Firing Line: The Grand Coalition Against Teachers

[proud2BlibKansan]

In a nation as politically and ideologically riven as ours, it’s remarkable to see so broad an agreement on what ails public schools. It’s the teachers. Democrats from various wings of the party, virtually all Republicans, most think tanks that deal with education, progressive and conservative foundations, a proliferation of nonprofit advocacy organizations, right-wing anti-union groups, hedge fund managers, writers from right leftward, and editorialists in most mainstream media—all concur that teachers, protected by their unions, deserve primary blame for the failure of 15.6 million poor children to excel academically. They also bear much responsibility for the decline of K-12 education overall (about 85 percent of all children attend public schools), to the point that the United States is floundering in the global economy.

In the last few years, attention to the role of public school teachers has escalated into a high-profile, well-financed, and seriously misguided campaign to transform the profession based on this reasoning: if we can place a great teacher in every classroom, the achievement gap between middle-class white students and poor and minority students will close; all students will be prepared to earn a four-year college degree, find a “twenty-first-century job” at a good salary, and help to restore U.S. preeminence in the world economy.

Here is Barack Obama speaking at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Virginia on March 14, 2011:

The best economic policy is one that produces more college graduates. And that’s why, for the sake of our children and our economy and America’s future, we’re going to have to do a better job educating every single one of our sons and daughters…But when the quality of a teacher can make or break a child’s education, we’ve got to make sure our certified teachers are also outstanding teachers—teachers who can reach every last child.

more . . . http://www.truth-out.org/firing-line-grand-coalition-against-teachers/1310222493

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Very important piece of information:

The most recent data come from the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, released in December 2010. PISA tested fifteen-year-olds in sixty countries (plus five non-state entities such as Hong Kong) in reading, math, and science. Consider the results in reading, the subject assessed in depth in 2009: U.S. students in public schools with a poverty rate of less than 10 percent (measured by eligibility for free or reduced-price lunches) scored 551, second only to the 556 score of the city of Shanghai, which doesn’t release poverty data. The U.S. students outperformed students in all eight participating nations whose reported poverty rates fall below 10 percent. Finland, with a poverty rate of just 3.4 percent, came in second with a score of 536. As the level of student poverty in U.S. public schools increased, scores fell. Because of the high overall child-poverty rate (20.7 percent), the average reading score for all U.S. students was 500 (fourteenth place). In short, poverty drags down our international standing

In other words, when you manipulate the data to exclude the high poverty schools, our US kids come in 2nd place. And since many of the countries we are being compared to are selective about which kids they test, this is a fair comparison.

OUR SCHOOLS ARE NOT FAILING.

[pnwmom]

2. It's true. Teachers and retirees have become the universal scapegoats. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. The myth of the perfect second year teacher

It's causing the end of many long and successful careers.

[pnwmom]

4. As well as the myth of a class of well-rounded students,

scoring at or above grade level in everything.

[femmocrat]

5. I can't argue with a goal of producing more college graduates.

However, in our state, the repuke governor cut funding to state universities by over 30%. Where will these college graduates come from if no one can afford tuition anymore?

And "the quality of a teacher" is not the only factor that can "make or break a child's education." As the child of a single mother who reinforced his early education, President Obama knows that so much more is involved.

This scapegoating of teachers is an organized effort by a small but powerful group hoping to profit from the destruction of public education.

[Yupster]

8. Maybe tuition needs to come down?

It's been going up above the rate of inflation for 20 years now.

[femmocrat]

12. That is unlikely, IMO.

I wonder at what point it becomes so expensive that no one can afford college -- except the people who get those big tax breaks?

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. I can

We need auto mechanics, construction workers and plumbers too. Those are proud professions that don't require a college degree.

[femmocrat]

11. Agree.

We need both.

[MichiganVote]

6. K&R

[6000eliot]

7. Hadn't you heard?

The financial meltdown was not caused by greedy bankers and Wall Street types. It was caused by teachers and public workers unions.

[Starry Messenger]

9. k&r