The irony of Obama’s "help" for Wisconsin teachers

[Bluebear]

By Valerie Strauss

For two years, President Obama has been pushing school reform that has demonized public school teachers. Now he has injected himself on the side of teachers into the confrontation in Wisconsin, where the new Republican governor is trying to pass emergency legislation that would drastically cut collective bargaining rights.

Obama’s support is ironic, given that teachers’ collective bargaining rights have already been undermined by his education reform policies....In a number of ways, Obama’s education policies have gone a long way toward undermining the position of public school teachers and, separately, their unions.

The Obama administration, through its Race to the Top competition, dangled federal money to encourage the expansion of charter schools, which are largely non-union. It has provided verbal and cash support for teacher training programs that have as their distinguishing feature not the fact that they are anti-union (which they are) but that they believe a young person with little training is “highly qualified” to teach the neediest students. And it has made standardized tests the main measurement of students, schools and, now, teachers. This obsession has bastardized the entire learning process, narrowing curriculum, fostering cheating scandals, harming real student achievement and putting teachers in a position of being blamed for things for which they are not responsible.

The administration has squeezed unions into accepting assessment schemes that link student standardized test scores to a varying but significant percentage of a teacher’s pay -- even though research shows that outside influences play at least as much a role in how a student does on a test as a teacher. Also ignored: Research showing the unreliability of systems that use scores to evaluate how much “value” a teacher has brought to a student.

MORE: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/race-to-the-top/the-irony-of-obamas-help-for-w.html

[myrna minx]

1. K&R n/t

[teacher gal]

7. Obama is no friend to public school teachers nor

public education itself.

Sorry, he just isn't.

[democracy1st]

13. Looks like Obama is No friend of any progressive movement !

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[femmocrat]

2. Excellent! Really nails it!

Please cross-post in the Education Forum? Thank you!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=219

[Bluebear]

4. done!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=219

[Poboy]

3. Recommend

[somone]

5. Great article

[Agony]

6. more prevarication... k&r

[Vidar]

8. Obama is weather vane: he'll go whichever way the political winds are blowing.

[donheld]

9. It's that "strong advocate" all over again.

[Karmadillo]

10. K&R

nt

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Starry Messenger]

12. k&r

This Administration opened the floodgates. I certainly will never forget the last few years.

[bbgrunt]

14. k and r

[Le Taz Hot]

16. K & R

Excellent read.

[DirkGently]

17. Great piece.

[leftstreet]

18. K&R

[xchrom]

19. He's the 'shared sacrifice' president.

The people sacrifice the wealth the rich will share.

Arne Duncan is the perfect piece of evidence to
Prove that's true.

[QC]

20. Yes, working people share the sacrifice, fatcats share the plunder. n/t

[Cherchez la Femme]

21. Exactly

and his freeze of government workers wages, etc. has been, IMO, the top-down approval for the attack on unions.

President Obama has never met a corporation he didn't like.
American people however, especially those on The Left --who were instrumental if not key in his election-- he dislikes quite a bit

and through his own words or via his cabinets, has clearly shown that is so.