A teacher’s perspective: Firing Day at a Charter School

[HiPointDem]

18. weingarten is, because she signed on to measures that result in teachers getting fired. i'm sure

Last edited Sun Jun 2, 2013, 05:28 AM - Edit history (1)

the union defends teachers at the grassroots in lots of cases. but the leadership is colluding in education deform.

for example, no child left behind was a measure that as a mathematical certainty would result in turning an ever-increasing number of schools into 'failing schools' subject to firing of staff & charterization. that would have been clear to anyone who understood the legislation, understood the situation in schools, and understood the limits of pedagogy.

what was the response of the union leadership?

they signed on. with some criticism around the edges, but they signed on.

Educational Research & Dissemination (ER&D) Program & the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, provides funds to states and school districts to support high-quality professional development programs based on scientific research that will increase the number of highly qualified teachers and paraprofessionals and help raise student achievement. These brochures describe how the AFT's ER&D program, which is based on proven practice and meets the NCLB criteria for high-quality professional development, can help schools and districts meet the new requirements under NCLB.

http://www.aft.org/yourwork/teachers/reports/nclb.cfm

The national union leadership has made *no* effort to mobilize their membership in the face of the biggest attack on the principle of unionism and the principle of public education *ever*.

Both of the major teachers' unions have taken funding from the Gates Foundation and collaborated with it.

And they're going along with Common Core, too.

Did these people never grasp that the “proficiency” requirements of No Child Left Behind were impossible to achieve? That the projections for 2014 were that 99 percent of California schools would be labeled as “failing,” with “failure” rates of 95 percent in the Great Lakes states and elsewhere?

A former assistant secretary of education in the Bush administration said that NCLB was really a “Trojan horse…a way to expose the failure of public education…to blow it up a bit.” Is the Common Cre really so different?

Look at who supports the Common Core standards: Margaret Spellings, former Ed Secretary, who infamously called NCLB “99.9 percent pure;” Jeb Bush, who is pushing charter schools and vouchers across the country; Bill Gates, who funded the Common Core, and who wants more H1-B visas for his company despite the fact that American education churns out three times as many STEM graduates as there are jobs; and, the Business Roundtable and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who lobbied aggressively for unfunded corporate tax cuts that spawned huge deficits and debt, and for laissez-faire regulatory policies that aided and abetted massive fraud and corruption (especially on Wall Street) and that blew up the economy.

And now public school “leaders” are lending their support?

Public education in the United States is a foundational cornerstone of democratic governance. Both are in greater jeopardy than many of us thought.”

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/06/01/on-common-core-the-leading-groups-are-wrong-again/

Teacher calling out UFTs collaboration & Leo Casey, fake lefty & collaborator, defending collaboration.