"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Breaking News: Diane Ravitch Has Breaking News about Randi

Acting as Randi Weingarten's unofficial press agent, Diane Ravitch faithfully catalogs Randi's continued bobbing and weaving to preserve her standing with the billionaires who made her, while maintaining her job as President of AFT.  Tough task, especially since the teachers who pay Randi's $400,000 salary are fed up with the corporate union that Weingarten has built and the policies it promotes as "innovations."

Since 2010, Bill Gates has shoveled $10 million to Weingarten to put the union stamp of approval on Common Core, test-based teacher evaluations, chain gang charter schools, and computer-assisted remediation now with the label of "blended learning." None of these "innovations" is in the best interest of fair and effective practices for teachers or students, but they are the ones that Gates and the Oligarchs have approved.

The latest report at the Ravitch blog: Randi has said no to future Gates Innovation Grant money.  Except that she leaves the door open to other kinds of Gates grants.  Can't say yes, and can't say no.

Meanwhile, we must wonder if the members will now be charged an innovation fee will pay directly for Common Core promotion, anti-public charters, and anti-teacher repackaged tech failures from previous generations.  Or if Randi will find another plutocratic sugar daddy to keep her posse of lawyers employed to protect her.

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