy—public education has not been accompanied by government funding for serious, objective evaluation. We have this so-called Institute for Education Science, but if you look at the sorts of research that they’re funding, they are not funding the kind of large-scale evaluative studies that we need to determine whether these reforms are going to be effective. And we shouldn’t permit that. We should identify this as what it is, which is an ideological venture that does not have a scientific basis, and it doesn’t have a basis in evidence.

No evidence that the reforms are effective, and, further down in the interview, she points out that these reforms are not unique to the U.S., and are proven failures elsewhere. It's well worth reading on to look at the global economic factors involved. The efforts to create a large pool of cheap labor are systematic and devastating. Where do those efforts begin? With teachers.

JUAN GONZALEZ: You’ve also taken a look at the impact of No Child Left Behind on teachers. Could you talk about that?

LOIS WEINER: Well, I think it’s important to understand that there are—No Child Left Behind is part of this global project to deprofessionalize teaching as an occupation. And the reason that it’s important in this project to deprofessionalize teaching is that the thinking is that the biggest expenditure in education is teacher salaries. And they want to cut costs. They want to diminish the amount of money that’s put into public education. And that means they have to lower teacher costs. And in order to do that, they have to deprofessionalize teaching. They have to make it a revolving door, in which we’re not going to pay teachers very much. They’re not going to stay very long. We’re going to credential them really fast. They’re going to go in. We’re going to burn them up. They’re going to leave in three, four, five years. And that’s the model that they want.

So who is the biggest impediment to that occurring? Teachers’ unions. And that is what explains this massive propaganda effort to say that teachers’ unions are an impediment to reform. And in fact, they are an impediment to the deprofessionalization of teaching, which I think is a disaster. It’s a disaster for public education.

I have to point out that NCLB is a forerunner to RTTT and Obama's "blueprint," which makes MORE destructive uses of high-stakes tests. The agenda marches on.