Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Retired teacher/blogger thrown out of Arne and Rhee's education summit.

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
Home » Discuss » General Discussion: Presidency Donate to DU
 
madfloridian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-23-12 12:29 AM
Original message
Retired teacher/blogger thrown out of Arne and Rhee's education summit.
This is getting beyond ridiculous. He was only passing out flyers that disagreed with the Arne/Rhee type of education reforms.

From the Washington Post:

Retired D.C. teacher says he was thrown out of ed data summit

A retired D.C. teacher who has written critically about Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee said security guards escorted him out of an education data summit where the two were speaking on Wednesday.

Guy Brandenburg, who writes the GFBrandenburg’s Blog (which is subtitled “Just a blog by a guy who’s a retired math teacher”) describes in a post how he attended the National Data Summit in Washington D.C. — for which he had signed up to attend — and started handing out a pamphlet he wrote criticizing data-driven school reform.

..."The pamphlet, which you can see here, is titled “Problems with Using ‘Data’ to Fix Our Schools Or, ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out.’ According to Brandenburg, security guards approached him after he had handed out about a dozen pamphlets and told him that he had to leave because the summit hosts didn’t want him there. He was told he could not stay even if he stopped distributing pamphlets, Brandenburg said in an email.

After he left the conference, he wrote this post on his blog:

So much for freedom of speech.


Here is his blog:

So much for freedom of speech… … if it goes against the agenda of the ultra-rich and their acolytes, one might somehow suspect.

Let me also point out that DCQ is a Gates-funded group. Arne Duncan, and Michelle Rhee are both on the agenda of this conference today as speakers… I have been highly critical of them and have given the press and the public access to a lot of data that I could only find by pretty hard searching myself, and that most likely, most other people wouldn’t have found out on their own. Data which shows that the goals and methods and conclusions of this Gates/Duncan/Rhee group are all mistaken at best or perhaps malign.

Nobody beat me up or anything, but I was only able to give out a dozen or so leaflets while I was standing near the front of the auditorium, just outside the Kinko’s where I had my leaflets copied. (Most expensive Kinko’s I’ve ever been to! DAAG! 20 cents per page, per side!) So these things I was giving away were worth forty cents each, plus tax. Man, I was being generous! (Or that’s what I should have said, but didn’t think of saying at the time.)


If you are interested, here is the flyer he was trying to give out at the conference. It is in pdf format.

Problems with using "data" to fix our long term school problems. Or Garbage In Garbage Out

I have seen some signs of Obama trying to give a little to keep progressives on board, but I have seen ZERO SIGNS that he is giving an inch on his rush to "reform" education. Arne is the golden boy indeed.

I have noticed that in DU3 there are some great posters in the Education forum, which is mixed in with the Economy forum. I have not seen anything about education on front page at all. That is a shame.

I am still posting about it at Twitter.

I also post about it at Daily Kos.

I hope someday there will be something about it on front page at the new site, but it won't be me anymore.
Refresh | +3 Recommendations Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
madfloridian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-23-12 06:05 PM
Response to Original message
1. That blogger mentions Rhee's 6 word essay. Shared yours with her yet?
http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/

"If you’re new to StudentsFirst we want to welcome you and invite you to learn more about our grassroots movement to transform public education. In our first year one million members have come together to help pass more than 50 policies in seven states to improve the education of 8.7 million children.

Learn more about StudentsFirst and how you can get involved at http://studentsfirst.org.

Thanks again for entering and best of luck!

The StudentsFirst Team"

And he links to RheeFirst which says that good teachers are being laid off because of union rules:

http://www.studentsfirst.org/
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
Hell Hath No Fury Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-24-12 04:46 PM
Response to Original message
2. Fuck Arne and his privatization minions --
What a sorry state of affairs we have with the likes of him in office. :puke: I, for one, appreciate all the work you do on education here and elsewhere. Keep it up -- we need your voice!
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
tnlefty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-25-12 06:13 PM
Response to Original message
3. I wish that I could toss Rhee, her kids and her ex the hell
out of this state. I don't know how her org got my e-mail address, but I receive her propaganda frequently. For some reason I don't receive responses to my replies to those e-mails...I don't know why. :evilgrin:
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
madfloridian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-25-12 06:48 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. She and her ex hubby sure did gain power in TN very quickly.
It's scary.
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
KoKo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-01-12 09:06 PM
Response to Original message
5. Kick...
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
ellisonz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-03-12 08:07 PM
Response to Original message
6. It'd be one thing if he jumped on stage...
...but for pamphleting. Color me Pained.
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
No Elephants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-06-12 02:47 PM
Response to Original message
7. Remember how angry Democrats used to get when Rethugs barred dissenters?
Ah, the good ole days.
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Fri Dec 06th 2024, 10:26 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » General Discussion: Presidency Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC