Posted at 5:00 AM ET, 03/ 2/2011
Obama's mistimed Miami school visit -- with Jeb Bush
By Valerie Strauss
At a time when Wisconsin teachers are protesting
What a tag team.
Obama is scheduled to speak to the students and faculty of Miami Central Senior High about the importance of out-educating the competition to secure America’s future. (That’s highly unlikely, with states cutting billions of dollars out of school budgets and with a reform agenda that is focused on expanding charter schools, assessing teachers based on students’ standardized test scores and the like, but never mind.)
Obama is appearing in Florida as state legislators move toward passing legislation
* Ties at least half of a teacher’s salary to how well his/her students perform on standardized tests
* Prevents consideration of many advanced degrees and special training to be considered in determining a teacher’s salary
* Eliminates tenure for teachers hired after the summer of 2014
* Requires the creation of new standardized assessments for all courses, though it doesn’t suggest where the money will come from to pay.
Similar legislation passed last year but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist. The new governor, Rick Scott, not only supports the legislation but had dangled the idea of taking apart the way public education is financed in Florida and handing money over to all parents in a new “voucher” system that would have made it virtually impossible to maintain local public schools. Scott has put that idea aside for now.
Obama has gone out of his way to be bipartisan in the education reform arena, which would be good if the Republicans were right about reform, but they aren’t either. Rather than eliminate the most egregious parts of No Child Left Behind, the signature education initiative of Jeb Bush’s brother, former president George W. Bush, Obama is building on some of them, making them even worse.
For example, instead of using standardized test scores to evaluate only schools and students, they now will be linked to how much a teacher is paid (even though we all know that a teacher isn’t solely responsible for how well a kid does on a test). It’s a bad idea, not championed by assessment experts and not borne out by research, but it’s the reform idea du jour, backed by Gates Foundation money and Obama’s policy agenda.
Breaking bread with Jeb Bush
Florida is increasingly being looked to as a national model of education reform, and we have Jeb Bush to thank for that. The state began to overhaul its public education system after Jeb Bush became governor in 1999, and it has been a leader in reforms centered around standardized tests, the expansion of charter schools, virtual education and merit pay. He long tried
Under Bush, the state did make progress early on by focusing on reading and creating a statewide reading research center while hiring reading coaches.
The biggest improvement in Florida’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card, were in elementary reading, which suggests that this focus worked. The achievement gap for different demographic groups between 1998 and 2009 also shrunk for fourth- and eighth-grade reading between students who were in the federal lunch program (low-income families qualify) and those who do not qualify, according to a post by Florida educator Sherman Dorn
But the achievement gap didn’t budge for 8th-grade writing or for math in any grade. Here’s the main point: Bush doesn’t talk about his reading initiative when he talks about his success, instead crediting his standardized testing regime.
The scheduled Obama-Jeb Bush fest is symbolic of how far afield Democrats have gone with school reform.
Obama last month expressed support
Obama said: "Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain, generally seems like more of an assault on unions. And I think it’s very important for us to understand that public employees, they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends. These are folks who are teachers and they’re firefighters and they’re social workers and they’re police officers.”
So, at this point in time, when teachers in Wisconsin and elsewhere feel besieged, I’m wondering why Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are flying to Florida to be with Republicans who have been part of the attack force. Why, when teachers are fighting for union rights, does the president decide to spend time with anti-teachers union school reformers?
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By Valerie Strauss | March 2, 2011; 5:00 AM ET
12 comments:
"they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends. These are folks who are teachers and they’re firefighters and they’re social workers and they’re police officers.”
Is that all you got Mr. President?
As well intentioned as these folks are in choosing their profession, their union leaders who gave them no choice to opt out of the union as in the case of WI are causing states to go broke.
California now pays as much to fund state worker's pensions as they do to fund the University of California system. Each year, the state is forced to raise tuition fees on their students because more funds are siphoned to unionized state workers.
Come on! For Pete's sake these students are our sons, daughters, step sons, step daughters, grandchildren, nephews and nieces. They are our future!
I think we know why they are in FL.
They are a part of the attack force!
S
I’m wondering why Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are flying to Florida to be with Republicans who have been part of the attack force.
There's tremendous irony in it but the nation's first African-American president's education policy is the most profoundly racist and reactionary one ever suggested in the United States of America. It is a testament to how far the oligarchs (Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Wal-Mart Family) have pushed us into the realm of absurdity in this area.
America's public schools, and Miami Central is still one of them, are admittedly failing the children of working people. But that is because the schools are woven into the fabric of a failing economy where teachers and children are accountable for rote test taking skills but bankers and oil companies destroy with impunity.
The economy of the United States is now fully devoted to the pursuit of corporate profits through war and no longer has the capacity to maintain a functioning public school system. Every state in the Union faces a deepening hole in their budgets. Unemployed people stop paying income taxes you see. Foreclosed upon people stop paying property taxes you see. Alchemists are all that's left on Wall Street and no real wealth is created in this country today so there's nothing to tax. Nothing of value is made in the United States anymore!
Nothing that is except weapons of war. War making is the only "healthy" sector of the US economy left, which is why were staying in Iraq, escalating in Afghanistan (no matter how many war crimes might be exposed by Wikileaks), and expanding the fight to Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. But an ability to deliver bombs from drone aircraft on people around the world will not rescue a broken economy.
The steadily accelerating destruction of public education in the United States is the result. Obama's men can rearrange the educational deck chairs on the Titanic anyway he pleases. The iceberg is still dead ahead. The Race to Oblivion is on!
Only resistance lies ahead for teachers. Resistance to Gov. Walker in Wisconsin, resistance to former Gov. Bush and his inbred successor Scott in Florida, and resistance to President Obama nationally. Wisconsin today, tomorrow 50 Wisconsins.
Basing salaries on student performance will drive all good teachers away from low achieving inner cities where they're needed.
Gee the military industrial complex & corporations are the root of the country's problems and are depriving students of money for education? I have heard this for all of my adult life.
Schools are supposedly funded by the States. Since when does the State of Florida build bombs and tanks?
Perhaps if we take the $60 billion annual budget from the Federal Department of Education and "equally re-distribute" it to the states, (Michael Moore would be so proud) we would not be starving for local education resources. This despite the fact we already spend more than South Korea on education and their students do better.
One can only hope that in my twilight after the Vietnam/Hippie generation has left the planet that these repetitive arguments of guns and money are the basis for all of our problems vanquishes from the national dialogue.
Our problem is what is in the heart of each individual and always will be.
No, here's a better idea. Take the $1.2 trillion collected annually now by the IRS, borrowed from the Chinese and other foreign nations, printed by the FED and handed over to the Defense Department and divide that equally among the States on a per capita basis!
Bye, bye Florida budget deficit. Bye, bye cuts to public education. Bye, bye the voices in some people's old tired minds from the Vietnam/Hippie generation. Sweet silence.
When Jeb! accidently embraces the President, his presidential ambitions and his head will both explode!
Redistribution of the defense department budget is a great idea, except the protection of the country and it's citizens is mandated by the Federal constitution.
Nowhere is it enumerated that the federal government has the responsibility of educating our children or creating big bloated education departments.
So, if we plan to go this route, let's be transparent and openly acknowledge that collectively we agree to abandon the constitution.
It is a small detail that is constantly ignored, but I believe we should be truthful in our intentions.
I don't like the idea of the DOE up there in Washington. I don't much like what they are doing in Talli either. You can't built enough charter schools fast enough to make up for the tragedy that will come with all this defunding nonsense. Let parents get a good smell of this and in a few years maybe we will clean out the legislature in Talli. What happens when you don't have $30,000 for a private school, the charter school is full-up (or closing down) and your favorite magnet school is a magnet no more?
My daughter goes to Gables. She was forced to take many AP coursed because it boosted the score of the school. When they scored the school, did they look at her grades? NO. Did she pass any AP tests? NO. Did they count those states when they declared Gables an A school? NO. How do you become an A school when there are students that don't even speak English? You manipulate the numbers on the backs of the students.
So, now they are going to Miami Central to brag about how well they did raising their test scores. Look at the numbers, people, not the overall school grade and how that grade was manipulated.
Now, guess who makes money from testing, computer programs, curriculum, etc. etc. etc. All roads lead back to the white guy at Miami Central standing with Obama. And let's remember that he never went to a public school and has no intention of ever seeing a family member at public school.
Another comment: I just took over a first grade class in a very poor neighborhood in Miami. Within one week I have already given them two assessment tests, which cuts into instructional time. It's a bunch of BS.
PEOPLE THAT SEND THEIR KIDS TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS HAVE NO BUSINESS RUNNING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. IF THESE SCHOOLS ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOUR KIDS, THEN BUTT OUT!
Previous anon (My daughter goes to...) Bravo. Well said!
Please excuse my mistake. "states" should have read "stats".
TOM
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