On teachers.

[urgk]

4. In Indiana, a teacher is running for State Supt. of Public Instruction.

His name is Justin Oakley, and he's a dad and middle school History teacher who thinks it's wrong to teach to standardized tests, cram classrooms full of as many kids as possible, restrict collective bargaining rights, judge at-risk school district teachers against wealthy school district teachers, and to paint teachers, rather than the myriad problems teachers face, as the biggest problem in the US school system.

And, of course, Justin's up against a Mitch Daniels supported GOP privatization advocate named Tony Bennett who's pretending to fix schools by holding them to an unreachable set of goals. Bennett has been shifting all the blame to teachers while the GOP runs legislation through the Indiana state that will let the state take over any schools that Bennett's ever-changing standards manage to label as "failing."

Anyhow, I'm sure Justin could use a little DU support. http://www.oakley2012.org/

Oh, and Justin's team has a small set of "thank you" videos up on youtube to try to boost the teacher morale that's been plummeting over the past few years. The idea is for people to make short videos thanking the teachers who changed their lives for the better.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThisIsForMyTeacher

http://www.facebook.com/ThisIsForMyTeacher